《While Others Cultivate, I Use My Multiverse System》 Few bits of information: Few bits of information: "xxx" - dialogue ''xxx'' - thoughts (*) on chapter title - gore, extensive use of slurs, smut, anything NSFW Release rate: At least 1 chapter a day. All the missing chapters from that scheduled will be given back in form of bonus chapters once I find time to catch up. Giveaways, events: From time to time I will announce an event that might be connected to the giveaway (of coins/discord nitro or something). The results of the giveaway MAY result in even more bonus chapters. All giveaways take ce on my discord Review policy: I''m deleting all the spam reviews and ones that include: - Unreasonable demands, pointless arguments, personal trips and spam. In other words, you are free to point out the ws of the story, but not insult it or anyone in the review. Going premium, current delay, basic promised info: Going premium, current dy, basic promised info: To start things off, let me exin the structure of this chapter. It will be divided into the main info (that works for everyone) and the current info (Put as second, given how not everyone might care, especiallyter on) 1 - Going premium and what does that mean? In short words, writing, like everything else, requires a lot of time and effort to be done. There is a great difference between writing one story as a hobby and as a serious project. With all the different stories and projects that I continue at this point, going premium (pay-to-read) was never a matter of if, but when. Just like everyone, in order to write as much as I do, I need to spend time on it. And given the writing workload that I''m taking on myself, I can''t simply do it as a hobby anymore (I treat writing as my full-time job for over a year now). I need to pay rent like everyone, pay taxes like everyone, and from time to time, it would be nice to actually eat something. And ultimately, isn''t doing what we love and living off that the greatest goal that anyone could ever have? So in short words, going premium with a novel means that from a certain point (in this case, from chapter 66 onwards), the chapters will get locked behind a paywall. 2 - What is a paywall and how to work around it? Locking chapters behind paywall basically means that said locked chapters needs to be... well... unlocked. You can do it with "Fast Passes" that are distributed for free by Webnovel (you earn them by fulfilling daily tasks like checking-in or voting) or you can unlock the chapters by using coins (paid currency one has to buy). 3 - What''s the difference between coins and fast passes? There are basically two. A single fast pass unlocks a single chapter, no matter its length (unless it is under privilege, but that will be exined below). On the other hand, the amount of coins one needs to spend to unlock chapter varies depending on how long the said chapter is. In short words, for every 200 words in the chapter, its cost increases by 1 coin (rounded up). That means a chapter with 1337 words will be treated as one with 1400 words and as such, cost 7 coins. For the first 4 months after going premium, the chapters will most likely cost around 8-9 coins, meaning they are between 1601 and 2000 words. The second difference is that while using fast passes to read the story ispletely eptable and allowed... I do not get anything at all from it. That''s why, if you not only want to read the story but also support me on the way to finish both this and all the other novels that I do write, you need to use coins (the only way in which I can earn anything for all the work and effort I''m putting to prepare, figure out and write this and other novels of mine). 4 - Privilege and what it is in the first ce? In short words, privilege is a way for premium (paying) users to get ahead of the free readers. It means that unless you pay the initial fee (for the first 2 chapters it will be a symbolical 1 coin) you won''t be able to unlock the newest chapters. For example, if a story is 100 chapters long in total, going premium from chapter 66 and having 15 privileged chapters, free readers will only be able to unlock chapters from 66 to 85, but they will have to wait for the chapter 101 to be released in order to even see the possibility of unlocking chapter 86. Does that mean you won''t be able to read the story or the updates will be slower? No! It only means that by paying for the initial cost of the privilege of its respective tier (like, 1st tier consist of 2 chapters for 1 coin, 2nd tier will be madeter with 5 chapters and 200 coins etc) you will be eligible to unlock the chapters within the privilege that you unlocked. That means, if you pay 200 coins for the second tier (example above) you will be able to read all the way to chapter 90 (while the story has 100 chapters in total). Once again, once a new, 101st chapter will be published, those readers who use the second tier will be capable of reading chapter 91. Keep in mind two important things: - Privilege, when bought,sts for the rest of the calendar''s month (calcted by China time). That means, its the best to buy it as early as possible to get the maximum value out of it. Obviously, once the privilege expires, unless you buy it again, you will have to wait for the standard release to catch up to once again continue reading the story where you left it. - Chapters that are under privilege still needs to be unlocked, but one can unlock them only with coins. Fast passes will prove useless in that situation. And here is my personal request - if you have a single coin to spare, I would love if you could use it to unlock at least the first tier. I understand if you don''t have the money and have to rely on fast passes to read this story, but 1 coin is worth literally 2 cents to you, while it allows me to have at least a glimmer of hope of getting some form of promotion from Webnovel. *****Now, for the current announcements**** 1 - The current dy is caused by 3 aspects. - I''m kinda burned out with writing at the moment, limiting it to the bare minimum I need to maintain - I had to figure out the proper development of this story and forge an outline for the next events. This is already done and you can expect new chapters soon, but I still feel the need for an apology. So well... I''m sorry for the current dy! - I''m justzy. I allowed myself to get spoiled with one day of not writing this novel, then came the second one and third and... And you get the gist of it. While I love writing, just the notion of starting it can be really hard and annoying. 2 - Missing bonus chapters Well... I will try my best to provide them over time. There won''t be any giveaways or other ways to obtain more of them before I finally get them over with. 3 - Day of going premium This novel will turn premium at chapter 66 on 28th January of 2021. That means, in the next five days (as I''m writing it) you will get 13 free chapters, and I n to reach chapter 70 by 28th January as well (the story is already nned that far, and wayyyyy beyond that point. 4 - Stakes of the novel If you guys think that this novel was good so far, then you just wait until all the foreshadowing and groundwork I set in ce will start paying off! 5 - Slothverse? For those foreign to this term... Well, I can only tell one thing. Go read other novels of mine to understand this concept :D (As for thosezy ones and grammar nazis who can''t bear the grammar of my first premium novel, all the novels that got contracted are part of the shared multiverse and each of them has their specific spot on the greater timeline of the entire story. While it''s not necessary to read other novels to enjoy and understand either of the stories on their own, there will be some asional mentions and little puns that only the avid readers of all my novels will catch on!) 6 - How can I help? If you want to support my efforts in writing beyond just using coins or in because you use fast passes and feel bad because of it, you can do four more things to help me: - Share the story with your friends. The more readers, the more active the novel, the better the statistics and the better weapons I have in my eternal struggle with the site staff to get this novel the exposure it deserves (at least, in my opinion) - Vote for this novel with power stones. While it does nothing but helps me flex this novel''s ranking position (unless we get really high, then it actually helps by a LOT), it still is a huge factor in how mentally attached I''m to the prospect of writing it - Share your thoughts inments on the chapters. As simple as it might be, it allows me to notice that people are still reading the novel. And trust me, nothing is more depressing and disengaging in terms of my will to work on something that aplete silence in the chapterments. - If you are feeling really generous, you can either post a review to this novel to let others understand both its good and bad sides or just splurge and use your precious coins to send some gifts to it. With all that said... I just realised how long this post turned out to be so well... You just wait, the chapters areing! (but lemme get my coffee first) Cheers! MotivatedSloth, signing out! Chapter 1: Changes Chapter 1: Changes It''s funny how little does it take to turn the social order on its head. Regretfully for me, I was the one that had to pay for how much fun the others had in this earth two point zero. "He couldn''t escape that far!" "Chase him down!" "This time we will get him!" Calmly observing the group of my three former peers from my elevated position, I took a mental note that yet another road home from school gotpromised. Day by day, the number of avable ways for me to safely return without ending up in the hands of my former admirers was decreasing. Day by day, I was getting closer to being beaten up. "Just where the hell did he go?!" A young, tall blonde. Named Hyke, called Hitte from how eager he was to hit others. Known from being kicked off the karate and kungfu sses, I could vaguely recall him being beaten up when he got close to the systema ss that I secretly attended. "I will cut off and fry his balls!" Rs, no nickname. Formerly a good kid, under the influence of his newfound power he realised that bullying others was - after all - fun. What was even worse, right now I could only regret those few sneaky lessons at real-life fighting that I gave him. "..." Lastly, the worst of them all, Bart. I once defeated him in one of the races, right before I decided to stop my running career. Ever since that time back in the first ss of the high school, he held a grudge against me, not eased even after he bested my top times. For some reason, he wanted to defeat me personally on the track, and with how the things stood now, he finally found a way to exact his revenge without any major consequences. But what was absolutely the worst, was that this is how this new earth looked like. A bit over a year ago, something changed. Some scientists found a really smart way to describe it... Yet even though I wasn''t a bad student at all, just looking at the names they were using made my head hurt. To put it in short and easy terms, magic has appeared. Magic like in the movies? - one might ask. Thankfully, no. I couldn''t imagine how fucked I would be if I would be forced to run from wizards on brooms chasing me while throwing fireballs in my general direction. Despite still attending thest year of high school, I wasn''t naive enough to believe in the official version of the events. After all, one would have to be really dumb to not understand what happened in reality. One by one, governments of the world fell. While instantly reced by the new ones, no one had any doubts that it was all an act. Yet, how could the rtively stable order of the world change so quickly and thoroughly? The answer came from a rather unexpected way. About two weeks after the mess with the governments, some of the old fighting schools and martial artsmunities experienced the greatest miracle that could ever happen to them. They officially discovered the way to use this newly found energy. Apparently, those with great physical foundation had it easier to reach the levels required to make this new energy usable. From that point onwards, no one had any doubts. With the secret services taking over the ruling ss of the world, the focus of the entire earth was now all aimed at a single task - to get stronger. Some, just like those bullies that wanted to make up for all the time they lived in my shadow before, got lucky. With their physical abilities already up to par, they needed only a small push to reach the levels unimaginable to normal humans from before the change. Sadly, even though being an athlete and active martial artists guaranteed my physical foundation, for some reason I was unable to harness this new energy at all. And just like that, what seemed like a miracle to others, was nothing but the end of the happy times for me. Most of the friends thattched to me while I was sessful quickly disappeared, while those who actually cared about me I cut ties with them myself. One might call it pride, but I was simply self-aware enough to understand that I would be putting them down just by hanging around them. At least, that was the official version of my current situation that I didn''t spare any efforts to ''identally'' spread. "I guess its time" With another objective already in my mind, I reached to my pocket. Tightening my fingers around a strange bracelet, I quickly moved it on my wrist. In one instant, it disappeared from the view, as if absorbed by my skin. And at the same time, nearly the entirety of my strength disappeared alongside with it. Only after confirming that I was no longer any different from the mortals before the earth''s change, I carefully jumped down from the small balcony of an abandoned house where I was hiding. Just in time for my bullies to notice my appearance. "BEHIND! HE IS BEHIND!" Turning on my feet, I jumped in the opposite direction to the group of bullies, pretending to make my shot at running away. How silly. If I wanted to run, I would have done so already. But today, my objective was slightly different from avoiding those idiots. Today, I wanted to turn my face into a mess. "I GOT HIM!" A sudden pull on my backpack that I pretended to be stupid enough not to drop announced the end of my escape. Pinned to the ground in the very next moment, I initially attempted to defend my face, only to give up as soon as the trio noticed it. Good, now their attacks focused on my head. Hit, m, p and another hit. Bit by bit, every inch of my skin was turning from just a piece of meat to nothing else but a physical manifestation of pain. In just a few moments, the trio managed to beat me up so hard that my consciousness started to waver. "What the hell is going out here?!" Before long, a new voice entered the fray. Great! Just in time to save me from actually sustaining some serious injuries anywhere else but on my pride as a man! "Fuck! It''s one of those heroes! Let''s ditch!" Not even bothering to analyse their chances against the newly appearing person, the trio quickly dropped me where they pinned me before, disappearing into the densebyrinth of the streets. Hero my ass. The fact that someone who was blessed with a good talent while not losing his humanity didn''t automatically give him the right to call himself a hero. But well, being on the absolutely lowest level of the new socialdder of the changed earth, I was as far away from deciding who could use what name as one could humanly be. "Hey, are you okay?" Oh? So this is one of those people that would actually try to help? I guess I judged him too harshly. Opening my eyes as far as my bruises would allow, I could barely make out the figure of the man that saved me. "Not really Thanks for saving me." Given how the other person acted like a hero, this was what I had to give them in return for their help. Not money. Their moral codex wouldn''t allow them to ept it. The gratitude, respect and awe was what they were usually looking for. "Stop with this bullshit. I can tell that you are on the verge of copsing already. Tell me, where do you live? It''s safer to recover in your own house than trusting your health and life with those felchers in the hospitals" Once again, my saviour managed to take me by a surprise. Not seeing anything wrong with relying on his help a little bit more, I gave him my address while wondering just how much did he know about the truth of this world. Did I mention that the earth has changed? Obviously, with all kinds of people suddenly gaining incredible powers, no one dared to introduce drastic changes. Cinemas still showed movies, cars were still the main source of transportation and logistics, malls and shops were still operating. It was only the ces like hospital or detention centre where one could seriously fear for their life. "Here we are. I have no idea why you allowed them to beat you up like that, but I guess you have your own reasons. Just keep in mind, I won''t help you next time." Hearing those words, my entire body froze. Was it the way in which I cleverly - or so I thought - avoided the most dangerous attacks by changing the position of my body and tensing the muscles in the perfectly timed manner? Or maybe he saw me basically giving my position away? "Sir, if I may ask.. What is your name?" Still keeping my act of the innocent victim of bullying, I forced my eyes to open a little bit wider just so that I could see the face of the man. And it was obviously masked. "It doesn''t matter. I won''t pry into your business, so do not pry into mine. Well, I can tell that while we will meet each other again, it won''t happen anytime soon. Good luck with your adventures." Finally allowing me to stand on the ground after carrying me around like some kind of princess, the man smiled before quickly disappearing in the street. Leaving just like that, he made sure that the only question I would have about him, would be a huge ''what the fuck'' crashing around in my head. Sigh Taking a moment to throw this encounter out of my mind, I pushed the doors open and entered my home. While getting beaten up was something that I hoped for, it didn''t mean I wanted my parents to see me in such a sorry state. Not now, not yet. "I''m home! I will get changed and clean myself then go get the groceries, okay?" Shouting into the depths of the house, I didn''t bother to wait for the answer. My mother was too weak to speak at all, and I could tell that my father wouldn''t care enough to answer me. Ever since we were struck by my mother''s illness, the life in my father''s eyes seemed to disappear fade away with each passing day. Just the thought of the current situation of my family was enough for my fists to tighten. Thankfully, the doors that would separate me from all those sad feelings were pretty close. Step by step, I descended down the stairs only to push the doors to the basement open. Ever since the earth has changed, ever since I lost my position at the top of the social hierarchy in the school, ever since I lost the contact with the only girl that ever managed to pull the strings of my heart, ever since my mother fell sick Ever since all of that, this ce turned to my kingdom. And it happened for a reason. "System activate!" Not even bothering to shout, I simply murmured those words. [Basement system online] [Wee back to the basement!] [Do you wish to continue with the mission?] Throwing my backpack to the corner of this underground room, I quickly pulled myself out of all the clothes that I had on me, before moving towards the most ordinary wardrobe that one could imagine. Only after I pulled out a strangely outdated set of clothes, akin to what one would wear for the masquerade rather than outside in a normal day, did I respond to my system''s inquiry. "Yeah." [Locking the conquered worlds] [Opening the gate to :BY24NT1: world] [Emergency exit: active] [Standard exit: active] [Time remaining: four days before the freeze ends] Reaching towards my wrist, I started to rub it as if I was trying to make it hotter. After a moment, this strange bracelet of mine appeared once again, allowing me to finally take it off. In a single moment, a surge of power entered my body, indicating that my cultivation was now restored. With all the advantages that I had as a former athlete and experienced martial artist when the wave of mana washed through the earth, I nearly instantly obtained the middle level of the body cleansing stage. What others in my ss had to work for over two months to achieve, I got right off the bat. Sadly, along with the foundation of my power, a hard cap came. In other words, I was unable to improve my cultivation, even if it was the purely physical part of it, at all! That is before I encountered this strange system in my damned basement on the day when I finally decided to give up and end my sorry life with your usual rope! Shaking my head, I pushed all those idle memories aside. Attaching a small sheathed sword to the side of my belt, I moved forward and pushed the doors of my basement open. But instead of a dark staircase, a vast, open in appeared before my eyes. [System reminder: Current mission - deliver the letter to the Kingdom of Gncia] [System reminder: Rewards for conquering the world will wary depending on the host''s performance!] And here lied the secret of my masochistic drive from before. Given how I already read said letter several times by now, appearing gravely wounded was the easiest way not only to make everyone trust me but also to spark their drive to reward me for my dedication! After all, how would one treat a messenger who brought the news of the important victory in a huge battle while risking his very own life to do so? Chapter 2: New world Chapter 2: New world Travelling through this world felt vastly different from what I could experience back on earth. No matter how big the park or agricultural area that I would choose in my homeworld, there was no way to rece the insane taste that the air had here, entirely free from the pollution. Yet those silly sensory feelings were only the top of the mountain of the differences that set the worlds that my basement could connect to apart from the earth. Most importantly, nothing was stopping me from enjoying the freedom that not only my athletic ability but also my current cultivation real allowed me to do! As long as my guess was more or less urate, then I only had about thirty kilometres left to walk before I would reach the capital of the kingdom. Quite a long distance, only twelve kilometres short from the fully-fledged olympian marathon. Yet with the energy coursing through my veins like if my muscles turned into some kind of engine choking on the idle gear, instead of taking it easy, I decided to run all this distance! Bit by bit, my legs continued to carry me forward all the while I had one of thest chances to adore the beautifulndscape of this world. While there was no denying that Earth had a fair share of great sights on its own, when speaking about the natural monuments of this magnitude, my home simply had none. The mountains that seemingly reached beyond any reason, easily breaking through the confines of atmosphere and enjoying the tingling touch of the space. Strange geological structures that for some reason allowed me to look down along the surface of the in all the way to its coast, only to raise my eyes a bit so that I could see water, way above the height that it should theoretically be at as if something managed to pull the surface of the ocean several meters above the level of the ground. Thankfully, before my mind could give up after countless failed attempts to make any sense of what I was seeing, the sight of the clearly man-made walls suddenly starting to grow in the distance forced me to focus on my current task. With a pack of letters stillfortably hidden in my breast pocket, I continued to enjoy my little stroll through this world. Soon, I had to put a stop to my ongoing run. Entering the area of farnds that spread out in every direction around the city, the road that I was travelling was no longer asfortably empty as it was so far. With more and more people trying to get to the city the closer I got to the gates, I almost started to have some doubts about how long it would take me to actually enter the ce, not to speak about reaching the pce itself so that I could deliver the message to the King''s own hands just like the mission specified! Thankfully, the situation at the gates wasn''t as bad as I thought. Instead of the guards checking every single damned carriage or group of people, it seemed that only some of the asional checks were in ce. "You, there! Come here." In the end, there was nothing to be surprised about when I was picked by the guards to go through the check. Even though I made my absolute best to style my clothes to suit the local fashion as closely as I could hope to, once I actually saw how people were dressed in this ce, I realised how far I was away from nailing this point. Adding my perturbed face to the picture and there was absolutely nothing strange in the guards willing to inspect me a bit closer. At this point, I could only be thankful that the basguage pack that covered all the worlds ssified as ''easy'' by my basement system was one of the rewards that I received for conquering the very first world that this system opened the gate to for me! "Sir, with all due respect, but I''m on an urgent mission. I''m carrying the orders from mister how was he" Taking a moment while I rubbed my still bloodied chin, I did my absolute best to make my act as genuine as my talent of natural-bornedian allowed. "... ah, I believe he was called Buren? Given how everyone was acting all respectful around him, I think I can safely assume that he was some kind of officer if not the general of the army that I saw when I received the letters." Quickly recounting the most important parts of what I saw when I first stepped into this world, I could see how the faces of the guards changed when I brought up some of the keywords. "A messenger A summoned one from the looks of it at that Understood. Gabe, go and fetch Mark" "There is no need to send anyone to fetch me. I heard the story already." Before the guard that attempted to initially sound my intentions off could even finish his sentence, a new voice entered a fray with another guard appearing in the proximity. Yet, outside of how strangely different his manner of speaking was, just his clothes of iparably better quality to what the other guards were wearing proved that instead of talking to a simple soldier, I had the luck of meeting a proper officer. "Come with me." No more words were necessary. Given how those low-ranking guards managed to guess that I wasn''t the local inhabitant of the world, I had no doubts that the officer was perfectly aware of it just as well. At this moment, I could only hope that my foreign heritage wouldn''t turn the matter of being rewarded for all my efforts any bit problematic. After all, it would be a pity if everything that I did to look as worst as I could would turn into a pointless effort and pain! Thankfully, I didn''t have to wait long for the situation to rify itself. Leading me through the very first medieval city that I could touch, feel and experience with my own senses in my entire life. The guard''s officer didn''t seem to mind the fact the everpresentmotion of the city made any attempts at talking simply impossible, allowing me to simply enjoy my trip through a ce than no other human from earth would ever walk with their own legs. Soon, the dense yet thin streets of the lower city gave way to the properly made, wide roads that split the entirety of the higher city into orderly quarters. With the entire capital being built generally on the ne of a circle, once we entered the upper city, I didn''t need to bother with any of the risks associated with the lower sses that surrounded me in the first part of my journey through this foreign ce. "You might be a summon, but you still need to show the proper respect to the king." Only once the two of us passed through an extensive check at yet another set of walls and gates did my lead bothered to speak up. "What do you mean?" Surprised by this development, I looked at the soldier with a surprise in my eyes. Never in my life would I expect that meeting the king himself could turn out to be so easy! Chapter 3: Fulfiling the quest Chapter 3: Fulfiling the quest While iming that I appeared before the King of this ce in person in one instant after I learned that I would get the honour of visiting him by myself would be a lie, it wouldn''t be all that far from the truth. After the first hint about how the situation would develop back when the guide warned me about the manners, I had no other choice but to follow right after the man when he started moving in a strange manner. Looking at him, the officer seemed to just be taking a rxed stroll through the corridors of the pce, yet as it turned out, I actually had some troubles keeping up with his pace without actually outright running after him! And then, just like that, I was pulled inside the throne chamber, led through its rtively empty middle part, all the way to a huge throne upied by a man wearing the crown. Just from a single look at his robes alone, I could deduce that just like I noticed when moving around his ce, this country was as far from being poor as it could be. Not only were the king''s robes made of the highest quality of silk or a material that resembled it, but even the sceptre that he held in his right hand also seemed to be made out of gold mixed with some kind ofpletely white metal. "We heard that you havee to bring us a message." This simple sentence that the King spoke already gave me quite a lot of insight into how the social rules worked within the pce. Given how my identity as summon, or rather someoneing from an unfamiliar ce could be seen through with just a single nce of yourmon officer, I didn''t dare to have any doubts that the King would fail to notice the same things that alerted the guards'' superior. That''s why I didn''t really bother all that much with the possibility that my way of interpreting the bows and social pleasantries would be taken wrongly. Lowering my head while leaning my body forward a bit, I slowly reached with my left hand towards my left pocket. As annoying and ufortable as it was to reach to where the letters were in this way, I didn''t dare to do anything that could even closely resemble an attempt to pull out a weapon. "Your majesty, allow me to apologise in advance if any of my actions will appear to be harsh, uncultured or disrespectful. Doing so will never be my intention but just a result of theck of knowledge about your culture and customs. As for the important part" Pushing the letter out on top of the open palms of both of my hands, I reached my hands towards the nearby royal guard. Even being a messenger directly responding to the king, I didn''t dare to have any hopes at passing this letter to his hands personally. After all, there was no way that in a worldbelled as ''easy'' some kind of spy could destroy the content right here and now? Thankfully, those weird and kinda panicky words of mine didn''te to the fruition that I could expect from the harder kinds of worlds. With the guard passing the letter to the king himself, the middle-aged man on the throne quickly scanned through its content, before looking at me with an amiable look on his face. "Dear messenger. Judging from what''s written inside and the way it is written I don''t think any of my soldiers as wide as this kingdom might be, would be capable of covering such a long distance so quickly." That made sense. Not only I was already quite fast before the entire cultivation thingy appeared in the world, but I could also delete all the time necessary for rest from the scheduled time of my run. With the time freeze still notpletely exhausted, whenever I was in one world, the time flow rtive to me in the other one wouldpletely stall, awaiting my return. Only when this time limit would run off would I have to decide whether I wanted to spend the next few moments in other world or maybe back in my homeworld! But if I were to think about it Didn''t I just fakely introduced the idea of a marathon to this entire damned world?! "As such, we can''t let you go without a proper reward. Tell me, what kind of remuneration are you looking for, in lieu of your services?" Leaning back on his throne, the king stared directly at my face. From how calm his eyes were, I could tell that instead of being worried that I would ask for too much, he was simply curious about the nature of my request instead. Yet, before I could answer, there was one thing that I absolutely had to do. Taking a look around, I scanned the behaviour, faces and the outfits of the people within the throne hall. And soon enough, I managed to locate a young man whose clothes gave him the perfect ''sorcerer'' vibes. "Your majesty, I will once again for forgiveness in advance of uttering my request as I don''t know not only whether or not does it exist, but if it does, then how much could this one item I desire to be valued at. What I need Is a potion or a herb that could help a person who is unable to absorb the mana, the energy of the world, while being exposed to huge amounts of it and unable to find a ce where she would be safer." With the tired face of my mum appearing in front of my eyes, I couldn''t stop myself from tightening my fists. While I still hoped that this King, the very first person of importance that I met in all the three worlds I travelled through so far, would be able to provide me with what I desired, even if this part of my expectations were to fail, I still could have some hopes that at least my system would reward me with something that would work for my mom''s sickness instead. "Ah, mana oversaturation Sadly, I do not personally own any item that could solve this problem, nor should that be the case for any of my subjects." Shattering the first part of my hopes without even the slightest bit of effort, the King quickly pushed the bottom tip of his spear against the stone tiles of the floor to calm down themotion that erupted in his chambers as soon as he gave the verdict. "While I can''t give you what you hoped for, I can at least provide you with some herbs that can be used to decrease the symptoms. If you are lucky now while being unlucky prior to today with the state of the person you are trying to save deteriorating recently, then you still might be able to spend some days with them, saving thempletely from the pain of this sickness." With just a swipe of his hand, the man in a pointy hat that I noticed before disappeared in a puff of smoke, only to reappear in the throne room just as suddenly and unexpectedly. In his hand, a bunch of fresh herbs was slowly starting to whittle down, making me realise that right now, literally, every second counted. [Congrattions!] [Host has fulfilled the world''s mission!] [This world is now added to the list of leisure spots that host will be able to visit at will.] [Pending reward - in order to collect, return to the basement!] Chapter 4: Rewards Chapter 4: Rewards "Inhara Makashka Peterlum." For me, this man could as well recite the parts of the Vedic texts, and he would make just as much sense to me. Yet, to my pleasant surprise, the herbs in his hand instantly stopped wasting away, as if regaining their energy from his chant alone. "Magic?" Uttering this word before I could stop myself, I attracted a curious look from the King himself. Yet, outside of the monarch''s expression changing a little, the most powerful person in the room didn''t bother to dig deeper. "Here. Those herbs should be able to hold on for a while now. In order to use them, you can either nt them in a soil rich in magic or turn them into a potion by brewing them in pristine water. While the herbal drink would have a greater effect in the short time I would rmend keeping at least some of them as they can suck the magic from their surrounding. If our guess about the problem your target has, this could stall the progress of their sickness." Taking a few steps forward and stuffing the fresh herbs into my hand, the mage smiled encouragingly. Maybe it was only my imagination, but for a moment I could feel that he was actually sympathetic towards my case Yet, this feelingsted only for a moment, before this young man with a particrly funny hat backed off, once again wearing a cold and unperturbed expression on his face. "Your majesty, before I go, a silly question. While travelling through thosends, I took quite a liking to the area. Would that be problematic if I were to return sometime in the future, just to tour thosends? Back in my real world... " Instead of finishing my sentence, I allowed the slight grimace of annoyance to reapear on my face. In reality though, I wasn''t all that interested in touring thosends But making a profit of them instead! For people stuck at the medieval-like period, as long as I could bring some stupid ythings from the earth that they would be unable to produce locally, exchanging it for something as simple as gold or gemstones would let me live a little bit easier life back on earth! After all, even though the worth of the formerly precious materials was constantly decreasing due to the influx of the new, magic born ones, it went without a doubt that even now, gold was one of the most prizedmodities on earth! "Sure, we do not mind." Sending me off with a single wave of his hand, just the authority of the monarch was easily capable of making me bend my knee before him. Not because I was scared of him, but because I could tell from the nearly tangible respect that the people in the hall had towards the man, that he was someone who clearly deserved it. From that point on, I didn''t dare to waste any time. As soon as I left the pce and the higher part of the city, I quickly found one of the deserted alleys before suddenly stopping. [Open the gate.] Standing in front of the random doors leading to some kind of workshop, I chanted with my voice muffled before confidently pushing those foreign doors open. And instead of entering someone''s private property, I saw the familiar walls of my basement! [Do you wish to im the reward now?] [Confirm] Rather than bothering with the system at this crucial moment, I quickly changed my clothes, closed the gate and moved upstairs. With this bunch of herbs in my hand, I quickly split them into two batches. Putting one aside, I set electrical kettle in the kitchen before pulling out my favourite y mug. While I couldn''t be called a herbalist or even im that I had any herbal-rted knowledge, I at least knew enough to cut the part of the herbs designed for the drink into the tiniest pieces possible before throwing them at the bottom of the cup. Without any idea how those herbs wouldbine with additions like sugar or honey, I didn''t dare to enhance the taste of the drink at all, only relying on the power of those herbs to help my mother. "I''ming" After pouring the water into the mug and waiting for a few moments before stirring its content with a spoon, I quickly carried it all the way to the outermost part of the house. While my family wasn''t rich, we couldn''t be called poor either. At least, that was the case in the past, but with my mother now constantly in bed fighting for her life, the main financial support of this household, my father, no longer had his mind clear enough to keep working as hard as he used to. The signs of the house degrading due to being left entirely to itself could be seen everywhere, yet no one bothered to fix them. Only the corridor that connected the detached part of the house where my mom was resting with the rest of the house held any resemnce of cleanliness, indicating that although weakened psychically, my father has yet topletely give up. "Shh She''s sleeping. Let her rest." Kneeling in front of the simple bed, the wreck of a man that once was a great father of mine was in a position that signified that he was in the middle of his prayers. In face of this incurable disease that my mother contracted, after everything else failed, this was the one thing that he could resort to. And as much as I could understand the desperation of a man who was losing the love of his life and was unable to do anything about it, I couldn''t forgive him for not trying even harder to find a way to save her! "Dad I''m not sure if it will work, but I managed to buy some herbs from the passing cultivator" Coming up with some kind of random excuse on the spot, I quickly realised what this kind of story could imply. Being a simple student with no way of earning serious money nor any talent topensate for it, only some quite disgusting methods of earning the favours of people powerful enough to obtain rare resources wereing to my mind as I thought about it now Thankfully, my dad didn''t seem to notice this conjunction, focusing instead of the cup that I held in my hands instead. Given a concrete object he couldtch his hopes on, it didn''t seem like he would care for anything else. "Okay" Instead of letting me wake my mother up, my dad leaned above her once again, only to put just a single finger of his on her shoulder. "Dear Could you wake up for a moment?" Not daring to use any more excessive movements, my dad continued to lightly poke his finger at my mom''s shoulder. Only after a long while, long enough for the drink to already start turning cold, did the eyes of my mother started to slowly open. "Hmm?" Already too weak to even utter a word, just by being unable to act in more energetic fashion my mom made my heartache. But if I had just a tiny bit of luck and the guesses of the people from that world were right If this drink could do anything "Mom I obtained this great drink. While I can''t guarantee anything Please, drink it." Bringing the cup closer to my mom''s head, I could see how the long-lost sparks reappeared in her eyes when she heard my voice. "Kris" Just uttering the short version of my name sapped her strength, making my mom''s head heavily fall back to the pillow after she attempted to raise it in order to look at me. In the very next moment, my father helped his wife to regain a position where she could drink something, finally empowering me to ce the cup at her lips and slowly angle it up. Watching as the thick liquid filled with the herbal scraps flowed down my mom''s throat, I could feel a strange force grasping me by my heart. If this drink could save her or at least buy her some more time Even though I was already determined to do my absolute best to help, feeling this heart-shattering hesitation about how effective this drink would be only served to steel my resolve even further. Even if it wouldn''t work, I would find some other way to save her! As soon as thest drop of the rich fluid disappeared behind my mom''s mouth, I quickly rose from my knees and stormed out of the room. Taking a slight detour to steal some pot-nts from the window, I quickly and brutally deprived them of their home and life, before putting the still energetic stalks of the herb that I brought back to the earth that housed those pitiful flowers just a moment ago. After watering them up and infusing them with all the energy that my cultivation would allow, I felt my knees giving up under the weight of my body as if I suddenly turned heavier. Only thanks to my relentless determination did I manage to bring those pots back to the resting room of my mom, before returning to the safety of the basement. For some reason, as soon as I crossed the doorstep, it felt as if all the worries and desperation disappeared from my heart. Maybe it was the aura of safety that this basement gave me, or maybe it was the inner working of the system. I was in no ce to judge what was causing it, but I didn''t have the time to dawdle on it either. [System, I''m ready to receive my rewards.] This entire system thingy was also quite puzzling. Even though I learned how to live with it already, I never get to understand why it appeared in my basement. Was this something that some god sent here to help me save my mother? Was it something that appearedpletely randomly? Or maybe the same thing that caused my mother to bepletely incapable of absorbing the everpresent magic was the reason behind this system appearance? Sadly, for now, I still knew way too little to even attempt finding out the true answer. [Granting the reward for thepleted mission.] [Cultivation cap moved to the pinnacle of body cleansing stage.] [Host can nowpletely cleanse his body from all the impurities contained in it] [Granting enrichment herb] [By nting the herb in an area with huge amounts of the magic present, the host will be able to condense it into the herb and consume it whenever it sprouts its petals. Each petal allows the host to raise his cultivation by one small stage within the bodily training realm] Just like expected, no surge of energy entered my body, casting all my tiredness away. While it was great to know that my daily training would once again start bearing more fruits that they would back in the earth without magic, it didn''t mean that my cultivation would raisepletely by itself either. At least, I could be happy that my current limit approached what was considered the major border that one had to pass in order to be a true cultivator! Chapter 5: Saved? Chapter 5: Saved? Waking up in the basement was always the worst part about that came along with my decision to move all my stuff in there. With the only one, small window being directed towards the western side, there was close to no sunlight that could grant me some energy to live the next day. After finally pushing the sheets away and properly standing up, I quickly scanned my looks in the huge mirror that covered the entire wing of the wardrobe. Even though my face looked a bit better than the day before, it was still full of the marks left on it by firsts and shoes of the school bullies. "I need some coffee" Just by recalling the memory of all the work that I did before finally allowing myself to go to sleep made me feel my exhaustion even more vividly. With the physical reward for fulfilling the mission materialising within a huge chest that stood directly under the shelf located below the window - the only piece of furniture that was created in this ce by the system rather by a human hand - I spent nearly half the night at working in the backyard garden to properly nt it. But in the end, despite how tired I was, I could at least be proud of what I did. After all, with how little changed in my mom''sposition after she drank the brew I prepared for her with those herbs that I received from the king of my third conquered world, I at least hoped that by nting this system-granted herb right beside the wall of my mom''s resting ce, I could make it suck all the magic that was harming her away. Tic, tic, TAK! The noisy screaming of the rm barely fazed me. With how little anyone cared about the school nowadays, I had doubts that any of the teachers bothered to wake up for their first sses. For me, this rm was just a way for a nostalgia trip to the times when its sound wasn''t an annoyance, but the announcement of a new bright day that I could use to its maximum. "Coffee" With one thought in my mind, I threw some clothes on my garb before opening the doors to my basement and climbing the stairs up to the proper area of the house. A few stepster and I was already setting the electric kettle up while pouring two small spoons worth of coffee into my preferred cup. "We are slowly running out of it" Taking a look into the huge package that was slowly starting show its bottom, I shook my head with yet another attack of depression sneaking through my defences. With how passionate my mom was about growing our own coffee in the greenhouse that was now turned into her resting ce, we never had to bother buying the shit that supermarkets sold under the name of coffee. Her constant efforts always paid off with the insanely rich blend of fried, dark-brown grains that were far more potent than anything one could get his hands on in a ssing shop. Trink! The ringing of the kettle announcing that the water was now ready brought my mind back from the abyss of depression. Reaching for its handle, I moved the small container above the cup and "Kris?" It was as if the time suddenly froze. Obviously, the magic capable of doing something like altering one of the very basic aspects of the universe, even if existed, then it still was way beyond the reach of even the strongest cultivator on the entire earth. No, this moment when my blood seemed to stop flowing, my heart to stop beating and my muscles to stop responding was nothing more but how I perceived this moment. This moment when for the first time since three months ago when my mother lost herst bit of energy, I could hear my name spoken in her rtively lively tone. Crack! Unable to hold the weight of the kettle in my petrified fingers, this kitchen utensil slipped out of my grasp, shattering into myriad pieces while sshing my legs with steaming hot water. Yet it didn''t matter. Turning around on my feet, I stared at the figure that appeared in the doorway. Still weak and using her hands to support the efforts of her legs to keep her upright, yet there was no denying it. My mother was somehow standingpletely on her own and staring at me with her eyes turning wider and wider with each passing moment! "Krist! Oh sweet lord, what happened to your face?!" No, this couldn''t be a dream. It was impossible for my brain to trick my consciousness so realistically. It was just like her to ignore her own situation, instantly worrying about others instead of herself. "Mom" With this desperate shout finally escaping from my mouth, I made a step forward, only to see the frail body of my mother suddenly cave in, with her knees seemingly giving up. "Mom!" Jumping forward, I managed to catch the energyless body of the woman that brought me to this world and cared for me my entire life, in my arms. "I''m okay, sweetie It''s just that the further I go from my bed, the weaker I feel" Whispering those words with a weak voice, this damned woman who couldn''t pay any fucking attention to her own state raised her hand up, caressing the remaining bruises that marked my face. "Dear, what happened to you?" Feeling her frail fingers tracing the marks on my face, I felt a powerful force grasping me by my heart and squeezing all the juices out of it. "What the hell is going on?" Before long, themotion raised by me dropping the kettle and my mom falling brought my father to the kitchen. Initially angry, once his eyesid on the rtively lively face of his wife "DEAR!" It was just a single instant. In one moment, he was standing in the kitchen''s doorway with his face twisted by anger and annoyance, and the next moment he was already caressing my mom''s face with tears already flowing down from his face. "We need to get her back to her bed Or even better, to the garden." Not letting this moment of insane joy and relief get to my head, I somehow managed to force my muscles back into order, lifting the frail body of my mother without even a shred of effort. While I would love this ability of mine to be a result of not only my training but also my cultivation, I was sadly perfectly aware that it was most likely caused by how actually light my mother has be over the span of her illness. "Gil What happened to Kris'' face?" Once again reinforcing the mental image that she always had of caring for others way more than for herself, rather than rejoicing in her sudden health improvement, my mother could only care about those few light bruises that remained on my face after a good night of sleep. "Kris'' face? Wait, what the heck?" Only once his wife forced him to, my father managed to notice that something was wrong with me. Right on time, given how he failed to realise it when he saw me yesterday, back when my rtively high cultivation had yet to help my body fix the most drastic parts of my injuries. "Let''s drop this. We need to get you to the garden, mom." Not bothering to deal with their rambling, I simply kicked the kitchen doors out of my way, identally adding a bit too much strength in this random attack. In effect, instead of kicking them open, I literally kicked them away. Yet, instead of allowing the sight of the huge piece of wood turning into a thicker part of the corridor''s wall, I followed the route that appeared in my mind, quickly moving outside. With how the weather was already turning colder, moving through the open area seemed like a bad idea for someone as sickly as my mother, yet I couldn''t care less. No matter what I heard about her state from the local doctors, I already realised what was really afflicting her. And a bit of cold along with some wetness from the air wouldn''t influence how she was affected by the world''s mana even by the slightest. "Kris What''s so special about the garden? I think I think it would be better" At first, my mom''s words were still weak, indicating that she had to force herself to speak, yet the closer I got to the actual garden in our backyard and the greenhouse right behind it, her voice turned stronger and stronger, turning her slightpses in wording from being caused by the health to being caused by an actual surprise! "Kris, what''s going on?" This time, it was my father to notice that in this extremely umon and unexpected situation, I seemed to be the only one knowing what was going on. "Not now." Rather thaning up with some kind of excuse, I pushed the topic forter. After letting my mom sit on one of the chairs within the ss building of the greenhouse, I jumped outside only to bring up the nt that was gifted to me by the system in a pot and ce it right beside the two of my parents. At this point, I couldn''t help but notice that what used to be just a single, slightly wooden stem was already flourishing with four different petals growing out of it! "Okay. I think you guys deserve a bit of exnation. Father, do you remember the herbs that I brought for mom yesterday?" Chapter 6: Deal (yes, this is the right Chapter...) Chapter 6: Deal (yes, this is the right Chapter...) "Hey, I would like to have a word with Martha." Instead of using some kind of shady tactics to approach her directly, I simply bothered one of her closest friends and followers when we met on the school''s corridor. "Wait, what?" In this new world, the social hierarchy had to be built from the scratch. With all the old rules mostly gone, the new world order was based on not how rich or strong one was, but how far his talent would allow him to go. Obviously, at first it was the typicalw of the jungle with everyone trying to settle in the right order with their fists and schemes, in just a few months themon interventions of the new governments that made sure to teach everyone what would happen if a promising person were to die an untimely death or even be sustainably hurt made it so the interpersonal conflicts returned to their form from before the earth''s change. Yet, while the way in which most of the tensions between the new sses of people were solved has returned to its usual state, it didn''t mean the society did so as well. "As I said. I need to have a word with Martha. Tell her that Kristov wille to pay her a visit during the herbalism lesson." Instead of dealing with one of the followers of the girl that I had to see, I simply passed the message in a confident tone before moving further down the corridor, exactly where one of the few lessons that were actually interesting and up to the current times would take ce. Thinking about it, now that my mom had to remain in a sort of a rune made out of the growing herbs that were supposed to absorb magic, the problem of learning how to handle herbs and other nts became one of my priorities. And this was also one of the reasons why I decided that despite how risky that was, contacting with Martha was something I simply had to do. Due to the timing of my arrival, it was only a matter of a few moments when the ss started to quickly fill up with students. Out of all the subjects that one could take in this damned high-school, this was one of the three that had any interests of the students. Outside of the obvious leader of physical education and the runner-up of applied physics, herbalism was the only other subject that could realistically help the students on their path of cultivation, hence it''s poprity. "I was told that you wanted to talk with me?" Just hearing this soft voice was enough to make my heart melt. Just one year ago, I could enjoy its vibrant tone on a daily basis, yet now Taking a quick nce to the side, the first thing that came to my view was Martha''s long, golden hair. As if generating its own currents of air, it floated gently right above her neck, coating her delicate face with its golden hue. Her eyes only pretending to be glued to the figure of the teacher that was now starting her lecture, in reality, her golden pupils were taxing me with quite an honest dose of curiosity within. After all, it was the very first time that I contacted her ever since the moment when I decided that I no longer had the right nor the reason to stand by her side. "You were told correctly. I need to ask for a favour from you." Instead of ying around with little talk, I came at the true topic of today''s meeting right away. Reaching to one of my pockets while keenly observing every move of the teacher, I passed the small package to the girl that I once hoped to go out with. "Hmm?" Humming cutely with her sweet voice, Martha didn''t press the issue, simply epting the package and waiting for my exnation. For someone who I abandoned so suddenly and decisively, she surely didn''t act as if she had any grudge about the way I cut our rtionship back then. After all, if she was naive or stupid, we would never be friends in the first ce, not to speak about forging such close rtionship that nearly half of the school already believed the two of us were a thing! "This is a petal from a certain nt that I managed to get my hands on recently. Given how I can''t really cultivate myself, I can''t test whether its proimed capabilities are correct. What I would like to ask of you, is to test in any way you wish whether this single petal really can allow one to raise their cultivation within body cleansing stage by one grade, and if it actually can do so Then set the price for it and take the burden of selling it around." As strange as it might sound to give up the potential of monopolising the profits from selling the petals from the nt that system gave me, there was no way in which I could safely liquidate it with my current means. Right now, if anyone were to ever catch us doing this deal, it could be easily exined as Martha sponsoring my family, something that I could easily name as her just returning the favour for what my family did for hers in the past. On the other hand, I couldn''t really consume all the petals that this damned flower produced. After just a single night, two were already growing out of its stem, with three more already in making. With how short this nt was, my mother had to take care of plucking the fully grown petals by herself in order to ward her new living area from the influx of magic that could kill her! "Today, I would like to announce one thing. While some of you might have already discovered it, those pieces of mint that survived the curtain and adapted to the new world can be of great help in cleansing the post-training trauma of your bodies. Given how most of you are still in the bodily cleansing realm, I don''t think I need to emphasise on how useful it might be!" Hearing the teacher''s words, I couldn''t help but feel my fury getting irked on several instances. A curtain? Just another fancy word that the world came from to soften the negative feel that the actual word that poption used to describe the even of thest year had. After all, it was way easier to exin to the kids in school that what happened a year ago and changed our world beyond any imagination was just a tiny winy curtain rather than a fully-fledged apocalypse! On the other hand, the fact that this damned young teacher just had to bring up the matter of mint, something that anyone with any brains noticed long ago, right when I was trying to sell my herb to Martha This entire idea stemmed from the fact that the herb from which those petals wereing from, indicated that the area of our house was simply too rich in magic for it to safely contain. Yet, as much as I wanted to move my mother away from the house, I couldn''t allow my parents to sell it either. In the past few weeks, the basement already proved to be my only chance atpletely curing her in the future, not to speak about changing my own future from being the ultimate andplete trash, into someone capable of travelling all the world imaginable and profiting of it! That''s why, I had to find a way to obtain enough money to buy a new ce for my parents to stay, where I could use all kinds of herbs and methods I wouldter discover that I would deem possible to keep all the magic away! But in order to do that, I needed to get quite a lot of money, something which I wasn''t able to obtain while being known to be unable to cultivate at all! "I''m sorry, but I already broke through to the body reinforcement realm, so I won''t be able to test it myself." Starting her response with an apology, Martha at least didn''t give me the petal back, but instead took it with her other hand before reaching with her now free right one towards my own fingers. Grasping my palm with her soft hand, she squeezed it lightly, as if wishing to wire all the feeling of loneliness and depression that our separation caused in her soul. For some reason, I could tell that this single moment of grasping each other''s hands server the role of an ointment on her mental scars. "But don''t worry. I will ask one of my friends to test it out. If it really proves to be effective" With her eyes momentarily moving towards the teacher, I instantly understood what this former, unofficial girlfriend of mine meant. The post-training trauma that the teacher spoke about before, was nothing else but a huge amount of impurities gathering just below the surface of one''s body. Thanks to the constant efforts to improve, one would then proceed to carefully and violently wash his body, in an attempt to clean those impurities away. Sadly, most of the time, most of that inner dirt would remain, making it so that any further attempts at training would only bring an adverse effect. By lessening these phenomena thanks to rxing and cooling one''s body down, mint, especially this magically improved one, was often regarded as a go-to herb for anyone practising within the body cleansing realm. In short words, it was used as the most important herb that could help one skyrocket through the ranks of a body cleansing! Something that was strangely close to what I was currently offering to this girl, who outside of dealing with her social life as the queen of the school in terms of beauty, influence and the sheer talent, had to also present herself as the heir to a corporation that my father created and sold to her family when the bills for my mother''s healing therapies started to rack up! Chapter 7: Medium-difficulty Chapter 7: Medium-difficulty "Hey, listen" A single look at the clock hanging on the wall of the ssroom was enough to confirm that the lesson was quicklying to an end. Yet, instead of making sure that no one would take the time for when we were close for nothing but a sheer coincidence, Martha actually grasped the fingers of my hand even tighter. "I know that you don''t want to attract attention, but with my protection, you would bepletely safe. Why don''t you be one of my followers? I know you would have to swallow your pride and all But isn''t being with me worthy of such sacrifice?" For this one, single moment, I could once again see the girl that I fell in love with in Martha''s eyes. Her face no longer bore the expression that her family forced her to train her entire life. Her gaze was no longer only pretending to be warm while retaining its ultra-cold aspect. The girl that was squeezing my hand right now, was the same lovely tomboy that explored the ruins with me back when we were kids, the same adorable airhead with her naive look at the world, the same starking beauty that Martha became in her high-school years But the world around us didn''t change. Even if Martha were to keep this honest expression that she dared to reveal to me right now, as soon as the lesson would be over, her followers would instantly surround her. Her protection? I wasn''t that naive to believe it. Martha''s position in this new world was simply too high for anyone to be kind enough to not take the risk of removing me from the picture if they sensed that I would be a threat to their positions. No, as lovely the idea of being with Martha was, as insanely pleasant and warming it was to hear her openly propose something like this, something that would never happen with how shy she was about her feelings just a year ago It was nothing but a pipe dream of a naive kid. Sadly, I could no longer share this adorable naivety. Not with my family to take care off, not with the system waiting for me in the basement and not with how fragile the current improvement of my mother''s health was. "I''m sorry." Just like Martha timed her confession to happen just before the end of the lesson in order to put me against the wall and hopefully force the decision that she was looking for out of me, I was capable of doing the same. Speaking up right before both of the clock''s arrows aligned with each other, I could only watch with my heart bleeding how the sound of the school''s bell-ringing stopped Martha from responding or attempting to stop me from leaving. "It was an honour to be able to sit beside such a great person, an honour I''m not worthy of. If you would now excuse my pathetic presence" Now that all the eyes in the ssroom could finally analyze every single movement and word that would fall out of our mouth, I quickly dressed up the usual attire of the subservient trash that was perfectly aware of his ce in the new world. Backing off, I managed to leave the immediate vicinity of the VIP persona, before turning around and quickly pressing towards the doors. This was one of the technique that those several months that I lived in this new world without the hope steeming from my system forced me to learn. To move naturally, without any visible hurry, yet to actually cover the desired distance faster than anyone else. It was only thanks to this technique that I managed to escape the ssroom and hide in one of the corridos. From my now safe position, I could watch how a group of school''s thugs quickly emerged from behind the doors, looking around in hopes of locating the one who dared to inflict his person on the sanctity of the school''s queen. If simping was a gue before the apocalypse, then this damned change of times allowed those idiots to prove that no simp was true simp before. Donating money to have their name spoken on the stream? How about beating a guy to the border between life and death just because he dared to sit beside the girl they liked and were never bound to even talk with? Thankfully, outside of the herbalism lesson today, there was no more interesting subjects that I was willing to spend my time on. By cleverly manoeuvring around thebyrinth that the school corridors and rooms were, I managed to free myself from anyone that was interested in following me, before departing the school grounds in the direction exactly opposite to where my house was. Only after I moved a considerable distance away from the school did I start taking turns, taking a huge detour just to make sure I could arrive at my doorstep without anyone following me. After all, the moment when my bullies would learn where I live, they would just wait for me there instead of trying to chase me around. And if during their wait they were to get bored and decide to take their anger on my family Just the thought of this happening was enough for my wrist to heat up a bit. Forced to calm myself down in order to stop the ring that blocked my cultivation froming off as an emergency measure I took a few breaths before resuming my long journey back home. By the time I finally managed to return, I couldn''t help but just stay at the door, unable to move an inch. Just by opening the doors to my house I could see and feel the insane change that happened to it over the few hours that I was away. While there were still a lot of dirty and untidy spots, just the fact that the windows were wide open, allowing the sun to prate deeply into the rooms and corridors made an insane work to change the atmosphere within the ce, not to speak about the obvious effort that most likely my father has put into cleaning the ce. "Oh, you are back! How was school?" Right off the bat, the voice of my father weed me. Still stunned, I took a few steps inside and just like that, saw this formerly useless parent of mine working over the pot in the kitchen with a small knife in one hand and a half-peeled potato in the other. "Day like everyday. I wille to help in a moment, just let me throw my stuff to the room." Right now, as happy as I was to see my father regain his will to live, I couldn''t focus on enjoying my renewed, daily life. I was perfectly aware that the current happiness that rejuvenated this household was something that I fully owed to my system. And the only way to ensure that it would be taken from me just like that was getting involved with that system more and more! "Sure, I would use some help with the potatoes!" Raising my hand as I moved past the entry to the kitchen, I quickly descended down the stairs leading to my basement. Only once the doors of my private space closed behind me could I feel safe and calm once again. Throwing my backpack to the corner, I sat down in the only valuable piece of furniture in the entire basement - my gaming chair. Stretching my legs and hands alike, I just remained on it for a moment, before finally calling out. [System, wake up.] ording to all my experiences so far, there wasn''t really any form ofmand that I was required to use n order tomunicate with my system. As long as I voiced them out properly, the system would react. [System is now online.] [Gate to a new world can be now opened.] [Do you wish to open the gate?] This was the standard moment. By saying no, I could return to any of the worlds that I already conquered. By epting the inquiry, my doors would switch from leading to the rest of my house to opening a way into yet another unknown ce somewhere in the multiverse. [System, open the gate please.] As much as I was willing to return back to that kingdom I saw thest time to obtain more of that herb they gave me, not only I had no money or valuables to trade the locals with, there was no denying that the majority of the work was actually done by the nt that system rewarded me with for finishing the mission. That''s why, instead of wasting the time in both worlds - as the time freeze no longer applied after the world was conquered - I decided that striving to conquer some more would be a better idea. [Choice!] [Host can choose between an easy and medium level world.] [Picking medium level world will allow to develop host first-ss status.] [Reminded! Host does not own thenguage pack for medium difficulty worlds!] At first, this novelty made me hesitate But that moment of self-doubt didn''tst that long. In the very next moment, I stood up from my chair and ced my hand on the door''s handle. "I pick the medium difficulty world!" Chapter 8: The desert Chapter 8: The desert With not even the slightest idea of what I could expect from that new world that the system would open for me, I had no other choice but to go all in. Dressing myself as if I were to visit the deadly hot desert, I continued to add more and more clothing all the way to the point where I could be confident to survive in cial coverednds. Filling my backpack with both food and water necessary to survive any reasonable amount of time in any of the environments that I could potentially face, I quickly finished my preparations before standing in front of the doors. "Here goes nothing" I would lie if I were to im that I wasn''t worried about what awaited me on the other side. So far, all three worlds that I visited were on the easy level, and as expected - they didn''t pose any challenge for me to ovee. Yet now, I was about to enter a world on an entirely different level. And only by actually entering it I would have a shot at learning what was the gap between the levels that the system provided me with. I pushed the doors open and stepped through the threshold. As soon as I appeared on the other side, the natural event happened. The doors that I used to transport to another world disappeared behind my back, leaving mepletely stranded in what could be only described as a foreign and pretty unweing world. "Fuck It''s so hot" In one instant, I took down most of the clothes that I wore, thanking the whatever god that existed for blessing me with enough foresight to dress in the way I did. Only once just my shorts and light t-shirt remained on top of my body I could feel that my sweating started to slowly subside. A desert. That was the simplest way to describe thendscape that surrounded me. As far as my eye could see, nothing but huge hills made out of nothing but strange, orange sand could be seen. But soon enough, with just a single gust of wind, I learned that it wasn''t actually the case. This wasn''t a simple dessert. This was a desert that covered the ruins of what had to be once an advanced civilisation of some sort! With the sand moving in waves, prompted by the local winds, I could see some elements made of what looked like concrete. After moving towards one of the elements that I spotted, I realised that they bore huge marks of being burnt by something, yet even despite those scares - the general skeleton of the building remained generally the same. "Strange" By this point, in the easy worlds, the system would already announce both the name of this world and what would be my objective of clearing it. Yet, in my current case, it didn''t happen. "I guess that''s already a part of this world being of medium difficulty" That was the easiest exnation that I coulde up with. With no information regarding what I was supposed to achieve in this world, the difficulty of the tasks skyrocketed already, even if the true task itself wasn''t something hard to achieve at all in the first ce. "Just what the heck am I supposed to aplish here?" Asking myself without expecting an answer, I noticed a small opening within the concrete wall of the building that I was currently scouting. Judging by the way it wasid out, I could only guess that it was created by some blunt object smashing through the wall at an insane speed. While it made me wonder how the heck the rest of the building could survive such a hit, I simply had no other ideas to exin the nature of the hole. But there actually wasn''t any point in finding that out. Since there was a hole in ce, nothing was stopping me from entering the building! Ignoring all the clothes that I left in the dust of the open desert - they were cheap ware from one of the second-hand shops that I learned to love ever since I was graced with my basement system - I slipped inside the building. Thankfully, while moving through this hole awoke all the deepest loads of ustrophobia that I had stored in my psyche, the journey itself wasn''t that long for me to start freaking out. "What the hell It should be impossible" With the dust of the desert still tightly covering all my clothes and easily finding ways to prate even in the ces where no man would want anything of foreign nature to ever be present, I couldn''t even begin to understand how the heck the insides of this building were almostpletely devoid of any signs of sand. But it was the insides of this building that made me think that this world wasn''t a ce that I visited through my system, but something that my mind decided to produce in my dreams. A shop. That was the first idea that came to my mind when I attempted to name this ce. But not a shop that one could see on earth. While the shelves were present, instead of holding the weight of the product that this ce offered, they were filled with holograms of the wares cast by a set of small projectors present in each row. This itself was already a wonder that I doubted that I could see anywhere on earth, but what was even more important, was that all the doors within this ce were already in a state ofplete decay! For once, it allowed me to learn that while most of them were reinforced with some kind of still glistering metal, the pieces of half-rotten wood that remained on some of the metallic structures proved that in general, in their good times those doors most likely were exactly the same as the ones that I could easily find on earth! "Oh my" Stepping into the shop, I found out that only a small portion of the images created by the holo-projectors actually shown something that I could identify. For example, a shining rectangle with a set of several icons surrounded by a ck outline. A smartphone one would say in a normal situation, yet the fact that this entire item was actually just a projection within a projection cast by what looked like a small bracelet proved that before whatever turned this world into a desert, this ce was far more technologically advanced than earth that I knew! "Don''t tell me" Looking around, I quickly managed toe up with the idea of how this shop worked. While the wares weren''t present directly on the shelves, once I approached what looked like a cashing area, aplicated set of conveyors revealed itself to my eyes. With my curiosity piqued, I quickly to follow the trace of those conveyors. Even though some of them were clearly broken, it didn''t hinder me from finding out just where the heck those conveyors had their source. And it was there, where I found my first obstacle. Or rather, something that would be an obstacle in the times of greatness of this shop. The hole in the concrete wall that this conveyor prated was way too small for me to fit through. With some oil or some other slimy liquid, I could maybe attempt squeezing my arm through the opening. But there was absolutely no point in doing so, as right next to the conveyor''s hole, a set of broken doors were present. "Let''s try it" Given how my cultivation already elevated my strength to the heights impossible to achieve by a normal human, I approached the decayed doors, cing my hand on their metallic structure. With how the metal still managed to shine despite the obvious years that had to pass since thest person came to visit this ce, I expected anything from the metallic skeleton being as tough as tungsten that I learned about on earth to being soft like a decarbonated iron. What I didn''t expect though, was that under just the slightest touch of my hand, the entire metallic skeleton of the doors simply broke apart into a myriad of pieces, turning into the same type of the orange sand that I saw outside of the building! As surprised as I was by this event, it wasn''t something that I would protest or be worried against. While I expected way greater challenges from this medium-difficulty world than what I encountered so far, I wasn''t the type of person to protest when the world was clearly helping me out. Yet, instead of confidently stepping inside, I started by taking a random stone that found its way into the former store and throwing it inside. "zk habrain aterio!" In one instant, the insides of the room that was formerly blocked by the doors all lit up, with a strange drone-like machine suddenly flying up towards the stone that I threw Only to quickly turn into the orange sand and fall apart just like the metal of the doors I touched a moment ago! Even with this drone-like thingy now gone, the lights still remained in the room, allowing me to peek at what it contained. "Dear god How could this world ever be imed to be of a medium difficulty?!" Chapter 9: Scavenger Chapter 9: Scavenger The entire inner room that was hidden behind this faulty door, was filled with all sorts of insane items. Or in the current situation, I should be rather calling them the artefacts of the civilisation lost. Stacking one against the other on the shelves, the way in which everything was ced allowed to quickly scan the state of this tight warehouse. With so many items in store, something simply had to work! Fighting down the excitement in my soul, I took a few deep breaths before slowly stepping into the room. Despite all the dry decay that surrounded it, this ce was somehow clean. Unless this entire civilisation was wiped down just a few moments before my appearance in this world, then I couldn''t find any way to exin how could this room remain so neat and tidy. Only after making sure that no other unhappy surprises awaited me inside, I finally dared to ce foot in this treasure trove of a way more advanced civilisation than anything that I ever saw even in movies. Taking a short stroll amongst the shelves, I was mesmerised by the thoughts about how the worlds could differ so much. Running my finger against the simple, steel shelves that decorated the room, I finally allowed myself to stay down for a moment. "Amazing" Right in front of me, I could see an orderly row of the bracelets that I noticed before. Most of them was still covered in some kind of protective screen, just like one''s new smartphone would have its screen wrapped in special, thin stic foil. Even in this kind of details, the civilisation of this world was aeons above my homnd. Instead of using this material extensively, there was only the minimal amount of this thin, see-through stic-like substance. Yet, it seemed like this protection didn''t work at all. Nearly as soon as I reached forth with my hand and grabbed one of those bracelets from the shelf, a strange wind hit my back. For a moment, that was the only thing that I felt But then it happened. Swirling in the air, the orange sand that this thing I saw before turned right after its appearance instantly rushed towards my fingers. With how tiny the pebbles were and how a rtively small amount of this sand was created out of the thing I saw before, nothing really happened to me. It was as if someone threw a handful of dry sand at my hand while ying by the shore of the sea. But what happened in the next instance, baffled me. The clock that I was just holding, shed for a moment. Right after that, it was hit with the wave of the tiny, orange sand. And even before I could react in any way, the entire item broke apart into a small amount of the same, orange sand. This scene by itself wasn''t all that much shocking. It was pretty simr to what I saw just a few moments ago, so there should be no reason to be bothered by it? No, it wasn''t the events that I saw urring that scared me. It was the implication that this conjecture projected on the reality of this world. If everything that was somehow rted to the civilisation of this world would turn into this sand, and this sand would most likely be attracted to anything of that destroyed civilisation Once I thought about it, I realised that I was most likely in the middle of a graveyard of the civilisation. In its the literal sense. Seeing how quickly the process of turning the bracelet into the sandsted, I could see how the entire world could copse in a matter of a few moments. And I couldn''t help but shiver when I dared to think about what this sand could do to me. "Fuck" Sensing a shrill travelling down my spine, I gnashed my teeth against each other. A ''medium'' difficulty world, right? Now it was starting to make sense Yet, standing in the literal middle of one of the only areas that weren''t overwhelmed with the ocean of the sand, I could momentarily calm myself down. So far, the system provided me with exactly the things that I most longed for. Unless it was all a scam, a typical prince from an African country that turns out to be your distant cousin, and eager to send you a few millions only after you send him a few thousand for the tax fees. But it didn''t feel like it. Ever since I appeared in this world, I had this distant itch, urging me to do something. An itch that no matter how much I tried, I couldn''t scratch. But once I started looking at the sand and the items ced on the shelves Struck with a sudden idea, I took one of the few items that remained in my backpack. Gloves. After cing the cover of a natural skin of the fabric made from before the apocalypse, I once again reached towards the same product that I attempted to grab before. And this time, nothing happened. If my conjecture was right, then this strange bracelet would only activate upon the direct contact with a human''s skin. Doing so, would most likely turn it on, which would, in turn, attract the orange sand. And given the two examples from before, I was quite sure what would happen if those two things met. But there was one thing that I could do, that could potentially provide me with quite a lot of information. Shaking my head, I gently ced the item back on the shelf before moving back to the main hall of the building. From there on, I spent quite a long time looking around before I found what I wanted. The single thing that kept working. A single piece of equipment that unknowingly was somon for me, that I somehow managed to miss it until now. The sound of venttion. After a quick research, I realised how this could happen. With the entire system split into the core that did all the work, and aplicated set of fully mechanical filters, all the sand that could damage the machinery behind the venttion would be cleaned from the system. And that meant that it was possible to avoid being affected by this sand. Even if only for the shortest moment. Satisfied with what I found, I returned back to the storage of the shop and picked up the artefact that I was interested in with my gloved hand. First, I carried it towards one of the vents that sucked all the air from the room before recing it with the fresh one. Reaching with my hand as far as I could inside the vent, I kept the item in said hand for as long as I could keep my hand up. The ongoing and quite violent cirction of the air gave me hope of cleaning all the residual sand that could somehow remain on top of the bracelet. Only then did I pick up the pace again, this time moving to one of the control rooms in the building. While obviously nothing worked in this ce already, after just a small bit of handiwork I managed to direct the flow of air from the tube into the room. After keeping it going for a few moments, I could see that nothing outside of the stuff bolted to the floor had any chances of remaining in this ce. From then on, the preparations were quite simple. An arduous journey back to the desert in order to pick my clothes up. I would have a use for them now. By the time I returned to the building, the sun was already on the verge of setting for the night. I knew that if I wanted to do something, then without any artificial light, I could entier spend the night in this world, or fail to ever aplish anything in it. And given how close I was to actually trying my idea out, I knew that there was no way I would give up now. Hauling everything that I could make any use off into the control room, I made sure to repeat the cleansing stage with every tiniest piece of cloth or equipment that I brought into the ce. I didn''t know how long would my primitive defences against the sand hold, so I wanted to be able to test as many things as I could before everything would be gone. The one only reason behind picking this particr room outside of the manoeuvrable vent beside it was the fact that it had a pretty simple door. Made out of ordinary metal, it seemed that while this sand could eradicate anything powered by the energy of this world, it was powerless against the standard methods that humanity on earth developed too. With all my preparations done, I closed those doors behind me, cutting the majority of thest bits of light that the sun would provide for me today. Using thosest few moments, I stuffed my clothes into every single piece between the door and its frame where the sand seemed to have a chance to appear. Even with all that done, I still covered it with a hefty amount of water from my backpack, hoping that even if the sand would manage to get in, it would still stick to the wet cloth. And then, to top it all off, I once again pushed the vent''s opening against the doors. With everything set in ce, I finally dared to take down my gloves. Turning towards the area where I umted the artefacts of the lost civilisation, I reached towards the same kind of bracelet that I was testing before. And then the sunpletely vanished behind the horizon. Yet I could still see everything in the room. The bracelet lit before a hologram appeared above my fingers. [Congrattions.] [Host solved the initial task] [Congrattions.] [Host obtains the ss: Scavenger] [Congrattions.] [Middle phase finished. Host can now freely return to earth.] [Congrattions.] [Medium difficulty worlds''nguage pack obtained and installed.] Looking down, I saw the hologram. It no longer contained several rows of strange hieroglyphs. Now, it was filled with the familiar letters, joining together to create clear words set in my mother''s tongue. From the top to the bottom, I could see the rows of information appearing, seemingly informing me about every single step of the processes that were happening right now. And then, it stopped. The holographic wall of text projected by the bracelet suddenly vanished, reced by a strangely pale, woman''s face. "It''s is advised to instal the framework on one''s hand for the calibration to proceed. Wee, new citizen. May the blessing of the Hasshna brighten your day!" Chapter 10: Im not a santa but OK Chapter 10: I''m not a santa but OK "Here goes nothing then" To say that I was hesitant to follow through with thisst necessary step would be a great understatement but I did it anyway. With my makeshift barriers being capable of holding the orange sand for just so long, any moment that I would waste without learning more about those items would unbearable. With the bracelet in my fingers, I quickly moved my hand into it, pushing it past my wrist joint right on top of my elbow. Sting. As soon as the circr frame of the bracelet reached the point where it touched my skin all over, a small needle seemed to cut into my body directly below the holo-projector element of the bracelet. In the next moment, the hologram changed once again, repeating a list of actions that it was taking before suddenly vanishing all-together. "Instation and calibration finished. Enjoy your new holobra!" With yet another appearance of that pale, female face, the tip of the bracelet shone with a strange light for a moment before it finally disyed something I was at least a bit familiar with. A menu. After a few moments of trying my chances, I finally learned that just by sweeping my hand or even a single finger over what was showing on the hologram, I could turn the disy to another screen with an entire new set of applications and predefined usages. "Skill diagram." This option was what instantly caught my interest. If I could find a way to precisely track the progress of my growth, I could easily learn where I should put more efforts in, instead of wasting my time and strength at trying to ovee the walls that were never supposed to be broken. Overexcited at the prospects of what that option could mean for me, I quickly tapped my finger against the intangible light that the entire hologram was made for And I nearly lost my consciousness. Not because of some kind of shock that travelled through my body so that this bracelet could ssify and rate my skills. Nothing of that sort happened. It was just the image that was disyed alone that made all the rms go off in my mind. Because the kind of shape that the hologram disyed was simply impossible. Just like where there are those star diagrams with the distance of a specific angle away from the centre denominating the value of certain aspect, what appeared in front of my eyes was pretty simr to it. That is, if someone brought that diagram, turned it from two dimensions to four, and then added several modifications to make it even harder to look at. Thankfully, after a few moments, my brain stopped revolting at the idea of looking at those impossible shapes. It seemed that after the initial shock, it grew immune to this sighting as if marking it as just a conceptual graphic one could find on the inte. But what was important right now, was that I had now a full outlook at what my stats looked like! "Primitive cultivation - level 1-3" "Athletism - level 5" "Perception - level 7" Those three were the ones that instantly caught my attention. While I could exin the athleticism part with all those years worth of efforts that I gave in my pursuit of a sports-rted career, while that ''primitive cultivation'' part was pretty obvious once I rated the currently known stages with numbers but where the hell did that insane spike at perception part came from? Crack. The sound of some kind of material breaking forced me out of my current daze. Taking a quick look at the part of the wall made with some kind of see-through material, I could see a small, orange storm violently rushing against the sturdy building material. Regretfully, while the walls and what seemed to be a window could easily ward off against this kind of pressure, the same couldn''t be said about the loosely protected gaps in the doors. "I need to bring it back to earth quickly" With the system announcing that I somehow passed the first phase of the mission, I was now free to move between the worlds at any time I would require. But right as the feeling to instantly call the system and return to the basement with those newly acquired items of mine appeared in my mind I realised that doing something like this would be a sign of utmost stupidity and carelessness that in a bad scenario, could end the entirety of life on earth. Because what if there was this tiniest possible piece of the orange sand stuck to the equipment I brought in a way that made it impossible to affect it, but given enough time and shaking, it could fall off? WIth what I have seen this orange sand to be capable of doing, I had no courage to risk the wellbeing of the entire earth just to y around with that new toy of mine. "Hey dear system, I was a good boy. I washed my hands after meals, I didn''t swear all that much and I helped the olddies across the streets With that, could you maybe give me some way to safely move this stuff away from this world?" Putting my hands together as if I was praising to something or someone, I stood still for a moment, before the dire straits that I was in forced me back to reality. "I guess I won''t have any further use for you" In the end, no matter how great this item was and how much more I could learn from it, I wasn''t willing to bring doom to the entire just to have another toy to fiddle with! [Hidden quest fulfilled] ["Protector of the homnd" title granted] [Quest "I''m not a Santa but OK"pleted] [Rewarding - cleansing gate] [Cleansing gate - an attribute of the world''s portal that removes any harmful elements and weapons from the host presence during the transfers between the worlds.] For a moment, I just stood frozen in ce. For the system toe up with this kind of solution and not even demand anything in return? While this sounded quite fishy, the rate at which the number of cracks that I could hear continued to grow, I had no time to waste over this. "I want to return." Saying those words in apletely normal rate, I took a quick look at the items behind me. Even if this room would soon turn into another mayhem of orange sand, nothing was stopping me from returning here with more, special items prepared to secure the room properly. Once I would test the waters with just this bracelet alone, I would be free to return here and im any item that I could bother to find in this world! Crack. But for now, I had to move. Taking a few steps forward, I ced my hand on the door''s handle. By doing so, the diagram with my abilities once again came to my view. "So that''s where that perception spike was from" Seeing yet another sharp element of this multi-dimensional diagram, I wasn''t naive enough to be unable to connect the dots. First, the system awards me with a title and then, suddenly my endurance skyrockets from measly four points to eleven? Crack. Unwilling to risk it any further, I pressed the doors open, instantly stepping over the threshold and returning back to the safety of my basement. Now, what else could I learn from this strange bracelet? Chapter 11: Invasion Chapter 11: Invasion One could think that after returning from an apocalyptic world with an item that could possibly give me an insane amount of information and insight, I wouldn''t even think about doing anything beside exploring its ins and outs. And yet, as soon as Iid my feet on the floor of my basement, the hologram vanished from the sight, remaining as nothing but a simple, cheap bracelet. Thinking about this now, if this was the general level of craft used to make this item, then I could only wonder what would the better models be capable of. But once again, instead of taking my time to explore it, I quickly changed back to the normal clothes, hid all the giveaways of my otherworldly expeditions and Went upstairs to help my father peel the potatoes. Compared to the wonders of the worlds lost, the chance to spend some time with my family like back in the good, old days There was no way my priorities would be that shifted for me to bother with some toys right now! After helping my father in the kitchen, my light and feeble steps took me towards the back area of the house, where the garden was located. And there, my mother Crack. This moment felt like if my vision shattered in several pieces, right before reassembling itself back together. Without any hint or giveaway, the sudden tingle of my spine was all I required to understand that something wrong was going on. Most likely, it was my heightened guardbined with my recently improved perception. That is, that''s what I thought while my body softened up, making me fall to my knees. "Deploy!" This one word was what started the mayhem. Right as my eyes moved away from the startled face of my mom, looking at me with her happy, innocent smile, I noticed the grenade. But not something as simple as the legendary frag, something that with enough effort I could defend against. It was the new form of emp grenade. BANG! The same object that attracted my eyes suddenly exploded with a sh of light. Before I could react, the time suddenly seemed to slow, quickly losing out its momentum. All the way to the point where everything turned stale. "What''s happening" I definitely attempted to open my mouth and voice my doubts, but despite the sound going off in my mind, no sound escaped my lips. "Detected medium-high energy pulse. Deploying shields. Deploying standard prevention mode." This time, that pale, female face didn''t appear. Instead, my vision turned slightly blurred, as if someone poured a thick creme on my eyes. "Early-warning concluding in 3, 2, 1" For some reason, I instantly understood what was going to happen now. Using up all my determination, I rushed forward. Just in time to see the first of the invaders kicking the doors of my family house open. What the heck! So far, everything that I did, I did in order to save myself an intervention from any of the newly emerging, powerful factions. With the suddendder on which people could climb to the great heights, every bit of the scarce resource would attract their attention and quick response. But how? The school? No. With all my fake friends distancing themselves from me and after cutting my ties with those who were true friends of mine, I remainedpletely alone. My family couldn''t report anything either, as nothing about the two of them staying cupped in the house has changed. That meant there was only one person that could cause trouble for me. One particr person that knew something that others didn''t about me, and that I dissatisfied recently. But thinking about this, there was simply no way for it to be the case. Casting away my shady thoughts that would dishonour me and my entire ancestry if I ever bothered to care about it, I shook my head. There was no point in figuring that out. All that mattered was to protect his family, for whatever the cost. A simple hit. Just stretch your arm to the back, before pushing it forward as fast as you can right into the skull of the enemy. It didn''t work, then do it again. Despite all my physical training, I never really practised killing. No matter what my coach from the times of systema said, there was a difference in smashing one''s fist in a huge piece of meat and doing the same against a real person. Yet, in the ongoing situation, I simply had no fucking way to care about such minute details. Using all my power while strictly following the principles beaten into me by that sadist who called himself a teacher, I allowed my wrist to execute the attack instead of relying on the entire arm. As if forcing the nail while swinging a small hammer, my knuckles connected with chest of one of the invaders. CRASH! Instantly thrown aside, the man didn''t stop even after making several steps to the back. Before anything else could happen, his mouth filled with blood. Right after that, he was already resting with his hand against the wall, trying to calm his insides. For a moment, the entire area froze. This development had to be as unexpected to those attackers as it was to me. Sadly, the time''s mood was fickle, quickly forcing everyone back to reality. "We have wounded!" Once again, just this single sentence changed the world around me. In one instant, the atmosphere filled with gunshots. Instead of the standard tra-ta-ta of the old-school weapons, the bullets were whistling by my ear whit the sound closer to "li, li, li" like someser sters from sci-fi movies. Unable to face such an onught, I jumped to the back And that turned out to be my end. Instantly pinned to the ground at the moment when all my limbs were away from the earth - a rookie mistake - I suddenly found myself under a huge mountain of meat in form of three masked mercenaries thatid right on top of me. "The target is secured." Using the moment of silence when I first attacked, those three most likely found a way to nk me. Failing to spot them would most likely turn into my greatest mistake. Yet, right now, I only had one thought in my mind. "Mother" Still pinned by the mercenaries and hardly capable of squeezing any bit of air from my lungs, I gargled on my own saliva, nearing the border of consciousness. But then, I saw her. Surrounded by what had to be a hail of the bullets, thanks to a god''s intervention, no ss directly between her and the attackers had any holes in it. Her face while stunned, was just as healthy as someone barely recovered from a powerful illness could have. "Where is the nt?" In the same moment when I allowed a speck of home to be born in my soul, the words of the mercenary tightly squeezed this me out of existence. Chapter 12: Saviours? Chapter 12: Saviours? "Who are you?!" While my voice sounded a bit more desperate than what I desired, it still came off rather okay when considering what the hell was going on. "Shut up. Where is the nt?!" Instantly stopping my attempts to learn just what was happening, the man that now stood above me threateningly reloaded his weapon. Seeing the shell falling down before my nose, sent a shiver down my spine. As far as I was willing to go to protect my regained happiness and family, it didn''t mean that the thought of just dying here like a dog didn''t scare me. To be more precise, if only my body would stop tensing so much, I would surely have already made a nice, glistering pool below me. "What nt, what do you want?" The tension of the situation didn''t drop even for a moment. For the first time, ying obedient and nice didn''t work how I expected. But given how I was against invaders with unrified purpose instead of people that couldn''t really bother with me, it was no wonder that those soft protection techniques failed to achieve their objective. "The n that you attempted to sell. Where it is?!" Finally revealing the true intention and dooming a huge part of my heart to darkness, the same man put a barrel to my head. "In the garden." If I would die here, then it would be the end. I would be powerless to do anything for my family. Right now, I simply had no chance against a group of disciplined and well-armed mercenaries. "Pull him up." Unable to even straighten myself up, two of the men that previously pinned me down to the ground suddenly rose up and grabbed me below my arms. Instead of helping, they actually had to drag me behind with how it felt as if my body ceased to function. "Which one?" This question mischievously once again sparked a tinies me of hope in my heart. If they didn''t really know what they were looking for, then maybe I could make them take the nts given to me by the king? Using all my willpower to stop any emotions outside of desperation from appearing on my face, I used all the remaining energy in my body to swing my chin a bit. "This one" Pretending to be weak and powerless. That was thest of the soft techniques that I could use in this situation. And from the looks of it, there was a chance that it worked. Reaching towards the nt that I gestured with my chin at, one of the mercenaries took a closer look at it, before turning towards the clear officer of the unit. "This seems to be right." In one moment, the atmosphere in the entire area changed. Everyone suddenly dropped their weapons, as if this was some kind of unfunny reality show with film crews stuck to every single crevice in the building. But that was obviously not the case. "Sir, now that we confirmed it" Clearly attempting to report something, one of the mercenaries started to speak, only to stop as rapidly when silenced by the officer''s raised hand. "No, what we will do" This time, before the officer could finish his words, a strange thing happened. After a slight ''plop'', the man turned a strange look on his face, before starting to lose control over his stability. By the time his body was falling to the ground, I could see a red rose blossoming where his heart was. "What the" Form that moment, everything happened simply so suddenly. Almost all at once, most of the mercenaries suddenly shook, before looking at each other with a look of shook and panic in their eyes, before the light would be forever gone from their pupils. The rest was over right in the next moment. As if falling from the skies, a group of uniformly looking men wearing the trusty uniforms of the army descended on the heads of the remaining invaders. In but a one moment, everything was over. "Mom!" Feeling an insane relief when seeing the colours of my country, for the first time since the apocalypse happened I regained the faith in the g. In this one moment, I suddenly started to regret all those stupid remarks about how the country was long gone in the faction war between basically everyone. Maybe there was still something to this white predator spreading its wings while wearing a golden crown. For the first time in my life, I truly felt what the freedom embodied within this symbol of a crowned eagle meant, in its truest form. Finally free to move, I only managed to nod my head to the soldiers that so suddenly descended from the skies before lunging towards my mother Only to get pinned down to the ground even faster than when it was done by the mercenaries from before. At the same time, I was simply put down like a dog with paralyzer to my ass, not bothering the newly arriving force at all. "Search the location." Second by second, despite the electric waves still shaking my body, I could realise what was going on. What was even worse, instead of just taking the flower that I pointed out before, those very soldiers that I considered to be my saviours just a moment ago, were now plucking out every single herb in the entirety of the garden. In just a few moments, someone took notice of the other slightly different nt, quickly turning the single barrier that kept my mom''s safe into just another package stockpiled in the middle of the open field. "No" Barely capable of even voicing out my protest, I could only watch how in a mere instant, my mother''splexion suddenly took turn for worse. Without a single soldier or officer bothering to check on her, my mom''s eyes bloated, as if some kind of great force suddenly started to squeeze her. Ignoring the entire situation, the soldiers quickly left the scene, not bothered by the sight of suffocating woman at all. Forcibly pulling the hooks of the taser''s shoot from my bottom, I jumped towards my dying mother. What should I do? How? When? What? Stunned by the situation, I could both see and feel my mom''s body weakening "Hey, do something! Take all the energy away from here!" Shouting from the bottom of my very soul, I screamed into the god of the world. I screamed with the hope that something would happen. That a miracle would descend from the vast skies and save the person that I worked so hard to save myself. And it did actuallye. Not from the skies by any chances, but directly from the height of my arm. "Activating emergency measure, implosion. Establishing safe core" Hearing the mechanical voice of this pale female once again, I realised that I had no time to waste. Instantly throwing myself on my mom, I shielded her from what was about toe before extending my arm as far away from the two of us as possible. "Thank you for your cooperation, dear host. Please rece the used holobra at your next visit to the hole store." In one instant, an impossibly small ball of light appeared at the tip of the hologram''s projector, quickly expanding to way above two meters in diameter, enclosing me and my mom from the rest of the garden. All at once, I felt as if my lungs suddenly bloated, allowing me to take more air than a moment before. As if a pressure of the air suddenly decreased Connecting the dots, I looked down at my mother right when the sphere above us exploded outwards. In one instant, this hell came to an end. No building could stand against the force released by my bracelet. Crashing all down, even though the two of us were still in the garden, just the sheer power of the explosion was enough to throw quite a few huge chunks of what used to be our house at us. Shielding my mother as tightly as I could, I felt as if my back turned into one of the beaches known from the d-daynding. At some point, I wouldn''t lie by iming that my back caught fire, burning for a short moment before the next wave of pressure from the dposing building put it down. And then, it was over. From the few hints that I could see, it seemed as if no person anywhere the building had any chances of escaping the disaster. Just by knowing that my father was in there, watching the boiling pot with potatoes when all hell broke loose Before any prior warning, my mind was overwhelmed with guilt. My father was most likely in the building, a building that copsed solely because of what I did. But before this thought could break my soul, I realised that there was still one more important person right beside me. Opening my arms and raising my body, I could see the slightly open eyes of my mother. Still moving, even if only ever-so-slightly. "Krist" For a short moment, my mom''s lips moved as she spelt my name. Feeling how weak she was right now, I realised that it was myst moment. Myst moment to say goodbye to her. "I will be okay, mom. I will be" Finding her hand and giving her fingers a delicate squeeze, I felt a wave of rebellion suddenly shaking me awake. "No. I won''t be okay. Mom, hang on! Just for a little longer, just for the shortest of moments!" Chapter 13: Determination (end of the prologue) Chapter 13: Determination (end of the prologue) Never in my life have I expected that throwing pieces of building away could be so hard. When hearing about the disastrous news of earthquakes all over the world, I always found it hard to imagine why people buried under the ruble didn''t attempt to escape with their own power. It just seemed impossible for me to be unable to open some holes and squeeze through them. And yet, even with my current position of being at the top of the ruins instead of being trapped beneath them, I had to admit that this task didn''t belong to the rank of simple ones. Even with my body reinforced with the low level of my cultivation and all the bonuses I got from the system, just to push one of the big pieces that blocked my way away, I spent nearly half a minute! Half a minute that my mother was awaiting my return on the verge of death. After finally throwing the piece of concrete away, I finally managed to reach the area with smaller pieces. Throwing them behind me, I continued to dig in a single spot all the way to the point when I finally reached a small hole. Even though its bottom part was still blocked by some more ruined pieces of what used to be my home, just the knowledge that I was nearing my target was enough to add some life to the spark of hope burning in my soul. Bit by bit, I continued to dig my way through the stairs, finally clearing the way after at least two more minutes. In a normal situation, this would be an achievement worthy of praise, but for me, it was the race with the death itself. Finally passing by the doors to the insides of my basement, I mmed them back while still running inside, only to turn around on my heel and scream. "Open the world!" Not even sure if that would work, I could only hope. Throwing myself at the doors, I pushed them open with just the sheer weight of my body Only to fall on a soft patch of fresh grass. I never attempted having two worlds open at the same time. I didn''t even know if using this kind of order would result with what I wanted. [Name of the world: ARC4D14] [Level of the world: medium] [Mission: Obtain "Dragon''s seed"] [Time freeze: three weeks, four days, two hours and fifty-nine minutes.] Thankfully, I wasn''t thrown back to the apocalypse. Not only I didn''t dare to waste the time freeze remaining for that world, but most importantly - all the tools that I could find there clearly used some kind of energy to operate. Given how my mother was unable to absorb even its tiniest bit, I honestly doubted that those otherwise great tools could be of any real use. The onest bet was to move in to another world, and either obtain an item capable of saving my mother as a local reward, or at least hope for the system to do a good job with its own reward. After all, even if I were to fail to obtain the necessary items in one world, I could jump to another one right after! But the most important thing about my current situation was that I couldn''t back down at all. Even if I were to fail any of the worlds, I would still have to take a few seconds on earth in order to jump back into yet another world. The same case applied to a situation where I would run out of the time freeze. After all, each second that moved on the earth, meant one second less that my mother would have left to live. "Okay then." Fueled by my relentless desire, I moved back to my feet. Raising up, all I could see was an endless ocean of the green. While the first two worlds that I visited were filled with the insane natural beauty of the world, this was something that simply didn''t exist on that scale in any of the words that I have visited so far. For a slightest of the moments, the whistling of the wind alone managed to calm me down and tune my thoughts off. Only for all my feelings to return in the very next second. "I will save her" Tightening down my knuckles, I moved forward. Step by step, I continued to traverse the vast expanse of the grass, with seemingly nothing else avable in any other direction. Even the sun, as if some kind of fake, didn''t seem to move at all in the skies, always shining directly from above my head. With no shadows to direct my steps or at least ensure that I was moving in a single direction, I could feel that the road before me could turn to be far more annoying than any of the problems I have faced so far in all the worlds I visited. But as long as I could obtain a method to save my mother, I would not give up! Chapter 14: I am a selfish woman Chapter 14: I am a selfish woman It''s been three months since the attack at my house. In the real world, or how I started to call the earth in order never to settle in any of the worlds that I travelled, maybe a few seconds passed. Without the exact knowledge when does the timer starts and stops, I could only guess how long all my changes of the world took in total. But I was perfectly aware of how much time I spent on my lone and umon journey. Yet, even after three months spent in the other No. After three months of constant failure, I didn''t dare to give up. Not giving myself even a single moment of rest, I only provided for the absolute minimum necessary for my body to keep going, fueling everything else with just my determination alone. Sadly, this way of powering myself could onlyst so long. And what was even worse, it seemed to force the initial emotion that drove me to fade away. I never considered myself to be a strong man. Most of my life was blessed and I was fully aware of that. Given my sports talents and quite a lot of synapses in my brain, I never really faced any problems that could toughen me up. That''s why I feared the moment when I would be just too tired to care anymore. The moment when I would just ept the fact that my mother was on the verge of dying and I could do nothing to change that. The rewards from the system for finishing the worlds were great But it seemed that the times when the system provided me with what I wanted were gone along with my family house. No matter how hard I tried, nothing seemed to have even the slightest chances of working. Weighting a sack filled with the coins from one of the previous worlds in my hand, I marched into the side alley of the city I was currently visiting. If the information was urate, I would have a chance to obtain something that could finally solve my problems. There was a chance that an item that I sought for with all my power for so long already There was a chance that I could obtain it. Moving past the locals while ignoring their curious gazes that befell me ever since I entered the city, I followed the steps of the map that I kept open in my mind. One of the funny features of exploring new worlds with the basement System inc. I could almost feel as if the next reward would be a ticket for some kind of gatcha game. And there it was. Just a few steps away, a shabby looking shack was located. The first thing that came to my mind when I saw it, was an awe that this city was tolerant enough for this murder on architecture to exist. Yet, despite how the shop looked like, there was still a small queue behind its doors. Unwilling to spark some troubles now that I was so close to finding a way to rescue my mother, I obediently stood at the end of the line. Judging from how it would work in the other worlds I visited so far, there would be only a single client inside the shack, while the rest would have to wait one by one for their tourn for the visit with its owner. And with how this entire ce was filled with what could only be called filth born of poverty, I was quite surprised when I found an umon figure just two people ahead of me in the queue. Before I could strike conversation Or who am I trying to fool. With how tired I was, it would be an achievement to nod my head if a beautiful woman were to offer herself to me, not to speak about something as bothersome as hitting someone up. A few momentster, my initial impression of the ce changed drastically. With a group of four exiting from the shack that couldn''t possibly fit them all, a figure of the shop clerk appeared, only for the unexpected woman to invite the next four in. Watching as the back of this strange being dressed in a fleeting yet frail dress disappeared behind the doors, I felt an itch in my heart. For the first time ever since I left the earth for the banishment to other worlds, something tingled inside me. But this feeling disappeared as quickly as it appeared. A few momentster, only two people exited from the shack, finally making it my turn when the clerk gestured at me and the one man before me in the queue. Once I crossed the doors of the pitiful shack, I realised why no one in the city dared to touch it. As if I was crossing the worlds with my basement system, instead of entering the dark depths of someir of heretic witch, what appeared before me was a reception of what looked like a warehouse? With a huge mess of workers moving different parcels from one ce to another, I felt as if I returned to those one summer holidays that I spent working as a picker in one of the simr ces. Obviously, there was a lot of interesting differences, allowing me to recognise the fact that it wasn''t my home. Instead of carts, some of the workers simply carried the parcels around but by making them float behind their backs! This was just a single element of the entire picture, yet it gave this world an indistinctive feeling. For some reason, this moving between clearly different ces was too close to what I was experiencing with my system for myfort. "How could you be so stingy!" The entire mysterious beauty that I attributed to that red individual I saw before, was now all gone. Due to how her robe? Gown? A red wedding dress was cut, I could only see her forearms when the girl mmed her hands against the reception table. "I''m sorry, dear customer, but could you please calm down?" Looking at the girl with a troubled smile, a man behind the desk appeared to be a part of the earthy cashiers. Unable to tell the truth to the customer and expected to be polite with them Only those who never worked with people could im that this kind of job wasn''t taxing. "Excuse me, sir, how could Grande Halle help you?" Catching my attention with a strangely directed sound of his voice, a man behind another desk called me towards his position, forcing me to turn my head away from the red figure. Just as the things were getting interesting "I''m looking for a material capable of repelling the magic from the area. I can push it away, it can suck it inside, I don''t care. I need something that will allow me to clear a small areapletely out of magic, and do it for a prolonged period of time." It took me a moment to remember how the locals called the same force that appeared on earth. Or rather, how the people of this world named the strange force that appeared in their past on this world, turning it on its head. Sadly, I couldn''t give any exact names. sk of Gordian, diator''s legendary pants, halftean maverisk An item that would fit my purposes could be called by those or any other of the words that I coulde up on the spot. If my information was urate, then this was the absolute best of ces to look for anything on this world. "I''m sorry sir, but those kind of items are not thatmon to find. If I may ask, what''s the budget for the operating costs?" Just like it was exined to me. Operating cost was something entirely else from the cost of the item. While Grande Halle would happily help anyone to find what they were looking for, the number of efforts and the range of their search all depended on how much one was willing to pay for their services. But with absolutely no information how far I should look for the answer, I had no choice but to improvise a bit. This is the amount I''m willing to spend on both the item and information." cing the thick sack filled with my hard-earned gold on the table, I could see how the pupils of the clerk suddenly shone in excited gleam. "Sir, I wouldn''t dare to hide such amon solution to your problem! We can help you obtain any amount of emptied power stones for just a slight fee of" Before the man could finish his sentence, a sudden force pulled me back. Turning my head around, I suddenly realised that this red being that I noticed before, was now literally pulling me by my own hand away from the reception desk! And what was even worse, the sack with my gold was already in her hand! Unable toe to terms with how this frail-looking girl could pull him around like some kind of doll, my body reacted on my own. With a sharp and sudden pull, I broke my arm free from the grasp of the girl''s hand. "Who the heck are you? Are you robbing me?" With the momentum of my attempt to leave her grip transferring to the girl''s knees, she turned around to face me for the very first time since I first saw her. If her clothing looked modest from behind, then it had nothing to do with elegance at the front. Despite that, I had absolutely no right toin, as the girl''s upper robe only pretended to hand right on top of the tips of her breasts. Her supple bust, corbone and shoulders exposed in what seemed to be the widest possible cleavage, the girl could clearly solve any possible problem with just her looks alone. That made it even stranger for her to suddenly pull me away from the shop just like that! "You would get scammed back there." Forcing me to look up with her words, this girl lured me into her greatest trap. While her nearlypletely exposed upper body was already alluring by itself, it was her face that made this meeting magical. Softly shaped in form of a delicate oval, her face consisted of just three colours alone. The tone of her skin, the whites of her eyes and red. From her supple lips, through the makeup and all the way to her eyes, only a redness prevailed. Yet, despite how easily she could create this intoxicating aura of seduction around herself, the expression of a sudden shock that appeared on her entire face when she cast her gaze into my eyes was more than I required to wake up from the dream created by her intense charm. "Hey, listen. I heard that you need a way to clean the area from magic. Looking at your state, you would make use of some healing, am I wrong?" Starting directly in my eyes, the girl raised her hand as if she wanted to caress my cheek, only to stop it a few inches away from my skin. And then, I saw red bolts of lighting suddenlying out of her fingers only to entangle with each other and disappear into the air in the very next moment. "I could teach you all sorts of stuff But I am a very selfish woman." The smuggish, confident smile on her face was all it took for me to finally give up. Not on my mother. For that, it was way too early. But on the idea of achieving literally anything without proper rest and break, And the aura that surrounded this strange, red girl was just sofortable and calming... Chapter 15: Offer Chapter 15: Offer "Excuse me, mydy, but do I know you?" I had no idea how, but this feeble girl was somehow capable of dragging me around. Literally, dragging an athletic man like me, against his will to the point where my legs left the marks in the mud of the road. No matter what was the source of her strength, this alone managed to pique my curiosity in her. "I can see the depths of your despair" Her eyes continued to prate deeply into my skull as if there was something fascinating in my face. Her full, red lips slightly parting, indicating that the girl was focusing on something. Her hand Only now did I realise that this strange young woman managed to put her fingers on top of my cheek without me even noticing that fact! Yet, instead of ring up and rising my guard For the first time in what seemed like ages, I calmed down. It wasn''t as if all the feelings that fueled my actions for the past three months disappeared. I could still feel those fires burning deep within my soul, yet, they no longer continued to consume me. Slowly retracing her fingers away from my face, the girl continued to stay in ce, looking at me with that curious expression and both surprised and satisfied smile on her lips. "First thing first, I''m d I chanced upon you before that darkness could consume your heart. Once you would allow your will to waver even once You would be a goner." Finally retracting her hand back to its natural position by her waist, the girl changed her mind about that move in its middle, reaching forth and grabbing my own hand instead. "I can tell that you have something that you desperately want to achieve. And I can tell you right away, that relying on external tools to obtain whatever it is that you wish to reach for, won''t work. Unless you im it with your own strength, you will remain a servant of the chance, always looking to free yourself from the burden of maintaining the item you would be using." Pulling her arm up, this insane girl didn''t pay any mind to how mystical her words sounded before. With one, confident move, she once again pulled on my arm, forcibly cing my palm on her corbone or rather on a red crystal of her ne that was hanging from her neck. "How cute But that proves my earlier guess." There was simply no way for someone as starved for everything that a human could desire to not get flustered in this situation. Just a few centimetres below my wrist, the girl''s corbone gave way to her supple breasts! No normal guy of my age would be calm in such a moment! "Listen." For the first time since I first saw her, the girl took on a serious expression. Letting go of my wrist, she ced her hands on my shoulders. "If you want to solve your problem, you can be a wizard like most of the men would do. But for some reason, I can tell that you don''t have several years to solve your problem. That''s why I can train you to be a witch instead." With a mischievous smile returning to her red lips, the girl finally moved away from my personal space, giving me a chance to recover from the shock that she served me just a moment ago. Taking a moment for her words to sink in my brain, I shook my head in an attempt to mix all the new information and produce some kind of reaction. "A witch? What do you mean?" Thest few trips to the different worlds already taught me one thing. Cultivation as I knew it from earth was just a tiny tip of the iceberg when it came to manipting that new form of energy. And it was quite a primitive method at that. ording to what I managed to learn, all that was actually necessary for one to use this strange energy was the intent. Materialised with forms, actions, moves or even thoughts, it was capable of cutting a small part of that free energy and changing it to make it feel some kind of purpose. But even that kind of knowledge didn''t empower me to simply guess what kind of intent was in y in that "witchcraft" that the girl mentioned. "Striking right to the point, aren''t you?" Smiling in response to my words, the girl once again grabbed my hand and instead of answering, pulled me through the streets of the city. Feeling her delicate fingers on my wrist, I couldn''t help but notice that this time, the spark that woke me up before, didn''t disappear. For some strange reason, just the presence of this girl had an insane effect on me, forcibly pulling me out of my depressed state, into one where I was ready to take any action I would deem necessary. Only after a few long whiles that took the girl to guide me towards one of the buildings in the city I understood what was going on. With how this strange female freely operated on my money-bag, relieving two golden coins at the building''s counter from their duty, I could tell that she took me to something akin to a hotel from the earth. Even though for a moment that realisation sparked some less gentlemanly ideas in my head for a moment, I wasn''t given any time to seriously consider my options. After pulling me upstairs, the girl opened one of the doors marked with some runes that I couldn''t understand if not for mynguage pack before pushing me on one chair and sitting down on another one, just across a small table. "What I can offer you for this money, is a crash-course of witchcraft, magic based on feelings. This is what struck me when I first saw you For a man, your feelings capacity is way greater than most of the females that I have seen in my life Let me put it in this way. I will help you solve your problem now, and you will owe me a favour for that. Sometime in the future I mighte to you to regain my favour. But before you start worrying, let me tell you one thing." Leaning over the table, this strange girl grabbed my chink with her hand before holding it in ce and whispering directly to my ear. "I can teach you how to save your mother. If there is just the bare minimum of time left, that is." Chapter 16: Emotions Chapter 16: Emotions I know how it would look to anyone who would ever hear the details of my current situation. Faced with a beauty that earth couldn''t put anything against, a young man got coerced or rather, seduced into some scam business. But if anyone were to believe that I could care about such second-priority things when every second passing meant that my mother was even closer to dying than ever? Right now, I was faced with a girl that not only was perfectly capable of reading up my emotions so far but even deducing the reasons behind them. Whether she did it with some kind of trick, targeted guessing or leading questions, it didn''t matter. Adding the matter of her inhumane strength, I had some valid reasons to believe that she was at least capable of potentially helping me out. Obviously, I wasn''t naive enough to believe that the gold that she took would even the deal for the two of us. While I was perfectly aware of this fact, I had no clue just what made her interested in me in the first ce. "Okay then, you im you can help me save my mother. Only when you prove you are capable of doing so, this will belong to you." While the perspective of potentially finding some kind of guide through this world was great, I wasn''t willing to just let this damned girl sweep me in her moods. Reaching forth with my hand, I managed to recover the money bag of mine from the girl''s hand without any of the expected resistance. Instead, the girl''s lips shook a bit, as if she was trying her hardest to stop the joy from appearing on her face. And I just understood that I most likely fell right in the trap that she set for me. "Great. I will ignore the fact that I presented you my qualifications for an extended period of time already. Let''s see, what should I do" Raising her frail-looking hand towards her head, the girl lovingly ced her forefinger on her bottom lip. Taking a thoughtful expression, she stalled for a moment before finally allowing for a dangerously mischievous smile to appear on her face. "Here!" I wasn''t able to react to her hand''s movement at all. I just saw her delicate fingers grabbing my wrist just like a few moments ago, only to bring my hand up and p it against the exposed part of her breasts. Given how her cloth hid only their bottom halves, I could feel my fingers sinking in the hot flesh of this insane girl. "Flustered yet?" As if something mmed me like a hammer, when I heard the girl whispering softly into my ear, the entire world around me seemed to break apart. Yet, before I could fall back on the floor, the girl''s nimble hands held up my back, all the while she leaner herself forward and ced a soft kiss on my lips. As petrified as I was, the situation wasn''t normal. No matter how tasty her full, wet lips were, no matter how engaging her soft movements made this moment, a single kiss shouldn''t be able to knock me powerless. With my hand still tightly pressed against the girl''s chest, I was slowly losing my sense of reason. And just when I thought that I reached a border of what I could handle The girl moved away. "Witches operate on feelings. Be it yours or mine. What I did right now, was using your own shock to turn its effects into physical ones. Your own magic is responsible for what''s happening right now. Try to take a few steps." Suddenly changing her tone to a serious one, this damned girl gently grabbed my hands before slowly leading me forward. For some reason, my body just gave up to hermands, unstably cing one step after the other. Still unable to focus my thoughts, I could only watch how the girl lead me to the bed and helped me sit on it. Only after a few moments during which the girl simply sat beside me and hummed some kind of tune, my mind slowly started to recover. With the rity returning to my thoughts, I shook my head to elerate the rest of the ongoing repairs to my consciousness. "Okay, I get it. You infuse the will of what you wish to happen either to your own or someone''s else magic, through the emotions. A clever way to think about this energy like that" Summing up the situation for myself in a few words, I shook my head once again before turning it towards the girl. Clearly bored with waiting for my recovery, she was already lying on her side with her knees cuddled together with her hands. A single look at her face was enough to confirm that she was either sleeping or at least pretending to do so. "But as clever as it is, I simply can''t find a way to make use of it in my priority target''s case." Lowering my head, I looked at the tips of my toes. As hopeful I got for a moment when it seemed like I could finally find some clue, I was now depressed when this opportunity turned out to be fake. "Ehh You really have no balls." Suddenly springing up from the bed, the girl caught the opposite side of my head before forcefully pulling me down to the side, right on top of her bent knees. Even though there was a barrier of her dress between my head and her soft flesh, with my eyes looking up, I saw nothing but the jiggly paradise of her chest. But the worst happened at the next moment. "Listen. As little as you might think of the witchcraft, it''s still a part of the original magic. Given what wizards are capable of achieving, a crafty witch is surely capable of doing just as much. It''s only a prototype, but this is a spell that I came out basing on the stuff that I read from your emotions." Gently brushing her delicate fingers against my face while tightly keeping it rested on herp, this strange girl leaned forward a bit, making me nowpletely unable to decide where should I focus my attention. The feeling of her heat surrounding my head? The delicate caressing of her fingertips that rxed me quicker than anything else I could ever imagine, her lively, deep eyes that looked down on me with a strange sense of caring But before I could even make this small decision, the girl moved one of her hands on top of my chest, directly above my heart. Brimming her big eyes for a moment, she appeared to be in a fully focused state. And then it hit me. A sudden wave of regret, pain, desperation. All those feelings that were on the verge of dying out due to my constant and relentless efforts. In but a single moment, all of them were brought to life, shaking my soul to its inner core. It was in the middle of this chaotic rampage of the emotions that I couldn''t control, that something clicked. As if an invisible barrier that enclosed me for my entire life suddenly broke, I could feel those emotions pouring out of me and overflowing the world around me. In this single moment, my perception degraded. I could only look around with that immense power at my hands, looking for prey that I could rip apart. But before I couldpletely lose my true self in this animalistic vision that I just had, everything ended. Drenched in sweat, I was still lying on top of this strange witch''s thighs. But something changed. Instead of gently calming me down, she was now heavily panting, barely capable of not falling down on top of me. Hanging her head and upper body low, this girl didn''t seem to care about her cleavage shoving me in the face. "Oh dear oh dear" With the silence suddenly broken by the girl eximing with a voice muffled by the hand hat she was covering her mouth with, I brought my eyes up at her face Only to see two streaks of tears flowing down from her reddened face. "I''m so sorry!" Moving at a rate too fast for me to react, this female locked her arms behind my head before swallowing my entire body in a deep and affectionate hug. Chapter 17: I found you Chapter 17: I found you It could all be an act. A diligently prepared and nned-out performance, aimed at achieving certain reactions out of me. But wasn''t that thinking way too earthy? I could never deny living through the hellish and strangely liberating feeling that this girl served me. And for some reason, her tears sinking in my shoulder while she continued to hug me tightly, didn''t seem to be fake either. Yet, as good of an impression I wanted to force myself to think I had over this girl, I couldn''t help but notice that in her overwhelming sadness, pity, worry or whatever else made her react like that There was a strange hue of excitement. "What I did, was shoving you just a small part of what would happen if you let this dark side of your soul, take over. Remember" Suddenly pulling away, this insane girl locked my head in ce with her palms before gazing deeply down my eyes. "... it was just a tiny image of what would really happen." Her hands were shaking. Her voice slightly breaking. Yet, no more tears flowed down her cheeks. Holding on to her stare with my own pupils, I was free to gaze into the depths of her soul just as well. And now I was certain. What made her body so jiggly, was a strange excitement! "Oh, you must''ve noticed it. Now that I have shown you the greater extent of what you might be capable of, let me tell you about its drawbacks." This time, this girl pulled outpletely, sitting on her knees right in front of me. "First off, it''s nice to meet you. I''m Ayda. And what I need to tell you using your own emotions in order to invoke certain effects has a cost. The more you use each, specific emotion, the harder it will be to feel it ever again. At first, the aftereffects won''t be that huge, but as the time passes, you will need to learn to limit the usage of this power, unless No, nevermind." Suddenly stopping herself from finishing a sentence, Ayda bit her bottom lip while looking tensely at my face. "Losing the ability to feel emotions Is that why you are always looking for a thrill? To feel something?" This realisation struck me out of nowhere and forced my mouth to voice it before I could even stop myself. But it made quite a lot of sense. Humans always craved for what they couldn''t have. If someone was born greatly emotional and end up losing all his known emotions, he would be sure to look for a way of recovering even a shadow of them! "That''s Well, nice job with realising that on your own." For the first tie, I saw something that could be described as a natural expression on Ayda''s face. With an uneasy smile appearing on her delicate face, it looked like my question managed to knock down the mask that she was hiding behind. And for some strange reason, that made me feel insanely at ease. As deviously and bastardly as it sounded, knowing a weak point of this girl that appeared before me in such a sudden manner No, it didn''t make me feel safer. Given her strength and unique abilities, I would have no chance against her no matter if I knew about this part or not. What this w did, was turn this girl back to a human in my eyes. She was just a girl like any other in any universe, with her own set of circumstances, targets and methods. "Okay, now. How do we start?" Shaking my head to clear it from useless thoughts, I looked up at Ayda''s face and asked. Stunned by such a sudden turn of the events, the girl had to take a moment before she would be able to speak. With the air stuck in her throat, she could only watch as I continued to attempt solving this puzzle on my own. "You invoked that strong emotion in me to show how a materialised wish behind it would be the intent of a spell?" Murmuring under my nose, I thought about this idea for a moment. Back then, it felt as if something broke in me. But thanks to it breaking, my limits also expanded away from the mortal shell of my body towards the vast expanse of the universe around me. This feeling It was insane. As if yet another sense was developed by my mind, I could somehow feel the simplest, emotional states of the stuff around me. Absolute obedience to the rules in some ant''s head, strangely calming tune sang by the trees Excitement and hope in Ayda''s aura With a sudden idea popping in my mind, I looked to the side. Noticing a small cup with water ced on the table in the other corner of the room, I started to fire myself up for the idea I had in my mind. And just like that, by connecting my wish, the emotional state of desire, to bringing something from afar, I made the cup nearly instantaneously appear in my hand, without even a single drop of water spilling away. Saying that I was as shocked as was Ayda when she saw what I just did would be quite an urate description of the situation. Yet, instead of her face turning ugly or even scared, I saw her eyes exploding with a fire of thrill?! "What''s going on?" Finally daring to open my mouth and hurry Ayda''s response up, I couldn''t help but feel slightly annoyed when she simply continued to stare at me with those wide-open, red eyes of her. "I was right I finally found you" In any other situation, having an insanely adorable girl stare at me with passion-filled eyes would be a hell of an exciting experience. But for some reason, I couldn''t help but think that being who Ayda was looking for might not end up that well for me. Chapter 18: My hero Chapter 18: My hero "So, will you finally tell me what you meant by finding me?" I was unwilling to give up on this question. For some reason, I could feel that it had consequences reaching far, far deeper than I was aware of, making me insanely curious and anxious to learn what did Ayda mean with that. "Didn''t I tell you? Master your first push and I will exin everything." Holding back her moans, the girl kept the jiggly piece of meat in her hands while looking closely at my face. From how she acted, it was clear that Ayda wasn''t used to this kind of experience. And to be fair, it seemed that the girls of this world were pretty simr to the females I knew from the earth. After all, what kind of girl would enjoy holding on to a repulsive-looking worm that broke through all the limits of how big it could grow on earth? "It''s not as easy as you may think it is!" Pushing the girl''s arm away, I couldn''t stand the repulsive feeling that seeing this abhorrent worm wiggle in the delicate Ayda''s hand. And just as I attempted to force her away Something clicked within me. As if I had some hidden muscle, nearly not existing after years of being left alone that suddenly moved. With that spin of this inner force, I could feel my repulsion subsidising? Maybe I was slightly paranoid after this girl''s warning from two days ago, but whenever a moment like that happened, I would frantically look through the state of mind to confirm that nothing was wrong with me yet. As much as I wished with my everything to learn the way of saving my mother, I still at least attempted to stay aware of the price I will have to pay for it. On the contrary, Ayda seemed to be insanely happy with how the things went. In one moment, all her repulsion disappeared as she threw that disgusting bug away before washing her hand clean with water from a nearby cup. "It was supposed not to be easy, but you did it anyway, huh?" Gracing me with an endearing smile of hers, the girl quickly returned to a ce right in front of me. Crossing her legs as she sat, she clearly didn''t care about how the short front of her usual dress didn''t even pretend to be covering her thighs. "Listen. I never said that it would be easy either." With her voice softening and her face melting from excitement to a strange calmness, Ayda raised her clean hand and brought it to my cheek. Staring directly into my pupils with those dimly red eyes of hers, I could feel the delicate her of her fingers caressing the side of my face. "I can only imagine what you are going through right now, but you need to learn how to take it easy." With each of Ayda''s words, her tone was turning lower while her face continued to creep closer. But even when she appeared only an inch away from my face, I couldn''t help but realise one thing. For me, even something so little was already sensual. With how insanely tired my mind and body were after three months of constant banishment to changing worlds, I couldn''t help but get weak to those kinds of attack. Not because they were alluring. But because they finally gave me an excuse to rest. Over the course of thest two days, I couldn''t help but notice this point more and more. While I managed to hold to this point, feeling Ayda''s warm breath hitting my neck I had to admit that I was slowly approaching the line. The line where my exhaustion would take the better of me, flipping the priority of somefort above the life of my mother. "Listen. It will do no good for you to keep straining yourself like that." Now, I understood. Maybe it was because we were mingling with our feelings ever since we meet for the first time, but I could clearly see how worried this girl was. Despite not showing it in the outside, there were hints of some kind of terrifying idea shing in her insanely alluring eyes. "You wanted to hear about my reasons, about the way in which I called out for you back then. Is that right?" Now she was alreadypletely serious. Distancing herself away from me a bit, Ayda ced her hands on my shoulders before starring daggers in my face. "Yeah" Slightly shocked with how quickly the events were developing, I could only watch how Ayda''s face continued to change from one expression to another before something really threatening appeared on her lips. A mischievous smile. Given how loose her limits were when she was serious, I dared not to imagine who she would be when allowing her more fickle nature to take over. "So let''s make a deal." Suddenly standing up, Ayda looked down on me before reaching her hand out as if expecting a handshake. "I will tell you everything you want to know and answer any questions that I will be capable off, but you will just take your time to listen while resting. How does that sound?" This time, no strange wave of particr feeling overwhelmed me. Completely on my own, I raised my hand up, before grasping the delicate fingers of the girl. Thinking about it, now was the very first time when I actually grabbed her hand. Push. In the single instant when I was enamoured with how delicate Ayda''s hand was, she pushed me back. Without any regard for the safety, she locked her fingers against mine before pushing further and finally forcing me on the bed. Now that my bnce wasn''t shifted to the back anymore, I could finally react. "What the" Before I could achieve anything or even finish my words, Ayda dropped her entire upper half on my chest, squeezing all the air out of my lungs. Unable to catch a single bit of air for a moment, I was too busy suffocating to even bother thinking about uttering any words. Yet, contrary to the vivid images that my creativity instantly forced on my adolescent mind, the girl remainedpletely in ce as soon as she wrapped herself around my chest beforeying down her head on my arm. As if a kitten sat down on thep, even after I managed to stabilise my breath, I didn''t dare to utter a single sound in fear of waking this cute, fluffy being up. Swish! With a sudden strange event, as if the air itself slightly vibrated in ce for a moment, a nket flew towards the bed, only to cover the two of us up. After slightly moving around and rubbing her soft and hot body against my side, Ayda finally found afortable position while I, atst, managed to rewire the pieces of my brain in order to make it work correctly. "What are you trying to do?" As soon as I managed to spell out the first words of surprise, Ayda''s fingernded on my lips. Shutting my attempts at talking with just this single gesture, this damned girl rubbed her head against my shoulder before opening her eyes. Directing her intense stare right at my pupils she finally opened her mouth. "When I said that I found you I meant someone who I could not only synchronise with but also clearly capable of both kinds of magic. In other words, if everything that you showed to me allowed me to guess correctly, you are capable of bringing back the original magic from oblivion." Using the same finger that silenced me a moment ago, Ayda fixed a stray strand of hair that damaged to invade and cover a part of her adorable face. "If I''m not wrong, you are the person I was looking for through all sorts of worlds. You are the chosen one, as cliche as it might sound. You are the one who could finally solve my problem My own, personal hero." Moving her face a bit up on my chest, this unrestrained girl allowed me to see the immense longing that hid in the depths of her eyes. With her hand once again reaching forth for my face, Ayda''s eyes suddenly lit up with the same mischief that scared me a lot before. "I''m not sure if you thought about it, but that thick fluid produced by that worm It actually has some interesting features now that I think about it." Suddenly increasing the distance between the two of them, Ayda moved around under the nket for a moment before sitting down right on top of my crouch. At this point, I could only thank my utter exhaustion for saving me from some spicy and pickyments from the girl. With her flesh directly pressing against the area of my pants, she would have to be either insanely innocent or utterly naive not to notice it otherwise. "What are you Why" Unable to even form upplete questions, I only managed to utter some iprehensible words. "Why? Didn''t I tell you? You are my hero. And for my hero, I''m willing to do anything." Suddenly dropping her left hand down, the same that she attempted to clean off with the water a moment ago, Ayda pressed it against the exposed part of my stomach. In one instant, I could feel a strange warmth spreading through my abdomen. (I always wanted to do this/AN) To be continued :D Chapter 19: The price of it all Chapter 19: The price of it all "Oh my god I have no idea what to say. It was this awesome." Leaning forward while sitting on the bed, I fought hard to regain a stable breath along with my vision. Due to the events of several moments in the past, I could feel my entire body being weak, rxed to its absolute limits. "Didn''t I tell you that I would take good care of you?" Smiling at me with that mischievous lips of hers, Ayda forced my sight away. Her gaze glued to my face with a satisfaction filling her eyes was more than I could handle in my current state. "But you have to admit" Finally moving up from her back, Ayda sent me an eye before fixing her robes. It seemed that over the course of the session that she brought to me, her attire didn''t manage to hold to its usual position. As hard it was even to imagine before she started cleaning herself up, Ayda was exposing even more of her skin than usual, bringing me to the point of debate whereid the border between nudity and actually being dressed? "... this slime has some insane effects, doesn''t it?" Raising her hand, covered by that thick fluid all the way to her elbow, Ayda momentarily directed her eyes to her chest, only to smile with that familiar mischievous expression before scooping up the several drops of this thick liquid from her cleavage. "Yeah. I would never believe that something as repulsive could produce such a great drug I can''t recall a single day in my life when my muscles would feel so at ease. It''s as if I''m apletely different human being right now." Stretching my body in all directions, I had no choice but to admit that as surprising as it was for me, this strange, slimy fluid had some great properties. No matter when or what, never did any concoction heat my muscles up so much! Or maybe it happened because of a sensual yet strong at the same time massage that Ayda offered to me? Honestly speaking, just thinking back to when her delicate fingers kneaded my back or legs when her entire body rubbed against my skin At some point, I couldn''t help but think that she was enjoying this massage just as much as I did! "I know this wasn''t pleasant before, but you need to discover as many vivid emotions as you can. With each of them capable of holding some kind of intent, this is generally the only way to practice witchcraft. Outside of using the emotions of others" Speaking out, Ayda suddenly lowered her gaze, as if saddened by something. "While I can''t stop you from manifesting witchcraft through the emotions of others Unless absolutely necessary, please remember." Despite how rxed the atmosphere was just a few moments ago, now Ayda lookedpletely serious. No longer the sparks of mischief illuminated the inner part of her eyes. Rather than that, this girl looked at me with a strangely intense gaze. "Remember." Repeating this word once again even though she had yet to tell me what I was supposed to remember, Ayda took a deep breath right after. "When you base your witchcraft of the emotions of others, not only it makes it harder to invoke given emotion, but this price is something that both you and your target have to pay. Just keep in mind that only you decided to agree to it." Shaking her head as if in an attempt to chase away the painful memories that suddenly surfaced in her mind, Ayda actually took a while to calm herself down. "Anyway, let''s stop dawdling. Lemme see" Suddenly leaning to the side, Ayda''s face rxed as some other train of thoughts took the lead of her adorable head. Reaching forth with her arm, this lovely girl grabbed the lock on the window shuts before pushing them open. Right after that, a sound of the raindrops falling filled our room. "Great. Just what we needed. Come with me." Strangely happy about the rain, Ayda quickly crawled down from the bed, giving me a show of her curves on her way there. Sadly, I wasn''t given any chance to enjoy the view, as she quickly pulled me out of the bed, quickly leading me towards the main doors of the tavern we were staying at. Stepping outside of the doors without even a hint of hesitation, Ayda quickly pushed me even further into the wall of water. "Now, invoke the same feeling as you had when seeing me squish that worm!" Shouting her instructions, Ayda most likely forgot about how udylike her words were. Or at least, that''s what I wanted to believe. Ignoring all the distractions along with those born from my mind, I focused on my memories of that moment. The great contrast between an insanely cute and touchy-feely young girl, and the abhorrent, wiggling bug in her hand. As if to make things worse for my attempts, I couldn''t help but find simrities with the image in my head and the picture that some of Ayda''s advances made my lust imagine. "Fuck" Cursing softly, I forcefully pushed aways the strange vision of this girl kneeling in front of me and holding something of a simr colour to that bug. I was supposed to invoke my repulsion, not my lewdness! Only after several attempts did I feel that strange muscle of mine move. And in one moment, the raindrops stopped hitting against my already wet body. "You did it!" Cheering me up from the side, Ayda didn''t seem to realise that her luxurious dress was now sticking perfectly to her body, leaving even less to my imagination. In some ces, her clothing was already losing its function of covering anything. And to top it all off, instead of remaining on the side where she congratted me first, this damned girl trodded forward before throwing herself in my arms! "... fuck!" Still holding onto this feeling of repulsion, I was simply too slow to change the leading feeling in my soul. Right as Ayda''s soft and insanely attractive body was about to let me enjoy its warmth, the same force that held back the drops of rain above our heads Stopped Or that''s what I thought it would happen. For a briefest of moments, Ayda hung in the air, unable to move either forward or to the back. But before I could even blink my eyes, I felt as if someone suddenly challenged my muscle only to instantly defeat it. The next second, I could feel the warmth of my young teacher wrapping all over my body. With how we were bothpletely wet, I was unable to imagine anything, as my skin alone could pick up all the tiniest details of Ayda''s bare flesh. "And this is how witches fight." Pulling her head away a bit to say those words in my face instead of whispering them to my ear, Ayda couldn''t stop her lips from smiling. "Rather than holding the drops, you should try to change their trajectory. Instead of pushing at everything around you, push only at the things that you wish to keep at a distance. Remember, the rules of acting shy do not apply here. Everyst bit of energy that you use to influence the world around you with your craft, means that at least some of your emotions will dull for no reason. And you need to be aware of how sparing reserves every human has." This time, it was the turn of the Ayda''s words to shock me and render me unable to move. Only now did I notice one of the obvious problems behind the witchcraft. With my emotions being finite Once I would run out of them, I would remain as a powerless empty shell of a man, unable to feel anything else in my life! "And here is a small reward. Not only for doing a great job, but also to help you discover even more emotions." Smiling with a strangely worrying hint of sadness hidden deep in her eyes, Ayda once again leaned forward, but this time she didn''t move her head to the side. Instead, she went right for it. Feeling the touch of her soft lips pushing against my mouth, I was at first confused Only for a wave of insane attraction to suddenly hit my senses. In one moment, I could only think of the soft warmth beside my lips, simply improved by the wet tip of Ayda''s tongue meeting with mine. cing my hands on the girl''s waist, I held her in ce as my kissing turned more and more desperate, greedy. After just a moment, our tongues were already tightly entangled, unwilling to let go of each other. And then it ended. Just like that, Ayda pulled herself away before licking her lips clean with a mischievous smile. "Strong emotions like lust, attraction or even love Do not mess around with them. While they might give you an insane power, they are too important to waste on simple witchcraft." Chapter 20: How about we kidnap one? Chapter 20: How about we kidnap one? "What do you mean, a break? I was sure you had something both important and urgent going on" Seeing such a wildly surprised expression on Ayda''s face somehow filled my body with warmth. It wasn''t something that I could observe all that much, even with how thest four days in this world werepletely filled with this girl''s presence. "As I said, if I ever want to have a chance to return to this ce, I need to fulfil my mission or at least a part of it." Shaking my head with fake disappointment I was in fact buying some time so that I coulde up with a proper excuse. It was my fault that I brought this topic up as soon as it appeared in my head, before seriously thinking about my words or actions. "I I understand." After a moment during which Ayda stared at me with her eyes wide open and filled with something that I could only describe as a calling of some distant fear, my young teacher shook her head before pping her face with the palms of her hands. "Ah, it seems that you misunderstood. I do not wish to part with you. In fact, I''m quite positive that you could help me solve my problem. It''s just that I might have a certain time limit before both my wish to return here after solving my problem, or even dealing with that matter They both have an expiration date. If I''m toote with either one, then I either won''t be able to save" For a moment, I allowed my emotions to take the better of me. With how thest four days were filled with training my ability to feel my emotions and ride on them in order to cast witch''s crafts, it seemed like my natural grip over this part of my soul slightly loosened. For this one particr moment, I allowed the regret and determination to fill my mind, almost making me say a bit too much. After all, those four days taught me something. Unless it was due to the difference in our skill, then Ayda had no way of directly reading me like she appeared to be able to. She could get clues, hints and given her experience when dealing with emotions, she could discover a lot from them. But it would ultimately be just a guess. Not a fact. That''s why I was a little hesitant to share this detail openly. While it didn''t matter whether Ayda knew about the reason behind my determination. But if I were to bring this situation to the open, that would mean that I acknowledged it in the first ce. "Okay, okay. I understand." Shaking her head in defeat in response to my words, Ayda raised her eyes that suddenly regained their energy. While I wasn''t sure whether her sadness from before was an act or her natural reaction, I couldn''t help but enjoy the thought of thetter possibility. "Then, what is that mission that you want to achieve?" Casting away all the signs of her previous expression, Ayda looked directly into my eyes. Something that would baffle and make me shy just a few days ago now didn''t seem like that big of a deal. "Well" Raising my hand to the back of my head I rubbed my hair while dressing an apologetic smile. "I need to discover and learn at least a tiny amount of at least three different forms of the magic of this world" After thosest four days, I had an idea of how easy this task would be. Or rather, if going by the system''s ssification, then it would be a medium-difficulty task. And knowing the situation from within, I knew that it didn''t fall short of an impossible challenge. But who I was to judge the system inner-workings? Maybe the great hardship of the task meant that my reward would be as insane? Or maybe it was all Ayda''s fault for so conveniently appearing to teach me the ways of magic? It was pretty easy to bitch about reality, but ultimately, that kind of behaviour in its deepest form was no different from whining about the things one was toozy to change himself. "Are you fucking serious?!" If her previous expression of surprise was lovely, then right now her expression was a mix of an utter shockbined with strange ecstasy... "Ah!" Suddenly moaning, Ayda moved a few paces forward, weakly falling into my arms. Supporting her weight with a steel grip on my shoulders, she took a long moment to calm down. "Oh, gods I''m not even sure how to call this feeling" Pushing away at my chest, the girl stood still for a moment before finally regaining the rity of her head and moving her chest up. "What you just said just confirmed my guess. There is no way for you to actually believe it''s possible. Unless you are from a different world!" As if unwilling to let me see her vivid excitement, Ayda turned her face away for a moment. Once she looked at me again, her expression was back to its mischievous usual. "Either way, it''s impossible. It''s not that I don''t know all sorts of magic that you could learn The thing is, only a proper user of said art can properly awaken one''s potential. Even if I were to exin everything to you, without the initial pull" Hanging her head before shaking it a little, Ayda looked at me with a serious look on her face. "And what about the wizards? Is it really impossible to ask them for help? It''s not like I need to master it, just learning anything that would ssify me as a wizard should suffice." Still probing, I could quickly see the answer with Ayda''s shaking her head vigorously to the sides. "That means they won''t help voluntarily How about we kidnap one then?" Chapter 21: Playing with the cliche Chapter 21: ying with the cliche "Okay, youpletely lost it." Staring at me as if I was some kind of alien, Ayda appeared to be too powerless to even shake her head in disbelief. "I know it won''t be easy, but surely there has to be a way to achieve it!" I couldn''t agree with how negatively Ayda was approaching the topic. While she obviously had more reservations about messing around in this ce as she knew far more about it than I did, it didn''t change the fact that unless I was willing to give up on meeting and learning from her ever again, then I had no other choice but to fulfil this world''s mission. "Additionally, even if things turn a little bit awry, you could always consider it as a mean for me to practice my new abilities. Nothing beats a crash-course!" With my mboyant and energetic attitude, I attempted to hide away the fact that the perspective of doing something so huge scared me quite a lot. If anything were to go wrong, I could always salvage myself by opting to use my emergency exit But that would mean failing this worldpletely, and never being able to return to it. Right now, I was in quite a pinch. With no idea how long it would take to fulfil the world''s mission, I had to start reaching for it as quickly as possible, since I had no clue whether I have enough time or not to achieve it. On the other hand, if Ayda''s worries were greatly justified, starting this mission prematurely would mean that this entire world would turn hostile towards me, not only forcing me to be far more careful with living here, but also potentially sparking trouble for the Ayda. Sadly, with no information required to estimate how long fulfilling my mission or learning everything that Ayda had to offer would take, I had no other way than hurrying all my actions in hopes that I would somehow fulfil both of my objectives. After all, even with how urgent the situation with my mom was, I was unwilling to just give up on all the people I was meeting on my path to save her. This would be both ungrateful to those who helped me and could also greatly increase my hardships to grow in strength, as I could only imagine how long it would take me to practice witchcraft to its perfection of my absolute own, not even daring to mention how potentially costly it would be regarding my ability to feel emotions. "Ehh It seems that I won''t be able to stop you from attempting this So let''s stop wasting the time." As suddenly as always, Ayda reached out and grabbed my hand before almost pulling me out of the room. For some strange reason though, for the very first time, I managed to resist her pull. "Hey, we need to change our clothes first. We are both soaking wet." Stopping the girl from moving out of the room, I pointed something so obvious that it barely slipped past my attention. Even though I wasn''t all that worried about getting sick as even my pitiful level of cultivation was enough to reinforce my body and make it almost immune tomon illnesses, it didn''t change the fact that we would not only look stupid by walking in wet rags like that, but it could also hinder our movements if a fight were to erupt. "Right Give me a moment" Staring at me with her eyescking the light of understanding what I said for a moment, Ayda suddenly snapped, with dangerous sparks appearing in her eyes. And just like that, she started undressing. Before I could even manage to turn away, the upper part of her clothes fell down, allowing me a quick nce of herpletely bare breast. Even though her cleavage only pretended to cover it before, it didn''t change the fact that the feel of watching her chest in its full, enormous beauty was something iparably better than sneaking some peeks at her dressed body. Luckily, I managed to turn away before more stimulus could wreak havoc in my mind. Given how I only recently started operating on emotions, I couldn''t vouch for my actions if I allowed my lust even the slightest window of opportunity right now. After all, what if the time that we would potentially end up on fucking would turn to be the pivoting point of all my ns? Casting those thoughts away while pretending not to hear a short giggle from the girl behind my back, I quickly took off my own, wet clothes before pulling some of the fresh ones from my backpack. To be honest, to call this shirt and a pair of sweatpants a fresh one was a gross overstatement, butpared with the rest of myundry sitting in a separate bag of mine What could I say? Even though I was travelling through a different world, I was still a child of my era. While I was perfectly capable of manning up the washing machine, doing its work by rubbing cloth against cloth in the cold water of a river Was a bit too much for me to effectively achieve. "Are you done, yet?" By the time I was pulling up my shirt on my back, I suddenly felt the delicate warmth of Ayda''s fingers touching the muscles on my back. Soon after, her entire body pressed at me from behind, once again putting me in the real of the grandeur battle against the ultimate boss of an adolescent young man like me - my lust. "Ayda What are you" Something seemed to click. For a moment, I was sure that Ayda cast some spell, yet the feeling was simply too fleeting for me to remain sure after just a second. Her hands greedily moving all over my still naked upper body could be another reason why I didn''t pay that urrence that much of my mind. "Just making sure you are okay." Her voice was filled with worry. For the first time since I met her did Ayda dared to expose her inner self so openly. Even with her face hiding away from my sight, I could tell that she was right now extremely emotionally fragile. "Don''t worry." Reaching up with my hand, I grasped Ayda fingers that just happened to stop on my chest right now. Feeling her soft body slightly shaking, I couldn''t help but feel an overwhelming wave of a strange feeling thatpelled me to protect her. It wasn''t something that she cast with her witch abilities. That bit I was sure off. It was my natural instinct as a man to protect someone I cared about? If that quick reasoning of mine was on the point "Don''t worry. We will be okay." Right when I said those words, I couldn''t help but scold myself in my mind. Even if those words were what Ayda needed the most right now, wasn''t it quite dangerous to risk ying against the ultimate force of cliche right now? Chapter 22: Enclosed Chapter 22: Enclosed "No. Fucking. Way." Those were the only words that the local resident wizard of the town had to say to me when we went for a visit. "Didn''t I tell you? It was bound to end like that." While someone else might be rejoicing in their own opinioning out on top, Ayda didn''t belong to this kind of people. Instead of unting how she was right, she took my hand and gave it a light squeeze in a futile attempt to improve my mood. "That was just the first and the most straightforward option. The failure right now doesn''t mean the failure overall. This kind of situation people from my hometown have a special saying for it. To win the battle but to lose a war" Only when I said it did I realise that this saying actually was about the exact opposite situation. Or rather, an exactly opposite situation that would appear only if I found a way to fulfil the first bit of my mission. "I think I get the meaning behind it But don''t forget. So far we did the easy part, we lost the first battle. We have yet to achieve any victory in the broader sense." Seeing how I was unwilling to let this defeat get to my head, Ayda scolded me lightly. But during all this time, her hand didn''t move away from my fingers. "And why are you so pessimistic? Why are we having problems with getting someone to help me in the first ce? Do you want to tell that wizards do not ept apprentices?" While I knew that there was no bad intent behind what Ayda said, I couldn''t help but get angry when hearing it. For me, it sounded as in defeatism. "It''s not like they are not epting new people in their ranks" At this point, I finally noticed it. An expression of uneasiness on Adya''s face. And at the same moment, a strangely dangerous guess appeared in my head. "Then the reason why you are sure no one will ept me is" Probing a bit further, I was initially going to carve the answer out of this girl''s soul if necessary, but seeing how genuinely worried she was, all my anger vanished in a single instant. If not for the fact that I was sure that she didn''t y with my feelings there, I would take this sudden change of my emotions for a very bad coin. "Let''s sit somewhere peaceful." Instead of answering, Ayda only tightened her grip on my hand before pulling me with her. Seeing the constant worry in her eyes I couldn''t help but get worried just as much. While she was most likely worried about how I would react to her answer, I couldn''t help but worry about what that answer would be. Only after a few moments did Ayda finally change her direction, pulling me into some kind of park. As I passed by the frame made out of vines decorated with flowers alone, I couldn''t help but feel quite ignorantish. Even though it was my third medievalistic world that I have visited so far, only now did I bother to realise that it looked way different from what I expected. From the very simplest and most basic aspects, there were no faeces lying out in the open and turning the air into the foul stench. Contrary to what one might imagine about medieval times like the period currently urring in this world, the city was surprisingly clean. With aqueducts surrounding it like some kind of strange wall and connecting to quite a lot of buildings all around, it seemed that at least the sanitisation of this pce was good. But all the doubts that I had about the living terms of this period disappeared when I saw the immense beauty of this park. Thinking about this, back when I was in school, there was a lot of pieces of art, be it literature, paintings or even music, that often brought back the theme of spending the leisure time in parks. From a modern standpoint, I always thought that it was some kind of misleading sentence, something of which the true meaning was already lost in the ages, just like people from the future might fail to understand the meaning of going to Netflick and chill with someone''s better half. Yet, just a single step inside this wonder of a nature unbing of the age without that much of civilisation was enough to cast all those ignorant thoughts aside. In one moment, I was overwhelmed with a sweet aura of different flowers, nts and hedges, turning this otherwise nd city into what looked like a painting of some modernist artist. Wherever I looked, the flowers were sown in a specific order, turning them into small paintings growing directly from the ground one would walk on. "This will be a good ce." Finally finding what she was looking for, Ayda pulled me a little more forward before forcing me down on a random bench made out of a fallen trunk of the tree. Sitting beside me right away, she cupped her hands on herp before opening her mouth Yet no sound came from it. "You see In this ce, wizards They are really against the idea of practising any other kind of magic. While several years ago it was just a distrust towards the users of other magic, for several reasons that might or might not involve the highest echelon of both the wizards and the witches They enclosed their organisation for any foreigners. Unless a wizard picks you himself, you will never be able to discover your talent unless" Suddenly stopping her words, Ayda looked to the side as if she was unwilling to look me in the face while exining the rest. "... unless you join their academy. They filter out all the spies and untalented weeds there, and after just a few months, they help you to awaken and be a student of one of their fully-fledged wizards." Still looking at the girl with a curious expression stered on my face, I waited for her to reveal what was making her feel so bad for thest few moments. But to my surprise, when Ayda didn''t add a single world even after a prolonged period of time, I had no choice but to acknowledge that for some reason, she considered what she just said to be something that could negatively influence how I looked at her. Only after seriously thinking about it for a long while did I understand what she was worried about. "Hey Like Are you serious?" Starting off with a slightly annoyed voice - I couldn''t help it. I just wanted to bully her way too much - I pped my hand against my thigh, hoping for this sharp and unexpected sound to shake the girl awake from her daze. ''W-wha-what?" With her entire body starting to shake, this damned girl instantly melted my entire heart, stopping me from bullying her any further. Seeing her scared like that didn''t bring me any join or benefit. It only made a strange pain appear in my soul. "Did you seriously thought that I would be angry because of something so silly? Didn''t you say that it would take a few months before they would ept me? We both know that I have nowhere near as much time that I could spare to finish my mission. And that means" Turning to the side, I moved my hand up and held Ayda''s cheek with my fingers. Turning her head to make the girl face me directly, I lowered myself over her head a bit before stopping right before the girl''s lips and whispering lightly in her face. "So what, we are back to the kidnapping idea, are we not?" Chapter 23: The question stands Chapter 23: The question stands "Kidnapping might be a little bit too much. But there is one thing that I''m willing to try." Shaking her head in denial, Ayda was in an umon state for her. Maybe this topic was what would always make her sensitive because of the reasons that I have yet to learn, or maybe it was my reaction that managed to catch her off-guard. With no way to judge it, I could only throw random guesses, not getting any closer to the truth at all. "You know this ce and the situation far better than me. With that, I''m willing to try whatever you have on mind first. I know that I''m using this word a lot, but kidnapping Let''s say it''s thest resort I''m willing to go for." Seeing that my words had a calming effect on the girl, I managed to calm myself down as well. For some strange reason, noticing the signs of her being upset on her face was making my chest tighten. Obviously, I was perfectly aware of what it could mean. A cute girl like her paying me all her attention and getting all clingy, willing to go for great lengths to help me achieve my goals Even without her borderline sexual attempts at me, I could tell that she was acting more like my wife than a random stranger I met just a few days ago! But as much as even my previous self from before the apocalypse would be interested in those things, as much my self from just before the attack on my home would be pleased with this kind of situation, the same couldn''t be said about my current self. With the life of my mother that I just barely managed to save hanging on an extremely thin thread, nothing else could take the priority in my actions rather than striving to find a way to help her. Even the current problem of finding someone who could let me be a wizard wasn''t aimed just at fulfilling the system''s mission for this world. While obviously, I had some great hopes for the reward forpleting the mission, I was perfectly aware of the fact that the more cards I would hold, the greater the chance that I would be able to find a way to save my mom. Be it a wizard, or the true mage that Ayda mentioned before, as long as it gave me more tools to work with, I was pretty happy to engage in it. The one thing that made me slightly worried The one thing that made me slightly worried was whether or not the early phase of infatuation would turn into something potentially threatening to my cause. Because I couldn''t deny with my entire self about this entire rush to find someone to initiate me having absolutely nothing to do with the worry of never seeing this girl again. "Okay I think we might have shot at something in about two to three days. But we will have to travel for a day to reach one ce" Calcting in her mind, Ayda already grasped my hand and started pulling me away like usual. For some reason, seeing her acting like she normally would put my soul at ease for a bit. Yet another example of what was scary with my mind. Because I knew that if I cared for this girl enough, then my will to save my mother would be undermined by this new, weaker state of my mind. For better or worse, those thoughts quickly disappeared from my mind. In just a few moments of dragging me around - which I already considered as my new mostmon mean of transportation - this damned girl somehow managed to find a coach with a driver, rent it out and finish shopping for the snacks! Maybe it was something rted to losing one''s emotions by practising witchcraft, but what had to take at least several hours, Ayda finished before I could realise. "Listen. The opportunity that I talked about before Isn''t failproof. I have one acquaintance that I might convince into helping you. But once again, this is the single method I coulde up with without involving ''let''s kill them all'' train of thought." Coughing slightly when casually speaking about the possibility of murdering people, Ayda quickly fixed her face before moving back to the topic. "I know for sure that that idiot will be returning from his mission soon and I know which route he will take. All that we need to do, is to wait in one of the taverns by the road and be on the lookout." Exining as she stood up from her sitting ce to fix theyout of the pillows, Ayda reiterated all the details of her n. "Don''t we need to be on guard though?" Stopping her train of thoughts, I caught her surprised look. "You know, you said that wizards are not particrly fond of witches, didn''t you?" Seeing the girl nod her head while momentarily ceasing her attempts to improve her sitting ce, I continued. "Even if that wizard you spoke off" For some reason, just bringing up a matter that involved another man, made my voice crack a little. I wonder what could that be? "... has some connections to you, I don''t think he will be pleased to have a talk with how I understand it, a well-known witch out in the open. To be honest, knowing humans, even if that wizard will be willing to spare you some of his time, I do not want to guess what would the people around him do before that." Maybe it was just a coincidence, but in my homeworld - at least before the apocalypse - wizard word had way gentler connotations whenpared to the word witch. Witches were burning at the stakes while wizards were actually the wise old men that flocks of people visited with hopes of advice. Maybe it was this partial earthy mindset that made me consider this option. After all, I had to have some kind of n if things suddenly turned awry. If I didn''t want to salvage my life with emergency exit at the cost of forever losing Ayda Just this thought alone scared me. Both because of what would the future entail with this lovely girl deal, but also how much I had to care for her for the vision of her death or separation to scare me so much! That meant, I had to prepare as well as I could. I had to know exactly what to do, even if the threat was just a product of my imagination. Maybe I was greedy, but I wasn''t willing to lose either of them. Not my mother, nor this cheerful and dedicated girl that I met in this foreign world. "Hah, don''t worry." Looking at me while uttering a mix of baffled sigh and actualughter, Ayda only shook her head in denial. "There is no way anyone will raise his hand against me. They will be too scared to do that, that wizard you spoke while looking pretty anxious as well." Seeing through the momentarypse of my heartbeat when I brought up the matter of another man, I could only hope that Ayda didn''t notice the thoughts going deeper in my mind. But even if she was sure that this kind of situation wouldn''t appear, the question still stood. If I were to choose between risking my life in this world for Ayda, potentially losing my chance to save my mother right as I was about to obtain it Would I do it? Would I risk the lives of both me and my mom, just to save this girl? Chapter 24: It seems our guest arrived Chapter 24: It seems our guest arrived The time of the day passed insanely quickly in this inn that Ayda found along the road. Despite the rtively short price that we paid for a single room, themodities weren''t anywhere close to being subpar. Back on earth, when thinking about medieval times and literally everything that happened before the age of the so-called enlightenment, one would have this vivid image of the ages of great stories, but living conditions meeting the bottom. Right, this ce didn''t have a toilet in the sense that I learned on earth. But the owners of this inn made sure for all the basic human needs to be taken care off. In ce of the ceramic stool with a huge hole in its middle, there were two long, polished logs that one couldfortably sit on. What was even better, was that freshwater from the nearby river constantly flushed through the unused areas, sanitizing it to a degree respectable for the tools that locals could make use off. In terms of the rooms alone I could sing my praises for way longer than I spent in this ce or rather, I would sing my praises if Ayda didn''t make sure to make every single moment of our time in the inn enjoyable. Starting with some light talk, this wicked woman made me realise that once the initial awkwardness born out of our gender was broken, just talking to her was something that I could enjoy on par if not more than watching some killer series of movies or ying games in the afternoon. Later on, she took me for a short distance-wise trip around the area of the inn. Despite how we always kept the road perfectly within our sights, Ayda somehow managed to turn this simple act of walking into a refreshing, thoughtful stroll. But everything was great for as long as the rays of the sun protected me from her wickedness. As if it was some kind of ancient spell that one could only hear about in the fairy-tales, as soon as thest ray of the red sun disappeared behind the line of the horizon, thezy ritual of watching the sunset together instantly turned into something else. "What are you" Previously holding her head on my shoulder, with the protection of the sun now gone, Ayda instantly snuggled forward, quickly finding afortable spot on my chest. Sneaking in on top of myp, she turned sideways and rested her head right above my heart, grabbing my left arm with both of her hands. "Shush. Just shush." Instead of replying as a normal person would, Ayda justid in her newfound position and seemed to instantly fall asleep. Her soft breathingbined with the slow, majestic movement of her impressive bust quickly turned into a hypnotic trance that pulled my eyes closer and closer to the spectacle. But then, my mom''s face appeared in front of my eyes. I could be practising witchcraft right now. If that turned out to be useless, I could be venturing to other worlds already, hoping to somehow find a cure for my problem. Yet here I was, cuddling with the soft girl in my arms while both listening and watching her sleep. "Come on" Purring silently right on top of my chest, Ayda gently raised her chin and looked at me with those upturned eyes of her. "Every time we are getting anywhere, you are pulling back. I don''t want to press you on, but you should know that I can read what you feel like from an open book." Turning her body around, Ayda now pinned me to the bed with both of her arms straightened above my chest. With her head appearing right above mine, the long streaks of her perfect, ck hair fell on my face, instantly coating my nose with her smell. "I know how you feel. I know that I do make you aroused. This thing that continued to poke my thigh for a while already is proof good enough of that. I even know that you are trying to take me seriously, something I can find nothing short of adorable. But whenever I feel like I could repay you in this obvious manner You are pulling your self back to your shell. Back to that dark ce" Suddenly shuddering, Ayda lowered her head that she made it look like if she wanted to hide her face in her cleavage. With several days of training under her lead, I was slowly learning how to read the emotions of others. And this girl was either perfectly capable of faking her emotions, or the terrible stench of terror that was guing her head made her sudden struggle genuine. "I You know Do you know how did I manage to pull myself through all kinds of hell before I met you?" Surprised by the girl''s judgments, I didn''t really know how to answer to her words. That''s why I decided to follow one of the major advice that my mother gave me before the apocalypse turned my happy life to a disaster. "I''m listening." Still, on all fours above me, Ayda suddenly lowered herself on both her knees and elbows, covering my upper body with her warm softness. Back to her usual attire, this beloved, red dress of her only pretended to shield her skin from my touch. But instead of instantly banking on the opportunity, Aydaid her head sideways on my shoulder before cuddling herself close to my arm. As her soft breath started to caress the inner parts of my brain, I felt my emotions slowly tuning down, allowing me topletely grasp and control them. "No matter what I had to ovee, no matter what challenges stood between me and my target, I always pushed forward because of one, single thing." Feeling the delicate moments when Ayda''s fingers would gently massage the skin of my chest, I finally fixed my position and rxed my body. "And what is that?" Silently responding to my words just to help me keep up the slow pace of the story, Ayda continued to do her absolute best to make me rx. "The fact that my mother is back in my home on the verge of death, and I''m out here not to enjoy myself, but to find a way to save her. No matter the cost." As pleasant as it was to have Ayda cling to me with her almost bare body, it didn''t change the main reason why I decided to ignore her advances so far. But it greatly destabilised my determination to keep to this ideal save of my mother that I had in my mind. Looking in the worried Ayda''s eyes, I could feel my defences slowly crumbling. Just like she said a moment ago, my body was already prepared for all the stuff that Ayda''s actions were hinting at for a while now. Any moment now, I would fall victim to my own desires, putting a momentary pleasure above the safety of my mother! "Ugh" Suddenly, Adya''s expression worsened. Falling right back on my crotch with her meaty bottom, she didn''t mind the fact that the tip of the tent that I pitched was quickly getting wet from the juices that her most important part was spewing like crazy now that it found itself rubbing against the clothed head of my penis. "It seems that our guest has arrived." Chapter 25: Did you ever tell him? Chapter 25: Did you ever tell him? My disappointment was unmeasurable and my day was ruined. That was the only way to describe how I felt when just as I finally opened myself just a little to the idea of actually enjoying myself with Ayda, the person that made us wait in this remote Inn finally appeared. But wasn''t his timing a little bit to perfect for the tension of the situation to suddenly dissolve? Could such an insanely unfortunate event that struck right before thest step that would take the two of us to the dreand created with each other bodies, be just coincidental? "Fuck, we need to hurry. This idiot doesn''t seem to have any intentions and staying here for the night." Instantly jumping out of the bed, Ayda didn''t seem to care about what almost happened between the two of us a moment ago. Pulling her dress to its proper position and fixing a few smaller elements of it, she was ready to go in a time shorter than it took me to actually took notice of it all. "Come on, do you want to miss your chance? Now it''s time to hurry!" Giving me only a few moments before her delicate fingers once again enclosed on my wrist. At this point, I wasn''t sure whether I wasn''t developing some kind of new fetish of being pulled around or whether Ayda had some kind of unique ability that made it easier for her to do so. Barely getting enough time to get properly dressed, I quickly followed the girl outside of the inn. And then, instead of running towards the road, Ayda lead me through the back alleys that somehow existed in this otherwise empty ce. "If we try to catch him on the road, he is sure to make a huge mess. That''s why I would prefer to have a talk with him somewhere a bit further from the inn we are staying at." As if reading my thoughts, Ayda exined with just short words, saving her breath for their current jog. And just like she expected, before long, the trees no longer obscured their view on the road, revealing a small entourage pressing forward within the scope of the light cast by their torches. "Elenair, it''s been a while." Moving to the very middle of the road, for some reason, Ayda let go of my hand just before she moved up. "Ayda, the witch of love. Or should I maybe call it with your true name, the witch with no love left in her at all?" Before his subordinates could react, the head of the entire entourage quickly spoke from within the carriage before knocking the doors open and flying out of the vehicle. But his flight It wasn''t something that one could observe in those superhero movies of the old. Instead of extending his hand towards the direction he wanted to fly towards, this middle-aged man looked as if he could control the gravity over his body, simply floating wherever his soul desired. "Does that means you didn''t forget me, sweetie?" Staring daggers at her acquaintance, Ayda suddenly shook her head before taking a few deep breaths to calm down. Thankfully, I already saw enough to see that the two of them weren''t on the absolutely best terms. "How could I forget a bitch like you? Thanks the heavens for saving me from your grasp And who is that guy? Some kind of living dildo? Are you that desperate?" While it might sound surprising, it wasn''t the insults directed towards me or the girl that I was slowly starting to care a lot about, but theplete whoring process of the logic that took ce as this damned idiot said his piece. After all, with the fine-tuned propaganda seeping out of every radio, television and inte broadcast on earth, this kind of simple maniption simply repulsed me. "So you are going to propose the solution first and then suggest how it perfectly fits the scenario Did you really hoped for both of us to fail to notice that you were pushing your own imaginations into the perspective of a scenario you created and you are the only one who cares about it?" Instead of allowing that man to keep acting arrogant, I simply moved a few paces forward, now standing right beside Ayda. In what I said, it wasn''t the meaning of my words that was important, but how I constantly used the word ''you'' to refer to the man. Being someone of high status, to have such amoner like me refer to him directly would be a grave insult in most of the medievalistic worlds that I ever visited. Yet to my surprise, no such thing happened. After squinting his eyes and looking at me for a moment, the middle-aged man suddenly calmed down before waving at his entourage to send it away. "What do you want?" Once the guards and servants that apanied the wizard during his travels were left behind, Elenair finally moved to the true topic of this forced meeting. "I came here to cash all of the favours that you owe me. As long as you fulfil my request, we will be even." Those two sentences that Ayda just spoke shocked both the wizard and me as well. What kind of favours? How could there be multiple of them? Or rather, how could a wizard that abhorred witches what could be easily read from his behaviour as he talked with us, ended up incurring any debt with a witch? "Don''t tell me" Only at this point, did the face of the middle-aged wizard change. Moving his gaze between the determined face of the girl and the clueless head of mine, he was clearly about to say something brutal, before dropping the idea and simply shaking his head. "I can''t believe you are still going on about that madness. It won''t work, you know?" Clearly attempting to find another solution that would allow him to reject whatever Ayda had in mind, Elenair looked at her face for a moment with his eyes bearing hope, only to turn his sight away after a few moments during which nothing changed on the girl''s face. "And you Yes, you." Seeing that he wouldn''t be able to crack the girl''s determination, Elenair turned his attention to me. "What do you want? I''m not even a part of the discussion, mate." I wasn''t sure whether this kind of calling would be understood in this world, but frankly speaking, I couldn''t care less. Worst case scenario, this man would take this random word as an insult and just move on over it. "Oh, you are the very topic of this discussion. Given how far this bitch is willing to go when asking for a favour, that can only mean one thing. You are already a witch, yet you want to be a wizard too? Do you seriously think someone born of this world would end up in any different way to how all the true mages did?" Sowing a seed of curiosity about the story that the wizard hinted at in my heart, I inly continued to observe the man''s struggles to save himself from doing something that he clearly didn''t want to. "Madness or not, that is my wish. Help him unlock his potential and we will be even." Not losing herposure even for a moment during all Elenair scenes, Ayda simply repeated what her wish was without a care in the world about the wizard''s situation. "If I were to do it No, we wouldn''t be even. You would never be able to pay this kind of debt back. Not even with your own abilities. And that''s also the way why I refuse. On the other hand, did you ever tell your another victim what will happen once he bes a true mage for a moment?" Chapter 26: I will have to kill you myself Chapter 26: I will have to kill you myself "He doesn''t need to know it yet." Instead of fervently denying that anything of the sort of what that man was speaking about was true, Ayda actually dared to confirm that there was indeed something else that she has yet to reveal to me. "See? She''s just ying with you. Take my advice and leave her before you will implode due to your own greed" Shaking his head with pity, Elenair turned his face once again towards the girl. "I said that I won''t help you and this is my final decision. If you need help with anything else, I''m willing to pay you back for all the favours that you offered, but unlocking that man''s potential? I''m not willing to take his death on myself!" Backing out two steps, the wizard revealed how wrong Ayda was when thinking that he would help us. Because no matter what she was hiding from me For some strange reason, I was absolutely sure that she didn''t mean to do me any real harm. "Okay, I think its time for me to speak, don''t you think guys?" Instead of watching how the events would develop passively, I decided to step in. After all, it was not only my future hanging on the thread in here but also the well-being of my mother! "Ah, right. This matter is mainly about you, so you have all the right to get off the chest whatever you want to say." With both of them turning towards me, one a witch and the other a wizard, the two professionals that had a lot of knowledge about mystic arts of this world now awaited whatever the simple person like me would bring as a verdict. But there was also one huge thing that I mentioned. While Elenair attempted to show how open he was for the idea of me talking, Ayda just needed a single look at my face to realise that it wasn''t the time to speak herself right now. Or maybe she was feeling insecure now that the cat was out of the bag about some dire consequences of practising witchcraft and wizardry at once? Maybe she was worried that I was about to leave her and thought that speaking up would either hasten my decision or reinforce it? Or maybe she just decided that I had my personal right to speak freely, without her words influencing whatever I would say next? "First thing first. I never asked what would be the consequences of bing that true mage that you spoke off. Did I?" Turning my head to Ayda, I graced her with a light smile. While this was something that I could think about now, there was no denying that when she first found me and even when she exined what she hoped to turn me into, I wasn''t interested in any drawbacks of bing that hero of her. As long as this newfound power would allow me to save my mother, I was even willing to die for it. "Well you didn''t, but I was the one that should inform you about the legend in the first ce. Listen I''m sorry" "Cut it out." Before Ayda would move on to profusely apologising, I cut her words with my own voice before turning my face towards the wizard. "As for you, I pity you. You created some shitty sense of morals for yourself and you try to impose it on others. Do you know how people like you were called in my word?" While I was quite curious to learn whether this Elenair was smart enough to catch the trap in my words, it didn''t matter at all in the long turn as it springing it against him could only bring me some personalfort. "Excuse me They were called?" Smiling when hearing the man''s response, I finally revealed my full smile right to his eyes. "Yes. They were called fanatics. Well, before the rest of the world got fed up with their hypocrisy and eradicated them from the face of the civilised world. While some should remain in hiding in some backward ces, their influence over the things that normal people care about Is entirely gone. Take it as a hint of what the path that you are following holds." Done with the man, I finally turned my face back to Ayda. Seeing how she was still devastated by the feeling of guilt-induced by that wizard, I couldn''t help but smile gently towards her. "And to wrap things up Ayda, my dear. I think, in the end, my proposition still has the best chances of sess, so I hope you won''t stand against me once I will put my own efforts in motion." Moving a few paces forward and cing my hand on the girl''s shoulder, I looked her directly in the eyes. But despite my lips still curving, there was no warmth in that smile of mine. I went through way too much in the worlds where I failed to obtain a cure for my mother''s situation to be bothered with spiling a bit of blood. "Eh? Ah?" Confused as to what I meant, Ayda could only watch as I calmly walked towards the wizard before smiling at him. Contrary to the face that she could see directed at her, this new expression of mine was full of warmth but it wasn''t the kind of warmth that she could see while we would cuddle. It was nothing more but fake happiness of someone used to pretending to be happy. And amongst the actors of this world, given my experience of pretending to be powerless on earth, there was no equal capable of standing beside me. This was something that even Elenair learned. But not in the way that he could ever want it. Once I moved close enough to the man, I suddenly stopped my steps before looking behind his shoulder and widening my eyes in a sudden surprise. Raising my head in an attempt to point at what I saw behind him The wizard had to train their people perfectly. Before my hand even managed to reach halfway through the distance it was aimed to travel, the man''s head was already turning away. Right in time to miss the moment when my suddenly tightened fist buried itself in his guts, instantly snapping him in two. Unable to defend in time with how he didn''t expect the attack at all, Elenair bent in half. His cheeks inted before his mouth opened letting an awful waterfall of puke mixed with blood out of his throat. "Seriously?" Seeing how my shoes happened to be in the range of this unexpected attack, I moved half a step back, before using the momentum of my raised right leg to kick Elenair right in the side of his head. Only when seeing how the face of this unconscious man fell right in his own puke did my anger subside. "Now, I hope you know some ways to stop him from escaping from my hands as my mean You could consider them to be slightly brutal." Turning my face back to Ayda, I could see how stunned she was by my little show. "The guards" ncing in the distance where the rest of the Elenair entourage has yet to realise what just happened, the girl quickly gave away enough hints to let me catch what her current main worry was. "Don''t worry about them." Cutting her anxiety short, I pulled out a huge knife or rather a small sword from behind my belt. It would be the very first time for me to use it in this world, yet many notches already marked it de. "I will make a short work of them if you don''t like your odds against them." I never intended to kill them. With my earthy upbringing, I was pretty against needless killing. Thankfully, this stupid sense of morals that earth taught me didn''t apply to mutting them at all. "No! Stop it!" Suddenly, Ayda''s shout brought the attention of both me and the guards of the now unconscious wizard. Looking at her with a surprise, I could see some pretty deep feelings going on through both her face and the aura, proving that it was one of the rare moments when she wasn''t hiding the state of her mind from me at all. "Come." Grabbing my head, this girl once again pulled me behind herself. But this time, with my blood already full of adrenaline, I didn''t cave in to her usual behaviour. "We can''t. If we leave them alive, they will know what happened and what you asked, making our chances of finding someone willing to help even" p. For the very first time since I met her, Ayda pped me. With her open palm, she took a swing and pped me right in my cheek. This hit wasn''t hard enough to cause any real pain, but the stinging injury of my consciousness was still there. Raising my sight on the girl, I could see tears of desperation already brimming in her eyes. "Snap out of it. You are a witch now. If I ever see you give up to that darkness in your heart I will have to kill you myself. I''m not going to make the same mistake twice!" Chapter 27: They were killed by alliance Chapter 27: They were killed by alliance "How about you stop dragging me away and actually tell me what the fuck is going on?" At first, I didn''t protest when Ayda dragged me away. In fact, I myself was running away along her side. With how she suddenly blew up just a few moments ago, I didn''t dare do anything that could turn out badlyter on. While she would have a lot of exiningter on, for now, I decided to follow her in our escape. After all, it was easier to talk when an angry crowd of armed and most likely pretty-nicely trained warriors didn''t chase after our backs. "Later. But please Don''t allow the anger to get to you. I will tell you everything you want, I will do anything you want me to, just keep your emotions in check for now." Seeing how desperation was filling Ayda''s aura, her tone, her eyes and her entire being, I just couldn''t help but keep being angry at her. If the entire self could exude this emotion and this emotion alone, then I could guess that there was some valid reason behind the way she did and said things in the past. After all, everything that she did so far, wasn''t a lie. She in fact taught me witchcraft and she told me the cost of practising it openly. If she was someone who would hide the bad sides of something they were offering and attempting to kinda sell, then why would she bother with doing that in the first ce? "Okay, we should be safe here." Only after the two of us entered some kind of woond did the girl slow her steps down before resting her back against a random tree and sliding down to the ground. With how heavily her chest was moving up and down, I could tell that while she had other qualities to her performance, doing long-distance runs didn''t belong in that category. The same could be said for the people that chased after us. With their heavy armours and weapons only adding the burden to every step that they made, by the time we were approaching the woonds we were hiding in right now, they already disappeared in the darkness of the night. Just by stepping a fewteen meters deep into the woods, we could make sure that they wouldn''t give chase anymore. After all, how dumb one would have to be to try looking for someone in the middle of the night, in the middle of a damned forest without even the slightest way of tracking them down properly? "I think this is the time for you" Before I could even finish my sentence with that cold voice of mine, Ayda already stood up only to fall down to her knees and smash her forehead against the softyer at the bottom of the forest. "I''m terribly sorry." While I wanted to believe that the shaking of her body was real, given how she - as a witch - had to be a master of manipting her own emotions, I had some doubts in my mind whether her current state wasn''t just a ploy to soften my heart. "What are you apologising for? If you think you can catch me by heart by acting like that" Once again, before I could utter any real sentence, Ayda cut me out by speaking herself. "But I already did though?" Standing up from her begging position, she quickly swiped the dirt from her clothes before looking at me sharply. Thinking about this she might actually be right. I couldn''t feel the anger that fueled me before. I couldn''t feel the emotion of being betrayed that I slightly felt back on the road. I couldn''t even feel the bloodlust that filled me back when I was about to massacre the entire group of people just to keep them silent. All those emotions were gone or rather, they were quickly reced by a surprise when Ayda suddenly pulled out a knife from some kind of hidden strap under her clothes Only to put it against her own throat before moving the hand with a handle to a position mostfortable for me to grasp it. "Take the handle." Looking at me straight with her own big, full eyes, Ayda clearlymunicated to me that she wasn''t willing to hear a denial right now. Curious as to what she wanted to prove with her actions, I followed her order and grabbed the handle of the knife. And just doing that made a wave of terror wash through my entire soul. What if my hand would twitch? With how forcefully Ayda was pressing her skin against the de Even the smallest movement would be enough to cut her throat open. Ayda smiled. "No, it''s not what you think." Before I could react to what seemed like an extreme kind of fetish, the girl calmingly moved her hands up before cing them upright, as if she wanted to put a stop to my weird thoughts. "It''s not that I enjoy the threat of death. I''m just happy that putting myself in that situation, made you worry. For that I also do apologise." This entire situation was turning weirder with each passing moment. She didn''t even start exining herself yet, and she already had me holding her on the tip of her own dagger, all the while iming how she was happy that this situation made me worried. OF COURSE I WOULD GET WORRIED! Whether she hid some stuff from me or not, there was no denying that I already started carrying for this strange girl! If not for the single source of determination that kept me going so far, I would be trying to reach the limits of how much one could desire someone else, doing everything to fulfil that desire of mine. "Well, let''s get back to the topic before you will lose yourself in those violent thoughts of yours." Smiling lightly as if she was talking with a friend about the problematic question on the math test while sipping on her cup of bubble tea back on earth, Ayda didn''t seem to care about how this situation looked in reality at all. "First thing first, don''t bother yourself with what that idiot said. The belief that a true mage is doomed to die for reasons unknown is nothing more than a stupid misinterpretation of what really has happened in the past. It''s like saying that bing the oldest person to currently live is a curse because everyone who could call themselves like that is doomed to die shortly." This girl I never expected her to suddenly bring something I read from a meme-gathering site as a valid argument Yet I couldn''t question its validity in any way. Because it was true that anyone who would be the oldest person to currently live would be doomed to cease living in a rtively short amount of time. But that doesn''t mean that receiving this title was a lethal course. It was just another example of how turning things that were connected into causality would create just misleading assumptions. "So what is the real reason for that legend to appear? Because from your words I think I am safe to assume that all of the true mages died in some special way." I wasn''t a naive idiot to fully trust this girl either. As long as she was of any use for my ultimate target, I didn''t mind indulging in her behaviour a little, even if that meant developing some feelings for her down the line after my mother would be already saved. But if it turned out that she was just trying to use me for her own purposes instead And as little as I could do in order to judge whether what she would say would be true or not, this was a type of story detailed enough for me to confront it with literally anyone. As long as I would get to talk with someone else, the truth wille to light. "Some of them died of age. Others died on the mission. Some of them really died because overusing their craft without any responsibility but that was something that happened through the ages and was considered to be the risk of the job, just like losing your emotions is a part of bing a witch. What Elenair forgot to tell you, is that the majority of the true mages that lived in thest period of their existence They were killed by the alliance made by witches and wizards. Chapter 28: My plan Chapter 28: My n "Who could''ve thought it would end up like that" It''s been already three days since Ayda revealed the truth about the true mages to me, yet I still found it challenging to actually ept it. Not because it was unreasonable. From what the girl said, the time required for a wizard or witch to gain fighting power was far smaller than how long a true mage would take to mature in a military sense. In fact, I could partially certify it myself with how I was capable of quickly learning more and more uses of witchcraft myself. What I couldn''t ept was that even after unlocking all the requirements to be a true mage, it wasn''t given that I would actually manage to be one! "Are you okay?" Cuddling to my chest like some kind of attentive pet, Ayda rustled about while she changed her position a bit. Over the past days that I get to know her, this kind of intimate behaviour was somon that I no longer feel that much aroused from it. Even with her chest that only pretended to be covered by clothes pushed right against my skin, even with her face cuddled on my own breast, outside of feeling a strangefort that only a female body could provide, I wasn''t all that riled up at all. "Yeah, just thinking about stuff." There was no point in exining what kind of thoughts I had right now. Bringing up the matter of that day when we ran from Elenair entourage could only bring pain and regrets. Rather than that, it was better to focus on the opportunities that the current day offered. "Eh I will be back to nodding off then" Summing up the situation like that, Ayda changed the position of her head a bit before returning to what I now saw as her preferred way of spending the time. Thinking about it, my entire situation with this girl was quite surprising. From how I randomly met her, through how she offered to help me all the way to how she was attached to me like some kind of pup to the first living being it saw after being born Feeling the heat of her body helping me to rx as I stared through the shuts that served the role of the window, I had absolutely no reason toin about my current situation. While the previous attempt at starting my career as a wizard clearly failed, now that Ayda ran out of the options she could provide, I couldn''t wait for the moment when we would be to enact my n. "Now that I think about it" Starting off, I was about to ask the girl what she even though about the idea I came up with when a movement outside of the window caught my attention. Alerted by how suddenly I stopped my sentence, Ayda supported herself on my body as she moved up only to cast a quick nce to the street below the building we were in. Obviously, being the gentleman I was, I culturally ignored the fact that she basically shoved her bust right in my face while doing so. "It''s time." Contrary to the previous attempt, we were ready to make a hugemotion this time. In fact, it was the very basis of the strategy that I came up with, as without the publicity to pressure the random wizard that we just noticed on the street, it would be hard to force him into making the decisions that I wanted. "Let''s move then." Thest failure to obtain what we wanted didn''t shake my confidence. While the same couldn''t be said about the girl that was now hastily shaking all the remaining dizziness from her head, at least she didn''t attempt to sabotage my part or whine about how unrealistic it was. In fact, I expected her to oppose my idea a lot more. With how I was born on earth, I had more than enough experiences of the past ages to understand the value of proper theatrics. Given how the same couldn''t be said about this world and the girl born to it, seeing how she was willing to put up with the act that we were about to pull off, all the doubts that I ever had about her loyalty were shattered. "I will ask this onest time. Are you sure you want to go with me there?" As we hurried down the steps, it took only a moment before we arrived at the main entrance of the inn we were staying at. But instead of rushing out to make sure our target wouldn''t escape, I still decided to ask this question onest time. "Of course! How could I let you deal with those fuckers all by yourself?" Looking at me as if I was some kind of kid who failed toprehend some basic concept despite having it exined several times already, in order to show her dedication, Ayda ignored my potential reaction and pushed the doors open. "Sir, wait please!" Instantly shouting as soon as she got off to the streets, she seeded. For now, only at bringing the passing wizard''s attention to herself, but as they say, Rome wasn''t built overnight. "Who are you?!" Seeing a random girl dressed in almost whorish outfit rushing at him, the wizard that was unlucky enough to appear in bad time and in bad ce was baffled. But that didn''t stop him from putting up his guard. "WHO ARE YOU?!" Before Ayda would have the chance to get anywhere close the distance where she would be a threat, I managed to catch up to her. Noticing yet another person frantically rushing towards him, the face of the wizard changed. Now, he was full of focus,mitment and sheer fucking will. Just like a certain character from the popr action franchise named after the said character. "Great Wizard! Finally, we found one!" Instead of actually entering the zone where either of the two of us would pose a threat to the wizard The two of us simply fell down to our knees and started praising to whatever the god we had to pretend to believe in! "Say what?" Just like I hoped for, our umon action managed to catch the man off guard. While he still kept his defences up, the puzzled look on his face gave away his curiosity to learn more about the reasons for our stupid act. And the exnation for it was exactly what I was about to provide for him. Isn''t that how earth grew so advanced in terms of technology? Provide what people seek for, and they will do anything in their power to repay you. And to keep you by their side so that you could keep providing for their wishes! "Oh great sir, you can''t even imagine how big of a relief it is to finally find you! I thought those damned witches would get to us before we could find some help!" Chapter 29: Eh? Chapter 29: Eh? "Are you fucking insane?" or "I can''t believe you want to do this!". Those two sentences were what I expected to hear from Ayda when I revealed the details of my n to her. But what I heard was "Well, since you think that has a chance to work, let''s do it!" instead. And here she was now, half bowing and half losing her bnce caused by a sudden desire to stop from her initial mad rush. With my body bent in a simrlyical position, we could only hope that the wizard that we chanced upon would at least find it amusing, and hopefully interesting to learn just what the fuck was wrong with our heads. "What the fuck is wrong with your heads? What witches? Are they chasing you?" Still baffled by the currently urring situation, the middle-aged man looked at the two of us as if we were some kind of mental cases. But once his eyesnded on Ayda, his pupils suddenly widened as he took a step back. "Sir, before you say anything, I know. I know that she seems to be a witch but in reality, she is a sleeper agent." I was risking here greatly. But I didn''t really have much choice regarding the vocabry here. While I could take my time to exin what a sleeper agent is in words that anyone would understand, it would take time. And time was the most essential bit in the ongoing event. "Wait a second What?!" Still unable to make the ins or outs of the situation, the wizard looked at me with the hope of receiving some answers. And I was happy to oblige. "Sir, she saved me just before those damned witches turned me into a heretic like the rest of them. It''s only her doing that saved me from that disastrous fate. But for some reasons, those witches keep chasing us. Maybe it''s for the vengeance, maybe they don''t want to lose face Or maybe I have something of a potential to be a somewhat strong one amongst their ranks But I don''t want to spoil my blood with the markings of the devil!" Before this entire action, I took an entire day worth of lecture from Ayda of all the slurs that wizard used to condemn the witches. In their attempt to establish wizardry as the sole way of using magic, they unknowingly gave me a lot of ammunition to use against one of their own right now. "Wait, but how could the witch help you out to escape from other witches? What the heck is actually going on here?!" I could only hope that the sound of my teeth nging when I realised with frustration that the man actually didn''t know the meaning of ''sleeper agent'' phrase didn''t reach that man''s ears. Thankfully, Ayda was just as quick-witted as she was per usual. "Sir, back in the days, for me, the rescue party came toote. While they managed to save me from the brainwashing of those spawns of the devils, it was toote to save my soul" Shaking her head with a worry so genuine that for a moment I managed to forget that she was an actually fully-fledged witch, Ayda continued to convince the wizard with her story. "In order to save people like me, I decided to join the witches andy in wait for a strong candidate. Given how the thing that witchesck the most are the numbers, as soon as I noticed this man, I had no other choice but to do everything in my power to save him from the fate that befell me." Falling on her knees, Ayda didn''t care at all for the crowd that already managed to gather around. After all, the more people, the better. "Sir, for some reason, those damned witches want to turn me into one of them. And I only know of one way to save my soul from that gutter." By sneakily hitting myself in my crotch, I managed to produce real tears from my ears, adding yet anotheryer of how genuine my act was. After all, who could expect that those tears of desperation were actually fake? "I think I know what you mean. If you be a wizard" Seeing that the man managed to catch on, I had to use all my willpower to not smile. "Yes, even