{"text": "Chapter 69: The Season of the Minotaur (18)\n\nThe first thought that crossed Simon’s mind was that Cassandra had shifter blood.\n\nIt would have made sense, since human-shifter dalliances were unusual but not unheard of, especially in Telluria. However, the sinuous forked tail didn’t belong to any natural animal or creature Simon knew of. Another darker possibility came to mind when taking Duchar’s proclivities into account.\n\n“You are a fiend?” Simon asked, taken aback.\n\n“Half of one,” Cassandra replied shyly. “My mother was a demon that my father had a relationship with, after his first wife died.”\n\n“That… Then Hector is your half-brother…” Simon didn’t know what to say. Humans and demons could reproduce together—the latter could breed with anything, being creatures of miasma rather than natural entities—but most couplings were far from consensual. At least the ‘relationship’ part implied a much healthier reason for Cassandra’s birth. “There must be a big story behind that.”\n\n“Not quite. Father wanted to sire a half-demon child out of scientific curiosity, and mother indulged him.”\n\nOf course. Only Duchar would think to bed a demon for the sake of experimentation. It was a small miracle that Cassandra turned out relatively well-adjusted. Still, a worrying detail came to mind…\n\n“I do recall you mentioning you despised your mother,” Simon said.\n\n“I did?” Cassandra replied with a frown of confusion, Simon’s heart skipping a beat when he realized she only did so in a former reign. “But yes, I do not like her. Mother gave birth to me because she wanted to understand the human feelings of love and motherhood.”\n\n“I… I take it she did not?” Somehow, Simon struggled to imagine a creature entirely shaped out of corrupted mana to be capable of love.\n\n“No. So she tried to strangle me one day to see if she could feel remorse instead when I was still a child.” She said that so casually they might as well have been discussing the weather. “Father had to banish her back to the Abyss after that.”\n\nSimon winced. “I’m… I’m sorry to hear that.”\n\n“Thank you.” Cassandra tilted her head to the side, as if considering whether her nonchalance was appropriate in the current situation. “I do not think I experience emotions like a normal person because of my origins. There are things that are obvious to others that I miss unless I pay attention, but other burdens do not weigh on my mind too much.”\n\n“I… I see.” That explained a lot of things. “I promise I shall not share your secret with anyone.”\n\nShe bit her lower lip shyly. “You do not mind?”\n\n“No, not at all.” Simon gently stroked her hair and horns. “I find them quite lovely, actually.”\n\n“Thank you. I was afraid my origins might frighten or bother you.”\n\n“Well, I kinda count as a demon because of my Class either way, so… no, it doesn’t.” He put his hands around her waist, and this time she didn’t pull back. “I like you just the way you are.”\n\nShe smiled at him, her tail coiling around his legs as their lips met once more.\n\n* * *\n\nThat…\n\nWhoa.\n\nThat… alright… that was something…\n\n“Simon?” Cassandra’s voice brought him back to reality as she pulled their bedsheet up. “Is something wrong?”\n\n“No, no, it’s…” Simon struggled to put it into words, his eyes staring at the ceiling as a fog lifted over his mind. “I’m just… recovering.”\n\n“Was it bad?” she asked with a frown. “Personally, I enjoyed it.”\n\n“I… I did too…” The things she did with her tail… that opened up so many possibilities… “It was… good.”\n\nHe thought the best night of his life had been with Anna, and while he shared a deeper kinship with her, tonight had been something else altogether. Balzam’s loathsome rating had been accurate for once.\n\nAnd yet, as the pleasure and contentment receded into the back of Simon’s mind, a certain realization wouldn’t leave him.\n\nThis would not last.\n\nThis would not stick. There would come a time when Simon would wake up in Frightwall alone again, their relationship a mere dream the new Cassandra wouldn’t remember. Would it hurt when he saw her again then, the same way it had hurt with Anna? Or would he simply cherish the memory and move on eventually?\n\n“I wonder how long it can last,” Simon said as he pulled her close to him, her head resting on his shoulder. “Us.”\n\n“As long as it can, I think?” Cassandra replied simply. “I have never been courted before, so I cannot tell.”\n\n“I hope it lasts beyond the ritual.” Both this relationship and the reign. “What would you like to do once we complete it?”\n\nCassandra thought about it for a moment. “I would like to stay. I like this place and the people here. I would like to meet the Muse too, once it is safe for me to do so.”\n\n“What, really?” That took Simon aback. “Why?”\n\n“I think she is lonely and in deep pain. She reaches out to me sometimes, and I often answer.”\n\n“I forbade her to,” Simon replied in annoyance. “If that treacherous tree tried to lure you into the forest–”\n\n“She did not,” Cassandra reassured him. “She was thankful for my efforts to preserve her cult on her behalf and promised me great rewards in return for my devotion.” She chuckled lightly. “I think she wants me to become her new Caretaker.”\n\n“Well… it’s not like any elf will serve her,” Simon conceded. “And she will have a daughter on the way too soon, if we do nothing about it.”\n\n“A daughter? The manatree will bloom?” Cassandra sounded worried all of a sudden. “What will you do with the fruit?”\n\n“I’m not sure yet. Either destroy it or prevent its birth somehow, I suppose.” Now Cassandra looked downright uncomfortable. “You want to plant it?”\n\n“I do not think it is right to blame a newborn creature for its origins, or the danger it might represent,” Cassandra replied, her voice a little weaker than before. Simon had the feeling she related to the unborn demon-born dryad due to her own history. “I hope you will reconsider.”\n\n“I understand how you feel, Cassandra, but you must realize the threat to the world a new breed of miasma trees will represent,” Simon pointed out. Even lifeless deserts like the Navarre region would be better off with nothing over a new Darkwood. “Unless we find a way to purify the fruit.”\n\nCassandra considered the matter before answering, “What if we used the Paladin Crestone?”\n\n“On the fruit?” Simon quickly caught on. “You want to implant it in the fruit the same way Mardok forced the miasma crystal onto the Muse?”\n\n“If it is so holy, it should be able to restore the newborn dryad into a normal one,” Cassandra pointed out. “You said their Purify Perk could destroy miasma crystals and clean areas of miasma.”\n\nIt was a good point… Simon doubted the Paladin’s Purify Perk could destroy the Zodiac Fiends’ crystals or else the ancient heroes would have done so rather than seal them away, but it might help purge the Muse’s daughter of her corruption. It would put an end to the late Mardok’s plan and prevent this evil from festering any further.\n\n“It’s worth a shot,” Simon conceded. “I would be willing to try if we can keep the Paladin Crestone contained until that day.”\n\n“Thank you, Simon. I think this is the right path.” She looked at him a bit shyly. “Could I ask something of you?”\n\n“Yes, of course.” Simon frowned. “Something about the Muse?”\n\n“No.” Her tongue clicked in her mouth. “Could you… massage me?”\n\nSimon blinked, then burst out laughing. “Of course,” he replied, sealing the promise with a kiss. “Anything for you, Cassandra.”\n\n* * *\n\nThe next month was rather peaceful, in stark contrast with the rest of this reign so far.\n\nSimon spent it experimenting with his upgraded crafting Perk and learning Tier 4 spells under his various mentors’ tutelage. The first of them was an improvement on the Toxin spell called Megatox.\n\n“Elemental spells are simple enough that sorcerers developed stronger variants for different tiers,” Cassandra explained to him during one of these sessions. “They usually follow this structure: base spell, then mega, then giga, and so on, with each enhancement increasing the spellcasting tier by two.”\n\n“So I will be able to cast a Gigatox spell at Tier 6?” Simon asked."}
{"text": "All in all, things were getting messier and messier, something Yip of Yore thrived on, as the Order of the Malefic Viper continued crumbling by the day, rumors now circulating that even their Chosen – who’d almost become the symbol of the Order’s revival and the Viper’s second coming – had now turned his back on them.\n\nAbout a week after the announcement of the truce within the Milky Way Galaxy, the war in the rest of the multiverse took a turn. A base belonging to the Order of the Malefic Viper was attacked, and in what many came to view as a move of desperation, a low-tier god who’d been the one in charge there personally got involved. In one swoop, he killed over a thousand A-grades and several S-grades, and in response, a dozen gods descended from Yip of Yore’s side, with the Order finding themselves forced to respond in kind.\n\nThe war had now officially entered its late stages, as the war between mortals had ended, and the duels between gods began.\n\n1005 chapter - Countless Considerations\n\nWaiting always sucked, but sadly, Jake couldn’t really do anything but wait at this point. He had no agency to decide when the next arc of this conflict would begin but simply had to sit back and wait for a message from Ell’Hakan before he and Valhal would make their grand denouncement of the Malefic Viper.\n\nAt least he had a few things to keep himself occupied, and the first he did after the truce announcement went out was to follow Bobby to inspect the ritual they had been preparing for Jake. It was a ritual Jake hoped he would never have to use but had been made anyway to sell their story. Professionally speaking, Jake did have to admit he was curious to see a circle capable of helping him become a Usurper.\n\nFrom the vibes he got from Bobby, Jake also suspected that the guy low-key wanted the Viper to die. Jake wasn’t entirely sure how much Bobby and likely a few other top people from Valhal knew about what he and Villy planned, but they did have some idea that the Viper had a plan of some sort, and they also kind of knew Jake was working with the Viper… but he also sensed some suspicion from Bobby that Jake was more than willing to become a Usurper should it come down to it.\n\nJake was a heretic no two ways about it. If he didn’t at least have heretical intent, how could he even consider a ritual to help him become a Usurper? No, this was something they knew for sure, and it had been confirmed several times. Yet he also seemed fine with working with the Viper, making it all very confusing in their eyes. All his heretic antics could always be excused away later by the Viper and Jake as some kind of trickery, maybe even using the Transcendence of Villy as the cause of Jake being able to leak the aura of a heretic.\n\nFrom Jake’s point of view, he saw no reason to elaborate on matters to anyone quite yet. He liked the ambiguity spawned from them having no real details and would hopefully coast on that until everything was resolved. It wasn’t as if he planned on talking a lot with other people while staying at Valhal for the foreseeable future but would instead spend most of his time just doing alchemy with the excuse of preparing himself for the Usurper ritual.\n\nWhile at Valhal, Carmen would be his primary contact person, and she luckily didn’t ask that many questions, in part because she genuinely didn’t seem to care much about what Jake was planning, though she had voiced that Jake joining Valhal for real would be neat. Her lack of interest was refreshing, though, and her disconnected approach to all the scheming was likely also why she saw the frankly quite obvious signs that Ell’Hakan could also be planning to walk the Usurper route, making her valuable to discuss matters with.\n\nAnyway, seeing the huge ritual prepared by Valhal for Jake to become a Usurper was quite something. It was once more constructed atop a mountain, with it clearly being no secret they had made it, meaning its existence had definitely leaked. The ritual circle itself was over a hundred meters wide, with complex runes and scripts everywhere, making Jake wonder how long they had been working on it. Bobby seemed vague on the topic, while Carmen legitimately didn’t know, and it was definitely a bit suspicious.\n\nThe magic circle wasn’t done, though, and they needed some help from Jake to finish it, something he gladly helped do. He had been worried that he wouldn’t be able to focus for the first few days while at Valhal, considering he knew a lot of shit had to be going on in the rest of the Milky Way Galaxy and the multiverse as a whole, but spending his time analyzing the ritual helped put his mind off things.\n\nOver the next couple of days, Jake studied the circle, talked to some people who’d helped make it, and read some books about this particular brand of magic. It wasn’t based on the same methodologies as rituals by the Order of the Malefic Viper, but honestly, even if it had been, it wouldn’t have helped Jake much.\n\nBecause one of the first things he learned was that no one truly understood what they had made. Hundreds of people had helped make the magic circle, each in charge of their own small areas. Everything was based on divine guidance and could be compared to them just tracing the lines and copying stuff down. Rather than solve some advanced math equation, they just copied from the blackboard, not knowing what the hell all the weird symbols meant.\n\nJake tried to understand the circle, but after those few days, he learned it was simply impossible for someone of his level to comprehend it. It was one designed by gods, with theories far beyond mortal understanding. Sure, mortals could still copy down the written formula, but that didn’t mean they had the slightest idea how to solve it by themselves. Probably made sense that a god was behind the circle, as it was made to usurp the Path of a deity.\n\nIn the same vein, Jake wouldn’t be able to operate this magic circle by himself. If it did come down to using it, the one actually activating the magic circle would be a god from Valhal – likely Gudrun, based on what Jake had been told. This did require a certain level of trust, as she could probably fuck over Jake if she so desired, but he wasn’t worried. Firstly because he never planned on using the circle in the first place, and secondly, because what would she possibly gain from fucking over someone her husband actively wanted to recruit?\n\nEither way, the thing Jake had to do to put the finishing touches on the ritual was more or less just to infuse his DNA into it. To make it into one attuned to himself and his Path, as well as the Path that he planned on usurping. This did end up taking a few more days, and just before a full week had passed since Jake arrived on the planet, the entire magic circle was completed and ready to go should it ever be necessary. Jake walked down the mountain, knowing he would be up there the day the final confrontation between Villy and Yip took place, with the hopes that the next time he was there, it would remain inactive and that the work he’d done on it would be a waste of time.\n\nHeading back into the city, Jake soon met up with Carmen and Bobby. After getting the two of them into a private room, he asked with quite a bit of nervousness:\n\n“So… what’s been happening?”\n\n“Torben finished a new brew using these weird purple berries, which have a spicy taste that really compliments most fatty foods,” Carmen answered with a smile.\n\n“Really? Great to hear that’s the only noteworthy news,” Jake commented in a dry tone.\n\n“Is to me,” Carmen shrugged, and while Jake knew she did care somewhat, she definitely cared less about this entire conflict than most others."}
{"text": "If this had been before Jake had ever gone to the Order, it would have taken him a lot longer to confidently say he could successfully create three poisons that easily, but his general knowledge had come far. Taking out some mushrooms and some of the moss, Jake tossed it all into the cauldron along with some purified water and a few drops of his blood to act as a catalyst.\n\nIrin returned and checked in on him ten minutes or so later as Jake sat there and let the cauldron simmer. She clearly didn’t want to disturb him, but that was a needless worry.\n\n“Found good things?” Jake asked.\n\n“Not really,” Irin answered after getting the go-ahead to talk. “This is the first floor. There aren’t really ingredients I think anyone would consider good.”\n\n“Fair,” Jake said.\n\n“Are you confident in making the three poisons by yourself?” she asked.\n\n“Well,” Jake said as he dispelled his Alchemical Flame. “Got one already.”\n\nHe opened the cauldron and nodded as he took out a few bottles. Once everything was in them, he inspected the final product.\n\n[Weak Necrotic Mushroom Poison (Inferior)] – A poison created from the unique mushrooms of the Nine Floors of the Indigo Caverns dungeon with necrotic properties, infecting and killing off biological material in the affected area. Wounds caused by necrotic poison are somewhat difficult to heal. The poison takes effect upon any contact with any biological material.\n\nJake instantly knew that even if it had added a bunch of things about the dungeon, this was really just normal necrotic poison. He also knew he could bring it outside no problem and use it like normal.\n\n“That was fast,” Irin exclaimed.\n\n“Of course,” Jake laughed a bit as he began his second concoction. Looking at the engraving, he saw that the hundred Mushroom Man Warriors were already dead, and the dungeon cauldron was open. To test, Jake tossed a bottle in the cauldron and saw the progress tick from 0/3 to 1/3.\n\n“Well then, second poison,” Jake smiled as he threw in the ingredients. “In the meantime, can you do me a favor?\n\n“What is it?” Irin asked curiously.\n\n“Can you roast the mushrooms or something to eat? The taste is driving me nuts,” Jake said spitefully.\n\nIrin surprisingly smiled as she took out a small canister of sorts along with a large bowl. She then deposited all her collected mushrooms in the bowl and opened the container as an orange liquid covered the mushrooms. She tossed the mix a bit before nodding.\n\n“Try one now,” she offered, and Jake promptly responded by extending a string of mana. He swooped up a mushroom and put it in his mouth as his eyes opened wide. How could he have forgotten the secret to making horrible salads edible?\n\nTasty dressing.\n\n503 chapter - Truly Evil Dungeon Design\n\nIt didn’t get better. Jake had hoped that the second floor would be less mushroomy, but it wasn’t to be. In fact, there were even more mushrooms, and some of them were even aggressive and attacked them. Mushroom Man Mages had also been added to the list of enemies, usually wandering with their warrior kin.\n\nThe second floor ended up proceeding much like the first. Jake hadn’t even needed any materials gathered by others from the first floor, and he and Draskil had ended up just having a mushroom feast prepared by Irin, who shared that she had a skill related to cooking. Why would a succubus have a skill related to cooking, one might ask? Jake didn’t truly know, but he did know that he and Draskil both liked her better after she began making their mushroom meals far tastier. Perhaps she had only become a cook to integrate herself with others not only through social interactions but through their stomachs. A truly insidious strategy that Jake was totally fine with.\n\nAnyway, the second floor was also rather dull. All it required was for the party to kill at least two hundred mushroom men and craft at least three different resource-restoring potions using the materials found in the dungeon. Jake once more did all the crafting while Reika got some combat done with an already tired-looking Bastilla joining in.\n\nDraskil was just wandering about eating stuff, and Jake did see him at one point juggle three Mushroom Man Warriors in boredom. No, not juggle in the figurative sense but the literal one as he tossed them up in the air before catching them again.\n\nOn a side note, then Jake and the others also finally found the exit to the dungeon. Inside every passageway leading to the next floor was an exit that could be used, but it was only available in the passageway. If anyone entered the next floor, the exit would cease to function, and one couldn’t go back to earlier floors once one had been successfully passed.\n\nThe third floor was once again more of the same, but at least there was something more than mushrooms present. Several flowers and plants had begun to grow together with the mushrooms, and one part even had a small lake with water plants inside. The challenge on the third floor was to craft a poison using the lake water. The poison itself had to retain all the toxic effects of the lake water but without any of the restorative properties. In essence, it was a test of purification rather than true crafting. There was one small snag, though – the water had to also increase in potency enough to be recognized as a common rarity poison.\n\nBy default, the water was of inferior rarity, and if the restorative effects were removed, it was questionable if it would even qualify as an item. This floor was the first time Reika proved her skills as she quickly figured out a way to distill the water, and Jake quickly realized that if he then just added some mushrooms also present on the floor, he would be able to make it.\n\nOn this floor, Bastilla also had to stop joining in on the combat or at least only fight with Reika. Reika herself was also struggling as the mushroom men got stronger, and the mages and warriors now also had something called defenders, which carried two mushroom shields.\n\nAh, not that there was any cause for concern if they could pass the floor or even subsequent ones. Draskil still ripped every single opponent apart with ease, and Jake had only killed a few himself who got in his way, all of them with only a few moves with his two katars.\n\nFrom the fourth floor, the dynamic became more how they initially planned to do the dungeon. Draskil was in charge of the killing, with Bastilla primarily dismantling the corpses using skills Jake had never seen before. Usually, any creature killed only dropped its core or one other item, but Bastilla could dismantle a corpse and gain far more. Using her skills, most parts of the creature would turn into items of some variety, but her greatest ability was how she could redirect the Records of a slain creature. She could change it so that rather than the orb storing all the energy, it would instead enter another or several other parts of the body. Sure, crafters could already infuse cores into materials from a monster, but Bastilla didn’t just infuse the core into something – she infused the whole damn corpse. It was a bit weird seeing an entire mushroom man be reduced to a small piece of white mushroom flesh teeming with energy, but who was Jake to argue with system rules?\n\nReika and Jake also began to team up from the fourth floor and did all the alchemy. The challenges got quite a bit more complicated, and it was clear that the fourth one had a spike, likely due to being the last required floor one had to pass to complete the dungeon.\n\nOh yeah! The fourth floor also had a boss. Mushroom Man Commander. It was a bigger than usual mushroom man surrounded by many other mushroom men. Jake needed a piece from the boss to pass the floor, so he had Draskil be nice and not destroy the mushroom too much so Bastilla could still use her skills properly on it."}
{"text": "“Fighting… holds little meaning,” Ell’Hakan spoke. “A fight is always just a single line in the history books. A declaration of the outcome after the fact. Tell me, how many were truly aware of our brief battle here today? A few dozen? Add on a few bored gods gazing upon events they truly don’t care about, and it is little more than a handful. My words of the battle will echo more true than anyone else. All they know is that a fight took place, and it ended up with me left standing and the Malefic’s Chosen gone. ➤ NоvеⅠight ➤ (Read more on our source) I know what you are hoping to accomplish, but let me assure you; a story is better told if not spoiled beforehand. Killing the Chosen would have been a waste. I am not telling a small tale but a true epic.”\n\n“One where you try to define what is the truth,” Miranda said.\n\n“Precisely,” Ell’Hakan smiled. “I have enjoyed our brief conversation, even if it was rather one-sided. I would advise you to leave now or show your hand as I can delay no longer before my partners get dissatisfied with my dallying.”\n\nHe snapped his fingers as Miranda’s doll caught fire and burned down in an instant, throwing Miranda back to her real body. In the middle of the ritual circle, her small doll had now turned to ashes. She only had time to orient herself before she felt a pulse go through the barrier. The pulse seemed to attack not the barrier’s energy but the very framework.\n\n“How long?” Miranda asked.\n\n“Done, was just waiting for you,” Neil said.\n\nMiranda nodded as she hurried over to the teleportation circle. Just before stepping on it, she briefly spoke a final spell before getting teleported away along with most other notable characters in Haven – besides Sultan and Arnold.\n\nNo one liked sand. As spoken by a not-that-wise man long ago: It’s coarse, rough, irritating, and gets everywhere. And that was normal sand. Magical sand was even worse. Not because it was finer and somehow more everywhere, but because it sure as hell was coarser and rougher by a significant magnitude.\n\nAnd then there were sandstorms. Sandstorms on Earth before the system could be devastating, but a post-system sandstorm was on an entirely different level.\n\nJake was already in an even worse mood than usual when it arrived. He had tried to hurry through the desert while hunting down sand worms, but the fuckers were borderline impossible to kill. Even the peak D-grade ones Jake could not easily get rid of. Their bodies were massive, and they clearly had an equally massive health pool, but the worst part was their behavior. He had yet to have a single one even try to fight back. He had even tried to attack a C-grade, done all the preparations, been as ready as he could, only for him to land a single Arrow of the Ambitious Hunter before the worm dove straight down and swam away for him to never see it again.\n\nThat is when he truly realized… these worms did not at all care about fighting. They just ate stuff. Jake had wondered how that would even work, as the surface was bound to run out of natural treasures and high-energy items at some point.\n\nWhich is where the sandstorms came in.\n\nIt was like the very horizon had moved towards him. A towering wall of sand reaching into the sky for several kilometers had barreled towards Jake as he tried to fly through the desert. He had reacted quickly and tried to mimmick the worms by boring into the ground and hiding until things blew over. This should work, right?\n\nWrong.\n\nBecause this sandstorm was a true marvel of the elements. It was a zone of earth and wind mana that mixed and created what could almost be called a moving domain. A true wonderland for creatures that relied on these energies. Or one to spawn such creatures.\n\nElementals simply came into being within the massive sandstorm, and while the sand worms did not want to fight, these elementals sure did. Like as if a giant vacuum cleaner had been turned on, several elementals sucked up all the sand around Jake and pulled him out of the desert.\n\nHe felt sand hit his body and himself take damage as it impacted him with near super-sonic speeds. Sand even found the eyeholes of his mask and hit one eye, forcing him to close it. Jake was well and truly pissed as he used his one good eye to Identify one of the elementals attacking him.\n\n[Sand Elemental – lvl 184]\n\nOne would maybe think that this kind of environment was bad for Jake. And they would be right. But that did not really matter much when all he faced were D-grade elementals.\n\nArcane Awakening in the stable mode activated as a faint arcane barrier covered his entire body. This passive shield was usually not a big deal, but when it blocked thousands of small “attacks” every second? It allowed him to effectively ignore the environmental effects and move to kill his foes as he did the one thing that always worked: blow them the hell up with destructive arcane arrows.\n\nMeanwhile, Jake made his way out of the sandstorm. As he traveled through it, he saw entire sand worms had been dragged out of the ground and into the storm, as well as hundreds of other creatures. The sand worms seemed to make it out, though, as they worked together and used sand magic of their own to help others escape. Elementals consumed the creatures that could not get away, and it was as if the sandstorm itself absorbed some of the energy whenever something died.\n\nHowever, while the sandstorm took, it also gave, as it left behind treasures. Treasure generated from the sandstorm itself that simply dropped onto the sand and was left behind. If not for being stuck in the middle of the damn storm, Jake would have marveled at the ways the ecosystem had evolved.\n\nAfter more than an hour of struggle, Jake finally made it out of the sandstorm and saw the massive natural phenomenon just continue sweeping across the desert. His momentary sense of relief from being out was promptly broken as he realized he had been flying back in the direction he had just come from to get out of the damn storm.\n\n“Fuck me,” Jake muttered as he wondered what to do. As he was flying up in the air, he saw dozens of sandworms begin to emerge below to consume the natural treasures dropped from the sandstorm. As Jake stared at them, he got an idea. An idea that just might work.\n\nHe just needed one of them to eat him first…\n\n524 chapter - Into the Ground\n\nGetting a massive sandworm to eat you was actually way easier than Jake had expected. Not that Jake should have expected much from the get-go, it was a stupid expectation. All he had done was just land on the sand, get semi-close to a natural treasure while using Arcane Stealth, and boom, a worm popped up and swallowed him. It was a level 198 worms, so damn close to evolution too.\n\nThe worm nearly instantly noticed it had caught something it didn’t want and tried to spit him out. However, Jake held on inside its massive maw as he spoke. ”Hey! Worm! Make a deal!”\n\nIt did not react but kept trashing and trying to spit Jake out. That is when he realized that the sand worms had no ears and probably not even a sense of hearing, making him switch to telepathy.\n\n”Worm. Make deal. You help me, I help you. If not, death.”\n\nAs he said the words, Jake took out a handful of earth affinity herbs and tossed them down the gullet of the worm. It was a gamble… that paid off immediately as the worm stopped moving. By now, Jake was hanging onto the flesh walls of the giant worm’s mouth as he spoke again.\n\n”If you help me get that way,” Jake sent telepathically as he poked the side of the giant worm’s mouth with a weak arcane bolt. ”I will feed you. Okay?”\n\nIt should not come as a surprise that the giant worm could not speak. Jake was really gambling on this idea as he assumed that these sand worms were dumb as bricks and-\n\n”I apologize; I think there is some kind of misunderstanding. I did not mean to try and eat you… actually, what are you?” Jake heard a deep rumbling voice in his head.\n\nWait, what? Jake questioned himself.\n\n”You understand me?” Jake asked, confused."}
{"text": "With no one else around, Jake could also fully focus only on the Prima Guardian. He didn’t have to dedicate even a smidgen of his attention to keeping others safe or consider if his actions would put others in challenging situations. It was just him, the chimera, and a vast open nothingness as far as the eye could see.\n\nJake gladly fought the Prima Guardian while the chimera’s two blades moved at incredible speeds as Jake dodged and weaved around them, counterattacking whenever possible. He parried and took advantage of its movements, as even if the chimera was adaptable and could move in unnatural ways, it still had patterns, and Jake could still read it.\n\nThe two of them flashed through space as they rapidly switched between who was on the offensive, pushing each other back, Jake landing blow after blow as he couldn’t avoid taking some damage himself. Blood began to fill the emptiness of their environment, along with the skin that flayed off Jake’s body as he truly pushed himself beyond his limits.\n\nEven before he chased the Prima Guardian, he had to consume a stamina potion to keep himself from running out, and now his resources were draining even quicker. If the fight dragged on too long, Jake would more than likely be the first one to fall… so he had to be the one to finish the fight.\n\nEternal Hunger did help a bit to keep Jake in the game, its energy-stealing effect very effective against the monstrous resource pool of the Guardian. He landed several stabs with it, even if the Voidblade did more raw damage. The weapon from Arnold was honestly ridiculous in how good it was at cutting and stabbing, and it was responsible for many of the injuries marring the Prima Guardian’s body.\n\nExchanging dozens of blows a second, Jake was waiting for his chance, as he had a trick up his sleeve he wanted to try. After a clash where Jake got a minor cut on his thigh in trade for a deep stab into the chest of the Prima Guardian, Jake initiated the plan. He instantly charged in again as he released a wave of arcane energy mixed with dark mana toward the boss, causing a giant explosion of destructive black mist.\n\nThe Prima kept an eye on Jake throughout as the katar-wielding hunter appeared from within the cloud behind the chimera. It responded quickly, turning around and cutting down with both swords… only to find the version of Jake it attacked, dispersing into a mist of cursed energy.\n\nRapidly turning around, the Prima Guardian looked for Jake, confused, as it released a shockwave of mana to disperse the black mist around it. As the black mist was pushed away, Jake was still nowhere to be seen, making the Prima Guardian respond by sending out crescent waves of water, cutting through space.\n\nOne of these waves suddenly struck something… a seemingly solid mass in the middle of the nothingness. The moment it did, and before the Prima Guardian could fully process that it had hit anything, an explosion of magic was released as an Arcane Powershot tore across space toward the Guardian. It wanted to dodge, but Jake used Primal Gaze one final time.\n\nA Protean Arrow, with all of Jake’s Hunting Momentum infused, struck the Prima Guardian right in its chest, piercing deeply into it before exploding. An arm and a leg were shot off into the vastness of space, and the creature was blown apart, blood and gore spread out everywhere.\n\nJake had done something he had long theorized. Using Eternal Shadow and obscuring the sight of his enemy, he had briefly managed to activate Unseen Hunter in the state where he had to stand still due to the boss losing sight of him. It was an incredibly tight timing, but Jake had a transcendent ability to know when something or someone was looking at him, and the second he noticed the Guardian had shifted its entire attention to the Eternal Shadow, he used the skill and blended into space.\n\nThis allowed him to not only buy time to briefly charge an Arcane Powershot using his Protean Arrow but also to benefit from his Stealth Attack skill. If the Prima Guardian hadn’t been swift to release a large area of effect attack to sniff him out, he could have charged the arrow for even longer… but this had to be good enough, right? Because Jake wasn’t sure he had that much more in the tank.\n\nAt the same time as the Prima was blown apart, Jake’s eyes cracked, as the irises in both fractured, turning him completely blind. He also felt the impact on his soul, having overdrawn himself far too much, as he felt an insane headache. His consciousness wavered… as something appeared behind him.\n\nWith nothing but a small part of its upper body, head, and one arm barely attached to its shoulder, the Prima Guardian had teleported behind Jake. The sword in its hand was gone, but it still struck forward, its hand glowing with the familiar aura of Carmen’s most powerful strike: Fist of Ragnarok.\n\nJake didn’t have time to think. Instinctively, he began to turn as the fist closed in on his head. Both katars appeared in Jake’s hands as he roared while stabbing forward, the fist growing nearer… as time slowed down. Moment of the Primal Hunter activated, as Jake’s katars were both giving off the aura of Piercing Fang, one aimed for what remained of the Guardian’s chest and the other for the head.\n\nWith time on his side, Jake’s attacks would arrive first… a strike that would no doubt be deadly toward the Guardian on its last legs. And in that final moment, the chimera tried to adapt one last time. Time began to bend around it as its own version of Moment of the Primal Hunter activated.\n\nJake felt his own heartbeat. A single thump of indignance… as the Prima Guardian just stopped. Its glowing fist lost all power, and white glowing fractures covered what was left of its body. The chimera’s skin turned gray and wrinkly before its entire body turned to ashes before Jake’s attack could even land. Time returned to normal, as all that remained was drifting dust that also soon disappeared into nothingness.\n\nInstinctively, he knew… the Prima Guardian had tried to do something it simply shouldn’t and couldn’t do. It had simply faced the consequences of trying to overreach and escape the concept of time for even a moment. Well, the consequences if you didn’t have an overpowered Bloodline, that is.\n\n939 chapter - Prima Guardian Aftermath\n\nNot far from the Prima Vessel, most of the strike team had gathered after Jake and the Prima Guardian disappeared. Eron was busy healing those injured, as Sylphie had taken off to help deal with some of the regular Primas, having taken the least damage of them all. Well, not counting Eron, who seemed impervious to getting killed over and over again. But no one really counted him.\n\n“Think he’ll be okay?” Carmen asked, a bit worried as they waited to hear something – anything – about what was going on far above them in space. Jake had cut off all communication as he focused on the fight, and no one could really fault her for not feeling entirely certain Jake would be fine. He was facing a peak creature at level 349, all alone. A creature that all of them had struggled against.\n\n“He sounded confident,” the Fallen King said. “I find it difficult to imagine a scenario where he doesn’t win.”\n\n“I think a bigger concern is how long it’ll take to fetch him,” Caleb said as he massaged his shoulder, addressing the swelling from overusing his boosting skill earlier.\n\n“Sandy has been informed and is on their way,” the Sword Saint said, sitting in a chair he had taken out of his spatial storage.\n\n“Right,” Carmen nodded as she sighed.\n\nTo say they didn’t all feel a bit conflicted that Jake was going to finish this fight alone was an understatement. However, they also recognized that Jake was the only one capable of chasing the chimera, and even the Fallen King knew that while he could be summoned to Jake’s side, he would likely be more of a burden than a boon."}
{"text": "The swordsman must have thought he was safe and began to drink the potion, and didn't notice the spike of ruinous flames hidden among the blue flames. Julius used his perception skill to direct the spike through the chaos, and before any of them could react, the spike lodged itself into the man's eye, killing him instantly.\n\nThe other two panicked and tried to save their comrade, but it was too late. They took a half-step back and stared at Julius with nervousness.\n\nJulius took a moment to breathe and let his soul try to recover. Not to mention that his injuries were pretty bad. His arms were still pierced by his own constructs, he had severe burns in his mouth, and he had several internal injuries.\n\nHe looked around and noticed that nobody had arrived yet. Perhaps the city guards were on a break or stuck in traffic and needed more time to arrive. That or the explosion of mana he had sensed was the reason for their absence.\n\n“Why are you trying to kill me?” He asked loudly.\n\nThe two remaining assailants stared at him blankly. They weren’t responding to him, but he could feel the wind mage preparing something. The blue-robed mage was likely preparing something as well, but Julius wasn’t able to sense it if he was. That was a little worrying, and he reminded himself to be careful.\n\nHe had a feeling that the blue-robed mage was the most dangerous one out of all of them. The problem was that he doubted his ability to take them out quickly. His gut was telling him that he would have been hard-pressed to beat this mage even if he fought him alone.\n\nThe other remaining mage didn’t have the same type of intensity or willpower that this mage had. Thus, most of Julius’s attention was focused on this man, which is why he reacted instantly when he sensed the first signs of the man’s technique activating.\n\nHe teleported backwards, narrowly avoiding the bolt of black energy racing toward his face. Unlike the black mass before, this was extremely quick and almost homed in on his position. If not for his preemptive reaction, he would have been hit.\n\nHe still didn’t know what this black energy was. His best guess was that it was related to some kind of disruption element. It was actually similar in a lot of ways to the energy the Null Fiends had used all that time ago.\n\nHe backed off and sidestepped the attacks from the other enemy. With the ice mage out of the fight, they seemed to be a lot more cautious around him. He didn’t see any openings for him to sneak in with [Void Step] either.\n\nHe didn’t know what to do, and his degrading soul wasn’t helping him. He could feel his control over his skills slipping as the fight prolonged. His soul injury was another reason why he hadn’t bothered to use his healing skill to heal his injuries, despite them being bad enough to warrant it.\n\n[Phoenix Renewal] was almost entirely dedicated to keeping his soul intact for the time being. If he were to distract it now, he didn’t know what would happen. It was barely holding together for the moment, but he didn’t know if it would still hold together if he loosened his hold over it.\n\nHe had to decide whether to heal his body or to keep his soul in one piece. The choice was pretty obvious to him. Still, it was a problem, and he was in a bad situation with no plan to get out of it.\n\nHe backed away, blasting himself to the side with kinetic energy as more attacks rained down on him. The wounds on his body were increasing, and he was forced to teleport far up into the air, removing a healing potion from his storage ring. He rarely drank healing potions since he had a healing skill of his own, but desperate times required desperate measures.\n\nHe also consumed a mana potion as well. The constant teleportations consumed enormous amounts of mana, and the previous teleport had almost drained him. He normally wasn’t able to teleport that far since [Void Step] wasn’t a long-range teleportation skill, but he had pushed himself to do so.\n\nHis breathing was heavy as he tried to recover. His wounds were healing slowly, but the blood stopped flowing as rapidly, and he could feel his organs stitching back into one piece.\n\nThe mana potion was very potent; it was the one he had received from Freya, but there was only so much it could refill his dwindling reserves. Not to mention that the mana from mana potions was inherently less efficient than the mana he cultivated from his core.\n\nHe was barely able to take a few moments to breathe when he felt someone closing in on him. Apparently, the blue-robed mage had tracked him up here and had already closed in. Julius had a feeling that the mage had managed to sneak some kind of mark on his body. If that was the case, then he really needed to find the mark and get rid of it.\n\nThe problem was that he wasn’t able to sense it. He searched for it while the attacker continued to shoot these bolts of black light at him. If the black bolts got close enough, small vapors of black energy tried to seep into his skin. He didn’t give them any opportunities to infect him, and he wiped out this energy with his ruinous aura before it could leech into him.\n\nWhile distracted with this, he didn’t even sense the sudden spatial warping right behind him until it was too late. He blamed his injured soul and tired mind.\n\nStill, it was a mistake, and he knew right away how fucked he was when he felt the newcomer’s domain spread out and encapsulate Julius. His soul, which had already been feeling the pressure, was suddenly crushed by this domain.\n\nHe could feel his soul tearing bit by bit as the Tier 5 held him in place. He was completely unable to move as the weight of their aura and various concepts held him in place.\n\n“How disappointing, Hayden. You couldn’t even finish off a Tier 3 with an injured soul?” The newcomer said with a mocking tone. Julius noticed that this was a woman’s voice, and he could feel her ice-cold breath rolling down his neck as she stood behind him. It felt like someone had put his head in a guillotine.\n\n“I’m sorry, my lady,” the blue-robed mage said with a deep bow, not even bothering to make excuses.\n\nThe Tier 5 lady stayed silent for a moment as she stared at the man, then scoffed and waved her arm casually. “Well, either way. Time is up. I distracted the city guards for as long as I could, but they will arrive shortly. We don’t want to be here when they do. Where are Yubel, Tuskin, and Fisher? I can’t sense their presence.”\n\n“Yubel and Tuskin are dead. The boy killed them,” the blue robe said casually, as if it didn’t really matter to him.\n\n“That’s a shame, but they were expendable, and ultimately why they were selected for this mission. However, Fisher isn’t as expendable. So where is he?” The woman’s tone suddenly turned serious, and Julius couldn’t move, but he could practically feel her gaze piercing toward the blue-robed mage.\n\nUnlike when he mentioned the ice mage, he seemed much more worried now. Julius saw the man fiddle with his hands anxiously.\n\n“He returned early,” the man said, looking at the ground.\n\n“Why?” The woman’s voice was ice cold.\n\n“...”\n\nThe woman’s domain spread out and encapsulated the mage as well.\n\n“Why?” She repeated forcefully.\n\n“Lady Vale was injured after her ambush on the boy,” the mage admitted with a wince. Julius couldn’t expand his senses while being contained within the domain, but he didn’t need his aura senses to know that the man was terrified of the woman’s reaction.\n\n“How badly?” The woman asked coldly.\n\n“I’m not sure.”\n\nThere was a long pause, but eventually the lady sighed. “I knew it was a bad idea to have her participate. But she insisted. Maybe this will teach her to be more careful.”\n\nShe pinched her nose and didn’t look up when she used her other hand to slap Julius in the back of the head. It felt like someone hit him with a semi-truck, and his consciousness flickered.\n\n“Stop trying to mess with my domain, kid,” she said with a dark look.\n\nHe held back a groan as she increased the pressure in her domain. He had been trying to use his aura to find a gap, but there wasn’t a gap to exploit. This Tier 5 was of a totally different caliber than the Tier 5 crafter he had fought before."}
{"text": "Then he spotted a few people making way as the crowd split to reveal two figures. Reika walked along with an old man using a cane as he took small steps. Jake narrowed his eyes as he saw the backlash of the Transcendent skill so clearly. The Saint looked and felt weak, but at the same time, his gaze was as sharp if not sharper than ever before, and even as he walked with a cane, he gave off an aura making no one dare try to start something.\n\nHe had barely entered the hall as he also disappeared to his own private booth along with Reika and a slew of other people he assumed were from his clan. Yet before he disappeared, Jake spotted the small mark on the side of his head just above his left ear - a small scar left by Jake’s arrow during the final moments.\n\nJake brought his hand up to the scar still on his own neck too. Scars after the system were not as before. They didn’t need to exist but could easily heal… but there were instances where they would remain anyway. If the one with the scar willed for them to stay, evolution and healing could not and would not remove them, but there were also circumstances where a scar held certain meaning or implications. In Jake’s case, it was a reminder, and he had a feeling it was for the old man too. Also, curses could cause them, but this was not one such case.\n\nAs he stood there, he noticed two people walk in he instantly recognized.\n\nIt was a large man in a robe walking with a familiar staff together with a lithe woman. It was the elemental mage Roman and the dual-wielding rogue from the Rubik’s Cube Vault – or Roman and Felicia if one was more a fan of names.\n\nJake was a bit surprised by seeing them together, and without really thinking much, he just sent them both an invitation making them both stop on the spot. They looked at each other and exchanged a few words as they both disappeared only to appear in the booth.\n\nThey were briefly disorientated before they both spotted him. Jake had already made his mask invisible by now, and even if he couldn’t remember if they had ever seen his face before, his aura was no doubt recognizable.\n\n“Yo, long time no see!” Roman greeted happily as Felicia gave a more subtle greeting.\n\n“It’s only been like two weeks,” Jake rightfully correctly him.\n\n“Felt like an eternity to ma poor heart,” Roman joked as he went over, finally [N O V E L I G H T] seeing the others in the room. “Oi, hey there, the name’s Roman, and this is my gal Felicia!”\n\nFelicia shifted her legs a bit as he also introduced herself. “Pleasure to make your acquaintances.”\n\nMiranda tossed Jake a look as he explained. “We met during a puzzle Vault and solved it together, to then get ambushed by those independent factions. Quite the bonding experience and we talked about them coming to Haven after too.”\n\n“Ah,” Miranda said as she introduced herself. “Pleasure to meet you two; I am Miranda, the city leader of Haven, and on account of the city, you two would be more than welcome to come. We are always open to more powerful D-grades.”\n\nJake decided to identify them while they exchanged pleasantries, and he saw Roman had actually made some damn good progress.\n\n[Human – lvl 125]\n\nHe then saw the staff the guy carried around as he put two and two together. Roman had just been able to use the staff and now carried it around like it was his child. He knew for a fact the guy had spatial storage. But, being kind, Jake chose to not tease him. At least not about that.\n\n“So… you two?” Jake said teasingly to Roman.\n\n“Aye!” he instantly agreed with not a single trace of shame or embarrassment. “Me an the lass worked together after that damn cube and been thick as thieves ever since!”\n\nHe put his arm around Felicia or at least tried to as a palm to the face held him back. Because while he was utterly shameless, Felicia was a bit more of the reserved type as she answered with her hand still on Roman’s chin: “We work well together…”\n\nJake just chuckled as he invited them to stay in the room as they talked a bit about how they spent the rest of the Hunt. Apparently, the two of them had gone on for a few more days, mainly just hunting things, until they finally came to a Vault with no one else around.\n\nThat Vault had proven to be a bit too far above their abilities and made them both leave the Hunt. Interestingly enough, they had been in physical contact with each other while leaving the Hunt, making them both end up in the same place once out. Afterward, they concluded this was likely due to them both not joining from any city, as the same didn’t seem true for others. They had also both gotten lucky as fuck and managed to hold on, so they left right at the time the Monarch was triggered, allowing them to keep all their stuff.\n\nAs they finished up their conversation, the timer slowly reached zero as the first phase of the Auction officially began.\n\nSystem Announcement:\n\nThe first phase of the Auction has now begun, where all rare rarity items will be sold off. All items will be listed with a set minimum bidding price by the seller, as well as a potential buyout price, allowing anyone to instantly buy the item.\n\nThere are a total of 84,913 listings of rare items for sale during this first phase of the Auction. These items will be posted in batches of five hundred a time at two-minute intervals.\n\nOnce all items have been posted, there will be a period of one hour before all bidding ends. Items will be posted in order of minimum bets and buyout price. Any item not bought at the end of this phase will be returned to the original seller.\n\nThe first batch will be posted in two minutes.\n\nJake skimmed the message as he did some quick maths.\n\nWith five hundred items every two minutes, it would take approximately three hundred and forty minutes to post them all, and with the extra hour, it would be a total of around four hundred minutes. In easier terms, six hours and forty minutes or so with a constant barrage of rare items.\n\nThank Villy for high stats, Jake thought, with everyone else no doubt thinking something similar. Five hundred items every two minutes, or more than four a second, did seem extreme, but honestly? It was manageable if you put your mind to it and focused only on going through them without any distractions. Jake for sure could do it, and he had a feeling merchants were especially suited for the task.\n\nAs for Sultan, he did not hesitate for a moment as he hurried over to a chair and took out his usual small black book as he sat down and closed his eyes to enter meditation. The others around him did the same as they found chairs or just sat on the floor, even the otherwise unserious Roman shifting his mood.\n\nJake himself also found a comfortable chair and moved it to the large window panel as he stared down at the massive hall where he saw tens of thousands in total. Even then, Jake was certain many factions had not brought everyone, or not everyone was in the hall. This is without mentioning the many people in the booths too.\n\nAs he sat there looking out, the first batch came. An interface appeared before him, looking straight out of a videogame auction system. But an improved VR version. He could even mentally categorize items, and just by thinking about what he wanted to see, they appeared.\n\nYet, just as they appeared, a few also began disappearing as they were bought out. The bidding numbers rapidly began climbing on nearly everything. He also pretty much confirmed that the information about an item was based on your ability to Identify them based on the descriptions.\n\nBut a few items also had small notes or descriptions left by the seller, and there were even a few bundles of items. Checking everything, he did not find much interesting but did begin to get an idea of the prices. They seemed to mainly be in the tens of thousands to a hundred thousand for rare items, but he did also see some reach over a million. These were primarily those auxiliary tools, and the most expensive of the rare items was going for over one million and two hundred thousand. Coincidentally, it was a cauldron."}
{"text": "Something in its eyes seemed to spook the Red Commander. There was a momentary panic in his expression as he glanced up at the sky and at the magic suddenly targeting him. \"You can cast?\" he shouted. \"You aren't supposed to be able to—\"\n\nHe cut himself off, perhaps realizing that it was a waste of time to speak instead of break the spell. A red pulse rippled from him, no doubt an attempt to dispel the barrage; Torment's Shadow noted distantly that it might have worked on a spell of the tenth tier or less. It would have to avoid those lesser spells, then.\n\nThe Red Commander snarled, then made a rough gesture, a second attempt to block the spell. Thick trails of blood poured out of his armor, their ends solidifying into makeshift shields of flesh and bone, radiating with corrupted power. The blood stayed in place as tendrils that kept the Commander attached to his shields, allowing him to move each one independently.\n\nAnd move them he did. A full eight out of the twelve stars were deflected, slapped to the side and spearing deep into the ground. Torment's Shadow watched as each star speared a deep fissure into the realm, reflexively dispelling them before they fell too far.\n\nThe other four, however, whirled around the shields to settle and strike on the various pieces of the Red Commander's armor: both of his gauntlets and one of the greaves. The fourth made for the final limb, but Torment's Shadow twitched a finger at the last moment, and the star instead burrowed straight into the Red Commander's helmet.\n\nIn an instant, all four pieces of armor turned into plasma. And unlike [Plasma Transmutation], which seemed to create plasma that was held together by the plasma aspect, these pieces threatened to vaporize and explode instantly. They held for only a moment.\n\nTorment's Shadow used that moment to activate the [Hand of the Plasmic Godsmith], turning each transmuted piece of armor into divine-grade starsteel the realm itself wasn't meant to support.\n\nThe Red Commander stumbled back with an agonized scream. The acrid smell of burning flesh filled the air, and his skin bubbled and popped, melting into his throat and choking off the scream for a half second before a pulse of flesh-shaping magic forced it back into place.\n\nTorment's Shadow did not react. Instead, it spoke, its voice bland and empty.\n\n\"I thought you might appreciate the upgrade to your armor,\" it said, quietly activating [Blistering Physique]. \"Divine-grade starsteel is hard to get, you know. Even for me, that kind of metal would take a few minutes to cut through, and that's assuming you don't have any measures in place to protect against my barriers.\"\n\nIt half-crouched to stare at the Red Commander, who was still scrabbling impotently at his helmet. The corrupted flesh magic he used was enough to keep him alive, and he was evidently used to some level of pain, because anyone else should have been utterly incapacitated by it.\n\n\"What are you doing?!\" the Red Commander rasped. Torment's Shadow tilted its head curiously for a moment before it realized the Commander wasn't even talking to it. He was talking to the Greater Indictment he'd trapped into servitude.\n\nIt had forgotten about that Indictment for a moment. It looked at it now, a broken thing with pieces of corrupted armor clinging to its form like melting glue, and the Indictment stared back at it.\n\n\"Help me,\" the Red Commander shouted.\n\n\"As you wish,\" the Greater Indictment said. Torment's Shadow didn't miss the way his gaze lingered on the Commander, as if he would much rather do nothing. But the armor fused into him flickered regardless, forcing him into obedience.\n\nHe reached out to swipe at Torment's Shadow.\n\nA note from SilverLinings\n\nPatreon is 10 chapters + 3 interstitial chapters ahead. Book 2 is complete. I'm technically taking a short break, but still posting smaller interstitial/intermission chapters in the interim (this will be true for RoyalRoad once I'm finished with Book 2 here.)\n\n92 — Book 2, Chapter 40 — Red Symphony, Pt 2\n\nFortunately, Torment's Shadow had cast [Blistering Physique] before all this. It might not have had the edge it needed without the spell. With it, it noticed the slight give in the air around the Greater Indictment a moment before the swipe would have made contact, and it leapt backward, eyes narrowing.\n\nEven with the distance it had created, the Greater Indictment had managed to steal a chunk of the speed and power currently flowing through its body. Not much, thankfully, given [Blistering Physique] was only a sixth-tier spell, but it was something to be wary about, nonetheless. Evidently, the spells it cast were not subject to the same hierarchy its own existence normally was.\n\nIt still cast the spell a second time, stacking the benefits atop itself and noting that the second attempt was only about a quarter as effective. There was a limit to how much it could stack, apparently.\n\nAt the same time... it examined the Greater Indictment approaching slowly. The way the air around it warped was distinctly noticeable, and it indicated that the power it had wasn't entirely voluntary.\n\n\"Ontological drain,\" Torment's Shadow mused. \"You steal the traits of anything that gets too close to you.\"\n\nWorse, what it was sensing around him meant that his power out extended a few feet, like something of a draining aura. Torment's Shadow would need to keep its distance. Its barriers might provide some defense—those were largely immune to such abilities, given a pure expression of its mana stood nearly at the top of the hierarchy of power—but if the Red Commander was a Lower Branch cultist, then he would likely have a countermeasure ready.\n\nHe was still screaming on the ground, though. Desperately trying to get to his feet, forcing his magic to heal around the pain, but there was limited utility in that. Torment's Shadow decided it had time to experiment.\n\nIt made a dense barrier of mana and pushed, sending the Greater Indictment stumbling back for a few feet. Just as it suspected might happen, the Red Commander looked up and grunted, then made a weak, dismissive gesture; Torment's Shadow watched as a relic attached to the Red Commander's waist activated with a pulse of Abyssal energy, promptly disrupting that barrier and his control over it.\n\nUnsurprising. The Lower Branches had been desperate to find some form of countermeasure against its abilities during the war, and this was similar to something it had encountered before.\n\nThis time, with an Abyssal's power behind it, the relic did something new: it stole the power from the Shadow's disrupted barrier, draining its mana directly into the Red Commander.\n\nTorment's Shadow grunted in annoyance, knowing what was coming. That boost of mana was, unfortunately, enough to get the Red Commander back to his feet. He took a deep breath like the mana he'd stolen had been refreshing, even stretching and cracking his neck with false nonchalance. The starsteel armor he wore was still burning him, but the mana he'd acquired acted almost like a buffer, empowering his flesh-shaping enough to protect him for the moment.\n\n\"Yggdrasil's End,\" the Red Commander said, letting out a slightly pained grunt. His voice shook slightly, but became steadier by the moment, and he let out a rasping laugh. \"You're almost as terrifying as the legends say. And the Gift gave you an upgrade, too. How quaint. Do you really think it'll be enough, after what you did to us? Do you really think we haven't prepared?\"\n\nTorment's Shadow didn't bother to respond.\n\nMana overload detected! Attempting to compensate...\n\nAdjusting spell construct...\n\n[Bia's Hammer] has evolved into [Purified Kinetic Splinters]!\n\n[Purified Kinetic Splinters, Level 1] [Twelfth Tier (Unique), Active] [1.0e30 Mana]\n\nFlood a designated area with microscopic splinters of pure kinetic energy to tear an opponent apart from the inside out. Each splinter carries enough power to pierce tenth-tier wards and barriers, and temporarily disrupt mana use in a small radius around them."}
{"text": "“Daddy, daddy, you’re breaking my heart. That is such a downgrade.” Norbelle gave him a sorry look. “Can’t you just spank me like you used to and call it a day? I like it when you slap me like Thalas.”\n\nWhat the… Was she mocking him? There was no way she acted like this when Father and her were alone. “What game are you playing, my daughter?”\n\n“I don’t know, what’s yours?” She put her hands behind her back and smiled from ear to ear. “Why are you sitting on Father’s throne, Simon?”\n\nA note from Maxime J. Durand (Void Herald)\n\nMy Patreon (access to 30+ advance chapters, arts and other bonuses)\n\nMy Amazon if you wanna check my other books\n\nMy Discord Server\n\nThanks to my patrons on Patreon:"}
{"text": "He sat down on the trunk of a tree and coaxed Drasil out of his core. The small spirit still spent most of his time sleeping in his core, feeding off of Julius’s life mana. However, he did enjoy coming out and being in nature.\n\nJulius did sense other people in the garden as well. [Spatial Perception] picked up on some students hiding behind the foliage. To his embarrassment, he saw that there were a few couples that were having “fun” away from prying eyes. He made sure to keep his focus away from them and give them some privacy. He felt kind of creepy, observing their private interaction, it wasn’t his fault that his skill was too good.\n\nHe felt Drasil rummaging around in one of his pockets, searching for the life core he loved so much. Julius smiled at the cute spirit and took out the core from his storage ring. Drasil chirped in joy and frantically climbed over Julius’s lap to rush toward the core.\n\nDrasil jumped on top of the core, hugging it with all four of his limbs. Julius smiled as the adorable green spirit cooed in happiness and rubbed his face all over the core.\n\nJulius just sat down and watched Drasil play around with the core as he thought about what he wanted to do regarding Concepts. The fact that Gabriel had told him that Concepts were a thing was a revelation that changed how he was going to approach things.\n\nHe was a little upset that he hadn’t known about this even after spending so much time trying to find information about epic skills and higher tiers in the library. He wished he had known about it earlier. But at least he knew about it now. If Gabriel hadn’t come and searched for him, Julius might not have known about Concepts until much later, so he should be grateful for what he got.\n\nHe was confused as to why the others hadn’t talked about Concepts to him. He was pretty certain that they had epic skills of their own. While they didn’t know exactly how close Julius was to creating his own epic skill, he would have thought that they had a good idea that it was the next logical step for him.\n\nHe didn’t think they were purposefully hiding things from him, but it seemed like a big thing not to talk about. He would have to ask them the next time he saw them.\n\nA note from l-Ryn-l\n\nThank you for reading and I really hope you enjoyed. If you want to read ahead, Patreon is currently 25 chapters ahead and rising. If you want to check it out, feel free to.\n\nChapter 98: Odd Man Out\n\nJulius technically still had some classes for the day, but he decided to wait until tomorrow to go back. After all, what was a day extra going to do? He had already missed two weeks. The good news was that Gabriel assured him that it wasn’t unusual for students to not attend class for a while because of their focus on their own advancement. Some had to take extended breaks in order to break through a Tier or gain enlightenment on a Concept.\n\nWith that being said, it was more for older students, but on rare occasions, younger students had to do so as well. Therefore, Julius should not have to worry about anyone causing any problems for him. Gabriel told him that he would talk to the other professors for him just in case.\n\nBack to the subject of Concepts, Julius thought that Sharpness was a Concept that he would gladly take and use for his skills. But he wondered what would happen if he learned a Fire Concept, a Life Concept, and maybe a Kinetic Concept. What would that mean for his skills?\n\nDid skills need an appropriate Concept to evolve to epic or did any Concept qualify? It would seem a little weird if you could evolve a fire skill with something like an Ice Concept. Perhaps that was the reason why [Spatial Perception] hadn’t evolved yet, even though it had been at level 19 for a long time.\n\nIt was an interesting idea. If that’s true, what kind of Concept would [Spatial Perception] need? Would it require a Space Concept if that even existed? Or could he use any Concept? He probably should have asked more questions before he left Gabriel. But in his defense, he hadn’t thought of that until now.\n\nHe didn’t want to think about that for now. He had looked in the library about the other options he had been offered earlier. The only two that had him reconsidering [Composite Mana] were [Compound Barrier] and [Compound Strike]. After looking at what little the library had to offer about those skills, Julius was able to at least find out that those two skills were quite highly rated when it came to rare skills. He didn’t know if they were rare+, but then again, he had seen almost nothing regarding rare+ skills in his time in the library.\n\nThe interesting thing about those two skills that tempted Julius was the fact that both skills were regarded as very good amplifiers for either defense or offense. The thing that Julius didn’t really know about was if he were to choose [Composite Mana] would three of his skills synergize or would it take more?\n\nMost of the time, skill synergies happened in groups of three, but there were definitely cases when that wasn’t required. There were evolved skills that required two like [Savage Dance] and sometimes even four skills.\n\nWould it be better to choose [Compound Strike] and hope that the skill alone would be enough to combine with [Arcane Construct] and [Pure Compression]? Or would it be better to choose [Composite Mana] and still plan on combining the evolved version of [Mana Slash]?\n\nAt this point, he wanted to wait and see what he would get from [Mana Slash]. It was practically guaranteed that he would get offered [Mana Strike], but he was also curious what other skills would be offered if they would be better fits for what he had in mind.\n\nJulius packed up his stuff and headed over to the cafeteria. He was excited to finally eat a real meal and see the others as well. Two weeks was a long time considering that they had only known each other for a short while. He hoped that they weren’t mad or treated him differently because of it.\n\nWhenever he entered the cafeteria he found himself keeping a close eye on anyone that might cause him problems. There were particular people he always kept an eye on. Liam and his buddies were one of them. But there were also some upperclassmen who Julius caught looking at him a little too intently.\n\nHe didn’t know the exact reasons why they did, but he kept an eye on them just to be safe. If they headed in his direction, he would purposefully make sure to head off in the opposite direction to avoid them.\n\nLuckily, his first day back was met with no troubles. No Liam or his cronies bothered him and he was able to get himself a plate of food without issues. He saw the others at their regular table and Lily like always was the first to spot him.\n\nHer waving got the attention of the others and they all turned to look at him approaching the table. He saw Edgar scooch over a smidge, to allow Julius a space to sit next to him. He gratefully took it, placing his tray down on the table before sitting down.\n\nHe noticed that all of their eyes were focused on him intensely. Even Kyle was staring at him like he was trying to burn a hole through his forehead. It was funny in a way. They were so obviously curious but were also trying their best not to come off as too eager and give him some space.\n\nLily was pretending to focus on her food, but Julius could sense her reaching out trying to probe him subtly, it wasn’t something he would have been able to manage before, but seeing the way she used her psychic abilities so often had helped on that front.\n\nDerek wasn’t using any of his aura or mana, but he was still frequently looking up at Julius, waiting for him to explain the situation to them. Edgar was just Edgar. He was the most unbothered out of all of them. He had given a friendly bump to him when Julius sat down and proceeded to finish his meal.\n\nIt wasn’t to anyone’s surprise that Aubrey was the one who couldn’t hold her tongue.\n\n“Are we just not going to talk about it?” She asked impatiently.\n\n“Talk about what?” Julius asked innocently with a smile.\n\n“Oh don’t you even start you little brat,” she stood up and wagged her finger at Julius."}
