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.

Julius 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.

Some 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.

Suddenly, 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.

At 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.

There 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.

Honestly, 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

He 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.

It 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.

If 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.

A 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.

So Julius did the only thing that he could think of. He began creating a bomb.

Not 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.

Then 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.

However, 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.

Julius hadn’t been planning to use this technique again, for fear of it killing him by accident, but he didn’t have another option.

Gently, 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.

The 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.

Once, 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.

No 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.

Julius 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.

Discombobulated 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.

Julius 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.

The 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.

He 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.

Ironically, 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.

Huh… that might work.

Chapter 34: New Skill


Chapter 45: The Stone Muse (5)

Simon tried out the Templar Class the moment Lauriane gave him its Crestone.

Simon 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.

It 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.

Quite like the Overlord, ironically enough.

You have unlocked the Templar Class.

Templar: A holy warrior versed in both swordcraft and scriptures, dedicated to serving a divine will and wiping out the Dark.

Strength B, Vitality A, Agility D, Perception C, Magic C, Intelligence D, Charisma B, Luck C.

Innate Perk: Darksense (Passive): You gain a sixth sense to detect the presence of the Dark–like miasma, Dungeons, or demons–nearby.

Innate 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).

Level 1 Perk: Melee Master 1 (passive): Can wield all melee weapons with medium proficiency (x1.5 damage).

So 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.

“I must say it looks good on you,” Lauriane complimented him. “How does it feel?”

Horrible. The Overlord in him was urging him to tear the armor apart and paint it black. “I feel… stronger all around.”

“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.”

“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.”

“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.”

“And the second issue?”

“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.”

“How did Mardok create the Overlord Class then?”

Lauriane 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.”

Interesting. 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.

“What about the Crimson Throne?” Simon asked. “Maybe it contains a miasma Crestone.”

“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.”

Simon 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.

“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.”

“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.”

“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.”

“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.”

“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.”

And Simon loved her for that.

* * *

After 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.

“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.”

“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.”

Why did she have to specify ‘living’ people of all things? “I was simply improvising to keep my sister off our backs.”

“Oh, so that wasn’t serious.”

Simon 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.”

“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?”

She said that so calmly, so casually, that it took Simon a moment to register her words. “What?”

“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.

“What, like right now?!” Simon blinked in shock. Is she serious?

“Yes.” Now she sounded almost confused. “Is that not how courtship works?”

Simon 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.”

“Yes, that would make sense.” Cassandra nodded in understanding. “Must we go through those steps for your sister’s sake?”

“You don’t sound as opposed to the idea as I would have expected you to,” Simon noted, slightly taken aback by her reaction.


“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.

“Most certainly,” she nodded. “What do you wish to know?”

Jake 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?”

“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.”

“I see,” Jake nodded. “What if I make alterations to a current Creations and submit that? Would that be a possibility?”

“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.”

The author's content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

That 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.

“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?”

“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.

Jake 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.

“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.

“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.”

Okay, 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.

“Final question. Will I get to keep any Creations I make when I leave here again?” Jake asked.

“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.”

He 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.

Now, 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…

“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.

“You can most certainly gain experience,” the attendant answered. Jake got the feeling she didn’t really answer, though.

“So I can level up?”

“You can level up your creative process and abilities as a creator for sure.”

“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.

Having 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.

From 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.

Thinking 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.

Looking down at the paper, he sighed as he read over the options he had impromptu come up with.

1. 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.

2. Something transmutation-based.

3. Maybe elixir?

4. Grimoire

5. Use Teachings of the Heretic-Chosen for something?

6. Skill-related thing. Based on magic and mana.

7. Skill-related thing. Based on archery or melee combat and stamina.

8. Origin-related Creation. This may be done during one of the prior Creations.

9. Something weird Bloodline-related?

10. Ritual stuff.


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.

Dinner 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.

It 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.

There 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.

It wasn’t until the night was nearing its end that he pulled Alice to the side.

“Hey, can I ask you for some advice?” he said to her once they were alone.

Alice 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.

However, when she heard his more serious tone, she must have activated some skill or used something to sober up.

“What did you do this time?” She asked, her eyes narrowing at him.

