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.

Another 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.

Leo stood there awkwardly. "Good morning," he greeted, lifting a hand in a limp wave.

Cale 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?"

"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."

"And you didn't want Flia to try to drown you."

"And that," Leo admitted sheepishly. "You made some pretty big promises yesterday. I guess I wanted to be sure if they were real."

"They're real," Cale said. "But it all depends on when you're ready to head in there."

He 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.

Ominous 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.

Leo 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."

"I do," Cale said steadily. "You sure you want that story?"

"Well, I'm less sure now that you asked me that." Leo made an exasperated sort of huff, and Cale snickered in response.

"You do want to know more about Karmia, though," he prompted, his eyes gleaming.

"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—"

"Hold on," Cale said with a laugh. "I only just woke up, you know. Let me at least get through my morning routine."

"Right," Leo said, embarrassed. He stepped back and took the farthest seat from the labyrinth door that he could.

Cale 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.

The 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.

Cale 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.

* * *

"Cale?" Leo ventured after a moment. "What are you doing?"

Cale blinked, startled. He'd almost forgotten that Leo was there, and he hesitated for a moment before he answered.

"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."

"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?"

The minotaur winced almost as soon as the last word emerged from his mouth, but Cale only laughed.

"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."

Leo stared at him blankly. Cale snickered.

"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."

He 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..."

Cale shrugged, falling silent, and Leo looked at him with the sort of slow-dawning understanding that felt a little too much like pity.

"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.

"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—"

A 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."

Leo blinked and leaned closer to see what Cale was staring at. His breath caught, and he stared out silently, fingers digging into the windowsill.

Off in the distance, at the border between the Starfall Desert and the Petrified Sea, twin storms had begun to gather.

On 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.

On 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.

"It's like they're fighting for territory," Cale said, impressed.

"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."

"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?"

"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."


”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.”

The 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.

Before 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.

In 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.

Jake 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.

Still 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.

Firstly, there was an interesting one, as he wasn’t sure he had ever gotten an ”experience gained” message that looked like that before.

You 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

He 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.

’DING!’ Profession: [Heretic-Chosen Alchemist of the Malefic Viper] has reached level 263 - Stat points allocated, +35 Free Points

…

’DING!’ Profession: [Heretic-Chosen Alchemist of the Malefic Viper] has reached level 267 - Stat points allocated, +35 Free Points

Five 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.

He had naturally also gained a few race levels with the profession ones.

’DING!’ Race: [Human (C)] has reached level 276 - Stat points allocated, +45 Free Points

…

’DING!’ Race: [Human (C)] has reached level 278 - Stat points allocated, +45 Free Points

All 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.

”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.

”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.

”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.

”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.”

”Is that a good or a bad thing?” Jake questioned.

The 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.”

”So, it’s overall good, got it,” Jake nodded.

”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.”

”Hm,” Jake said, having totally not forgotten he should probably get paid. ”How about this… you owe me one.”

Jake 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.

”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.”

”What is it?” Jake questioned before he accepted it.

”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.

”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?”

”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.”

”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.

”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.”

It 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.


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.

It 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.

They 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.

Julius 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.

Unfortunately for them, Julius didn’t care.

He 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.

An enormous shockwave rippled across the plains as Julius and the ice mountain clashed.

Julius won that clash.

The 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.

He 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.

Julius 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.

The 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.

He didn’t even turn around as he slapped his hand backwards, smashing the ice spear into fine mist.

The 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.

The 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.

Julius 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.

Seeing 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.

The 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.

The 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.

He ignored the mage’s spears slamming into the barrier he created.

“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.

They 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.

He 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.

“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.

Julius then tried to do the same with the guy’s storage ring, but, once again, he found himself unable to take it.

Was 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.

As 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.

The archer’s body slammed into the ice wall the mage created instinctively, and the archer turned into red mist as it exploded upon impact.

Then Julius turned his attention to the terrified mage and grinned at him.

The 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.

It certainly wouldn’t save him from his fate.

With 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.

He 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.

This 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.

The 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.

However, 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.

While 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.

So 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.

He 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.


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.

[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

After 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.

He 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.

Casper 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.

There was no room for failure.

Days 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.

Casper 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.

Two weeks passed. Three weeks. A month.

Casper 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.

Day 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.

When 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.

“Did you…?”

Casper just grinned. “Damn straight, I did.”

He 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.

*’DING!’ Profession: [Blight-Touched Dungeon Architect] has reached level 172 - Stat points allocated, +8 Free Points*

*’DING!’ Profession: [Blight-Touched Dungeon Architect] has reached level 173 - Stat points allocated, +8 Free Points*

…

*’DING!’ Profession: [Blight-Touched Dungeon Architect] has reached level 189 - Stat points allocated, +8 Free Points*

*’DING!’ Race: [Risen Human (D)] has reached level 154 - Stat points allocated, +21 Free Points*

…

*’DING!’ Race: [Risen Human (D)] has reached level 162 - Stat points allocated, +21 Free Points*

Title acquired: [Progenitor Dungeon Master]

Title 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.