{"text": "“The satellite should have already informed you that the City Lord and others have organized a rendezvous in the central plains.”\n\n“It did?” Jake answered, staring up at it again, noticing it had stopped blinking.\n\n“Through morse code.”\n\n“I don’t know morse code?”\n\n“Apologies for my assumption of competence,” Arnold acknowledged in the most insulting way Jake could imagine phrasing it, yet he felt not the slightest hint of intent to insult in his voice.\n\n“Anyway, where do we meet exactly?” Jake asked. “Also, how has the Treasure Hunt treated you?”\n\n“I have had adequate success in this event. To get to the central plains, simply head that way,” the drone said as it fired off a small beam of light towards the distance, “and spotting someone should be natural. However, be warned that there may be others in the path.”\n\n“Got it, thanks, mate,” Jake answered as he turned and took off, waving to the drone as he took off.\n\nIt was difficult to explain how damn good it felt to run across the open plains and over the small hills after just being stuck in water or that small final room for so long. He felt faster than before but knew it was only marginal and due to his stat growth.\n\nJake ran without using One Step Mile to enjoy the wind on his face. He passed a few groups of people and soon made it to the top of a hill giving him a good look at the Mistless Plains. Looking in the direction where he felt Sylphie, he could faintly spot Miranda and Carmen with her. Sylphie sent back a mental greeting asking if she should come, but Jake declined and said he would come to her.\n\nJust as he was about to head off, someone approached him. A man was flying through the air surrounded by odd energy, and when Jake got a closer look, he recognized it was his old colleague-turned-undead.\n\nCasper landed in front of Jake elegantly, touching down elegantly before not-so-elegantly yelling: “So YOU have it!”\n\n“Oh, hi Casper, nice to meet you too,” Jake said a bit snarkily. “Also, I have what?”\n\n“A byproduct of the Seed of Eternal Resentment. You know what I mean, right? It can take many forms, including a small pebble-like seed, perhaps a large spore or a weapon forged of it or something,” Casper explained.\n\n“Something like a Root also works?” Jake asked as he turned his wrist and made the Root of Eternal Resentment appear.\n\n[Root of Yalsten’s Eternal Resentment (Unique)] – A wooden root from an unknown tree that has absorbed the curse energies of the black mist that has hung over Yalsten for unnumerable years. The deep and eternal resentment towards the vampires that permeates the curse has now been absorbed and concentrated. Will cause disastrous damage and curse any vampire it comes into contact with; however, it can only be used once. While in possession of this root, the cursed mist will not see you as an enemy. Be warned that while the curse will not seek to damage you, it will still influence you. This effect grows as it absorbs the curse energy of any cursed vessels related to the curse in Yalsten.\n\nCasper stared at the black root in Jake’s hand before he slowly nodded, having clearly used Identify on it himself. “That’s the one. How much do you want for it?”\n\n“Before I answer that, tell me first what you will use it for?”Jake countered. He did know Casper was into curses and stuff, so maybe he wanted to make a weapon out of it or something? Jake didn’t really wanna give it up as he had a strong feeling he could still find a use for it.\n\n“I will use it to absorb the curse energy in the large spire and then against the final boss of the Treasure Hunt to weaken it,” Casper answered. “At least that is the official story I was supposed to give you. In actuality, we will use it on the spire to still absorb the curse, act like it has no other uses, and beat the final boss without it by using people like you and the Sword Saint. We will then bring the Root back to Earth, where we will use it as a power source in a ritual together with the World Quasi-Core we will get from this final stage. All to construct a special dungeon especially suited for us undead and inherently antagonistic to anything and anyone else.”\n\n“Oh,” Jake said, taking it all in. “Sounds fancy. Do you absolutely need the Root?”\n\n“Absolutely? No, but it would be very useful for us,” Casper answered.\n\n“You know what, let me think about it, okay? If I don’t find a use for it, I doubt there will be much interest at the auction,” Jake answered. “Also, thanks for the tip. I didn’t even think about bonking the big spire.”\n\nCasper just smiled as he shook his head. “I guess it’s about time to get the show started. Once the two of us move closer to the spire, the final phase of the Treasure Hunt will begin. You good with that?”\n\nJake quickly took a glance around, noticing a slew of familiar faces. He saw Jacob far off in the distance with Bertram beside him. The moment Jake looked at him, Jacob looked back. Jake felt the guy was using a skill to see that far but didn’t consider it more as he saw Jacob just give him a nod. Clearly, the Holy Church was ready. He then tossed a glance the way of the Noboru Clan, seeing the Sword Saint and Reika both stand ready, also fully aware of what was about to happen. In fact, Jake felt like he was the last to know. That did suck a bit.\n\n“Let’s go,” Jake said as he summoned his wings. Casper followed him as they flew to the spire. Once they got within a certain distance… something shifted. Like the sound of a massive mirror being broken, the sky above shattered, and Jake’s eyes darted around as he felt the entire world change.\n\nCasper was enveloped in light as an item appeared in his hand before swiftly disappearing into his Insignia, and at the same time, the system responded.\n\nQuest Received: Cursed Monarch\n\nThe world of Yalsten has reached the end of its lifespan as the last anchors keeping it together have been removed. A foregone conclusion, as suppressing the curse would inadvertently lead to this fate anyway. Space will crumble as the world slowly turns to nothingness.\n\nYet, in this final moment, an ancient figure has awakened. The husk of the once glorious King of Blood who cursed the World of Yalsten, resurrected by his own creation, morphed and twisted by eons of pain and torture, his Records and existence morphed into something unrecognizable.\n\nIn his greed, this Cursed Monarch chose to be buried with not only his entire clan but a mighty treasure, one their world had been tasked with keeping safe by the True Ancestor – a treasure still untouched by the curse. The Cursed Monarch must be returned to the soil along with the soldiers he raised alongside himself to claim this treasure.\n\nObjective: Defeat Cursed Monarch and his soldiers.\n\nFinal Rewards will be calculated after the Treasure Hunt concludes.\n\nWarning: Due to the destruction of the world, the Treasure Hunt will end in: 11:59:59\n\nJake skimmed it as he made his way to the massive spire. He bonked the Root into the crystal spire without any hesitation, making it shatter just like the sky above. It turned to crystalline dust the moment the Root touched it, and Jake felt the curse in the Root of Eternal Resentment amplify to extreme levels as it absorbed far more than anything prior. The intent and emotions of the curse invaded his mind as this happened, assaulting every inch of his being. Gritting his teeth, he channeled his Pride and suppressed the desire to slay the vampire he knew dwelled beneath and was about to awaken, getting himself fully under control. No fucking way he was going to let a stupid ancient curse able to destroy an entire world ruin a good fight.\n\nHe tossed the Root back in the Hunter Insignia as he flew over to Miranda and the others, the crystal spire slowly turning to nothing behind him. He had barely landed and given them a friendly nod before another message appeared before him and everyone else."}
{"text": "One would think it was a danger that it would encounter other flying creatures during its flight, but the risk was actually quite low. Most of the birds tended to stay lower as they hunted the cloud elementals on the continent below. A few did note the shadow of the arrow passing over them, but as it wasn’t an attack aimed for them, they ignored it.\n\nJake had already begun creating another Arrow of the Ambitious Hunter. With his eyes closed as he focused, he didn’t even look if the arrow would hit its target.\n\nHe would know if it did… and if it didn’t, he would just have to try again.\n\nThe seconds ticked by as he channeled summoning the arrow. It slowly began emerging from his palm, suspended above it by the skill.\n\n10…11…13\n\n34… 35…\n\n59… a minute passed, and nothing yet.\n\n63… 64…\n\nHe felt the arrow about to be fully summoned as he opened his eyes. The first thing he did was to throw his gaze towards the Storm Elemental… and just in time.\n\nFrom above, a giant arrow fell. It looked only like a small needle as it impacted the massive Storm Elemental that had just been mindings its own business at the lightning tree.\n\nDestructive energy invaded the elemental as Jake felt it through his Mark. Like a wave, it tore through the massive form, and Jake was certain that it was making loud booming noises based on the many small forms of panicking birds and elementals he saw.\n\nBut… Jake didn’t have time to look. He once more drenched the now-finished arrow in his blood as he nocked it and once more began charging Infused Powershot.\n\nBOOM!\n\nOnce more, the cloud island he was on shook, and he felt a lot of it be blown apart… he would have to find another one soon as this one would disperse entirely in only a few shots.\n\nAnother Arrow of the Ambitious Hunter flying in a great arc towards the horizon as he consumed a mana potion and began making yet another.\n\nA bit more than a minute later it landed, this one missing the massive elemental by nearly 100 meters. It sounded like a lot, but with the gigantic shooting distance, it really wasn’t. The Storm Elemental had moved slightly in the direction he had shot from, but after finding nothing, it was already making its way back again to the tree.\n\nSo he shot again.\n\nBOOM!\n\nThis one flew in another great arc, tearing through the sky. The wind gave way as the Windsoar enchantment that gave his bow its name truly proved its worth. With wind resistance non-existent, his arrow didn’t lose much momentum as it flew; the only thing working to slow it down was the energy from the Infused Powershot running out.\n\nPerhaps there was something poetically ironic about using a bow blessed by elementals to get revenge on someone slaying elementals… to slaughter even more elementals. Cloud and wind were even closely related…\n\nThe third arrow descended like a great artillery strike, hitting true as once more the massive Storm Elemental was invaded with destruction incarnate. It writhed in pain as it tried to locate its attacker but failed.\n\nIts intelligence was non-existent like the Cloud Elementals. It moved only on instincts and refused to leave the giant lighting tree… it was just a sitting duck, never going more than a few kilometers away from it. Well, Jake would call its instincts pathetic, but he wasn’t the best to ask.\n\nBOOM!\n\nA fourth arrow was released, and this one also flew true. The cloud island below him couldn’t take a single shot more before being completely dispersed… but he only had mana for a single arrow more, so that was fine.\n\nTen thousand mana, uplifted to nearly fifteen thousand with the potion, was consumed with five arrows. Jake’s stamina was also down to a third, the constant strain of Limit Break at 20% and, of course, the investment in the arrows. This meant that each summoning had drained nearly 3000 mana and more than 750 stamina.\n\nA few remnants of the massive roars of the Storm Elemental even made their way towards him, barely audible in the distance. He couldn’t help but chuckle, thinking of the beasts below the island and the birds flying on it, all scared absolutely shitless.\n\nBOOM!\n\nThe fifth and final arrow was released, the cloud island below him now wholly blown apart. He quickly made his way to another nearby small island as he settled down on it. He deactivated Limit Break as he began breathing heavily from the exhaustion.\n\nHe had just entered meditation as he felt the fifth arrow hit.\n\n56 minutes later, he opened his eyes and consumed a mana potion, and then reentered meditation immediately again.\n\nAn hour after that, he chugged down a stamina potion before continuing his meditation.\n\nThis continued for 6 hours total – 3 stamina and 3 mana potions – before he opened his eyes for another shooting session.\n\nHe gazed towards the distance and saw his target still at the lightning tree. It was less damaged than six hours ago… but far from healed. All signs of toxicity from his blood were long gone, but it didn’t have enough time to regenerate fully.\n\nIts internal thunder was slightly muted… and as the saying goes, one must smith when the iron is hot.\n\n2 minutes and 49 seconds later…\n\nBOOM!\n\nAnother arrow rained down on the poor Storm Elemental. It wasn’t smart enough to understand how screwed it was, but even with its primitive instincts, it had been happy to be left alone for the last half a dozen hours.\n\nBOOM!\n\nThen a seventh came, tearing away at it even more. Its massive right arm seemed to lose its form for a moment before the elemental reformed it.\n\nBOOM!\n\nThe eighth arrow hit it in its mid-section, and a massive portion of its body was consumed for a moment, with the Storm Elemental once more expending considerable resources to heal itself.\n\nBOOM!\n\nArrow number nine missed by less than five meters to the right of the massive stationary form. Can’t be perfect every time, Jake chuckled, already preparing the tenth arrow.\n\nBOOM!\n\nThe tenth hit, meaning eight total hits by Arrow of the Ambitious Hunter. The Elemental truly looked to be spent, so Jake did the only natural thing.\n\nHe went through another round of recuperation on yet another small cloud island.\n\nA bit over twelve hours after the first arrow arrived, the barrage continued.\n\nBOOM!\n\nThe eleventh arrow blew apart the right arm once more, but this time it didn’t regenerate it right away.\n\nBOOM!\n\nThe twelfth arrow blew apart the other massive arm, one it also failed to regenerate.\n\nBOOM!\n\nThe thirteenth arrow hit it right in the chest-section, blowing out a massive part of its body. The destructive wave tore through it, as the lighting that ran through it was practically non-existent now. It tried to regenerate the destroyed part of its chest, but it appeared to have difficulty maintaining its form.\n\nBOOM!\n\nFourteen. Twelve of which that hit. That was how many Arrows of the Ambitious Hunter were required to kill the D-grade elemental.\n\n*You have slain [Storm Elemental – lvl 107] – Bonus experience earned for killing an enemy above your level*\n\n*’DING!’ Class: [Ambitious Hunter] has reached level 94 - Stat points allocated, +4 free points*\n\n*’DING!’ Class: [Ambitious Hunter] has reached level 95 - Stat points allocated, +4 free points*\n\n*’DING!’ Race: [Human (E)] has reached level 83 - Stat points allocated, +5 free points*\n\nJake basked in the levels but noticed there was one notification he had missed. It came the moment he killed the Elemental and was honestly one he hadn’t expected.\n\n*Skill Upgraded*: [Expert Archery (Uncommon)] --> [Archery of Vast Horizons (Rare)]\n\n162 chapter - Pecking Order\n\nJake looked at the upgraded skill with a bit of bewilderment.\n\n[Expert Archery (Uncommon)] An Archer’s best friend is the bow in his hand and the arrow in his foe’s heart. You have proven yourself an expert with your chosen weapon and is fast approaching the level of mastering your craft. Adds a small bonus to the effect of Agility and Strength when using a ranged weapon.\n\n-->"}
{"text": "An aura blasted out of his body as Shroud of the Primordial entirely fell away, and he purposefully amplified his presence. It spread out of him… and less than a second later, the giant double doors slammed open, someone inside having felt Jake.\n\nFelt his presence.\n\nA priest flanked by two paladins appeared, standing at the top of the steps only a few seconds later, staring down at Jake and the three with him in confusion.\n\n[Starcross Priest – lvl 280]\n\n[Starcross Paladin – lvl 285]\n\n[Starcross Paladin – lvl 282]\n\n“I… who are yo-“\n\n“Call your god down here,” Jake interrupted the guy.\n\n“What?” the priest said, looking confused before suddenly turning angry. “How dare yo-“\n\n“I wasn’t asking,” Jake said as he flared his aura even more, mixing in Pride of the Malefic Viper to further amplify it.\n\n“And unless you want to create trouble for the Starcross Pantheon by ignoring the Chosen of a Primordial, I would very much comply,” the Sword Saint added in, also tossing in a bit of his own aura as someone with a Divine Blessing from another Primordial.\n\nDina and Sylphie also joined in as the priest stared, clearly unsure how to react. The two paladins moved forward in a defensive manner as Jake just sighed.\n\nVery well… full Young Master mode engaged.\n\n“I gave you a fucking order, so stop standing there like a moron and contact your god,” Jake scroffed. “Or are you some damn heretic? Is that why this pathetic kingdom has fallen into shambles?”\n\nJake wasn’t sure what more he could say as they discovered that the priest had indeed contacted someone. An aura appeared toward the back of the large church, and a second later, a figure teleported out to stand between Jake and the priest. Instantly Jake was aware… A-grade.\n\nBut, he was in young master mode.\n\n“What is going on he-“\n\n“Fucking finally,” Jake sighed loudly. “Hey, you, are you as useless as this priest, or can you get your shit together and contact that Pantheon of yours already? I haven’t got all day.”\n\nThe A-grade looked at him and the four with him for a moment before suddenly falling to his knees. “I greet the Chosen.”\n\nAlright, seems like we are getting somewhere.\n\n“Yeah, yeah, just contact the Pantheon. I would prefer to converse with someone possessing a worthy status.”\n\n“Naturally,” the A-grade said as he put his hands together. His body glowed with divine light for a moment before he stood, still keeping his back bowed. “They will arrive shortly. I apologize for the disrespect and will make sure to right any injustices.”\n\nThe priest and paladins looked pretty damn frightened by now, but before they could do anything, the A-grade pointed at them as a beam shot into them, making them freeze and fall to the ground. “I shall remove these heretics from your sight at once.”\n\nJake thought he was overdoing it a little… but he was in young master mode. Still, he felt bad if they got punished for something he did.\n\n“You only got yourself to blame for «N.o.v.e.l.i.g.h.t» not properly teaching your clergy about proper procedures if they should ever meet the Chosen of a Primordial,” Jake scoffed. “Now begone. You have done as I asked and you are no longer of any use or concern.”\n\nThe A-grade didn’t even speak but bowed deeply once more before teleported away with the priest and paladins.\n\n“That went well?” the Sword Saint asked through the mark.\n\n“I think so, let’s just ho-“\n\nBefore Jake could even answer, a presence washed over the entire town. It utterly suppressed anything, and Jake felt everything warp. Out of the corner of his eyes, he saw a flickering torch suddenly slow down its flickering as it stopped entirely. The feeling reminded him of the Tutorial when Eversmile stopped time… because that is exactly what had happened.\n\nTwo figures appeared in the air, floating above them. It was a man and a woman, both with blueish skin and eyes reminding Jake of a starlit sky. They looked nearly identical, except for the difference in gender, though both were rather androgynous.\n\n“What era are we in?” the male god asked as his eyes landed on Jake. “The Chosen of the Malefic Viper… never did I think I would see the day a new one would appear.”\n\n“Ninety-third era,” Jake answered. “Not long since the integration, considering I am a Progenitor along with being a Chosen.”\n\n“Truly? How surprising, but not a thoroughly unpleasant piece of news,” the male god nodded.\n\n“Quite the party, too,” the woman spoke. “A Unique Lifeform, a relative of the Nature’s Attendant, and two individuals carrying the Divine Blessings of Stormild and Aeon.”\n\n“The one blessed by Aeon is also a Transcendent,” the male god smiled.\n\n“Oh my,” the female god said in an impressed tone.\n\nBoth gods had floated down by now and landed in front of Jake and the others. Once more, the Sword Saint, Dina, and Fallen King felt the pressure, while Jake stood unaffected, Sylphie perched on his shoulder unbothered.\n\n“Entirely immune to the auras of gods?” the male god said, looking even more at Jake. “I am curious, but asking wouldn’t do me any good.”\n\n“Yeah, images in Nevermore and all that,” Jake nodded.\n\n“Indeed it is so,” the god smiled. “I am glad to see that the Malefic One has returned to the multiverse, and you must give him our greetings once you are done in Nevermore. Just say the Starcrossed Twins send their regards.”\n\n“I will keep that in mind,” Jake nodded. Yeah, not gonna lie; chances are he was going to forget that.\n\n“Now, let’s get on with why we are here. This floor was made to teach the masses to respect divine authority, and… hm, there is no need to explain, now is there? As the Chosen, you are a living symbol of a Primordial's divine authority,” the female god began before giggling. “We shall not hold you more. Ah, but do take this.”\n\nShe tossed a small coin to Jake, which he instantly caught.\n\n“If you ever feel like visiting the Starcross Pantheon’s territory in the true multiverse, you would be more than welcome, and that token should help you,” she said with a smile. “Now, let’s get this silly barrier down.”\n\nShe reached out and took the hand of the male god as both glowed with starlight for a second. She then let go and looked at Jake and the others. “We wish you godspeed on your continued descent of Nevermore.”\n\n“Thanks. From all of us,” Jake smiled as he looked at Dina, who took out the teleportation token.\n\nFloor forty-five?\n\nEasiest floor of his life.\n\n733 chapter - Nevermore: Definitely Balanced\n\n“Okay, not gonna lie, that was kind of hilarious,” Minaga chuckled after seeing Jake pass floor forty-five so easily. “Really just tossed his weight around and got all those poor suckers to get him out of there right away. They didn’t show it, but those Starcrossed Twins were pretty damn submissive compared to how they usually are.”\n\n“I am surprised you got those two in here for such a floor,” Vilastromoz said with genuine confusion. “Any god would do, so why have two gods as old and powerful as them? That can’t have been easy.”\n\nThe Wyrmgod was silent as he just sighed. “I had my reasons.”\n\nMinaga raised a hand. “I know the reasons.”\n\nVilastromoz smiled and looked at the Wyrmgod, who reluctantly explained. “The origin of the images of mortals don’t truly matter that much as before any of them are ever used, the mortal will more than likely already be dead. Things are different for gods. While nothing that happens to the image affects them, and they never become aware of any interactions these images had, there can still be consequences. For the gods, that is.”\n\nThe Viper suddenly understood as he nodded while the Wyrmgod kept explaining. A bit needlessly, but the old dragon did like to talk about his work when given the chance."}
{"text": "Stripped down to the bones. The act often shattered the pane of glass that hosted them, too. Honestly, of the two, shadelings were probably the more merciful variant.\n\nAnother knock came at the door, and Cale promptly remembered what had woken him up. He glanced at the other side of the room where Damien was still sleeping and quietly put up a barrier around him so he wouldn't be disturbed, then pulled open the door.\n\nLeo stood there awkwardly. \"Good morning,\" he greeted, lifting a hand in a limp wave.\n\nCale raised an eyebrow. \"It's still pretty early,\" he noted, glancing back at the window and then stepping aside to let Leo in. \"Couldn't sleep?\"\n\n\"Was it that obvious?\" Leo bumped his horns against the doorframe and grumbled, ducking lower to get all the way in. \"I slept, I just... couldn't fall asleep again once I woke up. Figured you were most likely to be awake.\"\n\n\"And you didn't want Flia to try to drown you.\"\n\n\"And that,\" Leo admitted sheepishly. \"You made some pretty big promises yesterday. I guess I wanted to be sure if they were real.\"\n\n\"They're real,\" Cale said. \"But it all depends on when you're ready to head in there.\"\n\nHe tilted his head toward the labyrinth door. It was still there at the back of the room, just as ominous as ever—more ominous, in fact, though Cale couldn't quite place what made him feel that way. He'd learned to trust his instincts over the centuries, though.\n\nOminous was fine. Ominous usually meant there would be something interesting, albeit potentially difficult to deal with. It was when his instincts said something was dangerous that he really became wary.\n\nLeo glanced at the door and flinched slightly, then took a deep breath, as if to steady himself. \"Can you tell me more about it?\" he asked. \"You said you were there, right? In Karmia, when all this... happened. You must have some idea what this labyrinth was made from.\"\n\n\"I do,\" Cale said steadily. \"You sure you want that story?\"\n\n\"Well, I'm less sure now that you asked me that.\" Leo made an exasperated sort of huff, and Cale snickered in response.\n\n\"You do want to know more about Karmia, though,\" he prompted, his eyes gleaming.\n\n\"I still can't believe you were there.\" It was almost funny how the minotaur tried to hide his immediate interest. \"I mean, there's so much information we're still missing. Why was it called the Age of Distortion? I read some analytical papers on the Karmian artifacts we've discovered, but—\"\n\n\"Hold on,\" Cale said with a laugh. \"I only just woke up, you know. Let me at least get through my morning routine.\"\n\n\"Right,\" Leo said, embarrassed. He stepped back and took the farthest seat from the labyrinth door that he could.\n\nCale couldn't blame him for that. He went about his business while Leo busied himself with one of the books he'd brought along with him—some sort of dissertation on living mythologies, it looked like. Specifically, a breakdown of the known Named, which Cale was pretty sure was the sort of book that would normally be found in the forbidden section of a magical library.\n\nThe Named were not the sort of beings whose names could be casually invoked, after all. A few of them didn't care, but a book? That was basically begging them to intervene. But then Leo looked like he'd had this one for a while, so it was probably one of the favored copies.\n\nCale wasn't too worried about it either way. If one of the Named came knocking, he'd just deal with it the same way he always did. He was curious about the book, though; he'd have to ask to borrow it at some point.\n\n* * *\n\n\"Cale?\" Leo ventured after a moment. \"What are you doing?\"\n\nCale blinked, startled. He'd almost forgotten that Leo was there, and he hesitated for a moment before he answered.\n\n\"It's just... something I try to remember to do,\" he explained vaguely. He was standing by one of the windows and staring quietly out at Utelia's landscape, which he supposed might have looked rather odd. He gestured for Leo to join him, then tilted his head toward the rising sun. \"I like to take a bit of time to appreciate the worlds I'm in. Especially if it's a place that's new to me.\"\n\n\"Really?\" Leo glanced out of the window, brows furrowed in confusion. \"Is Utelia that interesting? I guess I wouldn't know, since I've lived here all my life, but you must've seen things that're... I don't know, cooler?\"\n\nThe minotaur winced almost as soon as the last word emerged from his mouth, but Cale only laughed.\n\n\"You'd be surprised. Utelia's pretty special, I'd say,\" Cale said with a grin. \"But yeah, this isn't the coolest landscape I've seen or anything. I've been to worlds covered in rivers of light, at least one realm made out of diamond, and I remember being summoned into the middle of some sort of apocalyptic holy storm one time.\"\n\nLeo stared at him blankly. Cale snickered.\n\n\"I've seen a lot of things over the centuries,\" he said. \"But what I've learned is that once you've lived long enough, it's easy for wonder to bleed out of every little thing. Easy to forget how much the mundane matters, even in something as simple as the sunrise, or the rustling of the leaves, or the first shoots of spring pushing through the dirt.\"\n\nHe hummed in thought. \"I've been to realms that have lost all those things,\" he said. \"I've seen so many worlds fall to ruin, Leo. It's all too easy for those of us with power to forget how difficult it was for life to reach this stage to begin with. We think life can recover, that it can find a way, but sometimes...\"\n\nCale shrugged, falling silent, and Leo looked at him with the sort of slow-dawning understanding that felt a little too much like pity.\n\n\"Oh,\" the minotaur said quietly. He hesitated, like he was looking for more to say, but before he could, Cale interrupted him with a change of subject.\n\n\"Which is why I want to learn Standard Array spells!\" Cale said brightly. \"Trust me, when you live long enough, it's the little stuff that matters. You know what I'd give to throw a normal fireball? Or just change the color of an object? It'd be so convenient! Not to mention I'd love some kind of laundry spell—\"\n\nA flash from the landscape distracted him, and Cale turned back to the window. His eyes went wide. \"Whoa,\" he said, impressed. \"Right, I forgot the other reasons. Sometimes, when you take the time to look, you see some really cool stuff.\"\n\nLeo blinked and leaned closer to see what Cale was staring at. His breath caught, and he stared out silently, fingers digging into the windowsill.\n\nOff in the distance, at the border between the Starfall Desert and the Petrified Sea, twin storms had begun to gather.\n\nOn the left, glittering comets fell from clouds that resembled miniature nebulae, crashing into the jagged shapes of a dozen stone trees; where they exploded, magic coalesced, turning them abruptly into piles of shining, crystalline sand.\n\nOn the right, thick clouds boiled, dense with some sort of stone-based mana. They acted almost like liquid, roiling into bubbles that popped and sent bright flashes of lightning down onto the ground. As soon as that lightning struck, it turned the sand around it to glass and froze in place, calcifying into a brand new stone tree.\n\n\"It's like they're fighting for territory,\" Cale said, impressed.\n\n\"I don't... I don't think I've seen both of those places storm at the same time,\" Leo said, a little in awe at the sight. \"I guess you're right. That is pretty cool.\"\n\n\"Isn't it?\" Cale let himself be smug about it for a moment, then turned away from the window so he could lounge back in one of his chairs. \"Let me know when you're ready,\" he said. \"You said you wanted to know more about where the labyrinth came from?\"\n\n\"If I'm going to explore it, I should know,\" Leo agreed, though he sounded a little distracted and hadn't looked away from the storms. \"It feels a little weird to my labyrinth senses. I might be able to figure out why if I know more about Karmia.\""}
{"text": "”I see. Either way, I am still interested at some point in the future when he has matured more into his powers,” the Wyrmgod said as he turned to leave. ”Before, I was unsure if he would even be open to the suggestion, but now that he’s opened that door himself, my doubt has lessened significantly.”\n\nThe Wyrmgod disappeared as Viliastromoz shook his head. Jake indeed didn’t know the impact of what he had done. No, not the achievement itself or anything related to it. It was the mere fact he had even agreed to the ritual in the first place.\n\nBefore this, he had only ever done rituals for himself. Even if it ended up benefitting some factions, he hadn’t been asked by them to do it. This time, he had effectively done a commission using his abilities as the Harbinger of Primeval Origins. He had shown the multiverse that was even a possibility he considered, which also communicated he could use the ability purposefully, with its limitations perhaps not as severe as first hinted at.\n\nIn summary, Jake had sent a message to all the major factions of the multiverse despite not knowing he had done so. Or maybe Jake did and the Viper had underestimated his Chosen and the hunter’s ability to understand the multiverse’s political landscape.\n\nJake had naturally not thought about this at all. He had just seen a really interesting and cool ritual and agreed to do it, never considering the wider implications of his actions. But was that really his fault? It was just everyone else reading too much into things and making them way more complicated than they had to be.\n\nStill standing in the ritual chamber, he waited patiently as the newly born Cerulean Demon Lord regained his bearings. Jake could understand why it would take a while. He probably had a lot of system notifications to deal with, so Jake also took the chance to check out those he had gotten himself.\n\nFirstly, there was an interesting one, as he wasn’t sure he had ever gotten an ”experience gained” message that looked like that before.\n\nYou have successfully conducted a ritual leading to the creation of a Cerulean Demon Lord – A new kind of creation has been made. Bonus experience earned\n\nHe had other notifications that talked about rituals, but not in this fashion. It was mainly the conducting part… probably because this was Jake’s first group ritual where he had been in charge. Something he had feared would hurt his experience gain, but seeing the next few messages, that didn’t appear to be the case.\n\n’DING!’ Profession: [Heretic-Chosen Alchemist of the Malefic Viper] has reached level 263 - Stat points allocated, +35 Free Points\n\n…\n\n’DING!’ Profession: [Heretic-Chosen Alchemist of the Malefic Viper] has reached level 267 - Stat points allocated, +35 Free Points\n\nFive whole levels for a ritual that only took a couple of hours. That was damn efficient leveling, if Jake said so himself, and it put him even closer to level 300, which was the next milestone he really looked forward to, as that would mean meeting the First Sage directly.\n\nHe had naturally also gained a few race levels with the profession ones.\n\n’DING!’ Race: [Human (C)] has reached level 276 - Stat points allocated, +45 Free Points\n\n…\n\n’DING!’ Race: [Human (C)] has reached level 278 - Stat points allocated, +45 Free Points\n\nAll in all, it had been quite a fruitful endeavor, and even if he had to spend a bit of his special Jake Juice, it was such a tiny amount that the levels he had just gained nearly made up for it. He almost wanted to see if he could do another ritual sometime soon, but he also got the feeling that wouldn’t be smart. Not like it would reward even close to the same amount of levels, due to the uniqueness of this one. He also wasn’t sure where to find ten legendary Demon Lord Hearts.\n\n”My lord?” one of the demon ritualists asked after a while. The Demon Prince took a moment to respond as he opened his eyes again and rolled his shoulders. Rather than respond to the demon, he looked at Jake instead.\n\n”My apologies. There are a lot of things to take in, and the metaphysical representation of the Cerulean Devil still remains within my Soulspace. It will take a while to fully absorb but with the contract in place…” the demon said as he looked deep in thought.\n\n”I would reckon you got a pretty smooth ride for the next evolution or two,” Jake shrugged with a smile. He would be like Jake and Sylphie in that he didn’t have things like race quests but would just be able to evolve as long as his class allowed it.\n\n”That is likely,” the newly-born Demon Lord agreed as he volunteered some information. ”My racial skills have mostly all changed, but my class remains the same. One thing is clear, though: I am a fully-fledged Demon Lord now. With all the perks and downsides, there comes with that.”\n\n”Is that a good or a bad thing?” Jake questioned.\n\nThe Demon Prince just smiled. ”Think of Demon Lords as being to demons what a True Royal is to an ectognamorph, albeit in an admittedly far less extreme fashion. It’s viewed as a higher race of sorts, though it does also come with a certain set of expectations.”\n\n”So, it’s overall good, got it,” Jake nodded.\n\n”Good indeed,” the Demon Prince shook his head with a smile as he looked at Jake seriously. ”You have given me a boon I have no idea how to ever make up for. No, not just me; the entire Fourth Hell owes you. It may be late to ask, but what does the Chosen desire? I realize we failed to ever discuss payment for your work.”\n\n”Hm,” Jake said, having totally not forgotten he should probably get paid. ”How about this… you owe me one.”\n\nJake truly didn’t need anything. However, a favor could hold a lot of value in the future, especially if the Cerulean Demon Lord rose to power as one would expect of him. One had to remember he was in third place on the Era Leaderboards, and that was before his evolution. Now, Jake didn’t doubt he would have done even better, though it was doubtful he would have beaten Ell’Hakan, much less Jake.\n\n”Owing you is but a given,” the Demon Lord shook his head as he considered for a moment before taking out an odd emblem of sorts. When he did so, Jake saw the alarm on the faces of the ritualists, but none of them said anything. ”For now, take this.”\n\n”What is it?” Jake questioned before he accepted it.\n\n”The crest of my clan. With it, you will be treated like an honored guest in at least the first four Hells. Moreover, if you ever find anything you desire from us, feel free to use it and contact us, and I swear on my Path that I shall do my utmost to assist you,” the Cerulean Demon Lord explained.\n\n”I see,” Jake said as he chose to accept the crest as he got an idea. ”I may not find a need myself, but if I have a comrade who can benefit, would I be allowed to give it to them instead?”\n\n”What you use it for will be to your sole discretion,” the Demon Lord just said. ”I am well aware that chances are we have nothing to offer that the Chosen of the Malefic Viper cannot obtain himself, outside of particular things unique to the Hells or items that could only benefit demons.”\n\n”In that case, I may just find a use for it,” Jake nodded. Yeah, chances are, he was just going to hand it off to Irin or something. As the Demon Prince had said, Jake didn’t really need anything they could offer, and even the unique alchemical ingredients the demons had a monopoly on, he could still just buy as part of the Order if push came to shove.\n\n”Anyway, it was a pleasure doing this ritual with you all, even if things didn’t exactly go to plan,” ~Nоvеl𝕚ght~ Jake said after they exchanged a few more pleasantries. ”Good job, everyone. I told you we would make history.”\n\nIt seemed as if it was only when Jake said this that the ten demon ritualists who had assisted with the ritual truly realized what they had been a part of. Only now did they realize they had indeed been part of a ritual that may have been entirely one-of-a-kind and would truly go down in the history of the multiverse. It was no understatement to say that the Cerulean Demon Lord was not the only one who had their entire future changed on this day."}
{"text": "Julius stalked toward these two, letting his aura reach out to them. He enjoyed seeing the nervous expressions on their faces when they observed their attacks not working. They tried to hold off his aura, but he knew how hard that could be.\n\nIt had taken him several months to get a decent grasp of his ruinous aura; he doubted they would be able to adapt to it in the matter of a few minutes. The effects were just that destructive.\n\nThey actually decided to use the best strategy, in his opinion. They huddled their auras together to try and limit his aura’s influence. While it somewhat worked, it was only so effective. Not to mention that they were practically conceding defeat and weren’t allowed to use any of their aura techniques or even their senses because it was tucked so closely to their bodies.\n\nJulius felt a huge coalescence of ice mana gather in the air and tilted his head interestedly as a mountain of ice sped toward him. They were trying to get some distance from him and delay him as much as possible.\n\nUnfortunately for them, Julius didn’t care.\n\nHe slammed his foot forward as he met this incoming mountain of ice head-on. The bones in his foot cracked, not from the mountain of ice, but from the immense load of kinetic energy he sent through his leg.\n\nAn enormous shockwave rippled across the plains as Julius and the ice mountain clashed.\n\nJulius won that clash.\n\nThe ice mountain was carved in half as his kinetic energy absolutely destroyed it. A ten-foot scar was left in the devastation's wake. His opponents froze in absolute terror when they saw the overwhelming power on display.\n\nHe healed his foot and charged forward, between the gap he had forcibly created. The archer reacted in time, taking out a shortsword from his storage ring, swinging it at Julius’s head. Their reaction speed must have been pretty fast if they were able to act in time.\n\nJulius was still faster, though. The shortsword tried to cut him from shoulder to hip, but he stepped in close, snatching the archer’s wrist and squeezing tightly. The bone snapped like a twig, and the scream that echoed out was like music to his ears.\n\nThe mage tried to attack him from behind, but Julius was close enough that his aura was able to influence the mage’s skills, and the spear that shot at him was already weakened by the time it fully formed.\n\nHe didn’t even turn around as he slapped his hand backwards, smashing the ice spear into fine mist.\n\nThe archer tried to use some kind of spatial skill, but Julius already had his aura clamped down on him. The ruinous aura was eating away at his mana workings and disrupting the attempt. Julius knew better than most how much concentration a spatial skill took to use.\n\nThe archer tried to blast him with sheer mana that had been infused with his Death Concept, but Julius’s Phoenix Concept was already there to block it. The life side of his concept was the antithesis to this Death Concept, and it felt like a dingy breeze brushed over his face.\n\nJulius stared coldly at the archer and continued to squeeze the archer’s broken wrist. They wailed at the pain, and Julius used that broken wrist as a handle, slamming them into the dirt. They were surprisingly durable, and they only got a few cracked ribs.\n\nSeeing that he could go even harder, Julius didn’t hold back. He picked them up again and started to bash them into the ground without mercy. He broke every rib in their body, felt their spine shatter in several places, and their face peeled open like a rotten tomato as a dozen broken teeth fell out of their mouth when they whimpered.\n\nThe mage had tried to attack Julius again, but instead of preventing them from creating any more spears, he decided to use the archer’s body as a shield. Then waved his opponent in front of the spears and was splashed in blood as the sharpened spears pierced the archer.\n\nThe archer was sobbing at this point and begging Julius to stop, his words incoherent with the loss of his teeth. It was only when Julius felt the archer had experienced enough punishment that he grabbed the archer by the throat, staring deep into his terror-stricken eyes.\n\nHe ignored the mage’s spears slamming into the barrier he created.\n\n“It’s a shame that you and your friends can’t actually die here,” he said softly to the guy. The memory of what he felt in their aura still made him grimace in disgust. Julius couldn’t help but wonder how many people this group of guys had tormented over the years.\n\nThey clearly knew each other; their comfort level amongst all of them spoke volumes about their relationship. What Julius couldn’t help but question was how they managed to find each other so quickly.\n\nHe sent his senses throughout the archer’s body. His aura made sure to cause as much damage while he did so. When he did, he found something. It was attached to a small ring on the guy’s finger. It was faint, but he could sense a slight connection between this ring and the other three members of their little group.\n\n“I see,” he muttered quietly as he cut off the archer’s finger, ignoring the pained scream. Julius lifted the severed finger and tried to take the ring, but frowned when he was unable to do so. It was like his fingers slipped away each time he reached for it.\n\nJulius then tried to do the same with the guy’s storage ring, but, once again, he found himself unable to take it.\n\nWas this some kind of feature of the rift? Or was it an enchantment placed on both items? He hadn’t tried to remove another person’s ring as of yet, but he would have to test this out in the future.\n\nAs a matter of fact, there was someone else he could test it on. He snatched the archer by the face and threw them at the mage, who was in the process of channeling some kind of spell.\n\nThe archer’s body slammed into the ice wall the mage created instinctively, and the archer turned into red mist as it exploded upon impact.\n\nThen Julius turned his attention to the terrified mage and grinned at him.\n\nThe mage started to back away, gathering a lot of mana around him. Julius didn’t particularly care about that, though. It didn’t matter how much mana the guy had or used; it wouldn’t change a thing.\n\nIt certainly wouldn’t save him from his fate.\n\nWith a little burst from his kinetic energy, he sent himself flying forward. The mage deployed a field of ice in front of him with the hopes it would stall Julius for some time. Julius didn’t really give it much care.\n\nHe dodged the razor-sharp icicles and blasted himself over the larger pieces of ice. The only thing that warranted some caution was the pervasive cold nature of the ice and the Ice Concepts he felt from the mage.\n\nThis coldness leeched into his bones; it even managed to worm its way into his mana and aura. His fire affinity helped deal with the cold that tried to freeze his flesh. All it required was a quick activation of fire mana, warming himself up. It was similar to the cold environments of the Northern Regions, so it wasn’t anything new or surprising to him.\n\nThe cold effect it had on his aura and mana was something to be careful of. It wasn’t as extreme as some of the similar techniques he had faced in the past. In those cases, the cold had been very intense.\n\nHowever, this coldness was more like an annoying mosquito that never went away. It was a constant annoyance that fed on his mana and aura. There must have been some sort of trick to it because he wasn’t able to get it to stop despite his aura’s destructive nature.\n\nWhile it wasn’t anything to honestly worry about, it was something he wanted to figure out how it worked. If this mage was able to do it, then he was sure he would eventually come across another enemy or person who could do something similar.\n\nSo as he charged in, he paid special care to how the ice interacted with everything around it. He observed how it interacted with the surrounding environment, how it affected the mage’s own mana and aura.\n\nHe eventually came to a conclusion. This coldness almost felt everlasting and inevitable, as if there was nothing anyone could do to stop it. It was eternal."}
{"text": "Having confirmed the result, he took out the real thing. The unique item hummed with power as Casper knew he was in possession of something even peak-level factions would go far to acquire. A real dungeon core.\n\n[Intermediate Dungeon Core (Unique)] – A Dungeon Core offered directly by the system due to Earth’s performance during the Treasure Hunt event. This Dungeon Core is of the intermediate level and can support monster spawning up to low-tier C-grade. Must have a suitable environment to activate and spawn the dungeon. Requirements: Soulbound\n\nAfter looking at it for a while longer, he went to the prepared cavern. Several guards were in place, and when they saw him, they knew. Priscilla was notified and sent a communication to Casper asking if he was ready. He confirmed as he entered the cavern and made everyone else leave the area.\n\nHe would need silence and focus to implement the core and create a true Dungeon. Casper sat in the middle of the cavern and took out the core, and the moment he got the go-ahead to initiate, he began infusing his Magiscript. The entire cavern responded as the process started. Beneath him, another ritual was also going on as hundreds of D-grades fed a ritual that supported him and the cavern with energy, all led by Priscilla herself.\n\nCasper had begun preparing this cavern the very day the city was founded. He had worked on the scripts, directed thousands of workers to assist him, and out of everyone in the city, if not the world, he had been the one to use the most resources on such a singular goal. Casper had even been trained by an S-grade Archlich specializing in Magiscript and dungeon-making. Heck… he even had pointers and was blessed by a Primordial to do this job.\n\nThere was no room for failure.\n\nDays passed as Casper was in a constant state of focus. The walls were slowly filled with scripts as the cavern expanded. Space was distorted, and a week in, only Casper and the area a few meters around him remained stable. On the outside, the cavern was about two hundred meters in diameter, but in there, it had expanded to tens of times that. Anyone trying to go inside would also swiftly find themselves rebuffed as a barrier had been made by the dungeon core itself.\n\nCasper had lost count of the number of potions he had consumed and even time itself. Lyra’s encouraging words helped keep him awake and keep track of everything as she fed him energy through their connection. His body had difficulty enduring the process, but Lyra began defending him and healing his wounds.\n\nTwo weeks passed. Three weeks. A month.\n\nCasper was haggard, but he knew he was nearly done. The script was perfect. He had only found a few minor flaws to perfect. He had worked with this kind of thing before… he was a damn talented computer scientist before the system, and now he did not doubt he was a damn proficient user of Magiscript.\n\nDay thirty-three, it happened. The core was fully stabilized, and suddenly Casper’s vision shifted as he felt himself overseeing an entire space. He felt like he was a god in control of his own world but quickly pulled himself back to reality to not lose himself as he disconnected from the core.\n\nWhen he opened his eyes again, he found himself with his legs crossed in front of the entrance to the cavern, a white mist-like barrier blocking the way inside. He broke out in smiles as Priscilla arrived behind him.\n\n“Did you…?”\n\nCasper just grinned. “Damn straight, I did.”\n\nHe went to stand up but found himself stumbling. His mind was still in a daze as he focused on all the notifications he had gotten, them being the last thing he saw before he passed out from pure exhaustion.\n\n*’DING!’ Profession: [Blight-Touched Dungeon Architect] has reached level 172 - Stat points allocated, +8 Free Points*\n\n*’DING!’ Profession: [Blight-Touched Dungeon Architect] has reached level 173 - Stat points allocated, +8 Free Points*\n\n…\n\n*’DING!’ Profession: [Blight-Touched Dungeon Architect] has reached level 189 - Stat points allocated, +8 Free Points*\n\n*’DING!’ Race: [Risen Human (D)] has reached level 154 - Stat points allocated, +21 Free Points*\n\n…\n\n*’DING!’ Race: [Risen Human (D)] has reached level 162 - Stat points allocated, +21 Free Points*\n\nTitle acquired: [Progenitor Dungeon Master]\n\nTitle earned: [Progenitor Dungeon Master] – A master of reality itself, you have created your own little world. For doing so while still in D-grade and within three years of the integration of your universe, you have shown yourself to be a true Progenitor Dungeon Master. Increases your ability to create dungeons and manipulate self-created world spaces. +25 all stats, +10% all stats.\n\n471 chapter - Jungle Hunting\n\nEach step bent space as Jake ran through the landscape. It had already been a day or so since he left Paradise, with nothing especially interesting happening so far. A few mediocre D-grade areas had been explored, but nothing worth hunting.\n\nHe checked his map and saw he was approaching a new area marked as a danger zone. This particular area was exactly the kind of environment Jake loved to hunt in. It was a vast swath of greenery with tall trees dominating the horizon and dense foliage covering the ground, making it impossible to see far. It was not a forest but something even more filled with nature mana: a jungle.\n\nWhile some areas of the forest Haven was placed in the outskirts of could qualify as jungle-like, this place was on another level. Jake checked the intel from Renato and even double-checked with what Peter had given him as both had mentioned this place as it was both a danger zone and a very popular hunting spot.\n\nReading the intel, it seemed like a great spot. In the very outskirts, a few E-grades could be found, but just a bit in, D-grades began dominating. This was still only talking the outer ten percent as none of the intel mentioned what was further in, just that it was dangerous. Renato’s information did note the risk of C-grades, so that was positive.\n\nThe opponents one could expect ranged from beasts, plants, and a few scarce mentions of elementals, primarily water elementals due to the high humidity. Nature elementals weren’t a thing as far as Jake knew. Nature mana tended to just seep into living things attuned to the affinity instead of coalescing into elementals, creating monster plants or treants and stuff like that.\n\nJake felt satisfied after studying the notes and headed in. It didn’t take him long to notice several beasts and creatures all around him through his sphere. All of them E-grades, hiding either in bushes, in trees, or even below the ground. There was a high level of verticality to the jungle, with plants and trees reaching hundreds of meters into the air, even in the outskirts.\n\nNeedless to say, Jake did not care for these E-grades as he swiftly ran forward. He didn’t cut a path but just dodged through the dense vegetation, taking this opportunity to practice his stealth a bit. He also pulled out the Prima fragment once more and didn’t get any immediate response when he tried to search for the energy signature. Then again, the mana in this area was dense, making it difficult unless he got really close. His newly upgraded tracking skill also didn’t work as, well, it wasn’t like he knew what kinds of tracks Primas left behind. Scanning every track for signs of the Prima signature sounded like a nice way to spend his two weeks before the event accomplishing jack shit.\n\nAbout half an hour later, he finally encountered his first D-grade. It was a ferret-like creature that hid in the underbrush, and while Jake did scan it briefly, he did not engage. In the area ahead, he found dozens of these creatures hidden, making it clear this was their territory.\n\nAs he got further in, the space did begin to open up a bit. Not because there was less nature mana or plant growth, but because of what was happening there. Fights between D-grades didn’t always leave the environment intact and often entire areas were torn apart."}
{"text": "“Indeed. The League of Valne barely tolerates him because they need his might to repel us, but we hope to inflame tensions until we can lure him into a trap.” Lady Shabram flipped some pages of Simon’s files and stopped on a drawing of a woman with silver hair. “The last known Adventurer is a Lorean woman called Alcyone Hyades… but true to her Class, her wanderlust keeps her constantly on the move. She’s been in contact with both Voltobauta, Ser Richard of Lore, the current Paladin suspect, and the Crafter.”\n\n“Ser Richard isn’t the Paladin,” Simon corrected her. Shabram was well-informed, but still fallible. “He’s a decoy for Alphonse, his son.”\n\n“Truly?” Lady Shabram immediately noted the information in a file. “I will keep that in mind. Planting spies around the family has proved exceedingly difficult due to Lore’s dedication to the White Unicorn and the Oracle’s meddling. In any case, Alcyone was last seen visiting the Crafter in Muse two months ago and buying herself an airship to become the world’s first ‘sky pirate’ as part of some bet with Voltobauta.”\n\nSimon scoffed. “A sky pirate? What, she raids airships in midair?”\n\n“Or she plans to, at least.” Shabram chuckled. “Unfortunately, that’s when we lost track of her. Her current whereabouts, if she is even still alive, are currently unknown, but reports put her at around level 75.”\n\nSo, out of Simon’s league, even if he managed to find her. He wasn’t sure if it would be worth the effort anyway, considering he already had an exp-boosting Perk from the Adventurer’s Vassal Class anyway. “What of the Crafter?”\n\n“The last holder of the Class was Carlo of Muse, the country’s chief artificer,” Lady Shabram said, hesitation breaking through her voice. “However, the man hasn’t left his Mechanical Tower in over forty years and interacts with the republic only through a few carefully selected apprentices and constructs, so I cannot confirm if he is still alive or if somebody else secretly replaced him.”\n\n“Truly?” Such a gap in intelligence surprised Simon, especially considering his father’s knowledge. “Have we found no way inside the tower?”\n\n“We’ve tried, but everyone who approaches the tower too close without permission ends up shot at with a magical weapon by a mysterious sniper. Even Rogue-type Vassal Classes have failed to break inside.”\n\nOh.\n\nOh, that explained some of Balzam Magnos’ deaths, then…\n\n“The only people allowed inside the tower are the Crafter’s apprentices, and those go through an incredibly difficult selection process,” Shabram added. “Our attempts to infiltrate or bribe our way into that group have proved fruitless so far, and His Late Majesty told us not to bother. His plan was to crash an airship into the tower’s base during an invasion of Muse, watch it collapse, recover the Crafter Crestone from the debris, and then salt the earth behind us.”\n\n“A rather radical solution to the sniper problem,” Simon replied dryly, with Shabram smiling back at him in response. “Which leaves the Oracle and the Beast.”\n\nLady Shabram’s smile faded away. “The Oracle of Illusea has been her eponymous Crestone’s wielder since before the Doom. She is confirmed to be one of the few individuals in history with a level 100 Class, and Your Majesty’s predecessors have managed to compile or infer many of her abilities over the ages, but all attempts to even infiltrate the elven empire have been met with immediate failure due to her foresight. As for the Beast Crestone, we suspect it to be hidden somewhere in Telluria. We have compiled a list of tribes whose chieftains could provide us with intel about its whereabouts and thoroughly investigate all rumors, but nothing specific yet.”\n\nSimon pondered that information. The Beast was the ancestor of all ‘monstrous’ and shapeshifting Classes. Mr. Adrissant even mentioned that it might have contributed to the rise of the Shifter Tribes in ancient times.\n\nDo Vouivre and Casval know about its location? They showed no hint of it in previous reigns, but they had been plotting against the empire for years, and Simon still had no clear idea how they could shapeshift into humans in the first place. Could that power be connected to the Beast Class?\n\nHe had so many leads to pursue, and thankfully plenty of time left to do so.\n\n“My sincere apologies for these gaps in information, Your Majesty,” Lady Shabram said demurely. “I would have hoped to greet you with complete reports on all the Noble Class wielders.”\n\n“Don’t sell yourself too short. You already gave me more than I expected.” Compiling so much intel on high-level people capable of escaping the Overlord’s grasp must have taken immense efforts and decades of investigation. “This intel will not be wasted.”\n\n“I live to serve.”\n\nDid she? Even now, Lady Shabram refused to tell Simon why she served the Overlord unless he openly took the throne. He was pretty sure she was loyal to the position, having consistently served him in the last two reigns, but he could tell she was keeping cards close to her chest.\n\nOh well. So long as she remained loyal, he could give her leeway.\n\n“You would be wise to leave the castle a few days before the elven spell’s deadline,” Simon warned her. He had no intention of letting Antonine de Shax recover her Crestone from Frightwall’s ashes. “Even if all goes to plan, I cannot confirm the attack’s failure until the date has passed.”\n\n“Your Majesty need not worry,” she promised him. “I assure you that I will correct this elven conspiracy oversight. They will have nowhere to run or hide.”\n\n* * *\n\nAfter that final meeting with Shabram, Simon departed on a nondescript train to Telluria in secret.\n\nHe spent the trip coaxing the secrets of Crestone creation out of Lorimor. The man’s knowledge was limited to the Scholar, since the Stone Muse only showed him that Class’ schematics in telepathic visions, but he helped Simon understand the underlying theory. As Lauriane told him in the previous reign, it was mostly a matter of finding manaliths of sufficient purity and then inscribing specific magical scripts onto them. The process itself was painstakingly precise and had to be done by hand.\n\nAll in all, Simon was certain he could craft Vassal Crestones himself, given time, should he obtain the necessary materials and schematics. Hopefully the Stone Muse would have more of the latter to provide, and he knew who else could supply him with pure enough manaliths.\n\nOnce they arrived in Telluria, Simon immediately went to visit Duchar and Cassandra before explaining to them the situation. Obviously, the old wizard couldn’t contain his curiosity when told of the Stone Muse.\n\n“An archfiend-possessed dryad lurks in Magvolia?” Duchar’s eyes gleamed with immense interest. “And Your Majesty wishes to bind her with the Seasonal Key ritual?”\n\n“I sense your interest, but little surprise,” Simon noted. He had expected a bit more disbelief from his part when he showed up at his door with plans for a dark ritual right after communicating with him through the Brand of Sloth for a mere few days.\n\n“Your honorable father would always show up at my doorstep with new projects or rare artifacts, so I have come to expect the unexpected,” Duchar replied with a shrug. “I assume this ritual was something he planned to do before his demise and entrusted you with, Your Majesty?”\n\n“Yes, indeed,” Simon lied, going along with his assumptions. “Certainly a wizard of your caliber wouldn’t miss out on this opportunity. Moreover, I have gained powerful Overlord Perks that people like you and your daughter could help me refine, such as the ability to bind souls into miasma gemstones.”\n\n“I do not doubt Your Majesty’s generosity, but the Seasonal Key ritual will take an entire year to complete…” Duchar hesitated, torn between his hunger for knowledge and domesticity. “We would have to leave Telluria behind, including the archive and my laboratory…”"}
{"text": "The projection just smirked before it disappeared, and Miyamoto saw the look of abject horror in the eyes of the slave holding the disc. Yet, despite this fear, the D-grade slave tried to tackle Miyamoto as the entire room lit up, and the sound of dozens of gunshots sounded out at once.\n\nUnfortunate but not unexpected.\n\nDrawing his blade, the area all around the Sword Saint was filled with slashes, as the many bullets flying for him were cut in two, and infusing his sword with energy, he created a defensive zone around him. The explosions came just then, but a bubble of water met it, the concept of time draining the powers of the magic circles rapidly.\n\nA few seconds later, the excitement died down as the Sword Saint began walking forward, leaving the beastkin slave behind, not a single injury on their body. Another barrage of shots came just then, but he teleported forward, avoiding them all as the bullets instead hit the walls, making them explode.\n\nThe room he had been teleported to had only a single exit – unless he wanted to make his own- at the far end of a spacious hallway. This exit quickly opened as the Sword Saint saw a whole squad of C-grades rush in, the bearkin who had brought him there among them. Out of everyone, she certainly looked the most nervous and like she didn’t want to be there.\n\nGood, she will do if it comes down to me needing a guide.\n\nBehind him, the gunmen who had been hiding also came out to surround him in the hallway leading to the exit, trapping him between the two groups. There were a few hundred C-grades at least, only a few of them mid-tier C-grade, with most low-tiers. A fight would simply be a needless endeavor. Bloodshed that would benefit no one.\n\n”I know the Third King, as he calls himself, is listening, so allow me to offer a warning. I have come to kill the Prima Guardian, and I will not leave before that is done. I genuinely wish to do this under peaceful circumstances without unnecessary bloodshed, but should you continually impede my goal, know that forcing my hand will only give victory to the other Kings,” Miyamoto spoke, looking at all the clearly nervous C-grades confronting him.\n\nA few moments of silence followed as the Sword Saint addressed the C-grades directly as he didn’t want to stand there wasting any more time or allowing them to prepare some other useless method to try and deal with him. ”Even if your leader does not allow you to stand down, do not throw away your lives meaninglessly. From this moment onwards, I shall retaliate against any attacks. Please, I implore you, do not end your own Paths out of misguided loyalty toward someone not caring enough about your lives to have a proper conversation with me… and Third King, do not let those loyal to you die for nothing. Prove my words wrong and that these loyal comrades of yours are not mere expendables.”\n\nWith those words, he began walking forward with steady steps, not holding back his aura at all while holding his sword in hand. With each step, the tension rose, but no one made the first move. As Miyamoto got closer to the group blocking the exit to the underground chamber, they slowly parted, allowing the Sword Saint to continue.\n\nDespite the enemies on all sides, he was calm as could be on the inside, not showing a single hint outwardly either. When he reached the end of the hallway, something finally happened. But it wasn’t someone attacking. A figure, flanked by two others, walked down the stairs leading out of the underground chamber, and Miyamoto recognized him as the same person who had been projected before, though with a far more conflicted look on his face now.\n\n”Finally, we meet in person,” Miyamoto said as he nodded in greeting. ”It gladdens me to see a leader who knows loyalty goes both ways.”\n\nThe beastfolk man, who looked like he had descended from a lion or tiger, clenched his claw-filled fist as he clearly wasn’t comfortable with the situation he had been put in, but at least he understood his own circumstances.\n\n”I… apologize for the rude welcome…” he said, nodding back.\n\n”I do not believe unfortunate circumstances and misunderstanding from a first meeting shall dictate an entire relationship,” the Sword Saint said in response. ”Let us define what our shared future shall be from this moment forward and put the past to rest.”\n\nThe Third King nodded slowly as the Sword Saint smiled, sheathing his blade once more, having not drawn a single drop of blood yet that day.\n\n976 chapter - Setting People Straight\n\nA singular demonstration was all it took to turn himself into a figure of authority above any others. Miyamoto learned quickly that this planet wasn’t actually struggling much with the regular Primas, at least not when it came to defending their major cities.\n\nThe primary reason for this was the general lack of focus there had been on hunting down regular Primas before the Myriad Paths event, which was in part caused by their culture. As a civilization of purely beastfolk, they viewed hunting down beasts very differently to the more fully humanoid races such as elves, humans, or dwarves, making them generally just leave other beasts alone unless attacked. In fact, it was far more normal to work together with beasts and live side by side with them.\n\nIt was much like how humans in the multiverse tended to prefer fighting things that didn’t look human at all. Perhaps it was something instinctive or born of Records that one had an innate dislike of killing those of one’s own race, and it was clearly also present with these beastkin, directed toward beasts resembling themselves and their ancestors.\n\nOf course, one couldn’t ignore the massive war going on among the four factions on the planet that were established shortly after the Tutorial, making the powerful focus on other things. One faction had been far more dominant in the early days, but during the time a World Leader had to be elected, the Second to Fourth King grouped up to take down the first one after colluding to vote the Fourth King as the World Leader.\n\nWith the First King dead and territory to claim, the war just became a threeway, and so had it been ever since then, with no one working together or agreeing on much… until one day, a swordsman descended from the skies.\n\nAfter the Sword Saint convinced the Third King to talk, he sought out the other two Kings. He strategically chose a battlefield where the two of them used to fight but were now dealing with Primas. In view of scouts from both these factions – and the ones who had come with him from the third faction – the Sword Saint slaughtered thirteen Primas within a minute, alongside more than a thousand beasts. In Miyamoto’s view, these were some of the weakest Primas he had seen, but his actions got the job enough and helped him move his strategy forward.\n\nThat display of power was enough for him to create the current situation that was now playing out as the Sword Saint stood before three Beastkin Kings and some of the most influential people from their factions… speaking to them like the ignorant children they had been acting as.\n\n”The World Congress was established as a mechanism to force a planet to come together. It was a way to meet in a neutral space with no violence allowed, to talk out differences and unite, with this system event proving as the final test of the enlightened on a planet,” the Sword Saint explained as he paced back and forth in front of the three kings.\n\n”However, this event is only the beginning. Tell me, do the three of you have an inkling as to what is happening in the rest of the galaxy?” Miyamoto asked the three, and from their lack of response, they clearly didn’t. ”It’s something that’s also happening everywhere else across the universe, but this galaxy perhaps has it the worst. A war is going on far beyond the scope of your little conflict. Massive factions are fighting. Factions with power far beyond what this planet can handle. Factions that are more than interested in claiming a world, seemingly ripe for the taking because its leaders care more about fighting amongst themselves than addressing external threats.”"}
