《Limitless Evolution: The Path To Immortality》
Chapter 1 Rebirth [1] - The Price Of Knowledge
?Earth - Year: 2061
A man with ck hair and golden yellow eyes sat atop a building and ate his lunch while looking into the sunset.
Raising the sandwich to his mouth, he took one bite after the other until he had finished it.
His rations had run out, and for thest 7 years of his life, he had tried everything he could to bring Earth back to the way it was before its fall.
The man smiled and took out his revolver before flicking it to the side and putting a single bullet in it.
"This has to be my worst day yet." He chuckled.
The man snapped the revolver to the side, closing it before spinning the cylinder and pointing the gun at the roof of his mouth.
That man was Seth Evergreen, a 50-year-old man who dedicated his life to pursuing knowledge and was the greatest scientist of his generation.
While his intelligence was nothing to scoff at, his IQ didn''tpare to that of great scientists like Einstein and Newton. However, it wasn''t his intelligence that built hisdder to the top, but his insatiable hunger for knowledge.
Seth was orphaned after being abandoned by his parents at a fire station a few days after his birth. However, in a way, abandoning him was the best thing to ever happen to him, since it was only then that the hole in his heart opened up and craved to be filled with something else.
However, for a few months, he had no idea what his body wanted from him. Or at least that was the case until he picked up his first book.
The moment he finished reading the book, he felt like a spark had been created inside his soul, and it was waiting to be satiated.
He couldn''t stop himself afterward. It was the first time he had ever felt something like that in his life, so he never let go of that feeling and strived to feel it every day.
However, that spark grew into an insatiable hunger and greed for knowledge that he couldn''t control ever since.
His advancement was world-changing. He created cures for hundreds of diseases and illnesses and discovered/created technological and scientific advancements that forever changed human society.
In his pursuit of creating the perfect species, Seth came upon something he shouldn''t have.
He had cracked the life equation and discovered the ''healing factor,'' something capable of curing all diseases known to man, even aging.
One might have called it enlightenment at the time, but now that Seth looked back, it was nothing but a curse.
Seth published his new ''medicine'' and advertised it as a drug capable of restoring age and giving people eternal youth. And just like the brainless fools humans have always been, they believed him; since when was thest time Seth Evergreen had been wrong about something?
That was their first and only mistake. The healing factor didn''t reveal itself because humanity was ready... It revealed itself to Seth because he was ready...
In less than a month, the human poption had begun to mutate.
Some became monsters beyond recognition, and others became a mutated gorefest of humans clinging to life with the very little will that remained in them after losing everything they once had.
Seth had tried to find a way to bring back humanity for over 7 years, yet now that his rations were gone and supplies were dwindling, he lost all hope.
For once the spark that lit his soul vanished.
He was no longer Seth Evergreen, a man who saved humanity from thousands of diseases while advancing technology by a hundred years...
To the survivors, he was now known as Seth, the destroyer of Earth.
And so, he pulled the trigger, and for the first time since he began this ritual, the gun finally heard his pleas.
*Bang*
At that moment, his life shed before his eyes. He wasn''t technically a good man... No, he was a selfish one who did everything in pursuit of his own goals, yet no matter how many regrets he had, it no longer mattered.
And so, a bright sh of light blinded him before everything became ck, and he returned to the great abyss thaty between life and death.
He felt at peace, yet that onlysted for a few moments.
The abyss shed green for a moment before a symbol appeared before him.
An emerald eight-pointed star encapsted in a circle of the same color appeared before him. It was shrouded with a golden-emerald aura that expanded to the ends of the abyss.
Seth recognized the symbol... No, he was the one who had discovered the symbol.
What shone before him was the inscription of the life equation, and it had revealed itself to him once more...
The light faded, and everything returned to ck once more...
*GASP*
Seth opened his eyes while gasping for air.
His heart was racing, and his body screamed in pain.
His hands were covered in blood... No, those weren''t his hands... They were green and disgustinglyrge for his body.
He was covered in blue blood... His own blood. But since when was his blood blue?
Seth slowly crawled to a nearby pool of water. He seemed to be in some kind of cavern, but the colors around him didn''t make sense... They were so much more than anything he had seen on Earth, yet it almost seemed natural.
He struggled to get up, but when he finally looked into the pool of water, he didn''t see a reflection of himself.
He saw a grotesque green-skinned creature look back at him, making him almost fall back in shock.
However, before he could do so, he saw a de sh through his neck, decapitating him instantly and dropping his head into the small pond.
Seth found himself in the dark void once more. The emerald eight-pointed star emblem appeared again before sending him into another body. This time he was a horse that had just been shot in the head.
The buildings and clothes of the humans around him looked victorian, and as he stood up, he turned around and looked right down at the barrel of a shotgun before his brains were blown out the other side.
Then it happened again, and again, and again, until finally, Seth had lost count of all the lives lived.
It felt like he had tried out every creature out there, from an ant to a whale; he had done it all.
However, when he saw the emerald emblem appear before him, there was a feeling inside him that told him that this life would be different.
The green emblem shone brighter than ever until it finally encapsted his vision.
''Hmm? How the hell did I die already?'' Seth asked himself while looking around. Everything around him was just ck, and he couldn''t understand why.
Yet, instead of seeing the green emblem, this time, he saw a light at the end of the tunnel. He also felt something around his neck, but hepletely ignored it.
Was he finally going to heaven? Or was this just a way to keep him from going mad just to return him back to his hell for his sins?
When he finally swam to the other side, the blinding light forced his eyes shut as a pair of delicate yet enormous hands held him.
''Giants? Wait, no... Holy shit I''m finally human! A human baby, but still a human!" Seth cheered with joy, making everyone in the room look at eachother with confusion after hearing the newborn''s weird cry.
Chapter 2 Rebirth [2] - Assimilation Complete
?''Man, it sure feels good to be a human again. After dying over and over again in the body of many animals and monsters, you really do gain a new appreciation for life as a human.'' Seth breathed in and out, making sure to appreciate every single one of his breaths, no matter how difficult it was to do through his tiny nostrils.
The lights were far too bright for Seth to open his eyes, but when he felt himself being ced in the warm embrace of someone he instinctively knew was his mother, he calmed down and understood the entire situation.
''So this is how it feels to not be abandoned at birth.'' Seth thought to himself as he quickly became drowsy and instantly fell asleep.
[Author''s note: *""* is used when someone speaks in anguage Seth does not understand.]
*"Congrattions Rhea... It''s a boy."* A woman wearing a nun''s uniform bowed slightly toward the woman who had just given birth.
Rhea, the woman holding Seth, looked beyond exhausted. However, her radiant smile told apletely different story despite her exhaustion.
She looked at the sleeping Seth with a motherly smile before she raised her hand and caressed his cheek.
*"It was truly a miracle, nun Diveen. I must thank you again; without you..."* Rhea''s eyes filled with tears as a few women held her hands and stood beside her. The people who had watched over her childbirth were her closest friends, so everyone understood her silence. After all, they were helping with childbirth, too, to the best of their abilities.
The childbirth had been rough. Everything went as nned at the start. Despite Rhea''s agonized screams, everything was normal, and she kept pushing. The real problem only urred once the baby became limp.
The birth went from a 30-minute procedure to a long and tiring one thatsted for hours.
Everyone tried their best to keep the baby alive, but the situation didn''t seem to improve despite their efforts. However, as if some kind of switch had been flipped, not only did the baby''s condition suddenly improve by a hundredfold, but so did Rhea''s.
Rhea was a beautiful woman in her 20s. She had beautiful blonde hair that was disheveled and messy, yet she was practically glowing despite it. It almost looked like she hadn''t given birth at all.
*"It was the work of the lord, young child. I swear to you, I saw a glowing green light as he came out."* The nun raised one hand and ced the other on her heart, yet no one took her seriously.
Of course, she wasn''t lying about what she saw, but Diveen was known to be one of the less cunning nuns in the town. She would joke freely as if her life was not bound by the chains of her nunhood.
*"Where''s my husband?"* Rhea suddenly asked while furrowing her brows.
*"He''s over there."* One of the women at Rhea''s side pointed toward a copsed man whoy on the cold floor of their bedroom, drooling on the hardwood, and had remained like that for several hours now.
Everyoneughed at his dismay, but after congratting Rhea for her new baby and her amazing effort, they eventually returned to their homes and daily routines.
***
''Man, the life of a baby sure is easy. No responsibilities, no worries, and best of all, no stress.'' Seth sighed as he rxed into the bed whileying between both of his parents, who were sleeping on either side of him.
A few days had passed after his birth, and he was enjoying his current life.
It was as if a heavy burden had lifted off his shoulders the moment he had be a baby. At the same time, he enjoyed having parents for once. Sure, he was adopted by a nice family, but that family was only ''nice'' in the material sense.
They didn''t care for him. After seeing his talent for retaining knowledge and understanding things far beyond his age, all they wanted to do was to groom him into a top scientist before milking him in the future for all the money he had... It was truly a shame that they had be his first subjects for an experiment he was performing.
Ever since then, he never truly had a parental figure. ording to all the tests hepleted on himself, it affected his general sense of morality since, in the eyes of others, what he deemed normal would have made him a monster beyond redemption.
If he didn''t know better, he might have evenbeled himself a psychopath.
''On the other hand...'' Seth looked up at the ceiling. He wasn''t too surprised to see that this was a medieval world. Everything from the furniture to his family''s clothes pointed toward such a conclusion, and since he had just died and reincarnated several times in the past few days, he thought nothing could surprise him.
That was until he saw how unhygienic everyone was.
"You''d think they''d all be dead by now..." He muttered to himself before grimacing when the voice of a baby came out.
A month passed in the blink of an eye, and he hadn''t really left his room much, not that he had the bodily strength to do such a thing on his own.
However, even though he wanted to do nothing but rx, after a month of nothing, he felt like he was going to die of boredom.
While the first few weeks consisted of him imagining himself doing all the things he had failed to do in his previous life, like finding love and having a family of his own, that got boring pretty quickly.
In his past life, he always had something to do. He dabbled in everything from science to basic cooking. The phrase ''jack of all trades, master of none'' would have perfectly described him if he had not mastered every single practice or field he entered.
Nevertheless, since now he found himself unable to do anything useful or productive as a baby, he became a silent yet observant baby, to the point where his parents had called the woman in a nun attire several times to check up on him since he didn''t cry,ugh, or even react to the people around him.
He simply watched them all like hawks.
One of the first things he understood was that his name was Ss. He thought it was a weird name, but after learning the names of everyone else in his family, he quickly understood that such names weremon in the world he was in.
He began learning thenguage his parents spoke, and since he didn''t have anything else to do, he picked up on it at a speed that would have been considered inhuman to anyone else.
Another month passed, and for the first time since his birth, he was sitting at the table with everyone else in his family.
He was sitting on his mother''sp, barely looking over the table. Until now, he hadn''t gotten much practice crawling or walking, so he was struggling to keep his weak body upright without the assistance of his mother.
Other than him and his mother, three other people sat at the table.
Lochras, his father, wore a short beard and a tightly tied ponytail. His hair was jet ck, yet his eyes were a glistening silver. His stature reminded Seth of the stature of a soldier.
On the other side of the table sat two girls.
While Keira was a woman in her early 40s who released a calm aura, Syra was an energetic little girl who barely reached the age of four. Both girls had blond hair like Rhea, yet while Syra had silver eyes like her father. Keira''s eyes were amber.
Seth watched them all make a little prayer before digging into the food.
He watched on with a bored expression. He didn''t have enough teeth to eat anyway, so what was the point of bringing him along?
But that''s when it happened...
"Ow! Mommy! I hurt my finger." Syra teared up while holding her burnt finger up.
''Man... I forgot how annoying children can be.'' Seth immediately thought when his sister opened her mouth. She had tried to y with him in the past, but he had always ignored her, causing her to finally relent and leave him alone for good.
"Aww, sweetheart,e over here. Mama will fix you right up." Rhea smiled warmly at her daughter and waved her over.
When Syra finally stood before her mother, Rhea extended her index finger and waved her finger in the air while chanting a few words.
"In the name of Gilea, the mother of all, I ask you to seal the injuries of those I care for and bring invigoration to those who are wounded. Healing." Rhea chanted with closed eyes, yet after a few seconds passed, nothing happened.
''Ah, I see. It finally all makes sense. I live amongst cultists.'' Seth sighed, already imagining all the rituals he would be forced to be part of in the near future.
Sure, he would have loved it if magic was real, but that simply was not the case. After all, how could he have stayed in a world of magic without seeing a single person use magic around him? Plus, magic was a folktale. Scientifically, it simply could not exist since there werews in the universe that-
However, before he could fully ept that fact, he saw something appear in front of his mother''s finger.
He couldn''t believe his eyes... No, it didn''t make sense. Were his eyes lying to him? Was he bing delirious?
Seth watched on in amazement as a green circle appeared above Syra''s finger and began healing it. It was split into four sections and had a smaller circle in the middle where he saw a rune...
''Wait... I recognize that rune.'' Seth thought and leaned in slightly to get a better look.
While the rest of the sections in the circle had simple rune-like letters, there was one rune in the middle that was moreplex than all of thembined, and at the same time, was the only rune Seth recognized
After all, whaty in the middle of that circle wasn''t any normal rune... It was a rune that he had studied for more than a century.
It was one of the runes that made up the life equation, and it did the very thing he had spent 2 decades trying to achieve.
''I-It''s healing!'' Seth eximed with joy, and in that very same moment, something inside him clicked, while a spark shone within his soul, igniting something that he had lost the day he became the destroyer of Earth.
It was a spark that reignited his unending hunger for knowledge, as well as the spark that allowed him to finally understand something about the life equation that no one else in the universe had truly understood.
[Life equation Assimtion: 100%]
[Assimtion Complete]
[Soul integration shall nowmence]
''I always assumed that most of the stories Lochras and Rhea read to me were fiction, but if they are based on reality, then... The possibilities are endless!''
He once lived in a world where every roadblock he found himself in was due to thews of physics. There was so much he couldn''t do because of the limitation that thesews put on him, yet now that he lived in a world where something like magic existed, didn''t that mean that these factors that limited him in his past life were no longer doing so in this one?
''I truly hit the... Jack... Pot.''
And just when Seth thought he was going to have another enlightenment, his thought process became fuzzy before an overwhelming drowsiness threw him into a deep slumber.
Chapter 3 Rebirth [3] - Core Awakening
?After the realization that something like magic existed in the world he was in, Seth became a little bit of a maniac.
The moment he woke up the next day, he went straight to his mother, and through a series of maniption, crying, and screaming, she eventually relented and read him a book or two.
Seth understood the power behind a baby''s cry, which was one of the main reasons he hated children in his past life.
Whenever his mother got tired from reading to him, he simply went to his other parent or even to his grandmother.
He spent every hour of every day learning new words. While the books helped him, the child''s ability to ask thousands of questions without any repercussions also worked in his favor.
Of course, since he couldn''t speak, the only thing he could do was point at things and say "Gaga!" until one of his parents understood what he was asking of them.
Of course, he was just a baby so it was a little weird to see him so curious at such a young age, but they yed along with him despite fully expecting him not to remember any of what they taught him.
It was the main reason he was able grasp the basics of thenguage in less than a month. His understanding of it was much better than his reading and speaking, but in the end, it worked out in his favor.
And once he learned how to read at least at a basic level, he crawled toward the basement without anyone looking and went down the enormous-looking stairs one by one.
When he was finally at the bottom of the basement, he crawled around for half an hour, trying to find the book Rhea had discussed.
Luck was on his side, as he quickly found it convenientlyid within one of the smaller cupboards alongside another book with the words "Spellbook" written on it.
He pulled on it with all his might and finally freed it from the persistent grip of the books around it.
Laying it on the floor, he opened the book past the index page and to the first chapter.
The book was called:
''Magic 101- Basics Of Magic.''
The moment Seth began reading the book''s contents, he couldn''t stop. It reminded him of the first time he read a book in his past life. He was so entranced by what he saw that he simply found himself unable to stop.
When he finally snapped out of it, he felt a warm hand touch his shoulder, causing him to jolt slightly as he looked to his side.
Therey his mother, watching him with a curious yet loving smile.
"You know, whenever I look into your eyes, I don''t see the eyes of a child or baby. It''s weird, right?" She spoke, making Seth''s heart drop.
''Was I too obvious? Sh*t! I knew I shouldn''t have crawled this early.'' Seth cursed.
"You really do have your grandfather''s eyes... I just wish he was here to see you. Maybe you''re his reincarnation." She chuckled before taking Seth into her arms.
''Heh...If you only knew how right you were about the reincarnation thing. I might not be him, but at least you got yourself a smart baby!'' Seth thought while puffing his chest out with pride to the best of his ability, before pointing at the book on the floor.
"Gaga..."
"You want this book?"
"Ga!"
"Alright, alright. Don''t throw a fit, okay?" She sighed while leaning down and grabbing the book.
In reality, she wouldn''t have minded if Seth had thrown a fit every now and then. Parenting was so easy with him that it made Rhea miss Syra''s attitude when she was a baby.
Rhea could count the number of times Seth cried since his birth on one hand. However, at the same time, she knew that getting on his good side was the best-case scenario.
She remembered what happened thest time she refused to read to him. He cried nonstop for so many hours that her mother, Keira, was the first one to break and finally followed his instructions that were given to her in a long and tiring form of miming and pointing.
''The the power of a baby''s cry.'' Seth grinned while looking at his mother who did exactly what he asked of her.
Seth spent the rest of dinner contemting his newfound knowledge, and once his family finished eating, Seth found himself in the cradle next to his parent''s bed, where they slept peacefully, cuddling with one another and breathing in sync.
Watching them felt like he was invading their privacy, so he simply turned around on his cradle and rested his back toward them and onto the wooden beams that kept him in it.
Crossing his legs to the best of his ability, Seth closed his eyes and took deep breaths.
From what he understood from the book, magic was aplex form of energy maniption. The energy the people of this world manipted was called ''mana.'' Everyone had mana; it depended on whether one could manipte it or even use it through the intermediary that was their mana core.
While mana itself was a strong form of energy, it could be broken down into four main schools, better known as affinities.
Fire, water, air, and earth.
To understand magic and its workings, one had to understand the fundamentals of what the humans of this world referred to as ''mana cores.'' From what Seth understood, they were essentially organs allowing the user to absorb, process, and spew mana out of their bodies.
He saw something about a mana core having different levels that would affect a person''s mana pool and ability to conjure spells, but that was the least of his problems for now.
While everyone had a mana core to a certain extent, the difference between a mage and a normal human was whether their mana cores were awakened or not.
An awakened mana core would allow someone to spew out mana to create magic circles and cast spells, while those who did not get the chance to awaken remained human and were forced to take another path in life.
Due to his beginner-level reading ability, Seth only got to page three and had no information on how to awaken his core. However, from what he had read so far, he knew that cultivating a mana core was a simple process of expelling impurities from the core over and over until it gets stronger...
So why not do that to awaken?
What he didn''t know was that no child below the age of 6 should be capable of awakening their mana core, simply because their mana channels were not ready yet.
Awakening before the age of 6 could be detrimental to a person''s talent in theirter years, and could even cripple them for life. However, there were some children who would turn into monsters, mutating into something inhuman a few years after their initial awakening.
Seth was about to give up on awakening since he couldn''t find the ''mana channels'' the book was talking about, but just as he was going to give up, an emerald green light appeared around him.
He would have usually freaked out, but when the emerald energy appeared out of thin air, a wave of calmness kept him steady, while his trust for this mysterious energy had never been stronger.
Of course, the reason for that was simple. This energy wasn''t mysterious to him at all.
Seth watched calmly as the energy forced through his fingers, toes, mouth, and nose. It was almost as if the green energy was illuminating a path for him...
He could feel the energy course through his body in a manner that was akin to the feeling of cold water traveling down his throat after being particrly thirsty for an extended portion of time. He was being filled with so much vigor that he almost felt like his muscles were screaming for him to energize himself or work out.
Instinctually, he took a long and steady deep breath.
Once the energy had reached his sr plexus, he instinctually held his breath, allowing the energy to begin revolving within his mana core in a circr pattern. The energy revolved counterclockwise, and after a few more seconds of spinning within Seth''s core, it finally dispelled itself through a second set of mana channels while the air in Seth''s lungs left through his mouth at the same rate.
Yet, this green energy was not a cultivation technique. Hell, it didn''t even do anything to his core, yet despite that, its job had been more important than all of thatbined.
The green energy was not only creating a passage simr to that of mana channels, but it was a guide that allowed him to grasp the art of cultivation, and so he did exactly that.
He remembered everything and etched it into his memories. The feeling of energy entering his body and coursing through it to reach his core as if he wasn''t there.
Seth took another deep breath, but instead of green energy entering his body, a pristine, almost crystalline milky white energy that refracted light itself entered his body through all the same ces as the green energy before coursing toward his mana core and entering it.
At this point, Seth had begun holding his breath while the mana circted within his core in a counterclockwise rotation before he finally let go of the energy, allowing it to leave his body through the second set of mana channels at the same speed as his exhale.
''This feeling... It''s exhrating. I feel so alive!'' Seth thought with a widening smile.
His heart was beating faster than ever, while his breathing had increased dramatically too.
And that''s when it happened.
A sudden gust of mana shot out of his body and in every direction. It wasn''t strong enough to awaken Seth''s parents, but it was enough to trigger a phenomenon inside his body.
Slowly, his mana core churned and shone brightly while a ck substance oozed out of his pores. There wasn''t much of it, but the smell still wafted into his nose, making him scrunch it up while looking at the thing that was forming before him.
*BZzzz*
¨X¨T¨T¨T¨T¨T¨T ? ¡ã?¡ã ? ¨T¨T¨T¨T¨T¨T¨[
Name: Seth Evergreen
Age: 3 Months
Race: Reincarnated Lesser Human
Core: Dull-Onyx
Affinities: Mana (Earth, Fire, Water, Air), Life Equation
Bloodlines: None
Blessing: Evolution - (Your body, mind, and soul have been sculpted to transform you into the peak life form. Everything you do, and everything that is done to you, shall affect how you evolve.
¨^¨T¨T¨T¨T¨T¨T ? ¡ã?¡ã ? ¨T¨T¨T¨T¨T¨T¨a
''Wait... Did I just awaken?'' Seth thought as the feeling of pure energy coursed through his body, making him more alive than he had ever felt before.
Chapter 4 Magic [1] - Spell Casting
?[A/N: I will be calling Seth, Ss from now on since that''s his new name.]
ording to the book Ss was reading, magic could not be used until the person awakened their core, and since Ss had done exactly that, his next step was to either learn magic or cultivate.
The main use of cultivating was to break down and expel the impurities from the core. The more impurities you expel, the stronger your core bes and the more refined it is.
At the same time, the stronger your core bes, the higher tier of magic you can cast due to the fact that your mana pool increases significantly every time you reach the next mana core level.
The mana core is split into 8 different stages.
Onyx, Ga, Topaz, Amethyst, Sapphire, Emerald, Ruby, and Diamond. The diamond core was considered a myth among most awakened, and there hadn''t been a record of a diamond core in thest 500 years.
Nevertheless, each stage of the mana core is further divided into three categories: Dull, Solid, and Pristine.
And that''s where magic circles came in. Magic circles were split into ascending tiers of spells. The weakest and simplest spells were tier 1, while the strongest were at tier 6.
However, ording to a few books he had found in the basement, there was also a seventh tier; however, no one below the diamond core had ever used it before.
On the same note, tier 7 spells were said to be capable of changing literal continents. Their power was so great that maps would have to be re-drawn due to the continent-level devastation that they caused.
They were so powerful that they were even dubbed the "apocalypse tier of spells."
However, Ss had no time for mythology and all the crap. Those were things that he could think about when he went into education.
''Does this world even have schools? My sister never seems to go to school, but she''s only 4 years old so that is to be expected.'' Ss thought while stroking his chin and looking at the book in front of him.
He could see his parents peaking at him from the crack in the door, giggling like children from the other side whenever they saw their baby stroking his chin.
''They probably think I don''t realize... Probably? They definitely think I don''t realize. I have to remember that I am a baby now.'' Ss thought, and he wasn''t wrong.
His parents and grandmother found it weird that Ss was into books so early on in life, but they didn''t stop him even though they thought he couldn''t read.
"Lochras, do you think he''s going to be a mage in the future?" Ss'' mother asked while looking at her husband.
"Heh... A mage? No, I see a warrior right there!" His father said proudly.
"Really? When did warriors grow from muscle heads to professors and philosophers? My baby is intelligent and is more than capable of bing a powerful mage." She crossed her arms and harrumphed.
"Muscle heads?! Lady you married a knight, and even though you practically called him stupid, let me remind you that I''m the one doing all the paperwork that keeps this house afloat!" Lochras sneered.
"Oh really? Let me remind you who puts food on the table!" Rhea snorted.
"Me! I''m the only one working!"
"Oh really?" Rhea red at him before her face softened into a smile.
A smile that did not reach her eyes...
"U-Uh... R-Rhea... Please don''t hurt me." Lochras cowered.
"Oh don''t worry, unlike you I don''t use muscles to fix all the problems in my house... But if I was you, I''d thoroughly check your next meal. I little birdy told me that it might be filled with a few cockroaches that just happened to live in our attic." Rhea patted her husband on the shoulder and walked away with the same smile as before.
''And that''s why I didn''t get married.'' Ss thought, his body covered in a cold sweat as he imagined himself eating a sandwich, unaware that it had been filled with cockroaches and spider parts.
''Ugh... Spiders...'' Ss shivered before continuing his book from where he had left off.
It took him a few days to read all the chapters about spell casting and magic circles, but in the end, he believed he understood most of it.
Humans were unlike magical beasts.
First off, all humans had affinities they were attuned to, and that was the first area where Ss found himself slightly confused.
First off, even though only 1 out of 100 humans awakened, there were set limitations in ce for those who did awaken, and those came in the main elemental schools of magic.
Those elements were earth, fire, water, and air. However, they did break down further into sub-elements like metal, lightning, ice, and spirit.
Of course, were people who were referred to as diviners, capable of producing healing spells. They believed that a diviner''s power came from some kind of higher being, but of course, Ss knew that wasn''t true...
After all, healing magic was just a product of the life equation, created from one out of the hundreds of thousands of runes that formed the life equation itself.
However, the problem that arose was the fact that humans only usually awakened one or two elements, with a very small few awakening three elements. Awakening four elements was unprecedented in the history of this world, and possibly having healing capabilities on top of that was the stuff of children''s tales.
He didn''t know why he had so many affinities, but he had a feeling that awakening an element literally referred to as ''mana,'' must have been the work of the green energy that coursed through him and created his mana channels for him.
''Oh crap... I should probably limit myself to two elements then. Using three would put too much attention on me, especially when I''m so weak, and using four would be the same as writing "kill me" on my forehead, taking a picture of it, and broadcasting it to the entire.'' Ss sighed before returning his attention to creating spells.
Since his parents weren''t watching him anymore, he raised his finger and began tracing something in the air.
''If my knowledge is correct, creating a spell is essentially just creating runes in a certain pattern, and the patterns humans chose were magic circles and runes since they''re pretty easy to understand.'' He thought while closing his eyes and channeling mana to his index finger.
Slowly, he traced out arge circle that was a little smaller than he was. However, he quickly moved his finger inside the circle, making another circle that was the size of his head instead.
''In the smaller circle should go the rune that represents the element I''m going to use-'' He traced out a rune that he remembered from the book.
''And the outer circle should be split into four sections, each section controlling an aspect of the spell I''m creating... It''s essentially the control panel.'' Ss quickly created a horizontal and verticle line across therge circle, both lines cutting off whenever they ovepped with the smaller circle with the elemental rune in it.
His finger moved quickly, tracing 4 runes into the 4 sections.
''Since humans don''t create their spells out of instinct like magical beasts, they have to use magic through runes instead...'' Ss thought while opening his eyes.
He saw a dark grey circle before him, the color of the circle representing the color of his mana core. However, the rune in the middle of the spell was blue, and it seemed like it was trying to change the color of the circles and runes inside them, but every time it tried, it was quickly pushed back by Ss'' mana.
''Why the hell is that happening?'' Ss thought while all the dead game developers nodded alongside him, remembering their days of creating code to discover that it somehow created a glitch that simply didn''t make sense.
Concentrating momentarily, he closed his eyes again and imagined the water element.
The sound of the rain from his previous life entered his mind. He could almost hear it... He could hear the rain, the rivers, and ocean tides, and the river of blood dripping from his ha-...
Then a spark was created.
The mana inside his channels was constantly powering the circle, yet when he started imagining the water element, a spark was created inside his core, turning his mana slightly blue before it entered his magic circle.
The magic circle instantly became ocean blue, and before Ss could fully open his eyes and realize that he had seeded, he felt his mana being siphoned out of his core at a dramatic rate while a water sphere slowly formed before the circle that was now twice asrge as before.
''Holy sh*t, I did it!''
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Chapter 5 Magic [2] - Spell Casting [2]
?"Mommy? Why is the bed so wet?" Asked Syra with a confused expression.
"Because you''re little brother peed on it baby..." Rhea sighed while Keira, Rhea''s mother, walked into the room and looked at the drenched part of the bed.
"What the hell are you feeding his kid?! Not even adults pee this much!" Keira eximed while imagining how much water it would have taken to wet the bed to the extent they were seeing.
"Aha! That''s my boy!" Lochras lifted Ss up and hugged him.#
''This is so embarrassing... Damnit.'' Ss thought with a beet-red face, unable to look his father in the eyes.
"He''s still covered in pee..." Rheamented without even looking at her husband.
"Yes, he is." Lochras sighed, ced Ss back onto the bed, and walked out of the room to get a change of clothes.
''Damnit!''
"Mommy? Why doesn''t it smell?" Syra asked.
"Because someone keeps overfeeding him with their breastmilk." Keira looked at her daughter with a disapproving gaze.
"It''s normal for a baby''s urine to not smell! Remember Syra when she was his age?!" Rhea retorted.
"Yeah... She was practically peeing water. I wonder what the reason for that is?" Keira sighed and left the room as well.
''At least mine was water!'' Ss inwardly shouted at the injustice he was witnessing.
Beingpared to Syra had really taken a toll on his pride. Of course, since he was a baby, he had no real control of his dder, but usually, all the peeing he did went into a diaper, making him feel much less ashamed than if he were to do it out right in the open.
Ss spent the rest of that day too ashamed to even look in the same direction as any of his parents.
However, when the next day came, he forgot all about it and went right back to work.
For the days that followed his first magic spell, Ss tried all the basic spells he could find in his book. His first few attempts were the spells water ball, water shot, and water ssh.
However, he quickly realized how quickly his mana was drained whenever he used those spells, causing him to fall into a slumber after only two spells in a single day.
He then went on to all the basic air spells and then all the basic earth spells; however, when he was about to go onto the fire spells, he quickly stopped himself.
''Yeah... I''d rather not burn the house down.'' He sighed, not wanting to take another chance at reincarnation.
However, he quickly saw a pattern, more specifically, a problem he was having.
Spell casting was far too slow, and since the book he was reading was literally just called ''''Magic 101- Basics Of Magic,'' he couldn''t find anything on faster spell casting, except the thing that the people of this world called ''chanting.''
However, his vocal cords and teeth hadn''t developed enough for him to speak, making him incapable of correctly chanting a spell incantation.
Spell incantations were a way to create runes and magic circles without writing the runes yourself.
It was essentially text-to-speech that tranted normal speech into runic formations.
''Technically, I have two problems. The first one is my mana pool, which is essentially two tier-1 spells away frompletely emptying and throwing me into a deep slumber. On the other hand, I have the spell-creation problem that will haunt me if I don''t find a solution to it right now...''
But that''s when an idea popped into his mind...
''Wait a second, doesn''t my mother use incantations to create spells? Can''t I just ask her? But how can I ask her if I can''t even speak yet...'' Ss thought while looking down at his finger with a sympathetic expression.
''Ugh, what''s the big deal? I shot myself in the head before. I doubt this will be as excruciating as that.'' Ss sighed and crawled over to the least expensive-looking vase in the living room.
With a good nudge, he watched as the vase fell over and smashed right into his hand...
"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH."
The sound of a vase breaking instantly caught the attention of everyone in the house, and when they heard an ear-piercing scream enter their ears, they all rushed to the living room.
"AHHH!" Syra screamed as well, making the adults panic even more.
Ss''s scream wasn''t fake...
He aimed to cut his hand and force his mother to begin chanting to heal the cut, allowing him to watch how the runes formed whenever someone said an incantation. The problem was that he didn''t expect the entire vace to fall onto his hand and shatter.
He could see some of its piecesing out of his hand, but it was broken. He could see that it was simply bleeding, nothing more.
His parents quickly rushed into the room and saw blood covering his hands.
"I''ll call Diveen. Rhea, try your best to stop his bleeding!" Lochras shouted and ran out of the house.
''Ah, sh*t. Son of a b*tch, I''ve never hated myself more for a decision... Never mind...'' Ss thought as the excruciating pain stopped momentarily as soothing warm energy filled his hand, but no matter how much he tried to sense how the runes were forming, he sensed a thing...
Until he realized that no runes were forming, and his mother hadn''t even begun to chant an incantation.
Looking down at his hand, despite being very hidden, he could see that his veins were beginning to glow green as some sort of energy moved toward his hand and began to heal his wounds slowly...
''Oh, crap...''
He felt like he could manipte this energy to increase its healing speed, so he did the exact opposite and stopped himself from being a healer.
"By the light that guides us all,
With the power of life, I heed the call." As his mother began chanting, runes slowly formed before her.
Ss concentrated on those runes and, without knowing it, took the healing energy from his hands and unknowingly rerouted them to his eyes.
For a moment, his eyes shone with a dull green while his vision flickered, making everything around him look ck and white except the mana that was fluctuating out of his mother and the runes that were forming before her.
"With pure intent and steadfast will,
Let wounds be healed; let bodies be still."
Ss engraved every single detail of how her mana was moving out of her body...
''When she''s chanting, she doesn''t need to trace the runes or weave them with her fingers. She just chants and the mana is almost automatically released out of her body and formed into runes right before her eyes...'' Ss analyzed.
But that''s when he realized-
''Is that...''
"Advanced Healing."
''A tier 3 spell?''
The warm energy from the healing spell entered his wounds, and began to patch them up.
''Wait... Since when could I see mana? At most, I can sense it, but I''ve never been... able to... see-...''
Exhaustion hit him like a truck, and before he knew it, he had fallen into a deep slumber.
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Chapter 6 Magic [3] - Toki
?It had been a month since the minor incident of him identally harming himself, but things had been going at a good pace ever since then.
Even though his mother''s healing spell was a little clumsy and had a chance to leave a few scars, his new ability to heal hade to the rescue,pletely healing him from scratch while breaking down the tiny ss shards that his mother''s spell might have left behind.
Yes, you heard that right... Ss had a healing ability... It only took him 3 months to find out how to use them, but he got there in the end.
However, he didn''t mull over that fact for too long... Sure, he thought that he was bing slow in the head for a few hours, but afterward, the only thing he could think about were the implication of such a powerful ability, and how he could implement it into his life to improve his battle capabilities.
While increasing his battle potential and capabilities wasn''t his main motivating factor, it was one of them, and the reason for that was simple.
His father was a knight, his mother was something called a diviner, and Keira, his grandmother, was a mage.
That sentence alone spelled danger. The fact that his whole family had based their entire professions on fighting or helping in battle told Ss that the world he was in was going to be a ruthless one.
Sure, he loved to learn, discover and create, and even though learning about magic was exactly that, what was the point of learning and discovering new things if you''re too dead to implement any of it?
So for thest month, Ss cultivated and practiced his spell creation in a non-ending cycle, only taking breaks when his mother chose to breastfeed him.
"Are you sure your child isn''t dead?" Keria nced at Ss, who was simply sitting on the kitchen counter without moving or making a single sound.
"Yes! I checked his pulse three times already!" Rhea shouted back with the tone of a scolded child.
"Heh... Maybe he''s cultivating?" Keira chuckled.
''If she only knew how right she was.'' Ss thought and continued to circte the mana inside his core. He felt like he was on the edge of something, and he assumed that feeling was that it felt like being one step away from a minor breakthrough.
He had understood that his mother and grandmother were incapable of feeling mana the same way he could, and they probably couldn''t manually control their mana to the same extent as Ss.
Actually, it exined why they couldn''t use spells they were not attuned to, and why there were unawakened people on this they called "Gilea."
Ss slowly looked at his grandmother, who had gone back to her own cultivation after her small remark about him.
Closing his eyes, Ss began thinking of the life equation... Unlike the rest of the elements, the life equation seemed to have been an element of its own that wasn''t linked to mana.
Due to that, Ss couldn''t think of the life equation the same way he thought of his mana.
Every time he used his mana to create a spell, he found that he would break it into 4 different sections, each one representing a different element. It dramatically lowered the speed at which he would create spells and the power behind his spells, but it also exined why the average person doesn''t awaken.
When Ss opened his eyes again, they were a dull green. His vision changed into ck and white, and he could finally see runes and the flow of mana around him.
And since he was looking at his grandmother, he could also see that she wasn''t cultivating the same way as he was...
''Since she is only attuned to the fire element, she only siphons the fire element of the mana around her and uses it to cultivate her mana core.'' Ss looked down at her sr plexus, where a mana core shone with a pristine crystalline amethyst light.
Ss turned his head toward his sister and narrowed his eyes when he saw very small amounts of silver energy leaving the mana around her and entering her core. She had recently turned 5 years old, so if he luck was right, she''d be really close to an awakening.
''It means that anyone without an affinity can''t awaken, but if they do ever awaken, they''ll have an affinity toward all the elements.'' Ss thought, sighing when he realized he didn''t have a notebook to write any of that information down, so he simply allowed it to remain in his mind.
''However... If the theory I''ve built up for thest month is correct, I should be able to release the full potential of my mana by forcing one of the elements to take full control of all my mana. This way, I won''t have to split it into 4 different elements and lose about 75% of my mana''s efficiency.'' Ss stroked his chin, making his mother chuckled.
However, that''s when he caught a glimpse of his father training on their frontwn with his de.
At first, Ss didn''t see the point of using a de. Hell, he didn''t even understand how his father had even be a knight if he had no elemental abilities, but that''s when he realized that magic was only one of many paths mana could open up for a person...
His father seemed to exude and cover himself with mana in a way that Ss had never seen before. His father''s technique and control were incredible, but over thest month, he had quickly realized that the mana maniption was almost instinctual.
His father called it "Toki," and the books described it as a form of energy maniption thates from the soul. Of course, that wasn''t true since what Ss saw was a form of mana maniption that didn''t use the core, nor did it use any elements.
It was the reason why mages couldn''t use toki, and toki users couldn''t use elemental magic either.
*Creek*
His father walked in through the door covered in sweat and panting from his training session, yet his face had a full-blow smile on it.
His smile was a little refreshing to see. Such a pure-hearted and simple smile would have brightened anyone''s day, and it did for everyone who saw it, even Ss.
"Hm?" Lochras turned to Ss and looked him in the eyes.
"Hey, Rhea. Did you know that Ss has green eyes?" He asked, making Ss turn slightly pale as he quickly deactivated his ability.
"Really?" Rhea turned Ss''s cheek to see, but when she looked into his eyes, they looked as dark brown as always.
"Dada coo-koo?" Ss pointed toward his father.
"Yes. Your father is delirious." Rhea sighed and looked at her husband disapprovingly.
"Mommy? Maybe daddy is tired?" Syra chimed in.
"Or he''s lost his mind? I''ve seen it back when in the military, you know. Knights eventually go crazy." Keira chimed with a short cackle before returning to her cultivation.
"I don''t appreciate all of you attacking me at the same time..." He pouted and looked into Ss''s eyes again.
"I guess it was just the lighting, then?" He tilted his head before shrugging and going to his room to shower.
''Phew.'' Ss sighed, and just like that, a year passed by in what felt like the blink of an eye.
[A/N: Toki is pronounced "T-Oh-Kee," but I guess its up to you on how you want to say it.]
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Chapter 7 First Blood [1] - Syras Awakening
?*Thud Thud*
"Order in the court!" A man wearing a white wig and ck robes shouted, his voice booming throughout the hall, instantly silencing everyone.
"Mr. Evergreen. The jury has found you guilty of the mass killing of several innocents, the cruel experimentation on several citizens of the united states, and the torture of several CIA agents. For your despicable actions, you have been sentenced to death! All your assets shall be seized immediately." The judge spoke, his voice filled with contempt and disgust for the boy before him.
Seth Evergreen was only 18 years old at this point, yet the look in his eyes told a clear story for everyone who could see them.
They showed no remorse...
"You''re really stretching it when you call them innocent..." Seth chuckled.
"They were innocent in the eyes of thew. And even if they weren''t, what gives you the right to be judge, jury, and executioner?!" The judge roared, letting anger control him for the first time since the beginning of the case.
"Ugh... This is why I don''t like hanging out with people. Always so dramatic. Robots are so much cooler." Seth rolled his eyes as he was slowly escorted out of the hall, yet the moment his foot stepped out of the hall, the world around Seth began to flicker.
Before he knew it, he was no longer standing in the hall. Instead, he stood on a fiery battlefield where hundredsy dead, and the orange mes consumed the corpses and buildings without discrimination.
Mechanical bots could be seen walking around, shooting anything that moved¡
Anything that wasn''t their master and their master''s enemy.
*Click*
Pressing onto the revolver''s hammer, Seth slowly pointed his gun at the man kneeling before him.
"You know, Mr. President, I pity you." Seth sighed, yet the expression on his face betrayed his words.
After all, he wore a smile that would have sent a shiver down the spines of even the likes of psychopaths and serial killers.
"F*ck you." The president snarled while spitting blood onto Seth''s face.
"It''s nothing personal, old man." Seth wiped the saliva and blood off of his face with a trace of disgust on his expression.
"Since you''re the first one to cross me, it''s only fair that you would be the first to suffer my wrath. Today, you will be an example of what happens to those who cross me, and hopefully, the other countries will stay out of my business. I''d rather not have to wipe out another country." Seth rubbed his temples with a sigh before pulling the trigger.
*Bang*
***
Ss slowly opened his eyes, awakening from a deep and refreshing slumber.
''I haven''t thought of that day for years... I wonder what brought it up.'' Ss thought to himself while climbing over his cradle andnding onto the hardwood floor.
¨X¨T¨T¨T¨T¨T¨T ? ¡ã?¡ã ? ¨T¨T¨T¨T¨T¨T¨[
Name: Seth Evergreen
Age: 18 Months
Race: Reincarnated Lesser Human
Core: Pristine-Onyx
Affinities: Mana (Earth, Fire, Water, Air), Life Equation
Bloodlines: None
Blessing: Evolution - (Your body, mind, and soul have been sculpted to transform you into the peak life form. Everything you do and everything done to you shall affect how you evolve.)
¨^¨T¨T¨T¨T¨T¨T ? ¡ã?¡ã ? ¨T¨T¨T¨T¨T¨T¨a
It had been a year and a half since his rebirth into Gilea, and ever since his awakening at 3 months old, he had done nothing but cultivate his core and train his mana control.
There were also a few things he learned how to do along the way, but for now, all he wanted to do was to break through to the ga core.
His sister had also recently reached the age of 6, and if his eyes didn''t deceive him, she was infinitely close to awakening her dormant mana core.
She seemed like she needed a little nudge, yet Ss wouldn''t have done it even if he knew how to help her awaken her core.
''It''s better if she learns these things on her own.'' Ss thought to himself as he waddled toward the living room where his mother sat with a grave expression on her face.
''Lochras should be at work by now, and since I can''t see Keira anywhere, it means she must have either gone shopping or...'' Ss turned to his mother.
''Or she''s been called for an urgent mission near the borders between the forest and this town.'' Ss narrowed his eyes and continued to waddle until he was beside his mother. He didn''t really need to waddle, but he had to keep up the act of an 18-month-old child who was still struggling to coordinate his limbs.
Without making another sound, he hugged his mother''s leg, causing her grave expression to fade slightly before being reced by a warm smile.
"You always know how to cheer me up." Rhea smiled before picking Ss up and cing him on herp.
"Mama sad?" Ss tilted his head.
"No... Mama is just worried for your grandmother." Rhea replied with an uneasy expression.
"Gamma stwong!" Ss pped his hands and smiled.
"She is strong, but now she''s just being reckless... How could she go into the forest alone, without any back up at that?!" Rhea clenched her fists in frustration.
''She''s an amethyst core mage, I doubt you have anything to worry about.'' Ss inwardly thought, unable to imagine his grandmother ever losing in a fight against a monster or beast that wasn''t significantly powerful.
*KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK*
The sound of the door being knocked entered both of their ears; however, while Ss didn''t think much of it despite how strong the knocks were, his mother looked like her heart had dropped to her stomach.
She gently ced Ss to the side and ran toward the door where a woman with ck hair stood, panting heavily and covered in sweat.
The woman was pale. However, Ss still found it difficult to believe this woman hade to them with bad news. He could feel that something was off about her.
"Rhea... You have toe quickly! The monsters are pushing back the adventurers and warriors.
Keira... Keira is injured! Diveen is too busy pushing back the rest of the monsters alongside the chief, but they need Keira to help them out. You''re the only other diviner in this town, so I immediately came to you." The woman panted while Rhea became as pale as a ghost.
Looking back, she stared at Ss and then at Syra, who was just ying with her toys.
"Don''t worry. I can take care of them. You go!" The woman forced out a smile through her tired expression, making Rhea smile slightly.
"Thank you!" Rhea bowed and instantly left the house and closed the door behind her.
''Liar.'' Ss thought, his inner voice filled with contempt for the woman before him.
Ss knew humans. He knew their nature, and he could see right through them.
"Ga?" Ss voiced with a tilt of the head.
"Oh, I wouldn''t worry about your mommy. She''s in good hands now. It''s you guys we want..." The woman''s tired persona disappeared as color quickly returned to her face, and a sadistic grin stretched out from the corner of her mouth.
''I hate when I''m right.'' Ss wanted to sigh, but he suppressed it and watched the woman nkly.
*BOOM*
*Crash*
The sound of the back door being smashed in echoed throughout the house, making Syra freeze in ce before running over to where Ss was.
Out of curiosity, Ss also turned around to see who had smashed their back door.
A hulking figure walked in through the door with an axe in his hands. He wore an armor made up of multiple colors, as if each piece of the armor had been taken from another set to create his armor.
Even the axe didn''t match any of the armor pieces he was wearing.
''Ohhhh... Crap.'' Ss inwardly cursed.
He was pretty confident in being able to kill the woman quite easily without anyone realizing that it was him, but the man was another story.
''They''re probably here to rob the house and take us as either hostage or sell us as ves, or whatever this world''s equivalent of a ve is.'' Ss thought to himself while a n slowly formed in his mind.
However, before he could finish thinking of the n, he felt his sister suddenly grab him and run with him to the corner of the living room closest to the firece.
Ss was surprised she could even pick him up, but his surprise only increased when he heard what she said.
cing him down in the corner of the room, she stood in front of him before grabbing the metal fire rod that had been ced next to the firece, and finally spoke-
"Stay behind me. I won''t let them hurt you."
''...What?''
Ss was stunned. Why was she protecting him?
He could hear the determination in Syra''s voice, yet he could also hear the subtle shake in her voice.
He could see her small hands tightly gripping the metal fire rod, but they were trembling even more than her voice had.
He could see tears glistening in the corners of her eyes, yet despite all that, she still stood with her back to him, ready to protect him no matter the cost.
''Why?''
Ss had never had a sibling before. Sure, he was intelligent and knowledgeable, but he couldn''t even qualify as a novice when it came to having healthy rtionships.
He never understood why humans always clung to one another, whether that was in a marriage or among family members and friends.
So when he saw his sister stand in front of him, willing to sacrifice her own life to protect him, a warm feeling that he couldn''t understand filled his heart and made his stomach churn.
"Aww. How cute. Big sister wants to protect her little brother." The woman looked at them the same way one would look at a cat protecting her kittens.
"Do we need them in one piece?" The man asked with a raised brow.
"Eh, just make sure the wounds are heble." She shrugged with a chuckle while throwing several expensive-looking items into a small bag.
Looking at Syra, the man grinned and punched forward with a hand coated in toki.
The moment his hand fully extended, a powerful wind pressure shot toward Syra, appearing before her in the blink of an eye.
''Sh*t.'' Ss gritted his teeth, pivoted himself forward, and reached his hand toward the back of Syra''s cor, yet before he could reach her, he was blinded by a bright silver light.
*SWOOSH*
Powerful winds sent Ss flying back, and at the same time, they shredded the air pressure punch that was about to hit Syra directly in the abdomen.
Squinting his eyes, Ss''s eyes turned green, allowing him to see the spectacle that had illuminated the entire house and everything within a 30-meter radius of it.
Syra was awakening.
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Chapter 8 First Blood [2] - Life Devourer
?"Syra..." Lochras muttered as he crouched down to get on the same eye level as a 4-year-old Syra.
"Yes papa." Syra replied with her usual energetic tone.
"You see your brother over there?" Lochras pointed at an infant Ss,ying in his cradle and sleeping peacefully.
Syra nodded.
"Syra, you have a lot of potential. You are almost guaranteed to awaken your mana core, and when you do, I want you to protect your brother." Lochras'' voice was stern and serious.
"From what?" Syra asked, a little scared by the way her father was speaking.
"There are a lot of bad people out there. You''ll understand this better when you''re older, but for now, make sure you remember my words. You have to protect your little brother, okay? If a kid tries to pick on him, you protect him. If someone tries to hurt him, you protect him until we get there, okay?" Lochras asked.
"But what if you don''t get there?" Syra asked, her eyes tearing up slightly.
"Don''t worry, we will always be there for you two." Lochras smiled, making Syra calm down and nod without hesitation.
***
''Protect your brother.''
Those words echoed inside Syra''s mind, and before she could understand what she was doing, her body moved instinctually, grabbing Ss and cing him in the corner of the living room.
"Stay behind me. I won''t let them hurt you."
However, those words weren''t instinctual. They hade from the heart; from her perspective, they were a promise. A promise she would make sure to hold up until the end.
She was terrified, but she didn''t move from her ce, and she didn''t allow a single tear to leave her eyes.
She didn''t want to despair, but when she saw the man''s attacking toward her, despair was the only thing she could feel.
''I have to protect him.'' Her eyes filled up with even more tears, and without an ounce of hesitation, she pushed the metal rod forward and closed her eyes.
And that''s when she felt it. It was a feeling she had never felt before. As if something had finally clicked, and a missing part of her had finally returned, making her whole for the first time in her life.
The burst of silver energy shot forth and destroyed the iing attack. Simultaneously, the shockwave of her awakening also pushed Ss back, causing him to m into the wall.
A ck substance began to secrete out of her pores while her mana output increased threefold.
Without a moment of hesitation, Syra charged forward with everything she had.
The wind element quickly coated the metal rod she was holding while enhancing her speed.
However, before she could even reach the hulking figure of the intruder, an axe smashed her rod into the ground before water pierced through the winds coating her body and mming into her stomach.
Everything happened in a split second, and as Ss looked up after recovering from his hit, he only saw a glimpse of Syra blurring past him and mming into the wall right next to him.
Blood seeped out of the back of her head, and her hands were fully burnt.
''The metal rod... She held onto it even when it was burning her.''
Syra''s determination was beyond anything he had seen before, even from adults.
Something snapped inside him when he saw her in such a state.
Turning toward the two intruders, his green eyes staring into their souls as he raised his hand a pointed it at them.
His eyes were nk...
Yet, even they could feel the rage bubbling behind them.
"Die."
The mana inside Ss bubbled, yet instead of breaking into 4 elements before releasing the needed element, the mana simply sparked with silver, overwhelming the rest of the elements and changing his mana attribute to the wind element.
Within less than a second, a pentagram appeared before him, and 11 runes were instantly inscribed into them.
"Wind bullet"
The moment the tier 2 spell appeared, it shot forward and appeared in front of the woman faster than she could blink.
The next moment, she found her head being flung back while brain matter coated the walls behind her before her consciousness finally faded.
Now that his sister was unconscious, holding back was unnecessary.
"Jenna?" The man turned toward the woman, yet instead of seeing the happy smile of the woman he loved, he saw herying on the ground with blood seeping out of the hole in her head.
Ss quickly sent out a second wind bullet toward the armored man, yet unlike hispanion, he had enough time to react, allowing him to coat his head with Toki, blocking most of the attack''s lethality.
"Tsk." Ss looked at the man with annoyance before channeling his mana through his body the same way the green energy moved through his body whenever he was hurt.
"You killed her..." The man looked at Ss with an uncontroble rage.
His eyes quickly turned red before a deafening roar left his mouth as he swung his axe down at Ss with all the power he could muster.
The axe parted the air at unbelievable speeds, yet despite the power and quickness of the attack, Ss had already channeled the green energy toward his eyes, allowing him to see everything.
*Crack*
*Swoosh*
The boards under Ss'' feet cracked the moment he moved.
Ss was like a blur, having instantly shot out of the axe''s attack range andnded on the wall his sister wasying on.
The man saw a metal rod held within Ss'' tiny hand, yet when he looked up to stare into the eyes of the thing that killed the love of his life, he froze.
From the moment Ss had killed Jenna, the man hadn''t seen him as a human baby anymore, not that it would have stopped him from killing Ss.
However, now that he looked into Ss'' eyes, he saw apletely different picture.
He saw the eyes of a grown man who had be numb to death. The eyes of a monster that no longer cared if the thing before it lived or died.
The eyes of a creature that destroyed an entire civilization right before his eyes
"What... What are you?!" The man screamed as he threw his axe at Ss at blurring speeds by covering his arm with toki.
"Gale wind." a magic circle appeared on the wall and beneath Ss'' feet. A st of wind shot Ss toward the ceiling, and once he had his feet on the ceiling, he repeated hisst spell andunched himself at the hulking man.
The man raised both his arms and protected himself with them, making an X over his head.
However, instead of retreating, Ss quickly reeled his hand back and channeled all his avable mana through it.
What he was doing wasn''t toki, since toki was the maniption of mana outside one''s body to coat themselves with it and enhance their body and senses.
At the same time, a tier one magic silver magic circle appeared behind and shot his arm forward, making it look like nothing but a blur until it mmed into the leather armor coated with toki.
*Crack*
Ss felt the bones in his hands shatter, yet he didn''t show any pain in his expression.
The man stumbled back a few steps, yet for some reason, there was a pain in his shoulder far worse than the pain in his forearms.
And when he looked over his shoulder to see what it was, he felt his heart drop.
A burning red metal rod was sticking out of his shoulder from between the gap in his armor.
Ss quicklynded on the surface of the metal rod and sent out a punch with his other hand toward the man''s face, yet it was quickly nullified by the man''s toki.
But that''s what Ss was hoping for...
His fist bounced off the man''s face, yet instead of retracting it, Ss opened his palm as a glint of killing intent shone in his eyes despite Ss having done his best to suppress it in the presence of his sister despite knowing that she was unconscious.
A magic circle with a pentagram appeared in front of Ss'' palm, before the air in the room became extremely dry.
Suddenly, water began to form in front of the tier two magic circle, that looked like a pentagram.
The water spiraled around for a few moments before Ss finally spoke.
"Water cannon."
Water mmed into the man''s face before instantly smashing him into the floor while forcing water down his nose and throat.
The man struggled for a moment, but he quickly controlled himself before throwing a punch at Ss, who was now standing on his chest.
Ss looked at the man with an expression that was filled with disdain. Extending his hand toward the iing punch, Ss muttered-
"Wind sh."
11 silver runes formed out of thin air as the tier two magic circle appeared before his hand.
An arch of wind shot out of the silver magic circle, yet despite the man''s hand being coated with toki, the wind arch cleaved into his wrist, stopping halfway due to the toki pushing it back.
"You call yourself a warrior?" Ss finally spoke. His words were fluent, while his voice was cold.
The man let out a blood-curdling scream when he saw his hand dangling off his forearm. He was no longer looking at Ss with the anger of a grieving lover, but instead, he looked at him with terror.
He felt true terror for the first time in his life, and it was directed toward a measly toddler.
Ss reached out for the metal rod with his now-healed hand and hovered the rod over the man''s throat.
"Please... Please don''t kill me!" The man pleaded in ast act of desperation.
"I can give you anything. Money, armor, equipment, you name it!" Tears flowed out of the man''s eyes.
"Oh really? Anything?" Ss asked, a grin suddenly tugging at the corner of his lips.
"Yes! Anything!" The man nodded, finally seeing the light of hope at the end of the tunnel.
"Then... I want to kill the man who dared raise his weapon against my sister." Ss spoke, his face contorting into one of disgust as he raised the metal rod into the air, channeled mana through the blood vessels in his arm, and finally lowered it upon the man''s eye.
"Wait. NOOO-"
*Splurge*
[You have killed 2 lesser humans]
[The sub-ability of your evolution blessing, "Life devourer," has been activated]
[You have consumed two life forces]
[You are evolving]
[Your resistance to the wind element had increased slightly]
[Your control over mana has increased]
[A/N: I don''t want to deceive any of you, so let me make a few things clear. Ss'' "system" is only here to keep track of his blessings, bloodlines, affinities, and race. He won''t have quests, nor will he have a shop system in ce. Its only purpose is to tell the reader what''s happening and to inform Ss of the aspects or changes of his own body.]
Chapter 9 First Blood [3] - The Cover Up
?[ dia Forest ]
*Pant, Pant*
"I came here as fast as I could... Where is my mother?" Rhea panted while leaning forward and supporting her body weight onto her knees.
"Your mother?" A man raised a brow.
They were currently right outside the entrance of the dia forest, where the sound of battle could be heard echoing throughout the vast woods, the sound of metal shing against metal hitting their ears like a symphony of an untuned piano.
"Yes, my mother!" Rhea shouted in anger. She couldn''t waste any more time. There was a chance that her mother might die if she didn''t get to her in time.
"I''m right here." Keira suddenly appeared out of nowhere, covered in blood from head to toe. However, looking at how she was practically unscathed, the blood was clearly not hers.
"Mom? You''re... Okay?" Rhea asked while walking forward and checking her mother for internal wounds with a quick analysis spell.
"Of course I am! I just single handidly killed the alpha of that monster hoard; give me some credit!" Keira sneered while turning to the town chief, who slowly walked toward a pile of monster heads and ced thergest head at the top.
"With a little help from that guy," Keira admitted with a sigh before continuing-
"Also, why the hell are you here? Who are Syra and Ss with?" Keira red at her daughter.
"But, Jenna told me that you were dying and that you needed a healer because Diveen was fighting..." Rhea replied.
Silence descended on both of them, and in that same moment, it felt like the entire forest had suddenly gone silent too.
Both their eyes slowly widened, panic and horror taking over both of their expressions.
"Did you leave the kids with her?" Keira asked with a deadpan tone.
"I didn''t know-"
*SMACK*
All Rhea saw was a hand move toward her. The next moment, she felt like she was spinning, and finally, she felt herself m face-first into the dirt.
"Diveen! Come with me! No time to exin!" Keira gritted her teeth and quickly kicked her heel into the ground.
Red runes slowly appeared all over her boots before mes began to spew in coordinated patterns, allowing her to move as fast as possible without losing control of her feet.
***
[ dia Skrk Home ]
Ss looked at his hand and watched as his blood vessels turned green, making the burns on his hand that he got from touching the burning hot iron-rod, disappear within seconds of the green energy appearing.
Ss was covered in blood from head to toe, while the entire house looked like a scene from a horror movie.
Everything from the blood that coated the walls, and the brain matter that was sliding off them...
Of course, it didn''t really bother Ss. He had seen scenes like this in his previous life. Actually, he could remember a time when an experiment of his had gone wrong, causing the body he was experimenting on to explode and cover his entireb with guts and blood.
"Was that one my adoptive father or mother? Eh, who cares. The past is the past." Ss nodded with a weird amount of excitement.
Stepping off the corpse of the man who tried to kill them, began to whistle the melody of a song he used to enjoy before the apocalypse.
At the same time, he analyzed his fight with the mage and the warrior.
''I was far too reckless with thatst move. Being mid-air also means that I''ll be vunerable to attacks since I won''t be able to move out of the way fast enough. It would take at least a second to create an air st magic circle to push me out of the way of the attack, and by then, he might have killed me.'' Ss thought to himself, thanking fate for being so generous and bringing him two idiots instead of intelligent warriors.
Plus, the woman was barely a ga core, and since she wasn''t a warrior, her senses were far too slow to stop the air bullet that shot through her head.
''Toki users seem to be a lot more dangerous than mages... I don''t know why that is the case, but it means that I will have to learn how to use it.'' He thought to himself, thinking back to how he channeled mana through his arm to strengthen the power of his punch.
Of course, that wasn''t toki. He had watched his father train enough time to know that toki was the maniption of mana outside one''s body to cover themselves with it. It was a bit like how Ss controlled mana and absorbed it into his core, but at the same time, it was a lot moreplicated than that.
Toki seemed to be mostly instinctual. Every time his father would swing his sword, the flow of toki covering the needed body parts for that swing improved. Even though the improvement was nearly abysmal, 10,000 swings eventually added up to a marginal improvement, no matter how small it seemed in the grand scheme of things.
Ss'' theory of toki being instinctual was confirmed in his fight against the warrior. No person would have the reaction time to block his attack in time without being exceptionally good at using toki.
On the one hand, Ss knew that toki could improve senses and even increase the user''s reaction time. On the other hand, the man was far too weak to have enough of an improvement in his senses to allow him to block such a quick attack.
''So if toki is primarily instinctual, I''ll probably have to learn toki the normal way first before trying to do it manually.'' Ss thought to himself.
Walking to the bathroom, Ss took a few minutes to wash off the blood that was covering him. At the same time, he could not help but think of another thing.
''My evolution blessing it pretty over powered...'' He chuckled while wiping the blood off his face.
Blessings were essentially like a unique personal ability. Their quality was ranked on how useful and rare they were, yet even then, blessings themselves were considered extremely rare, possibly even rarer than apetent mage.
ording to the screen he was seeing, his evolution blessing could evolve him in every way, starting with his body, mind, and soul. He didn''t really understand the soul part, but he understood the mind and body parts of it.
''Everything I do and everything done to me can affect how I evolve, right? So when I got mmed onto the wall by Syra''s awakening, the evolution blessing must have seen that and changed my body in a way that would make me less vulnerable to such attacks.
At the same time, by having toki used against me, even though the man didn''t hurt me, having him around caused me to evolve, making my control over the mana element stronger... It''s as if my body is learning by just having him around, by why didn''t the same thing happen when my father used toki?'' Ss thought to himself while slowly leaving the bathroom and walking toward his sister.
The bathrooms in this world were quite old... There was no flushing function, but if he had to admit, the plumbing in this world wasn''t too bad.
It reminded him of the Romans before the dark ages.
Finally reaching his sister, Ss bent down and checked her pulse. It was normal, and she was breathing fine. However, using what he now called the ''Mystic Eyes,'' Ss could still seerge amounts of silver energy entering and leaving her body. However, he didn''t need his eyes to tell him since there was still a faint white light around his sister that indicated that she was still awakening.
Looking at he hands, Ss frowned.
They were burnt from having held the hot metal rod, and even though he would never admit it out loud, he could feel a stinging paining from his chest area.
''Is this guilt?'' Ss thought to himself, but he quickly shook his head.
He would have loved to heal his sister before she woke up, but he had to ensure everything was in ce so no one would suspect a thing about the fight.
Apparently, people going through their awakenings can cast spells without magic circles, and in a way, it made sense.
Their body is manipting arge amount of the wind element around them, so it is only natural that they can create powerful gusts of wind to attack their enemies on instinct.
''To be fair, I only heard that geniuses could do such a thing. At the same time, maybe a wind bullet was overkill?'' Ss looked at the woman with a 2-inch wide hole at the front and back of her head.
To anyone else, it would look like Syra had suddenly awakened and exploded the head of the woman by using her awakening, while jumping at the man and stabbing through his eye... Or possibly throwing the metal rod...
''Yep... She will definitely bebeled a genius...'' Ss thought as he slowly sat in the corner of the room.
*boom*
*Boom*
*BOOM*
Hearing the sound of explosionsing closer, Ss looked into the air and let out a toe-curdling cry.
*Crash*
Suddenly, he saw his grandmother crash through the front door while sliding on the ground with two magic circles readied, hovering over her hands and pointing forward to kill anything she deemed as a threat.
However...
''...''
Keira''s eyes wandered around. She nced at the blood covering the walls and floor, as well as the two dead bodies that looked like they had been brutally killed.
And then, she looked over to her left, where Syray on the ground and glowing with white light, as well as Ss, who was crying his eyes out.
"What the hell happened here...?"
---------------------
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Chapter 10 The Struggle [1] - S-Grade Wind Affinity
?The house was quiet for once. No one said a word, and now one moved.
Rhea sat in the middle of the sofa, her head held low and her face filled with shame and resentment.
However, that resentment was not aimed at the intruders or her mother, who had knocked her out with a single p. She was feeling resentment toward herself.
Keira simply stood next to the door, looking through the window right next to her and staring at the forest in the distance.
Ss could almost feel the anger resonating from her body in the form of mana fluctuations. The fire element inside the mana around her was reacting to the anger in waves, yet Keira was wise enough to bite her tongue and not say anything.
However, the same could not be said for Lochras.
"How could you leave our children here alone? Are you stupid?! Does Diveen need to check up on you to make sure your healthy enough to take care of our children?" Lochras asked, his fist clenched tightly as he slowly turned away.
His rage was a lot stronger than Keira''s, but that was to be expected.
Ss could see it fluctuate off him in the form of toki, but instead of being the kind of toki that would destroy and enhance, it fluctuated from his body like a calm and constant breeze.
"Syra''s fine. She had a few burns on her hands from... Well, that." Diveen pointed at the metal rod sticking out of the man''s eye socket.
"I would worry about her mental state though. No child should have to see this. You''re lucky Ss is too young to remember any of this." Diveen sighed.
''Nope... Actually, I remember it quite vividly. You never forget your first kill. Mhm, Mhm...'' Ss nodded in a way that made it seem like he was agreeing with himself.
Despite being berated and shouted at, Rhea didn''t say a single word. She kept her head low and shed silent tears. Ss could see that she was ming herself, but he med her too.
If she wasn''t so careless, this situation would have never happened, and if he hadn''t been born into the body of Ss Skrk, his sister would have most likely died or been taken as a ve.
Ss frowned a little.
''I should have made their deaths a little more painful.'' He thought to himself.
The rest of the day was quite uneventful.
The monster horde attacking the town of dia was quickly eliminated or dispersed. Without their alpha, they just became a group of uncoordinated monsters waiting to be killed.
On the other hand, Syra was quickly healed up, but she didn''t wake up for another three days.
Diveen kept telling them she was fine, yet they all worried no matter what the nun said.
They had cleaned up the house and made sure that it was spotless so Syra wouldn''t have to relive that day again, but only Ss knew that she would most likely be fine.
She had more resolve than most of the adults he knew in his previous life. Seeing a little blood wouldn''t shake her... Hell, he did all the killing, so she probably wouldn''t be shaken either way.
After another day passed, and after the entire family slept in the same room as Syra onest time, she finally woke up.
"Mommy? Daddy?" Syra wiped her eyes before flinching and looking at her hands.
Yet when she looked at them, she didn''t see the burn marks she was expecting to see.
"Oh baby. You''re awake?" Rhea sighed in relief, rubbing her eyes after having just been woken up by her daughter.
Rhea slowly took Syra into a deep and warm embrace while smiling.
"W-What happened... There were those big p-people, and they said they''ll hurt us, and then I took Ss to the corner of the room to protect him, and then that man punched the air and I got knocked out." She recounted the story with tears in her eyes.
"I''m proud of you baby..." Lochras hugged his daughter and with a proud smile on his face.j
''Her speaking ability is subpar, and her recount of the story is missing a few things, but I guess she got most of it right.'' Ss shrugged and went back to cultivating.
He was at the pristine-onyx core, and for some reason, he felt more refreshed than ever before, so he did the only thing he could. Cultivate!
He was felt like he was pretty close to breaking through, but that was something for him to do whenever he was taking a bath, and his parents weren''t looking.
After concluding that Syra couldn''t remember what she had done, the family unanimously decided that the best course of action was to go to the town adventurer guild and test out Syra''s elemental affinity grade.
Of course, Ss had no idea what that was, and he hadn''t really taken it into ount when he was covering up the entire situation.
***
"..." The woman doing the affinity test stared at the wooden tablet with widened eyes and a jaw that almost hit the floor.
[ S-Grade Wind Affinity ]
"..."
"..."
"..."
''Oh thank god.'' Ss sighed in relief while the rest simply looked at the runic tablet with four individually colored crystals in each corner.
However, unlike Ss, who was relieved by what he saw, everyone else seemed to have weird expressions on their faces.
"I expected B or maybe even A if we were lucky, but S?" Ss saw Keira bbergasted for the very first time since the day he was born. She always only showed unpleasant emotions, so it felt a little weird seeing her so shocked.
"I can''t believe it..." Lochras felt like dropping to his knees. He could already imagine how many suitors mighte for his sweet little daughter in the future. An S-rank affinity is something that is passed down bloodlines, so who wouldn''t want such a thing?
"Those damn nobles are going toe for my little girl." Lochras muttered under his breath as his soul left his body, leaving him in a pale zombie-like state where he muttered thest thing he thought of before his mind shut down.
''I think we broke him.'' Ss looked at his father with an ounce of pity.
"My baby is a genius!" Rhea shouted with the utmost excitement, quickly cing Ss into Keira''s embrace and running to her daughter to lift her into the air.
"Wow... This is the first time I''ve ever seen anyone get an S-rank affinity. Its truly an amazing feat, thank you for allowing me to witness it." The woman holding the tablet bowed slightly with her hand ced over her heart.
"Mommy... What''s a genius?" Syra asked, slowly getting dizzy from being spun around by her mother.
"A genius is someone destined to be the greatest!" Rhea ced her daughter on the ground and looked up with determination and resolve on her expression.
"Why are you making that face?" Syra asked innocently while gradually regaining her bnce.
"You''ll understand when you''re older." Rhea patted her daughter on the head before wrapping her in another warm embrace. However, Rhea''s face remained stoic this time, flickering with guilt every time she breathed out.
And that''s when Keira looked at Ss.
"Shouldn''t we see if Ss has an affinity towards any of the elements? I remember Syra was about his age when we checked out her affinities." Keira suggested.
"That''s a great idea. I hope we have two mages in this family!" Rhea grinned.
"You''re joking, right? The tutoring fees alone will bankrupt us." Keira rubbed the bridge of her nose.
"Hey! Ss will be a warrior. He doesn''t resemble you nerds." Lochras snapped out of his zombie-like state the moment they began talking about Ss'' future career.
"Before we start, I must note that, since Ss isn''t awakened, the tablet won''t tell you the strength of his affinity. It''ll just tell you whether he has one or not, and if his affinity is prominent, it will also tell you what element the affinity is toward." The woman exined, making Keira roll her eyes since there was no need for the woman to exin it to them since they had made it clear they had done this before.
Keira walked Ss closer to the tablet, and once it was in front of him, Ss didn''t really see a way out of the situation andplied.
He had practice in controlling mana, but the tablet was different.
Every magic crystal had something to do with one of the elements, and from what he saw by using mystic eyes, he knew that the affinity was measured by how much of an element one absorbed into their body.
People with affinities naturally absorb an elemental energy into their bodies. While it may not be as fast as cultivation, this natural absorption tells people how strong their affinity is and, therefore, how easy it is to create spells or to cultivate.
Of course, Ss was certain that he could have easily gotten a high rank for all his affinities, but he wanted to make sure to limit himself to only a few at a time since any more would essentially lead him to his death.
However, the problem was that, while Ss knew how to break down the mana inside his body, or to even change the attribute of his mana to a certain element, he still had no idea how to separate the elemental energies outside of his body in order to cultivate.
If he tried to take in only one or two elements at a time, he was worried he''d identally devour all the elements, so he went with the safest option and simply repelled the mana, making it unable to enter his body.
"Oh... That''s weird. Usually, people have at least a little bit of resonance with one of the elements at your age, but the crystals aren''t even reacting." The woman tilted her head in confusion.
They continued to try making it work several more times, yet every time they tried it, the tablet didn''t budge, not even reacting a little to Ss'' presence.
After a few more minutes of trying, they eventually gave up.
"Look! My boy is a warrior inside and out! He''s so much of a warrior that he rejected all forms of energy that aren''t toki!" Lochrasughed, making the other two frown at him with disapproving expressions.
And just like that, three years passed in what felt like the blink of an eye.
However, instead of being in the adventurer''s guild building, a four-and-a-half-year-old Ss stood before his father with a wooden sword that he thoroughly examined.
His father also seemed to be holding a wooden sword, yet unlike his usual rxed expression, Lochras was now looking at Ss with a dead-serious one that even Ss was struggling to see through.
"Son, there is a pretty big chance that you won''t have the luxury to learn magic, so listen close and listen well. From today on out, I will be teaching you the art of close quartersbat. Is that understood?" Lochras asked, his toki ring and sending a powerful gust of wind in every direction.
---------------------
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Chapter 11 The Struggle [2] - Talentless
?It had been around three years since Syra had awakened, yet not much had happened since then.
Ss didn''t have any major breakthroughs in his magic practice. Well, actually, there were three minor things that did happen.
Firstly, Ss had reached the ga core by the time he reached the age of 2, and quickly reached the solid ga at the age of three.
While many of the books he read said that it would take several years to break through to the ga stage, Ss assumed that his lower amount of impurities was the cause of his cultivation speed. Since he was just a child, the impurities hadn''t fully built up in his core, making it much easier to get rid of them while they were new. This also meant that the impurities that came out of his body were much less than those that came out of Syra the day she awakened.
Talking about Syra, a month after she awakened, Keira had called in a favor from a wind mage she knew and asked him to be Syra''s instructor.
His name was Arlen Specter, a man with a silver neck, long hair, and silver eyes. While the color of one''s eyes didn''t always indicate which affinity they were going to have, an example being Rhea, who has amber eyes but is a diviner, it did show that in most people, the color of their eyes indicated that they did have a certain affinity toward an element.
Keira''s amber eyes indicated that she had an affinity with the fire element, while Syra''s silver eyes indicated that she had an affinity with the wind element.
On the other hand, there was Arlen''s hair color, silver, but only the top. The rest was jet-ck, making it look like he dyed it that way.
However, that was not the case.
Rhea also had me-orange streaks in her hair, yet due to her being blonde, they tended to blend well with her hair, making Ss think that it was the reflection of the light on her hair that made it seem that way.
Anyway, Ss'' second minor breakthrough was in the use of magic.
By quickly switching between runes while creating a magic circle, Ss found a way to not only make the magic circles a little more efficient, but it was also a way to have better control over his spells.
The runes were the control panels of the magic circles, so even though more runes meant more mana being used, more runes also meant that one would have better control over their spell, from everything from the size of the spell being created to the speed it was being shot at.
He was also starting his journey of figuring out a way to not have to use magic circles anymore since they tended to be quite limiting in many aspects; however, that was something that would take many years, and possibly even decades, to achieve...
Or at least that would be the case for anyone who wasn''t Ss. He changed all of humanity in less than a decade to the point that it looked almost like apletely new from the one a decade earlier. A little magic couldn''t stump him. Right?
The final minor breakthrough was Ss''s discovery of elemental resonance or elemental fusion, whichever glove fit best.
It was quite simple, but Ss assumed that the reason it wasn''t being used was because no one had the same anatomy as him.
Ss simply coursed mana through his body like he usually did. After adding a spark of one of the elements to the mana, he is capable of fusing an element with his body, giving him varying effects, but that was something for another time.
Right now, he was looking up at his father, who was lecturing him on what it means to be a warrior. Most of it came in through one ear and left through the other, but there were a few things about honor and pride that stuck in Ss'' mind.
They didn''t stick because Ss cared about them. They stuck because Ss was trying his hardest not to scoff.
What was a warrior''s pride and honor on a battlefield? To sacrifice one''s own life for others? To fight with dignity and hold your ground?
What was the need for such dignity if death was the only thing that came from it?
Ss had nothing to protect...
Well, he had his sister, but he was certain that she would be more than capable of destroying entire towns with a single spell in a few years, so he doubted that he would need to protect her.
On the battlefield, it was to kill or to be killed. There was no in-between, and Ss valued his life far too much to sacrifice it for something as stupid and irrelevant to him as the kingdom or his warrior''s pride.
"-is that understood?" Lochras asked after finishing his little speech.
"Yes sir." Ss replied. He didn''t speak much at home because he didn''t like his new voice, but now that he was being forced to speak, he had to suck it up and do as he was told.
"Okay, first, let me exin to you what toki is." Lochra stabbed his wooden sword into the ground before sitting cross-legged in front of his son.
Lochras was wearing a normal, yet slightly dirty-looking garments. He wore a grey shirt made of cloth and ck pants made of a material Ss couldn''t really recognize.
He didn''t wear any of his light or heavy armor, and since it was hot outside, he was on the brink of throwing his shirt away too.
His ck hair was short and messy. However, it didn''t look too bad on him. However, it was his muscr figure that would have caught the attention of many women, the same way it probably caught the attention of Rhea so many years ago.
"First, let me exin to you what toki is." Lochra ced his hands on his knees.
Ss also sat down. However, even his father could see the glint of anticipation in Ss'' eyes.
There was nothing on controlling toki in the books, so he had to learn from watching his father train in the front yard. Now that he had the chance to learn how toki really worked, maybe there was a chance he''d be able to use it and even improve it in the near future.
''He sure does love to learn.'' Lochras sighed.
"Toki is an energy created through constant practice. Every time you fight, whether it is you or your enemy who is defeated, your toki improves. You''ve probably seen this in the books you''ve been reading, but toki is said to be a spiritual power.
It had been first discovered by the mad emperor of Der before his death and was given out to the public to make up for a portion of his sins.
Anyway, what you need to do first is to tap into toki, and that''s what I''m going to help you with for the next few months." Lochras exined.
Ss frowned slightly.
"How did you tap into your toki?" Ss asked.
"Oh... Heh. Well, you see, your father is considered quite the genius among his fellow knights." Lochras rubbed his finger under his nose as a prideful smile appeared on his face.
''Did he just brag to a child?'' Ss sighed.
"But that''s not the point. Everyone has their trigger, whether it''s while they''re training or when its when they''re in a dire moment where lives are at stake.
My job is to train you for when that momentes, and when you finally tap into your toki, you''ll instantly understand its functions and capabilities!" Lochras continued.
"Can I use a different weapon?" Ss looked down at the wooden sword in his hand. Sure, swords were cool, but they were a little too generic. A little too basic. He wanted to use something like a bow and arrow, a spear, or even a staff that could be used for both closebat and magic casting.
''To be fair, staffbat always looked pretty cool in the movies. I wonder if I can use it in a simr and efficient fashion.'' Ss thought.
"Nope... You''re learning how to use the sword. End of argument." Lochras didn''t even give Ss time to make an argument. It was a hard rejection without a single second to think about it.
Standing up, Lochras jumped back andnded several meters away.
''I guess I can be an all-rounder. I''m pretty young, so I''m learning things a lot faster than I did when I did when I reached adulthood.
How cool would it be if I ran across the battlefield, picking up random weapons and using them on the enemies with a mastery that puts their skills to shame.
Mhm, mhm, that''s exactly what I want... Or at least that''s what I want until I create guns. Then these medieval weapons won''t be necessary.'' Ss nodded to himself and also stood up.
"Attack me." Lochras spoke.
"Really?" Ss asked with a sparkle in his eyes.
"W-Wait... Why do you look happy?" Lochras felt a vein bulge on his forehead.
"I do?" Ss grinned as innocently as he could. Lochras had interrupted his cultivation sessions far too many times in the past three years just to make random terrifying faces at him.
Crouching down, Ss ran at Lochras as fast as he could without infusing his body with mana.
However, despite being a master at many things, from astrophysics to magic, one thing Ss wasn''t good at was the use of the sword.
After all, it was a lost art with no modern use for it.
*Tuck*
The sound of wood knocking against wood entered Ss'' ears. He could instantly tell that not only was his movement sloppy, but they were also incredibly wasteful.
Plus, his small body had no way of actually doing any damage to his father.
His father didn''t even need to use toki to block the attack. Hell, he didn''t even use his muscles to block the hit.
He simply held the sword before Ss'' wooden de and watched it bounce off.
Ss could feel a vibration go through his body and made him lose his bnce. it felt like his bones were rattling his muscles were turning into jelly.
It was only then that Ss realized how weak he was when he didn''t infuse his body with mana.
"..."
His father was speechless.
"..."
"..."
Rhea and Keira, who were both watching through the window, were speechless.
"..."
Arlen, who had just arrived at the house gates, was speechless.
"Mom..."
"Yes Rhea," Keira replied.
"Is my son talentless?"
"Probably." Keira sighed and walked away from the window.
''Huh?'' Ss looked at his father, Arlen, and the rest of his family, watching through the window.
''Why am I being looked at like I''m some freak of nature.'' Ss narrowed his eyes before he realized...
''These bastard...'' Ss cursed while silently vowing to prove them wrong.
Ss left his training session that day, having taken a huge blow to his pride...
For once, he had zero talent in a field he was entering.
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Chapter 12 The Struggle [3] - Failure Separates The Geniuses From The Crowd
?"You want to tell me that this orphaned kid deserves a ce in my school?" A man that looked like he was in histe 60sughed while looking over his table and into the eyes of the ck-haired boy.
"He''s shown the ability to understand everything fromplex algebra to aeronautics. He''s probably better than all of your studentbined!" A man no older than 30 argued before looking at the woman at his side.
"Seth is more than capable of entering your college. He might be an orphan, but even with our limited supplies, he''s made the most of it." The woman argued.
"Oh yeah? Alright, kid. Tell me, do you think you''re special?" The man asked, making the two adults next to him frown.
"Special?" Seth asked.
"You''re a kid that not even his parents wanted. Let me give you some advice, kid. This world is ruthless. Being an orphan won''t get you any special privileges, and it won''t get you into my college. Do you understand?" The man stood up and walked over to the window before looking outside.
It was a beautiful night illuminated by the moon in the sky. The air was calm, yet anyone could see that it was extremely cold outside, even at a single nce.
"I have hundreds of kids with rich parents trying to get into my college, yet for some reason you think that you''re worthy?" The man looked at Seth scornfully.
"Don''t tter yourself. You can be the most intelligent kid in the world and I wouldn''t care. You know why?" The man asked while slowly walking back to his chair.
"Because you''re nothing... In front of the elites, you''re at the bottom of the food chain. And because of that, no matter how clever you are, or how bad your upbringing was, you will never seed. In front of money and political power, you''re talentless."
***
"Talentless..." Ss muttered to himself while rising out of his bed and walking to the front yard.
He didn''t really remember that day too well, but he did remember that he hated that man.
Maybe it was one of the reasons he began to work so hard? No... That wasn''t it. He always worked hard.
He didn''t even bother showering or warming up; he simply took his wooden sword and held it tightly within his grip.
"Talentless?" Ss chuckled to himself.
Do they not think he knew that?
It had been 2 months since he began using the sword, yet there wasn''t any change in his mastery.
Actually, after his father taught him how to stand, hold and swing the sword, his mastery dropped significantly.
The closest thing he held to a sword was a knife, and despite being considered a professional chef in his past life, it didn''t mean he knew his way around daggers. It just meant he knew how to cut meat and vegetables.
At first, it had been a joke among them that Ss was really bad at the sword. No one really took it seriously, and at best, they thought that he would probably need a lot more practice before getting it right.
Sure, they were surprised at how bad he was initially, especially for someone his age. It looked like he couldn''t even pick the sword up, and when he did, he always stumbled on his own feet.
But practice makes perfect, right?
Yet when two months passed, and not a single sign of improvement showed in his technique, the family began to ask the question more literally.
''Is Ss talentless?
His father was getting frustrated, but he tried his best to not show it to Ss. On the other hand, Ss himself was getting frustrated, yet a little bit of magic usually calmed his nerves and made him feel well again.
However, that''s when the second problem came in.
Ss was struggling to increase his knowledge and aptitude toward mana and magic.
His main goal before reaching adolescence was to stop using magic circles and start using another method to cast magic.
However, after learning fusion magic, which wasn''t really a type of magic at all, his ability to think seemed to have stagnated.
''Am I bing stupid?'' Ss asked himself when he stumbled and fell face-first into the ground for the thousandth time.
While Ss was a little skeptical about learning swordsmanship and toki, his thirst for knowledge red and allowed him to see several advantages of learning toki and a weapon.
First, swordsmanship would allow him to hone his reflexes, something he can only do with his mana fusion.
He would always be a mage and vowed never to stray from that path. After all, the mage specialization felt almost like it had been created especially for him. However, he still saw the advantages to training his swordsmanship even though he may never hold a sword again.
He also needed to hone his battle instincts, spatial awareness, physical strength, and movement techniques. These were all things that swordsmanship would help him with, but they weren''t even his main reason for taking it so seriously.
His father was a master at toki, and Ss wanted to learn toki. Toki had many advantages, and whole Ss still considered it weaker than his fusion magic; he also knew that he had only seen a fraction of what toki had to offer.
Toki was the maniption of mana outside the body, and even though Ss could manipte mana to a certain level outside his body, he was quite bad at it.
He has tried coating his body with mana before, but it didn''t have any of the same enhancing effects that toki did... He didn''t understand what he was doing wrong, but clearly, there was something that he didn''t understand yet.
Learning toki would not only significantly increase his battle prowess but also give him a chance to learn how to manipte mana outside his body to the extent his father is capable of... Well, can you call it manipting mana when they do it on instinct? Who knew.
Ss had already determined that he would "awaken" when he reached the age of 6, but he realized that he might have to push that back a little, and the problem was his affinity.
Due to his affinity to mana in general, it meant he would absorb all the elements on the runic tablet at once, and Ss had a feeling that learning toki would give him the understanding needed to only absorb one element at a time.
The only thing he needed to think about after that was what element he would like to awaken.
At the same time, if Ss could extract elements from the mana around him, there was a chance it could also give him the inspiration needed to create circle-less spells, but that would probably take much longer due to howplex the magic system was.
''Using elemental fusion would be counter productive. I need to learn how to use toki, so no cheating!'' Ss berated himself for his thoughts when he saw his parents looking at him through the window as he continued to stumble.
Even he knew that his footwork was terrible and his talent for the sword was even worse.
It was just that using such a tiny body was a lot harder when you didn''t exactly know where everything was.
Using mana fusion made him feel one with his body for the first time in his life, yet after killing those two intruders and deactivating mana fusion, he went back to feeling disconnected from his body.
He was actually a pretty good boxer in his past life. He did it mostly in self-defense since he didn''t want to be caught unready when attacked on the street. However, those skills seemed to not transfer to something like swordsmanship.
"He''s really trying his best." Lochras sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose.
"He really is." Rhea replied with an ounce of sadness in her voice.
"I just don''t get it. He practices all the time and has been going at it for two months now, yet even Syra was doing better than he was when she had just started at the age of three!" Lochras sighed again in frustration as his wife rubbed his shoulders to calm him down.
"You can''t show him your anger, disappointment, or frustration. It would crush him to know that his father doesn''t believe in him." Rhea advised.
"You''re right... I need to calm down." Lochras sighed, and even though they were in the house and behind a sheet of ss, Ss still heard them.
He had simply channeled mana to his ears to hear what they were saying, but Ss wasn''t too disheartened.
He wasn''t a child. He was a 50-year-old man who had never failed at anything in his entire previous life. Sure, he didn''t have much of a childhood in his past life. And sure, this failure was taking a huge toll on his ego and pride, but he would get through it.
He was an adult... He wasn''t allowed to throw a tantrum.
''Ugh...'' Ss was reminded of the feeling of failure for the second time in 5 years.
It was a horrible feeling... It was the worst feeling he had ever felt in his life...
"Are you sure he''s not just talentless?" Keira asked, making the parent duo look down
Keira''s words were always harsh, but they were to the point.
However, her words made Ss widen his eyes as a realization hit him.
''Maybe that''s why I became stagnant. My magic research and my swordsmanship. Even my evolution blessing hasn''t helped me once this entire time despite me training day and night...''
''Life is about mental states... If I feel like a failure, I''ll be one for the rest of my life... But how does one stop feeling like a failure?''
Ss pondered that question for a bit.
"Maybe he is..." Rhea muttered under her breath.
*Crack*
The handle of Ss'' training sword fractured under Ss'' grip. He had unconsciously sent mana to his hand and was unable to retract that mana in time to stop himself from shattering the handle of the sword.
Sighing, Ss through the sword to the right before copsing to the floor andying on his back.
He knew that his father would most likely see it and think that he had momentarily tapped into his toki reserves, but he didn''t care.
''What am I doing?'' He thought while raising his hand into the sky.
When he looked at it, he saw a hand dripping with blood, yet he knew the blood wasn''t real.
When he looked up, he saw an orange sky instead of the one he had seen a moment before.
It felt as if there were fires around him... Houses were burning, and subtle screams could be heard in the distance.
People cried for his help, yet he ignored them... After all, those cries weren''t real. They were a figment of his imagination...
''Imagination?''
Sitting up, Ss tapped his forehead and began to think.
Swordsmanship wasn''t supposed to be overanalyzed; it was supposed to be instinct. But that was for normal people, and Ss wasn''t normal.
''I''m not improving because I feel like sh*t... So let me do what I''m best at. What is swordsmanship? It''s the mastery of a weapon called the sword. How do you master the weapon?
If I use my father as an example, swordsmanship can flow with the entire body. The reason I''m struggling is because I don''t have any flow.
I''m a 50-year-old man in the body of a 5-year-old.
It''s only natural that I won''t have any flow within my movements, and I only achieve flow when I understand my own body. Whenever I try to move a limb, my limbsg behind my mind. Mana channeling helps me with that, and water fusion would definitely help the flow of my attacks.
But since I won''t be able to improve if I use them, I should use them as an inspiration instead. If my bodygs behind my mind, I''ll just do what I used to do with my prototype mechas and get used to it. I''ll have to think of everything ahead, and I''ll have to imagine what my opponents would do next. It''ll be hard, but...'' Ss began to grin.
''I can do it.'' Ss channeled mana to his arms and quickly kicked up off the ground.
Ss closed his eyes and took a deep breath in, sucking mana into his body and quickly highlighting every limb in his body.
Ss'' eyes remained closed, yet the world around him began to change.
His mind created a world around him, and even though he no longer had a de, he didn''t need it.
All he needed was to imagine, and it would appear.
Several runes appeared around him. They were big and stationary, yet they glowed far brighter than the abyss around him.
Ss channeled a tiny bit of the water element through his body and swung his sword.
*Swoosh*
Ss'' de sliced through the air and sliced right through the first rune.
Ss shifted his body and turned around to slice the rune behind him before spinning on his heel and stabbing at a particrly high one.
Ss continued like this for the first 5 before deactivating the water fusion and letting out a breath.
''Remember what it felt like.'' Ss thought while remembering how his sword moved with the flow of his body, almost like he was the water and it was the river.
He then remembered how his body became quick, while his sword moved with the grace of a waterfall, crashing into the runes and slicing through them.
Standing his ground again, Ss tried to replicate what he felt.
First, he sliced, and then he turned around and sliced at the rune behind him, yet this time, his left leg got caught in his right one, making him fall.
''Again...'' Ss thought while getting up and trying the same thing, but failing.
''Again...''
Every 5 rounds, Ss would channel the water element through his body to get a feel for it before going right back to trying to tap into that flow without the use of water fusion.
''Again!''
Ss didn''t realize it, but hours passed by as he continued to train.
He was covered in sweat, and his arms and legs were about to give up on him, yet he continued as if he didn''t feel a single thing.
But he felt motivated. For once he was extremely had at something, but he felt motivated.
Maybe it was because he wanted to prove his parents wrong? Who knew...
All he knew was that he was improving... No, it wasn''t just that. Every time he swung his de, he felt as if it was just a little stronger than his previous swing.
Every time he sliced through one of the runes, he his speed and flow would increase by a little, but the rate of improvement was terrifyingpared to before.
And that rate of improvement only increased the more fatigued he got, yet he didn''t stop...
He was in a mod where everything he did had be mechanical. He had be something that resembled a robot...
And that''s when he saw it.
For the first time in two months, the green screen appeared before him and said-
[Your are evolving]
Losing his concentration, Ss felt like he had been hit by the mother load of all fatigue trains.
And with that, Ss fell to ground and lost consciousness, not waking up again until the very next day.
[A/N: Sorry this chapter is a little longer than my usual ones.]
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Chapter 13 Uladia [1] - Overcome
?"Hmm?" Ss got up and rubbed his eyes.
''Where am I? Did I die again? Wait, no. I can still feel my toes. Oh, wait. Why does my entire body hurt? Ugh. All my muscles feel like they are about to explode.'' Ss thought while moving his arms around.
He first thought that the pain was a side-effect of him training too hard the day before; however, when he moved his arm, it didn''t feel sore.
Instead, he had never felt stronger... Or at least not in this body.
The reason his muscles felt like they were about to explode was because they were essentially screaming at him to get up and do something to let off some energy.
''Why... Oh, this makes sense. Oh, wait, now it makes even more sense. Due to my body''s ability to heal automatically, the moment I fell unconscious, the ability activated and quickly fixed up all my muscles, rebuilding them stronger than ever.
I''m assuming that the reason it hadn''t activated earlier was because I was forcefully stopping mana from coursing through my body unless I was using the water element.
And since I hadn''t really figured out a way to have two elements course through my entire body simultaneously, it is normal that the healing energy didn''t have the chance to heal me until I fell unconscious.
And, since the green screen told me that I was ''evolving,'' it''s probably right for me to assume that it increased the level of my improvement, which is the cause of this pain.'' Ss deducted in less than 10 seconds.
''I didn''t really think of it before, but I should really begin a workout routine. My muscle gain will be much faster than normal humans due to my natural healing ability, and since I have the evolution blessing, I might be able to double or triple the speed at which I gain strength.
Now that I think about it, the evolution blessing seems to only activate when I''m fighting humans and killing them, or when I''m in a rough situation... I think? I have to do more testing to figure this one out.'' Ss nodded to himself before patting himself on the shoulder for his deduction work.
Getting up, Ss walked to the front yard, yet instead of practicing the sword, he ced two hands on the ground and lifted himself a few inches off it.
''It''s not like I have a sword to use any-... Nevermind.'' Ss sighed when he saw the brand-new wooden swordid out against the wall. They most likely knew what happened to the old sword... Wait, nope... He was wrong about that one too. There was no way they''d know that he channeled mana into his arm and shattered it.
At most, they probably thought that he tapped into toki for a moment due to his frustration.
Ss sighed once more and began doing push-ups. He was surprisingly capable of 30 push-ups in 45 seconds. It was pretty impressive. He wasn''t even sure if the 50-year-old him could do the same. Of course, he could do a push-up and a half every second in his younger years, but there was no point in bragging.
He had to think of the now rather than the past.
After doing pushing himself to do his final push-up, and copsed to the floor and waited half a minute before lying on his back and starting to do sit-ups.
Again, to his surprise, he was able to do 75 sit-ups before giving in to the excruciating paining from his abdomen, but that''s how he knew it was working.
However, to his disappointment, the evolution blessing didn''t activate, meaning that the blessing needed something more than just pain and trying his best.
He wanted to get to know the ins and outs of his evolution blessing, yet all he knew, for now, was that it absorbed the souls of others and adapted him to his situation in order to make sure he does better the next time he is found himself having the same problem.
''Maybe it only activates in times of emergencies? But I wasn''t in any emergency earlier, so what could it be... Maybe its about mental states?'' Ss thought to himself as sweat dripped from his forehead as he did a nk for over two minutes before giving up once more.
The sun hadn''t risen yet... Well, technically, it was rising, but half of it was still under the horizon. It meant that his father would wake up soon, and Ss couldn''t help but feel like he hadn''t eaten in days.
''Wait... Have I eaten in thest weak? Is that why I feel kind of dizzy? Maybe I should wake up Rhea and have her make me some food... Sure, I can cook, but I can already imagine the horror that would strike Rhea if she saw me hold a knife.'' Ss thought to himself before beginning to run around the house.
Their house was on a hill quite far away from the town. It was isted, but that only meant that they were wealthier than most of the people who lived in the town, excluding the town chief.
The Skrk family house had a stone wall around it that connected the front yard to the back yard, yet the stone wall was far too short to be thought as anything other than a fence.
The wall was just about as tall as Ss, making it quite easy to jump over. Ss didn''t really understand why it was there in the first ce, but he just assumed that itid out the Skrk''s territory.
Ss ran around the house quite a few times without having healed himself yet. However, after the 30thp, he was starting to get tired, and his stomach was also beginning to rumble.
''Wait. Does my healing energy use nutrients to heal me, or does it simply use magic?
My understanding of healing spells is far too little for me to answer that question, and I''m not even sure if the healing energy that courses through my body is the same as the energy the diviners use to heal people.'' Ss scratched the back of his head, but to test out the waters, he allowed the healing energy to course through his body and heal him.
Unfortunately, he was right about the nutrients thing.
Instantly, he crouched to his knees and wrapped his arms around his stomach.
*Rumble*
"Damnit." Ss cursed in English before getting up and running inside.
It only took a few minutes for his father and grandmother to wake up and walk into the living room.
"Oh? You''re awake? I thought you were dead." Keira spoke in a nonchnt tone that made Lochras re at her. Yet when she was about to turn around and look at him, he shamelessly looked away.
"I might be awake, but I''m certain I''ll die of hunger if I''m not fed within the next hour." Ss smiled awkwardly. His voice was hoarse, and his eyes kept averting from his grandmothers.
"..."
"..."
''What kind of 4-year-old speaks like that?'' had been a question they found themselves asking almost every day.
"Oh yeah. You haven''t eaten in two days." She pped her hands.
"What... 2 days..." Ss looked down, silently cursing himself for having such a weak body that it would force him to lose 2 whole days of studying and training.
Of course, he didn''t like training with the sword, but he saw it as a necessary procedure.
"No. You didn''t eat the day you shattered that sword of yours, and you slept for about 24 hours." She exined, and even though she knew someone like Syra would have struggled to keep up with her manner of speaking, she was well aware that, despite not being a genius in the sword or magic, Ss was much more intelligent than any kid his age.
"Oh... Then grandma..." Ss looked down for a moment before looking up, staring into his grandmother''s eyes with the cutest pair of puppy eyes that he could muster.
"Can you make me food? I really like your cooking." Ss asked with an awkward tone. He still wasn''t used to speaking to actual humans. However, when it came to learning about things, it was almost like his body would move on its own,pletely throwing aside hisck of humanmunication over thest few years.
''What the hell? Where did all this cutenesse from!'' Keira inwardly shouted while trying to resist the puppy eyes, but Ss knew her weaknesses far too well.
Despite her harsh words and straight-to-the-point manner of speaking, she was quite doting toward her grandchildren.
''I... Can''t... Resist!''
Ss'' art of maniption was far too powerful for a meager woman like his grandmother to resist.
He might have been socially awkward, but he knew how to manipte someone to get what he wants.
"Of course, sweetheart." She crouched down and squeezed Ss'' cheeks before walking to the kitchen.
"You''re so cute~" Keira squealed a little.
"Can you make me some too? I''m going to have to go to work in a bit so I wouldn''t mind-"
"Shut up. You have a wife, right? Ask her to make you your food." She snorted.
"But-"
"You think you can just steal my daughter AND boss me around? You''re lucky Ss is here, I would have beaten you to a pulp." She red at him with resentment.
''Huh...'' Ss looked between them, but after a while, he shrugged and looked away.
"None of my business." He muttered to himself before sitting on the couch, swinging his legs with a happy smile on his face, while humming tunes from his previous life.
Eventually, the food was ready. She had made him a simple breakfast which was a pot of hot oatmeal made with rolled oats and milk, vored with honey and cinnamon.
There are also scrambled eggs, made with eggs from local farms and cooked with diced vegetables like onions and bell peppers, which added a burst of vor and nutrition.
''Ah... This is the dream.'' Ss pped his hands and began to pour the food down his throat at a pace that made his father and grandmother look at him like he was a creature they had never seen before.
"Savor the food. What''s the point of swallowing it all at once!" Keira smacked the back of Ss'' head.
''I haven''t eaten in 2 days. What do you expect?!'' Ss inwardly retorted.
Eventually, his father had to leave to go to work while Keira got herself ready to go to the market since they had no food in the house. Of course, there was also the festival, but Ss didn''t have to know about that for now.
Wearing her robe, she paused momentarily and looked at Ss, who had finished his meal and was tapping on his swollen belly happily.
"Ss. Get dressed. We''re going out." She spoke, and even though Ss wanted to retort, when he looked into her eyes, he saw that he had no way of getting out of going along with her.
''Yes, sergeant.'' He sighed.
And so, Ss'' first adventure outside his house began.
Chapter 14 Uladia [2] - Scammers!
?It was the first time leaving his home. One might have called him a shut-in, but to him, staying indoors was the logical decision.
The outside was too unpredictable. He wanted to learn about the world before leaving his home, which was why he refused to make friends or talk to any of Syra''s friends.
Of course, the other reason was that it simply felt weird.
A 50-year-old man ying with a bunch of children was like asking the FBI to knock his door down and arrest him right there and then.
''You will never catch me, you FBI bastards... Wait, now that I''m saying outloud, it sounds a little predatory. Hmm... Oh well, I pretty much controlled the FBI after the civil war, so I don''t have anything to worry about-... Nope, still sounds weird.'' Ss sighed.
"Why do I have toe with you?" Ss asked with a disheartened expression. He didn''t mind talking with his grandmother. She was close to his age in his past life, and he conversed with her the most since she always exined what words meant.
Of course, Ss'' awkwardness was always pushed aside when it came to his passion for knowledge, so eventually, he learned to get ustomed to her.
"Hmm? Well, I saw your broken sword earlier, so I kind of knew that you were frustrated. On the other hand, your parents were far too blinded by the fact that you had the power to shatter the hilt, but they''re still kids, I guess...
But you have to understand something. You''re a kid too. You''re much younger than them... You''re allowed to throw a tantrum when something doesn''t go your way. Don''t bottle it up because, believe me, it won''t be pretty when it explodes." She exined.
"Oh, don''t worry. I''m fine now. I think I got past that little hurdle of mine." Ss chuckled while pulling on the cor of his shirt.
While he usually worefortable clothes, he was forced to wear the most ufortable clothes he''d ever worn in his lives.
They were itchy and tight, and despite them seeming professional and even making him look like he had ss, it was still super ufortable.
He wore a greyish-blue tunic garment that only reached to his shoulders in width and down to his lower thighs in length. He wore a whiteish-creamy shirt underneath the tunic garment and pants of the same color.
On the other hand, Keira wore an amethyst robe and held a magic staff with arge crystal at the top, in her right hand.
It didn''t take them long to reach the town of dia. It was created right outside the dia forest, and it had even been named after the forest since it was the keyndmark in the area.
The forest also happened to be the thing that sustained the town since their main export was the wood from the dia forest as well as the magical creatures in the forests.
The words beasts and creatures were used quite interchangeably. Of course, they didn''t always mean the same thing. The words beasts usually referred to violent magical entities with the characteristics of unawakened animals.
Creatures, on the other hand, were essentially monsters. Yet, even then, Ss knew that calling them monsters wasn''t the right term since there was another group of races that were actually referred to as monsters. They were called the called monsters because of their curses on their races, but that was something for another time.
Once they could see the town''s entrance, Ss narrowed his eyes when he saw two guards at the entrance, taking something from all those who entered the town.
However, some simply showed the guards a card, allowing them to move right past without having to give anything.
''Entry fees?'' Ss thought.
Once they were at the entrance of the town, Ss waited for his grandmother to pay the entrance fee or show a card, yet she did neither.
Actually, the guards bowed to both of them before letting them walk past.
"What was that?" Ss asked with a puzzled expression.
"You''re grandmother is a famous girl around these parts." She chuckled.
''Girl? Have some shame, woman! You''re 40!'' Ss inwardly snarled, yet he didn''t dare say those words out loud.
He was too much of a coward, and way too afraid of the consequences of such words to even think of doing such a thing.
He had watched his grandmother curb-stomp his father after he muttered something under his breath, so it was logical for him to not want to be on the bad side of the monster beside him.
''For a mage, she sure is physically gifted.'' Ss thought.
Maybe his father was going easy on her?
As they walked through the town, Ss looked around for a while, appreciating the architecture of the houses... or at least theck of it.
The houses could be best described as "medieval." Most of the houses in the area were a little slum-like, with hundreds of people put into a single block with houses stuck to one another.
Most houses were around 2 stories high, with one family upying each floor, yet the richer homes usually had 3 or 4 stories in a single home. They were always separated, making them stand out more than all the other buildings.
However, just like medieval Earth, the churches were always the highest building in the towns, and not only were they much cleaner, they looked like they were built with much better architecture than all of the other housesbined.
Looking around, one could spot everything from cksmiths and tailor shops to small farms and cottages for livestock.
The smell of fresh bread entered the noses of everyone in the town as the bakery near the center of the town bakedrge batches of bread for all the people that were standing in line.
The sun had already risen, and everyone was trying to get food before work... Or at least that''s where Ss assumed they were going.
"You see that there?" Keira asked while pointing at the church in the center of the town.
"Yeah?" Ss tilted his head.
"That''s the church of Gilea. It was the first thing to be built here, and everything else was built around it. As you can see, there''s a pretty big circle around it, and that''s called the town square. It''s where all those scam- I mean merchants are." She quickly corrected herself.
''Nice naming, morons.'' Ss grinned. He was also really bad at names, but at least he didn''t refer to a circle as a square.
"Do you believe in the Gilea religion?" Ss asked with a bit of nervousness in his voice.
Keira was surprised to hear such aplex questione out of his mouth. Believing and not believing was something even adults struggled with, yet from that question, it felt like Ss knew what it meant to believe or to not believe.
"No." She sighed and closed her eyes.
"No one in our family believes in it." She exined.
''Thank goodness. Life would have been difficult if I was forced to live among people who worshiped the they were standing on... Well, the greeks did that but that one doesn''t really count.'' Ss shrugged, putting the issue into the ''none of my business'' category of his brain.
Once they reached the merchant square, Ss began to look around while following behind his grandmother.
There were several merchants, yet they all seemed to sell different things. Of course, there were some who sold the same things, but from what he saw, those groups usually fought a lot, so he wanted to stay as far away from them as possible.
''I think I just learned a ton of new curses.'' Ss smiled after walking past the squabbling merchants.
"Can I have two silvers worth of goat meat? Can I have it after the, you know what?" Keira asked.
Why was a butcher right next to all these merchants?
Ss didn''t know, but he quickly turned to one of the stands that were selling books.
"Miss? Can I ask you how much these books are?" Ss asked the woman behind the stand. She wore a yellow robe as well as a yellow wizard hat. She had brown hair and eyes and wore bright orangentern-like earrings that allowed him to see her face clearly despite her hat creating a shadow on it.
"Can you read?" She asked with a raised brow.
"Yes," Ss replied.
"What does this say?" She asked while pointing at the title of the book.
"Advanced Magic a€¡° The Working of the Earth Element," Ss replied manner-of-factly, making the woman widen her eyes slightly before grinning.
"You want to buy it?" She asked.
"Yes, please." Ss smiled; however, he wasn''t sure if his grandmother would allow him to buy it. She had seen him reading "Magic 101," and even though she probably didn''t think much of it, it was highly unlikely she would choose to "waste" money on a book that she was certain he wouldn''t understand.
"5 gold coins." She spoke matter-of-factly.
"..."
"Pay up." She extended her hand toward Ss.
''Does she think I''m stupid?'' Ss thought to himself.
ording to his knowledge, money was broken into three categories: Copper, silver, and gold.
It was quite simple actually. 100 copper was equal to 1 silver, and 100 silver was equal to 1 gold...
Yet, to understand how much of a scam this woman was trying to pull on a child, one must look at the average prices and wages.
Arlen, Syra''s tutor, was paid 1 gold a month for his sses. However, he was a respectable mage, so such a thing was expected.
From what he had seen earlier, you could get about 2 baked circr pieces of bread for a copper coin. She was practically saying that the books were worth 100,000 pieces of bread.
Ss simply looked at her with a dumbfounded expression.
Maybe she had assumed he was from a noble family because he could read at such a young age?
"Don''t have that much money? Hey, how about I lower it to 1 gold, huh?"
''That''s still 20,000 bread! That''s $6,600!'' Ss thought to himself. There wasn''t much of an economy left after the apocalypse, but he still remembered the price of freshly baked bread.
''This stingy son of a-''
"Oh, Ss? I see you''ve met the stingy witch?" Keira sneered, and even though Ss was surprised that Keira knew the woman, he nodded at the name she had given her.
"Oh? You''re the grandson of this old bag of bones?" The woman sneered back.
''Isn''t she the same age as you?'' Ss wanted to ask, but he knew that a woman''s age was a fragile subject no one should ever touch upon.
"Let me introduce you two. This stingy witch is Erin Quagmire. We used to be in the same adventurer group before we took different paths. As you can see, this stingy witch chose to be a scammer. Don''t be a scammer in the future, okay Ss? Scammer is bad!" Keira lectured him before turning toward the woman.
"This kid here is my grandson, Ss Skrk. He''s a cheeky brat, but he has a good head on his shoulders." Keira patted him on the head.
"Grandma..." Ss looked up at Keira before pointing at Erin.
"This woman is trying to bankrupt us! She told me that this book was 5 gold!" He spoke with tears in his eyes.
"Hehehe... I wouldn''t call it bankrupting." She awkwardlyughed, yet Keira wasn''t staring at her. Instead, she was staring at Ss
"Since when do you know the value of money?" She asked with narrowed eyes.
''Oh crap...''
[If you have enjoyed this chapter and would like to support the author, please vote using your power stones or golden tickets. Also, you can join my discord server today to see illustrations or to converse about thetest chapters.
Chapter 15 Uladia [3] - The Light Festival
?"Books." Ss replied as quickly as possible.
"Makes sense." Keira nodded.
"Can I buy this book then?" Ss asked with a smile.
"No." Keira replied.
"Why not?" Ss asked.
"Because you don''t need it. You don''t have a talent for magic, so you''ll probably never awaken. And even if you do awaken, the chances of it being the earth element is quite slim." Keira shrugged, not daring to look into Ss'' eyes, feeling as if he might make a cute expression again and force her to buy it before she could stop herself.
''Sorcerer. I shall not allow your mystical eyes to control me.'' She tried to look away as much as possible without making it seem weird.
Looking a little dejected, Ss simply stood to the side, making Keira sigh and move on to chatting with Erin.
However, just when Ss was beginning to get bored out of his mind, the sound of music suddenly entered his ears, making him look around for the source before eventually raising a brow.
"Uhhh." Ss voiced.
"Oh, yeah. I forgot to tell you that the light festival was going to take ce today." Keira smiled
''Lies!'' Ss inwardly cursed her. She probably took him along with her knowing very well that the festival was going to take ce that day.
"How long will it take?" Ss asked.
"Around 3 hours."
"3 hours... Isn''t mom going to be angry?" Ss asked, trying his best to not call his mother ''Rhea'' in front of Keira.
"I left her a note telling her we''re going to bete." Keira smiled.
''I knew it!'' Ss pouted slightly before leaning on Erin''s stand.
Everyone was beginning to gather, yet most of the stands remained open since it was better for their business if they did. It reminded Ss of the Japan new year''s festival without the attire and the enormous celebration that would spread throughout the entire country...
''Wait...''
"Do all town have this?" Ss asked.
"Every town, vige, and city in the Xylem kingdom celebrates this festival at the same time every season." Keira exined.
"Why?" Ss tilted his head.
"To be honest, I have no idea." She shrugged.
''So it''s a little like Halloween, then? Everyone celebrates it, but the average person has no clue why they do, and where it had originated from.'' Ss concluded.
Suddenly, his eyes caught a glimpse of something shining right into his eyes, and when the blurriness cleared up, he saw two knights leaving the church at the center of the town with their swords sheathed at their waists.
They were d in marble-white armor with golden trimmings, and had a golden symbol on their chests that Ss assumed was the emblem of their religion.
It didn''t seem like the people around actually believed in the church from how they reacted to it being around. The Xylem kingdom felt like a kingdom with religious freedom, yet even though he was certain that non-believers weren''t persecuted, he had a feeling that people who believed in other religions might have been.
The symbol on the white knight''s chests looked like a square divided into with their corners missing. It was essentially a plus sign with more lines making it look a little like 4 two-sided hammers melded in the middle.
''Looks like a crosshair.'' Ss thought to himself.
The two knights walked several meters away from the church before turning away from each other and walking several steps in the other direction.
Everyone went out of their way, creating a circle around them that reached about 10 meters in radius.
Suddenly, a transparent bubble of light surrounded them both, and when the bubble of light fully formed, they both unsheathed their des and began to brandish them.
Suddenly, a man wearing a white and golden robe left the church and stood before the bubble.
"Today, I wee you to town dia''s autumn light festival!" The priest-looking man announced, causing several horns to howl at the skies while the sound of drums yed in the background.
"Who are those two and that man?" Ss nudged his grandmother
"That old man is a priest. He runs the church in this city. Those two who are about to fight are white knights. They are personally chosen by the church to serve, but what makes them special is their ability to use light magic and toki." She exined without looking away.
''Light magic? Like healing magic?'' Ss questioned.
The two young men swiped their sword before them, creating two deep crescents into the ground before getting ready to attack each other.
"I thank you all foring today. Without further ado..." The priest raised his hand and snapped his fingers.
"Let the festival begin!"
*BOOM*
*BOOM*
Both knights moved much faster than Ss could see, yet he was able to get a nce of them once they shed in the center, creating a shockwave so powerful that everyone could literally see the gusts of wind created from their sh.
The barrier around was the only thing that stopped the gusts from destroying the stand and killing everyone nearby. Since the barrier seemed like it had taken their sh without wavering, they both disappeared again, appearing several meters away from one another.
However, a secondter, they had shed again, and the crowd roared in anticipation of who woulde out victorious.
People could be seen betting on who would win, while others watched in anticipation or chatted with one another as the battle continued.
Due to being shorter than all the adults in front of him, Keira allowed Ss to sit on her shoulders and watch the battle like that.
*ng ng ng*
The sounds of metal shing against metal echoed out in quick session.
Knight number 1 quickly shed his sword at knight number 2, yet knight number two quickly parried that attack, nullifying the power behind the attack with his toki before pushing it away from him and stabbing at knight number 1.
Since Ss didn''t know their names, he chose to number them instead. Numbering people was almost always easier than actually remembering or asking for their names. For example, to Ss, Erin was background character number 5.
The sh was beyond impressive, and the battle looked magnificent, especially now that Ss had activated mystic eyes and could finally see the two knight''s movements.
They both had technique, instinct, and a ton of practice. However, despite them being professionals with the sword, what impressed Ss was how they were using their toki. It was almost like they were manipting it manually, but he knew that such a thing was not the case.
*ng ng*
Suddenly, knight number 1 took an aggressive stance, pushing knight number 2 several steps back before stabbing toward his abdomen.
Knight number 2 widened his eyes in shock and tried to get away; however, with a good strong pull, knight number 1 grabbed the other knight, and forced him into ce while ramming the tip of his sword into knight number 2''s abdomen protective gear.
Everyone went quiet, yet when knight number 2 fell to his knees, and Number 1 raised his now-glowing sword into the air, cheers boomed throughout the entire town.
The scene seemed to be ying on severalrge crystals throughout the entire town, allowing those who weren''t near the town square to see what was going on and also cheer a secondter.
''I take back anything I''ve ever said about this world... It''s amazing!'' Ss thought, his eyes glistening as he looked at everything happening with a mesmerized expression.
He could see technology he had never seen before in the form of those crystals and traditions and cultures that he had only seen in this world.
He could feel his mind aching to learn more, but he knew that it wasn''t the time. Not yet, at least.
''Those two knights too... They were amazing. They were clearly not using even half their strength, but from their control over their bodies to their fluidity and power with every swing of the sword was just phenomenal.'' Ss looked down at his fists with a subtle grin.
What was this feeling... This feeling of pure excitement.
He''d never gotten that kind of feeling from anything but gaining knowledge, yet now he felt it when watching people battle with the sword?
Wait, no... That wasn''t right.
Ss truly hated the sword. He didn''t enjoy learning about it one bit, mostly because he had absolutely no talent for it. Swordsmanship to Ss was what working out felt like to a fat man. He hated it, and the fruits of hisbor hadn''t been apparent for the first few months.
The only difference was that a fat man would eventually lose all his fat if he maintained a good diet and training routine. However, for some reason, Ss felt like it would take ten times longer for him to get a certain level of mastery over the swordpared to a normal person.
It felt like his body was rejecting the act of using a sword.
Ss quickly shook his head at such thoughts and sighed, looking back at the protective bubble to see what the town was going to throw at him next.
However, when he saw the two walking up to the fighting bubble, he could not help but narrow his eyes.
He had expected two burly men to walk into the ring and fight to the death, a bit like traditional boxing or like the diator-style mecha fights he used to organize.
Yet, on one side, a boy walked through the protective bubble with a wooden spear. He wore tanned leather armor protecting his chest.
Ss was instantly disappointed, yet when he saw the fierce expression on his face, he could not help but narrow his eyes and look at the boy''s opponent with a sense of anticipation.
Yet he was bound to be disappointed.
Looking to the left, Ss saw a girl with pink hair and blue eyes enter the bubble. Her pink hair was disheveled and messy, telling Ss that she had probably trained too much before this, not giving her mother enough time to make her hair look pretty.
Chapter 16 Uladia [4] - The Light Festival [2]
?Looking to the left, Ss saw a girl with pink hair and blue eyes enter the bubble. Her pink hair was disheveled and messy, telling Ss that she had probably trained too much before this, not giving her mother enough time to make her hair look pretty.
Of course, that wasn''t even what caught his eye about her.
''She''s really short... And unthreatening?'' Ss thought as he looked at her pink hair. However, it was probably also due to the innocent smile on her face every time someone cheered for her.
However, despite this, he could not help but feel slightly unsettled.
''Why the hell is she staring at me?!'' Ss felt a shiver go up his spine as her piercing aqua-blue eyes stared into his soul. Her expression was mostly aloof, but he expected such a thing from a child.
So why did he shudder?
It seemed like they both had tanned leather armor, yet while the boy had a wooden spear in his hand, she had a wooden training sword that she held in her right hand, and she slowly lowered herself into a fighting pose.
They both quickly swung their weapons to create the shape of a crescent in the ground.
It seemed to be some kind of ritual everyone did before having a formal duel, yet the knight''s crescents were much deeper due to the fact they were using real weapons, not wooden ones.
"Who are those two?" Ss finally asked Keira.
"The one on the right is one of the prodigies in our town, but in the overall scale of things, that doesn''t really mean much. He''s 12 years old and he uses the spear." She exined as the tensions got high and people lowered their voices.
"The one on the left is actually a 7-year-old girl, but she''s considered this town''s most talented prodigy, right above your sister. Even though she only has talent for the sword, she is an incredible fighter that will probably even rival your father in a few years when ites to technique and power." Keira exined.
Ss looked at the girl and saw her continuing to look back at him with an aura that made it seem like her interest in the current fight hadpletely disappeared.
"She is also the only one in this town with a blessing. Apparently, it has something to do with her nose, but I don''t actually know." Keira narrowed her eyes when she couldn''t help but catch the stare the girl was throwing at her grandson.
"Begin!" The priest finally announced, causing the boy to shoot right toward the pink-haired girl with his spear extended in hopes of hitting her on anything that wasn''t the part with leather armor.
The boy with the spear didn''t dare to underestimate his opponent, causing him to keep his distance and attack at a range that wouldn''t allow the girl to reach him.
The girl looked at the boy inly without an expression on her face. Due to her younger age, any expression she made seemed cheery to a certain extent, yet Ss knew that if she was just a little older, she would have been able to make a terrifying death re.
Her persona had changed in a split second, catching both her opponent and Ss off guard.
With a swing of her sword, she knocked away the iing spear, yet, a secondter, several more iing spear attacks shot at her from the side, aiming for her arms and legs.
With a loud harrumph, the girl covered her arm that was holding the sword with toki. Her use of it was surprisingly efficient, and the power behind it was tremendous, evenpared to those two or three times older than she was.
Her sword moved like lightning, snapping in every direction and deflecting the iing attacks with incredible precision that made the boy before her grit his teeth, and Ss widen his eyes.
''Amazing!'' Ss thought while watching how toki coated certain portions of her body and sword to make the attacks as quick and as nullifying as possible.
When the barrage finally stopped, she stepped forward and ced her foot on the boy''s abdomen and kicked him away, yet in that same instance, the boy jumped back and increased the distance between them as much as possible, nullifying her kick in the process.
The girl smiled, but her next move shocked everyone, even Ss
Without thinking twice, the girl covered her de with toki and threw it at the boy, something no swordsman in their right mind would have done.
However, it seemed to have also done its job of making the spear boy freak out. In a moment of panic, yet tried his best to hit the de away from him. He didn''t know why he didn''t dodge, but his instincts had taken over.
Sadly, the boy''s instincts weren''t nearly as good as a trained veteran''s, because, unlike him, a veteran would have seen right through such an attack.
Ss could see that the de had lost all the toki that was covering it by the time it had neared the boy, yet despite that, it seemed to have done its job of reducing drag and air friction, increasing its speed through the air and reducing the power lost.
As the sword neared, the pink-haired girl crouched and covered his feet and legs with toki. Suddenly, the ground under her feet cracked, and in an incredible feat of speed, she shot forward with everything she had, appearing behind within a few seconds of leaving the ground.
However, to everyone''s surprise, she wasn''t going for the sword. Instead, she beelined right toward the boy, covering her fist with ayer of toki; she slid forward and mmed her fist right into the boy''s abdomen, causing him to suddenly be lifted off the ground before puking out his breakfast. Fortunately for her, she was out of the way in time.
''Can he not use toki?'' Ss thought while narrowing his eyes at the boy.
Yet, just when Ss was beginning to think that the fight was over, the girl reeled back her left arm and swung at his temple, hitting it and making his vision go ck for a moment.
As the boy spun mid-air, the girl spun on her heel, using the momentum of her punch to grab her sword mid-air and perform a 180-degree sh, making the sword tear through the air before appearing next to the boy''s neck.
For a moment, it looked like she had every intention to kill the boy with her sh, yet before anyone even had time to be shocked, a white light appeared between the two of them as a sword as bright as the sun blocked her de and turned it into ashes without hurting the girl.
"..."
Silence fell on the town, yet a momentter-
*CHEER*
The cheers were absolutely deafening as they boomed throughout the entire town, with one name being chanted within those cheers.
"Nymira!~ Nymira!~ Nymira!~"
Ss expected to see her wave to her fans or something along those lines, but even though she was grinning from ear to ear, he had a feeling that it wasn''t due to her victory.
''I wonder what kind of motivation you would need to achieve such strength at such a young age.''
And with that thought still lingering in his mind, he saw a hand being pointed at him before a loud and proud deration entered his ears.
"You! None of the other kids are worthy of fighting me, but you! You are strong! I can smell it. Fight me!" She grinned from ear to ear with genuine excitement.
"..."
Silence fell onto the town for the second time in less than 30 seconds, yet hearing those words made Ss understand why he felt a resemnce when he saw her.
''Ah... She''s like me...''
[Sorry for there being no chapter yesterday. I''ve been really ill for thest 3 or so days. When I''m feeling better, I''ll edit this chapter and upload an extra the next day.]
Chapter 17 Uladia Forest [1] - The Deal
?"You! None of the other kids are worthy of fighting me but you! You are strong! I can smell it. Fight me!" Nymira grinned from ear to ear with genuine excitement.
And that''s when it clicked for Ss too... He understood the resemnce almost instantly.
She was like him...
Ss talked about motivation as if it was a primary factor of growth, but that simply was not the case. He was overlooking the fact that he reached the peak of humanity in his other life without a real motivation.
Nymira thrived off the feeling of battle. Her motivations were secondary to her desire to be stronger and fight the best. One might call it a motivation too, but Ss thought otherwise.
Desires, goals, motivations... They seem quite interchangeable on the surface, but every single one of them meant something different.
A goal is something you strive toward, motivation is something that pushes you toward your goal, and a desire...
Well, a desire is the burning feeling you get in your stomach and chest when you want to do something. It is a hunger...
An insatiable hunger for a certain thing, whether it leans toward helping you reach your goal, or working to find your motivation...
''To thrive off the battle.'' Ss thought to himself.
She seemed like the kind of person who wouldugh in the face of danger and smile while ughtering a battlefield. Or at least in herter years. For now, she was just a child, but if trained right, she would most likely be a pir of the kingdom.
''I can make this work in my favor.''
Ss grinned, but he made sure to cover his mouth before doing so to make it seem like he was in thought.
He felt excitement just like Nymira, but his excitement was for apletely different reason.
"Let me down." Ss tapped on his grandmother, who was still stunned by the fact that her grandson had suddenly been called out in front of the entire town.
However, she did as he asked, almost on autopilot.
Ss walked forward, making everyone part the path before him to let him through.
Looking into her eyes, Ss smiled politely.
She was quite a bit taller than Ss, yet he still felt like he had the advantage in this situation.
Her excitement seemed to only increase as she looked into his eyes. It was like she could smell the battle.
''Oh... I guess she can smell the battle, or at least I assume that''s how her blessing works.''
"My name is Ss Skrk." Ss bowed slightly, showing everyone that he had good etiquette and was well-educated. Of course, his family didn''t really deserve any credit for his manners, but no one needed to know that.
"Nymira Fane. They call me the most talented, best up-anding swordsman of the county.
''We have counties?'' Ss thought with surprise, noting to himself that he should probably try and learn more about the kingdom and this world rather than focusing primarily on magic.
"How about this." Ss smiled wryly.
"Give me a year and a half, and I''ll fight you then."
"Huh?! Why do I have to wait so long! You''re strong now, so let''s fight now!" Sheined in a fashion that befitted a child.
''She might be the kind of person to have gotten everything she wanted in the past... Maybe she needs a little bit of humbling?'' Ss thought to himself, unable to see the irony in the situation.
"Well, you''re already so much older than me; shouldn''t you at least give me a chance to reach an appropriate age?" Ss asked, not at all sounding like a child, but that was the point.
Ss didn''t have toki going for him, and when he awakens, he would probably avoid showing more than necessary. He didn''t want to draw attention to himself before reaching a certain level of strength.
However, at the same time, Ss wanted to increase his reputation among the town''s folk by showing them his intelligence at his young age, so it wouldn''t be too surprising if he became a genius mage in the future.
After all, since the best mages were usually schrs, wouldn''t showing the town his exceeded intelligence work in his favor in the future?
At the same time, he wanted to overwhelm his opponent to a certain extent, so the next step of his n worked.
One might call it overkill, but he wanted everything to go as nned, causing him to essentially force the conversation to move in the desired direction.
When looking at the girl before him, he could see that she was unconvinced by his excuse, so he decided to attack something that he assumed he would have inmon with her.
"Or are you too scared that a child significantly younger is going to best you in battle?" Ss taunted with a grin while speaking in the noblest tone he could muster.
"Wha-?"
"Is the almighty Nymira scared of a 5-year-old child?" Ss pointed at her, causing her to flush in embarrassment and anger simultaneously.
"Okay, okay! Let''s fight in a-..." She paused to count her fingers.
"In a year and half!" She announced with a flushed face.
''Oldest trick in the book... Though, I do still feel the tingly sensation of self-cringe at the back of my neck.'' Ss sighed.
"The winner gets three favor from the loser, redeemable at any time," Ss suggested with a certain gleam in his eyes.
"Why would I-..." She sniffed the air and couldn''t help but scrunch her face into one of dissatisfaction.
"One favor."
''Checkmate.''
"Sure." Ss shrugged. He was going to ask for one anyway. He couldn''t help but feel like he was extorting a child, so he reduced it to one. Of course, he knew he would regret it in the future, but he had too many morals.
''Pft-... Morals.'' Ss did his best to stifle hisughter.
"Then, I''ll see you in 6 seasons." Ss bowed slightly before turning around, taking his grandmother''s hand into his own, and walking away from the town''s square.
''Like taking candy from a child-... Nevermind.''
However, Nymira had a different thought in mind.
''Why does he smell like...'' She tried to remember the smell beforepleting her thought.
''Blood?''
***
The sun was setting on the horizon as Keira and Ss strolled home. It was a long day, and a lot had happened, but in the end, Ss felt satisfied with everything he had done.
''I''m not nearly as strong as she is, physically speaking. She was incredibly powerful, and her small body allowed her to move like the wind and use her techniques with amazing precision.
In her current state, she would have definitely killed those two intruders from a year back with ease if they were against her. Of course, I''m much stronger than I was back then, but I have no way of beating her with fusion magic. My best bet is to beat her with elemental magic,'' Ss thought while nodding to himself with a certain level of self-satisfaction.
"Why did you do that?" Keira asked with a slightly dark expression.
"What do you mean?" Ss asked, acting like he didn''t see anything wrong with his actions.
"She''s the most talented swordsman in the town. Even your sister would be easily disposed of if she went against Nymira. Do you understand what you''ve done?" She asked with a slither of anger.
Being a mature grandson might have had many advantages, but in a situation like this, it also meant that the adults around would see you as an adult rather than a child.
"Don''t worry. You heard what she said... I''m the strongest." Ss grinned, mostly to himself, yet the grin only made his grandmother''s blood boil.
"Do you not understand what you''ve done?! Of course, you don''t. You''re a child; why would you know? I should have stopped you. You have no idea what your loss might do to the Skrk name." She gritted her teeth.
"Oh?" Ss replied, clearly not caring about anything the Keira was saying. In Ss'' eyes, she was a child having a tantrum, but he was still trying to understand where she wasing from.
"We''re a pretty small family; I don''t get why you''re getting all worked up." Ss sighed before grinning.
"Plus, I wouldn''t be too worried about that girl... What was her name again? Nymira? She won''t stand a chance against me."
His grandmother looked at him for a few moments, yet after clenching her fists for over 10 seconds, she finally sighed and looked away.
"You''ll understand when you''re older." She said nothing else, but just by looking into her eyes, Ss understood what she was trying to say.
"You think I''m talentless, right? That I''ll never awaken an aptitude to either mana or toki, right?" Ss asked, getting straight to the point.
"What? No, of course not-"
"Save it, grandma." Ss sighed, forcing himself to say grandma instead of Keira. "I know how you all feel. I observe you guys all the time, and its not like you guys are the best at controlling your expressions." Ss smiled.
"I... I''m sorry. It''s just that-" Ss raised a hand and cut her off before she could speak further.
"Grandma... I don''t need you guys to believe in me. I don''t need to you to think of me highly, or to even spare my feelings. Just know that I will prove you wrong." Ss'' aurapletely changed, making him look like a man who had seen the world''s darkest colors rather than a child who hadn''t even reached the age of 5 yet.
The shift was so sudden that it left Keira frozen in shock. What had happened to her young and innocent grandson?
"I just hope you don''t treat the situation the same way when my younger brother or sistere around." Ss smiled again and began to walk faster than his grandmother.
His words were quite cryptic, yet for some reason, she felt like they meant something...
***
And just like that, 4 weeks passed by in what felt like the blink of an eye.
Ss stood in front of some woods with an axe in his hand as his eyes glowed green, peering through the trees to see what kind of dangers awaited him.
"I can''t believe I''m doing this." Ss whispered to himself.
Before him was the dia forest, and ording to the books he had read on monster locations in the kingdom, it was the most monster and beast-popted area in the entire county.
However, he needed to get stronger, so he was going to do exactly that.
"I sure do hope I don''t die again." Ss sighed before stepping into the forest,pletely unaware of the dangers that lurked within.
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Chapter 18 Uladia Forest [2] - Checkmate
?As Ss strolled into the forest, he could not help but think back to everything that had happened over thest 4 weeks that had brought him to the forest in the first ce.
Ss, for the first time sinceing to Gilea, was slightly worried; however, before getting into Ss'' worries, there were a few positives that Ss had seen over thest 4 weeks, an example of this being Ss'' increased motivation and stronger work ethic.
Ss had no problem learning and researching magic all day without a break before the bet. However, the same could not be said for his workout routine and sword training, which were much more difficult.
Magic interested him. Every day he would daydream about the applications of the elements, mana, and the world in general. It was all interesting because it was the kind of thing that he was into.
Sadly, Ss wasn''t "into" physical activity, no matter how much he tried to sugarcoat it for himself, but the "deal" he made with the girl had semi-fixed that problem.
He had ced his pride on the line. He was not about to let himself lose to a 7-year-old who would eventually be an 8-year-old the next time he fought her.
Sure, no one would me him for losing against an older girl who is capable of probably defeating most adults, even those who know how to use toki.
However, Ss himself would not be able to live with the shame of losing to someone so much younger than him.
Yet, in the end, the bet had done exactly what Ss hoped it would have. It sparked a sense ofpetition inside him that he hoped to nurture in the future in order to get used to how Gilea worked.
After all, Gilea''s society was the furthest thing from what Earth had. Strength meant everything in this world, and Ss wanted to harness that motivation into an unending hunger, simr to his unending hunger for knowledge.
Once he does that, he will be unstoppable.
However, he threw those thoughts to the back of his mind for now. His goal was to get stronger, and one of the main ways to do that was to either killed the creatures of the forest or to put himself into a situation where his body would be forced to evolve.
After 4 weeks of training, Ss had realized that the evolution blessing only activated when he pushed himself to the absolute limit, and while he wasn''t 100% certain of such a thing, he did start training differently.
Instead of simply working out, Ss began to push himself to the absolute limit.
Instead of doing only 30 pushups and giving up when the strain on his muscles was too much, he began to push himself to the limit, to the point where he felt his muscles screaming at him to stop, and his joints rattling against each other.
However, extreme training like this did the trick. His muscles would repair right after due to his natural healing, and not only would they recover stronger than ever, but after his evolution blessing took effect, something else began to happen simultaneously.
Looking down at his hand, Ss balled it into a fist before clenching it as hard as he could without using mana.
Suddenly, a wind pulsed out of his hand due to the speed and power put into the clench.
''Now that my muscles are being rebuilt with mana already infused into their very cells, I''m beginning to get much stronger without using any of my elemental fusions. I''m not sure why the evolution blessing chose to evolve me this way, but I''m notining.'' Ss grinned.
The evolution blessing could have done anything from making him bulkier to increasing his speed of aging, yet it somehow chose the best-case scenario.
*Crack*
Ss suddenly widened his eyes and stepped back, swinging his axe at the iing creature. He didn''t have enough time to activate mana fusion, so he worked with what he had.
However, before the axe could hit the creature, it suddenly spun mid-air, whipping its tail at the side of the axe and pushing it away from its proper trajectory.
It seemed to be some kind of brown bunny with a really long tail; however, before it could attack again, Ss pushed out his hand and muttered-
"Wind st."
The wind howled as a tier 1 magic circle appeared before his hand.
The wind gathered in front of the silver magic circle in less than a second before releasing in the form of a powerful torrent of wind.
However, before the wind could hit the bunny, it spun mid-air, whipping its tail at Ss with the intention of cutting him in half from top to bottom.
Its tail ripped right through the air st like a hot knife through butter.
Without a moment of hesitation, Ss side-stepped out of the way of the attack and spun on his heel.
His maneuver was too quick for the animal to even understand what had happened, but when it saw the glint of the axe slicing through the wind and right toward it, it was already toote.
Without skipping a beat, Ss'' axe ripped through the neck of the bunny, decapitating it in an instant and making it fall to the groundpletely limp.
"Phew." Ss breathed out in relief. His mystic eyes activated the whole time, so he could easily see the attack approaching him, but it was still pretty dangerous.
"I should avoid getting distracted like that in the future." Ss sighed before proceeding into the forest.
[You have killed a snake bunny]
[Devouring one life force]
[You are evolving]
''I wonder what it means when I evolve after killing something. Last time I got a resistance to wind magic and an stronger control over mana... This time I got nothing.'' Ss thought to himself, but he could feel something changing as he devoured the creature''s life force.
Ss continued to stroll through the forest while ring at everything like a hawk.
The forest seemed really quiet for a ce called "the most monster-popted forest in the county," but Ss didn''t think much of it.
He would have suspected that there must have been some kind of strong monster around that scared off the rest of the creatures, but his mystic eyes didn''t show him anything, and since they had always been right so far, Ss trusted that there must have been another reason for the absence of monster.
"Oh?" Ss raised his brows before smiling. He could see two mana signatures in the distance.
Crouching, Ss activated wind fusion and shot right toward them like a bullet.
Ss swerved and dodged the trees in the way while sometimes bouncing between them in a zig-zag formation. A professional would have known to use the branch''s sticity as catapults, but Ss was far from a professional.
However, once he appeared a few meters from the creatures, he could not help but raise a brow.
He could see them huddled up, both of the shuddering as they stared at him. They were both wolves with dark blue fur and 6 solid red eyes. They didn''t have pupils or whites in their eyes. They were simply just red.
However, while one stood its ground and growled at Ss, the other cowered behind the braver one.
''They knew I wasing? Wait... If I remember this correctly, animals on Earth are capable of feeling danger or bloodlust. Since I''m not technically all that dangerouspared to many creatures here, I must be releasing bloodlust, right?'' Ss thought to himself.
Yet, within the moment of thought, he did not hesitate to lift his hand toward the two wolf-like beasts, forming water out of thin air and forming it into a constantly spinning drill.
The moment it left Ss'' hand, he felt a powerful recoil shoot through his arm, causing his arm to fly up while he slid back.
Water drill was one of his own spells, but he doubted that it hadn''t been created before. It was simply not in the textbook, so he decided to form the runes in a way that would allow him to make a drill out of water.
The drill ripped through the air and appeared before the wolf in an instant, yet before it could hit the beast, its 6 eyes red with mana before its body moved out of the way of the attack.
*BOOM*
However, the moment it moved out of the way, the drill mmed into the second wolf, taking its life right there and then while leaving a dust cloud in its wake.
"AWOOOOOOOO." The wolf howled in grief after watching one of its own die in the hands of the human before it.
Ss could feel the anger it had within it, and at that moment, he also felt something else.
"So this is killing intent, huh." Ss muttered under his breath before pointing his hand at the beast again.
The wind howled once more while as a bullet made out of air appeared before Ss'' hand.
*Bang Bang Bang*
Ss shot through bullets in a sequence, but despite their speed, the wolf simply began to run in random patterns without losing any of its momentum.
Ss continued shooting at the beast, yet unlike the animals on Earth, it was a lot more agile and was capable of moving in patterns that even he couldn''t predict.
''I have everything. Power, physical strength, and the intelligence to use them all, but I don''t have the experience I need to fight these beasts on equal footing.'' Ss thought.
''Change of ns.'' Without dissipating his magic circle, Ss changed the runes of it and quickly formed another spell.
Suddenly, a de of wind formed and shot toward the wolf.
Ss had realized there was no need to delete a magic circle if you used the same element either way. Only the sub-runes only needed changing, while the elemental rune in the middle usually remained the same.
When the de of wind neared the wolf, Ss dropped his axe to the floor and mmed his other hand onto the ground, forming a brown tier 2 magic circle.
"Earth Pir."
A pir of earth shot out from where Ss knelt, but when it neared the beast, it simply jumped andnded on it.
Ss grinned as the wolf stared down the barrel of death, watching an air bullet spell near him at a speed that he could not react to.
''Checkmate.''
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Chapter 19 Uladia Forest [3] - Mana Core Collection
?[You have killed 2 dire wolves]
[Devouring two life forces]
"Heh... Why didn''t it say the evolution thing? I''ve been scammed!" Ss shook his hand at the injustice before panting again and holding himself from dropping to the floor.
Even though he was now at the pristine-ga core, his mana pool was far fromrge. At most, he could create a few tier one and two spells withoutpletely drying it.
A single tier three spell wouldpletely drain him, while a tier 4 spell was something only a future topaz-core Ss could think about.
However, Ss'' mana core could gather much more than the average mana core. At first, he thought he was at a disadvantage when he began to break his mana into 4 elements at the start of his journey on Gilea.
Yet, When Ss discovered how to create a spark within his mana to not lose 75% of it when creating a spell with a certain element, he also realized that his mana pool was 4 timesrger than the average person at the same stage as him, or probably even higher.
The amount of mana stored in a mana core depended on their affinity toward an element, and their core grade. Their core grade also indicated how much mana they had control over, while also indicating the quality of the outputted mana.
''I should definitely start to break through to the topaz stage soon. It''s getting much harder to break through now that I''m reaching higher mana core grades.
If I keep going at this rate, I won''t reach the diamond core until I''m in myte 90s, and for some reason, I doubt that the life expectancy on this is that long.'' Ss rolled his eyes, picked up his axe, and began to walk away from the battlefield; however, before he did, he caught a glimpse of something in the corner of his eye.
''Is that their mana cores? I guess it makes sense. These beasts seem to infuse themselves with pure mana the same way I do... Wait, am I doing something only beasts can do? I hope I don''t get burnt at a stake for this.'' Ss shuddered while walking toward the carcass.
Lifting his axe into the air, he descended it upon the beast and ripped out its abdomen before sticking his hand inside.
After fumbling inside the thing for a few minutes, Ss finally felt something hard inside, causing him to grab it and pull it out.
"So this is what a mana core looks like." Ss muttered while looking at the dull ga jagged crystal in his hand that continued to pulse with mana.
It didn''t have any semnce of an element inside it, but what confused Ss was the fact that it looked a lot different from what he had imagined.
Every time he sent his mana to his own mana core, it always felt like a sphere, yet the thing he was holding in his hand was far from a sphere.
It looked closer to a rock than anything... A very dull rock that shines every now and then.
''I don''t really have a bag to ce this in... So-.'' Ss turned around and began to dig through the wet mud with his axe, creating a small hole where he ced his cores and covered it again.
He didn''t want to use earth magic since it would cost mana, something he could not afford to lose while in a forest filled with monsters who want to kill him.
''Next problem, my alleged bloodlust.'' Ss closed his eyes and took a deep breath in.
He knew what bloodlust felt like now that he had fought against a beast that used it, and while the bloodlust wasn''t very advantageous to it, the fight did allow Ss to unlock several memories where he had felt something like it in his past life, primarily after the copse of civilization.
Breathing in, Ss calmed his heart and stopped thinking about killing monsters.
He felt his heart rate drop slightly while the feeling that continued to build between his stomach and chest finally disappeared.
When he opened his eyes, he sighed and took off once more.
Ss spent the rest of the night killing random monsters, yet none of them were nearly as strong as the wolves, who seemed to be by far the strongest ones around.
However, Ss was aware that wolves usually hunted in groups, so it was odd to find one all on its own.
Hours passed as Ss killed monsters one by one, shedding blood after every slice of his axe or every spell he formed at his fingertips.
Ss mainly used air, water, and earth spells. Sure, Ss was no saint in his past life, but he usually avoided hurting animals excessively or causing them too much pain.
It was a little ironic since he could not say the same thing for humans, since he could remember several asions where he had set a person on fire for reasons that would probably make him the viin in everyone''s story.
However, once the night ended and the twilight began to shine upon the forest.
Seeing this, Ss was a little disappointed with his hunt, but he had gained a few mana cores that he could probably sell in the future for money.
''I should probably research the uses of mana cores before selling them, though. There''s a chance that they mighte in handy whenever I might need them.'' Ss pondered momentarily before nodding to himself and eventually leaving the forest and leaving the mana cores in the hole in the forest.
A monster finding them was a better scenario than Rhea or Lochras finding them.
Eventually, he returned home before sunrise, allowing him to begin his routine before his parents or grandmother could work out. He was covered in a lot of blood and grime, so when he was done with working out, he quickly bathed and returned to sword practice.
***
It had been several days since Ss began to sneak out of the house to fight monsters and beasts, and ever since the wolf fight, there hadn''t been many like it.
Ss had quite a few close calls since many of the creatures tended to use ambush tactics, but with the help of mystic eyes, Ss was able to quickly dodge out of the way and kill them all quite easily.
*ck ck ck*
The hollow knocking of wood hitting wood echoed throughout the front yard while the wind''s howls reverberated from the backyard as two individuals seemed to be cheering something.
"You''re getting sloppy." Lochras spoke before knocking Ss'' de to the side and striking him in three vital points with the wooden sword.
While Ss wore a leather armor, Lochras wore nothing but normal tunic garments that suited both battles and home life.
"Oh really?" Ss grinned while stepping to the side and reeling back his wooden de, yet just when he saw Lochras beginning to block the iing attack, Ss shifted his weight and stabbed at his father.
"Clever..." Lochras smiled.
"But clever doesn''t let you win fights."
''Well, that''s just untrue-''
"Blegh." The knock of his de being struck away from his hand was followed by Ss suddenly puking whatever was left of his breakfast. This was one of the rare days a week when his father was actually home, and Ss assumed that this was the case due to the church ceremonies being on that day.
However, since they didn''t believe in the Gilea religion, they simply stayed at home.
Feeling the foot on his abdomen, Ss gritted his teeth and looked up at his father, staring into his eyes.
Lochras couldn''t help but shudder and the sudden stare.
''Was that killing intent?'' He furrowed his brows before eventually chuckling.
''Of course, it wasn''t. Ss is a child; no matter how mature he seems, there is no way he can create killing intent.'' Lochras bashed himself for having such thoughts before shoving Ss a few steps back to increase the distance between them.
"You did your feint wrong." Lochras sighed.
"What do you mean?" Ss tilted his head slightly.
"You should have gone more like- whee, then woosh, then boom." Lochras demonstrated how to effectively do a feint.
''What the hell is this guy teaching me?!'' but instead ofining, Ss tried to replicate his father.
"Whee, then woosh, then boom?" Ss did exactly what Lochras told him to do.
"No! Whoosh then boom!" Lochras did it again.
"Whoosh then boom?"
This carried on for several minutes. The argument was quite intense since clearly, despite being a master at the sword, Lochras was a horrible teacher.
''Yes! I me him for my bad swordsmanship!'' Ss inwardly dered with his chest puffed out and his nose pointing to the sky.
"WHOOOSH! LOOK AT ME! WHOOSH, THEN BOOM!" Lochras shouted.
"I did exactly that, you f-... Piece of-... AHHHHHH." Throwing the sword at the ground, Ss shattered it in anger before walking in the other direction.
"So, how did it go?" Rhea''s voice suddenly entered Lochras'' ears, causing him to look toward his wife with a beaming smile. She clearly knew how it went, yet her husband replied earnestly.
"Amazing!" He raised a thumbs up, making Rhea sigh while gently face palming.
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Chapter 20 Killing Intent [1] - Lab Rat
?"Honey... I think Ss is getting better at the sword!" Lochras beamed as he looked out of the window.
It had been a few weeks since Ss began hunting in the forest, and ever since then, his speed of improvement had been steadily increasing.
Lochras was beyond happy to see his son achieve so much in an art that he himself loved so much.
From the look in his eyes, one would think that he was more proud of Ss than he was proud of Syra, despite one being a mage with an S rank affinity and the other being an amateur swordsman.
"Are you even listening? My period iste! I could be pregnant!" Rhea stomped the ground in anger.
"Really!?" Lochras showed an expression of pure delight.
"Why are you so happy!? Shouldn''t you be stressed? We have another baby on the way!" Rhea gritted her teeth.
"I know! So much good news today, am I right? Syra just reached the pristine onyx core, Ss is finally improving at a pace that I could have never imagined to see him at, and now we have a child on the way! I could not have asked for a better day myself!" Lochras grinned.
"But it won''t be so easy anymore. Ss was an abnormality. I can quite literally count the number of times he''s cried in one hand. Syra is a genius mage so she essentially has her entire future nned out for her. This one might not be so easy!" Rhea tried to argue, but for some reason, she couldn''t look Lochras in the eye.
Despite this, she finally looked up and into her husband''s loving eyes when she felt a hand on her abdomen.
"It''s going to be okay." He smiled and gently hugged her. They soothed each other with the warmth of their bodies, slowly lowering both of their heart rates and blossoming a smile on Rhea''s face.
"Can you guys be all lovey-dovey somewhere else? It''s really distracting." Ss sneered while gulping down some water.
"That''s no way to talk to your parents, young man! And don''t think for a second that I''ve forgotten the stunt you pulled at the light festival. I hope you get your butt handed to you so you know to not act so rashly next time." Rhea lectured, but Ss knew she didn''t really mean it.
Ss looked away in shame, but just like most of his actions, it was just an act.
"Sorry." Ss bowed in apology and turned around to return to his training.
His mother wanted to scold him more; however, before leaving through the door, he paused and raised his head as if he remembered something.
"Oh, dad. Can you tell me how killing intent works?" Ss asked.
"Why do you want to know?" Lochras narrowed his eyes.
"I read about it somewhere but it didn''t exin how it worked." He lied through his teeth.
Walking toward Ss, Lochras waved him over to the couch and sat down with a sigh.
Rhea was a little annoyed that she wasn''t the one Ss had asked; after all, she used to be a prominent adventurer before she got pregnant with Syra.
"Ss. Don''t forget you and Syra have to go to town to get something from the chief for your grandmother." Rhea reminded me before leaving the room.
Lochras pursed his lips and sighed.
"Killing intent isn''t something taught before adulthood. Even my father didn''t teach me how to harness my killing intent until I was 15, but I guess you''re a lot more mature than I was at that age." Lochras chuckled.
"Killing intent is formed through killing. Every time you kill someone or something, a little bit of your soul is stained by their deaths. You have to go through countless battles to even form a single shred of killing intent, but even though it seems all bad, it''s a powerful weapon when used correctly." Lochras exined while Ss struggled to keep himself from going pale.
"Okay... Let''s say, hypothetically, there is a man out there who identally poisoned an entire continent and killed them all. What happens to their killing intent?" Ss asked with an awkward smile.
"Oh. If that kind of person ever existed, they would have an aura around them so dreaded that it would probably turn most living things around it into wilted forms of themselves." Heughed.
''Little does he know that he''s sitting next to a killer.'' Ss rubbed the back of his head as a knot of guilt tied itself around his innards.
"With all seriousness though, even though we humans would have a hard time feeling such a thing if we weren''t significantly powerful, a person like that would probably ward off most monsters and animals with their natural aura.
On the other hand, their killing intent would be extremely powerful too, but only for their power level. Killing intent can only be as powerful as its user." Lochras exined with a more serious attitude.
"I see." Ss looked down at his feet.
''Then, what scared all the creatures off before was my naturally bloody aura, not my killing intent. It means that to a certain extent, I had locked away that aura Wait, how do I release killing intent then? Is it as simple as its name? Do I just intend to kill something?'' Ss scratched his chin.
"Ss! Let''s go!" Syra called for Ss while wearing her outdoor shoes and opening the front door.
"Coming." Ss sighed and stood up before patting his father on the shoulder and leaving with Syra.
"I can''t wait to see all my friends." She giggled, but as usual, Ss didn''t respond.
It might have been a nature ingrained into him after spending 7 years inplete istion, where the only thingying between him and a death parade of mutated monsters was the thin wall and the guns he held.
Over thest 5 years, Ss had tried his best to startmunicating with his family, and to a certain extent, hismunication skills had drastically improved.
There were two problems, though. Problem one was that he never initiated the conversation unless something piqued his curiosity and unending hunger for knowledge. Of course, it was different when it came to the adults in his family.
He had gotten used to speaking to Rhea, Lochras, and Keira to the extent that he didn''t mind throwing randomments at them in order to stop them from doing something, or to manipte them into helping him in a certain way.
At the same time, when it truly came to it, Ss knew how to make a speech on the spot. He knew how to speak to manipte a mass of people. If anything, him choosing not to speak most of the time was a choice he had made rather than a hand he was dealt. Sure, speaking wasn''t ideal for him. He''d rather remain silent.
But sometimes it was a luxury he simply could not afford.
To Syra, it simply seemed like her brother was socially awkward. He always chose to spend time training or reading rather than socializing, but even though she wanted to get closer to him, she understood he was different.
Her personal tutor once told of a disorder called autism. After that, she kind of assumed that her brother had it.
On the other hand, Ss would never admit it, but he enjoyed her presence much more than he enjoyed the presence of the rest of his family. There was something soothing about her ever since their near-death experience.
Syra continued the one-sided conversation until they both saw the front gates of town dia.
Reaching the front gates, Ss stared at the guard for a moment. Syra was about to take out a token of some sort to show the guard, but the moment he looked at Ss, the clogs in his head began to turn, causing him to bow slightly before clearing the path for Ss, his sister, to enter.
Syra widened her eyes, but she didn''t say anything.
She hadn''t been to the town alone with Ss ever before. She either went on her own or with her grandmother. Ss was sometimes forced along with them, to his dismay, but even though he only spoke to their grandmother and not her, she still enjoyed hispany.
*ck ck ck*
The dull thuds of wood knocking against wood reverberated from a certain section of the town.
Looking over, Ss paused, tapped on his sister''s shoulder, and began to walk toward the sound. Syra quickly followed behind him, but before she could argue against going in that direction, she widened her eyes when several voices called out for her.
"Syra! Howe you''re here? Did you not have practice or school?" A girl the same age as Syra asked with a raised brow.
"I''m home-schooled, dummy. I choose when I have school." Syra puffed out her chest.
''Well, that''s just a lie...'' Ss rolled his eyes and turned his attention toward the two individuals sparring.
A man covered in leather armor maneuvered on his feet like a pro while struggling to block the attacks of the girl before him, who stood at half his size.
The pink-haired girl was a blur. She danced around her enemy; her movements were as graceful as a swan, while her deadly precise attacks resembled that of aser.
The attacks of her swordbined straight and curved patterns, making her feel like a storm constantly attacking with the intention of destroying anything that stood before her.
Ss could see the resolve in her eyes, and the hunger that burned within them. It almost made him grin.
Ss watched, etching her movements and toki into his mind. It had only been a month and a half since their deration in front of the entire town, and he could see that he wasn''t the only one who had improved.
When they finally both stopped, the man fell back and let out a loud sigh.
"You''re strong... I have to give you that." He spoke, panting in the middle of every third word.
"If this is your strength, the other guy doesn''t stand a chance." The manughed as one of his friends walked over to him to give him a helping hand.
Ss could feel his sister''s starend on him for a moment, but he simply smiled as well.
''At this rate, I have no chance of beating her physically. My specialty is magic and nning ahead. Unlike beasts, humans are predictable. Even though it might not seem like I have the advantage at the moment, they don''t realize-''
"He''s here! That''s him!" One of Syra''s friends shouted, causing her to receive a deadly re from Syra.
''So Syra doesn''t think I can beat her. It''s understandable. My magic is the only thing that tips the scales in my favor.''
"Oh really? Hey, wanna spar?" The man grinned. He had looked Ss up and down, and despite trying to see what Nymira saw in him to challenge him, he simply could not see past the nonchnt demeanor of the child before them.
At least from Nymira, they all felt a deadly aura from her whenever she looked at them. Hell, even Syra felt a little dangerous due to her nature as a mage, but they didn''t feel anything from Ss.
Nymira, on the other hand, had widened her eyes and looked toward Ss with an eager expression. He was too far away from her for her to smell him, but even she felt the change in his aura.
It was as if he was a normal human now.
''How did I smell him in the first ce? He was so far away...'' She frowned.
"You... Want to spar me?" Ss asked with an uneasy expression.
Thinking about the offer for a moment, Ss finally smiled.
"Sure."
''I can test my new knowledge on him... Maybe he can be my killing intentbrat!'' Ss felt like pping in excitement.
It had been so long since he had ab rat.
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Chapter 21 Killing Intent [2] - Silas Lethality
?Ss marched over to the middle of their little battlefield. It was simply an empty ground in the vige that spanned about 40 meters in diameter. The ground below them was clearly sandstone, with very little vegetation growing in it in the form of a few weeds here and there.
Nymira began to walk away, but before she could, Ss gestured for her training sword.
*Sniff*
Nymira instantly scrunched her nose. No... She looked oddly pale.
''He smells like blood... A lot of blood. He smells like a walking ocean of blood. It feels supressed though... Why didn''t it smell like thisst time? Was it because of how many people were around?''
Pausing, she looked at the floor, her breathing and heart rate reaching levels of height that would have made anyone who could see it raise a brow at her state.
However, after a few seconds of this, she kept her head down and simply walked away, not allowing anyone to look her in the eyes until she calmed herself down.
''What''s wrong with her?'' Ss thought before throwing that thought to the back of his mind and looking forward.