the witches won''t dare to turn me into that monstrosity from the legends. As much as they hate all the good in the world, that''s the one thing they actually do fear." Nodding my head to confirm the wizard''s guess, I was already shaking my own hand in my mind. If this man already started guessing, then it meant he swallowed our bait all the way to his stomach and was now asking for more. People are haughty. If you ask anyone on the street, they will admit that the majority of humanity is stupid, with them holding the honourary ce in that better part of the race. This was simply how humans perceived the world. Our judgment always stems from the fact that we are the only ones feeling what we feel and seeing what we see, making us think that it is our perspective that is always right and the best. That''s why, all I had to do, was lead the wizard to the reasoning he just used and then use all my might to reinforce it! "If that''s the case, then there is no time." With the added pressure from the crowd, the man didn''t dare to dawdle on the spot. After all, outside of the potential threat of the witches'' chasing after us, he would be greatly punished if he dared to uproot themon opinion of the wizards by refusing to help right now. "You have my thanks, youngdy. I will make sure your dedication won''t be forgotten." Turning his head to Ayda as he moved closer to me, the wizard nodded his head with respect to my girl. Huh, my girl? Since when I started to consider her to be mine? While I could ask this question to myself, I was actually pretty aware of its answer. While it took me a while to notice it, I think my attachment to this fluffy piece of cuddling monster started when she called me her hero. As stupid and childish at it sounded now, when I actually thought about it But I didn''t have the time to think about it. With the wizard finally approaching me and cing his hand on my head, the most important part of my entire n was about to reach itspletion. "Master, please do guide me away from the treacherous path of those damned witches" Even with how it was all nothing but an act, it was still a strange feeling to keep insulting the witches with one of them doing the same right beside me. "Here, it''s done." Before I could even feel anything, the wizard already raised his hand from my head. "Eh?" Chapter 30: Unglorious return Chapter 30: Unglorious return "I still can''t believe that I couldn''t quite grasp it" Raising my hands to the air in the vivid expression of my disappointment in my own abilities, I could see how Ayda''s face tensed up. Between the two of us, I could say that she was the one more nervous about the moment approaching us. "I''m sorry" This girl was taking this defeat too personally. While we managed to turn me into a wizard an entire week ago, with all the other matters we had to deal with, I was now nearing the limit of how long I could stay in this world. While unlocking the other type of magic resulted in system granting me the option to move back to this world as I wished, I never managed to find out what it is to be a true mage. Despite all Ayda''s efforts to use her knowledge andter to find out more, the secret of turning that scrap part of wizardry ability that I managed to grasp and my witchcraft into the true, ancient magic, remained outside of our reach. "It''s not your fault. We couldn''t expect that it would be our ignorance to end up foiling our ns. Or rather, while I might have failed to be a true mage, I still do believe I filled my purpose here." Rustling the soft hair of this girl, I think I managed to shed a little smile for the very first time since the events back at my home. Yet Just the thought of my home and what awaited me in the next few moments was enough to get a rinse out of me. With my muscles tensing anxiously, Ayda felt what was going on. "You will be all right. I trained you surprisingly well if I''m free to put such im out." This time it was Ayda''s time to caress my face with those delicate fingers of hers. Maybe it was due to how spent a rtively long while together, but this simple act ofpassion of this girl somehow managed to calm me down a bit. But the trauma before the big day was still there. After all, in just a few moments, I would attempt to put my newly gained skills into use in a desperate attempt to save my mom! "Do you remember everything?" Ayda''s help wasn''t limited to just teaching him the witchcraft and attempting to break the enigma over the true magic. While for a long time I was already quite certain that she knew the idea of what I was about to go through, once I shared the rest of the details with her, this crafty girl decided on something. After yet another session of borderline seduction, she actually analyzed the entire situation and helped toe up with a potentially perfect way of solving my situation. From the very first second, I would step back on earth''s soil, instead of following my instincts and rushing towards my mom, I would follow the specific steps of the n that we came up with together. "Yeah. The set-up, execution and save. In this order exactly and no other." It was something that anyone coulde up with as long as they spent some time thinking about the matter. After all, what would be the point of going back to earth if I were to focus on saving my mom so much that I would ignore any danger that someone might actually kill me before I would aplish my goal? "Great. I already left a small gift for you. Once the right time wille, it will reveal itself. I hope you will find great use of it." Seeing her speak those words with a hint of nostalgia and thoughtfulness in her eyes, I couldn''t help but wonder what exactly did she do. I didn''t receive anything physical from her, but I wasn''t under some kind of spell that would make me better either. While the topic was interesting, I couldn''t afford to waste the time on pondering over it. With only hours left of the time-freeze, if anything were to go against the n and would require me to return to this ce to modify my set of abilities, this remaining time of freeze would be absolutely vital. "While I don''t really understand thanks, I guess?" Throwing those strange doubts to the back of my head, I smiled gently at the girl in front of me. Her insanely revealing attire that caught my attention before, was now nothing but the usual frame that she appeared in. As lovely as it was to be able to always findfort in the sight of her curves, I considered it more to be just an element of her general cuteness rather than something extremely arousing. "Good luck." Knowing that there was no time to waste, Ayda didn''t dawdle on the topic either. Right before I was about to turn around and cross the gate that I summoned in advance, she suddenly jumped forward, grabbed me by my shoulders before pressing her lips against my mouth. It was a strange experience. Obviously, the sensation of her closeness and her warmth, her smell, her touch but most and foremost, the taste of her lips that squished lightly when pressed against mine, seemed to be all normal, making it a perfect, goodbye kiss. But for some reason, there was something missing in it. Some kind of crucial point that I wasn''t able to pinpoint on the spot. And before I would even have the chance, Ayda rxed her hold on my neck before cing her hands on my shoulders. "I wish you all the best, Krist." Suddenly pushing me back, the girl smiled with her usual, mischievous smile. Even though no words were exchanged, I could tell what she wanted to aplish. The moment right before cutting the wire and jumping on the grenade was the moment when all the hesitations and doubts would be the strongest. Instead of allowing my cowardice to make the better out of my determination, Ayda proved that she was really willing to support me all the way, even if that meant kicking me in the butt. And then, I ced my foot on the dusty floor of my basement. For a second, I could see the rubble slowly filling up the room due to how the hole I made to ess its doors wasn''t by any means stable. Then, I jumped forward. There was no time to waste. My mother was lying nearby, right on the verge of dying and only my swift reaction could save her. Chapter 31: Resolution Chapter 31: Resolution Bursting out of the doors of my basement, I could feel both tiny and huge pieces of rubble cracking under my steps. While I was only lightly boosting the capability of my body with the feeling of pressure adding both the weight and the speed to my steps, I couldn''t imagine the effects it actually had being anywhere below the actual second phase of the normal cultivation. My perception of my surroundings slowed as well. This time, it wasn''t something as intricate and glorious as time maniption, just a feeling of urgency heightening my senses and the processing power of my mind. This was the beauty of witchcraft. Almost flying through the devastated area that separated my basement from where the garden used to be, I contemted over the nature of magic that I learned back in Ayda''s world. While the real secrets of wizardry were still hidden from me, the general idea was pretty simple. Instead of using something intangible as emotions, they would spend many years to carve out their wishes to their artefact and channel the magic through its respective points to cause different phenomena. On a small scale, one could create temporary artefacts, yet their power was generally pretty limited. But that didn''t mean those trinkets weren''t useful at all. Instead of simply running through the ce, directly towards my mom, I circled her position. Dropping a small, wooden bead directly on the ruins, I would quickly follow towards the next marking point. Each of those beads was an effect of my hard work. While I only managed to learn one wizard''s skill, I made sure to bring its designed use to perfection. Only when a huge area around my mom''s position was surrounded by a circle made out of a handful of those beads did I dare to angle myself towards the centre of this figure. Towards my mom. With the wizardry part of my mission now done, I was finally free to rush towards her. Springing without any reservation, I could soon see how she appeared to be drawing herst breaths. "Fuck" Completely ignoring the fight that my parents always advised against cussing, the situation instantly managed to overwhelm me. All the bottled feelings that I tuned down through months of exile to different worlds now returned in their full force Only to be cast away in the very next moment. I didn''t have any spare room to pull my attention away from the prize. Because my work has only now begun. Dropping into a slide, I covered thest meters that separated me from the lifeless body of my mother, but instead of catching her in the arms or even attempting to save her, I invoked the most vibrant feeling that Ayda forced me to ustom myself to. Disgust and repulsion. As soon as I felt the familiar, sharp pull on my body as if a long-unused muscle started to move, I focused my attention on the intent left over in the beads, firing up the spell hidden in their structure. Kling. As if the gears that turned the world around suddenly faced an obstacle, the entire atmosphere of the ruins seemed to stall for a moment. For the shortest of times, everything just stood in ce. And then the time resumed its relentless march, breaking through the obstacle its gears faced and unleashing a powerful road of magical energy throughout the ce! "Damn!" This was something that I didn''t expect. Focusing all my will on the familiar feeling of repulsion, I pressed against the seemingly unmovable mass of magic hanging in the air. With no flower to consume it, the area of the garden was quickly infused with the same amount of this energy that existed in the surroundings. And now, all this insane amount of magical energy that allowed people to cultivate or use other magical arts, was now forced aside, right towards the ring of my wooden beads. The structure of the formation I created was pretty simple. Instead of relying on some mystic figures or markings, I used the basic geometry and math to solve the equation of my problematic situation. With the surges of magic pressing against the active beads, the spell hidden within them finally found a source of energy. That was yet another reason why carving out a proper artefact was a long process. Once its user would lose the touch with the tool, it could be activated by any passing current of force, making it not only extremely vtile but also dangerous for the user. After all, no one would like to die from a spell one created by himself! But this time, I was going to make the full use of this property of those temporary, wooden beads. With their intent fueled with an enormous storm of energy, all they did Was elerate its momentum. This was the bet I was making with this kind of method of saving my mother. While the testing that I have done in other worlds could prove to be faulty on earth, I didn''t really have any other way to go about it. And just like I hoped for, once the beads finally shaped the free energy that was infusing the area around them, the sudden move of the magic currents created a vacuum of magic, sucking out all the remaining energy that remained within the circle. "Mom" For now, those beads were expected tost at least a good few moments. Infused to their limit with the energy that I repulsed, they could keep all the magic away from the circr area for long enough for me to actually attempt saving my mom. After all, it wasn''t that just the presence of magic was hurting her. The injuries she already sustained were already dangerously lethal. "Krist?" Hearing the weak, breaking voice of my mom seemed to break something apart in my heart. Losing all the sense of urgency, I could feel how the world around me elerated, suddenly cutting the time I had to do something by half. "Krist" Only the second time when my mom called out to me, her words managed to reach my inner self. Raising my eyes at her face, I could see the overwhelming maternal love filling her eyes. For this one moment, her face regained peace, as if all the pain and injuries were powerless in face of her determination to achieve what she was trying to do. "I can''t hold on." After a moment of hope caused by the small flush that returned to her cheeks, all my dreams were shattered by this single sentence. "I will be going to your father now." From the sad expression on my mom''s face, I realised that she was perfectly aware of the fate of her husband and my father. No mortal could survive the disaster that struck the mansion. With my knees caving under the weight of what just burdened my shoulders, I powerless fallen down on them. My eyes glued to my mom''s face only increased the insane pain that I felt while seeing her slowly wither away. Because in terms of healing her, I waspletely powerless. No matter what world, no herbs, no artefacts or treasuries would help here. As costly and hard to obtain as they were useful, they all had a fatal w that made thempletely useless in the current situation. All those items worked only because of magic. And it was magic that inflicted all those injuries on my mom in the first ce. "Mom no" After three months of exile, this moment wasn''t going as I nned it. With tears trickling down my face, my lips twisted and flinching, my entire body seemed to refuse to listen to mymands. That was the degree of my desperation, unleashed after three months of envement at the back of my tired head. "I will be going now." Contrary to what I was going through, my mom regained her peace. As little as it meant, I could tell that she didn''t feel any pain. "I''m sorry I won''t get to watch over you. But I have a request." Despite how she was already unable to move at all, I could only watch with powerless surprise as my mother somehow found the strength to move. Pushing her weight over to her extended arms, she ced her hand on my cheek and looked me directly in the eyes. I could see how her usually bright tears were now filled with thick tears of regret. As much as she didn''t want to show it, it was clear that she also despaired over all the moments that she wouldn''t have the chance to see. "Krist Sweetie Don''t be in hurry to join us, okay?" Feeling the slight vibration of my mom''s hand on my cheek, I covered it with my own palm while feeling the cold touch of the tears that flown down my face. "Can you promise this to mommy?" As soon as she uttered those words, her voice weakened and I felt her hand rxingpletely. Before I could do anything, her lifeless body fell on the sharp pieces of rubble that surrounded us, definitely ending a huge chapter in my life. "Mom" Kneeling on my bleeding legs, I simply remained in ce observing the corpse of my mother. My entire soul seemed to be stunned as if it hid in a metal bell before someone suddenly rang it. I could feel whistling in my ears. The sharp winds of the night caressed my face, making me realise that the tears on my cheeks somehow dried up. But there was no sadness in my heart. Just one big son of an overwhelming emptiness. And then I heard a rustling behind me. Chapter 32: Return Chapter 32: Return There was absolutely no way for anyone to enter this area on such short notice. Not with the insane congregation of magic that was furiously swirling just outside of the ring of my now useless wooden beads. Unless. With how everything that had the guts to be alive back when the first disaster struck was now a fertilizer for the future vegetation of this area, only a single group of people could have any chance of approaching me right now. A group of people that was close enough to watch the events unfolds, but far enough to steer clear from the touch of death that appeared here. And there was only one kind of people that could find themselves in such a situation. People that were awaiting the results of the actions of their subordinates, now checking on just what the heck happened in here. Recalling the distant memories of who I saw in this ce, there were clearly two groups. The first one stopped in their tracks right after aplishing the goal. It was this group that hid all the possible giveaways of their faction. After all, I would have to be stupid not to recognise the national military uniforms of the second force that appeared and swept the entire ce. Rustling. Hearing it for the second time, I could now be sure. Someone really had the guts to approach this site. Even the magical storm that surrounded my direct proximity didn''t seem to discourage that person. That alone earned them the right of a single nce from me. But that nce was all it took. Recognising the familiar face, now twisted in an utter shock, I could feel something weirdly twisting me from within. After all, there was no way, right? I had my suspicions for what caused this entire tragic situation. I had a hunch that it was a series of events manipted by many sides, each one knowing less than the one pulling the strings behind them. But seeing Martha''s face right now was the nail, it was the proof that this unbelievable scenario actually urred. Knowing the reason behind it all wouldn''t change the oue that I had no choice but to face right now. But still, it was what broke the emotional shield that I put around myself when bing a witch. When our eyes met, when that childhood friend of mine that turned out to be the traitor behind the death of both of my parents realised that I understood what happened, there was no fucking way for me to keep a strong hold over my emotions. It didn''te with a bang. No explosion happened, no strange phenomena - outside of the raging storm of mana all around me - urred. The one thing I could notice was that some kind of strange veil appeared before my eyes, dimming all the colours from my sight. And then it just happened. "FUCK YOU!" An internal scream, so loud that it made me think that it could break the windows in the entire city, despite no sounding out of my mouth. "I HATE YOU!" Another cloud dulling my senses appeared, turning the world around me to be even darker. "YOU KILLED MY PARENTS!" Now that I had no other choice but to ept my mother''s death, I finally noticed how little I seemed to care for my lost father. In reality, it wasn''t that I was cold-hearted towards him. My mind was just capable of a finite amount of care and emotions. Only now, with my mother out of the picture, I could nicely wrap them in the thick, dark clouds of an abyss that continued to surround me at a breakneck speed. Right now, my mother joined hands with my father on the list of deceased figures. "IT HURTS!" More and more feelings continued to grow on me. Not even bothering to pretend I had any control over them, I could only watch how those clouds of negative emotion encountered one another only to merge and turn even greater within my soul. What started with a convergence of many feelings, was quickly turning into a tangled mess of sheer hate. And it was only then when the big thing happened. Even though all of that happened in a time shorter than it took for Martha to blink. ROAR! With my limits gone, this new, tangled mess of emotions influenced the magic around me. Unable to picture a single intent that I could use it for, I could only watch how the energy started to twist, as if multiple intents continued to overwrite each other on it, constantly changing its direction. But those were the details. What desired more attention, was a huge magical shockwave that travelled away from me. At first, it overloaded the wooden beads. Snapping out of existence one by one, thisst barrier that held the two insane forces now eroded. And what happenedter, was something that even I was amazed by. The onught of the energy pulled by my tangled emotions shed with the furious currents of the magic kept away from my position by the now disintegrated ring. Without any explosion, everything that happened to be within a meter of the ring''s border simply disintegrated into dust. And then the energy bounced. With the force of the storm sprung outwards, the entire neighbourhood was instantly covered with what could be only described as a maelstrom of magic,parable only with the greatest hurricanes known to humanity. On the other hand, the dark energy of my clogged feelings converged all back on me, only reinforcing the second wave of destruction that my emotions casted. And now, there was no other force to contain it. Sinking deeper and deeper into the madness of that dark ball of an abyss, I couldn''t see anything any longer. My eyes turned blind, my ears turned deaf and my mouth turned mute. Surrounded with nothing but the onught of hate, pain, regret, depression, desperation and all the other feelings that I kept away from myself to keep my sanity, I couldn''t find anything that could connect me with the real world any longer. The one thing that was left for me, was total and relentless destruction. Only by decaying this entire world, humanity could atone for what it did. Rise. With my body following this dangerous thought, I should be worried or scared, but I felt nothing. All my ability to experience was stolen by that ck blob of darkness from my heart. It was now the sole governor of my mind. The second wave came and went. With some kind of miracle, I could see Martha still breathing. Most likely one of the fancy tools that her rich parents bought for her on a whim. The parents that my own family pulled out from poverty and gave the tools to build their small fortune. The parents that had to order this attack on my home, resulting in the death of their benefactors and my own parents. "Traitors." Oh, something new. It seemed that this word somehow found a way out of my lips. But it didn''t matter. Martha, the only being capable of thought in the proximity was long gone from the world of the conscious. Feeling the surge of energy moving my hand around, I could feel the darkness suddenly starting to converge on my palm. As if sucking all the energy from my surroundings, this insane force once again appeared in my hold, perfectly ready to turn that traitorous bitch into a mess of separate atoms. And then I felt a pull. At first, it wasn''t that strong. Something as if a mosquito missed its shot, breaking its sucking tube under my skin and now attempting to fly away, still lodged into my body. Then the second tug. This time, as if some kind of child attempted to pull my attention. The next one was heavier, reaching the realms of a friendly nudge. The one after that was already painful. Wait, that bitch opened her eyes For the briefest of moments, I could see how she was attempting to understand what was going on. For one second, her eyestched on to me, just like when she would look out for me back when we were kids, trying to assess whether our y actually hurt me. And then, the next pull nearly knocked me out of my feet. Chapter 33: Pull Chapter 33: Pull Strangely enough, this feeling was familiar. While I couldn''t point out what this strange, intangible forced that continued to affect me made me remember, but I was sure that it wasn''t the first time I felt something like this. Yet, as curious as I was for a moment about the source of this tug when the next one literally knocked me over several meters to the back, I realised that I had no time to waste now. Whatever this strange force was, it definitely aimed to achieve something. And what could be there to achieve in the current situation? The answer was pretty obvious. I was the only interesting thing in the entire area. As long as someone managed to notice how the previous disasters somehow missed me, they would be quick to notice that I had to have something to do with them. There was simply no other choice. And that meant that someone was actually attempting to kidnap me? As rough of a guess as it was, I didn''t dare to waste any time on thinking about useless stuff. With the balls of condensed energy still growing in my hands, I quickly came out with a n. Each time this sharp pull grasped me, I could sense something like a delicate vibration of the air. But this time, when my senses picked this event up, I jumped lightly. Not in order to reach some ce, but to make the job of this pulling force easier. Only to drop those balls of energy down as soon as my body was suddenly dragged through the air! KABOOM! With how meaningless everything around me seemed to be right now, one emotion managed to keep its individuality in that clogged mess of feelings that now governed my soul. And it was hate. It was hate that prompted me to turn this ce into aplete sphere of disaster. At least in this way, no one would have the chance to profane sanctity of what used to be my home. This time, I wasn''t safely hidden in the epicentre of the event. This time, the force of my own action found its way to my body. In the instant when the magical shockwave created by those balls of energy I dropped washed over my body, I felt as if literally every cell of my flesh started to deteriorate and decay. This pain was notparable to anything I experienced previously. But even the torture of having my flesh peeled away from my bones was nothing whenpared to the endless darkness of my current emotional state. Yet, as I was carried through the air by thebined forces of explosion and that pulling force, I noticed that strangely enough, all those dark emotions that powered up my rampage They were strangely detached from my mind. It was hard to pinpoint when it changed. My vision was no longer blurred, my other senses were back to their peak. While I still felt the insane burden of that enormous desperation, it didn''t seem to be a clog of my own emotions, but rather something distant, irrelevant. And all those emotions that momentarily turned me into a god of destruction disappeared when an insane wave of shock shook my entire body. Because even before the momentum my body gained due to the sh with the shockwave could be dampened, that familiar pulling factor suddenly changed my trajectory. And once I noticed where it was pulling me, that shock was reced with an absolute terror. Without even a clue who might be interfering here, I was now pulled towards the open doors of my basement! "Fuck" Forced awake from my previous daze, I attempted to hold on to something. No matter what was causing it, I had to stop this force from pulling me into the basement. Not because it was dangerous or anything, but because it was the only ce that made me different from your average mortal. An average mortal that invoked devastating magic and killed entire swaths of country''s soldiers. In other words, the secrecy of the powers from my basement system was the lone lifeline that remained in my hand! But that force was relentless. Still in the air, Icked anything that I couldtch onto. Only when I crashed against the fine sand that all the ruble around was turned into by the previous events did I manage to point out why did this feeling of being pulled felt familiar. Wasn''t this one of my main ways of moving around the world before I returned to earth? Before I could figure out what did that corrtion mean, my body was already crashing against the hard floor of my basement. In the next moment, the doors of this secretive ce of mine closed all by themselves, only to open again in the very next instant. And then, the pulling force that vanished for a moment, returned with double the strength to what it operated at before. This time, dragging my powerless body right towards the entrance. From the familiar glow around the doorway, I could tell that it was no longer connecting the room to the rest of the earth. Now, it was a portal back to the world that I left just a few moments ago. As if a thick rope pulled me by my waist, I fellow towards the doors Only to instantly end up in Ayda''s soft arms. With my entire body sinking into herforting warmth, I somehow managed to regain just the tiniest bit of my will to live. For just a second, my life had a meaning once again. But that second passed without any regard for the state of my mind. "WHAT THE HE" "Shush." Before I could even voice out my infuriated protest, Ayda moved her hands before locking them behind my back while forcefully pressing her entire body against me. With her lips hovering directly above mine, I could only feel her smell, her warmth, her presence "It will be okay" As soon as my body powerlessly fell to the ground, forcing the girl to lower herself to my level as well, Ayda''s hands found their way to my head. Feeling her delicate fingers brush through my hair as she caressed my face, I felt a different form of fire being born in my body. Something that I dampened for a long time was now starting to act up, with the burden of saving my mother no longer pushing it down. "Come here" In just a sh, Ayda deprived herself of all her clothes, appearing stark naked right before my eyes. With her nimble fingers already working to unbutton my shirt, her eyes were filled with an emotion I couldn''t quite put a name on. "Let mefort you properly." Chapter 34: Breakthrough (*) Chapter 34: Breakthrough (*) It was hard to describe what was going on from the moment when I fell into Ayda''s embrace. Bit by bit, my pieces of clothing somehow disappeared from my body as the girl continued to rub her soft skin against me. Before I could even realise, all those tangled emotions I felt before were now reced with just one. Lust. This time I was perfectly clear that Ayda was reaching the pinnacle of her emotion control over me. I could feel how she openly held a strong grip over my emotions, only adding the fuel to the fire in my loins. Then, I felt her lips on my neck. With how powerful if not shocking the sudden explosion of delicate pleasure overwhelmed my mind, I could swear that I somehow managed to return as a ghost to the ruins of what used to be my home. Standing there, just a few steps away from the dead body of my mother, I could see someone else entering the fray. This time though, there wasn''t anyone else for that person to fight with. Suck. An unbelievable feeling brought me back to the current reality. Unable to move my body at all, I could only look down just to see the girl wrapping her lips against the head of my penis, before sliding it all the way to her throat. With the sudden wave of warmth, the facture of her tongue ying around with my shroom, the suction whenever she pulled out a bit It was all too powerful not to take over my mind. Only capable of sitting down and enjoying the moment, I felt my consciousness wavering once again. This time, that familiar person that dared to invade the sanctity of my home, was standing above the body of my mother. Then that man kneeled. For some reason, I could tell that it wasn''t the first time that I saw this man. Pain. A short, sharp moment of strangely arousing pain when Ayda scrapped her teeth against the side of my shaft, totally engrossed in blowing me up. With the storm of her hair caressing the skin of my thighs as her lips continued to make a short work of my defences, I once again lost my grip with reality. Kneeling over my mom, that man picked her up in his arms. His face filled with sadness and a strange determination. And in the next moment, he suddenly vanished from the ce along with the corpse that I hoped to bury once I would return to the earth. At the same time, my consciousness returned right into Ayda''s arms. Now, that she was done wetting my shaft, this girl moved her entire body up, nesting herself on top of myp. Feeling her nipples tickle my cheeks, I was overwhelmed with the delicious smell of her body. But this girl was as far from stopping as she could. Rubbing her most important ce against my erect manhood, she reached down with her hand to guide my tip fo her core. Once set in ce, she wrapped her arms around my neck, pulling my face right into the soft pillow of her breast. "Here, here" Slowly lowering her hips down on my shaft, I could feel Ayda''s inner folds tensing up as my shroom prated her body deeper and deeper. While the insane pleasure that only a woman could give to a man started to take over all my senses, I could feel the tingling of Ayda''s flesh. Just as I attempted to raise my eyes to see what was going on her face, she stopped caressing the back of my head, pulling on my hair to raise the angle of my chin instead. Freed from the soft embrace of her breasts, I only had a moment to observe the world before my vision was covered with Ayda''s teary face as she lowered her head down for the kiss. This time, it wasn''t just a gentle peck. As soon as our lips shed, she forcefully nailed herself all the way down on my hips while pushing her delicious tongue inside my jaws. "More" Half-moaning directly into my mouth, Ayda tensed all over before suddenly rxing herselfpletely. With her womb caressing the head of my penis, her tongue entangling with mine as our saliva mixed up and her arms pulling me even closer into her embrace, this girl let down her guardpletely. All at once, all the feelings of sadness, loss, desperation and powerlessness washed against my mind, only to disappear as quickly as they appeared. Or rather, only for their burden to suddenly move evenly on both mine and Ayda''s shoulders, at the same time as her own emotions united with my mind. My entire body tingled. Connected on such an unimaginable level to this girl, I could feel the pleasure that she was receiving from my penis, I could feel the deep and unending care that she held for me, I could feel her own sexual drive, pushing her to ravage me on the spot, stopped only by the greatest ocean of worry that I could ever imagine. But at the same time, I discovered something else. While all of her feelings pointed at the obvious reason behind her emotions, there was aplete and utterck of love in her. There was no love for me in her. But there was no love for her family, her friends, her life, her habits, her everything else either. At this moment, I suddenly connected all the dots. What Elenair said to her back when we met with him, suddenly made sense. Her mad desire was obvious now. Her wish, her hope that turning me into a true mage would help her fulfil was in the in sight right now. For a moment, I could even see the day when she was deprived of this emotion. A strange scene. A man lying on the ground, with a soldier rapidly lowering his axe towards the man''s body. The perspective of the picture made it easy to understand that its recipient was also pinned to the ground. A quick scan of the area revealed a bloody, broken pike that held the original owner of this vision in ce. Then, an insane burst of power appearing out of nowhere, only to sweep aside anything that even remotely seemed to be threatening. And just when the man that the owner of this memory wanted to save managed to get up, an unending sea ofck of understanding and confusion, when he approached the owner of the perspective only to pull out a knife with a weirdly fulfilled smile before forcing it into the neck of the person that was experiencing this moment. Returning to the reality just in the next moment, I realised that Ayda was already shaking her hips up and down, unable to hold her own lust back. With her breasts wiggling to the rhythm of her moves, right in front of my face, I felt my lust growing so insanely big, that it broke through some kind of barrier that was holding me still. Reach. Finally free to act, I grabbed Ayda by her waist, before pushing her down on the floor where we mingled. With my penis already as deep inside her moist pussy as it could reach, the moment our lips parted, Ayda released a long, exhrated moan. But instead of letting me take the lead, she shot her arms up, locking them behind my neck only to pull me down on her soft body. Wrapped in her warmth, I continued to swing my hips to and fro, feeling how her insides tightened over and over again on me. And then it struck me. Despite the clearly mental source of this realisation, I could see its effects in in sight, as if it was something entirely tangible. Ayda didn''tck the ability to feel love. It was just the channel in her soul that was responsible for inducing it that was clogged with some kind of an impure mess. The same impure mess that I was now easily able to notice in the magic that surrounded me. "So that''s the case" In this moment of enlightenment, I didn''t dare to waste this strange force that seemed to guide my hands. Raising above Ayda''s body, I forcefully broke out of her embrace, leaving her with a regretful and disappointed expression. But instead of stopping the act, I ced my hands down directly on her supple breast, sinking my fingers in her delicious flesh. As pleasant as it was to get all touchy-feely with her now, my aim was entirely different than getting an even stronger rinse out of myself. It just so happened that the channel in her soul that caught my attention happened to pass by this exact area. Feeling how the inner folds of this mysterious girl desperately wrapped against my penis, pulling it even deeper into her moist insides, I noticed one more important fact. While it was messy and thicker than usual That strange matter that blocked that channel, was still magic at its core! "With this, you are now cleansed" Following the flow of the moment, I pulled at that strange matter, forcing it outside of Ayda''s soul. At first, it seemed that it was so heavy that it would be impossible to move it, but once I dedicated myself strongly enough to the task, I could see how this messy mass started to move Only to suddenly breakthrough from the confines of Ayda''s soul, clearing her channel out of the element that blocked it! It was like an explosion. As if all her bottled love and affection suddenly found a way to flow properly. In fact, it was exactly what happened. All at once, Aydas entire body tensed up, with a strange light appearing in her pupils. Before I could notice anything, her upper body moved up, putting her once again on top of myp. "Krist" Moaning right in my face, Ayda once again reunited our lips, greedily devouring my saliva while ying around with my tongue. Moving her hips with what could only be described as utter lust and desperation, she moved her hand on my own wrist, only to pull my hand right on top of her breast. Jumping up and down on my rod, her emotions turned into a mess of happiness, joy, pleasure and excitement, all sinking in the endless sea of affection directed at me. With our feelings mixing up together, I could feel how desperate and jealous for my attention Ayda turned to be. I could feel how she could only think about my dick ravaging her insides at this moment, awaiting the concluding splurge that would mark her insides with my presence. And then, something inside me clicked. Chapter 35: First true mage in ages Chapter 35: First true mage in ages [Congrattions!] [Host havepleted the mission of the world :AK48BTTMLFT:] Those were the only two messages that I managed to notice before the heat of the moment forced me to just swipe the rest away and focus on the insane world around me. Who could''ve known that the magic was so damn everywhere? Visible in form of a slight aura of everything, I could sense its currents, see how vtile it was in certain ces and how calm in others. But most of all, I could both see and feel the magic coursing through Ayda''s veins. Whenpared to what was going on with her previously, her energy was now more wholesome, as if that clog on her ability to feel the love was making her capable of only using the worse sort of the energy, only elerating the rate at which the other emotions of hers were blocking up. One could say thatpletely losing even a single emotion would put a witch in a vicious circle, where each usage of the craft would lead to even a faster rate at which his or her limits would dry up. But none of that matters when her sizeable bust continued to dance right in front of my eyes as her hips took it personally to wriggle everyst bit of life from my penis. "More!" Not holding back her moans just like she didn''t hold any emotions that appeared in her soul from revealing it in its full glory to me, Ayda continued to move her hands all over my body. From how frantic and desperate her actions were, I could tell what was going through her head even without that emotional union of ours. She feared that this moment where her wish was fulfilled, she would suddenly lose it all. That it would all turn to a dream. That it would all turn to a lie. Just like I hoped for that kind of oue when I saw my mother drawing herst breath. In one moment, all my excitement died now, turning the insatiable desire in my loins into nothing more but a dull pleasure. But instead of getting dishearted by this change, Ayda simply slowed her movements down, turning from an aroused beast to a caring lover. With her arms gently wrapping around my head, my face was once again brought into the softness of her chest. Feeling her own cheek enclosing theplete and three-dimensional encirclement of my head, I felt what she was trying to do. Not with my intelligence, but with how Ayda''s excitement turned into a tender worry. "I know I can''t bring her back" Hearing the girl whisper those words into my ear strangely enough managed to get a rinse of me greater than her moist bottom-lips still tightly embracing my penis. Maybe because so far, she would only allow the moans to escape from her mouth, making this first tangible sentence seem even more important? "But please, do not return to that dark ce. I managed to save you this time Take the responsibility for returning my ability to love, and don''t make me worry like that ever again." Tensing her grasp over my head, Ayda made me thought that I would die for a moment. As much as being suffocated by breasts seemed to be the absolute y-of-the-game legendary achievement, when it came to the moment when my lungs started to crave for the air, I realised how little this kind of title meant whenpared to the terrors of suffocating. Putting that aside, I finally could take some time to actually cater to Ayda''s emotions that continued to wash over my mind. Thanks to that, I finally realised just how unending her devotion was. Maybe because I fulfilled her wish, maybe because of the time we spent together or maybe just because once her ability to love returned to her, she wouldtch on the first thing alive like a newborn pup? Even with the ability to read everything that this girl felt, I was unable to answer this question. And frankly speaking, with the void created by the death of my parents wreaking havoc in my soul, this overwhelming care that filled Ayda''s entire being somehow managed to soothe my desperation. "I''m sorry. You warned me and yet" Wrapping my hands around her waist only to pull her away to let some air into my lungs, I said with an apology, even though there was absolutely no need for that. Ayda could read my feelings directly from my aura, making her perfectly aware of my thoughts. "It''s okay, just stay like that" Once again pulling me closer in her hug, Ayda simply remained motionless like that, allowing the warmth of her body to calm my raging emotions down. It was at this moment that I also realised that while I felt the pain of losing my parents It wasn''t anywhere as powerful as I expected it to be. While it was only a guess of mine, it could be caused by the fact that over thest three months I managed to get used to this idea, as much as I wanted to refuse it. And now, with this girl catering to every tiniest desire that would reflect in my actions or emotions, wrapping my loneliness, insecurity and sadness in the sea of her affection This damned girl somehow managed to calm me down. Something that just a few moments ago, I wouldn''t consider to be possible. "By the way, congrattions." Feeling that I finally managed to fight back against the overwhelming expression, Ayda loosened her hug a bit, distancing her face from my shoulders just far enough to look me in the eyes. "Thanks." There was no point in detailing what she was congratting me for. Not only could this girl read it from my own aura, but the fact that I managed to fulfil her deepest wish by restoring her ability to feel the love already made it obvious what happened. "How does it feel to be the first true mage in ages?" Chapter 36: Systems warning Chapter 36: System''s warning "I know this might sound strange, but" It wasn''t as if I was shy to brag about my newly obtained abilities. In reality, I was pretty confused about them myself. Because in the grand scheme of things, I didn''t receive any insane power-up. The truth of the magic didn''t magically reveal itself to me, allowing me to peer into its deepest secrets. No. Nothing of that sort happened. But something did. The easiest way to exin what was going on with me right now is topare my current state with someone born blind, only for the supreme technology to cure his eyes. It was exactly this kind of feeling with how rich in information my entire surroundings were. The reality didn''t change at all, that I was certain of. It was my perception of it that made my experience so much different. "... everything changed, but nothing has changed at the same time. I think I changed." It wasn''t anywhere close to being simple to exin. But Ayda didn''t seem to be discouraged by this at all. "You don''t need to fret about it. I know from the records that only a true mage can truly fathom the scope of the true magic. No matter how hard you will try to exin those concepts to me, I''m not outfitted to understand them." Closing my mouth with a gentle peck to his lips, the girl smiled while slightly moving atop hisp. With our initial lust now gone, we were now simply enjoying the sensual intensity of being connected together with someone we both deeply carried about. "Thanks It''s really confusing." This was the only thing that I could understand about this new world around me. Even looking into the ability chart of my system didn''t help, but confused me instead. Because with all my bonuses from the other titles and sses that I received previously now gone, a single point was elevated so high that it turned the multi-dimensional graph into a segment of a straight line. [Depth of magic connection] That was the name of the point that deformed the graph of my basic statistics so much. And it was all because of another line that shed gently above the graph. [Localy Ultimate ss] [True Mage] [Grade: A+(Upgradable)] [Precision: 30%] [Level: 1] This was the very first status that had a level on it. But what did that plus meant? What was that precision thingy? While I could understand what upgradable meant, I had absolutely no idea how could I upgrade this thing. In other words, even the system that was supposed to help me out with everything Or was it? Thinking about it, I never really thought much about this system in the first ce. Given all the events that were happening in my life, given the apocalypse I read too many wuxia, xianxia and iseakai novels in my life to bother thinking about that stuff. Instead of worrying about it, I just went with the flow. But that didn''t mean that my imagination of the system was right on the point. "Are you all right?" In the end, all that system achieved with those stats that it has shown to me Was actually filling me full of motivation. As stupid as it might seem, it was the levelling that made it so alluring to keep improving my abilities. In my endorphin deprived mind right now, the sense of aplishment, direct goal and affirmation after it was exactly what I required to function. And the drive to get more levels, to get stronger, to change my life for better Was something that I had to cast away the instant I heard muted footsteps. "Ayda" Not daring to stop our gentle intercourse, I ced my hands on her waist before sinking my fingers in her flesh just beyond the point that could be taken as yful. "Yes?" Sensing the change in my emotions and connecting the dots, the girl silenced her moans by pretending to wait for my answer. At the same time, I could hear those silent footsteps stopping. "I love you." Taking a moment to make sure the girl understood my intentions, I started rushing through all the steps that I could take. So far, my entire power was limited to the pitiful cultivation I earned on earth and the witch abilities that Ayda taught me. Not some kind of great arsenal, given how I prepared for days to use just three abilities of mine. For the fight that could happen at any moment, I had nothing to defend myself with at all. Nothing outside the things that I couldprehend on the spot. At least, with the general cleaning of all her emotional routes that I performed on Ayda''s soul, instead of being an established witch and fighter, I returned her talent to its absolute peak. And that alone should suffice ording to the guess I had from everything she said and did so far. "You know what, I think a cup of beer would be a nice addition to the moment" Smiling at the girl in front of me, I caught her hips before lifting her up to the point where my shlong was finally freed from the grasp of her pussy. Putting her gently back on the bed, I stood up from our resting ce and approached a small table where we prepared some wine in case of my return and an urgent need to figure something out. But I would never expect it toe in handy in such a way! The rustling at the doors made it clear that the guests were about toe in. Calming myself down, I caught the bottle of wine in my hand with its opening directed towards the doors. While it was an improvised idea, repelling the content of the bottle while holding on to the ss could give us some time by blinding the first invaders that woulde in. [Warning!] [Secrecy of the system in danger!] [Forcing return!] Just as the doors opened up, a string of system messages suddenly covered my vision. As my eyesid down on the faces of the attackers, my vision blurred before I suddenly reappeared back in my basement. [Granting emergency time-freeze of 1 day] [Emergency mission - secure the safety of the basement] [fAiLuRe MeAnS dEaTh] Chapter 37: Explosion Chapter 37: Explosion "What the fuck" Those were the only words that I was capable of uttering when I realised what happened. This sudden summoning back to earth left me lying on the floor, stark naked. After all, all my clothes were left somewhere on the floor in the room I was staying with Ayda! Thankfully, all the preparations I did way in the past were paying off right now. Standing up, I quickly ran to what was left of my huge drawer, salvaging whatever clothes I could find there first. After all, if I was dressed in some stupid way, then I could make myself both memorable and impossible to recognise to whoever dared to infringe on the sanctity of my house. And that wouldn''t be the case if I were to run out in my birthday suit! But in reality, I did all of that only to keep myself busy. While the first thing that I did over moving back to earth was confirming that Ayda''s world was still frozen in regards of the passage of time, the fact that I could still help her and potentially save her from the attackers was only capable of calming down my worries. But not my heart at all. I couldn''t just go and calm down after almost taking part in a potentially deadly fight! In fact, I still had troubles toe to terms with that new reality of mine, where everything that I strived to protect was now gone! Yet, I couldn''t just sit down and whine. Not with my system forcefully bringing me back to earth. Not with the single thing that could still change my life and let me get my revenge being threatened by some random person entering the premises of what used to be the residence of my family! Shaking my head to get rid of all the spare thoughts, I quickly dressed up in a bizarre outfit made out of several pieces of clothes that were supposed to fit together with their other respective parts. Now prepared to at least conceal my identity, I pulled the hood of my hoodie tightly on my head before making my way towards the doors of the basement. "Come on, Krist, you can do it." To say that I was worried would be a gross understatement. I still have yet to learn how to properly use all my powers, but now I was supposed to put them to a test? Or what was my current mission to begin with? All I knew was that someone was threatening to discover the existence of my system. The only simple way for it to happen that I could figure out on the spot would be noticing how seemingly untouched the basement was amidst all the chaos and devastation that once used to be my home. But I couldn''t do anything from within the safe confines of this special ce of mine either. If I wanted to achieve something, I had no choice but to get out. I slowly pushed the doors open, using just a tiny bit of my repulsion to push aside all the rubble that could make a sound. "... before I find him!" For some reason, the simple, cheap doors that my parents installed in the basement were capable of totally enclosing the insides from whatever was happening outside. That''s why I twitched in surprise when as soon as I opened the doors, a familiar voice of Martha reached my ears. "Mydy, it''s still not safe here! Who knows whether the gas tanks and other applicancies were already destroyed or not. I might be stronger than many others, but in the face of a huge fuel tank exploding, even I will be powerless!" Given my position at the stairs to the basement, I was unable to see who else was on the surface level of the ruins. But it didn''t matter all that much either. For now, I managed to learn that it was truly Martha''s family that was involved in this personal tragedy of mine. As for exactly which bodyguard was speaking with someone I once considered to by my friend and crush, it didn''t matter at all. "I''m responsible for everything that happened here. I''m responsible for our people dying. I''m responsible for Krist" With Martha''s voice breaking, I confirmed one guess that relentlessly appeared in my head for a while right now. Because it was hard to believe that this girl would be cold-hearted enough to sell me to the military. I knew her for way too long to be capable of believing in such kind of bullshit. While one could argue that a year in this new, post-apocalypse world would be enough to change her or her circumstances to force this kind of decision on her, I firmly believed that while she was indeed at fault for everything that happened here, I just couldn''t shake the notion that in reality, she never meant for anything bad to happen. But did that excuse her for what she caused? "Mydy, it''s not your fault. You only wanted to protect him and his family. Who could''ve known that those bastards from the governor''s office would strike us here Well, speaking from the point of view of family, we got that bastard to expose himself for almost no cost at all." Once those words were uttered, a deadly silence hung over the entire area. Hearing those devious words, I could feel my entire emotions going amok. Low cost my price. Even if I could forgive the man who said those words disregarding the lives of his own people thatid down their heads in the disaster here, the same couldn''t be said about how he disregarded the lives of my entire family! "Begone, you trash." Hearing those words said with a deadly cold voice of Martha, my assumptions about her role in this entire situation rified even more. "Mydy, but that''s the truth! I can even see your fathermending you for such a great sess!" For the change, the voice of that damned bodyguard turned from confident and happy to a rtively surprised and worried. This might also be the reason why he moved from the clearly dangerous topic of my fate to the possible benefits that Martha could get out of the entirety of the situation. "Didn''t you hear me? Get lost. You are no longer a part of the family." "Mydy, I''m worried that you do not have the authorisation to give such orders. And you, Mark. Be a good boy and make yourself scarce." A new voice entered the fray. From how it waspletely devoid of any emotions that could hint at the state of mind of whoever was speaking, I could tell that the true powerhouse entered the scene. And that also meant that my time was running out. "Mydy. The one thing that Mark said was right. We do not know when something" Catching up on what the man was going to say, I realised that this was my chance to at least temporarily get rid of them from this ce. In a sh, I scoured my entire mind toe up with some kind of viable way of forcing them out of the ce that could extend to another legend I would have to createter on to keep everyone away from this ce. And just by noticing a broken piece of DVD disc that somehow found itself lying right before my eyes, I managed to connect the dots ande up with a way to kill a few birds with just a single stone. But like any good legend, it had to start with a huge boom. The worries of Martha''s bodyguards were actually right. As far as I knew, my family was pretty paranoic when it came to the matter of natural disasters, making my father put all the vtile parts of our formerly existing house, deep underground. With only a concrete, dry well connecting the surface to the technical part of the house that kept us all warm through the winter, didn''t the fuel tank hidden at the very bottom of it resemble a loaded bullet at the bottom of a makeshift barrel? Struck by this idea, I instantly went into action. With how all the devastation that killed my life on earth only happened on the surface, I could tell that the fuel tank hidden deeply underground could still be unaffected by it. After all, its explosions would be otherwise pretty visible. "... dangerous will happen here. We do not know when the military will return to check on their missing people. We need to get out of this ce as soon as" Waiting for just the right moment to not make the explosion seem suspiciously timed to the man''s words, I used the only emotion I was pretty fluent at to wreak havoc in the technical room underground. Repulsion. Even though I couldn''t see it at all, I could still feel how all sorts of equipment was pulled from its usual ce under the influence of my witchcraft. And that was way more than enough to metaphorically put a wrench in the wheel of the fuel generator! CRACKABOOM! Even hiding in the stairways to the basement didn''t make me immune to the effects of the explosion. All at once, a huge chunk of the ground itself seemed to lift, before its cover was ruptured, releasing a dense ball of mes that instantly covered everything in its path and range. Daring to take only a nce at what the other party was doing, I could see bodyguards jumping at Martha, only to instantly pull her away from the scene. By the time the pieces of rubble carried to the skies by the explosion started raining down on the surface, there was no more any signs of the human presence in the entire area. "The question for now is Should I fake being a high priest of Boruta or Svarog?" Chapter 38: Grand Plan Chapter 38: Grand n (Author''s notes) Boruta: vic (mostly polish) mythical figure. Started as pagan, vic demon (you might know it as Leshy from witcher game for example) that under the influence of Catholicism and Polish "Sarmatian" culture turned into the figure of a random, rowdy noble from the mountainous region, bearing all the physical traits that the nobility was known from at that time, and said to be the kind of devil that tempted nobility, court and other high-society areas. Nowadays, the name of one of the folklore Devils. Svarog: A god from vic faith. Lord of celestial fire, heavens and cksmithing. He was considered to be the father to all the other vic gods. Known as the unactive god (Perun was the highest one due to that fact) (End of A/N) It wouldn''t be a stretch to say that almost any other young adult in my position would simply break. From the loss of my family, through the safety of Ayda hanging on a loose thread, all the way to a sudden mission of securing thend of disaster in a way that wouldn''t draw all that much attention The things that were on my head would easily be enough to break most of the proper adults with all their experiences that Icked. Yet, as shameful as it was to admit, this system of mine provided me with something that I craved for with all my soul. Albeit misty and unclear, it still gave me a road to follow. That''s why, instead of sitting down in a corner only to weep and await rescue, I decided to make my own move. With the threat of someone discovering the basement gone, for now, I returned to its safety to gather the thoughts. While some might say that I should cover the entrance or do something to make the further risk of discovering it as small as possible, it wouldn''t do all that good against the search of anyone daring enough to step into thisnd of disaster. For now, I sat down on the bed I still had in my basement, taking a while to gather my thoughts. In the immediate future, I was free to do almost anything. It made my heart ache to admit it, but in the current world of magic and wonders, a disaster of this scale wouldn''t draw much attention at all. It''s just a matter of getting used to this kind of events. And that meant that I had some leeway to figure out the exact details of the idea aimed at securing this ce from any further scrutiny. Because the idea itself was alreadyfortably lodged in my head. It oscited around the thing I did to get rid of Martha and her people from this property. And now, it would be the most essential point behind the entire story I would craft for this. "Boruta or Svarog That''s a good question." Both of those names held a certain meaning in the culture of my nation. While only a part of the folklore a year ago and a part of old, paganic beliefs, now they could be easily turned into perfect disguise. "I think Svarog would be too direct" Muttering to myself, I drew all the possible scenarios from what would happen after picking each of the choices. In the end, I decided to go with the name that depicted one of the devils. Not only would it allow me to appear more business-like to any of the potential allies I would find,ter on, but I also found it to be way more eptable appearances-wise than referring to a long lost faith of vic folk. Now with the middle-term goal decided on, I could finally start making my moves. As for the long term, it was obvious even before I went to hide in the basement. Kill all those responsible for my family''s death. But for now, I had a lot of work to do. Both long and middle-term goals couldn''t be achieved with just a single day of work. They were something that one strived and worked towards for a long time. Otherwise, they would be considered as short-term in the first ce. But what mattered right now, was that I was about to make my first step in this strange, new life of mine. "First off, some preparations." Despite already being clothed, I moved towards the remnants of my drawer. While I was ncing through what was hidden in it before, I caught a glimpse of something that I could make use of right now. A suit. There was no point in going for extremes or excessive theatrically with the clothing part of the show that I just started preparing. It was better to keep it both simple and elegant, toy the foundation of other parties taking me seriously. The next thing was something that I could work on in the meantime. Given how I was going to pretend to be some kind of high priest of the reborn Boruta cult, I had to find some ways to connect the disaster that happened to this ce with the grand appearance I was about to make as soon as I would finish preparing. And did I mention that the explosion of the fuel tank would y a major role in any of the stories that I woulde up withter? Finding the suit wasn''t that hard. While it was quite dusty and unkempt, it could still do the work, especially with how grand my appearance looked like in my head. Once I finally managed to get myself into the ufortable material of my new staple outfit, I was now prepared. Not to reveal my n and do aing out for the sake of the public. Not at all. While everything I nned to do would serve to help me achieve my immediate goal, I couldn''t do it all just like that. First thing first, the audience. Only once the sun would rise and the people would start to gather to sate their curiosity. Only then my n could start since public respect and acknowledgement was one of the crucial tools for my n to work. And the other thing that I had to prepare, was both my mentality and abilities. And there was no way for me to practice them in the confines of the basement. That''s why, instead of risking destroying the system that I wanted to protect, I could use one of the conveniently empty ces that I could enter at any given time I would like! Stepping forward, I ced my hand on the doorknob of the doors. Given my experiences so far, I knew I didn''t need to speak out at all. As long as I willed something that was withing system means, it would fulfil it. Opening the gate to the very first world that I ever visited with its help, included. Chapter 39: Earths underworld Chapter 39: Earth''s underworld *Small time skip for those potentially confused* Back before the apocalypse, there would be absolutely no way for me to roam the streets freely. It would only take a short moment before someone would recognise me Assuming that I would be able to leave the area of my devastated home without someone stopping me in the first ce. But that was all in the past. Right now, dressed in the fancy suit unburied from the depths of my drawer, I waszily walking down the streets, aiming to enter one of the areas that the parents would warn the kids to never wander anywhere close to. As surprising as it might be with nearly the total copse of the social order and insane power wielded by the new governments, the crime thrived in this new world. Even though the usual robberies and othermon crimes were by a huge margin, no longer a problem with how one was nearly unable to assess the power of a potential mugging target, surprisingly enough, this worked pretty well in favour of the underground world. The underground world that I was aiming to enter right now. The area that I moved into used to be one of the richer developments in the entire city. With fancy buildings made of pretty resistant materials still standing, the former elite that had this status just because they were born in the right families no longer could keep those houses for themselves. Reced by those who could make use of the new reality to grow, what used to be an elite area for the nobles of the formermunist regime that was gone only on the surface, was now the headquarters of all the organisation that didn''t bother to obtain the legalisation act from the government. "Stay where you are!" It didn''t take long before someone noticed me, instantly jumping forward. Stopping his approach just a few meters away from me, the man that bothered with me ced his hand on the handle of his sword. Just this act alone was enough to show how greatly the world has changed. Right now, guns were mostly useless. If my memory about the cultivation ranks practised on earth was correct, as long as one reached the middle stages of the bodily reinforcement level - something that one could do with just a little bit of talent and enough time to practice - the bullets would no longer be capable of harming him. And obviously, the same couldn''t be said about sword attack executed of someone of the same rank! "Who are you?!" The first reaction of any sane person would be to covertly take a few steps back before apologising for infringing on the safety of the local organisation with one''s sheer presence in the ce. But with everything that happened to me, I could no longer be called a sane man. Right now, if I dared to take a single step back, the entire rouse with the high-priest identity that I wanted to create would fall apart before it would even properly start. "Which party is in charge of the fourth district?" Instead of allowing the bodyguard that saw me first to force the flow of the conversation that he was used to on me, I ignored his questions and asked one myself. "Didn''t you hear me? Who the heck are you and what do you think you are doing here? This is a restricted area." While the tone of the bodyguard didn''t soften at all, his facial features did. While a normal person could only guess what that meant, with how I was easily capable of reading the mans'' emotion from the flow of energy through his soul, I could tell that his attitude towards me changed already. It seems that not backing off against his aggression was the right call to make. "I will take off and open my bag right now." Once again, instead of answering the question properly, I only informed the man what I was about to do before proceeding with those simple actions. Allowing my backpack - a piece of my outfit that didn''t fit my suited appearance at all - to slide down my arm, I heavily ced it directly on the ground. Unzipping the lock on it, I made sure that the content inside was easily noticeable Before straightening myself up once again and gently kicking it forward. "Wha What the heck is this?" With countless treasures that I found in the other words falling out of the backpack directly on the road, the bodyguard in front of me shook in surprise. Taking a quick nce at the flow of his magic, I attempted to read his emotions But I failed at it miserably. While I could see every detail of his cultivation, his soul and the entirety of his magic, it didn''t mean that I knew the meaning of it all. Outside of the simple emotions that I noticed back in the Ayda''s world when fucking and cuddling with her, I was pretty much oblivious to what different states of energy meant. "This? Those items are just a token of sincerity that I want to offer to whoever is in charge of the fourth district. My sect intends to buy off thend that was torn by a recent disaster there, so I think it would be better if you stop stalling" Before I could finish my words, a smallmotion exploded in a nearby mansion before a perfectly groomed and dressed man came out of its front doors. Without even saying anything, this strange person simply moved his head to the side. As if he was pulled by an invisible leash, the bodyguard that stalled my steps instantly jumped away. "It seems that I found someone I can finally have a serious talk with. Now then, dear sir, would you be as kind as to invite me inside, or are we going to conduct serious business right on the streets?" Chapter 40: Fake Chapter 40: Fake "Forgive me myck of manners, please,e inside." After taking his time to look at me with his starkly blue eyes, the man smiled before bowing slightly and turning to the side, with his head pointing at the doors of the mansion. While he was acting pretty cultured, the fact that he was the very first person that I couldn''t see through most likely meant that this man was someone I had to be wary of. But his appearance didn''t change anything at all. When dealing with the underworld, one had to be careful as heck. It didn''t matter whether the powerhouse that backed the illegal organisations made an official appearance or not. "I do apologise for imposing on your kindness." Nodding my head in response to the man''s invite, I moved past the bodyguard while leaving the backpack and its content directly on the road. In reality, the item that I hoped to use to buy the rights to my own damned house was safely kept in the pocket of my suit. The stuff that I left on the road consisted of some simple herbs that I plucked on a random basis while walking through the other worlds. The thing that I wanted to offer to the organisation, on the other hand, was something that even I had to put a lot of effort to obtain. "Please, do not mind it at all. Follow me." For some reason, it seemed that those illegal organisations had their members more polite than the official government. After all, it wasn''t a newly made mafia that invited my home, but the military of the damned ruling party! But this didn''t matter at all. I wasn''t stupid enough to believe that this kind of appearances that the man was putting right now was the only way in which he interacted with others. After all, if he wanted to just be nice, he would do a far better job working in one of the remaining service jobs rather than as the bouncer for one of the most important underworld organisations in the city! Following tightly after the man to the insides of the mansion, I had to give my absolute best not to gawk at the riches that its walls contained. Even though most of those valuable arts and monuments that decorated its corridors no longer had their initial value, given how limited the art from before the apocalypse was right now, one could argue whether this kind of art wasn''t the best way to safekeep one''s wealth. "Please,e inside. I will notify someone suitable for the request that you put. In the meantime, please, feel free to feast on the snacks and drinks inside." After a long walk that seemed like an attempt to overwhelm me with how rich the insides of this mansion were, this strange man finally pointed me to the doors of the waiting room. With the image that I wanted to create of myself in my mind, I simply nodded my head to signify my gratitude before pushing the doors open and entering the room. Just like the man announced, the insides consisted not only of what looked like the mostfortable lounge set that I ever saw in my life before. But before I could even have the chance to try the snacks that the man offered to me, I heard a knocking sound. "Please,e in!" Taking my time to sit my tired ass on the most fluffy chair I have ever sat in, I shouted towards the doors. While it was strange for me to invite someone to the room where I was nothing more but a random guest, this was the only response that I coulde up on the spot. But to be perfectly honest, given the appearance that I was attempting to fake, this kind of silly arrogance was something I had to get used to. "I hope you didn''t wait for long, sir. Now, if you may enlighten me as to what your purpose in visiting our family is?" It was strange. Maybe my idea of how the underground organisations worked was faulty from the very beginning, but shouldn''t that person already know what was my reason for being here in the first ce? "..." Instead of answering the question, I simply cast a short nce at the man, beforepletely ignoring him. Turning my attention towards the snacks, I poured myself a cup of what looked to be a simple, fruit juice. With how important this mission was, I didn''t dare to even try a single sip of any kind of alcohol, even though my young adult''s soul craved to try the drinks that I would never be able to afford otherwise. "I''m sorry" This time, the doors opened up without anyone knocking on them to announce their arrival. With a young man most likely just one or two years older than me getting inside the room, the atmosphere instantly turned cold. "Grizwald, the heck are you doing here?" In one instant, the young man looked angrily at the man who attempted to question me previously. With the ss now filled with the juice I picked, I simply moved it towards my lips while watching the events with curiosity clearly written on my face. "Young master" The reaction of the fake was hrious. To this point, I always thought that the inner schemes within sects and families were a thing of the novels alone. Unless this situation was just a y aimed at getting some sort of reaction from me, then I couldn''t really find any other reason for it to be happening right now. "Scram." Not even bothering to pay even a bit more attention to the fake, the young man ignored that person and moved to the inner part of the room before sitting on a small sofa beside my chair. "Now, I do apologise for this incontinence. Grizwald He never got over the fact that he is no longer in charge. Now, how can the Baskar family be of use for you, sir?" Chapter 41: Condensator Chapter 41: Condensator "I don''t want to waste your time, young master, so I will allow myself to get right to the point." While I couldn''t be sure whether the man that was sitting in front of me had any right to negotiate anything with me, in the current situation I had no other way but to just go with the flow. "It is my wish to obtain the full rights to thends where very recently a disaster devastated." Sending an eye to the young man in front of me, I pretended to find it easy not to smile. In reality, though, speaking about my very own home like that was strangely painful. Not because I had to buy something that I rightfully owned but because by speaking like the way I did I was forced to acknowledge everything that happened there as a thing that was already set in stone of the past. "Oh, as much as I would like to be of help, describing the location like that" From the way in which the young man responded, I could tell that the first aim of my visit to this ce was achieved. Now I could be pretty sure that the families of the underworld have yet to take notice of the strange events that happened in the area of my house. Obviously, there was a chance that this young master of the crime family was attempting to fool me. There was a chance that his family already knew about the strange events that took ce there, making it the reason why this young man could be ying dumb with me. But given how I was about to openly approach the topic, it didn''t matter at all. "I''m sorry, but I can''t give you the exact location. It''s not that I don''t want to do so, I''m just new to this city so I do not know the proper names for each ce." Smiling with hints of apology appearing in my eyes, I used this expression to answer the wry smile of the man. "Are there any points that could guide me to figure out the ce you are talking about, sir? Would a map of the city be of any help?" Compared to that strange man from before, the soul of the young master sitting beside me was fully open to my eyes. While I was as far away from calling myself the master of reading emotions as one could be, it seemed that at least this question was sincere. "Anything that could help with locating the ce" Putting my hand on my chin and rubbing it while pretending to think over the question, I made my face suddenly light up in happiness. "I know! A huge fireball appeared there during the disaster. If my information is correct Then the military itself could be involved with that ce. While I do not want to throw shade at our government" Starting with a sentence that could prove to be disastrous when spoken in the ce I was in, I suddenly smiled by bringing the corners of my lips as near my ears as I was capable of. "Who am I trying to lie to? Shaming the government for what they did there is one of the main reasons why my sect suddenly took interest in that ce." There was absolutely no point in hiding that fact. While revealing that the military was involved with the disaster that struck my home could be considered to be a bad move as it would definitely bring a lot of attention there, there was a different side to this tactic. By openly admitting that my aim was to pick a fight with the government, I was basically offering to take the burden of keeping the attention of the officials! And that was an opportunity that no crime family would dare to miss. "I see In this case, I think I know pretty well what ce you are talking about. Just before we will move to the more business-aligned form of talks, would you mind telling me how do you n to protect yourself against the revenge of our beloved pseudo-democratic government?" The question that the young master of the crime family asked wasn''t something that I expected to hear. Ignoring the part about the government as given my experiences in other worlds, I was quite negatively aligned with this idea, the question about my means of dealing with a force that could use both state-wide propaganda and even the military was something that I couldn''t avoid. Be it in the discussion right now, or in the real-life scenarios that were bound to sprout one after anotherter on. "I won''t need to protect myself against them by any means. They won''t dare to raise their hand at the Boruta''s high priest. As for what would happen if they were stupid enough to do so" Instead of answering, I simply smiled before reaching towards the inner pocket of my suit. Doing everything as slowly as I could to make sure the young master before me wouldn''t take it for an attempt to pull a weapon and threaten him with it, I brought the funny item that I scavenged and brought back from the apocalypse world with me. A small tool, nothing more than a funny, little toy when one put it into the perspective of the other treasures I could find them as long as I would have a bit of free time to do so. But for the people on earth, for whom even the simplest tool made by a magically technical civilisation, was worth its price in antimatter, as gold didn''t evene close to its added value. "This thing here is a condensator. I think some of your stronger people already faced the problem of their growth stalling considerably due to the magical energy, qi, god''s grace, diffused sperm or whatever your pick of calling that new energy is, being too thin. Please, tell me. If I''m willing to use this funny tool capable of condensing the energy from the given area and releasing it in form of injection Are you even capable of imagining what I will be able to use to convey the message that it is not worthy to fuck around with me to the government?" Chapter 42: Raising the flag? Chapter 42: Raising the g? " It''s a pleasure to do business with you, sir." Just as expected, the tool that was more thanmon even in the world that suffered through the apocalypse, a tool that no one in that world would bat an eye for, was more than valuable on earth. In the future, scientists from my homeworld would definitely figure out a way to create both this simple tool and all the other kinds of insane stuff. This was something I had absolutely no doubts against. To a certain degree, the fact that I was willing to pull out and share those items, even if it only in very limited quality, was a variable that would contribute to the development of local, earthy magical technology. While with the first few things that I would introduce to this world it could be quite problematic, as soon as the scientists would get their brains going, reverse-engineering those items definitelyid in the scope of what my brethren were capable of. But for now, given how I was absolutely the only source where those items coulde from, I was the only one who could decide what their price would be. And the young master of the Baskar family was more than happy to be the first person to receive such an insanely valuable item from me, especially after the same man that caught my attention before attested to its capabilities after a short test. "The pleasure is mine. On that note, I hope I will be able to count on your help from now on. While I can''t promise you any tangible benefits right away" Instead of trying to openly bribe the organisation, it was better to keep our rtionship vague. I had no doubts that as soon as they would find a way to make use of me, they wouldn''t back down from anything to obtain the most of me they could. That''s why any action that would reveal even a single of my cards would be putting me at the disadvantage in the long term. "I think I understand, but just to avoid misinterpretations that could put a wrench into our further cooperation, let me reiterate what the agenda of the Baskar family will be." Smiling kindly in response to my cut-off sentence, the young man clearly didn''t want to leave the negotiations on any even remotely ambiguous tone. The usefulness of the tool that I offered them was simply too great to make use of this kind of shady tactics that they might employ when dealing with others. "For now, we will help you to officially take over thends that you desire and make sure your grand appearance there will be befitting the respect that your sect desires. As for the future, in case you will need our help, further negotiations will be required. In case of some urgent scenarios appearing, my family will do its absolute best to provide support within the limits of what we are capable off" This time, it was the young man who cut his sentence off, unwilling to say the less pleasant part of it out loud. "The price will be multiplied ordingly both to the efforts used and the danger of the potential rescue. That''spletely understandable and eptable." Reaching forth with my hand, something that was almost eradicated from the human culture with a rtively recent outbreak of a pandemic, I shook the palm of the man in front of me, before pulling out my umbre. Who could''ve known that by the time our talk would be finished, the sunny weather of the typical bright day in what used to be a central Europe could turn into an ugly, dark and wet area fully conquered by the outpour of rain? Well, anyone who spent a considerable amount of time in this location. Nodding my head as I left the mansion, I couldn''t spare myself a single look towards the booth of the local bodyguard. Now that I approached the ce from the outside, its location was perfectly visible, giving out how little the old defence systems were worth in this new reality that all the humans had to face. ording to the settlement with the Baskar organisation, I had to take my time with my walk. And instead of trying to sabotage my very own ns, I simply took a stroll through the rainy streets of the town that once used to be my home. In just a few moments, I left the high-end area of the city, entering what used to be the main shopping district of the city. No matter whether I looked to the left or right, I could see familiar ces with loads of memories that I made around those ces. A clothing store - now closed - where I went on the first quasi-date with Martha. A fast-food chain - unsurprisingly, doing even better than before with the influx of strangely addicting meat of the magic-infused animals - where I and most of my friends would go after the tiring sses. But despite nearly half of the shops in the area turning into abandoned ruins, there were some others that sprouted like never before. Potion shop, enhanced weapons shop, full-marks marriage hotel where one could practice the dual cultivation with girls happy to help under the pinkish lights that illuminated the entire building As long as one was capable of joining the ongoing trend of cultivation, all those ces would be the new hanging-out spots, offering tools and materials to further one''s strength. But for me, this entire damned ce was just a symbol of both the power of the families like Baskar and how much the world has changed in the past year. Given how I was supposed to be the absolute trash in this new, cultivation-based world, this was my very first time when I took pleasure from walking through this ce. Not because in this new cover of mine, no one would scoff at my presence here. I was happy because just byparing what was offered all over this ce with what I could easily obtain in any of the worlds that my basement-located multiverse system could take me to, I could easily understand how I identally climbed all the way to the absolute peak of the world. That is, on the basis of the items I could obtain alone. In terms of strength, even if I were to master my recently obtained abilities, I could find it troublesome to deal with the real powerhouses of the new era. And that reason alone was more than enough to avoid meeting with them at any cost. But for now, my stroll took already long enough. Suddenly redirected my steps as if I saw some kind of middle-school friend that I was fully unwilling to waste my time on, I turned around and entered one of the small, side-alleys. In just a few steps, I managed to leave the shopping district behind me. Now, all that was left, was to go back to my house, create a hugemotion and just let the Baskar men do the rest by spreading all kinds of rumours that I wrote for them. All that was left, was to reach for the ce where my house used to be, without anyone stopping and recognising me on my way there. Wait, did I say that out loud? Nah, I wouldn''t be that stupid. While I didn''t really believe things like raising up gs existed in a harsh, real-world "Wait, Krist?!" Chapter 43: Meeting the master Chapter 43: Meeting the master I never expected to meet this person out in the streets. I struggled to even tell how many years it has been since Ist this man. What could be the odds? "Krist? Wait, what are you doing out in the rain?" Just like always, this damned guy failed to read the atmosphere. Not taking any excuses, he instantly would sweep in and enforce his own, silly and lighthearted atmosphere in the room. Never caring for what it was before either. "Wait, I have a better question. The heck are you doing in Oh." This time, he managed to catch me by a surprise. When our eyes finally met, his words suddenly stopped before his face turned serious. In one instant, the happy-go-lucky behaviour that didn''t fit his age disappeared from his aura. "It''s a pleasure to see you again, master." Bowing my head with no reservation, I mmed my fist against my chest. Despite the rtively small change, only now I was willing to acknowledge the presence of this man. Only now, the person that inspired me to follow both schr and athletic path, was truly standing before me. "I''m d to see you again, Kristoff. What happened?" Once this man was serious, not even with my enhanced abilities to read other people I would evere close to the abilities he had. Even though he had a pretty weak affinity with magic of the world, it would be hard for me to imagine anyone capable of stopping his march if he were to be bothered with conquering the whole world out of boredom. In my eyes, the only thing preventing him from reaching for the crown of the entire world wasck of ambition. But I also had to ount for the fact, that although I truly revered him, there was no denying that my current opinion of him was a creation of a kid''s mind. Without the ability toprehend the meaning of his actions and his words, I created a convenient image of this man, as someone capable of everything. Only time would tell whether the true master of mine was indeed someone as exceptionally qualified for everything as I remembered him to be. "Quite A lot. Using the scale that you taught me Well, my current situation is that I''m in a pool of shit, all the way to the nape of my neck. And just now, I took a big breath." For the first time in a long while, I realised how much this man influenced my life. While I only knew him for four years, he shaped my personality at least as much if not even more than my parents during that time. And it was his self-defence teachings that allowed me to survive the chaotic days when the apocalypse begun before the rtive peace of the new world was established. "I" Looking at me with his eyes turning into slits, it didn''t take long before my master''s face rxed. "I understand. Do you need some help?" Hearing those words, I couldn''t stop a slight smile from appearing on my lips. As much as I knew that he would react like that, I couldn''t just rely on his help alone. Not only because I didn''t want to burden him with my own problems. But also because as one of the leading martial artists of the old earth, he was right in the middle of the circle of people that now took over the world. "No. Not for now at least." There was no way I would fill in my master yet. Knowing him, if my situation would catch his interest, then no matter how much I would struggle, he would be able to easily uncover my rouse. But that would also leave him a message that I do not want him to meddle yet. Given how all my thoughtfulness was steeming from his lessons, this was the only way to at least temporarily, keep him out of my way. "Okay then. I can see how tingly you are, so I assume you are in hurry. Whether it is a girl or a fate, do not let either of them wait." And there I had it. Random andpletely normal sentence one would say in a passing, yet when it came out of my master''s mouth, I could tell how little I managed to hide. Because to believe in how he managed to chance his words to perfectly describe what was going on in my life right now, I just wasn''t naive enough. "Thank you, master. May our paths converge soon." Lowering my head before this monster of a man, I could only feel gratitude. While indirectly, he saved my life on more asions than I would count. From the ability to go day by day as a member of the new, absolutely lowest social ss, from how I didn''t need to fear for my death all that much, all the way to how it were his teachings that made my mind resilient enough to keep pushing forward, no matter what. Leaving the man right where we met, I hastened my steps whenpared to the initial pace. With the slight dy caused by this unexpected meeting, I was starting to risk runningte. And I wouldn''t want to missperform on the very first day of my debut! Chapter 44: The show starts Chapter 44: The show starts The closer I got to where my house once stood, the thicker the crowd became. Not because everyone wanted to visit the site of the disaster. To be honest, I had no idea what kind of means the Baskar family used to gather the people here without revealing any details about what was going to happen to them. At this point, I couldn''t help but scoff at theck of my phone. While it could still be hidden somewhere amidst the ruins, unharmed thanks to sheer luck. But the task of finding out its location would be way harder than just buying a new one, not to speak about how risky it would be to keep using my old number. It would be far easier to just buy a new one. The one problematic thing about it was that I had no way of checking the inte to see whether some kind of interesting even was supposed to take ce in here, exining at least a small part of the crowd. Once I finally saw my neighbourhood, I took a moment to grab a small pebble from the side of the street. Hiding it in the closed palm of my hand, I started practising the fine-tuning of my basic witchcraft, trying to lower down its scope to be just the size of a said pebble. Inching closer to the area of my interest, I could see that ever since I left, someone put a shing tape all over the ruins. Neatly surrounding the area and cutting it off from anyone''s entry, it proved to bepletely useless as a deterrent as soon as I approached it. Not even bothered to slow down, I simply passed through the tape, breaking it apart as I went. While some people saw it, given no fireworks of any kind, my presence has yet to be truly noticed. Moving deeper and deeper into the ruins, I found the general middle of them before stopping on top of a small pile of rubble. By now, a small part of the entire crowd slowly started to notice that something was amiss. Not sparing the publicity even a damned nce, I opened my palm. In there, instead of a simple pebble, a small yet intricately carved cross. Even though the inferior quality of the base material, by gently carving it out with my repulsion and mending my mistakes with the concentrated wish. Giving it just a moment for some of the better-sighted people that were already observing my every move, I quickly hid the small item in my pocket before putting my hands together, as if for prayer. And now, the hard part of my task started. Reigniting the remaining fuel resting in the broken system of my house wouldn''t be any problem at all. Doing so without causing everyone with me included to burn down in an instant explosion was the hard part. By the time the majority of the people that the Baskar family brought to this ce with their influence was keenly watching every tinies move of mine, I finally managed to find the bnce. Standing down as suddenly as I could, I instantly jumped down from the pile to one of the few spots where the ground wasn''t covered in ruins. By the time my feet touched the hard ground, my emotions were already running amok. Not because something big happened. Because I was doing something big instead. Bit by bit, the remnants of the liquid fuel, gas and all kinds of other burnable elements infused into the ruins around me while I used my repulsion to slowly lift up what used to be my house. At this point, no one could have any doubts that something huge was happening. Even if initially they might be just curious what I was going to do, when huge boulders and broken pieces of metal started to rise above the earth with me in the very middle of the event, I could tell that the number of cameras that were currently filming my actions would be equal to half the number of eyes that watched me. After all, even in this post-apocalypse world, events of such scale would instantly bring the attention of the lucky passersby. "May the fire that brought their demise now cleanse their bodies and give them a sacred and unbroken rest." Speeling those random, mystically sounding words just loud enough for some of the crowd to hear it, I finally snapped my finger against the ignition button on the lighter I bought on my way here. Without any machines running, I couldn''t find any easier way to start the show than manually firing up the fuel. While in the future I would have to find a way to do something like that with my magic alone, for now, I had no other choice but topromise on my options. "What the heck?!" "The fuck?! "Someone call the police!" As soon as the crowd erupted in voices, the fire of my lighter reached the residue and diluted fuel that permeated the ruins. In just a sh, the levitating rubble exploded with the ze. With the even distribution of the fuel amongst the entire area, as soon as the gasoline ran off, I made sure to keep the mes even hotter than before by simply infusing my magic in them. While I have yet to fully understand what a true mage meant, this was the one thing that I managed to realise a long time ago - after my breakthrough, I could see all forms of connection that magic made with the physical world, and to a degree - influence it. And now was the time to see what the limits of my abilities would be! Chapter 45: Foiling the plans Chapter 45: Foiling the ns The fire was everywhere. No matter where I would direct my eyes, a thinyer of fire covered the entire mass of the floating rubble. Even though it was burning incredibly slowly, from how the metallic parts of the ruins continued to blush more and more, one could tell that its temperature was no joke. "Okay, let''s do it" The one good thing about having those remnants floating around me wasplete privacy that it gave me. With its constant whining, concrete shattering and metal snapping, no one could hear what I said under my nose. With the fire covering it all, one couldn''t watch my actions even from the bird''s eye. But that didn''t lessen my presence at all. With the stage set, there was no point in waiting. Steeling myself for what was about toe, I focused my entire self on the strange mixture of both repulsion and attraction. Something that would be illogical and impossible for a simple witch, I was now capable of as a true mage. One could say that the emotion-based magic was easier for women, while numerical and categorised part of it was easier for men to conquer. In this kind of situation, the true magic would be a mix of the two, inviting the mystical element of emotion to the spells and forms, all the while introducing some practical senses into the emotional side of things. And right now, this mix of both repulsion and attraction, allowed me to keep condensing the hot rubble. From the volume akin to how big the entire house was before the disaster, it slowly eroded in a thin ring, not even half a meter high. From then on, I continued to push it together, all the way to the point where I finally turned most of the ruins into a huge boulder, before cing it right beside the entrance to the basement. Darkness. Once I let go of my emotions, I realised how insanely tired I was. Given how this was my very first time of using the magic at such arge scale, I was unable to monitor how much of my own energy I was using up. But as tired as I was, I couldn''t rest easy yet. For now, the position of the boulder protected the underground stairs to the basement from anyone''s attention. And right now, this attention was something that I finally had to take care off. "Your deaths might be untimely, but your souls will rest in the Lord''s grace forever." Bringing one of my hands up to my face, I hanged it parallel to my nose before lightly nodding my head towards the boulder. Nothing concrete. As soon as I would try to do something too openly, people would notice that I wanted them to assume something. Right now, I had to limit myself to small gestures that someone would do when celebrating something perfectly alone. "I hereby im thisnd to be the sacred ground for the Boruta''s cult. May our guide''s blessing be aplenty on thend where his apostlesy." This time, I allowed my voice to be a bit louder, just hearable enough for the first rows of the crowd to catch on. Turning myself to the said crowd, I acted as if I only now realised that someone was watching my actions. Putting up an angry expression on my face, I looked at them before slowly uttering. "I guess you guys did exactly the same thing when their fate was fulfilling. Standing by the side and doing nothing" Speaking loud enough for the majority of the crowd to easily hear me, I could see how my words could bepared to a burning match thrown at a pile of dry wood. In one instant, sparks started appearing, fighting for the dominance in turning the crowd into an explosive, angry mob. "Disgusting." This wasn''t a part of the n that I discussed with Baskar family. ording to our deal, I was just going to say some stuff that would bring the attention of the eye of the public to me. But meeting with my former teacher changed my mind a bit. Just a few moments worth of talking with him made me remember all the stuff that he would talk about while throwing me around the gym with no mercy. Yet, howe calling an entire mass of the people ''disgusting'' could contribute anything towards my ns? That question was something that only someone incredibly naive could ask. After all, one would need to just nce over the history of politics to realise that no matter the ce, not the man who wanted to better everyone''s lives would rule, but the one who would promise to make the life of the others worse. Listening to the great ideals, noble thoughts and grandiose speeches was something that worked pretty well in the history books, not with the people standing right in front of one''s face. When dealing with a crowd, the rules of propaganda were fairly simple. "Anyone who will dare to step on this sacrednd without the blessing of Boruta will be met with the retribution of our glorious cult. And we have no mercy for those who are daring to take the title of the enemy of the people!" Point the one responsible for one''s misery, and he will fight him with way more energy than he would put in improving one''s life. As much as having a benevolent ruler who would truly care about important problems was nice to brag about to others, when it came to the deepest levels of human nature, having a burly guy with a heavy log in his hand was still and would remain for the years toe, the main archetype of a person that people would like on the throne. That was the influence of humanity''s long years of tribalism. As much as we would like to aspire to be better than that when the push woulde to the shove, no one would care about highly moral ideas, devolving back to the bunch of mindless cavemen only oriented at eating, fucking and surviving. "Now, then" Giving the crowd a moment long enough for them to generally calm down and let their curiosity of the reason behind my actions take the better of their anger, I suddenly smiled and looked at the people with expectations in my eyes. "Who would like to get the job of building the sanctuary here?" This was finally the part where the Baskarian people shoulde in and take the job. The job of rebuilding this ce into a new residence for me and my imaginary cult was already paid for with that condensator I offered to them. Now, all I had to do was wait for their people to volunteer for the job. "I''ll dly take the job. " Hearing the voice, I felt my entire body twitching. But it was impossible, was it? There was no damned way that he would appear here and wreck my ns right now, wasn''t there? With the crowd parting in order to let the volunteere in, I had no other choice but acknowledge the fact that my master ended up messing up my ns in the end. "I hope you didn''t dare to think that I would miss on such fun?" With his aplished smile decorating his face as he dragged the same bodyguard that I put my guards up around when back in Baskar mansion by his cor, my master threw the lifeless body of the Baskarian man before turning around to the crowd and spreading his arms to bring all of the attention to himself. "Velianpany now officially takes the request of this man to turn this ruined area into the greatest temple that ever graced thosends! May it be known to all, that any attempts at sabotaging this job will be taken with full seriousness as an act against the VarkaVelian corporation!" Chapter 46: Crypt Chapter 46: Crypt "So that''s what happened. Krist I won''t pretend to know what you are going through right now, but I need you to realise one thing." After the crowd finally dispersed, my master calmly approached me before cing his hand on my shoulder. From how serious his face was, I could tell that he had no mischief on his agenda. "Right now, you need to keep moving. I know how strong you are, but everyone can be broken. Only by moving forward, you will be able to push the grief far enough into the future, to grow strong enough to cope with it once it hits." Retracting both his arm and his entire body by making a few steps to the back, the expression of my master''s face changed. "But let''s put that matter aside. I never expected you to be capable of anything even remotely close to what you did here. Was it some kind of trick or?" That''s my master for ya. Instead of depressing over the stuff no one could change anymore, he would instead focus on what could still be achieved. This was just a single element of his mindset that made him such a powerful ally and such a dreadful enemy. "Partially a trick, partially a set of abilities that this sect provided me with. Speaking of which, was thatpany you mentioned, master, a real thing or just a publicity stunt?" Moving my eyes away from the ce with the greatest amount of rubble, I looked to the side, at my master''s face. "While I do have some businesses to my name, only a single one is at least remotely connected to construction. But worry not, I will call some people and get this ce back in shape. The question is" Given how my master knew my real identity, there was no damned way for him to not realise how big of a ruse this entire event was. But even though he knew, I continued to speak of this Boruta sect I created in my head as of something that actually did exist. And that was the simple clue to what my master really wanted to ask about. Money. No matter how much the world changed, money still ruled over everything. But it didn''t mean that my master was someone who would demand payment from his former student in such a situation. What he wanted to ask about, wasn''t whether I was capable of paying for his help or not, but whether I wanted to do it or not. After all, if I had a huge organisation backing me up, I alone might not be favourably inclined to raking favours from others. "This matter is already dealt with. Instead of using my own connections, I just went for a local workforce." Smiling with a prideful look to my master, I was quite curious how he would react to this. After all, one couldn''t im it was an easy decision. In theory, by giving away the job of rebuilding most of the mansion to someone else, I was risking that it would end up rigged for their own uses. Given the insane value of the item I already gave them, it would be no wonder if they would try to do something funny with the walls to make them grow not only ears but also eyes. "Are you sure its the best possible choice?" Even though my master didn''t seem to be dissatisfied with how I decided to solve this matter, it would be too naive of me not to expect him to fully approve of my actions. "I''m aware of the potential downsides and I''m fully certain that theyck the means to truly threaten my interests." Instead of trying to prove how great of a deal I made or even bringing up the topic of who I was working with and for what price, I decided to keep those cards as close to my chest as I could. As much as I didn''t want that to happen, I couldn''t discount for the chance that my former master was in cahoots with the current government! "I see. Well, you have my number so just give me a call if you will need any help. Be it as my student or as a representative of a greater organisation. See you again!" Most likely noticing how I couldn''t wait to get to work, my master bid his farewells before leaving the ce altogether. And as sad as it was to part ways with the only person who could fathom the depths of my desperation in this world, what I was about to do in this ce couldn''t have him be the observer. Thanks to using quite a lot of the remaining fuel from the underground technical room to raise the temperature of the rubble, most of it already converged into a monotone mass. With pieces of stic, concrete and metal turning into an uneven form of liquid, I could more or less freely shape it looks. "Okay let''s start with the crypt." Muttering to myself, I ignored the exhaustion that was slowly taking over my body before changing the shape of the former ruins a bit. ording to my n, instead of hiding away the existence of the basement, it would be a better idea to officially announce its existence But not as a home to the system that could easily turn the bnce of this world on its head, but as the crypt where the three deceased cultists of my sect would rest, bing the holy protectors of the area. "Aaaaand done." Forming this surprisingly stic mass with just my repulsion and attraction alone proved to be quite a challenge. Thankfully, I didn''t need to turn the former ruins into a piece of art. Just a single dome ced over both the entrance to it and the basement itself was more than enough. With that done, one had to first enter the single hole in the dome in order to even notice that there were stairs digging underground hidden under this barbarically simple construction. But instead of the end of the hardships, the finish of this step only meant the beginning of the torture. The torture that I would sign up for on my free and unrestrained will. Pulling out a phone from my pocket, an item that was faithfully lost in the basement before the day of the reckoning, I dialled the only number that appeared on my contact list after the day my previous self died. "It''s done. You cane over now." Chapter 47: Magical house Chapter 47: ''Magical house'' "What the fuck are you doing? Drop that beer and get back to fucking work!" Surrounded by something that could only be described as chaos, I had no other choice to but to ept how wicked the reality was. No matter where I would look, nearly the entire area where my house used to be, was now under a full-scale renovation. Right at this moment, the number of machines, men and tools that Baskar family organised made it seem as if this ce would house the greatest shopping centre in the entire city instead of just a modest mansion. But obviously, no matter how powerful that family was, they couldn''t do anything about the culture of the builders in this damned country. "But sir, how can we work without our fuel?" Fearlessly standing up against the foreman of hispany, one of the workers protested. So far, I knew about this reality only from the online memes that spread around the localworks, but now I had no other choice but to suffer through its existence on my own. "I don''t give a fuck. Get to work or forget about your pay." Instead of bothering with the workers, the foreman simply threatened them before moving to the next group of workers under him. Even though I, the main contractor of the entire project, was right on the spot, not a single person in the entire mess that surrounded me seemed to care about this. In fact, it wouldn''t be an overstatement to say that there was a lot of hostility in the nces that the workers would steal on me from time to time. Given the great economical depression that followed the apocalypse and was only now starting to recede, it would be no wonder if the project of rebuilding my home would be the very first huge investment that would happen in the entire area. And just like one could expect from a country where entire intelligence was killed off during the insanely turbulent period of thest two centuries, instead of being happy that someone finally provided them with work, the workers on the site seemed to be more jealous about the fact that I could afford it rather than happy they could earn a bit themselves! Quite obviously, the fact that the area directly surrounding the premises of the basement was a no-go zone for absolutely anyone only served to increase my alienation from the workers, making it even easier and more convenient to hate me for some imaginary reasons. "Sir, at our current rate, we should be done within a week. For now, we prepared some mobile housing in the areas that will be developedst. Once we are done with the housing part, we will have to ask you to move to your new home though, sir." With several foremen rushing their people everywhere in the area, the supervisor of thepany that held the prim over this investment orderly reported the progress of the work to me. "Good. I will be leaving for now. Do I need some sort of keys or anything?" It was quite easy to notice what this supervisor was talking about. In the ce where my mom used to cultivate her little garden, three long trailer houses stood. As much of a scar to that ce they were right now, given how the workers were only starting to dig out space for the foundations of the future mansion, it was still a better alternative over living in some hotel nearby. After all, it was better for me to stay as close to the system as possible so that I could react to any danger if it were to arise! "Have safe travels, sir!" Contrary to the underlings that did the actual job, both the supervisor that I just finished talking with and all the architects, engineers and the other more advanced workers were pretty nice to me. Compared to the simple workers that could only think about the neck of the new sk they would soon empty out, those people who lost their jobs due to the apocalypse couldn''t be any happier that their skills now found use again. "Oh, before you go sir" Just as I was about to leave, the supervisor I was talking with called after me. "Yes?" Turning around, I could see the man rushing towards me. "I''m sorry for holding you up, sir, but the official contractor attempted to contact you some time ago. Given how we were told not to disturb your prayers" This was the one bullshit that Baskar family themselves were ordered to spread amongst the workers. With how I was going to present this ce as the new, local centre of the Boruta cult I had to y my part properly. That''s why, the area of my basement was named a crypt, where the bodies of the heroic acolytes would find their rest. This was the official reason why I was so stern with not allowing anyone anywhere close to the basement. "Sure. I will make the call right away." Contacting the young master that was responsible for any dealings with my side was the reason why I left my ''praying'' spot in the first ce. But instead of doing it right away as I told, I would to the supervisor, I actually pulled out my phone only after leaving the area. "Hello?" Only when I made this call did I realise that although I knew the young master of the Baskar family, I have yet to learn his name. "Christ? Great, I tried to call you before but you didn''t pick up. Quick question, would you like the house to have the new, magical smart house function? It''s expensive as heck, but I believe we might find some middle ground to deal with the matter of the costs" At this point, I already stopped listening. No matter what else this new friend of mine would say, it wouldn''t matter at all. After all, ''magical house'' phrase was something that was agreed to as a message calling for an urgent meeting. And I wasn''t willing to take any chances. Chapter 48: Turning imagination into reality Chapter 48: Turning imagination into reality "The military is screening us and that investment of yours." Dropping the bomb as soon as I entered the room, the young master of Baskar family could barely be bothered to look away from the screen of hisputer. Looking around before answering, I could only sigh. The set-up that filled this room with cables and other forms of electrical appliances was exactly what myzy self always dreamed off. From an insanely powerful main unit hung from the ceiling in the very middle of the room, through three different working stations below it, each consisting of a huge desk, three screens and afortable chair. Just by ncing around, I could notice some VR sets and other funny tools, all the way to an insanely huge screen covering the entirety of the back wall of the ce. A geek''s dream. But if I were to get my hands on such a setting in more peaceful times, I would be sure to y through all the games I ever wanted. And that alone proved that the young master before my eyes was far more suited to have this kind of powerful machinery on his own than me. Because in contrast to what I would use it for, he was actually putting it to actual and practical use. An use that already proved to be of vital importance. "How deeply?" The fact that the military and the government atrge would be interested in the ongoing development of the devastated area was something that was bound to happen. From how soldiers died in that ce without fulfilling their purpose, through a random priest of unheard of before sect appearing and iming it, all the way to a local power suddenly backing him up For someone who didn''t bother to find out the details of the situation, this sequence of developments was bound to be suspicious. And that''s also what my question was about. If they are screening us, how deeply are they looking for information? Or rather, what are the chances that the traps that we prepared especially for this moment would stop them from uncovering anything of importance? ''So far, so good. It would take a lot more to breach through my protocols." After ncing at me for a moment, the young man behind the desk moved his eyes back to the screen. Unbothered by my presence at all, he suddenly started furiously tapping at the keyboard, quickly bringing about huge changes on what his workce''s screen was showing. "For now, I directed them towards the hidden site of the mainpany responsible for the construction. Once they find some tax evasions and other little hooks, they should get off our backs" Hearing what the young man was saying, I couldn''t stop a smile from appearing on my face. Give them what they are looking for. If they want to uncover some hidden secrets behind our actions, then just make it easy for them to obtain some fake ones that won''t hurt us that much. And with how this damned young master was putting the me on the constructionpany instead of on his family or me directly only served to prove how efficient our cooperation should be in theing days. "Right, something I noticed before. It''s a pleasure to meet you, I''m Krist." Reaching forth with my hand, I watched how the young master of Baskar family initially dressed a surprised expression, only to m his face on top of his palm before epting the handshake. "Pavlo. The pleasure is mine. But let''s drop the small-talk and start the second topic that I wanted to discuss. With the temple scheduled to be finished in about a week, what are your ns for promoting your cult? Or rather than that, what your cult is about in the first ce?" From the strange look in Pavlo''s eyes, I couldn''t tell whether he was just curious or actually had some ns behind his question. "Ah, so that''s what you wanted to know. Before I will get started, tell me, do you know the characteristics of the Boruta from the local folklore?" It was a mistake to call Boruta a local myth, as it steemed from the mountainous region to the south. What I meant with the word local, was the greater area upied by the people of one nation who shared their legends, beliefs andnguage. "Yeah. Despite his overwhelming strength, he uses his wits to trick people. Depicted as the enemy of the nobles and saviour of the serfs. Quite a nice patron to have with the current situation of all the governments in the world" Smiling to his own thoughts, Pavlo proved that he knew what I asked him about. And that meant, I could move on to the next part of my n. Turning the imaginary cult I created in my head into something that existed in reality. "It''s one of the reasons why it appeared as suddenly as it grew to its current level. And just like you said, while we do cultivate our personal strength to match the image of the idol, ultimately it''s the wits that we rely on when the pushes to shove. After all, isn''t it more fun to y with your prey instead of just dealing with them all at once?" Putting a slightly smuggish smile on my lips, I looked at the guy in front of me. At this point, I was already pretty sure that I knew what he was going to say next. "Tell me What are the perks of joining your cult?" Chapter 49: Preparations finished Chapter 49: Preparations finished "Finally. Finished." Taking a few steps back, I took a long nce at the results of my hard work. Located on the side of the small, concrete dome that surrounded the crypt area, a tiny speck of dense runes and characters marked the very first day of the Boruta''s sanctuary. But those few steps to the back were more than enough to put me in the right perspective. Comparing the small bit of those meaningless runes with the entire surface of the dome made it clear, that if I wanted to truly fill the entire thing, it would take me years. But wait a moment, why I was carving some funny markings on the concrete surface of a dome? To think. "Benefits? Well, I have yet to establish the sanctuary on thisnd. But you can be sure about one thing, Pavlo. They will be worthy of the effort put." This was the sentence that convinced the young master of Baskar family to join the cult. Or rather, to not jump the gun, express his willingness to join if the opportunity for the ritual arises. And it was back then, when I realised something so simple yet damn important, that I momentarily forgot my ability to speak. Why should I bother trying to solve all my problems alone? Given the benefits of having the system, as long as I could sparingly distribute them, I could easily obtain immense manpower and local influence. At the cost of some items, I would scavenge from the futuristic apocalypse world, I could turn this entire city into my own mansion! But everything had to take ce in its respective order. With Pavlo expressing his willingness to join, I neared the point of obtaining the first follower. Given the means of his family and his contacts, I would dare to call him quite a useful one at that. And that meant, I had to double my efforts at preparing myself for this new role of mine. Yet, before I could even begin thinking about this, there was something that heavily weighted on my consciousness. "Hey, if you don''t mind me asking, do you have any ess for those funny weapons of the past? I think they would make quite a nice decoration for my office." This was the second sentence that I spoke back at Baskar''s ce. And now, with a bag full of guns already waiting for its use in the basement, I was ready to deal with that one problematic affair of mine. It was time to test whether the guns were as useless against magic in the other worlds as they were on earth. But I didn''t rush it. Instead of hurrying myself up, I patiently waited for my act to y through its entire duration. Once I distanced myself from the wall of the dome, I looked up, before falling down on my knees. Cupping my hands directly on myp, I hung my head low and closed my eyes. And only after wasting half of a damned hour in that stupid position did I raise, making sure to add as much grace to my moves as I could. Only then did I finally dare to press open the vault doors to the inside of the dome. Once I made sure the huge, steel doors that barred the entry to this ce were properly closed, I moved forward and opened another set of doors - embedded directly into the former ruins that now turned a t foundation of the basement into a small, rocky hill. "It''s nice to be back" Outside of the moment when I stashed the bag with guns in here, this was the very first time for me to return to the basement. Ever since I left it, I focused all my efforts and willpower at solving the first batch of problems. But now, I was about to return to the magic world, where Ayda awaited my help. After descending down the set of stairs, I finally pushed thest set of doors open before stepping inside the basement. Even though the damage to its walls and insides was rather visible, it still stood strong, in spite of all the mayhem that happened above it. And it was asfy as ever. But right now, I had no time to bother myself with howfortable or not this ce was. I came here not to chill, but to take my time preparing beforeing to Ayda''s help. Even if the guns were to provepletely useless, there was still a lot of stuff that any post-battle scenario would require. And here''s where the help of the earthy scientists woulde to my aid. Because despite how little they managed to achieve in terms of incorporating magic into the existing technology, there was one thing when both science and tradition managed to seed. Herbalism and general medicine. With how some of the spots around the world turned more and more dangerous due to the influx of magic, the market value for anything that could give those daring to get there another chance skyrocketed. Sensing the opportunity, all the way back in the early days of the apocalypse, several different groups came up with different ways to use both existing and old herbs to increase the effectiveness of simple healing tools like bandages, tonics or ointments. And right now, besides some small, sweet gifts that I bought in the first store, I randomly encountered, the weapons and the healing materials were the only things I was about to bring to Ayda''s world. "Okay then, here goes nothing" Speaking to myself as I pulled out a random gun that appeared quite dangerously before stuffing its magazine full of bullets. While I used the firearms in my life before, they were nothing more but toys for people potentially interested in pursuing the sports shooting career. When it came to real, hot guns, I knew nothing outside of what I learned on the inte. But I wasn''t going to strive for headshots from a great distance. What modern weapons were the best at in the hands of an amateur like me, was the old tactics of spray and pray it will hit! With the gun in my leading hand and a sh grenade in the other, I was now prepared to get back in a fight. The question was, would those items be of any use on the other side of the doors? This question could be only answered by actually testing it out, so by setting the destination with just a single thought of mine, I opened the doors and stepped back into Ayda''s world to help her ward off again those damned, unknown attackers. Chapter 50: Bang Chapter 50: Bang "Wha" Not even capable of fully reacting to the sudden change that happened right before her eyes with how the enemies were just a hand''s reach away, Ayda could only stare at the sudden change of my appearance. Or at one of the enemies that was reaching for my throat with a knife, equally as surprised by the unexpected event as Ayda. "Go." There was no way for me to remember what were myst words in this world before I was forcefully pulled away. And in the current situation, there wasn''t all that much time for theatrics either. So I just released my grasp on the sh grenade in my left hand, at the same time as I pulled the trigger of my fancy machine gun. But there was no tratatata sound. The reality proved to be far more advanced than what I ever imagined it to be. Or maybe it was the case of super-modern weapons that were initially only supposed to be used by the military finding their ways to the market once no firearm could be effectively used anymore? Either way, there was no tratata sound from when I pulled the trigger. All I received for my efforts was a quick ''trrrrr'' and the sight of the closest enemy to me that was just unlucky enough to appear right in front of the barrel of my gun getting dismembered in the split of a second that took me to empty out the entire mag. "What the heck?!" Ayda was never all that worried about the attackers. That''s something that I remembered from before I was forcefully pulled out of this ce. But right now, her eyes told me that she ended up giving up on any attempts at understanding the situation. "Anyone who has sinned by casting their impure gaze at my woman" With the safety pin of the grenade left somewhere on my basement''s floor, rxing my grapes on it was enough to start the timer. From what I read, I had eight seconds before the detonation. And eight-second was exactly how much the initial shock of the enemies would give me to throw it! "Or nevermind. Here, a payment for our lives." Unless something extremely unexpected were to happen in this world''s history, there would be no way for the attackers to have any clue at what the round item that I threw towards them would be. From what I saw before turning my back towards the enemy, one of them actually grabbed it! "Dear,e." With the timer ticking, I didn''t waste any time. Approaching Ayda myself, I had to go all the way to where she was frozen in ce, as she either didn''t want to fulfil mymand or was simply incapable of doing so in a reasonable time. "Close your eyes and open your mouth." This time, Ayda listened. While I could only guess whether it was my serious gaze that brought her back to reality or the tense situation, I could at least do something else. With the numbers reaching thest three seconds, I pulled Ayda''s hands on my ears, before quickly moving my own hands to cover her own. BANG! Closing my eyes in the veryst moment, I could feel my teeth moving around in my jaws from the insane shockwave generated by the grenade. Only now did I also understand what Pavlo meant with the unconventional usage of non-lethal weapons. Judging by how bad I fared despite being perfectly prepared for the st and having a bit of distance to soften the damage, just by increasing the power of the bang a tiny little bit, this damned grenade could cause some serious, inner injuries to the normal mortals it was designed to be used against! Thinking about this as the initial lightheadedness from the bang quickly faded away, I couldn''t help but get curious what would that dangerous smoke grenade that Pavlo rmended would be capable of. Maybe the smoke part was just a misleading factor? Or maybe smoke was all that would remain from the people within its st? As curious as I was, with my senses quickly returning to their usual state, I had more important stuff to do rather than catering to my own curiosity. "I''m not sure how much it will do" Pulling out another mag from the special holster on my belt, I ejected the empty one before inserting the fresh piece into the special slot of my gun. "But could you locate the enemies for me? They shouldn''t be able to do anything at all for a while." Thanks to our silly preparations, we fared just a tiny better than the damn naive man who really assumed that this grenade was something precious enough for me to buy our lives with it. Given how the charge went off right in his hand, I could only pity what would remain of his fingers. "Sure there are two behind that wall" Not even waiting for Ayda to stop counting the enemies, I pushed the magazine into its slot. Hearing the characteristic clicking sound, I directed my barrel exactly where the girl pointed out before gently pulling on the finger once again. Trrrrrrr. To be perfectly honest, the rate at which the ammunition was sent flying towards the enemy was slightly annoying. Maybe it was the matter of some kind of setting of the weapon that I failed to notice, but I just couldn''t imagine the real military actually using the spraying tactics just like that! Not because it wasn''t effective. The short shouts of pains that ended even before my spray was the best proof of how well it worked. The problematic part was the cost of equipping all the soldiers with sufficient ammunition for prolongedbat! "... one more behind the doors" With some experience in the procedure, I quickly ejected the used mag, with my hand already moving the new one into the slot. This time though, I barely managed to shoot the enemy, as he managed to somehow recover and jump at me with a small axe in his hand. But instead of ending upright on top of me, when a wave of needless hit his body, just the recoil alone easily managed to lift the man up and crash him against the back wall of the room. "... and three more out three." As soon as the girl finished her count, the wall that she pointed at exploded in fires. Most likely noticing that something was not going ording to their ns, thest three enemies got into the room even before I could press the magazine eject handle on the side of the gun. With how close they were right now, there was no damned way I could reload the gun in time. "Begone." With those words on his lips, one of the assants raised the sword that he was holding Only for his eyes to suddenly explode with fire. Before I could even notice, thest two remaining attackers were already wriggling on the floor, with blooding out of every orifice of their heads. "I don''t know what did you do, but don''t think I''m useless!" Turning around to face Ayda, I could see her curiosity mixed with a slight insult on her self-pride. Who could''ve known that dealing with the threat of death would be dwarfed by the threat of angering Ayda in one damned instant? Chapter 51: You can travel through worlds, right? Chapter 51: You can travel through worlds, right? "Done. That was surprisingly easy" There was an obvious meaning behind what Ayda said. And what kind of a man would I be if I didn''t provide for what seemed to be a dear wish of her?" "Exining it properly could be tough for me for now, but let''s say I have a method to move between my homnd and this ce in an instant." It was quite obvious that his story was - to a degree - a lie. Even if he could move between ces without a second of dy, it remained a fact that the change to his outfit happened in one instant as well. And one didn''t have to be a genius to know that dressing in aplete outfit like the one he was wearing right now required at least a few seconds of time! "Eh. I will make it easier for you." Moving towards the bail with water to clean her hands of the blood that identally sttered on her when she dealt with thest invader, Ayda leaned over the barrel, graciously providing me with an interesting show of her shapely bottom and the treasure hidden between her bottom cheeks. Only after Ayda made sure that her body was once again sparkly clean, did she turn around, presenting the front part of her charms to my eyes along with a lovely smile wrapped on her lips. "You can travel between worlds, don''t you?" For Ayda, almost no time has passed ever since theyst did it. But for me, this wasn''t the case. Seeing her shamelessly presenting all there was to see of her body, I could feel a certain part of me quickly raising, but the shocking value of her words was enough to calm me back down. "..." Not sure what to say at first, I quickly realised that my shock alone should be insanely easy for Ayda to notice. As such, there was no slightest reason to keep ying dumb, as it would only make the girl feel bad about how little I trusted her. "Yes, I do have that ability. But I have no idea how did you manage to realise that." Standing fully dressed in front of the exposed girl, I didn''t dare to move my eyes away from her own face. If I were to tantly stare at her charms during such an important talk, her image of me would surely be affected. "Let''s leave that for now. What''s important, is that I know. But honestly I have no idea which world did youe from. What are those things that you brought? Some kind of magic tool of a superb advanced civilisation?" Contrary to my expectations, Ayda didn''t seem to have any problems with that secret of mine. But on the other hand, how else could she react? With her ims that she wished to serve me for the rest of her life, my ability to get helpful things like the guns I brought from another world should only seem to be an advantage. "Well I might surprise you with that, but my homeworld The magic appeared in it only recently. And as you can say from what happened a few days? Sorry, I can''t really wrap my mind about the disturbed flow of time between the worlds. You saw what state I was in when we first met, and you saw what I strived to be. And you wouldn''t miss by much by iming when magic was the reason for my griefs." Opening myself up with all my secrets to someone had a cathartic feeling on me. It seemed as if a huge burden on my shoulders maybe not disappeared, but at least lessened by a fair bit. But instead of responding to my words in any way, Ayda just continued to stare at me, not making any moves indicating that she was about to dress herself back up. "You see" After a long while filled with nothing but silence, the girl finally moved forward, shortening the distance between the two of us all the way to the point where she wrapped her arms around my neck and closed in for a gentle kiss. "So far, I could only imagine what kind of burden were you carrying. While I still don''t know much yet, at least now, I have a rough guess of what happened." Momentarily freeing one of her hands just to put her finger on my chin before pushing my head back to a straight position, Ayda once again connected our lips, wrapping my entire self in thefort of her warmth and attention, warding off the depression that instantly approached my mind once I moved to those unpleasant memories with it. "I know that you might be worried. I can tell that you feel overwhelmed by everything that happens around you. Not even because I''m a witch. I can tell this as a woman. Your woman." Moving her free hand down, Ayda quickly reached for my crotch. Without even bothering to sneak her hand inside my clothes, she just grabbed the middle part of my pants before squeezing gently. "I''m your woman, and as your woman, I can tell that you are pent up." A small, mischievous smile appeared on her face. "Don''t worry about it. It''s only normal for one''s lust to run rampant after a fight. And I" Once again breaking her sentence to grace me with the taste of her lips for a long while, Ayda took her time immersing herself in our kiss before finish what she wanted to say. "...I am no different than you in this regard." Chapter 52: Do you think its possible? Chapter 52: Do you think its possible? The night came surprisingly fast. Maybe it was just my warped perception of time, maybe the heat of the battle or maybe just how I immersed myself in making love with Ayda. No matter the reason, once my mind properly cleared out, the sun no longer cast its rays through the window of our room. "You are not sleeping yet?" Her body wrapped around my side was a source of strangely soothing warmth. For this girl, the entire day had to look quite strange. From a hot session of love interrupted by an invasion, through a surprisingly short fight and right back to another dose of steamy mating. Looking down on her sweaty face, I could see nothing but her starry eyes gazing right back at me. There was no hint of annoyance in those big windows of her soul. As far as I could tell from just looking, the one thing present in her eyes was an overwhelming sea of affection. "No. Not yet. And thanks for putting up with my unreasonable situation." Moving the hand on which she was resting a bit, I pulled Ayda a bit closer to my skin, as if attempting to embrace her with just a half of my body. Reacting to my movements, the girl only fixed her position, bringing her head even higher on my shoulder. "You don''t need to worry about it. I''m d I could be of any help to you. While I don''t want you to take everything from now on for granted" Escaping with her eyes to the side, Ayda covered her mouth with her left hand. After a few moments she took to consider her next words, her pupils moved up as she looked at me with the standard, mischievous smile of hers. "... you are still my hero. How could I stop myself from snuggling you up when I saw you in such a bad shape back then?" Suddenly raising on her elbows, Ayda moved on top of me. With her breasts hanging down from her body as her nipples rubbed around my skin, I kept my eyes glued to her face. Not because I was too shy or too virgin to adore the beauty of her body. Her eyes were just that much more alluring than the intricacies of her soft skin. "It ddens me to hear that." With her face once again rubbing lovingly against the skin of my chest, a silence ensued. For a moment, we were just enjoying each other''s presence, instead of constantly bothering ourselves with solving the problems. Those struggles that we sooner orter had to face, could wait. But sadly, they didn''t end up waiting for long to get our attention once again. "Hey I don''t want to push you, but what do you want to do next?" Not even moving her face from atop my chest, Ayda asked. "Well I would lie if I were to say I have some kind of grand n for everything I do. But there is some stuff that I need to take care of. Do you remember the time when I said I was confused with the time? This situation is sooning to an end. More or less, in about a single day from now, I will no longer be able to suddenly change as I did back in that fight. If I go to my homeworld All the time that I will spend in my home, will pass in this world just as well." I already told Ayda about being from another world. Revealing just a little bit more about the intricacies of my otherworldly travels wouldn''t change anything for the worse, but would let her be more aware of my situation. The time that I spent wandering through different worlds had one, a great impact on my way of thinking. No longer did I suffer from the coloniser''s disease that made me think that people on earth were better. With several different people in all kinds of worlds that I visited proving that they were just as smart if not actually smarter than the people I learned from in my homeworld, I was no longer arrogant enough to dismiss the potential that Ayda''s brain holds. "Wait, if it''s like that Just one more question, do you get to choose in what ce you appear in either of the worlds? I mean, if that were to be your wish, could you move back to your home and return, but appear in a different ce whenpared to where you left this ce from?" Raising on her elbows, Ayda once again exposed the beauty of her chest to my sight But the seriousness visible in her eyes and almost tangible in her aura made me unable to even think about looking at the beauty right in front of my face. "Not really. While there might be a way to do it, I never really bothered with it. So far, while I can leave any foreign world to me from literally any ce I would want, I always ended up appearing in the same spot that I moved out from." Thinking about this now, it seemed that my shot at letting Ayda on the secrets of my abilities seemed to already prove to be a great hit. What I took for granted before, she questioned it, allowing me to see both the pros but also the drawbacks of the situation. And that made me think about one really dangerous element appearing frombining the end of the time freeze and my obligation to appear in the same ce I came from. Didn''t that make setting traps aimed at killing me on the spot way too easy? Didn''t that mean that if anyone going after my life would just need to wait for me to leave the world before preparing my death in advance? "I can feel what you are thinking. That means you realised it yourself." Lowering her head back on my chest, Ayda took a few breaths before asking. "Right now, you are returning to this ce to meet with me and uncover the secrets of the magic, both witchcraft and wizardry. Given how I can teach you anything you want about witchcraft, don''t you think it would be better if I just moved to your world instead of endangering you by making youe here? Or rather" For a moment, Ayda turned silent, as if something stopped her from ending her sentence. For this slightest time, I could sense a hint of fear in her aura before it vanished as quickly as it appeared in the first ce. "Do you think Gulp it would be possible for me to move in to your world?" Chapter 53: Failed trial Chapter 53: Failed trial "Well, it is worth the shot at the very least." I would have to lie to tell that this idea didn''t appear in my head beforehand. With how I was easily capable of moving the stuff between the worlds, it was only obvious that sooner orter, I would have to try moving some living people as well. Be it for the sake offortably amassing all the important people to me in one, secure ce, or even if only for the sake of pragmatic approach, this step was something that was simply too obvious to not think about trying it beforehand. But there was absolutely no way I would risk doing something like that with someone important to me as the very first test subject. "I can feel that it''s not all that you wanted to say. What bothers you?" Still snuggled up to my chest, Ayda lifted herself up a bit to get a better look at my face. Given how this was the game that the two of us could y, I only smiled in response. "And I can feel that no matter what I will tell right now, you won''t take it seriously. So let me put it in those words. I don''t have even the slightest idea of how I''m capable of moving between different ces." Ayda already knew that by ces I meant worlds, so just in case someone was eavesdropping on our conversation, I decided it was safer to just use fairly obvious code. It wouldn''t make things hard for either of us to understand this way ofmunication, while it could potentially buy us some time in case of my worries being on the point. "And what do you want to say with that?" Giving up on the attempts at keeping her body up, Ayda once again rested her head on my chest. With her ear pressed to the skin right above her heart, she seemed as if she enjoyed the sound of its beating. "I''m not going to let you be the first to try it. Not because I have someone more important to move to my ce or anything, but because" Before I could even finish my words, the girl on my chest moved one of her hands up, just to ce her finger atop my lips. "You fear what would happen if moving between the ces would turn out to be dangerous. Am I right?" Her tone changed from a calm and patient to joyful and happy as her sentence transformed as well. "You are right on the point. I don''t know if my mind would survive if anything were to happen to you. I I fear that one day, I might lose you, just like I lost my family already." Hearing my words, Ayda only smiled before finally moving up from the bed. Taking a quick stroll to the pile of clothes that was left on the ground, she picked up my very own jacket before throwing it on her otherwise naked body. Even though for me, it was only an additional piece of clothing that was supposed to prevent me from feeling cold, with Ayda''s petite figure, it was as good as a cloak. "Give me a few moments, I will be right back." Not even giving me a moment to consider the situation, Ayda stormed out of the room. With how there was no point to just rx in the bed without her in it, I quickly followed the steps and dressed up in all of my remaining clothes before sitting on the edge of the bed in wait. In the end, it didn''t take her that long to return. Rather than that, I was quite surprised when barely a few minutes after she moved out, the doors opened once again, revealing the cute figure of the girl with an awful looking, small beast in her hand. "You really can''t be bothered with holding those disgusting things" Partially surprised but mostly in awe, I quickly realised what was the intention of Ayda''s action. Standing up, I moved to her side before taking the wiggling piece of dirt from her hand. "Okay, let''s see if it works." Seeing how Ayda only looked at me with expectation, I walked towards the doors while willing to return to earth. And just like that, as soon as I passed by the threshold, the simple wooden walls of the Inn''s corridor were reced with the familiar cracks on the concrete surface making up the walls of my basement. "..." Directing my eyes towards my hands, I already knew that it failed. Not because I saw it, but because as soon as I realised that I was already back on earth, I couldn''t feel this repulsively hot texture of the rodent that Ayda passed to me back in her word. "So it won''t work, huh?" Staring down at my empty hand, I only shook my head with resignation before once again willing to return to Ayda''s worlds and moving through the doors of my basement. "It didn''t work, I know." I didn''t even need to say anything. The expression on Ayda''s face was already enough to prove that she noticed the problem as well. "But if you could tell, what happened to that something?" Given how rodent was just a name that I came up with for that living thing that she passed to me due to how familiar it looked to an earthy rat, using this made-up name in conversation would only bring more confusion to the situation. "As soon as you passed through the door, you disappeared But the Kashak remained in this ce. Given how you weren''t here for a moment to keep holding it in air, it simply dropped to the ground before escaping." With her hand already submerged in the water contained within the nearby bail, Ayda exined with her back turned towards me. Even though she was hiding her face, I could easily tell from her aura just how disappointed she was. But this kind of feeling didn''tst long in her mind, quickly reced with vitality and determination. "But that means one thing. Since you can only return to the exact same ce as you came from, we need to make sure to secure a safe ce. Without that, it will be me constantly fearing for your life!" Chapter 54: Aydas advice Chapter 54: Ayda''s advice "Either way, you still need to get going soon. If I calcted the time properly, then your freeze will end soon, right?" Gracing me with one of her usual smiles, Ayda allowed me to see how far did she go from the simple yet crafty girl I met all the way back at the market. Her smile, despite being just like usual, showcased that she fully opened herself for me. In this smile, I could drown. But I couldn''t stop myself from feeling as if there was a distant echo of sadness and disappointment ringing in her soul. "That''s right. Well, for you it will look as if nothing happened. Sadly, that won''t be the case for me." Releasing a deep sigh, I shook my head as if in regret of my life choices. "You damned idiot" Instead of replying in a logical way, Ayda''s face suddenly turned openly sour as her fist gently smashed against my chest. Looking at me with her eyes upturned, I felt as if her adorableness would make me suffer from diabetes. "I know I won''t notice what will happen at all. But that doesn''t mean I''m not worried about what will happen to you." Turning her fist to an open palm, the girl powerlessly raised her arm before cing her hand atop my scalp. "May the wind of fortune be with you." Whispering in a gentle yet fragile voice, Ayda lowered her head in silent prayer. With her thumb pressing right against my forehead, I felt as if she just gifted me with the most intense ASMR session. After giving my head a slight rub, Ayda quickly retracted her hand. With her eyes escaping to the side, her lips trembled a bit as she spoke. "If it was me You should make sure that your base on the other side is safe as well. If its possible,y low for a while, don''t try to take challenges too huge. Most of the times, it''s possible to obtain great benefits and reinforce one''s position without risking all that much." Breaking through a momentary hesitation, Ayda approached me once again, this time gracing me with a light, encouraging kiss. "Good luck with your endeavours." There could be no better farewell than the one that Ayda just gave me. Even though I was aware of how simple the fact of a girl cheering me up was, I didn''t really mind allowing it to improve my mood by leaps and bounds. "I will be going then." Rustling her hair in revenge for all the caressing that she subjected me to, I turned around and decisively marched out of the room, effectively ending up back in my basement. But that in no way was my ultimate destination. With the clock now ticking, I quickly changed my clothes before picking up an old, rugged backpack from the corner of the room. It remembered the times where my school was actually a thing, with teachers preparing us to the adult life projected for all the teens from before the apocalypse. "No time to waste, huh?" Speaking to myself I quickly made my way back to the basement doors before pushing them open with a singr thought in my mind. While fulfilling the quest of the apocalypse world allowed me to freely travel between it and earth, it didn''t mean the time freeze was still a thing out there. With my matters in Ayda''s world currently deal with, the best thing that I could do was to prepare for the serious expeditions in that treasures-richnd. If I ever wanted to make the most out of the goods that were left by the perished civilisation, I couldn''t ept acklustre approach to it. "Here we go then." Pushing the doors open, I crossed the worlds, right back to the vast fields of burned sand. Instantly shielding my face from the sharp winds, I dived to the hole in the nearby wall. Recovering all the makeshift equipment that I had prepared there took me only a few moments. Despite how it remained unattended to for a long while in this hostile world, with no human influence, fixing it was a walk in the park. But instead of dropping everything and scrambling to save as many treasures as I could think off, I loaded a few useful pieces that I wanted to test on earth before actually dropping the backpack back in my basement and returning back to the apocalypse world. Withpletely usual and cheap notepad along with a pen in my hand, I ventured through the corridors of the building, quickly jotting down a simple map of the single floor I ever dared to enter. For some reason, just the sight of the stairs in the very middle of the entirepound filled me with not only fear but also respect. A civilisation that was capable of creating such magnificent structures, deserved at least that much of my memory. Mapping down just this single floor alone was way more than a task that I could deal with in a matter of moments. After all, I still had to remember that every second passing in this world did so on earth as well. By the time I arbitrary decided that my time was up, most of thepound''s singr floor was already nicely marked on my makeshift map. The time to analyze it and figure out the details of my n wouldeter. For now, equipped with my new navigation tool, I returned to my usual rallying point at the building''s entrance before moving back to earth. With the map fluttering in my hand and an army of people willing to fulfil every single of my wish, all I needed was a bit of time. In the end, it seemed that Ayda''s advice was right on the point. Why bother fighting if I canpletely change the situation with so little effort in such a short time? Chapter 55: Preparations for the Rite Chapter 55: Preparations for the Rite "From the woodworks, I will need several nks of the KH-four-zero-three standard and at least fifty of meters squared of the building foil." Writing those words as I spoke them on a professionally looking notepad with special padding underneath it, I cast a quick nce towards the official behind the desk. As simple the office within this container unit could be to the eyes, there was no denying that it was designed by a genius. Over the several days that passed ever since I returned from Ayda''s world, the works were progressing swiftly on all fronts. The map of the first floor was already finished, with even some close elements of the other floors making their appearance on it. With the blessing of magicless, earthy-technology working perfectly fine in that apocalypse world, I quickly enriched my research with a ton of videos, allowing me to quickly fix any problems with the map right on earth, instead of wasting valuable time in that world. Whenever I passed through the basement, be it to transport another batch of building materials or after returning from the apocalypse, the map hanging from the wall constantly nagged my eyes. Thanks to this brute-force method, in just a few days I managed to memorize most of the interior of the main floor that I explored. On the other hand, the area around the building site on earth was quickly turning into a proper building site. With several housing containers for the workers and a few more for the administration of the work, the progress seemed to suddenly shoot forward at a pace even I didn''t expect. In the local culture, building crews were always regarded with little if any respect, often portrayed as the main consumer base of the alcohol from the shops beside their workce. Thankfully, this wasn''t the type of people that Baskar family would bother cooperating with. "Sir, with the rate at which you are ordering I do not mean to be rude, but I''m not sure if the enterprise''s sponsor will be happy to provide funds for all those materials." After taking her time to calcte all the expenses, the secretary responsible for this crucial task looked at me with clearly troubled eyes. "That won''t be a problem. I will be meeting with them today, so instead of stalling the work right now, keep that list and consult it with the Baskar family once they appear. Would that be okay?" For some reason, I found it funny that someone could be bothered to act angry because of such a rational question. When doing business, one had to cast away the shyness of talking about money, as it was the crucial fuel that propelled both sides of the investment. "That will be okay, sir. With that said, thest batch awaits you in the inbound container. Please make sure to fill out the necessary paperwork this time!" Openly scolding me for my recent transgression, the middle-aged woman returned to her work with a smile. With just several days I managed to convince everyone in my fake charisma, turning their initial wariness into a respectful friendliness. Thankfully, I didn''t really need to bother with any possible opponents over thest few days. As worried as I was that either Martha''s family or the military itself would attempt to intervene, it seemed that the efforts of Baskar family in exploding my image on the social media managed to achieve some great effects. Otherwise, I would be clueless about the reason for both of my tough opponents restraining themselves from sabotaging my explosive growth. Keeping my guesses about the reasons why my enemies held back their hands, I nodded to the woman behind the desk before making myself spare in the room. Once out of the container, I hurried to the ce that the secretary from before just mentioned. Over the past couple of days, the inbound container became a chest full of treasures, instantly reced by a new series once the first one would be taken out. With my daily trips, openly called as the praying activity, starting in the inbound area and ending with sweat and tears on the building site in the apocalypse world, the daily moment of receiving the new goods turned into a small ritual for me. But right now, I was about to perform a fully-fledged rite, aimed at finally feeding the public on my social media with the long-awaited reveal of my policies and theme of the page. "It''s great to see you, brother." As soon as Pavlo entered the inbound area, he reached forth with his hand prepared for a shake. Not seeing any reason to refuse this greeting, I epted his hand before looking towards the ongoing construction. "It''s nice to see you too. Did youe to watch the rite?" Even though the full rebuilding of the mansion was a priority, the basic stage for the made-up rite took just a few hours worth of work, making it a worthy redeployment of the workers. Because with how fast things were going, another problem appeared. The public could no longer continue the void of information from my side. From the social-media fans and followers that got curious with my initial, celebrity-like buildup, through the neighbours curious about my appearance, all the way to all those who wanted to gather as much information on me as possible, I had to do something for them all. Because if I didn''t feed them with something of my making, they would end up seeking the answers on their own. And I opted to have the control over what would be known about me. "That''s right. How could I miss such a grand opportunity?" Smiling joyfully in response to my question, Pavlo confirmed his intentions with a nod of his head. In the end, his family was racking treasure after treasure from my stockpile for the insanely small price of the currently worthless workforce and materials. No matter how the secretary in the logistic department nagged me, they were the ones that got the rtively better side of the deal. At least, ording to someone who had no idea about the existence of my system! "Okay then, let''s not stall it any longer. The sooner it will start, the sooner I will get it over with." Nodding my head as a form of farewells, I climbed up the stage. With a quick nce towards a nearby orchestra, a sudden explosion of dramatic music shook the area. Even though I knew it could be slightly irresponsible, I simply couldn''t resist the charm of the modern ssical music mixed with the bountiful sources of sounds that modernity blessed the world with. "Everyone, I think I can tell that you are wondering why have I gathered you all here!" After waiting for a few moments to let the crowd gather and Baskar''s filming crew prepare their cameras, I suddenly spread my arms out wide, directing my loud voice towards the crowd. It was time to start the show. Chapter 56: Disturbance Chapter 56: Disturbance "May the blessing of our Lord be with you all." Looking at the rtively huge crowd that gathered below the stage, I allowed my lips to form a slight, ironic smile. The way in which I started the rite was something I actually thought quite a lot about. Because I didn''t openly im who the lord I was referring to was. Starting off, in this new era of magic and wonders, who could''ve known if I openly started praying to ultimately a devil? Being quite a religious person before the apocalypse, I didn''t dare to push those buttons too far. And openly admitting to celebrating devil would destroy the impression of being backed by the Vatican that I made sure to forge! "Today, as this site will soon open to the public, I want to tell everyone what is the purpose of this sanctum." Instead of following a mystic route of the rite, I went with something easier to rte to. Scanning over the mass of faces, I made sure to take my time before once again picking up my sentences. "The group that I do represent praises one''s own involvement in one''s fate. While others cultivate, we use the unique quirks that make us different from animals to pursue greater good for humanity as a whole. That''s what the Boruta''s faction is." As little as I wanted to do it, revealing the name was something that I had to do it. Once again, given how everyone suspected that ever since the apocalypse, religious cults managed to obtain a strange kind of power other than cultivation. And it wasn''t something I was willing to miss on in my situation. "The reason why I appeared here only recently, should be fairly obvious to everyone. Just a few days ago, a family of the pioneers, aiming to make this ce better for everyone, were killed." This fact was something that I had to reveal, or rather, push the focus on. If I attempted to somehow hide it, it would only make it more obvious that there was something more to the entire situation. And I couldn''t afford to start my career with bad rumours going around. "I decided to settle this ce ording to our tradition, by using their martyr bones as the foundation for this holy ce. I won''t let their efforts and sacrifices be buried by time in vain." Reaching forth with my hand and tightening my fist, I finally yed out the small trick that I prepared in advance. With just a tiny amount of glitter ground up to be even finer and a slight push of my repulsion, the small container containing the decoration broke up, releasing a small golden aura around my hands. Given how it was evening already, it was something that only a few would see. But those few could easily spread the rumours about this event, with the low number of initial witnesses only serving to hide the drawbacks of such an obvious trick. In this situation, I simply relied on a pretty important part of human perception. People saw what they expected to see. "This is not true!" Suddenly, amotion broke out somewhere at the back of the crowd. With how some kind of retaliation was only to be expected, I calmly raised my eyes only to spot a small group. A small group that I didn''t actually expect to see here. "Krist did not die. That is something I''m sure about. Don''t you dare to make up some stories about his deceased family just to profit from it!" Despite being separated from my position at the stage by nearly the entire crowd, when Martha raised her hand and pointed her finger at me, I could tell that everyone in the area was bound to hear her words. Be it some kind of cultivation technique or a smart usage of a convenient tool, Martha definitely achieved her purpose. In one second, what seemed like a perfectly nned event, turned sour. Especially given how I still could recall how they were responsible for the entire situation that led to my family''s demise. "That''s funny of you to bring that topic up. After all, aren''t you the ones responsible for their deaths?" Completely ignoring the entire point that Martha brought, I replied in a calm manner. As immoral as it was, only by pushing the me on her family could I buy myself some time. Only if Martha had to bear the burden of her own sins could I appear as being clueless about the involvement of the military, something of insane importance in my current situation. And ultimately, my words still were true. As she said herself, it was the moves of her family that brought the military attention to my home, and it was her people that started the invasion. No matter what their intentions were, they were responsible for everything that happened. "That''s That''s a lie!" Trying to rebuke my words, Martha stuttered. And that alone was enough for the simple people gathered below the stage to make their own judgments. Just from how her voice broke as she attempted to use of me lying. "I will not have people with their hands stained with the blood of the martyrs remain on this holy ground. Pavlo, could you do me a favour and remove them from the scene?" There wasn''t any point in keeping my debacle with this girl at this moment. For now, I just got a way to end this rite without any big conclusion to it on a silver tter. And I would have to be dumb to not use this opportunity to my advantage. "Are you really sure that was smart?" Whispering to my ear a few momentster as his people kindly guided Martha''s entourage outside of the area, Pavlo looked with worry at the crowd. "You have our full support, but keep in mind that her family They are not exactly an opponent we could face off against right now. Be it in terms of influence or even raw power. Not yet." As on the point, as Pavlo''s notions were, this wasn''t the time to discuss them. It was clear that the young master of Baskar family was scared of making huge enemies so early. Something like that could easily dampen the growth that all the tools that they received from me would cause. But with the ultimate enemy being the military, for me, making Martha my personal rival and enemy was actually the easier way to go about things. Sadly, this wasn''t something that I could exin on the spot, or exin it at all. That''s why I had no choice but to ignore Pavlo''s protests before facing the crowd once again. The recent situation already stirred up most of the gathered people into thinking, so I had to make sure to act fast. "Everyone, I''m sorry. With the recent disturbance, I dare not to attempt blessing thisnd. That would be a disrespect to those, whose bones weid in the crypt. The rite will be repeated in two days time. I do apologise, and may our lord''s blessing be with you!" Chapter 57: Agenda Chapter 57: Agenda There was one good point about the time flow between earth and Ayda''s world returning to normal. While everyone thought that I spent yet another night full of prayers and chants in the heart of the crypt, I could genuinely rx in Ayda''s loving embrace through the night. Revitalised with her charms and energy and after a good night of sleep afterwards, returning to earth didn''t seem like such a huge burden like it usually was. Especially with how I couldn''t wait to see what effects would my previous actions bear. Right after stepping through the doors of the Inn where I was staying with Ayda, I reached towards the small table in my basement where I left my recently purchased phone. Opening it up, with just a few clicks I managed to find a site that offered fresh news from the local area. "Sarathe family debunks the ims of the newly emerging cult." "Is Sarathe conglomerate stained with the blood of innocent?" "New, local cult makes drastic ims about the Sarathe family. Who they are and where did theye from?" Nearly all of the headlines on the site were filled with the material covering the sh from yesterday. But what drew my attention, was an article hidden a bit to the bottom of the scroble list. "Sarathe Conglomerate spokesman interview in regards to the Boruta''s cult usations." Finally finding something thatpelled me to click on the hyperlink, I scrolled through lengthy records of the interview. The further I went in the text, the brighter my mood became. "Let''s take a look at their roots. What many might miss, was how they imed to be called, quote on a quote, Boruta''s cult. While most of the people might be unfamiliar with this name, it actually refers to the old devil from the local folklore. Are we going to really take the ims of the devil worshippers as binding evidence?" "The ident that we are speaking about was surely tragic, but let''s not get crazy about it. Sad events like this happen. We will always ask ourselves, how could something that disturbing happen? In wake of those emotions, people will be inclined to point fingers at the first enemy marked and that''s a rule that those cultists made full use of. Who knows, maybe they want to hide the fact that they were the ones behind this ident by pushing the me on the conglomerate?" Reading through the interview, I couldn''t help but feel as if the spokesman of Martha''s family really did his job properly. If not for the fact that I was the person most aware of everything that happened, both regarding the incident with my family and its development,ter on, I might be even inclined to believe in the story that this spokesman crafted! From the looks of things, Martha''s family official narrative was perfectly aligned to what the government was iming to be the official course of action. While if asking a random person, following the government''s narrative seemed to be a better choice when it came to not poking their soft spots. But as powerless as I new felt regarding implementing any change to the official narrative, openly pushing the me at Sarathe still seemed to be a better option for me. Because no one bothered to believe in what the government wanted to feed them in propaganda anymore. The pile of corpses that its forces created wherever they appeared made short work of the remaining trust that poption had in the government ever since its changes after the apocalypse. "Eh They are really going to make things hard for me" Ultimately the words that I just whispered to myself outlined the general diplomatic situation that I was currently in. With government keeping its hand close to its chest, Sarathe family now openly stood against me. At this point, I couldn''t help but wonder. Given how Martha furiously denied the notion that Krist, my previous self was dead, I could see what was going on in her head. But even if everything that happened was just an unfortunate set of events that she unknowingly set in motion, even if she would spend the rest of her days gued by the thought that she was responsible for my death, there was nothing that I was going to do about it. Because for now, saving her soul from the possible torture of guilt would sabotage my very own attempts at staying alive and well on earth! "Wait, the earth?" This single notion made me quickly change the train of my thoughts. Starting with how I wasn''t really as scared as Baskar given how I saw with my very own eyes how Sarathe elites got devastated by the attack of the military, I didn''t really mind making them my enemies. But as I thought about the main source of their real strength getting greatly weakened, I couldn''t help but realise that with everything that happened over thest few days, Ipletely ignored the aspect of my own cultivation! With the burden of my previous identity, incapable of cultivating, now gone, there was nothing that would stop me from reaching greater heights in this earth standardised method of personal growth. Even if I could achieve far more by learning magic or using the tools from the apocalypse world, I still had to find a way that would allow me to shield all of those unusual abilities of mine under the cloak of exceptional cultivation ability of mine. And that meant, that outside of dealing with all the extremely time-consuming tasks that my multiverse system granted to me, I had to find some time to actually diligently train in the stupid ways of the local cultivators! Ping, ping, ping. With both my thoughts and focus already trying toe up with a schedule that would fit all the things I had to take care off, the sound of my phone notifications going off barely managed to wake me up from my trance. Looking down and reading the few words that Pavlo texted me, I could feel all the stress from the tough decisions that I had to make suddenly lifting from my shoulders. Now that thest piece of the puzzle was in ce, it was time for me to get things going! ncing once again at what the letter contained, I allowed a slight smile to appear on my lips. "The things that you ordered finally arrived. Get them off the warehouse before the secretary will eat me alive pls :C" Chapter 58: Airlock Chapter 58: Airlock "That will be all?" It would be easier to call me a mule rather than a human at this point. With bags hanging down from every part of my body, one could be mistaken to think that I already took care of everything. In fact, a huge pile of boxes still remained by the side. Thankfully, those were yet to be checked in and unnecessary in the first part of my project. Meaning, with all the stuff that I already carried to the basement, thest batch that I manned-up and picked up all at once would let me finally start exploring the apocalypse world as it should be done! "For now, yes. But please, mind the volume of what you are ordering sir. At the rate at which it grows, soon your shopping may hinder the progress of the construction." Throwing me a hateful look, the secretary didn''t even bother to attempt to hide it. What used to be just a slight annoyance for her a few days ago, already turned into the basically second shift for her, doubling the woman''s work. Given how her original role was to just sit in this open container, look nice and soothe the eyes of the crude workers, the fact that she actually had to do something seemed to be a great insult to her face. "Don''t worry. I''m almost done with all the necessary stuff. Let''s not forget that its the sake of what''s inside that this construction is all for, not the other way." Not willing to let the woman just have her way with me like that, I rebuked sternly. Maybe in the past, while still being a kid called Krist, I would cover in fear before an adult like that and simply apologise. But right now, the prestige of the role I was ying, forced me to take on a different face. No matter how hard something like that was for me. If not my ability to manipte my own emotions, I was quite certain that I would just fail at my act. "Almost? So this nightmare isn''t over yet?" I couldn''t say for certain whether everything she did was simply genuine or if she was influenced by my stern rebuke. Either way, I didn''t see any reason to dawdle in this ce any longer. Over thest three days, the sight of me carrying the ordered stuff from the reception to the basement bemon. Not a single worker paid any mind to me as I passed beside them, treating me as just another quirk of the job. And I was quite happy with this kind of situation. After finally hauling all my items back to the basement, I stood before the opened doors for a moment. Given how I ordered so much stuff that it would barely fit inside the spacious basement of mine, it would be no wonder if I were to disappear for a rtively long time. In the end, I was buying all that stuff for a reason. Whether or not people knew what that reason was, was something I didn''t need to bother myself with. "Woah Didn''t expect that" Given how absolutely every single element of small construction that I brought to the apocalypse waspletely devoid of magic, I didn''t need to bother with protecting it from the influence of the anti-magic dust that seemed to cover the entire. And it could be one of the reasons why bringing all the stuff from my basement to the apocalypse took me about as long as just a single trip to carry the materials to the basement in the first ce! "Okay, to hell with this. How should I start" Standing over a huge pile of metal pipes, supports, fans, electric generators and all kinds of useful stuff, I finally realised that in this grand n of reiming at least a single building in this world, I forgot about one, pretty important element. The idea of what should I do in the first ce. Left with the pile of what others could see as useless junk, I threw my doubts aside and moved to the work. Even if on earth people would ept my excuse of working in the crypt, the same couldn''t be said about Ayda''s world. Every minute that I busied myself with work in the apocalypse was a minute that this damn adorable girl would be at risk of getting ambushed. With my hands suddenly stopping right in the middle of unpacking one of the technical boxes, I noticed one thing about myself. While matters on earth right now took priority as I had to establish some kind of presence to make my system safe, ultimately it was Ayda''s embrace that continued to lure me in. It was in her arms where I could find the moment offort in my busy schedule. "Ah, I should bring some stuff for her" As if it was some kind of happy day for enlightenments, I became aware of yet another thing I should take care off. There was no denying that Ayda was disappointed at not being able to move to earth with me. But even if I wasn''t capable of changing that fact for now, what was stopping me from bringing a bit of earth to her? "Dang it" Mostly done with just the very first of the many projects that I had in mind, I took a few steps back to adore the results of my silly craft. Right in front of one of the doors whose other side was mostly blocked by rubble, a strange gate stood. Made from a simple supporting frame that stretched a thin yet resistant fabric all over itself, it became the most important element of anything that I would ever bother constructing. An airlock. With steel tubes connected to the airpressors poking from all sorts of angles within the shielded area, a wall-sized fan stood on the side of the room, ready to blow all the excess air and dust away to the special container locked to the other side. Even though for now, this airlock was nothing but a fancy and sci-fi looking construction given how it connected the blocked path behind the doors and open space filled with the dust, this was the very first step on my path of reiming this ce. Ping, ping, ping As soon as I looked towards the remaining pile of materials to start working on the second piece of my hermetic dorm within this world, the sound of my clock''s rm forced me out of my daze. Four hours have passed ever since I hid inside the basement. And that meant, my job in this ce had toe to an untimely stop. After all, a meeting with executives of Baskar family was not something that I could just outright ignore! Chapter 59: Decision and progress Chapter 59: Decision and progress "I say, we fight." Contrary to his usual, calm demeanour, Pavlo seemed to be extremely energetic today. Going even as far as smalling his fist against the table, he made me worried whether he was actually mature enough to do business with me. "But in an open fight, they could just squish us dry. We might be somewhat influential, but its Sarate family that we are talking about here." Shaking his head, the patriarch of the Baskar family pointed out before adding. "They are too rich for us to handle." As much as I wanted to refute those words, there was no denying the truth. What could a provincial gang do against a family holding entire conglomerate in their hands? "I''m telling you. They also suffered from the incident. And from what I could see on the spot, quite a substantial loss that was." Instead of trying to argue with the man on his own line, I switched the focus of the discussion to a closely rted topic that I was morefortable with defending. "I''m not saying to dere a full-scale war against them. Just nibbling at their resources here and there to keep them upied will be enough." When this meeting started, I imagined that there would be no way for anyone to oppose my n. But seeing how even mentioning it fell on the dry ground, I had no option but to change my agenda a bit. Looking at the atmosphere at the table, it seemed that those huge concessions didn''t seem to be enough for the Baskars. And as much as it pained me, I couldn''t do anything without their approval and support yet. "Sir" Seeing that someone was ready to attempt changing my mind, I calmly stopped him with my raised hand. Standing up from the table, I rested my hands against it as I leaned forward, taking a moment to think about stuff. "If that''s the case, then let''s forget it. It''s not like we need to anything right away" As soon as those words left my mouth, the atmosphere in the room quickly cleared. But not everyone from the family was content with that oue. "But why? If they can directly attack us and get away scot-free with it" Clenching his fists as hard as he gnashed his teeth, Pavlo started trembling at the notion of giving up - even if only temporary - on revenge. "I know what you are thinking. If we don''t show a proper reaction, people will think we grew weak. Something like that, am I right?" Stopping Pavlo from bursting out any further I once again regained the control over the conversation. Releasing a deep sigh aimed at signalling how hard it was for me to concede, before lowering my head in defeat. "For now, we need to take the hit. If that''s your belief, then let''s just move to the next topic. We will swallow our shame and y the victims of their bullying while letting them do whatever they want. And least make sure to bank on it through social media." Before the apocalypse, the easiest way to get follows, subs or likes was always to create a drama. This was one of the reasons why as the audience matured, it moved from the drama channels to something more creative and useful. Something that was always bound to remain in the shadow of the exploding poprity of dramas. And right now, the situation only escted. If I wanted to quickly garner publicity willing to listen to my words, all I had to do was to stir up some drama. The fact that it would be bad blood caused by literal murder instead of some uncareful words said over the inte, would only make the debate and emotions more heated, creating a fertile ground for even further growth of my poprity. After all, my current n took fame as one of the main weapons in my arsenal! "Sir I didn''t expect you to agree on this point with such ease" With the head of the entire Baskar family making thisment, the main focal point of today''s discussion was now over. After all, there could be only so many topics of such great importance during a single meeting. Not because we couldn''t handle to discuss more important topics during a single sitting. It was caused by a simple fact that events of huge meaning rarely happened one after another. "Well, I don''t want to appear as if I''m skipping on my work, but I still have a lot of work in the crypt. If that won''t be a problem" In the end, with the matter of how to deal with Sarate''s family attacks now settled, there was hardly any point in me sitting and wasting my time in here. Ever since I started making my moves in the apocalypse world, the charm of reiming lostnd and digging its treasures was getting to my head. What''s more, right before I stepped into the hall where the meeting was taking ce, the news of all my orders finally getting fulfilled reached my ears. And that meant that as soon as I would find the tools that I wanted to bring to Ayda, I would be free toe right back to her arms with my shoulders burdened by nearly endless sacks of goods from the earth for her! Just the thought of the expression that this girl would make once graced with the earthy wealth was enough to keep me going. Not even realising when did I manage to excuse myself from the council and move all the way to the basement, I simply shrugged at the situation before picking up some of the leftover tools from the basement before stepping back into the apocalypse world. Even though the wish to return to Ayda''s loving embrace was currently my most powerful fuel, I couldn''t do so emptyhanded. As great of a present the stuff from earth would be, it didn''t evene close to how actually use the tools from this apocalypse world would be to her. And this single thought alone was enough to get me going for the next three hours, over which I finally managed to turn the pointless airlock from before into an actual thing connected to the main dome of my camp. Although for now, it would only shorten the time required for me to clean the equipment from the antimagic dust by a small margin it also marked an important stepping stone in my efforts to reim this ce. Picking up the same status clock that I wore ever since I found about it, I brought it to the airlock before spending yet another hour on just cleaning it. Only once I was satisfied with the result did I set the airing program for the machinery within the room before going back to earth and picking the groceries I ordered. The thing that pained me the most, was the fact that I could work in a single world at a time. That meant, while I was on earth, I was losing my chance to further my progress both in the apocalypse and Ayda''s world. But now, that changed. For the next few hours, the equipment I left in the apocalypse would continue to clean both the airlock and the main part of thepound from the dust, turning the space insidepletely sterile. And while it would take at least a few hours to finish, once I would return to the apocalypse, I could save myself the time required to repeat this process for every future part of thepound, just because the ce where I would construct it would keep all that pesky dust away! Yet, as great as it was to reach the point where work could be furthered in two or more worlds simultaneously, now that I picked up the bags with presents for Ayda, only a single thing was left in my mind. The curiosity of what kind of expression would she make while opening her presents! Chapter 60: Presents Chapter 60: Presents "Oh, my gods" Covering her mouth with her hand, Ayda stared with her eyes wide open at the huge pile of gifts that I brought for her. As a kid when the right time of Christmas came I could see curiosity and joy glistering on her face. "This is all for you. I brought some clothes, photos, movies and tools, but also a few things that I would like you to have a look at." Pointing my hand at each respective bag that the two of us pulled from one huge sack I exined their content to the overwhelmed girl. "Mo-vies?" Clearly having trouble to spell the word out loud, Ayda cutely turned her head to the side while looking at me. "Projections saved continuous image of what happened. In other words, I can show you the stuff I thought you would love from the earth, I can show you my world itself or I can present you with some pretty useful tools. Which one would you like to start with?" As much as this was a total waste of time outside of the moment when she would wear the bracelet, I couldn''t deny myself the join of showering this girl with goods. Even though I could get them for literally nothing from Earth, I could tell how insanely high did this girl regarded them. "I want I want to see your world first. I want to know where do youe from." After a bit of thought, Ayda came to a decision. Smiling lightly, I pretended not to notice the several emotions that passed through her head as she made the choice. Given our rtionship, I could quite urately uncover what thoughts followed those feelings. "Sure thing." Kneeling down in front of the bag, I pried it open before pulling out a small huge and quality tablet. In this case, the packaging was just for a gig, as I could carry it directly in my hand without any trouble. Pressing the power button, I could already start the feast on Ayda''s reactions with how she twitched when the screen suddenly lit up. In reality, though, I was just d that this world didn''t seem to counteract with technology. After all, with all the shapes and forms that magic could take, it would be no surprise if it somehow interfered with the passage of current in the belly of the tablet. "Woah" With how the entire apparatus was prepared in advance, as soon as I unlocked the screen, a huge gallery of earth appeared. From the huge cities through great projects at the insane technology ending, just the photos managed topletely engross the girl watching them. But the true show started when I turned on a simple movie I made off the construction site. "This is the ce where I used to live with my family Before it got obliterated. Right now, its a holy burial site where my tool for travelling between worlds is hidden." Quickly filling the girl in to make her understand what she was watching, I then returned to enjoying how happy Ayda was with the gifts. Sadly, given how this was all just a side task for me, I couldn''t prepare all that much movies. And quite honestly, I was too eager to see her react to other items to make her watch some soapy romance drama that I downloaded right before leaving earth. "What next?" Once thest second of the movie passed, I looked with curiosity at Ayda. With how engrossed she was in everything I showed to her, I couldn''t help but feel anxious to let her open another batch. "Hmm how about those tools? Since you said they could be useful I think I should take a look at them now." Making her choice with a happy grin on her face, Ayda patiently watched how I brought out the same bracelet that I was wearing ever since I came to this world. But once it activated, I could only imagine what kinds of images appeared in front of the girl''s eyes. Just as expected, I finally managed to confirm that all the status and notification fields that this tool offered were visible only to its user. That alone was worth all the time spent on figuring out what Ayda would enjoy the most. "Wait, it quantifies our energy? And even the state of emotional depletion?!" Looking at the immense shock in Ayda''s eyes, I couldn''t help but pity myself for never being able to experience something like that. As little as earth advanced on the field of magic, most of the stuff that apocalypse world once produced was quite simple for me to understand and digest. Not because I was well-versed in magic, but technology. It was this modern mindset most likely shared with the main technological design of the former apocalypse world. But Ayda didn''t belong to such an advanced culture. And when she suddenly took that bracelet off her arm with a tired look on her face, I realised that it might not be that easy to get her to unleash her true potential. Yet, at this point, I couldn''t help but think about one thing. As much of a guess it was, the rewards I would receive forpleting the world''s quest would usually correspond with what I perceived to be my main problem. Just like when I received helpful nts all this time in the past "I''m sorry, as much as I want to explore it, I can do it on ater date. For now, would you mind showing me the rest?" Suddenly shaken awake, I looked passively at Ayda''s face. Amongst the hints of exhaustion, it was her live enthusiasm that pushed me back into an active state. "Sure thing. Let''s maybe start with chocte?" Chapter 61: Chocolate and the windows Chapter 61: Chocte and the windows As much as I wanted to see the girl in all sorts of outfits, It was better to pave my way first. And what could be better at melting the girl in front of me if not feeding her cacao for the first time? From what I could vaguely remember, there were supposed to be some insane effects from overdosing the choco, but this aspect didn''t fit my thoughts. It was more about letting the girl taste the sweetness created by thebined effort of tech and science of thest three hundred years! "I will dly ept it, whatever it is." Seeing her smile, I couldn''t help but notice one thing. Instead of her usual, confident if not mischievous expression, Ayda was showing me the gentles face she could make. Looking with curiosity and affection at my face, her eyes seemed like wells that one could easily drown in. By the time I finally found the bar of my personal favourite chocte, Ayda already closed in on me. Throwing her hands around my neck, she kept just an inch of space between our faces. "Just taste it" With everything that happened over thest few days, the initial awkwardness of intimacy was mostly gone between us. Instead of taking her move as an invitation, I simply smiled before pulling the expensive, cartoon packaging of the long, triangr piece of white chocte, I snapped a small bit away. Raising my hand right to Ayda''s mouth, her lips instantly wrapped around my fingers, sucking the candy away. Keeping her eye contact with me, Ayda suddenly stalled in shock. Unable to move an inch, she seemed to be frozen at the moment. And then, her jaws started to move. Clouds covered her eyes as her face fully focused on chewing on the sweet treat. "What is this?!" Nearly screaming this question as she rapidly brought her hands down towards the rest of the bars, Ayda didn''t ept any resistance as she raised it towards her eyes. "It''s chocte. Be careful though, there are hard pieces of nuts and fruits inside it." Barely stopping myself from openlyughing at the silly figure of the girl, I generously passed the rest of the bar to her hands. Almost throwing lightning bolts from her eyes from the very moment she noticed my enthusiasm, Ayda still silently munched on her treat like a good girl. Overwhelmed with how adorable she was, I could only step back and keep getting charmed with the peaceful and fulfilled expression as she gently hugged herself to me. "Then, what about clothes? I brought a variety of" Before I could finish my sentence, Ayda''s finger covered my lips before the girl closed in. Pressing her mouth against my lips, Ayda instantly overwhelmed me with the insane sweetness of the choco mixed with her delicious saliva. With our tongues exchanging a greeting a momentter I could only admit to how surprised I was with the change of pace. Even though I already expected something like this to happen during the presentation of clothes and Ayda''s inevitable changing. Swirling my tongue around Ayda''s own, I felt the pulsating heat of her breath as her hands brought her even closer to my chest. "Aaah" Suddenly forcing herself away from my mouth, Ayda leaned back in my hold before releasing a rxed sigh. "I can tell what you are thinking." Returning her face as close to mine as she could without actually meeting, Ayda smiled mischievously. But rather than trying to stir trouble, she was simply that eager to enjoy our intimate time. "I think the only reason you brought me those clothes" Just by moving her head a little, Ayda''s forehead gently rested against my own. Her eyes glued to my pupils, drowning me in the intense sea of her stare. "... is because you wanted to tear it off me. Am I right?" Shrinking in my arms, Ayda suddenly moved her head to my neck, whispering her next words. "Why won''t you start with my current outfit then? I hope you didn''t think I wouldn''t notice that beast of your aura?" Kissing me gently in the side of my throat, Ayda moved my hands on top of her waist. Feeling the hot softness below my fingers, I instantly lost the sense of reason. With such a cute and lovable girling at me like that if I failed to properly respond I would be nothing but a mistake of a man. "That seems like a good idea." Smiling gently to the girl, I tore the upper part of her outfit in a single move. As her breast came to my full view, I felt energy, adrenaline, lust and something else raising in me. And it was that unknown element that saved the two of us in that very moment. With my body tightly glued to Ayda, I used one of my hands to tightly embrace her beforebining the strength of all three of my remaining limbs to push myself away from the spot. Right as the arrow that came flying through the window prated deeply into the mattress of the bed we were in just a fraction of a second before. "They are here!" Still, in the air, I heard the voices outside of the inn. Voices One of which I could recognise. But with another set of arrows already approaching to nail me to the wall, I somehow came with an insane n in that little time that I had. Using the repulsion on all the air on the side to which I wanted to escape, I instantly managed to create a huge difference in pressure. Before the two walls of the sudden wind could sh, I was already speeding through the air towards the nearest cover. "What the fuck Why does it always happen like that!" With most of the stuff and military tools left by the doors where we left it, the invaders would kill us ten times over before we could reach and unpack the proper stuff. While there was a point of me being unable to escape without reaching the doors, given how even the thought of leaving Ayda to her own seemed like the greatest but an unfunny joke of the year, it didn''t matter almost at all. And from the voice that I recognised, I somehow instantly managed to connect the dots. Right at the same time as Ayda''s expression changed. "That fucker" Seeing her in such fury, I realised that my guess was right. It wasn''t normal for our pursuers to always find us as we were getting intimate. Given how Ayda recently meets with a former student of hers, someone who she taught witchcraft personally and someone who could allow for her ns toe to fruition In such a situation, even the most conservative wizard wouldn''t hesitate when using witchcraft to n a trap in the enemy''s emotions! "Can you get rid of it?" Knowing how little time we had to prepare, I asked while scanning the interior of the room. While itsyout was long printed in my memory, I hoped to locate something that could be of use. "Already did. To think that I couldn''t notice it" Shaking her head, Ayda attempted to hide yet another tone of fury entering her aura. "It''s okay. From the looks of things, we won''t be able to get to our things" Just as I was about to finish the sentence, all the windows in the room just broke. Turning into a storm of shattered ss, the windows turned into makeshift grapple shots. Only the sturdy cover that I found right in the nick of the moment prevented us from a forcible practice of brutal acupuncture. And then, through the now destroyed windows, an entire squad of opponents jumped into the wreckage of the room. Chapter 62: Grenade Launcher Chapter 62: Grenade Launcher There was no time to think about strategy. With all the windows most likelypromised, space around which we could move was severely limited. Adding the two enemies that already appeared in the room I had to rely on nothing but my instincts. After all, it wasn''t as if the situation that we were in couldn''t be changed or even turned around! "Ayda, push everything away!" Unable to focus on the smaller details of the counterattack I could only hope the girl would be quick with her responses. With my part of the job requiringplete and utter focus, I couldn''t handle maintaining yet another emotional release. At this point, the fact that I had basically no idea how to use true magic thatid dormant in me was even more infuriating. "GO!" Following my order with ease, Ayda entrusted the control over her action to me. At the same time, I had no choice but to entrust her with the responsibility of fulfilling them correctly. At this moment, we both rode the same horse. As soon as Ayda''s voice resounded in the room, everything around us instantly exploded outwards. In this momentary copse of the fake calmness, before we would throw ourselves at each other''s throats, she appeared like an eye of the storm, pressing everything and everyone but me against the walls. Not even able to afford a single look at whether the bonus part of my n worked out, I dashed towards the rustled pile of the materials. Mixed with gifts like clothes or pantries, one kind of bags was bound to react way slower than the others. Not because it was special or anything but because it was way heavier. In this split of a second during which the attackers were unable to track anything within the room, be it the forces outside of the two men pinned against the walls, I found a window to grab my stuff. Using just a bit of two-folded repulsion, I tore a hole in the bag I picked. With how it was putting a dent on the otherwise gentle scope of the rubble, locating the right one was quite easy. Forcing my hand through the hole I didn''t have the time to pick anything specific. Grasping the very first thing that my fingers caught hold on I jumped back, towards Ayda. Stumbling on the ground in order to avoid the pressure of her repulsion, I rolled the rest out of my way towards her. Right in the nick of time. As soon as the two once again could cuddle together before the sparse cover that remained thanks to being bolted to the floor, I tore the safety from the tool I randomly picked. Looking down, I almost gasped when I realised what I happened to lock my fingers on. "Not half bad" Muttering to myself as I raised the bulky gun, I made sure the ammunition drum was in ce before pressing the trigger. With the grenadeuncher in my hand, I didn''t even need to bother aiming all that much. *Thump* The dull sound of the grenade beingunched was still loud enough to attract the attention of the enemies at close range. Given the slow speed of the projectile, if they were quick-witted enough, they could follow its path with their eyes in the short fraction of a second it took the grenade to smash against the wall. Kicking in the explosion right away. Sadly, not the kind of explosion that I expected. Not what I expected to say the least! "Quick! Put this on, otherwise, you will suffocate like them!" Shouting to Ayda, I could only hope that the trantion of mynguage that was in ce somehow would extend to both of the close-range fighters that approached. For now, the smoke seeping from the windows of what used to be an Inn''s room should hold another batch of opponents off. On the other hand, hearing my words, the girl beside instantly looked at me waiting to receive the thing I mentioned, only to see the palm of my hand. Raised in a stopping sign, once she noticed it, I moved my hand up and ced one of its fingers atop my lips. "Let''s kill the fuckers outside as well. Deim, I would love to see what faces they will make once the poison kicks in!" To say that I was improvising would be a huge understatement. Given the rapidly changing situation, I had no other way than to go with the flow! "Hey, quick question. Do you know exactly how did they track us?" The lie about the smoke would only give us fewteen seconds at most. After that time, our opponents would either find the determination to charge right into it or just inly realise that it wasn''t harmful at all! "Yeah. Do you remember the time when I arranged a meeting with a former disciple of mine? It seems that he didn''t abandon the witchcraft at all. He nted a tracking spell in my lust, just like I taught you to use the emotions of others to invoke witchcraft. Also" Before Ayda would even have a chance to exin what else she had on mind, her face suddenly darkened. And in the next moment, a powerful gust of wind rushed to the room through the broken windows, nearly instantly blowing most of the smoke away! "Here they are" Moving the muzzle of my gun towards the set of windows facing the opposite side to where the two close-range fighters invaded, I pulled the trigger of the grenadeuncher. *Thump Thump Thump Thump Thump* Releasing all the remaining grenades from the drum magazine of my weapon, I discarded it as soon as the trigger no longer could make it work. But by the time the metal handle of the weapon left my hand I sensed a presence. "BACK!" Shouting to Ayda I had no way of helping her avoid the attack. Only capable of pushing her away and jumping in the other direction, I saw the sh of light cutting right through the ce where my head used to be. And then, my body stopped listening to my orders. Following the drill that my teacher has beaten into it, I instantly closed the distance to the closest enemy. As much as I wanted to help Ayda, given how we had no way of escaping until the smoke spreads outside, my instincts reigned supreme. shing with the body of the opponent unprepared for such rash and reckless action, I locked my arms between his throat and under one of his shoulder. As silly as it would look like to hug an opponent in close-quarter''s fight like that, it was actually a valid strategy. Because in general and official terms, a sword was as useful as sniper life in the true close-quartersbat! It excelled at half-distance, where the swings and trusts could make the difference. And right now, with the side of his throat squashed strongly by my strangling hold, the man had simply no ce to manoeuvre his weapon in a way allowing him to injure me! "Krist! They got true mage!" Chapter 63: Wounds Chapter 63: Wounds Pushing away her own opponent with a directed wave fo repulsion, Ayda shouted to me before focusing her attention on the fight once again. With our time running low, we had to get rid of those two fuckers! "GET OFF ME YOU DEVIL!" Shouting right in my face, the acolyte of the wizard faction probably hoped that raising his voice would make me scared or something. But as rowdy as I am, I decided not to follow his orders. Pushing all my weight forward while axing one of his legs, I managed to throw both of us at the floor. With my fall cushioned by the body of the opponent, I finally managed to put him in a position of perfect control. Even though I was in the middle of the room, lying down on the floor like that made me a target too small for the archers outside to get the proper angle. And given this rtive freedom of movement, I did something that I never expected to use in a fight. I sank my teeth into the side of the man''s throat! "ARGH!!!" But it wasn''t his pained voice that resounded. Clenching my jaws and pulling my head away from the man''s throat, I could feel a sweet, metallic taste rushing in my mouth as I looked towards the source of the sound. And what I saw, made me stunned. Even though she was cornering her opponent properly, right now, Ayda''s chest was unnaturally pushed to the front. And only when she fell to the ground did a ck arrow sticking from her back revealed itself to my eyes. "What?" Unable toprehend what happened, unable to ept the fact that another person that I grew to care about was in lethal danger, my body momentarily froze. And the whimpering man below me wasn''t willing to let go of this chance. With my body no longer pinning him perfectly to the ground, he pushed my chest away, forcing the two of us into what would look like some gay cow-rider position. But instead of whispering sweet reassurances of how he loved me or how tight my asshole was, the man swung his sword right at my face. The difference between close-quarterbat and half-distance. In thetter, a sword was one of the most versatile and dangerous weapons in the hands of a skilled user. And this truth was just proven to me. Pulling my entire self to the back as soon as I noticed what was about to happen, I still felt a sudden chill across my entire face. Then, this chill exploded with a mixture of warmth and extreme pain, one I have yet to suffer in my life! "YOU FUCKER!" With my emotions taking the advantage of the moment, even my instincts couldn''t resist. Steered by nothing but the hate mixed with my survival instinct amped to maximum, I simply moved the magic. Rather than shaping it to anything that was simr to what I already managed to ever produce, I simply disturbed its flow in the area, forcing it to take the shape I wanted with just the sheer will of mine. And just like that, the man who just dared to put a scar on my face, had his head squashed by a suddenly appearing immense force! "Ayda!" Dropping all the caution outside the window, I rushed towards the lifeless body of the girl. Using the currents of magic to tear the other opponent into pieces on my way there, I fell to my knees. "Don''t you dare die on me, don''t you dare" With the tears from my eyes mixing with the warm blood trickling from the wound, I saw how ugly Ayda''s wound was. With the arrow''s wooden part broken pretty closed to the puncture, a lot of tiny splitters already scattered all over Ayda''s back. With her breathing rugged, it was clear she wasn''t in a good state. But I still had no time to take good care of her, no matter how urgent it was. With my fit of emotions passing after the deaths of the two attackers sapped my strength, I knew I would be no longer capable of miraculously turning the situation around. Thankfully, I had all the tools I needed to end this fight right away. Ignoring the pain in my wound, I jumped towards the pile of Ayda''s gifts. With the torn bag already giving me a hint of where to look for the stuff I desired, it took me only a moment to pull out the ultimate dream of any young man. A damned Rocket Propelled Grenade, or in other words, Rpg. Honestly, I couldn''t tell what the Baskars thought when I ordered it. Maybe they expected me to create some fireworks? Or maybe go on a private crusade against Sarate family? Either way, what mattered now, was that without even precisely aiming, I turned the new weapon of mine towards the broken window. As reckless as standing up was right now, I simply poured all my energy into the repulsion. As I stood up, three arrows came my way. Thankfully, the powerful pressure of my witchcraft was more than enough to keep them away from me. But now, I finally had my target. Directing the front of the weapon towards the first ce where the arrow came from, I pressed the trigger. *Sszzyt* Escaping from the cold embrace of the guiding tube, the projectile proved that grenades could achieve high velocity as well. By the time the roof of a nearby building exploded in a sea of mes, I was barely halfway through reloading! Two more shots to the nearby roofs and one more to a small group gathering at the za at the foot of the Inn, and the fight finally came to an end. Or rather, the fighting on my part. Because by the time I sent thest grenade into the crowd of enemies, I had no other choice but to notice that they were actually fighting with someone else! Chapter 64: What the heck is going on? Chapter 64: What the heck is going on? As soon as I realised what was going on I dropped everything and rushed to my bags. While I would love to have this magical kind of medkit that often appeared in the games I had to make do with just a simple package of bandages and basic medicines. In other words, Adya''s life was fading away and I could only as much as attempt to slow down the loss of blood. But that also meant that if I wanted my help to have any effect I had no other choice but to move it to the very top of the list of my priorities. "Hang in there" Muttering just loud enough for the girl to hear my words I continued to rummage through the boxes for a moment. Finding the box was thankfully easy. Just by searching the third bag, I managed to uncover the location of the possibly life-changing tools. "I''ming!" Still using voice loud enough for the sounds of fighting below to make it unhearable by anyone else but Ayda, I rushed back to where she fell. "I''m not that bad. I managed to slow its progress inside but had to focus my entire self on it to not die instantly. I''m sorry for worrying you." Muttering as if she just lost her mind and was desperate to make me believe she was okay for just a single moment longer, Ayda only yed to the tune of my emotions. But instead of just giving up and breaking in tears, be it of joy or of desperation, I simply ignored her rambling, pulling out the basic disinfectant instead. "It will sting a lot So please, bear with it for a while." I could vaguely recall the rules of what one should do in such a situation. Maybe in a different situation, I could find it funny how watching weird videos on the inte might change someone''s life. But not right now. Not with Ayda possibly drawing herst breaths right before me. Now, I needed to fully focus. With yet another tube of some medicine in my hand, I grasped the remaining part of the arrow. Letting the rest of my palm on Ayda''s stomach as well I waited for a moment before applying the condensed healing agent. In one moment Ayda''s body jerked up as a wave of the extremely unpleasant sensation shook her. From the slight smell of burnt flesh I could tell that although it might be the most effective and highest grade healing agent, it clearly prioritized doing its john over the concern of coteral damage. Keeping my fingers on the arrow to keep it from causing even more destruction in the delicate flesh of this damned girl I had no other choice but to wait out her spasms. Only after Ayda calmed herself down a bit did I managed to gently lift her waist before starting to put the bandage all over her soft skin. The first step of action when dealing with projectiles like this? Disinfect the wound. Second step? For god''s grace, do not dare to pull the foreign element out! Keep it stable in one ce and move the patient to the nearest hospital! That was the gist of what I was doing. And while so far my progress seemed to work wonders on the girl, there was no damned way for me to create a pinnacle of technological civilisation with just a wave of my hand! "Krist I think I know who they are fighting with" For now, it seemed as if all sorts of chemicals that I continued to apply in whichever way the instruction ordered me to somehow managed to recover a bit of Ayda''s strength. While still pale, a slight blush started to return to her cheeks. Her eyes reignited the usual sparks. "So you could hear it out Damn, I had to actually take a look." Despite how my entire self was held in a merciless grip of the overwhelming worry I did my absolute best to not let it show on my face. Right now, Ayda could only feel hope and assurance from me. If she really trusted me as much as she imed, then by showing her that I believed in her in return would force her to get better! With my mind already going awry and creating logical reasonings to calms myself down I actually failed to realise when Ayda''s hand twitched. But when she actually moved her hand up to ce it on my shoulder I would have to be either an idiot or blind and senseless to miss that. "I told you, I will be okay. While this is some of the highest level witchcraft I can make my body heal faster." Stopping her attempts to raise up by cing my own hands on her shoulders I moved my sight towards where the door to this room originally was. With the sound of steps alerting my instincts I quickly took note of everything that could be useful in the area. "Justy down. I will deal with it." Ignoring the pain of my facial wound, after making sure that Ayda remained calm and steady on the floor I jumped towards the pile with tools. With both of my bigger aces already used up, I had no other choice but to limit myself to the simpler weapons. But that didn''t mean they were any less dangerous. After all, if one were topare how many people died from explosions and how many people died from the bullets, it would be thetter taking the price of the more lethal! "Here theye" Pushing the pin of the safety on my locally-produced modr gun I moved it from tap fire to an automatic mode. Given how all the potential enemies had to either risknding through the windows without even knowing whether they could find a proper foothold or just going straight through the doors, given the distance between any ce they could attack me from Spraying bullets in their faces just seemed like a better option than tapping them one by one and preserving the ammunition! "They are here! Bring the herbs. I can feel that the master is in pain!" After just a few moments since I heard someone trying to make his way through the bottom part of the Inn, the doors that I watched opened up with a group of four younglings rushing inside. "Stay where you are!" Not daring to take any risks I kept my sights locked on the entering figures. Even with blood that trickled from my wound and blinded me on one eye, I would be easily able of cutting them all in half with just a single, short series. "Don''t worry, dear. They are with me." Still obediently waiting for my return in the ce where I hid her, Ayda calmed the situation down. Yet even with her intervention, it seemed that the showcase of my abilities before somehow managed to teach those younglings a lesson to stop when faced with a threat unknown. "Master!" If there were any semnce of calmness that could be used as a fertile ground to avoid any huge mistakes, now it was all gone. And all it took, was for a single person out of the group to notice Ayda. "What is this Nevermind, guys, bring me the herbs. And you" With one of the girls falling to her knees right before my woman, she quickly assessed the situation before turning her head towards the rest of her group and me. "And I will keep one of you guys here to exin what the heck is going on." Chapter 65: I would use some help! Chapter 65: I would use some help! "Master" Before answering my question like the good kids I hoped those randoms to be, they looked towards Ayda first. It seemed that the fact that I was with her have yet to spread amongst those who followed her lead in this world. "It''s okay. Tell him everything you know." Whispering gently from her resting ce, Ayda forced herself to move her head up and down a bit to make sure those young people would notice her words. "Herbs! I brought herbs!" Even after Ayda''s approval, I had no other choice but to wait a bit more to get my answers. Just as one of the neers was opening his mouth to exin the situation, another voice entered the fray before a young woman stormed the room while iling a small, leather package in her hand. "What the heck are you waiting for? Pass it on!" At this point, I would have to be stupid not to notice that the girl who was currently tending to Ayda''s wounds appeared to be the leader of the entire group. Be it just the part that entered the building or themander of the entire unit that came to our rescue, it didn''t matter almost at all for now. "Are you sure you know what you are doing?" Pushing the matter of learning the news forter, I pulled out the package from the reckless girl that brought it here before passing it to the girl kneeling in front of Ayda. "I don''t know who you are so I will let that slide But yes, I''m pretty proficient when ites to healing." Taking over the leather bag, the girl quickly undid the strings that held it together before taking a loot inside. After a moment of hesitation, she picked up several small containers before opening them all up. With her hands moving at a rate that I could barely follow, some of the powders, oils and leaves ended up on top of a single bandage that she cut from the one I used to stop Ayda''s bleeding. While watching how the girl was destroying this piece of art that my treatment was turned out to be quite painful, as long as it would increase Ayda''s chances of survival then I would be happy with it. But with my beloved situation now already under control, it was finally the time for me to start carrying about my own wound. But before that, I still wanted to hear an exnation for about what the heck was going out around us! "Okay then. You!" Pointing my hand at the same guy that was about to speak before, I smiled gently. "I saw you attempting to say something. I will take the answer to my previous question now. What the hell is going on?!" Despite a wide smile decorating my face, my tone remained cold. With Ayda''s injuries weighing on my soul, my own injury influenced my physical state. Both of thembined into a pretty sorry state I was currently at. And it was most likely this state of my presence that made a hint of fear appear in the aura of the guy I pointed out. "Sir I don''t know how much you know so far so it''s kind of hard to exin" Seeing how troubled this young ally of Ayda was, I could only shake my head in disbelief. If that was the level of allies that my sweetheart could call forth, then unless they were insane in terms of fighting, they would seem like a wrong investment of efforts for me. "All we know is that we lowered our guard too much. They somehow managed to put a tracker on us, resulting in the entire situation. I know we should''ve noticed it when they found us for the first time, but I stupidly assumed they just lucked out. So well, to put things in short words, all we know is that the two of us are fervently chased by the wizards." Giving a little bit of background information like how this was actually a second attempt at our lives, I looked at the young man in front of me with expectation clearly visible in my eyes. If he couldn''t learn where to start from everything I said already, his recounts would be useless from the get-go. "Sir, they are not chasing you. Or rather, Wizards are not chasing you and master in particr. They basically dered a war against the entire witch society!" Finally, something that made sense. All the way to this point I essentially gave up on trying to uncover what was the motive of wizards to go for such lengths to kill us. While there was the option of their wish to get rid of all the true mages or anyone who had a potential to be one, given Ayda''s statement during the fight about the wizards having a true mage on their side, this one single reason that made any sense for me suddenly turned invalid. Obviously, if it was aplete deration of war against the entire group, then everything would suddenly make sense. Without such a huge cause, it was simply hard for me to imagine the wizards going for such great lengths and investing so much of their strength and manpower just to bother two unimportant beings! "Dear" Before I could even realise it, the girl that tended to Ayda''s wounds proved that her self-confident words weren''t empty ims. With my belovedplexity already improving by leaps and bounds, she even managed to move from lying position to a sitting one. Just the fact that her voice was loud enough for me to notice was enough to give the testimony of Ayda''s follower skill. "I know, I know. I need to take care of my own wound. But for that, let me rely on my own means to do so." Smiling gently to the girl, I took a look outside the broken window. Just as expected, the fighting ceased a long while ago, with the entire area bustling with people of all ages. By straining my eyes a bit I even managed to notice a huge, wooden cage with people inside it. A proof that the fight was truly over already. "Before I go, do you think you could hold this ce for a while? I''m not sure how hard it will be for me to return." Taking a quick look towards Ayda, I could see how quickly her recovery was going. Sadly, without even a single bandage stopping my wound for bleeding, I could only guess how bad my general look was. And as little as I cared for appearances, it would cause a huge uproar if I were to appear like that in public, especially with how my entire poprity was built on the graves of my damned family! "We will manage. Now that we know what we are up against, I hope we will be able to count on your help. I''m sorry I need to burden you with my own problems, but I don''t really have any other choice." Taking a quick look at Ayda''s face, I felt as if there was something deeper to her words outside of what anyone could outright understand. Sadly, the stinging of my own wound was starting to get too annoying for me to try to uncover the hidden meaning behind Ayda''s words. "Don''t you even dare to think about it like that. I will be going now. Feel free to use whatever weapon I will leave here to secure this ce. I will try to bring some more back when I return, but I can''t guarantee anything." Smiling to my beloved I finally returned to the ce where I was originally uncovering gift after gift for Ayda. Taking a quick look at the people watching my actions with curiosity, I put a focused look on my face before crossing my fingers in some strange ways a few times. Only once this part of my act was done did I dare to step through the doors and let the system transport me right back to my basement. As stupid as it was to openly reveal my ability to move like that, I didn''t really have any other choice. I couldn''t risk Ayda moving anywhere far, and a single look outside of the window before only ascertained me that no other building within the area had any doors remaining in ce. But debating over whether returning to earth out in the open was smart or not could wait. For now, there was something else that I had to do. Using the shirt that I was wearing to clean the blood from my face, I quickly took it off my back before recing it with a fresh shirt. Only then did I move towards the basement doors before pushing them open. Running through the open space between the basement at the cap that covered it, I finally managed to escape the sanctum of the mansion. And then "Pavlo! Where the heck are you?! I would use some help asap here!" Chapter 66: Finding a medic Chapter 66: Finding a medic "Dear God, what happened?!" Appearing way faster than I actually expected him to do, Pavlo instantly grabbed me under my shoulder, taking over a huge part of my own weight from me. "A failed attempt at something. I would love to tell you to not pay any mind to itBut the truth is, I would use some medicinal help right now." I didn''t call for Pavlo in order to bullshit him. Tending to my wound took the priority right now given how I couldn''t appear like that before any form of the crowd, no matter as small. With how vtile the rtions of my faction were with both the local government and Sarate family, escting the tension would only be counterproductive for me. Right now, the best way to guarantee the safety and stability of my religion was to use the tools from apocalypse to insanely escte the rate of development of my faction. Form rewarding the talented and loyal people with simple tools, through trying to back-develop them locally all the way to grooming people capable of making full use of them, the time was working in my favour. Ultimately, the political struggle that I created didn''t require me to match the level of others. All I had to do was putting the rate at which my personal and political strength grew way above their own, securing the sympathy of the wide array of social groups. And for that, escting tensions was thest thing that I was willing to do! "I can see that myself. Come, we have some paramedic nearby. While he was supposed to deal with any construction-rted injuries I don''t think any other way to exin your wound than by some unfortunate event. Do you want me to set up the location for it?" Noticing how this daring young man managed to fit both the proposition of faking the reason of my own injury and his intention to craft the evidence for an event that didn''t happen, I felt my lips curving upwards. As strange as it could sound to praise a former mobster, there was no denying that in terms of organisation, he was truly a genius of his kind. With those thoughts in my mind, I followed Pavlo through theplicated mess of corridors. On the n, the mansion was supposed to be pretty easy to move around, but with all the construction materials quite often blocking the natural path, the distance that should take us at most two minutes to cover actually ended up as a half-an-hour long journey. *Knock, knock, knock.