{"text": "“Upstairs,” Frea replied, “the Dungeon’s miasma crystal and the Overlord will both be hiding in the sanctum.”\n\nSo that Perk can only destroy my Dungeon if the crystal is within reach, Simon gathered. Good to know.\n\nThe thought of teleporting away to warn the world of the Overlord’s presence in the Darkwood didn’t seem to have crossed their minds. Simon had Duchar add anti-teleportation wards across the Dungeon on top of the defenses afforded by his own Lord of the Castle Perk, teleportation gems should have failed outright anyway. Frea might have been able to flee, but that would mean abandoning the Paladin and the princess to their doom.\n\nBut then again, why would they run? They had torn through half of Simon’s minions so far. They could credibly finish the job and rescue their remaining ally.\n\nI’ve kept the best for last, at least, Simon thought before giving orders to his remaining followers. “Gregory, switch to alchemical fire. Duchar, Hector, here’s a rundown of the spells I’ve seen the elf cast so far…”\n\nSimon proceeded to share all the information he had gathered with his allies as Frea and Alphonse climbed up the stairs. They landed in an art gallery whose Pictomancer paintings actually contained sealed plant monsters, but Frea simply burned them to ashes with a fireball. Alphonse then spotted spike traps hidden beneath the floor, which they skillfully avoided.\n\nSimon was starting to wonder if exhausting her mana was truly the best solution. Frea had only been forced to recharge after casting multiple Tier 7 and down spells in a row. If she had another manalith…\n\nMost spellcasters suffer from a bad match-up against close-combat fighting or rogue Class types, and the wounds Frea suffered against Ulmos was proof of it, Simon thought as he analyzed the past fights. She’s frail without Tiella covering her.\n\nSimon could land a fatal blow if he teleported close to her. His S-rank strength and Warmonger Perk meant a strike to the vitals would either kill the elf or at least incapacitate her. The issue was that she would likely use her telekinetic pulse to repel him if she proved faster on the draw. He had to make her hesitate somehow, to give himself a second of doubt where she would fight her own instincts…\n\nSimon’s jaw clenched. He had a plan in mind, one that might mean certain victory at the cost of spitting on a friend’s grave.\n\nIt’s either that or she will kill us all, Simon thought as Frea and Alphonse reached the next ambush point. I can only use it once, so I will need the right opportunity.\n\nThe intruders reached the next and probably final ambush point—since Simon lacked any other significant forces to throw at them past this point: a great hall which had once served as an auditorium for singers and theater troops to entertain the Muse and her followers with operas. Hundreds of cushioned chairs faced a tall stage illuminated by ghostly candelabras. Two balconies on each side of the room oversaw the area from the second floor.\n\nAlphonse and Frea walked onto the stage and froze upon seeing elven wraiths seemingly appearing in each seat in the audience. However, while they were indeed genuine ghosts among the audience, most were illusions conjured by Duchar from atop the right balcony.\n\nMoreover, the whole thing was a setup to distract them from the threat lurking among the stage’s rafters: Hector himself. The Executioner immediately fell upon Frea while she was seemingly distracted, axe raised for a decapitation strike.\n\n“Above!” Alphonse shouted, his speed and reflexes proving troublesome. He pushed Frea out of the way in the nick of time and parried Hector’s axe with his sword. The stage cracked beneath their feet from the impact, but the Paladin held strong.\n\nDuchar immediately commanded the ghosts in the audience to rise from their seats and swarm the stage, while Gregory and Grimm appeared on the other balcony. The juggler gargoyle began to throw flasks filled with alchemical liquid at the elf.\n\nFrea repelled both the ghosts and early projectiles with her telekinetic spell, sending the flasks shattering across the room. The liquid inside caught fire when exposed to air, setting the carpet and curtains ablaze; a minor inconvenience to Simon’s allies, who were all equipped with Rings of Cursed Flame or naturally immune to the element.\n\nWhat surprised Simon was that Frea leaped towards the audience rather than keep the telekinetic shield up when Gregory continued to pelt her with projectiles. She instead stayed on the move and struck the balcony with a Gigagust spell, destroying it and forcing Greggory to take flight.\n\nEither she can’t use her telekinetic repel spell consecutively, or it taxes her mana reserves a great deal, Simon guessed. Sensing his moment approaching, he began to cast buffs like Dark Saber and Energumen on himself. “Duchar, debuff Alphonse. Gregory, Grimm, keep harassing the mage and don’t give her any breathing room. Keep pressing her until I can exploit an opening.”\n\n“I’m running out of incendiary projectiles, Lord Belias,” Gregory warned him. “I won’t be able to hold her off for long.”\n\nTrue, the Juggler Class’ weakness was that it had no ability to produce enhanced items by itself besides normal balls. Gregory relied on bombs and slimes produced by allied crafters to make the most use of his Class, and his bags would soon become empty. He flew around the hall, avoiding Frea’s ice spikes and retaliating with his own alchemical fire flasks. Flames began to consume half the seats.\n\nHector and Alphonse were locked in battle on the stage. The duel reminded Simon of his own clash with Alphonse in Valne, where the Paladin used his superior speed and offense to pressure a stronger but slower foe. Unfortunately, while Hector was faster and mightier than Simon had been in Valne, he lacked the spells that allowed him to blind and stun Alphonse. The Paladin deftly avoided all his blows and countered with smiting strikes that cut radiant swaths across the undead’s body. Duchar was attempting to support his son by weakening Alphonse from afar, but his Paladin abilities appeared to cancel out most of his attempts.\n\n“Where is she, monster?!” Alphonse shouted angrily as he smote Hector, slicing open his Class outfit and spilling his guts all over the floor. This angered the flesh golem, but did not slow him down. “Where did you take my friend?!”\n\n“To the master’s harem,” Grimm lied gleefully. “Her sheath is being introduced to a demon’s claymore, if you know what I mean…”\n\n“A welcome change from the Paladin’s dagger, if you ask me,” Gregory quipped back before grabbing his imp colleague and throwing him at Frea after running out of alchemical flasks. Frea retaliated with a telekinetic pulse that threw Grimm back at Gregory so violently that it knocked the gargoyle out of the air and onto the burning floor.\n\nHere’s my chance, Simon thought as he activated his Lord of the Demon Castle’s teleportation ability. “Fiendmask.”\n\nHe teleported right behind Frea. She turned around in an instant upon sensing him, staff raised. “Nov–”\n\nShe froze upon seeing him clothed in Belzemine’s skin.\n\nSimon had spent so long around her that his Fiendmask mimicked her down to every last minute detail. He had no idea whether the elves knew she had been slain or not, and it didn’t really matter. Frea found herself facing the friend she had failed to save from the Overlord approaching her.\n\nShe hesitated, and that was enough.\n\nSimon’s morning star hit her face before she could trigger her telekinetic defense spell. He bashed her skull with all of his might, tearing her jaw apart and smashing her brain to bloody bits. He ended the elf’s life in a single blow, the last thing she ever saw was her lost friend killing her.\n\nAnd the power. Oh, the sweet rush of power that followed that act of immense cruelty, it was pleasure beyond words!\n\nLevel 40 Overlord Perk: Miasmic Archmage IV (Passi–\n\nA Paladin’s screams of rage interrupted the notification.\n\n“No!” Alphonse shrieked with anger and absolute despair as he abandoned the fight with Hector and leaped off the stage at the disguised Simon, his holy sword raised to strike. “Murderer!”"}
{"text": "Creating the plain [Firebolt] was quick, it was condensing it while also adding kinetic energy that took time. This was why skills were so vital. A skill that did all these things would have been able to simultaneously combine all these separate aspects into a single moment. Whereas, Julius had to do it manually, much more slowly.\n\nAfter a few more dodges, he tried to get as much distance between himself and the troll as he could, sending a lot of mana into his legs to dash behind it. Then he sent the [Firebolt] at the troll's left leg. It managed to hit it dead on the mark and butchered the troll’s entire leg from the knee down.\n\nThe troll, missing its leg, collapsed to the ground. Then Julius, creating another enhanced [Firebolt], jumped toward it. He proceeded to land a kick right on the downed troll’s head, loading it with a large amount of kinetic force.\n\nThe kick snapped the troll's head back but it also managed to bring its arm around and nick Julius with its arm. Although it barely hit him, he was sent flying backward. He miraculously managed to keep his construct intact but his shoulder was definitely broken. [Savage Dance] allowed him to maintain focus, and numbed the pain he should be feeling to a dull throb, but it still hurt.\n\nIf he had been hit directly, there was a chance that he would’ve had his chest crushed. Julius got up and saw that the troll’s leg was healing, but it seemed like healing bone took more time than just flesh. Therefore, it was still on the ground roaring in pain, not even paying attention to Julius anymore.\n\nHis enhanced [Firebolt] was ready and he swiftly sent it at the back of the troll’s skull. The violet-colored attack ruptured an entire third of the monster’s head, creating a massive spray of blood and brains.\n\nTo his horror, the troll was unmoving but he could see attempts to heal its brain, small bits of flesh were connecting via its regeneration skill. Julius promptly charged right where it was lying down\n\nHe started to throw strike after strike at the exposed flesh trying to put down this monster for good. However, no matter what he did, it was continuing to regenerate.\n\nWhatever skill it had, must’ve been a higher rarity. Getting an idea, he continued to hit it and investigated how mana was interacting with this thing’s flesh.\n\nHe was trying to see how its skill worked and if he could maybe replicate some of its abilities. He had [Heal] himself, but there was a large difference between his healing skill and this thing’s. The sheer speed of its regeneration was impressive but its mana efficiency was also incredible.\n\nJulius could have probably killed it with a couple more enhanced [Firebolts] but he didn’t want to give up this opportunity. So he continued to damage it enough so that it wouldn’t gain consciousness but also not too much, where he might kill it.\n\nJulius was very aware of the moral quandary he was committing. If it wasn’t that this monster had just tried to kill him and that it was unconscious throughout the entire time, he would have stopped.\n\nBut if he could learn something from this monster’s skill, he might come out of this rift alive. There were undoubtedly more of these trolls roaming around and who knows what else. There might even be something stronger than this monster around.\n\nAnd so Julius stayed there for a long time, just keeping it in a coma while learning about its skill. After some time, he figured out something. The troll’s skill was much more aggressive than Julius’s own. For his own skill, he concentrated on handling the mana delicately and with gentleness. The troll’s skill was practically the opposite. It was violently twisting and rotating mana in a loop around the injury.\n\nIt was fast and it somehow wasted practically no mana. It was completely wrong according to his earlier thoughts about how life mana worked. But it seemed that Julius still had much to learn about his own mana.\n\nFeeling like he finally understood enough of the technique, Julius put the troll to rest. He unleashed a powerful violet [Firebolt] at the monster’s face and he felt its mana stop pumping into its skill.\n\nThe troll was finally dead… hopefully. He kept an eye on it for a few minutes just to make sure.\n\nOnce he was absolutely convinced, he let out a breath and felt [Savage Dance] deactivate. The skill’s effects started to wear off and he began to feel some of the emotions that were blocked rise up to the surface.\n\nAt first, he felt relief that he survived a fight against an opponent two tiers above him, but then he felt guilt at his actions afterward. At the time, when the skill was running, he was able to rationally understand why it was the correct choice. Despite that, he still felt like he was cruelly experimenting on the creature for a gain of power.\n\nThe skill was undoubtedly one of the strongest skills he currently had. It was able to hone his focus to a razor's edge in a fight, control his body with uncanny precision, allow him to effectively break down his opponent's weaknesses, and exponentially increase his proficiency with his skills when he was in combat. However, it seemed that he became a tad detached from reality and his humanity. It was a double-edged sword and something he was going to have to think twice about in the future.\n\nWith that being said, Julius took a deep calming breath to center himself. He managed to accrue some improvement to his skills during that fight as well.\n\n[Firebolt lvl 3 -> lvl 5]\n\n[Thermal Compression lvl 3 -> lvl 4]\n\n[Savage Dance lvl 1 -> lvl 2]\n\n[Kinetic Release lvl 5 -> lvl 8]\n\n[Firebolt] had increased by two levels, [Savage Dance] by one, and [Kinetic Release] by a surprising three levels. However, these improvements made sense, he was using his skills in challenging ways while in life-threatening scenarios. It was why fighting monsters was the quickest way to advance one’s skills.\n\nA small shift had Julius groaning in pain. There had been so much going on, that he completely forgot about his broken shoulder. [Savage Dance] had been dulling the pain from the injury, but now it was slightly painful. It didn’t hurt that much, it was more like he couldn’t feel his entire arm, and it only hurt when he moved it.\n\nStill, this was a perfect time to try healing it using the methods he learned from the troll’s skill.\n\nChapter 20: His Friends\n\nThe main thing Julius noticed about the difference between his and the troll’s skill, was that his was flat in comparison, as if there was no dimension to it. His was like a line on a piece of paper, while his opponent’s was like an intricate woven rope.\n\nWhen he noticed it, he was surprised that he hadn’t come up with a similar idea. Weaving strands together would be similar to what he does with compressing mana, but doing it in a slightly different way. It was something that he could probably apply to all his mana manipulation uses. Especially, his fire mana and maybe his kinetic mana, but kinetic energy worked a bit differently than fire and life mana, so it was hard to predict.\n\nJulius began to condense several strands of life mana around his shoulder. Then he started to weave them together like he would a braid. Immediately he could feel the strands latching together creating a strong bond and giving off a stronger aura. His [Heal] skill was different from the troll’s skill, in that it tried to infuse his body with mana, gently suffusing each nook and cranny of the injury with life mana. The new method Julius was going to try would be similar to strangling his injury with a rope of life mana. He was going to wrap it around the injury, creating a noose, and tightening it.\n\nIt was much more aggressive than what he expected out of a healing skill, but it definitely worked for the troll, so he was open-minded to trying it. If it didn’t work, then he wouldn’t lose anything but some time and energy."}
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{"text": "Afterward, he also prepped the vegetable medley. He was going to grill them with the fish. There was something that he never expected: cooking with an open fire made by mana could influence the flavor. It was similar to how charcoal imparts a delicious smoky element, but on another level. The best way to describe it was magical. It literally exploded with flavor on his palate.\n\nAs such, it seemed that much of the food made in this world was cooked over an open flame. Julius couldn’t blame them. Even vegetables, depending on the variety, could end up tasting sweet, spicy, or citrusy just from the mana flame.\n\nJulius removed the fish from the marinade and placed it on the grill, alongside the vegetables. The fish hit the fire with a satisfying sizzle. The smell of citrus and chilies emanated from the fire, making his mouth water.\n\nJulius smiled. These moments reminded him of simpler days. Days when he and his gramps would be camping out in the middle of the wilderness, catching fish and grilling them on an open campfire. He missed those moments, and as time passed, he cherished them more.\n\n***\n\nJulius was lying in bed, just playing around with his mana. He learned that mana manipulation was like a muscle in many ways. Only by constantly using and stressing it could it become stronger. It also required a lot of creativity to find entertaining ways to practice; otherwise, it would be too boring to repeat the same exercises over and over.\n\nRight now, Julius was trying to replicate one of Edwin’s tricks. Edwin had managed to wrap his mana around several objects at one time and then simultaneously move them in complete synchrony. Edwin didn’t share the particular method he used to do it; he just told Julius to figure it out himself.\n\nWrapping mana around an object was much harder than Edwin made it out to be. Julius's first attempts showed just how much finesse was required. He couldn’t entirely wrap his mana around the ball he was using as practice; it was like he was trying to grab a wet bar of soap. The harder he tried, the more slippery it became. It was much easier to push the object in one direction or the other, but maintaining absolute control over its movements was another challenge entirely.\n\nJulius didn’t think he could create such a delicate shell of mana around the ball as Edwin managed, but he thought he could brute force it. If Edwin’s was like a layer of skin, his would be like an inflated sumo wrestler suit. It worked, kind of. Julius at least managed to control a single object with pure mana, but it was clunky and wasteful, and there was no way he could control more than one object with it. Therefore, the first thing he was going to practice was reducing how much mana he used to control an object. This is why he was holding the ball in the air above him, while slowly taking away layer by layer of mana until there was only a delicate shell like Edwin’s, or the shaping failed, and he dropped it.\n\nJulius still hadn’t told Edwin about removing his [Mana Manipulation] skill. He was too scared of what Edwin might do to him if he found out. But it also became even more motivation for him to practice his mana. Every day without fail, he would spend several hours finding creative ways to use mana while also still not wasting a single speck of it.\n\nJulius knew what kind of results challenging himself could have. Whenever he could, he was shaping mana into something. Even when he was getting beaten down by Edwin in the yard, he tried to maintain some mana.\n\nDue to his efforts, his ability to shape mana was coming along nicely. He could feel that his control was even beyond the level of when he had been using the skill. Also, with being able to accumulate mana now, Julius got a little greedier and controlled larger amounts at a time. This made it more difficult and wasteful, but it also increased his rate of improvement. To Julius, his success proved his hypothesis that [Mana Manipulation] was a crutch and that he was better off not learning it. He didn't know if that was true or not, but he was improving, and that was all he really cared about.\n\nChapter 10: Tier 1\n\nThe day had finally arrived. Julius had spent countless hours accumulating as much mana as he could into himself. It was honestly the only slightly boring part of his training. There wasn’t much variety he could do with it. He could try different methods of gathering mana, but most were less efficient than his usual technique. It didn’t make sense to constantly try new techniques if they took more than twice as long to absorb the same amount.\n\nJulius did try to find ways to further compress his mana before he made his core. He didn’t figure anything out, even after months of extensive testing and experimenting. He believed that liquid was the only state he would reach unless he wanted to spend another few years or decades trying to see if it was possible.\n\nAt this point, liquid mana filled the entire space. He believed he could’ve done it yesterday, but he wanted to see if he could pack in any more beforehand and go at it with a fresh mind.\n\nEdwin had already shared the steps he was supposed to take to form his core with him. The most important thing was the intent. Julius needed to imagine all the mana merging with his body and soul. Right now, it was a mass of mana that was stored separately. What he wanted was for the mana to become a part of him, so that he could generate mana of his own.\n\nJulius was used to compressing the mana already inside him. The only difference now is that he needed to do the same to the shell surrounding the mana. The barrier that kept the mana contained needed to become smaller. Julius’s main concern was that he had already compressed the mana until he couldn’t anymore, so he didn’t know what was going to happen. Logic says that since he was compressing what held the mana, it would compress the mana inside of it as well.\n\nDespite that, Julius had a feeling that wasn’t how it worked. The mana inside of him wasn’t actually contained within a physical barrier; it was just the easiest way that he was able to comprehend it. Who knows, there might be an interesting result after he creates his core.\n\nRegardless, Julius sat down and began the process. He envisioned the barrier around his mana shrinking. He wanted it to change into a sphere. It was the natural shape of celestial objects like planets, moons, and stars. It was also easier to mentally envision.\n\nFor what seemed to be forever, Julius concentrated on compressing it into a smaller shape. He didn’t make any progress, no matter how hard he tried. Maybe, compressing the mana itself beforehand wasn’t a good idea, he thought to himself. Too late now, what’s done is done. He didn’t have the time or the focus to be worrying about what he should’ve done. He just needed to focus on the task at hand.\n\nEven with his improved mana manipulation, he couldn’t generate enough force for it to compact together. Realizing that he was just wasting energy, he took a step back and thought about what he could do differently.\n\nFor a long time, Julius just sat there, contemplating his options. Then he remembered Edwin saying intent was the most crucial aspect, so maybe his intent, or rather, his mental image of the process, was wrong.\n\nThere was something he had to change. There wasn’t enough force from the outside to compress it. That was the main issue.\n\nWait, outside. There isn’t enough force from the outside, but what about the inside?\n\nJulius was wondering whether he could use the same vortex method. He used a vortex to bring mana inside of him, but if he used it again, there would be nowhere for the mana to go. He didn’t want to remove the mana; he just wanted to compress it. So that idea was out.\n\nBut maybe he was onto something. He needed an internal force that simultaneously pulled the barrier into itself while smashing it from the outside to make it denser. The first thing that popped into his head was how gravity pulled various gases and particles into a star."}
{"text": "The trolls weren’t exactly the smartest of opponents. When they saw their companion’s faces getting pierced by an explosive needle, they continued making their way up with no sign of hesitation. It was easy, almost too easy.\n\nJulius had not seen any of the troll leaders yet and only the regular trolls had been climbing. Even at the base of the mountain, he couldn’t detect any stronger trolls or their supposed chieftain. It worried Julius, but at the same time, he had to focus on dealing with the trolls climbing up and trying to eat him.\n\nSome time passed, and Julius was still laying down fire on incoming the trolls. He had taken down around several dozen but they were still coming and he still hadn’t seen any signs of the others.\n\nSuddenly, he felt movement above him and then a mass of earth mana behind his back. He reacted instinctually and quickly rolled out of the way. Right after he moved, he saw a pillar of stone jut out from directly where he was just a second ago. If he hadn’t been fast enough, he would have been knocked off the cliff and fallen over a hundred feet down back to the floor.\n\nAt least he found his answer to where the other trolls had gone. It seemed like they had gone some other way and blocked off his route further up the mountain. It was his mistake to assume that they would not know their way around the mountains.\n\nThere were over twenty of them standing at the nearest flat ledge, most of them leaders. At the front was a unique troll, it was a little bit taller than the others but instead of a soft red aura, there was a dense bloody aura surrounding it that suffocated Julius even from down here. Yet, what surprised Julius was the troll chief’s slimness. It was quite sleek around the shoulders and looked a lot more athletic than the other trolls.\n\nHonestly, that made the troll seem much more dangerous. The other trolls were like beefed-up roid junkies, with too much muscle to move around quickly. This one reminded him of a nine-foot-tall Lebron James. He was quite confident that this was their chieftain\n\nHe was so concentrated on the troll chieftain, that he had almost overlooked the other trolls. In the back of the group, he could barely sense a smaller troll holding a staff of some kind. Julius would have completely missed this troll if not for the dense waves of mana emanating from the creature. It was like the mana itself was interfering with the atmosphere. He could safely say that he had found his mage.\n\nIt had only taken a second for Julius to observe the new group and immediately realize that he was trapped on the side of the mountain. The way back down was blocked by several dozen trolls and above him was a group entirely composed of elite trolls. Not to mention, he was stuck on the side of a mountain with an earth mage. Julius loved his luck.\n\nIf that wasn’t bad enough, the trolls above began to grab large random stones and started to chuck them over the edge right at Julius. He was still firing needles at the trolls that were climbing up, so he had to decide what to focus on.\n\nA particularly large rock sped toward him faster than the others and smashed next to his feet several feet away, leaving a crater in its wake. He didn’t have much time left.\n\nSo Julius did the only thing that he could think of. He began creating a bomb.\n\nNot worrying about the trolls climbing up anymore, Julius stopped shooting needles and hid beneath a small shelf, protecting himself from the raining rocks. Several spikes of stone shot out of the cliff randomly in Julius’s general location, luckily it seemed like the mage needed some sort of line of sight for his earth magic.\n\nThen he focused on gathering almost the rest of the fire mana he had in his core into a dense orb. Then he fed it his kinetic mana, which was still halfway full, into the core of the orb. He could feel the other mage doing something weird with its mana, it was trying to disrupt Julius’s mana control by sending out short bursts of its mana. Julius had no idea how it was doing it but it was like trying to build a piece of Ikea furniture while a cat was running away with all the screws. It was very frustrating.\n\nHowever, thanks to his highly-ranked skills and sheer will, he was able to fend off the mage’s interference and managed to form the first part of the construct. He barely had any fire mana left, only enough for a small construct or two. But he did have enough kinetic mana left in his core.\n\nJulius hadn’t been planning to use this technique again, for fear of it killing him by accident, but he didn’t have another option.\n\nGently, he began on the second part of the construct. He stopped filling the core of the orb with kinetic energy and started to infuse the fire itself with kinetic energy. He could still feel the other mage’s attempts at disrupting what he was doing, but Julius was so in the zone that he barely felt the interference.\n\nThe kinetic energy and fire mana were synergizing, creating a much hotter flame. He could feel the heat coming off the orb rapidly increasing as the color started to change into a gorgeous blue. It had become so hot that the heat was searing off his skin even though it was several feet away. He could feel it melting away, burning off his flesh. He didn’t have [Firebolt] to contain the energy this time. Only [Arcane Construct] was helping it not explode in his face. He loved his new skill, but the rigid structure of his old skill would have been greatly appreciated at the moment.\n\nOnce, he had put a third of his kinetic mana into it the orb was done. However, Julius could feel the construct trying to rip away from his control. It was swiftly unraveling and was about to blow up in his face.\n\nNo longer thinking, just acting on pure instinct, Julius blasted kinetic energy through his legs and jumped off the cliff into the open air. Then as he was falling he fired the pulsing blue orb at the ledge of the chieftain was standing on.\n\nJulius saw the mage panic and try to put up some sort of defensive measure. But the orb still slammed into the mountain and detonated with an enormous blast. The light from the explosion blinded Julius and the resulting shockwave shattered his eardrums, blowing him even further away from the mountainside.\n\nDiscombobulated and disoriented, Julius was rapidly tumbling through the air and toward the ground at a ridiculous speed. He was frantically trying to absorb as much kinetic energy from his fall as he could, but it wasn’t going to be enough. So using the last of his fire mana and some of the kinetic energy he absorbed he created a construct with his feet. It was hard to tell which way was up and what way was down as he was spinning head over tail, but by some miracle, he was able to release the payload before he hit the ground. The counteracting explosion had just enough force to blow him upward and it slowed him down before he fell back to the surface with a hard crash.\n\nJulius broke both of his legs, but he lived, and [Pseudo-Phoenix Renewal] was already working on his legs. He had managed to blow himself a lot further away from the mountain than he originally thought. However, he was glad because the result of him shooting that orb at the mountain had resulted in a landslide of epic proportions.\n\nThe entire ground was rumbling as thousands and thousands of tons of rock fell away from the mountain. The entire side of the mountain was getting swept down. Boulders the size of cars were toppling down and collapsing on top of the trolls beneath it.\n\nHe had no idea what became of the troll chief or the mage, the dust from the catastrophe was making it hard to see through and [Spatial Perception] couldn’t pick up anything from that far away. However, he wouldn’t be surprised if many trolls survived the landslide, nothing short of being completely crushed would kill them.\n\nIronically, it seemed like the gods had heard his wishes because as he thought it, the very top of the mountain, whose support had eroded by the landslide, collapsed. The entire peak of the mountain tipped over and dropped directly on the rubble where the trolls had been buried.\n\nHuh… that might work.\n\nChapter 34: New Skill"}
{"text": "Chapter 45: The Stone Muse (5)\n\nSimon tried out the Templar Class the moment Lauriane gave him its Crestone.\n\nSimon felt uneasy the moment he put the outfit on. The enmity between the Paladin and the Overlord had apparently partly transferred to the former’s Vassal in spite of its lack of sentience. Putting on the Templar armor felt like putting on a mantle of needles. It itched all over as the mana coalesced into a gilded plate armor bearing the emblem of the sun on its chest.\n\nIt closely resembled the Paladin one, even including a pavise shield and sword, but heavier, bulkier, and thicker. Its cylindrical helmet had a slit for a visor, and a crimson cloak fluttering from his shoulders. In short, where the Paladin had been surprisingly fast and agile, this Class was definitely designed for slow, steady defense and intimidating strength.\n\nQuite like the Overlord, ironically enough.\n\nYou have unlocked the Templar Class.\n\nTemplar: A holy warrior versed in both swordcraft and scriptures, dedicated to serving a divine will and wiping out the Dark.\n\nStrength B, Vitality A, Agility D, Perception C, Magic C, Intelligence D, Charisma B, Luck C.\n\nInnate Perk: Darksense (Passive): You gain a sixth sense to detect the presence of the Dark–like miasma, Dungeons, or demons–nearby.\n\nInnate Perk: Smite Evil (Passive): When using weapons in which you have a proficiency, your attacks against creatures of the Dark, like Undead and Demons, always gain a Slayer Effect (x3 Supereffective Damage).\n\nLevel 1 Perk: Melee Master 1 (passive): Can wield all melee weapons with medium proficiency (x1.5 damage).\n\nSo that’s how Alphonse sensed my presence in Rosanne, Simon thought as he read over the Perks. Thankfully, it seemed to have weaknesses, or else Mastemo’s bodyguards would have immediately noticed the aura of malice around Simon back in Frightwall. I guess being in a wellspring of the Dark shrouds their sight. It must have been like looking through black smoke.\n\n“I must say it looks good on you,” Lauriane complimented him. “How does it feel?”\n\nHorrible. The Overlord in him was urging him to tear the armor apart and paint it black. “I feel… stronger all around.”\n\n“That would be the stat boost. It always does something when you put on a Class for the first time.” Lauriane watched on as Simon cancelled the Class outfit. “I do think a more academically minded Class would suit you better.”\n\n“Like a dark wizard Class?” Simon mused as a question suddenly crossed his mind. “Come to think of it, why did nobody else try to make an original Dark-aligned Class? Surely the Overlord can’t be the only one, and they wouldn’t be limited by the lack of blueprints.”\n\n“We’ve tried, but encountered two insurmountable issues.” Lauriane gazed at the Templar Crestone in her brother’s hand. “First of all, the lack of a prototype. We can create Vassal Classes because we can base our designs on the original Noble Crestones, but only elven archmages know how to create those in the first place, and none of them have managed to shape a new one in many centuries. No new archetype has yet to emerge, though that will probably change one day.”\n\n“And the second issue?”\n\n“The lack of a proper conduit makes it impractical,” Lauriane replied. “Creating a new theoretical Dark-aligned Crestone would require a miasma crystal, and those are extremely rare. They only coalesce in Dungeons or from the corpses of extremely dangerous entities like archdemons, liches, or ancient vampires… and even then I have yet to see any with the degree of purity required to carve a Crestone out of them.”\n\n“How did Mardok create the Overlord Class then?”\n\nLauriane smiled at him. “That’s the mystery since the Overlord Class doesn’t even have a Crestone as far as we can tell. I suspect he found a way to turn the Crimson Throne into an alternate conduit between the Overlord archetype and its user, but this still doesn’t explain how or why it doesn’t require physical contact.”\n\nInteresting. All Zodiac Fiends appeared to be sealed in potent miasma crystals. Could Mardok have created the Overlord Crestone from his own Serpent-Bearer crystal? But if he did, it would have surely been found by now.\n\n“What about the Crimson Throne?” Simon asked. “Maybe it contains a miasma Crestone.”\n\n“Father ordered us to dissect it a few years back, but we failed to open it up,” Lauriane admitted. “The Crimson Throne is both immune to divination and completely indestructible as far as we can tell. It is a mystery wrapped in an enigma. I don’t think even Father fully understood how it worked.”\n\nSimon had the feeling Balzam Magnos had spent many reigns trying to figure that out, only to run out of time. All paths to the Crimson Throne’s secrets led back to Elios Magnos, and convincing the lich to cooperate would be a difficult proposition.\n\n“I have arranged for carriages to transport you to the town of Whispermire and a shipment of manaliths for Firewand’s use, as you asked,” Lauriane said. “It is where Lorimor was arrested, if I recall.”\n\n“Yes indeed, and his wife and child still live there.” Simon doubted they would be happy to see him again, but they should provide key intel. “I figured it would be a good place to start the investigation, especially since it’s right next to the Darkwood.”\n\n“A wise and sensible approach.” Lauriane stared at him fondly. “You have grown into a fine and mature young man, Simon. I keep forgetting that sometimes.”\n\n“I had a good sister to show me the way.” Simon clutched the Templar Crestone. “Thank you, Lauriane. Your help means the world to me.”\n\n“I wish I could have helped more. The situation between Euphemia and Louis has us on edge.” Lauriane’s smile faded away. “Do not hesitate to retreat here or to call on us for reinforcements if you find anything too dangerous in the Darkwood. My door will always be open to you.”\n\nAnd Simon loved her for that.\n\n* * *\n\nAfter they departed the facility the group took the train to an army relay station and then boarded the carriages taking them to Whispermire. Simon ended up sharing one with Cassandra and Belzemine, which suited him just fine. He wanted to clarify a few things with the former before they reached their destination.\n\n“My apologies for what happened at the Goetia Research Center,” Simon told her. “I didn’t mean to embarrass you. It was a spur-of-the-moment improvisation.”\n\n“Was His Majesty actually courting me?” Cassandra’s head perked up with curiosity. “I have never been courted by living people before, so I cannot tell.”\n\nWhy did she have to specify ‘living’ people of all things? “I was simply improvising to keep my sister off our backs.”\n\n“Oh, so that wasn’t serious.”\n\nSimon couldn’t exactly tell whether she was offended or relieved. The girl was so calm and unexpressive that he could hardly get a read on her. “For what it is worth, I do find you charming and attractive,” he replied, trying to make sure she wouldn’t be offended. “I am sincerely sorry for the deception. We’ll have to keep it up should Lauriane visit us, but I’ll make it up to you and Duchar for the inconvenience.”\n\n“My father does not care about such things.” Cassandra studied Simon for a moment before asking, “Does Your Majesty want to have sex with me then?”\n\nShe said that so calmly, so casually, that it took Simon a moment to register her words. “What?”\n\n“I asked if Your Majesty wants to have sex with me,” Cassandra replied flatly, completely ignoring the fact that Belzemine was sharing a ride with them.\n\n“What, like right now?!” Simon blinked in shock. Is she serious?\n\n“Yes.” Now she sounded almost confused. “Is that not how courtship works?”\n\nSimon suddenly realized that having a back-alley necromancer like Duchar for a father might not have been all that good for socialization. “There are a few intermediate steps before that one, like dates and kisses.” Or a drunken game with Anna. “Sex is usually how courtship ends.”\n\n“Yes, that would make sense.” Cassandra nodded in understanding. “Must we go through those steps for your sister’s sake?”\n\n“You don’t sound as opposed to the idea as I would have expected you to,” Simon noted, slightly taken aback by her reaction."}
{"text": "“I was wondering if you could answer some clarifying questions regarding this place. Mostly on how the Architect will evaluate my creations,” Jake asked politely.\n\n“Most certainly,” she nodded. “What do you wish to know?”\n\nJake decided to start with the first question on his mind. “Am I able to submit items I created outside of here for evaluation? Say, if I had made some kind of weapon in the past I believe the Architect will find impressive?”\n\n“Unfortunately, the Architect only cares about what is created within their house,” the attendant said as she shook her house. “As the Architect often says, what truly matters isn’t only the final Creation but the method by which it was created. Every Creation is a journey that is documented by the building, and the creation process will also serve as part of the evaluation.”\n\n“I see,” Jake nodded. “What if I make alterations to a current Creations and submit that? Would that be a possibility?”\n\n“Yes, but only the alterations will be evaluated, not the full Creation,” the attendant clarified. “The Architect cares much for the journey, and having missed part of it will inevitably lead to a worsened evaluation, so unless the Creation and the alterations are truly impressive, getting a high evaluation will be difficult.”\n\nThe author's content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.\n\nThat was a bit of a bummer if Jake had to be honest. He would have loved to show off Eternal Hunger and even Eternal Shadow of the Primal Hunter, as you could submit even skills as creations. Oh, and also Moment of the Primal Hunter… but maybe that was too similar to Eternal Shadow, as they both had the Primal Hunter tag? Actually, he should ask about that.\n\n“When it is said that similar creations are penalized, what exactly does it mean?” Jake question. “Let’s say I submit two bottles, where one is a ★ 𝐍𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 ★ mana potion, and the other is a poison that destroys mana. Will they be viewed as similar?”\n\n“Uniqueness comes in two forms. One is the Creation itself, and the other is the method by which it was created. To truly achieve great diversity in Creations provided, there should be a difference in both of these aspects, but either will count and be looked favorably upon. In your example, both the poison and potion have many similarities in their crafting process, but the Creations themselves do vary somewhat. Overall, I believe the Architect would view there to be acceptable, if still a bit low, diversity between such two Creations. I also have to point out that the Architect appreciates improvements as part of the journey, so simply making Creations you are fully familiar with will not gain bonus points for improvement to your crafting process during the final evaluation, but do not let it push you too far away from making what you are comfortable with. The quality of the final Creation and the complexity and skill required for the crafting process is still imperative to the evaluation,” the attendant gave a pretty in-depth answer. Way more so than Jake had expected.\n\nJake thought for a bit, and while making entirely new stuff he wasn’t familiar with would give him some bonus points for improving, he ultimately decided it was best to at least stick with things he was familiar with for the most part. Deciding that now was a great time to become a super plant cultivator was definitely not the play. But he still had some questions about the diversity part.\n\n“What about if I create a weapon using transmutation and a powerful poison? Both use alchemy, but different schools of alchemy?” Jake tried to probe more.\n\n“I cannot comment on specific examples, but I would guess that transmutation and concocting poisons have more differences than concocting poisons and brewing potions. However, I cannot comment on a specific case without knowing all the details. Also, I would warn that the nature of what is transmuted shall matter much. If you transmute something crafted by others, their Records will also be part of the final Creation, worsening your evaluation. Of course, this can be made up for with a wonderfully executed transmutation, and considering a better-crafted product by another will lead to a better final Creation and a higher skill requirement to successfully transmute, you may still consider doing it.”\n\nOkay, that made sense, and once more, the answer was quite informative. It was definitely a breath of fresh air to have a Challenge Dungeon that didn’t purposefully try to obscure information. Jake did have some more questions, but for now, he decided to ask just one.\n\n“Final question. Will I get to keep any Creations I make when I leave here again?” Jake asked.\n\n“Sadly, that is not for me to answer. Only the Architect can decide such things,” the attendant shook her head. “But the intangible Creations can never be taken away from you. No skill can be taken, no enlightenment can be taken back, and no improvements gained will be lost.”\n\nHe pretty much got a non-answer. Jake was already pretty damn sure the system would not outright take a skill from him, much less wipe his memory of the Challenge Dungeon and what he had achieved. That would make the entire place meaningless.\n\nNow, if only he could also get experience in the Challenge Dungeon, he would be golden. He just had to figure out if he could… so…\n\n“Actually, final, final question. Can I get experience points here?” Jake asked as he grabbed back the attention of the attendant, who was turning away to continue wiping down the already pristine statue.\n\n“You can most certainly gain experience,” the attendant answered. Jake got the feeling she didn’t really answer, though.\n\n“So I can level up?”\n\n“You can level up your creative process and abilities as a creator for sure.”\n\n“So... that’s a no,” Jake muttered to himself. Why in the living hell did these Challenge Dungeons not give any experience? He also hadn’t gained a single level in Minaga’s Labyrinth, even if he did kill a few gatekeepers. Not that many, mind you, but it never said he got any experience when they died. Sure, that could have been because they were just summons bound to the barriers and that this one would give some, but alas, it wasn’t gonna be that way.\n\nHaving gotten all the answers he needed for now, Jake decided to do something he rarely did as he sat down and began to formulate a plan for the Challenge Dungeon. He couldn’t just rush through this and do everything purely based on his instincts this time around, but he had to actually use some brain power.\n\nFrom what Jake had gathered, three things were important when it came to Jake’s Creations. The first of which was naturally the requirement for there to be diversity. The second one was the complexity and difficulty of the crafting process. Finally was the quality – likely expressed through rarity – of the final Creation.\n\nThinking about it, 10 Creations was kind of a lot, especially if you shouldn’t submit similar things. Unsure exactly what he planned to do, Jake sat down and decided to write out a list of ten things he could make. However, he quickly ran into some problems as he tried to keep things relatively diverse, ending up with a list that, while it was useful, couldn’t exactly be called a plan of action.\n\nLooking down at the paper, he sighed as he read over the options he had impromptu come up with.\n\n1. A poison, using either hemotoxins, neurotoxins, or necrotic poison, mixed with soul-based poison and plenty of Blood of the Malefic Viper. Potentially try a mix of all the different toxins for maximum effect.\n\n2. Something transmutation-based.\n\n3. Maybe elixir?\n\n4. Grimoire\n\n5. Use Teachings of the Heretic-Chosen for something?\n\n6. Skill-related thing. Based on magic and mana.\n\n7. Skill-related thing. Based on archery or melee combat and stamina.\n\n8. Origin-related Creation. This may be done during one of the prior Creations.\n\n9. Something weird Bloodline-related?\n\n10. Ritual stuff."}
{"text": "Lily’s father had rented out one of the exclusive rooms at the Golden Wheel for them. Even Aubrey’s mother showed up a little later to join them. It was too bad that Edgar’s family wasn’t able to join them. Julius believed they would have loved it.\n\nDinner was fabulous as it always was at the Golden Wheel. Afterward, they headed back to one of House Violet’s properties. The same one that Marcus, Lily, and he had used to try out the rewards he got from House Easten.\n\nIt was where her parents would be staying for the next day or so before heading back home. They celebrated and hung out throughout the night, enjoying each other’s company. It was nice. Nobody cared about status or power.\n\nThere were Tier 3s and there were even two Tier 6s, yet, nobody seemed to care about this. Everyone was comfortable with each other and it was a day of celebration.\n\nIt wasn’t until the night was nearing its end that he pulled Alice to the side.\n\n“Hey, can I ask you for some advice?” he said to her once they were alone.\n\nAlice was slightly tipsy at this point. Which, honestly, was more impressive than anything else. Being Tier 6 meant your body was pretty resistant to most poisons, and that included alcohol, which meant that whatever she had been drinking must have been quite the potent brew if it could make her drunk.\n\nHowever, when she heard his more serious tone, she must have activated some skill or used something to sober up.\n\n“What did you do this time?” She asked, her eyes narrowing at him.\n\n“Why do you make it sound like I always do something bad?” He asked offendedly.\n\nShe shrugged. “Because you often do.”\n\n“Well, not this time,” he muttered.\n\nShe laughed, clearly amused by his answer. “Okay, so what is it?”\n\nHe shook his head exasperatedly but told her what he had done, detailing how he managed to get a Space Concept and his subsequent upgrades for [Spatial Perception] and [Flash Step]. He also asked her what she believed he should choose regarding all of his options.\n\nWhen he finally finished explaining to her, he saw an expressionless look on her face. He was worried about the look. Did he mess up? Was [Void Step] not a good choice? Maybe [Instantaneous Step] was the best choice after all.\n\nShe remained silent for a long while, long enough to make him feel uncomfortable. “What is it?” He eventually asked, unable to deal with her stoic expression since he wasn’t able to get a single reading from her aura.\n\nShe finally spoke to him, but it wasn’t the response he was expecting from her. “How did you gain your Concept?” She asked.\n\nHe frowned but went on to explain how he was able to tear a hole into space using [Spatial Crack] and how he managed to connect different distortions together. Which resulted in him teleporting successfully for the first time and eventually led to him acquiring the Space Concept.\n\nHe didn’t even get to finish his last sentence before the woman moved with lightning speed, appearing inches away from him and grabbing his face with both of her hands. She manhandled him and turned him around, like she was inspecting him for damage. It was only when she didn’t find anything that she let go.\n\n“What was that for?” He asked, while grabbing his neck, which was sore from her rough treatment.\n\n“You stupid, stupid boy,” she aggressively rebuked him.\n\n“What? What did I do?” He asked, confused by her extreme reaction. She would sometimes scold him, but she would never actually be mad. However, right now, she was truly furious.\n\n“What you did was completely moronic even for you,” she kept on berating him.\n\nHe flung his arms up. “I don’t know what you mean. Can you tell me what I did wrong?”\n\nShe stared at him like he had grown a second head. “You didn’t just teleport. You somehow were able to rip a hole into the fabric of space and create a distortion that led into the chaotic void,” she said slowly, as one might do to a dumb child. To her credit, he had a feeling that this was exactly what she thought he was at the moment.\n\nHe was still confused, though. How was that any different from what she did or what other people who teleported did?\n\nHe said as much to her, but frowned when she shook her head firmly.\n\n“It’s not the same. When I use space magic, I don’t tap into chaotic space. I use a much more stabilized version, one that almost every space mage uses. There isn’t as much volatility, and it is much more structured,” she explained.\n\n“What do you mean by different versions?” He asked even more confused. He thought there was just one kind of space.\n\nShe pinched her nose. “Okay, there are many layers of space. Each one is different, but they can be separated into two distinct types. The first is the structured and safe kind, and then there is the chaotic and bad kind.\"\n\n\"Bad kind?\"\n\nShe sighed. \"Imagine a parent teaching their child to learn how to swim. Normally, they would take them to a shallow pool, which is specially created to be a safe environment. That is structured space. It is safe to learn in and nothing tries to kill you in there while you swim from one end to another. Are you following me?” She asked him.\n\nWhen she saw him nod along, she continued. “Now, imagine taking your kid out into the deep reaches of the ocean where there are Tier 6 monsters lurking just beneath the over ten thousand feet of water and can swallow you in one bite before you know what happened. Now, that is chaotic space. Definitely not somewhere you want to go when you are learning how to swim, and not even when you learn how to later on. It is ridiculously dangerous. The fact that you did and are still alive is a testament to your luck and your stupidity.”\n\n“So basically, I took a dip into shark-infested waters?” He asked with wide eyes.\n\n“No, that would be much safer than what you actually did.”\n\n“Oh.”\n\n“Yeah. Oh,” she said mockinginly.\n\n“So why didn’t you tell me beforehand? You knew I was going to experiment,” he said to her.\n\n“Yes, but that doesn’t mean I expected you to actually be able to rip a hole into the void without a proper skill or training. When you use spatial skills, they almost always use stable space as a medium, not the chaotic void. I expected that if you managed to do something, it would be with the usual stable space, which would be fine.”\n\n“Why is it different for me?” He asked.\n\n“I have no idea. For all we know, it is because you managed to get [Spatial Perception] so early, and that the skill has some kind of connection to the void. Or it could be something totally different. How did you manage to get a skill you used to create the distortion in the first place?”\n\nJulius didn’t hide anything and told Alice how he used his aura skill to rip a hole open with his will. Then he explained how he was offered [Spatial Tear], but since he didn’t have an advanced enough Concept or a general Space Concept, he was offered [Spatial Crack].\n\n“Hmm. That may be the reason,” she mused.\n\n“You think it is because I originally used my aura skill or because my Concept wasn’t advanced enough?” He wanted her opinion.\n\n“It might be a bit of both. Though I assume it has to do more with you using your aura skill to do it. Although it is rare, I have heard people get a downgraded skill if they don’t have a compatible Concept.”\n\n“So is it a good thing?”\n\nShe looked at him funny, as if she couldn’t decide whether to smack him or not.\n\nHe ignored her stare and asked another question. “So do you think I was offered [Void Step] because of what I did in the chaotic space?”\n\nShe sighed. “Yes, when I heard the name, I was almost certain that was the case. Most of the time, void-named skills are offensive in nature. Remember what I said, most spatial skills are almost always connected with stable space?”\n\nHe nodded.\n\n“Well, there are times when someone is offered a void skill. These skills tap into the chaotic void and power their attacks. This doesn’t mean they can travel through it, mind you,” she said with a scolding look at him. “But, it is related.”\n\n“So what? [Void Punch] is much different than [Void Step]?”"}
{"text": "It kind of reminded him of when he was younger at the estate. However, during that time he had been purposefully acting weird and crazy. This wasn’t the same case. He was trying to remain pretty lowkey, but instead of that, he was becoming known as the charity case of the group.\n\nHe tried to think of a silver lining.\n\nAt least people will probably underestimate me, he tried to convince himself of his new fate.\n\nA note from l-Ryn-l\n\nThank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed!\n\nIf you want to read ahead, there are 25 additional chapters on my Patreon!\n\nChapter 182: Tempting Offer\n\nToday was an exciting day. At least for many of the students in his class.\n\nToday was the day that they would finally be able to delve into a dungeon. After many repeated weeks of students fighting monsters and getting used to combat, Professor Rowe was taking them into a Tier 2 Rift.\n\nThis meant a couple of things. One this would be the first exercise where students could actually get hurt. There would no longer be any combat simulation bracelets to mitigate damage. If someone got hurt, it would be for real. With that being said, there would be a number of healers accompanying them for their first rift. Apparently, the first rift was normally the one where students got hurt the most often.\n\nThe second thing was that Julius would be going through the rift with the suppression bracelet on. It might have not been the smartest option, but he believed he would be fine. He had gotten to an acceptable level of strength even with the bracelet on. He was definitely at or above average for the class. Which was quite the achievement considering where he had been over a month ago.\n\nJoshua and James had even offered him a spot on the team they had compiled which was a surprise to him. To the rest of his classmates, Julius was a simple close-combat fighter with nothing that was spectacular about him other than his often desperate fights.\n\nHowever, Joshua seemed to think that Julius would be a good addition to his team, whether that was because they were already friends or because it was partly pity, Julius didn’t know.\n\nThe entire Applied Combat class was standing around the field they normally used. Most students were split into groups of their own, likely with their own teammates as Julius was doing.\n\nApart from himself, Joshua, and James, there were two other people. One of them was someone who was quite well-known within their class. It was the beastkin, Polux.\n\nPolux was widely regarded as one of the stronger students in their class. However, Joshua was also regarded as someone who was at a similar level, so perhaps Polux was interested in fighting alongside someone who knew what they were doing.\n\nThe other person was a girl. He didn’t know her name but she was short and had black hair. She also had fine doll-like features, very pretty in a classical way. Julius reached out subtly with his aura to get a gauge of her. He didn’t touch her aura just in case she had a good sensitivity, it was already considered kind of rude to be doing what he was doing with his aura in the first place and he would rather not offend a future teammate.\n\n“So is this everyone?” Polux asked Joshua with an indifferent look at everyone within the group. However, Julius noticed that the boy’s gaze lingered on Julius a touch longer than the others.\n\nHe seems slightly familiar. Though I can’t quite remember from when.\n\nJoshua turned to Polux with a nod. “Yes, this should be all of us. However, before we start I thought it would be a good idea to introduce ourselves to each other. Not everyone is familiar with one another and knowing what kind of fighter would be helpful before we enter the rift.”\n\nJoshua gave everyone a gauging look, making sure that nobody had any issues with that plan. When he didn’t see anyone arguing against it he smiled. “Perfect. I guess I will go first. My name is Joshua and I am a hybrid fighter. I mainly use a sword but I also know some long-range attacks. I primarily use water but I can also give a small buff to stamina to our team,” he explained to the group.\n\nOh, a team buff might be very handy, Julius thought to himself. He wasn’t the only one, the others all gave acknowledging nods to Joshua as he explained his role.\n\nThe rest of the team introduced themselves afterward. James was a mage who had a fire affinity. He focused on large explosive attacks. But what caught Julius’s attention was that James could also give a burn affliction to his opponents. He didn’t explain it very well, but Julius suspected that it would prove to be a very annoying ability for their enemies.\n\nPolux went next and explained his skillset. His was pretty straightforward. He was a frontline fighter who went headfirst into conflict. He had extraordinary physical abilities and enhanced his abilities mainly with aura, not mana like many typical warriors. Polux mentioned that he could act as a scout of some sort.\n\nWhile he made sure to mention on multiple occasions that he didn’t like the role, he grudgingly admitted that many of his skills made him a good person to hide their aura and find monsters by sensing theirs.\n\nThe girl, who Julius found out was named Nessandra, or Nessa for short. Was a support mage. She wasn’t quite a healer, but she had some light healing capabilities along with some nice buffs she could pile on. She could also remotely activate barriers to help out someone who was in trouble.\n\nShe might be a very valuable person to have on the team, he inwardly thought. While her abilities might not be the flashiest or most powerful, she would be able to cover for the others when they were out of position or were being overwhelmed. The healing skills were just a cherry on top.\n\nFinally, it was his turn. “My name is Julius and I am primarily a close-range fighter. I am pretty good at perception so I can also handle some of the scouting work,” he offered. He didn’t go into detail about his skills for obvious reasons but also shared his better-than-normal perception abilities.\n\nThe reason for this was that he didn’t think that he would be able to completely hide his perception skill from them. It was better to let them know that he had a decent perception skill rather than trying to hide it.\n\nAfter everyone explained their general abilities, Polux started to speak. “I noticed that we don’t really have anyone that specializes in crowd control,” the boy said thoughtfully, his wolf-like ears twitching slightly as he bit his lip.\n\n“No, we don’t really have anyone to do that. James and Nessa can both help on that front, but that’s not their specialty. On top of that, there are not that many people who fit that mold in this class, and the ones who do rejected my offer when I asked them to join,” Joshua said with a frown.\n\nPolux sighed. “I guess we will have to make do. On the bright side, this rift shouldn’t be that difficult considering it's the first rift delve.”\n\nHmm. Crowd control huh? There’s someone who fits that bill. Someone who he had just had an awkward run in just the other day. Julius gave the room a quick look and found who he was searching for quickly.\n\nTia was standing by herself in the corner of the field. It didn’t seem like she had found herself a group. So either she would get automatically grouped together with whoever Professor Rowe decided or would be delving alone.\n\nSolo delving wasn’t the most common choice. Considering that making friends and connections was kind of a huge point for Goldencrest students, most didn’t take this route. The ones who did had to be approved by the professors. The staff weren’t just going to allow an unprepared student to go off alone.\n\nStill, Tia had proven herself to be strong enough to care for herself, she would most likely be given permission to solo delve as long as she had a supervisor with her at all times.\n\nHowever, Julius had a better idea.\n\nNot saying anything to the others, he left their huddled group and headed off toward where he had sensed her. He heard Joshua’s voice calling out to him as he walked away, but Julius ignored him."}
{"text": "It wasn’t cake, but it was something at least.\n\nThey all went over to the couch and collapsed into the soft cushions. He moaned at the softness of the sofa, feeling it envelop his body like a warm hug. He looked at the couch greedily. He wondered if they would mind if he stole the couch before he left.\n\nHe was interrupted in his relaxation when Aubrey’s feet whacked him in the chest. He pushed them away. “Get those smelly things out of here.”\n\n“They aren’t smelly,” she said defensively.\n\n“Oh yeah? When’s the last time you took a shower?” He pointed out.\n\n“I took a bath, remember,” she said with a proud smile.\n\nHe lifted a finger and put it down. She was right, she had taken a bath. He didn’t know if that counted, but it was technically accurate.\n\nShe wiggled them in his face, and before he could snap at them like he was Seraphyne, the door opened.\n\n“Oh, that was quick—” Julius said, trailing off as he looked over at the door. His mouth stayed open when he saw who was there.\n\nHer gorgeous white hair was as it had always been. However, just like he had noticed the other time he had seen her, there was something different about her. He couldn’t put his finger on what that exactly was, though.\n\nRegardless, he didn’t know what to do, so he just waved awkwardly at Reinera.\n\n“Hey,” he said lamely and offered the food in his hand to her. “You want to join us for some snacks?”\n\nHer face, which had her usual princess look on it, shook by the smallest of margins. However, that was all it took for it to come crumbling down. The bright smile he had come to know slowly appeared on her face, and she walked over to him. To his surprise, she actually took his food and bit into it.\n\nHe stood there in shock. He hadn’t actually thought she would accept his offer. He also wanted to eat that, and somewhat regretted offering it to her. He had forgotten that she was as much a glutton as Drasil.\n\nWhen she passed it back to him, all that was left was a small nibble, not even enough for him to have one full bite.\n\n“I see your appetite hasn’t changed,” he commented.\n\n“You are the one who offered it to me,” she said with a light smile, and looked over at where the others were looking at their interaction.\n\n“Hey,” she said with a shy wave.\n\nAubrey was the first to come over and wrap Reinera in a tight hug, dragging her over to the couch and having her sit down next to them all.\n\n“I was wondering if we would get to see you. Has your family been keeping you away from us?” Aubrey asked.\n\nReinera folded her hands in her lap and shook her head. “No, they actually support my relationship with you guys. Even my more stubborn family members don’t have many objections. It doesn’t hurt that you all have quite impressive backgrounds.”\n\n“Me?” Julius and Edgar asked at the same time.\n\nReinera laughed. “Yes, even you two. With how close you are with Lily, Aubrey, and Derek, people have already grouped you with them.”\n\n“Oh,” Edgar said with a thoughtful expression on his face.\n\n“Wait a minute, why are you here?” Julius asked, finally realizing that her appearance was odd.\n\n“I heard there was something wrong with the second stage. Then I heard that Anna was questioning you, so I came down here to see what was going on.”\n\n“Were you the one who asked Anna to leave?” Derek asked.\n\nReinera wore a smug smile. “Maybe.”\n\n“So what now?” Julius asked, amused, shaking his head.\n\n“Well, technically, I am supposed to get some answers, but we can catch up a little bit before we get into the serious stuff,” she said with a smile. “So how have you guys been? It feels like forever since I have seen you guys.”\n\n“Oh, you know, the usual. We almost got killed a few times and whatnot, so pretty typical,” Aubrey said with a shrug.\n\n“What?” Reinera asked with raised eyebrows.\n\n“Yeah, but I blame Julius. I think fate wants him dead or something, and we are just along for the ride.”\n\n“That isn’t true,” Julius said with a roll of his eyes.\n\n“Oh yeah? Then what about the Endless Forest?”\n\n“They weren’t even after me,” he pointed out.\n\nShe was about to argue, but realized that it was true and backed down. “Okay, fair. But you have to admit that you are a magnet for trouble.”\n\nHe couldn’t even say anything against that either. It was true.\n\nReinera looked confused but interrupted their little back-and-forth. “Okay, can you guys tell me what happened? I wouldn’t normally rush you guys, but it seems that the monster you guys were attacked by wasn’t the only incident in the realm.”\n\n“What other problems were there?”\n\n“The array that maintains the realm is damaged. This means that we won’t be able to use the realm like normal for at least a couple of years, depending on the extent of the damage. We are still evaluating how bad it is,” she explained.\n\n“What is so bad about that? Doesn’t that just mean you won’t be able to use the realm for the tournament and such?” Julius asked with a frown.\n\n“Not only that, but there are some unique features and benefits we receive from the realm. Without access, we will be hindered for the next couple of years. Whoever did this has been planning this for a long time. They managed to infiltrate our defenses and sneak their way in,” Reinera added.\n\n“And what? You guys think it's the Conclave?” He asked.\n\n“Maybe, but we think some other countries or organizations are involved as well.”\n\n“That sucks,” he said while biting his lower lip. The Conclave was already a big pain. He really didn’t want to deal with even more interested parties.\n\nSpeaking of the Conclave, he still hadn’t heard from Edwin yet. He had been supposed to contact House Violet or House Zenith, but there hasn’t been any word as of yet. Julius was worried something might have happened.\n\n“No offense, but I don’t know how much of a help I will be. I fought the chimera, but honestly, I don’t have much valuable information. And to be honest, I don’t really want to leave your family with a memory of the fight. I really don’t need them having all of that sensitive information,” he said to her.\n\nShe waved his concerns away. “Don’t worry about that. You shouldn’t have to divulge any information about your skills. I will make sure that you don’t have to. But can you tell me about what the monster was like at the very least? Like what kind of skills it used and the overall strength of it?”\n\nHe didn’t see a problem with that. He wasn’t the only person who saw the chimera, but maybe what he knew might help them figure out who was behind all of this, and so he told her mostly everything.\n\nWhen he was finished, she looked at him with a look of disbelief. “You still somehow can surprise me,” she said with a chuckle.\n\n“What?” He asked in confusion.\n\n“A powerful Tier 4 with regenerative capabilities? Sounds like an absolute nightmare to deal with. And you took care of it yourself?”\n\n“Well, Isaac was there,” he added.\n\n“God, I almost forgot how monstrously strong you are,” she said with a grin.\n\n“You’re one to talk. It seems like you have already advanced to Tier 4,” he said to her with a shake of his head.\n\nHer eyes widened. “ You can tell? How did you know?” She asked in surprise.\n\n“I didn’t, but now I do,” he said with a shit eating grin. He hadn’t been a hundred percent certain, but there were too many weird signs from her aura. At first, he was nervous that she was an imposter, but the closer he inspected her aura and body, he realized that something had changed within her.\n\nSomething powerful and dangerous was brimming just underneath the surface.\n\n“You already advanced to Tier 4?” Aubrey asked in astonishment.\n\nReinera turned and nodded at Aubrey. “Yeah, when I arrived back at the Capital, my family sensed that I was ready to awaken my bloodline and forced me to advance. I wear a shroud that hides it, but as you showed, it doesn’t always work.”\n\n“I wonder if this means you can finally beat me,” Julius said with a challenging grin.\n\nHe saw her eyes shimmer with amusement. “Oh, trust me, I got very strong. I don’t know if you and all your broken skills can beat me with all the advantages I have now.”\n\nHe tilted his head. “Advantages?”\n\nShe chuckled. “Yeah, my bloodline gave me quite a powerful boost when I advanced to Tier 4.”"}