“Why do you make it sound like I always do something bad?” He asked offendedly.

She shrugged. “Because you often do.”

“Well, not this time,” he muttered.

She laughed, clearly amused by his answer. “Okay, so what is it?”

He 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.

When 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.

She 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.

She finally spoke to him, but it wasn’t the response he was expecting from her. “How did you gain your Concept?” She asked.

He 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.

He 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.

“What was that for?” He asked, while grabbing his neck, which was sore from her rough treatment.

“You stupid, stupid boy,” she aggressively rebuked him.

“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.

“What you did was completely moronic even for you,” she kept on berating him.

He flung his arms up. “I don’t know what you mean. Can you tell me what I did wrong?”

She 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.

He was still confused, though. How was that any different from what she did or what other people who teleported did?

He said as much to her, but frowned when she shook her head firmly.

“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.

“What do you mean by different versions?” He asked even more confused. He thought there was just one kind of space.

She 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."

"Bad kind?"

She 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.

When 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.”

“So basically, I took a dip into shark-infested waters?” He asked with wide eyes.

“No, that would be much safer than what you actually did.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah. Oh,” she said mockinginly.

“So why didn’t you tell me beforehand? You knew I was going to experiment,” he said to her.

“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.”

“Why is it different for me?” He asked.

“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?”

Julius 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].

“Hmm. That may be the reason,” she mused.

“You think it is because I originally used my aura skill or because my Concept wasn’t advanced enough?” He wanted her opinion.

“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.”

“So is it a good thing?”

She looked at him funny, as if she couldn’t decide whether to smack him or not.

He 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?”

She 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?”

He nodded.

“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.”

“So what? [Void Punch] is much different than [Void Step]?”


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.

He tried to think of a silver lining.

At least people will probably underestimate me, he tried to convince himself of his new fate.

A note from l-Ryn-l

Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed!

If you want to read ahead, there are 25 additional chapters on my Patreon!

Chapter 182: Tempting Offer

Today was an exciting day. At least for many of the students in his class.

Today 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.

This 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.

The 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.

Joshua 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.

However, 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.

The 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.

Apart 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.

Polux 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.

The 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.

“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.

He seems slightly familiar. Though I can’t quite remember from when.

Joshua 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.”

Joshua 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.

Oh, 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.

The 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.

Polux 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.

While 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.

The 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.

She 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.

Finally, 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.

The 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.

After 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.

“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.

Polux 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.”

Hmm. 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.

Tia 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.

Solo 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.

Still, 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.

However, Julius had a better idea.

Not 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.


It wasn’t cake, but it was something at least.

They 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.

He 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.”

“They aren’t smelly,” she said defensively.

“Oh yeah? When’s the last time you took a shower?” He pointed out.

“I took a bath, remember,” she said with a proud smile.

He 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.

She wiggled them in his face, and before he could snap at them like he was Seraphyne, the door opened.

“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.

Her 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.

Regardless, he didn’t know what to do, so he just waved awkwardly at Reinera.

“Hey,” he said lamely and offered the food in his hand to her. “You want to join us for some snacks?”

Her 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.

He 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.

When she passed it back to him, all that was left was a small nibble, not even enough for him to have one full bite.

“I see your appetite hasn’t changed,” he commented.

“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.

“Hey,” she said with a shy wave.

Aubrey 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.

“I was wondering if we would get to see you. Has your family been keeping you away from us?” Aubrey asked.

Reinera 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.”

“Me?” Julius and Edgar asked at the same time.

Reinera laughed. “Yes, even you two. With how close you are with Lily, Aubrey, and Derek, people have already grouped you with them.”

“Oh,” Edgar said with a thoughtful expression on his face.

“Wait a minute, why are you here?” Julius asked, finally realizing that her appearance was odd.

“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.”

“Were you the one who asked Anna to leave?” Derek asked.

Reinera wore a smug smile. “Maybe.”

“So what now?” Julius asked, amused, shaking his head.

“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.”

“Oh, you know, the usual. We almost got killed a few times and whatnot, so pretty typical,” Aubrey said with a shrug.