* Smashing his fist against the door that I didn''t even know existed already, Pavlo didn''t bother waiting or any response from inside. Pushing the handle of the door, the young master of Baskar family simply waltzed right into the room, instantly stirring up some attention. "Can''t you wait for a single god-damned second? You scared me so much I nearly cut this man another smile on his belly!" Still holding a bloodied scalpel in his hand, the man returned to his workstation right aftermenting on our rude behaviour. With how the medic''s attention instantly focused all on the patient lying on his table I quickly realised that there was no point in trying to talk to him now. Only after a long while did the medic appeared to be finished with his previous case. Finally reaching the point where I could experience the honours of the man carefully watching my wound at any moment I didn''t dare to keep pretending I wasn''t asleep. "Come on in now." After sshing a bucket-worth of freshwater at the special seat that the medic was used to operate on, the man finally pointed his finger at me before moving it above the long chair. Faced with no other choice I could only follow hismands while hoping that my rather extensive blood loss wouldn''t affect my health too rigidly. Sitting on the chair definitely felt weird, especially with Pavlo sending me worried looks from the side. But the true horror started when the medic actually took a look at my wound before speaking out. "I can clean and disinfect it But there is something etched in the flesh itself. I can''t tell what it is... " At this point, it was pretty easy to understand what actually happened. The look of disbelief on Pavlo''s face mixed with the sight of the powerlessness on the medic''s expression was far more than enough for me to understand what was going on. There was only one thing that could make humans from the earth make such a puzzled expression. And it was magic. From that point, the conclusion was pretty simple to uncover. Somehow the sword that cut my flesh apart was enhanced with some kind of spell, putting a wizard-based course on the wound and preventing it from healing properly! But just as ingenious this kind of weapon enchantment would be, it also meant that only my ownck of determination was stopping me from solving my own problem. Someone once said that the first step of dealing with a problem is recognising that there is one. And in my case, that step was more than enough. "Give me a moment" Throwing this short sentence to the medic, I scanned the area around me. Amidst the medic''s tools, one object brought my attention. Using a gentle repulsion to pull it towards my hand, I made sure the de of the small knife was empty before raising it towards my forehead. And then, I cut my entire wound away. At first, it was painful as heck. It was so bad that for a moment I even though about swaling my own tongue just to make this pain go away. Thankfully, whenever that kind of dark thoughts would appear in my mind, they would do so in presence of the smiling Ayda. And just like that, the perspective of returning to her warm and loving embrace was just enough to let me suffer through the worst part of the pain rted to my wound. "That can work as well. I''m sorry for doubting your determination, sir." Instantly jumping to pull out some more tools and even some potions, the local medicine then followed with cleaning my wound and applying some kind of ointment to it before wrapping the whole thing with a simple bandage. Only then did the pain of my cut away flesh managed to disappear, reced by a soothing sensation of delicate warmth from the medicine. From then on, the rest was pretty simple. With my wound now treated I only learned how it would most likely leave a quite distributing scar on my face. As bad as it felt at first, it took me only a while to notice one thing. The potions of earth seemed to be actually far greater than the ones produced locally in the foreign worlds. Compared to herbs that Ayda''s student was using to tend the girl''s wounds, the crystalline sk seems to be a better choice. Sadly, just like medic suggested, even the potions were unable to stop an ugly scar from reappearing. Chapter 67: Second attempt at the opening rite Chapter 67: Second attempt at the opening rite "I know that I''m asking for a lot, but we can''t leave those people hanging. They need to see you. I wille up with some ridiculous story for your wound so just get going now!" It was quite a strange experience to have Pavlo hurry me up. Especially with how the very doctor that he hired and that he just imed I had to rest for an extended period of time to let my body regenerate. Up to this point, most of the moves and actions that our small alliance did were caused by my own ideas and my own pushing for their execution. Seeing the role changing in the tense moment right after having my injury treated was something that I had no other choice but to ept with a smile. "It''s okay. Don''t worry about me. If not for the Lord''s grace, my body would bepletely covered in scars already." Not really focusing on our talk as I had to prepare the speech for the second attempt at the rite, I allowed my mind to generate a random reply to Baskar''s young master''s inquiry. "Wait a second, are you for real?" Shaken from my daze by his sudden and rather loud question, I had no other choice but to actually focus on his face, while trying to recall just what the heck did I just say to make him react like that. "For real what?" My initial attempts at surveying my own memory failed to bring results. Instead of posing as someone who I was not I then just decided to be open about this matter and asked Pavlo about his intentions directly. "I mean, this entire religion quirk Isn''t it just a publicity stunt? I know that some of the big religions across the world discovered some hidden powers in their prayers Nevermind. I''m not going to force you to exin your ns here, but I need to ask just this one question." Taking a deep breath to calm his earlier excitement down, Pavlo stopped his steps before looking directly in my eyes. "Is this religion that you are attempting to propagate a real thing or just a stunt?" From how serious the expression of this contemporary of mine was I realised that lying would only cause major problems down the line. In the end, an alliance set on nothing else but small lies would be bound to copse rather sooner thanter. "It''s a real deal. While the heritage of Boruta''s cult is as young as the world past the apocalypse, we are not going to miss on a chance that this new reality gives. And from what was discovered in our hidden headquarters" Taking a momentary pause to let the tension build-up I released a deep sigh after a moment before continuing. "... the power of religion works kind of like taxes. Everyone who prays while truly believing in what is he praying for, leaves a small chunk of the energy within some kind of reservoir. This energy can be attached to objects, relics or authority, and those wielding either of those will be capable of using this energy for their own purposes." This time instead of bullshiting my way up I exined the theory that I had about the religions ever since I saw the catholic pope bringing forth the miracles that only the bible mentioned to that point. Obviously, it wasn''t my private theory, but something that a lot of people thought about and shared on social media. The only difference between what I just said and the most popr branches of this theories was that outside of ces and relics, the energy could be also attached to something I called authority. But I wasn''t going to just outright exin its meaning as for as long as Baskars would be clueless what this authority truly meant, I would be free to use all sorts of magicpletely on my own without attracting way too many hostile eyes towards me! "Good. With that, let me prove how my family is loyal to the cause you created." Picking the pace once again, Pavlo continued to lead me through the corridors of the mansion under construction towards the very same ce where the first rite was supposed to be held. But right as we approached thest set of doors that would allow me to finally meet with the new believers of my fake faith, Baskar''s young master stopped his steps before turning towards me with a serious look on his face. "We expect the governor to make his move during the rite. We already set several scouts on literally every path that the government forces would have to take to approach the mansion. After you get out to start this rite of yours Make sure to keep the doors open. I will speak juts loud enough for you to hear what''s going on." Ending his bit by patting me encouragingly on the shoulder, Pavlo retreated into the shadow of the corridor. Given how I basically stole the form of my rite from the catholic religion, it would be unbing for him to be visible from the ce where the crowd would gather. "Thanks. I appreciate that although I kind of doubt that this faith of mine is already popr enough to stir the government into action." Sending the young master off with a slight smile I turned towards the doors before pushing them open. And as if the wind took the ce of Pavlo''s hands, I felt my face being pped by its sudden gust once I saw an enormous crowd already awaiting my appearance in silence. "What" Muttering silently under my nose I had to rely on my preprogrammed moves to actually get moving instead of just staring in surprise at the crowd. Doing something like that would only put me in a strange spot where everyone would question just what kind of a holy-man I was to be surprised by the poprity of the truths I spread! But instead ofpletely eradicating the feeling of surprise and coldly following the initial scheme of the rite, I came out to the middle of the stage in silence instead. Resting my wrist on a simple cathedra ced there by the workers I looked over the crowd under the stage with tears openly appearing in my eyes. "Wee, e-everyone." Figuring out the next steps was fairly simple. Not because I was some kind of schemer capable ofing up with convoluted ns on the spot. I coulde up with a n because I was aplete opposite of someone like that. "I''m sorry. Never in my grandest dream did I expect for so many honest people to remain in this world after the apocalypse.." Openly taking a moment to calm down my emotional state, I wiped the tears off my eyes with the sleeve of the simple, single-coloured robe I was wearing. The crowd below stage continued to watch my actions and listen to my words inplete silence. Looking at the faces of the people gathered I could notice one thing that united them all. Outside of the worries of the daily life, troubles that all people living in civilisation would have, there was a slight undertone of wrath hidden in the depths of their eyes. The wrath of watching the government do whatever they want to them. The wrath of being powerless to shape their lives in the way they would like. The wrath of being just a spare element used to pull in as much taxes for the elites as possible. The wrath of a simple honest person standing against the injustice of the world around them. For a witch like me, those emotions were not only visible in everyone''s eyes, but they also formed a powerful clog of dense aura in the ce. This rage was condensed to the point where it was actually hard for me to breathe, even despite the fact how little of said fury did every specific person gathered feel. "Everyone." Facing my own emotions in front of everyone, I forced my face to regain the look of calmness and seriousness. Obviously, I made sure to keep some of my tears on my face to constantly remind everyone gathered how their appearance managed to pleasantly surprise me. "I''m not going to lie. The number of people that are still willing to stand against the injustice in this city I was never as optimistic to expect such a great number of you to gather here. But this is also a statement given to the officials. The statement that we are no longer willing to just silently take their orders and bend our knees under their strength!" Starting to rally the crowd against amon enemy, I heard some rustling behind me. "Let today''s rite be the moment where our feeling of rage, wrath, powerlessness and desperation will unite in the holy presence of those who sacrificed their lives for the cause. Let those feelings be purified by their sacrifice, by their graves, by the ideals they fought and died for!" The rustling behind me intensified. "Today, the Boruta''s cult openly starts its activity in this god-forgotten city! Today is the day we unite to stand against the injustice!" Shouting from the bottom of my lungs, I was unable to hear what Pavlo was attempting to say from the shadow of the corridor of the mansion. But when I noticed him stepping directly on the stage in a set of robes pretty simr to my own, I had no other choice but to cease my preaching and turn my head towards him. "High priest, may the blessing of Boruta guide your actions through this world. I have some urgent news that cannot be put forter." Clearly ying the bit of some lower priest within the cult, only the wide sleeves of his costume prevented people below the stage from noticing how his hands were shaking madly. "Stagefright?" Whispering gently while putting a delicate smile on my lips I finally got a chance to peek at the Pavlo''s face hidden under a sizeable hood. And it waspletely white. "High priest! The heretics from the government made their stance. They just announced our holy cult to be a terrorist organisation aimed at destabilising the situation in the city And their forces are already on the way here!" Chapter 68: There is always a bigger fish Chapter 68: There is always a bigger fish "Ehhh" Hearing the news all I could do was releasing a deep, exhausted sigh. Instead of ring up or even worse, giving up to the powerlessness of my situation I simply epted the new reality I had to face. "It seems that we will be having guests, everyone." Turning back to the crowd I didn''t dare to let the insane news sink in. If I failed to react quickly, some people might let their fears to take over, making them assume that the government stance was right. It was no coincidence that only those who were daring to take their chances ruled the world. "There are two reasons why our new visitors won''t do anything. Actually, there are three, but let''s focus on those that matter." Gracing everyone with a big, charming smile I looked towards the distance with a joyful look in my eyes. Even though the government would still take a while to arrive, this gesture allowed everyone to understand who I had on mind. "We all know that the safety of our new reality is way lower than what we are all used to. Surely, there was some crime, but on the general scale, normal people like you weren''t affected by it." Lowering my hands down and putting them leisurely in the pockets of my robe I swept the entire area with a perfectly calm smile. Feeling the coldness of the metallic material that made up the recently salvaged tools from the apocalypse, my chin moved even higher than before. Just like earthy guns were insanely effective in Ayda''s world, the magic from her homeworld that was perfected over millennials could be of great use on earth. But with earthy magic still in its diapers, I had no doubt the potential opposition from cultivators wouldn''t be that much of a problem. And that feeling only reinforced in me when two additional bracelets found their way on top of my wrists. Even though I have yet to fully test their potential given how I was rushing everything so far, no one could im that I wasn''t confident in the imminent showdown. "Something like this must end." Forcing my thoughts back to the reality I smiled towards the people once again. "We all know that powerful families and government are doing whatever they like. They are aware that a normal person has absolutely no power to stand against them. Give the current situation of our country another look and its no different from anarcho-oligarchy." Throwing aplicated term didn''t seem to be a good idea But only at the first nce. By using a word that not everyone was sure to understand I made everyone focus for a bit. "In other words, from a great andplex civilisation, we returned back to thew of jungle. Those who are strong can wreak havoc amongst those who are weak. Just like back during the period of partition. As if we were invaded and conquered." Thoroughly exining how the gathered crowd should see the current situation I made sure that now everyone knew what I meant previously. And with that little trick of mine, I could hope that most of them understood their sudden agitation with the topic as a sign of support! "But let me remind you all." I pulled my hands from my robe. Once again turning my gaze towards the distance, a small wrinkle appeared on my forehead. And that alone was enough for some amidst the crowd to turn their heads around. And then the rest of the crowd did the same. If one had a slightly more elevated position, he could see that the police was already approaching. The sound of signals could be heard not long after. Still faint for now, it was growing with each passing second. "Back in those dark times of our history, our nation always stood up to its oppressors. We fought even when we couldn''t win and in spite of all the logic of this world, we prevailed. It was this madness of few that explodes in our spirits when we are facing an enemy at our gates." Descending down the stage I couldn''t be bothered to carry the microphone with me. Influenced by some kind of spirit that ravaged my soul I managed to create witchcraft on the spot that worked in the same way. As little and as wasteful as it would be for a witch to waste entire emotion of something so simple I didn''t need to be bothered with this. I just knew that thanks to being a true mage, I could freely modify itter on. And that meant, there was nosting cost to doing so while the aura that I gave off changed instantly. "Back in the days, our ancestors created the idea that we are the saviours of all nations. That our suffering is a price the earth has to pay for salvation. That we are some tragic heroes of this world, too busy following our own ideals instead of adapting to the harshness that surrounds us." Turning slightly more mystical I already made my way to the middle point between the stage and the simple, metal fence that separated the construction site from the street. Away on its end, the police was already pouring out of their vehicles and forming ranks. "What our faith calls forth is the wisdom of Boruta. I noticed the stir in social media. Everyone is curious just what values stands behind our name. So let me shed some light on this matter for you." With only a quarter of the distance remaining, I knew my time was quickly approaching its end. For the first time ever since I recovered them, my additional bracelets activated. Although only thanks to the interface of the basic tool I was already used to, it still made me see something shing through every single figure in the formation of police already marching towards me. With their batons already smashing rhythmically against their shields, no one could have any doubts what they were here for. But instead of worrying about it, I could see No, see was a wrong way to describe that feeling. It seemed as if the flow of my inner magic was disturbed, forcing all the knowledge that my brain would otherwise register as seeing into my mind. It was as if someone nted a chip in my brain and now it was flooding me with info But without confusing me at all. It was as if everything strange that was happening was taking ce in the passive part of my mind, allowing my senses to stay sharp and my attention focused. "Boruta was originally a provincial noble. One that didn''t negotiate with the devils that surrounded him. One that didn''t confront reality. One that took the action and dered war against those who wronged him. It''s funny how the great nobles thatter pushed our nation to copse and years of very turned his history around and made him into a devil." With the police right across the gate, I could feel the tension of the crowd behind my back. Right now, the only thing that kept everyone rtively calm and steady was the story that I was telling. "Isn''t this a situation perfectly familiar to us right now? I know what stance will I take against the fate of the devils that surround us." Not even bothering to end this sentence with a boom I simply cancelled my magical megaphone before approaching the gate and opening it up. "What business do you seek with us, gentlemen?" With only those closest to me capable of hearing my voice, the atmosphere turned intimate. As wrong as it seems to describe it like that, this was the cumtion point. The high moment of the entire event. Everyone wanted to know its oue. No one dared to act. And then I saw it. Way before the police actually took any action. With my mind suddenly turning sharp, the entire world around me seemed toe to a stop. By the time the hands of the officers just a few meters away from me managed to throw away the batons and reach for the guns I was already locked and ready to fight. But I couldn''t. Even though I knew what would happen, even though those tools from apocalypse finally proved what they were capable off I couldn''t be the one to act first. Even though I was perfectly ready to call my repulsion forth, disturbing the enemy formation before they could act. And then, in the eerie silence, the time rushed forward. In a sh, the front row of police dropped their batons. The thundering of them falling to the ground seemed to shake the earth around me. With their hands still in motion, the police raised their handguns and pulled their triggers. When the muzzles of their guns shed, the time stopped once again. My mind exploded with a plethora of possibilities as if those additional bracelets could project every single possible way of shaping my magic to repel the attack. And before I could even realise it, I knew all the options by heart. The bullets flew forward. Right towards my face, right towards the crowd behind me. And then my repulsion kicked in. But not in the way it used to do so far. Not like a simple wave that even if directional, would still only force everything away from its path. This time, it felt as if my magic divided into an enormous army of tiniest strands, each reaching from my body towards the nearest bullet. By the time when the police expected at least some causalities, the entire crowd was staring at the wall of lead handing in the air. Forming a wall of failed death. "As for the other reason why I believe the government is not stupid enough to make a move against everyone here." Delighted in the perfect silence that surrounded me, I picked up where I left just a moment ago. My voice, crispy clean in the silent atmosphere felt as if gospel recited by a prophet. "As for the second reason, if they were to openly act against the poption, then no matter how remote we might be in this new, huge world. There is someone bound to take action. How do they say it in the east?" Taking a moment to pose by scratching my chin in a silent attempt to recall the right words I felt as if I could bask in the glory of a thousand stares directed at me. "Ah! I get it!" Snapping my fingers and raising to ent the sess of my attempts I smiled towards the police. "There is always a bigger fish." Chapter 69: Massacre ensues Chapter 69: Massacre ensues Even with all my means and abilities, there was only so much firepower that I could take on myself. With one of the bars shing in my peripheral vision making sure that I would know that I could repeat this kind of feat only a few times more, I realised I had to avoid a direct sh by all means possible. Otherwise, I wouldn''t be able to protect the people around me. Even though I didn''t know most of them, even though a bit of blood would only legitimise my cult I just couldn''t bring myself to sacrificing them for my own personal gains. Even if they coincidentally also meant turning this world a better ce for them all. That''s why, still keeping the bullets in the air and using the surprise and confusion amongst the ranks of the enemy, I pulled out my phone. With just a few touches of the screen, a live streaming event started on my recently poprised profile. While the majority of my followers came from the nearby areas as they were directly rted to the events, people all over the country and the world had ess to it. And I was perfectly sure that within just a few first seconds, some of them wouldunch my stream. "Everyone! I''m speaking from the street just beside the construction of the Boruta''s cult chapel. Right here, behind my back, you can see the ce where the Government murdered a family of tree in order to obtain some kind of mediocre weed. After our attempt to give those poor people a proper burial, they suddenly dered us as a terrorist organisation" Turning my phone around so that the camera would face a wall of bullets while the screen would turn visible for the police for a moment, I finished. "Before opening fire for no apparent reason. For me, that''s an act of terrorist and treason against the ultimate rulers of thosends, the people." Right now, the ball was on the government side. Whether they would stop or press the attack, the voice of the people across the entire world would be on my side. If only I could withstand the initial attack, it would spell the end for the local government if not one of the whole nation. After all, in those vtile times, what kind of warlord, bully or neighbouring government would be so passive and naive enough to miss such an opportunity to grow in power? That was the third reason that I decided not to share with the crowd. It was not something that I could say to them or to anyone already tuning in to the stream. With the number of viewers growing with each second I could tell that the entire tform was already exploding with the news. What a great and so far, cheap way to get even more popr! Soon, before the police would react, at least half of the crowd behind me pulled out their phones. Some were taking photos, some recording, some most likely started streams on their own. This world was not Ayda''s ce where one could exert strength without consequences. Here, only by acting carefully and steadily like me could one attain dominance. "FIRE AT WILL!" As if ignoring the insane odds he was at, the government didn''t bend. The shes of muzzles appeared once again. But this time, I could clearly see that the triggers of the police''s weapon were turned to the auto mode. From how the officers fingers were tensing, it was clear they didn''t intend to pull it off the trigger anytime soon. All of that resulted in red warnings shing through my entire vision. The system of those additional bracelets was clear with what the oue would be if I decided to stand idly. And quite obviously, I didn''t. This time, there was no delicacy. Instead of wasting the energy to act with grace I simply unleashed my repulsion. My repulsion towards the ideals that made those people act others like disposable goods. My repulsion towards the people responsible for the death of my parents. And with just a slight addition of the sea of my hate, the initial push from repulsion turned into a nket of silent death that befall the ranks of the policemen. But as they started falling down, their bodies tensed up. And so did their fingers. *TRRRA!* In one, fluid song, all of the guns fired. Some of the bullets managed to go above the heads of everyone. But some fell right into the tangled mess of the bodies within the crowd. For a moment, nothing happened. Secondary unit of the police that stood deeper in the street just watched as their colleagues fell to the ground. The people shoot on my side failed to notice what happened to them. Those standing beside the victims of the salvo were the first ones to react. And then all hell erupted. "I made my choice. Now it''s up to everyone to make yours." I was incapable of stopping the bloodshed. Halting all the lethal bullets would sap my strength before I could actually stop the salvo. The best I could do was protecting myself and those standing directly behind me. It was the government that initiated this bloodshed. But I wasn''t willing to stand idly like a cattle led to a ughter. With this simple sentence on my lips, I marched forward. Now that I released a huge amount of magic, it seemed as if the system of my additional, clearly military bracelets managed to finally tune in to my flow of magic. "Die." Reaching with my hand forward, I grasped down on the air with my fingers, as if someone''s throat was there. With my magical energy rushing forward, nearly half of the second police unit fell prey to the tiny bullets of magic. Invisible to a naked eye, they prated deeply into the brains of the officers before exploding with a sudden wave of repulsion. Only a few managed to escape the ordeal. Two of them by avoiding the death ordained for them. With the crowd already splitting into two groups, one of which was charging after my lead while the other was running away directly through the construction site, the second unit of police copsed, with most of its people dying without even a single visible injury, the morale of the enemy forces had to be at all-time low. And then my vision on both sides exploded with redness. "AMBUSH!" Instantly using my magic megaphone to alert everyone, I jumped up and used my repulsion to explode myself away, back towards the stage. With a corner of my eyes, I noticed that Pavlo turned out to be unlucky. With a pool of blood forming around his head decorated with a red hole, it was clear that he was unlucky enough to get shot with one of the few bullets that entered the crowd. But then, my attention was brought back to the ce from where I just escaped. Right when the entire street exploded. Not caring for the policemen that were left there, a huge ball of intense fire swallowed everyone nearby, along with a huge chunk of the brave people that followed me. Then, the shockwave reached my body, mming me against the half-finished side-wall of the mansion. My bones shook, threatening to crack But ultimately my body held on. Sadly, the same couldn''t be said about most of those that were closer to the explosion. Grovelling on the air while rubbing their bleeding eyes and ears, they were thest straw that broke the back of my calmness. Seeing all those victims of this idiotic attack, I felt my rage burning me up. And then, the true force of the enemy finally revealed itself. Chapter 70: So I did just that Chapter 70: So I did just that Even though it was nothing new for me, I didn''t enjoy the notion of spilling blood. It was something I was ready to do when necessary, in order to save myself and those who I cared about from harm. And there was no way to tell that I held all those potential believers in such high regard to go into a battle frenzy for them. But the sight of not only the entire street erupting in mes but a huge force dressed in the well-known uniform of the military was something that riled me up. Not only because those people wore the same kind of uniform as the people that killed my family. Not only because they were thest and best of what the local government could procure against me. Those familiar greenish patches that would make those soldiers hardly noticeable out in the wild, made them stand out like ducks in the urban area here. Yet I could understand the way of thinking of whoever made them dress like that. It was truly a sight to behold to see an entirepany descending from their hideouts in the neighbouring houses. And the amount of firepower that they brought with themselves was far more than necessary to cover for theirck of camouge. But that was what could be going through the head of whoever organised this attack. And that person had no way of knowing what those poor sons of bitches would be about. Right now, my wrath was quickly taking over my senses. From experiencing a needless and pointless ughter right from the first seat view, through already making my blood boil with all the killing I did all the way to facing against an insanely huge force for such a small organisation like mine. All of those elements only contributed to pushing me even further beyond the safe calmness that Ayda always advised. Andbined with the power surging from the bodies of the dead in insane amounts along with my apocalypse equipment making good use of this nearly endless source of energy, not even those several hundred of men could scare me. I jumped forward. As if in an attempt to make the job of killing them easier, the soldiers dispersed from one single and cohesive unit into their respective toons and groups. A tactic that could work against the enemy with machine guns and grenades. Not so much against a mobile mage like me. The moment Inded near the closest hideout marked the moment when the true battle ensued. Instead of directly attempting to move around the cover and attack the enemy, I simply smashed it away with my repulsion. Running in the rtive blind spot created by a flying chunk of the wall I took count of all the enemies I could see. Four to the left, two to the right. Before the piece of wall that I was hiding behind would crash against some other building, my legs moved on their own. It seemed as if some kind of passive consciousness was moving my libs, putting them always in the perfect spot for execution of the next attack. Leaping towards the nearest enemy I took a momentary cover behind a metal trashcan as a series flew over my head, before kicking said bin right into the soldiers embrace. Sadly, that poor man couldn''t reciprocate the love of trash, ending up squished between this chunk of metal and a concrete wall behind him. This was no anime. Crushing someone against a concrete wall didn''t even make the structure flinch. And obviously, the same couldn''t be said about what remained of the soldier body. Using the gap created by two soldiers dying, I rushed towards the appearing blind spot only to jump and change my direction midair. As if pulled towards thest enemy to my right I could see his gun''s muzzle moving towards my torso. sh. A short series of bullets rushed towards my body, only to end up obliterated by a thin tentacle of my magic. The next moment, my fist was already massaging the inner back of the soldier''s skull. "Disgusting" Perfectly aware of how the rest of the toon was watching my actions I couldn''t stop myself from taking a moment to deprive them of their morale even more. With the brain matter of their fellow soldier now dirtying my hand, I raised my head to the side. Somewhere behind all those soldiers, amander had to be hiding. But without a way of locating him, venturing to the backside of the enemy formation would mean certain death. Not even with all my means would I be able to tear through such an army on my own. What I didn''t realise in time though, was that adding this slight disappointment to the overflowing pot of my emotions finally made my mind give up. Give up on resisting all those dark feelings that Ayda warned me about. In a sh, this dark blob managed to resurface. Before anyone could do anything, an insane current appeared out of nowhere. But it didn''t attract everything to itself indiscriminately. What it was sucking in, was magic energy. For yet another time I got to witness how the magic itself wasn''t all that fantastical as one could think it was. It still had to follow a strict set of rules. Rules that I hoped to one day understand. This thought was even sadder when I noticed how I was no longer in control of anything that was happening. From the mix of the advanced technology that apocalypse tools offered, with the addition of the various ways of mine to invoke magic, through an enormous pool of magical energy that this dark blob hanging right above my head quickly harnessed all the way to the strange feeling of yet another force coursing through my veins All of those different sources of power suddenlybined. Whether it was an intervention of the system aiming to protect its host just like I protected its very existence before, or whether it was something that urred naturally due to all sorts of different concepts mixing together It didn''t really matter. But once all of this enormous power that gathered within a single ce reached the peak of its stability, the world seemed to freeze for a moment. With my consciousness freed of the burden of maintaining this insane spell, I could clearly see the silhouettes of the enemy soldiers already closing in on my temporary hideout. Some of them had their rifles already pointed at my body. But it was far easier for me to release my magic than it was for them to actually shoot. So I did just that. Chapter 71: Miracle Chapter 71: Miracle If previously the time would stop for just a short while, then now it seemed to stretch one instant endlessly. Ever since I gave my inner green light to the release of this magic, the entire world around megged out. But this almostpletely stopped time didn''t appear as I expected it in the slightest. All at once, my vision filled with an endless sea of particles. What I couldn''t see in my normal life, with the time stopped, finally revealed itself to me. The things that were simply too fine and too quick for my eyes to ever have a chance to notice them, now bared themselves before me, revealing the truth of the world right to my eyes. This one single moment instantly harmonised all of my thoughts. Seeing how everything that I was seeing was confined to a small variety of elements, how perfectly everything around me was arranged I just couldn''t fail to notice how much this structure influenced the world around me. Because amongst the stuff that I could expect to notice like atoms and particles, a flow of magic appeared right in front of my eyes. Once I noticed this, something else drew my attention. The world around me was moving although at an incredibly slow pace. I could see the particles around me slowly gliding through the air, or rather, making up the air in the first ce. But the magic wasn''t as uniform in its behaviour. Surely, the energy that so richly permeated the atmosphere was rtively stable, leisurely moving just like other, more physical particles. But the magic energy confined to the circuits within my bracelets was going mad. Bit by bit, the chaotic mess that reced the simple to understand the image that my eyes would usually provide would be reced. With my magic spreading like an insanely thin nket in the space around me, the sea of particles would be reced with the true, macro-scale of the reality that surrounded me. But as this nket continued to expand, a perfect map of the true form of the space surrounding me would at the same time register in my head. In what seemed like weeks to me but had to be shorter than even the shortest fraction of a second, the magic within the entire city resonated with my own flow, steadily feeding my tools with all the information to be processed. With my mind free of the shackles of time in this strange situation I couldn''t help but to notice one, terrifying thing. If something that I managed to find by chance wasmon in that apocalypse world before its copse, then how would battles look like? How would it be like to be a soldier forced to learn about every nick and cranny of the ce he would go to die? Force him to forcefully learn about the potential advantage of the enemy outnumbering him? But as soon as everything started, it came out to an end just as rapidly. Given the simple fact that increasing diameter of area in the three-dimension meant that the amount of information grew incredibly quickly, before the suburbs of the entire city would enter my mind as a perfect map, everything snapped back to its normal pace. The soldiers shoot a huge volley. Even though only a few of them could fire a direct shot at me due to the rtively good cover of my current ce of being, that didn''t stop the others from throwing all kinds of grenades and other explosives at me. Some kind of cultivator even went as far as to directly jump above me and drop a package of stic right towards my head. But before a single bullet could do me any harm, the ck blob above my head exploded. Or rather, suddenly diffused in the air. As if the amount of energy that it consumed grew too big, it just copsed on itself, sending a powerful wave of magic through the air. Even though I never could see the magic in its true form before, outside of the indicators on my main bracelet, the shockwave that instantly spread in the entire area around me remained somehow visible. At least, to my own eyes. And then, the reality stopped making any sense. The bullets stopped right in midair. The explosions didn''t manage to break past the resistance of the air around them. Anything that woulde close to me would cease to work. For a moment, the entire ce sunk into a perfect silence, with both sides observing the insane show. Even with over a year worth of magic development on earth, I could tell that nobody ever saw a show that I was just giving. Sadly, it wasn''t as if all of that was my own doing. In reality, I wasn''t quite sure what was happening either. But that didn''t stop the power at y from keeping up the good work. At first, all the bullets dropped from the air and created a gentle drum for the next events as they fell. Then, the explosives finally reached their limit before fading away in a small pile of ashes. And then, nearly all of the soldiers suddenly bloated their eyes up. Staring at the mayhem surrounding me, at what remained now not only from my home but also its entire area I didn''t feel any rage anymore. It seemed as if all those negative feelings were released to the world around me. But that didn''t mean they disappeared at all. As if following some kind of artistic scheme, nearly half of the government forces brought their hands to their throats. Futile attempt. Even though I had no idea what would happen or even what was happening, for some reason I actually knew it. As if the trace of the program that my bracelets used to control the enormous magic wave remained hidden deep in my mind. And then, as if by a touch of magical wand, several hundred men and women alike Rose to the air. Not all of them wore military uniforms. In fact, nearly half of the people that were lifted in the air wore civilian clothes. Or rather, out of everyone that was lifted, only half of them, those who bore the military uniforms, were actually alive. And then, the small blobs of magic that formed in the throat of the soldiers, melted down and spread through their entire bodies. All at once, the soldiers suddenly bloated all up, as if something was expanding endlessly inside them. But instead of exploding in a bloody mess A strange light started shining from all of their orifices Before it defeated the confines of their sh, turning the soldiers into big candles on the evening sky. Only to suddenly condense back to the size of a tennis ball, without leaving a trace of the humans that were gone in the light. Before the light suddenly rushed towards the lifeless bodies hung in the air, filling them with that strange light. Then, my head exploded in pain, eradicating my consciousness. Chapter 72: Responsibility Chapter 72: Responsibility There is no such thing likeplex matter. Or rather, the idea of anythingplex was just a naive attempt of humanity to grasp things beyond their wholesome understanding. But no matter what one would project on the world, it was thew of the world that ultimately governed everything. It was proved just a year ago when the sudden appearance of magic turned everything that humans believed in on its head. To this day the scientists continued to attempt unravelling the nature andws governing this strange force, but ultimately only those who tried it themselves had any idea what they were talking about. For the current earth, quantifying magic or in other words, putting it within the system describing a world that they could understand was outside of what thebined efforts of humanity could achieve. But as my consciousness floated through the endless darkness of the void, the images most likely produced by the bracelets from the apocalypse world continued to pour in my head. Once again, I couldn''t im to see the past or learn anything the way I learned the stuff required for the exams in the pre-apocalypse times. They just appeared in my head, instantly forcing my mind to not only burn them in its memory but also grasp the concepts behind them. Magic was not foreign to the world. That was the single baseline I could agree if I wanted to preserve my own knowledge against the onught of deep science pouring into my head. But in the face of the insanely deep theorems that this copsed world created, nothing that the civilisation I knew came up with managed to hold true. In fact, even the simplest events that I could observe in my day-to-day life were all governed by magic. But there was something calming in the fact that the theories that the apocalypse world fed me with, were notplete either. There were many unknowns when it came to the past. With a mage powerful enough to influence the world around him to impose the founding rules of the magic on the entire world, it would be no problem to erase all the traces of such intervention. The fallen world assumed that all the forces we were experiencing physically were, in fact, some kind of spells so deeply ingrained in thews of the world that they formed their own universe. But just as I was about to digest the mouthful of founding theories that attempted to exin the origin of that apocalyptic civilisation, my vision suddenly brightened up. Yes, instead of doing so uniformly, with gentle, white light, it constantly shed with intense lights that seemed to pierce deeply through my eyes. "He is awake! Bring him away from here!" The distant noise of someone shouting silently rocked through my head. At the same time, the exact same kind of pain that made me copse returned. Instantly overwhelmed with the intense pain, I could feel my mind barely managing to fight-off the dizziness that came with it. "Fuck! Where are our men?! How could they not see thising This damned old man!" Someone was pulling on shoulders. With the entire back of my body painfully scratching against the sharp items sprawled all over the ground I was dragged on I felt as if someone was ripping the skin off my backside. But in face of the onught of torture that my headache was, this kind of pain was simply nothing. "Yes! They are here! Look past the ruins of the street!" Bit by bit, my mind slowly continued to rify. At this point, even despite the intense pain of my head, I could somehow make any sense of what was happening around me. "Don''t just stay and watch! Get him to safety!" The shouting continued, just like my vision kept its efforts to return. Soon, I was able to make up the general shapes of the things surrounding me When all the lights suddenly calmed down. No more sharp objects continued to wreck my back into a bloody mess. There was only one, obvious thing that had to happen for those changes to appear. "What''s going on How long I was" Barely capable of whispering those words I had no idea whether my voice could reach whoever dragged me away. "It''s okay, our people areing now. But heck, you nearly killed all those fuckers by yourself! Tell me, do you need anything? How can I help?" As my health continued to regenerate, the pace at which my strength was returning was also greater and greater. With my eyes now fully open, I could tell that I was in one of thosebyrinth-like corridors that the future church would be based on. But with the doors to this ce already closed for safety, I had no way of telling what was going on. "I was out For how long?" From how the fighting still seemed to be ongoing, it couldn''t be much more than just a rtively short while. But there was a vast difference between being unconscious for a few seconds and a few minutes. What could happen in a short moment was often impossible in an instant. "About a minute. It''s a miracle that you survived that From what I heard, once you resurrected the people" Taking a moment as if uncertain whether or not he could exin the situation, the man who pulled me inside stopped. Curious about whether my guess for this sudden pause was right, I forced my head to move a bit to the side, only to see someone that I hoped to see, but I never dared to openly believe I could see him again. "Pavlo" My attempt at speaking quickly reminded me how bad was the shape of my body. With a sudden convulsion shaking my torso, I spewed out a mouthful of blood. "To cut the details, while you didn''t sustain any visible injuries, people who cultivate They said that you looked as if your entire body turned into a sun for a brief moment. But the discussion of what happened can wait forter. Right now, our forces should start cleaning up the rest of the government''s soldiers. What do you want us to do next?" Right. No matter how pained I was, I still had to take both responsibilities for what happened and the leading role in what was about to transpire. That was the position I put myself in with my schemes, so right now, I had no right toin. Forcing my body up on my hands, I sat on the ground before shaking my head. Clearing my mind from the distractions for just a briefest of the moments, I looked at the nearby door. It was the only barrier that separated the two of us from the mayhem happening outside. "Once the area is secured Gather the troops. We need to march directly to the town'' hall. Otherwise, they won''t give us another chance." Chapter 73: March Chapter 73: March "But still, I need to give you that. Your quick reaction right before you copsed was the one thing that saved your life. You should see what''s left of the stage" Pavlo gathered his people far faster than I expected. While I could guess that the entire force of the Baskar family came rushing to my church once they learned about the events here I decided to keep silent about this possibility. Even though there was only so many professional fighters in our group, the furious crowd marching behind us was quite a nice bolster to our forces. "Hmm? What reaction do you mean?" While I should be wary about my surroundings, I could somehow tell that there were no enemies separating us from the town hall. Maybe it was thest cry of information that my bracelet infused me with before refusing to work anymore? Once again, I was limited to guessing. "Come on, I know I passed out for the majority of the fight, but I managed to wake-up just at the moment to see it. But man, I would never expect that you could jump like that from such a position!" Once again referring to something that didn''t make any sense to me, Pavlo provided me with yet another clue about my situation. While I faced everything that was going on with the expression of some expert that was perfectly in control of the events, I was lost just as much if not more than everyone. "I still have no idea what you are Oh, that!" Struck by sudden,plex enlightenment, I instantly changed my narration. In the end, keeping silent about anything unexpected would allow me to maintain my pose of some wise sage that the crowd took me for. But the general idea that came to my mind in order to exin the discrepancy between what I remembered and what Pavlo saw wasn''t simple by any means. During the second fight for the mansion, my dark emotions found the way out of my system. It happened for the second time Yet this time, nothing came to stop me. Or rather, there was a chance that some force appeared. There was a chance that Ayda''s spell once again attempted to pull me right into her arms, to let her attempt calming those wild emotions of me down. But the forces that were tearing me apart back then, were just too powerful for Ayda''s rtively small witchcraft to even be noticed. Only when I snapped after performing what seemed to be some kind of resurrection ritual That moment had to be the key to all the things that confused me. My ckout was the only period of time during which I couldn''t observe things. And that meant, whatever happened then was the reason for all my confusion. "Hmm So it''s like that" With my mind spinning from overthinking the situation, I happened upon something that looked like a trial. Speaking to myself under my own nose was just my body''s expression of my emotions right now. Once I passed out, the forces that I held together woulde apart. There was also a chance that I simply took too much on myself, resulting in those forces themselves tearing my consciousness away. The second option would also exin why did my bracelet stopped responding. Just like aputer, once put through overwhelming stress, the circuits were bound to warp. Small defect like that could render the entire system useless. But it would answer my primary question, what kind of dodge was Pavlo talking about? If all the forces that centred around me were to suddenly disappear, there would be only one remaining. The spell not controlled by my own will, but something ingrained in my emotions by Ayda. For this one brief moment, before I let gopletely of that emotion dark blob of emotions, it was the sole ruler of my magic. "Either way, I think we are notpletely done yet." Moving my sight up, I could already see the small towers of the Town Hall. Back in the days just a fancy part of the museum of the city''s history, now their role returned to its origins. With the barrels of the heavy machine guns glistering in the windows, even a huge crowd of soldiers gathered at the courtyard didn''t make a huge impression on me or the crowd behind me. "This situation kind of sucks But we don''t really have much choice." By the time most of the people in the crowd could see the army at our destination, most of them was moving forward only because of the momentum of the entire group. Once only three crossings separated us from the confrontation, only about a half of my peasant army continued our march. "I wouldn''t be so sure. My family isn''t the only one that noticed the change. This fight No, our fight will decide how this city will look like from now on. Everyone''s bound to take sides." Shaking his head in denial to my words, Pavlo nodded it to the side. Following his gesture with my eyes, I noticed that the frontal part of the crowd changed by a lot. Even though there were way fewer people in the entire human mass, nearly a third of its entire volume consisted not of some random citizens, but armed mercenaries and bodyguards. Quite reassuring sight, even in my situation I couldn''t disagree with such a point. But it wouldn''t be enough. After a few attempts, I had no other choice but to ept the fact that the bracelet from the apocalypse refused to cooperate. No matter how hard I wished to open or at least restart it, nothing would happen. What was even worse, after my onught back at the mansion, I couldn''t feel any emotions at all. A quick scan of my inner state at least confirmed it was just a temporary numbness caused by overstressing my own, natural circuits. Nevertheless, in theing fight, I was deprived of two out of three sources of my power. Right now, I could only count on the force of faith, the only one that I could somehow use yet had no idea how to properly invoke it. And right now I was about to face not only the remaining military of the city but also the designed governor of this ce. One of the cronies of the group that took power after the apocalypse. One of the people that used their insane, starting advantage in cultivation to obtain most of the useful resources for themselves. In other words, if I wasn''t greatly overestimating the governor''s strength, I was basically marching to my own death that only another miracle could stop. And given the situation, I had absolutely no option to turn back. I could only march forward, right at the barrels of the guns, with no way of stopping the bullets from reaping the lives of half of the crowd in a single instant. The reality cracked And then it snapped. Chapter 74: At the doors Chapter 74: At the doors Even with everything that I went through so far, this experience was something entirely new. For a briefest of moments, it seemed as if all thews that bound the universe suddenly loosened up, only to restart their settings back to the usual a fraction of a secondter. Raising my eyes sharply at the men in front, I hoped to see some kind of reaction, signifying that at least they know what was going on But the soldiers standing in the neat rows just a few steps away from me didn''t seem to notice anything at all. Taking a short nce to my back, I quickly confirmed that it was the same case for the crowd that marched with me. Not even the mercenaries of all sorts of powerful families seemed to be as shocked as I was. "Bring us your leader and you will be spared. Upset the order that we preserved, and you will die." Finally, the other side made a move. With some kind of negotiator stepping out from between the soldiers with a megaphone, his words quickly spread throughout the entire crowd. "Bring us your leader" This entire y on the government''s side had to be made on the spot, otherwise, the spokesman wouldn''t dare to use just two sentences looping one after the other. Even though I was unable to use witchcraft for now as I couldn''t feel any emotions at all, it didn''t take a witch to see how terrified the man with a megaphone was. "Hey, you. Would you minding over here for a moment?" Instead ofshing out, I allowed the situation to turn into a stalemate. For now, the soldiers in front of me perceived me as nothing more than a threat that killed their colleagues. From the hatred visible on their faces it was clear that either my own or someone else''s stream was already trending to the point where they would manage to watch it before the sh with me. So instead of pushing for the confrontation, I just smiled at the terrified man. What was important right now, was convincing those soldiers that I didn''te here for them. After all, as much as I abhorred this kind of mentality, they were ultimately just following their orders. In more civilised times, I would never take something like this for an excuse. But I could understand people who were confused by the apocalypse, stitching desperately to what they knew before it happened. Right now, as long as they wouldn''t stand against me, as long as they weren''t connected with all those events that happened around my home, I didn''t really care enough to bother killing them. "Upset the order that we preserved" From the expression of that negotiator''s face, I could tell that he was too terrified to listen to me as a normal person would. Even with all my emotions being numb, this alone was enough to make me annoyed. Not because he didn''t listen to my kind order. Because I despised those who just epted the reality around them no matter how rotten it was. This was one of the reasons why this entire fake cult I came up with still managed to resonate with my soul. After all, I picked the ideology that was fit for my own morals! Wait, I was annoyed? As little as this slight emotion could help me achieve, it was still an emotion! With just a single sweep of my remaining magic through my inner self, I managed to recreate the very same witchcraft that I used before. If the negotiator was unwilling to give me the megaphone, then all I needed was to make one of my own! "Bring me the governor, and I will spare those who didn''t dirt their hands with the blood of civilians. Refuse to do so and you will be massacred." Using my own abilities to turn the volume of my voice by quite a lot, I directed those words towards the military. Obviously, I wasn''t naive enough to believe that those disciplined men would defect after just a single threat of mine. What I hoped, was for getting at least some of them to raise the sights of their weapons above the heads of the crowd. But as it turned out, there wasn''t even any point in using threats. Before I or any of the mercenaries could start the onught, some of the civilians squeezed to the front of the entire crowd. Then, they started approaching the line of the military. At first, everyone was confused. My forces by the fact that those unarmed civilians dared to move to the front, to where the most lethal zone of the approaching fight would appear. As for what the soldiers thought when the civilians they were supposed to protect approached them without fear I could only imagine. What was important though, was the fact that before a single shot could be fired, those simple civilians already crossed the point of no return. At the same time, I could feel some kind of strange force brewing in my guts. "Why are you doing this?" "Are you going to kill me?" "Come, shoot me! Prove that you are a heartless monster!" Hearing the various ways in which the civilians attempted to turn the military around, I would be baffled if not for how hard it was for me to feel anything right now. Given how even marching to what seemed to be my death didn''t faze me, asking for a surprise to break through my emotional numbness would be a bit too much. Yet, they achieved something that I didn''t dare to even dream about before everything started moving. With the civilians standing directly on the line of the soldier''s fire, the mercenaries behind me quickly spread out across the entire area, turning the effectiveness of the enemy''s backline firepower to almost nothing. In the end, with only four machine guns located at the town''s hall towers, unless my real forces were gathered in one ce, those monsters of firepower would be nearlypletely useless! After all, no matter how quickly you can shoot bullets from your gun, you could only aim it at one spot. "Governor! I know you are hiding in there! Surrender to us" This was the moment when everything would be decided. With more and more civilians finding the courage to enter the fray, in just a few moments the soldiers would lose any chance at retaliation. I could already see some of the town''s folks grabbing the guns and raising their barrels straight up, rendering nearly the entire first-row of the militia useless. Right now, the militarymander had to somehow pull his troops back and regroup. This was the only way for him to maintain his unit in an operational state. But from how things were quickly developing, the moment when he could act came. And passed right away. With the civilians already making their way to the second and asionally a third row of soldiers, the entire unit waspromised. The question of whether it was indecisiveness or an actual guilt-consciousness that made themander of the unit hold his orders could be answered atter date. Right now, I had to press my advantage! "Everyone! Get to the town hall! We are going to take that devil of a governor ourselves!" Chapter 75: Past the doors Chapter 75: Past the doors Swallowing a mouthful of saliva, I made my first step. Then another one. Then nothing could stop the swarm of the crowd that rushed ahead. With the front line of the soldiers unable to regroup, the military no longer stood any chance in this fight. Was this a result of the ipetence of themander? Was he unable to rally his troops properly? Or maybe he just didn''t want to bear the weight of all the blood that he would have to split otherwise? Or maybe he just wanted to have some kind of future? No matter which was the case, themanding officer fo the military prevented a huge massacre from happening. By the time I stepped on the stairs leading to the town''s hall, the entire area was pacified. Some soldiers moved aside, no wanting to merge with the crowd while avoiding a direct sh. Some others simply joined the mass of people, turning against their governor. Be it an attempt to join the winning side or a true wish to rebel against the reality, they were now all part of the crowd demanding changes. And I was more than happy to provide them. Moving just a few steps up, I suddenly turned around on my feet and looked at the crowd following me. "Everyone! This dog of a governor sent his best troops against us, aiming to sap our strength. And while I''m no longer capable of executing the deeds that I did back on the holy ground" As pathetically stupid it was to reveal my ownck of strength, I still decided to go through with it. Not only for the sake of baiting the governor out, but also to make the entire act even more heroic. What I couldn''t fail to understand was that this was the age-changing scenario. Just like many events in the past where a single act of bravery would forever be ingrained as a picture of what started something massive, this situation was just like that. My performance today would be the deciding factor of how this entire day would be perceivedter on, once it would be the founding legend of my faith. "I fear your own power not. I might be injured and exhausted, but I will face you if you have the guts toe out. What will you do? Order the soldiers to kill their own families and neighbours before getting torn apart, or will you show some backbone and reveal yourself, you bastard!" As much as I could feel the hate quickly breaking through the numbness of my emotions, I still managed to keep my emotions in check. Even though the man that I was calling out right now, was the main reason behind the death of my parents. Just thinking about it was enough to make my blood boil. Yet, in this tense moment, I suddenly came to a decision. Even though this man was responsible for the invasion of my home I couldn''t let the past hinder my future. While I somehow managed to resurrect the people on the battlefield, I had no doubt that it was impossible to do the same with my family. And that meant, there was noing back. Right now, I was facing a choice. Either let my emotions run free once again in an attempt to im my revenge or do whatever necessary to secure the future of my faith. One or another, there was no way to get both. Unable to decide on the spot, I waited for the answer from inside the building, hoping it would make it easier for me to decide. But no one answered my calls. "Is he going to hide inside? Who knows what defences he has in there" I heard a whisper to my side. Turning my head around in this otherwise eerie silence, I spotted an unknown gentleman in suit rubbing his fingers against his perfectly trimmed beard. While his face itself was not enough for me to recognise him, a trio of heavily armed mercenaries guarding his rear was enough of a giveaway of his status. "There is only one way to find out." Turning my face towards the mansion, I replied with a silent voice before moving forward. One step at a time, the number of remaining stairs for me to conquer continued to decrease. The huge doors of the building loomed over my mind, indicating the border between areas rtively safe and one surely filled with lethal threats. Once again I got the feeling of walking straight into the arms of my own death. But I didn''t stop. Finally reaching the top of the stairs, I made just a few more steps before cing the palm of my right hand against the wood of the massive doors. In this regard, local town-hall was always pretty representative, given its medieval heritage. But then, someone else ced his hand against the door. Then someone else. Soon, the entire width of the door was crowded with mercenaries andmon people. Looking around, I could notice that even some soldiers joined the fray with a determined look on their faces. "Let''s go." Not even bothering to shout or magically enhance my voice, I pressed my hand forward. At first, the resistance was too great for me alone to ovee. Maybe if I used most of my real strength But before I could even form the thought, the rest of the people around pressed ahead. With a creaking cry, the doors opened inwards, revealing a dark reception hall of the building. Even though not even a single light illuminated the interior, one thing could be said for certain. The building was empty! The sight of papers thrown all over the floor, pieces of furniture lying in disarray all over the floor was more than enough to confirm this one guess that appeared in the heads of everyone who saw this. "The governor has escaped!" What I thought within my mind, someone else shouted openly. What an idiot. Something like this still should be confirmed to avoid some pretty unpleasant scenarios. But as the mercenaries dashed to check the entire interior, as the report started toe in, thest doubt was lifted. This was the moment I was waiting for. This one moment that would be forever remembered as the herald of the new times. Before the joy of the crowd inside could transfer to the rest of the citizens that were outside, I ran towards the gates. Noticing my behaviour, Pavlo quickly followed suit, organising his bodyguards on the go to make them create a corridor for us to move through. Dashing out in the open, right at the slight za between the magnificent entrance and the long set of stairs, I threw my hands to the side before screaming. "WE LIBERATED THE TOWN!" The first scream was something that people didn''t expect. So far, the entire fight was about dethroning the governor. But that was also the reason why I used those words for no other purpose than attracting the attention of the people. "This dog of a governor escaped from the city while leaving the soldiers to give himself some more time. As of today, I proim the return of true democracy!" Chapter 76: Recreating the government Chapter 76: Recreating the government "Surely, what you said out in the open was just for the sake of the crowd, am I right?" With the most emotional part of the entire rebellion now over, it was the time to decide what would the future order of the city look like. And that was the main reason why the heads of all the influential families gathered in the town hall, awaiting my opinion on the matter. "Joke? What do you take my cult for? We got rid of the governor for how he was abusing his position, and now you want to create a system where all those who helped to achieve the current result would get a fair share of the cake? No way." In one instant, the rtive peace within the room broke down as everyone started arguing. They didn''t care about the fact that it was me and the people who came to my rite that did most of the heavy lifting. While Governor''s desertion wasn''t something they could know in advance, ultimately they did absolutely nothing outside of showing up to the victorious march. But that didn''t mean I could just leave them with nothing. In the end, I never had any intention of taking all the power for myself as it was the easiest way to bind my hands in the political game. Only once the heat in the room turned up yet another notch with some of the bodyguards openly resting their hands at the handles of their weapons did I decided to step in. Raising from my seat, I tapped the wood of the huge desk ced in the middle. For some strange reason, this silent tapping was more than enough to calm the people down. While it took a while for everyone to calm down, I didn''t bother to make any other, excessive movements. "Don''t get me wrong. I do not wish to leave you guys all with nothing. But first off, let me assure you about one thing. I have absolutely no interest in taking part in the elections." That was most likely the major point why everyone was anxious. With how I intentionally did everything to be the focal figure of the entire uprising, there was no doubt that no matter what kind of election would be thrown, I could easily im the winning spot. Openly dering that I would back away from it was the simplest way to calm everyone down and actually achieve my own objectives. Because after giving up on nearly absolute power of the city, it was time for me to make my concessions. "To make it simple for everyone, here is my proposition. Right now, we need to deal with several problems." Moving away from my chair, I started to move around the entire room. "First off, we need to somehow split the power between everyone gathered here so that the city won''t devolve into an anarchic state. Next, I need to ensure that no atrocities that the previous regime was known from will ever repeat. Andstly, I want my own, fair share of the cake." Throwing those simple sentences at those heads of the big families and crimelords that ruled the city from behind the scene, either way, I watched how their faces changed with a trace of a smile on my lips. Some were satisfied with how the things were going so far, some were flustered by bringing the shenanigans of the power to broad daylight, all the way to some of them rejoicing at their chance to make it big. "For those reasons, I suggest as follows. We will establish the city council along with a mayor to oversee its work. This seat I will take for myself, but the only power I expect is that of a civic veto. Meaning, if I disagree with something the council will decide, a popr vote will be conducted as to whether to implement the new policies or not." Looking towards the doors of the room, I nodded my head to Pavlo. Seeing my gesture, he quickly approached the table before cing a huge map of the city right on top of it. "Speaking about the council, I suggest splitting the city into the number of wards fitting the number of people gathered here. Just to speed things up I took the freedom to paint the borders of the districts ording to the influence and seat of power of everyone gathered. This proposed division takes into ount factors like the wealth of thend its poptions, prospects and a lot of other stuff." Taking a momentary break to let everyone take their time to scan and analyze the map, I could see how some points of conflict appeared instantly. Just as expected, the lords of the underworld saw a lot of cuts to thends they already controlled, instantly learning that they would receive the rtively shorter straw. "We cannot ept" Seeing how one of the bosses of the underworld stood up, I only red at him coldly, forcing him to take his seat back. "Every single of those wards will receive big autonomy, all the while allowing its governor to hold a ce in the council. I know most of the owners of less official businesses might see some territorial losses here, but you are receiving legitimisation and ess to the ultimate local power in exchange." My voice was cold and so were my eyes. Even though I didn''t really care about the city outside of the borders of the sacred ward that I carved out of the map for my cult, I had to ensure it would prosper. Otherwise, the poption of the city would turn their backs to me. That''s why I couldn''t allow the crime lords to act out of the line. For them, just the ability to legally operate on their areas was a huge benefit, something they would never achieve in any other scenario outside of conquering the city themselves. Thankfully, from theck of reactions of the other bosses, it seemed that they also understood this point. "Okay, I understand everything. In other words, the council holds the real power over the topics concerning the entire city, you as a mayor, sir, can veto the stuff that you think citizens wouldn''t like, putting it under a public vote. But from what I see, the areas where that church of yours is located is marked in different colours than the rest of the wards. Mind exining why?" From the shadows of the opposite end of the table, a voice belonging to a young man appeared. Only after straining my eyes for a bit did I manage to actually see his face. Even though I didn''t know him personally, the briefing that Baskars prepared for me before this meeting allowed me to recognise him. Jerem Mastow, a young heir of the Mastowpany. ording to the official files, it was a family that made the use of apocalypse to quickly grow in power, only slightlygging behind those who established themselves way in the past. What Pavlo told me in secret though, was how they were rumours of them being just stand-ins for the Sarate family, tasked with managing the matters of the conglomerate without involving the family itself! "That''s pretty simple. First off, I won''t involve myself in the politics of the city. I have too much on my hands already to bother with something so boring. That means I don''t care about the council, nor about the position of mayor. I need it just for the sake of appearances." Turning towards Jeremy, I smiled gently before finishing my demands. "That''s why, the area marked with the different colour, the area consisting of the current edge of the town and the ins outside it, will be turned into a sacrednd of my cult and will receiveplete autonomy. While you can expect me to invest in the city quite quickly, outside of the autonomy of thosends, I only want one thing." Raising from above the table, I moved a few paces to the back of the room, before turning around and returning to my seat at the table. Leaning over the map, I pointed at the small part of the urbanised area that was within thends I wanted for myself. "Even though I want autonomy, I''m not going to separate thosends from the rest of the city. What I expect though, is apleteck of taxes, customs or other deterrents from conducting business or freely travelling between the old city and the sacrednds of my cult." Chapter 77: Message Chapter 77: Message "Everything is set. Start whenever you feel like it." Sitting on afortable chair in a specially prepared room of my church, I could only stare nkly at the rows of the cameras monitoring every tiniest detail of my movements. Taking a deep breath to calm myself down, I looked a the notes that I prepared with the help of Baskar family. Or rather, with the help of the new acolytes of my cult, who instantly received Boruta''s grace, advancing to the level of priests and clerics. Given how they were my fervent supporters ever since a while ago, not to speak about how I resurrected the heir of the entire family, Baskar family ceased to exist as a separate force. Right now, they were fullymitted to the cause from within the ranks of my cult. "Okay, let''s get this over with." Grasping all the papers from the desk, I stacked them properly in my hands before moving my eyes towards the cameras. "Wee everyone. I''m the regional head of the Boruta''s cult. From now on, for all those who saw me during the civil uprising against the previous, rotten governor, let me exin one, simple thing." Taking apletely serious and focused look on my face, I stared down at the lenses of a random camera. "From now on, I would like to be addressed as Bishop. Just like that. And now, to the ongoing matters" Hitting the wood of my desk with the stack of papers in my hands, I rxed my expression and smiled towards the cameras. "Starting with the power consensus, it was decided that the city will be divided into separate wards, each administered by the people, families or organisations who already held the power in their respective areas. All those who were decided to represent your will, will take a seat in the council that will decide the matters of the city as a whole from now on. And no, I won''t be a part of this council." Rather than trying to use some underhanded means to take over the seat of power, we ultimately decided to be quite frank about it. Back in the times before the apocalypse, the poption would surely rise up against this kind of favouritism reaching the threshold of oligarchy. Sanctions from the neighbouring countries would follow while the central government would be sure to jump on the opportunity to carve out some more power for itself. But right now, people knew better. There was no way for some official who never worked a single day in his life to know the problems of the simple people. Only someone who operated in any given area could understand what problems gued its inhabitants. And as bad as it would make some people feel, this was ultimately the most efficient form of self-governance that we could establish on the spot and in the current situation. "But fear not, I''m not going to let you be victims of those already powerful. Just like in ancient Rome a position of tribune of people existed, I will take that role as the titr and honorary major of the entire city. While I won''t have a single vote in the council, as long as I deem any newly passedw to be against you, against the citizens, I will have the right to veto it. If that were to happen, it will be all of you, the citizens of our city, that will decide the fate of the neww." Lowering my eyes on the table, I pretended to mix something around with the papers. Short breaks in this kind of speech were necessary to keep the audience engaged. If I were to just enjoy how does my voice sound, I would only needlessly bore the people down. "Next, the information for all the believers and those interested in joining. The Boruta''s cult will open" This time, I didn''t even bother to think about what I was saying. Reading the stuff from a special monitor hidden beneath the camera''s field of view, I had no other choice but to stick through the entire, lengthy recording session. "Okay, that will be all for today. Great work, your excellency." Waltzing into the room as soon as I said literally thest word of my prolonged speech, Pavlo smiled wildly while using the new form of referring to me. Standing up from the chair, I only graced him with a short nce from underneath my head, before raising the stack of papers from the table and mming it against his chest. "You better have some good news for me. How is work going?" One of the major advantages of pulling out of the politicsid in the fact that I could now focus on what I wanted rather than on what was absolutely necessary. With every single member of the new council contributing respectable sums for the rebuilding of the areas destroyed during the fighting, the entire wealth of Baskar family could be moved to my own projects. But just like everything in this world, this wealth was limited. Even if there was no reason to worry about money for now, especially with how literally the entire city owed me quite a lot, setting a new source of ie was of absolute priority. And with how introducing more tech from the apocalypse to earth could quickly turn the bnce of the world on its head, I had no other choice but to look towards Ayda''s world with hope. "We used the destruction of the front gate to incorporate the rest of the wastnd into the church autonomous zone. We already have some projects for a souvenir shop and some service buildings. Although minimal, they should quickly start generating some" Before Pavlo could end his sentence, I raised my head to stop him. Quickly recalling the memories of how the area he mentioned looked like when I passed through it, I shook my head in denial. "No, turn it into a za for now. The market needs to be ced deeper, as it will be way bigger than just a few shops. For now, just focus on cleaning the area. As for my order?" Putting the papers back on the table as I moved towards the door, I finally managed to escape from that confined room. As important as spreading the message we just recorded to the world was, it couldn''t be ssified as one of the pleasant experiences I went through. "Everything is already prepared, delivered right to the doors of the dome. On that note, why do you need so many weapons within the crypt? I didn''t want to ask you before, but people are starting to wonder." From the way in which Pavlo told this, I could tell that it wasn''t his personal curiosity that was the main point of his words. This young man was simply trying to warn me about the fact that people finally started paying attention to what I was doing, even if it didn''t involve them at all! "Thanks for the info. Hopefully, I will be able to finish the crypt with this batch. That will be all for now. I need to catch up with my work there." Patting the shoulder of the new priest of my cult, I bid him my farewells before diving deep into the mansion. Even though it was still under construction, with the newfound manpower and funding, the progress was astonishing. It seemed as if the workers that were hired for this task found pride in building a church for the cult that saved their city from tyranny! Yet, instead of enjoying myself to this thought, I quickly reached the sacred area, enclosed to anyone but me. Just like Pavlo informed, a set of three huge crates and two bags was left right by the doorstep, saving me the trouble of carrying it here from the postal point. "Eh I hope the situation is calm on the other side" Moving the stuff between the safe area outside of the dome to the very core of my basement, I couldn''t help but start wishfully whispering to myself. Now that the emotions of the uprising and the frantic hours right after it calmed down, I couldn''t help but notice how weak my body was. While still stronger than average, I had only so much fuel left in me to fight. Some might think it would be stupid for me to return to Ayda''s world in my current state given how it could be quite dangerous out there. But I didn''t have much choice either. If my guess for what was the reason for my strange dodge when I copsed was right, Ayda would be panicking while waiting for me. Her words that she would kill me if I ever allowed myself to let those dark emotions take the better of me was yet another element of what was making me tense all over. But if I wanted for my church to prosper, if I wanted to finally bepletely safe, securing Ayda''s location was of the utmost importance. And that''s what all those guns and ammunition that I orderer was for. Experiencing the onught of rapid-fire myself, I could tell that no wizard of Ayda''s world could ever stand a chance against it. And that meant I could finally start moving my ns for her world forward! Chapter 78: Confrontation Chapter 78: Confrontation Stepping through the doors of my basement with the first crate of weapons in my arms, I instantly froze. What I saw on the other side was totally unexpected. "HMM! MMHHMMMM!" Stuck in the shadowy corner of the same room where we were attacked before, Ayda was trying to wrestle her body from the hands of people holding her down. Having both her hands and legs tied up only made her efforts more desperate, all the while she continued to try to say something despite the wet cloth stuffing her mouth. "This is not the type of wee that I expected." Calmly summing the situation up, I looked at half-circle of people surrounding me. Their weapons barred, their faces tense with determination. For a moment, I could see how does the face of a human resigned to die looks like. And then something snapped. "Begone, you monster." Stepping up, a young man who I already saw before attempted to regain control of the situation. It seemed as if my calm andposed reaction threw everyone in the room of the loop. Given the current atmosphere in the room, I didn''t dare to drop the crate from my hands. Standing defiantly to the young man''s words, I leaned my head to the side with a puzzled look on my face. "How rude. Didn''t your parents teach you how to be nice to people? Also" Instead of dropping the crate to the ground, I simply stopped holding it up. Kicking against the floor, I jumped up, only to step on the falling crate and shove it right against the doors while ejecting myself forward. Before anyone could react, I smashed my shoulder against one of the two males that dared to restrain my woman. Instantly thrown off-bnce, the young man let go of the rope that Ayda was bound with, crashing right against the wall. Regretfully, this kind of move put a pretty burden on my own sense of stability. By the time I regained it, the other of the man who dared to heldAyda was already pulling his sword. "... if you continue to insist on restraining my woman, I might forget that you guys were supposed to be our allies." There was no point to pursue further esction of violence. While I couldn''t take the rope from the other man''s hands without risking Ayda getting injured in the process, I could do something far simple. With just a single wave of my hand, the condensed sting of repulsion snapped the bonds that held her hands. "Can''t you see what''s going on? Not only he refused to surrender, he even attacked already! What are you waiting for, you damned" Finally bothering to move my eyes away from scanning what state Ayda''s body was in, I took a nce at the leader of the traitorous group of witches. Just a single look from me was enough to freeze him solid. "And when did you even ask me to surrender? Gosh, what is wrong with you people" Baffled at this peculiar situation, I gently pulled Ayda closer to me, letting the other of the men who held her previously keep holding the useless piece of rope that was no longer binding anyone. With the girl''s body falling gently on top of my chest, I reached with my hand towards her mouth before pulling her gag out. "Krist!" Already wrapping her recently freed hands around my chest, Ayda was brushing her cheek against my breast. Her ears were filled with tears ever since I first appeared, but what was trickling source of water travelling down her face now turned into a flood. "Sir, can''t you see he is rational? Either the taboo wasn''t broken or" Hearing those slightments that some of the people that initially encircled me now uttered, I could generally understand what most likely happened. For Ayda, breaking the taboo that she mentioned was something that I was supposed not to do, not because of some backward tradition, but due to the consequences of doing so. For her, seeing that I was alive and well was more than enough to forgive my transgression. What''s more, given our connection and how skilled she was at reading emotions, I could tell that just from theck of guilt trips on my side, there was actually a serious reason behind my actions. But the same couldn''t be said about the other witches. As little as I knew what breaking the taboo of releasing one''s dark emotion would entail, it was easy to notice how disastrous this kind of even could be from the way Ayda''s allies reacted. The fact that they were prepared and stood in wait exactly in the ce where I would appear only served to reinforce this notion. As for how they learned about the fact of me breaking the taboo The state that Ayda was, was more of a hint that I needed to uncover this puzzling problem. "I''m sorry for worrying you, dear. As you can see, I am all okay." Ignoring the problem of what was the situation of the witches gathered in this ce, for now, I wholesomely hugged the girl in my arms, feeling how her frail body shook in my embrace. "Did you not hear me?! KILL THEM!" With the control already slipping past his fingers, the leader of the people that dared to bind Ayda stepped up. It seemed that he was about to lead his men by an example. HIs sword reflected the spare light of the setting sun on its de. "Right, I have yet to punish you for restraining my woman." As if suddenly recalling this matter, I gently pushed Ayda aside. Looking up at my face with her eyes swollen from tears, she seemed as if she couldn''t understand just what kind of important reason I had to let her go just like that. "Don''t worry, it will only take me a moment." Rustling Ayda''s hair while stopping my heart from melting with only the utmost effort, I once again looked at the male witch approaching me with his sword bared. From the aura of hate around him I could tell that if someone was about to go berserk due to breaking the taboo, he would be the one I would bet my money on. "As for you, before we begin, you need to understand one thing." Stepping a single pace to the side, I made sure that I would be directly on the line between the overambitious youth and Ayda. Given how she didn''t stop her own allies with her witchcraft, I had to be wary of some kind of restrain being ced on my own abilities of a witch. Thankfully, outside of barely being able to use them in the first ce, I was a true mage rather than a witch. That''s why, when a strange gust of wind rustled through the air, instantly clogging up all the channels that I could move my energy through, all I had to do was to increase the pressure of my own magic to break those silly seals open. "I won''t beat you up because you tried to protect your friends. That''s somethingmendable, even if the execution was subpar." With the young man approaching, most likely sure that I would be powerless to stop him, I couldn''t help but smile in a slight pity over his fate. "I will beat you up because you dared to raise your hand against my woman." Chapter 79: Affection Chapter 79: Affection "Geez Just ignore that idiot. Hey,e with me, okay?" Just as I turned around to face the iing danger, Ayda suddenly wrapped her arms around my shoulder, whispering right into my ear. Feeling her soft breast pushed right against my arm instantly awoken all the desires that I kept restrained over the past events. As shameful as it was, once the warmth of her body reached my skin, I could feel my willingness to fight disappear without a trace. But that didn''t stop the aggressive man-witch from swinging his sword at me! "BEGONE, YOU MONSTER!" Not hesitating even for a second, that annoying kid clearly couldn''t notice the atmosphere that Ayda created in just a single instant. Given how her aura was nowpletely filled with infatuation leaving no ce for something as idiotic as revenge or even anger, I could barely think of anything else but stealing her away to some confined ce where I could properly reassure her that I waspletely intact. But in order to do so, I had to get rid of the iing thread. In the first instant when his sword glistered above the young male-witch head as he raised it for a downward sh, I felt my body instantly turning into a fight mode. Sensing the danger was enough to throw the readings of my instincts off the charts. Even without the bracelets from the apocalypse supporting me, it seemed that during the time I was actually using them, my mind changed a bit. Rather than growing or evolving, it felt as if certain protocols were burned into my synapses, forcing my mind to follow the same calctive path that those apocalyptic bracelets would enforce. Obviously, the effects of the bracelet were far greater than anything that my mind alone could create, yet for the silly fight right now, those reflexes carved into the physical structure of my mind were far more than enough. "Just fuck off." Not bothered by the sharp de closing on my face at all, I pped it with my hand. Something that almost no martial art ever advised to practice given how it could easily lead to otherwise avoidable injury. But my master on earth never bothered to follow anything that others considered to be amon sense. Or to quote his words, people would think of this way of defending themselves as crazy. But it was perfectly reasonable once one would shed his natural fears of being maimed. In the end, in order to get cut, one would have to time his counterattack super early, so that the de would actually hack away at the flesh of one''s hand. But ultimately, risking one''s hand didn''t seem like that much of a trade-off in a life-threatening scenario, didn''t it? Thankfully, nothing of those worries applied to the current me. With my brain alone perfectly capable of calcting the trajectory of the attack, my body moved seemingly on its own. It felt as if some strange yet familiar force took over my actions. And just as much as I wanted to p the face of this ambitious young man away, I could only watch how my palm seemed to gently stroke the side of the youngster''s de away, making itpletely miss the area anywhere near my body. And then, as if following my deepest wishes, my hand retracted its movements. Maybe it was luck, some super-deep calction that I didn''t even notice or just a sheer coincidence. Following the momentum of his attack, the youngster before me lost his bnce. With his sword pushed away, no resistance that he expected appeared, making him lean dangerously forward, pushing his face right into the path my hand was taking. *Smack* It was a strange feeling. To p someone''s face so hard to redirect his entire damned lunge. While I would much rather p all kinds of bodyparts of the Ayda beside me, giving that stupid youngster the punishment he deserved somehow ended up giving me a strange sense of aplishment. "Great. Now, does anyone else wants to stop me from reassuring my woman that I''m okay?" Not even looking towards the bloodied figure of the youngster that just crashed against the wall, I scanned the faces of his followers. From the look of hesitation on their faces, I quickly realised that there was absolutely no point in worrying about them. But as annoying as the entire situation would seem to anyone else, there was actually something that I managed to learn thanks to it. After all, my emotions were still pretty numb, rendering me almost unable to use any real force through witchcraft. Even cutting the ropes that bound Ayda''s wrists was nearing the limit of what I could achieve. Yet, despite all of that, my repulsion-powered smack was still able to send that ignorant youngster against the wall. "Didn''t you hear him? If I see you outside of the watch posts for the next two days straight, I will make sure to turn your lives as miserable as I will be able to." Once againtching onto my arm, Ayda nced threateningly at the witches she brought to this ce herself, before pulling on my hand. Looking down on her face, I could see that just as her heat slowly managed to eat away at the numbness of my emotions, my own body-heat was quickly turning her previous worries into happy and relieved arousal. "Yes Ma-am!" While my words did the job of scaring everyone, Ayda''s order instantly sparked their loyal response. It seemed that they already forgot how they were keeping her powerless to do anything during my appearance, now just making them try to make both of us also forget about it. "Now, where did we leave back then Ah, right!" Pulling the girl closer to my chest I waited for a moment for the group of witches to escape from the room before finally focusing my sight on the deep Ayda''s eyes. "Right there." Leaning down, I brought my lips to the girl''s mouth, finally reuniting with her. Thinking about it now as my fingers sank in the soft flesh of her waist, this was our third attempt at getting intimate. Thest two moments we shared were interrupted by the attack of wizards, due to the spell that Elenair apparently nted in Ayda''s emotions when we met with him. But now, nothing was going to stop me from revelling in her affection! Chapter 80: Tingly feeling(hmm... pegi15 I guess? Not really a smut YET) Chapter 80: Tingly feeling(hmm... pegi15 I guess? Not really a smut YET) Nothing could stop me from sharing my affection with Ayda now. Nothing Outside of the girl herself. Suddenly stepping away, Ayda brought her hand up only to ce her finger atop my lips. "Actually Could you maybe wait for a moment?" A surprise of this magnitude would normally shock me silly, but there was something wrong with the current situation. Ayda''s emotions simply exploded with joy, mischief and anticipation, indicating that her words held some deeper meaning. "As long as you need." epting the situation for what it was instead of what I expected it to be, I closed my eyes for a moment before opening them again. Stopping the momentary disappointment from appearing on my face, I somehow failed to realise that this girl would notice it either way. It seemed that the usage of witchcraft still had to be my second nature. "Oh, don''t be sad like that. Trust me, the end will be worth the wait." Ayda''s eyes exploded with warmth before she suddenly grabbed my hand, turned around and pulled me towards the stairways. Even if we didn''t really care about potentially being seen, the devastated walls of the upper room of the inn were simply depressing. It didn''t escape my attention how the way in which Ayda pulled me along changed as well. Rather than oveing any resistance on my part with brute force, the fingers of this cute, cuddly witch intertwined with mine. The sheer softness of her touch simply coaxed me into following her steps. "Okay, this will do." Stopping before doors to some other room, Ayda ignored all the courtesy and forced the entry open, storming the ce without even a hint of hesitation. Once again her hand regained its legendary strength, forcing me right on top of a spacious bed. As I fell on the soft mattress, I looked up at Ayda''s face. With her lips trembling in gentle giggle while her eyes shone with immense warmth, she was clearly in high spirits. Just this alone was enough for me to cast aside all the worries her unexpected behaviour created in my mind. "Just wait here for a moment. I will be right back." Not bothering to exin a thing, Ayda ran away from the room, mming the doors as she left. Abandoned with nothing but my own thoughts, I looked around the room. As expected from a randomly picked ce, it was perfectly fitted for sleeping and generally spending time. Just like one would want it when booking a room. In spite of all Ayda''s efforts to keep me from being disappointed, that was exactly how I felt when I looked around the ce. As great room as it would be to get some sleep, there was absolutely nothing positively surprising hidden in it. Was I the only one looking forward to this moment? Not only right now, when we finally reunited, but even through all the time we spent apart? I knew that I was most likely overthinking things. But I just couldn''t help it. Even though those memories, those regrets were somehow muted in my soul right now, my past left a stinging mark on my character. Losing my family in such a drastic and sudden way made it quite hard for me to just openly enjoy anything positive in my life. Because the better everything was going, the more insecure I was about something suddenly appearing out of nowhere to smash this little happiness of mine apart. *Creak* Drowning in my own thoughts, I felt my entire body tremble when the rtively quiet sound of the doors opening shook me awake. Raising my eyes, I confirmed that it was Ayda returning from whatever mission she went to fulfil. At first, she looked exactly the same. But once I got a closer look She was actually slightly blushing. "You know, back when you brought all those goods to this ce, only to leave for so long right away When I thought about that moment,ter on, I couldn''t help but notice one wish. A wish that appeared deeply in my guts." Closing the lock on the doors, Ayda ensured that the entry was now secured before moving towards the window. Her face all rxed, perfectly calm. "Back then I thought that I wish to show you the great things from my world as well." Fixing the curtain to block anyone on the ground level from peering inside, Ayda finally turned around. Moving to the middle of the room, right in front of my eyes, she suddenly stopped. "While they might not be as useful or intricate as what you brought" Reaching with her delicate fingers towards the buttons of her usual, red robe, Ayda suddenly hung her arms along her waist. Deprived of the support atop her chest or shoulders, the delicate cloth of her robe slid down her pearlish skin, revealing something incredible. At first, I was simply at a loss for words. Her outfit It was simply tooplex and magnificent for me to find the proper words to describe it. On her upper arms, tight red sleeve connected to a long stretch of material loosely falling down all the way to the ground. With two strips of the cloth tightly wrapped around her upper waist, Ayda only pretended to hide her impressive bust. One strip brought her entire chest together, while the other went right underneath her boobies. Her slim, delicate waist fully exposed to my eyes. As soon as Ayda made a step closer, I couldn''t hold my hands anymore. Reaching forth, I rested them on her waistline. Just the warmth of her soft skin was enough to make my heart melt. Fueled by the long abstinence from intimacy, I could feel that I was quickly reaching the limit of what I could endure. Looking down, the show only got better. Hanging from a tight belt, a skirt fell down on Ayda''s legs. Or rather, it only pretended to do so. With the cloth being cut all the way from her abdomen to her shapely ass, her left leg was fully revealed And now Ayda was pressing said leg right against my crotch. But before I would lose my sense of self, this damned girl suddenly backed away, gracing me with an affectionate smile. Barely a step away from my hands, Ayda leaned on her hips to the side, raising both of her hands behind her head. Looking at her, exposing herself like that, I finally managed to figure out just what kind of outfit did she seemed to be wearing. And that only possibleparison was just a bunch of present foil wrapped around her naked body in a silly attempt to turn herself into a present! But what I had right in front of my eyes, right within my reach, was even better. Rather than using just a single type of material, her entire outfit was glistering from gold, strangely maintained petals of flowers. Every single limb of hers was decorated with at least a few bracelets, making her look like some kind of exotic dancer. In general, what this insane outfit of her achieved, was highlighting absolutely everything that one could adore of her beauty! "Ayda I don''t know how long I can stay put." Raising my head and stopping my eyes from ogling this goddess before them, I informed the girl with honesty. There was no point in hiding it. Even if she didn''t felt the same urgency as me, she still presented herself in such a delicious way that she had to be aware that I wouldn''t be able to hold myself back. As skewed as this train of thought would be for my more rational self, I could only follow after its whimsical directives. "Didn''t I tell you?" With a smile of mischief once again appearing on her delicious lips, I could feel a shiver travelling down my spine. Out of nowhere, Ayda retracted her step from before, once again gently pressing her knee against my crotch. "I''m going to show you a lot of good stuff from my world." cing her hand on my chest, Ayda leaned forward, pressing her lips against mine. Finally, I managed to sense a feeling of urgency. Not from her aura, but from how active her mouth was. Before I could realise it, her glib tongue slid between my lips, introducing yet another level of warmth and pleasure to my mind. This small, delicate piece of her flesh didn''t shy away from my presence. Tingling once I joined it with my own tongue, Ayda only pressed her mouth tighter against mine, entangling our tongues in a desperate attempt of connecting ourselves. Sadly, as quickly as this insane sensation of intimacy and connection appeared, as quickly it closed. Only for Ayda to lean over me, nearly pressing her basically naked chest right against my face, before whispering several words right into my ear. Chapter 81: Author has no idea for the title (light smut though, enjoy) Chapter 81: Author has no idea for the title (light smut though, enjoy) Ever since I started travelling to different worlds, I never had the time to pay any attention to the small details of the background. No matter what the world I would appear in, my main goal would be to aplish a system''s mission and move even further. That was the case all the way to the point when my family died, when a switch in my mind happened, turning all my focus to revenge and securing my position in the world. Only now, with my limbsfortably spread out on the soft bed I learned what it means to hear the fire cracking in the background. I learned what it meant to breathe fresh, clean air. Or what it was to have a lovable girl rubbing her entire, barely covered body against my skin. "Are you feeling good?" Whispering right into my ear before she would suddenly bite on it, Ayda deviously ignored how her actions were equal to torture. With my body all up and ready to prate her I was still perfectly dressed-up. Due to Ayda''s own hands, my chest was the only part of my body that was exposed. And given her profession, it was impossible for her to ignore the anguish of my crotch. Not even capable to look down, I knew that the bulge I raised in my pants right now was most likely the biggest I have done in my life so far. Adding how the plush material of our clothes was the only barrier that separated her softest ce from my eager rod, adding how she constantly rubbed herself against my bulge "You know that I w-won''t be able to hold for long" With my voice cracking due to my steadfast determination not to end prematurely, not to end outside of her, Ayda''s smile blossomed even brighter. But instead of going easy on me, this girl once again fell t right on top of my chest, hiding her head in the angle between my neck and my shoulder before gently biting on my skin. "Ah!" The same moment when my entire body twitched under a powerful current generated by Ayda''s biting, her soft body, inevitably wrapped in my tight embrace already convulsed. Feeling her reaction, I couldn''t help but struggle even more, which in turn feed to Ayda''s own reactions. Once I let down this single defence of mine, my infatuation only continued to explode at an astonishing rate. "Hey, let me go." Bringing both of her hands and her face right towards mine, Ayda stuck her delicate fingers on my cheeks before closing in for a gentle peck. Raising the corners of her lips as she asked, her hands gently massaged the skin of my face. Stopping the added embrace, I lowered my hands. Finally, as soon as Ayda rose back to a sitting position, she brought her hands from my face towards her own crotch, positioned right behind my own bulge. "Look how big you grew, impressive!" Looking down at my tent with no pardon, Ayda''s gentle smile only widened as she brought her hand on the cloth of my pants. But instead of freeing my manhood from its clothy confines, Ayda simply pulled on my bulge, pressing it against her softest ce. "You are the one to speak with how wet you are" The warmth flowing down from her crotch only added up to the precum already coating my entire penis.Still kept perfectly on the edge by some mysterious force, I barely managed to force those words out of my mouth. But rather than sparking some new kind of reaction from the girl, those words only made her smile even more. At this point, I was discovering new truths about how deep and loving could one''s smile be. "Yes, I''m dying to have you inside me as well." Admitting that fact outright without even a shred of hesitation, Ayda finally slipped her fingers under the cloth of my pants. Once her cold, gentle skin made contact with my soaking with precum penis, I felt as if the entire electricity of the universe concentrated on my ns, only to explode outwards through my entire body. But once again, I wasn''t the only one to shudder under the wave of pleasure. As soon as my mind nearly went nk, Ayda''s hand suddenly tightened as her entire body leaned forward. Pressing her naked stomach right against my finally exposed rod, Ayda pushed me even deeper down the ecstasy hole, once again sparking the reaction right back to her. "I We We n-need to hold Please" Curled up right above my stomach, Ayda whispered those words while fighting with her own urge. Suddenly overwhelmed with worry, I could feel how all the excitement evaporated from my body. At the same time, Ayda''s body rxed as if she lost her consciousness. "Ayda!" Springing up, I somehowpletely ignored yet another wave of pleasure that her soft stomach rubbing against my penis provided, bringing the girl right into my arms. My head instantly filled with the worst expectations as I desperately searched for any wounds or traumas that could cause her to act the way she did. "I''m okay" Clearly forcing herself to bring her hand up, this damned girl ced it gently on my chest while raising her head up. Seeing her teary face, I felt as if some kind of bomb exploded in my insides. But outside of filling me with worry and almost melting my soul with how adorable Ayda looked, a different emotion remained dominant. Wrath towards the thing that made her appear so agonised. "You see" Turning her hand on my chest into a fist, Ayda desperately pressed it against my skin in a silent attempt to take the reins of her state once again. "This will be my first time doing it So you know, I might be a bit clumsy" Barely capable of seeing her expression at this point, I could still tell that Ayda suddenly turned red. But that didn''t make any sense. It wasn''t the first time the two of us would sleep together. Venturing a bit into the future, it wouldn''t be the first time we would be quite wild while going at it either. So what did this girl mean by it being her first time? Maybe I was missing some point in the ongoing situation? "Hey Kiss me, mkay?" When Ayda brought her chin up, I could see how her drool was making it hard for her to speak properly. Her entire face was a mess of tears, saliva and ecstasy mixed with torture. Faced with such a longing look on her face, any defences that I built around my sanity crumbled in an instant. "Ayd" Stopped by her lips even before I could spell out her name properly, I was instantly graced with the taste of her slimy tongue. Covered in a mouthful of her saliva, her yful piece of flesh crashed around my jaws, coating the insides of my mouth with Ayda''s taste. And then, as if something finally connected, my mind exploded. Chapter 82: Perfect union (yeah, smut, +18, beware, enjoy) Chapter 82: Perfect union (yeah, smut, +18, beware, enjoy) Wild desire. That was the only way to describe the ocean of emotions that suddenly invaded my mind. Relentless desire to ravish me, unstoppable wish to merge with me, affection mixed with infatuation overwhelmed my soul in an instant. "See" Barely managing to rein all those feelings that suddenly filled me whole, I raised my eyes towards Ayda''s face. But there was hardly any sense of sanity within her eyes. Just the animalistic desire, perfectly reflecting the emotions that continued to overflow me. "Ay" This time, it wasn''t the girl that closed my mouth before I could articte her name. I moved my upper body up myself,tching to Ayda''s soft, tasty lips. Feeling her warm flesh with my mouth, I once again rejoined our tongues, pulling them into a wild dance. "I can''t" Using a slight moment when our lips parted, Ayda attempted to say something. Given how it felt as if all her emotional thoughts were transferred directly to my mind, she didn''t need to finish her words. Closing her mouth because how I couldn''t give up the delicious taste of her soft lips ever for a moment, I still perfectly knew what she had on mind. Right now, my lust, spiking after nearly an hour of forey was mixing with Ayda''s animalistic desire. Right now, our bodies synchronised in our affection, making both of us crave the other. With my pants already pulled off, all I had to do was to swipe Ayda''s funny clothes aside. Not even capable of stopping myself for a moment to enjoy the beautiful view of her moist pussy, I just forced my dick in her, nailing her all the way to my balls. "AH!" Wrapping both her legs and arms around my torso, Ayda screamed in ecstasy. Her fingernails dug painfully into my skin as she pulled herself even deeper on my rod. Silencing her scream by pushing her salivated lips against my mouth, Ayda tensed all over, bringing the doom of pleasure right on top of my already stressed rod. Feeling her hot wraps tightening around my entire junior, I couldn''t hold my horses anymore. Stuck in the tight, sloppy embrace, enjoying the taste of Ayda''s delicious lips, I ejacted straight into her core. "Mhmm." Even though I couldn''t really imagine something like that happening, Ayda tightened her hug even more, as if she wanted to fuse our bodies together. As her body all tensed up once her womb started gulping down my sperm, those silly wraps that jailed her breasts finally gave up. Leaning her upper body to the back with a dreamy face, Ayda allowed the cloth to fall off from her skin, finally revealing the entire beauty of her chest to my eyes. This wasn''t the first time I saw them in their full glory, nor was it the second. But it didn''t change how I lost all my sense of reason once her hard nipples brushed against my face. "MINE!" With my penis still shooting its load inside Ayda, I pushed the two of us down on the bed, using the momentum of this move to force myself even deeper into her soft spot. Wrapped in her juices mixing with my cum, I could feel the gates of her womb crumbling under the onught of my penis''s head. "Kiss me" Requesting this form of intimacy as soon as our lips identally parted during the change of the position, Ayda flooded me with yet another wave of unstoppable affection. Just like her body craved my touch, her entire self desired nothing but closeness with me. Given all the previous worries that bothered my mind, this form of union was the greatest medicine. In face of all her deeper feelings mixing with my own, it was simply impossible to have any doubts about her loyalty or dedication. Just as her pussy was wrapping against my penis in its tight embrace, her affection was wrapping and coaxing my soul. "You don''t need to ask" Pinning this delicate girl to the bed with my entire body, I closed her lips with my mouth, once again joining with her on yet another level. Connected by mating, connected by a deep, passionate kiss, connected with our feelings and minds themselves, I couldn''t see the world around the two of us. In this one moment, life turned out to be pretty simple. Rub my ns against her tight, slimy insides, stroke her soft hair while drinking each other''s saliva, sink my fingers into the warm flesh of her supple breast For the first time since the entire shitshow began, I finally got a chance to rx. With my penis constantly exploding, marking Ayda''s inside with my colours, there was hardly any specified orgasm to speak off. It felt more as if the two of us were in the constant state of ecstasy, unable to differentiate for respective ups and downs of our intimate moment. "Everything will be okay." With my thoughts momentarily returning to how hard life was on me in the recent past, Ayda instantly reacted by wrapping her hands around my head and pulling me down on her chest. Wrapped with her soft warmth, I could only allow her gentle voice to soothe my barren heart. All the worries from the earth rted to my family, to my situation, to my safety or my future They all disappeared, melted away in Ayda''s affection. Even when her fingers gently massaged my palm, her hips kept their slightly angled position, allowed my rod for better pration of her weing pussy. In this one single moment, with my sperm constantly filling every nook and cranny of this delicate girl below me, I finally felt calm. But there was only one thing that I still craved to achieve full happiness. Just like Ayda caressed my head in order to cast a spell that would dispel all my worries, I wanted to help her be as happy as possible too. And I just couldn''t get rid of the image of her saddened face when we learned that she was unable to visit my home. But my body quickly approached its limit. Even with how backed up the two of us were, this insanely intense experience was still quite taxing. At the current point, I could feel that even Ayda''s insides were no longer capable of properly tightening on me, simply giving up to the pleasure as she fully let down her natural guard. "Let me fill you up, onest time, okay?" Moving my head up, I forced it free from Ayda''s caring hold, once again joining our lips. "Mhmm." With the expectation exploding in the girl''s mind, she didn''t even part her lips from mine in order to reply, limiting herself to a muffled moan fed directly to my mouth. With my legs making me crawl both of us a little closer to the head of the bed, Ayda''s head pressed against the wooden frame of the furniture. Pushing myself to the limits, I caught Ayda''s frail, soft body in an even tighter embrace, pulling her pussy all the way down on my penis. With my head finally mming the gates of her womb open, all the remaining juice left in my balls surged forward. With yet another wave of ecstasy shaking the girl''s body, her pleasure instantly transferred over to my mind, mixing with my own. From the looks of things, the same process worked the other way as well, twisting Ayda''s face as she had no other choice but to release her stifled moans directly into my mouth. "Ha... Ha Haaaa." It took a while for my penis to finally exhaust the supply of its ammunition. But even then, I still remained fully coated in Ayda''s warmth, not willing to move even an inch from herfortable embrace. Feeling her ragged breath on my chin, I moved my hands from her back to her head, taking the role of the one caressing from her. "Thank you." After regaining my own breath, I gently brushed Ayda''s hair before cing a delicate kiss on top of her sweaty forehead. Right as I did so, the sound of a distant explosion reached my attention. Then, the window shuts rattled for a bit. "Don''t worry about it." Freeing her head from my loving embrace, Ayda looked up at my face. "There are some skirmishes going on in the distance. Please, don''t pay it any mind. Right now, I just want to enjoy this moment with you." Whispering those words with a hint of longing and desperation in her aura, Ayda instantly managed to achieve her objective. Dropping all the thoughts regarding that distant explosion to the back of my mind, I used just a tiny bit of repulsion to push the nearby nket on top of our sweaty bodies. With the shuttles clearly opening up a bit, the cold air was given to soon fill the entire room. "Hey, that felt really, really good." Noticing my efforts to keep usfortable, Ayda only smiled before cuddling right to my chest. Her words seemed to travel up my skin before reaching my ears only to fill me up with a simplistic pride. After all, what kind of man wouldn''t be happy to hear such words? Yet, this one slight regret from before still rung silently in my soul. How could I make her capable of entering my homeworld? Chapter 83: Cuddly morning (slightly lewd) Chapter 83: Cuddly morning (slightly lewd) "Good morning, sweetie." Thinking about this, I would never expect howforting it was to hear those words the first thing in the morning. Rxing in a rtively nice bed with Ayda''s body wrapped all around me, I could remain in this single position for the rest of my life without any regrets. Her smell filling my nostrils after the night spent cuddled to each other. Her long, soft hair sprayed all over my back, her sweet face Looking down into the depths of her eyes, I felt as if I would drown in them. Filled to the brim with affection, they were truly the absolute best thing I could see upon waking up. "How are you, dear?" Rustling on the bed a bit to fix my embrace over her naked body, I brought her even closer to my chest before pulling the nket up all the way to our necks. Just hugging her tightly like that was enough to fill my entire day with happiness. Thinking back, I could hardly imagine what would my reaction be if I somehow could tell my past self that by the age of twenty I would act like that. That by the time nearly everyone else was living their youths to the limits, I would be cuddling with the girl I loved, thinking of nothing in the world but her. "Doing great. I honestly can''t remember when was thest time for me to get up so well-rested. It seems that your bosom makes up for the greatest pillow, while your heartbeat for the most soothing luby." Moving my hand up from Ayda''s back, I brought it to the girl''s head. Brushing my fingers against her silky hair, I took a deep breath filled with her sweet smell. Releasing my breastfull of air, I brought my lips to Ayda''s forehead, cing a gentle kiss on top of her skin. "You don''t even know how d I''m to hear that." Squirming her hand between our bodies, Ayda grasped my chin before pulling my head down. Reaching up with her own lips, she graced my mind with yet another one of her sweet kisses. But instead of letting this momentst for even a bit longer, this damned girl ced her palms on my chest before suddenly springing up. Pushed aside by her back, the nket covering us flew away, instantly inviting the cold, morning air towards our skin. As happy and energetic as Ayda looked when she suddenly chased our drowsiness away, her face quickly tensed up when a cold shudder shook her entire, beautiful body. "Was it really worth it?" Raising my upper body, I wrapped my arms around Ayda''s body before once again pulling her in my embrace. When her skin touched mine, I felt as if the entire world would explode around me. From how soft it was, through how her gentle warmth mixed with my own Even the slight trembles caused by the cold only added to the insane feeling of holding someone so delicate, so adorable in my arms This time, I was the one to push the girl away. Even a second longer in that position would bring me too close to actually contracting diabetes. And I wasn''t going to risk it, not at the dawn of my new, potentially happy life. "Damn, this moment simply asks for a cup of coffee" As soon as this idea came to my mind, it escaped through my lips. Raising her previously curled-up head to my face, Ayda looked at me with a confused look in her eyes. "Ah, it''s just a No, wait!" Ayda''s confused face once again brought me close to copsing from sugar overdose. Thankfully, I somehow managed to hold myself back. The idea that spurred in my mind was just too great not to act on it. "You know what? Could you please give me a moment? I will bring something right away. As great as it is already, I just can''t help but wish to share a certain part of the morning''s happiness that I know with you!" Grasping gently Ayda''s arms, I looked deeply into her infatuating oceans of eyes. Still clearly confused, the girl only nodded her head before a smile suddenly made its way to her lips. "You know, that''s actually a great idea. There is actually something that I want to show you too." With her mood changing as if by the touch of magical wand, Ayda somehow overcame the shivering of her body, even going as far as to pull me out of the bed, throw the nket at my back and push me towards the door. "Come on, dear, hurry up! I''m all naked here!" yfully covering her totally exposed charms, Ayda sent me off with a mischievous look. With no other choice, I wrapped the nket around my hips before stepping through the doors. Looking around, I was faced with a tough choice. I could either get the simple coffee that my basement was full off or "Fuck it. Let''s go all in." Making my mind in a sh, I quickly threw some basic clothes on my body before rushing out of the basement. Travelling through the set of barriers aimed at protecting the system from any harm, I quickly reached the recently finished part of the mansion. Designated as personal quarters of mine, it was surprisingly silent given all the construction work already going on everywhere around. Compared to Ayda''s world, people of earth didn''t know the concept of stopping the work for the night. "Here it is" Finally reaching my targeted ce, I opened the shelves hanging over the long kitchen set. Upon noticing their position, I grabbed tworge, seble cups from the drawer, bringing them down towards the coffee machine. Given how it would be Ayda''s first taste of the drink, it would be better to make it as memorable as possible. Rather than feeding her some subpar blend, I could as well make use of the supplies that Baskar family happily provided for me! Chapter 84: Coffee Chapter 84: Coffee After scouring through the entire kitchen, I quicklypleted my mission. With tworge cups filled to their two thirds with the thick, ck fluid, two more small containers stood atop the silver tter I was carrying. Surprisingly enough, be it thanks to the improvements to my body and cultivation or just because of the sheer quality of the kitchen''s porcin, moving the entire thing back to the basement didn''t pose any problem to me at all. Closing all the doors and locks behind me, I quickly approached the doors before returning to Ayda''s ce. With the silver tter bending under the weight of the expensive drinks, I felt a shiver running down my spine. For a moment, I felt as if all my carefully prepared surprise would end up scattering on the floor in a sea of sharp porcin ss, drops of sugar and mix of coffee and hot milk that I carried along with it. Only managing to rein myself in, in thest possible moment, I carefully ced the tter on a nearby tter before allowing myself to take a proper look at what was gracing my eyes. "You really look beautiful in those clothes" Standing right in front of me, Ayda proved that the suits I picked for her from Earth were just as capable of bringing her adorableness out as her sexy outfit from the night. Thinking about this, if this world had that kind of toys, what would happen if I were to bring some of my own from earth? But just as the thought of watching Ayda slither in the pleasure of multiple vibrators as my hands would continue to caress her, the old feeling returned. "Thanks. I figured you would be happy to see me in those." Stopping my train of thought, I once again focused my attention on the girl in front of me. Her slender yet packed body was now wrapped in a modest, pink sweater dress. The thick material of her outfit reached to the middle of her thighs, whose in turn were wrapped in a thin, ck pantyhose. And seeing her dressed in a casual, earthy dress like that, this recent feeling returned with all its might. The wish to see her enjoying the life on earth to its fullest, the wish to show all the wonders of my world to her It felt as if my entire soul twisted in agony over myck of means to turn that wish into a reality. *Detected Strong Host''s Wish.* *Calcting the reward price** *Calcting the mission threshold* *Bonus quest avable.* *Reward: One slot for internar transportation* *Do you wish to proceed?* It''s been a long while since notifications like this appeared in front of my eyes. Suddenly swarming my vision all over, the system proved to be a goodpanion to have after all. Even though it has rarely shown any activity, once it did, its effects were marvellous. In the end, I couldn''tin about it at all. While it wrecked my life all over in more than just a few ways, the end result for me was better than anything I could achieve without it. I was perfectly willing to give respects where it was due. And right now, when I was faced with such a rtively slight and pointless trouble, this system reached out with a helping hand to me! "Ah, while I would love to just grab you and hug you and kiss you and And you know what else, I don''t want you to miss this. Tell me, do you like a strong taste, or rather mild? How about sourness over sweetness?" Turning myself toward the te, I pointed my head at the drinks. For some reason, Ayda didn''t seem all that interested in the drinks, enjoying my reaction to her wearing the outfits I brought for her far more. "Mild and sweet I guess?" Her answer couldn''t get me any happier. While not a coffee connoisseur myself, I had a defined taste to it. Instead of gulping down the ck nectar to keep myself awake, I prefered to heavily dilute the drink with milk and sugar. Even though it meant turning the strong drink into basically a shake, I just preferred to sip on it rather than tanking the heavy bomb of the dark coffee. And from Ayda''s answer, it seemed that at least in this regard, our tastes were quite simr! Yet, I was perfectly aware that right now, the entire topic of the coffee was nothing but a way to distract myself from the real problem. With my hands adding cubicles of sugar into both of the cups before stirring them up and filling the rest of the containers with milk, I continued to ask myself this one question. Should I tell her about this mission? Or should I keep it to myself? Unable to decide between those two, I focused on making the coffee for now. With the drink quickly prepared, I grabbed both of the cups before moving towards Eve and passing her one. "This drink Is heavily lightened coffee. In my world, we drink it to help us wake up. Outside of great taste, it has some properties that help one stay awake." Describing the liquid to my girl as she hesitatingly watched its grey surface, I smiled before raising my cup in cheer. "Don''t worry, I won''t hold it against you if you won''t like it. It''s just one of the things that I''m absolutely addicted to, and practically the only one that is purely beneficial to one''s health." While saying that was actually quite a stretch, as long as one would keep smart dosages of caffeine, it was absolutely best drugs for humanity. Increasing one''s brain capability while its side-effects were simply too small to affect a being as huge as humans. But even if not for the wondrous effects of the caffeine, I wanted Ayda to have the first taste of earth. Convinced by my encouragement, Ayda finally brought the cup up to her lips, before wetting them in the drink. Kept at a perfect temperature, it was just hot enough to be refreshing while being cold enough not to hurt one''s lips. Her eyes widened. After the shy, first gulp, Ayda suddenly raised the angle of her cup, pouring more and more of the liquid into her throat. As if she was some starving man in the middle of the desert, she emptied the container by the time I only managed to take a single gulp. Noticing her wild expression once she looked down at her empty cup, I was unable to hold back my giggle. Passing her my own cup filled with just a slightly stronger drink while shaking from my gentleughter, I pretended not to see the pissed-off look in her eyes. But no matter how much I would regret this honesty of mine,ter on, seeing this damned girl enjoy the coffee so much was more than my heart could handle. Melting down over how adorable this mischievous girl was, I lowered and shook my head, before raising it sharply and looking Ayda directly in the eyes. "You know, there might be a way for you to visit my world." Chapter 85: Decision Chapter 85: Decision "That is unexpected to say the least." As if her earlier coffee-drive didn''t happen at all, Ayda nearly instantly calmed down, focusing on the topic at hand. Her face turned serious, but I could still see the sparks of the caffeine-based energy dribbling in her eyes. Or rather, those sparks only now started appearing. "Obviously, the situation is not that simple either. And from what I saw yesterday" Hesitating for a moment, I lowered my gaze to my feet. As much as I hated to say it out loud, there was no other way to face the reality other than by speaking my heart out. "I''m not sure that it would be a wise idea to delve into another adventure with the things as unstable as they are here. What''s more, the fight during which I broke the taboo also ended up quite severely limiting my abilities." Resting my back against the wall, I didn''t dare to look the girl in the eyes. For some reason, it felt as if my inability to instantly jump on the opportunity was a sign of my weakness. After all, while I could still use both empathy and true magic, not to speak about cultivation and several tricks that I learned in the worlds I went through, my greatest weapon was gone. For some reason, I knew that even if I were to bring another bracelet, it wouldn''t work. It felt as if some circuits in my body burned out, forcing a lengthy period of recovery upon me. And no matter how miraculous my other abilities could be, I dared not easily step into a potentially threatening scenario. "What do you mean, the fight during which you broke the taboo?" Suddenly inquiring out of nowhere, Ayda managed to make me raise my eyes to look at her with just the tone of her voice. "Ah, right. I didn''t really tell you what happened. So, when I returned back to my world after the attack on us" My silly attempt at exining the situation was met with nothing but adorable violence. Tightening both of her hands into fists only to smash them against my chest, Ayda instantly closed the distance between the two of us. Both of the coffee cups fell to the ground, remaining in one piece each only thanks to being made from stic and rubber. "How could you!" Hitting me in the chest with those lovable fists of hers, Ayda lost her temper as quickly as she red up, now sinking in my arms. Her body slightly shaking, she hid her face in my chest to prevent me from seeing her tears of worry. But the quirk of our rtionshipid in the fact that neither of us could hide a single emotion from the other. Or rather, even if such a thing was possible, neither of us would ever dare to even think about doing something like this. Our pure, emotional bond was something that neither of us would be willing to give up for some silly reasons. "Hey, Krist, listen" Raising her head, Ayda looked me in the eyes. With the traces of tears still brimming in her eyes, I had to seriously fight against the overwhelming force of her cuteness. With her fingers gently tapping at my chest as if she was desperate to draw my attention yet too shy to attempt obtaining it in any other way, Ayda instantly trapped me within the clutches of her adorableness. "... I know that there are dangers in your own world too I know there are some fights that you cannot avoid But at least for the time being, before we will find a way for me to apany you whenever you would go Try not to get into any trouble, okay? Okay?" Nearly climbing on my chest as her voice started to break, Ayda was making it really hard for me to endure her plea. Not because it was ufortable or made me feel forced. I was barely holding on to my sanity because the human mind was simply not constructed to endure such a mixture of love, affection and care mixing with the parental drive to protect andfort her. "You know that I wouldn''t dare risk my health if that wasn''t necessary. Not even because I care for it myself, but because dying would mean I wouldn''t be able to hold you in my arms like this." Pulling the girl even closer into my embrace, I made sure to lock herpletely in ce. Bit by bit, under the pressure of my body heat, the shivers of her body quickly subsided. Once again, Ayda was in a rtively calm state. "But that''s also why I asked you the question I asked. While I don''t have even the slightest idea how hard it will be to aplish that mission I need, its something that I will have to do sooner orter. But now that I think about it" Suddenly stopping my words, I analyzed the situation once again. Right now, the earth was safe. Obviously, only to a point, but the foundation Iid with all my acting and ims would at least allow me to negotiate with parties stronger than what I could take on myself. But the same couldn''t be said about this world. In here, the hunt after witches was only entering its beginning phase. As I personally experienced it on my skin, not only was the situation not that good, but the tensions were also high. And a conflict of this scale wasn''t something that I could solve by providing several crates of weapons and munitions to our local allies. Not to speak how I couldn''t really trust in their loyalty either. "Think about what?" Once again I noticed what made Ayda so lovable. Instead of trying to push her own agenda in this momentary pause, she was willing to actually help me gather my thoughts ande up with some kind of n. Something that on earth would be considered a rare train for a woman. The ability to, brutally put, shut up and listen. "You see, right now, we still need to face the problem of the wizards setting on a hunt against witches. And it''s not something that I could aplish right now, especially with how I lost the majority of my power. Attempting to solve that mission of mine, would at least buy us a ticket out of this madness if we were to fail to stop the witch hunt." Yes, I was that cold-blooded. Rather than focusing on the way to solve the entire problem, my priority was to establish safety for the person that I cared for the most in the world. As long as Ayda could retreat with me to the earth, I would be free to go all in, in the attempts of putting the wizards down. But I simply couldn''t allow the situation where my efforts would fail, locking Ayda within this hostile world with no way out and no way for me to save her! "Yeah, I decided. I will try to get that mission done. Dear, I will do my absolute best to let you visit my world. And who knows, maybe it will be possible for you to stay there? Abandoning this entire ce to live in peace andfort with me It should sound that terrible?" Smiling as I proimed my decision, I could see how the corners of Ayda''s lips travelled upwards, indicating that she also found this idea to be pleasant. "Oh, speaking of living in peace andfort, I need to ask you about one thing. How does crafting works in this world?" Chapter 86: Jewels Chapter 86: Jewels "Huh? Crafting? What do you mean by that?" To say that I managed to take Ayda by surprise would be a gross understatement of my achievement. With her eyes widening as she pushed with her hands against my chest in an attempt to take a look at me from a different, wider perspective, I could tell that this change of topic was just as sudden as I wanted it to be. "You know, I''m sure you guys have a lot of useful stuff that uses magic to achieve its wonders. For example, your clothes from before The fabric that those straps were made from was just too fine for it to be woven by hand. Or to get something else" I looked around the room, searching for something that could serve as a good example. "Look at the bed. The way the wooden parts were cut There is no way for a human to be able to split wood so evenly! That is, without using some kind of tools or methodology." This was an idea that was looming in my head for a while already. In a world where magic was prettymon, it would be strange if some sort of magical crafting never appeared. Knowing human nature, as long as there was a way to profit from something, people were bound to find any possible opportunity to achieve it. It wasn''t my imagination of how the world should look like, but rather a logical consensus of how it had to work. "Ah, you meant the scribblers?" Seeing how Ayda suddenly understood what I meant, I realised that I most likely just hit the jackpot. Even though this matter wasn''t as urgent as one could think it was from the way I introduced it, potentially adapting the crafting of this world into mynds on earth would quickly establish my position not as a local sect leader, but a true powerhouse with both strength and finances to back my position. "Would you mind borating on what those scribblers are?" Intrigued by the name itself already, I couldn''t help but want this damned girl to stop increasing the tension with a stupid grin on her face and just tell me already. But as soon as Ayda noticed those slight variations of my emotions, her smile blossomed even further. "Okay, okay, I get it. Sure. Let me tell you what those scribblers are." After a long, staring contest, Ayda finally gave up while bursting out inughter before moving to the big drawer on the other end of the room. Picking up some items form her bag there, she sat down on the bed before inviting me to sit beside her. "This is the book of runes. It outlines about two hundred basic functions that a rune can be used for, along with five types of connections. Once you find a core capable of storing the energy, then all you need is a proper processor connected to it in order for the magic to do the work for you. What, you don''t have something like this in your own world?" Noticing my surprise, Ayda took a guess and managed tond only half of her salvo. Because I wasn''t surprised by the methodology of using the runes or anything like that, but with the way that this strange trantion ability conveyed her words. Did she really name those units a core and a processor, or was this my trantor attempting to use the words I was familiar with? As quickly as this moment of surprise came, it disappeared just as fast. Because ultimately, it didn''t matter. "Tell me, what kind of items can be turned into cores? I mean I can hardly see anything that operates on its own Or rather, propelled by magic. Are they super-rare or something?" Leaning my head to the side, I looked at Ayda''s adorable face. With the light of the morning sun shining gently through the covers on the window, the delicate rays of light only turned her face to be even more enchanting. Especially now, with how she was focused on the book that she held on herp. "Well, it''s not like they are inessible But there is no doubt that they are quite pricey. Most people don''t use them because it''s pretty hard to make them do something better or harder than what most humans can aplish. After all, with only about two hundred basic functions, your ability to influence the world is quite limited. And don''t even get me started at how the difficulty of carving those runes grows exponentially the more of them you add" Going on a short lecture, Ayda''s tone changed a bit. For the first time in a while, I got to experience her teaching side, something that I assumed she was quite close to. Given how nearly all of the allies that gathered in the area called her master, I had a hunch that she was more of a teacher than what I expected. "So, to sum things up, you can create sequences of orders that the magic power from the core will fulfil once activated, right?" With how it seemed to be just too good to be true, I had to make sure that there was no misunderstanding here. "Yeah, that''s generally right. As for the cores I happen to have a small one. It''s just for absolute emergencies, but it can create a strong barrier once crushed." Seeing the girl pull out something that I didn''t expect to see in a long time, I felt my breath stagnating within my lungs. If the item she just brought was what I meant it was "Tell me,is this by any chance a precious stone? Rubin, diamond, topaz or something like that?" Just thinking about it made me excited. If my guess was true, then I could already see how the entirend that was given to my church on earth would turn into a great industry that earth has never seen before! "Precious stones? Well, some like to use it in jewellery making, but it''s quite a waste considering how much does the craftsmen pay to get them." Shaking her hands to show how little did she care about this topic, Ayda ced the book with the runes on myp. "Hey" Starting off, I took a moment to gather my thoughts before properly formting the question within my own head. "If I could bring you copious amounts of those stones Do you think you could get some of those craftsmen to work for us? I might''ve just found the solution to the entire witchhunt thingy!" Chapter 87: Huskarl Chapter 87: Huskarl "Well, I think that you are overestimating their value by a fair bit. There is plenty of those stones on the market, so even if you could bring an entire bag of them, all you could get is some gold. Even polished ones, although far more expensive and effective in use, can be bought in a market of a random city. In other words" Taking a momentary pause, Ayda sighed lightly with a slight disappointment before finishing her sentence in a pretty obvious way. "No matter how many of those stones you could bring, it wouldn''t turn you into a powerhouse of any sorts. If you are really that interested then I''m quite sure that some of our allies dabbled in stone-crafting. You could ask them how this thing work, as I only know the general hearsay." Shaking her head in a slight disappointment, Ayda seemingly lost her hopes in that n of mine even before she could hear it. But rather than giving up just like her, I was already nning how would the potential production lines of those magic stones look like. "Thanks. That will actually help a lot. Just one more thing, what would be the value of an already crafted stone? What if I could obtain a huge amount of those?" At first, I had the idea of using the precious stones from the earth that I could obtain in rtively huge amounts now that I was basically a leader of a faction. Exchanging them for the already crafted ones could on the other hand pay back the cost on earth But now that I thought about it, it would be the same as giving the technology I couldn''t operate myself to someone else. Because ording to Ayda''s words, there was some rule towards crafting the magical stones. If I were to just buy them here, I would have no idea how the entire thing would work. On the other hand, as soon as a true power on a far greater scale than some local factions would take notice of those stones, it would be only a matter of time before they would crack the idea behind it. Honestly speaking, a matter of a rather short period of time. But now that the girl already imed that my initial idea wasn''t feasible, I had no other choice but to think about the other possibility. As long as there was a way to learn the local methods of carving the stones and then use earthy technology to replicate it on a massive scale, I could not only be able to make it harder to crack the idea behind them but would also be essentially a monopolist in terms of their trade on earth and supply in Ayda''s world! As long as there was a way to replicate the craft by using machines, the possible payback from just the first batch would be enormous. Most likely greater than the numbers necessary to expand the production across the entire plot ofnd that I carved out from the city for my faction! "Huh? A whole bunch of the already working stones? Hmm" Taking a moment to think about it, Ayda suddenly shivered. Lowering her previously raised eyes, she looked at me with a tense, serious face. "What do you mean by huge amounts? A few? A handful? A bag? An entire chest?" Hearing the response of this lovable girl while noticing the changes going on her face, I could already tell the answer. "Hey, I know that it''s quite sudden to act like that But do you think you could bring me to one of those people now? I need to confirm something about the details of the craft. I don''t want to grow your hopes before I will know whether realising a certain in of mine is possible or not." Instead of throwing the industrial number of possible output for anything that could be automated in its production, I decided to keep silent about the crafting possibilities of earth. "I see Okay, let''s go." Jumping out of the bed, Ayda quickly threw a simple set of clothes on her back. Contrary to what was told about the general female side of the earth, by the time I was done donning my clothes, she was already standing by the doors. Maybe it was the urgency of the situation or just her character, but it was still surprising to see a woman getting ready so quickly. I followed the girl without any further ado. Marching through the corridor of the devastated Inn, I could finally see the full scope of the damage that urred during the attack. Even though I could pretty easily tell the reason for that, it seemed as if the entire town was now taken by Ayda''s students. From the few moments that we spent on the streets, we could see this entire small vige transforming into a war-camp. That forcefully reminded me how pressed for time I still was.While things on earth now took a slightly calmer tone with everyone sitting down on their gains and only starting to digest them, the matters in this world were still rushing forward at an astonishing pace. But as soon as I would get my hands on something that I could exploit on earth, the insane amount of wealth of any kind that I could pour into Ayda''s world would quickly turn my role from the leader of the two factions to nothing more than a logistic worker. Even though the perspective of spending the rest of my days hauling the goods between each of the sides wasn''t all that bright, I couldn''t really tell that I would despise this kind of slow, peaceful life. "Hey, where is Huskarl?" Stepping without any hesitation into one of the rtively well-kept buildings, Ayda instantly made sure that everyone would know who was the new boss of the ce. In one instant, one of the ce''s inhabitants already fell on its ass, unable to hold the pressure of my girl''s aura. "Ugh He left for the workshop, mydy" Putting himself at the front and shielding the rest of his family with his own body, the ancestor of the household answered Ayda''s inquiry. Even though he was clearly tense and anxious, none of those emotions appeared on his face or in his actions. "Woah, they already set it up? Great!" Once again exhibiting her habit of dragging me around, Ayda nodded with thanks to the old man before pulling me out of the house and nearly sprinting towards the central point of the vige. Obediently following her steps, I couldn''t help but smile when noticing how she got pretty curious herself. "Huskarl! Where the heck are you?!" Instead of directing her steps towards any set location, Ayda simply stopped in the middle of the central za before shouting from the bottom of her lungs. "Woah, what happened to you? I don''t care if you are on your period so shut the fuck up!" Before I could even as much as blink, a simr shout reached our ears from one of the ends of the za. Instantly directing my eyes towards the creator of the rude response, I suddenly froze. From how Ayda asked about Huskarl, I was near perfectly sure that I would stare at an enormous, mountain-like Viking. I expected a horned helmet to cover his scarred face with a ginormous axe sending a threat from his hand. But what I saw, was actually a pretty small, thin girl, furiously mming a way oversized hammer on top of a red-hot, iron in front of her! Chapter 88: Cutting the gem Chapter 88: Cutting the gem "How to carve the stones? Well, you ce one or two fueling runes on them, then throw the stones to an energy knot for a few days. Once it''s done, you properly polish it into shape and then carve the additional runes. The idea is pretty simple, its the carving part that turns it from the easiest job in the world into actually a proper and dedicated profession." Not even bothering to stop her hammering, the petite girl answered the question. From the look on her face, I could tell how surprised she was with this kind of question. "Tell me, would it be possible for you to do this first step for me? While I know how silly that request might be, it would be of great help not only for me but also for everyone else here." Spreading my arms wide, I made sure Huskarl would understand that by here, I meant the entire vige. Instead of just getting her to help me by using Ayda''s authority,I would rather show how her actions could benefit both her and themunity that she clearly had to feel a part of. After all, why else would this girl join the vige that not only would, but already was under the attack of what seemed like a major powerhouse of this world? "Well, as I said, the first step is simple. There are many types of fueling rune that you can use. The true hardship lies in picking the correct type that could fit the stone without hampering its further development. After all, once you carve something into it, you will never be able to turn it back." Shaking her small arms, the girl didn''t seem over-enthusiastic about the idea But she still put her hammer down, ignoring the fact that the iron mould still would use some hammering. Thinking about this, I could hardly see anyone not carrying a weapon in the vige. Maybe rather than actually working, Huskarl was simply trying to get her mind off something else? While I pondered over the girl''s motives, she already moved to the insides of her workshop. With a bit of Ayda''s encouragement, I followed the girl inside, only to see several more workers busying with the trade. This time, my fantasy geek soul throbbed nicely, seeing the muscr men operating huge forge. The heat constantly spreading from the main point of every smithy, they only wore some loose pants, almost instantly making me doubt my manhood from how their sweat glistered on their ripped muscles. "Okay. I assume you have the basic book of enchanting?" Turning her head around, Huskarl asked as if it was something obvious. While I didn''t have one of my own, just one puppy stare directed at Ayda was enough to fix that problem. "Right here." Raising the book that my girl just passed to me with an adorable giggle apanying the move, I pretended to ignore how Huskarl rolled her eyes at this subtle show of affection. "The entire first half of it are fueling runes. If you just want to see how it''s done, you can just give me any random example." Interested in the matter only because of hermitment to seeing its fruition, Huskarl rummaged through one of the nearby chests before picking up a beautiful, red stone. Even though it wasn''t cut to shape, it still held true to its natural beauty as the gem of the earth. Following the girl''s request, I opened the book on a random page. With about six pictures of some strange runes marked on it, I went with the one in the middle of the left row. There wasn''t any particr reason for that choice, outside of how it looked slightly simr to the Nordic, Viking runes one could see in various games or shows. "Nazeterian? Well, it will take a while but I can carve it. Just watch and learn." There was clearly something going on about the rune that I picked, but I had absolutely no idea what. Seeing how the girl quickly pulled out what looked like a set of the incredibly fine de and thin, metal spike. cing the gem on the table, Huskarl grasped this knife-like utensil before casting a quick nce at the picture in the book. With the serrated de of her tiny knife holding the stone in ce, the tip of the girl''s pike suddenly lit up with a bright light at its very top. Then, the girl pushed the tool down. There were no sparks or the sound of two hard elements grinding against each other. Just a tiny puff of smoke whenever the pike in the girl''s hand erased another line of the crystalic matter. But as easy as this task seemed to be from the outside, the heavy drops of sweat that appeared on the girl''s head within just a few minutes proved that it was not. "Phew! That took a toll on me!" Just as I started respecting what the girl was doing as a seriously strenuous and precise craft, she suddenly pulled her pike violently to the side, nearly cutting the stone in half. "Wait, it''s done already?" Staring down at the massacred stone, I could feel my heart aching. Even though I never had any particr fondness for jewellery, seeing such a beautiful gem get mauled like that still sent shivers down my spine. "Done? It''s nowhere near being done But the first step is over. Now you just need to put it in an energy clog, then once it starts shining with its own light, you can cut it in two halves along the loading rune to get two smaller stones." Pointing her now extinguished tool at the huge ravine she made in the stone, Huskarl smiled gently seeing how interested in the topic I was. But there was a reason for that. If my guess was correct "Tell me one more thing if you could, what is this tool that you are using? Could I maybe get one for myself?" In one instant, the face of the girl soured. For some reason, it seemed that asking this question was akin to stepping on andmine. "You know what? I I" The initial fury that appeared in the girl''s eyes suddenly dampened and disappeared. Turning my sight to the side, I could see how just a single, cold stare from Ayda achieved such a miracle. "Yeah. I can get you one. Just Bring it back once you are done ying around. Trust me, you will get bored fairly quickly. This is not something you will be able to learn in a short amount of time." Chapter 89: Making a deal Chapter 89: Making a deal "I understand what you think about this entire thing. Some randomes into your workshop and pushes his weight around to y around with a craft you spent a lot of time mastering. But because of who his girlfriend is, you can only gnash your teeth and ede to his request. Isn''t that right?" Even though Huskarl already agreed to help me out, I didn''t want to leave this situation like that. It just didn''t sit well with me to force this random and actually helpful girl into obedience only by relying on Ayda''s authority. "What an observant fellow you are." Not admitting to my words directly, the girl pouted as she moved her face to the side, seemingly trying to hide her expression from Ayda. A funny leftover habit of normal humans, not applicable to the society of witches, where everyone could discern the emotions of others without much trouble. "Great!" Instead of ring up at the sight of the girl''s guts that made her agree to my words instead of fervently denying them, I only smiled. There was absolutely no point in getting angry over that point. "That means we can at least agree on something. So, I would like you to listen to me first." If I were to act as the main characters out of the many novels I read before the apocalypse, then dealing delicately with the situation like I was doing right now would only make me aughing stock. Not following thew of jungle, or rather, not using my power to the full extent in order to extort whatever I wanted from others, was something that would make those cool main characters scoff at me with pity. But this wasn''t some kind of fantastical world. Well, in terms of its ssification, with various races, magic and the world-ending conflict already in the process, it had every right to be ssified as a fantasy world. But there was one main difference that made acting like an arrogant prick the shortest way to get myself killed. Because this was a real ce. It was filled with real people. Each of them has their own circumstances, wishes, fears and ambitions. Even if crossing a hundred of them wouldn''t cause any drawbacks, the hundredth and first-person could turn out to be dedicated enough to be a threat. And what was the point of potentially creating a tough enemy for myself if I could simply be nice and respectful of the boundaries that the locals had? "I know that I won''t be a master of the craft overnight. I never ever wished for something impossible like that to happen. But while we don''t have this particr profession in the ce where Ie from, there are a lot of people actually doing something quite simr. When I''m asking you to teach me, it''s not for the sake of learning the craft myself. I just want to learn the ground rules so that I can pass them on to the people actually skilled in an activity like this." That was only a half-truth here. While it was indeed my intention to let the wonderful technology and craftsmanship of earth take the reins of the production of gems that couldn''t be made ever before, I didn''t imagine it as a row of old, bearded dwarf-like artists sitting at their workce and polishing a single gem at a time. What I wanted to establish was a fully automated production line capable of perfectly replicating the sets of runes that would be installed in its memory. What I wanted earthy artists and craftsmen to do, was to figure out the best possible arrangement of the basic runes before creating aputer model that the machine wouldter follow! "Eh It''s okay already. You don''t need to be so polite to me. I''m just a mere smith, am I not?" Finally reacting to my words after a short while, Huskarl looked at Ayda with a particr look on her face, before quickly escaping away with her eyes. It seemed that there was some kind of history between the two of them, a history that might not be particrly pleasant and wholesome. "As for the question you asked before, the scrubber is a pretty simple tool. You take a special, tiny stone capable of reaching insane hotness, then install it on a long crystal stick before covering it with handling material. My scrubber is made from metal because that''s the element I''mfortable with And the reason why your request made me re so much is It''smon knowledge that in order to be an enchanter, one needs to create a scrubber on his own. Only in this way will it be perfectly suited to one''s hand." Putting a smile on my face as I listened to thisplete set of bullcrap, I tried not to recall the times when in Earth''s history those highly-skillcapped crafts became obsolete where mass manufacturing became a possibility. Even though the quality was initially subpar, as more and more money entered the pockets of the factory owners, the quality of their product continued to skyrocket. In a short span of time, what used to be a factory producing cheap products, only a far shadow of what a true craftsman could create, soon turned around on the old-type workers. In the current times, the only reason why people still ever bought hand-made tools like clocks or instruments was because of the novelty factor. In terms of the quality itself, the machine-produced stuff mostly reced everything that was formerly handmade. But Huskarl couldn''t know that. That''s why, instead of exining the wonders of the industrial revolution to her, I decided to just nicely agree to her words For as long as it wouldn''t hamper my ability to progress on my own! "I understand. It seems to be an important tool for any of the craftsmen But let me ask you this, all it essentially does is heating up the tip in order to shave away a portion of the crystal, am I right?" With my mind working on its full speed, I could already picture several ways to replicate the effects of heat-treating the gem. Starting with a tool covered in diamond powder and vibrating at high speeds, through the water-cutting method, all the way to the standard polishing with grinder And if an amateur in the topic like me coulde up with three possible methods of recing the tool on the spot, how easy could it be to someone who was actually an expert? "More or less, yeah. Although it''s only a theory, it''s believed that once the rune itself is filled with magical power, it overflows and etches the energy into the structure of the stone. If that theorem is true, then it doesn''t matter how you cut the stone, as long as the surface of the cut is perfectly even." Shrugging her arms, Huskarl attempted to hide her excitement. From the flow of conversation, she could easily get the message that her precious tool might be spared the fate in my hands. Sadly, I couldn''t be as nice. "That''s good to hear So let''s make a deal. I will borrow your tool for just a single day, and return it to you tomorrow, no matter whether I achieve any results or not. Is that eptable for you?" Chapter 90: First test Chapter 90: First test "I wonder if it will work" Staring at the wand-like item in my hand, I couldn''t help but worry a bit. What if doing something that worked in Ayda''s world wouldn''t have the same effects on earth? What if earthy gems couldn''t be carved like the ones one would normally use for that matter? With all those questions swarming in my head, I couldn''t really do anything to answer them outside of actually working for the sake of it. Thankfully, I didn''t need to start fromabsolute scratch. While I felt a little bad about it, I managed to extort a fresh stone from Huskarl along with the one she carved. For starters, I had to find a ce that the girls referred to as an energy clog. Judging from my own guessing, there was a huge chance that this sanctuary of mine would be a jackpot. I could tell it from how I required quite a lot of different measures just to clear a small area of the ce from the magical energy, back when my mother was still amongst the living. From this alone, I had quite high hopes for the church of mine to serve as a perfect location to store freshly carved stones and wait for them to turn into proper magic ones. Although it was only a guess, this was something that I could actually test quite easily. And I did it by putting the stone carved by the hand of a professional, directly on the table in my basement. "Now, now It''s time for me to work I guess" Speaking to myself, I sat at the table before pulling out the fresh stone from my pocket. Again, it''s reddish hue was charming to my eyes, almost making it seem like a sin to attempt to change its natural-born beauty. But if I wanted to test the grounds for my n, I had no other choice but to do it. "Let''s see how it will work" ording to the few words of advice that Huskarl graced me with before I left, just by focusing my mind on carving, the small spike should activate by itself. While it would be powered by my own magic fueling the small magic stone at its top, I didn''t really need to consciously keep the flow up. With the tool in my hand and the stone right in front of my eyes, I pulled out my smartphone. After just a short moment of tinkering, a makeshift stand created from three pencils and a bit of tape held the phone in ce, allowing me to use its sh option to make my work a bit easier. All the same, dialling the number to Pavlo and turning the speakers on. "Hey man, what''s up?" Even after everything that happened, the young master of the Baskar family didn''t really change that much. If anything, his attitude towards me softened up a bit more, allowing him to finally start treating me like a proper ally and friend instead of some foreign power. Thinking about this, I couldn''t tell whether this was something he adopted by himself, or if someone influenced him to act this way. Being in the position I was in right now, there were bound to be people attempting to take advantage of every single possible weakness of mine, even amongst my supposed allies. "I''m calling for a small favour. Would you mind procuring several gems of different types along with the precision carving equipment? Preferably, I would love if you could organise someone experienced in faceting But also someone that you can either fully trust or fully lock up within ournds." Bringing the tip of Huskarl''s wand towards the surface of the stone, I focused my eyes on the simplest rune inside the book that Ayda lent me. ording to her former student, this was a rune that even a newbie like me would be easily capable of carving. And from the looks of things, it seemed that she wasn''t that far from the truth. Because while carving the straight lines into the stone was rtively simple, the feeling of having my magic energy gently sucked was weirding me out as heck! "Woah, is this some kind of economical invention that we could bank onter on? Are you going to make it a local product, or maybe you need some sacral tools?" Pavlo''s inquiries would sound a bit more serious if the tapping of his fingers against the keyboard didn''t reach the mic of his phone. Smiling to myself, I continued to add more and more lines to the carving. "For now, it''s just a test. I might be onto something interesting, but there is a huge chance it will be a misfire. So well, while I would love for this matter to be dealt with a priority use, don''t get your hopes too high for it. Also, I need at least a few stones quite urgently. Would you mind sending someone to the market right away?" Asking this question, I finally pulled the spike away from the stone. Blowing gently a bit of air to clear out the dust, Ipared my creation with the diagram on the book''s page. "Ehh Sure. That means I will have to make a call, sooo." Even through the phone, I could tell how deep Pavlo''s sigh was. Once again I recalled how I had absolutely no clue about the current state of finances of my faction. That was another reason why I wanted to create some kind of novel industry so urgently. While I could tell that assets of the Baskar family were still way off from being exhausted, there was a limit to how long I could rely on someone else''s financing. Ultimately, even though we were allies, the more they contributed towards the effects that my ideas would show, the fewer profits I would obtain myself! "I get it. Thanks in advance!" Putting the tool in my hand away on the table with a move as gentle as I could possibly execute, I quickly moved my hand and closed the call. Stretching back on the chair, I took a long look at the effects of my rtively short work. With two stones now lying side to side, all I had to do to check whether or not my basement was a suitable ce to store those stones, was to wait. But I never was the person to just waste time idly! Chapter 91: Sander Chapter 91: Sander "Okay, sure. I will be right there." Barely two hours after I made the first call, Pavlo already called me back with good news. Ending the call, I stood up from my bed, where I was studying different pictures of the runes. Even though I couldn''t even go through a tenth of them, not to speak about all, I could already grasp certain concept hidden beneath them. Putting the book safely away, I moved out of the basement, closing the door behind me. Even though I was fairly certain that no one would dare to attempt breaking through the concrete dome, one could never be too cautious. About two minutes worth of walkingter, I finally managed to cover the distance separating me from the guest hall of the church. Over thest few days, the works on not only the mansion but all kinds of supporting building around were progressing faster than I could ever imagine. From the looks of things, now that thisnd was exclusively for us to manage, Baskars could use a lot of shortcuts that would otherwise consume a hefty portion of the time to deal with. "Oh, you are finally here. I thought you would turn yourself into a hermit for a moment." Catching my appearance as soon as I came into his view, Pavlo pointed his hand to the side. Following his directions, I took a look at a middle-aged man sitting in a simple chair. Contrary to what Ayda''s world made me expect, the man didn''t have the looks of a respectable craftsman. Rather than that, he was just your average dad in a family of four, working hard to give his kids the best education he could while asionally attending summer barbecue with neighbours. "Meet Sander, he is a goldsmith but dabbles in jewellery quite a bit. I hope he will be able to help you out." Introducing the man with quite a dosage of pride, Pavlo managed to take me by surprise by turning around in an instant attempt to leave. It seemed like he had some more interesting things to do, but I had some other ns for him. "Pavlo, wait here for a moment. Also, excuse me, sir, I''m Krist, the leading priest of the local covenant. I was hoping you could help me test a certain idea out. Obviously, if it fails, you are free to talk about it, but if I will be right about that one thing" While keeping a huge dose of natural sympathy towards the man, I couldn''t avoid bringing this matter up. If people or even machines from earth could rece the work of the skilled craftsmen of Ayda''s world This matter would be simply too huge to allow the man partaking in its discovery to just walk free. "I understand. You see, your excellency, my business It was already pushed to its limits by the apocalypse, but even then the government sought to shoulder me with heavy taxes, no different from extortion. If the idea fails, then there was no business, to begin with. If your excellency''s idea seeds, then I''m willing to devote my skills for our mutual benefit." Just from those first few sentences that the man spoke, I could draw his character in my mind. Even though he was using the unofficial, respectful forms like your excellency, I was clear about how disillusioned this man was with reality. Just like he said, this matter was simple. If he could benefit and just live off his trade, he would happilyy his loyalty with me. "Great. I assume you got the tools I asked for as well?" This was the only thing that I missed during the earlier call. Regretfully, it was quite an essential part of my makeshift n to test something out. "Yeah, they are over there." Pointing with his chin towards the other end of the room, Pavlo made me look towards a pile of boxes stacking up nearly all the way to the ceiling. "Great. Let''s start with the simple stuff then." Pulling out a piece of paper that I brought with myself from the basement, I quickly drew the already familiar picture of the easiest possible fueling rune. "All the carved lines should be equally wide. The thickness in the diagram depicts how deep it should be. Basically, for every level of thickness, you can imagine anotheryer that you need to carve out. Once you are done with carving the deeper lines, you can widen the ones at the surface if necessary." This was the main hurdle behind carving out any moreplicated runes or sets of runes. Operating only from the surface, one had to create channels under the surface, without mishandling the runes on the upper level. Thankfully, the rune that I just drew was that of a simple circle and a square written into it. "Carving out something like this? It''s a pretty easy task." Taking a look at the diagram, Sander didn''t wait for even a single second. Reaching out to his pocket, he pulled out a handful of precious stones. Some of them already polished, others still in their rough shape. "Should I start, or?" Standing there with his hand full of gems reached out towards me, the middle-aged man asked with a serious look on his face. "Before that, I would like Pavlo to give it a try first." That was the ultimate test that I had in mind. Even if a skilled craftsman could somehow replicate the work of the veterans of the craft from Ayda''s world, it wouldn''t be enough to fulfil my needs. After all, there were only so many people of this trade that I could safely employ from the city. "Huh? Me?" Pointing his finger at his chest, Pavlo looked at me with a dumbfounded expression. It looked like I managed to repay him for surprising me earlier on! "Yes, you. You can get any help you want, but I need you to carve a single stone first. Then, mister Sander, I would like to ask you to replicate the pattern from the picture on all the stones left from Pavlo''s attempts!" Chapter 92: Amateurs hand Chapter 92: Amateur''s hand "Keep your hand steady Yeah, just like that" Standing behind Pavlo''s shoulder, Sander continued to speak in this monotone, sleepy voice. Yet instead of losing his focus and falling asleep, the young master of the Baskar family was doing rather nicely As far as my untrained eye could see that is. "Keep calm on the corner, just calmly let go of the stick" Instead of closely looking at the gem through several sets of a magnifying ss, the two men focused their eyes on the high-quality disy of Sander''sptop. Who could bother with trusting their own eyes, when a set of high-frequency cameras could replicate the level of details that the human eye could never notice? "Just like that And there we go, Pavlo''s first stone!" Eximing with joy, Sander conveniently ignored a small pile of wasted products, the results of Pavlo''s learning attempts. Because in the end, it didn''t matter how hard it was to learn. All that I wanted to know, was whether aplete amateur, who had no real experience in either the trade itself or more tangible forms of manipting magic energy like me, could still carve the stone out. That was the level closest to how the machines could carve the stones, recing the expensive, sloppy and slow humanbour. Instead of constantly worrying about the loyalty of the recruited workers, I could simply let the mechanical muscles do the job. The fact that it would be ultimately several grades more precise than any human hand only added more incentives to investing in the automation of the process. And for that sake, wasting about a dozen of formerly expensive gems was not something that my faction could even qualify as a cost. To be fair, it was easier to just add their price to the other orders I was cing, summing them up as just slight maintenance costs. Realistically speaking, all the tools and materials that Pavlo gathered in the room, would make up only a small fraction of the daily cost of the ongoing construction of my mansion alone, not to speak about all the other works going on around my faction''s imed ground. "Great." Taking the finished product in my hand, I gently blew away at the stone''s surface to rid it of the dust. Watching as the small, colourful cloud quickly washed away in the air, a certain idea came to my mind. But it was still way too early for me to even be able to test it out. For now, the most important thing was to learn whether any part of the process of creating the proper magic stones could be done on earth. "Now then" cing the gem gently on the table, I looked up at Sander, only to see him already cing a new piece in the special hold of the drilling machine. Without saying a single word, he quickly took the seat behind the screen. Once his hand gently touched the joystick of the machine, a magical show began. In just a moment, colourful sparkles started jumping to all sides from the stone as a diamond-powder coated drill made its first mark. The motions of the machine were perfectly fluid, free from all the hesitation and patience that marked Pavlo''s attempts. In the hands of a professional, this expensive equipment finally proved its worth. In less than half of a minute, Sander turned around on his chair, grabbing the stone from the stand. Instead of relying on the cameras, he pulled down a small magnifying ss hanging on a special level from his sses. It seemed that a craftsman like him still trusted his eye more than he would trust a camera. "Yeah, that should do." Taking just a few seconds to confirm his work, the middle-aged man raised his palm towards me with the carved stone on top of it. "That''s how easy it is toplete this design. If that would be of any help, I could give something more challenging a try." Clearly eager to secure the deal with me by any means necessary, Sander didn''t seem to mind to work for a bit more. In my position though, there was something else that I needed him to do. After all, Huskarl clearly stated that in order for the magic stone to be made, it had to turn from a single jewel to a proper magical stone before its runes would be carved on it! "For now, it would be better if you could replicate the same design on all the types of gems that you brought. If it wasn''t dealt with before, all the costs will be covered. Right, Pavlo?" Taking a look at the young man still gawking at the difference between the stone he made and the one made by a professional, I could see him swallowing his saliva before dressing up an uneasy expression on his face. "You are most certainly right Just please, keep it within reasonable limits. Those pebbles are not as cheap as the old age weapons" Shaking his head in anxiety, Pavlo almost made meugh. Once again I couldn''t help but think of how little those stones would be worth whenpared to what they were spending on a daily basis to keep just the construction going. Ultimately though, my request was still fulfilled. Within less than half-an-hour, I was already carrying a small bag filled with colourful stones back to my basement. This was thest part of the test that I wanted to set in ce before returning right back to Ayda''s embrace. Considering that turning the carved stones into magic ones would be possible on earth, assuming that carving the stones either with that special wand, by an experienced hand of a cksmith or aplete amateur wouldn''t hinder the process I still had to find out which earthy stones were actually considered to be precious ones in regards to their ability to turn into magic stones. And if it was just a problem of obtaining a matter with a set way of atomic arrangement Then what would be stopping me from buying off all the graphene sheets avable on the market? But rather than thinking about it, as soon as I stepped into my basement, I froze. Even now I could still clearly remember that the sign of a carved stone turning into a magic stone would be a dim light emitted by it. This process was said to take about a day. But as I stepped into the underground room, barely an hour after I left the stones here they were already shining like a light-bulb treated with current way above what it could hold! Chapter 93: Fueling Stone Chapter 93: Fueling Stone "Could it be" Standing in ce, I was unable to move even an inch. Not only because seeing those shiny stones confirmed at least a small part of my theory, but also due to the implications of the time it took for them to turn from simple, carved gems to proper magic stones. Both unable and unwilling to hold back my excitement, I rushed towards the table where the few pieces carved by Huskarl were left. Gently cing the new batch in the three different corners of the table, I finally took the piece of the prepared stone in my hand. With two examples made from the two halves of the original gem, I could test two things. The time I spent reading patiently through the book could now pay off. But instead of sitting down with the carving tool and attempting to add more runes that would turn this piece into a usable artefact I made sure to write some simplebels for each of the stones I spread on the table before grabbing the two energy-filled ones and stepping through the doors back to Ayda''s world. Right as my right leg was about to cross through the portal though, I felt a slight vibrationing from my pocket. Most likely a notification or some message on my phone. Something that definitely could wait, given how it was not a call. Ignoring the matter, for now, I quickly moved out of the room where my spawn point was currently set. Walking out of the Inn, I once again appeared on the streets of the small vige taken over by Ayda''s followers. As much as I wanted to share the first part of the good news with my girl already, I managed to stop myself from doing so. Being theplete novice in the topic that I was, it could easily turn out that my happiness would be short-lived. Only by receiving Huskarl approval and confirmation could I make sure that at least this small part of my n would be achievable. Yet, I wasn''t even sure if I would tell Ayda the news even with that confirmation. From one side, even the fact that I could charge the stones on Earth, even the fact how quickly I could do it While those opportunities would prove to be of great use, they were far from enough to satisfy my grand ns. Even if Huskarl''s approval would mean that I managed to obtain an immense edge over everyone else in either of the worlds, I ultimately decided that it was better to wait for all of my preliminary tests to conclude before sharing the good news. Walking through the streets of the vige towards Huskarl''s workshop, I could already tell how this ce would have to change depending on how a high degree of sess would my test show. Even though the houses and buildings in this ce were quite run-down and unkempt, even if all the other tests were to fail, I could already see this ce bing an important centre of trade just because of what I could achieve here. "Oh? You are back already?" Noticing my appearance, Huskarl appeared to be quite surprised. With her brows raised high, even her thin arm stopped moving the hammer up and down on the iron mold before her. "Did you forget something? Or is there something you just realised you don''t know?" Instead of her outright hostile attitude from before, this petite girl seemed to be genuinely curious about the motives of my seconding. And there was absolutely no point for me to keep her from learning my purpose here. After all, I was the one most eager to know the answer to my tests. "Yeah, I came to ask you about something." Pulling out two stones from my pocket, I passed them on an open palm towards the girl. Her brows moved even further up before her face tensed. Her pupil dted as if she didn''t believe what she was seeing. "Surely I am wrong, but just to be sure. Those are not" Slowly raising her eyes towards my face, Huskarl twisted her lips in an anxious smile. "Yes, you are right. Those are the stones that you carved for me. Would you mind telling me whether they are fueled properly?" Once again, I had no other choice but to rely on the automatic trantor that somehow made my speech understandable to the girl and her wordsprehensible for me. "Y-yeah" With her hand shaking as she reached out for the shining stones, I could tell that this girl was fully capable of understanding the implications behind the situation. From what I heard so far, the ces where one could actually turn carved stones into magical ones were all fully upied by powerful forces, each taxing a hefty amount for the usage of the magical clog they control. Having something on a scale that belittled the localmon sense like the amount of magic concentrated in my basement was alone a game-changing factor. "Great. If that''s the case, then would you mind trying to carve some basic runes on it? I mean, I would love to see how an actual finished product looks and works like." Asking this question, I expected the girl to answer rtively soon, but she just continued to stare at shining gems in her hand. Raising her eyes at my face after a lengthy moment, I could tell that there was something worrying her. "I''m sorry But those stones are overflowing. Attempting to carve more runes on them right now Instead of making magic stone, you somehow turned them into a fueling stone." cing the gems on the anvil with the utmost care that only some fragile explosives deserved, Huskarl finally breathed a sigh of relief. Then, she looked sharply at me, as if she wanted to jump at me and pluck my eyes out. "You do realise that if you left those pieces in that important ce of yours, they would ultimately explode? As great as the fueling runes of the level I used usually are, the particr design I used didn''t have any protection against the overflow Just a little bit of magic energy more, and their internal structure would copse, leading to a violent release of all the energy stored." Hearing those words, I couldn''t help but return with my thoughts to my basement. To my basement that was raging with enormous amounts of magical energy. To the same basement where a copious amount of freshly carved stones continued to charge. "Onest question then" With all the blood flowing out of my face, I looked seriously with a hint of panic at Huskarl. "Does the most basic design marked with number three in the book, has any protections against the overcharge?" Chapter 94: Results and news Chapter 94: Results and news Rushing towards the nearest door I could find, I couldn''t shake the bad feeling I had. While honestly speaking, I had great doubts about anything wrong happening with the stones carved on earth, I didn''t want to be a victim to ack of confidence in my own projects. In the end, I had no clue what the underlying rules behind magic stones and runes were. While I could exin why everything dropped would fall to the ground because I knew the physics of it, I was still stuck at the earliest phase of testing with nearly anything magic-rted. That''s why I wasn''t going to risk it. Even if I preferred to be rather pessimistic about the results of my tests, it was nothing more but a way to trick my own mind. By not expecting any results, in any other case than the worst, I would be met with pleasant surprises, encouraging me to work even harder. But right now, there was no time for that. While I never saw what an overcharged magical stone could do, I would rather keep it that way! Reaching the nearest building that I could find, I was about to crack through the doors when my body froze. Only then did I realise how I was about to haphazardly reveal my ability to cross between worlds right in the open of the street. Lowering my hand and taking a few steps back from the doors to some random building, I shook my head before redirecting my legs towards the Inn I was staying at with Ayda so far. At least I didn''t need to pretend I wasn''t in the hurry. Instead of watching my step and just strolling through the street, I was outright running towards the ce. Whatever the locals or Ayda followers would think, didn''t matter at all. Not whenpared to the damage that would go off right in the very core of my system! Finally reaching the Inn, I hurried towards the room I slept with Aydast night. Compared to the devastated chamber on the first floor where we suffered an attack before, the well-kept bedroom on the floor level seemed like a much better choice for lodging. And as I opened the doors, I realised that I wasn''t the only one who preferred to remain here instead of returning to the room upstairs. "Krist? What happened?" Turning her head away from a pile of papers that she was reading through, Ayda looked at me with her eyes opened wide. "Sorry, the stones!" Now, safely hidden away from the public eye, I couldn''t waste even a single more second. Quickly throwing a few words in the air while hoping that Ayda would catch their meaning, I mmed the door to the room closed, before opening it and charging right through it. Returning to my basement, I instantly breathed a sigh of relief. Be it the insufficient time,cking power of my basement or the things like quality of the stones, not a single one of them lit up yet. While only about half an hour passed since I left them on the table, I now had no other choice but to spend at least my next few moments just guarding those pieces. But even this soon proved to be impossible. Within less than a single minute, since I appeared back in the basement, a pocket in my pants started to wildly vibrate. This time, it wasn''t a short buzz announcing a message or notification, but consistent annoyance signalling that someone was calling. And there were only a selected few who had my number. "Pavlo? What''s wrong?" Picking the call, I asked. Most of the time, the young master of the Baskar family would limit himself to just the messages, tolerating how I disliked being disturbed in the time I was away. For him to call, something big had to happen. "Why aren''t you picking your phone? There is something insanely big going on right now so hurry up to the open office!" Instantly swarming me with his words, Pavlo''s tone was full of anxiety and energy alike. Just from it alone I could tell how fired up he was But there was absolutely no way for me to leave the stones alone now. With Huskarl confirming that there was no safety within the rune I used to fuel them, no matter how big the matter Pavlo wanted to talk about was, I couldn''t risk any damage to the basement. "I''m sorry, but I can''t right now. In a few words, what''s going on?" Contrary to how I expected Pavlo to instantly jump at the opportunity to exin everything, the young man on the other end of the call suddenly went silent. Only after a few moments did his voice appear in the speaker of my phone once again. "Don''t tell me Are you inside one right now? Is that what you have been hiding in the core of this ce for the entire time?" In contrast to the meaning behind his words, Pavlo''s tone turned soft, almost as if he was relieved to ask this question. As if the answer that he appeared to guess put him at ease. "I have literally no idea what you are speaking about. I''m watching over those stones, making sure they won''t explode. The first batch almost did. Want to switch to the video-call?" I was inside what? Rather than bothering to answer this question, I decided to settle the problem of my basement bringing other''s attention first. While it was true that I held in secret that this part of the old mansion survived, it wasn''t actually the part that was problematic. While it wasn''t something I would do happily and readily, if I could push aside all guesses of something being wrong about this ce, I wouldn''t hesitate even for a second. "Okay" Once again taking a moment to respond, Pavlo bested me to the button of changing the type of call. After epting the change, a small diode at the head of my phone lit up, all the while two pictures appeared on my phone''s screen. One I was pretty familiar with. Even with the several minute changes that I made to my appearance, I still had no doubt about one of the pictures perfectly outlining my face. But it was the other part of the screen that actually managed to shock me. Instead of portraying just Pavlo in his room, the second screen was an image from Pavlo''s phone. And instead of showing his room, it was depicting the entire cream of the top of the Baskar family in the conference room, with several important guests awaiting behind a ss-panelled door. "Everyone is waiting for you. We really would use your help right now." Now, Pavlo''s tone returned to its previous anxious sound. But there was no denying one thing, just the video feed of that conference room managed to get me up the speed regarding the importance of the matter. But just as I was about to ask what was actually going on, a sudden sh of light brought my attention away from the screen of the phone. Then my entire vision wavered, as a multicoloured rainbow nearly forced me to close my eyes to avoid losing my sight. Nearly all at once, the stones carved by Sander suddenly lit up! There was hardly any better news than what I just heard! "Listen While we are not exactly sure what is going on either, I will take the liberty to describe it in the words that people of our age will understand." Split between two insanely important things, I turned off the video-call, switching it back to the voice-only version. With Pavlo on the loudspeaker, I quickly brought all the shiny stones together, sweeping them all into a small stic bag that just happened to be around. Now that they were shining, I had to bring them out of this ce as soon as possible. "It seems that dungeons started appearing all over the world." Chapter 95: Dunegons Chapter 95: Dunegons "I wille right away. See you in a minute." Ending the call without even a shred of hesitation, I grasped the bag with the shiny stones before rushing towards the doors. If the matter was even close to being as important as I instantly assumed it would, there wasn''t even a single second that I could waste. Storming back to the room I shared with Ayda I could see her surprised face once again. But even if the matter at hand wasn''t as urgent as the matter with the stones, it didn''t mean I could just sit tight and exin everything that was going on to her. "Dear, do me a favour and bring those stones to Huskarl. Ask her to try if they could be properly carved to turn them into actual artefacts rather than simple magical stones. Will return as soon as I have even a second to do so." cing the bag gently on Ayda''s table I was about to turn around and leave when I noticed the clueless and sad look on her face. And that was enough to stop me in my tracks. Lowering the hand that I already raised to pull the doors open, I ced it on Ayda''s shoulder instead. "There is a lot of urgent stuff going on in my homeworld. I will try to solve it as soon as possible and exin everything to you then. Would you mind bearing with me for a while?" It was important for me to keep the track of what was my actual objective and what was just a mean to achieve it. To be quite honest, as long as I could secure the current lifestyle that I could lead on earth not only in my homeworld but also in Ayda''s world, I would be perfectly satisfied with that. Not only because I didn''t really have many expectations from my life, but mostly because I was perfectly aware of how bing stronger and richer would only mean more trouble down the line. "It''s okay, I was just surprised a bit. Go and do your duties." Smiling in response to my worried reaction to the expression that she wore previously, Ayda gently caressed the top of the hand that I held on her shoulder before lifting all five fingers of mine, one at a time. And I wasn''t stupid enough to miss the meaning behind it. "Thanks. Once again, I promise I will exin everything as soon as I will be done with it." Ignoring her attempts to get me going already, I ced my hand on top of her head before rustling her hair for a bit. Sadly, that was all that I had the time for. Without any further hesitation or dy, I returned to my basement. With all the stones, even the one that failed to lit up that came out from Pavlo''s hand, there was no need for me to be worried about them exploding. Rushing through the several sets of doors that secured my basement from any interruptions, I ran through the corridors of the newly built area of the mansion. Reaching the official part where most of the administrative jobs around the faction was nned to take ce, I finally pressed on the knob of the doors leading to the open office that Pavlo called me to. "You are finally here. What took you so long?" The heads of everyone in the room instantly angled towards me, indicating how high my position was within the group. Even though I explicitly imed that I wasn''t interested in leading the entire faction outside of setting the general course for its growth, if my guess were to be right Shaking my head, I stopped thinking about the possibilities. There was absolutely no point in figuring out what Pavlo had in mind by iming that dungeons have appeared all over the world if I could just get him to exin the phenomena to me right away. "I had to halt some of the ongoing processes. One of them took me two weeks to prepare and start, so I hope this meeting is really as urgent as you put it to be on the phone." Instead of exining my behaviour to my subordinate, I went on the offensive instead. As silly as this sh of words was amongst my allies, I had a clue that there was no way to avoid petty infighting. Rather than wasting enormous amounts of effort and resources to fight this inevitability, it was easier to cope with it. That is, for as long as it didn''t threaten any of my projects. After all, once I could blind everyone with the endless amounts of wealth, there would be hardly anyone even capable of thinking about betrayal. "It is. Take a look at those photos." Not bothering to turn on the slide-show himself, Pavlo only gestured at one of the men working under him. Seeing this, I felt the urge to scold him a bit but ended up saying nothing. Given how I was openly using everyone for my own purposes, it would be highly hypocritical for me to bitch about someone else doing exactly the same. Be it Pavlo or his employee to turn on the slide-show, it didn''t matter. What was important, was that the photos that appeared on a huge screen hanging near the ceiling Showcased exactly what my light-novel fueled mind pictured when hearing the word ''dungeon''. "It''s just this? Do we have any information about what''s inside?" Staring at what looked to be a hole in the ground, nothing more than an entrance to a usual cave if not for a dim, blueish glow around the hole, I could feel my jaws tensing up. Even though it was nothing but a simple picture, for now, the potential problems that this would cause if it was truly an entrance to the dungeon "Not from our own people. There are some news spreading online. Apparently, you can get some shiny stones out of it. Some of the stronger cultivators im that they are willing to buy those stones in any quantity possible, with the price being rtively high for even a single piece. This is the main reason why I think of ces like the one in the picture Are actual dungeons." Exining his way of thinking, Pavlo turned silent, awaiting my reaction to his words. "What''s the location of the closest dungeon discovered?" Ever since the apocalypse, the urbanisation process only elerated. With the new way of life concentrating of the bigger towns, most of the farnds got abandoned, leaving only the bare minimum required to feed the poption. The influence of magic on the crops was most likely the main reason behind it. Within the span of a single year, people already proved that crops grew in magic-rich areas not only grew more abundant, but each respective piece seemed to grow bigger and more nutritious. This quickly lead to the decrease of the value of thends devoid of magic energy, only elerating the urbanisation process to a scale never seen before in the entire human history. And right now, the effects of this process came to bite everyone''s ass. Because from the map that appeared as the next picture on the screen, I could tell only one rule behind the dungeon''s appearance. All of the discovered ones seemed to appear only in ces where once numerous poption dwindled to nothingness! "Tell me, do you by any chance" I stopped my question even before I could properly formte it. After all, how could Pavlo obtain one of the stones he mentioned previously given how little time has passed ever since I had him carve a gem for me? "Hehe" Instead of making a sad face or showing how he failed to met my expectations in any other way, Pavloughed for a moment before reaching to his pocket and pulling out a shiny stone. cing it on the table, he pushed it with a jerk of his forefinger, sending it rolling towards me. "I hope that I managed to exceed your expectations here. Unless I got terribly scammed, this seems to be one of the very few magical stones in cirction right now. I hope it will be of any use to you" Even though Pavlo managed to utter all the words required toplete a sentence, the sound of his voice as he ended it made it clear that he still stopped himself from saying something else. And given how I could see my own emotions raging like a hellfire, I could pretty much tell that my face was responsible for cutting him short. After all, this shiny stone looked exactly the same as the charged gems that I just transferred to Ayda''s world! Chapter 96: Potentialy devastating news Chapter 96: Potentialy devastating news "Is there Is there anything else of potential value that came out of those dungeons?" Holding the stone in my fingers, I moved it around. My hopes of introducing a revolutionary product that only I would have ess too seemed to break further and further apart with each second that I continued to observe the shining gem. Because no matter how I looked at it, it seemed to be just the same kind of magical stone like the one that I charged a short distance away from the conference room, in my basement. "So far, no other regr items made their appearance. While there are rumours that some of the lucky adventurers that managed to obtain some other stuff along with great opportunities for their breakthrough In terms of something that appeared consistently, those stones are the only thing." Listening to the report of one of the white-cor workers that made the background of the conference, I raised my eyes to look at the man speaking. Barely in his forties, his bald head decorated with thick sses somehow made him look ridiculous. As if he was trying so hard to look smart and capable, that he ended up appearing as the ultimate idiot. "Does anyone know how to make use of those stones?" Putting the magically filled gem on the table, I looked at the small crowd of people sitting around it. This was the most important question for now. As long as no one had any clue just how did those stones worked, I could still gain a huge advantage. Even if someone could find a craftsman skilled enough to repeat the patterns that would be carved on the finished artefacts, the scale of such procedure would never be problematic, especially when the harder designs woulde to y. After all, I could learn it for myself just by reading the simple book of the basics of carving that Ayda lent me. Outside of the graphs of the runes that one had to carve on the stones, there was aplicated set of rules that governed the way those runes would interact. Just like replicating the outer look of aputer circuit could work for some early designs, even if one could perfectly replicate the exterior of the modern-day chips, there would be simply no way for it to work properly. "Some already started theorising that those who reached the fourth stage of cultivation can use them to nourish their growth, but that''s only a hearsay." This time, Pavlo spoke once again, proving that in this little time that we were away from each other, he wasn''t cking at all. Rather than that, this young man continued to prove how incredibly hard-working or just lucky with the information he was. "Good. Now, everyone, get off. I need to speak to Pavlo and senior Baskar." Even today I still have yet to learn the name of the head of Baskar''s family. As such, I could only refer to him in this round-about way, keeping the basic respect towards his position while avoiding the trap of calling out his name that I didn''t know. "As you wish, your excellency." Maybe it was the tone of my voice, or maybe it was the face that I made while speaking those words, but no one dared to argue with my sudden and rtively rude request. But I didn''t bother with worrying about it. Those who were privy to participate in the meeting when such a crucial matter was brought up, definitely weren''t childish enough to feel insulted by the fact that I had some secrets I was willing to share only with the top ranks of the entire organisation. "Mister Bishop, did something happen?" Only now did I realise that up to this point, I have yet to reveal the alias that I would be going with under this persona of mine. While it was quite off-putting for me to need the old Baskar to use my own tactics of avoiding to use someone''s name in order to notice that, it was still better than never. "There is no need for formalities. You may just call me Marius." Coming up with the first name that came to my head, I looked at the stone still resting on the table. Its delicate shine was quite alluring as if it was some kind of hypnotic tool. But outside of carving specific runes on it, I had no clue what its other uses could be. Being on just the third level of the earthy cultivation myself, I was still below the level that the rumours imed to be necessary to be able to assimte the energy from the stones But at this point, I could hardly think of anything better for me to do than desperately attempting to reach that stage. After all, with a near-infinite supply of magic stones that my basement could procure in a short time, just by using those stones I could make my basic cultivation skyrocket! This was one of the things that were on my mind ever since I learned about the situation in Ayda''s world. The moment when I lost my ability to use those overpowered tools from the apocalypse only made this point even more important. So far, I was getting by only thanks to using a variety of types of magic, never limiting myself to just a single discipline. But being a jack-of-all-trades like that could only work for a short time. Sooner orter, I would have no choice but to focus on at least a few of my abilities, doing my absolute best to max out their potential to not stay behind the constantly growing society around me. "And yes. I asked everyone to leave because what I''m about to say is too important and potentially devastating for others to know." Picking up where I left after a moment of thought, I sat down behind the table before cupping my hands together as I rested my elbows on the wooden surface. "I might be able to obtain those magic stones at an industrial rate. What''s more, there is a chance that I know how to put them to great use. Actually, Pavlo already helped me to test this idea of mine a bit." Chapter 97: Technicalities behind the magical stones Chapter 97: Technicalities behind the magical stones "Do you mean that... " Initially standing up and shouting in reaction to my words, Pavlo suddenly went silent when the realisation of what it really meant dawned on him. "Let''s not keep you out of the loop, mister Baskar." Given how the two of us were already in the know, the head of the family was obviously the only person remaining in the dark. Even though I could guess that a man of his calibre would be able to guess a huge part of the story from our actions and reactions so far, there was no point in holding the proper information away from him. This line of thought actually struck a delicate cord in my soul. As much as I wanted to avoid this topic in a silly attempt of believing that what I didn''t think about wouldn''t be a problem I would take care of, ultimately it was impossible. Sooner orter I had to face the reality. The reality where the middle-aged man in front of me was actually pulling the strings behind most of what was happening in my faction. I wasn''t naive enough to believe that everything that happened so far was just a pure coincidence. To a certain degree, this man was surely responsible for how the recent events yed out. And that meant, there was no avoiding the politics within the single entity that I wanted my faction to be! "To put it in short words, I''m in a possession of the know-how and technology allowing to turn simple gems born from earth into magic stones that are either the same or pretty simr to the ones obtained from the dungeons. What''s more, contrary to everyone else, all the tests that I concluded so far point at the possibility that my technology would allow to turn those magic stones into parts of early magical systems." Smiling at the middle-aged man, I cupped my hands in front of me before resting my chin on top of them. "In other words, while others will cultivate, we will be using a special technological system to turn those stones from simple units storing energy, to actually usable applicancies. The first one thates to my mind, are barrier stones." Dropping a huge bomb right on top of both of Baskars, I had to try my absolute best to hold my smile back. In the end, they were my allies that I was teaching the extend of our advantage, not the enemies that I would love to unt my trump-cards. "So that''s the case Just to make sure we are on the same note, would you mind borating what those barrier stones are? You know, to avoidter misunderstandings born from misconceptions" This sly old fox He wouldn''t let me keep any advantage of being vague. Thankfully, it wasn''t as if I just threw this name from the top of my head. In fact, I already learned about three basic types of magical stones back when I watched Huskarl''s work andter on when I read through the basics manual. Starting with the barrier stones, the most poprmodity in Ayda''s world, there were many other types from fire stones through cooling stones all the way to the resurrection stones. But as I was reading through the manual, I couldn''t help but ssify all the types that I found out about, into three categories. "Barrier stone is actually a set of three different stones, acting in unison to create a certain phenomenon. While you could say that it''s a pretty silly attempt to simplify aplex topic, you can imagine it as a group consisting of a fueling stone,manding stone and executing stone." Spreading my fingers before curling up my thumb and pinky, I showed the three raised fingers to both of my listeners. "Starting with fueling stone, its role is to provide magical energy. While I have yet to discover thews that govern the capacity, for now, its safe to assume that the bigger and cleaner the stone, the greater the amount of magic it can hold." Bending one of the fingers down, I nced through the window. With the sun still high up in the sky, the atmosphere in the room was pretty cosy. Even though I was talking about matters of absolutely utmost importance, I couldn''t help but get nostalgic when the warm rays of the light from the local star shone upon my face. Shaking my head, I moved my eyes back towards Pavlo and his father. With their burrows pulled down and lips tightened, it was clear that they were fully focused on my words. "Secondly, there is themanding stone. While it sounds haughty, it''s something simr to aputer''s circuit. By connecting several types of different, basic runes, one can shape the magic ording to his desires. For example, there are four runes within the barriermanding stone. Absorb, shape, turn and push." Using my other hand, I raised four fingers before starting another count. "Absorb pulls the magic from the fueling stone, charging the circuit. Shape forces the magic to take the form, in this case, of a triangle. Turn adds the third dimension, turning the t triangle into a cone, while push is a connector that allows one to attach the execution stone. For each of the runes I mentioned, there are many ways to modify it depending on the thickness, deepness and many other factors taken while preparing it." Lowering each of my fingers as I went through all four runes carved to a barriermanding stone, I ced my now tightened fist on the table. "And that leaves us with an executing stone. While there are many different kinds of those, they generally have one task. To force the magic flowing through themanding stone into executing the phenomena in the real world." This ssification that I came up with allowed me to set my first steps at writing a basic manual for the eartherners that would soon be employed with the manufacturing of the stones. Even though it was nothing but the idea in my mind, for now, I could already see many ways to make great use of the runes written in Ayda''s book. Just like with programming, instead of bothering to carve extremelyplicated runes, runes that I personally believed to be just a merged type of several other runes, one could use just the basic runes to constructplex tasks. Just this alone was more than enough to prompt me into the idea of creating apletely magicputer, recing electricity with magic. While potentially a huge waste of time and efforts, it could give me a lot of insights into the inner workings of the pure magic that magical stones operated on. "I see Okay, there is no point pretending that I have any clue what''s going through your head, but I''m now sure of one thing. No matter where this strange knowledge of yourses from, it can be extremely beneficial both in the short and in the long terms. So let''s cut this discussion short." Finally revealing his true, business face to me, the old Baskar stood up from the table before walking towards the window. Form there, outside of the perfectly fine, spring weather, one could only observe how the crowds of workers in yellow-safety jackets continued to rush around the site of the construction. Following the boss'' actions, I approached the window and took a look at the outside myself. Even though we were on the first floor of the building located in the very middle of where the huge, nearly apocalyptic devastation ensued, I could hardly see anything beside sets of scaffolding and piles of building materials. "Tell me what you need to put this knowledge of yours into use. While you will handle the precise details, I can take care of all the groundwork. Given the appearance of the dungeons, I can tell that we are not through the apocalypse yet." Even though initially he appeared to look through the window, now that I looked at the older Baskar''s face, I realised that he was gazing in the abyss of his own thoughts instead. "There is no time to waste. I will pull some strings and call on some favours. Give the list of the things you need to start this magical stone industry up to Pavlo, and I will make sure everything on it will be fulfilled." Shaking his head, the middle-aged man looked at me suddenly, with a peculiar look on his face. "Just please, keep it within reason. While I would like to appear otherwise, we are still just a small, provincial power. If you request to build a nuclear nt on our newly obtainednds, even I might find it troublesome to fulfil that request." Chapter 98: A moment of rest Chapter 98: A moment of rest Returning from the meeting, my head was filled with ns for the future. Even though the appearance of the stone-rich dungeons seemed to put a wrench in my already existing schemes, in fact, I couldn''t be any happier with this event. Omitting all the stuff that it could mean in the long term, I had now absolutely the best alibi if anyone were to start looking into the source of the stones that my faction would soon push to the market. Now, anyone who would be interested in the source of my stones could be told off with something among the lines of a dungeon luckily appearing on thends of my faction. The other way to go around it would be to unt that the huge number of the believers of my faith chosen to venture to the existing dungeons, offering this huge number of stones to the chapel, in hopes of obtaining a blessing. And it went without saying that the price of such blessing, which would simply mean carving the stones out and turning them into an actual useful item, would happen at a steep price. At this point, I was inclining to go with this idea. Not only would that allow me to obtain a foreign source of the magic stones that would make it even harder for anyone to track the true origins of my products, but I could also only im that the process of carving actually had something to do with my faith, stopping anyone for a moment from attempting to replicate the results. But all of that was nothing but a song of the future. Right now, with those ns brimming in my head, I made my way back to the basement. After all, I made a promise. Passing through the doors, I finally managed to return to Ayda''s world. Most likely busy with delivering the stones to Huskarl or doing some other kind of task, my girl was nowhere to be seen. But instead of panicking, I allowed myself to sit down on the bed before falling down with my back on it. For the first time since this day started, I could take a moment to let my body have some rest. Starting with my eyespletely empty at the simple structure of the ceiling, I closed my eyes for a moment Only to be suddenly forced awake with a huge loadnding on my belly! "Wha" With all the air escaping from my lungs along with this broken word, I forced my eyes open, only to see a familiar and surprisingly happy face of Ayda. "Cough, cough What made you so happy?" Clearing my throat from the saliva that got stuck during the unexpected attack, I reached with my hand towards Ayda''s head. Brushing my fingers through her soft hair, I could hear her humming slightly. "I brought those stones to Huskarl. Just thinking about the face she made Pfff." Bursting out with a lovely giggle, Ayda snuggled up to my chest. Rubbing her cheek against my breast, she conveniently hid her face from my eyes. "Is that really the case?" Full of doubts, I could only ask. Even though it would be an easy thing to just read her aura to learn what she actually had in mind, I preferred to keep her emotions the same mystery as they would be to me if I never became a witch in the first ce. For some reason, this made me experience Ayda in her full glory, instead of being spoiled with all the changes to her mood in advance, making me unable to properly enjoy her character. "Okay, okay, I submit. I just couldn''t get enough of your sleeping face" Raising her head and resting her chin on top of my chest, Ayda looked me directly in the eyes while putting a mischievous smile on her full, red lips. Coating my arms around her back, I just brought the girl closer to me, gently hugging her to my heart. "So? What face did she make? Or rather, what''s the actual reason for you to be so rxed? Even without reading your emotions, I can tell that the signs of tension that gued your body before I went to my world, are now all gone." Rubbing my hand against the soft fabric of the cloth covering Ayda''s back, I leaned my head forward, stealing a quick peck from her lips. "You won''t miss anything, won''t ya?" Showing her teeth in a wide smile, Ayda locked her hands behind my neck before suddenly rolling to the side. Pulled by her grab, I ended up on top of the girl, with her breasts making for the finest pillow for my head. Moving her hands from behind my neck to the top of my head, Ayda started caressing my scalp while keeping my face buried