471 chapter - Jungle Hunting

Each 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.

He 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.

While 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.

Reading 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.

The 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.

Jake 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.

Needless 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.

About 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.

As 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.


“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.”

“Ser Richard isn’t the Paladin,” Simon corrected her. Shabram was well-informed, but still fallible. “He’s a decoy for Alphonse, his son.”

“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.”

Simon scoffed. “A sky pirate? What, she raids airships in midair?”

“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.”

So, 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?”

“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.”

“Truly?” Such a gap in intelligence surprised Simon, especially considering his father’s knowledge. “Have we found no way inside the tower?”

“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.”

Oh.

Oh, that explained some of Balzam Magnos’ deaths, then…

“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.”

“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.”

Lady 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.”

Simon 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.

Do 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?

He had so many leads to pursue, and thankfully plenty of time left to do so.

“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.”

“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.”

“I live to serve.”

Did 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.

Oh well. So long as she remained loyal, he could give her leeway.

“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.”

“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.”

* * *

After that final meeting with Shabram, Simon departed on a nondescript train to Telluria in secret.

He 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.

All 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.

Once 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.

“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?”

“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.

“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?”

“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.”

“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…”


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.

Unfortunate but not unexpected.

Drawing 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.

A 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.

The 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.

Good, she will do if it comes down to me needing a guide.

Behind 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.

”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.

A 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.”

With 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.

Despite 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.

”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.”

The 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.

”I… apologize for the rude welcome…” he said, nodding back.

”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.”

The 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.

976 chapter - Setting People Straight

A 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.

The 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.

It 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.

Of 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.

With 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.

After 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.

That 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.

”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.

”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.”


“Upstairs,” Frea replied, “the Dungeon’s miasma crystal and the Overlord will both be hiding in the sanctum.”

So that Perk can only destroy my Dungeon if the crystal is within reach, Simon gathered. Good to know.

The 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.

But 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.

I’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…”

Simon 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.

Simon 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…

Most 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.

Simon 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…

Simon’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.

It’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.

The 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.

Alphonse 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.

Moreover, 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.

“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.

Duchar 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.

Frea 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.

What 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.

Either 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.”

“I’m running out of incendiary projectiles, Lord Belias,” Gregory warned him. “I won’t be able to hold her off for long.”

True, 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.

Hector 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.

“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?!”

“To the master’s harem,” Grimm lied gleefully. “Her sheath is being introduced to a demon’s claymore, if you know what I mean…”

“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.

Here’s my chance, Simon thought as he activated his Lord of the Demon Castle’s teleportation ability. “Fiendmask.”

He teleported right behind Frea. She turned around in an instant upon sensing him, staff raised. “Nov–”

She froze upon seeing him clothed in Belzemine’s skin.

Simon 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.

She hesitated, and that was enough.

Simon’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.

And the power. Oh, the sweet rush of power that followed that act of immense cruelty, it was pleasure beyond words!

Level 40 Overlord Perk: Miasmic Archmage IV (Passi–

A Paladin’s screams of rage interrupted the notification.

“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!”


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.

After 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.

The 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.

The 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.

If 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.

His 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.

To 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

He 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.

Whatever 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.

He 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.

Julius 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.

Julius 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.

But 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.

And 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.

It 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.

Feeling 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.

The troll was finally dead… hopefully. He kept an eye on it for a few minutes just to make sure.

Once 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.

At 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.

The 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.

With 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.

[Firebolt lvl 3 -> lvl 5]

[Thermal Compression lvl 3 -> lvl 4]

[Savage Dance lvl 1 -> lvl 2]

[Kinetic Release lvl 5 -> lvl 8]

[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.

A 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.

Still, this was a perfect time to try healing it using the methods he learned from the troll’s skill.

Chapter 20: His Friends

The 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.

When 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.

Julius 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.

It 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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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.

As 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.

Julius 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.

Julius 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.

***

Julius 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.

Right 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.

Wrapping 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.

Julius 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.

Julius 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.

Julius 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.

Due 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.

Chapter 10: Tier 1

The 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.

Julius 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.

At 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.

Edwin 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.

Julius 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.

Despite 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.

Regardless, 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.

For 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.

Even 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.

For 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.

There was something he had to change. There wasn’t enough force from the outside to compress it. That was the main issue.

Wait, outside. There isn’t enough force from the outside, but what about the inside?

Julius 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.

But 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.