{"text": "“Too bad taking secrets to the grave doesn’t work on someone with necromancers on his payroll,” Simon replied. “Recover anything you can. We’ll have Duchar study the remains once Meredith recovers.”\n\n“As you command, Your Majesty.”\n\nSimon cut the communication and then faced his other allies. “We’re done for the day,” he decided, “I need to think.”\n\nThe Malphas’ actions pointed to them being involved with the Illuseans, and their deaths should have brought an end to their plans. With the capital saved from destruction, Endymion’s government could keep up the charade of unity for a few more months.\n\nBut why? Why would the Malphas ally with the empire’s enemy when they owed everything to the imperial institutions? What could motivate them enough that they would rather kill themselves than face capture?\n\nSimon had a bad feeling about all of this.\n\n* * *\n\nHe heard Shabram’s scream in his sleep.\n\nSimon woke up in the middle of the night the same way he had in the previous reign at the exact same hour. He immediately knew what had happened when he sent his spymaster a telepathic call and only received silence in return.\n\nShabram was dead, likely alongside almost everyone inside Castle Frightwall. Purged in holy light.\n\nPatriate Malphas was dead, his daughter was dead, their properties had been raided across the empire and cleaned of anything magical, and yet the attack on Frightwall still happened.\n\n“I don’t understand what’s going on,” Simon muttered as he held his skull with both hands. “If Malphas’ death isn’t what cancels out the attack, then what else–”\n\nThe answer struck him in a flash of lightning.\n\nBelzemine.\n\nThe elves only cancelled the attack when she was still in Castle Frightwall on that date. Either she stopped them somehow, or more likely, they didn’t want to risk killing her in the blast somehow.\n\nHer absence was the trigger.\n\n“Agnes, come to my room,” he asked Belzemine through telepathy. “There’s a question I must ask you.”\n\n“Which one, Your Majesty?”\n\n“Something I should have asked the day we met.” Simon clenched his jaw. “Who are you?”\n\nA note from Maxime J. Durand (Void Herald)\n\nMy Patreon (access to advance chapters, arts and other bonuses)\n\nMy Amazon if you wanna check my other books\n\nMy Discord Server\n\nThanks to my patrons on Patreon:"}
{"text": "The light from the makeshift moon descended on the stag as its antlers shattered completely. However, they didn’t fall to the ground but turned to mist as they rearranged themselves in a pattern in front of the stag - a formation nearly identical to the one Jake had ruined.\n\nPower surged as the formation exploded with mana. A beam of pure light energy flew towards Jake’s battered body as his sense of danger warned him of the lethal attack.\n\nHe could try to dodge, but he didn’t. Instead, he began running towards the attack that would, without a doubt, end his life.\n\nAnd then… it slowed.\n\nFor but a moment, everything seemed to come to a crawl. The beam of light continued onwards, no faster than walking speed. The swaying grass around them now stood almost entirely still. Everything was moving in slow motion.\n\nExcept for Jake.\n\nMoment of the Primal Hunter\n\nHe didn’t think; he simply moved. He ran forward, right towards the stag. He sidestepped the beam of light heading his way, and the millisecond he was out of its path and right in front of the stag, time resumed to normal.\n\nIn real-time, not even half a second had passed. But to Jake, it had easily been five full seconds. More than enough to close the distance.\n\nThe Great White Stag didn’t even understand what had happened. One moment the human was about to get obliterated by the beam, and the next, he was nearly in front of it. It couldn’t see, but could still feel that it had missed. To make things worse, the beam was still firing, the stag unable to stop it.\n\nJake got closer as the circle of magic started fizzling out as the beam disappeared. The moon was gone once more, the stag returning to its dull gray color. It was exhausted. Exhausted and not ready for his attack at all.\n\nHe didn’t stab it. Instead, he grabbed its front leg as he lifted the stag off the ground with a spinning motion. He spun around as he tossed it through the air, right towards the still half-full pond that now resembled a toxic swamp.\n\nIt couldn’t do anything as it fell right in the middle of the concoction of death. It could only bellow towards the silent dimming stars above as it tried to get out of the pond. But it was already too late.\n\nThe once-great stag was too injured to muster enough strength to fight off the toxins. It tried, but when it finally thought it could get out, an arrow hit it right in its midsection, sending it tumbling back into the pond. It kept struggling, but soon its legs gave out as it stopped moving.\n\nSoon after, it was no longer able to hold on as Jake got his notification.\n\n*You have slain [Great White Stag – lvl 93] – Bonus experience earned for killing an enemy above your level. 146000 TP earned*\n\nHaving seen the notification and seeing that he had completed the dungeon, Jake, tired and spent, fell backward unto the grass.\n\nHe couldn’t truly rest quite yet, though.\n\nObjective: Defeat the Great White Stag (Completed)\n\nBonus reward for clearing the dungeon solo.\n\nDungeon shutting down in: 00:59:51\n\nScoffing at the message, he closed his eyes and entered meditation, hoping to restore enough to be able to move about just a bit. No rest for the wicked, I guess, he thought as he kind of hated the system for only giving him an hour this time. At least it was fun.\n\n“Power comes in many forms. A single individual may be able to strike fear into countless others. They may be able to annihilate civilizations. But can they bring life to a new generation? Educate them? Grow in the soil what we need to grow as people? No, they cannot.\n\n“A lone wolf is just that: Alone. We all have our own limits, our own destinies. We cannot all be the protagonists of fate. But we can nurture those who are. None of us here are fighters or those who shall stand against our enemies. We are instead the ones who forge and sharpen their blades, who take care of their children when they fight - the ones who build their homes, their abode to rest.\n\n“There is no shame in this. We are all a part of the greater whole, servants of destiny. A wolf with a pack to support his every move will go further than one who stumbles through the darkness alone. And even if the pack leader of this generation fails, who is to say the next will?\n\n“It saddens me, but we are that lost generation. The ones to pave the way for the heroes of tomorrow. The ones to illuminate the path ahead for our children. We will build the foundation for a better future. We will sacrifice ourselves. But we can do so with pride and with the smile of the Holy Mother upon us.\n\n“We will be a part of a greater destiny. A greater whole. The unsung heroes of fate. And in turn, we will find deliverance and new life within her halls.\n\n“Many of us have already fallen - we are but a scattered pack. Our warriors have fallen, but we still have hope. So hold no fear for with hope, we shall fear nothing.”\n\nJacob finished as he looked out at the fervent flock in front of him. They were the scared and traumatized ones who couldn’t or wouldn’t fight.\n\nHis sermons happened several times every day. He would talk about different topics each day, but they all held the same message. The message that they were stronger together than apart and that there was no shame in serving a greater purpose.\n\nAfter shaking hands and reassuring them once more, he excused himself to his cabin, only followed by Bertram and Joanna. The one man and woman who didn’t hold a fervent gaze.\n\n“Do you honestly believe all that stuff?” Bertram asked when they were finally alone.\n\n“What matters most is that they do,” Jacob answered with a relaxed smile. “Hope is good. Even in a hopeless situation.”\n\n“False hope is not,” Bertram answered. “Are you still sure that skill is actually accurate?”\n\n“The divination was quite clear. Far more so than I expected it to be,” Jacob answered with a sigh. Something he didn’t disclose was just how weird it was for it to be so precise. Fate was not so easily peered into, yet his very first vision had been so clear… because it truly was already written.\n\nOnly hours after getting his new class, he had used the skill Divination of the Augur. He had expected vague imagery, but what he had seen was indisputable. A tornado of metal would enter the base to shred everything and anyone in its way. Those that ran would surely still be struck down.\n\nIt wasn’t hard to interpret. But the next part was what was more challenging to interpret fully.\n\nIt showed the people in prayer, each holding a candle. One by one, their lights would die, and they too would fall to the ground - their lights, joining together. In the end, only two would stand. They would meet the tornado outside, and they would greet it.\n\nOne a winged man, the other a golden warrior.\n\nThe winged man would soar towards the sky, surrounded by the motes of light from the candles. The golden warrior would fall to the tornado yet join the man in his ascension. The tornado would find no lives to take but only meet an empty camp.\n\nThat was where the vision ended. Jacob had been confused for a long time, but he had begun to understand. They would not survive the tutorial. At least they would not exit the same as they were. He had tried to divine different paths, but he soon understood… he wasn’t meant to fight fate.\n\nHe was meant to realize it – a realization that alone netted him five levels instantly.\n\nJacob had grown over these few days. Grown far more than he believed possible. As the survivors’ belief grew in him, so did their speed of levels and Jacob’s own. Most of them had only gotten two or three levels in their classes, but he had gotten far more.\n\nThis speech today had pushed him all the way to level 50. It was a truly meteoric rise, and he believed that he was faster than even the most talented of hunters had been.\n\nAs for skills, he had gotten two. The first one was yet another support skill. One he had chosen based on the vision he had seen. He knew it was the one to pick the moment he saw it."}
{"text": "“It would be good against the Demon Lord,” Dina agreed, having been the one to primarily deal with it. “The passive fire aura was quite powerful even for a level 270 Demon Lord, and if the next time we encounter the demon, it is even stronger, then I am not sure I would be able to properly fight it off.”\n\n“Then we will have to simply deal with it ourselves,” the Fallen King said a bit dismissively.\n\nJake kind of agreed. While having Dina help with it was nice, Jake still had his scales, and if he used Arcane Awakening at full power, the passive shield from that, so he should be fine. The King was also good, leaving her only with Sylphie and the Sword Saint, but they could also take care of themselves.\n\n“In either case, can you carry it, Dina?” Jake asked.\n\n“Me?” she asked, a bit taken aback.\n\n“Well, you are the support, and you seem good at judging when to use it,” Jake smiled encouragingly.\n\n“I find it admirable,” the King said, making Jake nod approvingly before he promptly stopped as the King followed up. “I find it admirable that Jake recognizes he would have forgotten about the item’s existence ten seconds after putting it in his spatial storage, so he gave it to someone else.”\n\n“Hey, that ain’t fair,” Jake fought back.\n\n“There… there was that compass on the twenty-fourth floor…” Dina muttered.\n\n“Ree!” Sylphie valiantly came to Jake’s defense.\n\n“Yeah, Sylphie is right. We didn’t need it, so who cares?” he said, knowing it was a losing battle.\n\n“Chances are we could also proceed without this Firebane Talisman, but not using it strikes me as wasteful, seeing as it cannot even be brought out of Nevermore,” the Sword Saint piled on.\n\n“So I gave it to Dina, case closed,” Jake said as he did the number one strategy to get out of trouble: misdirect.\n\n“Hey, Minaga, I have a question. If you are willing to answer, that is.”\n\n“It is pretty hard to know if I am going to answer before you ask the question,” Minaga answered with a hint of snark.\n\n“Sorry, sorry. I do love the break room, by the way. I wanted to ask about the time-based achievement we got. More accurately, how they work. 500 points seem like a lot, but at the same time, few would have a chance to do it that fast, so is the achievement for doing it within a day the only one?” Jake asked, wanting to fish for some information.\n\n“Well, there is one that gives 100 points for doing it in less than a week, 200 points for less than five days, 350 points for less than three days, and finally, 500 points for less than a day. Congratulations, you got the best one there, but you did miss out on other achievements!”\n\n“I see,” Jake nodded. “Just to ask… was it possible to kill the Demon Lord during our first encounter?”\n\n“Naturally, it was possible… same as you could have attacked me in the opening room if you so desired. Not saying doing either would have done you any good, but it was an option,” Minaga said in his usual cheerful voice. “Now, enjoy the break room and relax! At least try out the free bar.”\n\nMinaga was gone again, and while Jake did want to move on quickly, he kind of got the feeling keeping Minaga happy would do him good. That some eccentric dungeon master was part of Nevermore, a transformed World Wonder, and that you had to keep the weird guy happy to not get fucked over was admittedly a bit weird… but what can you do about it? Seeing as Minaga made the entire thirty-first floor collapse behind them was kind of proof Minaga could actually influence the dungeon if he so wanted, even if the collapse had just been a joke.\n\nIn that sense, it was also a bit comforting that he had done nothing to mess with Jake. He could have easily scrambled the hallways, switched the locations of rooms with keys, reassigned which monsters had keys, and a slew of other things, but he had done none of it. So while Jake didn’t think Minaga would outright work against him, it seemed silly to risk it, so he bit the bullet and sat down at the bar.\n\nLooking at all the flasks on display, he extended a string of mana and picked out a few that seemed interesting. Dina and the Sword Saint walked over to join him as Jake began just mixing stuff at random, making different drinks. He had about a ninety-percent failure rate, but he did manage to make some stuff that at least didn’t make him reak. His Sense of the Malefic Viper also allowed him to sense the general level of alcohol within each bottle. This was mainly important to make sure Sylphie didn’t have any, as she was still too young to drink. Dina also didn’t like alcohol, so they went to the section with non-alcoholic drinks.\n\n“Why do you inferior lifeforms even consume these things?” the Fallen King asked, clearly just jealous he was the only one who couldn’t enjoy Jake’s mixing skills.\n\n“Because we can, and some of them are tasty,” Jake smiled. “I could ask you the same about consuming natural treasures. You have eaten literals rocks.”\n\n“They were precious gemstones containing soul-“\n\n“Shiny rocks, then,” Jake grinned.\n\nThe five of them stayed in this in-between room longer than they had planned, thoroughly falling for Minaga’s trick. Then again, perhaps it was good for them to have a mental reset, and Jake had a strong feeling that was what these rooms were designed for. The five of them had not even dealt with the oppressive mist for a full day, but being within it just for a few hours was suffocating. Without Jake’s sphere or other things to help you find your way, Jake could see others spend months just walking in a fog.\n\nYeah, he could see why someone would need a drink and a nice soak in the open-air bath after that.\n\nJake and company still only stayed for ★ 𝐍𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 ★ a few hours as they checked out the local amenities before moving on to the thirty-second floor.\n\nWalking through the gateway, they found themselves in a pretty similar room to the one on the thirty-first. A few seconds after they appeared, the description of the floor once more popped up too.\n\nWelcome to the Thirty-second floor of Nevermore: Minaga’s Labyrinth (Part 2)\n\nMain objective: Reach the end of the Labyrinth.\n\nBonus objectives: N/A\n\nCurrent progress: End reached (0/1)\n\nNote: More hidden events, achievements, or objectives may be hidden on the floor.\n\nCurrent Nevermore Points: 16682\n\nThe first thing Jake noticed was the name of the floor. To just call it part two was honestly lazy, and he would have expected more of Minaga. Alas, Jake would let it go in an act of benevolence.\n\nAs expected, on the central platform of the room, Minaga once more popped into existence, though he didn’t bother with the light show this time around.\n\n“Hello there! Long time no see,” Minaga said in his usual joking tone. “I guess we all know what we are doing here. Are you going to be pathetic disappointments to all of the gods that blessed you and be the saddest excuse for a Unique Lifeform I have ever seen, or are you going to keep going at the Archmage difficulty? You can totally downgrade if you want to act like little-“\n\n“Same difficulty,” Jake waved him off.\n\n“Surprising,” Minaga said in a deadpan tone.\n\n“Say,” the Sword Saint began, “the first time around, you mentioned that one could increase or decrease the difficulty by one at the start of every floor. Does that mean there is a difficulty above Archmage we can increase it to?”\n\nJake looked at the Sword Saint and gave him a mental thumbs up. He hadn’t even considered that.\n\n“That is a very good question,” Minaga said with a smile. “But no, there is not. I should probably change the wording in the initial briefing, huh? Well, good catch either way!”\n\nAchievement earned: Ask Minaga a good question. 1 Nevermore Points earned.\n\nThe system announcement surprised all of them as Jake stared at the Unique Lifeform. “Really?”\n\n“Are you complaining?” Minaga asked teasingly. “Can’t take them back, but I can make sure you won’t get any more.”\n\n“Nope, definitely not complaining, just surprised,” Jake quickly backtracked.\n\n“Oh, then no worries, no worries,” Minaga waved him off. “Now for the second thing we have to deal with…”"}
{"text": "He didn’t notice though and continued on his thoughts. “Would someone like Lily be able to sense such mind-altering effects?” Julius asked curiously, his eyes shining brilliantly as his eyes didn’t leave the necklace. It seemed he was interested to know if such subtle mental effects would work on someone like Lily.\n\nShe found herself caught up in his casualness as well and answered his question before she could help herself.\n\n“Well, a normal psychic wouldn’t be able to, but Lily is well… Lily for a reason. I kind of expected that she already knew that I was hiding something. Sorry, but why aren’t you more upset?” She asked with her lips pressed together tightly.\n\n“Do you want me to be?”\n\n“Of course not, but I feel like a normal person would be very upset in this situation,” she logically pointed out.\n\nHe just shrugged his shoulders in response.\n\n“Aren’t you still upset that I dragged you with me?” She asked, confused.\n\nHe gave a wave of his hand. “Not that much anymore. I was more upset that a random stranger pulled me into their mess, but obviously you’re not a stranger.”\n\nShe stared at him with a completely blank face.\n\n“Aren’t I? I have been hiding my true identity this entire time you know? How can you still consider me a friend after this?”\n\nHe gave her a disappointing look. “Of course you’re still my friend. You might have been hiding your name and what you look like, but let’s be honest, what’s the real mask? I have a sneaking suspicion that the princess card is more of a mask than the Grace one,” he said bluntly.\n\nShe didn’t give an immediate response to that. She just stared at the stone floor while biting her lips. That might be entirely too accurate, she thought to herself resentfully.\n\n“You might have a point about that,” she finally said.\n\nA stark silence filled the void. One that she was desperate to fill.\n\n“I was going to tell today after our classes,” she admitted to him.\n\nShe watched as he gave her a curious glance. “Is that why you wanted to talk?”\n\n“Yeah, I noticed that piece of mana you left on me yesterday and thought it was about time to tell you something.”\n\n“You noticed that, huh?” His face looked a little bit guilty. Although, she was happy that she was finally getting some real emotion of him.\n\n“I didn’t know what it was, I just knew that it was about time to share some things,” she explained.\n\n“So you were going to tell me everything?” He asked.\n\nShe shook her head softly. “Not everything,” she told him truthfully. “Just enough.”\n\nHe nodded his head. “Oh,” he stated plainly.\n\nAnother breath of silence passed between them.\n\n“I still don’t get why you aren’t more upset. Look at where you are because of me?” She asked, confused.\n\nHe finally turned and gave her his entire attention. “I told you before, I don’t have any plans to die in here.” He sounded so relaxed and calm. She didn’t understand why. It was like this was a regular Tuesday morning to him.\n\n“We are in a Tier 3 labyrinth rift all alone, how do you expect us to survive?” She asked.\n\n“We kill the monsters and find the exit,” he said like it was obvious.\n\nShe let loose a genuine laugh at that, wiping the tears that were still drying on her face. “Oh, yes very simple,” she said sarcastically.\n\nHe didn’t seem to hear the sarcasm. “I know right? The hard part is knowing which direction to head though,” he said thoughtfully.\n\nShe understood that telling him that he should be more upset wasn’t working, so instead she decided to play along with him. “It’s probably a good guess that the areas with more densely packed monsters will be closer to the exit,” she commented.\n\n“That’s a good idea!” he said brightly, heading directly back to the direction where he had sensed the six monsters.\n\nI still don’t see how he is planning to deal with the monsters, she thought to herself curiously. It was like he was forgetting that these were Tier 3 monsters they would be fighting. Sure she could handle a couple of them, but she would be hard-pressed to fight an entire group. She wasn’t even going to mention that fighting six was way out of her abilities.\n\n“You have a plan I’m guessing?” She asked wonderingly.\n\nHe turned his head around and gave her a reassuring smile. “Of course, I do. What do I look like? Someone without a plan?”\n\nShe couldn't help but not feel very reassured by the smile. Something in her gut told her that she was missing something. However, she had to admit, she was a little excited to see Julius’s plan for dealing with them. Maybe he had a way to outsmart them or to trick them. So she followed him toward the dark depth and toward the group of Tier 3 monsters.\n\n***\n\nDoes he really have a plan? She thought anxiously.\n\nAs they walked closer. She started to feel less excited and more nervous. Julius had not done anything or set up any traps. So far he has just walked toward the monsters with no preparation, she would have said something out loud, but she was more worried about the monsters potentially hearing her, so she kept quiet.\n\nShe would trust Julius for now. She didn’t see why she wouldn’t, he was pretty confident and from what she knew from him, he wouldn’t act that way for no reason.\n\nStill, she expected him to have some sort of elaborate plan of some sort. So she was flabbergasted when he did nothing when the monsters sensed them and started to run at them. The monsters were some sort of ugly decaying creatures resembling a wolf.\n\nUndead, she realized, dread filling her veins. Undead were notoriously dangerous monsters. Not because of their individual strength, which sometimes could be frightening, but because there was always a large number of them. Additionally, there was always a source they came from. In most cases, this meant a necromancer or some sort of undead energy wellspring.\n\nWhen Julius still didn’t do anything, she acted instinctually. She created a lance of light using her epic skill, [Light of Destruction] to rip through the first of the monsters. She wasn’t a life mage, but her light affinity had decent effects on the undead at least, and sent the Tier 3 monster sprawling to the floor. She didn’t kill it instantly but she certainly injured it.\n\nStill, it’s not enough damage, she realized with a sunken feeling in her stomach. They were worthy of their Tier 3 status, their defensive abilities were far beyond the Tier 2s she had been fighting these past months.\n\nFurthermore, it was already impressive that she could even do that much at Tier 2. That was just the tier-jumping power of an epic skill and having a Concept.\n\nIt was just too bad that the undead didn’t feel pain like most monsters. It was what made them dangerous. Remove the arm of a normal monster and the pain would debilitate them, but for undead, they couldn’t care less. They would continue trying to eat your face like nothing happened.\n\nShe sent out more spears of light, blasting into the monsters, however, they now understood that the attacks were dangerous and avoided the majority of them with a quick use of a movement skill. She managed to tag a few of them, but there were too many of them for her to handle.\n\nShe looked toward Julius who still had an amused grin on his face. His focus wasn’t even on the incoming undead but on her. “So that’s one of your skills. I have been wondering what kind of skills you had,” he said happily.\n\n“Aren’t you going to do something!? I thought you had a plan?” She yelled at him, scared as the undead wolves closed the distance and mad that he still wasn’t taking it seriously. She didn’t want to see him die because he took the Tier 3 monsters so lightly.\n\nHe ignored her. “Hmm, their wills are surprisingly weak. It must be because they are undead,” he said contemplatively, not suiting the desperate situation they were in.\n\nSuddenly, the casual air around him disappeared and a raging flood of mana and pure power rushed out of him. It felt like the kinetic mana she sensed from him when he fought normally, but this time it was so much more. Reinera almost choked on her own tongue as she felt the immense pressure pulse out of Julius. And she wasn’t even the one to bear the majority of this force."}
{"text": "The tension was as high as ever as Jake said some final words of encouragement. ”Keep calm, do your jobs, and all will be fine. Seven seconds.”\n\nJake really wanted to say: ”You don’t have to believe in yourselves; just believe in me, who believes in you,” but he had a feeling that would have made them too confused with only a few seconds left before shit went down.\n\n”Five.”\n\nTaking a step forward, Jake stood at the control point of the ritual.”\n\n”Four.”\n\nActivating his energy, he linked up with the ritual.\n\n”Three.”\n\nHe felt all the hearts and the Demon Prince in the center.”\n\n”Two…”\n\nClosing his eyes, Jake allowed his Perception to fully seep into the entire ritual circle as he raised his hands.\n\n”One…”\n\nRed light filled the entire ritual as Jake poured in his energy, and activated the ritual.\n\n”Start.”\n\nAs commanded, the first demon ritualist activated his section of the ritual, making the Crystalized Demon Lord Heart begin to crack and leak energy. Jake instantly took control of this leaked energy and forced it into the formation, storing it within.\n\nWith a mental command, he made the second demon also activate her part, as the second heart began to let out energy in a controlled manner. Once more, it was forced into the ritual circle as Jake kept track and made sure it didn’t leave its designated area.\n\nA few minutes later, a third heart was activated. Followed by a fourth a few more minutes later. This kept going as the energy levels of the entire ritual and basement were rising at an alarming speed, as Jake allowed none of the demonic energy to run rampant.\n\nSoon, they reached the eighth heart, which was when Jake gave the Demon Prince his cue. Without even a second of hesitation, the Demon Prince’s body lit up with energy as all of the glowing veins on his body activated, and with determination, the gem embedded in his forehead was torn out as it floated upwards, barely connected to the demon through a thin red and blue string.\n\nThe lines drawn in the very center around the Demon Prince were also activated, with its function a bit different than anywhere else. It was there to keep him alive long enough for Jake to do his thing, as he was very much under time pressure.\n\nWith another command, Jake took hold of the demonic energy as he strained himself. He commanded it to move toward the center of the pentagram and toward the now floating cerulean gem. The gem didn’t even resist in the slightest as it greedily began to absorb the energy from all the hearts.\n\nJake kept everything under control, even as the ninth and tenth hearts were activated. They weren’t getting drained fast or slow, and all the demon ritualists kept a steady pace as commanded, slowing down or speeding up whenever Jake told them to.\n\nThe Demon Prince was sitting with an empty look in his eyes as blood poured out of his forehead where the gem had been, looking almost catatonic. Yet Jake felt the demon’s consciousness still remained strong as the connection between the prince and the gem remained powerful.\n\nSo far, so good, Jake reassured himself as things were proceeding as they should. He knew the demons were struggling, but they held on nicely. Jake also knew all of them this was only possible due to his monstrous level of control and Perception, as he made sure everything was as it should be.\n\nSoon, it was time for the next part of the ritual as Jake poured in a bit of his own arcane energy. Not his Jake Juice quite yet, but just what he had initially believed he would be able to do when he originally saw the ritual. The arcane energy mixed with the demonic energy that entered the gem ever-so-slightly, carrying with it nothing more than Jake’s intent.\n\nIntent it listened to, as Jake felt something from the cerulean gem. He felt a sense of greed and hunger.\n\nGood… it’s there, Jake grinned to himself. The same as how affinities had things they ”wanted,” many magic items like this also had some very fundamental sense of instinct. This gem naturally wanted to absorb more energy and grow, and now Jake had metaphorically kicked that instinct awake.\n\nSuppressing a groan, Jake felt the gem begin to greedily try and drag the demonic energy out of the ritual circle, but Jake knew he couldn’t allow that. If he did, the gem risked exploding, or for the Demon Prince to be overwhelmed. He was already struggling, but Jake had to take his hat off to the Demon Prince. The guy was not considered a peak genius for nothing, as he managed to keep calm and do his part perfectly.\n\nUnauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.\n\nMinutes passed, as the gem consumed more and more energy, its aura growing in intensity. Soon, the first heart was fully consumed, followed by a second and a third. The hearts were emptied out one after another, crumbling into dust, and soon, the cerulean gem contained not only its own innate energies but the cumulative energy of ten Crystalized Demon Lord Hearts.\n\nIf Jake stopped the ritual here, or if someone else had been in charge, all they would have accomplished was to infuse the cerulean gem with a fuckload of demonic energy, resulting in the body of the Demon Prince probably exploding if he tried to fully reabsorb it. He would definitely die, no doubt about it.\n\nYet the cerulean gem still hungered, and the Demon Prince was struggling more than ever, as all the other demon ritualists could now do nothing more than look on with expectation, fear, and doubt. The ritual so far had all gone as planned, sure. But everything till now had also been the ”easy” part that they all knew was theoretically possible.\n\nNow, they were onto the ”making history” part as they explored all-new territory.\n\nJake next did what only he could do as he activated energy from deep within himself. A mere spark, a whisper at most. It traveled through the arcane strings he had laid down before, unaffected by all other energies as strings rose and wrapped around the cerulean gem as the spark of Origin Energy entered it.\n\nNothing happened for a moment until a deep thrumming noise erupted from the gem, sending out a wave of pure demonic energy that now carried a slightly off-blue color, ripping apart all Jake’s arcane threads in the process. A second wave came soon after, as Jake felt the changes with the gem. It began to not just house the energy from the Demon Lord Hearts but entirely devour it to empower itself, turning quantity into quality. All to allow it to return to Origin… and this was when Jake noticed oversight number one with this entire ritual.\n\nIt was originally a damn heart.\n\nA heart!\n\nNot a fucking forehead gem.\n\nSo when the gem began to slowly warp and change, he felt the fear from the Demon Prince and the horror on the faces of all the demon ritualists. The cerulean gem… which would probably be called the Cerulean Devil Heart by now, grew in size, way too large to be on the forehead of the demon it originally belonged to.\n\nThe horror on the faces of the observing demons only grew further in the very next moment when Jake stepped down and teleported forward. Without a shred of hesitation, he grasped the growing gem in his hand, feeling it burn into his skin as he had to fight back the demonic energy. With his other hand, he quickly equipped a katar as he stabbed the Demon Prince in his heart before promptly plunging his hand that was holding the crystal heart inside.\n\nJake tried to let go and pull his hand back out… but couldn’t. He felt as if his hands had merged with the gem-like heart as it began to attempt to pull energy from him. Not just any energy either. It wanted his Origin Energy, and just not a little of it, either.\n\nYeah, no, Jake quickly cut that off as he resisted. For a moment, he considered just cutting off his own arm, especially when the flesh he had cut open to put his hand in began to close around his forearm due to the damn healing circle below them. However, before he had a chance to cut it off, the heart was complete."}
{"text": "However, Yip also knew that personally recruiting Jake directly was out of the question. Ell’Hakan was an enemy of Jake, and their encounter in Nevermore City had only cemented this. That’s why Valhal had stepped up to try and snatch Jake away. While it would be better for Yip to get Jake on his side by himself, having Valhal do it was also a good outcome.\n\nOf course, Vilastromoz knew this would never happen.\n\nThe Viper would not describe himself as the most trusting person, so he could admit that Jake being locked in when it came to being his Chosen was more of a positive than a negative in his mind. If Valdemar’s offer was truly genuine, Vilastromoz couldn’t even blame Jake for considering it seriously, especially not if Valdemar went as far as offering Jake to become his Chosen.\n\nWhile he did trust Jake as much as he could, he also knew that Valhal would suit Jake nicely. Jake loved challenges and fighting, and Valhal would offer that in spades. Far more so than the Order of the Malefic Viper ever could. What’s more, Valdemar was a human, so if Jake had his True Blessing over the Viper's, there would be more synergy with their Records.\n\nAt least, he thought so… but with Jake, it was genuinely hard to tell. Because there was a genuine chance that the Records of Jake’s Bloodline would overpower any other related to his race, making it a moot point.\n\nFeeling like one thing had been dealt with, Jake turned to another. His gaze pierced through the room toward the very back end, where a Beastfolk man was standing inconspicuously among all the other representatives. It was naturally Eversmile whom Jake had picked out instantly upon entering the room. Jake considered if he should do or say anything, but before he could decide, a voice entered his mind.\n\n“I do find your ability to recognize me quite troublesome, if very intriguing. However, I would advise against revealing my presence here. Doing so shall bring you no benefits and only serve to hinder me needlessly. It may even impact the plots of your Patron, so reconsider before you make an unwise decision,”Eversmile’s voice echoed in Jake’s head.\n\n“Oh? Why are you even hiding in the first place when there are already five other Primordials here?” Jake asked, not really bothering with the fact he was showing zero levels of respect to a god. “Are you doing some experiment or something?”\n\n“None of that is of your concern,” Eversmile answered, pretty much confirming to Jake he was definitely up to something. “Nothing I am doing is detrimental to you or your Patron, so let be what should be left alone. That would be very appreciated.”\n\nJake was curious but also feeling petty at the same time. He still remembered how much Eversmile had messed with him during the Tutorial, how he had used William to fuck things up and had even made him come after his family…\n\n“Well, I appreciate that you wouldn’t appreciate me revealing you. In fact, it makes it quite an appealing choice,” Jake sent mentally. “But I guess if you really want to stay hidden that badly… I can do you this favor. Wait, doesn’t that mean you owe me one now?”\n\nHe was fully aware he was just messing with Eversmile now, knowing how the Primordial’s Path worked. Also, if he could somehow make Eversmile owe him a favor, that would totally be worth it. Based on what Villy said, he was very serious about owing favors.\n\n“You should be aware that is not how karmic debt is formed. There has to be a sufficient balance between the two parties for any debt to form, and you are not powerful enough to enter any kind of agreement with me,” Eversmile responded calmly.\n\n“Yet. Not powerful enough yet,” Jake corrected him.\n\n“Even if we say that is so, I would suggest not getting too much ahead of yourself. Remember you are only here due to the curiosity of others and who your Patron is, not truly by your own merit. If you wish to speak of karmic debt, then you are far from in a position to make any demand through threats, much less speak of favors. One could also say I am doing you a favor right now by even conversing with you. Or that I allow you to keep living despite the disrespect. I have plenty of cause to take action already, so how about you let off your petty threats? In return, I shall do you the favor of letting you off,” Eversmile said, his voice still calm but full of warning.\n\nJake felt an odd pressure and a slight sense of danger that was not at all unambiguous in its message: back off.\n\n“… anyway, I hope all goes well on your end; I shall be minding my own business,” Jake responded.\n\nHe had fucked around and would very much like to skip the “found out” part.\n\nTheir conversation had been relatively long but had, in reality, only taken a few seconds as everything had been said telepathically. There had always been a natural silence after Valdemar had spoken, and only another full second or so after Jake finished talking with Eversmile did someone else speak up.\n\n“Speaking of doing Nevermore, how is little Dina doing? I know my granddaughter isn’t the most experienced quite yet, but I still hope she has proven a valuable party member so far,” Nature’s Attendant asked Jake, changing the topic quite nicely while also advertising he had a close relationship with Jake.\n\n“She is doing great; no complaints from here,” Jake answered with a smile, happy no longer having to consider his words super carefully. He also made sure to not even glance Eversmile’s way anymore. “I hope she is also doing well in her Challenge Dungeons.”\n\n“I am sure she is,” Nature’s Attendant nodded. “Now, while I have you here… how about you come over here and tell me a bit about how she is doing? The stingy Wyrmgod refuses to share anything.”\n\nJake doubted Nature’s Attendant really just wanted to hear about his granddaughter, but he had no reason to reject a conversation. Especially not considering this was an excuse to talk to Artemis, who was sitting with him.\n\n“That would be my pleasure,” Jake answered as he looked at Valdemar. “Unless..?”\n\n“You go on ahead,” Valdemar waved him off.\n\nJake nodded as he walked over to Artemis and Nature’s Attendant, the attention of the many gods still on him. As he got over, he saw Nature’s Attendant casually set up a sound isolation barrier for them to talk in peace, something that seemed to annoy quite a few people present, including the Holy Mother, Blightfather, and even Valdemar.\n\nTheir dissatisfaction manifested through their presences that weighed down on Jake, Nature’s Attendant, and Artemis. Jake and Nature’s Attendant were fine, but Jake saw Artemis clench her fists, and without even thinking, Jake flared his own presence to cover her.\n\nThe pressure on her instantly lessened significantly as Jake’s aura clashed with that of three Primordials... slightly pushing them back to give Artemis breathing room. All of this was done under the gaze of dozens of gods as Jake felt the entire atmosphere in the room change after seeing what he had done.\n\nI shouldn’t have done that… yep, I definitely should not have done that.\n\n795 chapter - Nevermore: Aura-Measuring Contest\n\nSometimes, you just knew you fucked up, and in that moment, Jake knew he had fucked up. Trying to get some petty levels of revenge on Eversmile by getting one over him had already been pushing it, and now Jake had effectively just rebuffed three presences of Primordials, as well as those of dozens of other gods, entirely on accident.\n\nInstantly, Nature’s Attendant read the mood of the room and dispelled his soundproofing barrier, giving Jake the chance to apologize as he scratched the back of his head. “Ah, sorry about that; I reacted without really thinking.”\n\nYeah, that also wasn’t the best thing to say, as he had just told everyone he had effortlessly rebuffed them entirely accidentally. Jake was entirely expecting some kind of negative response, but then he saw that Villy was just smiling as he shook his head, seemingly not bothered at all. So, it probably wasn’t that bad, right?\n\nThe Holy Mother just retracted her own presence without saying anything besides giving Jake an inquisitive look, Valdemar temporarily doing the same as the Blightfather chose to speak up."}
{"text": "Eric let loose with the Rote and the flaming dart surged forth, slamming into the farthest zombie’s face. The backblast of heat reached him despite being across the room from his target and separated by a good fifty feet. The zombie’s moans of pain were echoed and replied to by the dozens of other zombies that began moving toward them. He rotated and fired off Blackflame Bolts one after another, sending a single shot into each of the backline zombies that were the farthest away. Each was a round to the head, and the burning inflicted by Blackflame Blaze would, hopefully, drop them before they reached Peter.\n\nPeter let out a whoop. “Fucking zombies? Hell yeah! This is just like The Walking Dead!” His muscles bulged and the weapon he held began blazing with a crimson aura that dripped like a bloody miasma.\n\nHe’s using Skills already? Fuck, I should’ve had a talk with him about spending Sigils too soon.\n\nPeter ran forward and reached the closest zombie, which had another two abreast of it. He let out a swing, and Eric winced as the sound of a massive crack reached his ears from Peter’s swing breaking the sound barrier. His weapon sent out a shockwave that pulverized the zombies and sent them flying back, shattered corpses crashing into the cavern walls.\n\n“The left!” Naomi shouted. Eric heard the bang of her gun go off right next to him. He turned and saw that there were some zombies coming at them from the left side. Quickly glancing to the right, he spotted more of them. Still a small distance off, but going for him and Naomi both instead of Peter.\n\n“Get closer to Peter,” Eric ordered as he moved forward, firing off bolts at the farthest-away targets to make the most use of the burning affliction. He felt winded already, and his breathing was coming shakily as he kept using mana on his Rote.\n\nNaomi kept taking shots, and each one found its way to a target, blowing off arms and legs, or drilling into torsos. “I can’t get the fucking head!” she shouted. “I need to make some adjustments. Fuck! I’m such a bad shot!”\n\nEric saw one of the zombies get within reach, so he pulled Naomi away, putting his arm up in the way to take the incoming claw-swipe on his forearm. But the zombie went flying to the left and was pinned to the wall—a massive arbalest bolt stuck out of its temple.\n\nShannon shouted from across the room. “Woohoo! Headshot!” She then vanished from sight again, but her voice came from behind one of the stalagmites. “I’ll cover you two, just help Peter!”\n\nEric turned his attention to the front and frowned as he saw Peter use another Sigil to fuel the same mighty blow Skill. “Stop using Sigils!” he shouted.\n\nPeter glanced back, then looked to the front once more and slammed his hammer into a zombie’s head. “Why?!”\n\n“We have more chambers to deal with! You’re blowing all your resources too soon!”\n\nThe Reaver grunted in acknowledgement and kept swinging, thankfully without activating his Skill, and mechanically put down zombie after zombie.\n\nEric scanned the backline of zombies but couldn’t see the ones he had ignited. He did feel a slight trickle of warmth along his back though, and his mind felt a little bit sharper. His sore muscles and mana channels relaxed and were soothed.\n\nMust be Vital Heat activating as the zombies die from the burn.\n\nThe surge of bodies became more and more compressed, until there were almost three dozen zombies surrounding Peter in an arc from the front. Shannon had been picking off the ones on the sides that headed for Eric and Naomi, while the two of them had been firing into the mass before them.\n\n“How about now?” Peter shouted. “Can I use another Skill?”\n\n“I got it!” Shannon’s voice replied from their right. Eric barely saw the initial firing of the arbalest round, though he watched as it split into dozens of duplicates in the air, which each found their mark. The whole group of zombies was thrown to the left, pinned to the ground, each other, or the stalagmites. “Woohoo!”\n\nPeter moved from one zombie to another, bringing the hammer down on each of their heads.\n\nNo point in me using any more mana right now.\n\nEric pulled out his short-sword and set to dispatching the pinned and dying zombies, finishing them off with simple efficiency. He glanced back at Naomi, who was still standing there, holding her gun and hyperventilating. “Peter, you got this?” he asked.\n\n“Yeah,” Peter replied.\n\nShannon had popped out of the shadows and set to stabbing the zombies in the head alongside Peter. “We got this!” She sounded thrilled as she cackled and stabbed down. “Take that, you fucker!”\n\nEric sheathed his short-sword and walked over to Naomi, grabbed both of her shoulders, and shook her slightly. “Hey. You with us?” He leaned in closer and whispered, “Remember, we’re being watched.”\n\n“I . . .” She made eye contact with him, and he saw a trace of fear behind her eyes. The same fear that he’d seen from fresh recruits thrown into the meat grinder of battlefield combat. “It was so fast, so violent . . .”\n\n“We’re being judged,” Eric chided once more. “Come on, you have to show you’re a badass. Compress. Shove all that shit down. Compartmentalize—I know you can.”\n\nThat snapped Naomi out of her temporary fugue, and she nodded, becoming all-business once more. “Let’s get the rest of these dealt with.” She slung the gun over her shoulder, pulled out a dagger, and set to work with the rest of them.\n\nEric spared a glance at the tunnel entrance and saw Seraphine taking notes on a small pad. Some of the guards behind her were surreptitiously making notations of their own.\n\nHopefully, we impressed them. Now to finish the zombies off.\n\nEric pulled out his sword once again and began the grisly work.\n\nA note from SerasStreams\n\n* * *\n\nAnd thus, we come to the end of the Day 1 chapter drop!\n\nI hope you are enjoying the story. If you are loving it so far, make sure you go leave a rating, review, or advanced review!\n\nIf you can't get enough Blackflame Mage and want to read more, then why not head over to Patreon? Right now, Patrons are reading Chapter 56 (out of 72 in Book 1). That's over 500 pages!\n\nChapter 12: Leveling Up\n\nA note from SerasStreams\n\n✨ Pruned Trees Re-Sprout!! ~ Ragazza Volpe Magica ~ ✨\n\nby BlueTomoshibi\n\n\"Challenging the status quo on your own is impossible, isn't it?\"\n\nMaestro Shouri leads an aimless life. Choosing a Resonator is no simple task, and an unequal world leaves him loathing the status quo. Three chance encounters threaten to shake his heart to the core.\n\nThose who stand by his side are loyal and true--Taika, a lunar Resonator despised for her elemental affinity; Pacifica, a water Resonator seeking to find herself and her Maestro alike; and Rebecca, a fire Resonator who has only known the life of a trophy.\n\nThe bond between Maestro and Resonator is not to be underestimated, and Shouri’s soul must unlock their potentials in tandem--before corruption can bring chaos to his world. Three Resonators will change Shouri’s life. Riterra will change with it--whether or not they want it to.\n\nWhat to expect\n\n-Kemonomimi story where the cat-girls aren't pretty trophies to collect (that's the villain's job)\n\n-Modern setting, similar to earth\n\n-Extensive worldbuilding\n\n-Elemental Magic and spell-casting system with LitRPG aspects (readers compare it to Soul Eater meets Pokemon).\n\n-Musically themed terminology\n\n-Involved battle system\n\n-Slow building, polyamorous romance\n\n-No smut, we're PG-13\n\n-Very cute fluffy slice of life elements to help break up the drama\n\nUploading every Tuesday at Midnight UTC and Friday at Noon UTC!\n\n📖 Read Now\n\n* * *\n\nAs the last zombie was put down for good, the entire room changed color. The glowing moss swapped to a bright, white light. The Paths put several messages into Eric’s vision.\n\n[You have leveled up!]\n\n[You have leveled up!—\n\nEric spoke quickly and quietly, not wanting his vision to be covered up with repeated messages. “Paths Access: swap to cumulative readout. Remove notifications about milestone accumulation and replace with consolidated version. Allow for mental interface instead of audible.”\n\n[Confirmed. New parameters will be integrated.]\n\n[You have 2 level-ups to process.]"}
{"text": "Perhaps this was why Ell’Hakan hadn’t bothered much with placing defenses at the Pylon. He didn’t expect anyone to be able to cause it any harm, especially not before he would notice. As the owner, he would naturally be notified the second anyone messed with it, putting into risk any long-term ritual. The only times such rituals were useful tended to be with the World Leader missing or put out of commission, neither of which were true here.\n\nAll of this is to say that Jake had planned on just killing Ell’Hakan as his primary goal for a reason. Now, things had changed, and he now had the confidence to take on the Pylon due to a certain new skill.\n\nAs a reminder, when Jake reached level 260 in his profession, he got the skill called Chosen’s Offering of the Malefic Viper. A skill he hadn’t touched a single time ever since getting it despite its legendary rarity. The reason for this was because of the other skill he was offered alongside it… one he had now picked after reaching level 290 during his Villy roasting session above Primordial-4.\n\n[Heretic’s Offering of the Malefic Viper (Legendary)] – To infringe upon the domain of the Malefic Viper and rob the Primordial’s Records is a great achievement. Allows the alchemist to make an offer to the Malefic Viper and be granted an Offering Fragment. Based on the value of the innate Records in the offering, you will be rewarded with a better Offering Fragment. The Offering Fragment contains Records and energy related to the Malefic Viper and can help empower other sources of Records and energy related to the Malefic Viper. All offerings must surpass a certain threshold to be submittable, and to hide your heretical actions from the Malefic One, there is an internal cooldown of the skill dependent on the value of the Offering Fragment received.\n\nIt was a skill practically identical to Chosen’s Offering of the Malefic Viper, except for some changes in wording and whatnot. What the skill would do was effectively allow Jake to offer stuff to Villy and get a catalyst for alchemy in return. At least, that’s how he read it.\n\nJake had very purposefully not used the Chosen’s Offering skill because he assumed doing so would mean losing the ability to pick the Heretic’s Offering one. Alright, there was a risk he would cut him off from the other skill merely by picking the first one, but things had gone the way he’d hoped.\n\nEspecially after he picked the second one… and what he’d hoped for happened. The two legendary skills that were so damn alike they might as well have been one turned out to indeed be part of a greater whole. Well, Jake assumed they were, based on how they’d instantly merged with one another. This merge of skills had given Jake something he wasn’t sure how worked, but it had to be good based on the fact it was mythical. Right?\n\n[Divine Bargain of the Malefic Viper (Mythical)] – In your eyes, to make an offering is an act of subservience you refuse to take part in. No, to you, the Malefic One is an equal you deem yourself worthy of bargaining with. Allows the Heretic-Chosen to initiate a Divine Bargain using an entity he wishes to use for negotiation, forcibly creating an equal exchange between himself and the Malefic Viper. Upon successfully performing a Divine Bargain, the Heretic-Chosen will, by default, receive a Malefic Bargaining Fragment but may be granted other benefits based on the nature of the Divine Bargain. Malefic Bargaining Fragments contains Records and energy related to the Malefic Viper and can help empower other sources of Records and energy related to the Malefic Viper. Under certain conditions, the Malefic One can actively take part in the Divine Bargaining. Laws of equivalent exchange must be upheld to a certain standard. All bargained entities must surpass a certain threshold of Records to be submittable. This skill has an internal cooldown based on the nature of the Divine Bargain performed.\n\nRight off the bat, it was a really long skill description. Jake did like it a lot more than the previous ones, though. Divine Bargain also sounded a lot more appealing than making an offering, as it was something one did between equals. Well, as equal as a god and mortal could become.\n\nAs for the skill itself, it was indeed quite complex, but it had the same concept as the offering ones for the most part. It would allow Jake to give Villy stuff, and Villy would give him a Malefic Bargaining Shard back in return, at least most of the time. With this version, he could also get other benefits, it seemed, with neither the system nor the innate knowledge he’d been granted telling him what these other benefits were.\n\nWhat the innate knowledge did let him know was how to do a Divine Bargain. More accurately, it let him know how many ways there were to do it. It also included what he could offer and do with the skill. The more he studied the innate knowledge, he also realized that the skill had some rather unbalanced features, in his humble opinion, one of which would become clear once he was done setting up his ritual in the core chamber.\n\nHe also felt as if his decision not to use the skill had been good based on the first section of the skill. At least, it would have been very weird if it spoke about not agreeing to give offerings if he had actually used the skill to ever give any. Getting stuck with just the Chosen’s Offering skill would have sucked majorly, and more likely than not, even ended up hurting Jake’s Path as a Heretic-Chosen down the line as merely possessing the skill could be viewed as an act of subservience.\n\nOh, also, small side note… Jake found it really funny that both Chosen’s Offering and Heretic’s Offering had actual explanations for the skill’s cooldown period. Meanwhile, with the Divine Bargain, the system just straight-up told him it had a cooldown, borderline admitting it was entirely system-imposed and nothing else. Then again, based on all his talks with Villy, the system likely had its reasons for placing such a cooldown on a skill, and he should actually be happy he couldn’t use it constantly, as doing so would have fucked him up long-term somehow.\n\nAnyway, there was still a lot to unpack with the skill, and Jake felt like it would need quite a few uses to fully understand it. For now, he had to prepare to initiate his first Divine Bargain, which was why he needed a ritual circle.\n\nStarting a Divine Bargain wasn’t as simple as pointing at something and going: “Villy, I’ve come to bargain!” but you had to actually set up proper conditions. The simplest way of doing this was to set up a ritual circle, but other things like having a permanent altar or something like that would also work, a bit like how Miranda had her permanent ritual site below her office in Haven.\n\nThis story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.\n\nJake preferred to just go the ritual route, though, primarily because he was actually pretty good at rituals by now. Continuing to work on the ritual circles, he prepared to create a spherical magic circle wrapped around the Planetary Pylon to initiate everything.\n\nNow… before, it was touched upon how a C-grade couldn’t realistically destroy a Pylon. Jake couldn’t destroy one either, but he knew instinctively he could bargain with it. Of course, it wasn’t as simple as just initiating the bargain. No, he also had to claim ownership during the bargaining process.\n\nIn other words, the ritual would set into motion Jake laying claim on the Pylon with the intent of offering it to the Malefic Viper. This would put Ell’Hakan on a timer, with Jake getting the Pylon if either too long time passed or, preferably, he killed Ell’Hakan. 𝙍ᴀ₦Ȏ฿ƐŚ"}
{"text": "This had resulted in Sandy being an utterly lopsided existence that, quite frankly, was borderline useless in battle. All the big worm could do was ram people or try and eat them, and based on all Jake knew, Sandy could only really eat those a lot weaker. The purpose of eating them also wasn’t to kill them but to use them as “resources” within the worm’s internal world.\n\nBesides eating, all of Sandy’s other abilities had gone into the art of escape and durability. While this kind of Path was rarely one that worked out well in the multiverse due to the lack of self-defense… well, Sandy seemed to be doing pretty well for themselves when Jake used a quick Identify as he, Meira, and Irin walked outside the talk to the worm that was wiggling on the grass.\n\n[Juvenile Cosmic Genesis Worm – lvl 242]\n\n“Hey Jake!” the worm yelled telepathically the moment Jake walked outside. “Oh! Succubus and the elf are also here! Or should I call her a high elf now? Speaking of, why is it even called a high elf? Did she even get taller? Oh, wait, I ate this thing called a Highmountain-something, and that one was from a high mountain, so that name made sense… oh, I know, maybe high elves originally come from big mountains? Hey, high elf, that isn’t actually that high; why are you called a high elf?”\n\nMeira just stared with a confused expression for a moment before muttering. “I… don’t know exactly why we’re called high elves… but it’s probably to signify it’s a higher race of sorts compared to usual elves? While the stats aren’t different compared to regular elves, we do have different racial skills.”\n\n“I guess that can make sense, ➤ NоvеⅠight ➤ (Read more on our source) too,” Sandy readily accepted the answer that was frankly way more serious than Sandy’s question deserved. “Anyway! Jake! I heard you’re back, and you are now an even bigger deal than before because you did some stuff on a Leaderboard!”\n\n“I am back indeed, and I did do stuff on a Leaderboard,” Jake smiled, honestly happy to see Sandy again. The big worm was always interesting to be around, even if it did feel a bit weird talking to the giant mound of wiggling flesh on his lawn.\n\n“That’s great! Speaking of great, am I the only one who’s starving?” Sandy said as Jake felt the expectant attention of the cosmic worm on him.However, before he could even say anything, Irin spoke up.\n\n“I do believe we could all do with a snack, and while I’m not sure if Jake has anything you find appealing, I hope my offering can at least help please the Chosen of the Lord Protector.”\n\nWith these words, she waved her hand as a bunch of lockboxes appeared, making Jake throw her a look.\n\n“Items given to me by the top brass should I encounter the Chosen of the Lord Protector,” she quickly clarified with a telepathic message as she smiled at him. Jake definitely did notice how she very heavily implied all this stuff was from her alone…\n\n“Oh! That does smell good… just a second, I’m on a bit of a diet and have to watch what I eat, so I’ll just have my dietitian take a look at things,” Sandy said happily as the worm wiggled a bit and floated into the air as they opened their mouth.\n\nSpace distorted as a man wearing an expensive-looking suit appeared.\n\n“Wh… where am I!? What happened, wh-“\n\n“Oops, wrong guy!” Sandy said as they sucked the man back in before spitting out another suit-wearing man, this one far more put together.\n\n“Does Lord Sandy require my services?” he asked the second he oriented himself.\n\n“Yep! That stuff over there!” Sandy said, the man somehow knowing where Sandy mentally pointed.\n\nTurning around, the man spotted Jake and the others before his eyes opened wide as he bowed. “I greet the Chosen of the Malefic One, as well as the Chosen of the Grand Elder.”\n\n“Hey there, don’t mind us and attend to your matters,” Jake quickly said, Meira nodding in agreement. With their approval, and while dealing with the pressure of being in the presence of three Chosen, the man went over to the offering and began to go through them with a clipboard. While that was interesting in its own right, Jake was more interested in what had happened before.\n\n“Who was that first guy?” Jake asked, confused as he turned to look at Sandy.\n\n“Oh, that was just Tom.”\n\n“And who is Tom?”\n\n“A guy I ate.”\n\n“Why did you eat Tom?”\n\n“A better question is: why wouldn’t I eat Tom?”\n\nJake just looked at Sandy as he sighed. “You know what? Fair enough. Why do you need a dietitian anyway?”\n\n“Eh, something about eating more quality over quantity and stuff like that. Basically about me not wasting time digesting stuff that isn’t worth digesting,” Sandy said.\n\n“I see,” Jake nodded, that making a lot of sense to him. It was probably like how Jake shouldn’t waste his time hunting weaker prey. He could totally see Sandy only benefitting from certain kinds of natural treasures by now as they got stronger. There was definitely also a Records aspect to it.\n\nNo matter the case, Jake was sure the Lord Protector had this handled. The Boundless Hydra was very good at eating stuff himself, so Jake felt confident that if anyone was qualified to give Sandy advice on the Path of devouring, it was him.\n\nWith the dietitian hard at work, Jake changed the subject a bit. “What are your plans regarding this Prima Guardian system event, by the way? Are you heading back to Earth with the rest of us?”\n\n”Maybe?” Sandy responded. ”Not sure I should. The rules about the Prima thing said that beasts who consumed unique system-given stuff in the early days aren’t allowed to fight against the big boss, only alongside it, and, well, I ate a lot of system-given stuff back then.”\n\n“I… hadn’t really thought of that,” Jake muttered. “Then again, can you even fight? Say, what if you just help doing stuff that isn’t directly related to fighting, like helping people travel around faster or something? I doubt the system would force you to fight for the Prima Guardian, so indirect help may be allowed.”\n\n“Based on what I know of these system event bosses, I believe Jake’s assessment is correct,” Irin chimed in. “Historically, in cases like these, the system-empowered entities won’t be controlled or forced to do anything, but they may be punished if they choose to go against the event boss. It’s also equally possible this Prima Guardian will have a unique ability supressing anyone who consumed these system-provided items, making it near-impossible for them to fight against the boss.”\n\n“Hm, if the succubus who brings me tasty snacks is right, I guess I should return. Maybe I can even find some good stuff to eat in the ninety-third universe. I have heard people talking about how new universes tend to have a lot of tasty stuff in their infancy…” Sandy seemingly agreed after thinking a bit.\n\n“Actually, can you even go? What about the people you ate? Will they be able to go to the ninety-third universe with you?” Jake suddenly had a thought.\n\n“Good question that I already thought about all on my own! They totally can; I just can’t let them out. Like, I already tried it once for funsies, kind of thinking that the person would go boom or something, but nope, they just won’t come out no matter what I do. Ah, but don’t worry, Tom can come out; he is from our universe,” Sandy gladly explained.\n\n“… good to know?” Jake muttered. “Did you eat Tom on Earth?”\n\n“No? What a silly question; there’s no way Tom would be from Earth!” Sandy said, wiggling in laughter.\n\nJake really wanted to ask more about Tom but stopped himself as he sighed. “In that case, will you return with me when I head back? I plan on going… actually, probably just later today. I don’t think I have a lot I have to do at the Order; I mainly came by to say hi to these two.”\n\nHe said the last part while motioning to Irin and Meira. Alright, he had not come specifically to see these two, but the people he knew in the Order. Seeing as everyone else was away, he only really had these two he wanted to check in on.\n\n“You’re leaving already?” Irin said in a downtrodden tone, with Meira not looking happy at the news either."}