in her soft bust. "I don''t really know how did you manage to do it, but if Huskarl words were anywhere near the truth, then we don''t need to worry about the wizards anymore. Just with the stones that you brought along, she imed she can set up a barrier around this vige that wouldst for at least a year." Gently brushing her fingers through my hair, Ayda unknowingly started to lul be right back to sleep with the heartbeat that my eyes, tightly pressed against her chest, could easily pick up. Coated in her weing warmth, hearing the good news that would finally take some worries off my back regarding Ayda''s world, I could feel my consciousness melting away. "And with an entire year, I can easily turn this ce into an impregnable force with all the means that I have at hand now, not to speak about the new strengths that I will find in the future" Even though we were in a pretty intimate position, I felt no lust surfacing in my mind. Even though it was the same warmth of Ayda''s skin that would usually fire my instincts up, for some reason, right now I just couldn''t get enough of the peace that her embrace offered. "That''s right. But now, you need to rest. Just like you said I was stiff before, I can tell how tired you are." Moving her hands from the top of my head to both of my cheeks, Ayda leaned her head forward, attacking my lips. Contrary to my previous peck, her kisssted for a lot longer, only adding to my sleepiness with how gentle it was. "Now, sleep. I won''t let you go until you are fully rested!" Chapter 99: Cuddly night-talk (slightly nsfw) Chapter 99: Cuddly night-talk (slightly nsfw) "Hmm" My voice escaped my mouth when my consciousness started to return to my mind. Lifting myself up against something soft, I looked towards the window of the room. Just as expected, the fact that the entire room was covered in darkness could be attributed to apleteck of light outside. And from there, I could draw a simple conclusion. Going to sleep in Ayda''s arms so early, meant that even with how tired I was, I was bound to wake up in the middle of the night. "Wait, Ayda''s arms?" With my still sleepy mind requiring my lips to repeat the thought that appeared in my mind in order for my consciousness to register it, I looked down. As one could expect, I couldn''t see anything. But just by squeezing whatever I was supporting my hand on a little, I quickly came to an understanding of just what could have such soft, jelly features. "Are you sleeping?" Whispering those words as I continued to molest the breast of the girl, I waited for a moment to receive some sort of reaction, but to no avail. Stopping myself from sounding the situation with my witch abilities, I took my hand off Ayda tit, only to sneak it under her clothes and grasp her soft flesh directly. "I''m not gonna stop until you reply to me." Pushing my entire body a little bit higher to make it easier to whisper sweet nothings directly to the girl''s ear, I continued to y with her chest. Even in our intimate times, I never really got to have all the fun in the world with her alluring bust. In the heat of a moment, I would surely grasp and massage it, but my attention would be mostly focused either on my own penis or on the insane mix of our emotions. But right now, I was in every man''s dream! "Still silent, huh I wonder what you will do if I do this!" Suddenly climbing down on the bed, I pulled Ayda''s cloth away, only totch onto her now exposed breast with my mouth. Feeling the slowly hardening bit with my tongue, I started sucking on her nipple, as if attempting to drink some of her milk. Obviously, given how she didn''t show any signs of being pregnant, no liquid came out. But it would be a lie to tell that absolutely nothing came out. "Ah!" With the soft moan escaping from the girl''s mouth, my hopes instantly raised Only to crumble apart when Ayda didn''t show any signs of opening her eyes. No matter whether she was really asleep or only pretending, this involuntary reaction got my horses going. Keeping my mouth tightly pressed to the skin of her left breast, I moved my hand to the other tit of hers, drowning in thefort of ying around with my girl''s bust. At some point, Ayda''s hands suddenly moved on top of my head, repeating the same caressing that she did before we fell asleep. Cuddled in Ayda''s chest, feeling her hardening nipple with my tongue while listening to the soft moans that the girl continued to produce, I felt no lust. Rather than getting physically excited, just being attached to her breasts like that while having her hands brush my hair was weirdly rxing. "Hmmm?" Just as my consciousness was about to fade away in this pleasant warmth, Ayda suddenly brought her hand up, rubbing the sleepiness out of her eyes. A momentter, her hand returned to my head, now apanied by a soft, lenient voice of hers. "Do you fancy my breast that much?" Even though being found out like that could easily pour some cold water on anyone''s enthusiasm, hearing this silly girl''s voice only fired me up even more. "How could I not? They are absolutely the best." Letting go of her nipple, already dripping with my saliva, I responded before pushing my head down and biting gently on her hard spot. "Ah! Stop it! Or I will get maaaaAH!" Even though her words attempted to hold my horses, her hands proved her voice wrong, pulling me even tighter to her chest. With her voice breaking when I suddenly sucked on her tit with a little bit more enthusiasm, I could tell that there was no retribution for me to worry about. As if angered by her own reactions, Ayda momentarily turned silent, only making me more eager to get another moan out of her. With my fingers kneading the dough of her right breast as I continued to feast on her left one, I could feel her body tensing up as she attempted to hold her voice back. "Come on, don''t focus just on my chest" In just a few moments, Ayda shifted her tone from aplete mute to a pleading one. Unwilling to let my girl wait even for a second, I moved my hands on the bed beside Ayda''s arms before rasing on them and moving my head towards the girl''s lips. "Kiss me like you mean it." Whispering those words right in the girl''s face, I reached for her mouth with my lips. Even though her entire body was warm, the delicate heat of her lips mixing with the thick saliva that her tongue introduced to my mouth instantly proved why kisses were such an intimate activity. Her hands wrapped around my head, allowing the girl to push her lips even tighter against mine. Following my stupid request, even Ayda''s legs locked on my hips. Even though I was initially holding myself above the girl as to not crush her with my weight, with how she basically hung her entire body on me, I had no other choice but to lower the two of us back on the soft sheets. Finally letting go of my mouth only once I seriously started to crave some fresh air, Ayda licked a strand of saliva that connected our mouth from her lips. "Now, did that calm you down?" Surprised by the sudden question, I only looked at the darkness in front of my eyes where Ayda''s head was hiding in the shadow. "Good. Then how about you tell me what''s going on in that world of yours? I know you don''t like to spy on my emotions, but for once you could feel how worried I am whenever you go off to that ce!" Suddenly ring up, Ayda dug some painful marks on my back with her nails. Taking this violent act for her punishment for all the stuff that she had to endure with me, I rxed my body, falling right back on her bust. Wrapped with the warm softness of her skin, I took a moment to collect my thoughts. "You see, to say it in simple words, I think I was the only one capable of travelling between worlds in my homeworld. But recently, some strange gates started appearing all over my home, allowing others to enter thends that do not belong to my world." Once again using Ayda''s heartbeat to calm myself down, I took a short moment to figure out the best way to exin everything that was going on. "My world Earth. As simple and as stupid it might seem to be, this is a collective name to the that my kind lives on. For us, magic is still a novelty. Just recently, we went through the first year celebration of the start of what we call an apocalypse. The moment when magic appeared in our world." Instead of helping me out by asking questions about details or inquiring about interesting parts, Ayda simply remained silent, once again massaging the palm of my head with her delicate fingers. "That''s why I was in such a rush to test and develop the kind of crafting that''smon to your world. For us, for my kind, this is a revolutionary technology. And I already saw in yet another world that I visited what one can do when mixing raw technology with the possibilities created by magic." Suddenly upset about the thought that appeared in my mind, I broke off from the girl, rolling to the side. Instead of just letting me go, Ayda instantly followed my moves, pinning me down to the bed by lying down on top of my chest. This time it was my turn to cuddle her. "You know that you can tell me anything? I''m all ears. Just throw it all out of yourself. Given how I''m entirely yours, it''s better than just speaking to yourself, isn''t it?" Whispering from the heigh of my chest, Ayda didn''t seem to mind how convoluted my story was. But given how I had the feeling that she travelled through worlds herself, there was a chance that she already knew how hard it was to exin an entirely different mindset to someone who was never in touch with it. "Yeah, you are right." Rustling her hair once again, I took a deep breath before releasing it along with all the reservations that I cultivated from the moment I assumed a fake identity. "While those gates those dungeons how we call them are not a problem in themselves, I just can''t help but stop thinking about what one of my allies on the other side summed them up with." Moving around a tiny bit to fix the sheets below me, I moved my hand down on Ayda''s warm back, somehow findingfort in cuddling her like that. "And what was the meaning of those words?" Moving on from just listening to actually helping me out by cing some open questions, Ayda proved to be just as great of a talker as she was my girlfriend. "That the appearance of magic That the appearance of the dungeons means the apocalypse is only beginning." Chapter 100: Mindset Chapter 100: Mindset "Out of everything, I just can''t wrap my head around this naming sense of yours. Why call the appearance of magic an apocalypse? To be fair, it''s slightly problematic for me to imagine a world without magic in the first ce, so my opinion might be biased but" Stopping mid-sentence, Ayda clearly hesitated how to wrap her feelings in proper words. After all, what for her was akin to an important story, was an actual part of life for me. Even though from the very beginning of our rtionship when we asionally met in the shop Ayda didn''t appear as a considerate person at all, the better I got to know her, the more her initial image continued to change in my head. "For our world, it was the apocalypse. You see, no matter whether you have magic, mystical arts, technology or anything else, ultimately the society you live in is a result of all the work that previous generations did to create it in the first ce, right?" Raising up on the bed and sitting on the edge, I stared thoughtfully at the window. Even though it was a slow process, the first rays of the sun gradually started to shine upon the face of this. In this dim, mystical art, my mood changed a bit. "Civilisationse and go, but even those that fall, they leave a mark for the future generations. While you might find it puzzling, my homeworld developed to the point when we started seriously looking back at our history, trying to preserve the roots that gave birth to all forms of civilisational order that we lived by. But with the appearance of magic, allplex social structures dissolved. Not because magic appeared. Because its appearance put a wrench into the guts of what we considered as an established and unbreakable order." Standing up from the bed, I approached the window. Before long, Ayda followed my example, wrapping herself around me from the side of my back. Resting her chin on my shoulder, she attempted to spot what I was looking at. The problem was, I wasn''t looking at anything in particr. "So that''s why But still, don''t you think it might warp your way of thinking about it?" Suddenly whispering this strange conclusion to my eyes, Ayda sessfully managed to pull me out of my nostalgic phase. "What do you mean?" Genuinely puzzled, I turned my head to the side, only to be met with the vast ocean of Ayda''s intensely blue pupils. "You see, if you keep calling the appearance of magic an apocalypse, then you are bound to perceive anything rted to it as a threat rather than an opportunity. While I don''t know how your world looks or works if you can obtain already charged stones just by going to that ce you described, isn''t this a great opportunity to get rich? Even if there are some risks associated with that" Suddenly detaching herself from my back, Ayda shook her head before dropping back on the bed. It seemed that the umon awakening that I served her, severed her sleep before she could properly rest. The way in which her eyelids continued to lose their fight against gravity only served as proof of that. "You might be right To think about it as an opportunity rather than a threat" Now that Ayda made me think about it from another perspective, I had no other choice but to admit that she was in the right. As soon as I learned about the appearances of the dungeons, I felt as if the entire world would crumble around me. What if monsters will starting out of them? What if the riches one could obtain inside the dungeon would quickly degrade the value of even the most precious stones that I could carve? What if this, what if that Instead of looking at the picture with a fresh and open head, I instantlybed up within the shell made up of worries and hesitations. If not for Pavlo''s urgent call for the meeting, I would likely just hole up in Ayda''s embrace to calm myself down before going to said meeting! "You know what, let''s do" Just as I attempted to put my hesitations behind and focus on the tasks before me, the doors to the room suddenly mmed open. Instantly ring up, I lunged to the side, putting myself between the doors and Ayda. Even if I were to sustain an injury from the attack, there was a huge chance I would be able to live through it to see another day. On the other hand, not reacting and not risking my life at the risk of losing Ayda "LISTEN UP!" Not bothered by themotion that she stirred up at all, Huskarl forced her way into the room while dragging a sizeable bag behind her. Without even a shred of hesitation, she pulled the bag up, only to m it on the table, pouring the content of the back on the wooden furniture. "I have no idea where did you get those stones, but I worked through the night to get you some of the most popr ones. Starting with two small and onerge barrier" Standing there, half-naked, staring at the girl passionately exining what kinds of tools she made, I was stunned beyond recognition. While it was true that I expected Huskarl to react to the appearance of so many charged stones in some funny way, never in the world could I predict her otherwise pretty reserved and wrathful personality would change so much! "Hey, are you even listening to me? With this one, you need to be as careful as you possibly can. It''s simply too expensive to throw it away, but my hand slipped as I carved it out and now the activation mechanism is pretty weak. Drop it on the ground and it will unleash a fireball that even you won''t be able to guard against!" Noticing how detached I was from her lecture, Huskarl simply scolded me before returning to her previous task of orgasming over the results of her work. Looking at the clear passion and joy seeping out of her eyes, I involuntarily turned my head around to take a peek at Ayda''s face. With our eyes meeting, we could remain calm only for a second, before the two of us exploded in weingughter at the same time. "Wait, what are youughing at? Me?! How dare you!" Clearly not satisfied with the way in which we reacted to the revtions that she brought to us, Huskarlunched herself at me, only to end up mming her small fists against my chest. "It''s not that we are making fun of you. Just seeing how enthusiastic you was about this matter You won''t understand, but it helped me a lot already. And what''s more" Pushing the girl gently away, I felt all the strength leaving my body. Sitting on the edge of the bed, I took a moment to calm down before raising my head and looking straight in Huskarl eyes. "Listen. I will need your help with understanding everything there is to know about carving the stones. I don''t need practice as I won''t be the one carving them. But there is one thing that I need to tell you upfront." Standing up from the bed I just sat at, I rested both of my hands on Huskarl''s shoulders while changing my expression to a serious one. "Once I will get started with this business, there will be no point for you to ever bother carving the stones out, outside of doing it for the sake of a hobby. But this also means" Leaning my head to the back, I cast a quick nce apanied with a gentle smile to Ayda. "... that the day where I can fulfil my promise to you is getting closer." Chapter 101: Showcase(1/2) Chapter 101: Showcase(1/2) Once the morning proper came, there was no longer time for either of us to ck down in our ownpany. Just a few minutes after I reassured Ayda that I was stilling willing to go through whatever hardship was necessary to bring her to earth, I was already walking with a bag full of simple but prepared artefacts towards the meeting room back in my mansion. Now, it would be the very first time when I would be the one calling for the meeting. "I''m here!" Suddenly dropping through the doors, Pavlo didn''t manage to slow down in time, axed in half by the thin top of therge desk that upied most of the space within the room. Barely preventing his face from breaking on the hardwood of the furniture, the young man raised his eyes at me with extreme curiosity. "Don''t worry, you are the first one to appear. I don''t expect any of those old geezers to perform the same kind of parkour that I assume you had to in order to get here so fast. Sit down, calm down, and wait for everyone to gather. You know I don''t like to repeat myself." Pointing at one of the free chairs, I didn''t even bother to move away from my seat Or rather, that was how I wanted to appear. With the bag filled with the artefacts prepared by Huskarl sitting on myp, standing up would instantly expose a huge hint towards the main topic of today''s urgent meeting. "Old geezers, huh?" To my surprise, before Pavlo could even find his seat, his father walked through the still-open door with a slightly ironic smile decorating his lips. Even though I could tell from his aura how curious he was for what could be the reason for my unexpected activity within the ringleaders of the faction, his face waspletely devoid of any hints that would point me towards this conclusion if I weren''t a witch in the first ce. "Please, don''t hold it against me. Treat it as a slip of a tongue and I will be able to handsomely bribe you once we are done with the meeting or maybe even during its proceeding?" Leaning my head to the side, I openly smiled towards the middle-aged man. Even though the two of us were working insanely closely together, I still couldn''t erase all the reservations that I had toward this person. Those reservations didn''te from the fact that he used to be the head of a house dealing with some pretty shady stuff. I was already mature enough to understand that what the ringleaders of the crime group were doing, was basically copying the actions of any given government from before the apocalypse, just on a way smaller scale. As such, what made me worried about this man, was that he was a true leader of his family, while I still felt like nothing more but a wannabe actor trying his best to y his role. "A bribe, huh? And here I thought working with you might be a slight pain in the ass" Instead of ring up at the suggestion of buying back his favour with a tangible gift, the middle-aged man actually smiled joyfully. But instead of taking the seat that was already turning into his private spot, he actually approached me before slightly lowering his head. "Your excellency, while you might find it bothersome, I recently realised I have yet to properly be your acquaintance. If that won''t be against your will, how about" While when with Ayda I was doing my absolute best not to use my witch abilities to observe her aura, I had no such reservations towards this man. And thanks to this attitude of mine, I could easily see how filled with anxiety the older Baskar was, despite the perfectly calm and stoic face that he was showing to me. "A Bruderschaft then?" Giving up on my attempt to conceal the bag on myp, I pulled it up on the table before standing up myself. Rather than epting the older Baskar''s extended hand, I approached a small bar standing on the far end of the room, before filling two shot-sses with pricey booze. Moving back towards my set, I made the middle-aged man hold his cup before extending my own hand with the other ss in it. "Bruderschaft it is." Smiling in response to my initiative, the old Baskar smiled before locking his hand with mine at the height of the elbow, before bringing his cup towards his lips. "Jeff." "Kira." With the older Baskar initiating the old ritual, deeply lodged within the nation, I spun my mind toe up with some realistic-sounding name But with how little I thought about this entire thing in advance, I ended up just slightly shortening and modifying my real name. In the end, Kira didn''t sound that bad. Even if it was only my own pretence, it gave off the eastern vibes, making it easier for me to im to have some connections with the part of the world that always appeared to be mystical for the people of what used to be known as Europe. Following the rule of the rite, the two of us raised our interlocked arms, drinking the content of the cups all at once. While I used the bigger shot-cups, capable of holding about a tenth of a litre each, Jeff didn''t show any hints of repulsion or hardship after swallowing over a hundred millilitres of a fine vodka at once. In fact, feeling the burn in my throat from this strong alcohol, I couldn''t even be sure if I myself managed to keep my face as calm as I hoped it was. "With that said, how about we let everyone else in the room? Although I have to praise them for reading the atmosphere and waiting outside" Maybe it was my own imagination, but with the proper, traditional introduction now done, it seemed as if part of the tension that Jeff always seemed to introduce to my mood, was now gone. Following the direction where he aimed his chin for a moment, I could see a small crowd of elegantly dressed officials awaiting some kind of approval for their entry to the office. "Pavlo, would you be so kind?" Given how I already revealed the bag, there was no point in attempting to make any surprises anymore. For anyone entering the room, it would be inly obvious that the content of the bag would be the main focus of the meeting, making it nothing but a waste of time to keep it hidden. "Sure thing." Instantly rushing up from his chair, the younger Baskar moved to the doors of the long room while I gently moved the small packs with artefacts from within the bag. Initially, they were just swarmed inside loosely, with Huskarl just hoping that they wouldn''t malfunction or break as she carried them for my inspection. But that mistake was fixed by me on the spot. While it required some running around, waking the local craftsmen that didn''t escape the vige before it was taken over by Ayda''s allies and coercing them to create those simple, square boxes by showing a huge amount of gold coins into their hands, it was all worth it. Because right now, instead of just tossing the stones out of the bag on the table, I actually picked up a small, jewellery box at a time, opening their lids as the room started to fill up. Finished with my preparations long after all the invited guests already took their seats, I leaned back on my chair before looking over at everyone''s faces. "I know what you guys might think But this is what I ultimately n to produce out of the stones that we talked about thest time. As I already confirmed its perfectly fine to leave most of the work to the machines, I''m here to showcase to you the abilities of some of those artefacts." Standing up from my chair, I picked the rightmost box from the line-up I prepared before pulling the blue, barrier stone from a simple cushion it was lying on inside the small, decorative box made by a craftsman from Ayda''s world. "This one here is the artefact that I already talked with some of you about. But instead of unting how insanely useful it is, let''s make a small test." Moving away from the desk to the ce where there was most of the open space within the office, I brought my hand up so that everyone could see what I was exactly doing. After making sure that the barrier stone was lying in the right position in my palm, I pressed the insanely small bit. From what Huskarl told me, it was actually an execution stone embedded into a special frame holding it within the carvings of the runes of themand stone, making the outer shell of the entire artefact. And then, I just pressed this small, protruding part into the stone. From the perspective of a normal person, absolutely nothing happened. But with all the ways of using the magic that I maybe not mastered but at least learned, I could clearly see the flow of mana rushing to form an intangible barrier around me. "Now, who is brave enough to attempt attacking me?" Looking at the group of men gathered in the room, I could see hesitation appearing both on their faces and within their aura. Just like I expected, no one was willing to potentially break my illusions and actually hit me. But instead of getting angry, I simply reached to the backside of my belt, pulling out a simple handgun. Releasing the trigger of the barrier stone for a moment, I ced the pistol on the table before taking a step back and reactivating the barrier. "Whoever dares to take a shot at me, will receive this stone for themselves." I knew this way of incentivising them into action would have small chances of working. After all, they had yet to experience the prowess of this stone, making its value rather questionable. Just like I nned. "Pavlo, I hope you will do the honours then." Chapter 102: Showcase (2/2) Chapter 102: Showcase (2/2) "I''m not really sure if I should" For the first time ever since we started working together, Pavlo hesitated before fulfilling my order. But frankly speaking, I couldn''t really me him for it. From his perspective, it most likely looked as if I was just standing there defiantly with nothing to protect myself, while asking him to shoot me. In such a situation, it actually made me pretty happy to see him not reaching for the gun on the table. "Trust me. Do I look like someone who has a death wish? And to be frank, I can''t really shoot myself here, as the barrier is just slightly longer than my hands. It has to be someone else." Looking calmly into Pavlo''s eyes, for a moment I thought about manipting his emotions a bit to just make him do what I wanted, but ultimately I gave up on the idea. Even if he wouldn''t feel like there was something wrong with his decision-making process, even if he wouldn''t regret this decisionter on I just wanted that man to actually trust me, not because of my witchcraft shenanigans, but because of his own decision to put his trust in me. "Eh" Still clearly hesitating, Pavlo battled with himself within the confinement of his thoughts. Suddenly, his face changed, rxed. It seemed as if all his facial muscles lost their tension, leaving him with the most neutral expression possible for humans. "Since you insist, let''s just get this over with." With a newfound determination, Pavlo''s eyes turned into slits as he reached for the gun. Raising it from the table, he pointed loosely in my direction before pulling the finger that he rested on the trigger. Bootsssszzz The initial sound of the gun firing was quickly reced by a strange sizzling, before a small cloud of smoke raised from the ce where the bullet crashed against the magical barrier. Recalling Huskarl''s exnation about how did the barrier work, I breathed a sigh of relief within my own mind, while putting a smug smile on my face in reality. "See? I''m all good. But put the gun down now, as I''m not really sure how much more it could sustain." Sending a quick wink to Pavlo, I pulled out my finger from the artefact''s trigger. Just like before, after a short moment during which the mana surrounding me returned to its natural state, the reality around me turned back to its usual state. Raising the artefact to my eyes, I could see how the light of the small stone hidden in its very core slightly dimmed, turning from a bright, dark blue almost reaching the border of violet, to a colour that was simr to one of the basic colours one would find in any graphic editing software. "Oh God... This is" Looking up, I finally realised that I almost missed quite a show. The tense still faces of the people gathered in the room served for the best possible gauge of how much I managed to impress everyone with the stones. Gently raising the left corner of my mouth in a slightly ironic smile, I immersed myself in the atmosphere of awe. "ording to the promise I just uttered, here you go." This time, I wasn''t careless. Returning to my seat, I ced the barrier stone in its original package before closing the small box and passing it to Pavlo''s hands. "As for the rest of the artefacts that I brought today, we have a fireball, two more barriers, magic breaking spear, two listening devices and one scanner. The first one is fairly simple, it creates a ball of fire from the energy contained within the system beforeunching it in a specific direction rtive to the position and angle of the stone. All three barriers that I brought with myself today use their stored energy to artificially increase the air resistance against anything travelling at a dangerous velocity. It also stops all the magic from prating it. The magic breaking spear isunched in a fairly simr way to the fireball, but although it cannot harm humans, it can destroy barriers, formations and all other kinds of stuff. But as useful as those stones are, I already revealed a huge fact about the reality surrounding us. Did anyone pick it up?" In order to speak openly about the stones, I had to make sure that everyone was thinking along the same lines in regards to the methods and rules they operated at. And it wasn''t something that I could achieve with people that still believed that the only thing that apocalypse brought was damned cultivation and some religious miracles. "Is it magic?" Not even asking for the right to speak, Jeff tightened his fists as he guessed what I had in mind. "Exactly. Magic. The force that we all know from the novels, movies and other forms of an artistical form of expression. The force that we all would love to control, yet always took for nothing more but a bbering not worth the attention. But you guys need to understand an important thing." Standing from my seat, I ced my hands on the table in front of me, leaning forward as if I was about to let everyone on a huge secret. "I can tell that some of you cultivate, Senior Baskar for example, already reached the second tier of cultivation, making him one of the strongest humans that we know of. Would you mind revealing your true cultivation to everyone here?" One''s real strength was a secret that should not be revealed, even to the allies. But with all the means that I had at my disposal, seeing through Jeff''s power was a piece of cake for me. Yet, I didn''t just betray him. Me revealing his most guarded secret had a strict reason. "So you knew" Shaking his head in a slight disappointment, the older Baskar didn''t even attempt to hide how I managed to nail his cultivation strength. "Wait, second-tier? Don''t you need to break through all seven initial stages to reach it? I thought only the veteran soldiers that kept polishing their skills could ever achieve it, as blood rite passage seemed to be one of the major" With one of the officials that were invited to the meeting suddenly going on a rant caused by his disbelief, all I needed to do was to look sternly at him to make the man shut his crap. "Yes, while it''s still nothing more but a guess, one needs to kill a cultivator of the same strength as himself in order to break through the first tier of cultivation and enter the second one. And as someone who did it, I think I know what you want to tell everyone by revealing my strength just like that" Only for a moment, a slight sense of annoyance could be heard in Jeff''s tone, before all those hints disappeared. By the time he finished speaking, Jeff was back to his usual, calm self. "Yeah. Cultivation is nothing else but just a single way of utilizing the magic power that surrounds us. Even though it sounds like a huge discovery, I do believe that other major powers in other cities, not to speak about the remnants of central governments and huge corporations I''m quite positive that they all know about it already." Moving away from the desk, I approached the window before turning back towards the desk. Extending my hand towards the furniture, I invoked my attraction just by recalling the image of Ayda''s lustful face whenever she was climaxing. And just like that, one of the boxes containing the stones flew right towards my extended hand. "This is one kind of magic that I''m capable of using. While not perfect and it has pretty heavy drawbacks, it allows me to utilize the same energy that others use to cultivate, in a much more useful way." Returning back to my seat, I ced the box with the artefact back in the line, before cupping my hands together and taking a moment to raise the tension in the room a bit. "I''m going to reveal a lot of stuff today, so you better prepare yourself mentally for that. And I will start with why I''m so focused on those stones and artefacts right now." Leaning back on my chair, I had to stop myself from cing my feet on the table. Asfortable as it was and as much I could project my own power and confidence with it, this wasn''t the time to appear arrogant like that. "I''m in possession of an extensive list of runes that can be used to carve the stones. Each of those runes has its own, special use. In order to turn a magical stone into an artefact, a craftsman responsible for it needs to carve several runes in a circuit-like manner. But what I want to implement in thends that we recently secured, is not a group of craftsmen meticulously carving the stones." Openly putting a wide smile on my face, I took a moment to raise the expectations of the people gathered in the room again, before dropping a bomb far more devastating than what nukes could achieve. "I want those stones to be all carved by machines, with only a small team of IT worker, jewellers and architects working on the design that the machines would implement. But with how quickly we will be able to produce those artefacts, I need someone to swallow the sour pill and invest in somethingpletely and utterly pointless." With my smile disappearing from my face, I looked at the faces of the men gathered in the room before revealing what I had in mind. "I''m in a capability of turning simple gems like rubies, diamonds, emeralds or sapphires into magic stones. But this is the one piece of information that cannot leave this room. Meaning, someone has to create a huge organisation that will openly aim to obtain as many magic stones from dungeons as possible, in order to conceal the fact that we do not need to do it at all." Chapter 103: Cracked open Chapter 103: Cracked open "I can take care of it. One of my sons was bugging me about letting him explore the dungeons with a group of people he was cultivating with. While he is still quite weak himself, I can send some of my mercenaries with him. The only problem is" Speaking up, one of the officials of my faction clearly hesitated when it came to the troublesome part of his situation. "Go on, my friend. Even if there is someone else willing to take this task on himself, we should know all the prerequisites for each of the possible ns." Back on my seat, I encouraged the man with a lenient gesture of my hand. Bringing my lips to form a slight smile, I silently waited for the man to speak about the part that would potentially make it impossible or simply unprofitable to realise his idea. "If you say so, your excellency, then I won''t hold back with what should be considered bad news. As easy as it is to gather people for the quest of exploring the dungeons, as averagely hard it is to ensure their loyalty The main problem with any n regarding those dungeons will alwayse back to the greatest hurdle. Its location." Standing up from his seat, the man approached theptop that was connected to the local projector before furiously tapping at its keyboard for a moment. As silly as it was, seeing the foul attempts to write something fast by this middle-aged man was nothing short of pitiable for a former gamer like me. If his fingers could move on the keyboard only as fast as they were moving right now, then his career in e-sports would be over before it would even begin. But for the sake of changing the pictures on the presentation or looking for images on the web, it was way more than necessary. In just a few moments, the standard standby screen projected on the wall changed to the same picture that was brought up in the previous meeting, outlining the location of all the known dungeons in the proximity. "For now, let''s focus on the three closest dungeons that we know of. To simplify the references, I will call them south, north and west dungeons respectively. Even though the dungeon to our east doesn''t seem to be that much further than the others, it''s already well within the sphere of influence of the Sarate conglomerate and from what I heard, we are not really on good terms with them so let''s ignore it for now." Listening to the man who started exining and analyzing the essibility of all three dungeons that were close enough for my faction to invest in, I had no choice but to admit one thing. For some reason, I still cultivated a childish mindset where all the white-cor workers could only brew coffee, sign papers and otherwise just do nothing. From how prepared this man was for the topic, it was clear that he spent not only a lot of time to research it, but also invested a lot of his private funds to obtain even more information than what was publicly essible. "That''s why I believe aiming for the west will be extremely risky. While we are closer to the dungeon that the city of Krak, I think we are all aware that with their poption, we have no chance topete with them for it. The fact that the dungeon appeared in what was known as Krak''s sleeping district back before the apocalypse makes it even more likely for them to already obtain full control over them. For the northern one, I assumed that it would be a staging ground between Krak and Kiel cities, both way too big for us to tackle. And that leaves us with only the southern one." Tracing his finger on the map, the official quickly brought his hand even further down, pointing it at the single big city that could potentially vie for the control of the dungeon area. "Regarding New San, I don''t think we should be too worried about their interference. Given how we would seek control of the area as a faction rather than the entire city, I believe it would be highly advantageous to us to actually cooperate with them, even with as weak as they appear to be. This way, we could make sure no other local faction would have ess to the dungeon." Only at this point did I realise a pretty depressing truth. What just a bit over a year ago used to be ces where I would love to take the train with friends for an overnight party, now turned into political enemies of not only my faction but also the entire city as a whole. Taking the city of Krak for example, I had a lot of pleasant memories from the several trips that I made there. In fact, I was aiming to get to the university over there once my high-school time would conclude. But now, even with the central government still at least attempting to keep the nation as a single entity, the entire world seemed to regress back to the city-states period. Even though the trains still operated, once someone entered the city, it was getting increasingly troublesome to actually leave it. "So your n is to send your son with a party of mercenaries to the southern dungeon, not only to assess the situation within this point of interest but also to potentially start up a diplomatic rtionship with the delegates of the New San that are likely to appear there as well. Am I right?" Rubbing my chin with my fingers, I took a long look at the map disyed on the wall of the room before turning my head towards the official. "Your excellency, ording to your words, we don''t really need the magical stones that can be obtained within the dungeon. I''m not here to judge whether that''s true or not. What I want to point out, is how little we know about those dungeons. What if those magic stones are only the tip of the iceberg? What if" I didn''t really need that man to ask those question. Unless I was greatly underestimating the officials of my faction, I was the one who was most worried about what would the future bring to this world. Because from all my experiences so far, there was no world with magic, that would be free of the monsters. The only exception I could find to this rule would be the world of the apocalypse, where all life seemed to cease its course. "I understand. As long as no one has any better ideas, I believe this could be a good, first step on our way to expand. Because as we all should know, not progressing means regressing." Standing up from my chair after I summed the situation up, I paced around the conference chamber for a moment before suddenlying to a stop. "For this initiative, I''m willing to part ways with both of the barrier stones and the fireball stone. The magic distribution stone I will leave it in the hands of the dungeon party as well, but I hope it will return unused. Take it as insurance against any problems created by other humans. Anyone wants to add something?" Given how the entire discussion about adventuring towards the dungeon waspletely monopolised by me and that single official, I didn''t forget about letting others voice out their initiatives as well. "Sir, while it''s not particrly about the topic" Ring, ring Out of nowhere, the annoying sound of the phone rm disturbed the peace within the room. Locating the source of the sound, I actually looked towards Pavlo, only to see this young retainer and friend of mine blush heavily only to jump out from his seat, pull out his phone and dash towards the doors. "Excuse me While my doubt is not about the proposed idea of exploring the dungeon per se, I don''t think we should ignore the threat that the Sarate family poses to us. If the guess of my colleague " the new speaker pointed his hand at the official that brought the proposal in the first ce, " is right, then allowing them to freely explore and profit from the dungeon to our east Won''t that give them an edge over everyone else in the town? So far, we managed to keep them away from the new local government because their only have a mansion in here, with all their interests located elsewhere But if they be too powerful, won''t it be an obvious move for them to secure our city for themselves? Especially if we suddenly start growing rich from the trading of those artefacts?" As annoying as it was, I had to admit that it was only this man''s words that reminded me of the huge problem that Martha''s family was. Not only because of how potentially dangerous they could be to my faction, but also because of the personal vendetta that I had against them. After all, even if Martha never intended to cause all hell to break loose over my house back then, there was no denying that she was still responsible for it. Even if she wasn''t the one in the wrong, it was her actions that caused the death of my parents. And I wasn''t willing to just let that slide. Shaking the momentary hesitation from my head, I was about to announce what we would aim to be doing in the near future when the doors to the conference room opened up. Walking inside, Pavlo''s steps were extremely stiff. His face deprived of its natural, reddish lush was now closing on the tones of white that I never expected anyone''s face to ever achieve. "Your e-excellency... " Mumbling the words, Pavlo stood up in ce to take a breath, before regaining his confidence, raising his head and looking straight into my eyes. "There are two more dungeons in the proximity of our city. And one of them just cracked open, releasing a horde of monsters to the area." Chapter 104: Dangers of the stone Chapter 104: Dangers of the stone "Fascinating While it''s only a random guess, I need to test something insanely quick." Back in time, when I thought about being a politician or some kind of great personage of the business world, I never imagined how frantic this kind of life could actually be. As soon as the conference with the higher-ups of the faction finished, I was already running towards a small hall that I organised for Sander beforehand. Knowing the results of the testing of the stones in advance, I had no doubts that my idea and investment would get approved. Yet another downside of ruling in the adult world. Even despite being the de-facto leader of the entire faction, both practical and spiritual, I still had to ount for the opinions of my subordinates. Thinking about it, I couldn''t help but recall all those sect systems that I learned about in the various novels I read. But instead of thinking about the possible ways to reorganise the entire political alliance into something more centrally-oriented with the help of those precious artefacts, I had something else to focus my attention on. "Sure. What is it?" Looking at Sander before me, I could see the sparks of excitement blossoming in his eyes. All the material and mundane matters aside, he was filled with the pure joy of a craftsman venturing to develop new and age-changing means of his craft. "I will need at least a fair bit of the stone But it will go to waste, whether the results will be positive or not." Lowering his eyes to the side, Sander appeared to be quite hesitant, as if recognising the value of each charged gem. "Not a problem. It''s obvious that the testing stage will require a lot of resources. I''m prepared for that. Here you go." The only stop I made before reaching for what would soon be Sander''s workshop, was my basement. With yet another batch of the stones, this time mostlying from Ayda''s world, this middle-aged craftsman would soon turn a medieval-level of craft into a modern, technology-based manufacturing process. That was one of the additional conclusions of the meeting. To pour any amount of money necessary for this particr technology to develop. By the time I was leaving the conference room, at least four of the officials dered willingness to look not only for the precious stones in their own businesses and other shops but also for people that could potentially fit the jobs that we were about to create. "But don''t leave me hanging. What did you figure out?" Passing the shiny stone to the surprisingly delicate hand of the craftsman, I could see the corners of his lips raising in a shy smile. "From what you told me and what I saw in that book, there is basically a single major obstacle that stops us from carving whatever we want on the stones. I will exin it on the go, is that okay?" Without even a single use of the official form that I was bearing, Sander didn''t even wait for my response as he took the stone with him and sat in front of one of the tables that were set all over the huge room. Putting the stone on a special pedestal in the middle of a particr machine, he pressed the power button of his tool before turning his head back towards me. "In essence, we can think of those stones as energy-conducting material. While I have yet to understand the reason why it works like that, some kind of runes acts like circuits that force certain change on the energy flowing through it." Turning his head back towards the machine, Sander grabbed the handle of his tool before starting to slowly grind the gem down into dust. Given theck of proper tools to do something like that right off the bat, the process was extremely wasteful, with most of the precious stone turning into nothing more but a mist that surrounded Sander''s workce. "To make it simple, it''s proper to imagine each stone as nothing more but an even pile, made out ofyers. Something like a reversed pyramid." With the stone now entirely gone, Sander gently gathered all the dust that rested on the machine into one ce, before suddenly moving away from his desk. "On each of theyers, one can infuse only a single order. Move faster, turn into fire,press Thinking about it, there are at least seventeen different basicmands that we can use. From what I saw while browsing through the book, most of theter runes are nothing more but abination of several ones." After washing his hands and putting on his gloves that he pulled out from a drawer along with some kind of metal bottle, Sander returned to his desk before cing his new utensil on the table. "The main problem with carving those stones is the fact that we can only carve the secondyer through the hole we make in the first one. Once we reach the third or fourthyer, it''s practically impossible to keep going without altering the structure of the upperyers." Opening the bottle up, Sander brought it over the pile of gem dust, before dripping several droplets of a thick, yellowish liquid on top of the dust. Putting the bottle away, he took something like a tiny paddle, before mixing the solution with gentle strokes. After a few moments, the dust and creamish liquid turned into a thick, condensed paste. "This test will not only let me know whether we can fill the holes we made previously without destroying the structure within the stone. What''s more, if it will be sessful No, nevermind. Let''s test it first." Not even asking directly for it, Sander extended his hand towards me. After a momentary surprise, I caught his drift, pulling out another stone and cing it on the craftsman''s hand. "Let''s start with something pretty simple. Those two runes Yeah, they will work pretty nicely." Taking yet another tool looking like a huge pen with an extremely tiny needle on top, Sander brought what seemed to be the de to the gem''s surface. With just a few strokes, he carved out both of the runes, one beneath the other Before suddenly pulling his tool side-ways, adding a huge scar to the surface of the practically perfect artefact. "Now, we apply the paste" Watching the proceedings with my breath tightly held within my lungs, I couldn''t help but get a little bit scared because of what I was seeing. And because of what I already saw in the apocalypse world. With every discovery of a new kind or usability of magic, I was getting more and more certain that magic as a whole, was exactly the same in every single world possible. The one thing that differed, was the way in which living beings utilised it for their own purposes. And as great as it sounded for someone like me, with a nearly endless supply of different world and mindsets to learn from, it also meant that anything I saw in other worlds, could happen on earth. And seeing how quickly a craftsman of the old world managed toe up with something that could revolutionise this craft whenpared to the aeons old traditions of Ayda''s world I couldn''t help but notice that I just made the first step towards exactly the same oue as I saw in that apocalyptic world. "And it''s done." Putting his tools away, Sander grabbed the stone between his fingers. Putting on a special utensil on his head, he lowered a short, metallic tube onto his eye. Inspecting the surface of the finished product for a while, he took down the strange zooming tool before releasing a deep sigh. "To make sure you understand what it means. If this paste will work exactly as the stone normally would We will be able to simply cut the stones into thingyers, before carving each, specific rune on it. Once we will have all the parts necessary, we could use this paste to connect them. This means we will be able to abandon the idea of using the stones as mother nature made them, turning them into anything we will want. And with the one other observation I made" Putting his head down a bit, Sander suddenly raised it back before bringing his hand up. "But first, let''s test whether it actually works." Putting a smug smile, Sander pressed his finger against the upper rune of the stone. Instantly, what was a dim light before, turned into a bright ray of light. With the stone itself holding all the energy necessary to fuel such a simple set of runes, just a singlemand rune and activator were enough to create such a simple artefact. But rather than being happy for obtaining yet another tool, I just stood in ce, terrified of how quickly things were progressing. If the existing engineering technology and concepts could be applied with the better quality of the gem dust pasta recing the silicon of the already existing processors It seemed that the possibility of the technology reaching the level that doomed the apocalypse world I saw wasn''t all that distant. "Eh Sir, the other thing that I think I discovered Is a peculiar quality of the moreplex rune structures I saw in the book." Suddenly turning all serious and respectful, Sander looked me deeply into the eyes. "If I''m right, then there are two factors that we need to ount for when creating any stones in the future. First, the bigger the circuit, the more energy will it use. But what''s even more dan important, is that eachyer of the runes seems to multiply how condensed the energy within the stone is." Chapter 105: What lurks within the depths of the underground Chapter 105: What lurks within the depths of the underground "Hurry! On your left!" Shouting the warning, Penne dashed towards his girlfriend. As little as it could do, he brought the modified pistol up the axis of his eyes before sending a cloud of pellets towards the monster. As little as it could do, it bought a few precious seconds for hisadre to regain her foothold and turn around on the monster. Two hits delivered squarely to its core, and the fight was finally over. "Gosh, that was hard!" Falling down on her soft bottom, Keria whined. Yet, even this natural mean of loosening up didn''t seem to do much against the exhaustion that her entire body showcased. Unable or unwilling to hold her short sword any longer, Penne''s girlfriend curled up and hid her face in her knees. "We all knew what we were signing for. And this is not the time toin. Those Boruta bastards should be right behind us." Looking back as if expecting to see that unweed party stepping out of the nearest corner of thebyrinth, Penne only sighed with relief when no human silhouette entered his vision. "Still, you did a great job. It''s insane what a fifth stage cultivator is capable of Kudos for your hard work." Finally returning from his recon mission, Dister looked at the pitiful state of the two members of his party. While most of their friends preferred to just cultivate in peace, the three of them decided to take the risk and enter the dungeon that recently appeared in the vincity of their hometown. "It''s nothing. You should see what Natasha or Zigfrid can do. I''m not quite sure, but I think Nat already reached the sixth stage while Zig rushed all the way to the seventh. But still, I don''t think this kind of wealth-fueled growth will lead to some good results down the line." Finally waking up from her momentary daze, Keira summed up the situation before raising her hand towards her eyes. "Still, it''s insane how much energy does those monsters release once they die. Penne, this time it''s your turn to guard us." Quickly changing the topic as if wanting to push it through before anyone could even think about her words, Keria sat crosslegged directly on the stone floor of thebyrinth. "Wait a second!" Just as the girl was about to close her eyes and start absorbing the rich energy permeating the air, Distra raised his hand in protest. "Penne won''t say a word against you, so I feel responsible to do it for him. Keria, don''t try to cheat. We all know it''s your turn now." Watching as the initial disagreement between two of his closest friends developed to a small, bickering duel, Penne only shook his head before sitting on the floor and resting his back against the wall. Being the only one left on the fourth stage of the basic cultivation in the team, every second of cultivating within thebyrinth should be precious to him Yet, he just could say no to this girl. Be it his average face, average character or average achievements, there was nothing for Keira to be with someone like him. Even whenpared to the more robust Distra, he woulde at the losing end of the scale. In the end, despite his talent which was the only thing that set him apart from the rest of the average people like him, he stillgged behind the two of his teammates. "Distra You know that if he won''t learn how to take care of his own interests, then he will be a failure of an adult? We are no longer teenagers. He needs to grow up a bit!" As the argument between two of his friends be more and more heated, Penne silenced all of this noise, focusing on circting his energy through the paths he formed before. Following the universal guide to the cultivation, he would only advance to the next stage once the pathways of his magic would widen up to a point where they would be a basic reserve for magic energy for him to use at any point he would want. In the time that Keira argued with Distra about the worth of his continued efforts at bing stronger, Penne actually continued to push himself further and further beyond his current situation. Bit by bit, the rich, wild energy of the monsters of thebyrinth moved from the air to Penne''s bloodstream, infusing his basic bodily liquid with tons of energy. "Wait, stop speaking for a moment" Suddenly raising his hand, Distra managed to make the girl instantly shut herself up. Following the direction that the young man''s eyes moved towards, the girl could quickly learn what made Distra so worried in the first ce. "So they caught up to us I guess it''s only to be expected for it to happen so soon." Instead of some dangerous monsters, it was actually the team of Boruta believers from the nearby city that made Distra so vary. Even though they seemed to be cultivators just like them, both in terms of what they were attempting to achieve in thebyrinth and in terms of how strong they were, they were already far beyond anything that Penne''s team ever could manage to achieve in a rtively reasonable amount of time. "Oh, so this spot was already taken!" Hearing the genuine surprise in the voice of the neers, Penne tensed all over. While he was pretty exhausted after all the fighting they have done so far, he could tell that both his girlfriend and his cherished friend were in far worse shape than he was. But instead ofunching themselves at them in order to steal the spot with all the energy still almost tangible in the air The young man that heralded the teampeting with them smiled towards him, before actually walking forward! ''Wait, what?'' At first, Penne could only watch in shock as the group of four humans simply passed by them, without interrupting his cultivation. But in just a few more seconds, the situation changed entirely. Feeling a strange force gathering within his guts, Penne tensed all over. His head fell down, hiding on top of his chest as that strange force continued to build up within his guts. "Wait, is he" Right before the leader of the intruding party could finish his sentence, the force that continued to build up within Penne''s bloodline, reached its breaking point. Crack. As if his entire inner self suddenly shattered, putting a great scar on his spiritual self, Penne''s all senses lit up in pain. In less than a second, the peaceful moment of cultivation turned to a hellish experience of having every cell of his body torn apart, only to have it nourished with energy and reborn anew. "PENNE!" Noticing the distraught of her boyfriend, Keira ignored the potential threat posed by the other group, rushing towards the shaking body of Penne. But even before she could reach him, a blue shine shed in the corridor of thebyrinth, before the magic around the young adventurer suddenly calmed down. "Stay away from him! You will only make it harder for him to stabilize!" Something was not right. Instead of using the opportunity to curb their opposition, the party of those despicable heretics actually formed a defensive line around the young man, while a strange, blue stone continued to float right in front of his chest. But as if the entire situation wasn''t tense enough, a low-pitched growl suddenly came from the depths of thebyrinth. And it could mean only one thing. "Boss of the floor? So quickly?!" Not paying any attention to the moves of Penne''s group, theirpetitors didn''t run. They didn''t leave the other group as the bait aimed at slowing the attack of the monster hiding in the shadows of thebyrinth. Rather than that, two of them grasped the arms of Penne''s two teammates, before forcing them to fall in the line of their own, defensive formation. "What the hell are you doing?" With Penne unable to react to anything that was going on with the powerful currents of magical energy still purifying every cell of his body, it was actually the other group that brought order back to the messy situation. With two more blue, shiny stones suddenly appearing in front of the two front-located members of that heretic party, it seemed that they were now all ready and prepared for the iing onught. "Just stay in the back and guard your friend. If you too small to realise that there is no ce for our smallpetition, then feel free to step forward and face that beast on your own." Just from the single sentence filled with the tone of annoyance, Penne realised how wrong they were about the intentions of the other group. Instead of leaving them alone to their fates, they were actually willing to remain and defend him as he would finish his process of reaching the fifth stage of the first realm of basic cultivation? "Here ites!" Cutting all the unnecessary attention that he sacrificed on listening to Keira''s whining, the leader of the other group focused himself on the mass of energy that slowly continued to creep towards them from the depths of the dim tunnel. And then it finally appeared in their field of vision. Compared to the monsters they were fighting before The boss of the floor didn''t seem to be all that different. Shaped just like a wild wolf, with two horns decorating its skull, the only thing that set it apart from the local inhabitants of this strange ce was how thick the magic energy around it was. Whenpared to the normal monsters from before No Shaking his head at the idiotic idea he was just about to utter within his own mind, Penne lowered his sight. With how sickeningly thick the energy around the boss was, there was no point inparing it. That was the level of the monster that this heretic party didn''t show any hesitation when arming against. "Jerry, I think now it''s a good time to use it." Instead of panicking, they stood strong. Rather than rushing forward in order to overwhelm the powerful enemy with numbers, they just calmly waited for it toe to them. And from what one of the members of the other party suggested to their leader, it seemed they didn''te here without a proper n to fight the boss! "Right, I almost forgot about it. Those artefacts They are just too damn convenient" There could be only one exnation for the gentle smile that appeared on the lips of the leader of the other group. He clearly had to be mad to smile in the situation they were in. But instead of letting a crazedugh escape his mouth, the young man just pulled a fancy-looking stone from the pocket on his chest, before looking towards the monsters with strange lights of curiosity ring up in his eyes. "All this time I couldn''t help but wonder what this thing is capable of. Everyone, close your eyes and shield your ears! Fireball, here I go!" Chapter 106: Unexpected result. Chapter 106: Unexpected result. Contrary to what one could expect from the moment of casting powerful magic, Penne didn''t hear any chant nor did he see any iling of the hands. Instead of doing anything even remotely rted to what the young adventurer could associate with a fireball, the leader of the other group simply reached with his hand towards the best Before a huge ball of raging fires emerged from his hand. Instantly covering the distance between the young man and the powerful monster, once it hit its antlers, what was initially a ball of fire, suddenly seemed to turn into a liquid form. With the ball cracking, the fluid fire flooded the body of the monster, covering every inch of it with a raging inferno. Yet, it seemed that it was not nearly enough to take this annoying opponent down! "Fuck, I thought it would work I guess we are back to the standard means" Putting the thing that he used just a moment ago back into his pocket, the leader of the group pulled out a normal weapon instead. Without even a singlemand, the three other members of the group formed up beside him, with two in the front along with the leader and one in the back. "Guys, we need to help!" All the animosity between the two groups wasn''t something based on a blood feud, but a simplepetition of who could achieve more within the confines of this dungeon. But now, the situation changed. If even a fireball so huge and so hot like the one cast by the leader of the other group didn''t seem to have much effect on the monster, then it was no longer a matter ofpetition. With the appearance of this heavy opponent, the situation turned far more dangerous than what they encountered in thisbyrinth so far. "Hey, how can we help you guys?" Not even waiting for the approval of his teammates, Penne stepped forward. Grabbing a short sword and an enhanced shield that he was using as his equipment, he pushed towards the other group. "I''m not sure if I''m right, but it seems that this monster has some kind of shielding magic on its own. Not sure if you guys noticed it, but the fire of that artefact It never touched the body of that huge shit. More like, it seemed to be sucked by some kind of vortex" With the one member of the other group that stood in the back suddenlying up with a strange observation, everyone''s eyes turned towards the monster once again. "We will help!" Finally reacting to Penne''s promation, Keria and Dister joined the other group as well. Even though both of them were just as tired from the recent fight as Penne, the looks on their faces showed clearly that they were not willing to just sumb to the power of this damned monster. "Thanks, much appreciated Kylo, what did you want to say with that?" As soon as the basic form of reacting to Penne''s group promation was done, the leader of the other group instantly focused on the task at hand once again. "I think we should use that to fight it. I know we were not supposed to bring that up But I don''t think we have many choices now. If we fail now, this entire trip will be all for nothing." Exining what he had in mind, the man in the back row of the other team keenly watched every single move of the approaching monster while already reaching with his hands towards his pocket. "It doesn''t seem like we have much choice. I''m not really happy with the idea to fight it up close. On my mark!" With the total group fo seven people hearing the order, no one bothered to argue who should be the supreme leader of their new, reinforced group be. In the face of a lethal threat that this monster clearly possessed, there was no time for stupid infighting like that. "I''m ready!" Not even turning his head around to take a look at the man shouting from behind their back, Penne tensed his muscles up for the engage. No matter what kind of miraculous tool those people could bring, no matter how much it could weaken the monster, there was no chance that some kind of punny tools, as great as they could be, would be able to defeat something of this level! "Three. Two" As soon as the man started counting, the beast finally stopped its graceful, dignified approach. Lowering itself on its legs, it let go a long, deep growl Beforeunching itself forward! As prepared as Penne was for the tough fight, just the glint of light reflected off the monster''s sharp teeth was enough to put a lot of doubt in his head about the very reason for them being here. Was getting stronger worth taking such heavy risk? Was the ability to unt one''s strengths before other something really that important? "One" The silent whisper from behind. With the count reaching thest number, the monster was already right beside the front of the group. "NOW!" Instead of following the order andunching themselves forward the three people of the other group that stood at the front Suddenly jumped to the sides. And then, a glint of light shed past Penne''s eyes. Before the other group could even touch the ground after their evasive jump, another ball of fire appeared in front of their leader, instantlyunching itself towards the monster! Tssssss.. Instead of watching how his friends would be torn to shreds by the steel-like ws and teeth of this wolf-like monster, Penne heard a strange yet familiar sound. Pushing his fears and hesitations aside, he made a step forward, aiming to receive the burden of the monster''s charge on his shield But nothing pushed against him! Lowering his protective equipment, the young man looked towards their opponent Or rather, what was left of it. For some reason, the fireball that failed to achieve anything at all just a few moments ago was now consuming the flesh of the already deceased monster! "Wha" Standing there and watching how mes quickly made the short work of the monster, Penne wasn''t really sure what he was supposed to say or how he was supposed to react. He just managed to prepare himself for the worst possible oue of the fight Only for the entire thing to end before it properly began! "Ah, it''s no use It''spletely used up" Hearing the calm yet desperate voice of someone else, Penne directed his head towards the source of the sound Only to see the man that stood in the back row of the formation staring at a strange thing he held in his palm with an anxious look on his face. "Don''t worry. We won''t get scolded if we really needed to use it. But still I knew those artefacts were insane, but never did I dare believe they could work so damn well!" Calming one of his friends down for a bit, the leader of the other group quickly brought its attention back to the ce where the mes were already dying out, leaving just the bare bones of what used to be the monster. Or was there only bones remaining there? Watching as the man moved forward, Penne allowed his curiosity to get the better of him. Following the man, he saw him kneeling down before the ce where the monster fulfilled its fate before reaching towards it. "Woah Who could''ve thought" Not even attempting to hide it at all, the man brought a shiny, red stone to his eyes, as if inspecting its quality. While the market for those dungeon stones was still young, Penne could already tell that this stone alone had enough energy in it for him to reach the peak of the entire first realm of cultivation, all the while pushing both of his friends to said peak as well! "Well, good thing we came here. Hey, guys. Do you want it?" Suddenly turning around, the leader fo the other group uttered some words that should be easy to understand, yet given the context, made no sense at all. This fight concluded before Penne, Keira or Distra could do anything. In other words, outside of the moral support and willingness to go down with everyone, they did absolutely nothing. Why was this man offering them the precious loot from the boss monster then? "Wait, what?" Unable to move for even an inch from the shock that this question gave him, Penne could only utter those two words. "Well, we already got all the stones we need from the other monsters. They might have just a tiny bit of energy, but they are more than necessary for what we came here to do. So well, consider it as remuneration for stealing your prey." Smiling gently, the man simply threw the stones towards Penne, forcing him to scramble to catch it before it would fall to the ground and potentially shatter. "Are you sure?" With both of Penne''s friends still too shocked by the unexpected oue to even utter a single word, the weakest of the trio had to take the burden of speaking on himself. "Well, as I said, this stone holds way greater value for you than it does for us. Consider it as a gift of good faith of the Boruta''s cult." Not bothered by parting with the stone at all, the leader of the group smiled gently at Penne before turning his head to his ownrades. "Let''s go home." Chapter 107: Perks Chapter 107: Perks "So you say you received those stones from your organisation?" Even though with the depoption of the entire rural areas some rumours have been spreading about how dangerous it was to be outside the city, their return to the nearby train station didn''t seem risky at all. With the pleasant weather only improving the mood of everyone as the leaves of the nearby trees continued to rustle gently on the wind, their glorious return seemed more like a pleasant stroll than the end of a deadly expedition. "You could say that we are only testing the possibilities and usefulness of those artefacts. Whether they will hit the open market or not" Spreading his arms for an answer, Tommy, the leader of the other group smiled gently. "It''s not like they tell us anything. Everything that I just told you is nothing but the shared guess that we made as a group." Adding to the discussion, Tommy exined as he pointed his hand at the rest of his group. "Tell me, would it be potentially possible to join" Hesitationtion overtook Penne''s mind, forcing his lips to stop moving. Lowering his head, the young adventurer looked at his shoes. "I have no idea, man." Once again spreading his arms, Tommy looked sharply forward, at the slowly emerging outline of the nearly abandoned train station. With almost the entire poption of the local area disappearing to the cities around, there was hardly any reason for the spare few trains that remained after the apocalypse to stop in this now deste piece of no-man''snd. "If you are talking about joining the cult itself, then I don''t see why there should be any problems with that. Just keep in mind that for now, it''s only established in our city, so I doubt you could expect any sort of special treatment in your own home. But who knows? Maybe I''m absolutely in the wrong here?" Raising his sight high to the skies as his eyes clouded, Tommy fell into a state of deep thought. ''I wonder....'' Shaking his head, Penne looked at the first line of the building that surrounded the former train station. Only because the trans-city train took one of its rare stops here, did any major human activity ever urred in the area. In the arbitrary border of the localmunity, only one step separated them from the wilderness of the former farnds and the slightly urbanised area. "Since you guys are going home by train Do you think you could take us with you? I mean, I didn''t ask my friends yet" Suddenly taking notice of this either slight or a huge problem, Penne looked back at his friends. "I think I know what you are hinting at. We will dly apany you to the base of this Boruta''s faction. Right, Distra?" Turning her head to their friend, Keria initially wanted to gauge his opinion from his reaction, before suddenly taking notice of one thing. "If we are allowed to go with you, that is. Going to that city on foot We might be stronger than average humans, but it would be utterly reckless to go there right after quitting that dungeon." Quickly changing the tone of her response, Keria smiled with unease and social anxiety written on her face. As many problems as her character had, it was this kind of basic humility that endeared Penne when he first met her several years ago. "Sure, sure. Giving you a ride won''t be a problem. We might be using only a single cart, but there is still more than enough space for everyone to fit." Pulled out of his deep thoughts, Tommy only smiled lightly before kindly responding. From how not only he but all three of his friends acted, it was clear that Penne''s group was the only one considering their time in the dungeon as apetition. But there was something unsettling about Tommy''s behaviour. For some reason, Penne felt as if his confidence and amiability towards his group didn''t stem from the natural friendliness of the young man, but rather from his confidence that nothing could stand against him or his group. WIth that thought in mind, it would be seriously unbing for him to even consider the race in the dungeon aspetition in the first ce! "That''s good to hear But aren''t you surprised by this question? I genuinely hoped to see your shocked face" In the end, Penne couldn''t find a single reason to sour the rtionship between the two groups with those pointless doubts. Whether Tommy''s motives stemmed from his positive character or arrogance, it didn''t really matter. "Isn''t it obvious? Since we are not the ones making any decisions if you want to cooperate with the cult, it''s best to go and meet its executives. Isn''t it the only rational decision for some smart enough to notice the potential perks of doing so?" Now, Tommy didn''t even bother to hold his giggle down. If it was the natural way for him to react, then it would speak a lot about the rtionship with his group and the cult itself. "Either way, let''s hurry up. While we are using a train, we can''t move as quickly as they used to. Even for the mission of this importance, our leader couldn''t bother to rent more than the cheapest engine." Soon, Penne could understand the reason for Tommy''s sudden scold. Finally arriving at the station itself, he could see what kind of vehicle did this group use to arrive at such a rtively remote location. It wasn''t a train at all. While the back of it wasposed of what used to be a passenger cart, it''s wide window allowed him to see how little of the original design remained inside. But to top it all off, instead of being pulled by a proper lotive, the front part of the vehicle consists of a simple tform on wheels with a huge engine attached on top of it. "Oh" Releasing a short sigh of disappointment mixed with shock, Keria didn''t seem to appreciate the creative design of the vehicle. Most likely hoping to see the proper type of train that once carried countless people across the country, everyone could see on her face how did this sight let her down. "Don''t worry, it works and it''s actuallyfortable inside. Despite how it looks, it won''t break in the rain either." Most likely perfectly aware of what thoughts were going through the girl''s head, the female member of Tommy''s party suddenly spoke up. For as silent as she was both during the fight and while they were returning to this rally point, her suddenly speaking up on such a minor topic was quite a surprise. "Oh, that reminds me. What happened to you? It''s been a long while since Ist saw you silent so long. Where is your usual" Before Tommy could even finish, the girl the asked suddenly blushed as she cast a quick nce on Distra. As suddenly as she spoke up a moment ago, her blush turned into anger as she stepped forward before lunging and kneading Tommy''s back with her fist. "Ah, serves me right. I think I get it now. From the looks of things" Turning around and taking several steps back, outside of the girl''s range, Tommy smiled at Penne''s male friend. "... we would be very happy if you would like to apany us to the city. Fear not, I should be able to beg my father to make him give you a ride back home on the train." Only at this moment did Penne finally realised that those people weren''t some kind of bloodthirsty monsters wielding unthinkable weapons. Seeing how the leader of the other party openly teased his friend about the evident crush that she seemed to have on Distra, the young man couldn''t help but admit that he was way too cautious when interacting with those people. "Okay then. We will be in your care during the journey, and I hope you guys could put a good word for us to make the meeting with one of the executives possible in the first ce." Lowering his head, Penne hoped that his humble and respectful attitude would get him some brownie points. To his surprise, Tommy onlyughed at his act. "What do you think you are doing? Inticing the crime of nepotism? Heh, just a year ago something like this could easily get you sued" Barely capable of holding back hisughter, Tommy took a moment to calm down before suddenly approaching Penne and cing a hand on his shoulder. "Don''t worry, the people in the faction are not as cold as you must imagine them to be. Either way, I will do my best, but you need to understand one, important thing." With his face suddenly souring, Tommy looked to the side as if to hide his embarrassment. "We are not an official partymissioned to explore the dungeon for the faction. Just like I said before, we came here to do some testing, to prepare the foundation for the potential exploitation of the dungeon. That''s why, I believe, we got those artefacts in the first ce. As for whether you guys can count to get some for yourself I wouldn''t say it''s impossible, but I wouldn''t let my hopes grow too much either. If I were in your shoes that is." For a moment, Tommy''s face turned weird, as if this topic actually was capable of souring his mood. "I understand. We are only asking whether we could hope to bemissioned to some work as you guys. It''s not like I can expect a special treatment right after joining an organisation." Hearing Penne''s response, Tommy''s expression brightened once again. "Good. Since we understand each other on this point, let''s not waste any time. I hope you will like the trip!" Chapter 108: Replacement Chapter 108: Recement "Your excellency, the party that we sent to the dungeon has returned. From what I heard" Stepping into the room, the messenger that brought the news quickly stopped talking upon noticing how silent the ce was. Looking around, he quickly located the man he was looking for, sitting a fair distance away from Sander''s workce. Even though it was clear that he wasn''t doing anything, the focus visible in his eyes was more than enough to stop the courier from bothering the bishop once again. "Leave the report and make yourself scarce." Even though I didn''t intend on being rude, I had no spare capacity in my brain to even process what he was doing. Being the disturbance that the courier was already, I hoped he could catch the straightforward hint in my words. In the end, as long as only I was bothered by the disturbance, nothing wrong would happen. But if Sander were to lose the focus on the job he was currently performing, the effects could be not only quite costly but also dangerously vtile. "On your order, your excellency." Catching the courier bowing his head down before cing a small pile of papers on a nearby table with the corner of my eyes, I quickly turned my attention back to the table where Sander was doing his magic. Although we still have yet to obtain the tools that would allow us to start the production of the artefacts on an industrial scale, the batch of devices that finally arrived this morning cut on the needless expenses. Right now, in order to obtain the charged stone dust, or star-dust how we started calling it between the two of us due to how shiny it was, all the middle-aged craftsman had to do, was put a stone into a special machine before pressing the button. The tool itself was fairly simple. The simplicity of its design quickly proved to also be its downfall on anyrger scale. With the entire tool being just a simple cube, it consisted of three special and three normal walls. From the top, the top side of the tool could be opened to feed the stones into the mechanism. One of the side walls was connected by a set of short yet sturdy rods to the engine, with the inner part of this wall decorated with several grinding discs covered in diamond powder. Thest of the peculiar wall was at the bottom of the cube, consisting of a special mesh that separated the tool itself from the container where the dust would be stored. But there was one fatal w to this mechanism. The grinding fiscs that were responsible for turning the charged stones into actually semi-product that we required They were using up at an astonishing rate! After all, even in the jewellery industry, this kind of tool was used just to gently shape and polish the diamonds, not topletely grind them into dust! "And it''s done." Pulling out a special tray from the bottom part of the tool, Sander poured all the newly-made stardust into a small, round container. Putting the now empty tray back to the device, he threw two more stones through the upper wall before setting the process to start once again. "Are you sure you want to go with this design? Don''t you think something easier would be better for now? I mean, if you make even the slightest mistake, we might be unable to understand what''s the actual problem with that new type of stone of yours." Watching how Sander used a syringe with a thick needle to suck on the prepared stardust paste, I could feel my insides tightening. What was now filling the stic container of this handy tool, was made out of stones worth several times more than my family entire wealth from before the apocalypse, mansion included. Yet as painful as it was to see the stones turning into what others would consider being their most useless form, it was all for the purpose of just testing. Only once all the tests would conclude, would all those expensive actions pay back for their costs. "Yeah. Doing a simple design would only result in a waste of material. Even if we could order a huge amount of the stones, there is only so many of them circting through the market. Don''t worry, I won''t make any mistakes. This level of handiwork" Bringing the right corner of his lips up, Sander smiled gently as he brought a hard, paper form onto a special pedestal. With all the lights that stood on his desk focused on this single ce, he then proceeded to cover the white spots on the form with the stardust paste. Even though it didn''t seem to be his standard tool, this damned middle-aged man was still pretty good at moving the tip of the needle around. In just a few moments, the core tter of the new stone was ready. Consisting of ayer of stardust pasta ced on top of an oiled cartoon form, it didn''t seem like anything worth one''s attention. And as if this fake look it had managed to fool Sander, he crudely grasped the thing before cing it on a special, tungsten stand. With the form now ready, Sander pulled out an acetylene torch, before pointing its muzzle at the form and pressing the trigger. With a slight sh, the barrel of the tool exploded with a thin, extremely hot fire, nearly instantly scorching the oiled cartoon out of existence. "Calm down. I know what I''m doing. I wasted so much time mixing the ingredients because I added a special adhesive to the form. Since we are not using the normal stone as a base, heat-hardening is the way to go." Just like the craftsman said, after a few minutes of working his magic, Sander put his fiery tool aside before picking the thin, almost see-through crystal rune from the rack. "It''s done. Now, let''s assemble all the parts" Contrary to how the artefacts were made in Ayda''s world, Sander didn''t even bother using the simple charged stones for anything outside of the source of energy. ording to his own words, he already had some ns on how to rece this crucial element with those circuits of his. Regretfully, with how all their tests were still on pretty much primitive stage, that idea was nothing more but a song of a future. What I took for the hardest part of the entire test, assembling the parts into a finished product, turned out to be even easier than making each of the parts in the first ce. Using the stardust form from the previous tests to glue each of the seven tes together, Sander quickly whipped out a simple stand for the entire thing. "Take a look. This small pyramid is the form. Its bottomyer is the activator, its top te directs the energy. All you need to do is to press the pyramid on those springs to make it touch the stone below to activate the entire artefact. Do you want to give it a try?" Smiling with a mysterious glint in his eyes, Sander brought the finished product on his open palm to me. But instead of grabbing it and instantly seeing whether it would work, I only let out a deep sigh before standing up from my chair and moving away from the craftsman''s hand. "I have no idea what runes did you made it from. While I could recognise push andpress, I have no clue what the rest of them was. Mind telling me what this thing is supposed to do in the first ce?" Moving away from the workshop area in the room, I quickly grabbed the set of letters that the courier brought to me before returning to my seat. Back in myfortable position, I started reading through the reports while waiting for Sander''s answer. "I figured out that if we could properly utilize those artefacts, then we wouldn''t need to use the standard tools. While the cost of them was a factor in this idea of mine, more than that I was worried that someone could track those orders down and figure out what we are doing. That''s how I came up with a simple question." Taking a short break from speaking, Sander approached the window of the room only to look outside for a moment. Unable to see what he was looking at, I could only guess that he was satisfied with the results of his inspection. But rather than wasting the time looking at his theatrical performance, I continued to read through the reports. Surprisingly, it seemed that not only the first group sent to the dungeon managed to achieve some sess, but they also managed to find some potential neophytes. From what they imed, those potential new friends of the faction were pretty impressed with what those artefacts of mine could do, instantly jumping at the opportunity to join the faction capable of providing them with those artefacts. "Kira It would be great if you could take a look at this." Forcing me to detract my focus from the reports, Sander called me out. Putting the papers hesitatingly to the side, I looked at the craftsman brimming with anticipation. Seeing him in a state like this, I couldn''t help but smile. After all, depending on the results, it could be one of the brightest and happiest day he could ever live through. "Okay, I''m watching. Begin." Fighting my slight annoyance off, I cast my eyes on the artefact in Sander''s hand. Hearing my order, he simply pulled his fingers against a small, wooden te that covered the upper part of the pyramid, with a small hole in its middle where the top of the handmade crystal could peek through. Fighting against the force of the springs for a moment, Sander quickly forced the bottomyer of the pyramid to press against the fueling stone BOOM! The window that the craftsman looked through just a moment ago shattered. Along with a huge chunk of the wall that kept it in ce. As if some titan smashed a hammer against the side of the building from the inside of it, all the debris fell out to the ground. And now I understood just what he was checking through that window a few moments ago. "As I said, what weck right now, are tools to properly start the production of this stardust paste. With all the stones that everyone is buying right now, we won''t have to worry about the supply for a short while. But with this artefact... " Finally, I understood what Sander was nning. Back when he showed me this grinding tool of his, he put a great emphasis on how inferior this kind of technology was whenpared to the modern way of crushing the stones. And seeing the effects of a single activation of this new artefact he just made, I would have to be insanely stupid not to connect all the dots of hints he was giving me through the entire presentation. "Good. But I have one question. When will you be able to finish the necessary tools? After all, with this test of yours, we confirmed that this stardust paste can actually rece the stones in their natural state!" Chapter 109: Meeting Penne Chapter 109: Meeting Penne "Astonishing" Speaking to myself while I yed around with the artefact that Sander produced. Contrary to the artefacts crafted by Huskarl, the item that I was currently holding didn''t resemble a stone in any way or form. Consisting of fiveyers arranged in a pyramidal pattern, they were held by a simple wooden stand. Just like with the crushing artefact that he prepared to streamline the process of turning the charged stones into stardust, it required a fueling stone to be ced at the bottom of the stand and would activate upon pressing the upper part on springs together with the fueling stone. ording to the craftsman''s words, this artefact would be capable of constantly pouring the mes for as long as it would be in an active state. The other limitation was obviously the energy capacity of the fueling stone, but with just a few of them held in one''s pocket, this simple artefact most likely could curb the entire market of methrowers out of existence! *Knock knock* Hearing the familiar sound of the doors bending under someone''s fist repeatedly striking it, I put the stone down. "Come in." Sitting behind the huge table in my office, I watched how the doors opened up, letting a group of seven enter the ce. "Your excellency" Right after stepping through the doors, the four people that I could recognise instantly bowed their heads to me, followed by a slightly more sluggish reaction of the trio that I didn''t know. "You may raise your head. What brings you here? As I recall, you should submit the written report of the situation before answering in front of the capitule first, right?" Even though I was perfectly aware of the circumstances that this group of adventurous young people had, I decided to pretend to bepletely oblivious to them. After all, they were the ones trying to get a huge favour not only from me but also from the entire organisation. Making this any easier than they would naturally be for them would most likely prove to be counterintuitive in the long term. "Sir, we submitted the reports already and the capitule won''t gather for the next few days. I heard its due to how time-consuming their current tasks are. That''s why I took the liberty to request this audience?" Stumbling upon quite a problematic choice of words, Tommy ended up using one that degraded or rather, elevated my own position in the discussion at the cost of his own. While I wouldn''t mind him going with seeing or even business meeting as this was the type of rtionship that I had with his father within the capitule, or rather, the group of people that helped me manage the entire faction, I could also see the reasons for what he did as well. "Speak your heart then. Was the dungeons too dangerous for you? Or maybe you are not satisfied with the treatment you received after going back? How about telling me what those young friends of yours are in the first ce?" Smiling gently to the group, I didn''t even need to scan the aura of the trio that I didn''t recognise. WIth how unexpected their appearance was, their strength was already gauged by at least half of the people they meet before entering my room. After all, even as the guests of someone connected to the faction itself, they had to go through the screening process before they would be allowed in my presence. "Ah, I apologise for thisck ofmon sense of mine. I just assumed No, nevermind. Guys, this is his excellency Ki Marius. Your excellency, this is Keria, Distra and Penne. Their initiative is the main reason behind my decision to bring them to this meeting." Listening with my eyes focused on Tommy''s face, I only continued to smile while ying with this recently made artefact of mine. From how the young man introduced as Penne quickly nced over it before his face turned pale and with how both Keria and Distra continued to focus all of their attention on the item, I could tell that they knew its potential value. But out of those three reactions, it was Penne that made me curious about his train of thought. Even despite being the absolutely weakest in the entire group of seven. "And what this initiative might be?" Asking this question, I waited long enough for Tommy to open his mouth in an attempt to answer it, only to stop him by doing so by continuing myself. "If they want to join the fa join our glorious religion, all they had to do was to meet with one of the exe priests." With openly ridiculing the entire concept of my faction having anything to do with religion, I suddenly put Tommy in a tough spot. This was the advantage created by the discrepancy in what we knew about the situation and the knowledge of the other party. Perfectly aware both of everything that happened in the dungeon from the very report that they wrote, along with what they hoped to achieve by meeting with me, I could easily turn the knob of this meeting. "Your excellency, if I may" And soon, this silly tactic of mine proved to be fruitful. Noticing how his benefactor was pushed into the corner with me putting the situation in the way I did, the young man that grabbed my attention even before I saw him face to face, stepped up. "Feel free to talk. There is no need to be so tense." Taking the liberty to utter words filled with more hypocrisy that I would normally be able to handle, I gestured at the man to get a bit closer. Noticing the look of uneasiness on the young man''s face, I could tell that he was aware of how I was ying the entire situation. After all, how could I hold it against them for being tense, when I was intentionally doing everything in my power to induce as much anxiety in them as I could without resorting to witchcraft? Thinking about it now, I had no other choice but to acknowledge the fact that the more I used those powers that Ayda taught me, the easier it was for me to manipte the emotions of people around me, even when using only means essible to any human alive. "Your excellency. I came here with my friends wishing not to join the cult. I''m sorry for being frank, but I don''t think any amount of bullshit would be weed in this room, in your presence." Slightly lowering his head, Penne didn''t hesitate while speaking up Or rather, that''s how he wanted to appear. Seeing his emotions as if they were in the palm of my hand, I could tell how taxing it was for him to speak in this manner in my presence. "Go on." Rather than scolding the young man for his courage, I only smiled gently before encouraging him to go on. Most likely only a few years older than him, it was quite strange to be in a position of such power over this group. But no matter how strange it was, I had the duty of making the most of this situation for the sake of the entire faction of mine. "Sir Eh, fuck it. I said there is no ce for bullshit in this room so I will stay true to my words" Observing the changes happening to the young man''s emotions was even more enjoyable than watching some a-grade movie. But I couldn''t keep all my attention on him either. With just a single nce to hispatriots, I could tell that both Keira and Distra didn''t seem to agree with the stance that their friend took. Yet another point to consider when deciding what to do with them. "Sir, please forgive me my straightforwardness, but I don''t wish to waste your time on flowery and worthless words. We came here because we saw the potential that those artefacts obtained by your faction have. While I do acknowledge how little we know about this new world that surrounds us, I don''t think I as much as even heard about something that could hold greater potential than those artefacts. With that said" Raising my hand, I stopped the young man from finishing his sentence. Right now, he was about to reach the conclusion of his speech, the crux of his petition. But there was one thing that I already decided, that made it quite unfavourable for him to make any ims right now. Not in the presence of his friends or Tommy''s group. "For now, I would like everyone to temporarily leave the room. There are some things that I would like to discuss with this brave, young man In private." Putting an emphasis on thest sentence of mine, I sent a meaningful look to Tommy. Even though he wasn''t a part of the capitule nor an executive himself, the son of my colleague wasn''t an idiot either. With just a few nudges, pulls and whispers, he managed to free the room from the sparse crowd, leaving me and Penne alone. "Okay, now that we can speak openly, let me tell you some harsh truth that you either are smart enough to realise yourself, or too naive to acknowledge. Those two friends of yours" Contrary to my pessimistic expectations, Penne didn''t shudder when hearing my words but looked straight in my eyes instead. "Yes, I know. Keira is cheating on me with Distra, who in turn feels obliged to support me despite myck of strength. As infuriating and wexing it is, it''s the only way to keep them around me. Without their help, I wouldn''t be stuck with everyone else trying to grow with the usual means." Even with witchcraft, it would be hard to guess the entirety of the situation. While I could faintly perceive Penne''s anger, feeling of worthlessness and other faint emotions, figuring out the exact situation that caused those emotions to appear was beyond the scope of what I could do right now. "Tell me. Would you be maybe interested in working directly under me?" Chapter 110: Beacon of Hope Chapter 110: Beacon of Hope "I will definitely think about this offer." In the end, my offer didn''t fall t on the young man, but rather, couldn''t bring fruitful results right away. But instead of ring up, I simply nodded my head while looking thoroughly at Penne. Contrary to that, if he were to make the decision on the spot, I would actually put my own reasons for putting such a proposition forth into doubt. Only an idiot or a madman could ept life-changing opportunities without even a second thought. And I never intended to recruit either of the types. "Think about it thoroughly. I believe you know what you should tell your friends about our little discussion?" In fact, I had no doubt. With my initial guess about the slightlyplicated background of the young man in front of my eyes proving correct, I was pretty damn sure that I could gauge his personality quite well. With that, there was no doubt that the more vtile pieces that we discussed over thest hour would never see the glory of bing public knowledge. "I do. Please, I know I''m in no position to demand any kind of treatment yet, but don''t sell me short. It''s insulting." Even though the words were harsh, Penne''s tone was as far from being angry as it could be. With his lips forming into a small curve, his eyes brimmed with energy that hecked when he first entered the room. As little as my idea could change his position right away, the benefits of the long term rtionship between the two of us was where he could seek his true rewards. I was all against rewarding people from the get-go. It would make it no different from buying them like some kind of mercenaries if not tools. Offering a remuneration for loyal service was one thing, but putting any benefits on the line of recruitment itself didn''t fit nicely with me. "Don''t worry about it. Isn''t it just a matter of time before you will prove your worth? I will look forward to it." Sending the young man off with this slight encouragement, I looked down at the papers that I was working on before the visitation started. Thanks to Huskarl taking responsibility for creating a barrier that would separate the town they were forming from the rest of the world, the list of stones that I decided with Sander on preparing was mostly production oriented. With the idea of using the stones to make even more stones surfacing, we wasted nearly two hours discussing what''s necessary, what would be advantageous to have and what could be cheaply replicated with humanbour. This rtively short meeting with the craftsman resulted in two more big piles of papersnding on my desk. Even though I could delegate someone else to do this job for me, this was one thing that I couldn''t be careless about. The recruitment of the new talents to the faction. Turning the paper on the extensive report of the state of the city''s economy and employment, I read into the precise data outlined in it. Somehow, even after the apocalypse, most of the statistical offices continued to work. Whether they were funded by some kind of mistake or whether they served some nefarious tools in the hands of hidden power, it didn''t really matter that much to me. After all, I didn''t seem to go against the one controlling those organisations, making it easy to trade resources for information, especially when I was looking for the stuff that those groups were already trained in obtaining. ''Carpenters They might be of some use regarding the packaging Three of them to the pile" Murmuring to myself as I went through the extensive list of candidates for various jobs within thends of the Boruta cult. Bit by bit, one huge stack of papers turned into several, neatly arranged towers, with each pile amassing resumes that I separated into four categories. Starting with, do not employ under any circumstances, it was thergest and easiest category to get into. Without any extraordinary achievements on the field, one could only count that others would prove to be just as average, as only then would a normal person have any chance of escaping this groupter on. The second group consisted of people that were worth taking care of but would be employable only once the artefacts project would reach its final stages. Before the process of turning simple charged stones into finished products would be finalised and mostly automated, they fell out of my grace. After all, even with the first offers that were bound to soon start appearing, the funds that my church had were quite limited. The third batch of resumes outlined people that were simply too important for my faction to miss on. From logistic managers, through business owners all the way to skilled craftsmen. As long a specific person could contribute to the cause of my faction all on his or her own, they would get the privilege of being employed in the first swing of the standard recruitment. But ultimately, it was thest pile that brought all the most crucial candidates together. From IT engineers that I hoped to rebrand into Artefact Conceptual Workers, through programmers and designers that would create schematics for new types of artefacts once the knowledge from Ayda''s manual would be converted into an easily understandablependium.. In other words, for someone''s resume to appear on thisst pile of documents of mine, he had to specialise in one of the things that Sander believed to be absolutely necessary for the factory that he was already nning to make. Thankfully, as enormous as this task appeared to be at first, dealing with all the papers took me only a few hours. With the time spent on helping Sander and talking things through with Tommy''s group and Penne boyter on, by the time thest piece of paper found its way on top of one of the piles, the sun was already hanging low over the horizon. But I wasn''t going to stop working even for a short moment. Switching seats from one of the tables to another one, located right beside a huge window disying the great, empty area of the meadows that originally weren''t even included within the boundary of the city, but now made up the greatest part of thend that my faction owned, I took a look at yet another pile of papers. This one arrived during my meeting with Penne, putting an awkward stop to our tense negotiations. Smiling to my memory of the face that the young man made when he noticed how much work I was putting toter date only to talk with him, I cast my eyes on the paper Only for my pupils to suddenly grow big on my eyes, as if attempting to soak all the light reflected from the piece of paper, unable to ept the importance of what appeared to be written on it. "Finally" So excited that I even managed to let my voice leak out, I didn''t even bother to look at whether someone somehow sneaked into the room only to see this uncool behaviour of mine. In the end, the content of those papers finally brought some change to the stalemate of my preparations for the raid at the system''s quest. With several trips to the apocalypse world that I conducted during the sleepless hours of the days past, I already confirmed that not even a single tool that I could find there would work. If my guess was correct, then I could only build up the entire set of utensils once I would regain the ability to connect with the core of the system, which seemed to be the very bracelet that I found first. This guess would also exin how I was able to find this most important element first, before getting dishearted by constant failures to use the technology without the bracelet. To put it in simple words, those bracelets seemed to work in a simr way to how smartphones did just a year ago on earth. Even with countless peripheral essories that one could buy, the phone still made the anchoring point of the entire system, allowing the headphones, speakers or even television to work in the first ce. With all my perks of conquering the apocalypse world now gone, I had to urgently find some other source of power that would let me finish the quest. The quest that I had to finish in order to let Ayda visit my world. The quest which continued to weight down on my heart heavily. Thankfully, just the first page of the report that Sander sent me was already enough to create a beacon of hope in this desperate situation of mine. Just from the proposed names of the stones that Sander was willing to attempt creating on the spot, I noticed with glee that my personal firepower could once again reach levels required for me to be confident in a fight. Fireburst stone, Freezewave stone, Physical barrier stone, magical barrier stone, hybrid barrier stone, execution stone, thousand shes stone Letting the reins of my imagination free, I could tell what each of those artefacts would be capable of doing. The only question that remained at this point, was How effective those stones would be? How many charged stones would it take to fully unleash their potential? Because as it stood now, the only thing that had to happen before I would be able to venture for that huge quest of mine, was Sander developing more efficient ways of powering those artefacts! After all, my entire faction would go bankrupt if we had to pour those expensive stones into each urrence of their usage! Chapter 111: Worries Chapter 111: Worries "What''s the situation?" Ever since a while ago, this was the standard greeting that I weed Ayda''s world with whenever I stepped in it. Rather than taking a deep breath of the insanely fresh air that this not polluted by advanced human activity housed, I would scan the area around me to confirm it was still safe. Only after all the initial worries of mine would disappear would I dare to rx a bit. "Hey, it''s been a while since youst came." Sitting a few meters away from the door, Ayda raised her head from the book she was studying. With her lips twisting in a slightly annoyed smile, she responded to my question. "You know, we are not that useless ourselves. Didn''t I tell you that I will protect this ce?" Putting her book on the table, Ayda looked at me with a fit of slight anger glittering in her eyes. But who was this anger directed at? Me? Her own weakness that made me worry about her every time she was outside of my reach? My guts were telling me that even Ayda wouldn''t know the answer herself. "It''s not that I don''t trust you. I''m just worried about you. That''s all." Spreading my arms wide, I ced my small backpack on the ground before throwing myself at the nearby bed. For some reason, be it magical or mundanely practical, the local beds of this world were iparably better than anything that I slept on, on earth. While they were quite rare with only the Inn being in possession of them in the entire vige, this sturdy softness, the way in which the mattress perfectly aligned to the shape of one''s body The fac that this bed reminded me of all the good times that I had in it with Ayda could also be a reason for my strange infatuation. "I know, I just can''t help but me myself for that. If I tried harder back then if I didn''t let that idiot go Who knows, maybe the war wouldn''t have started in the first ce?" Raising her head up even though the only thing that she could look up to was the roof, Ayda took a few breaths to calm herself down. It seemed that I wasn''t the only one with a troubling past But watching as the girl''s breasts jumped joyfully as she breathed in and out, I realised that another trouble was appearing. "But for now, you don''t have anything to worry about. Huskarl told me that the first part of the barrier is already working. The second and thirdyers are only to make sure nothing bad will happen while you are scrambling to help us all out." Turning her now smiling face towards me, Ayda inevitably noticed where my eyes were glued to. With her smile only widening, she tapped her fingers against the wood of the table beside her as she pushed her hips down the seat of her chair before pushing with her hands and handing on the back legs of the furniture. With my head at the level of the bed''s sheets, Ayda''s current position left very little to my imagination. Just by straining my eyes a bit more, I could almost see what her short dress was only pretending to hide, especially with how it was pulled up right now. "Should I take it as confirmation that we have a lot of free time at our hands?" Scanning the girl with my eyes, I was mentally unable to decide where to look at. At the bulging hills of her breasts, decorated with a courageous cleavage? Her thighs leading to the ce that I was so infatuated with? Or maybe her eyes, already brimming with both lust and affection? "Do you seriously need me to answer that, dummy?" Leaning her head slightly to the side Ayda looked at me with a curious expression on her face before releasing a deep sigh and standing up from her chair. Approaching the bed, she sat on its edge before pushing herself to the edge aligned with the wall. Bending her legs under her hips, she patted herp before reaching with her arms towards me. "Seriously?" Not sure whether to be amazed or shocked, I could only utter this meaningless word. "If you don''t want it" Before Ayda could even finish her words, I quickly pushed myself with my hands, mming my face right on herp. Surrounding her waist with my arms, I locked my hands behind her back, hugging my face tightly to her stomach. "Of course I want it. You just caught me off-guard!" Silently protesting while hiding my face in her thighs, I couldn''t rest easy even for a second as her fingers descended down on my head and started gently caressing my hair. As pleasant asying face first on herp was, the inability to see her reactions was too excruciating. Twisting my body around, I turned over to my back, resting the backside of my head on Ayda''s soft flesh. Instantly covered in her arms and upper body that wrapped all over my head, I could only enjoy the moment of this insanefort, this illusory yet reinforcing safety. "You look tired." Letting go of my head and moving back to rubbing my hair, Aydamented. Be it the grey aures around my eyes or the overall aura, I could tell that this gentle snuggling was the girl''s way of letting me rest a bit. "You must''ve worked really, really hard" Leaning forward a bit, Ayda forced me to watch her dangling boobs as she whispered to my ear. Bringing her hands down, her fingers suddenly started massaging my earlobes. At this point, I couldn''t help but realise one thing. If my imagination wasn''t wrong, then wasn''t my current scenario one of the situations replicated over and over again by nearly anyone who ever tried to create ASMR publications? With the feeling of Ayda''s fingertips all over my face, with her gentle flesh below my head and slightly sweet smell filling my nose, I could tell one thing for sure. No ASMR video would evere close to the sensations currently coursing through my mind! "Yes, I worked really hard. While I know its not something easily noticeable, but every day, I was getting closer to solving the problem that makes it impossible to bring you to my home. I''m pretty close already, but I don''t want to risk it yet. Only when I''m fully prepared" As soon as the worries and doubts started appearing in my mind yet again, Ayda''s soft voice entered my eardrums, bringing peace back to my soul. "I know that you are working really hard. I truly do. At times, it even makes me worried." Feeling Ayda''s hands ceasing to move, I brought my own hand up, sping it gently at Ayda''s fingers currently resign on top of my cheek. Holding her hand like that for a moment, I enjoyed the gentle warmth of her flesh before opening my eyes and looked directly in the girl''s pupils. "There is nothing for you to worry about. As of now, I don''t really have any enemies of people that could wish me harm. I''m way too small to be bothered with for the people that have the means to cause me any serious harm. Those who might have some grudges Well, outside of one particr case, they are all pacified." With the memory of Martha''s family surfacing in my mind, my mood soured. Even the gentleness that Ayda attempted to coat me in didn''t seem to help at all. Because as little as I wanted to think about it, the Sarate family was the one actual threat that I failed to address so far. Thinking seriously, the only thing they could hold against me was how I imed them to be responsible for the death of my original self and my family. With the matter being dropped due to the overly aggressive response from the city that quickly pushed all the me on the former governor, it seemed that the topic of this dangerous conglomerate escaped everyone''s attention. But it didn''t mean they were powerless to fight against me. While the disy their people gave while attacking my mansion and when faced with the soldiers didn''t leave any good opinion on the household in me, there was just no way that the entire n was as weak. If that were to be the case, they would lose their position as the leading family of the conglomerate right after the apocalypse. If they were weak, there was no way for them to hold on to power. Even if the entire conglomerate nominally belonged to their family. Thankfully, what I had to potentially deal with wasn''t the entire, enormous mass of this huge corporation, but just its local branch. The sad element of this slight happiness stemmed from the fact that this particr branch that existed in the city, was the ultimate headquarter of the organisation, housing the three most important figures in the entire business! "See? There are things that I should be worried about. But heck, don''t you remember how you still react when you return? What''s so wrong with me acting the same?" Suddenly starting to pout, Aydapletely stopped moving her hands, turning her head away with a bothered expression on her otherwise cute face. Seeing her in this slightly angry state, all the sensations of her previous caressing finally broke the dams of my calm, forcing the blood in my veins to rush to the important parts of my body. "There is absolutely nothing wrong with you being worried. It''s me just acting stupid and inconsiderate." Standing up from Ayda''sp, I grabbed her chin with my fingers before bringing her face closer to mine. One long yet shallow kisster, she was already lying under me on the bed with her limbs scattered in all directions. By the time our tongues moved to position and started the engagement, our clothes somehow found their way to a small pile beside the wall. Grasping Ayda''s naked breast in my hand, I lowered myself over the girl before whispering right to her ear. "Hopefully, in just a few days, I will bring you to my home." Chapter 112: Quest time Chapter 112: Quest time "Remember. Recing the fueling stone is possible, but I have yet to properly test it out. In fact, before I will finish the project of the printed charge, you should still treat those tools as a one-use kind. Just for your own safety." Passing a small crate to my hands, Sander left me with advice. While I imed to attempt to stress-test those stones, this sly middle-aged fox somehow managed to figure out what kind of stress those artefacts would be put under. Because ultimately, I couldn''t really wait any longer. As soon as I returned after a night spent in Ayda''s loving embrace, my calendar exploded with meetings, tests, visits and other kinds of stuff that I couldn''t ignore. From as soon as tomorrow, I would have at least two weeks without a single day or even a single hour for me to rest. The insane pile of affairs that had to be taken care of instantly overwhelmed me. Yet, no matter how hard I was trying, I couldn''t find a single element of my new schedule that I could scrap or push on someone else. In the end, I managed to avoid all the hassle rted to the change of power within the city. To signify it, I didn''t even notice when the new elections were written and passed. But now that I thought about it, it could also be the reason behind a sudden increase of missing calls that I noticed about a week ago. "I won''t dare to push them beyond the limit. While I have my own tests to conduct, I''m perfectly aware of how early the stage of development of this project is. Don''t worry, I won''t act as if those artefacts were the pinnacle of what we can achieve with them." Shaking my head to reinforce the denial in my words, I still epted the box that Sander passed to me. ording to the note that I received before meeting him, I could quickly learn the insane number of types of artefacts that he managed to create in such a short period of time. In total, the crate that I was now holding consisted of threeyers, each in four on four dimensions. Each of the point within the structure made up a single, simple box containing an artefact. With this, I was now armed in forty-eight stones, divided into a total of six types. "Keep in mind that I''m not sure whether the repulsion stone will work as intended. In theory, it should, but I''m not actually sure about the math behind it. Maybe once my understanding of those runes will reach a bit higher level Just keep in mind that this particr set of stones might not behave as expected." How annoying In any normal situation, this kind of information should be saved on some kind of note that I would also receive in advance. What''s more, it should be circted around the entire organisation, so that more heads could think about the possible solutions to the known problems. Yet, with how my faction was the pioneers of the field, the necessary secrecy was wreaking havoc amidst all the standard procedures. "Once again, don''t worry. I will keep my safety as the highest priority. After all, it would be a shame to kick the bucket in some kind of stupid ident right at the dawn of such an insane technology Just thinking about what kind of day-to-day utensils we will be able to make with those You could say that I''m filled with great expectations for the near future. But with that said" Turning my head to the side, I meaningfully directed my sight towards the doors. "Yeah, yeah. Take care and good luck!" Catching my drift, Sander nodded his head to me as he fell back on his chair. Only now did all the exhaustion he was bound to amass over the past few, busy days finally appeared on his face. It was as if his body rejected the idea of copsing all the way to the point where my departure marked the final step of his first deadline. Thinking about it now, it took me quite a while to prepare for this quest. With the ability to bring Ayda to earth at stake, I couldn''t afford to fail the mission. Unless this strange type of quest that I received had some other rules that all the previous missions I finished, it would take at least a few days if not weeks before I could conclude it. And that''s why I wasn''t going to skip on any possible step in my preparations. "Hey, before you go" Just as I was reaching with my hand for the knob of the doors, Sander''s voice stopped me in my tracks. Freezing in ce, I turned my head around with several question marks printed all over my face. "You know It''s quite hard for me to bring that topic up, but I actually have a daughter And she just came of age the other day" Scratching the back of his head, even Sander wasn''t as shameless as to keep his eyes at me. Lowering his gaze in a full disy of his shame, he just stood there. Almost forgetting how to breathe for a moment, I couldn''t stop my hand from travelling all the way to my face. Only once a huge breath escaped from my lungs in form of a sigh, did I found a way out of it. As if it could be called like that. "Good for you. I will pray for her to find a suitable partner soon." Rolling my eyes, I quickly opened the doors and escaped from the room before Sander could bring this matter back on the agenda. With Ayda by my side in her own world and hopefully soon also on Earth, I didn''t have any need for any other femalepanions. Especially when the intention of potentially meeting with one would have reasons behind it that were obvious to anyone who has even a shred of intelligence. Shutting the doors behind me, I quickly carried away with the box filled with precious artefacts. Every single one of them could contribute a whole lot to my mission. In reality, testing their capability was the least important of the matters that I have on my head right now. Whenpared to my own personal wish of bringing Ayda to the rtive peace of my world, those stones didn''t hold almost any value to me at all. Outside of how they could contribute to my mission that is. Even if they could be the bridge that would connect the magic and technology on earth, even if they would be theunching point from which the world would usher in an era of unprecedented growth due to the appearance of new, seemingly endless sources of energy All of those prospects waned away when ced beside the image of showing Ayda around the earth. As aware as I was of how silly this dreamed-out image of mine was, I was fully prepared tomit my everything to turn that dream into reality. After escaping from the proximity of Sander''s workshop, I quickly entered the confined area of the concrete dome that protected the entrance to my basement. Even though rtive to the time on the earth, I would go out for only a few minutes at most, I still made sure to close all the doors and locks behind me. A habit remained one only if one constantly practised it. Once I would allow myself to ck on this vignce, I would make the first step towards creating an opening someone would be sure sooner orter exploit. Soon with the doors leading to the basement closing behind my back, I ced the huge crate on the basement''s floor before opening it up. From the barrier stones, through three different kinds of attack stones all the way to two kinds of utility ones. To say that I was prepared would be a gross understatement just when looking at how many stones was I about to bring, not to speak about all the other stuff that I procured in advance. Starting off with putting severalyers of clothing on myself, I took an entire bag filled with spares. Not knowing whether I would appear in the jungle, in a desert or maybe in the middle of a sea, I had to be prepared for all the possibilities. Set of one long gun and one handgun along with an ample amount of ammunition and explosives was yet another line of insurance that I prepared for myself. In the end, by the time I donned every part of my equipment, I was no different from a pile of bags attached to every spot on my suit that allowed it. With a swimsuit at the very bottom turning into a loose sweater and topped with a thick winter-jacket at the top, I could remove or keep any given amount ofyers to adapt by outfit for the situation in the world of my special quest. "System, I want to enter the quest area." Speaking to the empty air, I waited for a moment. Just like expected, no gust of wind appeared, no lights flickered, no strange shrill travelled through my spine. Just like that, I turned around and crawled my way up towards the doors. Opening them up, I could see the stairs leading to the sunken entrance to the basement. I took a step forward And the environment around me changed instantly. From thefortable temperature of spring, I was thrown to the scalding freeze amidst the snowy tops of mountain-chain! Chapter 113: First day in the snow Chapter 113: First day in the snow "Good thing I came prepared" Taking my first steps in this unforgiving world, I could feel that even my thick clothing wasn''t going to cut it. Right now, I could feel the temperature of my body falling, even with the highest grade of clothing that I was wearing. Maybe it was caused by the fact that I had to wear all sorts of stuff in advance, hampering the effectiveness of the fully cold-proof suit. But as I was right now, there was absolutely no way for me to change what I was wearing. Not right at the peak of one of the smaller mountains in the chain. *Mission: Reach the highest mountaintop and confront the boss there* *Partial mission: Reach half the distance to the highest mountaintop* *Time freeze: Two weeks* As soon as I finally found it in me to make the first step, the three simple notifications arrived in front of my eyes. Raising my head from the lines of text disyed by some strange force behind my system, I scanned the entire area. But to my surprise, the highest peak that I could see wasn''t somewhere far away. In fact, it seemed as if I could reach it in no more than a single day of forced march! That is, if not for how little I knew about climbing. Even though I had several tools like icepick or spiked boots when I looked at the incredibly steep side of the mountain I couldn''t think about anything else but actually approaching it from the other side rather than just using my current heigh to my advantage! "Let''s go then. I better not waste any time." Encouraging myself with those words, I took the first step. As soon as I did so, the timer of the time-freeze of this world started ticking. Step by step, I started to descend the current mountain top that I appeared at from the get-go. While my position was elevated, due to how close my destination was, I couldn''t really see anything beyond the side of the mountain that was directly facing me. And it was simply too steep for me to even risk climbing it. With that sad reality in mind, I scanned the area around me as I continued to carefully walk and slide down the side of the mountain, always making sure that I would reach some kind of t surface where I could slow down and assess my situation. At first, travelling through this unforgivingnd posed a huge challenge for me. The freezing cold of the air alone was enough to sap my strength, forcing me to keep moving. Only by burning the calories and actually moving could I prevent myself from hypothermia. And only by moving could I hope to find some small cave or ravine where I could hide away from the cold, start some simple and small fire and take my time changing to the heaviest clothing I could find in my bags. Those bags also proved to not only be quite useful but also turned out to be a huge drag. What seemed like just slightly heavy equipment back in my basement, now was not the only reason for nearly half of my physical exercise, but also quite a lethal trap. Slip. That was all that needed to happen to turn my surprisingly hard yet pleasant stroll into a deadly trip. With my shoes losing the grip on the soft snow that made up the ground, my slow crawl instantly turned into a slide down the side of the mountain. With how I was going to descend to the more reasonable height either way, it didn''t seem to be that dangerous at first "Fuck" Left with only a few seconds to react when I first noticed the edge of the angle that I was currently sliding through, I desperately threw my hands into the snow, hoping to lock myself in ce or at least slow down my descend. Bit by bit, my body was sliding closer and closer towards the edge of the mountain. Soon, I could see that the fall from it wouldn''t be dangerous at all. In short words, once I saw how far down the rtively t ground was, I realised that I wouldn''t just be injured if I didn''t manage to recover my grip. Falling from such an insane height could only result in my demise. ''Damn, should I fail the mission?!'' Barely a few meters away from the edge, my mind was already spinning at the maximum speed. My hands desperately attempted to dig into the deeperyers of the snow, only to make an entireyer of it split away from the hard ground and start sliding along with me. Left with no other choice, I could only risk it all. Dropping my attempts at slowing down my fall, I turned on my back. With my legs facing the fall, I grabbed the thick cloth of my glove with my teeth, before energetically pulling my hand up, forcing this piece of protective clothing out of my hand. Two meters away from the edge, I felt an insane pain in my hand. Just like when in my childhood years I had wart ''burned'' out with liquid nitrogen reaching some insanely low temperatures, it felt as if I suddenly subjected my entire palm to this kind of torture. With my fingers freezing and barely moving, I didn''t waste any time. Reaching towards the easy-to-ess pocket of my specialistic jacket, I pulled out one of the offensive stones. One meter away from the fall, my fingers finally managed to grasp the structure of the wooden frame that housed the artefact. ording to my memories, it was capable of unleashing a formidable and explosive fireball. With my mind spinning at its highest possible rate, I could even recall the entire exnation of Sander about the way he managed to make the fireball something more than just a ball of liquid fire, turning it into an explosive instead. The time that my mind required to reproduce that entire scene was just a fraction of what my body needed to conquer thisst meter of my slide to the doom. My legs reached the edge. With no ground to support them, my centre of mass started to rapidly change, suddenly reversing the trend of my deelerating slide. My hips reached the edge. And my fingers finally managed to squeeze the wooden frame to the point where the frozen metal of the springs snapped, allowing the artefact''s circuit to connect to its fueling stone. ROAR! Aiming the stone directly at the nearly vertical side of the mountain below the edge, I felt as if my mind was going nk for a second. Not because of the fear of death. If this desperate measure of mine would fall to work, I could still give up and just return back to the basement by simply failing the mission. But I wasn''t going to give up on letting Ayda move to my world so easily! What this lightheaded moment of mine was caused by, was a huge fluctuation of magical energy induced by the artefact in my fingers. Thankfully, as soon as it started, it was already over. The mana fluctuation that is. With the energy so dense to nearly cause me to lose consciousness just by moving around now released and shaped into a ball of dense fires, I could gaze at it only for the shortest of the moments. Because as soon as it appeared, it already dug itself into the rock of the fall as if it was no different for the snow, before breaking apart and blinding me with a dark-red cacophony of light. "Wha" With my lungs suddenly squeezing to the point where I could even take a breath, a slight question escaped from my mouth along with all the air that I still had in my body. With my legs suddenly turning from extremely cold to burning hot, I could hardly feel anything outside of the extreme heat of the explosion. But just like expected, it didn''tst as long as someone unaquitanced with destruction could assume it would. What we saw in the movies and how explosions looked in reality, were twopletely different matters. With the raging fires quickly sizzling away into just a bout of smoke, I could finally see what was around me. And there was absolutely nothing. For a moment, I was just stuck in a tranquil state, with perfect temperature coating my body. "ARRGH!" The next moment, an insane pain shook my entire body. It felt as if someone used a hydraulic press to p my back with a force that only some ancient warriors with battle hammers could produce. Once again, all the air that I desperately managed to recover in my lungs was now gone, leaving me suffocating on the ground. Wait, the ground? Forcing my agonising body to move, I turned my head to the side Only to notice that I was in the middle of a small depression in the snow, staring directly at the very same peak where I started my journey! But there was something wrong with the perspective of this sight of mine. Rather than observing it from an equal level, I actually had to look up to spot it! A few momentster, where the pain that nearly paralyzed my body finally started to slowly wane away, I forced myself to stand up. In such a cold temperature, it was the utmost level of stupidity to remain motionless. Looking down, I could see the ck marks on the cloth of my pants, exining why my legs were feeling even colder than before. It seemed that this explosion that I used to throw myself away from the edge of the mountain somehow worked, either throwing me to apletely different ce or just hampering the fall of mine to the point where I could actually survive it. And from the looks of things, I paid for this explosion with the nearlyplete destruction of all the anti-cold qualities of my pants, and all the pain that continued to torture my mind. After several attempts at standing up, I finally managed to regain the mobile position. Raising my head, I had to shield my eyes from the bring the light of the sun reflected by the snow all around me. Looking up to the familiar mountain top, I finally managed just understand what was the source of this uncanny feeling I had when I first spotted it. I was actually on the other side of the ravine that separated my starting location from the part of the mountains where my destined mountain peak was located! As risky as it was, if I could progress so much in such a short amount of time, then I could actually stop worrying aboutpleting the mission at all! Chapter 114: Temporary shelter Chapter 114: Temporary shelter Conquering the mountains was an easy task only on paper or when one did so from behind the screen of his television. With my mind torn between theplete boredom of this arduous journey and the constant vignce that I didn''t dare to lower in such an unfriendly environment, I was forced to acknowledge how difficult this task was. Back before the apocalypse, my only contact with the topic of climbing was centred around the asional news of some pro-climbers losing their lives in some disasters or idents. On such asions, the inte would explode with couch experts iming how they would never fall for such misfortune or how stupid those climbers were in the first ce when picking their passion. Given how I didn''t know anything about the topic, I preferred to steer clear from those heated discussions, as I couldn''t provide anything constructive in it, while most of the inte users wouldn''t bother to do so in the first ce. But right now, with my fingers brittling in the frost, with my legs constantly shaking in the early signs of hypothermia And all of that because I was reckless. Because I dared to treat this task with lesser respect than it reserved. After the explosion that miraculously not only saved me from death after the long fall but also considerably shortened my path, Inded on a small teau. Once I stood up and assessed the situation, it seemed as if the entire thing was some kind of divine intervention, as the protrusion in the otherwise nearly vertical face of the mountain was barely any bigger than my body. With a narrow path circling around the steep mountain toward its other side, I didn''t dare to stay on this small teau any longer. In the end, with how lucky I was to end up on this protrusion, I had no wits to believe the stability of the ground below my feet. Who could know whether this protrusion was actually hardened snow that could fall apart under the weight of my body at any given moment? As mature and careful this approach appeared to me back when I left this small safe ce, it didn''t have anything to do with being reasonable. If only I could calm the terror that continued to creep in my soul after the recent close call, I could''ve taken just a moment to change my clothes for the fully intact set. Eager to secure my position and find the real path towards the peak, I ended up following the narrow cliff. At some points, I had to hug my back to the mountainside in order to keep my centre of mass above the path rather than the dark depths below me. With the track getting as thin as just a single foot, by the time I reached my first pit-stop, I no longer could feel anything in my mind. Overwhelmed with constant stress and fear of falling down, I didn''t even notice when my body started to give up on too much heat. The anxiety of the dangers on the road made me immune to all the notifications that my body was desperately sending me, resulting in my left leg already giving up. While I could still move it, not even a shred of feeling remained in it. "I guess I don''t have any choice" With my breath escaping from my lungs as I spoke, I could observe how quickly it turned into a white mist, before the frost hit even harder, turning the gas into a myriad of small snowkes beforeying them to rest on theyer of the snow all around me. After poking the snow gently with my arms for a while, I made the decision that I couldn''t go on like that any longer. As important as finishing this quest was for me, there would be absolutely no point in rushing it. Not only would it make it harder to aplish, but could also force me to pay a much greater price for fulfilling the mission than I ever expected. And with my body already clearlymunicating to me just in how bad state it was, I couldn''t spare a single moment now. Dropping my bags on the snow, I started digging. Even though I didn''t know the principle, it wasmon knowledge that all kids in the world knew, that there exist a tribe of people who lived in igloos. In theory, this kind of safe house was made out of the snow, making it highly irrational to be used as a ce to warm up But for some reason, the people form that tribe continued to live in such ces, even all the way down in modern times. Trusting almost with my life in their wisdom, I continued to dig a small, simple tunnel. Only when it could more than two of me did I dare to stop. Getting inside, I quickly pulled out some of my stuff from the backpack. Once the second set of clothes and all the necessary tools found themselves dropped at the bottom of the hole, I actually took down my winter jacket. In this one moment of being deprived of this insane cold-protection, I felt as if every second was bringing me closer to the lethal hypothermia that would make me freeze to the death down the line. Thankfully, there wasn''t much for me to do. Instantly pulling the spare jacket on my back, I could only curse in my mind as I continued to fix all the buttons and locks with my frigid fingers. Even when thest strap was secured, all the heat that I lost in this short moment made me tremble. But I couldn''t stop now. Using a simple sword, a gift from Huskarl that I never knew what to do with it, I glued the broken jacket of mine to my backpack before propping it with the sword to close the hole above me. Recalling the general direction of the wind, I dug a small additionalpartment in my temporary hideout, adding a small, upward exit from it. There was no way for me to set fire at the bottom of the main hole. Given how I dug it in the simplest manner possible, that would mean setting my feet aze. That''s why I created a small hole at the height of my chest in the snow, before adding a venttion hole that led outside. Only with all those preparations finished I finally dared to set a special sheet at the bottom of the additional hole, before stacking some wood on it. Atst, I had a small fire to keep me warm. With the smoke escaping through the venttion hole, only a part of the heat remained. Watching how the pieces of the wood cracked, I felt a sting in my heart at the thought of losing the valuable energy. "Isn''t is funny how quickly one starts valuing different things depending on his situation?" Asking myself, at least I didn''t need to worry about losing heat by speaking up. Right now, with the small campfire setting a barrier between me and the frost, all the heat that I would radiate away would remain in my hole, quickly raising the temperature of this small shelter of mine. Only once the shaking of my body finally subsided did I move to the next step of my necessary maintenance. As scary as it was, I pulled down my burned-out pants. Quickly recing them with not only a fresh pair but two moreyers of thick clothing underneath, I finally felt the life returning to my bottom limbs. Taking this moment of rest at a rtively human temperature withing my hideout, I quickly dished out some of the instant foods that I brought with myself on the trip. Given the uncertainty of where the mission would take me, I ended up with local military rations. As much as everyone loved to bash on the quality of the food in the military, with just a single p destroying the capsule with a chemical heater, I only had to wait for two minutes before removing the lid and rxing to the hot aroma of the spicy beef. With thatughable fire of mine, there was absolutely no way for me to boil the water, not to speak about preparing any proper meal. If I decided to go with just tourists rations, in the current cold, I would most likely be unable to even open the cans! Yet, everything good had toe to an end. Once my stomach was filled with the steaming hot food, my body quickly regained both its heat and energy. With my clothing reced, stomach filled and energy restored, there was no point in wasting the valuable fuel and keeping the fire going. Cleaning up the insides of the hole from all the useful things, I finally removed the backpack lid on the entrance to my hole before crawling out of it. In the time that I spend recuperating, the calm weather in the mountains drastically worsened. From the appearance of a strong wind that torn me to all directions, through a seemingly fragile cloud of snowkes that quickly turned out to be extremely sharp. Someone of a lesser heart would most likely just go back to the hole and decide to wait the weather out. But I actually couldn''t do it. In the wake of my preparations, I decided to get a tiny bit of everything. Not knowing where I would end up, I had to make sure I would survive at least a moment in any kind of ce. But that didn''t mean I was properly outfitted for a full-scale adventure. Initially, my n was to gather resources like food or water on the go, but so high up in the mountains, there was hardly anything edible to speak off. And that meant, I couldst in this ce only for as long as both my fuel and my rations would keep me warm. And with such a strict time limit, how could I be bothered by this tiny cloud of snow? Chapter 115: White being Chapter 115: White being Disrespect. That was the only word that could describe the reason behind all my misfortunes during this mission. Starting with how little I respected the descend from the mountain almost resulting in me falling to my doom, now I was receiving the harsh penalty od disregarding this ''tiny cloud of snow''. Despite any logic or science that I coulde up with, this weather didn''t add up. While being soo high up as I was meant that a thickyer of clouds blocked my sight of the ground, it also meant that most of the extreme weather urrences should remain way below me. Sadly, this world didn''t seem to follow any logic that I would devise. And just like that, I was stuck walking through a snowstorm so dense, that I could barely see my hand if I were to extend my arm as far as I could. Nevertheless, I continued walking. As much as I have time to finish the mission with not even a single day passing ever since it began, I was too eager toplete it. With the perspective of feeding Ayda all sorts of foods from earth or giving her a tour of my hometown clouding my judgment, I just tightened my teeth, powering my way through the snowstorm. Step by step, I was getting just a bit higher. While at the current rate it would take me at least a few days of just constant walking alone to get to the top, I wasn''t as naive as to believe that the gentle incline that I found on the opposite side of the mountain would be as gentle all the way to the top. Sooner orter, the slope that I was currently making my way through would turn into another almost vertical wall. After all, there was no way that this entire mission would be too easy! It took over two hours for the weather to calm down. Forcing myself to move forward while constantly worrying over the state of my body, I found myself quite higher than I expected to climb during the storm. Looking down, I could vaguely make up the ce where my previous hideout was located. Obviously, pinpointing its perfect location was no longer possible due to a newyer of thick snow covering all the tracks, but the general outline and shape of the mountain still made it possible to guess its general location. And judging from how far away from it I already was, I actually climbed way, way higher than I expected! "Let''s hope this storm was thest hurdle Before the worst part, that is." Weather clearing allowed me not only to see the ce where I came from but also to reconfirm whether the direction that I was climbing towards was right. Raising my head, I could easily spot the top of the mountain. And just like expected, while there was still quite a considerable distance that I could cover without worrying about the angle of approach, at least from my current point of view, I couldn''t notice a single rtively safe path that would get me all the way to the top. "Eh I guess that means even more walking. Damn it!" With a sudden bout of anger filling my veins, I stoped heavily on the soft snow below my feet. Only noticing what I just did the moment I finished my movement, I could only watch how at first nothing happened. But in less than just a few seconds, the entire mountain started to shake slightly, as if what I stepped on wasn''t a bit of snow, but a detonator for the nuke hidden in the core of this geological structure. Soon, the gentle shaking turned into trembling. The worrying trembling then transformed into what seemed like an earthquake. But not the one that I could just notice. From how I was barely capable to stand straight despite all the equipment that was supposed to keep me stable, I could tell that if such shaking happened to an urban area, then it wouldn''t be urban anymore once it would end! And then "Are you fucking serious?!" Whispering to myself with my breath clogging in my throat, I took a step back. Then another one. Then I fell down on my bum, unable to even think about the shaking of the ground below me, too focused on the insanity right before my eyes. An ice dragon. That was the only name that I coulde up with to describe the outline that suddenly appeared right in front of me. From the look of things, it seemed as if this monster was formerly covered by a hugeyer of snow and crystalised ice below it. But from how the shaking of its wings caused the turbulences that I was currently experiencing, it was clear that whatever was holding this thing below the snow, no longer had any power over the monster. "Nope, I''m out." Pulling myself to the back with my hands as I was too damn scared to actually stand up, I could only watch how this monstrosity finally stood up. Its body seemed to be either covered or made up out of some kind of strange, ck ice. Its head was crowned with an enormous snowke that continued to spin around itself. Looking around, the monster scanned its surroundings. Sadly for me, its eyes almost instantlytched on me. With my mind already set on escaping from this ce and failing this mission, I was about to confirm it by shouting the order for the system But once again, my voice got stuck in my throat. Not because of fear though. Because this would be the very first time when I would give up on something that was important to me. As stupid as it would sound to anyone else who would face this monstrosity before me, I still couldn''t let go of my dream of bringing Ayda to earth, even if it would mean shing with this thing! "I need to do something stones!" The sh of enlightenment that exploded in my mind somehow managed to cast all my fears aside. In the heat of the moment, I forgot the order in which I ced the artefacts all over my suit, pulling out a barrier stone instead of the fireball one. "Good enough" Pressing the two pieces of the wooden structure together, I activated the first measure against this dragon. Turning its head to the side as it watched my actions, I could swear that I saw the sparks of joy appearing in the icy eyes of the dragon. At first, I was puzzled about what could that look mean. And then, the monster swept his muscr arm at me. "Wha?" I didn''t receive the attack directly. My body was still perfectly intact. Not even a single wound scarred my skin. From the looks of things, the barrier made by the artefact was far more than capable of withstanding this kind of simple attack from the dragon. The problematic part was, that this barrier was anchored in my hand, where the artefact was. And with that said, there was absolutely nothing that kept it in ce, where the powerful attack reached my defences! Launched high into the air, by the time my momentum died off as I reached the apoapsis of my orbit, I saw the peak. The same peak that I was so desperate to reach. And a strange, fully white figure without any facial features sitting on an icy throne right where my destination was. "Not even thest boss, huh?" Moving my sight before the dragon below and the smiling alien on the level of my eyes, I couldn''t help but feel my hopes fading away. If that damned dragon was nothing more but a sidekick of the being that awaited my arrival at the top of the mountain As much as I wanted to return right away, the moment my body, still surrounded by a barrier, finally started falling right back into the dragon''s jaws. With each passing second stretching almost to infinity in my perception, I stelled my resolve before reaching to another pocket of mine. With my fall only elerating, it was truly thest possible moment to do so. As soon as my fingers grasped the edgy structure of the artefact, the wind alone forced my hand out of my pocket. "You told me not to use it" Recalling Sanders advice that I received just before leaving for the mission, I tightened my teeth. Since I was going to fail the mission anyway, there was nothing stopping me from testing that dangerous artefact, was there? Invoking everyst bit of my strength, I took aim while falling down Before throwing the artefact down. Turning around in midair to increase the drag of the air in my fall as much as I could, I kept my eyes focused on the stone with my lips ready to utter the order for my system. Once the stone got close enough, I simply invoked the familiar emotion of repulsion, squeezing its upper part against its charging stone. Right as it was about to hit the Ice Dragon''s body. WHOOSH! In one instant, I felt as if my body was being ripped apart. With the dragon still quite a considerable distance away from me, there was no way for it to reach me with its ws. Even if it did, my barrier should just change the direction of my fall. With the momentum of my falling body changing from rapid to breakneck, it seemed as if just change the direction of my descend was enough to squeeze the juices out of my body! With blood flowing down out of every orifice of mine, I could only see as the initially shiny point that the artefact turned into, quickly turned ck. In a single, fluid motion, the enormous body of the dragon lifted, before turning into a short thread. Before I could watch it getting swallowed by the artefact, my consciousness started to wane under the immense momentum that no human body could withstand. Thest thing that I saw, was the tiny strand that the entire, enormous body of the dragon turned into getting sucked to the ck point that my artefact turned into. Thest thing that I felt, was all my joins dislocating and the overwhelming pain associated with it. And then, the world around me suddenly turned into heaven. Filled with nothing but perfect whiteness, it was a ce where I knew that no harm could evere my way. Even if someone were to ask me how I knew it, he would only receive silence for an answer. The only thing that made this strange space bring back thest moment of my life, was the appearance of the very same figure that I spotted at the peak of the mountain. "Honestly I didn''t expect you to turn that desperate Or rather, did you even know what you created?" Even though this strange being had no face to speak of, I could somehow tell that it was brimming with curiosity. But so was I. "Create what? Wait, who the hell are you? Did I die? Unable to wrap my head around what was happening right now, I could only hope that this strange being would be lenient enough to at least answer my question before making me pass on to whatever afterlife would turn out to be. "First off, I can tell that this item that you used, was supposed to repulse anything close to it. Sadly, it was poorly crafted, with two major errors inside its structure. Instead of repulsing, it was attracting, and the only limiter on its usage was the second broken part. In other words, what you created Well, the image that you had in your head was right. If I was even a tiny fraction of a momentte, this ck hole you created would copse and radiate its entire mass away. In other words, you almost brought the end not only to this but the entire star system!" Ending his exnation with an exmation, this strange being suddenly created another icy throne to sit at, before resting its body on it. "Don''t worry though. In your world, it would simply fail to work. Not enough energy in the air to support the explosive growth of the magic reaction. But to answer the other two questions of mine, I will use just a single exnation." As if some kind of parasite invited its bottom, this strange, white being stood up from his throne before spreading its arms and looking down on me with an emotionless smile. "I''m the one behind that system of yours. Back in the days, I We were called Bart. It''s nice to meet you, Krist." Chapter 116: Trolling evolution Chapter 116: Trolling evolution "Wait, what?" Standing in front of this godlike figure, even hearing what it said wasn''t enough for me to rify the situation. After all, I could im that I was the pope of the long lost Antis faith from the earth, and no one could prove me wrong. "I know it''s a lot to digest at once, but this entire mission You could say I just took one of your wishes and turned it into an opportunity to have a talk with you. In the end, just watching your progress from the sidelines can quickly get boring." Hearing the words of this white being while watching its motionless face was quite a strange experience. Even the way in which the only real feature on this thing''s head was a line of its lips, seeing it keeping its mouth in a constant, ironic smile was more than necessary to put me on the edge. "Wait, wait, wait. Let''s start at the very beginning. You called yourself Bart, is that right?" For the sake of convenience, I decided that going with the flow should be the easiest way to either learn more or to find clues that would let me know that this entire talk was bullshit, to begin with. "Well, while it''s a great oversimplification, so great that it no longer is truth at all, to a certain degree, yes. For the sake of the convenience that just prompted you to go with the flow like that, let''s assume I''m Bart." The smile of this strange being only deepened, as it outright read not only my conscious thoughts but also all the stuff that was happening below the level of my personal thinking. While I knew that it was the convenience sake that prompted me to act the way I did, I never actually thought about it openly! As scary as dealing with such a potentially omnipotent being was, I could only tighten my jaws, swallow my terror and look forward to learning more stuff. "Let''s start with that, then. Nice to meet you, Bart, I''m Krist. Would you mind exining what the heck is this ce? Why I appeared here? Who even are you?" While this being straightforwardly imed to be the creator of my system, it didn''t really exin anything to me at all. Just like learning that Einstein had a hand in developing science necessary for the production of nuclear bombs, it wouldn''t make it any easier for one to learn the principle behind military-use fission reaction! "Let''s start from the beginning. This ce is nothing more than just a special kind of energy condensed to the point where its qualities start to resemble those of in matter. While in theory, you call this kind of energy magic, the magic that I''m using and the magic that you know off You could say that they are as different as hydrogen and uranium. Or to put it in simpler words, the difference between those energies is akin to the difference between clear, spring water and content of a river that several multimillion big towns shits to." Suddenly standing up from his throne, this fully white being kneeled down on one knee before picking up a handful of the white powder that made up the ground that we were staying at. Raising back to a straight position, he brought his arm up, holding this strange, white powder in his palm. "Burn." With this singlemand, most likely uttered only for me to understand what was going on, this otherworldly dust instantly stood in fires. "Freeze." With the nextmand, the fires that reached several meters high from the being''s hand extinguished, only for the air itself around the being''s hand to start crystalizing from the immense coldness radiated away by this strange power. "Fuse." For the first time since the being started uttering itsmands, the amount of the powder in his hand decreased. The next moment, an enormous ball of sma started to spread out from his hand at a speed that I shouldn''t be able to perceive only to "Vanish." disappear right before its sun-like temperature could actually threaten my physical body. "Right now, this powder is just a condensed form of the building block that the entire universe is made-off. This exnation " suddenly turning his head to look at me sharply, this insane being leaned his head on his arm in weirdly cute motion "is once again, wed and simplified to the point of being no different from a lie. But you should get the picture now." Under the influence of this being''s words, my bottom dropped on the ground. With my hands resting against this strange powder, I felt as if something was fully blocking me froming into any interaction with it. It felt as if this being didn''t want me to feel how it was to control such power. "Nah, I''m not scared of you. In fact, I''m not even here in the first ce. I temporarily blocked your preceptors to save you from burning the entirety of your soul away. As for now, you are way too weak to even let this pure energy pass through you." Instantly addressing my concerns even before I could voice them out, this damned being proved that right now, I was nothing more but an ant in its hand. Even if it wanted to squeeze the life out of me, I would bepletely powerless to stop it. But we were talking. This strange being, as powerful as it was, was passing important knowledge to me. Even if my way of thinking was too primitive to apply for its way of reasoning, there seemed to be absolutely no point in luring me here just to teach me for a bit before riding my existence out of the world. "I hope this exins your first question. As for the second one, I answered it already. I just wanted to have a short talk with you. In regards to the third one" Shaking its arms, the being proved that human ways of expressing emotions or concepts weren''t something new for it. "As for who am I You are not yet qualified to learn the answer. Maybe sometime in the future, maybe if you manage to achieve what we hope you will Rather than this question, let me answer the one puzzle that actually troubles your mind right now." Smiling gently at me like a parent would at a child after it would make its first step, the being returned to its throne. cing its arm on the side of the huge, white chair, it rested its hand against its palm. "The real question that you are too scared to ask, is as follows. Who am I and howe I can use a system that no one else can?" While there was no doubt that this being towered over me in every single possible aspect, be it knowledge, depth of personality or just strength, I could somehow tell that he still had something to say about thisst question of mine. What he was doing right now, was themon trick of increasing the tension by keeping me waiting. And what else could I do as a little ant in its palm but y right into his wishes? "Eh, you found me out. Let''s not keep you waiting any longer then. While you are not yet privy to the majority of the answer, there is some stuff that I can enlighten you about. But before I do that, I need you to swear one thing." Retracting itszy posture by putting his hands together in front of his face, this strange being appeared to be focused now. "Can you swear here and now, that you won''t use your origins as the means of putting others down?" What a strange question Using origins to put others down? How would that be any different from the old and stupid ideologies of radical nationalism or even fascism? "I never believed in any ideology that would put me above others. With how you can read every single thought of mine I believe its wasteful in terms of my breath to even utter it, but no matter what are my origins, I swear I will never use them to bully others. Can''t say it about the situations when my power will stem from who I am. Can''t promise the same thing in regards to the situation where I will be the bullied one." I could answer this question easily without putting those two variables in it. But that would mean, my answer would be both iplete and not perfectly honest. And in face of the overwhelming power of this being, I dared not to use half-truths. "Good. Then once again, let''s not keep you waiting any longer. You are my descendant in a direct line from the times when humanity only started appearing and banding upon this. While you are the only one to possess the system right now, if you were to die or fail in any other way, this privilege might be transferred onto another member of my bloodline. As for who you are" Taking a moment for what seemed like an attempt to create an answer that would be within the scope of what I could know, this white being suddenly smiled. "You are just a mean of my main self to tackle a certain problem. While this is the ultimate and absolute truth, you will most likely never reach the level where you will even learn what this problem is. For now, just do your best to grow stronger, explore other words and in other words, grow as a human. While it''s pretty impossible to quantify it like a mission, you can consider this to be your ultimate quest from me." As soon as this being said those words, this strange ce where we were started to shake. Bit by bit, I felt as if my eyes were losing their maximum resolution, turning the image more and more blurry. Feeling that it was just moments before this entire ce would copse, I dared to take a step forward and ask onest thing. Onest question that stuck to my mind like a rose''s thorn in someone''s hand. "Before you send me away if the entire purpose of this mission was to have a talk with me Why the peak of the mountain? Why that ice dragon? Couldn''t you just bring me to yourself with a single thought of yours?!" As silly as this question was, it puzzled me to no end. If this Bart being was truly as powerful as it imed to be, howe there were any obstacles on my path to it? "Ah, I figured that you would feel bad if you would receive your reward without putting any effort. Don''t me me, me that trolling nature of humanity that quantifies the reward through the efforts put to obtain it." Hearing those words, my vision turned so bad that I could only see the general shapes of the objects, without as much as their outline. "And to be perfectly honest, " The fact that this entire ce consisted of the endless t surface of that strange, magical dust, Bart''s throne and my body didn''t help in trying to keep my vision intact. At this point, even thest words of Bart that I heard him utter were no greater than a whisper. ", I was curious how far you would get." For a split of a second, my vision returned. But there was no t in of dust. It disappeared as if it never existed in the first ce. The white being and its throne also disappeared. All I could see right now, was a mind-boggling space cloud of pure energy, freely changing its shape. For a split of a second, this cloud of energy took a shape of a human. As Bart''sst words reached my ears, the gasses in this cloud moved, making it seem as if this illusion of a human blinked. And then, everything disappeared once again, reced by endless darkness of the void. Chapter 117: The flask Chapter 117: The sk "Wait!" Waking up with this single thought, my hand extended all the way towards the ceiling of the basement. Fat drops of sweat poured down my face. Stuck in this strange position, it took me a long while before I finally regained control of my body. To say that I saw death would be an understatement. From the avnche, through the storm and dragon, all the way to the artefact going rouge andter meeting with that godlike being. While I was in the world of the mission, my entire mind was focused onpleting it. In the middle of those events, I couldn''t spare as much as a single thought for the overwhelming terror that filled every cell of my body. My hand finally fell down, reuniting with the rest of myselfying on the floor of the basement. Slowly breathing the air in, I started the long process of calming myself down. Bit by bit, the constant and monotone action of sucking the air only to release it a momentter diffused the mind-boggling terror out of my system. "Thinking back, that was some really crazy shit" Talking to myself, I closed my eyes for a moment. Using this short period of time to mentally gather the energy, I suddenly opened them back up, prompting my entire body upwards. Sitting on the floor, I finally managed to get my head to slightly move, scanning the insides of my most secure ce. With my eyes swaying closer to inspect the state of my body, I noticed something strange. There was a small, crystal bottle in my left palm! "That''s right! The notifications!" Instantly regaining my wits, I looked around, both physically and mentally But no system announcement appeared. No information about fulfilling the mission. No information about failing it either. Just aplete nothing, as if this mission never happened in the first ce. "If it didn''t happen, then where does this bottlee from?" I couldn''t dispute the possibility of the entire encounter being nothing more but a realistic dream. As much as I believed that everything happened, if that being wanted to erase all the traces of that event, I had no doubts it would be perfectly capable of doing so. Or rather, the chances were that I was simply too weak and primitive to notice those traces in the first pce. That is if the theory of that event being just a dream of mine was true. Yet, this theory couldn''t hold against the presence of this strange sk! Puzzled by its curious appearance, I inspected it closer, bringing the item as close to my eyes as I could without hitting my face. The secret of a strange glow that this sk emitted was held there. From the looks of it, it seemed as if some kind of extremely thick and energetically rich substance was filling the tiny insides of this otherwise sizeable bottle. It seemed as if nearly the entire volume of the thing consisted of cristal, with barely just a few drops of this strange liquid This strange liquid that somehow was capable of emitting an aura so thick, it was visible with a naked eye. "Could it be" Given how I had no memory of ever protruding such an object on my own, I dropped all the thoughts about the truth behind what I just thought happened. Whether it was just a dream or a real situation, as long as this sk held what I could guess it did Ultimately, the object of my mission was to reach the top of the mountain. In theory, I didn''t do it, at least not on my own. But the fact that I met with that white being remained. And just as I saw it before, it resided at the top of the mountain, right where my mission would be fulfilled. If this line of thought was correct, wouldn''t that mean that, for better or worse, I actually aplished my mission an obtained the reward for it? If I took the influence of that Bart person to be the reason behind theck of notifications, then it would make perfect sense. Even without the system confirmation of the events, my desired reward was still there, right in my hand. Or was it? As strange and puzzling as the appearance of this sk was, I couldn''t be entirely sure that it was the way for Ayda to travel through the words. This was the deepest desire that made the entire mission appear in the first ce, so any logic I coulde up with would always point at the bottle to be the reward But what if it wasn''t? I couldn''t say for sure that this was exactly what I hoped to obtain. But then a single thought suddenly came to my mind,pletely overthrowing all my hesitations. I saw the power of that strange being with my very own eyes. Be it a dream or a real situation, there was no doubt that the sk appeared after my meeting with him. And thinking realistically, what would such a powerful existence try to plot, if it could obtain anything it would ever want with just its power alone? Even if it was my simple nature bringing this idea to my head, I decided to go through with it before my hesitation would kill any drive for change in me. Ultimately, even if I were to push deciding what to do with this potion forter, I would still have to make the decision. With Ayda knowing the purpose of myst leave, she was bound to ask me about the results once I would return. That''s why, before I would lose thisst shred of confidence, I forced my body to stand up and approached the magic doors of my basement. With just a single thought, the destination behind them changed from the half-buried staircase to the small vige encased in a protective barrier. Emerging from the usual door, I was met with apletely empty room. From the looks of things, Ayda left somewhere. As normal as it was for her to go on about her life while I''m away, theck of her presence in this world still somehow managed to sadden me. Looking mentally down at the state of my own emotions, I could tell that something was definitely wrong. While my ability to feel didn''t deteriorate to the point where my witchcraft would no longer be of any use, the aftereffects of meeting that godlike being still remained. Reminded of the terror of that event, I plummeted to the bed, instantly curling up my knees towards my chin. Wrapping my arms around my legs, Iid in the bed, once again resorting to a slowly breathe in and out to fight against the overwhelming terror. And that was the state that Ayda saw me in once she passed through the doors. So focused on the ongoing battle in my mind, I didn''t even notice her footsteps, otherwise easily discernable thanks to the cracking of the wooden floor in the building. "Krist? What''s wrong?" Rather than instantly approaching the bed and shaking my body to make sure I was okay, Ayda proved that she knew pretty well how to deal with someone in a state like I was in right now. Her voice waspletely calm, apanying her gentle steps as she slowly approached the bed. Sitting down on the edge of the mattress, she just ced her warm hand atop my head, slowly but steadily rustling my hair. Noticing how she was in no hurry to get the answers out of me, I for once decided to indulge. Using the fleeting touch of her nimble fingers as the physical support for my mental challenge, I continued to do my best to fight off the terror that held my soul in a tight grasp. "Are you okay now?" After a long time during which my head somehow found its way on top of Ayda''sp, this partner of mine spoke up. Given how her timing coincided with the moment when I finally managed to wrestle control over my soul from the leftover terror, I could guess that she constantly kept watch on my emotions during the entire process. Thinking about it now, there was a chance that this strange calming thrill that asionally travelled up and down my spine was of her doing. "More or less. Sorry about that. I can''t really say I''m happy with showing you this pathetic side of me" Now that the terror was mostly gone, the rest of my human emotion finally could return to take back their ce within my mind. And along with them, embarrassment came. "Don''t worry about it. I can tell that something huge has happened." Seeing how energy returned to my eyes, Ayda rustled my hair while putting a wide smile on her face. Noticing the affection brimming in her eyes, I could only watch how my hand moved by itself, presenting that strange bottle right into her hands. "What is this?" Taking the sk from my hands, Ayda at first attempted to see through its essence to at least be able to guess the purpose of this crystal-contained liquid. With her mind not bringing up any possible solutions to the question puzzling her, her gentle eyes moved down, making her stare right at me with curiosity written all over her face. It seemed that even though she didn''t know what this sk was, she could tell how much I wanted her to be excited about it. And if she knew it, this knowledge alone would make it easy for her to anticipate my answer by a whole lot. "While I''m not perfectly sure about it It seems that this sk is the key we needed to let youe to my world with me." Chapter 118: Aydas decision Chapter 118: Ayda''s decision I was someone who had a system that appeared to be unique not only in the entire world I was born in but in all of the words I visited. I was someone who met with a god-like figure, that wasn''t a god only because of its own arbitrary decision not to call itself like that. Even as little as I could understand from all those events and situations, there was no denying that my level of interaction with the secrets of the universe was way greater than that of your average Joe. Yet it didn''t make it any easier to uncover the secret arts that Ayda used to teleport me from standing position in the entry of the room directly to the bed, with my head buried in her soft thighs. Feeling her hand gently rustling through my hair, I felt thest shreds of the terror of meeting with a god vanish from my mind. What even the most disciplined breathing practice of mine couldn''t achieve, just a moment of hiding my face in Ayda''sp did just like that. "Are you okay now?" Rubbing my scalp as if nothing else mattered in this world, Ayda asked. "More or less. Thanks." There was no need for any more borative sentences. Even though in normal understanding, our rtionship was fairly short, the level at which we were able to connect easily made up for it. The two of us could understand the other feelings with just those few words. "So, about that sk" Just when I managed to rx and forget about this risky topic, Ayda arbitrary decided that I was now ready to tackle it. And to tell the truth, she was actually right. In the end, putting this problem forter would make it continue to burden my mind, while not contributing to anything at all. "Krist, look at me." It was a rare chance to hear such a determined voice of hers. Obediently raising my face from her thighs and directing my sight at her head, I could see the sparks of determination and faith blinking in her eyes. "You already did way more than I ever hoped you will. As you surely know by now, I initially approached you because I sensed that you could be a true mage. From the very moment that you restored my emotions" Using the fact that I already raised from herp, Ayda snuggled forward, wrapped her arms around my back and hugged herself tightly to my chest. With my nose buried in the flurry of her silk her, with my neck experiencing the breeze of her warm breath, with my skin reveling in the slight trembling of her delicate body "Ever since then, I decided to fully devote myself to you. While I know that I''m imperfect, I tried my very best to be the best that I could be for you." Suddenly stopping the hug, Ayda ced her right hand on my chest only to push herself away a bit. "With that said, do you really think I would hesitate right now?" Looking to the side where I left the crystal sk, Ayda quickly moved her sight back on my face with a slightly ironic smile. "No, I would never use you of not being decisive enough But isn''t that the problem here?" Suddenly interrupting Ayda''s passionate deduction, I moved my hand up to my chest, grabbing the girl''s hand and moving it on top of my own cheek. "You see, as eager as I was to bring you to my world I just wanted to see all kinds of faces you would make while experiencing the good sides of it. But now that I think about it, I finally realised how selfish this desire of mine was. Deconstructing it to the lowest level, it''s not that I want to bring you to Earth in particr." I only realised how Imitted a slip with my tongue, I ended uppletely ignoring it. Ayda would understand the meaning of the ''earth'' word from the context, while I wouldn''t lose or even risk anything by bringing up the name of my world. "What do you really want, then?" Keeping her hand on my cheek, Ayda pulled my other hand towards her own lips. cing a gentle kiss on top of my fingers, she rubbed her head against my palm, waiting for my answer with her eyes tightly glued to mine. "Isn''t it obvious?" Moving my hand ever so slightly on her face, I wiped the slight trace of saliva from her lips with my thumb. Reacting to my delicate caress, Ayda caught it with her lips, before locking it in her mouth. Feeling her tongue rolling all over my finger as if she wanted to tightly cover every inch of it with her saliva, I felt something rising in me. As expected of the girl, she was the one who could invoke the greatest raising events outside of some rising heroes in other worlds. But I wasn''t going to let myself be distracted. There was still something I had to openly tell her. "I just want you to be happy. I wanted to bring you to earth so that you could enjoy its delicacies, its sights, its culture, its innovations You could say, I wanted to appear as someone from a cool background in your eyes!" Gently pulling with my thumb on her mouth, I brought Ayda back into my embrace. With my finger leaving her jaws, her lips quickly reached for mine, gracing me with a long, sloppy kiss. "Of course I knew it." Locking my head in ce with her hands, Ayda mounted myp and locked her hands behind my neck, fullymitting herself to the kiss. With her tongue swiftly reaching for the insides of my mouth, I had no other choice but to enjoy the moment for as long as it wouldst. Holding the feeble girl in my hands, I couldn''t get over how soft and warm she was. Feeling her so close to my skin not only aroused me physically but also emotionally. Just from holding her close like that, I felt some strange sense of fulfilment. "Uwa" Finally detaching her delicious lips from my mouth, Ayda kept her face so close, that our noses quickly started colliding. Staring deep down my eyes, I could feel the intense affection brimming in her aura. "You see" Leaning back on myp, Ayda brought her hand up before using her finger to wipe a small strand of saliva hanging from her lips. Licking her finger clean, she quickly moved her hand behind my neck. "... if I were to let go of my restraints, that''s how we would spend literally all the time in our lives." As if she couldn''t hold them in ce, Ayda brought her hands away from my neck, moving them on top of my wrists instead. Guiding my hands towards her belly, she made me press my hand against her exposed stomach. "If I didn''t hold myself back, I wouldn''t let you leave the bed before I would overflow with your love. Even then, I would just clean myself up before pinning you down once again. That''s the extend of awe and love that I have for you. So please, don''t bother with appearing cool in front of me." Moving my hands up and down on her slim belly, it seemed as if she wanted me to massage it. As soon as I followed her unspoken wish, her hands stopped controlling my wrists, returning right back behind my neck. "This massage Should I take it as a hint or something?" Raising the corners of my lips as I said this light joke, I felt my entire body freezing all over when an uneasy smile appeared on Ayda''s lips. "Wait, are you for real?!" I wasn''t scared. I was shocked. Rather than feeling the danger of such a heavy burden suddenly mming right on my shoulders, my mind just needed a short moment to process the meaning of Ayda''s sudden silence. "No, not yet." Only after a long while did Ayda''s smile turn from happy and mischievous to a slightly sour one. Moving her eyes to the side, she took a moment to gain enough courage to speak what was on her mind. "You see, to a degree, I can control this. You know, whether you will impregnate me or not." Lowering her head, Ayda seemed to shrink a bit. Even though her face didn''t show it, the state of her aura was far more than enough for me to notice that there was still something on her mind. "Dear, if you want to say something, just do it. I hope you don''t think I will cast you aside just because you didn''t tell me something in advance. As for the potential kid of ours Don''t treat my behaviour before as a bad omen. I would really be happy to have one with you. It''s just that I would prefer to create a world where we could bring it up in peace and happiness rather than in the chaotic times of war and persecution." I was still quite young. In fact, I have yet to obtain number two at the forefront of my age. Only when ounting for all the time that I spent in worlds affected by time-freeze would my age barely reach the earliest twenties. And yet, despite being so young, I was really entertained if not enthralled by the idea of starting up a family with Ayda! "Ah, it''s not that. It''s nothing that heavy or troublesome." Ayda''s cheeks exploded in red as her head leaned to the side, making it look as if she wanted to hide it. "The thing is With everything that you said about your world, it made me look forward to visiting it a lot. In fact, it made me so excited about it, that I hoped that after our first date here you could have" Suddenly stopping her words, Ayda took a moment to make up her mind. But instead of finishing her sentences right away, she reached for the sk instead, uncorking it with her teeth before pouring the thick content inside directly into her mouth. With her actions being so swift that I couldn''t even think about stopping them, I could only watch how a small bulge travelled down her throat as she swallowed the thick fluid. In one instant, it seemed as if a strange light gathered in her innards, only to explode as suddenly as it contracted right after that. Something happened. That I was sure off. But no matter how closely I attempted to inspect Ayda''s state, I couldn''t find a single clue of what happened to her. At least, she didn''t look to be in any pain or peril. Rather than that, the blush on her cheeks only deepened as she looked straight in my face with those big, enchanting eyes of hers. "Once we finish our date in your world, I want you to impregnate me." Chapter 119: Three requests Chapter 119: Three requests "Are you ready then? I don''t think there is any point in waiting. Since you drank that potion already, the worst part is already behind us, isn''t it?" Raising from the bed, I gently ignored Ayda''s plead. Whether I would nail her down with the intention of impregnating her was fairly obvious, but allowing this topic to remain on the agenda would only spoil the funter on. "Actually, I need just a few minutes. While you areing in and out, I got quite busy with several matters. Wait for me a moment please." Jumping off from the bed, Ayda pulled on her shirt to fix it on herself before leaving the room. The hasty way in which she ced her steps only proved how eager she was to visit earth. "Finally I will get her to my home" Initially, I wanted to just spend a few moments enjoying just the thought that my longsting wish would finallye true when I suddenly realised all the possible hardships bound with bringing someone to earth. First thing first, we would both arrive in my basement. Given how it was my base of operations, it was filled with all kinds of tools, weapons, materials and food stocks, making it the worst ce to wee someone in a new world. But that was a tiny problem whenpared with the next hurdle. Given how my basement was the most secure ce in the entirepound making up the headquarters of my faction, just bringing Ayda outside would be impossible to achieve without anyone spotting her. And even without that happening, I could tell how quickly the news would spread once someone would notice her. That meant, I had no other choice but to announce her arrival openly. Rather than trying to smuggle her like some kind of whore, it was better to just introduce her as my partner But the problem of her appearing from my basement still stood. If I imed she was just my partner, people would be bound to start asking questions like where the heck did she came from? From this question, it was a short way to assuming that I was holding innocent girls in my basement, that could quickly end up with people storming this sacred ce of mine. That''s why, the only way to secure Ayda''s position in my world, was not only by introducing her as my partner on a personal level but also as an important figure in the globalwork of my faction! Those who worked under me would receive tangible proof that Boruta''s cult wasn''t something that I created by myself, given how it had branches elsewhere. At the same time, the other factions in the city would have to acknowledge how my faction wasn''t fully focused on this area. Thinking about this, by introducing Ayda as the delegate from another outpost, I could create an illusion that this cult was far more widespread than people would ever assume! "I''m back!" mming the doors open, Ayda basically fell through them. Grabbing the side of the desk to support herself at the veryst moment before falling to the floor, she took a few whiles to regain her breath. Judging from the fat beads of sweat trickling down her face, she was really in a hurry while dealing with her current affairs. "Don''t worry. While we can go in right away, there are some things that I need you to remember and act uponter on." Standing up from the bed and approaching the girl, I grabbed her in my arms before moving her back on the bed. But instead of ravaging her in a bout of sudden lust, I allowed her to take a short rest while opening up the wardrobe myself. As little as I knew about the female dressing fashion, I quickly whipped a suit that would fit Ayda''s looks while not making her look like one of those modern-day inte whores. After all, given how she was about to y the role of an insanely important, religious leader, her looks had to fit her status. "Would you mind changing in those clothes? While it doesn''t matter whether you do it here or in mynding room" Before I could even finish my words, Ayda moved her already rested body up, before pulling her current robes down without even a shred of hesitation. While it was true that we saw each other being naked for quite a lot of times already, sneaking peeks at the changing girl had some kind of special allure to it, instantly making my blood rush to the obvious ce. "I''m done." Proving that she was one of those women that didn''t abide by the stereotype of spending more time on readying herself for the asion than on the entire event. This time openly looking at Ayda in her entire beauty, for a moment I thought that I would forget how to breathe. So far, she used to wear mostly her reddish robes, which only pretended to hide her sizeable charms. Right now, dressed in a simple t-shirt and a pair of jeans she obtained a new kind of charm, making it even harder for me to not tear her clothes from her body right away. But with an idental look at the bed, I realised that she didn''t use all the parts of the outfit that I prepared for her. "Is the bra too small for you?" Looking meaningfully at the piece of brasserieying down on the bed, I expected either some proudful or shy answer. "I''m sorry, I didn''t really know what to do with it so I just left it like that." Shrugging her arms like if this wasn''t a matter worthy of wasting our time at, Ayda identally stepped on thendmine. After all, what kind of a man would I be if I didn''t use this opportunity? "Hand''s up." Approaching the girl, I ordered. As puzzled as her eyes were, Ayda obediently brought her arms up Only for me to grab the bottom of her shirt before pulling it out of her body. Pressing my body forward, I almost hugged the girl while actually reaching to the bed behind her to pick the bra from it. With her breasts ttening against my chest, I put the arm of the bra in my mouth before grabbing Ayda by her waist and turning her around. "This is how you use it. It would be Really bad if someone saw you without it in my world." Standing behind the girl''s back, I brought my hands to the front with the bra already in my fingers. Grabbing hold on Ayda''s soft tits, I heard her moaning gently. But rather than enjoying the moment, I ced the cups of the bra in their designed ce before pulling the straps under her arms and locking the buttons up. "Better?" Being a man, I had no clue how would a female like Ayda feel when trying the bra for the very first time. What I knew though, was that I would kill anyone who would as much as get a glimpse of her nipples protruding through the thin material of her t-shirt. "Yeah, it''s surprisinglyfortable but Wait, is that jealousy that I feel in you?" Jerking up slightly when those words came out of her mouths, Ayda''s entire body suddenly rxed as if she was melting, before she leaned head to the side to ce a gentle kiss on my cheek. "Oh, sweetie" Losing her drive to go to earth right this very moment, I recognised the state Ayda was currently in. Just like she said before, she was always ready to adore and please me, only appearing to act like a normal person by holding herself back. And for some reason, it seemed that my slight jealousy of any man that would have the chance to adore her beauty was enough to push her buttons. "Dress up. You are all ready to go. But I have three requests for you for the time being." Already more than satisfied with the several feels of her skin that I got today, I moved three steps away from the girl to stop pushing my own buttons. Only when I could no longer whiff her smell or hear her heartbeat did I pick up my sentences. "First of, I want you to pretend to be a bishop, or in other words, a high religious leader of the cult that I created. While that faith of mine is nothing but a useful tool, I still need to keep the pretence of being a bishop. That means you will be a bishop from a remote outpost visiting the recently established headquarters of our religion." Watching how Ayda quickly pulled her shirt on her body once again, I only made sure that she heard my words before moving on to the next point. "Secondly, it will be better if you don''t speak much. Just ignore all the novelties of my world before I will tell you otherwise, and act as if we were still in this world. If you will be seen being too curious about the stuff we consider to bepletely normal, people will start paying unnecessary attention to you." With the girl already done with her preparations, I grabbed her hand and pulled her towards the doors of the room. My lips turned into a gentle curve as I smiled looking at Ayda''s anxious face. Just like expected, subconsciously thest point that I would bring would have the greatest weight in Ayda''s mind. "I want you" With my fingers tightly grasping Ayda''s wrist, I pulled her into my embrace before taking a single step behind. "... to have as much fun as you can!" Chapter 120: Whats in the box Chapter 120: What''s in the box There wasn''t any great change once we passed the doors. For me, this was just yet another time of passing between worlds. But for Ayda, appearing in my basement was akin to breaking through the barrier that should not be broken. Given how I pulled the two of us through the doors, it was of no surprise to me when I ended up tripping on my leg. Falling to the floor, I inevitably pulled the girl in my arms along. Not the best way to introduce someone to a brand new world. "Guh" Falling to the floor, I hit it with my back so hard that all the air escaped from my lungs. Squeezed from the top by Ayda''s weight didn''t help either. But rather than being devastated over this little bit of difort, I instantly jumped to make sure that Ayda was all right. "Are you hurt? Anywhere?" Raising my head and scanning the girl''s body to make sure she was okay, I saw her feebly nod her head before raising her face and taking a look at the basement of mine. "What is this ce?" Puzzled by the strange appearance of the room, Ayda ended up asking. "It''s a basement of a mansion that doesn''t exist any longer. Do you remember the time when you felt me reaching the taboo? Back then, my family house and my family itself got devastated. My father died under the rubble before I could even do anything. I tried my best to save my mother But it didn''t work out in the end. This room is thest remaining part of the life I used to have." Finally regaining enough strength to raise from the floor, I helped Ayda stand on her legs first, before standing up myself. "Also, this is the only ce where I can use my ability to travel through the words. Only the doors leading to this basement allows me to do so." As stupid as it might seem, I didn''t want to hide anything from Ayda. Maybe it was just a simple charm that made me look at her in such a favourable way, maybe it was the fact that she was always ready to sleep with me. After all, I wasn''t naive enough to believe that having such an amodating girl by my side didn''t influence the way I was looking at her at all. But ultimately, the truth was simple. If Ayda turned out to be manipting me all this time if she were to use this knowledge against me Then it would mean she never had any feelings for me. Such reality was too much for me to survive. Not when all my emotions were bound to this single, particr girl. And that meant, it didn''t matter whether Ayda would learn about my system or not. If she wanted to betray me, my emotional state would be over either way. And to bepletely frank, I already got enough of an edge over the rest of the world with the budding industry of magic stones that even if I were to be deprived of my system, I would still be able to make a living on earth! "I understand But what kind of magic is it? Something local?" Pointing her hand at something that I clearly couldn''t see, Ayda looked at me with a puzzled look in her eyes. "The ability to move between the worlds? No, I don''t think anyone else" Before I could even finish my response, Ayda shook her head rapidly. "No, not this thing. What are those boxes? Signs? You know, those appearing at the periphery of my vision" Still pointing her hand in the same direction as before, Ayda moved her eyes on me only to twitch the next moment. "Oh, it moved" For a moment, I didn''t want to believe what was going on. The possible repercussions of something like this happening Before those dire thoughts could overtake my emotions, I calmed myself down. "Can you read what''s written on those signs?" Grabbing Ayda''s hands between mine, I looked closely into her eyes. Not with anger or fear, but with expectations. Because if my guess wasn''t wrong, then the potency of that potion that I found in my palm just a few hours ago would be way greater than just allowing Ayda to travel between the worlds with me! "Not really, it''s written in some strangenguage" Lowering her head in a clear disappointment, Ayda''s aura darkened a bit. From the looks of things, thenguage barrier wasn''t fixed when allowing her to most likely use the system just like I did! "Give me a moment." In face of this groundbreaking change, touring the earth instantly moved not only for ater time but also a lower priority. Letting go of the delicate girl''s hands, I scrambled around the basement to find something to write. Throwing stuff out of my desk, I ransacked the insides of its shelves before finally pulling out some kind of forgotten notebook and a pen. "Could you redraw the things that you see in here? I might be able to trante it." While it was just a guess, if I was right about Ayda suddenly being able to use the system on the same rights as I was doing for a while already, then it would be huge. Not only would that mean that her safety would be now perfectly secured, but she could grow far stronger from now on. But what was even greater, she could actually apany me to all sorts of different words! As repulsive as the idea of putting her up for the danger of those worlds would be, there was still the emergency exit. And there was no doubt that with her by my side, aplishing any mission would be two times easier than doing it alone! Pushing those overenthusiastic thoughts aside, I watched how Ayda diligently continued to copy the marks that she and only she was capable of seeing down on my notebook. Watching how she pushed just the tip of her tongue as she focused on drawing the symbols made me once again realise how lucky I was to be with her. In the end, the beauty of this level, the beauty that was so adorable and easygoing, had no right to exist on earth. "Done!" Finally putting the pen away, Ayda eximed with a proud look in her eyes. But given how I watched her ce every single line and dot on the notebook, I already knew the answer to my guess halfway through her work. "Let me trante it to you then" With a deep sigh of relief, I took the notebook filled with ugly letters of the alphabet that I was familiar with ever since I learned how to read. "It goes, congrattions on the first visit to another world. To receive the bonus package, please give an appropriatemand. The other one means congrattions on unlocking the basic package of the basement multiverse system. You are now eligible to freely travel through the unlocked words. Reminder, only the original host can unlock new words." Since I already told her about my ability to travel the words, there was absolutely no point in hiding the existence of a system from her. Especially if she appeared to be able to use it by herself now! "Woah But that package.. What should I say? But still, I gotta admit, this is some impressive magic here, I couldn''t even feel any fluctuations to the natural flow of the energy!" Speaking up even after asking the question, Ayda suddenly moved her hand forward only to snatch the notebook away from my hand and put it away on the table. "Well, I think anything goes. You can try shouting receive, package, reward, or anything thates to your mind that will be mentally connected to the idea of receiving the reward." Shrugging my arms at this topic as I never bothered to actually think about how the system was capable of discerning my intentions, I momentarily lowered my guard. Only to see a box suddenly appearing in Ayda''s hands!" But what was even more surprising, was how she instantly dropped it to the ground before once again pushing her hands forward. This time, however, there was nothing to snatch out of my hands for her. With her hands grabbing my clothes, I was suddenly pulled into her embrace. "I know that you might be worried about this situation But I don''t want any of it. I came here to visit your world, to let you see all sorts of faces that I will make by being amazed by the wonders that arecking in my own world. I don''t want you to think" Before Ayda could even finish her words, I brought her even closer in my hug, forcing her hand against my shoulder to stop her words froming out. "I know that there might be a slight bit of worry in my emotions, but more than that, I''m happy. While I never thought it would happen, having you as the only other person in the world or rather, the worlds, that can share both the burden and the benefits of the system with me You can''t even imagine how happy I am." Just by keeping the girl enclosed in my embrace, I was already reaching the peak of happiness. No matter what others would say, this was the future I wanted to have. With a girl that I believed loved me, tightly pressing her body against mine in a simple act of hugging. "Then, how about we see what''s in the box?" After a long moment of this intimate sharing of each other''s heat and affection, Ayda finally distanced herself from me with a mischievous smile on her face. "Go on. This is your box, so you should do the honours of opening it." Smiling gently at the lovable girl, I even pushed her towards the ce where she dropped the box. Knowing from my own experiences, it would most likely contain the things that she wanted the most at the moment. Just like that energy-sucking nt that I received when I wanted to save my mother or the system potion I wanted when I hoped to bring Ayda to earth. And it would be a great lie to tell that I wasn''t curious what was inside it either! But as I saw her hands moving to open it, as I saw her move the lid a bit up, her cheeks suddenly exploded in redness as she smashed the box closed right away, before I would even have a single chance to take a peek of what was inside! "Ekhem Was this something Not good?" It would be a huge disappointment to learn that Ayda''s rewards were of worse quality than what I was receiving. After all, how could the system be so based to treat her worse than it did me? "Ah, it''s nothing. I think I think I will show you the insides a bitter." With her face burning red, Ayda put the box behind her before looking at me with a troubled expression. "So, how about we start sightseeing now? I can''t wait!" Chapter 121: Meeting Sander Chapter 121: Meeting Sander As much as I wanted to get going right away, there were still some things that I had to take care off. Even though it wasn''t anything big, it was still a matter that had to be dealt with. "I''m telling you, only for the first few days! Once people will ept your position, you will start dressing like everyone else! Heck, once we move out of the area, it would be actually great for you to take those robes down!" To think that my very first argument with Ayda would be about such a silly topic. Holding a special robe that I prepared in one of my rare free moments, I was attempting with all my might to convince Ayda to wear it. Even though I was perfectly aware that my craft wasn''t up to her standards, I at least made sure that all the materials the religious robe was made with were of top quality! Yet, for some reason, Ayda continued to refuse to wear it! "I''m telling you. I dressed in those cute clothes and now I''m not going to hide them! And don''t get me wrong." Her shoulders sunk as she dropped her head down with a deep sigh. "Listen. Other girls would argue on this point because of their own pride. As silly as it might sound, you can take it that we, the females, are gathering energy by showing off how cute we are. But I''m not refusing those clothes because of my own vanity, that''s a big no." Raising her hand and swinging her forefinger to the sides, corners of Ayda''s lips moved up as she graced me with yet another charmful, albeit smuggish, smile of hers. "It''s actually all about you. We are supposed to be partners, aren''t we? Then only by appearing at my best could I give enough honours to someone of your status!" Pushing the me for her childish actions from herself onto me, Ayda suddenly took a step forward before wrapping her hands around my neck as shetched to me. "Or are you going to tell me that you are too jealous to let any other man see how cute I am?" Whispering those words right into my ear, Ayda ended up her sentence by nibbling on my earlobe a bit. "Yeah, that would actually be about half the reasons why I want you to dress this robe. The other one is keeping the status of a high, religious leader. If you were to appear as just my girlfriend or even fiancee right away, people would be bound to start the rumours how your position was nothing more but me finding a cosy job for my girl." Shaking my head, I ced my hands on Ayda''s shoulders before pushing her just as gently as this move of mine was decisive. "But isn''t that actually the case? Well, the truth is you are actuallying up with a brand new role just to let me fit in it, aren''t you?" Leaning her head slightly to the side, Ayda looked at me with her eyes wide open. Her brows travelled so far on her face that it was no longer possible to see them under her hair. "Well, this is actually truth" Turning my head to the side, I attempted to hide my slightly embarrassed face from the smug eyes of Ayda. From the looks of things, even though this entire thing started as a silly argument, this girl was rather enjoying this kind of gentle banter! "Eh, just do whatever you want. Let''s go." Acknowledging my defeat in this bout, I could only shake the topic away. With brimming Ayda behind me, I finally closed the doors to the basement, closing the portal between the worlds only to open them again. For me, the sight was already boring. A big, concrete dome surrounded the slightly unkempt staircase. But for Ayda, this was the first time she could see something that was absent in her world. It''s not like there was no mortar in her word. As if it was something basic, it seemed that any civilisation in any word that went beyond the tribal phase would obtain something simr. But for the entire construction to be built out of a mortar? That was definitely something unheard of in Ayda''s parts. But that was only the beginning of the tour. After leading the girl out of the concrete enclosure, I finally brought her to the more civilised part of the mansion. Feeling her amazement even when we were walking through what I could only consider as your extremely average corridor, I could hold myself back from looking back at her face only with the utmost effort of my ego. "Oh, your excellency! How did the tests go?" As if my luck couldn''t get any worse, the first person to encounter the two of us was Sander. While I was absolutely certain about his loyalty, there wasn''t even a slight doubt in me about him being intelligent enough to figure out the truth behind Ayda if he were to interact with her long enough. "Good enough. Those stones that you told me to be wary about though Well, they didn''t work. I think they have some kind of energy-feed loop hidden somewhere due to imperfections of the craft but don''t take it personally, it''s just my guess after all." Instead of openly admitting to what happened in my dream or that meeting with that godlike being, I went with the story created on the basis of what I knew and what that strange, white being told me. "No, I wouldn''t dare. In fact, I was worried that it might actually be the sake Oh, I''m sorry, I didn''t notice your guest. I''m sorry for bothering you two!" Whether Sander actually failed to notice Ayda before or if he put the topic of her appearance forter due to his interest in the results of the testing of his stones was up for a pretty serious debate. Personally speaking, I was inclined to believe that this craftsman actually couldn''t be bothered with introductions in the face of new knowledge regarding his new job. And that guess of mine was the only reason why I lead the discussion in a way that would let Ayda regain her honour as the most important person in the room. Or to be more precise, the most important person in the corridor the three of us were standing in the middle of. "This is her excellency Ayda, a fellow bishop of our cult, sent here by the headquarters. While she used to manage one of the smaller and more remote branches, I would have to spend nearly the entire day just to list out her insane achievements. So for now, just take single advice from me." Smiling gently, I looked directly into Sander''s eyes. "It''s best not to anger her. And especially not to the point when she will speak out loud. Many scars on my backs only serve as a testimony to my words." Leaning over the man''s shoulder, I whispered those words right into his ear as if I was worried that Ayda would hear them. And while it was obvious that she was perfectly aware of what we were speaking about, this girl was just too talented when it came to acting. Turning from the lovable girl that she usually was into a cold beauty in a matter of a single instant, Ayda proved that she was the best person to bring along, even if not for all the moments we shared between each other. Hearing what ims I made about her character, she slowly but steadily changed her aura to fit my description. "Ah, please, forgive me my insolence. I wasn''t aware that I had the honours of facing an esteemed bishop!" Instantly falling on one knee, Sander bowed his head. But as aggravating this sight was for someone like me who believed this kind of honours was more than overrated, I had no other choice but to just stick with it. After all, who was I to change the customs that were already deeply ingrained in one''s nature? "Fear not. She''s not as condescending to punish people just because they didn''t know her in advance." Shrugging the problem away, I sent a quick yet meaningful look to the girl before moving around the still kneeling Sander. As great of an actor, as she was, Ayda still followed right after me without even a shred of hesitation. Thankfully, this unfortunate encounter with Sander turned out to be thest obstacle that stopped the two of us from randomly and cheerfully going out. Moving out of the mansion, we quickly arrived at the main road that connected thends owned by my faction with the rest of the city. Even though the recovery efforts were rather weak, this one line ofmunication was treaded like a priority task for the entire city. After all, it connected all the major points within it! And then, Ayda could finally see the beauty of the modern town in its full grace. Chapter 122: Encounters and red lights Chapter 122: Encounters and red lights "Try to keep calm for just a little longer. Once we merge into the crowd, it should be okay to let this amazement of yours go free." Step by step, the two of us were gradually distancing from not only the mansion but the entire faction area as well. As little as it would do in the greater scope of things, given how the entire city was divided into areas that other factions were responsible for, it was still for the better if my private activities didn''t take ce in the area controlled by the group behind me. "Don''t worry" Using the moment when we were about to cross the corner and enter the subsidiary street leading to the main trading area in the city, Ayda fluttered forward, wrapping her hands around my arm. "... I can y the role of love-ridden maiden pretty easily. We will be in such a spotlight that no one will bother with us!" Whispering gently to my ear, corner''s of Ayda''s lips raced upward, putting a slightly yful smile on her face. epting how she was fawning over me during this simple stroll through the city, for the first time in a long while, I got to enjoy myself by just walking through the streets of my hometown. "Well, that could be the case. Or rather, if I wasn''t pretty well-known around the town that is." Even if I fully pulled away from the world of politics within the city, there was no way that people would already forget that fake face of mine. That''s why Ayda''s idea of hiding in the shadows of the spotlight we would direct at ourselves Didn''t lie well in me. "Well, if you are an influential figure here, then howe I can tell you feel like you need to hide? Isn''t it the point of being strong to do whatever you want? And it''s not like you are doing something wrong Unless" Suddenly, I felt a sharp sting steeming from Ayda''s aura. With her hands leaving my arm, I saw how her face changed as she took several steps to the back. "Unless you are" Her eyelids were shaking, her hands were trembling. Her aura was about as stable as the core of nuclear load right after it broke through its critical mass. "Krist, tell me. Like, with all the honesty you can muster. Are you like that?" Looking at me with a dead-cold stare, Ayda showed me this side of her for the very first time. "Like what? I don''t really understand what you mean." Just like Ayda requested, I was perfectly honest with her. And using that perfect honesty of mine, I could fully im that I was just confused. What I was like? I was like what? Those questions continued to make my head hurt over how hard I was trying to uncover the meaning of them. "Krist, do you swing that way? Is this some kind of requirement in your society to be man-crazed in order to achieve some kind of status?!" Only now did I understood what she meant, what was the source of such an insanely deep disgust that I could see both in her eyes and her aura. Rather than exining the misunderstanding right away, I decided to tease her a bit. "What? Does people in your world scorn at the vagino-sceptics?" Asking this question with a smile on my face, I could see how Ayda turned her eyes away. "Well, it''s not like its forbidden or criminal But there are some that don''t like the idea. I personally don''t care either way, but to think that you would be one Why did you sleep with me then?! Was this all just to trick me?!" For a moment, I really wanted to tease her. Yet, seeing how tears started to brim in her eyes, how her entire aura filled with a sense of desperation and overwhelming loss, I realised that the cost of my little fun was way too great for me to be willing to pay it. "Stop it." Rushing forward, I shot my hands towards the girl, only to lock them behind her neck and lock her in a deep hug. Right now, I couldn''t care less about causing amotion and people noticing me. Whenpared to seeing Ayda sad because of some silly misunderstanding, outrage in social media seemed to be a far lesser problem. Or rather, it was a far lesser problem for me. After all, this entire religion that I heralded, was nothing but a mean for me to attain a happy and peaceful life! "I was just teasing you. I''m sorry about that. I would never sleep with you just to get you to my side. Whenever I hold you in my arms, I do it because I want to have you as close to me as possible. Whenever we make love, I''m truly immersing in your warmth. Whenever we kiss, I truly hope to convey all my feelings with this nonverbal usage of our lips." Moving my hand up and down her back, I allowed the scent of Ayda''s hair to get in my head. Standing just like that in the middle of the street, I didn''t even need to raise my eyes to know that a crowd of people was watching us as if we were some kind of drama performers. But I still raised my eyes. Not to confirm my guess, just by reading the fluctuations of the magic energy in the air I could tell that I was right. I wanted to just look scornfully at those spectators to remind them that going on about their own days and matters was what they should focus on. But when I raised my eyes, I saw someone who I didn''t expect. And an expression on the face of that person, that spelt trouble. Or rather, not trouble. A disaster. "Krist?" Asking with a weak voice, Martha took a step forward. It was as if she couldn''t even see that I was currently making out with my girlfriend. Even though my current looks were nowhere close to how my original face looked like, she somehow still looked at me exactly the same way when back in the days, I found her lost in the forest. "Excuse me?" Noticing a change in my aura, Ayda instantly calmed herself down. Forcing her way out of my arms, she rapidly turned around before casting a deadly cold stare at that former ssmate and love of mine. "Ah, sorry. I didn''t mean to interrupt" Up until this moment, her face was trembling as if she couldn''t stomach the possibility of what she just witnessed. But now, her looks changed. Taking a step forward, she leaned over Ayda''s shoulder before whispering in a voice that was soft enough for the crowd around us to miss it, but one that I could pretty easily hear. "If you don''t want to cause a scene, follow me. I''m sure you don''t want to reveal who you really are to the public either." Just like before, Martha''s current face was familiar to me. It was one that she used when after two years of training, she finally faced off against her greatest rival in the school. That was a face she made when, at least in her head, her entire life was at the stake. "You little I don''t know what kind of hole you crawled up from but if you think" Hearing the clear threat in Martha''s words, Ayda instantly red up. Even though she was currently dressed in earthy clothes, from how she suddenly ced her hand on her waistline, I could tell that she still managed to hide some kind of weapon under those skin-tight clothes! "Ayda, it''s okay." I wasn''t rejoicing at the fact that a former love of mine managed to recognise who I was, despite my appearance being that of a rtively young, middle-aged man. This girl, even if unwillingly or even unknowingly, was still the one who caused the chain reaction of people''s actions that led to the death of my former life. And as such, she had absolutely no right to hold me back right now. Not when I finally got the chance to enjoy my day with Ayda. And as much as I wanted to separate myself from the politic of the town, now that she somehow realised the truth about my identity, this pit full of shit finally had to be taken care of. Even if only because of who her family was. "I''m sorry, youngdy, but I have no idea what you are talking about. Right now I''m in the middle of something, so it would be lovely if you could make yourself sparse." Rather than allowing her to use her advantage of the knowledge that she just obtained, I decided to y dumb. Ultimately, her realisation was just this. A realisation based on a guess and a feeling. If she truly believed she could cause me trouble by suddenly iming I''m one of the people that my faction turned into martyrs, then she spent too long at the seat of a school queen to recognise what kind of enemies were better off left alone! Grabbing Ayda''s hand, I didn''t even wait for Martha''s response. Just by interacting with her for such a short period of time, my mood already reached the verge of breaking apart and forcing me back into my working attitude. Yet, Martha didn''t stop us. Not willing to give her any hints, I didn''t turn my head around no matter how surprising herck of actions was for me. Rather than doing that, I simply scanned the area with my magic sense Only to realise that she was still standing on the same spot that I left her at. "Let''s go." Since she wasn''t going to act on her threat from before, I wasn''t willing for this opportunity to go to waste. With the rage of having my family killed once again surfacing in my soul, I just dragged Ayda with me through the streets for quite a while, without even bothering about the directions. Only once my emotions managed to calm down, did I stop. Raising my head at the girl obediently following every single step of mine, I would have to be stupid to not notice the worry on her face. "Don''t worry about it." Realising how did the situation appear to her, I finally managed to shake the foul mood from before, bringing a smile back to my face. "She''s just someone from my past. Not worthy to bother with." Shrugging the topic of Martha away, I raised my eyes. Only to notice a single, peculiar element of the atmosphere of the ce we reached that managed to escape from my attention before. "She''s the one that caused you so much grief back then, isn''t she?" Rather than calming down, my words only aggrieved Ayda''s anger even more. "Not directly, but yeah. Looking back, she most likely wanted to use some forceful measures to push her family into supporting mine But she was too naive to notice that her movements were quickly noticed. As a result, the former governor of this town sent his troops to recover a simple damned nt from my house. The results of which you could guess even back when it happened." As I kept Ayda''s attention focused on our talk, I managed to sneakily grasp her hand. Using the fact that her focus was elsewhere, I attempted to pull her away from the area. "What are you doing? We are not done talking yet!" Sadly, Ayda wasn''t as naive as to let my silly attempts go under her radar. "Or is this ce making you ufortable for a rea oh." Looking around as if she wanted to find some clues capable of exining my strange behaviour, Ayda scanned past the several signs ced on the nearby buildings, all sharing a single feature. All of those signs cast a red hue on the streets below them. But even without that, the suggestive imagery used on said signboards was more than enough for anyone to realise just what kind of area did we end up appearing at. "Now that you understand, how about we leave for somewhere else" That was my genuine intention. Today was aimed to be a day that I would spend letting Ayda uncover the wonders of the earth. A red street district with brothels and love hotels wasn''t one of the sights that I nned to show to her. "No. This ce is good. Or rather, isn''t this the perfect ce to have some talk in private?" Stepping forward and wrapping her arms around my shoulders, Ayda purified her aura out of all the anger. "Or is it that seeing this Martha girl made you hesitant whether I''m the girl you want to screw with?" Chapter 123: Aydas wish (strictly +18) Chapter 123: Ayda''s wish (strictly +18) "Argh!" Bending herself to the back, Ayda tightened herself on Krist junior. Her face raised to the ceiling in ecstasy was visible to me only for a moment, before the girl heavily dropped down on