"Are you ready kid? Just a spar. I''m a lot older than you so don''t be too mad if you lose, alright?" The man grinned.
''Let''s hope you don''t faint on me.'' Ss snorted.
Several hundred meters away, two people stood on a roof and watched the entire situation unfold.
"I can''t feel his presence at all... Is he that weak?" The woman spoke.
"Heh... He''s Keira''s grandson. You''ve seen the kind of monster she is on the battlefield.
Rhea didn''t take that trait from her, but you''ve seen Keira''s other daughters. If that boy is anything like Keira, I doubt he is as simple as he seems." The burly man scratched his beard with a grimace.
He already had Syra to deal with, so he really hoped that the boy wouldn''t be as much of an eyesore. Unfortunately, Nymira''s sense of smell tended to be right about everything.
"Do you think he has a blessing?" The woman asked.
"No... But he might have something else." He narrowed his eyes.
Back at the spar, Ss and the 19-year-old kid stared at one another while slowly circling around one another.
''Alright... Just think of killing him... That''s how it works, right?'' Ss closed his eyes and tried to muster it, but killing intent felt more like an instinctual thing.
''Just think of someone you hate... Someone you truly hate from the bottom of your heart... Someone...'' Ss grimaced as a face appeared in his mind.
It was someone from his previous life. It was one of the first times Ss ever felt true hatred for someone, and when he did, nothing could stop him from absolutely destroying that man for what he had done.
Ss gritted his teeth and opened his eyes.
*SWOOSH*
For a second, everyone''s vision became red. For a second, it looked like the ground was covered in blood... No, it wasn''t just to ground...
When they looked at their hands, they were covered in blood too.
Corpses covered their entire town, yet despite how long that second seemed, none of them looked at Ss.
No one except the boy before him.
But then the second was over, and everything had returned back to how it was before...
But despite this, the eyes of the boy before him remained dull before eventually being reced by another emotion.
"Monster..." He muttered with pure terror on his face.
*SWOOSH*
A torrent of toki suddenly covered him and his wooden de. Ss had no idea what had happened. It was hard to feel one''s own killing intent, so Ss had no idea what kind of effect it might have had on anyone around him, let alone the person who looked into his eyes.
At that moment, the boy had peered into the abyss that were Ss'' eyes. While Ss was used to it, the madness created from 7 years of loneliness and desperation peered back at the boy. At the same time, it was as if millions of souls were screaming from within those eyes, wanting to be let out of their cages and be free for the first time in a very long time.
"MONSTER!" A fanatical light appeared in his eyes, making Ss widen his eyes before stepping back and instinctively raising his hand toward the boy.
"I suggest you stay back..." Ss warned, but the boy didn''t listen. To be fair, he didn''t seem like he was in the right mental state to listen either way.
''Oh wait, I can''t use magic... Uhm. What to do, what to do? Well, I''ve disabled many people in the past... This should be easy!'' Ss smiled with confidence even though he was slightly nervous. At the same time, his mood was foul due to the memory he forcefully resurfaced.
From the amount of toki the boy used, he could see that he was at least stronger than the man who had attacked their home 4 years ago. From the amount of toki the boy used, he could see that he was at least stronger than the man who had attacked their home 4 years ago. However, Ss was much stronger than back then; plus, he had elemental fusion on his side.
The boy was still a few meters away, but he was closing the distance at a very quick pace.
Ss'' eyes turned a strange shade of green as he threw the sword at the boy without a moment''s hesitation.
Having already infused his body with mana, Ss used 50% of his strength, causing the de to shoot right through the air, breaking the winds with a power that made them howl at the sword''s presence.
''Did he just copy my move.'' Nymira widened her eyes before a grin tugged at the corners of her lips.
He had taken a page right out of Nymira''s book. Sure, Ss felt like he was cursed to never be good at swordsmanship, but even in his past life, he always adapted.
Now that he had an evolution blessing, that adaption increased several folds.
As the sword neared, the blood eyes boy threw a panicked sh at the sword, but that was part of Ss'' n.
Infusing himself with the water element, Ss dashed forward with moderate speed. The boy saw this and tried to sh down at the iing green-eyed child, but the sword didn''t reach its mark, simply hitting thin air.
Ss moved with the flow of a river, and the precision of a surgeon.
Stepping to the side with minimal movement, Ss'' hand shed through the air and chopped at the opponent''s tight to pelvis joint.
The attack wasn''t strong, but it was decisive. Anyone in their right mind would have been capable of seeing such a thing. Fortunately, Ss'' opponent was far from being in the right mind.
The boy shed at Ss with the intention of decapitating him, and Ss was worried that it might have actually had the ability to do such a thing since it was covered in arge amount of toki.
Yet, Ss dodged again without much thought before lightly kicking the boy''s calf.
He continued dodging the attack, moving like a ballerina, dancing around his opponent while throwing decisive strikes at certain body parts.
After the calf, he went for the ankle, then the lower forearm, lower bicep, a kick to the knee, a kick to the side of the knee, and several more.
They were only 10 seconds into the fight, yet Ss'' opponent had slowed down significantly, and the pain shooting through his body gave him a sense of rity. Yet, rity does not make a foolish man wise. It simply makes their foolishness clearer.
"He''s a monster... HE''S A MONSTER! I SAW IT IN HIS EYES! HE''S A KILLER. HE KILLS HUMANS FOR FUN. HE''S CRAZY!" He screamed as agony shot through his body once again. However, he didn''t stop attacking though. Actually, Ss could see that the toki covering him had be more ferocious than ever before.
"Last warning. I suggest you stand down." Ss warned. His guard was no longer up, but somehow he seemed deadlier than ever.
Maybe it was the gaze in his eyes. Not even Ss knew since he was too busy thinking about everything else.
"AHHHH." The roar left the boy''s mouth as his swung his wooden de, but even though his toki looked like it intended to kill Ss, the boy''s condition held him back.
"I warned you." Ss sighed and circted earth fusion through his body.
Stretching out his hand, Ss grabbed the sword between his fingers and thumb.
The moment he stopped it in its ce, the toki around it dispersed... No. The right word would have been disappeared.
It had been his n from the start. Ss had always wondered what would happen if he simply absorbed the mana a toki user used, and he had gotten his answer.
If he did it while attacking them, his attacks would pack more of a punch even when he''s using less power.
Sure, they would simply take control of more ambient mana and convert it into toki.
Unlike mages, who were confined to a certain amount of mana, toki users were confined to the amount of mana they could control at one time, while their power depended on how they well they controlled that toki.
By absorbing their toki into his mana core, not only did he increase his vitality, for a moment, he also reduced the amount of toki they were controlling, allowing him to attack again and hit them even harder than before.
However, when he absorbed the toki from a weapon as weak as a wooden sword, it would lose its ability to support the power of its user, and since the wooden sword didn''t count as part of their body, they would have to coat it again using the toki that coated their bodies.
And that was exactly what the boy did.
"You should have retreated." Ss spoke, the fire element suddenly coursing through his body and firing up his muscles.
Tensing up his hand, Ss turned the de into splinters as an explosive power shot into his fingers.
At the same time, Ss coursed this explosive burst of power into his other arm, reeling it back and mming it into the boy''s sr plexus with so much power that the boy instantly puked out the contents of his stomach.
However, before the boy could fly off, Ss grabbed his hair and threw a devastating uppercut infused with the explosive power of the fire element to shatter the boy''s jaw.
It had been a little more than a minute since the battle had begun, yet for those watching, it felt like it had ended just as fast as it had begun.
Everyone watched on in stunned silence, yet only a few could understand even a fraction of Ss'' lethality.
At the boy copsed to the floor with his jaw still shattered into a million pieces; Ss walked away from the body and gently took his sister''s hand before walking away.
As he passed Nymira, he could see a dangerous me ignite in her eyes. However, no matter how fanatic the gleam in her eyes seemed...
''Show me what you''re made of, kid...'' Ss grinned as he passed her.
''I knew he was different.'' Nymira smiled from ear to ear as excitement boiled deep in her soul, to the point that the bloody smell no longer repelled her, but instead, it made her feel alive...
Because for the first time in her life, she found a rival.
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Chapter 22 Killing Intent [3] - Neglect
?"What do you think?" The woman looked over to the burly man, yet due to the way he was sitting, she couldn''t see the expression he had on his face. The only thing she knew for sure was that his gaze followed Ss the entire time, showing his clear interest in the boy.
"He''s a monster..." The burly man replied with a t tone that the woman could not decipher even if she tried.
"Hehe... Wait, you don''t actually believe that, right? Sure, his killing intent is insane for his age, but he isn''t nearly as strong as Nymira. She could have had that guy on the floor in less than 5 seconds.
The boy took over a minute to beat him! I can''t think of a scenario where that boy beats my disciple. Even if he uses his killing intent, she''s been trained-" However, before she could go on, the man raised his hand and stopped her.
"I don''t mean he''s an actual monster. I mean that, when ites to fighting, that boy is a monster among monsters." He paused, but this time the woman didn''t interrupt him.
"Did you not see something weird about that fight?" He asked while turning to her, allowing her to finally see his expression.
It was one of curiosity, thrill, and vigor.
"Not really? The boy''s attacks are quite strong for his age, but Nymira could do much more when she was his age. I just don''t understand what she saw in him." The woman sighed while scrunching her nose up in annoyance.
"I''m disappointed in you, Gina. Even your disciple saw in him what you weren''t capable ofprehending, but that is to be expected. She has a very sharp nose." The man rubbed the bridge of his nose while Gina lowered her head and bit her lip.
"He may seem ordinary on the surface, but everything he did had a purpose. I could see the cogs in his brain spinning every time he did something. Every single one of his movements was calcted, and the battle from the start of the fight had been nned in his head." The man began to exin.
"Everything from where he hit, the movement behind the hit, and the cement of his feet before and after the hit... It was as if he could see in the future." The man covered his mouth with his hand to hide his grin.
"If he''s so calcting, why did he throw that sword at his opponent?" The woman sneered. She thought she had found a hole in the story and was trying her best to undermine Ss, but her question only excited her teacher more.
"Did you not see the fight? He''s not a swordsman! He dodges like an assassin, and attacks like a martial artist. The sword was just a cover-up. No matter how out of their mind his opponent was, it gave them a sense of security.
Plus, it slowed them down. This is what I mean, Gina! He''s a genius! His level of talent could even rival Nymira''s. Maybe I should train him? What do you think." His words quickly turned into mumbles, and before Gina knew it, he was talking to himself.
Rolling her eyes, she grabbed the cor of her teacher and quickly began jumping roof to roof toward the center of the town.
***
"What was that..." Syra finally asked after they had begun walking for a few minutes.
Ss didn''t feelfortable talking to his sister, but he also knew that not telling her anything would only raise suspicions out of proportion.
"I did what had to be done. He attacked me, so I attacked back."
Ss smiled.
"But you were so strong... Stronger than when you fight with papa." She scowled.
"That''s called sparring. In spars, we don''t fight with all our strength." Ss replied with a nonchnt attitude.
"Oh really?" Syra''s frown deepened before she pulled her hand away from Ss''. Seeing this, Ss paused before sighing. Somehow, he knew that today would be a long day for him, filled with the questions of a ruthless 9-year-old.
''How do I politely tell her that I don''t like speaking to her?'' Ss thought, but when he couldn''te to an answer, he sighed and looked into his sister''s eyes.
"Howe you barely speak at home. Why do you always insist on being left alone? You only speak to our parents and grandma, and even then, you don''t speak about anything other than books and fighting. Books this, fighting that. Dad, can you help me with this. Grandma, what does this mean." Syra clenched her fist, and for the first time since his birth, she actually looked infuriated at him. No... She wasn''t just infuriated; she looked sad.
"Why do you never y with me. Why do you never talk to me? Why do you always want to be alone when I want to have fun with you? Do you hate me? Am I not your sister!?" She gritted her teeth while tears streamed down her eyes. Yet, throughout it all, Ss remained silent.
"I barely know anything about you. I don''t even know why you challenged that girl. Do you like her or something?" She stopped speaking, causing an awkward silence to fall upon them both.
''I guess my actions are catching up to me... Or, in better words, myck of action has taken a toll on the people around me.'' Ss looked down.
What was this feeling? Was it shame? Who knew? Well, he didn''t know... It had been a long time since he actually felt shame for something he did.
He didn''t know why he didn''t like speaking to Syra. Sure, he was socially awkward to a certain extent, but he pushed himself to speak to everyone, from his own family members to Nymira and other strangers.
''Maybe, I''m scared? Or maybe, I just don''t want to taint her...'' Ss thought back to everything he had ever done. Syra was pure. She was his sister that put her life on the line to save his one. He was the furthest thing from pure. He had the blood of billions on his hands, but he didn''t avoid touching her, no...
He avoided talking to her, because in a way, his mouth was the only thing that brandished his most deadly weapon...
His mind.
"Syra, I''m-"
"I know you go out every night." Syra spoke, making a shudder go through Ss'' spine.
How much did she know? How much did she find out? He was careful... How did she find out? Those were all questions running through his mind, but Syra continued while looking at the floor the entire time.
"I didn''t tell mom or dad. I didn''t even tell grandma. But I know you''ve been leaving every night anding back bloodied. You''re my baby brother... I don''t get it, and I know you don''t trust me, but-" Syra''s voice cut off as a pair of hands wrapped around her before pulling her into a soft hug.
"You''re right... I''m sorry." Ss hugged her, his lips pursed into a line, as hints of gilt flickered in his eyes...
''What am I doing?''
"Syra, you can''t tell our parents." Ss spoke, his voice a little more distant than before.
Pushing him away with anger, Syra shouted.
"Why! You know it''s dangerous, right?! Grandma told me monsters live in there..." She balled her hand into a fist again.
"People die... My friend''s mom went in there alone once. She never came out. I don''t want that to happen to you. You''re not as-"
''She followed me?'' Ss assumed.
"You can''t tell anyone... Okay?" Ss red at her, making her shudder slightly before looking at the floor.
"Plus, you have nothing to worry about. I''m safe. I have a friend who helps me out." Ss grinned, lying through his teeth.
Aplicated expression appeared on his sister''s face, but before she could say anything else, Ss simply wrapped his arm around her shoulder and pressed her head against his shoulder.
"So don''t worry. Your brother is going to be fine. What you should be worrying about is how I''m going to surpass you soon." Ss teased, making herplicated expression disappear as she pushed herself away and ced her fists on her hips.
"You? Surpass me? Heh. In your dreams." She harrumphed.
''That''s more like it.'' Ss genuinely smiled.
They continued to walk toward the town hall that was a block or two away from the church.
Ss did talk a little more, but not nearly as much as in their argument. Syra continued to ask him questions about what he did in the forest, but he kept insisting that it was a secret and that anyone who found out would be eaten by wolves or something along those lines.
*Knock Knock*
Passing through the town hall and the many people in it, Ss knocked on the door of the chief''s office.
The door slowly opened as a woman with long ck hair stepped into view, raising a brow when she saw the two at the door.
From Ss'' perspective, she was quite tall, but despite what his vision told him, he knew that she must have been barely above average.
Nevertheless, the same could not be said about her beauty. Her porcin skin reflected under the shine of the chandeliers in the room. Her dark eyes, they could have been mistaken for ck, shone with a vigor that was weirdly attractive.
''Oh crap... Have I developed a crush? This quickly! Damnit! I haven''t even gotten to the hormonal years yet!'' Ss inwardly cursed. Sure, Ss didn''t chase women the same way other men with no self-control did; however, he was still human.
He knew what an attractive woman was; the difference was that he didn''t act on those feelings of attraction. Plus, going after women for only their looks was pretty stupid. Ss has a long list of things they had to check out before he could ept them as a loyal and worthy allies in his journey of life.
''Maybe that''s why I died alone...'' Ss nodded to himself.
The woman had a sheathed rapier tied to her belt that was mostly covered by her ck robes that covered most of her body. She was clearly someone who crawled in the shadows; however, since they were in the town hall, she had her hood down the entire time.
"Chief. Keira''s kin are here to collect her prize." The woman spoke with a t tone.
As the door opened, the view of arge man sitting at a desk and ring at the pile of paperwork appeared. The man was burly. Calling him burly would have been an understatement. He was giant, standing 7ft tall with bulging muscles from every limb in his body.
To the side, Ss saw a concrete pir leaning on the wall beside it.
"We''vee for the booty!" Ss wanted to shout, but he quickly stopped himself. He didn''t want to sound like a pirate in front of the chief, after all.
"Uhh... Give thing?" Ss asked, making everyone raise a brow.
"You mean your grandmother''s reward? Sure, here." Walking to one side of the office, he mmed his foot onto the ground, opened up a floorboard, and took out a slightly thin tree branch with the top of it covered with some kind of cloth.
"This is your grandmother''s share of the prizes she earned over the years for protecting the town." He ced that staff in Ss'' hands instead of Syra''s, confusing the two of them.
"Alright, get out of here. I need to do a lot of paperwork." He sighed while waving them off. Despite this, he quickly whipped his head up from the paperwork he was about to start and looked at his assistant.
"Gina will take you home, okay?" He asked, making Gina''s eye twitch before she reluctantly nodded.
"Yes, sir..."
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Chapter 23 The Endless Battle [1] - Outsmarted?
?Several months passed after that, and not much had changed in that period.
Ss had finally passed the age of 5, but as usual, there was no party. He assumed that he would only get a party after the age of 6 since that''s the only time his sister got one.
After they returned home with the chief''s assistant, Ss gave the staff to his grandmother. The first time he used mystic eyes on it, he instantly knew what it was. Not only was the wood made out of something that had a really good conductivity to mana, but the crystal ce embroidered on it was beyond amazing.
The crystal seemed to radiate the fire element, and not only that, but it also seemed to repel the water element to a certain extent. It felt like it was a mana core of its own, absorbing and releasing mana at a steady rate, yet every time Ss pushed a little bit of mana into it, that rate of cultivation seemed to increase.
After taking the cloth off in thefort of their own homes, Ss finally realized that it had a Dull-emerald crystal attached to it, with that crystal having a small red ball of me in the center of it, dictating the element it absorbs.
Ss felt a little envy when he saw it. When he touched it, he could sense how fast he would have been capable of casting spells with it. The concentration needed was much less, and the efficiency at which he could cast spells would have multiplied, and the pure strength behind his spells would have been astronomical.
Yet, instead of watching his grandma with greed and cursing her for the items she had, he chose to use this as just another form of motivation to get stronger before reaching the age of 6.
At the same time, he realized something else when he touched that staff.
''If I can get my own mana crystals, I can practice absorbing the elemental mana inside them into my core... If I can do that, I''ll pass that elemental exam with flying colors...
The ideal choice is to get an A or lower on two elements. Getting three would put me on everyone''s radar, and that is not something I want until I can fend off those people.''
So far, he had gotten clear crystals with only pure mana inside them. Those tended toe from beasts who had no elements but rather just had enhanced strength.
He had no idea what he should do with them, but one thing came to mind...
Regardless, 7 months passed in the blink of an eye, and when he was almost 5 and a half years old, he began to lose his patience. He had remained stuck in the pristine ga core for far too long, and worst of all, his sister was beginning to catch up to him.
In that time, his sister hadn''t said a word about him leaving the house, but she did seem to get closer and closer to telling their parents about it every day Ss went out.
He knew it wouldn''t be long until she cracked, but he tried to stretch that out for as long as possible.
In the meantime, however, Ss was trying his best to find a way to break through into the topaz core, and after a lot of deliberating, Ss had decided that cultivating with the beast cores might have been the best idea.
Sure, he could sell them for a fortune or even use them to make an armor or weapon of his own, but he wanted to make those things out of stronger items. Using ga and onyx crystals for something like armor would be a waste.
''I hope I find a beast capable of using elemental mana today.'' Ss stretched. His parents and grandmother were all asleep. Hell, even Syra was asleep.
Leaving their home, Ss began to walk toward the forest with the axe in his hand. He had grown much stronger in the past 7 months, to the point where he could probably kill many of the beasts in the forest without using any spells or fusions.
His axe was chipped and a lot duller than it used to be. It was the axe the intruder had thrown at him a few years back, and since it was the only weapon in the house that didn''t belong to anyone, Ss decided to use it as his main hunting tool.
Ss walked into the forest and ensured his bloody aura waspletely suppressed so the beasts wouldn''t escape him. He always had his aura suppressed to a certain extent. All he had to do was repeat what he did the first time he suppressed his aura: just suck it in and not let it go.
The melodious sounds of the forest entered Ss'' ears and made him reach full alertness. His eyes quickly turned green, allowing him to see all mana signatures in the area.
"Hmmm. That''s weird." Ss muttered to himself after realizing that there weren''t that many beasts around...
To be fair, even the forest sounded off. It didn''t have the fine tune of beasts rustling, fighting, howling, and chirping... None of those things were there. It was like the first time he entered the forest. The only sound that could be heard were the synced rustles of the trees blowing with the wind.
It was ghost-quite, yet every time the wind blew, it sounded like the howled screams of the souls that remained within the forest.
''Something is here...'' Ss thought with a scowl, yet for some reason, he couldn''t pick up a mana signature or vitals nearby of creatures that weren''t hiding or running away.
''Should I run? No... Yes? Ugh. I should investigate, right? It might be a monster with an elemental affinity.'' Ss debated, but ultimately, his greed was stronger than the fear pooling in his stomach.
Jumping from tree to tree, Ss searched for the anomaly until he finally saw it.
Arge surge of mana concentrated into a single figure, radiating a frightening amount of bloodlust.
''The earth element... This is going to be tricky.'' Ss gritted his teeth.
ording to the books he read, beasts with the earth element were very tanky. However, it made sense. Monsters and beasts evolved to suit their elements. Even red dragons formed nds to spew fire out of their mouths.
The creature before him had the earth element, so every muscle in its body would be enhanced with that element, making it not only heavy but also extremely durable, a little simr to earth fusion.
''It only has a pristine ga core... I should be fine.''
Landing on a tree nearby the beast, Ss narrowed his eyes, and the towering brown bear stood on all fours with a back that looked almost like a mountain.
''Its going to be hard fought, but if I kill it...'' Ss grinned. This battle was clearly not for his axe, so he simply stabbed it into the side of the tree he was standing on before pointing his hand toward the beast.
A pentagram appeared before Ss'' hand, and as mana began to pool inside the magic circle, Ss thought of one word.
''Fire missile.''
A fireballrger than Ss appeared before him, immediately grabbing the attention of the bear; however, by the time it had turned around, Ss had already shrunken the sphere of mes into a ball the size of his fist.
It took less than 2 seconds to form before tearing through the air, shooting right toward the bear, and exploding on impact.
A blinding sh of light illuminated the forest while the me shot up and in every direction. The explosion was magnificent, to say the least. Ss was almost certain that the beast would have been seriously hurt, so without thinking, he jumped down and began walking toward it.
His mystic eyes couldn''t really see through the mes created by his spell, but he didn''t need it... Or at least, he didn''t need it to understand that he had messed up.
A sudden gust of mana shot out in every direction. Murky brown energy flooded out of the beast''s body in the form of a magical aura. It was unlike anything Ss had seen before, but at the same time, it was not the time for him to marvel at it like an idiot.
''Wait...'' Ss narrowed his eyes and looked at its core once more.
That wasn''t a pristine ga core...
It was a dull topaz core.
''It concealed its core level!'' Ss inwardly screamed, but just when he thought it couldn''t get any worse-
*ROOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAR*
The bear lifted its body from the mes and stood on two legs as it roared into the sky.
It lookedpletely unscathed...
The roar reverberated throughout the entire forest.
Eyes began to shine from within the shadows of the trees. Ss could still see them with mystic eyes, but the result of his discovery only worsened his confidence in himself to survive such an encounter.
Hundreds of eyes were ring at him; now, even the bear was ring at him.
''This was a trap...'' Ss realized before a grim thought entered his mind.
''Did I just get outsmarted by a bunch of beasts?''
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Chapter 24 The Endless Battle [2] - Evolving
?Ss was surrounded by an array of ferocious beasts, ranging from dire wolves to grotesque beasts that he had never seen before.
He raised his hands defensively, trying to keep the beasts at bay, but he failed to notice the most dangerous one standing right in front of him.
He felt a sudden disturbance and quickly turned his head towards the source.
The bear had opened its mouth, and in an instant, arge earth bullet, the size of Ss''s head, appeared before it.
A sense of dread washed over him as he watched the bullet hurtling towards him.
Reacting instinctively, Ss dodged the earth bullet, but the shockwave that followed was enough to break every bone in his right arm that had barely blocked it.
He grimaced, knowing that the difference between a pristine ga core and a dull topaz core was like night and day, and this fight was going to show why that was the case.
As he tried to regain his bnce, he suddenly felt a sharp pain that made his eyes bulge in agony.
He puked out a mouthful of blood as the sound of the wind cracking reached his ears.
He realized toote that he couldn''t hear the whip crack after the attack, thanks to his ear injury.
He had been hit by a diagonal slice that spanned from his hip to his shoulder and continually gushed out blood with every heartbeat.
He gritted his teeth, suppressing the rage and pain as he got a glimpse of the monster that attacked him from the corner of his eye.
It was a creature made of vines, a monster that was clearly not to be underestimated.
Another earth cannon sted its way through the trees, appearing before Ss once more, but this time he was prepared.
He touched the ground with all five fingers, creating an earth wall before dashing to the side with wind fusion.
Ignoring the bear for a moment, Ss stretched out his hand and created a normal-looking tier 1 fireball, but something was different about it.
The fist-sized ball of mes began to spin and in less than a second, it turned into a marble-sized ball of me that shot towards the monster.
"Life fusion," he muttered through gritted teeth, channeling his life force energy to increase his healing rate.
He knew it would take a few seconds, but he couldn''t afford to let his guard down.
The vine creature whipped several vines at him in desperation. It was still a dull-ga core, but it knew the fire bullet would have killed it instantly. Ss dodged the vines with ease and focused on the monster.
His eyes narrowed as he realized that this was not going to be an easy fight. He was outnumbered, surrounded, and outmatched. But he was determined to survive.
''I can use earth fusion to tank the vine attacks, but it takes a second or two to switch. Its not worth it.'' Ss thought, his eyes narrowing dangerously.
The vine monster was instantly turned into ashes when the ball of mes touched it. However, it was not the vine monster that he was a worried about.
He saw the maw of a dire wolf suddenly open, its sharp teeth ready to sink into his flesh and possibly even bite his head off. He had to act fast if he wanted to survive. With a split-second decision, Ss raised his arm, offering it as a sacrifice to the dire wolf''s open jaws.
The wolf''s powerful bite dug deep into Ss''s arm, causing him to howl in pain. But he quickly regained hisposure and used the wolf''s momentum against it, throwing the creature aside.
A shrill whistle pierced through the forest, signaling the approach of even more monsters and beasts. Ss knew he was trapped with no escape.
"I need to run," Ss muttered to himself, but he quickly realized it was toote.
With a smile on his face, Ss summoned an axe made of earth and threw the dead wolf into the air. He caught the axe with his only working arm, while his other one hung limply by his side.
An enormous bat creature swooped down and shed at Ss, but he managed to dodge just in time. ''I wasn''t the target.'' Ss widened his eyes when he saw the dead wolf gone, and when he looked at where the bat had flown, he felt his heart drop in panic.
The corpse of the wolf was flying at him like a catapulted boulder.
Ss stomped on the floor and created a magic circle under his feet. While it was impossible for a mage of his level to create spells far away from him, Ss was capable of using 4 of his 5 mana entry points to create spells, something 99% of mages probably didn''t even know was possible.
It was simple logic. If he could create spells for his hands, why not his feet?
Suddenly, three earth walls appeared before Ss, yet in front of the momentum behind the corpse, they became as effective as paper in front of a rocketuncher.
The impact kicked an enormous dust cloud that prated the forest''s canopy.
Being hit by the full strength of the shockwave, Ss wasunched away in an instant.
However, he was not the only one who suffered from this attack, as the impact not only turned every creature in the area into a bloody paste, but it also injured anything near it since the corpse continued to shoot into the horde even after hitting the ground.
Fortunately, Ss had activated earth fusion before beingunched away. Otherwise, he would have most definitely suffered the same fate as those other creatures.
*Blegh*
Vomiting out a mouthful of blood, Ss wiped his mouth and staggered to his feet. The creature''s eyes were only on him despite dozens of their brethren dying.
*Thud*
Looking over to the side, Ss saw his axe fall beside him.
''Lucky me...'' Ss tried to smile, yet it only made him cough out more blood.
He had to heal, but he knew that the moment he activated life fusion, he would be vulnerable.
Grabbing it, Ss used it as a crutch to stand up.
His body was battered in every single way. Every movement was excruciating to the point where even the adrenaline couldn''t hide his pain.
Or maybe his body was rejecting the adrenaline?
He didn''t know, but he didn''t care.
Blood flowed down from his head and into his eyes, yet he didn''t even blink...
He simply stared at all the monsters in front of him, and listened to the ones behind him.
They sounded like marching soldiers...
Everything had slowed down. Everything became muffled, while his eyes became cloudy.
He could see the earth bear opening its maw and gathering a ridiculous amount of mana in front of it.
He could see the dull-topaz-cored bat zooming toward him with the lust for blood in its eyes.
He could see dozens of dire wolves marching at him, their red eyes ring in a berserker''s rage, while several reptiles spanning from crocodile magical mutations to chameleons were strolling like they had all the time in the world.
Every beast was there. Bunnies, sloths, komodo dragons, gorgonflies, bloodseekers, bloodmaws, thundertusks...
''They''re all here to kill me...'' Ss thought. His eyes were listless, as if he had given up.
Yet...
''Me? A nobody... They want to kill me?'' A chuckle left his mouth as an uncontroble me appeared in his eyes...
''You want to throw 5 years of my hard work down the drain? You want me to go through that hellish reincarnation cycle?'' Ss'' expression twisted into that of pure rage.
Pain continued to course through his body, yet he no longer felt it.
His body wasn''t supposed to be capable of moving yet, but somehow he moved it. No, he didn''t just move it...
He was pointing his axe at the monsters as an aura asrge as an ocean made of pure blood left Ss'' body. His eyes had a fanatic spark in them. Maybe it was the desperation that allowed him to keep moving, or maybe his determination keeping him standing. But, in the end, it didn''t matter.
"If you want to kill me...!" A tier two magic circle appeared in front of his axe. It was an orangy red... The color of mes.
"You''re going to have to try harder than that!" A maniacalugh left his mouth before a pir of mes shot out of the circle, as the spell ''incineration cannon'' quickly prated the first line of creatures, turning them into cinders.
At the moment, he felt as if a second spark had been created next to his me of unending hunger for knowledge. The me and spark suddenly fused without skipping a beat, and before Ss knew it, there was a second feeling that grew in his cold and bloodied soul.
It was thrill...
A thrill for battle!
[You are evolving]
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[A/N: Bonus chapter for reaching the powerstone goal iingter today]
[If you have enjoyed this chapter and would like to support the author, please vote using your power stones or golden tickets. Also, you can join my discord server today to see illustrations or to converse about thetest chapters.]
Chapter 25 The Endless Battle [3] - Flow State?
?As Ss continued to fight, his mind was consumed by a single thought: survival. He had faced countless monsters before, but this time, it was different. This time, he was outnumbered, and the beasts were stronger than ever.
But Ss didn''t let that intimidate him. In those moments, he felt like a killing machine, capable of anything.
The thrill of battle coursed through his veins as he burned, shed, and hacked his way through the monsters.
The creatures'' agonized screams echoed through the forest, yet Ss didn''t flinch.
He had been through worse. He had trained for years, pouring his blood, sweat, and tears into bing his best version, whether in this life or hisst one.
With every kill, his body was augmented with mana, and he became stronger. His muscles bulged with power, and he knew how to use them.
Even with a broken arm, several broken ribs, and torn muscles, Ss didn''t stop fighting. He was a force to be reckoned with.
The beasts and monsters didn''t stand a chance against him. A stone cannon shot through the trees, and Ss lowered himself before jumping with everything he had.
He didn''t even bother to look back to see what creatures had be coteral damage. He simply shot down and hacked his axe into a boar''s skull.
Suddenly, lightning crackled from a different boar, and Ss could see the energy forming inside its body.
It was abination of wind and fire, but it was also a chemical reaction forming within the boar. Ss knew he had to act fast.
He stepped to the side and sliced through the air an instant before the lightning shot out of the boar.
Spinning on his heel, he hacked his axe into the boar''s thick skull.
The boar had two tusks and bright yellow and brown fur, but it didn''t matter. It was just another obstacle in his path to survival.
Despite the intense battle raging around him, Ss remained focused.
He was attached to the magic system of this world, the knowledge he had gained, and the people around him.
He had a family, a group of people willing to love him unconditionally without asking for anything from him. He wasn''t about to lose all that to a bunch of beasts and monsters.
Suddenly, he felt something enter his body the moment the boar died.
A surge of energy passed through Ss'' body, but he didn''t even have the time to look at the emerald screen that had appeared before him.
[You are evolving]
[The Evolution blessing is reacting]
[You have absorbed the Thundertusk bloodline]
[Thundertusk: 4%]
All he knew was that he was evolving, causing a maniacal smile to tug at his lips.
''Evolution...'' Ss thought as he turned around and sliced through the head of another wolf while shing at several vines that were trying to stab into him.
There was a reason he always chose to use an axe. Of course, he could have created weapons out of the earth, but those were heavy and dull. However, even though he could have made a sword out of earth, he was not nearly as good at using the sword as he was at using the axe.
He had constantly used the axe over the nine months. He had adapted it into his style of fighting beasts and evolved with it.
*SCHING*
*Splurt*
Ss panted as he sliced through another beast before jumping over an iing lizard tongue and cutting it.
His second arm was almost healed enough for him to use it.
*BANG BANG BANG*
Three stone cannons formed and shot toward him in sequence. Ss had no idea the bear could shoot in such quick session, but like everything else, he adapted.
He quickly spun on his heel and shot a stone bullet of his into the head of an iing bird.
The stone cannon missed him by a hair''s breadth, but there were two more.
Creating a spell under his feet, Ss made the ground sink before shooting upwards and throwing him into the air.
*SCREEECH*
Ss looked up to look at the enormous bat that had its wings wide open.
The eyeless bat opened its mouth and let out a deafening screech. The screech quickly turned into a wave of pure sound.
A tier 2 spell appeared in front of Ss before ance made out of violent torrents of water conjured before it.
Thence began to spin at extremely high speeds, and a secondter, it shot through the air and prated right through the sound wave, shooting through the bat''s membranous wing in the process.
*SCREEEEEECH*
The bat began to fall, and in its descent, it began to shoot soundwaves in every direction.
Trees fell, and several beasts were injured, while some even died after taking a direct hit from the dull-topaz cored bat.
Ss simply dodged the sound waves by using the tier 1 air st spell to move around mid-air, and by the time he had touched the ground, his arm was healthy enough to be a viable weapon once again.
The ground cracked under his feet while a sword made out of stone instead of dried earth appeared at his side.
Sure, he didn''t like the sword, but he had to admit that it was a formidable weapon against many enemies; it was long and allowed him to keep his distance to a certain extent.
''No one kills me¡'' Yet despite wanting to keep his distance, the me in his eyes wanted blood, while every muscle in his body tensed with the exhration of battle.
Shooting into the crowd of creatures, Ss continued to grin like a maniac while cleaving through the hordes of beasts. Every kill made him a little stronger, but it wasn''t just that.
Every slice and every sh became more efficient and more powerful. Every attack made him a little better at using the weapons in his hands.
His footwork became sharper, and his dodging became graceful and efficient.
The same could be said for all the spells he was casting. Spikes made of earth could be seen shooting out of the ground and shredding the beasts before him. The monsters were a little more tricky, though.
His attacks were filled with rage, vigor, and desperation for survival, yet they also had a spark of grace and beauty¡ It was strange to find beauty in destruction, but Ss knew destruction far too well to find it too strange.
A beauty covered in blood and corpses was a permanent beauty that would stain thends for dozens of years. Or at least that''s what Seth used to say.
After every injury, a pulse of energy shot through his body and made him just a little stronger, But eventually, they began to stack up.
The blood that covered Ss was no longer just an illusion of his regret. The blood was now real, but there wasn''t a single piece of regret behind the hands that shed it.
*Thump Thump*
However, all of a sudden, Ss felt like his body was slowing down dramatically.
[The Evolution blessing is reacting]
Falling onto one knee, Ss spat out a mouthful of blood. In that same instance, he felt something bite onto his torso and draw out arge among of blood, so without thinking, he ced his hand on the floor and created earth spikes all around him.
An earth spike suddenly stabbed the beast that had bitten him and rose to the air, but Ss didn''t care about that. He just clutched his chest and tried his hardest to breathe.
For some reason, his breathing was abnormally ragged, and his heart rate was dangerously high.
*Pant Pant Pant*
''I have a few seconds to think before an earth cannon shoots through my walls and kills me¡ Think! What is it? Mana exhaustion? No¡ I have enough mana. Normal exhaustion? No, I still have a bit of energy left in me. Wait, these symptoms. Fever. Panting. Low energy¡ It''s poison¡ It must have been the vine monster,'' Ss concluded in less than a second.
Ss tried to think of ways to counteract the poison''s symptoms. He had be too careless when he charged into that horde of beasts without a second thought. He was in a certain state of mind, but he should have controlled it instead of letting his bloodlust control him.
*Bang*
"Crap." Ss cursed. He couldn''t think of anything.
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Chapter 26 The Endless Battle [4] - Metamorphosis
?[Bonus Chapter: For reaching the first powerstone goalst week.]
"Crap." Ss cursed. He couldn''t think of anything. He could throw himself into the air likest time, but that would only make him a better target.
''No¡ I am Seth Evergreen. I''ve destroyed entire countries in just a few days. I can do this!
Looking to his side, Ss saw a dead snakebunny that seemed to have been decapitated when he created the earth spikes.
''I don''t have a staff, but what if I absorb the mana core''s energy?'' Ss thought to himself, but he didn''t have time to think of the consequences or dangers. He was certain that he was running out of mana, but he still needed to keep the monsters away from him for as long as possible while blocking the attacks of the earth bear.
Ss would have loved to kill the earth bear, but he had seen how easily it had blocked his fire bolt spell, which was technically one of his strongest spells since it had an enormous density of mes packed into it.
Of course, he had one other trick in his sleeve, but that one was for life and death situations since it had the power to kill even him.
He didn''t want to use it before reaching the topaz core, so he quickly threw it out of his mind and focused on the mana crystal inside the bunny.
Absorbing mana crystals was just a theory. He didn''t even know how he was going to do it. Did he need to consume the crystal or just grab it and absorb the mana out of it that way? ording to the information fed to him by his parents and grandmother, there was no such thing as absorbing mana out of mana crystals.
However, his grandmother did tell him of a story of an adventurer who tried to consume the mana crystals, but exploded right after due to the torrent of energy rampaging within him.
Making his decision, Ss ripped out the mana crystal and clutched it in his hand before closing his eyes. He could feel the tremorsing closer by the second, but he needed to focus.
Slowly, the mana within the mana crystal began to flow through the mana veins in his arms and moved torward his sr plexus.
His outstretched hand tensed as he gritted his teeth. As the mana flowed into his mana core, he simply added his own mana signature onto it and quickly forced it out of his body through the other hand.
Ss wasn''t using the conventional method of spell casting with a magic crystal¡ªusually, mages with staffs sent mana into the crystal while chanting an incantation. The crystal usually did all the rest, making the spell cost less mana, concentration, and control to the point where a good staff could allow someone in the ga core to create a tier 3 spell.
Every tier of spell had a limitation. Ga cores couldn''t create tier 3 spells and above, while topaz cores couldn''t create spells above the 4th tier.
Of course, as usual, Ss found a way around it by limiting the amount of mana needed for a tier 3 spell. The only reason tier 3 spells took so much mana was that people chose to use chants and magic circles. Yet, despite still being limited by thews of the magic circles, Ss found a way to reduce the mana needed by reducing the mana wasted every time he made a spell.
Since he controlled the flow of mana instead of letting an incantation do it, it meant that he could allow the mana to flow in a direct form while also using the minimal amount of mana needed to create the magic circle.
''It''s close.'' Ss thought, his eyes shining bright green before brown mana left his palm and fingertips to create an earthy-colored magic circle.
The magic circle was a pentagram, yet unlike the tier 2 magic circles, it had an extra circle encapsting it. That circle had five runes inside it, each rune ced above a point of the pentagram''s star.
"EARTH FORTRESS!" Suddenly, severalyers of thick earth and stone emerged from the ground, encapsting Ss.
There had to have been over 30yers of Earth covering him. It cut his oxygen supply, but that wouldn''t matter for too long.
*BOOOOOOOOOM*
The brain-rattling sound of the earth cannon impacting onto the earth fortress spell shook Ss to his very bones, but he held on.
*BOOM BOOOM BOOM*
The tremors continued, yet by some miracle, the fortress was still standing.
Circting life fusion through his body in order to purge the poison, Ss gritted his teeth and sighed. He knew that it was a long shot since life fusion hadn''t purged the poison before, but he still did it anyway.
With another sigh, Ss looked down at the crystal in his hand.
The snakebunny had only been in the solid-onyx core. Ss had no idea why they were attacking him, but now he knew that there must have been a reason since no animal in its right mind would attack him while being so weak.
Animals had better senses than humans. The moment he killed his first beast in this life, every beast around him somehow knew how dangerous he was, as if killing a beast had triggered his bloody aura enough to make most beasts steer away from him.
Yet, here he was, being attacked by hundreds of beasts and monsters simultaneously without a single sign of fear in their eyes.
Even when he stopped suppressing his killing intent and naturally bloody aura, they still attacked him for some reason.
''There''s something I don''t understand, but I have time to think about it. I''m running out of oxygen, my mana has depleted, and my energy levels are low.
And the worst part of this all, I''ve been poisoned.'' Ss coughed out a little bit of blood before wiping it onto his hand.
His clothes were ruined. Not only were they covered in blood, but all the attacks and injuries had torn them to pieces, leaving him a tiny bit of garment that conveniently covered all his private areas quite well.
Now that he had no clothes over most of his body, anyone who looked at him would have been shocked to see his physique, especially for someone his age who has only been working out for 9 months at most.
He probably had a fat percentage of 6-8%, making his abs look surprisingly toned despite his smaller physique. His body was not only agile and strong, it was flexible too. It was formed through not only Ss'' workouts, but also the training he did every day.
Of course, working out was good. However, a better workout is weapon and martial art training. By using the muscles repeatedly, Ss can slowly increase all the correct muscle groups needed for his particr martial art, weapon, or even strategy.
Looking at his left arm, which had been previously shattered due to the shockwave created by the stone cannon, Ss narrowed his eyes slightly.
It was a lot stronger than before¡ No, that was an understatement. It was like it had gone through a week''s worth of exercise.
Now if he thought back to it, he did feel something about his arms change when that evolution blessing took action.
Activating mana eyes, Ss saw that the skin and arm muscles on his left arm were filled with much more mana than all the other organs and muscles in his body. Hell, the very cells seemed to have changed, being filled with an invigorating amount of mana, making his left arm feel like it was exploding in strengthpared to all his other limbs.
''Oh no¡'' A theory entered his mind and made his stomach drop. He really didn''t want to do that. Sure, it was a thing that he would do if he somehow survived this hellscape, but it was something he really, really, really didn''t want to do.
"Oh god, please no." Ss cursed.
*BOOM, BOOM, BOOM*
The sound of impact was getting closer and stronger. He could see the earth above him beginning to crack slightly. His earth fortress was beginning to crumble, but there was something more urgent he had to tend to.
Touching his chest, Ss created a green tier 2 magic circle. He didn''t have enough magic for a tier 3 magic circle, and he didn''t have a corpseying around with a mana crystal inside it.
However, there was something distinct about his healing spell¡
Emerald and goldente shone from the magic circle as runes this had never seen before appeared inside the pentagram.
"Purg-" However, before he could finish his sentence, a green and golden green appeared before him, making him widen his eyes briefly before narrowing them when he read the words on the screen. They were written in English.
Despite his vision having slowly faded over thest few minutes, for some reason, the screen before his was as bright as day and as vivid as a lucid dream.
[You have consumed a harmful substance]
Suddenly, his magic circle shattered before green energy suddenly appeared out of thin air and entered his body.
''This is like the first time I learned how to cultivate.'' Ss widened his eyes before closing them and following the green energy''s lead.
He saw everything as if his body had been drawn onto a blueprint. The green energy almost illuminated his body and gave him a correct vision of exactly how his body looked. He could see all his organs, muscles, veins, and arteries. However, one thing was highlighted in a different color, and he assumed it was the poison.
The green energy seemed to move through his hands, feet, nose, and mouth, but instead of going to his core likest time, it was moving right toward the poison in his bloodstream for some reason.
*BOOM, BOOM, BOOM*
The sounds of impact continued, yet Ss did his best to concentrate on the thing he had at hand.
The green energy seamlessly illuminated all the poison in his bloodstream, but instead of destroying it like Ss had expected, he was forced to widen his eyes when he saw the green energy enter it.
Due to the magical nature of the poison, this was the equivalent of powering it to do more damage. However, Ss trusted his evolution blessing. No. It wasn''t the evolution blessing that he trusted. He trusted the life equation branded onto his soul and mind.
Sure, it destroyed Earth and its human poption while turning all animals and humans into mutated monsters, but that was his mistake, not the life equations.
The life equation had done nothing but help him from the very start. It essentially gave him limitless youth in his previous life despite it not having done the same for others. It branded itself into his soul and gave him another chance at life. Despite many tries, it gave him a family, so no matter what happened, he was going to trust it with his life.
Closing his eyes, Ss assisted the green energy with his own mana and did the exact same thing it did, but he quickly realized he was in for another surprise.
Suddenly, the poison stopped spreading throughout his bloodstream and was instead illuminated green and broken down into its mainponents.
That''s when Ss saw the green screen one more time, and it said-
[The Evolution blessing is taking effect]
[You have evolved]
[You have be resistant to all basic mana poisons]
[You have be you built a tolerance to all poisons]
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Chapter 27 Endless Evolution [1] - Unlucky
?His eyes were drawn upwards when he noticed that the cracks were spreading rapidly. There was no way his earth fortress wouldst much longer... Hell, it was a miracle that it even survived.
Ss cast a sinkhole spell while tapping the ground, sinking him a few meters underground. While he could have used this earlier to run away from the stone cannon, it would have been more of a temporary solution. With their excellent sense of smell, there was no way they would have fallen for that.
However, even though it wasn''t an effective method of hiding, it was a very effective method of running away. Of course, he couldn''t get very far with it, especially with the limited air supply. However, it was an excellent way for him to get the drop on the beasts and have the upper hand for once.
''There''s no oxygen left¡'' Ss thought as he suddenly felt dizzy.
Casting the spell "tunnel," Ss burrowed through the earth with magic.
Eventually, he reached a few meters from his starting point, and dizziness set in. Opening an air vent would have pointed out his position to beasts with stronger noses.
On the other hand, his control over the air element and its tier 1 runes was not nearly good enough to create a current of air that would somehow keep his scent from reaching outside.
''I swear to god, if I don''t somehow find a way to revamp these magic circles I might just end it all again.'' Ss thought half-jokingly while extending his hand out and creating an orange-red magic circle in front of him.
Opening up the tunnel''s roof, Ss cast an earth pir under his feet and shot himself into the air.
The beasts and monsters didn''t have enough time to react to his sudden appearance.
A sphere of me appeared before his fingertips. It was asrge as his body, but since he was still technically a 5-year-old, it wasn''t that big.
Suddenly, the sphere spun beforepacting into a tennis-sized ball.
''Fire bolts.''
*BANG*
The me bolt ripped through the air and shot into arge crowd of monsters. Ss was running out of mana, and even though using a tier 2 spell of this caliber seemed stupid, it was a wise investment.
*BOOM*
The fire bolt exploded on impact, vaporizing all creatures under the ga core. It also killed or severely injured all monsters in the dull and solid stages of the ga core.
Sure, draining that onyx core earlier helped him create the earth fortress spell, but 80% of the mana used in that spell was his own. Comparing an onyx core to a pristine ga core was likeparing coal to diamonds. Of course, it helped him cast the spell. However, draining the entire core was worth only ? of a tier 3 spell. This was even when Ss reduced the amount of mana needed to create it.
As the effervescent mes and smoke from the explosion extinguished, Ss created an air st spell behind him. This was to catapult him toward the mountain of ashes and corpses. Sure, the fire bolt spell barely scratched a titan like the earth bear, but the other beasts were no match.
For the first time since the beginning of the battle, Ss could see fear in the eyes of the beasts; however, they weren''t the ones he had to worry about anymore.
He thought of running away, but when he looked back, all he saw were winged beasts circling the battlefield. In addition, he saw dozens of monsters ring at him from afar. This made it almost impossible for him to run away even if he tried.
Landing in the middle of the beast graveyard, Ss nced around before closing his eyes.
''One and a half seconds until they move again.'' He thought and felt the mana around him.
His mind quickly highlighted all the mana signatures around him. These included the leaking mana crystals on the ground that were almostpletely shattered in the explosion, to the ones still inside the mangled bodies of the beasts nearby.
Ss breathed in and felt the energies of the mana crystals around him react to his cultivation technique.
All mana crystals within a 2-meter radius glowed slightly. As Ss breathed in, the mana within those crystals moved toward him. They slowly coursed through his body, but instead of breaking down impurities inside his mana core, they simply filled it. This influx of mana empowered Ss, making him feel like the exhaustion that had weighed him down this entire time was slowly disappearing.
Suddenly, a loud bang shot through the forest and rattled the leaves.
Ss heard the bear create and shoot its earth cannon spell. However, instead of dodging like he usually does, Ss lifted his hand and created a spell of his own.
A torrent of water in the shape of a drill shot out of his magic circle and mmed into the iing earth cannon. Ss knew that while he might have been able to create an earth cannon spell just as strong as the bear''s, it would have taken arger percentage of his mana than the bear''s. So, he used a water drill instead.
It was basic physics. The smaller the surface area at the point of contact, the more damage will ur.
*BOOM*
The water drill and earth cannon shed, yet no party won. Yet, after seeing what had happened, Ss could not help but grin. Before, even a wind bullet could not break through the earth cannon or slow it down. However, for some reason, a simple tier 2 spell could crumble the earth cannon with moderate ease.
''Is my magic getting stronger too?'' Ss thought.
Suddenly, ayer of mist covered the battlefield.
''Shit¡ A mistwalker.'' Ss cursed.
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Chapter 28 Endless Evolution [2]
?He had read about mistwalkers before, but even though he hadn''t experienced their might firsthand, he knew it would be a pain in the ass. Their main ability was to create a thick mist nket that obscured vision. They could even summon tendrils of mist to ensnare or disorient their prey.
Suddenly, a low growl entered Ss'' ear, and when he looked back, he saw a feline monster ready to jump on him.
''This is sure going to be a very long night.'' Ss sighed while reeling his arm back and stabbing it through the neck of the beast as it was in the air. The sound of battle continued, and over time, the moon was beginning to descend, and the night was reaching its end.
***
*BANG BANG*
Two loud knocks on a wooden door rattled the building''s foundations.
The knocker was clearly strong.
"Chief! Are you there, Chief?" A man wearing a ck robe shouted. For a few seconds, there was no answer.
However, a momentter, the man heard a low annoyed grunt from the other side of the door.
The door unlocking sound reverberated throughout the house before it opened and revealed a burly man behind it.
He had a neat ck beard with two white stripes on it. His hair was longer than most. It was usually tied up into a half-bun, but since it was the middle of the night, the chief had his hair down.
"What''s the matter...?" The chief red at the man, who felt like an ant before him.
"T-The Night Watch has reported that dia''s beasts have been acting weird. There have also been several sightings of monsters in the area. One of them said they even saw a mistwalker and shadowswarm in the same area." The man stuttered.
"Are you sure of these reports?" the chief asked. He wasn''t the kind of person to dismiss it as impossible. If his men said they saw something, he made sure to investigate it himself.
"I can''t testify for the monsters since I wasn''t there, but I can tell you right now that there is something wrong with the forest beasts. I think there is a chance that a beast-monster horde is forming." He exined, this time a lot calmer.
"If that is the case, we''ll have to remove it at its source. I''d rather not have another situation like we had a couple of years ago." The chief scratched his beard. After a long pause, the chief opened his mouth and spoke again.
"Knight..."
"Yes chief." The man replied.
"Wake up Gina, then go to the Skrk home and call Keira and Lochras too. Send one of your men to Diveen''s home, too, and have her ready for the white knights of the church. If this bes as severe as I think it is, we''ll need all the warriors we have to contain it. Understood?" The chief asked.
"Yes chief!" The man saluted before heading toward Gina''s small house without a second thought.
Looking at him, the chief gritted his teeth and clenched his hands intorge fists.
''I really hope I won''t have to call those guys for help...'' He thought, his head slowly turning in a certain direction. His eyes narrowed at the distant horizon with contempt and anger.
***
The sky turned a shade of blue as the twilight shined through the light clouds of the night sky.
It was a beautiful sight, one a human on earth wouldn''t have seen due to pollution. However, in this world, pollution was virtually nonexistent. The sky was clear, allowing anyone who looked up to see the moon and stars shine among one another. They poured down their light upon Gilea, glistening in the dew that remained on the forest leaves.
However, the sounds of battle hadn''t seized. No, they had only be louder, yet, from Ss'' perspective, the battle wasn''t proceeding as well as he had hoped.
''Just when I thought I had the upperhand...'' He thought, his eyes listless, and his face contorted into an expression of pain.
What was he thinking when he believed he could take on hundreds of beasts all on his own?
He must have been mad, right?
But why was everything turning out so badly?
Was he cursed?
No. He knew that wasn''t the case... He knew that, Right?
*Splurt*
He was just unlucky... That was it... He was just a very unlucky human.
"Belgh..." Ss spat out a mouthful of blood.
Mountains of corpses could be seen around him. Beasts and monsters of all kinds. One could even see several mistwalkers mangled and lifeless, lying on the cold ground that was still covered in the mist that wasing out of them even after the light left their eyes.
The carcass of the giant bat was sticking out of a spike made of earth. Blood dripped from it. Not a single sign of life could be seen in the bat itself.
Its organs had been ripped inside out, and its guts could be seen hanging from several trees like bloody vines.
And Ss... Well...
He was in the air, lifted up by several tendrils made of shadows that stabbed through his chest and abdomen.
------------------
[A/N: All chapters from now on will be 1k-1.2k words each. This means I will be uploading 2 chapters a day. This will make my uploads more consistent (word-wise) since you won''t have one chapter that is only 1.5k words, and another with 2k words. You''ll get 2k minimum from now on. For those of you worried about chapter prices in the future, those are not decided by me. They are decided by webnovel. Longer chapters cost more and smaller chapters cost less.]
[If you have enjoyed this chapter and would like to support the author, please vote using your power stones or golden tickets. Also, you can join my discord server today to see illustrations or to converse about thetest chapters.]
Chapter 29 Endless Evolution [3] - Death
?[A/N: 3 more chapters iing]
5 minutes earlier.
*BOOM*
Shooting through the mist, Ss appeared before the bat. He stretched out his arms before grabbing the bat''s head and spinning around it.
A deafening screech left the bat''s mouth, but since he wasn''t in front of it, it didn''t affect him.
Winding his arms back, Ss threw a flurry of punches, each holding his full power and weight behind them.
The sound of several bangs rattled the trees.In its rampage, the bat flew uncontrobly and destroyed everything in its path with its sonic screams.
Suddenly, multiple earth cannons shot through the air in hopes of sting a hole through the bat''s chest. However, despite their speed, the bear sting them was not much of a sniper.
*Bang*
However, the bear didn''t have to be.
"Gotcha." Ss smiled bloodily while opening up his arms and grabbing the bat''s wings with his crushing grip.
Forcefully manhandling the bat''s wings, Ss forced it in a certain direction, and before it could evenprehend what was happening-
*Splurt*
An earth cannon entered through its front torso and left through its back. While they were both of the same core grade, Ss noticed that beasts without elements were much weaker than those with elements.
From his perspective, it didn''t make sense. Ss had always considered mana the strongest and most superior form of energy. Sure, elemental energies had certain properties, but mana was the most adaptable since it had all of the elemental features but on a smaller scale.
Yet, despite the bat and the bear being on the same core grade, one was clearly stronger.
Looking down, Ss saw the bat''s guts shooting out of the other side, coating the trees behind it in blood and gore before it back, fell toward those very trees.
The bat let out the loudest screech yet, making blood leak out of Ss'' ears. Gritting his teeth, Ss grabbed the bat''s head and pointed it toward the earth bear. Sound waves to m into its thick brown fur while pushing the enormous several-ton bear several meters back.
However, despite the power of the screech tearing apart the ocean of trees and mist before it, it didn''t damage the bear itself other than pushing it back.
The bear was too heavyand strong. Unless Ss used his strongest tier 3 spell, he doubted that the bear would even have a scratch on itsbody.
"Damnit." Creating an earth spike before his fingers, Ss quickly shot it into the bat''s brain and killed it instantly.
[You have killed a Sonic Bat]
[Devouring 1 life force]
[You are evolving]
[You have absorbed the Sonic Bat bloodline]
[Thundertusk: 23%]
[Sonic Bat: 38%]
[You have gained the bloodline ability - Sonic Screech]
[New categories]
¨X¨T¨T¨T¨T¨T¨T ? ¡ã?¡ã ? ¨T¨T¨T¨T¨T¨T¨[
Name: Seth Evergreen
Age: 5 Years 5 months
Race: Reincarnated Lesser Human
Core: Pristine-Ga
Affinities: Mana (Earth, Fire, Water, Air), Life Equation
Bloodlines:
Thundertusk - 23%
Sonic Bat - 38%
Bloodline Abilities:
Sonic Screech - (Creates a powerful screech capable of destruction, incapacitation, injury, and killing.)
Blessing:
Evolution - (Your body, mind, and soul have been sculpted to transform you into the peak life form. Everything you do, and everything that is done to you, shall affect how you evolve.)
¨^¨T¨T¨T¨T¨T¨T ? ¡ã?¡ã ? ¨T¨T¨T¨T¨T¨T¨a
"Oh... uhhh..."
*BANG*
Hearing the familiar bang of an earth cannon, Ss sighed and quickly switched his mana fusion for earth fusion, instantly increasing his weight while making his muscles, bones, organs, and even skin, tougher and stronger.
Stretching his arms out, Ss waited for the earth cannon instead of dodging. Anyone else would have called him crazy, maybe he was, but he knew what he was doing.
*BOOOM*
With his arms out, Ss caught the earth cannon within his arms.
He slid several meters back. He could feel the flesh on his hands tearing away as the boulder began to crumble between his fingers.
However, despite all this, Ss stopped sliding back. His momentum dropped to zero before the final pieces of the boulder made of earth fell to the ground with low thuds.
''I''ve grown stronger... Much stronger... Even with Earth fusion, that attack would have definitely killed me before.'' Ss grinned while looking at his hands that were automatically regenerating.
Even the bear seemed stunned by the sudden show of strength since it didn''t create more earth cannons. It had clearly expected Ss to dodge all of its attacks, but now that Ss had blocked its attacks, it was unsure what to do. It was an intelligent creature. Ss could tell that much.
Looking it in the eye, Ss frowned. It had a silent glint in its iris that made him feel like the bear had be more dangerous than ever.
''Nope.'' Ss turned around and began to run. The path behind him was no longer filled with beasts and monsters... No, saying such a thing would be a lie. To rephrase, the path behind him was no longer filled with living creatures. It was covered with the carcasses of hundreds of creatures. Whether they were killed by him or other creatures was no longer of his concern.
*Swoosh*
Suddenly, a nket of mist covered the area between them, but since Ss had mystic vision, it didn''t really matter. He assumed that the bear could detect others'' positions, but he wasn''t too sure.
The sound of something freezing at a rapid rate entered Ss'' ears, making him instantly widen his eyes.
''Ice magic?!'' He widened his eyes and looked for the source of the sound. After peering through the mist, Ss saw the mist being condensed into a single point.
He had killed quite a few of the mistwalkers, but so far, not a single one created ice out of their mist... Or could it be called fog?
*Swoosh Swoosh Swoosh Swoosh*
The ice spikes passed Ss by a hair''s breadth. Even with earth fusion activated, those ice spikes were essentially nails. They were sharp and were twice as fast as the earth cannons. They would have definitely broken skin if not even prated through a limb or two.
At the same time, a pir of ice suddenly shot into the air with the carcass of the sonic bat hanging off it.
**RUMBLE**
Suddenly, earth pirs rose from the ground before shooting into the air. They moved like snakes, yet they weren''t aimed at him...
Ss shuddered.
He had slid to a stop.
He could see something in the distance... Something that the earth bear had sensed before he did.
He couldn''t move a muscle
He felt the hairs at the back of his neck stand up in attentiveness.
His entire body shivered.
Fear seeped deep into his heart
The feeling of pure dread finally fell upon every creature on the battlefield.
And the source of that dread was standing before his very eyes. It was a creature made of shadows that constantly moved and shifted. It was a creature of darkness that caused even the earth bear to shiver.
*ROOOOOOOOAAAAAR*
A terrifying roar came out of the earth bear''s maw before the earth pirs turned into sand before forming into drills made of earth.
Ss was too terrified to look back. However, if he had seen what the earth bear had just done, he would have realized that it was going easy on him, possibly even ying with him. He wouldn''t have known why, but it would definitely have messed with him.
The drills spun and shot toward the monster at extreme speeds.
Simultaneously, the shadow swarm raised its hand into the air and pointed at the drills.
Everything else happened quickly.
The shadows moved like lightning as the hand turned into hundreds of tendrils formed from pure darkness.
In less than a second, the tendrils had created destruction that spanned out for hundreds of meters.
Trees and earth were uprooted in an instant.
Every creature in its path was killed or put into death''s palm.
The bear had barely built a fortress around it to block most of the attack. However, it was still injured after some tendrils passed through the fortress and stabbed through its thick fur.
And Ss... Well...
"Belgh."
He was in the air, lifted up by several shadow tendrils that stabbed through his chest and abdomen while puking out mouthfuls of blood.
Without a single thought, the monster whipped its tendrils to the side, flinging Ss through the air and crashing through hundreds of trees.
------------------
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Chapter 30 Endless Evolution [4] - Ill Survive For Myself
?The streets of dia were crowded with both civilians, mages, and warriors. The civilians looked worried as they all huddled together like flies. They were clearly terrified of the chance that there might be a beast and monster swarm. It hadn''t happened in a very long time, but almost everyone knew the degree of destruction caused by a beast swarm all by itself. Monsters rarely flock together, but when they do, they became forces to be reckoned with
Add those two together, and you get a town-destroying scenario.
However, a few miles away from the town stood an isted house with a messenger knocking on its door.
The sound of the knocks echoed throughout the home, and even through the grass fields around it.
When the door opened, a mature woman walked out and looked at the man before her.
"What do you want? It better be urgent otherwise, I''ll beat the crap out of you and the person who sent you." Keira warned, making the man before her gulp.
"Mrs. Keira Relier, the chief sent me here to ask you to help with an iing beast-monster horde that has been forming for thest 2 days. We believe there is a chance that the creatures of the forest might attack dia tonight, so we need as much back up as possible to stop that from happening. The chief is creating a powerful team that will assassinate the strongest beasts and monsters in order to disperse the horde. He''d like you to join it as its main mage." The man exined.
Aplicated expression appeared on Keira''s face as she nced back at everyoneing out of their rooms. Even Syra came out of her room exhausted.
"I''ll join." She muttered before looking at Lochras.
"You''lle with us too. Rhea, I swear to god, if you leave this house, I will kill you myself if Lochras doesn''t kill you first. Of course, only after your baby is born."
"Y-Yes..." Rhea looked down in shame. However, due to her swollen belly, she was unable to look directly at the ground.
"Where are you going granny?" Syra asked.
"Some beasts are acting up in the forest. We''re nning to calm them down ande back." Keira smiled, making sure not to use the word "kill" in front of her granddaughter.
However, despite her caution, she saw Syra suddenly pale before stuttering-
"T-T-The forest?!" She yelped.
"Yes... Don''t worry, your grandmother is strong. She''lle back without a scratch on her." Keira smiled, but the situation didn''t improve at all.
"Are they dangerous?" Syra asked with a quiver in her voice.
"A little. Are you okay, Syra? Why are you rubbing your foot on the ground like that? And where''s your brother?"
*RUMBLE*
A low rumble sounded from the distance as enormous earth pirs shot into the air. They turned into earth drills that shot in a certain direction.
It caught all their eyes, even Syra''s, who had be even paler. She looked like she would have fainted if not for her mother holding her hand.
"Syra?" Rhea looked down.
*Swish*
It didn''t make much of a sound and didn''t catch nearly as much attention, especially in the town. However, anyone with experience of monster hunting knew what it was.
ck tendrils shot into the air. They blended with the dark sky, but since the sky was glowing with dark blue twilight, they were a lot easier to see.
"A shadowswarm... They were right. The reports were right!" The man shouted while stepping back. His heart raced with fear.
"We have to move now! Lochras, wear your armor. We''ll meet with the rest of the team on the way there!" Keira activated the enchantment on her boots, but before she could leave, she heard Syra scream out a set of words that made everyone''s hearts drop.
"Ss goes hunting in the forest every night! He''s there right now... He told me not to tell-"
*SMACK*
Keira looked back, but her face wasn''t turned to Syra. It was turned toward her daughter.
Rhea had already looked into Ss'' room. She felt like he wasn''t there, but it looked like there was someone under the nket, so she didn''t give it much thought.
However, when she heard Syra speak, her hand moved independently. Her actions shocked even her. But, just like her hand, her mouth opened, and she spoke without thinking.
"How could you... HOW COULD YOU LET YOUR BROTHER LEAVE ON HIS OWN? YOU''RE HIS OLDER SISTER!" Lochras grabbed his wife and covered her mouth. She looked like she was about to beat Syra senselessly, but even though he was angry as well, he knew that it could wait.
They didn''t waste any more time, quickly running toward the forest while the messenger headed to the chief in order to tell him the n.
***
*BOOM*
Ss smashed into the ground with so much force that a crater formed under him. However, his momentum carried him upwards before mming into a significantlyrge tree.
He let out a flurry of coughs, causing him to puke out blood. Every cough sent excruciating pain through his body.
His vision had be red from the blood that had dyed his eyes.
As he looked down, he let out of a bloody gasp for air when he saw the holes going through his chest and abdomen. They weren''t significantlyrge, but they one of them barely missed his heart.
[You are evolving]
[You are evolving]
[You are evolving]
''My spine is most likely shattered. I can''t feel the pain in my body, but that''s probably because I''m paralyzed. Damnit... GOD DAMNIT! I''m probably going to heal just fine, but I don''t know if I even have enough time to heal. I might just die of blood loss before I can evene close to healing. FUCK!'' Ss wanted to grit his teeth, yet even the tearsing out of his eyes were excruciatingly painful.
They burned. His entire body felt like it was being burnt. He was in so much pain that he could have just burst out crying like a child, but he didn''t. Silent tears flowed as he tried his best to heal.
Recing earth fusion for life fusion, Ss watched as the holes in his body slowly healed. He could see a few holes in his arms and legs, but he couldn''t see most of them since he couldn''t move his neck.
He could even see his guts flowing out the hole in his abdomen. They weren''t healing. No... He wasn''t healing at all.
It looked like he was healing, but the blood was no longer leaving his body.
He had been ced into an excruciating cycle of pain. The only thing that was currently keeping him alive was the healing energy coursing through his body. The life equation seemed to re at every chance it got, telling him that he was evolving over and over again.
He kept hearing the low ring in his ears. He kept thinking of his family.
''Ugh... Who cares about them... I need to survive... for myself. If I die, they''ll be unhappy for a few weeks and leave me behind. It''s normal. It''s natural. They don''t depend on me. I''m depending on them. They must think of me as nothing but a burden... I''m not even their real son. I''m just a guy who took over their son''s body. So, if I''m going to survive, I''m going to survive for myself.''
The green energy coursing through his body suddenly became faster. He felt like he wasn''t capable of breathing... Well, he felt like half of his breath was wasted since there was a hole through one of his lungs.
The green energy was quickly apanied by golden energy.
His pupils were slowly bing golden as they pulsed with the power of the life equation.
''I won''t survive for anyone else. I won''t base my main motivations on grudges for others. I''ll survive because I want to, no matter how long it takes.''
Chapter 31 Battle Of Titans [1] - Petal Of Life
?The cycle continued. Pain continued. The problem with regeneratingrge chunks of his body was that the healing process was more painful than the wound itself.
So, the pain continued. Ss began to lose track of time. His lives were shing before his eyes. He wasn''t particrly joyful to see them. From his current perspective, they were depressing.
He used to have nothing in life, so he found joy in the only thing he was good at.
It felt like days were passing. He imagined the sun falling and rising over and over again. He imagined everything around him withering as the forest became a wastnd.
Wars, civilizations, apocalypses... He saw them all sh before his eyes as if he was living Gilea''s entire future in an instant.
And then, when the world finally lost its light, and everything turned into a white void, he saw someone standing in front of him.
It was a little girl with short ivy green hair and emerald eyes with a ssh of cherry dyeing her pupils.
Her hair was adorned with a pink tulip. It looked like a hair clip, but for some reason, Ss doubted that.
She wore a knee-length skirt made of leaves, vines, and flowers. She had an angel''s face and innocence.
"Are you... The life equation?" He asked. He was pretty sure he had begun losing his mind, but he still asked the question.
The girl continued looking at him, but a hint of pity shed in her eyes as she crouched to his level.
"You''re dying." She touched Ss'' hand. She didn''t answer his question, as if she knew what he was talking about but simply didn''t want to answer him.
"No sh*t, Sherlock." Ssughed before coughing out more blood.
Ignoring him, the girl continued-
"But your connection to Gilea''s mana is pretty good. Your cultivation technique too... It''s too bad you''re dying, especially at such a young age." She paused for a second before touching Ss'' chin and lifting it in order to stare into his eyes.
She then reached back and pulled out a petal from the pink tulip embroidered on her hair before cing it on his lips.
"So, I''ll save you. But remember..." She tilted her head to the right and giggled before her expression fell into a serious one.
"You''ll owe me."
***
Ss didn''t know how much time had passed. At a certain point, his body circted mana all on its own. However, when he finally regained the ability to think straight, he saw a green screen hovering before him.
[You are evolving]
[Your pain tolerance has increased significantly]
[Your body has gotten significantly stronger]
[Your muscle density has increased significantly]
[You have consumed the tulip''s petal of life]
[You have sessfully assimted the petal of life]
[You have gained an affinity toward the light element]
[Your understanding of the life equation has increased]
[You have gained a new blessing]
¨X¨T¨T¨T¨T¨T¨T ? ¡ã?¡ã ? ¨T¨T¨T¨T¨T¨T¨[
Name: Seth Evergreen
Age: 5 Years 5 months
Race: Reincarnated Lesser Human
Core: Pristine-Ga
Affinities: Mana (Earth, Fire, Water, Air), Light, Life Equation
Bloodlines:
Thundertusk - 23%
Sonic Bat - 38%
Bloodline Abilities:
Sonic Screech - (Creates a powerful screech capable of destruction, incapacitation, injury, and killing.)
Blessing:
Evolution - (Your body, mind, and soul have been sculpted to transform you into the peak life form. Everything you do, and everything that is done to you, shall affect how you evolve.)
Breath of Life - Your body, mind, and soul will regenerate at a significantly faster rate. Your connection to nature has also increased.
¨^¨T¨T¨T¨T¨T¨T ? ¡ã?¡ã ? ¨T¨T¨T¨T¨T¨T¨a
*BOOM, BOOOM, BOOOM, BOOM*
The sound of explosions echoed in the distance, but Ss could tell it was getting closer by the second.
''30 seconds until it reaches me... I need to mo-'' Ss tried to push himself off the ground; however, when he did, his vision shifted, and he found himself soaring through the air.
"What the hell..." Ss thought with panic beforending on a tree branch.
Looking down, he saw that he was no longer bleeding. Hell, even the holes that had been drilled through his body were no longer there.
Frowning, Ss decided to throw the thought to the back of his mind. Looking into the sky, he realized that not much time had passed between falling unconscious and now.
"I guess all that before wasn''t real, but she was... She was real." Ss muttered before touching his lips
"I owe her..." A bad taste entered his mouth.
The sound of explosions was nearing at a faster rate.
*BOOM*
A wall of tendrils tore through the forest and destroyed or uprooted every tree in its path.
The tendrils were barely 10 meters away. He definitely wouldn''t have seen iting. However, at the same time, he felt like his instincts might have taken over if the wall of tendrils wereing at him.
''At this rate, I doubt the people of dia haven''t already seen some of the destruction caused by these two. They will most likely send a team over, and if they do, they will send my grandmother. If my grandmotheres, it will also mean that my absence has been exposed. Syra probably told them the moment they asked her...
I can''t me her, though. Any kid would have done the same if they had been in her shoes.
Maybe it was irresponsible of me to push such a big responsibility onto my little sister? Toote now...'' Ss sighed with a tinge of regret.
*''I don''t need them''*
The memory of that thought entered his mind. He knew that it wasn''t true. He had never cared about anyone the same way he cared about Syra. Sure, he could go without his parents and grandmother, but Syra was an exception.
''If I''ve already been exposed, then I won''t run away. I''ve already almost died several times now, so what''s one more? That''s the least I can do.
I don''t care if it''s stupid. I don''t care if I''m going to be called a madman. I''ve always been called that. I''ve reached this point in my life due to not only my intelligence but due to taking risks... And today won''t be the day I break that streak.'' Ss clenched his fists.
Everything he did was a risk. Taking over America was a risk. Killing all those people was a risk. Experimenting on all those people was a risk. Of course, not all his risks bloomed great oues, but most of them did. All he had to do was repent for the ones that didn''t work out.
Looking down, Ss smiled.
As usual, his hands were soaked with fresh blood.
Activating mystic eyes, Ss looked into the distance.
Chapter 32 Battle Of Titans [2] - Brotherhood
?He could see a ck form of mana shot toward a being radiating bronze and topaz energy. He couldn''t see how strong the shadowswarm was, but it was clearly stronger than the earth bear since it had been the one controlling the fight from the start. It was the only one pushing forward, and from the darkness aura it released, Ss assumed it hadn''t even been hurt yet.
The bear, on the other hand, was shooting around. It wasn''t nearly as fast as the bat or Ss, but it was much faster than Ss expected. The bear was essentially a walking tank, after all. The bear''s energy fluctuated, but Ss saw something else.
When he narrowed his eyes, he saw something inside the beast. It looked like-...
''Is that a life force?'' Ss widened his eyes.
He had enough experience and knowledge of life forces from his past life to know a life force when he saw one. He just hadn''t expected that mystic eyes would have the ability to see them yet.
Shaking his head, he turned his attention to thest mana signature. It was one filled with bloodlust, and it was the only mana signature that worried him.
He knew that the bear was intelligent enough to not attack him when there was a more serious threat at hand. However, the mistwalker was another problem all on its own.
Ss could see its mist moving in a circr pattern, creating icicles and shooting them at both the earth bear and the shadowswarm.
"Hmm." Bending his knees, Ss shot himself into the air and flipped off the branch he was standing on.
In that moment, an enormous bear crashed through the tree he was standing on while breaking through several others.
At the same time, a monster covered in mist shot into the air. It left a trail of mist behind that froze everything in its path.
Now that there was far less mist covering it, Ss could see that it had a topaz core, too, just like the earth bear.
''Do beasts and monsters awaken their affinities once they reach the Topaz core? No, right? The bat didn''t have an affinity, and the thundertusks technically manipted the elements inside their bodies to create lightning. But technically, the thundertusks didn''t have an affinity. Lightning isn''t an affinity, and they had mana coursing through them even though some of their organs used elemental energies.'' Ss thought while creating a silver circle under him that continuously blew air at him. This allowed him to glide down at a sensible rate.
Suddenly a being made of darkness shot into the air as well. It had reached an altitude that not even Ss was at, but that wasn''t the thing that sent shivers down his spine.
Within an instant, ck tendrils that looked like lightning shot out of the shadowswarm''s body, shooting into the ground like a sapling nting its roots.
A ck tendril shot toward Ss and the mistwalker, yet while the mistwalker simply created a mist in front of it, thick enough to slow down the tendril, Ss created an air st spell that sted him to the side and toward the ground.
Spinning mid-air, Ss created two orange magic circles and pointed them toward the shadow swarm. For some reason, the speed of his spell creation was much faster than before... Sure, it was a split-second difference, but that split second would have taken master magicians several years to produce.
*Bang Bang*
Two tier 2 fire bolts shot out of Ss'' magic circle, piercing through the air and appearing before the shadow swarm in an instant.
*BOOOOM*
Landing on the floor, Ss slid a few meters before pointing his palm toward the shadowswarm.
ncing to the side, Ss made brief eye contact with the earth bear.
At that moment, an understanding appeared before the two. They simply nodded at each other, but while that nod didn''t seem like much, it was as if they understood each other''s thoughts and processes of thinking. They became one and in sync with one another in order to take down the shadowswarm.
Looking back, Ss held his right hand''s forearm and breathed out.
''I saw how the mistwalker did it... If I just.'' Closing his eyes, Ss created a blue magic circle in front of him.
Imagining a waterfall spinning into a water vortex; Ss created the runes needed before unleashing a torrent of water in front of him. This torrent spun at high speeds and slowly turned into a spear.
Then, he breathed and thought of freezingkes and ice cubes. blizzards, tundras...
He thought of the atoms slowing down while the sound of water being rapidly frozen entered his mind.
The runes changed on their own to fit his desire. Runes were anguage. A deadnguage, but still anguage.
It was a little like Latin or Coptic. No one spoke it, but many could read and write it.
Runes were anguage, and even though Ss'' understanding of them might have been considered intermediate, he had cracked the life equation before.
The life equation was made up of hundreds of thousands of runes. Sure, they weren''t the same runes as the ones seen on Gilea, but they were runes, every single one of them having a different purpose.
Ss poured an enormous amount of mana into the spell, yet for some reason, he didn''t feel like he was bing mana fatigued.
*BAAANNG*
The ground beneath Ss shattered due to the spell''s recoil.
A spear made of ice shot through the air at astronomical speeds, and before anyone could understand what had happened, a hole appeared in the abdomen of the shadowswarm, causing it to suddenly freeze in ce before-
*SCREEEEEEEECH*
An inhuman screech came out of the shadowswarm''s mouth before a tsunami of bloodlust erupted out of the shadowswarm''s body.
At the same time, the bear and the mistwalker both unleashed the full power of their killing intent.
''Let the battle of titans begin, I guess...'' Ss grinned and allowed his own killing intent to erupt out of his body.
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Chapter 33 Battle Of Titans [3] - Think Silas. Think!
?*Swoosh*
Moving like the wind, Ss dodged all the trees in the way while releasing the full extent of his killing intent.
At first, they all seemed stunned that, despite him being weaker than them, his killing intent was far thicker than their own. Of course, it didn''t mean that his killing intent was stronger than theirs. However, it did mean that he had far more kills under his belt than all of thembined.
Several earth and fire bullets shot through the air and pierced the shadow swarm. However, just like all the other attacks that pierced the shadowswarm, it regenerated from them as if nothing had happened.
The mistwalker tried to freeze the shadowswarm in ce. Despite creating an enormous pir of ice to encapste the monster, the shadowswarm simply broke through the ice like it was nothing.
''I don''t know nearly enough about shadowswarms to understand how they work and find their weaknesses. Even with mystic eyes, I can''t see the thing''s mana core, let alone its life force.'' Ss gritted his teeth before using wind fusion to quickly dodged all the tendrils of darkness aimed at him.
Unlike the earth bear, the shadowswarm had really good aim. The earth bear, Ss, and even the mistwalker had all been hit multiple times, yet unlike Ss, the others didn''t have the ability to heal. And now that Ss had a new blessing, his healing ability reached new levels of speed and efficiency.
Landing next to the earth bear, Ss created a wall of earth around them before the bear created several more with a single nce.
''Getting close to it is suicide. Staying far away isn''t doing us any favors... Alright. Think Seth. That thing is made of darkness, so how do you destroy it? Light... Healing magic? Wait, why did I gain the light element? Is it different from my healing?
To be fair, those white knights did use a weird form of elemental energy maniption that I''ve never seen before. The light element is not part of mana... Wait, no! That should be the least of my problems. I don''t know how to use light magic, so I''ll wait to use it until I know enough about it to actually bring any use out of it.'' Ss rubbed his temples while the earth bear looked at him weirdly.
Taking in a deep breath, Ss absorbed mana into his mana core. He felt a jolt of pain suddenly shoot through his mana channels before a sense of strain took over.
The green energy had taught him how to break down things that enter his body, while his evolution blessing had instinctually taught him how to refill his mana core with the ambient mana around him.
However, now, for some reason, he felt intense strain whenever he tried to refill his mana core. This was as if his mana channels rejected mana by forcefully expelling it.
In a way, it felt like mana fatigue...
''Shit...'' he grit his teeth before something hit him. This feeling of pain was a restriction... A limitation. What''s the point of core grades if he can infinitely refill his core? Sure, a higher core grade meant a person''s mana would be purer, and, therefore, stronger, but the point stood.
Everyone had a limitation, and Ss quickly understood the monster''s limitation.
The shadowswarm has grown slower since the sun rose. Right now, the sun wasn''t too bright, so the shadowswarm was mostly fine, but it would only get slower as the sun rose.
At the same time, its shadows seemed to be distorted by the wind. Every time the wind blew, the shadow flickered for a second, as if it was constantly fighting against the air.
"Maybe I can use this to my advantage... I can use wind and fire to kill it... Maybe I can use "that"... It will be a little tricky, but I''ve been practicing. I don''t know if I have enough mana, though. There are no mana crystals nearby that contain enough mana inside them to help me out. Wait." Ss remembered something and closed his eyes.
When he searched within his body for his mana core, he could not help but raise his brows in surprise.
His pristine ga core had traces of yellow in it. Ga was a browny color, but topaz was bright yellow.
''I''m close to breaking through... That''s probably the reason my mana reserves have been so hightely. It makes sense.'' Ss'' lips curved into a smile while a n formed within his mind like a jigsaw puzzle, each piece fitting into ce one by one before it finally became whole
Looking at the bear next to him, Ss sighed and began to demonstrate his n to the bear through the use of earth, water, and fire magic.
After a few seconds of repeating his n, the bear finally nodded in understanding.
An axe made from earth magic formed at Ss'' side as all the earth walls fell back into the ground.
This axe looked much sharper and much deadlier than the ones Ss created, and the reason for that was the fact that it wasn''t Ss who created the axe, but the earth bear.
Suddenly, the ground below Ss sank before it instantaneously rose,unching Ss in a particr direction.
The bear looked particrly hesitant to go along with Ss'' n, but in the end, it did what Ss wanted.
As Ss shot through the air, he readied his axe, activated fire fusion, and swung with all the power he could muster.
Throughout this night, he had evolved more times than he could keep count. His body was stronger than ever, and his mana core had never had purer mana inside it.
Ss moved like a sh of lightning. His movement was so fast and quiet that no one noticed until toote.
He was a blur, but when he finally slowed down enough for the monsters to react, he was already at his target.
Without a second of hesitation, he swung his axe and cleaved through the monster''s neck...
But the monster he killed wasn''t the shadowswarm... No.
Slowly, the Mistwalker''s head fell off its body, Ss hovering right behind it, his eyes burning vigorously as they beamed with a bright emerald light.
[You have killed an icewalker]
[Devouring one life force]
[Your affinity toward water magic has increased]
[Your resistance to cold temperatures has increased]
''We''re going to win. I''m going to win!''
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Chapter 34 Battle Of Titans [4] - Inferno
?Winding his arm back, Ss plunged his hand into the mistwalker before retracting it quickly.
However, when his hand came out, it held a yellow crystal pulsing with mana.
"NOW!" Ss roared.
The bear suddenly mmed its paw into the ground. At the same time, the earth within a 10-meter radius suddenly shifted, turning into dozens of earth drills that spun so quickly that they started rating wind around them,
The sound of bangs echoed in quick session, catching the attention of the shadowswarm that was about to pierce Ss with its tendrils.
Despite the attack, Ss dodged it quickly with water fusion and air st.
At the same time, several tendrils shot out of the shadowswarm''s arm, piercing some of the drills shooting toward it, but not all of them.
*Swoosh, Swoosh, Swoosh*
The earth drills passed right through the shadowswarm that regenerated the holes instantly, but that''s when Ss also saw something. In that moment of weakness, Ss saw the shadowswarm''s true weakness.
''Solid topaz core... And every time it regenerates, it uses a ton of mana too. I just have to trap it and make it constantly regenerate... Thankfully, trapping it was already part of the n.'' Ss thought before creating an air st and appearing behind the shadow swarm.
Since the drills passed through the monster, they were now shooting toward Ss, but that was the intention.
Shifting his body weight, Ss threw the axe as hard as he could, causing it to shoot through the air and pass right through the shadowswarm''s neck, decapitating it in the same instance. Of course, Ss knew that decapitation was nothing to a shadowswarm, but it was a ploy to stall it for a moment.
The bear had already stopped controlling the drill, and its mana signature was slowly disappearing. Throwing his hand forward, Ss narrowed his eyes and waited for the right moment. Taking over someone else''s spell took much more mana than creating a spell of his own... Or, at least, that would have been the case if the spell was created by a human.
The bear had more control over the earth element and its own manapared to humans. Removing its mana signature from the spell was easy, but it took a few seconds.
Extending his arm forward, Ss thought-
''Now...'' Ss created the magic circle instantly.
The earth drills swerved away from him and shot past him before turning into a mist of sand.
Clenching the crystal in his right hand, Ss concentrated, causing the sand to spin into a circle before turning into a drill.
Tensing his feet, he quickly created two fire magic circles that formed smaller balls of mes that heated the drills and turned them bright orange.
''Shoot.'' Ss breathed as the drills shot past him, moving toward the shadowswarm like guided missiles.
*BOOOOOOOOOM*
The explosion reverberated for hundreds of meters, making all the humans within that area look up in confusion.
''Is that Keira?'' The town chief thought with furrowed brows before waving to his men to speed up.
On another side of the forest, Keira and Lochras'' hearts dropped. They were holding out hope that Ss was still alive, but even they knew that unless Ss hid early on and got lucky, there was no way he would have survived.
Keira bit her lip in worry and also sped up.
Landing on the ground, Ss slid back a few meters. He could see that me attacks did more damage than earth ones. Hell, even ice spells did more damage than earth spells since they were freezing the area they touched.
''Now that I think about it, if the shadowswarm were truly incorporeal, wouldn''t things like fire and ice do not affect it? Maybe there is a core body in there? I''ve already assumed that it could move its mana core around its body, but what if there''s more to it that I can understand at this moment?'' Ss furrowed his brows, but he didn''t wait another second to give the signal.
Taking in a lungful of air, Ss let his instincts drive him and let out the loudest roar he was capable of creating.
The roar turned into a sonic screech, and that sonic screech ripped through the air and the tendrils of darkness that were shooting toward him the instant he touched the ground.
*ROOOOOOOAAAAAR*
The bear also let out a deafening roar far louder than Ss''. However, instead of creating sound waves that destroyed the shadow tendrils and broke down the incorporeal body of the shadowswarm, its roar called upon enormous amounts of earth energy.
Suddenly, the earth below the bear cracked before rising into the air. Stones floated above the canopy of the half-destroyed forest, and in a breath''s worth of time, they all shot toward the shadowswarm.
The monster retaliated by letting out as many tendrils as possible. However, since it had been slightly shaken by the sonic screech and the molten earth drills, its tendrils of darkness were drastically reduced in numbers.
A stray tendril suddenly whipped in erratically and extremely quickly. It was so far and erratic that Ss was unable to see iting, so he could dodge it in time, but he had expected something like that to happen.
He had already activated earth fusion before the tendrils mmed into his arms that blocked the attack. He was instantlyunched away. He coughed out mouthfuls of blood, but even though his sonic screech seized, the attack was toote.
The earth that shot toward the shadowswarm began to pile. As each second passed, the piles grew bigger and bigger. The monster was imprisoned in an enormous earth sphere before anyone knew it.
Due to the amount of control required to create that sphere, it would have been considered a tier-4 spell. Shadowswarms, however, were creatures of darkness created from an element Ss had only theorized to exist until he met the monster.
No matter who he asked, no one told him what dark magic was. From their reaction, he assumed it was taboo.
*Crack*
Tendrils shot out of the earth prison, but the bear didn''t stop piling on the earth and patching the holes. Despite the pain shooting through his arms and chest, Ss saw the bear''s mana reserves running dry. Sure, beasts are far better at elemental magic than humans. Sure, most tier-2 spells were inconsequentialpared to the rate of mana recovery that a beast with a topaz core had.
However, this was essentially a tier-4 spell. It was taking a toll on the bear, so it meant Ss had to be quick.
Suddenly, Ss'' vision tunneled as the objective became clear.
Ss'' momentum hadn''t stopped as he continued to crash through the trees at a tremendous rate. However, his foot had already dug into the ground, and the pain was almostpletely nullified by the adrenaline coursing through his veins.
cing the icewalker''s mana crystal between his teeth, Ss created fire sts behind him to slow himself down.
Throwing his hand up, Ss breathed in and absorbed the mana inside the crystal in his mouth.
His mana channels felt like they were burning from the strain and rejection of the mana, but he still forced it through his mana core and into his hands.
''You can do this.''
His eyes were tight shut.
A rune that was a mix of the main air and fire runes appeared above him.
Slowly, two magic circles formed above him. They were both tier-3 magic circles, but one was silver, and the other was orange.
But, instead of working like they normally would, two tier-3 circles slowly merged, making the air-fire runes fall between the two stars of the pentagrams.
An ember formed above the magic circle, but it wasn''t orange. The me shone pale blue and spun wildly.
The ember turned into a me, which turned into a sphere that eventually grew to the size of a house.
The topaz crystal was almostpletely emptied, but Ss wasn''t done.
A vein on his forehead suddenly bulged as his concentration reached new levels.
The sphere began to condense, turning smaller and smaller every second. Eventually, it was the size of a tennis ball. The pale blue me spun and flickered wildly as Ss lowered it and pointed it toward the crumbling earth prison.
He waited for the right moment. And after a few seconds, when the prison of earth finally shattered, he released his spell.
''Psuedo tier-4 spell.''
''Inferno''
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Chapter 35 Battle Of Titans [5] - The End
?The sphere of blue mes flew through the air, whistling the entire time as it reduced the distance between it and the shadowswarm at astronomical speeds.
All the humans looked up at it in amazement. Even some of the beasts hiding looked up at the ball of mes as if it was a shooting star, flying through the half-illuminated purple sky like a free bird pping its wings for the first time.
For some, it instilled hope in their hearts; for others, it instilled dread. Because those who understood the power within that ball of mes also understood the destruction it might cause. However, others thought of it as the spell that would end their current nightmare once and for all.
They were scared for their families. Sure, they might not die, but the town was vulnerable.
The moment of silence and peace felt like it stretched on forever. It was long, but when the effervescent me finally touched the shadowswarm-
*BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM*
An enormous mushroom cloud made purely out of dust and blue mes. The explosion was enormous. It was so powerful that it sent out a shockwave in every direction that turned trees into ashes and sted the rest into smithereens.
However, before the st, Ss had already run forward at top speed, appearing before the earth bear and creating an earth fortress around them with the remaining mana in his core and in the mana crystal he held in his mouth.
He didn''t know why he ran forward to protect the earth bear. However, his body moved independently, so heplied with it.
A sphere of light protected the warriors from the vige, while a thick wall of mes erupted from below Keira''s feet, and she protected herself and Lochras from the iing st.
Blood dripped from where she had bitten her lip. Tears could be seen in her eyes, but her resolve was stronger. At this point, they both epted the reality that Ss was most likely dead. Of course, this didn''t mean they wouldn''t search for his body, even though they knew it was futile.
Before everyone''s very eyes, the mes began to spin, turning into a funnel of mes that reached into the skies. It wasn''t nearly high enough to reach the clouds, but it was a spectacle that dropped everyone''s jaws to the floor.
It was beautiful. There were no other words to describe it.
The wind that had spun and condensed the me had been so strong that it forced the explosion to spin as well. And after the main momentum of the spin did its work, the rest went along with it.
No one moved for a few minutes.
The earth within a certain radius of the ming tornado had been scorched beyond belief, but that wasn''t what Ss focused on.
Using water magic to cool himself down, Ss peered through the earth fortress and looked at the shadowswarm that had beenpletely trapped by the violent winds. It was in the center of the tornado, which was not only a vacuum but also so hot and bright that it was constantly destroying the shadowswarm''s body.
Due to the winds, the shadowswarm was unable to move, constantly spinning in ce while trying to let out a few tendrils of darkness.
Eventually, the ming vortex died down while all the shields fell to the ground, crumbled, or simply dissipated.
Beasts and monsters that were too weak to take part in the fight finally came out of their hiding ces. They felt like the dreadful threat of death had weakened down to a sliver, and that it was finally safe for them toe out.
Crumbling the earth fortress, Ss nced at the earth bear and gritted his teeth.
''I''m such an idiot.'' Ss thought before raising his hand and creating a healing spell with the remaining drops of mana left in his body.
The tier-1 healing spell quickly healed all of the bear''s wounds. The healing was far more superior than other tier-2 or possibly even tier-3 healing spells cast by normal humans since the runes Ss was using were ones from the life equation.
Ss then quickly left the leftovers of the earth fortress and strolled toward the half-dead body of the shadowswarm, only ncing back at the bear once to see if his healing had worked or not.
It didn''t take long for him to find the monster''s body. It wasying in the middle of a scorched cknd, with nothing but ashes and cinders around it.
''I see...'' Ss thought.
Now that had close to no mana left, it had taken the form of a solid creature that looked like the outline of a man''s shadow. It simplyy there, its nearly empty mana core trying its best to siphon mana from its surroundings, but it was futile. Its body was withering, so even if Ss left it there without killing it, it would die either way.
Kneeling down, Ss looked at it emotionlessly before a smile extended from the corner of his lips.
"I win."
Ss picked up the topaz core and examined it. He didn''t want to absorb the mana inside it since his mana channels felt like they would shatter into millions of pieces if he absorbed even one more drop of mana.
Without channeling any fusion through his body, Ss simply wound back his hand and stabbed it through its head, and dug his hand into the ground.
Immediately, the body dissipated, and a screen appeared in front of him.
[You have killed an infant shadowswarm]
[Consuming one corrupted life force]
[You are evolving]
[You have absorbed the Shadow Walker''s prime-bloodline]
[Bloodlines:
Shadow Walker - 1%
Thundertusk - 23%
Sonic Bat - 38%]
"Hmm... I see." Ss narrowed his eyes. He was a little worried about the corrupted soul, but those worries vanished the moment he heard someone''s voice call out to him from behind him.
"Oi. Who the hell are you?!" A familiar female voice roared out. His voice was shaky and quivered at every word, but Ss knew who she was.
The only thing that confused him was the fact that she didn''t recognize him.
Looking down at his body, he quickly understood why.
He was covered in blood, mud, and grime. His hair was disheveled, and in a way, he looked like some of the monsters his grandmother read to him about when he was a kid. Well, technically, he was still a kid.
He was mostly naked too, so it was a little embarrassing to be seen this way.
Looking back, Ss stared at the duo, ring daggers at him. He could even feel killing intent seeping out of his father.
"Why are you looking at me like that?" Ss asked with a calm tone that sent shivers down the spines of the two.
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Chapter 36 Exposed [1] - Best Friend
?"Why are you looking at me like that?" Ss asked with a calm tone that sent shivers down the spines of the two.
"W-Who are you?" Keira pointed her staff at him, making him raise a brow, but he didn''t move.
His grandmother had an amethyst core. He didn''t want to end up on her bad side and get himself killed by ident. His father also entered a battle stance, pointing his de at Ss while bending his knees.
His sword was covered in more toki than Ss had ever seen.
''Lochras is... Strong.'' Ss thought for the first time ever.
"Grandma, Dad... I''d rather not fight the two of you. You weren''t meant to find out this way, but it is what it is. I''ll exinter. All you guys have to do is back my words, okay?" Ss asked. Instead of responding, Keira muttered something under her breath while Lochras shot forward at a moderate speed.
''Did I not reel in my killing intent? Why the hell are they attacking me?'' Ss gritted his teeth and jumped back.
He didn''t even have enough mana to activate mana fusion, his least mana-costing ''spell,'' if you could even call it that.
However, before Lochras or Keira could attack Ss, a wall made of earth suddenly erupted out of the ground between them.
Looking to the side, Ss saw the earth bear slowly walk out of the shadows. Its body was in top shape, but it barely had any mana in its core.
Ss frowned. Was the bear trying to fight him again? If so, could he even take it on? No mana and no stamina were a horriblebination. The fact that he was unable to use toki only added to his bad situation.
Ss released a sliver of his killing intent toward the bear, but it didn''t retaliate with its own killing intent. Maybe it was trying to get his guard down. If that was the case, then he clearly underestimated the beast before him.
However, when he looked into its eyes, he didn''t see a shred of malice... Well, technically, it wasn''t even staring at him. It was looking at Lochras and Keira.
Suddenly, an explosion sounded from the wall as mes burst through alongside a man draped in ck armor.
"Prove to me that you''re my son, and I won''t kill you." Lochras pointed his de at Ss, making the beast beside him bear its fangs at the armored man.
"Uhh... My sister''s name is Syra. You''re Lochras, the old woman behind you is Keira-"
"I''m not old!" Keira snarled while walking through the mes as well, her robe pping in the wind.
However, her expression quickly softened.
There were only two people who called her old, mostly because everyone else was far too afraid of her to try such a thing.
"Ss? Is that actually you?" She asked as tears welled in her eyes.
"Who else would I be? Are you not seeing these muscles? I can''t think of anyone else my age capable of forming muscles like these." Ss asked with outrage.
Her body moved on its own. Within an instant, Keira shot forward at breakneck speeds and appeared before Ss, instantly wrapping him in a hug. Her movement was far faster than the bear could react to, especially in its current state. However, after seeing that there was no malice, the bear quickly stood down.
"I''m going to kill you when we get back home, but for now... I''m happy you''re not..." She paused as her entire body quivered uncontrobly.
''I''ve had a lot of firsts today, huh...'' Ss thought while hugging his grandmother''s back, holding her tight as she cried in front of him for the first time.
On the other hand, his father stood a few meters away with his hand on his chest. He breathed deeply, trying to calm himself down.
It took them a minute to calm down, and by then, the chief and his men were close.
"Alright. Just do what I told you." Ss whispered while cing the topaz mana crystal inside his grandmother''s pouch. He eventually toward the general direction of the iing small army.
"Is anyone hurt?" The chief asked as he stepped out of the forest and into the clearing created by Ss'' inferno spell.
"Yes. We''re fine..." Lochras responded. He hadn''t said a word after they had made sure Ss was actually his son, not some monster that had taken over his body or just looked like him.
His voice was a little cold, maybe even distant, but at that moment, that was the least of Ss'' priorities.
"I see that you''ve not only killed the shadowswarm, but you''ve also found your child." One of the white knights sneered at the duo.
"The hell is your problem?" Ss instantly retorted, taking everyone aback not only by his rudeness but also by the state of his body.
Sure, he was physically fine, but hygienically? Even this world had a certain hygiene standard despite the clearck of it.
"Watch your mouth, child. You don''t want to get on the church''s bad side." The man spat while waving his sword with a cocky smirk.
However, before he could ramble on further, he was mmed by an earth boulder that sent him rolling for several meters.
They all widened their eyes and pointed their weapons at the earth bear. Even Lochras and Keira were surprised.
How did all of them miss the giant bear standing next to them?
On the other hand, Ss had an agape expression on his face. It was his equivalent of pure shock.
"I no longer care about how you almost killed me. We''re officially best friends now, okay? Just... don''t bite my head off. Please." Ss announced while striding forward. Knowing his father could stop the beast''s attack easily, he wasn''t overly cautious.
The bear stepped toward him as well. However, even though he expected it to open its mouth and bite his head off, it simply drenched his entire body in saliva with a single lick.
"Ugh... Really?" Ssined with a hint of disgust.
"Is it with you?" the chief asked.
"Yep... Did you not just hear me announce that we''re best friends?" Ss crossed his arms while everyone looked at him the same way someone looked at a puppy.
After that, the chief continued a private conversation with Keira, while Lochras plopped down on a rock that the earth bear had created out of sand.
Keira took the me for the fire vortex like Ss told her to, while Lochras simply stared at the ground.
At the same time, Gina, who hade with the chief, began to interrogate Ss, asking him dozens of questions. However, he always either answered without any restraint or turned the question back on her.
Sometimes, he avoided the question with such fluidity that most of it went over her head. At the same time, he tried to flirt with her. His weird crush on her had not dissipated yet. Since he was a child and no one could judge him, he chose to use this encounter to teach himself how to flirt with women
After that short exchange, Gina, the ck-haired woman, felt like she had lost an argument to a 5-year-old. She wasn''t wrong.
Eventually, Keira told Lochras and Ss that she had some business with the chief, so they had to go home without her.
The earth bear walked alongside them for a bit before licking Ss and walking in another direction. Ss still wasn''t sure if the bear liked him or not, but from all the licking, he assumed that they were, at the very least, acquaintances.
Once they left the forest and their house was in view, Lochras opened his mouth and spoke, his tone icy and distant. It quivered with an uncontroble rage simmered behind every word while being constantly stifled by the cool waters of his rationality and self-control.
"When we get into that house, I want a full exnation... And I swear on my unborn child''s life; if you lie to me, I will make sure you regret it."
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[A/N: Slightly longer chapter. I didn''t want to waste any more time, so I made it a little longer. Also, the next time skip will either happen in the next chapter or the one after that.
Also, I will lock my chapters around early to mid-volume 2, which will probably be chapters 60-70ish.
Finally, 4 chaps tomorrow because you guys hit 300 power stonesst week. Golden ticket goals will also most likelye out tomorrow.]
[If you have enjoyed this chapter and would like to support the author, please vote using your power stones or golden tickets. Also, you can join my discord server today to see illustrations or to converse about thetest chapters.]
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[If you have enjoyed this chapter and would like to support the author, please vote using your power stones or golden tickets. Also, you can join my discord server today to see illustrations or to converse about thetest chapters.]
Chapter 37 Exposed [2] - Birth
?Ss and Lochras neared the house. Not a single word was exchanged between the two of them, but while Lochras held a serious expression, Ss looked around with a certain level of child-like wonder.
Even though he didn''t act like a child often, but he might as well act like one now, right? It would probably make the conversation a lot easier if he acted like he didn''t know why the thing he did was wrong.
"AHHHHHHHHHH!" A blood-curdling shriek entered their ears. While Lochras was rmed and confused, Ss instantly knew what was happening. After all, it wasn''t a sound he wasn''t familiar with.
''Pregnant women going through contractions tend to sound the same...'' Ss thought with a sigh.
"Mother is giving birth." He announced, making his father''s heart instantly drop. Ss could see panic fester in his heart. From the way he was reacting, you''d think it was his first.
"Its too early though." Lochras'' voice quivered.
"You get Diveen; I''ll care for Mom, okay?" Ss ordered calmly; however, his father was too stressed to care about Ss'' odd calmness.
For some reason, he didn''t doubt that Ss would be capable of taking care of Rhea. He didn''t know why that was the case, but just like everything else, it could wait.
Without another second of hesitation, he turned around and began to run toward the town where she would most likely be supporting the town guards, protecting the town from any stray beasts that might have wandered away from the main beast horde.
''From he screams, I''m assuming she''s pretty close to giving birth. Father probably had anywhere from 5 minutes to an hour to bring Diveen. Every birth is different. I remember taking several hours to be birthed, or at least that''s the story my mother keeps telling me.'' Ss scratched his chin before using water and air magic on himself to clean himself up.
He quickly used a purge spell on his hands as well. Sure, it didn''t make him feel as clean as when he used hand soap, but the purge spell killed most harmful germs not only on the surface of his body, but also in his body.
It was one of the reasons why he never got sick sinceing to this world. Of course, the evolution blessing also had a y in that.
Pushing the door inwards, Ss fixed his hair and announced-
"I''m home!"
"AHHHHHHHHHHHHH."
"What a nice greeting." He smiled. He knew that he was probably the reason why she was giving birth early. All the stress about him going missing must have forced her intobor.
''I hope this doesn''t scar me.'' Ss sighed. He was a trained physician. He had helped in one or two births during his student years.
Without saying a word or acknowledging the presence of anyone else in the room, Ss sanitized the ce with a few purge spells and began to help out with the pregnancy.
Rhea was wearing a long gown andy on the ground, screaming for dear life, even though her screams did lower when she saw Ss. It was as if a wave of calmness had hit her the moment she saw he son safe and sound.
On the other hand, Ss barely saw Syra at his side, who was looking at him with widened eyes as he weaved spells into thin air. She could also see his eyes glowing bright green as he analyzed their mother.
He had already thought of a n. He knew exactly what he was going to tell his father when he starts getting interrogated.
He cast as many spells as possible on the baby to ensure it didn''t have any of the side effects of early birth. Of course, he didn''t actually know any spells that were specifically for early births, but he just winged it and used revitalization, purge, and healing spells.
Rhea probably couldn''t wait any longer to give birth without anyplications. Ss did everything he could to lower the amount of pain she was feeling while encouraging her to push.
It wasn''t long until she gave birth to the baby, and by the time Ss cut the umbilical core and ensured it was healthy, Lochras had already returned, with Diveen running behind him.
''So it''s a boy, huh...'' Ss thought without much emotion. He didn''t know how he was supposed to be feeling, but he didn''t really feel anything at the moment.
The baby was a little underweight, but surprisingly enough, it was mostly fine. It cried pretty easily, and the birth didn''t take nearly as long as his did.
''Maybe I used too many spells on him?'' Ss thought, looking at the weight of the baby. It had blonde hair, but since its eyes were closed, he couldn''t really tell what color they were.
Ss simply walked to the bathroom and washed his hands.
And just like that, a week passed by in what felt like the blink of an eye.
Keira had returned a few hours after the birth. She was a little angry that she didn''t get to witness it firsthand like she had done every other time Rhea had given birth, but eventually, she got over it and began to take care of the baby just like everyone else in the family.
Diveen had told them that the baby was perfectly healthy for one that was born a little more than 2 months early.
No one had asked Ss about anything, and Ss hadn''t really left the house since the baby appeared. He assumed the reason they didn''t ask him about anything was the fact that they simply didn''t have that much time on their hands anymore.
Rhea was still exhausted and spent more time in bed than when he was born.
His father was also exhausted, but he knew that it wasn''t the real reason why he hadn''t asked him about what happened in the forest. Lochras was not in the right mind to ask any questions.
However, on the seventh day, Ss'' grandmother took him for a walk early in the morning. They weren''t walking toward dia; he could tell that much. It was more like they were walking toward the east of dia, where the foresty in its full glory.
''I wonder if she''ll kill me and bury me in the forest now that I have a new brother.'' Ss chuckled to himself.
They hadn''t chosen a name for him yet, and they didn''t really seem to like Ss'' suggestions. Plus, they looked really mad at him for some reason, so maybe that was part of it?
''What''s wrong with the name Alexdromidarex.'' Ss sighed.
"Do you know why I''ve brought you with me today?" Keira asked, her tone grim and serious for once.
''They only ask me that question when they want me to tell them more than they already know.'' Ss thought before smiling-
"Nope."
"Let me ask you a question then." She sighed and halted her steps. Ss walked a few steps before realizing and turning around.
Looking into his eyes, Ss saw a purple hue leave his grandmother''s body and expand outwards, encapsting him in the dome of amethyst mist as her eyes bored into his.
"Ss... Are you a mage?" She asked.
"..." Ss narrowed his eyes.
What the hell was that purple mist? He couldn''t really feel a change in his body and flow of thoughts... Maybe it was some kind of lie detector? Did his grandmother have a blessing he didn''t know about?
''Oh wait, I''ve read about this once. I think this is what they call a magical aura? It made entirely out of someone''s own mana and is secreted through the pores. Apparently, you can only do it in the amethyst core, and it is one of the things thaty the foundation for long-distance spell casting inside the sapphire core. Neat.'' Ss thought as his interest piqued.
"Ss... Answer my question." She asked while increasing the pressure from her magic aura. Or at least she tried to.
While bloodlust and killing intent were more of a mind and soul-suppressing aura, a magical aura was a physically restraining one. It suppressed them until they kneeled before its user...
Of course, that was supposed to happen, but the moment the aura touched Ss, it passed right through his as if he wasn''t even there.
''I wonder why she''s using it. Maybe she''s creating a spell under us? Is that why she brought her staff?'' Ss continued to stroke his chin before realizing that she asked him a question.
"What did you ask again? Uhhh... Oh yeah, you asked if I was a mage. Sure, what if I am a mage?" Ss asked with a polite smile that made Keira stumble back momentarily.
"Give your grandmother a straight answer." A voice echoed from behind a nearby tree before Lochras walked out from behind it.
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Chapter 38 Exposed [3] - Deception
?"Give your grandmother a straight answer." A voice echoed from behind a nearby tree before Lochras walked out from behind it.
He had bags under his eyes that made him look like a man who hadn''t slept in years. Of course, Ss had seen him that morning, but for some reason, hisplexion looked a lot worse at that moment. Maybe it was because he was frowning?
''Did he really think I didn''t see him there... Oh wait, they don''t know about my mystic eyes or my new, but very weak, mana sense. Mhm. Mhm.'' Ss nodded in realization.
"I didn''t awaken any single element." Ss replied with a smile. Lies always spiraled, so he wasn''t going to lie.
He was going to bend the truth until the truth bes indistinguishable from a lie.
"That''s not what Syra said." Lochras frowned.
Why lie, when bent truths are so much more believable than lies?
After all, a deceptive truth was always the better deceiver out of the two.
"I didn''t awaken a single element... I awaked a blessing." Ss responded while leaning back onto a tree standing behind him and watching the eyes of the two before him analyze him skeptically.
"Ss..." Lochras spoke, his voice having reached a new level of coldness.
"Yes father." Ss smiled.
"What did I say about lying." Lochras gritted his teeth to keep his anger in check. He had always thought of his child as a well-behaved one. He quite literally only made mistakes when he didn''t know there was a mistake to be made.
But even then, it was as if he almost always knew what he should and shouldn''t do at all times. He had always thought that he might have learned it from the books he always read.
While Ss was closed off, it always felt like Ss was honest with his parents and never kept things from them. But now...
In a sense, he was kind of relieved. At certain points, Lochras felt like he wasn''t doing his son''s intelligence any justice. Ss was mature, level-headed, and could probably be considered a genius for his age.
Books were teaching Ss more about the world than he, as a father, was. His son was too good for him.
So, he was relieved when he heard that his son had disobeyed amand from them and had chosen to go out on his own into the forest every night.
Sure, he was enraged and worried, but he was also relieved. Maybe, just maybe, his son wasn''t too good for them?
"I don''t lie." Ss crossed his arms and looked at his father with a deadpan expression.
"What do you call what you''ve been doing all this time, then? Going out at night? Risking your life. You could have died. Do you even understand what would have happened if you died out there?
How could you be so irresponsible? Imagine how your sister would have felt if she learned you died because she didn''t say anything. Your mother, grandmother, and I too... Imagine how we would have felt."
"I don''t lie." Ss insisted, his face falling into a serious one as he looked his father in the eyes.
"I simply didn''t tell you."
"That''s lying."
"Do you know what the definition of lying is?" Ss sneered.
"Don''t speak to me like that." Lochras clenched his teeth.
"If what I did was considered a lie by your standards, then you''ve been lying to me since my birth." Ss smirked.
"Wha-"
"You''ve been keeping something from me about the Skrk family. I could tell that much from Grandma''s reaction to me epting the battle invitation from that girl. She was clearly worried that I might lose and shame the family name, but I knew what kind of person she was.
She is not the kind of person to care about something so small and insignificant. I''m not an oracle, so I have no idea what you guys are hiding, but shouldn''t you at least follow your own rules and moralpass before forcing them onto your children?"
"We did that protect you." Keira argued.
"And I could argue the same." Ss gave his grandmother a side-long nce and continued.
"Do you want to know my ability?" Ss asked, but before they could answer, he cut them off and began to tell them anyway.
"I can use all elements."
"..."
"..."
"This isn''t time for jokes." Keira also frowned, but Ss didn''t react to her sneer the way the expected. He simply stood straight and pointed his hand at his grandmother.
''What the hell.'' Keira widened her eyes in shock.
Suddenly, a magic circle appeared before his hand, causing both of them to freeze out of shock.
Water spiraled before Ss'' fingers, and before they could understand what had happened, a tier-1 water ball shot toward Keira''s face.
However, while she might have been too slow to react to the sudden spell, the same could not be said for Lochras. After all, only Keira understood how big the feat urring before them was.
Casting magic without saying anything wasn''t impossible. Actually, there were three levels of magic casting. Inscription, incantation, and silent magic. Of course, they were all limited by the rules and limitations of the magic circle.
Inscription was the first stage and usually never used except in array creation, enchantment, or in the process of forgemastery.
Incantation was the most used spell-creation method since it was the easiest to learn and was considered the second fastest. To say an incantation and seed in creating a spell, one must have a basic knowledge of the spell they''re creating. This meant that they needed to have created the spell through inscription once in their lifetime before actually creating it through incantation.
Incantation wasplex, but it could also be broken down into main rules. Stronger spells have longer incantations, but if someone has a particrly strong connection or understanding to the spell itself, they are capable of shortening the incantation down. Some mages can cast tier 2 spells by simply saying the spell''s name.
On the other hand, Silent spell casting was a feat on its own level. Only a small few on the entire continent have been capable of creating magic circles without saying a single word, and those were either considered the top geniuses of Gilea or were extremely old magicians who''ve mastered the craft of spell casting.
*Swoosh*
A de sliced through the water and caused it to ssh onto Keira. Lochras didn''t know why, but he expected the water ball to be much stronger.
Maybe it was the sudden sense of danger he felt when Ss raised his hand? Or maybe it was the look his son gave him before shooting the water ball toward Keira.
Of course, Lochras knew that silently casting such a spell was an amazing feat, but he didn''t know how amazing it was since he wasn''t a mage himself.
"What the hell are you doing?" Lochras roared. He didn''t know what wasing over him today. He was struggling to control his anger.
"You kept this from us..." Keira asked while pushing Lochras to the side.
"Though, I can''t really use more than two at the same time. Also, it''s more of a reversal thing, if you know what I mean? I can select a mage with a certain affinity, and use the opposing affinity against them. I can select up to two people too." Ss ignored her and continued from his previous point, but now, there seemed to be a trace of shame on his face. His previous confidence seemed to crumble, and at the same time, so did Lochras''.
Looking up, Ss acted like he was controlling himself, but at the same time, he made sure to not look his grandmother or father in the eye. He simply looked to the side and into the horizon.
"There''s a reason I didn''t want to tell you. I watch you guys praise Syra for how good of a mage she is every day. Sure, you praised me when I got better at fighting with the sword, but its not the same." Ss spoke, his voice quivering slightly.
They knew what he was going to say next. Despite not wanting to admit it, they had been neglecting Ss whenpared to how they treated Syra. Syra was the favorite child despite being the oldest child. Every parent had a favorite, and Syra just happened to be theirs.
Of course, Ss didn''t care about that. After all, he wasn''t a child.
"I didn''t want to take that away from her..." Both of their eyes widened when they heard what he said.
He didn''t want to take that from her? What the hell did that mean?
"She''s a mage. She has an S-ss affinity. She''s definitely going to be an amazing mage in the future, possibly even surpassing you, grandma. I didn''t want to take that away from her. I love her to death, and it would kill me if she lost her motivation because of me." Ss looked at the ground as tears fell from his eyes.
"So you can call me selfish and irresponsible. You can punish me if you want. But don''t tell Syra about my blessing. I don''t want her to feel overshadowed the same way I did when she awakened." Ss covered his face with his arm as if he was wiping his tears.
The corner of his lips quivered intensely, but it wasn''t because he was sad.
It was because he was trying to stifle his smile.
He was trying his hardest to notugh out loud at them.
The puzzle piece was finally falling into ce.
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[A/N: I was getting my passport yesterday and today, so uhm... Sorry about the one-chapter uploads. I know that I''m 6 chapters in dept to you guys. I''ll try to make most of it up today.]
[If you have enjoyed this chapter and would like to support the author, please vote using your power stones or golden tickets. Also, you can join my discord server today to see illustrations or to converse about thetest chapters.]
Chapter 39 Exposed [4] - Manipulation
?Keira suddenly stepped forward and wrapped Ss into a tight hug. He had always known that she was the softest in their family. Sure, she had a hard shell, but she was soft on the inside. All he had to do was break through her shell, and he had done that by default when he became her grandson.
Ss was trying his best to not grin since his father could see his face; however, he did not stifle the quiver in his lips. It added a real aspect to his facial expression.
The hugsted for quite a while. Keira held him tight for a few minutes before she finally separated and looked Ss in the eyes.
"Ss... That''s not something you should be worrying about. You''re still a kid..." Her expression was guilt-ridden, but she continued to speak.
"I''m sorry. If you didn''t feelfortable telling us about such a thing, then we failed as your carers." She ced her hand on Ss'' shoulder and looked down at the ground.
"I''m sorry."
"It''s okay. It''s not your fault." Ss smiled, the final tears in his eyes streaking down his face.
Of course, this was just another way to make them feel guilty.
They continued like that for another half an hour. They had chosen to sit on the grassy field filled with bright green grass and pink tulips.
They talked and talked. At first, Ss felt a little ufortable, but when they changed the subject to something less tense, he didn''t mind it anymore.
He saw that they couldn''t look him in the eye for more than a few seconds at a time, but that was the point. Even though his father seemed skeptical and a lot less guilty than Keira, it didn''t really matter.
The entire purpose of this conversation was to make them feel guilty enough that they wouldn''t mind if he broke a few rules asionally. Keira was the strongest person in the house, so her words always overpowered anyone else in the Skrk home.
Actually, it had been a part of his n for a little more than a year now, even before Nymira had challenged him to a duel.
"Ss. If you don''t mind, please exin your blessing to me again. I can''t really get my head around it." Lochras asked, causing him to receive a burning re from Keira, who looked like she might have strangled him on the spot.
"If there is a monster, beast, or human who''s awakened an element, I can ''select'' them and use the element opposite to their''s. I can select 2 people." Ss exined, making sure not to change too much of his exnation while also making sure to not make it the same since, that way, it would seem rehearsed.
And from how he was wording his answers, he wasn''t lying either.
"So... When your grandmother is around, you use the water element, and when Syra is around, you use the earth element?" Lochras asked while narrowing his eyes.
"Yep." Ss smiled.
"Wait... Is that why you asked me to buy that book on advanced earth magic when we went to the light festival?" Keira asked with widened eyes.
"Also, yes." Ss smiled at her. He had nned it from the start. Sure, he wanted to have the book, but he also knew that her not giving him the book would work out in his favor when he eventually told them about his magic capabilities.
He had already thought of how he would tell his parents about his magical capabilities when he was only two years old. From then on, heid down the foundation for his telling them.
It was unfortunate that he was forced to use the air and fire elements during his fight against the shadow swarm since those elements were technically his weakest, but there were only two elemental creatures around, so he had to use their opposite element.
"What about your mother? She has the light element, so what do you get? The darkness element? But that wouldn''t make sense since Syra saw you use the light element to heal your mother." Lochras became dead serious while Keira looked at Ss for an answer.
''So healing is considered a light spell? That doesn''t make sense, though. Why is healing green, but when those white knights use it, it''s a goldish-yellow?'' Ss raised a brow.
He already knew that his healing spells weren''t made out of the light element since the green screen told him that he had an affinity to the life equation, not the light element.
However, did that mean healers like his mother had connections to the life equation? If that was the case, was that why he was reborn into her child''s body and not a random person''s?
''Now that I think about it, the light element works quite differently from the other elements. It''s not a part of mana, so I assumed it tainted it. But the light element needs a source, just like the rest of the elements.
What''s its source. My green energyes from my connection to the life equation, so what does the light elemente from?'' Ss sighed. He knew that he couldn''t get the answer to his questions now, so he''ll just wait until the information was prevalent enough for him to get.
Opening his mouth, Ss answered Lochras'' question.
"When I got my blessing, I automatically awakened my mana core. When I awakened my mana core, I automatically gained an affinity to the light element.
I''m assuming that I always had the affinity to the light element; it just took me awakening to find that out." Ss exined. Only a second had passed in the real world during his internal monologue. The monologue went a lot faster in his head than time moved in real life.
"And to answer your second question, I can''t use the darkness element. I''m unsure why, but every time I try to copy and reverse mom''s element, I don''t get anything. Either I can''t use the darkness element, or I don''t know how to use it." Ss shrugged while Lochras sighed.
He had tried to catch Ss off guard, but all he had done was make himself feel like a fool. On the other hand, Sd didn''t lie. He had tried to copy what the shadowswarm did with the darkness element, but since he didn''t actually have the affinity, he couldn''t use it, nor replicate what it did through the life equation.
''I know everything about you. I am capable of deciphering your thought process. I am capable of breaking you down to your fundamental properties and mapping out every single thing that you might do. All of you are so predictable.'' Ss smiled warmly at his father.
A minute of silence passed. It was still morning, so the sun was high in the sky.
"Grandma, Dad..." Ss muttered just loud enough for them to hear. He breathed in as if he was trying to gain motivation and finally spoke.
"I want to continue training in the forest."
Chapter 40 Prove Yourself [1] - Truth
?"I want to continue training in the forest."
"No way." Lochras spat immediately.
"Give him a chance to make an argument for himself." Keira red at Lochras.
"I acted irresponsibly when I let Nymira get in my head and rile me up. Grandma, I saw the look on your face, and I don''t want to shame our family.
I want you to think of me highly, the same way you think of Syra. At the same time, I want Syra to be proud of herst name. I want my little brother to be proud of it too." Ss looked up and into both of their eyes.
Determination burned within his eyes. He wasn''t lying. He loved Syra, and he didn''t want her to feel ashamed of her family.
"We can just get you a tutor at home." Lochras retorted.
"That''s also something I wanted to talk to you guys about." Ss looked into his father''s eyes with a stare that sent a shiver down his spine.
"No one can know about my blessing." They both narrowed their eyes, but Keira cut in before Ss could exin his viewpoint.
"I agree." She spoke, making Lochras look at her in surprise before narrowing his eyes and nodding in understanding. They both knew the uproar that could be caused if someone found out about Ss'' blessing.
"We just tell them that I awakened the water, earth, and light element." Ss crossed his arms.
"Three elements isn''t unheard of. It might make people question whether Lochras is your real father though." Keira stroked her chin.
"I don''t mind." Lochras sighed and looked into Ss'' eyes.
"Though, I don''t think you should go into the forest to train."
''Predictable.''
"It is the best method to gain strength at an astronomical level. I think its only fair if I go to the forest and train every night." Ss argued.
"I''ll go with you." Keira sided with Ss once again. She was a little unsettled by the use of the word ''astronomical,'' but at this point, they were all almostpletely numb to Ss'' exceedingly high vocabry and outstanding speaking skills.
"That takes away from the sense of danger. Without danger, I don''t improve." Ss exined.
"Well, you''re not going in there on your own young man." Keira quickly switched sides.
"I''ve been going there for almost 8 months now. The beast horde was unexpected and probably won''t happen again for a very long time." Ss retorted.
"Then, how about this. Tomorrow we will have a little duel to see if you''re ready to go out alone." Lochras suggested while Ss tried his best to not burst outughing.
He did his best contemtion expression before smiling and giving his father a nod.
"I think that is the only way we can deal with this impass." Ss spoke with joyously while standing up and turning around.
"I''ll get ready for tomorrow. You two better ready yourselves for the battle of a lifetime. Though, let''s make sure to do it when Syra''s doing her sses." Ss turned around and began to walk away.
Keira nced at Lochras before shaking her head slightly in disappointment. Though, it didn''t seem like Lochras cared all that much.
"Wait, Ss! Onest thing! What core grade are you one?" Lochras shouted before Ss could get too far. They still had so many questions, but they only had an hour to ask them, meaning they would need to ask themter. One of those questions was going to ask how he cultivated and when he had awakened, but since they didn''t have the time for that, Lochras chose to ask one of the questions rather than both.
Turning around, Ss looked at the two of them and smiled.
"Pristine-ga."
They both widened their eyes in shock as Ss slowly turned around and began walking away. However, now that no one could see his expression, he finally let the smile he had held back the entire time stretch both corners of his lips from ear to ear.
''Checkmate.''
***
A few minutes passed after Ss left them two alone to linger in Silence.
"He had to be lying, right?" Keira looked at Lochras with a weird expression.
Most people didn''t reach the ga core until their first years in the academy. Talented individuals usually reached the ga core around the age of 10, and really talented individuals like Syra reached the ga core around the age of 8. Only geniuses reached the ga core at the age of 7 or even 6.
Keira was looking at Lochras with a tense expression. It was a mixture of nervousness and fear, but it wasn''t for the reasons one would expect.
"He''s lying, right?" She asked again.
"I thought so too... But he hadn''t lied once this entire time." Lochras had a permanent scowl on his face as he put his hand in his pocket and took out a stone with onerge rune on it.
"Not once?" Keira tried to examine the stone to see if there were any faults in the runic inscription, but there was nothing.
"Not once... Everything he told was the truth. Not a single word that came out of his mouth was a lie." Lochras rubbed his brows.
They both sat in silence for a bit longer before Keira spoke again.
"What you did was cruel." Shey down on the grass and sighed.
"I''m doing what needs to be done to ensure my son''s safety." He snorted.
"Saftey? Or do you just want to control him the same way you and my daughter controlled Syra''s life until she awakened? You know he can''t beat you, and I know you will not be satisfied with anything else."
They sat there silently for a bit longer before they eventually got up and returned home to break the news to Rhea.
The day passed in the blink of an eye, and before they knew it, the sun had begun to rise once more upon dia.
Two individuals stood on the front porch as the sun shone upon the skrk household. They both held a weapon of their choosing, yet while Lochras held a steel sword in his hand, Ss held his grandmother''s staff in his hand.
"Are you ready?" mana whirled around Lochras as he used toki to strengthen himself.
"I was born ready." Ss pointed the staff toward his father with a grin on his face. Glimpses of his battlefield self cracked through his expression as a me of determination burnt within his eyes.
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[A/N: Still 6 chapters left, lol. It''s fine, though. Just give me a few hours, and I''ll try to get them all out. Also, there will be a small event I will be participating in on the 12th and 15th.
You''ll get two extra chapters on those days, and since I''m going on summer break after the 9th of May, I should have more than enough time to write those chapters in time. Again, sorry for not bringing all the chapters on time this week.]
[If you have enjoyed this chapter and would like to support the author, please vote using your power stones or golden tickets. Also, you can join my discord server today to see illustrations or to converse about thetest chapters.]
Chapter 41 Prove Yourself [2] - Silas Vs Lochras
?Looking at the two of them, Keira sighed. She had tried to change their minds about this duel, but both parties seemed adamant about it.
Syra had already gone to her private tutoring ss. It was essentially a private school inside a private school, and while the Skrk family wasn''t actually that wealthy,pared to the people living inside dia, they were filthy rich.
''This won''t really tell me how strong I am since I don''t actually know how strong Lochras is... However, it should give me a baseline on which I can build upon
"You both ready?" She asked while ncing at the two of them.
"YES!" They both shouted, slightly fed up by how long they had to wait until the battle started.
They had already told Rhea about everything that happened, or at least the portion that Ss told them about. He didn''t really want to take part in the conversation since he didn''t want to say anything more than what he had already said.
Of course, Rhea was against Ss going to the forest ever again, but after a little convincing, she agreed that if he won the duel, he would be allowed to go.
Of course, she didn''t think that Ss had the ability to win against Lochras, let alone put a scratch on his body. Actually, no one did.
They all knew how strong Lochras was, and even though he wasn''t a mage, it didn''t mean that he was weak. It just meant that he was at a disadvantage when it came to long-range attacks and the creativity of his attacks.
However, Lochras had a lot more experience on the battlefield. It was almost terrifying how much experience he had despite still being pretty young.
Anyway, Rhea chose to not watch the battle since she was still pretty much stuck in bed with her newborn.
"Alright then. Let the battle..." She raised her hand into the air.
"Begin!" Her hand shed down, and in an instant, Lochras dashed toward Ss, while Ss created a magic circle in front of the staff''s crystal.
''Sh*t...'' Ss frowned. For some reason, he felt like he was spending more mana than he needed to when creating the water drill spell, but that''s when he realized why that was.
The emerald crystal embroidered at the top of the staff had a small ball of mes inside it. It was linked to the fire element, so it was actively repelling the water element. Sure, mana coursed through the wood of the staff very easily, but the effort became far too much to be considered efficient when trying to push the mana through the crystal.
However, that was not the case with other elements. It was only the case with elements that opposed the fire element.
So while the water element might be weakened and the fire element might be strengthened by a multiplier possibly over 5, other elements would most likely be double their normal strength.
Within an instant, Ss controlled the mana within the magic circle and changed them all to create an earth pir spell.
Keira''s eyes widened when she saw the runes shift and morph. It looked like she was going to fall to her knees out of shock, but she quickly found her bnce again and stood up straight,
Pointing his staff at his father, Ss shot a pir of earth toward Lochras'' chest, but despite the attack moving at blurring speeds, Lochras dodged it with the grace and effort of dodging a feather.
His sword also became a blur, and before Ss could react to the sudden speed Lochras was showing, the pir was cut into a dozen pieces that fell to the ground with low thuds.
Lochras then shot forward. He moved like a sh of lightning. His sword cut through the air and appeared beside Ss in the blink of an eye.
''Earth wall''
However, before it could even touch him, a wall of earth suddenly shot out of the ground and hit Lochras'' elbow joint, causing his arm to be raised into the air and for his sword topletely miss Ss.
''Is he trying to kill me?'' Ss snorted and created a two pirs under his feet to shoot him back.
Stabbing the staff into the ground, Ss quickly stopped his momentum and created a tier-2 earth wave spell that sent a wave through the earth, causing it to bulge up and travel toward Lochras.
It continued to get bigger and bigger until it was in front of Lochras and had already devoured the earth all from before.
Bending his knees, Lochras shot several meters into the air, yet the moment he reached his peak altitude, he saw an earth st inches away from him.
*SWOOSH*
But just like before, his sword moved like lightning, and its sliced through the earth st and crumbled it to bits.
Lochras then nced at Ss and narrowed his eyes at the tier-1 magic circle inches away from Ss'' other hand. He wasn''t doing anything with it, so Lochras threw that thought aside.
Coating his de with toki, Lochras shed it through the air. Ss expected an arch of pressurized wind to suddenly shoot toward him, but what happened was much worse than he had expected.
Toki, or to be specific, mana formed around the arch of wind. It created some kind of visual distortion around the arch, but that wasn''t all.
The arch shot toward Ss faster than he would have ever expected, but without thinking twice, he pointed the staff at it and created three magic circles in front of him.
Both Keira and Lochras'' eyes widened in shock when they saw this. Sure, Lochras didn''t know much about magic, but everyone knew that you could reach a certain mana core grade to create more than one spell at a time.
Sure, most people used incantation anyway, so most people couldn''t create multiple spells at a time. However, this didn''t mean that they couldn''t create copies of the same spell multiple times. It just took extraordinary understanding and control over their own element to do such a thing.
Even Keira, who has an amethyst core, was unable to do such a thing without a lot of effort. Yet, Ss was doing exactly that with a single wave of Keira''s staff.
*Bang, Bang, Bang*
Threat earth bullets shot out and hit particr points of the arch.
The arch instantly broke apart, and the toki covering it disappeared as well, but by then, Lochras was already on the ground and charging at Ss again.
Ss knew that Lochras wasn''t going all out. He looked far too rxed for that, but it made sense. He is an imperial knight. He had to be strong. Otherwise, he wouldn''t be an imperial knight.
Ss knew he couldn''t beat him with just the earth element. Even though he felt like he had infinite mana since the staff used very little of his mana to actually create spells, he knew he wouldn''t win.
All he needed to do was impress his father enough to show him he could care for himself, even in moments of danger.
"You think you''re so strong huh." Ss muttered to himself and pointed the staff at Lochras. No matter Lochras''s strength, a saying back on earth gave Ss confidence in at least holding a candle to his father.
"Brains over brawns."
Chapter 42 Prove Yourself [3] - Brawn Over Brains
?Three more bullets shot out of the magic circle and appeared before Lochras, but when he stepped to the side to dodge them, he felt his foot suddenly step on something extremely slippy, and his body began to fall to the side.
Another earth bullet shot out, but this time it wasn''t aimed at him, but rather it was aimed at where he would be. Ss had thought it out. He knew how the battle would y out from the start; it was just that there was one thing that surprised him.
However, now that he knew about it, he took it into ount and revised the n to work around it and the potential it had.
He had already frozen the ground when he shot back to avoid his father after creating the earth all, and then froze it again after creating the wave of earth that had a chance of thawing the ice.
Now, all he had to do was shoot earth bullets until one of them hit...
But that was the problem.
None of them were hitting.
When Lochras began falling, his instincts instantly made him flip over the bullet.
However, that didn''t fix the slippy ground problem. Or at least it wasn''t supposed it.
When he flipped, Ss saw toki cover his feet before they mmed into the ground. The tactic was simple but effective. The ice wasn''t strong enough to be considered thick, and from the power of that stomp, it didn''t seem like he would be slipping again.
Ice crystals flew into the air, but Ss had already taken that into ount.
A drill made of earth shot toward Lochras again, but just like before, he sliced it up or dodged it. However, now there was a difference.
No matter how he tried to dodge, there was always another bullet or drilling for him, trying to break through his defenses.
This game of dodgeball carried on for a couple of minutes. They were already far from home since Ss had continued to dash away from Lochras while shooting at him, but Ss could see that Lochras was getting increasingly annoyed by the second.
And when his annoyance hit a new peak, he got reckless.
Within an instant, he began to shoot off several arches of toki with the intention of hitting Ss.
''Predictable.'' Ss grinned and stabbed the staff into the ground.
However, as the earth began to shift, it wasn''t pirs that came out.
A tier-3 magic circle suddenly engraved itself into the ground. It had a one-meter radius around the circle, but before the spell could activate, Ss had already jumped back, using air fusion to move as far back a possible with the staff in his right hand and the tier 1 magic circle still on his left.
"Ss! What the hell is this!" Lochras shouted. The earth continued to rumble as Ss quickly dodged the remaining archs with an insane speed that even Ss was unaware he had.
His body had evolved constantly every time he got hurt during that beast and monster horde. His body was stronger, and while his fusions and mana might not have reached that same level, fusion magic didn''t give him strength. It amplified what was already there.
His cells were filled with mana. More than they ever have been before this moment. He only realized recently, but when he used fusion magic, he didn''t just strengthen his body by adding elemental mana to his cells. Sure, that was the case with mana fusion, but not the the same extent with elemental fusion.
When using elemental fusions, every mana particle within his cells also turned into that element. Meaning that every cell in his body vibrated to the symphony of a single element.
Every time he used the elemental fusion, it was as if he became one with the element. Sure, it didn''t help much in spell casting yet, but when it came to closebat fighting...
It was almost as if he became a force of nature... Something more than himself.
*SWOOSH*
Ss ran like the wind as tentacles made of earth broke through the cracks in the ground and wrapped themselves around Lochras.
His blurry image ran around the enormous tentacles that lifted Lochras a few meters in the air.
Ss continued to build momentum for a few second, and before Lochras could even think about breaking out of the tentacles, he saw something shooting toward him at an oundish speed, appearing in front of him within an instant before a fist mmed into his cheek and whipped his head to the side.
Ss quickly appeared again behind him andnded another blow, before appearing at his side, then above him, then in front of him again and again,nding a flurry of punches in quick session, each one holding more power than thest.
And when Ss was finally done, he appeared a few meters away from his father, panting heavily as he pointed his hand into the sky and morphed the tier-1 magic circle hovering before his fingers into a tier-3 one.
Keira also looked into the sky before her eyes bulged, and her heart rate increased rapidly.
"What the f*ck..." She muttered, making Lochras also look up.
Every spell Ss had created out of earth. Every drill, every bullet, and every single piece of earth that had his mana signature. All of it was floating above Lochras, morphing into one enormous sphere made of earth with a ring of small rocks around it.
It wasn''t nearly as big as the earth bear''s earth prison, but it was half the size of their house and looked extremely dense.
Keira hadn''t seen it earlier because it was not only a scattered crowd of earth pieces being floated in the air by Ss'' tier-1 magic circle but also because it was far too high. It only needed a tier-3 spell to put it together, and Gravity could do the rest.
"Dad..." Ss grinned.
"I win!"
And with those wordsing out of his mouth, the magic circle disappeared, and the boulder fell, mming into the trapped Lochras and kicking up an enormous dust cloud to end the battle once and for all...
"Ha... Haha... Hahahahahaahahahaha... HAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHA."
Or at least that''s what Ss thought.
Pointing his hand toward his father, Ss quickly created an icence and shot it toward the dust cloud. He could still see his father with mystic eyes, but even though he had been using its duller, less bright form, now that there was a ton of dust in the way, he had to intensify the amount of life equation energy going to his eyes.
Looking at his grandmother, he saw that she didn''t seem worried. She looked shocked, but not even a shred of worry could be seen in her eyes.
It was as if she knew.
However, when she caught a glint of bright emerald green from the corner of her eyes, she also looked at Ss just to widen her eyes even more when she saw a pair of emerald eyes nce at her for a moment.
"I have to admit, Ss. That was impressive. No, it was beyond impressive. You would have probably won if it wasn''t me you were against." Lochras'' voice echoed throughout the field. By now, not only had Rheae to the window to see what happened, but some of the towns folk closer to the gate hade out to see what the explosion was.
And everything after that happened in an in instant.
Earth fusion coursed through his body on instinct as a feeling of dread fell upon him.
Time slowed to a crawl as the dust cloud parted, and his father appeared before him.
Ss had barely enough time to raise his arms in time. Lochras was too fast. He wasn''t even a blur. One moment he was inside the dust cloud; the next, he was in front of Ss with his fist extended outwards while ss-like icy shards flew into the air and became a mist.
And in the next moment, he felt every bone in his arms shatter before his body was flung almost a hundred meters away from where he stood.
His vision shifted constantly, and when he finally hit the ground, everything turned ck.
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Chapter 43 Getting Ready [1]
?"Ugh..." Ss grunted while sitting up in bed. His head felt like it was cracking open from the piercing headache he was experiencing, but after a few seconds, it subsided, and he was fine.
"You woke up quickly, especially with those injuries." A feminine voice entered Ss'' ears.
However, Ss looked down at his arms without even looking at her. They were covered in bandages, but there were nowpletely fine. His chest also seemed to be covered in bandages, so he assumed that the punch''s power had reached his chest and possibly shattered a few bones.
Thought, he had to admit, his arms felt much stronger than before. He was just a little disappointed that he couldn''t find out how strong he was.
''Damn... My father is a goddamn monster.'' Ss rubbed his brows, making the woman next to him look at him in shock.
"Hey Diveen. How''s life." Ss asked without bothering to look at her.
Diveen was in her fifties but didn''t look a day older than 30. Actually, she looked younger than Keira, who was still in her forties.
She had emerald green eyes that became gold as you moved away from the pupil. It showed her connection to the light element, but Ss also thought that there was a chance the green showed her connection to the life equation if she had one.
Diviners were broken into 2 main categories. Fighters and healers. Fighters either used the light element to be knights, or they used it to be mages. However, healers only became healers. There was no other path to it. They either got the green energy, or the golden energy, or in Diveen and Ss'' cases, they got both.
''Wait... The life equation is made of both yellow and green. Wait... Does that mean the life equation is what makes the light element? Is that why people chose to group them together?!''
"You''re parents and grandmother told me you awakened a blessing. They exined to me how it worked. I didn''t know it had a healing aspect to it, though." Diveen narrowed her eyes. She had been a doctor for long enough to know whether someone was injured. She was surprised to see that Ss waspletely fine after receiving such a powerful punch from Lochras. Of course, she knew Lochras held back significantly, but when Ss was brought to her, his injuries weren''t nearly as bad as she thought they would be.
"They told you?" Ss widened his eyes slightly. He thought that his family was cautious, but who knew they were actually stupid?
"Haha. That look on your face is why I do this job." Diveenughed.
"You''re a healer... I thought you did this job to help people." Ss looked at her weirdly.
"I said what I said." She crossed her arms and grinned.
"Don''t worry, though. I''ve known you''re family for far too long. Too long... Unhealthily long." She sighed and continued.
"I''ve known your grandmother since we were kids. We grew up in the same vige. We both chose to go to the Dawn academy too. Obviously, I took healing and light magic sses, while your grandmother took fire magic and closebat sses." She smiled.
Ss still didn''t trust her, but now that the cat was out of the bag, he might as well gain her trust instead. She already knew about him, so there was nothing to be done. Killing her was out of the question, and he didn''t really have enough information about her to ckmail her to stay silent.
"Who''s stronger between you two." Ss casually asked. He had never actually thought about looking at her core to see how strong she was, and now that she was right in front of him and looking him in the eyes, it would be stupid to activate mystic eyes.
"Me, obviously." She harrumphed.
"Really? What core grade are you?" Ss asked.
"Solid Amethyst." She replied.
"Uh... I see. Grandma is only a dull amethyst core." Ssy back on the bed. Finally looking around, he realized that he wasn''t at home. He was probably at the clinic Diveen worked at.
Looking at her again, he tried to see if she had any emerald streaks in her hair, but he couldn''t see it since she was covering it. After all, she was a nun.
"What about dad. Who''s stronger?" Ss asked, making her touch her chin in thought.
"Hmm. I''m not sure, but I do remember that he reached the third stage of toki quite recently." She replied.
"Third stage of toki?" Ss raised a brow. He had no idea what she was talking about.
"Yeah. I''m only on the second stage of toki, and even Nymira can use the second stage so its not much of an aplishment." Sheughed.
"But you''re a mage?" Ss raised a brow.
"Yeah, but people who awaken a light affinity can use toki, unlike normal mages. I''m unsure why since it''s not a subject I took back in university, but I''m assuming that it''s also the reason why you can use toki too." She got out of her chair and nced back at Ss.
"You have a light affinity. The rest is simply a consequence of your blessing. It makes sense why you can move so quickly and deal so much damage to Lochras. Hell, even I''m not sure if I can beat him in most situations. If he gets close to me, he will definitely beat me." She exined, making Ss instantly frown.
"He gets pushed around by grandma so much that I kind of thought he would be weaker than her." Ss muttered.
"Yeah, you''d think... Keira is a monster in her own right. Sure, she''s bad at closebat, and her magic isn''t nearly as strong as mine, but her battle instincts and coordination are amazing. In a battle, she''s considered far more valuable on the battlefield than both of usbined." She shrugged.
"Sister Diveen. We need your help with one of the patients." A woman no older than 20 peaked her head through the door of the room. Clearly, Ss was in some kind of luxury suite since he recalled that the clinic had several rooms, all of them with almost 10 or more beds in them.
"I have to go. I''ll keep you here for a few days until I''m certain you''re okay. You can spend that time reading some of the books I have on my bookshelf." She smiled and turned around.
''Wait... This is her room?'' Ss raised a brow before shrugging and thanking her for her treatment.
Throughout the rest of the day, his sister, father, and grandmother came by to see how he was doing. Rhea stayed at home since she was still pretty exhausted. She also wanted to take care of the baby.
His father apologized for using so much strength, but he didn''t talk about their deal for some reason.
It felt like he was avoiding the subject, but Ss simply shrugged it off. He wasn''t exhausted in the least. Maybe it was the fact that he had put his body under so much stress during the horde that he evolved past hunger, or maybe it was the fact that after it, he was so hungry that his body was beginning to metabolize his muscles and fat to remain alive.
He ate a crap ton of food after that. His grandmother made all the food since his mother was too tired to do anything like that.
His body automatically made the most out of the food entering his body. He rarely needed the toilet on most days, and even when he did, it was usually excess waste that his evolved body couldn''t make full use of.
''I wonder how long my lifespan is now that my body constantly evolves. I''m unsure what path of evolution my body will take over the next few dozen years. There''s a chance that it will slow my aging after I reach a certain age.
There''s also the chance that I may remain at my peak from when I reached my peak until the age of 80, like those Saiyans from Phoenix Squares Y, and I might even get eternal youth...
But there''s also a chance that nothing might happen, so I might as well make the most out of this life and not waste it like myst.'' Ss sighed, but at that moment, his mind shed back to a certain moment in his past life.
*"There''s always someone out there who is better than you at something. Always! You can''t be the best at something because there''s always someone else who has more potential than you and doesn''t even know it."*
*"Don''t let your pride fool you. You''re not special..."*
Ss rubbed his eyes and sighed before choosing to finally go to sleep.
***
dia Forest, around the same time
*Sching*
*Splurt*
*Thud*
"Not good enough... You need to move your body more efficiently. Your use of toki is horrible. You''re not even using your blessing." A woman with nk hair draped in a ck robe criticized the young girl in front of her.
The first had pink hair and blue eyes, yet despite looking no older than 8 years of age, she had the crude look of a warrior.
She was covered in blood and guts from head to toe. At the same time, her toki was ring with so much power that it sent literal shockwaves out in every direction.
Dozens of beasts of all kinds could be seenying around her. Crows perched onto the carcasses and began pecking at them without another care in the world.
"I''m trying..." She tried to argue, yet the woman just red at her.
"If you want to beat that boy, you''ll have to do much more than kill a few beasts."
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Chapter 44 Getting Ready [2] - The Intervention
?The week passed in the blink of an eye. At first, Ss found himself extremely bored in the clinic, but after a few hours of peak boredom, he chose to finally read the book on her shelf.
It wasn''t that he didn''t want to read those books. It was just that a lot of the information in them didn''t really interest him much. Most of them were medical books exining anatomy, healing spells, and basic biology. Of course, it wasn''t considered basic in this world, but to Ss, who had a PhD in biomedical science and medicine, it was somewhat rudimentary.
''This crap is high school level sh*t.'' Ss rubbed his temples. The most interesting part of the book was its use of magic. Of course, with one nce, Ss theorized almost a dozen ways to improve the spell. He read through those for most of the week.
The rest of the books exined basic hygiene, which he assumed only the Diveen practiced.
However, after reading through most of the books and grasping their main concept, one book caught his attention.
It was a book called "Gilea''s Secret - by Wallow Relicer." When Ss opened to the front page, it was almost as if he was put into a trance state. His mind blocked out everything else as he read through the book.
The sun rose and fell, before rising again and reaching the horizon again.
Ss broke out of the trance and closed the book when the sun finally began setting. His eyes were empty, yet a smile could be seen stered along his face, stretching from ear to ear.
"I was worried you died on us." Diveen spoke out from behind him.
"How could I have died if I was flipping through the pages." Ss replied without ncing at her.
He was trying to embed everything he just learned into his mind as to never forget. Everything he learned, every single word in that book was important. It was written better than most books out there. The person writing it was clearly a genius with words.
Every sentence linked to the next like cells bindings to one another, working in sync to make the entire book feel like a breath of fresh air.
It wasn''t even a novel. It was an autobiography about Gilea itself.
It was a gold mine of information. It had over a thousand pages, and the book itself was written on something in between A4 and A3 paper.
It talked about almost everything, but Ss knew that the book itself was essentially a basic introduction to the world of Gilea.
Books couldn''t simply contain all the information in the world, and this book war no exception. Though, it did seem like it broke into several volumes, it was just that Diveen only had this book and nothing else.
"Do you have the second chapter to this book?" Ss asked while turning around and raising the book into the air.
"I wish. Those books are expensive! Do you know how long it took me to get this one?" Diveen chuckled.
At first, she was bbergasted at how long Ss was willing to stay in one ce to read a book. However, after his family came and didn''t really react to it, she also stifled her confusion to not seem like the odd one out.
''What kind of family allowed a 5-year-old to read an entire book and not eat at all throughout that entire period! I doubt he understands a single concept in that book!'' She sighed and looked at Lochras, who had a steady smile on his face.
Syra, Lochras, and Keira were all there, chatting to one another and hoping Ss would break out of his trance before the 2-day limit. He tended to get pretty angry when people broke him out of his trance, but they had made a rule that he wasn''t allowed to go more than 2 days without eating.
It was a weird rule that would have made most other parents frown at the Skrks, but no one knew, so they didn''t care. They knew Ss was more than capable of going days without food. They always had to force-feed him food unless he was extremely tired.
"Oh, hey dad... Uhmm..." Ss looked to the side and rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly.
"We''vee to a decision, but your mother said that she wanted to be a part of it so we''re going to tell you when we get back home." Lochras exined.
"Back home?" Ss looked through the window and narrowed his eyes. He then tried to see how hungry he was and determined that two days must have passed, meaning he was free to go.
It didn''t take long for them to reach their home. The walk was a little slower since Syra was with them, but she hadn''t said a word throughout the entire stroll.
Looking at the two adults, they simply shrugged. It seemed like they had already talked to her, but nothing hade out of those talks.
When they finally entered their home, Ss quickly bathed before putting on new clothes anding out of the bathroom.
Yep, they were rich enough to have their own bathroom, something he didn''t think was a privilege until he came to this world.
His entire family sat around the table, his grandmother sitting at one end, and the rest sitting on the sides.
The chair on the other end was empty. Since the sun had set, they had lit a few candles around the house. The me inside the firece burned with vigor and intensity. At the same time, the candles set an atmosphere of calm over their entire house.
Rhea was looking at Ss with indifference. It was shocking, but at the same time, it was understandable.
Indifference, when it came to Rhea, meant that she was angry, and from her point of view, she had every right to be. After all, her son had been keeping a major lie from them for god knows how long.
She held her baby in her arms and rocked him slowly as if it was on instinct.
"Oh wait... Where''s Syra?" Ss asked.
"It''s better if she doesn''t know about this. She''s been very closed off recently." Lochras spoke.
"I''m sorry..." Ss muttered while sitting down and keeping his eyes on the table. He didn''t want to make eye contact since he wanted to seem like he was ashamed of himself.
"We came to a decision..." Rhea spoke.
"We''re allowing you to go into the forest, but only if someone else goes with you. You''re strong, Ss. I didn''t even see the fight but I can tell that much from the aftermath." Rhea closed her eyes and sighed.
"That takes away from-"
"Shut up." Rhea cut him off and continued-
"You lied to us for so long. I don''t understand why you did it, but these two do... If it was up to me, you wouldn''t leave this house again until you reach Syra''s age, but sadly, I''m not the only adult in this house." Rhea grimaced while Ss frowned.
"So I''m assuming you created thispromise?" Ss asked.
"No... Your mother and I did." Lochras looked at Ss with a threatening expression.
"And I''m assuming you''ve already made your mind up about this."
"Yes." Rhea replied.
"Then there''s nothing else for us to discuss." Ss finally looked up, and in that instant, a pressure fell onto everyone in the room except for the baby in Rhea''s arms.
They all stopped breathing momentarily since they hadn''t expected it, but they quickly regained theirposure.
He hadn''t released his killing intent or anything simr, but it was as his presence changedpletely while his expression reverted to one that Seth usually put on.
A smile... A smile that not many saw and lived to tell the tale. It was his version of anger. He rarely got angry. He got frustrated, but not angry.
"I respect your decision..." He spoke. His words were like music to their ears. It rxed them, but it also sent a shiver down their spines.
Standing up, Ss turned around and strolled to his room.
They all looked at each other to see if the others felt it too.
"What the hell was that..." Rhea clenched onto her baby.
"It doesn''t matter. If what the chief told me is true, it means that Ss needs to be always observed." Keira covered her mouth as she began to think back to everything the chief had shown her.
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Chapter 45 Getting Ready [3] - Small Sum Of A Million Dollars
?Months passed after that. Every night Ss went to the forest with his grandmother, his father, or Diveen. He was surprised that Diveen was willing to go with him, or that she was asked in the first ce, but she seemed to willinglyply.
She had taken his father''s ce after his paternity leave ended. It was shocking that paternity leave for men was even a thing in this world, but he enjoyed it while itsted.
Nevertheless, Ss increased his strength every day, but he knew that his increase in strength was nothingpared to before. Now, he had to stick to a schedule that gave him less time to train in the forest. At the same time, having someone around essentially crippled his body''s progress since he needed to be hurt to strengthen his body, and not only did his supervisors not allow such a thing, but his body had strengthened to a point where he didn''t even need to use any of his fusions to massacre a small group of pristine-ga cored dire wolves.
His spells were overkill, and fusion ended the battles far too quickly for him to enjoy them or learn anything from them,
Over the months, Ss racked up quite a number of mana crystals. When his family saw his stash of mana crystals that he already had, they werepletely gobsmacked. Unfortunately, he could not get the mana cores from the monsters and beasts he killed during the horde since they all went to dia''s government.
His parents had asked him how he created the inferno spell, but he told them that he didn''t really remember since everything was kind of a blur. He ensured the rune stone wasn''t with them when they asked him the question.
Anyway, he was pretty happy that his grandmother let him keep the topaz crystal that he got from killing the shadowswarm. Sadly, he wouldn''t be able to make a staff out of it since it wasn''t really his chosen element.
At the same time, the staffs were far too expensive. Sure, he had a small fortune now that he was hunting, but he used all his money on books teaching advanced magic for all elements.
Besides that, there was another problem forming.
After he reached the age of 6, the official story was that he awakened the water, earth, and light elements. Even when he went hunting, he used only those elements. Monsters and beasts with elements were hard to find, so he didn''t really get to use any other elements.
Rumors about him being a bastard son flew around asionally, but his family didn''t care.
Or at least that was before people began protesting on the streets about him and Nymira, the pink-haired girl.
Apparently,mitting massacres around the forest, and inting the price of mana crystals, beast scales, fur, and other beast parts wasn''t something people praised.
Adventurers now had to hunt more, and even then, beasts were beginning to thin out of their part of the forest, also considered the "Safe section" of the forest.
dia''s forest was enormous. It wasn''t nearly as big as the elf settlement located between the Xylem kingdom and the Der empire. However, it was thergest in the county, and dia town was just outside it.
Due to the size of the forest, there was a certain hierarchy. Since the mana in the middle of the forest was far richer, stronger monsters and beasts could be seen when reaching the center. Some even say that there''s a dull-ruby-cored creature in the middle of the forest, capable of wiping out most of the county within less than a day.
Nevertheless, this meant that going deeper into the forest was the only way to get stronger beasts, and despite begging his family to let him go deeper, they only allowed him to go up to the area where there were mostly only ga-cored beasts with a few possible topaz cores.
The sound of whispering entered Ss'' ears. Looking around, he saw that a few people were whispering while looking at him, but that was essentially amon urrence now. He did see that his sister was beginning to get bullied, but after breaking a few arms and sending a few others to the clinic, no one dared to bully his sister.
It was well known that Ss was one of the most powerful people in the town. Well, the bepletely urate, he was only one of the strongest because that didn''t really count in the guards who guarded the gates, or any of the church''s or the chief''s warriors.
The fact that he was one of the only mages in the town increased his reputation by a lot, but to find out that he was a healer too, and a toki user on top of that sent the entire town into an uproar.
Theypared him to Nymira, but many doubted that he was at her level.
That was because almost all mages are incapable of using toki.
Toki and magic were seen as two different things, and even though some might have been able to use it before awakening, all the training they did essentially went down the drain the moment they awakened.
However, despite this, Ss was not told to not use toki outside their house or while hunting. His parents didn''t really seem to have a problem with it.
After all, since one of his blessings was the light element, they figured they could tell everyone that the light element affinity allowed him to use toki.
Strolling through the town, Ss and Keira bought a few things, mainly food, and supplies.
However, when Ss reached the town square, he began to pace toward one of the booths.
"Hey." Ss announced his presence.
"Hey kid. How you doing?" A man with ax demeanor nodded at Ss.
"Good, you?"
"I''m fine. You finally got your pocket change to by some of my armor?" He grinned. Ss had known the man for less than 6 days. He hadn''t really bought anything from him since he didn''t know what kind of armor he wanted.
Throughout that entire period, Ss dangled the bait over the man''s head, making him think that he would spend enormous amounts of cash to buy armor.
"Me? Pocket money? Don''t I earn more than you from hunting alone?" Ss chuckled.
"Yeah, but it doesn''t count as a sry since you haven''t joined the adventurer''s association." The man harrumphed.