{"text": "Julius felt his heart race a little bit when he saw how confident she looked. Perhaps, they would have to spar a little bit in the near future. He wanted to know if she could back up her words.\n\nHowever, that was an idea for later. For now, he would just enjoy their time together and worry about that stuff another day.\n\nA note from l-Ryn-l\n\nThank you so much for reading! I hope you enjoyed it!\n\nIf you did and want to read up to 25 chapters ahead, please check out my Patreon!\n\nAlso, just a reminder that there is now a Discord Server available for those who wanted it :)\n\nChapter 540: Opening the Life Mana Manual\n\nJulius and the others took a while to catch up. Anna hadn’t returned for almost an hour. By then, Julius had explained virtually everything that had happened in the realm. However, that only took up a small portion; the rest of the time was spent just talking about what they had been doing.\n\nWhen Anna returned, she wasn’t alone. To Julius’s concern, Crown Prince Jaxson was there as well. The young man stood there, expressionless. Despite his youthful appearance, an aura of authority radiated from his body.\n\nIt was a different feeling he had gotten from the Emperor at the beginning of the tournament. He wondered why there was such a big difference. Perhaps Prince Jaxson was merely more combat-focused than the Emperor.\n\n“You had enough time, Reinera?” Prince Jaxson suddenly asked Reinera with a softened gaze.\n\n“Yeah, it’s like what we suspected. They were trapped inside an isolated space with the chimera. The other attack on the realm seemed to be related, but ultimately served a different purpose,” Reinera stated with a thoughtful expression.\n\n“There was another attack?” Julius asked curiously.\n\nDerek nudged him gently, as if to tell him to be quiet.\n\nReinera didn’t seem to care and nodded. “Yes, the attack on you guys seemed to be a secondary goal of the attackers. The true purpose was to destabilize the connection between the realm and us. They also appeared to have stolen something from the realm.”\n\n“Reinera,” Crown Prince Jaxson said warningly.\n\n“What? It’s only fair they know. They shared what they knew; I am just reciprocating.”\n\n“There is no need to reciprocate. That information is sensitive, and the fewer people who know, the more we can control what information leaks out,” the prince said calmly.\n\n“What? You don’t trust them to keep a secret?”\n\n“I trust House Zenith’s loyalty to the Empire, but that doesn’t mean that word can’t spread somehow regardless of someone’s good intentions.\"\n\n“Fine. My bad,” Reinera said with a slightly apologetic nod.\n\nCrown Prince Jaxson then turned his gaze to the four of them. “I don’t have to remind you guys that this needs to stay secret, correct?”\n\nDerek bowed elegantly. “Of course not, your highness. We won’t speak a word about this matter.”\n\n“Good,” Crown Prince Jaxson said, and with one final look at all of them, lingering on Julius’s form for a split second longer than the others, walked out of the room, leaving Anna standing at the door.\n\n“Hmm. So what was this thing that was stolen?” Aubrey asked curiously.\n\nReinera shook her head apologetically. “Sorry, but I might actually get in trouble if I told you guys.”\n\nAubrey waved her concerns away. “Don’t worry about it. We understand. I was just curious.”\n\nReinera was about to respond when the door suddenly slammed open.\n\n“There you are!” A familiar voice rang out through the room.\n\n“Honey, you are yelling again,” another familiar voice said scoldingly.\n\n“Sorry, I’m just excited.”\n\n“That’s great, honey, but remember the last time you got too excited?”\n\n“That wasn’t my fault. They should have made that building stronger. How was I supposed to know it would collapse that easily?” Cain said with an offended scoff as he strolled into the room.\n\nJulius held back his amused smile and went over to Cain and Freya. He surprised Freya with a warm hug.\n\n“Oh!” Freya said with a soft smile, rubbing his head lovingly.\n\n“What about me?” Cain asked, disgruntled by Julius’s apparent favoritism.\n\nHe ignored the brute and shook his head with exasperation when he felt Freya’s concerned senses wash over him. He could already feel her examining his condition, and he knew she was agitated by what she saw.\n\n“I’m okay. I promise,” he said, letting her know he was alright.\n\nShe grabbed his shoulders so that he was arm’s length away. “You absolute buffoon of a boy. I blame Cain for this,” she said with a dark look at her husband.\n\n“What did I do? I’m the victim here. Julius is my disciple, and yet he hasn’t even greeted me yet,” Cain muttered before suddenly appearing in front of Julius with one swift step, slapping his meaty hand across Julius’s back.\n\n“It’s good to see you, though. I saw your fight against Valis’s disciple. It’s nice to see that you have at least a little bit of competition,” Cain said with a laugh.\n\nJulius stumbled forward and glared at Cain. He suspected that Cain had hit him a little harder as a form of revenge. He was petty like that.\n\n“Thanks, I learned some interesting things from him too, so it was worth it,” he said once he healed his bruised back.\n\nCain grinned and gave him a soft squeeze on the shoulder. Cain wasn’t like Freya, but this was his way of showing affection.\n\n“So who is this young lady?” Cain asked with a teasing grin. “Another girlfriend?”\n\n“She is Reinera Luminous, princess of the Luminous Empire. Please mind your words, Cain Steelborn,” Anna spoke up.\n\nCain ignored her entirely.\n\n“So are you done here? Or do you want more time to catch up with your princess? I remember you said something about missing her,” Cain said to Julius, loud enough for Reinera to hear.\n\nJulius rolled his eyes and slammed his fist into Cain’s shoulder with as much force as he could, implementing some of the improvements from the recent fight. “Shut up.”\n\nHe did notice that Reinera had turned away and looked almost shy upon hearing that. He wondered what that was about.\n\nHe shook his head. He could figure that stuff out later. At the moment, he was more concerned about the recent incident and what that meant for the Empire as a whole.\n\n***\n\nShortly after Cain and Freya showed up, they decided to leave the arena and head back to House Zenith’s estate.\n\nUnfortunately, Reinera wasn’t able to come with them. There was just too much going on at the moment, and she had responsibilities as a member of the Royal Family. At least they got to talk for a good hour or so. It was a pleasant surprise.\n\n“Missing her already?” Cain teased him as they sat on the couch.\n\nJulius didn’t bother to acknowledge the man and kept on weaving several pieces of mana together, trying to recall Riven’s own techniques by memory and feel.\n\nJulius was initially surprised at how easily they managed to come and get him. At first, he had thought that Cain and Freya had forced their way through the Empire’s soldiers. However, he learned that they had gotten through with a more peaceful method. Apparently, Derek’s family had shown up, and, being a Ducal House, they had some nice privileges, so they were let in without much issue. Cain and Freya were allowed access alongside them.\n\nDerek’s father had arrived, and while Cain and Freya were talking with Julius, he had been talking with the prince about something important.\n\n“Okay, I think this thing is the real deal,” Freya said to him with a sigh, handing the worn-out book to Julius. “I don’t know what the exact contents are; it seems like it has been locked to your aura signature, but from my deep scans, it is the genuine artifact.”\n\n“You make it sound like it is a bad thing,” Julius noted.\n\n“I don’t have much experience with this kind of stuff. I can’t really help you beyond a certain point,” she admitted, though it sounded like it hurt her to do so.\n\n“Would it suit his path?” Cain asked.\n\nFreya chuckled softly. “Yeah, it is a really good fit for his current path. It would also address many of his issues with his overwhelming, ruinous aura. Especially now that he got that dangerous little thing,” she said while pointing at his crown."}
{"text": "“Potentially,” Jacob nodded. “However, even that would be low unless this event is truly aimed at the elite and the elite only. Additionally, these creatures with Prima in their name are not that easy to find, but I believe it will be possible to locate quite a few.”\n\nThat is when Jake realized something. While he had confidence in killing Primas, he still needed to find them. Meanwhile, he had a living cheat in front of him when it came to finding stuff. Something he clearly knew.\n\n“I shall focus my efforts on locating these Primas and ensure that we can get as many keys as possible in the next three months,” Jacob smiled. “For all of us. The vote was for us to become an Unusual Union, was it not?”\n\n“And I assume you are doing this out of the kindness of your heart?” Caleb asked with a wry smile.\n\n“Now, while there may be much kindness in my actions, using my divination abilities does not come cheap for me. I simply cannot justify sacrificing for others and burdening my faction without proper cause,” Jacob said, returning the smile in kind.\n\n“Man, you remind me of those damn soothsayers on the streets looking for naïve tourists,” Carmen commented.\n\n“Except my abilities are real,” Jacob answered. “We can discuss potential partnerships for any who wishes to enter one. I will be in Sanctdomo waiting.”\n\n“Sure, that sounds like a good idea; let me just enter a city that literally burns me to be within,” Casper commented sarcastically.\n\nThat turned the mood a bit awkward as Jake learned Risen got burned by entering a holy city. It was almost like those old tropes. “Better avoid holy water,” Jake joked.\n\n“Well, yeah, holy affinity liquid does sound an idiotic thing to touch,” Casper said with a deadpan face.\n\n“Anyway, it’s been nice seeing you all again,” Carmen said as she turned to the Fallen King. “Besides maybe you, as I am still not sure if you are some evil entity who plans to lead the world into ruin.”\n\n“I believe such would be meaningless, and I would face all those gathered here, something which I have no interest in doing nor believe is a wise choice. Not that more than the hunter is needed,” the King answered, not properly getting Carmen was semi-joking.\n\n“Yeah, if he gets out of line, I got this,” Jake answered as he gave a thumbs up. “His weakness is so obvious you will all kick yourselves for not realizing it earlier.”\n\n“Overwhelming power?” Casper asked.\n\n“That would work,” Jake approved.\n\nThe mood after that was a bit more relaxed as Carmen left with the former King of the Forest disappearing soon after. Eron left hastily, too, as he still seemed uncomfortable after spending time around the King. Caleb and the Sword Saint also bailed as they had some stuff to attend to, leaving only Jake, Bertram, Jacob, and Casper.\n\nThat is when Jacob did something Jake had not seen coming.\n\n“Casper, the Holy Church is going to advocate for the expulsion of the Risen from Earth and not allow them into any kind of unions. It may result in an outright attack with the goal of pushing you off the planet or annihilating you outright,” Jacob said when it was only the four of them.\n\n“Huh?” Casper said, a bit surprised.\n\n“The Holy Pantheon is determined. They place a lot of importance on Earth due to the presence of so many powerful factions here. The Court of Shadows, Valhal, the Chosen of the Malefic Viper, someone with a Divine Blessing given by Stormild, another by Aeon, and of course a Transcendent… now also a Unique Lifeform. To give up the planet would be moronic. The Church can accept the presence of all these, but the Risen are the mortal enemies of the Church, and co-existence is not acceptable to the leadership at all,” Jacob explained.\n\nJake also stood surprised as Jacob just said a lot of things he had not expected to come out of the Augur and leader of the Holy Church on Earth.\n\n“Why are you…?” Casper asked, equally confused.\n\n“Within a system event such as this, we are entirely cut off from the rest of the multiverse. There are no observers, and they have no control over us, so I need to say it here where we can speak truly freely. You need to be prepared, Casper. And while I am the leader of the Holy Church on Earth, I am not the leader of the faction. My protests will do nothing but make me lose influence, and it may even result in losing my position,” Jacob answered.\n\n“Still doesn’t answer why you are telling me all this to begin with,” Casper frowned.\n\n“Because I’m not a complete asshole, and even with my position in the Church, I don’t need to agree with everything that is happening. Publicly I will need to be against the Risen and even lead a campaign against them, but privately I honestly don’t care. In fact, if I actively helped to destroy a friend, that would go directly against my Path,” Jacob sighed. “Casper, you may now be Risen, but you are still a friend and the same lazy employee who spent more time complaining about being unable to get a good date than actually working.”\n\n“Now that is just harsh…”\n\n“You once told me you liked hanging out with Jake because he couldn’t get a girl either,” Jacob continued.\n\n“Wait, what?” Jake blurted out.\n\n“It wasn’t like that! You know I just liked hanging out with someone who didn’t always go on and on about their perfect relationships,” Casper said, a bit embarrassed.\n\n“Anyway, Casper, I just wanted to warn you. Be ready, for something will come. The Church will likely order assassins soon to go after you and other influential people, spread more propaganda against you, and try to insert people into your cities to cause civil unrest. In fact, many are already in your cities. Once the universe opens up more and people can be brought here, forces will likely descend. Even if it isn’t possible to bring outside help, the forces of the Holy Church grow every day,” Jacob explained further.\n\n“Will the Church really go to war?” Jake asked. “Don’t they fear the consequences?”\n\n“There will be a justification. Perhaps claims they are killing and forcing people to become undead. That they murder the living to fuel themselves. Essentially slander to make the living side against them. At the same time, they assume you and others will stay out of it as the Malefic One never tended to get involved in other conflicts. He isn’t involved in the one that is currently going on. As for Valhal and the Court of Shadows, it is entirely possible they will be hired. For Valhal, we just need to hire individuals as mercenaries, and the upper echelon of the Church may negotiate with the Court of Shadows and force your brother to side with us.”\n\nCasper looked grave for a moment as he sighed. “Thanks for the heads-up.”\n\nJacob nodded. “Just take care of yourself. Please don’t spread anything about our talk. Needless to say, this is not approved by the Church in any way and may even be considered treacherous.”\n\nThe last part was also partly directed at Jake, and he, of course, nodded. Casper also nodded as he muttered: “Well… I guess I need to speed up that project a bit.”\n\nWilliam sat in meditation atop the block of metal as he slowly absorbed the energy within. He was thrown out of meditation and lost his focus when the system message suddenly appeared and informed him that he had just received a quest.\n\n“Master?” he asked as he felt the presence of Eversmile descend upon his mind. It felt like his head was on fire from the pressure, but he resisted and gritted his teeth as his Master spoke.\n\n“Such an event is not right for you. Seeing a second potential Path will only confuse you and risk making you stray from your current one. The right one. I have said it before, but all these system events are nothing more than distractions that will ruin you down the line. Just keep walking the Path paved before you, and you will find what you seek, my dear disciple.”"}
{"text": "None of them had a level above 50, making Jake and the hawk ignore them entirely, but as they kept flying further and further up, that started to change fast.\n\nAt eight and a half kilometers, they encountered a not-so-friendly giant wasp that tried to sting Jake. This resulted in Jake just catching the stinger and with his hands on the thing, spreading death through it with Touch of the Malefic Viper. It had only been level 61, so Jake honestly didn’t know where it got the guts to attack him from.\n\nAt 10 kilometers, they had to avoid a brawl between two giant flocks of birds. Thousands of birds in each flock were ripping into each other. They were relatively weak individually, most still not in E-grade yet, but their sheer sizes made up for it.\n\nJake felt tempted just to use Gaze of the Apex Hunter but decided against it pretty quickly. It was pointless to do, and he quite honestly wasn’t keen on the idea of committing bird-genocide for no reason.\n\nThis kept up as they flew upwards. The hawk had clearly been up here many times before as it swiftly dismembered any bird that attacked it while avoiding flocks and stronger-looking monsters. Jake felt more like a tag-along but had no complaints.\n\nHe was blown back by the sights he saw. It indeed was an entirely new world up there. But he did wonder why it was like this. The hawk had clearly shown a need to land once in a while. To rest. While he didn’t doubt that some monsters could rest while remaining in the air, he seriously doubted any of the more common-looking birds could.\n\nAt 15 kilometers, they encountered their first challenge – the word challenge being said relatively lightly. It was a small group of three hulking birds. They looked like vultures that had gone to the gym 6 days a week, never forgetting wing or talon day - all of them the same level at 87.\n\nIt was a bit novel to encounter such strength-focused birds. They attacked the pair as one of them went for Jake and the two others the hawk. The hawk danced around them effortlessly as the wind cut into them, while Jake met the brute in melee.\n\nLuckily for him, it didn’t even try to dodge but just smashed into him, trying to pierce him with its sharp talons. He summoned his sword and dagger, blocking the foot with the sword as he plunged the dagger into the leg of the vulture.\n\nThey kept tussling for a while before Jake managed to get in a few good blows to its stomach and lower body. The wounds didn’t look lethal, but they sure as heck were. The dagger was releasing its innate venom with every stab, only further amplified by Jake coating the blade with his blood.\n\nThe hawk had managed to finish off one of its vultures when Jake’s failed to keep itself airborne. It began falling to the ground as he flew over and helped the hawk finish off the last vulture. The one he had been fighting dying half-way through as it succumbed to the poison before even hitting the ground.\n\nIt had been a relatively easy and fast fight, which was why he was surprised as the message popped up with the death of the last vulture.\n\n*’DING!’ Class: [Ambitious Hunter] has reached level 84 - Stat points allocated, +4 free points*\n\n*’DING!’ Race: [Human (E)] has reached level 77 - Stat points allocated, +5 free points*\n\nIt was his first level in his class since returning to Earth, and he had a feeling that the sky would be the source of a lot more levels and unique experiences.\n\n“Of course, my lord,” the first sister quickly agreed to the Viper forbidding them from speaking of the mortal. Her two sisters were nodding along fervently.\n\n“All is good then. Now, on to official business,” The Malefic Viper said, getting up off the bed while summoning a robe. The women following his lead as they, too, conjured a dress each.\n\n“My Order has turned to shit in my absence. I don’t blame anyone but myself for this. I wallowed in self-pity for long enough,” he said with a big sigh before continuing.\n\n“I plan on getting shit in order. With only a single hall right now, we are confined to only a small part of this universe. I fear that my name has begun to be forgotten. Time to change that.”\n\n“What are you planning, my lord?” the second sister asked, excitement in her voice.\n\n“I don’t care for expansion much. Faith is not a big part of my path anyhow, and I couldn’t give less of shit about how many faithful believers I have. No, I want to consolidate our power in this part of the universe first. Make it like the good old days. Then we can expand from there.”\n\n“You mean?” the third sister asked, stars in her eyes.\n\n“Exactly. Send out warnings to every single faction and deity within this sector. Give them a week to either pack up and get the fuck out or to come here and swear allegiance. Make my word echo through the multiverse, so all know my message. Those that don’t listen… well,“ the ancient Primordial said, with a big smile, “a show of force has never done any harm either.\n\n“Additionally, I want you three to formally return to the Order once more. Having only Snappy and I as known gods is a bit too little. I want each of you to take a leadership position to help get this entire organization back on track.\n\n“Once the Hall Master, as well as the branch leaders, return from Nevermore, I want one of you to take charge and guide her and lead the Order. She is your descendant, so that part should be easy enough. Another one of you takes charge of the academy, while the last takes care of managing the governed area of the Order and assisting me in taking any newly conquered land under our wing. You decide between yourselves who does what. Any objections?”\n\n“We are more than willing to serve,” the first sister said, talking for all three of them.\n\n“Good. I already informed Snappy to bring back the other leaders, so you may as well begin preparing now,” he said, nodding at the three women.\n\nLooking at the messy bed, however, he added. “Though I guess we do have a bit of time.”\n\nA request none of them had to hear twice. A few hours and plenty of ‘exercise’ later, the Viper walked out of the chamber, leaving the three women resting in the bed. He felt quite proud if he had to say so himself. Tiring out gods to the point of exhaustion was no easy feat.\n\nTeleporting, he stepped into a giant laboratory with only a single old man in it. He was currently tending to a giant tree that appeared to be wholly rotten yet gave out an overpowering amount of life-affinity mana.\n\n“Duskleaf, my dear disciple,” the Viper said with a big smile, the old man not reacting at all.\n\n“Come on, old pal, don’t be mad,” he tried again, only to continue to be ignored entirely. So he tried something else.\n\n“My, quite the tree you have made here. Your own creation, I presume? Very impressive.”\n\nThis time he got a reaction. “A tree someone, especially my so-called ‘master’ would be fully aware of if he didn’t keep breaking his promises actually to do some – any – alchemy with me.”\n\n“Look, I know I fucked up, but I just had too much to deal with,” he tried to explain, being quickly cut off.\n\n“Like sleeping with those witches? Or staring at Jake creepily? Or have you found a new deplorable hobby?” Duskleaf sneered. Clearly still mad.\n\n“Okay, okay. Jeez. I even came here with something I thought you would want to hear,” the Viper muttered.\n\n“We are doing an experiment?” Duskleaf beamed, all his anger momentarily forgotten.\n\n“No, not that,” the Viper said, Duskleaf instantly deflating. “But! It is still a good suggestion. I plan on doing a bit of restructuring and improvements around here, and I want you to come out of hiding and take up a more official position in the Order.”\n\n“How can that in any way be construed as good for me?” Duskleaf sighed.\n\n“Listen, I want you to take the position as principal of the academy. One of the witches will help you do all the boring stuff; I just want you to have the title. The only work I will ask of you to do is to be involved in the next enrollment of alchemy students in a few years,” the Viper explained.\n\n“I still don’t get it,” the old alchemist said, clearly not keen on the idea. “Why the heck would I want to be involved in enrollment of all things?”"}
{"text": "The only bad part was that it was over so quickly. They had arrived back in Peralt in a matter of a few minutes. In a place where spatial transportation was heavily limited, if not outright impossible, a faster method of traveling was nice to have. He was a little jealous that Kuro had a familiar with such usefulness.\n\nAll Julius had was a cute green spirit the size of his hand who ate and slept all day. Drasil wasn’t going to be giving him a ride anytime soon.\n\n“You enjoyed it?” Kuro asked with a knowing look on his face.\n\nJulius grinned widely and gave Syla a grateful scratch. “Absolutely. She is wonderful.”\n\nHe got a soft nudge of appreciation from her in return.\n\n“Well, let me know if you want to get a ride from her again. I run a lot of errands for my master in the forest. If you want me to take you to or from one of the bases inside the forest, it wouldn’t be much of an issue. Also, it would seem that Syla has taken a liking to you, which is not something I can say for everyone.”\n\nJulius smiled. “Thanks, I appreciate it. I might have to take you up on it. If not just to experience flying on Syla again.”\n\nThey talked as they approached the entrance to the town. When they entered through the tall walls of Peralt, they exchanged information and Kuro told him that he had to report back to his master. Apparently, he was already supposed to be back but had taken a detour to explore that rift.\n\nHe also told Julius that he could take the lich’s core to the guild if he wanted to sell it. Apparently, now that there was so much of the undead’s essence inside of it, the core was practically on par with a Tier 4 core. This made it much more valuable, and the guild would pay good money for something like it.\n\nKuro also mentioned that this core could possibly rank him up to the next rank if he was lucky. The core was proof that he had closed an undead rift and if he answered some of their questions, it was likely they would either increase his rank or get him close to the next one since the core was so powerful.\n\nHonestly, Julius believed his chances of ranking up were high. He was only E-rank which meant he didn’t have much further to go in order to rank up. Plus, after that gathering mission, he had already gathered a good amount of points.\n\nThus, Julius found himself standing in line at the guild, looking around at all of the other people who were in there either submitting their completed missions or for some other reason. Thanks to Syla, he had returned to Peralt much earlier than he had initially expected.\n\nWhen it was finally his turn he went up to the lady receptionist. However, when he started to explain his situation, he was directed to a back room where someone would come and inspect the core.\n\nTo his surprise, he was welcomed by the same man who had done his examination earlier. He believed his name had been Ashton.\n\n“I see you have been busy already. Taking on that Flowing Ginkon mission and now this?” The man said to him with an amused shake of the head.\n\n“Is that a bad thing?”\n\n“No. But coming back with such a unique item poses a lot of questions. It’s not every day we see such a pristine lich core. I am also curious how you managed to come across the rift and clear it by yourself,” Ashton said with an attentive look at Julius.\n\n“Oh, I didn’t clear it by myself. I have a Tier 4 right alongside me. He was the one who actually defeated the lich. He was also the one who removed the core. He said that I should take it to you guys and that you would find good use for it,” Julius said honestly.\n\n“Who was this Tier 4? Was he a friend?”\n\n“No, he was just a guy I came across randomly. I am not sure if he would want me to tell you his name, but he didn’t seem like a bad person,” Julius explained.\n\nAshton looked at Julius for a little while with a thoughtful expression on his face. “Would you be willing to come with me so I can verify your words?” He eventually asked Julius.\n\nWhen the man saw Julius’s look of hesitation, he added, “Don’t worry, you won’t have to tell us who the man was. But we need to make sure you didn’t just buy this core and are using it as a way to deceive your way to a higher rank. It’s just guild policy.”\n\nJulius had expected something like this, especially if he was looking to increase his guild rank using the core as proof. The fact that they didn’t seem to need Kuro’s name was reassuring as well. Which is why he nodded and followed Ashton to verify his statement.\n\nHowever, as they were heading down the hall to the same room that Julius had first gone through for his examination, Ashton turned to him with a weird look.\n\n“I actually wanted to speak to you about an opportunity that came up recently. I think you might find it interesting. Curious about it?”\n\nJulius narrowed his eyes but couldn’t find a reason not to hear it out at the very least, and nodded his head slowly. But in the back of his mind, he hoped it was something exciting.\n\nA note from l-Ryn-l\n\nThank you so much for reading! I hope you enjoyed!\n\nIf you did and wish to read up to 25 chapters ahead, please check out my Patreon for more details!\n\nChapter 370: Rift Expedition\n\nThe good news was that he got the points needed to rank up. He was now a proud D-rank adventurer. However, that wasn't the only thing that occupied his mind. Ashton’s offer was still tumbling around in his brain.\n\nThere was a newly discovered rift deeper in the forest. Unlike most of the higher-tiered rifts, this one was meant for Tier 3s. It was also a very unique rift. Unlike most of the rifts found in the forest, this one had some restrictions. Much like how the Sacred Realm in the capital worked, the rift would only allow Tier 3s to enter.\n\nThis posed a problem for the Adventurer Guild because this rift wasn’t easily cleared. Despite their best efforts, this rift hasn’t been cleared for a long time. Because of the risk of overflowing, they were making the information about the rift public.\n\nAt least that was what the guild was telling everyone. He didn’t know if Ashton should have been telling Julius this, but the man mentioned that the rift location had already been leaked to other guilds and organizations. This was just their way of keeping some semblance of control.\n\nAn interesting detail of the rift was that there wasn’t a limit to how many could enter. It didn’t matter because it was a solo rift. This meant that each time someone entered, it initiated an independent instance. This severely limited the teams the guild had specifically procured to clear the rift.\n\nMost of the time, rifts were cleared by an entire team. Since this rift was a solo rift, it meant that the supporting members of a team found themselves quite useless. Of course, there were still solo adventurers that the guild had already let attempt the rift, but according to Ashton, this failed as well.\n\nJust this fact alone made Julius want to try it. He liked a challenge. And this seemed like a good way to do it. As mentioned before, he wouldn’t be hiding his strength entirely. Not when it might cost him opportunities.\n\nAshton was also kind enough to give Julius some preliminary information to help him make a decision. The rift was very similar to a challenge rift in that it had a challenge upon entering. As for the challenge, it was quite unique.\n\nThere were ten floors total, each of which you needed to complete before heading off to the next one. The problem was that nobody had been able to get past the eighth floor—at least that was what Ashton said.\n\nOn the bright side, you could exit the rift whenever you wished, even if it meant leaving in the middle of a floor. This has significantly reduced the casualties a rift like this might usually have. There were also rewards for how many floors you cleared. Just because you didn’t fully clear all of the floors, didn’t mean you got nothing.\n\nOn the contrary, people were still rewarded as long as they completed a single floor. He had a feeling that the guild would have loved to keep this rift a secret for as long as they could have, they could have sat on this treasure trove of a rift to use as a special reward for their own people or exclusive members."}
{"text": "He had gotten a level, though, reaching 47 in his Ambitious Hunter class, so the time wasn’t wasted entirely, but it was far less efficient than the dungeon. He had briefly considered grinding to level 50 in his class before entering the next dungeon but decided against it. It would take far too long, and besides, he felt like he could handle the next dungeon.\n\nFeeling ready, he looked up towards the second smallest volcano-like mountain. The location of the second dungeon and Beast Lord if his assumptions were correct. And, hopefully, also the location of a damn shirt.\n\n76 chapter - Lucenti Plains\n\nThe path up to the mountain wasn’t as easily traversed as he had hoped. Unlike the badger valley, he didn’t find any easily accessible way forward.\n\nInstead, he was met with a wall of stone – a steep cliffside. He tried climbing it a few times but quickly found that his climbing skills, coupled with the smooth stone surface, made it improbable that he could climb up there. He tried to use his weapons to climb, but it was more than a little unwieldy… Venomfang was too strong, and the cold from his sword made it break the stone as it cooled down.\n\nAfter walking back and forth for a few minutes, trying to find a spot to climb, he got an idea. Could he use his mana strings?\n\nHe had made several strings over time and even used it to retrieve dropped weapons and such. In theory, he should be able to make a rope of his strings and climb up the cliffside.\n\nThinking it was quite a shot in the dark, he was surprised when he quickly strung together an invisible rope of mana. After practicing for a few minutes, he managed to make it longer and sturdier and even managed to hoist himself up in a tree using it.\n\nDamn, I am good, Jake thought to himself as he marveled at the immense progress he had made in his mana control. He had slacked a bit recently, but with his stat growth and alchemy skills improving, he had gotten quite good without even noticing.\n\nIt still hadn’t materialized as a skill, discounting Spectral Hand. He remembered that his focus on the practice came from those few words given to him by the Malefic Viper during their first meeting. Those words had opened him up to the possibility that mana control was possible outside of using it for skills.\n\nBy now, he was sure that many others had also caught on, but he still felt like he had an early-starter advantage compared to many others.\n\nWith this new mana rope, Jake managed to attach it to small protrusions on the cliffside. Climbing to those protrusions, he made another rope attached further up and slowly made his way up the cliff.\n\nGranted, it would have likely been faster just to go back the way he came and find {N•o•v•e•l•i•g•h•t} a more direct path, but he believed that he hadn’t wasted his time in the grand scheme of things.\n\nFinally, reaching the top, he smiled triumphantly. The ropes had dispersed already as they turned to nothing whenever they lost contact with his body. He felt like controlling mana outside the body, without him touching it, should be entirely possible. He just wasn’t sure how to do it yet.\n\nHaving gotten out of the valley, he didn’t delay as he rushed to the dungeon entrance.\n\nThe layout was incredibly similar to the other mountain, and he quickly reached the long passageway leading into the hollow volcano. He had a sneaking suspicion that he was in for another mountain filled with long passages whenever he entered the dungeon itself.\n\nOnly a few raptors were in his way, but they were swiftly handled with a few barrages of Splitting Arrow.\n\nReaching the mountain’s inside, he quickly spotted the door to the dungeon and wasted no time rushing to it, placing his hand on it.\n\nTutorial Dungeon Discovered!\n\nDungeons throughout the universe offer groups and individuals a chance to pursue strength and treasures through exploring the pocket dimensions known as dungeons. This variant is only found within the Tutorials provided by the system to newly integrated races.\n\nRequirements to enter: N/A\n\nRequirements to enter met.\n\nWARNING: Only 5 challengers allowed per party attempting the dungeon. Only one party allowed at a time. Note that dungeons can be entered and exited at your own discretion.\n\nEnter Dungeon?\n\nY/N\n\nThe message was exactly the same as when he entered the badger dungeon. He accepted the prompt and felt his vision and body shift.\n\nTotally gonna be another shitty cave, Jake joked with himself.\n\nHis sphere was the first to register his new surroundings, and it made him aware he was in a rather large open space. The next thing he felt was… a breeze? In a cave? But as his vision returned, he found himself not standing in his anticipated cave but instead on a small hill surrounded by a broad plain.\n\nYou have entered the dungeon: Lucenti Plains\n\nObjective: Defeat the Great White Stag\n\nHe was quite honestly taken aback. The change of scenery was far more extreme than he had anticipated.\n\nEvery dungeon he had entered so far had been enclosed spaces - one an ancient temple and another a cave. But this… this was a god damn open plain - the sky above, with a large open space before him.\n\nOn his small hill, he could see a large number of beasts running around. They were groups of deer with a stag or two generally leading each small group.\n\nThe plains themselves were a mix of tall grass and open ground. The grass was easily three meters tall, where it was tallest.\n\nLooking behind him, he saw that perhaps this space wasn’t as large as he had first imagined. While it looked enormous, it soon became apparent that it was, in fact, quite limited. He saw that only a hundred meters or so behind him, the plains suddenly stopped, and it turned to stony ground.\n\nActivating Hunter’s Sight, he peered into the distance and saw only nothingness. It was like he was in an oasis in the middle of a desolate world - an oasis consisting of a plain with herds of deer running around.\n\nTurning his attention back towards the beasts, he used Identify on one of the groups.\n\n[Lucenti Deer – lvl 61]\n\n[Lucenti Deer – lvl 60]\n\n[Lucenti Deer – lvl 62]\n\n[Lucenti Stag – lvl 65]\n\nJust like Badgers Den, it was the same beasts but with higher levels. The levels themselves were only slightly higher than the badgers had been, making Jake feeling quite confident.\n\nBut he quickly identified a few problems. The biggest of them soon entering his sight.\n\n[Great White Stag – lvl ??]\n\nThe beast was… majestic. He honestly had no other way to describe it. It stood drinking from a pond in the middle of the plains. It had antlers that looked like they were made out of the most delicate ivory, the purest white color covering its entire body, making it appear albino.\n\nA bit further away were tens of deer, all split into smaller groups. Each group had a few does and a stag or two in them. They all seemed to keep a reasonable distance from the Great White Stag.\n\nBut that didn’t mean it was alone. Around it were three nearly equally beautiful creatures.\n\nAlso pure white, but without the antlers. They seemed almost to give off an aura of gentleness as they stood by the stag.\n\nIdentifying them, it became clear that they were also far from ordinary beasts.\n\n[White Doe – lvl ??]\n\n[White Doe – lvl 72]\n\n[White Doe – lvl ??]\n\nThe levels were higher than any of the other beasts besides the stag itself.\n\nOn a side-note, this identification did help confirm a theory he had about the Identify skill. He had wondered where the line between it showing question marks and the actual level appeared.\n\nHe noted that he could see the level 72, but not any of the others. This made him guess that this was likely the maximum. His current level in his race was 48, making those with quick math realize it quite easily. He had already kind of theorized it before, but now he felt pretty sure.\n\nJake believed that he could identify things up to 50% above his level. Meaning 72 was his current limit. But he would have to test it further to fully confirm it. If he was lucky, then one of the other does would be level 73. Of course, he needed to level up for that to matter."}
{"text": "Yet just before he disappeared, he heard a single ❖ Nоvеl𝚒ght ❖ (Exclusive on Nоvеl𝚒ght) word echo out from the epicenter of the explosion.\n\n“Rainblade.”\n\n346 chapter - Summer Rain\n\nJake felt the arcane energy wash over him from the explosion, even if he was a kilometer up in the air as it completely destroyed the Mistless Plains beneath him. It had to have done a lot of damage, and Jake was already preparing a follow-up as he heard the voice of the Sword Saint.\n\n“Rainblade.”\n\nA feeling of dread spread up his back as he suddenly felt the arcane energy move. It began spinning around itself as it gathered contrary to Jake’s will. His eye opened wide as he finally saw the Sword Saint stand there, his body covered in even more wounds. But, he had the same stable and confident stance as before while he spun his blade in his hand, making the arcane energy spin along with it as he saw millions of raindrops guide and control it.\n\nHe pointed the spinning blade up towards Jake, and he saw all of the arcane energy be gathered in the middle of what looked like a whirlpool of water. He stared into the eye of the storm that was his own destructive energy as his danger sense reacted.\n\n*BOOM!*\n\nA massive blast of arcane energy and rainwater was blasted up towards Jake as if fired from a canon. Jake reacted by teleporting away, narrowly dodging the projectile of pure energy fired after him. Then, with shock, he looked at it fly into the air as it blew up several kilometers above him, sending a wave of force down that destabilized him in the air for a moment.\n\nTurning his head, he looked down at the confidently smiling Sword Saint as Jake became utterly aware.\n\nHe didn’t need to do that… he just wanted to see if he could.\n\nSmiling, Jake nearly failed to hold back a laugh as he dove straight into continuing his attack. He shot down a Splitting Arrow as the Sword Saint also responded by swinging his blade. Jake believed he was doing it to block Jake’s arrows… he was wrong.\n\nA crescent wave of water was fired up towards him, and contrary to what he would expect, it only grew in power as it flew through the air and absorbed any and all rainwater it encountered. By the time it reached Jake, it was more than fifty meters in length while still as thin as a string of hair.\n\nJake avoided it but felt like he was being subtly pulled towards the attack as the rainwater impacted his body and softly pushed him. That is when Jake noticed something else. His Scales of the Malefic Viper had been active from the start, but now after the Sword Saint had used Rainblade, he felt his scales slowly begin to absorb mana.\n\nWhat did this mean? It meant that even the damn rain had become a passive effect that slowly began dealing damage or some other adverse effect. It was ridiculous but far less ridiculous than what the Sword Saint did next.\n\nThe old man pointed his sword upwards, aiming at him. Jake expected him to maybe extend it or something like that, but his danger sense activated from all around him. In a swift move, Jake spread out his arms as he formed an arcane barrier around himself and poured in as much power as he could before the attack arrived.\n\n“Torrential Droplets.”\n\nEvery single raindrop with dozens of kilometers reacted as they all began glowing with mana and moved according to the swordsman’s will. Millions of drops headed towards Jake faster than the speed of sound, and he knew his current defenses would in no way be enough.\n\nJake screamed as he fueled his mana and will into Pride of the Malefic Viper as he poured more mana into it than ever before. A domain was established as a purple glow emanated from his body. Barrier after barrier appeared around him, creating a ball of nearly pure arcane energy more than twenty meters across as the raindrops arrived.\n\nA battle between the rain and his arcane energy began as Jake was attacked from all sides, his arcane energy slowly being whittled away from the millions of small attacks. The sphere of arcane energy slowly shrank as it was consumed from twenty to fifteen to ten meters. It kept shrinking by a meter every second as Jake held on until it was only a mere four meters across, still obscuring Jake’s body.\n\nThen suddenly, the attack stopped. Jake momentarily felt a moment of relief before his danger sense reacted again, making him twist his body. A blade of rainwater cut through his sphere as it swept upwards, Jake groaning in pain as his thigh was stabbed into and cut through.\n\nIt hurt, but it wasn’t serious enough to impact him. The only bad thing was his mana expenditure which was not insignificant. But at the same time, he had a feeling that the Sword Saint wouldn’t be able to keep up his current power forever.\n\nBecause when he stared down and looked at the Sword Saint below him. His body was more damaged than before, but he also noticed something else. A few faint signs of wrinkles had appeared on his face, and a couple of strands of gray hair had appeared. It was subtle, but it looked like he had aged at least a few years since their battle had begun. That meant he was on a timer, and whatever he had done was temporary. Then again, they were kind of both on a timer.\n\nTreasure Hunt will end in: 31:01\n\nAround them, space was slowly compressing and breaking apart more and more, and soon it would encroach upon the Mistless Plains. Their battlefield would slowly begin to shrink as time went by, but at least for now, they still had plenty of space to fight.\n\nJake stared down at the Sword Saint as he yelled, his curiosity failing to be held back:\n\n“What exactly did you do?”\n\nThe Sword Saint simply smirked as he answered: “I do not believe the answer to that question is pertinent right now. What is more important is how long it will last. Spring is but one of four seasons, and as summer approaches, so must fall before we enter winter once more. It is a cycle that forever repeats… so please, as springtime remains, let us fight till the end of summer to our heart’s content.”\n\nJake shook his head at the non-answer. Good enough, I guess?\n\nHe moved as the Sword Saint also reacted, teleporting once more. Jake had finally figured out how the teleportation worked too, and it was honestly bullshit. The Sword Saint didn’t just randomly teleport somewhere. Instead, he switched places… with a fucking raindrop.\n\nAnd when there was a god damn rainstorm, it made no practical difference if it was just pure teleportation or not. The only real difference was perhaps the forewarning as the Sword Saint infused the drop with mana and then changed places. It was brief but enough for Jake’s keen senses to detect it and react every time.\n\nJake dodged the sword as he flew backward, flapping his wings as the Sword Saint chased him as they flew through the rain. He wanted to avoid melee more than anything, as he was at a huge disadvantage in every aspect but avoidability.\n\nIt wasn’t merely a question of power either. Every exchange they had didn’t result in Jake being injured because he was significantly slower or weaker. No, it was that every single sword swing moved in near-unpredictable ways, and he felt like his scimitar was magnetically pulled to his opponent’s sword whenever he tried to counter, or that it was somehow pushed away whenever he tried to block.\n\nThe battle continued as Jake fled back and tried to kite the Sword Saint, but every once in a while, the man still found an opening and landed a blow as Jake’s body got more and more bloody. However, Jake did begin to find ways of fighting back.\n\nDodging back, Jake summoned four small bottles as arcane mana condensed around them, breaking and destroying the glass entirely, leaving only the liquid within. It was an expensive way to fight but necessary. Jake manipulated the four bolts manually as he also fired his bow, looking for an opening. More bolts soon joined the original four, these ones without any bottles within. His head hurt from controlling them while also fighting semi-normally, but the domain from Pride allowed him to keep up the control."}
{"text": "“We will be certain to keep an eye out for such individuals,” the Sword Saint nodded with determination.\n\n“It is good to see such upstanding individuals,” the guard said with a smile. “Here, take this signet and show it to a guard if you wish to report someone. It will also help other guards not suspect you are one of these horrible people who wish to take advantage of the naivety of a young Courtesan or even a Mistress.”\n\n“Thank you for doing such a splendid job to keep them all safe,” the old man said with a deep bow.\n\nThe guard nodded before walking away.\n\nJake just stood there staring as the Sword Saint had a small signet in his hand that gave off an interesting aura.\n\n“I must admit, this is a lot easier than I had expected,” the Sword Saint muttered.\n\n“Yeah,” Dina nodded.\n\nJake didn’t wanna comment on the stupidity he had just observed. Though one part of him wished it was that easy to get information out of people in real life.\n\n“Ree?” Sylphie asked.\n\n“As long as you are certain you can stay hidden,” Jake shrugged. “And remember not to kill anyone that Identify marks as Innocent. Actually, probably just avoid killing anyone, period.”\n\n“Ree,” Sylphie agreed as she turned into wind and disappeared.\n\n“Are you certain sending off the Sylphian will end well?” the Fallen King asked. “She is not the most subtle.”\n\n“That is true,” Jake said. “But she has an overpowered ability to make people like her, so I have a feeling she will be just fine. If she will accomplish anything, now that is a total toss-up.”\n\n“Sylphie is pretty smart when it matters,” Dina nodded, approving of the bird.\n\n“Very well,” the Fallen King said. “I am uncertain what my role will be on this floor, but if it is desired, then I can accomplish whatever task is assigned to me.”\n\n“I believe it would be pertinent to first follow the tip given by the guard and investigate the inns to find Courtesans we can form positive relations to, and through them, meet a Mistress. As long as we can speak to one Mistress, it should allow us far more insight into the actual political landscape of this floor and make better decisions from there. I have also checked the fabricated identities we have been given, and nothing links our party together, so splitting up is also a good option. If there are different competing factions – something there always is in a harem - then having a person in each camp would be preferable as often internal information is biased, and we will have to know both sides to make the best decisions,” the Sword Saint said.\n\nJake slowly nodded, not hearing anything wrong with that. The others also seemed in agreement, probably because none of them knew what to do.\n\n“Would anyone complain if I took Dina with me? If we approach the Courtesans as a group of two, it will make them less suspicious we are trying anything. We can try to infiltrate one faction can try to enter one through another channel, with perhaps even Sylphie getting lucky. Fallen King, I would advise you to try and approach some guards and join them. Considering your status as a Unique Lifeform makes you incapable of reproduction, you will likely be considered a “safe” guard, based on the other’s description of celibate,” the old man continued.\n\nThe Fallen King nodded along as the Sword Saint looked at Jake. “What are your plans?”\n\n“I will try to go for a tavern too, I guess, with my target being to reach the Prime Consort as soon as possible, whatever means possible. Chances are we will have to kill her one way or another… and as always, I will take on the job of handling the floor boss,” Jake said.\n\n“We must still bide our time,” the Sword Saint said. “As that old demon warned us, then raising a ruckus will result in making our task a lot harder, and it is likely it will make finding these Secret Scrolls impossible.”\n\n“Oh, I won’t go to fight her directly,” Jake smiled. “But that doesn’t mean I can’t handle her through other means.”\n\n“While Minaga did mention it as an option, seducing the Prime Consort may be a bit difficult for you, but I implore you to give it a shot,” the Sword Saint said skeptically yet encouragingly.\n\nJake stared at him, trying really hard to see if the old man was joking. He wasn’t.\n\n“I am talking about alchemy.”\n\n“Oh,” the Sword Saint muttered. “I guess that works too.”\n\n675 chapter - Nevermore: Mistresses\n\nIt may be difficult to believe, but Jake had barely done any proper dating or really gone to any bars throughout his life. On second thought, it probably was entirely believable, considering he was just coasting through life before the system, with little care about anything, just taking it one day at a time.\n\nEven after the system, he hadn’t really done that much with other people that would be considered “normal.” Due to this, Jake felt far from confident as he entered a bar and looked around the place. It was old and medieval-looking and was filled with people in black hoods, demons, and women and men who wore less than they probably should. Jake Identified a shirtless man currently chatting up a cultist and saw the general level.\n\n[Courtesan – lvl 204 - Innocent]\n\n“Gotta admit, I thought Courtesan was reserved for women,” Jake muttered to himself while still at the door.\n\n“Gender-neutral, actually,” Minaga spoke.\n\n“Really?” Jake asked. “Huh, I guess you learn something new every day.”\n\n“Not gonna lie, I am actually unsure if it is gender-neutral, but if it isn’t, then why did your translation skill translate to it? Definitely couldn’t be my mistake, so let’s just go with it being neutral, alright?”\n\nJake nodded and smirked, not wanting to get into the most useless argument imaginable.\n\nNobody in the inn reacted despite the echoing voice of Minaga and Jake standing right there in the doorway. It was as if he was invisible before he made his presence known by speaking to anyone or making too big of an action. Looking at the person the male Courtesan was talking to, he saw a hooded man at quite a lot higher level.\n\n[High-ranking Demonic Cultist – lvl 256 - Undetermined]\n\nIt was Jake’s first time running into the Undetermined tag. He would likely have to learn information about the person before he would know if they were a valid kill target or not, but he didn’t really need to. Instead, he chose to just go to the bar and order something to drink. Before he had entered, Jake had taken a break in an alley and dolled himself up a little.\n\nAnd when he said he “dolled himself up,” he meant that he had used Shroud of the Primordial to change what he Identified as.\n\nWithout any idea if it would work or not, Jake had made himself appear as a level 240 Prodigious Demonic Cultist. He had considered adding another tag, like saying he was high-ranking, but had settled on Prodigious instead, as the system already used that word quite a lot for very talented people. He hoped that if these people – or NPCs – could use Identify, then they would find him worth approaching simply due to his tag, while at the same time not expecting him to actually know stuff as he was a prodigy, not some official. It was a gamble, for sure.\n\nLo and behold, the moment the bartender turned to him, he called Jake “young master,” and within a minute, three Courtesans had taken the seats around him. Jake channeled his inner arrogant and disinterested young master as the two women and one man spoke to him, and he responded with one-word answers.\n\nThe attention was a bit annoying, but Jake wanted to make himself known to catch a bigger fish. Thus he sat at the bar for around half an hour while having people buy drinks for him – something he had never tried before. So that was kind of fun, at least. Finally, after this half an hour, a new courtesan came up to him and handed him a small piece of paper while giving a wink.\n\nJake quickly checked the note and saw it had an address and a name on it. Jake called it an address and a name… but…\n\nThe Ninth Mistress would like to meet you, Prodigious Demonic Cultist, at her home, Residency Nine."}
{"text": "The Viper stood up and went over to the pit of health potions he had failed to make. He knelt down and scooped up some of it to drink, sneering at the horrible taste. Jake himself also faintly tasted it in his mouth, though he wasn’t sure if it was due to shared senses or if he just remembered the time he tried to taste that rancid crap himself.\n\n”Nothing,” the Viper mulled to himself after a few moments, Jake knowing he had used Palate.\n\nFalling onto his back, the Viper stared at the cave’s ceiling. After a few moments, he sat up and, to Jake’s surprise, spat some liquid into the palm of his hand. Jake saw the liquid and felt its toxic properties. Yet he also felt the vitality-based properties and the similarity to the failed health potions. The Viper had consumed some of it and refined it into a potent toxin using his own body.\n\nThe Viper shook his head again as he tossed the liquid away. A few more moments passed as slowly a frown formed on his brows. The frown soon changed into a look of realization as his eyes shot open.\n\n”Maybe…” the Viper muttered as he quickly ran over to the cauldron.\n\nJake was unsure what Villy had realized and observed intently. His intuition told him what he had been waiting for was about to happen.\n\nVilly picked up the cauldron and sat with both of his hands on it as he usually did, but then did something unexpected. His hands began to faintly glow with energy as mana was infused into the cauldron, far more than usual. Sharp fingernails dug into the metal as Jake felt it slowly change - Touch of the Malefic Viper active. Yet he was not transmuting it or even corrupting it, simply… attuning it?\n\nThat is when Jake’s point of view changed, and the best part of the vision began. He merged with Villy as the senses of the Viper fully became his own. On top of his usual ones, of course. The moment the merge happened, Jake felt a connection with the cauldron in front of him, and Jake soon realized what the Viper was doing.\n\nHe was forcefully soul-binding the cauldron.\n\nIt was something that was honestly a bad idea in nearly all cases, but Jake soon came to understand. Because as he Soulbound it, he also slowly emerged a small part of his soul into the cauldron, something he could only do if a proper connection was formed with his soul first.\n\nWith both hands still on the cauldron, he summoned the ingredients. Water, flowers, grass, it was all slowly deposited into the cauldron, and it did not take long for Jake to feel a difference. He could detect ➤ NоvеⅠight ➤ (Read more on our source) what was going on inside the cauldron so intimately that it just felt… odd. It was as if the cauldron was actually part of his body, like a second stomach.\n\nA metaphor Jake came to learn in the very next moment was very apt.\n\nBecause another skill also responded at that moment. During all crafts, some vapor would be released while the desired energies got extracted, and some minor parts would always go to waste. This just always happened, and there was no way around it. The loss was often negligible, and the lost parts were undesirable, but it was there. There to be consumed.\n\nPalate of the Malefic Viper thrummed to life as the Viper absorbed these unwanted parts of the brew while it was still ongoing. He then did something else unexpected – he directly absorbed parts of the brew through the cauldron walls like it was the walls of his stomach.\n\nJake felt his own Soulshape – one that was now merged fully with the Viper – and saw that it looked different. The cauldron had become a part of his Soulspace in a similar fashion to a phantasmal limb, and Jake also knew that this technique was insanely risky. Risky… but effective.\n\nFor the Viper, it had one especially effective feature. Because Jake, sharing senses with the Viper, instantly felt an aspect of Sense of the Malefic Viper he did not possess. Not because it was a potent application, but because it simply wasn’t one Jake needed: it allowed the Viper to far better sense anything alchemical inside of his body.\n\nIn fact, it was probably a pretty normal skill for most beasts to have. Sandy clearly had a skill similar to it so they could absorb natural treasures eaten, and Jake guessed many other monsters did too. How else would they analyze and break down natural treasures they ate if they could not properly sense them?\n\nWith the Viper, there was also the aspect of him honing his poison. Scarlett already mentioned how she effectively cultivated to improve her own venom internally, and Jake also knew the Viper could do something similar. In other words, the best kind of alchemy the Viper was capable of in this vision was essentially a form of internal alchemy. A skill he now found a way to transfer to the outer world through the insane idea of partly merging with a cauldron.\n\nJake felt how the Viper now finally noticed these small missing pieces and nearly instantly put two and two together. The first attempt at crafting failed, and a booklet appeared in front of his head. Villy looked at it as new words were burned into the paper as he added personal notes.\n\nFour crafting attempts later, the Viper had created a new crafting method for healing potions. Jake had been merged with the Viper throughout and focused intensely on how the Viper had managed to fuse with the cauldron.\n\nHe felt parts akin to his upgraded Fang there, the part where a weapon effectively became an extension of his body. In fact, it was nearly identical. Aspects from Touch of the Malefic Viper were also present. All in all, Jake began to wonder if maybe a reason he had only gotten this vision now was that he needed to see the others first…\n\nNot that it mattered now.\n\nJake understood the concept and was confident. The final part of the vision showed the Viper stopping the use of the skill as he unfused from the cauldron.\n\nThis resulted in the cauldron crumbling into ash the very next moment. As it did so, Villy felt a wave of exhaustion that Jake shared as the soul energy had effectively been discarded. The lost mental energy was also immense, and Jake felt how the Viper’s natural regeneration had faintly slowed due to his strained soul.\n\nThis was what Jake meant when he said risky. It was kind of like using a boosting skill during combat, just for alchemy. There would be a backlash, and so would there for Jake if he used this new application. The thing is… did he really have to go as far as the Viper did? Just with it being Soulbound and some of the concepts Villy applied should yield some results…\n\nJust as he thought that, time rewound, and he started over from when the Viper had his epiphany. Without having to focus on anything else, Jake felt everything. He tried to truly be one with the Viper and experienced what Villy experienced.\n\nIt only took one more rewind before he fully got it.\n\n[Sense of the Malefic Viper (Ancient)] – The Malefic Viper’s greed for natural treasures is neverending. You are following his path for your senses to see all that you desire. Your desire to know the suffering you bring upon your foes has brought you even further down this path. Gives a passive ability to detect herbs and poisons in different forms and a strong feeling of their properties and affinities. Allows the alchemist to far more easily detect affinities in the environment and detect areas optimal for cultivating herbs. Massively improves your ability to sense the poison you have inflicted and its effects on any inflicted entities. Adds an increase to the effectiveness of Sense of the Malefic Viper based on Perception. Passively provides 1 Perception per level in Prodigious Alchemist of the Malefic Viper. May your gaze scour the multiverse for all that is rightfully yours.\n\n-->"}
{"text": "Jake saw Minaga get to his feet, but he had clearly taken a lot of damage. That hammer had not just hit Minaga’s physical body but directly impacted his Soulshape, rocking it and damaging it. Jake could already imagine the headache one would get if hit directly.\n\nNevertheless, Minaga was not down for the count yet, as a magical circle appeared below him. It accelerated him forward, flying towards the King as he infused mana into his staff. It began to grow thicker and longer as the King tried to stop the other Unique Lifeform.\n\nMinaga chose to take the golden blast of force directly to the face, sending blood flying everywhere as he swung hard, hitting the Fallen King in the side faster than he could react. The barrier broke, and the Fallen King folded like a lawn chair around the large staff before getting blasted into the wall at the far end of the room.\n\nDina looked worried and was about to make a move, but Jake held out a hand and stopped her. A second later, a dense golden beam erupted from the broken wall, hitting the now-kneeling Minaga who was missing half of his face. He didn’t move, but the moment the beam stopped, the Unique Lifeform fell over forwards, dead.\n\n”Wow, good job, you killed one of five clones all alone! Truly proud of you, fellow Unique Lifeform!” Minaga’s voice echoed through the hall.\n\nOut of the broken wall, he had been thrown into walked the Fallen King, his right arm utterly broken and his entire mid-section full of injuries. Yet he gave off an indomitable aura and a strong sense of pride. With Minaga’s body dissolving, Dina no longer held back as she took out her staff and fired off green lightning that began slowly mending the King’s broken body.\n\nSoon enough, a portal appeared, this one bigger than any of those prior. On the other side, Jake could see Minaga sitting with his legs crossed atop a raised platform as energy revolved around him.\n\n”You good to go?” he asked the Fallen King, who floated over next to him. He saw the golden lines pulsing through his body, making it clear his boosting skill was going. If not active at full power, then close to it.\n\n”I shall do fine,” the Fallen King said dismissively.\n\nJake threw Dina a glance.\n\n”The body of the Fallen King is just a vessel… unless it is utterly destroyed, he will be fine,” she explained.\n\nKind of already knew that, Jake shrugged as he led the others through the portal. This also meant the Sword Saint had succeeded. If not, they would have gotten a notification, so he had to be fine. Well, not necessarily, fine, but still not lethally injured.\n\nArriving on the other side with the three others, they appeared standing below the newly raised platform Minaga was sitting on. An orb of energy floated above him, nearly ten meters in diameter, radiating with intense power.\n\nRight after they arrived, another portal appeared beside them. Jake looked over as what at first looked like a bloodied rag fell out. However, on his second inspection, he saw it was the Sword Saint who landed on the ground hard, looking like he could barely stand, as he fell to his knees.\n\nThe reason he looked like a rag was due to all the blood and tattered clothes. His body was marred with more wounds than Jake could count, nearly no part of his body untouched. Even as he kneeled there, blood slowly dripped from his body, making it clear many of the cuts were incredibly fresh.\n\nJake stared at the old man with wide eyes.\n\n”What the hell happened to you in there?”\n\nThe Sword Saint looked at the ground and smiled slightly as Dina focused intensely on healing him. The countless wounds on his body slowly started to close. Even so, it was clear he had taken significant damage, and he was in horrible shape, especially considering his boosting skill was going at full power.\n\nYet he smiled to himself.\n\n”I survived a tough lesson,” the old man spoke as he seemed to recall what he had just experienced with an expression of fondness.\n\n705 chapter - Nevermore: A Difficult Lesson\n\nThe Sword Saint had found himself in a lesson with quite a difficulty.\n\nTo face a superior foe was nothing new to him. Throughout his life before the system, he had fought many people superior to himself as he got better and better. Oftentimes, he also met those who simply had a stronger physique, making their speed and power higher than his own. Even so, he had risen to become one of the most talented swordsmen in the entire world, even before the system. With his many years of continued practice, even as his body deteriorated, he was perhaps the most skilled.\n\nAfter the system, he had yet to face a single individual around his own level who he would recognize as superior to himself when it came to pure technique. Everyone who he found capable of beating him found their superiority not through sheer skill but by some other advantage. Jake had an instinctive style that surpassed all sense of logic and technique, as one example.\n\nNo, the only person that the Sword Saint had fought around his own level, with a level of technique even approaching his own, had been Ell’Hakan. He was still behind, even if he had proved himself a formidable fighter. The fact that he used a trident did contribute, too, as the Sword Saint hadn’t fought people who used those often.\n\nAlas, the point is that the Sword Saint found it difficult to find opponents who could match his skill level. Fighting people of equal or superior skill was the best way to improve, so he felt like the lack of proper foes held him back. He did firmly believe that once he spent more time in the wider multiverse, he would meet many who matched or surpassed him, but for now, he felt starved.\n\nThat is when Minaga appeared.\n\nWhen the Sword Saint asked Minaga to duel him using at least some of his true skill, he had expected it to be with his staff, as that was what Miyamoto had seen the Unique Lifeform display hints of overwhelming skill with. To see him pull out a sword was a welcome surprise, but he did quickly come to realize he had made one mistake.\n\nHe had either overestimated his own skill level significantly… or underestimated Minaga’s.\n\nThe Unique Lifeform made the first move as he stepped forward. Moving back slightly, the Sword Saint tried to get a read on his opponent. Minaga took another step, entering the range of Miyamoto, making him take the chance to try and land a light attack.\n\nBlood sprayed as the Sword Saint jumped back, a light cut on his arm from the blunt blade. It had moved faster than he had expected, yet it seemed to not have been any more swift than his own sword.\n\n”Good try, but too obvious,” Minaga smiled. ”So try again.”\n\nNot wanting to back down, the Sword Saint moved in again, this time not holding back as his Rainblade activated. Water revolved around his blade, and several raindrops shot out toward the Unique Lifeform. Without Minaga even moving, the raindrops were cut into pieces mid-air, and the Sword Saint missed, stumbling forward.\n\nMiyamoto jumped back as a sword swept up, leaving a light cut on his chest.\n\n”Keep coming.”\n\nFollowing the encouragement, the Sword Saint did just that as he tried all he could. He used several of the attacks in his arsenal, but no matter what he did, it proved useless. Miyamoto felt like an utter novice. A child fighting against a true master.\n\nAnd he only felt euphoria from that sensation.\n\n”You have already progressed somewhat. The concept of the blade is embedded within your water, allowing it to cut and act like an extension of your weapon… but it is only that. An extension. Your concept itself still needs work. Most will come with time, but as much shall be from practice. I noticed on the prior floors that your focus recently has heavily shifted to improving other aspects of your powers. Rain and time magic are all well /N_o_v_e_l_i_g_h_t/ and good but don’t lose sight of the blade,” Minaga explained, blocking dozens of blows as the Sword Saint’s robes were getting more and more flayed from the counterattacks.\n\n”Here, let me show you…”"}
