She really did fall into his consciousness. It is not an impotent excuse because it happened and it happened like that. Plus he has witnesses. He wouldn''t have allowed it to happen if he wasn''t going to take advantage of her but that isn''t the point. The point is that her death is of no fault of his own.


    He was sitting there on the mountain top alone with his thoughts andpletely out of the way so it cannot be said that she stumbled into him and fell into his consciousness. No one stumbles up a mountain. They can stumble down but stumbling up is not possible. Not as long as gravity is still a thing. So this entire thing is her fault.


    He allowed her to enter his consciousness because of the knowledge he acquired from thew matrix of the world fragment. Thew matrix is but the result of the permutation of the originalw of order of the sage. He tried to infer from it but it iscking. He has been looking at the footsteps of the sage, not the foot. But now he has found traces of thew within the core of the arena. These traces are like the purew fragments of false order that he retrieved from the rank 10 monster. Except that they belong to the first sage.


    It is exactly what he came to thepetition for but it is beyond his reach. He doesn''t have ess to the core so he can only attack it to gain ess. The obstacle of the core would have given him pause before. He was not willing to vite the operations of the arena and offend a world god before but It just so happened that he met with the sage as soon as he was done with thew matrix. Now, he doesn''t have misgivings about tampering further with what he found.


    Beyond thew matrix and his reach is the core of the arena. Thew matrix is the front end of the system that operates the arena. It can be likened to the user interface of the world fragment. He shouldn''t be able to change the user interface but he did thanks to the codes he got from the Sage''s first meeting. He can rob others of their rank and raise his rank without doing anything but it is not enough for him.


    The core is the back end of the arena. It holds all the authority of control of the arena. It is where the arena spirit lives. If he can control it, then he can tweak a lot more things such as having as many artifacts as he wants. Unfortunately, the core is not so weing to intrusion. The back end controls the front end, not the other way around. He as a user, even one with his acquired control over thew matrix cannot influence the core at all. For that, he will need root ess or administrative privileges.


    He doesn''t have root ess since he is not an administrator so he has been trying to gain ess through brute force. His progress has been abysmal because he is not fighting against some static defense. The arena spirit is aware of his actions and it is constantly shoring up the defenses of the core. If not for the key that he got from killing the rank 10 boss, then he would have no chance at all.


    The rank 10 monster released a key after being defeated. That key passed through thew matrix to the core and to anotherwork behind the core. He was able to gain meager ess to the core when a vulnerability opened within that brief moment and he was able to catch a glimpse of thework beyond it. It is how he knows that the next challenge will involve several arenas. If he can gain control of this arena, then he will be able to understand more about thew of order and gain ess to thergerwork behind it.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    He is on a deadline to take control of the core too. He is sure that thework will be able to reinforce the core of this arena if he is still trying to intrude into it when the second challenge begins. Unfortunately, he is already doing his best with what he has. He can''t make any more progress. The challenge he is facing in getting ess to the core made him realize that the sage never intended to give him a lot of hisw of order. He was given a taste as bait, now he has been given the opportunity to look on but not partake in the main dish. He is not discouraged though. The fact that he has not been given just means that he has to steal it. If he wants something, all he has to do is to take it.


    He is like a robber within apound. He has gotten past the gate and the walls but the house is sealed tight. In fact, the house doesn''t have windows or doors so he can''t pick any locks to get in. If he wants to get ess to the house, he has to break down the very sturdy walls themselves. It is very inefficient but he doesn''t have much of a choice.


    He will be able to get easier ess to the core if he is able to create more vulnerability in its defense. But the only way he has seen that can create a vulnerability is the key he acquired from thest boss. If his conjecture is right, the only ones that have the keys are the final bosses of a challenge. So he has to keep winning the challenges if he wants more keys, and more vulnerabilities and to ultimately gain control of the core.


    "This feels like I am falling into a trap." He had muttered to himself when he determined what he needed to get thew of order within the core.


    AUTHOR NOTE:


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