"Sure, sure. Anyway, how much do you think you can get me for a standard enchanted iron armor?" Ss asked.
"It''s 50 silvers for in armor, and 2 gold for enchanted."
"HA. You think you can scam me. It''s fine, I''ll go to one of the merchants and get some used armor." Ssughed and walked away.
The man was certain Ss was bluffing, but after he saw Ss conversing with one of the merchants, he began to panic and ran over to Ss to convince him.
That man was clearly new to town. He was most likely a representative of a guild of cksmiths and forgemasters. There was also a chance that he was in dia on behalf of a well-known cksmith shop living in the central county.
There was a reason why Ss wasn''t liked by merchants either. Merchants usually moved around the kingdom, or at the very least, the county. The town square was filled with merchants, but that didn''t mean they were the only ones selling things there.
cksmiths, tailors, butchers, and even food vendors could be seen there. Merchants usually stayed for around a month or so before leaving the town and going to another.
However, within less than a week, in their eyes, Ss would go from a rich child with too much money to a scammer who would put them into bankruptcy if they tried the moment they heckled with him.
Of course, Ss tried maintaining a good rtionship with most of those settled into dia. That way, they didn''t tell the merchants about him. At the same time, they benefited greatly since Ss usually tipped them well.
Despite him making the lives of hunters difficult, others actually saw him in a good light. He was killing beasts and keeping the town safe. He was helping local business owners and scamming others.
He essentially had the entirety of the town''s market in the palm of his hand.
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Chapter 46 The Light Festival [1]
?*Click*
The sound of the front door unlocking reverberated throughout the house.
The sound of crying could also be heard, while a sizzling sound could be heard in the background.
"Mom... I''m home." Ss announced while walking through the door. He had a few bags on him filled with the goods he had scammed from the merchants. They would most likely try to scam him back the next day to get their money back, but that''s what Ss wanted.
He''d hook them in by scamming them, allow them to scam him back but not by too much, and then scam them again for the remaining days until they refused to do business with him.
Walking through the door, he saw his mom cooking with his brother ced on the table. His brother had a full head of blonde hair and bright orange eyes.
"Good. Take your brother and make sure he sleeps." She shouted back from the kitchen.
"Do I have to?" Ss grimaced. Maybe he should have stayed outside for a little longer? But if he had done that, he might not have been able to eat the food while it was still hot...
Sighing, Ss took his baby brother into his arms and rocked him back and forward while singing a low luby that quickly put the baby to sleep.
The luby was one that the adoption home used to sing to them when they were kids. He always hummed it when he was working, but apparently, it was really good at helping kids sleep.
Ss would never admit it, but he was really good with kids despite hating them with a passion.
"I don''t get it... How are you so much better than us at putting him to sleep." Rhea sighed.
"I cast a spell on him." Ss joked, but his tone was a little monotone, so his mother instantly widened her eyes and looked at him with a piercing re.
"I''m kidding." Ss sighed.
"Just take Lex back to my room." Rhea rubbed her brows and continued cooking. When he returned, Rhea asked-
"You remembered that you''re not supposed to use ice magic, right?"
"For the 234th time, I know I''m only supposed to use it while hunting."
"Because-" She tried to cut in, but Ss still finished her sentence for her.
"Because I''m not allowed to show people that I can use ice magic." Ss tried his best to not roll his eyes.
After that, he simply sat down at the dining table and read his book on advanced water magic. He had already read through it and understood most of it, but one chapter of the book that interested him were the cultivation techniques that water magicians used.
Ss tried to replicate what they did, but every time he tried, no matter what he did, he couldn''t really get the hang of it.
He assumed the reason for that was due to the fact that his body''s mana channels weren''t formed around a natural awakening. It was a forced awakening where his mana channels were quite literally created around his cultivation technique, not the other way around.
Throughout the past year, he also learned about the different spell-casting methods. He didn''t really know how they worked since he didn''t have a book dedicated to them, but he knew they existed, and for now, that would do.
The catch, though, was that every spell-casting method was dedicated to one of the major races.
For example, even though magic circles have existed for thousands of years, humans were the only ones who used them in spell casting. The other races used spell-casting methods built around the ancient magic circles, mainly around runic spell-casting.
They all had different methods of creating runes in order to make spells. Demons and beastfolk used hand signs, and elves used hymns and songs.
Ss didn''t really know how dwarves created spells since none of the books seemed to mention them that much. When they were mentioned, though, they were usually spoken of the same way people spoke of demons or monsters.
Nevertheless, what Ss had learned over the past year was crucial to Ss'' research for one reason.
It told Ss that it was possible to create spells without the use of magic circles, and that people had done it before him. Of course, beasts and monsters didn''t really use runes before.
It seemed like their magical awakenings were based on instinct and evolution rather than intellectual evolutions throughout the years. If he could somehow replicate their way of mana maniption, maybe it would be possible to create spells out of thin air or by simply moving one''s body.
The rest of the day passed quite quickly. Ss simply sat down for the rest of the day and absorbed mana from some of the stronger mana cores he had gained to strengthen his core. However, there despite trying to breakthrough for a little less than a year, Ss was struggling to reach the topaz core. He felt like he was just one step away from reaching it, but no matter how hard he tried to break through, it always felt like there was some kind of barrier stopping him.
He hit a bottleneck, and ording to his Keira, Rhea, and Diveen, it was normal for people to hit bottlenecks when reaching the ga core. Apparently, there were a few bottlenecks throughout someone''s cultivation journey. The only problem was that Syra was quickly catching up to him. She already had a solid ga core and was close to reaching a pristine one.
She had been oddly quiet throughout the year. She didn''t really speak to Ss and was slowly bing more and more closed off than he was. Maybe it was the shock that her brother was also a mage who was much stronger than her despite not being awakened for as long, or maybe it was the fact that she felt betrayed by Ss not telling her about such a big thing in his life when she told him about everything in hers.
Despite this, the days passed like they usually did.
And after a day, a week passed, and before they knew it, the light festival was upon them.
Throughout this time period, Ss'' training increased 10-fold, and his parents finally agreed to allow him to go deeper into the forest to hunt the stronger beasts and monsters.
His training with his father also became harsher. Ss was forced to go all out in a physical sense against Lochras, but for some reason, it always felt like Lochras was holding back the majority of his strength.
Diveen taught him how to use his healing factor to his advantage during a battle while also teaching him a few of the tier-3 healing spells that could not be found in her books.
Finally, Keria taught him how to use magic when fighting; by far, it was the most helpful tutoring he got. He was already familiar with healing and the ways he might use his healing factor during a fight. He was also familiar with hand-to-handbat, something his father chose to teach him instead of swordsmanship.
Fighting with magic was much harder. Sure, his grandmother could only use the fire element, but that was enough for him to learn how to move around during a fight between mages, or how to get the advantage when he was fighting against someone who wasn''t a mage.
Sure, Ss already knew most of this, but the real advice he enjoyed getting was when his grandmother showed him how to use the earth or water element in better ways. After all, she''s seen how master water and earth magicians used their affinity, so she was going off that.
However, now that it was the day of the light festival, that was all over, and he would go back to his normal routine.
"Are you ready?" Keira asked while stepping outside and looking at Ss, who was stretching his limbs.
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Chapter 47 The Light Festival [2] - Silas Vs Nymira
?"Are you ready?" Keira asked, stepping outside and looking at Ss, who was stretching his limbs. "Always." Ss grinned with confidence.
The walk to the town felt long, partly because his family was trying to hype him up, which was annoying. But Ss dealt with it the same way he dealt with most noise: by tuning them out until they reached their destination.
When they finally arrived at the town square, the crowd parted before them as Ss walked towards the small arena they had created for the battle between him and Nymira.
The spectacle had created enough excitement that people decided to invest in the battle by building an arena. Bets had been flying around for thest month, and the odds were in Nymira''s favor, 60/40.
Ss couldn''t help but notice the abundance of food stands and merchants, creating a carnival-like atmosphere. The smell of food was everywhere, and while some of it disgusted him, some of it looked mildly appetizing.
As he walked past a few of the white knights, Ss stepped up and ced his foot on the inch-high tform. He looked forward to seeing Nymira, a young girl with cherry-pink hair and piercing aqua-blue eyes, standing on the other end of the tform.
She had a serious expression on her face, making her look more cute than threatening. In a way, she resembled an angry puppy.
Ss smiled at her, unaware of his good looks and poprity with girls his age. Although Nymira didn''t have a crush on him, many parents could tell their daughters did.
"We''re fighting first, then?" Ss asked with a smile, but Nymira smiled back. She just replied-
"You''ve gotten stronger..." with a grimace...
The priest suddenly stepped onto the tform, looking at the two with a fatherly smile.
It sent a shiver down Ss'' spine, and even Nymira frowned and scrunched up her nose as if she smelled something horrible.
''There''s something off about him... He was fine before, but why does he feel different today?'' Ss narrowed his eyes.
As everyone else smiled at the elderly man, he began to announce the rules of the duel. "Both fighters shall wear leather armor and carry a weapon of their choosing.
The fight shall stop immediately when the opponent sheds blood, is incapacitated, or admits defeat. Do not aim for lethal blows on your opponent. Do not attack after your opponent is down. Being knocked down three times means you''ve been defeated. Is that understood?" he exined, making the two nod.
"Then..." He raised his hand into the air and created a bubble around them before disappearing into thin air.
"Let the battle BEGIN!" He spoke from wherever he disappeared to.
In an instant, they both lowered themselves to the ground; it felt like time had momentarily stopped.
Nymira lunged forward, her steel sword aimed at Ss''s chest with lightning-fast reflexes. Her movements were graceful yet filled with so much power.
It actually felt like she was trying to kill him, but Ss knew that it wasn''t the case.
Ss quickly sidestepped the attack, causing Nymira to overextend herself.
At that moment, Ss saw his opening and took it. Sure, he would go easy on her for now, but if she proved to be trouble, he might have to use his body to beat her. She was a kid, but she was also his opponent.
Everyone knew he was a mage anyway, so why not use magic?
With a flick of his wrist, Ss summoned arge boulder from the ground with his earth magic and sent it hurtling toward Nymira.
She deftly dodged it, but Ss was already on the move. He quickly created a wall of water in front of Nymira, obscuring her vision, and followed up with a powerful water st that shot through the wall of water.
However, to his surprise, she immediately moved out of the way... As if she could see him?
''Crap... Her blessing probably tells her how I''m feeling all the time. If trained right, no one on her level would be capable of hitting her, especially since she can detect that attack from a mile away.'' Ss grit his teeth.
Ss knew that he had to keep his distance from her in order to use his magic effectively. He saw Nymira training once... She was monster. A monster beyond anything he had seen before.
Her ability to dodge and sense everythinging at her made her close to untouchable, even for adults.
He summoned another boulder and hurled it at Nymira, but she expertly parried it with her sword that was covered with an expertly amount of toki.
Toki worked like a muscle. Actually, it worked close to how learning to throw worked. At first, you''re really bad at it. However, over time, you get better at throwing. Not only that, but you also get better at aiming. The more you try it, the more you improve.
That was the trick to toki.
One just had to do it repeatedly to get better at it. It''s not like they''re actively doing the calctions in their head to improve their uracy. It''s essentially an instinct.
And for someone to have such perfect control over their toki to deflect a boulder with so much ease.
Yet, even though that was the thing that surprised Ss, the crowd was surprised by something else.
Surprised was describing it lightly.
They were shocked into silence. They had never seen someone cast a magic circle silently, and even though most of them wouldn''t want to admit it, non of them had actually seen Ss use magic before.
Even the priest was looking at Ss with an agape expression. However, Ss could see traces of envy and even anger in his expression.
Even Nymira seemed to smell it since she nced at the priest momentarily before returning to the battle and jumping a few meters back.
"You''re not that strong..." She snarled
"Am I not?" Ss smiled, but she didn''t retort directly. Instead, she blitzed through the arena and appeared before Ss in a second, though, this does not mean that Ss didn''t see iting, or that he could not react.
Suddenly, a wall of earth appeared before the two of them, yet the moment Nymira began to carve through the wall, Ss had already spun on his heel and appeared to at her side with his palm pointed directly toward her face.
"Water bolt," Ss called out loud. Sure, using tier-1 spells so far without saying a word was cool, but if he were to use a tier-2 spell without saying a word, the people of the town would most likely sh*t themselves out of shock,
Or at least that''s how Ss thought of it.
Saying two words weren''t nearly good enough either, but at that moment, he realized that he didn''t actually know the incantation for a water bolt spell. He could have just faked it by muttering under his breath, but he was pretty sure he saw one or two water mages in the area.
He didn''t want to take the chance.
''Wait... Water mages? There aren''t any water mages in this town. Maybe it''s a merchant?'' Ss narrowed his eyes and released the water bolt, yet it was instantly sliced in half and turned into a puddle of water.
Having had his spell cleaved in half by Nymira''s de, Ss jumped back a meter or two to maintain the distance between them, yet what he saw next shocked him to the core.
He had never seen anything like it before... Wait, no... He had seen something like it before, but he always assumed that the light affinity changed the flow of the toki, but apparently, that wasn''t the case?
In an instant, the flow of her attacks changed. The flow of her body synchronized with another melody... Another symphony.
Her breathing changed, and the flow of her toki was shifting.
It was somehow sharper, yet for some reason, Ss felt like whatever was about toe out of her attacks was going to somehow be amazing.
A symphony of melodies hitting off each other in a perfect sequence.
...
''Is this what they call a martial style?''
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Chapter 48 The Light Festival [3] - Desperate Situations Call For Desperate Measures
?Her sword swooshed through the air and stabbed into the ground where Ss was standing. It really looked like she was trying to kill him, but that couldn''t be the case, right?
"What are you doing!" She roared, making Sss raise a brow.
''Or is she just crazy? Wait... Can kids go crazy? No, right? They are far too innocent. Though, this world tends to force them to be adults before they''re ready.'' Ss thought before dodging another one of her attacks.
She moved like a ballerina as her sword and body became one, both dancing to the melody of silence, gasping, and chatter in the background.
Every single one of her attacks were graceful. Yet her piercing blue eyes were far from that...
''Sh*t.'' Ss grit his teeth and coursed mana through his body. The official story was that he was a better fighter than he was a mage. That was most obvious since he had only awakened half a month prior. Most people would probably think he ran out of mana when he used the tier-2 spell.
In an instant, his body became more agile. His reflexes became sharper, and his movement somehow became sharper.
And at that very moment, the same thing happened with Nymira.
*Swoosh*
*BOOM*
The entire bubble around the was instantly covered in cracks.
Her attack was so quick. It held so much power...
Half the arena was instantly blown to smithereens, leaving them with the original field of earth and sandy-mud behind.
However, Ss didn''t really dodge. Sure, he sidestepped the attack, but he didn''t dodge the aftermath of the attack.
"Graceful but deadly, huh..." Ss looked into her eyes.
When the dust finally settled, everyone saw Nymira getting up from the floor a few meters away from Ss.
It looked like she was puking out something; from the dent that remained on her leather armor around her abdomen, it seemed like she had been punched there the moment she missed her attack.
There was a reason this fight felt so boring from the start...
It was because the fight was never really fair.
Sure, she had a martial style, but why would that matter in front of pure strength.
Looking forward, Nymira saw Ss standing 2-meters away from her, his eyes mocking and his stare more than intrusive.
His green eyes... Green? Didn''t he have dark brown eyes? Well, it doesn''t really matter.
Nymira had realized the difference in power the moment he punched her. From that moment till the point she hit the ground, she had a realization.
Ss was going easy on her.
He used magic to go easy on her.
She was nothing in front of him.
Despite everything she trained for, all those hours her master tortured her with by going into the forest to kill those beasts...
It was for nothing...
''He''s not even looking at me...'' She grit her teeth when she saw Ss narrow his eyes and momentarily look into the crowd.
Looking to the side, she saw her master watching the battle from a few buildings away. Her face was filled with embarrassment, and even though Gina didn''t want her student to see her face, it was toote...
"Are we done?" Ss asked. His voice was filled with genuineness, yet everyone mistook it for mockery, even Nymira.
So when she finally stood up and took her sword into her hand, she was not filled with the determination of wanting to win.
She was filled with the desire to restore her honor and reputation and her master''s.
It was the first time she felt this way, so at that moment, her body moved on its own.
*Swoosh*
She was a blur. A bullet.
Her figure appeared in front of Ss in the blink of an eye.
She could feel the toki surrounding her entire body, no longer filled with the grace of a harmonica but instead fueled by a tsunami-like rage.
*BOOM*
Chucks of earth flew into the sky while the bubble of energy seemed like it had been almost shattered by that one hit.
Her sword could be seen poking out of the bubble, and in a second, the choir ofughter was silenced by her voice.
"You must think you''re so much better than me." Her voice was filled with spite as she pulled out her de and pointed it toward Ss, who was now looking at her with a tinge of cautiousness.
"You think you can hold back against me? Let me show you..." She got into a stance that didn''t fit her image. Actually, Ss had never seen her use this stance.
Her sword was above her head. Her knees were bent to lower her center of gravity. Her de was held behind her shoulder instead of in front.
"How much I was holding back."
And at that moment, her body flickered and disappeared.
The next second, Ss felt the hairs at the back of his neck stand up.
Without a second thought, Ss listening to his instincts, spun on his heel, and mmed his other heel right into her side by performing a roundhouse kick.
She had appeared behind him with her sword above her head, yet she didn''t waver despite his attack. Did she not feel his attack?
No... She felt it, but she didn''t seem to care.
Using wind fusion, Ss tried to jump back, but Nymira didn''t let him. The moment her sword sliced down, he saw an arch of wind pressure move toward him. For a second, it had a tinge of toki inside it, but in an instant, that toki disappeared, but the arch didn''t.
"Water bolt."
Without a second of hesitation, Ss shot a bolt of water through the arch and toward Nymira, but by the time the arch had dissipated, she was on the floor and already bing a blur due to her ridiculous speed.
''Wait... Is she faster than me?'' Ss'' eyes widened when she parted the air and appeared before him.
Ss dodged by the skin of his teeth.
Trying to throw a punch forward, he watched her dodge like a person who didn''t care about their body.
Her movements were tight and angr. Her attacks were brutish but effective. Her control over her body allowed her to bend and move out of the way of attacks even while being in mid-air.
It was as if she had be a berserker... And maybe that''s what they needed right now...
''Of course not... How could someone like you, bear someone like me?'' Ss'' eyes close all emotion as he thought that. And in that very moment, it felt like the mood had dropped and color had been drained from the world.
Killing intent gushed out of Ss like water out of a broken floodgate.
Everyone froze.
Cheers were silence.
Everyone was Silenced.
Hell, even his parents and grandmother looked like blood had been drained from their faces.
They looked deathly pale.
But why wouldn''t they?
''I have so many tricks up my sleeve...'' Two magic circles appeared before his fingers as a sniper of water and earth spell formed mere inches from them.
''Good thing I won''t have to use them on you...'' Ss sighed while shooting the elemental sniper bullets. Yet, despite the fact that they could have killed her on the spot, they weren''t aimed at her.
The barrier around them shattered as the bullets whistled through the air. Before anyone could understand what had happened, two individuals dropped from the buildings a few dozen meters away.
At the same time, Ss reached forward, grabbed onto Nymira''s cherry pink hair, and mmed his foot into her face in less than a second.
Call it dirty, but desperate times call for desperate needs.
And what could be considered a more desperate situation than dia being invaded?
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Chapter 49 Blood Festival [1]
?*BOOM*
Raindrops drizzled from the sky, falling as a light shower that encapsted the entire town.
The sky sunny sky was now no more, covered in a nket of grey and ck clouds, thundering with lightning as the rainfall increased in output.
Chunks of the town''s walls could be seen hurling through the air, dust, and smoke creating a trail behind them as they smashed into different buildings throughout the town.
A group of men and women shrouded in powerful auras and draped with ck and white cloaks shot out of the hole in the wall, leaving nothing but corpses and rivers of blood behind them.
This was a massacre...
''Sh*t!''
Ss saw it the moment he entered the town, but he dismissed it almost immediately.
He had too much on his mind at that time, and if he were, to be honest, he expected Nymira to be much stronger than she actually turned out to be.
He expected her to turn out as a possible threat, yet in the end, she was a kid with no real battle experience, while Ss was a grown man who''s lived in an apocalyptic wastnd for over 7 years.
Nevertheless, the signs of an invasion were all there; it just took Nymira to bore him out of his mind for him to finally connect the pieces.
The gazes. The priest. The subtle killing intent in the air. The weird actions of the monsters in the forest the day before. The cloaked men standing on top of buildings with some kind of crystal transmitter held to their mouths...
Yeah, it should have been more than obvious at that point, but the thing that really tipped him off was the fact that there were water magicians.
Despite thinking of everyone in dia as a number, Ss knew for a fact that there was no water magician in dia except him.
Magicians were a dime in a dozen. Those who awakened usually moved out of the town immediately and to the cities. It was a miracle that they even had light mages in the town, most likely due to the town''s connections with the church.
But now, none of that mattered. Ss had one goal: to bring his family back to safety and swipe some human life forces while he was at it.
His grandmother was stronger than him, and so was his father. They could probably protect Syra and Lex... Right?
Looking at his family, Ss sighed in relief when he saw them all bunched up in one ce. It would make it much easier to escape, or at the very least allow the kids...
''Wait...'' Ss narrowed his eyes before clenching his teeth so hard that veins could be seen popping out of his forehead.
''You f*cking morons!''
"Where''s Syra!?" Ss roared to his parents, and when they looked around, they quickly realized that she was nowhere to be seen.
''F*cking idiots. You had one f*cking job, and you screwed it. You stupid...'' Letting out a deep breath, Ss calmed himself down.
His face returned to cold and indifferent, if returned was even the right word to describe it.
After all, this was not the expression of Ss Skrk. It was an expression that Seth used to wear at all times. It looked much more menacing when Seth did it since he had several wrinkles and the most terrifying face most anyone has ever seen.
Sometimes evil is etched into someone''s face, you know?
But Ss didn''t care.
Landing next to Ss, the burly figure of the chief stuck his chest out and spoke with an extremely loud voice-
"We''re being attacked by a group of bandits. From my estimations, there are at least 25 of them, and at most 100.
If you can fight, fight for your homes. If you can''t, go into your holes that you call shelters and cower in fear until we''re done. Is that understood?" The chiefmanded, his voice holding the weight of the world.
And in unison, every single one of them nodded at him before drawing the des and weapons without a second of hesitation.
''These idiots should buy me a little time to find my sister. I can probably get her out in time and cower in a shelter... I''m a kid, after all. No one would me me. At the same time, if I show that I can fight, will they me me? Ugh, this is why I hate people.'' Ss sighed and tried tounch away, but he felt an enormous hand on his shoulder.
Yet, without even looking back, Ss used fire fusion to p the hand away. At first, it barely budged, but with a little more force, he was able to shove it off him before turning into a blur that left nothing but kicked up dirt and dust in his wake.
Shooting through the air, Ssnded on one of the buildings and looked into the distance with a squint.
''70-ish? 10 mages are quite a lot, though.'' Ss thought before turning into a blur and appearing on the roof of the next buildings
He was using mystic eyes to their maximum extent to find Syra, but so far he couldn''t see one with air magic except the a few near the shattered wall, Lochras, and Keira, as well as the few assassins who seemed to have infiltrated the town before the invasion.
*Swoosh*
The hair''s on Ss'' neck stood up as the threat of death seeped into his bones.
His head ducked on instinct, and he felt like something cold and sharp had just passed right over his head.
"Oooo. You''re fast-" The woman wasn''t even capable of expressing shock was an ice bullet with a sharp edge shot through her head and sttered her brain matter through the existing hole.
Ss was already far gone when her body dropped to the ground.
He had be a blur as he jumped from building to building to scour his surroundings, and when he finally saw someone with the air element in the distance, he could not help but frown.
There seemed to be 2 other individuals in front of her, slowly pushing her to a corner as she tried her best to attack her with the spells she knew.
The problem with traditional mages was, if you don''t have good aim, you''re essentially wasting your mana.
"Don''t worry. We won''t hurt you." One of the men spoke with a depraved expression on his face.
"Stop being a creep." The other man sighed and facepalmed.
"Oh,e on, man! Just one time-"
"Lay a hand on my sister, and I''ll cook both of you alive and feed you to my bear friend." Ss'' voice reverberated throughout the alleyway like a haunting echo.
They both unsheathed their des and began to look around. Even the depraved fe seemed to have turned serious.
But when they felt Ss'' killing intent, they immediately froze in ce.
They couldn''t move a single muscle.
Steam exhaled out of their nostrils and mouth.
"What do you think is more painful..." The voice spoke again, but this time it was right behind them.
When they turned around, they saw a boy with piercing emerald eyes standing at the alleyway entrance, his hands behind his back as everything around him was slowly being covered in ayer of frost.
"Freezing to death, or being buried alive?"
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Chapter 50 Blood Festival [2] - Massacre
?Barely a meter before Ss stood a man frozen in ce, his eyes balls having turned white and his sword inches away from Ss'' throat.
Everything from the sword to his clothes were covered in ayer of frost.
The other man couldn''t be seen anymore, but there was a crack on the ground in the exact ce he stood. The crack wasn''t too big. It probably had the length of a manhole.
Walking past the frozen statue figure, Ss walked up to his sister, his eye still zing with an emerald intensity.
"Y-You killed them..." Syra spoke, her face expressionless. She was stillying on the ground, her entire body shaking with fear.
"Why did you leave mom and dad''s side. Do you know what could have happened to you?!" Of course, she didn''t. She was a kid. She wasn''t supposed to know, and Ss wouldn''t tell her.
Humans could be truly deprived sometimes, and finding that at such a young age... Well...
All that can be said is that such a discovery could truly impact the amount of empathy one holds for human life.
"You killed them." She pointed at Ss.
"So?" he tilted his head. He could hear a few more of those bandits getting closer, but he could probably kill them. They didn''t feel that strong.
"You killed people... Why did you kill them? Why did you kill them?! Why did you kill them?!?! Why why why why why why why why-"
*Thud*
''I don''t have time to deal with this.'' Sighed while retracting his hand from her neck after having chopped at her Carotid Sinus. He didn''t really like using this method since it had the chance to kill someone if done incorrectly, but this was a world of magic. There was no way such a weak attack could kill someone, right?
Throwing her over his shoulder, Ss began to run back to where his parents were.
***
*Sching*
*Splurt*
Lochra''s de cleaved through one of the bandit''s necks. Most of the bandits were actually pretty strong. Most people in the ga core wouldn''t be able to hand them, so despite their low numbers, they were incredibly powerful for a bandit group.
"Oh... I see you''ve killed little Connie." A man suddenly appeared out of thin air, his figure cloaked in a mostly white coat that reached his calves. The coat was open to expose his exposed chest. While his pants were ck, reaching all the way to his ankles.
Blood could be seen staining the ends of his coat as a trail of innocentsy dead behind him, each one of them reaching out in onest breath of hope.
Maybe they saw the light at the end of the tunnel, or maybe they were trying to beg the young man for mercy.
Either way, they were dead now.
A giant sword could be seen strapped to his back, covered inrge runes that continued to glow every few seconds.
He had a pair of piercing blue eyes and fabulous blonde hair that he, for some odd reason, kept stroking back
He wore a pair of white cloves
He almost looked... Rich?
''He''s insane.'' Lochras instantly thought as he held his broadsword up and pointed it at the man. The man wasn''t wearing armor, yet Lochras could tell that his clothes were littered with runes.
His white gloves were most likely artifacts, and his golden earrings? Probably amulets.
"Oh well. The man shrugged with a broad smile before reaching for his sword as well.
"Though, I hope the rain and your blood won''t ruin my clothes." The man snickered while his smile broadened further.
"You''re lucky I don''t have my armor. Otherwise you wouldn''tnd a scratch on my skin." Lochras sneered.
Rhea had already entered one of the buildings they were using for shelter, so Lochras didn''t have to worry about her. Keira was protecting her and everyone in the shelter, too, so they were most likely safe.
They were quite a distance away from the shelter so they were most likely safe. The only thing Lochras was still worried about was Syra, who still hadn''t shown up yet.
Pointing his de at Lochras, the man spoke once more.
"What''s your name, warrior?"
"Lochras Skrk, imperial knight." Lochras lowered his center of gravity.
"Oooo. A knight. Well, since you shared, its only fair I share too..." He grinned, but just when Lochras was about to disregard his warrior''s pride and attack mid-monologue, he heard the man''s next words.
"Death, the 4th General of the Darkless organization." He replied warmly before his facial expression morphed into one filled with joy and killing intent.
"Nice to meet''ya."
''Sh*t.''
Lochras turned around and swung his de in the blink of an eye.
*ng*
"Ooooooo! Nice," Deathughed as his previous figure disappeared into the air like a shadow turning to mist.
The sh between the two created a powerful shockwave that pushed away all the raindrops around them.
Holding his de over his head, Lochras shed down at the man, yet the attack passed right through his body without any consequence.
Lochras grit his teeth, but eventually, he also smiled.
"Ahhh... It''s been so long since I''ve truly gone all out..."
Death frowned momentarily, but with a grin, he flipped away andnded on the ground in gymnastic fashion.
"Oh, really?" He stroked his hair back and looked into Lochras'' eyes.
"They all think they''re better than me at first, but in the end..." Death''s body sunk into his shadow.
"They all end up dying the same way." His voice trickled into Lochras'' ear like a steady stream of oil going down his ear canals.
"I can say the same thing..."
Suddenly, killing intent erupted out of Lochras'' body while his toki increased substantially,pacting around his body like a thick, and now visible, suit of translucent white armor.
***
"Commander." A young man spoke, his body lowered to a kneeling position as if he didn''t even dare look hismander in the eye.
"Yes, Architect?" Themander looked back at the kneeling young man.
They were both standing on the town''s wall, looking over the destruction, death and shed blood he caused.
"I can sense a few strong presences. One of them is one of the three we''re after. Are you don''t want to partake in this battle?" The "Architect" asked.
"You''ve already ensured that the priest will not participate in this battle, nor will his little white knights. There is no reason to participate, but if the chief does show signs of bing a pain in our asses, I''d like it if my right-hand man were to take care of it." Themander looked back at the kneeling young man, who was smiling from ear to ear out of pure joy.
"If the situationes to it, I will ensure you are not disappointed by my disy..."
"Good. I expect great things from you..." Themander grinned, his eyes narrowing into slits as he stared at a certain person jumping from building to building with someone on his shoulder.
"In the meantime, there is someone else I''ve been dying to meet."
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Chapter 51 Blood Festival [3] - Monster
?[A/N: Thank you, Algernonthewise, for your generous gifts. If you are in my discord server, dm me and I''ll give you free nitro]
*ck*
''Crap.'' Ss narrowed his eyes as a man wearing a ck trenchcoat dropped in front of him, his eyes drilling hole into Ss as he analyzed everything about the boy before him.
"Hey kid. Are you lost?" He smiled warmly, but of course, Ss didn''t trust him.
He''s had enough experience with people who wanted to kill him before. The problem with their ns was the fact that they couldn''t hide their desires from reaching their facial expressions.
The man before him was middle-aged. He was around 40 to 50 years old. He had a ck and grey beard and hair. His entire look screamed "retired military," and his one blind eye only added to that feeling.
He was drenched in rainwater the same way everyone else was. Though, he did also have a few leaves on his coat that told Ss that they probably came out of the forest.
As his trenchcoat billowed behind him as it pped like the wings of a crow.
"And you are?" Ss asked with narrowed eyes. He could tell that the man before his was powerful. His shoulders were rolled back, his chest was puffed out, and his arms were behind his back. He clearly didn''t see Ss as a threat. Otherwise, he would have actually had a weapon.
Or maybe he was a martial artist too? If he was, then...
"Just a passerby. I happened to stumble upon this town. I can help you if you want. Me, you, your sister... We can be a team. We can help your daddy and mommy out. So how about it?"
"..."
''YES! HE THINKS I''M A CHILD!'' Ss inwardly screamed out in happiness.
"You will?" Ss looked at the man with a semnce of hope.
"Yes. Just give me your sister. Just be hard to carry someone around the entire time, right?" The man smiled and extended his hand toward Ss. However, beyond his smile, Ss saw the glint of mischief in his eyes.
''Does he want to sell her like those bastards from before? Or maybe... Maybe there''s more to it.'' Ss narrowed his eyes before replying.
"No!"
His tone was childish. Ss wanted to make the man know that he didn''t trust him without having to say it upfront.
"It''s okay. I wont hurt you two. I am here to help. You know what? How about I save your daddy? He''s out there fighting someone really strong."
"You can help my daddy?" Ss asked with aplicated yet childish expression.
"Yes. Of course, I can. I''m super strong." He grinned while touching his bicep and flexing it.
''Ah... I see now...''
Why didn''t he take Syra by force? Why didn''t he immediately attack them the moment he saw them?
The reason...
They weren''t after the town. No, none of this was about the town.
This man was after them, or he was after children. But it made more sense for him to be after them.
Why would he stop just for them? He was one of the bandits, and he was clearly one of the strongest.
''He wants us to feel safe around him and to feel like we owe him. He keeps talking about my father. Maybe he knows Lochras is my father? If he does, then it means that they came here for me and Syra.
The priest was a little weird today too. Did the priest put him up to this? Why would they send so many powerful individuals to retrieve two kids... Well, it doesn''t matter right now. How do I get Syra to safety?'' Ss was in a dilemma.
Maybe the safest method was to ept this man and act like he trusted him? That would work, right? It''s not like the man is here to hurt them. There''s a chance they might get sold as ves, though.
Sure, Ss didn''t know much about the ve market, but all he needed to know what that it existed and that it was banned in the kingdom.
*Bang*
However, before Ss could make the decision, he felt a sense of danger trickle into his spine. Without thinking twice, Ss dropped down to the street while the man before him looked to his right and extended his hand toward the iing attack.
*BOOM*
''Thank f*cking god.'' Ss sighed in relief while coursing wind fusion through his body to its maximum output.
Within an instant, Ss was speeding through the streets and alleyways, his body turning into a blur. Within a few seconds, he had halved the distance between his encounter and the town''s square, but...
"You''re a lot faster than I was told." The man''s voice entered Ss'' ear, causing every hair behind his neck to stand up in fear.
''Sh*t.'' Ss looked up to see a man shooting through and past him in the blink of an eye.
However, before Ss could create a spell to possibly hold the man off for a little longer, a pir made of earth tore through the air and mmed into the man with so much speed, power, and weight that he was flung to the other side of the town, mming into the wall and smashing through through it.
''I''m really hoping I know who that is.'' Ss thought before using fire fusion, channeling it to his legs before sting into the air at breakneck speeds.
Ss had made sure his trajectory led him straight toward the church that he could see all the way from where he was due to it being the tallest building in the town.
However, before he couldnd-
*p*
It was loud. No, that would be an understatement.
It was deafening. It was beyond deafening. Ss was pretty sure he had ripped an eardrum or two due to it.
His sister also seemed to have stirred awake due to the sound, and from her screaming, he assumed that she was also feeling the same pain as him.
Of course, he could barely hear her scream over the deafening ring that was ripping through his mind, but that was the least of his problems.
At least his ears and Syra''s could be healed. Hell, Ss'' ears were healing at that very second.
Yet, other things took much longer to heal.
Looking down, Ss'' eyes widened in horror as his eyes stared upon the ttened terrain that spanned out in a straight line reaching the other and of the town.
The line was quite thick. 7-meters-thick to be exact.
All of it has disappeared in less than a second.
And when Ss finally looked at the source of the ttenedndscape, he saw the man who once mmed through the town''s wall, standing before the destruction with his hands sped together, and a horrifying about of toki shrouding his body.
He was a monster...
And that monster wanted him.
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Chapter 52 Blood Festival [4] - The Key To Toki Awakening?
?Ssnded hard on the ground, his heart pounding in his chest as he gazed up at the monstrous figure before him. Panic etched across his features as he realized the only person who could possibly defeat this foe was the chief, and he was nowhere to be found.
Suddenly, several pirs of earth erupted from the ground, bending unnaturally in the air before hurtling towards the man. Ss''s eyes widened in disbelief as he watched an enormous earth bear appear, its pristine topaz and bronze aura emanating powerfully around it.
But even more shocking was the one-eyed man who casually pped away the pirs as if they were nothing more than flimsy curtains. Ss could feel the sheer strength and danger exuding from him, and he realized this was the power of a true warrior.
''He saw me jump and attacked right after. He''s not trying to hurt us. He must think of Syra and me as valuable items, but if it were the church who had called him in, wouldn''t they want us dead? None of this makes sense!'' Ss thought frantically as he sprinted towards his grandmother''s mana signature.
Syra was still screaming and struggling, but Ss didn''t care. All that mattered was getting her to safety.
As he reached the shelter, he saw several bandits attempting to break down the barricaded doors. Without hesitation, Ss summoned a magic circle and unleashed a deadly water-de spell, slicing through all of them in an instant.
"Open the door! They''re dead!" Ss shouted as he pounded on the door.
But before he could enter, he sensed danger and jumped back, unleashing a powerful water-bullet spell toward the individual who had just attacked him.
"Ss! Move out of the way!" Lochras'' voice rang out in his ear, and Ss watched in awe as his father appeared in front of the attacker, dodging Ss''s bullet with ease.
At the same time, Lochras'' de easily passed through the man''s body, as if he was nothing but a ghost capable of attacking while being incapable of receiving damage.
The man swung his de down towards Lochras, but before he couldnd a hit, a massive ball of water exploded onto him, sending him hurtling through the air and mming into a nearby building.
Ss''s heart raced as he watched the man walk out of the wreckage unscathed, his toki now murky and almostpletely ck.
"Hahahahah! Your son is a real pain in the ass, you know that?!" the man, also known as death, taunted, his eyes shing dangerously.
Ss felt a shiver run down his spine. He could not help but feel slightly helpless in front of so many strong opponents. The man before them was so much stronger than the shadowswarm he almost died to more than a year ago. Sure, he improved over that time, but he was still weak.
If the chief didn''t show up soon, they were all doomed.
Death''s toki, which was now murky and almostpletely ck, exuded off his body like a steady stream of mist. It was visible to the naked eye, something that could not be said about most mana.
''Talking about visibility...'' Ss looked at his father with a raised brow. He had never seen his father wear toki as some kind of armor, but that was most likely due to the fact that he always either had his armor on him or simply didn''t need it.
''Since when was toki visible? Did thepactness of the armor make it visible? Or does toki work in different forms too? Ethereal, gaseous, liquid, and then solid? How does that make sense?'' Ss wanted to rub his temples, but he stopped himself and simply sighed.
"Ss. They''re trying to get you and your sister. Go find somewhere to hide." Lochras grit his teeth.
''I wonder if he can move through walls. What if he touched the ground? Does he drop right through? How does he get out, though? Is it a martial technique too? If it is, then it is most likely a really strong one. I don''t know their ranks, but for a martial technique to allow you to move right through solid objects...'' Ss thought before he realized something.
''He can move through solid objects, but it must work on an activation basis? Or maybe it doesn''t work with mana? He had to dodge my first attack and was blown away by my second. The only think that protected him is his natural toki...''
Natural toki and toki were a little different.
After studying his father, the chief, and chief''s assistant, also known as woman #143, Ss realized that toki was a lot moreplicated than he first thought.
While yes, at first, toki is purely instinctual, that seemed to be only the case with a person''s natural toki.
Everything Ss had seen from his father''s training was just that natural toki. It was always around its user, protecting them and increasing the strength of their bodies instinctually. This made their skin tougher, their muscles naturally stronger, and their senses more powerful, even while not intending to use toki.
However, after reaching the second stage of toki, it seemed like warriors like Lochras and Nymira were capable of calling upon more toki, this time with the capability of controlling it, which was essentially what Ss did to cultivate.
Which brought up a problem.
Why wasn''t he capable of using pure mana the same way they did?
That was because toki should and probably wasn''t considered an energy in the past. It was probably considered a martial style built upon the human body''s connection to mana.
That''s why it has 5 stages of mastery, possibly even more that had been lost to time.
So, if Ss wants to awaken toki, his control of mana, his affinity to it, and his mana-rich cells are not enough, even though Ss doesn''t yet know why.
He didn''t really know if he even had the capability of awakening toki, but if there was a chance of awakening it, today would most likely be the day, right?
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Chapter 53 Blood Festival [5] - Runic Spells
?Lochras could feel his heart pounding against his chest as he fought for his life against Death. Each swing of his sword was met with a graceful dodge, and every dodge was followed by a lethal counter-attack. Lochras was fighting for more than just his own survival.
He was fighting for the survival of his family, his home, and everything he held dear.
Death''s attacks were not just dangerous; they were beautiful. His movements flowed with a grace that was almost hypnotic, but Lochras knew better than to be lulled into a false sense of security. One mistake could mean the end for him.
Death would twirl and spin before shing at Lochras with sharp yet morous attacks. It made him unpredictable, but that''s why he was the 4th general of the Darkless organization.
[A/N: I called him a sergeant in yesterday''s chapters, but I meant general. My bad. Hope you can forgive me :''[
Also, even though they call the leader "Commander." it does not mean that he is a lower rank than them. They just call himmander...]
"What are you doing! Get to safety!" Lochras roared as he struggled to hold Death back.
Ss nodded before running in another direction.
Here was the thing.
Fighting alongside his father would most likely put his father in danger since Lochras would always think of protecting Ss rather than fighting off Death. So, he had another idea in mind.
''I can''t find the chief anywhere... Was he in on this too?! Crap... I need to make sure that one-eyed bastard doesn''te in this direction. Otherwise, he might kill everyone without thinking twice. I know he probably won''t kill Syra and me, but I doubt he''ll hesitate when killing Keira or Rhea...'' Ss balled his hands into fists while clenching his teeth.
Ss liked to think he was intelligent, but asionally he does something so unintelligent that even he has to admit that he can be very stupid at times.
And what he was about to do was beyond stupid. Hell, the stupidity of what he was about to do would probably put his forest scandal to shame.
But he had to...
''Ugh... Family are such a burden.'' Ss grit his teeth.
Ss took a deep breath andunched himself into the sky, his heart pounding in his chest as he felt the rush of wind against his face. He created two air sts behind him, propelling himself forward with all the speed he could muster.
As he approached the one-eyed man, Ss felt his nerves start to fray. The man was a force to be reckoned with, and Ss knew that he was risking everything by going up against him.
But he also knew that he had no other choice.
A few hundred meters away, the one-eyed man known as themander of the Darkless organization stood amidst the raging storm, his leather trenchcoat pping wildly behind him.
The wind whipped around him,shing at his face and clothes with unrelenting force, but he stood resolute, his one eye focused intently on the earth bear before him.
The beary a few meters away, its breathsing in shallow gasps as blood flowed from its wounds. Despite its injuries, it mustered thest of its strength and unleashed an earth drill toward themander.
"You''re helping the kid... I wonder why. Are you his pet?" themander taunted as he watched the drill approach. He lowered his hand, rubbing his nose in mock confusion before letting out a chuckle. "Oh, look at me... Trying to converse with a beast. Have I gone insane?"
The bear''s attack drew closer and closer, until it was only inches away from themander''s face. But even as the drill closed in, themander remained still, a calm smile on his lips.
In the next moment, a shockwave rippled outwards from themander, and the earth drill shattered into a million pieces, turned to dust by the sheer force of his natural toki.
He hadn''t even called upon the mana around him. It was just his natural toki doing the defending, and it had expanded out and crushed the drill where it was the moment it came close to him.
Natural toki told a person about how a strong someone was. If they had a dense and powerful natural toki, they were bound to be powerful once they called upon its controlled form.
The beary motionless, itsst attack having failed. But themander wasn''t finished yet. Finally choosing to call upon the ambient mana and make it his toki, he expanded it outward, crushing everything in its path, including the houses, bricked alleys, and trees. However, before it could reach the bear and kill it in an instant-
*Swoosh*
In the blink of an eye, Ss shot down with ice axes in his hands, swinging both of them simultaneously while aiming for the man''s neck.
*Shatter*
The moment the axe even came close to the man''s neck, they shattered instantly, causing Ss to lose control of his momentum before hitting the floor and sliding a few meters away from him.
Looking behind him, Ss gritted his teeth when he saw the bearying on the ground, breathing weakly.
"What did you do." Ss scrunched his nose up in anger.
"Who''s it to you? A pet?" The man asked with a mocking grin.
cing his fingers on the bear''s stomach, Ss created a green magic circle that began to heal him.
Since it was behind Ss'' back, the man couldn''t see it. He couldn''t sense it either since he didn''t have an awakened mana core.
"Who are you?" Ss asked with a wary tone.
"You led me to believe that you were some stupid, gullible kid... Impressive." The man answered with a smirk that made Ss frown.
"Who are you?" Ss'' tone became icy as killing intent flooded out of his body.
"And for someone your age, you sure have a pretty strong killing intent. I wonder why that is." The man''s grin intensified, but just when he did, he felt a low rumbleing from under him, causing him to frown.
Jumping away, he watched a pir of earth erupt from the ground and shoot into the skies before turning morphing into drills that immediately shot toward him like homing missiles.
The sound of all of them crashing into the man reverberated throughout the town, yet in almost an instant, it seemed to have blended in with the other battle sounds.
A dust cloud was kicked up around him, making him unable to see Ss or the bear.
The bear continued pummeling him with an endless supply of boulders, drills, and pirs, while Ss threw a few spells in every now and then, most made of earth or ice.
Of course, such weak attacks wouldn''t hold him for long. Hell, Ss doubted that they were holding him at all. After all, his strength would have, at the very least, rivaled that of a pristine amethyst core beast.
''I need to do something that will catch enough attention to bring someone strong over here. Apparently his little attack wasn''t enough so...'' Ss grit his teeth before letting out an audible sigh.
''Psuedo tier-4 spell.'' Ss raised his finger before inhaling to bring more mana into his body before channeling it into his finger.
His finger moved quickly as it exuded a small amount of mana. Every stroke he produced took more mana away from him, making the rune before him stronger and stronger.
It was as if Ss wasbining dozens of different runes into a single one, each stroke and pattern meaning a different thing while essentially creating a whole newplex rune.
An icy-blueish rune shone before him before he finally muttered-
''Iceberg''
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Chapter 54 One Last Stand [1]
?"Psuedo tier-4 spell: Iceberg." Ss muttered after tracing the rune out. It was made of 25 strokes and used the same amount of mana as a tier-3 spell.
The rune pulsed with an icy-blue light before unleashing a sudden burst of power that shook the entire town. A wave of fear washed over everyone present, including themander of the darkless organization, whose skin prickled with a foreboding sense of danger.
Ss heard the sound of everything around him rapidly freezing, and in an instant, a massive mountain of ice erupted from the ground, towering twice as high as the town walls and expanding for hundreds of meters in every direction. The spell had utilized the rain as a material factor, turning it into snow and transforming the once-bustling battlefield into a frozen wastnd.
The sh of swords and cries of pain had abruptly ceased, reced by an eerie silence that hung heavy in the air. Nobody dared to move, too shocked or terrified to break the stillness.
Death turned to Lochras, his eyes glittering and his mouth extending into a devilish grin. "For a ga core, your son is remarkably powerful," he remarked. "I wonder what themander will make of him."
Meanwhile, on Ss''s battlefield, the earth bear had inched back, eyeing the towering iceberg with a mix of wonder and confusion. Suddenly, the bear lunged forward and licked Ss''s face.
"Ugh... Again!?" Ssined. It was too cold to be covered in a coat of saliva.
Before he could react, a subtle crack resounded in the air, and Ss knew he was in trouble. He quickly infused his body with fire mana as the bear readied its own spell, a version of a tier 4 attack.
Creating runes instead of magic circles had its benefits, but it also had drawbacks. The spells were less malleable, making it challenging to change the oue once the runes were set in ce. Ss had to know exactly what he wanted and trace the runes with utmost precision. One mistake and the spell could explode in his face.
However, Ss''s greatest improvement over the past year wasn''t in his magic, but in his physical strength and agility.
*BOOOOOOM*
Chunks of ice flew in all directions, creating a massive cloud of freezing mist. With a single explosive move, themander shattered the iceberg and emerged from its ruins unscathed, as though he had just taken a leisurely stroll through the park.
"I was told you might be a ga core by the time we reached this backwater town," he said, grinning maliciously at Ss. "But to think you''re already capable of producing tier-4 spells, and with an affinity for ice too." He brushed off the remaining ice shards from his shoulders, his eyes gleaming with a dangerous light.
The earth bear roared, a deafening sound that rattled the stones on its back. But unlike the sonic bat''s attack, this wasn''t the attack; it was a call...
Ss felt his heart pounding in his chest as he faced themander, his mind racing with fear and anticipation. He knew he was in over his head, but he also knew he had to fight with everything he had.
This was a battle he couldn''t afford to lose.
"I see that you''ve healed your pet too. Your skills are impable." Themander stroked his beard.
Ss saw an enormous amount of mana turn bronze as it flowed toward the earth bear.
''What the f*ck.'' Ss jumped back when he felt the flow rumble.
Mana flowed into the bear briefly before it opened its topaz-bronze eyes and released another deafening roar.
''Did it just refill its mana supply... That''s my trick! What the hell!''
The ground shook as the earth bear crashed through building after building, leaving a trail of destruction in its wake. The town was in chaos, with people running and screaming in all directions, desperate to get away from the battle that raged on.
Themanderughed, his eyes fixed on Ss. "Oh! I think your pet wants to attack me. I wonder what it''ll attack me with this time. This is fun! We should do this more often." Hisughter echoed through the alleyways, but it was short-lived as his expression quickly turned serious.
"Though, we can save that for another time." Themander''s body flickered, and he appeared beside the earth bear, his foot on its side.
In one swift motion, he lifted the bear and hurled it with incredible force, sending it flying through the town and smashing through hundreds of houses instantly.
Ss barely had enough time to react.
He jumped back with all the strength and speed he could muster, but before he knew it, themander was already above him, his hand hovering over Ss'' face before mming it into the ground.
Ss was then grabbed and thrown through several buildings like a ragdoll, each impact sending waves of pain through his body.
"I hope your sister puts up this much of a fight when I find her." Themander spoke as he walked through the broken buildings, his focus fixed on his prize.
In the distance, a few children and a mother cowered in the corner of a building, their faces filled with terror as they watched the man''s ruthless attack. But themander didn''t even spare them a nce.
He was too focused on Ss.
Ss was in agony, his body wracked with pain. He had trained tirelessly day and night, but the moment themander hit him, he felt the full force of the attack down to his bones.
Despite the pain, Ss forced himself to stand up.
"Ugh," he grunted, determination etched on his face.
His vision was still a little fuzzy, but after looking forward, he saw that he had been flung through dozens of buildings.
Looking down at his hands, he saw that they were covered in blood. Yet this time, it wasn''t his blood, nor was it a symbol of his guilt.
''Poor bastards.'' Ss thought while swallowing his pain and finally standing up.
"I wonder how she''ll fight after finally knowing the feeling of desperation?" Themander''s voice echoed into Ss'' ears.
Ss could see themander turn and stride toward the shelter.
''Like I''d let you anywhere near her.'' Ss thought as life fusion healed all the minor injuries and was quickly reced with fire fusion.
Sure, wind fusion was the best for agility and maneuverability; however, fire fusion was by far the best when it came to bursts of strength or speed.
*BOOM*
Ss''s body turned into a blur as he shot through the dozens of broken houses and immediately appeared before themander.
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Chapter 55 One Last Stand [2] - Breaking Through
?*BOOM*
Ss''s body turned into a blur as he catapulted himself through the dozens of broken houses and immediately appeared before themander, his arm cocked back as he got ready tond a devastating blow onto themander''s face.
The man smiled as he caught Ss'' fist in his hand beforending a lightning-quick punch right into Ss'' nose.
He was on another level. On a beast scale, he would have been considered a pristine amethyst-level beast if not a dull-sapphire level. And from what Ss could tell, he had only been using the first and second stages of toki so far.
The onlyforting notion Ss had was that he wouldn''t kill him or Syra since he needed them.
However-
"Maybe I should kill one of your parents in front of her? Then she''s bound to break her limits, right?" Themander''s voice echoed in Ss'' head like a dreadful rm.
Ss shot back again, but he quickly controlled his momentum and slid to a stop.
"Or maybe I can burn one of your family members right in front of her. I wonder how she''ll react knowing that her weakness was the cause of their deaths." Themander continued walking with a disgusting grin on his face.
The man was ill... No, he was beyond ill.
Ss sprinted toward him, yet he has mmed into the ground again.
"Maybe I can torture her to bring out the battle-hungry version of her, fueled by the thoughts of revenge."
Themander grabbed Ss'' arm and cracked it with one twist.
The bloody spine-chilling crack of his bones echoed in his ears and made him let out a short yet blood-curdling roar of pain.
Yet he still stood up again, and pointed his working palm at themander.
"Ooo. Maybe I can torture you in front of her. Maybe that''s the key!"
He was downright inhuman.
Themander didn''t even look back. His toki red and cracked at least 7 bones in less than a second.
Ss fell to the ground, incapable of moving and barely able to breathe.
However, despite the agonizing pain going through his body, Ss channeled life fusion through his body, taking advantage of the fact that themander walked so slowly.
"Maybe I''ll ughter every in this town except you, your sister and that pink haired kid."
He was a monster.
"SHUT UP!" Ss roared with pure desperation in his voice.
He got up with his half-injured body and shot into the air.
Blood streamed down his face as he jumped into the air with an earth axe in his hands.
Adrenaline pumped through his veins, and fire fusion brought out his full strength,
Yet, in front of a monster like themander before him, it was futile.
Everything was futile.
"UGHHH!" Ss dropped to his knees while holding his abdomen and vomiting out a mouthful of blood.
His shattered axey beside him, stained with his blood and no one else''s.
"Oh... Is that your father? Maybe I can kill him too and show his corpse off to your sister. I can''t wait to see the grief and desperation in her eyes as she watched her father dangling by his hair from my hands." He grinned from ear to ear while ncing back at Ss for the first time.
He was unstable.
''...''
His father was standing there, barely holding Death back as he looked at Ss with an expression of horror.
Horror that his son was about to die, and he couldn''t do anything about it.
So, Ss stood up onest time...
He just needed onest push.
Onest stand...
He had to be stopped.
''Ah... I get it now. I get why I wasn''t able to break through.'' Ss shook intensely as he stood up, his muscles spasming and screaming at Ss to rest.
Ss had enjoyed his family''spany. He enjoyed every minute of it even though he didn''t really know how to show it.
He loved them enough that he might just die for them. Wasn''t his battle with themander proof enough? he was more than willing to die for them, especially his sister, and now even his brother.
He had never loved anyone the way he loved them, but maybe that was his curse?
Maybe that was why he wasn''t about to break into the topaz core?
Sure, his grandmother told him that it was normal to have a bottleneck, but Ss had only had one bottleneck in his lives, two if you count his incapability of using the sword.
"You''ve all been holding me back." He muttered under his breath. Mana surged from all corners of the town, and moved toward Ss, who was looking at all of them with zing emerald eyes.
His family was hisfort zone. The problem with being a child is that you''re always in thefort zone.
Maybe in the back of his mind, he knows that things will never be the same the moment he breaks into the topaz core?
They would continue caring for him as long as he stayed in the ga core.
They would continue to look at him the same way they look at Syra or Lex.
A helpless child.
And maybe he wanted that.
But, at a certain point, one must understand that life moves on. People age, and people die. Some young, and others old.
And while being a lone wolf in his past life might have been considered a w, this world valued the strong.
Clinging to his family would only make him weak.
If he hadn''t clung to his family for so long, maybe he wouldn''t have been thrown into this situation.
Maybe so many people wouldn''t have died because of him.
If he had just broken through, maybe he could have ensured no one was hurt.
It was all his fault.
He did this.
Everyone who died that day was his fault.
No one else''s
''I killed them...'' Ss'' pupils shrunk before illuminating with a bright golden light.
He clutched his abdomen with dear life, but it wasn''t because of pain.
He was clutching his sr plexus.
"You gave me too muchfort... I felt too safe..." Ss raised his head and took in a deep breath.
His mana core shone through his abdomen and clothes, shining with a bright orange that was slowly bing yellow.
''Because I clung to you for too long, you might get hurt.'' A burning sensation radiated from his abdomen, but instead of falling to his knees again, Ss activated the cultivation technique that he named "Metamorphosis."
''No more...'' A topaz-yellow mana surged all around him, spinning around his figure and creating a vortex of mana that shred the buildings next to him into dust.
''It''s kill or be killed...''
''And I''d rather push an entire to extinction than let you take another step.''
[You are Evolving]
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Chapter 56 One Last Stand [3] - Trapped
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The vortex of topaz-colored mana with traces of emerald streaks increased in its speed, encapsting ss within it and ensuring that no one on the outside could see him.
In every mage''s life, there are a few bottlenecks, the first one being the awakening of the mana core.
After every bottleneck, the mage would break through and create an event like Ss'', but of course, not to the same extent. After all, Ss had 4 times more mana than the average mage with an S-rank affinity.
The color of the mana thates out of him when breaking through was supposed to symbolize his affinity, but since his affinity was to light, life equation, and quite literally mana, it simply just came out as the color of his core.
The breakthrough would probably take a few minutes toplete, but until it was done, he essentially had infinite mana.
The moment he broke through, his core became a hungry beast, absorbing as much mana as possible to fulfill its hunger and allow it to reach the next level.
Ss felt his body get stronger. Every cell in his body reacted to the breakthrough, and the mana infused and intertwined into their DNA was also doing the same.
While his physical strength without any fusions might have been considered to be at the solid topaz level, which would make him physically stronger than the earth bear the first time he met him.
However, now his strength was reaching a new level. He could feel mana pumping through his veins every time his heart beat. Every time he breathed, mana entered his body and made it feel like his entire body breathed with him.
He felt his control over mana increase significantly, too, as if every mana particle within a certain area around him had suddenly be his, and only his.
''Dull-Amethyst.''
Ss concluded as his body flickered from its ce.
In the next instant, he found himself behind themander, his arms loaded back before a barrage of fists descended upon him.
He swiftly turned around, his movements defying thews of physics, and intercepted the onught. But there was an unsettling aura about Ss. Not only that, his attacks carried an uncanny force, as if they bypassed themander''s defenses and struck his very essence.
Themander''s widened eyes gazed deep into Ss'', revealing a me burning within them. A me fueled by unwavering determination and boundless strength, as if his entire being was consumed by it.
Ss unleashed a relentless assault, each strike surpassing the previous one in power, draining themander''s toki faster than it could be replenished.
The flurry of attacks blurred into a mesmerizing disy, too swift for the naked eye to fullyprehend. Yet, they were calcted with precision.
Every punch and kick targeted vital weak points¡ªjoints, organs, pressure points, and blood vessels¡ªintended to incapacitate and devastate ruthlessly.
The sh between Ss and themander intensified, the battlefield resonating with the echoes of their fierce struggle.
Normally, Ss wouldn''t have been able to evennd a scratch upon themander, but he had put him in a losing position where everything worked against him, and to exin it, one must know how the stages of toki work.
The first stage of toki is to have the ability to coat one''s own body in toki. It was the initial stage of toki, and essentially gave a person a natural toki that always strengthened their body without them knowing it.
Ss was unable to see that before due to how weak he was. His mystic eyes are purely designed to show him what the naked eye cannot see, but they depend on the purity of his mana to see those things.
When he reached the pristine ga core and was essentially one step away from reaching the topaz core, his eyes finally allowed him to see his the natural toki of those around him.
After mastering the first stage of toki, one can extend their mana into their weapons or armor to make them tougher or more deadly if need be. Though, the toki does dissipate when the object is no longer in contact with the user.
The second stage of toki allows a person to call upon the mana around them. While natural toki uses the flow of ambient mana to create a protective shield or a natural strength buff, calling upon more toki was more of a temporary power boost.
Reaching the second stage of toki also allows the user to embed their toki into something for a certain amount of time without having to be in contact with it, arrows being the main examples of this.
Those with elemental affinities toward light are also capable of embedding it into their toki, making it stronger and giving it different properties.
The third stage of toki allows the user to use toki itself as a weapon. They can create arches of toki by shing their weapons through the air. They can re their toki and decimate everything around them down to the molecr level.
They can create armor, weapons, shields, and so much more. Ss had only really seen Diveen use it until now, so he assumed that it had something to do with the fact that she had a light affinity, but now he knew that wasn''t the case.
Toki was an amazing and transformative product of magic that humans are simply incapable of understanding, especially these moronic ones that go through the movements every day without doing anything else...
However, understanding toki and its fundamentals also exposed its biggest weakness.
Toki users were essentially powerless without it, and since Ss knew how to siphon away pure mana rather than just its elemental aspects, he was essentially the bane of all warriors.
Before Ss, who was essentially absorbing mana like a gluttonous battery, they were nothing.
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Chapter 57 One Last Stand [4] - A Winnable Battle
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[Thank you, Algernonthewise, for your generous and kind gifts. Again, if you dm me on Discord, I''ll give you a nitro code.]
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Themander was seething with anger and rage.
How could he allow himself to get pummeled by a child?
He wanted to rip Ss'' head right off his body, but he controlled himself.
His benefactors wouldn''t like that, would they...
He needed to control himself, but how could he? He was in a losing battle.
He couldn''t retaliate at all.
He was trapped.
He felt like every punch made him slightly weaker.
He couldn''t use the third stage of toki because it was too dangerous. There was no telling what would happen to his targets when he red his toki... They were too close to the shelter. Doing anything reckless may make his n go awry.
He couldn''t use the second stage of toki since he didn''t actually have any weapons on him. The most he could do was weaponize the air formed whenever he pushed toward Ss, essentially creating pulses of air coated in mana for as long as they didn''t break apart.
However...
*Swoosh*
*Swoosh*
*SWOOSH*
No matter what he did, he couldn''t even touch Ss for some reason. It was as if the boy knew his move before he could even attack him.
The boy would dodge and swerve when he got ready for an attack. He wouldn''t even react to feints, as if he could read everything going through themander''s mind.
Even when themander tried improvising, it somehow worked worse for him.
An earth wall would appear behind him, and a water bullet would suddenly shoot at him out of nowhere, forcing him to block since he had no idea how much damage the bullet would do.
Sometimes it would do nothing, being instantly destroyed the moment it came close to his toki, and other times it went straight through the toki, mming right into his natural toki and shooting a jolt of pain through his body.
Every time he tried moving the battle away from the shelter, Ss wouldn''t follow. One time he even turned around and helped his father beat down Death, who was now on the back foot.
A mage helping a knight was a deadlybination, especially in Death''s situation, where he can simply let all solid objects pass through his body like nothing, whether that was a toki-covered sword or a stone bullet.
Lochras would use ethereal des made out of condensed toki to attack Death, but he was far too agile. He moved like the shadows, his footsteps hidden from even themander, while his killing intent and presence were so suppressed that one would be worried that they''d lose track of him even if he was right in front of them.
Having Ss help Lochras would spell doom for the blonde-haired youth, so themander found himself forced to stay near the shelter, exactly where Ss wanted him.
"Damn intelligent brat." themander silently snorted, his mind racing to keep up with the rapid esction of the battle.
He had been riling him up until now, but how was he supposed to know that he would be ced in a situation like this?
Time seemed to stretch endlessly, even though only a minute had passed since the sh began. Adrenaline surged through their veins, intensifying with every move and decision made.
*Whistle*
A projectile streaked toward themander with the swiftness of lightning. Instinctively, he dodged, narrowly avoiding the golden light beam slicing a cut across his face. Blood trickled down the wound as the beam continued its destructive path, culminating in a devastating explosion obliterating buildings in the distance.
Three more beams of light hurtled towards him, their deadly intent clear. Themander understood that the shelter would face a catastrophic fate if he failed to evade them. It seemed that was the very purpose behind these attacks.
They knew he would dodge, so they were forcing him to do so, essentially forcing him in ce and not allowing him to move.
Themander stretched his hand forward and used as much control as possible to expand his toki in front of him. He quickly created an aura of toki that slowed down the beams when they entered the aura.
The figure in the distance saw this and tried to attack him again, but themander quickly disappeared.
His aura red as he disappeared before he removed the distance between him and his attacker in a mere instant.
Appearing a few meters in front of her, he saw that it was a woman in a nun''s outfit who had attacked him.
"Are you not with the church?" He asked with a little bit of anger.
She looked harmless at first, but his instincts told him the woman was dangerous.
"I was wondering where you went." A voice trickled down his ears as a spine-chilling killing intent fell upon him.
ncing back, he saw Ss with a terrifying expression on his face. No... The expression wasn''t terrifying.
It was the killing intent that was.
Ss waspletely emotionless, suspended mid-air due to the feeling that time had slowed down.
He had his arm winded back, ready to release the strongest punch he''s ever thrown.
Though, what was even more terrifying were his eyes.
Themander knew them well.
They were the eyes of a killer.
Themander didn''t know why, but that was the moment he realized something.
If they wanted to survive. If the Darkless organization wanted to survive, Ss would have to die.
After all, what''s worse than an enraged mageing after them in the future, swearing to get vengeance for his family and friends?
Ss was meant to reach new heights. His talent was too strong, and themander now knew it.
Themander''s body moved independently, dodging the attack with little effort.
Or at least that''s what he thought.
Suddenly, the toki around his chest felt thinner.
He then saw Ss'' momentum shift while his body spun mind air.
He carried the entirety of his momentum with that spin. Every joint from his ankle to his shoulder twisted.
And then, the he watched as the punch flew through the air, prated what was left of his toki, and mmed right into his chest.
Themander felt the air leave his lungs. The pain of several ribs shattering instantly and puncturing his lungs made his punk out of a mouthful of blood.
His body was hurtled through the town in less than a second. Ss could have sworn he heard his body break a sound barrier or two as he shot through the town''s walls like a bullet through paper.
Ss knew that the punch wouldn''t have actually done anything if he hadn''t siphoned the mana around themander''s chest. He''s quite literally seen his Lochras tank much worse and not move an inch.
At the same time, he also knew using a spell would take far longer than the amount of time he had. Plus, absorbing toki and creating a spell at the same time was difficult. The only way Ss would have a chance at hitting themander with a spell capable of actually hurting him would be by forcing him into using all the toki he is capable of controlling in one go.
Toki worked on stamina, so he would be too tired to fight back, and since he had used all his toki, he would have definitely had none left to protect himself.
"You sure know how to punch kid." Diveen suddenly spoke from behind. She had her usual smile stered over her face. It was calming, but at the same time made him feel slightly unsafe.
Even though Diveen was adamant about the fact that she was weaker than Lochras, her natural toki had always told Ss another story.
Nevertheless, he had less than a minute left on his breakthrough, so he would make the most of it.
***
-On another side of the town-
"Hmm. How unfortunate. I wanted to y a little more, but I guess my work here is done." The Architect spoke as he looked into the eyes of a ck-haired woman with a rapier through her chest.
Chapter 58 The Death Of Silas Skylark [1] - O Divine
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[This chapter has been revised and changed. Hope you enjoy it.]
***
-On another side of the town-
"Hmm. How unfortunate. I wanted to y a little more, but I guess my work here is done." The Architect spoke as he looked into the eyes of a ck-haired woman with a rapier through her chest.
Her eyes were listless, yet even he could see the amount of despair etched within them.
Tears streaked out of her eyes as she tried to call the chief and Nymira''s names out, yet her mouth would fill with blood every time, drowning her in the process.
"You were strong..." The Architect turned around onest time.
In his right hand, one could see the head of the chief being held up by his ponytail as blood poured out of his decapitated neck.
In his other hand was an unconscious pink-haired girl no older than 9, being held up by her cor.
"May the lord forgive you for your transgressions." The Architect prayed before his figure disappeared into thin air, alongside Nymira and the chief''s head.
***
''Something''s wrong,'' Ss thought as a frown fell upon his face.
The wailing howls of the wind felt like a haunting scream reverberating throughout the town.
The thunder in the distance echoed as the rain only became heavier.
*"O Divine..."* An ethereal voice suddenly echoed throughout the sky, yet it sent shivers down the spines of all who heard it.
The battles throughout the town fell silent for the second time that day.
The shing of metals were no more.
"Sh*t! Move out of the way." Ss roared whileunching his spell, "Rising Sun."
However, it was toote.
Ss could see a bright golden energy move toward where themander was as a storm formed above him, one with clouds so dark that they made it look like a sr eclipse had fallen on Gilea.
*"Grant me strength to smite sinners and purge their transgression."*
Ss could see themander shooting toward them at blurring speeds.
Ss raised a finger and began to trace runes in the air. He had a limitless supply of mana for a short period of time. Of course, it didn''t mean that his mana was purer.
It just meant that he could cast the spell a few times without getting tired, though he did worry that using too much of the breakthrough mana would somehow affect his mana core''s strength after it.
Diveen froze when she saw what Ss was doing, but she didn''t say anything, mostly because he didn''t understand what was happening.
All she knew was that her danger senses were screaming at her to move back.
After finally finishing his rune that was shing with silver and smoldering with a reddish-orange color, Ss pointed his hand forward.
He didn''t really care if Diveen found out... All that mattered was the safety of his family.
So, Ss breathed in one more time, activating his cultivation technique "metamorphosis" to absorb as much mana as possible, but instead of taking it into his mana core and breaking the remaining impurities to end his breakthrough, he surged most of it to his body, and the rest of it into the rune in his hand.
''Phew.''
Hundreds of walls made of earth appeared before him by rising from the ground.
Raising his hand into the air, he closed his eyes and formed two magic circles before his hand that merged in the center.
The clouds spun in one ce as a drill-like object appeared in the air out of water, twice asrge as the church and made out of ice in the center, water on the outside, and air to make it spin faster.
''I need to move him away from this town... sh*t!'' Ss thought before turning to Diveen, who looked into his eyes before nodding in understanding.
She immediately shot toward the shelter and created several enormous light shields around it, capable of stopping the strongest of spells in their ces.
Ss felt she might have used her entire mana pool, but that didn''t matter right now.
Without hesitation, Ss shot the cone drill made of ice, water, and air toward the iing figure, shattering the walls of earth before him like they were nothing.
"YOU BRAT!" Themander roared, yet just as he looked up, he saw the drill that quickly shredded through his toki.
However, light energy erupted out of his body and held the drill back, but Ss had already expected this.
Before him was a man who could probably go toe to toe with elemental beasts with amethyst cores.
Ss watched as themander''s arm was quickly coated in an enormous amount of toki.
Ss had to act quickly.
He coursed wind fusion through his body before running as quickly as possible, evading all the nearby buildings and circling around themander so he doesn''t see him.
*Swoosh*
The drill was instantly destroyed as it hadn''t existed in the first ce.
No, it wasn''t just the drill that had been destroyed; the entire southern section of dia was ttened with it.
Everything on themander''s right side was turned into dust and wastnd. Everyone, from the guards to the innocents hiding in their homes, was scared to leave.
They were all dead...
But...
''Necessary sacrifice.'' Ss thought as he watched half of the city turn into a wastnd.
It was his final protocol.
Enrage the one-eyed man into using his strongest attack, and in the process, he reduced his toki reserves down to the natural mana coating his body, which was now significantly weakened due to his exhaustion.
''And here I thought you were intelligent.'' Ss'' eyes became cold and distant.
Ss ced his hand forth and pointed it at themander''s face, the rune he had created earlier still burning vibrantly above his palm.
A look of terror fell upon themander''s face.
"No! Wai-"
"Rising Sun."
A final pale-blue sh of light blinded themander before everything turned ck.
*Ding*
[You have killed one -Chosen- Human]
[Devouring one life force]
[You are evolving]
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[We areing to the end of the first volume. I hope you''ve enjoyed it so far. The next volume will not revolve around dia. There will be a lot more exploration, the mc will finally get to show his strength off.]
[If you have enjoyed this chapter and would like to support the author, please vote using your power stones or golden tickets. Also, you can join my discord server today to see illustrations or to converse about thetest chapters.]
Chapter 59 The Death Of Silas Skylark [2] - The Negotiation
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The once serene environment was no more.
Half of dia was gone.
A trail of scorched earth could be seen expanding, going far into the horizon.
The blue beam of pure mes and destruction had turned everything in its path into cinders of the past.
And throughout it all...
*Ding*
[You have killed one -Chosen- Human]
[Devouring one life force]
[You are evolving]
[You have reached the dull-topaz core]
[Your physical strength has significantly increased]
[Your mana purity has significantly increased]
[Your affinity toward mana and light has increased]
[Your resistance to the light element has increased]
Ss breathed out before dropping to his knees.
Themander was no more.
Themander was dead.
So why did he still feel like sh*t?
Why did he feel like his heart was being thrown into a blender, and his stomach was eating itself?
''Calm down, Ss... You did nothing wrong...'' Ss paused briefly before exploding into hideousughter.
Who was he kidding?
This was all his fault.
He was the reason so many people died.
The blood was on his hands, not anyone else''s.
Looking behind him, Ss could still see the enormous golden shield protecting the town''s square and all the survivors of this attack.
Ss''ughter halted after a while before finally standing up and walking toward the golden shield.
''Ss Skrk, I presume?" A cold and calcting voice spoke.
''No no no no no no... F*CK! F*ck F*ck F*ck! There had to be more. WHY THE F*CK DID THERE HAVE TO BE MORE!?'' Ss grit his teeth and got into a fighting stance.
His mana core was filled to the brink and shone with a murky yellowish light.
But he was too tired.
He couldn''t do it anymore. He was mentally exhausted.
This felt like the apocalypse all over again.
"Haha... Do not worry. I am not here to kill you." The young man spoke, his voice not matching his face.
The young man had ck hair and yellow eyes. He looked like he might be anywhere between 16 and 28, but due to the ck and gold masquerade mask he was wearing, Ss couldn''t tell.
He wore a butler''s long coat with an elegant shirt and bowtie. He wore a pair of ck gloves over both his hands...
Everything about his was elegant, and that made him instantly untrustworthy in Ss'' eyes.
"If I was, you would be dead." The young man continued, making Ss frown.
He had to be lying, right?
''I didn''t feel his presence at all. And...'' Ss'' expression went pale before he eventually rxed his posture.
"Is that the chief?'' Ss looked at the decapitated head the man was holding with narrowed eyes.
"You killed ourmander, so I killed yours. Fairtrade?" He asked while holding up the lifeless head.
''And there isn''t a scratch on your body, but there were many on mine.'' Ss inwardly snorted.
"What about the girl?" Ss asked as his eyes shifted toward Nymira''s unconscious body.
"We both know you don''t care about her."
"..."
"..."
Silence descended upon both of them.
"Am I wrong?" The man finally asked.
"No... You''re right. She could die for all I care." Ss sighed while rubbing the bridge of his nose. If he was about to die, he wouldn''t suppress the voice in his head.
The man before him looked more than capable of killing Ss without a second thought. He was calcting, distant and cold. Yet he remained polite, as if he was trying to portray an image of kindness when it was quite clearly a show.
"Are you going to introduce yourself?"
"My apologies." The man smiled before dropping both Nymira and the chief''s heads on the ground, cupping his hands before giving a small bow.
"I am the Architect of the Darkless organization. It is nice to finally meet you. I have heard quite a lot about you." He smiled before straightening his back and taking a step forward.
"Let us skip to the chase." His eyes gleamed before he spoke once more.
"I want to make a deal with you..." He smirked.
"What could you possibly want with-"
"I want you to be mine."
"..."
"..."
''Buy me dinner first. Geez.'' Ss rolled his eyes.
"You killed ourmander. I watched you y him like a fiddle and exploit his rage. His ego was his downfall, and it was a matter of time before he died in such a fashion.
He was weak, and you found his weakness in less than a minute. You pummeled him into a rageful fit of anger. You nned it all out, every since second of it."
"..."
"Even at the end... You knew he would destroy half of dia. I saw it in your eyes. Let me guess your excuse? Necessary sacrifice? For family? For your sister?"
"..." Ss clenched his teeth.
"You and I are the same. No one understands us because we are so much more than they can ever be!" The man began to walk toward Ss, yet despite wanting to move away or turn back and run, Ss didn''t move from where he stood.
"We are not monsters. You are not a monster! We are one and the same. We have been created from the same mold, so I understand you. Everything you think, and everything you say." He smiled almost maniacally.
Yet, it wasn''t the smile that scared Ss, nor was it that the man before him could probably kill him instantly.
"We all have people we love, and we''ll protect them no matter what, even if it means our own damnation. We will kill millions to save a single person. Does that make us monsters? No... Of course not!" He shouted, making Ss look up at him with aplicated expression.
"But..." His smile fell into a pitying gaze as he spoke his next words carefully.
"When we be monsters to protect those we love...
Who''ll protect them from us?"
Ss'' eyes widened.
He was aware of what was happening. This was maniption. The man was manipting him, yet despite knowing that, he couldn''t find a rebuttal for the Architect''s statements.
"Tell me..." The Architect''s face fell into a deadpan expression while his voice became eerily cold.
"Do you want to protect your family?"
***
"Archie!!! HELP!" Death screamed as he bled out of several cuts, staining his clothes.
Lochras, Diveen, and even now Kiera were beginning to finally gain the upper hand against him. Diveen was too focused on ensuring the barrier was up, but after the explosion ured and everything died down, she allowed herself to lower the barrier and help the rest of them out.
Two mages and a knight capable of using the third stage of toki. Death was essentially a dead man walking.
He was trapped. The three were experienced enough to not let him escape their sights for a moment, nor give him a chance to run away.
*Swoosh*
An ethereal de made of toki suddenly pierced through the air, appearing before Death.
Death saw his life sh before his eyes. The de was mere inches from stabbing him through his chest, yet a moment before it could do so...
*Shatter*
The ethereal de shattered into a million pieces and disappeared a secondter.
"I apologise for disturbing your battle, but our job here is done." The Architect''s voice echoed from all directions before his figure finally appeared behind Death''s, with both of his arms behind him and his long coat pping in the wind.
"Archie!" Death shouted joyfully, yet he quickly received a chop to his neck that knocked him out immediately.
The rain had already dissipated, so the only thing left was wind.
"Where''s Ss!" Diveen immediately asked. She could tell that man in a masquerade mask was dangerous, possibly even more dangerous than themander himself.
"Ss? You mean the boy?" The Architect asked, his expression still unreadable.
"I swear. If you''ve done anything to my son-" Lochras raised his de and pointed it toward the Architect.
"Oh... Your son?" He smiled warmly.
"Your son is dead."
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Chapter 60 The Death Of Silas Skylark [3]
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"I don''t think your family took it too well." The Architect spoke with a low chuckle.
"You just told them that I''m dead. How else do you think they would have taken it?" Ss rolled his eyes.
The sound of beasts clicking their hooves as they trotted through the dia forest with its head held high.
There were several of them riding behind Ss and the Architect, one of them even holding Nymira in their arms while another held the chief''s head in a small bag.
Apparently, horses weren''t really used on Gilea unless you were filthy rich. It was quite a surprise, but Ss didn''t mind. After all, the alternative to a horse was an earth dragon. Their running speeds were far superior to a horse''s, capable of running close to 80 miles an hour if there were no obstacles in the way.
They were essentially scaled bipedal pigeons with tiny little arms instead of wings and one huge curved beak that took up the majority of their face.
They were only 7 to 9 feet tall on average, and despite their looks, they were quite dangerous if aggravated.
They were practically dinosaurs.
"Well, I think you did the right thing." Heplimented from his own earth dragon. Death could also be seen on the Architect''s earth dragon,ying unconscious behind despite all the movement.
"I can only hope..." Ss'' expression fell slightly before he steeled his nerves and straightened his back.
Silence descended upon the conversation, ending it quickly and extending for about an hour and a half. No one spoke at that time, yet it wasn''t awkward.
It was actually kind of peaceful. It was quiet, and that''s what Ss liked, and therefore that was exactly what the Architect liked.
After all, the masked man was essentially a reflection of himself.
He was right. They were one and the same. Though, the Architect seemed to hold Ss in higher regard than Ss did to him.
"There was another benefactor, right? Someone who paid you to bring me and Syra?" Ss finally asked.
"What do you mean?" The Architect seemed to raise a brow at Ss'' question.
"I''ve looked through it in every possible way. The church paid you to kill the chief to usurp more power for themselves. Now that there is no longer a respected authority figure who leads the town, that position instantly goes to them.
If this was about kidnapping some kids, there is no way in hell that the church would send so many people to cause so much havoc and destruction. 75 bandits just to kidnap three kids? No way. And you wouldn''t wait for a big day like this if you wanted to kidnap children. You''d wait for the night or when adults are busy." Ss exined.
"I''m listening..." He smiled with a hint of curiosity and amazement.
"Your job was to cause havoc, though I doubted your assignment was to destroy half the town like that dimwit of amander did. By causing havoc and killing a few people, the townsfolk would see that their modern leadership style isn''t working, forcing them to turn to a higher power, or in this instance, the church." Ss rubbed his brows with a little bit of anger.
"Then, what makes you think we have other benafactors?" He asked with narrowed eyes and a smile that stretched from ear to ear.
''He''s testing me...''
"Because despite how sh*tty the church can be, there''s no real point to kidnapping us. Instead, you would have killed us on the spot." Ss exined before turning to the man beside him, riding on an earth dragon.
"Pft... Hahahahahahahaha!" The Architect''s head whipped back as he let out a fit of loudughter.
The manughed for almost a whole minute before wiping tears from his eyes and turning his attention to Ss.
"You''re mostly right. I cannot believe you deducted most of it in less than a day. I thought it would take you a week or possibly even a month, but holy sh*t you did it in a day!" He shouted while the rest of the bandits looked at him weirdly from behind.
"Since you got most of it right, let me ask you a question..."
"What..."
"How does Nymirae into all of this?" He asked with a deadly smile.
"What?" Ss raised a brow. How did Nymirae into all of it? It was simple. They kidnapped the three most talented individuals in the town. It was pretty easy and simple, right? If Ss had to actually think about it, he never really thought of Nymira while making his deduction.
He almost thought of her as a third anomaly. He didn''t really care about her, and after the disappointment of a light festival match that was their fight, it became all the more obvious that she didn''t deserve to be anything close to a rival of his.
Maybe he thought of her too highly at first. It happens. She was so much stronger than him back then, yet now she seemed like an ant.
However, if there''s something more to her kidnapping, maybe he thought of her too little?
But if that was the case, wouldn''t that mean he and Syra were being kidnapped for apletely different reason? Did it have something to do with his family? If so, were they in danger? Did he make the wrong choice by leaving them?
"Before you begin to spiral, don''t worry, you''re family is safe." The Architect soothed.
''Says the f*cking stranger. Sh*t... How do I get back? How do I kill him without being killed just as quickly? What do I do about the bandits behind us?
No, I don''t have to worry about them. One spell should do. The Architect might need more than one, though. However, I don''t have nearly as much mana as before.
And even though my breakthrough mana helped me against themander, there is no way of knowing if things will go the same way with this man. The Architect is intelligent. Themander was an absolute idiot who was almost too easy to enrage.'' Ss gripped the leather straps of the earth dragon''s lead.
"I already have a n in ce to make sure they don''t go after you or your family anymore." The Architect gave Ss a sidelong nce at Ss before sighing.
"We''re close to our temporary base anyway."
"Can''t you just tell me?" Ss asked.
"You wouldn''t believe me even if I told you." He chuckled before realizing something,
"Everyone, halt!" He shouted, making all the bandits stop their earth dragons and got off.
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Chapter 61 The Birth Of Game Evergreen [1] - Death To Those Who Hear
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"Everyone, halt!" the Architect shouted, causing all the bandits to stop their earth dragons and get off.
"What is it, sir?" One of the men bowed slightly after walking forward. He was clearly the leader of their little bandit group.
Ss and the Architect also got off their earth dragons, but while the Architect had a peaceful smile on his face, Ss felt a tinge of coldness emanating from the masked man before him.
"You guys were listening to our conversation, right?" The Architect asked with a tilt of his head.
"Of course not! We would never dare-"
"Don''t lie to me." The cold distance became even more obvious.
"Si-"
"Yes... We were listening in. But you can''t me us! You weren''t hiding-"
*Swoosh*
*Thud*
"..." Ss'' eyes widened in shock, looking at the head that fell to the ground.
''What the f*ck.''
"What''s happening here?" Death''s drowsy voice echoed behind them as he slowly sat up on the earth dragon and rubbed his eyes.
"Johnny... NOOOOOOO!" One of the men shouted while taking out his de.
"You killed Johnny!" Another roared while whipping out their bow and flinging an arrow toward the Architect.
Yet, an instantter, they all watched as the arrow was sliced into a hundred pieces before falling to the ground.
"Archie! What the f*ck-" Death tried to get off the earth dragon, but then he saw Ss pointing a fire bolt spell right toward his heart, ready to impale him at a second''s notice.
Death was strong and even quick, but from such a point-nk range, he would die before he could even speak the words "help."
*Swoosh*
With a swipe of the Architect''s hand, the rest of them turned into a paste, destroying them and their armors instantly, tting them to the ground and spreading the rest of their blood and gore throughout the trees for the animals to lick.
Except one...
The Architect''s toki red as he pointed his hand toward the one that was running away. He was missing an arm, having dodged the attack at thest second due to being the one standing right at the back.
The Architect pressed his middle finger onto his thumb, ready to flick his fingers and create a pulse of toki that would instantly kill the man.
*Bang*
However, before he could shoot the pulse of toki, a water bullet shot through the air and pierced right through the man''s head, silently killing him without spraying his remains across the forest.
"Nice shot." The Architectplimented.
"I''ve been practicing."
''In my past life.'' Ss inwardly added.
Though, he had to admit that practice was easy, especially when the enemy was a monstrous mutated human that had suddenly be 10 feet tall and morbidly wide.
"Why the f*ck..." Death''s voice had be scratchy and hoarse.
"They knew about Ss'' identity. I had to kill them, or they would have told our benefactors that Ss was alive and well, standing right in front of them the entire time.
Do you want to make enemies with those bastards? Because if you do, I am more than willing to tell them that you were the one that killed him and almost sabotaged the entire n.
I wonder what they''d do with that information. Let me remind you that you have a daughter to take care of, and I do not want to be the man who has to have the conversation with the little girl." The Architect took out wiped and began to clean his gloves.
''At least he''s hygienic.'' Ss thought.
"They were the Skrk family''s men. What the hell do you expect me to say? You killed them for no reason, and they are bound to figure out. We''ll be lucky to even get paid."
''The f*ck?''
"We can just say they died in the battle." The Architect shrugged.
"You killed them! You don''t get to decide whether they live or die! You''re not themander!" Death roared out in anger while taking a step forth. However, Sd didn''t stop him this time.
This was between them, and he was far too preupied with his own crap to care about their bickering.
"I became themander the moment that excuses for a leader died. I was his right-hand man and am the most intelligent and tactically experienced one here.
And before you go on about how you''re going to tell everyone, let me remind you that the only reason I am keeping you alive is that we don''t have a recement Death in ce to take your ce. Now, I trust that you will keep that mouth of yours shut about this." The Architect gave Death a side-long nce that sent a shiver down his spine before turning to Ss.
"We need to change your appearance a little." He spoke while taking out a ss bottle filled with a murky bright pink substance.
"Drink this. It''ll change your hair color. I made it myself."
Ss stared at him for a few seconds before sighing and taking the ss bottle.
"I expect an exnation after this sh*t is done and dusted." Ss snarled before gulping down the drink.
He had a resistance to poison that has increased 3 times in the past year. If this was, for some reason, poison, he was certain that he would live for at least long enough for his body to evolve, consume and then repel its symptoms.
"Don''t worry. I''ll exin everything when we get to the camp." The Architect smiled.
Ss quickly took Nymira in his arms while Death took the bag with the chief''s head before getting on their earth dragons and galloping away.
Ss couldn''t see any immediate changes in his hair color, but he assumed that the change urred at his roots first before expanding to the rest of his hair.
They were all moving at a triangle formation, with Death in the middle, Ss on the left, and the Architect on the right.
"Quick question. Why did you wait until this point to kill them all? We''ve only got a mile or two left, yet you just chose to kill them right here?" Ss asked, causing Death to look toward "Archie" too.
"It''s hard to steer the earth dragons when they are away from home when they don''t have riders." He exined with a nonchnt tone that made Death''s jaw drop.
"I see. Very clever." Ssplimented with a nod that left Death bbergasted and horrified simultaneously.
"I''m stuck between to maniacs." He muttered
"What was that?" The Architect smiled.
"N-Nothing!"
The rest of the ride was mostly peaceful.
On the way, Ss killed one or two beasts that could have been a threat toward the herd of earth dragons running behind them, but for the most part, it was really peaceful since they avoided going deeper into the forest, remaining on the outskirts the entire time.
And eventually, the reached the temporary camp, where Ss could see a group of individuals waiting for them at them by some trees.
"So... This is Darkless."
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Chapter 62 The Birth Of Game Evergreen [2] - Death To Those Who Speak
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[A/N: Since I''ve locked my chapters, curse words will no longer be censored.]
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"Hey, Architect." Ss whispered to the masked man next to him.
"Call me Archie around these people." He whispered back.
"Yeah, uhm. Why did you choose white hair? It makes me look old." Ssbed his hair back. For some reason, they insisted that he should cut andb back his hair before applying Gilea''s equivalent of gel.
Both Archie and Death looked at Ss with bbergast.
"You''re a kid!" Death whisper-shouted.
"Didn''t know you cared about those things." Archie raised his hand to his mouth to stifle hisughter.
After a few seconds of trying to notugh, Archie whispered back to Ss-
"Just remember the script. Don''t exin too much, but don''t exin too little."
"I know how to do this. I''m not a child." Ss rolled his eyes.
"You sure as hell don''t act like one." Death sneered, making causing Ss to stare at him with contempt.
"You sure do have the pettiness of one though."
"Don''t make me rip that tongue of yours out." Ss snarled.
"I''d like to see you try." Death stuck his tongue out.
"And you say I''m the child." Ss chuckled mockingly.
"Stop bickering." Archiemanded, making Ss shrug and Death harrumph.
Ss didn''t really know why, but he was the one holding Nymira while Death held the head. On the other hand, Archie was guiding the rest of the Earth dragons with a long lead connecting them all.
He didn''t really understand why, but if he knew anything about the Architect, it was that he wouldn''t do things for no reason.
They were almost alike in that aspect, even though Ss had been slipping recently due to having too muchfort while surrounded by his family.
Maybe it was good for him to be surrounded by like-minded individuals.
"Archie! Death!" A woman with sky-blue haired waved them over while a burly man stood behind her, d in steel armor from top to bottom.
When they got close enough, the two individuals peeled their gazes from the two adults and looked at the two children.
"Who''s the kid?" The burly man asked with a raised brow,pletely ignoring Nymira, who they seemed to recognize.
"Oh, him? He''s my pet project." Archie let out a creepy smile.
''The hell is that supposed to mean?!'' Ss shuddered.
However, Ss had to give credit where credit was due. This reply had immediately silenced the two and quickly moved the subject onto something else.
"Alright. When are the resting?" The woman asked.
"There aren''t any moreing." Death leaned onto one of the trees.
"What do you mean? Did themander lose?" The woman instantly frowned.
"Worse..." Archie walked passed them, the sound of his teeth churning against one another entering the woman''s ears.
"They''re dead."
"What!" She grabbed onto Archie''s shoulder.
"I would rather not exin this more than once, so how about I get it over and done with as quickly as possible." Archie spoke, his voiceced with an icy, suppressed rage.
Or at least that''s how it would seem to everyone else.
Ss and Death knew better.
Archie quickly walked away, and the rest followed behind him.
Despite this being a temporary camp, Ss couldn''t help but widen his eyes at the sheer size of it.
Maybe that''s what it took to house so many individuals. 75 was not a small number, and there were possibly even more waiting in the camp, such as healers or the benefactors.
They all had tents of all kinds littered throughout the entire camp. Most of the tents were murky green and as small as a military-style tent back on Earth. Though some were as big as houses, one looked like it could be called a town hall if not for the fact that it was made out of fabric.
However, one thing that caught Ss'' attention was the fact that there were close to no people roaming outside the tents. ording to his now-enhanced mystic eyes, most were either inside the tents or not in the camp at all.
Archie walked into the second biggest tent in the camp while Ss and the rest followed him in. Looking inside, Ss saw three individuals sitting around a round table with wine sses in their hands. Others smoked out of some kind of pipe while waiting.
One was slightly older. Most of his hair had turned grey, but that seemed to be a product of stress and gics rather than age. He wore royal red robes trimmed with beautiful gold. He was also the one smoking.
The other man wore white and yellow robes representing the church, yet Ss had never seen him before.
''Maybe he''s from another church?'' Ss narrowed his eyes.
"Archie. How did the raid go?" A man with ck hair and silver eyes spoke, a friendly smile stered over his face.
''So this is the man who put my family in danger.'' Ss narrowed his eyes and activated mystic eyes.
He had to make sure that the men in the room had no way of identifying him. No one knew about Ss'' emerald green eyes since he always used mystic vision to its lowest setting. At most, his eyes would look green at certain angles, but now that he reached the topaz core and was using mystic eyes to their maximum output, they shone like two bright emerald stars, impossible to miss but not very memorable.
After all, what catches more attention than a kid with a full head of white hair?
"Mr. Oliver Skrk. Please, call me Architect. I do not deserve to be in a first-name basis with you." Archie bowed slightly, his voice filled with humble acknowledgment and awe.
''He''s a good actor." Ss thought to himself, suppressing his rage whenever he looked at Oliver.
"It''s fine. Please, sit down." The ck-haired man smiled warmly.
Everyone quickly sat down, but the burly man d in armor was ordered by Archie to take Nymira to one of the infirmaries.
"How did the raid go? Also, where''s yourmander. Should we wait for him?" The red and gold-robed man asked before taking a puff of his pipe.
"Themander is dead, and as his right-hand man, I am the temporarily in charge of the Darkless organization until a leader is chosen." The Architect spoke with a solemn tone.
"Then what about the raid?" The three individual''s faces turned dark.
"The raid was mostly a sess." The Architect nced at the white and red-robed individuals before stopping when he looked at the Skrk representative.
"You failed?!" Oliver Skrk''s face morphed into one of rage as he mmed his fist onto the table.
"To be exact, we only failed you. Wepleted the rest of the assignments without any problems." The Architect retorted icily.
"Do not speak to me with that tone you filthymoner!" Oliver roared, his hand reaching for the dagger at his hip.
"I suggest you calm yourself, Mr. Skrk." Ss released a controlled amount of his killing intent while gazing into Oliver''s eyes. However, due to his recent breakthrough, the power of his killing intent had skyrocketed, causing him to release a little too much.
They all froze as their eyes turned toward Ss, who was sitting in his seat with his fingers intertwined and his zing emerald eyes piercing toward the Skrk representative.
"Who''s the child?" The white-robed man asked with a quiver in his voice.
With a smirk, Ss stood and suppressed the killing intent that was screaming at him to let it go.
"The name is Game Evergreen..."
''I''m going to kill you...''
"Nice to meet you." Ss smiled warmly.
''Every single one of you.''
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Chapter 63 The Birth Of Game Evergreen [3] - Judgement
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Oliver Skrk hesitantly sat down while throwing Ss a deadly re. He knew that he was in the wrong. Doing anything more would be the equivalent of angering the entire Darkless organization, and no matter how strong their family was, he doubted that they would protect him for a mistake of his own making.
Sure, he didn''t know who the kid was, but everyone in the Darkless organization seemed to be weird in their own ways. Some were degenerates, others were far too smart, and some were simply outright crazy.
It would have been weird if they didn''t already have a kid capable of producing killing intent at such a level.
"Thank you, Game. I can handle it from here." Archie smiled warmly before returning to a stoic expression when he turned to the men.
"While I handled the chief, his adopted daughter, and the pink-haired genius, Death and themander chose to take care of Ss and Syra."
"So you''ve retrieved the pink-haired girl?" The red-robed man asked while scratching his grey beard.
"Yes."
"Then..." The man reached into his carrier bag and pulled out a leather pouch the size of Ss'' head filled to the brim with gold.
"Here."
*Thud*
"Keep her with you for 6 years. Train her to be a deadly warrior and in the arts of etiquette. We''re leaving her in your care." The man crossed his arms and nodded at Archie.
"Of course, sir." Archie grabbed the pouch and set it on the floor beside him before ncing at Death.
"Ah, yes." Death stood up and set a bag in front of the white-robed man, who looked into it for a moment before nodding and taking out his own pouch of gold that was half the size of the red-robed man.
Archie quickly set it aside before looking at Oliver.
"What? You expect me to pay you for a job you haven''t done?" He sneered.
"I expect you to pay uspensation." Ss could have sworn that he felt the room drop a couple of degrees when Archie''s killing intent erupted out of his body.
Everyone in the room froze except Ss and the red-robed man. They both seemed to be too experienced to be affected by something as feeble as killing intent. Or at least Archie''s killing intent.
"Your outdated brain-dead information lost us ourmander." Archie spat.
"What nonsense are you spouting."
"That kid you were after? He''s dead." All of them widened their eyes at Archie''s statement, except Death and Ss, of course.
"Death almost died defending against that knight, Lochras. That woman, too; what was her name again? Keira?
She and a nun from the church, alongside Ss Skrk, singlehandedly killed ourmander. The kid sacrificed himself by creating a new spell variation that blew up in both their faces and wiped out most of dia." Archie exined.
"That''s unfortunate. It may take longer to recreate dia, though I do have to say, building it back from the ground in the church''s ideal way seemed to be a win-win situation." The white-robed man stroked his chin, while Oliver had a vein bulging on his forehead as he tried his best to suppress his rage.
"What about the girl?"
"Traumatized and might never touch magic again after seeing what happened to her brother. They will most likely move to one of the cities where there is more protection from kidnappings and raids like this." He replied without any emotion, yet Ss could see Archie looking at him from the corner of his eyes.
The rest of the conversations went smoothly. Oliver eventually left afterining for a little too long, while the others thanked Archie for his services and galloped toward their next location.
"They didn''t seem to angry about the fact that all their men died." Ssmented from behind them, being thest one to leave the tent since he didn''t want to have to see Oliver out.
He didn''t know whether or not he would be able to control himself from killing Oliver on the spot. Sure, Oliver was essentially a messenger, but Ss doubted that his bottomless rage would be snuffed out by anything other than the death of a Skrk.
''There are bigger fish to fry. Though...''
''I wouldn''t mind burning all of you alive.'' Ss''s eyes became cloudy momentarily, but he didn''t let killing intent leave his body this time.
"Game. To my office, please." Archie ordered before they both walked toward a small tent, and entered.
The room was quite barren. It had a big table and two chairs. That was all.
"So, Ss." he sighed while tapping a rune on his desk that caused all the runes in the room to shine brightly before dimming.
"That was a silencing array. Nothing in here can be heard from the outside. It also locks the tent from intruders." He exined as Ss sat down as well.
"Did you have to choose the name ''Game''? It sounds so stupid." Ss asked with a tiny bit of resentment.
"It''s the only name I had. This situation was out of my hand. Nice choice with thest name though. Evergreen. Quite fancy." He shrugged nonchntly, waving the matter off with a couple of words before descending into silence.
They sat in silence for a few seconds before Archie spoke again.
"You''re good at hiding your anger... Sometimes your actions and self-control make me think that you might not be a child at all." The Architect narrowed his eyes, but Ss didn''t react.
He saw how Ss controlled his anger before. He also knew that the killing intent was most likely a slip-up made by the fact that Ss had reached the Topaz core.
"Others don''t see it, but I do. That bottomless pit rage boiling inside you. You want to do nothing more than kill the man who put your family in danger, but you''re mature enough to understand that killing Oliver was not a solution.
Wasting your anger on him would be like taking your anger out on a pillow. It would be a waste of time, and most of all, it would be worthless."
"Let''s be honest. You want the Skrk family out of the picture. They''re somehow a pain in your ass and the organization''s ass, and you want to eliminate them.
Though, you, for some reason, don''t or can''t do it under your name or the organization''s name, so you are choosing to get rid of them through me. Am I correct in my assumption?" Ss tilted his head to the right by a few angles.
"You see... This is why I like you. We don''t bullshit around. We get straight to the point." He smiled.
"Then please, get to the point." Ss narrowed his eyes before resting his back on the chair.
"I will support you from the sidelines in everything you do, and everything you need.
Once I bemander, I want you to be my right-hand man, and the 7th General of the Darkless Organization." The Architect smiled almost maniacally as those words left his lips.
"And in return, you will bring an end to the Skrk family household." His lips stretched from one ear to the other.
"You want me to take your position as the Architect?" Ss raised a brow. It made sense. Ss was intelligent, and for all Archie knew, Ss might have been just as intelligent as him despite their age gap.
"No..." Archie chuckled while leaning back into his chair as well.
"I want you to be Judgement."
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Chapter 64 New Beginnings [1] - Goodbye Uladia
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ording to Archie, there was a certain hierarchy in the Darkless organization. First, there are the 7 "factions," if you can even call them that.
In the Darkless organization, there are 7 generals. Each general leads a faction of their own because each general represents a different rule or foundation for the organization. While the generals themselves changed quite frequently, the names of their titles never changed.
They were; Eclipse, Architect, Life, Death, Greed, War, and Judgement. While Eclipse and Architect don''t have factions since they do everything independently, the rest do, including Judgement.
"You know, Judgement was themander''s title before he died." Archiemented halfway through exining the titles, factions, and hierarchy.
"You keep your title when you bemander?" Ss raised a brow.
"Of course. We have factions here. Themander is voted in by the rest of the generals. Unlike those royal inbreeding bastards who couldn''t give a flying shit about their people other than the fact that they pay them taxes, we have equality. Everyone has a voice." Archie spat.
''Not really democracy or equality, but I guess it''s a step in the right direction.'' Ss thought to himself.
If he had to be honest, he wasn''t a fan of democracy. Anarchy fit him a lot more, but if he had to think of the people, democracy would probably benefit them the most.
"Why else do you think I''m not giving you the Architect title?" Archie rolled his eyes.
"Wait... I''m being made a general just because a ce happened to open up?" Ss was bbergasted. What kind of idiot... No. There was probably an exnation.
Archie wasn''t dumb, after all. He was smart, calctive, cold... He was the kind of person to manipte an entire organization into thinking he was a good candidate to be the nextmander before throwing hismander into the hands of fate until he eventually bit the dust.
He was the exact kind of person the Architect title needed, and he was also the person Ss didn''t want to turn into.
He had already lived out a life of nihilism and self-pity. He didn''t want to be that person anymore. He wanted to protect his family... That''s the only reason he''s here...
''Who the fuck am I lying to?'' Ss'' inner voice sounded genuinely confused.
"Of course not. If I wanted you to have the title of Architect so badly, I''d keep you as my right-hand man and train you to rece me when I eventually die.
I will give you the title Judgement because I need someone like me to dish out punishment. I can''t do everything myself, and as Judgement, you will be the embodiment of thew." Archie exined, making Ss frown.
After a few moments of silence, Ss finally asked.
"You know about my elements, right?"
"Ss..." Archie sighed while rubbing the bridge of his nose and leaning forward.
"Everyone here as a secret. Mine is my identity, and so will yours, though you already seem to have more secrets than I do. Everyone here has something to hide. No one is trustworthy, not even me. No matter how close you think you are with someone, they will stab you in the back when it pleases their interest.
We do not ask about your secrets, because we don''t want you to ask us about ours. Do you understand?" Archie exined while Ss silently nodded.
The rest of the conversation was quite nd. Archie exined who the generals were and what they represented. After that, Ss was directed toward his tent, where he sat on his makeshift bed and began cultivating.
Everyone had their own thing to do, and for one of the first times sinceing to Gilea, Ss wasn''t interrupted by anyone or anything while cultivating.
Ss realized that after reaching the topaz core, his mana absorption rate had gone through the roof. Of course, it couldn''t bepared to his monstrous rate of absorption when he was breaking through, nor was it enough to bnce out the scales and keep the rate of cultivation the same.
It would probably take him longer to reach the amethyst core than it had taken him to reach the topaz core since it took more focus and mana to break down the impurities.
''Now that I think about it, did I release any impurities?'' Ss thought to himself with a slight frown. He didn''t feel ite out of him, but maybe it was destroyed the moment it touched that mana vortex he created?
Nevertheless, there was no bottleneck between the topaz and amethyst cores, so he wasn''t too worried about it suddenly popping up.
However, what he was worried about was fighting another person on the same level as themander, or even Archie.
Sure, since he was breaking through, he was able to absorb mana extremely quickly and negate the effects of toki; however, now that he didn''t have that, he doubted that he would even get near them before being ttened.
His body was most likely at the very low end of the dull-amethyst core. While the purity of his mana hadn''t reached that level, his skill in spell casting more than made up for it. If he used everything in his arsenal, he could probably beat an experienced and well-versed mage like Keira.
Ss continued cultivating, and before he knew it, night had passed, and the sun was rising once more, the sounds of chirps echoing through the forest and waking Ss from his cultivation.
''I should probably sleep more...'' Ss sighed. He didn''t feel too tired, but that was probably due to that was coursing through his channels throughout the entire night. The evolution blessing probably had a hand in it too.
Walking out of his tent, Ss went through his usual routine of washing his face with cold water, training his body for an hour throughplicated sets of workouts, and eventually showering with the use of water magic.
"Game?" A voice echoed from behind Ss, but he didn''t react.
"Game!"
''Oh shit, that''s me.''
"Yeah?" Ss turned around with a wry smile, his eyes shining with a faint emerald as he looked at the woman before him.
She had beautiful aqua-blue curly hair and sapphire blue eyes that shone like two tiny stars. She wore a simple vest and pants, yet her hourss figure was as clear as day. However, what drew Ss'' attention were her semi-defined arms and legs.
''I wonder how much she can bench.''
"We''re leaving for the main base in an hour. Pack your tent and get ready to move." She smiled slightly. She wasn''t treating him like a kid, but she still seemed to talk with a softer expression when talking to him.
"Sure. I''ll get ready in 10." Ss smiled at her before taking some gel andbing his hair back. He assumed the gel was made from animal fat, but he didn''t want to ask. Ignorance was bliss sometimes, and he wanted to keep it like that for as long as possible.
He was in God''s hands now.
Packing everything quite quickly, Ss practiced earth magic until the time came for them to leave.
He didn''t have anything big to pack, so he didn''t really have to worry; however, Archie had an entire table in his office tent, so the real question was, how the hell does one pack an entire office into their carried bags.
Nevertheless, everyone seemed to have done their part, leaving the areapletely clear of all signs of humans being around.
''Well...'' Ss looked back before letting out a wry smile.
''Goodbye for now... dia.''
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[A/N: Archie is short for Architect. No one knows his real name.]
[If you have enjoyed this chapter and would like to support the author, please vote using your power stones or golden tickets. Also, you can join my discord server today to see illustrations or to converse about thetest chapters.]
Chapter 65 New Beginnings [2] - I Hope Im A Masochist
?
The journey from dia to the Darkless organization''s main base camp was long, tedious, and, most of all,pletely uneventful... Or at least for the first week.
Ss would have loved to kill one or two beasts before eventually reaching the main base. That''s where all the political drama happens, and he was not in the mood to politically destroy someone''s career.
What he was in the mood for was killing beasts, but not only did the majority of thempletely avoid them, the ones that did attack were all in the solid-amethyst core or higher.
This made it Archie and Death''s job to kill them as quickly as possible without letting them reach within a 100-meter radius of the group.
However, despite making Ss lose out on actually killing any beasts or monsters throughout the entire journey, in the end, he came to realize that it might have been a blessing in disguise.
Since he had nothing to do throughout the entire journey, he took time to read books, practice and study basic magic, and even learn how to cultivate while doing menial tasks.
Of course, it was still hard to cultivate while listening to others, but over the first week, it became easier and easier, as if it was slowly bing an instinct rather than a thought and action.
They still had about three weeks of their journey left, so it was more than enough time for him to learn more about his futurerades.
"Missing your family?" Archie asked with a warm smile.
"A little." Ss sighed.
"Being away from your family for the first time is hard. I know the feeling." Archieforted.
"You do?" Ss raised a brow.
"Of course I do. Do I look like I''ve been born and raised in this organization?" Archie chuckled.
"You''re not better than us!" A feminine voice shouted from behind, having seemingly overheard their conversation.
Ss looked at Archie with an inquisitive look. His reaction might differ depending on the situation and how much he trusted everyone around him.
"Yes I am!" Archie shouted back, making Ss widen his eyes.
He was almost certain the woman would have been executed in front of everyone. Despite how much Archie reminded Ss of himself, Archie was unpredictable for that same reason.
"Don''t worry. You can trust everyone here with your life." Archie smiled.
"What about Death?" Ss narrowed his eyes.
"As long as you are a part of Darkless, he will not say anything about you to anyone outside the organization." Archie shrugged before adding-
"He''s also terrified of me." He chuckled.
"Understandable." Ss nodded.
"What''s that supposed to mean?" Archie narrowed his eyes.
"N-Nothing."
"Why are you stuttering?"
"Stop bullying the kid." A blue-haired girl walked past them, rolling her eyes while Archieughed aloud.
''He''s really in his element around these people... He must really trust them.'' Ss thought.
Beforeing to Gilea, he didn''t really have a group of people he could trust with his whole being. Well, except his cat.
''Rest in peace my friend.'' Ss pped his hand and lowered his head in prayer, an action that made everyone who saw him raise a brow before looking away.
They walked for a few more hours before setting camp in a patch of the forest. Apparently, they weren''t out of the county yet, and the dia forest took up almost a third of the county.
Over thest week, Ss learned quite a lot about his family, and he finally understood why his grandmother was so angry at him when he epted Nymira''s duel.
ording to Archie, the Skrk family was apparently a noble family known for their powerful mages and knights. The family''s entire history was based upon their founder, William ke Skrk, who is said to have been one of the strongest mages on the continent when the kingdom was created, and the close associate of the first king.
Archie presumed that they wanted to kidnap Ss and Syra due to the fact that Lochras married outside the family. Incest wasmon among noble families because they wanted to "preserve the bloodline''s purit."
However, Ss doubted that it was the real reason behind their kidnapping.
If it was really about the purity of the bloodline, wouldn''t they want them dead? Also, wouldn''t they want Lex dead too? It didn''t make sense, but Archie didn''t seem to care since it wasn''t his problem to deal with.
It was Ss''.
"How hard do you think it''ll be to destroy a noble family?" Ss whispered while casting an air spell around them that lowered their voices significantly to anyone listening around them.
If we''re talking about you specifically, I''d say you''ll have to reach the sapphire core at the very least.
"Shit... That much?" Ss gritted his teeth.
"That''s for you. Anyone else would probably have to reach the emerald core before even considering attacking them. The Skrk family is powerful. Oliver was essentially a proxy whoes from a branch family of a branch family. He was nothing." Archieughed.
The conversation ended then and there. They said nothing else, but Archie understood what Ss was thinking.
''I''m so damn weak...'' Ss dispelled the spell around them and balled his hands into fists.
Ss understood his weakness well...
It was almost too obvious, and he hated it.
He hated being so weak... So damn weak...
Sure, to everyone else, he might seem like a prodigy. Hell, in 20 to 30 years, even the nobles might revere him.
He needed to train. No, he needed the harshest type of training he''s ever gotten.
Looking down at his hand, Ss sighed.
They were covered in blood again. They were always covered in blood.
''How am I going to protect them if I remain this weak...'' Ss thought before looking into the sky.
He really didn''t want to do it, but now he understood that it was the only choice that remained.
''I hope I''m a masochist.''
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Chapter 66 New Beginnings [3] - Just As Bad
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It had been almost 4 weeks since they left dia, and throughout thest three weeks, Ss had been trying to prepare himself for the torture he would endure when reaching the Darkless main base.
After his conversation with Archie, Ss understood that he had to get stronger much faster.
After a not-so-long internal battle with himself, Ss finally concluded that the only way to get stronger at the desired rate was by breaking, tearing, and repeatedly destroying every bone, muscle, and organ in his body.
It was the extreme version of going to the gym, and even though he had steeled most of his nerves by that point, he chose to put it off until they actually reached the base.
Healing a shattered limb took two to three minutes, and if they happened to be attacked by some kind of monster beyond their strength, Ss wanted to at least have the strength to run away.
They had left the forest a week ago and were now walking on a public path rather than traversing through the forest like they were doing before.
In total, there were only about 40 of them left from the raid on dia, all of them being nobatants except for a select few.
"-I''m worried about her." A voice suddenly entered Ss'' ears.
"Are you even listening?" Seraphina, the blue-haired woman, pouted in anger before looking away.
[A/N: Seraphina illustration in the discord server]
"Sorry, I just have a lot on my mind. What were you saying?" Ss apologized while rubbing the back of his neck.
Seraphina looked at him for a moment before sighing in frustration.
"I''ll let it go this time, but if you ignore me again I''ll bash your head into the ground."
"Alright." Ss chuckled as a chill went down his spine. He knew she was probably serious about bashing his head into the ground, and from the naturalyer of toki revolving around her, he was probably right to assume that she wouldn''t have a problem doing it.
"I''m just worried about Nymira." she finally voiced.
"What about Nymira." Ss tilted his head. If he had to be honest, he hadn''t thought of her much since the beginning of their journey, mostly since he was going through his own problems.
"She hasn''t eaten in almost a week now. She''s just drinking water and sleeping. She might die at this rate." Seraphina crossed her arms in worry.
''Heh. How ironic. They kidnapped her, killed her two masters right in front of her, and are now expecting her to bepletely fine?'' Ss tried his hardest not to sneer.
"I''ll talk to her." He replied with a shred of contempt that made Seraphina narrow her eyes. However, before she could say anything, Ss was already walking away from her and toward the earth dragon that was carrying Nymira on its back and trodding at the same pace as everyone else.
The earth dragons were being used to carry baggage since there weren''t enough to carry everyone. At first, Ss was worried that Archie would kill off a few of them to make enough space for everyone to have an earth dragon, but he chose to walk it instead.
Walking up to the earth dragon, he saw a little girl, no older than 9 years old, sitting on her steed.
Her pink hair was disheveled and full of dirt. She clearly hadn''t showered in quite a while. Ss didn''t know if it was due to her depression or due to the fact that she didn''t know how to shower, but it was most likely a mix of both.
"Nymira. Are you okay?" Ss asked, but she didn''t answer.
For some reason, Ss couldn''t help but feel a little guilty about what was happening to her. There was no light in her eyes, and even when she saw him, her face didn''t change at all.
"You''re Game, right?" She asked while turning toward him.
There was no fire in her eyes either. The determination she once had seemed to have been snuffed out like a candle me.
"You smell like blood..." Shemented before turning back to her previous position.
''Does she know?'' Ss thought with narrowed eyes.
"I get it. You''re sad-"
"Ss..." She whispered in a low, almost monotone voice.
''Of course, she knows.'' Ss rubbed his brows before responding-
"Yes..."
"You came on your own, right?" She asked.
"... Yes."
"..."
"..."
They didn''t speak for a full minute, but she eventually broke the silence.
"They took my family from me." She sighed with a quiver in her voice.
"I know..." Ss looked down as the guilt increased. He didn''t even know why. He wasn''t the one who kidnapped her. They were. He was innocent.
"They''re going to sell me, right?"
"..."
"It''s okay; I know they will eventually get rid of me." She smiled for the first time in almost 4 weeks, yet all Ss felt was a dreadful hand grab his heart and squeeze as tightly as possible.
"Are you not angry?" He finally asked.
"Angry?" She looked at him with her dead eyes.
"I don''t know. I don''t know what I''m feeling anymore." She looked up at the grey sky with a mncholic expression on her face.
"..."
"..."
''Fuck...''
"I can help you... I can bring you back to your family." Ss offered while looking at her.
"Family?" She asked, but her voice wasn''t as enthusiastic as he thought it would be.
"You can''t bring me to my family. The one family I had left are now dead. They killed them right before me, and now expect me to smile at them like they did me a favor." She chuckled.
"I''m sorry." Ss balled his hands into fists and looked down. For some reason, he couldn''t look her in the eyes.
"I don''t need your pity, Ss..." She let out a smile that didn''t reach her eyes.
"You''re just as bad as they are..."
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Chapter 67 Darkless City [1]
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"We''re here." Archie smiled while looking at the base before them.
"Holy shit!" Ss was bbergasted as he looked at the ground, perplexing everyone around him.
There wasn''t a base in front of them. They were just standing before a particrlyrge cave that led nowhere.
However, one nce down with mystic eyes, and a whole world seemed to unfold before his very eyes.
Towering buildings, hundreds if not thousands of life forces moving around throughout the entire city, beasts, animals. It was all underground, yet due to mystic eyes, he could see almost all of it.
The entire city seemed to have been ced on top of an enormous tree. Ss didn''t understand why since it made them easier targets,
''Holy shit what is that?'' Ss tried to narrow his eyes in order to better see the lifeform he didn''t recognize. Its lifeforce looked simr to that of a human, but it also had a beastlike appearance in it too.
While Archie narrowed his eyes at Ss'' antics, Seraphina pped the back of Ss'' head before speaking with amanding voice-
"Cut the sarcasm."
She then walked past Ss a stood in front of her everyone with her hands on her hips. She quickly performed a head count of everyone in the group before staring at Ss one more time and nodding.
"Healers,e with me. Scouts, go with Death. The rest of you know where to go. Evergreen, stay with Archie and I''ll take Nymira with me."
"Evergreen?" Ss raised a brow.
"We''re now at the main base. I have seniority over you, so technically, I am your supervisor for now. You must treat me with respect, and I will reciprocate. We are no longer on first name basis unless we are in private." She spoke with amanding and serious tone.
"Yes, ma''am." Ss saluted, causing everyone to look at him weirdly again.
''Do these people not salute? I''ve seen plenty of people in this world salute. Does it not mean the same thing as it does on earth? Did I just swear at her?'' Ss'' eyes darted around for answers, yet everyone simply shrugged and went on with their own business.
The groups quickly split into three, and when they finally did, Alex, Archie, and Seraphina all went to different trees and ced their hands on them for a few seconds.
Ss could see something glowing within the tree momentarily before they finally lifted their hands from it. When they did, Ss saw a green handprint where Archie had ced his hand, and the same seemed to be happening everywhere else.
''Biological technology? That''s new...'' Ss thought with a glimmer in his eyes.
It was the first time he got to see some sort of real technology sinceing to this world. These barbaric people didn''t even have toilets, so Ss lost all hope in them within less than a year of living.
However, now a spark of curiosity ignited in his eyes and made him feel an intense desire to learn more.
''Shit! Control yourself moron.'' Ss breathed in and out to calm himself, but suddenly, he felt the ground under them shift before the feeling of them slowly descending made him open his eyes.
It wasn''t an elevator... Or, at least, it didn''t feel like an elevator.
It felt more alive. He didn''t understand it in any way, but when he saw what was allowing them to descend, he finally understood.
An enormous tree root slowly carried their plot ofnd to a certain height, connecting to another inanimate root that worked as a bridge.
"Alright. Game,e with me." Archie looked back at Ss and waved him over. While they all took the long root bridge, when they reached the end of it, everyone said their farewells and split off into different groups, Ss and Archie going as their own little group.
"It''s amazing, right?" Archie asked.
"It''s beyond amazing..." Ss replied in amazement.
That same enormous tree seemed to be in the center of this city as well. Its roots began exactly where the city''s floors began and seemed to stretch out throughout the entire city''s grounds, going under buildings and creating everything from bridges to pirs in order to sustain the tform the city was built on.
"Is this a ravine?" Ss asked, his eyes darting around and inspecting random things in the enormous cave.
There were several sources of light throughout the entire city, ranging from insects to nts, and in some cases, even mana stones illuminated the city from above, shining with a milky white radiance.
"I''m pretty sure it''s just a really big cave. We did excavate a lot of it out but it was originally pretty big." Archie exined while catching an insect between his fingertips without killing it.
"Was this made recently?" Ss raised a brow.
"No. I wasn''t even alive when this cave was made. Though, or previousmander did teach me a lot about this ce''s history." Archie yed with the bug a little more. It was blue in color, and shone with the radiance of a candle me, if not even brighter.
"Why did you betray him then?" Ss asked with narrowed eyes. If Archie was so willing to betray his oldmander, that had essentially taken care of him since he was a child, wouldn''t he find it easy to do the same to Ss?
"Ss... Let me tell you a life lesson." Archie muttered with a low voice so no one would hear him call Ss by his real name.
"Just because someone raised you, doesn''t mean they deserve your respect."
"I get it..." Ss muttered unconsciously.
"My dad once told me something." He quickly saved the situation by pretending he wasn''t talking about himself.
"Every kid deserves a parent, but not even parent deserves a kid." Ss sighed.
"Bullseye." Archie chuckled.
Ss knew the bad parent situation more than anyone else.
His previous parents abandoned him on the streets like he was nothing but a piece of trash. While the orphanage owners were nice to him, but the maids that worked there were less than amodating.
They would say- "You think you''re better than me just because you can read?"- And if Ss were, to be honest, he did feel like he was better than them. No... He knew he was better than them, and that wasn''t even his ego talking.
What kind of adult takes out their anger about their failure of a life on a helpless child?
They would let the other orphans beat the living crap out of him, and by then, society had already gone down the drain, so petty matters like these stopped mattering to the police.
The abuse was endless, and the only release he had was books. Maybe that was why he got so invested in them in the first ce. Then he got adopted, but his foster parents were probably the worst of the bunch.
''Well... At least I got to torture them for a few days. If only I didn''t try creating mustard gas. Imagine how much more fun I would have had with them.'' Ss sighed.
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Chapter 68 Darkless City [2] - A Masochists Dream
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"You know what these are?" Archie pointed at the blue bug between his fingertips.
It looked like a beetle from its wings alone, but it generated light like a firefly. It also seemed to exude mana, despite it being very faint.
"What?" Ss asked.
"It''s called an enchanter beetle. It released some kind of dust that makes people around it feel energized and happy." Archie exined while letting it go.
''Sounds like cocaine.'' Ss inwardly sighed.
If everyone in darkness was on cloud 9 all the time, it would be very hard to interact with them.
"Sounds like a drug, right?" Archie asked.
[Enchanter-beetle''s pollen has entered your body]
[You are evolving]
[You are growing resistant to foreign mind-altering chemicals]
''I guess there are some upsides.''
"Yep." Ss replied after looking at the screen before him.
They stayed quiet for the rest of the walk. Apparently, Archie needed to make an identification badge in Game Evergreen''s name.
That process didn''t take long. All they needed to know was Ss'' age, height, mana core grade, or toki stage, and do a scan of his body for any health problems that may affect or infect the city''s other residents.
"Give him him level 3 clearing please." Archie smiled at the woman behind the front desk, causing her to blush and look away.
"Y-Yes sir." She stuttered before doing as told.
When Ss saw Archie walking toward him, he couldn''t help but ask-
"Girlfriend?"
"No?"
"Wife??"
"What? No!?"
"..."
"..."
"Do you normally flirt with women like that?"
"I didn''t flirt." Archie looked at Ss like he was stupid.
''Hmm... So this is how it feels like being the ugly friend.'' Ss sighed.
"Anyway, do you want to see your living space?" Archie asked.
"Sure." Ss shrugged.
***
"Really..." Ss muttered.
"What? It''s not that small?"
"It''s tiny!" Ss shouted back.
"You''re a kid. It''s like twice asrge for you as it us for us." Archie tried to argue.
"Can you even legally call this a house? Where''s the bathroom? The kitchen? What about the bed... Where the hell is the bed?!"
"In my opinion, this is luxury. It''s also the only house you can afford."
"..."
"..."
"What''s the supposed to mean?" Ss asked with a tinge of horror in his voice.
"I mean that you don''t have enough money to buy out the other ces for longer than a week or two if you''re lucky." Archie shrugged. It didn''t feel like he cared about Ss'' situation at all, and it was beginning to piss him off.
Call him entitled, but he liked having a bed to sleep in.
"I thought I was judgement or something."
"You''re judgment when I officially be themander. Right now, I''m just the temporarymander until we decide who will be the realmander. That could take a month or two since War''s still in the demon continent."
"I have money though!"
"You had a lot of moneypared to the people in your town. When you get into the cities, the house prices skyrocket, and so does the rent. I''ll give you enough money tost you for this week, but the rest you''ll have to pay out of your own pocket." Archie crossed his arms and leaned on one of the walls.
"..."
"Though, I do have a job for you in a week''s time when we announce the Death of themander. If you''re willing-"
"Yes."
"I didn''t even tell you-"
"Yes."
"Alright..." He shrugged.
They spoke for a bit longer before Archie eventually left, leaving Ss in his own seclusion, surrounded by four walls that kept him in the tiny 7x4 room.
He sat there silently for a few minutes before he eventually realized he had nothing else to do...
***
Standing in the middle of a forest that spanned for quite a distance, Ss breathed out and rubbed his limbs as a final form of goodbye.
Standing before him was Death with his blonde hairbed back and piercing blue eyes staring at Ss with a worried expression.
"Uhm. On a scale of 1 to 10, how sure are you of this?" Death asked.
Sure, Ss might have killed theirmander, but in the end, he looked like a child.
"Can I count on you or not?" Ss asked with an annoyed expression.
"Can''t you... I don''t know, do it yourself?"
"I can, and then when a beast smells my blood andes over to kill me, I''ll make sure to leave a note in my room telling everyone that you left me out here to die." Ss rolled his eyes.
"Bastard." Death spat.
"At least you''ve seen my dad. Where''s yours? Oh, wait. Did little Death get abandoned by his father? Aww. Don''t worry; I can be your father."
"This is why no one like you." Death tried his best to control himself.
"So you''ll break my bones?" Ss asked with a hint of excitement that sent a chill down Death''s spine.
"Yes. Let''s get it over and done with-"
*Swoosh*
Killing intent exploded out of Ss'' body.
"Give me everything you''ve got!" Ss roared as his body disappeared from where he stood before appearing in front of Death with his arm cocked back and his emerald eyes zing like two miniature suns.
Ss wasn''t using his brain while fighting for the first time in forever. He was moving solely on instinct, allowing his body to do the fighting instead of his mind.
After all, this wasn''t a form of training that would strengthen his mind. It was training designed to destroy and reconstruct his entire body from the ground up. Of course, that also meant that Ss wouldn''t win for a very long time.
It also meant that he wasn''t allowed to use any of the elemental fusions, dropping Ss'' physical capabilities back to the lower pristine topaz level, while death was at the very least capable of taking on a beast in the higher end of the solid amethyst core.
"Remember, you asked for this..." Death muttered while tapping on his chest.
His body was instantly covered in a light armor that could barely be seen under the ck cloak.
Death''s arm blurred as his fist shed with Ss'', creating a bloodcurdling crunch echoing throughout the forest.
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Chapter 69 Darkless City [3] - Cultivation, Assimilation, And Evolution
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*SWOOSH*
Ss flew through several trees instantly as his chest caved in, yet before he could m into one more, he flipped mid-air by punching the air and creating enough force to bnce him once more.
Ss slid for a couple of meters before leaning forward and shooting toward Death as quickly as possible without using any of his fusions that would amplify his fighting capabilities.
A mixture of emerald green and golden yellow energy ran through Ss'' mana channels before flooding into his bloodstream, and eventually into all of his muscles and bones, slowly repairing the damage done to them.
At the same time, Ss took in one long, deep breath that flooded his core with as much mana as possible before assimting it and sending it to the rest of his body.
He could feel the cold energy seep into his burning hot muscles, absorbing all the nutrients needed to repair themselves. It was an amazing feeling that allowed the pain from the destroyed limbs, bones, and muscles to wash away like the tide of an ocean.
Due to the petal of life and his breakthrough into the topaz core, his healing was far superior to his previous self. While before, it might have taken 3 minutes to heal apletely destroyed and shattered limb, now it took less than a minute.
*Swoosh*
Ss'' body moved like a streak of lightning.
His speed was so quick that not even beasts in the topaz stage would have sensed him without any of their strengthened senses.
However, while Death was not a beast, he was a toki user, which also meant that he could amplify his senses when needed, allowing him to see and hear Ss as he came at him with his right arm cocked back.
"You''re getting stronger much faster than I expected." Death frowned.
It had been only 4 hours since they started this training, and Death only took it on because he was bored and had nothing to do. He was an assassin, and assassination jobs only came around once every month or so.
Though, if he had to be honest, he didn''t expect to see himself breaking a child''s bones the entire time and feel guilty about it. Ss was an ass to him throughout the entire journey, but he still didn''t want this.
*CRACK*
Death spun on his toes and delivered a quick roundhouse kick that cracked the ground under him and mmed into the left side of Ss'' ribcage.
The fight before this point could have been described as a one-sided beatdown. Every punch Death threw seemed to break a bone or two, making him question whether Ss really killed themander or if Archie just lied to keep his own cover from being blown.
However, despite trying to hold back whenever Ss broke a bone or two, he would instantly regret it since Ss always took the opportunity to punish him for his restraint.
"Huh?" Death''s eyes widened when he felt the resistance against his foot disappear, and when he focused on Ss again, he already saw him twirling around the kick before throwing a backhanded strike that mmed into his jaw and pushed him back a few steps.
"Bastard." Death frowned and threw a lightning-quick punch that mmed into Ss'' stomach before catapulting him away like a broken kite.
"Can you stop holding back?" Ss asked through gritted and bloodied teeth.
"You''re not even using your magic and want me to not hold back? Are you crazy?" Death appeared before Ss in the blink of an eye without creating a single sound.
"I need to get stronger." Ss let out a bloody cough.
"And bing a punching bag is the only way you can do that?" Death rubbed his brows in frustration.
Ss wasying on the ground, bloodied, covered in mud, and even slightly mangled.
Not bothering to answer Death''s question, Ss closed his eyes and sucked in a cold breath filled with mana from his "metamorphosis" cultivation technique.
He felt mana seep into his body and go straight into his core before being tainted with an emerald green color and spreading to the rest of his body.
The cold mana seeped into all his broken bones, damaged muscles, and injured organs, healing them quickly.
Every round of healing made his body just a little stronger, but over time, that strength became increasingly obvious. His cells were being filled with mana, their gic properties changing every time, bing tougher and stronger in order to not suffer the same injury again.
After cultivating for a month without anything else to do, Ss tried to break down the key strengths of his cultivation technique. He named it Metamorphosis due to its connection to the evolution blessing.
However, the more he learned about the cultivation technique, the more he understood that it was more than just evolution despite that being a big part of it.
Metamorphosis had three functions; cultivation, assimtion, and evolution, but those were the only ones he had found so far.
Cultivation was self-exnatory; however, assimtion was a littleplicated.
Assimtion allows the user to break down anything they consume into something functional, which goes hand in hand with the other two functions.
When consuming poison, assimtion allows the body toplete an evolution. The evolution allows Ss to be resistant to the thing that entered his body, or to be more used to it.
Assimtion triggers evolution to choose the best oue when choosing how to evolve.
Poison will be repelled, and healing potions may be amplified in quality when they enter Ss'' body. For example, while Ss didn''t understand the power of the petal of life, he knew that there was no chance that it was supposed to give a blessing and amplify his healing.
At most, it should have healed him from a critical condition back to normal. However, ording to the blessing, it seemed to have given him the light affinity, increased healing, and even a connection to nature. Sure, he didn''t know how to use 2/3 of those, but it was still a lot.
The cultivation aspect of it is far less interesting, yet it has the potential to be something extraordinary.
Ss always found it odd that he had never seen his grandmother cultivate the mana within a core. Everyone seemed to turn beast and monster cores into armor or weaponry, while Ss and other beasts were the only ones who consumed or cultivated the cores.
After a little bit of questioning throughout the month''s journey, and it turns out that consuming or cultivating cores was not normal because anyone who consumed the mana of someone or something else would receive something called mana poisoning.
Consuming the mana core itself would cause the individual to experience mana overload, exploding their body into a blood mist.
On the other hand, Mana poisoning reminded Ss of the concept of blood types.
When taking in the blood of someone without the same blood type as you or someone who isn''t a universal donor, your immune system fights against that blood and tries to destroy it since it sees it as an invasive species.
Mana poisoning is the same, but you''re not allowed to absorb the mana of anyone except yourself.
Which brings Ss to the question, why is he unable to absorb the mana of a mage casting a spell, yet have no problem absorbing the mana of beasts and monsters, and even cultivating with them?
If his theory was correct, the answer was most likely linked to the properties of life forces.
"Oi. Stop spacing out. I have an appointment in about two hours." Death exined with crossed arms.
"Nah. I think I''m done for today." Ss replied. He was really hungry and worried he might pass out if he went any longer without nutrients.
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Chapter 70 Darkless City [4] - Life
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*Swoosh*
Death''s fist ripped through the air and smashed into Ss'' chest with so much power that it instantly caved in.
Ss shot back before mming into one of the trees and puking out a mouthful of blood.
Death appeared right before Ss before wrapping his hand around his fist, mming him into the ground, and dragging his head for over a hundred meters.
The blood-curdling sound of Ss'' bones shattering echoed throughout the forest, but Death wasn''t done.
He slowly lifted Ss over his head with both hands before-
*Swoosh*
*Crack*
"AHGHH!" Ss roared out in pain as Death''s knee mmed into his back, shattering his spine.
He felt all the air leave his lungs and refuse to enter anymore.
No matter how much he wanted to breathe, it hurt too much.
He was struggling to breathe.
His thoughts were in disarray.
The pain... Oh, the pain was unlike anything he''s ever felt before.
He could barely activate life fusion without roaring out in pain again.
Every movement sent a jolt of excruciating agony through his entire body, but he had to go through this.
It was for his family...
Family? Why would he need to go through so much pain for his family?
''Ah sh*t, I''m bing delirious.'' The rational side of Ss'' mind spoke out to him.
''Yeah, well, I do have a point though. Why am I doing this again? It''s painful as hell. No man or woman should ever feel the pain I''m going through.'' Another side of Ss'' mind argued, causing the rest of his mind to nod in understanding.
''Wait, since when do I have so many of me in my mind. Ahh... I must have a concussion.''
''Or you''ve always been like this.'' Another shrugged.
''Nah. If I''ve always been like this, I would have had one of you stop me from sending out that drug that destroyed Earth.''
''Yeah, but aren''t you kind of happy?''
''Happy?''
''Yeah. Sure, you destroyed the lives of over 15 billion individuals, but technically your life is better because of it. You wouldn''t have a family if you didn''t destroy Earth. Hell, Earth''s humans didn''t even deserve your genius. They were weak and incapable of understading you.''
''And what makes you think this world understands me?''
''They have magic.''
''...''
''...''
''...''
''Yeah, fair point.''
''Marvelous point young man.''
''Exquisite analysis of your situation.''
''Hmm...'' One of the Ss'' stood up.
''What is it, Ss #143.''
''If we destroyed humanity and, as a result, got a better life out of it, doesn''t that mean we deserve this pain?''
''...''
''...''
''...''
''Yeah, fair. Also, I''m pretty sure I''m going crazy.'' Ss #1 stood up.
''You just realized?''
''Shut #13.''
''This might be bad. If the pain we''ve gone through over thest 3 days is causing this, doesn''t that mean it is bound to get worse.''
''I thought y''all were a product of my concussion.''
''We probably are, but shouldn''t we be careful?'' #69 asked.
''...''
''...''
''...''
''Nah.'' #1 shrugged before closing his eyes.
''You guys sure we''re not on psychedelics?''
''Shut up, #420.''
''Does this world even have weed?''
''Of course, they do. Now shut up, and let me concentrate on getting rid of this concussion.'' #1 rolled his eyes before snapping his fingers and turning the rest to dust.
***
"What am I watching exactly?" A woman with long, curly, ginger hair and ivy-green eyes asked while turning to the man beside her. She held a long staff in her right hand and was draped in green and yellow robes.
"Their training over thest three days has been a little too rough for my liking. They started off going pretty easy on each other, but now..." Archie sighed.
"They''ve been going at it for hours." She flinched every time the sound of bone shattering entered her ears.
"Yet, Death is much stronger, so he won''t tire easily, and the kid is essentially a monster in human clothing." Archie chuckled.
*Crack*
They both watched Death shatter Ss'' back, causing the woman to flinch and Archie to narrow his eyes.
"Are you sure you don''t want me to heal him." The woman asked in a worried tone.
"He''s going to be fine."
"His spine has been destroyed."
"The spine you''re talking about belongs to a kid capable of using 5 elements, healing spontaneously, and having a level of intellect that rivals my own. He knows what he''s doing." Archie retorted, making the woman next to him roll her eyes.
"He''s not moving."
"I can see that..." Archie narrowed his eyes further.
"Can I heal him now?"
"Few more secs."
"For w-"
*Swoosh*
In that very instant, the wind picked up. Mana began blowing toward Ss and revolved around him before eventually entering his body.
The cold energy washed over Ss'' body, making him feel bliss like never before.
The sounds of bones cracking as they moved into ce sounded for a couple of moments.
Everyone, including Death, watched as Ss'' body reformed. The whole thing took a couple of minutes, but when the wind finally died down, and Ss'' figure finally stood up, everyone except Archie couldn''t help but let out a collective sigh.
Ss quickly stretched his body before looking at the three individuals, who were now all standing side by side, looking at him as if he was some kind of alien.
"What''s wrong?" Ss tilted his head to the right, causing his messy white hair to lean to the right.
Gel and working out were not a good mix, so he chose not to wear it anymore. He would fight and train almost daily, so there was no point.
Also, it hurts when gel mixed with sweat enters his eyes, so one could technically call it a safe bet.
"And, who are you?" Ss pointed at the ginger woman with emerald eyes.
''Healer?'' Ss raised a brow.
"Oh. Sorry for not introducing myself." She extended her hand toward Ss.
"I''m Life... Nice to meat you."
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Chapter 71 Darkless City [5] - Threat
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"I''m Life... Nice to meet you." The red-haired woman extended her hand forward in a polite greeting. However, for some reason, it made Ss feel smaller in her presence.
"Oh, you''re the 4th general, I believe?" Ss asked.
"3rd." She smiled back, though it didn''t seem like it was genuine.
''She doesn''t like me." Ss concluded before looking at Archie for a moment anding to a realization.
"You two dating?" Ss straightforwardly asked, not wanting to waste another second on this back-and-forth interaction.
"W-What!" The woman shouted as her face became beet-red. On the other hand, Archie simply chuckled and replied-
"No, we''re just colleagues."
''So it''s a crush? What are you, children?'' Ss couldn''t help but feel a little bbergasted. From what he understood, Archie probably knew that she had a crush on him, but there must have been a reason why there hadn''t been an advancement in their rtionship so far.
''Archie might simply not like her.'' Ss thought, remembering how many women he had rejected in the past due to being too busy with all his experiments.
Women wereplicated. They needed time and attention... Every rtionship needs both individuals to put in time with each other to make it work.
Ss simply didn''t have time. He knew when a woman looked good. He knew what he considered attractive and what he considered unattractive. However, he always got the dopamine he needed from his work. He was practically married to hisb.
The problem was, despite how much Archie''s intellect and behavior reminded Ss of himself, he was not the same. Archie was an architect. He was a master strategist, something Seth was as well, but was not limited to it.
In a weird way, Archie represented Ss'' chess-like mindset. Every move matters; if you lose, it was your fault and nobody else''s.
"Really? I think you would have made a great couple." Ss smiled.
"...You really mean that?" She asked with a half-embarrassed, half-excited tone.
''People are so dumb.'' Ss inwardly snickered.
"Of course." Ss walked past her while taking a final nce at her figure.
In Ss'' opinion, she was quite attractive. Before fangirling over Archie, she had a strong and confident aura, something people don''t often see in young healers such as herself.
Ss was definitely a redhead kind of guy, so she ticked off many boxes for him. She had an amazing hourss figure and porcin white skin that shone like marble under the sunlight.
Her green eyes went well with her fiery red hair, and her white and green modest outfit didn''t extend higher than the wrist and heels.
Such an outfit would have definitely been considered unattractive on Earth, but Ss had to admit it did fit her well. Well, it was much better than the women exposing too much skin.
"Are you done for the day?" Archie asked with a raised brow.
"Yep. I''ve gotten enough of a beating today. My entire body is sore and some of my muscles and organs are still healing." Ss tried to stretch, yet all he received was a horrible and excruciating jolt of agonizing pain.
"I have a thing in an hour or two, so I''ll be leaving aswell." Death sighed.
"Actually, I want to speak to Ss..." She looked at the two of them before continuing...
"Alone."
They both looked at each other before shrugging and walking in another direction. Life turned around and walked toward Ss, before taking a stroll back to the city alongside him.
"Why do you know my real name? Is Archie just going around telling everyone?" Ss asked with an annoyed tone.
"Not really." She put her hands behind her back before looking up at the canopy of the small forest.
"All the generals know who you are. Except War, of course. She''s still in the demon continent."
"I thought humans hated demons." Ss tilted his head.
"They do. But not all humans are the same, and not everyone listens to the kingdom and believes every word they spout." She replied.
"Why is she there then?" Ss questioned.
"To y an emerald-core dragon. Apparently, there was a sighting of one recently, and we don''t want the demons to get the kill since an emerald core is pretty rare. It could do a lot of damage in the wrong hands."
"..."
"What?"
"Emerald core? Really? Themander couldn''t even kill a dull-sapphire core if he wanted to." Ss retorted.
"No one said themander was the strongest in the organization. He''s actually only the third or fourth strongest. Well, he was until you killed him." She gave Ss a side-long nce.
"You know about that?" Ss awkwardly chuckled.
"Of course I do. Archie told us everything that happened.
None of us really care since that guy was an asshole and an egomaniac, so the only people who might have anything against you because of it is the Judgement faction.
Of course, we didn''t tell them about you killing themander, but if you do be the next judgment, the knowledge of you killing themander will most likely be used to rile the faction against you." She exined in a lecturing, almost motherly tone.
''I keep forgetting I''m a child to these people.'' Ss wanted to roll his eyes, but he quickly stopped himself.
"They''re all weaker than me, right? I can take them on." Ss shrugged.
"Oh please, if themander had used his trump card a little earlier, it wouldn''t have been just half of dia being destroyed. Archie told me how the battle went.
You pummeled him in an area where he couldn''t use his strength, you angered him into finally using his full strength, and in the moment of vulnerability between his first attack and charging the next, you killed him with all your strength.
You''re not stronger than themander. I''ve seen him kill three Sapphire beasts alone in less than 5 minutes. You''re just smarter than he ever was. And that is the very thing that makes you so deadly in the eyes of the rest of the generals. You might not be stronger than us, but if you''re anything like Archie...
You''ll be a bigger danger than Archie can even dream of."
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Chapter 72 Darkless City [6] - Here For A Reason
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"You''re a bigger threat than anything Archie can even dream of." She exined while looking at Ss'' eyes with an unempathetic re.
"You already said themander was only the third to fourth strongest. What is there to worry about?" Ss argued.
"You''re a six-year-old who killed a grown man capable of killing several beasts with sapphire cores when using all the power at his disposal.
He deemed you too much of a threat to be kept alive, yet you somehow still came out the winner. Is that not enough of a reason to fear what you might be?" She retorted with a snarl.
"..."
"Wait till they hear about you having two possible blessings, 5 elemental affinities, and a work ethicparable to War''s. I can''t believe you spent three days out here just to train."
"I have level three clearing... I can only leave 3 times."
"You can if you''re with a general."
"...Death, you bastard..."
"He didn''t tell you?"
"Of course he didn''t tell me! You think I would choose to cultivate in the wild?"
"I don''t know. You seem like that kind of person."
"I''m a kid..."
"Heh. You became an adult the moment you lost that innocence in your eyes. Don''t worry; it happens to the best of us." A beautiful smile blossomed on her face, recing her previous fiery re.
''This conversation is making me lose brain cells.'' Ss sighed.
A few secondster, Life ced her hand on one of the trees, creating a green handprint on it before the ground under them began to shift.
When their tform reached the level of therge root, they both stepped onto it and walked toward the city.
Since it was Life who put her hand on the tree to activate the tform, there was no need for Ss to register back in or show any identification on the way in.
They both walked inplete silence, yet that was not the case with everyone around them.
The streets were bustling. Almost everyone was a warrior of some sort. Everyone in the city seemed like they could fight and always wore armor on them instead of normal clothes.
Well, everyone who could afford armor. Almost everyone wore one or two pieces of leather to protect themselves. Others wore the fur of a strong beast, while some wore scales for protection.
"I need to buy armor." Ssmented, hoping that the woman beside him might have pity on the young child before her.
"I think you''d have a better time if you worried about your rent and food instead. From what I understood, you consume a tremendous amount of calories to heal in the way you do.
Sure, your cultivation technique seems to help you in the process, but your body essentially uses all the fat storage you have to keep you alive." She smiled while Ss froze at the mention of a cultivation technique.
"I must ask, where did you learn such a technique from. It''s almost as if it was made specifically for this type of training..."
''She''s too observant.''
"You were saying something about the Generals'' strength rankings? What rank are you?" Ss tantly attempted to change the subject, piquing her interest and telling her that the topic was off-limits.
"I''mst." She spoke with almost too much pride.
"You sound proud..."
"I''m a scientist. I conduct experiments and have a knowledge of runes beyond your understanding."
''I doubt that.''
"I simply do this healing thing on the side. I''m useless on the battlefield so technically the only thing I can do in a fight is heal people." She shrugged.
''That is the single most idiotic thing I''ve ever heard.'' Ss held those words back, only saying them in his head.
He was a scientist. The best in his field. Did that stop him from destroying the USA? Did that stop him from essentially conquering the world? Of course not!
He wanted to scream, ''This woman speaks nothing but nonesense!'', but of course, he held himself back.
"I guess that makes sense..." is what he actually said.
"Archie is the second strongest, right behind the War. The rest of them kind of mix together, though it is agreed upon that Death is 3rd."
"Death? Really? On the same level as themander?" Ss asked with a perplexed expression.
"Everyone had a trump card; I''m sure even you do. Though, I must admit that some trump cards are stronger than others. Themander''s trump card was his o'' divine passage. Only god knows what Archie''s is. War... Let''s not talk about her...
And Death''s is one that even Archie is wary of." She exined, making Ss narrow his eyes before eventually nodding.
As they walked toward his apartment, Ss looked around the streets to better understand the city. From the rent alone, he assumed that the people in the city must be earning quite a lot, but it didn''t make sense. They all looked way too poor to live in a city like this.
Maybe hunting paid a lot? Or maybe the jobs paid a lot more than they would in towns or other cities around the kingdom.
Though, even if that was the case, it seemed like even here, only the strong got to live in luxury, while the weak groveled on the streets with no hope in sight.
Some that walked with chainmail or even steel-ted armor walked around with smiles on their faces,ughing and enjoying their lives. They were most likely the strongest groups in the city.
The rest were depressing to look at. Sullen and empty eyes. Small statures. Hell, even the children weren''t saved from this fate.
Ss understood way too quickly what Life meant about him losing the innocence in his eyes... Back in dia, he would have seemed like an outcast due to his early maturity, but it felt normal here.
"I know what you''re thinking." After seeing Ss''s mild reactions to the city''s state, life finally spoke up, but Ss quickly cut her off.
"I expected nothing less from a city filled with bandits."
"Neither did I when I first came here." She sighed.
"I''m assuming you changed your mind about these people?" Ss asked while giving her a side-long nce.
Life halted her steps, making Ss look back with a raised brow to see why.
"S- Game... Darkless City is... despite its name, a dark ce. Everyone came here because of something they lost or might lose.
Everyone here had a horrible life or a tragic loss beforeing here, whether that was the loss of money, their friends, or even their family.
Everyone in this city is here for a reason. We all think we''re different when we see all these people around us with sullen eyes and no hope left in their hearts, but ultimately, we''re proven wrong.
Everyone is here for a reason, so that includes me... And that includes you too."
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Chapter 73 Secrets {1} - Eclipse
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It had been a week since that conversation with Life. Throughout that entire week, nothing of real significance changed about his training. It remained as boring as usual, the only difference being the fact that he no longer had someone to break his bones, so he had to do it himself.
*Woosh*
Ss descended at high speeds before eventually smashing into the ground and injuring most of his lower body.
Grasping at air, Ss pulled down, causing the enormous boulder to shoot toward him before letting go of his control over it.
The boulder descended 200 meters in the blink of an eye.
cing his hands above his head, Ss put all his strength into his arms before-
*Swoosh*
*BOOM*
The impact of Ss'' hands and the boulder colliding kicked up an enormous dust cloud while the blood-curdling crunch of his bones breaking echoed throughout the forest.
When the dust cloud finally dissipated, Ss'' tiny figure could be seen holding up an enormous and extremely dense boulder, covered in hundreds of cracks that spread throughout it all.
Ss was still holding the boulder up, but barely. Every breath made him feel excruciating pain, but at this point, he was almost used to it.
Of course, being used to it didn''t mean he didn''t feel the pain.
No, he definitely did feel it. Every time felt like it might be the worst pain he had ever felt, yet he kept doing it over and over again.
Ss let out a loud roar as he threw the boulder away with what remained of his strength before finally copsing to the floor.
A few secondster, Ss sat crosslegged and took a deep breath filled with mana that quickly turned into life energy when it hit his mana core.
The life energy coursed through his mana channels before going into his blood vessels, coursing the could energy into every inch of his body in pursuit of healing it back to its peak.
''Hmm... Maybe I should return to the city? I wonder if they have announced themander''s death yet.'' Ss asked himself when he eventually healed fully; however, instead of returning to the city, he cultivated for a few more hours before eventually returning to the tform.
As the tform slowly lowered itself toward one of therge root-like bridges, Ss finally saw the aftermath of Judgement''s death.
"Holy shit..." Ss'' mouth was left slightly agape.
The best way to describe the city would probably be "chaos." People seemed to be rioting for something?
Others were chanting a certain name while lifting a man sitting on a throne into the air.
"I''m assuming you''re new." A man jumped onto the bridge from his own tform.
"How did you know?"
"Well, you wouldn''t have the reaction on your face if you''ve been here for thest one." The man chucked.
He was a middle-aged man with a goatee and a ponytail. His hair with mixed with shades of grey and ck, and in a way, he looked a lot like the chief of dia... Or at least before he died. Now he''s just ahead.
''He doesn''t have the bulk though.'' Ss looked at the man''s athletic figure before narrowing his eyes when seeing an awakened mana core.
"Thest what?" Ss questioned.
"Thest election."
"These people have elections?" Ss seemed genuinely surprised, even though Archie told him about this before.
"Of course we do. We''re not barbarians. Unlike those Xylem kingdom bastards. How much I would pay to see all of them ughtered." The man pped his hands together and prayed silently.
"So... What are they electing exactly?" Ss asked.
"We found out themander is dead so we''re electing a new 7th general and a newmander."
"I thought themander chooses who the generals are."
"Technically, they can. When the Architect became the Architect, themander chose him for that position.
However, it was much easier to do that since the Architect didn''t have a faction. Judgment does, so we wait for them to choose their next general." The man exined, causing Ss to raise a brow while inwardly cursing Archie.
"What if themander chooses someone as Judgement that the faction doesn''t vote in." Ss asked.
"Well, themander usually never does that, but technically it had happened before." The man scratched his goatee.
"What did they do?" Ss questioned.
"They fight to the death if the general role is strength-based. To be Judgment, you need to be strong. Though, I did hear that there is another candidate the temporarymander is going to choose." The man shrugged.
"Is that man over there the prime candidate?" Ss asked while pointing at the man on the throne.
"Yeah. He''s pretty strong." The man crossed his arms and nodded.
"Alright... Nice meeting ya." Ss waved before increasing his pace.
"Oh, wait! Kid!" The man shouted.
"What?" Ss turned around slightly to make eye contact.
"If you''re looking for a job, you can go to the mercenary hall."
"What gives you the impression that I need money?" Ss tilted his head.
"Your clothes..."
"My clothes?"
"..."
"..."
Ss looked down at himself before sighing.
"Sure. Thanks," Ss waved onest time before fading into the crowd; however, he didn''t go to the mercenary hall.
Ss opened his apartment door with a low click before walking in.
Turning on the light, he ced a small bag on the ground filled with yellow and browny-orange crystals before walking to the furthest wall from the door.
Arge chalkboard could be seen ced on it, essentially taking up most of the wall''s surface area with its width and height.
Everything on it was written in English to keep all the information he had a secret.
The names of all the generals could be seen written, with their known strengths and weaknesses. Their real names, affinities, knowledge, threat level, family, and heritage.
Everything about each and every one of them was there, and it wasn''t had to find out either.
The only two Ss didn''t know anything about were Eclipse and Archie. Sure, Archie seemed innocent on the surface. Everything about him was public knowledge since he grew up in this city. However, Ss knew that there had to be more about him.
However, Eclipse was apletely silent individual. No one even knew what he looked like... Or at least until now.
"I thought you''d be better at hiding, but in the end, you came to me." Ss smiled while recalling the man with the goatee.
"Now that I know what you look like, finding who you are will be a lot easier than I first thought it would be."
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Chapter 74 Mercenary [1] - Queen Of Gold
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The rest of the board had all the information Ss could find on the Skrk family, something that would have been a lot easier if the inte was a thing of this world; however, since it wasn''t, Ss had to do an investigation, the old-fashioned way.
Books and asking around were always the best ways to learn about such a public figure. Of course, the general thoughts on the Skrk family were pretty negative, but that was to be expected when asking the opinions of a city of people abandoned by the Xylem kingdom.
But, of course, that was beside the point.
"I wonder if Eclipse knew it was me. He''s an expert in covert operations, but he is no assassin like Death. Though, Death only bes an assassin when he wears a cloak. Otherwise, he''s pretty useless." Ss thought aloud while writing the words "awakened", "pristine amethyst", and "wind" under Eclipse.
cing the chalk back onto the stand, Ss took the mana cores in the small back, ced them in a pouch, and left his apartment wearing a ck robe over his torn and ragged clothes.
It took him around 30 minutes to reach the mercenary hall before reaching one of the front desks after waiting for over 40 minutes.
"Hello. What can I do for you today?" The woman behind the desk had to lean forward to see Ss. He may have acted like an adult but he was barely taller than the average 9-year-old.
''I wonder what she''d think if I actually looked my age. Aren''t 6 year olds only 3 feet tall or something?'' Ss narrowed his eyes at her while cing the pouch of crystals on the counter.
"How much can I get for those?"
"Are you registered with the mercenary''s guild?" She asked with an almost condescending tone.
"I don''t think so?" Ss tilted his head while the woman''s condescending stare intensified.
"Kid... Did you really think I wouldn''t find out you stole these? Next time don''t bring so many topaz ones, and add a few onyx ones to spice up the mix." She snorted before cing the bag under her desk.
"Next."
A man and his group suddenly pushed Ss to the side before cing arge bag filled with crystals on the counter.
The woman immediately smiled when she saw the group of mercenaries.
''I guess there are some disadvantages to being a kid.'' Ss sighed.
"Can I get my crystals back?" Ss asked politely. He wasn''t sure what thew on assault was in the city. He didn''t want to be the Judgement faction''s enemy before they even knew him as one of their candidates.
"You got caught, kid. Take your losses and leave." One of the men waved Ss off.
However, Ss simply stepped forward and ced one hand on the desk.
"Final warning." His voice became cold, but they all snickered a little before one of them stepped forward.
"You heard thedy. They won''t pay you for-"
Suddenly, a wave of suffocating killing intent erupted out of Ss'' body. Several people in the room passed out, while others fell to the ground, coughing, and wheezing as they tried their hardest to breathe.
Thedy behind the desk seemed mostly unfazed except for the sweat dripping down her forehead, yet the men immediately took out their weapons and pointed them at Ss.
"Money... Before this conversation gets..." Ss paused before looking at the woman in the eyes.
"Bloody."
*Swoosh*
Ss ducked as a sword passed over his head.
Jumping back, Ss dodged the iing water spear before leaning back to dodge an iing fist.
Four people were in the group, yet since only three actually attacked Ss, he could only attack three.
Self-defence was a thing, right?
The floorboards under Ss'' turned into rubble as his figure disappeared from where he stood.
In the next instant, he was already behind the swordsman with his hand drilled right through his guts.
Pulling out his hand, Ss watched as the man fell to the ground, his insides pouring into the ground.
''Now that I think about it, I probably shouldn''t have done that.'' Ss sighed.
*Swoosh*
Ss'' hand moved on instinct, grabbing the hilt of the iing de before it could evene close to him.
"Would you like to end up like him?" Ss asked, his killing intent still pouring out of his body, paralyzing anyone with battle capabilities lower than a topaz-cored beast.
"Killing inside the mercenary hall is a major offence."
"I believe they attacked first." Ss kicked the woman away, causing her to slide a few meters before standing up and readying her de.