{"text": "Each individual fight was displayed right above the match in such clarity. Not only that, but someone must have controlled the image or set up an enchantment because the image was set up so that the audience wasn’t just looking at a stationary position. It was almost like watching from the point of view of someone moving around and filming the fight themselves.\n\nHe had no idea how they had created such a complex working, but he had a good feeling that the large and powerful runes he sensed above were a big part of the reason.\n\nIf his old world had something similar, he would have been sure that sports events would be forever changed. The projector also did a great job of showcasing the fight to people who might have been too far away to see the fighters up close.\n\nWith an excited grin, he headed over to his predetermined spot and saw that his opponent was also making his way to the same area.\n\nHe looked around and finally saw Edgar’s match still underway. From what he could see, a good portion of the crowd was watching Edgar’s fight, their eyes glued to the overhead projection.\n\nEdgar looked utterly at ease, and Julius noticed he wasn’t using his more explosive attacks. It was almost as if the older student was purposefully trying to avoid using them.\n\nStill, even with that, Edgar found himself in an excellent position against the other fourth-year, who was also a warrior.\n\nThe other boy was quite slim and had a head of really bright blonde hair that sparkled in the daylight. He had two shortswords in his hands as he tried to slash Edgar, but Julius also observed that the blonde was already quite red in the face.\n\nJulius had no clue how long this fight had been happening, but the blonde boy was visibly exhausted. He could see the giant heaves of his chest with each swing, showing that he was running on fumes.\n\nStill, he was fighting with everything he had. Even when fighting on practically empty, he kept on being aggressive, not allowing Edgar to control the pace of the fight. However, considering his current state, he might have been better suited not to do that.\n\nOn the other hand, Edgar remained patient and let the other boy come to him. To Blonde’s credit, he was fast, but that was just about it. He didn’t have the level of mastery that Julius had seen from other speed-focused fighters.\n\nHis movements showed a distinct lack of control. A lack of control that Edgar was slowly punishing one exchange at a time.\n\nJust as he was speaking, he noticed the boy had wrongly gauged the distance between him and Edgar. Edgar then smashed a single fist into the boy’s shoulder, sending him sprawling once again.\n\nBefore Edgar could follow up, the boy used some kind of skill to blast himself away from Edgar’s reach. This must have used a lot of resources because the boy looked even more tired afterward.\n\nSeeing that the fight was practically over, he reminded himself to stop getting sidetracked and headed over to his field.\n\nAfter passing through the barrier, he was surprised to hear the crowd's sounds muted. The barrier didn’t block out all noise, but it significantly reduced the loud sounds from the outside.\n\nHe also wondered how people managed to hear individual fights. He was sure that if they had listened to all of the fights, it must have been a sensory overload for the spectators. What if they wanted to listen to just one fight and ignore the others?\n\nHe shrugged to himself as he tried and failed to come up with an answer. It was something he noted to ask Lily and the others later. Actually, Kyle would probably be the best bet. The older boy was quite passionate about enchantments after all.\n\nAs he walked onto the field, he made eye contact with his opponent. Julius believed his name was Keldon or something.\n\nKeldon wasn’t what he had been expecting. The older boy was quite small and thin. Julius would have thought he was some kind of mage if not for the lack of magical focus and the light armor covering the boy. By all appearances, Keldon looked like a warrior.\n\nWith that being said, appearances could be deceiving, so for all he knew, the smaller boy could still have been a mage.\n\nHe was barely paying attention as the official introduced the two of them. He was too busy staring at the fight right next to theirs, where a girl was using some weird magic to cover another girl in a greenish liquid.\n\nAt first glance, it looked like the girl was throwing slime on the other poor girl. A thick, mucousy liquid drowned the opposing girl, who was doing everything in her power to stay clean.\n\nHe winced as he watched the girl desperately try to avoid the liquid. He didn’t think the opposing girl was worried about losing anymore; it seemed like she only cared about avoiding any more of that nasty goo.\n\nHe was so distracted that he almost didn’t hear the official when he started the fight and his opponent came at him.\n\nSo he is a close combat fighter, huh? He thought to himself with a grin as he prepared himself.\n\nHe blocked the surprisingly snappy leg kick that tried to go for his legs with his own knee. However, when he made contact with the smaller boy’s leg, it was like his leg was being sucked into a whirlpool. He got caught off balance and took a punch in return for his troubles.\n\nHowever, he looked at the boy confusedly. The actual strength behind the blows was quite weak, especially for a Tier 3. He would have thought that a Tier 3 would have more power. The punch barely did anything except knock his head back.\n\nFrowning, Julius continued to examine Keldon as they exchanged another series of blows. He couldn’t help but grin as the boy showed brilliant skill and mastery. There was no opening for him to counter and he felt like he was being funneled into wherever the other boy wanted him.\n\nRealizing that this was precisely what he had been hoping to experience during this tournament, he totally forgot that he was fighting in front of a crowd and enjoyed himself for the next few minutes.\n\nThey danced around one another, each trying to get the upper hand. However, he couldn’t help but feel bad for the smaller student. His opponent had evident skill, and his hand-to-hand combat abilities were well polished. This had been clear from the very first exchange.\n\nHowever, it was just a shame that his physical abilities were not on the same level. Not even close. This meant that Julius didn't suffer any damage, even if his opponent landed a blow. There was no need to activate his enhancement skill to higher levels to protect himself.\n\nIt was starting to make sense why someone of such skill had fallen so low in the rankings.\n\nWith that being said, there was much Julius could learn from the boy’s fighting style. He was particularly interested in how his opponent managed to utilize small amounts of force to destabilize his balance and create an opening.\n\nIt was a creative technique that must have required immense skill to pull off.\n\nThat was why he took the time to patiently observe how the boy used his skill in tandem with his close combat abilities. He imagined himself as a sponge, desperately trying to absorb as much information from the fight as possible.\n\nLike in his fight with Bethany, he was learning that just because he was stronger than these other students didn’t mean they had nothing to teach him or something for him to improve.\n\nHis opponent in front of him was proving it firsthand.\n\nJulius threw another kick that flew over Keldon’s head and observed as the other student used his skill to slightly tug on his limb, offsetting his center of balance.\n\nThen, while he was rebalancing himself, his opponent sent out a rare punch covered in water mana, something he had only done when he felt like he had a perfect opening. Like his fighting style, his mana control was polished. He created a vortex of swirling water mana over his knuckles and drove them at Julius’s chest.\n\nLuckily, Julius was still faster and parried the blow with his left hand, but he could feel the vortex around the fist attempting to tear through his skin."}
{"text": "The best part was probably that he now was his own boss and even had his own small restaurant, having upgraded from a booth. He was primarily just selling his signature meat skewers – a specialty that had even been enjoyed by the city owner Lord Thayne – both at the booth and in the restaurant.\n\nNow, there were also issues with running a restaurant, mainly that people didn’t really need to eat much anymore, if at all. E-grades still had to eat, especially at the lower end of E-grade, and the few F-grades that somehow still existed needed quite a bit of food. Still less than pre-system humans, but a good deal.\n\nThis meant those who came to eat did it for the pleasure or for the temporary stat boosts from the food. A lot of crafters frequented his place, but it was rare he was more than at fifty or sixty percent capacity, and that only happened if big parties came.\n\nBut… that day, something had been different. Barry had been snacking on his own creations a bit more than usual as he felt a rumbling in his stomach he hadn’t for months. It wasn’t the usual “oh, I can take a bite” kind of rumble, but the “I need food” kind of rumble.\n\nHe was hungry.\n\nAnd he was not the only one. People began coming into the restaurant almost immediately, ordering food and putting him to work. Barry frowned as soon over 80% of the seating had been taken, and people kept coming, all talking about how they suddenly felt hungry and had an urge to eat.\n\nIt wasn’t just his restaurant either. He saw out of the window that the guy across the street selling that heretical vegan stuff was also at full capacity, truly proving the desperation of the masses.\n\nBack at his own place, customers just kept coming as soon no more seating was there, and they waited all the way out the door as Barry had his best day of business ever since opening.\n\nAn emergency meeting was being held as the governing body of Sanctdome was under heavy pressure. Jacob sat at the end of the table as the man in charge of the food supply explained the situation, all while failing to snack on something looking a bit like jerky.\n\nJacob had also failed to hold himself back as he had eaten a sandwich just before this meeting, and even now, he failed to restrain his desire to grab another just after.\n\n“We are under significant pressure from several groups and parties as the kitchens have run out of food. Even the private sector is facing a shortage due to the sudden influx of customers… what is happening? Are we under attack by something?”\n\n“Sir, there is signs of civil unrest, and many complain at the lack of proper preparation from our side… we need to do something, and fast, or we may face a legitimate crisis,” the man in charge of security explained while snacking on some fruit on the table. They had actually just been there for show, but only a few berries remained by now.\n\nJacob wracked his mind as the same issue was playing out in every single settlement of the Holy Church. Some places had enough food by themselves, but the megacity Sanctdomo was simply too big. They could normally handle the food situation, but suddenly everyone became hungry and wanted to eat something, nearly simultaneously.\n\nThe timing couldn’t be any worse either as the System Store had just disappeared, making easy acquisition hard. Merchants had already been pressed for everything they had to sell, but they hadn’t exactly banked on such a situation happening either.\n\n“All we can do is damage control,” Jacob finally said as he prepared to head out and try to placate the masses before any true rioting and looting began.\n\nSimilar scenes played out all over the planet. Cities found themselves facing an issue none had predicted as suddenly food became a much-needed commodity. Some merchants became rich, others cursed their own luck, while everyone was hungry and needed to eat.\n\nThe only ones spared were the Risen… for as undead, they did not require food at all. They still lived off mana and felt like they wanted to absorb a little more than usual, but it was something they easily handled.\n\nEven beasts were affected as they did something rare: actually ate their prey. Predators left their dens and ◈ Nоvеlіgһт ◈ (Continue reading) sought out victims to sate their hunger as fighting broke out all across the world. The corpses usually eaten by weaker lifeforms meant that they now also found themselves struggling as entire ecosystems faced unprecedented challenges.\n\nThis entire crisis continued, with everyone wondering what the cause of this strange occurrence was. Cities struggled, the ecosystem was in an uproar as beasts killed more than ever before. Many theories were made, but only a select few knew the true reason.\n\nThat it was all because Jake wanted to make a cool new weapon.\n\nCarnage was all that was left in his wake. The once sprawling colony had become a wasteland of death and destruction as Jake tore through it, killing anything that moved in his path. He went deeper and deeper as he delved further down than perhaps any human had ever been before.\n\nOnly D-grades stood before him as Jake killed them. Giant insects the sizes of trucks, mandibles able to tear any pre-system metal apart effortlessly slaughtered wholesale.\n\nJake himself was barely conscious as he growled and tore foe after foe into pieces. A particularly massive termite suddenly shot up from beneath, but Jake naturally reacted in time as he had seen it coming through his sphere a long time ago.\n\nYet he let it consume him, as he even accelerated himself downwards to dodge the mandibles. Scales covered his body, and he soon found himself in a stomach full of acid that failed to do anything to his body. Jake began hacking away at the inner walls of the stomach as blood mixed with the acid. Every slash absorbed the insect’s energy as it tried to spit him out and get rid of him.\n\nIt managed to do some things as spike-like teeth appeared on its inner walls, but all the wounds it made only made Jake bleed poisoned blood, speeding up its death.\n\nJake tore himself out of the body of the massive termite when his blade stopped absorbing vital energy as he ran forward to kill more.\n\nOccasionally, Jake would get glimpses of clarity if the curse was momentarily sated after a big kill. It was only for a brief period, but every one of them was spent usefully.\n\nThe killing was needed to sate the blade… but he needed more. Jake could not continue as he was currently with the insects getting stronger. The last one had been level 160, and even if he had killed it relatively easily, he had still taken damage.\n\nSo to make up for any downtime, Jake tried to keep the blade fed. Natural treasures originally used to create vitality-increasing elixirs, herbs of various kinds, and even a few beast cores he found compatible had been consumed by the weapon.\n\nNow, it was time to part with some items he was rather fond of.\n\n[Indigo Fungus Mycorrhiza Lifevine (Rare)] - The Lifevine of an Indigo Fungus Mycorrhiza. The Lifevine is a part of the main body of the fungus. Contains intense amounts of vital energy and is incredibly resilient. Can be used in a myriad of alchemical creations.\n\n[Indigo Fungus Mycorrhiza Lifecore (Epic)] - The Lifecore of an Indigo Fungus Mycorrhiza. Contains a massive amount of life affinity mana and vital energy. Can be used in a myriad of alchemical creations. Will grant a permanent increase to the Vitality stat if consumed.\n\nOriginally the plan was to make elixirs with them, but he was out of options. Jake consumed a potion as he simply used Alchemical Flame to melt down the Lifecore and let it drip unto the blade, as he felt it revel in the intense life energy. If Jake had consumed this himself, he would have gained a permanent increase to Vitality, but now it was just a drop in the pond.\n\nAfter that, Jake had it consume the Lifevines. All of this allowed Jake to get a good half an hour of meditation in as soon, the hunger struck again. Jake tried to sit still… he really did, but he just had to go again."}
{"text": "\"The rules of a restricted duel are as follows,\" he said, avoiding Cale's stare. \"First: the restriction must be adhered to by all participants of the duel. In this case, all spellwork must be derived from spells of the Standard Array as defined by the Gift—\"\n\nWhiteleaf cleared her throat. \"And you can't cheat, in case you're thinking about it,\" she said, her tone insufferably smug. \"The Gift itself will moderate a mage's duel. You can only put mana into Standard Array spells. Of course, if the Gift happens to modify those spells for you, that's allowed. It means you're divinely ordained by the God of Magic himself.\"\n\nShe was smirking. Cale cocked his head curiously, watching as the elves around her began whispering to one another. Something about a royal decree and Brightgrove secrets? Clearly, Whiteleaf believed this was some sort of secret advantage she had.\n\n\"Second,\" the professor said, doing his best to ignore Whiteleaf. \"Basic mana manipulation, such as barriers, are allowed. Bear in mind they are for defensive purposes only.\"\n\nCale was starting to feel bad for Whiteleaf.\n\n\"Third, a mage's duel consists of a set of three challenges,\" Graystalk said. \"Only two of the three need to be won for the victor to be determined, and the challenged may pick two of the three challenges to be done first. For a Standard Array restriction, the potential challenges are set in stone—you may choose between them, but may not come up with one of your own.\"\n\nAs he spoke, the professor strode back to his desk, rummaging around for a moment before withdrawing a scroll that looked old and withered. Cale carefully rolled it open, glancing over the challenges.\n\nWell... this would make it easier not to accidentally kill Whiteleaf, as long as she didn't choose the combat challenge.\n\n\"Fourth, the winner will acquire the loser's Wing credits, up to a maximum of three.\"\n\nWell, he only had one of those.\n\n\"And finally,\" Graystalk said, drawing Cale's attention. \"A mage may choose a second to take their place at any point during any of the challenges. The second must agree to this, and it must be an individual that was present when the duel was issued.\"\n\nHuh. What a strange restriction. It was definitely in Whiteleaf's favor—the majority of the class was composed of elves, and he was pretty sure they were all Brightgrove loyalists—but it wasn't like he was going to need a second.\n\n\"I'll help, if you want,\" Syphus whispered to him. Cale jumped. He'd forgotten the golem was there. \"Always wanted the chance to kick her smug face in. Just let me take one of the credits when we win.\"\n\nCale opened his mouth to point out that Syphus didn't have any legs, remembered [Blabbermouth], and paused. \"You think she's going to pick the combat challenge?\" he asked instead. \"Will you be able to handle her? You're Astral too, right?\"\n\nPresumably, that was the reason Whiteleaf seemed to have it out for Syphus. The golem snorted, and Cale almost flinched as one of its etherite crystals darted out to point at a line in the scroll. \"I am, but the combat challenge only specifies that the duel lasts until one participant is exhausted of their mana,\" it said smugly. \"I've challenged her to a duel before, believe it or not, but she has never accepted. In this case, however...\"\n\nSyphus didn't have a mouth, but somehow Cale got the impression it was giving him an evil grin. He paused for a moment.\n\n\"Well,\" he said. \"I don't plan on picking the combat challenge, so hopefully it won't come to that—\"\n\n\"I choose the combat challenge,\" Whiteleaf announced loudly, smirking at the two of them.\n\n\"—by which I mean welcome to the team,\" Cale finished, sticking a hand out to Syphus. He could almost swear it was smirking at him when it reached out to shake his hand once more.\n\nCale wondered what its story was. Maybe he'd get the chance to find out later. Golems weren't typically this lively or self-assured, and the etherite crown it was sporting... that was a strange choice for a golem.\n\nFor now, though, he turned his attention back to the scroll and went about picking out his two challenges. Graystalk hadn't indicated any kind of time limit, after all, and Whiteleaf was turning more and more purple with every second that passed.\n\nCale didn't want to waste that much time on all this, but it was a perfect opportunity to make a game out of seeing how purple she could get.\n\n* * *\n\n\"The first challenge will be in spell acquisition,\" Professor Graystalk announced.\n\nIt hadn't taken that long for Cale to decide on the challenges he'd compete in. Mostly, he picked them based on what he thought would be funniest, and as far as he was concerned, the selections he'd made were all a delight. He was pretty sure Graystalk knew what he was doing, too, or the professor wouldn't have given him that look of exasperated amusement.\n\nIn spite of any professional reluctance he might have held, though, he didn't take much convincing—especially when Whiteleaf began shooting them her trademark disgusted looks. Nor was he blind to the impact that this duel might have on his class and their perception of the Standard Array.\n\nAs a result, they'd all been moved outside, much to the confusion of the elven majority of the class. Syphus thought it strange, but was mostly just pleased by the added maneuverability granted by the academy's training grounds. Cale was the only one that understood why Graystalk moved them all outside, and he wasn't about to start explaining.\n\nIt'd be much more fun to show them, after all.\n\nThe particular training ground Graystalk brought them to didn't have much in the way of warding. It was, as best Cale could tell, a location selected explicitly to handle the more destructive of the Academy's students.\n\nWhich is to say it was pretty much just a patch of sand from the same desert Cale had needed to trek through to get here to begin with. Many of the elves, including Whiteleaf, looked uncomfortable and out of place in the middle of all that sand; in fact, of the elves, Graystalk was the only one that seemed entirely comfortable.\n\nSyphus was outright delighted by the sand, but that didn't surprise Cale. The golem was rolling around in it joyfully, almost as if it had forgotten about the upcoming duel. Its attention was quickly grabbed when Graystalk began speaking again, though.\n\n\"I will demonstrate one spell from the Standard Array that neither of you have learned,\" the professor said, his arms folded neatly behind his back. \"As a reminder, the average mage requires thirty minutes to an hour to learn a spell from the Standard Array. The acquisition challenge stipulates that the spell must be acquired within fifteen minutes, or else the challenge selector—in this case, Cale—forfeits the challenge. Otherwise, the mage that first acquires the spell is considered the victor.\"\n\nWhiteleaf rolled her eyes. \"Seriously,\" she said. \"You chose acquisition? Against a Brightgrove royal? The Gift favors us, you know.\"\n\nCale ignored her, much to her irritation. \"How will you know who got the spell first?\" he asked. \"Do we have to demonstrate the spell?\"\n\n\"No,\" Graystalk said. \"Official challenges such as these are mediated in part by the Gift. It will mark whoever acquires the spell first with golden mana.\"\n\n\"Perfect.\" Cale nodded, satisfied. The elves were muttering among one another, alternating between staring at Cale and Whiteleaf; one or two of them, he noticed, were starting to look hesitant, like they understood something here was off.\n\nThose were the clever ones. He winked at them, and they immediately pretended they hadn't been staring.\n\n\"If there are no further questions, we will begin,\" Graystalk said. He closed his eyes and reached out, palm up. \"O Gift of Karath, we call on your attention, for a challenge has been set and must be answered; grant us the gift of knowledge, that we may know fool from victor, and mage from charlatan...\"\n\nCale blinked. He hadn't expected that. It was similar to a divine chant of sorts, but sure enough, he could feel the Gift's attention slowly grow on both he and Whiteleaf, not that Whiteleaf seemed like she noticed anything.\n\n\"Now,\" Graystalk said. \"Watch closely.\""}
{"text": "“No, not really… but your mother seemed genuine. There is definitely more going on than you know,” Jake shook his head. “I think hearing out their side can be beneficial. Not for them, but for you. If you don’t figure things out, you may discover something in the future that will make you look back at today with regret. If they prove to still be absolute assholes, you will always be able to turn the situation around to your advantage. Remember, you are in the right here. You decide what happens today, not them.”\n\nCarmen finally sat down and stared at the expensive-looking coffee table. “What will you do if things turn bad?”\n\n“Depends on what you want me to do,” Jake shrugged. “Ah, but I did place a Hunter’s Mark on each of your parents to keep an eye on them. To be safe, ya know.”\n\nShe just shook her head and smiled a bit. Jake knew she still had no idea what she wanted to happen and that it all depended on what her family chose to do. It was all a complicated reason, and Jake was just happy nothing was really up to him. He would just do his simple task of making sure Carmen made choices with an at least partly clear mind.\n\nMinutes passed as they sat there, just chatting a bit. Carmen decided now was a good idea to discuss how many people undervalued good form while in the gym and how important it truly was when building muscle, especially when focusing on building specific muscles. Jake had rarely seen someone so obviously just talking about a random topic to take their thoughts off things, but he nevertheless listened and engaged.\n\nIt took more than twenty minutes before anyone even addressed them aside from the first servant. Jake had noticed many attempts to probe them and observe or listen in, but Jake’s barrier was too good for their bad scouting attempts to work. This wasn’t only because Jake was good, but because the attempts were half-arsed at best.\n\nThe door to the room opened, and in came another servant. “The family will receive you now,” the woman said courteously.\n\nThis choice of words was not lost on Jake, but Carmen didn’t seem to care much as she just got up. Jake had dispelled the barrier when he saw the servant approach and followed her out. Their welcome so far had been less than welcoming… they weren’t even offered tea and cookies.\n\nThey were led through the grand mansion and into what Jake guessed was a banquet hall. Jake already saw the gathering of people in the hall before the double door was opened. “Prepare yourself. It looks like they are pretty much all there,” Jake said, infusing his voice with a bit of Willpower to only let Carmen hear.\n\nMore than fifty people were gathered. Around thirty of them were suits or dresses and other such fancy clothes, while twenty were guards or servants. It was quite something. Jake saw Carmen steel herself as the doors were opened, revealing the entire hall and the many people gathered. It reminded Jake of the most intimidating job interview imaginable, with all of them just staring at the maskless Carmen.\n\nNow, Jake had expected many opening questions… but not even he could predict this one.\n\n“Child, what on god’s earth are you wearing?” a woman who looked to be well in her seventies with frilly hair and a baggy dress asked.\n\nCarmen was wearing her combat outfit. Cured leather, metal bracers, heavy combat boots, and generally, she looked ready for a fight at any moment. The only skin she revealed was her face and bare hands. Meanwhile, every other woman in the room wore dresses or other “elegant” clothes.\n\n“Mother, cut her some slack. She must have had a hard time traveling all this way,” another woman cut in.\n\n“Doesn’t excuse her lack of proper etiquette,” a third woman cut in.\n\n“Also, who is this man? And look at those… things on his feet. Do the servants not vet any random homeless person who wanders in?” a man chimed in.\n\n“Now, now, let’s all calm down,” a fourth woman finally said as she raised her hand. Jake recognized her instantly as the woman Carmen had mentioned was her hated aunt, the mother of her most-hated cousin, Beatrice. To note, then Beatrice was not present in the room currently, but Jake saw her in another room off to the side, clearly observing them through some monitoring device. With her was a relatively thin and nerdy-looking man with glasses. He was currently giving her a shoulder massage as she looked at the confrontation between Carmen and the rest of the Salvento family.\n\n“Carmen, it truly is you,” the aunt said as she was all smiles. “I cannot tell you how much of a surprise this is. We had feared the worst when we failed to get in contact with you after so long, and I cannot tell you how happy we are to see you return to us. I am sure that if you work hard, then our family can find it in our hearts to forgive you and move on. With the world in such turmoil, isn’t it a great opportunity to give new chances?”\n\nTo her credit, Carmen didn’t lose her shit but just stood with a steely face.\n\n“That’s it?” she finally asked after a good five seconds of silence.\n\n“Carmen! Be respectful, and do not make this more difficult than it has to be!” her father yelled from across the room. He was red-faced, and Jake noticed how Carmen’s mother was just standing all the way in the back, looking down with tears in her eyes.\n\n“Nothing is difficult here,” Carmen shot back.\n\n“She is right,” the aunt agreed. “Now, Carmen. I must know, why did you come now? Why come at all?”\n\nThe mixed messaging could not be more clear. On the one hand, the aunt welcomed her back with open arms while simultaneously questioning why she would come back as if it was obvious she wasn’t welcome.\n\n“I felt like I had to,” Carmen answered truthfully.\n\n“Daft as ever,” the old woman – Carmen’s grandmother - said. “After all the trouble you caused, you dare show your face like this again? You dare show up covered in dirt, ignoring all etiquette and social norms by just barging in the door? Without a single apology? You should be on your knees begging for forgiveness from your aunt and your cous-“\n\n“Enough!”\n\nJake had expected Carmen to be the one yelling, but while the voice was similar, it wasn’t her. Her mother broke out of the crowd and ran towards Carmen as she stood in front of her. “This is… enough!”\n\nCarmen stared confused at the woman’s back. While it made a bit more sense to Jake, he chose to stay silent as he curiously observed.\n\n“Maura, what in god’s name are you doing!” Carmen’s father yelled. He looked both worried and infuriated at what was happening.\n\n“This isn’t right or at all what we agreed! You promised-“\n\n“Maura,” the aunt cut her off as she stared down at Carmen’s mother. “Think very carefully about what you want to do or say next.”\n\nThe woman hesitated as Jake decided to get a little involved. He infused his voice with a bit of Willpower and whispered into the woman’s ear.\n\n“Just speak. Do not underestimate your daughter, and share the truth. Have no doubt that the side you now stand on is the superior one.”\n\nNo one but her heard his voice, and she looked bewildered for a moment, but it seemed to have given her the confidence. She gritted her teeth as she yelled:\n\n“Why should I trust anything any of you say! I already lost my daughter once, and I will not do so again! You promised me she would be out of prison within a year and be back with us! You swore you were doing everything and that as long as we kept our distance, we would be fine! You never did anything!” the woman practically screamed.\n\n“Maura, shut your mouth right now and apologize! Get back here and-“\n\n“No! I am not leaving my daughter again!”\n\nThe situation had turned tense a lot quicker than expected. The woman called Maura had only managed to share a few details, but Jake could see Carmen was shaken. She looked unsure of what to do, and Jake placed a hand on her shoulder to calm her down.\n\nCarmen looked up as she collected her thoughts. She seemed to make a decision as she stepped forward. “I think there are some things I need to know. Mother, please follow me so we can-“"}
{"text": "Honestly, before the tutorial began, he couldn’t remember the last time he truly had fun. Sure, he had enjoyable times, but if he was genuine with himself, then the last half a year or so were the best in living memory. Of course, there had been hard times and difficulties, but all in all, everything had finally become… interesting.\n\nThe Minotaur Mindchief had wandered through his memories. Jake had wandered with it and experienced the mundanity that had been his life. Everything was black and white. Monotone. There was no color, nothing that truly interested him or made him happy. He now realized the reason for that had been simple… it was his own doing.\n\nHis bloodline had always been with him. It had awakened on the first day of the tutorial… but that wasn’t the first time it had become fully active. His mom and dad had told him he was such a wild child. He was quiet as a baby, but when he became a toddler, he always had to push the limits. Climb trees, get in fights, and all that.\n\nIt was him pushing himself. Challenging himself. All of that was fine and dandy… until Caleb was born. Caleb was afraid of Jake. As his brother, Jake had a natural sense of competition with his little brother, and without being aware, he had utterly tried to suppress Caleb with his presence back then. It was childish and stupid, and all it led to was Caleb always crying. Always afraid.\n\nYet Jake also wanted to protect his brother - because while there was a rivalry, there was also a sense of family. So, in the end, Jake had begun subconsciously suppressing his bloodline. Suppressing his emotions and his real self. Perhaps his supernatural intuition had also made him aware even back then: this was not the world for the Primal Hunter. The bloodline was more trouble than good.\n\nUntil the tutorial, that is. When it awakened again.\n\nThis related back to his inability to interact with women he found attractive. Because it could lead to emotions. Emotions would lead to interest. Interest would lead to disappointment. Disappointment would lead to failure. And finally, failure could lead to anger.\n\nJake had never broken up with anyone. Every time they broke up with him. Even Madeline had agreed that the honeymoon phase was amazing until Jake began getting boring. Most relationships had been duds from the start. Lasting only a few months tops. Only Madeline from university had lasted over a year, and she was the first person Jake took a genuine interest in even after the first few months.\n\nBut… being emotional was still not something he could really do. It had led to her disappointment in the end. He didn’t know how to act. Jake had to admit that most relationships were just ones of convenience. Whenever a woman or girl came onto him, he had no real reasons not to engage. So the first time he was with one he actually cared about, and she betrayed him, he did what he had to do to protect himself.\n\nThis was why he had been actively avoiding potentially similar situations since back in university. It was just easier. If he didn’t let anyone in, they couldn’t hurt him. It was a simple solution, and Jake truthfully never had any need for romantic companionship.\n\nNow that his bloodline was fully awakened, everything wasn’t gray and dull anymore. He also noted how his attraction to Caroline faded nearly instantly. She just wasn’t interesting anymore. In the end, he only ever found her attractive… but that was that.\n\nIt was just lust. A purely instinctual thing that Jake had learned to control a lot better than most, he reckoned. Even with a suppressed bloodline, he had still had above average instincts. But just because he was attracted to someone didn’t mean it would lead to something. He had gone through puberty with improved instincts without any incidents. That should be proof enough.\n\nA part of him was fully aware that if Jake stopped controlling himself, he would turn into someone he didn’t want to be. Some people didn’t restrain or control themselves in this new world, and that led to fucked up individuals. It led to people like Donald. Jake would rather put a dagger through his own throat than end up like that fucker just because he couldn’t keep his dick in his pants.\n\nHe was strong now. If he had walked in on Andy and Madeline as he was now, he would likely have broken Andy’s nose and told Madeline to fuck off without breaking down. He wouldn’t wallow in self-pity for years and drown himself in work. It had been the best choice back then—both for himself, Madeline, and Andy.\n\nBecause Jake did feel something when he walked in on them back then. Rage. Before the system, that was likely the time his bloodline was closest to reawakening. He wanted to get revenge back then when he saw them in that bed. The reason he just walked out was to control himself. Because if he had stayed… well, he would have killed both of them. No two ways about it. His only response back then was to avoid the situation. To hide and keep all his emotions bottled up. It was pathetic and cowardly, but that was how he had learned to handle life.\n\nBut it was all different now. Jake had grown a lot. At least, he thought so «N.o.v.e.l.i.g.h.t» himself. Maybe the increased stats made memories more vivid and sped up brain functions and all that, but reflecting on himself as a person had become a lot ‘easier,’ if that made sense.\n\nAnd right now, he was growing further as he managed to act completely normal with a woman he found attractive. If it had been Caroline back then, he couldn’t do it. He would be awkward and be unable to think straight.\n\nAll of this isn’t to say Jake liked Miranda. Well, he liked her, but he didn’t like her. He was attracted to her, sure, but that wasn’t the same. He had been attracted to Caroline too, and she turned out to be a shit-tier person. A guy finding a woman attractive was pretty damn normal, to begin with, and with evolutions making everyone into supermodels… yeah. If he couldn’t act normal around women he found attractive; he soon wouldn’t be able to be around anyone of the opposite sex.\n\nHe liked Miranda as a person and a colleague. Jake truthfully wasn’t interested in a relationship. Not right now. He was still D-grade, and he had a long way ahead of him. A relationship would chain him down and create another weakness for him. He saw no reason to invite that into his life. Besides, he liked the dynamic he and Miranda had going on.\n\nShe was the brains of the operation, and he was the brawn. They were partners. Even if, for all intents and purposes, Jake was in the superior position. He held all the power. But he could handle it.\n\nJake was confident that he was a person who wouldn’t find himself corrupted by power… because he had always been powerful. He had always suppressed himself. There were no two ways about it; Jake had been born superior to other humans. He had been forced to bury that superior aspect of himself to fit in and survive. Now, he just didn’t need to do that as much anymore. But that didn’t mean he didn’t have the practice. But he could see others fall. Be corrupted by sudden power. For many more Donalds to be out there.\n\nThey would be wise not to visit Haven.\n\nThe man saw the city in the distance. It was an old medieval-looking building surrounded by houses. The man smiled as he had found his destination. He turned to his followers as he spoke:\n\n“Looks like we’ve found Haven.”\n\nHe looked at one of the women with him as he gave her a pat on the head. “Good girl.”\n\nShe nodded and smiled. None of the three others with the man said anything either. They knew not to speak. For such was one of their rules.\n\nThe man took out his notebook, and a pen appeared in his hand. He turned to one of the pages and in it made a star. He heard the muffled groan of the woman who was in charge of scouting as she got her star. She had done well; it was only fair to reward her efforts.\n\n“Now show your appreciation,” he said as he moved the cloth from her shoulder, revealing the star seared into her flesh and admiring his mark.\n\n“Thank you, Sultan,” she said with a bowed head and a meek voice."}
{"text": "Julius thought about that for a little bit, but he wasn’t the person to answer Doren.\n\n“That would be wonderful, my lord,” Edwin stated respectfully.\n\nHowever, Doren didn’t even give Edwin a single glance or hint that he acknowledged his words. Instead, he continued to stare at Julius, waiting for a response.\n\nJulius trusted that Edwin had a reason for this and nodded. “Sure, knock him out. I just hope that this won’t get you too involved,” he said with an apologetic wince.\n\n“It’s too late for that. I have already involved myself more than I should have. I might as well do what I want,” Doren said, sounding not as bothered as Julius expected. He had made it sound to Julius that getting too involved would be a big issue, so Julius thought that he would have been more upset about being wrapped in this even more.\n\nThe Tier 5, who was staring in their direction, suddenly collapsed to the ground like a marionette with its strings cut. There wasn’t a single hint of mana or aura from Doren as he casually knocked out someone much stronger than Julius.\n\n“Okay, so what is it?” Doren asked.\n\nJulius paused for a moment as he watched Edwin remove his face covering and gave him a bright smile. He didn’t even hesitate to [Void Step] over and wrap the stern butler in a tight hug. Edwin didn’t even complain either. He just wrapped his arms around Julius just as tightly.\n\nJulius smiled, holding back the tears that were welling up in his eyes.\n\nIt was only after a minute or so that Edwin finally pushed him away and looked at Doren, who was looking at the two of them.\n\nIt didn't take Julius long to tell Doren about Edwin and how he had trained Julius when he was younger. He also told him that they had been separated after being attacked by Clan Genshen and others.\n\nDoren didn’t interrupt and listened patiently. Once he was done, he looked at Edwin with a slight grin as if something finally made sense.\n\n“So you’re the reason why he’s like this, huh?”\n\nEdwin shook his head empathically. “Nope, he was like this long before I started to teach him. I remember when he used to run around shoving anything he could find into his orifices.”\n\n“Hey! Don’t make it sound like that,” Julius spoke up defensively.\n\nAll Edwin did was grin and shake his head with amused exasperation.\n\n***\n\nAfter their heartfelt reunion, Edwin immediately acted just like Julius remembered. “Why are you here?” Edwin asked him with a narrowing of his stern eyes.\n\n“What do you mean? I am here for the rift expedition. You should know that since you and your buddy were attacking us,” Julius said accusingly.\n\n“He’s not my buddy,” Edwin said, clearly offended by that.\n\n“But you were still attacking us,” Julius pointed out.\n\n“Yes, and I already told you why,” Edwin said, looking away, showing a hint of guilt.\n\nJulius grumbled and looked at the still-ongoing battle around them. Apparently, Edwin had a good reason for being here, and despite his friends being attacked, Julius couldn’t find much fault in Edwin’s actions.\n\nEdwin was working for the Conclave to infiltrate their network. He had been making pretty good progress up their ranks as well; unfortunately, this little reunion had put a wrench in his plans.\n\n“More importantly, why in the hell’s name are you already Tier 3?” Edwin asked, sounding like a disappointed father.\n\nJulius tilted his head at Edwin. “What do you mean, how? I just advanced,” he answered casually, knowing that his tone would annoy Edwin, and he was absolutely correct. Edwin held back his annoyance with his typical pursing of his lips.\n\nOh, how Julius had missed this. He still savored the times when he would tease Edwin just like this in the past.\n\nEdwin didn’t seem amused. “Did you forget about what I told you about advancing too early?”\n\nJulius didn’t meet his gaze. “Of course not!” He said unconvincingly.\n\nEdwin only needed to give him one look for Julius to crumble. “Okay, maybe a little, but my foundation is good, trust me,” he assured Edwin.\n\nEdwin was clearly going to argue or say something but ultimately held back.\n\nDoren chose this time to intervene. “So, what have you two decided?” He asked the two of them, sounding like he was enjoying this moment.\n\nAfter Julius had explained the situation to Doren, they all realized that they needed to take action. However, they had yet to decide what they would do.\n\n“Well, it is going to be pretty obvious that something is going on. Tuan is an ass, but he isn’t stupid. He will be able to put some things together,” Edwin explained.\n\n“What if we kill him?” Julius offered, ignoring the alarmed and somewhat weirdly proud look from Edwin.\n\n“If we kill Tuan, the Conclave is definitely going to suspect something is up.”\n\n“Yeah, but he also tried to kill me and my friends, so I don’t want him just to walk free,” Julius said.\n\nDoren interrupted him. “I am not killing that man for you,” he said firmly.\n\nJulius immediately understood that he was serious about this and didn’t try to argue.\n\n“So what then? Are you going to go back to them?”\n\n“I am pretty close to finding out what they really want, so I would like to keep on infiltrating.”\n\n“And if Tuan is suspicious of you?” Julius pointed out.\n\n“I will find some excuse, don’t worry about me. I can always tell him that Doren ordered me to take it easy on you,” Edwin stated with a teasing grin.\n\n“Easy? Like you have ever taken it easy on me,” Julius scoffed.\n\nEdwin smiled when he saw that Julius was feeling competitive. “He doesn’t know that. But it will make our behavior more believable.”\n\nJulius couldn’t really find much fault in his logic. He knew logically that having Edwin spy on the Conclave was a very useful thing. He didn’t realize how Edwin got past the soul oaths and stuff, but the fact that he was already in a good position to help take down the Conclave and, by proxy, House Greyson, was very attractive. An opportunity that he didn't think they could afford to give up.\n\nWhile he and Edwin discussed some of the finer details of their plan, he suddenly shot his attention to the newcomer approaching them.\n\nAs they were talking, the Tier 5 from the Adventurer’s Guild had finally beaten the lightning beast. The beast had activated some last-ditch ability and transformed into a pure bolt of lightning.\n\nThe cat-like monster had been wreaking havoc in the area. He saw Tier 4s get burnt to a crisp hundreds of feet away just by being touched by a little spark. His skin was practically tingling even from this distance. The other surviving members of the expedition were backing away as well. They knew better than to stay within the reach of the lightning.\n\nIt was bad enough that the monster had taken complete control of the fight. The cat was pressuring the Tier 5 so badly that it was close to killing him.\n\nIt would have likely killed him if not for the sudden and shocking appearance of another Tier 5 hidden away in the ship. A woman wearing nothing but shorts and a plain T-shirt saved Simon. She tanked the powerful lightning like it was a light breeze and ripped the monster into two with her bare hands, not giving a fuck about the powerful ripples of lightning crackling over her body.\n\nHe knew right away that she was scary. She might have even been at the same level as Marcus. It was hard to believe, but she had taken care of that lightning beast so casually and with such speed.\n\nThat same woman was already heading over to them. Her auburn hair glimmered in the light, and her eyes never left Doren the entire time.\n\nHe didn’t know if Doren was even hiding from her or if she had a skill that allowed her to sense him. Either way, she was rapidly approaching.\n\nWhen she finally did, she gave a hard experimental kick to the Tier 5. When she was satisfied with whatever she was testing, she turned to look back at Doren.\n\n“Why is someone like you here?” She asked Doren straightforwardly.\n\n“What? Am I not supposed to be here?” Doren stated with a tilt of his head.\n\n“Only a small number of people know of this location,” she said calmly."}
{"text": "However, unlike a living monster, this didn’t seem to bother the undead all that much. It continued to try to swing at him with its chipped, rusty sword. There was a faint layer of sickly green energy surrounding the blade, and Julius was smart enough to avoid it.\n\nHe used [Void Step] to reposition a few feet away and ripped the head off of another undead. This seemed to do the trick.\n\nHe sensed that there was some kind of core of mana inside the chest of the undead. It was very likely that if he targeted this, it would also kill them for good. Not seeing a reason not to try out his idea, he sidestepped the attack of an undead who swung at him from behind and slammed his palm into its chest.\n\nHe made sure to concentrate all of the kinetic energy into a narrow point. However, he made the mistake of making it too narrow, and he lost control of the kinetic energy before it could pierce the core. For his error, he found himself swarmed by multiple attacks from undead from all sides.\n\nHe made sure that he only used kinetic energy but that also meant he wasn’t able to create a barrier of mana to protect himself.\n\nHe had to rely on his kinetic affinity to siphon the force of the blows, which didn’t go all that well. It wasn’t like absorbing the force of a punch, a sword was sharp so even if there wasn’t a lot of kinetic energy behind it, the blade could still cut him.\n\nThe other annoying part of these undead was that they were pretty strong. While they were slower than average Tier 3s, their physical strength was alarmingly high. And their blades cut deeply into his unenhanced skin. However, the bigger issue was the green energy that slipped into his flesh.\n\nIt was like acid and started to eat away at his skin and his mana. There was also a weird effect that heightened the pain he experienced, but thankfully, [Sage of Savagery] prevented it from affecting him too badly. He didn’t wish to, but he was forced to use [Phoenix Renewal] and heal himself.\n\nUsing a burst of kinetic energy, he threw the undead, which had been swarming him, away from him. He mentally reset. He had been severely underestimating these undead and reminded himself that if not for his healing skill, he would have been in trouble.\n\nHe took one calming breath and actually focused. He then started to collect kinetic energy and began to channel it through his body. He took some inspiration from his mana control and used his kinetic energy to cover his fists like gauntlets.\n\nThen, as the undead reconverged on him, he began to unload this kinetic energy into their skulls. He didn’t know why he had been trying to be all delicate and try to force his kinetic energy into a tiny little cone. He was a brute force kind of guy, and he needed to lean into it, especially when kinetic energy was already so good for that type of fighting.\n\nHe laughed amusedly to himself as he continued to dance through their sickly green blades and slammed strike after strike into the closest undead. He didn’t need to be elegant. He just needed to be more brutal.\n\nAnd so with an enthusiastic grin on his face, he continued to push his way through the enemies. He didn’t pay any heed to the small injuries. He just made sure that he didn’t take any large or impeding ones. He didn’t like to rely on [Phoenix Renewal], and the fact that he already had to use it to save himself frustrated him.\n\nHowever, he used this frustration to power his swings and used generous pulses of vicious kinetic energy to wipe out this massive group of undead. He made sure to practice [Void Step] and got used to being very efficient with that skill. He had the mana to spare since he was using kinetic energy, but that didn’t mean he wanted to build bad habits. He would mainly use the skill to reposition if he felt he was being corralled into a corner. Otherwise, he would use kinetic energy through his feet to dash forward with swift and abrupt movements.\n\nHe continued this until there wasn’t a single one left standing and he was surrounded by silent corpses that he finally relaxed his shoulders. A large bright smile appeared on his face. It had been a great warmup and he couldn’t wait to see what was deeper in the rift.\n\nThings were finally getting more interesting.\n\nA note from l-Ryn-l\n\nThank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed!\n\nIf you did and wish to read up to 25 chapters ahead, please consider checking out my Patreon!\n\nChapter 365: Reckless Stampede\n\nThere was something quite interesting about the sickly green energy that infected his wounds. There were definitely Concepts involved, but he was more interested in how little death-aspected mana he sensed from it. Considering they were undead, he would have expected something much more death-related.\n\nThis substance was more like an actual poison than anything else. It was the very reason why his willpower and mana control weren’t able to just wipe it away. It took some actual effort to remove from his wounds. Luckily, fire was an amazing thing for this kind of thing, and once he was done cleaning up the undead, he gave himself a quick cleanse with [Phoenix Renewal], letting the fire wipe out the remaining poison.\n\nHe also smiled when he saw the notifications after he was done.\n\n[Void Step lvl 2 -> lvl 3]\n\n[Absolute Spatial Perception lvl 2 -> lvl 3]\n\nHe had been planning to keep on using only his kinetic energy, but he also realized that this could be a good time to focus on his Sharpness Concept. Which is why when he sensed the monsters up ahead, he gathered the Concept and channeled it through his body.\n\nOne thing he noticed about the Concept was that it didn’t work so well when he wasn’t using something with a sharp edge. Which made sense because it was called a Sharpness Concept and not a Dull Concept.\n\nFor example, his Force Concept seamlessly infused itself with his kinetic energy. It barely took any effort or thought on his end.\n\nStill, he wanted to make it work somehow. Perhaps he could modify the Concept slightly to make it more versatile.\n\nThankfully, he had some eager volunteers already coming up to him to test his ideas.\n\nThe undead were much like the previous ones, and he once again found himself in a chaotic dance, using kinetic energy to weave in and out of the undead’s attacks. His physical strength and speed weren’t as great as they could have been without his primary enhancement skill aiding him, but it was honestly for the better. If he had been using the skill, it would have been overkill.\n\nThis way, he at least had to put in some effort. It also gave it an extra level of danger, pushing him to improve at a faster pace.\n\nHis Sharpness Concept was ripping out of his fists. He hadn’t created any constructs to cover his hands, which made it harder to work, but he still maintained it.\n\nInstead of using the Concept to try to cut through the undead’s bodies, he was using it more as a smashing force. Without a blade or something sharp, making clean cuts was a pipe dream, and what he got instead was much more clumsy. It was like he was tearing bread apart with his hands, rather than using a knife.\n\nWhen he was in the middle of slamming his fist into the face of another undead, he was hit by an interesting idea. He grinned as he couldn’t find a reason why he shouldn’t at least try it out, so without hesitation, he started to channel his Concept into his kinetic energy itself.\n\nHowever, this turned out to be a massive mistake. What he hadn’t realized was just how much kinetic energy was already flowing throughout his body and by infusing the energy with his Sharpness Concept was comparable to mixing his kinetic energy with shards of razor sharp glass.\n\nHe belatedly realized that this wasn’t something that would be good for his body and he instantly grunted in pain as his very own kinetic energy started to tear his body apart from the inside. His muscles, which had been empowered by kinetic energy were now subjected to the infused Sharpness Concept.\n\nIt didn’t seem to matter that it was his very own Concept. He did his best to stop it, but his Concept was called sharp for a reason, and he wasn’t able to change its entire nature with just a single thought."}
{"text": "Goldencrest was at the top of Julius’s list of academies that he had really wanted to go to. However, Goldencrest was infamous for its high standards. They accepted only 1,000 or fewer students each year, and every student had either perfect or excellent affinities. Even those with excellent affinities had to go through extensive examination before acceptance. Only those with perfect affinities were guaranteed a spot at their school. It was probably going to be difficult since he only had high affinities. It wasn’t that he thought he was weaker than the other students. However, most schools place a heavy emphasis on affinity. Although William Prashe was an example of overcoming your affinity, in reality, there weren’t many William Prashe in the world.\n\nSuddenly, Julius was brought back to reality because someone was calling his name. He looked around and saw that his uncle was calling him over. His uncle probably wanted him to meet some of his family.\n\nRight then, he just realized that this would possibly be the first time he meets someone in his family other than Lukas. He didn’t even get to say hello once to Gregor before Lukas erased him.\n\n“Julius, I want you to meet Frederick and his son, Tristan. Tristan is going to Goldencrest, so they are leaving tomorrow.” Lukas explained to Julius.\n\nJulius had already decided to feed into his reputation as an odd boy beforehand. It was easier like this. People around the estate had already heard of his escapades, so they had some expectations already, and Julius wasn’t going to correct them on it. He was amazed at how differently people treated and talked to him when they thought he was a little “special”. And based on how Tristan was looking at him like he would a cute pet, he had heard some rumors already. Plus, Julius found it amusing to mess with others like this.\n\nPutting on his acting hat, Julius walked over with an expression of awe on his face and said with a higher-pitched voice than normal, “Wow! You must be really strong, Dillion! I heard that only the best of the best make it in Goldencrest.” Julius could see Edwin putting a hand to his face and shaking his head with [Spatial Perception].\n\nTristan clearly didn’t know how he should react. On the one hand, his name wasn’t Dillion; on the other, he was flattered because Julius was right. Only the best went to Goldencrest. Tristan had likely heard things about the son of the Patriarch’s late brother.\n\nWith a patient look, Tristan said to Julius, “My name is Triss-stan,” emphasizing each syllable. “And, yes, only the best go to Goldencrest. I have dual excellent affinities for sun and air.” Tristan stated proudly.\n\nTo be fair, that was something to be proud of. Dual excellent affinities were highly desirable, and with the sun being one of them, doubly so. Julius wasn’t jealous in the slightest. Not at all.\n\nWith that being said, Julius was slightly surprised to find out that Tristan didn’t seem that bad. His uncle had told him stories about some of the other children around the estate and how spoiled they acted. If Lukas was to be believed, some of them were downright terrors. But Tristan could have also been acting nice because the House’s Patriarch was a few feet away.\n\n“You are so cool! I want to go to Goldencrest too when I’m older.” Julius said.\n\n“Yeah? Well, I wish you luck. The examination was brutal.” Tristan said.\n\nFrederick, who was off to the side next to Julius’s uncle, asked Lukas, “It seems like Julius has reached Tier 1 already. Has he found out his affinities yet?”\n\nLukas nodded his head and replied, “Yes, he has high affinities in fire, life, and kinetic.”\n\n“Kinetic?” Frederick repeated with a surprised expression. “That is quite a unique affinity, hard to train, but very rare. No excellent affinities?”\n\nJulius looked over at Tristan and noticed Tristan’s face change slightly upon hearing that. It was known that those from established families had a better chance of developing an excellent affinity, but Julius wasn’t considered a genius in that regard. But he was curious why Tristan had that reaction. Maybe he was disappointed at hearing of Julius's affinities.\n\n“No, unfortunately not,” his uncle replied.\n\n“Yes, quite unfortunate,” Frederick said with regret. “But with his life affinity, he could have a future as a healer.”\n\nThe two of them continued to talk about small things, and with Tristan paying attention to their conversation, Julius found an opening to leave quietly.\n\nHe went over to Edwin, who was off to the side, and looked at him with pleading eyes. Edwin, being the smart man he was, knew what that look was for. Sighing dramatically, he took Julius over to the other side of the yard and sat him down.\n\nJulius wanted to learn how to generate his affinity-attribute mana. He could feel multiple distinct mana signatures in his core, but he didn’t know what to do with them. Luckily, Edwin already predicted what he was going to ask.\n\n“The main thing you have to do is identify which mana is which. After that, it becomes a decision on what types you want to keep in your core.” Edwin explained to Julius.\n\n“I was thinking about keeping fire, life, and kinetic. What do you think?” Julius asked Edwin for his opinion.\n\n“I wouldn’t keep kinetic. It is undoubtedly a versatile affinity, but House Hyperius doesn’t have the resources to help you. I also don’t know if the academies have much on it either. Take it from someone like me who chose shadow even though there wasn’t much on it.”\n\nJulius had thought about that. There weren’t many places he could learn about kinetic energy. It would just be him blindly finding his way. However, he thought that maybe with his knowledge from his previous world, there was a better chance of understanding it. He also liked the idea of three mana types, instead of one or two. He always believed three was a lucky number.\n\n“I’m going to keep all three, I believe that I can find a way to make it work,” Julius said with more confidence than he really felt.\n\n“Okay,” Edwin said. Julius expected more of an attempt to convince him otherwise. “I don’t think it is a bad decision, if you find a way to do it, kinetic energy will fit you very well in the later stages of your path. Also, in the end, it is a personal preference, and I made the same decision.” Edwin said.\n\nJulius nodded at Edwin, “Thank you for understanding.”\n\nJulius then started to meditate, using [Focus] to concentrate on each mana signature. He noticed that each one had a distinct feeling, and some were much more noticeable than others. For example, his fire affinity was obvious. It was hot, almost burning him when he touched it with his senses. Another that stood out was a soothing light that exuded a vibrancy of life and hope. He could instantly tell it was his life affinity. Kinetic energy, on the other hand, was difficult. If he didn’t already know it was kinetic energy or not, he wasn’t sure he could guess it.\n\nThe best way he could describe it was forceful. He could feel it vibrating with energy, just waiting to be released. He also took the time to feel his other affinities. He checked his water and air affinities and realized why your affinity rating mattered so much. Compared to his other high affinities, they both seemed dull. For his three high affinities, he could instinctively feel what they wanted to do and connect with them on a deep level. But for water and air, they just felt like a pane of glass separated them from him. Light was even worse. He could barely notice its presence and it was similar to a small grain of uncooked rice in a bowl of cooked rice. It took him a while to find it, and if he wasn’t looking for it, he wouldn’t have seen it.\n\nAfter getting a good sense of each of his affinities, he got to work on the easier part. Separating what he wanted to keep and what he didn’t. It was a simple process. His core worked in tandem with his intent, so if he wanted to get rid of affinity-attributed mana in his core, it would automatically remove it."}
{"text": "\"We will wait,\" he declared, turning his back on them. \"My apprentice will be here shortly, and we will have our discussion then.\"\n\n* * *\n\n\"How much did you know about all this?\" Cale asked the question as soon as he stepped into Akkau's office. The dragon glanced up at him, but didn't seem particularly surprised; instead, he brought a tired claw up to rub the bridge of his snout.\n\n\"Less than I would have liked,\" he answered with a heavy sigh. \"I knew that there were students involved with the Red Hunters; I did not know whom, nor how severe the situation was.\"\n\nCale frowned. \"So you didn't know about the bloodrot?\"\n\nAkkau stared at him for a long moment. Then Cale felt the abrupt release of a spell, and the wood beneath Akkau's claws splintered with a loud crack, making the three other students jump and stare at the headmaster nervously.\n\n\"Bloodrot?\" he thundered, turning to the three students; they stepped back, eyes wide with fear. \"You were threatened with bloodrot and did not think to report it to your professors? To anyone you trusted? Are you all fools?!\"\n\nCale thought he'd seen the dragon angry before. Clearly, he'd been wrong. This was Akkau when he was angry—fearsome, drawn to his full height, and his magic crackling around him. There was something about that magic that felt a little strange, though... Cale frowned slightly and tried to filter it through his senses.\n\n\"Well? Answer me!\" Akkau roared. The three students gestured frantically at themselves, but said nothing.\n\nSyphus chose this moment to speak. \"Sir,\" it said evenly. \"I believe there is a silencing spell on them.\"\n\nAkkau blinked a few times, then visibly forced himself to calm. He took several deep breaths, then sighed, his anger draining out of him. \"So there is,\" he said. \"Perhaps it is best you did not answer that question, then, given we have yet to undo these enchantments. Cale, did you bring the third one?\"\n\nCale held it up, wondering briefly why the catgirl looked outraged. \"I have an idea for these, actually.\"\n\n\"Is that so?\" Akkau raised a ridged brow. \"Speak.\"\n\nCale stepped forward and placed the blood obsidian box on Akkau's desk, then opened it. The voidcyte swirled within, evidently more than happy to mind its own business now that it was in the possession of its so-called \"star\"—it perked up as soon as it realized Cale was looking at it, however.\n\n\"Our star!\" it said. \"Have you come to feed us?\"\n\n\"In a manner of speaking,\" Cale said. He held up the emblem he'd stolen from the catgirl. \"Do you think you can eat this spell and tell us what you learn from it?\"\n\nThe voidcyte stared at the emblem for a moment. \"We think we can,\" it said, although it sounded a little more uncertain than Cale would have expected. \"It will make our star happy?\"\n\n\"Very.\"\n\n\"Then we will try,\" it declared. \"Give us the folded heart!\"\n\nFolded heart? That was an unusual choice of words for an artifact. Cale's brows furrowed as he examined the emblem one more time before glancing at Syphus. \"Was there anything strange about the magic on this thing?\"\n\n\"Not that I noticed,\" Syphus said. Then it hesitated. \"The means by which it maintains its link to its wielder is soul magic. Is that relevant?\"\n\n\"It shouldn't be,\" Cale said with a frown. He'd spent a lot of time in his previous world, and it was rare to see a voidcyte hesitate to eat anything magical, let alone call it a folded heart. Granted, he hadn't spent much time talking to them. \"...Alright, Cyte. Eat it slowly.\"\n\n\"Cyte?\" The mass of shadow within the box swirled about in wonder. \"Has our star named us?\"\n\n\"Don't let it get to your head,\" Cale said dryly.\n\n\"Oh, joyous day!\" the voidcyte said, completely ignoring him. Cale sighed. He could practically feel Syphus's amusement as it stared at him. Akkau was mostly just confused, although he seemed to have some idea of what had happened during Professor Graystalk's class, and the other three students...\n\nWell, they seemed distressed. A little terrified of the swirling, speaking mass of shadow in the blood obsidian box, maybe. It was a fair reaction, really.\n\n\"Voidcytes have the ability to extract memories from mana,\" Cale explained briefly, mostly for Akkau and Syphus's benefit. \"I'm assuming it's how this one followed me here. I'm hoping it'll be able to find out more about the emblem, but eat it slowly, Cyte. I don't want any nasty surprises.\"\n\nAs much this felt like an opportunity to test out [Identify Artifact], trapped relics like the emblems would almost certainly trigger if subjected to any kind of identification spell, and Syphus's analysis had agreed when he asked. A voidcyte, on the other hand, consumed magic utterly. Not only did it cause complete spell failure in whatever spell it tried to eat, any mana it ate was permanently removed from the mana cycle.\n\nNormally, that made them pests, but it did also make them particularly useful when it came to disarming traps. It was too bad they couldn't do the same for curse magic—that was one of the few types of magic that seemed to give them indigestion, to say nothing of the damage it would do to a mage's core while trying to consume the curse.\n\nCale paused.\n\nDid that mean the emblem was somehow related to curse magic? Curse magic was notoriously subtle; it could evade most basic magical senses and observational spells. Syphus's scrying eye should have been able to spot a curse, but no matter how powerful it was, it wasn't perfect.\n\nPlus, the few times he had seen a voidcyte hesitate, it was almost always because of curse-based magic in some way.\n\n\"Cale,\" Akkau said. \"Are you certain this is safe?\"\n\nCale considered the question, then lifted a hand and wiggled it. \"Eh. It's not going to trigger the bloodrot, if that's what you're worried about. The only way in which it could be unsafe is if the voidcyte gets indigestion, and you need to feed them a lot more before—\"\n\nThere was a knock on the office door. Cale paused mid-sentence to stare at it, then look back at the voidcyte, which was still chewing at the emblem with a look of concentration furrowed onto its tiny face. (Cale actually wasn't sure if voidcytes had faces, but the little starry spots around where it was chewing did look like eyes.) \"Were we waiting for anyone?\" he asked.\n\n\"Headmaster Akkau?\" Damien called out through the door. His voice was so soft Cale almost couldn't hear him. \"We need to report something.\"\n\n\"You're way too quiet,\" Flia complained, her voice much louder and more assertive. Unfortunately, she followed this up by simply kicking the door open. \"Headmaster! We—\"\n\nShe froze.\n\nAkkau stared at her, looking mildly annoyed. The catgirl, lizardfolk, and elf all looked increasingly like they wanted to be literally anywhere else. Syphus was ignoring the door; it seemed far more interested in what the voidcyte was doing.\n\nCale, on the other hand, was delighted. \"Hey guys!\" he said happily. \"Glad you could join us for this. I should have come to get you, now that I think about it. Did you know Professor Graystalk is actually a pretty nice guy?\"\n\nFlia stared at him for a long moment, then turned around and began to march right back out of the room, only for Leo to grab her by the shoulders and haul her back in.\n\n\"This was your idea,\" Leo said. \"We can't just leave now. Besides, I want to talk to Akkau about what Imrys did.\"\n\n\"They're clearly in the middle of something,\" Flia said. Her gaze drifted to the voidcyte, and her eyes went wide. \"What is that?\"\n\n\"Um...\" Damien looked kind of lost.\n\nCale was, fortunately, saved from having to answer any of those questions, because the voidcyte chose that moment to start vomiting.\n\n\"That... would be the indigestion,\" Cale said, briefly puzzled. That shouldn't have been possible, unless...\n\nHe performed a quick mental calculation, then sighed. \"So hey. Remember what I told you guys?\"\n\n\"About what?\" Flia asked, staring at him blankly.\n\n\"You know! The thing all mages need to know how to do.\" Cale slowly began to grin. Damien was the first to catch on; he looked startled, then alarmed.\n\n\"What are you—\" she started, but Damien grabbed her by the arm.\n\n\"Run!\" he hissed."}