my naked chest. With heavy pants making their way out and between her lips, my hand inevitablynded on the girl''s head. "That was insane. Thanks." Uttering those words through my tired throat, I leaned my head back on the pillows. Feeling the warmth of Ayda''s sweaty body on top of my skin, I couldn''t even imagine having a more divine nket on me. With her haggard breath hitting me directly in the chest, I watched over how the girl calmed slowly down. "Don''t tell me you are done already." After taking a moment to rest, Ayda moved her head around, putting her face directly in front of mine. Her eyes brimmed with excitement, that didn''t die off even after three rounds. "I''m ready whenever you are." Smiling in response, I ushered in the affectionate atmosphere that Ayda created for me. Especially after meeting my former crush, this kind of dedicated attention was something that I craved. "Because you know, everything so far was just for me to make sure you truly prefer my sweet pussy over the stinky assholes of some men. I hope I managed to get this point across." Putting a finger on my lips as she spoke this, Ayda gently twisted her hips, wringing the spirit out of my rod. For some reason, ever since we began, outside of when we were changing positions, our genitals never moved apart. With the mixture of my own sperm and Ayda''s juices only making it easier to slide in and out of her, there was no way for either of us to stop at any time soon. "But now that we have the forey behind us, I think it''s finally time for you to see just what I received from that strange entity." Raising up on top of my hips, Ayda''s face twisted in a grimace of leisurely pleasure. Even this simple motion was enough for my penis to grind against her insides, sending a wave of pleasure through our shared consciousness. This was something that no other human on earth could experience. By opening up our auras and mixing them together, our emotions were no longer our own. With the pleasure of being prated transferring directly to my mind just as the pleasure of having my weak points squeezed reached Ayda''s head, even the simplest of the moves was enough to make an average man explode. Yet, rather than using this technique to slowly enjoy each other in a loving and gentle embrace, for some reason, Ayda was wilder than ever tonight. "Oh, right! There was the matter of this box! Now that you mention it, I''m indeed quite curious about it." Fixing the position of my upper body a bit, I inevitably shook my hips a bit, sending yet another tsunami of paralysing pleasure through my flesh. The sight of Ayda''s charms shaking in reaction to her own experience right in front of my eyes, lovingly dangling right before my eyes, I just couldn''t help myself. "Ah! You beast!" yfully raining down her fists on my head, Ayda quickly sent her chin flying upwards when I sucked a little stronger on her nipple. While her pleasure transferred to me, my movements became even more vigorous. With my increasing lust transferring to the girl, her hips started to slowly move on their own. In our current state, even the simplest stimuli was enough to get the ball rolling, quickly escting from a passing, silly event to a fully-fledged mating. But this time, after only a few desperate moves of her hips, Ayda suddenly took her emotions in a powerful grasp before reining them in. "Not yet" Uttering those words into the air, the girl stopped moving for a moment. With our emotions still connected, Ayda ended up calming me down as well, allowing the two of us this moment of respite. But before long, the girl suddenly reached to the side, only relying on her legs, locked behind my thighs, to keep herself still attached to me. Giving me quite a show of all her beauty as she continued her athletics for a moment, Ayda finally returned back to the proper position of mounting me. But now, she was holding the same box that I saw appearing back in the basement in her hands. "You see, it''s not that I wanted to hide it from you in the first ce I just reckoned revealing it now would bring forth a greater effect." Turning the box around so that the hinge of the lid would face against me, Ayda pulled the box open. Seeing the content, a twitch travelled down my spine, instantly provoking a reaction in the girl mounting me. The insides of the small chest were fitted with some kind of pink velvet, instantly making it look like its content was of high ss. But seeing what lied amidst the velvet pillows, I felt something grasping my heart for a moment. And then, another chill travelled down my spine. "Are you really sure about this? It''s not like I''m strictly against it" Pulling out one of the few items that the box had inside, I alternated my eyes between it and Ayda''s face. And despite how daring she was to show it to me in the first ce, a huge blush still appeared on her face. "You know Normally, I believe being with someone like me No, let''s not go there. The thing is, you are too faithful in me." Shaking her head with a sudden, sad expression appearing on her face, Ayda silenced for a moment. "Hmm Okay. But what does it have to do with a blindfold, ropes and what this is? A whip? A pper?" Looking at the rest of the items within the box, I barely held a long sigh within my lungs. While epting such a kink was well within the scope of my tolerance, even if I were to end up on the receiving end, I still had no clue what it had to do with what Ayda said a moment ago. "That''s exactly what I''m telling you right now. It might be just the projection of my insecurity, my immatureness But I want to etch it in your heart and soul that I''m yours and yours exclusively. Even if I will end up needing to resort to those ways" Taking the blindfold out of my hand, Ayda quickly wrapped it around her eyes before carefully moving out from the bed and kneeling on the floor. "Please, do whatever you want with me. Ravage me in any way you would like, put me down, use me Do anything you like to mark yourself on me. And don''t hold back." Using her aura to direct her blindfolded head to where I was sitting in ce, stunned by this sudden development, Ayda smiled before cutting off her aura management. From now on, she could only rely on her ears to sense the world around her. "After all, this is what I desire, so don''t feel like you are forcing yourself on me. Rather than that, that''s what I wish for you to do. Also, thest thing." Lowering herself on her knees, Ayda sat on her knees with a smile blossoming on her lips. "Take a look at the vial in the box. You are free to use it as you want." Following Ayda''s request, I pulled out a small crystalic sk from the box. Attached to it on a tiny, silver chain was a small piece of crystal. As I attempted to inspect it, I recklessly touched it Only for a burst of knowledge to suddenly explode in my mind. "I see" This damned girl Not only was this potion a potent aphrodisiac capable of heightening the sensing abilities of one''s body, but it could also serve as a supporting agent, making it far easier for the female to get pregnant! "You little" Holding the potion in my hand, I stood up from the bed. Staring down, I couldn''t help but swallow a big gulp of saliva. Sitting on her knees directly on the floor, with her boobs glistering through the drops of sweat, with her face deprived of sight and yet still decorated with an intense smile Ayda was just too much! "Open your mouth." cing my hand on Ayda''s chin, I gently pulled it down. Not offering even a shred of resistance, the girl even went as far as pushing her tongue out as her mouth reached the limit of how wide she could open them. "You really are naughty" Instead of mming my dick right down her throat, I forced myself to calm down a bit, retreating a few steps instead. Only once I equipped the soft yet durable rope from the box did I return to Ayda''s proximity, this time approaching her from the back. Kneeling down, I conquered thest step between the two of us on my knees before hugging the girl from behind. "Yes, I''m a naughty girl. But I will be any girl that you want me to. Feel free to mould me to your liking!" With a tone of desperation finding its way to Ayda''s words, I felt my body twitching. If she was that desperate for it, then what kind of a man would I be if I failed to provide for her wish? Moving my hands up her slim stomach, I quickly reached the huge sacks of her breasts. But instead of grabbing them and enjoying the moment to my heart''s content, my hands only brushed past her nipples, past her armpits, past her elbows Only to finally rest atop her wrists. "Then I won''t hold myself back." Pulling both of her hands behind her back, I used the soft rope to tightly bind them together. With two of her limbs now out of the equation, I used a slight bit of attraction to pull a pillow out of a bed. Putting the soft piece of cloth on the floor, I grabbed Ayda''s throat. Tightening my hand around her neck as gentle as I could, I pushed her entire upper body downwards, making her facend right on the pillow I prepared in advance. "Do you know what it is?" With her ass now sticking right towards my face and her hands bound right above it, I raised on my knees before pushing my genitals towards her bound hands. "It''s your dick, master!" Salivating herself at just the thought of being fucked in this way, Ayda pressed her face against the pillow to hide it. While it made her voice slightly muffled, it was only another turn-on for me. Pulling my rod out of Ayda''s fingers despite their desperate attempts to keep a hold of it, I rested my lower head right against the bottom lips of my obedient girl. Looking down her spine, I saw how the one corner of her mouth that Ayda failed to hide, raised high on her cheek. It seemed that tonight''s st was only about to start! Chapter 124: Impregnation (1)(Strictly +18) Chapter 124: Impregnation (1)(Strictly +18) "So you want to surrender your entire self to yours truly, huh?" Walking around the kneeling girl, I whipped the air with the riding crop that I found in the box. Adoring the delicate features of her naked body as I continued my delicate stroll, I was actually fighting with myself. Because even if it was for the y, the idea of hitting the girl I loved was beyond by bottom line. Only by putting an utmost effort to go against my morals, I only managed to gently tickle Ayda''s ass by sliding the pper of the tool through her skin. "Yesh!" With her face pressed against the pillow, Ayda''s words turned slightly difficult to understand. Yet, just a single nce at her aura was more than enough for me to learn how insanely excited she was. ''I wonder, does she really wants those possible doubts to disappear from my head if they were there in the first ce, or is she just horny and decided to share her kink with me?'' Unable to answer this question, I released a deep sigh before putting the riding crop aside on the bed. Rather than using this, the deeply-red content of the sk that remained in the box seemed to be more interesting. With its dual nature of either working as an aphrodisiac or fornication enhancer, there was actually a lot that I could do with it. After all, kinky ys like this didn''t necessarily refer to techniques that inflicted pain. Forcing the other to withhold his or her urges was also a part of what was considered to be the greater whole of BDSM. "And you im that you are willing to bear my children?" Uncorking the sk, I took a quick whiff of the content. To my surprise, I didn''t even need to touch the liquid, as just the moment of smelling it was enough for my consciousness to waver. As if under the influence of some kind of spell, my already erect pride turned even harder, painfully standing at attention, awaiting to be sheathed in a ce it belonged to. "YESH!" With her excitement growing with each passing second, Ayda''s body started to tremble. Even though I was nearly on the other end of the room, it seemed as if she somehow believed I was getting closer. Even from those several meters away, I could see how drops of thick liquid slid down her thighs, only proving how wet she was. "Good." Moving away from the bed, I dipped two of my fingers in the thick liquid within the sk, before approaching Ayda''s rear. Exposed in its entire beauty, now that I had a better look at her bottom lips, I could barely hold myself back from mming my hard-on as far as it would fit. But that would potentially disappoint the girl, who was obediently awaiting some kind of kinky y. And given how I was the one acting in the current situation, I had to shoulder the responsibility of reining in my own desires. "Then we need to prepare you first." Using my middle finger to touch Ayda''s spine at the height of her belt, I slowly moved it downward, keeping my wet fingers away from her skin. Slowing down the closer I got to her pussy, I could feel how tense the girl turned on at this point. Not seeing any reason to keep staling any longer, I finally lowered two wet fingers of mine, before starting to gently massage Ayda''s entrance. "So this is what I was enjoying all those times We need to make sure it''s properly wet, don''t we?" Spreading the thick liquid of the aphrodisiac all over the entrance of her pussy, by the time my fingers reached her clit, yet another dosage of the liquid was coating my skin. Moving my fingers just a tiny bit further down Ayda''s hole with every single move, I soon had no other choice but to hold my fun back. After all, it would be a great pity if she were toe prior to when I would actually want her to! "No, no, no! We can''t have you cumming yet." Putting my penis right against the entrance leading towards Ayda''s womb, rather than inserting it, I allowed my shroom to slide down Ayda''s wet pussy, resting the rest of my body right on top of her twisted body. Approaching her head with my lips, I nibbled on her ear for a moment. "I I can''t I can''t hold it!" Screaming out, Ayda most likely was trying her absolute best to stop herself from cumming. After all, that was what I ordered her to do. Yet, there was no denying that having her wiggle under the weight of my body was something that I didn''t experience to this magnitude before. And I was quite enjoying it! "Let''s calm down for a bit then." Raising from above her delicious skin, I once again dipped my fingers in the liquid before returning to my previous position. This time, I slid my cock between her thigs, reaching for her boobs with my wet hands. Bit by bit, moment by moment, more and more of Ayda''s skin ended up covered in the thick liquid, before being absorbed inside her body. Just a single nce at her aura was enough for me to confirm that not only did this liquid brought her lust to yet another level with every dosage, it also made the parts that were covered in it way more sensitive than before. "Okay, yousted long enough. Now it''s time for your reward." Even though I never could ever imagine myself being a brute towards a girl so willingly giving me her body, the influence of the aphrodisiac seemed to start taking its effects on me as well. Despite the fact that I only ever dipped my fingers in it. ''I guess it''s time.'' This time, I didn''t put my fingers into the sk but allowed a few precious drops to fall on the palm of my hand. With just a few strokes, I spread the content on my cock, before moving from Ayda''s behind to where her face was. "Up-sie day-SI!" cing my hand on Ayda''s head, I patted her gently, before suddenly grabbing her hair and forcing her to raise her head. With her mouth already too weak to keep closed, I didn''t even need to give her any other order. mming my aphrodisiac-covered dick into her mouth, I felt as if all the heaves suddenly exploded and showered me in their pleasure. Instantlytching on my penis, Ayda started to desperately suck it, as if unwilling to waste even a single drop of the precious liquid. Swirling her tongue around my shroom as she desperately sucked on the whole thing, she inevitably continued to push her head closer and closer to my crotch, pushing the head of my hard-on deeper and deeper down her throat. "Ok, that will be enough!" Pulling on her hair, I managed to slide Ayda''s lips off my cock at the veryst moment. Even a single more stroke of her tongue against my sensitive points would be enough to unleash all my load into her throat. And as enticing as the idea of doing so was, the main point of today''s meal wasn''t about just experiencing pleasure. If I wanted for all my actions so far to make any sense, there was only one ce where my cum could end up. Thankfully, I already knew every step of what I should do next. Moving behind her exposed back once again, I looked down at her pussy for a moment before throwing my sight towards her nape. "Beg for it. If you manage to convince me that''s really what you want, you will get my cock." As soon as I said those words, I could see Ayda squirming slightly before positioning her hips even higher. But rather than just registering every single detail of the insane sight that she gave me, I quicklyid down beside the girl, on the same side to which her blindfolded face was directed. "Give me your cock, please I beg of you, I can''t hold it any longer! Ravage me! Take me! Fuck me!" Squirming as she continued to utter those words right in my face, Ayda couldn''t see how my expression turned even softer than before. But rather than keeping her waiting, I quickly poured the remaining content of the sk into my mouth, before pushing myself forward and closing the remaining distance between the two of us. "Fuck me, fuck me, fu" Pressing my lips right against hers as she was in the middle of her begging, I quickly forced her head to appear on the bottom, allowing the gravity to pull all the remaining aphrodisiac into her mouth. After all, ording to the knowledge that poured into my mind when I touched the crystal attached to the sk, its impregnation chance improvement effect would work only if it was properly consumed, otherwise working only as an aphrodisiac on touch. "Hmphmhp" Drinking all the liquid that poured into her throat without even a single thought of resisting, Ayda quickly immersed herself in the kiss. But at this point, I was right on the verge as well. Grabbing her delicate waist with my hands, I forced her body around, making her bottom pin her bound hands to the floor. Not daring to wait even for a single second longer, I separated our lips for just a moment, to reappear between her shaking legs and return to consuming all the saliva that she had to offer. When Ayda reached the point when she could only passively give herself to me and let me do whatever I want with her, I finally ced my penis at the entrance of her pussy, before jerking my hips up, and prating her wet hole! Chapter 125: Impregnation (2)(+18) Chapter 125: Impregnation (2)(+18) "Agh!" A lustful moan escaped Ayda''s lips once my member slid into her wet hole. Her entire body trembled in a sudden spasm of ecstasy, as all the teasing from before finally paid off. Feeling her insides wrapping desperately around my cock as if not willing to ever let it go, I could only hide my shame to a pocket. In the end, teasing the girl only resulted in my own lust raising to another level. Under the pressure of my excitement, just a few strokes was enough to bring me to fulfilment. The waves of pleasure rose up from deep within my body, only to spread like a wave across my entire self. With all those waves converging at the tip of my penis, I spasmed as the blood rushed out of my head, releasing all the stored seed from my balls. Adding the fuel by mixing my aura with Ayda''s once I reached the doorstep of the orgasm, I could feel how the girl tightened all around me when the mixed feelings of heavenly pleasure invaded her brain. At this point, her blindfold only pretended to cover her eyes, giving me a great look at the messy face of the girl. With the tears mixing on her face with both hers and my own saliva, with her absent look signalling as if she ascended to a better ce under the unrelenting assault of the pleasure, we came. Gulping every single drop of my sperm, Ayda''s soft wraps wriggled my penis, unwilling to leave even a single bit behind. Passing through my body, the wave of pleasure left me tired and rxed at the same time. Momentarily giving up to this innate slothfulness of mine, Iid down atop Ayda''s trembling flesh. But that moment of calmness didn''tst for long. After all, as much as I loved when Ayda cuddled me, it was now my job to make sure she felt taken care of even after the intercourse. "Come here, baby." Wrapping my arms around Ayda''s head, I slid to the side, changing our positions. Even though she wanted me to be as dominant as I could, I just couldn''t bear the thought of pinning such a delicate girl underneath me. After a moment of listening to Ayda''s heavy breath, I finally gathered my strength. Moving my hands from behind her head to her waist, I locked her body to mine before raising my torso. "Let''s move back to the bed, okay?" Securing my hold over Ayda''s feeble body, I felt her head gently digging into my shoulder as she hummed in approval. The vibration of the low sound of her murmur, the way how she fixed her own grasp over my body was just too damn cute. Whether she was doing it consciously or not, it still invoked a certain feeling in me, deeply ingrained in my masculine gic code. Paying the utmost attention to keep Ayda stable, I raised on my legs. Standing up, I took a moment to regain my stability before slowly making my way towards theforts offered by the bed. With the girl glued to my body, every step still made her move around a little, sending yet another cascade of pleasure down my recently unloaded cock. "Hey" As I approached the edge of the bed and was about to sit down on it, Ayda finally regained her voice. "Would you mind untying me? Being taken like that is nice and all But I still want to embrace you." Hearing her whisper as it crawled up my ear canals, yet another shudder travelled down my spine. This was the pinnacle of peacefulness that I wanted from life. Outside of resurrecting my parents, I didn''t really expect much more from life. Sadly, in order to be able to have this pleasant, slow life with Ayda, I had to create a world where we could have it in the first ce. Ultimately, as tempting as the idea of escaping with this girl to some faraway and depopted world to live the rest of our days in bliss would be, I knew for sure that abandoning both earth and Ayda''s world would be something we would grow to regret. "Sure. To be frank, I missed your touch, even if it was for just a short moment." Reaching behind the girl''s back, I pulled on the soft fabric that tied her hands, setting her free. But instead of jumping at the opportunity to get me back for the previous bout of ours, Ayda moved her hands to my chest, using them as a foothold for her chin. "Tell, what do you n to do with that girl? She recognised you, didn''t she?" Gently whispering her words, I felt the air propelled by her voice slid towards my throat. With her smell continuing to intoxicate me, with her pulsating innards squeezing my recovering penis, with her affectionate smile brimming on her lips and pure love exploding in her eyes, Ayda seemed to coat mepletely in herself. Turning her head around and resting her cheek on my chest, Ayda got silent. "For now, I would prefer to not mess with her. While by herself she doesn''t amount to much, she has quite the power backing her up. Right now, all that my faction amounts to could at most deal with just her personal guard. Before the business with the stones will properly kickstart I don''t see any way in which I could fight with her family. But if the situation changes and or if she attempts to leverage her knowledge to threaten me or to force my hand" Rather than answering directly, just a single second during which I revealed my wrath in my aura was more than enough for an answer. "I get it. Yeah, I think I was just being jealous of her a bit." Still keeping her voice as a whisper, Ayda suddenly ced her hands on my chest before prompting herself up. Still joined at the height of our hips, I once again got to enjoy the full view of her beauty. "I don''t think you ever had anything to worry about. Martha She is a story long over." Moving my hands on Ayda''s waist, I started to slowly move them upwards. By the time I was at the height of her ribs, Ayda already started moving her hips. Up and down, only the minimal distance. My sperm mixed with the aphrodisiac and her own juices only made it easier to slide in and out of her pussy. Bit by bit, our pace increased. Once my hands finally sank into the soft flesh of Ayda''s boobs, she was already riding on top of me. Soon, the room filled with our moans, as this naughty girl quickly brought me back to the gates of fulfilment. "I''m about to" Instantly mming herself down on my chest, Ayda locked her arms around my head as she started to rapidly move her hips up and down. Hitting her insides at a slightly different angle, I once again lost myself to my impure side. Grasping the girl in my arms as if there wasn''t a way to make her satisfactory close to me, I could only squirm in reaction to how she continued to ride me down the alley of pleasure. "Cum. Cum inside me." Frantically moaning those words directly into my ear, Ayda broke right through the barriers of my sanity. With my hands still wrapped around her, I turned myself around, changing the positions so that I could be on top once again. Looking at the sexy body below me, at all the charms that were well within the reach of my hands, I decided to indulge. Lowering my head over Ayda''s boobs, I mmed my face right in her rack, instantlytching on to her delicious skin. With my hips now taking the burden of fucking, I continued to move them to and fro, constantly adding more and more pleasure to the experience of us both. "I''m!" Unable to utter even a single word more, I shoot my load right against the gate of Ayda''s womb. Arching her back upwards as if she wanted to suck me in even deeper, Ayda tightened her hold on my neck, forcing my face down. Instantly engulfing me in a sloppy kiss, this damned girl continued to squeeze me dry as her tongue started to go wild within my jaws. Yet, with just a few more trembles, I no longer had any power left in me to continue. Cumming twice in rtively quick session was all that I could offer after the exhaustingst two days. To a point, I could even me the encounter with Martha for my poor performance, attributing it to the stress from potentially being discovered. But rather than replying with scorn or disappointment, Ayda continued to hug me, allowing me to restore my strength while cuddled in her arms. At this point, I wished for nothing else but to just fuse into the girl below me, so that we could remain connected like that until the end of times. "Thank you, my love." Unable to see her face, I could only guess what kind of expression Ayda made while uttering those words directly to my ear. But as pleasant as they were, they managed to make me realise that once again, I was pinning this delicate girl to the bed with my weight. This time, I decided against just rolling over. Pushing my upper body up, I stood up between her legs before pulling out and moving a bit on my knees away. Adoring the sight of the mess that I made out of her body, watching how her breast was covered with my saliva or how my cum slowly started to splurt out from between her legs, once again, I felt a strange sense of aplishment. "Thank you And I hope you will take good care of us from now on." Moving her hands towards her stomach, Ayda ced them atop her abdomen, gently patting the skin above her womb. This movement was pretty obvious. But as happy as it would make me if my guess was right, I could hardly believe that I could get her pregnant so soon and with such ease. "I can tell, dear. I can feel it in me. Your sperm gushing through my insides I can still feel it." Most likely noticing my doubts, this girl didn''t even bother to reassure me. Rather than that, she just graced me with one of her standard yet exclusive smiles, that she seemed to only ever reveal in my and my alone presence. "I guess, I will be troubling you with bearing my child." Lowering myself on my arms over Ayda, I ced a gentle kiss on her forehead. Chapter 126: Urgent meeting Chapter 126: Urgent meeting "Sir, it''s great that you are back now. We have some urgent things to talk about. I was asked to bring you to the conference room as soon as possible." Dashing towards me only to lower his head and pass the message, one of the many workers of my faction looked anxiously at Ayda beside me. "Ah, don''t mind her. Anything that you need to tell me, she is privileged to hear." While I was aware of how frantic my days would be with not only the constant progress of development of my magic stone business but also the growing interest of the entire world in the dungeons, I still hoped that I would get to show Ayda around. "Understood, sir. I also don''t want to impose on you" The troubled expression on the worker''s face was more than I needed to understand the source of his anxiety. "Don''t worry, we will head there right away." Grabbing Ayda''s hand without even a shred of hesitation, I pulled her into the insides of the mansion. Even today, few weeks ever since the construction of the faction house began, the noise of the huge machines and the crowd of workers mixed together, creating kind of a specific background noise that constantly apanied everyone in the area. In the end, I was the one to me for this situation. Even before the construction of the far wing of the mansion concluded, the constructionpanies affiliated with families that ended up siding with me were swarmed with orders for other buildings, further down in the area reserved for my faction. At this point, it wouldn''t be an overexageration to say that I ordered the construction of an entire town! "So this is how your home looks in the light of the day I didn''t really have the time or focus to take a proper look at it before, but I think I can fathom what you wanted to say by iming that this world is more advanced than mine." For the longest while, Ayda simply followed after me, allowing me to pull her in whatever direction my heart would desire. Only once she made up her mind did her words throw some light at what was currently going through her mind. After all, in the middle of the day, right in the rtively public space, we couldn''t mix our auras to read each other''s emotions, as that would pretty quickly lead to quite quirky yet dangerous events. And as little as I cared for peoples expectations forcing a celibate over me, fucking out in the open was a bit more than I could stomach if I were to be found out. "Keep in mind that I didn''t mention that to put you down. While our general technology is on a level unimaginable for you even after you saw a bit of this world, the same could be said about your world and magic. It''s developed far further than anything we managed toe up with in the short span of just a year ever since magic appeared in our world." Using the fact that the corridor we were walking through was nearlypletely empty, I didn''t bother hiding our intentions by using cryptic names for stuff. In the end, even if I wanted to do so, I would have to talk it through with Ayda in advance, so that she would actually understand what I would be speaking about. "But still, those magic stones matter you brought up earlier It is the perfect argument behind one thing that I noticed. You can adopt the knowledge from our world in just a few years, but doing the same in my world with the knowledge from yours I doubt even a century would suffice." Shaking her head, Ayda turned silent for a moment. And as much as I wanted to somehow cheer her up, no smart way of doing so appeared in my mind. Because the only thing that I could reply with to what she just said, would be to nod my head in agreement. "You know this is just a stupid theory of mine, but I believe that magic, as great as it is, ultimately stalls the growth of any civilization capable of using it. Once you can achieve certain basic things with magic, it would be just unreasonable to look for a moreplex and more expensive way of doing so. And while it would bepletely rational to give up on trying to invent a lighter in a world where everyone can light a fire with magic, it will make it impossible to develop a me thrower." As fake as my example was given how lighters most likely had absolutely nothing inmon with methrowers outside of the fact of operating on fire-rted principles, it was still good enough to pass through the idea that I wanted Ayda to notice. After all, one would develop by tackling the existing hardships and spreading the way of cheaply doing so. In a world where food was abundant for everyone, no one would bother with figuring out farming. In a world where everyone was super social and sharing, there was no need for money in the first ce. In a world where one''s fists could smash the mountains out of existence, no one would bother inventing firearms. "That actually makes sense. As great as magic can be, it just makes things way too easy. If it gets to be introduced before the world will properly develop" Before Ayda could finish her words, our journey finally came to an end. SIlencing down as we stopped before the huge, ss doors of the conference room, Ayda cast a quick nce at me, before depriving her face of all the possible emotions. After all, she still had a role to y before all those important figures of my faction. "Let''s go in." Muttering under my nose, I pulled on Ayda''s hand as I pressed the doors open with my free arm. "Sir." Nodding their heads in greeting, the officials of my faction wore grim looks on their faces. From the looks of things, there was actually a reason why a messenger was dispatched to fetch me. "Everyone, before we begin, let me introduce a help from the headquarters, bishop Ayda. I hope that not only everyone here will get along with her, but that you guys can ept the fact that in terms of authority" Taking a short break to slightly raise the tension, I smiled as I finished. "... she is equal to me." Opening the meeting with a shot of such magnitude, I managed to silence the entire room. No matter what kind of important matters they wanted to discuss with me, the appearance of someone that I believed to be on my level was too groundbreaking for them to just ept it. "Sir, with all due respect, but we are not following you because of the faith alone, but mostly because of your personal qualities, ideas and strength. As much as we would like to respect your wish here" As expected, only one person dared to even speak up against my wishes. Pavlo''s father, Jeff Baskar. Being the leader of the first family that I joined hands with, the main pir of the entire faction, he alone wielded sufficient authority to question my decisions without obtaining the support of the rest of the council. "I might surprise you here, but I''m quite happy that someone had the balls to protest." Sending a wink to the middle-aged man, I looked to the side, at one of the less important officials that got the seat in the council just for the sake of appearances. "Sir Kette, if I might ask, would you try to attack her? She might be my woman, but there is no need for you to hold back." Smiling from ear to ear as I proposed this idea, I could feel a slight disturbance in Ayda''s emotions. Tightening my grab on her hand, I leaned towards her ear before whispering. "Just don''t wreck the room. As soon as you are able to stop him, it will be enough." Just as we talked about it a few moments ago, the earth was far more developed in terms of secr technology, but it was Ayda''s world that reigned supreme in terms of the sophistication of magic. While there was no denying that I already reached a certain level of proficiency in witchcraft, I had no doubts that if Ayda were to ever fight with me seriously, then without regaining ess to that apocalypse technology of mine, I wouldn''t have even the slightest chance of winning. "So I just need to stop him from attacking me? Are you sure you don''t want to ask everyone in the room to jump at me at once?" Leaning her head to the side, Ayda threw a look of pity at the man that was unlucky enough to be chosen for this presentation of her strength. "Nah, it will be fine. So, everyone, I would love to tell you to watch with care, but I doubt you will even be able to realise what will happen." With all of what I needed to say already pronounced, I let go of Ayda''s hand before stepping back, pulling one of the chairs with me and sitting down. Even though the oue was fairly obvious to me, I still made sure to fill my face with the look of expectations. "Okay then, here I go!" Not willing to betray my wishes, Kette stood up before suddenly freezing in his ce. The next moment, tears appeared in his eyes as he started sobbing. Before anyone could ever figure out what was happening, his cry turned into a crazedugh, as the man started hitting his fist against the table in a poor attempt to quell hisughter. "Okay, that will be enough." Sending a meaningful look to Ayda, I could see how her influence over Kette''s emotions broke, freeing the man from the clutches. Looking over the faces of the men gathered in the room, I could tell that this slight showcase of power was enough to put them back in their own, respective ces. After all, while swinging one''s sword and casting fireballs was impressive, defeating the opponent without even moving a single muscle was the pinnacle of what one could call edgy and astounding. "First of all, your excellency" Bowing his head as he stood up, Jeff finally addressed Ayda in the proper way. "I would like to apologise for ever doubting you. Or rather, I hoped for such a showcase to happen to quell any possible voices of opposition in the future. But now that''s done, we need to focus on the topic that surfaced recently, forcing my hand in gathering everyone in here." This time, it was the older Baskar''s turn to slow down his speech and raise the tension in the room. With his eyes moving past the faces of everyone in the room, past Ayda''s face and finally glueing to my own stare, this middle-aged man finally revealed the cause for the ongoing meeting. "Your excellency, everyone I believe that the Sarate family started making moves in regards to the recently appearing dungeons." Chapter 127: Aydas confidence Chapter 127: Ayda''s confidence "What did they do?" Hearing the news, I felt a shudder travelling down my spine. Was this a coincidence? It was hard to believe in such a naive thought. But unless Sarate wanted to call dibs on some of the dungeons for a while already, there was hardly any other exnation besides putting the me on Martha. "It''s not something that I fully confirmed yet, but it''s the only logical exnation for their recent moves. From what I managed to gather, they bought a huge piece ofnd right beside several dungeons, one of them being the one where we sent our party before. The other thing" Clearly hesitating to speak up, Jeff swallowed a gulp of saliva that was stuck in his throat. Coughing up to buy himself some more time, he looked over the entire room before hanging his head low and finishing. "Not only they already started moving some insane amounts of resources towards thosends that they bought, but they also started a huge recruitment campaign. At the current rate, at least half of the strong fighters in the city that we hoped to reel to our side is estimated to join them within the first week once the registration will open." This was truly a disaster. As little hopes as I had for the exploration of the dungeons to turn out to be a profitable endeavour, I still had to make sure that at least one of them would be under the absolute control of my faction. Not for the sake of obtaining the resources from it per se, but to justify the appearance of a huge amount of magic stones in the vaults of my faction! "Is that all there is to it? Any other huge news that we should take into consideration?" cing my hands down on the table, I forced my emotions to calm down. Whether the current breakdown of the stalemate regarding the dungeons was Martha''s fault or not, it didn''t matter anymore. That is unless this was just the first move of hers. "Well, the matter of that damned family is the main reason why I called for this urgent meeting But there is also the problem of some of the dungeons going rouge. While it''s not yet fully confirmed, it seems that the ones that people are not cleaning on a regr basis Tends to release the monsters to the surface." Hearing Jeff''s response, I could only tighten my jaws to stop my face from turning sour. Taking a few moments to calm my breath, I could feel how Ayda used her own witchcraft to help me with this endeavour. "Thanks." Turning my head to the girl, I smiled gently at her, only to see her own lips gently curving upwards. For as stoic and silent as she was until now, this momentary showcase of her humane side had to be a shock for everyone else in the room. "Okay then, let''s think about what we can do. First off, do we have any chances topete for that southern dungeon? I mean, without stirring the trouble elsewhere." Looking at my face, Jeff didn''t speak up right away but moved his eyes on the rest of the officials in the room. After all, this council didn''t consist of me, Ayda and him alone. "I don''t think it would be wise to go against them alone. How about trying to find some backer to help us out? Or maybe we could count on a bit of help from the headquarters?" This was a tricky question. In theory, everyone in the room should believe that there was some kind of huge organisation backing this faction. Or rather, this faction of mine was supposed to be just one of the branches of the religion that I promoted. Sadly, the truth was obviously different. While I used this false story to give Ayda an instant social position in the ring of the leaders of my faction, I forced myself to follow the previous narration by doing so. "Headquarters It wouldn''t be wise to rely on them. There is a reason why I appeared in this citypletely by myself. If I''m not wrong, you came here because you failed to establish yourself in that ce?" Turning my head to the girl beside me, I smiled encouragingly. In the end, I couldn''t have her silent throughout the entire meeting. As umon as it was, this situation was her socialing out, so I had to make sure she would leave asting impression on my coworkers. "Failed? I failed? I wish to see you go there and do any better. I simply decided that pushing myself to the limits out there was not worth the potential results that I could achieve by doing so. Helping you out was what both I myself and the council decided." Instead of just following along the line of my words, Ayda scoffed at me while pretending to get angry at the way in which I formed her backstory. In the end, she even managed to slip a bit more details, details that the officials in the room were bound to jump at like a band of hungry, wild dogs would at a fresh corpse of a sheep. "Okay, okay, didn''t mean to put any doubt in your abilities. From what I heart about that ce It would be a miracle if I survived there for as long as you did. But let''s leave the past behind us, and focus on the topic at hand." Something warm started spreading in my belly. Maybe it was the pride in how quickly Ayda managed to react to the unexpected change in her situation? Maybe it was happiness that she didn''t seem to have any problems adapting to this new world for her? Or maybe it was nothing more but another bout of sexual arousal, this time caused by how capable she was? Be it as it may, there was one thing that no one could ever deny. With just those few words of hers, Ayda proved that she had all the rights to stand by my side. And I was willing to support her with all my power in doing so! "The headquarters They won''t make a single move." Suddenly changing my tone and twisting my expression, I uttered. "If you can''t deal with it yourself, then there is no worth in supporting your efforts in the first ce." Shaking my head as if in an attempt to push the foul aftertaste of impersonating those imaginary people, I coughed to clear my throat before raising my now normal face. "That''s how they are likely to respond if I would ever request their help. In other words, in terms of the Boruta''s faith, we are basically on our own. But that doesn''t mean we won''t be able to get help from somewhere else." There was one thing that absolutely couldn''t happen. No other human besides me myself and maybe Ayda could ever get his or her hands on the tools from the apocalypse. As I experienced it myself, both the instant improvement of one''s firepower but also his potential to grow was simply too big to spread such tools on the market. But that didn''t mean I waspletely powerless in terms of rapidly increasing the strength of my faction. After all, just like Earth could bring the craftsmanship from Ayda''s world to another level, just like Ayda could teach everyone in the room a lesson about using magic There were many other worlds that I could freely explore to look for something that would give my faction a reasonably powerful edge over everyone else! "So? Do you have anyone specific in mind?" Most likely noticing that I was thinking about something with how he spoke up only when I was done analyzing my situation, Jeff attempted to ce the burden of solving our current quandary on me. "Guys, I think you are forgetting something." Suddenly speaking out without my initiative to let her do it, Ayda not only managed to take me by a surprise, but it seemed that the rest of the room shared my reaction as well. "We just need to deal with that Srate family or something, right?" Leaning back on her chair to reinforce the image of how confident and rxed she was, Ayda summed the situation up in a way no one expected her to do. "Yeah, that''s basically the case for now." Given how she waspletely right, I had no other choice but to admit it, even despite the bad premonition that quickly started clouding my judgement. "Then it''s pretty simple. As long as you can arrange a meeting with their leader and let me take part in it, you could consider the task to be done. Making them give up on a single dungeon should be a walk in the part for me." A confident smile on Ayda''s face perfectly suited the tone of her words. But for some reason, I couldn''t help but get worried when seeing it." Chapter 128: Unexpected idea Chapter 128: Unexpected idea "I will arrange the meeting then. But that doesn''t mean the matter is settled yet. We still need to discuss" Taking a short moment to look deeply into my eyes, Jeff breathed out before continuing. " the reasons behind the sudden moves of the Sarate, why they are so keen on cutting us out of any possible dungeons and what should we do ourselves to secure the ce, before other powers will gain interest in it. I think Sarate joining the fray is a great wake-up call for all of us." Jeff''s words made perfect sense. Especially hisst sentence managed to shake me. In thest few weeks, my main point of interest waspletely outside of the factional agenda, centred around the stones on earth and Ayda''s safety in her own world. And as important as the development of this magic stone business was, the number of sayings about putting one''s eggs in a single basket proved that this kind of tactic was not the safest one around. "Let me start from the end of what you said. This situation indeed forces us to elerate our ns. As such, I would like to introduce the idea of not hiring people directly, but creating missions that anyone could fulfil. The parties that will excel at doing so, would be promoted and sponsored, only spreading the fame of our solution. In other words, I would like to suggest establishing what the younger generation might know from the novels as the adventurer''s guild." As silly as it seemed to be, it was a viable solution to the problem of personnel. With all the secrets that my faction had to keep from leaking, introducing more and more people to it just to im the ownership of the southern dungeons would quickly lead to disastrous effects. Rather than that, outsourcing the problem seemed like a much better idea! "Wait, what?" This time, it was the younger Baskar that reacted to my words. With his hands tighened into fists, it was clear that this idea perfectly resonated with him "As I said, if this idea were toe to a fruition, we would need to establish quite a lot of rules. Starting from the basic outline of what we take responsibility for and what we would not, what would be the exchange ratio for the spoils obtained in the dungeon under our control, how many people can enter it and in what intervals Just thinking about the workload necessary to establish something like this makes my head spin" In the end, it was all about scouting the dungeon to learn its patterns and then establishing the rules exploiting the natural way in which the dungeon would operate. Without learning everything about this ce, I would be unable to effectively control it. And it was always the easiest way to fight with great powers, by amassing the initiative of the many average people. Compared to what a family like Sarate could pay for, introducing a system when everyone could profit was the only viable choice. This way, I would be able to obtain all the things that I wanted from the dungeon, without the cost of maintaining an entire army to explore and protect it. "Your Excellency, I think this is a great idea." Bowing his head low, Pavlo eximed with agitation. Taking a quick peek at the documents he held in front of himself, he then raised his head with determination written all over his face. "From the reports of the several advance parties that we sent so far, the dungeon can provide more than enough wealth to entice themon people to flock into it. As long as we will be able to retain the control of who enters it and where are the spoils sold" Taking a little break to cast another peek at his papers on the table, Pavlo quickly raised his eyes back on me. "We would be able to hide the real source of the magic stones, set the general price for them and take part in setting the global trend once the world will learn how to use those stones. In other words, no family in the world will be able to offer as many spoils as those who will adapt our system and prices. What''s more, the potential price of the magic stones will be even above the non-magic ones, generating a huge profit for us even on this prime market of the resource. With the added profit from the technology of processing the stones" Pavlo didn''t dare to finish his sentence. The implications behind his words were simply too great. Ever since a while ago, the problem of money appeared. With the insane spending caused by the construction of an entire city at once, with the number of employees and believers growing by the day, my backers were quickly draining their pockets. upying the city and taking a lot of profitable businesses under the protectorate of the faith turned into a great source of funding for my faction, previously fully controlled by the city itself. But even this sudden influx of money and valuables of all kinds wasn''t enough to offset the current financial situation of the Boruta''s cult. The current problem was all about this window of time, from when the money to support my endeavours wouldpletely run out, to the moment when our investments would finally start paying off. As long as I could somehow scrape by until then, money would no longer be a problem in the foreseeable future. What I had to focus on, then, was on scrambling all the possibilities that I could find to obtain more funding or to hasten my ns. From what I heard in advance, at the current rate, we only had a month. But rather than saving the money and trying to prolong it, I decided to drastically cut that time. "I do believe that the business of setting this kind of enterprise would allow us to hasten the process of creating the market for the stones. Right now, we are the only ones capable of pouring such a market with a high-quality product at our own, preferred price. That''s why, rather than trying to sacrifice our current progress for the sake of safer development, I believe we should invest everything that we can so that in a realistic time-frame we could force the entire world to jump at the magic stones." Speaking calmly, I cupped my hands together only to rest my chin on them once I finished exining the situation. Obviously, this was one of those times, when I actually couldn''t easily influence the end decision. This wasn''t my money that I talked about spending. It was the assets of the people gathered in the room. They already invested a lot into my faction and now they had the right to decide what their investment would be directed towards. In this meeting, the topic of the dungeon was practically limited to me and Pavlo. Both of us enthusiastic about the idea. Our words wouldn''t appeal much to this gathering of the old gangsters and mobsters. "Isn''t that perfectly easy to organise? I mean, you need money to fund the situation where everyone will jump at the chance of buying the magic stones. But I think you are forgetting a single detail, one that was already mentioned during the meeting, that gives us the perfect opportunity to solve all our financial problems." Suddenly speaking up with a tone of a mother scolding her children for beingplete and utter idiots, Ayda looked at everyone in the room with a genuine surprise spreading her eyes wide. "Your Excellency, what do you mean by that?" Gulping his saliva down before Ayda''s proper title managed to pass through his throat, Jeff asked. "The dungeons that are not wiped regrly are believed to start pouring monsters into the normal world." Raising both her face and her left forefinger, Ayda brought back the words that already appeared during the discussion. "No matter whether it''s true or not, this is a threat that needs to be taken care of. Isn''t it obvious that those who will deal with this possibility should be paid for doing so from the taxes? In the end, this is kind of a duty that appeared only now. Just like the guards needs to protect the towns and cities and are getting paid from the local lord''s coffers, a force capable of either preventing or at least researching the potential danger should be privy to remuneration as well." Taking a quick breath to clear her throat, Ayda coughed once before raising her face back to the normal level. Her eyes widened up when she noticed how everyone just froze at the moment. "You still don''t get it?" Lowering her head in defeat, Ayda proved that she was an insane actress, even if her wording could give a clue of her real origins. "Whether the big boss likes it or not, everyone interested will instantly jump at the idea. As soon as it''s proposed, even if everyone knows it''splete bullshit, they will all support it. Because they stand to obtainvish life off the taxpayers back. No one would miss such an opportunity." Looking to the side at the girl''s profile, I couldn''t help but let my admiration seep through my eyes. Who cares about the wording, if the meaning behind her words was so damn insightful. At this moment, I couldn''t help but feel a tingle of fear. I never knew Ayda was capable of being so shrewd! Chapter 129: Offer Chapter 129: Offer "I have to admit and apologise. Dear, I didn''t expect you to be able to offer such a solution. For underestimating you, I do honestly apologise." After several moments of walking, I finally gathered myself to speak. Lowering my head to apany the words of the apology I expressed my honest emotions. "Ah, no, there is no need for you" Startled by my behaviour, Ayda twitched before starting to panic. Seeing her loitering around like that, in the cute clothes that she picked for herself, I felt a sting on my heart. Not from some unweed sadness, but from pure happiness. "Give credit when it''s due. This kind of solutionpletely slipped out of my mind Or rather, I don''t think I would be capable of seeing it in the first ce. While I never had any doubts regarding your capabilities Heck, to think you would exceed my expectations so quickly!" Reaching out with my hand, I ruffled Ayda''s soft hair with a gentle smile. Taking my hand back, I looked down the corridor to confirm we were rtively alone. "As much as I would love to just cuddle you somewhere and spend the entire evening praising you, your proposition only added more work on top of what we had to deal with before. Are you ready to take responsibility for such an ingenious solution?" Sending a quick wink to the girl, I was blessed with the sight of her face filling with energy and determination. "As long as you secure your ce here, you will be able to do the same in my ce, right?" Snuggling towards me, Ayda hid her face in my chest. cing my hands on the back of her head, I closed the embrace. "Don''t worry. Once we are done here, nothing will be able to stop us on the other side. Speaking of which, I already have some ideas. Come with me." No matter how pleasant just hugging Ayda was, doing so wouldn''t push any of our agendas forward. Be it the position and financial stability of my faction on earth or the liberation of the witches from the oppression back in Ayda''s words, each of those tasks was simply too big to be tackled at once. That''s why, only by splitting them into several problems of smaller magnitude each and consistently working on them would I be able to finally obtain at least a momentary peace. "Sure." Sneakily grabbing my hand as I unveiled my arms from around her shoulders, Ayda trodded behind me with her face illuminated by her bright smile. In just a few moments, we moved from the general wing of the mansion when all the workers had ess to, to my private part of the entirepound. Located right on top of the ruins of my former home, it was located rtively on the outer part of the entire area. If one were to take the current shape of the main building of my faction into consideration, it would make a huge letter ''H''. The front of thepound consisted of a huge gateplex with a lot of office space. It was the home to all the small and big deals that my faction was making with anyone from the other areas of the town. The short part that connected the two long lines of concrete was the actual heart of the entire faction. From the private rooms of the more important executives, through the several meeting rooms and even gyms located in the underground, it housed everything that my cult could afford to show to the outside world. True magic began once one would step into the backside of the entirepound. With a huge hall right at the intersection with the connector, one could travel either to the more secretive areas for example Sander had his workshop, or one could take the opposite turn and reach my private quarters. Taking up the entire wing of the backside of the building, it had way more space than necessary. Even though the dome above the basement took nearly half of the first two ground floors, the life was bustling directly above it. Sander''s workers continued to move the raw and manufactured goods in and out of the warehouse, administrators continued to bring the foundatory requests only to leave with fat stacks of cash or cheques Even if some kind of important guests were to visit, I could organise an entire penthouse for him without infringing on the ongoing logistic of the people inside the building. But now, rather than stopping by one of the heavily used areas, I lead Ayda to one of the quarters where only those who I personally invited had ess. "Ah, it''s a pleasure to meet you, Sir!" Standing at attention once I entered the room, Penne instantly lowered his head in a respectful bow. Even though he had to wait for several hours confined to this room and this room alone, there was no sign of boredom or anxiety on his face. Rather than that, his eyes were filled with the strange, primal energy of someone who suddenly saw the path to achieve the impossible. "Dear, this is Penne, one of the young people that were quick on their decision to explore the appearing dungeons. If you wouldn''t mind, do you think you could teach him witchcraft? I would be especially happy if you had a more battle-oriented set of skills to impart to him though." This was something that continued to appear in my mind on several asion, yet never seemed to be important enough for me to bother my mind with. ording to Ayda''s words, witchcraft relied onbining the invocation of a particr spell with a singr emotion. While I infused my emotions with skills that I believed could be of help back when I still hoped to save my mother, they weren''t by any means strong in terms of fighting. But that didn''t mean it was impossible to create a witch oriented at the battle! "Sir?" Staring nkly at the two of us, one of which was the head of the local, powerful faction, the other one being a cute girl in even cuter clothes who still had the privilege of being addressed with such familiarity by me. For Penne, this had to be the most peculiar sight he ever saw. That is, besides learning about his me sleeping with someone else. "That''s doable, but it mostly depends on how hardworking he is. Tell me, what would be the purpose for his training though? What do you want him to aplish once he will be prepared?" Looking at me seriously and releasing a deep sigh, Ayda finished. "Knowing that in advance would make it easier to prepare a training regime for him." For some reason, this damned girl had to assume that I expected an exnation. Maybe it was a y on her part aimed at keeping our social standing unperturbed in the eyes of the young adventurer? Or maybe she actually believed that I would bother to hide something like that from her? Unable to discern which one urately described Ayda''s thoughts, I simply cast those ideas aside before focusing on the young man in front of me. "Penne, I remember that I felt a great energy from you. Energy propelled by the wish to change your current situation. Tell me, how far are you willing to go to take revenge on those looking down on you?" Ignoring Ayda''s inquiry, for the time being, I asked. "Look down on me? I''m not that sure what your excellency has on mind" Escaping with his eyes to the side, Penne didn''t dare to ept the intense stare of mine. "..." Rather than answering the question, I leaned my head to the side, still keeping my eyes on the young man. After a while, I turned my sight back to Ayda. "Well, now you get the gist of the situation. I want him to be a kind of hero for our dungeon. Can you make it happen?" Not even bothering to wait for Penne''s approval, I directly asked Ayda about her opinion. "A hero for that ce, huh Hmm That might work. So, are you interested? In bing the most recognised aplished adventurer? Do you want your face to be the symbol of heroism and prestige?" Turning her lips into a straight line for a moment, Ayda couldn''t hold for long. Bursting with the giggle that she attempted to hold back, she had to close her mouth with her hand not to disturb the talks. "Hero? What do you mean?" At first, I thought that Penne was simply too dense to ept the reality that was dawning upon him, but after a second thought, I realised that he simply refused to ept reality because of how bright it was. "As I said. My faction will heavily invest in creating something that you might recognise as the adventurer''s guild from many novels that I believe you read in your past. And I want to use your face to promote this idea. But that means I need to make you capable of shouldering the burden of such position." Putting a wide smile on my face, I looked intensely at the young man who actually couldn''t be more than just a few years younger than me. "In other words, I''m asking if you would like to be powerful enough to stand on the top so that you could be of use for me? Just imagine the face that those fake friends of yours will make when you suddenly raise beyond the level they could ever dream of reaching!" Chapter 130: Orders for Sander Chapter 130: Orders for Sander Leaving Ayda with the fresh addition to the ranks of my personal retainers, I moved to the nearby area where Sander''s workshop was located. Just as expected, even before I could even enter the huge hall where he was working on the magic stones, the sound of various machines working in their full swing was already bothering me. Just imagining how that middle-aged craftsman had to endure this noise for hours upon hours Pushing the doors open, I stepped inside the hall. Now, the awful noise of the running machines became even harder to bear. At this point, I just couldn''t help but wonder just how much electricity did this single hall of the entirepound consumed. But no matter how I looked, there was not a single, living soul within the room. After a short tour during which I could see how the process of crushing the stones already relied on the magic-stone powered machine, I had no other choice but to give up. After all, no matter how great I was, I couldn''t find someone in the ce they were not in. "Just where the hell did he go" Muttering under my breath, I looked around the ce for thest time before picking up the pace and leaving. Exactly as I told Ayda before, right now there were simply too many matters for me to attend to dare to waste time on just strolling in the empty room. Just as I was about to move back exactly the same way that I came here from, I noticed a small hue of lighting from under the edge of the doors located on the opposite end of the hall. ording to my memory, only a small storage room should be hiding behind it But given the constant noise in the main room of the workshop, I could already guess what was hiding behind those small and simplistic doors. "So here is where you have been hiding" Whispering more to myself than to the craftsman as soon as I opened the doors, I could feel all the energy leaving my body. Just a single look at the man''s disposition was enough for me to tell that there was no point in trying to talk to him. With his eyes focused on the machine he was working on, his attention waspletelymitted to the task he was currently working on. After a single moment, I felt that Sander was really taking his time. After a few moments, I started getting irritated. After what seemed like an hour, when my boredom was already getting to me, the middle-aged man finally raised his head from above the machine. "It''s finally done" Speaking to himself, Sander required a few more moments to notice my presence. Once he did, his eyes widened as he nearly jumped from a simple chair he was sitting on. "Your excellence!" So startled by my sudden appearance that he referred to me with my official title, Sander even went as far as attempting to bow down, only for me to stop him in the middle of his motion. "You know there is neither a reason nor the time for you to act like this. First, how is the progress with the job?" In the end, it was Sander who was the most crucial link that connected all my ns. Depending on how quickly he could push the manufacturing of the magic stones from the level of handi-work to a proper factory-style line-production, all my other actions and idea either be implemented or just abandoned as there would be no reason to invest in them any longer. "In general, we are on a good track. If I hurry up and focus just on the mass-production, I should be able to start the first automated production-line within a single week But the stones created by it won''t be anywhere close to as valuable as the ones created by hand. On the other side, I can focus on what I was doing right now, creating higher-level artefacts But as you saw yourself, the process of doing so is not only extremely time-consuming but also heavily taxing." From how Sander already dropped the honorifics, it was clear that his mind was back on its proper track. In the end, he was the one who understood the importance of the stones to my faction the most after me. It wouldn''t be an overestimation to im that he already knew more about this technology than Ayda or most of the people from her world. As such, he simply couldn''t be bothered to act as if he was concerned with my social position at all. Because he was perfectly aware of how little I thought about stuff like social standing. "Good. For now, I need you to create a single stone that will be greater than anything we have right now. The thing is, it needs to be powerful, but the caster who will wield it won''t be even nearly as strong as I am So that''s another factor you need to ount for when nning what to do." Rying the orders to the craftsman, I allowed the corners of my lips to raise a bit, before adding with a gentle sneer. "Also, the more shy its effects will be, the better. In fact, it doesn''t even need to be all that powerful, just make sure it won''t be anything but an illusion. As for the next job for you" Taking a moment to think about the situation, I quickly discarded all the doubts about another decision of mine. Right now, I didn''t even bother to have any doubts about Penne''s capabilities. With Ayda as his teacher, his potential was bound to skyrocket. In the end, learning witchcraft itself wasn''t that huge of a burden, especially for someone who was already used to using the energy that his body absorbed. All that would be left for him to shine as the hero of the dungeon, would be to possess a weapon that absolutely no one else in the world had, one that would be apparently procured from the dungeon itself. This idea served three distinctive purposes. First off, increasing the prestige of Penne as soon as we would start marketing him. By adding a simple element to his outfit that would make it easier for people to recognise him, we could make the advertisement campaigns that much more effective on simple-minded people. Secondly came the matter of promoting the adventurer''s guild itself. By having Pavlo be the face of the organisation, investing in other aspects of his image would force those interested in his rise to start looking for the source of his sudden growth. Lastly, there was a matter of incentives. As long as Penne would im that he obtained this weapon that I just ordered Sander to make from the dungeon, everyone would jump at the opportunity to obtain one for themselves. In short words, the entire purpose of creating this single, powerful stone, was to promote the dungeons. But the reason why I needed their poprity to explode, wasn''t just to establish the adventurer''s guild. "As soon as you are done, I will need you to switch all your attention to establishing the magic stones factory. I already saw the crushing machine you did, so I think the hardest step is already behind us. You have two weeks for the first mass-produced magic stones to start appearing. Do you think you can nail it?" No matter what kind of orders I would give to Sander, he wouldn''t be able to break through the problem ofck of time. Even though I said two weeks, I was perfectly aware that it was Sander who would ultimately be the only one capable of giving the more or less realistic timeline. "Two weeks? Are you sane?" Hearing my order, the craftsman looked at me as if I was some kind of crazed hobo who somehow made its way to the core of the faction building directly from the streets. "What''s wrong with that term? I know it will be hard, but we are really pressed for time" Before I could even finish, Sander pped his face right into his palm. Once his spread-out fingers grasped the skin of his face, only deep breathing could be heard for a moment. "Two weeks It''s way more than necessary. I can have the mass production started in a week tops. Just that The quality of the stones Basic barrier and lighting stone will be the limit of what this kind of primitive assembly line could produce." Rather than seeing a problem in hastily setting up the factory, Sander''s face twisted in a peculiar grimace when he brought the matter of what kind of stones this kind of primitive setup that he could create would be able to produce. "It doesn''t matter at all. What''s important, is to flood the market with cheap ware that only we will be capable of producing. And that means I have onest task for you to think about while making both that ultimate magic stone and setting up the factory for the simple ones." Moving back towards the door, I looked behind before gracing Sander with one of my rare, truly honest smiles. "Make them as hard to replicate as possible. The longer it will take for others to decipher the way to craft them, the more profits we will obtain. And that also means" Taking onest break in my sentence as I pushed the doors to this storage room-turned workshop open, I allowed my smile to degrade out of my face. "... more money and prestige to everyone who will be behind the production of them." Chapter 131: Daring question Chapter 131: Daring question Comparing Jeff''s quarters with mine was likeparing an ant to an elephant. While I upied an entire wing of theplex for the matters that I wanted to have direct supervision over, the head of the Baskar family only ever requested a simple office with enough space to fit a huge cab. Walking towards the doors of this man''s fortress, I could see the huge disparity between the atmospheres of both ces. In my region of theplex, everything was lively, bustling with activities. One wouldn''t miss the truth by far by iming that despite being located on the outer end of theplex, my quarters were in the direct middle of all the activities of the faction. On the other hand, there was Baskar''s ce. Separated from everyone else by thick walls and long corridor, one''s mental state would start deteriorating just by walking between the bare walls that led to Jeff''s office. Thankfully, those kinds of lowly trick had no influence over me. Toc, toc. Knocking on the door was just another detail that made this ce super unweing. Even though there was no signs of anything strange, even the sound that the wood of the doors leading to Jeff''s quarters was weirdly repulsing. "Come in." Shouting from the inside of the room, Jeff invited me in. Contrary to all the others like Pavlo, Sander or even Ayda, I actually had to announce my visit on the phone, as to not bother him in his work. This perfectly portrayed what kind of rtionship I had with this main supporter of the faction. "It''s been a short while. I hope I''m not bothering you too much." Ever since the meeting ended, everyone rushed to their own respective duties. And this older Baskar wasn''t an exception. While I never really bothered to find out what exactly he was working on, I had no doubts that without his involvement, the operations of the entire faction would not only slow down but most likely ceasepletely. "Don''t worry about it. What can I help you with?" In the rtively short time that we knew each other, we both managed to make an opinion of each other. Just like I knew to not disturb him and bring only the truly important matters to his attention, he knew that I wouldn''t bother going directly to him if there wasn''t a dire need to do so. "I need a group of about ten strong men, and three more capable of safely exploring the southern dungeon. I hope you have the reports from the earlier explorations" Seeing the man nod to my unasked question, I continued. "Then you should know what level they need to be. And before you ask, yes. I''m going to start the groundwork already." Given Baskar''s achievements so far, I didn''t feel like I needed to exin what would be my purpose. Even though it wasn''t submitted directly to him, I could see my request for a filming crew disyed on an honorary ce on top of his table. "Are you sure you need that many? I know that it''s mostly for show, so wouldn''t cutting their numbers by half still give you more than enough men?" Looking at me weirdly from his slightly higher chair, Jeff asked. At first, I wanted to instantly agree to whatever he would say, but thankfully I managed to hold my words back in my throat. After all, I was the ultimate leader of the faction, so I couldn''t let my decisions be swayed that easily. "No, we need at least that many. Keep in mind that we are officially not involved with the matters there. If we want the show to have this organic, realistic feeling, we can''t use our forces sparingly." Sitting down in the guest chair, I leaned back on itsfortable pillows before adding. "In this situation, the excess will be proof. If we have just enough people to deal with the aftermath, no one will believe the entire action to be spontaneous." There wasn''t any need to exin what the show was in the first ce. Given how the very founding idea of setting up the adventurers guild relied on pushing the agenda that the dungeons weren''t safe if left alone, the task of the adventuring group that I asked for was rather obvious for anyone who knew about the n. "Good. I honestly thought you would just admit to whatever I would say. Putting that aside, I have yet to congratte you." Smiling with satisfaction, Jeff leaned back on his chair before sending yet another weird look to my face. "Congratte for?" Not really sure what he meant, I could only ask for rification. Fixing my position on the chair, I looked at his ever-calm face with curiosity. "Your partner. Her Excellency Ayda I will admit it, I tried to look into her, but I wasn''t able to find even a shred of information. Pulling her out of your sleeve forced me to bring your importance on the scale up a notch." Not bothering to beat around the bush, Jeff honestly admitted to how he perceived our rtionship. But rather than dancing around with flowery and meaningless words, I preferred this kind of approach. After all, it was best to be always conscious of how our cooperation was strictly political and economic. "I''m d to hear that. I hope you won''t make things hard for her while I will be away." Squinting my eyes, for the very first time, I allowed myself to use the emotional aura of mine. Rather than invoking any of the witchcrafts, I simply infused my wrath into my own emotional state while allowing it to seep outside of my body. With the magic energy contained within my flesh influenced by my emotional state, even a non-witch like Jeff could clearly feel the threat included in both my words and my aura. "Don''t worry!" Jeffughed out loud. "I wouldn''t dare trouble your partner. Whether she is a bishop or just your woman." Adding thest part to his sentence, Jeff instantly soured my mood. As expected, not everyone fell for my deception. Or rather, it was hard for anyone to be fooled by my words if they knew that this entire cult of mine was nothing but a sham in the first ce. "Then, let''s not push it for any longer. Can I count on your help here? I would rather not showcase my own abilities in public, given how no one really knows what I''m capable of right now." That was the problematic part about establishing the legend of the dungeon monsters. If I were to make a move personally, then both baiting and then defeating the baited monsters outside of the dungeon they would be pulled out wouldn''t be even the least problematic. "Yeah, I''m in this mess as well after all. I can get you five soldiers that reached second level and ten of the high ranking first graders. Would that be enough?" Pulling out a sheet of paper from the drawer in his desk, Jeff presented me with a list outlining the details of each of the soldiers that he could spare for me. Just this alone was enough of proof to im that he knew about my idea even before it actually appeared in my head. But it wasn''t anything strange. This was the easiest and most straight-forward way of aplishing our first huge objective. Only by proving that dungeons could be truly dangerous for the civilians could we push the forces in both the city and in the surrounding towns to acknowledge the need for a special tax. And what could be a better method to aplish it than creating a controlled danger ourselves? "They are quite good." Despite my intention to look into the cultivation that the rest of the people on earth practised, I never found the time to do so. Reading through the list of Jeff''s people, I was finally forced to realise that while I was running around and setting up stuff for the business, everyone seemed to suddenly advance at a far faster rate than they could do in the past. "They are. But don''t think too much about it. Ever since we learned how to create the magic stones, just the leftovers from Sander''s workshop are more than enough to mass-produce second level warriors. In the early stages, it is all about umting the energy after all." Momentarily forced to recall the ranks of the cultivation that existed even before I started exploiting my system, I realised with a fright that I wasn''t capable of doing so! With everything that was going on in my life, I simply forgot about something that the rest of the world was fully focused on! "Thinking about this, since the first level is about gathering energy, what seems to be the main hurdle in the second level? Because you know" Taking a moment to breathe in, I used this short moment of silence to defeat the sudden terror that overwhelmed my thoughts when I understood the potential consequences of what I was about to propose. "... if we used the stones to make advancing through the first rank that easy, maybe there would be some way for us to ovee the thing that stops people from advancing even further?" This question wasn''t daring. It was insanely arrogant, to say the least. Even if I wasn''t the one who first came up with it on the entirety of the earth, there was a huge chance that I would be the only one with the means to actually do so! Chapter 132: Recording the show Chapter 132: Recording the show In order for the entire rouse to have any validity, there had to be some kind of fake backstory behind the entire thing. And as weird as it could be at a first nce, by sipping on a tea, a considerable distance away from the dungeon, I was currently making up that backstory. Documented by ample amount of photos, videos and even streams. Using the insane capabilities of modern technology, instead of just camping out in the wild, I even conducted some moral lessons onpletely random topics. And while the rest of my group either cleaned their equipment or fried some sausages on the grill, I was justzing around on a tourist bed. "Hey, no sights of them yet!" From the outer end of the camp, a powerful and cheerful voice sounded. As of now, the forward group should be already returning from the dungeon. Compiling its usual behaviours from the reports of several scouting groups, it was easy to calcte how long would those soldiers take to lure out some monsters. But that was the truth that only the people in the camp knew. Everyone else, watching now and in the future through the scopes of the many, many cameras around, would be under impression that the four of them just went to get some more drinks. Obviously, the story wasn''t that simple. Their entire party was disguised as a group ofckeys from one of thepanies supporting Boruta''s cult. Apanying the group as the one who bought their services, I was on a mission to survey the dungeon and provide information for the scientific research on it. Something like this,bined with the huge event of the ''summer lessons'' that I streamed over the past three days from this ce would make up a more or less believable story. And from the delicate shaking of the ground, I could tell that the climax of the said story was fast approaching. "Oh, they are back!" From the same direction, the voice came once again. But all at once, the eerie atmosphere of the summer camping turned solemn. A narration wouldter tell, that only thanks to being experts did those men manage to sense that something was amiss. In reality though, they were perfectly aware of what was about to happen. After passing of a single moment, the nearby line of trees exploded. Chasing out to the open, a huge group of skeletal warriors rushed after the escaping group of the four men. "RALLY!" Not wasting even a single moment, the soldier at the forefront called out. His hand already wielding an old-type looking fire-arm, closely resembling a musket instead of a modern, thin gun. BOOM! A cloud of smoke escaped from the rifle''s muzzle. In a sh of red, a small crater filled with mashed bones and destroyed vegetation appeared amidst the ranks of the skeletons. This was the power of a second-grade expert. Watching the action from thefort of his tourist bed, I was barely capable of stopping a giggle from escaping from my mouth. By the time all the skeletons got to the open, my private army already lined up, well-prepared to take them on. In fact, the hardest task in this entire situationid on the shoulders of the forward group. They had to pretend to be actually threatened by those low-strenght monsters! "Let''s go." Not wasting any time, my soldiers rushed forward. With their fists, swords, hammers and yoyo''s smashing into the group of weak opponents, the fight was decided in a single breath. Not even breathing heavily, the group of soldiers confirmed that no monster remained before returning to the camping as if the entire encounter was nothing to them. And what they left behind, was a huge area of devastatednd where the fight took ce. "Magnificent!" Prompting up, I stood up from the bed. Walking a few paces forward, I gestured at the cameraman sitting in a special centre of electronicmand. Noticing my waving, this young and plump man cut the feed from the cameras, effectively putting the show to an end. "Okay, I need like fifteen minutes or so." After waiting for a short moment inplete silence, Pavlo took the sh drive from the cameraman. Containing the records from all the mobile cameras, it still needed some gentle touches in specific ces. Seeing that at least this part of the n was progressing well, I stepped away. While Pavlo was cutting, buffing, darkening and hastening the video feed, I pulled out my phone and dialled a new addition to my contact list. "Hey, what''s up?" Hearing Ayda''s voice through the transmitter of my phone was a first for me. For some reason, without her ample charms storming my sight whenever we talked face to face, both of us seemed slightly more rxed and casual about talking to each other. "Hey, I''m calling about the obvious. What''s the progress?" As much as I would love to just waste some time chit-chatting with the girl, we both knew that there was no time for that now. "I''m barely done. To a degree, he could start already But I think he still needs some practice." Even though I couldn''t see her, I could tell that her lips twisted slightly. Sadly, Penne ended up living only to the lowest expectations of the two of us. There was a chance that our judgment was clouded by what I achieved with witchcraft. Even though I took more toprehend the basics, my results instantly brought me to the top-tier level. On the other hand, while Penne was faster to grasp the fundamentals, his years of experience and inborn nature of keeping his emotions to himself, posed a great challenge in awakening his real power as a witch. Thinking about it, I could only imagine what kind of experiences Ayda was putting him through in order to release those hidden emotions of his. "Eh, whenever I think about your training regime, I can''t help but get worried" With this thought popping up in my head, I felt a huge sting on my soul. Even though I was perfectly certain that nothing would ever happen between the two, just imagining the possibility "Oh? Wanna see it?" Hearing Ayda shorter her sentences in an earthy way, I felt the sting in my soul suddenly exploding. But at least this time, it turned into a joy rather than worry. It was superbly pleasant to notice my woman assimting herself into the earth. "See it?" As happy as I was, a hint of confusion still lingered in my voice. "Yeah, give me a moment." With the voice from the phone changing into some distant noise, I could guess that Ayda was fiddling with her phone. "Great, look!" The screen of my phone shed as a huge ck square appeared on it. Coming out of the loudspeaker, the voice was slightly changed. In a moment, the ck screen was reced with a live feed from Ayda''s phone camera. And seeing what was on the other side of the screen, I couldn''t decide whether tough or cry. With the girl''s cute face appearing with a huge grin on the side of the screen, the miserable fate of Penne was exposed in all its glory. Covered in a bucketful of slimes, insects and all sorts of repulsive animals that could be found in the local stores or caught outside, he was trembling from the cold. The sight of several empty buckets by his side and a few more filled with water and ice only served as a testimony to what he was going through. With the live feed getting cut off, Ayda''s voice once again crispily sounded from the main speaker of the phone. "Now, do you have any other worries?" Leaving the question unanswered, I smiled at my thoughts before shaking my head. "No, I''m perfectly fine. Try to push him a little, we will need him in two days." After exchanging well wishes and saying goodbye to each other, I ended the call. The sound of the meat sizzling right above the burning coals already returned, with a delicious aroma spreading through the air. Casting a longing nce towards the fire, I swallowed a mouthful of saliva. Just as I was about to go and steal one of the sausages, Pavlo called out from the electric truck. With all the necessaryputers and cables mounted safely on the truck''s wall, he managed to finish his task rtively quickly. "Here, I burned the footage on the sh drive. Also, thend deed just arrived. I sent called my father while working on the vid. He said the constructionpany already sent the materials." There would be no adventurer''s guild without the guild building. Given how the entire area around the dungeon was nearlypletely abandoned, I couldn''t just buy a house and set the office there. No, on this god-forsaken patch ofnd, everything had to be built from the scratch. All the media that modern people were so used to, had to be either pulled all the way from thends of my faction or organised locally. Just the initial estimates showcased that the cost of establishing the guild near the dungeon would near all the costs that construction on my faction''spound consumed to this point. In other words, while setting it up was still within the means of my supporters, if this project would fail, we would be sapped. Nodding my head to Pavlo, I took the sh drive from his hand. Without even saying a word, one of the level two experts rushed to the car, bringing it closer to me. "Let''s go." It was time to force the nearby town into epting the new reality! Chapter 133: Actually, there is four. Chapter 133: Actually, there is four. "And that concludes the materials that we managed to gather. I wonder if those few short cuts are enough to pique your interest." Pressing the space on myptop, I smiled at the fat mayor of the town. With a sizeable moustache hanging from both sides of his plentiful lips, it was pretty hard to tell what was going through this man''s head. "Interest? More than that, it''s quite a scare." Refuting my words, the mayor put his hands together before gracing me with an oily, ugly smile of his. Maybe it was my personal bias, but for me, this man was the perfect representation of the older generation of the local men. Not those who rebuilt the country after the great war orter the apocalypse. Those who used every mean possible to oppress others for their own benefit. As such, conducting negotiations with him was a fairly easy thing for me, as I could let loose on how little I respected this kind of approach. "I think there is a slight misunderstanding then. We came here to report that due to the mismanagement of your side, our business group suffered great losses. The question is, how are you going topensate for it? After all, as far as I remember, the area where that dungeon is located originally belonged to the city borders, didn''t it?" The fact that there was a convenient train station just a few minutes worth of walk away from the dungeon didn''t stem from some mad vision of an architect, but the real need for it. Back before the apocalypse, prior to the global rush to the cities, the area around the dungeon would be filled with housing investments, sheltering the ss of the nouveau riche that felt the tight areas in the city too stiff for their over-bloated ego. "Compensate?!" Hearing this diabolic world, the Mayor took on air, threatening to explode his fat right in my face. Thankfully, I managed to toughen this mental torment while keeping my ironic smile on my face. If I allowed that joke of a man to take advantage of me once, there would be no end to his schemes. In order to achieve my missions in the city, I had to first ensure that the proper legition would be passed, and secondly, crush all the hopes that the mayor could have about profiting off the dungeon that appeared on strictly hisnds. "Yeah,pensate. The services of my men are not cheap. And since it''s yournd that this event took ce, it''s also your responsibility to make amends. But don''t worry, I won''t be unreasonable." After a moment of metaphorically squeezing the man in my palm, I suddenly let go, allowing him a small breather. "Considering how they were attacked during their leisure time, we obviously need to count their work as overtime. What''s more, given how it was Boruta''s celebration today, they should also get the holiday bonus. Adding battlepensation, injuries reimbursement, suddenbat avability bonus All in all, this will be the price of our services." Pulling out a small piece of paper on which I had prepared the number before even the meeting started, I ced it on the table and enjoy the physiological show that the mayor''s body gave upon letting his sight on the carefully drafter numbers. "This" From how red the mayor''s face got, I couldn''t help but start to worry about him potentially having a seizure. His extreme obesity already brought him closer to this line, the line that I didn''t want to cross. After all, if he were to free the world out of the burden of his weight, dealing with this city would be slightly more troublesome. In the end, threatening, bribing or just convincing a single person was an easier task than doing the same with the entire city''s council that would take power if the mayor were to be unable to continue his duties. "Obviously, we are willing to negotiate. Please, take this number only as our initial position, while keeping in mind that that''s how much the service of my men would cost in the given circumstances. Now, then, let''s speak business." With my fake smile now reced by a genuine one, I showed my teeth to the mayor before pulling out a small file with several papers of great importance. "Starting from the very basics, it is our wish as the representatives of the country that our cult is currently established to vie for implementation of a city-wide tax, aimed at reimbursing the cost of maintaining the dungeon. The task that my organisation oh so voluntary agrees to take. Will there be any problem with that?" While I was stretching the facts by a huge bit by calling us the representatives of our town, it wasn''t something that this fat mayor in front of me could know. For him, I alone would be as good as the president of what remained of the united states after the apocalypse! A single shake of Mayor''s head proved that he didn''t find the first condition to be too unreasonable to agree. "Secondly, our organisation will haveplete monopoly over all the goods procured from the dungeon. If we were to stabilise the situation, we will get the city''s approval to put another fee on all those entering the dungeon to prevent its excessive exploration. Is that okay?" Even though I was asking, my tone was closer to a statement than to a question. Because in all honestly, all the mayor could do right now, was to continue shaking his fat, round head up and down, agreeing to any terms I would bother toe up with. "Thirdly andstly, the city guaranteesplete autonomy of political, economical and militaristic matters of the adventurer''s guilds - as our organisation will be called - for the period of one hundred years with the priority of prolongation. Once you agree to this, we will be able to forget about the bill" Pointing my hand at the set of papers that my bodyguard disyed on the Mayor''s desk, I moved it between the documents of the agreement and the bill that I ced on the desk before. "I I can''tOh!" Seeminglying up with an idea, the mayor nearly jumped when a sudden thought appeared in his head. Sadly for him, while I had no control over what idea would pop in his head, just a bit of manipting his emotionster, he suddenly stood up, mmed his hands on his desk before furiously pointing at the doors. "I won''t have anything of that! As a mayor I''m just a representative, I know that, but that means insulting me is akin to insulting every citizen of this ce! Either you leave now, or don''t me me for calling the guards to guide you away!" Barely capable of holding my smile back, I stopped ying around with the fatty''s emotions. Devoid of the energy supporting them, his fury, courage and recklessness quickly disappeared. But the scene that he caused while under the influence of those emotions didn''t vanish. Standing up, I looked coldly at the fat man before turning around on my feet and walking towards the doors. "If that''s your wish, then so be it. If you think you can avoid paying up, then I will be the one asking you to not hold it against me once the day of your retribution wille. And with that" sping my hands together as if I suddenly became an eastern monk or something, I reached for the knob of the doors. "WAIT!" Just as expected, I didn''t even need to enhance the cowardice of that man. Completely on his own, before I and my bodyguard would have a chance to leave his office, he was already shouting after us. His hand reaching in our direction as if in a desperate attempt to stop us from leaving. "How can we be of service, sir?" Stopping and turning my head around with a coldness behind my pupils, I cast an annoyed look at the mayor. "I''m I''m sorry, I allowed my emotions to take the better of me" Waiting for this exact moment, I smiled at the same moment as I induced a sudden rush of dopamine in the mayor''s system by making him just feel happiness. Just like a dog could be trained to salivate on the sound of a bell, a man could be trained to do whatever would bring him this simplistic pleasure. "Now, there will be one more condition to make up for your blunder." Rather than going easy on the middle-aged fatso, I pushed him even further. Returning to my previous spot, I sat in thefortable chair for the guests before cupping my hands together. Looking at the mayor, I finally allowed for my true, apathetic smile to surface on my lips. "Thest condition is pretty simple. Once I will bring a certain person to the guild, the city and you personally will endorse him as the hero who saved the city from the flood of the monsters. Is that understood?" Chapter 134: Your Holy Majesty! Chapter 134: Your Holy Majesty! "Agh, I can''t believe it is over already" Stretching my arms high in the air, I released a long sigh. My strange behaviours instantly earned me a weirded-out nce from my bodyguard to the side. "Sir, did you expect more troubles? Like, I still can''t figure out why I was needed here in the first ce" As the expert of the second level, this man was clearly someone busy. Using his services to achieve certain missions was already so expensive, that he started to value even his free time ordingly. For him, acting like a bodyguard, was nothing more than a waste of his skills, and a waste of the money required to hire him in the first ce! "Troubles? Ah, no. That''s not what I meant by that." To see through the intention hidden in that expert''s question was a simple task. Since he was told to act as my bodyguard, anyone could expect for some fighting to ur. But that wasn''t his role from the very beginning. "You see, just by having you standing on my side and being as vignt as you were, I sent a proper message to the mayor. If you want to mess with me, you will need to go through the expert behind my back first. And if I can dish out someone as powerful as you just for a nice, diplomatic meeting" Even though there was no need for me to educate that man, leading the discussion in a way that would make them answer their own doubts themselves was just a habit of mine. And if my words were to grant him some enlightenment to grow even stronger, the power of my faction would only grow! Not like I had any clue what could induce breakthroughs in the people of his power though. "So it''s not like you wanted to threaten him But make him figure out what kind of power was backing you in the shadows, right?" Finally catching up, the bodyguard released an annoyed sigh before pping his face with an open palm of his. "To think it was something so simple And here I was wondering whether we came here to dere war or if that mayor was actually a monster in disguise" Hearing the rant of my bodyguard I felt my lips curving upwards. If that were the expectations that he had, I could only attempt to imagine what was going through the local mayor''s head. "Let''s sit down for a moment. I need to make a call." With how beautiful the weather today was, I couldn''t help but getzy. As we just moved out of the town''s hall, we were still in the direct centre of the city. Thanks to that, locating a set of benches in a long stride of greenery wasn''t a hard task. Sitting down and pulling out my phone, I pressed a single number before dialling up. Ever since I organised my contacts, there were only six people in my entire faction that had the privilege of being saved in my insta-call list. "Hello, Jeff? Can you hear me?" Starting with a standard greeting, I quickly changed my narration when the static threatened to hurt my hearing. Only after a while did the connection stabilised. "Good Good" Nodding my head as I listened to the older Baskar''s words, I waited for him to finish speaking. "Yeah. I''m done here. You can start your part now." Finishing the call a single momentter, I stretched my arms once again. "Now we wait." The weather was simply too nice. Too nice for me to bother moving away from the bench. After all, the mayor was about toe running from his town''s hall at any moment now, so there was no point in moving somewhere else. At first, nothing happened. People were going about their days as usual. Shopping, chatting,ughing Even though this city was even smaller than the one where I grew up in, its town''s centre was still bustling with life and activities. "Sir What are we waiting for?" After several moments passed with nothing extraordinary happening, my bodyguard started to get anxious. To say that he was worried would be a huge overstatement, given how the results of my actions had little to no importance for him. Rather than that, he seemed to be thinking that he got the rare chance to watch how one of the ns of the leader of the entire faction would fall apart. "Ah, you will see in a moment. Actually" After a second of thought, I pulled my phone again. With just a few clicks I opened the radio app, before tuning it in to the local transmission. And just as expected, rather than music, someone''s solemn voice was spreading through the air. "... confirmed that the dungeons can pose a great threat to the civilian poption. After consulting this matter with experts, the national council came to an agreement to establish a decentralised force that will take care of maintaining those ces. But while they will be responsible for taking care of this potential danger, we, the citizens of this beautiful country, can''t just ask them to do it for free!" My lips curved even more. If someone from my cult were to see me right now, their faith would definitely shake due to the devious expression that I currently wore. But even with the risk of someone local recognising me here, I couldn''t stop myself from smiling like that. "Sir?" Putting down the radio app on my phone, I raised my eyes at the bustling street. What I opened up was just a radio, a medium that rarely anyone used in the modern age. But from a single look at the ss windows of the nearby electronics shop, this kind of transmission was all over the ce. The screens disyed in that shop transmitted the very same speech of the local mayor. The only difference between the TV and radio broadcastid in theck of images in the former. Taking a look at my phone, even the automatic news feed already updated this story to its crown spot. From the small count by the side of its header title, I could see how rapidly its views were increasing. Raising my head once again, I finally saw my actions taking some effects on the locals. One by one, groups and solo people alike were stopping, either to look at the TV in the shop or directly scrolling through their phones. In less than five minutes, the entire town exploded with voices of surprise, rage, happiness and annoyance. But it was only to be expected. While some were scared about the potential appearance of the monsters, others enjoyed the fact that this threat was already taken care of. While some were angry at the prospect of a new tax burdening them, others rejoiced that they were spared the duty of dealing with the dungeons themselves. Introducing a new tax was never an easy feat to achieve, even back before the apocalypse when the ruling party could implement a great-scale of propaganda action. Yet, with my means noting even close to that of the government of the past, I managed to force not only the localmunities to ept the new reality, but from the looks of it, the rest of both the country and the world atrge would be inclined to follow my example! "Sir, the mayor has appeared." Even though he had a huge understanding of what was going on, my bodyguard ultimately couldn''t really care less. Whether the tax would be implemented or not, he would never have any trouble finding an employer who would be capable of paying the steep price of his service. Whether my faction would manage to obtain this marvellous source of founding or not, was of little importance for him. Yet, a hint of astonishment was still clearly visible in his eyes. "Just as nned." Smiling internally, I forced my lips to back down into a single, tight line. Using the short moment that the fat mayor took to reach the two of us, I forced all the emotions out of my body, leaving just a rational, cold shell behind. "Your excellency!" Even though we were sitting barely a few steps away from the town''s hall entrance, the fatso already reached the limit of his physical abilities. Panting heavily as he fought to regain his breath, he couldn''t even continue with his plea. At the same time, some of the locals looked up from the screens of their phones only to notice their very own mayor almost kneeling in front of two random people. As peculiar as this sight had to be for them, it was only the beginning of the show. "Didn''t you just chase us out? What other matters do you have to discuss with me?" Moving my eyes on top of the sweaty fate of the fatty, I allowed a shred of my disgust to appear in my pupils. "Once again, I''m sorry. There seems to be something wrong with me in the recent days" Instantly falling on his knees, the mayor disregarded how the few people who watched the proceedings now turned into an entire crowd, he struck his head against the hard concrete of the park''s road. "You already insulted us twice. The first one I could generously forgive, attributing it to your stupidity and recklessness. Why would I forgive you twice? Do you take me for some kind of naive fool that you only need to apologise to in order to earn forgiveness?" Barely bothered to cast a single nce at the pitiful man in front of me, I moved my eyes back to the screen of my phone. From how quickly more and more news continued to appear in my feed, Jeff really did his job properly. "Sir, your excellency" Muttering both of the ways in which he should refer to me, the mayor took a moment to regain his breath after this strenuous exercise. Raising his head up while remaining stered on his knees to the ground, he showed me his bloodied and sweaty face. It seemed that while he kowtowed to me, his forehead actually didn''t manage toe out unscathed from the first-degree meeting with concrete it had. "Your majesty!" Finally settling on the way in which he should refer to me, the mayor tensed his lips before gathering his wits and uttering those few words that seemed to be stuck in his throat. "The town''s hall agrees to all the terms that you have proposed! And what''s more" Reaching behind to the back pocket of his pants, the fatso pulled out a thick envelope. "Here is my personal token of gratitude, andpensation for my behaviour unbefitting the position I''m wielding. I hope your holy majesty will find it in your merciful heart to forgive me!" Chapter 135: It evolved Chapter 135: It evolved "Sir, if I may ask How did you do it?" Back in the car, I watched how the empty, fertilends passed by the window. With barely any other civilian vehicles appearing on the street outside of the logistical trucks, the speed limits from the past no longer held any meaning. "It''s simple. I made him refute andter chase us out. When I made the call to the head of the Baskar family, I just asked him to spread the news." With my eyes still glued to thendscape on the other side of the ss, I could hardly be bothered to exin any further. "Sir? What news?" Hearing the question, I could hardly believe what I heard. Putting off my facade of a thoughtful expert, I looked at the bodyguard of mine who was driving the car with disbelief written all over my face. "Wait, you really don''t know?" Staring at him as if he was some kind of super-rare animal that was believed to be long gone from the face of the earth, I had to wait for a few moments while staring at him to actually believe that he was honestly asking the question. "You saw what happened when the forward party brought the monsters outside. Given how this was nothing more but a show, we were perfectly prepared to stop those monsters. But did you ever thought about what would happen if there was no one to stop the monsters chasing after a retreating party? Did you think about the dungeons that were too remote for some major power with the backing of strong fighters to bother exploring it?" Taking a short break to replenish the air in my lungs, I sighed deeply before announcing what should bemon knowledge for anyone with brains. "The problem that we decided to make use of is not a scam. It''s something that''s already happening all over the world. People just have yet to take proper notice of it." With my head moving back to the scenery of the outside world, I continued to thirst for the natural beauty of the world. The beauty that soon would have a steep price for anyone daring to cast his or her eyes upon. "Wait, what? Wouldn''t people take notice of something like this? I know that the poption mostly moved out of the remote areas But as soon as a first monster were to appear in public, it would be impossible for the news to be suppressed just like that!" With the shocking truth behind my words shaking the man''s emotional state, his hands momentarily lost control over the car''s steering wheel. The entire vehicle shook gently when its directions wavered for a bit. Only thanks to his experience at driving did my bodyguard managed to wrestle the control over the vehicle before it would crash. "Ugh" Even though the shaking took only a single moment, the momentarypse in the concentration of my driver still made me see my entire sh through my eyes. For a moment, I was capable of believing that Jeff ordered my bodyguard to crash the car in hopes of ridding my influence from the faction! "I''m sorry It''s just that My family from the mother''s side decided to ignore the trend and" Before the man could ever finish, I already knew what was bothering his mind. "Don''t worry too much about it. The scale of the problem has yet to grow to the point where local powers won''t be able to solve it. While it''s just my guess, I think the strength of the monsters in the dungeon grows with time. Even if the dungeon were to appear right beside their home, it will take a while before the monsters will grow strong enough to escape from the underground premises." While that was just my conjecture from how weak the monsters in my dungeons were, I couldn''t really tell the man about it. If he were to start worrying about his family like that, I had a feeling that ending up with the car crashed against some random tree wouldn''t be that strange thing to ur. "It''s hard not to worry when you just told me that monsters are breaking out from the dungeons!" Tightening his hold over the wheel, my bodyguard took a few breaths to calm himself down. As great as it was for the car to perfectly keep to the road this time, it was quite obvious that the man was still really worried. "If you can''t help but think about it, just make a stop and call them. It''s not like we are in a hurry to get back to the new construction site. Rather than that, we are going there just to take a look at the situation." Given how we already got permission from the town, the trucks full of the building materials and workers could finally prove to be useful. With the new construction area referring to thends that my faction recently bought with the intention of establishing the Adventurer''s guild there, I hoped to see at least the foundation on the verge of being finished. Because once Jeff stopped suppressing the news of the dungeons, all hell was bound to break loose. Thinking about this, it was only a matter of time before other parties would start probing around my dungeon in hopes of snatching a few chips from the treasure it was for me. "I Thanks for the offer, but I need to get you back to the construction site safely. Who knows what lurks in the woods around." While it would be a lie to say that the man was scared out of his wits, it would be fair to say that he started to respect the wilderness. Thinking about it, it seemed that with the appearance of magic, humanity experienced a sudden leap. Things that seemed impossible before suddenly be easy, things that were considered miracles in the past, now becamemonce. But in this world, there was a cost to everything. One couldn''t grow wheat without sapping the nutrients from the ground. One couldn''t go to the toilet without eating or drinking in the first ce. And it seemed that those dungeons that started to pop up all over the ce, were the price of the magic appearing in the world. With that in mind, how could one dare to disrespect the potential hardships connected to those ces? If the benefits of magic appearing on earth were so great that even someone with just a slight edge in terms of knowledge would aim to build an empire based on the magic stones alone, how could the price of it be so small? It wasn''t the first time when such a thought appeared in my mind. But whenever it returned to linger in my head, I couldn''t help but worry that what those dungeons represented right now, was nothing but the prologue of the disaster they would turn intoter on. Ting-ting! The vibration in my pocket and the annoying sound of the legendary love poem of the greatest Rick of the Rolls announced that someone was trying to get in touch with me. Fishing out the phone from my pocket, I saw that for the very first time, an unknown number dialled. "Yes? Who is it?" Picking up the phone, I thought that some important figure reached out to me in regards to the recent stir that my faction created all over the country only to hear "Hello, dear sir. I''m calling you with great news! You were chosen amongst our many customers" Ending the call without even a shred of hesitation, I threw the phone back to the front of the car. "Something happened?" Noticing my strangely annoyed behaviour, my bodyguard cast a quick nce at me while asking. "Nah, just another phone scam. There is no need to" Before I could finish my words, the familiar tune filled the car once again. "Never gonna give you up, never gonna let" Reaching for the phone before the legendary poet of the times gone could finish the second verse of his widely-popr song, I saw the same number as before. Fighting off the initial urge to just block it, I pressed the green button before bringing my phone to my ear. "Sorry for before. I just couldn''t help myself." This time, instead of the trained voice of the scammer, a familiar one reached out to my ears from my phone''s microphone. "Pavlo? Why do you call me from another number?" Even though only a few people in my entire faction had my number, Pavlo was still amongst the ranks of this elite group. As not only the heir to the Baskar''s fortune but also the main IT specialist in the entire faction, he served as my direct attendant in all the matters that didn''t require his father''s direct involvement. "I''m sorry, my normal phone is gone. I had to use one of the ones left behind by our soldiers. And well, I wouldn''t call you if it wasn''t important" From the hesitation mixed with some other feeling in Pavlo''s voice, I could tell that the situation was quite dire. For him to bear around the bush like that, something really huge had to happen. "Stop stalling and just tell me what''s going on." This was the one fault of Pavlo''s character that annoyed me to no end. With his contributions to the faction and even its creation in the first ce, all he had to do to get me to do something, was to ask. There was absolutely no reason for him to waste the time of both of us by stalling like that. "Erm Well, could you hurry up ande back? The dungeon" After a moment of hesitation and the audible sound of the young man heavily swallowing his saliva, Pavlo finally finished. Hearing his words, only one thought appeared in my head, instantly moving through my mind and spinal cord to propel the air in my lungs, forcing my voice toe out. "Speed up. The dungeon has evolved. We need to go back right now." Chapter 136: Ambush Chapter 136: Ambush Crash! The first thing that I heard when we neared the campsite of the rest of our team, was the sound of the cloth tearing, metal clinging and some strange noise that I couldn''t figure out the source off. But before I would even have a chance to attempt guessing its origin, one of the twomanding trucks filled to the brim with expensive electronics exploded in a ball of fire! Raising several meters above the ground, a gentle hue of deep redness seemed to enrich the mes for a moment, before this single showcase of disaster came to an end. "Wha" Instantly unhooking my safety belt I was about to jump out of the car and join the relief effort right away, when a sturdy hand of my bodyguard mmed right into my chest, burying me back into the pillows of my seat. Once the man made sure that I wasn''t going anywhere, his hand instantly reverted back to its original position on the manual gearset of the car. While I didn''t really know all that much about the intricacies of car racing, from how rapid and decisive the moves of this bodyguard of mine were No, that was only a clue. Whatever it was that made him react in the way he did, I learned about how determined this man was to get me as far away from this ce as possible from the painful overload forced me tightly against the back of my seat. "Sit down, this isn''t something we can face!" Barely capable of moving my head around, I cast a quick nce at the face of my bodyguard. Covered in fat drops of sweat, the redness of madness was reaching all the way to the pupils in his eyes. But contrary to the look of his face, his aura was steady, as if he entered some kind of ultra-focused status of meditation. CRACKABOOM!" Once the truck finally fell to the ground, an even greater shroom of fire erupted from its wreckage. Seeing it through the side mirror of the car, I could feel my fists tightening. No matter what, the people that were there were under mymand! Whatever was going on there, I should be rushing to their help instead of racing as far away and as quickly away as the horsepower of my car would allow! "Stop the car." I knew it was stupid even before those words escaped from my mouth. Compared to some soldiers, even those reaching second grade, my life was of far greater importance. If I were topletely hide my emotions away as to stop them from clouding my judgement, even Pavlo''s life wasn''t worth putting mine at risk. That was, only if I were to consider the importance of specific people within the faction! "There is no damn way I will abandon my people!" Ignoring the confused look on my bodyguard''s face, I could feel my emotions coursing through my soul like a ravaging current of a wrathful river. Under the pressure of those stirred-up emotions, I looked through the front window of the car. ''Action always creates a reaction. Push at something, and it will push against you with equal force.'' For some reason, this simple physicalw appeared in my head. For some even stranger reason, my mind jolted, as if connecting the dots in some kind of important puzzle. And with a single wish of my barely conscious mind, I felt the raging energy of my emotions suddenly calming down. Not because I managed to get rid of them and silence my thoughts. Because they came to work as the catalyst of my own magic power, pushing against the ground in front of the car with immense strength! "WHAT THE FU?!" Uttering a shout of shock and terror, my bodyguard clearly lost his mind when our car seemed to hit an invisible wall. With the safety belt no longer holding me at the seat, I sent just a tiny whisper of energy to cut the man out of his own belt. With no time for pleasantries, my mind jerked again, instantly turning nearly my entire aura into a desire. Using the changing emotion, I instantly pulled my bodyguard towards me. As soon as I felt his flesh hitting against my body, my desire died off instantly, reced with repulsion. CLANG! The sound of the metallic construction of the sports care that we were ining apart under the immense force of my witchcraft was starkly different to how the electric truck of mine sounded when it exploded. But there was a simple exnation behind it. Without the fireball to heat the metal, tearing it apart was not only harder, but it also gave off a different sound! "BRACE!" Shouting this single word, I let go of the man''s body. Now that we were racing through the air towards the ground, sticking together for no reason like that would only make the both of us more prone to injuries. But before our bodies could hit the floor, another explosion shook the area. Turning my eyes towards this unexpected event, I felt a shiver travelling down my spine. The part of the road where my car would appear if I didn''t decide to follow through with my emotion was now turned into several meters deep crater. Without even a fireball, it seemed as if someone transported the shockwave of an explosion alone, not willing to leave any other hints of his abilities. ''Sarates? Government? Who else?'' At this point, I would have to be an idiot to still believe that it was just a misunderstanding. But that didn''t mean I had any clue who to me for the current precarious situations that I was in. And before I could even spare a real thought about it, the merciless ground finally embraced the two of us. "DHUH!" The air escaping from my lungs when I ttened against the ground made up a strange moan. As my body turned around in desperate attempts to fight off the pain I noticed that my bodyguard didn''t fare any better. Even though with the speed at which we crashed into the ground soft and lush grass of the local in didn''t seem like the worst ce to fall at,pared to the small ravine that my bodyguard''s body created due to a slightly different angle of his fall, I had absolutely nothing to whine about. Especially when I saw several bloodied stones marking the path that he made on the ground. "The hell" Even though my physical abilities were nothing to scoff at after my heavily athletic-oriented career, I was nowhere even close as durable as any cultivator that took their training seriously. With the ragged state that my body was in right now, I had no other choice but to use the slight variations in my emotions to create witchcraft, using which I finally managed to prompt my body up. "Sir, are you okay?!" Even though hisnding was far worse, my bodyguard quickly proved that cultivation offered some perks after all. Despite the marks of blood all over his clothes, neither his face nor his aura indicated that he was hurt in any serious way. "For now, yes. We don''t have time, let''s return to the camp." Given how the enemy, whoever that fucker was, managed to set off that strange explosion exactly at the path that our car would have to take to escape the ordeal at the camp, there was hardly any doubt in my mind who their real target was. It looked like that exploding truck was nothing but a distraction and a bait aimed at pulling me away from that ce! And with how little I knew about what the hell was going on, doing the things that the attacker wanted to discourage me from doing was the one thing that I knew for certain that was right! With every step that I made towards the ce where the rest of my troops was left, I could feel the strenght returning to my body. The initial shock caused by the sudden crash into the ground quickly waned off, allowing me to properly assess the damage to my insides. And it wasn''t good. With several internal bleedings and fractured bones, I could move like a healthy person only thanks to my witchcraft and the sheer resilience that my emotions infused in me. But the state of my physical body didn''t matter much right now. With my awakening as a true mage, even if it was only on the minimal level, I was free to use any of the emotions I would like. I could break any of the taboos that I deemed necessary. Especially given how doing so would alert Ayda about how dire my situation was right now! "Sir, I can see No, it cannot be!" Suddenly stopping in ce, my bodyguard reached with his hand forward. Following after his arm with my eyes, by the time my sight passed by his hand, I couldn''t fail to notice how his hand was shaking as he continued to point at something in front of us. "Oh boy" To say that the sight was insane, would be too little to give justice to the situation. The entire camp was wrecked. All the vehicles were destroyed, with their wreckages burning whenever they were parked before. But the strangest of the situation actually consisted of three things. First off, my people didn''t seem to be in as bad of a state as I worried they would be. Secondly, fighting arm to arm with them, were people bearing the emblems of the Sarate family. And from the looks of things, not a single one of them fared any worse than the remaining two grade two soldiers that remained at the camp. And thirdly, a maddening crowd of monsters continued to attack the united line of the rivalling human factions, with fireballs, thunders and boulders flying all over the ce! Chapter 137: Four words, four lives Chapter 137: Four words, four lives "What the actual fuck" Racing towards the battlefield, I couldn''t really wrap my head around what was going on. Where did the Sarate people came from? Were they the ones that caused the current situation? Howe they were fighting side by side with people under me? Even though thest question that appeared in my mind had quite an obvious answer, I refused to acknowledge it. Be it my grudge towards Martha and the family behind her or my natural disposition not to trust anyone, I had a hard time epting the reality in front of my eyes. "We need someone on the right nk!" "Help! I need help!" "Someone, pull the wounded away!" As I stepped into the battlefield, the true scale of the battle finally dawned upon me. With only about twenty men in total on the side of the humans, the attacking monsters had an insane advantage of numbers. While it was just a rough estimate born from a single nce, it seemed that every human on the field had to best at least twenty to thirty enemies in order for us to win the fight! "Your excellency? What are you" One of my men noticed me, but he was unable to even finish his words. With his sentence broken due to the attack of the ws of some kind of wolf-like beast, his attention returned to where it should be right at this moment. "Hold them off! I will take care of the back row!" A single nce was all I needed. From the fluctuations of the mana in the air, I could finally pinpoint the location of the perpetrator that almost managed to y my bodyguard, my car and myself with that strange shockwave spell before. Running towards the frontline, I reached for a pebble on the ground. Bringing up the image of that ugly and vomit-inducing bug that Ayda forced me to hold in hand for a long time, I stopped my run before throwing the pebble towards that magic monster. Infused with my repulsion and propelled by the momentum I gathered during my short run, this simple pebble turned into no less than a bullet. With the sight of the head of the goblin-like monster exploding, the weird fluctuations of the mana finally stopped. At the same time, the strength of the rest of the monsters seemed to plummet, allowing both my bodyguards and the Sarate soldiers to make the short work of them. "What the hell was that?" Not even shouting, I simply posed the question. Yet, no one volunteered to answer. In such a situation, rather than waiting for someone to find the civil courage and fulfil my request for information, I approached the nearest man and repeated the question. "What the hell was that?" Not even bothering to change the tone or the word of my question, I looked at the man wearing the Sarate''s family emblem on his shoulder. Confused as to why I was asking him rather than one of my men, he was too stunned to answer. "Useless." Walking past the mute man, I approached another one. Even though I wasn''t even looking at who I was approaching, for some rotten luck, it was yet another soldier of the enemy faction. "What the hell was that?" Already used to my quirky behaviour and expecting this question, the man only looked down on me before shaking his head and turning it around. "I''m under no obligation to answer any que" Before he could even finish refuting, I sent a gentle p to his face. A p that was gentle, but once again, filled with repulsion. Once my palm made contact with the skin of the soldier, his entire body flew away as if someone detonated a grenade right at his face. "What the hell was that?" The next person I approached turned out to be one of the soldiers of mine. "Sir, we were camping like usual when those monsters just appeared. They came from the direction of the dungeon. We have yet to search about the party that was guiding the entrance. Those guys," Pointing his hand in the general direction of the rest of the humans in the area, this soldier of mine clearly had the Sarate soldiers on mind, "appeared right when I realised that not only those monsters were stronger than before, but also" Taking a moment to cast a nce at my face, the soldier had to be disappointed with the effects of his slight scouting as my face remained as expressionless as it was ever since the fighting concluded. "They appeared right as I realised that we had no chance against this swarm of monsters. That''s all that I managed to notice, your excellency." While it was clear that answering a simple question like that posed a real challenge for the man due to the injuries he sustained during the fighting, it was of utmost importance for me to gather the reports. "Anyone wants to add anything, or should I draw conclusions from just this report alone?" Posing another question of mine for everyone to hear, I waited for a moment. As expected, no voice appeared. Outside of the tones of the nature that returned to the area once the fighting was over, only the whining and moans of the injures could be heard. "Good. Men, apprehend those traitors of humanity." Unwilling to be bothered with what was the truth behind the appearance of the Sarates, I decided to go all in. "Yes, sir!" In this one, short moment, two things became clear. Sarate affiliated soldiers hesitated. Contrary, people rented for my use by Jeff, did not. To give justice to those people, there weren''t weak. Just by observing how swiftly they were capable of taking down the monsters in the fight a moment ago, I could tell that at least half of their group already reached the second level of cultivation. In fact, their leader was even stronger, making me wonder whether he was already on the third level or if he managed to achieve greater heights within the second stage of cultivation. But it all mattered not. With the advantage of the first move, in just a few moments, most of the Sarate soldiers were subdued, leaving only the five of them. "What the hell is the meaning of this? Can''t you see" It was pretty obvious what kind of reaction those who managed to avoid the hands of my people would have. After helping my people to subdue the attacking monsters, instead of gratitude, they received enmity. But in the position I was in, that was the only course of action that could lead to anything productive. "You guys appeared right as my people started to crumble. First off, howe you are on mynds? That''s trespassing. Secondly, if you somehow found yourself in this area by ident, why did you wait so long to join the fight? That''s a refusal to help a person in need, also an act considered to be criminal. And thirdly" Taking a short break with my words, I approached the man that dared to speak up. "I gave you a fucking chance to speak before. For every word that you or any of your soldiers will speak from now on, one of your men will die." There was no time for me to act gently with those people. While I could guess the actual answers to all the problems that I stated, those answers were born out of the naive part of me, dreaming of a world where people actually helped each other out. And as a head of the entire faction, even if only on paper, I couldn''t allow those naive guesses to make the better of my judgement. "..." Seeing that the leader of the group remained silent after my words I nced at him for a moment before moving to the nearest subdued soldier of his. "Go to sleep." cing my hand on the side of his head, I used a quick pulse of repulsion to knock him unconscious before moving to the next one. When five of my soldiers were freed from the duty of pacifying those people, I pointed my hand at the remaining five members of the Sarate troop. "Bind them." Level one and level two cultivators my ass. From what I saw during the battle, while the abilities of the cultivators were far greater than anything that a normal human could achieve, they were still dwarfed by my capabilities. As such, I was free to do anything I wanted with them, as my power alone was more than enough to subdue the rest of the group. "You are seeking death!" Shouting those words, the leader of the Sarates shook one of my men who attempted to approach him, before leaping towards me. "Four words, four lives." Not even bothering to p the man out of existence, I simply released my repulsion for a moment, creating a spherical force that pushed against anything near me. "You" Suddenly faced with a wall created by my witchcraft, the leader of the Sarate soldiers only managed to utter a single word before my spell won against his resistance, smashing the middle-aged man against a nearby tree. "Men, kill the rest of them Or nevermind." Stepping several steps forward, I looked down at the remaining four of the unbound Sarate soldiers. "I will do it myself." Letting go of my restraints, I momentarily released all the hate and wrath that was boiling deep underneath my skin. Dropping all the facades, I unleashed the most lethal of my witchcraft, once again breaking the taboo. But instead of going for the remaining soldiers, waved my hand up, sending the leader of the enemy faction flying. "Knock them down and bring them away." Uttering this order in a silent voice, I waited for a moment before jumping forward. For now, I had to make sure to keep the leader of the group busy, so that he wouldn''t be able to see my people fulfilling my orders!" Chapter 138: Let me use this question Chapter 138: Let me use this question With the real aim of my n already aplished, all I had to do was to chase after the man that I knocked away. Judging the strength of my attack and the height that he reached before his ascent was broken down and turned into a descent, I pushed my feet heavily into the ground before jumping forward. The soaring of the wind by my eyes was strangely rxing. As if surfing through the idle winds of the fall''s afternoon, I could feel my entire body rxing as if I wasn''t in the middle of pummeling an expert that many huge factions would happily go to a small war for. "aaaaAAAAA." The sound of the man''s screams as he continued to elerate more and more towards the ground was a honey to my ears. For someone whomanded the units of people that I already considered traitors of humanity, just being thrown around a bit wasn''t enough. For my inner rage caused by someone''s guts growing to the point when they dared to attack my people, this was a way to quell it. p. Perfectly timing my approach with the fall of the leader of the Sarate soldiers, just as he was about to heavily hit the ground and turn into an invalid for the rest of his days, my p in his face redirected his momentum, sending him crashing against the trees instead. Katcha! After snapping several smaller branches on his way away from me, the man finally crashed into a sturdy trunk of a huge oak, before sliding down its side towards the ground. From the pained moans escaping through the man''s lips, it was clear that even being an expert of his scale didn''t mean he was immune to this level of damage. "W-wait" Noticing the fact that I was approaching him again, the man could only weakly whisper some simple words. But instead of listening to his pleas for mercy, I crossed thest few metres that separated us before leaning over the powerless body of the expert. "Wait for what? For you to call reinforcements? Or maybe for some of your higher-ups to fuck up the entire situation, sending a government''s retribution right on my head? It wouldn''t be the first time you guys did something like this." Putting a wide smile on my face, I grabbed the man by his throat, before lifting him up just high enough for his legs to lose contact with the ground. Even despite his physics being on a far end of the durability scale whenpared with other humans, a simple w of the body of our species was still there. Just by tightening my hand and waiting for a bit, I could see the blood rushing to the face of the man, indicating that he was quickly reaching the appropriate level of suffocation for my purposes. Waiting for just a few moments, I could see the man''s eyes turning bloodshot and his face turning violet before his eyes rolled to the back as his entire body limped. "Good." Rxing my grip, I allowed the lifeless body of the Sarate''s expert to plummet down to the ground. While I didn''t kill him and it would only take a short while for him toe back to his senses, I judged that I had more than ample amount of time to fix up a special kind of restraint. And it was something that I spent quite a long time thinking about it. While it was already a while since the idea popped up in my head for thest time, its simplicity was what made it easy for me to recall the design that I proposed after consulting the idea with Sander. Keeping just the right amount of attention to the unconscious body beside me, I quickly scavenged the area. As and just recently abandoned, the traces of human presence were prettymon all around. Before the man on the ground coulde to his senses, I already returned to his resting spot with a thin, vinyl string in my hands. "Now, let''s see if it will really work out as I hoped it would" The problem of putting powerful experts under control was what made me lose several hours of sleep back in time a bit. With their insanely boosted and improved psychique, with their ability to draw force far greater than their muscles should normally allow, there was hardly any material that could be used to contain them. Only using the toughest of the metal alloys at least several centimetres thick in all ces would put my mind at ease in terms of controlling the experts of level two and above. But there was no way for such a specific and intricate tool to just loiter around the former farnd. While all sorts of stic trash, ropes and even clothes could be found all over the ce, there was no need for the kind of item I needed in the farnds in the first ce, making it futile to look for it even before I would even begin. Yet, I wasn''t worried. Using the fact that the man has yet to regain his consciousness, I pulled his hands to the back before rolling his body to make him face the ground. Pulling out a knife that I bought in one of the still-operating convenience stores, I quickly freed the man''s feet from his shoes, throwing the scrap pieces of high-quality leather away. With both of his hands and feet now fully in my control, I bent his knees before bringing his feet above his waistline. Binding one end of the vinyl thread to his pinky, I moved it up towards his throat, before pulling it down to his hand. From there, another curl around the neck only to bend a part of the threat around his other pinky following with thest round around the man''s throat and ending up bound to the finger of his other hand. Surely, the man could easily snap such a tiny thread. But by making it run and angle at his throat three times, doing so would be akin to cutting his own throat andmitting a slightly more borate suicide. This was the real reason behind my act of pulling him up before. Since an expert of his level could be defeated by attacking his vitals, it meant that despite his strength, his throat was still a ce on his body he had to pay particr attention to protect. That was the only solution, outside of the heaviest chains possible, that I came up with for dealing with the powerful experts. Rather than trying to block them from exerting their strength at all, I decided that making it so using their power would force them to deal a fatal injury to themselves seemed like a greater option. The only two problems with this solutionid in the wits of the man and the strength of the thread. If the vinyl item were to be too fragile, this damned Sarate soldier could just risk snapping it. Even if his throat were to be squeezed by it then, he could free himself from his restraint before any real injury would happen to his vital part. This was the only reasonable way to free himself from my bounds that didn''t involve third-party help. And for this way out to work, the man had to not only have a rtively huge sack of balls under his pants, but the thread also had to be weak enough for such an escape attempt to be sessful. Thankfully, with my background as a witch, manipting the emotions of this expert to make him too fearful of taking any action in fear of iming his own life was a walk in the park! Cough, cough! "Wha" Once the man finally regained his senses, he coughed a few times before his eyes finally started supplying his brain with the detailed imagery of the ground below his nose. Right away, the man attempted to prompt himself upwards, but with the vinyl thread tensing up and digging into the flesh of his throat, the man''s movement ceased. "Stay where you are. There are some questions you need to answer to if you want to return to your dog employer in a single piece." As much as I didn''t like to threaten others or even im lives, it was something that was inevitable on the path that I chose for myself. Given how I was the powerhouse of my cult hiding in in sight, it was only a matter of time before the local conflicts and crossing spheres of influences would lead to a greater war. And only a disaster would await my entire faction if I were to refuse to get my own hands dirty. "What the fuck do you want" Only capable of gentle whisper with the piece of vinyl constantly pressing against the soft flesh of his throat, the expertying on the ground below me was clearly struggling to maintain his limbs in a position where the threat of this thread cutting his throat open would be the smallest. "What do I want to know? Hmm Isn''t that a great question? Let me use it to ask you then." Putting a wide smile on my face, I paced around the area as if I was adoring the growth of nature in this ce, exploding due to theck of human hand nearby. "What are you going to tell me, that you deem will be a worthy exchange for sparing your life?" Sitting down on one of the boulders in the area, I smiled before turning silent. I made my move. Now it was the time for the other party to do theirs. Chapter 139: The choice is yours Chapter 139: The choice is yours "The reason why we joined the fight with your people" Uttering those words through his lips tightened by the pain, Sarate''s expert threw me a questioning look. Given how he was supposed to attempt buying his life with the information I was seeking, it was quite obvious that he was already testing the waters with what topic might be of interest for me. "Go on." Even though my position was as far from being ready to fight as one could be, I couldn''t believe there was any need for me to worry. Despite using all kinds of means that I had at my disposal, I didn''t use anywhere close to their maximum potential. With that in mind, even if the man below my feet was capable of ignoring all the pain from the pummeling he suffered so far, his might would still be dwarfed by my strength. "We" Cleary hesitating to speak up, the man looked around before finally uttering "We were ordered to follow you and make sure no harm woulde your way. As for why we stayed at that camp My people just failed to notice you leaving." For a moment, the face of the man darkened when the memory of his subordinates apparently failing their mission haunted his mind. But rather than focusing on this anecdotal part of his story, I looked closer into the fluctuations in his aura. For others, discerning whether the man was lying or speaking honestly might pose a challenge. With the improvements to his psychique, even the special pharmaceutics aimed at putting one in a narcotic trance when they would be incapable of lying would be useless, as his body would likely expel the drug toxins before they could work. But for me, just a single look at his emotions was enough to confirm that he was speaking from the bottom of his heart. ''What a sucker'' Not even trying to lie his way out of the predicament, he instantly revealed the truth. Even though it was exactly what I wanted, I couldn''t help but feel disgusted by such ack of wits. "That''s interesting. And who''s that person interested in keeping me alive?" Looking at the man with my eyes filled with irony, I asked the question. While I had a guess in my mind already, it would be an example of naive thinking if I were to assume that everything that I knew would round up into a perfect exnation for the situation. "I''m not really sure who gave the order first But I know who they are! I mean, not specifically" As soon as the topic moved on to the discussion of the important details, fat drops of sweat started to appear on the man''s forehead while his eyes broke the direct line of contact with mine, daring not to stare through the windows of my soul. "I will make things easier for you, then. It was Sarate, wasn''t it?" In my head, a n was already sprouting. As long as my guess was correct, I could ''identally'' slip a few words ofmentary, be it by pretending to be annoyed or by during some kind of furious exmation "Sarate? That big family? Boy, you sure are aiming high. But no, indirectly but still, I was hired by the branch of the government from the capital." For the first time in a while, my guess managed to pull me into meadows. With my eyebrows rising, I almost forgot to check the aura of the man. Thankfully, just a quick nce was enough to see that there was no feeling of sess or achievement in his soul, just relief as if a huge burden was released from his shoulders. After all, he just gave away what should be his greatest secret and the highest price he could offer for his health. All the doubts and the thoughts of possible consequences of doing so were immediately washed away by the fact that his job was already done. Whether or not I would ept this price, was not within his means to decide at this point. "Good." Even though my entire scheme aimed at Sarate was voided with a single denial, an idea suddenly struck me like a hammer. Who cared that this man wasn''t sent by Martha like I initially expected? Who cared about the fact that he had no ties to the Sarate at all? Thinking about it, no matter whether he was sent by Martha or not, in both cases she would fervently deny ever sending him on a mission that had any chances of being against the agenda of her family! With that in mind, it didn''t matter who this man was sent by, as long as he had no traceable ties with my faction at all! "I thought of a way for you to get away from this ce in one piece. Are you interested in hearing it?" Before the man could even answer, I pulled my phone up before quick-dialling Jeff. As I noticed, with the investments and actions finally starting to bear fruits and requiring far closer attention of my cult, my calls to the most important person out of the Boruta''s cult backers turned far more frequent than I would ever estimate them to be. "Hey, Jeff, a quick question" Before I could even finish my hurried greeting, older Baskar''s voice interrupted me in an instant. "Do you have any fucking idea what is happening as we speak?" Only now did I hear the distant echoes of explosion and general devastation going on. Could that mean that not only the dungeon that I was interested in "Just a guess. Dungeons finally cracked open? This time, for real?" Instead of discussing my delicate ns with Jeff right now, I cut to the chase. Without my presence, he was most likely to be the mainmander of everyone gathered in the cult''snds. "It couldn''t be any more real. The monsters are still kept at a distance from the city But they are far more powerful than even our soldiers. Unless other factions keep third-grade experts or greater This might not be fight humanity could win. And I dare not to imagine what''s going on everywhere el right, what''s your situation?" From how this usually stoic man went on a long rant, I could tell that the situation wasn''t good. Looking down on the expert below my feet, I quickly replied. "We managed to contain the rupture, you know, the appearances of monsters. We have some injured, but outside of some mercenaries sent after us, no one should be sustainably hurt." Informing Jeff about my current situation wouldn''t alleviate his problems in the town, but would at least free his mind from worrying about me. And just the fact that I managed to conquer the dungeon with a force of just several grade two and grade one experts assisting me, I couldn''t really wrap my head around how the dungeon outbreak managed to turn into a problem that even got that sly old man scared. Or could it be? The southern dungeon where I was currently at, was regrly wiped by the several scouting parties that my faction sent. With the addition of the other groups like the one that Penne originally belonged to, it wasn''t that far from having the monsters inside it destroyed almost on a daily basis. But the same couldn''t be said about the other dungeons near the town. Knowing the nature of the behemoths like the two major neighbouring cities appeared to me, rather than constantly managing the dungeons within their perimeter, they were likely to just sent a scouting party once or twice before taking the area under their wings and blocking others from entering it. Managing a single business was already a huge matter, but managing a dungeon? If the local government was formed by the officials of the highest rank locally - just like it took ce in my hometown - then it would be no wonder if thest time anyone visited their dungeons would be when the first scouting party came to report that it appeared to be a cave in an otherwise t area! "On our side, man, you really should see this" The fact that Jeff''s sentences were incoherent was thest piece I needed to understand how dire their situation was. "See what?" Already standing up from the stone I was sitting at only to beckon at the expert below it to follow me, I asked. "That girl of yours, ah, her excellency Ayda If you wanted to appear like a hero of the old days back when we fought against the governor, then she She is not the fake. She is an actual damned hero!" Ending his surprising message with a giggle, Jeff''s managed to baffle me with his behaviour. Never in my life did I expect to hear him excited like that. It was as if the long-dead seed of childhood fantasies reincarnated, taking over his soul! "It''s good to hear But make sure to support her properly. If something were to happen to her" Just the thought of Ayda getting hurt for the sake of my hometown managed to rile my emotions up. Almost losing myu focus, I stood in ce, allowing the threat in my voice to be transmitted to the other side of the call. "I get it. I''m not that stupid to let her get hurt. But still It will be good if you coulde back as soon as possible. Oh, they need me. I will call you once I will have a moment." Ending the call as abruptly as he acted when he picked it up, Jeff managed to turn my entire mindset over again. From the expert''s confession ofing from the government, through the current situation, it seemed that my streek of guessing the things around me correctly was definitely over. And then, another idea came. Since I was to be defended, then the government had some kind of interest in keeping me alive. And with the given mismanagement of the dungeons, who had a chance of growing stronger the less they were cleared "No For now, I don''t even want to think about it." Suddenly shaking my head, I forced those thoughts out of my mind. If I were to connect those dots right now, I would only be in for an even greater shockter on. That''s why it was better to just act on what I knew and adjust my actions as more information woulde my way. "Nevermind. You, do you want to live or do you want to die?" Hiding my phone in my pocket, I looked at the expert with yet another version of the strategy for my nearest action developing in my head as I spoke. "The choice is yours." Chapter 140: Sorry for the wait Chapter 140: Sorry for the wait Even with the car and both of the trucks crashed during the fight, there were more than necessary cars in the nearby area for everyone to pack up and leave. But instead of rushing everyone to my home turf, I sent all the injured towards the city I visited recently. With the assist of half of the remaining soldiers of mine, I was basically left alone with the leader of the government group and just two bodyguards of mine. In such a situation, sending the prisoners also had to fall on the shoulders of the big, detached group. Thanks to that, everyone managed to pack up into a single car, one that the government group used. With the leader of their group already pacified and silently following anything that I would say, finding out their hideout posed no challenge at all. Due to the local dungeon being wiped out by several parties, just those tiny forces that I brought were enough to pacify the situation. But the same couldn''t be said about the two other dungeons that were close to my hometown. ording to the reports I received as the car finally started to move, we only need to worry about one of the cracked dungeons. Be it a lucky or karmic ident, the dungeon nearing the city that I suspected to intentionally mismanage it flushed all its monsters towards that ce. Sadly, the other one spread its armies in both directions. And just the fact that a single dungeon could heavily threaten two rtively big cities at once only proved how much easier it was to farm the dungeons in a timely manner than letting them burst the waves of monsters once every so often. "Sir, we are in the city." The silent announcement of the driver shook me awake from a daze. Looking around, I could see that the signs of panic already reached the suburbs. Even though it would be understandable for thend lying right on the border of the city to be endangered by the invasion that is, if it was facing the danger, instead of having the entire city shield it from it instead! "I see" There was no need to borate. With just four of us in the car, no one was really too keen to speak up. The danger of the battle we were rushing to join was something serious. While I was no stranger to the battle, the tension before it was still getting into me. In just a few moments, the car managed to cut through the alleys surrounding the city centre, reaching thend of my faction. Located on the eastern end of the city, it could be considered one of the safe spots. That is if the invasion wouldn''t spread across the entire settlement. Screech! The pained noise of the tires prated my ears as the driver took thest corner in a pretty aggressive manner. Before the car could evene to a full stop at the parking before the main entrance to myplex, I was already rushing towards the doors. "Wait here!" Dashing towards the building, I shouted to my men behind. Even though the outside of the area was rtively calm, I could already see through the windows that it was a different story altogether inside of the building. cing my hands on the special frame attached to the doors, I realised that even opening the doors was quite hard. Only after a long moment of struggling did I manage to somehow find the opening in the dense flow of people inside, forcing myself inside. Step by step, I managed to squeeze through the panicked crowd. Thankfully, by the time I reached the connecting part, the crowd practically disappeared, allowing me to pick up the pace. After sprinting to my personal wing of thepound, I rushed up the staircase before mming the doors to Sander''s study open. "Sir!" Rapidly turning his body around, the craftsman only needed a single nce to both to recognise me and figure out my reason for being here. "I will get some raws as well!" Notifying the man as I jumped towards one of the boxes, I grabbed a handful of brighter gemstones before poaching them to my pocket. The next moment, Sander ran back from the small warehouse built into the room, with several small, decorative cases. Recognising the items, I could tell that my eyes lit up. "Thanks. By the way" Before I could even finish my sentence, Sander already started nodding his head. In this tense moment, there were barely any words needed between the two of us. "Yeah, she came and took quite a bit of them. But honestly From the rate of the explosions that I felt, it seems that they already ran out of them. Here" Reaching under one of the tables, the craftsman brought up a packed-up backpack. "Supplies if the battle will prolong." Looking up at Sander''s face, I nodded my head. "Thanks." Without any dy, I ran outside. Rather than risking the journey through the packet interiors of thepound, I took a small detour, opting to go through the gardens instead. While it required me to jump over or just force my way through severalbs of flowers or hedges, by the time I could maybe only reach the dense crowd at the forefront of the building, I managed to reach the parking lot. "Here!" Putting my hand into my pocket, I grabbed several raw magic stones before throwing them to the government-hired expert. "You can use them to power through your smaller ranks." The fact that one could use magic stones to speed up his or her cultivation wasn''tmon knowledge yet. By not only openly informing the man about it and even offering him this precious resource, I wasn''t just generous. I wasn''t just attempting to raise the strength of this man to the level where he would be useful on the battlefield we were going to reach soon. The fact that I could give out so much so easily, was the first part of my lesson to the man. A lesson that would forcefully ingrain in his mind what was the level of my means. "Yes, sir!" ording to the decision he made back in the forest, he would do just two things. Follow me to the battle first, and then "Your excellency?!" From the building, a voice came. Raising my head, I could see Jeff hanging his upper body outside of the window on the second floor. "Not now,ter!" Shouting back, I put my hand with extended thumb and pinky to my ear, indicating the form ofmunication we could use in a moment. Not even giving the man a chance to respond, I sat back inside the car. In the next moment, its tires whined once again before the vehicle rushed forward. Given the rush we were in, the driver already moved it around while I was running through thepound. "Everyone, here. You should already know the meanings of those marks. With the heavy-hitters Use them sparingly. We only have a few of them. As for the others, just don''t waste them unnecessarily." Pushing my backpack to my knees, I distributed most of Sander''s boxes to my men. Even though this was a clear way to strengthen someone up, the government''s expert didn''t receive any. Because the prowess of the inscribed magic stones was another way for me to show the man how stupid it would be to go against an agreement made with me. Thankfully, the battle didn''t happen right outside of the city. Just the missed spells and ranged attacks that were flying around would easily devastate entire neighbourhoods here. From the moment we left the popted area, just a few more moments separated us from the real battle. "Sir" Once the sounds of the fighting already reached our ears, the expert from the government suddenly spoke up. "What is it, Gerard?" Looking over my shoulder at the man sitting at the back, I could help but form a small, ironic smile once I noticed his shocked expression. "I''m done using those stones I understand now." A look of determination on the man''s face proved to me that he really grasped the meaning behind what I gave him with such ease. Hearing a sudden noise to my side, I turned my head around. "Great. Because now it''s the perfect time for you to prove it." Tapping the shoulder of the driver, I made him stop the car. Moving outside without even a single additional word, I looked at the very front of the now visible battle. Right amidst the monsters that spread over the entire open field, two figures could be seen wreaking havoc. Just a single look at their bloody work proved how hard Ayda was working on training her new disciple over the past few days. "Everyone, what the hell are you waiting for?" Asking the question, I pushed open the lids of several of the boxes, before grabbing six different stones into my hands. Keeping them between my fingers and my palm, I made sure there wasn''t any risk of firing them off prematurely before I rushed forward. Step by step, I was getting closer to the thick line of the monsters crowd. Step by step, I was getting closer to Ayda. Step by step, I was getting closer to saving her from the bloodbath. After all, just in my personal opinion, having her fight was the greatest sin that humanity couldmit against my happiness. With all sorts of tricks to my name, reaching the frontline didn''t take me long at all. But instead of stopping there, I simply forced my way through the monsters standing on it, ignoring their presence altogether. Then, I finally reached my girl, calmly securing Penne''s rampage. "Sorry for the wait." With a gentle smile creeping onto my face, I pressed the fingers against the triggers of the stones. Chapter 141: What now? Chapter 141: What now? My fingers pressed on the stones. Held tightly by my palm, those fruits of magical ingenuity and technical expertise came to life. In each of my hands, I held three stones. The types of those tools also matched. And with my own energy serving as the additional supply for the spells ingrained in those gems, an apocalypse came. But this time, not for the humans. Instantly veiled with a sea of mes, the monsters couldn''t react at all. In less than a second, several ser fields worth of monster''s army got scorched, turning into a veil of ash. This effect could be achieved thanks to exactly three different stones. While I was out exploring the dungeon and setting the entire show there, Sander didn''t ck of. With most of his initial ideas confirmed, he hired a huge group of fellow craftsmen to bother with the necessary groundwork. In his freed time, Sander moved to more abstract uses of the stones. Spending hours deciphering the markings within the book from Ayda''s world, he woulde up with new kinds ofplex spells. Those, in turn, would be imed by a huge department of programmers, tasked to figure out potential uses for the new elements of the magical algorithm. In short words, the entire production of magic stones divided into three groups. First, were the simple craftsmen,ying the foundations and providing the raw material. Then, Sanders would carve out the pieces. And those, the IT group would put together into a puzzle. The first stone brought forward entropy. In the dense atmosphere of the earth, the hastened particles in the air instantly heated up the air. Then, the second stone came into y. A whirlwind made sure that an ample amount of fresh oxygen would be provided to the congregation of the mana. Lastly, the third stone, liquify. By turning the raging inferno of burning air into its denser form, it turned a simple explosion into a literal sea of fire. For a moment, I felt an urge to scratch my heat. The ringing of my system exploded along with an overwhelming bout of headache. Even though most of the energy for the spell was within the stones, I still ended up overexerting myself. "Let''s clear them up!" Before even a single moment would pass unused, Ayda already jumped into the next stage of the battle. While my spell managed to curb a huge number of the monsters out of the picture, the scale of their army was simply too great for a single spell to wipe it all out. At least, I wasn''t anywhere close to being capable of unleashing the inferno of this magnitude. Due to my own naivety, I believed that a witch like Ayda would have a more stationary fighting style. From throwing curses, through using the actual witchcraft, what I imagined was greatly different to what I saw now. shing the nearest enemy with her sword, Ayda didn''t let her momentum go to waste, using it to execute another attack. ying the monsters left and right as she walked, she constantly kept an eye on her pupil, trying to replicate the deeds of his master. What seemed like a huge threat to the entire city, soon be a feasting grounds for people hungry for achievements and riches. As soon as a rumour went around that some of those monsters were bound to have magic stones in them, all the experts on the field suddenly regained their energy. Soon, the rest of the troops reached the advanced position cleared out by the three of us. With the battle practically over, all that was left was for the weaker but fresh troops to cull out all the monsters that escaped the exodus. But something like that didn''t require my or Ayda''s presence any longer. "Why did you finish it so quickly" Instead of a warm wee, Ayda angrily whispered as soon as I approached her. "If we stalled this battle for an entire day" Still whispering, the girl suddenly turned her head around only for a devilish expression of wrath to appear on her face. "... the hell do you think you are doing? Kill them all!" Shouting at the poor Penne, Ayda showed a face that I have never seen to this point. Even though it certainly wasn''t a pleasant sight, I still couldn''t help but enjoy this new side of her a bit. "Ah, sorry." Shaking myself awake from the daze, I apologised. As soon as she voiced herint up, I realised what I did wrong. Given how I already saw what this fragile girl is capable of back in her world, there was absolutely no reason for me to worry about her. And given how she held back from just wiping most of the monster''s army herself, there had to be some purpose behind this decision of hers. And it didn''t take a genius to figure it out from just looking at how she was treating the poor Penne. "Well, I don''t really mind it but" Sending me a long nce, Ayda turned her head around. As much as I didn''t want to start a fight with her, she seemed to misunderstand something about the situation this world was in. "Dear, it''s not like I wanted to uproot your efforts. You alone know how much I do appreciate them!" Reaching for Ayda''s hands, I brought them close to my lips before cing a gentle kiss on top. "But first, I didn''t know what you were doing in advance. But what''s even more important, the people around you" Spreading my arms wide as if to embrace the entire world, I looked seriously right into the depths of Ayda''s eyes. "They are weak. For you or me, wiping out those monsters might be a walk in the park, but for them" Turning my head down, I shook it for a moment before raising it back again. "For them, even for the best of them, those monsters are at least a worthy opponent, if not a deadly threat." This wasn''t something that I wanted to hide from Ayda, but something that I never really found the time to talk about. For the girl, seeing me appearing with all sorts of weapons, treating me like some kind of chosen one It was no wonder her idea of the general level of power of this world was broken. "I see" Listening attentively to me, Ayda clearly calmed down, before shaking her head as well. "Well, let''s drop the matter. After all, " stabbing her sword directly into the ground, Ayda snuck her way into my arms before whispering, "it''s been a while since west saw each other." Without any thinking or intention on my end, my hands moved to the back of the girl''s head, only to gently pat her hair as I rxed upon feeling her softness in my embrace. Even though we were killing monsters left and right just a moment ago, now I was enjoying how perfectly well Ayda fitted in my arms. "Yeah, I was already getting restless." Gently pressing the girl''s fragile body with my hands, I felt like not letting go ever again. For a moment, I imagined the possibility of just spending the rest of my days in this loving embrace, only focused on each other. Sadly, this unrealistic mirage quickly disappeared, forced away by the mundane reality of life. "Well, let''s keep it for when we will get back home." No matter how much I hated to do it, I had no other choice. Putting my hands on the girl''s small shoulders, I pushed her away. Letting go of my torso with great hesitation and the longing look in her eyes, Ayda clearly wasn''t happy with this sudden development either. "On the side note, how did you managed to get him so strong so quickly? Didn''t you say that I was some kind of special case? It''s making me uneasy when he is progressing even faster than I did" Looking into the distance where Penne rushed after the escaping monsters after just a single Ayda''s order, I somehow figured out what could be behind his sudden progress. Turning my head to the side, I cast a quick nce at the face of my me, only to notice a hint of viciousness deep in her pupils. "You are too important to go through this kind of training. Additionally, there was no point for you to go through it. Right now, your power is limited only by your imagination and control, while he will reach his limit rather quickly." Speaking out the words that could easily break Penne''s heart, Ayda didn''t even flinch. When it came to dealing with others, there was no sign of this innate gentleness that she disyed when interacting with me. "Either way, " Turning my head back to face Ayda properly, only with the utmost effort from my sheer will do I managed not to get enchanted by her profile bathed in the sunlight. As if some goddess, she just stood there, allowing her grace to brighten my day. In a bout of emotion, I raised my arm, only to caress Ayda''s cheek with the outer part of my hand. For a moment, nothing appeared to be more precious than the gentle smile of affection glued to her face. "What now?" As if asking for me to finish my sentence, Ayda came one step closer before resting her forehead against my chest. Not even hugging, I ced my right palm on her head, rustling my fingers through her silky hair. "Now, we win." Chapter 142: Two wins and prospects Chapter 142: Two wins and prospects My answer earned me nothing but a confused look from Ayda. Being the one who decided to go with this fairly ambiguous answer, I couldn''tin about the girl being unable to understand. After all, I was confident in racking huge benefits from this fight only due to a single message that Jeff sent to me as I was riding towards the battle. "First off, we win by infusing a huge amount of magic stones to the market." Pointing my hand at the endless amount of corpses littering the field of battle, I aimed my finger at the scavengers. Given how they already started gutting all the monsters, it was only a matter of time before the factions would split the battlefield between themselves. "Once they learn how useful those stones can be, this influx will vanish from the shelves in just a few days. And when that happens" Instead of finishing my own sentence, I looked meaningfully at the girl beside me. With a glister of understanding appearing in her eyes, I smiled before moving on. "Secondly, we managed to establish Penne as a hero and our faction as the ultimate guardians of the city. This was something that I hoped to achieve someday, but never expected for it toe so soon." Turning away from the girl, I scanned the area with my eyes before grabbing her delicate hand and pulling Ayda along towards the car. Given how even the bodyguards assigned to me by Jeff jumped into the frenzy of recovering the treasures from the dead monsters, there was no point in waiting for them to board the vehicle as well. "You see, back when this faction was first established, I pompously gave up on any political power in the city. But that wasn''t because I didn''t want it or didn''t have any use for it." Shaking my head, I locked my seatbelt before helping out Ayda with hers. Even though she spent a long while on earth already, there were quite a lot of nuances that she had no clue about. Turning the keys in the station, Iunched the vehicle. While officially I have yet to obtain my driving licence, there was no point bothering with it now. Just a single request to Jeff should do the job, given how I already learned how to drive cars on my own. "Why did you do it, then?" Proving that she wasn''t just letting my words past her ears, Ayda asked. "Because it was more convenient at that time. To speak honestly, I had to build the entire organisation from scratch. If I were to interfere with the political wars of the city back then, they would just squash my cult out of existence. Now, it''s not the case any longer." Finally taking the first turn, the road changed from the unkept one outside of the city borders, to the actual proper asphalt. Not daring to risk riding too daringly, only now could I put my foot on the gas. "But if you ignored it in the past How are you going to take it now? It''s not like you overthrew thest regime creating a power vacuum that you could fill." Contrary to most of the eartherners, if this kind of topic were to appear, they would either bepletely confused and at least have the grace to admit it, or they would just spew total nonsense that they were taught in the schools. Compared to them, Ayda knew life on a far greater level, making her a great talkingpanion. "I''m not going to meddle with the current situation. Everyone already has what they wanted and what they could secure from the others. Trying to infringe on the status quo would be too costly." Shaking my head, I slowed down the car. While I knew how to ride it, now that I reached the more densely popted area of the city, I had to ount for all the people running around the ce, still under the influence of the threat of the iing invasion of monsters. "So you want to avoid them, or just crush them all?" Picking up on my drift, Ayda asked. But while her question was well aimed and fitting the situation, just a single nce to the side allowed me to see the whites of her knuckle-bones as she held to her seat for her dear life. "Do you take me for some kind of dictator? We will just avoid them. Let them have their small fun fighting for influence within the city, while we will look beyond." Taking a momentary pause as I entered a long straight street, I momentarily leaned my head to the side, sending the girl a long and meaningful look. "After all, once the dungeons start bringing up profits by themselves, this city No, the entire province should fall in my hands just by manipting the prices of the magic stones that we will distribute." Ultimately, no matter what kind of power, it could always trace its roots to money. Without money, one could feed or arm his troops, nor push the agenda of his group for social support. "Stones and stones again Aren''t you worried that relying on just a single thing might be too risky? I mean, what if someone else figures out the way to craft them? What if the information on how to do it will leak?" Finally starting to slowly rx, Ayda released her desperate hold over the side of her seat as she spoke. "That''s a valid point, but I don''t think there is a huge chance of it happening. You see" Reaching out to my pocket, I pulled out one of the raw stones that I missed while distributing them to my bodyguards back at the factionnds. Bringing it up for the girl to see, I squinted my eyes, absorbing the energy contained within the stone. Even though I ignored my cultivation for a long time already, I was still easily capable of practising it. With the fresh energy infusing itself into my body, it took me just a moment to break through the bottleneck that formerly stood on my path. The surge of the energy from the stone was quickly absorbed by my flesh, leading to a surge of my physical strength. While the effects weren''t that great, it was definitely a step forward. And a change that Ayda could easily perceive. "I do believe that those stones They will be in a short supply even if other people wille up with a way to craft them. In fact, the amount of precious stones that we can turn into magic stones is severely limited on the market." Shaking my head once again, I slowed the car before taking thest turn before thends of my faction. Parking the car haphazardly on the lot, I rushed out of the driver''s seat only to circle around the car and help Ayda out of it. "Okay, I can understand that they were only taken to be a temporary solution to your strained finances But once this momentary rush of gold will end, won''t we be left with absolutely no edge over the other factions, not to speak about other towns and provinces?" Over and over again, Ayda proved to be perfectly well-versed in political strategising and devising developmental nts. While she has yet to contribute anything to the development itself outside of suggesting to tax the maintenance of the dungeons, just her doubts were enough of a help for me. After all, having someone be critical of my ideas was helping me to refine them! "For now, I''m not really sure. The raw stones will provide us with a nice injection of funds, but that''s generally the limit of their use. Unless I will find a proper way to grow soldiers, some of them will also be used at grooming our private forces. What I''m really hoping to bank on the near future of the faction, are the carved stones." Sadly, I didn''t have even a single one on me to show it as an example to the girl, but from the look on her face andck of fluctuations in her aura, I could tell she was no stranger to the term nor the meaning behind it. "You used them right as you joined the battle, right?" Scratching her head with an uneasy smile, Ayda ended upughing up softly. "You are really something else. While I already saw Sander''s demonstration, what you did back then It was truly something on an entirely different scale." Hearing my beloved praise me as I pulled her towards my wing of thepound, I could feel my heart fluttering. Even though our rtionship didn''t start yesterday, this girl still couldmand my feelings at will even without resorting to the usage of witchcraft. "And that''s what I hope to utilize. While figuring out the way to carve the stones won''t take others long, learning the proper way to create high-ss ones will still take a while. I believe for at least three to six months, we should have aplete monopoly. And that leaves us with one thing." Finally stopping before the doors to my private rooms, I scanned the ess card before pulling the girl to the room. Not offering even a hint of resistance, Ayda followed my lead, only to end up thrown to the bed. After a battle, my blood was raging. Even though I was exhausted, this kind of inferno couldn''t be ignored, especially if I had a willing girl right on my side, already forward to what would happen next. "What is that?" Reaching with her arms forward, Ayda didn''t even bother to take her clothes off. With a sudden appearance of repulsion in her aura, her borate clothes were torn to shreds, leaving the girl in her birthday suit right for me to grab and ravage. "Explore new worlds from my basement so that we will find even more amazing things to replicate on our own!" Chapter 143: What to do with the traps Chapter 143: What to do with the traps "Is everything ready?" Looking at the pile of bags stacked up against the doors of the basement, I couldn''t stop myself from counting them once again. Even though nothing drastic would happen if we would end up forgetting one bag or two, given my ns for theing journey, it would be simply a pain in the ass to go back just to pick it up. "Yeah. Weapons, ammunition, carved stones, rations That should be all." Going through the list in her hand, Ayda confirmed the presence of each of the boxes. For a moment, a silence ensued in the basement. Standing beside the boxes, my eyes inevitably wandered towards the face of the girl. "Are you ready?" From the very moment that I brought her to earth, my aim was to show her the great sides of this world. From theme parks, through movies candies and other kinds of delicacies, all the way to the sights proving the ingenuity that sprouted in this world. But before I knew it, Ayda already became one of the pirs of my faction. And this was something that I wasn''t quitefortable with. That is before the problem in her own world would be solved. "Of course I am ready!" Looking at me as if there was something wrong with my head, Ayda rolled her eyes before picking up two of the bags. "Let''s not stall us any longer then." Releasing a slight sigh, I picked up a few more bags before following the girl through the doors. Appearing in Ayda''s homeworld for the first time in a long while, I could feel the fresh air of this unpolluted world spreading through my lungs, recing the dirtiness born out of industrialisation. "As great as Earth can be, the quality of the air here" Dropping the bags right in the middle of our room in the inn, I looked at Ayda. For some reason, in the light of her home star, her beauty was even more apparent. "The quality of air? Are you sure you are all right?" Given how the battle with the monsters happened just yesterday, I could understand Ayda''s worries, if not for the fact that I was perfectly aware of what made her worry in the first ce. "Ah, I know it might be something that I forced myself to believe I can feel But for people used to breathe the air of earth, it''s just far fresher and cleaner here. While it''s not something that one keep in mind while living here, whenever I moved here from the earth, this was always the first thought that would appear in my head." It was no wonder Ayda was confused about stuff like the freshness of the air. Ignorant about the influence of air pollution on one''s health, she wouldn''t pay the taste of air any mind. With a few more trips to move all the supplies between the worlds, the first part of our mission was over. Sadly, achieving my purpose in my girl''s world, wasn''t as simple and quick as just moving some stuff between ces. "Can you call Huskarl? She should have the list. I made sure to pass it to her in advance." With so many heavy bags in ce, it would be a waste of our time to move it ourselves. Especially given how our own equipment was safely stored in specially sown tourist backpacks. "Sure, give me a moment." Pulling on the threads and closing one of the bags she was rummaging through, Ayda ran out of the room. In this short moment, I couldn''t help but sigh once again. As little as I thought of dangers in this world, there was no denying that I knew very little about what to expect here. With the n aiming at uprooting the entire order of this world controlled by wizards, there was no denying a lot of effort would be necessary to achieve it. But there was no way that a single or two individuals would be capable of doing it on their own. That''s where the need for all those supplies came from. Rather than trying to topple the castle of cards built in this world, it was far easier to just equip those personally interested in changing their situation. But as great as it was in terms of solving the problem of necessary manpower, this kind of solution also spelt an almostplete end to my time alone. "We are here!" Even though there was absolutely no need to hurry with anything, Ayda still refused to take things the easy way. Pulling Huskarl to the room in the same way as she would usually drag me around, Ayda looked at me with a face full of aplishment. "Good job. Huskarl, I believe you know what to do with all of those?" Pointing my hands at the huge bags covering almost the entirety of the room''s floor, I smiled before moving two steps forward. Reaching with my hand forward, I ced it on top of Ayda''s head before rubbing my fingers through her silky hair. Hearing the gentle purring of the girl as she enjoyed the headpats, I threw a nce at the other girl, currently crazed over the number of goods that we brought. "Is that all For us? Are you for real?" With her eyes opened wide in surprise, it was clear that Huskarl couldn''t believe that someone would part with such a huge amount of insanely expensive items like carved stones of grade beyond anything that her world could produce, or the weapons that no one else in this world possessed. And as great as it felt to act like a charity supporting a just yet oppressed cause, I couldn''t help but feel a tingle of pain on my soul. After all, how was I any different by supplying Ayda''s supporters with the means to wage great wards from the superpowers of the earth providing warring tools to the poor countries of their backing? "Yeah. Actually, it''s nothing much. If I were to be super cold-hearted, then Ayda''s help would still amount to several times as much as those wares cost me." As a leader of a rtively huge faction, even with our finances still strained, my means were still way above that of a small group in the middle of a world chasing them down. For them, a sword was already a precious resource. On the other hand, for me, even a box full of ammo and a set of weapons necessary to make use of it was a scrap unworthy of picking. "Okay then." cing her hands on her hips, Huskarl turned around towards the doors. "Folks! We have gifts! Come and get them the hell out of here!" Shouting without any womanly grace in her, Huskarl proved that herck of grace was paid off with the effectiveness of her shout. In a moment, the room turned crowded as a huge group of men rushed inside, only to pick a single bag each and run as fast away from the ce as they could as if some deadly monster were chasing them. And to be honest, seeing the glint of anger that shed in Huskarl eyes as she raised her eyebrow in reaction to one of her men stumbling, I could fully understand why they were in such a hurry. As it turned out, myparison to having a dangerous monster behind their back wasn''t that far from the truth! "Good. Now that this part is settled, let''s stop wasting the time. It doesn''t wait for anyone." Sadly, there wasn''t any way for me to restore the time freeze in this world, forcing the two of us to limit our area of operation to the ces at most a single day away from the current camp. Even though we could both move between worlds, we could only do so while in the exact same ce where we entered it in the first ce. And even though there was still the option of dying to return, given how I had no idea how it would work in Ayda''s case, I dared not even take this kind of method into ount. "Sure. Let''s go!" Most likely out of habit, Ayda grabbed my hand before rushing out of the room. In just a few moments, we already reached the border of the vige that her followers took over, standing right at the edge of the barrier that protected this ce for a long while already. "Are you sure you don''t want to check the area? While this barrier stops them from entering or influencing this ce, I can hardly believe they would ignore the opportunity to set up an ambush for anyone daring to leave the vige." For the third time today, Ayda looked at me as if there was something wrong with my head. After a moment of this unpleasant smile, she finally shook her head before looking me deeply in the eyes. "If there is any ambush awaiting us" Taking a short breath in the middle of the sentence, Ayda smiled, allowing the hints of her wickedness to surface. "... then all we need to do is to spring it!" Chapter 144: Skirmish Chapter 144: Skirmish Fixing the position of the gun hanging on a special wrap from my neck, I looked at Ayda. With a single nod of her head, we stormed forward. At first, nothing happened. With our magical signatures long embedded into the barrier, we could go in and out as we wished. In fact, it was hard to even notice the moment of crossing. With how gentle it was, I could barely feel the thin presence of magic as it washed over us. This was the difference between the magic developed on earth and the one existing for millennials in this world. While there was no denying that Sander''s approach with stones was bearing great effects already, it still had some sort of crude feel to it. The magic that Huskarl set up with Ayda''s help around the ce, felt way more natural. As if it was aligned with the fundamentalws of the world. Sadly, I had no means or brains to analyze the reason behind it. And most importantly, I had no time to think about it right now. If I were to be ignorant about the situation outside, I would be hardly able to notice anything strange in the immediate surroundings of the vige. There was a road cutting through the settlement, a wide, open in on one of its sides and a bountiful forest on the other. Sadly, I knew what was going on in the greater world around us. And soon, that brutal reality appeared in front of us. "To the right!" Hearing Ayda''s shout, I clicked the safety switch on my gun. Even if the other party managed to learn on their past mistakes and invent some countermeasures against the firearms, it was still the safest bet to start with them. Just like people on earth required a considerable amount of time to adjust to magic, so would the locals here need to figure out the guns. Looking in the direction that Ayda pointed out with her hand, I slowed my run before tripping on my feet. With my legs remaining behind as my upper body rushed forward, I instantly fell to my face. But given how the entire thing was intentional, my hands were there to soften the fall. With all kinds of quirks to my strength and endurance, I hardly fell the impact. "Let''s start big!" There was no reason to hold my firepower back. Rather than trying to probe the attacking forces of the enemy with light shooting, I intended to curb their forces as soon as possible. Lying on the ground, it would be hard for the enemy forces to even spot me, not to speak about aiming at my precise direction. On the other hand, a professional and insanely expensive scope decorating the top of my personal weapon of choice. I knew it was cringe. I knew it was more for the show than for the sake of effectiveness. But for our n to work, the legend of the witch heroes had to spread as far as they would wide. And for that, the light machine gun numbered two hundred forty-nine, following the model marking of the letter ''m'', was the best choice for the show making armaments. And the recoil of the gun was the sole reason why I had to assume a front-lying position before firing this beast. Pull. Just a single move of my finger instantly sent a flurry of bullets towards the attacking enemies. With the distance between their group and the two of us still counted in hundreds of meters, they could hardly use any magic capable of urately striking down a target. But the same didn''t apply to me. Sure, I was unable to pick on any specific target. Even the special barrel stand helped to reduce the recoil by just a little. But rather than aiming at someone specifically, I just attempted to concentrate the constant stream of bullets at the general middle of the enemy group. And as obvious as it was, Ayda wasn''t cking either. Contrary to my own weapon of choice, she came with a slower but more urate weapon. In fact, I was quite sure that she chose it just toplement my choice rather than by deciding on something that she actually wanted. But as sheid down and joined me in the massacre, the effectiveness of our fire instantly skyrocketed. Initially, the attacking team of the wizards consisted of about a hundred people. By the time Ayda joined the fight, at least twenty of them were unlucky enough to get struck down by my untrained shots. On the other hand, as soon as the girl started sting her own, long-barrelled gun, their numbers started to drop for every step they took. ng! A strong, metallic sound forced the constant rattle of the firing bullets to stop. Leaving only Ayda with her small magazine, it was only a matter of time before the attacking wizards would reach a distance suitable for their own attack. "I''m going in hot!" Rather than attempting to change the magazine for my gun, I shouted to Ayda while pulling out several stones freshly looted from Sander''s stockpile. But this time, I couldn''t use the most advanced ones. After all, I would be putting magic against actual wizards! Plucking the stones from their respective boxes, I waited for my dearest to run out of ammo, before pressing their activators. Across the distance, the enemies were already stopping in order to st off their own spells. For a moment, I felt pity for them. For a single moment, I imagined how it would feel to finally break through the wall of death that the guns could create in an instant, only to face even greater disaster right as they could finally attempt to take revenge for their fallen brothers! For a moment, I almost hesitated. But the activators on the stones were already pressed. In other words, there was nothing I could do even if I would suddenly decide to change my means. ROAR! This time, the strategy was simple. Rather than using abination of abstract stones which process of forming could be easily interrupted, I decided to just go with the raw force. And what was a better way to increase the strength of a spell than casting it multiple times at once? What would be impossible for a mage due to the extreme stress on his magical output and concentration required to fire off just two simultaneous spells, was insanely easy for a holder of stones like me. In a sh, all three of the fireballs merged, dawning upon the confused faces of the bloodied remains of the initial ambush force. Exploding right above them, just the shockwave alone was enough to cut all of them to their knees, before the raging inferno above would even have a chance to descend upon them. "I guess that''s it for the first skirmish." After observing the aftermath of the incredible power behind those simple stones, Ayda pushed herself up on her hands before standing up. Putting her weapon on her arm, she clearly wanted to indicate that there was no more danger for us to worry about. "I pray you will" Before I could even finish my words, a sudden sh drew my attention. Maybe it was the direction it came from, maybe my senses were just sharpened after experiencing the battle from a moment ago. But as my eyes moved towards the strange urrence, I saw it happen. Arge icyle of condensed magic suddenly formed in the air, already pointed in our direction. Or rather, what I realised only once it suddenly burst forward, it was aimed at Ayda! "No!" Jumping forward, I reached out with my right hand towards the girl. To push her out of harm''s way, that was the only thought that remained in my mind. Dropping the machine gun from my hands, I dashed towards the girl. If I died, I would return. Now that this world was conquered, there was nothing for me to worry about. But I still couldn''t be sure whether the same applied to Ayda. "Wha" As surprised by the unexpected attack as she was by my reaction to it, Ayda only managed to move a single step to the back while letting her hands go along her waist. In this single moment, the time seemed to slow down for me. Wasn''t this supposed to be just a first reconnaissance mission? Howe we were already facing an expert capable of withstanding the might of magic stones and firearms only tounch a self-guiding attack? I jumped. The icyle struck. And the barrier that Ayda created by pressing her finger against her palm promptly struck the projectile down. "What?" Looking at the shards of magical ice quickly evaporating from the ground just a hands reach away from my skin, I raised my eyes at the girl. With her face torn between confusion, mischief and surprise, I corrected my vision to the bottom a bit Only to realise that the hand which I intended to use to push the girl out of harm''s way, actually ended upright on her bust! "Wait, you are still horny?" With a strange light suddenly appearing in the girl''s eyes, her face twisted in disappointment. "I thought I satisfied you well enough through the night though?" Leaning her head to the side, Ayda clearly wasn''t bothered with the expert that created thisst, homing attack. Rather than that, her face only ented how she was filled with utmost confusion and worry. "Ah, right. Sorry, I forgot about that barrier stone" What Ayda did a moment ago, wasn''t just rubbing her finger against the inner side of her palm. Now that I thought about it, I could recall her vaguely mentioning wrapping some of the stones in all sorts of ces Who could''ve known that what I took for an invitation for a nightly investigation of the forementioned ces would actually turn into information about her preparations for the battle? "Anyway, let''s not waste the time. It''s only a matter of moments before their main camp will be notified about the skirmish." Pointing her hand towards nearby woods, Ayda shielded her eyes from the sun with her spare hand. "After all, they wouldn''t miss a death of their expert over there." Chapter 145: Lets burn this place down Chapter 145: Let''s burn this ce down In the end, Ayda was still way above me in terms of battle and war experience. In fact, I only managed to somehow survive through several ordeals, while she was already a hardened veteran of escape from the persecutive forces of Wizards. With that in mind, it shouldn''t be that surprising or down-putting for her reaction to the recent attack to be so calm whenpared to the emotions that raged in me back then. But as shameful as it was for me to lose my cool right in front of my beloved girl, there was nothing I could do about it at this point. Rather than that, it was better to just let this unfavourable moment pass into obscurity. On the other hand, Ayda didn''t seem to share my thoughts. With her eyes ncing at me every now and then, only when our eyes would meet would her lips turn into a lovely smile. As soon as the connection would be broken, her face would twist in wrath, with a strange mumblinging from between her lips. "How dare they He is too sweet for the battlefield" Those were the only words that I managed to recognise from the many that she spoke. Nibbling at her fingernail, the look that Ayda sometimes threw towards the remains of the wizards'' camp sent a strangely pleasant shiver down my spine. While the only thing that I couldpare her current attitude would be the ''yandere'' that often appeared in the eastern novels But no matter how I thought about it, I didn''t have some kind of masochistic fetish! On the other hand, though, there was something strangely exciting in this woman of mine quite openly showcasing how proactive her thoughts were. Sadly, during this mission, we didn''t really have much time for cking. At least, not yet. "Hey, it might get hard from now on. Once we burn it all, how about trying those new tools of yours?" A single detail about my backpack didn''t escape Ayda''s attention. With our equipment mostly perfectly mirrored, a huge, additional bag stood out quite a bit. "To be frank, I would like to use them only in the worst-case scenario. Given how those are prototypes, they are not necessarily safe for the user." Even though this single bag contained the absolute pinnacle of what Sander could create with his own skills and arge pool of manpower, I still couldn''t help but be hesitant about them. Connecting the magic of the stones with the technology of modern times sounded like a great idea unless one factored in how early those stones were in the development! "If you say so" With the vibes of her hatred still lurking around in her aura, I took a step forward before grabbing the girl by her shoulders. Pulling her into a gentle embrace, I waited until her mental state was pacified. "I know you want to kill them all. Not even for your own sake anymore, but because it would help further my ns. But there is one thing I need you to remember." Lowering my head and bringing Ayda''s chin up with my finger, I looked her in the eyes. Just recently shaken from her furious, post-fighting fit, only to be hugged and now stared at. It was no wonder her face suddenly flushed with pink, as her eyes trembled in their sockets. "I made any ns for this world just because it''s the ce youe from." Rather than going for her lips, I moved my hand from her chin to her forehead, only to push aside her hair and ce a gentle peck right on her head. "But now, let''s just torch their stuff, okay?" Gently pushing the meek body of the girl aside, I sent her a wink. This only served to further explode the invasion of red on her cheeks, making the girl lower her head to cope with the sudden changes of her emotions. "S-sure." Not daring to raise her head, Ayda trodded away before grabbing a random stick from the field we were on. Without even chanting a single word for some strange reason, she invoked a fire at the top of the stick, holding it just the right distance away from her hand. Change of position and energetic throwter, the makeshift torch flew across the open in, only to end up in a small thicket of trees. But instead of slowly setting fire to the whole ce bit by bit, it suddenly exploded in a ball of fire, consuming everything that remained of the wizards'' camp. "Woah" Standing still, I could only watch how Ayda''s firework nearly instantly consumed the entire thicket, burning it all down to the ground. Rather than a fire, it looked like a melting pot! "Hehe" Ayda chuckled at my reaction, squinting her beautiful eyes in glee. "While I taught that kid as quickly as I could, I also learned a bit from him!" Wearing her smug smile, Ayda instantly trodded back to me with a happy smile all over her face. Disarmed just like that, I could only bring my hand up and pat the girl head to her even greater happiness. "What a spoiled one you are." Looking at the satisfied face of my dearest, I couldn''t feel any hate or even anger towards our enemies. At the same time, Ayda''s wrath from before also dissipated, reced by our shared affection. "But still, that was amazing." Nodding my head towards the ashen remains of the camp, I then shook it slowly. "I can hardly even guess how did you use earthy cultivation" Before I could finish my words, Ayda''s finger suddenly appeared on my lips, shutting me down. The smile on the girl''s face blossomed even more, now filled with slight mischief. "That wasn''t cultivation at all. While I saw some of the manuals, I can already tell they are ridden with mistakes. What''s more, manipting energy like that, " spreading her arm outwards, Ayda pointed at the site of destruction. "Would require us to jump to the pinnacle of the first grade." Suddenly twitching, the girl''s disposition changed. Looking at me with a strange look behind her beautiful eyes, she asked. "You do realise that you are using the terminologypletely wrong?" Now that the girl pointed that out, I noticed that most of the naming I had at my disposal came from the times when I was too weak and unimportant to bother with the greater possibilities of the magic. "That might be the case" Tapping a finger against my chin, I agreed. "But let''s not talk about it right now. We need to get going." As annoying as it was, the first fight was just this. The first of the many fights toe. In this mission, there were only three aims. First, secure a source of information to sound the general intentions and ns of the wizards. Second, to disturb any preparations or formations that the wizards might be busy preparing. Andstly, start the legend of the hero from another world, that appeared to save the persecuted innocents. This was something that I came up with in one of the rare moments during which I could enjoy a bit of high-ss alcohol on my own. Recalling the times before the apocalypse, my thoughts wandered over the novels I used to read back then And the rest of the story was rather obvious. With the scale of the power difference between the two groups, only by putting a legend on the agenda could we tip the scales of the conflict. That, or throwing several nukes at the main cities of the wizard''s affiliation. But in order to be able to drop some nukes, I had to secure a source of resources unavable on earth, that would allow me to facilitate the boom of the magic stone market predicted to happen any time soon. Because so far, all my investments were oriented at that single event. At this single moment when the product that I was amassing for an exorbitant price and in great quantities Would suddenly find a plethora of uses. But when it came to my path after finally receiving some insane amount of cash from the investments I had no real conception for theter moves. "So, about that spell earlier" Suddenly pulling me out of my thoughts, Ayda rubbed her palms against my arm with a restless look in her eyes. From how she intensely stared at me, it was clear that she was unhappy that I cut her off before she could brag to her heart content. "Right, I still don''t know how did you cast it!" Encouraging the girl to exin the situation to me while making a step forward, I swiftly transitioned our talk in ce to an interesting conversation over a walk. In the end, we couldn''t waste all that time thinking or just conversing. What we defeated, was nothing but a small outpost. Fighting with so little grandeur would bring us little if any prestige. Thankfully, we didn''t need to walk for long, before we found out something insanely important. Sitting atop a small hill, an enormous camp was barring the passage on the main road leading to the nearest city. With its elevated position, the guards at the gate could easily stare down the entire valley leading to the hignds where it was located. If we naively decided to travel by the road, they would see us long before we could spot the localisation. "How the heck did the scouts miss it" With Ayda ring up at the ipetence of our subordinates, I couldn''t think about anything else but what she told me just a moment earlier. "I sprinkled a bit of the stone dust over the stick I grabbed. Given how the stone ground to obtain that powder was infused with a basic spell of transforming energy into the fire, all I had to do was to just set the right conditions for it to spontaneously activate." Back when she said those words, she shook her arms as if it was nothing, while I could only stand agape. Even when this enormous camp came into our view, it was still unable to divert my thoughts from the genius of this girl. But I still had to make a decision now. The presence of this settlement was too important to be ignored. Or rather, to be left untorched. "Ayda" Looking at the restless girl beside me, I made up my mind. Detaching this one peculiar bag that Ayda asked about before, I opened it up before distributing one package to the girl and iming one for my own use. With just a few moments, a thin glove, bracelet and ne decorated my body. "I know they are not safe to use But we can''t leave this ce alone." Shaking my hand over the inevitable fate we were pushing ourselves into, I looked at the girl for a moment, before nodding my head. "Let''s burn this ce to the ground." Chapter 146: No mercy Chapter 146: No mercy The moment of walking into the camp definitely gave strange vibes. With our minds set on razing the entire ce to the ground, smiling at the guards who we had to pass as we went inside made me feel like some kind of devil in disguise. But there was no way to overlook what those people were doing. This camp sat right on the road that anyone would have to take from the witches vige to the nearest city. It appeared only when true persecution started, forcing the witches to seek refuge together in a single ce. And its entire purpose was to amass forces necessary to exterminate those who dared to resist. As such, no matter how nice those people might be, I had no other choice but to kill them all. "Hold your horses for now. Let''s go drink something first." Noticing my preference, Ayda quickly stepped in, grabbing my hand. As if it was already a habit of mine, I let the girl guide me through the street-like alleys between the temporary sheds and tents of the camp. Even though it was clearly the first time in this ce for both of us, my girl somehow managed to sense the location of a local tavern. Following her steps, we entered a rtively huge, wooden building. "How did they manage to finish it so quickly? Wasn''t that just a few weeks before everything started?" Voicing my surprise as I inspected the rtively high-quality of the tavern''s insides, I felt a sudden tug on my sleeve. "That''s wizard engineers for you. Care for a drink?" From the side, a man asked. A single look at him only allowed me to notice how he was dressed. For the first time in a long while, I was unable to see through his aura. That''s a world withmon usage of magic for you. "Sure, why not." Shaking my arms, I nodded my head. Actually, it didn''t really matter what we would do for a short while in this ce. Drinking with a random stranger was just another opportunity to find out more about this ce before it would cease to exist. "Dear, I don''t like this man. Let''s go!" Clutching my arm as she said so, Ayda pushed her face into my shoulder. But once again, I was unable to read her aura to decide whether she was just acting or actually trying to pull me away. But thinking about it, if she really wanted me to not join the man for the drink, wouldn''t she just pull me away regardless of my intentions? "Woman, go and get us a room. I''m tired after our journey here, so I won''t refuse a drink." Brutally snapping my arm out of Ayda''s hold, I made sure to position myself in a way that would make it impossible for the man to notice the wink I sent to the girl. "Mkay" Instantly putting on a resigned smile on her face, Ayda lowered her head before backing off. "I''m sorry for that showcase. She still seems to misunderstand what position she is in. Can you imagine? A ve deluding herself into believing that she''s is my wife?" Saying those words in a sleazy manner, I plummeted down on the chair with a troubled expression on my face. "What''s now, don''t tell me that you came to sell her? Let me tell you, while she could fetch a high price" Before the man could finish, I pulled out and calmly ced a knife on the tavern''s table. While Iid it t down, its tip was still pointed towards the man. "As problematic as she is, she is my property. It''s better not to be naive enough to believe you can snatch her away." ying with the handle of my knife, I sent a quick yet meaningful nce towards the man. Even if the entire situation was nothing else but a stupid y, it poked me in the wrong way when anyone would dare to speak disrespectfully about my woman. "Hah, don''t worry." Raising his head in the air, the man smiled before his palms fell back at the handle of his mug. Taking a sip of the bear, he threw a quick nce to the counter where Ayda was talking to the Innkeeper. "But still, to let your ve run freely like that You warned me, but I can''t say others won''t try their luck. Without a cor," the man said before taking a sip and continuing, "she will surely be targeted." Finally, the waiter noticed the new addition to his guest pool, approaching our table. "A huge beer." Pulling out one of the golden coins that Ayda obtained, I flung it at the waiter. Shocked by the appearance of the most valuable coin there was in this world or at least the local country, the waiter only managed to turn his face to me with a confused look. "Take the rest to the girl at the counter to pay for my loggings." Disregarding the presence of the waiter, I moved my face back to a straight position, sending a rxed look to the man that invited me for a drink. "Judging how you seem toe from far away, and you don''t really care about money Could it be that you came here for the execution?" After a moment of silence, the man attempted to reignite the discussion once again. "Execution? Don''t tell me, did it already" Opening up my eyes wide, I pretended that the man struck right at the point. "Ah, no need to worry." Raising his hands in a calming manner, the man smiled. "The festivities have yet to begin. After all, it''s not that easy to catch so many of those darned witches at once! I heard the general wanted to make sure to make use of this opportunity. I even heard there will be public shaming for all of them." If there was any feeling of mercy in my soul directed towards those people, then it withered all away right now. Seeing the happy face of the man speaking about mypatriots meeting with a pathetic end, I identally let a single thread of my killing intent escape from my control. "Wha" Startled by the sudden change in my aura, the man attempted to say something. Opening his mouth while he leaned to the back on his chair, he failed to utter a single word before his head rolled out of his shoulders. "You heard him. There is no point in dawdling in this ce any longer." Wiping down the blood from her short sword that she just used with a piece of cloth formerly belonging to the waiter''s outfit, Ayda didn''t even spare the corpse a single look. "Yeah. That public shaming thing though, what was it about?" Standing up and taking a look at my equipment, I then raised my head towards the girl beside me. "Hey, is everything all" Before Ayda could give me her response, my mind nked out. Given how there was no external stimulus, it was either a powerful mental attack or something of my system''s doing. But the second possibility required some sort of trigger to activate Before I could formte even a single guess as to what kind of trigger could I identally activate, my nked-out vision suddenly exploded. In an instant, my entire view was blocked by numerous notification. All at once, it seemed as if the long lost connection to my apocalyptic tech finally returned, swarming me with all the stuff that happened while it was inactive. "I''m okay!" Shouting out in hopes of reaching Ayda''s ears, I focused on reading through the notifications. As annoying as it was, the prospect of having the assist of this modern tech in theing fight was too great to be ignored. Soon, I finally managed to dig out the most crucial information for my current situation. *The system currently undergoes repair. Synaptic connection reestablished. The current rate of connection reconstructions: 2%* Judging from the super pitiful amount, my hopes of receiving system assistance during theing fight were buried. But right underneath this specific notification, another hope remained. *System currently inoperable.* *Fighting focus inoperable* *Battle analytics inoperable* *Strenght enhancer* *Noise cancel* *...* *...* *...* *Passive knowledge assimtion, operable* Out of all the traits that this apocalyptic tech armed me with, only a single feature appeared to be working. And just a single look at the mass of notifications that stillpletely blocked my vision, it was working just as good as it did in the past. *Magic stone with embedded spells, allows casting of a basic spell of fire* *Advanced magic stone, embedded with triyered spell structure. Allows casting of advanced firestorm spell.