“What?” Reinera asked with raised eyebrows.

“Yeah, but I blame Julius. I think fate wants him dead or something, and we are just along for the ride.”

“That isn’t true,” Julius said with a roll of his eyes.

“Oh yeah? Then what about the Endless Forest?”

“They weren’t even after me,” he pointed out.

She 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.”

He couldn’t even say anything against that either. It was true.

Reinera 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.”

“What other problems were there?”

“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.

“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.

“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.

“And what? You guys think it's the Conclave?” He asked.

“Maybe, but we think some other countries or organizations are involved as well.”

“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.

Speaking 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.

“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.

She 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?”

He 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.

When he was finished, she looked at him with a look of disbelief. “You still somehow can surprise me,” she said with a chuckle.

“What?” He asked in confusion.

“A powerful Tier 4 with regenerative capabilities? Sounds like an absolute nightmare to deal with. And you took care of it yourself?”

“Well, Isaac was there,” he added.

“God, I almost forgot how monstrously strong you are,” she said with a grin.

“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.

Her eyes widened. “ You can tell? How did you know?” She asked in surprise.

“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.

Something powerful and dangerous was brimming just underneath the surface.

“You already advanced to Tier 4?” Aubrey asked in astonishment.

Reinera 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.”

“I wonder if this means you can finally beat me,” Julius said with a challenging grin.

He 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.”

He tilted his head. “Advantages?”

She chuckled. “Yeah, my bloodline gave me quite a powerful boost when I advanced to Tier 4.”


“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.”

“As you command, Your Majesty.”

Simon cut the communication and then faced his other allies. “We’re done for the day,” he decided, “I need to think.”

The 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.

But 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?

Simon had a bad feeling about all of this.

* * *

He heard Shabram’s scream in his sleep.

Simon 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.

Shabram was dead, likely alongside almost everyone inside Castle Frightwall. Purged in holy light.

Patriate 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.

“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–”

The answer struck him in a flash of lightning.

Belzemine.

The 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.

Her absence was the trigger.

“Agnes, come to my room,” he asked Belzemine through telepathy. “There’s a question I must ask you.”

“Which one, Your Majesty?”

“Something I should have asked the day we met.” Simon clenched his jaw. “Who are you?”

A note from Maxime J. Durand (Void Herald)

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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.

Power 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.

He could try to dodge, but he didn’t. Instead, he began running towards the attack that would, without a doubt, end his life.

And then… it slowed.

For 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.

Except for Jake.

Moment of the Primal Hunter

He 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.

In 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.

The 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.

Jake 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.

He 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.

It 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.

The 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.

Soon after, it was no longer able to hold on as Jake got his notification.

*You have slain [Great White Stag – lvl 93] – Bonus experience earned for killing an enemy above your level. 146000 TP earned*

Having seen the notification and seeing that he had completed the dungeon, Jake, tired and spent, fell backward unto the grass.

He couldn’t truly rest quite yet, though.

Objective: Defeat the Great White Stag (Completed)

Bonus reward for clearing the dungeon solo.

Dungeon shutting down in: 00:59:51

Scoffing 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.

“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.

“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.

“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?

“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.

“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.

“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.”

Jacob 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.

His 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.

After 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.

“Do you honestly believe all that stuff?” Bertram asked when they were finally alone.

“What matters most is that they do,” Jacob answered with a relaxed smile. “Hope is good. Even in a hopeless situation.”

“False hope is not,” Bertram answered. “Are you still sure that skill is actually accurate?”

“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.

Only 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.

It wasn’t hard to interpret. But the next part was what was more challenging to interpret fully.

It 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.

One a winged man, the other a golden warrior.

The 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.

That 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.

He was meant to realize it – a realization that alone netted him five levels instantly.

Jacob 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.

This 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.

As 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.


“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.”

“Then we will have to simply deal with it ourselves,” the Fallen King said a bit dismissively.

Jake 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.

“In either case, can you carry it, Dina?” Jake asked.

“Me?” she asked, a bit taken aback.

“Well, you are the support, and you seem good at judging when to use it,” Jake smiled encouragingly.

“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.”

“Hey, that ain’t fair,” Jake fought back.