{"text": "The golem's eye seemed to blur slightly. Sneaks-In-Darkness watched hesitantly as the eye split into two, then four, each one bound with a slightly different but equally powerful scrying spell.\n\n\"I see,\" the golem said shortly. It cocked its head at her. \"My name's Syphus. Well, sort of. Yours is Sneaks-In-Darkness. You're a kobold archmage, a Red Hunter, and... you've got three soul-links to the academy's students.\"\n\nSneaks-In-Darkness narrowed her eyes. It had managed to see through her shadowcloak? How was it using magic at all? This space suppressed magic; even she could barely use her spells, although she could use them. Either this golem was an archmage like she was, or...\n\n\"Wild mage,\" she hissed, her voice seething with hatred. She drew her daggers from her belt.\n\nAs far as she could tell, the space they were in was completely magically isolated. Normally, the Red Hunters followed protocol; they had to get the wild mages to break first, to prove they were a danger to the public.\n\nIn here, though? She could end this thing before it could take a single life. She began to advance, stalking forward.\n\nSyphus looked at her. Its eyes shuffled slightly, the scrying spells rearranging themselves into a different configuration before merging back into a single nexus. \"Hm,\" it said. \"Rule: Grows with distance from origin. And you've been ignoring it?\"\n\n\"What in the eight infernal realms are you talking about,\" Sneaks-In-Darkness spat.\n\nSyphus's eyes shuffled again, and it laughed. \"Seven,\" it said, sounding amused. \"I've been wondering about that. Didn't get the chance to check until now. Syphus really doesn't like it when I do this.\"\n\n\"You just said you were Syphus.\"\n\n\"I said sort of,\" the golem corrected. It seemed far too amused for the situation. Sneaks-In-Darkness didn't understand it; this thing was far too weak to beat her, and her daggers were enchanted ones besides. The Grand Mage had ensured it could cut through even dragonsteel, and the edges were enchanted with magical rot that would tear through whatever it cut.\n\nThe golem was dead. It just didn't know it yet.\n\nThen she took a step forward and burst into flames.\n\n\"I think I'll let Cale deal with you,\" the golem told her as she screamed. She didn't have her magic to protect her, and the shadowcloak did almost nothing against direct fire. \"It's been so long since I've met anyone interesting. Cale Cadwell Cobbs, hm? Oh, this is going to be fun.\"\n\nWith that, the golem reached forward and shoved. Space around her seemed to rebound and contort; for a moment, Sneaks-In-Darkness couldn't breathe—\n\n—and when she recovered, she found herself in a burning stone hallway. The heat was suffocating, but what drew her attention most was the figure that stood in the middle of it all; it looked like a fire elemental but wrong, twisted in a way that reminded her of the same rotting mana beneath the Commander's floorboards.\n\nIt was humanoid, but its neck was bent the wrong way. Its mouth stretched open all the way down to what would've been its stomach. Every few seconds it let out a sound that sat somewhere between a gurgle and a chuckle.\n\nShe gripped her daggers and gritted her teeth. The heat was making her head hurt, but she hadn't earned her archmage title from being weak. Whatever Syphus had done, it had made a mistake—Sneaks-In-Darkness could feel the real initiates now, just behind the reach of this fire creature.\n\nShe would claim her victory. There was no other choice.\n\n* * *\n\nFor Izzik of the Golden Sands, life had ended approximately one week and fourteen hours ago.\n\nEverything that had happened since then felt like he was living some sort of waking nightmare. He kept telling himself it couldn't have been real—that he would wake up any moment and realize everything that happened since that night had been nothing but a particularly terrible hallucination. It was part of the reason he'd allowed himself to follow along with this... this charade for so long.\n\nThe Red Hunters were supposed to be heroes. Their methods could be too violent, he knew that; he'd always felt they ought to take wild mages into their fold and teach them, not just execute them. In a different life, he might even have opposed their actions. He'd known some of the mages that drew the Hunters' ire. They'd been his friends.\n\nBut Izzik knew all too keenly the consequences a true wild mage could invoke. Wild magic was, after all, the reason for the Aspect Cascade that had ravaged the Golden Sands and killed more than half his clan.\n\nIt began something like two years ago, right at the edge of the desert, a sandstorm that crackled with gold-black mana. No one had thought anything of it at first—magical storms were common, and while they were more dangerous than the rest, they could be navigated with just a little extra caution. They had defensive spells and weather wards meant specifically to fend them off.\n\nExcept nothing about the Aspect Cascade was common or navigable. Most magical storms could be defended against, but this one? It struck at the mana of all those within it, forcibly reattuning whatever aspect it carried into something different, often before a mage could let loose a single spell.\n\nNot that it would matter even if they managed it, because those spells were forcibly reattuned, too.\n\nDefensive spells withered away instantly, turning into fireballs that were instantly blown out by the wind. Speed and spatial ones, meant to take them out of the range of the storm, turned instead into steel or stone spells that hampered them. Healing spells shifted into plague and blood, tearing apart anyone they tried to heal even more quickly.\n\nEven their own specialty—their breath magic—failed them, turning into suffocating voids that stole flesh and breath alike.\n\nWhen all else failed, they shifted to the most basic mana construct of all: barriers. But those failed them, too. Solid barriers of force turned instead into planes of fire or ice; the worst ones flashed into aspects related to poison and were dispersed immediately by the storm's winds, sending throngs of people into coughing fits and worse.\n\nIzzik had been sixteen then. He'd watched the Aspect Cascade kill his father, and while his mother had been spared, it left her paralyzed from the waist down. Almost half the mages of the clan had died before the storm passed over them, and among the remainder, the healers hadn't recovered their magic until hours later.\n\nBy that time, they'd lost even more of the clan, friends and family alike. Without immediate magical healing at hand and with aspect-frozen mana clinging to their wounds, even the survivors often had permanent scars or life-changing injuries. That was what had happened to his mother.\n\nStorm-marked, they called them. Izzik was storm-marked himself, although only in the form of a scar across the back of his hand. As far as injuries went, he'd gotten off lightly.\n\nWord came in after that the Aspect Cascade had been caused by a wild mage who lost control of his power; the mage in question apparently had a core with a sticky attunement that fell into one of the metamagic categories. Apparently, they hadn't entirely managed to attune their core to the weather aspect when casting a basic weather ward.\n\nA simple mistake, in theory, but one that had caused untold tragedy.\n\nEven now, the Aspect Cascade ravaged the Golden Sands. No one had managed to end it. If anything, it seemed to be growing, drawing strength from the mana it stole and changed. It was a constant danger now, and his clan were always on the run from it, living in sandships to stay ahead of its winds.\n\nSo Izzik knew all too well why the work of the Red Hunters was necessary.\n\nAnd yet.\n\nBefore the Storm, he'd wanted to be a healer. He'd loved magic in all his forms, and his father had encouraged that love. Aldur of the Golden Sands smiled warmly with every new attunement he managed, promised to send him to the Brightscale Academy so he could practice his magic, and above all..."}
{"text": "Jake’s initial assault had held nothing back. With no regard to his stamina and mana consumption, he had managed to kill one and injure two. Despite the two damaged ones only being minor, it was enough to deliver the arrowheads’ liquid death. As he observed, he could already see the necrosis setting in at a visible rate.\n\nNot that he was about to let up just yet. The arrows continued raining down, this time with Splitting Arrows. His aim was on the already injured doe, hoping to capitalize further on its limited mobility. He delayed the splitting of the arrow as long as possible to increase accuracy, forcing it to only clone itself when it got closer - another perk of his increased ability to control energy. Finally, when it was only 30 meters from the doe, it split as Jake could no longer hold back the split’s activation. But he had achieved his goal.\n\nThe first barrage managed to hit with five of the nine arrows from the split. The Great White Stag had managed to help its companion in the last moment but only blocked one of the arrows that would have hit. Sadly, the one stopped arrow was the poisoned one - a deliberate move by the stag, no doubt.\n\nWith the initial element of surprise over, the beasts started to organize themselves. The wound on the stag was already gone, its hide back to pristine condition once more. The wounded doe was also healing fast as light descended upon it, but it was not in fighting condition yet. The last White Doe had already begun its charge towards Jake.\n\nSomething that proved to be a mistake. With the distance between them and the stag still busily focused on healing, the doe was isolated with no support.\n\nIndividually the does had never been a big issue; They only got annoying to deal with with a healer behind them. Jake felt no pressure from a single isolated beast.\n\nHe kept bombarding it with arrows while it ran towards him. Every shot was a Splitting Arrow and coupled with its momentum, it was unable to avoid all of them. It did, annoyingly so, avoid every single poisoned one.\n\nIt only suffered minor injuries here and there before it was only a few dozen meters away. Jake believed he still had time to fire a few more arrows but was interrupted as the doe subverted his expectations.\n\nIn a flash of light, the doe did what Jake could only describe as teleportation. Like a beam of light, it appeared right before him - but what surprised him even more was its method of attack.\n\nA bright blade of light was now protruding from its forehead, not an antler-shaped one, but an edge of pure energy. Its head was pointed downwards as the blade was clearly aimed towards his midsection, and with a swipe of its head, it attempted to cleave him in half.\n\nBut Jake was fast enough to react in time. He awkwardly jumped backward, resulting in the blade still cutting into his chest with its very tip. Instead of soft skin, it instead encountered dark green scales. The edge was stuck dead in its tracks, its swiping motion interrupted.\n\nThe tip of the blade chipped as the blow did nothing, clearly leaving the White Doe distraught. Capitalizing on the momentary display of weakness, his bow disappeared, and a weapon appeared in each of his hands. A sword and a fang-shaped dagger approached the beast from both sides as it still had its head lowered at an awkward angle.\n\nIn a moment of panic, the beast hesitated, which allowed him to land a solid blow. His Venomfang penetrated its neck, while his sword went for its head. It never arrived, however, as the doe was awoken from the dagger.\n\nWith a loud bellow, its entire body exploded in a flash of light. Jake felt a searing sensation on his whole body, but the blow was more physical than energy. Like a bubble expanding around the beast, he was pushed back slightly.\n\nThe flash had blinded his eyes, but he ignored it as he relied on his Sphere anyway. At first, he had believed that it had tried to blow itself up, but it seemed only to try and create some distance. The blade of light reformed as it attempted to ram him, clearly trying to take advantage of his temporary blindness.\n\nAn incorrect assumption he gladly took advantage of. Acting as if blind, Jake let it nearly hit him before he moved slightly to the side, simultaneously summoning another set of scales to protect his flank. The blade scraped under his raised right arm as its head followed suit.\n\nHe quickly brought down his arm as he put the beast in a chokehold. A Touch of Malefic Viper quickly invaded the beast’s body, making it bellow once more, this time in pain.\n\nIt exploded once more in the same bubble of light, but his hold was too strong. He kept channeling the Touch as the health of the doe slowly drained.\n\nWith his other hand, he started stabbing the beast in its abdomen with his Venomfang, doing even more damage.\n\nThe doe struggled for only a few seconds, releasing light constantly as it seared Jake’s unscaled skin. However, in the end, it succumbed to the constant influx of poison, wrecking it from within.\n\nHe let the beast go as it dropped lifelessly to the ground.\n\nNot even ten seconds had passed from the moment the beast teleported before him till it died, not even allowing any of the other beasts to engage him. It had been an uneven fight from the beginning.\n\nHis eyes were still scorched, and his sphere didn’t detect any enemies within it. He refocused his vital energy, healing one of his eyes as fast as he could. Opening it, everything was blurry, but it was enough to land his Mark. He landed it on the doe, which was fine as that was his next target anyway.\n\nSummoning his bow once more, he resumed his attack. Without his eyesight, one would imagine that his accuracy would suffer immensely, but it didn’t matter with his tactic. He could feel where his enemy was, and that was enough for now.\n\nPulling an arrow out of his quiver, he nocked it and starting shooting once more. He could feel the beast’s reaction instantly, meaning their attention had undoubtedly been on him. But from how slowly the doe avoided the blow, it had to still be wounded. Jake was a bit surprised the Great White Stag hadn’t managed to heal it but didn’t have time to question it.\n\nPressing his advantage, he continued firing. His ammunition was limited, but he had to make do. Rushing into melee was an option, but he preferred to buy time for now while hopefully still doing some damage. He could already feel his eyes healing.\n\nAs he fired, he focused on the movements of the doe. Jake, as an archer in the secular world before the integration, had concentrated on shooting stationary targets. He had improved immensely in technique over the last month or so in the tutorial and learned to hit moving targets far better.\n\nNow, without his eyesight, he was forced to push this notion to the extreme. With 150 meters between himself and his target, he was sure to miss if he simply shot directly for his foe. Splitting Arrow helped, but it didn’t make his aim foolproof.\n\nFocusing on the doe’s movements, he released an arrow aimed slightly to the right of the beast, followed swiftly by an extremely fast Infused Powershot to the left of it. His hope was to feint it into dodging the first arrow - a feint that worked.\n\nAs it moved slightly away from the first arrow, the second far faster Infused Powershot hit it straight in its chest, penetrating all the way through and out the other side. Far less damaging than his initial Infused Powershot, but the damage was done.\n\nWith it lethally damaged, the next two arrows quickly finished it off. Jake, of course, couldn’t directly see his Infused Powershot hitting, but the beast’s reaction to the shot was enough for him. The notification of the kill two arrows later sealed the deal.\n\nNow all that remained was the Great White Stag. It hadn’t moved at all for quite a while, and he was slightly confused at its actions."}
{"text": "Based on the line of questioning, it was possible they suspected him of being more than he represented himself as. The poking into his views on the Viper’s return seemed very deliberate, as if they wanted him to reveal something, but even that made little sense. If Jake was the Chosen, would using lie-detection and trying to make him reveal his identity be a smart choice and not just one that would piss him off?\n\nNo matter the case, the Patriarch was willing to negotiate, and he did seem interested in the Alchemy Token.\n\n“An old relic perhaps, but still one that would be honored,” Jake answered. “The Order of the Malefic Viper would undoubtedly adhere to its promise, making it more than just an interesting trinket.”\n\n“While true, we do not need such a token to enter the Order anymore. It was of a time when we Nalkar were spread all over the multiverse, and to enter the Order was a sign of success. Now, all the Nalkar able to join are all members already, making the primary function of the token null,” Fairleigh said.\n\nJake couldn’t really argue with the fact that they could enter without the token, but he still knew the vampire wanted it. The current act of downplaying the value of the Alchemy Token was only proof to Jake that the Nalkar were interested. If they weren’t, why bother and not just buy it cheaply and be done with it, and if Jake refused, then just tell him to bugger off? At least, that is what Jake was banking on.\n\n“In that case, perhaps it would be better to save it and find Nalkar unassociated with the Order,” Jake sighed as he faked disappointment.\n\nFairleigh looked at Jake and smiled. “Please, let us stay in the realm of honesty. While that was no outright lie, we are both aware of the value such an item holds to my family. Even if it is not purely based on the benefits it offers, but the sentimental value. In fact… come, let me show you something.”\n\nJake couldn’t even resist as he was forcefully teleported and appeared within a massive chamber of sorts. On a second look, it reminded him more of a museum, with glass containers and complicated magic arrays guarding many mundane items spread throughout.\n\n“Remembering history has always been important to our kin. Perhaps we merely enjoy living in the glory of the past, or maybe it is a way to not repeat our mistakes. Either way, we preserve, and we collect. That token you hold may not be a treasure to most, but to us, it is invaluable,” Fairleigh explained.\n\nLooking around, Jake saw a lot of rather, well, boring items. One area had a dining set sealed away, another section was filled with old paintings and pictures, and a third was bookshelves stacked upon bookshelves with old books in them.\n\n“We have items from all eras, even some from before our fall. In fact, we value anything from before then, as it speaks of what once was, and the Records it contains matter. Perhaps not to you or anyone else not of our lineage, but to us, there is power in history,” he continued his explanation as he went over and pointed out what looked like a fountain pen.\n\n“This pen was used by a scholar of the sixth Era to write letters back to his family. It managed to reach epic rarity back in the day but has returned to a mundane item after this long. Items such as that Alchemy Token have yet to return to mundanity but still contain such powerful Records, making it even more valuable.”\n\nJake nodded along as he couldn’t help but think about the ludicrous amount of resources expelled by that one chamber he was in. It was humongous, larger than any museum Jake had ever seen or heard of on Earth. At the same time, it was incredibly densely packed, with every single item sealed away with incredibly powerful and intricate formations. These formations were able to freeze time itself for the item and allow them not to turn to dust through the passage of time.\n\n“Tell me, do you find our obsession with the past foolish?” the vampire finally asked him.\n\n“No, not really,” Jake shrugged. He had never been the type himself to collect old antiques or care much for cultural inheritances, but he knew it was a perfectly normal hobby. “Even on my planet before the system arrived, we collected pieces of history, families had heirlooms they warded with their lives, and I know of at least one old man who picked up an old heirloom his clan possessed and turned it into a monstrous weapon.”\n\n“But you seem to not personally share the sentiment?” Fairleigh asked once more.\n\n“No,” Jake shook his head. “While I do understand placing sentimental value on objects, I rarely do it. Not that I entirely avoid it… I still have the first potions I ever crafted stowed away, and all the equipment I wear I earned myself one way or another. I do value these items more than they are necessarily worth and value some more than others, but that is due to the story of how I got them.”\n\nThe vampire nodded. “An understandable view for a hunter. Now tell me, what kind of compensation are you seeking in return for the token? It cannot merely be the extra alchemical ingredient associated with enrollment. If it was, you would have no need to come here.”\n\n“I am in need of alchemical ingredients of higher value, most specifically ones of the hemotoxin nature,” Jake said. Vampires were damn good at hemotoxins. A massive surprise that vampires, wielding blood magic and using blood energy, were good at blood poisons.\n\n“And?” Fairleigh asked.\n\nJake took out his second item as he revealed his necklace by un-fusing it from his body and holding it up. “I need this improved. I know the Nalkar Family have long been part of the Order, so I assume I am correct when I believe you can do this?”\n\n[Prodigious Alchemist’s Necklace of Holding (Epic)] - An amulet awarded to a prodigious young alchemist upon completion of a trial. An ornate creation of high craftsmanship made of metal attuned to the space-affinity, holding a spacegem in place. Allows the user to store items in a small pocket dimension found within the gem. Due to the nature of the gemstone used, living, non-sentient entities can be stored without harmful side-effects in temporal suspension. Enchantments: Alchemist’s Spatial Storage. +25 Wisdom. Requirements: Soulbound\n\nIt was Jake’s first piece of epic equipment and probably still one of his best items to date. By sheer usefulness and convenience, it was at the top as nothing beat spatial storages. However, Jake was also acutely aware that the item had fallen off big time. The stats it gave were great when Jake was level 26, but now? Now they were irrelevant.\n\nHe could probably have gotten a better spatial storage, probably even one with the same Alchemist’s Spatial Storage enchantment. Maybe not as good, but at least close. It had to be noted that each person could only hold one spatial storage item under normal circumstances, so Jake couldn’t have swapped for another without choosing to “unbind” his Prodigious Alchemist’s Necklace of Holding. Now, even if it was Soulbound, this wouldn’t destroy the item but just make it completely inert. Of course, it would still be Soulbound, as one cannot get rid of that connection without breaking the item altogether.\n\nSo yeah, maybe him holding onto it was for purely sentimental reasons. Jake had to admit he had briefly considered if upgrading the item was even worth it, but…\n\n“How exquisite,” Fairleigh said as he looked at the necklace. “Truly ancient craftsmanship, incredible attention to detail, and that stone used… I am amazed someone would choose to give that to someone of such a low grade.”\n\nEven if the vampire could not see the description, he was still an ancient vampire in S-grade. He looks at it a bit more before nodding. “Finding a suitable crafter should be possible; we have some very talented jewelers among our ranks. Do note that unlocking the full potential of the gem will not be possible with your current strength and the necklace being Soulbound.”\n\nJake nodded. “Just seeing it improved is all I hope for. Also, just to check, I want to make sure there are no risks of breaking it if I choose to improve it?”"}
{"text": "It might not have been fault that his people couldn't abide by his magic, but that didn't make the magic itself to blame. The true responsibility for the curse lay with Asterion, and there was nothing Leo could do about that, at the moment. Perhaps when Cale made good on his promise and built him up to be an archmage with power enough to confront the Named, he might be in a position to understand why.\n\nBut it didn't really matter. Not for this. That was what he'd been missing all along.\n\nHis magic had never wanted anything more than to protect him. How had he missed that? This was true of all mages. A mana core was magic that was yours. It was mana that came to you because it was uniquely suited for you, no matter that it could hold different aspects. It had a temperament and a will, and it had chosen him.\n\nHe had never chosen it in turn. He'd locked it out, instead, first with anger and then with reluctance, and even now there was the burning ember he'd never been able to let go—that sense that his mana was at fault, somehow. That his core was to blame for his misery.\n\nLeo let the thought pass through him, and then he let it go. The realization had occurred in the span of a heartbeat, and his magic was still attempting to close that door in his heart. A door he'd built himself because he couldn't accept his own magic.\n\nHe reached out and held that door open.\n\nI'm sorry, Leo thought. And thank you. For protecting me.\n\nHe was probably anthropomorphizing his mana a little too much. None of the books he'd read on the subject said anything about apologizing to one's own mana. It seemed to work, though.\n\nLeo felt the difference reverberating in his soul, and when he opened his eyes, they flickered with the green-gold of the Labyrinth.\n\nThen he realized his friends were fighting. He blinked.\n\n\"About time!\" Flia called. \"Did you finally figure it out?\"\n\n\"I... think so?\" Leo felt somewhat light-headed. \"I need Cale to check my core when he's back.\"\n\n\"You need to help us with these things!\" Flia leapt back to avoid a crashing limb, and the little shadeling that was her familiar spun out of her shadow with a snarl, chomping furiously. The monster she was fighting screeched in pain and fell back.\n\nBut it wasn't the only one. Somehow, while Leo had been figuring out his magic, a small swarm of goblin-adjacent creatures had descended upon them; Syphus and Damien were fighting, too, trying to keep them off Leo while he figured out his magic. Syphus fired a sticky-looking spell to glue one of them to a wall, and Damien gestured, doing something to the area that made them all slow down.\n\n\"Right,\" Leo said, grimacing slightly as he tried to shake off his reverie. He hated swarms. [Labyrinthine Defense] worked best with a single opponent; the moment he had a swarm to go up against, he had to rely much more on barriers and improvised spatial manipulation...\n\nExcept the spell he was reaching for had vanished. Only then did Leo notice the message the Gift had waiting for him.\n\nCore integration detected!\n\n[Labyrinthine Defense] is no longer suited for your magic. It has evolved into [Minotaur's Domain].\n\n[Minotaur's Domain] [Fifth Tier, Active (Unique)] [5000 Mana]\n\nConjure a domain based on your understanding of the Labyrinth. Up to ten individuals caught within the Minotaur's Domain will be subjected to its effects.\n\nThe Minotaur's Domain weaves intent and action into a multicursal labyrinth of choice and possibility. The difficulty of navigating this labyrinth is dependent on the number of allies and enemies caught within the effect.\n\nThis spell is capable of further evolution. The effects, tier, and mana cost of this spell may change with your understanding of the Labyrinth.\n\nThis spell is but a fraction of the Labyrinth.\n\nAt the heart of the Labyrinth, Asterion awaits.\n\nLeo's gaze snapped almost involuntarily to the final line of the spell description; he felt a chill run up his spine, but banished it just as quickly. He had notes about this, but he'd have to worry about it later. He cast the spell, allowing himself, for once, to put his trust in his magic. Ten wasn't nearly enough to deal with the swarm, but with his friends as part of his domain...\n\nPossibility bloomed in his mind, and he saw the path they needed to take.\n\n* * *\n\nCale nodded slowly, taking all this in. \"Right,\" he said slowly. \"I'm still not sure how this explains why you have twenty crablins tied up and stacked on my bed. You couldn't just give them to Akkau?\"\n\nA note from SilverLinings\n\nCatching up with the apprentices! Also Leo finally gets a bit more of a focus.\n\nAnd I fixed the chapter filing. I put the last one in Intermissions by accident, whoops. Also skipping the fun fact today because I'm feeling a little under the weather, but you're welcome to speculate on what crablins are or how often Cale has had tied-up monsters end up in his bed.\n\nPatreon is 13 chapters ahead! Which is a weird number, I know. I'm working on it.\n\n104 — Book 3, Chapter 3 — Catching Up\n\nWhile Cale had technically been aware of the existence of crablins—which were, as the name implied, crab-goblin hybrids of a sort—he hadn't been expecting to learn about them quite so intimately. Which felt like the only word he could use to adequately describe having a pile of them tied up on his bed.\n\nAdmittedly, he'd been hoping his apprentices would have a surprise waiting for him when he returned. This wasn't quite what he'd had in mind, though.\n\nHe stared at the pile for a long moment, mildly impressed both by how tightly bound they were and how much they were squirming in spite of it. So far, the only explanation his apprentices had offered was that Leo had managed to make progress with his magic.\n\nWhich was great! Cale was glad for him, he really was. He just didn't know what that had to do with their decision to shove all the crablins into a haphazard pile like this, let alone a haphazard pile on his bed.\n\nAt least they had the decency to look vaguely sheepish. All except for Syphus, anyway, who Cale was pretty sure just didn't understand what \"sheepish\" was as an emotion.\n\nCale made it a point to give his apprentices vaguely suspicious looks and did his best to hide his amusement. He absolutely was not going to encourage this.\n\nNot until he managed to get back at them, anyway.\n\n\"This is what I get for being too excited about coming back here,\" he said with an exaggerated sigh instead. \"Are you sure these conditions are humane, Flia? I wouldn't have thought you'd allow for something like this.\"\n\n\"I'll have you know that these are the ideal conditions to store crablins in,\" Flia said with a sniff. \"I checked with Professor Tarbloom. This simulates the natural conditions of their nesting grounds. We're pretty sure it's how they sleep.\"\n\n\"Tied up in a squirming pile?\" Cale raised an eyebrow. \"They're squirming a lot for being supposedly asleep. And what do you mean, pretty sure?\"\n\n\"Yes, tied up in a squirming pile. They're an offshoot of goblinkind,\" Flia said, as if that explained it.\n\nCale supposed she had a point. \"Still waiting for an explanation of that second part.\"\n\n\"The interpretive spells still need work,\" Flia said. \"We know for a fact this is comfortable for them. We're just not sure if this is how they sleep or if this is some sort of mating ritual. If it helps, we're sixty percent sure it's how they sleep.\"\n\n\"So you're forty percent sure they're currently having a mating frenzy on my sheets.\" Cale eyed the pile again, now somewhat concerned about the squirming. And the noises it was making, for that matter. They did mostly sound like snores, but it wasn't like he'd had any particularly close encounters with crablins before this.\n\n\"Well,\" Flia said. \"We weren't sure when you were coming back, so we figured we should make some use of your side of the room. It's not like you've decorated it or anything, you know?\"\n\nCale snorted. \"You're acting like I was going to be gone for months,\" he said. \"These guys haven't been here nearly that long. You wouldn't subject Damien to having to sleep next to that.\""}
{"text": "The Sword Saint cut his bolts down as Jake also fired his arrows while trying to avoid taking damage himself. The occasional explosion made some space as Jake consumed his resources at high speed. His opponent seemed to not be in a rush either as the occasional raindrop was fired from his blade and hit Jake, or the blade extended to land a cut.\n\nJake smiled under his mask as he found an opening. He had bought time to channel an Arcane Powershot as Gaze activated, and the bolts closed in on the Sword Saint. Naturally, the Sword Saint focused on the Powershot as he only swiftly moved his blade as an omnidirectional cut came out from his body, making all of the bolts break.\n\nPreparing to block the Arcane Powershot, he noticed the liquid coming out of some of the bolts too late. For the first time since his transformation, Jake saw the man open his eyes display a hint of fear as his body was splashed with four bottles’ worth of uncommon Necrotic Poison.\n\nHe reacted fast as he channeled his abilities to get the liquid off as rainwater gathered and revolved around his body to wash it off while also blocking the Powershot. Jake pressed his advantage as he fired more exploding arcane arrows.\n\nAs a final thing, he activated something he had been waiting to use. Throughout their entire fight, arcane energy had been building up within his Mark of the Avaricious Arcane Hunter. Even before his transformation, it had been building up – and the transformation hadn’t made the charge disappear either.\n\nJake activated it as the area flashed with arcane energy for a brief moment, further amplified by his Arcane Powershot exploding as Jake felt himself be pushed back. He felt the damage done to his opponent and prepared to keep attacking as a crescent wave made him abandon the idea.\n\nA circular explosion of water pushed away all of the arcane energy as the Sword Saint’s form was revealed. His chest and shoulders were covered with signs of necrosis and wounds leaking blood, with faint arcane energy coved every inch of his skin. He was breathing heavily as he stood there, his blade raised. The only part nearly untouched was his face that still had the same confident look.\n\nSigns of aging were also far more evident now as he looked almost middle-aged. The black hair had clear signs of graying, and many wrinkles covered his body and face. Jake felt like he was beginning to get an advantage, but the moment that thought appeared, it was crushed.\n\n“As spring comes to an end, we enter the longest days. May we embrace the blessing of the sun, but never shun the gifts of the sky as we welcome the great treasure:-”\n\nJake felt the temperature faintly increase around him as the mana intensity did too. The rays of sunlight became brighter as the clouds changed color and became darker than before as the rainfall increased.\n\n“Summer Rain.”\n\nWarm droplets fell upon him as Jake felt the mana density around him only grow. He did not fully understand what the Sword Saint had just done as he looked up and saw the now middle-aged man simply stare at the sky as sunlight and rain hit him. That is when Jake noticed something… the rain was rejuvenating him.\n\nMeanwhile, Jake noticed his body begin to feel worn down and he felt heavier as the rain continued to fall on him. It felt tiring to stand there in the warm rain, even if it was also soothing.\n\nShaking his head, Jake nearly smacked himself as he exited his stupor. No, now was not the time to relax as the Sword Saint was slowly healed. He pushed his arcane energy within his body further to make himself properly wake up as he drew his bow again.\n\nEvery moment he felt slightly slower than before, and even his mana and stamina didn’t move as fast as before. Gritting his teeth, he still fired a Splitting Arrow of exploding arrows towards the Sword Saint, finally forcing the man to no longer just bask in the sunlight and rain.\n\nThe swordsman teleported and appeared to Jake’s side just like before. Jake tried to also react like before, but his body just didn’t move as he wanted it to. He was off by a few centimeters as he took a cut in his side, and when he tried to block, he was also slightly too slow as he was cut on his arm.\n\nThis is…\n\nJake used One Step Mile to try and get away but found himself only traveling roughly half the distance he had wanted to. It didn’t take long for the swordsman to catch up and force Jake even further back in a desperate struggle to not have his limbs cut off.\n\n…Like being underwater.\n\nHe got flashbacks to being submerged deep underwater in the Vault as he tried to fight off the effects of the rain. Arcane mana whirled around him as Arcane Limit Shatter was pushed as far as he could take it. He managed to shrug off a bit of the suppression from the rain but still found himself pushed back by the Sword Saint, who relentlessly attacked.\n\nI just need to buy time, he told himself as he narrowly dodged the blade, only to see himself caught by a follow-up attack. Each wound was small and barely did any damage, but they accumulated as he lost more and more ground.\n\nHe tried to summon some more arcane magic but found it far more difficult as the rain seemed to corrode the arcane energy. One massive difference between the Vault and here was that in the Vault, the water was just there. It was a natural part of the environment and was entirely neutral. But the rainwater? The rainwater was so full of intent and will that Jake found it suffocating.\n\nWith him being slowed down, Jake failed again and again to get enough distance between them. He tried to use more magic, threw bottles, and whatever else he could quickly think of, but every move was thwarted.\n\nJake was slowly absolutely clear on one thing… I’m losing.\n\nLosing to someone two levels below himself.\n\nLosing to someone who should at most be his equal.\n\nLosing to another human.\n\nTHUMP!\n\nJake was cut again as the blade managed to swipe down his arm and through his thigh, leaving a long gash.\n\nTHUMP!\n\nHe was stabbed in the shoulder, and upper arm as his eyes slowly began shining more than before. Jake failed to hold back a massive grin beneath his mask. He refused to lose.\n\nThe Sword Saint tried to follow up as he saw a huge opening purposefully made, allowing Jake to lean in as he headbutted the Sword Saint in the chest.\n\nMore power.\n\nJake closed in as he forfeited his blade and instead punched the Sword Saint with his arcane-infused gloves, making the man block with his own hand. Not letting up, Jake kicked him as he bent his body in an impossible shape to avoid a counter as he moved with bestial intent.\n\nMore.\n\nArcane energy began whirling around Jake as he pushed all of his energy even further beyond as slowly pink-purple fissures formed on his skin and scales, and the remnant arcane energy flowed out of him. He had pushed Arcane Limit Break to above what it should be capable of as he was overflowing with power at the cost of his own health.\n\nMore!\n\nJake felt his own body inside and out as he superimposed Pride of the Malefic Viper to contain the energy within his body as he controlled it. He refused to see his own arcane energy run rampant when it was his damn energy. If it was going to destroy him, it would damn well be with his own consent.\n\nMORE!\n\nThe effect of the rain was pushed away as a faint layer of pure arcane energy covered the dark green scales and whatever skin was visible. Jake’s entire body exploded with energy and sent the Sword Saint flying back, blocking with his blade as the now middle-aged man looked up with surprise. The Sword Saint had barely stabilized himself in the air when an arrow hit him in the shoulder, sending him spinning through the air.\n\nJake stood there, looking down as his entire body burned. The bow and arrow he was nocking glowing with arcane energy as remnants of it left his body and fused with his weapon. The fissures of arcane energy emanated arcane-infused stamina as it was contained close to his skin instead of simply flowing away. The rain hit the shield and slid down it without having the slightest effect."}
{"text": "“The Andromeda Galaxy has, for all intents and purposes, been wholly taken over by the Holy Church. Even before the Prima Guardian event, it was mostly conquered using the Prima Alliance system, and after the system event, I believe the takeover will be complete,” Jacob explained. “Some other factions do also retain a presence there, but the one officially ruling everything will be the Holy Church, of that there is no doubt.”\n\n“I guess I can’t get rid of you entirely quite yet, huh,” Jake muttered semi-jokingly. “I assume you’re also going?”\n\n“Of course,” Jacob nodded before letting out a sad sigh. “I will miss Earth, but I also know going there would only be cause for trouble.”\n\n“You could always sneak in,” Jake shrugged.\n\n“I have absolutely no stealth skills, am publicly known by many people, and entering without permission will no doubt only lead to even more problems,” Jacob shook his head with a chuckle. “I can see that Miranda has her work cut out for her.”\n\n“She does complain,” Jake confirmed. “Anyway... I think rather than me, discussing the details of the Holy Church’s surrender would be better done with her.”\n\n“I expected as much. I just need us to agree on the basic facts,” the Augur said.\n\n“Sure. I already told you earlier. The Holy Church is to leave the Milky Way Galaxy as soon as possible, and you’ll be banned from the galaxy going forward. Even if we go by your story that the head priest was some traitor who lost his way, you’ll still have proven with this meeting that the Holy Church isn’t a trustworthy faction,” Jake began. “Oh, and until the moment of evacuation, Holy Church members are not to leave for any other planets. All other details you can figure out with Miranda, as you already said.”\n\n“Alright,” Jacob nodded, things being as he expected from the looks of it.\n\nThe Augur sighed loudly as he looked toward the sky a moment before speaking again. “I guess there is still one important thing left to do.”\n\nLifting his hand, a lantern appeared in it. Without any huge fanfare, he channeled energy into it and out came... something. It was wrapped in energy for a brief moment as it exited, but this energy soon dispersed naturally.\n\nJake intuitively knew it was the end. Without the protection of Jacob, the Truesoul of Ell’Hakan, the Celestial Child, disappeared and returned to the system where it belonged. With that, the Bloodline was gone from the multiverse, and Jake felt a wave of relief knowing it was finally all over.\n\nIn what was almost a poetic end, the Desolate and Celestial Child met their ultimate end side by side... so perhaps, in some way, the False God did fulfill its purpose as the two of them were now one with the system.\n\n“Let’s go,” Jake said, not seeing any reason to be any more sentimental than necessary. He had far more important things to do than waste any more mental energy thinking about a dead asshole.\n\n1068 chapter - Only A Few Loose Ends Left\n\nIn the end, Jake’s trip to the Holy Church’s planet didn’t conclude as he’d expected. He had fully assumed it would result in Jake and his faction having an all-out war with the stubborn Church, and he was genuinely relieved it hadn’t gone that far, as it would just have been so damn pointless.\n\nThat was also why Jake cut Jacob some slack in this entire scenario. He was still annoyed at his old boss, but it was hard being angry at someone who genuinely just wanted to do what he thought was best for others. With how utterly fucked up the internal politics of the Holy Church were, his life definitely couldn’t be easy either, and honestly... things had kind of turned out pretty okay. And Jake had to give Jacob at least some credit for the ending turning out acceptable despite how fucked the middle had been.\n\nThe Holy Church would retreat from the Milky Way Galaxy peacefully. All their elites were slain, and Jake even came out of it looking merciful and reasonable after having not gone all out despite finding himself ambushed by a corrupt head priest and False God.\n\nMiranda would definitely also be happy with the result, and even Carmen had gotten some benefits from killing such a powerful False God, and, despite how much she countered it, it was still a massive feat. All in all, Jake returned to Earth pretty satisfied, even doing so through the capital’s teleportation circle in full view of every random Holy Church citizen watching.\n\nJacob naturally ensured the set dressing was proper, making it evident that Jake was the winning party and that even if the Holy Church had lost, they still maintained some of their dignity. More than that, though, it was all to show everyone that the Holy Church and Chosen of the Malefic Viper could still be diplomatic despite everything.\n\nReturning to Earth, Jake couldn’t help but let out a massive sigh as he looked at Carmen, who had returned with him. “Could you imagine having to navigate that much political bullshit all the time?”\n\n“Pretty sure I would end up beating a few people to death within a week,” Carmen fully concurred. ✧ NоvеIight ✧ (Original source) “But... I guess it’s kind of necessary at times? Even Valdemar and Valhal have Gudrun, and every single large faction has a bunch of political folk walking around. Shit, you have Miranda, and I got Sven and Bobby, who are pretty good at handling all the scheming and politicking.”\n\n“True,” Jake nodded with a sigh as he considered it a bit more. “But having a faction that’s good at politics doesn’t really matter if you aren’t powerful enough. You need that power as a base requirement to even be allowed at the big boy table.”\n\n“You also need power to have a figurehead,” Carmen pointed out. “The average person doesn’t really respect those so-called political masterminds. It’s too damn abstract compared to someone truly powerful, and when shit really goes down, it’s the one holding the biggest stick who shows up to solve everything. Barely anyone respects and fears the Malefic Viper for being a good schemer and a really smart guy... they remember him for wiping out a tenth of a universe. Everyone, even a child, can understand why the Viper is worthy of his notoriety when they see the wasteland he created that still persists to this day.”\n\n“Maybe it’s a lot simpler than we think. People simply don’t respect political masterminds because no one respects politicians,” Jake grinned.\n\n“They totally do!” Carmen countered, acting offended. “They trust the good and honest kind.”\n\nJake and Carmen locked eyes before both laughing at the notion, Jake shaking his head. “Yeah, sure, because those unicorns tend to really climb that hierarchical ladder. Shit, even Jacob, who has a Path all about just helping people, has to do at least some scheming to have any influence. If he didn’t, he would just be used and manipulated by others... something I feel like he kind of still is half the time.”\n\n“Some things don’t change no matter what,” Carmen agreed. “It’s so dumb. We have fucking dragons now, and people still care about how someone holds a goddamn teacup or if they remember to use the right titles to call others.”\n\n“It is what it is,” Jake sighed again as the two of them teleported one more time, returning to Haven.\n\nJacob had stayed back with the Holy Church to properly solidify his newfound leadership position while also fully selling the story that the head priest was a traitor and all that other bullshit. He likely wouldn’t even be meeting Miranda, but instead, they would communicate using magic to hammer out all the details surrounding the Holy Church’s total retreat.\n\nUpon reaching Haven, Carmen went back to Jake’s lodge while Jake headed off to meet Miranda. However, to his surprise, he didn’t find her back in her office, and after asking around, he learned she was at Haven’s prison.\n\nJake didn’t know Haven had a prison.\n\nIn his defense, it was definitely a new addition, and while Jake could scan everything using Pulse of Perception, that didn’t mean he fully understood the function of every building. Moreover, the prison wasn’t actually in Haven but a good distance away, likely in case any problems arose there."}
{"text": "Jake came to learn after the fight that no one had ever rejected this proposition from the Benevolent Monk outside of the first few matches. His act of benevolence was to offer the possibility for a spar and not a true fight. However, should one reject this benevolence, the match would turn from a spar into a true battle… and when fighting for real, there was no room for mercy or benevolence, but what Jake could only describe as pure, unabashed violence.\n\nEveryone there had likely expected the fight to be roughly equal, and while it did look that way in the first thirty seconds, things quickly changed. The defenses of the dwarf crumbled, and even as he pulled out more and more attacks and spells, nothing seemed to work as the monk proved himself far more deadly than Jake had seen him be during their fight.\n\nEvery move was one that aimed to kill, and he gladly took minor injuries himself to land blows on his opponent. Moreover, his body was clearly far more durable than it had any right to be, and after a while, Jake spotted a potential reason. While it was hard to see, even when Jake had fought him, odd energy patterns covered his body from head to toe. Like an invisible tattoo, Jake theorized these tattoo-like patterns perhaps functioned as replacements for equipment, as he did know that was possible, albeit extremely rare.\n\nAs more time passed, the fight became more and more one-sided, and while the monk was covered in wounds, big and small, he never lost momentum. By now, the dwarf was also clearly unable to escape through the sand anymore.\n\nThat was when Jake learned something more. Something quite frankly terrifying as fuck. At the end of the battle between the two anomalies, the monk moved in for a finishing strike as he peeled away the final line of defense of the dwarf, which was when Jake realized. That hit Jake had been struck with when he ”won” the fight against the monk – the one that had left him feeling half-dead for several days - was not some ultimate attack… it was the first strike in the series of a combo attack.\n\nThe first punch broke the stone armor and several ribs of the dwarf. The second ruptured his heart, the third destroyed his brain, the fourth burned away all remaining vestiges of his soul, and the fifth obliterated what was left of the body.\n\nAn eerie stillness overtook the arena as the monk stood with an outstretched fist covered in blood, droplets slowly dripping from his red fist.\n\n”May you continue to serve the earth, even in death,” the monk said in his usual respectful tone as he bowed toward the huge fan-shaped blood splatter, which was all that remained of the Earthborn Faithful.\n\nThat day, it became clear as day… should you reject the benevolence of the Benevolent Monk, there would be no mercy, only death.\n\n”Dude, I’m so glad you didn’t fight that monk for real,” Owen muttered as they watched the monk slowly walk out of the arena, leaving drops of blood in his wake, both from his own wounds and his fists.\n\n”Yeah,” Jake nodded in agreement. ”The rematch will be quite exciting, though from the looks of it, only one of us will be walking out alive.”\n\nThis wasn’t just Jake wanting a fight to the death. He felt the pure killing intent and bloodlust from that so-called Benevolent Monk, and he knew that should he want a serious rematch with the monk, there really was only one way it could go. If the monk wanted a life-and-death battle, Jake wasn’t going to reject it.\n\n”It… it isn’t sure you’ll meet him again, right?” Polly asked, worried. ”You already met and beat him once, and repeat matchups are incredibly rare.”\n\nJake just smiled at her. There was no fucking way there wouldn’t be a repeat matchup.\n\nHe just hadn’t expected it would be so soon.\n\n755 chapter - Nevermore: Paragon Preparations\n\nJake had expected his rematch with the Benevolent Monk to be during a promotion match or at least another highlighted event, but that didn’t turn out to be the case. After watching the very-much-not Benevolent Monk fight, Jake did his last match as a Warlord before his promotion the week after, and when he signed up for the promotion match, he was naturally once more met with another anomaly… just not the one he had expected.\n\n”Look, by now, we both know this is all a setup, alright? But hey, you can’t expect any easy fights anymore, being a Warlord possibly about to be a Paragon, so I guess it shouldn’t come as that big of a surprise. Either way, next up is another person who has yet to lose a single match and is considered quite the monster by pretty much all opponents that have faced her so far,” the Battlemaster said. Jake was honestly surprised when he heard the Battlemaster say “her” as he had totally expected to meet the Benevolent Monk… but then again, could he even meet him with how ranks and such worked?\n\nEither way, it didn’t matter. Jake was still confident they would meet sooner or later.\n\n“So, any information on this mystery opponent?” Jake asked.\n\n“Yeah… she may be the toughest fighter you have faced yet. You need to understand not a single opponent has even managed to land a single scratch on her clothes so far,” he said, shaking his head.\n\nJake found his interest peaked. “Sounds strong. Do you have any tips or tricks? Maybe just some basic information on her?”\n\n“I can’t tell you much, but I can say she is one of the most feared types of mages in the world: an illusionist. The world itself is altered in her presence, and in her own promotion match to Paragon, she won within a minute by simply walking up to her opponent and cutting his throat… You may actually consider skipping this one,” the Battlemaster said with some genuine concern. “But if you do plan on fighting, you better fucking plan for it properly, even if you only have a day.”\n\n“Sign me up for it,” Jake just grinned. An illusionist, eh? Poor gal to meet someone like Jake.\n\n“Are you sure? She is also known to be very ruthless and kills most of her opponents,” the Battlemaster asked clarifyingly.\n\n“I’m sure,” Jake smiled.\n\n“Alright then.”\n\nBonus Objective gained.\n\nYour rapid ascension through the ranks of the Colosseum of Mortals couldn’t have been swifter. If you wish to keep this streak going, you will have to defeat an opponent with power out of the ordinary for this ranking.\n\nFailing this bonus objective will lock out many similar future bonus objectives.\n\nBonus Objective: Defeat the Living Nightmare\n\nThe Living Nightmare, huh? Sounded scary, but Jake didn’t feel the slightest sense of fear.\n\nDue to his Bloodline, Jake had automatically not taken her seriously. Over the last thirty years, Jake had encountered many who used illusion magic, not to talk about those he faced before Nevermore. Due to how Bloodlines worked, Jake’s Sphere of Perception entirely ignored all illusions, and his own intuition filtered out all the false information automatically, making Jake arguably the biggest counter to illusion magic in the entire multiverse.\n\nHe still went and checked her out, with Polly also gathering some sparse information. Apparently, she was some odd fairy-like humanoid Jake didn’t remember ever encountering before, and he was honestly surprised that if creatures like them existed, they were born in F-grade.\n\n[Fae]\n\nWhat Jake did learn was that fae or fairies, or whatever one wanted to call them, were very magically inclined creatures with downright horrible physical stats by default. Based on what Polly said, they also varied widely in size and appearance, with some the size of a finger and others several meters tall.\n\nIt was a weird race, that one. The one Jake was fighting was at least human-sized. If not, the battle would have been incredibly awkward. Oh, and as Jake also saw she had small transparent wings, he also made sure to check if she could fly. She couldn’t, so that was good to know."}
{"text": "”I told you, True Royals are monsters. Rigoria is a Primordial, yes, making her a powerful as fuck god, but even she failed to invade the heartlands of the Endless Empire more than a handful of times, and every time she tried, dozens of peak S-grade True Royals would face her. Individually, Rigoria was, of course, superior, but when outnumbered, she would eventually lose out, and her avatar be destroyed. However, there was still a huge gap in power, and the True Royals did begin to fall one by one. The war effort also meant that many regular ectognamorphs died by the billions every single day, and the variants at the vanguard were those made for combat. Such as the wasps led by their Vespernat Hive Queen. As part of the vanguard, it should not come as a surprise she died despite her combat power being ranked top five of all True Royals,” the snake god gave Jake a history lesson. ”Things stabilized a lot after that as some True Royals managed to reach godhood, but the war is still ongoing to this day, having only grown in scope.”\n\nDamn, Jake thought, noting one particular thing. Top five, you go, Vesperia!\n\n”Now, let’s get down to the crux of now that you have some context. Do you know why True Royals are so important to the Endless Empire?” Villy asked\n\n”They are powerful and can help lead their race?” Jake guessed\n\n”Technically true, but not the entire story. The Endless Empire does include all variants of ectognamorphs; some are not part of the faction at all. One of those types of variants is the vast majority of wasps and bees spread throughout the multiverse. The largest hives perhaps still maintain working relationships with the Endless Empire, but they don’t join it. Can you guess why?” the Viper asked leadingly.\n\n”Pride and nature?” Jake assumed. ”True Royals would not want to give a non-True Royal the proper respect, and a leader of a hive that isn’t respected will not recognize them as their leaders due to their nature as Hive Queens not recognizing them as their True Royals. From what I gathered, they are all hive-first, so why would a Wasp Hive Queen make sacrifices for the Endless Empire due to orders from some foreign True Royal?”\n\n”Right on the money. The reason why True Royals are so important is that they are respected innately. A Quasi-Royal wasp will not recognize a True Royal ant Hive Queen as superior to themselves, but at most as an equal despite their status as cousins. But if a True Royal wasp was to appear… even a Godqueen Quasi-Royal Wasp or Bee Hive Queen would follow them unquestionably. It is simply how their race works, a fundamental law of their state of being,” Villy explained.\n\nVesperia nodded in confirmation, making Jake frown as he was beginning to get the picture. However, it only truly sank in with the next part.\n\n”Throughout the history of the multiverse, severed Lineages have only reappeared thrice, and every time due to some Hive Queen getting its hands on an item granted by the system directly, allowing it to become a True Royal,” Villy said with a smile. ”Oh, and now the fourth time is from you doing some fun-time experimenting while barely in C-grade. But tell me, Jake, what do you think the Endless Empire did the first three times? What lengths do you think they are willing to go to? How much value does Vesperia’s existence truly hold to them?”\n\nJake stared at the ground as he processed things. He now truly got it. He had kind of assumed that the Endless Empire wanted Vesperia because of historical reasons and maybe due to some odd sense of pride… but it was far more than that. Vesperia had mentioned she would be recognized as a leader of wasps and bees, but Jake had not thought it was so… universal and absolute.\n\nFor the Endless Empire, recruiting Vesperia was not a matter of gaining a powerful C-grade that could potentially reach godhood in the future and allow a new Lineage to reemerge:\n\nShe was a direct way to recruit every single hive of bees and wasps in the entire multiverse into the Endless Empire and expand their power significantly.\n\n624 chapter - A Long Overdue Decision\n\nJake, by now, realized: he had fucked up. At least he felt like he had fucked up. But upon looking at Vesperia sitting beside him, calmly drinking her tea while Villy explained, he couldn’t say he regretted what he had done. Despite only meeting that day, he liked Vesperia. Who couldn’t like someone with a damn stinger gun?\n\n”This is… kind of bad, isn’t it?” he finally asked, making Vesperia look at him confused.\n\n”Why would it be bad that you managed to sire a True Royal? The Endless Empire, no, any faction would welcome you with open arms, and no one will dare attempt to kill you for fear of the Malefic One choosing to strike back. That is not even mentioning the many other factions who will also desire your protection and growth,” Vesperia asked.\n\n”Yeah… the thing is, I am not really public with this entire Chosen of the Malefic Viper thing,” Jake scratched his head.\n\nVesperia looked at him weirdly for a few seconds. ”I… don’t understand?”\n\n”Jake here is weird; we agree on that, right?” Villy asked Vesperia with a grin. The True Royal nodded, Jake, choosing not to take offense as she clearly just agreed with the god to be nice and because he was a Primordial. Right?\n\n”Well, part of his weirdness is a constant fear of recognition and having people suck up to him. I do kind of get it, as having armies of annoying insects running after you constantly is less than ideal, and it is made worse for Jake by his preference for people to treat him like a person rather than a symbol,” the snake god explained.\n\nJake confirmed with a nod. ”Can you blame me for just wanting normal interactions with other people and not them constantly walking on eggshells or treating me like royalty?”\n\nVesperia now looked even more confused. ”But… you are, aren’t you? You have helped birth a True Royal, and I recognize you as my sire and parent. You are a being above nearly all others.”\n\n”Not disagreeing that I am awesome, just that I don’t want to be treated based solely on some perceived status people think I have. The problem is that others don’t seem to be able to respect that I want to be treated like a person and not some semi-divine figure based on their preconceived notions of who and what I should be,” Jake tried to explain.\n\nThe True Royal nodded, though Jake had a feeling she didn’t quite get it. Which was kind of fair. As a True Royal, it was innate of her to be treated like royalty by others; it was simply how things were supposed to be.\n\n”Anyway, let’s get back on topic,” Villy cut in. ”My point here is that hiding what you have done is… not possible. While I am also awesome, and while Shroud of the Primordial can block nearly all things, there are gods out there capable of piercing through it. I know of at least one of the leaders in the Royal Council that would be able to trace you if she ever examined Vesperia here, and no amount of cloaking on my end can stop that. It will make her unable to find you, but she will know who you are. Ultimately, Shroud of the Primordial is about hiding things about you, not the fact that you even exist.”\n\n”The Odonstrom Hive Queen,” Vesperia nodded.\n\n”Dragonfly True Royal, leading the Odonata Lineage,” Villy clarified for Jake. ”They are Perception-focused, so you may like them, and their senses are wicked. The True Royal has a compound eye on her forehead, able to see things not perceivable to nearly any other visual organ I know of. Karmic threads, mana, emotions… she is even able to view different fragments of time through her eye, observing both past and future. A real scary one.”\n\n”Hm,” Jake said with a frown. He had to admit, he had kind of banked on Shroud of the Primordial being perfect… but he had clearly miscalculated on that one. However, there was also one other issue.\n\n”Wait, does that mean she already located Vesperia?” Jake asked, not sure if he should be worried or not."}
{"text": "Julius had all four of the limbs splayed out as he used the dredges of his mana to heal himself and tried to recover as much mana as he could.\n\nNothing went according to how he thought things might go. He had expected that he would have to fight the big bad troll chieftain in the end, but honestly, it was hard to believe that even it could survive that catastrophe.\n\nJulius stayed on the ground for over an hour. He had already completely healed by now and his mana had recovered a decent amount in that time as well. He had checked his notifications as waited.\n\n[Savage Dance lvl 11 -> lvl 14]\n\n[Arcane Construct lvl 5 -> lvl 8]\n\n[Pure Compression lvl 4 -> lvl 7]\n\n[Pseudo-Phoenix Renewal lvl 5 -> lvl 9]\n\n[Kinetic Augmentation lvl 1 -> lvl 5]\n\nIt was the greatest improvement he had seen while in the rift. Numbers-wise, it might have not been the largest increase, but considering that all of his skills were rare, the improvement was significant.\n\nHe even got a new skill offered.\n\nWould you like to learn the skill [Fighter’s Will] (Uncommon)?\n\nJulius didn’t know what to expect from a skill like that. He didn’t even know why he got offered it. Was it from participating in so many dangerous fights? Or maybe it was because of his dumb stunt? He didn’t know. However, he didn’t see any reason not to accept it.\n\nHe almost thought about not choosing it just because it would mean his status would no longer have all rare skills, but quickly whacked himself over the head.\n\nCongratulations, skill [Fighter’s Will] (Uncommon) acquired.\n\nEven after he acquired it, he still didn’t have any idea what the skill did. He guessed it would take some experimenting to find out. Julius had bigger problems to solve though.\n\nFor one, he was expecting some sort of exit would appear. Most times when a rift was cleared, a portal appeared, taking the delvers back to the real world. However, Julius had not seen any signs of a portal yet.\n\nCould there still be other trolls in the valley? Or maybe the chieftain is still alive.\n\nJulius knew that some rifts were only considered completely cleared once the “boss” was killed. But looking at the mess of the aftermath, he could not even begin to guess how or where the boss might be.\n\nGetting back to his feet, Julius made his way to the destroyed remnants of the mountain. He had always planned to create some sort of landslide as a contingency but nothing on this scale. He thought it would be useful in getting away, but it was way more effective than he could have dared hoped for.\n\nHe was lucky that the direction of the landslide wasn’t where he was blasted off. If it was, it was very possible that he would have been buried alongside the trolls.\n\nOnce he made it to the base of the mountain, he used [Spatial Perception] to its limits, trying to sense anything living underneath. The skill was undoubtedly one of the most useful skills he had, but he was having a difficult time picking up anything through so much rock. It was hard to differentiate what was rock and what wasn’t.\n\nIt was only when he was almost directly over a troll, that he could sense it. It was also very tricky navigating through the rubble. Julius had to climb over boulders and be careful not to slip on the uneven terrain. A twisted ankle was funnily enough, not a big issue for him anymore, but it still didn’t mean he could just run across the debris.\n\nNot surprisingly, he ended up finding some living trolls buried deep underneath the rock. He put them out of their misery with a wedge of mana or sent an additional blast of kinetic mana on the rock burying them, and smushing them for good. The trolls were persistent, he would give them that. But still had not found the chieftain or the mage.\n\nJulius spent several hours picking through the ruins but still had zero luck. At this point, he was almost certain the chieftain had made it out alive. He found that there were a lot more trolls who survived than what he originally thought. It really highlighted their impressive survivability abilities. However, there was still no chieftain or mage and it worried him.\n\nEven after constant searching, Julius came up empty-handed. But he at least was able to take care of the many stragglers stuck in the landslide, so that was a plus.\n\nIt was getting close to early morning and Julius was tired from the stress of the day, so he headed back to the ravine.\n\nHe was casually enhancing his body with [Kinetic Augmentation] jogging back as he thought about the day’s events. He still didn’t quite understand some of his actions. During the heat of the moment, he had decided to completely derail from his carefully made plans.\n\nWith that being said, he did not regret it. He still believed that he did the right thing. It wasn’t like these monsters had done anything to Julius. If they were the assassins or some sort of slavers, then Julius wouldn’t have felt as bad cutting their throats in their bed. However, it was technically Julius who was intruding. They didn’t deserve such a brutal execution.\n\nNo, what bothered him so much was his proclivities to self-destructive actions. He could rationalize putting himself in danger and taking unnecessary risks to improve his skills, but he realized that he would have still done it even without the skill improvement.\n\nHe had always been a weird, some might even say crazy, person. He didn’t deny that. What type of person would willingly blindfold themselves for several years? A genuine weirdo, that’s who. But he had never been suicidal. However, his actions since he entered this rift had been pushing the limits of what was normal even for him.\n\nHe was glad that he didn’t continue to slaughter the trolls in their bed, but why the fuck did he detonate a bomb instead? He could have easily slipped away unnoticed and figured out another plan. But rather than that, he decided to just break in, and snitch himself out to a bunch of monsters who he just killed. It made no sense.\n\nHe needed to be better in the future. He knew better than anyone what death was like, and he also knew how valuable life was. He should not be so willing to throw his away.\n\nMaybe, what happened to Lukas and Edwin had been affecting him more than he wanted to admit. It was something that he had been avoiding up to this point. But his careless attitude up to now was similar to how he acted when he lost his other family.\n\nI should think ab–\n\nOut of nowhere [Spatial Perception] picked up a fast-moving object coming straight at his back. His body was already throwing itself into a dive, getting out of the way, feeling a gust of wind as the object passed over his head. However, when he got back to his feet, a leg was already heading straight at his chest. This time, he didn’t have time to dodge and tried to block it while enhancing his body to the limit with [Kinetic Augmentation]. It felt like getting hit by a speeding semi-truck.\n\nHis arm was completely smashed to the side and the kick pummeled him in the shoulder, launching him off into the distance. If not for the recently evolved [Kinetic Augmentation], that kick would have shattered him like a piece of glass. Even with the skill, almost every rib was split in half, his organs ruptured, and his right shoulder turned into a paste.\n\nI think I found the chieftain, Julius thought to himself through clenched teeth.\n\nJulius got to his feet as quickly as he could, because the troll was already charging right at him, and unlike the other trolls, this one was way faster.\n\nThe chieftain made the other trolls look like the fat kids in gym class. It was so fast Julius could barely track its movements with [Spatial Perception]. Julius flooded his body with kinetic energy and blasted himself as far away while simultaneously throwing out a condensed spike right at the troll. The troll ducked underneath it and proceeded to dash straight at Julius."}