"What''s happening here?" A voice echoed inside the hall, immediately silencing Ss'' killing intent with the sheer pressure behind the individual''s voice.
"General Greed." The woman immediately kneeled while the rest of the room followed suit.
Everyone except Ss.
"Oh... You must Game. Archie has told me all about you." The figure walked through the hall''s doors, her heels clicking at every step, creating a low echo that resounded throughout the room.
The sea of people parted before her, creating a way between her and Ss.
"Oh. You''re Greed... I expected someone more..." Ss looked up at her cat-like ears.
"What? More masculine?" She asked with a tapping on her lips with one of her fingers. The action was almost seductive in nature, yet it didn''t really affect Ss since he was still a child with insufficient volumes of hormones in his body to be sexually attracted to her.
"I expected someone more modest. You''d look more qualified in a... nevermind." Ss rubbed the bridge of his nose while she frowned.
Greed was not in any way humble or modest, but Ss already knew that. She wore a long golden dress and walked around with a golden cane...
She had all the things the average man would find attractive. However, her clothes were too tight to even be considered modest in any way, shape, or form.
She had silky ck hair draped down her shoulders and a beautiful golden crown embroidered with bits of blue.
Everything about her screamed luxury, and her queen-like aura only made her feel that much stronger.
"How about we have a chat, Mr. Evergreen." A smile blossomed on her face before she dragged Ss to her office and sat at opposite ends.
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Chapter 75 Mercenary [2] - Greed
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"Do you understand what you''ve done?" Greed while narrowing her eyes.
"Yes?" Ss tilted his head.
"That man you just killed had a lot of connections. I wouldn''t be surprised if his friends chose to assassinate you." She leaned forward slightly while maintaining eye contact.
"They''re weak. What are they supposed to do against me?"
"They''re quite wealthy. They are more than capable of hiring assassins to end you in less than a day."
"You''re aware of how strong I am, right?" Ss crossed his arms.
"And I''m aware that your intelligence is your greatest weapon. What will intelligence do when you''re surrounded by dozens of assassins who have more experience than you.
Sure, you could probably kill a couple, but only brute strength will help you when you are outnumbered."
"Then, what are you saying?" Ss asked, but he couldn''t help but scrunch up his nose when a certain smell entered his nose.
"I want to help you." She smiled almost seductively.
''Is she trying to seduce me? She does know that I''m a child, right? Why does everyone here keep forgetting that...'' Ss frowned. However, understanding her ploy only took him a few more seconds.
[Foreign mind-altering drug detected]
Ss quickly breathed in and activated Metamorphosis'' assimtion.
[Drug assimted]
[You have grown a resistance to mind-altering drugs]
''I should probably start drinking poison. I''d really increase my tolerance to all types of drugs... Though, this could mean that I won''t be able to use anesthetic in the future... Oh well.'' Ss inwardly shrugged.
"Oh? Are you feeling it?" Greed smirked while turning her head to the side.
At the same time, Ss acted like he was getting drowsy and uncoordinated.
Greed quickly hopped onto the table and slid toward Ss, his legs dangling before him.
"I know you''re going to be Judgement... I''m well aware of that fact. So, before you be Judgement..." She reached forward and grabbed Ss'' chin, forcing him to look her in the eyes.
"I''m going to make you mine..." She let out a demonic smile that stretched from ear to ear.
***
*30 minutester*
The sound of the door clicking rang throughout the hall. Everyone watched Ss walk through Greed''s office doors; his eyes were listless, and his walk was wobbly. But, of course, it was all a part of his n.
"Is he going to be punished?" One of the men roared out, but he was quickly mmed into the far side of the hall by the girl who attacked Ss before Greed had arrived.
"Do not speak to the mistress with that tone of voice." The girl snarled.
"Jessica. Please." Greed looked at her assistant with a shake of the head, causing Jessica to let go of the man, dropping him to the ground.
"I apologise for my behaviour, General." Jessica kneeled with her fist on the ground, looking down with shame and dishonor.
"Stand. You are not at fault." Greed smiled warmly while Ss looked at the ground without any emotion or life in his eyes.
"May I ask what you will do with that boy?" Jessica asked with as sweat running down her forehead.
"Nothing. He just owes me one. Please give him the money we owe him. He also has a special mission he''s going just for me." Greed smirked while licking her lips.
Everyone in the room felt a shiver run down their spines, but they said nothing.
After all, Greed had a certain reputation.
"Is that all? Is that all my brother''s life is worth? A single mission!" The man on the ground roared as tears left his eyes, yet everyone quickly ignored him, even his own teammates who had just lost a friend andpanion.
Everyone knew what it meant to anger one of the generals, and if their friend was stupid enough to do that, he would be on his own.
Ss also left the hall. However, everyone kept their distance from him.
They could only imagine what had happened to him in that room.
After a while, Ss quickly walked into one of the alleyways and sighed.
''Well, that was a relief.'' Life and emotion returned to his eyes before he quickly fixed his posture.
Looking at his arm, he could already see that the puncture holes had already been healed, though a small problem remained.
Ss reached for the back of his neck, scratching the metallic gold and blue beetle stuck into his neck like a piercing he couldn''t take off.
He knew that he could probably take it off by ripping it out of his neck, but he also knew that she was instantly found out.
He was supposed to be under her control.
Ss quickly returned home and picked up the chalk.
''Such arge variety of drugs. Life is one of the only herbologists in this city; I wonder if she knows what Greed is doing. I wonder if she''s the supplier too.
Greed has more than enough money to get it from the outside, but I doubt it would be cheaper than getting it from here. Greed is in her name. There''s no way in hell she would choose to waste that much money.'' Ss thought to himself before scratching his chin.
From what he understood, while acting like he had been roofied, the bug at the back of his neck told her where he was. At the same time, his system-like screen told him a little more about the beetle than she would have liked him to know.
Looking to the side, Ss willed to open the green screen, and a few secondster, it appeared before him.
[A ve item is being forced upon you]
[Your life force has rejected the will of the item]
[Your mind has rejected the will of the item]
[Your mana core is struggling to resist the will of the item]
''Since two of the threeponents have rejected the item''s will, it must have lost most of its energy before trying to take over my core. What an borate n... I''m lucky that my life force and mind are strong enough to repel it.'' Ss grinned.
However, Greed had just ced herself in a position that Ss could benefit from.
If she thinks she can control him, killing her would be much easier than he first thought it would be. He would also gain her favor when bing Judgement, whether that is in the election phase, or when he actually bes a general.
''You don''t even realize it, but you just fell right into the palm of my hand.'' Ss smiled before writing all the information he had on her on the board before him.
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Chapter 76 Mercenary [3] - Shopping
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Ss now knew that Greed''s name weapons were poison and artifacts. From what he saw, she had an awakened mana core, but she was still in the ga core.
Her physical strength was pretty high since she was a beastkin capable of coursing mana through her body, but of course, she probably didn''t know that.
That''s the problem with not being able to see mana. Not being able to see mana means it is much harder to understand it. It''s like trying to make a vine without knowing the cause of the virus or illness.
If only they knew how their world worked, Gilea would have been revolutionized...
''Oh no...'' Ss rubbed the bridge of his nose as an idea popped into his mind.
His goal from the moment he was birthed into this world and given magic was to learn how to use it, and revolutionize it in a way that he could not do for Earth.
However, he didn''t know how people would perceive him, so he became strong first and thenpleted his experimentster on. But, there was another way to do what he dreamed of.
What if he became King? Sure, the people might hate him, but the legition would be a hell of a lot easier to pass? That''s what he did on Earth, but it was his first time conquering a country, especially one as big as the united states of America.
The second time''s the charm, right?
''I could show the people how much easier their lives are with my revtions. I''m certain many people are dying due to diseases, and are incapable of paying for a healer every time they get a cold. What if I introduce the concept of cleanliness.
I''m sure some already follow the concept, but what if I introduce it to the world, or at the very least, to this city... Though, that would mean I''d have to be themander...'' Ss thought with knitted brows.
He didn''t know what to do...
Looking at the other side of his chalkboard, Ss'' eyes diverted to the words "The n" written in bold letters at the top.
His n for the next 6 years were simple.
First, he had to get stronger while also gaining money. The best way to do that was to go on missions, but for thest week and a half, all he had been doing was training. However, that would have to soon change.
Archie told him it would take him a month or two to bemander. And since that is probably their primary objective over the next month, the next Judgment would most likely have to wait until Archie bes themander.
It meant he had 3-4 weeks toplete as many missions as possible.
''I''ll probably have to fight that guy to be Judgment.'' Ss thought back to the man on the throne, being held in the air by the other faction members.
''There''s the problem of the man I just killed, but I guess it won''t be nearly as big of a problem as the Judgment candidate and the next mission. After I be Judgement, I should be able to focus on the rest of the n.'' Ss thought as his eyes became cold and distant when he remembered the Skrk family.
''I just want to watch them burn...'' A small smile appeared on his face before he picked up the chalk once again and wrote the words ''pedophile'' under ''Greed''.
He was surprised that she didn''t do anything to him. ording to the rumors, he was at the prime age to be one of her victims, but maybe she just wanted to season the steak before taking a bite.
However, he didn''t actually know if those rumors were true, but if they were, it would make killing her much easier than he had first anticipated it would be.
''I hope Nymira''s not facing the same trouble I currently am. I''m a grown man with his own problems, so it wouldn''t affect me much.
However, if it happens to Nymira... It could scar her for life.'' Ss frowned, before cing the chalk on his stand, changing his clothes, and leaving through the front door with a scowl on his face.
''I hate having a moral conscience...'' Ss sighed, remembering the days when he had let millions burn without batting an eye.
***
"Sir?" Ss called out as he entered a cksmith store.
He only had about three gold on him, and the rest was going to go into rent for the next month.
"Oh, hello, young man. How can I help you?" A balding man asked with a warm and gentle smile, which truly surprised Ss since it wasn''t something he had seen sinceing here almost a week ago.
Almost everyone was rude or somehow underestimated him.
He was almost certain that the main might kick him out for thinking that Ss might rob him, but he ended up being gentle and kind instead.
The man before Ss was a giant. Not in a literal sense, but more in a metaphorical one.
He stood at least 6ft 8 and was 3 times wider than Ss.
His arm was bulging with both muscle and veins.
In his right hand, he held arge hammer made of some kind of metal Ss had never seen before. In his other hand, he wore a gauntlet of some sort made of stainless steel and perfectly wrapped around his hand.
The man was shirtless, probably because he was sweating quite a lot. However, even Ss couldn''t help but gawk at his defined upper body.
"I was going to ask you how much it would be to get armor and weapons made here?" Ss asked with a slightly nervous tone, fit to that of a child his age.
"I don''t think you''ll be able to buy anything here, young man. My armor has been created by my very hand to be the best of the best. You''d at least need 20 or more gold to buy even a scrap version of my equipments." The man exined while Ss rubbed his chin.
"Do you enchant these armors?" Ss asked as his emerald eyes zed to reveal the intricate runes on the equipment.
''He''s right. Even the worst things he''s got in here are better than anything I''ve seen in dia.'' Ss thought.
Anyone else in his ce would have probably had a headache by just looking at theplexity of the runes. However, Ss once looked right into the life equation, and technically, it is one of the most intricate andplicated piece of rune manship he had ever seen.
Sure, he cked out and went into aa for a month after seeing it, but it didn''t affect him the same way ever since then.
"Of course. I wouldn''t be the best cksmith for nothing." The man chuckled while his workers looked at Ss with suspicion.
Chapter 77 Mercenary [4] - The Ring & The Mission
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The room was decorated with dozens of things, from armor and weapons to amulets and rings.
However, past that, you could see dozens of workers working on pieces of equipment, forging them with their hammed and enchanting them.
''Wait...'' Ss narrowed his eyes when he saw one of them engrave a rune into the sword they were holding with some kind of pen instead of simply tracing over it and imprinting the rune on it.
"Do you have anything I can buy for three gold? That''s currently all I have on me." Ss rubbed the back of his neck with an embarrassed smile, forcing himself to peel his eyes away from the enchanting process that he almost fell into a trance looking at.
"Uhm... I''m not sure, but I think there might be one or two amulets or rings I can give you."
The burly man walked to a corner of his store and opened a small drawer before taking out a ck rectangr box and cing it on the desk in front of Ss.
Opening the box, the man picked out one of the rings and lowered it toward Ss so he could hold it.
"Are you sure?" Ss raised a brow.
"Of course. You''re a buyer. You should be able to inspect the product before buying it." The burly man smiled.
''He''s weird.'' Ss thought before looking at the ring for a moment.
"What does it do?" Ss asked as he continued to look at the runes.
He didn''t really understand what they meant. Sure, his knowledge of runes was probably impressive whenpared to most people; however, he knew nothing about enchantment runes.
''They use pure mana.'' Ss thought.
Some of the equipment in the room used elemental runes, yet the rest used standard mana runes.
"It increases your speed for short bursts of time. It''s usually only mages who use these types of essories, but I guess you''re young so you might not be able to move as fast as someone much bigger than you." The man exined with another one of his warm smiles.
"How long is the cooldown?" Ss asked.
"Around an hour."
"How long is the burst of speed."
"30 seconds? Give or take." He shrugged.
"By how much?"
"Depends on you. The ring is an enhancement essory. Even though it can be used by anyone, the effects vary from anywhere between 1.5x your speed, or 3x." The cksmith crossed his arms before asking- "What do you think?"
"How much?"
"Usually 5 gold, but since it''s your first time here, and I''ve been looking forward to getting rid of that thing, how about 1 gold?" The cksmith grinned.
"Wow? Really?"
"Of course."
"Oh... Thanks." Ss smiled before taking out a gold coin and cing it on the counter.
"Thank you." Ss bowed slightly before leaving the store.
"What a nice kid." The cksmith spoke aloud while watching Ss blend into the crowd and disappear.
"I know, rigtht. I expected him to steal something and leave." One of the workers chuckled.
"No. I had a feeling that he wouldn''t steal anything. Though, if he did attempt to steal of one of my things, he would have ended up like the rest of them." The cksmith''s eyes flickered with traces of cold before a smile blossomed on his face again.
Everyone in the room shuddered when they saw his eyes, but they quickly quieted down and returned to work.
***
After that, the day passed by quite quickly.
Ss slept throughout the night for one of the first times sinceing to this city.
As the sun rose, the blue crystals at the top of the cave''s walls illuminated with a blue radiance that shone throughout the entire cave system, alerting everyone that the next day hade and that they should wake up.
Ss quickly showered using water magic before leaving for the mission Greed had for him.
She said she would pay him for the mission despite the fact that he ''owed'' her, and this was supposed to be the method of repayment.
"Game Evergreen?" The desk ninjady from before asked while looking down at Ss'' figure.
Ss had walked to the mercenary hall, yet a small group was already forming outside it, each one of them holding a paper and reading what was on it.
''They know how to read? I seem to be getting one surprise after another these days. I wonder what the next one will be? Wait, no! Surprises are always bad. Ah crap, I think I just jinxed myself.'' Ss felt like facepalming, but in front of Jessica, the ninjady who tried to kill himst time, such a thing would have probably been considered rude.
"Yes?" Ss replied.
"Here is the briefing for today''s mission. Do you know how to read or do you want me to read it for you?" She asked with a slightly mocking tone.
''What''s her problem?'' Ss narrowed his eyes before rolling them and looking away.
"I know how to read." He sighed before looking at the sheet of paper in his hands.
''7 individuals... kill a beast... Extract venom... h h h. Oh... This is kind of easy. However...''
"Hey, Jessica." Ss waved at the woman.
"What." She spat.
"This briefing doesn''t say how strong the beast is." He pointed out, causing the rest of the group to look down at their sheets and point out the same thing.
"That''s because we don''t know how strong it is."
"You don''t know how strong it is, yet you''re making us go on this suicide mission?" Ss chuckled with mockery.
"Hey! I''m going as well. Plus, we''ve had sightings of this beast quite a few times in the past month. The area it lives in is one without many strong beasts. At worst, it''s an amethyst core; at best, it''s a topaz core." She shrugged while the others nodded, but Ss couldn''t help but have a bad feeling about this.
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Chapter 78 The Mission [1] - Menace
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"Okay. If you say so." Ss shrugged before asking- "I''m assuming you''re the mission''s leader?"
"Yes I am. Please stay in line and don''t do anything stupid again." She rolled her eyes before turning back to one of her colleagues.
Walking to the rest of the team, Ss quickly scanned them before sighing.
From his rough estimations, the average level of strength across all of them was pristine topaz. That was the same strength as Ss when he''s not using any fusions or spells.
The strongest amongst them could probably take on a dull to solid amethyst-cored beast with high difficulty. The strongest amongst them had a solid topaz core.
He was quite young, being no older than 16; however, since he was a mage, he would most likely be a very strong asset to have.
"Hello. My name''s Game Evergreen." Ss introduced himself, but none of them reacted to his presence, returning to their own conversations rather than addressing him.
''Bastards...'' Ss gritted his teeth, but before he could even repeat himself, Jessica suddenly appeared in front of him before cing an enormous back on his hands.
"You''re the porter." She gave Ss the smile of a witch.
"Bitch." Ss muttered in English before looking at the bag in his hand.
It was a leather strap bag that people used in the medieval era back on Earth. Though, it was a lot bigger than most of Earth''s counterparts, and a lot heavier despite its size.
Opening the bag, Ss peered inside the bag while increasing the mana going to his mystic eyes. He always had mystic eyes activated. It was almost an instinct now to keep it on all the time. It felt weird without it, and the mana usage wasn''t a lot unless he increased the mana input.
However, when he looked inside the bag, it waspletely ck until he increased the mana input.
''Oo... Dimensional storage. This is amazing... I wonder who made it. Wait, the runes being used are made out of pure mana. Does that mean mana has the ability to manipte space? Wouldn''t that take vast amounts of energy?
This is essentially the concept of dimensional engineering implemented on a bag. If I had a few more years back on Earth, I would have probably learned how to do something like this...'' Ss thought excitedly, as the me of curiosity in his soul grew a littlerger.
"Alright. We''re moving out." Jessica announced before leading the group outside the city.
***
In a dark corner of the Darkless city, over 40 individuals stood before a woman in a golden dress.
She was sitting on one of the rocks, her legs all the way to her knees, bare for everyone to see.
Her ck hair moved ever so slightly while her cat-like ears twitched in ecstasy as she ced something in her mouth.
"Ah.... Johnny. If your bakery ever closes, I''m worried I might go mad." She smiled wonderfully while wiping the remaining cake crumbs and frosting from her face.
She was sitting cross-legged on a golden throne, squirming after every bite.
"I would never close the bakery as long as I live, madam Greed." She man beside him kneeled, his forehead getting so close to the ground that it touched her feet.
"Ah... Good boy." She patted his head with a maniacal smile that wouldn''t have been seen on the face of anyone who was not at least a little crazy.
"Madam? We''ve been waiting for your order for over an hour. Can you please tell us what you want?" One of them asked, his voice frustrated after kneeling for so long.
Everyone else wanted toin since their knees were hurting too, but none of them dared to do so.
The moment she heard what the man had said, the smile on her face disappeared before a menacing scowl reced it.
"Are you questioning my judgment?" She asked with a cold voice.
"N-No! Of course not-" Before he could even finish speaking, he felt something go through his chest, and when he looked down, he saw a petite that looked like it had been recently manicured, covered in his blood.
When he looked up again, he saw the Greed was no longer sitting on her throne.
"What..." His voice was croaky and hoarse.
"Do not question me again..." She whispered into his ears before the man eventually fell into the pool of his own blood, dying where hey.
No one dared raise a peep. No one dared to even look at the woman before them.
No one dared to say a single thing that might upset her.
They were all amethyst cores of every kind, yet they were terrified of the woman before them.
"Would you like me to get someone to clean it up?" The man who had been previously kneeling at her feet asked.
"Yes, please!" she answered with a little hop while speaking in a cheerful voice.
She was now covered in a suit of golden armor seemingly appearing out of nowhere; however, the most eye-catching characteristic about this armor was not its shimmer or extravagance, but the emerald crystals embedded into them, every single one of them shimmering with tiny threads of crimson-blood.
The man picked up a crystal and spoke a few words into it before a bunch of guys appeared out of the nearby alleyways and cleaned up the mess in less than a minute.
Greed watches the body disappear before looking at the man beside her lovingly.
"What would I do without you." She stretched her hand toward him and grabbed onto his jaw before pulling him closer.
She finally kissed his lips lovingly and sat on her throne.
They all looked up to see what she would tell them, but the moment they did-
*Cough Cough*
*Thud*
The man she had just kissed fell onto the ground, his hands wrapped around his neck as he struggled to breathe.
"That''s for stating the obvious." She grinned as the man''s eyes slowly turned lifeless.
Her eyes averted the dying man before her andnded on the 40 men waiting for her order.
"You have one job, and one job only."
Her grin slowly turned more and more maniacal.
"I want you to kill Game Evergreen, aka, Ss Skrk."
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Chapter 79 The Mission [2] - Misthowlers
?
Ss and the rest of the group walked leisurely through the in fields. The beast they were after was some kind of python capable of secretingrge amounts of poison mist, capable of killing everything around him in less than a minute.
From the books he read as a child, Ss knew that before these "modern times", people would tame these snakes rather than kill them and take their poison.
They were extremely useful in battle; however, after a treaty between all the powerhouses in the continent of Edore, they decided that using them was a horrific war crime.
"Jessica." Ss called for the woman at the front.
"Yes, Mr. Evergreen?" She asked with an annoyed voice.
"What''s the habitat of this creature?" He asked with a curious glint in his eyes that could not help but pull at the heartstrings of the rest of the group.
Of course, despite the glint of curiosity being genuine, Jessica didn''t buy it since she saw the other side of Ss.
The moment he killed that man, she saw nothing but merciless bloodlust in his eyes, and ever since then, she could not shake the feeling that the 9-year-old-looking boy before her might be keeping more secrets than all of thembined.
To reach that level of bloodlust, one would have had to kill thousands, if not tens of thousands. Of course, Ss had killed much more than that measly amount, but he was being held back by his mana core, physical strength, and body age.
After all, despite the maturity of his life force, the killing intent was stilling out of the body of a 6-year-old that happened to look three years older than he actually was.
"They can live anywhere, however, the one we''re going to lives in a misty forst." She exined with a sigh.
"That''s not good..." Ss looked down with a small scowl.
"What''s wrong." One of the male members of the other 5 individuals asked with a worried tone.
"Does the python have a distinct color of poison?" Ss asked.
"I wouldn''t say it''s distinct, but it has a slightly pink hue." A girl with a staff replied while tapping on her chin.
"This fight might be a little more difficult than I thought it would be." Ss thought aloud, though he wasn''t talking about himself.
He was not only a mage, but he also had a strong resistance toward poison. They had ced him on porter duty, yet he was now their most prized teammate, and they didn''t even know it.
The mage girl was clearly a water mage, and the core was only at the solid-topaz stage. What they really needed for this mission would have been someone with an air affinity capable of blowing the mist and the poison away with a single spell.
"Stop stressing out my subordinates with your incoherent rambles." Jessica snorted while ncing at Ss in disdain.
''What''s her problem? I''m trying to save you for your demise you stupid... Nevermind. Not worth it.'' Ss sighed and looked forward without a care in the world.
They''d be begging him to save them in a few days, and Ss was very patient about these things.
And so, the journey continued. Ss and the rest walked for hours through grass ins and random towns, stopping in some to stay over the night before continuing on their journey.
Darkless was located in the northern county, and they were all moving toward the misty forest that bordered the northern and western counties.
"I think that''s it." one of the menughed in joy while the rest sighed in relief. They had been walking for almost 3 days now and were all tired. Well, everyone except Ss, of course.
"All of you, get your weapons out and equip and essories or pieces of armor you have." Jessicamanded, and everyone did as she ordered.
"All of you." She narrowed her eyes at Ss, who didn''t move a muscle.
"Oh. I''ve already got all my things on." Ss raised a finger with a ring on it before smiling wryly.
"Where''s your armor?" She narrowed her eyes further.
''Earth fusion is my armor.'' Ss inwardly thought before answering-
"I don''t have armor."
"Then how did you block my attack in the mercenary hall?" She began to sweat.
"With my hand?" Ss was now utterly confused.
''Maybe she knows that I''m a mage, therefore thought that my physical strength came from my armor rather than my muscles?''
"N-Nevermind. We have more important things to take care of." She blushed in embarrassment while the rest of the time shrugged after seeing how she was acting.
It didn''t take much longer for them to enter the forest.
It was quiet, and the mist so far was almost none existent. However, when looking into the distance, Ss saw some evidence of fog since, after a while, it seemed to bepletely grey from his perspective.
His mystic eyes told the same story with a different lens.
One would think that you''d be capable of seeing right through the fog with mana-seeing eyes, but that was simply not the case in this forest.
The environment was too wrong. How can an area be foggy all the time, especially with the current conditions?
The permanent fog was nearly impossible, especially considering where the forest was located.
The fog was made out of mana, and Ss only knew one creature capable of doing such a thing...
Though, if it is capable of covering an entire forest with its mist, it also means that it would be extremely powerful.
As they all stepped into the forest, they could not help but feel the booming silence creep down their spines.
Everyone''s hearts began to beat faster and faster. Quicker and quicker. Every beat felt like the beat of a drum, mming into their chests as the silence grew more deafening by the second.
Ss was used to this kind of silence. He was locked in a white room once for over a month, and even though it temporarily made him go mad, this was nothing like that hellish month.
They were now a few hundred meters in, and the fog had be heavy. Ss could only see about 10 meters in front of him before it all faded into obscurity, while the rest could probably see a little less since they didn''t have mystic eyes.
*Swoosh*
Ss'' rxed figure tensed for a moment before he lowered his head, allowing the attacker to pass right over him,pletely evading the attack without much effort.
''I wonder how you''ll deal with this..." Ss thought, his eyes wondering toward Jessica, who seemed to have just realized they were now surrounded.
"Misthowlers..." Jessica mutter while the rest froze.
Everyone knew what a misthowler was, and even though they weren''t nearly as terrifying as mistwalkers, they came in packs which made them almost as dangerous.
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Chapter 80 The Mission [3] - New Bloodline
?
Jessica quickly unsheathed both of her daggers while the rest brandished their own weapons. Two were mages, one a water mage and the other a healer. The rest were closebat fighters, all brandishing their swords.
Swords were the mostmon weapon throughout the continent and possibly even beyond it.
It was normal for the majority of them to use swords. It''s actually really surprising when a closebat fighter didn''t use a long de of sorts.
Not wanting to waste any more time, Jessica shot forward, disappearing from where she was and appearing right next to one of the wolves.
She was an assassin; that much was clear from her light clothing and daggers. Though, Ss did question why she wore such exposed clothing when most assassins wore cloaks.
Jessica swung down at the misthowler with all the power she could muster, decapitating it in an instant...
Or at least that''s what it looked like.
The misthowler''s head dropped to the ground before turning into mist, yet a secondter, the mist reformed around the rest of the misthowler''s body and created a new head.
Misthowlers looked like extremely white wolves, to the point where they became a little transparent in nature.
Everything about them was white, from the color of their fur to the color of the skin underneath. Even their eyes were as close to white as they could be without blending in with the whites of their eyes.
However, just like mistwalkers, their bodies were incorporeal, allowing them to pass through objects easily while also blending into the mist around them or even turning their bodies into the mist.
The difference was that while mistwalkers had solid bodies that had the ability to turn into mist, misthowlers werepletely made up of mist, making their cores the only thing that kept them together.
Ss stepped back and decided to watch everything unfold. He increased the input of mana into his eyes and looked on with a smile.
''Let''s see how you deal with this.'' Ss thought.
*Swoosh*
A long gash appeared on Jessica''s arm as a misthowler dashed by her with its ws extended.
When itnded behind her, it looked back and growled at her figure, making her grit her teeth in anger before tightening her grip around her des and shooting forward once more.
However, this time her des were covered in a red hue that made Ss narrow his eyes.
''It''s those runes...'' he thought to himself while memorizing the pattern of runes on her daggers.
Her de cleaved through the misthowler in front of her like it was nothing, but this time instead of regenerating immediately, it took a little longer.
That''s all she needed toplete her final blow.
Her des danced through the air in a ruthless symphony of shes that cleaved through the misthowler in an instant.
Before she knew it, she eventually hit the crystal and realized something.
Her shes changed in direction and ruthlessness, and before she, the wolf could understand what had just happened, it felt its body being cleaved before its core was eventually ripped out of the body, causing the rest of it to copse.
"Aim for their cores!" Jessica roared; however, after looking back, she understood that the rest of the team wasn''t doing nearly as well as she did.
Ss stared at the core in her hand for a moment and understood something.
The howler''s main body wasn''t the core. It was the misty substance around the core that brought it all together.
Jessica might not have realized it, but the moment she activated the red energy and hit the wolf''s core, she actually hit the main body covering the core.
When she finally ripped the mana core out, she had already destroyed most of the real body with her daggers. They wouldn''t have died if the core remained in the body, but since it didn''t, it immediately died afterward.
However, just as Ss was going to continue watching the rest of the fight, he heard a low growling from behind him.
Looking back, Ss saw arge misthowler looking at him with rage in his eyes.
"The alpha, I assume?" Ss muttered under his breath, yet before he could get thest syble out, he watched the wolf disappear into the mist.
''It''s pretty easy to follow the rest of them since I have mystic eyes, but even with my upgraded version that I got when I broke through to the topaz stage, I still can''t see the alpha.
It must have made itself so thin that it became no different from the mist around it.'' Ss narrowed his eyes before a smile tugged at the corner of his lips.
The mist around him was thickening at a fast degree, to the point where even its mana core which had been disguised by the mist around it, became invisible to his eyes.
Ss waited with his arms folded, but even after waiting for a minute, nothing happened.
''Hmm?'' The hair at the back of his neck stood up, and without thinking twice, Ss created a blue magic circle and swung back.
Ice formed out of the ground and erupted into the sky, hitting whatever was going to attack and dying the wolf further.
''I don''t have time for this...'' Ss pointed his hand into the sky and created another blue magic circle, this one being a tier-3 one.
Suddenly, the fog began to move and swirl around Ss, but unlike before, he was in control of the situation.
The mist around him continued to swirl, and before the wolf could understand what was happening, a water sphere began to form above Ss.
The sphere gotrger andrger by the second.
The mist was dissipating at the same rate.
Pointing his hand forward, Ss created a tier-1 fire bullet before closing his eyes and lining it up with the yellowish-orange crystal in the distance.
''Gotcha.''
*Bang*
The fired bullet shot through the air at tremendous speeds, hitting the crystal and burning away theyer around it in an instant.
[You have killed a Misthowler]
[Devouring one life force]
[You have absorbed the Mist Walker bloodline]
[Bloodlines:
Shadow Walker - 1%
Mist Walker - 3%
Thundertusk - 23%
Sonic Bat - 38%]
''I didn''t get an ability from it... Really? Also, why does it have a higher percentage if I only killed one misthowler? Technically this one is the same strength as the mistwalker I killed a few years ago...
But technically, the bloodline is called the Mist Walker bloodline, so what do I know.
Besides that, I haven''t gotten an ability from any bloodline with 23% or lower. Maybe I get a bloodline every 25%? Or maybe every 33%? Why are some called prime bloodlines while others are called just bloodlines...''
Ss continued to ask himself these questions until he heard his name being called.
"Sials!" Jessica''s voice entered his ears and made him realize that he was holding an extremelyrge amount of water above his head.
There was close to no mist around them except for the ones being exuded by the remaining misthowlers that were still fighting the rest of the team. However, even that mist didn''tst for a second, as it would instantly move toward Ss'' water sphere.
''I''m not close enough, but I could probably turn them all into water too, right?'' Ss asked himself before he sighed.
Ss quickly changed the runes to condense the water above him into a smaller form, but even then, it was really had to do such a thing without making them entire thing explode.
His control over the mana wasn''t strong enough to condense such arge amount of water, so instead, he snapped his fingers and turned the sphere into ice.
He then changed the runes around a little more, causing it topress even more and eventually, go from being the size of dia''s town square to being the size of a two-story house.
Creating three fire bullet spells in front of him, Ss quickly killed the remaining wolves before dropping the enormous and extremely heavy ice sphere onto the ground.
They all turned around to look at Ss with awe and shock; however, when they did look back, he was already right next to the sphere of ice, cutting out two axes.
''Their weight won''t have much distribution, but it''s pretty light for me anyway, and I can keep them cool the entire time so they won''t melt.'' Ss thought while using pressurized water to cut into the sphere.
After a few minutes, he had two axes ready for him to go, and eventually, they began to move again into the more foggy areas once more.
"How did you do that?" The girl with the staff asked while looking at Ss.
Looking at her, Ss raised a brow and thought-
''Why do all the mages around here have to be women. I don''t think I''ve met a single male mage yet... Oh wait, I have. I just killed them because they were attacking the town.'' Ss thought,pletely forgetting that Eclipse could also be a mage.
Chapter 81 The Mission [4]
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''Why do all the mages around here have to be women. I don''t think I''ve met a single male mage yet... Oh wait, I have. I just killed them because they were attacking the town.'' Ss thought,pletely forgetting that Eclipse could also be a mage.
''Ooo! Maybe I should protest or make videos online about this.'' Ss chuckled, making the girl next to him look at him weirdly.
"Do what?" Ss finally asked.
"You turned the mist into a huge water sphere. I''m in the solid topaz core, and even I can''t do that. Plus that ice too... You sure are talented. I''ve never seen anyone with the capability of creating ice before." She said. Clearly, she thought that she was a higher core than him, and if he were, to be frank, she wasn''t wrong. She had a higher mana purity than him, an even higher mana pool than he did despite him having 4x the amount of mana.
It was just that his mana efficiency was so much better than hers. Though, he wasn''t too sure how strong his affinity was. Sure, his affinity would have probably been ranked S toward all the elements, but his affinity to mana itself was still unknown.
''It seems like she didn''t see me doing it without saying in incantation... Maybe I should keep that a secret? I wouldn''t want anyone to connect me to my previous life. How many kids are there out there capable of doing what I am capable of?'' Ss thought to himself before shrugging at the woman.
"I work on my mana control a lot." He replied.
"Really? But you''re so young. You look like you''ve only been awakened for a couple of years." She pointed out.
"The trick is to work on your manual casting. Every time you cast it manually, think about how everything works. That''s how you get closer to your element." He paused and thought for a moment before continuing.
"My master taught me everything he knew before I came here. He was truly amazing. I once saw him cast all several tier-3 spells without saying a single word." Ss lied through his teeth with awe and revere in his voice.
"Instant casting! For tier-3 spells? That''s impossible. He''d have to be one of the best mages in the kingdom if that was the case." The girl eximed with disbelief.
''I made a good choice not telling her about instant casting.'' Ss thought while looking at her reaction.
It was definitely something amazing that most people in his vige were incapable of appreciating. None of them were mages except the priest, a few healers, Diveen, Rhea, and his grandmother. Those who hadn''t been around mages much wouldn''t know the value of instant casting.
"He was the best. Hell, I hope to surpass him one day. Right now, I can use only instant cast tier-1 spells, but hopefully, I can reach tier-2 in the next few years." Ss grinned while the girl looked at him with suspicion.
"Show me." She demanded with an excited yet doubting tone.
''This should be fine, right? Tier-1 spells are extremely simple. They have only fourmands, so I don''t think it''ll matter if she knows about this.'' Ss concluded before pointing his hand forward.
The rest of the team had been eavesdropping on their conversation.
They all knew many mages since 1/20 of Darkless was filled with them, which could have been considered unparalleled in other kingdoms and cities since only 1/100 people became mages, and out of those, only 1/40 becamepetent enough to reach past the ga core.
As they looked from the corner of their eyes, they saw Ss instantly create a tier-1 magic circle before his the palm of his hand. Within that instant, a water ball formed before it before,pressing and shooting toward one of the trees.
Of course, Ss didn''t put much mana into it since he didn''t want to make too much noise, but it did send a point across to the rest of the team.
He was the best mage amongst them, and he didn''t even need staff to allow him to reach that spot.
"Then, how are you so strong?" One of them asked with a questioning tone.
"Light affinity?" Ss smiled while the rest of them widened their eyes.
Sure, he didn''t want to be known to people outside of Darkless, but it wouldn''t be so bad if people inside knew about it.
After all, he was going to be Judgement soon, and he wanted his infamy to reach a few corners of Darkless before he reached that stage.
"3 affinities!?" One of them shouted, making Ss and Jessica re at him for being too loud.
"Sorry." The man looked down in shame. Fortunately for them, it didn''t seem like there were any beasts nearby to hear his scream.
They continued walking for a few more hours. In the meantime, Ss simply cultivated.
He could feel himself nearing his next breakthrough. All he needed were a few more pushes, and he could probably reach the solid topaz core within a month or two.
"So I didn''t imagine it. My cultivation speed has definitely increased." Ss muttered to himself, his voice being too low for anyone next to him to hear what he was saying.
Looking at the water mage next to him, Ss extended his hand and asked.
"What''s your name?"
Sure, they had been together for a few days now, but throughout that time he didn''t bother remembering any of their names, and they all knew that. He was calling everyone by their digits. Everyone but Jessica who he seemed to be the only one he remember the name of.
"Azure." She smiled before pushing her brown her behind her ear. "Nice to officially meet you again, Game." She giggled.
After a few more minutes of conversing, Ss looked to his right and saw Jessica''s wound. At first, he wouldn''t heal it because they didn''t know about his light affinity, and she was a little bit of a dick to him.
However, looking at it through his mystic eyes, he saw something new, something he hadn''t seen before.
He always knew that he would have some diagnostic skills to use when treating someone''s wounds because his mystic eyes were made out of life equation energy.
He had used it when his mother gave birth to Lex; however, now, there was something different about the wound he was looking at.
''Is that... An infection?'' Ss thought before grabbing her arm and pulling her closer.
"Hey! What the fuck do you think-"
"Shut up." Ss spoke in amanding tone while releasing some of his killing intent.
The wound was showing up purple to his mystic eyes.
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Chapter 82 The Pink Python [1] - Maddening Screech
The wound was showing up purple to his mystic eyes.
She was definitely in the early stages of the infection, but after touching her wound, he could feel that it was a little warm and was definitely swelling.
Pulling her down further, Ss touched her forehead before finally sighing.
"We''re going to have to stop for a second." He looked back at the rest of the group who were watching him curiously.
"No! We don''t have time for that!" Jessica tried to pull away, but for some reason, she couldn''t. His arm was hurting a little, but it was Ss'' steel vice grip holding her in ce as if she was nothing but a ragdoll to him.
"I mean, if you want to die then sure?" Ss let go of her arm before shrugging and continuing forward.
However, after hearing his words, her face dropped before she stuttered out-
"Uh. W-Wait!"
"What?"
"Why would I die?" She asked.
"Your would is infected. I''m surprised your healer didn''t tell you." Ss looked back at their healer with a shake of the head.
"I''m out of mana!" The healerined. She had been healing the entire group before, and she was spent.
"We''ve been walking for hours. You should have more than enough mana now." Ss narrowed his eyes.
Maybe it was because Jessica was a little bit of a bitch? Sure, she was an ass to him, but it didn''t seem like anyone liked her.
"Hmm..." Ss looked back at the wound and began to trace out two spells.
"Purge." He muttered, killing most of the bacteria around the wound.
He then analyzed the rest of her wounds and used purge on them as well. He could have used an incantation, but since he hadn''t used one for a couple of years now, he had forgotten most of them.
After purging all the harmful bacteria and sanitizing her wound, Ss quickly used heal without tracing out the runes or saying anything. Heal was an extremely simple spell, and since Jessica only had w wounds on non-vital areas, it was more than enough to heal herpletely.
"How do you feel?" Ss asked while rubbing his finger over the ce where the wound was.
"Hurts a little when you touch it, but otherwise it''s fine." She replied, her eyes averting from Ss'' gaze as a small blush showed on her face.
"What?" Ss asked.
"Sorry about earlier."
''Apologising? Maybe she hit her head?'' Ss asked himself before shrugging.
"No problem." He stood, took the bag he was holding earlier, and began to walk again with the rest of the group.
"We should be close." Jessica pointed out where they were.
They had walked pretty deep into the forest, and for most of the group, they couldn''t see anything past their feet.
*Crack*
"Shit. If we fight it here, we''re done for." Jessica cursed before looking at Ss who still had his ice axes on his back.
"Can you gather up all the mist?" She asked.
''I already used fire and water, so I won''t be able to use air here. Though, I think water will work for now.'' Ss thought before muttering words under his breath so no one could hear what he was saying, especially the Azure.
Now, they could see him either, so when he dashed back, he instantly put his hand into the air and created the tier-3 spell.
Ss was pretty sure that, now that he had reached the topaz core, he could use tier-4 spells the normal way. However, he was choosing not to.
With his current mana pool, a single normal tier-4 spell would definitely drain at least half his mana reserves.
Sure, a runic tier-4 spell wouldn''t do that, but he didn''t have enough time to trace one out.
After a few seconds, they all heard the creaturee closer and close. Branches seemed to be breaking on the way to them, allowing most of them to assume that the creature was enormous.
However, by then they didn''t have to imagine anymore since the fog was beginning to clear up.
It was much thicker thanst time, so the water sphere above Ss'' head was already the same size as thest one despite the fog remaining.
''I need to get rid of this one'' Ss thought, and when no one was looking, he created tier-three spells from his feet and both his hands at the same time.
The spheres of water broke into four beforepressing and elongating at the same time.
With a snap of his fingers, Ss quickly turned them into jagged ice javelins beforepressing them even more with all his willpower.
Waving his hand, Ss shot all of them at the same time toward the direction of the iing python.
Ss couldn''t see the python''s mana core yet, but from the pressure it was released, he knew that it was at the very least in the amethyst core.
No... It felt a little stronger than that.
When the javelins shot beyond what their vision could see, they all heard the python''s movement halt.
"Did you get it?" Jessica asked, but Ss raised his hands again and did the same thing to the fog around them... Just for save measure.
*ROOOOOOOOAAAAAAAR*
A bloodcurdling roar sent a wave of mana throughout the entire forest.
The warriors covered their ears with toki before using their hands as well. However, the mage and healer weren''t so lucky.
Azure fell to her knees and screamed out in anguish as a horrifying amount of pain coursed through her body.
She felt like her blood had turned intova, making her feel like her entire body was boiling from the inside.
Her brain was being rattled so much that she was beginning to forget everything about herself, and just a secondter, they all watched as she fell to the ground, brain matter slowly leaking through her ears while blood flooded out of her nose.
Just like that, she was dead.
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Chapter 83 The Pink Python [2]
?
The healer had reacted quicker than the water mage. Tapping her staff on the ground, she activated the runes on her staff and quickly covered her entire body with a protective shield made out of light.
She still screamed out in pain as blood leaked out of her nose, but other than the painful ringing in her ear, she was mostly fine.
However, as the wave of mana neared Ss, he quickly controlled the water above him to create a bubble and ice around him, spanning a few meters in radius.
Yet, he knew that wasn''t enough.
He saw the ice cracking immediately, and even then, the ice wasn''t nearly thick enough to keep most of the sound outside. It simply protected him from the wave of mana.
That''s when he coursed Earth mana through his mana channels and into his body. After that, the attack now longer did any damage to him, though, the sound was still very ufortable, to the point that it hurt a little.
After a few seconds, the roar stopped and they all felt like they could breathe again. It felt like the roar was shaking their internal organs to the point that they all felt like puking. However, they knew that this was not the time.
Jessica quickly took out her daggers while the rest of them brandished their swords.
The healer was quickly healing herself from the nauseous feeling going up her throat, and Ss quickly brandished his ice axes that he quickly cooled again.
It was something he did every five minutes, but now that he needed it for battle, he cooled it again and fixed the small cracks that appeared on it.
The dual axes were much thicker than the ice around him.
It was condensed to a point where it wouldn''t have fully melted even if it had been ced under the scorching sun for a quarter of an hour. However, Ss wanted to be ready at all times, so he continued cooling it every few minutes.
Snapping his fingers, Ss created a fireball magic circle right in front of him. He instantly erged the sphere of mes that burned with a bright fiery red, yellow, and orange light.
The ball of mes spun around a single point, slowly be changing color and reaching closer and color to blue.
Ss'' spell upgraded to tier-2, before bing tier-3 a few secondster, allowing the me to reach a pale blue color that illuminated its surroundings.
That''s when they all saw it.
Even Ss couldn''t help but drop his jaw slightly.
"Shit..." He muttered, and all of them were thinking the same thing.
A magenta-colored python appeared before them, its head standing 6 meters above them, and its body spanning for 20 meters at the very least.
However, that was not what shook Ss.
Instead, it was the pristine-amethyst mana core that shone with a bright violet light.
The python opened its mouth and revealed its forked tongue, waving it in the air as it hissed at the humans before it.
Its amethyst core revolved for a moment before a violet-colored mana aura erupted out of its body, followed by a strong wave of bloodlust that made them all freeze where they stood.
Everyone except Ss.
*BANG*
The ball of mes that had narrowed and extended into an arrow made of mes ripped through the air in the form of a blue streak, appearing in front of the python in less than a second.
The python quickly reacted by controlling its mana aura and revolving it around the arrowing toward it.
Ss watched as the arrow he created was dismembered, inch by inch, ember by ember until it was finally snuffed out.
Extending its mouth further, the python let out a pink mist out of its mouth.
The rest of the team''s instincts kicked in, allowing them to jump back in time before the mist could even touch their skin, let alone be inhaled by them.
"We need to reform." Jessica roared.
"We need to retreat!" One of the men shouted back.
"We''vee this far. There is no way to retreat from this thing. It''s too far and too big. Our best way out is to fight it or scare it off somehow. Both of those options require us to challenge it head-on." She exined while bing a blur and dashing around the mist of poison.
The problem was, it seemed like the mist had the same or simr density to the fog around them, causing it to integrate into the fog itself, slowly turning the area around them into a pink atmosphere that would kill them at their first inhtion.
Jessica quickly activated some of the runes on her daggers before swiping at the air and dashing a few meters behind the python.
Her dagger was covered in a silver hue, and when she swiped at the air, she released two arches of air that flew through the pink mist and mmed into the python directly.
*Boom*
*Boom*
A cloud of dust shot into the air, blocking her line of sight, but she was certain that her attack must have at the very least, disoriented the python.
However-
"Jessica, move back!" Ss roared, but it was already toote.
The rest of the group had been retreating away from the purple mist since they wouldn''t do anything to it.
They were hoping Ss would do something, but even he was waiting for the right opportunity.
However, Jessica had jumped the gun. She had attacked the python immediately with her wind shed, yet the instant they hit the python, Ss realized that it had done nothing.
The python''s scale was too thick and too hard. They glistened under the light of the sunset in the distance, barely piercing through the fog around them.
Ss knew that her daggers wouldn''t even put a scratch on the scale of the python, though, he didn''t really care if she died.
However, Ss knew that she was a valuable asset to the team, and that way he had seen everything going so far, especially after he healed, her, he saw that she had the potential of being a valuablerade to him.
Breathing in, Ss willed to activate the rune on his ring before coursing fire energy through his body. Sure, he was extremely agile when using wind fusion, but fire fusion was much better for short bursts of movement or strength.
Ss put all his power into his right foot before he eventually dashed forward with all the speed he could muster.
He felt the wind m against him, yet despite that, he felt like he was moving faster than had ever moved before.
His body turned into a blur as it shot through the air and pierced through the pink mist with so much force that the poisonous fog around him instantly parted.
The python had turned its back and was now facing Jessica while bearing its fangs.
It was inches away from stabbing its teeth into Jessica''s shoulders, but just when she thought all hope was lost, she felt the sunset glisten into her eyes reflecting off two transparent weapons, being held over a figure''s head.
Ss hovered above the python for what felt like an eternity, but after a few moments, he understood what he had to do.
A fire magic circle appeared behind his back and exploded behind him.
Fire energy coursed through his body as he used all the power and strength he could muster to swing his axes.
And before anyone could register what had just happened,
Ss appeared on the ground with a loud bang, kicking up a cloud of dust as his axes dripped with ck blood.
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Chapter 84 The Pink Python [3] - Fear
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Ss slid for a few meters afternding before looking back with his zing emerald eyes.
He had cut through the scales of the python, but the injury he inflicted wasn''t nearly deep or lethal enough for it to be considered a critical hit.
However, the upside was that his attack seemed to have dyed the python enough to set its attack off course.
Jessica dropped back to the ground and jumped back to create distance. She had just watched her life sh before her very eyes, and now that she was "safe", she felt like he heart was about to explode.
She looked at Ss with a trace and appreciation, but he didn''t even give her a second nce.
However, everyone else seemed to be worried about something else.
They had just watched Ss shoot through the poisonous mist. Sure, he was going fast, but that didn''t mean he wouldn''t have been poisoned.
The pink python''s poison was a fast-acting one, mostly because it had mana imbued into it. Poison with mana in it was never a goodbination for anyone going against it, yet Ss lookedpletely fine.
Ss quickly swung his axe before stopping mid-way, causing all the blood to fly off and create a crescent around him on the ground.
''This is going to be a difficult fight...'' Ss thought to himself.
Sure, he had killed someone on the same level as the python before, but he doubted he would have the same luck again. The best thing he could do was somehow outsmart it, but even then, he would need to use a tier 4 spell or higher to do any real damage.
Thankfully though, it seemed like the python was only in the early stages of the pristine amethyst core.
If it had been any higher, he could have confidently said that most of them wouldn''t havee out alive.
"Oi... Bastard! Look over here!" Ss waved at the python while grinning.
If he wanted to kill the thing, he''d have to use his full strength, something he couldn''t do around his teammates... Or at least not yet.
When the python heard his voice, it hissed at him while releasing the full throttle of its bloodlust.
Ss retaliated simrly, releasing the full power of his own killing intent, causing it to swipe over everyone before mming into the Python''s bloodlust.
Everyone affected by their aura felt like the world around them had suddenly be red.
On the one hand, the python''s killing intent made them feel fear like never before, and on the other hand...
''What the hell is this...'' They all thought as they felt like puking.
It felt like they could see corpses of all kindsying around them.
Animals... Humans... Grotesque monsters... It didn''t matter who or what the corpses were. It felt like there were dozens of them, if not over a hundred of themying around them, stretching their hands toward the humans while muttering words they could not understand.
It was a terrifying scene that made them feel like they were in a nightmare.
They couldn''t blink.
They couldn''t look away.
But when the python and Ss began to move again, they gained control over their bodies again, allowing them to eventually blink and make all the horrible scenes before them finally vanish.
Ss dashed back into the foggy forest, and the python quickly followed behind him.
Ss was waiting for the right moment to attack, and hoped to everything he held dear that no one would follow him.
Ss slid for a few meters afternding before looking back with his zing emerald eyes.
He had cut through the scales of the python, but the injury he inflicted wasn''t nearly deep or lethal enough for it to be considered a critical hit.
However, the upside was that his attack seemed to have dyed the python enough to set its attack off course.
Jessica dropped back to the ground and jumped back to create distance. She had just watched her life sh before her very eyes, and now that she was "safe", she felt like he heart was about to explode.
She looked at Ss with a trace and appreciation, but he didn''t even give her a second nce.
However, everyone else seemed to be worried about something else.
They had just watched Ss shoot through the poisonous mist. Sure, he was going fast, but that didn''t mean he wouldn''t have been poisoned.
The pink python''s poison was a fast-acting one, mostly because it had mana imbued into it. Poison with mana in it was never a goodbination for anyone going against it, yet Ss lookedpletely fine.
Ss quickly swung his axe before stopping mid-way, causing all the blood to fly off and create a crescent around him on the ground.
''This is going to be a difficult fight...'' Ss thought to himself.
Sure, he had killed someone on the same level as the python before, but he doubted he would have the same luck again. The best thing he could do was somehow outsmart it, but even then, he would need to use a tier 4 spell or higher to do any real damage.
Thankfully though, it seemed like the python was only in the early stages of the pristine amethyst core.
If it had been any higher, he could have confidently said that most of them wouldn''t havee out alive.
"Oi... Bastard! Look over here!" Ss waved at the python while grinning.
If he wanted to kill the thing, he''d have to use his full strength, something he couldn''t do around his teammates... Or at least not yet.
When the python heard his voice, it hissed at him while releasing the full throttle of its bloodlust.
Ss retaliated simrly, releasing the full power of his own killing intent, causing it to swipe over everyone before mming into the Python''s bloodlust.
Everyone affected by their aura felt like the world around them had suddenly be red.
On the one hand, the python''s killing intent made them feel fear like never before, and on the other hand...
''What the hell is this...'' They all thought as they felt like puking.
It felt like they could see corpses of all kindsying around them.
Animals... Humans... Grotesque monsters... It didn''t matter who or what the corpses were. It felt like there were dozens of them, if not over a hundred of themying around them, stretching their hands toward the humans while muttering words they could not understand.
It was a terrifying scene that made them feel like they were in a nightmare.
They couldn''t blink.
They couldn''t look away.
But when the python and Ss began to move again, they gained control over their bodies again, allowing them to eventually blink and make all the horrible scenes before them finally vanish.
Ss dashed back into the foggy forest, and the python quickly followed behind him.
Ss was waiting for the right moment to attack, and hoped to everything he held dear that no one would follow him.
He had a n.
Ss swerved through the trees while piercing through the pink fog with his fiery aura, before finally stopping at a clearing in the fog.
The python quickly followed him in there, not losing sight of him the entire time due to its thermal vision.
Ss had been tracing a rune into the air the entire time. Runic spells were the only way he would get the advantage, and even though his mana purity wasn''t nearly good enough to do damage the same way someone in the amethyst core would have been able to, it was good enough for him.
Chapter 85 The Pink Python [4] - All Out?
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Ss turned around whilepleting the finishing touches of the rune. He had to be careful, otherwise, it would blow up in his face and possibly even destroy most of his arm, if not his body.
The python reeled back its head and unleashed a breath of poisonous gas, yet Ss didn''t move an inch.
He could see the green screen telling him that his body was not only fighting against the poison but also assimting it and adapting to it.
The python stopped shooting its poison and looked at Ss with confusion.
Ss pointed his hand at the python and smiled.
The silverish-blue rune before him shone with immense intensity, and a secondter, a single word left Ss'' mouth. A word that activated the spell and froze the very ground below him before the spell could even be unleashed.
"Iceberg"
*BOOOOOOOOM*
The sound of rapid freezing echoed throughout the entire forest.
The forest itself wasn''t all that big and was nowhere close to being the size of the dia forest. However, the moment the beasts and even Ss'' teammates heard it, they could not help but look in the direction of the sound,
In that very instant, powerful wind blew through the forest and reached his teammates while at the same time, sting the fog away.
They could finally see the blueish-orange sky, but that wasn''t the thing that caught their attention.
What did catch their attention was the enormous iceberg piercing toward the heavensing from the direction that Ss had gone.
"Oh no..." they all stepped back.
There was no way that was Ss.
It would take an enormous amount of mana, and since they knew he was in the topaz core, there was no way he would have been able to produce such an enormous spell so quickly.
There was no way... right...
It had to be a mistwalker or something... Though, despite that sounding terrifying, it made more sense than Ss casting such arge spell so quickly.
Even if he had created a tier-4 spell, it shouldn''t have been thatrge...
Of course, there was another theory that made a lot of sense.
The theory is that he might actually have something beyond an S-rank affinity.
S-rank affinities were extremely rare, but there have been a few individuals capable of reaching beyond the S-rank.
By most, they were considered legends of the past, and by others, they were treated like mythical beings capable of changing the tide of the entire human race.
Of course, it was just a myth, but all myths were grounded somewhere.
*BOOOM*
Suddenly, everyone watched as the iceberg shattered.
They could see chunks of ice flying through the air and shooting toward the skies.
Violet mana erupted out of the body of the python, but Ss had expected this.
The iceberg attack hadn''t worked against themander, and even though Ss was now much stronger than back then, he had a feeling that it wouldn''t have worked against the python...
Or at least, it didn''t work the way one would have usually expected it to.
''How to beat a reptile 101. Freeze them.'' Ss grinned.
He could already see that it was working. The python was a lot slower than before, and from the looks of it, it was a little weaker.
Its scales looked like they had been frosted over, making its movements harder and making it have to use more energy than it would have usually done for basic movements.
Landing on the ground, Ss ced both his palms on the ground and caused the ground under to shoot up,unching it into the sky, alongside the rest of the iceberg''s chunks.
Ss knew that using the iceberg spell would have been a little much, but since his teammates weren''t around, he hoped he could have, at the very least, convince them that he used most of his mana.
Otherwise, he would have to just kill them or somehow make themply without the chance of them backstabbing himter. The former looked a lot more appealing than the other option.
Lowering his body to the ground, Ss activated fire fusion and shot into the air beforending on one of the ice chunks.
"Let''s see how you do airborne." Ss muttered while raising his hand into the air and controlling the ice to create spikes that shot toward the python.
The reptile quickly flicked its tail, creating a wind pressure strong enough to turn the ice into dust.
''I see...''
Ss'' eyes darted around, scanning all the ice chunks before shooting off his tform and mming into another one.
They python watched Ss as he darted from one ice chunk to another. Every time he wouldnd on one, cracks would spread throughout it, but it wouldn''t break.
*Swoosh*
Reeling his arm back, Ss took a deep breath in before shooting toward the python.
His body shot through the air, his eyes creating a green streak behind him as it burned with a bright emerald light.
And when he finally reached the python, he created a fire st spell behind his elbow and released the strongest punch he had ever thrown in all his lives.
The air ruptured before him, creating a loud bang that echoed through the entire forest.
The fistnded on the scaly body of the python, yet an instantter, Ss was no longer in front of it.
Landing on one of the chunks of ice from before, he did the same thing again and again,nding punch after punch, each one being stronger than thest.
His figure could be seen darting around the python at a speed that even the python could no longer follow.
He was in now in the zone... He felt like nothing could stop him.
His fists were dripping with blood as every bone his hands would shatter every time he punched the python, but a secondter, his hand would be fully healed, ready for his next punch.
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Chapter 86 The Pink Python [5] - Death Of The Pink Python
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The barrage of punches felt never-ending to Ss and the python, but to everyone else, it was merely a blur that they could not understand.
However, now that Ss was moving as quickly as possible, the amount of damage he was doing had significantly increased.
Every punch seemed to tear off one of the python''s scales, causing it to roar in pain before being mmed again with another punch of the same power.
Blood was beginning to stter all over the ice chunks, and after reaching their peak altitude, the ice chunks, Ss, and even the python began to fall again.
The python tried to fight back by flicking its tail and creating a wind pressure so powerful that it might have killed Ss on the spot, but now only was Ss too quick for it to hit him, the python was also bing weaker by the second.
It was losing too much blood. Pain coursed through its blood and has be a liquid with only one function. To make it feel pain.
*ROOOOOOAAAAR*
The python opened its mouth and recreated the first roar it used to kill Azure.
However, Ss was ready for it now.
With a snap of his fingers, Ss created multiple water magic circles that shone with a lighter blue.
The chunks of ice around Ss morphed, breaking apart into the water before creating dozens of ice spikes that shot toward the python''s open mouth.
The spikes began to crack when it came close to the mouth, however, there were too many to stop with just a roar.
Dozens of them broke, but eventually, broke through the sound and stuck themselves into the back of the python''s throat, stabbing into it but not piercing through.
''I''m running out of tforms.'' Ss thought before crouching down and shooting into the air like a rocket.
When he eventually reached his peak altitude, Ss looked down and raised his right leg into the air, alongside his hands that he pointed into the sky.
Two fiery orange magic circles appeared above his hands, and with one final breath, he muttered-
"Combust."
*Boom*
To everyone watching, Ss looked like a meteorite falling down on Gilea.
His body was covered in mes, while his arms shot out immense amounts of those same mes to push him even faster.
It only took Ss a second or two to reach the python, and when he did, he mmed the back of his heel into the head of the python.
At that moment, it felt like everything had slowed down.
The ground under him had gone from a muddy terrain to a molten one, sizzling as red-hotva boiled beneath him.
*BOOOOOOM*
A shockwave shot through the forest, burning or copsing every tree nearby.
Smoke and dust flew into the air, and when it eventually began to clear, the python wasying down on the ground, lifeless.
Ss stood there with his back facing the defeated monster, his clothes torn and his hands bloody.
[You have killed a Pink Python]
[Devouring one life force]
[Absorbing the Pink Python bloodline]
[Bloodlines:
Shadow Walker - 1%
Mist Walker - 3%
Pink Python - 24%
Thundertusk - 23%
Sonic Bat - 38%]
He had done it. He had beaten the python.
''Holy shit...'' Ss cursed. His body felt extremely fatigued, and that wasn''t something he could fix with life fusion.
Sucking in a cold breath, Ss activated Metamorphosis and absorbed the mana out of his surroundings into his mana core before sending it to the rest of his body. It would temporarily fix his exhaustion problem, but he knew that he shouldn''t use it more than a couple of times. He had felt the pain it gave himst time, and even though he counted himself lucky since nothing had happened, he didn''t want to see test his luck.
For all he knew, it could destroy or damage his mana core, and since he didn''t know how to bring forth toki, he would have no way of fighting back against anyone who might be a threat to him or his family.
Stepping forward, Ss looked at the body of the python,ying in moltenva that was quickly cooling,
The python''s head was quite literally no more. It had been destroyed the moment Ss'' foot touched it, and what was left behind was nothing but cinters and scorched scales.
''Good thing the mana core isn''t in the head.'' Ss sighed while opening up the snake and rummaging around inside it.
Ss knew that he had gone too far when killing the python, however, it was quite literally the only way to kill it.
The rest of his team was weak. Even the two people Ss thought would have been on the same level as an amethyst-cored beast were far too weak to fight or even win against the python, even if they worked together.
The poison was too deadly for them to... Wait... Poison?
"Oh shit..." Ss cursed when he realized where the poison would have been kept.
"Nononono! Was all that for nothing!" Ss shouted with anger.
He couldn''t believe it.
He had destroyed the one thing they had been told to bring.
Sure, they would have died if he hadn''t done anything, but now he would most likely not get his money.
''That bitch... I''ll kill her... One day.'' Ss thought as the image of greed entered his mind.
Knowing her, she probably knew that they wouldn''t survive without Ss using his full strength... Or she was trying to kill him. Either way, if the choice was between being exposed or being killed, he would definitely choose the former.
After grabbing the amethyst could be a little smaller than the size of his palm, Ss walked toward the rest of his team.
Looking down, he saw that most of his clothes were ripped and burned, but luckily for him, his genitals were perfectly covered up...
''Huh... Maybe I have a third blessing or something? Either way, I''m notining. Would be really awkward if I exposed my genitals every time I fight to the death... Would you even call this fight "To the death?" I had every advantage during that fight, from ice to not being affected by the poison.
Technically, it was a one-sided beatdown where the enemy couldn''t even fight back. I wonder what would have happened if it had hit me with one of its attacks. Would have probably blown off a limb or two, right?'' Ss asked himself while scratching his chin, but eventually, he simply shrugged.
"Game!"
''Ugh... I hate the name.''
"What?" Ss asked with a trace of annoyance.
"Holy shit, man... That was amazing! I''ve never seen anything like it..." One of the men patted Ss'' back, causing him to look at him with a trace of confusion.
"You haven''t?" Ss asked.
They had 7 generals and many soldiers who were probably on the same level of strength as him, yet they hadn''t seen anything like it before.
Ss couldn''t help but sigh.
"Yeah, yeah. Whatever." he rolled his eyes.
"That was actually pretty amazing..." Jessica walked over to him and the rest of the group with a warm and appreciative smile, however, Ss simply narrowed his eyes at her with a trace of suspicion.
"Thanks." Shepletely ignored his re before leaning forward and cing a kiss on his forehead.
"You''ve been a great help."
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[A/N: I just ran out of Grammarly premium so I''m sorry if the chapters take a dip in quality]
[If you have enjoyed this chapter and would like to support the author, please vote using your power stones or golden tickets. Also, you can join my discord server today to see illustrations or to converse about thetest chapters.]
Chapter 87 One Vs Forty [1] - Surrounded
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"Thanks." Shepletely ignored his re before leaning forward and cing a kiss on his forehead.
''Ugh... Get away from me, woman.'' Ss repulsed with a sense of disgust.
He wasn''t sure if he was being treated like a man or like a child, but either way, he couldn''t stand her touch after what the panic attack he was going to have when Greed came closer to him.
Sure, she didn''t do anything to him, but from her eyes alone he knew that she was bad news. And since Jessica was her underling, what stopped her from being the same as her leader?
Even the indication of her having any interest in children made him feel like puking.
"You''ve been a great help." Jessica smiled before raising a brow at the sight of slight disgust on Ss'' face.
"What?" She tilted her head.
"Nothing." Ss replied before turning to one of the men next to him.
"Do you have an extra cloak?" Ss asked.
"Yeah... Here." The man took it out of the bag and gave it to Ss.
"You don''t mind if I rip it, right? I can buy you a new one."
"It''s fine. Keep it." The man waved it off.
It didn''t seem like they had any ill intentions toward him, and from what he could see through his mystic eyes, his heart rate didn''t seem to have changed.
''Wait... Where did my axes go?'' Ss looked around but couldn''t see them.
He could remember having them in his hands when fighting against the python, but for some reason, he couldn''t remember if he had simply misced them or lost them.
''Oh well.'' He used one of Jessica''s daggers to shorten the cloak before wearing it on top of his current clothes.
After Ss told them that he identally destroyed the poison they were supposed to collect, he expected them toin or scream at him, but they simply epted the fact it was gone. They didn''t even ask for the mana crystal he got from the python.
After burying Azure, the group chose to do a small ceremony where they prayed over their fallenrade and eventually left.
''I''d be burying all of them if they had butted in. Sure, Jessica could have probably survived the battle, but the rest don''t seem like they know how to actually fight against beasts.
The poison was too strong for them to survive even a second against the beast. Ss would have thought that they would have at least prepared something to fight against the python, but apparently not.
Technically, even he didn''t prepare anything, but that was because he was broke.
Plus, he already had a resistance to poison. What else could he have prepared to help him in that fight?
Looking to his right, Ss looked at the man carrying Azure''s staff.
It was a long staff with a dull sapphire crystal that shone with pulses of ocean blue. However, inside it, Ss could see a small orb made out of something light blue in color, indicating that the crystal had an affinity toward the water element.
"That''s an amazing staff... How did she even afford it." Ss asked.
"It was probably a parting gift from her family, but the staff isn''t as good as it seems." Jessica pointed out, causing Ss to shift his attention to her.
"These crystals are made by the kingdom and the empire. Those royal assholes take an onyx or ga core, pump them full of a certain type of mana, and then send them out as if they are normal crystals." Jessica spat.
"I mean... Sure, they do that but I don''t see the problem." Ss shrugged.
"Their quality is a lot worse than the normal crystals of that level. The only reason someone would use one is to make tier 3 and 4 spells easier to cast due to the higher grade.
However, since they''re only pumping it with mana, not breaking the impurities away, its mana purity is awful. In some cases, the user of these crystals can even get mana poisoning." Jessica rolled her eyes, but to Ss, the concept itself didn''t make sense.
Cultivation was the breaking down and expulsion of impurities. Why would the color of the crystal change if the impurities remained the same? It didn''t make sense.
''Life told me about this as well... The staff my grandmother wields has one of those fake crystals. I always wondered how she could afford an emerald crystal, and I guess now I know...'' Ss thought to himself while making a mental note to do more research on this matter.
If he could understand how the kingdom did it, maybe he could create his own version of the device that created crystals that actually broke down the impurities.
"Why don''t people use human mana cores?" Ss finally asked, causing everyone to look at him weirdly.
"First off... Not only is that taboo in every kingdom, empire and nation on the face of Gilea, it is also considered forbidden magic and could sentence you and your entire family to execution." Jessica spoke matter-of-factly, while the rest didn''t seem interested in this information at all since it wasmon knowledge.
"It''s because human mana cores work differently from best ones. Beasts essentially cultivate their body and core at the same time. Their mana core is connected to their body as if it was an organ necessary for survival. Pull it out and they''re dead.
Humans and other humanoid races like the beastkin and elves have mana cores that aren''t connected straight to our bodies, the same way a beast or monster is.
We have mana channels separate from our blood vessels. We don''t send mana to our muscles the same way they do. We have other ways of bing physically stronger because we are intelligent." Jessica was speaking with a little too much pride.
"Though, the main difference is that when we die, the mana core in our body bes unusable and dissipates within a few minutes of death. Unless the core is taken out while a person is alive, or kept stable through a ritual or item after the person''s death, there is no way of retrieving the mana core of a human." She exined as a morbid idea came into Ss'' mind.
However, before he could even think about the idea further, Ss felt the hairs at the back of his neck stand up.
It was the moment they stepped out of the forest, and even though his mystic eyes hadn''t picked up anything yet, he knew there was something extremely wrong.
"What''s wrong?" Jessica asked with a tilt of her head.
"Something... Something is wrong." Ss looked around but he still couldn''t see anything.
But that''s when he saw it.
Small disturbances in the flow of mana through the air. It was something he would have never picked up on normally, but the shift was a little sudden.
That''s when he realized something else.
The mana all around them was shifting and morphing.
It was weird. He couldn''t understand what was happening.
On the trees, on the ground, and even in the air.
Ss increased the mana being sent to his eyes by arge amount, and then he finally saw it.
his zing emerald eyes saw over 40 individuals, each and every single one of them holding a de of some kind, surrounding the entire team and getting ready to ughter them.
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Chapter 88 One Vs Forty [2] - Invisibility Technique
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Ss'' zing emerald eyes saw over 40 individuals, each and every single one of them holding a de of some kind, surrounding the entire team and getting ready to ughter them.
"Shit! Get ready to fight!" Ss shouted, and that very thing seemed to have alerted all 40 of the beings around him.
Jessica was the quickest to react, instantly activating her de''s ability, covering her dagger with a red hue, the others quickly brandished their des.
She had been feeling like something was following them for a longer time than Ss, but she had no idea what it was. Her instincts were telling her that danger was nearby, but no matter what she did to find what that danger was, she was unable to locate it.
Though, it should havee as no surprise that she realized that they were surrounded much faster than Ss did. She had a lot more experience when it came to fighting people with toki and mana, so it was to be expected that she would feel like something was wrong before him.
However, Ss had his mystic eyes as an advantage over her, that''s why he was quickly able to locate the people around them and alert his teammates before they could attack them.
Ss'' team was all experienced enough to react in time when there was danger around them, however, that didn''t mean they knew exactly what to do when the battle truly began.
The sound of metal bashing against metal echoed for a moment. They all felt somethinge closer to them.
The healer among them stabbed her staff into the ground while activating all the runes on her staff.
Her body was almost instantly enveloped in a golden healing and strengthening energy that would have protected her from any of the attacks, however, unlike the rest of her teammates, she was not fast enough to react.
Suddenly, Ss'' eyes darted to the right as he felt something pass him, but when he looked over at where the assassin had gone, it was already toote.
In the millisecond before the golden staff energy could cover the healer and keep her safe, the assassin has shot forth and stabbed her in the heart before twisting his de and activating a certain set of runes.
Ss'' eyes widened as he saw this, but Jessica had reacted faster than him in this situation.
She shot forth too and plunged her dagger right into the eye of the assassin, killing him instant after the red hue around her dagger red while still being in his eye.
"Shit..." Ss muttered before turning around and grabbing an iing dagger with his bare hands. The moment he had touched the dagger of the assassin, he saw his invisibility flicker for a moment, causing him to narrow his eyes.
Without batting an eye, Ss plunged his hand into the assassin''s heart and crushed it before throwing the body aside.
Looking back, he narrowed his eyes and sighed.
His mystic eyes detected no life signs on the healer, and her life force was dwindling at an incredible pace.
A few seconds more and she would most likely die, so Ss simply closed his eyes and spoke.
"From this point and onwards, it''s every man for himself... Understood?" His voice was a little cold. He didn''t even wait for their answer and mmed his foot into the ground, creating several ice walls around all of them in the blink of an eye.
"This won''t protect you for long, but take your time to gather your thoughts and fight for your life." Ss continued before flipping over the ice walls and appearing on the other side.
He felt all their eyes suddenlynd on him, and without skipping a beat, he dashed forward for a few meters and turned around.
''There really are over forty of them. I have no clue how strong they are since I can''t feel their energy at all, nor can I feel their pressure or even see their toki. All I can do is sense their strength through my instincts.'' Ss thought before sighing.
''For now, let''s fix your invisibility problem.'' He grinned and pped his hands.
The ice wall wasn''t there to just protect his teammates. It was there to make sure they didn''t see more than they were allowed to see.
A brown magic circle appeared before him, something he hadn''t used the entire time he had been a part of this team.
Ss saw many of the assassins flinch, or at least that''s what it looked like. It was hard to tell what they were doing from the small disturbance in the air and the flow of mana.
Their ability clearly worked with the use of toki, though, it also seemed to have the ability topletely conceal their presence from all senses, even sight.
Ss didn''t understand how it worked, but he knew that his next trick would be extremely helpful to not only him but his teammates too.
Suddenly, mud and sand shot out in all directions, covering the assassins.
In that very instant, they toki red and became wild, deactivating the technique and exposing their real bodies and auras.
He could now feel their strength. They were all amethyst cores, yet all but one remained below the pristine grade.
Ss watched half of them try and restore their invisibility, while the other half threw caution out of the window and attacked him right away.
"You idiots. They said use causion!" The strongest among them shouted, yet the rest didn''t listen.
Surprisingly, not many of them seemed to be wearing armor, and the moment Ss saw that, his confidence in beating them skyrocketed.
The assassins moved at insane speeds, dashing around the battlefield without any real regard for life.
Their bodies would have looked like blurs to anyone else, but Ss could see them clearly as they moved through the air.
*Swoosh*
Leaning back, Ss quickly dodged an iing de, but he could already feel 20 others aimed at him.
Suddenly, it felt like everything around him had slowed down.
His eyes zed with smoldering emerald-green before his body moved on its own.
He could feel the des whizz past him in a symphony of whistles and swooshed as he continued to dodge each and every strike that came toward him.
Every step, every movement, and every breath he did was deliberate.
His dodged and weaved around the des like a streak of ck, white and green that blurred around the des.
He danced around them,ndings solid punches on some, while simply avoiding others.
Time and again, the assassins'' des came within a hair''s breadth of silencing his existence, only to be thwarted by Ss''s preternatural grace. He twisted and contorted his body, his every motion a testament to his mastery over the art of evasion.
The air crackled with tension as the dance of life and death unfolded, leaving those who bore witness spellbound.
''Enough ying around.'' Ss muttered before his eyes zed once more and his hand shot through the air aiming to stab through the chest of one of the assassins trying to kill him.
However, right before he could, he felt the hairs at the back of his neck stand up before a de stabbed through the very arm he was trying to attack with.
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Chapter 89 One Vs Forty [3] - Mana Dampener
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Ss gritted his teeth and grabbed the wrist of the man who stabbed him in the arm.
The de hadn''t hit anything vital toward his arm''s movement, so without thinking twice, Ss ripped the man''s arm out of its socket before reeling his arm back.
However, before he could m his fist into the assassin''s face, the hairs at the back of his neck stood up.
Tilting his head to the right, an arrow nicked the side of Ss'' ear before shooting right through the eye of the assassin he was holding onto.
''I guess it''s every man for himself for them too.'' Ss thought and threw the body in the direction of a few assassins that were running toward him.
They jumped over the body without a care in the world, but now that they were airborne, Ss took the advantage and created several me and water sniper bullets.
These were tier-three spells had created all by himself. It was essentially a normal elemental bullet that spun extremely quickly, had a pointed top, and had enough mana to shoot for several hundred meters before dissipating.
With a swipe of Ss'' hands, the bullets tore through the air while creating loud bangs as they broke through the sound barrier.
They flew through the air, tearing the top of the men''s heads clean off before instantly appearing in front of a hand.
This hand was extended, holding a de to the throat of one of Ss'' teammates. Yet, the instant, the bullet touched it, that limb was blown off like it was nothing but paper.
Ss could have used this attack against the python, but he knew that it wouldn''t have hurt it nearly as much as it hurt these humans.
After all, the python was essentially covered in armor from head to toe. Everything about it was durable, except for the inside of its mouth and its eyes.
However, even if a human was on the same level as the python in strength, they were still human. They were bags of meat and flesh, with the only thing protecting them being the toki around their bodies.
But assassins weren''t known for their defense. They were known for being able to sneak around and kill enemies without anyone knowing they were even there.
So, if that was their specialty, why would their toki protect them when they don''t usually need a lot of protection.
The only thing standing between Ss and them was the naturalyer of toki around their body, and that wasn''t nearly enough to stop most of Ss'' attacks.
Activating wind fusion, Ss'' body began to move like the wind.
His movements werepletely silent, and even his presence was slightly suppressed. However, what shocked the assassins was his speed.
Sure, fire fusion was his fastest form to get around in, but that was only in short bursts.
With wind fusion, not only was he fast, but he was also agile. Plus, his reflexes skyrocketed in this form, while his thinking speed got a small boost too.
Ss swerves and ran around cleaving down all the assassins that were on the same level as a dull amethyst core while barely escaping the solid-amethyst cores by the skin of his teeth.
Spinning mid-air, Ss threw one of his knives toward one of the assassins, but they quickly deflected it, and without skipping a beat, they shot forth and attacked Ss.
''I''ve only killed about 12 of them, and now that they''ve realized that...'' His eyes darted around to find the best ce to dodge too, but he quickly saw that the assassin before him wasn''t the only one to attack him.
He could see three arrows shooting at him from three different directions.
He could see several swords and daggers covered in silver, blue, red, golden, and brown hues as elemental rules glowed on their weapons.
None of the assassins were awakened, but they didn''t need to be to have an elemental effect on their weapons.
Almost all of them were using them were covered in enough toki to put them on the higher end of the solid-amethyst core, and just to add salt to the wound, there seemed to be one more that had gone beyond, making him the same level as the python.
Ss was trapped.
Only three of them were attacking his teammates, the rest were surrounding him.
Even if he killed the python on his own, there was no way he could kill all of them, especially when they were attacking him at the same time.
He couldn''te up with a n either. His mind had gone nk the moment he had seen so many of them.
''Was it those damn adventurers from the mercenary hall... But wouldn''t it have been cheaper to hire a single high-level assassin?
Peak pristine amethyst core would have done the trick. One would think that would have been the same level as Death, but from how Life spoke of him, it made it seem like his full strength rivaled even that of themander before his death.
If that was the case, that would mean there are, at the very least, assassins on the same level as themander before he went all out. It would have been much cheaper to buy one of them, yet it was almost as if these assassins were somehow cannon fodder.
As if his power was being tested somehow.
Any general should have the ability to fight against most of these without dying, right?
''Am I being tested?'' Ss thought, but he didn''t let it get to his head.
If he was being tested, it would mean that there was a chance they wouldn''t kill him.
However, if this wasn''t a test, lowering his gaurd would definitely get him killed...
So what should he do?
He didn''t have the time to create a runic spell.
He couldbine two spell circles to create a psuedo teir-4 spell, but doing that so close to the rest of the group would definitely be risky.
However, it was a risk he was willing to take.
His life mattered than theirs... Well, at least that''s the way he thought.
He wasn''t a hero, and today was not the day he was going to change that.
''Looks like I''ll have to go all out this time...'' Ss thought as his eyes zed with an emerald light.
However, that''s when the screen appeared before him.
[Unknown energy is distrupting your mana flow]
[Unknown energy is entering your body.]
[Mana dampener detected]
[Metamorphosis has been used]
[Attempting to assimte energy]
"Shit."
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Chapter 90 Breaking My Limits [1] - The Arrival
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Ss''s heart pounded in his chest as he realized his mana flow was being disrupted.
He could feel an unknown energy entering his body, and a mana dampener was hindering his ability to cast spells.
Panic washed over him as he realized he was stripped of his greatest strength.
The threat of death had be too real... It was something he had felt of Gilea before, but it wasn''t nearly as bad as now.
Desperation gripped Ss as he assessed the situation. The assassins closed in on him from all sides, their weapons gleaming with elemental hues. He knew he couldn''t rely on his spells anymore. It was just him against the overwhelming odds, fighting for his life and the lives of his teammates.
And at that moment, his mind went into a corner he never wanted to see again.
Fight or flight was a human instinct known to almost all humans.
It was known to beasts too, and even animals.
However, Ss'' instinct was different.
Because whenever Seth Evergreen thinks he''s going to die, something takes over him.
His eyes became empty at the moment, before a me burned within his eyes, shimmering more brightly than ever before...
Today was not going to be the day he would die.
The absence of mana made him feel vulnerable, exposed to the relentless assault of the assassins.
He felt like he was going to die...
''I refuse.''
And that was the exact moment the fate of everyone around him was sealed.
[Your "Volition" me is awakening something deep inside you]
[All your bloodlines are reacting to this awakening]
[...]
[Awakening unsessful?]
Using wind fusion, Ss''s body moved with unmatched agility.
He dodged and weaved through the assassins'' attacks, narrowly avoiding deadly blows.
His reflexes were honed to their limits, but with each passing moment, the unusability of mana made it harder and harder to fight back.
He could still feel mana pumping through his veins and mana channels, but other than that, he couldn''t push mana outside his body or even create a spell.
Every time he did, he could feel the spell being destroyed and the runes being dissimted.
The fight became a chaotic dance of steel and blood. Ss fought with every ounce of his strength, countering the assassins'' strikes with deft movements and precise strikes. His bare fists became his weapons, his body a vessel of sheer determination.
Ss dodged and weaved before sending out deadly attacks. They had all thought they had got him... Even Ss thought they had got him... But even if they had gotten him, he wouldn''t have stopped fighting back.
Blood sprayed through the air as Ssnded blows upon his adversaries.
The assassins, skilled in their craft, retaliated with ferocity, shing at him with their elemental-infused des.
Ss endured the pain, his body covered in cuts and bruises, but he refused to yield.
Every second mattered.
Every punch and every moment mattered more than they could ever understand.
Every inch of movement mattered, and he was going to make them count.
Of course, despite how strong and fast he was, the enemies were far too many.
His injuries were beginning to pile up.
Every attack thatnded sent a jolt of pain through his body, but instead of crying or roaring out in anguish, the pain felt...
Invigorating.
[You are evolving]
Every time they hit him, Ss couldn''t help but let out a small smile.
A devilish smile.
A smile that extended from one ear to another.
"What the hell is happening!" Ss heard one of the assassins shout, but it didn''t matter.
Ss quickly spun on his heel and extended his hand.
Next thing he knew, his hand was shing through the abdomen of the assassin, separating his top from his bottom.
That battle paused for a second, yet Ss was not done.
"You wanted to kill right?" He whispered as his immense killing intent carried his voice into all their ears.
"Thene at me." Ss threw a barrage of punches toward the nearest assassin, before pummeling him into the ground.
They could not help but shudder at his voice.
Their visions were now tainted with a crimson-red color.
The skies looked like they had been tainted with blood, and the grounds were as red as the grounds of bloody ughter.
Time seemed to stretch as the battle raged on. Ss''s mind teetered on the edge, his thoughts bing muddled and erratic. The constant onught,bined with the absence of mana, took its toll on his sanity. He couldn''t distinguish the assassins anymore, and his instincts were the only thing pushing him forward, urging him to survive.
With each passing moment, Ss''s movements became more frenzied, more desperate.
Yet, every second of this battle allowed him to improve his technique by just a little more.
He attacked with reckless abandon, his body moving on pure instinct. The assassins, sensing his vulnerability, exploited his wavering state, striking with precise and coordinated maneuvers.
Ss''s mind spiraled further into chaos. The pain blended with adrenaline, forming a maddening cocktail that fueled his relentless assault.
He fought with a primal ferocity, fueled by a desire to survive against all odds.
Yet, despite his valiant efforts, the numbers were against him. The assassins pressed in closer, their des finding their marks with increasing frequency.
Ss''s body grew weaker, his movements slower, as blood loss and exhaustion took their toll.
The battle became a blur of violence and pain. Ss''s vision dimmed, his consciousness flickering like a dying me.
These were all people that could rival most amethyst cores. It was to be expected.
Despite his onught, he couldn''t hold that same power anymore.
He had unconsciously used metamorphosis to energize him to his peak every time he needed to rejuvenate, but after a while, he was forced to stop when the pain from his core became too much, and the risk of bing a cripple became too real.
He fought on, driven by sheer willpower, refusing to ept defeat.
His mind was slipping into the state it was in before he hade to Gilea.
Every punch... Every kick...
Every attack that he threw made him a thirst for their blood even more, while every attack thatnded on him made him only reach a new stage of madness.
In his final moments of rity, Ss mustered a burst of strength. Heunched himself into onest desperate attack, striking down several assassins in a flurry of blows. But his movements grew sluggish, his body sumbing to the overwhelming fatigue.
"I knew that woman was up to something..." a voice entered Ss'' ear, causing him to look at the being before him with confusion.
"To think you would be able to kill so many of my men despite your age..." The man looked around at his fallen students before pping his hands and performing a small prayer.
"Hmmm..." The man then turned to Ss again before smiling. Yet, his next words sent a shiver down Ss'' spine.
"I have a tingling feeling that you''re not from here."
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Chapter 91 Breaking My Limits [2] - Breaking Point
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Ss''s body trembled with exhaustion as he faced the mysterious man who had appeared amidst the chaos. Blood soaked his clothes, his wounds oozing with pain. The man''s presence sent a chill down Ss''s spine, and he couldn''t shake the feeling that something was off about him.
The man''s smile widened as he observed Ss, his eyes glinting with a mixture of amusement and curiosity. "You''ve put up quite a fight, young one," he said, his voiceced with a touch of condescension. "But it seems your luck has run out."
Ss red at the man, his body aching with every breath. He couldn''t let himself be defeated now, not after enduring such a fierce battle. There was a flicker of defiance in his eyes, a determination that refused to waver.
With a sudden burst of energy, Ss lunged at the man, his fists flying towards him. But the man effortlessly sidestepped the attack, his movements fluid and precise. He countered with a swift kick to Ss''s abdomen, sending him sprawling to the ground.
Pain shot through Ss''s body as he struggled to stand. The man loomed over him, his eyes filled with a mix of superiority and sadistic delight. "Do you know who I am?" he asked, his voice taunting. "I am Arlos, the leader of this Assassin''s guild. And you, little boy, are nothing more than a nuisance."
Ss gritted his teeth, his mind clearing for a brief moment. He had only taken one attack from the man, but he could tell that the man before him was different from all the other assassins he had met.
Ss couldn''t feel the man''s strength, but the pressure of his presnce alone made him feel stronger than Death.
There was a coldness to him, an aura of power that made Ss shudder. He realized that he had stumbled into something far more dangerous than he had anticipated.
The fight resumed, but Ss''s movements were sluggish, his attackscking the precision and strength they had possessed earlier. Arlos effortlessly blocked and dodged each strike, his movements akin to a deadly dance.
"Kid, you should savor this moment. You get to be beaten by someone so much better than yourself... Though, if you are what I think you are, I may have a little room in my heart to let you live." Arlos chuckled.
He was an average sized man with a short beard and gelled back jet ck hair.
Even though he was wearing a cloak, Ss could tell that the man''s figure was one defined with muscles.
His skin was much tighter on his body than a lot of body builders Ss had seen, yet the man had a certain thing about him that made him look extra lean, and even flexible.
Suddenly, Ss felt another kicknd on his abdomen, causing him to cought out a mouthful of blood.
However, Ss quickly used the momentum of the hit to stand up and face the man despite his battered body.
He could still feel that he couldn''t make spells. He even tried to make one, yet the magic circle instant shattered the moment it appeared.
Yet despite the dampener, he had no problem using Metamorphosis earlier.
''The thing dampening my spells isn''t stopping mana from being used. It''s simply dismanteling runes and spells...'' Ss thought, but when he thought of how he could fix that, there were only two solutions.
He had to either find a way to create spells without runes, or somehow awaken his toki and use it to defeat the man before him.
Gritting his teeth in anger, Ss shot forward and and tried to attack the man, yet all his attacks seemed tond on thin air.
He was too slow.
His life fusion had already healed all his major injuries, however, he was now too tired and exhausted to heal the rest.
If he tried to heal his body, it would most likelye from his muscle mass. His body was already far too small and light, so losing more muscle mass would be detrimental, even if it meant healing the small wounds that were making his movements harder.
At the same time, he was already too tired from his earlier battles to fight properly. He was mentally exhausted too since he had fought so many times in a single day.
Everything from misthowlers, to pythons, and even a number of assassins he had no confidence in beating.
Technically, he had only killed a little more than 2/3 of the assassins, and the rest had simply dispersed after their leader came, indluding the one that was the strongest among them.
Ss had truly struggled against him. He had used his teammates as cannon fodder or even shields whenever Ss tried to attack him. He would always attack from the shadows and retreat before Ss could even realize what had happened.
However, that didn''t matter anymore.
What did matter was the fight before him.
The man''s attacks were swift and precise, a testament to his mastery ofbat. Ss could barely keep up, his body battered and weary. Each blow he received threatened to shatter his resolve, but he fought on, refusing to surrender.
As the battle raged on, Ss felt his sanity slipping further away. The strain of the fight, coupled with the absence of mana, weighed heavily on his mind. His thoughts became fragmented, his actions driven purely by survival instinct.
Arlos seemed to relish in Ss''s descent into anguish and madness, his sadistic smile growing wider with each passing moment. "It''s entertaining to see a desperate rat squirm," he jeered. "But all rats meet their end eventually."
Ss''s vision blurred, his body moving on autopilot. Heunched a barrage of punches and kicks, somending, but most missing their mark. The pain was numbing, blending with the chaos of the battle.
Suddenly, Arlos seized an opening, delivering a powerful strike to Ss''s chest. The impact sent him crashing to the ground, gasping for breath. Blood trickled from his mouth as he struggled to rise, his body trembling with exhaustion.
The man approached Ss slowly, his eyes filled with a twisted satisfaction. "It''s over," he dered, raising his weapon for the final blow. "Your resistance wasmendable, but it ends here."
The man grabbed Ss'' head and raised him into the air.
"You looked stabbing my students through their torsos, right?" He asked, his face falling into a terrifying expression of anger.
Just then, a hand stabbed through Ss'' stomach, shooting through the other side before Ss'' body fell to the ground once more.
Ss'' vision flickered and began to fade.
His eyes were bing hazy, while his mind had be cloudier than ever.
He couldn''t think.
He couldn''t feel the pain anymore.
Yet, even then, he could tell that now that he was losing consciousness, something else was taking over.
Something he could not control.
Something primal.
Ss could feel his fingers extending into ws while two fangs began to stick out of his mouth.
His skin became porcin and scale-like, while his nose and ears began to morph.
Two ears stuck out of the top of his head while his nose shrunk in size.
And when he finally opened his eyes, he revealed a pair of emerald green eyes with slits for pupils.
Mist could be seening out of Ss'' body, while his shadow clung onto his body, creeping up his skin and turning his entire body into a creature of pure darkness.
[Awakening Sessful]
[Voliton me is ravaging your will]
[All bloodlines have been increased to 100%]
[You are evolving]
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Chapter 92 Breaking My Limits [3] - The Awakening
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*GASP*
Ss let out a loud gasp as he dropped to his knees.
He could see his shadow creeping down his arms and legs and returning to the ground.
For some reason, it felt like he couldn''t breathe.
Everything was still hazy, but his vision was slowly returning to him.
His hands were on his throat, and after a while, he let out another gasp and felt like he could breathe again.
He could feel something on his back, retracting back into his body, but by the time he looked around, there was nothing there.
''What the hell just happened...'' Ss thought as a weird feeling crept up his spine again.
He quickly scanned his body to see if he had all his body parts attached to his body, but to his surprise, he waspletely fine...
It wasn''t just that.
His body felt different.
His hands were a little bigger, but not by too much. No, that was the case with the rest of his body too.
''Did I get... Bigger?'' Ss thought before creating an ice mirror in front of him.
However, that''s when he saw another surprise.
All of his clothes were... Normal? Not a single rip or tear. Hell, the clothes weren''t even the ones he wore before his fight with the assassins.
They looked a little more modern...
He was wearing a long coat made out of leather. It had no runes on it, but for some reason, Ss could tell that it was extremely tough and wouldn''t rip easily.
Under that, he seemed to be wearing a formal shirt underneath his long coat, as well as a normal pair of ck pants.
However, despite all that, what shook him more was the fact that his hair hadn''t remained the same.
It was ck again. No... One could argue that it was a little cker than before. It was also a little longer, reaching down to his eyespared to before where it would only reach down to his eyebrows.
His sides seemed to be cut even though he hadn''t cut them in over two months, and even then, the haircut was modern, unlike the ones his parents made him have.
"Holy shit... How long has it been... where am I? Where the hell-" Ss'' words died in his throat the moment he turned the ice mirror back to the water.
Behind it, he could see the man that had killed him before... Or almost killed him.
That man wasying on the ground as blood pooled under him. His face was frozen into thest expression he ever made. It was one filled with horror. Filled with absolute terror.
"No..." Ss took a step back.
"Fuck no..."
The man''s body was beyond mutted, and he seemed to have been alive until the veryst moment of that mutting when a hole had been drilled through his head.
His gust and organs could be seen all around his corpse, some of them having been thrown several meters away, while others seemed like they were simply spilling out of the hole in his body.
"No... Shit! Not again." Ss'' hands were shaking as he grabbed his head.
He was scared.
And this time, he was scared of himself.
"No no no no no no no no no no." Ss turns around. He didn''t know where he was going to run, but he just wanted to get away from the corpse.
After all, he couldn''t run from himself.
Yet, the moment he turned around, he froze again...
Because the scene before him was one straight out of his nightmares.
The misty forest... Well, if people could even call it that anymore.
Not only was it not misty anymore, but Ss wasn''t sure if it could even qualify as a forest.
Trees could be seen all around, copsed or destroyed.
The body of beasts and monsters seemed to have been destroyed without discrimination, and in the very middle of this devastation, Ss could see a mistwalker looking at him and shivering in fear.
"What the hell did I do..." Ss muttered under his breath.
He had hoped that it wouldn''t happen in this world.
He hoped that maybe, just maybe, that part of him was dead.
"Shit... Okay... Okay... Ss, breathe. Just breathe. I have to think. I have to make sure no one saw me. Did anyone see me? If they did, are they all dead... They wouldn''t have survived this, right? There''s no way they would survive this, right?" Ss asked himself while rubbing his temples.
There were so many things wrong with the current situation.
He should have taken precautions before this. It was stupid to think that it wouldn''t have happened again. He now had magic and bloodlines. He was a lot more dangerous than he ever was on Earth, excluding the atomic bombs he owned.
[You have awakened a cursed blessing]
[Deathlock]
[Deathlock: Ensures your enemies can never escape you. If your enemy attempts to escape, they are cursed with the "Deathlock" curse that allows you to know their position at all times. This curse is not applied to those you deem allies and those you give mercy to.
If you choose to run away from a battle, you will be cursed as well, halving the strength of all your bloodlines, abilities, mana, etc.]
''Shit... Okay. That doesn''t matter right now.'' Ss sighed, but suddenly felt something.
It was hard to exin. It was as if his head had been hit with a hammer, but when the feeling of pain finally disappeared, he felt like he knew the location of all the people who had run away from his battle with the dead mana on the ground.
''Some of them are too far away... I have no idea how long I''ve been asleep for, but it''s at the very least 2 days.'' Ss thought before looking at the mistwalker in the distance.
''I have to make it think I''m still a threat... I''m currently in my peak condition... Hell, I actually feel a little strong. When I created that ice mirror, my spell casting was definitely faster that it would normally be.'' He quickly clenched and unclenched his hand before-
*Fwoohm*
Ss released the full extent of his killing intent, but now that it was out, he could tell that it was a lot stronger than it was before.
''Now... I need a n.''
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Chapter 93 The Hunt [1]
?
From the looks of it, the mistwalker was far too scared to do anything to Ss. He could only wonder what he had done to it to make it so scared, but in the end, there was no way of knowing without actually regaining the memory he lost in between.
Scanning the battlefield with mystic eyes, Ss could not help but stare at some of the bodies that wereying on the ground.
Many of their mana cores were missing, and from what Ss had understood, everyone who was here was either dead or had run the moment he entered that state.
However, there were still some without their mana cores.
Ss quickly sped around and stabbed his hand into their bodies before taking the mana cores with him.
He ced them in the pouch the dead man had. It was one of those storage pouches that were bigger on the inside than they were on the outside.
Ss quickly ced all the cores he could see in the pouch before taking onest look at the corpse he had presumably killed.
''At least no one will ever find you.'' Ss muttered while opening a hole under him and dropping his body inside.
Ss didn''t bother giving the man a second nce as he left the half-destroyed forest, littered with craters, dead beasts, and monster corpses with a shuddering mistwalker in the middle of it.
''Now... I guess I''ll have to silence everyone who saw me.'' Ss sighed before lowering to the ground and sprinting to the nearest person he could sense.
***
In Alexander City, a city named after the first King of the Xylem kingdom, an extremelyrge pce could be seen.
It was half the size of New York and could have been considered a literal haven to anyone other than the monarchs and royals.
The sprawling pce in Alexander City stood as a testament to opulence and grandeur.
Its magnificent architecture was a fusion of intricate designs, blending styles from different eras to create a harmonious whole.
The pce''s exterior boasted towering walls adorned with exquisite carvings and intricate patterns, showcasing the craftsmanship of the kingdom''s finest artisans.
As one approached the pce, they were greeted by an awe-inspiring entrance. Enormous golden gates, embellished with intricate filigree, stood tall and imposing.
The gates were nked by statues of legendary figures from Xylem''s history, crafted with lifelike precision. Beyond the gates, a wide marble pathway led to the main courtyard, inviting visitors to embark on a journey of enchantment.
The main courtyard was a spectacle of colors and fragrances. Lush gardens, meticulously designed and maintained, adorned the surroundings.
Vibrant flowers of every hue bloomed in abundance, their fragrance perfuming the air. Tall, ancient trees provided shade and serenity, their branches reaching towards the sky as if whispering tales of centuries past.
As visitors traversed the courtyard, they were greeted by the sound of water cascading down ornate fountains.
These fountains, adorned with intricately carved marble sculptures, depicted mythological creatures and legendary heroes frozen in graceful poses.
The y of light on the water''s surface created a mesmerizing disy, casting dancing reflections across the courtyard.
The pce itself was a work of architectural marvel. It consisted of several interconnected wings, each bearing its own unique charm.
The facade was a symphony of domes, turrets, and arches, reflecting the influence of various architectural styles.
borate stained ss windows adorned the walls, filtering sunlight into a kaleidoscope of colors that danced upon the marble floors.
In thergest throne room, a man that radiated the power of a thousand suns sat on a throne. His eyes were sealed shut as mana revolved around him and entered his cores.
The mana around him was so thick that it could be seen by the naked eye.
Four different elements'' colors revolved around him, each one representing a different element beforebining into one and entering his mana core.
"Your majesty?" A voice echoed in the throne room as a figure appeared within it.
His body flickered with a bright emerald green when it looked like he had teleported into the room.
His eyes didn''t dare look at his king, forcing himself to drop to the ground and lower his eyes.
The throne room was held up by hundreds of gold and marble pirs.
It was one of the most magnificent rooms in the kingdom, yet, it only showed the greed of the royals.
"What is it, servant?" The king spoke, his eyes fluttering open while his pupils shone for a moment, illuminating the room with his aura as pristine ruby energy washed over everything before him.
"There have been sighting of something... unexinable." The servant replied.
"Where?" The king asked while leaning his face onto his cheek.
"Near the misty forest."
"Isn''t that where Misty lives?" The king raised a brow.
"Yes your majesty."
"Then she can deal with it..."
"..."
"What?"
"Misty was defeated by it..."
"What?!" The king mmed his throne''s armchair, causing the entire pce to shake.
"Your majesty, please!" The servant begged.
The king quickly took a breath in before sitting back on his throne.
"She is not dead. It seems like the thing spared her."
"The thing?" The king asked again.
"Yes... The people who saw it described it as an eldritch terror, though I doubt that. Eldritch terrors are usually much more terrifying and relentless. Misty would have not survived." The servant exined.
"Or... The terror was a newborn or an infant." The king thought aloud.
"That is also a possibility. I''ve sent some scouts top check out the area. If they do meet the terror, they are strong enough to kill it."
"When will you hear back from them?" The king asked.
"In a few days. The inscident urded far up the north-western border. It will take some time." The servant exined.
"Thank you for this information. You may leave no." The king ordered, causing the man to stand up, bow, and disappear into thin air.
"This might be troublesome." The king muttered under his breath, his eyes peering into the distance.
"Let''s hope you''re actually from here this time."
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Chapter 94 The Hunt [2] - Death To Those Who Saw
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"Can you please exin to me what you saw exactly." A knight d in armor asked as he held a notebook in his hand and looked at a couple men sitting on a bench, with their heads held down and their bodies quivering in fear.
The knight and these men were in an ordinary room. It was small, making it look like it might have been a motel room. However, there were several knights in there, each and every one of them interrogating a different person.
These were the local knights. They were essentially the police of their town, and they were simply taking statements from the assassins that had seen this eldritch terror everyone is talking about.
"I don''t know... It was just... It was so scary. One minute the boy is dead, under our leader''s feet, the next minute he had turned into some kind of shadowy ice monster." The man described with a quiver in his voice.
It was obvious to everyone in the room that the assassins were all scared. It was to the point where they didn''t even seem to care about the fact that they were telling the knights that they were assassins who were paid to murder a child. They simply wanted to feel safe again and be as far away from the monster as possible.
"What does this boy look like?" One of the knights asked, causing one of the assassins to finally look up and answer their question after remaining silent the entire time.
He was the strongest assassin among the bunch who were hired to kill Ss. His power rivaled that of an early pristine amethyst core, and he was one of the only reasons why so many of them hade out alive.
7 of them had survived, 3 of them being snipers and the other three being closebat assassins.
"The boy... He looked no older than 9 years of age. He had white hair and green eyes." The man exined, while the knights looked at him with a weird stare.
"The guys outside said the same thing. Either he''s telling the truth, or they''re all lying to keep some kind of secret, though, I doubt that. They''ve already confessed to being assassins, I doubt they would lie about something like this." One of the senior knights chimed in.
"They all seem shaken too. That''s not something you can easily fake." Another pointed out.
"What else can you tell me about this person?" The knight questioning the assassins asked while writing something in his notebook.
"Uhm... He wore a ck cloak... I can''t really remember much. It all happened so fast."
"Can you tell me what happened before this boy became a terror?"
"Uhm. Well, he was beating us. All 40 of us. Honestly, it was amazing. Every time he attacked, I felt like my energy was being siphoned.
Attacks that looked slow and weak to me did way more damage than they were supposed to. His movements were chaotic and beastlike, and his physical strength was... Extraordinary."
"A 9-year-old almost beat all of you?" The knight raised a brow.
"That wasn''t even the most terrifying part about it. We from one of our sources that his main weapon was magic. He was a mage. Yet, what we didn''t know was that he could use 3 different elements.
Even then, you''d think that a spell dampener would stop him, but he was still too physically strong for us to beat him easily." The man began shaking even more.
"How many did he kill before he became... That thing?" The knight asked.
"Half of us."
"Do you think you would have been able to take him on if you were on your own? I know that assassins usually do better on their own instead of having a team."
"If he used his magic, I would have died as easily as everyone else. Physically, I''m not sure. He''s not as fast as me, but his endurance and strength were on another level."
"Do you remember any-" However, before one the knight could finish his sentence, one of the assassins suddenly stood up, having seemingly remembered something.
"His name... I know his name." The assassin muttered, causing all the knights to go closer to him in order to listen to what he had to say.
"His name was... Ss Skrk"
***
Darkless City
In the meeting hall of the 7 generals, one could see 5 of them sitting around a round table, each one of them talking to one another in a meeting that Archie was clearly leading.
However, there was one of them who didn''t look too happy to be their. The sour expression on her facebined with her natural ability to annoy everyone around her made he unlikable, but Archie still asked-
"What''s wrong, Greed."
However, she didn''t reply.
It seemed like she was looking into some kind of crystal. The look on her face looked like it might turn into an uncontroble fury at any second, and if the rest of the generals knew anything about Greed, it was the fact that she had a very high temper.
However, something else they all knew too well was the fact that she was the most unpredictable person amongst them.
"I think I just lost one of my pets." She spoke in a sad voice before her eyes filled with tears.
"A. Don''t cry." Life pulled her closer to her chest and cuddled her.
"It''s okay. I''m sure your pet is fine." Life smiled, yet Archie couldn''t help but narrow his eyes.
He had a bad feeling about this, and he felt like it could possibly impact his future ns.
However, before he could ask the question on his mind, he got an alert from hismunicaton crystal that made him widen his eyes slightly.
"What''s wrong?" Eclipse, who was sitting on his chair with his feet on the table asked.
He wore a simply goatte and had his hair pulled back into a ponytail.
"You know I don''t like that form, right?" Archie narrowed his eyes at eclipse with annoyance.
"I know. I just like annoying you." Eclipe smiled.
***
In a town near the north-western border, a group of knights coul be seen leaving a motelte at knight while looking and sharing all the notes they had written down.
It was mid-night, so the sun had set hours ago, making the entire town fall into a dark and silent slumber
"Do you think this might be a shape shifting humanoid?" One of them asked.
"Let''s hope it''s just a skin walker. Otherwise, we''re truly fucked." Another sighed.
They all knew the possibilities, and currently, skin walker was the best oue.
And eldritch terror awakening near their town was essentially a death stamp to their economy. Not only that, but for all they knew, they could be wiped out by tomorrow, and they wouldn''t even have enough time to react to the creature''s presence.
Hell, most of them struggle against simply amethyst cores. How were they supposed to fight against a terror?
"Let''s hope the royal scouts get here in time. I really don''t want to die." One of them sighed.
"I didn''t want it to end this way either, but you guys poked your noses where it didn''t belong." A young boy''s voice sounded from behind them, sending a shiver down their spines.
And when they finally looked around, what they saw was a young boy with jet-ck hair and a pair of zing emerald green eyes, staring at them nkly as he raised his hand and pointed it at them
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Chapter 95 The Hunt [3] - Bloodied Streets
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"I didn''t want it to end this way either, but you guys poked your noses where it didn''t belong." A young boy''s voice sounded from behind them, sending a shiver down their spines.
"Kid. You shouldn''t be out thiste." One of the weaker knights smiled at the green-eyed boy and tried to walk toward him, but their group leader quickly stopped him.
"That kid... He''s dangerous." The leader muttered.
"How can the kid be dangerous. He looks like he 9 or 10 years old. At that age, I didn''t even know how to hold a sword properly." The man chuckled.
"Really? I thought it was customary for most people to at least learn swordsmanship by the age of 6, or is that not the case here?" the ck-haired boy tilted his head a few degrees to the right.
"Who are you, kid." one of them asked with their des pointed toward the ck-haired boy.
"I could tell you..." The green-eyed boy touched his chin in thought before looking back at the group.
"But it won''t matter in a few minutes."
"And why is that." The leader began to unsheath his sword, something that shocked the rest of them.
"Leader! What are you doing. He''s a kid!" one of them shouted.
"Can''t you see it already, you morons. He''s the eldritch terror." The leader gripped his sword tightly and gritted his teeth.
''oh? Is that what they''re calling me?'' Ss thought with a wry smile that hid his annoyance. Of course, the news would have spread. He''s been asleep for at least two days. There''s no way the survivors wouldn''t have said anything.
"But he doesn''t have white hair." One of them argued.
"Yeah, but he does have green eyes, looks around the ages described, and is currently releasing slithers of killing intent while looking at us. What more do you want." The leader retorted and dashed forward.
"Finally." Ss sighed and pointed his hand toward him.
"I''m truly sorry for this." Ss muttered as a magic circle appeared before his hand.
Suddenly, a bullet made of wind shot forward, shocking all of them in the process, yet not giving the leader nearly enough time to dodge the attack.
So instead of dodging, he use his toki to block the attack.
Toki quickly wrapped itself around the normal bullet before trying to stop it or destroy it. However, while the leader tried to do that, Ss was running toward him at full speed, using wind fusion to increase his velocity.
A dagger could be seen in his hand as he neared the leader, yet one of the leader''s teammates stepped forward with a sword in their hands and attacked Ss with everything they had.
"DIE!"
*ng*
Ss quickly deflected the attack. They were all as strong as a dull amethyst, even the leader despite him looking a little older and in some way, a little stronger than all of them.
When the leader finally destroyed the bullet, he looked forward, yet what he saw shocked him to his core.
There was Ss, spinning on his heel and slitting hisrade''s throat with a single sh.
"NOOOO-"
"Shut up." Ss muttered while flicking his foot and creating a magic circle under him.
Suddenly, a spike made of earth shot out of the ground and appeared right in front of his throat, and before he could even react to the sudden attack, he felt a sharp paine from his neck as his ability to breathe quickly seized.
"LEADE-"
Two boulders crushed the rest in an instant, making their deaths quick and easy.
Ss finally turned to the one squirming on the floor, trying his hardest to keep his blood from leaving through the cut on his neck.
"Don''t worry. I''ll end your suffering as quickly and painlessly as possible." Ss smiled while creating a fired bullet that entered the man''s brain and instantly turned it to ash.
Standing up, Ss could not help but sigh at the mess he made.
They had attacked him first anyway, so his consciousness was guilt-free.
Ss'' eyes wandered toward the motel room the assassins were staying in. He had already killed all of them the moment the knights left, and even though he wanted to kill them while they were in the room, he had a feeling that the fight would have been much harder if it as all of them against him.
Running away would have also been much easier for them to do since not all of them were stationed in the same room.
With a snap of his fingers, Ss threw out several marble-sized fireballs and burned their bodies to a crisp.
With another snap, he sunk the ground under them and buried them where theyy.
That was the least he could do for them. Though, if he had to be honest, burying them was the best option since it would hide their bodies for a bit longer. Of course, he had taken care of the assassins in a different yet simr way.
Both included burning and burying, but one group was alive through it all, while the knights died before having to suffer that fate.
"Hey kid! Is something wrong? I heard some shouting." A male voice entered Ss'' ears.
"Oh, just some drunk people fighting. Nothing to worry about here." Ss gave the man a side-long nce while blossoming a warm smile across his face.
"Oh... Alright. Stay safe kid." The man waved before entering his house again.
After that, Ss simply left the town. On the way out, he made sure to stay hidden from the guards at the front gates. Everyone who knew his name in the town was dead.
"Time to find my next victims, I guess." Ss sighed while ncing over the notebook he stole before cing it in his pocket.
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Chapter 96 The Hunt [4] - Jessica
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Ss spent 2 to 3 days to find all of the people who knew his name and interrogated them to find out if they told anyone about his name. He didn''t eat or sleep, mostly because he didn''t feel like it at the time. He felt like this many times in the past, but he always felt like resting his mind was important.
Maybe because it was the only thing that made him feel human, despite all the things that he''s done.
Despite all the things that he''s seen.
Despite all the things he''s been blessed with in this world.
But that wasn''t the point. He was here to hunt the people who knew about what he had be, and he was slowly gaining more knowledge, not only about himself when he had apparently turned into an eldritch terror, but also about the kingdom.
However, he was thankful for one thing. The people further away from the battlefield had enough time to clear their heads and not tell anyone about what they saw. The people closest to the battlefield didn''t have that luxury, despite knowing that they would probably be arrested for many previous crimes, such as murder.
Believe it or not, murder was illegal. Beating someone to a pulp apparently wasn''t, and the same thing could be said about very, torture, and other crimes that would have been deemed a crime against human rights.
Though, there seemed to be a few rules implemented to stop people from torturing someone or buying ves.
Apparently, the use of ve items was strictly banned. These were magic items forged by a forgemaster who would ce a runic imprint on a cor, bracelet, or even ne. They were considered forbidden magic, just like the use of human mana cores in creating weapons or armor.
Though, this didn''t mean that very was banned. It was just that the use of ve items was strictly forbidden, and could even lead to the execution of one''s entire bloodline.
So, essentially, very on Gilea went the same way as very back on Earth.
Some rich folk would even buy ves from the demon continent and bring them over to Edore in order to relieve their weird fantasies that sent a shiver down the spine of everyone who heard them.
Though, it must be mentioned that even though using ve cors on humans, beastkin, and even elves was a major crime worth execution, humans didn''t care when it came to demons or even beasts and monsters they choose to tame.
Nevertheless, Ss wasn''t nning on having a ve any time soon. He was actually more worried about him having a ve item nted inside him, rather than the other way around.
From what he had seen with Greed, ve items didn''t work on him, or at least ones of the same strength that Greed used on him. His system told him about it, but his evolution blessing simply fought back against it and the serums she had injected into his body.
However, he could think about thatter, because right now, he had something else on his mind.
Standing on a tree in the distance, Ss'' burning emerald eyes pierced through the forest''s greenery and stared at a woman walking through it.
She seemed to me injured, however, Ss was certain that the injury was quite new.
She had days to heal herself, yet all she was wearing was a bandage that was wrapped around her arm, yet even then, she was bleeding through that as well.
"What are you doing... Jessica." Ss spoke to himself in a low voice.
He had his hood on since he didn''t want anyone to see him when he entered the city again. He''d need to get a potion from Archie again to change his hair color since he wasn''t too sure if this world had hair dye yet.
Plus, potions were a lot easier to use than hair dye, since potions changed the color of his hair on a gic level rather than just dying it a certain color.
Ss didn''t really understand how it worked since hair was technically dead and therefore probably wouldn''t have the ability to change, but this was magic he was talking about.
Everything was possible with magic, even weird and unexined hair transformations.
After watching her cross the forest for a while, Ss ran out of patience and jumped down the trees.
She seemed to have immediately heard him, yet by the time she had turned around, he had already dashed forward, turning into a blurry streak beforending a few meters in front of her.
"Who are you..." She immediately asked while taking out a dagger with her unharmed hand.
"Me?" Ss smirked while looking up to show her his zing emerald eyes.
"Shouldn''t I be asking you that question?" He asked before shooting forward.
However, the moment he did, he felt a wave of powerful toki suddenly shoot out from where she stood, creating arge wave of pure mana that pushed him back a few meters.
Jessica didn''t waste another second and dashed forward as well, but Ss was more than ready for her.
Seeing her dagger slice toward him, Ss grabbed her wrist with his power and squeezed as hard as he could.
The sound of cracking echoed throughout their location, while a small scream of agony left Jessica''s mouth before she forcefully stifled it.
Pulling away the arm at lightning speed, Ss saw her entire body suddenly coat itself in toki before it traveled to her legs.
Before she could even kick him, Ss took a step back and out of her kick range, yet even when she stepped forward in order to try again, Ss did the same thing, as if he knew exactly what she wanted to do.
However, instead of giving up, she kicked at the air anyway.
''Shit.'' Ss cursed when he saw a crescent arch of pure tokiing toward him, ripping through the ground and aiming to split him in half.
"You''d think I''d be used to this by now." Ss sighed.
He didn''t expect her to have reached the third step of toki. She was a little stronger than he imagined, but he no longer cared.
Opening his mouth, Ss let out a roar that shot mind-rattling sound waves toward the arch and her.
Suddenly, the arch began to destabilize, and Ss took this opportunity without thinking twice.
Flipping over the arch of toki, Ss shot down toward Jessica beforending a drop kick that sent her flying several meters behind her before mming into a tree.
Without skipping a beat, Ss pressed his right leg forward and moved like a blur, appearing before her in less than a second while stabbing his hand toward her head.
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Chapter 97 The Eldritch Terror [1] - Flashback
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Ss'' hand shoot past Jessica''s head, barely grazing her cheek as it stabbed through the tree behind her.
She looked at the hand with an ounce of fear, before looking back into the emerald eyes of the man who had attacked her.
Her heart was beating out her chest, while her breathing rate had be so high that it would have probably been considered hyperventtion.
Maybe, if she wasn''t injured, she would have survived... but right now... Right now she didn''t know how to feel.
She was scared.
She was helpless.
And in front of such a dominating aura, she couldn''t help but cry a little.
"P-Please... I don''t want to die. Who ever you are, please don''t kill me." She cried out in a whispered voice.
She felt like crying out for help would only quicken her death, and the chances of people being out at this time were extremely low.
"Oi! What do you think you''re-" Before the man in the distance could even finish speaking, an ice spine shot through his abdomen, causing him to gasp for her while falling to the floor and creating a pool of blood under him.
"Ice? Is that you, Game?" Jessica asked with a hopeful tone. However, that''s when she remembered...
That''s when she remembered the monster she saw on that day.
***
"We can''t hold them back. We''re going to die!" A man holding a long sword cried out as he tried his hardest to block iing attacks from the assassins.
However, despite Ss helping them out every now and then, they were too many.
However, when most of them went to attack Ss, the team quickly realized something else.
The assassins were also too strong.
"I can hold them back... I''ll have to use my trump card, but I can do it." Jessica exined to them while giving them a small smile.
"Are you sure you can hold them back?" One of the other men asked while trying his best to defend against the iing onught of shes and punches.
The assassin''s attacks were so quick that two of them had to fight the assassin at the same time, yet even then, it seemed like they couldn''t even hold back all their attacks, causing their bodies to be littered with cuts and bruises.
"Yes. But when I do this... I want you to run as quickly as possible. I''ll try my best to save Game since it doesn''t seem like he can hold on much longer." Jessica looked toward the swarm of assassins trying their best to kill him.
However, no matter how much they tried, for some reason, their des always fell short of the target.
Ss was somehow dominating the fight, but Jessica knew that it wouldn''t be too long until Ss'' strength would wear out.
She didn''t understand why he wasn''t using his magic, but that didn''t matter.
Opening up her jacket, she quickly pulled down her shirt and tapped on a ne she was wearing around her neck that couldn''t be seen due to her clothing.
The ne seemed to be embroidered with a sapphire mana crystal. It was tiny and had traces of blood-red lines going through its insides. Those red threads expanded and retracted as if they were alive, simr to how Greed had crystals simr to hers embroidered within it.
Looking at one of the assassins, she tapped on the crystal and caused it to shine with a deep blue light.
Suddenly, the toki around her became visible to the naked eye before also beginning to glow with a simr radiance.
While Ss didn''t recognize it back then since he was neck-deep in the battle of his life, if he had seen what she had just done, he would have been shocked.
Her toki, which is usually made out of pure mana, had suddenly had all its mana particles turn into elemental particles, specifically the water element.
Jessica felt as if her body was as light as a feather, while at the same instance, the fluidity and speed of her movements had reached a whole new level. A level that not even Ss could reach even if he used water fusion.
This was probably because of the fact that she was more skilled and experienced than he was, but also due to the fact that her toki alone was capable of rivaling that of someone or something in the solid-amethyst core.
However, not only had the crystal made her toki be a water variant, but it also doubled the amount of toki she was capable of controlling.
Suddenly, she had be a force to be reckoned with.
Her body became a blurry streak as she quickly moved toward her enemy, and stabbed him in the throat before moving toward the one that was attacking two of her teammates.
With a single sh, she decapitated them before dashing toward thest one and killing it before it could kill theirst teammate.
"Holy shit, Jessica. That''s so cool." One of them jumped up and down with joy, yet Jessica simply red at them.
"This form takes a lot of energy out of me. I can only do this for a couple minutes. Take your asses and leave."
"What about..." One of them looked at the dead healer.
"She''s dead. You can''t do anything about it. Don''t sacrifice yourself over something as stupid as carrying the dead out of the battlefield." She snarled and dashed toward the swarm of enemies.
The others took her advice and began to run away.
If they had to be honest, they were d they didn''t have to carry the body with them since it would have only made their escape harder.
After running for a minute or two, they felt like they were finally stepping into freedom, but atst, fate was not on their side.
"My snipers could have deal with you, but I guess it''s important to stretch my muscles every once in a while." A man with ck hair towered before them while releasing a menacing aura that made all of them instantly drop to their knees.
They couldn''t speak.
They couldn''t move.
They werepletely incapable of doing anything, even blinking and breathing.
"Be d. At least you get to die by the hands of someone truly superior to you." The assassin''s guilt leader smiled maniacally before he disappeared from where he stood.
Next thing they knew, the sound of crunching and breaking entered their ears, before eventually, they suffered the same fate as the rest of theirrades.
***
As Jessica ran around trying to kill everyone in sight, she could feel her boost in strength running out.
However, she quickly realized why that didn''t matter.
After dodging an iing arrow, she leaned forward to attack, yet she quickly realized something.
She didn''t hear the arrow hit the ground.
Looking to her right, she saw arge man, standing at a height of 6 and a half feet, towering above her while looking into her eyes with his devilish-purple ones.
What stood before her was a man that not many could even touch.
Despite being the leader of one of the weaker guilds, he was still incredibly strong, having reached a level of power that would have instantly made him the general of the Death faction back in the Darkless organization.
Hell, themander had even tried recruiting him before, yet he had refused the invitation long ago.
It was rumored that he was able to kill a sapphire-cored great centipede with his bare hands, and now that he was in front of her, Jessica no longer doubted the rumors.
"You must be Greed''s right hand woman, right?" The man smirked while Jessica tried to step back, however, she quickly felt his hand around her throat as he picked her off the floor as if she weight nothing to him.
"I''ll keep you around. I wonder how Greed will react when she sees the aftermath of my torture. That will teach her for messing with me." His grin turned into a malicious teeth-grit face that was filled with so much fury that it essentially radiated off him.
Chapter 98 The Eldritch Terror [2] - Who Is Silas?
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"You must be Greed''s right hand woman, right?" The man smirked while Jessica tried to step back, however, she quickly felt his hand around her throat as he picked her off the floor as if she weight nothing to him.
"I''ll keep you around. I wonder how Greed will react when she sees the aftermath of my torture. That will teach her for messing with me." His grin turned into a malicious teeth-grit face that was filled with so much fury that it essentially radiated off him.
Without giving it another thought, he quickly threw Jessica to the side, mming her into a tree before throwing a kunai toward her.
The kunai suddenly let out a popping sound before two ropes came out of it and wrapped Jessica around the tree trunk, forcing her to watch the battle unfold as the man simply waited off to the side, watching Ss'' every move.
Jessica tried to break free, yet due to the crystal''s effects ending, she was currently suffering the bacsh of using such an item without taking enough precautions.
"I am Arlos, the leader of this Assassin''s guild. And you, little boy, are nothing more than a nuisance." The man grinned as he introduced himself to Ss.
The rest of the fight went the same way Ss remembered it... Or at least, the same way he remembered most of it.
And in the end, Ss was held up into the air and stabbed through the abdomen, causing him to spit out a mouthful of blood before being dropped to the ground.
Arlos'' expression returned to that of a grin as heughed andughed, yet in the end, hisughter was for naught.
After all, what happened next was burned into Jessica''s retinas.
She couldn''t forget it even if she tried.
Every time she closed her eyes, she saw that terrifying scene.
The scene of Ss'' fingers extending into ws. The scene where she had to watch as darkness took over his body, covering him in wriggling slime-like shadows before he finally stood up.
His face waspletely in. There was nothing on it.
It waspletely smooth, or at least it looked that way.
The sound of cracks echoed through the forest as two wings protruded out of his back before expanding and showing their true size.
They looked like they were made out of shadows, but Jessica couldn''t shake the feeling that they closely resembled the wings of a bat despite being torn in several areas.
That''s when Ss... or whatever had taken over him began speaking.
It didn''t make sense to any of them. It was gibberish, yet the words felt like they had meaning behind them.
Not only that, but despite not understanding a single wording out of its mouth, every living being in that area understand what the creature was saying.
*"You... Do... This?"* It asked.
"What the hell are you!" Arlos roared out in fear while punching toward the creature.
And somehow, the punchnded, mming right into the creature''s face and blowing the top portion clean off.
Its body was instantly shot back as well, sent several hundred meters away in just a few seconds, while an enormous shockwave destroyed everything in Arlos'' path.
"Oh... That was easier than I thought... I wonder if I can keep you as my pet." He thought before looking at Jessica and grinning.
"Keep both of you." she smiled mischievously.
However, just like the rest of Ss'' and Jessica''s teammates, fate was simply not on his side...
Or to be specific, the monster before them was not going to fall that easily.
A thunderous rumble reverberated through the darkening skies, shrouded by thick, swirling clouds that obscured the once vibrant sunset.
The misty forest below quivered with unease as every beast within it erupted in panic, even the dormant creature nestled in its heart. Abruptly, an immense, misty figure materialized, rising to a towering height of 20-25 meters, dwarfing even the loftiest trees that surrounded it.
Arlos furrowed his brow, while Jessica''s gaze fixated on the creature sprawled on the ground. Enveloped in sinister shadows, its massive wingsy folded by its side.
For an instant, Jessica pondered whether this could be Ss'' original form, but her thoughts were swiftly overwhelmed by an intense surge of fear¡ªthe most profound terror she had ever experienced.
A chill seeped through her veins as pure dread consumed her senses.
Her vision momentarily blurred, but she could not miss the macabre spectacle unfolding before her eyes.
The creature stirred, its body rising with an otherworldly grace that defied the use of limbs. It levitated, unaided by any visible force, while the flickering shadows upon its form grew more pronounced.
Simultaneously, the creature''s wings began to contort and expand, defying natural boundaries.
"YoU... tRy... KiLl... ME!?" A resonant, transcendental voice resonated through the forest, permeating the skies.
Its low timbre triggered tremors that shook the misty woond, akin to an earthquake unfurling its might.
"YOU... TRY... KILL... ME!?" the creature bellowed once more, its body hovering above the ground as tendrils of darkness crawled outwards from where itst stood.
"No... This can''t be happening right now." Jessica managed to utter, her words drowned out by the escting vibrations that emanated from the creature''s core.
The quaking intensified, unleashing torrents of energy in relentless waves. Mana swirled, tainted, and ckened upon approaching the creature¡ªa manifestation of pure, unadulterated power, bound only by the monster''s insidious will.
Cracks resounded throughout the forest, echoing like the tortured cries of a fiend crafted in the depths of hell itself.
Its jaw shattered and reformed, stretching until it tore through the enshrouding shadows. Unfathomably wide, the creature''s maw defied all human proportions.
The writhing shadows that clung to its body wriggled and stirred, plunging the surrounding realm into silence, pregnant with dread.
"I... KILL... YOU!" The creature fixated its gaze skyward, unleashing a mind-shattering screech that reverberated through the forest, inflicting sheer torment upon all who heard it.
In a sudden surge of motion, its body extended, and in that harrowing instant, countless tendrils and appendages¡ªdark as night¡ªpropagated from its being, ruthlessly ripping through everything in their path, turning them into dust and destroying them at the speed of lightning.
Lightning thundered once more, shooting down from the skies and burning everything in their paths.
Like piercing drills, tendrils that seemed to have been created from the very fabric of the abyss pierced through Arlos'' body, before another set of tendrils prated Jessica''s arm and violently flung her away, rendering her unconscious.
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Chapter 99 Slave Collar [1] - Jessicas Plea
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-Present-
Jessica was currently shaking as those memories shed before her eyes.
She had been so terrified before, but now that she could remember what had happened, she was mortified.
Her mind had automatically kept her from remembering the events of that day. She didn''t want to ept what had happened, and her mind was trying to protect her from those same memories.
One could call it PTSD, but Ss didn''t really care.
All he knew was that the woman before him was shaking like crazy, and from what he''s understood so far, everyone with the Deathlock curse is someone who remembered something that happened that night.
Of course, most of their memories happened to be fragmented. Every time he asked someone with the Deathlock curse what had happened, they would tell him a few fragmented recall what the scene before freaking out again.
However, after his long interrogation, Ss realized finally pieced most of the story together, by using all of their memories and piecing them together like the jigsaw pieces of a puzzle.
"I don''t actually need you." Ss thought aloud before grabbing her hair and raising her up against the tree behind her.
The terror in her eyes seemed to be multiplying as the seconds passed, but eventually, Ss snapped his fingers and created an icicle with an edge sharp enough to stab right through the average light armor.
He had condensed it to make sure that it can do the job and as he raised it into the air, readying himself to stab her through the heart, she said something that interested him.
"ve..."
"What?" Ss raised a brow.
"Make me your ve. That way, you can make sure I will never tell anyone about what I saw that day.
"Too much work." Ss shugged and continued "Plus, not only are ve items illegal, they are extremely expensive for that very reason."
"Yeah... But I have one." She muttered and took something out of her jacket pocket before dropping it to the ground.
"And why do you have that, exactly?" Ss asked with a suspicious tone.
"Madam Greed told me to capture something on our way back. As you can see, it didn''t go so well." She chuckled before gritting her teeth in pain as Ss switched from holding her up by her hair to using her neck instead.
Creating an earth pir, Ss raised the cor-like ve item to his eye level before narrowing his eyes.
"How do I know this is a ve item? For all I know, you might have a certain interest in cors and keep it around at all times. Now that I''ve put you in this spot, you probably thought you can use it to trick me since I probably won''t know the difference." Ss frowned while keeping an eye on her life force.
Even though it was miniscule. the life force usually reacted when someone says a lie. Actually it reacts to all the person''s thoughts and emotions. From what Ss could see right now, he could tell that she was terrified of him. Her heart beat and breathing seemed to tell him the same too.
"I swear... I''m... Not... Lying..." She wheezed out, struggling to breath with the tight grip around her neck.
She had to use a lot of toki to even breathe. In that moment, she knew that there was no way she would win this fight, especially in her currrent state.
After she had woken up, Jessica made the only right decision... Or at least she through she did.
She didn''t want to test her fate, so without thinking twice, she had run away from the battlefield, trying to get as far away from Ss, or whatever he came, as possible.
She crossed many towns on the way, but her mind was trying its best to surpress the memories of what she had seen, so even though many asked her why her arm was hurt, she didn''t tell them anything.
However, at one point a healer told her that they would heal her arm for free, yet despite using everything up to tier 4 spells, she wasn''t healing.
It was as if the healing energy was being rejected. The healer didn''t understand what had happened, and even though they wanted to examine Jessica to see what they could do, she knew that they could do nothing.
However, now that Ss was right in front of her, something about her wounds were changing.
It felt like they were beginning to burn her. It felt like she was recieving the wound all over again, and the only thing she could see was excruciating pain.
"Put the cor on my neck." Ss ordered while dropping her to the ground.
She wasn''t sure if she had heard him correctly. Maybe the pain was messing with her mind? Or at least that''s what she thought in that moment.
"Can you hear me? I''m asking you to put the cor on my neck. I have to make sure it works." Ss asked.
He knew that putting it on himself probably wouldn''t work, so he was going to ask Jessica to do it. He was fairly certain that it wouldn''t work. It had a lot less energy than the one Greed had used, and since then, he had gained a certain level of resistance toward ve items.
''ve items?'' Ss reached for the back of his necks and realized that the item Greed had ced on it was gone.
"Right now?" Jessica asked with preplexed tone, while Ss simply nodded.
While Greed''s item had worked for the first few minutes, the serums she injected into his body had a hand in that. However, even if the ve cor worked, it wouldn''t be a big deal since he would eventually gain a resistance to it.
He usually wouldn''t have taken a risk like this, but since he already lost the advantage he had over Greed, he wanted to take something from her too.
Plus, he had a feeling that she had something to do with the assassins, and if his hunch proved to be true, he''d need someone on the inside to carry out his n B
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Chapter 100 Slave Collar [2] - Silence Those Who See
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*Click*
The runes shone on the cor, before a green screen appeared before Ss'' eyes.
[An unknown energy is entering your body]
[ve item detected]
[Your volition me is retaliating]
[Your mind is retaliating]
[Your body is retaliating]
[Your soul is retaliating]
[Your resistance to ve items has increased]
Ss could feel the mana inside his body consuming the mana that was entering through the cor.
It was happening at a tremendous pace, but from the words that were appearing on the screen, Ss was worried that retaliating might mean that his body, mind, and soul might fight back and possibly destroy the cor.
Looking down, Ss realized that he couldn''t take it off on his own without breaking it. These kinds of cors had a function that made it impossible for anyone other than the person who had put the cor on to take them off.
However, right as he was about to ask Jessica to take it off before his body destroyed it, he heard a maniacalughe from her.
She looked a little crazy whileughing, but Ss couldn''t help but feel a tiny sliver of attraction toward her.
''Ah... These weird feelings of attraction will get me in trouble one day.'' Ss thought, pinpointing exactly what he found attractive about her at that moment...
"You idiot... You absolute moron! You''re so stupid! Oh my god I can''t believe this." She spoke with enthusiasm and joy in her voice.
"I get to both survive and have a ve all to myself. Greed doesn''t have to know about you. I''ll keep you a secret. Maybe I''ll tell her that you died due to the mission." She jumped up and down like an excited little girl awaiting her Christmas presents.
"Now! Kneel before your queen!" She shouted with hands on her hips and her chin pointing toward the sky.
"Take the cor off." Ssmanded, yet she justughed again.
"You think you can order- Oof." Yet, just before she could finish her sentence, she felt like she had been hit in the abdomen by a charging bull.
Her body was immediately flung back, shooting through several trees before dropping to the ground and puking everything in her stomach.
"Take... It... Off." Ss spoke, this time pausing between each word in order to emphasize them.
"B-But... How." She muttered, yet her random ramblings only served her with another beating.
After a few minutes of this, Jessica found herselfying against a tree, her entire body having been beaten, bruised, and bloodied after Ss had bashed her around for the 10th time.
"Take it off." Ss ordered again, however, this time he held an icicle in his hand and ced it over her heart.
This time she yielded and did as he ordered. A few secondster, she was the one with a cor around her neck, and the moment Ss heard the click that indicated it was closed, he picked her up by the hair and looked her in the eyes.
"Does this ve cor have a cloaking feature?" Ss asked.
At that moment, her eyes glowed blue for a moment before she spoke.
"Yes, sir. You can find it near thetch."
Ss looked at the area she pointed out before narrowing his eyes and tilting his head.
"How do I activate it?" Ss asked.
"Just tap on the right and left-hand side of thetch at the same time."
*Beep*
Doing what she said, Ss watched as the cor disappeared before his far eyes, bing extremely thin before eventually putting itself into her skin and bing one with it.
"Alright. Here''s the n. If anyone asks you anything about the mission, you''re going to tell them this..."
***
Ss walked down the bridge connected to the elevator-like tform. Jessica was walking right behind him, and now she seemed a lot more like her real self.
Ss had made sure that her personality didn''t change. When he had ced the cor on her, she had be a robot. Even her eyes felt like they had be hollow as if there was no life in them.
However, now she looked exactly like how she was before. Hell, even her wounds were healing for a reason she couldn''t understand.
Yet, there were some differences in how she would act, not that anyone else other than Ss would notice.
Ss had ordered her to swearplete loyalty to him. Anything that might in any way betray him was prohibited for her to do. He then told her what to say when people asked her how the mission went, while also spying on Greed for him and telling him everything about her that she knew.
"Oh. Mr. Evergreen?" A man asked as Ss beeped his card at the front booth. This was something required for everyone to do even though people already do hand scans before entering the city.
"Yes?" Ss asked with a tilt of the head. He had his hood on to make sure people didn''t see his ck hair. It was also to make sure that his previous identity as Ss Skrk would remain safe.
"Sir. Themander has ordered us to tell you to go to his office when you return from your mission." The man exined.
"Alright. Will do." Ss raised his hand as a way of telling the man ''farewell'' before walking away from the booth.
After a while, Ss said goodbye to Jessica as well as she walked toward the mercenary hall to give her report in. Of course, Ss had ced some precautions in ce that ensured Jessica wouldn''t say a thing if the cor was somehow removed.
Looking at her through his mystic eyes, Ss sighed and walked in the direction of Arichie''s office.
However, as he walked in that direction, he chose to look at his status screen, yet when he saw what had changed on it, he couldn''t help but widen his eyes.
¨X¨T¨T¨T¨T¨T¨T ? ¡ã?¡ã ? ¨T¨T¨T¨T¨T¨T¨[
Name: Seth Evergreen
Age: 6 years 8 months
Race: ???
Core: Solid-Topaz
Affinities: Mana (Earth, Fire, Water, Air), Life Equation, Light, Darkness
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Bloodlines:
Shadow Walker - 1%
Mist Walker - 8%
Pink Python - 24%
Thundertusk - 23%
Sonic Bat - 38%
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Bloodline Abilities:
Sonic Screech - (Creates a powerful screech capable of destruction, incapacitation, injury, and killing.)
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Blessings/Curses:
Evolution - (Your body, mind, and soul have been sculpted to transform you into the peak life form. Everything you do, and everything that is done to you, shall affect how you evolve.)
Deathlock: Ensures your enemies can never escape you. If your enemy attempts to escape, they are cursed with the "Deathlock" curse that allows you to know their position at all times. This curse is not applied to those you deem allies and those you give mercy to.
If you choose to run away from a battle, you will be cursed as well, halving the strength of all your bloodlines, abilities, mana, etc.
¨^¨T¨T¨T¨T¨T¨T ? ¡ã?¡ã ? ¨T¨T¨T¨T¨T¨T¨a
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Chapter 101 Road To Becoming Judgement [1] - The Questions
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Ss could not help but blink as he saw his status screen, however, his eyes were drawn to three specific indicators that confused him.
Race: ???
Core: Solid-Topaz
Affinities: Darkness
Why was his race unknown? What the hell happened to make such a thing ur. He remembered what the screens had said before he had been sent into a rampage, but why did his race change.
The screen had told him that all his bloodlines would be set to 100% due to the awakening of his volition me. Sure, he had a rough idea of what a volition me was, but since it wasn''t something he had researched on Earth, his understanding of it wasn''t as high as he would have liked it to be.
However, after looking at the list of his bloodlines and their percentages, the only thing that seemed to have changed was the percentage next to "Mistwalker".
He assumed it was because he had killed many of them when he had cked out in the misty forest. However, there was no way that a 5% change would have such arge impact on his race, right?
Ss couldn''t understand it. He was confused. No, he was beyond confused. Maybe the awakening had done something to him? Maybe those ckouts on Earth were due to his volition me too?
What is a volition me, really? Was it the reason he discovered the life equation in the first ce? Or was it a catalyst that brought him closer to the discovery of the life equation... Closer than any human before him.
"Kid? Are you going to go in?" A voice asked from behind him.
Ss looked up and realized he was already in front of Archie''s office.
Looking back at the man who was talking to him, Ss smiled, but when he realized who was standing behind him, he couldn''t help but narrow his eyes.
''Hmm... He seems familiar.'' Ss thought while looking at the young man behind him.
He was no older than 20 years of age, however, there was one thing that stood out about him.
''And why the hell is he so handsome. Leave some women for the rest of us!'' Ss inwardly screamed.
Sure, at that moment he still hadn''t hit puberty, so his interest in women and rtionships in general was quite low, but he had to think about the future generation! What would happen if this man were to go into the dating world, huh? He would steal all the women!
He looked like the average harem isekai protagonist, and for some reason, that very thing was making Ss really angry.
"Oh, sorry about that. I was just daydreaming. Next thing I knew, I was over here." Ss smiled, yet the man could the corner of Ss'' mouth twitching.
"Are you okay? Your mother seems to be twitching." The mean leaned closer with a kind smile on his face.
''Get away from me you beautiful bastard!'' Ss pped his hand away and walked into Archie''s room before mming the door behind him.
"Oh! Ss! Finally! Where have you been. I might be elected any day now and I need you around to take the Judgement seat." Archieined.
Archie was sitting in one of the chairs in front of his desk.
Before him was a gorgeous woman with silky ginger hair that flowed down her back like a waterfall of orange, while her eyes glowed with a green radiance, simr to Ss'', but not quite the same.
Looking at Archie, Ss narrowed his eyes in annoyance before looking at the second guest in the room.
"Am i interrupting something?" Ss asked while crossing his arms.
"No. Of course not. You''re always wee in here." Archie smiled while Life''s face became beet red.
Ss could have sworn that he could see smokeing out of her ears, but after blinking a few times, he assumed that it was just his imagination.
"Wannae take a seat?" Archie ignored Life''s reaction and went to sit on therger seat. offering the seat he was previously sitting on to Ss.
Ss quickly walked over to the seat and sat down opposite Life.
She was still burning bright red for a reason Ss could not understand, but he didn''t really care.
''Do I trust her?'' Ss asked himself while looking her in the eye.
Of course, he couldn''t trust her. In reality, in all of the darkless organization, there was no one he could trust. Everyone had their own agendas and goals, and that was a simple truth he could get behind.
Pulling his hood back, Ss revealed his jet-ck hair that naturally fell on his face.
"Oh? You removed your white hair... Why? Did you go see your parents? I told you not to do that. It''s extremely dangerous, not only for you, but for them too. What if the Skrks find out your alive and kidnap your family to use them against you? They know that you killed themande-"
"Calm down. I didn''t go to see my parents." Ss cut him off.
"Okay... Good. I''m assuming you want the serum to turn your hair white again." Archie asked.
"Yeah." Ss smiled. However, he couldn''t help but feel a little bit of suspicion toward the situation. Archie had every right to ask him how he made his hair ck again, but for some reason, he didn''t.
Maybe the new serum will be poison? Wait no, that wouldn''t make sense. They needed him alive. Plus, from how everyone seemed to describe Archie, he could have killed him in less than a second if he really wanted to. There was no need for mind games and poison, not that any of them would have worked on Ss.
"If you''re as cautious as I was when I was in your ce, you''re probably asking yourself why I haven''t asked about what happened and how you did it."
"Read my mind." Sss awkwardly chuckled.
"Ss... The thing you have to realize about this world you''ve entered is that... Everyone has a secret. Everyone is keeping something from you. Everyone had a goal, and they''d throw you under the bus if you stood in the way of the goal. Do you understand?"
"Yes." Ss replied with a nod.
However, just as Ss nodded, he couldn''t help but stare Life from the corner of his eyes. At Archie''s words, she seemed to be looking at the ground, her eyes not daring to look away from the spot she was staring at.
''Everyone has secrets...'' Ss inwardly repeated before looking back at Archie and taking the serum out of his hands and gulping it down.
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Having returned to having white hair, Ss shook his hair a little before checking out the length of it.
"A little longer thanst time. Do you want me to give you a haircut?" Archie asked.
"No need. I think I like it this way." Ss smiled.
So far, he had been gelling it back, but now he just wanted to flow down his face. Plus, it wasn''t actually that long, only reaching up to his eyes. Even Lochras had longer hair than what Ss currently had.
"Hmm." Ss looked at life and wondered if she knew anything about what volition mes were. However, after thinking for a moment, he decided it was better if he didn''t ask her... Or at least not yet. He didn''t trust her, or any of them for that fact.
He needed to make sure that they were trustworthy before telling them something that could be detrimental to him.
"What''s wrong?" Archie asked.
"Well, it''s just that we were attacked by a bunch of assassins on the way back from our mission." Ss exined.
"Really? How many?"
"20? Give or take." Ss lied through his teeth.
"How strong?"
"All of them were equal to a beast with a dull-amethyst core. Though, one of them was a little stronger than that. They killed most of my teammates and only left one alive." Ss exined
"So, they were all around the gold rank."
"What?"
"You know... Gold."
"What the hell is that." Ss asked with visible confusion.
"You... You don''t know what a gold rank is?" Life asked with even more confusion.
"Did you not go to school?" Archie asked.
"Of course I didn''t! I''m not even 7 yet!" Ss shouted in reply.
"Oh my god." Life rubbed the bridge of her nose while Archie simply gawked.
"Okay... Uhm, the metal rankings are using by most kingdoms and continents of Gilea... Hell, even the demons use them. Anyway, if you''re a gold rank, that means you''re about the same level as an amethyst core.
The metal rankings don''t really mean anything by themselves, unlike the core rankings.
They are assigned by the kingdom or empire you''re in to indicate how strong you are without using the core stages. If you go to the mercenary hall, you can ask one of the receptionists for the card that tells you what rank you are and how the rankings work." Archie exined
''Ah... That exins that poster I saw thest time I was there.'' Ss thought before looking at Archie again and asking the question on his mind.
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[A/N: I''m sorry this chapter is longer than usual. I ran out of time writing through it, but I''ll make it up by releasing two chapters in the next hour or two. Again, really sorry about this. I know some of you don''t like it when the chapters go on for too long and would rather me split it into two.]
Chapter 102 Road To Becoming Judgement [2] - Infamy?
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"So, if we have those rankings, why do we have toki stages?" Ss asked.
"..."
"..."
"Stop gawking at me and answer my damn question!" Ss shouted with a hint of anger in his voice.
"What toki stage are you in?" Archie asked instead of answering Ss'' question.
"Uhmmm. I don''t know? First?"
"..."
"..."
"I swear to everything I hold dear-"
"Since clearly no one taught you about this, let me exin. Toki stages are different from the metal rankings. For example. In your case, you can be in the first stage of toki yet somehow have the prowess of a gold rank. Get it?"
"I think? Why don''t they just use the mana core rankings?" Ss asked. It seemed a little illogical to not use the mana core rankings. Using the metal rankings just seemed like too much work, but maybe there was more to it?
"Because the metal rankings are based on a lot of things. Toki control, pure strength without the use of toki, pure strength while using it..." Archie paused for a moment and looked right into Ss'' eyes. For some reason, it felt like in front of Archie''s eyes, he couldn''t hide anything. As if everything was on disy, from his mana core to his mana-rich body.
Of course, that wasn''t the case, but that''s what it felt like.
Ss couldn''t tell the full range of Archie''s emotions. He had a mask that covered the outline of his eyes. Even though Ss could see Archie''s eyes themselves, it was a little hard to understand what someone was thinking when they always wore a mask.
It''s the little things that tell you how someone is feeling, even if they try to suppress that feeling from reaching their eyes and facial expression.
"Anyway, you don''t have to take the test since you''re a mage too. That''s why I didn''t ask you to take it the first time you came here." Archie exined while Ss nodded.
The conversation went on for a bit longer as they continued to talk about the assassins.
Eventually, Archie said that he would investigate the matter, and from their conversation alone, Ss had already understood that Archie was not the one who sent them... Or he was a really good actor.
They eventually decided to call it a day... He still had a few things to do before going to bed for the day, and one of them was to go to the mercenary hall and have a little chat with a certain someone
"Alright. Thanks. I''ll see youter." Ss smiled and waved to both of them before heading toward the door.
After leaving Archie''s office, Ss began to think of how he was going to approach the situation.
Greed most likely knew that the thing she had ced at the back of his neck was gone. There were a few likely scenarios. Either she would ce it back on his neck, or she would try to kill him, though he doubted that would be the case.
''If Archie wasn''t the one who sent the assassins, there are only a few more people I can imagine who would have done so.
Life doesn''t seem the type, but she can always be hiding something. It wasn''t Death, that is something I''m sure of...
I doubt it would be Eclipse, though I don''t know much about him to understand why he would send assassins to attack me.
Though, from how Jessica recollected the event, that man from the assassin''s guild seemed to have mentioned a female who might be behind the assassins. The assassins were clearly hired with the goal of testing Ss.
No one in their right mind would hire so many of the same level to kill someone like him. They''d probably just hire one or two high-level assassins since that would be much cheaper.
Arlos wasn''t part of the n. That much was obvious. Everything leads toward Greed being the main suspect, but why? For all she knew, she had full control over me and everything I do... I don''t understand... Ugh, this is giving me a headache.'' Ss rubbed the bridge of his nose before a realization hit him.
He had been thinking of all the suspects as stable people... What if that wasn''t the case? And Greed, from what he had seen, was the least stable of them all. Everything from the way she held herself, to the way she spoke.
Ss knew an unstable person when he saw one, and she was definitely far from stable.
*Creak*
Opening the doors to the mercenary hall, Ss stepped inside, yet the moment he did so, everyone''s eyes suddenlynded on him. They were looking at him as if he was some kind of alien. He didn''t get it, but he didn''t really need to.
''Did they all hear about my team dying on the mission?'' Ss thought while walking past all of them, however, he was stopped a few steps before he could reach Greed''s office.
"What?" Ss asked the man who had blocked his way."
"..."
"What?!" Ss was beginning to get annoyed. He was wondering whether or not he would need to fight the people of the mercenary hall again, but when the next words hit him, he quickly realized that it wouldn''t be necessary.
"Uhm... Do you want to join our team? We were thinking of going into the forest and hunting down a monster that has been sighted nearby." The man asked with a polite and gentle tone.
"What..." Ss repeated for the third time.
"They happened to hear about you fighting more than 20 assassins on your own, surviving against an eldritch terror, and getting away without a scratch on your body." Greed''s voice suddenly entered Ss'' ears, yet while all the men seem to gawk the moment they saw her, Ss couldn''t help but shudder.
He could also feel a sense of pure disgust traveling down his spine, but for now, that didn''t matter.
"Can I get my money?" Ss asked while turning toward Greed.
She was wearing a gold and blue skirt that reached down to her knees and defined her hourss figure. Her arms werepletely exposed from the shoulder to the tips of her fingers.
Her eyes shone with a certain golden radiance, something Ss found odd since the light element wasn''t her affinity.
"Sure, but you''re only getting half." She took out a sack of coins and tried to give it to Ss, yet he only snorted.
"I almost died on multiple asions."
"And from what Jessica told me, you also idently destroyed the sack of poison you were sent to retrieve for me." Greed retorted.
"The sack of poison attached to a goddamn snake with a pristine amethyst core, something you didn''t tell us." Ss pointed his finger at Greed, and at his words, everyone around them began to whisper.
"The intel being wrong was not on me." She retorted, her eyes narrowing while a certain pressure began to exude out of her body.
"Oh really?" Ss asked with a tilt of his head before a smile blossomed on his face.
"You''re right. I apologize for using you like that. That''s on me." Ss chuckled and took the sack of coins.
He could feel that there were only about 4-5 coins inside, but it was tradition to give coins in such a manner since it usually stopped robbers from robbing since they wouldn''t know how much money was in the sack.
Greed simply raised a brow at the sudden change in behavior, yet she didn''t give it much thought and simply smiled back at Ss.
"I''m d you agree." She waved to Ss as he left the mercenary hall, ignoring all the people trying to recruit him.
The moment he left the mercenary hall, he let his expression finally fall, yet he didn''t let out the anger he was currently suppressing.
He couldn''t ruin his n now. He already has so many gears in ce, doing anything radical would destroy the edge he gained on Greed.
She was intelligent, strong, politically powerful, and worst of all, unpredictable. However, even though his n had gone awry the first time, he always had a second and third n in ce, just in case.
In his eyes, her fate was already sealed the moment he saw her as a threat to him... And as an enemy.
He wasn''t going to take any chances when it came to her, yet there was something more important he had to do... Or something he was more scared of that he had to fix before going through with these ns.
Ss wasn''t scared of any of the. Hell, even though Archie seemed so much stronger than him the first time they met, Ss wasn''t scared of him.
What scared him wasn''t a person or a being.
What truly sent shivers of terror down his spine was none other than himself, and he had to make sure that side of him neveres out again.
Because that side of him wasn''t an alternate personality, nor was it some kind of possession or being that lived in his mind.
No... It was him. It was just him.
Chapter 103 Road To Becoming Judgement [3] - Confrontation
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No... It was him. It was just him.
He didn''t understand it, not in this life and not in his previous one.
Everyone had a part of themself they didn''t want to show anyone else, and in this situation, the part of himself Ss didn''t want to show was the thing he had be when he almost died against Arlos.
Sighing, Ss tried to throw the thought to the back of his head, but at that moment, he remembered something.
''Volition me...'' A particr memory reyed in his mind, allowing him to slowly realize something that was standing right before him the entire time.
''I got into life-threatening situations loads of times before this. That thing won''te out... I think... I hope. If it does, at least I''m far enough from my family that it won''t affect them. For now, I should focus on what''s important...'' Ss thought before jumping from wall to wall until he reached one of the rooftops.
His eyes wandered for a few moments, searching the streets until they finally fell upon a certain section of the city.
Darkless City was split into different sections. Some sections of the city were only allowed to be visited by members of certain factions, while other parts of the city were allowed for everyone.
And right now, his eyes hadnded upon the Judgement faction section of the city.
***
-Archie''s Office-
"You should have told him." Life looked at Archie and spoke in a tone of disappointment.
"There''s no point in telling him. It''ll just ruin everything I''ve built. I need him to trust me." Archie replied while spinning his chair around to look at the wall behind him.
"If you don''t tell him, he won''t trust you when he finds out that you''ve been keeping this away from him." She argued.
"He won''t trust me at all if I tell him right now. I need him to trust me. The entire n depends on him still being here instead of going to the Skrks and getting himself killed.
"And when he finds out?" She asked again.
"He won''t..." Archie paused before turning around and looking life in the eyes.
His eyes were dead... No, they were simply empty, but to her eyes, they looked dead. Suddenly he began to release a terrifying pressure that made her feel like she was sinking into the ground.
"You''re not going to tell him anything... Is that understood?" He asked in a threatening tone while tilting his head a few degrees.
"...Yes." The words came out of her mouth almost instinctually, as if her entire being knew that she had to say them to survive.
"Good." The pressure instantly disappeared while a smile blossomed across Archie''s face.
Her heart quickly soothed, yet in the next moment, Archie did something shocking.
Taking his mask off, he walked over to the other side of the desk and leaned toward her.
It was the very first time she had seen him without his mask, and right now, she was blushing up to her ears while struggling toe up with a coherent sentence.
Archie''s hands fell softly open her face, allowing him to slowly stroke it before smiling again.
"I can trust you... right?" He asked.
"Yes... I would never betray you." She almost sounded like a robot as she said those words.
"Good. Becuase, I wouldn''t want anything bad to happen to my favorite general." He smiled again before standing up and moving away from her.
She quickly snapped out of the trance she had fallen into, yet the effect he had on her didn''t change.
"Now, how about you go back to yourb and rx for the day. I have a feeling tomorrow will be a very interesting yet tiring day." he smiled at her one more time before dawning his mask and taking her to the door.
When Life finally left the room, he sat down on his seat again and tapped on a gem with multiple runes on it.
Suddenly a holographic disy appeared before him, disying a board filled with information about every important person in the city.
The board had everything from people''s real names to power levels, strengths, weaknesses, personality traits, eye color, hair color, skin color, and much more.
However, despite most of the boards beingpletely filled to the brim with information, there was one name with many question marks under them.
From an outsider''s perspective, it would seem like the board had enough information about him, from the date of his birth to his predicted strength, however, in Archie''s eyes, this was not the case.
From Archie''s perspective, it was almost like looking at a mask of a person. A run away with a fake identity. Or maybe even a fake person altogether. The information might have made sense to the normal person, yet with even a little digging, the whole thing begins to unravel.
"Ss Skrk..." Archie muttered while stroking his beard. His eyes fell upon a certain set of words as he did so.
"Who really are you?"
Those words were
"Blessings: more than three
Toki Stage: No toki sensed
Race: Human?"
***
Whispers were flying around, left right, and center.
It felt like everyone was talking about him, and Ss wouldn''t have been wrong about the assessment.
He wasn''t wearing a hood so everyone could see his face and eyes without any problems.
Some looked at him with hostility foring to their area of the city without being a part of the Judgement faction, while others looked at him in awe and curiosity.
Though, there was one thing Ss realized about everyone in this part of the city. The area itself was quite small, yet everyone in it seemed to be quite strong.
Everyone was in the pristine topaz stage or higher, and all their armors were quite strong.
However, despite their armor being of high quality, Ss could tell that they were all made by the same person since they all had a signature at the end.
At the same time, the runic pattern throughout all of them was quite simr. Not even that, they were almost identical, if not for the few runes that had been ced for a reason Ss could not yet understand.
His leading theory was that they had been ced there due to the different sizes and strengths of the people wearing them, but for now, it was just a theory.
"Can we help you, little man?" One of the men stepped forward and looked down at Ss while releasing his toki in order to induce pressure around Ss.
In response, Ss simply absorbed the tokiing out of the man and began to use it to cultivate, something he could do since toki users didn''t use a mana signature to control the mana around them.
"Oi. Stop." A blue-haired figure appeared out of one of the bars and quickly pushed the man away from Ss.
"Seraphina?" Ss asked with a raise of the brow.
"What, surprised I''m part of the judgement faction?" She asked while puffing her chest out and smiling with pride.
She was dawning her full armor for some reason. Everyone was, yet some tried to hide it, while others like Seraphina showed it in full disy.
''So this is the strength of armor...'' Ss thought, feeling an actual sense of danger as she stood before him. Of course, he didn''t deem her a threat, but she felt much more threatening now than she did before when she wasn''t wearing her armor.