“There… there was that compass on the twenty-fourth floor…” Dina muttered.

“Ree!” Sylphie valiantly came to Jake’s defense.

“Yeah, Sylphie is right. We didn’t need it, so who cares?” he said, knowing it was a losing battle.

“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.

“So I gave it to Dina, case closed,” Jake said as he did the number one strategy to get out of trouble: misdirect.

“Hey, Minaga, I have a question. If you are willing to answer, that is.”

“It is pretty hard to know if I am going to answer before you ask the question,” Minaga answered with a hint of snark.

“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.

“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!”

“I see,” Jake nodded. “Just to ask… was it possible to kill the Demon Lord during our first encounter?”

“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.”

Minaga 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.

In 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.

Looking 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.

“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.

“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.”

“They were precious gemstones containing soul-“

“Shiny rocks, then,” Jake grinned.

The 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.

Yeah, he could see why someone would need a drink and a nice soak in the open-air bath after that.

Jake 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.

Walking 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.

Welcome to the Thirty-second floor of Nevermore: Minaga’s Labyrinth (Part 2)

Main objective: Reach the end of the Labyrinth.

Bonus objectives: N/A

Current progress: End reached (0/1)

Note: More hidden events, achievements, or objectives may be hidden on the floor.

Current Nevermore Points: 16682

The 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.

As 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.

“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-“

“Same difficulty,” Jake waved him off.

“Surprising,” Minaga said in a deadpan tone.

“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?”

Jake looked at the Sword Saint and gave him a mental thumbs up. He hadn’t even considered that.

“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!”

Achievement earned: Ask Minaga a good question. 1 Nevermore Points earned.

The system announcement surprised all of them as Jake stared at the Unique Lifeform. “Really?”

“Are you complaining?” Minaga asked teasingly. “Can’t take them back, but I can make sure you won’t get any more.”

“Nope, definitely not complaining, just surprised,” Jake quickly backtracked.

“Oh, then no worries, no worries,” Minaga waved him off. “Now for the second thing we have to deal with…”


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.

She found herself caught up in his casualness as well and answered his question before she could help herself.

“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.

“Do you want me to be?”

“Of course not, but I feel like a normal person would be very upset in this situation,” she logically pointed out.

He just shrugged his shoulders in response.

“Aren’t you still upset that I dragged you with me?” She asked, confused.

He 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.”

She stared at him with a completely blank face.

“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?”

He 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.

She 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.

“You might have a point about that,” she finally said.

A stark silence filled the void. One that she was desperate to fill.

“I was going to tell today after our classes,” she admitted to him.

She watched as he gave her a curious glance. “Is that why you wanted to talk?”

“Yeah, I noticed that piece of mana you left on me yesterday and thought it was about time to tell you something.”

“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.

“I didn’t know what it was, I just knew that it was about time to share some things,” she explained.

“So you were going to tell me everything?” He asked.

She shook her head softly. “Not everything,” she told him truthfully. “Just enough.”

He nodded his head. “Oh,” he stated plainly.

Another breath of silence passed between them.

“I still don’t get why you aren’t more upset. Look at where you are because of me?” She asked, confused.

He 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.

“We are in a Tier 3 labyrinth rift all alone, how do you expect us to survive?” She asked.

“We kill the monsters and find the exit,” he said like it was obvious.

She let loose a genuine laugh at that, wiping the tears that were still drying on her face. “Oh, yes very simple,” she said sarcastically.

He didn’t seem to hear the sarcasm. “I know right? The hard part is knowing which direction to head though,” he said thoughtfully.

She 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.

“That’s a good idea!” he said brightly, heading directly back to the direction where he had sensed the six monsters.

I 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.

“You have a plan I’m guessing?” She asked wonderingly.

He turned his head around and gave her a reassuring smile. “Of course, I do. What do I look like? Someone without a plan?”

She 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.

***

Does he really have a plan? She thought anxiously.

As 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.

She 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.

Still, 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.

Undead, 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.

When 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.

Still, 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.

Furthermore, 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.

It 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.

She 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.

She 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.

“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.

He 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.

Suddenly, 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.


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.”