{"text": "”Now, who will win!? Will Doomfoot be crushed, or the Crushing Edge meet his doom? Let’s find out! Lower the gates!”\n\nAs commanded, the horizontal mesh of bars first disappeared before the vertical ones lowered into the ground. Right when there was enough space to go out, Jake’s opponent began jogging toward him from the other end of the arena.\n\nCasually, Jake placed the bow on the ground as he stepped into the arena.\n\nJake began walking forward slowly at first, as he slowly picked up pace and began running. While running, a shiver of energy went down his right leg. Stamina tinged with his arcane affinity infused every vein, every muscle. If one could see beneath his pants, one would see faint veins of pink-purple covering his skin, surging with destructive potential.\n\nApplying arcane energy to his physical moves was extremely easy, even with his reduced stats. In fact, it was far easier now than before, as there wasn’t as much to control, while his pure level of skill in controlling energy was virtually unchanged compared to before the Challenge Dungeon. His energy control as a C-grade was already viewed as monstrous, so having that same level of control as a level 0 G-grade was complete and utter overkill.\n\nAlso, while Arcane Supremacy was gone, he still remembered the sensations of increased control, and even if he didn’t have skills, Jake rarely ever used skills when he used his mana to begin with.\n\nSo to infuse parts of his body with extra stamina and wrapping his foot in a faint shimmer of protective arcane energy and the rest in pure destruction? Easy as pie.\n\nThe two of them approached each other as the crowd went even wilder than before. The half-ogre roared as he swung his giant axe toward Jake.\n\nJake, still running at full speed, jumped into the air as he spun his body around. A trail of arcane energy swirled around his foot, leaving a trace of color as he kicked, delivering a spinning roundhouse kick.\n\nHis foot connected with the head of the half-ogre as a metal helmet met leather boots. A small localized explosion of arcane energy rocked the arena as metal spikes from the helmet flew everywhere. The giant half-ogre was sent airborne and flew nearly five meters before hitting a pillar, his neck broken and head crooked.\n\nJake landed on the soft arena floor, feeling the sand between his toes on his right foot. The leather boots were shredded to pieces upon impact, leaving him with only one shoe left.\n\nMore powerful than expected, Jake noted as he checked and saw that the half-ogre was still alive, though, without healing, it was doubtful how long that would be the case.\n\nDeafening silence filled the entire arena for a few seconds before Jake turned around and began walking toward the exit. As he moved, the arena came back alive. Medical staff ran toward the half-ogre, and the crowd began screaming, with the announcer also finally doing his job again.\n\n”Doomfoot does it again! With a single kick, the Crushing Edge had his dreams crushed by a debutant! But I am sure you are all asking… what was that!? What power does the kick of the Doomfoot truly hold? Has he been hiding his power all this time? Suddenly had an epiphany? What is the true depth of his power? Ha! Who cares!? The only real question is… when will Doomfoot ever meet his match!”\n\nJake didn’t know if he should be happy or annoyed that the announcer made it clear no one cared if you hid your power. Owen would definitely still ask, but at least he wouldn’t face questions from others. Not like it would have mattered even if he did – this entire Challenge Dungeon was just about arena fights, nothing more, nothing less.\n\nWalking out of the arena to the cheers of the audience, remembering to pick up the bow on the way, Jake walked straight to the Battlemaster, who somehow seemed to be aware of everything that had happened in the arena despite not having moved a single step from where he stood when Jake accepted the match.\n\nAfter some praise and a backhanded compliment, Jake went outside of the Gladiator training area as he waited for Polly and Owen, who predictably came over right away. After stalling for a bit, Jake finally went to a nice little corner where the questions began. Polly was the first to go.\n\n”That… magic… what was it?” Polly asked with wide eyes. ”I… I’ve felt powerful spells before, but that mana, that power, I-”\n\n”My own magic,” Jake simply answered. ”Asking me about it will not help. It is innate to me, and even if you trained from now till the day you die, you wouldn’t ever be able to learn it.”\n\n”Why did you hide it?” Owen questioned, just as Jake had expected. Also, he really wanted to point out the hypocrisy of that question but assumed the guy had his reasons. Same as Jake had his.\n\n”What would it have helped if I revealed it earlier outside of making the fights even more boring? It would also have been too much and risked killing several of my prior opponents. Unless my previous opponents disagree… hey, Polly, would you have liked for me to have used that kick on you?” Jake asked the mage.\n\nShe stared at him with even wider eyes. ”I… I would be dead…”\n\n”Exactly,” Jake nodded. ”As I said, all shall be revealed in time. Just assume that as the level of challenge increases, so shall more be shown. And we’re still in the early stages of these revelations.”\n\n”Can I ask… how are you this powerful?” Polly questioned. ”Do you have a great master or something?”\n\n”You can ask, sure. But I won’t answer. Anyone that may or may not have had an impact on my Path is not anywhere near here and will not show up in or around the Colosseum, so no reason to even think about it,” Jake tried to explain everything away.\n\nGoing into detail on how he was so strong also wasn’t that interesting and not something that could be replicated. The truth was that he was actually a C-grade. The true difference all came down to one simple thing:\n\nConceptual power. The sheer power and depth of the concepts in Jake’s arcane affinity made it far more powerful than it had any right to be. It wasn’t as simple as an Arcane Awakening-level powerup… it went far above that during the moment of kicking.\n\nThrough sheer control, he could stabilize destruction and stability until, at once, he would unleash it all into one wave of pure destructive force through his foot. In prior fights, Jake hadn’t even actively controlled his stamina during the fights, but now it was time to get a bit more serious.\n\nWhat’s more… that one roundhouse kick wasn’t even close to Jake’s limits. If he wanted to, he could pour every single shred of mana he had into one singular attack. Doing so wouldn’t make much sense, though.\n\nIt wouldn’t just have killed the half-ogre if he did that. There wouldn’t even be a head left, as all would have been consumed by pure arcane destruction.\n\nJake was genuinely looking forward to facing an opponent he could go full-power on. Alas, he had a feeling it would still be quite a while before that happened. Especially now that he was limited to one ⊛ Nоvеlιght ⊛ (Read the full story) match a day.\n\nHowever, there was at least one positive change in the points department. Based on Jake’s math, then every win as a Gladiator should have rewarded 56 points, but he instead saw his points had increased by 250 from one victory. That was frankly a massive jump… then again, if he could only fight once a week, it had better give more points. It did also give some hope for this Show Matches, though.\n\nChecking the menu, he saw how many points he had, and it was starting to add up.\n\nCurrent objective: Be promoted from Gladiator to Veteran Gladiator\n\nCurrent rank: Gladiator (1/10)\n\nColosseum Points: 2990\n\nLives remaining: 10\n\n”Enough talk about how awesome I am,” Jake put a stop to Owen’s and Polly’s questions. ”Didn’t you two want me to go look at equipment before the match? Let’s do that now since we got the time. Can’t walk around like this forever.”\n\nJake showed off his bare right foot, which was already plenty dirty from wandering around after the fight. Plus he had sand everywhere, and everyone knows the bad rep sand had, being all coarse, rough and irritating."}
{"text": "He had the advantage of using his Severing Will Concept to help him, but his ability to manipulate aura still fell short of hers by a lot. If he didn’t have Severing Will, he suspected she would have already had him dozens of times. Now that he was paying attention to her aura really closely, he had an inkling that she also had a Concept of her own that she was using to help her. However, instead of making her aura like a sharpened blade, it acted like his aura skill, [Empowerment of Will]. It just made her aura overall stronger in every way.\n\nEventually, no matter how hard he tried to keep her out, she was better. She slowly ground him down in a battle of attrition and had been using large spikes of aura to spear his compressed aura. The opening she would then exploit by prying it apart and invading his aura.\n\nShe had his aura in a vice grip and it felt like she was choking his soul. He gave the spiritual equivalent of a tap of conceding and she let him go right after.\n\nJulius was sweating like crazy and he turned to look at Lily with a wild grin on his face. He had a blast, fighting with aura like that was a very entertaining way of practicing aura. And by the similar maniacal grin on her face, he would say that she agreed.\n\nThe others were looking at them expectantly.\n\n“Well…?” Aubrey said to them.\n\nLily looked at Julius with an incredulous grin. “That Concept of yours works great with aura. What did you say its name was?”\n\n“It’s called Severing Will, why?” Julius answered.\n\n“I can see why it's called that. It certainly severs aura like nothing I have quite seen,” she said in awe.\n\nAubrey got in between them with an impatient frown as she hopped on both feet. “I don’t know if you guys know. But we weren’t privy to whatever happened with your guy’s auras. What happened?”\n\nEdgar spoke up as well. “I agree. Normally, I would tell Aubrey to calm down, but I find myself impatient to know as well.”\n\nLily looked over at Julius as if asking for his permission to share what she had learned about him. He scanned over the other’s faces quickly. He saw everyone, even Kyle who had taken a break from whatever he was thinking about regarding Julius’s perception skill looking on very intently.\n\nHe gave a small nod to Lily, letting her know that he was okay with it.\n\n“Julius has a very interesting set of skills and abilities that give his aura a considerable boost. His Concept in particular allows him to cut apart my aura far more easily than someone should be able to. He also has an admirable amount of control over his aura, something one wouldn’t expect from someone of his Tier. However, I am curious about one thing,” she said while turning to look at Julius.\n\n“Why does your soul feel like a Tier 3?” She asked in wonder.\n\nJulius had an awkward look on his face. He hadn’t had the time to tell the others about his newly acquired epic skill yet, nor was he able to tell them about the soul evolution he went through.\n\nWith a hesitant expression, he came clean. “I actually had something I wanted to tell you guys.”\n\n“Again?” Aubrey asked exasperated. “What did you do this time?”\n\n“Well, you know how I just learned my Concept right? I wanted to use that to acquire an epic skill for the past week right?” He told them.\n\nHe saw them all nod, following along patiently.\n\n“Well, I was able to achieve it last night.”\n\nHe was barely able to finish before Aubrey said, “And let me guess, you forgot to mention it again.”\n\n“That’s why you had the cake last night…” Lily softly commented more to herself than anyone else.\n\n“No, I just didn’t really find the right time with everything that went on today,” he explained. “And yes, that’s why I had the cake.”\n\n“While that was faster than many acquire their epic skills after learning a Concept, I can’t say I am that surprised considering what we know of you. But what does this have to do with your aura?” Edgar asked.\n\nJulius scratched his head. “I don’t really know for myself. But I got a notification telling me about a reward for a soul evolution.”\n\nThey all simultaneously turned to look at him. “Already?” Lily asked excitedly.\n\nHe tilted his head and looked at them curiously. “You know what happened to me?” Julius asked.\n\n“Of course. It happened to all of us immediately after we advanced to Tier 3,” Lily explained to him.\n\n“Yeah, it is sort of a thing that almost every single elite Tier 3 will go through once they advance. If you don’t go through it, it often means you didn’t have a solid enough foundation and enough skills at rare,” Aubrey added.\n\n“Do you think that I was able to do it early because I got an epic ranked skill?” Julius asked them. He watched as they all thought about that for a moment before he got a mixture of headshakes and shrugs.\n\n“Honestly, there are many factors when it comes to soul strength. It's a combination of skills, natural-born talent, the kinds of tribulations, what tier you are at, and many other things. Some nobles even feed expensive soul-strengthening treasures to their children, even though they are wasted on someone at that Tier. For you to go through it already, even with an epic skill, means that you must have had an increase from one of these other factors. An epic skill is not enough alone to get you past that threshold,” Derek explained.\n\n“So what happens when I advance again?” Julius asked them.\n\nDerek looked up in the sky in thought. “I don’t know,” he honestly told Julius. “I doubt you are the only person who has ever achieved it. But I don’t know what happened to those people. They probably kept it a secret.”\n\n“You did choose the additional skill slot option though right?” Aubrey asked worryingly.\n\n“What? Was I supposed to?” Julius asked, pretending to be worried, and smiled internally when he saw the horror bloom on Aubrey’s face.\n\nA note from l-Ryn-l\n\nThank you so much for reading!\n\nIf you want to read up to 25 chapters ahead, please check out Patreon for more information!\n\nChapter 138: Why Is She Staring?\n\nAubrey walked up to Julius and grabbed his shoulders forcefully. “What did you choose? Please don’t tell me you chose the skill evolution option,” Aubrey started to panic.\n\n“What? That’s not the best option?” Julius tried his best to sound genuinely ignorant.\n\n“You fucking idiot. In what world does that sound like the best option,” Aubrey reprimanded him while vigorously shaking him like a rag doll.\n\nHe looked over to see the other's reactions. Derek and Edgar both looked equally upset and slightly disappointed. Kyle and Lily on the other hand didn’t seem particularly worried at all.\n\nLily even had a slight smirk on her face as she watched Aubrey shake him apart in frustration. She was most likely picking up on his emotions at the moment, so she probably knew that he was teasing them.\n\nKyle on the other hand had always been a good predictor of Julius’s behaviors. He was the most perceptive person outside of Lily when it came to Julius’s actions. It would be of no surprise that Kyle had guessed that Julius was messing with Aubrey as revenge. He even gave Julius a little amused nod when they met eyes for a moment.\n\nEventually, Derek seemed to pick up that Lily wasn’t worrying like she would have if she thought Julius was telling the truth and released his tense shoulders. He walked over to Aubrey who was still shaking Julius and scolding him. “Calm down, Aubrey,” Derek told the irate girl trying to pry her fingers from Julius but ultimately failing.\n\n“Calm down? I can’t believe he would be this stupid. I know nobody had probably explained it to him yet, but still, I would like to think that he would be smart enough to know that out of all of the options, that one was the worst. Literally, any other reward would have been better,” Aubrey exclaimed loudly.\n\nJulius turned to Lily with curious eyes. “How many options did you guys have? And how many is normal?” He asked her casually.\n\nLily just gave him a half-chastening look but answered him regardless. “We got four options. The skill evolution option, the soul-nourishing option, the Concept enlightenment option, and the skill slot option. Most people usually get all of these options. They are pretty standard.”"}
{"text": "His smile wavered for a second. Then fell off his face completely as a barrage of massive stones soared toward his forehead. He didn’t even flinch as he created a barrier in front of him that shielded him. He also made sure to absorb as much kinetic energy as he could from these rocks. So when they slammed against his barrier, they didn’t have that much momentum left.\n\nHe gave the trolls a disappointed shake of his head.\n\n“So this is what I get for trying to be peaceful?” He muttered more for his benefit than anyone else.\n\nHe sighed as he spotted the large troll, who ordered the attack. The troll picked up a spear and channeled mana throughout its body. It coiled its lower legs and placed the spear behind its head before throwing it with impressive force at Julius.\n\nHe shook his head with disappointment before reaching out with his kinetic energy and absorbing the spear's force, slowing it down just enough for him to snatch it out of the air with his hand. He gave it a little experimental twirl and infused as much kinetic energy into it as he could.\n\nThe wood of the spear was surprisingly good at channeling mana, but he gave it a little help with his own mana and aura. This heavily enforced the shaft and let the spear contain more kinetic energy than it otherwise would have.\n\nThen, in the exact same way the troll threw it, he coiled his legs and cocked back the spear in his right hand. Then, like a crossbow, he slung the spear back at the troll. The moment he released it, he felt a shockwave from the air, and the troll could barely react as the spear tore right through its chest and sent it flying backwards into one of the thatched buildings.\n\nHe sighed loudly. He had been half hoping that the defeat condition meant he didn't actually have to kill the trolls. He guessed he must have been thinking too optimistically.\n\nThis seemed to be a signal to the rest of the trolls because he watched as the dozens of trolls dashed toward his position, anger radiating in their green eyes. He let out a grin and rolled out his shoulders as he met them head-on.\n\nThe first troll he met had a big hammer and was swinging it right at Julius’s torso. Julius calmly stepped into the swing and siphoned the kinetic energy. He then proceeded to jump up and slam his palm into the skull of the troll with a loud crack. A big chunk of flesh was torn from its cheekbone and left a bloody hole in its face.\n\nHe knew immediately that the strike wouldn’t be enough to kill it, not if these trolls had healing abilities like the previous ones he had faced. And he was right.\n\nAs he was in the middle of kicking another troll in the face, he watched as the first troll’s skull quickly regenerated its missing flesh.\n\nHe took this opportunity to use his Sharpness Concept. He infused his kinetic energy with Severing Will and smashed his fist into another troll. This time, he was excited to see that the wound he caused lasted much longer.\n\nAs he had suspected, the Concept made the wound much more difficult to heal, much like his own prior experiences when dealing with an attack infused with a Concept.\n\nRegardless, these trolls clearly had Concepts of their own, and the wound, albeit more slowly, still healed given some time.\n\nHe didn’t really care that much. He was much too busy not to get overwhelmed by the sheer number of trolls currently attacking him. The fact that he wasn’t able to easily kill any of them made it much more difficult. He wasn’t able to slowly put them down. By the time he got a chance, he was already getting mobbed by three other trolls.\n\nA big reason why he wasn’t in a much worse situation was due to the fact that the trolls weren’t that fast. They also didn’t have many abilities other than their strength and healing abilities to fight with.\n\nHe did find himself having fun, though. It was chaotic and brutal. That's exactly what he enjoyed in a fight. He was constantly having to pivot around, and he took advantage of small activations of [Void Step] to reposition slightly. This allowed him not to get boxed in by the trolls.\n\nHe still took hits, of course, but each punch he received from a troll powered up his own kinetic attacks. He was also getting a weird feeling regarding his Sharpness Concept. He was trying to take some inspiration from the wraith and how it managed to slice through his mana barriers with such ease. He still didn’t know exactly how the creature did it, but the memory of it fueled his own attacks.\n\nHe occasionally used his kinetic restriction technique to hold a troll in place while he attacked its comrade.\n\nIt took some time, but he finally managed to kill one of them. He had to use his restriction technique on three trolls at once and use [Void Step] to reposition on top of the troll, but a flying knee with a load of accumulated kinetic energy tore the entire head from the monster’s shoulders.\n\nThe Sharpness Concept he infused into his kinetic energy helped him break through the natural defenses of the troll. Otherwise, even with his Force Concept helping, he doubted he would have been able to remove the entire head of the troll in one blow.\n\nHe had learned when he had fought the trolls in the past that destroying the head was the only actual way to kill a troll confidently. He didn’t fully understand it at the time, but now that he was a little more experienced, that made fighting them much more annoying. It also didn’t help that these trolls seemed to be quite a bit stronger than the ones he fought before.\n\nHis initial thought of them being a more advanced species appeared to be correct.\n\nOf course, he likely could have killed all of them with his constructs, but that wasn’t the point of coming to the Endless Forest. He needed to improve his other abilities. There was so much untapped potential regarding his kinetic energy and other Concepts.\n\nHe didn’t just want to rely on his more powerful skills for the rest of his life. Not when a little sweat and effort could fix that.\n\nThe trolls were relentless. Much like himself, they had a healing skill that allowed them to exert themselves far beyond what was normal. That was why even ten minutes into the fight, everyone was still going just as hard as they had initially.\n\nOf course, during this time, Julius had thinned them out slightly. But in all honesty, it wasn’t that much. He hadn’t even killed a dozen trolls yet. Their persistence and ability to survive were quite admirable.\n\nWhile he was focused on not getting mauled, he wanted to try something. With his recent success in infusing his kinetic energy with his Sharpness Concept, he wanted to see if he could infuse his kinetic energy while he was using his restriction technique.\n\nHe already did it with his ruinous aura, and it had quite a vicious effect on his enemies. But he was curious if he could physically cut up the trolls as well. That would be interesting to test out.\n\nAnd that was precisely what he ended up doing. He didn’t care about the punches to the back for a moment as he tried to figure out a way. His body was already covered in bruises at this point, and a couple more wouldn't kill him. It was pretty interesting when he found infusing his kinetic energy with the Concept easier than expected.\n\nThis technique already used two of his Concepts, which was why he was surprised at how simple it was. Previously, he had a hard time using more than two Concepts in a single technique. He grinned widely. Perhaps this was a sign that he was improving.\n\nHe concentrated and managed to charge the kinetic energy he was using to press against the troll's bodies. It was very similar to how the kinetic energy had been trying to rip apart his body, but against the trolls, it was a lot more visible. It looked like small little shards of glass were ripping their skin apart.\n\nIt wasn’t anything too dangerous, though. Their wounds were basically superficial. Even more so when you took into account their ability to heal. The main thing he accomplished was just pissing them off more."}
{"text": "“But I want to show off my new talented apprentice,” Cain said sadly and looked a little downcast. But Julius wasn’t going to be tricked this time around.\n\n“You can show off after I leave,” he said firmly.\n\nCain looked up. “Promise?”\n\n“Sure.”\n\nCain perked up, and Julius immediately felt like something was wrong, but couldn’t quite figure out why.\n\nHe wanted to ask Cain, but the man quickly got up and ran off. Julius suspected that Freya was going to hear all about Julius’s apprenticeship before he got to tell her. He just hoped that Cain didn’t taunt her too much; otherwise, he might be subjected to a harsh healing lesson.\n\nShe could be relentless when it came to training. Absolutely relentless to the point that it made Cain seem like an angel.\n\nHe froze suddenly and kicked himself in the butt. On second thought, he should know better. Cain would absolutely go too far and piss her off, just for kicks and giggles.\n\nHe let out a sigh full of anxiety as he sprinted out of the room, following Cain’s path and hopefully stopping the man before it was too late. He didn’t even care that he used a little too much kinetic energy, and a small combustion blasted outward. After all, he couldn't be too concerned with that when he was chasing after someone as strong as Cain.\n\nA note from l-Ryn-l\n\nThank you so much for reading! I hope you enjoyed!\n\nIf you did and wish to read up to 25 chapters ahead, please consider checking out my Patreon!\n\nChapter 443: Leaving For The Capital\n\n“You got everything?” Freya asked him once again.\n\nHe nodded and just to be safe, rechecked his new storage ring. Since neither Cain nor Freya was well-trained in the art of ring breaking, not even they were able to break into the Tier 5s storage ring.\n\nLuckily, they knew someone who was very skilled in that area and asked the man for help. Of course, the man was very busy with other jobs, and although it was someone as powerful as Freya asking, the man had informed them that he wouldn't be able to start on the project until he finished his current jobs.\n\nHonestly, Julius could respect that and wasn’t bothered about waiting. He had been preoccupied with a lot of other things, so it wasn’t a big deal. Eventually, the man finished his other projects and turned his attention to Julius's new ring. The man broke into the ring with some effort.\n\nJulius suspected that he had underestimated the intelligence of the Tier 5 he and Emil killed, because it took Freya’s expert almost an entire week to finally gain access without destroying the contents of the ring.\n\nDespite the long wait, Julius was pleased with the results.\n\nFirst of all, the ring was absolutely massive compared to his old one. The one he had grabbed from that snooty noble was around the size of a small wardrobe. This new one was at least ten times larger. He could fit a small bedroom inside it.\n\nHowever, the size was only one of its great features. The additional functions were equally impressive. There was a built-in organizer that allowed him to separate various objects without feeling like he was just throwing them in a large pile. He had been doing this with his old ring more often than he was proud of.\n\nFurthermore, there was a much more powerful and efficient stasis enchantment built in. His old one had a minor stasis enchantment that helped preserve food for a much longer time than it would otherwise last outside. But it wasn’t perfect. There was a limit, as he had learned the hard way when he found a moldy piece of cake hidden away in his ring.\n\nOf course, the extra protections that prevented someone from breaking into it were nice as well. If neither Freya nor Cain were able to break through with brute force, he felt pretty confident that others would have an equally hard time.\n\nWith that being said, there was something he was even more excited about than the cool features of the ring.\n\nThe actual contents.\n\nCain, Freya, and Julius gathered to examine the ring's contents. It was a bit like opening presents or an exciting mystery box. Julius had rubbed his hands eagerly, unable to contain his excitement.\n\nHowever, his excitement quickly dimmed. It wasn’t because there wasn't anything valuable inside the ring. It was mainly because he had zero clue what the hell the items were or what kind of purpose they had.\n\nHe found several things that pulsed with powerful mana, but due to his ignorance, he had no idea what they were for. Since the Tier 5 had been a crafter, Julius suspected these treasures meant for a future project, but that was his best guess.\n\nLuckily, Freya was there to help him. She didn’t know what everything was, but she was able to recognize some of the items.\n\nProbably the most impressive part was the sheer amount of cores and money that were hidden inside. Julius hadn’t really worried about money ever since he had gotten to Heston, but he doubted that he would have to worry about it until he got to Tier 5. The vast amount of cores and gold almost took up a quarter of the space.\n\nThe cores were meticulously organized as well. Each one was placed inside a box that helped prevent the mana from leaking out and preserve the overall quality of the cores.\n\nThe rest of the space was filled out with various sheets of metal and other crafting materials. He spotted some small slabs of what he assumed was the Blightfrost Steel, Emil had mentioned before. That was probably one of the more valuable materials he found inside.\n\nA smaller collection of various natural treasures was sectioned away as well. Unfortunately, Freya gave him the bad news that these treasures wouldn’t be that useful to him. They were mainly for non-combatants with weaker foundations. For example, he found a weird-looking root plant that could be processed to help purify one's body in preparation for advancement.\n\nHowever, since he had one of the best Concepts and skills for purifying, it was very useless for him. He hadn’t really appreciated it, but [Phoenix Renewal] was the perfect skill for removing impurities from one's body. Thus, he decided to save it for one of his friends who might need it.\n\nAlthough knowing their families, they likely didn’t need this treasure at all and already had their own ways of purifying their bodies.\n\nThere actually wasn’t that much Julius could use inside. He was certain that if he were a crafter, he would be overjoyed at seeing the extensive collection of materials, but since he was nothing but a dumb brute who liked to hit things, he felt a little disappointed. There weren't even a large number of weapons he could use.\n\nLuckily, he had a feeling that Kyle would find a much better use for all of this stuff instead of Julius. Thus, in the meantime, he decided to keep hold of it until he got the chance to give it to the Quincy Scion or to one of the others, who could pass it over to Kyle. Julius didn’t know if Kyle would be attending the tournament.\n\nHe knew that Kyle was working under a mentor for enchanting, but he wasn’t sure if that meant he would be allowed to go to the capital.\n\nJust because Julius didn’t find everything in the ring to be of value to him, that didn’t mean he didn’t find anything at all. There was actually a nice pile of clothes that made his eyes brighten with excitement.\n\nThey weren’t just regular clothes either. They were clothes that rivaled, and some even surpassed, the quality of his Goldencrest uniform. Multiple complex layers of enchantments were woven into individual threads, and he had a feeling that these clothes would be harder to pierce than some armored chestplates.\n\nThey were surprisingly tasteful as well. Simple designs, but elegant at the same time. He had to admit that the Tier 5 had a good eye for aesthetics, too bad he had chosen banditry as his profession. He could have been an excellent clothing designer in another life.\n\nBut one thing the Tier 5 didn’t have inside the ring was food. Of course, there was some food, but they were gross rations and basic bread. Things that were easy to eat and didn’t take up a lot of space. Making the stasis enchantments completely useless in Julius's expert opinion."}
{"text": "He lurched forward when Aubrey smacked him on the back of the head. “Stop that,” she said with a disappointed look.\n\n“I feel like it is pertinent to mention that during the final years of his life, he changed,” Riven added.\n\n“What do you mean?” Julius asked with a frown.\n\n“He was apparently dabbling in morally dubious techniques in his efforts to reach Tier 7. I heard that he died while doing so, and the sects he had offended along the way made sure to burn every record of the Undying Revenant’s technique. That’s why I am surprised that you have a copy of his personal works,” Riven said with a thoughtful look at the book.\n\n“What type of morally dubious techniques?” Derek asked worriedly.\n\n“Life draining techniques as well as soul conversion abilities that would allow him to use that energy to fuel and empower his own skills,” Riven said with a wince. “I think there was mention of him building an array that drained the life out of an entire city to push him over the edge of Tier 7.”\n\nJulius looked at the book with a completely different look from before, almost burning it right then and there.\n\nRiven must have noticed his disgust. “Don’t worry. This book doesn’t seem to talk about that kind of stuff. It was likely written when he was more sane and humane.”\n\nJulius let out a sigh of relief, though he still didn’t know how he felt about Tezuko now that he had learned more about him. He also couldn’t help but wonder if the trial had something to do with why he was given the book in the first place.\n\nWas he only given it because he hadn’t drained the life out of the villagers? Or was it perhaps a coincidence? He still didn’t know why the woman had talked to him personally. He seriously doubted that she did that for everyone.\n\n“Well, it doesn’t hurt to give it a shot,” Riven said to him.\n\nHe was about to respond when he felt a sudden surge of mana blast out. It felt like it came from every angle, as if the realm was exploding. He quickly channeled strength into his body, preparing for the worst.\n\nHe thought it was the other group trying to start shit again. However, he looked over at them and realized that they were just as confused by the explosion of mana as they were.\n\n“What was that?” Aubrey asked loudly.\n\nJulius tightened his lips and extended his senses. He widened his eyes when he felt something large blanket around them. It was like a barrier of some sort, but much more subtle. He only noticed it by chance.\n\nHowever, he was glad that he did, because it gave him some extra time to deploy a barrier of his own. When this mana collapsed on top of his group, his barrier did a pretty good job at making sure they were safe.\n\nHe had no idea what kind of attack it was, but his barrier rippled from it. He thought it would hold, but to his shock, the mana this field was projecting, somehow made it through his barrier.\n\nOnce it made it through, it wiped out his technique and dissolved it into mana.\n\nWhat was worse was that a sudden wave of exhaustion beat down on him. It was like someone had drugged him with sleeping pills. He immediately used his healing skill to counteract this effect, but it had a surprisingly low impact on it.\n\nHe could feel the exhaustion fading away, but not as quickly as he hoped. After a few moments of observing this field, he realized that it wasn’t just a normal debuff or curse. This was something else. Something much more dangerous.\n\nHe could already feel it affecting his soul, which was why his healing skill was having much more trouble.\n\nHowever, he was much more concerned about his own friends. He had a skill that helped protect them. They didn’t.\n\nHe saw his friends drop to their knees, gasping for air. He ran over to them and started to channel life mana. He also took out Drasil; the little guy took one taste of the air and spat it out in disgust.\n\nDerek was the closest one to him, so he checked him first. To his relief, Derek appeared to be wearing something around his neck. It was glowing with a bright light and must have been protecting him, because Derek stopped gasping for air.\n\nHe was still debilitated, but Julius believed he would be fine, and so he went over to Aubrey. He was also glad to see that she had something with her. A small purple gem had appeared over her head, feeding energy to her, allowing her to stumble to her feet.\n\nIt was Edgar he was worried about. The other two appeared to have items or skills that helped protect them, but Edgar didn’t.\n\nJulius dropped next to Edgar and started to feed life mana into him. He made sure to focus on his Phoenix Concept. He knew that with the Concept, he could help heal the soul. It wasn’t something that Freya had helped him with yet, but he did the best he could do.\n\nThankfully, he had Drasil by his side. He didn’t know if it was because Drasil was just that talented or because he had a lot of experience with Julius, but the little spirit seemed to have gotten pretty skilled at soothing soul damage.\n\nHe could see Edgar visibly relax when Drasil slapped a tiny hand onto the guy’s head.\n\nJulius calmed down when he saw this. He glanced over at Riven and noticed that the mage had used some skill to fend off this attack. Eva was protecting herself as well. Her cloak was being used as a shield, protecting her from whatever skill or ability this field had. Still, it didn’t protect her completely. He saw her gritting her teeth in pain.\n\nHe also looked over at the other participants spread out in front of the temple. They were all in similar states of panic.\n\nHe wanted to believe that Garrett had something to do with this, but he saw the scion frantically chugging a potion down his throat. There was fear in his eyes as he whipped his head back and forth. The other members of the group were either on the ground in pain or barely holding on.\n\nSuppose that wasn’t bad enough. Julius stared off into the distance, where he felt an explosion of spatial mana, and a crack in space appeared. Before he could wonder what was happening, he saw a massive head, the size of a truck, squeezing itself through the spatial crack.\n\nAh shit, he said to himself with a groan.\n\nA note from l-Ryn-l\n\nThank you so much for reading! I hope you enjoyed!\n\nIf you want to read up to 25 chapters ahead, please check out my Patreon!\n\nChapter 531: infiltration\n\nAs the beast crawled its way through the crack, Julius couldn’t help but notice how intense the creature’s aura was. He could feel the pressure tingling across his skin and weighing down on his own spirit. He knew right away that this creature was powerful.\n\nIt was Tier 4 at the very least, maybe even stronger. He was sure of that. If that wasn’t bad enough, he got an ominous notification.\n\nNotice: Infiltration detected…\n\nProtection protocols have been damaged…\n\nWarning: True death is a possibility.\n\nHis attention snapped to the message he received. He did not like what he read. Not one bit.\n\nHe had a feeling that this damage was caused by whatever field had attacked their souls. Perhaps it wasn’t even a soul attack in the first place, merely a byproduct of it. Whatever it was, Julius didn’t believe it was part of the realm’s trials or plan.\n\nIt was most likely an attack by another party or organization—someone who was playing dangerous games.\n\nHe grabbed his friends by the arms and started retreating farther from this creature. They were becoming more lucid, so it was easier.\n\nJulius stared at where the creature was squeezing its shoulders out of the crack. Its face was jagged and completely black, as if made of pure darkness. Its red eyes were pulsing angrily as it roared.\n\nJust the shockwaves from its roars were enough to stagger some of the nearby people who were only just recovering from the soul damage they received.\n\nEveryone was in full panic. Some were smart and were already running. It would seem that he wasn’t the only one who had received that message. People were talking about it worriedly and for good reason.\n\nThis past week, they had been able to fight with confidence because death wasn’t actually real in this realm. However, from the sounds of it, that no longer applied, and it scared people."}
{"text": "It wasn’t an equal exchange of blows, either, as Jake landed far more minor attacks compared to his opponent. He and the Benevolent Monk had fought once before… but the version of Jake back then didn’t have his equipment. He didn’t have katars that switched up how he fought, and his stats were also lower as he hadn’t used proper gear. In addition, every single blow that meant to pierce his soul also had to go through a bit of armor first, lessening the impact slightly. It wasn’t by a lot, but it definitely played a part.\n\nThis ultimately resulted in Jake having a far better feeling for the Benevolent Monk and his fighting style than the monk did for his, giving Jake the initial advantage. After a few minutes, the monk did improve and make the exchanges more equal, but he had already paid the price.\n\nThe two of them utilized much of the arena as they switched between retreating and advancing, trying to get the better position or cornering their opponent. Jake once more had the advantage here. While the monk seemed to be able to sense Jake in an uncanny way – probably some kind of soul-sensing – that wasn’t the case for random pillars placed around the arena.\n\nNot that Jake was entirely untroubled, either. The monk had several things he never had to show before, giving Jake quite a few injuries. Outwardly, it didn’t show much, but inside his body, his organs were suffering.\n\nDuring all this, the referee simply stood back, observing silently. He never showed the slightest inclination to end the fight, even as both of their wounds worsened. Not that this was bad for Jake, because the more time passed, the bigger his advantage would become.\n\nIf nothing changed, the monk would run out of energy or simply fall due to blood loss, especially after he tried a risky exchange where he ended up with a shallow stab in the stomach. The Benevolent Monk had tried to use that insane combo he had killed the Earthborn Faithful with and won their first fight, but Jake had been quick and done the only logical thing:\n\nMinimized the damage.\n\nJake had blocked it as best as he could while also countering as the monk had been left open, allowing Jake to land his stab, truly putting the monk on a timer. In return, Jake did get a nasty palm to the chest that broke a few ribs, but before the monk could combo, he had managed to get some distance.\n\nJake was happy he had survived the devastating attack that had left him half-dead the last time he took it, but he knew the monk had to at least have one more trump card as he felt some build-up within the monk. Something he had also felt during their first fight. It almost reminded him of Hunting Momentum… and Jake would be ready.\n\nAs their fight passed the twenty-minute mark, the sand had been covered in blood all around them. Jake breathed heavily as the monk also looked nearly wholly spent. The spirit-like bracers were pretty much entirely destroyed by now, while Jake’s katars didn’t have a single mark on them besides blood. The same couldn’t be said for the rest of his equipment. Definitely had to file an insurance claim on all of it.\n\nBoth fighters looked at each other after another bloody exchange. Jake smirked as the monk also smiled despite his bloody body.\n\nAt once, they charged against each other as the monk released the attack he had been building up to all this time. Both went for an attack at the same time as a spiritual projection of the monk superimposed on his own body, words echoing out despite the Benevolent Monk’s mouth not moving.\n\n“Soul-Reversing Fist!”\n\nEnergy stored in the monk’s soul was unleashed at once as he punched toward Jake’s chest. It was a strike that seemed based on all the damage Jake had done to the monk during their fight, and it would no doubt prove lethal if it landed. Jake reacted as he used Fear Gaze and raised his left hand to block as he punched with his right, willing to trade blows in a mirror of what had happened in their first duel.\n\nBut with a far different result.\n\nJake’s katar penetrated into the shoulder of the Benevolent Monk as the monk’s blow also landed. Jake twisted his wrist to turn the katar as an explosion of arcane energy sent an arm flying into the air at the very next moment. The monk stumbled back from the explosion with wide eyes when he realized… his attack had done nothing.\n\nHis eyes lowered and saw the two plate-sized aegis’ of stable arcane energy summoned into Jake’s left hand that had been pressed against his chest from the monk’s punch. The monk smiled upon seeing a fist-sized cracked indent on the first of the plates. “I see… a fault in my Path…”\n\nSoul attacks had one crucial weakness: they only worked on souls. It was pretty obvious just from the name, but compared to most other forms of attacks, those on the soul were especially primed to be countered by making them hit a target that wasn’t a soul. Soul attacks still worked against many traditional means, such as armor, but proved incredibly weak against certain other methods.\n\nSuch as making the monk hit a two-layered shield of stable arcana mana instead of Jake’s body, turning the blow absolutely harmless outside of cracking the aegis. The two layers had especially sealed the deal, as that meant even the semi-ranged wave of soul-destroying energy released had to try and pierce a second layer… something it had failed to do.\n\nThe Benevolent Monk had stumbled back several steps before stabilizing himself. He didn’t even look at the arm now lying on the sand or seemed to care that he had lost an arm, nor the blood actively spewing out of the massive open wound. Perhaps because he knew the fight was over… that his Path was over.\n\nHe sighed with melancholy as he stared toward the sky for a few moments before he looked back down at Jake.\n\nHis… eyes changed, Jake thought as he frowned.\n\n“Samsara awaits… I would say. Alas, such shall never be my fate,” the monk said in a different tone than he had ever used before. In fact, Jake wasn’t even certain he was talking to the same person. “I acknowledge your Path, even if you didn’t show me all you were capable of. However, even with what you have shown, you are more than capable, and your arcane affinity is certainly something to further nurture. I also see that you do not yet fully grasp the true concepts behind it, and while I doubt you will be able to see through its true nature any time soon, continue reflecting on it. Continue seeking answers. Also, do know that while my true self will never be aware of this encounter, that does not mean the true lord will not, for he sees your Path, and it is for he that I speak.”\n\nJake frowned. “Who are you?\"\n\n“I am Just an old monk asked to pass some sage advice, and I hope to truly meet you one day, Harbinger. So does the lord, who you will come to know, of that there is no doubt. But for now… farewell.”\n\nWith those words, his eyes turned blank as the monk’s soul ceased to exist.\n\n“What happened there?” the Viper asked the Wyrmgod and Minaga. The screen had gone black the second the fight had ended, and the monk looked toward the sky, ready to surrender, only for it to turn back on again with the monk already lying dead on the sand.\n\n“Yeah, that was weird… hey, partner, why did you cut off the feed like that? Did the monk have any cool last words?\n\nThe Wyrmgod remained silent for several seconds before he muttered: “It wasn’t me…”\n\n757 chapter - Nevermore: Images\n\n”When you say that you didn’t cut the feed off… what exactly do you mean? Did the system interfere directly, or was it something else?” Vilastromoz asked. If it was the first, then he would have many more questions, but if it was the latter… well, he would still have a lot of questions."}
{"text": "As Leo watched, Cale waved the ball of yarn, then threw it off to the side. Leo gaped. What was that going to—\n\nThe sphinx pounced, causing the entirety of the labyrinth to shake, and Leo stared in complete disbelief as—against all odds—the sphinx began to purr and play with that ball of yarn.\n\nFlia sighed. She didn't even sound surprised anymore. \"I knew I wasn't getting the yarn back,\" she muttered.\n\n\"What... but...\" Leo sputtered.\n\nCale glanced back and raised an eyebrow. \"What?\" he said, taking in Leo's befuddled expression. \"They're still cats.\"\n\n\"But how could you possibly know that would work?\" Leo begged.\n\n\"Oh, I had a sphinx as a roommate, once,\" Cale said. \"Wouldn't recommend it, but I learned a lot about the rules they operate under. They're allowed to take breaks for playtime, for example.\"\n\nHe paused. \"Don't try to pet her, though,\" he said. \"It's disrespectful. And you might have to deal with unreadable riddles scribbled on sticky notes for weeks after.\"\n\n\"Speaking from experience?\" Flia asked dryly.\n\nCale sniffed. \"Not saying. Now let's go before she gets bored.\"\n\nLeo wondered if he should make a note of this in his notebook.\n\nHe wanted to, but he was pretty sure no one would ever believe him.\n\n* * *\n\nCale hummed to himself as they stepped through the exit and found yet another pedestal. This one held what looked like a strange clay sculpture molded into the shape of a wing. He eyed it for a moment, shuddered, then promptly wrapped it in a tight, spherical barrier. \"I'll hold on to this one,\" he said, guiding it to float above a shoulder.\n\n\"Is it dangerous?\" Damien asked curiously. Cale shrugged.\n\n\"I've got a bad feeling about it,\" he answered, starting to walk down the corridor again. The signature he felt ahead of them had a rather telltale twist in its mana, which meant they were finally coming up on the Labyrinth Seed. \"We'll know more once Imrys has had a chance to examine it, but for now, we shouldn't touch it.\"\n\n\"That's not worrying at all,\" Flia remarked. After a moment of walking in silence, she spoke again, her tone contemplative. \"This is why you weren't worried about the labyrinth, isn't it?\"\n\n\"What do you mean?\"\n\n\"You're basically untouchable,\" she said. \"Either you know how to get around something or you can blast through it. You knew you'd be able to get us through the labyrinth unscathed.\"\n\nCale snorted and turned back to look at her. \"Is that what you think?\"\n\n\"What else am I supposed to think?\" Flia asked, exasperated.\n\n\"That I'm dangerous, probably,\" Cale answered, his voice a little sharper than he intended. \"The universe is a big place, Flia, and the multiverse is even bigger. No one person could possibly know every danger it contains. If you think you can rely on me to keep you alive...\"\n\nHe stopped in his tracks, looking each and every one of the other students in the eye. \"I'll tell you this right now,\" he said. \"Not every monster can be beaten back with magic. Not every danger is something you can see coming. If you live long enough, losing is only a matter of time. And if you think I'm always going to be able to step in and save you, you're going to die even sooner than the rest.\n\n\"I'm not saying I won't try. I'm not even saying you shouldn't listen to or hang around me. But do not expect me to hold all the answers. Sometimes, those answers don't exist. Sometimes, your knowledge will betray you. And sometimes, when you name a monster, you give it power.\n\n\"There is only one rule you need to follow if you want to live long enough to become an archmage. One rule you need to carve into your heart. Nothing else—not knowledge, not perfect barriers, not even unbeatable magic—is enough.\"\n\n\"And what rule is that?\" Flia asked, her words uncharacteristically nervous. Cale became vaguely aware that the others had all taken a step away from him during his speech, and that he'd taken a step toward them. He did a quick calculation in his head, measured it against his mana sense and their distance from the Seed.\n\n\"Simple,\" Cale said. He grinned and winked, relaxing just enough to dispel the tension. \"Above all else? You need to know when to run.\"\n\nThen he turned and broke into a sprint. There was a series of startled yelps as the other students followed after him, nearly tripping over themselves in the process. Cale beamed. They were quick learners.\n\n\"Damien!\" Cale called. \"Prepare a decay spell!\"\n\n\"W-what?\" The poor guy didn't sound like he was used to running. \"But—\"\n\n\"Unless you want me to try out [Decay Bite],\" Cale called again cheerfully. Damien stared at him, processed the statement, and remembered what happened with [Bestow Light] only eighteen minutes ago.\n\nDecay mana began to gather in his fist. Cale smirked. \"Thought so!\"\n\n\"Just don't try to eat the Seed,\" Damien pleaded.\n\n\"No promises!\"\n\nTwo minutes before the Seed germinated, by his calculations.\n\nCale figured they would probably make it.\n\n* * *\n\nThey did make it, though only barely. The Seed was beginning to sprout by the time Damien flooded it with his decay magic, but thankfully, that was one of the strengths of the decay aspect—just like the Labyrinth Plague, it had the propensity to spread. The few tendrils of corrupt magic that had managed to emerge fell apart easily, and the labyrinth dissolved around them a moment later.\n\nProfessor Imrys beamed at them as if the rest of the classroom wasn't in complete disarray. \"Wonderful!\" she said. \"What a beautiful display of the essence of magehood! You've made me proud today, dearies. Here you go.\"\n\nThe little mouse tottered up to them, holding four gleaming purple gems. Flia, Leo, and Damien all looked stunned, picking one each and holding on to them as if they were priceless artifacts.\n\nCale squinted at his and wondered if he should try eating it. \"I have no idea what this is,\" he said. There was a dim magical signature from it, but it wasn't anything powerful; it just felt like some sort of anti-counterfeit measure, if anything.\n\n\"They're Astral credits,\" Damien explained quietly. \"They're recognized by the kingdom of Orstrahl. They want powerful mages, so if you collect enough credits, you can ask for a sort of... political favor? Like asking to use one of the royal artifacts, or, um... There's a list somewhere. I can find it for you later.\"\n\n\"Wow,\" Cale said, impressed. Mostly by how bad that system seemed at first glance. Students winning political favors felt like a recipe for disaster. Maybe they had mitigations in place?\n\nThen again, magic academies having outsized levels of political influence was surprisingly common.\n\n\"What happened to the labyrinth?\" Leo asked, his voice guarded. Professor Imrys chuckled.\n\n\"Well, since you all did so well, I decided to reward you,\" she said happily. \"But I think I'll keep that as a surprise, dearie. You are going to report me to the Headmaster, after all. Unless you wish to reconsider?\"\n\n\"I will not,\" Leo said steadily.\n\n\"Well, not to worry, dears. It isn't a bad surprise,\" Imrys said, entirely unphased by Leo. \"Cale, you pass. You showed exactly the type of adaptive thinking we want from our artifact delvers, and that [Starlight Font] was quite impressive. That was a unique spell, wasn't it?\"\n\n\"Thank you. And yes,\" Cale said politely. He didn't miss the fact that Imrys was looking at him like he was one of her artifacts.\n\n\"I'm ever so glad all of you are safe, dearies,\" Imrys said, smiling at each of them. \"These classes can be very dangerous, you know.\"\n\n\"Because you make them dangerous!\" Flia pointed out, scowling. Imrys slapped another silencing barrier over her.\n\n\"Now, now,\" she said. \"You musn't speak out. It's quite rude, really. As for you, Cale, I believe we agreed we would speak after cla—\"\n\nA tiny screaming noise began to emerge from Cale's pocket. Cale kept his expression as impassive as possible. \"Sorry, ma'am,\" he said politely. \"I think I need to go find my next class.\"\n\nImrys stared at him, her eyes narrowing slightly, and Cale responded by floating the artifact he was carrying with him over to her and dispelling the barrier. Imrys's expression lit up immediately as the clay sculpture clattered onto her desk."}
{"text": "Rewards? This was the first time Julius had heard about a reward for the tournament other than prestige. “What kind of rewards?” He asked Aubrey.\n\n“Goldencrest will reward anyone who does well. I got tenth place in my class last year in the Intra-School Tournament and I was given personal training and delver’s rights to a rift that was perfectly suited to me. I even leveled up many of my skills during that rift. It is very worth it,” she explained.\n\nThe Intra and Inter-School Tournament was separated into two different age groups. One for underclassmen and one for upperclassmen, most people want to watch the upperclassmen tournaments, but many also want to watch the younger students too.\n\nIt was a good place to display your talent and was a good indicator of your potential. Julius didn’t know about the delver’s rights, but that would be a good reward if it got you exclusive rights to a rift fit for your needs. One of the reasons why it mattered what school you went to, was that the better schools had many more rifts available to them. Some of them were artificially created, and others were naturally formed that the academy cultivated over many years.\n\nJulius knew that he would be delving into rifts throughout his time in Goldencrest, but that would be with other students of his class. Exclusive rights were different, he would have free reign within a rift, allowing him to challenge himself and practice with more freedom. The only thing was that Julius doubted they would just allow him to into a rift alone. Although it might be exclusive to him, he would still probably have a professor who would watch over him, to make sure he didn’t die.\n\nIf that was the case, then he wouldn’t be able to go all out either way. So the rewards didn’t matter as much.\n\n“You can also get resources that will increase your skills or advance your tier,” Edgar added. “I got a special fruit that was able to upgrade my body and skill last year.”\n\nNow, that was more tempting to Julius than exclusive delver’s rights. Resources that could upgrade someone's physical body were extremely sought after and rarely available on the market because more people keep them for themselves.\n\nSomething like that might lure Julius into participating. But he expected that the rewards for the underclassmen were not as good as those for upperclassmen. He asked the group this just to make sure though.\n\n“Yeah, last year the upperclassmen winner of the Intra-School Tournament last year got a soul-bound weapon that was personally crafted by a Tier 6 blacksmith. You won’t find anything like that for winning the underclassmen tournament, but that doesn’t mean the other rewards aren’t good. They are still better than almost any top reward from other schools,” Derek told Julius.\n\n“You should totally try! Even if you don’t do that well it's okay. I don’t do that well usually, Kyle and I aren’t specialized in combat, but we learn a lot from the experience.” Lily encouraged him. She probably thought that Julius was nervous about not doing well and embarrassing himself.\n\n“Don’t downplay your success, Lily, you and Kyle both nearly made the top 50 in last year's Intra-School Tournament, as third years. That is impressive.” Aubrey said to Lily.\n\n“Well, it doesn’t feel that good when everyone else did so much better than us. You, Edgar, and Derek all made it top 50. Derek and Edgar even made it to the top 25.” Lily stated.\n\nJulius heard that and was impressed. Even amongst other fourth years Derek and Edgar were among the best as third years. He wondered what that meant for this year. Were they favorites or were there more impressive third years?\n\n“What Lily is trying to so say is that it might be something to consider. I haven’t seen you fight yet, but I believe it would be a good experience. You don’t have to make a decision now, you can wait,” Derek said to Julius.\n\nAfter that, the conversation turned back to more normal things like how busy things were getting now that most of the students were returning today.\n\nA note from l-Ryn-l\n\nIf you want to read up to 21 chapters ahead, check out my Patreon!\n\nChapter 61: Meeting His New Roommate\n\nAfter the beach with the others, Julius went back to his room. He didn’t know if his roommate was still there but thought there was a good chance he was. Last night Julius had noticed a lot of bags and items that hadn’t been unpacked yet. So, there was a good chance the other boy was still moving in.\n\nJulius walked through the campus, observing how much more busy it was in just a matter of a day. Now, it seemed like the entire campus was alive with hundreds of students going back and forth. There were students of every kind.\n\nHe even saw some beastkin and half-elves roaming around campus, trying to find their dorms. Julius tried to squeeze his way through the crowds, but it was hard without outright shoving people of the out way. No wonder the others chose to get back to school early, it was a madhouse.\n\nFinally, after double the amount of time it should have taken, he got back to the Crescent Dormitory. There were many staff around trying to direct students where they should go and trying to keep the chaos to a minimum. Julius barely got through the hallway to his room, where he found his roommate unpacking his stuff with the door open.\n\nJulius squeezed past a particularly large amount of luggage from another room and went into his room. The boy must have heard Julius, because he turned around.\n\n“Hello! You must be my roommate, I am Henry Bishop, of the Bishop Clan,” he introduced himself and extended a hand.\n\nJulius reached over and shook the other boy’s hand. “Nice to meet you, Henry, I am Julius Snow.”\n\nJulius saw Henry look him over like he was deciding whether or not Julius would be worth befriending. Julius didn’t like it. But he would at least give the other boy a chance. After all, they would be living under the same roof the year.\n\n“I don’t think I have had the pleasure of hearing about a family with the surname of Snow. Are you perhaps from another country? Maybe Corvus?” Henry asked him with a plastic smile.\n\nJulius knew what he was doing. It wasn’t that subtle, but he would play along for now. “No, I am from the Empire, just a commoner, not a noble.”\n\n“Oh, that is a shame,” Henry said. Then he turned around ignoring Julius, and continued unpacking.\n\nIt does really sound like it is a shame. Julius thought to himself.\n\nHe had been having a lot of good luck lately with nice people and he was praying that his roommate would be one too. However, that didn’t seem like it was the case.\n\nAs long as they both could be somewhat respectful and courteous of each other’s space then Julius didn’t care. He wasn’t going to be spending a lot of time in his room anyway.\n\nJulius went over to his side of the room where he saw a pile of clothing on his bed. It appeared that someone had dropped off his uniform this morning. It was a very elegant uniform of soft black cloth and brilliant gold embellishments that fit the style without being gaudy.\n\nThere were only two of them, as well as some other clothing he expected was for training. A note accompanied the uniform. It said that each uniform was enchanted with a self-cleaning feature and would completely disinfect the uniform with a small amount of mana. It was a good choice on the part of the school.\n\nHe couldn’t even imagine how much it would cost and waste time washing every student's uniform every day. It most likely saved them time, money, and energy with this one enchantment.\n\nJulius quickly stripped down and put his uniform on. He didn’t mind that Henry was still in the room, he would have to get used to changing in front of him if they were to be roommates. The uniform fit perfectly, it was sharp but also loose in all the right places. Whoever made them knew what they were doing.\n\nJulius made sure to feed Drasil before he left again. A part of Julius was worried about leaving Drasil in the same place as Henry, but decided it wasn’t a good decision at least for now. There were too many people moving back in today, and it was already hard enough to weasel his way through the crowd without a plant in his hands."}
{"text": "“How many more targets?” the most efficient assassin in the Court asked.\n\n“Only seventeen without people already on the contract,” Caleb said with a sigh. “Four of which ended with the given assassin dying, so security in those locations will be heightened. Once done, chances are Arthur will just come with more, though.”\n\n“Are those four close enough for me to take them all?” Matteo asked.\n\n“No, only two of them are. I will have Nadia take one of the others and send team one to handle the last one once they return,” Caleb shook his head. He considered going himself, but he was frankly too busy these days. At least the levels were good.\n\nMatteo nodded as he held out his hand. Caleb took out the given tokens with the information on the targets and their locations and handed them to him. The man looked them over but didn’t leave. Instead, he took a seat in another chair and looked at Caleb from across the table.\n\n“What?” Caleb asked.\n\n“Are you really okay with all this?” Matteo asked. “We are indirectly working against your brother no matter how we spin this. Compromising your personal values like this cannot lead to anything good.”\n\nCaleb sighed and leaned back.\n\n“What was the state of the last city you went to?” Caleb asked Matteo.\n\n“It was an utter shithole,” the assassin answered without hesitation.\n\n“Yeah, see, that is where all of this gets a bit more annoyingly complicated. The reason why these takeovers from the United City Alliance have been successful is that they are taking over from someone worse. Who would have thought that a system of governance decided solely by who was the best at killing stuff would lead to not-so-ideal City Lords?” the Judge of the Court said.\n\n“If we were further fucking over the people of Earth just trying to survive, I would have less conflicted feelings, but as things are, I cannot say what we’re doing isn’t… good. Say what you want, but the United Cities Alliance cares about the approval of the public. They are also generally growing, and anywhere they go tends to improve for the better. I have even heard some leaders voluntarily reach out to join the United Cities Alliance and allow actual administrators from the Alliance to take over, leading to better-run cities. Who we're killing aren't pillars of the community, it is more that we are removing a few moldy support beams threatening to ruin the stability of the entire structure.”\n\n“Doesn’t change the fact you are working against the interest of your family,” Matteo said.\n\n“No, it doesn’t… but it does make this entire shitshow a whole lot more complicated. Also, rather than think of it as working against Jake, I would rather see it as doing him a favor, you know?” Caleb said with a slightly cheeky smile.\n\nMatteo frowned. “How is any of this doing him a favor?”\n\n“See, I would agree that usually making life harder for someone is a dick move, but for my brother, he tends to enjoy it. Moreover, when he returns and gets into action, I hope that a better future can come from it. He will not take this lying down.”\n\n“What if he does not return in time? What if he does and Arthur still gets voted World Leader?” Matteo asked.\n\nCaleb considered for a while. “I see three scenarios. The least likely is that we will simply remain. My brother leaves, and we all handy dandy hang out on Earth and use it as a branch, with Arthur being a nice ally. The second one is Arthur winning, and we leave. Even if the Court is against this, then I am willing to simply leave the Court altogether and take my family with me. Hopefully, the Order of the Malefic Viper will take us, and my gut tells me that the Malefic One would hide our family even if Jake died as a final gift to him. Finally, the most likely thing to happen if Arthur does become World Leader? This planet goes to shit, and Jake hunts him down and kills him; any kind of advantages granted by being World Leader be damned. I don’t see Valhal doing shit about it either, as while I didn’t see the contract, they are not dumb enough to not leave themselves an out and force them into a fight with the Order of the Malefic Viper.”\n\n“Neither of those options appears particularly positive,” Matteo shook his head. “What about if the Malefic’s Chosen does return? Earth will not be the same after this, no matter what. Who will become World Leader?”\n\n“That,” Caleb said as he tried to sound smart, “I don’t know.”\n\nEll’Hakan stared at the sun slowly descending towards the horizon as he focused. Soon it would be time. Taking out his trident, he made sure it was in top condition. He had made a small house in the middle of the plains outside of Haven and away from anywhere the humans lived. The reason was simple: he needed the Chosen to fight without any distractions.\n\nThe sun above bared down on him as he absorbed its light, the surrounding plains faintly glowing gold from the potent energy of the star. Everything was prepared, and he was ready for the fight. The plains were ready, and his domain was set.\n\nLooking out the corner of his eyes, he saw one of the two servants stationed in their area make their way over. They had been placed in Haven to keep a look on things and make sure everything was going according to plan.\n\n“My Lord,” the woman said as she stopped in front of him and kneeled. “The natives are still unable to break through the defenses created by the Verdant Witch and take control of the Pylon. I do not believe our interference is required unless the Malefic’s Chosen takes longer than anticipated to return.”\n\nEll’Hakan nodded. “As long as they do not manage to take control before there is less than a month to the World Congress, there shall be no worries. By then, it will be too late for the humans to claim it in time. Keep up the work and ensure things continue as they are.”\n\n“Yes, my Lord. May I know what the intent is if the Malefic’s Chosen does not return according to predictions?” the servant asked.\n\n“Predictions. Plural. Only a feeble plan fails if a few factors are out of place. The framework shall remain, and the objective accomplished. Have no doubt either… I believe he will make it back just in time,” Ell’Hakan simply said.\n\n“Now go. Sunset approaches.”\n\nThe servant nodded as she rushed back towards Haven. Ell’Hakan did not look after her but instead stared at the orange glow on the clouds above and the sun slowly descending below the horizon. He sat down and marveled at the beauty of the celestial object.\n\nFaint rays of sunlight licked his skin, and the orange glow faintly intensified. Minutes passed as the sun fully disappeared ❖ Nоvеl𝚒ght ❖ (Exclusive on Nоvеl𝚒ght) below the horizon. Staring upwards, he saw the clouds obstruct him. Gripping his trident, he raised it and felt the resonance as a beam of faint light descended. The clouds parted as the moon appeared, lighting up the blue tattoos lining his body. The plains themselves also took on a faint blue color and glowed.\n\nPower filled him as he smiled and bowed his head towards the moon before turning and bowing towards where the sun had gone down. “Your child thanks you. Mother. Father.”\n\n546 chapter - Sandy's Personal Aquarium\n\n“I feel bad for them. Imagine just living your happy life in the water, and then suddenly, this naked monster comes down and forces you to stab them several times as you try to get away in fear. But the monster refuses and just keeps smashing his body into you in a ridiculous display of self-harm. The confusion when he then just leaves with several of your spikes in his chest must only make it worse, too,” Sandy said in a highly judgemental tone.\n\nJake was sitting on a jagged rock sticking out of the deep ocean, completely naked. Well, naked, as long you didn’t count the many quills sticking out of many places on his body. He ignored Sandy as he meditated, feeling the venom from the many quills course through his body. He purposefully did not eliminate it right away but slowly integrated it into his body."}