''She was on a mission. Why did she wear it?'' Ss couldn''t help but ask himself that question, but a few secondster, he shrugged it off and looked her in the eyes.
"Who''s your leader?"
"What? Are you going to war with us or something?" She chuckled while othersughed.
Ss could tell that she was quite popr in themunity, but he chose to not react to her attempt at a joke.
"No, I just want to meet him." Ss crossed his arm before looking at everyone around him.
"Will that be a problem?"
"Yes... Yes it will." Another man came forward, this one dawning an armor that had significantly more runes than the others.
"Judgement will not see you." The man narrowed his eyes.
He had long ck hair that reached his waist. He wore a pair of spectacles that rested upon his long and narrow nose, as well as two gauntlets that no other person seemed to be wearing.
"You''re his right hand man, I assume?" Ss asked.
"Perceptive, I see. However, I am not his right-hand man. I am his de, and he is our king. You will not see him, not because you are weak, but because you do not deserve to. Because he is Judgement, and the only one who can judge him is the lord himself!" The man roared while the crowd roared with him.
"Praise Judgement! Praise Judgement!"
"Oh crap... An actual cult this time.
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Chapter 104 Road To Becoming Judgement [4] - I Will Be Judgement!
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The crowd continued to praise "Judgement" while Ss simply stood before them with a worried expression.
Looking over at Seraphina, he could see her hide her face away from him in embarrassment. It was something he couldn''t help but chuckle at, yet he quickly threw the thought aside and looked at the man standing a few meters in front of him again.
"This is thest time I''ll ask. I''d like to talk to your leader, who by the way, isn''t judement yet." Ss rolled his eyes.
The crowd quieted down for a moment, yet it only took a second for their mocking stares to turn into ones of hostility toward him.
Their eyes were now, for some reason, filled with hatred. He couldn''t really understand it, but he wasn''t going to take it lightly either.
For some reason, they saw him as their enemy, and if that continued to be the case, the situation would most likely get quite ufortable in the future.
However, for now, what he really wanted to do was to size up his opponent before their battle. If their new so-called leader was anywhere near as strong as themander, Ss would most likely need to create a n.
"So..."
However, just when Ss was beginning to think that he would need to fight his way out of this neighborhood, a voice entered everyone''s ears.
Ss felt a shudder down his spine, while the others dropped to their knees and kneeled before the figure.
Stepping out of the shadows, a tall figure, standing at 6ft tall, walked out of the alleyway with his head held high.
Ss could tell that the person before him was extremely prideful, but that wasn''t the only thing he could sense.
The man was prideful...
Too prideful.
He had more pride in him than anyone Ss had seen on this before.
it repulsed him for a moment, but a secondter, he understood where this pride came from.
Every hair on Ss'' body was standing on its ends. The sheer power exuding out of the man before him made him feel like kneeling as well, yet he remained on his feet at all times while simply clenching his fists.
"I heard amotion..." The man looked around for a moment before his eyesnded on Ss.
"You are not from around here. Is it you who wants to see me? What is the matter, child?"
Each word that came out of the man''s mouth felt like they were filled to the brim with wisdom and intelligence, yet, the man before him was no older than 30. Actually, he looked like he might have been in his mid 20''s, something Ss found inconceivable due to how he talked.
"Y-Yes..." Ss shuddered for a moment.
To the man, Ss looked like a terrified child who had met a predator he was not capable of facing for the first time in his life, yet Seraphina could not help but raise a brow at this disy.
For the month she had traveled with Ss, not once had she seen him genuinely scared of something. Yet right now, he was shaking so much that you''d think he''d seen his worst nightmaree to life.
"It''s okay child. I will not hurt you." The man walked forward and got on one knee in order to be at eye level with Ss.
"I am Grant Evershield. What''s your name?" Grant tilted his head to the right, portraying curiosity all over his face. At the same time, Grant extended his hand toward Ss.
"G-Game Evergreen." Ss stuttered before shaking his hand.
Grant twitched for a moment, yet no one but Ss saw it.
"We have simr names, don''t we? Anyway, may I ask why you havee here? I doubt there''s anything here that might interest you... Or maybe, you want to join the faction.
New recruits are always wee, though, you''ll be a trainee for a couple of years before actually bing a part of the faction. We only allow the strong to thrive in this faction, and you must be that to fully join." Grant stepped back and gave the usual speech he would give for normal recruits, however, throughout that entire time, Ss'' eyes were locked upon Grant''s armor.
It let off a menacing aura like no other. Ss couldn''t understand any of the runes on it since they weren''t actually part of the life equation, however, he could tell that it was a rank above any armor he had seen before.
Even Archie didn''t have armor nearly as powerful as the one Grant was wearing. It was filled to the brim with intricate andplicated runes that could have only been created by a master forgemaster and cksmith.
Ss even doubted that Darkless City''s forgemaster was the one who created the armor Grant was wearing. Not only did it look ancient, but from what Ss had seen in the cksmith''s shop, it didn''t fit the pattern he saw on the items in that shop.
Runes were like drawing or writing. Everyone had a style of rune making, whether their style was made on their own or inspired by someone else.
Sure, the styles didn''t differ much in the creation of spells from tier 1 to tier 4, but the runic spells he had created, as well as the enchantment runes seen on items, both had a style that depended on the person creating the runes.
Ss'' style took inspiration from the life equation runes and how they were set. Others might use their ancestor''s teachings, if not their teachers or masters.
The thing that surprised Ss about the armor Grant was wearing was that the runes on it were like none he had ever seen before.
"So, what will it be?" Grant asked while the rest of the people there looked at Ss in awe and jealousy.
To be invited by their leader himself... That was an honor in all their eyes.
However, Ss took in a shaky breath and looked like he was steeling his nerves.
"No..."
"..."
"..."
"..."
Whispers immediately flew around while the hostile stares only increased in intensity.
"I will not join you... In fact." Ss'' voice became a little scary, but his face still looked like itcked resolve.
"I will be the next Judgement, not you!" Ss shouted while pointing at Grant.
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Chapter 105 Road To Becoming Judgement [5] - Bromance
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"I will be the next Judgement, not you!" Ss shouted while pointing at Grant.
"..."
"..."
"..."
This time, the silence was genuine. No angry stares were pointed at Ss. No whispers were said. They all simply looked at him for a moment with dumbfounded expressions...
Before one of them chuckled... Grant chuckled.
And just like that, the entire neighborhood was filled with roaringughter and people pped their legs and dropped to the ground to let it all out.
The resolve on Ss'' face looked like it was being destroyed by the second, yet Grant quickly disappeared from where he stood.
Ss'' hair stood up again as his danger senses told him something wasing, yet instead of being attacked, he felt a hand drop onto his shoulder.
"That was a good one kid. You cane to this part of town whenever you want, alright?" Grant chuckled before patting Ss on the back and walking away from him.
Everyone else continued tough, but when they finally stopped, Ss realized that they didn''t re at him anymore.
Some of them even walked up to him and gave him a pat on the shoulder as well.
"That was brave, kid. I have to give you that." One of them chuckled.
"I... Didn''t expect that..." Seraphina muttered while letting out her third sigh in thest few minutes.
It had been a little bit of a rollercoaster of emotions, going from joy at seeing Ss, to stress that he might die, to shock when she saw him shiver under Grant''s gaze, before turning into terror when Ss proimed that he would be the next Judgement.
Archie and Seraphina were friends, yet from her reaction, Ss could tell that she wasn''t in on their n.
After being praised for a few minutes, Ss quickly found himself being dragged toward one of the lounge areas.
''They''re pretty outstanding... for being such losers...'' Ss couldn''t help but think that while looking at them.
They all looked like the type who would drink in the mornings and nights. Hell, some of them were drunk before he had even gotten to their part of the city, but due to him being a minor, they all avoided drinking and smoking.
It wasn''t really something Ss would think about often, but mostws didn''t really apply to Gilea. No one really enforced them, not even in the city. However, even though they were technically the enforces of the city, Ss didn''t expect them to hold up thew after what he had heard from Archie.
And not only did they hold up thew around him, but they also did the morally correct thing and avoided intoxicants while he was around.
The rest of the day passed by in what felt like the blink of an eye. It had been quite a long since Ss had an actual conversation with a real person rather than talking about things that mattered. Sure, it felt like he was wasting his time, but in a way, he justified it by calling it a "necessary interraction."
Ss made sure that, throughout the conversations, he would slip past any of the questions that he shouldn''t answer. They didn''t really look at him like a child anymore after getting to know him for an hour or two, but they still avoided doing any intoxicants.
Though, it did make it did make it easier for them to understand when Ss was trying to evade a question. Fortunately, he was pretty good at avoiding questions. It was quite easy after having to deal with so much politics back then.
"So what are you going to do now?" One of them asked while nodding at Ss.
"Hmmm. Well, I''ll probably have to train extra hard to fight against Mr. Evershield."
"..."
"..."
"Wait, you were being serious about that?" One of them asked with shock written on his face.
"Yeah, why?" Ss tilted his head.
"Well, Judgement is extremely powerful. You won''t stand a chance against him. He''s almost as strong as our previous leader, just morepetant." One of them joked while the rest chuckled.
"Oh yeah? I''m going to beat him! Watch me." Ss tapped on his bicep.
"Your funeral." Another shrugged before taking a sip from a smoothie he had ordered.
"How about I train you for your uing fight?" Seraphine chimed in, causing everyone to look at her with raised brows.
Crossing one leg over the other, she continued- "I''m an expert fighter. My current strength might not be at the same level as Judgement, but I''m still a Gold rank with two stars." She tilted her head up in pride.
''Two stars... What the hell is that?!''
"I think that''s a pretty good idea. How about we all train him. You know, so he doesn''t immediately die against our leader." Another chimed in before they all unanimously agreed that they would train Ss.
''...'' Ss looked down before tears streaked out of his eyes.
They all looked gobsmacked for a moment, but they quickly remembered that he was still a 10-year-old... Or at least he looked like one.
"T-Thank you so much... I''ve never had this many friends before." Ss stuttered while looking up at them.
And when he did that, he saw a group of over 30 men, holding their arms over their eyes or simply sniffling, trying to suppress the tears that were about to flow out of their eyes.
''...''
The strongest amongst them walked toward Ss and got onto a knee as well. He looked down at the ground the entire time before cing his hand on Ss'' shoulder once more.
"K-Kid... We will help... We will be your friends." He sniffled while everyone behind him cheered.
''Well... I have no clue what I just did, but I guess it''s a win for me?''
A few more hours passed by, and eventually, Ss decided to call it a day and left their lounge and began to walk home, but that''s when he felt it again.
Looking up, Ss saw a pair of blue eyes stare at him from the entrance of the neighborhood. It made Ss narrow his eyes, but he continued to walk.
However, the man at the end could visibly see Ss shuddering under his power, and when he was finally a few meters away, the man opened his mouth and spoke.
"So... You weren''t joking when you said you''d fight me?"
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Chapter 106 Road To Becoming Judgement [6] - Seraphinas Rage
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"So... You weren''t joking when you said you''d fight me?"
Ss shuddered, but quickly gulped and looked like he had steeled his nerves.
"Yes..." Ss replied.
"I see... Then, I wish you luck." Grant smiled and stepped aside, letting Ss walk past him without stopping him.
When Ss was far enough, Grant narrowed his eyes and turned around, just to see his right-hand man kneeling on the ground and looking his leader in the eyes.
"What is it?" Grant asked with a raised brow.
"Are you just going to let him go like that?" The man asked.
"Why would I not let him go? He increased the morale of my troops. If he wants to fight me, then that is his choice. Though, I do hope that he will change his mind after training with my soldiers. It feels like he may be of use to me."
"..."
"..."
"What is it?" Grant sighed and asked the question again.
"There''s something off about that kid. I don''t understand it, but it feels like he''s hiding something." The man muttered, yet his leader simplyughed in his face.
"You think he''s hiding something? Let me tell you something." Grant stepped forward and grabbed his right-hand man by his jaw, picking him off the floor and forcing him to look into his eyes.
"In front of power, secrets mean nothing. I have the Sentinal armor that worthlessmander of ours refused to use. The armor alone makes me the third strongest general." Grant spoke with a voice that was filled with arrogance and pride.
"If he has a secret, I will beat him out of it. Do you understand? Now get out of my site before I''m forced to get a new subordinate who does not question the orders of his leader!" Grant threw the man on the ground and didn''t even throw him a second nce while walking away.
The man didn''tin either. He knew something like this would happen if he spoke up about his suspicion, yet he could not stand idle as his leader walked into a trap.
However, now all he could do was wait and hope that Grant wouldn''t do anything stupid, and ensure that he wouldn''t end up like the previous Judgement.
***
After Ss left the neighborhood, he looked down at his shaking hands with a passive stare. However, he didn''t stop shaking.
Well, not immediately at least.
Ss quickly put up his hoodie and walked through the dark. As he walked, he took a random turn down one of the alleyways before taking another turn and ending up in an even darker alleyway.
Suddenly, the eyes of several individualsnded on him.
There were about 5 of them sitting around. One of them was ying with a dagger, while the others sat around and talked to one another.
Though, Ss'' eyes couldn''t help but fall upon a girl among them who had her head down and had squeezed herself into one of the corners while one of the men tried to flirt with her.
''None of my business...'' Ss thought and walked passed them. They didn''t really mind him since he didn''t look particrly wealthy. Plus, he was a child so they didn''t expect much.
However, one of the main reasons they didn''t touch him was the fact that his body was constantly releasing a pressure that made their instincts re, telling them to stay away from him...
And that''s what they did.
''None of my business...'' Ss thought again, not turning around at all the entire time.
''Though, I cannot say the same for you.'' A light smirk stretched from the corners of Ss'' lips as he nced back.
At that moment, he saw a blue-haired woman drop down from one of the rooftops,nding on the ground before grabbing the man harassing the woman, and mming his head into the brick wall.
"Oi! What the f-"
Before the man could finish his sentence, he felt a powerful punch send him several meters back before also mming the back of his head into another brick wall.
The rest began to run, but the blue-haired woman quickly hunted them down, either knocking them out or incapacitating them by attacking their legs and making it extremely hard for them to move.
"Why didn''t you do anything!" The blue-haired woman turned to Ss while letting the other woman run to safety.
"It''s not my job to protect this city, Seraphina." Ss chuckled.
"You have the power to save her, and you wanted to be one of us. We uphold thew, and you had the opportunity to do that... Why didn''t you!" Seraphina stepped forward, her face finally visible now that she was out of the shadows.
Of course, Ss could see her the entire time due to his mystic eyes, but she didn''t have to know that.
"The real question I need to ask is why you were following me." Ss tilted his head.
"...I wanted to make sure you got home safe." She muttered, caught off guard by the retort.
"Oh really? You said it yourself. I had enough power to save that woman. You probably heard about the rumors of me killing a few assassins and a python on my own... Yet you still followed me to what? Protect me?" Ss asked with a condescending tone.
"...That''s beside the point." She tried to argue, yet Ss quickly shut her down.
"No... It is exactly the point. You wanted me to save her, but that was your job. No... It''s your faction''s job to help these people, yet I''ve not seen them do a single thing since I''vee to this city." Ss sneered.
"You don''t understand..."
"I understand just fine. You, people, are pathetic. You people can''t even uphold thew. And you know what''s worse, you expect others to do it for you..." Ss stepped close, aggressively pointing at her while pushing her back at the same time.
"What do you get paid for, huh? To have power? To order people around? Or to keep this fucking city safe..." Ss roared while continuing to tap on her chest with his index finger, pushing her back every time.
"That''s why I''m bing Judgement." Ss spoke with utmost confidence as she finally hit the wall behind her.
"I will judge the city, and I will make it better. I will make it a haven without criminals... I''m going to make it a haven to every run away out there.
"..."
"But you wanted that, didn''t you?" Ss finally took a step back before quickly turning around and cing his hands behind his back.
"You wanted me to be Judgement from the moment we met, and that''s why you asked Archie to make me Judgement... Am I right?" Ss asked before turning to her onest time, just to see her eyes widen like saucers while looking at him.
Chapter 107 Road To Becoming Judgement [7] - I Am Better Than You
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"How... Did he tell-"
"No... He didn''t tell me. But you did." Ss smiled.
"You know, humans usually have thousands of tells when they are lying, exaggeration, and even plotting... Though, the problem is that the human eye can only detect so much before it overloads with information... Humans are simply not clever enough... They can''t see the small signs thaty before them..."
"But I do." A sudden wave of pressure shot out of Ss and made Seraphina feel like dropping to her knees.
"I do, because I am better than all of you... I am better than that thing you call your leader, and I was better than themander himself before I killed him..." Ss'' voice was filled with anger and... Disgust?
"Though, I must say... You exaggerated a little too much with your acting. I suggest you take acting sses."
''If they even have those on this.''
However, despite the questions running through Seraphina''s mind, there was one question that remained at the front of her mind the entire time.
Yet, before she could even ask it, Ss answered the question on her mind.
"Let''s be honest." Ss muttered, just loud enough for her to hear.
Turning toward her again, he looked at her with a pair of empty emerald eyes before separating his lips again to let out a sigh.
"You''re not going to tell anyone about my n. You weren''t, and you aren''t going to. We both know that..."
"How can you be so sure?" Seraphina asked, yet as if Ss knew what she was going to ask, he replied instantly- "Because you need me... And in the near future, I''ll need you."
"You think I''m just going to"
"Yes. Yes, you will listen to my every order until I be Judgement. No, you will not betray me... Though, if you did betray me..." Ss turned around again and went silent before giving her a final nce.
"I always have a n B." Ss smirked before giving her a little wave and blending into the shadows once more.
That''s when Seraphina felt like she could finally rx. She quickly fell to her knees and began to take in deep breaths.
However, after a couple of minutes of calming herself down, she looked at the ground once more and punched it with all the force she could muster.
"Damnit!"
***
The sound of a click echoed within the small apartment and could even be heard in the next one.
The walls were extremely thin, and with the current amount of money Ss had, he doubted that he would be able to afford an apartment bigger than the one he was currently living in any time soon.
Or at least, not until he became Judgement.
Walking into the apartment, Ss walked toward the board and grabbed one of the chalks before beginning to write the name "Grant Evershield".
Ss wrote down a few things he learned about the man before stepping back and narrowing his eyes.
''So far, everything had gone to n. The people have epted me as one of their own. Grant thinks I''m scared of him, Seraphina is avable for future use, and now I understand the mindset of the faction.
The only problem is that right-hand man of his... He is perceptive and seems to be the thinker of the faction. Though, if everything has gone the way I wanted it to, Grant will dismiss the implication that I might be a threat to his reign. Whether he does that softly or aggressively is something up to luck...
Though, if he does choose to be aggressive in his way of dealing with his right-hand man, it leaves a spot of vulnerability in his political side of his strength.'' Ss thought while stroking his chin.
However, another thought quickly crossed his mind and made him furrow his brows in mild annoyance.
He had known that the faction was a little disorganized, and to a certain extent, incapable of doing their jobs, but reality happened to be a lot more upsetting than he first realized it would be.
Archie had told him that they were ipetent, but Ss always thought that Archie exaggerated a little too much when he spoke. It had happened before, but unfortunately this time he wasn''t exaggerating.
Sure, they were nice people. The moment they epted him, they treated him like he had been in their group for years, the only thing breaking that facade being his age and the questions they chose to ask him every now and then.
However, that has nothing to do with their efficiency at their job. How are they able to sit around all day in bars and lounges when they should be enforcing thew and working throughout the city. That was their job. The entire faction was essentially a police force, yet to them it seemed like it might have been a title more than a job.
''This might bring up more problems in the future.'' Ss rubbed the bridge of his nose before choosing to go to sleep on the hardwood floor since he hadn''t brought a sleeping bag yet.
When morning came, Ss didn''t go straight toward the Judgement faction. Instead, he was going to use the beginning of his day on something much more important in his eyes.
Walking through the city, Sss finally stumbled upon a certain part of it.
it was filled with vines and greenery, as well as flowers that covered parts of houses, as well as pets running around.
The pets ranged from normal cats and dogs to literal bears, winged horses, and evenrge birds.
Most people nced at Ss for a moment, but when he made eye contact with them, he would see a smile bloom on their faces before they began to wave at him.
The men and women of this section of the city wore dark green robes with golden highlights.
Some held small wands, while others heldrge staffs that were either the same size as them or longer.
Ss walked for a few minutes before eventually entering a building.
He didn''t bother asking for permission or direction, simply continuing his walk before he reached a certain door.
*Knock Knock*
"Come in!" A feminine voice shouted from inside.
*Click*
The door clicked open and Ss swiftly walked in.
The room was filled with different people who seemed to be learning something, but at the end of the room, there was a red-haired woman with beautiful ivy-green eyes staring at him and tilting her head.
"Do you need anything from me, Game?" Life asked with a warm tone.
"I need you to teach me light magic."
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Chapter 108 Learning Light Magic [1]
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Sitting in an empty room were two individuals. One had beautiful long fiery red hair, while the other had white hair that barely reached his eyes in length.
"You know I''m a healer, right?" Life chuckled while looking at Ss who was simply staring at her with narrowed eyes.
"Don''t give me that shit. I know you''re strong. There''s now way you could have be a general if you didn''t have any fighting capabilities." Ss sneered.
"Just because I have fighting capabilities, doesn''t mean I can use light magic." She sighed and shook her head.
"Look at Greed as an example. She has no magic capabilities, and her toki control isn''t nearly as great as some of the strongest people in her faction. She would have been considered weaker than some of the people in her faction if not for her martial style, beastkin body, and armor." Life exined.
Ss tried to think back and remember Greed wearing armor, yet he couldn''t remember her wearing armor at all. The only thing he could remember was theplex runes shining on most of her clothes, but he doubted those were armors.
"I know you can use light magic..." Ss didn''t waver.
"And I keep telling you that I don''t!" She shouted back in annoyance and disbelief, however, that''s when she saw his eyes. They were looking down, but at the same time, at her.
Looking down as well, she couldn''t see anything wrong, but that''s when a thought entered her mind.
''Could he be a pervert... Wait, no! He''s a child... But I guess they have to start at a certain-'' She couldn''t finish that thought as suddenly, her eyes fell upon Ss'' emerald green ones.
''Ah... I see... Is this why Archie is so doting on him?''
"I''ll teach you." She muttered with a defeated sigh.
"Good. First, I need to know how to draw out my light magic." Ss sat up from his chair to therge table she had been previously teaching at.
Ss was forced to wait until ss ended to talk to her, so he wasn''t really disturbing her or her schedule.
"How do you even know that you have the offensive version of the light element? I understand that you are capable of using healing spells, but that doesn''t really mean anything." Life said.
"Call it a feeling." Ss smiled at her, causing her to have to breathe out another defeated sigh. Ss had decided that he would stay with life for the remainder of the day before going to the Judgement faction in order to train throughout the night.
He didn''t really need to sleep so he didn''t mind doing this. Plus, he considered the learning part of his schedule a treat since it was something he actually enjoyed doing.
Walking over to the library at the back of her office, she looked through the books before finally picking out one of them that read the words "Offensive light magic - Basics to Advanced".
Holding the book in her hands, she walked back toward Ss and ced the book before him before looking him in the eyes.
"I want you to read this book and memorize three of the magic circles in it. Okay?" She asked before raising a brow.
"Y-You know how to read, right?" She asked with a slightly worried tone.
"I can read in the human tongue," Ss replied before skimming through the book.
Life seemed to have been annoyed by his action, however, Ss didn''t really care much. He would read it the way he wanted to read it. After all, the only thing that mattered was the result.
It went against everything those damned math teachers taught in school, but it was the truth.
The journey toward the answer barely mattered. Finding your own way to find a solution was one of the main ways to be sessful. Doing it through ways that other people have created can only get you so far.
Looking through the book, Ss scanned many of the magic circles and immediately saw several problems.
There weren''t many ways to make a tier-1 spell more efficient since they only had 4 runes, 5 if you include the one in the middle.
However, tier-2, 3, and even tier-4 runes were a different story altogether.
With a single nce, Ss could think of dozens of ways in which he could improve the magic circles, however, after a while of looking through the books, he looked up with a confused stare.
"This book says nothing about bringing out the light affinity and controlling it. It simply exined how the light element worked, and showed a few magic circles on the page as well as a few incantations. Sure, I found the part where it exined the runes used quite useful, but other than that, it doesn''t tell me anything." Ss crossed his arms in annoyance while cing the book down.
"You read it all? It''s only been a few minutes."
"I''m a fast reader." Ss shrugged.
"I refuse to believe you read the entire book in less than 10 minutes."
"Well, I just did. I don''t know what you want me to say?" He sighed.
"Ugh... Alright, if you insist that you''ve read the entire book, I''ll carry on with my teachings. However, do not expect me to slow down for you. It''s your fault you chose to speed through this!" She sighed as well and got up from her chair before slowly walking toward one of the boards.
"To bring out your light mana, you have to visualize the element while creating your runes." She exined.
"I''ve already tried that, but the light element feels different. It''s much harder to bring out that any of the other elements, and I have no clue why." Ss exined.
''Maybe you don''t have the affinity then!'' Is what she wanted to shout, however, she held her tongue and didn''t say anything for a while.
There was no way to see if someone had an affinity toward any of the light or darkness elements. No stone or mana core could tell you if you had the light element or not. It was weird, and no one in this world seemed to understand it.
People with the light element cultivated the same way as others with the traditional elements, the only key difference being the fact that people with the light element could usually use toki.
At the same time, something that ced light element users apart from others was the beasts with affinity. Beasts with an affinity to light always had normal mana cores without a particr element.
However, even though Ss was confused as to why no one researched this, he quickly understood after realizing how corrupt the church of Gilea seemed to be.
Most light element users were usually set to churches to be trained. Those who went to the churches usually came out much stronger than the light element users who went solely to the academies.
This allowed the church to essentially control the information about the light element, the same way churches back on Earth used to hinder the development of science to remain in control.
Ss doubted that the church didn''t have an idea behind the origin of the light element, however, despite that, they made it seem like the light element itself was a blessing to only those who are deemed worthy.
"Hey, Life..." Ss finally looked up after having seemingly contemted something for over a minute.
"What is it?" Life asked in a now, much more patient tone.
''What the hell happened to her? Oh well, I can''t reallyin.''
"What do you visualize when you think of the light element?" He asked.
"That''s not a good way to learn."
"No... I''m just asking out of curiosity." Ss cut her off.
"Uhm... Well, I''ve actually developed my own way of bringing out my light and healing mana. I''ve always found it easier to visualize emotion when creating spells like these.
Now it''s more of a habit since I''ve be an expert at using light and healing mana so I don''t have to think about it much, but when I was a beginner, I always used emotions to create spells." She exined.
"What do you feel then?" Ss asked with a tilt of the head.
Life looked up at the ceiling for a moment before smiling.
"I try to remember all the good memories I''ve had in my life, while blocking out the bad ones. When I''m healing someone, I used to think of everything that made me happy and it worked.
However, for light, I''d think about the things I found beautiful." She closed her eyes for a moment before rocking back and forth as if there was a melody in her mind, ying over and over again and soothing her until she felt like sleeping.
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Chapter 109 Learning Light Magic [2]
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Ss stroked his chin for a moment. Emotions were not the way he used his magic. At first, visualization was the main thing that helped him have better control over his mana.
One of the main reasons why he had better control over his elemental magic than others on Gilea was because of the fact that he understood how those kinds of magic worked.
Ss'' fire was created throughbustion. It needed oxygen, fuel, and heat. Mana filled the needs of two of those spots, while oxygen was simply everywhere.
Of course, seeing his grandmother cultivate and use fire magic also helped him in improving his control over it, but her contributions were minuscule in front of the advantage that his knowledge from Earth had given him.
The same thing could be said about the rest of the elements. When he produced ice magic, it was due to a moment of inspiration when seeing that mistwalker create ice out of thin air.
It only took a single nce for him to understand what it had done, and change it in a way that would help him conquer the use of ice magic quite easily. All he had to do was create a water spell and visualize the atoms in the spell slowing down before eventually changing the runes to help with that.
''Now that I think about it, I don''t think I''m going to be able to use a tier-5 spell in quite a long time... Maybe instead of learning how to improve my elemental control, I should try and discover new applications for these elements.
Hell, if water can create ice, couldn''t fire technically create sma? Wouldn''t earth magic allow me to control metal,va, and even crystals too?'' Ss felt himself get more and more excited as the endless practical implications ran through his mind.
He wanted to try them out right away, however, a voice quickly snapped him back to reality.
"Gilea to Ss? You there?" Life asked.
"Yeah... Sorry about that, I got stuck in my own world for a second there." Ss chuckled.
"No worries. How about youe up here and try drawing a magic circle on a piece of leather using this." She handed Ss a small pen-like object pulsing with mana as a small topaz crystal radiated at the top of it.
Ss assumed that it was a rune inscriber and simply walked toward therge leather piece before dropping his pen onto it.
''Wait...''
However, just before he was going to begin inscribing into the leather, he halted for a moment before furrowing his brows.
''The reason for magic circles in the first ce is that they make the process of spell casting automatic.
Simply cing the elemental rune in the middle should draw out the correct mana type and make the spell whatever element you have chosen. The only reason I have to visualize mine is that I have too many elements that mix together to create mana...'' Ss'' eyes began to widen, but he quickly controlled his facial expression when she got near him.
"Ss, what do you imagine when you create healing spells." Life asked out of the blue.
"Uhm... I don''t really visualize anything." Ss shrugged, causing her to widen her eyes.
"Wait, I don''t mean it like that. I mean, I don''t visualize anything in particr. I kind of just think of what I want to do before arranging the runes in a way that would fit my needs." Ss exined, causing Life to furrow her brows and fold her arms.
"I have to say, that''s a little weird." She chuckled before continuing- "Us light element users are the only ones who have to actually visualize something to bring out our element.
Those other mages look at us as if we are blessed or something, but I can''t help but be a little jealous of them. Imagine being able to create spells by simply having the runes in the right order." She sighed and fell down upon her chair before chuckling again.
However, a few secondster, his eyes fell upon Ss and she began tough.
"I guess you already know that feeling, Mr. Five Elements. Being able to create spells without having to even visualize or feel anything must be real easy. I wonder if that''s the reason you''re struggling with this." She tapped her lips with a hint of curiosity, however, the words that came out of Ss'' mouth were not ones she had expected.
"You''re wrong." He simply stated without saying anything else. Sure, she felt like he probably held that feeling, but she didn''t expect him to simply tell her that she was wrong to her face.
Despite being "just a healer", no one would have said something like that right to her face due to her being a general, but she probably should have expected something like this from Ss.
He had shown his clear disregard for the generals the moment he met them, and the only one Ss seemed to hold in high regard as Archie, and even then, it seemed like that was only the case due to Archie''s intelligence.
"How am I wrong?" She asked, her voice filled with more curiosity than annoyance.
"How do you think I create spells without saying an incantation?" Ss asked.
"I assume you let out the neceassary amount of your element''s mana at the same time before controlling it and creating a magic circle..." She shrugged.
"You''re half right." Ss nodded, however, his expression quickly turned serious.
"However, that technique is way too slow. If your control over your elemental energies isn''t strong enough, the magic circle will simply explode in your face. If you aren''t fast enough, the same thing happens.
If you''re just fast enough, it would be considered far too slowpared to using an incantation which I assume you would have shortened by this point of your journey to bing a better mage." Ss exined.
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Chapter 110 Learning Light Magic [3] - A Deal
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If you''re just fast enough, it would be considered far too slowpared to using an incantation which I assume you would have shortened by this point of your journey to bing a better mage." Ss exined.
"My point is, you need something more than just control over mana. You be easy prey the moment you decide to use all your brain power to control a single thing. The solution is to visualize." Ss raised his hand and pointed it at the chalkboard at the front of the room.
Slowly, a tier-1 magic circle formed before his hand. It was blue in color and floated before Ss'' hand for a few moments before a small sphere made out of water materialized in front of it.
"If you can visualize it, the runes will move, morph, and contort in any way you want. All you need is knowledge, and the rest is implemented almost automatically. The runes understand your thoughts... All you need to do is-" Ss let out a breath and caused the sphere of water to split into two, before splitting again and bing six.
They all floated around the magic circle as the runes on it changed at a rapid pace, trying to keep up with the movements of the spheres.
"When you can invision what you want..." Ss muttered again before snapping his fingers and making the runes a light icy blue.
"Magic can change reality into exactly what you want." Ss snapped his fingers away and turned the balls into water once more. They began to quickly spin around a single point before contorting and stretching toward the middle, slowly creating a drill made out of water that was spinning faster and faster every time more water was put in it.
"Do you understand?" Ss asked before ncing at Life and deactivating the magic circle, causing the water drill to fall to the ground as if it had never been spinning in the first ce.
"That''s... That''s amazing." She muttered, her eyes locked onto the exact ce the water drill was a few seconds earlier.
"Oh... Thanks." Ss shrugged as if it was no big deal, but in reality, he had shown her something she would probably never achieve in her life time.
Sure, Life wasn''t old. She was in herte twenties and she had many more things to do with her life. However, despite making it seem easy, what Ss had told her was a half lie.
Sure, the runes align themselves almost automatically the moment he thinks of how they work, but that''s because he already understood how runes worked. He had dedicated the majority of the first 6 years of his life to understanding magic.
Of course, he wanted to learn about light magic too, but for some reason Diveen continued to reject all his proposals for her to be his teacher.
However, now he had a teacher capable of teaching him how to create light magic, and he needed to make sure that she felt like the exchange was equal.
Ss wanted her to think that she was benefiting from their little cooperation too, so he showed her something that would be close to impossible for her to learn without breaking down everything she ever new about magic and learning it all over again.
This way, she wouldn''t stop teaching him, because if she does achieve the goal of creating a magic circle without saying a word the same way he did, it would be so far in the future that he would most likely already be superior to her in magical and physical strength.
Becuase, in the end, it was only due to his Earthling perspective that he was able to understand magic in a way that the people of this could not understand.
it was a little like germ theory. If you want to a human 2000 years before the germ theory and told them that they had tiny microscopic creatures living all over their bodies, inside and outside, they would most likelyugh at you even if you had evidence to prove your theory correct.
To them, it would seem impossible. Their minds were blocked from all sides, boxed into a little tiny cage that controlled everything anything they thought about.
''Though, maybe I should take advice from people from Gilea... Thier theories most likely came from somewhere, right? No matter how much I wouldn''t like to admit it, I''m not thinking outside the box. Throughout my entire life on this, I thought about everything through the lense of an earthling. What if, just for once, I thought about it through the lense of a Gilean?'' Ss thought while scratching his chin.
"How about we make a deal..." Life spoke up for the first time in a long time.
"What is it?" Ss thought half his mind concentrating on Life while the other half continued to think about the emotion technique Life used to create her spells.
"I teach you everything I know about light magic... and by that I mean everything..." She muttered just loud enough for Ss to hear.
"And what do you want in exchange...?" Ss smiled before raising on of his fingers and tracing runes in the air, creating a magic circle out of a milky crystal-like energy that pulsed with mana every few seconds.
Life couldn''t help but be distracted by the runes he was creating, narrowing her eyes at it as if it was something she had never seen before.
However, a few secondter, she remembered what she was saying and began to speak up again.
"In exchange, I want you to teach me that thing you did. I want you to teach me how to silent cast and control magic to the same extent as you. I don''t understand how you became so good at magic at such a young age. As far as I know, your grandmother is barely an amethyst core, while your mother is healer with average capabilities."
"If you want to know how I''m capable of this-"
"I don''t!" She cut ss off almost immediately before looking him in the eyes.
"Everyone has their secrets. Even I do... I don''t need to know anything about how you became so good in magic, while you don''t need to know anything about my background. All I want is to learn how you do what you do, and in exchange, you get all the research and information I own on light magic."
"Is that a deal?" She asked while extending her hand toward Ss...
"Of course... Of course it''s a deal." Ss smiled as everything began to fall into ce...
Just like a puzzle piece.
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Chapter 111 Coronation [1]
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Ss began walking toward the Judgement faction''s neighborhood, his steps slow and heavy as he thought of everything he''d done and was going to do.
ns flew through his mind as he discarded most of them and contemted a few.
There are millions of things that could happen right now. There were so many possibilities that he could not ount for them all. Unlike Earth, people were not bound by weak bodies and technology. Earthlings were easy to understand. They were easy to predict. They were small, unintelligent, and most of all, basic.
They all thought alike. They were essentially sheep, even some of the higher-status humans out there. Sure, one could say the same about Gilea, but there was one key difference: Gileans were harder to manipte and anticipate than Earthlings.
It was the fact that Ss himself didn''t know enough about them to understand how they worked. He essentially lived in a backwater town, and when he did eventually leave it, he moved to an even weirder city filled with runaways and ouws.
He could only really think within the box since thinking outside it would require more information about the behaviors and attitudes of the people outside dia and Darkless, and that was simply not something you can get from reading books.
"Game! Wassup bro! Youe here to train? I can train you!" A man suddenly called out to him. Looking over at him, Ss could see that the man seemed to be blushing heavily as he walked over to him. The redness reached all the way up to his ears as he stumbled toward him.
"Uhm. I''d like to be trained by someone... Clear minded?" Ss shrugged while the man folded his arms in anger.
"What? Are you calling me stupid?!" He roared, catching the attention of everyone nearby, causing them to flock like sheep toward them until they finally circled the two of them.
"Not really. I''m calling you drunk. I don''t like drunk people. They''re super unpredictable." Ss scratched the back of his neck while trying to cut the awkward tension between them.
"..."
"..."
"..."
However, for some reason, no one said anything the entire time. They continued to re at him before finally-
"Ahhhh!" The manughed and pointed at Ss. "I was just kidding bro! I couldn''t get angry at you." The man tried to lean closer and give Ss a hug, yet as if he was avoiding a gue, Ss jumped over him without even a moment''s hesitation before walking away before they could reason he wasn''t among them anymore.
"..." And before Ss could get far, he saw a blue-haired woman standing next to a door, her eyes locked onto Ss'' as he walked toward her.
"You don''t seriously think I''ll train you after what you did?" She sneered.
"Oh? Describe for me, what was my crime here? Telling you the truth? Informing you exactly what you were thinking. Telling you how far below me you are?" Ss asked as his eyes narrowed slightly.
"Is telling the truth really a crime?" Ss asked again before walking even closer.
"Or, does it scare you that I am capable of knowing every single step of your n before you even begin nning it?" He grinned at her, his smile widening by the second as his words echoed in her mind over and over again.
Grabbing her arm, Ss began to walk away from the lounge with her by his side. She didn''t really resist, but that was probably because she didn''t have a reason to.
As they got further and further from the lounge, however, a bad feeling began to crawl up her neck, making her shudder and pull away from his grip.
Yet, just when she did so, she understood the situation she was in.
She couldn''t pull away. Ss'' grip was like a steel vice, however, after feeling the pull from her, he looked her in the eye for a moment and let go.
Rubbing her wrist with a look of pain in her eyes, she spoke-
"If you wanted me to train you, you would have done it there... Why are you bringing me here?" She asked.
"Why am I bringing you here, you ask..." Ss chuckled before revealing the full strength of his killing intent and pointing it directly at Seraphine.
Suddenly, she dropped to her knees within an instant before wheezing as it had suddenly be hard to breathe.
Corpses began to slowlye out of the floor, their faces unrecognizable, and the soundsing out of maws seeming like nothing but unintelligible nonsense.
"Miss Seraphina... Let me ask you a question..." Ss muttered, as his hand grew closer to her.
Suddenly, she could feel him caressing her cheek, yet his touch had no warmth in it.
In fact, it felt like every inch of his skin was filled with tiny spikes sending shivers of cold through her entire nervous system.
"You''re quite strong... Well,pared to most people in this city. Gold 2 you said, right? That''s about a solid-amethyst''s level of strength, right?" Ss stepped back and pointed his hand at her while a water magic circle appeared before his hand.
"The question is, what makes you think that you are worth anything in my eyes?"
"What makes you think I even need you?" Ss asked, yet after waiting for a few seconds, all he got as a reply was her breathing heavily.
''Now that I think about it, hasn''t my killing intent gotten stronger after my fight with the assassins?'' Ss thought to himself before shaking his head slightly.
If he wanted this to work, he needed to make sure Seraphina was truly terrified of him.
"I''ll train you." She wheezed from in between breaths.
"Good, but we both know that I''m not here to be trained..." He muttered, and she instantly understood what he was saying.
"You want intel... I can give you everything need... Everything you desire." She whispered as she tried her hardest to fight against the killing intent without bringing out her own.
She didn''t want Ss to think that she was being aggressive against him, after all.
Chapter 112 Coronation [2]
?
The rest of the day was quite uneventful, and the same could be said about the rest of the week. Nothing really happened that was out of the ordinary, or outside Ss'' schedule.
Ss did a few missions here and there to earn money to pay his rent, while spending the rest of his time either trying to bring out his light magic with Life or training with the Judgement faction.
ording to Life, light magic was one of the hardest elements to train. Apparently, his being able to even use healing magic without any real training was a miracle, however, that wasn''t really how Ss saw it.
However, Life predicted that it might take him a month or two to even bring out a spark of light mana since that''s how long it took the top geniuses on the continent.
So, in response to her information, Ss gave himself two weeks to learn how to use light magic. Ss knew that Archie would be the newmander any day now, and when that happens, the battle for Judgement''s crown would begin.
Whether that was a political battle or a battle of strength, it wouldn''t matter. Ss felt like he would need the light element soon... Of course, if he didn''t get the light element, he always had n B, and this time, n B was much easier to implement than n A.
On another hand, Ss'' intel gathering hadn''t been as sessful as he had imagined it would be.
There were two reasons he had befriended the faction. The first reason was to understand the strengths and weaknesses of their leader. However, it seemed like he had underestimated how ipetent the faction had be since they knew almost nothing about their leader.
Even Seraphina wasn''t very helpful when it came to finding out more about Grant, and Ss considered her one of the morepetent people in the faction. After all, it seemed like she might be the only one who actually does her job.
Ss couldn''t find anything about the armor either, other than the fact that it was strong and belonged to themander before his death by his hands.
Ss didn''t know why themander wasn''t wearing his armor against Ss, since that would have changed the tide of the fight by a lot, however, he assumed it was simply because themander didn''t think he would need it.
Walking outside of his appartment, Ss began to stretch, however, his attention was quickly caught by a boy who was running past him aftering out of the room beside his.
No... It wasn''t just him. Ss could hear a hugemotioning from the distance, causing him to quickly follow the boy and reach him in an instant.
"AHHH!" The boy screamed out in panic and threw an onyx core right toward Ss.
Ss simply raised a brow and tilted his head slightly, causing the core to pass by him without even touching him.
"Oh crap! Not again! I''m so sorry. I just, I got a little scared. Please don''t hurt me!" She boy cowered slightly while Ss looked at him with even more bbergast in his expression.
"Uhm... You mind telling me where you''re going?" Ss asked while retrieving the onyx core with his wind magic.
"Well. They''re announcing the newmander soon. I just wanted to watch the ceremony." The boy scratched his cheek and looked down, unwilling to look Ss in the eye.
"Hmm. I see." Ss muttered before grinning.
The grin sent a cold shiver down the boy''s spine. He wasn''t even looking Ss in that moment, but he couldn''t help but feel a little scared.
"Then, how about we go together?" Ss asked.
The boy looked up with widened eyes, however, there wasn one thing that was itching at him from the back of his mind.
''Why do I have a bad feeling about this?''
"What''s your name, kid?" Ss asked, making the boy look at Ss one more time and allowing him to get a good view of him.
"Kid?" Suddenly, the boy''s confidence skyrocketed as a widening grin appeared on his face.
"Oh... You''re the same age as me... I think? You just felt so old when you approached me, but now I see you''re a kid too!" The boy looked into Ss'' eyes for a moment could began to look even more confused than before.
"I''m older than I look." Ss sighed.
"Oh, oh! I know what you are!
You''re a loli!"
"..."
"I heard about people like you! Must be hard being a loli, especially at your age."
"..."
"Come on loli-san. You want to watch the announcement too, right! Let''s go!" The boy grabbed the bbergasted Ss by the arm and began to pull him along for the ride.
Ss'' mind, however, was on autopilot as he was trying to understand what just happened.
''D-Did... Did he just call me a loli! What the fuck! WHAT THE FUCK!''
''...''
''...''
''Am I a loli?'' Ss finally asked himself after realizing that the boy wasn''t technically wrong.
"My name''s Alex by the way! What''s your''s?" Alex asked as he continued to run with Ss by his side.
"S- Game Evergreen." Ss sighed.
"Oh! We''re using our full names! Then, my name is Alex Relicer!" Alex smiled with the innocence of a child.
However, just before Ss could awkwardly chuckle at how he suddenly had a new friend, he instantly frowned and looked into the boy''s eyes.
''Relicer... I''ve heard that name before. I can''t pinpoint the memory, but I''m certain that I''ve heard it before.'' Ss thought, but by the time he could get his mind out of the rabbit hole he had just thrown himself in, he heard Alex speak again.
"We''re here!" Alex shouted.
Focusing on what''s in front of him. Ss saw tens of thousands of people gathered around the enormous tree in the middle of the city.
On it was a tform where 5 individuals could be seen standing, each and every one of them wearing their best armor and releasing a pressure that made everyong look at their in awe.
"Ladies and gentlement, boys and girls. Wee, to coronation of our newmander!" A man Ss had never seen before spoke into a crystal that amplified his voice and made it loud enough for everyone to hear.
"I guess this is where it begins..."
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Chapter 113 Coronation [3]
?
The man announcing the coronation continued to talk for a really long time. Two minutes in, Ss had lost interest. His mind took him to random instances in both of his lives. He reyed them over and over again. At the same time, he listened to the man while allowing minute amounts of information to be stored in his brain, mostly only the important bits though.
The boy next to him keptmentating over the man too, and even though Ss was listening at first, he quickly began to ignore him too.
He was doing nothing but screeching like a little girl and cheering every now and then.
From the short time period that Ss had spent listening to him, he quickly realized that Alex was a really big fan of Life. He would have liked to not know why, but Ss was a grown man. He knew a crush when he saw one, and this was definitely a crush.
"If you keep staring at her like that, she might be creeped out." Ssmented, causing the boy next to him to step back with a hint of fear.
"R-Really! Wait... Is that really what people think? Oh no... What if she hates me? What if she finds me disgusting!? I can''t let that happen! I can''t let her think of me like that!" Alex spoke with a resolution.
"I don''t like where this is going..." Ss sighed.
"I''m going to find her and confront her about this. I will show her that despite being much younger than her, I can be great husband!" Alex shouted, causing many of the people around them to look at him with raised brows before letting out a small smile and chuckling at him.
''Who the hell is teaching him these things?! Clearly he''s an orphan!''
To them, he seemed to like an innocent kid with a crush.
However, to Ss, he seemed like a child who had gone mad with love.
''What did I bring myself into?'' Ss rubbed the bridge of his nose as a feeling on annoyance traveled up his body and was about to give him a headache.
"Whatever you say, kid." Ss shrugged.
"I''m not a kid! I''m a- Oooh! The ceremonies are beginning!" Alex screamed before tapping on one the adults and asking them to lift him over their heads.
Of course, they would have probably said yes if this was on Earth... Earthling had way too much sympathy for their own good, but not only was this Gilea, but it was also Darkless city.
People weren''t nearly as sympathetic toward kidspared to Earth or even the world outside the city.
Ss, on the other hand, had no real intention of watching the ceremony. He was just waiting for the coronation, since ording to Archie, something was supposed to happen before he becamemander.
''I''m assuming the people don''t know who themander will be yet.'' Ss thought after remembering some of Alex''s words.
So, he simply waited.
And just like that, half an hour passed by and the people were still cheering over the ceremonies.
''Holy shit when do they start the goddamn coronation!'' Ss wanted to shout, however, he quickly found himself sighing again after nothing happened.
Looking up, Ss looked at all the generals simply standing there, their eyes scanning through the crowds as if they were looking for something.
And for a moment, Life''s eyes locked with Ss'' before a smile bloomed on her face.
"Hey! Hey! Did you see that! Did you see that! She smiled at me!" Alex shouted but Ss ignored him again.
Looking to the left, Ss saw Death also looking at him for a moment, making Ss raise a brow before looking around for a few moments.
''Hey... Why the hell are they all looking at me!?'' Ss felt a shiver go down his spine. For some reason, he felt like that look meant a lot more than he could understand, but for now, they didn''t matter.
They were all wearing different unique colors that made them stand out. Ss assumed that it was for people who couldn''t see as far as him, but after looking around for a few more moments, he quickly realized that wasn''t the case.
There were severalrge crystals around without a particr color in them. However, each one of them showed what was happening in real-time, allowing everyone to see the generals in all their glory.
''How the hell can Alex see them then?'' Ss thought while looking at the boy beside him.
The ceremonies quickly stopped and the generals stepped forward, leaving them in full sight as a branch suddenly came out from in between the crowds and made a tform for them to stand on.
The 5 Generals quickly stepped on the branches before being moved further into the air.
"What''s happening?" Ss asked Alex.
"Now you want me to talk?" Alex harrumphed.
"Alex... I''ll give you an onyx core if you tell me."
"You can''t buy me or my tongue!" Alex blew a raspberry as Ss, yet instead of feeling annoyed again, Ss felt a tap on his shoulder.
"I''ll tell you for an onyx core." A man with closed eyes and a greedy grin extended both his hands toward Ss in a begging manner.
"Ugh." Ss took out an onyx core and ced it in his hands.
"Now, I suggest you speak and not try running away like you were going to." Ss smiled while releasing a slither of killing intent the froze the man in ce.
"W-Well... We''re going to choose who themander is going to be. The generals will vote first. Their vote counts as a third of the vote, and it has to be unanimous. Factions members aren''t allowed to vote since not all factions have as many people as other factions. S-So, their vote goes to the richest people in the city. They also count as a third of the votes.
Lastly, the rest of the city gets to vote, and their vote counts as a third too." The man quickly exined without trying to cut any corners.
"What about the faction without a general?" Ss asked.
"Oh, then the faction gets to vote for the missing general. In this case, the judgement faction will have to vote for not only who gets to be themander, but also gets to vote on who bes their general." He exined.
"Good explenation. You can leave now." Ss waved him off, causing the man to scurry away.
Looking up again, Ss quickly found a ck tablet made out of te form before him and everyone around him.
There were three runes on it, each one of the runes having a different color being represented on them.
"Hmm..." Looking over to the right, Ss saw Alex tapping on the green rune instantly.
''They used color to represent them since not everyone can read... And most people can''t read so I guess they were right to do something like this.'' Ss shrugged before tapping on Archie''s rune.
"Really? You''re voting for that guy?" Alex asked with a surprised tone.
"Yeah, why?" Ss replied with a raised brow.
"I mean... He''s really nd, isn''t he?" A man next to Ssmented.
"I think it''s because Game over here is nd too." Alex responded with a grin.
"Voting is a serious matter. It isn''t a poprity contest. It''s about voting for the person most likely to make this organization better, not for the person you like most-" Ss nced at the man next to him.
"Or the woman you find attractive." Ss looked at Alex with a slight re.
"Well, our votes don''t usually matter much anyway. We''re only a third of the votes." A woman behind Ss shrugged.
''This voting system wasn''t what Archie exined to me. Hell, it''s closer to the systme Germany used before the first world war... But I guess that it makes sense? Gilea is way behind Earth when ites to these kinds of things, maybe it''s just the culture here?'' Ss shrugged.
Archie was probably relying on the rest of the voters to vote for him since the rich people would most likely want him in order to make the organization better, while the generals had already concluded that Archie was probably the best person for the job.
"The votes are in! The generals and higher society have already voted beforehand, the majority vote wins!" The announcer shouted before an enormous screen made out of water materialized behind the generals.
And in that moment, a crystal began shining upon the screen made out of the water, creating a projection that showed the results.
Everyone''s eyes slowly widened as the results showed up. The votes weren''t measured, but instead, they were put on a podium, having the person with the most votes at the top, while the person with the lead votes was at the bottom.
As the generals looked back, they all had a look of guilt on their faces.
Well, only 3 of them did.
Life, Death, and Eclipse. Well, Ss couldn''t really see Eclipse behind his cloak, but that was the vibe he got from the aura around him.
However, the crowd has a different reaction.
Half of them had their eyes widened into saucers, while the rest simply cheered with all their might.
However, among the crowd there was one person whose eyes were filled with no emotion. Their face waspletely ck while their mouths simply opened and closed.
''Oh no...''
[Results:
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Chapter 114 The New Commander [1] - Hivemind
?
[Results:
5. Eclipse
4. Architect
3. Death
2. Life
1. Greed]
''...'' Ss simply stayed quiet before his eyes darted toward Archie to see his reaction.
As expected, Archie wasn''t happy either, however, there was one person who was.
Greed has a huge smile on her face as she walked off the branch and began to walk on air.
Ss could see dozens of runes on her boots shining at the same time to make her airwalk possible, but right now he was struggling to predict what she would do next.
Sure, he had already thought of instances that might lead to Archie''s loss, however, the thought of Greed winning was the lowest of them all.
No one in their right mind would actually vote for her, right? That would not only be idiotic, but it would also be catastrophic to the organization.
Greed, just like her name suggested, only cared about herself. Ss knew that much already from their short encounters with one another.
He knew what kind of person she was the instant he met her. How could the people fall for her charade and simply-
Looking to the side, Ss saw everyone look at her with a gaze filled with awe and reverence.
"You can''t be serious..." Ss chuckled mockingly.
Men were fawning over her, and women were cheering with the vigor and might of Taylor Swift fans.
However, even this he might have expected, but there was no way the generals and higher society would even think about voting for her...
If there wasn''t an incentive put in ce for them to do so...
''She showed no interest in the position before. Hell, Jessica would have told me in one of her reports if she had done so... But, Jessica did say something about Greed taking something out of her vault...
Maybe she''s manipting them like a puppeteer? She tried it with me, so it makes sense, right? Wait, no... I would have realized something was wrong with Life straight away... She''s showing guilt now so she must have done it willingly.''
However, before Ss could think about anything else, he heard a feminine voice echo throughout the city.
"I must thank you all for voting for me. I could have not done it without all you." She spoke while stepping onto the small tform on the enormous tree.
Every floating crystal in the city showed her face, and when it did, people began to cheer and scream.
Greed we wearing a gold andpis-blue skirt that reached all the way down to her knees, showing off the rest of her legs.
Her skirt was a low-cut one that showed off her arms as well. In a way, she looked like one of those dancers from the sixties... All she was missing was a top hat and cane.
Each one of her words reverberated with the people, sending shudders of shock through all most of them as the cheers became even louder.
"And to reward you, I will make all your lives better!" She threw her hands in the air and let out a blossoming smile that radiated like the warm light of a rising sun, shining from beyond the horizon.
''Something''s off...'' Ss narrowed his eyes.
He just realized that something wasn''t adding up. The people were too obedient. Too quiet when she spoke, yet as if they knew the exact moment she would stop speaking, they would roar out with cheers that thundered throughout the cave system.
"Do you want better living?" She asked while leaning her ear closer to the crowd.
"Yes we do!" They all spoke in synchronization.
"Do you want more money!?" The roared before leaning forward with her other ear.
"YES WE DO!"
"Then scream for me!" She roared and threw her hands into the air again.
"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" They screamed in unison, making Greed smile even more.
"Roar for me!" She spun in ce and waved her hands high in the air, however, this time Ss could see something crawling up her arms.
"RAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" They all roared in unison.
"What did we want?" The things crawling up her arms began to glow with a sapphire glow before flying away from her arms and shooting above the crowds like small shooting stars.
"Better leadership!"
"Did we get it?!"
"Yes! Yes! Yes!"
There was a long pause, but after a few seconds, Ss felt something.
Or to be even more specific, he also saw something.
Small blue speaks falling to the ground, causing the eyes of everyone around him to light blue.
"What''s happening!?" A boy spoke with a fearful voice, causing Ss to look at him.
However, before he could react to seeing Alex not being affected by whatever was affecting the rest of the people, a screen popped up in front of him.
[Enchanter Beetle''s enchantment has been repelled sessfully]
[Your evolution blessing has assimted the Enchantment Beetle''s essence for a prolonged amount of time]
[Assimtion Complete]
[You have gained one bloodline ability]
[Lesser Enchantment: The ability to manipte the feelings of the people around you. To activate the ability, you must make contact with the enchanted and look them in the eyes while thinking of what emotion you want to bestow upon them.
Enchantment will only remain for a short amount of time before being dispelled. The enchantment will not be dispelled if you keep eye contact with the enchantee.]
She tricked them...
No... She outsmarted them. She outsmarted him.
She yed the fool the entire time, and Ss waspletely blind to it.
She had beenying down her n from the very start... From before he had evene to the city. Possibly even before he had been birthed.
She nned so far ahead that it hade close to impossible for Ss to see iting.
"Those blue beetles..." Ss muttered with only a deadpan showing on his face.
She was unpredictable, yet everything had an incentive and thought behind it.
The assassins... The mission itself had been created to keep him away from the city while she nned.
''During the time I was away, she did something that specifically required me not to be here...''
''Or maybe...'' Ss eye darted toward Archie who standing over the city with a look of... Fear?
Shaking his head, Ss tried to look at the good side of all of this despite there not really being one.
"Well, at least now I have an idea of what I''m going to have to deal with." Ss thought.
If this was considered "Lesser Enchanting", then the beetles would definitely have a strong enchanting than he did.
''Or maybe... Itys in their biology...'' Ss thought before looking up again and making eye contact with Life.
She looked at him with an expression of guilt before looking away. It seemed like she was ashamed of what she had done, but she most likely had a reason. That was something he learned from her.
Despite only spending around a week with her, and only knowing her for a little more than 3, Ss knew her enough to understand that she wouldn''t betray Archie for no reason, especially if she loved him the way Ss has seen.
''Looks like I''m going to have to make some changes to my n...'' Ss thought before turning his eyes in a certain direction.
And when he did so, he saw a pair of eyes look back at him before nodding.
Those eyes belonged to none other than Grant, his rival to the Judgement throne.
Chapter 115 The New Commander [2] - Arlem
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"HAIL GREED! HAIL GREED! HAIL GREED!" The crowd began shouting as almost all of their eyes shines with a blue radiance.
Alex was beside Ss, and from the looks of it, he was beginning to panic.
"Alex..." Ss shook him, but he didn''t respond.
This time, his eyes began to flicker blue before returning to normal.
''Shit... Staying here is probably increase the strength of the echantment. It''s probably easier if I let him fall for it. He would be safer that way...'' Ss thought before shaking his head with a look of confusion.
''Since when did I care about other people''s saftey?'' Ss thought before looking at Alex again and sighing.
''Well, I guess I''ve always had a soft spot for kids.'' Ss chuckled, however, his mind quickly threw him back to how he had abandoned Syra without a second thought.
''Or maybe I don''t... I don''t have time for this emotional bullshit that normal people do. I need to think... And I need to rely on my instincts too...'' Ss shook his head again and looked at Alex.
''My instincts tell me that he''s going to be very useful to me in the future, but for now, it''s probably for the best if his mind gets taken over... And maybe it''s for the best if I act like mine had been taken over too.'' Ss thought before shouting holding his head between his arms and convulsing with pain.
"Game! Are you alright?!" Alex asked, yet, after a few seconds, Ss stopped convulsing and quickly stood up with a nk expression on his face.
His eyes were still green, however, they were much brighter than before and were pulsing with mana the same way the others were.
If this was anything like a zombie movie, he had to act like them to blend in with them, otherwise, he would most likely be attacked. Of course, zombie movies weren''t really the most reliable genre he could have used, but it was the best one the best he could do for now.
"Hail Greed." Ss looked into Alex''s eyes with a nk expression before controlling the pressure he exuded around him, as well as his mana fluctuations and the speed of his breathing.
The people around him did everything together. They breathed at the same rate. They spoke in unison. Hell, even their hearts were beating at the same rate as one another.
"N-No... Not you too." Alex took a few steps back before and bumped into one of the others, causing him to quickly fall to his knees.
And when he did so, his eyes flickered again.
''He''s very strong.'' Ss thought before turning around and shouting "Hail Greed" as loudly as he could. However, he made sure to keep an eye on Alex the entire time.
And after a few seconds, Alex finally broke calmed down and stood up again, his breathing in sync with everyone around him.
"Hail Greed." He muttered and turned toward the tform.
***
"What have you done..." Archie looked at the crowd with a stare filled with a shred of despair. It was terrifying. The scene was terrifying. Everything that was happening was beyond terrifying.
And worst of all, there was one person among the crowd that he had kept an eye on, continuously praying that they wouldn''t fall for the essence too...
But right before his eyes, Ss fell to it.
He fell just like the rest.
His mask was telling him so.
His breathing had changed.
His heart rate too.
There were even pulses of manaing out of his eye now, synchronized with the rest.
"How could you do this?" Archie looked at Life.
"She-."
"I TRUSTED YOU! YOU KNEW WHAT WAS ON THE LINE!" Archie roared while grabbing Life by her cors and lifting her off the floor.
"Please... Arlem... Please understand-" Life tried to reach for Archie''s face, however, he quickly pushed her away, causing her to almost fall off the tform if not for Death grabbing her at thest second.
"Don''t... DON''T CALL ME BY THAT NAME..." He took a few steps back, his breathing heavy and filled with utmost rage.
"I trusted all of you..." Arlem gritted his teeth and pointed at all of them...
However, he quickly turned around and pointed at someone else.
He pointed at Greed.
"I trusted you too..." He muttered.
"Poor little Arlem. Sad that momma Greed ruined his ns?" Greed giggled like a little girl. However, her smile was ever-extending. As if she was feeding off Archie''s despair.
"You don''t get to call me that..." Archie took a step back, but he quickly felt a dagger ced over his heart, as well as a ck sword that looked like it had teleported to his neck.
"Arlem... Please, don''t make this harder than it has to be..." Life spoke with a quiver in her voice before pointing her staff at his back.
Both Eclipse and Death kicked the back of Archie''s legs, causing him to fall to his knees.
Everything seemed to have happened in a little over a second, yet Archie didn''t do anything...
"We were a family..." Archie muttered again, his voice filled with dread as his mask was quickly ripped away from his face.
However, at that moment, Greed saw mana fluctuating out of him and spreading in every direction, but before he could do anything, she ced the tip of her rapier at his neck before letting out a devilish smile.
"Yet, just like the royals and their family, we betray each other for the greater good..." She spoke before leaning forward and whispering into his ear.
"The same way you let ourmander die for the greater good of this organization." She stepped back and let those words seep into his mind.
"I would suggest you don''t do anything rash... You might be strong, hell, you might be the strongest one of us...
But not even you can take on 4 generals and the entire city all by yourself." She chuckled maniacally.
"I won''t have t-"
"And before you go on to trying to kill me, let me remind you that I am keeping the entire city hostage."
Her eyes glowed with a certain golden radiance.
"With a snap of my fingers, I could make every person in this city a vegetable, and you wouldn''t even have enough time to react to it."
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[If you have enjoyed this chapter and would like to support the author, please vote using your power stones or golden tickets. Also, you can join my discord server today to see illustrations or converse about thetest chapters.
Check author''s note]
Chapter 116 The New Commander [3] - Grant Evershield
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"With a snap of my fingers, I could make every person in this city a vegetable, and you wouldn''t even have enough time to react to it."
Everyone''s eyes widened, even the eyes of the other generals.
"Greed! That wasn''t the deal!" Life shouted.
"The deal...
Is whatever I want it to be." She smirked and looked back at Archie.
"Throw him in the dungeons. I want him to be around when I finally wear my crown." She chuckled before turning around and walking away.
Therge tree quickly created a branch that took her down the tform and back onto the ground.
When she did that, she turned around and entered one of therger buildings, not even batting an eye as the entire city chanted her name.
***
The chanting seemed to have continued for an hour, however, at a certain point, Ss saw a wave of mana pulse out of the building Greed was in, causing everyone to suddenly stop chanting and walk away from the crowd they had built.
In an instant, they all went back to their regr lives. Of course, all their eyes remained shining with a certain glint of blue, however, it wasn''t as noticeable. As if the enchantment had weakened.
''I doubt weakened is the right word to use in this situation. She chose to weaken it, but its still there. She just brainwashed everyone in the city. They''ll act exactly how they would normally act, the only difference now being the fact that they have fully submitted to her.'' Ss thought while making sure to not do anything too obvious.
For once, he was creating the n on the spot... For once he was improvising, and if he were to be honest, despite not being as good at it as nning ahead, he was still probably better than most.
''For once? That''s a load of bullshit! I''ve been improvising way too much nowadays.
I improvised when I went hunting in dia, when darkless attacked the town, when I was attacked by those damn assassins, when I fought against that damn python... I improvise too much! I''m clearly an improvising expert!'' Ss inwardly shouted in outcry at the disservice he was doing to his capabilities.
"Man... You had be worried back their. But I''ve never felt more alive." Ss heard a voicee from his right, causing him to look toward it just to see a boy looking at him with a pair of dark blue eyes.
Alex looked no older than 10 years of age, however, there were certain things about him that had changed when the enchantment finally got to him.
His already pale face looked a little paler, while his previously silver eyes had be a darkish blue. His crimson-red hair remained the same and just as vibrant as before, yet just like before, Ss looked over it in an instant.
He hadn''t seen too many people with hair as red as Alex''. Though, his name was still stuck in the back of his mind, making him repeat it over and over again until he could remember where he had heard the name before.
"Alex Relicer." He finally muttered aloud.
"Yep. That''s my name." Alex jumped up and down as if he was trying to see how light his steps felt.
"Can you believe it? I feel so light... So... Unburdened." Alex let out a deep breath as if he was breathing out all the built-up stress, anger, pain, and resentment he had held onto for all of his life.
"Same..." Ss replied, his eyes darting around thendscape around him.
"It''s amazing... Lord Greed has blessed us with so much... I wonder how we can repay her."
"Well, I''ve got an idea." Ss smiled at Alex before stroking his chin.
"You do?" Alex jumped up and down.
"Yes, I do... Though, I''d like to keep it a secret for now. You know... I want it to be a surprise." Ss grinned with innocence showing on his face.
"Oh? Well, you get to that. I''ll think of something on my own!" Alex turned around and began to run in the other direction.
"All hail lord Greed!" He shouted onest time before making a hand sign Ss had never seen before.
"All hail lord Greed..." Ss replied while making the same hand sign and turning around.
''Don''t praise her too much thought... I''ll be killing her soon.'' Ss thought and walked in a certain direction.
***
A low click resounded through an office before a man walked into it with his head held high.
Another man could be seen walking beside him, yet the first man quickly stopped the second one, waving to him and forcing him to leave.
With a low sigh, the man, Grant Evershield, walked over to his desk and sat down on his chair.
His hair was usually gelled to the side, however, right now it was a little disheveled. A little too disheveled. His usually fiery amber eyes were now a little dull, while his face looked much paler than it usually did.
"Interesting." A voice entered Grant''s ears, causing him to instantly stand up and activate the armor he was wearing under his long coat.
The armor''s runes began to shine, while the metal pieces of the armor itself expanded slightly while shifting in ce.
All the cores powering the armor suddenly shone as well, yet just before Grant could attack the intruder, he saw who it was.
There, right in front of him, was a boy no older than 10 years of age, leaning on his bookshelf while reading a bestiary filled with information about many beasts that can be found on the continent. It talked mostly about all themon beasts and animals, however, sometimes it went on to talk about rarer ones. Hell, sometimes it even talked about monsters.
"How long have you been there?" Grant asked before copsing on his chair again.
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Chapter 117 The New Commander [4] - The Beast Womans Greed
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"How long have you been there?" Grant asked before copsing on his chair again.
"The entire time," Ss replied while giving a little wave toward Grant.
"No you haven''t... I would have seen you."
"As a wise man once said, I''ve mastered the art of standing so incredibly still, that I be invisible to the naked eye." Ss chuckled before walking over to Grant.
"But everything I just said is beside the point. I believe we have bigger fish to fry." Ss smiled at Grant and ced the book on his table before turning it around for him to see.
"Wait, how did they not recognize that you''re not one of them?" Grant asked with narrowed eyes.
"I can ask the same of you." Ss shrugged, causing Grant to look down for a moment before sighing.
"What are you showing me?" he finally asked while pulling the book closer.
"That page tells you everything you need to know about enchantment beetles, however, what I need to know is not what they are, but exactly when they first appeared.
How long have you lived in this city, and if you were here before they appeared, how long ago did they appear." Ss asked.
"Am I being interrogated... By a child, no less?" Grant chuckled.
"A child who was capable of negating the effects of an enchantment capable of brainwashing the entire city within seconds... Or at least that''s what she wants us to think." Ss muttered.
"Us?"
"Everyone who wasn''t affected. From what I understand, she doesn''t know that I haven''t been affected, but she knows about you." Ss exined.
Grant began to think about it for a few seconds before a smile crawled up the corners of his lips.
"Why should I join your little rebellion when, in reality, this could be very beneficial for me?" He spoke before narrowing his eyes and letting out a chuckle.
"Why would I need to join you when I''m almost certain she will choose me to be the next Judgement? You know, before today I saw you as nothing but a publicity stunt. A person I can show mercy to gain the favor of my people...
Yet, now I see that you might be a bigger threat than I would have imagined, and if there is a chance that you might win our battle, and that''s only IF, wouldn''t it be better for me to simply follow her orders and get the life I truly deserve?" he asked while slowly walking around his table.
"Oh really?" Ss raised a brow before giving him a mocking scoff.
"You see, you might be strong... But in the end, your just as stupid as I predicted." Ss sighed and walked toward the balcony of Grant''s office.
"You see, every general has a ce in this city. Every general has something that they bring to make this society greater... Better. Sure, you imbeciles haven''t been doing your jobs in a while, but you still have a part to y.
Life is the healer... The scientist. She creates the potions. She trains the new recruits and makes sure they can do her job when she''s not around. She is priceless to this city. Eclipse works in espionage. He brings information, so he''s just as priceless...
Death runs the Assassin group. He is our shadows. His entire faction is crucial in times of conflict. They are all well-trained, and that is very clear. On the other hand, Archie is the mind of the group. The strategist. Without him, the city would fall at the first conflict, or at least after a few attacks.
He makes the ns. He thinks ahead, whether that is 10 or 100 years ahead, it doesn''t matter. He is crucial too..." Ss exined.
"And finally... War... We all know no one can touch her, but she and her faction are the army of this city. Sure, most people here could fight, but her soldiers are trained beyond anyone in this city right now..."
"Enough of this! What is your point!" He shouted before clenching his arm and reforming the pieces of the armor to create a long spike that he immediately pointed at Ss'' throat.
"My point? It''s very simple... Where does Judgement fall into this? Think about it. Your entire faction has one job. To uphold thew. Why would she need someone like that if she''s brainwashed the entire city?" Ss asked before grabbing the spike with his bare hand.
And in the same instant, his other hand sped forward and gripped around Grant''s throat with so much power that it create a shockwave that scattered everything in the room.
"Sir? Are you okay?" A voice shouted from outside, yet Ss didn''t even flinch. He continued to look into Grant''s eyes with a cold and calcting stare.
"Everything''s fine. I j-just tripped." Grant spoke with a raspy voice.
"O-Okay... Do you want help?"
"NO!" Grant shouted again, causing the person on the other side of the door to jump before scurrying away.
"Good." Ss let go of him.
"You''re stronger than I anticipated." Grant muttered.
"You''re weaker than I anticipated." Ss retorted.
"You just took me by surprise. I thought you were mage..." Grant coughed to return his voice back to normal.
"Then you understand..." Ss slowly turned back to Grant.
"That you''ve seen nothing so far."
***
"Hello my kind guests. How may I help you today?" Greed asked as two men walked into her new and pristine office.
"You''re the one who called us." One of the sneered.
They both seemed to be wearing royal red robes, just like the man who had talked to Archie about kidnapping Nymira a few months back.
"Oh yeah. My apologies..." Greed chuckled before cing her feet on her desk.
"What do you want?" The other man asked. He was also wearing the red robes, however, there was something inherently different about them...
However, it was clear that this man was the more serious of the pair.
"I''ve talked to one of your princes about this... You know how the Darkless organization has been a thorn at the kingdom''s side for a few decades now?" She asked before a mischevious grin appeared on her face.
"So I have an offer..."
"Get to the point." The man sneered.
"What do you think of...
Buying the organization?"
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Chapter 118 The New Commander [5] - Go With The Flow
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"Does it make sense?" Ss finished exining everything.
"You spoke way too quickly... Also, most of it flew over my head." Grant shrugged.
"Ugh... Okay... I''ll say it one more time, and this time it will be at a speed that your tiny brain canprehend." Ss sighed and rubbed the bridge of his now.
"Whatever makes you happy, kid." Grant shrugged without a care in the world.
A passerby would have even thought that the situation might have not affected him, but they both knew that wasn''t the case.
"Okay. The enchantment beetles have a certain ability that allows them to make people feel euphoric. I''d exin the science to you, but I''m sure it''ll go right over your head. Anyway, it was called an enchantment because it was clear that it used some kind of energy, however, that was only half the truth.
In reality, it is a mana poison that perctes through the skin-" Ss quickly realized that Grant had narrowed his eyes in confusion.
Sighing, he rephrased "absorbed through the skin, man... It was in the context!"
"Don''t me me for your bad teaching." Grant shrugged.
"Anyway, it goes through the skin and into your blood stream. However, due to it being a mana poison, it also has the capability of moving through mana channels and going into the mana core." Ss turned around and pointed at the diagram he had made the first time he exined this.
"-Which means the people with awakened mana cores are less likely to fall for the thing." Grant tried to finish Ss'' sentence.
"What? No! You idiot! It means that even awakened individuals can be affected by this enchantment. The human body uses all its recourses to fight off something like this.
If the enchantment was through only the bloodstream, cultivation is more than enough to destroy the enchantment in its tracks. That''s why awakened individuals never actually get sick. It''s also the reason you don''t really see them get old. Sure, our lifespans remain the same, but we remain in peak condition for much longer than toki users." Ss sighed and continued-
"Now, back to this. The enchantment effect isn''t actually made to control people. Humans have minds that are much stronger than beasts. Sure, in the wild, it would take a few of them to enchant a weaker beast to give them food, but no humans.
ording to prior research, they remain enchanted as long as the enchantment substance has power. Ites in the form of a powder, so it should stop after the powder leaves their systems. However, this entire city is infested with this powder, and Greed had clearly done something to make it much stronger while also making sure that it doesn''t leave their bodies." Ss was beginning to get frustrated.
"Wouldn''t killing Greed suffice?" Grant asked, yet he quickly realized that Ss wasn''t listening.
''Anyone with a stronger mind should be able to ward off the enchantment quite easily, but it seems like only the stronger individuals were capable doing so...'' Ss thought back to how Alex had warded off the enchantment for much longer than anyone else despite being a child who''s core hadn''t even awakened.
''Who are you, Alex Relicer...'' Ss thought before looking at Grant.
"To answer your question... Maybe. I don''t understand how she does it, but whatever she''s doing, it''s either her or something on her that is allowing her to control the enchantment beetles and the people too." Ss stroked his chin.
"Oh. So she enchanted the enchantment beetles."
"..."
"..."
"I guess she did." Ss shrugged
"So, what''s the n." Grant asked.
"I can''t tell you the n because I don''t have one. I''m going to... Improvise."
"Improvise?"
"Yeah... Like. You know... Go with the flow... Yo."
"..."
"..."
"I don''t like these awkward silences." Ss sighed.
"It''s only awkward when you announce them." Grant shrugged.
"Hmm... Now that I think about it, there might be someone who can help us." Ssmented before another smile bloomed on his face.
However, this time, the smile felt a lot more sinister than it usually did.
***
"What''s up old man." Ss called out as a low jingle reverberated throughout the shop he had just entered.
The scent of sweat, coal, and metal was in the air as both Grant and Ss walked into the room.
"Smells like a new car in here." Ssmented, causing Grant and the man behind the forge to raise a brow.
"Didn''t expect to see you here... With your mind intact." The man chuckled.
He was the cksmith Ss had bought his speedy ring thing from.
"Where are your students?" Ss asked.
"Ha... They didn''te in today... Bastards! I will make sure they are punished when this is all over." The man sighed.
"If it is all over." Ss sighed, making the two of them raise a brow.
"True... I could just move to another city, though I don''t think the kingdom likes me all the much." The cksmith sighed.
"I n on saving the city, so if I''m sessful, you won''t have to think about relocating." Ssmented.
"Kid, you seem strong, but I doubt you can save the city when several generals weren''t able to do so." The cksmith chuckled before a look of coldness shed in his eyes.
"Maybe I should call War." He muttered in a low voice that both Grant and Ss heard due to their improved hearing.
While Ss'' hearing was simply improved because of the mana within his cells, Grant always had natural mana around him that increased all his senses beyond normal human limitations.
"There''s no need to call her... I can do this." Ss sighed before continuing- "Plus, I don''t think brawns are what we need in this situation. Right now we''re up against a maniac with no regard for human life. She''s unpredictable, but she''s also weak. The only thing that makes her as strong is her armor." Ss exined.
"You shouldn''t underestimate armor,
boy." The cksmith chuckled at Ss'' naivety.
Chapter 119 The New Commander [6] - Armor
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"You shouldn''t underestimate enchantments, boy. Especially armor enchantments." The cksmith chuckled at Ss'' naivety.
"Hm?" Ss raised a brow.
"You heard me. You have no idea what you''re talking about. I''m assuming you don''t war armor for that very reason. You don''t understand how precious armor and enchantments are, despite the fact that I''ve given you that ring of yours."
"I bought it." Ss narrowed his eyes.
"At half price. It''s a way to get kids like you to pay more. You get to see first hand how powerful these items are and you be more willing to spend more money on it." The cksmith shrugged. "However, it seemed to have the opposite effect on you."
"Happens when you nearly die to... Uhm... What do you call toki users who can kill sapphire cores?"
"tinum Rank?"
"Yh. That." Ss shrugged while the two looked at him weirdly.
However, after a few seconds of this, the cksmith redirected his gaze at Grant for a few seconds, analyzing him from head to toe before looking at Ss.
"You see you''re friend over here?" The cksmith pointed at Grant.
"Not friends." Ss cut him off.
"I can easily tell he had no idea what his armor is capable of. Honestly, the armor he is wearing is one of the finest armor sets I''ve ever seen. The runemanship is incredible, and the metal the creator of this armor had chosen to wear is extremely rare and expensive. Though, I''ve seen it before when Aleck came in here wearing it..."
"Aleck?"
"The previousmander."
"!!!" Ss couldn''t help but widen his eyes. For a few months there, he had forgotten that themander he had previously killed actually had a name.
"I... See."
"You see, even Aleck was unable to use 20% of the armor''s power. Hell, he couldn''t even activate any of its numerous abilities. However, if he was able to activate even three of them, he would have been unbeatable." The cksmith exined, making Ss frown.
"Why couldn''t he activate them?" Ss asked.
"Because the armor wasn''t made for him. It''s a relic of the past that was supposed to be passed down from heir to heir. Or at least that should have been the case, but clearly something happened at some point." He stroked his beard while Grant could not help but frown.
Was this why he couldn''t activate the armor to its full potential. Was that why it felt like only a small boost?
Grant had seen what kind of person the previousmander became when he used the armor. Even at less than 20%, he could beat every general except War.
"The armor requires something more. it might be your body type or even the fact that you''re not awakened. However, clearly the first owner of this armor had something that both Aleck and you did not have." The cksmith closed his eyes and sighed.
"How strong can a good set of armor make a mage in the ga core?" Ss asked straightforwardly. He did not have time to keep secrets, and even if the man were to ask him why his question was so specific, he didn''t really have to answer him.
"Hmm." The cksmith narrowed his eyes before a small smile perked up the corner of his lips.
"Well, it really depends on many things. Runamanship, materials used, the cores used, the forgemaster''s level of mastery, and much more." The bearded man exined.
"I''m sure there''s a ranking system or something." Ssmented.
"Well, yes there is. Actually, there''s a ranking for each one of those, but that doesn''t matter." He sighed.
"What does matter if the overall grading. Takes all of those into ount and puts a grade on it. The ranks go as follows:
Basic Tier
Intermediate Tier
Advanced Tier
Superior Tier
Monarch Tier
Legendary Tier, and finally.
Mythical" The cksmith continued to exin after seeing Ss'' intrigue. Of course, Grant was in his own world since he already knew most of this, however, his attention was grabbed when he heard thest two tiers.
"I thought the legendary tier didn''t exist, let alone mythical." Grant snorted.
"They do exist. My grandfather had discovered a legendary tier back in his youth. Sure, there isn''t a single cksmith on this continent who can make something of that level, but it''s been clear for a while now that the people of the past were capable of creating such things." The scratched his beard again.
"Just like there isn''t a single diamond core anymore." Ss thought aloud.
"Exactly. However, let''s get back to your question. I can tell you right now that the armor your friend over here is wearing-"
"Not friends"
"Is at the very least a monarch tier, if not higher. Or at least it should be at its full strength. Right now it''s no better than a hunk of metal with amazing durability. At least when Aleck used it, it was probably only at the advanced tier." He ignored both of them and spoke as if he didn''t hear them.
"So, what about the ga core scenario."
"Greed is quite wealthy, so I''d most likely say that her armor is at the very least at the advanced tier, and at most at the pseudo-superior tier." He exined before stroking his beard again.
"I''ve seen her armor, and I can tell you that it''s within that range. And with that kind of power...
"She could have the strength that ranged between pristine amethyst and..." He paused for a moment and furrowed his brows.
"And?" Ss asked with a worried tone.
"And Dull-Sapphire."
"That''s not good... Though, its nothing I''ve never faced before." Ss muttered
"Really. Because I remember hearing you say that you''ve almost died to someone at that level. He was a tinum 1, right? How do you expect to take her on if she''s at the same level as a Dull-Sapphire?" Grant asked with a semi-mocking tone.
"I can do it... After all
Who do you think killed thatmander of yours?"
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Chapter 120 The Rebellion [1] - Eclipse
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A loud and deep sigh echoed throughout the mercenary hall as a woman walked around, tidying up the ce.
For one of the first times since the Greed faction''s creation, the mercenary hall waspletely empty. Only Jessica was inside the hall, and she was doing the routine cleanup.
"Hello, Jessica." A low and could voice entered her ears and made her jolt up in fear. Looking around, she already had her dagger in her hand, ready to stab anything and everything that got too close to her.
However, just when her de was about to sh the person behind her, it suddenly stopped...
No, it was her body that had stopped involuntarily. She couldn''t move a muscle toward the person behind her because he body simply no longer allowed her to.
"Mast-... Sir... What are you doing here?" She forced a smile and took a step back, however, after seeing Ss'' silence, she began to panic.
Sweat dripped down her face before she made a hand sign and spoke-
"All H-Hail Gre-"
"What are you doing?" Ss raised a brow in confusion.
"Greeting you, s-sir." She stuttered, not knowing exactly how to reply to him.
"But you''re not being controlled."
"..."
"..."
"Oh... I''m not brainwashed either, if that was what you were wondering about." Ss crossed his arms while Jessica let out a sigh of relief.
"How have you been?" Ss asked without really looking like he meant it.
He didn''t really care how she was doing, what he wanted from her was a favor.
"I-I''m good. It''s just that... The people have be kind of creepy."
"No shit, sherlock." Ss sighed.
"Sherlock?"
"Nevermind." Ss sighed again before raising a brow.
"Kneel." He ordered, and at that moment, Jessica''s eyes glowed with a shine of green before she was quickly forced onto her knees.
"S-Sir... What are you doing?!" She asked with a beet-red expression as her voice trembled with a tinge of fear.
"p yourself," Ss ordered again, causing her eyes to shine once more before her hand swung to smack her across the face without a single shred of hesitation.
"Hmm. No hesitation... Seems like the cor is still working." Ss thought aloud, yet due to his order, she still couldn''t stand up.
"Oh... return to normal." Ss waved for her, causing her eyes to shine before the restrictions on her body faded away.
''ve cors huh... They''re truly terrifying.''
"What happens if I tell you to kill yourself with your cor on." Ss asked.
"W-What!" She screamed and threw her de as far away from herself as possible.
"Well, that answers my question." Ss stroked his chin. After looking at her life force as well, he could not help but nod. She clearly had the beetle''s enchanting substance inside her, but the ve cor took hold of her mind and body.
The only reason she was still not brainwashed was because she was Ss'' ve. And it wasn''t like this was something only Ss knew... She knew it as well. She was well aware of it, and it was one of the main reasons she was so conflicted
Should she thank him? Who would think the person who enved them? But he did it for a good reason, right?"
"Alright. I need you toe with me." Ss waved for her to follow him, and she did exactly as she was ordered.
***
*Ring Ring*
A bell rang when Ss entered the cksmith''s shop, and when he did, three individuals immediately looked at him. However, the cksmith only nced at him and Jessica for a moment before returning to his work, allowing the sound of ngs to echo throughout the entire shop as he mmed his hammer onto the piece of metal, over and over again.
Ss also nced at the cksmith for a moment before turning around and looking at the two sitting on a bench made out of stone.
Ss could not help but raise a brow after seeing a weirdly handsome man sitting next to Grant, however, after looking at his mana core, and life force, and sensing the pressure, Ss could not help but raise a brow.
"And who are you?" Ss asked before pointing his hand at the young man, however, there was no fear in the young man''s eyes.
''I remember him...'' Ss thought after being reminded of the man who was standing outside of Archie''s office.
The person sitting next to Grant had silver eyes and jet-ck slicked her. He could have probably been a model back on earth, but in this world, looks seemed to be secondary when it came to finding a mate... Or as normal humans call it, a partner.
"He''s an ally of mine. We worked together a few times in the past, and he''s just a little weaker than me. It''s only logical that he would have been able to withstand the enchantment." Grant lightly punched the man next to him on the shoulder. It was clear that they were close... Or at least that''s what Grant thought.
''His eyes aren''t pulsing like the people outside. He''s fine right now, but...'' Ss narrowed his eyes again while using all his senses to make sure what he was sensing was correct.
''He''s weak... Or at least that''s what he want me to think.'' Ss thought after seeing the topaz core in his body, however, there was something different about it.
After his little rampage, his body changed.
He didn''t understand it at first, but over time the changes to his body had be clear by the minute.
Everything about his body had changed from the fluidity of his movements to the amount of strength he could output.
However, that didn''t matter right now. What did matter to his current situation was the increase in the strength of his sensory capabilities.
Everything felt much clearer to him now. He was able to feel and breathe everything around him as if it was a part of him.
In a way, it had be much harder for anyone to sneak up on him. It was one of the reasons he knew Seraphina was following him back when he went to the Judgement faction for the first time.
And right now, he was using all his senses to feel the strength of the person before him, but somehow, he felt something else too.
A mask.
And beyond that mask for apletely different person. However, what caught Ss'' attention was not the person behind the mask, but instead, the mana core of that person.
Because, from what Ss could see, that person had an amethyst core one step away from breaking through and reaching the next core grade.
Yet, there was something holding him back.
''Oh... What did they call this again? A bottleneck?'' Ss thought before muttering a set of words that shocked everyone in the room.
"You''re Eclipse, right?" Ss asked.
"..."
"..."
"..."
"What the hell are you talking about-" Grant was about to shout at Ss, but the young man next to him quickly stopped him.
"How did you know?" Eclipse asked.
"I remember seeing you when I left Archie''s office. When I looked at you, I couldn''t help but feel like I had met you before, though, I couldn''t put my finger on it... But that is to be expected, right? Especially when I was trying to remember someone with apletely different face." Ss shrugged while Jessica simply blinked in confusion from behind him.
"Yeah... I remember that too." Eclipse chuckled.
"Then, why are you here?" Ss asked.
"I''m here to help you."
"I don''t trust you."
"..."
"..."
"Fair." Eclipse shrugged. "How can you trust someone when they are always wearing a mask?"
Eclipse''s hand went up to his face before he grabbed onto it and slowly began to pull.
And as he began to pull off, everyone in the room quickly understood what was happening.
"An artifact?" Ss muttered under his breath while raising a brow.
"Yes... An artifact." Eclipse spoke before the sound of cracks and meet mming against meat entered everyone''s ears.
No one really flinched when they saw Eclipse''s body begin to morph as all the bones in his body shattered and rebuilt themselves, but eventually, his body stabilized.
And what stood before them was no longer a young man. Instead, it was an older man that looked like he might have been double the age of the cksmith.
"You''re... Old." Ssmented when seeing his long grey hair and beard.
"Hoho... I''m much older than you think." He chuckled, now even his voice was different.
"..."
It was much raspier than before, while his body had be much skinnier too.
However, Grant remained silent the entire time with a stupified expression on his face that made Ss want to punch him.
After a few moments though, Grant regained his ability to think before an expression filled with fury appeared on his face.
''As expected.'' Ss sighed.
Grant began tosh out at Eclipse for a while, so Ss simply ordered Jessica to not move from her ce before walking toward Grant and Eclipse.
Stepping in front of both of them, Ss let out the full strength of his killing intent and pointed it at Grant.
''This might be good for us.'' Ss thought while looking at Eclipse now.
"I need you to exin to me what happened. Don''t cut any corners. I want to know everything."
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Chapter 121 The Rebellion [2] - Preparations [1]
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Eclipse went on to exin everything that had happened between when this whole thing began, to the moment he entered the cksmith''s shop.
ording to him, Greed had found the weak spot of every general, even himself. Using the information she had found about them, she chose to ckmail them or threaten them with the thing that made them weak.
For some reason, Eclipse was adamant about the fact that he wasn''t going to tell Ss about these weaknesses, but in reality, Ss already knew half of them.
After all, Greed was not the only one keeping tabs on everyone. Ss had been investigating all the generals from the very start. The only person he couldn''t get proper information on was Eclipse, something that was no longer the case.
He had information on Archie too, however, unlike Eclipse who was essentially a nk sheet of paper, Archie hid in in sight, making all his information readily avable, yet anyone with a trained eye could tell that it was simply a cover-up to hide everything real about him.
From what Eclipe had told him, not even Greed was able to find anything on him, which was probably one of the main reasons he was able to even go up against her in the first ce.
However, a few things didn''t add up.
Greed was terrifyingly silent about everything she had been doing all along. Even Archie, who probably had eyes and ears all over the city and even outside it, wasn''t able to see her ning.
She had been nning for this for a very long time. The amount of enchantment residue within the people was enough evidence of that. She had somehow tainted every single thing the people of the city needed to survive.
"What did she threaten you with?" Ss finally asked after the long conversation the two just had. Throughout the entire conversation, the sound of loud bangs could be heard in the background as the cksmith kept mming his hammer onto a hot-white metal.
Grant was still angry, but right now he was simply sitting on the stone bench, looking at the ground with enough intensity that it felt like it might have actually bored holes into it.
"She has something that means quite a lot to me." He muttered before looking outside with a solemn expression.
"Then, why did youe here? Are you not scared that she will destroy the thing she took from you?" Ss asked with a raised brow.
"I quickly realized that, depsite following her orders, she most likely wouldn''t have returned it in the first ce. She''s nning to do something big, and she doesn''t need us around to do it. She just needs to make sure we''re not against her until she finishes whatever she''s doing." Eclipse exined, causing Ss to nod wryly.
Despite Ss'' trust issues, everything told him that the man in front of him was telling the truth. Everything from the small movements in his life force, to even the mana inside of him. It all told Ss that he was telling the truth, but even then, Ss couldn''t be sure.
The man before him was old... Really old. What were the chances that he was experienced enough to fool the likes of him? Ss was only in his mid-50s. The man before him was probably in his 90s if not more.
After finishing his talk, Ss walked over to the cksmith and waited until he took a break.
Throughout it all, Ss watched as the man continued to m his hammer onto the smoldering-white metal, yet, despite it seeming random and almost barbaric at first, Ss quickly understood the precision and care that went behind each strike.
The cksmith himself didn''t have an awakened mana core. It was still as filled with impurities as the rest of the unawakened cores on Gilea.
At first, Ss was confused as to how he was even producing the mana to create and embed the runes onto the things he crafted, but after scanning him from head to toe, he quickly understood how.
''The hammer.'' Ss thought while looking at the dull-emerald crystals within the sides of the hammer. However, unlike Keira''s staff, these crystals were real. Ss could immediately tell the moment he saw them.
They were on a different level. Despite being detached from its origin, it still released a terrifying pressure that made Ss feel like the very air was heavier around it.
Anyway, mana would circte around the hammer as if it was circting within the body of a living being.
Using will alone, the cksmith would send a rune toward the front of the hammer, causing it to shine on that very surface for a few seconds before being immediately transferred toward the thing it was hitting.
With his other hand, he would swerve and weave his fingers above the runes he had created, causing them to connect through small lines that allowed mana to travel through them. Eventually, they all connected near the crystal that powered the piece of equipment.
Other than that, Ss didn''t really understand the rest. The runes wereplicated, butpared to the life equation, they were nothing. The problem Ss was having with them was the fact that he hadn''t actually learned about them before, so he couldn''t understand what was happening beyond what he already knew.
"How''s the production of my axes going?" Ss asked with a grateful smile.
"You owe me big time for this, kid. I used my own batch of sapphire cores for this." The cksmith sneered.
"They''re only a few solid-sapphire cores." Ssmented, yet when he saw the expression on the cksmith''s face, he could not help but take a step back.
"I didn''t mean-"
After that, Ss suffered the wrath of a tired cksmith, who apparently, wasn''t tired enough to not give him a 30-minute lecture about appreciating things.
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Chapter 122 The Rebellion [3] - Preparations [2]
?
A few days passed, yet to Eclipse, Grant, Ss, Jessica, and even the cksmith, it felt like an eternity.
Throughout those days, Ss learned that the cksmith''s name was Virack. To Ss, it sounded Viking, but to the rest, it seemed like a normal name.
However, there was still one person know one knew the name of, but to them, that didn''t really matter.
Eclipse''s biggest secret was his real face, not his name. And even though some of the others were still a little hesitant to trust him, after talking with him for several days, Ss quickly realized that Eclipse was a trustworthy man.
Ss knew a liar when he saw one. After all, in a way, he was the biggest liar of all.
Or, at least he was on his. Maybe someone beat him to the chase on Gilea.
''I''m a different person now.'' Ss sighed after thinking about his previous life. He was a horrible person, and he knew that. He wasn''t sure if he was still a horrible person, but deep down he would have liked to think that he changed.
At the same time, aftering to Gilea, Ss tried to find things to me for his actions back on Earth. Hell, even back when he was in his 7-year seclusion, he tried to do the same. He tried to me everyone and everything, from all his parents to the thing that thing inside of him.
However, in the end, the moment he would look down at his hands, he would remember that, despite the aid of that thing inside him...
The most horrific things he had done were while he was awake, living, and conscious.
And the worst part of it all was...
Despite hearing the screams of the people he hurt every time he closed his eyes, he didn''t feel anything.
He didn''t feel remorse.
He didn''t feel any guilt.
Hell, he could feel his mouth twitching as a smile tried tugging at his lips every time he thought of some of the people he had murdered...
Murdered in cold blood.
"Are you okay?" A feminine voice entered Ss'' ears, making him finally open his eyes.
He was currentlyying on the stone bench inside Virack''s shop.
Raising his hand into the air, he looked at it for a moment before letting out a brief and subtle smile.
''Still dripping with blood, huh.'' He thought and looked at the person beside him.
There was Jessica, leaning her back on his bench andying her head next to his.
Clearly, she was trying to rest as well. Well, the following days were going to be tiring for all of them.
Ss didn''t want to go back to his room since Greed would most likely find him there. He could only imagine the horrifying things she might try on him, and if she did even try to touch him, he was worried that he''d attack her on the spot.
He was strong, but right now, he didn''t have a weapon that could prate her armor, let alone one that could hurt her.
That was exactly what Virack was forging.
A weapon capable of hurting the likes of Greed, even with all the armor she was wearing.
Ss had already told him that he could use all the elements, and due to that information, Virack decided to create a weapon with a in mana core embedded into it.
Of course, Virack himself didn''t understand how this worked, but he had expertise when it came to situations like these.
In the past, he worked for one of the major academies, and one of the requirements for the weapons he created was that they had to be made with a in mana core that doesn''t have an elemental affinity in it.
This was for the reason that, using elemental ones would exclude many of the people without the element being used.
It was far too expensive to craft the same weapon 4 to 5 times with a different mana core in it, so they chose to go for the in mana core method instead.
"Hmm." The sound of Virack''s hammer mming against the heated metal entered Ss'' ears again, but this time, there were more...
Looking over, Ss saw something he never thought he''d see in his life.
There Virack was, with four extra armsing off his torso with their hammers mming against the metal as well.
"It''s amazing, right?" Jessica spoke again while not even looking at Ss. Her head was resting next to his arm, and for some reason, Ss felt the urge to pat her.
"Mhm." He simply replied.
He had quickly realized that the arms were made out of toki. There were white and translucent, like the color of mana, but at the same time-...
''Hmm. Wait, if I''m cultivating with mana, doesn''t that mean that my cultivation speed should be 4 times faster than the speed of others? And if that''s the case, is that why people with light affinities usually cultivate much faster than normal awakeners?'' Ss thought, before looking around the room.
Grant wasn''t there, but Eclipse was. Actually, this was one of the first times he had seen Eclipse stick around for more than an hour or two, since from Greed''s perspective, he was still on her side.
''No... I should test thister... For now though.''
"How long until the weapon is finished?" Ss asked when seeing Virack beginning to examine his work.
He clearly wasn''t done yet, however, it felt like he was very close to being done.
Virack didn''t reply immediately, however, after a little more than minute, he finally answered.
"Only a few more hours."
"When''s the execution?" Ss asked while looking at Jessica.
Despite being with him a lot of the time, she was still Greed''s right hand woman. Sure, Greed almost killed her when she sent the assassins for him, but she was still one of the closest people to her.
"The day after tomorrow. Are you sure you have enough time to get rid of the enchantment by then?" Jessica asked with a slightly worried tone.
She had already asked Ss why they couldn''t just simply leave without Greed noticing, but Ss shut down the idea.
She didn''t understand why, but there was a certain glint in his eyes that made her shiver.
"Hopefully." Ss muttered, however, Eclipse who had been trained his whole life to understand people and collect information about them, knew that Ss was currently wearing a mask.
Despite seeming worried on the outside, Eclipse saw through the mask, and what was on the other side was not worry...
It was confidence, yet even beyond that, Eclipse saw something else.
A single me, the size of a candle...
Burning with the heat of a thousand suns.
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Chapter 123 The Rebellion [4] - Greeds Goal
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"How much do you want?" A young teenager, no older than 16, asked while looking at a certain ck-haired feline. However, despite what her ears might have suggested, the rest of her body looked as human as any other, with the exception of her tail that swung behind her.
"Me? Let me think. What would a girl like me want?" She tapped on her lips while thinking before looking at the boy beside her.
He was surrounded by only two guards, yet from the aura they were released, she could tell that she wouldn''t have the ability to take them on.
And even then, it wasn''t like they were extremely strong. Sure, their power was magnificent, but what caught her eye the entire time was the armor they were wearings, as well as their sheathed weapons.
"How about this, Mr. Prince. You know that I''m quite the greedy cat, so I don''t think it wille as a shock to you that I would want money, right?" She asked before getting ufortably close.
The guards ced their hands on their des and were going to decapitate her without a second, however, they saw their Prince raise his hand and tell them to stand back.
The prince then extended his hand forward and caressed her face for a moment before letting out a small smile.
The guards quickly eased up, yet they both watched Greed carefully. Despite the Darkless organization being a mostly secretive one, that was only the case when it came to the public.
Royals, nobles, and many other factions knew who and what the darkless organization was, and they always had a few people keep an eye on them at all times to see if they were going to be a threat to them.
Of course, the organization was nothingpared to the kingdom, however, certain individuals made it hard for them to attack it despite how much of a thorn at their side it had been over thest couple of decades.
The organization didn''tmit anyrge-scale crimes.
Sure they would wipe a vige off the map every now and then, but that wasn''t any cause for the kingdom to release a full-scale attack on them.
However, that wasn''t the reason they hadn''t attacked yet.
The reason was because of a few individuals they thought could deal more damage to the kingdom than the kingdom could deal to them, and one of those people was Greed.
Sure, at first sight, she might seem harmless... Maybe even trustworthy, but not only was she a vixen, but she was also extremely tricky, just like a fox.
It was almost ironic. She was supposed to be from the feline tribe of the beastkin, yet she had all the characteristics of a fox.
"What is it that you want?" The prince asked while Greed quickly sat on the table and looked at him with a seductive look.
"Uhm... I don''t know. Maybe..." She faced to the side as a blush ran up her cheeks, however, her eyes were still locked with his.
"Maybe, I can be your wife?" She asked, and at that moment, the prince''s eyes shone with a glint of blue mixed with gold.
"Hmmm. For this organization?" He asked while stroking his chin, yet despite his act, in reality, he had already mentally epted her offer, and she knew that.
"Do you want more?" She asked before tilting her head to the side.
''Want more?!'' He widened his eyes. He was sure that he would have wanted to marry her even if she didn''t ask him to. He couldn''t take his eyes off her. He couldn''t understand it. When he entered the room a few minutes ago, he felt a small big of attraction toward her, yet it was nothing big.
However, now he could not help but feel like he wanted to get on one knee and ask her to marry him right there and then.
"I''m just worried about War¡ What will she think if she found out that her organization was sold to the kingdom?" Even though his mind was filled with thoughts that probably shouldn''t be uttered, he could not help but shudder when he mentioned war.
He could still remember the stare she gave him thest time she was on the continent. It was when she wanted to meet with his father, the king of the Xylem kingdom. He was just a kid back then and thought he was all mighty and powerful because he was a prince, but she showed him what it meant to be weak with a single stare.
He even had nightmares after that incident. Nightmares that went on for months until they had to finallymission one of the best healers in the kingdom to create a spell that would stop those nightmares.
"Oh, her? Don''t mind. She''s off in the demon continent goofing around with the locals." Greed chuckled before caressing his face one more time.
"So what will it be, Mr. Prince?" She asked, causing his eyes to shine once more.
"I-I agree!" She shouted.
"But, your highness¡"
"No buts! We''re doing it!" He shouted again.
"You''re letting your hormones think for you! It would be better to inform his majesty before doing anything rash-"
"Shut up you damn imbecile. Don''t make me strip you of your title! Remember, you''re nothing without your armor, and I can take it away with the snap of my fingers!" He shouted, causing both of them to step back.
"S-So! Is that all you want? Marriage?" He asked with an excited tone while rubbing his hands together.
"Well, I''d also like it if you were to make me a citizen of the kingdom, a noble, and maybe a little bit ofnd of my own? That would be nice." She giggled.
"Anything for you, my love!" He shouted, however, he was quickly cut off by a knock on the door.
"Greed¡" A young handsome man with jet-ck hair and piercing silver eyes walked into the room and looked at the prince for a moment before looking at Greed.
"It''s madam Greed to you, Eclipse." She chuckled and crossed her arms before jumping off the table she was sitting on.
"Madam¡ Greed." He repeated.
"Yes?"
"The execution is in order. 5 hours are remaining before it begins." He exined
"That''s good. How''s Arlem doing?" She asked with a slight smirk.
"He''s¡ You''ve been a little hard on him, madam." Eclipse muttered, yet she still heard him.
"That''s good. Just like he did to Aleck, I did to him. I found a ring weakness in him, and I took advantage of it just like any good person would." She giggled again.
"..."
"Do you have an update on my favorite pet?" She asked, causing the Prince to frown.
However, just like an obedient dog, he didn''t say anything either.
"You mean¡ Game?"
"Yes."
"Well, as you know, he''s beenpromised just like the rest of the city. I assumed you were bored of him¡" Eclipse replied with a little worry in his voice.
"Oh! Well, I''ve been keeping him around, after all, he''s going to be my grand price after all of this is over." She looked up with a heartful sigh, but the Prince was looking even more angry now.
Or was it¡ Jealousy?
Jealousy that someone other than himself could catch her attention?
He felt like punching a wall out of anger, but he quickly contained himself.
He didn''t want to look bad in front of Greed, after all.
"Bring him here¡ I want him to watch with me from the top as we execute Arlem. Call the rest of the generals too, as well as¡ What''s his name? The one that was going to get the Judgement title." She asked.
"Grant Evershield?" Eclipse raised a brow while she snapped her fingers as if saying "bingo"
"Yeah, him! Bring him too."
"Understood." Eclipse bowed deeply before turning around and leaving the room.
Greed did the same a few minutester, leaving the Prince and his guards alone in the room.
They didn''t want to say anything because they didn''t want to lose their jobs, but if the king, or even worse, the queen found out about them stepping aside and letting this happen, they would be facing something much worse than simply being stripped of their role and rank.
"Prince¡ Please reconsider."
"What did I tell you?" The prince spoke in a threatening tone.
"But, you have to understand. She''s manipting you. She just wants to be a part of the royal family so she could have more power!" The other guard exined.
"No! She loves me!" The Prince shouted before pushing them out of his way.
"And I''ll prove it to all of you! I''ll prove that she has a heart that only belongs to me!" He gritted his teeth before remembering that name she said.
"Game¡ You won''t take her from me."
***
"Achuuuu!" Ss sneezed before rubbing his nose.
''A." Jessica voiced as the urge to squeeze Ss'' cheeks began to overtake her instincts.
"Bless you." Eclipse raised a brow. He hadn''t seen many awakened humans sneeze before, let alone one as strong as Ss.
"Thanks." Ss smiled at Eclipse before ring at Jessica.
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Chapter 124 The Rebellion [5] - The Execution
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"How are you doing?" Greed asked before leaning onto a wall while looking at a certain person stuck in a cage.
"Does it matter¡" Archie looked up from the ground and stared at Greed.
He was wearing nothing but a piece of cloth that barely covered his privates. At the same time, he had two bracelets on his wrists, shining with different runes every second. At the same time, there was a visible ve cor on his neck that didn''t shine at all. However, the runes were still visible as they were caved into the cor itself.
"Even now, you''re attempting to escape." Shemented with a slight smirk, yet despite expecting him to reply to her, he simply stayed quiet.
"Ugh. You''ve be so boring. Can''t you liven up a little?" She snarled.
"What''s the point of livening up when I''m going to be dead in a few hours."
"Minutes." She corrected him with a proud expression.
"And to think I ever trusted you¡ Any of you¡" He sighed.
"Oh yeah¡ What did you say we were?" She leaned in with a teasing smile before a glint of coldness shone within her eyes.
"A family?" She asked, her tone turning cold as well, causing Archie to look up again with a raised brow.
"What a load of bullshit. We''re not family. We''repanions at best. Its that kind of thinking that made you weak, and if Ss ever chooses to go against me in the near future, unless he changes, he will end up just like you." She snickered with a tone of mockery.
",,,"
"What''s wrong? Cat got your tongue?" She cackled.
"Let''s just get this over with." He sighed and began to walk over to the door of the jail cell.
Sticking her finger inside the door''s keyhole, she quickly opened it and stepped to the side, allowing Archie to step out of the jail cell.
"What do you think of my toki dampening cuffs?" She patted him on the shoulder before looking down at the cuffs around his wrist.
"It''s an artifact I found a couple years ago while scavenging the remains of one of the cities destroyed in the demon wars."
"..."
"Man¡ It must feel horrible to be betrayed by everyone you knew and loved. Especially that red-head. You really fumbled the bag with her, haven''t you? All those maniption tactics you do on all of us must have taken a great toll on her mind for her to betray you so easily."
"..."
"And to think she could love a man like you¡ I wonder what she would think if she knew about the execution¡" Greed giggled while Archie widened his eyes.
"She doesn''t-"
"She does¡"
"What?"
"I was ying with you." She giggled again before poking his side.
"Hmm?" Looking down at where her hand was, he could not help but jolt as a piercing pain shot through his body.
Her ws were extended and poking into his side. At the same time, he felt like there was some kind of liquid entering his body.
"Got to make sure you don''t awaken something in yourst moments of survival... The human body does tend to be weird that way."
It only took them a few more minutes to get to where they needed to be, and when Archie finally felt the light of the cave''s gemstones shining through the doorway, he could not help but squint his eyes.
His vision finally began to clear up, and after looking around a for a moment, he felt a certain pain in his heart.
There they were. 3 generals standing next to each other, not daring to look at him in the eyes.
Their faces were filled with nothing but shame, but he expected that. What kind of person wouldn''t feel shame in a situation like this.
On the other side, however, were two individuals, one tall with ck and amber eyes, and the other short with white hair and emerald-green eyes.
They were Grant and Ss, but there was something different about one of them.
Ss'' eyes were empty. Archie had already seen him trying to fight against the enchantment before, but just like he had expected, it was not enough. Having a strong mind was not enough. They had to be strong as well.
"Honey¡ When will you be done with these fools? I''d like to cement our marriage." A voice entered Archie''s ears from behind him, yet by the time he had looked back, he already knew who that voice belonged to.
"Oh? I feel like a remember you from-" The prince scratched his chin while looking Archie in the eyes, yet he was cut off as a rage-filled roar left Archie''s mouth.
"You betrayed us for the kingdom!" Archie looked at Greed, yet all she did to answer his question was giggle.
Death and Life both widened their eyes while looking at Greed.
"W-What''s the meaning of this¡" Life asked with both fear and fury in her eyes.
"You said you''d better the organization." Death spoke with a low tone, yet it resonated with something deadly.
The prince stared at them¡ No. He stared at Death specifically before narrowing his eyes slightly and letting out a sneer.
"Tell me when you''re done. I''ll be in your chambers." The prince turned around and left with both of his guards.
"Okay darling!" She waved at him and turned around to meet the stares of the two generals.
"And I suggest you both step down¡ Let me remind you-" Suddenly, a sense of dread began to form around Greed as her armor began to activate.
The mana cores within her armor turned before shining, with a brilliant light, however, despite their emerald green color, there was something else that illuminated them as well.
A neon crimson light in the form of small, almost invisible threads.
"That, despite being weaker than you, my armor can more than makeup for the difference in strength." She muttered, yet her voice reached their ears as if she was right next to them.
"And let me remind you of something else¡" Her eyes stared into their souls with so much intensity that it felt like she had reached inside them and begun to squeeze the life force.
"Love¡ I have your mother¡ And Lock-" She took a single step forward and appeared in front of Death with so much speed that none of them could even react. At the same time, she pointed toward the hallway that the prince had gone down.
"I have your brother."
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Chapter 125 The Rebellion [6] - Love
?Proxy Connection Failed!
Proxy Connection Failed!
Hearing her words, Death gritted his teeth and took a step back, while Life looked at the ground as she held tears back.
"Now. Shut up as I do my thing." She sneered and turned around before walking toward the edge of the tform they were currently on.
Before, Archie only knew that they were really high up, but now that the tform was being lowered, he understood where they were.
"Eclipse. Put him into ce." She asked before tapping on a crystal that floated in front of her.
Suddenly, all the crystals throughout the city shone before showing the image of Greed''s face on it.
Huge crystals flew into the air and did the exact same thing, and before they knew it, the tform had reached its designated area.
They were floating above the center of the city.
"Hail Greed! Hail Greed! Hail Greed!" The crowds suddenly began to let out a synchronized chant. Not a single person was offbeat, and right now, almost everyone in the city was watching.
Eclipse quickly stepped forward and grabbed Archie by the neck before cing him beside Greed''s feet, forcing him to stare directly at the ground before connecting his cuffs behind his back.
"Greetings citizens of darkless!" She shouted, causing everyone in the city to immediately stop chanting.
"Today, a traitorys before you with his head to the ground and his arms behind his back!" She announced while pointing at Archie. A collecting gasp went through the crowd before the sound of mutters washed over them. However, they immediately stopped the moment Greed opened her mouth again.
"He not only betrayed the city and its people, but he betrayed me, and the trust I had in him." She raised her hand toward her eyes and wiped a single teardrop.
"After seeing me be the newmander, he tried to kill me¡ He wanted to kill me because he was jealous that I got the seat and he didn''t. H-H-He was my best friend!" She began balling her eyes out, and at the same time, a wave of killing intent suddenly poured out of the crowd and was pointed at Archie.
"Off with his head! Off with his head! Off with his head!" They collectively shouted before a disturbing smirk perked up the corner of Greed''s lips.
"You think I should kill him?" She asked with more joy than sadness, yet the crowd was already too blind to see it.
"Off with his head! Off with his head! Off with his head!"
"Okay¡ Then, who''s better to do the job than the new Judgement himself!"
Turning around, she looked eyes at Ss, yet his eyes remained dead despite clearly looking at her.
At first, she was worried that maybe Ss was acting like he waspromised so he wouldn''t be singled out. However, after looking at him through Archie''s mask, she quickly understood that her fears were for naught.
After all, his eyes were pulsing just like everyone else''s. Sure, her eyes and ears hadn''t heard anything about him in a while, but Eclipse found him pretty easily so it was probably fine.
Taking a step toward Ss, she looked him in the eyes and gently grabbed his face.
"Make me proud." She smiled at him the same way one would smile at a pet.
"Yes¡ Madam." Ss replied without any tone in his voice. He sounded almost robotic.
Walking away from her, Ss grabbed one of the two axes on his back and stepped beside Archie.
Archie, on the other hand, tried to look into Ss'' eyes one more time, however, Eclipse, who was still in his young form, grabbed his face and mmed it into the ground.
''When did he get those?'' Greed could not help but tilt her head slightly, but after seeing how well-forged the axe was, she felt a tinge of excitement run through her like a lightning bolt.
''You''re bing stronger at such a fast pace.''
"Any final words?" Greed appeared next to Archie in the blink of an eye and asked.
''This is it¡" Archie thought.
Everything he had worked for¡ Everything he did¡
From the moment Aleck had taken him in to be the Architect, he had dedicated his life to making the organization better.
He didn''t make connections without thinking about it in the long term. He didn''t do an action without thinking of its consequences for the organization.
All he thought about was darkless, and for the rest of his life, that would have most likely remained his main goal.
However, that all changed the moment he met Love Sinir, also known as Life¡
But she wasn''t Life back then. She was just a random girl who was slightly older than him.
At first, he tried to ignore it, but eventually at a certain point, he epted it. He epted that he had fallen in love¡ With Love.
Back then, he was a broken man. He had nothing to live for other than work, and at that point, he had been the Architect for almost five years.
She changed that. She changed his goals and made him into a better man. He didn''t know why he had fallen for her, but in the end, his love for her was toxic.
He loved her more than anything on Gilea but at the same time, he didn''t want to lose her so he manipted her.
He knew that at some point along their journeys, she had fallen in love with him as well, and so he took advantage of it. By manipting her, he thought that he could keep her safe from the truth, and at the same time, by keeping her at an arm''s distance at all times, he thought he could keep her safe¡ From himself.
But in the end, his love for her was his downfall.
It made him blind to what was happening.
And so, when she betrayed him in front of his very eyes, he felt like his heart had copsed into itself.
And now¡ Now she was standing there, doing nothing as he was about to be executed.
"Final words?" He repeated her words before chuckling.
"Nah¡ I''m done with this world." He smiled.
"Very well." Greed turned to Ss and smiled once more.
Appearing beside him, she leaned in and whispered- "Off with his head."
Archie turned his head to the right, but this time Eclipse didn''t stop him.
His eyes locked with Life''s for a moment before a smile blossomed on his face.
And with that smile, he mouthed the following words.
''I love you¡''
Ss'' axe tore through the air in an instant, shing toward Archie''s neck, however, in thest moment, something happened.
*Swoosh*
A beam of golden light suddenly shot through the air and aimed for Greed''s head.
"Hmm?" Looking to the side, Greed flicked her wrist and swatted the beam to the side nonchntly, however, when she saw who had shot at her, she could not help but let out a smile.
Yet, this one didn''t reach her eyes.
"You stupid bitch-!!!" Her eyes suddenly widened as the threat of death loomed over her head, and before she could even react to what was happening, the sound of wind being torn apart reverberated in her ear before an axe ripped into her throat.
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Chapter 126 The Rebellion [7] - 4 Vs 1
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The sharp de of the axe dug a centimeter deep before stopping.
This would have killed most people if it wasn''t dealt with immediately, but Ss knew that he wasn''t going against a normal person.
Hell, he wasn''t even going up against a human.
He was up against a beastkin with armor that he could only dream of having.
After reaching one centimeter deep, Ss quickly realized that the resistance was bing too strong, so without hesitating, he pulled his axe back, but even then, he was forced to use both of his hands.
However, as he pulled his arm back, he quickly realized that there was resistance in the other direction as if all her neck muscles were working together to grab onto the axe and stop him from pulling it out.
However, Ss'' raw power was far stronger than anything Greed could have done with her neck muscles alone, so with one good pull, the axe came out of her neck before.
Feeling somethinging from his right, Ss ducked, allowing the wed hands to pass right above him without hurting a hair on his body.
''Damnit... I panicked.'' Ss thought while gritting his teeth.
He was supposed to activate his axe''s active skill when it was in the opponent''s body, however, right now it seemed like that wouldn''t be possible until the next time he hit her.
He knew that hitting her again would be hard, however, in this fight, he was not the only opponent Greed had to deal with.
*Swoosh*
A sizzling wind of air hit Greed''s face as she tilted her head to the right to avoid the golden light that had shot toward her intending to burn right through her head.
Despite Greed being weaker than most of the generals, her instincts were honed, and her beast body allowed her to take on people with the ability to manipte and control toki to their will.
It was the reason why, despite having a Ga core, she was still considered to be stronger than Life in the public rankings. Of course, every general had a well-guarded secret about their strength... They all had trump cards, and while Life''s trump care was the use of light magic in an offensive manner, Greed''s one was her equipment.
"Love... You never seem to disappoint me." Greed sighed, her voice sounding gurgled as blood entered her airways. Seeing her in such a state, Ss wondered how she could even speak since her vocal cords were probably destroyed, yet in the next instant, he found himself dealing with a bigger problem.
Tapping the center of her chest, green runes began to light up all over her armor, and at a speed that the eye could see, everyone watched as her neck healedpletely, not even leaving a single mark behind.
"Shit." Life cursed while Ss jumped back a few meters.
However, while Ss was moving back, there was someone else who was charging forward...
Or at least, that''s what they thought he had done.
Appearing behind greed was a figure cloaked in ck.
Death no longer had his positive persona on and was now deadly serious.
His de suddenly left its scabbard and flew through the air with a whistle, however, just like with the beam of light, Greed dodged it without exerting too much effort.
At the same time, her hand shot forth with all the power and speed she could muster, and within an instant, her hand had passed right through Death''s head.
Yet, she quickly realized the mistake she had just made.
She tried to retract her head, yet Death''s other hand grabbed her by the wrist and held her in ce.
At the same time, his de cut through the air like a bolt of lightning and aimed for one of the only parts of her body that weren''t blocked by her armor. Her head.
As Death''s de sliced through the air with lightning speed, aimed directly at Greed''s exposed head, she could sense the impending danger.
Acting swiftly, she summoned her inner beastkin reflexes, her body transforming into a blur of motion. She strongarmed through Death''s grasp, narrowly evading the lethal strike.
With a confident smirk, Greed swiftly retaliated, her ws swiping through the air toward Death''s vulnerable form. But Death was not easily caught off guard. He utilized his phasing ability, allowing Greed''s ws to pass harmlessly through his body.
As her attacks met nothing but empty air, a sense of frustration crept into Greed''s eyes.
"Damn it." Ss muttered to himself.
He was definitely feeling like something was wrong. Like he couldn''t tap into his full strength for a reason that still remained unknown to him.
Looking at her every movement, Ss was slightly mesmerized by the flexibility and grace that she moved with. It felt like he was watching one of those Marvel movies before the franchise died out, but this was real life.
"Fuck it." Ss muttered before flicking his wrist, creating a blue magic circle and summoning a torrent of water around him before shaping it into powerful currents that surged towards Greed.
The force of the water threatened to overwhelm her, aiming to bind her movements and give hispanions an opening.
However, Greed''s agility and mastery of her beastkin instincts allowed her to adapt quickly. Sure, she wasn''t old per se to the point where she would have been experiencing enough to overwhelm her enemies through sheer wisdom and experience, however, she had been trained from the moment of her birth to be the person she was today.
With a graceful leap, she evaded the oing water andnded on a nearby tform, her eyes gleaming with a mix of cunning and arrogance.
While Ss continued his assault, Eclipse seized the opportunity to strike. With a swift and calcted movement, he lunged towards Greed, his fists channeling the power of years of experience.
Eclipse''s blows were precise and measured, each strike aimed at exploiting the smallest of openings in Greed''s defenses.
But Greed''s armor, forged with superior craftsmanship, provided formidable protection. Eclipse''s attacks nced off the sturdy ting, leaving only minor scratches, that could have been easily wiped off, in their wake. Greed smirked, taunting Eclipse with her invulnerability.
Meanwhile, Life, feeling the urgency of the situation, tapped into her light magic.
Golden radiance emanated from her, and with a flick of her wrist, she created countless magic circles and unleashed a barrage of golden bolts of light toward Greed.
The bolts crackled through the air, seeking to pierce through her defenses.
Chapter 127 The Rebellion [8] - Going Solo
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Greed''s agility once again proved to be her saving grace. She twisted and turned, her movements are fluid and graceful, dodging the goldensers with remarkable finesse. The bolts exploded harmlessly against the surrounding environment, leaving Greed untouched.
The battle continued for a couple of minutes, yet to every one of them, a second felt like an eternity.
A second was the difference between life and death. One wrong move and they could beying on the floor with a puddle of blood pooling under them.
They all knew that, and that''s why they were being careful.
At the same time, they had to make sure that they were, at the very least, overwhelming her with a torrent of attacks.
For now, they had to make sure that she didn''t give the order for all of the people of the city to kill themselves.
At the same time, even though they would have liked to have Archie''s abilities on their side, there was a small problem.
Right now he was powerless, but removing the cuffs would give him his power back.
However, he had a ve cor on his neck, so removing the cuffs wouldn''t work in their favor. At the same time, they couldn''t remove the cor since, from what Ss understood, removing it forcefully without the right procedures in ce could damage the person''s life force and even turn them into a vegetable.
While Ss, Life, Death, and Eclipse attacked over and over again with the hopes that she would eventually get tired, Greed showcased her mastery ofbat and her uncanny ability to adapt to her opponents'' tactics. Despite theirbined efforts, she stood strong, her armor seemingly imprable.
Ss, now witnessing the extent of Greed''s power, knew that they needed a different approach.
Her armor was strong. Very strong. Almost too strong. It was definitely in the Advanced tier. Virack had told Ss that Gran''t armor was most likely in the king tier if not higher at its peak. However, right now Grant''s armor didn''t stand a chance against Greed''s.
Even if he had it, Ss doubted he would be able to activate it as much as Aleck, themander. At the same time, Grant wasn''t very willing to give his armor to Ss.
''Speaking of Grant... Where is that bastard!'' Ss inwardly roared beforending on one of the buildings.
The right had long since entered the cities, yet the n was still not in motion.
Jessica was stillpleting *it*, so for now, they had to do everything they could until *it* was finished.
Looking at the battle urring before him, Ss realized something.
Even though he wasn''t there to attack Greed, they were doing a little better than he would have liked.
They had much more chemistry without him being there to help them, and so far it had been doing wonders.
Of course, at the same time, they hadn''t really gotten past the outer shell.
For some reason, Greed didn''t seem to own a helmet, so the entire time she had been weaving and blocking all the attacks that were aimed at her head while letting her body absorb the rest since they couldn''t get through the armor.
However, Ss could tell that something was weird about the armor. It felt like, every time they hit it, the runes were shining a little faster, and a little brighter than before.
The mana pulsing from the armor was stronger too... As if every attack thatnded on her was being absorbed. Though, it wasn''t being used as energy for her tond stronger attacks, since it wasn''t being distributed...
Which could only mean one thing.
''Son of a bitch.''
However, he was toote.
Greed waited until they were all close enough, and when they had finally reached a certain distance, she let it all out in one fabulous disy of power.
The generals were quickly shot in opposite directions as the wave of mana came out of her armor and destroyed everything within a 35-meter radius.
Cursing himself, Ss took a step forward, a bloody aura exploding out of him as he channeled all mana through his body. mes enveloped and began to dance across his axes, their heat intensifying with each passing moment.
Without hesitation, he let out a war cry.
However, this war cry was not normal.
The color around Ss'' neck changed a little, while mana piled within his maw before he finally opened it and released a powerful wave of sound that shot through the air and appeared in front of Greed in an instant.
Greed felt the impact of the sound wave, however, despite it not hurting anything but her sensitive ears, that wasn''t the point of this attack.
The point of it was to push her away, and that was exactly what he did.
Leaning forward, Ss shot through the air at such a speed that he became a blur of color.
Using a mixture of fire, air, water, earth, the speed ring, and fire fusion as well, Ss had created the fastestunch spell he had ever made.
The earth below him had sunken, before water and fire propelled him through the air. At the same time, Ss used air magic to part the air in front of him to not suffer any drag.
"You''re quite fast." Greed muttered with a low tone while shing her ws toward him.
He was moving far too quickly, so there was no way he could dodge it, right? Or at least that was what went through her head at the moment.
However, Ss wasn''t nning on dodging it.
Pulling his axes back, Ss got ready to activate one of his axe''s active abilities.
Taking a short breath in, his eyes zed with determination before eventually, he was right in front of Greed who was staring at him with a psychotic smile on her face that even she didn''t realize she was making.
''Fuck the buildings.'' Ss muttered and let out a sh in an X shape.
''Tier-4 Spell''
''Cinders''
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Chapter 128 The Rebellion [9] - Consequences
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Several tiny runes on Ss'' axe began to glow with a milky white light before turning fiery red, and eventually, blue.
This was one of the axe''s active skills. No, it was one of its best skills that almost worked the same way as the dimensional bags.
The ability to store spells within the axe itself. Sure, Ss could create spells just as fast as activating the spells stored within the axe, possibly even faster, however, it gave him an advantage in this situation.
Because right now, Ss didn''t have any spells inside the axes... He had runic spells, each and every single one of them being at a tier-4.
On the other hand, there was Greed who had seen the attacking and had quickly retracted her attacking arm.
Instead of forming arms into an X above her chest to protect herself from the mes, she used her arms to protect her face before several runes on her armor activated again.
The runes shone, and in the blink of an eye, a bubble appeared around her.
She had retracted her attack the moment she saw the runes on Ss'' axes shining brightly. That''s why she immediately stepped back and decided to defend instead of attack.
However, due that that, she lost several precious milliseconds in which Ss used to attack her.
Ss'' axe ripped right through the bubble in an X shape. He felt a bit of resistance, but it wasn''t anything that would have made it significantly tough to break through the bubble.
''Tier-4 Spell''
''Cinders''
Ss shed in an X shape and unleashed a powerful pale blue me that shone with the brightness that would have blinded anyone who saw it and couldn''t protect their eyes through toki or other simr methods.
However, at that moment, there was no one around to see it except Ss and Greed, and in this situation, Greed was the one who had to take the full brunt of the attack.
As the pale blue mes erupted from Ss'' axe, they engulfed Greed in their scorching embrace. The intense heat radiated through the area, causing the air to shimmer with ethereal energy. The force of the attack blew back Greed''s lustrous hair, revealing a flicker of surprise in her mesmerizing eyes.
Ss watched intently as the mes licked at Greed''s armor, its protective enchantments struggling to contain the relentless assault. The surroundingndscape became a sea of destruction as the mes consumed everything in their path, reducing small houses to ashes and scorching the earth beneath.
Greed''s lips curved into a wicked smile, a glimmer of excitement dancing in her eyes. "Impressive, Ss," she purred, her voiceced with a mixture of admiration and amusement. "But do you really think a mere me can overpower me? No... You should fear me... Yet, you don''t." She asked with a soft and melodious voice.
Ss maintained his focus, his eyes narrowing in response. "Why should I fear someone so much weaker than me?" he retorted, his voice dripping with malicious intent.
"You have no idea how small you really are."
With those words, Ss channeled his mastery over the elements once more. Ss'' energy surged through his body and the wind element invigorated every cell in his body and made everything around him feel like it was moving in slow motion.
He darted forward with lightning speed, closing the distance between him and Greed in an instant.
Greed''s eyes widened briefly, her alluring facade momentarily faltering. She gracefully sidestepped Ss''s initial strike, her body contorting with feline grace. But Ss anticipated her evasive maneuver and adjusted his attack trajectory with astounding agility, striking again with a series of precise and calcted blows.
The sh of Ss''s axes against Greed''s armor echoed through the battlefield, each strike resonating with the sheer force behind it. Sparks erupted from the collision, painting a dazzling disy of ferocity and resilience. However, unlike the rest of the attacks that had hit Greed that day, these ones were actually doing damage.
Dents and scratches could be seen on the armor. Ss knew that most armor at the same level or grade as Greeds would have the ability to restore itself back to its peak, but that would most likely need time.
And that was something that she simply did not have.
Greed, her seductive allure now mingling with frustration, attempted to counter Ss''s relentless assault.
Her ws danced through the air, seeking to rend his flesh and leave him vulnerable. But Ss was no stranger to being the weaker one in a fight. Every important fight he had fought until now was one where he had been on his back foot the entire time... But now, things were going to change.
All those times he felt powerless because they were so much stronger than him, but in this situation, Ss didn''t feel the sense of dread within him.
No... It was quite the opposite.
He felt excitement.
Excitement to fight. Excitement to kill the person in front of him.
She was a horrible person, and so was he... But he was going to change.
No longer would he be the kind of man to kill everyone and everything before him without reason. No... Now, he had things to protect.
He had people to protect.
He had his own life to protect.
And so, with that thought in his head, he decided to give it all he''s got.
His instincts and reflexes were honed to perfection, allowing him to deftly evade Greed''s attacks while simultaneouslyunching his own.
The battle between Ss and Greed intensified their movements a mesmerizing blend of grace and perseverance.
Each sh of steel and sh of wills pushed them to their limits. Thendscape continued to bear witness to their fierce struggle, the remnants of their power leaving a trail of destruction in their wake.
Through the ebb and flow of the battle, Ss gradually gained the upper hand.
His analytical mind allowed him to exploit Greed''s weaknesses, finding openings in her defense and capitalizing on them with calcted precision. He moved with a purpose, his attacks growing more ferocious and strategic with each passing moment.
Yet, Greed was not one to be easily defeated. Her alluring charm remained intact, her movements fluid and deceptive. She continued to taunt Ss, tempting him with her seductive allure, trying to break his concentration and turn the tide in her favor.
But Ss remained steadfast.
Even Greed could see that.
She could see the me in his eyes, burning as bright as ever with more ferocity than she had seen in a long time.
Flipping from building to building, Greed narrowly avoided Ss'' strikes.
Each one of his swings destroyed one or two houses. It was a little terrifying from her perspective, but she continued to dodge to the best of her ability.
From what she could see so far, while one of those attacks wouldn''t do much to her if theynded on her armor, a couple of them could probably break through the strong metal they were made from.
¡¤?¦Èm However, she knew that, if she wanted to win, she''d have to fight back at some point...
And that was exactly what she was going to do.
The crystals on her armor shone even brighter, yet that only made the crimson thread within more noticeable.
However, that didn''t matter right now as a sudden surge of mana shot out of her body in every direction.
The ground under her crumbled while the air crackled.
Mana surged around each and every one of her body parts, creating a vortex-like flow of mana that shone with the emerald color.
However, this one was a little darker, indicating that it wasn''t the color of healing, but instead, the color that the cores in her armor had produced.
The armor itself had separated slightly too while also bing skin-tight.
If before, her armor looked like a golden skirt, now she looked like an actual knight. The only difference was the fact that her armor looked much smaller and righter than normal armor, as well as the fact that the metal itself bent around her body to make it as flexible as possible.
At the same time, mana formed behind her two creates a pair of transparent green wings.
"Why are you defending this city, Ss." She finally asked after dropping her seductive persona.
"Not acting any more, I see?" Ss sneered whilending on a building in front of her.
She was confused as to why he wasn''t attacking her immediately, but this worked in her favor so she didn''t care.
"Answer the question."
"That''s none of your business." Ss replied in a rxed almost mocking tone.
"Oh really? Because, before this, it seemed like you couldn''t care less about this city, but now, you''re trying to save it?" She asked with a tilt of her head.
"Let''s just say that I owe Archie a few things." Ss smiled.
"Oh really? So... He told you about your siblings, right?" She asked before appearing in Ss'' building at such a speed that he felt like he almost couldn''t follow it.
"..."
Yet, he still took out both of his axes and pointed them at her.
"Oh? He didn''t tell you? I thought that you two were friends, or at leastpanions."
"..."
"Your family... What are they called? The Skyparks or something? After finding out that they couldn''t get you, they took your siblings." She smirked.
Chapter 129 Greed Vs Silas [1] - Rage?
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"Your family... What are they called? The Skyparks or something? After finding out that they couldn''t get you, they took your siblings." She smirked.
Ss'' eyes widened for a moment before he narrowed them again.
For a moment there, he almost believed her. She almost had him.
"You and your lies." Ss sneered, yet he didn''t attack her immediately.
"What''s wrong? Too afraid to get close and personal." She asked before opening up her arms wide.
"Or... Youi think that I''m trying to decieve you. Honestly, I don''t me you. I don''t have the best track record when ites to these things like trust and all the other power of friendship crap you guys are into..." She waved her hand almost mockingly/
"However! When I tell you this, I don''t say it with the thought in mind that you might lose your game, but instead, I say it so you can join me." She extended her toward Ss.
"Pft... You really think that I''m going to fall for something like that?" Ss asked, yet the smirk on her face remained.
"Hmm. Even now, you''re too blind to see it. Or maybe you''re choosing to be blind. Who knows..." She closed her eyes and retracted her aura... Or at least that''s what it looked like to Ss through his mystic eyes.
However, suddenly, there was a thick, almost indestructibleyer around her body made purely out of mana.
"Oh well, it doesn''t really matter right now..." Yet eyes moved toward a particr direction, and when Ss followed her line of sight, he saw someone standing there looking at them...
It was a woman with fiery orange hair and beautiful green eyes, yet, for some reason, her eyes didn''t seem as pretty anymore.
"They know what they did." Greed spoke before giving Ss a side-long nce.
Life looked at both of them. It was clear that she had heard everything Greed had said, but her reaction was strange. She didn''t look him in the eyes.
No, she didn''t look at him at all. Her eyes were averting him.
She radiated with shame. She exuded nothing but dishonesty.
But, it was a stench of dishonesty he should have smelt long before this all happened.
"..."
"Do you smell her shame too, or is that something only your pink haired friend his capable of?" Greed asked with a cheeky smile while tapping her nose.
"..."
"Come on! Say something! Really go in on how much you hate her right now." Greed encouraged with an even more devilish smile.
"Life..." Ss asked, yet she didn''t look at him.
He could feel his heart drop at the moment. He felt nausea hit him with so much force that he could have puked right there and then.
"Life... Look at me." Ss'' voice was deep as if it wasing from the depths of hell itself and reverberating out of his throat. However, it was filled with something else.
"I wanted to tell you." She muttered and eventually found the courage to actually look at him,
Her eyes shook when she saw him and she continued by trying to exin to him why she hadn''t told him, however, everything that came out of her mouth after that first sentence didn''t even reach his ears anymore.
Ss couldn''t hear her anymore.
No, it wasn''t that he couldn''t hear her, it was that he was choosing not to.
He could feel his rage bubbling deep within.
He could feel his muscles be hotter by the second as his mind told him to rip her apart for keeping such a secret from him.
At that moment, he felt nothing but fury.
"And you know what the worst part is?" Greed asked, catching Ss'' attention even though he had been blocking out all sound, including Greed.
"They didn''t even have to kidnap them the same way they did with you..."
"..."
"They did it legally. They got a paper signed by the second prince and sent a few knights for your siblings. One thing happened after the other, and before they knew it, both your siblings were adopted by the head of the Skrk family.
Your parents can''t even see them anymore without supervision, and the only way they do get to see their children is by having your father work for them."
"..."
"Did you know, your mother and father can only see your siblings once a week? Hell, even if they want to see them within that time period, your father has to work his off every single day to make sure the meeting actually happens." She exined while circling around Ss who was still looking at the ground.
Right now, he was trying to control himself.
He was trying to keep it inside for as long as possible.
That day against the assassin guild''s leader, Ss had awakened something that he had buried deep inside him, and when one awakens something, it is hard to bury it just as deep as before.
After all, it took him a little over 7 years to do it in his past life, so it would definitely take more than a few days to do it in this life.
"I heard your father exterminated an entire vige under their order. I wonder if he was willing to do such a thing? When Death told me about him, he seemed like an honorable warrior. Never would I have thought he''d kill hundreds of innocents without batting an eyes." Greed thought aloud while tapping on her lips with a curious expression.
"Of course, he created a hellspawn like you, so it''s possible, right?" She asked, but Ss didn''t look up at all.
It was hard to maintain control in a situation like this.
It was hard to remain sane in a situation like this.
It was all his fault. Or at least, that''s how he thought of it.
If he had been kidnapped, none of this would have happened.
It would have been the same, no? Either way, to his parents, he''s dead. They already had to suffer the loss of one of their children, and now Greed was telling him that they had to suffer another?
"You''re lying." Ss spoke with a cold and emotionless tone, yet he didn''t move his eyes from the ground... As if he was too afraid to look up and into Greed''s eyes just to find out that she was telling the truth...
He was afraid of the truth.
He thought only one thing in life scared him, and that was himself... But, that wasn''t true, was it.
Because right now, he was terrified.
Chapter 130 Greed Vs Silas [2] - Tier 5
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Terrified of the implication that he was the reason that his family was suffering.
He had been selfish when he left them. When he left, he said that he was doing it for their safety... But that wasn''t the case either.
He did it for himself. He could see it now.
He wanted to be stronger. He wanted to explore the world, something he couldn''t have done if he had stayed within dia.
Greed could hear Ss'' teeth tter against one another as he clenched them and shook with repressed emotions, waiting to erupt out of his body at any second.
"Ss... I can change this. If you let me do this... I can change everything." Greed wrapped her arms around Ss as if he was trying tofort him, while whispering in his heart like a devil trying to make the human eat the apple.
"I can bring your family back. Together, we can control the entirety of the kingdom and more! Together, we can be unstoppable beings capable of destroying everything in our paths!" She hugged Ss harder as her warmth seeped into Ss'' body, making him feel a tiny bit offort in the infinite darkness he had been thrown in.
Life cried for Ss to see reason, however, he wasn''t hearing it.
He wasn''t hearing anyone except the woman cradling him like a child.
''How long has it been since I''ve felt the embrace of a mother?'' Ss asked himself, his eyes now as cloudy as his mind.
"Together, we can destroy these nobles and higher families who have hurt us. They don''t deserve to live after what they''ve done for us, don''t you agree?"
"What about the people about this city?" Ss tried to argue, yet his voice was groggy.
"This city? A needed sacrifice, that''s what it is. Isn''t that what you were thinking when you let half of dia be destroyed by Aleck?" She asked.
"..."
"Now... If you are with me... Do me a favor
And kill these bastards who keep eyeing us like we''re the viins." Greed pointed at Life, but behind her were both Death and Eclipse.
Death held his sword with the de pointing at the ground. At the same time, Eclipse held two daggers in his hands and had a worried expression on his face.
"Ss! Move away from her!" Death shouted, yet his voice didn''t reach Ss'' ears.
"Don''t use it... You''ll kill him." Eclipse whispered over to Death, yet it didn''t seem like he was listening anymore either.
"Ss! Move away from her!" Death shouted again with a little more desperation in his voice.
He didn''t want to use his trump card in this battle, especially not after what happened thest time he did, but if Ss was going to join Greed, he didn''t know what choice he would have.
Greed alone was extremely strong with her armor, and now with her strength boost.
The way he currently was, he doubted he could beat her, and even though it might not seem like it, he was the strongest out of the three generals around.
Eclipse and Life weren''t fighters after all... But after seeing Greed fight, something had be obvious to all of them...
The two generals weren''t fighters, but she was.
"Kill them now!" Greed roared and Ss grabbed both of his axes and shot forward.
Rage burned within his eyes while a bloody aura erupted out of his body.
The air suddenly became extremely dense.
Eclipse and Death had no problem breathing since one was a veteran used to these things, and the other was used to Death to a certain extent.
However, it also seemed like his toki was redirecting the killing intent in other directions, causing it to not hit him directly.
Life, on the other hand, was apletely different case.
She was not a fighter, and so, when she felt the killing intent, she could feel her knees weakening while her breathing became heavy as she struggled to get a proper breath in.
Her heart beat quickly and loudly, yet, the reason for that was not the killing intent itself.
It was what followed the killing intent that made her feel real fear.
Just like most people who have felt the might of Ss'' killing intent, she saw corpses.
Hundreds of corpses, all of them seemingly begging for help in anguage she could not understand.
They all reached toward her, yet she backed away.
However, when she looked up to look at Ss who was currently charging at them, she didn''t see him anymore.
Or at least, not the person she was used to seeing.
Instead, she saw Ss with no emotion, covered from head to toe with blood.
His white hair was stained with so much blood that it had be crimson red, while his usually beautiful emerald eyes shone with traces of red that seeped into her very being...
And behind him, was something even more terrifying.
A creature made out of darkness, peaking out of every single shadow in the city, staring toward her and grinning at her as arms reached out of the shadow and tried to reach for him.
Yet, in an instant, it all disappeared, and so did Ss'' momentum.
In an instant, he had stopped moving,nding on the ground and sliding a few meters before eventually taking in a deep breath.
"What are you doing?! Kill them!" Greed shouted, but all Ss did was look back at her with a slightly annoyed stare while raising his hand into the air.
"I don''t take orders from you."
*Snap*
Suddenly, the central district of the city began to glow with an emerald-green healing radiance.
"Though... I must thank you." Ss smirked slightly while all the generals looked at him with slight shock.
"You''re very easy to stall."
''Psuedo Tier-5 spell''
''Ultimate Purge''
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1. Kevin_McJunkin - 45 Golden Tickets
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We hit 198 Golden Tickets this month which equates to one extra chapter which will being outter today.]
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Chapter 131 Greed Vs Silas [3]
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Ss'' snap echoed throughout the entire city as a green line shone throughout the central district, causing it to glow brightly.
Jessica, who was now panting as she looked at her handy work, could not help but drop to the ground and let out a relieved sigh.
She had heard the battle Greed and Ss were having, and she knew she wouldn''t have much time left to finish up.
In her hand, a staff with a pointy bit at the end of it could be seen. At the same time, anyone who could see her would have immediately seen the caved ground around her. It wasn''t too deep, to be extremely noticeable, but now that it was glowing with a green light, it could be seen clearly.
However, what would have most likely caught someone''s attention before was not the carved ground, instead, it was an artifact that stood before Jessica, pulsing with mana as all the elements crackles around it.
It was covered in hundreds of tiny runes and stood at a height that made it taller than most.
It was very wide as well, making it the size of around two people standing right next to each other.
It looked like a pier as it got more narrow as it got closer to the top until it eventually became the size of a needle.
This was the handy work of both Ss and Virack. Of course, Virack did most of the work. The only thing Ss contributed was the idea, and it was enough for Virack to make it.
Despite what Virack might have said, he was quite the forgemaster. Sure, he was the best forgemaster in Darkless, but that didn''t mean he was the best in the kingdom, let alone the continent.
He had also made it obvious that he could not create weapons or armor above the advanced tier. However, after seeing him create the machine by using Ss'' design, as well as his knowledge of this world, Ss could tell that Virack was definitely a genius.
Hell, even Eclipse looked surprised by what he saw.
He had lived close to a hundred years, yet not once had he seen something alike to what Ss and Virack had created.
However, it had done something that fixed the majority of their problems.
What Ss called the "mana engine" was a mechanical machine capable of melting mana crystals and cores into liquid form before pumping their pure energy through the runes around it.
The machine itself wasn''t hard to make. Ss simply used Earth''s knowledge of engines. Of course, he had to change the design a little for it to fit what he needed it to do, but it worked out in the end.
Jessica looked at the mana pump with star-stricken eyes as she could only imagine what kind of genius one would need to be to make something like it.
***
"What did you do..." Greed asked while taking a step back.
"What did I do?" Ss raised a brow before letting out a light chuckle.
"I stalled your ass so all of this could be set up. You''re so easy to read!" Ss reeled back inughter. His cackles almost felt maniacal in nature, and that very thing made the veins on Greed''s forehead bulge.
"I knew that, if you thought you were winning, you wouldn''t make the order... I also knew that, due to your relentless pride, you would have most likely gotten everyone in the city into one location in order to allow them to watch the execution of Archie by your hands, just so you could feel superior." However, even while Ss said this, she was not listening.
Looking back, she made the mental order for everyone to kill themselves. She was close enough for that order to be easily carried out... However...
She no longer felt it.
The connection between her and the substance within their bodies allowed her to control them in the first ce.
She couldn''t feel that connection anymore.
"And you know what''s even worse? That superiorityplex of yours is the very reason I knew exactly where to ce the magic circle for it to have the highest effect possible. Of course, I made it so it affect the entire city, but the results would be a lot more reliable if it was close as possible to most of the people."
"You created an array..." Greed asked with rage and shock in her voice.
It would have been impossible to create an array at such short notice.
Arrays were the peak level of spell crafting.
One-time-use arrays usually took hours to create. Stronger ones usually took days, and even then, the stronger arrays needed someone with a powerful core to create them.
The reason arrays were considered the peak of spell crafting was because they were one level above silent casting. Of course, there were some capable of creating them without having the ability to silent cast, but it was still considered insanely difficult.
After all, one required the dedication of using a spell hundreds of times to understand it enough to create it without an incantation, while the other required years of study toward runemanship, spell crafting, forge-mastering, and many more fields.
Arrays, though, were powerful... They were beyond powerful.
If armor was capable of creating a normal man into a king, powerful arrays in a particr location could create a domain for the user that is so powerful they might as well be considered higher beings.
Of course, this required years of dedication since these types of arrays would only be found in noble houses, mansions, and even castles.
They did everything from dampening certain elements to amplifying them.
"H-How.... How did you create an array this quickly... Unless-"
"Oh? An array? Well, I called it an artificial spell, but array doesn''t sound too bad either."
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Chapter 132 Greed Vs Silas [4] - Bound And Controlled
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"H-How.... How did you create an array this quickly... Unless-"
"Oh? An array? Well, I called it an artificial spell, but array doesn''t sound too bad either." Ss shrugged with a wry smile.
"..."
"What''s wrong? Cat got your tongue?" Ss asked with a mocking tone.
"This doesn''t change anything..."
"And that''s where you''re wrong... It changes everything! Everything from this point forward has been changed. You are no longer in control. You no longer hold the lives of thousands in the palm of your hand, with their deaths being a single snap away at your choosing. I took that from you." Ss cackled.
"That''s not what I was talking about... Your family. I wonder how they''re doing right now while you''re having all the fun in the world, running around the Xylem kingdom and killing everything in your path." Greed sneered, yet Ss simply closed his eyes and smiled.
"Oh?" He muttered, his voice now cold and distant, with his killing intent.
"We both know it happened... And in the end, the prince is under my control. I can be queen in a decade or less. And you... You can be my right hand man!" Greed spoke with the enthusiasm of a salesman.
Her eyes glistened slightly as she looked at Ss'' closed eyes, however, just when she thought she wouldn''t get a reaction yet, he suddenly disappeared from where she stood.
"You really think a tiny power up would make you stronger than me?" Ss asked, his cold and deadly voice trickling down her ears like ice-cold water.
Greed''s entire body tensed up, while every hair on her body stood at its ends like a cat in fear.
She quickly jumped forward before turning around andnding on all fours.
Her fangs showed more than the rest of her teeth as they were the most prominent, while her pupils had turned into slits, that stared into Ss'' soul like two sharp daggers.
Or at least, that was the intention.
Yet, when her eyesnded on Ss'', she quickly understood something...
A cold shiver ran through her body once more while her tail fluffed up as if it had been hit with electricity.
Life, Death, and Eclipse all stepped forward with their weapons in hand, yet Sd quickly raised his own hand and stopped them.
"She''s mine."
They all halted their steps before taking one back.
"Oh? Y-You really think you can-" Greed couldn''t even finish her sentence as suddenly, there was a fist mming against her abdomen, sending pain through her guts and torso alike.
Within an instant, she flew back several meters, crashing into dozens of buildings before eventuallynding on all fours once more.
"You know..."
However, just when she thought she could get a breather to heal from the first punch, a voice entered her ears from the right.
Before she could even look in that direction, a fist mmed into the side of her head before smashing her into the ground with so much force that it destroyed the building next to them,
"They say cats alwaysnd on their feet," Ss whispered, his hand now tightly wrapped around her face with an iron-d grip as he slowly raised her off the floor and forced her to look into his eyes.
At first, Greed may have thought that the information about his parents hadn''t affected him at all. When she saw this, she was quite worried.
A man who does not value the life of anyone but himself was unpredictable... No... Even worse, they were uncontroble and disloyal.
The fact that it looked like the information had gone over well with him either meant that he already knew about it, or that he didn''t care, however, since she had done a little bit of questioning before, she knew that the former was impossible.I think you should take a look at
However, thetter was even worse for her.
She was thinking about what kind of monster they had brought to this world by bringing him to the organization, but now that she was looking into his eyes, she knew that her earlier assessment was incorrect.
Ss might have seemed like he wasn''t affected by the information she had given to him, but now that she was looking into his eyes, she saw something else...
Fury...
Pure rage...
Rage beyond anything she had ever seen before.
An amount of rage that no human should be capable of creating.
But what was even more terrifying than that was the fact...
The fact that Ss'' rage was controlled.
And at that moment, she understood something else too.
She understood that they hadn''t given birth to a monster by bringing Ss to the organization.
They had brought a monster into the organization, and now they were going to suffer for it.
*BOOM*
Ss crouched before shooting up with so much speed and force that his body pierced right through the earth above.
The light of the sun barely shone through the dark clouds, as winds and rain poured down from the skies above, washing over the entire forest with power and intensity.
Trees could be seen dancing to the howling winds, while thunder crackled throughout the skies and reverberated like a titan''s roar.
Ss continued to fly further into the sky as rain and wind crashed into him with even more ferocity when he reached higher altitudes.
Greed tried everything from biting Ss'' hand to trying to shake herself off his grip, yet nothing seemed to work.
Even with the mana wrapped around her body, it wasn''t working.
She didn''t understand it...
How was he suddenly so strong?
How was he beating her so easily?
"Let go of me you bastard!" She cried out, however, his words were muffled.
Yet, despite that, it seemed like Ss understood what she had said, so without thinking twice, he grabbed her by the top of her head and allowed her to see the world below.
They were at the very least a hundred or two meters above ground, and when she saw this, she felt her heart drop to her stomach.
"What''s wrong..."
"Scared?" Ss asked with an extending smile.
Chapter 133 Greed Vs Silas [5] - Itll Help
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"N-No!" She begged now that there wasn''t anything gripping around her face.
She was certain that she wouldn''t die from this drop due to her armor. And for an added fact, she still had her mana wings that would allow her to glide to safety.
Remembering that she still had wings, glimmers of hope shone within her eyes, yet just when she was going to brace herself for the fall, she felt something pushing against the back of her head.
"What are you-"
"!!!"
A look of horror appeared on her face as Ss catapulted both of them toward the ground with the use of water, fire, and air magic.
Ss''s fury burned like an inferno as he descended towards the ground, locked in a deadly struggle with Greed. The torrential rain and fierce winds served as a backdrop to their sh, intensifying the already charged atmosphere.
As they neared the earth, Ss used his mastery of water magic to create a massive water pir beneath them. With a swift motion, he redirected their momentum, sending them spiraling through the air in a chaotic dance of elements. Greed''s attempts to resist and break free proved futile as Ss''s power overwhelmed her.
The impact was cataclysmic.
Ss crashed into the ground with Greed firmly in his grip, creating a colossal crater that shattered the earth beneath them.
The sheer force of the impact echoed throughout the surroundings, shaking the very foundations of thend.
Ss wasted no time. Gripping Greed''s head with an iron grip, he dragged her face mercilessly through the ground, trees, and mountainside.
The terrain distorted under their sh, leaving a trail of destruction in their wake.
The sound of tearing earth and the shrieks of the wind mingled with Greed''s desperate cries for mercy.
Ss''s dominance was absolute. His controlled rage fueled his every move, granting him strength and precision.
Greed felt nothing but terror as Ss'' relentless assault continued.
Dread filled her up to her core, while pain made her see nothing but red throughout the whole ordeal...
She felt like she was going to die. No, she knew she wasn''t going to die.
The only quesion was, when would Ss find enough pity for her to ever let her live.
Their battle continued in a symphony of violence and chaos. Ss unleashed a barrage of magical attacks, each strike honed and devastating.
It was like Ss didn''t care anymore... No... It wasn''t "like he didn''t care", it was simply a fact that he didn''t.
Right now, despite having controlled the fury that was boiling through his blood vessels, he was still being controlled by it.
Every thing in his body was telling him to get rid of it... To get rid of the rage.
To point it at one thing until that very thing burned to the ground and turned to dust.
He wanted others to feel what he was feeling. The sense of helplessness, knowing he can''t do anything to help the only people he ever wanted to help.
*BOOM*
*BOOM*
*BOOM*
Fire engulfed the battlefield, scorching everything in its path, while wind currents whipped violently, tearing through the air with deadly precision.
Ss weaved through the elements effortlessly, his movements fluid and graceful as runes appeared and disappeared around him, their aftermath creating destruction like no other.
Greed struggled desperately, her armor cracking under the relentless assault.
Her once unbreakable armor that sent shivers down the spines of anyone who saw it, was now being relentlessly pummeled by someone a fraction her age.I think you should take a look at
By someone she hadn''t even properly deemed a threat yet, and in the end, that was the very thing that would bring around her demise.
Yet, Ss remained unyielding, his eyes burning with determination.
Thendscape around them bore the scars of their sh.
Trees were uprooted, rocks shattered, and the very fabric of the environment was warped by their immense power. Mud and debris clung to Greed''s battered form as she fought to stay conscious, her will to survive barely keeping her going.
"Your pathetic. Nothing but a worm desperate for power." Ss sneered while kicking her in the abdomen while she was still on the ground.
She puked out a mouthful of blood, however, Ss didn''t seem like he was done.
"You stupid bitch." Ss raised his foot into the air and mmed it onto her head, burrying it into the ground and breaking her nose simultaneously.
"You good for nothing asshole." Ss grit his teeth and kicked her with even more rage.
"Ha... Hahaha... Hahahahaha." Sheughed, yet it only made Ss'' anger burn brighter.
Grabbing her by the neck, Ss lifted her into the air and forced her to look at him in the eyes.
She had been beaten ck and blue.
Blood came out the cuts and holes on her face, while the bone structure itself looked like it might have been beyond repair.
Her jaw was shattered, and her skill was most likely cracked.
"What''s so funny?" Ss asked with wide and empty eyes.
It would have sent a shiver down the spine of anyone who saw it...
Yet, Greed keptughing...
Andughing...
AND LAUGHIN-
"You know none of this will bring your family back, right?"
"..."
A fist mmed into her face and sent her flying.
The sheer force of the impact sent Greed hurtling through the air, crashing into the remnants of a shattered hill with bone-crushing force.
Ss stood at the edge of the battlefield, his eyes fixed on the broken figure of Greed. The rain washed away the blood and dirt from his face, revealing an expression of cold determination.
"And we both know.... None of this will ever truly satiate your rage."
"You''re right..." Ss sighed before a demonic smile extended from the corner of his lips, something that shocked her, especially after seeing his bloodthirsty expression for what felt like hours.
"But it''ll definitely help."
Pointing his axe the Greed, Ss muttered-
''Cinder''
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Chapter 134 Rage [1] - Weak
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The sound of metal hitting the ground echoed throughout the forest for a moment before the sound of something flying through the air trumped it.
A crater could be seen where Ss previously stood, and right next to it was a burned corpse d in half-broken armor, destroyed beyond use.
Ss would have taken it with him. The owner of the armor was dead, and therefore the imprint on it would have most likely faded over time.
However, Ss didn''t really need it. His eyes were already set on something else, and even if he couldn''t use it to its full potential. he was a scientist...
He''d find a way around it.
With a single jump, Ss had shot through the air, flying above the trees before eventually having to descend.
Aftering back from his assassination attempt and changing, Ss hadn''t known to what extent that change had ured.
However, after fighting with Greed, Ss understood something.
His strength had risen dramatically. His spells were about the same in strength since he was technically already far ahead of anyone else on the same level as him, but his body was the thing that had changed.
His body was more powerful than it had ever been. When he fought against Greed, he could feel energy rush through his body like never before.