Jake 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.

”Five.”

Taking a step forward, Jake stood at the control point of the ritual.”

”Four.”

Activating his energy, he linked up with the ritual.

”Three.”

He felt all the hearts and the Demon Prince in the center.”

”Two…”

Closing his eyes, Jake allowed his Perception to fully seep into the entire ritual circle as he raised his hands.

”One…”

Red light filled the entire ritual as Jake poured in his energy, and activated the ritual.

”Start.”

As 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.

With 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.

A 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.

Soon, 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.

The 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.

With 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.

Jake 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.

The 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.

So 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.

Soon, 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.

Intent it listened to, as Jake felt something from the cerulean gem. He felt a sense of greed and hunger.

Good… 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.

Suppressing 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.

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Minutes 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.

If 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.

Yet 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.

Now, they were onto the ”making history” part as they explored all-new territory.

Jake 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.

Nothing 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.

It was originally a damn heart.

A heart!

Not a fucking forehead gem.

So 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.

The 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.

Jake 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.

Yeah, 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.


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.

Of course, Vilastromoz knew this would never happen.

The 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.

While 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.

At 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.

Feeling 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.

“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.

“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?”

“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.”

Jake 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…

“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?”

He 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.

“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.

“Yet. Not powerful enough yet,” Jake corrected him.

“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.

Jake felt an odd pressure and a slight sense of danger that was not at all unambiguous in its message: back off.

“… anyway, I hope all goes well on your end; I shall be minding my own business,” Jake responded.

He had fucked around and would very much like to skip the “found out” part.

Their 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.

“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.

“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.”

“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.”

Jake 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.

“That would be my pleasure,” Jake answered as he looked at Valdemar. “Unless..?”

“You go on ahead,” Valdemar waved him off.

Jake 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.

Their 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.

The 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.

I shouldn’t have done that… yep, I definitely should not have done that.

795 chapter - Nevermore: Aura-Measuring Contest

Sometimes, 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.

Instantly, 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.”

Yeah, 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?

The 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.


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.

Peter 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.

He’s using Skills already? Fuck, I should’ve had a talk with him about spending Sigils too soon.

Peter 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.

“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.

“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.

Naomi 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!”

Eric 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.

Shannon 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!”

Eric 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.

Peter glanced back, then looked to the front once more and slammed his hammer into a zombie’s head. “Why?!”

“We have more chambers to deal with! You’re blowing all your resources too soon!”

The Reaver grunted in acknowledgement and kept swinging, thankfully without activating his Skill, and mechanically put down zombie after zombie.

Eric 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.

Must be Vital Heat activating as the zombies die from the burn.

The 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.

“How about now?” Peter shouted. “Can I use another Skill?”

“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!”

Peter moved from one zombie to another, bringing the hammer down on each of their heads.

No point in me using any more mana right now.

Eric 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.

“Yeah,” Peter replied.

Shannon 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!”

Eric 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.”

“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 . . .”

“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.”

That 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.

Eric 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.

Hopefully, we impressed them. Now to finish the zombies off.

Eric pulled out his sword once again and began the grisly work.

A note from SerasStreams

* * *

And thus, we come to the end of the Day 1 chapter drop!

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Chapter 12: Leveling Up

A note from SerasStreams

✨ Pruned Trees Re-Sprout!! ~ Ragazza Volpe Magica ~ ✨

by BlueTomoshibi

"Challenging the status quo on your own is impossible, isn't it?"

Maestro 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.

Those 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.

The 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.

What to expect

-Kemonomimi story where the cat-girls aren't pretty trophies to collect (that's the villain's job)

-Modern setting, similar to earth

-Extensive worldbuilding

-Elemental Magic and spell-casting system with LitRPG aspects (readers compare it to Soul Eater meets Pokemon).

-Musically themed terminology

-Involved battle system

-Slow building, polyamorous romance

-No smut, we're PG-13

-Very cute fluffy slice of life elements to help break up the drama

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📖 Read Now

* * *

As 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.

[You have leveled up!]

[You have leveled up!—

Eric 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.”

[Confirmed. New parameters will be integrated.]

[You have 2 level-ups to process.]