* Bit by bit, the knowledge of everything that I came in contact with ever since the system failure in the past, would now assimte into my brain as soon as I would close the notification. After ensuring that there would be no missing of knowledge, I ignored the part of reading through the notifications, simply closing them en masse. But then, just as I reached thest few of the information windows, a smile involuntarily crept up my lips. "Ayda" With most of the notifications now gone, I had a hard time holding myughter of excitement back. Because as it appeared, my efforts to understand the early stages of cultivation in my free time, actually managed to pay off! "Yes, dear?" Finally calming down after noticing that I came back to my senses, the girl sat down on her legs before intently staring at me. "Those prototype items of Sander" My smile became even brighter. With the bits of blood that sttered on me from the neck of the deceased drinkingpanion of mine, I could only wonder how terrifying my face looked like right now. "They might actually be quite helpful." Grabbing the mug of beer that Ayda mindfully took from the waiter before killing him, I took a hearty gulp before approaching the Inn''s doors and mming them open. Right in time, to smash one of the men attempting to enter the ce with the doors through his head! Chapter 147: Progenitor Chapter 147: Progenitor "The hell?!" Before the random stranger that was unlucky enough to stand in the way of the doors that I opened could react in any way, a small knife already prated his brain. Instead of bothering with crushing through the resistance of the man''s skull, I simply mmed the de of my huge knife through his open mouth upwards before kicking the lifeless body away. "So? Shall we get going then?" Ignoring the stunned faces of the unfortunate''s victim colleagues, I took a look at the Ayda in the back. "Why are you so theatrical? They are all going to die either way. What''s the point in dabbling your hands and killing them by hand?" Walking out from the insides of the tavern, Ayda didn''t even spare a single look at the corpses behind her. After all, we were here to bring mayhem to this ce and all those who were willingly here. If we were to agonise over every life taken, we would long go insane before aplishing any substantial progress in our mission. "Well, you are right." Forcing the remaining strangers away with a single bout of my repulsion, I extended my hand towards the girl. Grasping her fingers, I instantly gave her hand a squeeze, attempting to send a bit of positive energy to the girl. In the end, even though it was her own war, I still couldn''t stand the idea of Ayda going on a rampage. For as much as I could, I would love to keep her as far from the bloody mess of fighting as possible But life was never that favourable for me. If we wanted to achieve real peace, we could only do so by proving our strenght first! "Hey" Using the fact that our hands were now interlocked, Ayda pulled herself forward, leaning over my entire arm. With her lips moving right beside my ear, her voice managed to invoke a thrill in my mind. "Once we get this matter over with, I will give you a time better than you could imagine." Already ensnaring me with the vision of the future reward, Ayda clearly knew how to push my buttons. Just by rubbing her soft body against me, she managed to rece the thoughts about the iing massacre with just the perverted side of my mind. "Let''s go, for now. We shouldn''t stir any greatermotion before that execution will happen. It''s better if we leave those corpses as they are. Hopefully, that will attract a bit of their attention" Looking towards the centerpoint of the camp, Ayda furrowed her brows. Even though I was unable to read her aura right now, I could still that she was clearly worried about her colleagues held by that ''general''. But now that I thought about it "Hey, mind exining something to me?" Not daring to stop, I asked only after we fled from the scene of the murder. As we were running at a breakneck speed, I had to repeat my question a few times before Ayda finally heard it properly. "What''s wrong?" Sending me a curious nce, the girl also revealed how empty her face was. Given that we were about to turn this lively camp into a sea of blood, I expected that some kind of emotion would reflect in her eyes. Be it wrath, anger, hate,ck of any emotion in her eyes was kinda scary right now. But after a second of thought, I realised why did this girl decide to rid herself of any negative emotions right now. If she were to use them to drive herself, even if only by an ident, then once the mass ughter would begin, she could be unable to hold herself back. As a witch rather than a true mage, she didn''t have the fancy options of managing her state at such a low and intricate level as I could. While for me, going berserk was an easily reversible process that could at most be considered taxing, for Ayda it was akin to jumping out of a bridge while hoping to somehow survive. In other words, outside of extreme cases, it was pretty close to outright suicide. "Ever since we entered the camp, I stopped being able to read your aura. I only noticed it when I was unable to read the man I was about to drink with. Mind exining why does that happen?" Pulling back on Ayda''s hand, I managed to stop her for a moment long enough for me to ask this question. As much as she was in hurry, bringing that topic up still managed to root her in ce. "Wait, so you didn''t know?!" Staring at me with her eyes wide open, Ayda then suddenly pped her forehead with her hand. "Right, you were so talented that it just came naturally to you" Shaking her head to rid of the shock from my question, Ayda took a nce of the arena in the middle of the camp before looking me right in the eyes. "What you call reading the aura, is actually a skill that one can practice, even without being a witch. You learned it on your own as if you learned how to use your own senses once awakening them for the first time. Imagine it as if being a blind person who suddenly learned how to see." A sudden eruption of shouts and a generalmotion in the distance momentarily stopped Ayda''s exnation. Only after we both made sure that no one seemed to be chasing us, did the girl return to her monologue. "Just like one can learn to read the aura, one can learn how to hide his own. Obviously, breaking through such sneaky techniques also is possible. But now, you need to learn one more thing. There are actually two types of true mages." Pulling me deeper into one of the darkest ces in the entire camp, Ayda suddenly wrapped her arms around me, hugging me deeply. Only when her silent and gentle whisper reached my ears did I understand that it was just an attempt to make us look natural. "You are actually not a true mage, but a progenitor, father to your own lineage. In the entire history that I know about, there were only twenty progenitors or so. And as you already know, you can be a progenitor by mastering both witchcraft and wizardry to a satisfactory degree. On the other hand, there are actual true mages." Pulling me even closer into her embrace, Ayda suddenly freed one of her hands, before grasping my own hand and cing it on her stomach. While I couldn''t feel anything physically, once I actually focused, I could feel that there was a tiny aura hidden deeply within Ayda''s own! "Our child won''t be a progenitor, but a progeny of the first ss. That means, it will be a true mage born out of progenitor and a magic sensitive woman." As if the massacre in front of us wasn''t huge enough to shake my mental state, Ayda actually revealed to me that she was pregnant! For a moment, my mind nked. Even though I knew this was the inevitable oue of going at it like some teenagers whenever we had a spare moment, suddenly pped with reality, I still failed to digest it right away. "Dear, do you mean?" Grasping the girl''s head between my palms, I stared down her eyes. With sparks of joy appearing in her pupils, Ayda wrapped her hands around my neck before biting her lip and lightly nodding her head. "Don''t worry though. Being a witch, I can hold it from growing for a few months. And no, it won''t harm it. Rather than that, it will make it easier for our child to grow strongter on" As if we weren''t in the middle of a huge camp filled to the brim with enemies, Ayda melted down. It seemed that just talking about our child was enough to bring her mind to some soapy and rosy dreand. "Dear, I''m honoured to hear that and extremely grateful to you. But there is one thing that will have to change then." Knowing that Ayda was pregnant, making it even harder for me to ept her overstraining herself. That''s why I had no other choice but to inform her that "Dear, I want you to go back. I can wipe this entire ce on my own. You need to take a lot better care of yourself now!" Still shaken by her sudden revtion, I instantly started thinking about the ways to bring her back to the safety of the vige, when her hand suddenly forced my head up, recreating our eye contact. "Dear, the other reason why I''m holding our kid back, is because it''s still super small. Right now, I''m no different from before, so don''t try to do everything by yourself. Just the amount of worry I would have to suffer if you went off on your own" mming her head on my chest, Ayda allowed the moment to pass, just enjoying my warmth. As I attempted to surround her with my arms to keep her even closer, the girl suddenly jolted awake, grabbed my hand and started pulling me once again. In a few moments, we reached a huge building, one of the few ones built with proper materials rather than being just a cloth construction on a wooden frame. After climbing to the highest, fourth flour, Ayda brought my attention to the crowd gathered in the middle of the now visible area. "You see all those people? Half of them are female witches." Pointing her hand at the group of people in an extremely bad state, Ayda then moved her hand towards the elevated tform on which the main force behind this entire camp was seated. "That girl in the middle is our real target of the massacre. Do you remember when I said that for the true mages to appear, they need to be born out of progenitor and magic-sensitive woman?" With a bad premonition appearing in my mind, I stared nkly at my dearest beside. "If it was just about impregnating, then true mages would never fall out of grace like that. In short words, the stronger the woman in terms of her magic potential, the greater the chance that her kid will be able to obtain the progenitor''s bloodline." Still unable toprehend what this silly girl was trying to suggest No, I was already perfectly aware of it. I just didn''t want to acknowledge the fact that this small element of my life, my romantic life, would soon be spoiled by the reality around me as well. "Dear. Normally I would hate it if you were to sleep with any other woman besides me, but" Suddenly turning silent, Ayda lowered her head as a sad smile surfaced on her face. "But this time, in order to save both this and many other worlds I have no choice but to encourage you. In other words, the reward that I will have for you once we will be done with this ce" Chapter 148: Recuring stone Chapter 148: Recuring stone "Everyone!" A young woman that Ayda imed to be the general orchestrating this entire ordeal, stood up from her throne. Her long streaks of perfectly white hair perfectly ented the beauty of her fair skin. As much as I could tell from the distance, her body itself was also full of allure, ready to be embraced by a man. If only her character wasn''t the way it was, she should be a top price for any man. "Tonight we celebrate, as we will be able to rid this world of this heretic bunch!" mming her hand against the railing of the elevated tform she was at, the girl pointed her hand at the ragtag bunch bound to the ground below her. From the great variety of torture and execution machines sprawling all over the ce, it was clear that tonight a bloody festival was nned. "Hey, we need to get closer." In the end, I was still unable to shake what Ayda just told me off my skin or mind. While for others the idea of finding as many suitable mates to receive my seed would seem appealing, I wasn''t as naive or rather, as childish to enjoy such fantasies. For me, just being with Ayda was enough to fulfil all my romantic needs. That was one of the reasons why I was capable of so readily refusing Martha''s advances and investigations. If I were any different, all I would need to do would be to reveal the truth about me and bring our past rtionship to sticky fruition. But I did not do that. Because it wouldy insanely badly with me. "Sure." Ayda also didn''t press the matter. After revealing her n, she kindly gave me some space to think about it. But as regretful as it might be, the reality around us wasn''t as forgiving. With the execution procedures now starting, we had to make our appearance before the first victim would fall. After all, a single person saved was a single person more serving in our cause! Jumping through the rooftops, dropping to the street and passing by the guards was a task so easy, that I started to have my doubts about the reason behind the ability of those people to corner all the witches so much. As a jack of all trades, dabbling in anything that could make me more powerful but restraining myself from dedicating a lot of my time to a particr field of study, I wasn''t that fast at all. In fact, I wasn''t that intelligent, strong or witty either. But I was still capable of traversing through this enemynd without a hup as if I was on an outing date with Ayda. "But before we begin, I bet that some of you still don''t understand why we are so keen to eradicate the witches now, why we are finally bringing the hammer of justice to those cursed heretics!" Before I could get distracted any further, the words of this female general brought a reason back to my mind. As easy as it was to sneak around, it didn''t mean that the entire situation was simple. After all, I knew nothing about the potential tricks that those people were ying. "I know that our wizard order was lenient towards their kind. We even let that ursed witch Ayda run free, in hopes of the peace that we brought to the world appeasing her heart and calming her nature. But just as we rxed our grip on them, guess what did that damned witch did?!" Clearly ying some kind of role, the generalmented. The crowd, already riled with hate against the witches before was already fuming. Even before this damned liar of a woman would finish her fake exnation. "Yes! You are right! That damned witch went and seduced a young, talented wizard, forcing him off the righteous path and turning him into monstrous true mage of the past! But if he just turned into a true mage, we could still deal with them with smaller means" Taking a momentary pause, this vile woman was clearly intent on driving the crowd mad. Even though we were closer, the distance that separated me from the elevated tform was still rather huge. And in spite of that, I was still able to see a vile smile appearing on the woman lips when the crowd started chanting. "Kill! Kill! Kill!" There was absolutely no grace or glory in it. Just a mad mob asking for a bloody show. "Dear, listening to their shouts" With our speed, when I started speaking, we were still quite a bit away from the arena. What''s more, the general silenced the crowd with a decisive swing of her arm. "But the truth is way worse! What that bitch of a witch did, was creating a true monster, a progenitor mage! Are you smart enough to understand what it means yourself, or do I need to spell it out loud to you?!" Shouting at the crowd as if she wanted to disgrace them for not knowing what seemed like a highly specialised knowledge in this world, the general smiled. "Yes! A progenitor mage is not a monster because of his own abilities, but because of the potency of his seed! Knowing that anyone with the blood of such a monster would be bound to obtain great yet bloody power, those husbands, fathers and brothers that you can see tied up here, came to bring their wives, daughters and sisters for this monster to ravage!" Listening to the speech of the girl, I couldn''t help but be impressed. One, she was capable of turning the story around so much, that if not for Ayda''s exnation earlier on, I would be actually inclined to believe it. Secondly, I was astonished by how well-timed Ayda''s exnations were! While I could hardly give her any praise for it as there was no way something like this was nned, I was still in the awe of how everything turned out. But there was no time to think about those matters anymore, as we finally neared the arena. And at the same time, I finally managed to finish my sentence from before. "... makes me feel like giving them what they want." Thump. The sound of the two of usnding right in the middle of the entire area came unnoticed at first. After all, rather than crashing into the ground at full force, we softly stepped on it, as if we stepped down from a single stair. Then, the first people in the crowd started to notice us. Then, the female general above us found out about our appearance. "Why so silent?" Using the fact that the entire crowd turned mute once the knowledge of our presence becamemon, I spoke up. Putting a gentle smile on my face, I patted the head of the random prisoner beside me, before looking at the crowd. "Didn''t you guys want blood? Didn''t you guys want to kill? To experience death?" Stating those questions with an extremely stoic tone and expression on my face, I finally took a nce at the female above. From such a close distance, her features became even more apparent, slowly working on my resistance to the motion of ever wetting my cock in anyone else but Ayda. "And you, whore general, didn''t you want to cleanse the world from heretic monsters? Ever since I came to be in the way I am, I only killed those who attacked me. Outside of that, as shameless as it might be to say so myself, I helped scores of people." Leaning my head on my shoulder, I smiled mischievously before finishing. "In that time, how many people did you kill in the name of your fake crusade? How many innocent souls had to die to satisfy your sick fetishes?" If there was any hesitation in me against raising my hand against a woman before, nothing of it remained after just a few sentences that she spoke. Right now, I saw her as nothing but a disgusting being wrapped in pleasant looking flesh. "You" Finally regaining her voice, the female general red up. Her hand instantly moved onto the handle of her sword. Her face flushed red with hate made it all the easier to time my next move. "Yes, me. I''m just better than you and that''s why you are so desperate to be noticed. In fact, you are so desperate that you are even willing to ughter countless people just to achieve that broken dream of yours. But guess what?" Not letting the general utter even a single word, I pulled out one of the strongest stones that Sander provided for me. ording to his words, they were as risky in use as this prototype equipment of his. But speaking honestly, I was already used to the stones. And just for that reason, I decided to go with them rather than what seemed like a power suit from some sci-fi novels. "Even when ites to killing people" Raising my hand and directing it towards one side of the tribune, I put my finger on the stone''s activator. "Even at this, I''m leagues above you." Pressing my finger, I connected the two parts of the stone. In an instant, an enormous pool of magic-infused itself into the circuit, revolving several times through all theyers of its construction. But it didn''t seem to do anything at all. Even after standing for a moment in ce and having everyone''s eyes focused on me, nothing seemed to happen. But I could still feel that the turbulences of natural mana in the air around the stone constantly continued to grow. "Ha! What a joke of a true mage! To think that I was scared of you in the past!" Noticing my struggles, the female general finally grasped her sword and ced one of her feet at the railing, clearly intending to jump down to the ground in order to cut me down. Even without looking, I could tell that behind my back, Ayda was already preparing to receive the attack. And then, the vtile flux of magic within the stone reached the critical point. It wasn''t as if the mana contained inside was so enormous. ording to Sander''s words, this was the first recurring stone that he dared to make. And from what he said, it seemed that the mana inside would continue to condense before the burden would turn too great for the crystal structure to hold it. Only then, the stone would act the way it should. "Oh, it should be ready any moment. You guys chanted to kill, so here ites." As if I intentionally timed it out, when I said thest note of my sentence, the magic within the stone reached a critical point. And then, it infused itself into the surrounding air. Without the crystal structure to hold it in ce, that was the natural thing for the magic to do. But just like a human body would bloat once in outer space without the atmospheric pressure, the difference in potentials between this singr point of condensed magic and all the air around was enough to unleash the disaster all on its own. And with the cracks appearing on the reality itself, a magical storm unleashed from my hand, eradicating all the mater in the cone starting in the middle of my palm, where I previously held the stone. Chapter 149: Understanding Chapter 149: Understanding This magical disaster was iparable to anything I saw in my entire life so far. The only moment when I could experience a might rivalling it, was when I meet someone akin to a god. Even though the difference was still vast, the might of the magical storm was already on the scale that made it impossible to grasp with one''s mind. The disaster itself didn''t look all that scary. After all, there were no explosions, no huge noises Not even a breeze appeared to rustle the hair of those who observed the effects of the stone. And those were just as devastating as the scale of the disaster. Crack. More cracks appeared on the reality as if the world itself couldn''t hold the violent reactions of magic. Then, as if an illusion fading away, the entire tribune and northern part of the camp, simply disappeared. The leftover ruin was mindboggling. Rather than creating some kind of inversed dome or any other familiar pattern, it turned next several kilometres of ground into a sea of stone-spikes of any size. From ones at the bottom of the devastatednd only reaching a few centimetres, all the way to those who could reach the previous height of the surface, growing for over forty meters from the enormous ravine. For a moment, no noise could be heard. Faced with a disaster so illogical, so mindboggling, everyone had to take their time to digest what actually happened. But while every survivor in the city was dazed by the scale of the attack, I couldn''t help but click my tongue. "Still far off from a nuke, huh?" While I didn''t really have such high hopes for the still-developing craft of carving stones, its firepower wasn''t cheap. ording to the note that Sander passed me, a single stone like that could take as much as five specially prefabricated stones to be made. But if I thought about the materials necessary to create such a disaster, I couldn''t really count them ording to the market price. As disastrous as my actions were in regards to the finances of my cult, they yielded nearly two storehouses full of precious and semi-precious stones that Sander discovered to still work as magic stones. If I went with the real price that it took to obtain those stones, a spell with effectsparable to a single round of carpet bombing, cost more or less just two thousand bucks! Of course, with the rise of the magic stone poprity and consumption, the current marketable price of the magic stones was reaching seven digits, while the market of non-magic precious stones exploded by a few times just by affiliation. Adding my actions of buying off any precious stone avable, the current cost of recreating this disaster would easily reach the price of a single magic stone! "I wonder how much those prices will skyrocket when someone introduces a way to turn magic into ene" Making use of the moment of silence to ponder over this topic, I froze when it actually appeared in my mind. Just as the female general finally managed to gather her guts andunch herself forward. "You okay?" Ayda asked, instantly appearing in front of me. With a look of nothing but disregard in her eyes, it was rather clear that this girl was pretty convenient. Yet I was still unwilling to let her defend me for no reason. After all, she was the one that I myself wanted to protect. "It''s ok." cing my hand on Ayda''s shoulder, I added. "But don''t let your guard down either." Pulling with my hand, I forced the girl to take a single step to the back, before using the momentum to rush forward. Just in time to face the viinous girl. "DIE!" Swinging her sword right in my face, this female instantly proved that the gap between Earth and other words couldn''t be underestimated. Even if I had plenty of means on my end, this woman was, in a sense, a product of millennials worth of perfecting the fighting techniques. In terms of raw firepower, she was likely to be far stronger than any of the experts on earth. But I wasn''t some random expert from the earth. "If it only was that easy" Going as far as to take the leisure of speaking right before the sh, I finally allowed all my bottled emotions to explode. There was no finesse in my witchcraft. But there was an umtion in it. Ever since I appeared in this camp, I should feel a plethora of emotions. From disgust at the dirt sprawling all over the ce, through hate whenever I saw wizard officials all the way to pity and desire whenever I saw someone injured or attractive. All those feelings should bustle through my soul back when they were activated. But so far, I kept my perfectly stoic attitude. Only now, with the addition of the wrath directed at the oppressors of the victims, I allowed all those emotions to run free. "Don''t kill" right before my consciousness faltered for a moment, Ayda''s shout reached my ears. Realising what I was about to do, I quickly rushed to calm myself down But the deed was already done. All those raging emotions instantly found the outlet through the valves I prepared. All at once, the body of the female general was pushed away by my repulsion only to be pulled back by my attraction. Burning up from my desire and freezing from my indifference. All at once, the female experienced all forms of witchcraft that I ever formed. There was no second bout between the two of us. With the momentum from my own jump dying out during my release, I simply fell down to the ground. Softening the fall by lowering myself on my knees, I then heard a thump right beside me. Looking at the source of the sound, I could see the devastated state of the once beautiful female. Her entire body was either burnt to the crips or frostbitten. After being squeezed by my repulsion and attraction, it seemed as if the girl suddenly became shorter and fatter. Smeared with blood, there wasn''t even a single hint of her former beauty on her. Even her eyes, now bloodshot, didn''t give any hopes for her survival. But her chest was still moving. As little and as frantically, she was clearly not dead yet. "Go and take care of those fuckers! I will do something about her!" Dashing from behind, Ayda shouted while shooing me away. With rity returning to my senses and reason once again taking the reins of the body, I only nodded my head before reaching forth with my other hand. With exactly the same stone as the one that I unleashed before. Now, people knew what would happen to anyone unlucky enough to be in the path of the disaster. Once a moment of paralysing terror dawned on them, the crowd finally turned the ce into what I wanted to see the most. Complete and utter chaos, radiating outwards of the arena. Those threatened by my hand would run to the sides. Those currently safe would run as far away as they could. But no one dared to approach the shackled witches that we came here to save. "Go." With just a single word escaping my mouth as I once again pressed the activator on the stone, the recurring mechanism inside started to heat up. Moment by moment, the energy from the storage part of the stone continued to thicken, only to burn the crystal circuits and unleash another wave of the disaster. Given that I couldn''t see how far was the reach of this spell, I dared not to aim it in the direction of the vige of witches. Whenever my hand would move in that particr direction, I would repeat calm but loud "go" to alert everyone of my actions. But when the stone would reach the critical point, I would slightly move my hand to the side, ensuring no harm woulde to my allies. There was no opposition to my actions. No one was daring or brazen enough to challenge me after seeing what I did with the allegedly strongest wizard in the entire camp. Right now, the spirit of rats overwhelmed the entire crowd, turning them into a chaotic and unorganised mess. Making them an even easier target for my constant releases of those disastrous stones. "I will have to have a talk with Sander If those things appear on Earth" Given how actually simple it was to create a recurring stone like this, I suddenly felt a wave of doubts, just like thest ashen remains of the camp inhabitants and the visitors fell to the ground. The ease of manufacturing such stones was too overbearing. If this knowledge came to see the light of the day on earth, all that remained of the society of old would crumble into dust. And that wasn''t something that I was willing to allow. Chapter 150: Gaps in knowledge Chapter 150: Gaps in knowledge "You did a good job." Just a few moments after the entire senseless ughter was over, Ayda approached me from the back. While her hands were bloodied, the grin of satisfaction on her face was enough to confirm that, for her own misfortune, the female general was alive and kicking. "So did you. But still, it feels kind of surreal to just evaporate such a huge number of people. Like, I don''t know if I''m really unfazed by killing them all or if the impact of doing so just have yet to settle in my mind. To a certain degree," rubbing my chin, I looked helplessly in Ayda''s eyes before finishing, "I''m worried whether I''m losing my humanity or not." Staring down at the sorry remains of what used to be a camp, I could feel just that. Absolutely nothing. A bit of cold from the afternoon''s winter, intense stares on my back of the witches we saved, pleasant silence I was capable of experiencing it, but it seemed as if something blocked me from actually feeling them. "Ah, wait! My bad totally forgot about that." Suddenly mming my hand on my face, I took a look at the inner state of my body. And just as expected, I found out the reason behind my strange, apathetic state. While it was hard to speak about shapes and paths while discussing stuff like magic, that was the simplest way for me to understand the entire idea of true magic. As aware as I was that clearing the clogs on one''s emotion was just a particr ability that true mages had, I still couldn''t just figure out how to use the real, true magic. But in the current situation, it didn''t matter all that much. Just being able to clear the clogs on my emotion was more than enough for me right now. After focusing for a short moment, locating the blockades in the flow of my magic was quite easy. Sadly, the same couldn''t be said about removing them. While the problem was of exactly the same magnitude as when I did it for the first time, the fact that all my emotions at once were happened, caused all those blockades to turn into quite a difficult puzzle. "Something wrong?" Noticing a peculiar expression that was bound to appear on my face, Ayda snuggled up to my hand. While others might feel repulsed by the blood that her entire hands were covered with, being unable to solve all those emotional clogs on the go also made me immune to anything that I would otherwise find repulsive. "It''s not that there is something wrong per se But I''m just surprised that just this single outburst of emotions was enough to dull all of them to such a huge degree. And I was slightly sour because I cannot fix it right away." Knowing that Ayda was way too attentive to miss anything that would be wrong with me, I decided that rather than letting her guess and worry, telling her the truth would be just better. "Wait, all of them? You used all of your emotions at once?!" Surprised by my words, Ayda stood rooted on the spot. Staring at me with her beautiful eyes wide open, it was clear that what I said was for some reason pretty disturbing. "Yeah. I didn''t want to rely on just a single factor, so I made thatss go through every witchcraft that I can summon." Shaking my arms as I said that, I looked over Ayda''s shoulder to see the effects of her own work. But before I could confirm the state that the female general was in, Ayda reached for my head with her hand, forcing me to look her in the eyes. "Do you know why I advised you against using this dark knob of emotions that I spotted in your soul all those days ago?" Clearly referring to the emotions that she herself bound to a pulling spell, Ayda forced me to think about the topic. With the seriousness in her eyes, I wouldn''t dare to just scoff at it. "Not really? Since you told me I should not use it, unless it was absolutely necessary, I decided to just follow your words. After all, I might be a true mage, but aren''t you the devious witch drinking the blood of newborns and bathing in the blood of virgins? Between the two of us, you are the witchcraft expert, so I think it''s only natural for me to listen to you." Raising my shoulders only to let them fall down right away, I attempted to shift the tone of the topic away from the lecturing one that Ayda enforced. "Eh I thought you would figure it out yourself But actually, it''s my bad. I should''ve just exined it to you rather than assuming. So, listen. The reason why witches need to avoid their deepest emotions and traumas when casting witchcrafts is that the more basic emotions go into the mix, the stronger the dulling effect of using them will be." Pushing my shoulders away, Ayda fully went into a teaching mode, putting her hands behind her back and starting to walk in circles. "If you use a single emotion, then you can consider the speed of said emotion dulling to be linear. The more you use it, the more you are reliant on it, the faster you will sap your natural potential." Stopping for a moment, Ayda turned around only to cast a nce of jealousy. "Unless you are a monster like you, then you don''t need to worry about that in the first ce. But I''m going off-topic." Resuming her march around a small circle existing only in her head, Ayda regained her pace in an instant. "The problems start when you use two emotions simultaneously. While using them in quick session is not a problem, once you try to drive enough energy to power two witchcrafts In the easiest possible way, you are not only doubling the speed at which your potential will be sapped but doing so might also result in other problemster on. With three emotions at once, the rate increases to four times the normal, with four, it increases to eight times and so on." While I had no idea why it was apparently happening like that, I was more than willing to trust in Ayda''s words. On the other hand, hearing that the growth rate of one''s emotional potential sapping appeared to be quadratic, I couldn''t help but get curious whether other kinds of magic could also be quantified in such a precise manner. "So what you are trying to say is that our most tangled emotions create those dark spots you mentioned. And the reason why it''s taboo to use them is not only because one can go berserk, causing widespread destruction around them, but also elerating the rate of sapping one''s potential, right?" While I was pretty sure that I already understood everything, I still ended up repeating the crux of the matter. In the end, if I were to misunderstand something, I wouldn''t be any wiser about it before someone actually knowledgeable about the problem would notice it. And just like Ayda was now filling one gap in my knowledge, there was no point in letting more gaps appear. "Yeah. There is one more thing about the berserk state, but hopefully, it doesn''t apply to you. But heck, what are we doing here just talking? Our mission is not over yet!" Suddenly realising, Ayda almost jumped. Turning her head to the side, she wanted to rush towards the still chained witches, only to see most of them already released from their shackles. "Could it be" Suddenly rooted in ce, Ayda looked at the crowd of the former prisoners, now tirelessly working their exhausted bones to free everyone. After scanning the area for a moment, herplexion suddenly sank even further. "What happ" Before I could even ask, someone dared to interrupt the question I wanted to put forth. "Isn''t that you, Ayda? If you came here to help others, how about spending a bit less time being infatuated with your new dick, and actually doing what you came here for?" Stepping out of the crowd, one of the prisoners quickly turned out to be a fake. Just looking at how well-maintained his body was without any signs of torture or exhaustion and I could already tell that he sneaked into the execution. From his words, most likely for the same sake as the two of us. "Hubert I do not recall giving you the right to speak to me like that." Hearing Ayda respond so gently to a clear provocation, I instantly stepped forward. Even if my emotions were mostly dulled right now, I still had more than enough assets to fight anyone daring enough to challenge me. "What a bitch you" This time, I didn''t give the man a chance to finish his words, With my hand flying through the air, a crisp sound of the man''s face getting pped shook what was left of the war camp. "I have no idea who you are but nor do I care. If I ever hear you bullying, insulting or in any other way or form abusing my woman, I will take my time to exin why it will be a poor choice of thest activity you will perform in this life." Even though my emotions were mostly dulled, it didn''t mean I was indifferent to what was going on right beside me. After all, my love for the girl wasn''t only emotional, but over the course of thest few weeks, it already developed into rational love as well. "How" On the other hand, the man called Hubert didn''t seem to acknowledge what just happened to his face. cing his own hand on his stinging cheek, he then looked at me before finally voicing his problem out. "How dare you! Don''t you know who I am?!" Chapter 151: Mercenary group Chapter 151: Mercenary group "I think I already made it clear a moment ago." Even though it was my first time meeting this guy, he was already getting on my nerves. But judging from Ayda''s rtively restrained reaction to his appearance, it was clear that he definitely had the strength to back his arrogance up. And it only irked me even more. "I don''t give a shred of fuck about your background. If you want to be my ally, then I will consider it, but if I see you going against Ayda ever again" Rather than finishing my threat, I just shook my head with disgust before stepping aside. With my hand ced gently on the handle of my handgun and my emotions ready to be channelled once again, I allowed my woman to start the debate once again. "It''s is as you see it is. Now, drop off your high horse and pay respect to the progenitor." After gracing me with a lovely smile, Ayda was pretty quick to point the discussion back towards me. "Proge Wait, is he?" Apparently, what Ayda told me about true mages wasn''tplete bullshit, otherwise, I would be truly unable to exin Hubert jumping in surprise when he heard my girl. "That''s right, I''m a true mage and a progenitor at that. And Ayda is a woman that I''m greatly indebted to and greatly in love with. Tread your next words carefully." It wasn''t as if I was unwilling to recognise people with strength. If he really was some kind of a powerful witch, then there was absolutely no reason to antagonise him But I wouldn''t stomach having someone on my side that would constantly get on my nerves. "My bad. I would like to apologise then." Contrary to my expectations, Hubert actually managed to swallow his pride, bow his head and utter the words of a proper apology. Only nodding my head slightly in response, I walked several steps away before leaning on the remains of the female general''s elevated tform. With just enough distance to reach Ayda if Huber would dare to try something but far enough to allow them the privacy of talk, I then cast a quick nce at the rest of the survivors. Out of the group of around fifty people, only ten or so seemed to be capable of walking by themselves. Everyone else earned quite a lot of wounds and scars from prolonged tortures and starvation they had to undergo while in captivity. Just the sight of those people was sickening. Thinking about this, I felt a knob of rage twitching in my soul, as if wanting to burst forward and rip the female general apart. "Are you okay?" Before I could even realise, Ayda already concluded her business with the man, before quickly making her way towards me. "Yeah. I just can''t wait to get all of them to safety. While I know it''s naive, for people to do such things to other people" Tightening my firsts, I shook my head before focusing my attention inwards. Rather than despairing over the cruelty etched deeply into human nature, I preferred to actually try to work my emotional clogs down a bit. "Oh, so you are that eager to sleep with all those women?" With my eyes closed as I focused on my inner state, I could not see thating. With a sudden burst of pain appearing in my stomach, I nearly bent in half. Opening my eyes, I saw a pouting expression on Ayda''s face and her retracting hand with two fingers extended. "What did you poke me for?" Whining out as the waves of pain shook my mind, I quickly managed to find the answer to this question myself. But to announce that, I had to wait for the pain to subsidize a bit. "It''s not like that, you should know it. If not for what you told me, I would dly rip that whore apart. As for the others, I just can''t stand the sight." Finally straightening up, I ced my hand on Ayda''s head before rustling her hair a bit. For some reason, doing so was strangely rxing. "For me, everyone should just be friends with others, working tirelessly to improve the lives of everyone around them. Seeing the ugly side of human nature It just pains me a bit." There were no more words needed. Unloading the supplies from the bags that we dropped once we stepped into the arena, we started feeding the freed prisoners. Their tattered and exhausted bodies struck me too close to the core when I could clearly recognise the same traits guing them as those who I only saw on the drastic historical photos. "The means can change, but there will always be monsters amongst people." After that moment of reflection, all thoughts seemed to vanish from my head. Helping to feed the former prisoners took all my attention. From time to time, I could see that some of them were throwing me weird looks, but given how they all looked exactly the same, my initial guess that it had to do with gender couldn''t be proven. In the end, one''s bodily traits could hardly be seen when one was on the verge of starvation. Sadly, we couldn''t lower our guardpletely. As soon as the fresher prisoners got taken care of, they received the spare machine guns that both I and Ayda took with us, with a quick exnation on how to shoot. Neither of the two of us that knew how guns worked had any hopes in their shots. Rather than serving as a barrier between the rag-tag group of wizard''s oppression victims, they were only capable of putting doubt into any enemy daring enough to approach us and alerting me at the same time. Thanks to this, we managed to avoid two of the attacks the wizards attempted tounch before we were ready to depart. With a few shots announcing the intent, I would then quickly turn my head towards the direction of the sound only to trace my eyes alongside the line of the gun''s barrel. Once the direction of attack would be obvious, I wouldn''t even bother pulling my stones out. As average shooter as I was, with the high-powered rifles supplied directly from the warehouses of now worthless military equipment, even if I missed the first few shots, their range more than made up for it. "Hey! We are ready!" Before the third attack could fall on our heads, Ayda finally shouted to me. Taking a look behind, I could see that while the former prisoners were still in a pretty bad state, a sudden abundance of food allowed them to forcibly move forward. "No matter how I look at them, it''s not going to be easy to escape." Looking at the bunch, I was convinced. The only direction we could take would be straight towards the vige. Due to my slightly reckless usage of Sander''s recurring stones, there was only a small cone ofnd that wasn''t subjected to my disasters. And just like the wizards before, we would have no other choice but to use it. "Let''s go then. Nothing good wille from just standing in ce." This was when the true difficulty of the mission would begin. No matter how long we thought about it, there was no way to safely transport the former prisoners back to the vige. If we were to bring more people with us, then it would be impossible to sneak out to the arena. If we were to station them just a small distance away from the ce, they would be likely to be hit by the magic of the stones. While there were ways to solve this particr problem, every solution gave birth to more problems, ultimately forcing the two of us to just go on our own. "Ah, if you are worried about moving those people, then we can just wait for an hour or two. In that time, a mercenary group I''m used to working with should make their way here. While they are not the best" Just as Hubert started speaking, I heard shouts from where we told the guards to stay. As soon as I turned my head towards it, I could see one of the former injuries raising his weapon before aiming it down at the approaching group. "Hold your fire!" Alerted by Hubert''s words, I managed to stop the man just in time. Just a single momentter, and the mercenaries that Hubert apparently brought here would turn into another batch of enemies. "Seriously You should''ve told us that sooner" Shaking my head while unable to believe that someone socially high enough to speak to Ayda in the tone he initially had, would be so damn useless when it came to important matters. "Sorry, sorry, it just slipped out of my head. But just give me a moment" Chasing to the front, Hubert strained his eyes for a moment before turning his head back towards us with a smile of aplishment all over his face. "Yeah, it''s them. The burning fang." Chapter 152: One last step Chapter 152: Onest step It didn''t take me long to notice the approaching group. But whenpared to the people from this world, I couldn''t help but get slightly salty about the fact that in terms of their bodily capabilities, they were far superior. Just like I needed the mercenaries to get a little bit closer before I could spot them, the same would apply to all my senses. Even without speaking about noticing the minute details, it seemed as if the sheer physical disposition of the people from Ayda''s world was on another level. Thinking about this, I coulde up with only one reason why a situation like this urred. Unless it was something that was beyond the scope of what I could understand, then it all boiled down to the simplews of survival. Exactly like in the animal kingdom, Ayda''s world had to get above the level of strength ruling everything else. That''s why, those who were born strong would prosper and statistically getid more often, while those born with lesser potential in brawns but greater in brains, would be likely to be ostracised and met quite a lot of trouble on their path to prolonging their name. While such aw didn''t apply to the individuals, once expanded the scale to a city, country or even world, such fine details of the society would quickly start making huge differences whenpared to the samples of smaller size. "With the vicious circle it creates, I guess a civilisation need to be almostpletely broken apart for any kind of change to happen." It took me quite a while to reach this conclusion. By the time it finally escaped from between my lips, not only did the mercenary group manage to reach our position, but our entire group managed to join and absorb them, before finally setting off. "What do you mean?" Inching closer from the side, Ayda took over my arm, glueing herself to my side. "Nothing much, just some silly thoughts." With the strength put at the pedestal, those who would otherwise drive the intellectual revolution of any world would find themselves heavily suppressed. The longer such situation would go on, the harder it would be to change it. And with such a self-reinforcing problem, only a huge, external force capable of overturning the world''s priorities would be capable of saving the world from being eternally plunged into the middle ages. Going back to the past of my own world, the event that started the wave that brought an end to the middle ages was generally traced back to the ck death gue. With the loss of some insane percentages of the total human poption, drastic social changes had to follow. And the process was properly set into motion, the continent that was hit the hardest by the gue, suddenly experienced rapid growth. "In a sense, what I''m bringing upon this world is quite simr. Once one''s natural talent will no longer be the sole criterium of one''s position in the future" Before I could even finish my words, I suddenly shook my head. "Are you okay?" Once again, Ayda started to worry bout me. Looking at my inner state, I would have to be an idiot not to notice how slowly fixing my emotional state was plunging me deeper and deeper into those kinds of philosophical thoughts. Thankfully, before I could dive too deep, I managed to realise how arrogant those thoughts of mine were. "Ah, sorry. I think the burden of all those deaths is finally starting to get to me." Ascklustre as this answer was, it was still what I really believed to be happening. With more and more clogs on my emotions resolved, all the regret, thoughtfulness and self-disgust that were barred from my soul before, now filled me with this kind of nostalgic thoughts. Because who gave me the right to decide that guiding Ayda''s world towards the civilisation path that Earth took was something good? Who said that was the right thing to do? In other words, any attempts at adding some kind of lofty reason behind the senseless ughter from a few moments ago was nothing but a spit on the graves of those who I killed. But rather than attempting to talk me out of my current state of mind, Ayda simply snuggled even closer to my side, before hugging herself all over my arm. Without even a single word, she allowed her presence alone to slowly dispel my worries. Step by step, our group continued to move. After the initial two attacks of the wizards, the pressure greatly lessened, as even they weren''t dumb enough to send their people against us if it would only result in their untimely deaths. With our group erged by the mercenaries, our speed also ramped up. While the soldiers for hire didn''t bring any coaches or wagons with them that we could store the victims on, the hand-coaches that they used to carry their supplies around somehow sufficed. Given how I never stopped clearing the clogs on my emotions, my mental state would normally continue to sink lower and lower. Thankfully, whenever I would reach my limit, Ayda''s sweet presence would clear my mind, allowing me to take an even further dive into the healing process. Before I could even notice, the group already reached the point where the witch vige was already visible. But rather than being as peaceful as it was when we left it, with asional forces of Wizards lying in ambush in hopes of killing some stranded witches, the ce now looked like a damned battlefield. And in fact, the fighting was still going on. "Break the barrier! Avenge the fallen! Only the blood offering can stop that demon!" Various shouts filled the air, as countless masses of people continued to charge at the barrier, only to be violently thrown out whenever they collided with it. "Eh, and here I thought they were smart enough to at least attempt to run" Shaking her head for a moment before cing it right back on my shoulder, Ayda sighed heavily. As little as those people could do to stop our return, dealing with them would still be quite an eyesore. With the vige that I strived to protect being so close, firing any of my big weapons would easily result in a disaster. Due to that, not even speaking about recurring stones, even some of the normal, hard-hitting stones could endanger my allies confined behind the barrier. But to my surprise, before I could even figure out the proper approach to the problem, Hubert suddenly grew from the ground, right to my side. "Sir, just say the world and I will cut the path for everyone." Kneeling on the ground and respectfully lowering his head, the arrogant man from before was already reced by a perfectly obedient soldier under mymand. "Take the mercenaries with you. As weakened as those people might be, if they won''t be able to make this short walk, then they will only have themselves to me." Taking a step forward, I reached the inner pocket of my coat before passing three barrier stones to the man. "I''m not going to use your life just to obtain a safe passage for those poor people. An expert like you has way greater value. You see this small bit on those stones?" After two sentences of introduction, I pointed at the activator part of the stone with my finger. "Once you press it, you will be enveloped by a barrier capable of withstanding quite a lot. Sadly, I can''t quantify its strength, so it will be up to you to test them out yourself. Stay safe and good luck." Not giving the man any time to digest the gratitude of obtaining a gift from someone he clearly valued quite a lot, I dismissed him. Turning my head to the mercenaries, I wanted to tell them to follow Hubert, but before even a single word could escape my eyes, those swords-for-hire already made their move. Looking at their rapid pace, I could tell that they had no fear of wizards in their hearts. Whether it was due to their own magical abilities or just some kind of skill that allowed them to fight off their magic, it took only a moment before the group heralded by Hubert cut right into the thickest crowd. "ughter, ughter and ughter If only there was another way" Staring at the bloody festival, Ayda muttered silently. Surprised by her unusual fit of emotional openness, I was at loss at what to do. But instead of letting me take my time to figure out the best way to cheer her up, Ayda quickly trodded to my position before pointing her hand at the bloody corridor that Hubert already managed to create. "Let''s stop wasting time. While moving the wounded shouldn''t be a problem, I''m slightly worried what would happen if they would learn that their general is with us." Sending another look at the ongoing battle, Ayda sighed once again before resting her back against my chest. "In the end, a cornered enemy is the most dangerous one." Chapter 153: Aydas recklessness Chapter 153: Ayda''s recklessness Thest breath of fighting didn''t take anywhere as long as the massacre that preceded it. With the mercenaries heralded by Hubert pushing right into the messy crowd, cutting out the corridor took only a few moments. From that point on, the most tedious yet rtively easy part of the entire mission started. One by one, the few rtively healthy victims of wizard''s oppression started carrying those who were still unable to walkpletely on their own. Even though it went slightly against my principles, I couldn''t bear to be a monster that would be willing to leave those poor people right in the sight of safety to their own devices. And since I already brought them so far, I ultimately didn''t mind lending my hand to those few who sustained the worst injuries over the long time they were tortured. "Come on. We are not that far." Encouraging an old man who looked more like a bunch of bones thrown into a bag than a human being, I allowed his arm to rest his arm over my shoulders. Step by step, we managed to get closer to the vige''s barrier. With all the blood flowing out of the many corpses of Wild Fang group production, the ground itself became insanely slippery, making it nearly impossible for someone stumbling on their feet to cross it. Thankfully, noticing the situation, the inhabitants of the vige rushed to help as well. Once the old man was taken from my shoulders, rather than helping to bring the others, I ultimately decided to stay back in thest ce we reached as a solid group. Carrying weak people could be done by literally anyone, but if the wizards would manage tounch a cohesive attack, only I and Ayda would have enough stopping power to root them in their tracks. Bit by bit, the small crowd on the hill where the march ended continued to get smaller and smaller. By the time most of the fighting finally concluded, thest round of the former prisoners finally made its way inside the vige. "Everyone!" As soon as thest of the prisoner-carrying parties hid behind the barrier, Ayda stepped forward, attracting all the attention on the field on herself. "It''s over! Retreat behind the barrier right now!" Standing right outside of the safety, Ayda swung her head above her head to get even a small bit more of everyone''s attention. Soon enough, the effects of her actions proved to be effective. Not in form of the retreating mercenaries thought. Attracted by the shouts, most of the still fighting-capable wizards instantly turned their attention towards my woman. If not for my instant reaction of forcefully pushing her behind the barrier, an onught of arrows and magic projectiles mmed into the ce she stood at a moment earlier. "How could you be so reckless!" Grasping Ayda''s wrist with way more power than I should, I could feel my emotions running amok. All this time and effort spent on calming myself down were wasted when I saw the danger approaching Ayda''s delicate skin. "Dear You are hurting me." Raising her eyes before gently informing, Ayda didn''t seem to find fault in me for that. Letting go of her wrist, I only stared at her for a moment, before suddenly pulling her into a bear-like hug. "Don''t scare me like that, please." Pulling the girl close, I had to take a moment to let my emotions pacify once again. Only when the warmth of the girl managed to better my emotional anxiety did I dare to let Ayda''s arms go. "I''m sorry for worrying you, but if I''m not willing to risk so little, how could I expect the others to follow me into even greater dangers? Also," this time snuggling into a hug herself, Ayda rubbed her face against my chest before finishing, "it''s not like I was in any danger in the first ce. It''s depressing when you trust so little in my abilities." Lowering her head right on top of my chest, Ayda pretended to sob for a moment. Pulling her even closer into my embrace, I raised my eyes towards the other side of the barrier. Just like the girl imed, her shouts brought some effects. While initially, only a salvo of the enemy appeared to be a fruit of her actions, soon, all of the survivors from the mercenary group along with lightly wounded Hubert managed to make their way to the inside of the barrier. "Uff, that was a solid fight. It''s been a while since I allowed myself to drop most of my restraints!" Even though he just came back from the battle, Hubert already started doing stretches, as if a long yet shallow wound cutting through the flesh of his thigh didn''t bother him at all. "Go and get yourself patched up first. Or rather, wait a moment." Changing my mind on the go, I let go of Ayda''s body from my arms before approaching the man. cing my hand on his shoulder, I instantly felt puzzled when his body fell to his knees. "Sir, I''m unworthy of your praise. I erred before, so let my work be a proof of my loyalty and obedience." sping both of his hands above his head, Hubert didn''t dare to raise his head to face me. It seemed that he was still pretty conscious of the small sh that we had back in the ruined wizard''s camp! "Stand up." Even after I softly spoke out, the man still remained on his knees with his head lowered. "For God''s sake, stand up. How can I clear your emotional clogs if I need to squat to touch your arm?" Rather than a real, physical barrier to doing so, I just didn''t find it rational to bend over in order to help the man. Given his contribution to Ayda''s cause that I saw with my own eyes as he raced into the enemy ranks, healing up this part of his that got used over the extensive use of witchcraft was the least I could do to repay his favour. "Your excellency!" Hearing my words, Hubert finally raised his head, only to let me see his tearing-up eyes. Just as Ayda exined to me way in the past, this was the main reason why witches wanted the return of the true mages. And it wasn''t hard for me to gauge just how emotional Hubert got over the possibility of restoring his natural state. With his eyes tearing up, when he felt the gentle touch of my fingers on his shoulder, the tears openly started to flow down his cheeks. On the other hand, clearing the man''s clogs proved to be slightly more difficult than it was in Ayda''s case But still not even close to the tangled mess of clogs that still held me back from using the full scope of my abilities. Still, in just a few moments, I raised my hand from the man''s shoulder, before taxing him with my eyes. "As good as new!" Patting Hubert''s back, I graced him with one of my rare smiles. Even if we started on a really bad foot, it didn''t mean we couldn''t be not only allies but actual friendster on. That is if he would fix his attitude towards Ayda as well! "Hey" Just as I thought about the girl, my dearest suddenly appeared right beside me, only to chug at the corner of my jacket. "What''s up?" Instantly ignoring the sobbing mess of a man before me, I turned all my attention to my partner. "I have a small request for you. Could you maybe" Escaping with her eyes to the side, Ayda finished, "go to our room for now? I want to prepare something." Not allowing me to read her emotions from her aura or from her eyes, Ayda clearly had something on her mind. But rather than reading into it too deep, I simply rustled her hair for a moment before turning around. "No matter what it is that you want from me, I''m always happy to oblige. I have no idea why you are putting your guard around me now, but well, I guess I will understand itter, right?" Waiting for a moment for the girl''s response while staying in a single spot, I then released a defeated sigh before stepping forward. The vige itself was pretty small whenpared to the camp I destroyed, but it was by no means small enough to make travelling from one edge of the barrier to another an easy task. Only after several minutes spent marching with a rather good pace did I manage to finally reach the doors of the Inn we continued to stay at with Ayda and then the doors of our room. Getting inside, I felt slightly weird. Not because there was something strange in the room or about this room, but because of how normal it was. With my guilty consciousness prompted by the massive massacre that I orchestrated acting up once again, Iid on the bed and closed my eyes in an attempt to calm myself down. And before I could tell, all the mental and physical exhaustion that I kept at bay so far, suddenly mmed me right into sleep. "Hey, are you awake?" After only God knows how long, Ayda''s voice suddenly forced me awake. Opening my eyes, all I could see was her delicate face currently filled with worry and some kind of uncertainty. "Yeah, I''m back amongst the living. What''s up?" With the anxiety of the ignorance once again striking a chord in my soul, I asked. "Can''t you see it yourself? Or rather, can''t you remember what I told you before?" Moving her upper body up, Ayda allowed me to see that she was currently mounting my hips. While our clothes made the instant intercourse impossible, from the strange glint in her eyes I could tell that it was only a matter of time before the intimate times would being. But prompted by her words, rather than focusing my attention on her, I looked around the room. And then I saw what most likely took all this time from my girl. Or rather, who did. Chapter 154: Childmaking (+18) Chapter 154: Childmaking (+18) "Are you really sure about this?" To say that seeing the bound and gagged body of the female general in the corner of the room was disturbing, would be quite an understatement. Bound so tight and precisely tath she couldn''t even move a muscle, even her mouth wasn''t free from restraints. "Dear, I think I already told it. As much as I would love to keep you all to myself," reaching forward with her lips, Ayda stole a gentle kiss from me before grabbing her shirt and pulling it off. With her bust now dangling unprotected right in front of my eyes, a familiar feeling spread through my abdomen. "You still need to have as many kids as possible. Your bloodline is just that precious." Slumping her body down, Ayda closed my mouth with her hot lips before I could utter even a single word of doubt. Her tongue instantly entered my jaws, engaging into sloppy battle with my own. At the same time, Ayda''s hands didn''t remain idle. Once her upper body was fully exposed, she started working on my clothes as well. Kiss, button undone. Another kiss, another button fell out of the way. Soon, my entire chest saw the light of the day, only for the girl to instantly move down and shower it with kisses. "You are awfully proactive today, " noting in a small voice, I quickly came to regret my words. Prompted by my voice, Ayda turned even more energetic, quickly moving her entire body even further down, only to slip my pants off my legs. "Woah, you are so big already!" Eximing when my manhood came to her view, Ayda didn''t wait at all before grasping it with her delicate hand. Feeling the soft touch of her fingers all over my penis, I once again recalled why night shift with this girl was just as insanely pleasant and fun as it was tiring and intense. "Oh? It twitched!" Commenting while full of joy, Ayda touched my tip with her pointing finger, smearing the precum that I started to produce all over my lower head. "Aren''t you ready for this too quickly?" Gracing me with one of her killer smiles, Ayda moved her head forward before sping her lips on top of my lower head. "Ah!" A moan escaped from my mouth. Even though it wasn''t the first nor the second time she sucked me off, her mouth never lost its initial allure. Coated by the warmth of her mouth, I could feel Ayda''s lips slowly sliding down my shaft, while she continued to move her tongue all over my thing. Soon, the familiar convulsions in my lower body proved that Ayda knew pretty well how to press my buttons. With her fingers now ying with my balls as she slurped my penis out and sucked the shaft at its base, the tingling in my abdomen only increase. But just as I was about to eject, Ayda gripped my penis to the point when it actually started to slightly hurt. Given my slight cultivation and all the other methods I used to be stronger, this alone gave testimony to how strongly she grabbed me. "You can''t cum yet." Giving onest lick to my tip, Ayda smiled mischievously as she climbed up my legs. Taking down her pants as she crawled upwards, she quickly sat right on my hips. Pressing her abdomen against my penis, she then licked her hand for a moment before moving it down to caress my junior as well. "Look how far it reaches inside me." With my eyes already drawn to her most important ce, I could perfectly see my tip reaching as far as her belly button. But right as I wanted to reach for the girl''s waist to push my junior right into her insides, her movements stopped once again. "Right, before I will forget" Standing up on the bed, Ayda didn''t bother to hide her charms as she waltzed off the furniture. Admiring the show of her moving naked body, I almost didn''t realise what she was doing before it was toote. "AH!" A pained moan escaped from the mouth of the bound female as soon as Ayda gently tapped her in her shoulder. Only dressed in thick ropes, her bottom was raised in a perfect position, allowing me to see everyst detail of her crotch. "Hmm! Hmmm HMMM!" With the girl''s moans intensifying, it was clear that Ayda did something to her. But before I could start caring about the situation, my girl already climbed back on the bed. Taking her time to walk on all fours towards me, Ayda gave me another perspective to adore her body from. "Don''t worry about her. Seeing how reluctant you are to impregnate her, I won''t force you to fuck her properly." Reaching forth with her hand only to caress my face, Ayda smiled as she slid my tip into her already wet pussy. Holding me in ce just like that, she then lowered her head and once again closed my mouth with a kiss. Only then, her hips started to gradually fall down. As my tip travelled up her insides, her wraps instantly started to caress my shaft all over. Sucking me in, Ayda''s precious ce didn''t want to let me go, even when the girl finally started jerking her hips up and down. "Hold me tightly!" Moaning through her teeth only to push her upper body down on my chest, Ayda then wrapped herself all around me, using those new support points to elerate her vigorous moves. Sliding up and down on my junior, she added an intoxicating jiggle to her sizeable bust. "Gosh, I wish we could just stay like that." Wrapping my arms around the girl''s torso, I held her close to my skin. Even with all the waves of pleasure that her pussy was coating my penis with, just being able to hold her close to my heart like that was priceless. Just being able to feel the vibration of Ayda''s entire body as she started to muffle her moans was the greatest gratification I could receive for all my efforts so far. "Move up a bit." Separating her lips from the kiss for a short moment, Aydamanded quickly before mming her lips closely towards mine again. Following her wish, I moved from fullyid to a sitting position. With the girl still vigorously impaling herself with my penis, I felt as if I could erupt at any point. Under the immense onught of pleasure, my hands inevitably moved down only to grab Ayda''s soft bottom and start rocking her hips even harder. Feeling her inner lips clenching all over my penis, I realised that I was actually at my limit right now. Tightening my teeth, I forced Ayda''s body to a standstill, keeping her hips as low as they could go. "Dear, can I end" Before I could even voice my question, Ayda''s face darkened slightly. But rather than answering my question directly, she leaned over my ear before whispering. "Raise me up." I didn''t belong to the group of people that would multiply problems for no apparent reason. Since my beloved girl wanted to be carried up, then that was what I was going to do. After ensuring my stability, I jerked my legs to the side, turning the tangled two of us around. Hanging my legs from the edge of the bed, I wrapped my arms around the girl''s back, while Ayda wrapped her legs around my hips. Still tightly sping on my penis with her pussymouth, Ayda even went as far as to suck her mouth into the side of my neck. Guided by the feeling alone, I carried the girl above our prisoner. With the mischievousss still turning her hips all around, I felt that all it would take would be a single stronger stimulus for me to finish. "Lay me down on her back." Separating her mouth from my throat, Ayda whispered to my ear. At this point, I would have to be stupid not to notice what she was going for. Gently lowering her down on the back of the bound female, I stared down at the hot flesh of the wriggling girl below us. "You know what you need to do." Whispering only to instantly move on to a kiss, Ayda tightened her arms around my shoulders for a moment. With the blood rushing down my spine, her lips suddenly parted ways with my mouth while the girl pushed at my torso with her hands. And with that female general''s ass right below Ayda''s spread-out legs, all I had to do was to pull out, take aim and then push my hips forward. Conquering the whimpering girl in one motion, when I felt her tight walls mping down even more, I couldn''t hold on any longer. Letting go of my restraints, Iid down on Ayda''s soft body while reaching for the general''s breast. Sinking my fingers deep into the girl''s heated flesh, I released all my load right into her fresh yet already dripping wet pussy. "Ah That was, well" After focusing on the pleasure of my climax for a moment while allowing all my seed to fill the girl''s insides up, I then quickly pulled my penis out of this war criminal''s pussy before sticking it right back where it truly belonged. Still heated from living through my climax with me, it took only a few moves and kisses before Ayda''s insides started to convulse, quickly draining all the sperm that was left in my balls. Falling back to the soft back of our ve, we took a moment to regain our breath before standing back to our feet. But rather than enjoying the moment for a little longer, Ayda instantly kneeled in front of the ve''s butt, pping her right hand right at the wizard''s pussy. Only after a few moments did my girl stand up once again, before ncing at my curious face. "I just made sure this seed will proliferate inside her. In other words, it should only take a few more times before we will make her bear your child." Her voice was weak. It was clear that she wasn''t really happy about the current situation. Sadly, ording to her very own words, there wasn''t anything much that we could do about it. "Just remember." Kissing me just as thest drop of my cum entered her womb, Ayda smiled. "My child will be first." Chapter 155: Profits Chapter 155: Profits In the end, this was one of the most tiring nights that I have ever experienced. From the moment we started, all the way until the sun hid for the night only to emerge several hourster, my hips continued to pump. My balls continued to frantically produce sperm. My penis continued to desperately shoot it out. Even though the great majority of the time I spent in Ayda''s embrace, not a single shot reached her womb. Despite clearly forcing herself to do it, whenever this damnedss would feel that I was reaching the fulfilment, she would order me to move above that despicable female general, only to m me balls deep into her already overflowing hole. While at first, I was rather against the entire idea, I still ended up going through with Ayda''s n. Somewhere in the middle of the night, I learned the truth behind the sadistic kink, discovering the pleasure in constantly dumping the powerless body of my ve full of my cum. It was somewhere around the evening when the wave of disgust in myself finally kicked in, putting the long-awaited end to the sexual pleasures of the night. Even though I spent the next several hours tightly hugging Ayda''s soft body, I still couldn''t get rid of this strange feeling of repulsion whenever I looked down on my own self. "Good morning." Waking up, Ayda slowly brought her head up from my arm. Curled to my side through thest few hours, it seemed that this time of rest did wonders to her mental and physical state. After all, how could I expect anyone to be fresh and dandy aftermitting what was likely to be the greatest genocide in the history of local civilisation? "Morning." Unable to lie about my perception of the current state of the day, I replied. Noticing the curious look in Ayda''s eyes, I could only point at the motionless body of the enved female in the corner. "Ah, she is already pregnant. I checked it myself." Misinterpreting the notion in my eyes, Ayda cheerfully announced. "And that means" pushing herself up on her hands, Ayda moved her upper body on top of my chest, cuddling her head right below my chin. "... you are back to being mine and mine alone." For a moment, I allowed the girl to improve my mood just by acting spoiled on top of me. With my hand rustling her hair while the other one enjoyed the delicate texture of her back, I allowed my thoughts to drift in the abyss. But soon, this momentary paradise had toe to an end. "We need to go now." WIthout the time stop, more than an entire day passed ever since we left the earth. While this mission was of utmost importance, the one thing we could do right now to make the most of the massacre would be to wait. And the things on Earth didn''t show any signs of slowing down. One day and a few hours was the most that I could make out of my packed schedule. "Yeah, I know. I just wanted toze around for a little longer." Tightening her hold over my chest for a moment, Ayda soon gave up. Just like the massacre that we conducted was necessary to further our ns, so was limiting the free time that we could spend together. At the end, only when we would reach the apex of both words would we be able to spend time leisurely to our heart content. Soon, we were all packed and ready to leave. With Huskarl employed to care for the carrier of my future kid like Ayda called the female ve, there was nothing holding us back for now. Even in the further perspective, we would only return once Ayda would determine that the female witches have recovered enough to bear their own role of mothers to the future true mages of the world. In the end, returning to earth nearly instantly made me release a sigh of relief. As insane and interesting as Ayda''s world was, the memory of it was already tainted by the act with that damned female. With only more acts of what I considered epted and encouraged cheating toe, I could already tell that with time, I would start to hate that ce at a forever-growing rate. But at the same time, Earth offered sce to my problems. The instant rush of matters to deal with, quickly tearing my thoughts apart from those past unpleasantries. As soon as the two of us emerged from the insides of the concrete dome, a small crowd of people instantly tracked and chased us down. "Sir, the new stones" Sander voice already proimed that yet another breakthrough was made. Even before he could finish his words, I wanted to calm his enthusiasm down, still wary about the effects of those recurring stones he produced earlier. But before I could put even a single word out, another voice sneaked in. "Sir, I''m from the financial. I urgently need your signature" "The finances can wait! Your excellency is needed at the summit" One by one, members of the crowd started to shout their matters, hoping to get enough of my attention to make me deal with it right away. Regretfully for them, I wasn''t going to give a priority to random matters who just happened to be shouted louder than others. "Pavlo!" Knowing that this sly man would be somewhere near, I shouted. And just like expected, the familiar face of my first ever contact with the Baskar family appeared by my side. "Yes?" Contrary to the others, Pavlo didn''t bother with any pleasantries. Instantly jumping to the topic, he was ready to take whatever actions that would be necessary to fulfil my orders. "Get everyone out of here. I need a short list of the priority matters to deal with. Any suggestions from the top of your head?" Turning to the young yet important figure of my faction, I could smile when noticing the shine appearing in the young man''s eyes. "Yes, the summit. Just as you left, the stone markets werepletely crazy. If bitcoin was a huge thing in the past, then its history is nothing but a teaser to what happened just yesterday!" Catching a quick whiff of breath, Pavlo coughed up before pointing at the neighbouring wing of thepound, visible through the huge ss panels serving for the walls. "The high executives are gathered in the meeting room." Grabbing Ayda''s hand, I then had no other choice but to let go. Sending a nod of respect to the young man who temporary acted as my secretary, I then pointed my chin at the girl beside me. "Don''t forget that she is here too. By the way, once I''m done with the summit" Before I could even finish my sentence, Pavlo smiled and waved a piece of paper he was already covering with small letters. "The list will be done by that time. I will personally take care of it." Nodding his head, Pavlo instantly took my burden of being at the centre of attention. Now that he became the only link between me and those attention-starved executives and officials, all those who bothered me directly a moment ago turned their predatory eyes towards the young man. But I couldn''t help him at all. This was a damned part of the job. Even though I created this entire cult and faction just to secure a safe andfortable life for myself and a way to keep my system a secret, I never expected that just the bureaucratic hurdle would grow to the point of nearly overwhelming me! Dashing through the corridors allowed me to reach the meeting room fairly quickly. Sadly, the meeting started even before we returned to the earth, making it impossible to catch everything. "I''m here!" Pushing the doors open, I stepped into the room. All at once, everyone turned silent. With a crowd of faces now all directed towards me, I couldn''t help but feel slightly pressured. While it wasn''t my first time to be in a centre of attention, not even for this specific group of people, usually this attention would fall on me due to my own actions. Being focused on due to beingte made the entire situation feel extremely different. "Okay everyone, let''s not hold back. Your excellency," after addressing everyone in the room first, Jeff then turned his head towards me with a weird expression on his face. Even though I was a witch and could read his aura, right now, I simply couldn''t make out a single emotion that was driving him. If it was sadness or anger, then I could gauge the news to be not good. If he would be joyful or enthusiastic, then the situation should be great. But right now, Jeff was simply a mess of emotions, making me unable to read him at all. "We concluded the profits from thest day of trading the stones. While we entered the market with just a tiny fraction of what we have and forcefully kept the control amount in our hand" Taking a moment to breathe in some air, Jeff then looked me directly in the eyes. HIs emotions rified as if he suddenly made some kind of decision. His expression eased. A happy smile made its appearance on this old man''s lips. "The profits from that single day of trading are estimated to be about as much as we invested in all our projects so far. But that was only to be expected." Serving yet another smile, Jeff picked up a piece of paper from the huge table before raising it up so that everyone could see. "As for today, just the first hour of trading quadrupled the profits from yesterday." Chapter 156: Hidden enemy Chapter 156: Hidden enemy "That''s more or less what I expected. But now that you unted the sess, tell me." Putting a gentle smile on my face, I looked at Jeff with an unperturbed expression. "What is the problem?" In the end, no matter how great profits trading of the stone would bring, it wouldn''t need the urgent attention of all the executives of my faction. The fact that all the most important people of the group gathered in one ce meant that there was something that had to be dealt with. "Nothing will escape your eyes, huh?" Nodding his head with respect towards my attentiveness to details, Jeff released a long, exhausted sigh before reaching to a nearby drawer and pulling out a stack of papers. "Here, a copy for everyone. You can see what''s the problem yourselves." Taking one piece of the paper before pushing the pile to his side, Jeff''s documents quickly found themselves distributed amongst everyone in the room. Scanning through thepact sets of letters and numbers, I could feel the blood pressure in my veins raising. The first part of the report consisted of several parts from different articles. Published by the few huge mediapany that remained after the apocalypse, they were just too big not to be given the credit of trust. "A sudden boom on the market of magic stones. With the skyrocketing prices, an unknown group suddenly flooded the market with control amounts of these highly sought-for products. Did they know the price would rise? Exclusive report and analysis of the situation inside!" "After scanning the moves of the Boruta Cult moves, we discovered that they procured arge number of precious crystals and stones. The rising price of themodity didn''t discourage their actions, yet no matter how high it went, they never sold a single piece. Unless the leader of the cult wants to live on precious stones, what use would they have for it? Or maybe is there a corrtion between their frenzied shopping and their sudden moves on the emerging market of magic stones?" White intel. Something that everyone would logically assume existed, but no one really seemed to pay it any mind. In this post-apocalyptic world, to have some big titles publish articles like that, there was no other way for it to happen except for the actions of white intel. Compared to a moremon and popr way of gathering the information with spies and hacks, white intelligence was oriented at guessing the other party movements from the information that was publicly or generally avable. Rather than scouting the size of the enemy army, people in this job would scan the official orders for food, clothing and all other necessary equipment, trying to derive the number from the quantity of resources ordered. "We still have time But we need to know who is betting against us." Putting the piece of paper that I thoroughly scanned and remembered on the table, I raised my head to look at the people gathered in the room. "I personally think that this time, Sarate''s have nothing to do with it. As powerful as they are" Shaking my head, I took a moment to regain my calm after a sudden bout of agitation. Just as I was about to finish my words, the doors suddenly opened, letting Ayda through. Only once she beckoned me to continue did I use my voice again. "They shouldn''t be as influential as to push this white intel in the open. So, for now." Standing up, I looked at Jeff. As much as I hated it, I could only proceed if he would express his approval. "..." For a moment, I thought it would be a hard battle. But then, Jeff simply nodded his head. "I''m giving you guys two days. Stir up whatever you need, push whatever manpower and money are necessary. I want to know who is behind those articles in two days. That''s one." Taking a moment to sort my thoughts out, I shook my head only to raise it the momentter. "We are not going to stop our stones operation. Double the control amounts. I don''t care if the price will take a dip for a while, we need a huge cashout before they will throw another attack on us. That''s two." Looking at the paper on the desk, I tightened my jaws. Right now, just due to the numbers disying the market need for the precious stones across several cities my faction had people in Something bad was brewing. Right now, all the precious stones on all the markets we could grab hold off were gone. As if the precious stones, a uselessmodity just a few days ago, suddenly took the path of the popr cryptocurrency of the path. Right now, the market price for a small diamond or ruby was nearly ten times the price we paid for it while amassing the stones! And there was only one exnation behind these strange moves on the market. Someone apparently turned out to believe the white intel published globally by those few mediapanies, and was clearly attempting to fill the gaps in the question of how those normal precious stones were rted to the magic stones! "Thirdly" Rather than just shooting the problem out in the open for others to take care of, I hesitated. Because what I was going to say would most likely turn this rtively peaceful room into a chaotic mess. Then, Ayda stood up from her chair and approached my position. cing her hands on my shoulders, she pressed me down on the chair, as if she wanted to squeeze my body into its seat. Then, a crisp p right to my cheek followed. "Brother, if we need to do this, we need to do this." From the tone of her voice and how she once again opened her emotions to me, I could tell that this witty girl already took a nce at the papers and understood the problems hiding behind the code of letters and numbers. This brother moniker was something that I talked with Ayda about all the way back when we returned to her world. Given how some of my colleagues at work knew me as just excellency, while others knew one or the other of my names, if she were to refer to me by my given name, then it would be only a matter of time before everyone would learn about my true past. On the other hand, I just couldn''t stand hearing her call me by that fake name I came up with on the spot. Given her position that was supposed to be equal to mine, it would be unbing to have her call me by excellency either. As such, only the familiar brother, tantly stolen from the local religion as a way for two religious people to refer to each other, seemed like the right way to refer to each other. "Thirdly, I believe we need to make the method of crafting the magic stones out of normal stones a public knowledge." pping my hand on the paper continuing Jeff''s report, I looked gravely at the mean in charge of nearly all the affairs of the cult. Right now, I didn''t need to convince the rest of the folk gathered in the room about the reasons behind my decision. As long as I could reel Jeff to my side, my idea would go through. "And why is that? Don''t we hold a great advantage just because we are the only ones with this knowledge?" Looking at me with curiosity, Jeff allowed a small smile to appear on his lips. As one of the only people that posed a challenge for me to read, I couldn''t really know whether he was genuinely curious or just trying to test me out. "If you look at column six, and rows from four to seven, you should get an answer to my question, but let me spell it out to everyone." Putting my fingers right at the numbers I was referencing, I looked up at the other people in the room. From the slight rustling behind my back, I could tell that Ayda was actually looking at what I was pointing out, proving that at least, in this case, she was confused about what I said. "The number ofpanies and entities that bought out all the stones from the market implies that it''s not a single organisation trying to dupe us, but a mass movement of people trying to jump on the hype. Just like when people jumped at mining cryptocurrencies. And that means, each of them only has a very limited amount of those stones." Putting my hand t on the table, I allowed a devious smile to surface on my lips. Right now, I was theplete opposite of the saint that saved the city from the oppression of the corrupt government officials. "If we reveal the method of crafting magic stones, no one will be able to force us to do it. Threatening or going against us will turn meaningless For as long as it will take them to discover that magic stones can only be created in the dungeons. But even once they learn about it, given how it will be public knowledge" Rather than finishing, I stopped here. For a moment, I hoped that someone would catch my drift. From the small tug on my shirt, I could tell that Ayda wanted to finish my words, but after a single shake of my head, she decided to give up. "Once it bes public knowledge" just as I was about to give up and exin, Jeff finally cut in. "everyone will jump at the opportunity, putting smoke in their eyes regarding our own actions." Hearing the answer, I finally smiled. "Yeah. And once the way of turning those normal stones into magic ones wille in the open and when the people will realise that all the stones are already gone" This time, Ayda didn''t ask for permission and finished my words for me. "The price of the magic stones will soar even higher." Chapter 157: Martha appears once again Chapter 157: Martha appears once again "Everything is set, and one, and two, and three, go!" Waving his hand forward, Pavlo gave the signal to begin the shoot. With the red light appearing in the corner of all the cameras in the makeshift studio that we made in just a few hours, Sander smiled into the objectives before opening his mouth. "Wee everyone to today''s Bourta''s Cult lesson. Thanks to the unrelenting effort of our researchers, we finally managed to formte the theorem allowing one to obtain wealth beyond any understanding!" As cringe as those words sounded for me behind all those cameras, I could tell that they would work even better once properly edited with post effects. Because drawing everyone''s attention and turning the short video we were preparing into a viral one was the cheapest and most effective way to propagate our information. "First, let''s speak about magic stones. You know, those who suddenly make you a rich guy if you just happened to have one. What some of you noticed, with the rise of the magic stones, even precious stones got hit by the spection. But guess what?!" Showing a wide smile to the camera, Sander waited for a moment, before pulling out a cloth that covered the content disyed on his table. Pointing his hand at a row of shining stones, he then eximed. "Just as some of you might guess, all the magic stones before me were created from your everyday precious stones! Sadly, this is where problems start to appear." Shaking his head, Sander looked to the side as if he was embarrassed to say his next part. "The only way we currently know off to turn precious stones into magic stones is to leave them for a while in an active dungeon!" This was the first of the two important messages that I needed to broadcast as soon as possible. But with the structure of viral videos, we couldn''t p all the surprises into two consecutive sentences. In fact, even though this was all a continuous shoot, the head producer that we hired was going to turn it into three if not four separate clips! This way, rather than forcing all the knowledge that we needed to spread down the audience''s throat, we would carefully ration it, making everyone crave for more of it! "But this isn''t as important as the other use we found out. Guys, listen" Leaning forward, Sander brought his hand to his lips, as if attempting to shield his mouth from the sight of the cameras. Which would work if he wasn''t filmed from all the possible angles at once. Taking a conspirative expression as if he was telling the viewers some kind of great secret, Sander smiled before whispering. "Those magic stones have way more uses than just furthering one''s cultivation!" This was the second important revtion that I wanted the entire world to hear about. Not only was it yet another push that would drive the price of the stones to even greater heights, the actual main reason why I was willing to reveal that fact, was to focus everyone''s attention on it. As long as people wouldn''t question the fact that we only shared the trick when we prepared enough material to profit from it way more than anyone else, then the entire operation would be sessful. But for the real shift of global powers to happen, we had no other choice but to drive this single nut even deeper. Just a few meters ahead, Sander nodded to the camera. With the head of the filming appearing on the stage and whispering some words to the main stone craftsman of my faction, the filming soon resumed. This time, the stones were removed from the table, reced with a stack of papers and several basic, carving tools. "Everyone, wee to the first stone-carving lesson! Just a small reminder before we start, it would be best for your own safety if you leave this job to professionals. Carving stones on one own might lead to idental injuries or even deaths." Putting the vocal disimer in form of a white text covering the entire screen was one of the intended effects for this part of the shoot. After waiting for a few moments to give the future editors space to cut the shoot into proper parts, Sander smiled once again before raising the first page from the stack on the table. "Today, we will learn how to carve out a light stone!" Turning around, I cast a nce at Pavlo. Observing the shoot with undivided attention, he was already looking for any mistakes or miss wording that could turn problematic for uster on. While it was the director''s job to make the filming sessful, it was this young man''s job to make sure the end-product wouldn''t infringe on the bottom line of what we intended to share with the world. Ignoring the rest of the shoot, I moved to another room before pulling out my phone. Scrolling through a list of Ayda''s short messages, I could only release a sigh of exhaustion. Ever since we returned to Earth, our schedules exploded. From maintaining the rtionships with our allies in the city, through expanding our diplomaticwork to other cities. From managing the newly opened adventurer''s guild in the nearby dungeon to promoting this solution in all the cities we had ess to. In the end, for the next full week, the only time we could spend together was limited to the asionally crossing schedules of ours and the middle hours of the nights. In order to find for every single possibility to meet, Ayda decided to constantly keep me informed on where she was and what she was doing, so that if even a short pause appeared in my activities, I could go and find her. Smiling due to the lovely nature of her actions, I had no other choice but to hide my phone back in my pocket and return to my job. "Who could''ve thought that managing an organisation of such scale could be so bothersome" Muttering to myself as I entered one of the many corridors in mypound heading for yet another meeting, I suddenly stopped when another figure walked out from behind a corner. "Oops!" Backing out two steps, I intended to just let the other party pass, when I noticed that they stooped as well. Rising my eyes to look at their faces I instantly felt my mood souring. "I''m sorry for the inconvenience." Lowering her head, Martha apologised before all the traces of guilty consciousness disappeared from her face as she looked me in the eyes. "I''m Martha Sarate, here to organise a meeting with the local head of the Boruta''s cult." As soon as the girl attacked, my reinforcements came flying. "Excuse me, youngdy." Appearing right beside me, Jeff spoke up with a perfectly calm voice. Sending me a quick wink, he then stood in front of me, blocking the only path with which the girl could approach me. "All kinds of deployment and organisational stuff goes through me in here. If you wish to have a talk with the bishop" Not wasting the opportunity, I moved a few paces to the back before decisively turning around and walking away. Sadly, before I could make as much as just a few steps, Martha''s voice loomed over my head once again. "Met, move everyone aside. If the bishop will resist, hold him in ce for me." Whoosh! In one instant, the corridor turned crowded. Making their way inside through ss window panels and distant doors, Martha''s henchmen instantly overwhelmed the ce. Jeff was pushed aside, some of the other workers of the cult lost several teeth. In just a few moments, Martha''s men mercilessly pummeled my supporters, before approaching me as well. "Sir, please, we need to follow our orders." Even though those henchmen approached me, there was clear hesitation in their moves. While for some reason I was once again unable to read the aura of those men, I actually didn''t need to in order to figure out the source of their doubts. Even though it was only locally, I still managed to earn myself quite a heroic repute from the uprising against the corrupted government! And from the looks of things, those men not only had some respect towards me due to what I did but clearly were wary of my ability to fend them off. After all, I wouldn''t be able to throw the glove in the government''s face if I had no strength to back my challenge up! Seeing that I wasn''t moving in my ce at all, Sarate henchmen breathed out a sigh of relief. Noticing the situation, Martha lightly smiled before closing the distance between the two of us. "I''m sorry for" Opening her mouth and reaching with her hand for my face as soon as she approached me, Martha''s eyes twitched when I raised my hand in return. But even before I could p her face, a crisp sound of skin speedily shing against skin bested my reaction speed. Appearing out of nowhere, Ayda grew up behind the girl beforending a fullymitted p across her cheek. Turning her head along with the force of the attack, Martha was stunned. But as soon as she regained her senses, she moved her head back only to throw a hateful look towards the aggressor Who in turn pped the other cheek of the girl. "Dear, there is no point for you to dirty your fingers." Leaving the girl pained and retreating when she noticed that her status meant nothing to her, Ayda snuggled to my arm before throwing a cold look at the invaders. "I will kill them all, mkay?" Lowering her eyelids to the point where her eyes turned into slits, Ayda clearly was unwilling to hold any punches. But rather than letting the girl vent some of her emotions, I managed to somehow pacify her behaviour just by cing my hand on her shoulder. "There is no need for that. Leave it to me." Given how this damned girl still has yet to give up, I had no other choice but to use a slightly stronger approach. Because right now, she was no longer just an annoyance. She turned into a daring threat to me, my ns and my people. Approaching the girl, I stopped only when just a meter remained between the two of us. "I won''t participate in the internal war of your family. I do not recognise your silly ims and I won''t hold back if I ever see a Sarate''s soul on mynds. Right now, I''m letting you go only because I have no reason to start a war with your entire family over the idiocy of just a single person," stopping for a moment, I leaned my head to the side before finishing, "but I cannot let you go without a lesson." Taking two steps to the back, I scanned my surroundings before releasing a deep sigh of defeat. "Men, cut all their thumbs off. Only the girl may leave intact" Turning around and gracing my dearest with a loving smile, I finished. "But I want her to watch. The whole damned thing." Chapter 158: Dealing with Sander Chapter 158: Dealing with Sander In an instant, all the windows that still remained intact broke apart. Rushing to the corridor from all possible sides and rooms around, all sorts of experts of Jeff''s hire instantly overwhelmed those few men that Martha brought along, reversing our position in the standstill. "I will leave the rest to you, okay?" Turning my head to Jeff who was slowly gathering himself from the floor, I fluttered my shirt before turning around and decisively leaving the ce. I simply couldn''t be bothered to wait until the experts of my faction would turn my judged punishment into reality. With her aggressive appearance and attempt to force me into meeting with her, Martha now made sure that whatever sympathy I had left for her due to the truth behind the entire situation between the two of us, was now gone. "Sure, you can go back to your matters now. I will make sure to promptly deal with this problem." Finally bringing himself back to a proper standing position, Jeff threw a cold look at the Sarate''s men. Given how they treated him just a moment ago, I could only wonder whether our men wouldn''t have troubles counting when it woulde to cut those people''s fingers out. But as sudden and disturbing as this situation was, it had its own positive sides. Given how reckless Martha''s attempt to force me into talking was, I was now sure that it wasn''t the Sarate family that prompted this damned white intel to leak to the public. Sadly, it didn''t make guessing the real perpetrator any easier. With the only lead that I had now gone, it would be even harder to figure out just who was bored enough to try to uproot whatever power that I managed to build from the scratch. That''s why, rather than bothering myself with this one, particr problem, I decided to focus on the matters that I actually had some influence over. And the first problem to deal with was centred around Sander. Because even though we met during themercial shot already, the matter to discuss was simply too important to talk it over in the middle of a huge crowd. After a short trip through several corridors and connectors, I managed to reach his ce, only to actually find out that he was no longer working in the space I designated for him. Only after asking around for a few moments did I manage to learn that a production hall that I scheduled to be built a long time ago, was already finished, stalling all the production of the stones due to the process of moving all the machines and stuff between ces. Swallowing this waste of time without a word, I followed after the directions of one of the cult''s clerks, quickly reaching Sander''s new yground. "You are here! I thought I would break apart when I wasn''t able to talk with you earlier on. What took you so long?" As soon as the middle-aged man noticed me, he instantly dropped what he was doing only to rush towards me with an excited face. But since I knew what made him so excited, I couldn''t share his happiness and expectations. "Sander, I need you to listen to me very carefully." While I could just give the man my order and forget about the topic, I didn''t believe it would be a good idea to do something like this. With this man being practically the father of the modern approach to magic-stone carving, if I were to just tell him to stop doing something for no apparent reason, it would be only a matter of time before he would do it to check the effects of those recurring stones himself. "Wait, did something happen? Which one failed to work? I know you don''t pay it any attention, but I made sure to add a serial number to every" Just as Sander was about to exin his way of operating, he finally noticed the tense expression on my face. Silencing himself down, he then finally allowed me to speak. "From this day onward, burn all the materials and procedures for creating recurring stones. Only two sets may remain, both of which we will hide in the deepest vaults we can find." Resting my back against the wall, I threw a tense look to the craftsman before adding. "If you told the method to anyone, make sure to bring them to me. If not Then I will need you toe up with some excuse that will stop all the amateurs from ever trying to carve this kind of stones." Allowing my back to slide down the wall, I sat in the corner of a corridor. Just this alone appeared to be enough for the craftsman to understand how serious this matter was. "Did something bad happen? Did those stones tragically fail?" With this question, Sander managed to strike the exact crux of the matter. The crux that I couldn''t really exin without revealing my time in the apocalypse world. "They worked, they worked even better than I expected them to work. And that''s actually a problem." I didn''t know whether what happened back in the war camp of Ayda''s world could be replicated by any random person on earth. Maybe the disaster that the stone brought could be activated by anyone with the stone? Maybe the person activating it had to be as powerful magic-wise as me? Without the answer to those questions, I couldn''t allow anyone to figure out a way to create the proper recurring stones. And the entire set of tutorials that Sander was created to spread the knowledge of carved stones was actually aimed at making sure others wouldn''t even know that the possibility to create this kind of stone existed in the first ce! "I understand. Actually, no, not really. But I get what you mean." Scratching the top of his head, Sander breathed out a sigh of relief before sping both of his hands against his face. Only then did his expression of defeat disappeared, reced by a new bout of energy. "I get it. I will burn all the records ande up with some story of a dangerous ident. If I just may" When I noticed a strange gleam in the craftsman''s eyes, I sighed in defeat before pointing my hand outside of that window. "Let''s say that I would aim it at that fountain out there. Can you see it?" Even though I was only using the ce as a referencing point, I actually didn''t expect to see this kind of decorative piece already installed on the outside. While the noise of the building machines doing their work apanied everyone in the already finished part of thepound ever since the first people started to move in here, the general construction was still far from being finished. Just the fact that Sander only received a single workshop rather than an entire factory was the best testimony to the fact. As such, I didn''t expect the space around the firstpound to already bear the signs of groundwork aimed at beautification of this ce! "Yeah. But from here to that fountain It would truly be a disaster if random people could get their hands on such firepower." Making some kind of strange assumption, Sander shook his head with apparent understanding, only to earn a sigh of amusement from me in return. "From here to that fountain? No, that''s wrong. Listen, if you take the direction of this fountain to be the direction in which I aimed that stone at" Closing my eyes, I recalled the moment when the massacre at the camp ensued. The moment when my finger pressed the activator on the stone. And then, the dyed storm of mana thatpletely changed they of the ground for as far as my eye could see. In fact, the real range of the disaster only fully dawned on us when we reached the edge of the disaster on our way back to the vige. With all those projections, I finally managed to calcte my answer to Sander. "If you see that fountain, then imagine a cone stretching about seven to eight degrees in both directions. Everything within this cone for about twenty kilometres Gone." That was my answer. In fact, the disaster from back in Ayda''s world almost managed to reach all the way to the vige of witches! Hearing my words, Sander''s face whitened. For a moment, he appeared to imagine this kind of widespread destruction, before his body twitched and sentience returned to his eyes. "I understand. I will get rid of every single piece of knowledge about this kind of stones that I have written. I will bring twost copies directly to your handster on." With that said, the absolutely worst part of my today''s duties was over. While there was still a lot of walking and talking further in my schedule, the only part that filled me with anxiety was now over. After all, by forcing Sander to abandon an entire branch of this newborn technology, I was kind of risking his loyalty to my cause! Thankfully, as long as I would deal with the opposition for the next two projects that I already had in mind, he would never dare to as much as think about changing sides again! "I can''t wait to learn just who dares to challenge me." Muttering to myself, I walked into my private study. In the end, even with how packed my schedule was, I still had to take some time off to keep myself off. Opening the doors, I could tell Ayda was inside even before her figure revealed itself atop one of the sofas. "Are you ready?" Chapter 159: Im not in charge! Chapter 159: I''m not in charge! "You made it! How''s your day?" Stepping forward, I greeted Ayda. Walking towards me directly on the street, she wore the same distinctions that I added to all my outfits, unting just how beautiful my cult was. "Bearable. Is this the ce?" Despite wearing the best dress that the people I hired could create for her, Ayda refused to just be here to look nice. Cutting right to the point, she looked at the huge building in the middle of the town. "Yeah, but we still have some time. I already reserved the seats for us." Pointing at a nearby bench, I smiled at the girl. "How about we sit down for a short rest?" Ever since we returned from Ayda''s world, life was pretty frantic for the both of us. Torn between all kinds of duties, we barely had the time to sleep, not to speak about any kind of leisure activities. In light of how busy we were, the chance to just sit down and enjoy the moment was pretty rare. "Sure, if you don''t mind." Instantly seating herself right beside me, Ayda glued her body to my side. Wrapping her hands around my arm, she rested her head on my shoulder. From how tense her body was, I could tell how truly tired she was. "Hopefully, we need to hold still for just a few more moments. Once the situation with the stones will hopefully calm down" Thinking about the near future, I could feel a certain stiffness in my heart. This wasn''t the leisurely life that I imagined for me and my family. But I didn''t really have any choice anymore. "Calm down? I wouldn''t count for that before at least two weeks. In fact, I think we can expect the price to surge even higher." Shaking her head, Ayda reached out to a small bag she got along with the rest of her outfit. Pulling out two chocte bars, she passed one to me with a questioning look on her face. "Thanks." epting the candy, I tore its cover off before biting on the sweet chocte snack. For some reason, just the fact that it was a piece that Ayda brought, its taste seemed to explode in my mouth with far greater intensity than usual. At the same time, just the fact of sitting at the bench together managed to put a satisfied smile on my face. "But speaking of the price, two weeks? I think the hype will die off way sooner." Rather than disapproving of Ayda''s opinion, I simply wasn''t sure whether she managed to judge the situation while taking the differences between her world and earth into ount. In the end, it wasn''t that easy to manipte the poption into a financial scheme, if those people were already used to this kind of market maniption! "Well, I prefer to have high hopes. The longer the situationsts" Taking a quick look at the watch on her wrist, Ayda unconsciously smiled. Out of all the applicancies that the modern civilisation offered, this simple tool to measure the passage of time struck her fancy the most. "Either way, we need to hurry up inside, the meeting is about to start." Releasing a pained sigh, Ayda stood up before reaching with her hand towards me. Grabbing her delicate palm, I couldn''t stop myself from kissing the top of her hand before standing up as well and following after the girl into the building. After marching through a simple set of corridors, we quickly joined into a rather vast crowd of nicely dressed people, before one of the attendants of the event guided us to the lodge on the VIP floor. Freed from the burden of the crowd, we finally reached our reserved seats. Given how the entire event was taking ce in a former theatre, all the VIP lodges were upied by various forces that controlled the city ever since the uprising against the corrupted local government. It was here that we finally managed to get some proper rest. Sitting in huge and insanelyfortable chairs, we didn''t even need to say a word before a steward came, pouring the two of us a ss of clearly expensive booze. From its delicate bubbles, I could guess that it was the legendary champagne, but given how little I knew about fire drinks, it could as well be just carbonated booze. "For the future." Raising the cup towards the girl, I struck her ss in the popr gesture before taking a small sip of the drink. Compared to my expectations, it turned out to be even better. Gently caressing my pte, its bubbles transported the taste while the drink itself gently flew down my throat. "To be perfectly honest, your booze is great But softer drinks not so much." Lightly twisting her lips, Ayda tasted the drink before putting the ss aside. Compared to the snacks prepared on the side of our chairs, the alcohol stood no chance! "Everyone! Let''s the third meeting of the town''s agenda begin!" Looking down on the scene while munching on the treat that Ayda fed me a moment earlier, I saw one of the retainers of the greater yers on the local scene. Given how I intended to steer clear of the politics, I could be very well mistaken though. "Today, we are faced with great turmoil. A chaotic rise of the market that we didn''t seeing. And I don''t think I need to speak much for you to understand." Instantly cutting to the point, the host of the meeting announced. "As such, let us discuss how the city should react to this new situation." Pointing his hand towards the furthest of the VIP lodgest from us, the host smiled as he gently bowed his head. "Thank you for giving me the prime voice for the meeting." Soon, a voice of a certain rich business owner that thrived in the city appeared. With just a single look around the lodge, I located a loud-speaking set, most likely connected to the general auditory system of the hall. But as soon as I made this discovery, my attention escaped again. Baited by Ayda''s hand holding yet another treat, Ipletely ignored the proceedings, enjoying my filtry y with my woman. Bit by bit, the event continued to develop. Absorbed in the fun I had with Ayda, I barely noticed when half of the speakers from the VIP lodges finished their lithanes. In the end, this wasn''t an event that I wanted to attend for any reason other than scrapping up some resting time for me and Ayda. Given how everyone around was just as busy as the two of us, only by pretending to actually work could we find some time for ourselves. But then, I heard a rather disturbing sentence. "Given how the Boruta cult is in attendance today, what is their stance on the topic?" Shaken awake, I looked down at the scene. For some reason, someone dared to direct everyone''s attention to our lodge, making any further leisure impossible. But instead of getting riled up by the fact that I had no idea what we were actually asked about, I calmly picked the microphone of the loudspeaker set before pompously uttering. "This matter is tooplicated and important to be discussed out in the open like that. Only by ensuring careful arrangements and proper analysis of the problem can we reach a conclusion that will satisfy all the parties concerned. As such, I would like to take my liberty to withhold my response, given how I have yet to consult my experts about the problem." Rather than bothering toe up with some fancy response, I simply quoted one of the greatest pieces of dialogue from the locally made series that I ever heard about. Crafted as a universal response for politics faced with difficult questions, it allowed one to keep the dignified front while basically pushing the entire topic away. "Your excellency, I do not understand. Aren''t you the local head of the cult? If so, who do you need to consult with whether or not make a voluntary donation to the city funds from the extreme riches your cult obtained on the recent market rise?" Most likely recognising the set of sentences that I just spoke, the man kindly provided me with enough context to understand what the question was actually about. "When the invasion of monsters came, it was the people of the Boruta Cult and I myself that protected the city. After giving everyone a fair share of the magic stones from the battle, we went out of our way to even further promote their worth." On one hand, my answer had nothing to do with the question posed. But I had to bring forward those few words in order to make my second part a bit more reasonable. "And despite that, you still believe that despite holding ourselves back from joining the city council, we somehow still owe the town the wealth that we obtained on our own?" Riled up by my own words, I stood up and approached the balustrade of the lodge. Still holding the mouthpiece by my lips I smiled before adding some more words. "If you want to rob us, at least have the face to do it directly. And one more thing." Smiling internally, I actually turned around before reaching with my hand towards Ayda. "I''m actually a subordinate of the Bishop Ayda. As such, I''m not the one in charge of the affairs here!" The shock on the girl''s face when she heard those words was the best thing that I happened to see in a long while. Chapter 160: Cityhall debate Chapter 160: Cityhall debate "Honestly, I thought the legendary Boruta Cult would be far more focused on the people, rather than filling their own coffers." Out of nowhere, a new voice appeared. Since it was the first time I heard it, I was unable to connect it to any face or name from my memory. "I beg your pardon?" Ever since I first heard theughable demand of the city to share my riches, I already knew that the situation wouldn''t be resolved by just a single sentence. If those people had the audacity to attempt to rob me, they wouldn''t back off after a few words of reprimand alone. "Isn''t it like I said? You struck it big, and now you are forgetting those whoid the foundations for your growth? Where you would be if not for the efforts of all of us?" Instantly refuting my words, the voice grew more arrogant with each sentence. "Rather than politely asking as we do now, we are well within our rights to demand!" Listening to this clear provocation, I couldn''t help but smile lightly. But this smile of mine didn''t showcase what was really going through my head. While I could ept some begging or heartfelt request, this tant jump on the money I worked hard to get poked me in an extremely wrong way. Before I could unleash my inner deviousness though, I felt a tug on the sleeve of my suit. "May I?" Whispering gently while not even attempting to conceal the fires burning in her eyes, Ayda managed to charm me just like that. "Sure." Thankful for her initiative, I passed the speaker to the girl. "Wee everyone, I''m the chief bishop of this diaspore. My name is Ayda." Taking up the microphone, Ayda''s soft voice filled the insides of the building. Gently flowing along with the wind, it had a soothing effect on anyone blessed to hear it. "I was directed here not because of my husband''s inability to lead, but to curb his viciousness. You could say, that just as our doctrine dictates, as a wife I came here to bring the best from this great man." For some reason, rather than speaking about the topic, Ayda decided to praise me instead. But as unexpected it was, I would lie by iming I didn''t enjoy it. "And I have to im that I managed to do my best. Because if not for me, this city would long be enved to my husband''s wishes." Just like I managed to surprise Ayda before, now it was her turn to take me by surprise. "What do you mean?" Given how little Ayda''s words had to do with the topic mentioned previously, it was only to be expected for some confused voices to appear. But when I realised that it was still the same voice speaking, I couldn''t help but smile. "It''s pretty simple. Back when the city was in trouble with the government killing people on the streets, it was my husband that stood against the injustice. It was people who followed him that sparked the popr uprising. It was their summed courage that brought forth the change." Still speaking, Ayda turned her head around to look at me. From the questioning look in her eyes, I could tell that she was waiting for my approval. And given how little I cared for this meeting in the first ce, I instantly nodded my head, approving of whatever idea she had in mind. "Ever since my husband decided to let you govern the city as you wish without his influence, you didn''t bother toe to our ce to as much as wish us a good day. And now you have the guts toe and attempt to im the wealth we created with the hands of the faithful?" Leaning over the edge of the lodge a bit, Ayda shook her head. "The construction never ceased on ournd ever since it began. How many jobs it is? The entire explosion of the magic stone market can be contributed to our actions. How many people made a fortune out of nothing because of that?" mming her hands at the railing of the lodge, Ayda took a moment of a break before looking down at the people gathered on the main floor and asking. "Andstly, what makes you, someone so poor at managing his own finances that you have no other choice but to attempt extorting money from others, a capable person to entrust the money we made ourselves?" While Ayda continued to mercilessly beat up her opponent in the discussion, I focused on looking over the entire ce, trying to locate the person who attempted to go against us. And surely enough, once the change of voices happened again, I noticed something worrying. The voice wasn''ting from any of the VIP lodges! "That might be true, but isn''t your centre of operation located on thend borrowed from the town? You are stillwfully obliged to pay the taxes!" Raising his voice as he pulled this stupid argument out, Ayda''s opponent managed to score his first victory. Because before the girl would respond, she turned her head towards me with a questioning look on her face. "That''s bullshit. We got thend as our part of spoils once we took the city. It was a price the city had to pay to keep me out of its affairs." Back then, it was a good deal. Because with my cult still in its infant stage, I couldn''t easily go against the local powers if they were to scheme or just organise against me. But the situation changed now. And just as much as I didn''t care about the city as a whole in the past, I didn''t care for it right now either. Unless its rulers would leave myndspletely out of their greedy minds. "I think you got some facts wrong, dear friend." Following my exnation, Ayda rxed to the point where she actually brought the wireless speaker with herself beforeying back on thefortable sofa. "Thends that our cult currently uses was a voluntary gift offered by the city for the great contributions during the change of regime we provided." With a vicious smile appearing on Ayda''s lips, she added. "If you are attempting to denounce that deal, should I take it that you are spitting at the graves of those who saved people like you from the suffering under the previous, corrupted government?" Snuggling to my chest, Ayda went on the offensive. Rather than allowing the other party to constantly force us into exining ourselves, she turned the situation around to make the user appear to be disrespectful towards one of the things the inhabitants of the city would not forgive. She made him look as if he was disregarding the sacrifice of those who fell during the rebellion! "Isn''t that the crux of the problem? You can try to pain me a viin as much as you want, but it won''t change the fact that you used the blood of those fallen heroes to steal thend rightfully owned by the city! Right now, unless you want everyone to know that you are just a bunch of calctive schemers, give up all the stones you have to the city!" Hearing those words, I snapped. There was some kind of minimal level that one had to achieve in order to even talk with Ayda. And the party that dared to go against us, was twisting the facts and situation in such an outrightly scamful manner, that I couldn''t allow him to hear Ayda''s gentle voice ever again. "Dear, pass me the speaker." Reaching with my hand, I took over the mouthpiece. "Hello again, everyone, Bishop Marius speaking again. Since we came to this situation, let me make it easy for everyone. First, a respectable friend who lusts after other''s wealth, how about youe out and name yourself?" Giving a moment for the other party to react, I started speaking as soon as I heard some noisesing from the crowd. "Or are you some kind of rat only capable of throwing usations while hiding in the shadows?" Since the other party was openly going against me, there was no need for me to hold back either. And if I wanted to deal with this guy, I first had to know who he was in the first ce. "Reveal myself? You mean, so that you can silence me when no one will be looking?" Disregarding my provocation, the other party had to believe they were smart in doing so. What they didn''t realise, was that they stepped right into my trap. "Well, let''s wrap things up then. Since the people from this ce have such little gratitude for those who saved them, let''s decided it with a vote." Standing up from my chair, I approached the railing of the lodge, before using a bit of attracting to forcefully pull one of the spotlights towards me. Shed in the intense light, I smiled before exining what I meant to the mouthpiece. "In a month from now, every citizen of our glorious town will get to cast a vote. ording to its results, if the city will earn more votes, we will give up all the profits that we ever made on thisnd. But we will also round up all our businesses before moving them elsewhere. In case that my cult, which provides and protects the people of this town were to get more votes, the control of the entire city will be transferred directly into our hands, for my cult to manage." With the light of the spotlight still on me, I allowed everyone below to see a wide smile of mine before finishing. "Since you were so eager to rob the wealth that my sheep have harnessed, I will make sure this city won''t see a broken dime of mine unless it falls in my hands." "After all," taking the mouthpiece from my hands, Ayda appeared right beside me. "What''s the point in investing our money in this ce, if it would be wasted by parasites like you?" Chapter 161: Whats the point of dawdling here? Chapter 161: What''s the point of dawdling here? Ring! In theory, only those who took part in the meeting should know what was said during its course. But just a single look at my ringing phone proved this official story wrong. "Yes?" The fact that I was able to say anything before the onught began was some kind of miracle. "DO YOU HAVE ANY DAMNED IDEA WHAT YOU JUST DID?!" Jeff''s voice rang in my ears, almost causing me a headache. "Yes, I''m perfectly aware of what I just did. I just set a new target for our entire cult. Will speak to you once I will be back." Putting the call to an end, I raised my head high before looking at the sky and sighing weakly. "Something wrong?" Walking one step behind me, Ayda was quick to notice the slight distraught on my face. "Not wrong, not really. I just managed to clean our schedule for the next few days." Smiling stupidly, I decided not to share the details of my worry with the girl. Not because I didn''t trust her, but because there was no reason to burden her with it. Because the time to deal with Jeff finallye. Ever since I created the cult and turned it from just an urban legend to a real entity, I was troubled by the fact that I was barely any more important than a random figurehead. With Jeff and his people dealing with everything behind the scenes, he was of unparalleled help before, but now that my organisation was reaching higher levels, I had to remind him who was the real leader of the organisation. And to think that this long-standing worry of mine would finally force me to act just because he had the guts to scold me on the phone! "If you don''t want to tell me, it''s okay, but at least give me some clues." Closing the distance between the two of us, Ayda wrapped her hands around my arm. "Otherwise I won''t know how to act at all." Feeling her warmth coating my arm, I sank into my own thoughts. Because as happy as I was to finally move forward with the things that weighed on me for a while already, I still had to take my time to figure out the proper way to achieve what I hoped to get. "It''s not that I can''t tell you or even don''t want to. For now, I''m just unsure myself what to do next." Shaking my head, I pulled Ayda into one of the side alleys. Even though I initially hoped to bring her to earth to let her experience thevish life in luxury, we never actually had the time to enjoy suchzy times. Walking through the streets created by the ancient builders of the city from ages ago, a strange atmosphere appeared between the two of us. It was as if the old stone of the road, polished by millions of feet that walked on it, reflected the sunlight in a special, romantic way. But as much as the whole world was trying to put the two of us into proper mood, I had no spare thoughts for such a frivolous thing right now. Instead of enjoying the moment, I fell victim to the habit of constantly working that I created over the past few days. For some reason, most likely due to my own, deeply hidden worries, I couldn''t tear my thoughts away from nning my next moves. "You know, the problematic part is how to deal with Jeff withoutpletely curbing him and his family from the group." After some time of walking in silence, my lips moved on their own. "So that''s what was worrying you. Oh poor you" Snuggling even closer to my arm, Ayda instantly proved thatforting othersid well within the scope of her abilities. "Not even a moment of rest from scheming, no matter which world you go to." Suddenly stopping in the middle of some random alley, Ayda moved to the front, only to turn around and charge chest-first into my body. Pushing herself right into my arms, she tightened her hands around my waist before resting her head against my chest. Soon, the calm rhythm of her breathing started to resonate with me, forcing my breath to a more normal pace. "Thanks." Whispering into her ear, I lowered the centre of my weight, openly resting my upper body on the girl. "No matter how much I think about it, going to yet another world seems like a must to me now." As repulsing as the idea was, there was hardly anything else I could to gain an edge over Jeff. And with the trouble that I caused at the town''s meeting, if he were to remain in power even after the election would be over, I would most likely never be able to threaten his position ever again. "Isn''t that a good thing? Thest time you went to another world, you met me. What''s more, isn''t it the thing that this entire system of yours encourages?" Using the fact that we were tightly hugged, we could whisper this discussion directly into each other''s ear. "That''s Not as easy as it sounds." Given how this was one of my memories that I didn''t enjoy at all, I tended to forget about everything that happened ever since I desperately dived into random words all the way to the point where meeting Ayda changed my life. Because outside of the single apocalypse world that I continued to make use of, hardly any other ce could provide me with anything of value. Be it knowledge, resources or valuable people, I could only make use of the first two. After all, if I could move people between the worlds of my system then there would be no reason for all the bother to allow Ayda to enter earth in the first ce. But even with knowledge and resources, the natural limitation of a human''s personal power came to y. I could move only so much stuff between worlds. Even if I were to spend the rest of my days hauling goods from different ces, each of them would likely require yet another huge scheme for its worth to be recognised. Even with knowledge, things were not any easier. Just like magic stones proved, even if I could obtain some groundbreaking and stalemate-shattering technology, the time required to implement it on Earth would greatly limit both its use and usability in the long term. With all three things that I could obtain from other words either tooplicated and time sh resource consuming to be used as my hidden strength, only one thing that I left off before remained now. Magic. And with how little I did towards my own cultivation even after learning how useful it could be only served as proof that in the end, my talent towards magic wasn''t that great at all! "What else can we do, then? Are you sure we need to go against Jeff in the first ce?" Even though Ayda didn''t spend a long time on earth, she was here for long enough to understand just how much influence this single man wielded within my faction. "Yes. I don''t need topletely push him aside, but make sure that he won''t aspire to be the head of the entire faction. I''m not going to give it away to him just because he was the first one to offer me his support." Thinking about the situation, I suddenly realised a certain event that I failed to properly think through before. All the way back when I first started dealing with Baskar''s family, I offered them a bit of apocalypse tech. But ever since then, despitepletely joining hands with that formerly criminal family, I never ever once heard about any discovery rted to this technology! "Wait, could it be" Even though it was obvious that the stalemate situation with the city could onlyst for so long, Jeff was pretty unsettled when the period of fake pace finally came to an end. Rather than being excited over the new opportunities that it offered, it appeared as if he was angry that things ended up rushed forward! "What kind of devious idea is brewing under that scalp of yours?" Once again, Ayda proved to be the most attentive and observant person I ever knew. Because once I suddenly managed to make a guess of Jeff''s motives, rather than despairing over the troublesome situation, I allowed all my deepest and darkest emotions to swirl around in hopes that they will produce some sort of n. "Trust me, I wish I had one. But as for now, I seriously cannot think about anything else. If I don''t go exploring more worlds, it will be only a matter of time before Jeff will be so powerful, that this entire faction won''t matter anything to him at all anymore. Magic stones were a groundbreaking technology. The constant rapports from Sander that I continued to receive and diligently study only prove that point even further when some of his apprentices managed to construct the very first magicalputer. Although pretty faulty and slow, as long as the limiting factor of the infant technology would be taken care of, they could potentially be stronger than anyputer ever assembled before! But between those magic stones of mine, financed with my own pocket and developed by just a handful of people, and the possible technology recreated from the scraps of future tech that I gave to Baskars all this time ago "Okay then, let''s not waste time any more. Rather than wondering whether it''s a good idea, let''s just do it." Suddenly sneaking out of my hug, Ayda looked at my face with a serious expression all over her own. "There is this time freeze going whenever you enter another world? If that''s the case, what''s the point of dawdling here?" Chapter 162: Preparing for the departure Chapter 162: Preparing for the departure "Okay then. Here is what we will do." Grabbing Ayda''s hand, I pulled her out of the small alley directly to the main street of the town. Pulling out my phone, I ordered the car through one of the popr apps, before finally finding the time to look at the girl again. "Listen, I need a set of long and short weapons, standard expedition box of the stones" Recalling a piece from one of the many reports I would go through each day, I shrugged slightly. "On that matter, I will need you to ask Sander if he finished its upgrade. If he did, get him to provide some kind of manual for it." Turning my head around, I made sure Ayda heard my request before my eyes wandered towards the source of a suddenly appearing sound of tires burning on the road. From a single look, I could tell that it was the car I just ordered. "Dear, make sure to remember one thing. From the outside point of view" There was no need for me to finish my words. Before I could say thetter part of my sentence, Ayda already did it for me. "Our preparations could be easily taken as preparation for conflict. I know." As we stepped into the car, our discussion inevitably came to an end. While speaking directly on the street could be excused given the constant noise and extreme hardship fo eavesdrop on us if we moved to random ces at random intervals, the same didn''t apply to the insides of the car. Rather than wondering whether there was some kind of listening device in the car or not, I only wondered how many different ones were hidden all over the vehicle instead! Even returning to thends of my cult didn''t change things at all. While some confusion was given from how the supreme head of the entire organisation used a rented cab rather than one of the cars that the cult would be willing to provide at any given moment, the scale of madness we were thrown into as soon as we returned only proved that Jeff already made his move. "Your excellency! How could you use such amon car? It''s unbing of your position!" Barely a moment after we stepped outside, the first voice of dissatisfaction reached my ears. As I turned my head to see just who was daring enough to scold me, another voice appeared. "Everyone, stop bothering the bishops!" Stepping outside of the main doors of thepound, Pavlo looked at the crowd with scorn. "Do you think he is?" Not daring to finish her question now that we were in the open, Ayda cast a quick nce at this young friend of mine. "I''m not sure." There was no reason to sugarcoat the reality. Given his family ties, there was a huge chance that this staunch supporter of mine was already set on devastating my position. But given how I still bore some hope that he would turn out to be loyal to me directly rather than to the elder from his family, I didn''t want Ayda to give up on the man either. "Sir, it''s great that you are back. Ever since about an hour ago, some stuff started to happen around the ce." Rushing to me as soon as he pacified the unrest in the crowd, Pavlo sent a quick gaze to the people behind him as he said so. "Don''t worry about it, it was inevitable." Waving my hand away as if it could solve the problem we were currently facing, I started moving towards thepound. Given how I didn''t falter under the first round of problems, the crowd had no other choice but to let me pass. After all, right now it was only light probing, aimed at sounding off my ideas for the future. Given how I still had a great influence not only amongst the simple believers but most of the important figures within the group, there was no way for Jeff to just deal with me directly right away. And I only needed a few hours to hopefully solve the problem at its root. "Ayda, I will be counting on you." As soon as the three of us reached my private wing of thepound, I prompted the girl into action. Before she could even set off, I already turned my head towards the young man beside me. "As for you, I will also need a bit of your help." Whether Pavlo was still loyal to me or would turn out to be a staunch supporter of his family, it didn''t really matter. Because the task I was about to give him was important enough for me to care, yet simple and unmeaningful to the point where it would be dumb to potentially reveal his allegiances over it. "You know you only need to give me a word." Looking at me as if using a slightly more formal approach with him gave a huge emotional scar to the man, Pavlo summed up in a sudden cold voice. "You should already realise that I don''t like ordering people around." After taking a deep breath, I released it back to the atmosphere with a deep sigh. "But if you are going to put it like that, then sure. I need you to go and fetch two weeks worth of packed rations." For a moment, Pavlo froze. Then, he cast me a baffled look. "Just that? What was the entire emotional build-up for, then?" Shaking his head in disbelief, Pavlo took a long moment to calm down. Forcing a smile on his lips, he then looked at me once again only to hang his head low and shake it again. "Sure then, where to bring the supplies?" Looking at the young man, I realised that this was the deciding moment. Maybe I was wrong and this feeling of mine waspletely misguiding me, but I felt as if my response to Pavlo''sint right now would decide who would he side withter on. "You see, there seems to be a small discord between me and Jeff." Starting up, I rested my back against the wall of the corridor we were in. "From the looks of things, he only thought of this organisation as a mean to achieve his own goals. Now that I''m going to," I cleared my throat, "go and waste a ton of goods," changing my voice to indicate that I was actually quoting someone else, I took a quick nce at the young man''s face to make sure he understood the intent behind those words before finishing my sentence up, "on a meaningless sacrifice to Boruta." Shaking my head over this stupid argument that actually didn''t happen, I averted my eyes from Pavlo. "I see" Even though it was clear that he was pretty confused about the situation, one of Pavlo''s great traits was how he didn''t bother to ask about unnecessary stuff. While it was only my guess, his line of thought should be around something like: ''Since I''m not involved in this matter in the first ce, let''s not put myself at risk by unnecessarily meddling in the problem.'' "Good. Once you will get the stuff, leave it at Ayda''s ce. She will bring it to the hidden altar for me." Leaving the young man with the final order, I quickly departed back to the bottom floor of my private wing of thepound. With the huge concrete dome located right in the middle of the building, an entire floor was taken off the schematics given how only I and Ayda had free ess to this ce. After arriving at the ce, I immersed myself in a procedure I came up with myself. Checking every single piece of my equipment before setting off for a journey to a foreign world was a must. I didn''t want to be a random, nameless corpse thrown to the side of a road or a dungeon of some sorts, just because a small tool of mine failed to work properly! By the time I was done with roughly half of the preparations, Ayda finally made her way over to the ce. Dropping several bags on the floor, she didn''t even bother greeting me, before leaving the ce once again. Only after her fourth trip when I finally managed to reach the end of the checklist, did the girl managed to stand down for a bit. "So, where is my part of the equipment?" After dropping thest piece of supplies, Ayda finally spoke. Only to catch me by a huge surprise. "I''m sorry?" Noticing her expectant look, I bit my lips. It seemed that there was a particr problem of mimunication between the two of us. "My equipment, where it is? Don''t tell me you forgot to check it on the go" Given how extensive the checklist was, it was far easier to check two sets at once rather than doing it one by one. The problem was, I never intended to bring Ayda somewhere as dangerous as a newly opened world could be! Chapter 163: Straight to the battlefield Chapter 163: Straight to the battlefield "Dear" To say that I had no words to excuse my decision would be quite a fitting description of my current situation. While I was able to make the decision, when it came to defending it right in Ayda''s face, it was an entirely different matter altogether. "Don''t you dear me right now!" Ayda snapped. Her fists tightened as she looked with disbelief at my face. "Do you really think I''m going to let you go to aplete unknown? And alone at that?!" Grabbing me by my shoulders, the girl panicked. "I''m sorry, but even with the time freeze, it''s not guaranteed that I will return before it ends." Breathing out, I felt my entire body almost copsing. Just this moment of arguing with the girl was enough to bring me to an edge. In the end, this was a serious testimony to just how much I cared about her. "So you want me to stay back and hold down the fort while you will risk your life on some otherworldly adventures?!" Snapping once again, tears appeared in Ayda''s eyes as she looked at me with desperation. Grasping the cloth of my outfit, she tightened her hands into fists on my chest, only to lower her head in defeat a bitter. "I''m sorry. It''s not that I don''t want to take you with me," looking towards the doors that were already set to an unknown destination, I sighed with worry. In reality, though, that was precisely it. I didn''t want to take Ayda with me. But not for some silly reasons. Right now, this girl was the only person, besides me, capable of travelling between worlds. But was that actually the case? What I wished for when striving toplete the quest from that strange god-like being, was to bring her to earth, not to bring her to all the words that my system could offer! In other words, I was simply too worried about what would happen if she were to try to pass the gate to another world. Without any concrete proof that passing through the gate was possible for her, I wouldmit genocide if necessary just to keep the girl out of this potential hazard. "I know. In fact, I only tried to ignore the topic until now" Shaking her head, Ayda finally got over her fit. Wiping the tears out of her eyes, she raised her head to look at me. Staring down the wells of her blue eyes, I felt an intense feeling of regret. Even though I didn''t bother to check my aura, I could tell that it was my genuine emotion, not something sparked by the girl''s witchcraft. But as much as I wanted to not leave her behind, there was no other choice. With all the preparations we made to send me to another world, Jeff was bound to turn vignt and expect a serious action from my side. In other words, if I were to fail to meet the deadline of the time freeze, it would be all up to Ayda to keep the two of us from losing all the power and meaning within the cult. "Well, in this situation, there is one thing that I actually can do." Stepping a few paces back, Ayda informed before suddenly charging forward. Wrapping her hands behind on back, she pressed her entire body to my chest, sinking in my arms. After a moment of just tightly hugging me, she climbed on the tips of her toes, before reaching for my lips. Joined in a kiss, I lost myself in the warmth of her mouth. Feeling her tongue with my own, I instantly lost myself in the taste of her saliva, the smell of her body, the softness of her skin. "May you have safe travels." Ending the kiss, Ayda used her hands to climb even higher, only to ce a gentle peck on my forehead. "Don''t make me wait for long." Distancing herself from me, Ayda lowered her head. Not willing to make the parting any worse, I tightened my jaws. Right now, I didn''t know whether to pity the girl or myself. Because on my end, I would do absolutely everything to return before the time freeze and not make her wait. On the other hand, I had no such pleasure to have the time of the danger just pass without my notice. That''s why, before my determination would falter, I picked up my backpack before moving towards the doors. "I will be back." Putting my hand on the door''s handle, I turned my head around before uttering this legendary sentence. Even though she wasn''t long on earth, Ayda still smiled when she heard those words. ''I guess it was worth making her watch all those movies.'' Thinking to myself, I pushed the doors open. At first, nothing really changed. Rather than stepping to some kind of word, I appeared in a void passage, filled with nothing but darkness. For several moments, nothing really changed. Then, the darkness finally started to give up. Waiting patiently for the process to be over, I admired the sight of the world slowly appearing all around me. Regretfully, this wasn''t a pleasant world. *Entering Nabakazahar* *Mission: Recover the sacred core and bring it where it belongs.* "Time freeze: Two months* *Good luck* Skimming through the system messages, I once again felt the same helplessness that gued me back in the days when I still strived to save my mother. The helplessness born from those system quests never being straightforward! What was the sacred core? Where to look for it? Where it belongs? Is this another puzzle or a direct order? The quest description itself wasn''t of any help. But rather than thinking about the mission and the chances of obtaining a special power in this world, I had to quickly assess my situation, because the veil of darkness that covered the world ever since I appeared in it, finally started to fade away. And along with light, the time started flowing as well. "KILL!" A demonic shout instantly rang in my right ear. Turning around, I saw a frontline of soldiers stretching for as far as I could see, all charging in my direction. Faced with such a situation, I could only curse my luck. If it was a rolling stone or falling tower, I could still try my chances to just escape to the side instead of always staying within the shadow of the danger. But with the crowd of soldiers stretching even further than I could see in both directions, I only had one way to run. Sadly, this wasn''t some kind of borate y. Those soldiers weren''t charging for nothing. And the only direction that I still hoped to be rtively safe, turned out to be even worse when I turned my head towards it. "For God''s sake, can''t you make things easy on me for once?!" Screaming from the bottom of my lungs, I grabbed three barrier stones from my pocket. Not daring to waste a single moment, I instantly activated them, before finally taking my time to look for more of them, crashing around in my backpack. And then, both waves of military shed with me right in the middle of the ensuing chaos. On one side, humans. d in armours of fine craft and swinging weapons of all sorts and types. From what I could see underneath theyer of dead bodies that quickly piled atop my barrier, there were even some mages casting devastation from the distance. Overall, if not for the fact of being in the middle of a damned battle, I would most likely adore this typical fantasy setting. Sadly, the other side wasn''t as awe-inspiring. Because what those humans were fighting with, weren''t other humans. Demons. Not strictly in a biblical sense, the creatures on the other end of the battle could be described as everything but sensible. Their limbs stretching in all directions and in great number, each of those hideous creatures looked like a different result of careless exposure to excessive radiation. The only other word that I could use to describe the mountains of meat desperately trying to break my barriers, would be mutants. Crack Puff! Turning into dust, the outer barrier stone crumbled in my hand. The first barrier was broken, leaving only two more. And with the speed at which those hideous beasts managed to put more and more stress on it, it would be only a matter of time before I would be properly exposed to danger. That is if setting up barriers was the only move that I had. "Say hello to my little friend!" Snapping one of the belts on my chest, I allowed the assault rifle to roll from my back right to my hands. Raising the barrel towards those mutants, I made sure that another barrier stone was safely lodged between the side of the gun and my finger. Crack Puff! The second barrier fell down. I pushed the safety off before cing a finger on the trigger. Grinding my right leg to the ground, I prepared for impact. Crack And I opened the fire! Chapter 164: Deal on the battlefield Chapter 164: Deal on the battlefield Tac, tac, tac, tac. The sound of the spray of bullets hailstorming through the nearest monsters was truly exhrating. While I never let my guard down with the barrier stone, I could tell that the spraying and praying method wouldn''t work here. Not because the situation wasn''t fitting. The close-quartersbat going all around me should make it a perfect fit for an automatic weapon, making myint less than real. The one true thing that stopped me from taking advantage of my situation and relying on spraying weapons, was the fact that the recoil of the gun made my blood boil way too much. Track! The knob of the gun struck emptiness, producing a characteristic, metallic sound. The first magazine was empty. But rather than just ejecting it and leaving it on the ground, I made sure to grab it first. Because rather than reaching for another mag, I simply moved it an inch to the side, locking in the second container tapped to the first one. "Here we go again!" Just as one of the monsters that survived the initial onught managed to catch up to me and attempt to smack my body out of existence, the firing pin finally found its way to the bottom of the first bullet, quickly starting the chain reaction that sent the rest of the mag flying. As soon as thest bullet left the barrel, I snapped thest belt that held it on me before throwing the assault rifle away. In the heat of the battle, this kind of specialised weapon was of not much use, especially with its rtively weak stopping power. With a press of my finger, I activated the barrier, before reinforcing it with two more. Using this window to change to the biggest gun of the three I brought with me. Named with a single letter and three numbers, it already proved to be quite effective back in my first scuffle against the wizards. Crack. The first barrier cracked open, allowing the relentless attack of the constantly swarming monsters to reach the second one. Checking everything about the gun once again, I made sure that the belt was properly locked and all other parts attached as they should. Pushing the grenade to a special handle beneath the barrel, I watched without care as the second barrier popped. Then, I raised my gun towards the enemies once again. From behind, humans continued to press forth, noticing the peculiar situation. Right on the battlefield, no one could be bothered to be amazed by my means. The only thing that mattered to everyone, was surviving and killing as many monsters as possible! Crack. This time, I had no way to keep another barrier stone in my hands. The gun was simply too heavy and robust to allow such shenanigans. And maybe it was for the better. As soon as the first crack appeared on the barrier, I pressed the trigger. The safety already set on automatic fire, the belt started moving. With just a few shots, the barrier gave up. Back on earth where it was made, guns were no longer inmon use as they were before. This was most likely the reason why Sander overlooked this fatal w of the barriers. But the fact that they were quite weak against magicless kic force mattered not right now. Because once the gun in my hands heated up, once the barrier finally cracked up There was no more enemy to threaten me. Digging my feet into the ground to withstand the powerful recoil of the light machine gun, I continued to send waves of death through the ranks of the hideous monsters. A single bullet wouldn''t do much harm to those damned beings. Regenerating their flesh almost as soon as it was smashed away by the shockwave of the shot, they were bound to be the mortal enemy of people with swords and axes. Thankfully, with each shot acting like a small explosive, wherever I directed the barrel of my gun, several meters worth of monsters would fall. In the end, with the greater calibre of the gun, a single series was enough to cut the front row, the row behind, then several more before flying off to the distance. Soon, a huge crevice opened up in the ranks of the monsters, giving me a bit of breathing room. A window that the humans didn''t dare to ignore. Noticing that my ammunition was about to run out, I hurriedly reached to my pocket in an attempt to dish out yet another barrier stone, only to realise that it was now pointless. Before I could even as much as reach for another box of ammunition to mount it on the gun, human soldiers rushed forward. Their magic was limited to the long-range bombardment. There didn''t seem to be a single firearm in the entire human army, limiting their arsenal to cold weapons alone. Yet, even with all those handicaps, Humans still proved that they could adapt. Watching in a daze as those foreign warriors rushed towards the monsters only to efficiently cut away at their limbs over and over again, I nearly forgot to finish changing the magazine. "You!" A sudden scream shook me awake. With the characteristic ''click'' of the gun, a huge chunk of confidence returned to my face. "I don''t know who you are, but can you please help us?" Just the fact alone that the owner of the voice somehow managed to push through the dense ranks of his soldiers on a damned horse proved that he had to be some kind of special figure. In such a heated battlefield, only the highest ranks would have enough respect to make soldiers still obey the standard procedures. But rather than responding right away, I only nced at the man who jumped from his horse before pleading. "That depends." Even though we were in the middle of the battle, it didn''t mean that I could take the leisure of not thinking about the future. Right now, this was a great opportunity for me. "Sir, what do you" As soon as the officer from the human army attempted to ask what I wanted, I already smiled before uttering. "The sacred core. Where is it?" There was no way for me to know what those words actually meant. While asking for the location was possible, it remained a fact that I had no idea what this core even was in the first pce! "Oh" Clearly shocked by my answer, the man stared at me for a moment, before shaking his head. "I''m sorry, but the sacred core is in possession of the prince himself. Right now, finding him" Waving his hand at the ongoing fight barely a few meters in front of us, the man took a troubled expression. "Do you think the prince would value that single item above the victory in this battle?" Using the fact that the man brought the battle back to the agenda, I gently smiled before shaking my gun. "Your people are dying as we speak. Even if you don''t care about the losses personally, it doesn''t change how you still need those people to win the battle." Shaking my arms and theatrically turning around, I added. "In the end, it''s not my fight, to begin with. We can either make a deal or" While my attitude was quite arrogant, I actually had the means to back it up. Be it the gun or a plethora of different stones in my backpack, I was most likely the best-armed person on the entire battlefield. "It''s a deal. I will make sure to convince the prince. Can you go and help us now?" mming his hands against his face, the man-made a decision before pointing his hand towards what looked like just one of the many hills in the otherwise t area. "I need you to attack that spot. As long as we take it, we will be able to bring our mages closer, so that" Midway part the man''s exnation, I left. As insulting as one could take such behaviour to be, I simply couldn''t waste any time. I knew nothing about this world. I knew not the reason behind the ongoing conflict and if those hideous creatures were the ones I should fight with in the first ce. And knowing that the item I had to obtain was in hands of some kind of prince, didn''t make it any easier to trust other humans. After all, it didn''t matter to me which side was right. The reason for the entire battle was void for me. I was in this world just to fulfil the mission, obtain the reward from the system and hopefully find something useful as an ace in the sleeve for my actions on earth. Soon, I arrived at the spot. Despite how tense the ranks of the human soldiers were, thanks to the presence of that officer behind me, no one dared to stay in my path. And once I reached the top of the hill currently held by the human forces, I aimed the muzzle of my gun at the horde of monsters below before happily pressing the finger. With the dazzling light of hundreds of bullets instantly shredding the ranks of the mutants, I felt slightly wrong. While I had my doubts that obtaining the sacred core would be as easy as just spraying all the bullets that I had left for the machine gun, there was nothing wrong with trying it out. After all, what if my luck would be, for once, good? Chapter 165: Red system alarm Chapter 165: Red system rm In the end, emptying out all the magazines with the bullets fitting the light machine gun in my hands took me barely a few minutes. With a single magazine capable of putting a huge dent at the lines of the monsters, I never had to worry about any danger when changing the clips with how the elite force of the human army would jump in to protect me whenever the sound of my shoots would die off. But I would have to be someone who reached a pinnacle of naivety to believe that I alone could put a huge change to the battlefield. That is, only by using hot weapons. With various stones still safely stored in my backpack, I knew that there were still some recurring ones that I didn''t use back in Ayda''s world. In theory, I could just start sting them in the given directions, obliterating most of the mutant army. The one reason why I did not do so, wasck of any benefit in it. In the end, instead of striving for solidarity between humans, I had to put my own interest as the absolute priority. And with that in mind,pletely devastating the attacking force was bad for several reasons. "Shield me!" With all the bullets for my main weapon now gone, I forced a simple, explosion stone between the weapon''s trigger and its protective casing, before reaching out with my arm to the back only to throw the weapon directly towards the enemies. At first, nothing happened. Repelled by a random set of long hands that appeared before the gun right before it could smash into the monsters, the gun fell down to the ground in front of the frontline of the monsters. And then, the trigger sprung up on the spring it was held by, forcefully pushing the activator of the stone inwards. BOOM! The huge explosion of this cheap and simple stone instantly swallowed the entire gun along with several mutants beside it. As a fighting weapon, I considered this simple "Boom" stone to be just a utility rather than a weapon proper. But right now, it was of great use, allowing me to get rid of this piece of hardware, preventing the local humans from researching it. I didn''t do it because I was against the local humanity. I did it to make sure they wouldn''t just rely on researching my weapons and would be forced to cooperate with me properly instead! "Okay, I''m empty now." Turning around to the officer, I put my left hand into the pocket. WIth several barrier and boom stones still kept in there, I decided not to act on the naive belief in human nature here. "What, you ran out of your weapons?" Pulling his attention away from observing the ongoing process of the battle, the officer looked at me with genuine surprise. ''It seems that he was a bit too charmed by what those weapons can do'' Muttering in my thoughts, I grasped the familiar texture of the barrier stone a bit tighter before turning my head to the officer to look at him while speaking. "I ran out of weapons that could make a change on the battlefield. I still have some of my personal arms, but frankly speaking, this is not my fight in the first ce." Shaking my arms, I could feel how the edges of the barrier stone dug deep into the flesh of my fingers, almost breaching through the barrier of my skin. But before I could push the topic towards the sacred core changing hands, a sudden feeling overwhelmed all my sense. A feeling of terror. Instantly turning my head towards the source of this strange, mental attack, I saw a silhouette hovering high above the battlefield. While the silhouette was obviously human, two huge, ck triangles to the sides of his upper body quickly ascertained that no one would take that being for a human proper. "So they finallye Well, in the end, it was only a matter of time!" With a devious smile appearing on the officer''s lips, he raised his hand as high as he could. "Archers! Mages!" Shouting up, he somehow managed to transmit his voice loud and clear across the entire battlefield. Noticing the change, the strangely human monster in the skies twitched, before turning its body and diving downwards. By the time the first salvo of projectiles and magic came its way, the being was already rushing forward barely a few meters above the ranks of its monsters. Whenever a hail of arrows was about to pin it to the ground, the winged being would dive directly into its army below, allowing the hideous monsters all around to take a hit for it instead. In this way, before the fourth salvo could be fired, this winged beingnded in the empty spot created by my previous spray. "Who did this?" Looking around at the mass of fallen meat, the handsome face of this angel-like being twisted in surprise. "So you came, centurion. To think that one day I would have the luck to see one right in front of my eyes!" Ignoring the being''s question, the officer that I made a deal with pulled his sword out, clearly intent on charing against this strangely civilised monster. "No, you are not going anywhere." Instead of just watching how the situation would unfold, I instantly rushed to the man. Before his troops could react, I slid below their radar only to kick the front leg of the officer''s horse, snapping it in half. "Wha?!" Instantly starting to jump around in pain, the horse released a pained neigh before falling to the side. With one of the four supports it had suddenly broken, it couldn''t hold its stability for long. As much as the pained whining of the poor animal scarred my heart, that was the only way in which I could stop the man''s charge before it would be toote. "Don''t you even think about it. Not before you fulfil your end of the deal." With three stones in my hand, I stared daggers at the man. Even though I had no idea of the full scope of this winged monster''s ability, it was pretty clear to me that he was way stronger than anything that this officer could take on himself. "If I may, are you the one responsible for this ce?" Noticing the situation, the winged centurion directed its deep eyes towards me. Even though he was dressed in fancy armour and wore an borately decorated sword on his hip, he didn''t exude even a hint of hostile aura. "Responsible? Ah, I just was unlucky enough to be in the wrong ce at the wrong time. But yeah, I have some kind of deal with the guy" pointing my hand at the officer scrambling from underneath the shaking body of its horse, I smiled, "that is unless you can bring me the sacred core faster than he can." There was no need for me to borate on the topic any further. While the winged man before ma was clearly strong, probably way more powerful than me if not taking all the tools I had into ount, I couldn''t really feel any worry. I saw what the recurring stone could do so there was hardly any reason for me to fear anything of this world at all. Or rather, that''s how anyone else in my shoes might think. That''s what anyone reading my ounts once I would be popr enough to have stories written about me might think. Because all those kinds of others, wouldn''t risk their own damned health while standing on this hostilend! "Sacred core? And what use you might have for it?" Clearly intrigued by my revtion, the winged being asked. On the other hand, even the officer that finally managed to get out from underneath its horse looked at me with curiosity. "To be frank, I don''t really have any idea. I''m just tasked with bringing it back when it belongs." As if lightning struck everyone around me when I said those words or not. While I could see that everyone tensed up, it was most likely due to the expectation to hear something great in scale, rather than just some kind of mundane answer I provided them with. But there was one thing that I couldn''t fail to notice. Both the officer and the winged man who clearly stood on opposing sides in the ongoing battle Both of them smiled as if they wished for the core to return where it belonged in the first ce! And then, my vision suddenly shook. Standing still on my legs straightened, it couldn''t be just a random sway of my head. Looking around, I felt a strange force seeping into my mind and start to fry it, as if someone forcefully attempted to change my emotions despite informing me of the attempt beforehand. *Warning. Presence potentially harmful to the system detected.* *Please do not use any system features while the red rm is on* All at once, my vision suddenly darkened. No, after a moment I realised that it just turned so reddish that it appeared to turn dark. And then, another winged beingnded on the ground, right beside me, without even a single sound of doing so. Not a single flutter of its wings, not a single twig snapped under the weight of its body. And then, I felt a coldness on my throat. "Bring back the sacred core where it belongs? And where does it belong in your opinion?" There was no denying it. Somehow, this damned winged being was not only so quick but also so silent, that it managed to put a de to my throat. In such a situation, even erecting a barrier from the stone wouldn''t do me any good, as it would likely envelop both of us at once, enclosing me with this hostile being rather than saving me from it. "Would you believe it if I told you That I honestly have no idea myself?" Chapter 166: Breakthrough (1) Chapter 166: Breakthrough (1) For a moment, both sides just stood in their ces, staring at me as if I was some kind of utter idiot. For a short moment, important figures from both of the opposing forces united in shock caused by my response. "I only need to aplish three things to be happy. First, is to obtain the sacred core. And to be frank," spreading my arms out, I shrugged before locking my eyes on the winged man nearby, "I don''t even have any idea what this core looks like or what it does." In theory, revealing one''s cards just like that was a fatal mistake. By telling the potential enemy what my objective was, I gave both the man and the winged-man a way to easily control me. But in this specific situation, I didn''t really pay it any mind. Whoever would be capable of baiting me with the core, would earn my loyalty. That was the crux of the matter that I openly acknowledged right now. And in such a situation, the side that would offer a greater bid would receive my help. It was that simple. "I don''t know the story behind it, nor am I interested in any permanent reward of sorts. Now, duke it out between yourselves who is willing to pay more." Shrugging once again, I wore a charming smile. "I can wait." In a single moment, the faces of both of the men turned sharp. Their eyes turning into slits, their heads lowering. At the same time, I took a few steps back, helping myself to onefortable stone that just happened to be around. At the same instant, as the two dashed towards me while bearing their weapons, I struck the activator of the recurring barrier stone. This was the first time I dared to use this potential disaster-level stone. Because with firepower, I could somehow manage. But with a stone aiming at separating one ce from another while reaching the limits of what the fabric of the world could withhold I was risking quite a lot. In fact, if not for the failsafe of the system, I wouldn''t be as daring. The attack came. shing from above his head, the human officer didn''t hold back at all. But right before his sword-sh could connect, a powerful fist threatened to crush me whole. Thankfully, two of the normal barriers that I erected managed to slow down the attack for a short moment. Yet, on the other hand, that moment was long enough for the recurring stone to reach the breaking points of its inner structure. Sssssss It sounded as if all the air suddenly escaped from the balloon known as the universe. At the same time, my vision suddenly waned. No. It wasn''t my eyes ying tricks on me. It was the real world suddenly growing apart, separated from a tiny sphere I stood in by abyssal darkness. The darkness that kept on growing. Knowing the way the other recurring stones worked, I quickly made use of the opportunity. Pulling my backpack on my chest, I quickly scavenged for the most suitable tools. After all, I wasn''t anywhere close to giving up! By the time the outside of a small sphere around me disappearedpletely, I already armed a set of three stones in each of my hands, with my veryst gun hanging from my neck. And as expected, this strange separation quickly came to an end. As if it was my sphere moving at a suddenly increasing speed, the darkness started to shrink. Soon, a tiny dot of light grew to the size of a star, then sun, then As ifing up from the depths of a well, I was speeding towards the light of the rest of the world. And then the barrier snapped. It wasn''t broken. Just from how primal and fundamental the forces that stood behind the event were, it was clear that no human could wield such an enormous power to break through this barrier. Because from what I saw, it wasn''t a barrier at all. It was a damned rift in the fabric of the fucking world! With this thought appearing in my mind, the insides of my head suddenly spun. A sudden burst of terror overwhelmed my entire self, just as the reality snapped back to its natural state, releasing a tremendous force. At first, a low tremor announced the beginning of the disaster. Humans and monsters alike, everything stopped. Even the heroic figures from both sides ceased their fighting. Then, the impact of the disaster finally exploded outwards into the physical world. If my random guess was right, then what I just caused was akin to a nuclear bomb if not far worse. Because for a moment, my barrier created a vortex in the space that was so powerful, that it managed to rip this piece of space away from the rest! And now that this force rebounded through the ground, it seemed as if the entire in on which the battle took ce wiggled. Then, the first anomaly appeared. It only swallowed a circle roughly two meters in diameter. Enveloping the cursed location with a bright light, the explosion of magic energy would create a disorder in the fabric of the space, turning even ground into ragged hell. A few momentster, more and more anomalies started to appear, as the rampart mana followed its natural rules. "Thinking about this" The constant anomalies drew my attention. It was a while since I attempted to strengthen myself directly instead of relying on some foreign tools. As powerful as those stones were, their might wasn''t a force that I could call mine. And the energy that nearly made the air vibrate was a perfect fit for my long-forgotten cultivation! As the forces of both sides couldn''t do anything against the disaster outside of covering in fear, I suddenly inhaled the air before slowly exhaling it out. Calming myself down, I focused on the techniques that Pavlopiled for me a few days in the past. Following the instructions, I visualised the paths within my body. Paths, that my energy used to flow. Then, as if trying to squeeze a shit out of my arsehole, I tensed all up. And in the instant I rxed, the energy in the air came pouring into my pores. Instantly feeling me with the raging inferno of pure might, the mana alone instantly started to burn my body away. *Host''s body critically injured, forced exit in three, two* Noticing the sh of the system''s notification amidst the ocean of endless pain, I only managed to do one thing. "Stop! I can hold!" My lips didn''t part. My voice didn''te out. Nevertheless, the system registered my thoughts. As the mana continued to burn my body from inside, I felt as if the pain managed to reach the nerves that I never knew I had. At this point, my body, my soul and my mind were all burning in hellish pain. Yet, this pain allowed me to finally feel the soul traces within my body. The very paths that I was focused on, turned out to be the fabric of my soul, now fully coated with mind-numbing pain. But then, the horror came to an end. Managing to clutch a few seconds of rity, I finally made use of my entire potential. Invoking a picture of Ayda running towards me with a carefree smile during one of the very few trips we made, I felt the energy within me suddenly changing the way it acted. For a moment, this unstoppable force was fully shackled, following the ordained path despite the natural resistance to the change of directions. And then, everything jerked back, leaving my body in pristine condition, slowly ustoming itself to the insane load of energy in the air. "So that''s how it is" Invoking this simple picture was most likely what saved me. In the end, whether it was the magic of the stones or the magic of the witches, it was still magic altogether. Meaning, even if I couldn''t handle the burden of such power as a cultivator, I could easily solve its aftereffects as a true mage! "Let''s see how far I can take it then!" Suddenly rejuvenated by the glorious idea, I looked at my hands. The power within me still didn''t manage to properly settle in my body, yet it was already raging to get tested. Holding the shine in my fist back, I calmed my mind before taking yet another breath. From just a single look, I could tell that this sudden influx of energy not only managed to purify my body, not only forcefully made my cultivation soar, it even added more depth to it, now that I could properly feel all parts of my self. But it wasn''t enough. Given the situation, I was hellbent on milking the opportunity in this situation to its maximum. Heck, if I could improve just like that, I wouldn''t mind devastating some abandoned continent with all the recurring stones that Sander still had in stock! Taking a step forward, I enjoyed the breeze of the energy on my cheek before spreading the arms and repeating the process. Once again, the wild energy of the disaster poured into my body, setting it alight. Once again, my mind was overwhelmed by an endless ocean of pain. Once again, I felt as if I could lose myself in the torture. But ultimately, I prevailed. Prevailed and even managed to assimte most of the energy in the process! And as soon as I opened my eyes, I saw that the disaster finally came to an end, with my parasitic action sucking a huge chunk of its innate energy. Chapter 167: New Recuring Stone Chapter 167: New Recuring Stone "You" The first thing that I noticed as the area around me came to a halt, was the devastated body of that winged figure. With his wings torn away by the sheer force of the stwave initially created by the reality copsing back to its natural state, unable to stay midair, the man copsed to the ground, only for half of his arm to be swallowed by one of the anomalies before I could stop them. "Yeah, yeah, I''m me." Ignoring the weak sounds of the lethally injured monster, I moved my eyes towards the human officer I made a deal with previously. Or rather, what was left of his body after the reality copsed right through his flesh. No matter how long I wasted on looking around, I could only locate about a third of his body parts, judging them on nothing but the pieces of cloth covering them. Thanks to the guy being an officer, in the direct proximity of my earlier position there were scarcely any other officers, making the task of collecting his remains a far easier one than looking for someone''s specific body parts in a literal mountain of flesh. Not that I was interested in burying those people or monsters either way. Taking a look around, I could see that with the disaster now over, both armies rushed all the way back to killing each other with more traditional methods. In fact, only my spot was still safe from the battlefield due to the huge range of the disaster and bloody reaping it ran through anyone outside of my recurring barrier. "I guess I need to find that holder of the core myself." No matter how much I looked around the ce, the head of the officer was nowhere to be found. With the only link that connected me to the current owner of the core, it appeared I only had a brute-force way of obtaining what I needed. "Y-you" Speaking up with utmost trouble once again, the formerly winged man sent me a hateful look. Yet outside of hate, there was a strange strand of hope in his eyes. "Yes, me. What do you want?" Paying due respects to this man''s resilience given how nearly half of his body was now gone and he still managed to speak, I could see the light fading away in his eyes. "No, not like that. You are not free to die yet, now that you piqued my curiosity!" While I had no idea whether it would work or not, I approached the man before cing my hand on him. With the energy from my consecutive breakthroughs, pumping his veins full of my own magic was the only way to keep him alive for the moment. After all,pared to earth, the inhabitants of this world clearly used the magic for a long time to be able to create the hideous monsters they put up at the front of their lines. "AAGH!" Once my sweet energy started to flow down the fractured spine of the dying monster, I could see a strange shine entering his pupils. As if he was high on some drugs, the man even attempted to stand up with the help of his single limb remaining, but theck of legs that he lost in another anomaly made it quite difficult for him. "You, you wanted to say something. You was trying so hard, that I decided to keep you alive for long enough so that you can tell what you wanted. Now," Looking down at the suddenly energetic body of the winged man, Sebian couldn''t even smile. "Use this opportunity or go and curse me all you wish. I came with an offer of a deal, but you decided it would be better to just kill me on the spot, so it''s not like I can find any faults in what I did either." Shrugging my eyes, I waited for a moment before releasing a deep sigh and straightening my knees. But just as I was about to leave the man to bleed out to his death properly, his faint voice sounded once again. "Wait" After fighting with myself in my thoughts, I ultimately decided to follow this one request. Casting a quick nce at the approaching armies of both sides, keen on filling the gap that appeared in their lines, I sighed once again. Before long, I would have to move away, or I would find myself stuck between two great armies once again! "Wait The sacred core" Finally starting to speak some sense, the formerly winged man managed to attract my attention right as I was about to leave. "You cannot get it back to where it should go." Cough. "It will spell the doom to this world. So please" The man didn''t manage to finish his sentence. Even filling the man''s veins with my magic only managed to stall the inevitable. With his entire torso ending with a long, circr-cut where his crotch should be, it was a wonder that this particr monster managed to actually hold for so long! "Well, it seems like I have no other choice but to be a rider of the apocalypse, then." Looking down at the lifeless remains of the tough monster, I felt a shiver moving down my spine. Rising my head a bit, I could see the details on the approaching wave of monsters. There was no time for me to waste here any longer. Still holding to the stones I equipped back before the barrier copsed, I turned towards the human army, before activating two of the heavy-hitting stones of mine. One of which was just a simple fireball. Consisting of fouryers, it brought the magic in its rtively pure form before condensing and then igniting the air at the set distance. Activating it, instantly turned a long line of empty air into a suddenly appearing sea of mes, scorching a good amount of human soldiers before they could reach my position. But it was the other stone that actually managed to achieve the results I sought for. It wasn''t a recurring stone in a full sense of it. Heeding my advice, Sander put a serious stop to this branch of the stone development, wary of my warnings. Thus, instead of using an entire thing to constantly empower itself to the point of shattering the limits set by the universe itself, this new stone of mine actually only had a single recurring path. Without the proper fueling stone, it could hardly be activated. Only by inserting a huge chunk of my own energy into the stone first, I was capable of activating it. In fact, if not for my recent rise in cultivation, procuring such a huge amount of energy capable of kickstarting this stone would require me to use yet another stone before dabbling in the energy of the phenomena it would invoke. But now, I managed to activate the stone just like that. And as expected, nothing happened at first. Right as the armies closed in once again, the recurring stone within the small construction finally managed to reach its limit. And only once its own energy started to diffuse into the air once its structure failed to hold the exponentially growing mana, the rest of the detailed construction came to life. At first, the firstyer. ording to Sander''s own words, it was mostly responsible for shaping the wild magic into the proper form, allowing for its further modelling. Only once the mana would actually pass through the secondyer of the stone, any phenomena would start appearing. In this particr stone, Sebian openly imed not to dare using the moreplicated schematics from the stone carving manual from Ayda''s world. As such, rather than making the magic do several things at once, the grand spell could only stack its effects one on one. The air filled with the dense fog of mana. Then, the energy within the stone coursed through the thirdyer, turning the mana in the air into fuel for the fire that followed as soon as the fourthyer of the stone activated. But the entire might of this peculiar item came to be when itsst, fifthyer filled with magic energy. Thisyer was the only one that used the stacked schematics idea, turning all the leftover magic in the air into a powerful current that instantly spun the masses of air into a circr motion, inviting a fresh supply of oxygen to a huge area covered by the fires from this damned stone! Once fully activated, the effects of the stones started merging. There was no longer any mana in the air, preventing anyone inside another disaster from using it to fend off the attack. The fire continued to burn through the fresh servings of its fuel from the stone, scorching anyone who was unlucky enough to appear in its path. Andstly, the fire tornado that turned the scene even more chaotic, moved exactly ording to where I wished to send it! Stuck between two armies, I didn''t really need to think about the destination of the fiery whirlpool of air and mes. Once a huge chunk of the human army turned into ash, stopping the human soldiers from doing me any harm, I turned around before sending the burning hurricane right in the many faces of the approaching mutants. Just in time. Once the wave of fire reached this hideous opponent of mine, I was almost forced to use a barrier stone to fend off the iing attacks. Thankfully, the brutal and unforgiving help of the fire appeared right on time, allowing me to save this precious stone from going to waste on the battlefield. And then, there were hardly any monsters capable of even reaching me, leaving my thoughts alone to deal with my current problem. "Just how the heck am I supposed to find the prince now?!" Chapter 168: The Prince Chapter 168: The Prince In the end, the only way that I could think off belonged to a rather brutal approach. Propelling myself to the air with my newfound force born of my improved cultivation, I would scan the entire area for any signs of propermanding. Once a unit that was clearly lead by some capable officer appeared in my line of sight, I would drop right in the middle of it. Pointing my hand towards the heart of the mass destruction that I caused before, I would ask any random soldier whether the prince holding the sacred core was nearby. And as brutal and merciless as it was, if the answer wouldn''t satisfy me, I would unleash several attacks from the normal magic stones before jumping high into the air again and repeating the entire process. Be it my own hopeing to fruition or the human side realising that this disaster they didn''t expect would continue to happen if they didn''t do something before I could ask my question for the fifth time, a small unit detached from the rest of the army, rushing towards the backline only to stop several meters behind the back row of the army. "Could it be" While the entire entourage wore beautifully decorated armours, it was the presence of a man in the middle that alerted me. Even though I never met him before, there was something to his innate aura, one that every living being had around itself, that made it clear that he was the person I was looking for. With the periapsis of my jump reached, my body started to fall towards the ground once again. Using the repulsion directly against the ground, I managed to slow my descent to a manageable speed, before softlynding just a few steps away from the expensively armed group. "Who the hell are you, and why are you killing our people?" Gently tickling the sides of his horse with his heels, the same man that I noticed while in the skies pressed forward. Even though his question was heavy, there was no hint of anger in his voice. Only confusion. "You guys betrayed me. I made a deal with one of your officers that if I help him to conquer one of the hills, I would get the sacred core in return." Seeing that the man appeared to be someone capable of at least talking before pulling the swords out and shing with me, I decided to be honest. In the end, even if he was the man that I was looking for and he would fervently deny all my ims to his possession, I couldn''t help but feel like if no matter how powerful an opponent would be in this world, they would be no match for my newly found power! "And?" Clearly noticing that it wasn''t the end of my story, the prince squinted his eyes. Just from this inner sense of his, I could tell that he wasn''t a prince in name only, but a true leader of the human armies on the field. "Once I did my part of the deal, we were approached by one of those ck-wing monsters. At first, we talked normally" Shaking my head in a sign of helplessness, I then directed my cold eyes towards the prince''s face. "But then, for some strange reason, both one of your officers and one of your enemies joined hands and attempted to im my life." Spreading my arms as if I wanted to tell with my body that I was out of options back there, I finished. "And that''s how the first disaster appeared on the battlefield. Everything past that was just my attempt at finding you, the prince who I assume owns the sacred core so that I can im my reward." There was no hostility in my voice, actions or face. I didn''t know whether the entire trouble was caused by some kind of mind-boggling ability of those monsters to brainwash the humans they met, ipetence of the officer himself or some kind of greater scheme behind it all. For all I knew, the prince before me could be the most capable, kind and loyal person in all of the worlds I visited so far. After everything I went through, I simply refused to judge people based on the limited set of factors I knew off. Just like I didn''t treat Martha as the one responsible for the deaths of my parents, I wasn''t going to treat this prince as if he was at fault for his subordinate''s mistakes! "If I may ask, what do you need this sacred core for?" Reaching out to the bags attached to his saddle, the prince pulled out a small, yellowish stone before unting it into my eyes. But while he was most likely trying to provoke a reaction from me, he could very well pull out his sack and call it the sacred core. Doing so would have way greater chances at forcing a reaction out of me! "I don''t think this is your business, prince." Shaking my head, I initially wanted to withhold the information, before a certain thought struck my mind. "To be perfectly honest, I don''t have any idea. I just need to get it back where it belongs." This time, my answer only resulted in the prince squinting his eyes once again, before releasing a long, defeated sigh. Gently throwing the stone up only to catch it as it would start to fall, the man looked at me with a concerned expression. "Since you decided to be honest with me, I will be honest with you as well." Sighing again, the prince moved his leg above the back of his horse before jumping to the ground. Keeping his hands away from his belt where his sword was attached, he stopped just a few steps away from me. "This core" a sign of hesitation appeared in the prince''s eyes before a third sigh left his lungs. "It''s nothing but a trinket for me. But since you seem to value it, let''s make another deal." Lowering the hand he held the sacred core with, the prince pointed his other hand at the two armies wrestling it out just a few hundred steps away from us. "I''m not going to tell you to win this battle for us. But given how you killed quite a lot of my soldiers, I cannot ept the former deal you made with one of my officers." Shaking his head, the man looked at the stone in his hand once again, before suddenly throwing it towards me. Unprepared for this kind of development, I barely managed to catch it, before looking at the prince in surprise. "I can tell whether someone is lying or not. As such, I know that what you said about the recent events is true. But even though it was my subordinate''s fault when he attacked you, you still killed soldiers that had absolutely nothing to do with the entire matter at hand." ced in this situation, I pulled all my stops. But even when I attempted to read the man''s emotional aura, I was faced with the very same void that I saw in Ayda and others when we were back in her world. And from this, a simple conclusion could be drawn. At a certain level, people appeared to be able to protect their thoughts from witchcraft tricks! But that didn''t mean I waspletely powerless. Given how the man already passed what he imed to be the core I was looking for to me, I only needed to take a look at my system to see whether my quest progressed. And surely enough, besides the line requesting me to obtain the sacred core, a yellow tick appeared, turning the bold line within the quest to finding its true destination. Which by itself, appeared to be way more challenging than obtaining this stone in the first ce! "Well, since you gave me what I wanted, I''m willing to listen to your request." Nodding my head before storing the core in my backpack, I looked expectantly at the prince. "While I can''t tell how many soldiers of mine you have killed, I can tell that it wasn''t actually a lot. As such, what I expect you to do, is to kill at least as many if not more mutant monsters before leaving this ce." There was no way for someone of this calibre to miss the look of excitement that shed through my face when I received the stone. And he was just as quick to follow up his passing of the stone with the request associated with it. "Well, from what I saw, you still require several soldiers to kill just a single mutant, am I wrong?" Looking mischievously at the prince, I felt my lips twitching a bit when his expression soured once he heard my words. But before he could reply, I nodded my head before turning my sight towards the ongoing battle nearby. "Since I might need your help to find where this stone should go, I won''t really mind the details now." Pulling out the second recurring barrier stone, I looked at it for a moment, before hiding it back in its box and then to the backpack. Given how it was greatly disturbing the very fabric of the world, I didn''t want to risk using it so quickly and so close to where it acted before. After all, if I killed even more humans, wouldn''t that mean going against the prince''s request? "I would be honoured to be of service, then." From the tense expression on the prince''s face, I could tell that he didn''t really dare to trust my words. Thankfully, there was a simple way to prove his worries wrong. So, with a smile on my face, I pulled the same recurring stone that I used to destroy the wizard''s camp back in Ayda''s world. "Let me prove that working with me generally tends to be a better choice than working against me then." Chapter 169: I dont want to claim your life Chapter 169: I don''t want to im your life This time, I was perfectly aware of what the stone in my hand would do. Given the few times I used it already, I was slowly getting used to the sight ofplete and utter devastation. What''s more, what I would be aiming this deadly weapon at wouldn''t be fellow humans, but some kind of hideous monsters, making the activation far easier on my broken morals. "Now then, do you have any specific requests for the ce where you want me to massacre your enemies?" Rising my head at the prince, I could see a tingle of surprise appearing in his eyes, only to disappear right away, hidden behind a cold and expressionless face of the noble. "I know that was your previous deal, but it doesn''t matter now. As long as you will be able to put a dent in their lines, my soldiers will be able to explore the gap." Shaking his head in denial, the prince ultimately gave up on my offer. "Since that''s the case, then I will pick the ce at random." Shaking my shoulders without a care in the world, I jumped before using the repulsion against the ground below me. Thanks to the third Newtonianw of dynamics, my body was repelled from the ground with the same force I was using against it, allowing me to glide through the air above the heads of the soldiers crowded in their ranks. If anyone were to take my ce, they would be worried about joining the battle. As the saying went, in a battle, an archer shoots, but God guides the arrows. In other words, even with all sorts of armours, weapons, barriers and tricks, all it would take was a single stray arrow or attack to put even the greatest hero to his death. But for me, it was hardly the case. With three barriers from the stones surrounding me at all times and the recurring barrier stone always within my reach, unless someone would be capable of sting through all my defences and still dealing fatal damage to me, nothing could really stop me. Yet, myck of worries wasn''t a sign of carelessness. Gliding through the air, I exposed myself as a pretty easy target for any form of ranged attacks. And as expected, before I even reached the area where two opposing forces continued to sh, a flurry of arrows, pebbles, huge stones and even magic attacks came my way, only to shatter when hitting the first of my barriers. "You better not move any further." Suddenly, another winged person appeared before me. This time, not only was it a female rather than a male, but her wings alsocked the ck colour, covered in a dark grey instead. "I don''t know who you are and why are you here, but if you don''t stop, I will have no choice but to kill you." Slowing down my momentum to the point where I hung still in the air, I sent a taxing nce towards the flying being. While it was already my second time seeing someone of this strange race, given how I didn''t pay any mind to look properly at the previous winged man that I killed with my barrier, only now I could let my curiosity run free. "Tell, are those wings transnted, or were you born with them?" Not making anything out of the female''s threats, I recovered my momentum, once again creeping closer to the area I designated to start my bloodshed. "What?" Taken by surprise by my sudden question, the female failed to react in time to my movement. By the time she managed to recover her focus, I was already several steps behind her back, not paying her any further attention. "You fucker! I will kill you!" Up to this point, I dared to act sexist. If it was a man threatening me, I would simply p him to death Or not. The real reason why I didn''t kill the girl right away, was because I wasn''t confident in my normal strength at all. It was true that I managed to use the lingering force of the disaster to bring my cultivation way higher than it used to be. But the problem was, I couldn''t even gauge or test how powerful those breakthroughs turned my body to be. While I could vaguely feel that I broke through some major barrier, making it pretty hard to reject the notion I reached the second stage of the cultivation, it didn''t mean shit to me. I saw my fellow eartherners who reached the second stage, but when faced with all the means at my disposal, they would simply turn powerless. There was a chance that the stones Sander created were simply too potent, making it nearly impossible for anyone outside of just the cream of the top of cultivation world to challenge their might. There was also a chance that reaching the second stage of cultivation didn''t actually increase one''s power by all that much. And even though there were enemies I could test my skills freely all around Doing so would require me to take my barriers down and join the fight along with other soldiers. In other words, as great as an opportunity to gauge my newfound strength this battle was, doing so would be just too risky for me to even consider doing it. "Can you stop bbering around? I''m not interested in you, begone." Hearing the constant shouts of the girl frantically chasing after me, I barely managed to hold a chuckle. Given how I was constantly using a small amount of repulsion to keep myself up in the air, I could hardly see her as anything but an annoyance, even though her features would easily give her a spot in a beauty contest back on earth. "bbering?!" Hearing the shocked phrase of the girl, I gently turned my head to the back, only to see her rooted in ce, with only her wings constantly pping to keep her midair. "You are bbering! Your entire family is bbering!" Maybe it was that she was truly infuriated or maybe the redness that appeared on her cheeks was as visible due to her otherwise pale skin. But for some reason, seeing her act so childishly right above the ongoing mayhem of war, managed to catch me off guard. "Well, not going to deny it." With my desired location reached, I changed the vector of my repulsion from up and forward, to up and backwards. Right now, rather than bothering the human soldiers with a strange force pressing them down to the ground, my float started to annoy the mutants instead. "My entire family is known from talking way too much." Cutting the discussion, I reached to one of my pockets before pulling out the familiar stone. "I wonder how big will the explosion be this time" ording to the further exnation that I received from Sander just yesterday, this disaster-summoning stone didn''t have any power storage within its structure. Rather than using a saved-up fuel, it was constructed in a way that sucked all the avable energy from the surroundings. On earth, it worked. Between the time I returned from Ayda''s world and before I moved to a new world altogether, Sander apparently took a one-day trip to the single desert that existed in the entire country just to see the effects of those stones with his very own eyes. In Ayda''s world, it worked, but it seemed to have way greater effects. That meant, the amount of energy in the air, varied between worlds. And given how I only managed to observe the situation when activating the recurring barrier stone, I have yet to actually learn just how dense magic was in this particr world. "What the hell are you talking about?" Finally calming herself to the point where she was able to actually glide through the air forward, the girl returned to her ce between me and the direction the mutant army came from. "Didn''t I just say it? I''m just bbering nonsense." Ignoring the girl''s attempts at sounding me off, I aimed the stone directly towards her. There was no hate for what I did. She just happened to be the exact direction I had to fire the disaster to im as many monsters as possible. "Seems like that''s the case. Or do you really think that waving this fancy stone around will scare me away?" Even though the female''s words appeared to be confident, I didn''t even need to use the tiniest shred of my witch abilities to notice the hints of fear appearing on the girl''s face. At this point, I couldn''t really tell. Did she see the earlier results of my actions? Or maybe she was just scared of the unknown? But no matter what, no matter how much she was trash-talking me, she has yet to even draw a sword at me. So far, she limited herself to just speaking. And that made me reluctant to just st her out of existence. "Argh How annoying.." Shaking my head in anger directed directly at myself, I then looked towards the girl with a cold expression on my face. As annoying as it was, it was pretty damn hard to just kill someone I already managed to talk with. It would be a different matter altogether if she attacked me. Just like the winged man from before, I wouldn''t have any qualms at disposing of her. But now? She just talked to me in a way I would expect my teammates to write on the chat while ying some online game. And it wasn''t something I would actually kill someone for! "Do me a favour and move aside, please." Shaking my head to get rid of all the doubts, I looked at the girl before shaking my stone-wielding hand. "Since you have yet to attack me, I don''t really want to im your life for no apparent reason." Chapter 170: I will have you return the sacred core! Chapter 170: I will have you return the sacred core! It was hard to tell whether the girl followed my words out of fear or due to some other reasons. But it wasn''t hard to activate the recurring stone in my hand as soon as she slipped outside of its effective range. Once again, after a few moments of charging, a slight tremor exploded outwards from the stone. At first, nothing seemed to have happened. That is if one didn''t count how everyone in the area affected by theing disaster suddenly froze in ce. It seemed that both humans and those mutants were capable of sensing the death looming over their heads. But there wasn''t anything that any of those future victims could do. Then, the disaster came. The air cracking under the force of the magical energy riling up. Exploding outwards from the stone, the mana resurgence travelled forward in a cone. As if the air of the ce was filled with tiny amounts of gunpowder, a spiritual spark, and then nothing. Contrary to what happened back in Ayda''s world, the disaster didn''t fire off all at once. Here, it took way longer to charge after actually being discharged, as if the density of the magic in the air was far greater, slowing the entire reaction down. Then, with a force way greater than back when I first used it, the reality started to break. Instead of just introducing chaos into every orderly thing within its area of effects,pletely changing the physical structure of all the matter within its sphere of influence, it now broke the reality itself. For a moment, I could see the images that the human brain simply couldn''t process. For a moment, time, matter, space and all the other elemental foundations of the universe mixed up, no longer hidden in their natural form. With the time mixing with the matter, with space taking ce of void and void recing the space, the sight before my eyes turned insane. As if it wanted to turn anyone daring to look at it insane as well. But as beautiful as it was, it quickly came to an end. Most likely due to the overwhelmingly greater pressure of the mana outside of its area of effect, as soon as the initial outburst of chaos was over, everything within the affected area of reality crumbled into dust, before the natural force of the world patched the scar on its face. In front of me, a cone of dust remained. With all the matter inside the ce turned into dark dust, a huge valley of emptiness appeared amidst the monster''s ranks. "Wha" Hovering in the air just outside of the area affected by the disaster, the female birdie trembled in fear. Her face no longer as arrogant as it was before, with all the self-pride reced by nothing else but the raw, primal form of fear. A fear that stripped one out of all the falsehood, all the pretence, all the masks. A fear that forced its recipients to face the ultimate truth of the world they lived in. "Great, now I''m done." Turning my head around, I cast a quick nce at the general area where the prince should be. After a few moments of scanning through the colours, I finally met the eyes of the man, only to receive a reluctant nod of his head. "Wait, what do you mean?!" The winged girl proved that she was quite capable by oveing her fear at such short notice. "You are just going to leave? After what you did?!" Slightly leaning my head to the side, I sent the girl a calm smile, before changing the vector of my repulsion once again. "Wait! I will kill you!" Finally recalling how I appeared to be her enemy given how I just devastated a huge chunk of the army she was fighting along with, the girl attempted tosh at me Only for the sword to drop out of her terrified hand. "I''m supposed to wait for you to kill me? Wait for you because you need to kill me? Can''t you be a bit more precise?" Throwing those few words to the girl in the back, I didn''t bother changing the vector of my witchcraft again. As such, by the time the winged girl managed to recover from my words, she had to p her wings a few times before she managed to catch up to me. "Where do you think you are going! Or rather" Taking a moment, the girl clearly hesitated. Then, she finally revealed what was bugging her. "Why did you spare me?" With my attention brought to the topic, I genuinely had no answer for that. Momentary mercy? Being drunk on the power to decide who gets to live and who gets to live? The fact that outside of the wings, she appeared to be quite cute? Or maybe just something that I decided on in the spin of a moment? Unable to answer the question, I decided to just ignore it. But no matter how close we got to the ranks of the humans, the girl followed me, insisting on getting my answer. From how her body was trembling, it was clear that she was in a state of constant fear, yet even despite that, she continued to press forward. "Aren''t you worried they will kill you?" Pointing my hand at the soldiers below, I asked. Even if I spared the girl, she shouldn''t be naive enough to think I would go out of my way to protect her. Then, I understood. It wasn''t as if I wanted to kill her or anything. Given how it didn''t matter who would be the one dying from my hand, it was just easier on my mind to spare someone I already exchanged a few words with! That was all there was to it. And as little as others would care for such a topic, given how broken emotionally I was after the incident with that female general of the wizards, I preferred to ensure my mental state was stable at all times. "They? Don''t make meugh. There is at most five warriors in the entire low-human race that can threaten me." Shaking her shoulders while answering, the girl momentarilypromised her ability to fly when her wings followed the move of her back muscles. With a few desperate ps of her huge, white wings, the girl regained her stability mid-air, before looking at me and blushing. "The better question is, why didn''t you kill me?" Bringing my attention back to the topic I already dropped, the girl somehow managed to annoy me. "Because I didn''t felt like it. Are you happy now?" Shaking my head to get rid of the useless thoughts, I sped my glide up. The faster I would go back to the prince, the sooner I would start looking for the ce where this sacred core I received earlier should go. "Happy? What kind of a soldier you are to just spare your damned enemies! How can you be so cruel to let me live after devastating so many friends of mine!" Shouting out loud, the girl finally managed to make me stop. Forced by her outburst into a stop, I reversed the vector of my repulsion beforeing to a full stop. With the prince already within my sight even without straining my eyes, I didn''t want to risk bringing one of his powerful enemies towards him. "Your way of thinking is wrong." Pushing my body towards the girl, I sent a light yet sharp p to her face. Given how there was absolutely no hostility behind this attack, it was given that the girl failed to react to it in time. Seeing that she brought her hand to her cheek more in a surprise rather than in pain, I exined. "Rather than despairing over the loss, you should rejoice that you are left alive. There is no meaning to life. We are the ones that make our lives matter something." Spinning around in my axis as if simple shaking my head was enough to get the philosophical spirit out of my head. "Right now, it''s your job to give meaning to the colleagues and brothers in arms that you have lost. As for me," Suddenly stopping, I actually met a mental wall. What should I say next? What was the thought that suddenly spiralled out of control? And what was this feeling of something strange happening to my mind, as if a foreign entity was taking over it? "Consider me a natural disaster. I have no personal interest in killing you or your people. Not anymore." Pulling out the sacred core from my pocket, I shed it towards the girl as if in an attempt to exin my rationale. "With this, I only need to have a talk with someone in charge here before" I didn''t even get to finish my sentence. When the girlid her eyes on the slightly shiny surface of the yellowish stone that my system epted as a sacred core, her face suddenly tensed. The fear that slowly faded away as we continued our conversation returned with full force. Yet despite that, the girl still forced herself to pull her sword out with a face signifying she resigned herself to death. "I will have you return the sacred core right now!" Chapter 171: Female General Chapter 171: Female General "Do you really think that I will give it to you? After doing so much to obtain it?" Taking a look at the girl flying just right behind me, I almost fell down to the ground due to the shock making it a bit harder to control my repulsion. "I don''t care what you did for it, but you will return it to me now." This time, there was no fake bravado behind the girl''s words. Just an ultimate dedication and determination. Without any further ado, the girl rushed forward. ng! Her sword bounced away when stumbling into the outer barrier or mine. As much as I treated this girl in particr as some kind of a naive goofball, seeing how cracks appeared on one of the three barriers I had erected around myself, I had no other choice but to acknowledge her strength. After all, even the man with the ck wings from before was incapable of shattering my shield as quickly! Poof. As if some kind of the second wave of invisible attack struck the shield right after the physical part of the attack, the barrier shattered before the girl even managed to push for another attack. "Huh?" More surprised rather than scared by the disy of the girl''s strength, I instantly regained control over my repulsion, mming myself through the mass of air away from the girl. Given how she had wings, there was no way for me to defeat her in aerialbat. With my barriers already proven to be only slightly effective, I wasn''t naive enough to believe I could challenge the girl in her natural state when for me, flying was still just a quirk! "GIVE IT BACK!" Shouting from the bottom of her lungs, the girl''s face lost all signs of sanity, reced with sheer wrath. pping her majestic wings once, the girl lunged downwards after me, wrapping her entire body with her wings as if to make it more aerodynamic. "No way." I wasn''t a hero nor was I someone who would bother with prolonged yetpletely unnecessary fights. That''s why, instead of standing up to this girl, I simply continued to retreat, pulling out yet another barrier stone of mine. After all, I wasn''t all that safe with just two barriers separating me from harm''s way. Given how this girl was already capable of shattering a single barrier with a single hit of hers, I dared not to risk being unprepared if someone even stronger than her were to appear! m. There was no grace to mynding. With my body crashing right into the arms of metal-d human soldiers, my freshly erected barrier shattered when countless pricks of their armours and weapons instantly pushed into the field of the barrier. Thankfully, mynding was still ratherfortable whenpared to what that damned wingedss did. Spreading her wings in the veryst moment, she allowed the shockwave of the mass of air being suddenly pressed at the men below to secure hernding. By the time her feet touched the ground, no man was standing on his feet anywhere around her. "So you took the fight to the ground? Smart choice, I have to say." Given how I refused to fight her, the rage in the girl''s voice somehow subsided. While the determination if not desperation in her eyes was still present, she was at least calm enough to continue our little talk. Even if it would happen in the midsts of fighting. "To the ground?" Hearing the girl''s words I realised that her mind was too heated to realise the actual reason for my descent. Shaking my head with pity, I spread out my arms as if to point at everything and everyone that surrounded the girl. "No, I took a fight to where my allies are." The girl''s initial descent managed to clear thending area for her from all the hostile elements. But this shockwave was only capable of pushing them off their feet. Rather than being a battle technique capable of seriously hurting someone, it was nothing more than clever use of thew of physics, thew of physics that this girl wasn''t necessarily even aware of. But be it as it may, the moment of peace that this trick of her bought, was now over. With men standing to their feet and instantly rushing towards the danger, I no longer had to bother with the winged female. Before she could even execute a single attack more, a flurry of enraged human soldiers surrounded her, instantly forcing her back a few steps. "I would run if I were in your shoes. No matter how powerful you are, you cannot win against the swarm of enemies like that." Shaking my shoulders, I giggled. "And it won''t end anytime soon, no matter how many you will kill." Gracing the tirelessly fighting girl with a charming smile, I added. "After all, you are in the very middle of the entire human army!" Instead of scoffing at my words, the girl shed to the side, using her attack to redirect one of the swords aiming for her wings, before violently swapping this additional bodily element of hers, pushing two other enemies. "Human army? We are the true humans!" Screaming with desperation, the girl turned around her own axis, using the drag of the air to once again knock thebatants nearest to her away, before pping them once and rising to the air. There, most of the human weapons could no longer reach her, whilst the archers of the human army were just too busy with the entire mass of the mutants at the front to spare any attention to this random enemy crazy enough to charge right into the middle of their ranks. "Seriously, I don''t really care." Shouting to the girl before putting a wide smile on my face, I exined for some strange reason. "I''m not a human of this world, so it doesn''t matter to me at all." Turning my back to the girl, I forced my way through the ranks. Even though the girl seemed to give up chasing after me for now, as soon as I would enter the flying mode once again, she was bound toe at me once again. What was even more dangerous, this little scuffle of her was bound to catch the attention of her ownmander, making it quite a risk to ascend to the skies right now, as I couldn''t tell whether a rescue party wasing for the girl or not. And if she was capable of destroying Sander''s barrier stone with just a single hit, I dared not face an entire unitpromised of people as strong if not stronger than her! At first, theck of the girl''s voice made me feel strange, but given how I managed to return to the prince''s side rtively soon, the prospect of fulfilling the quest for this world made me too agitated to care about such little things. In the end, after what Ayda made me do to that female general of her world, made it quite hard for me to even talk normally with the girls. While I held this strange, innate repulsion buried deep within my heart, there was no denying that whenever I spoke with a female of any sort, the unpleasant memories of what cannot be called any other way than rape resurfaced in my mind, making me disgusted in my very own self. "I knew it was necessary but still" For Ayda, it was most likely just the matter of allowing another pussy to coat my cock. I could tell even without asking that she didn''t care about that tyrant female at all, unbothered even if she were to be gang-raped by a bunch of orc-like monsters from a random world. But for me, born and educated in a society that actually put a huge emphasis on how devastating such an act is, I felt as if a huge part of my soul was tainted, resulting in the problem that started to recently gue me. Thankfully, as I walked towards the prince, I no longer had the spare processing power in my mind to think about moral problems like that. Focusing my attention on the man in front, I could see how his eyes squinted when he saw me emerge from between his soldiers. "I finished the task. I hope you are satisfied with the effects." Dressing a carefree smile on my lips, I reported to the prince. "I understand. That is, there is still one thing that confuses me." Staring daggers down at my face, the prince''s face tensed up when he realised something. "Actually, two questions. First, if you managed to devastate so many of the enemies, just what did you do to get one of their generals to chase after you so much? To even go as far as rushing into the middle of my armies" Shaking his head, the prince proved that what that winged girl did, was in fact something extraordinary and not to be expected. But there was actually something even more important in what he said. ''So thatss was some kind of general? Seriously?'' As hard as it was for me to stomach the fact that the girl I just fought and talked with casually was actually some kind of big-shot figure of the other side. "As for the second question, why did you evene back? Didn''t I give you the core in advance?" From how dead-serious and stern the voice of the price was, I could tell that this was the question he was originally willing to ask. "It''s pretty simple, actually." There was no point for me to let the atmosphere thicken beyond the point it already was. Spreading my arms in amonly understood gesture, I exined. "I wanted to ask if you maybe know where this sacred core originally belongs." Chapter 172: First clue Chapter 172: First clue "What now?" To say that the prince was surprised by my question would not give justice to the weird face he made while hearing what I asked about. "Don''t tell me" Casting a quick nce at me, his face tensed up. "Yeah, that''s exactly what I need to know. But just for you to know, while I''m not sure about the ce myself, I will know once I reach it whether you guided me properly." Given that I showed a huge chunk of my abilities to the man, there was a chance he would send me off to the literal end of the world, just so that I wouldn''t be there as a danger to him or his colleagues. That''s why I was sure to emphasise the fact that I would know if the ce he would potentially point me at would be right or not. The fact that this knowledge woulde from the system was my sweet little secret. "Well, for me, the sacred core belongs to the papal crown. But with the fall of the northern church, I heard that said crown was found out and melted for coins by the new government who took over the holynd." As he said those words, the prince''s face darkened a bit. His fists slightly tightened as his re turned colder. "And if not the crown, what would be your other guess?" Hearing how the second item I was likely to need was most likely gone from the world, I couldn''t help but get restless. Because the system couldn''t just force me to craft an exact replica of that crown, couldn''t it? "The history of the sacred core is actually quiteplicated." Noticing the distraught in my eyes, the prince''s voice softened a bit. It appeared as if he finally understood that I was just as ignorant about the reason behind my quest as he was when he first heard about it. And that alone proved that I wasn''t here to wreak havoc but to aplish something tangible. "But still, before it was used as the crowning jewel of the northern church, it was located at the main altar of their main church. But given how it''s right in the capital of the new, revolutionary state" Looking to the side, the prince actually gave me an answer. If the revolution in this world looked anywhere simr to what happened on earth, then there was a chance the church building the prince spoke off was already either gone, remodelled to be a government building, or would turn from a ce of worship to a ce of torture of those who still dared to worship even after the revolution. "I understand. On that note, though, do you think there will be any further clues if I reach that church?" Even though I was speaking to a prince, I couldn''t be bothered to use proper honorifics. Rather than calling him a majesty or a prince directly, and indirectly acknowledging his authority over the humans in the area, I simply treated him as someone worthy of respect but not loyalty. After all, the only thing that connected the two of us, was a deal that already reached its conclusion. "I will surely pray for that to happen." Nodding his head in a mute acknowledgement of how little he managed to help, the prince then started to move away, clearly giving the hint that the discussion was now over. Thinking about this, the fact that he spared me so much time already was quite strange, given how he was still in the middle of the battle. Most likely, the showcase of my power was the only reason behind this man''s polite attitude. "Sure, before I go, just onest question." Speaking up before the prince could turnpletely around, I could see how his jaws clenched. But once the man once again looked at me properly, there was no hints of anger or annoyance on his face anymore. "That winged female from before. Why did she get so excited when I showed her that core?" That was thest thing puzzling me about the current situation. From how desperate she turned the moment I shed the item in her eyes, it was clear that for some reason, she was pretty desperate to get her hands on it. Heck, she even eximed it herself a few times just a few moments ago! "I have no clue. I stopped trying to uncover what is going on through those heretic''s heads long ago." Shaking his shoulders, the prince looked at the other side of the battlefield with clear hate written all over his face. "Maybe it was shiny and she wanted to make it into a ne? No clue." Shaking his head, the prince looked at me with the hints of annoyance finally appearing on his face. "I do not wish to disrespect you, but I have the battle to take care of" Before the prince could even finish, I nodded my head with respect before butting in. "I understand. Thanks for all the information and time you gave me. Good luck with the battle!" With those words parting ways from my lips, I didn''t bother waiting any longer. Daring not to take to the skies, I simply walked away from the ce. Or rather, I wanted to just simply walk away, before the damned reality dawned upon me. While I was quite far away from the heat of the ongoing battle, it by no means I was already on the back row of the human forces. Recalling what I saw back in the air, rather than leisurely walking away, I would have to somehow make my way through countless rows of soldiers. And given their tight formation, it could actually prove to be even more dangerous than actually flying up. After all, the barrier didn''t differentiate an idental rub of the side of the spear from an attack executed by it. For a barrier, anything that would press on it would slowly sap its energy. And just by climbing one of the hills between the long stretches of the human units, I could tell that by the time I would finally reach the outskirts of the human formations, I would be akin to a hedgehog, with sharp pieces protruding from all parts of my body! "I guess I don''t really have a choice, huh" Staring at the endless stretches of the soldiers marching towards their demise, I swallowed a gulp of my saliva before looking towards the skies. And sure enough, I could make out a shadow of several silhouettes cast down on a nearby cloud! "I guess I will need to risk it a bit." Shaking my head in annoyance, I counted all the stones still in my possession. After the scuffles on the frontlines, nearly half of my tools was exhausted, turned into a pile of useless dust. Given how varies the stones in my possession were, it means that outside of the three barriers around me, I only could erect two or three more! Making the flight even riskier than I already expected it to be! Faced with the choice of letting the random pushing and shoving get rid of all my currently erected barriers and betting on them in an attempt to dash away from the battle through the air, the choice was rather obvious. Clutching the recurring barrier stone in my hand, I dug my heels into the soft ground of the hill I was at. But rather than easily taking to the skies, I invoked both the repulsion by imagining that hideous bug from before crawling atop my skin and the attraction by forcing my eyes to see a silhouette of a naked female right below my feet. For a moment, I allowed those two forces to counter each other, right as they continued to grow in strength. With this process ongoing, I took yet another look towards the other side of the battlefield. From how desperate that girl was to obtain the stone, I had some doubts whether she wouldn''t be the one who would really know where said stone belonged to. But after her actions from before, I could already be sure they wouldn''t let me leave with the core after reaching the ce they themselves wanted to bring it to. "No matter who is right, given how I can still turn back from the suggestions of this prince" Taking a quick look at the man who already fullymitted his focus tomand his troops, I spat out on the ground. "I guess there is no need to think about it too much. Ultimately, they will lose this battle, so I should be able to ask those winged people about their own suggestionster on." With my resolve now filling my body, I rapidly broke my immersion in the picture below my feet, stopping the witchcraft of attraction. With the bnce of forces now broken, my body shot forward under the immense power of all the repulsion that umted. And for a moment, I could believe that this small trick of mine would allow me to avoid the chase of those winged people. For a moment, I thought that this quest of mine wouldn''t be as hard as I was initially worried it would be. Then, without even a single sound to warn me about it, the silhouettes I observed before disappeared, only to appear in their full glory right beside me! "That''s" Clenching my teeth, I braced myself for what was about toe. Ejecting myself from the ground like that allowed me to instantly gain a breakneck speed, but also lifted me a bit too high into the air, making it impossible for me to control the position or momentum of my body with repulsion anymore, given how any target of it was simply out of my witchcraft''s reach! "DIE!" With a powerful shout, a bastard sword wielded by a man with grey wings broke through the first and second barrier of mine at once, sending me flying towards the ground. Chapter 173: Unexpected companion Chapter 173: Unexpectedpanion "Honestly" Uttering just a single word ofint, I softened my fall with a sudden outburst of repulsion. Yet, even then, just the sheer change of momentum was enough for my bones to painfully twist, almost depriving me of my limbs. Deelerating just as quickly I gained the momentum after the attack, I quickly regained both the focus and the footing for the battle. "Are you honestly going to just throw your lives away for nothing?" Landing on my legs, I bent my knees a bit to soften the impact. Straightening right after, I sent a taxing nce towards the winged figures in the sky. With recurring barrier already in my hand, a single press of a finger was all that I required. But still, there was the problem of the dy. If I were to activate this monstrous barrier a bit toote, then my own defences would fail before I could escape to the safety of this dimension-shattering barrier. "I could ask you the same." Thump. Landing heavily on the ground, the same female from before stared daggers at me. But although with the assist of her friends, her former meekness was gone, there was still a hint of softness in her eyes. "Ask me for what, though? You are the ones trying to pick a fight with me, not the opposite." Pointing my hand towards the battlefield, I smiled gently. As for now, I was at my veryst normal barrier. While I still had means to protect myself from the attacks, they were nowhere as powerful as the spells created by Sander''s stones. "Your battlefield is over there, there should be no feud between us." Given how the other party didn''t cover me in a flurry of attacks from the get-go, there was bound to be some reason for their restraint. And I was quite happy with exploiting it. "You know what I want. You spared my life earlier, and now I''m giving this favour right back." Stepping forward, the female didn''t even bother to pull her weapon out. "Give me the sacred core, and we can each go our own way. Heck!" Suddenly eximing, the girl covered her face with her hand for a moment, before uttering. "We can even reward you with whatever you would like. From gold, through titles at women ending." Despite the sweet promises behind her words, the girl''s tone only continued to grow colder with each of the sounds she made. "I think I told you already. I need to bring this stone where it truly belongs." Shaking my shoulders, I pretended to disregard the topic. "As for what happenster with it, I don''t give a single fuck." The quest was only about returning the core to where it belongs. If the other party was so keen on obtaining this stone, they surely should have enough patience to wait until I finish my damned quest! "Then, why are you" Before the girl could even finish, I stepped a single pace forward. "Why won''t I give it to you, since it''s where it truly belongs." After a short pause, I decided the atmosphere thickened sufficiently. "The problem is if it will turn out to be the wrong ce, would you let me check the other possibilities?" That was the main reason why I was against going with those winged people first. Given how little the human prince cared for the stone, the same would most likely be the case for those people in the north. On the other hand, going into thends controlled by those winged people could end in an utter disaster! "Ah, so that''s. No, wait, do you mean to say that you don''t know where this core belongs?!" Stunned by the sudden enlightenment, the girl took a step back in shock. "You really just want to bring it to its original ce?" From the way in which the girl uttered those words, it was clear that she had great trouble believing it. But I wasn''t in a position to ridicule her behaviour. If I knew the potential importance of this sacred core, if I was of this world, then maybe I would react just the way this girl did. The thing was, I wasn''t of that world nor did I know the true value of this core. What I cared for, was fulfilling the quest and saving this world for my own future use. In fact, before I could even finish the quest, I could hardly think about my real objective of scouring this world. Which could be summed up with just two words. Getting stronger. Getting stronger to the point where Jeff Baskar could no longer turn the Boruta''s cult into Baskar''s cult! "Well, I need to go on my way, so I will have to excuse myself. If you are so anxious about the fate of this stone, you can tag along. " Shrugging my shoulders, I added. "Right now, you guys have a simple choice. Either to be impatient and die trying to get this core out of my hands or just be patient for a few days. In fact, if someonees with me, once I will check my other options, it would be a bit easier to check if you are actually right." "Right about what?" Stepping right into my trap, the girl asked. "Right about where this core belongs. After all, there is just as high of a chance that the ce you want to take it is actually the right once." Shaking my shoulders once again, I took a step back. Now that the cat was out of the bag, the worst part of the entire meeting started. Because now, I had to somehow convince one of the winged people to follow me into the north of thend. And from what I could tell right now, this would be the exact opposite to where the other party came from! "So you just want one of us to follow you, and once you find the ce where you will decide this stone belong, or if you search through all the clues but find nothing, you will give the sacred core to us, right?" From the fact that despite how desperately she wanted the stone, she has yet to put a stop to this useless banter and give the order to attack, I could tell that the girl respected the means I have to defend myself. And whether it was her gratitude for sparing her life earlier or genuine curiosity in the nature of my quest, I decided to bank on this curiosity of this girl. "Eh, give me a moment. But don''t move a step away from where you are!" Advising me in a stern voice, the girl jumped before pping her wings. With just a single thrust, her body rose high into the air, joining the circle of the other winged people. For a moment, I could breathe a sigh of relief. For a short moment, I could rest. Ever since I appeared in this world, I was right in the middle of a huge battlefield. Even though my body could keep going for far longer, the same couldn''t be said about my mental state. There was a limit to how much violence and blood I could see or spill in a single day. Right now, I was already tired of all the fighting, so the perspective of hopefully avoiding yet another use of my disaster stones was more than enough to convince me into risking the kind of passive attitude I had. Because even though the distance between the gathering of those winged people and my current position was great, the onught of the recurring barrier was still more than capable of swallowing them all. And no matter how powerful they were, against the rebound of their very own power, they would be just as powerless as anyone else. Thump. After taking her sweet time high in the skies, the girlnded down. With her entire body slightly bending to soften the impact of the descend, she then quickly raised her head back to cast a sharp look on me. "It''s decided. I will apany you to the ces you want to check. But you will only have two weeks before I will im the core back. Do those terms satisfy you?" Stepping forward, the girl crossed her arms on top of her chest while watching every single twitch on my face. "Two weeks Well, that will force my hand a bit. What if you will be unable to keep up with my pace though?" Given how I didn''t even know how far the north the prince mentioned was, I could only assume the worst. And while travelling at insane speed was definitely within the scope of my abilities, I couldn''t tell whether this girl would be able to keep up with me. "If I were to travel to the northern kingdoms, I could make the journey in just a week. So unless you will be the onegging behind," sending me a happy look, the girl smiled with a slight irony. " you will have more than a week to check whatever you want out in the north!" Chapter 174: The world around Chapter 174: The world around "So, are you ready?" Ever since the idea appeared in my mind for the very first time, I knew that getting this girl to travel along with me would be a bad one. Starting with the problem of sheer dy born from ack of the girl''s ability to move as rapidly as I could on my own, her appearance could easily scare scores of people. And I didn''t wish for this kind of attention at all. "To leave everything I know and love just because someone was too conceited to admit that they were wrong? No, for that I''m not ready." Clearly dissatisfied with the oue of the recent negotiations, the winged girl was quick to follow her words with the voiced-out dissatisfaction of hers. "I''m not the one fixated on obtaining the sacred core." Instantly putting the girl down, I shook my head beforeughing her protest off. "In the end, if you are unsure about following me, you are free to stay behind." Shrugging my shoulders, I exined the situation to the girl. What others would take for empty words aimed at discouraging the girl, was what I actually believed in. For me, it made no difference whether the girl would tag along or not. While some would hardly be ready to give up on a local guide like the girl, I was pretty certain that even with a lot of distance between the main source of the conflict between those two human races, people would still find her figure and especially, her wings nothing less than hateful. "Can you just shut up and go already? How long are you going to enjoy the fact that I have no other choice but to follow you right now?" Unable to use logic and triumph over me with it, the girl instantly switched the gears to put the emotional me for the entire situation on me. "As I said," Turning my head towards the girl, I sent her a quick wink before moving my head back and disregarding all the girl''s attempt at making me feel bad and guilty. "You are free to remain behind. It''s your own wish that pushes you into following me, not something so silly as my words alone." That was everything that I wanted to tell the girl. Disregarding her further attempts at putting me down, I fully focused on the type of transportation that I decided on when thinking about my next moves. And just like before, I imagined an ugly, wriggling worm in my hands at the same time as picturing a beautiful naked woman right below my feet. For a moment, the force of attraction and repulsion cancelled each other out, growing at the exact same rate. With my mind reaching the limits of what it could process, the girl''s attempt at further destabilising my mindpletely went around my skull only to disappear somewhere in the distance. Then, the stability of the two opposing forces suddenly came to an end. This time, it wasn''t intentional. Or rather, given how far I was supposed to travel, both the repulsion and the attraction grew to the point where I was unable to properly control them. And once those forces reached the level when they started to slip out of my grasp, it didn''t take long for the repulsion to grow at a slightly greater pace. After all, there was a reason why it was easier to feel the negative emotions over the positive ones. While that reason wasn''t something I had any influence over, it was the essence of humanity to use one''s own limitations in order to further one''s own potential! "Off we go!" Even though I didn''t really care whether the girl would follow me or not, it was within our agreement to actually let her follow me. As such, I didn''t really have a choice but to let those three words of warning off before surrendering to the disparity of the two forces myself. Tang! As if the reality itself was forced to bend under my wishes, my entire body exploded in pain. Forced into a great eleration at a single instant, I felt as if the change of momentum was enough to rip my body into a myriad of pieces. Due to how powerful the eleration from my repulsion was, it felt as if the speed at which my upper body exploded into the skies was far greater than the speed that my lower body achieved, almost resulting in those two parts going a separate way. Thankfully, in the end, my flesh managed to hold. On the other hand, as soon as the initial outburst of torture was over, I forced my head to move a bit to the side, making my own eyes capable of seeing the girl''s reaction to my sudden dash. And as unbelievable as it was, this winged girl turned into nothing but an insignificant dot far below my feet, unable to keep up with my explosive speed at all! ''I wonder if she will make it'' With this stray thought appearing in my mind, I was about to start guessing as I no longer wielded any influence over the direction or the speed at which I was travelling, a sudden outburst of pain travelled through my spine once again. But this time, there was no sudden change to my momentum to actually justify the outburst! *Ping! The system managed to recover the base Interface function.