He felt the same thing when he choked Grant earlier.
The previous version of him wouldn''t have been able to threaten someone at Grant''s level of strength like that, but he did it without even realizing it.
And now that he was filled with rage, the real problem was the fact that he was trying to control himself the entire time.
After all, his goal was not to destroy the city but to destroy Greed.
As Ssnded a few hundred meters away from the hole he had created, he could not help but bite his lip...
She didn''t suffer enough.
He wanted to torture her more. Rip her limb from limb until her brain would shut off to keep her from feeling any more pain.
He kept himself calm by imagining all the things he would do to her when she sessfully captures her and throws her in the same cell that she had ced Archie in, but when he was in front of her, he didn''t feel anything.
He didn''t feel that same bloodlust...
All he could do was smile at her and point his axe toward her face.
As the runes on his axe showed, he threw his arm up and shed down, and in the process, he identally burnt everything behind her for hundreds of meters.
Shaking his head again, Ss looked down and aimed to fall through the hole he had created.
He was currently a little under a hundred meters in the air, but he knew that his body would most likely be able to take it.
He could probably take Aleck... That was his name, right? Aleck, the exmander, one without almost dying likest time.
Sure, he would probably have a bad time whenever Aleck would try activating his trump card and destroying a city in his wake, but that was just a risk he would most likely survive.
After all, he survived itst time, and his body was much weaker back then.
Now that he thought about it, what level was his body at?
They had levels for body strength, but he still couldn''t remember a lot of them.
All he knew was that tinum was on the same level as amethyst, while gold was on the same level as topaz.
If he were to guess, onyx would be bronze rank, while ga would be silver ranked.
''What the hell do they have after tinum? Titanium? I heard a few people talk about ademantine, but I don''t really know what level that would be...'' Ss thought, trying to get his mind off the rage within his stomach that was still burning as brightly as ever.
For some reason, Greed''s death hadn''t quelled it.
No, it hadn''t affected it at all.I think you should take a look at
Her death was nothing in the grand scheme of things...
No... Her death didn''t matter to him because she was not the one who had promised him his family''s safety.
She was not the one who lied to him for months just to keep him around.
It was Archie... He was at fault for this...
And right now, he was more vulnerable than ever.
Ss'' eyes narrowed at that thought before he shook his head again and shot through the hole he had made in the roof of the city. At the same time, he saw a message from the system, telling him what he had earned by killing Greed, however, he swiped it aside for now.
Entering the cavern once more, Ss mmed into the ground and created an enormous dust cloud.
Several people seemed to be running toward the dust cloud.
As the dust cloud dissipated, everyone watched Ss walk out of it.
It looked like he waspletely unscathed.
He was wearing the same clothes he had worn when he came back from the assassination attempt. Actually, he hadn''t found a reason to take it off.
He hadn''t been sweating much recently since his body could easily take the heat, and even if he was sweating, he hadn''t noticed it.
He had even asked a few people if he smelled bad, yet all they said was that he didn''t smell like anything.
At the same time, despite wearing a long coat, suit shirt, and a tie, it wasn''t ufortable.
In a way, it felt like he was wearing his own skin, but less creepy, and much less gorry.
Walking out of the dust cloud, Ss saw several individuals point their weapons at him.
"What are you doing?" He raised a brow in annoyance.
He was certain that they were no longer under Greed''s control... Or maybe... Maybe the spell didn''t work? Or maybe they had been brainwashed so much that their loyalty remained with Greed...
"State your name, ssification, and rank."
"..."
"Speak now!"
Looking to his right, Ss stared into the distance where he felt the presence of Eclipse, Death, and Life.
They were all standing around someone who seemed to be wearing cuffs. There was no toki around the individual, and at the same time, there was no active mana core inside of them.
They were normal, and they weren''t even infected like the rest of the people in the city.
''Archie...''
"I suggest you get out of my way. You''re not from the judgement faction, so I''m assuming your frence warriors."
"State your name and rank!" One of them took a step forward with a spear in their hand.
They wereing closer and were threatening Ss with the tip of the spear.
Now that she got a good look at them, they all seemed to be wearing the same armor, not allowing him to see what they looked like since their helmets covered their faces.
''Greed would have surely been a lot harder to kill if she had her helmet'' Ss thought, however, after recognizing the crest on their shoulder tes, he narrowed his eyes. e
''Royal army.'' Ss thought to himself before looking down at their sr plexus.
"Weak."
Chapter 135 Rage [2] - Doesnt Matter
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"What did you-" Before they could even speak, Ss grabbed the closest spear, and with a single twist of his wrist, he bent and broke the spear into two pieces.
"I said..." Taking a step forward, Ss moved swiftly, stabbing the tip of the spear into one of their legs before turning around and stabbing the other in the shoulder, through their armor, and right into their bones.
Both soldiers fell, yet three others remained.
"You''re all weak."
"..."
"..."
"..."
They all understood that they weren''t enough to go against Ss, however, they had already known that from the start.
The killing intent they felt as the individual came closer to the city already told that he was beyond their league, and now that they were looking at him, they could not help but take a step back.
At first, they saw that he was nothing but a child, so they took a step forward, hoping that he was no one too important.
He looked like a 10-year-old after all. Despite him standing right before their eyes, they couldn''t believe that he would the be person to release so much killing intent.
Plus, if he actually was the person, wouldn''t he be well-known throughout the city? After all, he does have a level of power that has only been achieved by royals at his age.
"Now... you will tell me why you''re here." Ss smiled, yet the killing intent that flickered around him remained all the same.
"W-We''re just here to protect the prince..." One of them, however, decided to stand their ground.
They still had their spear pointed toward Ss'' throat, yet their eyes flickered with fear the entire time,
''Topaz level at best... What the hell are they trying to protect him from? Ants?'' Ss thought to himself, still now used to refer to the metal ranking that others use.
"You guys?" Ss raised a brow.
"That''s what we said too!" One of the soldiers cried, his face facing the ground as he kneeled with his hands on his head.
"Shut up Ell!" Another shouted, yet Ell wasn''t listening.
"Hmm. Well, that''s dumb. But I guess the people around the prince are already strong enough, You guys are essentially cannon fodder." Ss chuckled before waving at them and heading toward the rest of the generals.
Looking down, Ss saw thousands of people still standing around the execution tform, however, by now many of them had dispersed slightly.
Before, it was too uniform.
Everyone was in neat lines, but now that they had their minds back, they were talking to one another, their eyes locked upon their friends and lover as they held them tight.
Many of them could be seen crying, and from what Ss could hear, those with stronger wills had remained conscious throughout the entire week Greed was themander.
They could see and hear everything that was happening around them... Hell, they could feel everything that was happening, but they still couldn''t control their bodies.
They watched on as if they were spectators in their own minds, hearing the thought process of what was supposed to be them, but never being able to change it.
Others were lucky and had weaker minds, allowing them to simply forget everything that had happened the moment they broke free from the control...I think you should take a look at
However, a small portion of people, a minuscule minority, had it worse than anyone else.
Their minds were quickly corrupted, and within days of the corruption, they had been brainwashed fully...
And permanently.
Ss could only look at these individuals with slight pity.
Of course, the pity was quickly overshadowed by what felt like an ever-burning rage in his heart, however, it was still there.
And for once, a small bit of him also felt guilt.
It was small, but it was also present every time he looked at the dead-eyed individuals who stood around, their lives have be meaningless the moment Greed died.
''If I had waited longer... Everyone else would have been just like them.'' Ss thought while biting his lip in frustration.
But that didn''t matter right now, after all, what was most important in that moment was not the people who had suffered...
Looking around, Ss could tell that the people were waiting for an answer, however, just when they thought an answer was going toe, the execution tform began to retract, floating back to the enormous tree in the middle of the city.
It wasn''t far, however, Ss could already hear an uproar beginning to brew.
His eyes scanned the crowd for a moment before they eventually locked upon a red-haired individual.
''You will definitely be useful in the near future...'' Ss thought while looking at Alex, however, he quickly moved away from therge crowd and entered one of the alleyways.
Many people looked at him, some wondering why he was leaving in the first ce, while others, who could remember what had happened to all of them, looked at him with ounces of awe and suspicion.
But, yet again, that didn''t matter.
***
"I have to say... You guys really saved me back there." Archie chuckled, his arms still behind his back as his cuffs were still on.
However, despite thepliment that Archie had given them, they all remained silent and simply looked away from him.
Archie was right... They were a family, and despite everything going well in the end, they still betrayed him... And Archie hadn''t forgotten about that.
He was simply keeping up appearances. The only two he believed had the right to puff their chests out were Ss and Eclipse, after all, one of them created a rebellion group, while the other did what they did best...
"Enough moping. We need to get out there and make sure Greed is dead... For good this time. Ss said he would deal with her, but I doubt he''ll be able to kill-"
"Oh really?" A voice came from behind them, suddenly cutting Eclipse off.
And when they turned around, they saw a green eyes individual, staring at them as killing intent seeped out of their body like it was nothing.
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Chapter 136 Rage [3] - Liars
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"Oh really?" A voice came from behind them, suddenly cutting Eclipse off.
And when they turned around, they saw a green-eyed individual, staring at them as killing intent seeped out of their body.
"Ss?" Archie raised a brow while the rest looked at him in shock.
"Did Greed escape?" Life asked while taking a step forward, yet when Ss'' eyes redirected themselves and looked into hers, she froze in ce.
"Of course not." Ss raised a brow as well.
"Then what happened to her?" Death asked his hand on the hilt of his de.
For some reason, he felt like something wasn''t right here, and the same thing could be said about the rest of the group, even Grant who stood a couple of meters away from them.
They had always known that Ss was strong. However, they had never thought of him as being on the same level as the generals.
Sure, Ss had a lot of potential, but potential that would only flourish in the future.
Right now, potentially didn''t help them at all. It was why they were so hesitant about bringing Ss in and making him a general.
Sure, Grant wasn''t as strong, however, he was the sole inheritor. He was the one that themander had chosen to rece him and was the reason why he had the armor in the first ce.
The generals all believed that, if Grant was able to activate the armor, he would be strong enough to be a general. On the plus side, he was an adult and still had a lot of growing left to do. To them, Ss was a child.
Some of them understood that Ss was strong, however, to the rest he was just that... A child.
That''s why they were so shocked to see him back so soon, let alone back at all.
Greed was powerful, especially with her armor.
She was trained in the way of the warrior back when she lived with her tribe, and even though that was no longer the case here, that kind of training does not fade away.
She would have been a formidable opponent to any of them...
"Well, she''s dead of course." Ss crossed his arms while looking at Death with a raised brow.
He thought that he had made that obvious, but apparently, that wasn''t the case.
"Dead? Like, fully dead?" Death asked with shock in his voice.
"I don''t think there are stages to death, my friend." Ss chuckled, however, they could all tell that it was strained... Possibly even fake.
"Where''s her corpse?" Archie asked, his voice the calmest of all of them.
Of course, he was shocked to see Ss back so soon, but out of all of them, he was probably the one with the most emotional control... Excluding Eclipse of course.
"Anyway." Ss sighed and took a step forward. Death had his hand on his de the entire time, but the rest of them looked calmer than he did.
Death had a bad feeling, and he always trusted his instincts.I think you should take a look at
"You''re still wearing your cuffs." Ss looked down at Archie''s wrists.
"Ah... Well, unlike the cor, these are not powered by Greed''s mana signature. Her death does not just make me free. Life and Eclipse are going to help me take them offter. For now, we have bigger things to-"
*BOOM*
Archie felt a sharp paine from his abdomen, and when he looked down, he could see that Ss'' palm had pped onto it.
He felt the power from Ss'' palm ripple through his frontal torso, but before he could speak another word, the air in his lungs forcefully left his mouth before he became a blur that shot through the air, mming through the wooden walls and breaking through into the other side.
Archie found himself flying out of therge tree, however, he hadn''t gone further than the tform itself.
He found himself sliding to the edge of the tform on the side of the tree before he turned to the side and puked out a stomach full of blood.
Eclipse, Life, Death, and Grant all took out their weapons and unleashed their killing intents.
"I knew there was something wrong when you came here. You must be under Greed''s control!" Death shouted, yet Ss simply tilted his head at Death''s words.
"Controlled?" Ss chuckled.
"If anyone is being controlled here, it is you guys."
Sneering, Ss took a step forward, however, he quickly found himself sidestepping as a golden light shot toward him.
"Tell me. I single handily killed Greed in one of the most anti-climactic ways possible. I didn''t use any of my strong spells on her that wasn''t already stored inside the axe, and I didn''t even torture her for what she had done... However, I had done something that none of you had been capable of." Ss grinned with disgust and mockery.
Of course, he didn''t think that he was stronger than Death, however, he could see himself beating Eclipse and Life even if they fought together.
Death, this whole time, seemed to have been keeping something to himself, and Ss worried that, if he were to use his trump card, they''d all be in real danger.
There must have been a reason he didn''t use it in the first ce, right?
"You guys don''t get it, do you." Ss spat.
"Oh really? Enlighten us, will you." Grant took out his sword and pointed it at Ss.
"That man has been controlling us the entire time... Well, to be more specific, he''s controlling you.
Me and him, we n ahead. We manipte those closest to us to make sure we get what we want. That''s what is simr about us, and it will most likely remain that way for a very long time...
But, call me a hypocrite, but I don''t like when I''m lied to, especially when it is in order to control me, and I doubt you guys like being lied to either." Ss looked them all in the eyes before sighed again.
"But I guess, we''re all liars in that sense, aren''t we." Ss'' eyes moved toward Death who was still standing there, looking at him with a dumbfounded expression.
Without skipping a beat, Ss shot forward while channeling fire energy through his body.
His figure turned into a blur as it shot right past all of them in an instant and appeared behind Grant.
Chapter 137 Rage [4] - Hello Nymira
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At the same moment, Grant felt as if he had been punched with the weight of an elephant and he reeled forward. At the same time, his de shattered into a million pieces, leaving nothing but the handle that he was still holding onto.
Without even looking back, Ss appeared standing above Archie.
Leaning down, Ss grabbed Archie by the neck and dangled him off the edge of the tform.
"You know, it would be a real shame if my hand were to slip in this position." Ss dropped the act and looked Archie dead in the eyes.
When Archie looked back at Ss, all he could feel was a certain amount of dread as Ss'' emerald green eyes felt like he was looking down an infinite abyss.
"You won''t drop me." Archie smiled.
"Are you willing to take that chance? A drop from this height would almost undoubtedly turn you into a past on the sidewalk. And now that you don''t have toki on your side, I''d say that the chances of you dying had significantly increased." Ss chuckled.
"Oh? But I know you won''t drop me." Archie raised a hand as if it was signaling the people behind Ss to stop moving and not do anything.
"You know I can sense them, right?" Ss raised a brow.
"That''s why I told them to stop. You see, I would rather not die due to something as stupid as their interruption." Archie shrugged.
Despite Ss holding him up by the throat, he was still able to speak. His voice was a little croaky, but it was still audible.
"I know you won''t drop me because you need me."
"I can do everything you do. Well, I think I can do some of the things you do better." Ss argued.
"But you don''t nearly have the same amount of information as me."
"That can be fixed."
"Nor do you have the same amount of knowledge."
"Stop repeating yourself."
"Or connections-"
"The rest of the generals are good for that."
"Oh really?" Archie raised a brow and gestured for the generals.
Looking around, Ss looked into their eyes. There was a certain type of conviction in all their eyes that made him raise a brow.
"Are they going to defend you if you kill me?" Archie asked.
"..."
"Will you be able to rece all of them? I doubt you''ll find anyone like Eclipse here."
"..."
"Then how about you put me down."
"You lied about my family." Ss'' grip around Archie''s neck suddenly tightened.
"Every time I asked you how they were doing, you told me that they were fine." Ss'' teeth began to tter against one another.
"I needed to lie to you to keep you on our side. For all I knew, you''d go out there and kill yourself by trying to attack the Skrks without any preparation!" Archie tried to argue, yet his voice was bing fainter by the second.I think you should take a look at
"Let go of him, Ss!" Death shouted as his de was slowly being coated by ck energy that flickered every few seconds.
"You told me they were fine! You told me I made the right decision!" Ss'' voice began to change slightly.
It was deeper... It shook everything around it to the subatomic level.
Every time he spoke, they could feel it in their chests, as if his voice was sending powerful waves in all directions.
It sounded like he was right next to their ear, which only made it more terrifying than it should have been.
"Ss! I''m not your enemy! I''m not the one who took your family! I understand you''re angry, but my responsibilitiese first. And my responsibility was to make sure that this city was running well. That''s why I chose you to be Judgement, not the disgusting reminder of failure that is standing behind you!" Archie shouted, his voice still croaky.
"..."
"Just let me down and we will talk about this-" Before he could finish what he was saying Ss threw him to the side, mming him against the tform''s surface.
In that same moment, Life suddenly shot toward Archie to heal him, while Eclipse pointed his daggers at Ss before walking between him and Archie to protect him.
"You''re right..." Ss chuckled while turning his head toward a certain direction where several officers in white, red, and ck armor stood. They all had emblems on their shoulders that pulse with mana every few seconds.
"You''re not the enemy."
They all looked at Ss with worried expression. Not only was he now stronger than half of them, but it also felt like he had be a lot more unpredictable.
"They are..." Ss muttered before jumping from the tform and plummeting toward the city where he gracefullynded and disappeared into the shadows.
***
In a neighborhood out of the city''s sight, Ss could be seen walking through an alleyway as his eyes searched the entire ce.
They were burning with a bright emerald light, and from his perspective, everything around him looked like a grid patter right now.
He could see through walls and could feel and see the life forced on everyone around him.
However, eventually, his eyesnded on a certain individual whose life force burned differently from the others.
The person in question was quite strong, and the toki around them was quite dense despite their bodies and souls not having fully formed yet.
They were a child no older than 10.
*Knock Knock*
The sound of knocking echoed throughout the alleyway.
Many of the children there looked at him weirdly, while some adults nced at him before walking away.
A low click sounded from the door, and when it opened, a pink-haired girl with a pair of dead eyes was in view.
"Hello, Nymira." Ss smiled.
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Chapter 138 Nymira Farlane [1]
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It had been a few days since Greed''s death, and ever since that day, not much had happened.
The generals had nned to choose the next Judgement fairly this time, but they had postponed it until everything would eventually blow over.
Of course, many people have had a rough time when trying to understand that they had just lost a week of their lives.
Many of them became fearful of the generals as they suddenly understood what they were capable of, yet others were in awe of them for having saved them from the "tyrannical" Greed that had taken over everyone''s minds and somehow be the viin in the eyes of everyone, including her own faction.
However, now that Greed was dead, she also had to be reced.
Yet, despite there being an open need for her recement, almost no one said they wanted to do it.
Ss had asked Jessica to volunteer for the job, and even though there was still weren''t many who wanted to put themself forward for the job, it did encourage one or two individuals to to go against Jessica.
After what Greed, had done, the Greed faction itself was beginning to receive a lot of discrimination.
They were openly being hated on by the rest of the factions. Shops refused to service Greed faction members, while people in general simply avoided them.
It was discrimination at its finest. Ss had seen it far too much back on Earth, especially after the third world war.
It happened and ended before he could even reach the age of 16 where he would be allowed to partake in it, but it was one of many factors that brought back racism and other forms of discrimination.
However, despite seeing what was happening to the Greed faction, he didn''t do anything. It wasn''t his problem anymore. It was Jessica''s and the rest of the Greed faction''s problem to deal with it.
He had his own problems to deal with right now, and after his conversation with Nymira, he had to be Judgement... No matter the cost.
No... He needed to do more than that.
He needed to be a force to be reckoned with. He needed to be someone that everyone feared.
He wanted people to tremble at the mention of his name. He wanted them to scream in fear when he appears, and drop to their knees when looks at them...
That was the job he was going into, and that was also the job that he needed in order to do everything necessary to bring his family back from the Skrks.
He had ced them in that mess, so it was his responsibility to bring them out.
When Ss was holding onto Archie by the neck, he had realized it.
He had only one goal right now.
His rage had been pointed at a specific group. The nobles... The royals...
All of them had to suffer.
Every single one of them.I think you should take a look at
And what''s a better way to start than take away what they wanted from the Darkless organization in the first ce?
***
A low click sounded from the door, and when it opened, a pink-haired girl with a pair of dead eyes was in view.
"Hello, Nymira." Ss smiled and didn''t wait for another second before stepping forward.
Nymira hadn''t invited him in yet, but he doubted that she would invite him in the first ce. He hade without telling her, and he could already see her hand twitch as she was going to close the door in his face.
Of course, he had ced his hand on the door before she could close it, so despite how much strength she had ced in the push, she couldn''t budge it from where it stood.
"I''m here to talk." Ss simplymented before walking past her.
Looking around, he could not help but narrow his eyes slightly.
The ce she was living in was definitely better than the one he was living in.
Actually, it was better than most of the ces in the city. It had two floors which both belonged to her, arge kitchen, bathroom, living room, two bedrooms, and even a training room through the back.
Her house looked like a modern European household with a few signs of Japanese architecture... Or whatever this called it.
It was weird to see something he recognized on a that was supposed to bepletely different from the one he hade from. It really made him wonder whether or not there were people before him who hade to this, and if that was the case, where were they now, and what happened to them in the first ce to allow them to travel to a on the other side of the universe.
Ss was pretty sure that he was the only one who had cracked the life equation to the same degree that he had. He could feel the life equation deeply embedded into his soul, and even now, he could feel it pulsing through his veins in the form of his evolution blessing.
"You really need to tidy up this ce," Ssmented as his eyes looked around the ce with an ounce of curiosity.
It was... Dirty, to say the least.
There was rubbish everywhere.
Ss could see all types of garmentsying around the living room, as well as food, juices...
''Is that... Alcohol?! Who the hell gave 9-year-old alcohol!'' Ss thought with knitted brows.
Despite the varying smells in the room, he could smell the faint scent of wine.
''Wait, no. Maybe someone visited her and had a drink? But who would visit her and not clean up... Unless.'' Suddenly, a certain me filled with fury burned inside Ss'' heart.
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Chapter 139 Nymira Farlane [2] - Pain
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''Wait, no. Maybe someone visited her and had a drink? But who would visit her and not clean up... Unless.'' Suddenly, a certain me filled with fury burned inside Ss'' heart.
The idea that she might have been taken advantage of made his heart ache slightly, yet it only made his anger burn, but not nearly to the same intensity as when he had heard about his family.
"Nymira... Has anyone visited you recently?" Ss asked with a cold and emotionless tone.
"Like you care." She sneered andy on one of the couches.
"Answer my question," Ss asked again, this time with a little bit of killing intenting out when he spoke those words.
"Yes." She answered with a shrug.
"Who?" Ss increased the mana going toward his mystic eyes and began to look around the neighborhood to see if anyone would fit the description she would give.
"They''re in the back. Training room." She waved Ss off and turned around again to face the inside of the couch as if she was trying to sleep.
Ss'' eyes turned toward the training room, however, when he looked inside, he couldn''t see anyone inside.
''No mana signature, life force, or anything. Maybe they''re an assassin capable of cloaking themselves? I killed a few of those back in the misty forest, so I know how to spot them... Or maybe she lied to me?'' Narrowing his eyes, Ss grabbed both of his axes from his back and began to walk toward the training room.
''If there really is someone in the back, I''ll kill them before they can even-''
Without wasting a second, Ss opened the sliding doors to the training room, however, what he saw made him raise a brow.
Well, it would have made anyone else puke, but Ss had seen a lot worse when he was on Earth.
Corpses...
There were corpsesid everywhere.
Some of them were rotting, but the rest werepletely fine despite looking like they might have been dead for weeks.
Ss couldn''t see any maggots within their bodies, but he could tell that the first few were eaten by some kind of insect for a short while.
''This ce is quite cold. They would most likely not dpose for a while in here. With no insects around, they could survive for a significantly long time... 6 months maybe?
Though, people are more likely to smell them before that happens. The wooden floorboards, despite being reinforced with runes and mana, will most likely deteriorate soon too. I can see that they''re beginning to-''
Before Ss could finish his thoughts, he felt a low vibration going through the floorboards and entering his feet.
''Ah... I see.'' Ss thought before turning around and catching a flying sword between the tips of his fingers as it shot toward his neck.
However, he had seen this attack before.
Taking a step back, Ss avoided a punch to the temple, as well as several different kicks by stepping to the side right before they could hit him.
Throwing the sword to the side, Ss blocked another iing kick with his forearm, however, just when he did that, he watched Nymira jump into the air and reel her head back.
''Huh...'' Ss couldn''t help but raise a brow, but he quickly understood what was happening.
With a slight smirk, Ss reeled his head back slightly as well before shooting it forward and mming into the iing headbutt.
Nymira felt a searing paining from her forehead as she shot through her living room and mmed the front door.
"Never really thought of you as being a serial killer." Ss chuckled as he walked toward her with his hands in his pockets and a smile on his face.
However, when he looked her at, he could help but notice that there was panic and fear in her eyes.
"D-Don''t touch me!" She screamed before taking out two daggers.
At the same time, she pivoted off her right foot and shot toward one of the walls before bouncing in between each wall.I think you should take a look at
"Good in close-quartersbat..." Ss noted to himself while ducking down to dodge the dagger.
*Swoosh*
*Swoosh*
Both daggers ripped through the air and appeared in front of Ss in an instant.
He quickly dodged the first one by simply taking a step back, but since the second one was a stab, he stepped to the side, allowing the knife to pass by him while her momentum carried her forward.
Seeing that she had been caught in a trap, Nymira instantly let go of the knife and tried to duck lower, yet in the end, she was a child, and therefore her strategy was bound to be naive.
When she tried to drop to the ground, she saw Ss'' footing toward her abdomen, yet she was toote to react and dodge in time, so she did the second-best thing.
She moved all the toki around her body to the exact ce Ss was about to hit her before tucking her arms and legs close to her abdomen to block the kick.
However, Ss was too quick, and in the end, far too strong for her to block.
The kick zoomed faster than she could block, and when he had finally reached her abdomen, he relegated the strength of his kick to simply incapacitate her for a few minutes.
When the kick mmed into her stomach, she felt the air leave her lungs before quickly losing the ability to breathe properly.
She flew to the other end of the room and mmed against the wall before eventually falling to the ground where shey with her hands wrapped around her abdomen.
"You''ve gotten a lot stronger," Ssmented as he walked toward her and crouched right next to Nymira to look her in the face.
"Are you okay? I didn''t mean to hurt you. I just needed you to calm down a little." Ss tried to reach for her, but her eyes quickly opened, and as if the pain had suddenly disappeared, she tried her best to jump away from his before eventually crawling to the corner of the living room.
Tears were now streaming down her face, while her eyes shook with fear.
"That''s what they all said..."
"..." Ss balled his hand into a fist as an inkling of gilt found its way into his heart.
"Nymira... Did they hurt you?" Ss asked, his eyes traveling toward all the wounds and bruises on her body that he hadn''t bothered to look at before.
Even with her clothes on, mystic eyes had outlined the wounds in her body with a purple and red aura that made it obvious for him.
"You don''t care... Look at you... You don''t care about me! Don''t act like you care! You''re the reason I''m here! You didn''t help me! You didn''t even visit me! NO ONE VISITED ME! YOU TOOK THEM AWAY FROM ME!" Ss could feel the rage in her voice every time she spoke.
"You''re right," Ss muttered, making her widen her eyes slightly.
She could smell it. When he had spoken those words, his scent had suddenly changed.
No longer could she smell the ocean of blood that resonated around him... Or at least not the same extent.
Now, there was a scent that she''s only smelled from one person before.
"Nymira... I will save you."
"I will be
Your hero."
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Chapter 140 Nymira Farlane [3] - What Is A Hero?
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"Nymira... I will save you."
"I will be
Your hero."
Usually, words like that would have been met withughter or cringe. After all, that was the normal reaction.
That was the reaction that anyone would have shown when heard such words.
Hell, even people in Nymira''s situation would have not taken Ss'' words seriously.
Hero? Was there even such a thing in this world?
A hero was not something that existed in this world. It was something that only existed in fairy tails. Nothing was ever that ck and white.
Nothing was ever that simple.
Yet, Nymira didn''t have that reaction.
Unlike others, she could understand someone down to their physiology and psychology. She could know everything about someone with a single whiff of their scent.
After all, that was her blessing. That was the power she was gifted by Gilea.
And right now, as she looked into Ss'', she heard his words and smelled something she had only felt from one other ce before. To be specific, from two people.
Right now, it felt like Gina was right in front of her, talking to her face to face, and smiling at her with radiance shining from her face.
At the same time, she remembered the first time the chief had met her. It was right after her parent''s death.
She stood there, looking down upon the bodies of the two people who loved her most, yet everyone avoided her like the gue.
It was the first time she awakened her blessing too. The smells were all wrong. They felt horrible. She didn''t understand the smells back then, but she knew the difference between good and bad smells.
Yet, despite being surrounded by dozens of people, smiling at her constantly, there was only one smile among them that made her feel like she was safe.
A man who extended his hand toward her and told her that she would be safe, no matter what.
A man who looked her in the eyes and treated her like a human being, rather than just another orphan.
That man was Chief Gorgon Azeroth, the very man who adopted her after her parent''s death, the same man who took care of her for years, and the very same man who died to save her.
Yet, it was all in vain.
However, she could still remember his hand. The hand reached toward her and told her everything would be okay. She could still remember the feeling she felt on that day...
And right now, she was feeling the same thing.
Before, she smelled something about him. Ss was taller than she could remember... Hell, he was even a little taller than she was. He looked older too, yet despite all that, all she could smell was the blooding off him.
She had trained for several years when she was with Gina. She was her sister and teacher alike. She taught her everything she knew and taught her how to distinguish between the smells.
When Nymira smelled Ss for the first time, she could smell his intentions. He just wanted to use her. He smelled like the rest of them. Sure, he didn''t reak of lust, but that didn''t matter.
After all, who would trust a man who smells like he had spilled enough blood to dye the oceans red?
But now, it was different.I think you should take a look at
When Ss'' hand approached her, she no longer felt fear.
She felt safe and secure. That feeling terrified her, but it also told her something else.
Ss wasn''t lying when he said he''d be her hero.
So, with that realization burning at the back of her mind, she stretched her hand forward and held Ss'' hand.
And when she did so, Ss looked into her eyes and saw something ignite.
Something deep. A fire that had once gone out, reignited to its previous glory...
Reignited past its previous glory, into a me with so much radiance that it would have blinded anyone who could see it.
"You?" Nymira''s eyes filled with tears.
"You will help me?" She cried, sniffling every few seconds while holding back the tears that wanted to flood out.
"Of course... I promise..."
"I will save you."
***
Ss wanted to hurt the kingdom by taking Nymira away from them, but while doing so, he did something selfish.
He didn''t understand why there was so much sincerity in his words when he told her that he would save her, but his best guess was that it was a way to self-fulfill.
Every time he looked down at his hands, the only thing he would remember was the people he killed. He didn''t ever feel bad about it. Even the guilt wasn''t there, which somehow made him feel guilty at the same time???
It was weird... How could not feeling guilt make a person feel guilty?
He never had these problems in his previous life. Everything was so simple back then. They''re either with you or not with you. If they''re not with you, then they are free to kill.
If they are with you, then you''re not allowed to kill them without reason.
''When did things be soplicated?'' Ss sighed, however, he quickly turned around when he felt someone running toward him.
Looking back, Ss saw a red-haired kid running toward him, looking at him with a pair of fiery light-brown eyes.
"Alex?" Ss asked as the boy quickly caught up to him.
"Hey, man! Why are you avoiding me?!" Alex shouted with mock rage in his voice.
"I haven''t been avoiding you. I''ve simply been... upied." Ss looked away, his eyes traveling in a certain direction.
"Oh really?" Alex crossed his arms with an expression that told Ss that he wasn''t buying the excuse, but Ss didn''t know what to tell him.
He hadn''t been avoiding him. He had tried looking for him on the first day after meeting with Nymira, but no matter what he did, he couldn''t find him.
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Chapter 141 Nymira Farlane [4] - Alexs Shenanigans
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He hadn''t been avoiding him. He had tried looking for him on the first day after meeting with Nymira, but no matter what he did, he couldn''t find him.
However, after that, Ss quickly found himself busy.
He had a lot of things to do. His training with the Judgement faction continued the same way it was going before the whole Greed thing happened, while his sses with Life, despite being a little awkward, continued as normal.
The only real thing that was different about his schedule was the fact that he had to meet with Eclipse every day to talk about the status of the city.
Darkless was now under the kingdom''s watchful eyes.
Every now and then, Ss could spot a few scouts running around, however, even though he would have loved to kill them to stop them from getting information about the city, it was harder than it seemed.
First of all, they were all pretty powerful. Not for him of course, but in general, they were in the tinum rank, usually around tinum 2 and 3.
None of them went higher than tinum.
Of course, Ss wouldn''t have had much of a problem killing them all within the span of a day, however, Archie and Eclipse were both against the idea since it had the possibility of provoking war with the kingdom, something none of them wanted.
"Hey! Are you listening!? I thought we were friends, bro!" Alex shouted, yet Ss only raised a brow as he continued walking.
After a few seconds of silence, Ss could tell that Alex wanted to say something, so to shut him up for a while, he spoke instead.
"First of all, I''m not your friend yet, let alone your ''bro''." Ss rolled his eyes.
"AGH!" Alex fell onto his knees while grasping his heart. At the same time, he leaned back with his other hand on his forehead.
"My heart! You crushed my heart!" Alex shouted, garnering even more attention from the people around.
''He''s lucky I need him around.'' Ss looked back with a sigh before continuing on his way.
Alex, of course, followed him. Ss tried to exin to him that what he was about to do was private, yet when speaking with Alex, it was as if his words would enter through one ear and leave through the other.
For Ss, it was a little frustrating, but it was nothing he hadn''t had to deal with before.
"Hey, man... Listen." Alex''s voice suddenly dropped to a much more serious tone.
Ss raised a brow for the umpteenth time today while several questions ran through his mind
"Come close." Alex waved for Ss toe closer, yet when didn''t respond, Alex decided to pull him.
After looking around for a couple of moments, Alex suddenly leaned in and whispered.
"Wherever you''re taking me, I promise you, bro, I won''t tell anyone."
"Sure?"
"Hey, man. I don''t judge. I''ve seen a lot of weird crap ever sinceing to this city. Whatever you''re into, I will look the other way." Alex let out a cheeky grin before giving Ss a thumbs-up.
"S-Sure..." Ss'' brow twitched in slight annoyance.
''This bastard! What do I look like to him!? A human trafficker!''
They continued to walk in silence, and at a certain point, Ss was trying his best to contain himself.
He would keep thinking ''He''s lucky I need him.'' over and over again in his mind, yet every time Ss looked at Alex, the boy would wink at him as if they were somehow on the same frequency as one another...I think you should take a look at
"Ooh! Dark alley. I wonder what happens in a ce like this!" Alex rubbed his hands mischievously while giggling to himself in a low tone, and this time, it wasn''t only Ss that was giving him the stare of disgust and pity.
"Brother look! Do you think he hit his head when he was a child too?" A girl, no older than nine, asked in a whispered voice while pointing at Alex.
''Who the fuck speaks like that.'' Ss'' eye twitched again.
After what felt like an eternity, Ss finally found himself in front of a door.
"Hey, bro!"
"What?" Ss replied with a slightly annoyed tone.
"You never really told me about what happened while all of us were asleep."
"Brainwashed."
"Yeah, that. Whatever that word means." Alex gave a short thumbs up before continuing.
"I was half awake during the time the whole thing happened. I could see what was happening, but I couldn''t control what I was doing." Alex exined, yet Ss didn''t react.
"Anyway, I saw you standing on the execution tform with that guy from the Judgement faction and all the other generals. And Greed said that you would be the new judgement! What was all that about." Alex asked with a slightly excited tone.
"You know... Greed is a little mentally unstable, and I''m quite strong for my age so that''s probably why she chose me." Ss shrugged, but a thought came into his mind.
''Was Nymira affected by the brainwashing too?''
"Yeah, but then you shed at her with your axe and almost killed her, which means you had control over your body, right?"
"...Yes." Ss sighed.
"So you had to be strong enough-"
Not wanting to answer any more of Alex''s questions, Ss quickly knocked on the door in front of him before letting out an irritated sigh.
At the same time, Alex narrowed his eyes slightly before harrumphing and looking away while cursing Ss under his breath for avoiding the question.
The sound of footsteps echoed from the other before the sound of several locks being undone entered their ears.
With a low click, the door slowly creaked open as a pink-haired girl appeared in view.
She still had bags under her eyes likest time, but her house didn''t reek...
"NO NOSE! WHO SULLIED MY NOSE!"
Or at least not to the same extent.
"Hey, Nymira." Ss smiled and walked inside while Alex switched to breathing out of his mouth before following behind Ss.
''Time to clean out some bodies.''
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Chapter 142 Nymira Farlane [5] - Body Disposal
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"Hey Game, man! You didn''t tell me you had a girlfriend!" Alex nudged Ss as they were walking in.
Nymira heard them speak, and for a moment, her eyes darted toward Ss'' face, yet after seeing there was no real reaction to it, she simply looked away and closed the door.
"This is the second time we''ve met. Do you really think that I would tell you anything about me?" Ss raised a brow.
"Yes! Thedies back in our living area keep telling me how trustworthy I am. You know? I keep very big secrets on a daily basis!" Alex crossed his arms and raised his chin toward the sky in pride.
"I doubt a woman in her right mind would choose to get any closer to you than necessary." Ss sighed and began to walk toward the training area.
Thest time Ss came to Nymira''s house, he had told her to not get rid of the bodies. Sure, it smelled horrible and would most likely get worse with time, but Nymira was an amateur. Ss knew how to hide a body properly. He had done it countless times in his previous life.
Why bring Alex along, one might ask?
That was the question on Nymira''s mind. She knew that they would be getting rid of the bodies, and while at first, she thought that the red-haired boy might have been someone who could help Ss, after a while, she realized his scent was all wrong.
From his scent alone she could tell that there wasn''t a single drop of blood on his hands, as if he hadn''t evenmitted violence before, let alone murder.
However, as usual, Ss had a n. Nymira could smell it.
"Alex, I need your help on something." Ss stated while looking at Alex who still had his nose plugged by his fingers.
"What?"
"That''s disgusting..."
"Hey! It''s not my fault your girlfriend here has no hygiene!" Alexined before spasming forward while trying his best to not puke.
"Oh god... I can taste the smell. I was to puke! I want to puke!" Alex shouted.
Sniffing the air, Ss didn''t really think much of it. Sure, the air on dia had been quite nice, but the air on Earth was probably worse, especially in the cities.
The cities always smelled horrible, but that was understandable. With no one working the essential jobs, sewers sat still for years while rubbish piled up.
With the amount of humans left on the, cleaning was one of the least important things. Or at least cleaning the outside.
People with homes usually cleaned their houses since they didn''t want to randomly get cut and eventually get infected.
"Ah... The good old days." Ss sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose before eventually looking back at Nymira.
"I thought you could smell really well." Ss asked.
"I can, but my nose doesn''t work the same way as yours and his." Nymira exined.
"Have you been sleeping well?" Ss asked while continuing to walk toward the door to the training area.
"Not really. I haven''t been sleeping well ever since your and your group of bandits kidnapped me."
"Again, not my group." Ss sighed.
"Tomato, ''tomato''."
"..."
After sighing for the hundredth time that day, Ss snapped his fingers and cast a purge spell on the entire house.
Ss'' spell quickly killed any harmful bacteria that might have been infesting throughout the house. At the same time, it purified the smell and allowed everyone in the room to finally smell pure air once more.
"The smell is gone now." Ss forcefully took out Alex''s fingers from his nose and used water and purge magic to quickly clean it.
Alex looked at Ss with an awed expression, while Ss could only raise a brow at what he was seeing.
"Why are you looking at me like that?" Ss asked.
"You cast magic... Without chanting! Holy-" Alex began to ramble on for a few minutes, yet the only thing Ss could think of was the fact that Alex actually knew things about magic.
''Maybe I''m right about him.'' Ss narrowed his eyes and decided toplete the test he had been doing over thest few minutes.
Without skipping a beat, Ss opened the doors to the training room, allowing everyone in the living room to see dozens of corpses,id around the room with dried blood under them.
"..." Alex suddenly looked through the doors and paused. He couldn''t help it.
It was a natural human reaction.
"We''re going to get rid of these bodies without anyone knowing. Murder is still a crime, and I''d rather not catch the attention of the Judgement faction right now." Ss smiled at Alex.
He wasn''t actually worried about the Judgement faction, but if someone were to find out that Nymira had killed over two dozen people and kept them in her training room, it would most likely inadvertently hurt him.
"Are you going to help us, Alex? Are you going to help us get rid of these bodies?" Ss asked with narrowed eyes while Nymira stood close to see if he was lying or not.
Of course, Ss could do that by monitoring his heart rate and life force with the use of his mystic eyes, but Nymira didn''t know that.
"Yes... As I told you before, I won''t tell anyone about anything you''re into." Alex gave a thumbs up while Ss'' eyes twitched and Nymira''s widened.I think you should take a look at
"You make it sound like I''m into collecting bodies."
"Oh. My bad. I meant to say that you''re both into collecting bodies!" Alex grinned.
"These are the bodies of rapists."
"Am I wrong though?"
"..."
"..."
Both Nymira and Ss were at a loss for words. How could a normal person be so positive and giddy about hiding a bunch of corpses?!
Ss stared at Alex, a mixture of disbelief and amusement crossing his face. "You''re a moron, you know that, right?" he remarked, shaking his head.
Nymira, too, couldn''t help but let out a small chuckle at Alex''s lightheartedness.
"Hey, someone''s got to keep the mood light, right?" Alex replied, shing a mischievous grin. "But on a serious note, how do we n on getting rid of these bodies without raising any suspicions?"
Ss crossed his arms, his expression growing serious once again. "We''re going to burn them, but we have to be careful and make sure it doesn''t draw too much attention."
Nymira nodded in agreement, however, shouldn''t help but question Ss.
"Can''t you just burn them here?" She asked.
"I would, but these are corpses were talking about. They take quite a lot of heat to turn into ashes, and while I am capable of doing that, in such an environment it would be pretty hard not to burn your house down." Ss exined while looking around for another moment.
This was the difference between magic circles and elemental control. Magic circles couldn''t be controlled the same way beasts control the elements. They were imperfect, and right now, he was reminded of that.
Ss turned to Alex. "We''ll need your help in carrying the bodies to the designated locations. Make sure you wear gloves and cover your face to avoid leaving any traces behind."
"Nope... I can carry them myself at top speed." Nymira chimed in.
"All of them?" Alex couldn''t help but shout.
"What if we just crush them?" Ss asked, making both of them look at him with raised brows.
"And how would we do that, exactly?" Alex asked.
"I''ll use my earth magic to crush them into a ball before burying it underground. Easy." Ss shrugged, while the others looked at each other and shrugged.
"Isn''t that, a little boring though?" Alex asked.
"And you called me the maniac." Ss chuckled.
"Hey! You called me disgusting for picking my nose when you have dozens of bodies in a room! Who''s the disgusting one now!"
"Beside the point." Ss shrugged.
"Don''t ''beside the point'' me!" Alex pointed at Ss usingly.
Ss and Alex bickered for a few minutes while Nymira simply watched them both with a shocked yet amused smile. The scenting from Ss was different. She had known him for years. Of course, they were never close, but she would see him all the time around dia.
He always had this serious expression on his face, as if he had the entire world on his shoulders.
His scent too. His scent was always bloody. When she was around him, she could swear that screams followed him everywhere he went.
And whenever she saw him, she could not help but feel like he heard them too.
That every time he closes his eyes, he would see something none of them could even begin to imagine.
However, despite that feeling still being there, there were two things that was different about it.
The first difference was that, for once, the emotions he showed weren''t an act. When he rolled his eyes, there was a little bit of amusement in his eyes. When he chuckled, it was real...
Yet, the second difference made her wary of Ss.
Becuase the second difference was that, beyond the bloody scent emanating from him, there was another scent...
The scent of something burning... A world burning.
Burning deep inside of him, hidden by the blood that surrounded.
A burning that looked like it would engulf the outside world in the blink of an eye.
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Chapter 143 Responsibilities [1]
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The disposal of the body didn''t actually take very long.
All they had to do was bring the bodies outside before Ss would control the Earth underneath the pile of bodies and crush them into a ball of earth and corpses.
They all took a group of corpses and took them to certain locations that Ss had circled after extensively analyzing the map of the city. When he had firste to the city, he had tried to find several areas without many people in them, and so he simply took the bodies there.
They all grabbed a few bodies each and tried to run there as quickly as possible, but that''s when Ss realized something else.
Looking at Alex, Ss couldn''t help but raise a brow.
''He had taken note of the fact that Alex was a mage, but were mages really this weak?''
Ss had seen Life, Diveen, and even his grandmother shooting around battlefields like it was nothing. Sure, Diveen knew how to use toki, but that was beside the point!
"I''ll carry them." Ss sighed and created a sphere of water a few timesrger than him. It made him a muchrger target, however, if he were to float it high above him, it would most likely not catch any attention.
Nymira couldn''t help but look at her own share of corpses before looking at Ss.
"Oh thank god! They stank so bad! I almost puked right then and there!" He shouted with relief.
"Can''t you take mine too?" Nymira asked with more curiosity than begging in her voice.
She didn''t seem fazed by the smell of the corpses. They were also pretty bloated and disgusting, yet she didn''t bat an eye.
"I can create a spell capable of destroying an entire district of this city in a few seconds, but sadly, controlling spells from far away isn''t really one of my strong suits." Ss shrugged.
"Why?" Nymira asked.
"Because it doesn''t work like that. Magic circles are designed to shoot spells in a certain direction. Controlling arge mass like that is pretty hard."
"But when you fought your father, you create a huge boulder of earth above you, right? I remember people talking about it." Nymira asked.
''Sh*t... She caught me.'' Ss looked to the side.
Sure, one of the weaknesses of magic circles was the fact that they were designed to shoot. Actually, reaching the amethyst core allows one to release their magic aura which can then be controlled by the user to create spells far away.
However, Ss, right now, wasn''t creating a spell far away. He was creating a spell right under his feet that was controlling something far away. Ss thought that herck of knowledge about spells would be enough to deceive her, but that didn''t seem like it would be the case anymore.
There was a reason he was doing this in the first ce. There was a reason he had brought Alex along despite how useless he might seem, and there was a reason Ss was making Nymira hold some of the corpses.I think you should take a look at
He was testing both of them, yet it was not the same test.
For Nymira, Ss was testing how far she would be able to go without buckling. She had murdered over two dozen individuals in self-defense, but that didn''t mean she had the stomach for murder.
Ss could probably kill an innocent man and not think about it the next day. He had let half of dia disappear so he could kill Aleck, themander. He saw it as a necessary sacrifice, so he didn''t mind.
Of course, in his past life, he hadmitted a lot of horrible sins without batting an eye, yet even though he still didn''t feel guilt for what he had done, he liked to think that he was no longer that person anymore.
Nymira was different though. She was a child. Murder does note naturally to anyone, let alone a child.
She''d have to be aplete psychopath to not feel anything from killing an innocent person, but right now, Ss was trying to see if she could stomach getting rid of the bodies that were technically still her responsibility.
His theory was that she kept the corpses in the training room so she wouldn''t have to deal with the fact that she was the one who murdered them, yet after seeing how seamlessly she was holding arge bunch of them on her back, he began to doubt that.
''Maybe she really didn''t know how to get rid of them... Or maybe she''s be desensitzed?'' Ss thought.
Alex, on the other hand, had a different test, and his test was technically alreadyplete.
Ss wanted to see how trustworthy Alex was. Of course, Alex was just a nobody in their eyes. Hell, to Alex, they were strangers too.
However, Ss knew that there was something different about him the moment he looked into his eyes.
He was also one of the only people to resist the brainwashing for as long as he did despite not being nearly as powerful. Sure, his core was awakened, but he was barely a ga core.
Ss had a feeling he would be useful to him, and right now, all he was doing was trying to find out if his gut feeling was right.
"Sil-... Game. I don''t mind holding them. I just... I just want you to be honest with me, okay?" Nymira asked while looking at the ground with a pained expression.
"Alright..." Ss sighed.
It didn''t take them much longer to reach their designated spot. After reaching it, they piled all the bodies.
''He already knows that I have fire magic, and now he knows I have water magic. I could burn these corpses to make sure they''re never linked back to us, but I''d rather keep one or two secrets to myself.'' Ss looked at Alex with a sidelong nce before using earth magic to uproot the ground under the corpses and crush them in an instant.
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Chapter 144 Responsibilities [2]
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They buried the rest of the bodies quite easily. Alex was quite happy when he found out that Ss had the ability to use three elements. It took him a while to realize, but when he did, he was quite ecstatic.
After they were done, Ss decided that Nymira and Alex should probably get to know each other better. He had quite a few ns for them, and even though he knew for sure that Nymira would do anything for him as long as it was part of their deal for him to save her, he wasn''t so sure of Alex at first.
However, now that he had seen Alex help them get rid of two dozen bodies, he was pretty sure that he''d be down for anything.
Though, if Alex did decide to betray them, he had a precautionary measure to make sure he''d regret it for the rest of his remaining life.
Hell, Ss was certain that Alex wouldn''t be able to speak a single word of what happened that day without, at the very least, feeling the worst pain he had ever felt in his life.
At the end of the day, Ss and Alex chose to leave. Nymira thanked them with a bow before closing the door behind them.
"Woah." Alex sighed.
"What is it." Ss asked.
"You''re girlfriend really doesn''t trust us."
"Again, not my girlfriend." Ss sighed with a little bit of annoyance, however, Alex actually noticed Ss'' frustration this time and raised his own brow.
"Really? So she''s free for the taking?" Alex asked with a slightly excited voice, while Ss simply shrugged.
"I suggest you don''t try anything. She might be your co-worker soon, and if you two break up, it might make things a little awkward." Ss chuckled while Alex red at him.
"Who said we''ll break up, huh?" Alex crossed his arms, however, he could not help but feel a shiver down his spine.
While Ss seemed like he was speaking in a mildly friendly mood, it didn''t feel like that when he said thest thing. Actually, Alex almost felt like it was a threat, so within an instant, his thoughts of going for Nymira went out of his mind.
''Maybe they are dating... Or maybe Ss likes her?'' Alex thought, yet it was quite the opposite.
Ss didn''t mind them dating, though, it would disrupt his ns a little too much for his liking. Also, the previously mentioned risk was still very much a risk. He needed them to be a team, not a couple.
"She''s really closed off though, isn''t she." Alex muttered.
"Yeah... I guess she is, but if you''ve seen the kind of things she''s gone through, there aren''t many other paths one may go on." Ss exined.
"I don''t know. I think it''s better to remain smiling, you know? You gotta remain jolly! You have to smile at the world for it to smile back at you, you know?" Alex asked while turning to Ss, while Ss turned to him with a slightly bbergasted expression.
"Who did you steal the from?" Ss narrowed his eyes.
"Ah. You caught me." Alex chuckled, yet he didn''t say where he got it from.I think you should take a look at
"But, you''''re not technically wrong." Ss sighed.
"That''s surprising,ing from you at least. You''re the most closed-off person I''ve ever seen." Alexughed.
"You''re not wrong." Ss chuckled, but once again, Alex felt like there was something wrong with the chuckle.
Actually, he felt like any emotion that Ss showed was always slightly fake. As if he was putting on an act to please the people around him.
It didn''t feel like that back at Nymira''s house, but now that they were both alone, it was bing a little more obvious.
"Those who smile through everything will see the world smile back at them. Those whough in the face of everything will see people cheer for them with all their hearts. Those kind of people be inspirations. They be things far beyond their singr being." Ss spoke while remembering some of the people back on his.
"They be a symbol. They be hope." Ss exined.
"They be heroes to everyone around them..."
"But that isn''t me. I''m not the hero of any more story. I''m not the hero of my own story... There are people like me who can''t smile at the world like you do because when we smile at the world, the world chooses to take advantage of our smile.
The world crushes our dreams right before our eyes, and all we can do is sit there and watch."
"You... You sound like you''re talking from experience." Alexmented while scratching the back of his head.
He didn''t really know what to say. He understood what Ss was saying, but at the same time, only someone who''s gone through the same things as Ss would truly know what he meant.
"Think of it like this. I left my family back in my city to keep them safe. To help them. Yet, here I am, incapable of doing anything as they suffer the fate I was supposed to suffer. And then... Ie to the realization that, despite not wanting to admit it, I ran away from them not to save them, but for a selfish reason." Ss chuckled, yet Alex could feel an ounce of rage in it.
"How does one live with themself when they know they are the reason their family is suffering?" Ss asked.
"But, you can''t me that on yourself-" Alex paused when Ss opened his mouth again.
He couldn''t help but feel like there was a sudden pressure around Ss that made him want to kneel.
"You do it anyway.
Because it''s your responsibility to make it right..."
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Chapter 145 Judgement [1]
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*Swoosh*
Ss'' eyes followed the trail of a de as it swung toward him, yet with a quick side-step, he easily dodged it.
In the next second, a flurry of sword swings ripped the air before him, trying their best to hit him, yet no matter how many times the attack came toward him, not a single scratch could be seen on his body.
"Are you sure I need your training?" Ss asked while looking at the blue-haired woman in front of him.
"Shut up." She sneered and swung her sword at him with even more speed than before.
Yet, Ss was too fast. His instincts were too sharp, and even if the attacks hit, Ss wondered whether it would even leave a scratch at this point.
He was currently using his normal body to fight without using any of his fusions.
He could tell that he was not a lot more powerful than he was before, even if the battle with Greed hadn''t shown him that already.
Without using any of his fusions, or his magic, Ss went toe to toe with Seraphina who was probably ranked at tinum 1 or 2.
Ss was smiling throughout the entire battle. He dodged everything that came toward him or simply parried them using his hands.
"You might actually win the fight against Grant, you know." Seraphine chuckled.
"I will win the battle. That coward doesn''t stand a chance." Ss snickered before jumping back a few meters and raising his hand.
There weren''t many in the Judgement faction who had remained conscious throughout the week that Greed wasmander, but those who were awake spread many rumors about what happened on thest night.
Many of the rumors were exaggerated, yet there were two rumors that worked in Ss'' favor.
The first rumor was pretty well-known throughout the city and many of the people talked and asked about it.
It was the rumor about him. The people who were consciously told others about how he, alongside the rest of the generals, fought off and killed Greed all by themselves.
Ss was rtively unknown throughout the city... Or, to be specific, he wasn''t nearly as known as he was now.
The incident about him in the mercenary hall spread throughout the Greed faction for a bit, making them one of the first people to know Ss. However, outside of mercenaries and Greed faction members, the only other people who knew him were the Judgement faction.
Yet, right now, it was almost like everyone in the city knew who he was.
Many would stop on the street to think of him, and right now, he was getting a lot more attention from people in general.
He was quite young so he didn''t really get much attention from women, however, there were some around the ages of 11 to 15 that tried to court him.
It was quite embarrassing... Actually, it was embarrassing for both parties in question. Ss felt secondhand embarrassment for them, while they felt embarrassed when he rejected them as usual.I think you should take a look at
Besides that, there was a second rumor going around that worked heavily in his favor, and that was the rumor about Grant not doing anything when Greed was right in front of him.
Actually, it was recorded by many that he was either scared shitless to do anything or that he had a mischievous smile on his as he watched the generals and Ss fight against Greed.
Many said that he was on the same side as Greed, while others simply stated that, despite him having the ability to break free from her brainwashing, he was simply too weak to participate in the battle.
All the rumors about him worked out for Ss, yet they didn''t work in his favor.
"I can''t believe he would betray us like that." One of the men watching Ss'' training sighed in disappointment.
"I doubt he betrayed us. Maybe he was just scared?" A woman chimed in, trying to give Grant the benefit of the doubt.
"Isn''t that worse though? Our leader, with his amazing armor that might even be on the Monarch level, scared of fighting on the same stage as other generals? I heard that even Life fought there, and she isn''t even a fighter." Another sneered.
"But what if he was too weak to fight with them? Maybe they told him to stay out of it?" Another tried to argue on Grant''s behalf.
"Heh." One of the bigger guys walked forward and sneered at them.
Ss recognized him as being one of the people that had gone to dia during the invasion of the city.
"If he can''t fight on the same level as the generals, what''s the point of him being a general himself? He doesn''t deserve that armor. He''s pathetic and weak. He had the armor on yet Game over here, who has no such armor, went in to fight on his behalf. What does that say about our faction?" The man shouted, his voice reaching everyone on the street, making them all look down with shame.
"He''s beyond pathetic! He keeps clinging to that armor as if it is his final lifeline to bing Judgement, and hell, it probably is! If he didn''t have the armor, almost none of us would have voted for him." The man snarled.
Hearing the man, Ss couldn''t help but inwardly smile.
Everything was going to n. Well, in a much different way than he imagined.
His purpose of getting close to the people of the faction was to show them how much of a better leader he would be, while also undermining Grant. At first, he was going to act like he was scared of Grant. Everyone liked an underdog story, and slowly, Ss would show them his immense potential to grow stronger in such a short amount of time.
He would show them care as well as determination, and when he would eventually win against Grant, they would cheer for him instead of re at him the same way they had done the first time he showed up in their faction.
But now things were different.
Now, it was as if the story of a lifetime hadnded on Ss'' palm, and right now, he was milking it as much as he could.
However, right now, it seemed like he might not have everyone on his side...
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Chapter 146 Judgement [2]
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However, right now, it seemed like he might not have everyone on his side...
"You ungrateful bastards! How could you speak of your leader like that... After everything he''s done for us!" A man with a slightly different armor came into view, his skin beet red as veins bulging all over his face.#
"Oh... It''s Grants little dog." One of the men sitting on the side could not help but mutter under his breath, his despite wanting it to go unnoticed, he had said it far too loud for no one to hear it.
''Oh... It''s Judgement Knight #32'' Ss thought while looking at the iing man who was steaming with rage.
Ss could remember him from thest time they met. He was essentially Grant''s right-hand man. However, he wasn''t anything special himself. His armor was a little better than everyone else''s, but that was about it. He didn''t have anything about him that made him stand out significantly more than others, other than his armor.
"What did you call me?" #32 began stomping toward the man who had muttered under his breath, yet before he could reach him, Seraphina''s bulky friend took a step forward, standing in between them and looking the man in the eyes with a disapproving expression.
"Move out of my way." #32 muttered, his teeth chattering against one another at every word spoken by him.
"Make me..." Therge man leaned forward. He was much taller than #32... He was at least a foot taller, and due to his massive and muscr physique, made him look like an absolute giant.
"Insect." He muttered while right in front of #32''s face.
''Ooo. Darkless guy #2 vs #32. I wonder who''ll win.'' Ss thought to himself with a hint of excitement.
"It would be nice if you didn''t grin so much while those two bicker." Seraphinamented from the side.
"I''m not grinning." Ss crossed his arms as if he was being unfairly used, yet even he could not help but feel his smile straining on the corner of his lips.
"Are you not going to stop them?" Ss asked.
"You don''t have to act like you care about them either." Seraphina rolled her eyes.
"Care, not care. Make your mind up woman!" Ssined, his voice filled with a hint of annoyance.
"And don''t call me that." Seraphina red at Ss.
"A woman?"
"Yes."
"But that''s what you are."
"It''s degrading."
"..."
"..."
"I''ll be totally honest with you... I don''t care." Ss sighed while feeling like he was back on earth again.
All those Social justice warriors really took a toll on his mental health back in those days. There wasn''t muchining after he restored anarchy to the nation, but that was probably because there were more important problems at hand.I think you should take a look at
''Comcency really is humanity''s worst enemy.'' Ss sighed before averting his attention away from the ring woman next to him to the battle that was about to ur.
"Now, now warriors. What''s this fuss about?" A voice suddenly came out of one of the alleyways, and when the figure finally stepped out of the shadows to show himself, everyone who saw who had stepped out could not help but narrow their eyes at the person.
Ss narrowed his eyes as well, but not for the same reason as everyone else. He narrowed his eyes because, despite the efforts the man had gone through to hide the fact that he was enraged, it was more than clear to him that it was the case.
Grant stood there with a smile on his face as he walked toward the two.
"Sir! They dared insult you! Let me kill this man on the spot." #32 shouted.
"Kill him? For speaking lies about me? What a preposterous idea." Grant red at his right-hand man.
"But sir! He spoke wrongly about you! How could I let such a thing slide!" #32 shouted back, yet all he received for his words were a p to his face.
"Do not spout such stupid words to me. Why would I kill someone for talking bad about me?" At those words, Ss could not help but narrow his eyes further.
There was something about his life force that felt wrong. It wasn''t that it was a lie, but it felt like had an intention of sorts.
"The judgement faction would like to change their vote for the next leader." Seraphina suddenly stepped forward before Grant could grab his right-hand man and turn away.
"Is that so? You''re free to do that." Grant shrugged as if he didn''t care, but this time it wasn''t only Ss who could see that he was agitated by the news.
Actually, Ss was a little worried that he would have attacked Seraphina on the spot and possibly killed her. Of course, Ss wouldn''t have allowed that to happen. After all, he still needed Seraphina for quite a few things in the future.
She was also one of the only members of the faction that actually did their job, so it would have been more than wise to keep her around
Turning around, Grant grabbed his right-hand man and left while Ss simply returned to his closebat training.
***
The day passed quite quickly. After finishing his training with Seraphina, Ss went out for a little bit of hunting before going back home to cultivate for a while.
Archie had given him a pass to leave ande back as he wanted. It was his way of showing his gratitude for Ss helping the rest of the generals to save him, yet Ss didn''t really care too much about it.
Sure, it was very convenient when it came to gaining money since he could simply sell the cores he didn''t need, but it didn''t mean Ss would have simply forgiven Archie for what he had done.
After returning, Ss spoke to Eclipse to learn about how the city was progressing so far before going to his session with Life.
As the days passed, the battle between Ss and Grant was bing closer and closer.
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Chapter 147 Judgement [3]
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As the days passed, the battle between Ss and Grant was bing closer and closer.
Every day, the inevitable was bing clearer.
Ss'' training never stopped, but at a certain point at the start of his training, he knew that he no longer needed it.
He couldn''t use toki, so he couldn''t learn any of those techniques from the faction. Seraphina could only teach him hand-to-handbat. Closebat was also one of the things she taught him, but she also quickly realized that her training was bing obsolete.
Everyone in the Judgement faction saw it.
They knew Ss was powerful... Probably even stronger than Grant. But that wasn''t why they were shocked.
They were shocked because, despite knowing how powerful Ss was, they all saw that his technique wasn''t the best.
Sure, it wasn''t bad, but it wasn''t the best either. His boxing form also didn''t go down well with them. Gilea already had its form of boxing that had been created with toki in mind.
It wasn''t exactly like boxing from earth, but it was simr. However, just like most martial arts on Earth, both Gilea''s boxing, as well as Ss'', had their fair share of weaknesses, yet many of them weren''t actually shared weaknesses.
However, that was beside the point. What they were shocked about was the fact that Ss hadn''t actually taken their style of boxing when fighting in close quarters with Seraphina.
Every time he saw something not working, he would slightly change it to fit what he was doing.
All they could do was watch as Ss grew at a monstrous rate, and it wasn''t just the faction who saw this happening.
Grant, Archie, Life, Death, Eclipse... They all watched it happen with raised brows and dropped jaws.
Throughout the weeks many had already switched their votes to Ss, but since he technically wasn''t part of the Judgement faction, it made things a little awkward.
However, after a while of bickering between the faction, the temporary leader of Darkless, Archie, decided to step forward, allowing them to vote for Ss.
When the votes leaned toward Ss, Grant simply challenged him to a duel for the general role. Ss had expected this, but the others felt quite angry about it.
However, just when the people thought that the drama within the faction couldn''t get higher, something happened.
Walking toward the faction, Ss had his hands in his pockets and walked beside a red-haired boy.
"Man... I''m so happy you''re letting me watch this time." Alex jumped for joy.
"Yeah, yeah. Whatever." Ss sighed while rubbing the bridge of his nose.
He had a horrible headache and he had no clue why... However, it seemed to have started the moment Alex opened his mouth and begged him to let him watch his training.
"Shouldn''t you train with a mage of something?" Ss asked with a slightly annoyed tone.
He didn''t really like Alex all that much. He would much rather hang out with Nymira. She was much quieter and only spoke when she deemed it necessary.
Plus, Ss saw many simrities between him and her. She was much easier to rte with, and conversations, despite sometimes being dull, were much more fun than any conversation he had with Alex...
They just didn''t have the same sense of humor.
When Alex and Ss finally reached the faction, they could see people crowding around. They were in an uproar for some reason. Many of them were gearing up, while a small minority tried to calm them down.I think you should take a look at
"What''s wrong?" Ss raised a brow when he finally came into earshot.
When his voice reached the crowd, they all looked back at him with enraged expressions, yet the rage was not directed at him.
"Grant... That bastard." One of them gritted their teeth, trying their hardest not to fly into a rage.
"What did he do?" Ss asked with a slightly serious tone.
"He killed one of us!" Seraphina roared, causing Ss to raise a brow.
"He did? Who?" Ss tilted his head, yet instead of answering him, they simply parted, allowing Ss to finally see what they were crowded around...
To be specific... Who they were crowded around.
''Ohhhh Shit. #2! Noooooo!'' Ss inwardly thought with an exaggerated scream.
Of course, he didn''t really care about the manying on the floor. However, he had to act like he did. Even if Grant hadn''t done this, it would still work against him.
Hell, they might not even have to duel if this whole riot thing goes to n.
"Who''s that?" Alex asked.
"Number 2. May he rest in peace." Ss whispered while Alex simply raised a brow.
Walking forward, Ss used mystic eyes to analyze the body before him. When he looked it up and down, he raised another brow.
"Poison..." Ss muttered.
"What? No... Of course it wasn''t poison. That''s not funny, Game! He had a wound of his head."
"Yeah, but he was poisoned. I don''t know if it was before or after, but the scarring on the liver tells me that it was most likely ingested. I suggest none of you drink at the bar any time soon." Ss stroked his chin.
"Why would Grant poison him? I thought you said he was stronger than all these people." Alex asked while kneeling down as well.
"Yes, he is... But that''s not the point." Ss narrowed his eyes while several thoughts went through his mind.
''If this was Grant''s doing, he wouldn''t poison them for no reason... Unless.'' Ss'' finger stabbed into #2''s body, and when it came out, it was covered in blood.
"What are you doing?" Seraphina asked while taking a step back, yet Ss didn''t listen to her as he wordlessly licked his finger.
Everyone around him was rmed to see this, but Ss simply looked forward and waited for the message.
[Pink-Python''s poison has been detected]
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Chapter 148 Judgement [4] - The Final Showdown
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[Pink-Python''s poison has been detected]
''As expected... How predictable.'' Ss sneered at what he was seeing.
Grant was trying to frame him, and he was using the oldest trick in the book... Or at least that''s what Ss considered it.
When seeing how Grant had reactedst time, Ss had thought through a few possibilities that might happen. They ranged from assassination attempts to the murder of those close to him, so he had ced down the appropriate measures to make sure that none of them woulde to fruition.
Over thest few weeks, Ss had seen the aftermath of some of Grant''s attempts, and if he were to be honest, they were not in the very least a pretty sit to behold.
Assassins from the Assassin''s Guild were sent to kill him, however, since they couldn''t really enter the city without a pass, they needed to wait until Ss left the city.
Unfortunately for them, Ss left the city almost every day. He had been given an infinite pass by Archie after the events with Greed as a thank you, so he was going to use it to the best of his ability.
Hunting within the nearby forest, he would kill a few beasts and take their cores back to the city markets to sell. This time, he didn''t scam the market like he did back in dia, but that was mainly because he has grown to like the people of this city.
It was a weird feeling, but that''s not the point of this shback.
Every time he would go outside to hunt, he would be attacked by a few assassins.
Of course, while many might think that Grant had sent them, it was a well-known secret among the assassinmunity that Ss was one of the two only survivors from what they called the Eldrich terror attack.
that had happened against Greed, and all the rumors that had been surfacing about it, it wasn''t much of a surprise if many of the assassin''s guild members would think that Ss had something to do with the death of Arlos, their leader.
Of course, none of them really thought that he was the one to kill their leader. Their minds never went in that direction.
In their eyes, the only thing that could have possibly killed their leader was the monster that had destroyed half the misty forest and made one of the strongest walkers in the continent drop down to its knees and shiver, rocking back and forth the entire time like a little girl trying to forget a nightmare.
Of course, Ss killed them pretty easily and retrieved their armor and anything they had on them before selling it in the market for a fair price.
Assassins stoppeding after him when a group of three Rank 3 tinum assassins were killed. The guild quickly sent an apology letter for their rudeness to the Darkless organization and stopped sending more assassins.
A few other times, a mercenary or two would be sent to kill Alex, yet Grant quickly realized that they would nevere back after such a mission, and mercenaries, in general, stopped taking missions from the judgment faction.
Grant tried many more things after that, yet no matter what he did, it always ended in failure. Grant, was getting more and more angry over time, and after hisst attempt had failed, Ss could only think of one more thing that could ruin Ss and his chances to be the 7th general.
''Ast desperate measure, huh...'' Ss thought while casting a purge spell under #2''s body, purging all the poison from his body. At the same time, he used water magic to manipte the poison within a ss bottle on his hip.
Suddenly, the poison turned into a mist with a little bit of fire magic, before, it turned back into a liquid, entered through #2''s mouth, and traveled through his body the normal way it would have done if it had been ingested.
"He''s been poisoned," Ss spoke through gritted teeth as if he was filled with rage.
"What? We can all see the wound and the bleeding. He''s not been poisoned-"
"No... it is definitely poisoning." Ss balled his hands into fists while stomping over to a certain section of the body.
A blue magic circle appeared hovering over his hand before it was pointed at the body.
A bit of blood came out of the body, and just when people were about to beginining to Ss to stop desecrating the dead, he created another magic circle and began to separate something from the blood.
They could all see the runes on his second magic circle rapidly changing, flickering at extremely fast speeds, until...
A collective gasp went through the crowd as a small bit of silverish-blue liquid came out of the body.
Releasing the first magic circle, he quickly turned it into a brown one before using his earth magic to create a small tube.
The position separation would have never been something he would be capable of if he didn''t already have experience manipting both liquids.
For a few weeks now, he had been practicing with blood control, but recently, he had been practicing with the control of different types of poisons.
The problem, of course, wasn''t the poison itself, but instead the density of the liquid. The more dense it was, the much harder it became to manipte. Sure, he could control blood to a certain extent, but for some reason, there was something that held him back. As if there was some kind of block that made it close to impossible for him to manipte it the same way one would manipte water using magic.I think you should take a look at
The way he manipted blood and poison was close to how a wind mage might manipte earth and water. It felt like he was simply moving them around rather than manipting them to the extent he would have liked to.
However, such a thing would have to wait.
For now, Ss had bigger issues at hand.
"This must be a frame attempt!" Seraphina suddenly shouted.
"What?" Ss asked with a little bit of anger in his voice, acting as if the anger of watching someone from his faction die had made him blind to the truth.
"Can''t you see it? We would have demanded answers from Grant, he would have gotten to body tested and would have told us that it was poison. He would have imed that he would never use poison to kill someone, and then point that finger at you for trying to frame him... He must have never thought that you''d be able to find the poison first!" Seraphina clenched her teeth in rage.
''She might be more intelligent than I give her credit for.'' Ss thought while acting like he was trying to understand what was happening.
Taking a deep breath in, Ss acted like he was trying to calm down, making everyone around him do the same.
However, a couple of rageful words came out of Ss'' mouth that made everyone around him widen their eyes for a moment.
"I''m going to kill him!" Ss muttered with a voice filled with rage.
"Oh really? You? You''re going to attempt to kill me?" Grant suddenly spoke, having seemingly appeared out of nowhere wearing his full suit of armor.
"You think I''m unable to?" Ss snapped back.
"I think you''re too weak." Grant chuckled mockingly, yet inwardly, he was seething with rage.
He couldn''t believe that his n hadn''t worked, but he could always just say that it was Ss who had nned the whole thing, and Seraphina helped him pin it on him.
"Traitor!" A man shouted and pointed his spear at Grant.
"..."
"..."
"..."
"Kill him!" Everyone''s eyes suddenly lit up with rage as they raised their weapons into the air, Alex and Seraphina excluded.
"Game... You need to calm down. Violence isn''t the answer. You told Nymira that, remember?!" Alex held Ss by his shoulder, forcing him to look back into his eyes.
''So, they''ve been talking...'' Ss thought to himself while recalling that he did in fact tell Nymira that. However, that was mostly because she was in a bad ce at the time. Ss could feel the fear and rage emanating from her life force, and he knew that such a path would only make her life miserable.
She wasn''t like him. He saw her heart begin beating more rapidly when she looked at the corpses they would have to move. Sure, it returned to normal after a bit, but that was never a thing that happened to Ss.
His first kill didn''t even get a reaction out of him. He did it quickly and painlessly, then med it on one of the maids that worked in his orphanage.
Hearing what Alex had said, everyone stopped for a moment and looked at Ss.
However, before Ss could say what he might have wanted to say, another voice echoed throughout the region.
Looking toward the direction of the voice, 4 individuals could be seennding on the ground gracefully and without making a sinlge sound.
Running toward the four generals, Seraphina quickly exined the situation to Archie while the entire faction stood in a stalemate, as if they were waiting for the order that would allow them to y the bastard before them.
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Chapter 149 Judgement [5] - Silas Vs Grant
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After analyzing the situation and talking to everyone there, Archie returned to the generals and spoke to them for a moment before making his decision.
"We have decided to hold the duel tomorrow." Archie stated matter-of-factly.
"I support your decision." Grant nodded.
"Well... I do not need your support to make this decision. You are wee to support me, but I don''t really need you to. This is a decision that has been made among the generals, not among you." Archie narrowed his eyes in annoyance.
"Yeah yeah." Grant waved his words off with a smile. He knew he had annoyed him, but he was too happy to care.
Grant knew that the longer he let Ss train, the harder it would be to beat him. He was still within the delusion that he could beat Ss despite Ss having shown to be superior to him in every way, but he himself still had a few things up his sleeve.
Ss, on the other hand, was equally happen. He knew that, no matter what Grant threw at him, in the end, it would be him who would most likely win their duel.
Plus, he had done something a while ago that would guarantee his victory, even if Grant somehow found a way to somehow be as strong as a beast with a sapphire core, it didn''t matter. He had already lost.
Archie looked at Ss for a moment before also narrowing his eyes. He hadn''t actually talked to Ss ever since Greed''s death, but from how he looked, Ss seemed to be alright.
He wasughing and making jokes with everyone around him. Archie would have thought that he would have looked more angry, or at the very least agitated, but he lookedpletely normal.
As if the news about his family hadn''t affected him at all.
Looking away from Ss, Archie turned around and left with generals following behind him.
After that, not much happened.
The rest of the day was uneventful, even in the Judgement faction.
They did a small memorial for the man that had died before everyone eventually moved on.
Alex decided to go home for the day, while Ss decided to check up on someone.
"You alright?" Ss asked with a raised brow.
"Yeah, why?"
"You''re friend just died. A normal person would be grieving." Ss answered back.
"Yeah. A normal person... I think you know more than anyone else that people whoe to this city aren''t normal." She chuckled.
"You''re not sad."
"I would be, but you''ll kill Grant for us, so no need for me to grieve too much." Seraphina shrugged while Ss sighed.
"Your confidence in me is ttering."
"My confidence in youes from the fact that I am almost certain you''re the one who killed Greed. Honestly, what is Grant thinking trying to go up against you when he probably knows that as well."
"Hmm." Ss hummed, quickly losing interest in the conversation.
After a few more small chats with the people of the faction, Ss also decided to head home and sleep for once.
It had been quite a long time since hest slept, and he was pretty exhausted mentally.
Physically, there wasn''t much that could tire him. Technically, he hadn''t slept ever since Greed had died.
Entering his room, Ss took a nce at the enormous board before dropping to the ground andying there.
He felt his eyelids be heavy, yet despite trying his best, he couldn''t sleep... And he knew why.
His anger had remained the same ever since finding out about his parents and siblings. At first, he let out all his anger on Greed, but after killing her, he realized what she said was right.
Killing her wouldn''t bring his family back, and it would most definitely not make him feel better.
But for now, he didn''t need to feel better. All he needed to do was control himself, and right now he was doing it so well that even Nymira hadn''t seemed to notice his emotional turmoil.
The rest of the night went as he had expected. He couldn''t sleep.
Whenever he was alone, his mind would go to some pretty dark ces. All he could think about was his family.I think you should take a look at
How would they react to him being alive? Will they me him for what happened?
He was to me, right?
However, by the end of the night, he hade to a conclusion.
''I said I would kill them...'' Ss remembered when he first left with Archie after dia''s attack and met three individuals.
The man from the Skrk family, the man wearing royal robes, and the church guy who gave him the creeps.
He had marked them all as his enemies, and right now, his revenge would be pointed toward them and the factions they were rted to.
He couldn''t help but think back to the prince that was in the city. They were forced to let him go since Darkless was not strong enough to go to war, especially while missing three generals, two of them being dead.
But Ss understood something too.
''Royals, Skrks, and the Church of Gilea...
What a nicebination of government for me to overthrow once more.'' Ss smirked.
If he wanted to overthrow a powerful noble family, a church that reached the ends of the continent, and all the royals, he wouldn''t be able to do it alone nearly as fast as he would like to.
So the objective, for now, had be simple.
Make the Darkless organization so powerful that people would drop to their knees in fear the moment they hear its name.
And then attack all their enemies with a force that they cannote back from.
***
Crowds of people had gathered from all corners of the city, their murmurs filling the air with anticipation. The atmosphere was electric, crackling with a mixture of curiosity, excitement, and a hint of tension. This wasn''t just any ordinary gathering¡ªit was a moment of great significance for the fate of the organization.
"What''s happening here?" a man asked, his eyes darting around the bustling crowd.
"Didn''t you hear? The Judgement faction is about to choose their next leader, and it seems there are two candidates vying for the position," another man exined, his voice filled with intrigue.
"Two candidates? Who are they?" the first man inquired, his interest piqued.
"The first candidate is Game, chosen by the Generals and the temporarymander. He''s proven himself with his skills and strategic prowess," the second man replied, his gaze fixed on the approaching figure of Ss.
"The second candidate is Grant, the rightful heir chosen by thetemander. He''s known for his exceptional strength and his connection to powerful mana," a woman chimed in, her eyes flickering with anticipation as she pointed toward the imposing figure d in pulsating armor.
As Ss and Grant made their way toward the center of the crowd, a hush fell over the spectators, their gazes locked onto the two contenders. Ss exuded a sense of confidence, his piercing eyes scanning the crowd, while Grant stood tall, his imposing figure radiating a palpable aura of power.
The tension was palpable as the two candidates reached the designated spot, the weight of the moment hanging heavy in the air. The crowd watched with bated breath, eagerly awaiting the proceedings that would determine the future of the faction and possibly even the organization.
All eyes were on Ss and Grant, their every move scrutinized, their destinies intertwined with the fate of the organization.
Ss, his expressionposed, stepped forward, his voice resonating with authority. "I stand before you today not only as a candidate, but as a leader who has proven himself through unwavering dedication, strategic acumen, and an unyieldingmitment to justice. I believe in the values of the Judgement faction and the mission we strive to aplish."
The crowd listened attentively, captivated by Ss'' words and his unwavering conviction. His reputation as a formidable tactician and his ability tomand respect were well-known, lending weight to his candidacy.
"This does not matter. I will win." Grant spoke, yet his words didn''t affect the people the same way.
It simply annoyed them, and became extremely unlikable in the eyes of many.
As Grant spoke, his words resonated with those who believed in the raw power and might of the organization. His presence exuded an undeniable strength, and there were those in the crowd who were drawn to his unwavering resolve.
The crowd fell into a hushed debate, the murmurs and whispers weaving through the air as individuals weighed the merits of each candidate. Some were drawn to Ss'' aura, while others who thought Ss was far too young to take upon the role of a leader thought that Grant, no matter how unlikable he was, was more suited.
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[I just realized I uploaded the wrong chapter yesterday. Give me a second and I''ll fix it.
[If you have enjoyed this chapter and would like to support the author, please vote using your power stones or golden tickets. Also, you can join my discord server today to see illustrations or converse about thetest chapters.]
Chapter 150 Judgement [6]
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[A/N: Sorry I haven''t fixed the previous chapter yet. The file that I was storing it in got corrupted so now I have to write it from scratch. I had a lot of funeral stuff to do this week, and today was the burial. This chapter was stockpiled btw, and that''s the only reason I was able to bring it out today. I''m really sorry for the inconvenience. Please try to bare with me.]
"Are you two ready?" Archie, who had seemingly stepped out of thin air, asked. He looked at both of them for a moment, causing both of them to brandish their weapons as an answer.
MySs took out both of his axes, while Archie simply whipped out a giant sword that he had been keeping in some kind of tiny body attached to his belt.
Ss stared at it for a moment and realized that it was a dimensional storage. The hilt had always been on the outside, but Ss couldn''t figure out what it was at first.
However, after looking at again, Ss realized that it was a dimensional scabbard. It was a pretty ingenious idea. Ss had to give them that much credit at the very least.
"No rules. Let the battle begin." Archie swiped his hands down, and at that moment, Grant turned into a blur as he activated his armor and shot forward as quickly as possible.
His sword sliced through the air like a bolt of lightning and appeared in front of Ss.
Without giving it much thought, Ss leaned back and dodged the attack.
The way he dodged it made it look like it was a breeze and could have done it in his sleep, and that kind of humiliation made Grant even angrier.
Throwing something on the ground, Grant smiled.
[An energy is entering your body]
[Your body has rejected the energy to a certain extent]
[Any mana that leaves your body will be disturbed]
Ss looked at the notifications for a moment before smirking slightly, but the smirk quickly disappeared faster than anyone could see it.
"I''m assuminig you don''t understand what just happened." Grant grinned.
"I do... I just don''t find it all that ammusing." Ss shrugged.
"Acting aloof I see. Well, that doesn''t matter now. But I''m sure you see it now, right? You see that I am superior to you in every way!"
"Are you... Schizophrenic? Because I''m pretty sure you''re seeing things." Ss raised a brow with a mocking tone.
"Enough of your mockery. Let everyone witness me mop you even after you''ve shown me everything you have to offer. Let me show everyone here that without your magic, you are nothing!" Grantughed.
''Is he... Stupid?'' Ss thought to himself.
Grant began to speed around. Ss could see several trinkets on his body that were shining with runic formations on them. Some made him quick, while others made his strikes stronger.
Yet, when Ss'' axe shes with Grant''s sword, Grant felt a shiver go down his body.
''Why isn''t he budging...'' He thought as a feeling of dread entered his heart.
Grant began to speed around again. He held his wide and long sword like it was a feather in his hands, continuously swinging it toward Ss in a fury of swipes that left everything around him cut and destroyed.I think you should take a look at
Archie made sure that the attacks from the battle didn''t reach the crowd by lowering some of therger floating crystals and creating a force field of energy around the two.
The crowd was amazed by how fast Grant was moving. Most of them were probably in the silver rank or lower, while mercenaries and others who did jobs that needed strength were around the gold rank.
Yet, it was a well-known fact that Grant was a high tinum rank, which is equivalent to a pristine amethyst beast.
As the audience watched the way he moved and struck with brilliance and grace, they could not help but open their mouths in awe. They were watching an amazing disy of power that they hadn''t seen before.
They were so mesmerized by the disy of strength, technique, and speed that they couldn''t see the other side of the picture.
They couldn''t see the look of distress on Grant''s face as every attack he threw was blocked as if he was nothing but a fly in the eyes of his enemy.
Ss'' brilliant emerald eyes stared into his soul with a heart-dropping re.
Every attack that was blocked felt like not only a hit to Grant''s ego, but it also made him feel slightly more terrified of Ss.
''What he did in my office was a fluke... He caught me by surprise... He probably didn''t even kill Greed, and even if he did, she was already weakened by the rest of the generals. There''s no way a kid who''s barely broken through to the solid-topaz core can beat me... He''s a mage!
He''s weak! He''s not wearing armor. He must be using some kind of trick!'' Grant screamed to himself.
Ss could see his eyes shake every time he blocked his attacks, and if he had to be honest, that look made Ss feel a jolt of exhration run through his body.
It felt amazing to slowly destroy someone the way he was doing right now. There was a me in his body that craved for that feeling ever since he was had been on Earth.
The feeling of someonepletely losing their will. The feeling of someone slowly losing faith as you crush their hopes and dreams.
That was the feeling he had been craving for, yet it was only now that he felt it to its true extent once more. And the only reason this was happening in the first ce was because the man before him had an ego.
It always felt better when they had an ego.
Slowly, a smile began to extend from the corner of Ss'' lips.
"Grant... Today I''ll show that.
I don''t need magic to beat the likes of you."
When those guttural words entered Grant''s ears, he felt another shiver go down his spine.
And before he could react to what was about toe, everyone else felt it as well.
*Fwoohm!*
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Chapter 151 Judgement [7]
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Suddenly, a bloody red aura erupted out of Ss'' body with an exhale.
That aura expanded in all directions, swallowing everyone around into it and making them feel like their stomachs had dropped into their bowls.
It was a killing intent so thick that it made everyone in the vicinity stop breathing, Archie included.
"Today... I will make you an example..." Ss'' words echoed within the minds of everyone as if his voice was booming right next to their ears.
"Of what happens when you make me your enemy."
Archie couldn''t help but narrow his eyes at Ss'' words while the rest of the generals who were around felt a shiver down their spines.
It was expected for Eclipse and Life since they were weaker than Ss, but Death became worried vy rhe feeling that wss bubbling inside him.
He was stronger than Ss. He was more than sure it... So why was he feeling like this?
Why did it feel like they had somehow awakened a monster?
Looking into Grant''s eyes, Ss stepped forward, instantly disappearing from where he stood.
In the blink of an eye, he had appeared in front of Grant with his hand extended toward his face.
Grant couldn''t react in time.
Ss was far too quick for even his eyes to process what had just happened, however, his instincts saved him by the skin of his teeth.
Suddenly, a helmet formed out of his armor and covered his face and instant before it would have been crushed like a can under the iron d grip of Ss'' hand.
"You think your armor will save you?" Ss asked woth an empty-eyed smile.
*snap*
A snap echoed throughout the district.
And what followed it was a bloodcurdling scream.
After Ss dnapped his fingers, Grant suddenly dropped to the ground and began to scream at the top of his lungs.
He didn''t understand what was happening, and even if he wanted to, he wouldn''t have been able to.
The pain shooting through his body was too intense. It was like the gates of hell had opened inside him as his blood felt like it was beginning to boil through his arteries.
No one could see it, but blood was steaming out of his eye sockets like waterfalls.
They scorched his skin and made him feel an unimaginable amount of pain.
Crouching down, Ss through the visor on Grant''s helmet with a deadpan expression...
Before a smile bloomed on his face.
"What do you think of the poison I injected into you?" Ss asked in a whispered voice, yet despite his voice reaching Grant''s ears, he still couldn''t hear him.I think you should take a look at
The pain was making everything else feel numb, and as if it wasn''t there.
Ss could see several runes on his armor beginning to shine in order to heal him and possibly even save him, but Ss knew that it would only dy the inevitable.
"You must be asking, when did I inject you with poison? Right? That''s what you''re thinking... If you''re even able to think." Ss whispered to him with a tilt of the head.
"Remember the first time you shook my hand and I was shaking like a leaf? You probably felt a lot of pride back then. Man, it must have really boosted your ego... How pathetic." Ss spat.
"That''s when I did it... That''s when I injected you with it. Of course, you''d think it would have killed you straight away but unawakened humans are a funny thing, aren''t they? All I needed to do was inject the poison into your non-awakened mana core and wait for the right moment to let it ravage your body." Ss chuckled.
"You know, they never really told me how painful it would be, but man this was worth it."
"You have no idea how long I''ve waited to see you in this state." Ss voice suddenly becane deeper, yet now, unlike before, he could be heard by everyone.
"Little tiny Grant, hiding behind a suit of armor that he can barely activate... How pathetic, right?" Ss asked as his emerald green eyes swirled like the abyss of a never-ending void.
"How would you like it if I were to rip it away from your skin...
Piece by piece?"
But in that moment, Ss saw a rune he recognized suddenly light up.
Looking toward it, his eyes narrowed slightly.
In the next second, Ss felt the air part before him as a punch ripped through the air and appeared before him.
"You shouldn''t have done that." Ss muttered while catching the iing fist with a single hand.
"Sure, your armor is pretty durable... Hell, it had quite a few useful enchantments even thought it isn''t even 10% awakened. To think it would have the ability to reduce pain to this extent." Ss scratched his chin for a moment, but he quickly saw a sword slice through the air and aim for his neck.
"But here''s a thing about suits of armor." Ss muttered while raising his hand.
At the same time, he circted earth mana throughout his body, allowing him to easily catch the iing de as it it was nothing more than feather.
"Every suit of armor had a weak spot...
And when it doesn''t, you make your own."
*BOOM*
A punchnded onto his abdomen, and within a second, he was sent flying above the crowd at incredible speed.
Ss suddenly became a blur, leaving a small crater the size of a human where he previously stood.
Flying through the air at incredible speeds, Ss appeared before Grant with both his arms raised into the air before he hammered them down, shooting Grant through a building and mming him into the ground.
"Don''t be shy. Come on... Come out of your shell a little." Ss chuckled slightly.
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Chapter 152 Judgement [8]
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Leaning down, Ss grabbed onto Grant''s chest piece and pulled with all his might.
The armor might have been insanely strong, but just like a sword, it was just a piece of metal if it didn''t have the right wielder.
With one powerful pull, Ss ripped away the chest piece from Grant''s body and quickly threw it to the side.
Before Grant could even react to the first piece of armor being ripped away from, him, Ss'' fingers went straight through his visor before grabbing his helmet and ripping it away from his head.
When Ss finally threw the helmet to the side and looked at Grant''s expression, all he saw was fear.
"A. What happened to all that confidence you had when you said you''d defeat me. Come on. Show me that Grant again. I''ve been rearing for a good fight." Ss jumped around with both his hands up and threw a few punches into the air
"Y-You will let me go..." Grant ordered while Ss raised a brow.
"Is that an authoritative tone I hear?" Ss tilted his head with a terrifying smile.
"P-Please... You''ve won. Okay? You''ve won. You can be Judgement. You can take the armor too. J-Just let me live." Grant stuttered.
"No no no... That won''t do!" Ss shook his head with a mncholic smile.
"What kind of Judgement would I be if I didn''t make you an example to all those little rule breakers? What will they think of me if I showed someone like you mercy?" Ss asked with a humorous tone.
"Game... You''ve won. Isn''t that enough?" Grant asked with a shake in his voice.
"No..." Ss'' tone suddenly shifted as he looked into Grant''s eyes with a pitying gaze. Yet, that pity didn''tst long as it was quickly extinguished before being reced by something far worse.
Disgust.
"You''re pathetic, you know that?" Ss asked while cing his hands in his pocket and taking a few steps back.
"I wonder if you''ll feel the pain from the pink-python''s poison if I rip all of your armor away." Ss stroked his chin before shrugging.
"Only one way to find out, I guess."
The next moments were some of the worst moments of Grant''s life.
The ripping away of the armor wasn''t painful at all, but it was what came with it that made every second more excruciating than thest.
Every time Ss ripped away a piece of armor, the pain from the poison would return, increasing with every armor piece that was ripped off. It wasn''t nearly as bad when the front part of the chest piece was ripped off.
Hell, even when the helmet was taken away from him, it felt like a pinch at most.
Yet, now it was worse than ever.
Every breath he took made him feel pain.
Every breeze of air that touched his skin made it feel like he was burning alive.
He screamed in agony the entire time, yet Ss simply looked at him with a stoic smile as he continued to torture him.
Ss made sure to make the process as slow as possible. He wanted to see the pain in Grant''s eyes as he died in his hands.
Of course, the poison would eventually kill him, but the pink python''s poison was not like any other.
At the dose that Ss had injected it in, it would most likely take up to an hour to kill him.
And while that hour would feel quite short for Ss, he knew more than anyone that extreme pain like this would most likely make every single second feel like hours.
He had seen it many times on Earth. The only thing he was worried about was if the crowd would wait until he was done...
So he did the sensible thing and took the action back to them.
*Swoosh*
*Boom*
A figure suddenly mmed into the center of the small fighting area where the crowd was standing around.
All their eyes darted toward the rising dust cloud with raised brows, but when they heard the sound that came out of it, they quickly understood what just happened.
At one of the edges of the fighting area, Ss could be seennding gracefully with his hands behind his back. He slowly walked toward the dust cloud, and when he was in front of it, he cleared it with a single p.
As the dust cloud cleared, everyone''s eyesnded upon the screaming figure of a half-armored man bleeding out of his eyes, ears, nose, and mouth. I think you should take a look at
Blood streamed from the top of his head and down his face, dying it red with blood while making his figure look even worse than before.
Looking at the crowd with a satisfied nod, Ss turned to Grant and leaned down once again.
Ss continued what he had been doing earlier.
It only took him a few more minutes, but eventually, the armor had beenpletely ripped off, and all you could see was Grant''s writhing figure on the ground, screaming and clutching onto his clothes as if they were thest thing he could rely on.
"I''m bored." Ss sighed.
He thought that this whole fight would help him with the anger problem he had been having, but even though it worked for him at the start, the screaming was beginning to get a little dull.
Without a single shred of hesitation, Ss leaned down and crushed Grant''s vocal cords.
His screams quickly became whispered as he rolled around with his hands around his neck. His eyes quickly began to bulge as they became even redder than before.
And for once, there was Ss.
Looking around, Ss could see everyone in the audience looking at the stage with slightly horrified expressions.
While most couldn''t help but gulp and look at Ss with fear, some looked at him with rage, while others, mainly from the Judgement faction, looked at him with slight gratitude.
Yet, despite the gratitude, there was a thought going through their mind that made the gulp with a shred of fear in their eyes.
''Did we make the right choice?''
Sure, Grant was bad, but did he deserve to go through so much pain?
Many agreed, yet, there was still a vast andrge group within the faction that didn''t.
They had been supporting Ss the whole time because Grant seemed so much worse, but now that they looked at it subjectively, they could not help but ask themselves if they had been raising a monster.
Maybe, by trying to get rid of one monster, they had brought another one into power...
The minutes went on as the whispered screams continued. Ss hadn''t moved from his spot for a few minutes, and just when Archie was about to step in and call the winner of the battle, Ss finally moved again.
Leaning down, Ss grabbed Grant''s head and lifted him up into the air, and looked him in the eyes.
Without saying a single word, Ss turned him around and stuck his hand in his mouth before ripping the top half of his head away from the bottom half, killing him in an instant.
"Holy fuck." Death couldn''t help but exim as a look of disgust appeared on his face.
Life looked away with a dreaded expression, while Archie and Eclipse simply raised a brow.
"Winner, Game Evergreen. From this point forward, you have received the title and role of ''Judgement of Darkless'' and have be the 7th general of the organization. As the 7th general, you will inherit Sentinal, the armor that you see beside you." Archie pointed at the pile of metal next to Ss.
"Do you have the chest piece?" Archie asked after looking around for a moment.
"Give me a second." Ss sighed and turned into a blur. A few secondster, he returned with a pile of scraps in his arms that he quickly dropped onto the ground.
"Touch the chest piece and ce your mana signature on it." Archie ordered, and Ss did as he was told.
When he did so, he saw a rune appear on the crystal ced in the middle of the chest piece before Ss felt something.
An intrinsic connection was suddenly made between him and the armor.
Grabbing the crystal with his mana signature on it, Ss ced it on the center of his chest, and with a single thought, every single piece of the armor flew toward him and suddenly encapsted his body.
"It fits..." Ss muttered.
"It is designed to fit all wearers." Archie exined before looking Ss up and down and narrowing his eyes.
Understanding what Archie was getting it, Ss injected a bit of his mana through the armor and quickly activated it, and when he did, something unexpected happened.
[An extraterrestrial artifact has been detected]
[Analysis Complete]
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Chapter 153 Silas Judgement [1] - Sentinel
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[Chapter 148 has been fixed. Sorry for the dy]
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[An extraterrestrial artifact has been detected]
[Analysis Complete]
[Description: An orb created from a highly dense metal, forged within a dying dwarf star. The orb is virtually indestructible and could adapt to environments, creatures, and people. The orb seems to be connected to an armor set]
The description didn''t exin further, but Ss understood the gist of it, and now, he even had a theory as to why so many people were unable to activate the armor.
However, before he could continue to think about his theory, his eyes were diverted in a certain direction where two sets of screens could be seen.
[You have killed a lesser human]
[Devouring one life force]
[Your life force grows stronger]
[Your killing intent grows stronger]
[Your will grows stronger]
Ss raises a brow as these were a set of screens he hadn''t seen before.
The life equation would usually just tell him that he killed a human and that he absorbed their life force, but usually, it didn''t say anything more.
At the same time, Ss had thought for the longest time that devouring a life force was simply taking the essence of their bloodline. He never really understood how it worked, but there was something at the back of his mind, itching toe forward and remind him of a certain theory he once had.
''Oh shit... The light and darkness thing I was thinking about a year ago or so. I theorized that the light and darkness element came from people''s souls, not their cores. Honestly, it was a pretty solid theory. But that''s not the point... If I''m right, this whole soul-devouring thing could have something to do with how the soul can create these two elements.
It could also catapult my research on the life equation having branded itself onto my soul, allowing me to reincarnate like this, use healing magic like it''s nothing, and possibly even help me with my research on the evolution blessing too!'' Ss thought to himself with a trace of excitement.
However, he quickly stopped himself by looking back at the screen.
''Every time I kill something, I take a little bit of their bloodline. So far, I''ve seen that having a strong bloodline usually meant that they were harder to gain, however, stronger bloodlines do feel much purer despite their low precentage... It''s as if a single precent from a strong bloodline is equal to 33% precent of others. It''s quite amazing actually...'' Ss thought to himself while scratching his chin,pletely ignoring everyone around him.
They couldn''t see his facial expression since he was wearing a helmet, however, they could see that he was thinking about something from how he was acting.
"Game. Are you there?" Archie asked, but Ss didn''t reply.
''An extraterrestrial artifact... Man is that a mouthful.'' Ss inwardly chuckled before getting serious again in an instant.
''As I expected, there were bound to be people outside of this. Hell, Ie from a different. This shouldn''t be that much of a shocker. Though...'' Ss scratched his chin again before willing for the helmet to retract back into the armor.
Reaching for his chest, Ss Grabbed the orb and took it out of where it was previously, and now that he had a connection to the armor, it was much easier since it allowed to him to do it the moment he thought of it.
Lifting the orb up to his eyes, he looked at it for a moment before tilting his head.
''I don''t know why I didn''t see it before, but this thing is like nothing I''ve ever seen before. It soft, but now that I''m holding it and even have a connection to it, its allowing me to see the tremendous amoung of power that it holds.'' Ss was surprised, but there was something even more surprising.
''It''s... Not mana?'' Ss widened his eyes in shock.
''If it''s not mana, what the hell is it?!''
Sure, mystic eyes allowed him to see inside it, but that was all. Usually, to his eyes, mana would show up as milky white energy that flowed out of everything whether it was living or dead. Everything had a little bit of mana in it, or at least that is the case on this.
However, each thing had a different type of mana inside it. Some simply had pure mana within them, like most unawakened humans, and any runes that you see around that illuminate with a white shine.
Metals, beasts with no affinities, and many more things with neutral affinities leaked with pure and natural mana.
On the other hand, other things simply had a broken-down version of pure mana, such as awakened humans without a light or darkness affinity, beasts, monsters, most races, rocks, fire, water, air... Everything leaked with a certain type of mana, no matter what it was.
Yet, the orb before Ss didn''t... It was quite fascinating, the say the least. It leaked with another energy that he had never seen before.I think you should take a look at
It was slightly purple, however, that same purple was shrouded with darkness, followed by a glint of fiery crimson.
The three colors were a mess, shing against each other as if they were fighting for control over the orb, yet no matter what they did, they always remained bnced.
''I''m going to have to study these things.'' Ss thought before returning the orb back into his armor and looking back at the screens to his right.
[Calcting armorpatibility...]
[...]
[Calctionsplete]
[Armor Compatability: 4%] [A/N: Don''t get mad yet. You''ll understand what this means in a few chapters.]
[Orb Compatability: 100%]
"What!?" Ss shouted aloud, causing the audience to suddenly flinch.
Realizing that he was still in the fighting area, Ss looked around with a slight all expression before scratching the back of his head with slight embarrassment.
"Ah... Sorry about that. I got caught up in my own-."
"GAME EVERGREEN!" Suddenly, Ss saw a man rush toward him with a sword in his hand, yet without even giving the man a second nce, his hand instinctively moved toward his face before crushing it under his grip.
*Thud*
Blood sttered all over Ss, while Archie simply covered himself in toki, making the blood not even touch him.
Ss, on the other hand, was covered in blood from head to toe, yet with a snap of his fingers, he cleaned himself with water magic before using purge to destroy any germs or dirt that might have gotten onto him and had yet to be cleaned by the water magic.
''Maybe I should create a spell called cleanse? Combining water and healing magic to purge all germs and small dirt from my body while, at the same time, cleaning me fully.''
With another weave of his fingers, Ss created another spell that blew wind from under him and dried him in an instant.
The crowd looked on in shock. However, not all of them looked on for the same reason.
Some were shocked that Ss had killed someone so easily despite his age. Others, however, primarily mages, were shocked to see him use those spells with a swipe of his hand, not having to even say a single word as he created the spells.
''Looks like he doesn''t care anymore.'' Jessica, who was standing near the back of the crowds, thought with a worried expression.
She could remember Ss trying his best to hide his abilities from them when he first went on a mission with them, but now that she was looking at him, it seemed like he no longer cared about that.
''Did the news about his family really affect him that much?'' She thought to herself while biting her lower lip.
She had already seen what Ss looked like when he stopped holding back. Or, at least that''s what she thought the entire time.
From Jessica''s point of view, Ss was a ticking time bomb. In her eyes, he was an unbeatable monster that could probably kill and destroy everyone in the city without a second thought if he wanted to.
She had seen the form that had broken out of him when he fought Arlos, the leader of the assassin''s guild, and thought that it was something he could summon at a moment''s notice.
That''s why she was so scared when she found out that he was going to fight against Greed, and also why she was so terrified when she found out about Ss'' family.
He hadn''t told her, but someone else had...
Eclipse.
He had seen how close they were when they were nning on rebelling against Greed, and had mistaken it for a close friendship. He had told her about Ss'' family a day before Ss found out, and hoped that she would ease it onto him, but he was wrong.
She hadn''t told him. Of course, she didn''t technically need to.
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Chapter 154 Silas Judgement [2]
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Sure, she was his ve, but her job was to simply be that. She wasn''t loyal to him; she wasn''t allowed to betray him.
However, there was a sense of warmth in her heart when she realized how lucky she was. She had be a ve, yet by bing so, she gained Ss'' protection and became one of the only people he could fully trust. And since that was the case, it also meant that she was one of the only people he wouldn''t hurt her, even if he killed everyone around her.
She was at his mercy, but that was much better than the alternative that many others would face if Ss even suspected them of being an enemy.
However, she was not the only one with her worried about Ss'' sudden change in his stance of not hiding his power anymore.
Alex, who was watching from the side, couldn''t help but feel a little fear toward Ss after seeing him so easily kill someone who was supposed to be his rival in the election.
The generals all took a step back, with the exception of Archie, who was simply staring at Ss from where he stood with a worried expression.
No matter how much he would have liked it if Ss was on his side, that didn''t seem to be the case right now.
He knew that in a few years, Ss would most likely surpass him in strength, and before that happened, he needed to make sure of whether Ss was a friend or foe.
"Ahem..." Ss cleared his throat, catching the attention of everyone around him within an instant.
"I have now be Judgement, the 7th general of the Darkless organization. And what I''ve seen so far from my faction has been... Abysmal. Horrendous. Absolute embarrassing, and that''s me putting it lightly." Ss spoke with a cold and slightly distant voice.
The members of the faction who had been previously cheering for him just a few minutes before the fight had started were now frowning.
How could he say that about them when he had just joined? He clearly didn''t understand how the faction worked, or at least that was what they thought at that moment.
They felt embarrassed to be attacked by their own leader like that in front of everyone else. However, Ss didn''t care. He saw what they were feeling and didn''t think twice about saying the next words that came out of his mouth.
"Thest leader, I believe his name was Aleck? What a pathetic man... A truly weak man. A man who wouldn''t even wear this armor even if it would save his life. A man with so much pride that he''d rather die to a child than take the necessary precautions to save his own life.
And that man lead this faction? It is no surprise that it is in its current state... It is no surprise to me that everyone in this faction iszy and incapable... Or at least that was what I thought when I first saw them.
I saw thew throughout the city slowly breaking down. I would see corpses every time I left my room. I''d see horrendous acts being done left, right, and center, yet no matter how much a victim screamed for help, there wasn''t a single person from my faction there to help them.
Who would me me for thinking that they were a bunch of incapable losers?" Ss asked while looking around the crowd.
"Yet, when this piece of filth killed one of their own, I saw exactly what they were capable of. Yesterday, they were willing to go to war for their brother. I could see the fire aze in their eyes the moment they saw his corpse. I could feel their rage every time they breathed, trying their best to control their anger... I think you should take a look at
Those are the kind of people I need. And from now on, I will change this faction for the better. From now on, every single one of you will do your jobs as enforcers of thew, and anyone unwilling to do so can leave the faction for all I care.
If you don''t work, you will not be paid. If you abuse your power, I will strip you of it. If you go against my orders, the same thing will happen. I will not tolerate seeing this city turn into a criminal''s hiding ce. I will bring every single one of you to justice from this point forward, and if youmit a crime, I promise you that your punishment will not be lenient." Ss spoke as his killing intent reached the ends of the crowds.
Not a single person dared say a single word. Hell, not a single person dared to move even when the killing intent was lifted.
All they could do was let out a breath they didn''t even know they were holding.
That''s how terrified they were.
"I''m done. If you no longer want to be in the faction, ce your armor and weapons that you have received in the lounge area." Ss turned toward Archie onest time, giving him a side-long nce before turning into a blur and disappearing from the fighting area.
***
*Swoosh*
Sis'' figure could suddenly be seen on a rooftop where he could be seen perched, looking at a certain house from the distance.
His figure turned into a blur again and quickly appeared before the house''s door before quickly knocking on it and waiting for the person on the other side to show up.
*Click*
A low click echoed throughout the empty alleyways before a pink-haired girl peeked out of the door to see who it was.
Seeing that it was Ss, she quickly closed the door and took off thetch before opening it again with a slight smile.
"Did you win?" She asked.
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Chapter 155 Silas Judgement [3]
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"Of course I won." Ss smiled back.
"Shouldn''t you be celebrating or something?" Nymira asked while inviting Ss in.
"What do you think I''m doing here?" Ss raised a brow and took a step in.
"Uh... Where is Alex?" She asked, looking away from Ss'' back and turning her head outside.
"He''ll be here in a few minutes. Though, I would like to talk to you for a moment." Ss sighed while sitting on the couch.
"Why? Did I do something?" She asked with a slightly worried voice. For some reason, Ss'' smell had been all wrong since he had shown up in front of her doorstep. If it wasn''t for the distinct smell of blood that emanated from him, she wouldn''t have recognized him or even opened the door.
"No. Of course not. You''ve been nothing but delightful so far... I just want to ask you something before that Alexes and opens his mouth, thoroughly ruining my mood." Ss sighed while Nymira narrowed her eyes.
"What is it?" She asked with a little bit of skepticism in her voice.
"I''d like to know what you''d think of bing my apprentice." Ss asked.
"Oh... Sure." She shrugged.
"Alright, cool." Ss nodded.
"..."
"..."
Sitting next to Ss on the couch, she looked at him with a worried expression and a tilt of the head before asking.
"Is anything wrong?"
"Nothing''s wrong." Ss smiled back.
"..."
"..."
"You''re lying." She stated as if it was a fact.
"Eh... Should''ve expected this. You''re quite good with that nose thing you do." Ssplimented.
"Now you''re trying to change the subject."
"..."
"..."
With a sigh, Ss was contemting what to do.
He didn''t really want to exin what happened to his family, but he always knew that there was a high probability Nymira of all people, would understand that there was something wrong with him.
After all, her blessing proved quite useful in situations like this.
Throughout the next few minutes, Ss exined everything that happened... Not just about his family but about the reason he left dia in the first ce and epted Archie''s deal.
He couldn''t believe that he was dumping his emotions onto a child, but he felt a certain sense offortability when talking to someone he knew would understand him. Sure, right now, she looked even younger than him due to not having eaten much in thest month or two since being captured, but she had still gone through much more than most adults triple her age.
She had lost her only family, and then lost her adoptive family too. She was captured in this city and attacked on multiple asions by people who thought that they could take advantage of her.
Hell, even Ss, in his current life, hadn''t gone through as much as she had. Sure, hisst life was particrly bad, but when you''re a psychopath like he was, he didn''t necessarily find his life that bad since it was the only thing he knew.
Pain onlyes when you''re stripped. Of the thing that once brought you happiness, and since he didn''t know what happiness felt like until he touched a book in his previous life, he understood that he hadn''t necessarily gone through the same thing as Nymira...
In a way, she was suffering much more than he ever did.
And right now, she was the only person that garnered his sympathyI think you should take a look at
"I''m sorry you had to go through that." She simply stated, but that was enough for him.
"Wait... Does that mean when you first came here, you came with the intention of getting revenge on the royals for allowing such a thing to happen legally?" Nymira suddenly asked while looking at Ss with a slightly ufortable expression.
"Yeah..." He sighed.
"Oh..." She looked back at the ceiling, and they didn''t speak for a while.
However, before anything else could happen, she turned to him again and asked something.
"Promise me you won''t give me to them." Her eyes looked neutral. However, Ss could see her heart beating far more quickly than it usually did.
"I promise." Ss smiled back before cing his hand on her head.
"I promise that I''ll never betray you, as long as you never betray me... Deal?"
"Deal."
Not much happened afterward. Alex arrived and exined what happened to Nymira and how gruesome the scene was, but just as he had expected, she had the same aloof expression as Ss, as if she didn''t see what was wrong with the story Alex just told her.
Ss extended his offer to Alex and asked him to be his apprentice and work for the Judgement faction with him. Of course, that didn''t really mean that he would have a high-paying job or a position of power. It just meant that Ss would be taking care of him as long as they were in the same faction together.
At the same time, Ss would be able to help them both reach their full potential. He would train them, and he didn''t really ask for anything in return. Of course, the exchange, in reality, was that they''d help him in the future.
They had already be his allies, and in training them, he would not only make his faction stronger, but he would also be making himself stronger.
And just like that, the day ended, and they all returned to their houses.
Of course, Ss would probably be getting an upgrade soon, but that was to be in the near future and was not something to be worried about in the current instance.
However, there was one thing he wanted to do before that...
*Ring RIng*
Ss looked at the familiaryout and smiled slightly after entering a certain shop.
He hadn''t been here since the end of the rebellion, and right now, he was certain that he would get a shouting at for noting sooner.
"Where have you been, you rascal? You''re supposed to be paying me back for all those crystals I used for you!"
"Sorry about that, Virack. I''ve been a little busy." Ss smiled joyously while looking at the cksmith that helped him make his axes.
However, Virack could not help but narrow his eyes at Ss when he saw the smile on his face.
"Boy... There is no need to attempt to deceive me with that smile... I can feel the turmoil within your heart, and I''ve heard about your family...
You have my deepest condolences." Virack closed his eyes and lowered his head for a moment before looking up at Ss again.
However, this time, when he looked into Ss'' eyes, he didn''t see any of the emotions he had expected to see.
Instead, just for instance, he saw something else.
A pair of emerald iris'' stared into his very soul from beyond the limitless void that was Ss'' eyes.
Yet, when he blinked again, it disappeared like it hadn''t been there in the first ce.
Ss lookedpletely normal again and still had the same smile on his face as he did before. His eyes were filled with life, and not a single emotion that emanated from him felt forced to fake.
Walking forward, Ss stared at Virack for a moment before reaching into a pouch on his belt.
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Chapter 156 Deal [1]
?
Ss lookedpletely normal again and still had the same smile on his face as he did before. His eyes were filled with life, and not a single emotion that emanated from him felt forced to fake.
Walking forward, Ss stared at Virack momentarily before reaching into a pouch on his belt.
A few runes shone on it as Ss put half of his arm inside it, and when his hands came out again, they were holding several emerald green crystals in his hand, each one pulsing with more mana than anything in the cksmith shop.
Virack''s eyes widened, yet he quickly narrowed them while looking at Ss with a hint of suspicion.
"What is the meaning of this." He asked.
"I''m paying you back." Ss shrugged.
"Where did you get these..." He asked in a low tone.
"I got it from Greed''s armor. Quite a good set, don''t you think?" Ss smiled while tilting his head to the right.
"I can''t ept these..." Virack outrightly refused while pushing the mana cores back toward Ss. However, Ss quickly stopped him by cing his hand over Virack''s.
"It''s because they''re human cores, right?" Ss asked.
"You knew and still gave them to me?!" Virack asked with outrage in his voice.
"I needed to confirm it somehow; the red thread-like lines within the core made it obvious. It''s weird. Why do humans have red threads within their mana core while other creatures don''t? Is it because our mana cores don''t usually remain for long after?" Ss asked while walking around the shop and inspecting everything within it.
"Why are you here, Ss..." Virack asked with narrowed eyes.
He had never seen Ss like this. There was something off about him. Every time Ss nced at him, his skin would crawl.
"Hmm. I don''t remember telling you my name... My memory must be getting worse." Ss sneered before turning back to Virack.
Slowly walking up to him, Ss sighed and ced a hand on the counter before fidgeting with the emerald cores that were ced on it.
"I want you to improve my armor." Ss finally asked, making Virack widen his eyes before augh left his mouth.
"First of all, no matter how much you try and give me, I will never ept a proposal like this. I will never use these human crystals. I have morals, and I have standards. I will not bend my morals to help you." Virack snarled in slight disgust.
"And even if I were willing, what makes you think I can? The suit of armor you have been given is a product of a better time and a better cksmith. The runes on it had been created through trial and error.
The person who made it would have had to be sophisticated beyond belief, and you want me to somehow improve it? This is a relic... A true marvel of forge-mastering. Sure, the cores powering it don''t exceed past the dull-emerald core, but it is much better than any other armor I''ve ever seen."
"Are you done?" Ss asked with a sigh.I think you should take a look at
"Don''t disrespect me with-"
*m*
Suddenly, Ss had mmed something onto Virack''s counter. It was a folded-up blue piece of paper. At first, he wouldn''t open it, but after seeing that, Ss would only say something once he did. He slowly reached for the paper and did as Ss wanted.
However, what he saw sent a jolt through his body.
"C-Come with me." Virack stuttered before turning around and entering a room in the back.
Ss followed closely behind him into the room. It looked like a normal office. It was a little dark, and a few ga cores powered it. They were attached to the wall, and the power was being circuited toward somemps made out of crystals that could be found on the roof of the cave that Darkless City was in.
However, Virack didn''t go to his seat. Instead, he went to one of the walls a pushed a certain brick.
A low shudder went through the office before the brick wall began to separate, and when it finally did, it revealed a staircase going deeper into the ground.
Virack quickly went down the staircase with Ss right behind him, and when he reached the bottom, he tapped on something connected to the wall.
''Hmm... Why couldn''t I see this before.'' Ss thought as his mystic eyes picked up all the mana circuits around them.
When Ss finally reached the bottom of the staircase, he watched as dozens of lights opened simultaneously, letting him see everything.
"For someone with your pay, this does seem a little exorbitant." Ssmented.
"Eh... I didn''t create it. I discovered it when I bought this ce, and till now, I still don''t know its purpose. However, I''ve found that no mana signatures leave this ce, and it''s well-fortified. It''s also where I created the mana pump you asked me to make." He exined while ncing back at Ss.
Virack could remember the first time he had entered the room. He was only about 30 years old back then; however, he had worked with many clients by that age. He had even worked for the royals to create a suit of armor for their youngest prince back then.
Of course, he didn''t work on the armor alone since several other cksmiths were there, but it was still one of the highest honors a cksmith could get.
Back then, he had thought he thought he had seen it all; however, when he discovered this hiddenb under the ce he had bought, his mind was blown.
He couldn''t believe that, at a certain point in history, there had been a person capable of creating the thing he was looking at.
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Chapter 157 Deal [2]
?
Thep waspletely white. The walls were made out of an extremely tough metal that, even with his full strength and hammer, couldn''t even dent.
The ss was extremely tough, too, close to unbreakable even when he tried his hardest to break it. He could fracture it at most, but it never went more than that.
However, he understood that, despite how powerful the metals and ss seemed, it must have also been the work of runes. However, even until now, he couldn''t find a single rune.
When he looked back at Ss, he had expected to see him with widened eyes, looking at everything around him as if he hadnded in apletely new world. That''s what he had done, so why wouldn''t Ss do the same?
"I mean... It''s a pretty coolp... It''s a little small though, don''t you think?" Ss asked.
"..."
"..."
''He doesn''t know what he''s looking at.'' Virack reasoned with himself in order to maintain his sanity.
He had just shown Ss one of his most prized possessions, and he dared call it small!?
''How dare he!''
increasing his pace, Virack quickly walked to one of therge white tables in the room and ced the unfolded blueprint on it, and when his eyes finally got a good view of it, he couldn''t help but take a step back.
"Are you sure you''re not a cksmith? This is... Amazing!" He eximed,pletely forgetting about the anger he was holding onto just a few seconds earlier.
The blueprint showed an armor simr to the one Ss had received when he became Judgement. However, there were a lot of differences too.
"To break done and rebuild this armor so much... I''d be destroying an very valuable relic." Virack tried to argue.
"And creating a more powerful one." Ss exined while looking to the side at a certain screen that had been bugging him for a while now.
[Your connection to the armor ''Sentinal'' has increased]
[Armorpatibility: 4% ---> 4.5%]
The screen was slightly getting on his nerves, and he still didn''t know why.
However, the moment he had seen that screen, a thought hade to his mind.
When he had killed Greed, he hadn''t taken any of her armor, but he had taken 2 things¡ªthe mana cores attached to the armor and her monocle.
Her monocle could inspect items and tell a person what a thing was and its capabilities.
However, that didn''t matter right now.
What he did was the feeling he got when he connected to the armor.
At first, he tried using the monocle to understand the feeling; however, when he got home and looked inside a certain pouch, he got the surface again.
For some reason, the armor was crying out for the crystals he had gotten from Greed.
No... It wasn''t the armor that was crying out for the crystals, but it was the orb connected to the chest piece.
However, it didn''t want the mana core itself. It wanted something more.
It wanted to evolve. I think you should take a look at
And that''s when he got the message from the life equation.
And once he understood that he needed to evolve the armor, he also understood that he only knew two ways to do that.
First, he must change the armor to make it more closely aligned to his body and core...
And secondly, he would need to finally fully connect the orb within the armor to the armor itself...
Because in the end, the only reason so many people throughout the history of this armor hadn''t been capable of connecting to it fully was not only because they were not worthy, but also because whoever created the armor had never truly connected the armor and the orb.
''The orb is telling me what it wants through the armor...
And if it helps me get stronger, I''ll do anything it takes to help it reach its goal.'' Ss thought with a grim expression.
"Will you do it?" Ss asked while ncing at Virack.
"Uhm..." He looked at the blueprint for another moment before sighing.
"This will cost you heavily, you know that?" He asked.
He couldn''t let such an opportunity pass.
The armor he saw in the blueprints was only half designed. Virack could clearly see that Ss''ck of knowledge around runes had limited his design, but he could add to it.
If his instincts were right, he was certain that the end product would be like nothing they had ever seen before. So, in the end... he chose to agree.
"Then, we have a deal." Ss extended his hand toward Virack, and Virack shook it with a look of slight shame on his face.
"We''ll be working quite closely in the near future it seems." Ss remarked before leaving through the staircase.
***
"Game..." A feminine voice called out for Ss as he entered the Judgement branch of the city.
"What''s wrong?" Ss asked.
He already knew that about 50% would leave the faction from his estimations. It made sense. It would finally dawn upon some of them that they''d have to eventually work, and when that happened, they''d leave their armors in the lounge area and probably leave to find another faction.
Sure, many of them supported his rise to power. However, that didn''t mean they''d support himter. There were also many fans of Grant, so some of them would leave too.
"I-I need to show you something." Seraphina awkwardly scratched right arm while looking away from Ss.
''Hm... Maybe more people left than I thought?'' Ss thought to himself, but followed Seraphina regardless.
However, when he came close to the lounge, his mystic eyes had already told him what he''d see the moment he went through those doors.
Yet, before he could even get there...
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Chapter 158 Aftermath [1] - Hybrid?
?
The doors to the lounge suddenly opened as dozens upon dozens, possibly even hundreds of people, walked out of those doors, wearing their armor and holding their weapons in hand.
Ss was about to reach for his axes, but when he saw two kids walk out of the same ce as well, he lowered his arms and let out a small smile.
"A lot more people stayed than I expected," Ssmented with a slight chuckle.
"A few left, but most of them were Grant''s undying supporters." Seraphina exined with a big smile on her face.
"Oh... You tried to trick me." Ss narrowed his eyes at her.
"I did no such thing!" Seraphina harrumphed while puffing her chest out.
Ss hadn''t increased the mana going to his eyes, so he couldn''t see her life force or heart rate to see what she was thinking; however, even if he did, it wasn''t like his mystic eyes gave him the ability to read minds. All he could see were her emotions, and a good liar would probably easily fool both of his tests.
Turning back to the crowd that had formed before him, Ss would say something, but they beat him to the punch.
Suddenly, they all fell onto one knee and stabbed their weapons into the ground.
"Your Highness... We are here to serve you and this faction. Our loyalty belongs to only you." They all shouted in unison, including Seraphina, Nymira, and even Alex.
''Hmm... I never thought I would lead an army of real people, not robots. I have to say; this does feel a little embarrassing.'' Ss thought to himself as a slight blush crawled up his cheeks and flushed them red.
"U-Uhm... Cut the highness thing. Call me Game or Judgement... Whichever one you prefer." Ss waved them off with growing embarrassment.
''I''ve quite literally stood in front of an entire army of people and scared them away with my speech! How am I blushing like a teenager from just this!'' Ss shouted to himself before shaking his head to clear the thoughts.
"This won''t be easy. Don''t expect to be allowed toze around all day. Every single one of you will work, and I mean that. I will make this city a much better ce than the one we live in.
I will make sure to punish everyone who does wrong, and the punishments will not be as lenient as they have been for the past few years." Ss exined, yet not a single person moved from where they kneeled.
"We understand that." On the other hand, Seraphina suddenly stood up and spoke to Ss.
"Everyone here understands that. You made it quite clear when you said it the first time after you won the duel." Seraphina chuckled.
Ss nodded in acknowledgment before looking back at the crowd before him.
"Alright, now, I''m going to exin to you what your job is."
Many of them frowned for a moment. From their perspective, it felt like Ss was indirectly calling them dumb; however, it began to make sense when he continued.
Ss wasn''t just telling them what they were, but exined to them the changes he would make to the faction, and with that came the changes to their job descriptions.
Ss had been thinking about what to do when he finally became a judge, and eventually, he realized that thews from his would do as well as one might think on Gilea.
In many Western countries, Thew on Earth was malleable. Murderers could get away with crimes despite there being plenty of evidence against them. People would take their punishment, go to prison ande out just tomit the same crime again.
Earth''s humanity was soft. Weak. Pathetic. The younger generation was weak until he came into power.
He achieved true peace when he defeated anyone who would stand in his way. His robots enforced thew, and while he couldn''t use robots on Gilea right now, he would take one of the many things that made his society awful one.
A society that enforcesws without mercy.
After exining what they needed to do, they all nodded in unison. Some had questions, and Ss easily answered them with as much honesty as possible.
Some thought that the rules were too strict, and the punishments were too harsh, yet Ss didn''t pay them much heed. He knew what he was doing. He knew that this was what the city needed.
Darkless was quite literally one of the worst cities in the kingdom. People ran to it, and it was bound to be filled with criminals.
And the only way to keep criminals in check is to ensure they fear something.
"The newws and punishments will be announced tomorrow. All of you have the day off today, but from tomorrow, you will start patrolling the city and bringing many criminals you find for me to judge. Is that understood?" Ss askedI think you should take a look at
"Yes, sir!"
After everything was over and done with, Ss went to check out his new office.
Nymira, Seraphina, and Alex all came with him. Ss appointed Seraphina his right-hand woman, while also officially appointing Nymira and Alex as his apprentices.
And just like that, the day passed in what felt like the blink of an eye, and everyone went to do their jobs.
Throughout the next week, a few things happened.
After a very long and tedious political battle within the Greed faction, Jessica finally became the 5th General of the Darkless organization. Ss had no idea how she did it, but somehow she got andslide victory of 60% by simply promising the faction that she would restore their name.
Within that time, Ss had begun training Alex and Nymira. While Nymira was quite talented with the sword, Alex leaned more toward the magic side of things.
However, something was off about the results Ss got from the element exam.
"Hmm... That''s weird." Ss muttered to himself as he looked at the result.
"Shut up, man! Just because you have a gazillion elements doesn''t mean one is bad!" Alex harrumphed in annoyance.
Ss had known that Alex had the fire element, but he always felt like there was something more that he was missing.
However, after not getting anymore more from the crystal testing Alex''s element, Ss shrugged, making a mental note to check up on that feeling in the near future.
For now, though, he had more important things to focus on...
***
-Misty Forest-
"Have you found anything?" A man wearing silver armor and red robes asked with his arms crossed as he looked at the men before him, standing around the destroyed forest, searching for the slightest clue as to what had happened.
"Have you found anything?" A man wearing silver armor and red robes asked with his arms crossed as he looked at the men before him, standing around the destroyed forest, searching for the slightest clue as to what had happened.
"Sir... We''ve been searching for almost 2 months now and we haven''t found a single thing. The worst part is that the mist walker doesn''t even want to talk to us. It''s like its... Scared." The unit captain exined to the man who had just shown up.
Unless the king or one of the king''s cohort came to personally talk to the mist walker, they doubted it would tell them anything.
Plus, they didn''t want to agitate it since it undoubtedly had the power to kill every single one of them with a swipe of its hands, despite even the weakest of them being capable of taking on a dull-sapphire beast on their own.
"The king won''t be pleased about this." The man sighed with frustration; however, the next words from the captain''s mouth made a glimmer of hope enter his heart.
"However, after analyzing the battle, we do have a theory..." The captain looked down with knitted brows.
"Spill with it, soldier! What is it!?" The man demanded.
"If the statements we''ve gathered are correct, what awakened here was some kind of Eldrich terror... After seeing the battlefield''s scars, we first thought that we were dealing with a remarkably strong shadow swarm." The captain paused before looking around the remains of the forest.
"But... After looking at it again, we discovered that there are two possibilities to exin what happened here.
One possibility is that we''re looking at the remains of a battle between a powerful pink python, an extremely strong sonic bat, a shadowswarm, and a mist walker...
Or..." A shudder went down the captain''s spine as the next words barely left his mouth as a whisper.
"Or we''re looking at what happens when you mix all those bloodlines together and let the creature thates out of that mix wreak havoc upon thends."
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Chapter 159 Aftermath [2] - Allies Or Enemies?
?
-Alexander City-
-King''s Gardens-
The King stood in upon the warm grassy grounds of his garden as he marveled at the serene and breathtaking beauty that enveloped him.
The gardens were renowned throughout the continent of Egdore for their lush greenery, vibrant flowers, and meticulousndscaping.
Spread across a vast expanse ofnd, the King''s Gardens showcased a harmonious blend of nature and artistry.
Awork of winding paths meandered through the garden in a path created for the king to allow him to see everything within it in a single stroll.
A colorful array of flowers bloomed in carefully arranged beds in one corner, creating a vibrant tapestry of hues. The fragrance of roses, lilies, and jasmine filled the air, enchanting all who ventured through. Skilled gardeners meticulously tended the nts, ensuring they thrived and flourished.
The garden''s centerpiece was a grand fountain adorned with intricate sculptures depicting mythical creatures and scenes from the kingdom''s history.
The water cascaded gracefully from the top, creating a soothing symphony of sounds as it gently sshed into the basin below. The King often found sce and inspiration in the tranquility of the fountain, contemting important matters of the kingdom.
As the king continued to marvel upon thends before him, he felt a slight breeze that caused his robes to p with the wind.
"What is it?" The king asked rxedly, his hands still calmly ced behind his back.
"My king. There have been developments within the areas of the demon continent that we own. There have been whispered talks of rebellion within their lower ranks, and their populous seems to have gotten more riled up within the past weeks." An elderly voice exined from behind the king,
"Their demons. They get riled up and rebel, and eventually they get thwarted with a single one of our soldiers... It''s nothing new."
"But, my king-"
"Have you forgotten? We have sealed their entire race''s bloodline. My grandfather''s curse won''t wear off their race for another thousand years. They are pathetic and will remain that way for the next millennia."
"..."
"Don''t waste my time with this again. No leave me to enjoy my garden." The king sneered.
"Understood, my king..." The man disappeared, leaving nothing but a gust of wind behind him that caused the king''s robes to p.
As the minutes passed, the king could not help but look at the sky and sigh.
"First the Eldrich terror, and now this? Gilea... Has the timee? Has he finally shown himself?" The king asked while looking down at his hand where an emblem of circling mes could be seen on his palm.
"If it is... Then I must get ready.I think you should take a look at
I have to make sure he never creates them."
***
-???-
In a dark hall, barely illuminated by the grey light shining through the rocks around them, several shadowy figures stood around as the shadows warped and changed.
Despite the fact that the hall was mildly illuminated, it was not they who created the shadows. It was as if light went right through the figures.
Instead, the shadows within the room came from therge pirs made out of grey rock, holding the ceiling up from copsing.
The bipedal shadow creatures spoke in a strangenguage, where words were formed out of sounds that humans could only imitate. It was nothing like the human tongue, as it utilized clicks, knocks, and subtle screeches, all of theming out of their throats as if their vocal cords were made out of wood.
The creatures were standing on all types of surfaces. Some stood on the pirs, while others stood on the ceiling, conversing casually as if this was nothing but an everyday urrence.
No drinks or food were being served, but it was quite obvious to anyone with a keen eye that this was some kind of g. Of course, it didn''t look like a g one would see on Gilea. However, it had the standardyout of one.
In the middle of the great hall, there was an elevated tform that was three steps high. A magic circle could be seen on it, drawn with a ck material that gave off a certain creepy vibe to anyone that wasn''t of their race.
Suddenly, a figure rushed into the great hall as a shadow blob on the ground. They hade through a slit within one of the walls. The people of this race could go through even the smallest gaps within the walls, so they didn''t see any use in creating doors.
The blob of shadows shot into the hall and traversed it in a zig-zag pattern, going under many of the creature''s legs, causing them to shout in outrage.
However, the blob didn''t listen to any of them as it shot toward a certain person that was holding some kind of staff that everyone recognized.
Their race didn''t go through the same kind of deterioration as other races, so the staff wasn''t there to allow the man to walk... It was a sign of high ss, and was usually held by someone who held a g like the one so many were currently attending.
When the blob finally got close to the man holding the staff, a figure quickly ascended out of its shadow, materializing in front of all the other shadows and catching them by slight surprise.
*"Karr... Why are you here?"* The man holding the staff asked as his shadowy body red in curiosity and annoyance.
*"I have located another one of our kind."* Karr spoke with a little bit of excitement within his voice.
The shadows around Karr red; however, while some red their shadowy body in curiosity, others did so in anger, relief, or annoyance.
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Chapter 160 Aftermath [3] - Dryad Society
?
*"I have located another one of our kind."* Karr spoke with a little bit of excitement within his voice.
*"And? That is not newsworthy of interrupting my gathering. Leave at once and apprehend whoever this person is. The courts will punish them greatly for breaking the agreement."* the man holding the staff reprimanded Karr. However, the shadowy figure had more to say.
*"Your honor, with all due respect, this is more important than your gathering. I have located another shadow walker, but it is unlike the rest of us... It walks among humans as if it was one of their own, and does not seem to even know of our existence."*
*"Oh? Now that is interesting. Do you perhaps think it is a lesser shadow that has evolved to the same realm as us? If so, a new addition to the bloodline would be greatly beneficial for our cause."* The body of the man holding the staff red momentarily, causing every other shadowy creature to react the same way, as if they were in some hivemind.
Well, everyone except for Karr himself, who was eagerly waiting to continue his exnation.
*"I... Don''t believe that is the case."* Muttered before continuing.
*"Their bloodline... Was pure. Purer than anything I''ve ever seen. Dare I say that their bloodline was only second to our master."* Karr exined, and the moment thosest words left his mouth, the bodies of every single creature within the hall flickered wildly.
*"..."* However, the man holding the staff remained calm. He could feel the seething rage within the hearts of everyone within the hall; however, he needed to remain calm.
*"You have made a bold statement... Especially when none of us sense them."*
*"Believe me, it is true! It appeared for a mere moment and disappeared a momentter!"* Karr shouted; however, the man stopped him by raising his hand and patting Karr''s shoulder.
*"If you believe what you say, bring this person to us or at the very least bring us evidence of his existence... If another shadow walker exists with such a pure bloodline, they might be a threat to our master''s ascension."* The shadow walker holding the staff disappeared from where he stood and appeared above the elevated tform.
*"From now one..."* The man raised his staff into the air before descending it upon the magic circle on the tform.
The magic circle flickered with mana before it shone with dark energy, and when the shine finally faded, a rumble went through the entire hall, and possibly even beyond it.
The ceiling suddenly, while grey dust rained down upon the hall.
The pirs retracted into the ground, and when they finally went inside the ground itself, the ceiling had already fully parted, exposing the outside world and one of the most beautiful scenes ever seen.
*"You are banished from the n and shall only return with the shadow walker you spoke of in hand. Is that understood?"* The man asked while pointing upwards
*"Yes, chief."* Karr responded before turning into a blob of shadows andunching himself out of the hall.
When Karr''s shadowy figure finallynded, his illusory eyesnded upon an enormous white, blue, and green marble in the distance glowing as the sun''s light reflected off its surface.
As Karr stood on the lunar surface, his eyesnded upon a certain continent before his shadow body erupted with power as all the mana around him was absorbed into his body.
*"It''s been quite long since I''ve stepped foot on Gilea... I wonder how much it''s changed since myst visit."*
*BOOM*
And just like that, Karr had catapulted himself toward Edore, the human and elven continent.
***
-Central Milean Forest-
"Princess... You have returned!" A man with silver hair and a green skin tone shouted as he saw a girl with green hair and eyes walk toward a tree within the city.
The tree was enormous. It was nowhere near the size of the Elven Spirit tree. However, the tree was sorge inside that it could have probably been considered a city within itself.
"Request a meeting with my mother immediately." The girl smiled politely asked while bowing slightly to the soldier who had talked to her first.I think you should take a look at
Hundreds of them could be seen standing around therge tree, while hundreds of people with green skin and blonde hair stood around the tree with their hands pointed toward it as a green energy left their bodies and entered it.
This was the dryad society, but even calling it that was a little bit of a stretch.
Most forests had at least one or two dryads to protect them from attacking species. They would watch over the forest, but in certain instances, other creatures would take upon the job, bing the guardians of the forest themselves.
An example is Misty, the mist walker in the misty forest. Or at least she was before half of her forest got annihted.
However, the dryad society wasn''t technically limited to dryads. Several different species lived in harmony with them, an example being the treefolk, saplings, fairies, a certain tribe of beastkin, and many other peaceful races.
The only reason the society wasn''t named after one of those races, despite their poptions, was due to the fact that it was the Dryads who ruled thatnd.
"Come with me, princess." The soldier finally bowed before turning around.
The walls of the trees seemed to cave in before exposing a tunnel as the walls shifted and entered the size of the tree.
Both the ''princess'' and the soldier walked through the maze-like tunnels for a couple of minutes before they reached the other side.
The scene would have been a once-in-a-lifetime spectacle to anyone else; however, to the princess, it was nothing.
What was inside the tree was a society of its own. Themunity itself couldn''t be seen outside the tree since many of them were underground or very close to therge tree itself. Other creatures simply created their houses on the trees themselves, like fairies who would live inside the trees and some beastkin who built their homes around the trunks of trees very high up.
However, inside the tree waspletely different.
It looked like a utopia if not for the fact that all the houses were made out of wood that the tree itself seemed to have built.
"Please step on the tform." The soldier muttered as a tree branch appeared before them, moving like a living tendril that could proceed with its own will.
However, they didn''t step on the branch itself. Their eyes fell upon a floating enormous leaf that they both stood on, and within an instant, they were sent flying through the air.
They both felt no air resistance from being flung through the air in such a manner, and eventually, the leaf maneuvered through the air almost expertly before they ultimatelynding in front of a dome made of leaves.
"The guards inside have made your mother aware of your presence." The soldier bowed again before taking a few steps back from the princess.
"Thank you." She smiled before entering the dome made out of leaves.
The leaves separated the moment she got close to them, and when she finally entered, she saw a mature-looking woman sitting on a huge pink flower that rested in a position that made it look like it was a throne.
She had crimson red hair that flowed down her back and chest like a fluid and silky waterfall made of blood. Her eyes glowed with a piercing green and emerald as several green runes shone within her iris.
Unlike other treefolk and dryads, her skin did not have a green tone. Instead, it was closer to a creamy white, just like her daughter.
Her skin was blemish-free, while her crimson red hair was some of the healthiest and most gorgeous on the continent.
The woman was wearing a beautiful green dress made purely from organic matter. One could see everything from vines to leaves on it, wrapped tightly around her hourss figure.
"If it isn''t my unruly daughter." The woman smirked.
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Chapter 161 Aftermath [4] - The War Has Just Begun
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"Hello, mother." The girl bowed slightly, causing the tulip on her head to shake slightly.
"What have I told you about disappearing for so long without telling me? You made your mother very worried." The woman on the throne wiped tears as if her daughter''s disappearance hurt her weak little heart.
"Mother... Don''t act like you care all of a sudden. Ireese disappeared for three decades, and you didn''t say a single word to her." The girl harrumphed at her mother.
"Ivy... Don''t tell anyone this but..." Ivy''s mother, Rose, suddenly disappeared from her throne and appeared by Ivy''s side.
"You''re my favorite." She whispered with an almost childish giggle before returning to her throne an instantter.
"I don''t think you''re allowed to say that, Mother." Ivy scratched the back of her neck with a tiny bit of embarrassment.
"Bah! Forget about such things. Tell me, in your four years away from your mother, what have you discovered?" Rose leaned forward and asked with a tinge of excitement in her voice.
"Uhm... Not much, to be honest." Ivy sighed in slight disappointment before a certain memory came to her mind.
Her cheeks immediately became rosy pink as Ivy twirled her hair around her finger.
"Oh... And, I met someone." She muttered under her breath, yet her mother''s enhanced hearing allowed her to hear her voice even if they were almost 20 meters away from one another.
"AHHHHH!" A shriek came out of Rose''s mouth as she disappeared from where she sat and appeared behind Ivy again.
Ivy couldn''t react as he mother hugged her with so much speed that her movement alone broke several sound barriers and shot gusts of wind in every direction.
"Finally! I might be able to finally retire! One of my very own daughters finding a man for themselves... It''s like all my dreams areing true at the same time. Quick! Tell me who this man is... Does he have a ruby core like that human king? Or is he filthy rich? Or maybe even both... Wait, don''t tell me it''s that king!" Rose suddenly stepped back with a hint of fear in her eyes. Of course, she didn''t fear the king, but she was really hoping he wasn''t the one that her daughter fell for.
Thest time she met him, she could not help but remember how he gave her the creeps.
"No! Of course not!" Ivy shouted with a beet-red face.
"Then who is it?" Rose sighed in relief, yet her breath was quickly caught in her throat when she heard her daughter''s next words.
"It was some kid I met a year or two ago. I remember he had a Ga core at the time, but when I returned recently, I wasn''t able to find him." Ivy sulked slightly.
"R-Really... A ga core? Is he at least rich?" Rose asked with slight disappointment in her voice as she appeared on her throne again.
"Ehhh... Not really." Ivy shrugged, his face still beet red.
"T-Then... What do you like about him." Rose asked, yet she had already decided that the boy wasn''t good enough for her daughter.
"I saw him fighting alone against a few beasts and monsters. A shadowswarm, a mistwalker, and an earth bear all at the same time." Ivy recalled with a little bit of excitement in her voice.
Ivy continued to exin everything to her mother. She told her how Ss had somehow held them off despite all of them being an entire core stronger than him. She exined how he had somehow used the sonic bat''s screech against the shadowswarm and even talked about how he had created tier 3 and 4 spells despite not having reached the topaz core yet.
Ivy continued on and on while Rose listened to her daughter, who hadn''t even realized that she had been speaking about him for a quarter of an hour.
At first, Rose had thought that it might have simply been a crush, but after a while of listening to her daughter and everything that happened, her motherly instincts allowed her to understand something.
Her daughter didn''t just like the boy. She was obsessed. A certain look in her eyes told her that his daughter was obsessed. She could remember that very same look in her own eyes when she had met the first boy she actually liked, yet despite knowing how many good memories she had back then, the only thing she could remember about him was how badly it had ended.
"Ivy... You''re a young girl. You''re barely 30! Think about it a little more and thene back to me if you''re actually serious about this... Also, wait until he''s of an appropriate age. Humans don''t usually get married until they''re at the very least 16 years of age!" Rose exined with crossed arms.
"But mom!" Ivy tried to argue, yet her mother quickly shut her down again with a deadly re.I think you should take a look at
Seeing that she wouldn''t get through to her mother, Ivy slumped down slightly before turning around.
Seeing her daughter in such a state, Rose sighed and looked at her back as she left the leaf dome.
However, before she could fully leave, Ivy''s head perked up before she turned around slightly and looked at her mother through the side of her eyes.
"I just remembered something." Ivy spoke, causing her mother to raise a brow.
"When I saw him, I remember Gilea connecting to me and telling me something..."
"!!!" An rmed expression appeared on Rose''s face, but Ivy spoke again before she could even say anything.
"She said that he wasn''t from here." Ivy paused momentarily and spoke a word that didn''t exist in any Gileannguage.
"I think she said he was from a ce called..."
"Earth?"
***
-Darkless City-
Within a dark room, two individuals could be seen standing on either side of the room.
"So, Ss... Have youe to finally challenge me to a duel? Let me say, no matter what happens; I just want you to know that I not only did it for the good of the city but for you too." Archie tried to exin.
His voice echoed throughout the vast hall, and entered Ss'' ears from all directions, yet he did not seem to react to Archie''s words.
Letting out a sigh, Archie got into a fighting position.
He wore the mask covering everything around his eyes, and he could see that Ss'' mana wasn''t stable. It was like a volcano waiting to erupt from within him.
"Archie... I''m not here to fight you. I am well aware of your prowess and how much stronger you are than me." Ss sighed before continuing with a step forward.
Yet, even Archie could see that it contained no malicious intent, even though Ss was now lowering himself into a fighting position while brandishing both of his axes.
"Arlem... As the current strongest within Darkless city, could you teach me how to fight..." Ss asked while Archie slightly widened his eyes before letting out a wry chuckle.
"Don''t expect me to go easy on you." He smiled.
"I would never expect such a thing... I''m sure you see it too. Greed''s death was, for theck of a better word, insignificant in the grand scheme of things. Whatever she was nning, it goes beyond her death. It goes beyond her too...
The moment she died, a ticking clock began...
What we saw before was nothing... Right now, the real war is looming before us, and right now, we can do nothing but prepare."
[End of Volume 2 - Darkless]
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Chapter 162 The Strongest [1] - I Need To Be The Strongest
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[Volume 3 - Liberation]
[A/N: Huge thank you to Ramattra for supporting my work by donating gifts. I truly appreciate it. Thank you.]
The sound of footsteps echoed throughout the hallways. Two teenage girls could be seen walking through it while conversing with one another.
They were both wearing their academy''s uniform with pride.
Their uniforms were standard. Actually, if Ss were there to see it, he would havemented on how it looked very simr to the uniforms they used to make girls wear in schools back on Earth.
They wore a grey and white uniform. Their skirts were grey with white outlines, and the case was the same with their uniform jackets. However, in this situation, it looked like only one of them was wearing a coat, as the other walked around with only her shirt and tie.
"He... I don''t think I''m ready for the tournament. I''ve been training so muchtely, but I can''t break out of the amethyst core." A girl with blonde hair and silver eyes sulked.
She was holding onto staff with a precious-looking gem embroidered into it. She was clearly a mage, and anyone who saw her would most likelye to the same conclusion.
"Girl, you are one of the only people in the school with a staff that has a real sapphire core embedded into it. Wait for no... Let me reiterate. You not only have an overpowered weapon, but you also have the backing of your family to get you the best armor, and you even have one of the strongest cores in our year." Heughed in a half-mocking and half-joking manner.
"Let''s not talk about your blessing." He stoppedughing while suddenly shuddering.
"Still... The other academies might have people much stronger than me... Hell, I''m not even in the special ss. I''m sure there''s people stronger than me." The blonde-haired girl sulked even more.
He sighed when she saw her friend''s low self-confidence. Despite how strong she was, her friend didn''t seem to understand that. It was one of the things that drew He in the first time they met. The girl beside her was exceptionally talented, yet despite knowing that she could destroy everyone in their ss with a single spell, even if they charged her simultaneously, she always looked at the negatives.
She was a very pessimistic person.
Sure, there were people in their year group with 2 or 3 elements, but they never came close to being as strong as He''s blonde-haired friend because no matter what they did, they could note close to her control over her element.
"Girl, have some confidence." He drew her hair behind her ear and smiled at her friend.
"I''m sure you''re going to be fine. What''s the worst that can happen? You''re already in the top 10 strongest people in the entire school, with even the toki users included. What else can you ask for?"
"I... I need to be the strongest..." The blonde-haired girl''s eyes flickered, suddenly bing empty as she tightened her grip around her staff.
Her eyes quickly returned to normal when she shook her head and let out a defeated sigh.
"You will, but sometimes you can''tpete with these monsters. Some of them are being pumped with drugs and will probably die in their 30s, while others are given so many resources that they eventually don''t earn anything on their own. We both know how that ends." He shrugged before her eyes turned in a certain direction.I think you should take a look at
"We''re here." He sighed with a little bit of annoyance.
"Yeah, we are..." The blond-haired girl sighed as well, but not for the same reason. The stress had been getting to her for a few months now, and when she saw the door to their ssroom, she could not help but let out a shaky breath.
She was on the edge and was about to burn out any day now. However, she knew that if she did burn out, she wouldn''t be able to train for a couple of days... It happened before, and the consequences were severe.
She wasn''t technically behind, but that''s what they had drilled into her mind... That she was never good enough. That her brother would always be better...
And the only thing she could think about was...
Was that they were right?
If only she had been stronger, she could have saved him too.
*Click*
The door handle lowered slightly before the two entered a full lecture hall. Everyone suddenly turned back to see who was entering the ssroom, and while He didn''t seem to care, the blonde-haired girl went red with embarrassment.
"Syra! He! What have I said aboutingte to my ss? That''s 25 points deducted from your ounts." The lecturer at the front of the hall crossed her arms with a little bit of anger in her voice. Of course, she wasn''t actually angry, but she had to make it seem that way; otherwise, other students would call her out for favoritism.
He threw her hair back and walked toward her seat with her head held high.
On the other hand, Syra lowered her head and apologized to the lecturer several times before eventually getting to her seat.
Usually, people of their status within the school would sit at the back of the ssroom, and that was actually the case with He for a couple of weeks before going to where Syra sat, which was within the frontal, middle rows.
She picked that seat because listening to the lecturer from that distance was much easier. At the same time, she didn''t like the people who sat at the back. They all hadrge, fragile egos, which was something that didn''t sit well with her.
They didn''t bother her as long as she didn''t bother them. They would have tormented her if she was weaker or from a lower family, but since that wasn''t the case, they didn''t care.
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Chapter 163 The Strongest [2] - Reverse Rizz
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The ss went on like it would have usually done. This was a magic circle ss, so the teacher was teaching everyone how to improve their magic circles and the efficiency of their spells.
Every person in that ss could remember not listening to a single word within that ss at the start. They were all mages, and since most were from higher or middle-ss families, they had instructors who taught them how to create magic circles.
Things such as the efficiency and malleability of their spells never went through their minds before that day. They didn''t need to care. A lot of them essentially had hypemen for instructors. They would tell them how good they were, increasing their ego several times and making most of them feel invulnerable.
However, from the start, that wasn''t the case with Syra, and everyone in the ss quickly understood why she was the strongest out of all of them.
After seeing Syra use her instructor''s teaching after only a week of ss, and seeing how effective they were, they all became entranced with the lesson and Syra.
However, all of that happened years ago. It had been almost four years since those days, and it had been cemented throughout the entire school that Syra was a powerhouse no one wanted to mess with.
After almost two hours of teaching, the sound of a bell rang out through the entire academy. However, the ring was short and low. It clearly hadn''te through therge crystals attached to the walls of every single hall within the academy.
"Well, that''s the end of this lecture. Please look through pages 144 to 193 of the textbook for the next ss." The lecturer said while grabbing onto the crystal on her hip that had been ringing just a second ago.
Everyone exited their seats and quickly ced all their textbook within their dimensional bags before leaving ss.
"Syra! Wait up!" A boy no older than 16 called out to Syra with his hand in the air.
"Oh... Pretty boy''s calling your name." He chuckled to herself while looking at the boy.
He had fiery orange hair swiped to the side and orange eyes that sparkled like two suns when they saw Syra.
"What does that guy want." A boy with blue hair suddenly appeared at Syra''s side, making her look up at him with a wry smile.
"Hey, David." Syra smiled.
"Wassup." He winked at her, yet she didn''t react to it, as if she didn''t even see it.
Just like the orange-haired boy, David was also insanely attractive, especially for someone going through puberty. He had an air around him that Ss would have described as unspoken rizz. Several girls around them could be seen staring at both boys with sparkling eyes, yet none of them seemed to have the courage toe forward and say anything to them.
"Miss S-Skrk." Suddenly, a mostly average boy walked forward with a bouquet of flow in his hand and gave them to Syra.
Syra blinked several times when she saw the flowers before a smile bloomed on her face.
"Aww. Thanks for the flowers." She took them and bowed, and before the boy could even say another word, he was suddenly red at by three individuals. His heart suddenly dropped when he looked up and saw three of the most popr people in the academy look at him like a deadman, so without skipping a beat, he turned around and ran away.
"Ah... What happened to him." Syra suddenly tilted her head in confusion when seeing the boy run away.
"He must have been really star-struck. Man, if I was in his shoes, I wouldn''t even have the balls to approach you, let alone so boldly give you flowers." He shrugged while Syra blushed a little.I think you should take a look at
"I-I''m sure he just wanted to be friends..." She scratched her cheek in embarrassment.
''Ah... So naive... And so adorable.'' He sighed while squeezing Syra''s cheeks with a squeal.
"You''re so darn cute I want to just eat you." He chuckled.
"S-Stop!" Syra pleaded while trying to take He''s hands off her, but no matter how hard she tried, He wouldn''t budge.
"I think that''s enough He." The orange-haired kid chuckled while looking at both of them.
"Ugh... You''re all so boring." He retracted her arms and harrumphed.
As they all walked through the hallways toward the gymnasium to train, one could see that everyone was avoiding them as if they were somehow untouchable.
Some squeezed themselves onto the side of walls, while others simply lowered their heads, not wanting to look them in the eyes.
From an outsider''s perspective, it was easy to tell why. Compared to everyone else around them, they were remarkably attractive from a teenager''s point of view. Hell, even from an adult''s point of view, their opinion wouldn''t be far off.
People were allowed to get married at the age of 12 if they chose to in this world. Of course, it only happened in slums and within those of a simr age, but it wasn''t a taboo practice, especially when people in the slums didn''t live for long.
From anyone''s perspective, they would have been considered adults. Of course, they only be real adults when they reach the age of 18 and are capable of entering the military, since that is considered their peak age.
However, being they were treated like adults no matter where they went.
Flipping her earth-brown hair back one more time, Ha met with her boyfriend, who was also quite attractive as well.
They quickly entered the gymnasium and looked around until they met theirst friend.
"Oh... You guys are finally here... I would have thought that you might have abandoned me." A boy with blonde hair and piercing blue eyes returned his jelled hair and gave a stunning smile.
"Sorry to make you wait, your majesty." Syra gave a curtsy almost
jokingly while the blonde-haired boy looked away with a blush.
"You two better stop flirting and get to training. We have a quota to hit." He sneered while walking to one of the benches and beginning to stretch.
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Chapter 164 Spar [1]
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The group''s training quickly began, and they were all divided into their own groups.
They had been training like this for a few weeks now. They would split off in groups, and switch partners every single week.
However, only two of them were having a bad week.
David, the blue-haired teen''s sky-blue eyes, met with his friend''s and romantic rival''s orange eyes. His friend, Zelon, had orange hair that made him stand out as a fire user. Actually, almost everyone in their group was a mage except the blonde-haired teen and He''s boyfriend.
The blonde-haired teen''s name was Argon Der. He is a member of the royal family, and despite most of his family being mages, he was one of the only royals to not awaken their core by the age of 7. Actually, he''s the only one in the family who hadn''t awakened their core at all, causing him to be considered by many, his father included, as a disappointment.
In his family''s eyes, he brought nothing but shame to their royal name, and he had always thought that way until he had eventually entered the academy and finally met Syra.
She was one of the first people to talk to him without any disgust in their eyes, nor any hatred either. She was among the first people to speak to him without any preconceived notions despite knowing exactly who he was.
And just like that, he had be part of their group.
And right now, he was about to spar with Syra.
Despite Syra being a mage, she wasn''t currently holding a staff. Her eyes were scanning her opponent as she got into a fighting position.
"Do you want me to use spells again?" Syra asked with a tilt of the head.
"Syra... You do know I''m still a toki user, right?" Argon slumped slightly when he heard her words.
"Sorry. I just... Don''t want to hurt you." Syra looked to the side slightly while scratching her cheek.
"Don''t worry about it... Okay. I''m going to be fine. Just don''t use any tier 3 or 4 spells please." Argon pped his hands together and bowed slightly.
"Of course." She nodded with a slight blush on her face.
"3... 2... 1... Start!" The crystals on their hips suddenly announced the start of their battle, and without wasting a single second, they shot forward, appearing before each other.
While Argon was covered in toki, Syra had simply ced both of her hands behind her back while already having a spell readied that shot her forward with a gust of wind.
Syra shot above Argon, shifting her body, flipping over him before pointing her hand toward his back, her skirt still fluttering in the air.
"Air st." She simply muttered while a st of air suddenly unleashed from her magic circle, ripping through the distance between them with utmost ease and appearing right behind Argon.
However, before it could hit the prince, Argon shifted his body while his toki wrapped itself around the air st, suddenly causing it to change direction.I think you should take a look at
"wind de," Syra muttered, and a wind de appeared again before her.
The de made out of air was more of an arch. However, it was simply the word people had chosen to associate with the spell.
The arch made out of pressurized wind sliced through the air and appeared before Argon.
In retaliation to the swift spell, Argon moved all of his toki toward his arms and grabbed the wind de mid-air.
Cuts could suddenly be seen on his palms, but after using his will to control his toki, the toki suddenly wrapped itself around the wind de and crushed it instantly, causing it to dissipate.
"You''re doing better thanst time." Syra let out a cute chuckle that made Argon blush.
"What did I say about going easy on me!?" He asked while trying to shake his head from the sound of the chuckle he had just heard.
He was convinced she had done it on purpose, but after seeing the innocent smile on her face, he could only look down with a bit of shame.
How dare he assume such a thing about such an innocent person!?
"Last time I stopped holding back youined about your back hurting for a whole weak, even after the nurse healed you!" Syra crossed her arms while narrowing her eyes dangerously.
"Come on! It''ll be different this time. Just, don''t use your tier 3 or 4 spells and I''ll be fine!" Arghon harrumphed with folded arms and a chin that was held high.
"Okay... If you say so." Syra shrugged and got into a different battle position from the one she usually used.
As the spar continued, Syra''s eyes glinted with determination. She knew she had to push her abilities further if she wanted to truly challenge Argon. With a deep breath, she focused her mana, and the magic circle appeared over her palms.
"Air st! Wind de! Wind Bullet," Syra called out each spell''s name, her chants bing rapid and fluid, and so did her movements, almost as if she was dancing while casting her magic. The magic circle hovering above her palms glowed brightly with every spell she invoked, empowering her attacks.
Argon''s eyes widened as he witnessed the surge in Syra''s power. Her strikes were now faster and more precise, and the air around her seemed to obey her everymand.
He had to react quickly to keep up with her, utilizing his toki-enhanced reflexes to block and dodge her relentless attacks.
Syra utilized her wind magic creatively, creating small gusts of air to alter the trajectory of her strikes and increase their impact, and this time, she wasn''t just using her spells from a far distance, even though that''s what she was best at doing.
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Chapter 165 Spar [2] - Syras Prowess
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Syra utilized her wind magic creatively, creating small gusts of air to alter the trajectory of her strikes and increase their impact, and this time, she wasn''t just using her spells from a far distance, even though that''s what she was best at doing.
She knew several martial arts that went really well with her spells. She was taught in the ways of a warrior mage since she would be using armor in the future and would need to learn how to use her body rather than just using spells from far away.
Yet, even in the academy, without any real enhancement enchantments within their uniforms, she had to use her spells to make her attacks strong enough to actually hurt Argon.
She used air sts to propel herself, closing the distance between them with incredible speed and keeping Argon on his toes.
Argon couldn''t afford to hold back either. He activated his toki to further strengthen his body, enhancing his speed and strength. He used ethereal weapons, manifesting them with his toki to defend against Syra''s relentless assault.
The sh of their powers created a symphony of wind and force, each strike sending ripples through the air. Syra''s eyes shone with a silver glint filled to the brim with exhration, embracing the thrill of the challenge, while Argon''s determination to keep up with her intensified.
With a calcted move, Syra spun on her heel and released a powerful air st, propelling herself toward Argon. He raised his arms to defend, but Syra''s next move caught him off guard. As she neared him, she focused her mana and created a magic circle right in front of her.
"Wind Break!" she chanted, and the magic circle unleashed a shockwave of wind that shattered Argon''s toki-enhanced defenses. He was sent sprawling backward, caught off bnce by the unexpected attack.
Syranded gracefully, panting slightly from the exertion. She knew she had surprised Argon with that move and was eager to see how he would respond.
Windbreak was one of her own spells that she had created on her own without the help of anyone. She had only created it recently, but it was only one of the many spells she had produced independently.
In a way, she was simr to Ss in that sense. When she met with her mother and father when they could even meet her, they would tell her stories about her brother and how he had created spells all on his own the moment he learned about magic.
She could even remember a few instances when she had seen him use a few spells, and now that she looked back on them and even tried to research them, she would quickly realize that it was a spell that he had created all on his own, just like her.
It made her feel happy to think she was doing what her brother was doing, and Windbreaker was one of the spells she was tremendously proud of. It was a spell that created a vacuum. Once that Vacuum no longer needs to be empty and is finally released, the wind would copse into it with so much speed and force that it would break the sound barrier and send a force of wind in every direction.
However, after a few tries, Syra made it so the spell would only be directed in a specific direction, not hurting the people around her, while also making a more powerful spell by concentrating the power of the implosion in only one direction.
For some reason, she couldn''t wait to show the spell to Argon from the moment she had perfected it.
She didn''t know why, but for some reason, she wanted to show him more than anyone else, He included.
When the sound of the bang reverberated throughout the gymnasium, everyone stopped fighting and looked in Syra and Argon''s directions with worry.I think you should take a look at
However, they all understood what happened after seeing Argon on the ground with Syra standing proudly over him with a certain glint in her eyes.
''Ah... She created a new spell...'' Every single one of them thought at the same time before returning to their own spars.
David and Zelon looked like they were in pretty bad shapepared to everyone else, as if they had been beating each other to a pulp, hoping one would surrender before the other.
David had scorched marks all over his clothing and skin, while Zelon was covered in bruises from where the water spells had hit him. At the same time, He and her boyfriend, Falco, looked way too clean. If one were to perk their ear at them, they would even be able to hear them flirting.
And, in a certain sense, they were roughed up for the wrong reasons.
Back at Syra''s spar, Argon got back on his feet with a mixture of awe and excitement in his eyes. However, as he got up onto his feet, Syra could quickly tell that he was pretty hurt since he was struggling to get up properly.
He admired Syra''s growth as a mage and as a fighter, and he wasn''t about to let himself be outdone. He focused and summoned his toki once more.
"Let''s see if you can handle this!" Argon dered, his voice filled with determination.
With renewed vigor, the spar between Argon and Syra intensified. Both pushed their limits, honed their skills, and grew stronger with every exchange. It wasn''t just apetition anymore; it was an actual test of their abilities, and they relished every moment of it.
As the spar finally concluded with, Argon left breathless but exhrated, while Syra had a satisfied smile on her face.
They exchanged smiles, acknowledging each other''s prowess, and the bond between them deepened even further.
"Wow, Syra, you really stepped it up," Argon admitted, his admiration evident.
"Thanks, Argon. You''re no slouch yourself," Syra replied, her cheeks flushed with excitement.
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Chapter 166 The Outing [1]
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"Syra... I want to ask you a question." He suddenly asked.
They were both lying down on their beds doing something to pass the time.
Currently, the time was nearing midnight, and even though both Syra and He didn''t like it, it was nearing curfew, and they had to be in their rooms before midnight. Otherwise, the school''s enforcers would punish them.
Plus, most of them had to wake up before sunrise in order to train, so it was an excellent way to get them on schedule.
"Hmm." Syra hummed as she turned on her bed.
They were both lying on bunk beds wearing their nightwear. Syra was currently reading a book on air magic in order to increase her knowledge of the element in order to use it more creatively, while He was hugging her pillow and twirling her hair, trying her best to sleep.
"What do you think of Argon?" She suddenly asked, making Syra lose where she was in the book.
"Where''s thising from?" Syra asked in a low tone.
"I don''t know. I''ve seen you guys getting close recently... And I think he might have a thing for you." He chuckled.
"N-No he doesn''t." Syra blushed and closed her book beforeying it on her chest.
"I don''t think he likes me that way." She muttered in a low voice.
"What if he did? You too are perfect for each other, and I know for a fact that you like him." He grinned, but Syra couldn''t see it since He was on the bottom bunk while Syra was on the top.
"..."
"Come on. You''re not even denying it anym-"
"He... He doesn''t, and will never understand me." Syra''s voice suddenly became a little more serious.
He, having now raised a brow, suddenly got out of her bed and quickly climbed thedder to the top bunk.
When she saw Syra''s face, the expression on it was simple... It was mncholy. Just mncholy. Nothing more, nothing less.
"None of you truly understand me... I have too many problems. I have to deal with so much more than all of you, and I can''t put that on the shoulders of someone else." She sighed.
"But that''s what being a couple means! To have a shoulder to lean on whenever it gets too heavy for you!" He tried to argue; however, Syra turned the other way, facing away from He before muttering-
"But what if my burdens are simply too heavy for him to carry?"
"..."
"..."
"C-Come on... Stop being so dramatic. I know you have problems with your family, but you''re a kid. We''re kids. We can''t have big problems. Hell, we have money too. Have you seen the other kids from smaller families? Their entire family''s future lies on their shoulders, so they have to do good. We both know that we don''t have those problems!" He chuckled before swinging herself back into bed.
"Some on Syra... Be grateful for the life you have right now. Compared to them, we''re living the dream." He spoke; however, when she didn''t hear anythinge from Syra, she sighed and tapped a disk right next to her, causing all the crystals within the room to stop emanating light.
"Think about what I said." He finally muttered before snuggling herself in bed and closing her eyes...
And simultaneously, Syra looked at the ceiling while muttering one thing to herself.
"I wonder what Ss would have done..."
***
*Tap Tap Tap*
"And as you can see, the rune manship is sloppy. These three runes will absolutely ruin your magic''s efficiency! The amount of magic you would use on the spell would most likely triple!"
*Tap Tap Tap*
"You''ll have to remember this for your following assessment. You can have all the talent in the world, but if even one of your spells are this sloppy, you will be marked down by an entire grade!"
*Tap Tap Tap*
"And... Uh..."
*Tap Tap Tap*
"Miss Skrk? Is that pen more interesting than our lesson here?"
Syra, who had been in a trance the entire time with her eyes locked onto the pen she was holding, suddenly looked up when she heard her name.
"Sorry... What did you say sir?" Syra suddenly stood up, not having a heard a word that hade out of her lecturer''s mouth.I think you should take a look at
"I know you''re the best mage in this ss, but you can''t be cking off. Before you know it, someone else you may have never expected to be better than you can suddenly surpass you in what feels like the blink of an eye. Hell, I even remember this one kid who went from the lowest ranks in the warrior sses straight to number one in less than a year. Hard work pays off kids!" The man lectured them with an upstanding voice.#
"I''m sorry, sir... I''ve just had a lot on my mind." Syra bowed again.
"Well, you better get all that stuff out before next week. That''s when your outing missions are, and we all know what happens to the people who fail those." The lecturer said, causing everyone in the ss to have a slightly uneasy expression, while some even showed shock, havingpletely forgotten that they''d have to go out for an entire week to do some missions.
"Understood, sir." Syra nodded and sat down with a slightly determined.
After a few seconds, with this look on her face, she pped herself so hard that almost everyone in the hall heard it.
"Uh... You didn''t have to-"
"I did, sir." Syra spoke in a determined tone.
"Uhhh... Sure, I guess." He shrugged and went on to teach ss.
He went on and on about how runes need to be ced in a specific order and described them as if they were anguage.
His lecture went on for a couple of hours before they eventually all left.
Most of the students went back to their dorms or to hang out somewhere around campus. Others, like Syra, went to the gymnasium again to train, while a final group decided to party immediately.
And just like that, a week passed by, and before they knew it, it was the day they would go on their first real outing.
Today, was the day of their first real outing, and by real, they meant without any supervision. Of course, that wasn''t true, but it was as true it could be with the kind of conditions that the families from all over the continent had ced upon them to bring their children back safely.
The kingdoms didn''t control the academies themselves... actually, they weren''t controlled by funding either.
Unlike the rest of the academies throughout the continent, the four great academies were independent beings that didn''t discriminate on who could enter their academies.
Any person could enter their academy as long as they were considered worthy.
Every year, they would have about 400 new students, and for an academy, that was considered very lowpared to many of the other academies, were only situated within one kingdom, and funded by the kingdom itself.
These academies were scattered throughout the entire continent.
The Twilight Academy was one that was situated within the Melian forest. Their headmaster is an elf, while most of their students are either elves as well or beastkin. Some of them were humans too, but most of the other races chose not to take part in the academies.
Races such as dryads and fairies didn''t need education like the other races, or at least not in the same way.
They had their own ways of installing information into each other''s minds... Or in the case of fairies, they were taught everything they''d ever need to know at a very young age.
The other academies were Light, Diamond, and Night, named after the characteristics or features of the person who founded the academy.
Syra was a part of the Light Academy, based in the Xylem kingdom. It was where most of the very talented people in the Xylem kingdom went, but it weed all people for all ces, religions, and races.
The Diamond Academy was in the middle of the Der, and Xylem kingdoms, and was pretty close to the Melian forest as well, making it an almost neutral ground.
Thest one was the Night Academy, ced within the Der kingdom, the same way the Light Academy was ced in the Xylem kingdom.
Despite the rivalry between all four academies, together, they were considered political rival at the same strength and maybe even stronger than the three forces.
Each academy was considered a neutral ground, and there was nothing any of the kingdoms or races could do about it.
Of course, this didn''t stop the students from discriminating against one another, but that was a part of school life.
However, it was up to the student''s maturity to make sure that no one was ever truly discriminated against for their race or heritage.
But in the end, all of that was beside the point.
Right now, Syra and her group were getting ready for their outing, and they knew that not only was the rest of their year group doing the same thing, but all 4 great academies were too.
Their tutors let them choose to they could team up with. This wasn''t a test to see if you could work with others. This was the real world, so they needed to make sure that the students, at the very least, were grouped up with their friends or people they were close to.
"You guys ready?" Syra asked with a calm voice.
The entire group was wearing things that were unique to them. Syra was wearing amethyst robes that indicated her power.
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Chapter 167 The Outing [2] - Circumstances
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"You guys ready?" Syra asked with a calm voice.
The entire group was wearing things that were unique to them. Syra was wearing amethyst robes that indicated her power and core grade.
It was the same color as her grandmother''s robe, indicating that they were about the same level in strength.
These robes were usually only given to mages once they reached the topaz core. They could either be received in one of the Churches within the kingdom, or within any of the adventurer guilds since almost all of them were somehow connected to the kingdom.
The robe not only indicated their strength, but it also indicated their connection to the kingdom, their guild, group,munity, or even family.
For example, Syra''s robe had three crests within it.
One was a sun crest that was linked to the Light Academy, the other was a twisting me that linked her to the Xylem kingdom, and thest one was the crest of the Skrk family that were just groups of patterns that no one really understood.
"Yeah, Syra just give me a second." He uttered a loud oomph as she pulled on her boots to get them on properly.
She wore regr adventurer gear, and despite being a mage, her clothes didn''t show that.
Actually, she looked more like an assassin or a scout than a mage. Plus, the slightly skimpy clothing made it look like her clothes were made for mobility.
"Do you have to wear that..." Syra asked with a slight blush when looked at He''s exposed abdomen before her eyes wandered up to see the shirt and jacket that only covered the top portion of her torso.
Unlike Earth, where clothes like this were considered standard practice, in the Xylem kingdom, almost no one wore such clothes, and the same could be said for the Der kingdom too.
The only ce where such clothes were eptable was with the treefolk, elves, or the beastkin since they usually lived in much hotter and more humid areas.
"I think it looks nice." Falco, He''s boyfriend,mented while looking her up and down.
"Aww, really! You''re so nice!"
"Can you two stop flirting for one second." David, who had already finished changing into his gear, stood up.
He wore a yellow robe indicating that he was still in the topaz core.
"Are we all ready?" Argon too a stell forward and asked. He had two swords on his back and a dagger on his hip, ready to be used immediately.
Everyone nodded slightly before Argon sighed and turned around.
"Teach! We''re ready to go." Argon shouted, causing a man with a book on his hip to walk toward them.
"Alright, good. Take these stones and tap them if you ever feel like you might be in grave danger. Tapping it will cause you to forfeit your mission, though, so use it wisely." The man ced a couple of glowing stones that shone with mana. They were purple in color. However, unlike beast cores that were usually more round and had an orb inside them, these ones were very jagged, and looked like the stones that were usually used to light up ces.
At just a touch, everyone could feel that rune on them. They injected a little bit of their mana inside it, and when they finally did so, the stone shone for a moment and created a link between them and it.
"Alright... Good luck. Go through one of the teleportation hubs and you will be sent to where you need to be. Before that, take this." The man gave them a sheet of paper that Argon quickly read through before widening his eyes.
"Y-You want us to do this? Isn''t a it a little hard?"
"Well, you guys are one of the best groups in the academy this year. It is the reason we''ve given you a slightly harder mission than others would have received. I hope you understand that." The man exined.
"What''s the mission?" Syra asked while pulling on Argon''s shoulder.
Looking at the piece of paper, she slightly widened her eyes when she saw what was on it.
"An amethyst-ranked mission?"
"Yes."
"You do realize that I''m the only amethyst core in this group, right?" Syra asked.
"Pristine amethyst. Even Argon here can kill a lower amethyst on his own. The mission says that the beast will most likely have a dull-amethyst core, but could have a solid-amethyst core. This mission isn''t one that will test you. It''s simply one that will show us that you are capable ofpleting a mission at the same level of strength as you.
You all have the makings of an adventurer, and this is the time for you to prove that to us." He exined, causing the group to nod.
Most of them were pretty strong. Even He, who was technically the weakest among them, had the ability to kill a pristine topaz-cored beast.
David and Zelon could fight the weakest of amethyst-cored beasts, while Syra, Falco, and Argon could fight solid-amethyst cores and above.
"Alright... We understand." Syra said while the rest nodded as well.I think you should take a look at
They all quietly walked toward the teleportation hub.
Below them, they could see several runes shining with the utmost intensity. The lighting from them was almost blinding, but when they eventually stood on it, a warm rxing feeling went through their body, while a sense of nausea shot through their mind.
*Zip*
"Are they gone?" A man with ck hair suddenly appeared behind the instructor. He had silver eyes and looked like he was around the ages of 50-60 years old. He looked very simr to Lochras. However, there were quite a few differences...
One of them being the aura around the man that exuded nothing but power...
"Yes, sir... But, I have to ask you again. Are you sure of this? They might die..."
"Don''t worry. Syra is more than capable of killing that thing with ease. It''s just a matter of how much she likes those little friends of hers." The man grinned before turning away, while the teacher looked worriedly at his back.
He didn''t want to do what he had done... The mission he had given them was for the particr group, not their ss... Yet, he had to, even if that meant seeing all his favorite students die.
He didn''t have a choice, right?
There was no other way, right?
Those were the questions that were going through his head as he walked toward his office.
And when he finally sat down and looked at the papers before him, gilt gripped its hand around his heart, causing him to suddenly kneel down and puke into the small bin basket right next to his desk.
"What''s wrong, lecturer?" A voice suddenly entered the man''s ears as he stopped puking, causing him to quickly look up and look around frantically to see where the sound hade from.
Suddenly, a handsome looking man slicked back his hair ck with aforting smile before dragging the chair he was holding next to the man, and quickly sitting down.
"What''s wrong... Tell me, how can I help you." The man smiled, and without even knowing that had happened, the lecturer had somehow been caught in a trance.
"Tell me everything." The man smiled one more time before the lecturer lost consciousness... Or at least that''s what it looked like from his perspective.
***
*Zip*
Suddenly, a bright light shone as a couple of teenagers seemed to have appeared out of thin air.
"Ugh... I feel like puking." He said between breaths while holding onto Syra for support.
"Don''t puke on me please." Syra pleaded with the gagging He.
"It feels like my insides are being wrapped around each other and untied in a horribly long loop." Zelon could be seen on the floor, grabbing his stomach.
"You really need to work on your nausea. Remember that time we went on a boat through theke? How does someone get sea sick on ake! We''re mages!" Davidined with folded arms as he stood above Zelon, looking down at him with pity.
"Well, I think we''re fine." Syra looked are, seeing that Argon, Falco, her, and David werepletely fine.
"I-I think I''m fine now." He said, but she still put her arm over Syra''s shoulder.
"Please get out of the teleportation hub." A man on the side sighed when seeing a bunch of kids appearing, two of them looking like they might puke at any moment.
"Do you want to carry you?" Falco asked He.
"No, babe... I don''t think I can handle you right now."
"That''s not what I meant..."
"Oh..." He blushed slightly, but the nausea quickly hit her like a tsunami, causing her to reel over and puke on the ground for a few minutes.
"Falcoooo... Carry meeee!" Zelon pleaded, but Falco acted like he couldn''t hear him.
David, on the other hand, found himself forced to carry Zelon as they were quickly kicked off the teleportation hub for staying there for too long.
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Chapter 168 Outing [3] - Bounty Board
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"Hm... It''s a pretty small town. I wonder how it go itself it''s own teleportation hub." Syra asked with a raised brow.
"God knows." He sighed, now in good condition to finally speak properly again without gagging or puking likest time.
Zelon looked like he might be fine as well, but he didn''t admit it since he wanted to be carried by David for as long as possible.
Why use your legs when you''ve got someone else to carry you the entire way there?
That was his philosophy...
It was also why he was considered one of theziest people in their ss and why he failed and would have to retake most of his exams at the end of the year.
"You know, I heard that no one can create those teleportation hubs except the royal runesmiths despite almost everyone being able to see the runes for themselves before teleporting. That''s amazing, right?" He spoke with a hint of excitement.
"They probably use an artifact to stabilize the runes. Also, those runes are unlike anything I''ve ever seen. Each teleportation hub has different runes. Some of the runes are simr to the ones found in most teleportation hubs, but most of them are different. They also change depending on the person standing on them." Syra rambled on about how amazing the rune manship of the teleportation hubs was for a couple of minutes before He finally stopped her from saying anything else.
"Ah... Sorry. I rambled again." Syra rubbed the back of her neck.
"It''s cool." He shrugged before looking around again.
The town was rtively small, but that was from their perspective.
Syra had lived in the city for quite a long time, and this town wouldn''t have even qualified as a proper sector. It was only a little big bigger than dia, and looked a little richer too.
The people didn''t look poor in any way. The houses were ordered nicely, while the streets wereid with stone bricks, making it look clean.
The houses were made out of wood, and while many of the houses throughout the kingdom were made out of stone, this town was in the north, causing it to be much colder.
Wood was a natural instor, and while many didn''t know that, the people who built the houses throughout the kingdom did.
"Oh... Isn''t that the adventurer''s guild hall?" He pointed out while looking at one of the more significant buildings within the town.
"Oh yeah... It is." Syra blinked a couple times before walking toward it.
The hall was quite big. Even from the outside, one could tell that it was almost the same size as the town hall.
A man covered in armor standing in front of the double doors leading into the hall suddenly spotted them looking at the building behind him. Without wasting a second, he walked toward them and asked-
"Are you the kids from the Light Academy?"
Hearing him call them kids, some of them couldn''t help but feel agitated, but Syra remained calm and stepped forward.
"Yes, sir. Have you been informed that we would being here?" She tilted her head.
"Ah... Yes, I have. Honestly, I''m surprised at how young you look. I thought most of you would at least look like you''re about to graduate."
"We''re fourth years, sir." Syra said.
"Hmm. I guess that''s old enough." He shrugged before turning around, opening the doors to the hall, and walking in.
They all quickly followed behind him, and as they entered, they could not help but open their mouths slightly in shock.
The ce was thriving. The atmosphere was filled with energy.I think you should take a look at
It was honestly amazing. All 6 of them didn''t expect the hall to look like this. Hell, from the outside, they hadn''t even heard a single peep from within, yet the moment they went through the doors, it was as if the sound had be capable of hearing the sound.
The hall looked more like amunity than anything. The moment they entered and began walking in, everyone smiled at them and greeted them as if they had known them for years.
"Please wait here for a moment. I will retrieve something from the district guild master ande back. Don''t move from where you''re standing." The guard smiled at them gently before walking toward the reception area and talking to ady at the front desk.
"These people are so nice..." He muttered aloud in shock.
"A little too nice. I don''t trust them." David whispered between them.
"Come on David... I''m sure they''re like this to most people whoe to the city." Argon tried to reason.
"No, man... I''m telling you, when it seems to good to be true, it probably is!" David whispered back.
"I''m with David on this one." Zelonmented while looking around at everyone around them, who were still giving them nces every now and then.
"Same here." Falco spoke with caution as he ced his hand on his de.
"Falco!" He whispered to him, but after seeing him not budging on his opinion on them, she turned to Syra for moral support.
"What do you think?" He asked, yet Syra didn''t answer.
Her eyes were locked onto a board in the distance. While she wouldn''t have usually been able to see it from such a distance, the armor she was using gave her the same boosts as someone who had a naturalyer of toki around them, allowing them to increase their reflexes and strength despite not having activated the armor yet.
When she looked at the board, at the top, the words "Bounty List" were written in bold. Actually, it was pretty hard to miss, as if it was the main attraction the moment someone entered the hall.
"Uhh... Syra." He called out, yet her friend didn''t reply as his eyes continued to be transfixed upon the board, particrly one of the people on the board who had the highest bounty of anyone she had ever seen before.
Syra, without skipping another second, took several steps forward before beginning to run, and when she finally got right in front of the board, she grabbed the piece of paper and looked at it closely with narrowed eyes.
And that piece of paper read-
[Name: Game Evergreen]
[Alias: Judgement]
[Age: ???]
[Height: ???]
[Weight: ???]
[Threat: High]
[Description: White hair and green eyes. A general of the Darkless terrorist organization]
[Bounty: 1 Dull Ruby Core straight from a beast]
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Chapter 169 Outing [4]
?
[Name: Game Evergreen]
[Alias: Judgement]
[Age: ???]
[Height: ???]
[Weight: ???]
[Threat: High]
[Description: White hair and green eyes. A general of the Darkless terrorist organization]
[Bounty: 1 Dull Ruby Core straight from a beast]
"..." Syra looked at the piece of paper nkly as her eyes slowly went up to look at the drawing of the person that they had on the paper.
Her heart was beating like crazy, and she was trying her best to calm herself down right now.
Her hands were beginning to tremble while veins started to pop out of her forehead.
Her eyes were slowly bing bloodshot, and slowly, he hand had begun to grip on the paper so hard that she was beginning to scrunch it.
Emotions she couldn''t even describe burned through her veins and body, while mana slowly leaked out of her body in the form of a purple-amethyst aura.
"-ra... SYRA!" Hearing her name, Syra snapped out of her trance and closed her eyes to calm herself down.
"A-Are you okay?" He asked with a little bit of fear in her voice.
She had never seen Syra like that... Actually, she couldn''t remember thest time she had seen Syra emanate and emotion that wasn''t positive or neutral. Sure, sometimes she got really intense, but that was it.
But right now, even from so far away, He could see it immediately.
They hadn''t followed her when she moved toward the board since they didn''t think much of it. Syra would usually go and do things on her own sometimes, and whenever she was in one of those moods, she wouldn''t hear anything they ever told her.
But the moment Syra took off that paper and looked in its direction, He could tell that something was wrong.
The aura around her friend was all wrong.
For one of the first times since she had met Syra 4 years ago, she felt her emit something more than rage...
She emitted killing intent.
Now that she was right next to Syra, she could finally see what her friend was looking at, and when she looked down at it and read what was on it, she couldn''t help but feel confused.
''Game Evergreen? Does she know him?'' He thought to herself, while the rest thought of something along those lines.
However, there was one person who was currently thinking of something else.I think you should take a look at
Argon was not looking at the name on the paper, but instead at the Alias and description.
''Judgement of the Darkless organization...'' He remembered a conversation he had with his older brother about someone with white hair and green eyes called Judgement.
His brother had described Judgement to him without mincing his words. A man who decided to take justice into their own hands...
That''s what he described him as, and from the information he got ever since that day; his brother wasn''t far off.
That was precisely what Judgement was... Or better said; it was who Judgement was.
Argon wasn''t a part of the Xylem kingdom, so his opinion of Darkless and Judgement came from an outsider''s perspective. After all, he was a part of the Der royal family, not the Xylem royal family. Sure, technically, the two kingdoms were at peace right now, but as long as something didn''t affect the Der kingdom, Argon''s father didn''t bother with it.
"Do you know the person?" Argon asked in everyone''s stead, but Syra didn''t reply.
Her eyes were still shut as she breathed slowly to control her emotions.
By now, almost everyone in the hall was looking at them with some rm. They had felt the killing intent, but they all knew it wasn''t directed toward them.
Most of the people in the hall were adventurers, so they were strong enough to see past the killing intent and instead look at what might have caused it.
"S-Sorry." Syra suddenly spoke up with a sigh while opening her eyes. They were no longer bloodlust. However, everyone could still see a hint of hatred in her eyes.
However, despite what most of them were thinking, it was not the face that had caught her attention; instead, it was the name she saw in the description.
''Darkless...''
That name was etched into her mind ever since the day her brother was taken away from her, and after she was practically kidnapped alongside her younger brother to be sent to the Skrk main house, they made sure not to make her forget what happened on that day.
They reminded her repeatedly, yet despite that, she had yet to hear a single word about the organization ever since...
Or at least that was until now when she saw the organization''s name under one of the bounties.
The moment she saw it, everything had resurfaced. When she was in the academy, she tried her hardest to forget about her past and do her best. Of course, she knew exactly why she was doing what she needed to do, but the reason that she had in her mind hadn''t fully set in despite almost 7 years having passed since the attack on dia.
"Are you okay kid?" A man suddenly touched Syra''s shoulder, and without skipping a beat, her body had moved on instinct and had grabbed and twisted the wrist.
Within that very moment, everyone in the hall stood up with their weapons in hand as they stared at her with malicious intent.
"Oh shit... I-I''m so sorry. I didn''t mean to-" Syra immediately apologized the moment she realized what she had done, not realizing that her friends had all taken out their respective weapons as well before turning toward the crowd of adventurers.
"N-No kid... It''s my bad." The man who was the guard they met outside apologized while rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly. This made everyone in the hall throw a nce at him before sitting down and cing their weapons back in their sheaths.
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Chapter 170 Outing [5] - Conversation
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"N-No kid... It''s my bad." The man, who happened to be the guard they met outside, apologized while rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly. This made everyone in the hall throw a nce at him before sitting down and cing their weapons back in their sheaths.
"For you to have that kind of reaction, you must have had a few bad experiences with..." The guard paused for a moment before looking at the sheet of paper.
After a few moments of silence, Syra finally spoke up with a slightly hoarse voice.
"Darkless..."
"I see." The man sighed and walked over to a particr counter. While the adventurer hall was a ce where people would go to find parties to join in order to go on hunts, it was also a bar since that''s the ce most people would hang out, especially the adventurers who, despite being looked on lightly by the rest of the townspeople, weren''t ever treated the same.
Getting arge cup and filling it with water, the man quickly returned to Syra and ced it in her hands. She quickly drank it and cleared her throat, suddenly bing try the moment she saw the bounty on the wall.
"Come on... Sit down." The man said while walking toward one of therger tables. Everyone in Syra''s group looked at each other with a little bit of weariness; however, when Syra eventually stepped forward and walked with the man, the rest of the group shrugged and followed behind her.
Sitting down, an awkward silence fell upon them. None of them said a word, and even after several minutes passed, they were staring at each other.
The man who had sat on the opposite side of the round table simply smiled with warmness as he waited for Syra to say something. He could immediately tell that she was the group''s leader, and since she was the only one who wasn''t actually staring at him, he thought that she would probably be the person who had something to say.
Syra, on the other hand, was staring down because she didn''t know what to say. She wasn''t about to open up to a stranger, but the situation they were in right now made it feel like she was being forced to.
The rest of her group all felt something crawl down their skins as they simply sat there without saying a single word.
Everyone in the hall was staring at them, the only difference this time being the fact that they didn''t have their hands on their weapons.
"They attacked us a few years ago... 6 years ago..." Syra finally sighed and relented to the stares around her.
Her friends widened their eyes as they had never heard this before, but now that they were hearing it, they kept a keen ear to not miss anything.
"I see. And... I''m assuming you want revenge on them?" The man asked with a curious tone in his voice.
"I wouldn''t say that-"
"If that man in the picture were to walk down this street right now, would you attack him."
"Yes." Syra immediately answered before her expression changed, as if she was shocked by the words that hade out of her mouth.
Letting out a sigh, the man rubbed the bridge of his nose and looked her in the eyes again.
"Are you stupid?" He asked with a genuinely curious voice.
"What the fuck did you just-" Zelon suddenly stood and tried to point the wand he kept in his pouch at the man; however, by the time he had reached for it, he already had a de ced on his throat.I think you should take a look at
"Stop... They''re kids. They don''t know better." The man spokemandingly, causing Syra to raise a brow.
"For a guard, they sure listen to you." She said with a piercing re.
"Let''s go for a walk..." The man suddenly stood up and walked away from the table; however, when he saw several people stand up simultaneously, he sighed and continued.
"Alone..."
Hearing him, everyone in the hall sat down again while the students followed him by a few steps. Only Syra walked next to him as they left the hall.
As they left, Syra nced at the board, allowing her eyes to catch something she hadn''t seen the first time she had looked at the bounties.
There were two other bounties with Darkless under their descriptions. One of them seemed familiar, but by the time she had left the hall, she couldn''t see the name on it anymore.
Not thinking much of it, she sighed and let go of the matter. If she really wanted to know the name of that bounty, she could just return after she was done with the mission they had been handed.
She didn''t need any distractions right now...
"Here''s a word of advice, kid..." The man budged her to catch her attention again.
"Hm?" She raised a brow.
"If you see anyone from the Darkless organization, either don''t attack them or walk the other way." She said while giving a her a sidelong nce before looking back to see if her group was far enough to not hear them,
"Hm? I don''t get it. I''m already at around the same strength as one of their generals, and with my armor, I could probably beat them." She sneered.
"You know of their rankings?" He asked, making her also look back.
She hadn''t told them of what happened to her... Hell, for all they knew, she was a kid from the Skrk family who happened not to align with her family''s morals. It was the same thing with most wealthy teenagers from an influential family.
It happened all the time. It wasn''t any different from normal teenagers.
Only He knew that something had happened to Syra; however, until now, she hadn''t asked her to expand on what had happened. In her eyes, no matter what the problem was, it would never change anything between them, so to her, it didn''t matter if she knew or not.
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Chapter 171 Outing [6] - Legend
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"They attacked my town... 6 years ago." She whispered to the man.
"Hm... And here I thought you were wealthy." The manughed aloud while she simply smiled.
"Well, I kind of am. It''splicated." She sighed.
For some reason, despite what she had thought earlier, it was much easier to open up to aplete stranger that she would probably never see again than to her friends.
She didn''t really know what that was the case. She wasn''t good with the whole emotions part of the being a human after what happened, but she would savor the feeling that was currently going through her right now even if it didn''t mean much in the grand scheme of things.
"But seriously, kid. I don''t think attacking any of them would be in your best interest. They''re much stronger than you''d think..." He said with a low voice before looking around them as if he didn''t want anyone to hear what he was about to say next.
"I had heard about the Darkless organization long before they had be public. I''m sure you already know, but not many people knew about them until about 6 months ago." The man exined, while Syra raised a brow.
While he was talking, her eyes had roamed around the town, and now that she was more observant, she quickly realized something.
The town had posters everywhere.
It was almost like every 9th house would have a poster on it with the word "BOUNTY" written in bold on top of it.
She didn''t understand why she hadn''t seen them before, but now they had suddenly be easier to spot.
Every one of those posters had the same face on them.
"You see the posters, right? Most people don''t actually spot them until theye to the adventurer''s hall. I think it''s some kind of psychology thing. People subconsciously avoid looking at things that they don''t want to see until it looks them in the eyes." The man shrugged.
"Why are there so many posters of... Him?" She asked.
"Hm... I''m assuming you must have been in school when it happened, so you probably didn''t get to know about it." The man scratched his chin with a little bit of amusement before pointing in a specific direction.
"About a few miles in that direction, there was a ce called the Red Hog. It was a pretty big town. Thousands of people lived there. However, the people who lived there were quite... How do I say this..." He chuckled and scratched his temple.
"They were essentially a gang... A militia that would go from town to town, ''asking'' towns to pay the protection fee." He exined.
"Hmm..." She nodded before looking up at the man with a jolt. "Wait, what do you mean by ''were''?"
At this point, even Syra''s friends were listening in since they weren''t really speaking in a low voice anymore.
However, he continued with the story instead of answering Syra''s question.
"Well, after a few years of the kingdom doing absolutely nothing about them because it was still getting its taxes from us and all the other towns, we started toin. Again, the kingdom did nothing. We were being forced to give them almost 50% of all the money the entire town earned, yet the kingdom still did nothing.
At one point, one of the other poorer towns fought back, but instead of them being pushed back and disciplined slightly, the Red Hogs wanted to make an example out of them..." The man sighed and looked at the ground with balled fists.I think you should take a look at
"What happened?" Syra asked, but by now, she knew what his answer was going to be.
"The Red Hog''s leader, who was a mage with a Sapphire core, came in and single handily defeated everyone who could fight in that town. His men enved the women and children, and just when they thought that they were being punished enough, the entire town was eradicated with a single tier-5 spell with all the men still in it."
"Fuck..." Syra spat when she heard thest part. "I''m sorry-"
"But, that was thest mistake they ever made..." The man spoke with a cold voice; however, there was a subtle smile on his face.
The fact that an entire town disappeared caught a few people''s radar. The kingdom was angry that they would destroy an entire town, but all they did was give them a small fine since the Red Hogs were allies with the kingdom...
However, they also caught the attention of Darkless." He said while Syra frowned a little.
"A few dayster, the Red Hogs suddenly realized that the ves they had captured were no longer with them, and when they went outside to call upon their leaders and tell them about what happened, they saw a white-haired man covered from head to toe in ck and green armor.
They say that the crystals within his armor were made out of the cores of humans he had judged, while some say that even the runes ced onto his equipment and armor were the melted cores of both people and creatures."
"This sounds more like a legend..." Syra said dismissingly.
"Well, that''s what it is... Only one person survived that massacre. That white-haired man called himself Judgement, and he did exactly what his name said he would do. He judged the entire town, and sentenced them to death while pouring the blood of his victims onto his armor for it to consume.
After that, he burned the town to the ground and left without saying a single word to the ves outside the vige who were waiting in order to thank him."
"..." Syra didn''t know what to say. The whole thing sounded made up, and even though she wanted to believe him, from her perspective, Darkless was the enemy.
"We''re here." The man suddenly said before Syra could even utter anything she wanted to say.
Looking up, she saw that they were at the town''s gates.
"Here... This is the exact description of the mission and exactly what you need to kill. It shouldn''t be too hard since you''re not far from the Sapphire core, so just make sure your friends over here don''t get hurt. okay?" The man smiled before turning around and leaving without saying another word.
"Well... That was weird." Zelon suddenly said with a chuckle, yet even though he was trying to lighten the mood, Syra quickly ignored him and walked toward the direction of the snowy forest in the distance.
Not knowing what to do, they all simply shrugged and walked behind her. They had never seen Syra like this, and deep down, they hoped that she would return to normal before the end of the mission.
Because a part of them really didn''t want to delve into the previously simple and nowplicated life of the girl they had known for over 4 years.
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Chapter 172 Outing [7] - Spiders
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In a dark room, a handsome-looking man with slicked jet-ck hair stood in front of a hovering screen being projected out of a crystal.
Within the projection shone the image of a beautiful woman with short light brown hair and a pair of striking brown eyes.
She had subtle bags under her eyes. They weren''t noticeable at a nce; however, even without them, it was obvious that Jessica was tired.
Yet, despite the exhaustion in her eyes, a subtle smile pulled onto the corner of her lips as she looked at the man standing before the projection.
"What is it, Eclipse." She asked.
"Give me Judgement. I need to talk to him." Eclipse voiced in a low and calming voice.
"Sorry, but I can''t do that right now, I''m afraid..." Jessica sighed.
"It''s about his sister." This time Eclipse narrowed his eyes, yet the expression on Jessica''s face did not change.
"I know this is important. You wouldn''t be calling me if it wasn''t... But he''s busy right now." She subtly nced to the side before returning her gaze to him.
"He''s too busy to save his own sister?" Eclipse felt a little angered by what Jessica was suggesting.
"No... If he knew, he would most likely immediately go to prevent the problem." Jessica let out a staggered breath before continuing. "He puts her safety above himself. He consumed the Giant''s blood drop barely a few days ago. I can''t let him waste it the same way he did with thatst drop of Phoenix blood he bought just because his sister might be in danger again." Jessica exined while Eclipse rubbed the bridge of his nose.
"Can you send someone else over then? If not Judgement, then maybe Archie or Death?" Eclipse questioned.
"They''re both busy. Death is on a mission, while Archie is..." Jessica paused momentarily, and Eclipse quickly understood what she meant to say.
However, before Eclipse could say any more names, Jessica''s eyes widened when she remembered something.
"Now that I think about it, there are two people who are currently avable." Jessica smiled.
"Oh god... Fine. I''ll be going with them, alright? I''ll send you the coordinates, and you just send them there as soon as possible. If you don''t hear from me in two days, send Ss in." He sighed.
"Understood... Greed out." She said before the projection of her disappeared.
"Eclipse... Out." He muttered to himself before stashing the crystal that he used to project her image into his pocket.
Turning around, he left the room while walking in haste.
He really hoped that they wouldn''t be doing what he was thinking, but if it were the case, then he would most likely be in a very dire situation, even if backupes in time.
Leaving the room, he paced toward the teleportation hub, gave the person standing in front of it a token, and disappeared within an instant.
***
An eerie silence permeated the atmosphere.
The swaying trees of the snowy forest didn''t make a single sound.
Everything... Was silent.
Not a single thing throughout the entire forest dared make a sound.
Even the wind itself seemed too afraid to make a peep.
The sun had already set, and within these parts of the continent, it was normal for the days to be short. It was winter, after all...
A shrill coldness could be felt by the group of teenagers who were walking within that very forest.
Their breaths were baited, while the steaming out of their mouth was limited.I think you should take a look at
Silence had fallen upon them after they had left the town.
Not a single one of them said a word.
They were as silent was the environment around them.
Shivers went up and down their spines.
They felt eyes upon them.
They felt breaths on the back of their necks.
They felt like they were being followed...
As if something was stalking them... Lurking in the shadows, and waiting for the moment, they would look away.
"Couldn''t we have waited until the morning." He whispered.
"I''m certain this ce isn''t safe." David added.
"We should go back and wait for the morning." Zelon awkwardly chuckled.
"No... It onlyes out at night." Syra silenced them with a single sentence, yet the fear of whatever was around them still caused them to walk closer together.
Humans are really unlike any other species. Their fear of the unknown is far greater than any fear other species can feel.
"Are you sure we''re going in the right direction." Argon, who had already been walking a step ahead of Syra with his de out, asked.
"Yes." Syra snarled.
"Did... Anything happen?" Argon asked while looking back slightly, but when he did so, Syra''s eyes widened slightly. Her body moved independently; without dy she swung her staff and pointed it toward his shoulder.
Without thinking twice, Argon jumped out of the way and swung behind him.
His sword seemed to have hit something tough. However, he didn''t question what it was for a second as he knew that Syra would quickly take care of it.
"Air Cutter." Syra''s voice echoed throughout the area they were in as several des of wind shot out of the tier 2 magic circle before her staff.
The wind des cut the creature that hade out of the bush into several pieces that quickly fell to the ground and created a gorry mess.
"What... Is that." Argon took a step forward to look at the thing more closely; however, now that it was in a dozen pieces, it was much harder to analyze the creature.
"A spider." Syra answered simply.
"R-Really? I thought we would be killing the spider muchter." Argon chuckled with a little bit of fear in his voice.
"What... Scared of spiders?" Syra asked with a little smile on her face.
"N-NO!" He shouted a little too loudly, and when he did so, the sound of several creatures echoed from around them.
"Well done Argon... Now we''re surrounded." Syra sighed before letting out a little chuckle.
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Chapter 173 The Nest [1]
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"Well done Argon... Now we''re surrounded." Syra sighed before letting out a little chuckle.
"S-Shut up... You made me scream." He argued.
"I made you do nothing." She adamantly spoke, refusing to take the me for the current mess.
"H-Hey, guys. Please stop flirting and actually get to fighting. I''m terrified of spiders as well." He said while shivering slightly when hearing the sounds around them.
"I''m not scared of them! L-Look! I''ll prove it to you." She stood up straight with both of his swords in his hands.
And then, the spiders finally began toe out of the bushes around them.
A sense of fear shot through his body, but his eyes steeled when he looked to the side at the unfazed Syra.
Taking a deep breath in, he stood in a fighting position.
The spiders around them were around the side of a wolf. They were enormous, and most likely poisonous, too, so it would probably be for the best if they avoided getting poked by one of them,
*Swoosh*
One of the spiders shot through the air and appeared before Argon; however, he didn''t move.
The spider quickly closed in and exposed its fangs; however, a moment before it could hit him, it was suddenly sliced into 12 pieces.
"Oh? Maybe you aren''t scared of them after all." Syra said whileunching air bullet after air bullet, shooting the spiders several times until they eventually died.
On the other hand, the others weren''t fairing any worse.
These spiders were only Dull-topaz spiders at best. Even the weakest among them, that happened to be He, could beat every single one of them. It would just take a little bit of effort.
*Bang Bang Bang*
Water and fire bullets shot through the air and either exploded the spiders or burned them to a crisp.
On the other hand, Falco and He seemed to be running around the field, killing any strays.
He, despite being a mage, decided to use her daggers instead.
Falco did the same thing; however, instead of using only one dagger to kill them, he dual-wielded his daggers.
His body continued to disappear and appear as he used his movement technique.
Toki flowed around him with smoothness and ease.
Every movement he made was calcted, and most of all, powerful!
His fighting style was unique to his family.
It was a form of toki martial arts that allowed the user to build up kic and stic energy for a few seconds before releasing it in an explosion of speed and power.
It was why it seemed like he was disappearing and appearing repeatedly. Or at least that''s how it looked to the spiders he killed.
Everyone else saw him as more of a blur. That was either because they had honed their senses like Syra, were wearing armor that allowed them to see something as fast as Falco, or even had toki like Argon.
Within a minute, every single spider in the area was killed.
"Did they really take three bullets to die?" Argon suddenly asked while learning down to check one of Syra''s kills.I think you should take a look at
"No... I was just making it easier for myself to take out the cores." Syra replied, and when Argon saw the matter at which the beasts were hit, he could not help but widen his eyes.
His cores were a little easier to take out since they were within one of the 12 pieces of the dead creatures, but since Syra didn''t want to waste much mana and time, she chose to use the bullet method instead.
Walking over to the spider, she reeled her leg back and mmed it onto a specific section of the spider.
Suddenly, a core shot out of their body before slowly rolling on the ground before the corpse.
"Wow." Falco, who was collecting his own cores by digging them out of the corpses, could not help but remark.
"When did you learn to do that?" He asked.
"I''ve always done this... Ever since second year. Did you guys really not notice?" She asked with a little shock in her voice.
"Hmm. I definitely noticed. That''s why I didn''t ask-" Zelon spoke with a bit of pride in his voice; however, he quickly felt a punchnd on the top of his head, causing him to m face-first into the cold dirt below.
"He... We need him." Syra sighed.
"Oops. Sorry." She shrugged.
After that, they continued walking.
They would encounter a few batches of spiders every now and then; however, they were quickly dealt with.
Some of them were stronger than the ones they had to fight back there. Actually, one of them was even had a pristine-topaz core, however, a single wind de did the job, decapitating it in an instant before being harvested by all of them.
And eventually, they had reached their destination.
"Fuck... Is that it. Why is it so creep." Zelon asked while taking a few steps back.
"Spiders live in caves... What''s so surprising?" He snarled.
"I thought you were scared of them." Zelonined.
"Well, seeing you being so cowardly, and Argon being so brave, I thought I might as well face my fear too. I don''t want to end up like you." He shrugged.
"You son of a-"
"Time to go." Syra cut him off and began to walk into the cave.
Everyone else followed behind her,pletely unaware of the chain of events their entrance to the cave had caused.
***
-Light Academy-
"Is it time?" The man from earlier, who looked like an older Lochras, asked with a bit of annoyance.
"Only a bit left, sir. They should be there at any time." Another man said from the side while looking at several projections.
"Ah... My child Syra... Today you shall awaken and rise to the very top. Break your limits my child. Take the Skrks to the very top." The man grinned
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Chapter 174 The Nest [2]
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As the group walked into the cave, the sound of water droplets reverberated into their ears like shrieking screams.
Every sound felt amplified to them. They were slightly scared.
The auraing from within the cave was menacing. Syra, Falco, and Argon looked fairly normal as they walked through the caves; however, the same could not be said about the rest of those in the cave, who were all shaking like leaves.
"Can we turn back." Zelon asked with a shaky voice for the hundredth time, and this time just happened to be Syra''s breaking point.
"God damn it, Zelon, grow some fucking balls."
"..."
"Like seriously. All you do isin andze around all day, while people like us have to carry your ck. What is the point of you being here? To annoy us to death before the spider can get to us?"
"..."
"..."
"..."
"I''ve genuinely had enough of your shit. You''re not the only one who''s terrified, yet you''re the only one I can fucking hearining all the god damn time!" Syra spat to the side with a slightly hateful look on her face as she increased her pace and walked in front of all of them.
"Holy shit, bro, you made Syra, of all people, angry," David whispered mockingly, yet everyone else was too shocked to say anything.
Even He had her mouth slightly open when she heard what her friend had said. It had been quite a long time since she hadst heard her curse, and even then, it was because she stubbed her toe.
"S-Syra..." Zelon tried to call out, but at this point, she seemed to have had enough of everyone and walked so far ahead that it would be usible if she could no longer hear them.
Of course, that wasn''t the case due to the armor she was wearing, but that was the excuse Zelon put into his head when she ignored him.
"You know she''s been agitatedtely. You shouldn''t have done that." He sighed.
Looking forward, her eyes caught onto Argon''s figure walking toward Syra and begin talking to her, and even though Syra looked like she might be dismissing him in the conversation, unlike thest encounter with Zelon, she didn''t shout or curse at him. She simply turned her head away and argued back.
After a bit of arguing between the two, they seemed to finallye to some sort of agreement. They stopped bickering against one another and walked in silence.
That walksted a couple of hours.
They might not have realized it before, but what they had entered was not an ordinary cave. It was a cave system that led pretty far underground.
It said on the mission that the spider would most likely be within one of the tunnels; however, as they walked through the tunnels, it felt more like a maze.
Fortunately, they had been cing torches down wherever they went, allowing them to see whether or not they were going in the right direction.I think you should take a look at
Since they knew that they would be in a cave, they had collected many branches on the way to it. He would use her earth magic to hold the branches up, while Zelon would light them on fire. These wouldn''tst nearly as long as regr torches, but they would do the job. Branches here were tempered by mana. Even while on fire, they wouldst much longer than any wood back on Earth.
Throughout their journey, they massacred almost a hundred spiders in the cave alone. They woulde in batches of five, but sometimes, they would group together to create clusters of ten or even fifteen.
And eventually, they got a sign that they were closer to the nest than they had first thought they were.
"Hmm. It''s much closer to the surface than I thought. This tunnel goes upwards, and not in the direction that we were going in." Argonmented while pointing with his des.
"They most likely have several entrances. Spiders don''t usually burrow, though, yet this tunnel system looks... Unnatural." Syra squinted
"Why do you think they burrowed?" He stepped forward and asked, yet all Syra did was look at her momentarily before contemting her question.
"Maybe they got flooded?" Zelon tried to ask, yet Syra didn''t acknowledge him at all.
"These don''t seem to have been burrowed through by a spider, but instead by something with ws. It does seem a little old thought, so maybe the spiders took over after killing whatever made these tunnels?" Syra suggested while the others nodded.
"But that doesn''t matter. Our goal is to kill whatever is at the top of the spider hierarchy. Or whatever they are called. We''ve been killing its children so far, so the mother is most likely going to be much stronger. A grade or two is stronger." She looked at the weaker people in the group.
"We can handle ourselves. You take care of yourself. We take care of ourselves." He sighed.
She was aware that she was the weakest alongside David and Zelon.
"Are you sure?" Syra looked at her with a slightly worried expression.
"Of course. My armor is pretty good, and if anything bad happens, we have potions." He smiled back at her.
"A-Alright." Syra sighed and began to walk up the tunnel.
The spider web was getting much thicker up here. Actually, not only were the webs getting thicker since there was so much of them, but the quality was getting better too.
It was getting much harder to cut through the webs as they traversed upwards. At a certain point, David''s water cutter didn''t do anything to the web in front of him other than giving it a small cut, causing him to have to put more mana into every spell he used.
And when they finally got to the top, their eyes slightly widened as a wide area could be seen before them, as well as hundreds of red spider eyes glowing in the dark, some bigger than others...
However, there was one much bigger than the rest.
A pair of 8 enormous eyes looked at them before they moved upwards, and a bone-chattering screech left its maw, sending sound waves in all directions.
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Chapter 175 The Nest [3] - The Boss Fight Begins
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A pair of 8 enormous eyes looked at them before they moved upwards, and a bone-chattering screech left its maw, sending sound waves in all directions.
A low boom rang through the area, making the human''s ears ring.
They couldn''t tell what power it was at since it was still in the shadows and was hiding its aura; however, what they could tell from the roar was that it, at the very least, had a solid-amethyst core.
Syra''s eyes shone with a bright, radiant glint of silver as she pointed her spear at the spider before her.
Without waiting a single second for her teammates to get ready, she created a tier-3 magic circle as she yelled---
"Sonic Bolt!"
Something began to revolve around the magic circle, and after a while, it shot out with incredible speeds and intensity, ripped through the air, and appeared before the spider in less than a second.
However, something unexpected happened when the attack hit the spider''s furry coat.
*Thud*
The sound of a contained explosion rang out while a cold breeze flew through the air and blew Syra''s hair back.
Her eyes widened in shock as a realization hit her.
"Even a pristine amethyst core can''t block my attack like that." She muttered.
"It has a bloodline ability..." Argon muttered as he took in a deep breath and shot forward. At the same time, he made sure to yell- "Cover me," as he did do.
Resolve shone within Syra''s eyes as she pointed her staff at the creature before them and took in a deep breath.
However, they were not the only ones who could work in a group.
Suddenly, hundreds of spiders began to swarm forward.
Their eyes shone with a zing crimson intensity while their collective auras sent a palpable feeling of dread throughout therger clearing.
"David, Zelon, push them back while Syra''s covering for Argon," He said with a certain amount of distress in her voice.
The moment they heard He''s words, they stepped forward and began to create their own spells.
Before both their palms shone a tier-2 magic circle twice asrge as their heads, while David''s was blue, Zelon''s was a bright and fiery orange.
Water bolts shot through the air and exploded on impact with the spiders. At the same time, fireballs did that same thing, but at a much lower pace.
However, while the water bolts created explosions when theynded that sent spiders flying alongside their amputated body parts, the fireballs were different.
Once theynded, they would spread the fire from one creature to another.
Every creature within a certain radius would be set ame, not only losing their speed and strength but also affecting their brethren as they burned them as well.
"Alright, He... You can do this." He muttered to herself before closing her eyes and lowering herself to the ground.
When her hands were ced on the ground, she lowered her head slightly and whispered a chant under her breath.
Suddenly, two magic circles appeared under her hands; however, they didn''t connect.
Yet, despite her saying only one chant, the two spells under her hands differed from each other.
They were both tier-3 spells. However, their runes werepletely different. The only thing that was the same was the rune in the middle of both magic circles.
"Syra, Argon! Jump!" Falco warned when seeing what his girlfriend was doing.
Without thinking twice, they both jumped as high as they could simultaneously. It was easy for Syra since her boots were like her grandmother''s. She channeled her mana into the boots, and they shone with red runes beforeunching her upwards with a me st.I think you should take a look at
Argon had it more difficult through.
He was surrounded by spiders, yet the moment he heard Falco''s warning, he quickly covered his body in toki and used his movement technique.
A secondter, he could be seen climbing the mountains of iing creatures with ease before using his toki to make a final jump that was stronger than the rest.
His jump was so powerful that it immediately turned into dust when he used the spider under him as leverage.
The spiders under it were flung out in different directions, and all died a few secondster.
When everyone in front of He was off the ground, the earth before her rippled. That ripple went in all directions, beforeing back to her and allowing her to see where everything was.
*Shing*
And an instantter, hundreds of spikes shot out of the ground and stuck themselves into the spiders there were still on it.
Most of them that were weaker than the amethyst core instantly died.
The ones with an amethyst core survived a little longer, but they were immobile and eventually died.
However, anything at the Solid-amethyst or higher had enough power to tank the hit, the enormous spider included.
Suddenly, it opened its maw wide and showed its fangs.
A bloody red aura erupted out of therger spider, and within an instant, it had covered everyone in the room.
And in that very same instance, a powerful aura fell upon them, making them feel even more dread than they felt when the spiders wereing at the in swarms.
"Vortex" Syra shouted and pointed her staff again.
A vortex of wind was created around therger spider, but it was instantly ripped into shreds.
And in that very moment, it happened.
5 different aura erupted.
4 Pristine amethyst spiders stood tall as they brandished their auras.
While the mother spider stared the humans in the eyes and let off a deep sapphire energy from the depth of its core.
A realization washed over the humans that were there.
They all felt their hearts drop to their stomachs.
They knew that they didn''t stand a chance against the monster before them... Maybe if it was the other creatures, but not the mother...
She was too powerful... Too strong...
No... They were too weak. Or at least that''s how Syra saw it.
"I guess the boss fight''s already begun huh." A voice suddenly echoed from behind them, and when they looked back, they saw a man with slicked jet-ck hair and silver eyes breathing heavily, as if he had been running for a really long time.
"Good thing I came before all of you died."
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Chapter 176 The Nest [4]
?
Everyone in the cavern looked at the neer with a little bit of shock.
"Are you from the academy?" Syra asked whilending on the ground.
"No. But that doesn''t matter right now. If you want to survive, you''ll have to trust me." The man said with a severe expression.
"How can I be sure..." Syra questioned.
"Of what?"
"How can I make sure that you''re not a foe?"
"Well, it''s either me or them." The man shrugged before a magical aura expanded out of his body and erupted in every direction.
His power rippled through the air in the form of an amethyst-blue energy.
"He''s strong..." Falco widened his eyes; however, his expression turned severe once again.
"But not strong enough." He muttered.
The man would most likely have the ability to go up against one or two of the spiders with pristine amethyst cores; however, anything higher than that would get him killed.
The creatures before them were no joke. Fighting them was noughing matter. They were powerful and skilled in their own way. Even with the addition of the stanger, things weren''t looking too good for them.
"Reinforcement is on their way. Don''t worry." Eclipse said while looking at Falco.
Falco, on the other hand, simply nodded when he heard this news. It was a relief to know that someone was probably going toe to save them; however, the possibility of the stranger lying was always there.
And if that wasn''t bad enough, who was to say whether or not they would survive until reinforcement came?
''Did the academy really make a mistake like this? They always scout out locations before allowing us to go there. Maybe we should use the talisman. Yeah, we should definitely use the talisman. We might die if this carries on.'' Falco thought to himself, and without asking anyone else on the team, he took out the crystal he had been given before leaving for the mission and held it high.
Everyone else on the team saw what he was doing, yet despite that, they didn''t stop him.
In a way, they knew that the best course of action was to take the loss and leave simply. This mission was not worth their lives.
However...
"Huh..." Falco''s eyes widened as dread seeped into every single on of his cells.
His stomach dropped, while a feeling of nausea overcame him momentarily.
"What''s wrong." He asked while panting. Her spell had taken a lot out of her, and right now, she was trying her best to recover as much as possible before they would be forced to fight the 5 stronger creatures.
"The talisman..." Falco muttered while looking at it in his hands.
His hands were shaking, while his eyes were filled with a certain sense of terror.
"I-It''s not working." He said, and when everyone heard him, they felt like they had been punched in the gut before a sense of dread washed over them as well.
"W-What do you mean it doesn''t work." Zelon stuttered with a panicking smile on his face.
Taking out his own talisman, he injected his mana into it, yet when he did, it quickly turned grey before the crystal shattered and turned into dust.
Everyone else did the same thing, and yet, they all got the same problem.
"T-They set us up... They wanted to kill us." Zelon said with a shaky voice and a pair of eyes that were beginning to well up with tears.
"They want us dead!" He shouted, and one of the spiders shot forward at that moment.
These spiders weren''t like the rest. They didn''t walk like the rest on all 8 legs. Instead, they had four legs attached to their backs and evolved to look closer to humans.
It was weird to see them this way. The other arachnids were just giant spiders, but what was before them were monstrosities one would expect to see in a horror documentary about scientists trying to forcibly evolve animals with the use of human DNA.
As one of the spiders closed in at a rapid rate on the screaming Zelon, Eclipse disappeared from where he stood and quickly appeared before Zelon.
Without waiting for another second, he threw out a punch; however, it was not nearly at the same speed or power as the spider''s wed attack.
The spider''s human-like arms only had three fingers at the end of them; however, they made up for theck of fingers by having ws at the end of their fingers.
The wed hands swung at Eclipse the moment he appeared and were already ready to tear apart his extended arm, yet in a smooth-like fashion, his arms moved like water and altogether avoided the ws.
However, Eclipse didn''t stop there.
His arms were quick and fluid, and despite the change in direction, it somehow kept all of its previous moment and was even beginning to add onto it again.
Eclipse''s hands ripped through the air as if they were daggers, and within an instant, a low thud could be heard as blood suddenly spilled out of the spider.
Its arm had dropped to the ground while dark-brown blood erupted out of the stump in the arm.
The spider took several steps back; however, it was toote by now.
Eclipse''s body moved like a serpent wrapped around its enemy and attacked when they least expected it.
Suddenly appearing behind the spider, his hand chopped at its neck.
It all felt like it happened in a sh.
A low thud rang throughout the cavern as the spider''s head dropped to the ground while brown blood spurted out of where its neck used to be.
His hand moved again, and in a swift movement, three holes could be seen to have been drilled through the spider''s body as it finally dropped to the ground dead.
"Are you guys just going to watch, or will you help me?" Eclipse asked, causing everyone to be snapped out of their stupor and get into fighting stances.
The battle between the spiders and humans began.
only three spiders remained; however, when they fought, something was different.
They were... Adapting.
They were changing.I think you should take a look at
While Eclipse had an easy time killing the first one because he took it by surprise, the others weren''t nearly as easy,
It was almost like they had watched and analyzed every single movement he made when he fought with their brother. Through seeing him fight, not only did they be better fighters themselves, but they also adapted to Eclipse''s style.
"Shit... They''re getting stronger!" Eclipse shouted out in panic as he felt himself being pushed back by the spiders before him.
She was already being attacked by two of the stronger spiders simultaneously, while a swarm of the smaller and slightly weaker spiders came and attacked him as well.
The small spiders weren''t too hard to kill, but the fact that they were not only poisonous, but came in swarms too made it much harder for him to fight back.
No matter how much he punched, there was always another spider.
*Swoosh*
Suddenly, both spiders before he disappeared, and they were behind him in an instant.
"Wha-" He almost couldn''t see them.
''That movement... It was almost stic. As if they were storing energy and unleashed it in one burst to move as quickly as possible.'' He thought with panic while leaning back.
Eclipse''s heart raced as he faced the two humanoid spiders, their movements now mimicking his own. It was as if they had be his mirror, anticipating his every strike and evading his attacks with unnerving speed. Their wed hands swung at him in tandem, leaving little room for him to counter.
Dancing with the spiders, Eclipse disyed his remarkable agility. He twisted, ducked, and somersaulted with a fluidity that seemed almost otherworldly. His body moved like a shadow, evading the deadly ws by a hair''s breadth. With each dodge, he retaliated with strikes of his own, his hands moving like a blur of daggers in the air.
The swarm ofrge spiders closed in on him, their massive forms blocking his escape routes. Eclipse was surrounded, but he didn''t panic. Instead, he used the confined space to his advantage. With a quick twist of his body, he somersaulted over the attacking spiders, gracefully flipping in mid-air to avoid their strikes.
As hended, Eclipse''s hands became a blur of motion, delivering precise blows to the smaller spiders that dared to get close. Therge spiders lunged at him, but he leaped away with astounding flexibility and reflexes, dodging their attacks effortlessly.
The humanoid spiders continued to adapt, and now their attacks came faster and with more precision. Eclipse''s usual strategies were bing less effective, forcing him to constantly switch up his tactics to stay one step ahead.
The students weren''t doing any better than Eclipse despite having only deal with one humanoid spider.
Due to He''s purge of the weaker spiders, the only ones left were the much stronger ones and the humanoid ones, and not only were these quicker and stronger in every way, their exoskeletons were much tougher than the ones that He had killed earlier.
Tapping her staff on the ground, Syra took a deep breath and closed her eyes.
When she opened them again, she saw them surrounded by the spider, and they were already bearing their fangs at her, getting ready to bite her and inject her with their venom.
She tried her best to push them back, however, she was quickly getting pushed back herself.
She created several air shields around her, but she knew that they wouldn''tst long.
The rest of her team weren''t doing well either.
Zelon was slowly running out of mana. His breaths were bing heavier. His pants could be hesrd by the creatures from a mile away.
His legs were trembling, and he was visibly growing slower every time he threw a spell out.
And afterunching one more fireball spell, he fell onto one knee.
One of the spiders didn''t waste any time and immediately pounced onto him.
His eyes could barely track it as it came closer, but at a certain point, it had felt like everything around him had suddenly stopped moving.
''Ah... Is this what those people meant.'' he thought to himself.
His heart was beating faster and harder than even.
He could hear blood being pumped into his mind, but it was slowm very slow.
And in that moment, he watched his entire life sh before his eyes.
Every instance.
Every moment.
The good.
The bad.
The horrific.
It didn''t matter.
Tears flowed down his face as he understood this was the end.
In the end, there was nothing he could do but watch.
He could already feel the sharp fangs of the spider piercing his skin.
His ears picked up the muffled sound of his friend screaming his name.
Darkness washed over his mind onest-
*Swish*
Yet, just when he thought it was all over, he was ripped out of the dreamy-like state when a bolt of mes ripped through the air and turned the spider to ash in an instant.
"Don''t worry. I''ve got you." The figure of a red haired man stared at him with a warm smile, and in the background, he could see a pink-haired girl walk past them while releasing a menacing aura that froze every single person and monster in their ce.
"Are you really losing to these weaklings?" She asked as her eyes locked upon Eclipse''s figure...
Before a terrifying grin appeared on her face.
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Chapter 177 The Nest [5] - Alexs Strength
177 The Nest [5] - Alex''s Strength
"Hey! They''re strong!" Eclipse said while struggling to get the spiders away from him.
At the same time, Syra was struggling against the swarm of spiders that wereing at her with immense speed, and her shields were beginning to deteriorate.
A fireball suddenly mmed onto her air shields; however, instead of destroying the shield or try to punch through it, the mes went around it, burning any spider in the vicinity.
When the mes disappeared, a red-haired boy smiled at the girl.
He wore ck mage robes; however, there were ces that weren''t covered adequately with the robes, allowing Syra to see ck armor underneath that reflected the light from the mes around them.
"Are you okay?" He asked while stretching his hand toward Syra.
Looking up, she could not help but feel like she had seen him before, but right now, that didn''t matter. He was helping her.
She could tell that he was with the handsome young man from before that had decided to help them. They were wearing the same robes of the same quality and material. Sure, the handsome young man''s robes were a little more roughed up, but that was to be expected.
He was a close fighter, while the boy before he was clearly a mage.
"Are you guys from an hunting group?" Syra asked.
"Is it really time to ask such question?" Alex asked with a smirk before turning around and muttering two words under his breath that Syra barely heard.
"Fire Vortex."
Suddenly, an orange magic circle appeared before him before a candle-sized me formed.
Within a few seconds, the candle-sized me began to spin and gain size. However, before it could get too big, the fire span much fasted and shrank to the size of a bullet.
Something whistled through the air and passed by several spiders, but they weren''t the target in the first ce.
When the mended, it didn''tnd on anything specific. However, that was the point.
Suddenly, mes appeared out of nowhere as a vortex of mes formed before everyone''s very eyes.
The mes that erupted from the red-haired boy''s spell were a mesmerizing dance of beauty and destruction. They zed with an intensity that seemed to defy thews of nature, painting the air with hues of brilliant orange and crimson. Each flicker of the fire was a fleeting moment of artistry, leaving trails of ephemeral embers in its wake.
Like a celestial dance, the mes whirled and spun in a mesmerizing pattern. In graceful orbit around the spiders, the fire never touched them until the moment of reckoning.
A deceptively gentle glow enveloped the arachnids before they were instantly turned to ash.
The beauty of the mes was undeniable, but the devastation they wrought was equally breathtaking. The spiders, once so formidable, now stood no chance against the overwhelming might of the inferno.
And so, the mes zed on, their brilliance illuminating the cavern''s darkness. Each spider that dared to approach was met with the same fate, bing nothing more than ashes in the wind.
As thest spider sumbed to the consuming fire, the mes began to wane, their brilliance fading like the end of a glorious performance.
Most of the spiders in the area were now dead. The only ones that survived were the stronger ones. Some of the weaker ones did survive; however, that was because they were near Eclipse, and Alex didn''t want to burn him likest time identally.
"Show off." A feminine voice chuckled from afar, causing everyone who wasn''t too busy dealing with the spiders to look over.
Syra looked at her for a moment and widened her eyes in shock.
The girl who had spoken had beautiful cherry-pink hair and mesmerizing ocean-blue eyes.
Somehow, she looked like she might have been older than Syra herself; however, Syra doubted that was the case.
The pink-haired girl had the aura of a warrior, and when she looked into her eyes, she saw a me that burned wildly with the passion of a hungry beast.
It was a me that she had only seen in two other people before, and one of them happened to be a pink-haired girl from her town.
Syra wasn''t stupid. Nymira herself might have changed a lot from when shest saw her, but many of her features were the same.
However, she couldn''t think about that right now.
She had more important things to do.
Looking to the side, she saw Falco, He, and Argon dealing with the humanoid spider... Or at the very least they were trying their best to do so.
They were all panting furiously. Their chests were heaving up and down as they threw attack after attack, yet despite how much they tried to fight the creature, no matter what they did, it always felt like the battle was getting harder and harder as time passed.
Argon, with his dual-de techniques, sent out a flurry of attacks that barraged the creatures. His swords were moving so fast that they would have usually created cuts over the creature''s bodies; however, the spider humanoid was not like anything they had seen before.
At first, the attacks had beennding, chipping away at the exoskeleton; however, shortly after, Argon quickly found himself being pushed into a stalemate.
No... He was beginning to be pushed back.
The spider humanoid would block every third attack Argon sent out, as it could predict where it wasing from no matter how much he tried to change it up.
Then, it progressed to every second attack.
And eventually, before Argon could understand what was happening, every single one of his attacks was being blocked by the reinforced arms of the creature before it, but that''s not where it ended.
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Chapter 178 Final Objective [1] - Nymiras Strength
Chapter 178 Final Objective [1] - Nymira''s Strength
Before Argon could understand what was happening, every single one of his attacks was being blocked by the reinforced arms of the creature before him...
However, that was not where it ended.
Not only was it beginning to block all his attacks, it quickly moved to parry them instead.
Argon''s techniques utilized the power of momentum. Even if it blocked the attack, Argon''s technique and control over his toki allowed him to move the swords in a way that allowed him to keep the momentum of thest attack.
It could be seen when he first attacked the storm of spiders. Every time he killed something, the toki around him would increase while his next blow became even stronger than thest.
However, not that the creature was using his momentum against him; it was getting much harder to fight it.
And the worst part of all of this was not the fact that it was pushing him back, but it was the fact that the humanoid spider was doing it while fighting three of them at the same time.
"What are these moves... They are almost--- Human!" Argon''s eyes widened as he quickly realized something, but before he could tell his teammates, the spider produced a burst of speed and instantly blitzed him.
The punch catapulted Argon through the air before smashing him into the other side of the cavern and sending out arge shockwave that alerted everyone who could hear it.
"Argon!" Falco shouted and shot forward.
His martial style allowed him to contain and unleash energy in the form of bursts, the same way a kangaroo would squat down, contain the energy, and release it in the form of a jump.
Falco''s style allowed him to contain as much energy as his normal body could handle, his natural toki included.
*Swish*
Unleashing the energy in his legs in the form of a leap, he pushed against the ground with so much force that it began to crack all around him.
And in the next instance, he had be a blur to everyone, including the humanoid spider.
His hand moved at incredible speeds as it shed at the creature like a lightning bolt striking its opponent.
The humanoid spider couldn''t react in time.
The dagger was too fast.
Arge cut could be seen on the humanoid spider''s chest in the blink of an eye.
The gash gushed out brown blood that stted Falco''s face; however, it had been studying his techniques too.
Suddenly, the creature''s arm turned into a blur as itunched forward with the intention of squashing Falco''s head in like a watermelon.
Falco himself was shocked, but not for the right reasons.
He had expected that the attack would have cut the creature in half; however, when he saw that it was just arge cut wound on its chest, he felt a sense of fear ovee him.
That was one of his strongest strikes; anything stronger would take him a few minutes to collect.
While his martial style had taught him how to fight without the use of its technique, however, that didn''t mean he would be effective in it. Plus, he had put his all into the attack. All the energy he had contained within his arms and legs was now gone, and as the arm grew closer, he could not help but sense his life beginning to slip from between his fingertips.
However, before it could hit him, he felt a tug at the back of his shirt as something swiftly moved him away from the striking range.
At the same time, the earth and rock underneath the spider humanoid erupted out in a cage-like pattern, quickly encapsting the spider within it before closing and shrinking to crush it.
He was still panting. She looked extremely pale, and from the looks of it, her knees were shaking as she looked at the floor the a drowsy expression.
She was suffering from mana exhaustion. She wanted to stop and allow herself to regain a little bit of mana. Yet, by the time she had made that decision, she had seen Argon, their strongest toki user, getunched away in less than a second.
In the next second, she saw that her boyfriend was in danger, so with the little mana she had left, she strained her body and used one of her tier-3 spells.
It was a weaker version of earth prison that used much less mana, but even then, it still made her copse the moment she was finished with it.
She was still awake; however, the human body couldn''t handle that much stress, and in order to save itself, the mind sent a signal throughout the body to stop all non-essential activities.
However, from the angle she was in, she saw everything clearly.
A pink-haired girl pulled her boyfriend back, throwing him so hard that he skidded on the floor briefly before banging against one of the cavern walls.
With the same momentum as the throw, her sword became a blur of light, slicing through the tier-3 earth prison like a hot knife going through butter.
In the next instance, the two rocks split cleanly in half, as one of the sides slid off, copsing to the ground and showing one of the two dead halves of the spider humanoid.
"That wasn''t so hard now, was it?" Nymira sighed while cing her sword in her sheath.
The weapon looked like a normal long sword; however, at a second you can join my discord server today to see illustrations or converse about thetest chapters.}
nce, everyone could tell that it was a high-tier weapon.
"Advanced tier weapon..." Syra muttered to herself as her eyes were drawn to the pristine sapphire core on her sword.
"A little help here!" Eclipse shouted with a little bit of distress in his voice.
However, despite knowing that he was currently on hisst breath trying to dodge these creatures that were adapting to him at a monstrous rate, Nymira''s eyes were locked upon the giant spider with a huge grin on her face.
"It''s been a long time since I''ve fought a creature on your level..."
"Show me what you''ve got."
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Chapter 179 Final Objective [2] - Invisible String
However, the spider didn''t move... Actually, it hadn''t moved from the start of the fight despite its aura still erupting out of it.
The sapphire aura didn''t stop for a second, so with a raised brow, Nymira sniffed the air.
And the moment she did, her eyes widened.
Without waiting another second, her figure disappeared from where she was standing as she turned into a blur that sped straight at Eclipse.
Alex had already thrown out a few fire spells toward the spider humanoids around Eclipse, but Nymira was faster.
She blitzed past them in a sh, quickly extinguishing them before appearing in front of one of them.
When the spider humanoid saw her right next to it, it swung out toward her with the same technique that Falco was using. However, Nymira wasn''t like Eclipse.
The cores on her armor shone momentarily, and before the spider humanoid could even react, Nymira''s sword flickered.
In the next instant, she was behind it with her sword, having already stabbed through the chest of the second spider humanoid.
The first one suddenly copsed to the ground, but it was not in the same form as when it was first attacked.
It dropped to the ground in the form of a clump of meat and carcass.
Brown blood pooled under the pieces of the creatures.
Seeing this, the other spider humanoid tried to run.
Despite being stabbed through the chest, it wasn''t as human as it might have wanted to seem.
It hadn''t died at all. Actually, this would have probably been considered a deep wound rather than a fatal one that would kill you within second.
However, it wasn''t only Nymira who was there.
Suddenly, a firebolt struck at the creature''s side, creating arge explosion that destroyed most of the creature''s left side.
In the next instant, Eclipse finally decided to use some of the perks of his armor by injecting his will and mana into it.
In the next instance, his fist moved so quickly that even Nymira would have had problems tracking it.
This was the power of an armor belonging to one of the generals, and even at that, Eclipse wasn''t a fighter. At best, he was a spy or a scout.
Eclipse''s fist shot through the spider humanoid''s head and sttered its insides onto the other side.
Nymira simply avoided the stter, and when Eclipse''s hand was out of the head, she sliced the creature into a hundred pieces in less than a second.
Looking back at the one she had killed earlier, she could see that it was on fire as Alex had dealt with it.
"So you finally decided to help m-"
"We don''t have time for this." Nymira said with a little bit of distress in her voice.
"Hm?" Eclipse raised a brow, but when he saw Nymira''s eyes dart in the direction of the spider, he furrowed his brows.I think you should take a look at
"It''s giving birth." She simply muttered before looking into his eyes.
"We need to leave. Now!"
"Okay. Gather up the students and let''s get out of here." Eclipse had many questions on his mind, but he knew better than to question Nymira''s sense of smell.
If she said that they had to get out of there, it meant that they needed to get out of there.
Eclipse quickly dashed to the two unconscious teenagers and ced them on his back. Both Falco and Argon were out cold, so he would need to carry them.
Alex, on the other hand, went to He to ce her on his back, yet, before he could, Syra suddenly appeared next to him and pped his hand away.
''When did she get there?'' Alex thought to himself when he didn''t hear hering close to him.
"I''ll take her. You''re stronger than me, right? You should be on guard while I take her." Syra reasoned.
"I guess that makes sense." Alex shrugged.
David, who wasn''t nearly as hurt as Falco or Argon, and not nearly as exhausted as He, went up to Zelon, and without thinking twice, he grabbed him in a princess carry and began to run toward the entrance with him.
Nymira hadn''t carried anyone since she knew that, if they were to be attacked, she would have to be the person to hold it back until the rest got out.
She couldn''t risk Ss'' sister getting hurt. He told her to make sure his sister didn''t get hurt. That was her job while he was cultivating. She couldn''t have him saving their asses again, especially when he was cultivating a strong item.
Or, at least, that''s what they called it. She didn''t really understand why, but whenever they would talk to Sd about his material cultivation, he would call it "assimtion" or something along those lines.
She didn''t really understand it, but if that was what he wanted to call it, then she could be calling it that too.
"Let''s get out of here." Nymira shouted; however, when she was in front of the entrance, she smelled something.
No... She didn''t even have to smell it. The stench was so strong that she could even taste it.
She barely turned around in time, and in a circr motion, she swung her sword.
When she did so, several ngs could be heard, and everyone could visibly see her de get several scratches on it the moment the ngs sounded.
"Fuck!" She shouted, but it was toote.
While most of the smell had been deflected, there was one that passed by her.
Her eyes turned around, filled with dread. But it had been toote by the time she had done so.
An almost invisible string wrapped itself around one of their necks, and when when it tightened, everyone who had looked back to see what happened watched as a head fell from one of the student''s shoulders, while blood shot out of their necks like a water fountain.
They were dead...
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Chapter 180 Final Objective [3] - Kings Sword Style
?
When they all looked back, a horrific scene unfolded before their very eyes.
Nymira''s eyes were filled with horror that was about to turn into a rage; however, when she saw whose head had fallen to the ground, her eyes softened slightly while a sigh of relief left her mouth.
"Thank god..." She muttered to herself, yet, that relief didn''tst long.
Before them was a spider web thatpletely blocked off their exit.
She had no idea when it had been ced there, but she knew that they were fucked.
''I just have to protect Syra until I can somehow find a way out of here.'' Nymira thought while stepping in front of her.
However, Syra wasn''t in her right mind to even realize this.
Her eyes were locked on the head on the floor, while her eyes were filled with tears.
As the boy fell to the ground, Zelon, who was on his back, rolled over beside him with a surprised expression.
"Damnit, David. Don''t drop me-" Zelon''s eyes finally fell upon his friend; however, he wasn''t the same as before.
After all, how could he remain the same when he no longer had a head?
"D-David..." Zelon, who had been trying to rest on David''s back the entire time, didn''t see what had happened.
He only opened his eyes when he felt something warm on his face while he fell on the ground, and now that he was looking at his friend''s corpse, terror could not help but seep into his soul.
His friend... No... His best friend was lying dead before him, with his head having already been detached from the rest of the body, and flung away as it was a piece of trash.
"D-David!" Tears streamed down his face.
"NOOOOOO!" He screamed so loud that it would have woken up the three unconscious people if not for the fact that they were all so tired.
However, even those who were still conscious didn''t pay him any attention.
Syra, who was still staring at David''s corpse, felt like puking. Yet, before long, sheposed herself as quickly as she could.
Her breathing grew steady, and with a stoic expression, she looked in the same direction as Eclipse and Nymira.
At first, she was a little surprised to see them look at something with so much fear, but when her eyesnded upon the thing they were staring at, she immediately understood what they were feeling.
Because she felt it too.
Her eyes widened quickly, and her previously calmed state began to shift into one of panic.
"W-What is that." She asked with a shocked tone.
"That..." Nymira paused and bit her lip.
The once giant spider was on the floor with a huge cut going from its head to the end of its back.
It looked like someone, particrly powerful, had shed it; however, everyone there knew that wasn''t the case.
Slowly, out of the cut, the figure of a woman began toe out of the creature''s body.
"Is that what I think it is." Eclipse thought aloud, but he didn''t get an answer.
The figure of a woman slowly got out of a hunched position to show off her new body.
Everything from her lower armpit was covered with an exoskeleton, but in a way, it looked easily removable.
The woman didn''t have eyes like a normal person. She had four eyes where a normal human would have had eyes, and they were closer to a spider''s eyes than a human''s.
However, two of those eyes looked like that of a human, while the other six looked like that of a spider. Her skin was a marble-likevender purple.
She had long bare purple arms, and a head of silky ck hair that went all the way down to her waist.
Everyone thought that she would have a full human body; however, she she walked out of the corpse of the spider queen, they saw that her waist was attached to some kind of spider. It looked like an ordinary spider. It was much smaller than the rest; however, it was still about a meter tall on its own.
"A metamorphoses." Nymira muttered under her breath.
"Shit. Don''t get distracted." Eclipse looked away from the spider woman with a strained re.
"I''m not attracted to women." Syra said with distress in her voice.
She could tell that the creature before them was insanely powerful, even if it didn''t release its cultivation''s magical aura.
"It doesn''t matter. That''s a Soul-Weaver Spider. No... It''s an evolved version of one. They take seductive forms in order to lure in their enemies and kill them. The entrance you with those presence alone, so look away to lower the effect." Eclipse exined, making Syra immediately look at the ground.
However, there was one among them that didn''t look away from the creature before them.
"Nymira! What are you doing! Look away!" Eclipse said, but Nymira didn''t say anything. I think you should take a look at
Instead, she lowered herself into a fighting position and took a deep breath.
"No..." She muttered under her breath, and in a single second, she let out the full power of her toki control.
"That-" Syra suddenly looked up as she felt the powering off Nymira.
"Eclipse. Find a way out of here. Make sure Syra isn''t hurt." She took a step forward.
"Wait! Nymira, no!" Syra shouted, causing Nymira to look back with a hint of surprise before a smile appeared on her face.
"Get to safety." She smiled and looked back at the monster before her.
"This thing is mine!" Without a moment of hesitation, Nymiraunched forward with everything she had.
Her body immediately turned into a blur, and before any of the humans could react, she was right in front of the spider creature.
"You... Strong." The female spider smiled maliciously as it spoke in broken human tongue.
Nymira''s eyes widened momentarily, but she didn''t stop her attack.
Suddenly, her sword red with tremendous power as toki erupted out of her body with so much ferocity that Eclipse and Syra, despite being so far away from them, had to take a step back.
However, the spider stood its ground with a menacing grin.
"King''s Sword Style." Nymira muttered and changed her breathing.
Suddenly, in the eyes of the creature before it, it had be much more threatening. The creature took a step back, but it was far toote.
"Royal Decimation." Nymira''s sword shed with a milky-white light as it descended upon the monster before it.
Nymira wasn''t holding anything back, and this attack was her strongest.
The woman quickly raised her arms to block the attack, but something happened that made her widen her eyes.
The visible toki aura around the sword was passing through her arm as if they weren''t even there. Actually, they were passing through her exoskeleton unperturbed, yet, the moment it touched the woman''s skin under the exoskeleton, a burning sensation sent a jolt of pain through her body.
*Swish*
*BOOM*
A sh of blinding white light caused Eclipse and Syra to shield their eyes despite how hard it was to do so while carrying people on them.
The spider quickly weaved its threats to block as much of the attack as possible, but it could barely create 30% of the web before the attack wouldnd.
In the next instance, that very same bright lighting off the sword shot through the cavern''s roof and into the sky.
"Sir... What''s that."
Back in the town, people looked toward the forest. It was already dark, yet the sky was being illuminated by something.
The man that had been previously talking to Syra looked in that direction and widened his eyes.
"C-Call the academy... I feel that something is terribly wrong!" The man said with a distressed tone, and everyone did the best they could to do what he told them to.
However, he was not the only one who felt that energy.
On the other side of the Xylem kingdom, a man sitting in the lotus position could be seen cultivating.
Mana entered his body at an extremely quick rate as something burned within his stomach with a bright light.
The mana he was gathering was almost milky-white in nature; however, it wasn''t very thick right now since he was at the end of his cultivation.
The giant''s blood drop burning within his stomach for a while longer, and at the end, the young man''s eyes slowly opened, revealing a pair of luminescent emerald eyes that burned with a vigor that could not be seen in many.
It was filled with many emotions; however, they quickly died. down as the young man looked in a particr direction.
"Hmm? I wonder why they didn''t wake me."
And in the next second, he was gone... But not just from the room.
He was gone from the city itself, and it had only taken him a second to do so.
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Chapter 181 I Am Judgement [1] - Eye Of Thunder
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Nymira could be seen standing with her de ced at her hip.
She was panting heavily, and sweat flowed down her face like a waterfall.
His breaths were bing heavier by the second; however, she could quickly stabilize her breathing with one deep breath.
She couldn''t see what was before her, but she knew the monster wasn''t dead.
She could smell that it wasn''t dead.
It reeked with the smell of burning flesh, but it was otherwise fine.
No... Its condition was getting better by the second.
The attack Nymira had thrown out could not be repeated multiple times without consequence. Her attack was extremely draining, and she could only throw one more out at best before copsing on the ground.
"Run! Now!" Nymira shouted with her de readied in front of her.
Eclipse didn''t waste any time and began to run immediately. Using a hook-like piece of metal, he ced it onto Zelon and began to run as quickly as possible.
Zelon immediately began to scream and shout.
He didn''t want to leave his friend behind. No matter how much he might have denied it in the past, David was like a brother to him.
Sure, Zelon had his own brothers, but they weren''t like David. They didn''t care for him like his current friend group did.
Every single one of them truly loved each other as if they were one big family, and right now, their family had a crucial member ripped away by the hands of a monster.
"No! Let go of me, you bastard! Don''t leave him behind! Please! We can save him! Please!" Zelon let out a wretched scream from the depths of his soul, yet all Eclipse could do was close his eyes.
He had seen many scenes like this throughout his life. He was quite old, after all. It was only normal for him to have seen something like this... Hell, he had even gone through something like it too, when he was a little older than Zelon.
Without looking back, Eclipse began to speed toward the hole that Nymira''s attack had created.
He quickly dodged all the spider webs in the way and began to run out of the hole.
Jumping out of the cavern, he sped into the forest and ran as far as he could without taking a single breath.
He didn''t make a single sound as he moved through the forest. His armor shone with a silver glow as a spell concealed all his movement and the sounds he made.
Syra had tried to escape too, but unlike Eclipse, she wasn''t nearly fast enough to get to the hole in time.
Because, by the time she was in front of it, she felt a sense of danger ovee her body, causing her to use some of the spells stored inside her arm to st herself away from the area.
"Shit." She muttered. She hadn''t seen it, but her body told her that she had just been attacked by the same thing that killed David.
She was holding He in her hands, so it was extremely difficult to move at fast speeds. Plus, she wasn''t like Ss.
She could remember how he used to create spells by simply walking, but she wasn''t like him. She didn''t know how to create spells through her feet, and it was most likely not going to be something she would learn to do any time soon.
*Fwoohm*
Suddenly, a powerful aura erupted from within the dust cloud before Nymira.
Nymira immediately took a step back and positioned herself in front of Syra.
However-
*Swoosh*
Suddenly, something shot out of the dust cloud with extreme speed.
With a sniff of the air, Nymira smelt it, but she quickly deflected the attack to the best of her ability.
Toki covered her de and moved in a weird yet hypnotic formation. The moment the thing mmed against her sword, it was parried away from both Syra and Nymira.
The spider creature could not be seen in front of them. However, there was something different about it. The entire right side of the spider woman''s body was burned; however, it was quickly healing at a visible rate.I think you should take a look at
Her muscles, skin, and organs weaved themselves into existence. The creature radiated with power... Power that it shouldn''t have had, especially when considering its previous core grade.
''Solid Sapphire.'' Nymira thought with horror.
Nymira could probably take on a sapphire core in the dull grade. She would definitely struggle, but it was doable. However, in the sapphire core, the grades were not the same as they were back in the amethyst core and lower.
The difference between a dull and solid sapphire core wasparable to the difference between an initial dull amethyst core and a peak pristine amethyst core.
That was how big the difference was, and it only got higher the stronger someone got.
The difference between someone with a solid sapphire core and another with a pristine core was double that of thest one.
*Swoosh Swoosh Swoosh*
Suddenly the spider''s legs began to move.
They shot forward like spear, and at the end of them, one could clearly see a spike protruding out of them, dripping with a purple substance.
Nymira quickly used her nose to the maximum extent.
Her body flickered as she bent at different angles to dodge the iing attacks quickly, while using her toki and sword to parry the rest of the attacks that might have gone past her.
Every one of the spider''s attacks was filled with so much power that they created a force of wind so powerful that it might have even killed a lower dull-pristine ranked beast, so Nymira had to make sure to parry as many as she could while making it sure that Syra was kept safe.
Nymira was using one of her techniques from the king''s sword style. It was called noble parry, and it used toki to not only neutralize attacks or weaken then, but it also redirected the momentum of an attack, allowing it to go in another direction without losing its power. Those were the two sides of the technique, and they both took an equal amount of strength and power.
However, Nymira was using both of them right now simultaneously. First, she would weaken the attack, and when that was done, she would redirect them.
Her panting grew stronger the more the fought, but she knew she couldn''t back down.
A single urate and unperturbed blow from the Queen spider would most likely have the strength to destroy an entire portion of the forest without any problems.
If it weren''t for Nymira''s blocks, the entire cavern would have been turned to dust right now.
*Swoosh*
Suddenly, one of the spider''s legs mmed against Nymira''s armor. While it might not have stabbed through and injected her with the poison, it still blew the wind out of her and caused her to copse to the ground.
''This is my chance.'' Syra finally thought while cing He on the ground and taking her staff out of her storage pouch.
Taking in a deep breath, she began to mutter under her breath.
"Eye of the storm, voice of thunder.
I call upon thee, that which will bring me strength.
Rip my enemies apart, turn them to dust.
Eye for an eye, bring light to the lost,"
Suddenly, her eyes crackled with something before energy pooled into the crystal in her staff.
When her staff touched the ground, arches of lighting erupted out of it, seemingly drawing something on the ground.
"Eye of Thunder," She muttered, and finally, the magic circle under her feet shone with a silverish-cyan light.
Red runes shone on her staff as that happened before a bright sh of light blinded everything around her.
*BOOOM*
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Chapter 182 I Am Judgement [2] - The Arrival
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Suddenly, a lightning bolt ripped through the air and instantly appeared before the spider queen.
The spider queen looked shocked for a moment; however, a grin slowly tugged at the side of her lips as a cruel smile shone upon her face.
*"Enough ying around"* Speaking in one of the many beast tongues, she let out an almost seductive chuckle as she moved forward, her arm turning into a blinding blur as it grabbed hold of Nymira''s face.
Nymira let out an audible gasp as she was yanked away from where she was standing; however, a secondter, she felt something hit her back.
"AHHHHHHHHHH!" Nymira let out an agonized scream as an electric current shot through her armor and electrocuted her specifically.
She was already running low on the amount of toki she could control, so the only thing she had to protect her was the armor she was wearing and her natural toki, yet the lightning bolt felt like it had ripped through both as if they weren''t even there.
Syra''s eyes widened when she realized what she had done, but without thinking twice, she bit her lip and turned around.
Grabbing her friend, she began to run toward the enormous hole that had been created from Nymira''s attack.
Her agonized screams echoed throughout the cavern and even reached Eclipse, who was outside.
A panicked expression appeared on his face before it became resolute; however, before he could run to the scene to help Nymira, he felt a horrible chill go through his body as something shot above him at a speed he could not even see with the naked eye.
"He finally came, huh..." Eclipse sighed with relief when he realized that they were saved.
He was still a little regretful that they hadn''t saved everyone. He knew that in situations like these, they would have been lucky to even save one person, but he still felt a little guilty about David''s death. That was just the kind of person he was.
As relief washed over him, he fell back onto a tree and finally decided to rest.
Back in the cave, Syra was close to running through the hole. She was just a few meters away, and just when she thought she was about to be attacked, she used all the enchantments on her armor at once.
Without hesitation, she threw He as hard as she could while creating a "Cushion" spell under her in order to not hurt her.
At the same time, she pointed her hand toward the unbroken part of the roof and activated all the runes that contained her spells.
Suddenly, a flurry of air des, bolts, bullets, and arrows were let go simultaneously.
Half of them were sent toward the spider queen, but she simply turned around again and let Nymira''s body take the brunt of the attacks.
The other attacks flew upwards and crashed against the roof of the cave. The spider queen looked up with a raised brow, yet the moment she did, the entire roof copsed onto her, creating an enormous dust cloud.
Syra hesitated momentarily, but she quickly closed her eyes and turned around.
"I''m sorry." She muttered under her breath as tears flowed out of her eyes. A pained expression shone on her face as she ran away, but simultaneously, there was hope.
*BOOM*
The chunks of rock that had fallen onto the spider queen flew into the air as the entire ce cleared out.
She could still feel Syra''s energy signature in the distance; if she truly wanted to, she would have gone after her. Yet, she didn''t...
She didn''t go after her because there was something else she found even more amusing.
"Your... Friend... Abandon?" The spider queen asked in the human tongue while showing a grin that quite literally reached from one ear to the other.
"Your friend abandon you even though you help it... HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA." She let out a boomingugh that made the ground shudder.I think you should take a look at
The spider queen was now fully healed, and all eight of her eyes were looking at Nymira with cruelty and mockery.
She held Nymira up by her neck while only using one hand. The mocking smile on its face grewrger as the seconds passed, but that quickly changed.
"Hahahahahaha... HAHAHAHAHAHA... HAHAHAHA." A feminine maniacalugh echoed within the cavern, but it wasn''t the beautiful spider queen this time.
"Why do... youugh?" The spider asked, its mood thoroughly ruined.
She liked it when her prey was docile, but... This pink-haired human was far from docile even after being captured and ced in such a disadvantaged position.
Suddenly, Nymira stoppedughing as a mocking grin appeared on her face.
At the same time, her eyes stared at the spider queen as if she was a dead woman walking, before a few words left her mouth.
"I can smell him...
You''re fucked."
The spider queen raised a brow and got slightly cautious, but it was toote.
No... It had been toote for quite a while now.
Suddenly, the spider queen felt a pair of eyes fall upon her figure, yet, before she could turn around to see who it was that dared look at her with such scrutiny, she heard a domineering voice followed by the densest killing intent it had ever felt in all its years.
"I suggest you let go of my disciple..." The voice was calm and monotone, yet everyone and everything within a mile radius heard it.
It wasn''t loud. No. It simply reached every ear as if the voice itself was omnipresent.
A strange urge to kneel entered the spider''s mind, but it quickly controlled itself and turned toward the creature looking at it.
And when it finally saw the thing standing at the entrance of he mostly destroyed cave, another feeling it had never felt before surged through its body.
Fear.
True fear.
The fear that a rabbit would feel when standing in front of an apex creature.
And right now, the spider queen felt like it was standing before a creature that stood at the apex of all life.
"What are you..." The spider woman asked in her beast tongue.
"Me?" The white-haired man at the entrance, covered in pitch-ck armor with vibrant emerald and crimson crystals embedded into his armor, cocked his head to the side and spoke.
"I''m Judgement."
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Chapter 183 I Am Judgement [3] - Silas Strength [1]
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"Y-You... You can speak the beast tongue?!" The spider queen asked with shock.
"Yes." Ss replied nonchntly while the spider queen took a few steps back with all eight of her spider legs.
"Well, technically, I only speak three variations of it, but I guess that''s better than what you are currently capable of doing." Ss sneered while walking into the cavern.
His footsteps were slow and calm, yet, it felt like a storm was brewing behind every single one of his steps.
When the spider queen looked at him, she could feel something ancient behind his eyes. He himself didn''t feel that old, but whatever brewed within him did.
"What are you..." The spider woman said again while dropping Nymira onto the ground.
Nymira was still conscious, yet even then, that was barely the case.
Adrenaline ran through her body, making it hard for her to fall unconscious. Her body was still a little numb from the electrocution, while the blow that she had taken to her stomach still throbbed every few seconds.
The only thing that made her smile the entire time was the fact that she could smell the person she trusted most near her, and when she did, a sense offort washed over her. Her eyes began finally droop as the exhaustion took over.
Ss'' eyes moved toward the figure lying on the ground and narrowed his eyes.
"You did this to her?" Ss asked with a raised brow while unleashing his cultivation''s magic aura that erupted from his body.
For a moment, when the spider saw his cultivation base, a rush of confidence ran through its entire body.
"Hahahahah! To think I was scared for nothing! You are just another weak human!" It screamed out inughter as it looked at the aura around it.
The aura was a mix between purple and sapphire blue. I was the reason it had gotten so confident so quickly. It saw Ss'' cultivation and could not help butugh out loud.
"I doubt you can even take on a single one of my children. Even this girl feels stronger than you." The spider queen continued tough; however, Ss didn''t say anything.
He didn''t show any reaction on his face as he continued to walk forward, unperturbed by the words of the creature before him.
Seeing this, the spider queen could not help but get agitated.
And without waiting for another second, it unleashed its magical aura as well, allowing the mana within its core to erupt out of its body.
For a moment, it pushed against Ss'' aura easily, causing the spider queen to grin maniacally, yet, a secondter, her aura stopped where it was, unable to move at all.
''What''s happening.'' The smile on the spider queen''s face was quickly wiped off as she began to exert her willpower to push her magical aura out more.
However, despite how hard she was trying, it didn''t seem like it wasn''t working.
Actually, Ss'' aura didn''t budge at all after the first push.
''Now that I think about it, isn''t his aura a little too dense? My children had an extremely dense aura because they had my blood drop in them, but even then, their magical auras aren''t nearly as strong or dense as his... He isn''t even using his killing intent anymore. What''s happening? Is it his armor? Yes... It must be his armor! It must have some kind of fear factor inside it. What do the humans call it again? Enchantments? Yes, that! He must have an enchantment of some kind!'' The spider reasoned and stopped pushing against the aura.
"That armor of yours is quite powerful... I wouldn''t mind taking it off your corpse when I''m done with you." She spider queen chuckled once more as her confidence returned.
"You''re a queen right?" Ss suddenly asked, making the spider queen raise a brow.
"I am... and quite a generous one at that. Kneel before me, givem me your armor and I''ll think about sparing the two of you." She chuckled before a malevolent grin stretched out from the corner of her lips.I think you should take a look at
"Just kidding! HAHAHAHA! I think I almost saw hope in your eyes." Sheughed, but Ss'' expression never changed...
Not even once.
"A queen who hurt my disciple." Ss continued while turning toward Nymira.
"Huh. Did I make you made or something? What are you rambling-"
"For what you''ve done, I''ll personally execute your myself. My armor has been craving for the blood of a new beasttely, so you''ll do well." Ss said and took a step forward.
Without skipping a beat, the spider queen frowned and threw outs her arms.
The moment she did, hundreds of strings shot out of her arms and attached the the remains of the cavern.
Her hands moved extremely quickly, and in the next second, Ss found himself being raised off the ground as threads with the strength and durability of steel wrapped around him.
No... They were much stronger than steel, and even at then, they were also muchrger than normal spider webs due to the size of the queen spider.
Looking down. Ss found himself in a spiderweb cacoon.
And when he looked up, he saw a hand with five fingers in front of his face, with each finger having a w at the end of it.
"You should have worn a helmet!" As her wed hands struck Ss '' face, the spider queen shouted with maniacalughter.
*ng*
The spider''s face turned into one of confusion, before slowly turning into one of shock.
And before the spider could fully understand what had happened, her face turned into one that was filled with horror.
"H-How."
"I''ve had enough of this." The young man before he sighed.
Suddenly, me erupted out of his body, destroying the string instantly while forcing the spider queen back from the shockwave it created.
"My turn." He whispered, and in the next instant, he was no longer standing in front of her.
All of a sudden, every single hair on her body stood at their ends as a presence appeared behind her. It almost felt like the presence had teleported behind her, but she knew that wasn''t the case.
By the time she had looked back to see what happened, the only thing she could see was a fist.
And in the next instance, the spider queen felt a fistnd on her face before everything behind her disappeared into thin air.
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Chapter 184 Guilt [1] - Silas Strength [2]
184 Guilt [1] - Ss'' Strength [2]
Ssnded on the floor without saying a single word, however, quite a few thoughts were going through his mind right now despite his face not showing it.
''Did I use too much power?''
He had tried to keep his strength to a minimum, yet, with his armor on, that became very difficult. Plus, he had just assimted the giant''s blood drop, and wasn''t sure how strong her would be when he came out.
However, now that he was looking at the destruction before him, he realized that he might have used too much strength.
At the same time, his armor had changed over the years, and unlike all its previous users, he could use much more of its power. However, there was a problem when it came to restraining himself.
He wasn''t used to having his armor on... Actually, he didn''t like having it on. Instead of always wearing it, he usually kept it in its copsed form that stuck to his back as a small thin semi-sphere between his shoulder des.
It could be put in in less than a second whenever he needed it. That was one of the improvements he had made to it over thest couple of years.
Another one of the improvements was the cores that shone within the armor, as well as the circuit-like patterns that could be seen all over it.
They shone every now and as if the armor itself had a beating heart, and the circuits were simply its blood vessels.
However, in this case, its blood vessels carried mana rather than blood... Or at least that was the case most of the time...
Looking to the side, Ss looked at a certain part of the screen.
[Armorpatibility: 64%]
Right now, Ss could only use about 60% of the armor''s power, but to him, that was more than enough to deal with small fries like the creature thaty before him.
Or, at least, what remained of it.
His armor itself wasn''t significantly special. It was the sphere-like object in the middle of the chest piece that was significantly special.
Unlike before where it was a pitch-ck object, now it was covered in a green crystal-like surface that pulsed with mana; however, instead of pulsing like the circuit-like patterns, instead it felt closer to a heart beating.
However, despite the red threads that would have indicated that the crystal-like surface was actually a core from a human that happened to be powering the entire suit, that was far from the case.
The suit was designed that way. To anyone on the outside, it looked like a normal emerald core in the middle of the suit of armor when in fact it was the extraterrestrial object that was funneling mana from the surroundings and powering the suit.
Over thest 6 years or so, Ss had been trying his best to understand what the thing was. He knew that it came from space, but back then, that was all he knew about it.
However, after many experiments and years passing by, Ss hade to the most urate conclusion he coulde up with. He didn''t have all the information in the universe, so it was much harder for him to create theories, but he was certain that his current theory was the most correct one.
The sphere itself was alive.
All those years ago, when he pushed his mana into it, he hadn''t just bonded with it using his mana signature the same way someone would do with an armor. Instead, he had bonded to it on a soul level. As if he had almost tamed it.
However, something changed between him and the thing after a while of having it around.
Itmunicated with him, but not the way humans did.
He felt it through his soul. It sent an emotion to him that pulsed through his entire consciousness. It seemed like it wanted to connect directly with his mind. However, there seemed to be some kind of barrier in ce that made it extremely hard to do so.
"Hmm. You don''t want it? Are you telling me I killed that thing for no reason?" Ss muttered to himself while looking at the armor with an annoyed gaze.
Looking back at what remained of the spider queen, he stared at the brown blood on the floor with an equally disgusted stare.
"It''s disgusting, right? I can''t believe she had something like that running through her veins. Ugh." Ss shivered with disgust.
What remained of the creature was a paste of blood that skidded across until it reached the end of the cavern... Or what was its end before it had beenpletely obliterated.
Looking forward with an aloof expression, Ss sighed.
"Maybe I did go a little too far this time." He muttered to himself as the view came into sight.
There was a new hole in the caver, if you could even call it that. That hole was sorge that it could no longer be reasonably considered a hole. No one in their right mind would consider it as such.
"Well, that doesn''t matter now, does it." he sighed and pointed his hand at the blood on the ground.
Instead of a magic circle appearing, Ss instantly created a rune on thin air. In the next moment, a blue me appeared and dropped onto the blood silent.
It only took a few seconds, but the blood had beenpletely cleaned from the area... not because Ss had used a cleansing spell, but instead because of the fact that all of it had been burned up.
Looking back, Ss looked at the unconscious body of Nymira on the ground and could not help but make a grim expression.
She had done all this for him so that he could assimte a drop of blood that he could have simply gotten another of. It annoyed him a little, but he wasn''t upset at them. He was upset at himself.
Walking toward Nymira, Ss got down and grabbed her before carrying her like a princess. He looked at her face for a moment before a slight smile appeared on his face.
"At least she looks peaceful when she sleeps." He thought while remembering back to the days when she couldn''t sleep at all.
Some things haunt a person for their entire lives, and Ss was certain that she had seen something that no child should have.
She lost people she cared for... Even Ss hadn''t gone through something like that. He hadn''t lost anyone he cared for because there wasn''t a single person on Earth to whom he could shed a tear.
"Sometimes you just need the right people around you." He thought before letting out a sigh.
Without much thought, he carried Nymira in his arms and left the cavern.
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Chapter 185 Guilt [2] - The Pain of Guilt
185 Guilt [2] - The Pain of Guilt
Walking outside, Ss looked around and saw a few people in the distance.
They were in the forest, recuperating their strength and healing their wounds.
Two boys could be seen lying on a tree, however, from where he was sitting, Ss could tell that they were awake.
They were almost a mile away, yet his mystic eyes could see them as if they were right in front of him.
He began to walk in their direction as softly as he could, but even as he did so, the girl in his arms began to move around.
Instinctually, she sniffed a few times before letting out a very small unconscious smile. A second passed, and she was already snuggling closer to Ss.
''Hmm... I wonder if this is what having a child feels like.'' Ss thought; however, it wasn''t the first time he had felt that way.
''Ah fuck it...'' Ss thought before floating in the air toward them.
Nymira had worked way too hard, and he didn''t want to wave her up.
Flying through the air, he moved much faster, and within a few minutes, he was already in front of the group.
When the students saw him, they all quickly took out their respective weapons and pointed them at him.
They immediately recognized him. Syra was the first one to recognize him, but the rest quickly followed.
He, Syra, Alex, and Eclipse were the only ones who didn''t move. All of them were still forpletely different reasons.
He didn''t look exactly like the picture on the bounty. Actually, if it weren''t for the description at the bottom of the bounty describing his white hair, posture, and the armor he wore, it would have been much harder for the average person to notice him.
"He''s... Young..." Argon said with a little bit of shock. However, he quickly returned to his fighting stance despite the growing pain shooting through his body.
Falco did the same, while Zelon tried to, however, he was clearly out of it.
Losing his best friend was clearly taking a toll on his mind, and right now, he could only point his rage at something.
"Wait! Don''t attack." Eclipse shouted, but it was already toote.
Zelon had said the full chant for a fireball, which was already shooting through the air and closing in on Ss.
Ss simply looked at the fireball with a weird expression before blowing on it with his mouth.
*Fwoosh*
The fireball immediately dispersed the moment Ss blew on it, causing everyone that didn''t know him to look at him in shock.
"How did you-..." Zelon looked on as a hint of despair appeared in his heart.
It was as if, at that very moment, he had understood that he would die.
Ss slowly descended and ced his feet on the floor.
"What are you doing..." Ss asked with a weird expression.
"If you''re going to kill us, go ahead already you f-"
"No way..." Syra muttered with her hand over her mouth.
So many thoughts were going through her mind right now. She was struggling to understand what was happening, but her instincts were telling her that she was right.
"B-But how?" Syra stuttered as tears welled up in her eyes.
Eclipse looked at her from the side of his eyes before letting out a deep sigh.
On the other hand, Alex looked around awkwardly, not knowing what to do. Unlike Eclipse, he wasn''t used to not beingpletely in the loop.
He knew that Syra was Ss'' sister, and he could assume what was happening from her reaction. However, other than that, he didn''t actually know all that much.
All he knew was that Syra wasn''t allowed to know about him, which was one reason he changed his name and hair color.
Without paying much attention to the crying girl before him, Ss sighed, walked toward Eclipse, and ced Nymira in his arms.
She scrunched up her nose when she was ced in his arms and began to stir awake.
*Swoosh*
Suddenly, a de appeared in front of him, yet, it only took a flick of a finger to move the de away from his body by shifting its trajectory.
"I suggest you stop, boy." Ss said threateningly while releasing a sliver of his killing intent.
Yet, that sliver alone caused Argon, who had attacked him seconds earlier, to drop to the ground while panting heavily.
He couldn''t even look up from the ground, as if he was being forced to kneel before a creature that stood at the very pinnacle of life.
"It''s good to know your ce in the universe. You certain be stronger that way." Ss said before turning around from the young man and looking at the blonde girl who was now on her knees as tears streamed down her face.
"I''m so sorry I failed you... I was your big sister, and I failed you... I let those monsters take you. I let 15:34
them do this to you... You- You sacrificed yourself for us. You died for us, and all we could do was sit "S-Ss... Ss... You''re alive..." She screamed between sobs, and by now, she had awakened Nymira.
"What''s happening." A feminine voice asked. Eclipse helped Nymira onto the ground as she rubbed her eyes. Her entire body was still aching, but the cries had woken her up.
"Brother-... I''m so sorry. I''m so sorry." Syra cried even more, but now, she had lunged at Ss...
However, she didn''t attack him.
Instead, her arms wrapped around his waist while her face was quickly buried into his chest.
Ss showed a slightly weird expression, but then he heard his sister say something that caused a pain to shoot through his very heart.
"I''m so sorry I failed you... I was your big sister, and I failed you... I let those monsters take you. I let them do this to you... You- You sacrificed yourself for us. You died for us, and all we could do was sit there and d-do nothing... I''m so sorry."
Ss could feel the grip around his waist tighten significantly. He didn''t understand why, but his chest felt so heavy at the moment. Syra was so light, yet, no matter what he did, it felt like he was being held down by a mountain that had decided to wrap its arms around him.
That guilt she was feeling... That emotion that was currently weighing down on her entire mind. That burning sensation she had been feeling the whole time, thinking she was he, had died...
"I''m sorry I was so weak."
That feeling that killed and destroyed her from the inside for six years...
It was all being transferred to Ss.
"I''m so sorry." Syra fell to the ground and held his legs while balling her eyes out.
''You''re wrong...'' Ss thought with a stoic expression that was slowly being morphed into something else.
"Why are you ming yourself?" Ss asked when the pain in his heart had gotten too heavy.
He had never felt like this before, so he didn''t fully understand it... However, in a way, he knew what the feeling was.
"I was the one who abandoned you guys, not the other way round."
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Chapter 186 Guilt [3] - Volition Flame
?
Yet, even when Ss wanted to exin that it wasn''t her fault, Syra didn''t stop crying.
The moment she recognized him, she could not help but feel like her heart had been thrown into a blender.
A pain shot through her chest. The pain was too much.
It needed a release. It needed something that would allow it out. All this grief that she was holding back. All the pain she had been holding onto because she had to be strong.
She couldn''t cry because she had to be strong for her family now.
Ss wasn''t around anymore... It was never his job to be the strong one of the family, yet, in a way, he had somehow done exactly that.
He felt like someone they could lean on, and when he was taken away from them, every single one of the Skrks copsed in their own way.
And when Syra and her youngest brother, Lex, were taken away, the family broke down even more, every single one of them doing so in their own way.
For 10 minutes, she clinged to his legs and balled her eyes out like never before.
Everything she had been feeling... All the guilt, all the pain, and all the regret that had gone through her mind in the past six years flooded out of her eyes.
Nymira, who was now awake, simply looked at Syra with a saddened expression, yet, she couldn''t help but think back to a few minutes before when Syra had used her as a sacrifice to get away with her friends.
Nymira understood why she had done it. She would have done it herself if she didn''t feel obliged to save Syra. However, now that she was looking at the girl constantly apologizing, her eyes could not help but shake a little.
She didn''t know how to feel right now.
However, there was one emotion she felt for certain.
Whenever she looked up at Ss, a smile tugged at the corner of her lips.
She could see that he was trying his best to stop his sister from crying, and she could smell his emotions.
For thest six years, she and Alex were the only ones constantly on Ss'' side, but Nymira knew him best out of everyone in the organization.
Sometimes she wondered if she knew him better than he knew himself.
She knew what kind of guilt he had been feeling. She felt it the first time he hade to her house, and over the years, that guilt seemed only to take a heavier toll on him.
She tried her best to cheer him up every day, but she knew that the only thing that could get rid of the constant guilt in his heart was meeting his sister.
After all, she was the main source of his guilt. No matter what happened in his days as Judgement of the Darkless organization, he always med himself for what happened that day. The day he went with Archie, and allowed his family to suffer so much.
At this point, Syra''s wails turned into sobs, and in the end, they turned into sniffles.
Slowly, she stood up, but when she did, she could not help but stumble forward. Her knees felt weak, and the only thing she could do was wait to hit the ground.
"It''s okay." Ss grabbed her and hugged her while Syra continued to sniffle.
"M-Mom and dad will be so happy to see you." She sniffled while Ss showed a slightly guilty expression.
"Sigh... I can''te with you." Ss finally said while tightening his fist.
Hearing this, Syra''s sobs halted for a moment... And in the next moment, he felt a certain rage burn within his sister.
However, that rage wasn''t pointed toward him.I think you should take a look at
A staff suddenly came out of her storage pouch, and when it did, she immediately pointed it at the only person she didn''t know.
Eclipse widened his eyes when he saw a staff get pointed at him, but he didn''t think much of it. He hadn''t been paying attention to Syra when she fought, so he was still assuming that she would require a chant to create a spell.
"Wind Breaker!" She roared, and a magic circle appeared before her staff.
Eclipse and Ss widened their eyes. Nymira had seen Syra use magic by only saying one word, and the same could be said about Alex.
''She knows how to instant cast.'' Ss widened his eyes slightly when he saw it.
Instant casting and silent casting a magic circle were two different things.
Magic itself had different stages depending on the mastery of its user.
It went from creating a magic circle by hand, run by rune, to chanting the spell.
After that, you shorten the chant, calling it a quick spell, and to go even further would be called an instant cast. Instant casters only needed to say one or two words to create a spell that they had practiced before.
They only had to say the name of the spell, and it would instantly appear before them in the form of a magic circle.
And that''s exactly what happened here.
Wind breaker was instantly cast. Eclipse quickly put his hands up and got ready to defend the spell that was about to hit him, yet, he quickly realized there was no need to.
Ss''s hand hade forth and grabbed the magic circle before shattering it instantly.
"What are you doing, Syra," Ss asked with an inquisitive stare.
"What have they done? Have they threatened you? Threatened us? Do they have something on you? I promise I can get someone to help you. This is why you left right? They threatened you... They took my brother away, so I''ll make them pay for what they did." Syra shouted with a rageful grimace on her face.
It was an expression that Ss had never thought he would see on his cute little sister''s face, but now that it was right in front of him, he finally understood what the Skrk family had done to her.
However, there was something else that caught his attention.
His eyes diverted from her face and instantly looked straight into her eyes.
And within them, he saw something that shook him to the core.
''They did this...'' Ss thought, barely capable of containing the rage that was spiraling within him.
''Maybe... Maybe I shouldn''t have left.'' Ss thought as he gritted his teeth.
He didn''t want to show the rage on his face, but it seeped out anyway.
And at that moment, he was staring at something deep in his sister''s eyes.
Specifically, he was staring at a swirling me deep within her soul that felt like it could devour anything in its wake.
Syra had a volition me.
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Chapter 187 Guilt [4]
187 Guilt [4]
Acquiring a volition me is both the worst and the best thing that could happen to someone in their lifetime. However, almost 100% of the time, a volition me never appeared inside an adult. It only appeared in children, yet the chances of that happening were extremely low.
Ss had many theories as to why a volition me could appear within a person''s soul, but he thought one theory was the most urate.
A volition me only appeared within children who suffered from a young age, and even then, not only did they have to suffer a great deal, but there also seemed to be a few more factors that go into y.
Ss got his second volition me when he had almost died, giving him the hunger for battle that he didn''t have previously.
His first volition me... Well, that was a story for another time.
However, Syra having her volition me... He knew that while he might have been a reason for it appearing, something as small as a sibling dying couldn''t cause it.
Someone needed to go through something else to allow a volition me to appear.
''It''s those bastards... They did this to her. They hurt her.'' Ss thought as images of the Skrks appeared in his head.
He had met quite a few of them in the past six years, and right now, the only thing that could calm him down was the images of them burning alive.
He knew it was still all in his head, yet, the more he visualized that scene, the more lucid it became.
The only thing he could hope for right now was that it would be Lucid enough for them actually to die this time.
No matter how much he wanted to kill them right now, he knew he couldn''t.
They had many strong people protecting them, and even they themselves were quite strong.
But the n he had for them... The n would cause them more pain than any human could ever imagine.
He was going to make them suffer.
"s." Ss heard thest part of his name enter his ears, causing him to look back at Nymira, who was looking at him with a worried expression.
''Sigh... What are your doing, Ss? You''re a grown man. Keep your emotions in check.'' Ss let out a slight sigh and looked at Syra with calm eyes.
"Syra... I left on my own." Ss said, but he could see it in Syra''s eyes that she didn''t believe him.
And why should she. Technically, she was right. The first time he came to the organization, he only came because Archie had half-threatened him. Heter learned that it wasn''t really a threat, but a question, yet, who in their right mind would trust a man who was holding the head of a man Ss had previously thought he had no chance at beating?
The chief was a powerful man, and to see him in such a state...
"You''re lying..." Syra said before continuing. "Don''t you want to see mother and father again? They''ve had it... rough." Syra gritted her teeth slightly. "Do you not want to see our little brother?" She finally asked.
"Syra... I can''t. I have responsibilities. I shouldn''t even be here. The only reason I came here in the first ce was because I found out that you were in danger." Ss looked at Syra in the eyes without breaking eyes contact...
Yet, he eventually blinked and looked back.
"And now, I have responsibilities."
"Responsibilities? To what? These bastard?!" Syra shouted before pointing and Eclipse.
"T-They... THEY TOOK EVERYTHING FROM US! THEY TOOK IT! THEY ROBBED ME OF MY BROTHER! THEY ROBBED ME OF MY FAMILY!" Syra roared and shot toward Eclipse without any notice.
She didn''t even have to create a spell. Her armor did that for her.
Taking a dagger out of her sheath, Syra stabbed toward Eclipse''s eye; however, a moment before it could hit, another de came out of nowhere.
Syra''s de shattered before she could even blink, and when she looked to the side, she saw Nymira there, staring at her with a conflicted expression.
"I should have known. You''re with them!" Syra pointed her hand forward and muttered, "Wind breaker" under her breath, but likest time, her spell shattered before it could even form properly.
"Syra, stop!" Ss shouted, but he didn''t put any of his aura behind it.
Suddenly, something nged against his armor, but he didn''t even look back to see who it was since he already knew.
Without hesitation, Nymira appeared in front of the person who had attacked Ss and mmed her foot into their chest.
Argon immediately flew through the forest, smashing through several different trees before eventually stopping at one and falling to the ground.
At the same time, he covered his mouth with his hand and let out a cough, and when he looked at his hand again, it was covered in stters of blood.
Falco, who was also now awake, used his movement technique and appeared in front of Ss. Falco''s de shot toward Ss''s neck, yet, by the time Syra could react, she could only let out a weak "no."
It was toote.
*Snap*
Falco''s eyes widened when he saw his de snap. He was certain that he aimed for the skin, not the armor, so how could this be?
"Stay out of this."
Suddenly, a hang grabbed onto his face, and before he could react, a fist punched into his abdomen with so much power that he immediately puked out a mouthful of blood.
"Shit." Ss thought and instantly healed the young man.
"What did they do to you?" A meek voice asked, and when Ss looked up, he saw Syra staring at him as if he was some kind of monster.
"What did they... Do to me?" Ss asked with a raised brow.
"They did this to you... I bet they brainwashed you too. No...Fuck! Why did you do this to him! You monsters!" Syra shouted and threw out her hands.
And without hesitation, she let go of her entire arsenal of spells that she had left within her staff and other equipment.
"That''s enough." Ss threw a single hand forward and created a tier-1 wind spell.
Syra didn''t recognize the runes on it, but at that point, she didn''t care.
However, the moment her spells flew out of her equipment, they froze for a moment.
And the next moment, she felt a fist drive into her abdomen, knocking the air out of her lungs and causing her to lose consciousness.
When Syra finally fell forward, Ss'' eyes turned back and looked at the orange-haired boy on the floor, that shivered in fear the moment Ss looked at him.
"P-Please don''t hurt me." He muttered with a squeal.
"Pathetic. To think you''re friends with my sister." Ss sneered, yet a secondter, he turned toward Alex and Nymira before giving them a nod.
No matter how much he wanted to stay with Syra, he had to ensure she wasn''t seen with him. It would not only jeopardize his n, but it would most likely put his sister in danger too.
Shoving his hand into a pouch, Ss shuffled around it for a bit before taking out a sapphire blue core and cing it in Syra''s pouch.
"Let''s go to the town. We''ll leave her there." Ss said and began to walk.
"What about them." Nymira''s pointed at He, Zelon, Argon, who was in the distance barely standing up, and Falco, who was sprawled on the ground clutching his stomach.
"Hm..." Ss looked back and saw Nymira''s eyes.
"Sigh... Sure. Bring them along if you want. I don''t care." Ss shrugged before beginning to float and shooting into the distance with Syra in his arms.
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=
Chapter 188 Vengeance [1]
188 Vengeance [1] "Boss. Do you think those kids are okay? They should have been back by now, right?" A man asked the ''guard'' that Syra had talked to before.
He had posed as a guard in order not to intimidate the students. He liked doing it since it showed him what kind of people they were. If they tried to abuse him as a guard, he would send them back to their schools without a hesitation, no matter what noble family they happened toe from.
Since the academies themselves weren''t biased toward any of the families, they would punish the students ordingly. However, they could not be said for the families that the students came from.
Most families didn''t have people stronger than the a peak tinum toki warrior. Those were had toe by if the family itself didn''t specialize in war or battle, so, it hadn''t been much of a problem so far.
"I''m sure they''re fine." The boss sighed.
He stood outside the adventurer''s hall, leaning on the wall behind him.
"Shouldn''t their mission have only taken a few hours? What if they are in danger? I heard the wolf-spider poption had been increasing recently." The man said with a worried expression.
He was a warrior himself and was quite used to death, but after having a kid of his own, he grew to have a soft spot for the students who came to their town toplete missions.
"Daddy... What''s wrong." A little girl, no older than 4 or 5, could be seen on the man''s shoulders swaying left and right.
"Daddy''s just a little worried for those kids, nothing more." The father said with a smile that was supposed to calm her down.
"The students? You mean those people with colorful hair?" The little girl asked.
"Yeah." The man sighed.
"Hmm. Maybe I should send a few people over." The boss said with narrowed eyes.
"I''m willing to go if you want, boss." The man said while cing his daughter on the ground.
She looked a little dejected when her father didn''t allow her to sit on his shoulders, but she was quickly distracted by something else.
"But sir. What gives us a better chance if those kids can''t do whatever is in the forest straight on? With all due respect, even you can barely taken on a newly broken through monster with a dull-sapphire core." The man exined.
"Hmm. That''s true. But, if they are truly in danger, they should have called for the academy-"
"Daddy! What''s that?" The girl suddenly pointed toward the sky, cutting the boss off and causing them both to look in the direction she was pointing at.
When they saw something approaching their town, they both got on guard and took out their weapons.
"Attackers?" The man asked.
"I don''t know. Call everyone and take her inside." The boss said.
"What if it''s the academy?" The man asked.
"Better safe than sorry." He said while stepping into the middle of the road.
Without holding anything back, the boss red his aura to its maximum, sending out a nket of toki that reached so far that it almost covered the town.
Everyone in the town got alert and entered their houses.
Swiftly, everyone left the adventurer''s hall and looked up into the sky.
ring their toki auras as well, they waited; however, when the person got within a certain distance, even the ones in the silver rank could see the person clearly with their toki-enhanced visions.
"Is that?" One of them said in awe, but their awe quickly turned into terror.
In his arms, they could see a golden-haired girl.
"It''s our liberator." Another said with joy.
"D-Did one of you do something wrong? What would he want to do with a backwater town like ours..." Another said in worry.
"Oh fuck! We''re dead... We''re fucking dead. He''s going to wipe us out like the red boars." Another shouted while getting onto his knees and covering his face.
Everyone could hear sobsing from him, but they didn''t care. Everyone was thinking about themselves and their family, so while some looked joyous, others were cautious, and some were terrified.
When the figure was close enough, the boss finally opened his mouth and asked the question all of them wanted to ask.
"Lord Judgement... Why have youe?" He asked with a shudder in his voice.
Even now, that powerful aura that made him feel like he was at the peak of all life made him shudder.
"Lord?" Ss asked with a raised brow.
He was now floating above them, and without skipping a beat, he deactivated his flight and dropped to the ground with the grace of a feather.
"I-I... I meant General Judgement." The boss bowed slightly while shivering all over.
"Why have youe to our small town." He asked.
"What... Am I not allowed here?" Ss'' eyes narrowed almost threateningly, making the men and women before him feel like their souls had left their bodies.
"N-No! That''s not what I-"
"I''m kidding." Ssughed while reeling his head back. The joyous expression on his face made almost all of them let go of a breath they didn''t even know they were holding.
"Though, I''d like to ask you guys for a favor if you don''t mind."
And once again, they were holding their breaths.
"W-What is it?" The boss asked.
"This girl." Ss showed them the unconscious Syra.
"I need you to take care of her until she''s recovered. Okay?" Ss asked.
"S-Sure." The boss bowed one more time.
"Oh. Also, take care of them if you want to. I don''t really care about them. It''s your choice, really." Ss pointed behind him, but they saw no one there when they looked at where he was pointing.
"Uhm. Sir. You''re not-"
In the next instant, they saw a meteor shoot from just outside the forest, piercing through the skies and smashing onto the ground
Another blur came through the town''s gates, while thest blur simply appeared in front of the other two, as if the person had teleported there.
The boss looked at the pink-haired girl that had seemingly teleported there and widened his eyes.
He was the only one who could see her move, yet even to him, she was a blur.
''She could probably taken on a weaker sapphire core monster.'' He thought with a frown.
His eyes quickly moved down, and saw two people being held by her. They were both boys that hade with the golden-haired girl from before, and right now, they were both unconscious.
After Eclipse, Nymira, and Alex arrived next to Ss with all the students except David, everything was quickly exined to the old man that his people called ''Boss.''
Ss exined how one of them died, and that the monster they had fought had recently broken through to the sapphire core. Ss didn''t really exin the rest, while Eclipse and Nymira simply remained to themselves for a while since they didn''t want to talk to people they didn''t really know.
After a few more minutes, Ss was in a motel room, looking at his sleeping sister. She was fully healed, but she hadn''t woken up yet.
"Do you think she''ll be fine?" Nymira was right next to him, and was the only one in the room except for Syra and Ss himself.
"She''s gone through much worse. She''s probably only mentally fatigued. That''s why she isn''t waking up." Ss exined before sighing.
After a few seconds, he turned around and opened the door to the motel to leave.
"Hm? Where are you going?" Nymira asked.
"I have something to do. You guys should probably leave too." Ss said while giving Nymira a side-long nce.
"Aren''t you going to talk to her? To tell her not to spill the fact that she had met you? She might be in danger." Nymira tried to argue.
"You underestimate her intelligence. I doubt she would be stupid enough to tell anyone something like that unless she truly trusted them." Ss said.
"But your family. What if they brainwashed her." Nymira argued once more.
"Don''t worry about it." Ss sighed and looked at Nymira in the eyes.
"Everything''s going to be fine." He gave a genuine smile and patted her on the head before leaving.
"We''re going to have to talk about what happened back there when I return." We''re Ss'' final words before his presence disappeared.
Nymira sighed and looked at the unconcious girl on the bed once more and frowned before opening her mouth and muttering a few words under her breath.
"Bitch..."
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Chapter 189 Vengeance [2] - The Fear of God
Chapter 189 Vengeance [2] - The Fear of God
"Hmm... So this is it." Ss muttered while looking down at an enormous structure.
It had an enormous barrier around it; However, it didn''t seem like that bothered Ss.
He could be seen flying far above the enormous structure, but the thing before him was far more than just that.
The structure itself expanded out in five directions. It was essentially the middle of a city since markets, shops, and many more things could be seen around it. The streets were bustling, but that''s not where it ended.
A few morerge streets could be seen going in all 5 directions, and if you looked down those streets, you would have seen 5 more cities far away. Each road seemed to lead to a city, and even those were protected by some kind of barrier.
"Hmm. How should I do this?" Ss thought with a frown.
He could sense many strong energies within the academy. This was the light academy, after all, one of the big four academies of Egdore.
"I''m not sure if I can take all of them on." Ss scratched his chin for a moment before shrugging.
"Conceal my presence," Ss spoke, and in the next second, everything that indicated that he was in the air disappeared. The only thing someone could use to find him was their visual input, but even then, it would be significantly hard to do so.
His figure quickly flickered and appeared on the ground, having gone through the barrier like it was nothing. He was not wearing the same clothes he wore when he came back from killing all those assassins as well as their leaders.
Those clothes snuggly fit him as if they had been created for some of his size despite him being significantly taller thanst time. At the same time, he hadn''t taken off his armor. It was still on him, under all his clothes.
Walking through the streets, Ss avoided most people without a thought, while they constantly bumped into his, as if they didn''t see him.
They would always turn around to apologize or get angry, but Ss was long gone when they did.
Within a few minutes, he stood in front of the academy''s main building. Or at least that''s what he assumed it was.
It was one of thergest buildings he''s ever seen, and from what his Mystic eyes picked up, the building had almost everything an academy needed.
No... It had even more.
It was like one of those hotels that would have everything from restaurants to arenas. ssrooms to dorms, but he doubted that most people would live in the academy building itself.
It was most likely a ce where the richer folk would live, while the rest would have to live in one of the cities far away.
"If Eclipse described him correctly..." Ss'' eyes were narrowed as he searched the entire building with his eyes until he found what he was looking for.
With a frown, he began walking toward it, and in less than 10 minutes, he was in front of a door.
*Knock Knock*
There was no answer.
*Knock Knock*
"Go away!" A voice inside shouted, but Ss didn''t heed his words and unlocked the door.
''Locked...'' Ss thought before the sound of a crack rang out, and the door opened like it was nothing.
"I said go away-" The man paused momentarily when he realized he didn''t recognize the person entering the room.
"Who are you? You''re not a student... You''re at least 18. Why are you here? How did you even get here?" The teacher asked.
For some reason he couldn''t feel the man''s presence before him. His presence was so minimal that it felt like the man would disappear if he looked away for even half a second.
"You''re Skrk kid''s teacher, right?" Ss asked.
"Huh?" The teacher shivered, but he quickly got angry. "What does that matter to you! You know what? I''m calling the guards. Who do you think you are?"
"Take off the concealment." Ss whispered, and his presence returned.
When that happened, something happened.
The man''s eyes looked at Ss'' hair before staring at his green eyes.
And then, his eyes moved forward to the ck armor that could be seen peeking above Ss'' cor, covering a portion of his neck.
"Y-You''re." The man''s eyes shone with so many emotions that even Ss couldn''t help but be surprised.
"J-J-Judgement!" He shouted while falling from the chair onto his ass.
"P-Please don''t hurt me! I did nothing wrong! I swear it wasn''t me! Please! I have a family! I have people waiting for me at home."
"So did the kids you sent to their deaths." Ss said while taking a step forward.
His presence red, bing almost suffocating in an instant.
"It wasn''t my idea. It was the S-Skrks. I didn''t want to do it but-"
"Silence."
The one word made the man bite his tongue and remain silent.
Yet, Ss could still hear the whimpering.
Walking toward him, Ss stopped mere centimeters away from him and kneeled down.
He could not help but realize that the man before him had soiled his pants from fear.
''A solid-sapphire core and you''re still soiling your pants? Pathetic.'' Ss sneered.
"Now... We can do this the easy way, and we can do this the hard way.
The choice is yours.
***
"I did it..." The teacher was in front of the vice principal, looking at him with a re that might have drilled holes through his body.
"I gave the kids a hard mission that I knew they couldn''t do, and now one of them is dead. I was at fault. B-But..."
"But?" The vice principal asked. It was a man with a full head of head of silver hair and silver eyes that glowed like two moons. He wore sapphire robes; however, just like many master mages at his age, he couldn''t go further than that.
He was at the peak, but he couldn''t get through thatst bottleneck he had been trying to get past for thest 20 years.
"So you''re trying to tell me that, without a reason, you decided to kill a group of kids?" The silver-haired old man asked with a piercing re.
"N-No..." The man gulped. He didn''t want to say it, but when he remembered back to what happened just a few minutes earlier, his were quickly filled with dread...
No... They were filled with the truest form of fear.
"Sir Skrk... He asked me to do it." The man said with a dreadful shuddering voice.
"Did he threaten you? Maybe your family too?"
"He offered me money." The man said, causing the vice principal''s eyes to shine with rage.
"You possibly killed many of the brightest students for money!?" He asked while mming his fist on the desk, but the man didn''t react.
His eyes were filled with fear, but he didn''t look scared of him.
"We''ve sent people to the town the students went to." An assistant principal walked through the door and spoke in a slightly monotone voice, yet one could tell that was only the case because he didn''t want to show his anger.
"Good." The vice principal said before turning toward the former teacher.
"You better hope to god that not a single hair on their body is harmed, or I''ll have you executed myself." The vice principal sneered and quickly left the room.
"What did you do to that man? He looks like he''s had the fear of god put into him." the assistant principalmented.
"I didn''t do anything... But he wouldn''t havee forward on his own like this unless he was scared of something." The vice principalmented.
"Something that scares him more than death itself?" The assistant principal felt a little skeptical.
"My boy..." The vice principal looked at the younger man beside him.
"There are things in this world that are much more terrifying than death. I can tell you that from experience." The vice principal spoke solemnly while the assistant principal felt a shudder go through his spine.
''Something more terrifying than death? I wonder what that could be...'' He thought to himself before shrugging and putting on an armor set, and walking onto the academy''s teleportation hub.
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Chapter 190 Darkless City [1] - The New and Improved
Chapter 190 Darkless City [1] - The New and Improved
On the other side of the continent, Ss'' white-haired figure could be seen walking down a fairly busy road. Many people looked at him and bowed, while others, especially the younger ones, looked at him in awe.
Some looked at him with a semnce of fear in their eyes, but they were usually criminals in the first ce, so to Ss, it didn''t matter.
Ss didn''t really care about them. Even if they were criminals, unless someone witnessed themmitting a crime against one of Darkless''ws, he wouldn''t do anything against them.
He could see their souls and knew if it was tainted or not with the blood of others. At his current level, that was about the most he could do. He had theorized that he would be able to see much more once he broke through to the sapphire core, but until then, he would have to do with his current mystic eyes.
However, despite hisck of satisfaction, his mystic eyes were not as bad as they used to be.
Ss could see for miles on end clearly. His vision would only begin to show any signs ofcking once he tried to look past the''s curve. Gilea was muchrger than Earth. He had never really made the calction, but he was certain that it was around 3 to 4 timesrger than Earth. His calctions would have been more precise if he had tested his theory, but for now, he based it on how far he could see at different altitudes.
However, throughout thest 6 years, he had much more to do than measure the''s size. That coulde in his retirement years when he''spleted everything he ever wanted to achieve. Of course, that thoughty in the assumption that he wouldn''t be dead by them.
There was also the chance that he would never achieve all his goals within his lifetime, but that was only more reason for him to do everything he could to learn as much as he could about the he was on, the energy that powered the people within it, and somehow find a way to do everything he failed to do on Earth.
That was his goal, after all. At first, it wasn''t nearly as clear as he would have maybe liked it to be, but he had a lot of time to think over the years.
Every time he thought about his years on Earth, he would have a feeling suddenly appear in his chest. It wasn''t guilt... No. He felt no guilt for what he had done.
He felt dissatisfied.
He had spent his entire life pursuing so many goals, yet he died without getting to take hisst goal and watch it grow into fruition. He had failed that day. He didn''t like it, but it was the truth.
So, it wasn''t just his hunger for knowledge that was causing him to want so much from the world he was currently in. It was his dissatisfied self that wanted more out of him.
"Sigh... I''m getting side tracked." Ss thought while reminding himself of his main goal.
To save his family and allow them to live a better life.
Because unlike when he lived on Earth, he now had people to care about.
He walked for a few more minutes and entered a forest. He could have just flown but didn''t see a reason to. He just wanted to think for a while on his own, so he thought walking would be much better for him.
After traversing the forest, Ss stood before a tree and touched it.
A handprint shone on the tree before him, and eventually, the ground under him shifted before sinking.
He was quickly taken to one of the bridges and walked down it. When he went to the front, the people working there looked at him for a moment before smiling and giving him a salute.
"Nice day, sir?" One of them said. It was a woman with ordinary ck hair and dark brown eyes. She looked like she was in her forties but still had a youthful energy around her.
"Indeed." Ss smiled at her and walked into the city.
Looking at it, he couldn''t help but feel a tinge of pride.
The city has changed over thest 6 years. If it looked like a gothic Victorian city before, now it looks closer to an early 20th-century city in Britain.
The streets were bustling as usual, and now, people didn''t look ragged or like criminals. Everyone was far too terrified to be a criminal. Within one year of Ss being the new Judgement, the crime rate had dropped so much that it became more likely to find 100 gold coins in one of the alleyways rather than find someone from the citymitting a crime.
If Ss could remember correctly, there have been quite a few of those casestely. Just 100 gold coins lying on a sidewalk. No one knew how they got there, but everyone was particrly happy since it allowed them to buy quite a lot of stuff from other cities.
Looking around, Ss'' eyes caught the figure of two children running, and without skipping a beat, he took a step back and watched them run past him.
They wereughing, ying some kind of game that he didn''t really recognize.
He couldn''t help but smile when he saw them so happy.
Walking into the markets, Ss'' eyes darted around for a few moments. Quite a few people could be seen trying to buy stuff; however, they weren''t using the kingdom''s currency.
Instead, they were using mana cores to pay for items.
He made a change when he realized that he would be the enemy of the kingdom, so without hesitation, he changed the currency.
No one reallyined since most people within the city could fight, and they would exchange their cores for coins anyway. Those who had money on the side simply exchanged them with cores, making it much easier for people to buy things throughout the city.
After a while, Ss found himself in front of a house. It wasn''t significantlyrger than the houses around them since the city had been renovated to make life easier for the people, but it was one of the only houses that had two floors.
This was Nymira''s house... Or at least it used to be.
A key went into the door''s lock and jiggled around momentarily. A low click entered Ss'' ears, and without thinking twice, he walked into the house and closed the door behind him.
"I''m home!"
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Chapter 191 Darkless City [2]
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"I''m home!" Ss shouted, but he didn''t hear a reply. However, his improved hearing allowed him to hear some movement within the training hall, causing him to slightly narrow his eyes before walking into the room.
In his hands, one could see a small pouch with some meat and vegetables inside.
Walking toward a small trapdoor on the ground, Ss crouched slightly and opened it.
When he opened it, the cold breeze one would feel from a fridge made him rx a little. This was his own contraption. He had been learning about runes for thest couple of years, and while it hadn''t been his main objective, it was a side product of staying around Virack for so many hours a day.
After spending several months with Virack when his armor was being improved, he chose to finally get a book on runes since he wanted to understand what was happening.
His expertise on runes went as far as creating spells. However, due to him being able to recall every single rune on the life equation and being able to exin a little less than half, it was much easier for him to understand everything on the subject.
However, runesmithing wasn''t the objective. It was just a side product of him trying to improve his rune spells.
But for now, that didn''t matter.
cing all the perishable products inside the fridge, he had created by using water affinity cores, he quickly got up from where he was and closed the fridge with his foot.
He quickly turned to the training hall and toward it.
*Swish*
The Japanese-style training hall was made out of wood and had sliding doors.
Ss slid the doors open with a simple movement and looked at two training individuals together.
One was a red-haired mage, while the other was a pink-haired knight.
They didn''t speak to one another. They didn''t say a single word to each other.
All they did was spar.
The red-haired man could be seen saying a few words andunching spells that had a wide area of effect. They were all fire spells, yet, despite the training area being made out of wood, not an inch of the ce was charred.
Runes all over the ce could be seen shining whenever the red-haired boy threw out an attack.
On the other hand, the pink-haired girl shot toward the red-haired boy with immense speed, yet, despite everything she did, she couldn''t get close to him without being hit by the mes.
Ss watched the two spar for a few minutes. They hadn''t even realized he was there as both of them were engrossed in their battle.
Their spar grew more intense as the seconds passed, and eventually, their attacks came out toward each other at a speed that only people with their perception could even see, let alone react to.
"That''s enough." Ss said while standing up from where he was sitting. When his words entered their ears, they both flinched slightly and turned toward him with their weapons in hand.
"Ss! You''re here already." Nymira was faster than Alex in reaction to Ss'' presence. She had a joyful expression, but Ss ignored it for now.
"I''m suprised you didn''t smell me the moment I entered the house. Your senses are getting weaker." Ss said with a disappointed sigh.
"Yeah, but you''ve already covered this whole ce with runes that would riddle an enemy with so many holes that they might as well have been a spongeling." Nymira tried to argue.
"That doesn''t matter." Ss narrowed his eyes with slight annoyance before he carried on.
"What if that was an enemy who could move through the house without us being able to see him? What if my runes didn''t perceive him, and he killed you two?" Ss folded his arms over his chest.I think you should take a look at
"Uhm. Ss... Where''s thising from?" Alex asked with a confused expression.
He could see Nymira getting agitated, but he was more worried about Ss. Ss barely showed anger or any other feeling thanplete calmness. For the first few years, Ss was quick to show his emotions on his face, but after a while, he stopped unless it was with them.
Yet, even with them, the only emotion he really showed with slight agitation when they tried to annoy him, or any of the more positive emotions.
However, right now, he could see slight anger in Ss'' eyes.
"Is this because we went to Syra without your permission?" Nymira asked with a tinge of anger.
"This isn''ting from anywhere." Ss answered back, but they both knew that was a lie.
"You wouldn''t get angry like this if there wasn''t a reason." Nymira retorted, causing Ss to fight and rub the bridge of his nose.
"I''m not angry with you two... I''m disappointed." Ss said before continuing- "First of all, Nym. The spider was at your level. How did you even lose? You should have been able to kill it on your own. I get that you were protecting Syra, but even then..." Ss let out a sigh while Nymira looked down at the ground slightly.
However, in the next moment, she looked up and pointed at Alex.
"He didn''t help me. He ran away!" She quickly put the me on Alex.
"Hey! What! I didn''t run away!" Alex argued.
"Oh really? Then, where were you when I was fighting that thing all on my own." Nymira harrumphed.
"I was taking the Zelon guy out!" Alex shouted back.
"No, you weren''t! I saw Eclipse take that kid out all on his own. You just followed behind him like a coward." Nymira sneered.
"Hey! What if they were attacked on the way out!"
"Eclipse can take care of himself. If you were with me, we would have won. Instead, you made Sse all the way to us just to help me kill some small spider."
"It had a sapphire core! A solid one at that! You want me to up against that thing!" Alex shouted while pointing at Nymira as if he was being discriminated against.
"Aha! So you admit that you are a coward!" Syra grinned at Alex, and his heart dropped when she said that.
"Sigh." Ss let out an audible breath, making both of them look at him.
I expect improvement from the lot of you. Is that understood? What I saw there was quite disappointing. If you two lose like that again, I might have to make up a punishment to ensure you learn your lesson." Ss said before a smile appeared on his face, but by then, both of their faces had dropped.
"W-Wait... Ss... We can talk about this." Alex stuttered.
"Y-Yeah. Alex is right. No need to be hasty." Nymira also spoke up, but by then, Ss had already turned around.
"I''m going to make food. You two train together until then." Ss waved to them before leaving through the sliding wooden door.
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Chapter 192 Darkless City [3]
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Ss walked into the kitchen; however, before taking more than one or two steps in, he looked down and remembered something.
Snapping his fingers, Ss waited momentarily and watched his clothes change color. They slowly became dark... Darker than any shadow out there. Darker than a pit with no visible end.
Then, it began to wriggle around, as if it was alive. However, Ss knew that wasn''t the case. It was closer to being a shadow, if anything¡ªa shadow that was alive, but still a shadow.
Ss had gotten this ability to remove and put on his clothes with a thought when he woke up after destroying a good portion of the misty forest.
He didn''t know why it was happening, but his closest theory had something to do with the fact that, whenever he brought up his status, it would show question marks under his race.
It was weird, but it didn''t really affect him in any major way, so he didn''t mind it.
The shadow clothes seeped into his body, and there was nothing left on the outside that his own body had created. This was something he would see on a daily basis. His clothes quickly moved again, this time at a much faster rate.
It slowly seeped into his skin, ground through the gaps between his cells.
When it was gone, the only thing that could be seen on Ss'' body was the underwear he wore that he had made himself, not through the shadows, but by getting one of the mostfortable materials he could find on their continent and making it into underwear.
"Sigh... Now I''m going to have to wear something." Ss thought aloud and took out some clothes from his dimensional pouch. Since it wasn''t made from his shadow, it was still there.
Taking out those clothes, he quickly wore them and got to making food.
His new clothes were nothing special. He wore a simple white shirt and ck trousers.
Taking out a cutting board, Ss ced a few items on it and began to make food.
In thest six years, Ss might not have had a lot of free time, but within a month, throughout those years, he chose to learn how to cook.
One hour a day, every day for a month. That''s how long it took him to learn how to cook better than most people on the continent. However, that was probably because he had taken time to learn such skills in his past life.
The difference was that, on Gilea, beasts had mana.
Eating mana-rich meat was one of the many ways to cultivate. It was much faster than cultivating normally; however, not every cultivation technique could use the mana within the meat to cultivate.
Almost all mages used a single cultivation technique throughout the kingdom at the start of their journey. It wasn''t that cultivation techniques weren''t very known in Egdore. Almost all mages knew that there were more cultivation techniques; it was just that most of them were very safeguarded.
Unless you chose to enter a certain faction that might own of these techniques, you could say goodbye to getting one that wasn''t handed out by the kingdom to all the mages within the kingdom.
However, while cultivation techniques were good, they weren''t the only thing that went into absorbing the mana within the meat of a beast. It took a good chef too.
Because cutting a beast''s meat normally would remove all the mana inside its meat. Unless someone with a certain technique did cut the meat for you, it wouldn''t have any mana inside.
Of course, there were certain exceptions, but those were very rare and only came from the much stronger beasts.I think you should take a look at
However, even if the person eating the meat didn''t have a cultivation technique to take full advantage of the mana within what they were consuming, it would still help them in ways the humans of Gilea didn''t even know of.
Sure, it was less efficient this way, but with enough volume, even the weakest human on the could be quite strong.
After all, there was a reason the beasts ate not only the cores, but also the bodies of the creatures they killed.
Looking down at the cutting board before him, Ss began to cut the meat. It was the meat of a wind wolf, so while it might not have as much of an effect on Alex as it might have had if the beast was a fire one, the wind was still pretty good for fire users, especially whenpared to water or earth.
Ss looked down and concentrated on the meat. Every cut he made released much of the mana within the meat itself, so he had to control it and put it back in. That was the only way he knew how since he wasn''t a Toki user.
Toki users were the only people capable of keeping the mana inside. They assumed that Toki was just an energy that repelled mana; little did they know that they were using mana to control mana.
At the same time, every cut from Ss'' knife destroyed any impurities within the meat. He knew from personal experience that impurities weren''t just something that was within the core. Still, he was also something within mana channels, and, even in some instances, within the body itself.
Since beasts strengthened their bodies and cores, this was the case with them.
Fewer impurities created tastier food, but at the same time, destroying the impurities made it easier for the mana to leave the meat.
"Ss. Is the food ready?" Nymira asked while walking out of the training hall and visibly panting.
"Almost." Ss replied as something bubbled beside him.
It looked like a stove that one might have found on Earth, but it was powered by some mana crystals that shone with a red light.
These were clearly not mana cores from beasts but ones that one might find by mining.
These kinds of mana stones were usually hard toe by due to their scarcity in most areas. On the continent, you would either find the usual blue-ish white crystals made out of only mana, or you would find the brown ones made out of earth energies.
The fire ones were usually only found in deserts or volcanoes alongside earth crystals, while the dark blue ones were found in oceans.
On the other hand, wind crystals were actually one of the moremon ones on the continent since they would be found anywhere a metal might have to deal with high oxidization rates.
The oxidization within the minerals would concentrate into a single area, creating a mana crystal made out of wind energies.
"Alright. I''m done." Ss said, making the two teens before him look at him with excited smiles.
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Chapter 193 Spell Creation Methods [1]
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[A/N: The previous chapters have been fixed. Sorry for the inconvenience]
"Alright. I''m done." Ss said, making the two teens before him look at him with excited smiles.
"You look happier than usual." Ss said with a raised brow.
"You''ve been absorbing that blood drop for a few days now. Of course we''re excited. You have no idea how hungry I am." Nymira said, and as if her stomach had agreed, it gurgled slightly.
"Did you guys not eat?" Ss asked with a little bit of worry on his face.
"Of course we ate. It''s just that when we did eat, the food was kind of terrible." Alex chimed in.
"I don''t think the chefs would like it if they heard that." Ss chuckled and ced a pot in the middle of the dining table.
"Screw them. They''re not allowed to talk until their food is better than yours! And they dare call themselves chefs too!" Nymira said in outrage before looking at the pot and tes before them.
One of the bowls was a sd bowl filled with all kinds of vegetables that one might find in the Xylem kingdom. For most humans, it looked slightly weird; but that''s as far as the weirdness went. After all, most vegetables didn''t look too far from many of the ones that could be found on Earth.
Many wererger, and some even had mana to influence their shape, taste, growth rate, and even their effects.
A meat stew in the middle of the table made both Nymira and Alex stop training ande to eat almost immediately.
Even now, Ss could see them salivating.
Thest te was where he ced the bread. It didn''t look like the normal slices one would have found on earth, but instead was a small loaf that one wouldn''t have a problem eating on their own.
"You can start eating." Ss said, and they essentially pounced at the food.
They ced the meat stew into a small bowl and took a piece of bread before breaking it in two and dipping a portion into it.
Afterward, they simply ate with their hands and used the bread to scoop up any vegetables or meat inside.
Within a half an hour, they were done eating, and when the hunger that had been feeling for a couple of days now finally disappeared, they both began to feel sleepy.
"Thanks for the meal, man... You have no idea how much I''ve been craving a good meal." Alex said with a chuckle.
"Don''t worry. I saw your appetite when you devoured your te in an instant." Ss chuckled, but on the inside, he couldn''t help but feel a little surprised.
''That was some Birby level devourment.'' He thought to himself while imagining Alex turning into a particr pink blob that ate everything in its way.
"Alright bro. I''ll take my leave. I''m feeling quite tired and battered up." Alex sighed and turned around to leave.
"You can sleep here if you want." Ss offered.
"What? Just to have you wake me up before the sun even rises just to train?! No think you!" Alex rejected the offer before sprinting out of the house before Ss could even say anything.
Ss simply chuckled and looked at Nymira, who was sleeping on the table with her head down.
"You worked hard today..." Ss spoke quietly and sighed to himself.I think you should take a look at
Without waiting, he approached her and picked her up into a princess carry. Without waiting much longer, he turned around and went up the stairs before walking into her room and cing her in her bed.
After tucking her in, Ss walked down and cleaned up the table. His assimtion part of metamorphosis was already doing its job on its own. He didn''t have to sit down and cultivate like other people. He had learned to cultivate on instinct while being able to use his entire mind to do other things.
By the time everything had been assimted, Ss had already cleaned up everything and washed the tes.
Unlike some of the beasts he had met in the past, he didn''t have telekinesis, so everything had to be done by hand. Of course, wind, fire, and healing magic could have been used, but from his perspective, it was much easier to do everything by hand.
Plus, cleanse wasn''t as good as one might think. It didn''t really clean someone the way one might want. It simply destroyed all harmful germs or viruses that the naked eye could not see.
He would need to use fire to destroy the things on the te, water to wash it, and light magic to clean it of anything that might have remained.
He could use dark magic, but... Nevermind.
After what happenedst time, he didn''t want to use dark magic near anyone he loved. He knew how dangerous it was, and therefore it needed moderation.
After finishing everything, he entered the training room and closed his eyes.
In the next instant, several runes appeared in the air before water washed over their entire ce, followed by cleansing that destroyed germs and air that dried to the ce.
Sitting in the middle of the training room, Ss closed his eyes and began to feel the mana around him.
He could feel the particles in the air, moving very slowly, but not in any particr direction. They were weightless, as if nothing the world could affect them from the direction they were moving in.
Then, Ss'' eyes slowly opened, and when they did, something shed before him.
A rune that could have usually been found on a magic circle appeared before him, but in an instant, it changed into another rune, before changing into another...
And then another...
And then another...
The rune would sh in a different shape every quarter of a second before even that changed.
A rune formed every 10th of a second before Sspletely stopped it.
And then, it started again, but this time, there was an elemental rune behind them the whole time.
The elemental rune was orange-like mes, and as the runes flickered before it, something happened.
Ss was about to create a spell without a magic circle.
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Chapter 194 Spell Creation Methods [2]
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A fireball formed and shot out toward one of the walls.
It crashed into it, creating a small explosion, yet when the smoke from it was gone, not a single scratch could be seen on the wood.
Ss had just created a spell without a magic circle.
Looking at what his spell had done, Ss didn''t show anything on his face and continued to practice with this spell-creation method.
It wasn''t his best creation method, but if he could perfect it, he knew exactly what he could do with it.
The thing he was about to do was not only going to help the people around him, but it would also help himself in ways the people of this could never imagine.
Ss might have looked like a young adult in his early 20s orte teens, but he had only spent about 12 years on Gilea.
Yet, despite having spent enough time on the to be called a child, he knew enough about the people in it that he could call them narrow-minded without doubting his words.
Every single person was narrow-minded.
They were all stuck in some sort of box that limited their ingenuity. That wasn''t to say that they were stupid. No, they were pretty intelligent. They somehow always found a way to make life easier for themselves, even with the magic they used.
cksmiths without mana used a stone to inject mana into their equipment before forming a rune by manipting their toki.
They somehow found ways to make food even more tasty than it should have been, and at the same time, they made eating food a way to cultivate.
Yet, despite that, when it came to true ingenuity, they were stuck within the mind frame that stopped them from thinking outside the box.
Magic circles, despite being quite round, were that very box.
People didn''t ask questions enough, and even when they did, they were shut down in the name of religion or stupidity.
No one wanted to seem stupid or crazy, the same way many of Earth''s scientists would have in the medieval ages.
It was quite sad to see, but despite not liking many of the humans on Gilea, Ss had set out to at least change the course of history.
The mages of Gilea were stuck with the thought that magic circles were all out there for many users. They were stuck with the belief that, creating any form of spell without a magic circle was impossible.
Hell, they were so stuck with that fact that even most formations made by people were made to look like magic circles. I think you should take a look at
The church of Gilea liked to say that their ''lord'' had given them the magic circle as a blessing for being a good race, but of course, that was a load of bullshit to control their people.
So, believing that magic circles were all there was to magic, they created ways to shorten the time it took to create those magic circles.
One way was creating chants that allowed them to form the circles without drawing them. After that came a generation that tried their best to shorten those chants due to how long they were, and in a way, that was the chants that people used today.
Yet, even past them came people who had such a mastery of the spell they were using that they could shorten the chant even more, while some simply shortened the chant to the point where they only had to say the name of the spell for the spell circle to appear.
The final group, usually considered the best of the best, found ways to create spells with a thought, and that was what Ss had been doing from the moment he was born until the attack on dia.
However, he had broken away from creating magic circles long ago. He stopped using them after killing Greed, and a few years after that, he had been using rune spells even faster than he used to use magic circle ones.
Rune spells were much easier to him now since, at the point he was in, he could create them on instinct if he had to.
The only thing he had failed to do with rune spells was merge more than two elements. It was a lot harder than one might think, unless they were trying tobine it with an element that wasn''t created by the mana particle.