* *Ping! Disy the interface now. ept/Refuse* For the first time in what seemed like an eternity, a familiar feeling appeared in my mind. While the experience was full of that mechanic feeling that my system had to itself, it wasn''t actually the basement system that changed my life. ANd I could im so with quite a lot of confidence, due to how familiar this feeling was. With my entire body flying at some incredible speed, just the air resistance was already enough to force my hands alongside my waist, making me unable to even check if the bracelet that I kept more like a momentum than an actual tool on my wrist actually lit up. But even without this visual confirmation, that one thing was certain. The system created by the long lost civilisation from that apocalypse world of mine somehow managed to reboot! ''ept!'' So high in the air, there was absolutely nothing that I could do on my own. Outside of trying to see through the great distance to locate the winged girl that was supposed to follow me, I was forced to just wait until the course of my flight would get me sufficiently low above the surface so that my repulsion could be used once again to maintain my flight and change its vector to point above the surface rather than towards it. But now, the situation changed. With my vision exploding in familiar light, I could see a set of figures and numbers flying all over my vision, before everything turned calm and silent. After just this single moment, the rapidly changing numbers managed to calm down, reced by just three figures slowly but steadily shing in the corner of my sight. *Five hundred fifty* *Two thousand, four hundred meters* *Eighteen seconds.* All of those numbers didn''t just remain the same through my flight. While the first one continued to grow, the other two steadily decreased, as if falling towards the absolute zero. And with just a few seconds worth of thoughts, I was able to uncover the meaning of those three simple numbers. ''Speed, vertical height and the time until impact? Until crasnd? Or maybe until I will once again be able to influence the trajectory of my flight?'' I couldn''t be sure of the meaning of the numbers, but after a momentary observation, they seemed to fit rather well. Either way, the only thing that mattered now, was that I was falling. And rather fast at that. If not for some insane height at which my body cut through the thin air, I would''ve long turned into a ballistic missile,ying waste to a random patch ofnd. Yet, despite how I already gave up on the girl, after a few whiles ofgging behind, her wings suddenly appeared in my view. Spreading them out as wide as she could, the girl''s aura changed. Just the feat of appearing in my field of view, when I couldn''t move my head at all, was worthy of praise. Most likely, this was the first moment when I felt some kind of respect towards this girl. After a moment of rest, the girl pped her huge, white wings, instantly closing the distance between the two of them. Barely a few feet away, it appeared as if she shifted through space itself, shortening her path through it. I felt my eyebrow moving up. What if If I actually try to learn this kind of feat? This was just a stray thought, but it froze my mind for a moment, allowing the girl to fully catch up to me. "Don''tg behind!" For the first time since she met me, the girl revealed somewhat of a smile on her face. And a triumphant one at that. But there was something deeper in it. This time though, I didn''t dare to im that I could notice it with just my empathy, without my witch abilities. There was an excitement, a longing for something grand and majestic, vibrantly shining within the girl''s soul. And that strange feeling of this girl was what finally got me curious about the world around me. Chapter 175: Lack of speed Chapter 175: Lack of speed "Okay, let''s make the first stop." After just a few moments of trying topete with the girl for the speed at which we could travel, I have no other choice but to ultimately concede defeat. But rather than my pride shattering over this loss, I took this defeat as a learning experience. In the end, my ability to fly was just an effect of my witchcraft, something that wasn''t designed to make me fly in the first ce. On the other hand, not only was this girl born with wings, making her a natural ruler of this dominion, but she could clearly use some kind of skills or technique, that made her airborne abilities even more fearsome. "What, little man got tired already?" Openly mocking my decision, the girl still ended up following my words. With the ground near enough, I slowly increased the output of my repulsion vectored perfectly along with my current trajectory. Losing the momentum by each passing second, by the time my feet appeared near the ground, I was basically just floating in the air in aplete standstill. Drop. As exhrating as conquering the skies was, nothing could beat the firm feeling of the ground below my legs. Maybe if I were to get a lot more practice or find new abilities allowing me to fly more freely, this kind of transportation would turn from a chore into a pleasure. But for now, it was just another mean of mine to cover a huge distance in a short period of time. "You can believe that, you can try to make yourself believe that. I don''t really care." Softlynding on the ground, the happy smile on the girl''s face soured upon my response. Clearly expecting her bait to work, rather than being angered by the failure of her words to take any effect, she seemed to be just disappointed in theck of reaction from me. "Either way, we are not even halfway to the north. Weren''t you in a hurry?" Dropping the earlier attempt at ridiculing me, the girl moved on to the actually important matter. "It''s not that I don''t want to fly as quickly as you. Afterunching, I barely have any means to move around midair, so you will have to excuse me thisck of skill." While I didn''t reveal all the ins and outs of my ability to fly, just the fact that I revealed anything to the girl was enough to make her put on a surprised expression. "Don''t you even think about it. Even if you have an advantage in the air, I have more means than necessary to force you down on the ground." It wasn''t hard to figure out what kind of thoughts appeared in the girl''s head. Given her desperation to obtain the sacred core, some attempts to snatch it before I would reach the north were only to be expected. "Think about what? About you threatening to pin me down to the ground?" Leaning her head to the side, the girl proved that amongst many quirks, she also was quick-witted. "No!" Wrapping her hands around her upper body, she yfully turned sideways while moaning. "I don''t want to be vited!" Screaming painfully as if I was actually in the midst ofmitting the dead, the girl clearly expected to get some reaction out of me. And she was actually pretty close to seeding this time. Sadly for her, with all those times when I nailed Ayda down to the bed, I would no longer get flustered by a small y like this. Rather than that, ying the victim of an attempted rape only made me recall some of the memories I didn''t really enjoy. "Stop it before you hurt yourself. Either way, now you have two options." Disregarding the topic of the girl''s provocations, I raised my eyes on the girl, sending her a taxing look. "You can either tell me what kind of magic you are using to fly like that, or refuse and be forced to travel at my current pace." In the end, that was all there was to it. While moving faster was good for reaching a better position before the enemy could do the same or avoiding his attacks, the same could be done just by wrapping oneself in one of Sander''s barrier stones. As such, it only had a little value in my eyes. Or to be more blunt, if not for my innate drive to obtain every single power that I could to strengthen myself, I would barely pay any mind to the skillset of this girl! "Not only you refuse to give up on the stone, but now you want me to teach you?" Staring at me with her eyes wide-open once again, the girl uttered weakly. "Are you mad? Did you lose thest semnce of the sanity you had?" "A simple ''no'' would suffice." Since I already refused to be swayed by the girl''s antics, I could only hold on to this decision. Thankfully, no greater harm than just saddening me a little was done. On the other hand, it would be the girl that would suffer the consequence of her decision, given how she was the one in hurry to bring the sacred core to where I wasn''t willing to go just yet. "A simple ''no'' would suffice if I was dealing with someone reasonable. Don''t expect me to act normal when around someone breaking all the conventions of what''s consideredmon sense!" Pointing her finger at me, the girl pped her wings in agitation. ''Wait, do those wings work a bit like a dog''s'' I didn''t dare to finish this line of thought, not even safe in the inner monologue of mine. Because the meaning of this realisation would be quite devastating for me further down the line. "Either way, let''s not waste any more time. I might not be in as great of a hurry as you are, but given my slow speed it will still take a while to get to the north." Standing up from a broken tree that I previously sat on, I dusted off my clothes before bending my knees. But rather than amassing the repulsion to eject myself high into the skies, I just waited. "Ugh" Clearly conflicted by the problem I forced on her, the girl hesitated. Her wings pped in agitation, before rxing as they wrapped around her chest. "Okay then, I will teach you. Just" Looking around as if she was wary of someone eavesdropping on our conversation, the girl then looked back into my eyes. "Just don''t tell anyone about it, okay?" With both the girl''s shoulders and her wings shrinking down, the girl presented herself as a perfect embodiment of giving up. "First off, you can feel the magic in the air, can you?" Asking this question as if it was the most basic thing under the sun, the girl forced me to nod my head. But even though I was clearly able to suck on the magic from the world all around, even though I was more than capable of moulding it to my desires, I couldn''t be sure that it was the meaning the girl had in her head while speaking about ''feeling''. That was the main problem of travelling between different worlds. So far, the onlymon element between ces I visited, was the existence of magic. But when ites to the way of using it, every single world I visited so far, would adopt a different approach. From the court mages in the very first world where I met humans from other worlds, through witches and wizards of Ayda''s world, all the way to the mages of humanity and the winged people of the tribe that the girl in front of me belonged to. All of them and likely all the other races I would ever get to meet had different fundamental understanding and idea behind how to use or what the magic is in the first ce. That made it extremely confusing for me, to learn new kinds of techniques or skills. Because if I had a different understanding of the very basic concepts, then the girl''s teaching would be worth absolutely nothing. In simpler words, if one were to be taught that drinking actually meant pissing, they wouldn''t understand if someone were to ask them to drink some tea. Rather than enjoying the invitation, they would try to uncover a mean to turn one''s piss into a herbal brew. "Good. Then, I know it won''t feel like something reasonable to ask But you need to let this magic wash off you. Rather than using it for your own means, you need to try to sink underneath it." Clearly struggling to exin the concepts that she otherwise understood just by feeling it, the girl did her best trying to exin them. Yet, no matter how hard she tried, even after the next few hours, I was unable to achieve what sheter started to call a magical phasing. In the end, we had no other choice, but to settle on the pace at which I could travel. And as annoying as it was, this speed was determined by how fast I could eject myself into the air, without actually shattering my entire body structure due to the change of momentum being just too rapid. Even after perfecting the ejecting force and modifying my trajectory to make sure I would be able to still push against the ground even while in the midst of nothingness, the speed that I was capable of achieving was only a fraction of what this winged girl considered to be a standard. Yet, that didn''t mean we were slow by any means. Because for me, being able to reach the north that normally would take at least two weeks by a horse, being able to reach it in just a single day and half of a night, was already a deed worth praise! Chapter 176: Freefall (1) Chapter 176: Freefall (1) Out of all the things that travelling through the different worlds have taught me, there was one thing that annoyed me the most. Maybe because I wasparing my own adventures to what I expected an adventure would otherwise look like. Maybe it was because I read too many young-adult novels in my life, changing the expectations from realistic to idealistic. But this one single thing, constantly reminded me how reality didn''t confront my own wishes. And it was time. It took a long time to travel to our current destination. It was easy to read in a novel that after leaving the city, the cast of the story spent over a week moving towards their next destined ce. But when it came to reality, one week that sounded like a little on a paper, turned out to be quite a boring period of my life. Waking up with the sunrise, the two of us would snack on some leftovers from thest day''s soup, before packing our stuff up and jumping into the air. After about two hours of flying, we would descend for a quick rest, during which the girl would attempt to teach me her techniques, only to give up roughly ten minutester and force me to resume our journey. Between the two of us, it was the girl that was in a much greater hurry. Even though contrary to me, she didn''t appear to have any time limit to her mission outside of the one I set myself, she still constantly poked my sides whenever I wanted to take some rest, quickly turning to the greatest annoyance I would have to suffer with ever since I left the school when the apocalypse originally started. "Come on, just how bad your sense can be?!" Startled by how ineffective her own lessons were, the white-winged girl reached the point where even she was annoyed by the results. "Don''t try to figure it out logically, as a man. Follow your feeling!" Putting her fists on her sides, the girl looked at me with clear scorn in her eyes. "Listen, there is a reason why magic was discovered and developed by women. If you keep trying to wrestle control over it, then no matter how hard you will try, you will fail." With the power leaving the girl''s body, she weakly sat down on a nearby fallen tree, not even daring to look at me anymore. ''Eh, could this get any worse?'' It was my very first time to know a girl for a few days like this winged one besides me, without even learning about her name. But given how I have yet to introduce myself to her directly as well, it was nothing but my fault. But ultimately, given how I didn''t have any ns on sticking to this girl for any longer than necessary, knowing her credentials wasn''t of much importance. What was my point of focus though, was learning this strange shifting ability of hers. Because over thest few times we travelled together, it always put me on the spot to try to catch up with her speed. And what was even worse, was that the girl was actually gaining momentum while shifting, while apparently, she didn''t suffer all the drawbacks that effectively limited how quickly one could elerate or slow down. "It''s not like I don''t want to learn it. Do you think I enjoy hearing your nagging over and over again?" In the end, there was no way I wouldn''t respond to the girl''s provocation. While I was initially immune to her baits given how we stood on the opposite ends of the barricade, there was one major change that happened to our rtionship after just a single full day of travelling together. We no longer consider ourselves to be enemies. Sure, I didn''t trust the girl at all and I was quite certain that she had no trust for me whatsoever either. But that didn''t mean we kept our hostility born from the sh the day before. And while we were both cautious when interacting with the other, some early sparks of mutual sympathy continued to sprout. "It would be far easier if you just had wings Even the men from my tribe learn to shift from the feeling of passing through the air at quick speeds." Shaking her head in defeat, the girl raised her eyes to look at me for a moment, before hanging her head low again. "There is no way. Right now, you are nowhere near as fast as you would need to be to use that method." Muttering the second part of her reasoning to herself, the girl most likely didn''t expect me to actually pry my ears to her self-whisper. But while she clearly didn''t intend for those words to make a difference, it actually did for me. "Wait, so you believe that all I need to do is to reach a sufficient speed midair, right?" Moving my eyes on the girl, I watched how little changes appeared on her face when I posed my question. It appeared that she didn''t really amount this question to much in her head. "How much faster would I have to go?" Standing up from the random spot I chose to sat down before, I started to warm my body up. While reaching higher speeds midair was definitely possible, doing so would still require me to use the initial eleration from the jump enhances with repulsion against the ground. And that means I was once again in for quite a lot of pain caused by the changing momentum. But if it was just the pain to deal with, I was more than willing to suffer through it if only I could obtain this shifting ability! "How much faster, huh? It''s not easy to quantify it But I would say at least half the time faster than you can travel right now." Finally forcing herself to acknowledge that I was actually serious, the white wings of the girl twitched slightly before she stood up as well. "But keep in mind, that this kind of enlightenment Ites to everyone at its own pace." Turning her head to the side, the girl hid her expression from me. "Comes at its own pace? In crude, male words then, how many times do you think I will reach that speed to obtain this skill?" Approaching the girl far closer than I ever was to her before, I moved my hand on her chin before forcefully bringing her face up to my eyes. "ty times." Wrestling the control of her chin from my hands, the girl took a step back. "No, this is the wrong way to think about it. If you can keep your speed above a certain level, then you might do it in just a few attempts. On the other hand, if you will be able to reach such speed only momentarily, even hundreds of attempts might not suffice." Lowering her head and resting it on her raised hand, the girl bit on the nail of her thumb, sinking deep into her thoughts. And given how I often would lose myself in the wondend of my own thoughts myself, the option of waiting for her to figure out what she wanted didn''t even appear in my mind. Moving to the side, I scanned the wide-area around us. While most of my vision was blocked by the ever-present, lush forest, I could still see quite a lot. From the mountains far in the north, through some kind of body of water to my current left, this location seemed to be a perfect ce to settle down if not for the trees domineeringly taking over the entire, huge in and stopping any attempts at colonising thisnd. But that didn''t matter to me at all. Not until a quest to turn this barrennd into a kingdom would appear in my system interface. For now, what was important, was that there was more than enough space for me to try this new idea that this girl gave me! "Prepare tounch. I will try something disturbing. Don''t fly too close to me." Informing the girl without any regard for her opinion or problems with my n, I did everything exactly the same way I would do it whenever attempting to fly. Starting with bncing repulsion and attraction, I would let those two opposing forces grow to the absolute limit of what I could hold, before springing up on my knees andpletely releasing my attraction. POOF! The small noise of myunch didn''t even make the leaves on the ever-present trees rustle a bit. But on my end, a head-splitting pain tore through my mind as my body squeezed under the influence of inertia. Yet, after the initial torture of g-force that a human was not built to sustain, the pain eased. Soon, my body shot through a random cloud, appearing above the heavenly dome. But for now, I only got a lot of height. While falling down would allow me to obtain more speed, this was something that I already tried before. From just falling alone, it was impossible for me to obtain the ability that I wanted. But I wasn''t some kind of madman to repeat one action and expect a different result. Once I reached the apoapsis of my trajectory, once I could feel that I stopped climbing up the skydder and started to fall down instead, my head once again focused on manipting the witchcraft of mine. The one problem was, as for now, I was surrounded by air and air alone! And just like one wouldn''t propel a sailing ship by blowing air into its sails, the air around me was just too thin for my repulsion to return a proper amount of energy to my body. Yet, nothing was stopping me from raising both the repulsion and the attraction at once. Just like before, the two opposing forces cancelled each other, not affecting my freefall at all. And then, I reached the distance at which my witchcraft could affect the ground. Chapter 177: Freefall (2) Chapter 177: Freefall (2) Shock. The shock was the only word capable of describing what I felt when I released my attraction. Unleashing all the repulsion my mentality could handle against the nearby ground, I vectored it behind myself and at a steep angle. Already moving on a parabolic path, I only wanted to increase my speed while regaining some attitude at the same time. Yet, the insane tightness that I felt all over my body when inertia struck back made me feel as if I would never be able to walk straight ever again. Feeling my blood oozing out of every pore of my body, I had no other choice but to suffer through the rebound of rapid eleration. In face of this overwhelming might, even my cultivation improved body reached the brink of copse. Thankfully, the resistance of the inertia quickly faded away, as soon as the propelling force disappeared. Surviving through the worst part of the entire scheme, there was no longer any need for me to worry. That is, if not for the fact that I was out to learn a new skill, and I still had no idea how to do it! Coursing through the open skies, I could feel the residual vapour from the clouds slowly condensing on my face as I made my way through space at some astonishing speed. But there was something that continued to stop me. Yet, rather than taking it for some kind of magical resistance, I was pretty aware of what the problem was. Right now, in other to move even an inch forward, a part of my momentum had to be sacrificed to push the air in front of me aside. In other words, the resistance of the medium I was moving through along with the gravity constantly pulling me down made it impossible to break through a certain speed. With the resistance increasing proportionally to my own speed, there was a certain limit that I simply couldn''t ovee. Or could I? There was no denying that this girl was clearly capable of doing it. Whether it was by using another force to push herself forward or by making her body more slick and aerodynamic, there was a method to ovee this limitation. Yet, with the air hitting my face at some insane speeds, with my eyes threatening to cave in inwards my skull, I could hardly think about any concept to exin and understand it. All I wanted at this moment, was to get out of the way of all those forces that constantly tortured my body. And then, it just happened. As if I suddenly stopped in my tracks, the wind no longer crashed into my face. I could no longer feel my momentum as if my speed suddenly lost its meaning. Looking around, I could see thendscape changing at exactly the same speed at which it did a moment ago But I couldn''t feel a single indicator of moving through the air at a high speed! Confused by the situation, I looked towards the girl far in the distance. For some strange reason, my eyes were easily capable of locating her. But there was something strange about her movements. It was as if She suddenly slowed down Out of a sudden, all the standard sensations returned. The iling of the winds on my face, the resistance of the space itself that made it hard for one to move. All at once, they all returned, instantly putting a strain on my body. Just like with inertia, humans perceived their reality with change. If one were to be in a world without a change, it would have to be not only a dead world but a dead universe atrge. That was one of the reasons why human eyes had to constantly vibrate, introduce even the slightest change to the vision, for one to see an actual reality rather than still images. And the same applied to things like pain and resistance. When the pressure of the wind disappeared, I could feel an insane relief, as if an overwhelming burden was taken off my shoulders. But at the same time, as soon as this strange moment ended, I was shackled and choked with the restraints that lifted only for a moment. "CARE" I didn''t even get to hear the rest of the girl''s sentence. As soon as I emerged from that strange, resistanceless world, I felt insane exhaustion taking over my mind. With my consciousness fading away, my vision ckened. "Huh?" With my speed at its maximum, losing consciousness right now was a sure-fire way to die. No matter how enhanced my body was, it wouldn''t survive a crash like that. Using everyst bit of my strength, I forcefully kept myself awake, only to realise that I was no longer able to exert even a shred of my strength. After this single moment of traversing the world unbound by its rules, not a single drop of mana remained in my body and soul. Something like this happened to me for the very first time. Not even when I went berse As this sudden idea popped in my mind, I already reached myst straw. Even a single moment of hesitation more, and I would be no longer in control of the situation. Tightening my teeth, I rushed to invoke the very same dark blob of hate that still resided within my soul to this day. While keeping my schedule packed allowed me to restrain this dark side of my soul, it never disappeared. And although I was capable of keeping it down on the daily basis, moments like the one when I fulfilled Ayda''s request regarding that vicious female general only contributed to the slow but steady growth of this dark blob of mine. Reaching for the core of the taboo, I was about to squeeze it and force all those vile thoughts back into my head, when my mind suddenly exploded in pain. Hitting something with the back of my head, it felt as if the world around me shook all the way to its core. "Got ya!" Uttering with a tired voice, the winged girl grabbed me underneath my arms, pping her wings to slow our descent. For a moment, I could only silently judge whether she would manage to slow us down enough before we would both crash into the ground. Then, my consciousness finally gave up. When I came to be, I could feel the warm rays of the firece warming up the toes of my feet. Lazily opening up my eyes, I could barely see anything through the veil of an immense headache that numbed my mind. "Don''t move. You sapped your mana dry. It will take a few hours for your body to recover." Sitting right beside me, the girl calmly moved thedle around a small pot hanging over the fire. Finally noticing the aroma, I felt as if its heavy, medicinal smell prated through the cloud of mind-numbing pain, reaching straight to my brain. "What is" Barely capable of uttering just those few words, I looked towards the pot. Putting her free hand on top of my mouth, the girl stopped me from speaking any further. "You are insanely lucky to be able to taste this brew." Commenting under her nose, the girl didn''t bother to even look at me, as if afraid of showing me her face. "Lucky?" Spelling even a single word was a challenge. "Normally, one needs to achieve a high court rank before being able to have a taste of this heavenly brew." Muttering silently under her breath, the girl continued to stir the pot for a few more moments, before raising thedle filled with a greenish looking liquid in it. Now that the soup was out of the pot, its aroma only exploded in intensity, filling the entire clearing around us. As if reinforcing my strength with just its smell, I felt my body moving on its own. Raising from a lying position, I leaned over my knees before greedily grabbing the bottom of thedle and nearing my lips to its edge. For some reason, it felt as if I waspelled to drink it, without the slightest care in the world about the hot metal burning the palms of my hands or the hot liquid frying my throat. The one thing I could do right now was to swallow mouthful after mouthful of this strange drink. But as painful as this therapy was, I could feel its insane effect instantly. As if the purest form of energy suddenly exploded in my body, the warm brew dissolved into life itself. As soon as I emptied out the utensil, my lungs instantly started craving some fresh air. With my breathing suddenly hastening, it felt as if every single breath struck into this blob of energy within me, filling my flesh with its sparks. After just a few minutes of breathing roughly, all the signs of exhaustion and mana deprivation disappeared from my body, filling my mind with an intricate state of calmness. In the end, even after my strength recovered, I still had to take some time to calm my agitation down. Insanely surprised by the effectiveness of this drink, I could only stare with awe at the girl who somehow whipped it out in the middle of nowhere. "What is this drink?" Still in awe, I could only utter those words. "Didn''t I tell you?" Shaking her head, the girl replied. "It''s a Heavenly brew. You don''t need to know anything else. But more importantly" With the sparks of curiosity appearing in the girl''s eyes, she suddenly fell to all fours before approaching my side and staring at me intensely. "How did you manage to hold the phasing for so long? It''s the first time I saw anyone do it like that!" Chapter 178: Ray Chapter 178: Ray Thump. The sound that my feet made when gently touching the ground was of no significance on its own, yet it held great meaning for me in particr. Because bynding on the stable ground right now, the boring part of my journey finally came to an end. "Show-off!" Landing without even a hint of grace, the winged girl''s legs stuck several centimeters into the soft ground before her momentum was finally gone. Ever since I managed to pull that mana phasing off, our rtionship changed. While just the first day was enough for both of us to get rid of the mutual hostility, it was that moment of achieving what didn''t appear to be usible that finally pushed the two of us over the initial awkwardness. "Xenteria, you can call me Teria." As if nailing the phasing was some sort of huge, social achievement, it was right after that moment when the girl came up to me and properly introduced herself. Back then, some sparks of suspicion and wariness still brimmed in her eyes, but over the course of thest few hours that we took to reach the north, all of that was reced just by shock mixed with awe. "Still, I can''t believe that you can hold on to the phasing for so long. Half a second is what most of my brethren are capable of!" Shaking her head in disbelief, Teria refused to ept the reality right in front of her eyes. But whether it was hermon sense or just her pride that made it troubling for her, ultimately she would still have no other choice but to conform with the reality. "Does it matter? We are here already, meaning, there is no more for me to phase. While for you, this might seem like some grand skill, outside of traveling vast distances, it''s nearly worthless." Putting the girl''s anticipation down, I refused to exin what I believed to be the reason behind this unexpected difference of skill. Because ultimately, no matter how hard Teria would want to prove that phasing meant shifting underneath the flow of mana in the world, it was actually creating a rift in space, allowing one to move without the restrictions imposed by the medium he was in. And as annoying as it was, I still had to lie about the practical use of this ability as well. Whether Teria really couldn''t notice its usefulness in a fight or whether she attempted to be ignorant about it, I didn''t know. But in both cases, revealing that I grew aware of it as well, would only make her stand on her toes whenever interacting with me. "Either way, we have more important matters on our te right now." Looking up at the fortifications surrounding a nearby city, I squinted my eyes. While it did little if anything to improve my already great vision, this tensing of my eyelids was actually caused by what I saw. And just as one could expect from a city near which two powerful beings suddenlynded out of nowhere, it already deployed a force tasked with investigating and most likely killing the intruders. "Them? Don''t tell me that you are scared of some small fries like that!" As if the mix of my words and gesture that brough Teria''s attention to the city''s party was even more shocking than my ability to pull off the phasing, she looked at me with her eyes wide open as if she was looking at some kind of irrational madman. "You don''t know if they are small fries." While to a huge degree I could agree with the girl that the group currently closing on our position didn''t appear to be any threat at all, I couldn''t get rid of a single memory that instantly pushed me right to my edge. ''Danger to the system, huh?'' So far, it was this basement system of mine, or so I grew to call it due to its location, that turned me from useless and powerless trash into the powerhouse I was right now. Without ess to different worlds, I would never find out about the apocalyptic technology, I would never learn witchcraft or any other magic than cultivation, at never encountering Ayda in my life-ending. And the fact that in this world, there were powers capable of damaging what I never considered to be my vital spot, made it hard for me to rx no matter how weak the opponents would appear to be. "In a sense, it was easier to fight on the front." Suddenly revealing my innermost thoughts, I failed to stop them from escaping before they slid past my lips. Turning her head to the side, Teria gazed at my face for a moment before turning back towards the approaching party. "Because back there, everyone was aware and prepared for a harsh fight." Finishing my own words, the girl nodded her head before releasing a deep sigh. "That might be true. We can''t be careless. In the end, those revolutionaries that took over the ce managed to defeat an ancient kingdom that existed here since forever." Shaking her head in silent disbelief, Teria finally rose up to her feet, not bothering to hide behind a boulder any longer. With how quickly the other party was approaching, they were bound to notice us already either way. "Tell me, why is your tribe fighting with humans in the first ce?" Moving a few paces forward to showcase to the approaching party that I had no intention of hiding at all, I turned my head to the girl beside me. "Humans? And what am I if not a human?" Suddenly ring up due to my slip of a tongue, Teria sent me a cold look. "I will take it for yourck ofmon sense rather than intentional insult." After staring at my face for a few moments, the girl finally gave up on her sudden hostility and rxed her shoulders. "As for the war, would you believe if I were to tell you I have no slightest idea?" Muttering under her nose as she turned her head away from my sight, the girl moved from one leg to another. "While I know the official version that the chieftains are obliged to preach" The two of us didn''t know each other for long. In fact, our entire rtionship was just a few days old. Even despite how turbulent its start was and how much chaos was necessary for it to turn from a random meeting into a proper acquaintanceship, right now, we were pretty synchronized. "Only the creator of that fake story would know, at this point, what is a lie and what is a truth in the legend he created. Right?" It wasn''t that hard to figure it out. Just like on earth, if one were to learn about any given topic from two opposing sides, then any attempt at actually digesting all the knowledge learned without filtering the obviously fake parts would only make one mentally ill. "History is written by the victors with the blood of the fallen." Suddenly, a quote came to my lips, right as the approaching party of seven finally reached the distance at which we could shout to each other and have some small hopes the other group would hear the words. "Who are you?! What are you doing here?!" While there was no hostility in the voice, just the sheer discipline in it appeared to form a strange, innate form of magic. Given how many kinds of mana usage I already saw, it came with little to no surprise. Ultimately, as much as I could say from my own observation, how magic operated in a given world was only decided by what was the first idea of the magic that drove its initial development. And ording to the spare information we got before departing for the north, once the revolution turned the natural order of the kingdom that formerly existed on thosends on its head, the old magic was abandoned. That meant, attempting to learn the magic I saw wingless humans shoot back on the battlefield, would bepletely and absolutely pointless. In fact, it could be the kind of social mishap that could seriously strain my rtionship with anyone who I would meet in this ce. And on another note, this potential origin of all the magic systems could be the reason for the revolutionary nation in the north, developing their own magic system through some kind of highly valued quirk their government would put at the pedestal after throwing coup d''etat. "We are here to deal with our own matters. We didn''te here to kill, we didn''te here to fight." Shouting those words over the in that separated our position from the other group, I expected to turn the initial battle that would serve as a greeting, into a more civilized form of getting to know each other. "Wait, is that" Those words, I didn''t hear. I only projected the sensation of hearing those words, when I saw the lips of the man who spoke previously tremble in agitation before uttering them to hisrades. Pam. And then, without any prior warning, a thin ray of light burst forward out of the group, putting a huge, gaping hole right in Taria''s stomach! *//ALERT* My vision exploded in red as the already familiar message started to sh right in the middle of my sight, effectively hiding the position of the other party. *A force capable of damaging the system appeared* *Please take caution* "Those bastards" Unbeknownst to my sudden anguish, Taria clenched her teeth. But rather than exploding in rage, rather than wallowing in pain, she simply looked towards the other group before spreading her wings. "I will kill them!" Chapter 179: Can you afford to misjudge? Chapter 179: Can you afford to misjudge? "Calm down!" Noticing the changes on the girl''s face, I rushed forward. Just in time. Were I to be a single momentter, Teria would slip out of my grasp. Only thanks to my timely reaction I managed to wrap my hands around her waist, before pulling her down to the ground. "If we kill them, this entire mission will turn far harder!" I knew how hard it was to remain calm after obtaining a fresh injury. For this girl, any attempts at stopping her could easily make her turn on me, recognizing my actions as a threat to her safety. Thankfully, the girl proved to be calmer than I was in a simr situation. Rxing her wings, she obedientlynded on the ground. "Excuse me?" Still holding her waist for my dear life, I now realized what kind of position did that put me in. Instantly releasing my hold on her, I distanced my face from the side of her chest against which it was pressed just a moment ago. "Sorry, I didn''t intend" Before I could even utter the word of apology, Teria waved her head, implying that there was no point to linger over the topic. With one of her hands covering a ring wound in her stomach, her eyes were glued to the approaching party. "Why did you attack?!" Now that I could have some hopes for this girl not killing everyone in sight, I turned my attention back to the attackers. But there was no response. Rather than that, the group was split between people fully upied with charging towards us and those who couldn''t think about anything else but escaping. "See? It''s pointless." Shrugging her shoulders, Teria took a triumphant look on her face. For her, this kind of development was only to be expected. Yet that didn''t mean I was willing to give up on a peaceful approach just like that. "Just stay here for a moment. Don''t engage even if I start fighting. Only if the brawl will continue for at least ten heartbeats, you can join and help." Ordering the girl in a low voice, I pointed my finger at the spot I didn''t want her to move from. "Okay, okay. I already know there is no point trying to convince you." Turning her face away, the girl crossed her arms on her chest before stomping her leg to the ground. "Heck, that was cute!" Commenting out in the open, I left the girl with her mouth wide open in surprise before moving several steps towards the attacking party. Raising my hands in the far-from-body position, I slowed my approach before standingpletely still. "We are not here to fight. If you respect it, I won''t have any reason to do you harm." Speaking in a loud yet calm voice, I refused to buckle even when the other party got super close. While that system alert put me quite on the edge, I could hardly believe that there was a force capable of breaking through the dimensional barrier. And it was well within my means to crush the activator of the mechanism of the stone I was hiding in my palm if the other party would ultimately swing its weapon at me. I waited. The horsemen got even closer. I still remained frozen in ce, with my hands raised in the air. The man leading the charge was d in heavy armor with a long pike held under his shoulder. Its tip, outside of glistering in the sun, was aimed right at my chest, getting closer and closer with each passing second. I kept my hands raised. The hand holding the wood of the pike suddenly shook. Then The de of the pike raised as the man pulled the weapon up and held the reins of his horseback. Right at the veryst moment, the heavy-armored soldier dropped his wooden weapon, pulling out his sword and aiming it right at my throat as soon as his horse stopped. "Who are you?!" Still daring to threaten me with his de, the man asked. "Just some travelers with the hopes of visiting the old cathedral." Instantlying up with an answer, I couldn''t stop cursing myself in my own thoughts. How could I forget to create a sensible backstory to our visit beforehand? Why did I leave it for the veryst moment? "Its architectural design, the beauty of the decorations inside It''s unmatched." I added a few words as if to justify the previous statement. "Or so I heard, hence my wish to see it for myself." Even though I only said a few words, I managed to make an important observation while doing so. Because rather than looking at me with either hostility or curiosity, the eyes of the man hidden behind the slits in his helmet constantly watched the girl, as if she was the only source of the man''s worries. "I''m sorry, but the cathedral is off-limits for the foreigners. We wish not for some radicals to attempt overthrowing our newly elected, glorious government." With his eyes twitching, the man suddenly realized something. Instantly bringing his eyes on me, he squinted them before answering. "That would be really troublesome Because no matter what, I need to see the insides of the cathedral." Shrugging my arms, I looked right into the pupils of the man hidden underneath his helmet. "I don''t mind doing so with the additionalpany, but this is something that I need to do. I''m bound by a vow." I had no idea whether this world has something akin to pact magic, vow magic, or any other kind of reinforcing verbal agreement with an honest dosage of magic. And in fact, even if itcked something like that, seeing the same crest repeating on the man''s shield, glove, and his horse''s cloak, I would have to be stupid not to recognize that man''s position. "That doesn''t" Bringing my hand up, I stopped the man from making a peaceful resolution to the situation even harder to achieve. "Sir, with all due respect, but I made a vow to my blind sister. So far, I defeated every single obstacle that stood in my path of fulfilling her greatest dream. I even managed to defeat that winged female behind me, only to force her into helping me." Exining the situation that never took ce, I finally allowed a darker expression to surface on my face. "Sir, do you really believe I would turn around and leave just because you told me to do so? After everything, I went through?!" Raising my voice by a tiny bit, I suddenly turned around and approached the girl. Reaching one of the easily essible pockets of my backpack, I pulled out some basic first aid utensils. "Stay still. It will hurt only a bit." Instantly changing from a subservient attitude topletely ignoring the entire group altogether, I grabbed the bottle of hydrogen peroxidemonly known as oxygenated water. While itsmon name was actually chemically wrong, something I learned while randomly scrolling through the page of my social media back on earth, its naming mistakes and rights didn''t matter now at all. Ssh. By squeezing the thin stic of the bottle, I directed a thin stream of pristine water directly towards the girl''s wound. Huge and deep, it could easily be ssified as a mortal would to any normal human, only further proving how far detached Teria was from what I considered to be normal. While Teria didn''t utter even a single word or moan of protest, her fingers visibly tightened into fists when the hydrogen peroxide started burning all the potential seeds of disease from her exposed flesh. Before long, I covered the wound with a special piece of cloth infused with antiseptics before wrapping a bandage all around it. As little as it would do given how I didn''t have the time to set the stitches or any proper form of wound protection, it was still better than doing nothing. "Well, you are quite strong yourself, so that should do it." Splitting the end of the bandage into two and then using the separate parts to bind the cover in ce, I finally turned my face back to the attackers. "Now, make your choice." There was no fear in my eyes when I looked at the man. As far as my observation went, the man behind this strange ray of light that put my system on a high alert was already gone, safely hidden behind the walls. That made it quite unlikely for anyone else capable of dealing serious damage to me to be present in here. "You can either let us in, let us do what we came here to do, and see us leave this ce in less than a day or you can try to oppose us." There was no threat in my voice. But the calmness with which I announced how the situation looked appeared to have some effect on the other party. "If you try to enter the former cathedral on your own I''m not here to judge your strength, but you will die. Even if you managed to enve a wingwoman" Speaking up, the man unknowingly stepped on thendmine. "Enve? Your mother is enved! Your entire family is enved!" ring up, Teria instantly forgot about the pain of her injury. Stepping forward, she stared daggers at the man for as long as it took him to turn his face around in shame and back down. "While it might be true, there is one more question you should ask yourself." Ignoring the girl''s outburst, I smiled gently. "As you can see, this girl is following me despite not being enved. In terms of how powerful she is, I bet you have a guess. The problem is" Moving a few steps towards the man, I stopped when my forehead was just an inch from the metal of the man''s helmet. "Can you afford to misjudge how powerful I am?" Chapter 180: Luminous Mountain Monastery Chapter 180: Luminous Mountain Monastery My words put a dent in the man''s confidence. And it wasn''t only something I figured out would happen. From how the heavy armored man''s eyes twitched from behind the slits of his helmet, I could tell that I hit the jackpot. "Sir, if I may ask, what seems to be your mission?" Backing off a single step, the man asked. "Didn''t I already tell? I need to go to the main altar of the former cathedral and check one thing about it." Shaking my head to the sides before lowering it down, I muttered. "If you really think I have any clue about why I need to do this" Shrugging my shoulders, I raised my chin and looked back again at the man in te armor. "So that''s how it is" Taking yet another step back, the man finally lowered his weapon from the still-ready-to-use position. Putting his sword back in its scabbard, he then pointed at the city. "I will take the responsibility for your actions in the city sir." Reaching with his hands to a strap below his chin, the man undid the seal before taking his helmet down. "I''m Longinus Martel, a high mercenary of the free capital of Republic." Tensing up in what was most likely some sort of salute, the surprisingly young man looked questioningly at me at Teria behind. "I''m Marius. An adventurer in the service of the Master." It wasn''t the first time for me to be in another world and deal with the problem of backstory that would justify my presence. That''s why I had no probleming up with yet another heroical tale of my exploits basically on the spot. "Sir Master? What Master?" Catching the bait right down the two jingly balls that hung below it, the young adventurer asked. "Just Master. He has no name, as he is the true master of this world." Raising my head a bit and smiling gently, I continued. "You might not recognize him to be one, and I don''t me you. He wishes not to rule nor to govern, just for this world to maintain a course towards prosperity." Almost bowing down in half while I spoke great praises about a persona that never existed, I suddenly realized how much I grew. And this realization came from something as simple, as the fact that I no longer had any troubles keeping a straight face despite how much my soul was giggling inside. Now that I thought about this, I was more of a con artist doing in entire worlds rather than an explorer learning about newnds and ways of thought. "Either way, all I can say is that I hope I won''t regret my decisionter." Shaking his head in defeat, Longinus turned around, gesturing at his people to stand down. From there, the events finally started to move at a pace more considerate of how hurried we were. With the young mercenary vouching for the two of us, we managed to get to the city without any major problem. While Teria''s wings initially caused a smallmotion, from how the guards instantly calmed down when Longinus spoke up on our behalf, I could tell that despite being so young, he certainly wielded some kind of high position in the local society and military. "Isn''t everything going a bit too easy?" Walking right bedsides me ording to one of Longinus'' strange wishes, Teria muttered. "It doesn''t matter. We are getting closer to solving my puzzle with each step. Even if we are walking into a trap" Sending a confident look forward, I smiled a bit. "I''m quite sure I will still be able to deal with the danger. So for now, nearing the cathedral is all that matters." While I understood Teria''s worries, they hardly appeared in my mind in the same manner they were bound to appear in her thoughts. While the fact that I didn''t have wings certainly made things easier on my end, it was inly obvious that out of the two of us, I was the one who everyone would be wary of. Not because of some kind of aura that my body would ooze out. I had no such thing. But the sheer fact that I was able to walk side by side with the wingwoman, the sheer quality of my clothes and equipment that hanged from every nook and cranny of my outfit, made me look like a human, but also as a being from another world at the same time. "For now, we will wait the next few hours here." Suddenly calling for a stop, Longinus pointed his hand at a nearby tavern. Even though there were no markings or outward hints about what the building was all about, the merry singing and rhythmic pping sound made it easy to confirm the young mercenary''s words. "Weren''t we going to go to the cathedral right away?" Turning my head to my temporary guide, I asked. "Well, it will be inconvenient to rush. Or to put it in simply" Taking a few steps to the side, Longinus looked towards the center of the town, before taking a few steps to the side again. "Come here." Stretching out his hand towards something in the distance, Longinus gestured at me to get closer. Unsure what the man had in mind, I ended up falling right into his trap. Feeling his left arm embracing my shoulder, I instantly hint of repulsion, aimed at throwing the man away was his intentions to turn hostile. Then, I directed my eyes where Longinus invited me to look. "What you know as the cathedral, is now a parliament of the republic. It currently houses the representatives of all the free states and free cities that the republic is made of." Describing what was the actual usage of the grandiose building he was pointing at, Longinus pretended not to be aware of the shock I received. Because I already saw this construction before! While I couldn''t be sure about the details as medieval cathedrals and religious buildings overall never were a point of any particr interest of mine, I was quite sure that the general shape and outline of the building was the same as one of the most well-known monasteries in the world! Surrounded by a low yet thick wall, it stood atop a small hill. The mainplex consisted of the enormous chapel at the far north of the build, with a secondary building connecting directly to the main body. And after just a few moments of gazing at the marvelous sight before my eyes, I could say with all certainty. This cathedral, this new parliament of the republic of free states and cities as Longinus called it, was nearly an exact copy of the Luminous Mountain monastery located in the center of my home nation. Its extensive ramparts were of exactly the same shape as the ones I used to run around during one of the school trips. Its main bell tower even had the exact same color! "I understand." As shocked as I was, I still had to reply to my guide. Nodding my head, I silently followed him into the inn, with Teria obediently trodding behind me. What started as a sh and a potential battle back at the outskirts outside the city, now quickly turned calm and peaceful. Or rather, happy and joyful. I wasn''t as insensitive to expect the other party to introduce me to the most important building in their entire country right as it was popted by the most important figures from said country. Given the situation, waiting a few hours or even a few days wouldn''t be a problem. I still had more than enough leeway on my time-freeze to deal with everything before Ayda would even be able to blink outside! Soon, my thoughts turned more rxed as the two huge mugs of beer ended up empty after challenging the bandwidth of my throat. From a single look to the side, I could see Tertia challenging some locals to a drinking fight. And from the looks of things, she wasn''t going to lose! What started as a potential conflict, turned into no less than a widespread drinking party. Yet, no one acted as if anything was out of ce. Rather than bitching about the jolly atmosphere and noise, people would happily join the dances and singing. Even the owner of the ce seemed to be happy with all the orders for food and drinks that continued toe to the counter. In the end, I didn''t even realize how much time has passed when Longinus suddenly ced his palm on my shoulder. "Sir, the debate is over. I should be able to bring you in to the parliament in about an hour, but we need to hurry." Instantly fighting off the slight haziness from all the drinks I had by this moment, I focused my eyes on the young mercenary''s face. "Getting to the former cathedral will take us a while, and another debate is scheduled to start soon!" Chapter 181: Cathedral Chapter 181: Cathedral To say that we were hurried would only paint a part of the whole picture. Even though I had quite a few drinks already, it seemed that along with the growth of my cultivation, the resistance that my body offered to alcohol or any other kind of drug grew exponentially. As such, despite drinking as quickly as Teria did, I was the only one capable of walking straight when we moved out. "Are you really sure it''s okay for us to enter in such a state?" Throwing a question to Longinus who also showed the signs of being quite tipsy, I didn''t expect any rational answer. After all, whether the drinks we had were basing on alcohol or not, I could feel their kick nheless. "If that''s your idea of fulfilling your promise so that we won''t be able to find any fault with youter on" Leaving the end of my sentence open, I cast a suspicious nce at the high mercenary. "Come on, do I really look that smart to you?" Leaning his head to the side and casting a ridiculing look at me, Longinus ignored my probing. "We were waiting, so we had something to drink. Outside of your winged partner" Longinus took a moment to send a nce to the lifeless body of Teria hanging from my shoulder. Out of all three of us, only she ended uppletely wasted. "Actually, it will be better if you just leave her behind." As suspicious as this advice would sound in any other scenario, I would be a hypocrite if I even attempted to put such a notion down, given how the same thoughts wandered through my own head a moment ago. "To be honest, that might actually be a good idea." Shaking my hand while fixing my hold over the girl''s side, I looked towards the cathedra now easily noticeable in the distance. "In the end, she''s here just to escort me although for different reasons than you might suspect." Smiling lightly to my own thoughts, I decided not to dig any further into this topic. There was no need for Longinus to know the reason behind Teria''s presence with me, nor the real reason why I wanted to visit the cathedral. As long as he would bring me to the ce that the prince back at the frontline suggested, I would be happy with his help and willing to leave the ce peacefully. "Wait, are you for real?" Hearing my response, Longinus suddenly froze in the spot, instantly turning his head to look at me. His eyes widened in shock only proved that his earlier suggestion was nothing more but a slight joke. "Yeah. Given the importance of the cathedral for your people, I''m worried she could go on a rampage or something." Breathing out a deep sigh of exhaustion, I raised my head to the slowly darkening skies. "Our rtionship is strange. But that means you will need to leave someone with her to pass my words to her. If she misunderstands and believes I actually ran away, this entire city would be in for a disaster." Rather than biting the problem of leaving the barely conscious girl in the hands of a potentially hostile party, I decided to do it the other way around. Rather than threatening Longinus to make sure he would keep Teria safe, I decided to exin how not doing everything in their power to please the girl would mean a disaster to them instead. "That can be done. But no matter what, I''m not going to even attempt stopping her if she suddenly wakes up and demands to be brought to you." Silently epting that he wouldn''t understand just what kind of ties connected me to this drunk girl hanging off from my arm, Longinus just glossed over the topic before turning silent himself. All the way to the cathedral which took us nearly an hour due to the dead weight slowing me down, not a single word appeared between the three of us. Yet, despite all my worries, no trouble appeared when we finally reached the ce. The first instance when I expected something to go south, was right at the gate. But before its guards could even ask a single question, Longinus already strode forward, dealing with them with just a few words. The second time when things got a little tenser, was when we passed through the massive courtyard and reached the gate leading to the cathedral proper. Here, not even Longinus'' attentiveness prevented the guards from screening the situation. "So you are telling me, you are here just to check something out?" Looking at me with a clear doubt mixed with ridicule, the guard ignored everything that Longinus said in advance. "Yes. And on that note, it would be extremely helpful if you could take care of this girl while I''m inside." Using all my remaining power to move the girl from my arm to a small bench nearby, after securing her on it I moved back to the guards. "She came here in order to retrieve an item that''s in my possession. But I still need to see whether my master''s guess was right or not before giving it to her." Only this story which happened to be a rare piece of truth in my mouth managed to push us through the second check. As we moved inside the massive building, I thought no more problems would appear, when my vision suddenly turned reddish, as a familiar rm exploded in my head. "Who are you?!" I managed to make just a few steps into the cathedra when a strong, female voice reached my ears. Given how I could feel how close I was to a potential fulfillment of my quest, I identally rushed forward, leaving Longinus still on the other side of the inner gate. "Ah, I''m sorry, my guide is right behind" Before I could even finish my words, the slight redness of my vision turned vivid as I noticed a peculiar point of light deeper into the cathedral corridor. And this single point of light quickly exploded towards me. //ALERT The attack was so fast that even the system failed to react. "Stop!" Rushing forward, Longinus pulled me to the back, shielding me from the iing attack. At the same time, the redness intensity of my vision only continued to grow to the point where I could no longer control my body. "What the hell are you doing?!" The light dispersed as quickly as it appeared a moment before. Diminishing before it could strike Longinus chest protected just by a simple, linen shirt, the caster of the attack diffused its intent, stopping the deadly ray of light before it could prate Longinus'' chest. "What the hell am I doing? A better question is, what the hell are you doing attacking this honorary quest of the republic?!" Hearing Longinus words, I finally felt power returning to the tips of my fingers. For a moment, my entire body was paralyzed. Or rather, it felt as if something else took over my body, lowering my center of weight in an attempt to brace, only to give up on the idea the very next moment. And that alone was something worth investigating. Sadly, in the middle of the cathedra, there was no way I would have enough peaceful time to just think about this strange event. "An honorary guest to the republic? Didn''t we set out to kill those two Wait, where is the girl?!" Suddenly turning her tone from surprised to clearly hostile, the girl''s silhouette in the distance diapered in the shadows once again. "Eh, and here I am, trying to deal with this matter peacefully." Shaking my head in defeat, I pulled out the recurring barrier stone. More for the sake of my own safety and to threaten the other party, I tightened my jaws. Because using this stone in the confines of the cathedral would surely lead to its full copse! "What the hell" A new, yet familiar voice came from behind. Before the hostility between this strange girl hiding in the shadows and my side could begin, Teria passed by the doors while struggling to keep herself straight. "Oh, that will do for a perfect exnation." Suddenly changing the topic, I gestured at the girl toe closer. Still ready to fire the recurring barrier as soon as I would deem it necessary, I grabbed Teria''s arm before looking in the direction when the voice of the other female came from. "I assume you are familiar with the power of the winged tribe, am I right?" Dropping this question to the empty corridor, I didn''t expect to receive an answer. Now that the girl clearly showed her hostile intentions, she shouldn''t be stupid enough to betray her position by speaking out loud. "Before you attack me then, let me show you something. Teria" Turning my head to the side, I smiled before reaching with my left arm to the back only to bring it cascading forward, pping Teria with all the physical might I could harness in my left arm. "What the he WOAH!" Instantly jumping to the back, Teria''s shock changed into terror in an instant. With my recurring barrier stone right in front of her eyes, all her drunkness from before evaporated from her blood, reced by adrenaline. "That should showcase just how powerful this single stone is, didn''t it?" Quickly lowering my hand, I could see how Teria only now could attempt to stabilize her breathing. Even though I knew I would hear an earful from herter on, it was still better than turning this rtively peaceful mission into a full-blown conflict. "It is." Confirming the situation and stepping out from the shadows, a tiny girl suddenly appeared barely a few meters away. With a sharp dagger in her hand reflecting the flickering light of the chandeliers hanging from the roof, she didn''t appear to be scared of Teria''s appearance at all. Rather than that, her eyes were glued to my hand where I held the recurring stone. "But that doesn''t answer the question. What the hell are you doing in here?" Given how the initial hostility was momentarily on hold, I decided to strike the iron while it was hot. "Not to cause any trouble, that you can be sure off. In short words, I''m here either to deliver something or to at least ensure this is not the ce where I should deliver a certain item in the first ce." Once again, a rare moment of honesty happened. Not because I felt pressured to speak the truth, but simply because I believed the truth, in this exact situation, allowed me to further deescte the potentially problematic situation. "And for that, I need to check the main altar of the cathedral." Putting a smile on my face out of nowhere, I lowered my head a bit before scratching its back with my right freehand. "To be frank, I have no idea what did you turn this altar into, so I have no other choice but to rely on your help to find it." As suddenly as it appeared, my smile vanished from my lips, reced by dead and cold seriousness. "That, or I will have no other choice but to try every single stone of the ruins that will remain of this ce if you decide to hinder my mission." Chapter 182: Fulfiling the mission? Chapter 182: Fulfiling the mission? "I" Hearing the open threat in my words, Longinus staggered a bit before regaining his footing. For a moment, rapid changes took ce on his face before it finally stabilized on a look of defeat. "I understand. Arsha, stand down." "Yes, sir." Contrary to the man, the girl who previously attempted to attack me clearly had some troubles retracting her hostility. And I wasn''t surprised by it at all. There was an undeniable fact that there was a huge hostility between wingless and winged humans. While I had no idea what was the reason for the conflict, I wasn''t naive enough to believe that just moving to the north a bit would change the general hostility all that much. In fact, rather than being surprised by how Arsha had some troubles pulling her hostility back, I was shocked at how quickly Longinus managed to ept the new reality that I showed to him! "Follow me, I will take you to where the main altar was." Moving forward, Longinus ordered. Not waiting even for a second, he seemed unwilling to give hispanion any moment to protest or disapprove his order in any way or form. "Arsha Was it?" Turning my head to the girl instead, I pretended to be struck down by the hateful look that she threw at me in response. "What do you want?" To im that these words were filled with enmity, would be akin to calling the grand canyon a small rift. "Nothing much. I was just curious where did all the enmity between you and the winged peoplee from." This was something that I attempted to ask Teria about several times already, but every time she would give me either a cold shoulder or just outright ignore the question. Only once did she mutter something about a failed marriage But who would I be to believe in something so silly? While it was possible for wars to be started over a woman or an arranged marriage, just like it happened in the legendary myth of the war for the city-state of Troy. Yet, unless this marriage would lead to some countries uniting and creating a superpower that would destroy the bnce of the powers in the entire world, I could hardly imagine for Teria''s words back them to make any sense. "Wait, between us and them? Who are you to exclude yourself from the equation like that?" Suddenly, Arsha''s face changed as she noticed the small bait I included in my words. "Because I''m not a human from this world? I do not belong to any of the races present in this ce?" Grabbing my chin with my hands, I slowly rubbed it as if looking for the right words to phrase what I wanted to say was actually a huge, intellectual challenge. "Wait, what in all hells?!" Surprised by how open I was about this topic, Arsha jumped away as if I was a spilling pot of boiling water, with her hands instantly coupling together. Before I could even react, the same pure light from before coated her hands Only for Longinus to take a step back, smack the girl in the back of her head and resumed his march forward without even a single word. Yet, the momentary look on his face that I managed to sneak only proved that he was just as surprised as his femalepanion was. "Hells? No, I do note from any of the hells you believe in. I''m in this world for three distinctive reasons." Not bothered by the situation at all as I could always use the emergency exit and move on, I put a smile on my face instead. "First off, is to learn something that will give me an edge over Let''s say, an overlypetitive ally of mine." As confusing and iprehensible as my earlier ims were, I could see how the expression on Arsha''s face calmed down once she realized that despite iming to be an otherworldly being, my problems were exactly the same as the ones any random Joe of her world faced. "Wait, don''t leave me out of it!" Suddenly, Teria came storming forward, refusing to miss even a single word of mine. Because just like she refused to tell me much about her own circumstances before, I never believed it was necessary for me to enlighten her about my situation either. "Secondly, is to establish a foothold in this world so I can learn more about your local means of utilizing mana. But as you can figure out from what I said before" Taking a moment to increase the tension of the situation, I put an enlighten smile on my face as I brought my eyes up, putting a thoughtful expression on my face. "it''s still just one of the means of gaining an edge over my riv uncertain supporter." This time, I mixed the simplicity with someplex matters. Still keeping up this fake expression of mine, I could pretty much freely observe the changes on both Arsha''s and Teria''s faces. And those changes couldn''t go in more opposite directions. To my left, Arsha''s expression only continued to sink, indicating that she properly misunderstood the meaning of the foothold in my previous sentence. On the other hand, Teria''s face only continued to brighten when she realized that I wasn''t one of her mortal enemies at all! "As for the third thing, it''s what I''m here to deal with." Lowering my head and finally dressing a natural expression on my face, I exined. "Which is finding the altar of the cathedral and checking if it''s If it''s the thing I''m looking for." This time, I didn''t dare to be fully honest. Right now, Teria could already put two to two and understand what was the real crux of my missions. But given how she didn''t re up or allowed her expression to turn dark again, I could tell that she didn''t really mind this kind of development. Yet, the chances that both Longinus and Arsha, both of whom were subjects to the northern kingdom, would react in the same way were pretty small. While the fact that the prince of the southern army didn''t mind parting with the Scared Core didn''t necessarily mean that all of the wingless humans across this entire world would share the same view on this item! "I I understand." After this entire spree of honesty from me, there was no longer any hostility in Arsha''s eyes or soul. Rather than that, she appeared to be just confused about everything I told her, currently dedicating the entire processing power of her brain to making a sense of my earlier words. "That''s great. Because we are about to reach that ce you were so eager to visit, sir." Suddenly stopping in front of a set ofpletely ordinary doors, Longinus spoke up. Moving a few paces forward, I leveled myself with the mercenary before putting my hand on the door. In that single moment, a mix of emotions surfaced in my soul. From worry that this might all be nothing but an borate trap, through the anticipation of fulfilling this system''s mission so quickly all the way to the near ecstasy of being able to return into Ayda''s embrace soon. "Are you not going to push those doors open?" After a few moments, Longinus finally spoke up, startled by theck of action from my side. "I''m sorry I just didn''t expect for everything to go so smoothly." Taking my hand down from the door, I shrugged my shoulders before speaking out with honesty once again. "To be honest, I was prepared to eradicate every other person in this city just to get to the altar. It''s too easy. So I hope you will do me a favor" At this point, my expression instantly turned cold as the recurring stone appeared in my palm once again. "of opening those doors for me. " When I should be the least guarded in this single moment, I forced myself to remain fully focused on the task. In the end, I was already inside the cathedral so there was only so far that the altar could be away from me right now if Longinus'' actions so far would prove to be a trap all along. Reaching this point only to be sent back to earth with nothing would be truly infuriating! "Huh? Sure?" Clearly surprised by my sudden change of mind, Longinus ced his hand on the door''s knob before pushing it open and stepping forward. Following Arsha, I entered third with Teriagging behind me. "This is the altar you wanted to look at. Does that satisfy your needs?" Ignoring Longinus as I walked past him, I ced my hand on the cold, squarish stone. Reaching my belt in terms of height and as long as two of meid alongside its length, it was truly a massive piece of stone. Without any markings, runes, or decorations on it, one could hardly say that it was an altar of sorts. IF Longinus didn''t point it out for me, I would most likely just walk past it in an attempt to locate the real thing elsewhere! "I don''t know yet." Finally pulling out the Sacred Core from underneath my robes, I made sure both of my remaining standard barriers were in full swing. Thankfully, while the eyes of both Longinus and Arsha widen when they saw the item in my hand, they didn''t dare to do a thing. "But we will soon find out." cing the stone on the altar, I felt my vision snapping a bit before a system window appeared right in front of my eyes. //Standard Mission Fulfilled //Finish the mission //Enter second arc of the mission (Warning, extreme difficulty) Chapter 183: The mother Chapter 183: The mother "Wha?" Taken aback, I took a few steps behind before the momentum of the sheer shock stalled my steps. It was the first time for the system to announce that a mission could have arcs! And what was with this added "extreme difficulty"? Did that mean that the mission in this world was on an easy mode so far? What would that mean for the possible rewards I would receive from it? "What happened?!" Noticing how startled I was, Teria instantly stepped forward a few paces, before a strange barrier halted her steps. Only capable of guessing that this barrier had something to do with my system, I decided not to pay much of my attention to it, dedicating my brain''s processing power to tackle the issue at hand instead. Should I take the easy way out? Not to speak about the rewards, just the ability to shift was quite interesting and a great haul in terms of benefits from my journey to this world. But on the other hand, I still had a majority of a time freeze, meaning that I could still afford to make some mistakes. "What is going on?! TELL US NOW!" Screaming from the side, Arsha was already conjuring some kind of spell in her hands, producing the very same light that I had a chance to see twice already. "I''m not sure myself" Speaking out with all the honesty I could muster, I attempted to take yet another step back when I hit the very same wall that was stopping Teria from approaching me. "Stop it right now." Arsha''s voice turned cold andposed as the light between her hands intensified. "Do you think I have any idea how?!" Responding off the top of my head, I looked at my options once again. But as scary as "extreme difficulty" sounded like, it didn''t change an important fact. No matter what, I still could use the emergency exit at any given time! Meaning, if I were to face a quest beyond my ability to solve, I could always salvage myself just by escaping! "I ept the extension of the mission." Speaking out in a low voice, I saw a strange sh before the reality suddenly washed away. In a single wave of mana, everything in front of me disappeared, reced by a heavenly blue. Filling my vision as if I was in a massive container filled with illuminated water, it blocked the entirety of my view. Then, just as quickly and suddenly as it appeared, the soothing blueness disappeared, reced by a strange sight. A simple chamber consisted of a huge, royal bed surrounded with baldachins, a small cab with a cozy chair, and a huge window in one of the walls. The one surprising thing about the ce was apleteck of any kind of doors to speak off. Upon closer inspection, I realized that even the windows only gave a hint of freedom, as the bars firmly lodged in their frames blocked the only way out of the chamber. "I will not have that attitude!" Out of nowhere, three people appeared in the middle of the room. Two females, one young and the other old, and a man in his best years. And to put it bluntly, just the intensity behind the man''s voice was enough to make the steel bars in the window shake. "Nor will I!" The younger girl screamed in response, lurking from behind the older woman''s back. "The decision is already made. Your fate no longer rests in your own hands." Squirming his eyes in a clearly furious expression, the man suddenly calmed down, before throwing a few words more with a cold voice. "I didn''t expect you to grow up so selfish. Think about your n and your family for once, would you?!" Shaking his head with disappointment, the man turned around and approached the solid wall. Yet, once his hand reached towards the cold stones of the room''s barrier, he somehow managed to grab something before pulling back and revealing a door that shouldn''t be there. After the momentary confusion, I understood. While I seemed to observe how the room looked in the reality, the vision stacked on top of it was free of the restraints of how the room looked right now. In other words, the illusion of the room wasn''t the same vision responsible for the characters. "Ulena, now is yourst chance to leave." Stopping at the doors, the man announced with a grim voice. Yet, rather than responding to the authoritative male, the old woman only shook her head before closing her hug around the younger girl''s shoulder. "Fine! So be it!" Clearly not expecting this kind of development, the man moved outside of the chamber, effectively disappearing from my field of view. Yet, from how the walls itself appeared to tremble, I could tell that the force at which he mmed the door closed was pretty formidable. "Mother What should I do?" Instantly tearing up as soon as the man left the ce, the young girl fell onto the chest of the older female. "MEN!" Before any answer could be heard, the voice of the man appeared once again although it was muffled due to the physical obstacles his voice had to pass through. "Seal the room, don''t let anyone get even near it afterward. Until the day of the wedding, approaching this ce will be taken as a capital crime!" For a moment, both the old and the young female turned mute. Soon, the silence that ensued was broken by the sound of hammering. The walls started to shake a little as the faces of the females turned white. "Listen, dear." Finallying to her senses, the older woman grasped her youngerpanion''s face between her hands, forcing the bride-to-be to look her in the eyes. "I''m not going to tell you what to do or what to not do. But as I''m at the doorstep of my time, this will be myst gift to you." Touching her chest, the older female smiled. On the other hand, as if understanding what was about to happen, the expression of the younger girl turned dire. As soon as those words rang in my ears, the entire vision disappeared. Feeling weak in my knees, I almost fell down on my face before throwing my hands forward in a desperate attempt to shield my face from the impact. Pop. At the same time, the barrier that surrounded me and the altar suddenly disappeared, allowing both Teria and Longinus to rush to me. "What happened? What was that?" Looking to the side, I could see Arsha moaning on the floor in pain while holding the back of her head with both of her hands. "Like I said, I''m not sure." Before I could finish my words, something strange entered my ears. Szzzzzzzzz. Looking up, I thought I managed to locate the source of the sound, only to see the side of the stone altar,pletely unperturbed by the situation. Standing up to my knees, I finally managed to find out what was going on. Because the sacred core I ced on the altar before, was now seemingly melting the solid stone it was made off, sinking lower and lower into this otherwise solid block of stone! "Just what the hell" Once again, before I could finish my words, the strange situation concluded. The sacred core stopped sinking into the stone, resting in the skeletal hands of a body that appeared to be hidden inside. And once it finally fell into the bony grasp of the skeleton, its gentle, warm light exploded. For a moment, I was unable to see anything. Just like if it was a sh grenade, my eyes momentarily ceased to work. Thankfully, it appeared as if my raised cultivation was useful even in this kind of situation, oveing the eye exhaustion and restoring my sight before anyone else in the chamber could do the same on their own. "Just what the hell" For the third time, my words were cut. This time, a series of notifications appeared in my view as soon as I reached forward to grab the sacred core. //Initial mission fulfilled. Opening the bank of memories //To obtain new memories, fulfill the side quests //Current mission: Bring the activated sacred core back to where it belongs //Side missions: "About the princess'' caretaker", "Reuniting the family", "Bridal night", "One ring to rule them all" Amongst all the missions that appeared in my vision, only one was shing with a light green hue. It was the very first side mission, having something to do with the older female I saw back in my vision. Or, at least, that was my guess. Yet, what this shing light mean? How long would it take me to solve all the side missions to fulfill the main one? And most importantly, what was so dangerous about this mission in the first ce? As pressing as those questions were, they had to wait. Because from the looks of things, both Teria and even Longinus, not to speak about Arsha, were reaching the limits of their patience. "Do you know who was buried on the altar?" Rather than answering their doubts, I pointed my hand at the skeletal hands visible in the hole created by the sacred core. For a moment, the name of the "About the princess'' caretaker" mission shed in a slightly more intense green. "Buried? What do you" Surprised by my words, Longinus stood up before taking a look at the upper side of the altar. "Oh" The shock that shook his body couldn''t be faked. It reached the innate parts of his soul, even making his otherwise unreadable aura open up for me to exploit for a moment. And to be frank, a quick read of the man''s emotions pretty much assured me that my guess was right. "It can''t be" Arsha''s eyes widened. She slowly paced forward, as if the simple stone of the altar turned from what it was, a simple stone, to an object of religious reverence. "If I''m right" Arsha''s lips trembled before she suddenly mmed her mouth closed, unwilling to speak up what was on her mind. "Can anyone tell me what the fuck is going on?" Looking to the side, I could see a pretty dissatisfied look on Teria''s face. Yet, rather than getting annoyed by her interference or worried that she would press me to fulfill my promise right away, I actually enjoyed the fact that I wasn''t the only one clueless about the meaning of this skeleton in the stone. "If I''m not wrong" Longinus started only to receive a devastating nudge to his side. It seemed that Arsha didn''t enjoy the idea of sharing that news with us. Yet, contrary to the obvious hints of his femalepanion, Longinus didn''t stop. "Those are the bones of the veryst queen of all men, the mother of all the nations and patron of the wingless tribe." Swallowing a mouthful of saliva, Longinus kneeled before the altar as he finished his exnation. "The saint of the gods and men, Lady Ulena!" Chapter 184: We all share a goal Chapter 184: We all share a goal "The saint of the gods and men, Lady Ulena." That was the name that escaped from Longinus'' mouth. From the sheer reverence in his eyes as he stared at the devastated altar it was clear that this name meant a lot to him. On the other hand, what was surprising, was that they were actually surprised. "You mean to say, that you didn''t know this?" With the sacred core safely retrieved and hidden in my pouch, I could finally afford to pay a little bit more attention to the events surrounding me. "Well, it''s actuallymon knowledge But to this point, you could ask anyone on the streets and they would all im it was an Urban legend." Moving a step forward, Longinus ced his hand on the cold stone of the altar before closing his eyes. Taking a moment to say a prayer or something, he then returned to his senses and looked at me. "Sir, for uncovering the truth that we were blind to see ourselves You have my utmost gratitude." Lowering his head in respect, Longinus proved that either his pride meant nothing to him or the deal was actually pretty big here. "Wait a moment" Still noticing the shing light of the first of the side missions, I inquired. "Would you care to tell me the story of this saint? I think my mission might have something to do with her." Since the quest''s name continued to sh, then there has to be a reason behind it. And given how I had absolutely no clue what that reason could be, trying out the most obvious ones appeared to be the easiest solution. "About saint Ulena, huh?" Muttering under her nose, Arsha finally gathered her courage to approach the altar herself. With her eyes filled with respect and nearly religious seriousness, she moved her sight on my face. "In short words, she was the chosen one. She offered herself to end the strife between two tribes of the humans." Bit by bit, the mosaic started to fall in ce. While nothing much yet, it could soon give birth to the full image of the story, allowing me to solve this quest once and for all. But as eager as I felt to already create a conjecture of the whole picture from what I saw and heard just now, I ultimately forced my own mind to ignore those thoughts and focus on Arsha''s words. Sadly, I wasn''t given any chance to discuss this topic with her any longer. "Wait, what has something to do with your mission? Didn''t you fulfill it already?" As she stepped forward, the look on Teria''s face changed. And I could easily tell why. All the way to this point, she believed that she would get her hands on the sacred core as soon as we would reach the altar in the cathedral of the northern kingdom. Yet, right as this mission appeared to be fulfilled, I kept speaking about the mission as if it was in progress. In such a situation, one would have to be extremely naive to believe that situation didn''t change. "As you can see, it might take me a little longer to give you the sacred core." Given how we already used this term pretty openly a few times in presence of both Longinus and Arsha, I paid it no mind when I called its name once again. But for some particr reason, this time the reaction of the two was starkly different. "Wait a second." Turning his head to the side, Longinus allowed his hand to slid off the stone of the altar, looking at me with his eyes widened in shock. "Did you just say sacred core?" Before I could even answer, the youth''s hand moved to the hilt of his sword but instead of unleashing it and jumping to my throat, he turned on his feet and looked around the empty hall. "Arsha, get the rest. Mister" Looking at me, Longinus nonverbally asked the question. "Marius. Call me Marius." Whether he forgot the name or was just too absorbed when I revealed it for the first time, didn''t matter. But what he was doing and ordering his femalepanion to do had its own weight. "Mister, seeing how you travel with a chieftain of one of the winged tribes, would I be right to assume that you are one of the restorationists?" With his hand still on the hilt of his sword, Longinus stared at me with an extremely serious look on his face. With his eyespletely motionless, glued to my own pupils, I could tell just how meaningful this question was. Sadly, I was neither in a position nor mood to humor him. "To be frank, I have no idea what those restorationists are." Shaking my shoulders, I nced at the pulsating light of the side mission''s name, before moving my eyes back on Arsha. "But seeing how you behave, it''s easy to tell that it''s a big deal for you. Yet" Taking a moment to let the tension build up a bit, I made sure to grab Teria''s wrist and tightened my grasp around it to the point when the girl would feel a small tingle of pain. In the end, this was the only method of stopping her from interfering with the situation that I could bring into action without alerting the other party about my intentions. "Yet, judging from everything that I know already, it''s not entirely impossible for our goals to align." Finally letting go of Teria''s wrist, I then looked at her with exactly the same, serious expression I used while making my previous statement. "And if my intuition is not wrong, that part might also include you, Teria." I knew that drawing any conjectures from the limited knowledge that I had so far was naive if not stupid. But for now, I had two potential sources of important information about the problem told from the perspectives of two opposing sides. Yet, to make full use of this opportunity, I had to make sure everyone would y for the same side At least for as long as it would take to discuss the details. "And what might be interesting for me in potential cooperation with those lowly wingless?" Using the adjective in ce for a name already spoke much about the rtionship between the two tribes. "Teria, stop it. If you are so against working with wingless humans, howe you are following everyst step I make?" I no longer considered this girl a threat. Not because I belittled her abilities, but because I just couldn''t imagine the two of us going at each other''s throats. Not after traveling with her for a while, learning from her guidance, eating from the same pot Even if I wouldn''t call the two of us per friend, there was no denying that we were already aquaintanced with each other. Sadly, if she were to go against my wish to cooperate with Longinus, then I would have no other choice but to cut her out of the situation, ultimately breaking the promise I made to her. "Stop it? Didn''t you see what they did at the front?! We had to transfigure nearly half of our poption just to hold their invasion back!" Suddenly flying into a rage, Teria wrestled her hand from my grasp as quickly as I attempted to take control of it when she erupted. Taking a step back, she looked at me before sending a hateful nce towards the two local humans. "You know perfectly well while I''m traveling with you. It''s all because I was naive enough to believe you will fulfill the promise you made. Don''t try to paint the picture nk with your lies now!" Her wings spread open, once again making her appear like some kind of angel. Regretfully, the wrath on her face only made her look like an angel of vengeance and fury. "When did I say that I''m going to break my promise?" Opening my eyes wide, I could no longer hold myself back. The small bait I set all this time when I first mentioned my mission, finally paid off. "What?" Teria stood in ce, confused just as much as I pretended to be. And that alone proved that my little scheme was working just as expected. "Didn''t we agree on a certain time frame? While I honestly hoped that my mission would end here, sadly, that doesn''t seem to be the case." Shaking my head with regret, I alternated my eyes between the girl and the tense duo of wingless humans to the side. "I never said I would go back on my word. Once my time will pass, I will offer this sacred core to you." Longinus and Arsha visibly tensed up when those words reached their ears. "But from what I''m seeing right now, it seems like we will all be going to where you wanted to bring the sacred stone in the first ce." Turning on my heel, I smiled kindly to the two locals. "Am I right, Mister Longinus?" Chapter 185: Story of the saint Chapter 185: Story of the saint "Well That will depend on what your next destination is." For the first time since the imminent sh back at the outskirts in front of the town, Longinus ced his hand on the handle of his sword. And that alone was a great proof of how serious the youth was. "Right now, I''m out of clues. So I intend to go with Terita and see whether the ce she wants to bring the sacred core to might be the ce my mission will conclude as well." Putting a wide smile on my face, I exined. "In other words, I intend to bring this sacred core to where it truly belongs." Taking a step behind, I spread out my arms before shaking my shoulders. This act of defiance andpleteck of interest in the potential drawbacks of my decision wasn''t fake though. Right now, it truly didn''t matter to me where I would go, given how following Teria seemed to be the only option I had on hand right now. "So back to the winged tribe, huh" A weird grimace appeared on Longinus'' face only to disappeared the next moment. Yet, what was even more curious, was how Arshacked the same reaction. ''She didn''t hold her words or actions back before, did something change or'' This thought appeared in my mind, instantly putting the rtionship between Longinus and Arsha into doubt. Because there wasn''t any change to her behavior at all so far! Given how consisted she was with her act, the reason behind how differently she reacted to the news had to lie in a difference that existed beforehand. And as per my guess, it had something to do with knowledge about the real course of the matters from the past. "But first, before we go anywhere, I would like to hear everything about that Saint person from you." Lowering my arms I requested before turning my eyes to Teria. "And you" Noticing my gaze, the winged girl only harumphed before turning her face away, clearly unable to wait to refuse whatever request I would push forward. "And you, just let them speak. I''m not asking them what''s the absolute truth, but what their side of the conflict knows about the matter." Moving towards the girl, I ced my hand on her head. What surprised me though, was that I actually managed to pat her before she shook my arm away with a violently sudden move of the arm of her own. "I can tell you the general story But not here. We need to move out right now." Even though he managed to mask it before, Longinus'' anxiety resurfaced in just a few moments. "Let me guess, people won''t be necessarily happy about this reveal?" Pointing my hand towards the altar, I could feel the corners of my lips crawling upwards on my face. While I refused to dabble in politics in the past, it didn''t mean I was fully ignorant about it. And from the thick uneasiness that appeared all over the ce as soon as I spoke my words, I could tell I managed to hit the head of the nail. It appeared that earth wasn''t the only world gued with corrupt governments twisting the facts for their own convenience! "That''s roughly the case. But you can be he sure they would put you down from destroying the national, cultural treasure instead." Shaking his head in denial, Longinus looked towards the doors, as if worried that someone would walk on them right this moment. "Our parliament Eh, who am I trying to manipte, the rich trio would never admit to the existence of those bones, even if half of the city saw them with their very own eyes." Revealing bits and parts of something that could potentially be interesting, Longinus unknowingly put me in quite a distraught. Because even with all the responsibilities that I had as the leader of the faction on a verge of internal strife, I still had this pioneering spirit making up the most of my soul. While it was only a guess, I personally believed that it was this trait of my character that made the system appeared for me in particr, rather than for any other random Joe living in the next house or condo. "Let''s not waste any time, then." As interesting as the matter of the rich trio could potentially be, I had no need for the resources of this world yet. That''s why, rather than pressing this point, I decided to focus on fulfilling my mission instead. The constant pulses of the green light from the one system notification window that I couldn''t close was an additional reminder that made me act like that. "Yeah. Come, we will bring you to your lodging." Calming himself down, Longinus moved forward only to freeze as soon as he made his first step. Turning his head to the back, the young mercenary looked at his femalepanion. "Arsha Do something about this face of yours. It''s suspicious." Scolding the girl who in turn took a clueless look on her face, Longinus finally started moving. While there was still a chance that it was all but an borate scheme aimed to trap me and Teria, I decided to discount this idea. In the end, the recurring barrier stone was still well within my reach. "Okay, okay" Arsha''s murmur was thest rational sound that this strange party made. As we left the room and then the entire cathedral altogether, the four of us went into a strange frenzy, debating over the past events that never happened. Giving off the vibes of the long-time enemies finally meeting on neutral ground and reconciling only to reminiscent the many adventures they went through together, we managed to attract just enough attention of the random passersby to remain hidden in the crowd. After leaving us at the temporary lodging though, Longinus didn''t waste any time. Leaving as soon as we moved over the threshold of the building, he promised to return within the next two hours or one''s bell-ringing which was how the locals counted time. At first, these decisive actions of his once again arouse my suspicions, making the wait far more strenuous than I expected. But soon thereafter, the young mercenary returned to the inn, with a party of seven people. Walking out of the inn, the first thing I noticed was how diverse the group was. "You already know me and Arsha. I''m responsible for the vanguard and charges. Although foulmouthed, she is quite capable as a battle mage." Pointing his hand at his own chest at first, Longinus then moved it over Arsha only to point at the next person in a row the next moment. "Kathia, the sniper. Keep her safe and she will watch your back." "Berkel, although slow, nothing can prate his defenses." "Hubriel, secondary mage." "Lashlo, primary mage." "Zynthia, healer of the group." Introducing everyone one by one, Longinus clearly was in a great hurry. Not giving us even a moment to get to know each other, he instantly pushed the entire group towards the city walls and then past them, opting to escape as far from the city as they could before the government would find about the sacrilege of the destroyed stone altar. In reality, only when a huge forest shielded the second part of our travels did Longinus finally dared to slow down our advance, allowing everyone to think about anything else outside of catching the next breath. "Okay, now we can talk." Given how frantic our silent escape from the city was, I didn''t expect the mercenary to bring up the topic of the saint on his own. Yet, without even a single reminder, he approached me himself. "What do you want to know?" "The problem is, I have no idea what to ask about. That''s why, could you maybe just tell me the entire story?" The reality was exactly as I painted it. Or rather, it would be if not for that strange vision I received when I decided to go further down with the mission rather than fulfilling it right as it became possible. "Good. Everything began over four hundred years ago, right when the second great war neared its conclusion." Slowing down his march, Longinus turned thoughtfully for a moment before his expression darkened. "It was then, when the first ideas to reunite two tribes begun to surface." Slowing down his pace even further, Longinus almost came to a stop. Only when shoved aside by one of the girls whose name I didn''t even remember did the young mercenary recall why the entire group was in a hurry, picking his pace back again. "Our Saint She was the princess of the northern empire at that time. And she offered to marry the head chieftain of the winged tribe so that their kid could put an end to the constant ughter" Shaking his head, Longinus attempted to hide the hateful expression that appeared in his eyes. "Yet, all her efforts and sacrifices were wasted, when that barbaric son of a whore decided to sell their daughter away to one of his little underlings!" Chapter 186: Terias version of the story Chapter 186: Teria''s version of the story I didn''t expect to notice the discrepancy between the story of the wingless tribe and what I saw in my vision so soon. Yet, it was already an undeniable fact that the story that one side learned about was simply fake. Like always, there were bits and tidbits of truth in it, but rather than serving to help me understand the situation better, they were there most likely just to make it easier for everyone to believe in the story in the first ce. "It''s not true at all." Muttering on the side, Teria proved that she was quite interested in the topic as well. While the fact that we were traveling on foot put her in a god-awful mood for nearly the entire first day of marching, as soon as this short debacle started she was there toment on it in an ill-spirited manner. "Teria Eh, I know that you hate walking just as much as those people would hate flying, but the speed of the group will always equal the speed of their slowest element." Shaking my head, I took a single step towards the girl before bringing my fist in her direction, palm towards her and forefinger extended. Shaking said finger in a way that a parent would scold a child, I dared to remind her of one fact. "Keep in mind that right now, you are the slower one between the two of us. So whatever emotions you are feeling right now" Rather than finishing my words and putting another brick of hostility into the structure of the rtionship we were slowly building just by being near each other, I allowed Teria to figure out the rest on her own. "But that doesn''t mean those guys are right. Now it''s your turn to tell me what you know about that Saint, her daughter, and the man she conceived that kid with." Turning my head to the girl, I forcefully tore off all the hostility from my face to indicate that I now stood on a neutral ground. "Sure thing." Happily announcing, Teria fell into deep thought for a moment before swallowing her saliva, clearing her throat, and starting the story. "It start''s the same way, although with a bit more detail. Originally, only the winged humans popted the entire continent. Yet, due to the nature of our wings, those too weak or too vile to grow them would be expelled from the main tribes. Over many years, those bandits and weaklings banded together, creating what was then known as the outer families." Hearing how far in the past did Teria start her story at I had to fight the urge to roll my eyes. Even though there was hardly anything better to do during our current journey than walking, I felt as if I would snap from boredom before she would even reach any of the potentially interesting parts. "Long story short, I think you guys already know what I''m hinting at." Turning her face into an example of how adorable she could be if she wanted, Teria smiled at the Longinuspanions. But contrary to my expectation, not even a single one snapped. Not even one went as far as to send her an unhappy nce. "Long?" At this point, I couldn''t even be bothered to use the full name of the young mercenary. While others could find it disrespectful, others too familiar, for me it meant nothing more or less than just saving my saliva. "Well, to a point, we all know that. The wingless tribe alles from those who didn''t grow wings. But whether or not they were weaklings or criminals From what I heard, you saw a battle between human forces and winged human forces in the south. Tell me, how many winged humans have you seen out there, back then?" Smiling under his nose, Longinus used my own tactics of letting the others fill the gaps on their own rather than spoonfeeding the answer to them. And from how reasonably his side sounded, I couldn''t help but look at Teria with a glint of suspicion in my eyes. "There is no denying that the number of wingless humans and winged ones during the battle Was greatly disproportional. And I''m sorry Teria, but I can hardly believe that all those moving piles of meat were made out of your brethren." This was something that Teria revealed to me quite a while ago, yet the sheer insanity behind such a statement made it hard for me to actually believe it. "Either way" Seeing how her story was quickly falling apart, Teria quickly attempted to regain control over the narrative. Sadly, rather than throwing a few witty remarks that would shut everyone''s mouth in awe of how cleverly she would manage to escape from the pit she dug herself, she opted to just keep going with the story instead. Yet, as much as it appeared that Longinus'' remark was actually correct, I didn''t dare to assume it. In fact, I simply didn''t care about the truth of the backstory of the local humans at all. For me, only the story of that saint and its rtion to the sacred core was important at this moment. "With years of this scrutiny, my tribe developed pretty strict rules for marriage and social interactions. Those families that managed to either bleach or grow their wings, would gain respect. Those whose wings would turn darker or smaller would be falling from their previous standing. Ah," Suddenly realizing how no one in the entire party had any idea what those symptoms of growing or darkening wings could me, Teria quickly fixed the problem. "It''s said that the greater one''s wings, the greater personal power he or she canmand. As for the color, those who married winged people of higher social standing would make their kid''s wing a bit brighter, while those marrying down would see their offspring''s wings grow darker." Suddenly turning silent, Teria apparently fell into apathy, just staring at the view that she saw for so long that it had to turn boring at this point. "There is another theory. It''s said that those who sin, those who go against the path set by the God almighty will see their wings turn darker and darker, to picture the downfall of their character and soul." Suddenly bringing her shoulders up only to shake them down, Teria shook her head with a cheerful smile. "That is, that''s just a street legend, not something we are openly taught about. Yet Or nevermind." Suddenly cutting her exnation, Teria put a thoughtful look on her face, stealing a second break from her story. "Okay, that was a beautiful story. But so far, it has nothing to do with what I asked you about." At this point, only one part of my expectation ended up wrong. Because while I already snapped silently thrice, I underestimated my own power to keep my anger and annoyance in check. Outside of that, the way in which Teria spoke about the past of her tribe was perfectly aligned with what I expected even before she began. "Listen, I didn''t tell it all just so you guys could adore my beautiful voice." Sending me a hateful look, Teria theatrically turned her head away while harumphing. Thankfully, her fit didn''tst long as she quickly noticed everyone was still waiting for her to pick up where she left. "The rest of the story is roughly simr. Once the patriarch of our n married that Saint girl, they had a kid. Given how he was the father and how their daughter was born with only a single wing, something that never happened before, he had no other choice but to ask all of his high chieftains to marry his daughter, even though she was barely born by then." Suddenly, Teria turned silent as if she wasn''t happy with the idea of speaking any longer. Yet, after just a single angry smile from me, she suddenly gulped her saliva down before picking up. "At first, the saint agreed, knowing the importance of their child. But as those two spineless women grew older and the princess of both ns came of age, something changed. Out of nowhere, for some damned personal reason, she refused to marry the son of the chieftain that was initially selected." Taking a deep breath, Teria averted her eyes away, clearly indicating that she reached the part of the story she wasn''t proud of. "Once the problem was revealed, our legendary chief got angry. He invested nearly half of his wealth and life to arrange this marriage and even to change its target from the old chieftain to his handsome son. When he learned that the girl wasn''t going to marry that young chieftain on her own, free will, he decided that it would be for the best of both winged and wingless tribes to just lock the girl away until the day of marriage." This time, what Teria told me aligned quite well with what I saw in my vision. The enclosed tower without any doors and barred window, a duo of females Yet it was thebined version from all three of the stories I either saw or heard that made the most sense. The name of my first side mission continued to sh in green. "But when the day of the marriage came Neither the saint nor her kid could be found in the tower they were held at. Ah," noticing that she forgot something rtively important, Teria quickly added, "the saint decided to live with her daughter in that tower out of her own free will. Given how much our ancient chief was said to love both his kind and his wife, it''s believed that the greatest civil war in the entire history of my tribe erupted when he attempted to lock himself away in that tower as well." Only when hearing those words did the wingless part of the group withdrawn their killing aura prompted by Teria''s earlier remark of enclosing their saint in a tower. "And so, the great sacrifice of that saint woman was for naught, as it took just five more years before the hostilities erupted once again, plunging both of the tribes to what''s know as third ultimate war." Chapter 187: Maere appears Chapter 187: Maere appears It took us just a few more hours after the storytelling concluded for the group to split apart. Yet, rather than just escaping from the wingless humans incapable of keeping up with me and Teria due to theirck of ability to fly, I actually talked things through with Longinus. As much as their presence could be helpful in thends of the winged tribe, there was no denying that it would arouse suspicion and wariness as well. Just like Teria on my side resulted in an entire unit of exceptional mercenaries getting dispatched from the city to intercept her, I could tell that the same reaction would be given if Longinus'' party were to appear before the walls of the winged-tribe city. "So we will travel all the way to the south. Once we reach the southernmost kingdom, we will ask where thest huge battle took ce and then shoot our way right through it." Recounting every step of the n that I came up with over thest few hours, Arsha raised her eyes on me with a clear doubt written all over her face and aura. "And we are to believe that you guys will be somewhere on our path, right?" Hearing the obvious protest of the girl, I put a wry smile on my face. Sadly, that was all I could do without going into a lengthy exnation of some dubious nature as there was absolutely no damned way I would reveal the real reason why I was in such a hurry. And that reason was pretty simple. With the limited time of the time-freeze, there was only so much time that I could spend in this world and by extension, on attempts at fulfilling my current mission. While there was no real problem if something were to stop me for a minute or two longer than the period of a time freeze, given how I had no clue what Jef was nning back on earth, I dared not leave Ayda all alone to handle it. "Yes, that''s what I want you guys to believe. But don''t expect us to meet you somewhere on that path." Shaking my head, I finally could put a smile on my face. "Either we will manage to bring that core to where it belongs so that my mission will be fulfilled and there will be no reason for me to participate in this jolly anymore" Taking a moment to swallow my saliva, I could see how Arsha''s eyes spread open with annoyance. "Otherwise, you can be damn sure that the rumors of our exploits will be heard loud and clear all over the ce." This was one of the sentences that I always wanted to say. "You will find us. The whole Ukraine will shake with the news of our actions." Even when I spoke it for the first time in my life within a proper context, I could clearly see the face of the actor who said it in the modern serialization of one of the national epic pieces of literature of my homnd. And now, thanks to being in a damn pretty simr situation as the legendary prince and Axe for the Cossacks I knew about from the past. "Well, that leaves us with nothing else to discuss. Marius I hope you didn''t just do us all in. Just by letting you go from the city we already turned ourselves into fugitives." Finally speaking something contrary to how silent he was over the course of the entire nning phase, Longinus looked at me with a grave look on his face. "And why would I do it?" Responding to his seriousness with a curious look of my own, I asked. "I always said that I just need to bring the sacred core to where it belongs. Since it clearly didn''t belong on that altar, now I''m bringing it to where Teria believes it should go." Shaking my shoulders, I smiled. "It''s that simple. You guys are following us not because we need your help at all, but because, for some reason, you guys believe it will be hard to get past the borde" Before I could finish my sentence, a strange shiver traveled down my spine. At first, it was just a fleeting feeling. Nothing greater than just a bad premonition. Yet, with each passing second, I felt as if some kind of great evil was closing on me in an attempt to crush my soul to bits. In less than just a single minute, I could barely stand on my feet. Or rather, for only a minute I managed to keep myself in a straight position. Crushed by this unknown force, I could feel my knees giving up before I powerlessly fell to my knees. "Marius? What''s wrong?" Raising my head with an utmost effort, I could see how I appeared to be the only one affected by the approaching evil. It was as if they couldn''t feel This thought finally allowed me to understand. While we were all humans, winged or wingless, there was one kind of experience that only I could go through in this entire group. The one thing that set me apart in terms of perception from others. My witchcraft ability to feel emotions at way greater intensity than an average human from outside of this magic craft. And right now, given how it was a while since I met anyone openly unting the aura of his emotions to left and right, I didn''t hold back with my aura reading, turning it into something that was almost automatic! And now, with the overwhelming negativity born from something in the north overflowing my senses, I had to cut my reception off in order to regain control over my own senses. "Marius! Marius! What''s going on?!" Startled by my sudden loss of power, Teria was frantically shaking my arms. As my consciousness once again took possession of my own body I noticed how cold my forehead was from all the sweat trickling down my skin. Raising my hands to my eyes, I could see how they shook in something that I didn''t feel for a long while already. In a terror. "We need to run. And as fast as we fucking can." There was no urgency in my voice as if I was just calmly stating facts. And surprisingly enough, it appeared as thisplete apathy with which I spoke the warning made everyone aware of just how serious I was. "Marius, what the hell is going on?!" Only Teria remained in ce, still shaking my shoulders. Yet, as she pressed me to recall what I just experienced, my body shook in terror once again, threatening to cut my consciousness off once again. "I don''t know. Something bad. Something extremely bad ising here." Shaking my head I attempted to get rid of the terror that this moment of feeling that thing induced into my soul. Right now, I was nearly as shaken as I was in the initial days of my journey to attempt learning something that would help me save my mother from her lethal injuries. "Can''t you speak any clearer?!" Tripping even quicker than usual, Teria looked as if she wanted to just p me in the face to p. She not only looked like that, but she actually pped my face. Yet, rather than getting angry at her, a feeling that appeared only for the shortest of the moments, I actually felt a wave of gratitude. With my own emotions finally taking over my rationale, I was ready to be back into action. "Everyone, drop everything that''s not necessary and scatter. Runaway for two days and nights straight, then attempt to return to our earlier n." Standing up from the wet ground, I wiped all the tears and snot from my face. "I have no idea what''sing our way, but I believe it''s better not to" In order to remain sane, I had no other choice but to block my witch-given perceptiveness to the emotions. As such, I deprived myself of my own volition of the only means to gauge just how far that hellish something was. That''s why, when I saw a little boy and a little girl holding hands as they walked from between the forest, I didn''t felt rmed at all. Only when I actually noticed that neither of them had any face, eyes, mouth, or nose, my heart started to beat faster. Everyone realized that something was wrong when I unusually cut my sentence short. And as they traced with their eyes where my own pupils were directed at, it seemed as if everything just froze. The boy extended his hand towards me. No, it wasn''t a hand. As soon as the sleeve of his tattered outfit revealed what was underneath, my heart skipped once again. Teria to my side hissed like an rmed cat before drawing her sword in a single, slow yet fluid motion. "A maere" Arsha whispered as her short staff nearly fell out of her suddenly tightened hand. Chapter 188: Bad gun in Apex, great gun against monsters Chapter 188: Bad gun in Apex, great gun against monsters Maere. It wasn''t a word I was familiar with. Yet, it didn''t mean I wasn''t scared by the thing that appeared in front of me. On the other hand, the fact that the local popce had not only a name, but a clear history with this something was a clear indicator that there was a reason to be worried about it. "What does it want?" Directing my question towards Arsha, I provoked her to turn her head towards me. Yet, rather than answering my question, she just allowed me to look at her terrified eyes. "Does it want the core?" Taking a step back, I asked the question out in the open, not directed to anyone in particr. "How in the hell do you expect us to know what it wants?!" Hearing the clear hints of panic in Longinus'' voice, I finally realized just how dire this situation could be. The same man that didn''t even flinch when he faced against me and Teria was now trembling in fear. "Do you have any idea how to defeat it?" Taking another step back, I started to analyze the situation in the most pragmatic way possible. Should I leave those people be? As much as I wanted to be cold-hearted enough to do it, I knew that my morality wouldn''t allow me to do so. They were willing to go and die for me, so how could I just let them die for no reason? Fuck the morality. Fuck the consistency. Given how hard this mission was supposed to be ording to my system, could I actually afford to ditch them? "Defeat it? It''s pointless." Falling to his knees, Longinus didn''t look like himself. With tears flowing down from his terrified eyes, he looked more like a lost child rather than a seasoned mercenary I believed so far he was. "All you can do is to fulfill its demands. And knowing the brass back at the capital, they set it off to kill us all." With his head lowered and knees caving in, I didn''t even need to use my witchcraft to sense how he lost his will to fight. Looking around, the same applied to literally everyone else, with Teria being the only exception. But why? Why was she okay while everyone else was down? "Should I just kill it?" Stepping forward, the winged girl pulled out her sword before pointing it at the two terrifying, faceless kids in front of us. "I don''t know why you guys are all acting like cowards, but it won''t be a problem if I kill it? Right?" Once again, I didn''t need to rely on my witchcraft to see what was the intention of the girl. With her smile widening as much as her facial muscles allowed, she took a step towards the Maere, then another one. And then, out of nowhere, she suddenly fell to her knees, shuddering in terror I saw only in the movies. "What happened?" Not daring to use my witchcraft out of fear that the negativity of this being would overflood my mind, I could only ask. "This thing" Barely able to utter even those few words, Teria started to crawl back. As such, the only clue I had for solving the situation was now gone. But why was she able to act freely before, even though everyone was already bound by fear? I was the first to sumb to this paralyzing fear only because I had my aura wide open. Then, all the wingless humans fell to it as well. But why was Teria thest one to be defeated? Why? "" All the while, this terrifying being just stood there, holding the hand of the female kid with his left, and extending his right towards me. It clearly wanted something, yet I wasn''t willing to give it to him. That is if all it wanted was a core. "Wait a moment" Suddenly, I realized one thing. Ever since I closed my soul to those foreign emotions, it no longer influenced me. Only the residual fear born from what I saw in it still remained, pinning me down in fear. But that didn''t mean it was still influencing me! "Let''s try something out." Standing up, I pulled my sword. And nothing changed. I made another step forward. Everyone around fell t on the ground, burying their heads in the dirt of the forest we were in. Only Teria refused to pay her respects in this way. I made another step. Teria''s head fell forward as she buried her face in the dirt. Yet, for some reason, nothing happened to me at all. As if As if the only attack this being was capable of, was inducing fear and all those emotions entangled in it into others! A smile appeared on my face. "Okay then, let''s cut this parade short." Taking three more steps forward, I kicked the extended hand of this being aside, before shoving my sword right into its faceless head. Regretfully, outside of everyone''s from my group burying their heads even deeper into the ground, nothing happened. "Strange Just how the heck do I kill it?" Thinking about it, I still had many different stones on me. No matter what, if I were to use the recurring barrier, this thing would likely end up in the abyss of the void, where it would be trapped forever. But since I still didn''t know the limits and reach of each part of this stone''s effects, doing so could easily lead to the death of everyone around me as well. "How about cutting its head?" shing my sword diagonally, the body of the Maere offered no resistance as my de cut through its neck. Yet, when the momentum carried my weapon towards the body of the long-haired maere posing as a female kid, it suddenly jumped to the back. :DIE: Even with my aura and perception retracted, I could feel this emotion washing on my face. Yet, whenpared to the feelings I was forced to go through by Ayda, it was absolutely nothing to be worried about. Yet, that didn''t mean I was free to do what I wanted, as everyone around me suddenly picked their weapons. Yet, they didn''tsh at me. Longinus'' sword aimed at his own stomach, so did Arsha''s short staff. Everyone moved their weapons to a position where they would be free to deprive themselves of their own life. The only exception was the archer girl, who despite her utmost attempts, was unable to draw the bow in a way to point the arrow at herself. "So you are using emotions to order others around?!" Only now did my mind finally snapped in ce, allowing me to understand what should be obvious at this point. Yet, rather than enjoying this fact, I was close to despair. Because while I had my own means to deal with emotion-based attacks, actually enforcing those means would push me into opening my perception to the attack of the other party. "Pull that order back, or I will kill the girl." Pointing my sword at the long-haired part of the Maere, I dropped it while using my left hand to pull out a simple gun. This time, I didn''t go for shy weapons. At such close distance, a simple pistol was more than enough. For a moment, everything stopped. Not a single of my colleagues dared to make another move that would put their lives in danger. Yet, after just a single moment, a change appeared on this dark being face. As if the universe itself suddenly ruptured, a rift appeared in three points on the male kid''s face. Two of the rifts oozing darkness andplete devastation appeared where their eyes should be, while one stretched into what was the darkest smile I ever saw in my life. "Ha!" The voice of the maere was truly average. Even though it wasing from what looked like a tight gate leading straight to a dark hell, the voice it produced actually fitted the body of the maere That is if it had a normal face and was a normal boy about nine or ten of age! "Oh? So you don''t care about your sister? Well, you don''t care for whether that young whore of yours will have her head go poof?" Putting a wide smile on my face, I couldn''t hold myself back. Bringing the barrel of the gun in the direction of the girl, I switched the trigger to the automatic mode before pulling it all the way down. Trattatatat. The pistol I had was quite simr to one of the weakest guns in the popr Apex game I used to y before the apocalypse. With the mag containing just a few bullets short of twenty in it, it took less than two seconds to empty it all, right in the long-haired face of the monster. And this time, it had an effect. That is, as long as sttering brain matter, blood, and flesh could be called a satisfactory effect. Sadly, while the effects of its attack instantly faded away given how everyone dropped their weapons as if they were just pulled out of the boiled water, the short-haired part of the monster still managed to jump back. Yet, the rifts on its head that made up its face disappeared. Then its entire head disappeared as well, while the flesh of the long-haired head quickly started to regenerate. But I wasn''t going to wait. Putting the pistol back to its holster on my hip, I smiled before releasing the lock on my emotions. And despite Ayda''s several warnings not to do it, I reached for the blob of taboo hidden deep within my soul. It released its hold over the hostages just as it started to desperately regenerate the smashed watermelon of the long-haired head. And I wasn''t going to miss that chance. Chapter 189: Source of Arshas power Chapter 189: Source of Arsha''s power "Since you did so poorly against purely physical attack, I wonder how will you fare against a magical one?" By the time I said those words, nearly half of the monster''s long-haired head managed to regenerate. At the same time, most of mypanions was already standing up to their feet and grabbing their weapons. Yet, it was pretty obvious that if I were to wait for them to gather up and attack the maere, it would be way toote. So I pulled out one of the fancy stones prepared by Sander, pressed the activator, and threw it towards the monster. At first, it was clearly wary of the projectile, jumping away. Thankfully, its female part hampered its escape, dragging it down. Yet, instead of smashing the monster apart, the stone just fell to the forest bed in front of it, doing absolutely nothing. Surprised, the maere showed the hints of surprise for the very first time since it appeared. Lowering its head as if it was looking at the stone despite not having any eyes to speak off, it then raised its male head up at me only for a small, dark rift to appear where its mouth should be once again, instantly curving in a devious smile. :FOOLISH: It wasn''t words. The way this being passed its messages was akin to etching an incredibly powerful emotion to its attack before sneaking it through everyone''s defenses to pass said message. "I wonder who was the truly foolish one, between you and me. Dare to take any guesses?" This time, I didn''t pull out any gun. Given the kind of stone I just ced right at the monster''s feet, it would bepletely and utterly stupid to do so. Because the stone I used right now, was a reflector. So instead of using guns, I pulled out what was officially called a smoke grenade. From what I heard when it was rmended to me by one of the Baskar''s veteran mercenary, while officially being a smoke grenade ording to all means and purposes, the actual soldiers believed that it earned its name in a slightly different way. By turning everything in a small area around it into smoke. Baskar''s Veteran imed to use it to clean up the messy scenes of conflict, confident that not even bones would remain afterward. And right now, this kind of funny grenade just happened to be right at the foot of the monster who already proved to be quite fragile when it came to mechanical attacks. "It''s over." Counting the time in my mind, I smiled as soon as the instructed ten seconds passed. Right at the same time both the stone and the grenade activated. At first, as if it was just a simple barrier like many that I used in this world so far, a magical veil covered a sphere around the stone, including both the monster and the incinerating element. Then, a cloud of smoke started to escape from the metal container, fulfilling its original role before the chemical reactions inside brought the temperature inside of it to its upper limit. Then, all the negativity that constantly surrounded the area even when the maere wasn''t attacking, vanished. Looking around, I could see how everyone was staring intently at the cloud of smoke, trapped within the spherical barrier. At this point, the amount of smoke inside the barrier made it impossible to see even a hint of the maere If not for the fact that it suddenly attempted to free itself from the carnage within the barrier. For a moment, a burning flesh pressed right against the transparent wall Only to be instantly thrown back by the reflective properties of the barrier. Yet, it wasn''t the end of the magic of the stone. While I couldn''t test it out myself, I was told that the heat attempting to escape from the barrier would also be reflected, making up for most of the mana usage of the stone in this precise scenario. "Everyone, step back. It''s about to explode soon." Moving back myself, I made sure to grab Teria''s hand before pulling her along with me. In terms of the wingless humans, I could tell that they were already full of respect towards the means I used to deal with the monster even if they weren''t going to show it due to still being shocked by the fact that it could actually be defeated. Yet, the same clearly wouldn''t apply to the winged girl, given how she was willing to go against it in the first ce. "Explode?" When Teria finally gathered her wits to ask, the smoke within the barrier no longer clouded anyone''s view. Under the insane temperature that the spherical part of this world reached, theposites that made up the smoke could no longer remain in their natural pairings, dissolving into the basic atoms on the micro-scale, reced by nothing but an intense redness of the heat trapped inside on the macro scale. Then, right when I managed to escape about twenty steps, the stone within the barrier finally melted, breaking the chains that held the magic power in ce and directed it in a very specific way. At the same time, an intense wave of heat instantly set a huge chunk of the forest alight, while smashing my back with an intense, seeing pain. My clothes had no chance. My back was slightly burnt. Thankfully, the catastrophe didn''tst long. Following the simplews of nature, the heat quickly dispersed. Even the fires that initially threatened to spread out and consume the entire forest died off in just a few moments, proving that the wet fabric of the trees wasn''t that good of fuel for them. Looking to the sides, I could tell that outside of Teria - who cleverly shielded herself with her own wings - most of the winglesspanions of mine received varying degrees of burns. "Anyone seriously hurt?" Standing up, I took a quick nce towards where the maere used to be. There was no worry in my eyes. Given how at least a part of its body was physical and could be hurt, there was no way it could survive the insane heat of thebination of reflecting stone and smoke grenade. While it was quite risky, I even dared to unlock my own witch perception for a moment to make sure the intense negativity of this monster was no longer a threat, only to realize that it was actually nowhere to be found. "I''m okay!" "It hurts like hell, but it''s nothing serious." "Hurt? By such a little thing?" "To be frank, it was just a wave of warmth, how could I be hurt?" As expected, the further one managed to escape from the wave of the heat, the lesser the degree of their injures were. Out of the entire group, Longinus was the only one to actually protests about his pain. Yet, when I looked at his state, the reason for that quickly be apparent. "Guys, take this fucking armor out of him. Cut the wraps that keep it together unless you want him to fry inside this damned furnace!" d in his metal armor, it was no wonder that the young mercenary took a heavy hit from the wave of heat. Even though the metal easily shielded most of the youth''s body from the heat, by absorbing it itself, it quickly became the real source of injuries to Lonignus skin and muscles. "DISARM!" Startled by the sight, Arsha almost tripped while rushing forward, yet she still managed to shout out her spell. //Alert //Detected potential harm to the system! Once again, the same message. But given the situation, I couldn''t really pay it any mind, as something strange happened right before my eyes. As if the magic that the girl invoked followed some insanelyplicated method, all the straps that held Longinus armor suddenly came undone. But that wasn''t all that hard to achieve. As long as one was either patient or quick enough, achieving the same result with a small knife would also be possible But not for the parts that were simply pulled on the man''s body, sticking to it not thanks to some wraps,, but because of the friction itself! Yet, denying all the physic andws of magic that I knew about, the metal was torn apart, freeing the mercenary from the hold of already red sheets of metal! "Ah! That''s a relief" Before Longinus could even fell to his knees, the healer of the party quickly jumped towards him before whispering something under her nose. "What?" This time, there was no system alert. Yet, the hands of the girl started to suddenly shine in bright, greenish light, before this strange shine moved from her hands and sunk into the young mercenary''s body, instantly putting an expression of relief on his face! "If I may ask" Now that the pain of the most injured person in the entire group was subsidized, I could finally ask about the one thing that bothered me to no end ever since we first encountered the other group. "Just what kind of magic you are using?!" Directing my words to Arsha, I could see a momentary confusion appearing on her face only to be reced by a proud smirk the next moment. "Try to guess it yourself, you idiot." Turning her head away while uttering a cliche harumph, Arsha was clearly unwilling to give me the answer. What she didn''t know though, was that this kind of behavior was making me inch closer and closer to the idea of getting rid of her in order to make sure no harm woulde to my system. "Shut up!" Contrary to my expectations, before I could react, Longinus stepped forward. While the pained grin that appeared on his face whenever he made even the smallest move proved that this healing magic wasn''t as efficient as I initially expected, the look of clear respect and reverence on his face that appeared whenever he looked at me was even more interesting. "This man just killed a maere. A maere that should be long extinct and that was clearly set loose on us by the fucking government." Suddenly revealing quite a lot of information, Longinus went for the extra mile and actually send a crispy p in Arsha''s cheek way. Only when the girl''s face was thrown to the side did he move his eyes on me before lowering his head. "Sir, for the deed of killing this monster You have my utmost gratitude. By doing that, you proved to be an ally not only to our tribe but to all the humans of this world. As such, I believe you are worthy to know that this idiot" cing his hand atop the fuming girl''s head, Longinus forced her to bow her head as well, "is actually a saint, bestowed with her powers by the God almighty himself." Chapter 190: Non-discardable character Chapter 190: Non-discardable character "Oh, so that''s the case." Desperately forcing all my excitement and shock away from my tone, I simply shrugged my arms in acknowledgment of what Longinus just said. "I''m sorry if I will be insensitive here, but what does that mean for other religions? What if there was another branch believing in another god who would also produce a saint? Would his or hers powers differ then?" This question was nothing else but a distraction. A distraction serving to pull away from everyone''s attention from any hints that my overexcited self could unknowingly produce, giving away my true state of mind Because even though it was once again, just a guess of mine, the world suddenly started making a little more sense. After all, didn''t I meet said God already? Back when I received a quest aimed at obtaining a way to let Ayda move to earth through the system''s portal with me, I was tasked with climbing the mountain''s peak, where I met a certain persona. Back then, outside of his insane might that greatly outreached even the scale not only of my means but also of my imagination, I had a hard time believing that he was an actual god. But right now, given how Arsha''s abilities were said toe from God himself Could it be that the only reason why the system was warning me about them, was because they came from the same source? Were Arsha''s abilities capable of harming my system because they were in some sense, simr to it? Or what if there was actually some other god besides the one I saw and talked with, whose might and means could rival those of the creator of my system? "I I don''t know. I never really thought about it." After a moment of thought, Arsha lowered her head before shaking it rapidly. "I never thought about it. To be fair, I kinda took those powers for granted, and even if I thank God for this gift each and every day, I never paid too much attention to the details you asked about." Hearing the answer, I raised my hands up to the air before backing a few paces. "There is no need to be down about it. Treat it as nothing but my own curiosity. But now, I have no choice but to move on to the serious topic." Moving my sight on Longinus, I ignored the fact that he was still clearly troubled by his injures. "What was that monster?" Once again, the entire group froze for a moment. Given how they instantly reacted to the appearance of the maere, I already could tell back then that they knew what that thing was. The fact that Longinus brought it up once the fight was concluded only proved this guess of mine. But it didn''t mean that I got any clues about it yet. "Maere They were supposed to be gone, eradicated from this world, split into particles so small, they wouldn''t regenerate themselves anymore. But as we all experienced a moment ago" Longinus started. "That''s doesn''t seem to be the case." Arsha finished. The rest of their group decided to just look away and speak not a word. The only exception that I could freely ept here, was the healer girl, who was just a bit too busy trying to fix Longinus severe burns to bother with whatever we were talking about. "So there are two possibilities. Either those monsters weren''t as extinct as you believed them to be or" Cutting my sentence short, I sent a suggestive look towards Longinus. In the end, while it was nothing but my own feeling, it was hard for me to ept anyone outside the man himself and Arsha as actual members of the group. Given how they were all silent and so far failed to make an impression on me, they were nothing more than just random beings, akin to Non-yer-Characters from the many games I used to y before the apocalypse hit the earth. "Or it was created artificially." Finishing my own words for me, one of the people whose presence I just disregarded spoke up. "And who are you again?" Not bothering to hide my own opinion on the man, I asked. "Hubriel, the secondary mage. At your service." Lowering his head, the man who looked to be in his thirties lowered his head without a hint of annoyance at my behavior. "I know I have little to no presence, so you don''t need to worry about remembering my name." With a wide smile surfacing on his lips, the man raised his head before adding, "I just hope that you won''t forget about me in the battles toe." Nodding my head, I took a moment before asking, "Could you borate a bit more? Can maeres be created? Who could do such a thing?" From how everyone reacted to this monster when it first appeared it was obvious that it either was something with a taboo status or something that wasmonly feared. If I were to put it in my own words, then this monster was akin to all the monsters that mothers used to put their kids in line. The one difference was, that maere actually existed. "Whether or not they can be created I''m not sure. But I''m certain about one thing. All the maeres that history recorded werepletely shapeless." Shaking his head as if he was confused about this topic himself, Hubriel looked towards where the monster ceased to exist. "As an amalgamation of the negativity, it''smonly believed that they were born when someone died while holding to a powerful grudge. But to be honest, that doesn''t seem to be the case." Just as I thought that I would get some exnation, Hubriel proved that he wasn''t such a useless character as I took him to be initially. "And why is that?" With my curiosity piqued, I could only ask for an exnation. Even though I could figure out a lot of things just by relying on my own logic, there was one undeniable w that I had in this world that made my reasonings inherently problematic. And it was my nearly absoluteck of knowledge about what others would consider themon sense in this world. Just like I already learned from other words I visited, with each change to my destination, the magic would be used in a different way by the locals. Just like there were witches, wizards, and true mages back in Ayda''s world, there appeared to be some kind of mages and saints in this world whose means were starkly different from any witch or wizard craft I experienced so far. Even if all the other rules of nature would be the same, meaning that with sufficient time and resources I could just build a nuke and dominate the entire world with it, the magic remained as the most problematic aspect of each world. As a force that inherently worked against the naturalmon sense and didn''t bother to obey what I consider the fundamentalws of physics, unless I had a perfect grasp of the local usage of magic, any guesses I would make about this world would be akin to a primary-school kid attempting to derive the integral from the quadratic equation. In other words,pletely and utterly pointless. "This is just my theory, so don''t expect much from it" Starting his exnation in this way, Hubrial instantly lost some points in my inner evaluation. After all, how could one consider a theory to be worth much if its creator was unsure about it in the first ce? "But if that were to truly be the case, then the entire world would be swarmed with maeres. Just take a simple battlefield for example." This time, I could finally understand what this secondary man was attempting to suggest before he finished his words. Sadly, I could do it only after he basically guided me by hand towards the answer. "There should be a lot of people with unfulfilled dreams and unsettled grudges on it, I get it. But what are you trying to say with that?" Even though I could figure out that much, the reason behind Hubriel actually bringing this topic up was still outside of the reach of my mental force. "Ah, seriously, stop taking my words for god-given truth like that" Instantly blushing as no man in his thirties should, Hurbiel turned his head away. Yet, when his eyes once again moved towards me, his face changed. There was no sign of the previous uneasiness that was written all over his face just a moment before. I felt a shrug traveling down my spine. A shrug that Ist felt when I was faced with the very god behind my system. Yet, no alert notification appeared. "I believe the process is actually a bit moreplicated. And with how we just happened to crash right into a monster that was supposed to be extinct right as we managed to escape from the influence of the federation" Hubriel''s face returned to its usual state. Yet, that didn''t mean I suddenly became less wary of the man. This momentary show of focus and will that I could see in his aura when he turned serious for a moment made it impossible for me to disregard the man any longer. "It''s hard for me to ignore the possibility that it were our previous employers that set that maere towards us. After all" Taking a small break in his exnation, Hubriel''s face twisted in a strange grimace that I just couldn''t figure out. Was it anger? Anguish? Dedication? Killing intent? For some reason, I didn''t dare to look into his aura to confirm it. Yet, as soon as the atmosphere turned tense enough, the secondary mage smiled, dissolving the tense air between the two of us. "who else would be so keen to use such drastic means to get rid of us? And for what other reasons than obtaining the sacred core?" Chapter 191: Trouble at the border Chapter 191: Trouble at the border "No, no and no matter how much you try to convince me, NO!" Stomping her feet against the ground, Teria expressed how happy she was with the one request I finally made to her. Even though it was literally the second time when I asked for to do something after relying on her knowledge and help to learn how to phase, the furious expression on her face, her tightened firsts and eyes filled with wrath clearly proved that she wasn''t as inclined to fulfill this request of mine as I had hoped she would. "Come on, it''s just for a short moment! Can''t you shove your fucking pride in your shapely ass for just a few hours?!" Moment by moment, I could feel my patience running out. While I was used to dealing with both stubborn and stupid people from all the encounters I suffered on earth, this girl somehow managed to top all of them up. And by a huge margin at that. "I already told you. Wings are the pride of my tribe. Hiding them away for whatever reason is akin to betraying the faith that tribe put in me ever since I was born!" Shouting up, Teria clearly no longer cared about the fact that we were supposed to be hiding. While attempting to tread stealthily was already a challenge with such a huge group as ours, the fact that Teria was unable to keep her voice silent was thest shovel of dirt required to fully bury the coffin of my wish to remain undetected. Right now, it was only a matter of time before we would be found out. "Then get the fuck out and stop stalling us. You can fly away, you can kill everyone at the gate for all I care. But I don''t think you are capable of doing so nor allowed to do it in the first ce." Squinting my eyes, I spat on the ground before taking a few steps to the side in an attempt to pass by the girl. "Not so fast! You promised you will give me the core and now you want me to let you off the hook? Do you think I''m stupid enough to let you just run away with it?" Instantly following my steps and moving to the side precisely the same distance as I did, Teria proved that outside of her pretty face, alluring body and respectable personal power, her stubbornness was actually her greatest strength. "I promised and I''m going to fulfill that promise. I''m not going to risk everyone''s lives just because you are too damn obstinate to just hide your damned wings for a moment!" Right now, we were actually going in circles. If reaching the border between the northern republic and the central kingdom was just boring and wasteful in terms of my time freeze, crossing said border was quickly proving to be the greatest challenge so far, dealing with the maere included. "Guys, can you please speak a few tones lower? I might be a support mage but even my means are fucking limited!" Turning my head to the side, I could see Hubriel who was already reaching the same level of anger as the two of us did. With his head shining with a whitish light, he was clearly concentrating on some kind of spell. Sadly, given how I had absolutely no clue about the magic of this world, I could only try randomly guessing what this spell was doing. "No, you shut up!" Instantlyshing at the man, Teria got so angry that her hand inevitably moved on top of the handle of her sword. But that was too much for me to handle. "Teria, make your choice right now. Either you hide your wings and allow our group to calmly pass the border, either you fly over the border while doing everything in your damned power to not appear as if you are with us, or I will just deprive you of your consciousness and leave you be for a few hours here. Then it won''t be my responsibility if you won''t be able to catch up to us or even find us in the first ce." At this point, I couldn''t care less. Since I appeared in this world for the first time, someone or something managed to bring me so close to snapping. Heck! Now that I thought about it, even Jeff''s betrayal that pushed me into exploring this world in the first ce didn''t make me so angry or disappointed as this girl was making me right now! "I wish to see you" This time, I didn''t bother to let the girl speak her piece. Seeing how she was clearly unwilling toply with my order, I finally released all the stops on my witch senses. In a sh, it seemed as if the entire world around me turned much more lush and vivid than it was just a moment ago. All the colors brightened, all the nts around turned out to be quite lively and all the emotions of the entire group instantly swarmed my mind. "Just like I thought." Squinting my eyes, this time not in rage but in simple wrath, I moved my hand to the side in a one, fluid motion. But it was only a distraction. As soon as Teria''s eyes followed after the movement of my palm, I leaped at her emotional state before depriving her of every emotion I could find there. "What are you" with all the rage, hatred, shyness, conviction, determination, embrasement and all the others emotions instantly vanishing from the winged girl''s soul, she stumbled. Given how this was the first time for me to y around with her emotions, she could not make sense of what happened to her. While it was only a momentary shock, it was more than enough as a window for me. Rushing forward at the same time as I cleared her soul, I used my already extended hand to simply p the girl right in the face. It wasn''t a hit aimed to knock the girl unconscious or even deal some serious damage. It was the simplest bitchp that a man could produce against a motionless target. And just as expected, it instantly resulted in a shock and pride of the girl rushing forward within her cleared-out soul. Yet this time, rather than hampering its growth, I actually used all the energy I could spare to hasten it. For a moment, I wasn''t sure whether my actions were smart. For a moment, I doubted whether this simple and one-time trick that Ayda once taught me in the past would work. Yet, as her emptied-out soul was suddenly overwhelmed with the feeling of her pride being smashed by the very bitchp I served to her check, Teria failed to control its growth and keep it in the frame of what she was able to withstand. "Fuck" With her emotions taking over her mind, the whites of Teria''s eyes showed up as she fell to the ground. By the time one of the people of the group whose name I never bothered to remember caught her to prevent her from sustaining any idental injury, she was already unconscious. "Well, I didn''t expect it to work so well" Speaking to myself, I looked at my hand. While I never felt the joy of hitting others or causing others to feel any sort of pain or distraught, there was no denying one thing. When the crispy p was executed, a wave of exhration traveled down my spine! "You guys are done now?" Alerted by the voice, I turned my head to the side to look at Hubriel. And there was a lot to look at. While for me the entire encounter was worth just a few moments, in this short period of time the secondary mage already managed to get not only his head but also his entire chest all sweaty, to the point that one of the girls from our group voluntary stepped forward to clean his forehead from the fat beads of sweat trickling down his cheeks. "Why are you so tired?" Surprised by the scene, I couldn''t help but ask. "Wait, what is that spell of yours in the first ce?" Even if this question revealed that I didn''t know something that others would consider to be fundamental knowledge, I couldn''t care less at this point. Right now, all my mental ability to care about something was exhausted by the drama caused by this stubborn and currently unconscious girl. "Isn''t it obvious? I was keeping the damned patrol from hearing you two arguing!" Noticing that the conflict finally died down, he finally moved his hands down, allowing the shine that covered them to dim before disappearingpletely. "So, can we go and cross the border now? To be honest, I never expected something like this to be a problem" Shaking his head, Hubriel epted a fresh piece of cloth to wipe his forehead from the sweat before looking back towards the north and muttering under his nose. "That is unless those fuckers from the government already managed to bring the news to the border." Hearing his worry, I didn''t bother to look towards the north. Everything that mattered nowid to the south of our position. As to whether we managed to be faster than the news from the northern capital or not, there was one simple way to find out. "Okay guys, we wasted enough time here." Standing up, I stretched my limbs before fixing the straps that held my backpack in ce. "Let''s go to the other side of this damned border!" Chapter 192: Breaking the barrier (1) Chapter 192: Breaking the barrier (1) "Next!" Hearing the shouts of the leader of the guards, our entire group slowly moved forward. In the end, crossing the border wasn''t as effortless and quick an endeavor as I hoped it would. While I crossed a few borders in my life before the apocalypse when my parents used to take me for trips to a bit hotter nations, I didn''t expect that in this clearly medieval setting of this world, the problem of border queues would also appear. Yet, to my unpleasant surprise, the border wasn''t filled with queues. It was fucking swarmed with people trying to get on the other side, no matter which side they were starting with. Given how there was only one huge gate that allowed one to pass through an impressive set of walls akin to the legendary Hadrian wall from the earth, the entire logistic operated on the pendulum principle, with one group having to pass through the gates to the south before another one would be allowed to travel to the north. "Hello. It''s been a while since Ist crossed the border, wasn''t it?" Taking the leading role for the entire group, Longinus stepped forward. In just a single moment, all my doubts about the way in which would the next event continue vanished when the face of the leader of the guards suddenly covered in smiles. "Isn''t that Mister Longinus!" Raising his eyebrows in a pleasant surprise, the middle-aged man instantly stepped forward before grabbing the young mercenary into a bear-like hug. "What brings you to the central kingdom? A quest? Or maybe you finally came to your senses and decided to move to and richer in opportunities?" Hearing these propaganda-like questions, I felt something boiling inside me. Even though I was more than used to constant propaganda that the era of information was full of in literally every single ce and step, seeing how people in this medieval-like world would also use this treacherous practice instantly degraded the quality of this world in my eyes by a huge margin. "Stop with that, we all know that it''s not true" Bridling at the suggestion, Longinus''s face momentarily soured, only to explode in happiness the momentter. "But I can''t deny this fact. Right now" Taking a look to the back as if he was worried that something or someone was chasing them, Longinus leaned a bit closer towards the guard, cing his hand on the middle-aged man''s shoulders before leaning over his ear. "It seems that all my opportunities in the north Are no longer there." Whispering in a conspirational tone, Longinus appeared to cast some kind of magic spell that made the lips of the guard''s leader quiver a bit before turning them into an even wider smile than before. "I''m not going to ask what kind of mess did you find yourself in. You may" Just as the guard was about to let Longinus and the rest of our group pass, a sudden ringing of a bell stirred the entire area up. "rm! Everyone to your posts!" With a soldier suddenly appearing atop the walls that shielded the central realms from the north, everything turned into disarray. In every second, the number of people rushing to the walls seemed to double. Yet, as if the entire panicked state of the whole area didn''t apply to them, the guard that Longinus was talking with didn''t appear to be worried at all. But what was even more important, the gate embedded in the huge walls remained open. "What the hell is going on?" Following the atmosphere of the situation, Longinus ced his hand on the handle of his sword while attempting to spot the being that managed to rile up the entire garrison into action. "As if I have any idea But if you want to pass, you need to do it now. They will order us to close the gates any moment now" Looking up at the walls with a clear worry, the guard moved his hand towards Longinus as if in an attempt to shake his palm. Yet, rather than epting the touch, Longinus silently stuffed the guard''s hand with a sizeable bag, barely holding together under the weight and volume of what was hidden within. "We will be going then. If I''m not wrong, this entiremotion might be caused by what we are trying to run away from." Patting the shoulder of the guard once again, Longinus then turned around before gesturing at the rest of the group. "It''s a pleasure doing business with you. As always. Make sure to greet Eli once you pass by the capital from me!" Not showing any hints of any worry about the ongoing situation, the guardian smile grew even further, threatening to break his facial muscles when he weighted the bag he received in his hand. "Let''s go. We need to hurry." Not daring to waste even a second longer, Longinus rushed forward. Grabbing the straps on which his bags were attached to his bags, he held them in ce before jumping into a run. Without any other choice, I could only follow his example. Thankfully, after more than two hours of waiting for our turn in the queue, passing under the threateningly huge, the stone gate didn''t take us much time at all. After just a few moments spent in the darkness of the gate-tunnel, we finally emerged on the other side of the walls. Right away, the central Kingdom greeted us with a slightly warmer atmosphere, as if the walls that we left behind our back served as a barrier not only for the people and monsters alike but also for some kind of spell that turned the temperature of the central in a bit more bearable than the rtive coldness of the north. "I wonder what was thismotion all about" Looking up to the skies, I couldn''t shake a bad premonition that we were all forgetting about something important. But with how we finally managed to cross to the other side of the walls, I wasn''t going to just waste my time pondering over it either. Moving forward, I quickly turned to be the leader of the entire group given how everyone''s curiosity held them back. And in such a situation, only by pushing forward could I force everyone to move as well. "Wait a second!" Rushing to me, Lonignus clearly overexerted his body, most likely due to his wounds still recovering. "What''s the rush? We managed to move through far quicker than I expected so how about we take some rest? Now that the barrier is protecting us, those bastards in the government won''t have any means" Hearing the mercenary protests, I felt as if something in my mind snapped, finally revealing just what was silently bothering me since a while ago. "I don''t think thismotion has anything to do with that republic of yours." Shaking my head in denial, I sent a slightly disappointed look towards the man. Given how I somehow spent most of the journey talking with Hubriel rather than Longinus, I couldn''t help but get annoyed at how simple-minded this mercenary appeared to be. "It''s her. Or so I think." As if detecting that my thoughts moved towards him, the middle-aged mage stepped forward before raising his eyes to the skies. "Given her white wings I don''t think it will take her long to break the barrier. We really need to get moving right now or we might be suspected as the sabotage group aiming to destroy the barrier." ALerting the two of us in a low tone in order to prevent anyone unnecessary from hearing his words, Hubriel''s eyes suddenly squinted. Looking towards the direction Hubriel was staring at with worry, I quickly recognized a familiar silhouette in the skies, wildly swinging a huge sword against some kind of invisible barrier. Even though it didn''t seem that she was likely to seed, once I took a closer look, I could tell that her sword, whilst failing, managed to move just an inch deeper with each hit of hers. "Let''s move." Without any further ado, I made sure all my luggage was safely attached to my body before pushing forward. Knowing the dangers of remaining stationary in the face of the oing disaster, the rest of the group quickly followed. But what surprised me, was that although I started at the very front of the group, within just a few minutes I was at the very tail of it! "How C-can you guys move so fucking fast!" Barely capable of catching my breath despite using all the prowess that my recent spike in cultivation provided, I was simply unable to keep up with the pace those people set. Taking several breaks to get some air within a single sentence was already humiliating enough for me, yet Hubriel didn''t look like he was going to go easy on me either. "Fast? We aregging behind because of you! We need to be faster or" This time, it was Hubriel''s time to have his sentence interrupted. But this time, it wasn''t any sort of rm. This time, it wasn''t the ringing of bells and shouting of the soldiers that announced that something drastic has happened. This time, the entire world seemed to rumble for a moment, before a powerful wave of magic interference washed over the entire group of mine, sending everyone - me included - to their knees. "She broke the god damned barrier That fucking monster" After a few moments during which I was desperately attempting to calm my inner state of energy down, Hubriel finally spoke up. Yet, due to the injuries he apparently sustained from that wave of magic given away by the huge amount of blood that appeared all over his skin, his voice was rather weak, barely able to reach me. Thump. With the noise of something heavy falling to the ground right beside me, I moved my head to the side, only to see two slim legs and a piece of metal glistering in the sun. "You thought you could leave me behind like that?!" Raising my eyes on the girl whose face was in even a greater mess than Hubriel''s skin, I felt a shrill traveling down my spine. At this moment, this rtively kind and carefree Teria had the same look on her face as her fellow winged man who almost managed to go through all my barriers back at that southern battlefield I appeared when I first entered this world. "Not at all." Attempting to calm the situation, I forced myself to stand up, only to fall right back to my knees and release a huge stream of vomit to the ground. "I just" "Do you think I''m dumb?" As soon as the rest of the acidic mater left my mouth I finally managed to raise my head on the girl, only to see her already raising her huge sword to a down-shing attack. "Bad luck!" Chapter 193: Breaking the barrier (2) Chapter 193: Breaking the barrier (2) "Bad luck?" Hearing how sure Teria was of her position, I could only shake my head with pity. And here I already believed she had some brains hidden underneath that storm of hair of hers "I think you forgot what was the only reason why I made that promise to you in the first ce." At first, the aura of the girl told me that she was intent on ignoring whatever I would say. Yet somehow, I managed to surprise her to the point where she stopped her advance and actually looked at me with curiosity. "Do you think my memory is so bad? I recall it very well." Stopping in her tracks, Teria ced her long sword on her left shoulder while angling her arm to be able to execute a powerful, overhead sh whenever she would deem it necessary. "You didn''t want the unnecessary bloodshed so you decided to just make a deal. But now that you broke your promise" Before the girl could finish her words, my head was already shaking in disbelief. At this point, I couldn''t really tell whether this girl was really that arrogant, that stupid, or just that naive. But given how I made this promise to her, I feltpelled to at least exin this little bit. "You are wrong. Quite a lot at that." Pulling my hand from the pocket of my outfit, I presented the girl with the very same recurring barrier stone that I used to threaten her and hermanders with back when I made that unfortunate promise. "I just didn''t feel like killing you and all of your friends just because you were too ignorant to realize the difference between our strength." Lowering my hand I made sure the activator of the stone was right underneath my finger while pulling out a massive dagger with my left hand. Stepping forward, I shed at the girl Yet my attack was way too slow to be any threat for the girl. Just by taking a step back, this unskillful attack of mine failed to reach the girl''s body. As she didn''t even need to use her sword to block my stupid attack, she was free to execute a sh on her own. "If you want the stone" Whispering those words as soon as I closed the distance, I used all my might to shake Teria''s emotions out of proportion. Right in time to disturb her sh that was already aimed at splitting me in half. Yet, I was too slow. "MARKUS!" Shouting from behind, someone from my group most likely fell for my acting, believing that I was actually keen on attacking this girl with a short knife. That fact alone was so shocking that I simply tripped on my legs, falling right into the trajectory of the girl''s attack Only for her sword to produce an outburst of sparks right as it was about to deprive me of my left arm right at its base. "Silence!" Shouting to the back, I instantly moved my eyes back on the girl. In this one quick nce, I already managed to confirm that quite a lot of onlookers gathered a considerable distance away, clearly wary of losing their life in the coteral damage of our duel. "This is my fight and my fight alone. Don''t interfere!" With the first sh already done between the two of us, I didn''t bother to influence Teria''s emotions at all. Right now, her emotional state was overwhelmed by just two feelings. Shock and curiosity. And that was exactly what I was aiming for with all my stupid actions of mine. "I WILL KILL YOU!" Shouting from the bottom of my lungs, I sent a wink to the girl before once again repeating the same kind of stupid attack as before. Catching on, Teria actually lowered her sword, epting my attack with its side. "then let me push you back" whispering another set of instructions, I bounced my knife off the girl''s weapon only to instantly jump away and regain my distance. Using the fact that the onlookers were simply too far to notice such minute details like the expressions of our faces, I rolled my eyes before exhaling all the air I had in my lungs. This time though, rather than filling the girl with a feeling of enlightenment, I only managed to make her angry. sping my hands together, I switched the stone with a knife between my hands. After making sure the recurring barrier stone was safely within my grasp, I lunged forward once again. Yet this time, it wasn''t just a single sh. Peng, peng, peng. The sound of my knife smashing against Teria''s sword spread far and wide across the open in of the central kingdom. Yet while others could only hear the noise of metal shing against metal, this was the perfect opportunity for me to extend the close-range sh for as long as I could. In the end, by observing the fight from such a great distance, people would be unable to see any of the details of our moves or attacks. "and we will join with youter." Another exchange of hits followed in order to not make our fight look stale. "You caused quite a lot ofmotion by breaking that barrier." Exining the situation to the girl, I finally realized why she could''ve been so obstinate against my ns of having her just fly over the wall. After all, I learned about the existence of this barrier only when she was first stopped by it. Thinking about this, how did the two of us manage to go through to the northern kingdom without encountering such blockade? Was it something local, implemented only at the gates of the great wall? Or maybe we managed to fly high enough to escape the reach of its influence? "You attempted to leave me behind. How can I trust your words ever again?" As puzzled as Teria initially was, with each of our exchanges she was quickly growing tired of this entire conversation as a whole. Even without my witch senses, I could see her muscles craving to actually be used in a proper way. "For that, I apologize. Hubriel was about to reach his limit and a patrol wasing. As for the barrier" For a moment, I hesitated. Showing a vulnerable side like that, admitting to the fact that I didn''t know something Doing so would put me in quite a precarious position where any further need to negotiate with her arise in the future. But with her huge sword missing my face by bare inches a few times a second, I couldn''t really think about the future all that much. "I apologize once again. I thought it was just a set of walls. After all" Seeing how even this confession failed to work the way I intended, I decided to pull all my stops and go for the kill. "I''m not from this world in the first ce, so I don''t know much about what you consider to bemon knowledge." Stop. In a single instant, Teria jumped thrice to the back, instantly creating a huge distance between the two of us. Noticing it with the corner of my eyes, I saw how the people standing in the direction she escaped suddenly rushed to the back. The reason for that was pretty simple. Given how few details they could notice of this fight, Teria''s retreat could look like an actual advance in their direction. "Are you for real?" Putting her sword down, Teria stood in ce. Due to the distance that she put between us, her voice had to be loud enough for me to hear it, which meant that some of the spectators of our fight could also hear her words. "I am. That''s why I can''t give less fucks about the winged and wingless tribes or about the conflict between the two of them." Lowering my knife as well, I gripped the stone in my hand a bit harder. It was this seemingly more rxed moment that was most likely to be used by the girl to attack. So far, I could tell that she was holding back only because of the stone in my hind. For her, my frantic attacks could be aimed at nothing else but distancing the two of us from the rest of the group so that I could use this disaster without the worry of friendly fire. But thankfully, no attack came this time. "" For a moment, Teria just stood there, taxing me with her deep eyes. As the hostilities halted for a moment, I couldn''t help but adore the form that she took, hovering roughly half a meter above the ground. Now that I thought about it, even though our fight was nothing more but a charade, her movements were still something to be awed by. If only it was something I could learn just like that, the entire purpose of entering this world would be fulfilled! "Fine. We will meet twenty kilometers to the south." Finally sheathing her sword, Teria announced not only to me but to the entire world around her with all the spectators in the distance included. "There might be a conflict between our tribes, but that doesn''t mean I like to spill the blood of civilians." Shaking her head for a moment, Teria rose up to the skies before turning her head towards me once again. "Keep in mind, if you dare to break your word or bring some allies with you, I will eradicate every single town in the area before spending the rest of my days to find you and settle our debt!" Chapter 194: Hubriels reasons Chapter 194: Hubriel''s reasons "You guys heard what she said." Staring at the clouds behind which Teria disappeared just a moment ago after shouting her threats, I finally turned my head around and cast a nce at the rest of the group. "Yeah. You don''t need to say anything." For a moment, a solemn nature overtook the area. At this particr moment, I couldn''t really tell whether everyone was sending me off with such sad faces or if they just managed to catch on and y their roles perfectly. In the end, though, it didn''t matter which one was it. They were nothing more but fodder, and I couldn''t be mistaken to treat them in any other way. "May I have a word?" Stepping forward, it was Hubriel who broke the discipline of the group and actually decided to intervene before I would make all the decisions regarding the future on my own. "Sure, what do you need?" Unwilling to reveal what I was actually thinking, I leaned my head on my right shoulder, feigning ignorance. "Alone." Seeing how persistent the man was, I had no other choice but to nod my head and gesture with my hand at a nearby gathering of bushes. As we walked away from the rest of the group, I could almost physically feel the stares of everyone else along with their deep regret that they weren''t the ones to act up first. "What are you going to do now?" As soon as we put enough of a distance between the two of us and the rest of the group to have any hopes that our voice wouldn''t reach them, Hubriel spoke up. "Isn''t it obvious?" All at once, my mood degraded. Here I thought that this man was intelligent enough to call me out for some actually important reason, only to learn that he was just interested in rumors and gossips "It is, but I wanted to hear the details. You are going to meet with that girl, right?" Once again casting some kind of spell that resulted in a mist of light covering his hands, Hubriel quickly proved to not trust his words to the chance. This time though, rather than covering me with this spell of his without my notice, I felt something strange as the sound transmission was cut off. "Yeah." Looking in the direction where the girl took off, I could vaguely see some hints at the horizon giving away a presence of a huge natural structure. Whether it was a sea, a set of short mountains, or just a big forest, it didn''t matter. After all, the only reason why we were going to meet elsewhere was so that we could avoid any onlookers when joining hands once again. "But it''s not that simple, isn''t it?" Looking straight in my face, Hubriel smiled. Somehow, this man was capable of reading quite a lot from my face alone, even though I was fully and perfectly sure he had no skill like my witchcraft. "It''s not. Listen, this might sound like a bad idea" Hesitating to show this kinder side of me for a moment, I ultimately decided to be open about this matter. "Actually, you will need to help me a bit. What I need you to do, is to start preparing the ground for a huge betrayal." Not daring to look at the man himself, I snapped a random flower from the grasnd before putting its stem into my mouth. Chewing on it, I awaited some kind of reaction, only to realize a few momentster that I wasn''t going to receive any. "I didn''t expect you to be so calm after hearing it." Since I decided to be open already, there was nothing wrong with acting openly all the way. "Well, if you were going to stab us in the back, you wouldn''t just reveal it like that?" Leaning his head to the side, Hubriel looked at me as if I was some kind of maybe not an idiot, but a person too naive to bear the sigil of being mature. "I''m certain you saw how close I am with the rest of the folks." Smiling to his own thoughts, Hubriel looked towards the rest of the group. "They might be young and naive, but they are honest and hard-working. It''s my duty to oversee their growth so that they can be the spending people they have the potential to be." Suddenly revealing his own soft side, Hubriel reached out to his pocket before pulling something that I didn''t expect. A smoking pipe. In a precisely carved piece of wood covered in some kind of see-through, amber-like substance, a small pile of brownish herbs found its new home before that so-called secondary mage set it alight. Taking a long whiff, he held the smoke deep in his lungs before letting it go in a single, long line. "So it''s not my perception that told me you are stronger than everyone else in your group?" Here, I wasn''t exactly honest. But this smallpse of my consistency came from a simple fact that no harm would be done to either side with such a small and convenient lie, while a lot of time could be wasted in order to exin it properly otherwise. "No. I''m still stronger than even the three strongest of thembined. But they are growing fast." Spewing those two, separate sentences in rapid session as if they actually were a single statement, Hubriel took another cloud of smoke to his lungs before pulling the pipe out of his mouth and passing it over. "No, thanks. I do not smoke." Refusing the treat, I looked at the man with newfound respect. While I knew that everyone had their own circumstances that pushed them into all kinds of situations, I couldn''t help but draw simrities between the situation of this man and the situation that I used to often experience in all kinds of mangas and novels I would read in my younger years. With the only difference resting in how dense the protagonists of those stories were in contrast to how dedicated and goal-oriented the middle-aged man before me was. "Okay then." Patting my knees, I shook my head to push aside all the thoughts that were not of vital importance. "What I need you to do, is to prepare the rest of the guys for the moment when I will elope with Teria." I barely managed to stop my tongue from clicking when I made this unfortunate slip of a tongue. Adding the intimate context by using this specific world would only cloud the information I wanted to pass to the man. "And you need us to chase after the two of you, right?" Not asking any unnecessary questions, Hubriel instantly focused on the topic at hand. "From where Teria set the ce of your so-called duel, you should take about a week to two more before crashing into thest border. Past that, you will be back in the first Kingdom you told us about." Closing his eyes to recall the rough outline of the terrain, Hubriel quickly came up with a suggestion. "How about heading for the North Star city first, then passing through Latievan and ultimately Ku AH, you won''t know those names either." Suddenly realizing his mistake, Hubriel turned silent before suddenly standing up and pointing his hand to the southeast. "As long as you travel for about thirty miles in that general direction, you will see arge tract. While there will be some woods and swamps, it will be mostly surrounded by lush and often well-maintained farnds. As long as you follow it for another few miles, you will reach the best city to cross the southern gates." This time, Hubriel''s exnation made a bit more sense. Yet, ignoring his advice, I just stared into his eyes. Then I just decided that whether he understood the reason behind my decision or not, it didn''t matter at all. Because either way, as long as the results of his actions were in line with what I wanted to achieve, his source of motivation mattered too little for me to care. "Once you get to the city, head to the port. As soon as some whores will start proposing their services, ask them to lead you to the Parger. He will help you get beyond the wall." Reaching out to his belt, Hubrial detached a sizeable sack from it before throwing it towards me. "Here is about twice as much money as you will need to get the two of you across." Standing up, this time it was Hubriel''s turn to dust off his knees. But even though I just received a huge dose of information I so desperately needed, there was something that bugged my mind too much to let the man go just like that. "Why are you so helpful? What interest do you have in all this?" Standing behind the man, I asked. To give me money, give me such a valuable n and information, cooperate or at least dere willingness to do so with my n All of that wasn''t something that I could expect from a random stranger. Yet, Hubriel at least appeared to be willing to go with all this trouble. Unless he would give me the reason, I would be unable to ept his help just like that. "You see, Ie from one generation before them." Nodding with his head towards the rest of the already impatient group, Hubriel smiled. "You know, there is something about you that makes me perceive you in a pretty simr way I do those guys." Crossing his arms over his chest, Hubriel smiled. "YOu guys are the salt that will add the taste to the future toe. And I''m helping here and there" Out of nowhere, the entire notification window that still outlined all the side missions I had to finish, exploded in a bright red as all the names of the missions exploded in this color. "because I know a little bit more than your average man." Chapter 195: Arshas determination Chapter 195: Arsha''s determination As we returned from the small seclusion we created to have a peaceful talk, I could feel the suspicion mixing with curiosity in the souls of literally every single member of the group. And sadly, I could already tell that rather than satisfying their curiosity, I had no other choice but to confirm their suspicions. "Everyone, I will be leaving the group for now." Announcing as soon as I could use my voice in a normal way while making sure that everyone in the group and no one from the outside spectators could hear me. For a moment, no one spoke out a word. In this eerie silence, the only sound came from the muscles and joints of several people when they suddenly started looking at the other member of the group in an attempt to confirm that they heard correctly. "No, no, no, just wait a moment." Stepping forward after a short moment, Lonignus opposed my decision. "We came here with you all the way because we believe that it''s our duty to deliver this sacred core to wherever it''s supposed to go." Turning his head to the great of the group as he spoke, Longinus received a rtively loud hum of approval. With the silent backing of his friends, he once again dared to look at my face, only to realize that the matter I brought up was already set in stone. "You heard what Teria said. Whether it was intentional or just a slip of a tongue, I need to face her alone." Taking a quick nce to the direction where that damned girl set off towards, Layn swallowed his saliva before tightening his jaws and lowering his eyes. "It''s my fault. I didn''t know there was a barrier above the walls and I still attempted to force her to travel right through it." Admitting to my own mistake, I tightened my hands into fists before mming my right fist into my chest. "Right now, I need to take responsibility for that mistake. And for that, I can''t have any of you follow after me." Just as the moment reached the limit of how tense it could be, I gently lowered my head over my chest before allowing a small smirk to surface on my lips. "That is, for now. To be honest, I don''t quite care about Teria annihting cities or whatnot. To be frank, I doubt she would actually do such a thing in the first ce. She might speak a lot, but she struck me as a generally kind and naive goofball, not a mass murderer that she wanted to pose as before." Lowering my voice to add a tone of conspiracy to the reveal, I brought my head higher, just enough for the others to see my confident smirk. "Yet, whether or not Teria meant what she said, I still need to face her alone. And that''s why" Putting on a meaningful look on my face, I sent a suggestive stare to Longinus. And after a moment of straining my muscles, I changed my target, taking a look with that expression of mine at Arsha instead. "That''s why, rather than going directly with you, we will follow after you. Close enough to jump in and help if a need would arise, far enough not to startle the girl, or" turning her head around to cast a nce at all the people that were slowly starting to make their way towards our group, Arsha swallowed a gulp of saliva before finishing, "or the many sellswords that are bound to travel right after us." "I''m d that someone caught up" mming my forehead against the opened up palm of my right hand, I allowed the loud sp of meat striking against the meat to be the marker that divided the moment into the past, where everyone was confused and into the future, where everyone at least had some clues about what was going on. "There is absolute, no, fucking, way." Spelling each of his words separately, Longinus'' face darkened. "I know that you are strong. Just the fact that Teria hesitated to just take that sacred core from you is enough to prove that point." Starting with something that I didn''t expect from someone opposing me going solo, Longinus proved that even though he was at times slow, he wasn''t an idiot by any means. "But that doesn''t mean you don''t need someone to watch your back." As much as I hated to admit it, Longinus was right here. No matter how powerful I was, no gun, no Sander''s stone or armament could ward me off against sneak attacks. While I had quite a few trinkets from the modern earth that could alleviate the danger for quite a lot, setting them up in a proper way would cost me at least an hour, while granting me no more than just a few splits of seconds more to react to any potential attack. In such a situation, having someone to watch over me while I sleep, to constantly survey the area and look for the hints of third-party presence, was of immeasurable value. But due to the very reasons why I decided to go solo rather than allowing this entire group to follow, I had no choice but to refuse such an offer. "The more people wille with me, the harder it will be to avoid any trouble on the way." Shaking my head, I attempted to direct the topic into a field more favorable to me. "I''m sure that there are people that will take Teria''s words seriously. If they would just get their hands on my head, they could prevent the announced duel from happening, unleashing the wrath of Teria on those cities." Suddenlying up with an apparently random scenario, I looked Longinus in his eyes. "Tell me, how likely my story is to be true for at least a few people in our surroundings?" Allowing my eyes to wander towards the gate where guards were openly praying for our party to leave, I then moved my sight back on the young mercenary himself. For a moment, Longinus appeared as if he wanted to retort my logic in one way or another But ultimately, he spoke not a word. Taking a step back, he hung his head low before cing his hand on Arsha''s shoulder. "I know that she might not be the most pleasant person to travel with, but she is capable. I would feel too bad to let you go after Teria all alone." This time, Longinus eyes had no hint of hesitation in them. Staring deeply into his pupils, I could tell that trying to convince him now would be an utterly pointless endeavor. So I turned my eyes to the girl herself. "Arsha, just a quick question." Still shocked by the sudden action of her malepanion, Arsha was clearly troubled with digesting everything that was happening around her. Unable to utter even a single word, the girl only managed to look at me with a question mark appearing all over her face. "Do you mind bearing the name of a traitor?" My eyes turned cold. To the side, I could almost hear Hubriel pping his forehead. But I wasn''t going topromise on this point either. There were two reasons why I wanted to deal with the things the way I discussed with Hubriel. First off, given how much of a show Teria turned our small argument into, it was only a matter of time before entire countries would rush to catch and kill her. By traveling alongside the girl, I was effectively putting myself in a situation where a death sentence was simply unavoidable. And while I couldn''t care less about punishment served by some random country in some random world that I wasn''t likely to visit any time soon after finishing the mission, the same couldn''t be said about people who were born in this world, who were living in this world and who would die in this world. To put the situation in other words, by getting Arsha to follow me, I was effectively dropping a cooked grenade into a cage, before leaving it myself and locking the girl inside. As for the other reason behind my drive to travel on my own, it was pure pragmatism. Soon, I would be likely branded as a traitor and chased after just like Teria. But by traveling with her, I could make use of my phasing ability which allowed me to keep up with the pace of a damned winged human. On the other hand, as soon as the news of my betrayal would spread, Longinus party under Hubriel''s influence could announce that my betrayal started when I split ways with them, obtaining an official reason to chase me to the end of the world without anyone daring to stop them. This moral and practical approach was behind the very idea of my betrayal. And so far, Longinus failed to bring any solution to the problem of our slow progress, making it impossible for him to convince me to keep traveling with them. "I don''t mind. As long as we can fulfill the will of the saint, I''m willing toy my life for that down." Stepping forward, Arsha shook Longinus hand''s from her shoulder before standing on my side. "While I have no idea why you deemed this development to be necessary" Shaking her head, Arsha patted herself all over before pulling out a small piece of an intricately carved metal te. "I want to believe you. And this time, I''m going to believe in you, even if I can''t justify your reasoning on my own." Throwing the te towards the young mercenary, Arsha smiled. "Long, keep it safe for me, okay?" Chapter 196: New team forms up Chapter 196: New team forms up Reaching the ce where Teria requested to have a duel with me wasn''t a problem at all. In fact, if motivated, I could reach it in just a few moments by mixing all kinds of movement techniques, tricks, and spells I had at my disposal. Sadly, the same couldn''t be said about my unnecessarypanion, who did nothing but considerably slow me down. "Can you slow down a little, please?" In just a few moments after starting our run, Arsha proved that my guess about her aptitude towards fast travel was correct. Even though we were running for a measly half an hour, she was already covered from head to toe in sweat, clearly unable to take a single, proper breath. "Slow down? Don''t you know that we are in a hurry?" Not holding anything back, I asked. Right now, I couldn''t care less about being gentle for women. From the very moment this girl decided to join hands with me and follow along, she signed all her privileges away, turning into a soldier I could work to the death if I wanted. "I know! But I can''tst much longer!" My attempts at getting her to think logically only resulted in her protests growing in intensity. "I don''t know what kinds of tricks you are using to move so damn fast, but unless you teach me how to do it too, I won''t be able to follow after you at all!" Screaming from the bottom of her lungs, Arsha suddenly calmed herself down, as if something shocked her to the point where her previous fit no longer seemed meaningful. "I''m sorry" Suddenly apologizing out of nowhere, Arsha finally managed to catch me off guard. In the end, I wasn''t insane to the point of expecting the girl to say her apologies right after throwing a fit! "I know that each spell and trick is one''s lifeline But can''t you understand how frustrating it is?" Suddenly posing a strange question, Arsha continued to take me by surprise with each of her words and actions. "Frustrating? What is frustrating? The fact that you took more on yourself than you can carry? Or the fact that you can''t pull your own weight even when ites to traveling?" Being intentionally harsh like that only had one purpose. To get rid of the girl and force her to return to the rest of the party. In fact, doing so would give me yet another opportunity at convincing everyone that I was actually a criminal they would have tomit their hearts to chase! "me me all you want, but I won''t change my mind." Most likely noticing my intentions, Arsha''s face tensed as she answered. Yet, rather than acting strong with her words alone, she actually took a few, deep breaths to calm herself down before starting to trod forward. "Heh" To say that I would be surprised would be a gross understatement. I saw how her face looked. I saw how her muscles tensed, how she fought for each of her breaths. Being a former member of the athletic club in the school was more than enough to be able to spot such minute details. Yet, despite her clear exhaustion, she still started running, as if to prove her words weren''t empty at all. Ever since that moment, our journey turned just as slow as I was worried it would be, but at least Arsha somehow managed to keep her pace constant. By the time we finally arrived at the spot where I could finally see the rough outline of Teria''s body high in the skies, Arsha looked more like a corpse than a living human. Crash. Descending to the ground without any prior warning, Teria scanned the two of us with cold eyes. Then, after pulling her sword out, she pointed its tip at the girl. "Didn''t I tell you toe alone? I didn''t expect you to drag a meatshield here like that." Looking down on the girl, Teria smirked before squinting her eyes and focusing her entire attention on me. "Are you for real?" Leisurely taking a moment to regain my breath, I turned my entire body to look at Arsha before turning my head to Teria. Allowing my eyes to widen, I pped my forehead against the quickly approaching palm of my right hand. "Do you really think she could be a threat to you in such a state?" Pointing my hand at the trembling body of the poor girl, I felt a sudden bout of ridicule appearing in my soul. Before I could contain it, my lips twisted and words flowed out. "If you are wary of someone so weak, how can I even take you seriously?" Shaking my head, I ignored the lethal stare that Teria sent me, before approaching Arsha and grabbing her under her left arm. "Come on, how long are you going to wait? If we want to hurry, we will need to carry her with us." As the warmth of Arsha''s wet sleeve touched my fingers, I couldn''t help but feel a little bit of disgust. Ever since I left earth, it was the closest I was with any girl. With the addition of her hormones-rich sweat assaulting my nostrils, it was no wonder my body started to react to her smell and proximity At the same time as my morals went into a frenzy. Tormented by this ongoing fight between my sanity and my urges, I tightened my grip over Arsha''s arm a bit, resulting in the girl twisting her face in pain before releasing a pained moan. "Ah, sorry. That wasn''t intentional." Noticing my slight mishap, I looked towards Teria only to see her still rooted on the spot, with her sword firmly in her hand. "How long are you going to wait like an idiot? Come and help." In times like this, when the other party could have doubts about our rtionship or how much she could trust me, ignoring all theplicated mess of rtionships and opinions was usually the smartest choice. By pushing the girl into action without any regard for her feelings or thoughts on the matter, I could hope that she would turn gullible enough to actually do what I wanted. "I''m not going to move an inch unless you tell me something." Standing her ground, Teria sadly proved to have some basic intelligence. Now that she proved immune to this little trap I was offhandedly preparing, I couldn''t help but get curious just what kind of question she had in mind. Because form what she said, she appeared to be quite willing to help if my answer could satisfy her. "Shoot." Given how simple the entire situation could turn out to be, there was no need for me to stall or build tension. Rather than that, going straight to the point and exining everything at a face value appeared as a more beneficial option in my current situation. "What do you actually want? What is your real mission here?" Teria''s fingers gripped the handle of her sword so hard that the whites of her bones appeared underneath the skin of her knuckles. For a moment, I wasn''t sure how I was supposed to answer that. I already proimed the content of my mission to not only her but everyone in the group as well Or did I? While it was the case for my original mission, the same couldn''t be said about the missions that I had to fulfill right now! Yet, that didn''t mean I was willing to reveal their content just yet. In the end, in a world where I knew the least of themonsense amongst the people, I would be traveling with, revealing the real reasons behind my behavior would make me predictable, and as such, easy to trap and cheat. But that didn''t mean I could just get away with some kind of cheap lie either. Ignoring the fact that it would only take a short while for it to be discovered, once more and more information would unveil, I would have no other choice but to keep building upon that lie all the way to the point where some small detail would result in my entire story crumbling apart. "You know, this time, I''m even more confused than I was before. But from the looks of things" Reaching out to my pocket, I pulled the sacred core out before taking a long look at it. "You know, I believe that right now, I need to somehow bring it to that princess" Raising my eyes at the girl, I added, "you know, the princess that was the child between the human king and the chief chieftain of the winged tribe." This time, I could only reveal my guess. ''Reuniting the family.'' That was the second sub-mission that I was supposed to fulfill, and with all the knowledge I already had, the guess that I revealed seemed to be the most likely solution to the mission. Yet, whether or not it was actually true, I had no clue. "Good. " Surprisingly, my words somehow managed to get the girl to put her sword down and rx her grip on its handle. At first, she closed her eyes and took a few breaths before opening them up again and moving forward. After reaching my position, Teria followed my earlier request and grabbed Arsha by her shoulder before moving their head to the side and casting me a weird look. "Are you ready?" As little as I expected this oue, I wasn''t the man to say no to a free opportunity. "Yeah, let''s go." Chapter 197: Nearing the quest Chapter 197: Nearing the quest "Stop it already!" Teria''s desperate shout seemed to shook the air around us. Even back when we were arguing never had her voice reached the magnitudes of emotions infused in it that it did right now. "What, miss super-strong winged fighter cannot handle a bit of teasing?" With Arsha sleeping currently while curled all over my back, there was a strange sense of liberation filling my soul. Sadly, even being a witch didn''t make it any easier for me to decipher the reason behind it. My current one and only guess was that ever since we first met Longinus party, it was only now that the two of us returned to the type of rtionship simr to what we had going back during the first part of our journey. "You can tease me all you want, but I won''t allow you to disgrace my homnd!" Shouting in response, Teria harumphed before speeding up a bit. While it allowed her to gain some distance on me, given how she quickly returned to her previous speed, we didn''t continue to grow the distance between the two of us. But with her words pointing the problem out, I couldn''t help but look at thends below once again. After just a single day of traveling at rtively high speed, the entirety of the wingless-human countries was already left far behind us. While we still had the stalling element in form of Arsha, outside of the need to knock her out every few hours or switch who would be carrying her, she wasn''t that much of a hindrance either. Yet, contrary to what I thought, I didn''t even notice when the three of us crossed the barrier between thends of the normal humans and the areas controlled by the winged tribe. Because ultimately, there was absolutely no way to discern one from the other. At first, I thought that the differences would be great. From nature, through the atmosphere at building style and the air itself ending. Yet, as soon as Teria notified me that the town we were passing above was already one of her own, I realized that outside of this natural body-building trait, the two tribes had no other differences at all. "Teria!" After giving the girl a few long moments to calm herself down, I called her out. Obviously though, given the breakneck speed that we were traveling at, I could as well just start making barrel-rolls instead of flying straight as it would have a pretty simr chance to grab the girl''s attention. That was the scope of the noise produced by the air when we were cutting through its mass at such a high speed. That was also the reason why Arsha had to suffer several headshots from my fist. If she were to be awake, she would clearly refuse to be glued to my back as tightly as she currently was, resulting in a rapid changing of the air resistance during my flight which would quickly lead both of us to an inevitable disaster. That''s why, as taxing as it was for my mana reserves, I had no other choice but to phase forward in order to catch up with the girl. "HEY!" Only when I basically shouted right into Teria''s ear did she even noticed my presence. Turning her head to the side, she allowed me to see that her face was still twisted in a pout. Rolling my eyes at this sight, I pointed my hand at the ground below. At such an attitude and speed, there was no need to even attempt having a conversation. The roaring of the air would make a short work of any sound produced by us, making a full-stop the only way to actually have a talk. In the end, Teria didn''t oppose my wish. With her wings slowly spreading further and further apart, the drag of the air heavily affected her speed, quickly bringing her to a stall after which she started an uncontrolled free-fall towards the distant ground. On the other side, I simply allowed my body to fall down properly rather than constantly ejecting myself forward. Once I neared the ground, I focused my energy and shifted upwards, canceling most of my downward momentum with that move. With one more phasing out made in a simr manner for the same reason, I finally stepped on the ground, lowering myself on my knees to kill all the remaining momentum of my body. "So, what did you want?" Topare, Teria''snding was far more graceful. Like some kind of angel descending from the heavens, she hovered just a few feet above the ground before slowly descending thisst bit down. Contrary to what I did, she had absolutely no need for fighting off her momentum, as she had no momentum when she touched the ground, to begin with. n "First off, I wanted to say sorry." Reaching out with my hand and pointing in the direction we came from, I lowered my head before my upper body followed suit. "I expected for your homnd to be way different than what I saw in the countries of the wingless tribe. It were my bloated expectations that made me so negative when they were shattered by the mundane reality." This was one of the rare chances when I actually apologized from the bottom of my heart rather than in order to gain some benefit. As someone who came from a nation of quite a tragic history, I could easily understand what one would feel when hisnd or nation would get ndered by others who knew nothing about it. And even though for me, everyone in this world was as good as some random barbarians, making fun of their homnds was in pretty bad taste. "It''s okay, you were really stuck at it for so long?" Looking at me as if I was some kind of madman, Teria widened her eyes before mming her palm against her forehead. "If you just wanted to talk about something so silly" She didn''t even need to finish her sentence. Just the single, longing look that she cast towards the direction we were still heading towards was enough to betray what she wanted to prioritize right now. And talking about respect towards one''snd and country definitely wasn''t at the top of said list. "I know that for you it might be nothing. But it''s something that''s actually really important to me." Spreading my arms, I admitted to my own faults. "I just didn''t want for this to pull our rtionship down. Even though we shed here and there, I still consider you to be one of my friends? Well, let''s call it a temporary friend for now." Putting a shy smile on my lips, I looked away for a brief moment. This time I wasn''t acting. Revealing this simple fact of my basic sympathy towards this girl was more than enough to make me embarrassed. Obviously, given how I still had Ayda back on earth, my thoughts towards Teria were of purely tonic friendship, born not out of lust but out of the fellowship of the arms. "Gosh, what are you even saying!" Turning all beet red when she heard my words, Teria proved that she wasn''t just a mindless and goal-oriented warrior that she pretended to be so far. Unless it was some kind of insane acting skill on her end, by blushing and then attempting to hide her blush just like that she proved that she still was a simple, young girl. Even if that part of herself turned already too small to survive on its own within her soul. "But there is actually another topic that we should discuss." As much as it pained me to wreck this rtively pleasant atmosphere, I didn''t really have any say in that matter. In the end, I was about to bring up the real reason why I asked the girl for a short stop. "Actually, I think it''s better if Arsha hears it as well." Bending my knees, I lowered myself to the point where the girl could slide off my back to the ground rather than outright just falling down. A single spike in the intensity of her emotions quickly allowed her to break free from her dreams. "WHAT?!" Shaking awake, Arsha nearly instantly raised and sat down on her ass, before quickly scanning the area around her. Upon noticing our two silhouettes in her proximity, Arsha''s face was instantly taken over by a furious expression. "HOW DARE" Just as the girl started, I lost all my patience to deal with her. "Silence, wench." Squinting my eyes at her, I added. "I do not wish to be annoyed by you. I just wish to finish my mission. And about that" Bringing my hand to scratch the side of my head, I took a cautious look at both of the girls. "You know what? Ever since a while ago I got a feeling that the second part of my mission, the mission to ''Reunite the family''" Unsure how to exin the shing light appeared all over the name of the subquest whenever I was nearing the condition to fulfill it, I got silent for a moment. "It''s near, am I right?" Rather than waiting for my own answer, Teria stepped up and finished my words on her own. Chapter 198: Slave or not Chapter 198: ve or not "Absolutely, no fucking way." Thinking about this, the current situation was pretty simr to what has happened just a few days earlier. The only differenceid in the fact that this time it was me fervently protesting the idea that Teria brought up. "So you would rather die, am I right?" Putting a victorious smile on her face, Teria replied with glee. At this point, I didn''t even need my witch abilities to see how satisfied she was with this reversal of the situation. "What I asked of you back then It came from myck of knowledge. In other words, you could tell me that there was a barrier that you would have some trouble crossing." Attempting to calm the situation down, I exined how I saw the situation from back then. "I believe you can see the difference between asking you to just fly over an obstacle and asking the two of us to act like your spoils of war!" This proposition for Teria to bring us inside her hometown, the capital of the winged tribes federation, was outrageous on many levels. From how little I trusted such clever-in-another-way ns, through the disgrace I would have to go through by posing as a prisoner And even if the two above wouldn''t be enough, just the chances of such a n seeding enforced me to refuse this proposition. In the end, if any of Teria''s superiors were to appear, she would have a hard time refusing to give us up for his own pleasure, be it raping Arsha or just killing us both to exact vengeance on Teria''s potential superior''s fallenrades. "I refused back then and I ended up forcing my way through. If you feel like you can challenge our damned capital, feel free to just waltz through the gates and demand an audience with my father for all I care!" Just like I did back then, Teria snapped when listening to my refusal for the nth time. "You know that if I do that, I will be likely to eradicate the entire city of yours? Is that what you really want?" That was the current drawback of my means and abilities. For now, I had no balls to challenge Teria or actually any of the locals without either Sander''s stones or Heckler and Koch that I still had some ammunition for. Yet, in the middle of an entirely hostile city, even a gun wouldn''t be of great use. That limited my means of defending myself to the recurring stones But I wasn''t without soul. As obvious as it would sound, it wasn''t that easy to just kill scores of innocent people that had nothing to do with me or my problems just because their defenders were too hasty to plunge their swords into my flesh. While I could tell that any feelings of guilt or moral remorse were muffled while in other words, I didn''t want to end up like the pilots of the bombers that dropped the first and only two nukes to be ever used in warfare. "Huh? Isn''t that you, Teria? What are you" Before we coulde to an agreement, the repetition of the problematic situation from before diverged from how it happened thest time. Because right now, a third party actually got involved. "doing with those people" Finishing his words while staring at me and unconscious Arsha, the man who noticed Teria suddenly stopped. "They are my ves. Got a problem with that?" Not waiting for some miracle to happen, Teria instantly went on the offensive. Sending me a quick yet angered stare, she stood up. In such a situation, unless I was willing to just kill that man for no reason, I had no other choice but to agree to her actions. But that didn''t mean I was willing to deprive myself out of all my options. "I will follow your n for now." Standing up, I pretended to trip on my own legs. "But if anything excessive were to happen'' Using the short window as I was standing up to sh the very same barrier stone that I constantly used to threaten the girl, I could see her expression changing a bit. From the victorious smile of someone who achieved his or her objective, to a terrified expression of someone who learned about the potential consequences of his or her victory. "No, why would I?" On the other hand, the man who found them out didn''t appear to be some kind of bully or overdutiful guard. "While I''m curious just where did you found those two No, I would rather know just where the hell was you for thest few days! Your father almost called for the holy crusade to rescue you!" As I heard the words of that stranger, I couldn''t help but prick my eyes in order not to miss a single word. Teria''s father was capable of doing something like that? Just what did that mean about the background of the girl? Now that I thought about it, a few more dots, scattered around my mind up to this point, started to connect. Just how did this girl know about the background information that the entire wingless tribe appeared to be ignorant about? How did she know about the importance of the sacred core, something that I received as if it was a meaningless trinket? Bit by bit, more and more memories continued to connect, bringing forth all the scenes when Teria revealed bits of her knowledge. And with the clear respect visible in the man''s eyes when he looked at the girl, I didn''t need any more evidence to figure out her real standing. "I need you to bring me and those trash to my father. I have some pretty dire news about the frontlines." Grabbing my hair, Teria suddenly lowered her own head. Hiding her face from the man, she showed me her tearful eyes. At the same time, I noticed that her hand was trembling and only pretending to actually grab my hair. ''Is she scared I will overreact?'' Unable to answer this question for sure, I stumbled forward, pretending as if Teria holding my hair was a pretty painful inconvenience. "I understand. Are those two some spies or maybe officers?" Turning around and clearing the way for the three of us, the winged warrior smiled. "They will never learn, won''t they?" Hinting at something I wasn''t any wiser about, I could only stay silent and listen to the talk of Teria and her colleague in hopes that some more bits of information would fall off the table. From then on, the rest of the journey turned out to be far easier than I expected. Maybe it was Teria''s social position that kept any annoying pests that could otherwise appear at bay, maybe it just wasn''t in the nature of the locals. What mattered though was the fact that before I could ever get tired of walking in such an awkward position before Arsha''s unconscious body could turn too heavy for me to carry, we finally stopped in front of the massive gate. Raising my eyes for the first time since we passed the outer walls of the city, I could see a magnificent castle raising high to the skies. And then, the illusion of my expectation wore off, recing that glorious castle with a simple, wooden mansion. While there were some barricades and even stone walls here and there, it was clear that this mansion was actually rebuilt on the ruins of a building that used to upy this ce But it was rebuilt by people eithercking the technology or the materials for the finished product to be the same as what it was in the past. "Teria?" As the peeking hole opened up within the gate, a surprised voice rang before the entire gate started to open. As soon as the crack between its two halves was big enough, a petite body of a child rushed out of the mansion only to m right into Teria''s abdomen. "Sister, I missed you soooo much!" Rubbing her head against Teria''s stomach, the young girl''s face was smeared with tears and snot. "Don''t worry, Belika, I''m back. Now, if you could go and inform father about my arrival" As soon as Teria finished her words, the massive, wooden gate finally opened up, revealing a body that should exist only in cartoons. Unable to lower my eyes once Iid them on the man who appeared behind the gate, I ended up silently swallowing my saliva. At the same time, the stone that I was hiding in my palm started to heat up under the influence of the sweat that started dripping all over from my hands. "I heard that you brought some ves with you" The mountain spoke. Only at this moment, I realized that the eyes of this enormous man were actually glued to my face. And what was worse, they were filled with suspicion. At first, I thought that not doing anything at all would be the best course of action. With my eyes slightly leaning towards the girl, I quickly understood why such a n had absolutely no chances of working. Teria was terrified. Her face was perfectly still, while her hands only continued to shake even more. Even after a few attempts at opening up her mouth, she failed to produce a single sound. As such, I only had one thing I could to save the situation. "It''s a pleasure to meet you, sir." Raising both my head and straightening my spine, I looked at the insanely huge man on the other side of the opened gate. With Sander''s barrier stone giving me confidence, I lowered my head with respect before introducing myself. "I''m Marius, the aide of the God himself sent to this world to set certain things straight." Chapter 199: Cores chamber Chapter 199: Core''s chamber "Kid, what is a human doing in the middle of our home?" The burly man spent only a few seconds staring at me after my introduction before averting his eyes. Glossing over what I said as if I never happened, the man turned his eyes to Teria. "Father, it''s just like he said. He is not a human from a wingless tribe." Shaking her head, Teria stepped forward, putting herself between me and her father. "There is no grudge between him and our n. And I have some other things I need to tell you," looking around in a pretensional manner, Teria squinted her eyes as she looked at her father''s face again, "just not in such a crowded ce." For a moment, I really didn''t know how the situation would develop. Even though I managed to make short work out of all the winged humans that I fought with so far, this man was on an entirely different level. If I were topare the faint aura of power that Teria and her colleagues gave away to the tense air around the man No,paring the two would be utterly pointless. There simply wasn''t a scale allowing me to fully grasp the power that this man wielded. He was iparable to anything that I saw so far in my life, even the effects of the recurring stones included. "I understand." After the thrilling moment of silence, Teria''s father finally responded. Releasing a deep sigh, he then looked at me. "I won''t kill you right now. You can introduce yourself properly now." Noticeably aware of the impression that anyone skilled enough would have of him, the massive man lowered his hands along his huge waist as if to indicate ack of harmful ideas. "Well, if I were to be perfectly honest, that bastard just dupes me with whatever missions he wants, and here I am now, stuck in this world, trying to figure out what those missions even mean. And well, I really go by Marius." With this slight window of opportunity to talk a bit more, I openly revealed my situation. When I first introduced myself, my only aim was to shock the man for long enough, for the curiosity to seep into his mind. And without any immediate hostilities, I could borate on my situation a little more. "I see." Refusing toment on my second introduction, Teria''s father turned around before gesturing us to follow him. Not wasting any time on waiting, he instantly pushed forward, threatening to leave us behind if we failed to follow. "Let''s go. You caught his interest, so you might see the day after that." Wiping the sweat from her forehead, Teria breathed out before picking up the pace. As soon as we crossed by the gate, the massive wooden doors were shut close, preventing anyone else from entering the mission. At this point, I could only hope that we would soon get to sit down, as my legs were already slowly giving up. In the end, carrying a girl on my back for an extended period of time was quite taxing. "We shall talk here." After a few moments of walking, the man who proved that a child didn''t necessarily need to inherit a parent''s psychique pointed at a small gazebo. Located behind the mansion itself, it stood in the middle of a small refugee. "A beautiful ce." Staring at the small pond filled with pristinely clear water and fish ying inside, at the dense thicket of trees that separated this small ce from the rest of the city, I couldn''t help but mutter. "Much appreciated." For some reason, Teria''s father took this silent awe personally. "He cultivated this ce himself. That tree in the middle" Leaning over my eyes to whisper, Teria stopped mid-sentence when her father sent her a scolding look. "Now, tell me why do you think it was appropriate for you to bring a wingless man to the city." shing the air with his hand, the man cut Teria''s protests before she could even voice them. "I already know he is not of the tribe we fight with. But will the citizens know this as well? What will you do if they start protesting because of your naive actions?" As I heard this conversation, rather than feeling down due to a rather non-weing attitude of the man, I felt warmth spreading through my soul. While I might stand on a different side than Teria''s father and Teria herself, I couldn''t help but feel jealous of how this man scolded his daughter. Not because I was some kind of masochist, urged to look for more and more vivid and intense experiences. It was simply because I could see the amount of affection hidden behind each and every single word of Teria''s father. "If you want people to know something, you should attempt to clumsily hide it away." Even though I felt bad for intervening, I had no time to just watch the family drama unfold. All its potential developments aside, every moment I was wasting meant a single moment less before the time freeze would conclude. "Shut your Wait, that''s actually an idea." Suddenly revealing an uneasy smile, Teria''s father proved that he wasn''t as simple a figure as I initially assumed. "That''s one way to deal with this problem. But still, you said there was something you had to tell me about that man." Turning his head towards Teria once again, I had to wait for a moment before reaching to my pouch. After all, if I were to do it too quickly and Teria''s father would turn his head back my way so quickly that his neck would snap How could I cheer her up in such a situation? No, it was better to just give the man''s neck muscles some time. "I believe it has to do something with this sacred core here." Pulling out the shiny stone, I presented it for everyone to see. If the atmosphere was tense before, now the air could be cut with a knife. In fact, the atmosphere turned so thick, that I could bet if someone were to leave a knife midair, it would refuse to fall! "Where did you No, it doesn''t matter." The face of the man darkened. Stepping closer, he extended his hand. "Give it to me now, and I will spare your life." Taking a step to the back, I opened up the palm of my other hand. In it, locked between the palm itself and my thumb, the recurring barrier stoneid. "Threaten me again, and this entire city will disappear." As much as I grew to respect this man over the course of thest few minutes, it didn''t change a thing. Right now, my priority was to finish the mission as soon as possible, return to earth and take control over my sect. And the first step to do so was to follow the side missions predesigned by the system. And giving up the sacred core didn''t align with this objective of mine at all. "Father, please, wait a moment." As soon as the stone appeared in my hand, Teria''s face turned nk. After all, she already saw what this little piece of strange rock was capable of. What she didn''t know though, was that I had all three remaining recurring stones right at my thigh pocket, ready to be used at any time necessary. "Wait? Are you seriously telling me to wait right now?!" Even though the man didn''t shout, his voice was still far louder than the shouts of an average man. With his very own aura etched into every single word of the local ruler, it seemed that his voice alone already reached the stage where it could be called an attack. "Yes. Because what he needs to do, is to bring the stone exactly where we always wanted to bring it." Pushing through the stormy aura of her father, Teria once again stood on his path. This time, not only did she shield me with her own body, but she also spread her arms out, as if attempting to show that she wouldn''t budge. "What a funny thing to say. Let''s test it right away, then." Pulling his aura all back, Teria''s father smiled before pointing his hand at one of the trees behind the gazebo. While I wasn''t quite sure, it seemed that it was the same tree Teria was looking at when she attempted to whisper something to me before. "If you really are here to return the stone, the holy tree will open itself up to you. If not, it will kill you." With a wide smile appearing on the man''s lips, he turned to the side before sitting on the couch underneath the sun shield. "Well, that won''t be the first time I will be risking my life for those stupid missions." Shrugging my shoulders, I moved forward. In a few steps, I passed by that massive man Yet he did nothing outside of keeping his smile up. From the looks of things, he really meant to allow me to reach for that sacred tree or something. "Well, I hope you didn''t dupe me into something ugly this time" Praying silently to that god behind my system, I sped my fingers around the small sacred core before making another step. Right now, I was already well within the reach of its branches. And as if it was a curtain unveiling before a theatre y, the bark on the beautiful, blue-colored tree slid away, exposing a small chamber and a pedestal hidden underneath. "I can''t believe it" Only now did Teria''s father acknowledge what was happening right before his eyes. Yet, rather than paying attention to that boring man, my eyes were drawn by the intensely shing, green light of the ''Reunite the family'' side mission. "I guess it goes here" The hints couldn''t be any more obvious this time. With a single swipe of my hand, the round core found itself atop the pedestal. And then, a white nket covered my vision. Chapter 200: Reuniting the family (1) Chapter 200: Reuniting the family (1) "What is this ce?" At first, when the whiteness fully covered my vision, I expected another memory to appear in front of my eyes, shedding some light on the entire situation I was involved in. But no matter how long I waited, absolutely nothing happened. Once my patience ran out, I started walking. With nothing blocking my path in this endlessly white world, I could at least make sure that I was either daydreaming somehow or waspletely immersed in an illusion that replicated even the feeling one would have while walking. "Just what I''m supposed to do here?" Surrounded with nothing but whiteness, without anything to use as a reference point, I could only wander aimlessly around this ce. In fact, even walking in a straight line didn''t seem to be a good option, given how I had no directions to follow at all. Or did I? Even though the area around me waspletely empty and the same in every direction, there was one thing that was actually working properly in my situation. My system. "Okay then, let''s do it like that." Closing my eyes for a moment, I took roughly about a minute to calcte how many times did the green light of my side-mission name shed. Once that was confirmed, I fixed my position before resetting this inner clock back to its starting state. "Go!" Encouraging myself with this little shout, I started running at my top speed. Using every means I possessed to move as fast as I could, I quickly reached the breaking point where the phasing finally came to use. ''Fifty-seven, fifty-eight,'' with only a few seconds remaining, I started decreasing my speed. Using the phase in the way directly opposite to what Teria taught me, I managed to quickly lose quite a lot of my momentum, allowing my body toe to a perfect halt when my inner voice reached ''sixty''. "Now, let''s see if it did anything" Turning my eyes towards the notification window I sadly couldn''t spot any difference in the intensity or frequency of light''s shes. After taking a short moment to calm my breathing down, I once again closed my eyes before venturing for yet another counting of the shes. "Fifty-nine, sixty." This time, I didn''t need to take some time before the end to slow down, as all I did was counting the shes of the green light. "Forty-seven Three more than before." This was the only way that I could figure out to find the direction in this abyss of white nothingness. While I had no clue what awaited me at the end of my path, I turned towards the general direction I was running to before, only to turn ny degrees to my right. Bending my knees, I restarted my inner clock once again before going for yet another minute of sprinting. While my initial direction appeared to be roughly okay, I didn''t know if I was moving towards the objective hidden within this white world or just slightly angling towards it. As such, once I finished my second run, I calmed myself down once again only to turn around by another ny degrees and repeat the sprint. If someone were to somehow mark the path of my running around, it would end up as a slightly uneven square. But what was important, was that I now could roughly calcte which way I should actually go. "I was getting closer during the first and thest part of the run, with the difference being far greater in thest run than the first one" While all I had to my name right now were the rough numbers created from my definitely imprecise calctions, for the task of figuring out the general direction of my march they were more than enough. "So it''s right around that way." After crunching up the numbers and calcting a rough angle I should go at, I once again relied on my imperfect senses to direct myself roughly seventy degrees to my left before starting to run once again. This time, I didn''t rely on counting the shes of light as I ran. Rather than that, I simply waited for the shes to turn into a constant stream of light. And surely enough, in just a few more minutes worth of rushing forward, the pauses between the shes continued to shorten at a visible rate, only for them to CRACK! A powerful force struck me squarely in the face and chest. At the same time, the whiteness around me seemingly started to fall apart, revealing yet another vision of the kind that I saw back when the core first touched the altar in the northern cathedral. And right in the middle of a simple room, a girl donning a light, long gown was sitting. Disregarding the nobility that was oozing out of every single pore of her skin, she was sitting cross-legged directly on the floor, disregarding the fact that someone just intruded on her personal space. "Who are you?" While I knew that something was bound to happen, I didn''t expect to find a fairly-like girl in almost see-through clothes deeply in a mncholic state! But even after I called her out, there was no response. "EXCUSE ME!" Even when I walked towards her only to stop right above the cloth of her white, see-through gown before shouting right in the back of her head The girl didn''t even budge, as if my presence waspletely separated from what she could experience. "Just what the hell is wrong with" Just as I started to curse at my fate, my situation, and the girl alike, her head suddenly swung to the side, revealing tenderness I have never experienced in my entire life. With just a single nce of her deep, sky-blue eyes, it felt as if my entire soul decided to abandon my body, just to go on and worship this girl''s beauty for an eternity. Her fair skin reflected the same light that illuminated the room, making her look as if she was shining on her own. Her red, full lips decorating her face, her small nose with only its very tip slightly lifted At this point, I saw a beauty that managed not only to overshadow Ayda''s adorableness but almost to make mepletely forget about her in the first ce! "Just another illusion, huh" After a moment that seemed like an eternity, the intensity of the girl''s stare waned. In this single moment, her presence returned to normal, as if the godly element that enchanted her looks a moment before was too exhausted to keep its effects up. "What do you mean by an illusion?" Hoping that my voice would still have some effect, I swallowed a gulp of saliva before moving to the front of the girl. ''Ugh'' Looking down at how exposed she was, I couldn''t help but thank the god of my system for the fact I changed my perspective only now. If her face alone, when enchanted, was also capable of making me forget about Ayda, then I didn''t even dare to think what would happen if the same effect would appear while her entire skin only pretended to be covered by the thinyer of muslin. "What now!" Raising her head with a furious expression, the girl finally looked at my face properly. And at this moment I also realized that who I just met in this strange, whitish world, was no one else than the girl I saw being locked in that tower all the way back in my vision in the north! "Hello." Staring down her blue eyes, I could see how rapidly the changes started to appear on the girl''s face. From shock, through disbelief, past excitement, and worry. By the time she finally managed to calm herself down a bit, all her emotions simply made her too shocked to think rationally. "Are you the man chosen for me?" Raising her chin while attempting to look at my face while still seated on the floor, the girl leaned forward, only making it harder not to adore her charms. "I came here to reunite the family." Shaking the infatuation in this girl that was quickly taking over my senses I went for the extra mile and established a barrier on my emotions, turning my mood toplete apathy. And in this apathy, I realized one thing. If I was going to reunite the family, then I had to reunite this girl with Right, that was the correct question. With who? With her father? Even if that man still walked on this, I highly doubted that it would be something the mission stipted. On the other hand, the hardness of this mission was supposed to be drastic But there was also the other option. To reunite this girl with her mother. "Who are you then?" As soon as the girl asked, for some reason, my hand appeared right above my thigh pocket. And as it fell down on the cloth my pants were made from, I realized that a strange type of heat was transmitted from my pocket to my hand. "Oh, so this is what reuniting the family meant" As my hand wavered over my pocket, the name of this particr side-mission continued to sh in greater and then lower intensity. Even though its shes have long turned into a constant ray of light, the closer my hand got to my pocket, the brighter it became. "Either way. I''m here to reunite you with your mother." Pulling out the sacred core from my pocket - without questioning how it moved from the pedestal in the tree I ced it on back to my possession - I presented it to the girl on an open palm. "I guess, that is." Chapter 201: Reuniting the family (2) Chapter 201: Reuniting the family (2) I wasn''t certain whether this hunch of mine was correct. Given how this was supposed to be a dangerously difficult mission, there was a chance that pulling this stone out in the open would suddenly transform this jade beauty into a monstrosity just like in a popr franchise of books, games, and online tv series from the earth. Thankfully, outside of the girl''s eyes widening to the absolute limits of her psychique, nothing of that sort happened. No fangs grew out of her delicate fingers, no ckness took over her majestic-looking, perfectly white wings. "Is that" Barely capable of uttering any words with her trembling lips, the girl reached for the sacred core, unknowingly making a pose that was even harder for my sanity to resist. But once her fingers touched the glowing surface of this strange stone, my vision cracked once again. "I can no longer be on her side. The opposition is just too strong. Dear I know you will be hated, I know everyone will misunderstand I know you will be branded as the traitor of all the humanity, winged or deprived of wings" The same, elderly girl that I saw in my previous vision had her face now torn in tears. Right on her knees, she appeared to be apologizing to the man who sat just a few meters away, with his back turned to the female. "You know I don''t care about such stuff." The voice of the man who appeared to be quite simr to Teria''s father, at least in terms of body structure, was even deeper than what I expected. Filled with grief and exhaustion, it gave me a nearly full picture of what the man was going through. Even though in a vision like this, my emotion-sensing abilities werepletely and utterly useless. "But you know that we will have to lie to her? You know that she will believe you betrayed her as well?" The elder woman asked, still speaking to the back of the man rather than to his face. A sigh followed. "I know." Rather than borating, the man simply stood up before turning around. And his face Was that of Teria''s father. Or at least, it was looking almost the same. "But that''s the burden I need to carry. You have your own weight you will have to lift for the rest of your days Miss Queen of all men." To say that the man''s voice was ironic would be a gross understatement. Yet, as I finally got a chance to look at his face from my stationary point of view, I could tell that there was no ill intent in his soul at all. Just an endless sea of grief and power capable of shouldering it. "To think that this prophecy would end up like this" Lowering her head as if unable to withstand the look of the man, the elder woman shook a little. "It seems that we were all fooled by that man." Tightening her hands into a fist, the saint that Longinus'' group spoke of cut the inner side of her palm with her fingernails, causing a few drops of dark-red blood to fall on the stone tiles making up the floor. "I don''t think we are in the right to me him." Shaking his head, the huge man turned around once again, this time directing his eyes towards the sky. "I know you might not believe me But I met him. Heck, my entire lineage doesn''te from this world in the first ce. If not for him, I would never be born in this world." Lowering his previously raised head, the man shook it in a gesture of powerlessness. "I know that it might seem like he yed all of us out, but I want to believe that there is actually some sense behind his actions. Something that we are not capable of seeing. Something, that only a God like him could foresee and prepare us for." Crack. The vision went away just like it came, forcing my mind back into my body in this previous illusory state. For a moment, I was unable to say or do anything. Stunned by the scene I just experienced, I just stared nkly ahead, trying to process what happened. "Mother?" The frail voice of the girl was the thing that broke my momentary stun. Turning my head towards my palm, I realized that the sacred core was already gone from it. And right in front of me, the same older woman I just saw in my vision was standing while intensely staring at my face. "So he was right, after all." A gentle smile appeared on the old woman''s lips as she turned around and looked with clear affection at the teary girl. "Dearie I''m sorry. I never wanted to leave you all alone like this, but we had no other choice." Taking a step forward, the saint ced her head atop her daughter''s head before rustling her hair a bit. "Mom? What do you mean? You finally came back so why is your face so sad?!" In such a reunion, one would expect both parties to be happy for the additional time they received with each other But the face of the girl in the white gown only reflected the greatest degree of worry. It seemed that I wasn''t the only one with a bad premonition right now. "Dearie I''m sorry. I wish I could exin everything to you, I wish I could tell you about the reasons, the dangers But my time is limited." Moving her hand from the top of the girl''s head, the older woman then ced it on her daughter''s cheek. After caressing it for a short moment, she then turned her head towards me with her face tensing up. "I guess you are the promised one. The man not of this world. Am I right?" As the elder woman said those words, the look in her eyes turned empty. Then, she looked to the side, unwilling to keep direct eye contact with me. "I hope you won''t mind offering this child a helping hand. Well, I was told you would understand your purpose here So I can only apologize in advance." This time, the saint didn''t avert her eyes but lowered her entire head and upper body in a bow. "Please, whatever you will think about it once you understand There is no other way to free the two of you from this space. While it''s not my doing, I can''t do anything but ask for your forgiveness." Refusing to make any sense or actually exin what the heck she meant, the old woman turned once again to look at her daughter. "Dear Dearie, I need to apologize to you too. As much as I wanted to surround you with love, to let you experience the world at its best, to have a fun life you wouldn''t regret at your deathbed I was not allowed to. This world refused to acknowledge my wishes." This time, the saint didn''t bow her head. She didn''t even bow her upper body. She outright fallen to her knees before striking the ground with her forehead. "That''s why I beg you. Only the two of you can change this world. I know I should never ask this of my child" As if something snapped, the body of the saint suddenly started to turn bleak. As if the colors that made up her appearance started to lose their intensity, the saint started to vanish right in my eyes. "But please, will you sacrifice your own happiness for all of those who put faith in me, those who put faith in your father Those who put faith in you, even though you were only born?" At this point, the face of the girl on the ground turned teary. Not because of what the female was speaking to her. In this strange space, with my witch abilities intact, I could tell that she was too overwhelmed with her emotions to hear anything the woman was saying. "I know I can''t ask for this, but I have one more request for you." With a smile appearing on the old woman''s lips, tears appeared in her eyes as she looked at her daughter''s face. "If you even find it in yourself, please do forgive your parents. Please, forgive us for how cruel we were to you." As soon as those words escaped the saint''s lips, her appearance was no longer distinguishable from just a bucket worth of mist. Then, as her voice gradually faded away, so did thest stray bits of the illusion that made up her body from the very beginning. I couldn''t tell how much time has passed ever since this even concluded. With the girl on the ground breaking in tears, I was unable to move for even an inch. The green light of the mission name only continued to weigh on my mind while I watched over the sobbing girl. Once I finally came back to my senses, I obviously attempted to free myself from this ce. Yet, no matter what I threw at this white space that surrounded this one room where the girl was waiting, nothing changed. Not even Sander''s recurring fireball stone, something capable of burning entire cities if not continents Waspletely and utterly powerless. "It seems that the saint really was speaking the truth." Muttering to myself I didn''t expect the girl to even hear what I said. Yet, as if the prolonged time she spent on griefing wasing to an end, she suddenly appeared behind my back, cing her hand on top of my left shoulder. "What do you mean?" Turning my head around, I saw the beauty of this girl in all its glory. Once she stood up, her clothes no longer wrinkled and bent. Now that her outfit was freely falling to the ground, it no longer even pretended to cover her charms. With its white colors and structure and adding all the other hints I already received, it wasn''t hard to tell what was this outfit designed for. "It''s like your mother said. We cannot escape this ce unless we fulfill certain criteria." Still unwilling to digest the information I just said out loud, I refused to pass any more hints to the girl for the moment. Right now, I was not yet ready to face the truth. The truth which was quite obvious from how the "bridal night" side mission continued to shine in a bright green. Even if this woman were to be far more beautiful than Ayda, something that I would refuse to believe before actually seeing her I wasn''t ready to cheat on my girl. Not even with her approval. "I see." Out of nowhere, a voice I really didn''t want to hear appeared. A voice I didn''t expect to hear here as well. "I didn''t expect this kind of development." The air stalled. The girl stopped moving. Even the tears on her cheeks suddenly froze in their ce. At the same time, from the whiteness that surrounded her room, a figure appeared. A body and a face I already saw in my life, back when I climbed that steep mountain in order to let Ayda move to earth. "Sadly, there are too many things set in stone to change the scenario. Right now, the one thing I can offer is topletely wipe your consciousness before the act, and then your memory after the act." With a wide smile on his face, this bastard refused to acknowledge how deep this topic actually was. If it was only about willingness or memories "No." Even if I could get it over with while unaware of my actions and with a perfect memory-wipe after the deed, it wouldn''t change the fact that I wouldmit adultery. And if I was going to do so, I had to at least have the balls to face this while fully conscious. Only in this way, I could grow up to reach Ayda''s expectations. Then, my eyes moved on top of the girl''s face, still ridden with tears. And as the figure of that godly bastard disappeared, the tears on her cheeks started to flow once again. "Fulfil the criteria? What do you mean?" Clearly trying her best to keep up her strong appearances, Dearie cleaned her tears from her face with an ending of her long sleeve. "For god''s sake, can''t you see what you are wearing?" Hearing my words, the girl looked down. Then her face turned red. Chapter 202: Against the heavens will Chapter 202: Against the heaven''s will "I" The first attempt of the girl to say something after I pointed out the specific of her outfit failed. "I understand." Her jaws tightened as she turned around and lowered herself down on her knees before pushing her upper body down as she fell on all fours. "Just get this over with." With her face hidden, I couldn''t tell what she was thinking Or rather, I couldn''t if not for those surprisingly useful qualities of being a witch. And to be frank, recognizing the fear, desperation, sadness, and depression wasn''t the best kind of forey I would like to experience. "Listen here, if you really want to rile me up, you will need to do a little bit more." While my words implied that I was actually happy with the development, the truth was I wasn''t. Even if Ayda encouraged me to seek good women I could spread my lineage with, it was still something that went against all the morals I knew and hold dear. Just like my father never betrayed my mother, just like my mother never betrayed my father I wasn''t willing to betray Ayda. Or rather, the sheer scorn and disgust I felt towards myself from how I pumped my semen into that bastard female general from Ayda''s world served as pretty detailed information on how I would feel if I were toy down with this girl, no matter how beautiful and alluring she was. "What am I supposed to do then?!" With all her efforts to let me have her way with her futile, with all her determination from before falling on infertile ground, it was only to be expected for the girl to fly into a rage. Yet, with tears brimming in her eyes, I could tell that she wasn''t angry at me, but rather at the fate that her parents prepared for her. "For now, just stop this folly, bring your dress so that it will serve the role of a damned clothing, and let me think." As much as I would hate myself for itter, I had no other choice but to disregard the feelings of this girl for now. Even if my body was craving to just ravish her and get the entire thing over with, it was my mind that held the supreme role in making the decision of what I, as a whole, would do. At first, the girl was shocked by my response. Her lips parted a bit in a lovely, confused expression. Then, the colors returned to her face once again, making the girl turn red once again But this time not from embarrassment, but fury instead. "Do you think that I''m happy with what''s going on?!" Suddenly shouting, the girl stood up before actually following my order and wrapping her body with the long streaks of her gown. Even though the material was so thin that it barely covered anything, once several wraps appeared over her crucial ces, I could no longer see the details of the girl''s intimate beauty. "And do you think I am?" Angered by her shout, I replied in the same manner, only to regret it the secondter. Shaking my head, I took a few breaths to calm myself down before bending my knees and sitting directly on the ground. "I do not mean to say that you are not attractive. Even right now, if not for the rules I try to follow in my life, I would rejoice at the opportunity to eat you whole. But" Taking a moment to formte what I was actually going to say, I shook my head again before finishing. "But I just can''t. I''m sorry, but I''m not going to betray my own rules just because that bastard decided it would be the best course of fucking action!" Once again, my blood started to boil. Not with excitement though, but a rage instead. Ever since I received this strange system, or rather, ever since the apocalypse began, my life turned miserable. Even with the few bright elements like meeting Ayda or growing stronger, the fact that I lost my parents, lost my name, and lost my entire life so far didn''t change. And right now, this bastard god was trying to push me into doing something that I was sure to regretter on! In a fit of defiance, an idea appeared in my mind. While drastic, it was just the simplest way to prove how I wasn''t willing to just go and obediently follow every single direction that bastard god would point me at. Standing up, I looked at my hand. Then, my eyes moved on the girl. "Tell me, what would you do to avoid this fate that was forced on us?" Formting my question in a roundabout way, I squinted my eyes a bit. "Don''t take it personally" Noticing the emotional struggle from how my expression continued to change constantly, the look in the girl''s eyes softened up a bit. "but I would do everything. I mean, I know that males do enjoy fucking around, but the same can''t be said for the females. For us, just the act itself is worthless. And forgive my impudence" Stopping her words for a moment, the girl swallowed a gulp of saliva before averting her eyes. "I do not hold any emotional link to you that would make this kind of experience bearable." Listening to the girl''s response, I couldn''t help but chuckle a bit. Given everything that I saw both on earth and in all the other worlds I visited so far, her words applied only to the girls that actually grew up while valuing their purity. As long as she would travel anywhere outside the castle she was born at or the tower she was held at, she would learn that some women learned to make use of this simple activity, while others grew to like it as nothing more but a physical mean of getting their endorphins pumping. But I was in no ce or position to deny her words. Just like I valued my bond with Ayda and wished to both monopolize her and be monopolized by her, this poor princess clearly valued the fact that the ce between her legs has yet to be used for carnal pleasure. "So, in other words, you would rather die than to be defiled by me right here and now?" Slowly guiding the discussion towards the n I had in mind, I could see how the shing of the mission''s name suddenly intensified. "Well, I wouldn''t go as far as to put it in such words" Turning her eyes towards me when I posed my question, the girl averted them as soon as she attempted to answer. "But in general, yes, you are right. I do not wish to sleep with a man I don''t know and don''t love." For a moment, the pitiful princess whose fate was more tangled than the Gordian knot of the Greek legends disappeared, giving way for what could only be described as true royalty. For a moment, the aura around the girl changed. Her eyes were now steadfast, glued to my face. There was no longer any hint of hesitation, fear, or desperation in her soul, reced with nothing but a sheer determination. "Good." Taking a step forward, I ced my hand on the girl''s head, rustling her hair in an affectionate matter. Surprised by this action of mine, the girl looked at me with question marks almost visible in her lovely eyes. "Then I can only ask for your forgiveness." With my hand already on top of her head, I allowed it to fall down through her cheek before stabilizing it on her throat. "Both you and me, are nothing more but pawns in the hands of that bastard who forced this fate on us. For some reason, he wants to make me impregnate you before allowing us out of this ce." Looking around in order to pull the girl''s attention away from my hand, I smiled sadly. "Regretfully, even if I die here, I won''t be dead. That''s why there is only one way to put a wrench into this bastard''s ns." Just as the girl''s eyes followed the path my head took, my hand finally started to tighten on her throat. At first, she attempted to just shake it off, taking it for just an involuntary motion. Then, as my grasp over her throat continued to tighten, her eyes widened signaling that she finally understood what my intention was. "Sthop" Quickly realizing that speaking would only waste the air she already had in her lungs, the girl caught my hand before attempting to pull it away. In retaliation, I ced my other hand on her throat, once again tightening its grasp. ''I know you are watching, you bastard.'' Given the means that this bastard god already showed to me, I had no doubt he was capable of something as simple as reading my thoughts. With my hold over the girl''s throat only continuing to tighten, I was quickly reaching the moment when rather than choking her out, I would simply snap her neck. ''Just so you know, I won''t stop even if it kills me. I''m done being your damned marite.'' My hands tightened even further. "Stop it." As soon as the familiar voice appeared in my ears, I pushed my entire body forward, pinning the girl underneath me. Letting go of one of my hands, I quickly grabbed the barrier stone of Sander''s making before pressing its activator But rather than allowing the magic inside it to run free, I used my own mana to artificially stop the stone from activating. A deed I could keep only for a few moments, given how insane degree of precision was required not to put the entire formation written into the stone into disarray. "If you make me unconscious, the stone will" "It won''t activate. In fact, there is nothing in your hand at all." Just as I wanted to threaten God himself, his words turned my thoughts into disarray. While I knew it could be just a ploy to get me to release the stone No, I could lie to others but not to myself. With just a single thought I could tell that my fingers no longer held anything in them. "I lost, then." Releasing my hold over the girl, I didn''t dare, or rather, didn''t bother to do anything at all. As the princess quickly escaped from underneath me while fighting to regain her breath, I looked at the God who once again appeared in front of me. "What now? Let me guess, you will force me to do what you wanted and then wipe my memory, or will I get some punishment for attempting to live my life in the way I want?!" As my words struck close to my heart, filled with the insanely huge need for freedom ingrained in my blood by the ancestors of my ancestors and their ancestors who always stood up to those who attempted to rob their freedom, by the time I finished my question, I was no longer speaking. I was shouting from the bottom of my lungs. "No, you showed your resolve. I won''t force you to do anything anymore." Shaking his head, the God smiled. "But now it''s up to you to shoulder the weight of your decision." This time, God smiled. "In other words, how are you going to solve the problem at hand, now that the most peaceful way to avoid the world-ending war in this world is no longer possible?" Chapter 203: Satisfactory end Chapter 203: Satisfactory end "How am I going to solve the problem?" Hearing this question, I couldn''t stop myself from shaking my head in disbelief. "It''s not a problem I caused nor its a problem that''s a result of my own actions. You set the scene yourself and now you wish for me to take the burden of ying your act too?" What I was doing right now could easily be considered a sacrilege. Whether this arrogant man was a real god or just a being with so much power that on a practical level calling him a god would just befitting, it didn''t matter. Because from the looks of things, he wasn''t omnipotent. "No, I''m not omnipotent. For example, I can''t make something out of nothing. " Speaking up, this damned man proved that my thoughts were of no secret to him. "But all the magic that exists in this entire world, is mine tomand. As such, your second guess is as close as you can get to the truth about me with your current level of knowledge and understanding." Ignoring all the bottled-up emotions raging in my mind, this damned bastard only smiled in response to them. "As for what you brought before Well, why should I bother exining it with words if I can just make you realize it in the more direct, more brutal way?" Gracing me with yet another of those charming, adorable, and overwhelming smiles of his. Just this simple expression almost made my knees cave in. Then, this bastard god raised his hand, before snapping his fingers. And all at once, the white veil that covered everything around me, the room where I originally found the princess They all disappeared, reced by the familiar sight of the gazebo and nts around it. "He did it This crazy son of a bitch did it" A silent mutter came from the side. Turning my head towards its source, I saw Teria''s father staring at me with his eyes wide open. But there was something wrong with my arms. That man''s look made me notice it. They were way too heavy. Looking down, I quickly discovered the reason behind this strange urrence. Instead of being empty like when I was daringly conversing with that bastard-god, my hands were actually fully upied by the lifeless body of the very princess I saw in my vision! "Just how did she" Righ as my mouth involuntary opened and released a few notes, the girl in my arms suddenly opened her eyes. And what was even more surprising, was that her eyes didn''t lose any bit of their beauty that I saw back in that dream-world of mine! "I" Even though the girl instantly put on a prideful and determined face, as soon as the details of her surroundings started to flood her vision, her words stuck in her throat. Raising her hands, she appeared as if she was trying to touch the air itself. ''Something that we all take for granted, she was deprived of for so long. It''s no wonder that she is in a state of shock now.'' The thought passed through my mind. Feeling how the strength was returning to her frail body, I gently helped her to stand on her own two legs. As little as I liked it, I even went for the degree of wrapping my arm around the princess''s waist to keep her standing properly. "MY QUEEN!" Disregarding all the persona he was trying to create earlier, Teria''s father fell to his knees. Lowering his head in front of the girl, he managed to attract her attention Even if I believed that it was just a benefit of having a huge body and moving it at high speed. "Are you No way" At first, the princess''s eyes were perfectly calm, as if the events unfolding before her very face didn''t amount to much. But as she took a closer look at the man''s face, her entire body started to tremble. "Uncle?" Taking a weak step forward, the girl almost tripped on her own legs. Securing her in ce at the veryst moment possible, I ended up helping her to move all the way to Teria''s father where he finally took over the duty of babysitting the girl from me. "Dearie I can''t believe it" Tears instantly appeared in the man''s eyes. Still on his knees, he grabbed the princess'' extended hands before gently cing his forehead atop her stomach in a sign of submission. "Like mother cares for her children, so will the queen care for her subjects." From the side, Teria''s voice appeared. "Stop with that religious crap. Bringing this girl here doesn''t seem like the end of our troubles." After a short moment of sharing the positive emotions of the unlikely reunion, I forced myself to turn focused again. Given everything that this bastard-god told me, rather than enjoying the moment we should be preparing for a huge ass whoopinging our way! "What?" Hearing those words, the princess ignored the tear-jerking moment and moved her eyes back on me. "Didn''t you You know" As soon as the girl ced her delicate hand on top of her abdomen, everyone with eyes could guess what she had on mind. "No, we did not. I didn''t do it on my own either." Sucking the air in only to slowly release it, I rested my back against the wall. "Even though I didn''t expect this kind of oue, I think it works just for the best." Shrugging my arms, I looked at the gathering of people. Even though the reappearance of the princess was clearly an insanely huge deal for the winged tribe, I just couldn''t share their excitement nor could I allow them to just waste the time enjoying the moment. "From your reactions, I can tell that you guys are willing to follow this girl, am I right?" In order to understand what the warning that damned God gave me meant, I had to understand the greater picture of the situation. That was one thing I was certain of. Maybe not the most important thing, but it was still a huge element in everything that this bastard said to me. The fact that I didn''t know the full scale of the events, desperately trying to achieve something despite not knowing the patterns, not the rules of the game nor even realizing that there was a game going on Was true. Amongst everyone I met, I was easily the one most aware of this problem. But it didn''t mean I had a simple solution for it. ''Either way, I assume you are watching, you kidnapping prick.'' In the end, my n to once again follow a simr route as the one I used before. Rather than trying to do everything on my own, I would just increase manpower to the point where all my struggles would be solved before I would even notice their presence. And what would be a better candidate at setting things straight in this world than my very rival for the seat of the leader of the entire faction? As much as it pained me, my current long-reaching n was all about finding a way to bring Jeff to this world before putting him in charge of all the affairs that needed supervising. No matter what Jeff wanted, he would get it all by doing it. From power, through riches at knowledge and women ending, I only had to find the way. To do something that required the intervention of the god to be possible. ''Maybe I should pray a bit?'' This thought appeared in my mind just as quickly as it disappeared right after. ''Nah, he didn''t appear as someone who would care for such things.'' In the end, that bastard admitted it himself that rather than being a true god, he was just someone whose means were god-like to me. "Yes, we are willing." The pause between me asking the question and Teria''s father answering in a choir with his daughter was long in my mind butsted only a few seconds in reality. In reality, where yet another phase of my n just concluded. "Good. Then tell me, why do I have a feeling that she would need to give birth to a child conceived with seed from another world? Why does that seem to be the requirement to allow her to unify the wingless tribe as well?" At this point, I could honestlye up with some teary story of God visiting me and revealing all those details to me But doing so would push even greater responsibility into the illusory being of the God I had on mind. And since I imed that I was going to deal with this situation on my own - as much as I hated to do so - then I was going to take the actual responsibility both for my actions and for the ns I was putting forward. "Huh? Otherworldly seed? Have you lost your mind?" Teria''s father''s reaction only proved just how ridiculous those ideas of mine sounded even when deprived of all that fakely mystic coating. "Lost my mind? God did so when he has chosen me to do this deed. But now, since I refused to rape this poor girl since I refused to impregnate her just to get us out of the trap that damned god prepared for us" Swallowing my saliva, I looked to the side, at Teria. Right now, her eyes were glued to me, without even a shred of hesitation or doubt in them. "Well, I won''t lie, I don''t know what''sing." This simple admission of ignorance was one of the founding elements of my entire n. I would be unable to push even its early phases forward if I were to pose as an all-knowing entity. "What I know, though, is that I will do everything to bring this entire situation to a satisfactory end." Chapter 204: Where is the danger? Chapter 204: Where is the danger? After putting the princess to sleep so that she could recover some of her strength, the rest of those who witnessed her seconding gathered in one of the rooms inside Teria''s mansion. "I know. I already called the banners." Teria''s father clearly wasn''t willing to waste any time. Now that I thought about it, this would exin the fat beads of sweat trickling down his forehead. "Still, I said that I would see this situation to its fitting end But I''m not sure what does that means." Shaking my head, I lowered my eyes. As much as I wanted to be in control I had a premonition that something was finally going down. It wasn''t just some naive worrying, a popr w of anyone new to decision-making. It was nothing more but also nothing less than just an analysis of the situation. Whenpared to my other adventures in other worlds This world here was just too easy. Even with the appearance of the force capable of harming the system, nothing could stand in my way so far. And for as much as I could tell, just by throwing some Sander'' stones around I could easily deal with everything I encountered so far. So where was this high difficulty level that the system marked this mission of mine with? Just what was dangerous in it? Just the fact that I was dealing with that bastard god? And then came yet another clue. The sub-mission of ''bridal night'' was now greyed out, just like the two preceding ones. Right now, only the ''One ring to rule them all'' mission remained on my feed. And so far, it has yet to sh in green even once. "Whatever is going to happen from now, having an army at your disposal won''t hurt." While just a little notion, those words held far greater meaning. Because in the way Teria''s father formed them, it appeared as if he finally managed to ept me as a third party, rather than co-belligerent of the existing two sides. "I won''t deny that, but" just as I wanted to point out another issue bound to holding a standing army, the doors to the huge chamber shook under someone''s knocking. "Come in." Standing up from his chair, Teria''s father looked towards the doors. "Reporting in, Chief!" Rushing through the doors, a bloodied man kneeled on one knee and lowered his head. "Speak." Not wasting any time, the chief ordered. "Humans broke the armistice. A whole new army appeared. As for the moment when I was sent here" With his report reaching some kind of crucial information, the messenger clearly hesitated. "Speak, I say!" Turning his tone a little lower, Teria''s father ordered. "By the time I left," he young man''s voice shook a bit, "the main front was already obliterated. We were still holding on to the mountain passes though." Lowering his head in wait for an impending punishment, the young man remained frozen for a long moment before realizing that no reprimand wasing his way. "A whole new army? As unbelievable as it is, they wouldn''t be able to break through so fast otherwise." Rather than trying to argue with the facts, Teria''s father epted them at a face value. "Good job bringing the news. Go and have some rest. We will need all the hands we can get soon." Sending the messenger away, the burly man turned silent for a moment before his eyes wandered to my face. "I''m assuming you are going to help us now?" As simple as this question was, for the winged tribe it was of great importance. The thing was when this question appeared, I actually questioned my own allegiance for the very first time. Why I was assuming by default to ally myself with the winged people? ''No.'' I shook my head to get rid of those doubts. The only reason why I was siding with this particr side, was because I already wielded some influence with them. And instead of wasting all my efforts so far and actually siding with the wingless tribe, I could make use of what I had on my hands. "Yes. In fact, I think it would be for the best if we departed right away. One way or another, I should be able to hold their invasion for a while." Turning my face towards the burly man in the middle of the room, I smiled. "That should give you some time to gather the troops." Without a deep knowledge of how the organization of the winged tribes worked, there was no point for me to stay and attempt advising anyone. Even if earthy ideas could work wonders here, the entire conflict was likely to be over by the time the first few would be implemented. No, I could contribute the most in times like this by involving myself in the fighting personally. "Good. Then, Tyrvion." The man stretched his hand forward. At first, I was so startled by this sudden move that I could only follow the movement with my eyes. Only after staring at the man''s outreached hand for a moment did I connect the dots in my mind. "It''s Ma It''s Krist." At first, I was going to give my nickname out of habit, but I managed to stop myself from doing so. Even if it could mean trouble for the future, I didn''t want to spoil the sacred bond of brotherhood in arms that was about toe to life. We shook our hands. In this short and silent moment when our eyes connected, I felt as if all the experiences that shaped that man to be who he was right now surged into my mind. IT was as if for a moment, I could see the origin of every single scar of his, every moment that shaved away at the rock of his naive, young self to carve out the monumental power he possessed right now. Yet, just when I was nearing the core of the man''s soul, to a point where I felt as if I could fully be him at will The feeling stopped. ''What was that'' As our hands parted, I could only stare at my own palm, unable to make sense of what just happened. Was it some witchcraft-rted spell that Ayda has yet to teach me? Or maybe some power that could only manifest in a true mage? Or maybe it was just a fluke, caused by the unstable fabric of the universe stemming from the system moving me between the worlds? All those questions, and no answer in sight. If even I had some clue or path that I could follow to understand yet another thing about myself Sadly, I was left all alone in the dark of ignorance. Not knowing what would happen next, not knowing what my next move should be, I could only foolhardy push forward. "With that, I won''t hold you any longer. I promise to make the most out of the time you will buy us." Nodding his head with respect, Tyrvion turned around and looked at his daughter. "What are you going to do now? You apanied him only to make sure he would bring the sacred core, right?" Hearing those words, I squinted my eyes a bit. While it was obvious that by the time I was confined to that white dimension where the princess originally resided the time in the real world didn''t stop. While I only managed to remember a few details from before getting sucked into that strange prison, I was quite sure that Arsha was actually with us! But when I returned, the girl was nowhere to be seen. As such, it wouldn''t be surprising to assume that Teria and Tyrvion already had a long conversation about all the topics necessary But now that I thought about it, just how long was that time they were waiting for me? It was a question that shyly started to appear in my thoughts ever since I heard the news of another army appearing. Because from what I saw back in the very moment I first appeared in this world, neither of the sides here was going easy on the other. With the armistice signed during the time I was traveling North, it would be nearly impossible for humans toe up with yet another powerful force Unless the humans were not united in the first ce. This I already knew from the fact that some borders still existed like the one when the first trouble with Teria started. But if such was the case, why would this army appear now, right as I finally freed myself from that white confinement? "I will go with him." The resolve in Teria''s voice was clear. Standing still and looking directly in her father''s eyes, there was no hint of anxiety in her soul. "I understand. Go then, my children. I hope that when we meet for the next time, you will greet me with good news!" Chapter 205: Meeting at the battlefield Chapter 205: Meeting at the battlefield Whenpared to the journey we made to the north, traveling to the current frontlines was just a short stroll. A short stroll during which I nearly drained all of my energy on constant phasing through the world, but still. "Huh, I can already hear the fighting." Before we even reach the mountain passes that the messenger from before told us about, the sound of fighting already reached our ears. "It means they failed to stand their ground as well. Is this the end of my tribe?" Clearly bothered by the situation, Teria failed to even guide me towards the ce. If not for her father pointing us in the general direction when we left, I wouldn''t even know where to go in order to join the fight! "Not with me here. I may not be as stocked on everything as I would like, but I still have some aces upon my sleeve!" Encouraging the girl, I swallowed the saliva along with the feeling of guilt caused by the lie that I told. With the number of stones, weapons, and tricks I had on hand, I could only at most attempt to hold the invasion for some time. With only three recurring stones in my possession, the main reason why I was so hesitant to use the barrier one all this time, my ability to make a change on an overwhelmingly huge battlefield was simply not sufficient. "I can see their troops! They took over the second and third pass and are converging on the valley behind them!" Only when Teria actually pointed that out for me did I manage to see anything. From the birds-eye or a flying-cultivator''s eye perspective, the entire area looked pretty awesome. Not in terms of natural beauty. There was nothing of it at all in the rigid tops of the mountains and lifeless valleys underneath them, painting this wholend as apletely dead one. It was the beauty of the defenses that the winged tribe set up in this treacherousnd that made me awed. With seven small valleys cutting through the in to the west and a huge volley that prated the entire area to the east, just by holding those seven passes one couldpletely block the invasion through the entire mountainous area. But right now, just like Teira said a moment earlier, human forces continued to pour through the two of the passes they conquered, assembling behind the backs of the five ones that still put up a fight. "I guess I should just wreck the passages and then deal with the troops that got through" Thinking loudly, I ceased my shifting and allow my insane momentum to quickly die off due to the resistance of the air itself. Coming to a near halt right above the ongoing battle, I gestured at Teria, only to have her catch me underneath my arms and hold me in ce. "Thanks for the help." Muttering to the girl, I didn''t dare to pull my eyes away from the scene below. Right now, I had to decide how to best use my limited resources to achieve any objective I would want. And to be frank, it wasn''t an easy decision. With only three recurring stones at my hand, I could just use two to block each of the breached passages by devastating the entire area around them. In fact, if I were to bet a bit, I could even attempt to just use it on a mountain between the two conquered passes, hoping that the rubble would block them both. With that, one more stone would more than suffice to get rid of everyone who already made their way through But there was one fatal problem connected to those ns. And it was that ultimately, I had no idea how powerful the recurring stones were. For me, they were like a one-button-solve cheat, allowing me to reset any kind of fight to a situation when only I would remain standing. But in times like this, when I had to actually precisely use their insane might to get rid of the enemies while making sure not to affect the fort passes that were still holding To say that I was hesitant to use the stone would be a huge understatement! "Wait, is that him?" Suddenly noticing a familiar face, I wrestled myself free from Teria''s hold before allowing my body to fall freely to the ground. After reinforcing my legs with the mana that still remained in my veins I waited for a few moments before I finally crashed into the ground, roughly two hundred meters away from my target, and right in the middle of human, wingless soldiers. "What was that?!" "AN ENEMY!" "KIll!" Various shouts appeared in the instant I straightened myself up. But all the signs of hostility ceased for a short moment when those willing to go against me noticed a certain detail of my look. And that was theck of wings on my back. "Everyone, cease your hostilities. I''m not here to kill you." Raising my chin and looking at the soldiers surrounding me, I continued to caress the recurring barrier stone with both of my hands. In a situation like this, I didn''t dare not to pull it out, given how at any moment, those soldiers could shake their shock away and resume what they were trained to do. "Then why are you here?" Stepping forward, one of the sub-officers looked me straight in the eyes. "Wait, who are you even?" Quickly adding another question, the man in the middle of his thirties ced his hand on the handle of his sword. "First off, I''m Marius." Answering the questions in the opposite order, I then looked at the mounted figure in the distance. "And I''m here to have a talk with the prince. I believe he still didn''t forget my service to him." Taking a step forward, I turned my head away and looked at the officer with a small smile blossoming on my lips. "You know, back when I basically conquered an entire strategical hill on my own, allowing you to survive in that battle back then for a little longer!" This was one of few ace cards I had on my sleeve. The fact that thest time I appeared on the battlefield, I did fight for the wingless tribe! "Huh? What are you talking about?" As if to put a wrench in my n, the officer asked. "Can''t you recognize our banners? We weren''t here back when thest conflict took ce." Taking a step forward, the officer actually halfway pulled out his sword. "And I don''t care about anything you did back then." With my attention drawn to their banners, I finally realized just what was putting me off so much. And it was sadly the answer to the question I asked Teria''s father back in their mansion - where did yet another whole armye from? Because when I looked at the banners that some of the soldiers held high in the air, I recognized the very same symbols that were all over the fallen northern kingdom! "Then all you need to do is to let me talk to the prince out there." Still trying to avoid the conflict while worrying about the possibility that the danger of the mission would appear right now, I pointed my hand towards the face I saw from high up in the sky. "Prince Domain? Huh? And why do you think I will let you meet him?" Clearly surprised by my statement, the officer didn''t hold back this time. Pulling his sword all the way out, he pointed its tip at my throat. "Because if you force me to fight, then what cleared out entire swaths of mutant this guys was fighting with, will happen to you instead. And given how I want to talk with him" Spreading out my arms I made sure to keep the stone hidden in my enclosed palm, "it would be pretty inconvenient if I ended up killing him just because some meatshields of his decided to be too diligent." For a moment, the entire situation turned into a silent standoff. At some point, I even came close to just activating the stone and ignoring the chance of learning about the situation, only to force myself back every time. So far, I only used recurring stones on a selected few and mutants. In other words, only on either small numbers of people or things that I didn''t consider people at all in the first ce. But now, using it would meanmitting genocide. With how small the valley was, the wingless troops gathering here were put tighter than they would ever be in any formation of theirs. In other words, this was the perfect ground to achieve the highest lethality for my recurring stones But it also meant that after using them, my mind would be ced under an even greater burden. And to be fair, losing my sanity over the killings I would do if I were to use the barrier stone, just for the sake of obtaining a means of dealing with Jeff Just by making that connection, by showing what I was actually fighting for, I saw all my possible options in a brand new perspective. "I see. Go through, then." In the end, the officer hid his sword before moving aside. After him, his soldiers followed suit, quickly squeezing together to give me the way towards the same prince I got the sacred core from in the first ce. "Long time no see, brother." After making just a few steps, I called out to the man. Noticing the voice even though the noise of constantmotion around him, the prince looked in my side. Then, from how his eyes suddenly widened, I could tell he recognized my face as well. But then, his eyes wandered to the side a bit, before widening even further. "DIE!" The voice of the officer from before rang in my ears, this time apanied by the sound of metal cutting through the air. Chapter 206: Chance Chapter 206: Chance "DIE!" Hearing this shout from behind, I felt like cringing. While I could understand if some kind of newbie or amateur were to announce his sneak attack by shouting before but to witness an officer doing something like that? Right at this very moment, my personal evaluation of the army of the northern republic fell apart. If they were recruiting such idiots for officers, what kind of skills their soldiers could present? If this one example was actually showcasing the general level of the entire army attacking, how could they even break through the perfectly fortified passes? But there was no time to analyze the situation. Pushing my body to its limits, I threw myself at the prince in front. Not because I had any animosity or hostile intentions towards him, but simply because he just stood in the path I had to take to have the greatest chance of avoiding the attack. Jump. As reckless as losing the connection between one''s legs and the solid ground was in a fight, this kind of thing no longer applied to me. As soon as I managed to obtain a tiny bit of momentum, I used the phasing to escape several meters in the air, escaping from the effective range any sword or other cold weapon could have. "Wait, are you" It seemed that the prince finally managed to recognize me. But it didn''t matter at this point. While I still was going to ask him several questions, now that one of the officers of the northern army proved to bepletely untrustworthy, I wasn''t going to take any chances. "Using the sacred stone here would be too diabolical" Muttering in a voice just loud enough for the people below to hear me, I smiled as I reached to one of the things that constantly weighed on my neck despite the fact I never used it so far. A repetitive, short-range, barrel-fed shotgun. Loaded full with nine bird-shot types of shells, it made for a great weapon when dealing with tightly-packed crowds. "Let me give you a taste of my metal." Announcing in a solemn tone befitting a true executioner, I made sure the safety was off before loosely aiming the barrel down. So far, no one dared to make any other move against me. It seemed that the fact I managed to fly up caught them by surprise. In light of the recent events, I could even tell that some would soon start using me of being a winged warrior in hiding, deprived of his wings only to fool the wingless tribe. But it didn''t matter now. I pulled the trigger. PWOSH! As soon as the first round of fire exploded outwards from the end of my weapon''s barrel, I was pushed up by several meters. It seemed that as great as flying was when firing at a dense crowd, it still has its drawbacks. Namely, nothing to soften up the recoil of the gun! But that didn''t change the fact that with just a single swing of the reloading mechanism, I prepared another shot And then sent another flurry of small metal balls, each one capable of easily prating skin, inner tissue, and even bones at such close distance And when fired almost directly downward. Poof. Poof. Poof. Three more shots cleared out a small area, leaving it with nothing more but crawling survivors of the onught. Just as expected, the birdshot was great at pacifying the crowds, but not as good when it came to actually kill enemies. "Now that I think about it, wasn''t this the greatest joke of the modern arms?" It was something that always puzzled me. Back in school, I was taught that with the invention of modern weapons, they were designed to eliminate but not necessarily kill. And truthfully speaking, modern weapons achieved this task pretty well. Back in times, when the hot weapons were still only starting to develop, getting shot Most of the time meant either an instant or at least a pretty quick death. With the insane force that the bullet would have in the front-loaded type of guns, with how it would deform during flight and while prating its target, having one''s hand, leg or entire stomach blown off wasn''t that much of a rarity. Compared to them, modern firearms aimed to disqualify an opponent from the battlefield. Not to kill him, no! That would make the problem just disappear. For modern warfare, it was better for the enemy to take care of his wounded, burden both his logistic at the front my transporting them around and back in their homnd by actually allowing them to heal Not to speak of how big of a morale hit would a random citizen receive when seeing the state of their brave boys returning in tatters from the battle! Poof, poof, poof. Three more shots sent around the cleared-out area gave the right hint to the soldiers remaining on the ground. While those who witnessed the ughter below my position were doing their very best to get as far as they could from this specific area, there were some braver or just ignorant officers who already prepared their archers unit to shoot me down. Sadly, with just a single normal barrier stone remaining in my possession, I couldn''t risk receiving many of those arrows. What was even worse, at the distance at which I could see the units of archers drawing the chords of their bows, my birdshot shells wouldn''t do much damage at all. Rather than that, the entire shot was likely to wound several enemies that stood closer, without reaching any of the archers I wanted to shoot. But that didn''t leave me powerless. Allowing the cylinder-loaded shotgun to once again hang on a strap from my neck, I reached out for the true arsenal of mine, one that I have yet to seriously start exploiting. Filling my hand with at least five of Sander''s stones, I quickly scanned their markings to assess their usage. Two water fountain stones, two everze, and one shatterquaqe. The names associated with the structure of each stone were nothing less but an outburst of creativity of either Sander or one of his disciples But nevertheless, it still allowed me to quickly recall what they could be used for. "With such set I guess I will go with this!" Picking up the shatterquake stone, I pressed its activator before taking aim and throwing it towards the center of a circle I drew in my imagination between three nearby groups of archers. Before its effects could evene into y, both of the everze stones went flying towards two other groups of archers. Only at that point did I decided to allow my body to fall down instead of artificially keeping it up by phasing upwards by a tiny bit whenever my upwards momentum was about topletely die off. Then, as soon as my feet finally touched the ground, the stones started toe off. At first, two huge explosions. Moving my eyes towards them, I could see a beautiful red flower blossoming high above everyone''s head, only to suddenly break apart, spilling the liquid mes on everyone and everything around. In a sh, not only the several tens of men strong units of archers simply vaporized, but so did quite a lot of their fellow soldiers around. Compared to the evesting ze stone, the shatterquake was far more humane. At first, a small blob roughly the diameter of a single meter appeared, consuming everything that was just unlucky enough to stand in its way. Sadly, I couldn''t see this phenomenon with my very own eyes, but Sander''s description of it instantly appeared in my mind. Once the sphere would fill itself with the energy from the stone, it would reach a point when it would simply fall through the ground, consuming all the earth and stone on its way as it went further and further down. But said sphere was far from being stable. After several seconds, when its inner forces finally lost the fight against the natural forces of the world, a huge magical explosion shook the ground. From deep below. Through theyers of earth, stones, and crust that it already sunk below. In effect, the entire ground seemed to shake. As I was standing down, I got to experience this weird sensation first-hand. While the ground below my legs was shaking, the only stable element in the area turned out to be the mountains themselves, simply too massive to be affected by a simple Sander''s stone. But it didn''t matter. Given how I was prepared for the shaking toe, I somehow managed to keep myself standing. But all around me, people were falling to their knees, rolling on the ground, falling from their horses who would break their legs in turn Just like the modern weapons, the shatterquaqe stone wasn''t lethal. It didn''t aim to kill. It simply aimed to disturb the enemy. And in this disturbance, my chance to reach the prince finally appeared! Chapter 207: Revival of the demon lord? Chapter 207: Revival of the demon lord? "Just where the hell are you?" muttering to myself, I continued my search. After the showcase of my power, no soldier dared to stand in my way. All those who miraculously managed to keep themselves on their feet would jump out of my way. Those who were unlucky and fell to the ground would crawl away with a determination akin to the modern soldiers during the training. And there were hardly any people in a different position. But that didn''t mean I was careless. "DIE, YOU MONSTER!" Once againmitting the annoying mistake of shouting before actually attacking, one of the soldiers attempted to put another hole in my body where there shouldn''t be any holes. Sadly for him, before the tip of his spear could as much as graze my skin, a simple bullet from a pistol spilled his brain matter through the hole in the back of his head that the same bullet created. "If there is anyone with a death wish,e at me!" Surprised by the fact that anyone still had the guts to stand against me, I could feel how annoyance started to creep its way towards my soul. The silence was my only response. Somehow, in the entire vast valley, when my words filled the air, no one dared to as much as move a muscle. "Good. Now that we have this sorted, I want you all to understand one more important thing." Lowering my head before covering it with a palm of my right hand, I took a few breaths to calm myself down. Only when I was done did I raise my head again. "First off, I''m not here to fight with you. What just happened to your fellow soldiers was the result of your leaders breaking the agreement. With the covenant broken, I had no other choice but to defend myself." Using simple words when pinning the me andplicated ones when speaking about my own side of the situation, I made sure that most of the simple folk would mentally take my side here. After all, it wasn''tmon for a monstrous enemy like me to suddenly announce that there was no bad feeling or grudge of any kind, to begin with, turning the entire conflict into just a pointless waste of lives! "Now then, I only came here to have a talk with a friend of mine. As long as that''s settled, you are free to do whatever the shit you were doing before I appeared." With my advice and a lowkey threat to all the soldiers around now over, I could finally pick up the pace and resume my search. In the end, as great as shatterquake stone was to throw a huge crowd into disarray, it also meant that the prince''s body was no longer elevated from the back of his horse. As such, even when I knew his general location, finding a specific person posed a tremendous challenge in this sea of bodies. In fact, if he was unconscious "Here!" Just as the bad thoughts and idea of giving up appeared in my mind, a voice broke through the silence that ensued after my words. Turning my head to the left, I saw one of the bodies lift its hand. Then, as if a veil was taken from my eyes, I finally recognized the man. "It''s been a while, your majesty, wasn''t it?" Smiling to the man, I made sure my pistol was ready to fire before making my way towards him. "How about we leave this ce for a short while to have a talk?" My words were formed into a question. But contrary to the expectations of both the prince and everyone daring enough to listen to what I was talking to him about, I didn''t wait for his answer at all. Grabbing the man''s hand, I pulled him back to a standing position before stepping even further towards him and grabbing him into a bear-like hug. Then, with just a slight jump and an instant application of phasing the moment I was midair, I brought the two of us out of the dense crowd within the valley. "WHOA!" When we first appeared in the air, the prince''s reaction was exactly how I expected it to be. But what I didn''t foresee, was his arms suddenly tightening around my entire body, almost to the point where all the air would be squeezed out of my lungs! "Don''t grip me so tightly!" Muttering those words with the remaining bit of air in my lungs, I looked down at the prince only to see him shaking from fear. Whether it was a fear of heights or just a horror-like realization that I was actually just going to kill him, it blocked the prince''s reception of my words, quickly turning the situation into actual danger. "Don''t worry You won''t fall Just let me breathe!" When I first met with this man, I was quite sure that he was pretty powerless. Just your usual noble without the talent to his namemanding a huge army where many promising authors, painters,manders, and politicians would die like dogs because their status was too low for them to ever receive a real chance at life. But from how tightly he was squeezing my lungs, I had no other way but to rectify this precious guess of mine! "LET GO I SAY!" Only when I shouted, forcefully taking a huge breath only to use it to utter those words did the prince''s hands rxed a bit. "Sorry," only now did this man finallye to his senses, even going as far as to open his eyes. "Ahhhh." Feeling the fresh air finally entering my lungs, I almost lost my edge for a moment, overwhelmed by just the sheer feeling of relief. But I couldn''t help it. Given how crucial the oxygen was to a human body, it had developed many mechanisms of preventing suffocation over the millennia, only to give an actually believable excuse and reason for the prince''s actions. "Wait, where are you taking me?!" Suddenly noticing the direction where our flight was angling, the prince once again added force to his grip, threatening to squeeze the air out of my lungs once again. But this time, I was prepared for it. Phasing after phasing, I continued to add momentum to our fall, constantly keeping myself just on the brink between crashing into the walls of one of the still-standing forts, losing control over the flight, and overshooting the destination. But only thanks to this risky y did I manage tond atop the walls of the fort, or rather, crash into the winged soldiers defending them before my manapletely dried out. "No one touches those men." Even before I managed to get to my feet, Teria appeared right above me. With my face just happening to be directed upwards, I could see the ironic smirk on her lips. "Would use a bit of your help, here. Or rather, where the hell you were all that time?!" Even if I were to use phasing, there was no way for this girl tog behind me. In the end, phasing was the only way for me to control the momentum, angle, and direction of my flight, at the substantial cost of my mana for every use. On the other hand, thanks to her beautiful, white wings, Teria was free to fly at a speak just slightly slower than my top eleration Yet she wasn''t constrained by theck of mana, as it didn''t seem that she needed magical energy to fly at all. "Why did you take me here" Butting in into the conversation, the prince finally managed to get himself up. Seeing that, I had no other choice but to stand up as well, before nodding my head to him. "Your majesty, don''t get me wrong. I didn''t kidnap you and I will help you return to your people as soon as we will be done here." Resting my back against the nk of the fortifications, I exined. "Done here? What do you need to do here?" Still suspicious about my intentions, the prince asked. "Don''t worry, I brought you here just to ask a few questions. Let''s not waste any time and get this over with." Pushing aside all the ideas of just having friendly chat or telling the man how he was the reason for everything that was happening right now only to see his reaction, I focused my thoughts on the topic at hand. "First off, why is there such a huge invasion force? If I''m right, those banners belong to the northern federation, so how could they move all the way from the north to here in such a short amount of time?" As soon as I asked, I saw how the prince''s face changed, forcing me to realize my mistake. "Short amount of time? What do you mean? They took nearly an entire month to get here in the first ce!" Still surprised by the question, the prince looked at the troops outside the fort finally starting to regain their cohesion and organization. "A month? I didn''t expect" Stopping in the middle of the sentence, I bit my tongue. There was no need to reveal that I had no idea how long I was away from this world while in that white trap! "Nevermind that. Another question, why are they throwing what looks like their entire poption at the winged tribe right now?" Thanks to my visit to the north, I could tell that the insane army under their banners had to seriously stretch not only their mary reserve but also manpower. Yet, even if I were to min-max everything about their country as its ruler, it would still be an ordeal to call such a huge force! "Well, I don''t know whether it''s true or not" the prince looked away for a moment before swallowing a gulp of his saliva and looking me straight in the eyes, "but I heard that a demon lord revived roughly a month ago." Stepping towards the edge of the embankments, the prince scanned the entire valley, and the troops gathered here with a single look. "It seems that the north is willing tomit everyst bit of force that they have to curb her out before she will be too powerful for them to deal with." Hearing the prince''s words, I was stumped for words. A demon lord? Just when did the announcement of such a huge event miss my ears? But then, I understood. "A demon lord, huh?" Shaking my head while allowing a small smile to creep on my lips I looked at the prince. "Trust me, the girl that I helped to bring back from the prison created by the God himself Is not a demon lord at all." Chapter 208: True form of the mission Chapter 208: True form of the mission "What?!" To say that my words managed to surprise the prince would be a gross understatement. His shout of surprise was actually so loud, that even both the winged soldiers that still stood atop the ramparts and the wingless soldiers attacking said ramparts from below ceased their hostility for a moment, just to locate the source of this unexpected shout. "Can you tune it down a little? I don''t think it will do you any good if anyone in actual charge of this peasant army will learn that I told you that." I was rather quick to scold the man, yet the damage was already done. "Wait a moment. If it''s not the resurrection of the demon lord, then what" before even he could finish his words, the prince suddenly turned silent. Then, after ncing at the banners of the northern federation fluttering on the wind, his face suddenly darkened. "Some kind of idea?" Throwing a question without any hope of getting an actual answer, I simply wished to continue to observe the changes on the prince''s face. In the end, it was a way more reliable method of learning what he was actually thinking than just asking him directly. "If it''s not the demon lord Listen, the northern federation is a young nation. A young but powerful one. What used to be a highly autonomous kingdom where the king only had actual power over just two or three cities, now turned into a league of powerful warlords and" Suddenly shaking his head, the prince turned silent for a moment before raising his eyes and looking squarely in my face. "What I''m trying to say, if it''s not a being that can endanger all the humans that live in this fertile world, then what else could move all those squabbling warlords to act as one? What could make them expend so many resources, so much manpower?" This question had an obvious answer. But this obvious answer was just too simple. The one thing that all the warlords living off the corpse of a formerly great nation would fear, would be a force capable of overthrowing their corrupted rule. As I knew from the history of my own country, once a kingdom would be split into princedoms for any given reason, it would be a long and tiring process for it to regather itself back into one piece. And what was pretty obvious, all the princes that would suddenly turn fully sovereign would fight back with everything they had against any idea of proper unification. But that just makes too much sense. Looking down at the army of the northern federation, while it was huge as hell, it posed little challenge for any actually organized force to take down. With the natural environment ying a crucial role, just two small units of experienced warriors could bring doom to all the soldiers gathered in the valley. Just by holding thest patch of the narrownd in the valley and stopping the army from spilling into the open ins thatid beyond this mountainous region, one could force the enemy into a much longer campaign, one that would continue to eat away at the limited resources they had to keep such a huge army standing! From food and water, through spare clothes, medicine, materials to repair broken equipment, fodder for the horses Every single thing that all those soldiers would normally provide for themselves on their own now had to be transported all the way from the north to this narrow passage. Even if one were to ignore the problem of disturbing everything to each and every soldier, it still remained as a task that even I wouldn''t dare to take on myself. And yet, the northern federation not only created this army, not only marched it all the way down to the southern kingdom but also actually dared to send it into a battle! "I guess we can''t fight facts." Shaking my head, I was forced to acknowledge the prince''s suggestion. But the reason for my doubt remained. If this was the entire force that those people brought, just where the hell was this super high difficulty that the system announced? Was there some kind of hidden supervolcano underneath the ground, just waiting for the opportune moment to erupt and cover this entire in its ash? Or maybe there was some kind of monster that was heading to this ce, aiming to destroy everyst hint of human presence in this world? As puzzling as those questions were, I was perfectly aware that I had no answers for them. On the other hand, though, the prince''s suggestion would also exin the veryst side-mission of mine A mission which name started shing as soon as the prince brought forward his suggestion. "Are you trying to tell me that this poor girl from the ancient marriage, a girl that was destined to bring peace between winged and wingless tribes Is the true ruler of the north?" As soon as I asked this question, the green light of the mission''s name suddenly dimmed a bit. "A ruler of the north?" Widening his eyes a bit, the prince asked before shaking his head. "If the girl you spoke of is who I think she is, then she is the rightful ruler not only of the north but all the human tribes that settle this world!" Even though the prince''s words were filled with emotions and something that felt like patriotism and nearly religious loyalty, the man was smart enough not to shout them. After all, given the current situation, not even Dearie''s alleged right to the throne would stop this enormous army from cutting its way towards the corends of the winged tribe! "Fuck!" Now, it finally struck me. It was never stated that the difficulty of the mission would mean how dangerous it would be. And from the looks of it, this time it was all about the one thing that I wanted to avoid in every single damned world I ever visited. It appeared that my current mission was heavily inclined towards the political struggle! "Tell me," turning my head to the prince, I squinted my eyes a bit. "What kind of shape does the crown of your kings have?" I only realized that I made a mistake when my words already left my mouth. But from theck of reaction on the prince''s face when I identally used the prr form for the ''king'' word managed to somehow calm my anxiety down. "Crown?" Looking at me with a confused expression on his face, the prince leaned his head over his shoulder before answering. "It''s a simple, golden ring. From what I heard, in ancient times people would make it into an intricate item, a work of art to say the least But as the ancient civilization broke apart, it became a taboo to attempt replicating such works." Looking at me with a weird glint in his eyes, the prince answered my question. "So that''s what it was all about" I allowed those words to escape from my mouth along with a long breath of exhaustion. One ring to rule them all. That was the name of the mission that continued to sh in more and more intense greed the more I asked the prince about the situation. And from how it shed even brighter than before when I brought the topic of the shape of the crown up, it was already clear what was actually my mission. One ring to rule them all. Or in other words, one crown to rule all the tribes of men. With this conclusion, it wasn''t all that hard to figure out that the actual ce of the activated sacred core which was bound to refer to Dearie girl, was actually atop the crown of united humannds! "Teria Prince Right now, I finally figured out what my real mission here is." Given how I only knew those two in this world, they were also the only ones who could somehow help me right now. Because as easy as it would be to just eradicate all the opposition especially with how easy it would be to just go back to earth and bring more recurring stones, I didn''t intend to partake in genocide only because it was the easier way to go around it. What''s more, I couldn''t even tell if actually killing all those soldiers wouldn''t invalidate my mission! After all, who did the King or Queen rules over? An inanimate piece ofnd, or the people that actually settled it? "Shoot." Listening in to my exchange with the prince so far, Teria was the first one to hasten me when the topic of my mission surfaced once again. "If my assumptions and guesses are correct" even though I was already resolved to revealing this bit, it didn''t make it any easier to actually do so. "If my thinking is correct, then I need to turn Dearie," turning my eyes towards the prince, I added for rification, "the resurrected princess, into the Queen of this entire world." Chapter 209: Three options Chapter 209: Three options "And how are you going to do that?" After the initial shock-based silence passed, the prince asked. "Well, there are three ways in which I can achieve that." Resting my back against the side of a small watchtower embedded into the embankments, I looked to the skies. "First one is simple, kill everyone that opposes the idea." Even though there was a possibility that thia kind of solution would only end up failing my mission and turning all my efforts so far into nothing, it was still something that I had to consider. "The other option is on the other end of the extreme. And it is centered around getting rid of the top brass of the northern Federation so that Dearie could just sweep out and take their ce in one fell swoop." I uttered after a long pause. In fact, both the second and the third options that I was about to reveal, were nothing but just some random ideas that I came up with on the spot. In other words, right now, I waspletely clueless about what I was supposed to do next. Even if I put up a tough front so far, there was a limit to how far my bullshiting could take me. With the huge army right below me, eradicating it was the most obvious answer, hence the first solution that I proposed. The second option appeared when I just reversed the idea of killing everyone and attempted to find a way that would have the smallest number of potential casualties. As for the third option "So? What''s the third solution?" This time, the break before I get to speak was long enough for not even the prince, but Teria herself ask about it. "Do I really need to spell it out loud?" Still unable to figure out what I should propose as the third solution, I decided to just y dumb and force my way with it. "How about you guys will do the thinking for once? I''m not going to be around here for long, so relying on me when ites to every single decision-making process" I took another pause to let my words sink in. "Wouldn''t that cripple your ability to advise the princess once she will be who she is bound to be?" By putting the weight of the responsibility on the prince and Teria''s shoulders, I managed to achieve nothing else but actually buying myself some time. But thanks to this unsavory tactic, I could feel my mind slowly getting back on its usual track, slowly chipping away at the unprable wall of ignorance in an attempt to produce the solution I announced. "Wait, your first option was to kill everyone, and your second option was to kill only those at the top. Does that mean your third option won''t involve killing at all?" the prince suddenly proposed. And while his thinking was perfectly aligned with how I was trying to dissolve this one, menstrual problem of turning Daerie from just a legend into an actual ruler, ultimately it was nothing but the direction of the solution, not the solution itself. "I''m not going to tell you. To be honest, I''m tired of being the only one putting the effort." Shaking my head, I moved away from the stone walls of the tower before casting a scrutinous nce at both of mypanions only to move my face away from them the next moment. The message was clear. I wasn''t going to give them the answer served on a silver te anymore. This time, they had to figure it out themselves. "I don''t think that''s the case. Option of just killing the brass" Teria shook her head while attempting to exin something when her words suddenly ceased to flow in the air. At first, I thought she just lost her point, then, after a few moments during which she didn''t speak anything at all, I had no other choice but to turn around and ask. "Option of just killing the brass is?" Looking sternly at the girl, I initially hoped that my hurrying her up would have an effect But rather than finishing her sentence from before, Teria simply blinked her eyes twice before extending her hand towards one of the points further down the valley. "Look there. Do you recognize them?" Hearing Teria''s question and following with my eyes where she wanted me to look, I froze myself as well. For a moment, it was hard for a single word toe to escape from my mouth rather than ending stuck in my throat. "I do. To be frank, Ipletely forgot about them!" As bad as it was for my image to admit to any kind of fault, I no longer had the willpower to try to bullshit my way out of this. Because right now, the potential third solution was no longer necessary, and to be frank, no longer possible for me either. In terms of possibility, killing everyone also instantly turned into a no-go zone for me. Because the team that I left behind when I hurried up ahead to meet with Teria, finally caught up to us. Because once I looked along Teria''s arm, Longinus and his friends came to my view. And to make matters even worse, they stood motionless on the spot, with their eyes directed exactly at our position. "Well, that solves our quandary." After the momentary shock passed, I decided not to linger on the things that didn''t matter anymore. Just like the color of thest year''s snow didn''t bother me, the options that Longinus appearance erased from the pool There was no longer any use in bothering with them either. "Solves? What do you mean guys?" As the only one left out of the topic, the prince turned pretty anxious. "Those guys Well, there is a group of people from the northern federation. We used to travel with them and unless they changed their mind, they should still be kinda on our side" Shaking my head, I stopped mid-sentence. "Well, it doesn''t matter now. What matters, is that we can push the entire problem on their shoulders." Not waiting for anyone to react to my words, I bent my knees before jumping forward with all the strength I had. Using the phasing right away, I quickly gained just enough momentum tond somewhere near the group of my former teammates. After a few moments in the air, I came crashing down towards the ground. Using the phasing onest time to kill my downward momentum right before I would crash against the ground, I then softlynded on the ground before smiling towards the familiar faces. "It''s been a while." Keeping myself at a safe distance from Longinus and his party just in case they had some kind of change of mind, I greeted them. "Indeed. How long was it, a month?" Slightly diffusing my worries, Longinus smiled as well before extending his hand for a greeting. But I didn''t take his hand. With how chaotic everything was right now, I just couldn''t get the sight of that system message from before out of my head. ''Danger to the system detected.'' The light ray that caused that message. And the possibility of their betrayal, that would turn my life on its head. Right now, even if it meant making Longinus and his group dislike me a bit, I couldn''t be as open and free around them as I used to be. "To be honest, I have no idea. There was an instance during which time passed for me in a different way than for everyone else." Taking a step back, I exined. Then, after a moment during which neither side said anything, I finally gathered the courage to push forward the agenda that appeared in my mind the moment Teria conveyed their presence to me. "But let''s stop with the small talk now." Filled with determination, I clenched my hands before making a step forward. "Longinus, tell me. How far are you willing to go to stop this pointless war?" Even if I wanted to reveal my idea right away, I had no idea what happened to this former teammate of mine while we were separated. Maybe he was still on my side? Or maybe someone convinced him to change sides? While I couldn''t answer those questions of mine, I could still try to sound the man off. "Can you stop with the games? I can tell what''s going on." Rather than answering my question, Longinus shook his head before releasing a long, exhausting sight and replying with a question on his own. "Well, since you asked so politely" Putting a small smirk on my face, I shook my head before looking the man right into his eyes. "What I need you and your group to do, is to kill every single one of the leaders of the northern federation. They are the ones responsible for this entire campaign and I know for a fact," I lied a bit as I had no way of knowing such things with any certainty, "that they sent all those poor souls here, not to fight some devil lord, but to prevent the true ruler of both human tribes from taking the power that''s rightfully hers." Chapter 210: Second talk with Hubriel Chapter 210: Second talk with Hubriel "That''s" After hearing my request, Longinus hesitated. His eyes wavered, his soul shook. For a moment, I wasn''t sure whether he wouldply with my request or not, but after ncing just once to hispatriots keeping his back safe from any potential threats lurking in the crowd, the young man looked back at me with a new determination in his eyes. "If we kill them all, or at least, all those who will be unwilling to acknowledge that girl you mentioned as their new ruler, this war will end?" Now that Longinus once again looked me in the eyes, all the signs of hesitation were gone. "That'' I can''t promise. Or rather, this war will definitelye to an end, but whether there will be more wars toe or not" taking a little pause, I shook my head before looking down. "I''m not a god to promise such a thing. But from what I saw in that girl when I met her for the first time, she is capable of taking proper responsibility for all the souls that those lords of your federation are freely throwing away for their own self-interest." That thing I knew for sure. Only someone who knew the pain would be hesitant to deal it to others. Only those who knew very and imprisonment would be reluctant to impose such things on others. And as someone who was a ve, kept away in that white subworld of that bastard God, I was pretty god damn sure that she would at least be able to make the people under her free. "I" The determination in Longinus'' soul and eyes wavered for a moment before he managed to steel his resolve once again. "I understand. I will take that quest but" Lognius said before suddenly turning silent. Then, a small smirk appeared on his lips. "We will do it, but you will need to help us." As if all the heavens came crashing down on my head. Here I thought I would be able to perfectly ditch thest part of my work on someone else and keep all the possible hardships and difficulties away "That''s reasonable. Should we start right away or?" I asked while leaning my head to the side to reinforce the image of waiting for Longinus'' decision. Even if he could coerce me into actually doing my part, he could no longer push the weight of responsibility of me. If he wanted to make a decision now, he was all alone in doing so. "We will start right away But I heard Hubriel wanted to have a private talk with you." Longinus looked to the back before gesturing at the oldest man in his party. While Hubriel''s face was perfectly still, devoid of any emotions that could betray his thoughts, the same couldn''t be said about his soul. Sadly, as one of the very few people in this entire world that I met so far, his soul was a puzzle for me. While I could discern some hints of what was going inside his heart, I was never able to get a full picture. And now, when this middle-aged man came my way before pointing away with his hand to suggest changing spots, I couldn''t even get as much of a hint. "So, is this the way you want to help him grow?" Hubriel asked as soon as we managed to make a few steps away from the rest of the group. While this distance was nothing for any normal human to hear our conversation, given how there was already over a hundred people between the two of us and the rest of the Longinus'' group, the noise created by the soldiers served for a pretty good sound barrier. "To be frank, I just wanted to ditch this job to someone else. And with his knowledge of the north, I deemed Longinus and his party to be the best people to do it." Shrugging my arms, I didn''t dare to hide the truth from this man. Even though it wasn''t the first time when I had a private talk with him, the strange aura of intimidation created by how I was unable to see through this man was still putting me on edge. "At least you are honest, huh?" Hubrielmented with a slightly displeased grin that appeared on his face before he shook his head and reced it with a proper smile. "Well, I can''t disagree with you on the points you brought. But do you really think this is the best way to go around it?" Taking a step forward, Hubriel ced his right hand on my shoulder. But rather than feeling the touch of his hand, I suddenly realized that my guts were threatened by a small knife he hid in his left palm. ''Fuck,'' Cursing my own ipetence in my thoughts, I forced an ironic smile to appear on my lips. "So now that I''m no longer necessary for Longinus growth, you are going to remove me from the picture?" "No, not at all." Hubriel pressed the knife even harder against my stomach, to the point where the de actually prated through my clothes and made a small opening in my skin. "I just want you to remember, that there are some forces in this world that even you won''t be able to deal with, no matter what miraculous weapon God equipped you with." After pushing the de just a bit more, Hubriel finally ended his threat, retracting his weapon from my flesh. While the wound was small, this fucker managed to deal with it in a ce that instantly filled my mind with pain. "And what was that threat for?!" Angered by the situation, I squinted my eyes while reaching to my pocket and rubbing on the veryst remaining normal barrier stone of mine. With all the others shattered long ago, I was pretty cautious with using it, hoping to use it as an ace card in a sticky situation rather than a passive defense system. But now, just the touch of the cold surface of the carved stone was enough to calm my senses a notch, riled up after the sudden appearance of a real danger to my well-being. "Just a slight warning. I don''t know what your true purpose is, but I won''t let you harm those kids under me." For a moment, the aura of Hubriel changed. From nearly theplete void that was already enough to slightly scare me or at least make me wary of him, this man''s surroundings almost turnedpletely ck, as if he was the overlord of chaos and darkness himself. Then, as if it was just an illusion, everything came back to its normal state. Looking around, I realized that I was the only one who noticed the event. Most likely either because it was so short that only those paying attention to Hubriel would even have a chance at noticing it, or maybe because Hurbiel didn''t intend for anyone else to notice it. Which one of my guesses was true, I couldn''t tell. "I understand. But I think you are mistaken about one thing." Rather than allowing the situation to end like this, I pushed my own agenda. "Oh? And what might that be?" Hubriel asked while shes of curiosity momentarily managed to slip through his control, appearing both in his eyes and in his soul. "It''s simple, really." Shrugging my arms, I looked towards Longinus group for a moment before moving my eyes back at Hubriel''s face. "I never intended to do them any harm. While Arsha had some pretty dangerous magic that made me wary of the entire group back in the days. Well, now I know for sure that she is on our side, so there is no need for me to be too wary of them." Nodding my head towards the Longinus'' group, I smiled. "So you never really intended to do them any harm, I see." Rather than letting me spell the obvious, Hubriel said it himself before smiling gently. "That''s alright with me. But tell me one more thing," Taking a little pause, Hubriel stepped closer once again, and once again his hand fell on my shoulder. But this time rather than pushing his de into my guts, he pushed his head towards my ear. "Why are you so keen at establishing that princess from the past ages as the ruler of all humans?" Hearing this question, I froze a bit. Because this question struck right at the crux of all my actions in this ce. And while I already knew that there was no joking about this man''s capabilities, now it finally dawned upon me that it wasn''t his personal fighting power that I should be most wary of. It was his intelligence. "I''m sorry, but I just can''t reveal it. I have my reasons for doing that, and you can only follow along with my ns or decide not to. But one thing is true no matter what you will decide on your own." This time it was my turn to lean over Hubriel''s ear. "If she bes the absolute ruler of this world, the petty fighting for the crown will cease, wouldn''t it?" Chapter 211: Starting the massacre Chapter 211: Starting the massacre "Okay, we will go after the localmanders first, then move our operations to the hearnds of the North." From the moment when I came with my request to the Longinus group to the moment when the entire team along with the Prince I met back when I first appeared in this world and Teria sat down to discuss the strategy Maybe half an hour passed. Yet, as if it was your other monster subjugation question, Longinus or his group didn''t protest. "I think we should start with those located in the outermost part of the battlefield." Pointing my finger at a specific location marked on a makeshift map that Hubriel provided, I raised my head and looked at the faces of everyone gathered. "If we start spreading death from the innermost part, the news will travel up themand chain. In other words, before we will be done, some of our targets might try to flee." "That''s But what if the local lords that are leading their own troops would catch the wind of our intended massacre at their headquarters?" Longinus asked while looking me in the eyes. "I know that it''s better to just get rid of the absolute top-brass But if the small lords will survive, the source of the problems won''t disappear. There won''t be any peace for as long as any of the big lords exist." His protest actually made sense. While getting rid of everyone who was at the top was the most crucial part of the task, as long as even a single lord of the current regime would remain, he would be a beacon to all kinds of rebels and traitors who wouldn''t ept their new ruler. But Longinus'' worry was actually unnecessary. Because he didn''t know about something I knew. "There is no need to worry about the smaller targets. You said they are leading their troops personally, right?" Moving my sight back on the map, I took a moment to digest the situation. "Yeah. It''s in to see for anyone that this entire army consists mostly of conscripts, with its core centered around foreign mercenaries. While mercenaries will fight for as long as their side will be winning Well, I don''t want to discount the courage of some of those former serfs" Noticing Longinus'' struggle, I simply waved my hand at him. "I understand. But there is no need to worry about that part." I moved my finger away from the headquarters in the ins behind the mountainous region to the valley we were currently in, "the bulk of their forces already entered the valley. From the east, an army of the winged tribes ising. Once the rout well being, we can just pick the officers off at the destroyed passes they will use to flee." My finger moved at the three crossed circles marking the position of the fortresses of the winged tribe. "I know that we could just destroy the passes that already fell and trap the main part of their army in the valley" I shook my head before exining the reason why my face turned sour as I said that, "but that would mean, those trapped in the valley, would have no ce to escape to. That would make for some unnecessary casualties Both on the winged and wingless tribes sides." That was the main reason why I didn''t want to block the path for the wingless tribe forces. Without a path to retreat, they would be forced to fight to thest man. With just a little bit of management, the officers of the northern federation could constantly rally their troops by making them realize that they had no other choice but to cut themselves a path forward to survive. And I didn''t want to see this kind of mindless ughter, especially if it wouldn''t influence the oue of the ongoing war at all. "I understand. I think we can go with this n." Longinus said while pping his hand against the desk where the map wasid out. "Any objections?" he asked before scanning the entire tent for any volunteers. "Great. Since there is no one objecting, let''s not waste any time." Rather than letting Longinus take the lead of the entire situation, I assumed this duty myself. Moving away from the table, I checked whether all my pieces of equipment were properly strapped to my outfit before moving out of the tent. This entire meeting took ce in one of the four fortresses that the winged tribe still held. With Teria''s appearance, all the chances of breaking even a single fortress suddenly turned nigh for the northern armies, forcing theirmanders to be satisfied with just the three passes they managed to control. "Everyone ready?" Teria asked as soon as she stepped out of the tent. In her hand, there were four short ropes, each of which one of the Longinus team wrapped around their waist. Three more resided in my own hand, strapping Longinus himself, Hubriel, and one of the male mages that I never got to know a name of. "Yeah!" A wave of enthusiasm shook the group as everyone prepared themselves mentally for what was about toe. "Good. Then off we go!" Teria shouted as she jumped and pped her wings. In a sh, her group was already airborne, traveling high above everyone''s heads. "I''m sorry guys, but our start won''t be as effective." Putting a wry smile on my lips, I focused all my energy in my knees before propelling myself upwards. Instantly using a huge amount of the mana that the quick break in traveling allowed me to regenerate, I continually phased upwards and forward, attempting to cope with the additional weight of three, weighty baggage that hung to the rope I held. ''Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck.'' The pain of dealing with such an umon situation was unbearable. Sadly, even in a winged tribe, flying wasn''t amon ability. From what Teria exined to me before, only those who achieved a certain level of strength were capable of doing so Most of which fell prey to my attacks when I first appeared in this world. As such, there was no one else but me who could share Teria''s burden of moving our group towards its first objective. And cruising in my mind was the easiest way to alleviate at least a bit of this insane pain. "Thank God it''s not far" Noticing thendmarks that Longinus forced me to memorize, I clenched my jaws as I poured even more mana into my phasing. And bit by bit, we managed to get closer and closer to the northern federation headquarters Before we finally arrived there. Not in the headquarters, but right above them. "DROP NOW!" I shouted while letting go of the rope. While we were above the ground, the fall wasn''t long enough for those experienced and strong mercenaries to get hurt from jumping from such height. But that wasn''t the end of what I nned for this ce. Still midair, I reached to my pocket only to pull out all the remaining fireze Sander''s stones, before throwing them in a circle around the headquarters. With the invasion force attacking from right in the middle and fires instantly appearing all around the ce, the first objective of the mission was over. So I dropped down to the ground. Besides me, Teria allowed her team to descend in a more controlled manner, simply lowering them to the point where only a meter or two separated them from the ground. Yet, even with that precise drop-off, she managed tond on the ground nearly at the same time as I did. "Well, let''s not hold ourselves back." Looking around, I saw countless stares of shocked people, unwilling to believe what their eyes were telling them. And before this perfect opportunity would pass, I once again brought my repetitive, cylinder-fed shotgun. This time though, rather than loading it with birdshot ammo that could at most injure, I made use of the standard spray ammo. Between the two types of ammunition, the one I was currently using was basically the same as the birdshot. In short words, it was a small container filled to the brim with small-sized balls, aimed at covering a huge area once shot. The only difference between described birdshot and the ammunition I decided on using right now, was the size of those balls. Because while the birdshot shrapnels were capable of injuring and killing birds, the real live ammunition was more than capable of dismembering any human that was unlucky enough to stand in its path! "KILL!" Encouraging everyone, I shouted while aiming the muzzle at the first enemy. I pressed the trigger. The gun responded, spewing fire from its barrel. As if someone pulled on a string, both my target and a man who was unlucky enough to stand right behind him, exploded to the back. Pressed by the several balls that instantly sank into their bodies, there was hardly anything they could to do protect themselves from the shot. But I didn''t even need to reload. Press of the finger, shot, a moment to let the gun reset itself. Press of a finger, recoil from the shot, interworking of the servomechanisms within the gun. Bit by bit, I was chipping away at the bulk of the enemy forces that just happened to be in the headquarters while the rest of my assault team continued to get rid of any stragglers that would escape from my wrath. Soon, the entire tent gathering turned into nothing but a burned-out patch of ground, with bodies lying haphazardly one over another all over the ce. "I found the bodies of the main and second inmand of the entire army." one of Longinus'' teammates reported. "Good," I replied while a smile blossomed on my lips. "It''s time to get rid of the secondary headquarters then!" Chapter 212: Fear Chapter 212: Fear With the main headquarters cleared, there was no reason for me or anyone else from my team to remain in this ce. But that didn''t mean that we could just off and go. "All the documents are burned?" Rushing to one of the Longinus'' party members that I never bothered to know by name, I asked. "Yeah. They are all ash now." Nodding his head, the middle-aged woman replied. Judging from her outfit fitting the very definition of the bikini armor, I could tell that she was either a warrioress or just a in exhibitionist. "Good. Make sure you didn''t miss a single one." I stretched my back leisurely. "We don''t want our clean te idea to be sullied by some randomly surviving, important document, don''t we?" The clean te n. Outside of being the working name of the operation we were conducting as of this very moment, it was also the founding idea behind every single action of ours. Starting with the people, we were set to kill everyone and anyone who had ties to the old government of the northern federation. While this action might be quite excessive, not ounting for the people who were already dissatisfied with the state of the federation, in the heat of the still ongoing battle, there we simply had no time nor means to differentiate between our targets. And even if there was someone who spent his entire life working to undo the federation, we wouldn''t be able to know it at all. After all, if his actions would be easy to notice, the federation loyalists would make a short work of such a person a long time ago. "Marius!" Hearing the call, I turned around only to see Longinus dragging someone by his hair. "Guess who we found hiding in a basement filled with wine!" With a single pull of his hand, the mercenary forced his captive to stand up only to kick him in the back of his knees, making him fall right on his face. "No idea who that fucker is. Should I wait, or will you tell me who he is?" As much as Longinus wanted to get a reaction out of me, he misfired that shot. Given how I never met or even saw the people I was out to kill, I couldn''t even recognize the man, not to speak about being happy about capturing him in particr. "Ugh, you are no fun!" Longinus replied while looking away with a dejected expression on his face. Then, he sank his sword into the man''s back only to ride it upwards all the way to the point where his de escaped from the flesh of the already deceased victim. "I''m sorry man, but I really don''t" Just as I was about to exin myself, a loud sound of horns ying appeared in the distance. With the fires still raging around the perimeter of the now-destroyed headquarters of the northern army, I couldn''t even look out to see who was behind that sound. "Krist!" Dropping to the ground right beside me, Teria used my real name while calling me out. Thankfully, from how Longinus focused all his attention on the girl, it seemed that she could get away with her mishap without receiving a harsh scolding from meter on. "They are here!" Even though her words were pretty vague, in our current situation, there was hardly anything to guess at all. Because there was only one force that was scheduled to arrive in the near future that could get such a reaction out of the winged girl. "Well, that changes our ns a bit." Dusting off the sleeve of my outfit, I looked around the wreckage of this ce once again. Just like I would do whenever leaving my home back on earth for a longer while, I made sure that all the main points of our mission here were aplished before actually moving on to the next task. "Wait, what? Isn''t that good?" Teria asked, clearly surprised by my remark. "As great as it is to see our allies finally making their appearance," I shook my head over the gullibility of this girl before finishing my sentence, "with them appearing on the battlefield, the secondary headquarters will soon learn of the destruction of this ce. And if they already know about it, they are bound to consider escaping as an actually viable option." Throwing the exnation out of myself, I hurried to the other end of the area enclosed by the fires. Climbing up the rummage, I took a deep look at another camp, barely visible due to how far it was located. "Guys, we need to hurry." Speaking under my nose, I informed those who just happened to be nearby. But before even a single one of them could ask why I already jumped down from the rubble before heading for the middle point of the destroyed camp. "Teria, go and get your people! They are running already!" Even though the secondary headquarters were quite a distance away, I could still see the insanemotion that already brought that ce to the brink of destruction. And that means, our window of opportunity to catch the remaining top brass of the northern federation was quickly closing. "I''m here! Let''s just go with what we have!" Hearing the shouts, Longinus was the first to appear, followed by Hubriel and one more of theirpanions. "Good, Longinus, you go with me. Teria, take care of the others!" Clenching my jaws, I grabbed the mercenary''s arm, before bending my knees and jumping up. As soon as my feet detached from the ground, a series of instantaneous phasing multiplied my momentary momentum, allowing me to take flight. "WOAAAH!" Not prepared for how brutal my way of flying was, Longinus clenched his hands against my arm, clearly terrified by the experience. "Hold on!" Speeding through the air, I could see how some of the people that saw us bring chaos to the headquarters attempted to get some ranged weapons But by the time they finally figured out which direction to shoot their projectiles at, I was already far beyond the range of their bows and crossbows. "THIS WON''T BE A SOFT LANDING!" Shouting my lungs off to get my message through the insane noise of the wind, I angled myself properly before using the phasing to correct the angle of approach. This time though, I didn''t have the time to y around with softening the drop. Rather thanpletely killing my momentum by phasing a few times right before the crasnd, I limited myself to just a single phase, barely bringing my speed to the point wherending wouldn''t be lethal. Crash! The ground was just as tough as I expected. As soon as we touched down, Longinus let go of my arm. Rolling on the ground, we offered no resistance to our remaining momentum, using the unlucky soldiers and officers in our way as a way to kill our momentum down. "KILL!" Once again, the same shout came out of my mouth. As soon as I regained the spatial awareness of what was going around me, I already had my shotgun in my hands, ready to shoot at whoever would dare to even stand in front of me. But no one did. "What the hell is going on?" Looking around, I could see how literally everyone who was running around the secondary headquarters just a moment before, was now calmly standing roughly twenty meters away from where Inded, observing me with curiosity seeping through their eyes. "So your gamble paid off." Suddenly, a calm voice appeared, introducing me to the sight of two men that couldn''t be any more different from each other. The one speaking was the typical picture of a corrupt noble. With his belly greater than some of the tents that soldiers would sleep in and his robes clearly more expensive than the equipment of an entire unit of said soldiers, he appeared to be the owner of the voice. Besides him, a perfect image reversal. A tall, slim man, wearing the simplest clothes I ever saw in my life. Or rather, that''s what I thought at a first look. Once I managed to steal another nce of that strange man, I realized that he was actually wearing rugs! But for some reason, I just couldn''t take him lightly, not even in my mind. "Yeah." Rather than borating, the slim man decided to push forward. ''Wha'' I only managed to dodge his attack thanks to the split of a second that myst barrier gave me. With the force of an impossibly heavy hit that this man dealt with me diffusing between my shield and everything inside, I flew to the back, crashing with my back against the rubble on the ground. But that wasn''t the end of it. As soon as I opened my eyes, I saw a glint And just as I was about to say farewells to this rotten life of mine, Longinus suddenly materialized in front of me, taking the attack meant for my head on his shield! "Stand up!" His shout brought me back to my senses. "I can''t ward him off alone for long!" While I never had any reasons to believe that Longinus was someone exceptionally strong in this world, this kind of belief still somehow took root in my soul. And seeing how he was easily pushed back by thezy-looking attacks of that silent, slim man, I felt something that I missed in my soul for a long time. I felt fear. Chapter 213: Puppet master Chapter 213: Puppet master So this was the danger that this mission was all about. And this danger was condensed to a figure of a rtively young warrior, around his middle twenties, currently shing with Longinus. "Can you stand?!" Using the very little window of opportunity, Longinus shouted to me. He was losing ground at a visible rate, unable to cope with the attacks of the swordsman. "Give me a moment!" For a moment, I was scared. But in the next second, I realized how there was nothing for me to be scared about. No matter how insanely strong this swordsman was, he was still a human. And the human body was pretty fragile. I couldn''t defeat him with cold weapons. Swords, spears, knives In face of his obviously supreme de-skills, I wouldn''t even get close enough to him so that I would be able to actually attack him. Even without facing him directly yet, I could see how my head would be looped off in such a scenario. But I had a huge variety of hot weapons on me. Adding all the Sander stones still in my possession and other tricks I had up my sleeve, this kind of fight I shouldn''t consider a fight in the first ce. "On my mark, listen to whatever I say!" I shouted to Longinus who was slowly losing his ability to even as much as to ward off the swordsman''s attack! But I didn''t prepare a single surprise for that opponent. Rather than that, I was ready to unleash hell on him at any given moment. Another hit, this time from above his head,nded on Longinus'' shield. His knees caved in. Right now, the swordsman would only need mere seconds to finish Longinus off. "DUCK!" sensing the opportunity, I shouted. My automatic rifle was already prepared and pointed directly at Longinus. So he tried to follow my order But already on his knees, with the sword still pressing on his shield, he failed. Rather than ducking, he was simply defeated, with the enemy''s sword sneaking underneath his shield and cutting the straps that helped Longinus hold on to the protection. "Now, you die." The slim man announced, raising his sword once again. Then, our eyes meet. Just as I pressed the trigger of my weapon, which I set to an automatic fire beforehand. Tratatatata. The flurry of lead bullets instantly covered the man. In an instant, this pinnacle swordsman found several new holes in his body, out of which blood quickly started seeping. Then, without any more of his dramatic acts, he simply fell to the ground as nothing but a mere corpse. "Agh!" Longinus shouted in pain. Looking down, I realized that my spray Didn''t fully reach its designed destination. "Hold on!" Rushing to the man, I dropped on my knees before him. After a quick inspection, I realized that he had quite a lucky encounter with the earth-produced lead. "Don''t worry, you will be fine." Rather than ying around with his wound, I took out my knife before infusing my energy into it. With a mana-enhanced de, I managed to easily cut the bent part of the armor that was pressing against the man''s back. Just as expected, outside of a pretty huge bruise, the unlucky friendly fire didn''t cause any real injury. "What was that" Finally managing to wrestle with his own pain, Longinus looked at the corpse of the swordsman. "An automatic weapon. Think of it as a bow that can shot much further, prate almost everything, and shoots several projectiles every breath." Even if there was some kind of spell working in the background that allowed me tomunicate freely with the inhabitants of the world I was visiting, it didn''t mean that I could convey the meaning of the words that didn''t exist in the local culture in the first ce. That''s why, rather than exining the physical reactions causing the bullet toe out of the barrel, rather than exining theplicated mechanism of reloading and all the other inner-work of the gun, I ended up using the simplest analogies that I could think off. "I didn''t mean that" Longinus informed me, turning all my exnations pointless in just a second. "I meant him." Standing up with my help, the young mercenary picked his shield once again before looking at the crowd of people that was now torn between rushing all at us and backing down. "He was a good swordsman. What else there is to it?" Surprised that Longinus still had some qualms about the situation, I looked at him with curiosity. Because there was no reason for me to be hasty whatsoever. While the two of us was dealing with that swordsman, Teria didn''t stop her own part of the work. And from what I could see in the distance, those who got to meet her before she heated up were the only luckers who managed to avoid a lengthy and painful death. "You seriously didn''t notice?!" Longinus shouted, turning his wide-open eyes on me as if I was some kind of monster in human skin. "What was there," in the middle of my words, a body suddenly fell from the skies. But rather than turning into a pool of blood and flesh, it instantly stood up, taking the exact same position as the man before, "to worry about." I finished my sentence only due to the momentum of my lips. "So that''s one trick of yours." the strange body finally figured out its position, before speaking with the very same voice as the dead swordsman from before. "Note, the ugly one has pretty powerful, distance magic." As soon as the man spoke those words, he rushed forward. Thankfully, before it could deal any damage to either of us, Longinus split its body into two with a single swing of his massive sword. "Huh?" Shocked by the ongoing event, I was unable to articte anything smart. For the very first time since I appeared in this world, I met something that I didn''t know how to deal with. "It''s not over." Ignoring the pain that was clearly tearing his mind apart, Longinus took the position. Only to sidestep and execute a sh to the side the next moment, turning yet another body into nothing more but several pieces of bloodless flesh. It was then when I finally understood what was going on. "Those bodies They are not human. They are puppets!" Shouting to the Longinus at the front, I looked up. Since all the bodies were falling from above, that was where I hoped to find the enemy. But rather than some magnificent figure capable of producing such skillful minions I only saw a whole new portion of bodies already falling down! "ABOVE!" Pushing my body to its limits, I rushed forward before crashing into Lonignus''s back. Only my swift reaction saved him from being crushed into a body that only the super-eater of earth could ever obtain. One by one, those strange mannequins continued to appear, all born in the skies only to crasnd into the tough ground below their ce of birth. But that didn''t make any sense. Even magic had its own rules. So unless someone was powerful enough to spawn or move this amount of puppets to a ce high in the skies, he was bound to hide somewhere there as well! And truth be told, if that man had enough power to either transport or directly create those puppets at a distance, he could just kill us with a single thought in the first ce! "Longinus, I have a task for you." Watching how the mercenary dealt with nearly half of those puppets before one of them finally managed to get past him and grab the sword from before, I resigned myself to my fate. "What?!" Desperately defending both me and himself from the onught of attacks that ensued as soon as the puppet''s hand made contact with the sword, Longinus couldn''t spare me any free thought anymore. "Go find Teria and escape with her. Tell her that I''m going to get a little bit serious now." Pulling out Sander''s barrier recurring stone, I swallowed a gulp of saliva that instantly appeared in my mouth. "Can''t you see" Longinus attempted to protest. But I had my own eyes to see that he was struggling to stop his opponent when he was alone, but when faced with its reincarnation supported by an army of puppets Even defending turned into an arduous task for the young mercenary. And in his current position, there was no way he could free himself from the battle to be able to escape! ''Since the owner of those puppets is hiding above and still remain hidden, there is one way to deal with him.'' I took into ount the time that the recurring stone would need to actually activate properly, pushing its activator down. In an instant, the heat started oozing out of the stone''s surface. And with that, my time was extremely limited. But I didn''t intend to just swallow Longinus in the disaster. If I dared to do something like this, I would have to deal with Hubriel And I couldn''t discount the chance that he was far more powerful than he was giving away! So rather than just hoping for the best, I pulled thest two carved stones that I still had on myself. Two stones that couldn''t change the tide of the battle But could save a man who was in a pinch. I pressed both of their activators at once, before pointing my hand at Longinus. "Let''s meet after the battle. Our job is not over yet!" I shouted at the same time as a powerful gale suddenly erupted from one of the stones before an enormous boulder suddenly rose from below my feet and rushed in the direction I was pointing my hand at. Forced out of their stable footing with the gale, neither Longinus nor his opponent could do anything when the boulder crashed into them, sending both of them a considerable distance away. And then, the recurring barrier stone in my head reached its limit, unleashing a spatial disaster into the area. Chapter 214: A disaster Chapter 214: A disaster Once again, space itself split into two. As if my body dropped into an event horizon, the sight of the world around me started to narrow up, before both ends of what I could see turned into a circle. A momentter, and nothing but endless darkness surrounded me. For a few moments, that was the state of the situation. With nothing capable of attacking me, with nothing capable of amusing me, I just waited. And surely enough, it didn''t take long for the magical effects to wear off. The recurring stone melted under the pressure of so stronglypressed magic. Without the core that would sustain the spell, the magic structures quickly dissolved into nothingness But the reality still had to catch up. Even once the magic of the stone was fully exhausted, the world around me didn''t change all that much. Rather than rapidly returning to the world proper, the sight of my surroundings that formerly turned into a singr point now started to grow again, but at a much slower pace. Yet, inevitably, after roughly a few more minutes, the circle broke up once again, finally returning the sight of my surroundings to shapes and forms my human brain could process. And then, as if the restoration of the space suddenly elerated, everything returned to normality. That is if a scene of aplete disaster surrounding me in every direction for at least fifty meters could be called normal. "And here I already forgot just how insane those recurring stones were," I muttered to myself as I leaned my head to the back in order to look above. This time, no puppets fell from the skies. Understanding just a bit of the inner working of the recurring stones, I wasn''t surprised with that result at all. I could see that the area of effect of the stone was roughly the fifty meters that I could see in any direction And those directions also included upwards to the skies. At this point, I couldn''t help but wonder what that puppet-master thought, when the spatial hideout he had for himself suddenly copsed along with every otherplicated structure around. Given how even the ground itself would end up deformed after the disasters of the recurring stones, I had no doubts that this first real threat to my safety in any of the world I visited so far, was surely gone. "I wonder if they managed to escape" Looking around, I couldn''t see any traces of mypanions. While I was hopeful that Teria managed to grab hold of them and take off to leave this area in time, right now, there was hardly any way for me to confirm it. Crash! Just as I was despairing over the potential loss of the capablepanions of mine, Teria crashed into the ground. Initially startled, I backed off a few steps, only to realize what was the reason for this desperatending, one that didn''t fit this prideful, winged girl. "Auch!" Teria protested as she climbed out of the pile of bodies. "Give me some more time to run away next time!" As soon as her eyesnded on me, Teria''s face twisted in anger, before exhaustion took the better of her, stopping any expression froming on her face. "I didn''t really have the means to handle it at a slower pace." Rather than epting the guild, I shrugged my arms while refusing to condone my own actions. "If I were to be even a little toote, you would have to deal with that monster on your own." Even though I was pretty sure that the man who controlled the puppets was a human, I generously attributed him as a monster. Not because of his personal strength, the strength that I never experienced. I did it because of how insanely powerful thebo of his skills was. First off, he could produce puppets. Just as if he was some kind of yer transmigrated into another world, he could do whatever he wanted without the fear of repercussions. After all, in the worst-case scenario, it would be his puppet getting punished. And as long as their creator didn''t replicate his own face on his products, there was hardly any way to even find out who their creator was! On the other hand, came the puppet''s swordsmanship. While for someone born in the information age, imnting aplex set of moves into a puppet didn''t appear to be all that hard, there was no way that anyone from this kind of medieval world like the one I was in could achieve something that even I would consider pretty difficult. And that meant that it wasn''t some kind of program that controlled the puppets. At least, not all of them. It was hinted as soon as more than one enemy appeared. When I saw it at first, my entire soul trembled. For a moment, I saw what would happen if all those puppets could wield the strength as the first one, one I barely managed to defeat. But it didn''t happen. Because the other puppets weren''t all that strong at all. From this, only two conjunctions could be drawn. First, the more obvious one. It was the sword. There was no denying that most of the clones were aiming to grab hold of the sword as soon as they appeared. And once one of them seeded, I was pushed back in a sh before being forced to use my heaviest gun to get rid of them all. But there was also a second possibility. One that was born in my mind when I realized that there was always one special puppet, a puppet that moved pretty well even without holding that sword of its. And that could only mean that while the creator of the puppets could make any number of them, not only was he able to control one directly, he was also a master swordsman, way above the league of the likes of Longinus! Who, on the side note, appeared to already be near this world''s top fighters list! "Well, it''s good that he is done now." Teria finally managed to squeeze out from between the bodies that she carried away. A momentter, all those lifeless bodies suddenly turned awake, slowly trying to make their way out of the pit where Terianded them all. "Yeah, there is no way his hideout would survive the st." I nodded my head. I saw the inner workings of the recurring stones a few times already. While maybe I wasn''t an expert, I couldn''t imagine what kind of trick one would have to use to survive the onught that I brought to this world just now! "Good. The queen wants to visit you." Changing the topic, Teria pointed her hand towards thends that the devastation omitted. Even though they were only fifty meters away, the ins filled with terror-stricken people felt like an entirely another world altogether. "On that note, she also wants to meet with yourpanions" Teria allowed her sentence the hang in the air, passing everything about how she felt about it without even using a single word to describe her thoughts. "I" For a moment, I was unsure what to do. While I enlisted the help of Longinus and other wingless humans to achieve what Dearie was set to achieve, it wasn''t like I had permission to do it. Even if all the humans, winged or wingless alike, were bound to end up as her subjects, it didn''t change the fact that the first meeting between the two long-hostile parties wouldn''t be easy. "I understand. Will Longinus suffice?" Recognizing one of the men trying to crawl out of the pit, I smiled. Even in such a situation, a n somehow formed in my mind. "I guess" Avoiding the answer, Teria looked away. But that also was an answer of sorts. Encouraged by theck of girl''s protest, I approached Longinus before helping him out of the pit. "I know you are exhausted and you just saw something like an apocalypse," I started speaking, trying to put my words in a way that wouldn''t scare the mercenary. "Cut the crap. What do we need to do?" Wiping his forehead clean of the sweat, Longinus didn''t waste a single moment. Whether it was his innate desire to act or just a drive still remaining after observing the disaster, it didn''t really matter at this point. "I need you to go with me and meet the woman I hail as queen of this world." Rather than hiding the truth, I revealed it in a pretty direct way to the mercenary. "Huh, that''s all?" And in return for my honesty, Lonignus only shrugged as if there was no need to mention this topic at all in the first ce. "Yeah, that''s all." Rather than trying to argue with the mercenary, I simply breathed in and out before answering. "Good. Then let''s not waste any time and go!" Chapter 215: Change in Dearies approach Chapter 215: Change in Dearie''s approach "The queen will now meet with you." This simple sentence was as simple as it could get. Using it, one could as well try to kill the other party with simplicity, or start a new religion of simplism. But the meaning behind this word, the situation that it was spoken in, and the expectations of the people who heard it, made it into a hellishlyplex sentence. "That damned" Longinus muttered under his nose, stopping only when my elbow sank into the side of his stomach. "What?!" He asked, protesting about my unfair treatment. "Just stay silent. That''s the best you can do for now." I answered before turning myself silent as well. There was no huge door leading to the throne chamber. There were no doors and there was no chamber in the first ce. What was used as the audience''s room, was nothing more than a simple tent, raising for about three meters in the sky and build on the base of a small, roughly four-meter-wide circle. And right now, the three of us, stood for over an hour before the cloth making up the entrance to the tent, awaiting the moment when Dearie would finally invite us in. "Guys, I''m sorry for the dy, there is just too much stuff on my head right now," Dearie said as soon as I stepped into the room. With her head buried in papers, I could tell that she wasn''t just whining about the reality like some people back before the apocalypse struck the earth. And that alone, allowed her to rack a bit more points in my personal assessment system. "Your majesty, it''s only right for the servants to diligently await their master''smand!" I lowered my head before falling on one knee in front of Dearie''s seat. "You are quite sly," the queen suddenly informed, sending me a lovely nce. It was at this moment, when her damned beauty struck me once again, making it a bit harder to keep my physiological reactions bottled in. After all, I was in this world for quite a while now. And for this long while, I was deprived of Ayda''s affection, left at the mercy of being alone once again. "Your majesty, sly?" I couldn''t leave this opinion just hang in there. "How did I earn such an insulting view in your eyes?" While I could bring up the fact that I was the only reason why she didn''t end up as an incubator for the true ruler of this world, as a simple breeding mare tasked with giving birth to the person that bastard god envisioned as the savior of this ce, I decided not to. Given how I still have yet to know what was the reason behind those summonses, it was better not to pull out the heavy guns yet. "You continue to address me with the utmost respect," Dearie started, putting a lovely smile on her face, "but every single sentence of yours is phrased in such a way, that you can avoid acknowledging my authority." The queen said, leaning her head over her shoulder. "Or maybe you can prove me wrong, here? Given the problem, it shouldn''t be that hard!" That was what I got for trying to be lenient for thisss. Her smile told me everything. She was just so damn confident in her beauty now enhanced by the expensive, royal robes of the winged tribe, that she didn''t seem to take me as an equal opponent during negotiations! "Your majesty, I do acknowledge your authority. Just not as one falling under it, but an outside observer." Lowering my head, I avoided her dangerous eyes. Right now, popping up a boner just because of a smile was thest thing I wanted to see happen. "Oh,e on!" Dearie suddenly protested. She stood up from her chair behind the papers-filled desk. Then, she started to pace around the room, finally showing the signs of anxiety befitting a ruler in the middle of a great conflict. "You should know that I''m not going to hold you so tightly, so why don''t you drop your y?" Unexpectedly, Dearie called my bluff out along with sending me an angry stare. "Okay. Then while you might be the queen of both the winged and the wingless tribe, since I''m not from this world in the first ce, you have no ims to authority over me in the first ce." Rather than trying to push deeper into my farce, I ultimately decided to just admit to my own thoughts. "I know. And I''m not going to punish you for that, so please, don''t start this game ever again." Dearie stopped in her tracks, before casting an annoyed look at all the papers still dirtying her desk. "Trust me, I have my hands full with real problems. Thinking how to deal with you is not something I can bother with." Finally resuming her march, Dearie returned to her desk before sitting down on her chair and stretching her hands up. Due to thepse of my attention, I was forced to witness just how joyfully her breast bounced when she finally brought her arms back to a natural position. "But let''s forget about all of that, it''s not why I summoned the two of you here," Dearie announced, abruptly standing up from the chair she just sat on. "Longinus Magnus, fourth of the name, prince of the fallen Caratia Kingdom," Dearie suddenly spotted a chain of titles, starting with the name of the man beside me. And rather than just staying motionless and silent, Longinus visibly twitched when his whole name was revealed. "I''m grateful for your help in those challenging times. While I cannot promise you that I will bring your home state back to life," The beautiful girl walked away from her desk only to stand before the mercenary and ce her hand on his head. "I" Longinus attempted to say something, only for his words to get stuck in his suddenly tightened throat. "As long as you can guarantee the safety of my people," the young mercenary said before taking a short pause to calm himself down. He then raised his head and looked Dearie directly in the eyes, "as long as you can do that, I''m willing to pledge my loyalty to you." For a moment, the atmosphere turned tense. Or rather than that, grand. As if we suddenly teleported to the very middle of some kind of important ceremony, the air itself seemed to turn stale from how grand the aura between Dearie and Longinus appeared. "Good," Dearie said, lowering her hand on Longinus'' face before adding her other one. As a result, she caught Loningus'' face between her hands, before lowering her own head and cing a gentle kiss on his forehead. "You are hereby named my knight. From this day on, the world will know you not as Longinus Magnus, but as Magnus Longinus, the first of his name, the first knight amongst equals and the protector of the people." Dearie suddenly showered the man with titles and honors, as if he conquered half of the world and came here only to offer it all to her. "Your majesty" Once again, Longinus'' words ended up stuck in his throat. This time though, rather than due to anxiety and uncertainty, it was caused by the sheer pride and happiness that visibly exploded in his soul. "Now then, let''s topple the elephant in the room," Dearie straightened up before looking at me. Thankfully, my reactions were quick, allowing me toy my eyes low, avoiding her dangerously enticing eyes. "Magnus, leave us alone for a moment," Dearie ordered, instantly making use of her new retainer. "I would be thankful if you could stand guard at the entrance and make sure no one will disturb us." While her face remained still, a strange flurry of emotions exploded in the girl''s soul. "My queen!" Longinus lowered his head, before standing up and leaving the room without a second of hesitation. Left all alone with this damned girl, I couldn''t stop myself from swallowing a bit of my saliva. It already took a great toll on my mental state not to adore her loosely covered charms when Longinus was beside me. Now, I would have no more excuses to keep my eyes lowered, and thus, would be subjected to the constant onught of her beauty! "I heard all about your exploits. Not only you managed to destroy the main sources of evil in this world, you even faced the legendary puppeteer and came out victorious" Dearie started to recount my recent achievements, clearly leading up to something. "Legendary puppeteer?" As unorderly as it was to speak while the monarch was still speaking, not only was I surprised with the apparent title that the man I shed with held, but I also wanted to change the topic away from whatever Dearie was leading to. "Yes, he was a prominent figure in this world, even before I was imprisoned in that ce," Dearie exined before suddenly starting to shake her head. "No, no! That''s not it!" With how she suddenly started to act weird, I could only turn my eyes away in hopes that this would be all. But rather than heeding my silent wishes, Dearie approached me before suddenly cing her hands on both of my shoulders. "Look at me." She ordered. "I would rather not," I answered, still hoping I could find a way out of this quandary. "Listen." Dearie continued despite my protests. "Back in that ce, I wanted you to do me just to free myself." Her words stopped. Her soul trembled with agitation. "This time though, I want to offer myself to you as thanks for everything you did for me." Ding! The sound of the missionpletion sounded in my mind. Chapter 216: Dearies question and Aydas answer Chapter 216: Dearie''s question and Ayda''s answer "Can we calm down for a moment?" With Longinus leaving the tent, I could speak a bit more openly. It wasn''t that I didn''t trust that man. By thinking calmly, I could see how he went for the extra mile in everything I asked him for. To this point, ever since the moment we met back at the foothold of the northern federation''s capital, I have yet to be disappointed by him. But that didn''t mean I could be as open with him about certain things as I could be with Dearie alone. Simply because she was the only other person in this entire world if not in all the worlds I visited so far, that was aware of the existence of that bastard God. By a stretch, Ayda could fall into that category as well, but her experiences with that wannabe God were limited to what she heard in my stories. Thinking about it like that, even my rtionship with Ayda couldn''tpare to this randomly born rtionship I had with Dearie in regards to knowing that bastard God. "Calm down? I would rather if we were to start heating up a bit," Dearie smiled. She tugged gently at her own shirt, instantly making it press tightly against her body. And from what I could see, there was no invention like a bra in this world, allowing me to gaze at the two pointy elements that protruded through her outerwear. "Listen, the reasons why I didn''t want to sleep with you didn''t change at all." Rather than allowing the girl to sweep me with her actions, I closed my eyes and turned my back to the girl in order to at least save myself from the excruciating torture of keeping my eyes away from the sights she was offering me. "Oh,e on!" Dearie raised her voice a bit, only to suddenly sink in herself before casting a nce towards the entrance. "I know that you are in a heat just like me," she added in a softer voice, clearly attempting to keep the things we were talking about away from the ears of Longinus and anyone else tasked with guarding her tent. "Does that change anything?" I asked with a serious expression on my face. "If we were to judge our actions only by what our bodies want and what they do not want, the entirety of the human race would long go extinct." I shrugged my arms, not even daring to imagine such reality. As someone who visited many worlds in my lifetime, I couldn''t help but turn a little bit philosophical whenever I started thinking about matters like society or moral rules. Because ultimately, who I was to make any statements regarding thoseplex problems? That''s why, the only thing that I could say for sure, was my own opinion over things that I thought long and hard about. Anything I would say about topics I wasn''t interested in would be just the simple knowledge that I somehow acquired by watching stupid or educational videos on the most popr streaming service on earth. In other words, outside the few things that I knew a lot about, all my knowledge was pretty superficial. But that didn''t mean I didn''t form my own thoughts about the problems that touched my situation directly. And the problem of whether it was okay to sleep with other women, even with the approval of the one I cared the most about, was something that still gued my thoughts to this day. "I understand. But can''t you give me just this little luxury?!" Dearie suddenly snapped, not caring for the volume of her voice anymore. "I understand that you burdened me with not only managing this entire continent but also conquering it in the first ce. You are helping out as much as you can, so I can forgive that." Dearie finally had enough, starting to list off all the things that weighed on her soul. "But there is a lot more to that. I know I have no right to say it now after I openly rejected your potential advances back in that ce," her words suddenly stopped as she bit her lips. For a moment, underneath the facade of a wise queen, a face of a normal girl, terrified of her burdens appeared. Sadly, it shed only for a moment, before Dearie''s usual face returned to its rightful ce. "I understand that what we are doing right now, was intended to be the job of our kid. I understand that both conquering and managing have to be done for your mission to be fulfilled." Dearie continued to speak, not caring in the slightest about my attempts to say something. "I''m burdened with all of this stuff, and I want to at least forget myself for a moment with someone who did so much for my sake, even if my wellbeing was never on his mind." From Dearie''s voice, I could tell that her rant was reaching its conclusion. It was reaching the moment where all the useless chatter that she was engaging in right now would be cast aside, allowing the true intention of her words to surface. "Listen, my mission," I attempted to say something once again, prompted to do it by the shing green of the entire notification window. Formerly, only the names of the specific subquests would sh whenever they would near fulfillment but now Now the entire window was shing ever since it first popped up. "All I''m asking from you is just a bit of relief. Is that really too much to ask for?" Dearie asked while lowering her head. It appeared that ranting out so much left her tired But also rxed. "First, it''s good that you threw that all out of your mind." Forcing my entire self back from getting excited, I approached the girl before cing my hand on her head. "It''s better to just say all your doubts and problems aloud rather than allowing them to fester and rot you from the inside." The words I just said were no different from what I thought about before. Just a superficial knowledge, superficial ability to use nicely-sounding words in order to put forth an encouraging statement. But that wasn''t equal to me not meaning what I just said! "Second, I''m sorry to break it down to you, but it seems that myst mission reached its fulfillment criteria. As for now, all my duties in this world are over." This was the harshest part of what this girl needed to hear. Because just as she pointed out how much I was helping out, I had to tell her that my help was no longer guaranteed. "WHAT?!" As much as I didn''t want to look at her face, when Dearie shouted suddenly like that, my eyes automatically wandered over And her reaction was just too precious. "It''s like I said. Don''t ask me what those criteria were since I can only guess." I replied while shrugging my arms. That was the reality of the system missions. Now that I finished the mission it assigned to me, I could freely go in and out of this world at my own convenience, not to speak about all the rewards I would get from clearing the missions. But I didn''t dare to check what kind of benefits the system had in store for me. Not now. Not when I was dealing with a girl who opened herself up so much to me. "Okay, okay, let''s calm down," Dearie said, taking several deep breaths. "Are you going to leave now?" Her question quickly followed. "Yes. Only for a moment to restock my weapons and calm down my wife. In fact, it will take me an hour or two tops." Given how Dearie allowed me to see her fragile side, I decided to be honest as well. "So it''s not like I''m going to leave you with all that mess yet, it would go against what I believe a man should do and how a man should act." For a moment, a silence ensued. Just from a single look at Dearie''s face, I could tell that she had no idea what to say right now. "I will be going then." Given how she didn''t have anything else to say to me, finishing my mission here seemed like the best idea for now. "Wait a moment," the queen suddenly called out. "Can you do me one favor once you return?" Her face changed. A single nce at her soul only confirmed that this girl somehow found a new source of determination, turning dead-set on achieving some kind of objective. "Sure, as long as it''s not too much," I attempted to say, only to stop when Dearie authoritatively raised her hand to stop my words from flowing. "Good. I want you to go back and ask what your wife thinks about your struggles. I want to know what she thinks about you fucking with me." Dearie''s tone was now steadfast. There was no hint of hesitation or doubt in her voice nor in her face. Even despite just how ridiculous this request was. "I can do that, give me just a moment." Worried that further, even more, the disturbing requests would be made if I wasted my time in this world, I quickly called forth the gate before stepping right back to earth. Thankfully, I had quite a lot of leeway in terms of the time-freeze of the system. And just as expected, as soon as I appeared in the familiar surroundings of my basement, Ayda was in exactly the same position as I remembered she was when I left. "Huh?" Her surprised face was enough to cast away all the exhaustion I racked by working hard in the other world. "Ah, sorry, that startled me a bit." Hearing this strange confession, I couldn''t help myself but ask. "Startled? By what?" Taking a step forward, I grabbed Ayda''s hand. Just this small token of affection was enough to send a wave offort through my body and mind alike. "You know, you just moved towards the doors and in the next moment you were facing me aga" Ayda stopped her sentence midword. Her fingers entangled with mine, as she pulled on my hand and brought me into a close embrace. For a moment, I thought that she finally realized how long it was for me ever since Ist saw her. But when her delicate hands suddenly pushed me away, I realized that something happened. "What''s wrong?" I asked. "You have the galls No, that''s not it." Ayda started to lecture me, only to stop her words in the middle of a sentence once again, before raising her hand to her mouth and biting on the nail of her thumb. Then, her eyes moved back on me. "Dear, I don''t know the details, but your soul is like an open book. You met a girl in that other world, you had a chance to go at it with her, but even with my approval and encouragement your doubts and morality still stopped you from doing her and spreading your glorious bloodline." Ayda said before leaning her head over her shoulder in a cute way, "am I right?" she added, pushing this unpleasant question on me. "Yeah." If there was anyone in the entire world that I could be perfectly and entirely honest with, it was this girl. Just like I refused to sleep with Dearie because of my wish to remain loyal to her, I didn''t dare to lie or even hide the truth from Ayda for the very same reason. "Good. Now, get your ass back to that ce and just impregnate her!" Ayda shouted, but without even a hint of anger in her voice. Rather than that, it was the strange tingle in her soul that made her look like a mother depressing over the naivete of her child. "Listen. I know you have your doubts. I know that in this world, marriage is meant to be between two people and two people only." Ayda said as she moved forward, wrapping her arms around my shoulders before pulling me into a hug. "But that''s something created to uphold the society that developed in this ce." the warmth of her embrace was broken by the cold tone of her words. "One day, you might need help from that ce. We don''t know what''sing tomorrow," Ayda said, before pushing me away once again. "And that''s why, you will go back to that ce, fill whoever that girl you met there to the brim with your seed and leave only when she is confirmed pregnant," Ayda added with a serious expression on her face. Her hands still on my chest, she started to move forward, pushing me towards the doors. "Don''t worry, though." Her lips suddenly curved up. A the same time, a veil on her soul that made it slightly hard to read her emotions dropped, allowing me to notice that there wasn''t even a hint of jealousy or anger in her. "Once you go back, I will give you a night that will make you forget about all the other girls you will ever fuck in your entire life!" Chapter 217: What does set us apart? Chapter 217: What does set us apart? Returning to Dearie''s world, I didn''t really know how should I act. Given how my exit and entry point were right at the entrance of her tent, I didn''t even have the time to think over the entire situation before I was forced to confront the queen-to-be again. "Huh? That was really fast!" Noticing my appearance, Dearie shouted in surprise. "Didn''t I tell you that? Also, I didn''t get to resupply at all." I shook my head in disappointment. That was the sad truth of what just happened. Overwhelmed with Ayda''s reaction to the revtions she figured out from the state of my soul, I didn''t even have the time to tell her about my need to replenish the stock of my weapons. "Well, can''t you just go back again, then?" Dearie politely ignored the obvious topic of where I wasing and going to and from, focusing on the topics that she could have some hope I would truthfully exin. "I can, but well How do I say it" I averted my eyes, still unable to cope with what I had to do right now. Or rather, why did I have to do anything at all? In this one moment when this question blossomed in my head, it felt as if the entire world broke apart on me. Why did I have to fuck Dearie? Just because Ayda encouraged me to do it? Just because Dearie had both a body and a face to kill for? Or maybe "Hey, what''s wrong?" Only when the girl called out to me did I notice that out of the sheer shock, I failed to notice the passage of time. What appeared like just a moment to my confused self, actually turned out to be quite a long while in the eyes of everyone else. "Ah, sorry. Just an insanely important question appeared in my mind for a moment." Dodging the question I looked around the tent before finding exactly what I was looking for. A simple sofa. Ignoring the question of how did this weighty piece of furniture found its way to the frontlines so quickly, I said down on its pillows before hiding my face in my hands. "I''m sorry, but could you please give me a moment?" Muttering through my hands-covered mouth, I asked. "Sure, take your time." Still surprised by my behavior, Dearie easily gave me some space to sort my thoughts off. But that didn''t make it any easier to figure out the answer to the questions popping up in my mind. Why was I ready to do whatever Ayda said, even if it meant going against what I considered to be the very reason why I was listening to her in the first ce? How could I ept her wishes out of love, if she was basically forcing me into doing something that went against my concept of love? Or maybe there was something else to it? With all the depressing thoughts and suspicions that arose in my mind when the first question appeared in it, it was this other question that suddenly leads all my thoughts to a halt. "Would you mind if I sit here?" Out of nowhere, Dearie interrupted my moment. Shaking the momentary confusion out of my head, I raised my eyes at the girl, only to see her wearing an actually decent dress while holding two cups of some kind of steaming hot beverage. "Sure," I replied. Even if I had a lot of doubts regarding my possible rtionship with her, there was no reason for me to act cold towards her in the first ce. "You know," Dearie started as she sat down before passing me one of the cups, "I always thought it''s easier to cope with a problem by talking about it." A gentle smile blossomed on her lips. "I know that I''m unlikely to understand anything of what you are going through, but that doesn''t mean I can''t encourage you a little." Her gentle smile didn''t have any marks of something deeper being hidden underneath. But in this current state of my mind, I didn''t find it reasonable to stop myself from prying into her soul. And surprisingly, rather than sexual heat, anger, or annoyance, her entire soul was filled with nothing else but a simple worry. Which in turn, instantly made me feel like a scumbag for prying on what should be the most private aspect of her entire self. "Not yet, not now. I still need to figure out a lot of things on my own." As angry as I was on myself right now, I felt the same amount of gratitude for the feelings that this girl had towards me right now. Because it was the second time in my life when any other female rather than my mother would actually care enough about me to be worried about my well-being. But still, that didn''t make figuring out my own thoughts or emotions any easier. The only handicap that Dearie''s presence gave me, was this strange brew that she brought. Whenever I would take a sip, the warmth would spread all over my body, slowly working away at all the anxiety that was filling my entire self. Still, the question from before still stood. What was the difference between Ayda''s actions and motives and mine? What was the thing that made us so starkly different in regards to the approach to the sexual stuff? Why was she so open to the idea of someone who she imed to love, going around and impregnating every girl suitable to bear his kid? "Hey, listen to me for a moment." Dearie interrupted me once again. Yet, rather than getting angry, I actually felt a bit of relief when my mind focused on something else besides the quandary troubling my mental state. "What''s wrong?" I asked, curious why she was interrupting my thoughts. "Does there need to be anything wrong for me to talk with you?" Dearie put a sulking expression on her face before mellowing it down to the same, gentle smile from before. "Actually, there is one more thing that I think I can do to help you sort your thoughts out." The girl said before turning her eyes away. "Close your eyes for a moment. I promise I won''t make a move on you if you are still worried about that." "Hehe," a random bout ofughter escaped from my lips. Now that I thought about it, this situation was more than weird. It was more than idiotic to hear such words from the lips of the most beautiful girl that I ever saw walking any of the worlds I visited so far! "Sure." In the end, I followed Dearie''s request. Only to feel her hands on my head. But rather than being attacked, my entire body fell over to the side, only for something soft to cushion the fall of my head. "Just stay like this." Dearie''s hand started to slowly brush my hair. For a moment, I felt like escaping from what was obviously ap-pillow but ultimately decided to give up on this. So far, even I wouldn''t consider our current situation cheating, so there was no need to act all weird about it. And it was then when filled with the gentle fragrance of Dearie''s body when I finally realized what was the thing that set me and Ayda apart. So far, everything that I did was just my attempt at improving my life. From creating a faction to guarantee my own safety and position, through obtaining apocalyptic tech to create a source of revenue for my sect when money became a problem, all the way to investing in stone magic when i realized that firearms could only bring me so far in worlds filled with magic. And right now, I was doing the same. I refused to get between Dearie''s legs just because I didn''t like the idea of sleeping with anyone else but Ayda. Right now I had nothing to say against resting my head on herp because I personally didn''t find it infringing on what I considered my personal bottom line. All the while, Ayda didn''t put herself as the absolute priority when she was doing what she was doing. When we came back to her world, she did everything she could to secure the position of her fellow witches. She even went for the extra mile to save those who were captured by those rotten wizards. And most importantly, she was constanty pushing me to get more children, even though I still believed that she wasn''t happy with that in the depths of her soul. In short words, while I was pursuing nothing but my happiness and whatever was necessary to obtain it, she was focusing on stuff that I didn''t even bother to ask for! While my thoughts were centered on my own affairs, she was left all alone thinking about the matters that I never wasted my time asking about! "You are ready now, aren''t you?" Dearie''s voice woke me up from the sudden onught of thoughts and realizations that filled my mind. "Huh?" I didn''t even know how I was supposed to answer it. Because ultimately speaking, she was right. Once I realized what was the difference between Ayda''s and my own approach, I could only feel shame for being so self-centered. And once the main bastion that stood guard over my morality crumbled just like that, the perspective of spending the night with the most beautiful girl I ever saw in my life suddenly appeared in a whole new light! "Well, I would lie if I were to deny it," finally opening my eyes, I could now openly stare at the two, massive peaks that hung over my face. At the same time, I felt Dearie''s hand creeping towards my crotch. "Good. Let me get you all prepped up, then." Her charming smile was worth killing for. But when her nimble fingers snuck underneath my pants, it was my desire that exploded so hard, it threatened to actually kill me instead. Chapter 218: Dearia (smut) Chapter 218: Dearia (smut) "Calm down," Dearie whispered in my ear. "I''m not going anywhere, so there is no need to rush," her soft voice made my entire body tingle, at the same time as she started to slowly run her hand up and down my shaft. We both still wore our clothes. Yet, even this barrier didn''t stop me from feeling just how soft and warm Dearie was. The waves of the sweet air she breathed out filled my nose. The gentle yet already rapid beating of her heart was reverberating through my muscles. Then, her hand started to move a bit quicker. "Hey," Dearie raised her eyes on my face, "could we kiss?" she asked, full of hesitation and worry. My excitement shoot through the roof. "Come here," I said, unable to stop urges from taking better of me. Iid my hands on the girl''s waist, before leaning over her face and going in for the strike. The softness of her lips was beyond any human understanding. My lips started to melt, rather than to kiss. As shitty as it was topare two girls, between Ayda''s aggressive, deep kisses and Dearie''s soft yet affectionate lips, I realized that I was actually leaning towards thetter. During the very early forey, that is. "That''s not," udia moaned between the kisses, turning greedier and greedier with her lips. "That''s not enough!" She wrapped her hands around my neck, pushing her face even harder to me. The sweet taste of her saliva mixed in my mouth, as our connection turned more and more risque. From rubbing our lips, we started to pry them open more and more, to the point where our tongues finally made contact. A french kiss. Something that I was already used to from all the times I shared it with Ayda. Yet, the experience of Dearie''s first, deep kiss was entirely different. Rather than the burning passion and obsessive possessiveness, she was full of anxiety, shyness, and affection. "Is this what a desire to protect is?" I asked when our lips parted, only to instantly press forward and suck on Dearie''s bottom lip. "I don''t know, I don''t know," she moaned when my hand made its way towards her hip. Over the course of our kisses, our position somehow shifted. She was sitting deeply onlyp, locking her legs behind my back. Her hand continued to slowly rub my junior, changing the pace in ordance to how our kisses varied in intensity. This frail, little girl. Locked away for most of her life and now forced to either bear the child of some stranger or to take the burden of not only conquering but then uniting and managing an entire continent. In fact, due to my own selfishness, she was even deprived of this one choice she had. And now she was willingly offering herself to me, showering me with gentle affection. In such a situation, I wouldn''t be a man if I wouldn''t get excited beyond limits! "Hey, I''m already prepared. Could we?" I left my question open, bringing my hand up and gently rubbing Dearie''s chin. "Ah, I Sure But first," Dearie wiggled a little, startled by me bringing the game one notch higher. "I want to do something first." udia brought her hand to her lips, before lowering her eyes at my penis. Seeing the curiosity brimming in her eyes, I almost let out a smallugh. She was too adorable. "Sure, it would be my pleasure," I said before encouraging the girl with a gentle smile. At first, she untangled her legs and slid down from myp. Then, after kneeling on the ground, she caught the edge of my pants before slowly pulling them down. My penis was already out, yet it was rather ufortable to have it held in ce by the wrap of my pants. Now that it was freed of this chain, it instantly sprung up, almost hitting Dearie in her surprised face. "Ah," her eyes instantly fixated on my tip, watching as it bounced here and there. Once my pants were all down, she reached forward, before grabbing my shaft with her hand. "It''s even bigger than I thought," she said, either trying to stroke my ego or just being honest. In the end, I was a bit over the average, and I didn''t know what to expect from the males of this world, so I had no way of discerning the truth. That is, if I wasn''t a witch. But that kind of abilities I already nned to save forter. Here I go," udia announced after a few moments of just staring at my thing and trying to gather her courage. Her lips parted as if she wanted me to feed her. She pushed her tongue out, before gently touching it against my very tip. "Ah!" Even something as small as this action was enough to send a shiver down my spine. But Dearie wasn''t done. After tracing just the tip of her glib tongue down my shroom, she then extended it a bit further and licked up with all of its avable surface. It felt as if I was suddenly pped by a pleasure beyond anything I expected. But rather than slowing down or at least letting me get used to the pleasure, as soon as she reached my shroom, rather than licking down, she pushed her head forward and wrapped her mouth around my cock. Then, she shoved it down her throat. In no way I was prepared for this kind of development. Already surprised by her wish to blow me, I thought that she would at least start with kissing and licking it all over. And yet, here I was, with my balls hitting Dearie''s chin as she desperately held herself against my hips to keep my entire length buried in her mouth. "GHARK," udia suddenly pulled herself out, regaining the ability to breathe. In an instant, she had to fight to replenish the air in her lungs. Then, she sent a peculiar stare at my cock again. A stare that sent yet another shrill down my spine. That''s just how intense and longing it was. "Hey, let''s stop for a moment." I suddenly asked, rubbing the girl''s head. "I want to help you prepare as well," lowering my hands, I grabbed Dearie underneath her shoulders before bringing her up and pushing her down on the sofa. But rather than instantly trying to undress her, I started with a kiss. Only when I could feel with my lips how the girl started to melt, did my hands move into action. At first, they caressed her waist, getting the girl used to my touch on her body. Then, I slipped them underneath her upper robe, getting her used to the direct, skin-on-skin contact. Only after all of that, I finally ended my kiss, pushing my entire body down. I made sure my hands apanied me on this journey, carressing the part of Dearie that my head was moving above. At first, her breasts. Even though they were still hidden under her robe, even ying them through the cloth was heavenly. But the joy was short-lived, as I moved even further down. Once I got her stomach, I made sure to pull up her robe a bit, nting a kiss of mine on every spot of her naked skin. Then, when I could see how Dearie started to wiggle in ce from anticipation, I hooked my chin against the wrap holding her lower skirt-like robes in ce, finally revealing her soaking wet, secret garden to my eyes. For some reason, she was spotless. Not a single strand of hair hid the beauty of her most important ce. "Let''s have a taste," teasing the girl a bit with my words, I brought my lips to her expectant hole. Then, I gave her a lick. Pushing my tongue between her vaginal lips, I dragged it up, instantly going for her sweet spot. Dearie trembled all around me, covering my head with her fleshy thighs. Unable to hear anything because of that, I continued to y around her most sensitive ce, not giving her any time to rest. After just a moment, I was so focused on Dearie''s reaction that I no longer controlled my own motions. Whenever she would tremble a bit more intensely, I would intensity my own caressing. Whenever she would see a chance to take a breather, I would instantly change the tactics. "No," Dearie suddenly muttered between the sweat moans that somehow made their way to my ears despite dearie''s legs covering them. "I don''t want alone, please, I you," Dearie no longer could make any sense. Clearly on the edge, she could only silently whimper, constantly subjected to more and more of this pleasant torture. "I take it that you are ready now," I said, pushing my entire body up above the girl. When I was reaching down, I did it slowly and with great care. But when I moved up, I didn''t waste any time. The head of my penis rubbed against Dearie''s wet opening. As if she was secreting glue, as soon as my thing touched her down there once, it could no longer pull back. Even without my intervention, her pussy was guiding my penis up. "Yesh," Dearie moaned, barely capable of controlling her lips. Her eyelids were covering half of her eyes, while the other half could only brim from underneath theyer of tears. "Then, here I go!" I took my time to lower myself over her, nting yet another kiss on her mouth. Once I felt that Dearie immersed herself in the intimacy, I moved my hips a bit to make sure the head of my junior was right where it should be Before I mmed my hips forward on a full-throttle, burying all of my lower self in the warmth on Dearie''s insides! Chapter 219: Sweethearts (smut) Chapter 219: Sweethearts (smut) "Ah!'' A moan escaped my lips as soon as my entire body got coated by Dearie''s warmth. But I didn''t press forward. All in the girl, I stopped moving, giving her the time to get used to this new sensation. "Does it hurt?" After a moment, I asked. "Just Just a bit," Dearie uttered through her tightened lips. Yet, the expression on her face alone proved her words to be an utter lie. "I get it," with the girl below me, I lowered my head over her face before joining our lips again. Rather than letting her suffer through her first time for as long as it would take for the pain to subsidize on its own, it was better to just push her attention towards something else. And judging how quickly Dearie''s lips started to seek out my own mouth, I was quite sessful at it. "I will start to move," I said after several minutes'' worth of kissing and touching her body all over. "Un," Dearie nodded her head, before averting her eyes. With her upper robe riding all the way to her neck, I just couldn''t get enough of the view. And so my hips could barely follow my decision to move them as slowly as I could possibly do. Soon, thest traces of anguish vanished from Dearie''s face, reced with the same expression of her face melting. I slowly rubbed her insides with my dick, mapping up every fold and crevice of her pussy in my mind. It wasn''t long before her own hips started to shake as well, pointing out how her body craved for more. This time, I didn''t ask nor inform Dearie. I simply started to move a little faster. Then a bit more. And by the time I was ready to speed up, even more, I realized that I was already wildly pumping my hips up, mming the base of my cock against her crotch. "Ah!" Dearie moaned, pushing her head against the soft fabric that the couch was made from. At the same time, she raised her hips, in the natural attempt to make the process of mating a bit easier. There was no more sanity in her eyes or soul, just the relentless and greedy desire to savor me more. "AHAHH!" As pleasant as it was, I could fuck her in the simplest missionary position only for so long. Dearie moaned as soon as I wrapped my hands around her waist, pulling her as close to my chest as I could. "Let''s switch up a little," I said, before rolling over to my back. Still holding the girl by her waist, I basically swapped ces with her. And it didn''t take long before Dearie found the pace that she wasfortable with. This silly girl then started riding me. At first, slowly, as if she was still unsure of her ability as if she was worried that she would do something wrong. But as her pussy continued to wrap itself around my ns, only to tighten on me whenever she dropped her hips down, I quickly reached the point where the excitement also started getting to my head. For a long while, the only thing that could be heard in the tent was the sloppy sound of our genitals rubbing against each other, while the juices we both produced served as a lube. Laying t on the couch, I couldn''t help but admire the swaying body of Dearie. Her breast wiggling with every shake of her hips were intoxicating as if they turned into bait for my and my eyes only. Her slim waist, the front of her wet pussy, the ecstatic look on her face Everything about her was only making me hornier and hornier. "I don''t I can''t hold!" Dearie whispered in between her moans. What should be one of the most basic activities that nearly every human possesses, now turned into a challenge for Dearie. Whenever her hips would drop down, all the air would escape from her lungs. Whenever she would pull herself up, she would use this window of opportunity to regain her breath. And in this precise scheme of keeping herself alive, adding the burden of uttering just a few words was greater than anyone could expect. "I''m close too!" I muttered through my lips, unable to hold my excitement and arousal back anymore. At this point, the one thing that was stopping me from cumming was my sheer fucking will Or so I would like to say, sneakily tuning my excitement down with my witch abilities whenever I felt that I couldn''t do it on my own anymore. "I''m cumming!" With onest nk, Dearie mmed her hips down, nailing herself on my dick all the way. Once her crotch pped against myp, her entire body fell forward, falling atop my chest. With no reason to stop myself from reaching the pinnacle anymore, I internally grinned before ramping up both of our excitement and arousal to its limits. Right as the two of us reached the climax. I released my sperm right into Dearie''s womb. As the thick fluid gushed out of my tip, I tightened my embrace over Dearie''s frail body, now capable of feeling everyst twitch of hers. But soon, she broke free from my hold, only to start shaking her hips again. Before I even managed to release it all, Dearie was already both craving and working to get some more. "Time out, give me a moment!" Uttering the words through my tightened throat, I only managed to reach forth with my hand. At this moment, the mix of exhaustion, pain, and pleasure mixed up in my penis, turning me almost indifferent to what was going on. But with thest bit of my strenght, I managed to reach forth and grab And grab something soft. "Let''s switch again," taking several breaths to even be able to utter those words, I forced myself to go up, before pushing the girl down on the couch and pulling myself up from her gaping pussy. "More, more, more," mmed on the soft couch, Dearie could only continuously mutter one word. I looked down at the sperm that gushed out of her trembling hole. Still overloaded with pleasure, Dearie didn''t even protest against theck of penis inside her. "There is no sense asking you to turn around now," Imented out loud, before sinking my fingers into the soft flesh of her hips and rolling the girl on her stomach. Then, with a single pull, I made her raise her hips right to the level where the swollen lips of her pussy could be easily attacked. And then, after moving to my knees, I positioned my tip right at her wet entrance before pushing my entire body forward. Resting my body atop Dearie''s back, I forced my entire lower self into her soaking hole. Taking her from the back, I couldn''t influence my emotions anymore. My mind was too out of focus to do it. Nevertheless, my arousal only continued to grow while we kept going at it in this man-dominated position. I moved my hands over Dearie''s breast. Her entire body twitched even stronger than it would with every push of mine. "Are you ready?" This time, I was unable to hold my own arousal back. Meaning, Dearie wouldn''t be able to enjoy my presence for longer than God intended for me to remain hard. "Yeaash," Dearie moaned in response, turning her head to the side. "Kissh, kish me pleesee," her words were broken by the constant waves of pleasure. Her eyes no longer appeared to see anything. Yet, her body continued to honestly respond to my feelings, tightening, coiling, and wrapping itself around my most sensitive ce. "Sure," once again resting my upper body on her back, I moved for the kiss. And as soon as our lips joined, all my limits were broken. "I''M COMMMFPH!" Intending to shout out of the reflex, my voice got muffled when Dearie pushed her tongue into my mouth. Connected both up there and down below, I felt her pussy gobbling up everyst bit of sperm that my already tired penis could procure. "Ah" Once the wave of the peak pleasure passed by, my body lost all its strenght. Still balls-deep in Dearie, I powerlessly fell on her back once again, slowly trying to regain my breathing. "Ah ha ha" Still incapable of normal speech, Dearie only released something between a sweet moan and shortughter. "Are you okay?" The one advantage of not being a virgin was the knowledge of what would be the greatest mishap right now. And that''s why, rather than enjoying the release on my own, I pulled myself out of the girl, before rolling her over once again, pushing my already soft penis back into her hole and going down for a long, intimate kiss. "Yeash," now that I could look at her silly face, I felt my strenght returning to me. Without even the slightest bit of manipting our emotions, I could feel how her insane body and even more dangerous adorableness of her face instantly forced the blood down the path to my manhood once again. "That''s great," worried about crushing her with my weight, I wrapped my hands around her waist before rolling the two of us on the side. While the coach was rtively wide, this kind of position still forced us to cuddle together like a pair of sweethearts. "Did it feel good?" After a few more moments, Dearie finally found the strenght to ask the question. Now that she did, I couldn''t help but recall how this entire thing started from her apparent wish to repay me for all the help I offered her. "Yeah, it was insane," I replied, once again sinking into the sweet escape of her lips. Chapter 220: Now Im here Chapter 220: Now I''m here I walked outside the tent. My head was filled with a mix of strange and vtile emotions. From theplete rxation after the nightly escapades with Daerie and a proper night''s worth of sleep to the guild of sleeping with another woman and doubts about my current situation To say that I was a mess, would be a little bit too much, but not that far from the point. Sadly, as much as I would love to take some time to figure myself, I had no other choice but to push forward. The battle at the passrgely concluded. My exploits at the camps and enemy headquarters surely threw a wrench into the ns of the northern imperialists. But that wasn''t the end of the trouble at all. "Dang, it will be a day full of work, won''t it," I raised my voice to the sky, hoping for an answer. Sadly, no answer came. "Okay," I pped my hands against my waist, looking in the distance where all my daily tasks would take ce. "Let''s get this shit going!" I shouted, jumping forward at full force. First off, the separation. As soon as I arrived at the former battlefield, I kidnapped three entire divisions from the forest folk, moving them to reinforce the passes that we just managed to reconquest. This mission was arduous without any doubt. The casualty rate wasn''t that low either. But thanks to this sacrifice, a huge chunk of the army of both the northern oligarchs and the central kingdoms was enclosed in the valley. A single trip to the earth to resupply was more than enough to stabilize the situation and cut any attempts at retaking the passages. Secondly, pacification. With the trapped force of the enemy squeezed between the mountain passes and the still-growing army of the flying folk, it didn''t take long before their morale reached rock bottom. From the moment the first enemy surrendered, it took entire seven minutes before an entire unit did. In measly three hours, what amounted to at least a third and maybe a half of the wingless forces, gave up. My idea to offer pardon and measly five years of forcedbor to anyone who gave up his weapons appeared to do a great job in speeding the dposition of the enemy forces. Thirdly, rpensation. All the way to this point, I didn''t have any real power base in this world. Even in Ayda''s ce I could have a meal or invade a city. Yet here, I could only rely on the external forces that only aligned with my own interests. That''s why, as soon as I received a massive pool of prisoners to manage, I curbed the entire treasury of the winged folk to obtain supplies. Two kinds of them to be precise. First off, living necessities. And I had to do it. The winged tribes were far less popted than the fertile ins where wingless folks prevailed. Such a huge amount of humans that would have to suddenly move into winged people''s territory would require nearly a third of the entire supply of the winged nation. As such, not even my rtionship with Daerie would solve this problem for me. By strategically releasing key prisoners that managed to survive the onught, it took me only two weeks to make a deal with them. Using the stolen treasure and prisoners, I managed to dismantle the entire central kingdom into awork of willing subsidiaries. Two weekster, the entire central in where the kingdom once stood started to supply the war effort of what cameter to be A united front. While I was dealing with the situation outside the strict borders of the winged tribe, Daerie did the opposite. By generously providing a war-aid to the civilians of the few cities that surrendered and were annexed, she managed to turn the image of the winged folk around. Their resources were limited, yet they did their best to help. Because they couldn''t stand the poor lives of the humans living just beside them. Or so was the official motto of the organization that Daeire created to unite both of her tribes. By the time my time freeze ended, the small patch of the upiednd already became a willing part of the rising empire, while all the remaining cities craved to do the same. And here, my genius came to y. During all this time that I took to frantically provide all kinds of resources and supplies, my mass of free workers didn''t sit around. Ever since the beginning of the negotiations, I secured a right to a single camp amidst the deepnds of the former central kingdom. Within just two months, this small military outpost turned into a massive fort first, before transforming into a thriving center of trade. By using the leverage of the massive orders that I threw in every direction, by the time my stolen treasure ran dry, the ie from themon trade could bring that sum in a single week. And it happened right in time. Sadly, this was a portion that I couldn''t really take credit for. Because in the middle of the dismantling of the central kingdom, something strange happened. It was around the time my workers finally got to producing something useful rather than building the basic infrastructure of the massive camp I envisioned. And in one way or another, a certain hidden persona turned it into a massive hit. By turning the massively produced ''ring stones'' into a new kind of currency backed by the winged people into a sign of resisting the fall of the kingdom To say the least, this hidden persona sold half of the country for a massive delivery of a toy. And it was around then when the time freeze ended. And roughly two minutester, Ayda made her way into this world to inspect my progress. "It''s been a while," I uttered while standing at the top of a small hill. The season already turned into winter, forcing both of us to wear warm clothes. Not because we were cold, but because we would look weird otherwise. "Yeah. I can see how hard you worked," Ayda admitted. Yet, there was something slightly strange about her. "Dear, what happened?" While it seemed obvious initially, that she just didn''t feel right with me sleeping with Dearie, but it was actually not the point. "Hey, from what I can see, you are basically on the verge of conquering this entire world, right?" Ayda raised her eyes at me, making the face of an abused puppy. "Don''t tell me," I gasped for air, finally noticing what could be troubling the girl. "Yeah," Ayda turned her eyes away, clearly embarrassed by the situation. "I get it," for the first time in a long time, a smile appeared on my lips. "Once I''m done with this ce, I will mop up your world as well." My hands reached forward, grabbing the girl by her arms and pulling her into my tight hug. "I missed you, you know?" During the end of the time freeze, I would take weeks between taking the trips to the real world. I was THAT busy. But for Ayda, the entire thing onlysted an instant. "Yeah," Ayda patted the back of my head. "But now I''m here," she added, cing a gentle kiss on my forehead. Chapter 221: Rewards Chapter 221: Rewards Just like Ayda announced the first thing after arriving in this world, now that she was here, everything started to rapidly change. Her initial worry about me putting this particr world above her own didn''t stop this insane girl from implementing ideas from both her own world and earth to bring forward my agendas here. First, she started with the reorganization of the army. By the time Ayda arrived in the world, Dearie''s domain no longer consisted only of the winged tribes, but also of a huge amount of small cities, districts, and viges of the wingless folk. But although they were united under the idea of making their lives a little bit easier in the new reality, this rag-tag bunch of people, ces, and interests was far from being united. "There is no way we can do something like this," Dearie protested as soon as Ayda brought her idea up. "Tell me, do you want to rule the world, or to rule several thousand people more than you do right now?" Ayda replied with a sharp tone. Looking at her face, I could tell she wasn''t taking Dearie''s disobedience nicely. Was this something about who was first or who was second between the two of them? Or maybe Dearie was worried that Ayda''s building her influence in this world could potentially uproot her power? "Girls, as much as I hate to take sides, this time I think we should go with Ayda''s suggestion." Breaking my silent advisor role in this meeting, I turned my face to Dearie before lowering it with respect. "I know that it might sound like favoritism, but I really don''t want you to take it like that. Can you give Ayda a chance? Sooner orter, we will be out of this world so there is no need to worry about politics between us three here." I attempted to reassure the winged girl, only to see her frown deepen. "Leave this ce? This is exactly the root of the problem," Dearie announced, lowering her head powerlessly. "You are proposing a radical approach, one that has quick positive effects yet would give birth to long-standing problems. Can you understand what position I''m in right now?" Dearie asked, before hanging her head again. "Tsk, that''s a good point," I admitted. Crossing my arms on my chest, I looked down, trying to find the best way out. Right now, we were torn between slowly assimting the willing areas. This n was sound and great as it relied on better living conditions as the main propagator of the new regime. And on the other side, there was Ayda''s idea, reinforced with my silent support. The idea that when speaking about the endgame, taking lousy andzy measures to deal with the situation wouldn''t be a perfect solution at all. Rather than that, avoiding the seemingly needless causalities early on would only lead to rivers of blood flowing through this worldter. In other words, Dearie was in a pretty bad situation right now. She could decide to go easy on everyone and just hope to resolve the situation peacefully over time, given how her lifespan was longer than any of the wingless humans could live. But that solution would mean ultimately going for a full-fledged war of annihtion, where only one of the sides could prevail. On the other hand, she had the option to strike hard now, when the armies of the Northern Federation were in shambles. Even the month that passed since the battle was nowhere near enough for the oligarchs from the north to do anything about their situation. By striking right into this chaotic mess, Dearie could put herself as the savior of the people. By sacrificing a few now, she could avoid greater conflict that would be otherwise bound to erupt down the line. "Dear, let''s drop this topic for a moment," Ayda suddenly said, looking at me with worry all over her eyes. "Did you manage to obtain what we wanted?" she then asked. "Yes and no," I hung my head low, troubled with how to approach the exnation of the situation. Because in theory, yes, whatever I came here to obtain, I already did. From the very moment, the battle was won, the system acknowledged the fulfillment of my main mission. With that said, all I could do to get the rewards forpleting the mission assigned to this world, was to actually receive them. But I didn''t do it previously, and I didn''t want to do it anytime soon. And all of that because of a simple reason. I wasn''t personally sure if what I did in this world could count as fulfilling the mission given to me. That line of thinking was suitable for someone who only received the system right now, not a veteran of it like me. Ultimately, it all boiled to one focal point. I met the God behind the system. And I could tell how his intention for intervention in this world through me was aimed at bringing an age of peace and stability, not just setting Dearie on her path to creating such a utopia. "Can you be a bit more precise?" Ayda pressed me, clearly not satisfied with my earlier response. "I can see the rewards at any time I want I just don''t think I deserve them yet," I replied, turning my face away. If we were in a private, I could attempt exining the entire thing to her. With Dearie keenly observing and listening, I couldn''t risk mentioning that bastard god or any of my real ns. Because it would be better if she never realized the scope of what my multiverse system allowed me to do. As long as she believed I could only move to this or my homeworld, she would never grow to be a danger to my ns. And as ruthless as this calctive approach could be, it was my honest effort to keep things simple and clean down the line. "How about you check the rewards then?" Ayda asked, ignoring the puzzled look on Dearie''s face. "Well, with the time freeze now over, I can''t really wait any longer," I replied, standing up. I didn''t even need to invoke the status window, as it was always mixed into my vision. The convenience of this thing came from how it wouldpletely merge into the everyday scenery, while instantly bing clear and readable once I wished to see it. After mentally scrolling through the options and notifications, I finally found what I was looking for. The mission reward box, consisting of twopartments. In one, a simple list awaited, detailing all the privileges I would now have in this world. From being able to freely enter and exit it, through passively generated time-freeze, all the way to corresponding time-flow and changing its fluctuations This list alone was so full of potential, that I couldn''t even care less about the other parts of the prize of fulfilling the mission. Because with the rights that this reward gave me, I could easily move the entire economy of my sect to another world and draw all the people interested in being loyal to me here! That was the extend of the rights granted by the list. And both material transportation and stabilized gates for transfers of normal people were on the list, although in the area with additional requirements. As for the other part of the reward, when I moved my eyes to inspect it, I felt a shiver travel down my spine. Chapter 222: Mature talk Chapter 222: Mature talk "Ayda, Dearie... I might need to return to earth post haste," I spoke up as soon as I raised my eyes from the reward notification. "Something bad happened?" Clueless about the inner-working of my system, Dearie asked. "Rather than bad... Actually, I have a question." I moved my eyes to Dearie''s face after cutting my own sentence short. "What is this?" Dearie leaned her head to the side, clearly curious about my shenanigans. "Would you be able... Hmm..." While I knew what I wanted to ask for, finding the right words to voice this request of mine out wasn''t easy. "Dang, just spill it out," Dearie rebuked, tapping her finger against the table. "You know that I will do anything as long as it''s within my power to help," she announced with a confident look on her face. "Could you carve out a small princedom or something like that, princedom that one of my retainers would run?" I pushed the limits of our rtionship to the limit by posing this question. From an outside perspective, I just asked a freshly nominated ruler of a state to give up a part of itsnds and poption to an outsider. Even if our alliance was forged on the battlefield, it still wasn''t a request that could be easily granted. "A small princedom, huh?" Dearie repeated my words in a daze. Ayda, on the other hand, didn''t bother using her words and sent a nudge to my side instead. "I know how it sounds, but hear me out." I expected this kind of answer, so I was prepared to show the good sides of this solution. "First off, you should already know that the technological level of my hometown is on another level whenpared to what this continent presents on average." I started. "Are you thinking about what I''m thinking you are thinking?" Ayda asked in a funny way, trying to hide the excitement that grew slowly in her soul. What a catchy little devil she was to figure my n out so quickly. "Wait a moment," Dearie attempted to stop me. "I don''t need the ce to be big. A single city or even vige will do." I continued my exnations, hoping to show the good sides of this proposition to the winger girl. "Listen, it''s not a problem," Dearie sighed, resting her head on her palm. "You gave me this world on a silver tter. How could something so small be a problem?" she asked. "Ugh, I see..." My response was somewhatcking. The only thing I could attribute it to was the sheer shock created by Dearie''s words. Never in my life did I expect her to agree to it so easily! "I can see it all over your face, dummy," Dearie rested her chin on both of her hands as she looked at me with upturned eyes. "I can see the benefits of housing one of your people, and," she said, stopping her sentence in the middle. Her smile blossomed. "I can clearly tell you wish to, let''s say, delegate that person. As great as you are in bed," Dearie cast a quick nce at Ayda''s face, "you should also understand how happy I will be once you leave this ce." All of a sudden, the atmosphere turned cold. No, the cold wasn''t the right word. There was no enmity between parties. There was no slightest reason to be hostile. The discussion right now just took a turn for a more mature meaning. "How could I overlook it?" I decided to ask in hopes of masking just how confused I was. Not so long ago, this girl was moaning under me, wildly pushing her hips with all her strength to rub against me. And now she was iming she would be happy to see me gone? Yuck. As depressing as it sounded when I first heard it, I quickly came to my senses. This wasn''t a talk about something as silly as crushes or sexual attraction. The ongoing debate would settle the spheres of influence in this world between me, the invader, and Dearie, representing all the locals. "Either way, I''m d to see that we can understand each other position," I took Dearie up on her offer. It was true I slept with her only a few days ago. Yet, there was no denying that I still felt slightly guilty about it all. Thinking logically, I should be happy to leave this ce, possibly never toe back. But why then was there a slight ache in my heart whenever I forced my lips to smile? But at this moment, none of my feelings mattered. "Let''s get the outline of the project, then," Dearie smiled as she pulled out a sheet of paper and passed it over. "Sure thing," grabbing a pen of my own, I started drawing the terms of our agreement. "How does a remote vige near an important trading route sound?" I asked, raising my eyes at the leader of the winged tribes. "Doable, keep going," Dearie nodded her head with a content expression all over her face. "It will be exempted from taxes and tariffs and will receive manpower upon request, although for a fair price and maintenance." I threw another few terms that wouldy the foundation for the local power of my sect. "I can''t agree if we won''t be able to refuse the request, thought," Dearie protested, proving that she wasn''t going to just nod her head to everything I would say. "That''s understandable. But hey, let me speak informally for a moment," I smiled at Dearie before releasing a huge sigh. "Dang, isn''t it tiring to act all-powerful and mighty?" I moved my hand up to loosen the cor of my shirt. "Isn''t it?" Dearie wholeheartedly agreed, sinking down on her chair. "You wanted something. What is it?" she was quick to move the topic back on the right track. "Our need for manpower will grow gradually. But, ultimately, I want most of the ce to be run by your people," I said, putting a sad smile on my face. "You know, just in..." "...in case," Dearie finished my sentence, nodding her head. "I understand. It wouldn''t be good if the delegated retainer were to get too much power for their own good." Dearie smiled, probably pitying the fate of whoever I had in mind. Chapter 223: Magician never reveals his tricks Chapter 223: Magician never reveals his tricks "Are you sure you don''t want me toe?" Ayda asked while looking at me with her eyes full of worry. "Yeah, I''m worried it would only make things harder," I said, patting her head in an affectionate matter. "It will be better if it will be only the two of us talking there. What''s more, if he sees you in this world once he enters it, it might convince him that I actually spoke truth rather than just exiling him to some kind of abyss." After this simple exnation, there was a momentary silence between the two of us. Given how we were rushing to deal with all the matters that the ongoing conflict required us to pay attention to, we didn''t really have any time to enjoy our reunion. Or rather, I was the one devoid of it. For Ayda, it was just a few seconds that passed between thest time I visited her and the time when she entered the world. Even if she dived head-first into the mountain of work we had as soon as she made her first appearance in this world, it was still just a few days worth of toiling away for her. "Well, can I maybe get a good luck kiss?" After a prolonged moment of silence, I rubbed my cheek with my finger before asking in an uncertain tone. "Huh?" Ayda almost jumped in surprise, despite how simple and peaceful my question was. Then, her face melted down in a lovely smile as she brought her hands up to my face and pulled it closer. sk. Our lips touched each other. The vortex of this delicate, affectionate pleasure instantly sucked all my sanity in, leaving me capable only of enjoying this moment. The kiss was light. Ayda didn''t bother to go for a french one, opting to keep it light and gentle instead. "Mwaaah," Only at the end, this girl actually caught on my bottom lip before sucking on it strongly as she moved her head away. Once her strenght could no longer fight against the natural quality of the flesh of stretching only to a certain point, her lips sped against each other, releasing my own lip back to where it should be. "May you sessfully achieve what you are setting forth to do," she leaned forward and whispered in my ear before gently pushing me away. Or rather, pushing me towards the invisible gate that connected Dearie''s world to the earth. My body was engulfed in a strange sensation. It was slightly simr to rapidly dropping into warm water, one that had its temperature so perfect that it was challenging to actually feel it. And then, as if nothing happened at all, I ended up back in my basement, making a few steps to the back to lose out the momentum of Ayda''s push. "This little," I muttered in an angry voice, but my face was devoid of any hostility or wrath. Because as much as I wanted to just spend the rest of my days flirting with Ayda, there were some things I had to focus on beforehand to make such a future possible in the first ce. "Well, let''s get going," I said in an attempt to encourage myself before leaving the basement. Once again, I had to go through theplicated process of sealing the basement doors behind me, hiding them under a lightyer of rubble before even reaching for the airlock of the concrete dome that protected the entire ce. In the end, it took me no less than ten damned minutes before I could finally manage to escape from the confines of the dome and reach the single doors that everyone was capable of seeing within thepound. Still, only a selected few were allowed to open it. And that''s exactly what I did. By pressing my finger against a special pad right beside the doors on the wall, I unlocked the doors and pressed them open. But rather than seeing an empty corridor of this rtively peaceful part of thepound, I was met with a whole group of people clearly awaiting my arrival. "Your excellency, we were ordered to escort you to the Town''s hall," one of the men dressed in perfectly fitted suits stepped forward as he announced. "I don''t recall making any appointment there," I replied in a rxed tone before stepping forward and closing the doors behind me. Even though it would take only a few minutes to either break the lock or just smash the doors open, it would be a few minutes more before they could reach the dome if those people decided to go against my wishes. "Sir Jeff insisted for your Excellency to apany him there," the man said before releasing a deep sigh. His face soured as he ced his hand at the side of his waist. "Your excellency, please, I''m only doing my job, do not make things hard for me!" The man pleaded while gritting his teeth in powerless desperation. While I never really publicly showed my personal strenght, Ayda''s disy of power that happened during the attack of the monsters was more than sufficient to make people question my capabilities. If I was capable of getting such a woman to cooperate and help me, it was pretty obvious that I wielded a strenght that wasn''t that far off from Ayda''s own power. And while nothing was ever confirmed, from the looks that this small crowd was throwing at me, it was pretty clear that they were wary of my potential retaliation. After all, what they were doing, was no different from either arresting or kidnaping me right from the middle of my own quarters! "You don''t need to worry too much," I sighed before lowering and then shaking my head. To say that I felt powerless would be a gross understatement. Right now, I had more than enough power to wreck not only this entire ce but the entire city along with it, but I was in no position to use it at all. After all, what good woulde from destroying the entire organization that I worked so hard to create in the first ce? "But still. Rather than escorting me to the Townhall, I have my own mission and orders for you. One that won''t make Jeff think badly of you not fulfilling what he ordered you to do instead," I announced with a smile before shaking my head to clear all the useless thoughts from my mind. "For now, you can leave everyone else here so that no one will im I attempted to divide your forces and use it to escape." This time, I went all in. By talking openly about what was happening in reality, I refused to acknowledge the parody shitshow that everyone hoped to impose on this entire situation. "In that time, you will go and find Jeff. If he is on his way to the town''s center, you will forcefully turn him back. If he is in thepound, you will invite him to my quarters so that we can have a talk," there was no hostility in my words. I simply informed this poor victim of the political sh between Jeff and me about what would happen. "Tell him that if he decides to test my patience any further," I started before lowering myself over the ear of the trembling man. "I will burn this entire city No, this entire province to the ground, not leaving a single soul alive. Tell him that starting over isn''t even a slight problem for me. Tell him that I only consider it in terms of annoyance. And if he still dares to refuse my invitation." I moved away from the man''s ear before putting a wide smile on my face. "Well, the magician never reveals all his tricks, doesn''t he?" Chapter 224: I can offer you a princedom Chapter 224: I can offer you a princedom The number of threats I passed through the bodyguard appeared to do a good job. However, before I could even get bored of waiting, the same man that rushed to report my words to Jeff returned with a conflicted look on his face. "Mister Jeff invites you for a talk," the mercenary said while averting his eyes. "Great, lead the way then," I instructed, not paying any mind to the state of the man''s soul. Whether he received scolding, praise, or was just trying to confuse me with his actions, it didn''t matter. Because Jeff had no way of knowing what I was going to propose to him. Soon, not only me and the mercenary I tasked with guiding me to Jeff, but the entire group that was sent to get me arrived before the doors. One of the mercenaries knocked on the doors. "Come in," Jeff''s voice sounded, proving that he wasn''t anywhere else but in his office. A proof of how honest he was with me when we suddenly stood on the opposite sides of the barricade. "Don''t mind if I do," ignoring the mercenaries, I pushed the doors open and waltzed inside, "after all, this entire ce belongs to me, so why should I wait at someone''s doors?" I asked, ignoring Jeff''s slightly annoyed face and sitting in one of the guest chairs. "Guys?" Jeff said while sending a meaningful look at his mercenaries. "I don''t think bishop will try any funny business. You can wait outside," he informed. If his soul was full of annoyance when I waltzed inside, then he was now seeping with fury at just how ipetent his people were. "Yes, sir!" Standing at attention, the mercenaries shouted before leaving the room and closing the doors behind them. "What a show of ipetence," I threw my observation in the air before putting a broad smile on my lips. "Are those people the ones you want to use to hold power over this ce?" I asked with irony seeping through my voice. "The hell do you want?" Jeff asked, clearly unwilling to y along with my bullshit. "Don''t tell me, you came here to joke at the level of... some of my retainers," he stated, putting my intentions into a doubt. "Don''t worry about it. I''m not someone as petty," I replied, pushing back against Jeff''s usation. "Why did you came here, then?" Jeff asked while squinting his eyes. "Are you going to beg for mercy now that I lost my patience with you?" he added, trying to hide a threat in his words. "Oh, who do you take me for?" I smiled in response, genuinely amused by how he was wriggling. Jeff''s situation was not one to be jealous of. While I could see his reasons for making such a drastic move, it didn''t mean it was an intelligent decision. If I were to put myself in his shoes, the act of going against me likely appeared as something inevitable, something that Jeff couldn''t wait any longer to do. After all, with my recent acts at the Town Hall - something that was ancient history for me but recent news for Jeff - it was only a matter of time before my authoritarian influence would sideline himpletely. "If you are not here to negotiate, then why should I waste my time on you?" Jeff asked, clearly infuriated by my rxed andidback attitude. He even removed his hand from his desk, clearly reaching for something underneath it. "I wouldn''t be so hasty if I were you," I gave my advice while crossing my legs to reinforce the image of total rxation. "While what I came here with is beyond your ability to understand now, it doesn''t mean it''s a bad deal for you." I smiled before suddenly standing up and turning my back to the man. For a moment, there was nothing but silence between the two of us. I couldn''t see the man, but my other senses were sharpened to the point where I could quickly tell that his hand froze. And it didn''t take a genius to figure out that there was something he was reaching for. A panic button? Or was it a gun, maybe? A Sander''s stone? While I could track Jeff''s movement with my hearing, I couldn''t judge what he was reaching for with just hearing. "Tell me if anything that I will say now is wrong," I ordered before turning myself back towards Jeff again. "You crave power. Not an administrative one, but an absolute one," I said and immediately turned silent, allowing Jeff to protest. But he didn''t. "You believe to be smart enough to induce a rapid growth into anymunity you will be in charge of," I added another point, only to turn silent again. Yet, Jeff didn''t protest. "Andstly, you can''t bear having someone meddle in what you consider to be your affairs, am I right?" This time, rather than turning silent, I asked Jeff to directly confirm my guesses. "What, are you trying to find me a new position? I''m sorry, but that won''t..." Jeff attempted to ridicule my attempts at calming down our private war, only for me to raise my hand and stop him in his tracks. "Can you answer my question first?" I asked politely with a gentle smile on my face. For a moment, Jeff simply stared at me with apparent enmity, unwilling to follow my order. But then, he came back to his senses, released a heavy sigh, and nodded his head. "You are right, but what about it? It''s not like..." "like I can find you a princedom of which you would be a prince, right?" I asked, trying to finish Jeff''s words in advance. Once again, a moment of silence ensued. Jeff took this time to rx, sit back in his chair and take a sip of the drink he had saved on his table. "You are correct. Our expansion into this city already brought the patience of the higher powers to its limits. Even if you could carve out a ce for me to have an absolute rule for, the government wouldn''t allow for it to happen," he exined before shrugging his arms. "For now, they consider us just an annoying pest. That won''t be the case if we keep irritating them, though," Jeff added, proving that his coup d''etat wasn''t something he decided on the spot. For him to pay so much thought into the situation, his actions were something he most likely felt pressured to do. "Okay then, I understand everything that you said," I said, nodding my head to reinforce the image of epting his words. "What if I were to tell you, though, that I CAN give you a whole princedom to rule?" I said with a smile before pulling out a map that Dearie gave to me before I left for the earth. "This is slightly problematd as it''s a part of the empire at war, but I believe you could be a prince, not in the act but also in the name there," I added. I spread my arms wide. "When you said that there is no ce on earth that you could rule, I couldn''t agree with you more," I acknowledged Jeff''s words, only to make my smile even wider. "The thing is, I didn''te here to offer you a princedom in the earth, but in a world that only two people in the entirety of our own world know about." The Novel will be updated first on this website. Come back and continue reading tomorrow, everyone!