But for now, that didn''t matter. What he was doing right now was a way of creating spells that would allow him to reach the next stage. Rune spells were efficient, but if what he did worked, spells between the first and third tiers wouldn''t take any mana significant amounts of mana to use.
Actually, to him, it wouldn''t even affect his mana pool since he could bring everything he used up back a secondter with his natural mana regeneration.
And at the same time, it would finally break away from usingplicated runes in general.
After all, while runes spells were easy to use, much thought went behind them.
In a way, using magic circles had more malleability than using rune spells. Every rune spell needed an exact direction. Breaking a rune spell to change it slightly took significantly more mana than it would take to change a single rune on a magic circle.
The energy it would take to break a single rune would beparable to trying to break a single straw. But now, think of rune spells as a hundred straws put into a single ce and somehow break them without using twisting motions. It would be close to impossible for a normal human back on Earth.
"Sigh..." Ss exhaled when he felt his mana pool reach 75% of his total mana.
He had a lot of mana, so something like this wouldn''t use too much. However, the number of runes he had created in such a short time did take a significant portion even while he was continuously regenerating it.
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Chapter 195 Guild Creation [1]
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After practicing for a few hours, Ss left the training room and walked toward a certain hall that he went to every now and then.
As he walked into the hall, the eyes of everyone in it fell upon him, but he didn''t really care. He didn''t find a reason to conceal his presence, so the moment he entered the room, almost everyone felt the natural aura around him.
Some people around the city called it an Apex aura due to how oppressive it felt. Whenever they looked him in the eyes when he wasn''t concealing his presence, they would feel like they were looking into the eyes of someone who could easily be considered the apex of all life.
They knew that wasn''t true, though. After all, how can a human be the apex of all life? Humans were intelligent, but they were in no way the apex species on Gilea. Even some beast species with much better bloodlines had higher intelligence than most humans, and in this case, not only did these beast species know how to create spells without magic circles, they also knew how to use runes despite clearly not needing them.
''These damn humans. They don''t even know how powerful they are.'' Ss thought before his eyes darted toward a few beastkin who were also looking at him in awe and shock.
''None of them know how powerful they are.'' He thought with slightly narrowed eyes as a tinge of regret formed in his heart.
He understood Gilea''s humanity well; however, that wasn''t always the case. In a way, he had thought of himself as better than most of the humans around him due to all the bloodlines he had inherited after killing several beasts.
Even when he woke up after destroying a good portion of the misty forest, he was slightly relieved and even excited when he saw that his race had changed into question marks, as if the life equation itself didn''t know what the hell he was.
Yet, after much research on humanity through many processes that might have not been entirely legal, his knowledge about humanity increased, and so did his knowledge of all the other humanoid races.
Which was why he felt regret the moment he found out.
''Damnit... Maybe I should have tried to upgrade my humanity race. Maybe evolve it a little? It would take quite a lot of killing, but I''m sure a few chosen humans would have done quite nicely.'' Ss thought to himself and walked past everyone around him.
The people within the mercenary hall was filled with all kind of individuals. Many of them were quite young, being only a few years older than Ss'' current body. Others were veterans, and with such a status, they took it upon themselves to help the newbies out.
Unlike most cultivation novels back on Earth, the veterans didn''t fear the new generation or try to kill them. Hell, veterans weren''t even arrogant or anything. They supported newbies, and Ss was quite surprised to see this.
However, one thing that dide to life was the arrogant young masters that Ss used to hear about. When he used to work in apany, some of his colleagues talked about cultivation novels, and he picked up a lot of knowledge on the subject, so he knew what people meant by arrogant young masters.
There weren''t a lot of them in Darkless. Still, outside the city, anyone with even a little political power tended to have children with a certainplex that made them think they could do anything and everything they wanted without consequence.
But, even if there were any in Darkless, they wouldn''t dare raise their voice at him, let alone talk to him without being spoken to first.I think you should take a look at
The entire hall parted as Ss walked in. Within a few moments, he was in front of the counter and was looking at the woman behind it. It wasn''t Jessica like before when Greed was still in charge of the Greed faction, but instead, it was another girl that Jessica had groomed all by herself.
"I see this ce is doing as well as always." Ss smiled at the woman behind the counter.
"With a leader like madam Greed, I would not expect anything less." The woman, who looked like she might have been in herte 20s, chuckled.
She was slightly younger than Jessica, but not by much¡ªmaybe one or two years at most.
Within the six years, the Greed faction had regained its former glory, and depending on who you asked, one could even say that the faction was doing even better than when Greed, also known as Gha, daughter of Estol, was the leader of the faction.
Since Greed was a beastkin, her name was a little weird. They didn''t really havest names and were instead referred to by their father''s first names if there was a need to distinguish between two different people with the same name or a simr name,
At the same time, referring to them by their father''s name usually made it easy for anyone who knew their fathers to connect the dots. Their mother''s name didn''t refer to them since the beastkins were a very traditional society in Ss'' eyes, but he didn''t mind that.
All of them learned to fight for themselves, but the women were usually brought up to be more caring or nurturing toward their family members, while the men were brought up to be proud warriors.
Though, despite the women in their society having a softer upbringing, if a person somehow found themselves having threatened the family of a female beastkin, the only thing waiting on the other side would be death.
Though, cultures did tend to change from one tribe to another.
After Ss received the signal from the woman at the counter, he walked toward Jessica''s office and saw a man walking out of it with a slightly angry expression.
Ss didn''t recognize the man, but he quickly ignored him, walking past him without ncing at him.
In the next moment, he was already inside the office, looking at Jessica, who was looking at the board behind her with an equally annoyed expression.
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Chapter 196 Guild Creation [2]
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"Something wrong?" Ss asked with a raised brow.
"Oh, Ss. Good, you''re here." She muttered under her breath before a weird expression appeared on her face.
Her head quickly looked to the side where a door could be seen, It looked like a normal door, but they both knew it was a cultivation room.
"When did you leave the room?" She looked back at Ss with a weird expression.
"A day ago... Why?" He cocked his head to the side with a hint of curiosity.
"Wha-... Did you go to Syra again?" She asked with narrowed eyes.
"Oh... Yeah. This time she even found out who I am. She''s quite perceptive, you know." Ss said with a small smile on his face.
"You let her find out about you?!" Jessica shouted.
"I didn''t let her. She found out on her own." Ss shrugged as if it was no big deal.
"We both know that she wouldn''t have found out if you didn''t want her to."
"It wasn''t my intention." Ss shrugged again.
"It probably wasn''t, but I''m sure there was a part of you that wanted to tell her." Jessica crossed her arms, and Ss knew exactly what she was implying.
"Don''t worry. She''s a clever girl. I''m more than certain she understands who the enemy is." Ss smiled at Jessica.
"What about her friends? That damn bastard, Eclipse, came here, told me about the mission, and didn''t even tell me that you showed up. All I know is that she had friends with her." Jessica sneered.
"Her friends?" Ss asked with a nk expression before a cold smile appeared on his face.
"Don''t worry. They won''t be telling anyone about what they saw that day."
"I know damn well that you didn''t kill them, so what if they do tell someone?" Jessica questioned again, and she had begun to get on Ss'' nerves by now.
"Then, we''ll just have to hasten the n." Ss said with an even colder voice as his smile faded the instant he opened his mouth.
"You''re not strong-" She tried to argue once more, but a cold shiver ran down her spine.
"You think I''m afraid of wiping out a single family?" Ss asked and turned away from her to slump onto one of the chairs.
"Now. Who was that man?" Ss asked, making Jessica let out an audible sigh.
"He was a guild leader." She simply stated.
"Quite weak for a guild leader." Ssmented.
"Everyone is weak in your opinion." Jessica sneered.
"What did he want?" Ss finally asked after a significant pause.
"Same old, same old. He wanted to set up trading between his guild and Darkless City. I''m in charge of finances, so he thought he could get away with talking to me andpletely avoid talking to Archie. Unfortunately for him, I didn''t like him." She had a smile filled with pride on her face.I think you should take a look at
"He was quite ugly." Ss said without much thought.
"Hm? No, I meant I didn''t like how he was treating me and my staff. Plus, he wasn''t ugly at all. He was quite handsome actually." Jessica said with a perplexed expression.
"I didn''t mean his looks, I meant his soul." Ss said and thought back to what his soul looked like.
It was quite ugly, to say the least.
Or, at least, that''s what he thought.
Every action one did change their life force, even if the change was so minuscule that you wouldn''t normally have the ability to see it.
Ss could see the man''s life force, and he could tell that the man had killed many people before. His life force was tainted with blood, and while Ss was certain his might had looked worse when he was back on Earth, that was no longer the case due to the influence of the life equation.
Plus, his volition me did take arge portion of his life force''s visible area, so he doubted people who could see it would even see past the me.
Ss and Jessica spoke for another half an hour. Not much of the conversation was particrly relevant to what they had discussed before; however, arge portion of it was rted to what they would do in the near future.
"I''ve been thinking." Ss suddenly spoke up, causing Jessica to turn away from the board behind her desk and look at him.
"What''s up?" She asked.
"Darkless expansion." Ss said two words, yet, Jessica was already in deep thought about it.
"Haven''t we all thought about it?" Jessica sighed.
"I''ve gone through like, every scenario before I go to sleep. It''s a nice dream to have, but I don''t think it is something possible in our life time." She said with a chuckle.
"Well, unlike all of you, I''ve actually thought about it." Ss said and closed his eyes.
"I think we can expand Darkless, but not in a territorial way. I was thinking we could expand it through something like a guild."
"A guild?" Jessica couldn''t help but raise a brow.
"Yep. What if we set up a guild building in all the cities around us. Actually, let''s set up a guild building in all the cities that we have close rtions with." Ss said.
"I don''t think that would work. Darkless isn''t a guild. The Greed faction in the closest think to a guild in the city. Darkless is more of a country or a kingdom. Every general made up a portion of the kingdom and had their own jobs. The Greed faction is both the guild and the bank of this kingdom. Do you get what I''m trying to say?" Jessica asked.
"That might be true, but that''s not what I''m getting at." Ss sighed.
"Right now, we are quite weak. The only reason the kingdom hadn''t attacked us at first was because of War, and right now, I''m also one of the reasons they''re not doing anything. However, while before it might have been more of a one-sided alliance, with my emergence I''m sure the kingdom won''t take long to attack us and try to end the organization.
So, before that happens, we need to expand our reach. The guilds themselves won''t be sources of money or power. They will allow us to increase our political reach to those who don''t know about us, or those who have been brainwashed by the kingdom''s propaganda." Ss said before a smile appeared on his face.
"What do you think?"
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Chapter 197 Plans [1]
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"That''s... That''s actually not a bad idea... But don''t you think the kingdoms will be a little wary of us suddenly creating guilds all over the kingdom?" Jessica asked with a raised brow.
"That''s true." Ss nodded with a smile. ''This kingdom doesn''t really have anything that talks about the right to free speech, so the only other method is-''
"The Evergreen faction."
"..."
"..."
"Why Evergeen?" Jessica looked at him with a slightly condescending look.
"It''s my idea. I think I''m allowed to take credit." Ss chuckled.
"Yeah, but everyone knows your second name is Evergreen."
"Not a single person except a very small minority knows that my second name is Evergreen."
"Everyone knows."
"Again... No one does. You can quite literally ask anyone in this city. The only time I used the name Evergreen was before I became Judgement, and before that, no one knew that it was me." Ss shrugged and continued- "Hell, they don''t even know that my name is Game... Well, my current name. I might have to change that in the nearby future when I go back to being called Ss." Ss said while scratching his chin.
He could feel a few hairs growing there. He always thought that it was a little weird. Despite looking like a young adult, he had no more than a few hairs to show for it.
"I support the idea, but I''m not sure about the name. Plus, even if you do it, who will lead it?"
"Me, of course." Ss shrugged
"You''re a kingdom-wide criminal."
"I am well aware." Ss said with a glint in his eyes that Jessica could not decipher.
"What are you trying to say." Jessica asked with a slightly worried expression.
"I''m trying to say that I don''t care about those low lifes. The kingdom. The nobles. Everyone who supports them. In the end, they are nothing." Ss'' voice became slightly heavier as he said those words.
"We can''t go to war yet with them."
"I never said I would go to war with them." Ss shook his head with a disappointed sigh, as if he wasining that talking to someone as stupid as Jessica would only hurt his brain.
"Though, if they do decide toe after me." Ss muttered under his breath and got up to walk toward the door.
His hand fell upon the door handle before his eyes turned to the woman behind the desk.
"I''ll kill them myself."
***
The rest of Ss'' day went on as usual. Actually, most of his week went the way it usually would have.
After the talk with Jessica, he went to Archie and had decided to train with him for the day. None of them went all out since that would most likely destroy the fabric of the training hall they were using and turn it into dust; however, in a way, they didn''t hold back.
They simply refrained from using any of their power-ups. Or at least that was what Ss called them.
While Ss simply used his natural body to fight his opponent, Archie, on the other hand, chose to use his natural toki to fight against Ss simply.
At first, six years ago, when Ss had asked Archie for this lesson, the fight was quite one-sided.
Ss had no idea how strong Archie was, but when he saw how strong he really was, Ss could not help but feel quite surprised.
However, a question has appeared in Ss'' mind ever since then.
How did Archie, someone capable of killing Greed in a single hit even when she had all her defenses activated, get caught by her?
That question remained at the back of his mind for a quite a few years, and even now, it was a question he asked himself every now and then.
However, there was another thing he found out about Archie over the years that he would have been unable to find out before.
Archie, despite how he might seem, was trustworthy. He wasn''t loyal to any person. He was loyal to Darkless.
So as long as you weren''t a threat to Darkless, he wouldn''t hurt you. He wouldn''t even touch you.
Yet, despite how the situation was a few years ago, even if Archie wanted to kill Ss, they both knew that it would take much more than just him.
After all, the only person that was truly a threat to Ss'' life was War, and until now, he hadn''t even met her.
Ss'' spar with Archiested a few hours. After that, he went and showered before going to Life to study magic with her again.
Ss'' rtionship with her didn''t really change after he found out about her keeping the information about his family from him. He understood that Archie had asked to do it, so he chose not to say anything about it to her as the reasonable man he was.
With her help, he learned how to do many things, and with his help, she even learned how to instant cast. She hadn''t gotten to the point where she could silent cast, but from what Ss could see of her progress, she would most likely reach that point soon.
Ss'' job in the Judgement faction hadn''t changed much either. Though, now that he was the leader of it, his only real job was ensuring the city had a sense of justice.
After he had be the leader of the faction, a quarter of the previous people had left by the first year''s mark, but after that, the only ones that left were either the ones that retired, or the ones that had been injured to a point where they could not work on the field anymore.
Ss could have probably healed them, but many were content with their injuries.
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Chapter 198 Plans [2]
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Some simply didn''t want to work anymore, and the injury was a good reason to stop. He knew they would return to work if he did heal them. He was certain that if he did that, a worse fate would fall upon them.
Those who wanted to be healed usually went to Life or her disciples, but to heal such an injury, they usually took a very long time¡ªhalf a year to even a year.
At first, Ss didn''t understand why they took so long to heal, but he quickly understood that not everyone had the same level of healing capabilities as he or Diveen. Diveen had gone to an academy to learn the healing arts from the top experts on the continent. Those were master mages, and Ss doubted anyone within Darkless had the same kind of knowledge they would have had.
Life now probably had more knowledge of the subject, but that was because of Ss. He had helped her reach her current level; in return, she was teaching her disciples, who usually took much longer than her to understand the knowledge that was passed down to them.
Ss hoped that, at a certain point, the city would have enough healers with high capabilities that they could be considered a healing hub of sorts. Of course, while the city was closed from the public, such a thing could not happen.
For his future ns toe to fruition, he would need to open the city up, and that could not happen while the current monarchy was around.
But for now, that didn''t really matter. He would most likely need to consider it in the future.
Right now, they had a more dangerous threat, much closer than anyone would have liked.
After a week of going through his normal routine, Ss was finally called to one of the General meetings.
When he entered, he saw all the generals already there, getting ready talk. Some looked bored. Those were most likely the people who hade early.
Others looked curious, indicating that they hade just before Ss and were simply settling into their chairs.
"Good. You''re here." Archie said and pointed at one of the chairs for Ss to sit at.
Ss quickly sat and looked at Archie with a curious nce.
"Did you think about my proposal?" Ss asked.
"I did, but I haven''te to a decision about it yet. I need a little more time to think about it."
"Oh? So this meeting isn''t about it?" Ss widened his eyes slightly before a calm smile settled on his face again.
A calm, but very cold smile...
"I''m assuming that all of you know why I''ve asked you here." Archie said before activating a few mana crystals that began to project something into the air.
A holographic screen appeared before them, causing all of them to be alert.
"Is it them again?" Death said with a slightly annoyed sneer.
"Yes, and this time, they''re not attacking or funding a faction," Archie said while the map of the continent shone before them.
The continent showed Der at the top of the continent. Arge forest could be seen on the map''s right side, taking up most of the central section.
At the bottom, you could see the Xylem kingdom, wrapping around the forest and connecting with Der at a certain point.
"As you all know, the student tournament will be held here. The diamond academy." Archie pointed at the ce where all three of the continent''s powerhouses met.
The forest, and Der kingdom, and the Xylem kingdom.
"This is where they will meet, and it is also where the attack will be held."
"Those damn cultists. Now they''re even bringing the kids into it?" Death could not help but exim with anger.
"I''m sure that isn''t the point of their attack. Or, not entirely. Think about it. The best students from the new generation will be here, and they will be trying their best topete for a prize. Either, they are here to kill the children and cripple the next generation of this continent, or they areing here for the prize." Archie exined.
"What is the prize?" Ss asked with a weird look on his face that no one had seen him have for a very long time.
"We... Don''t know... I believe they do though." Archie narrowed his eyes.
"There''s a possibility they were there to do both things, right?" Ss asked.
"Should we call War in? I''m sure she can deal with them quite quickly." Jessica said with a stressed expression.
"We can''t allow her to abandon her post. I''m certain she woulde straight away if she heard what was happening, but we can''t allow that. The demons are gaining more power as we speak, and they''re even growing as groups. They are allying with one another, and any day now, they might even revolt. The kingdom has chosen to ignore this, but I hear that they have a new messiah of some kind that is allowing them to regain their morale." Archie exined.
"So what do we do?" Life asked with a serious expression on her face.
She hadn''t spoken from the beginning of the meeting, but now she had spoken, and all eyes were on her.
"We do what we always did when those bastards attacked." Ss spoke up this time, standing up from his chair and looking at all of them with an equally serious expression.
"We kill them, of course." Ss said with a calm voice that radiated with so much coldness that everyone in the room could not help but tense up.
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[Sorry about for not releasing the bonus chapters. I''ve been quite busy, and quite ill recently. I won''t be uploading more than 2 chapters a day unless there are bonus chapters for any of the milestones we hit. I''m still 6 chapters short, so I''ll be trying to upload it over time. Sorry for the inconvenience.]
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Chapter 199 Plans [3] - Ill Do It
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"We kill them, of course." Ss said with a calm voice that radiated with so much coldness that everyone in the room could not help but tense up.
Ss had said those words with so much nonchnce that it made it feel like killing was nothing to him, and in a way, they knew that too.
Ss might not have been a cold-blooded murderer who killed everyone on site, but they knew that there was a side of him that he hid from them.
A side that wouldn''t mind killing every single one of them without batting an eye. Despite not outwardly showing it, it was something they grew to learn over thest few years that they got to know him.
"I second this motion," Jessica spoke without a second''s hesitation.
"You second all his motions." Death sighed from he sighed with a tinge of disappointment.
"What''s the best course of action here? We need to know what''s happening in order to stop it. Plus, what if the attack is from the inside? The academy won''t let us do anything, and so far they said that have it under control." Life spoke up with a tinge of worry.
"We need a way to get into the academy..." Archie spoke before he raised a brow and looked at a certain someone.
And when he did, everyone on the table slowly looked toward that very person with an expression that made Ss narrow his eyes.
"Why''s everyone staring at me?" Ss asked while cocking his head to the side.
"I mean... You do look like youngest. And legally speaking-"
Ss quickly realized what they were looking at him for and outright refused.
"Not happening."
"Oh,e on. Stop being such a downer."
"I refuse to be educated by a group of morons who were hired to teach brainless children!"
"Yeah, but, you''re not there for the education, are you? You''re there to give us information on the attack." Archie tried to argue.
"Fuck you!"
"Ss... This is an order."
"Fuck your order!"
"..."
"Yeah. That''s what I thought. Send Nymira or Alex. They fit the role perfectly. They are super trustworthy too!" Ss said with a smile on his face.
"Yeah, but I''m not asking them, am I?" Archie asked with a threatening tone of voice.
"I''m willing to fight you over this decision." Ss also narrowed his eyes and released a thread of his killing intent.
"Are you really? Because I can think of a million reasons, this might be a bad idea for you." Archie released his own killing intent that quickly shed with Ss''.
"Alright, alright. Let''s deal with this like adults." Death stood up, making both of them lessen their auras.
"Though, I do agree with Archie here. You are clearly the best candidate. Plus, the academy doesn''t care about your faction. They only care whether or not you break the academy''s rules or not. If you don''t, you''re more than fine." Death exined in a calm and collected manner.
"Nope. Not going to school again." Ss crossed his arms and leaned back.
"You''ll only have to be there for a month or two. It''s only until the tournament starts. Plus, you can choose which academy you would like to enroll in." Death said with a subtle smile.
"Hmm... A month huh." Ss narrowed his eyes slightly as a few thoughts went through his mind.
"The academy had a pretty big library, right?" Ss asked.
"Well, I heard they all use the same library, but it''s so big that it feels like an academy of its own." Jessica chimed in from the side.
"If that''s true then..." Ss paused again and looked at the ceiling.
There had been quite a few things that he hadn''t been able to find answers to, as well as other things that he simply did not have enough information for.
One of those things was runesmithing. After learning everything he could from Virack, he quickly found himself in a hurdle. Without a master to teach him, he would be stuck in the same hurdle for quite a long time, which was simply something he could not stand.
His hunger for knowledge had been begging him to find out more. To him, it felt like he had been left on a cliffhanger and would have to imagine out the rest of the story all by himself. He could use the information he got from Virack, but it didn''t amount to much.
Virack had his expertise, and despite having quite a few disciples, if Ss were honest, the man was not a good teacher. In a way, Virack reminded him of how bad Lochras was at teaching him how to use a sword.
But it wasn''t only that. A few things were making him feel slightly crazy, and those things were his understanding of spells.
Technically speaking, he was the strongest mage in all of Darkless. There wasn''t a single person in Darkless that had the ability to use tier 5 spells, and therefore, there wasn''t a single person with the books to learn it.
Ss had created his own tier-5 spells, but since he hadn''t seen anyone else create any more in all his journies, he was finding it difficult to make a proper one.
Even towns and cities didn''t have that information. That kind of information was usually well guarded, so almost no one knew what a tier-5 spell looked like unless they had seen it in use before.
''Maybe this is a good thing? Not knowing what the spells look like might just help me further my goal of no longer relying on the magic circle. Though, this does link to runesmithing since I don''t actually know what runes higher than the 4th tier look like... The only ones I know are the ones in the life equation, but the people of this world don''t use its runes. I can use it, but for what? To create better healing spells? I already have enough of that right now.
Knowing and understanding only allowed me to understand the runes I see before me. It doesn''t help so much with creating them... I could do it, but I don''t have enough time... I need to get stronger quickly and knowledge for that.'' Ss went into deep thought for several minutes, not saying a single word the entire time.
They all waited for what he was going to say, and in the end, all he could do was let out a deep sigh before looking at Archie with a slightly resentful look.
''I guess I can learn about alchemy too. That wouldn''t be so bad, right?'' Ss thought before opening his mouth and answering-
"I''ll do it."
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Chapter 200 Plans [4] - Academy?
?
Hearing this, Archie let out a relieved smile. Unfortunately for him, Ss wasn''t done.
"For a price, of course." A grin could be seen on Ss'' face the moment he said that.
"What do you want." Archie shook his head, feeling slightly defeated for a reason he could not understand.
"I want you to do my guild thing."
"..."
"Deal or no deal?" Ss cocked his head to the side but already knew the answer.
"Dea-"
"And, I want to be in charge of it... Let''s call it the Evergreen guild... Evergreen faction? Hm... We''ll think about thatter." Ss shrugged.
This time, Archie took a little longer to answer, yet, just when he opened his mouth, Ss beat him to it.
"I want Alex and Nymira with me. I also want a drop of blood from a phoenix. Three, in fact."
"I can''t do that. One at most, and even then, they are quite expensive and hard to get." Archie said with a slightly grave expression.
"Hmm? Is that so? That''s fine then. I''ve already consumed a few blood drops from the giants... Though, I wonder if I could go there and kill one of them. Maybe my progress would increase."
"Please don''t try to kill a giant. Kill one, and their whole race will smell it on you." Archie rubbed his brows.
"I don''t see a problem with that." Ss smiled wildly.
"It only means I get to kill more of them, right?"
"If that''s how you want to see it, then yes." Archie sighed once more.
The meetingsted a bit longer, and in the end, they nned what to do when Ss got to the academy.
When Ss left the meeting, he quickly went over to Alex and Nymira to tell them the news.
"What... No! I don''t wanna go!" Alex shouted and tried to run away, but Ss quickly appeared in front of him with narrowed eyes.
Ss pressed onto him with his killing intent, and within a few seconds, Alex was on the ground, shivering in fear with his hands around his head.
"We''re going, whether you like it or not."
"This is human trafficking!" Alex argued through ttering teeth.
"Oh really? If you want, I can put a bag over your head and throw you to a criminal organization. I wonder how they would treat you." A smirk appeared on his face the moment he said those words.
"Y-You monster!"
"Ss, an you stop bullying him?" Nymira asked with pity in her voice.
"Don''t pity me woman!" Alex shouted, causing Nymira to widen her eyes slightly before narrowing them.
"On second thought, how about you bully him a little more. I don''t think he learned his lesson."
"Aww. Nym, this is why you''re my favorite." Ss chuckled.
A few minutester, Alex was on Ss'' shoulder, letting out subtle groans every few seconds. If not for them, one would have thought that he was unconscious.
Looking back at Nymira, Ss could see an excited smile on her face that, made. The moment he saw that smile, his heart warmed before a smile tugged at the corner of his lips as well.
Her joy, for some reason, felt like his joy. So, whenever she smiled like how she currently, was, he would feel a small prick in his heart that made him smile as well.
It was a weird, but he didn''t mind it.
"Are you excited?" Ss asked her, causing her smile to broaden even more than it currently was, before it quickly turned nervous.
"Yeah, but what if the kids don''t like me and try to bully me." Nymira thought back to how the kids treated her before her parents died.
They would always pick on her for the stupidest reasons they could think of, though, it was usually about her hair.
While at first, Ss had always thought that her hair might have been normal in this world, that was simply not the case.
People usually had hair that was within the elemental spectrum. When someone was fully limated with their element, which was something that rarely happened, their hair would be the color of the element they used.
Half of Syra''s hair was silver due to her wind element, but since it wasn''t prevalent in her bloodline, he hair had to start from the beginning before slowly turning into the color of their element.
People like Zelon or thete David had orange and blue hair, respectively, due to their families having fully limated. Some families even did not allow the children to marry others without the hair color, since that usually created a person with two elements.
Despite how it sounded, though, two elements were not a good thing. Only some had the ability or chance tobine the two elements to create a sub-element. However, for most people, their elements remained separated, making it much harder for them to use magic since half their mana could only be used for one element, while the other half was for the other element.
If they had a fire and air affinity in a fire mage tournament, they would be at the disadvantage of having only half the mana as the rest of them.
However, the problem with Nymira''s hair was not that she had two elements, but that pink hair was not achievable through elemental means...
Or at least that wasn''t the case for humans.
The same could be said about quite a lot of hair colors. Alex''s hair color was not normal either, which Ss had only learned about in the past few years.
Ss didn''t know how they had these hair colors. He didn''t have the equipment to see why their hairs had turned pink and red, but it didn''t matter for now.
However, there was one more problem.
There was a reason why Judgement was so well known throughout the kingdom, and even the continent, because of his hair and eye color.
No one had ever seen eyes as green as his, nor did anyone see hair so white.
Most people thought that it was dye, and they would be right to think so...
However, Ss had discovered onest thing in the past half a decade that he had to make sure no one knew about.
And it was the answer to his question for a while now.
What happens to the hair of someone who awakens all elements?
Well, that answer was simple, wasn''t it...
The real question was, what color was mana actually?
White or translucent?
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[Read the author''s notes]
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Chapter 201 The Journey [1]
?
"You aren''t going to make us walk it, are you?" Alex asked with a worried tone.
They were currently walking through the forest around and above Darkless City.
Nymira looked like she was getting more nervous by the second, while Alex looked terrified at the implication that they might have to walk it all the way to Diamond Academy.
"Answer my damn questions!" Alex shouted with despair in his voice.
"What questions?" Ss asked back, oblivious to the 78 times Alex had repeated the same question repeatedly.
"Are we going to walk it all the way to the academy?"
"That would be nice, wouldn''t it? A walk all the way to the center of the continent? How long would it take us with the speed we''re currently going at? A month? Hmm... Maybe more?" Ss scratched his chin while life slowly left Alex''s eyes.
"Ss. Can we fight the monsters on the way as well. It would be goo training for us, especially since Alex can''t run away this time like the coward he is." Nymira''s nervous expression disappeared as a cold one showed on her face.
"H-Hey... Nym. Come on. Think about it."
"Call me Nym again and I''ll break every single finger on that hand of yours." She harrumphed and looked away with a sneer.
"You let Ss call you Nym all the time. Are we not friends, Nym..." Alex immediately felt her re- "Ira... Nymira!" He shouted quickly, and she simply looked away without saying a word.
"Friends don''t abandon eachother." Sheined.
"I was gonnae back!" Alex pleaded.
"Oh... Sure you were. The same way you said you''d rece those towels you keep taking from us."
"Hey! It''s not my fault you guys only have like three towels." Alex harrumphed as well.
The entire time, Ss simply watched with a wry smile on his face. He couldn''t help but chuckle at certain parts, but eventually, he decided to stop their quarreling, which would have most likelysted for a couple of hours more than he would have liked.
"We''re not walking it. I would fly it there, but since you guys can''t fly yet, we''ll just go through one of the teleportation hubs to the nearest city and take a carriage from there." Ss exined.
"Can''t we just teleport in there? They have a teleportation hub inside, right?" Nymira asked.
"They do, but the teleportation hubs don''t work like that. They only let you leave, not enter." Ss exined.
"You''d think they wouldn''t have such a design w... You know, since they''re one of the 4 great academies." Nymira sighed.
"It isn''t a design w. It''s been done like that on purpose. There have been attacks on the academy before. Sure, it hasn''t happened in our lifetimes, but there have been quite a few attacks in thest couple of centuries.
By not allowing anyone to teleport inside the academy, they can''t be attacked from the inside. Any attacker would need to go through all the cities and formations that work as a defense line between them and the academy." Ss exined.
"What if there are people inside the academy who want to attack the academy? Wouldn''t that be an attack from the inside?" Alex asked from the side, nowposed and calm since he didn''t have to walk to the continent''s center anymore.
Egdore was quiterge, and despite it being one continent on the, the itself was quiterge too.
"Hmm. Technically, yes. However, they care about having an entire army sent through their teleportation hub to fight the academy from the inside out.
At the same time, if they have a significantlyrge army, they could form an attack from both the outside and inside, essentially sandwiching the academy. By only allowing teleportation to the outside, the academy gains this advantage. The academy can do the same thing the enemy would have been able to do if they had ess to the academy''s teleportation hubs." Ss finished exining.
"Ah... That''s pretty clever." Alexplimented.
"Eh... I can think of a hundred different way to make it even better than it''s current system." Ss shrugged.
"Why didn''t you do it for Darkless then?" Nymira asked.
"Well, they aren''t paying me enough, and Archie isn''t letting me do anything these days. I destroy one city and suddenly everyone cares about lives." Ss could not help but sneer from the side.
"To be fair, you destroying that city is the reason the organization is being called a terrorist one." Alex argued, but even after a couple of seconds passed, Ss simply ignored him, not saying a single word to him the entire time.
It didn''t take long for them to approach the next city. It was the nearest one, and while there were towns closer to Darkless, none of them had teleportation hubs.
As they closed in on the city, Nymira quickly pointed out that there seemed to be a line in front of the city''s gates with guards outside.
Ss had seen it a couple of minutes before she had, while Alex hadn''t seen it at all since he didn''t have any artifacts to help him see further.
He only had his robes, but they only increased his natural mana regeneration rate and base strength and speed.
It did nothing else; he needed someone like Ss or Nymira to spot it first.
"It''s going to be a bit like dia, but those seem to be royal guards, so I''m not sure how weing they will be."
"It''s a city. Of course they''re going to be royal guards. Only towns have to hire normal guards." Nymira said with a slight sneer.
"Hmm... Oh well. You two take your hoods off." Ss ordered while taking his own off.
Keeping hoods on usually just made someone more suspicious, so walking without them made it much easier to pass by despite their hair color.
At the same time, Nymira and Alex weren''t nearly as recognizable as Ss since, despite their hair color, Ss had a far higher bounty on his head.
"Just get your coins ready." Ss whispered to them and went into the line.
At the same time, his hair was no longer white. Instead, it was ck, and his eyes, despite still being emerald in color, looked a lot duller than before.
He would have changed his face, but the bounty posters didn''t look anything like him, so he didn''t care to change it.
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Chapter 202 The Journey [2]
?
After a few minutes, they were at the front of the line.
The guard quickly looked them up and down. All three of them were wearing ck robes, and while Ss looked normal in his opinion, the other two''s hair color quickly caught his eyes.
"State your name and business here." The guard ordered.
"My name is Game. This here, is Nymira, and the other is Aleck." Ss smiled at the man before him.
"Game? That''s an unusual name." The guard narrowed his eyes.
"Yeah, that''s what everyone tells me." Ss chuckled and rubbed the back of his head.
"Do you happen to have some sort of identification?" The man asked, and Ss took out three crystals without skipping a beat.
The man''s eyes widened when he saw them, but he quickly kept his cool and gave the crystals to the guard next to him.
That guard also widened his eyes and ced the crystals on some sort of artifact before standing to the side and waiting.
"S-So. Sir, what bring you to this city?" The man asked with a twitching brow.
"Oh. We came to the city in order to use the teleportation hub. We''ve been traversing thends recently, but we n on going to the academy soon." Ss smiled.
"Oh? All of you?" The man couldn''t help but raise a brow.
"Yes, of course." Ss looked back at them before looking at the man before him. "They are my closest friends." He said with warmness in his eyes.
"Oh... I see." The man chuckled before looking back at the man who was tapping on his shoulder.
The other guard whispered something in his ear. The man''s eyes widened slightly before he nodded.
"You may pass. Though, the entry fee is two gold coins." The man said.
"Each?" Ss raised a brow while Alex and Nymira couldn''t help but feel a tinge of rage. The entry fee was barely ten silvers per person, but for some reason this man was trying to get them to pay 20 times the price?
"Yes." The man spoke in a slightly condescending voice.
"Why is it so expensive? I could have sworn that it was only ten silvers." Ss asked while cocking his head to the side.
"Well, its either you pay that or we arrest you for stealing those crystals." A grin appeared on the man''s face.
"Nymira''s usually warm and sometimes even innocent face, instantly turned cold. Her hand was ced on the de within her cloak, and she was ready to slice the man''s head off within a moment''s notice if that was necessary.
"What makes you so sure?" Ss raised a brow, but on the inside, he couldn''t think of anything that was wrong with the crystals he had given them.
"I suggest you pay immediately, or we''ll have to send a pay notice to your family as well. Imagine the dept they would collect-"
*St*
''Oh... So they''re just assholes, then... Maybe I should add an influential family to the crystal. Though, I didn''t do that in first ce since some guards wouldn''t have a problem regonizing that I''m not from a certain family.'' Ss thought to himself while retracting his hand was now covered in blood.
The man from before no longer had a head, and everyone could see that it was Ss who had killed him.
However, what they didn''t see was a movement from him. Their eyes couldn''t even catch his hand moving. Not even a blur was left behind. It was as if, one second, the guard''s head was there, and in the next, it was not.
The guard''s body wobbled for a couple of seconds before; eventually, his headless corpse fell to the ground and sttered blood all over Ss.
Alex widened his eyes when he saw this, and even Nymira couldn''t help but shudder when she saw the headless corpse.
It wasn''t because the sight of blood irked her, but the fact that she hadn''t even seen Ss move.
''What the hell.'' Her eyes widened when she saw this.
She knew Ss was fast, but until now, she could at least see a blur when he moved.
However, even with toki going toward her eyes, she didn''t see a single thing. The only thing she felt was the cold air blow on her face.
The people behind them were confused as well, but when they saw the corpse, they quickly took a step back and looked at who had attacked them.
--Just to see white hair that flowed down to the person''s neck.
"J-Judgement." A woman screeched, but no one moved.
There was thick killing intent in the area, and everyone was struggling to move from where they were standing.
"I''ll be taking this." Ss walked toward the artifact and took both of his crystals before turning to the man at his side.
His pants had already been soiled, and he was already on the ground, shuddering in fear.
"And you know my name... Hmm. What a dilemma." Ss scratched his chin for a few seconds before the man''s body disappeared, leaving behind a blood paste that went on for a couple of meters.
"What a mess." Ss sighed and took out a handkerchief to wipe the blood from his hands.
Looking back, he signaled Nymira and Alex to follow him. A few guards appeared in front of him, everyone now and then, but since they didn''t know his name, he left them incapacitated rather than dead.
Alex didn''t say a word the entire time. He had a slightly grim expression on his face.
On the other hand, Nymira didn''t look affected by the bloodshed around her one bit. She actually looked pretty casual as she stepped over the guards on the ground, either screaming in pain or simplyying there, unconscious.
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Chapter 203 The Journey [3] - Grief
?
[Bonus Chapter 1/6]
On the other hand, Nymira didn''t look affected by the bloodshed around her one bit. She actually looked pretty casual as she stepped over the guards on the ground, either screaming in pain or simplyying there, unconscious.
Nymira and Alex had their hoods on, while Ss walked around without one.
Many people pointed at him, others ran away, and some children even ran up to him with curiosity in their eyes.
They didn''t understand why the adults were running away, but when they walked up to Ss, all he did was smile at them gently before patting their heads.
Nymira, seeing this, could not help but smile, yet Alex simply stayed in the same state as before.
When they finally reached the teleportation hub, Ss looked at it for a moment and smiled at the men who were running it.
"Do you mind if take a turn? We''re in a bit of a hurry." Ss smiled.
"U-Uhm... Sure sir. It''s on the house." The man stuttered.
"What nonsense. You have a family to feed, right? It''s on me." Ss dropped a few gold coins on the man''s desk.
The teleportation hub had a circr design.
It was close to the middle of the city and looked like a small tform that one could use as a stage for fighting during one of the light festivals. It was made out of a rock that Sd didn''t recognize; however, if his mystic eyes were to be trusted, the rock used was extremely good at conducting mana.
Runes could be seen shining all over the tform. It flickered at times, but remained stable most of the time. The only times it flickered was when someone came or left.
The left side, from where Ss was standing, was where you''d stand if you wanted to go somewhere, while the right side was simply for receiving.
"Where do you want to go, sir?" The man asked with widened eyes as he looked at the gold coins before him.
"Closest city to Diamond Academy."
"But, sir. You''ve paid me far too much. You, the youngdy, and the young man would only have to pay about 50 silvers each."
"Think of it as a tip." Ss gave him a thumbs-up and walked onto the stage. Nymira and Alex walked behind him and waited for the man to set the coordinates and send them off.
The man quickly put in the coordinates, and the runes began to shine around them. However, just before they could leave, Ss turned his head toward the man and narrowed his eyes.
"Send us anywhere else, and I''ll find you myself."
And just like that, space warped around them, and they vanished.
***
"Hmm..." A low grunt came from a blond-haired girl. She had silver strands in her hair, but most of it was blonde.
"Good to know you''re not dead." A feminine voice she recognized entered her ears, making her widen her eyes in shock.
"Diveen?!" Syra shot up from her bed and looked at the woman beside her.
The woman looked like she had visibly aged, but one could tell that aging wasn''t the thing at fault in this situation.
She looked tired, and, most of all, stressed.
She wore a nun attire simr to the one she had worn back in dia, but it was a little different.
It covered her hair fully and was quite baggy to cover most of her body. Though, now, instead of being mostly ck with trims of white, its colors were reversed now while the logo of the light academy could be seen on the center of her chest.
Her golden eyes had be less lively in the past six years; however, she did look like she had much more energy than most of the other healersbined.
"You look healthier than ever, my child." Diveen caressed Syra''s face for a moment before sighing when the girl didn''t say anything.
However, just before she was going to open her mouth again, she felt a tight hug wrap around her before Syra began to weep into Diveens arms.
"It''s okay, my child. I''m sure it was hard." She slowly patted the girl and hugged her back.
They remained like that for almost half an hour. No one darede in when they saw the scene. Every healer there knew what happened, but all they could do was sympathize with the girl.
They had seen it on the other children too. The orange-haired boy looked terrified beyond belief. Every time he heard a slightly loud sound, he would crawl into a ball and rock back and forth.
The other girl, He, was doing the best among them, yet, even she was struggling. She was easily frightened. She would get on guard whenever she heard even the quietest sounds, and even until now, she always tended to be quite tense around everyone.
Falco didn''t seem too affected himself. He grieved for a few days, but other than that, he was fine. Actually, he was helping He get through everything she had gone through.
Her family tried toe every day to support her too, but other than that, they couldn''t do anything else.
Thest person who was having it hard was Argon, but unlike the rest, he wasn''t suffering per se. It was quite the opposite, actually.
All he could feel was rage.
Not a single person from his family hade to talk to him, but he didn''t care. It didn''t matter if his family came to him or not. He had already understood that they didn''t care about him ever since he was a child, and what was happening right now was nothingpared to what he had to go through in the past.
The reason he was angry was not for himself, but instead, for someone he cared about dearly who had stayed in aa for almost a week after having been hit by someone she called her brother.
And just when he thought it couldn''t get bad enough, the very same person appeared almost a week before in his dorm room...
And the fear he felt that day was beyond anything he had ever felt throughout his entire life.
Thoughts of telling people who the person was went out of his mind, but there was a second set of thoughts that had entered them that day too.
He decided that, he would never feel that kind of fear in his life again.
From that day on, he vowed to gain the strength to never kneel before another person ever again.
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Chapter 204 The Journey [4] - Relief
?
The whole school knew about what had happened to Syra''s group. The academy tried to keep it secret, but the news of a teacher sending his students to die was one of the hot subjects in the school at the current moment, and was simply not something that could hide.
However, the news of the Skrk family being behind it never left closed doors.
News of Syra waking up reached her friends in after a while, but before they coulde to her, she said something to Diveen...
Diveen could be seen patting her slowly with sympathetic eyes.
However, after almost 20 minutes of crying, and ten more minutes of silence, Syra turned her gaze up and looked at Diveen with tears in her eyes.
"David..."
"I know. Trust me, I know." Diveen kissed her forehead and sighed.
"He died right in front of us."
"I know. But, he saved you guys, right? It was a noble sacrifice."
"..."
"..."
"Who said that?" Syra''s voice turned cold.
"Hm? Is that not what happened?" Diveen raised a brow.
"It... It was different. It didn''t happen like that... The monster that attacked us... It was terrifying. Its top half was that of a human, and its bottom half was that of a spider. It killed him right in front of us, and we couldn''t do a single damn thing... Not even Nymira."
Diveen''s eyes instantly widened before they narrowed down.
"Syra. Nymira... She''s captured. I don''t think she was there." Diveen spoke while checking Syra''s temperature.
"No... She was. Did the others not say anything about a pink haired girl?"
"They did, but, I doubt it was-"
"It was her, Diveen... It was her. And she was strong. So much strong than me. She fought off that creature all on her own. That mage with her too. The one with red hair. He was strong too. I could sense that his core was at the same level as mine, but he was so much better than me at his creating spells. It took half the time to create them, and he looked even younger than me. Maybe 12 years old?" Syra gritted her teeth as she remembered exactly what happened that day.
"Hm... The reports actually talks about him too... Though, I doubt the girl you are talking about was Nymira. We both know she was kidnapped." Diveen tried to reason; However, Syra didn''t hear a single thing.
"And who was she kidnapped by?" Syra asked.
"Darkless of cour-" Diveen paused as her eyes widened.
While it wasn''t part of the official reports that were sent out by the school to keep the information correct, there were reports from the nearest town that talked about Judgement being there.
When the students were asked about this, they refused to talk so the school couldn''t do anything about it...
But, if what Syra was saying was correct, then maybe, just maybe...
"Is... Is Nymira okay?" Diveen asked with a crack in her voice.
She remembered Nymira as a child when she was taking care of her. The connection between them wasn''t nearly as strong as the one between Nymira and thete chief, but when she heard about Nymira''s kidnapping, she had tried her best to get her back from the people who had taken her.
But, until now, the didn''t even know where to start.
For all she knew, Darkless didn''t even have her anymore. They were littered with mercenaries, so it was only normal for them to have sent her to someone else.
But now, when she thought about it, she understood that Nymira was most likely still with-
"Ss isn''t dead."
"..." Diveen''s thoughts immediately halted the moment those words reached her ears.
"You can''t tell mom and dad. They would be destroyed."
"Are you sure it''s him?" Diveen asked.
"Yeah. How do you expect me not to recognize my own brother. He''s a little taller now... And a lot bigger. Actually, he looks older than me."
"..."
"..."
"You said he looked 12-years-old?" Diveen asked in confusion.
"What? No. He''s not the red-haired kid. He''s..." Syra paused, not knowing what to say.
"He''s what?"
"He''s..."
How was she supposed to tell her that the kid she taught to be a proper mage was now one of the most wanted men in the entire kingdom?
"He''s not like what he used to be. He''s changed. They changed him." Syra''s eyes began to fill with tears as she remembered him mming his fist into her abdomen.
"What happened to him?" Diveen was worried now as well. She had already made peace with the fact that Ss was dead. It had been almost six years now, and she''s experienced death many times in her life, whether those wererades or family.
"Ss is a general of the Darkless organization. He''s Judgement."
Yet, the conversation she was having with Syra was bringing up a lot of emotions she thought she had gotten rid of by now.
Yet, when she heard what Syra said, she could not help but feel her stomach drop.
A horrible feeling was swimming around in her stomach...
"H-How..." Diveen asked with a hint of anger in her voice.
"I-I think they brainwashed him. The same way they did with Nymira. They must have done something to him... Otherwise... Why would he refuse toe back? He knows Mom and Dad are devastated, but he doesn''t want toe back... Why won''t hee back... WHY!" Syra''s weeps quickly turned into rage, and without waiting for another second, she pushed Diveen aside and stormed out of the room.
Diveen, on the other hand, was far too shocked by the revtion to go after her, but unlike Syra, Diveen wasn''t nearly as narrowminded as she was.
Unlike Syra, her first thought wasn''t that Ss had been brainwashed. If he had been brainwashed, why would he even rescue Syra and her friends? Why would Nymira and the red-haired youth evene to save them in the first ce?
''Does he know about his family''s situation...'' Diveen''s face had a grave expression on it.
All she could do was hold her head while thinking of all the possibilities as to why Ss had be Judgement in the first ce.
Yet... In the end, there was one more thing that she cared more about.
"S-Sister Diveen. Is Syra-..." He, who had just walked into the room, looked toward the empty bed with a hint of confusion, yet, the confusion only increased when she turned back toward Diveen...
Just to see tears rolling down her face as a smile blossomed from the corner of her lips.
And that entire time, only a single sentence ran through her mind.
''Thank god they''re alive.''
Chapter 205 Arrival [1]
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In a town near the border between the Xylem Kingdom and the Der Kingdom stood a town that had been there for almost 400 years.
The town was quiterge. It could bepared to a city; however, while most cities had advanced systems to ensure that no one would enter if they weren''t allowed, this town did not. It was closer to dia in that regard.
Most towns didn''t even have walls, but this one did.
And in the middle of it, a circle tform could be seen.
And suddenly, it shone with immense intensity for the first time in many hours as three individuals appeared on it.
The people working there who might have previously been mistook for sleeping workers, instantly shot up from their chairs and stood the wee the people that hade to their towns.
One of them was a young girl with long pink hair and soft features, while the other was a red-haired boy holding a staff in his hands. A certain expression on his face made the people there raise a brow, but they quickly ignored it the moment they saw thest person...
It''s not like he was behind them. It was just that they found it hard to focus on him. As if he was there and not there at the same time.
But, their focus quickly sharpened when they saw the color of his hair.
"S-Shit..." One of them muttered, yet he didn''t dare take it out despite having a dagger on his waist.
"Hello, gentlemen. Mind pointing us in the direction of Diamond Academy?" Ss walked down the steps and looked the men in the eyes with a harmless smile on his face.
"That way." One of the men pointed without much thought, gaining the res of all the men around him.
"I suggest you don''t do that." Ss'' eyes darted to one of them, who had a crystal in their hands. They immediately dropped it, but it was already shining.
"Sigh... I cannot be bothered to deal with another asshole with way too much pride for his strength-"
"You were saying?" Suddenly, a voice entered Ss'' ears, causing him to let out a sigh for the umpteenth time that day.
The person in question was hooded and draped in azure blue robes with some kind of reflective quality in them.
"Just had to be a warrior. Why can''t I fight a mage every now and then?" Ss sneered.
"I wouldn''t underestimate me if I were you." The man walked forward and took off his hood. By now, the other men who were sitting around the teleportation hub had already run away, leaving only Ss, Nymira, Alex, and the man before them.
"Ever since those bounties came up, the only thing I could think about was iming your head!" The man roared with a manic look on his face.
"That sounds wrong on so many levels... Also, I don''t have time for this. Actually, I should have probably changed my face beforeing here, huh... Oh well." Ss shrugged while Nymira looked at him with a scrutinizing re.
"And they call you intelligent. What a load of bullshit that was." The man chuckled while unwrapping a spear that he had tied onto his back.
"My brain sometimes turns off to recharge... You know... The usual?"
"I''ll have your head-" The man halted as Ss disappeared before him.
"Without context, that would sound really weird." Suddenly, Ss'' voice wasing from behind him, while a trickle of blood could be seening out of a cut on his cheek.
Ss hadn''t even let go of his killing intent, yet the man before him could not help but smell the suffocating scent of it all around him.
"Now. It doesn''t really matter whether or not you like me. Actually, it doesn''t matter if you tell people I''m here. If I were to bepletely honest with you, I don''t care whether you tell people that I''vee here or not. All I ask of you is to let us leave. I haven''t gotten anything out of killing humans recently, so I don''t really have a reason to end you."
"A-Alright. I''ll let you go." The man stuttered out while raising his hands in the air.
And just like that, Ss, Alex, and Nymira were able to leave without a singleint.
"They''re acting like there''s a cmity urring outside their houses." Nymiramented while looking at the houses around them.
The people locked themselves inside houses, shivering and shuddering while watching them walk by.
"I don''t get why they''re so scared of you. It''s not like you go out of your way to kill people." Nymira continued.
"Kingdom''s propaganda probably makes it seem so. I''m not surprised. I would do the same." Ss shrugged while Alex looked at him with a slightly angry expression.
"What? I meant that, if I were in the same situation as them, I would do the same. Though, that would require me to be the king, prince, royal, or noble of this kingdom with a long tradition of already brainwashing the peasants into doing work for us." Ss shrugged.
"You didn''t need to kill those people back there..." Alex muttered under his breath, but Nymira and Ss easily heard it due to their enhanced senses.
"If I didn''t kill them, they would have scammed us the same way they probably scammed a hundred other people that happened to have a little more money than usual." Ss shrugged before continuing- "They also knew our names."
"Don''t give me that. I know you. You don''t do anything without thinking about the consequences first. You act like everything is a coincidence, but with both, know that''s not the case. You want the kingdom to know that we''re going to the academy!" Alex sneered, yet despite waiting for a retort, Ss didn''t say anything.
He simply stayed silent, walking through the town as if he was oblivious to the fact that everyone was looking at him with fear.
It didn''t take long for them to leave the town, and after that, they quickly went toward the academy.
Ss chose not to take a carriage and instead walked it all the way there. It only took about two hours for them to see the academy finally, but by then, the sun was already setting.
Alex looked tired from the long and hilly walk, while Nymira and Ss looked as fine as ever.
The academy, just like the Light Academy, was surrounded by five cities, each one linked to the academy by their long roads that led to them.
"You see that?" Ss nudged Alex, who no longer seemed nearly as angry as him as he was before.
"What?" Alex raised a brow.
"Do you see how the cities are ced?" Ss asked, making both of his disciples look at where the cities were ced with a narrowed eyes.
"Each city has its own force field... Or energy field. Whatever you want to call it. The energy field is translucent, but you can see it under the sunlight due to the slight density shift when the sun''s light hits it. At night, its almostpletely invisible, but its all a ruse." A grin suddenly appeared on Ss'' face.
"How so?" Alex asked as his interest in the topic slowly grew.
Despite Alex not liking the studying part of being a mage, he had to grow to like it. Sure, he didn''t love it the same way Ss did, but liking it was the bare minimum. After all, it was half the job of being a mage.
"I''ll show you when we get there." Ss grinned while Alex narrowed his eyes in slight annoyance.
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Chapter 206 Arrival [2] - Citys Barrier
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[Bonus Chapter: 2/6]
The three neared the city closest to them. Ss had no idea its name, but he didn''t care. That was something he would learn about once he was in the academy. For now, the only thing he cared about was the forcefield.
"You see those runes?" Ss asked while pointing at the shining runes outside the academy.
"Yeah..." Alex narrowed his eyes. He couldn''t understand what Ss was trying to teach him.
The runes outside the city were well known for being traps. Idiots would think that they could break the barrier around the city by destroying the runes, but instead, they would just receive a deadly attack that would mortally wound them.
The real runes were on the inside, and even then, they were ced at random locations throughout the entire city, so it was nearly impossible to break the entire thing down if you didn''t have 50 people working simultaneously to break all the runes simultaneously.
Well, 50 was just a guess. No one but the mayor or leader of the city would know how many runes there are around. Even the architects have no idea.
Other cities used spires that let out energy that powered the barrier. Breaking down a spire was as hard as breaking into the city by force, and even then, you could need to break almost all of them before the barrier faltered.
Every spire had enough energy to power the entire barrier, but the power would only falter when almost all of them were gone.
However, that wasn''t the point Ss was trying to make.
"In the walls around the city, there are runes etched into it. You can only really see it when the city walls are broken, but they have runes etched into them, powered by the same crystals that are used to power the normal barrier." Ss exined.
"What do they do then?" Alex asked while looking at the enormous city before them.
If he were, to be honest, this would have been thergest city he had ever seen; however, that wouldn''t be surprising.
Looking at him, Ss'' smile widened before he grabbed a pebble.
His hand quickly disappeared and reappeared, and at the same time, the sound of a gunshot going off rippled through the air, causing Alex to close his ears.
However, when he looked at the direction the pebble had gone in, he saw something rippling through the air.
"What the hell is that." Alex looked on with utter shock.
"A barrier that wraps itself around the entire academy and its five cities." Ss exined.
"What... I''ve never heard of this before." Nymira spoke from the side with a shocked expression. She had gone out a lot more than both Ss and Alexbined. Usually, she went out to apany Jessica or Eclipse, but sometimes she would go out on her own to explore the kingdom.
It was something she did until recently. While she wasn''t instantly recognizable, her hair did give her away, and unlike Ss, she didn''t want to take a potion that changed the color of her hair. Ss never understood why she didn''t want to do that; if she didn''t want to, who was he to force her?
"The barrier only blocks people at the sapphire core or higher. At the same time it, it measures the toki around you and sees if you can enter." Ss exined.
"Then why did it stop the pebble?" Alex asked from the side while looking at the barrier with awe.
By now, Ss could see a few guardsing out of the city, every single one of them being at the Orichalcum rank.
''Around sapphire core, huh...'' Ss thought silently before pointing at the barrier and looking at Alex.
"Because I hit it with enough force that it thought that it was being attacked by a sapphire core level attack." Ss exined before folding his arms.
"Ah! I see that you''ve finallye!" A raspy voice spoke excitedly while walking from between the guards with open arms.
Looking at the man, Ss could not help but narrow his eyes.
"You know of me?"
"I know of all of you!" The man let out a bellyugh.
He looked older than Ss, Nymira, and Alexbined... Or, at least he would have if Ss was actually still a teenager. Ss would be around 62 years old or older if he were to consider his previous lives.
''Damn... I''m getting old.'' Ss sighed while rubbing the bridge of his nose.
"You must be Nymira, and that one is Alex, I assume." The man pointed at them with a grin on his face.
He was a little chubby, showing a clear beer belly that bulged out of his suit. However, if one were to look closely, one would quickly notice that he had the physique of a retired wrestler.
He wore a well-tailored suit that one would usually wear at a party. His suit had two tails that reached the ground in length, yet the runes on the clothes caught Ss'' attention.
''Amazing craftmanship...'' Ss thought while narrowing his eyes.
"And you must be the general Judgement. I didn''t actually get your name." The man scratched his beard with a thoughtful look.
''One arm bigger than the other... Definitely a cksmith. 50-years-old? Probably owns an animal or two. Furry in nature if the fur on his shoulder is to be believed. Storage ring. Pristine sapphire core. Most likely a grandfather. He had a wedding ring, be he looks quite disgruntled... Probably married for a long time and drunk. Though, he does handle himself well even under the influence. Must be his mana core taking effect to reduce the symptoms of intoxication.'' Ss quickly analyzed as his eyes darted around the man''s body.
''Though, he must be quite rich to have such a good suit. Though, to have one this powerful would mean that he''s either really careful around people or that he had people out there that might want to kill him.'' Ss thought
"Good. It wouldn''t get good for us if you knew my name now, would it." Ss chuckled
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[Glossary updated]
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Chapter 207 Arrival [3] - Preferential Treatment
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"That would be correct under most circumstances; however, how am I supposed to enroll a student who I don''t even know the name of." The man chuckled.
"I know. I was just kidding." Ss smiled and took out three crystals that he gave to the guards on the side, who quickly took them to some kind of artifact simr to the one they had seen in the other city.
These crystals weren''t the fake ones that Ss had given to thest guards, but were the real ones with everyone''s names on them.
"Game Evergreen... What an unusual name."
"That''s what the all say." Ss chuckled while watching the man carefully.
He hadn''t even touched the crystals, yet he instantly knew their names.
Or, at least, he knew his name... His fake name... But still, it was quite impressive.
Ss could do the same thing with his mystic eyes, but the man before him did not have such an ability... Or at least he didn''t have an ability like that Ss could see.
The man before him could be a chosen human for all he knew.
''I wonder what his blessing is... If he even has one. Maybe he has some kind of artifact that allows him to analyze them instantly?'' Ss thought to himself.
"These are not counterfeit, sir."
"Are you certain?" The man looked back with narrowed eyes.
"As certain as one could be, sir." The guard nodded.
"Well then, that''s good. You may enter." The man turned around as a ss of wine appeared in his hand out of nowhere.
Without hesitation, all three began walking forward while taking their hoods off.
Alex walked in without a problem, and Ss did too, but when it came to Nymira passing through the barrier, something happened.
The sound of Nymira''s head mming against the barrier let out a low sound that reverberated through the barrier.
Ss immediately looked back with a weird expression, while Alex did not waste a second and immediately pointed his staff at the man who was leading them inside.
"Calm down." Ss quickly lowered Alex''s staff and looked at the man expectantly.
"You imbeciles! Did you forget to register her as a student?!" The man began to storm toward the guards, but one of the guards quickly stepped forward and exined.
"Sir, my men must have registered her the same way they register any student. However, she''s stronger than the barrier''s second threshold." The captain of the guards exined in a calm voice.
"Are you saying-..."
"She''s most likely in the orichalcum rank." The captain finished, causing the man to widen his eyes in slight shock. But, the shock was directed at Nymira.
His eyes slowly turned toward Ss, who stood there as if he didn''t understand what was happening. Of course, he did understand, but it was usually better to y the idiot in front of people he didn''t fully know yet.
"What''s wrong?" Ss asked in a nonchnt tone.
"N-Nothing. I will take you straight to the academy myself." The man sighed before looking at one of the guards. "Fetch me my butler and a carriage to the academy. Is that understood?"
"Yes, sir." The guard bowed slightly before rushing off theplete the man''smands.
It didn''t take long for them to fix the problem, but eventually, Nymira could finally walk through the barrier.
"You okay?" Ss turned to Nymira.
"Yeah, I''m fine." She sighed while rubbing her forehead and nose.
The barrier was a lot harder than she had expected.
"Come here." Without asking, Ss pulled Nymira closer and tapped her forehead.
Instantly, a rune appeared on her forehead, and in the next second, the rune was gone, and so was the pain.
"You didn''t have to heal me. it was barely a small bump." Nymira spoke with a mock-angry tone; however, the wry smile on her face told another story.
Ss patted her head and smiled himself, yet in the end; he couldn''t stop himself from pulling her cheek.
''Man, she''s adorable... Maybe like a cat? A kitten? Still... Adorable.'' Ss chuckled while Nymira pped his hand away.
"Ahh... Youth. Must be nice." The man sighed under his breath before his eyes drifted to Alex, looking at them with a slightly agitated expression.
"Third wheel?" The man bumped Alex''s shoulder, causing him to look over with an even more agitated expression. "Don''t worry, I''ve been there." The manughed.
"What?" Alex asked with confusion in his voice.
"It''s okay. I can lend you my daughter''s hand in marriage once you graduate. What do you think?" The man smiled at Alex, who was simply too dumbfounded to reply.
"I think that would be a great idea. I was worried Alex here would stay single until the day he died. I want to at least be a grandfather before I die." Ss'' chimed in from the side.
''If I die...''
"Ah... You toki users. I keep forgetting that you can hear from afar." The man sneered after choosing not to think about what Ss said. He felt like it would just give him a headache, so he immediately threw it to the back of his mind.
"Are there no toki users here?" Ss asked with a raised brow.
"Of course there is. Why else would the academy ept you?" The man asked while looking at Ss like he was stupid.
"I don''t know. I thought there might be some kind of segregation inside the academy." Ss shrugged.
"What?! This isn''t the dark ages!"
''It is for me.'' Ss took a look around and sighed.
"Let''s get going then. I don''t have all day." The man sighed.
It didn''t take them long to reach the road toward the academy; however, what Ss saw before him couldn''t help but shock him.
There were hundreds of these so-called carriages, yet each one looked different from the other.
Some looked like mana cores or crystals powered them, while others looked like they were powered by tamed beasts.
The one they were about to go into was powered by a tamed beast. It was a lion-like creature that was mostly white and orange in color. Unlike many of the other beasts on this ''railway,'' it did not have wings, yet, from the pressure it was giving off alone, Ss knew that it was stronger than the spider-queen he fought when rescuing Syra, Nymira, Eclipse, and Alex.
Well... Saying ''fought'' would be somewhat of an exaggeration, since that usually meant there was resistance from one side or another.
Besides that, the true shock happened when they entered the ce.
"Bigger on the inside, huh..." Ss'' eyes darted around as he studied all the runes in the room.
At the same time, a section of his brain could not help but recall a British tv show with simr technology.
"To think I''d live long enough to see dimensional engineering reach this level..."
"Stop gawking and sit down." The man pushed Ss aside before sitting down on a sofa.
The carriage itself was huge. That single room looked like it might have fit both floors of Nymira''s house, excluding the training area.
It had everything from a bar and dining table to a living room and several bedrooms.
They all quickly sat down, and waited for a moment.
"My butler will soon drive us to the academy. The journey will take about half an hour." The man exined.
"With the strength of the beast, I thought it would have taken 2 minutes at most." Ssmented.
Ss was sitting on the same couch as him; however, it was clear that the action of sitting next to him alone was something the man did not like.
"I do not need to exin anything to you." The man sneered before turning to Alex and Nymira.
"How about you two? Do you drink?" He spoke with a gentle smile.
''What the fuck... Oh, wait. Ohhhh... Well, I guess that makes sense. He did seem like a little bit of an asshole when he first came out, and from the way he treated those guards...'' Ss'' eyes slowly drifted toward the man before darting back at Nymira, who was currently ring at him.
''I probably shouldn''t kill people anymore. I''ve killed enough as it is. I should be repenting right now. But, I mean... Some of them deserved it, right? What kind of asshole puts me in prison for dissecting a few assholes! Plus... They were already dead. What else should I have done? Let them be a waste of space like they have been for all those years they''ve lived? Ugh...''
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Chapter 208 Entrance Test [1]
It didn''t take them very long to reach the academy. The man continued to pasta Nymira and Alex. Of course, they do not pay him any heed, but Ss knows that the only reason they did not is because he was there.
He could see the greed in Alex''s eyes as he looked at the food around them. Bottles of expensive wine that must have cost several sapphire coresy around them. Of course, due to their age, Ss gave them a stare and prohibited them from touching a single one of them.
The man did not seem pleased by this, but what could he do?
Ss could already feel the hostility the man was showing toward him. He had already understood that the man felt a certain sense of disgust toward him, but the reason wasn''t obvious.
However, his leading theory was that the man despised him for his strength, or at least the strength that the barrier measured him as.
Alex, in the man''s eyes, was undoubtedly a genius. ording to his guards, who had measured his strength the moment they walked through the barrier, he was at the peak of the pristine amethyst core and was essentially one step away from breaking through to the sapphire core.
However, despite the records saying that Ss was almost 16 years of age, he was still at the same level of power as a 12-year-old that no one knew.
While that was technically true, the reason they got his strength wrong was that the barrier only measured the grade of the core, not the talent, affinity, or the amount of mana inside it. It simply measured the purity, and Ss'' mana purity was at the peak of the pristine amethyst core. However, Ss got his strength and reputation, not by being a high mana core rank, but by being a fearsome opponent that had the ability to kill most opponents in a single hit.
His body did not run on toki, so it was untraceable. They couldn''t tell his strength. The only thing they knew was that his armor had quite a few emerald cores in it.
Ss'' theory was that the man disliked him due to his mana core grade not matching the fear that people felt toward him; however, while Ss wasn''t wrong, he was also not entirely correct either.
The hostility the man felt toward him went much deeper than something as petty as that.
When they finally reached the city the academy was in, they all got off the carriage.
Nymira and Alex gawked at the academy. It was much bigger than it looked from afar, and in a way, it was much more extravagant. When the man saw their faces, he could not help but grin as well.
"That was my expression the first time I saw it too. It''s amazing, right?" The man spoke with a hint of pride.
However, when he looked at Ss, who didn''t show a single change in expression, he could not help but narrow his eyes in agitation.
"I''m assuming you''ve seen something like this before..." The man asked.
"Yeah, I''ve seen the Light Academy. Though I have to say, the Diamond Academy does look a lot different than the Light Academy."
"Yeah, they''re two different academies." The man sneered.
"That''s not what I meant." Ss sighed and began to walk forward. However, before he could take more than a few steps, he remembered something and turned back toward the man,
"What may we call you?" Ss asked.
"Faldro." The man replied, saying hisst name instead of his first name.
Then, Mr. Faldro, I thank you for bringing us here." Ss thanked before gesturing for the two to follow him.
They immediatelyplied, but Mr. Faldro said something that annoyed Ss slightly.
"How about I go with you? I want to see your performance." The man chuckled.
"Mr. Faldro... There is no need for you to apany us any-"
"I insist." The man grinned even more.
Before they knew it, Mr. Faldro had already joined them, and they were walking toward the academy''s entrance.
The guards in front of the academy were about to do the same check they did outside the city they were in before, but before they could, Mr. Faldro quickly told them that they were with him, allowing them to get passed the guards without any trouble.
"The testing hall should be through here." Mr. Faldromented as they walked through a hallway.
In simple terms, the ce was extravagant. There were paintings with golden frames, mana cores that were embedded into the walls, heads of drakes, and other creatures pseudo-mythical creatures.
Even the chairs in the room, and even the carpet looked like they were made out of the most expensive materials.
''For an academy, they sure love to show off.'' Ss inwardly thought before Mr. Faldro knocked on a certain door.
"Come in." A raspy voice spoke from within.
From what Ss saw, it was clearly not a testing hall. Actually, it was an office with a man inside.
Mr. Faldro went in and gave them a signal to stay where they were and not move as he talked inside.
Ss didn''t hear a single thing that was being said due to the runes that were blocking sound from reaching the outside. However, he didn''t really care since there was something else on his mind.
''That man inside... He''s hiding his core''s strength.'' Ss thought.
He could tell due to how the mana wasing out of him. It was being distorted, and its purity was dropping as it came out.
''He''s either suppressing it his core''s grade, or suppressing the mana thates out of him. I doubt it''s thetter, but I don''t see a reason for the former. Not many people have the ability to see someone''s core, and even if they do, most of them use expensive artifacts that can usually only be made by the best of artificers.'' Ss thought to himself, but before he could think about the situation further, he looked to the side and saw that one of the walls was beginning to open up, and behind it, there were several people sitting behind a long table that stood on an elevated tform.
The tform itself had a barrier around it, and even then, the barrier was thick enough that even Nymira, who couldn''t feel mana to the same extent as Ss, could see the barrier with her naked eyes.
Ss, on the other hand, could see the barrier in all its forms, including the runes that were creating it.
''Could probably stop an attack from an emerald cored beast if it needed to.'' Ss thought with narrowed eyes before looking up.
There were 5 individuals behind the long desk, each one of them giving a different aura from thest.
Four out of the five individuals had awakened mana cores, and even then, their mana cores were, at the very least, at the sapphire core or higher.
Except for one person, of course, who let out the energy of a topaz core.
''Mystic eyes work the same way as normal eyes, but with energy. Energy has to being off something for me to see it. Even if white light is being shot at a stained ss, if you looking at it from the other side, all I''ll see if the color of the stained ss rather than the white light behind it. Whatever he is using is like stained ss... Actually, it''s porbably closer to tinted ss. He''s surpressing the energying out of him so I can''t tell how strong he is... From his aura alone though, I can feel that he could probably kill Nymira and Alex without having any problems.'' Ss thought to himself before switching his attention away from the old man sitting in the middle and toward the one that was sitting on the far right seat.
There, he saw the same beer-bellied man who had taken them to the academy. He had a subtle grin on his face as Alex and Nymira looked at him in confusion.
On the other side of the table, in the far left seat, sat a burly woman with several scars on her face.
In a way, she looked like she could squash all of them into a ball without a sweat, but that was just how it looked.
She was clearly over 6 feet tall, and had the muscr figure of a bodybuilder that could be easily be seen through the outline she created on her clothes. At the same time, she was the only one who didn''t have an awakened mana core, and, instead, had an enormous amount of natural toki around her that even shocked the likes of Ss.
''She''s stronger than Death...'' Ss thought with a shocked expression on his face.
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Chapter 209 Entrance Test [2] - Alex [1]
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Ss could see a pair of ears at the top of the burly woman''s head. She was a beastkin of some sort. He assumed that she was from the canine tribe, but there was a chance she was from the feline one. He didn''t know exactly, but it was one of the two.
They looked quite simr, after all.
Ss'' eyes shifted to the man next to the burly woman. His eyes were closed for a some reason, but Ss could see manaing out of them. Actually, it was more special than that.
Mana didn''t juste out of them. Mana was being sent into them as if they were cores that were being cultivated. The scene was quite fascinating, and for a moment, Ss couldn''t help but look at in awe, unable to see anything else.
Or at least, that was the case until the man looked straight at him while slowly opening his eyes.
What showed behind the nkets that were his eyelids were a pair of glowing silver eyes that shone like two stars in the night sky.
The moment the man opened his eyes, it was as if everything around him had suddenly be much duller.
It was as if everything had suddenly lost its luster, and his eyes were the only things shining within an ocean of the abyss.
When the man looked into Ss'' eyes, he could not help but widen his own.
At the same time, Ss felt a shudder go down his spine, but the moment he felt it, a certain inkling of anger sparked within him.
However, just before Ss could get hostile, the man he looked at suddenly smiled, allowing color to return to everything around him.
At the same time, Ss avoided the man''s gaze and looked at the final person.
It looked like a young man in his early teens, but Ss knew that wasn''t true.
''He''s much older than he looks. I would have thought that it might have been reincarnation, but I doubt that was the case. If anything, his condition is most likely an attempt at eternal youth.'' Ss thought to himself.
The youth looked no older than 15. In some sense, he looked closer to Nymira''s age, yet his life force told a whole other story.
''100 years at least. He''s almost double my age.'' Ss thought with narrowed eyes before looking up at his hair. His hair was made of several different colors. It was surprising, but not by much. Ss had seen a few individuals with hair simr to the man in the young man''s body. He had orange, silver, and golden hair. The mixture didn''t look good at all, but that was something for the man to deal with, not him.
"Pleasee in." The elderly man in the middle spoke.
He looked scrawny and weak, but from Ss'' perspective, his mana core alone spoke volumes about his strength.
He was clearly the strongest person on the table, if not the strongest person in the room.
Despite how he looked, Ss doubted he could win in a one-on-one fight against the skinny man. Maybe if he took him by surprise he would have a better chance, but from what he could see, chances were against him.
As Ss walked forward, the other two followed behind him.
Alex had a worried expression on his face, but to Ss, that was an expected emotion to see from his friend.
On the other hand, Nymira had a resolute expression on her face that was almost theplete opposite of Alex''s. Her soft features no longer showed as her eyes narrowed at the people sitting on the elevated tform.
If one were to look into her eyes, they would immediately know that she had killed before. It was obvious. At the same time, the burly woman could not help but widen her eyes the moment she felt the presence of Nymira as she walked into the room. Her eyes moved toward the beer-bellied man on the other side of the table, who was gleefully smiling at her with a knowing expression.
At the same time, the child-looking man and the elderly one in the middle threw a nce at Alex and could not help but smile.
He was so young, yet he had achieved something that not even the royal family''s children, with all their influence and recourses, could achieve.
They might have not had mystic eyes, but they could sense that he was on the brink of breaking through.
The young man grinned and stroked his non-existent beard at the same time. At the same time, the elderly scrawny man looked at Alex with a simr expression. Despite the shock Ss could see in his eyes, it was mostly reserved.
The prominent expression on his face was that of interest.
Finally, the silver-eyed man was looking at Ss. He didn''t even spare a nce at the rest. He was just looking at Ss.
The people around him didn''t see what he was doing since they were engrossed in their own things, but Ss saw it.
The eyes might have been silver in color, but for some reason, it felt more lustrous than anything he had ever seen from anyone before. It felt like his irises were made of diamond, while his pupil was an entrance to the whitest void.
However, there was something Ss caught that he hadn''t seen before.
''Elf ears?'' Ss thought with a surprised expression.
Despite being on this for many years, he hadn''t seen elves before.
"You, my child." The man in the middle pointed at Alex.
"Yes?" Alex asked with a nervous tone.
"Step forward for your test. There is no need to be nervous. After all, we will not hurt you." The man spoke with a calming voice. His aura soothed Alex down and made him feel rxed, and even slightly confident in front of the people before him.
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Chapter 210 Entrance Test [3] - Alex [2]
"What element have you been blessed by, my child?" The man asked, and Alex quickly replied-
"Fire."
"Understood." The old man sighed in slight disappointment. While his hair was fully grey due to his age, his core told Ss that he was a water mage.
At the same time, the old man in a young man''s body grinned. One of his affinities was the fire element, and now since the boy wasn''t a water mage, he could have him all to himself.
Due to the nature of Alex''s red hair, they did not trust the color of his eyes to tell his affinity. It was weird. People with unique hair colors didn''t have eyes that told others of their affinity.
"A mage?"
"Yes, sir." Alex replied with a bow.
"Then, you will show us your capabilities." The man in the middle nodded before tapping on something on his desk.
Suddenly, the floor parted, and something began toe out of it slowly.
It was a training dummy, but from the amount of mana crystals powering it and mana cores, Ss knew that it wouldn''t be ordinary.
"Shoot a tier-1 spell at the dummy," The elderly man ordered.
"Can I use my staff?" Alex asked with a polite tone.
"No." The man replied.
"Understood." Alex nodded and pointed his hand at the dummy in the distance.
They expected him to start chanting, but instead, something that made every single one of their eyes bulge happened.
"Ember." Was the only thing that came out of Alex''s mouth, but in the next instance, a magic circle appeared before him, shooting out a small tendril of mes that struck the dummy. However, By the time it reached the dummy, its power had significantly weakened.
"Can you try to make it stronger?" The man in the middle asked with aplicated expression.
"I can. But are you sure? It might destroy the dummy." Alex asked back.
"It''s fine. We can always get another." The young man sitting on the older man''s left said with a snicker.
However, inwardly they all already understood that the boy had no power to destroy the dummy. The only thing that would destroy the dummy would be a significantly powerful tier-4 spell, and the amount of natural talent and luck one would need to create a spell with so much mana was almost impossible.
They could only imagine seeing it from someone of a royal status, or at the very least a noble one. They had nearly infinite resources, so their heirs were trained and fed from a young age to have thergest mana pool possible.
Alex pointed his hand at the dummy without thinking about what they had said. At the same time, he looked at Ss from the corner of his eyes to get permission.
Ss simply shrugged, as if telling him that it was up to him.
A grin suddenly pulled at the corner of Alex''s lips as a smile blossomed on his face.
"Fireball," Alex muttered, and a tier-1 magic circle appeared before him.
However, instead of spitting out a tendril of mes, a small candle me appeared in the middle of the magic circle.
In the next instance, it began to rotate.
And in the next, it was growing in size.
Before they knew it, the candle had grown to the size of a fist, before growing into the size of a ser ball.
At the same time, its color changed quickly, going from a light red to a deep blue in an instant.
And when the fireball was finallyunched, it whistled through the air like a missile and appeared before the dummy instantly.
The sound of an explosion reverberated through the air alongside a shockwave that made Alex cover his eyes.
Everyone else looked unperturbed and simply nodded at the disy of power.
Yet, when the smoke dissipated, the people behind the table could not help but widen their eyes.
The dummy was scorched beyond belief, but the dummy itself wasn''t destroyed or broken. It was simply turned ck like it had been on an evesting me for hours.
"Well. no need to ask you to do anymore then." The young man spoke calmly as he closed his eyes and stepped onto the table.
His hands were behind his back, while his eyes remained shut the entire time.
Without an ounce of hesitation, he jumped from the elevated tform andnded on his feet. He bent his knee slightly to take the power of the impact before standing up straight.
Opening his eyes again, they were filled with a certain glint that Alex could not understand.
In the next second, he pointed his hand toward Alex and smiled.
"There''s no point making you do the same test as those normal people. Show me your strength." His grin only grew wider.
And in the next instant, a tier-2 spell appeared before his hand without him saying a single word.
Alex''s eyes widened when he saw it, but he quickly retaliated by pointing out his staff toward the young man who looked like he might have been only a few years older than him.
''Even Syra can''t do that.'' Alex thought to himself before creating a tier 3 spell andunching it toward the young man,unching a firebolt of his own.
He had used the most efficient runes Ss had taught him, and even the young man looked surprised to see how efficient the magic circle looked.
The runes on the young man''s spell quickly changed and shifted to look exactly like Alex''s, but even then, he didn''t stop changing it.
The runes changed repeatedly, all of it happening in less than a second, to the point where the magic circle itself had been downgraded to a tier-1 spell rather than a tier-3.
Quickly, a fireball appeared before his magic circle, glowing with the brightest pale-blue mes Alex had ever seen. It was so hot that even Ss could feel its heat from where he was standing.
The pale blue mes formed into a fire bolt that shot through the air and shot right through Alex''s firebolt before appearing before him.
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Chapter 211 Entrance Test [4] - Nymira [1]
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[Bonus Chapter: 3/6]
Alex reacted quickly, using a fire st to move out of the way in time. He wouldn''t have had enough time to dodge if he hadn''t thought about such a possibility earlier.
He was certain that the firebolt sent toward him would have killed him if it hadnded on him, yet from what he could see, not a single person moved to help him.
Even Ss, despite looking engrossed in the fight, didn''t move a muscle to help him.
''Is there some kind of formation that makes it so I can''t get hurt.'' Alex thought as a cold sweat covered his back.
The rest of the fight went on pretty normally. Alex did his best to fight against the person before him, yet no matter what he threw at him, the young man would walk out of the dust cloud without a single scratch.
Alex would have thought that he might have been invulnerable to me-based attacks, but if that was the case, wouldn''t his clothes be affected by his attacks?
Unless, of course, it was the clothes that were helping him.
However, Alex had forgotten a key point, and that was the fact that the young man had golden hair.
Suddenly, toki burst out of the young man''s body as he shot forward at a speed that even Nymira would have had to worry about.
Alex tried his best to slow him down by throwing several spells at him while dodging and weaving his attacks; however, despite the young man clearly holding back, Alex couldn''t do anything.
Eventually, he was struck in the stomach. The wind left his lungs instantly, and before he knew it, Alex dropped to his knees and reeled forward with a gasping cry.
"He''s amazing..." The young man spoke with a weird smile on his face that unsettled everyone who saw it.
"How about this." The young man''s grin grew wider, but it was filled with confidence this time while an air of cockiness permeated around him.
The young man crossed his arms and spoke.
"Be my disciple, and I''ll teach you everything you need to know about magic."
There was a sense of silence, but it was not because Alex was thinking of the proposition. It was because he tried his best to talk without a croaky hoarse voiceing out instead.
"No thanks." Alex finally breathed out, yet his voice was still very croaky.
"..."
"..."
"..."
The young man''s face turned grim as he asked-
"Why?"
"Because I already have a master teaching me." Alex said before looking at Ss.
Ss, on the other hand, was slightly shocked.
He was almost certain that Alex would take the opportunity. Actually, he was pretty certain that there was no way Alex wouldn''t say yes.
The young man gazed at Ss for a moment before narrowing his eyes.
Right now, he didn''t feel a single thinging from Ss. Even his instincts didn''t ring a bell when he looked at him.
At the same time, the young man could tell that Ss'' core was about the same level as Alex''s, so he didn''t understand why Alex had refused his offer for someone so clearly weaker than him.
It left him perplexed, but he quickly changed the offer.
"How about for just when you are here? He can continue being your master after you leave the academy?" The man smiled.
Alex looked at Ss with a gaze that asked him what he should do, but again, Ss simply shrugged, as if he was telling him to do whatever he wanted.
"Are you sure." Alex mouthed while Ss slightly nodded with a smile.
He understood what the young man was trying to do.
In no way, shape, or form did the young man think highly of Ss. Due to how old Ss looked, especiallypared to those around him, he didn''t gain the respect of anyone in the hall.
"I ept your offer." Alex finally said while bowing toward the young man.
It didn''t feel weird doing such a thing despite the person before him not looking much older than himself. After all, he had been doing it with Ss for a few years now.
When the young man returned to his chair and sat down, he looked below and smiled.
"You will be a part of the fourth year''s special ss, and you will be taught personally by me." The man said.
Alex was escorted out of the hall after a few more seconds of going over the basics, such as the schedule and penalties for beingte.
"Since Aka did it, I might as well do it to." The burly woman''s beast-like ears twitched as she shot up from where she sat and mmed onto the ground.
"You." She pointed at Nymira. "Spar me." She ordered.
Nymira walked forward and took out her sword.
Her face looked like a hardened warrior''s, and all her features had be much more angr than they would have normally been in simr situations.
Toki red off her body with so much intensity that the woman could not help but smile.
Stretching her hand out, arge sword came from below the table and was immediately in her hand when she sped down.
She swung the enormous sword a few times, sending cutting gusts of wind in every direction.
They weren''t technically powerful; however, if they were to hit a significantly weak creature, it would definitely kill them.
Nymira held her de up as well and swung once.
An extraordinary gust of wind shot out in front of her. If there were furniture around her, it would have most likely turned into dust from the sudden swing.
"Come at me." The woman spoke, and the moment she did, Nymira stabbed her sword into the ground and breathed.
"Sword King Style..." She muttered, yet the woman heard her.
And when she did hear her, she halted her movement and widened her eyes slightly while a shiver went down her spine.
A certain memory shed before her eyes... A memory of another user who whispered those words before cing her on the brink of death.
And then, she heard thest words that came out of Nymira''s mouth.
"Multiform."
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Chapter 212 Entrance Test [5] - Nymira [2]
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Nymira squared off against the beast woman, her pink hair contrasting against the intense atmosphere that crackled with the energy of toki. Her blue eyes locked onto the seasoned warrior before her, determination shining brightly within them.
The beast woman''s burly form bristled with anticipation as her beast-like ears twitched. With a swift motion, she hefted her massive sword, and an aura of toki radiated around her. Ss, observing from the sidelines, could see the intricate patterns of energy flowing around bothbatants, a dance of power beyond the perception of most.
Nymira''s slender and elegant sword seemed almost out of cepared to the beast woman''s hulking weapon. It was like watching a toothpick go against a knife.
Nymira took a stance rooted in the Sword King Style, stabbing her sword into the ground with such ease that it looked like a hot nail piercing into butter.
The Sword King Style blended fluid grace and explosive force; that was exactly what she was doing.
From the corner of her eyes, she caught the eyes of Ss looking at her with a curious yet scrutinizing grin. It had been a long time since they had an all-out fight. Sure, they trained together, but they didn''t use all their power to do so.
Ss was always listening to their footsteps and the partitioning of the wind to see if there were faults in their fighting styles.
''I won''t let you down again...'' Nymira thought as her expression grew even more severe, something the beast woman saw immediately.
Exhaling, Nymira felt a shiver go down her spine as well before the cold energy of toki washed over her body.
"Sword King Style... Multiform."
Suddenly, Nymira''s form seemed to split, her toki-infused energy dividing her into multiple ethereal clones. The clones moved harmoniously with the original, creating a mesmerizing spectacle of shifting forms. They rushed forward, their swords gleaming as they executed intricate strikes in a breathtaking disy.
The beast woman''s eyes narrowed, her instincts honed from years ofbat guiding her. She swung her massive sword in a sweeping arc, creating a shockwave of toki that rippled through the air. Her experience showed as she adapted her movements, precisely deflecting Nymira''s initial barrage.
With a primal roar, the beast woman lunged forward, her sword a blur of motion. Nymira''s clones split apart to evade, their ephemeral forms passing through the attacks. The original Nymira ducked and rolled, her agility evident as she narrowly avoided the beast woman''s strikes.
Amidst the chaos, Nymira reformed her clones, each one striking from a different angle. The beast woman''s expression shifted from confidence to concentration as she blocked and countered with calcted strikes of her own. Her swordy blended brute strength and tactical finesse, the de singing through the air with deadly grace.
Nymira''s fluid movements contrasted against the beast woman''s raw power. She twisted and spun, her sword dancing with the grace of a seasoned performer. Though not as potent as the original, her clones distracted the beast woman, allowing Nymira to slip past her defenses and score a few shallow cuts.
The sh of toki-infused des created sparks that lit up the arena, casting dynamic shadows around thebatants. Ss watched, enthralled by the intricate exchange of techniques and strategies. Each move was a work of art, a symphony of power and finesse.
He had seen Nymira fight against him and Alex, but there were problems regarding training through such means.
Due to Ss'' overwhelming strength, it was hard for Nymira to show her true potential and skill that would be clear if she fought someone of her own level.
The beast woman might have been at the 2nd rank of the orichalcum grade, making her a little stronger than Nymira; however, that was enough for Nymira''s skill and abilities to flourish.
''Maybe I should make her fight against more toki users at her level of strength?'' Ss pondered for a moment; yet, in the city, there weren''t nearly enough people for a such a thing to be possible.
In fact, not only was she stronger than most people in the city, but the people who happened to be stronger than her were a little too strong for her.
Even Death, who Ss still couldn''t get a proper read of, was much stronger than Nymira.
As the battle raged on, the beast woman''s experience began to show. She adapted to Nymira''s tactics, using her immense strength to create shockwaves that disrupted the formation of the clones. With a powerful swing, she shattered several of the ethereal duplicates.
Nymira adjusted her strategy, relying more on her agility and swift footwork. At the same time, this was one of the asions where the blessing came into use.
With the ability to smell the beast woman''s intentions through the smell of her body, intentions, and even emotions, her sword strikes became a blur as she weaved around the beast woman''s attacks, her toki-infused de leaving energy trails in the air. The audience held their breath as the intensity of the battle reached its climax.
In a final surge of determination, Nymira gathered her remaining clones around her, their toki intertwining. The beast woman''s eyes widened as she sensed the impending onught. With a synchronized movement, Nymira and her clones lunged forward in a coordinated assault.
The arena erupted in a dazzling disy of light and energy as Nymira''s sword shed with the beast woman''s massive de. Shockwaves rippled through the air, and for a fleeting moment, time seemed to freeze as their toki-infused sh reached its pinnacle.
Then, with a resounding roaring from the screeching sound of des cratching on one another, the sh ended. Nymira''s de overcame the beast woman''s defenses, a streak of toki-infused energy slicing through the air. The beast woman staggered back with a shocked expression on her face, her own attack falling short. She looked at Nymira with a mixture of surprise, and it would have been respect, too, if not for the expression of horror that came right after.
"H-How did you get the style..." The woman asked as terror seeped into every word that came out of her mouth.
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Chapter 213 Entrance Test [6] - Domineering
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The arena fell into silence, the echoes of the intense battle lingering in the air. Nymira stood victorious, her chest heaving with exertion. Ss watched with admiration, a proud smile gracing his lips as his pupil''s pink hair fluttered in the aftermath of the fight.
The beauty of the battle, the intricate dance of toki-infused power and expert swordsmanship, was etched into the memories of all who witnessed it¡ªa testament to the strength and artistry that could be achieved through the mastery of toki.
''Maybe I should start trying to awaken my toki through other methods?'' Ss thought to himself with a weird expression on his face; however, when he remembered something, he shook his head as the gentle smile on his lips faded.
He was waiting for the right moment. A moment where his mind and soul would be graced with an epiphany, allowing him to delve deeper into the secrets of magic.
And, deep within, he knew that moment was just around the corner.
That moment would be one that would change the course of humanity and Gilea alike for hundreds of years. After all, what''s rarer than bing the first human to control mana itself in the form of magic, not toki?
''These people don''t even understand the kind of treasure they have been blessed with. They think toki is just a power like any other. They don''t question... They''ve growncent with the current world, and hate change.'' Ss thought while chuckling at the irony of his thoughts.
Hatred toward change was among the many ways societies copsed and died out. Yet, the reason Earth''s society copsed was for theplete opposite. Ss'' haste for change killed the, and he always knew that.
''No matter what you do, you''re always heading toward death, aren''t you.'' Ss grinned self-deprecatingly.
"H-How did you get the style!" The woman asked with a clearly fearful tone.
At first, she had an assumption, but the moment she lost, she knew that her fears were correct.
"The style? I found it." Nymira shrugged before looking toward her Ss.
Ss was snapped out of his thoughts the moment the pair of ocean-blue eyesnded upon his figure. His self-deprecating grin turned into a gentle one filled with pride.
It was a sense of pride that one would only see in that of a father watching his daughter make a life of her own, no longer dependent on him.
The moment Nymira so his smile, her facial features softened before her face became slightly red. At the same time, Ss saw trickles of blood well up in her eyes.
Ss looked up at the stand where four individuals sat behind a table with widened eyes. Even Faldro, who had an annoying grin on his face earlier, looked gobsmacked at the oue of the fight.
Yet, the man with glowing diamond-like, despite looking shocked, instantly diverted his attention to Ss the moment he felt a gaze on him.
"ANSWER ME!" An oppressive force shot out of the beast woman. A sudden pressure fell upon everyone in the hall.
Ss'' eyes darted toward the beast woman on the ground as she let out a power she hadn''t shown before.
The toki suddenly turned blood red as not only bloodlust infused into it, but something else too.
Ss'' eyes widened as the feeling of darkness-infused mana trickled into his body. He hadn''t looked at her soul properly before, but now that it was ring out to pollute the toki, he quickly confirmed that she was indeed someone with the darkness affinity.
And right now, therge de was slicing through the air with so much power that it would have turned the likes of Nymira to dust.
Nymira, who had been stunned by the sudden bloodlust, found herself unable to react in time as the de neared. She was certain that she had beaten the woman, but to think that she still had power inside of her that was this powerful.
Dread seeped into her heart for a moment, while her knees threatened to buckle under the aura''s weight. She couldn''t help but close her eyes, something all seasoned warriors knew not to do...
But Nymira wasn''t a seasoned warrior. She was a child... Or at least that was how Ss thought of her.
She waited for the sword to cut through her with zero effort, yet the attack never came.
Or maybe, she had died too quickly to realize that she was dead?
Was this the afterlife?
She couldn''t feel the lights of the hall on her skin anymore, so she had to be dead, right?
Or maybe she got teleported elsewhere?
Questions ran through her mind as she slowly opened her eyes. It felt like an eternity went by as those questions ran through her mind, but in the end, all she could do was wait.
When her eyelids parted, they quickly limated to the current light, which wasn''t hard at all. After all, the lights had significantly dimmed, and even then, there was a figure standing before her that blocked any of the lights that came at her from the front.
"How unproffesional." A voice came out of the figure''s mouth, and it was unlike any other she had heard before.
Yet, she instantly recognized it. Yet, instead of feeling delighted at being alive, a wave of shame crashed onto her.
She simply looked down and didn''t dare to look back up again.
"W-What... Let go of my sword." The beast woman spoke with a threatening voice.
Ss, who had already stood in front of Nymira, was holding onto the darkness shrowded de. His eyes were glowing with a fiery and vibrant green, while his white hair fluttered alongside his cloak in the wind created by the woman''s toki.
"I''d rather not kill you. Your bloodlines tend to be, what''s the word for it? Inconvenient," Ss said, his voice sounding like a low rumble as he released his own aura.
Suddenly, the woman dropped to her knees and began to shiver uncontrobly.
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Chapter 214 Diamond Academy [1] - Apex
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Suddenly, the woman dropped to her knees and began to shiver uncontrobly.
A primal fear awoke in her heart, one that people of her tribe have felt before and had described in immense length. It was the fear that overcame a being when they stood before a creature so high above them in the food chain that the only thing they could do was drop to their knees and shiver in fear.
Some of her tribe''s people said that they felt it when they were young and met a significantly strong beast, while the older ones spoke of mythical and legendary creatures that flew above them for short instances, or happened to pass by.
And right now, she was feeling that very fear from a human of all people.
Suddenly, a swift kick struck her on the abdomen, causing her to immediately disappear from where she was kneeling.
In the next instant, the four individuals looked to the side as the sound of something crashing against a hard object sounded.
A dust cloud flew into the air before slowly dissipating. When it did, the only thing left behind was the convulsing figure of the beast woman, lying on the ground and spitting out mouthfuls of blood.
Her arms and legs looked mangled, and her chest was caved in like a cannonball had hit him.
Ss'' leg snapped back to the ground as he threw therge sword to the side and looked at the young girl behind him.
"Are you okay?" Ss asked slightly worriedly while scanning Nymira from head to toe. Nothing seemed to be wrong with her except for the few cuts she got earlier in the battle.
"..."
"Nym?" Ss asked while casting a healing spell.
The judges of the test''s eyes snapped back immediately when they saw Ss not utter a word and creating a spell. They could all sense mana to a certain extent, while all their clothes, trinkets, and armor allowed them to hear what was being said.
However, when they didn''t see a magic circle, they didn''t see anything...
No, they didn''t see anything at first, but it quickly became clear to them what was happening.
"A rune?" The old man in a young boy''s body asked with a perplexed expression.
"My god, he''s creating spells out of a single rune!" The man in the middle, who had previously looked frail and weak in Ss'' eyes, stood up with a vigor that did not suit his stature or his age.
Sweat trickled down his forehead while a smile filled with ecstasy shone upon his face.
Faldro also looked shocked, yet fear quickly dwarfed that shock.
If there were a mind reader in the room, the only thing they would hear from Faldro would have been the word ''shit'' repeated repeatedly against in a fearful tone.
The elf with silver-like diamond irises looked even more shocked. He was a mage himself, yet, since he was an elf, his magic was cast through hymns and songs, not chants like humans did.
However, very few could create magic circles without, at the very least, humming. Yet, those with such an ability still relied on magic circles.
Humans were considered the weakest race by all the other races. Well, at least that was the case individually.
Humans had low life expectancies than elves, and even their; elves had a stronger connection to magic than humans could ever dream of having.
At the same time, while beastkin lived for short amounts of time if they just used toki, those who awakened their cores had the privilege of extending their lives beyond the 25 years they would normally live.
That was due to how much mana naturally circted through their bodies. They got stronger with age as they tempered their bodies with the element that had been ''blessed'' with. While not being nearly as physically strong as a beast at the same core grade as them, if they had a pristine amethyst core, they would easily have the ability to fight off a beast with a pristine topaz core or lower without using magic.
Their bodies were naturally connected to mana, just like the ancestors they have evolved from were.
It was one of the reasons they didn''t have to use magic circles to create spells. Instead, they use hand signs; each hand sign essentially being a rune.
This change made them much more favored in the eyes of other races than humans.
A spectator would ask why humans were so dominant then, and the answer to that was simple.
Humanity''s survival instinct was above that of any race. They might not have a proper bloodline, but when in dangered, they fight back with everything on the line.
Yet, despite all that, they were looked down on by almost all races. Even the beastkin who remained in their tribes had a certain hatred and disgust toward humans.
So powerful, yet so weak, they said.
''How can this be...'' The elf man''s silverish eyes glowed momentarily, before fear struck him.
''Have the humans already advanced beyond us?'' He asked himself before shaking his head at a realization.
If they had evolved to such a degree, wouldn''t he know? He worked in an academy filled with them, after all. Sure, not all of them were human, but at least half of them were.
At the same time, a cold glint shed within Ss'' eyes as he helped Nymira up.
In a way, she looked devastated, yet, he understood what she was going through. Sure, he hadn''t gone through the same thing before, but you didn''t need to go through something to understand the pain of another.
"You did well. I''m proud of you." Ss muttered before patting her on the head, yet her expression didn''t change one bit.
She still looked at the ground, her eyes almost listless.
There was a certain air of shame around her, but Ss knew that in their current predicament, the only thing he could do was be there for her.
Letting out a low sigh, his eyes moved toward the countless eyes that were looking at him with varying emotions.
"M-Mr. Evergreen. You have shown quite the prowess." The man in the middle spoke with a twitching smile.
A treasure trove hade straight to his doorstep, and he wasn''t about to let it go to waste.
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Chapter 215 Diamond Academy [2] - Offer?
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"Oh? It''s my turn now, I guess. Nymira should have passed, right?" Ss asked with narrowed eyes.
"O-Of course she passed. She is a talent that one would only see once every hundred years!" The old man in the young man''s body said with an ecstatic tone.
Ss knew that the man was exaggerating. Ss, all on his own, could count on both his hands all the people he had found that were stronger and younger than Nymira. If anything, the only advantage Nymira had over them was the fact that she had a blessing, and they did not.
Of course, they were all from powerful families. There''s a reason why nobles have stayed on top for so many years, and while recourses y a veryrge factor as to why that was, their offspring tended to be quite talented.
Most of these noble families were formed by a powerful individual capable of wielding mana or toki better than most people in their time. From there, their bloodline would be passed on from generation to generation.
While one strong ancestor did not mean every single offspring would have the same strength as that ancestor, the chances of one of them reaching the level of their ancestor were astronomically higher than the chances of amoner with no background to do the same. Of course, that''s when having a lot of money became quite advantageous.
With their recourses, they would have the ability to unlock the talents of their ancestor, or possibly even surpass them to give the newer generations an easier time.
Though, unlike beasts, bloodlines weren''t something that was easily passed on, since humans didn''t have actual bloodlines or bloodline abilities.
It was one of the reasons why they were considered so much worse than the other humanoid races. At least those races had bloodlines.
The correct term to describe the passing of talent from one person to another would have been ''genes.'' However, Ss doubted that the people of Gilea had the ability to understand such aplex concept that even humans back on Earth hadn''t fully understood.
"You do not have to partake in such a test either, Mr. Evergreen. You have already passed the test. However, I do have a special offer for you." The man in the middle spoke up with an almost unnoticeable smile.
"What may that offer be?" Ss asked with a raised brow, acting as if he didn''t understand what the man was about to say.
"Mr. Evergreen... Would you like to be a teacher of the Diamond Academy?" The old man asked while sitting down on his chair again. At the same time, everyone else looked at him with shocked expressions, yet, after a few seconds, they could not help but nod at the old man''s quick thinking.
At a closer look, however, one person didn''t look surprised...
Or not nearly as much as the rest.
That person was the silver-eyed elf whose eyes glowed like diamonds.
"With your strength, expertise, and experience, we believe that you would make an excellent teacher for the academy. Maybe you could even be the head of the magic section of the school." The old man suggested.
"I''m good." Ss spoke in a nonchnt manner that had all of them blinking for several seconds.
"You''re good?" The old man asked.
''Did that not trante well?'' Ss asked himself before sighing.
"I am not here to teach a bunch of kids. I''m here to learn." Ss shrugged again.
"Mr. Evergreen. I don''t mean to disrespect you, but there is nothing we can teach you. You are much stronger than most of us, and your spell-creation knowledge surpasses mine." The old man spoke with a genuine tone. His voice didn''t have a single hint of shame as he said those words. It would have shocked Ss if he hadn''t already understood what kind of man the headmaster was...
The scrawny old gentleman with the strongest core out of everyone sitting before him was the academy''s headmaster. Unlike Earth, you couldn''t just open up the inte to research something or someone.
So, Sd didn''t rely on anyone or anything to learn about that man... He simply looked at him, and could discern what kind of man he was.
It was a little trick he had been practicing, and it wasing to use far more than he would like to admit.
"I''m here to learn about rune manship, alchemy, and otherponents that a forge master would need to create and understand equipment.
Ss'' eyes slowly moved to the right and caught the figure of the beer-bellied man, looking at him with a scrutinizing gaze.
"Okay... I''ll teach you if-"
"I won''t be your disciple." He smiled at the man, yet the only thing that smile did was agitate him.
"Then I can''t." A few eyesnded on his figure, causing a shiver to go down his spine. When he looked over, he saw all three individuals sitting on his right looking at him.
If gazes could kill, nothing would have been left for Mr. Faldro''s family to bury.
"I''ll teach you. But I''ll treat you like any other student, understood?" Faldro asked through gritted teeth.
"Wonderful. I''ll bid you farewell then." Ss bowed toward them slightly before leaving the room without saying another word or waiting for someone to take him to the dorm he would be assigned to.
However, when he did leave, everyone except the elf breathed a breath of relief. To them, Ss was a huge question mark. Even the headmaster was unsure if he could beat him.
Of course, the main reason was that he couldn''t feel him in the first ce.
"What do you think of him, Jarrel?" The headmaster looked toward the elf man.
"I advice you to not talk about him so openly." The elf man''s eyes fluttered while his forehead creased as a frown appeared on his face.
"Please excuse me as well." The elf nodded toward the other three and swiftly left the room, leaving them puzzled for the umpteenth time that day.
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Chapter 216 Diamond Academy [3] - Dorms
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*Click*
The sound of a low click sounded from the door before Nymira. She hadn''t opened the door herself, and instead waited for the door to be opened for her.
She had been knocking on the door for quite a few seconds now and was simply waiting for the people inside to open the door. She was tempted just to use the card that she had been given by the woman who gave her a tour around the parts of the academy she needed to know¡ªeverything from the training halls to the special sses she would be attending.
However, she knew she would not attend the same ss as the special students. Sure, they might have been talented for their age bracket, but for a toki user, she was much better than even the 5th years in the special sses who were technically 1 to 2 years older than her depending on what age they joined the academy.
At the same time, Ss told her that there was a chance that there might be a few individuals with the strength or talent to challenge her, so in a way, she was excited.
''The academy will probably make me go on many missions to train me into better experience and instincts. I''m sure they think of me as a child and will probably ask me to kill someone. Any warrior should be ready to kill...'' Nymira paused when she remembered how she almost died, and Ss had saved her at the veryst second.
A certain feeling shone within her eyes for a moment, but when the door finally opened, and the figure of a young girl appeared before her, she suppressed those emotions and smiled at the girl.
"Hello. My name is Nymira, and I believe I am your new roommate." Nymira ced her right hand behind her and her left hand on the right side of her chest before bowing. One would only see this from a warrior, not a distinguisheddy.
This action was one of peace and respect. You''d be promoting peace by taking your dominant hand and putting it as far away from your weapon as possible. At the same time, cing your other hand on your chest would show that you are not concealing any weapons.
Of course, such a gesture was only used when a person had a sword connected to their belt. Though, clearly whoever created the gesture clearly did not think about the possibility of someone holding a knife behind their back. It was quite stupid, and Nymira had to hear all about it whenever Ss saw her do it.
Though, she didn''t really mind. She enjoyed hearing him rant about random things that would normally seem insignificant to the normal person. It was a part of his character; she didn''t mind it.
The same could not be said for Alex.
"Oh? We weren''t told about anyone newing." The girl held her chin before shrugging and standing to the side to wee Nymira in.
''We?'' Nymira''s brow twitched with a shred of annoyance.
To think that the academy would make her share a room and put her with several people rather than only one.
When Nymira walked in, she saw two other individuals sitting around. One wore sses and was the average nerd stereotype... Or at least that''s what Ss called them. In her eyes, and in the eyes of most, they were schrs in the making. After all, on Gilea, as a mage, knowledge was quite literally power. The girl had golden hair that was unlike Syra''s. Syra was blonde, but her hair did not shine with the same luster as someone with an actual affinity to the light element.
If anything, the girl''s hair was closer to that of Diveen''s.
Her eyes were golden too, but notpletely golden.
Near the middle, they became slightly green before reaching the pupils that were pitch ck.
Looking to the side, Nymira saw the girl who had opened the door for her and could not help butpare the two.
The girl who had opened the door for her had long, silky ck hair that reached down her her waist. It looked like it was taken care of really well.
Nymira could not help but look down at her own hair and let out a small sigh. She didn''t really take care of it. It wasn''t because she didn''t want to, but it was because she didn''t know how.
No one really taught her, and even if they wanted to, there wasn''t anyone she was close enough to who could teach her.
Ss taught Alex about simple hygiene and how to take care of himself, but since he wasn''t a woman, he didn''t really know what to say to her.
Nymira quickly looked back at the girl in front of her with emotions flickering in her eyes and continued analyzing her.
The girl didn''t let off any kind of pressure, but that was probably because Nymira was used to being around people with extraordinarily heavy presences.
Nymira''s presence detections were a little bit like sugar. Once you get used to having a certain amount of sugar, any less would feel like there wasn''t enough.
The same thing was happening right now. Nymira could not tell how strong she was. All she knew was that the girl was significantly weaker than her.
Only when she sniffed the girl, she understood everything about her.
Nymira''s eyes quickly drifted around the room before she looked at thest person. They were lying on their bed with their eyes closed. However, Nymira knew they were awake and pretending to sleep from the smell they were giving off.
They had ck hair too, but it was much shorter, only reaching their chin in length. The girl lying on the bed was quite muscr too, which neither Nymira nor the girl beside her had despite being toki users.
Yet, Nymira still knew that she was far stronger than all of thembined.
"There are quite a lot of us in just one room." Nymira said aloud.
"You just have to deal with it. You''re from a poorer family so it shouldn''t be too hard for you to adapt, right?" The ck-haired girl said with so much nonchnce that Nymira had to take a second even to understand what was wrong with what she had said.
"I don''t think poorer houses are this small," Nymira said with a chuckle, causing the girl with the sses to look at her scrutinizingly.
"Don''t mind nka. She''s filthy rich and doesn''t understand that saying such thing might be offensive." The blonde girl said with a wry sigh.
When nka heard what her friend said, she could not help but widen her eyes before an embarrassed expression appeared on her face.
"Sorry if I offended you," nka said while rubbing her silky ck hair and looking to the side.
She had a wry blush on her face as she spoke her words, and when Nymira saw that, she could not help but understand what Ss meant when he called her adorable.
"I just thought you might have been poor because you look disheveled and smell like a forest..." nka spoke again, causing the blonde-haired girl to sigh while Nymira snickered.
nka didn''t understand their reaction and looked between them with a flustered expression.
"My name is Alice." The blonde-haired girl pushed up he spectacles and stood up from her bed. She ced a long piece of paper in her book before closing it gently as if she was trying to close a door in the middle of the night.
She then turned toward Nymira and extended her hand toward her.
"Nice to meet you." She smiled while Nymira did the same and shook the girl''s hand.
Nymira''s gaze shifted to the one lying on her bed with her eyes closed.
She was about to say something, but Alice interrupted her.
"That''s Gigi. We call her Gi for short. She sleeps all the time and gets super cranky if you interrupt her sleep." Alice exined with a nod of her head.
"I don''t think she''s sleeping," Nymira said in a normal tone that the short-haired girl would have easily heard. However, the girl did not react to Nymira''s words, as if she didn''t even hear them.
"What? Really?" Alice looked toward Gigi; however, she almost found it impossible to believe the girl was not sleeping.
Her breathing patterns with rhythmic in nature, and her entire body lookedpletely rxed.
"I''m pretty sure she''s meditating. She''s controlling Toki while being half unconscious. This is a pretty good technique, and I would use one simr but I don''t think it is for me." Nymira sighed while Alice''s eyes glistened.
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Chapter 217 Diamond Academy [4] - Shame
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"I''m pretty sure she''s meditating. She''s controlling Toki while being half unconscious. This is a pretty good technique, and I would use one simr but I don''t think it is for me." Nymira sighed while Alice''s eyes glistened.
"R-Really? Such a technique exists?" Alice asked with deep fascination.
"Of course, such a technique exists. Though, it might be well guarded family technique, which might be why she didn''t tell you about it." Nymira shrugged and looked around.
The room they were in was quite small whenpared to her house; however, if it were to bepared to her house back in dia, which was essentially one room, it was almost triple its size.
The room had everything from a bathroom to a kitchen. The beds were on the side, each separated by a few meters to give each other personal space. They weren''t given individual rooms, but at least they wouldn''t have to use amunity bathroom or kitchen.
Nymira quickly moved toward one of the beds and began to settle down without saying a single word unless spoken to first. The problem with that was the fact that Alice was quite nosy. nka had already lost interest in her, which was obvious from when Nymira began to settle everything she had around her bed.
She was in no way, shape, or form reserved, holding all her emotions on her face. It was the kind of person Ss liked since they would tell you the truth no matter what.
''I wonder if she''s his type...'' Nymira thought to herself while cing her sword on the side of her bed.
That''s when everyone''s gazes fell upon the crystal embedded into her sword.
Slowly, their eyes widened when they saw it.
"Oh. So you are from a rich family." Alice said while looking at the crystal.
"No?" Nymira cocked her head to the side with confusion on her face.
After a while, Nymira asked the unspoken question between Alice and nka.
''Even nka''s looking at me weirdly.''
"I got the crystal myself." Nymira spoke with an ounce of pride.
"You killed the beast... Yourself?" Alice asked with widened eyes.
"Of course, how else would I get it?" Nymira retorted before looking away and cing things from her pouch into the drawers.
They obviously didn''t believe her, and for the next several hours, Nymira, Alice, and at a certain point, even nka talked about their lives before reaching the academy.
Apparently, nka was from a wealthy family in the Delear kingdom. However, they blocked her out of her trust fund after a situation urred until she proved herself. nka didn''t really want to go into depth on what she did, but it was clear to both Alice and Nymira that she had done was quite severe for her family to have such a reaction.
On the other hand, Alice was not nearly as special as nka. Her back story was quite simple. She lived in the slums of one of the cities and had shown a strong aptitude for magic. She awakened her core at the age of six and not only became a healer for the entirety of the slums, but she became a well-known healer for the entire section of the city she was living in due to not taking any money to heal people.
People, of course, still paid her, but not through normal means. Some gave her books about healing, others gave her food, and some simply gave her the cores they had on their person.
Eventually, when she reached 13, someone from the academy saw her healing hundreds of people without getting tired. Instantly, they knew they had found a talented individual and decided to give her a schrship. Many people were disappointed to find out that she would go somewhere else. Still, after discovering that she had gained a schrship for an academy, they all eventually chose to support her.
When Alice finally stopped narrating the events that allowed her to attend the academy, Alice and nka looked at Nymira with curious expressions.
Since they told their side of the story, it was Nymira''s turn.
''They weren''t totally honest with me... So I don''t have to be totally honest with them either?'' Nymira thought before recounting her life and everything that had happened to her until now.
She exined to them how she lived in a small vige in the east of the kingdom. She didn''t go into depth about how her parents died, but she did exin that she had to go to dia. Of course, the girls didn''t know what dia was, so she didn''t need to go into more depth than necessary.
However, she summarized that dia was eventually destroyed after a certain organization attacked it. The moment she spoke those words, the girl''s mood quickly took a drop. They had thought that it would be an upbeat recounting of her life. Actually, they expected an adventure story since Nymira mentioned she got the mana core in her sword all on her own.
However, the truth was much darker than that. Her story so far felt like a tragedy, making them feel slightly weirded out by how easily Nymira was telling it.
As if she didn''t notice their emotions and expressions, Nymira continued by exining how she was kidnapped and kept hostage for a couple of months before eventually being saved by someone. She continued further and told them how that person taught her how to be a warrior just as much as the people back in dia. After gaining recognition from some of the academies, she was called in to take a test to see if she could enter with a schrship. #
Recounting her life didn''t take very long. It took 7 minutes at most, and by the end, both of them were looking at her with stunned expressions.
"Are you sure you''re not the main character of this world?" nka, who was still shocked by the story and its quick recounting, couldn''t help but blurt out.
nka quickly received a punch to the back of the head from Alice, who was now ring at her.
Of course, since nka used Toki, she always had her natural toki around her, making it hard for a mage to hurt her.
"You said you came here with two others. Alex and... What was his name?" Alice turned to Nymira and asked.
"Yeah... Now that I think about it, I should probably go and check on Alex..." Nymira thought aloud before standing up.
"I''ll return in an hour or so." Nymira waved them goodbye and left the room quickly.
When the door mmed shut, both nka and Alice looked at each other before spouting out the words on their mind.
"Boyfriend?"
"Probably." Alice nodded
***
*Knock Knock Knock*
The sound of knocks sounded as Nymira stood before a door. This door was in apletely different building from her own dorm, and the reason for that was simple.
It was the male dormitory.
Nymira had to knock a few more times before the door finally opened. When it did, she saw a small red-haired boy peek out from the crack he made in the door before sighing and opening it fully.
"Come in" Alex moved to the side to wee Nymira in.
When the door fully opened, Nymira''s eyes looked at the empty room with surprise.
Yet, the surprise quickly turned into anger.
"Where the hell are your roommates?!" Nymira asked with a seething tone.
"I don''t have roommates." Alex said while taking several steps back when he felt the anger in Nymira''s voice.
"Why the hell do I have to have roommates, yet you don''t!" Nymira shouted at him, her finger poking his chest, forcing him to take steps back in slight fear.
"Didn''t you get an offer to be a disciple of that burly woman?!" Alex asked with a tinge of fear. He was trying his best to dodge Nymira''s fingers. From personal experience, he knew that if he didn''t have his tough clothes on, he would have most likely had several holes drilled into his body from her fingers.
She didn''t even know her own strength, and that terrified Alex.
"Damn it! I shouldn''t have beaten her!" Nymira sneered while Alex widened his eyes.
"You beat her? I''m pretty sure I heard Ss say that she was stronger than Death."
"When the hell did he say that?" Nymira snarled.#
"Just before I went up... To be fair, he said it under his breath, but he still said it. I don''t think he realizes that he mutters whenever he is in deep thought." Alex said while slowly calming down.
"Yeah... He does..." Nymira quickly calmed down and sat on the bed. The thought of Ss brought back the feeling she felt pulling down on her chest the moment she saw that Ss had saved her.
Alex, having quickly realized this, asked with a worried tone, "What''s wrong?"
"Its nothing." Nymira said with a tranquil tone. At the same time, she gritted her teeth with slight anger before letting out a deep sigh.
''I hate this feeling.''
***
Ss could be seen sitting on the floor of his room with his legs crossed and his eyes closed.
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Chapter 218 Diamond Academy [5] - Love
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He had gotten a full suite, which would usually only be reserved for teachers or highly important individuals staying in the academy for prolonged periods.
Looking down at his hands, Ss let out a wry sigh and brushed his hair back.
The moment he did, his hair changed in color, turning into a bright blonde.
Once he was done changing his hair color, it looked like every piece of hair on his head was made out of gold.
"This should do." Ss thought with satisfaction.
After all, it would be quite counter-intuitive if he caused everyone in the academy to run away from him screaming. The kingdom''s propaganda had made him seem like a monster, so in their eyes, it was as if a monster from the fairy tales had chosen toe to life.
''That would be quite awkward, wouldn''t it...'' Ss thought with a sigh.
After a few more moments, he left his room and approached Alex''s. He knew that Nymira would most likely be there, so he didn''t find a need to see her first.
However, on the off chance that she was not there, he would go and see her anyway. It wasn''t like her assigned dormitory was far anyway. At most, it would take him a few seconds to reach the front of her doorstep undetected.
Actually, he was pretty certain that she or her roommates would take longer to open the door than it would take him to reach their door.
The moment Ss stepped out of his room, his figure disappeared, leaving behind nothing but a gust of wind that blew through the corridors for a moment.
Ss quickly checked out the entire building from the outside with his mystic eyes and located two individuals whose mana signatures and auras he had gotten used to.
In the next moment, he disappeared like he wasn''t there in the first ce, causing many students around him to look around with confusion as they could have sworn that an individual was standing there a few seconds ago.
When Ss appeared within the room, he couldn''t help but raise a brow.
When he came into the room, he expected to see the arguing. After all, all he knew was that they were in the same room. He didn''t bother to check anything else.
However, when he entered, they were sitting in silence as they both thought deeply about something he would not understand.
It didn''t take long for them to realize he was there, but with their abilities to sense someone immediately.
Of course, Nymira was the better sensor out of the two, but Ss had honed the boy''s senses to the point that most people with toki couldn''tpete with his senses.
"You too good?" Ss asked, but they didn''t answer.
Seeing their unwillingness to say anything, Ss sighed and dropped the subject before bringing up the subject of schedules.
Before he could talk about schedules, he was asked him about his room by Nymira. When he answered honestly, they both received a long tantrum on how it wasn''t fair that she had to be stuck with a bunch of kids rather than have her own room.
Alex and Ss listened for a while before she eventually stopped, allowing Ss to smoothly change the subject.
"So, what''s your schedule looking like?"
"Let me see." Nymira said with a slight sneer, seeing through what Ss was trying to do instantly; however, instead of getting angry, Nymira only sighed and went along with it.
Taking out a crystal from her pouch, she closed her eyes and looked into it. It was a talisman that showed her entire schedule in it.
When she looked at her schedule, she couldn''t help but feel her brow twitch slightly.
"It''s all missions... I''m on missions 6 days a week. GOD DAMN-"
"Oh look, I''m having magic lessons for 6 hours a day, 5 times a week. That''s pretty good right?" Alex said with slight excitement.
"Yeah, I have 8 hours of lessons¡ªeverything from alchemy, runemanship, smithing, and craftsmanship," Ss said with an upbeat tone, but when he looked to the side and saw Nymira seething with rage, he stopped gloating and moved on.
They talked for the rest of the day, and it went well into the night.
Nymira seemed to calm down quickly after having received several blows that day. Nymira''s roommates felt a tinge of worry for her since she hadn''te back well into the night, yet, when they remembered what kind of person Nymira was, they quickly understood that if she was in danger, there was nothing any of them could do to help her out.
They all returned to their dorms quitete. Alex and Ss cultivated for the rest of the night, while Nymira simply slept. Unlike the other two, she couldn''t switch out sleeping for cultivation. Maybe if she had used the same technique as Gigi, that would have been the case, but for now, that was only something she could dream of having.
The next day came quickly.
Nymira talked to her roommates and finally got to talk to Gigi for the first time. The short-haired girl was quite cold toward her, but that was to be expected. The moment Nymira saw her, she understood that to be the case. Well, the correct term would be smelled, a term Nymira didn''t like using it since it made her seem like a dog.
After that, she quickly went to the toki section of the academy; she was assigned to a mission far away and simply responded to it with a nod beforepleting her mission. The person in charge was about to give her a team; however, when they saw who it was and remembered what the headmaster said about her, they simply shivered and let her leave without a team.
After all, she wouldn''t need it.
On the other hand, Alex was learning from the old man in the young boy''s body. It was simple training, but Alex could tell that while Ss'' training was technically faster at making him stronger, the young boy before him did not intend to make him stronger. He intended to sharpen him like a sword.
He wanted to work on his foundations and clean up all the mistakes he would have made by getting so strong in such a short amount of time.
In a way, it was almost the opposite of Ss'' training.
Finally, Ss left his room and went toward one of the sses he saw on the schedule.
He was a little excited. The ss that would take ce in the alchemy sses was about herbs. It was something he knew nothing about, but in a way, that was exciting in itself.
When he entered the alchemy ssroom, he could not help but look around with a raised brow.
"Is this the wrong ssroom?" Ss muttered under his breath in a questioning tone. Looking at his talisman, he saw the room letter and number. Quickly leaving the room, he saw that it was the same as the one on the schedule.
When looking inside, there were hundreds of students already in the hall. He was about 30 minutes early, yet half the hall was already full.
With a sigh, Ss sat down on a seat and ced a notebook and pen on the desk before him.
His eyes glistened as he thought about what he would learn; yet, before his excitement could reach a certain peak, it was interrupted by a melodic voice trickling into his ears like warm oil.
Ss'' eyes narrowed as he looked to the side with a scrutinizing gaze.
And when he did, several memories shed before his eyes... Memories that he had almost forgotten about...
Memories that still made his heart thump with both gratitude and fear.
"Ss Skrk, right?" The voice asked. As Ss looked up at the person, he could not help but look at her pink lips for a second more than everything else.
The person before him had ivy-green hair and emerald-green eyes. At the same time, she had such a lustrous aura around her that it almost put Ss into a daze the moment he saw her.
However, his eyes didn''t waver as they looked up again toward the pink tulip on her head. When he finally saw it, he looked back at his notebook and let out a small sigh.
"So you''vee to collect your debt?" Ss asked with a wry chuckle.
"Collect? You remembered?" The girl asked in a gentle tone.
"I''m surprised someone like you remembered me." Ss snickered.
"How could I not remember you? The boy who killed 3 topaz cores all on his own despite being in the ga core. That''s a memory i would never forget...
After all, it is the thing that made me fall for you."
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Chapter 219 Ivy Song [1] - Intentions
Chapter 219 Ivy Song [1] - Intentions
"..."
"..."
Silence fell upon the duo.
Ss didn''t say a single word because of the shock, while the girl beside him looked at him with a gentle smile, as if she was patiently waiting for him to say something.
This silence continued for almost 10 minutes, but it wasn''t awkward in any way. Or at least that was the case for the girl.
Ss, on the other hand, was struggling to keep hisposure. Many thoughts were surfacing at the back of his mind, but he tried his best to keep them in check.
The girl simply waited for what he was going to say, while Ss had a slightly agitated expression on his face.
''When does this damn lecturer get here!'' Ss thought, secretly praying to the life equation to bring the professor into the ssroom early.
However, since he knew such prayers were unfound, Ss let out a breath and turned his head toward the girl...
Or should he have said woman? She wasn''t far off from being one, and from what he could understand, age did not work the same way for her that it did with humans.
Thest time he met her, he was barely four years old. Or maybe 5? It was hard for him to remember his age...
''Probably because I don''t look like either of my ages.'' Ss sighed.
He wondered if he was something like the beastkin. He heard that they grew up much faster than any other race... Or at least faster than all the humanoid races. Within a few years of being born, they would reach adulthood. Normally, they only lived until about 25 years old, but those who awakened their cores usually doubled or tripled their life spans, if not more.
Though, he wondered whether the girl before him had the same issue.
She looked about 18 years of age, but almost 14 years ago, she only looked 16. From what he could tell, she was, most likely, above the age of 20.
''Maybe she stopped aging?'' Ss asked himself with narrowing eyes.
Though, he was having another problem.
His eyes kept flickering and turning toward her lips. It was an almost instinctual feeling. He didn''t understand it, but it kept happening repeatedly until Ss could only think of one reason that could be the cause of this action.
''Is she trying to charm me?'' Ss thought.
"Am I to your liking?" The girl asked while leaning closer... Almost too close. She was sitting right next to him, so leaning closer would most likely mean they woulde into physical contact.
The people around them looked at them for a moment before either shaking their heads in envy, or looking at them with humorous gazes.
In their eyes, the two were most likely dating.
The girl came eye to eye with Ss before extending her grin. She then cupped his face with her right hand.
At the same time, Ss moved his own hand, but instead of replicating her motions, something that his instincts were telling him to do, he threw away such thoughts and ced his palm on her sr plexus.
"Move your hand," Ss spoke in a cold tone, yet her expression never changed despite expecting a change in her expression.
Her hand slowly moved back while she descended on her chair once more. At the same time, she crossed her legs and let out a wry chuckle.
"You are truly fascinating. No wonder I fell for you. To think you''d be resistant to my charms." The girl let out an adorableugh, but this one was slightly attractive, unlike when Nymira did it.
Or at least that''s why Ss thought before dispelling those thoughts too.
"That''s creepy." Ss said with an annoyed tone of voice before looking away from her and toward where the professor would be in a few dozen minutes.
A few emotions shed within her eyes when she opened her mouth, but again, just like always, she remained radiantly smiling, as if nothing in this world could ruin the joy she was getting from that very moment.
"You say that, but you''re the one who copied my hairstyle. You''re lucky we don''t look alike. People would have thought that we were practicing unspeakable taboo acts." She chuckled while Ss'' expression became slightly grave.
''Why the hell did I change my hair to green...'' He inwardlyined, but there was nothing he could do about it right then and there.
"You''re thwe one forming a love connection toward a four-year-old." Ss sneered back.
"Your vessel might have been 19 seasons old, but your mind was that of a mature man possibly 10 times older than the age of your body..." She spoke with a certain conviction as the smile on her face disappeared and was reced with an expression of a lecturing mother.
"I understand that you are new to this world, so let me exin-" Ss'' hand quickly covered her mouth, causing her to open her closed eyes with a hint of shock. In the next second, he could feel her mouth turn into a smile.
"Ugh..." Ss let out another sneer and let go of her. However, inwardly, he was beginning to panic.
Thoughts of killing her right there and then surfaced in his mind, and just when he was about to go through with it, she whispered into his ear...
Without realizing it, she was right next to him and whispering into his ear.
''Shit... She''s stronger than me.'' Ss thought before looking down at her core, that was shrouded in a looming dark shadowy mist that he hadn''t seen earlier...
As if his mind waspletely ignoring her core, forcing him to look away from it.
''She charmed me to a certain extent despite my volition me, strong mental fortitude, and the life equation that has branded itself onto my very soul. At the very least, she had an emerald core, if not more. Though, I doubt her technique charms the soul. Rather, she most likely uses the brain instead. The techniques that use such methods aren''t nearly as strong as the soul ones, but it makes sense in this situation where my soul is stronger than my mind.
Though, my mind has been branded with the image of the life equation, so I wonder why it doesn''t have the same kind of strength as my soul...'' Ss inwardly thought.
He could think of different reasons for that, such as the mind being a part of the body while the soul is one''s very core.
But if what he thought of was correct, what distinguished the mind from the soul? Sure, he kept his memories from his past life, but how did that ur? Did his soul hold his memories, or did his brain?
"You''re overthinking it." She whispered.
On the outside, only a second or two had passed, but Ss had a dozen questions running through his mind within those precious seconds.
When she said those words, he regained his thoughts and wanted to move away from her, yet by the time he had made his decision; she was no longer next to him.
She didn''t turn into a blur or leave an afterimage. She just disappeared into thin air and appeared in the chair as if she had always been there.
At that point, Ss gave up on not only the thought of killing her, but also the thought of understanding what she was doing, and how she was doing it.
''It could be illusions for all I care...'' Ss sighed.
"Gilea told me that you were from a ce called Earth, right?" She asked with a tilted head. She spoke with a perfect English ent when she said Earth, but Ss didn''t find that nearly as surprising as hearing that she could talk to the.
"And mother told me that there is not ce called Earth on Gilea, which means you''re from elsewhere." She concluded.
By now, Ss already felt the perception filter around them that she had just put up when talking about him being older than he seemed.
They would only see what the girl before him wanted them to see.
"So?" Ss asked in a wary tone.
"You''re a reincarnate, aren''t you?" She asked with the same melodious voice as before.
"Yes..." Ss replied, not seeing any point in hiding it. It was the proper conclusion to take if someone had as much information as she did.
"You''re not lying..." The girl said in surprise.
"I don''t see a need to." Ss narrowed his eyes.
"Good. I see we''ve already created a good start." She nodded before pausing.
"Mother told me that you humans grow differently from us. So, why do you not look 12?" She asked with a perplexed gaze.
"Blessing."
"Understood." She nodded without asking for further information.
"So, you know about me, but I don''t know anything about you." Ss finally spoke up. "Who are you, and what do you want from me?" He narrowed his eyes further.
"Me? I''m Ivy Song... The daughter of Rose Song, and the second princess of the nt society." She paused before a look of frenzied excitement appeared on her face.
"And I''m here to marry you, of course."
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(Been traveling and I''m really tired, so there won''t be more than 7 chapters this week.)
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Chapter 220 Secrets {2} - The Demon Continents Rebellion
Chapter 220 Secrets {2} - The Demon Continent''s Rebellion
Ss and Ivy sat in silence for far too long. Eventually, the professor for the ss entered the ssroom through the same doors the students entered. Without waiting for everyone to quiet down, he slowly walked toward the front of the hall with his head held high.
Every step that sounded from his feet let out an echoing noise that reached the ears of everyone in the room. Eventually, by the time he reached the front of the ssroom, everyone waspletely silent, looking at him with a hint of reverence in their eyes.
The man on the ground of the ssroom wore a pure white robe with a golden scarf that wrapped behind his neck and went down his chest.
He looked like a preacher. Preachers didn''t usually wear these kinds of clothes, making them closer to the preachers of Earth rather than the ones of Gilea.
However, what caught Ss'' attention was not his pure white robes or scarf¡ªthe pair of long, narrow ears hidden behind his pale blonde hair.
''This is the second elf I''ve seen... Are elves thismon?'' Ss thought while looking at Ivy.
She also had long, narrow ears; however, unlike the man at the front who was about to teach them everything they would ever need to know about herbs, her ears were a little shorter than his.
They were also more rounded at the top rather than being sharp like the elves.
When Ivy felt Ss'' gaze, she widened her eyes before smirking slightly. Looking to the side, a beautiful smile blossomed on her face. A smile that would have pulled on the heartstrings of anyone with even the smallest amount of desire within them.
Without showing a different expression, Ss looked away,pletely unperturbed by Ivy. When he looked away, he could feel disappointed in her gaze, but she quickly got over it and looked back at the professor at the front of the hall with a bored expression.
"Wee back." The elf bowed slightly before walking toward therge board at the front that was visible for everyone to see.
"Today, I''ll be going over all the basics again. We have a few new people, and I just want to make sure that all of you still know everything that I taught youst year." The man exined while everyone reluctantly nodded.
For the rest of the 3-hour lecture, the elf quickly reviewed all the herbs they had learned about. Ss absorbed the information quickly and even asked a few questions while at it.
It was good to know about all the different nts one could find on the continent. Creating antidotes would be much easier if you knew what kind of poison is in effect.
Of course, Ss himself would never need an antidote, but the same could not be.
Many of the nts on this follow the same principles as the ones on Earth. The effects that had on people were only amplified by the existence of mana, that was all.
Of course, the stronger herbs had varying magical differences that made their effect unpredictable and, many times, more lethal than anything found on Earth.
After absorbing all the knowledge like a sponge, the lecture ended, and it was time for the next one.
When he left the lecture hall, he had so many things on his mind that he almost forgot about the presence of the woman beside him.
"Why are you following me?" Ss asked with a slightly agitated expression.
"What do you mean? We''re simply going in the same direction." She smiled warmly in reply.
"..."
"..."
''Don''t tell me.'' A horrible thought passed through Ss'' mind, making him let out an exasperated sigh.
When he eventually got to the next ss, he understood that he was right.
''She''s chosen all the same sses as me...'' A shiver went down his spine at the thought of sharing every ss with the stalker beside him.
The rest of the day went as normally as it could.
The next Ss had was runemanship. Surprisingly enough, despite the walking distraction next to him, Ss did not have a problem understanding the lecture''s content.
It was taught by Mr. Faldro, the beer-bellied man who escorted him, Nymira, and Alext to the academy.
The lecture was exined rune sequences. The basic principle of this was that runes had to be applied in a certain order for them to not only take effect but also so they don''t explode in one''s face.
Ss already knew this. Runes were essentially circuits in the form of characters or letters.
Rearrange the letters around; you have apletely different sentence to produce a different effect. Rearrange them randomly, and you''ve created gibberish that could not even be read off the paper without creating extra sounds.
Due to Ss'' limited knowledge of the enchantment runes, he still had a lot to learn. After all, while Virack might have been a good cksmith, he was no teacher in the end. Sometimes, when he tried to teaching, Ss could not help but ask how the man even had disciples in the first ce.
Before they knew it, the lecture ended, and it was time for them to leave.
***
---The Demon Continent---
-The Cursed Lands-
Amidst the destion of the cursednds, a chilling wind swept across the barrenndscape. The ground was cracked and lifeless, a reflection of the sinister aura that pervaded the atmosphere. Two figures trudged forward through this bleak expanse, apanied by the subdued shuffling of chained demons behind them.
The humans, d in worn leather armor, cast furtive nces at each other. Their faces bore a mixture of exhaustion and unease but also a grim determination that mirrored their surroundings.
"We''ve been out here for weeks, Arthur," one of the humans, a man with a scruffy beard, grumbled. "I don''t know how much longer I can take this."
Arthur, his fellow traveler, let out a tired sigh. "I hear you, Benjamin. This ce... It''s a nightmare. I never thought I''d be grateful for the stench of the city back home."
Benjamin chuckled weakly. "Yeah, and that sted curse storm... I can barely see a hand in front of my face."
Despite theirints, a sense of duty lingered beneath their words. They both knew the weight of their task ¨C to escort the demon ves through the cursednds far from their homnd. It was a duty they carried with a heavy heart, knowing that these chained souls would be sent to distant regions, their freedom forever lost.
As they walked, Benjamin''s voice softened, and a distant look crossed his eyes. "You know, Arthur, I miss my wife. And my little girl, Emily. She''s been begging me to bring her something from this godforsaken ce."
Arthur nodded in understanding, his gaze distant as well. "I know what you mean. My family''s been asking about my trips too. Last time, I brought my daughter a trinket from the demon continent ¨C a little ne. She was so happy, thought it was the most magical thing."
Their conversation carried a bittersweet tone, a glimpse into the lives they had left behind. It was a connection to their humanity amidst the harshness of their current reality.
But just as their words were about to fade into the wind, a sudden tension seized the air. The temperature dropped sharply, and the very wind seemed to be still as if holding its breath. Arthur''s eyes widened, and he turned his head in a futile attempt to pierce through the swirling snow and darkness of the cursed storm.
"Arthur, what is it?" Benjamin''s voice quivered with uncertainty.
Arthur''s response was a strangled gasp, cut short by a sinister presence that materialized from within the storm. A dark figure, shrouded in malevolent intent, fixed its gaze upon them with eyes as cold and unforgiving as the cursednds themselves.
Before either of them could react, the figure surged forward, moving with an unnatural swiftness that defied thews of nature. In an instant, a de materialized in its hand, and with merciless precision, it plunged the weapon through Benjamin''s heart.
The man''s eyes widened in shock, his body freezing in a moment of disbelief. He looked at Arthur, his eyes reflecting a thousand unspoken emotions before his life was extinguished as swiftly as a candle me snuffed out.
Blood stained the barren ground, mingling with the destion that surrounded them. Arthur staggered back, his heart pounding in his chest as he gaped at the lifeless form of hisrade.
The figure, its dark presence emanating triumph, dissolved into the swirling snowstorm once more, leaving Arthur alone with the weight of his horror and the chilling knowledge that malevolence walked these cursednds in forms more terrifying than the storm itself.
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Chapter 221 Ivy Song [2] - Mana Domain
Chapter 221 Ivy Song [2] - Mana Domain
---Diamond Academy---
-VIP dormitory-
"..."
"..."
The silence was prevalent within the sealed room.
The lights were dimmed, yet the two individuals within had no problem seeing through the minute darkness.
At a nce, they would both seem like normal students, yet, to the eyes of the knowledgeable, this scene was terrifying.
These two were so powerful that they would tten the entire academy in the wake of their battle...
Yet, at the moment, all they did was sit a few meters from one another while staring into each other''s eyes with a certain glint in their eyes.
The atmosphere within the room was so thick a normal person would doubt whether or not they would even have to ability to breathe within such a room.
"How did you know I was going toe here?" Ss asked, his eyes zing like two emerald suns.
"I''m surprised you brought me to your room on our first date." Completely ignoring him, Ivy chuckled to herself.
"Again, not a date."
"It is to me..."
"..."
"..."
Suddenly, the tension in the room thickened several folds as Ivy dropped the happy facade... If one could even call it that.
Her expression turned weirdly serious. Without a second thought, Ss surrounded her with dozens of spells. As if having been engraved into the air itself, Runes shone with brilliance.
A mirage of colors illuminated the room as each element made its presence known.
Yet, the words that came out of Ivy''s mouth were words that he would have never expected to hear in a million years.
"Why does Gilea refer to you as...
The destroyer of worlds?"
Ss felt his stomach drop, and in the next instant, he disappeared from where he was standing.
This time, even Ivy''s eyes widened. The next second, she felt herself m into a wall as an axe''s cold de was ced onto her throat.
She could see her own face reflected on the metallic te, but she quickly moved her eyes once more to look into Ss''.
''I couldn''t see him...'' She thought with narrowing eyes. She had thought that she was, at the very least, significantly stronger than Ss, but now...
Now she couldn''t be sure.
Without skipping a beat, the pink tulip on their head shone with brilliance as a sudden surge of power reverberated through her body.
Suddenly her foot turned into a blur, while her hand turned into a fist that mmed against the axe''s de next to her neck.
Having suddenly felt the surge of powering off Ivy, Ss knitted his brows. He spun to the side, barely averting the incredibly quick foot that would haveunched him through every room in the building before shooting him into the sky.
In that very instant, his axe became a blur as it tore through the air clockwise, flying 360 degrees and beingunched toward Ivy''s neck.
Suddenly, Ss saw her hand before his face.
''Shit!'' Knowing exactly what would happen, Ss sent as much mana to his mystic eyes as possible.
The scenery before him quickly changed. If before, he could see the flow of mana in all its forms and life forces in his current state; it felt like he could see...
Everything.
Suddenly, a feeling of electricity coursed through his very being, and in the next instance, he disappeared.
Ivy''s arm, which had turned into several green vine-like tendrils and roots, shot toward where Ss was previously, but the moment he disappeared, the roots and vines hit nothing but air.
Ivy''s eyes widened, but she didn''t have enough time to understand what just happened since it felt like a boulder had mmed into the side of her torso, almost punching the air out of her lungs.
Almost...
After all, she didn''t have lungs.
The green tendrils moved through the air like whips and spears, yet despite their speed, Ss avoided them as if he already knew their exact path.
However, the same could not be said for the rest of the furniture.
His entire home looked like a hurricane had hit it. Everything in the room was destroyed, from the table to the kitchen counter.
As Ss was doing the attacks, he ruminated on something.
''She''s holding back...'' Ss thought while looking around him
To him, it was like time had frozen...
Yet, simultaneously, he could see almost a hundred different futures before him.
He could see every possible oue... Well, almost all possible oues with the information on him.
This wasn''t future sight. It was the personification of his mind. Every instance. Every moment. Every fiber of a second that passed was a moment where Ss'' mind was working to its full potential. The only thing his eyes were doing was allowing him to visualize the process of his thoughts more suitably.
One would think that was enough, but his eyes went even further than that.
Even minuscule feature of mana and life force energy was visible to his eyes.
Every fiber and every cell was visible to his eyes.
He could tell the woman''s intentions before she could even understand what she was trying to do.
In these moments, it was as if he knew her better than herself.
''How interesting... I''ve never seen anyone use nature magic like this... To be fair, I''ve never seen anyone use nature magic before, but that is beside the point.'' Ss snickered to himself. He had too much time on his hands. He had an eternity to understand what he should do next.
''Or, at least that would have been the case if my body was nearly as quick and my mind... I''m moving so slowly. And this is even while using lightning fusion. May god have mercy on me if I ever choose to use this without lightning fusion.'' Ss sighed, but he didn''t take the prayer too seriously.
It was something he always said back on Earth despite not really being a believer.
Looking around, Ss saw his spells still active and filled with mana. He could have released the spells with a thought, but he held himself back.
Just like the woman before him, he did not want to level the building. Hell, releasing all of those spells at the same time would have been the same as destroying a vast portion of the academy.
''Though, I wonder if those runes can take an all-out attack from me. I can pass through them quite easily due to not being a sapphire core, and even if I was, I could just ask my armor to hide my presence...'' Ss thought before continuing.
''However, these are ancient runes we''re talking about. These have been upgraded upon hundreds of times throughout the centuries, and were most likely formed by the four original headmasters of the academy. If they were ruby cores like I''ve theorized, then there''s now way these runes would even falter in front of my attacks.'' Ss inwardly thought while turning his body to the right to dodge an iing attack.
''I should probably take this away from here. If this gets significantly bad, I might have to wear my armor.'' Ss mused before shooting forward.
Ivy was about to react, but the attack was too quick.
Lightning fusion was a form of fusion that gave him significant strength, speed, and reflexes.
It was the product of the fusion between air and fire. He got his inspiration for the technique from the lightning boars that he fought back in dia.
After having conducted several experiments on them and having understood how they created their electricity, not only did Ss understand how to create lightning spells, but he also understood the main functions behind fixing the current problem he was having.
Despite being much faster than anyone on his level, that was where his advantages ended when it came to close-quartersbat.
Unlike Toki users, he could not use the variety of techniques that were avable to them, from turning invisible to creating a storm that had the ability to wipe out a town within an instant.
Hell, even Nymira had the ability to create clones of herself.
Lightning fusion allowed him to move with speed that was even faster than his wind fusion. The only thing that made his wind fusion different from his lightning fusion was the fact that it allowed him to move inplete silence.
The other advantage was that it had almost the same level of power as fire fusion, though fire fusion was still much better at creating explosive maneuvers.
If Ss wanted to drop onto a city like a meteor, he would most definitely use fire fusion.
Though, if he wanted to shoot across the skies for long distances, ricochet around a room with blurring speeds, or throw a hundred blurring attacks at a moment''s notice, he would definitely use lightning fusion instead.
That was not all, either.
Lightning fusion made his reaction time much faster by speeding up the electrical pulse through his nerves. Of course, he couldn''t control the speed of the chemical neurotransmittering out of his synapses, but he hoped his evolution blessing would do the rest for him... Or at least he hoped that it would improve over time.
Appearing beside Ivy, Ss'' leg turned into a blur before mming against her side.
In the next instant, she found herself in the sky, far above the barrier.
She could not help but widen her eyes at the speed she was moving at, but she quickly realized why.
After hitting her in the side, Ss grabbed her by the arm and shot through his wall and into the air. He unknowingly shot through several apartments on the way out, but he didn''t care.
Now that he was outside, the runes within the house disappeared and reappeared above the two of them.
And with the swip of his hand, he released all the spells at the same time.
Simultaneously, Ivy, who had been holding back in order not to destroy the building they were in, finally red out the full power of her core.
A pristine ocean-blue energy erupted from her body. Yet, the purity within the energy was almost at the same level as the headmaster''s, who was already had a solid emerald core.
Throwing her hands to the side, she muttered two words.
"Mana Domain"
Chapter 222 Ivy Song [3] - Beyond
Chapter 222 Ivy Song [3] - Beyond
"Mana domain." Her words reverberated throughout the air like a calling upon the very.
Ss felt it echo... It was a weird feeling.
How could something echo when there was nothing around them?
One would expect an echo within a closed space like a cave. Yet, it was as if her voice had bounced off mid-air...
And that was when Ss finally understood what she did. Or, to be specific, he saw exactly what was happening around him.
Every single mana particle froze. Ss could even feel the control over his own spells being ripped away from him.
Without thinking twice, he dawned his armor that quickly reced his clothes, but it was toote by then.
Suddenly, the runes around him turned into dust and flew in a certain direction.
His eyes followed the dust-like particles and saw them circle around Ivy''s palm.
"Shi-" Ss couldn''t even finish the wordsing out of his throat as a beam of bright light illuminated before him, and in the next moment, all he could feel was tremendous pain.
***
Alex was training with Aka, the old man in the young man''s body. They were both in a field outside of the academy''s grounds. It was a innd that would have had almost nothing in sight if not for the towering academy behind Alex, and the three cities they could see from where they were.
Aka was teaching Alex about the efficiency of spells, but not in the same way Ss had taught Alex about it.
Aka realized that the mana efficiency of Alex''s spells was possibly even better than his own... Or at least that was the case before he had seen Alex''s magic circles.
After seeing them, Aka realized the ws in his own spells and fixed them quite quickly, making his spells not only more efficient but also profoundly more powerful for their tier.
So, instead of teaching Alex about mana efficiency, he taught him about strategic efficiency.
This, while being one of Ss'' expertise, was not something he could teach to Alex.
Ss relied on his mind to not only see the best oue, but also to create the best possible scenario.
That was not something he could teach. It was an inherent talent that he had honed throughout his years.
"Treat me like a toki user. Sure, I can use spells, but I wont use the against you right now. How would you fight me? Use your head." Aka spoke with a calm tone while walking toward Alex.
At the same time, he stopped suppressing his mana aura, allowing the sapphire energy to erupt out of his body. The aura had several multi-colored threads within it as it released out of his body, but the prominent color was gold.
Alex''s hand shot forward as a magi circle appeared before his palm. In the next moment, a me bolt formed before his magic circle and shot forward with a speed that could bepared to that of a sniper rifle.
Aka didn''t hesitate for a moment. The instant he saw the iing bolt of mes, toki exploded out of his body,pletely destroying the sapphire energy around him and recing it with a golden one.
In the next instant, his body blurred forward and appeared before the me bolt.
His hand moved in the blink of an eye, tearing through the air with so much speed that it looked like his hand had caught on fire.
It all happened so quickly... For Alex, it was almost too quick.
The fire bolt bounced off Aka''s arms like it was a rubber ball before flying to the side and exploding in the distance.
"Again!" Aka shouted, waking Alex up from his stupor.
Alex''s eyes flickered with shock before he got into position again.
This time, he created five different magic circles, all with the same runes within them.
Suddenly, five loud bangs rippled through the air as the ming missiles shot toward their target.
Aka''s golden aura pulsed with an intensity that pushed back the air around him. His eyes remained fixed on the iing barrage of fiery missiles, each one hurtling towards him with a fierce determination. His lips curved into a faint smile, a testament to his confidence in his abilities.
As the first firebolt approached, Aka''s body became a blur of motion. With a speed that defied natural limits, he weaved between the fiery projectiles effortlessly. It was as if time itself bent to his will, allowing him to avoid the ming onught effortlessly. The firebolts whizzed past him, their heat licking at the air in their wake.
Alex watched in awe as Aka''s movements seemed almost surreal, his body a symphony of agility and precision. The seasoned toki user''s steps were graceful, each motion deliberate and calcted. The firebolts that were meant to be his projectiles were rendered insignificant in the face of Aka''s expertise.
One by one, the firebolts were dodged with a fluidity that bordered on the supernatural. Aka''s movements were so precise that he seemed to anticipate the path of each firebolt before it even left Alex''s hand.
Thest firebolt sailed towards Aka, its fiery tail a streak of determination. But even before it coulde close, Aka extended his hand casually. Threads of golden toki extended from his palm, intertwining with the firebolt''s trajectory. In an instant, the firebolt''s momentum was disrupted, and it exploded harmlessly in mid-air, its mes fading into the wind.
As the echoes of the explosion faded, Aka turned his gaze back to Alex, a knowing smile on his lips. "Impressive, Alex. Your strategic thinking is evident in your spellcasting. But remember, a battle is more than just spells and agility. It''s about understanding your opponent''s strengths and weaknesses."
Alex nodded, his respect for Aka''s prowess deepening. "I see it now. To fight against someone like you, I need more than raw power. I need to anticipate, to outmaneuver, to think on my feet."
Aka''s smile widened. "Exactly. A mage''s strength lies not just in their spells, but in their ability to adapt and ovee. Now, let''s continue. You''re making remarkable progress."
With renewed determination, Alex squared his shoulders, ready for the lesson. Yet, it was just then that they both felt something that made their stomachs drop.
It was a fierce power that rippled through the very air and reached everyone in the academy. The students shuddered, but because they were weak, they didn''t understand why they had shuddered.
On the other hand, the teachers and the special students could not help but be covered in ayer of cold sweat.
Their brows trembled when they felt the mana around them get siphoned at such a quick pace that they doubted anyone within the sapphire core could do such a thing.
On the other hand, Toki users felt their connection to their toki suddenly weaken. As if they were slowly losing the amount of energy they could muster.
The barriers, despite having a portion of their mana siphoned, did not falter in the least. They had more than enough energy to stay active even if 90% of their energy was taken away, so the small portion that was siphoned was almost nothingpared to the repositories they held.
*BOOOOOM*
Suddenly, a sh of light came from a certain direction. When people looked to see what it was, they saw a beam of light pierce descend the heavens like a meteor focused on destroying anything that stood in its way.
***
Ivy, who had just used her mana domain to take all the mana out of the air and create it into a beam of light magic, was left panting mid-air.
Her hand was pointed toward the enormous crater that formed after her attack and mmed into the ground.
Of course, she had aimed away from the academy and the cities after her attack and mmed into the ground.
Of course, she had aimed away from the academy and the cities around it, and instead aimed toward the ins in the distance.
And that was when her face flickered with an ounce of panic.
''Oh no...'' Dread filled her heart as a possibility came to mind.
Her eyes suddenly turned white and zed with radiant luminance.
"Gilea... Is he okay?!" She asked with a worried tone.
Nothing happened for a few moments. Complete silence permeated the air, and tension was evident on Ivy''s face.
However, after a few more excruciating seconds, an almost transcendent voice spoke, its words rippling through the fabric of reality itself to only enter the ears of the one that had called upon it.
*"Unfortunately."*
Dread filled Ivy''s heart, but now, instead of holding an ounce of hope in her heart, she was filled with despair.
"I-I didn''t know. I got carried away. P-Please save him. I''ll give you anything. I can''t let ''him'' die. Not afterst time." Ivy stuttered with tears in her eyes. If one were to look closely, they would have even seen obsession in her eyes.
*"You misunderstood, child."* The ethereal voice spoke once more; however, it was filled with a particr emotion this time. The voice didn''t speak anymore, leaving Ivy confused and angry.
Yet, she quickly understood the words of the ancient being...
Because, now that her eyes had tapped into Gilea''s very essence, she saw something that would have sent a shiver down the spines of even the strongest people on the.
Within the dust cloud that blocked her normal vision, stood a figure formed out of a billion screaming souls, trying to scratch their way out of the vessel.
And at the very center of that vessel floated an emerald green wheel.
"W-What is that..." Ivy muttered. She couldn''t see the thing properly. It was as if her mind was trying its best to veil it from her sight.
All she could see was a blur that became distorted every few seconds. Yet, despite being unable to see it properly, a horrible headache was taking over.
But, she couldn''t look away.
No, that wasn''t all. She couldn''t move.
Her body stood still, not wanting to budge a single inch.
"Have you heard of the saying..." A distorted voice came out of the dust cloud with almost the same amount of transcendence as Gilea''s.
The dust around the figure slowly dissipated, and eventually, Ss'' unscathed figure appeared through it with his armor dawned and his hair having turned into an otherwordly white.
His hand stretched forward and let off some smoke, while his other hand held an axe.
"Do not challenge the forces of nature." Ss smiled. Slowly, his eyes peeled open, allowing the searing emerald mes of his irises to shine upon the world around them.
The souls that Ivy saw earlier receded in the blink of an eye, while the green wheel suddenly disappeared from her vision.
"Spoiler alert...
You won''t win."
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Chapter 223 Ivy Song [4] - Promises Were Made
Chapter 223 Ivy Song [4] - Promises Were Made
Ss stood there, his magnificent aura flowing off his body as if it was a wave of steam that sparkled like an emerald neb.
Ss controlled his killing intent and surveyed the situation.
''The destroyer of worlds... I wonder why she called me that.'' Ss inwardly thought. He had suddenly be curious as to why she would call him that. Of course, hearing ite out of her mouth slightly angered him, but it wasn''t the reason he attacked her.
''She didn''t call me that, did she? Gilea did.'' Ss narrowed his eyes in suspicion, yet that action seemed only to make the woman floating above more distressed.
Ss could feel the fear that boiled within her heart when she looked at him. The expression of affection she held before was long gone.
''She looks at me the same way they did...'' Ss breathed as a certain memory shed before his eyes.
It was a memory from when he was a child. It was from when he lived in the orphanage.
In that memory, he looked down at his hands covered in blood before his eyes drifted toward the mangled bodies of children around him.
It wasn''t just children. A few maids could be seen lying on the ground. One of themy on the ground with rivers of blooding out of where their eyes were supposed to be.
Yet, just like all the atrocities he hadmitted in the past, he felt nothing toward that memory.
''Maybe that''s why they worked so quickly to get rid of me...'' Ss thought as the images of the orphanage owners entered his mind.
Their memory was blurry. He could barely remember them anymore.
''For them to cover up such a thing... They must have truly cared for me. They saw my potential... I wonder if I disappointed them.'' He let out a sigh and began to float.
"That doesn''t matter now, though, does it." He muttered under his breath while sizing up his opponent.
At the same time, the runes on his armor shone. Not all of them shone, of course. Only a few that allowed him to levitate.
"Y-You''re okay," Ivy spoke, her voice filled with half relief and half fear.
"What? Were you expecting me to die that easily?" Ss asked with a soft chuckle.
"S-Ss... Let''s talk about this. My intention was never to fight you." She let out a strained smile, but Ss saw right through it.
"You know too much... You should have never asked Gilea about me." Ss muttered while forming his axes out of thin air.
"Please listen!" She tried to bargain, yet, the emerald-eyed man before he was not listening.
The aura around him rippled, growing more violent by the second.
"What was that thing you did again?" Ss cocked his head to the side before letting out another subtle smile.
silverish-blue runes appeared around him.
"Let''s end this shall we."
Suddenly, the clouds circted above him as dozens of silverish-blue runes appeared around him.
Ss hovered above the ground, his aura swirling around him in a mesmerizing dance of emerald and gold. Ivy''s words fell on deaf ears as he prepared for what wasing. He had been through enough battles to know that words could be deceiving, and actions spoke louder than any promises.
As Ivy attempted to reason with him, the air crackled with energy, the runes surrounding Ss glowing with an otherworldly intensity. His axes shimmered into existence, their sharp edges catching the ambient light with a deadly glint.
Ss unleashed a torrent of lightning magic with a flick of his wrist, bolts of electricity arcing through the air toward Ivy. Simultaneously, he tapped into his control over ice magic by creating several light blue runes around them, rapidly causing the temperature to plummet. The moisture in the air froze, creating an intricatettice of ice crystals that shot toward her like deadly shrapnel.
Ivy''s expression shifted from fear to determination as she called upon her own magic to defend herself¡ªa light barrier formed around her, deflecting the lightning and shattering the ice projectiles. The ground beneath her feet crackled with energy, absorbing the shockwaves of Ss''s attacks.
However, Ss'' attacks were getting past her defenses. Alone, they weren''t exceedingly powerful, but together, they became a deadly force to be reckoned with.
''I can''t form a tier-5 spell in this condition. I can''t talk to him right now since he''s not listening to reason... Both his body and magic are equally as strong as one another. How the hell can someone at the peak of the pristine amethyst core be this strong?! If we fight any more than this, we might wake that damn woman up. Doing that would only ruin our society''s rtionship with the diamond academy.'' Ivy gritted her teeth, but she knew what must be done.
Plunging her hand into the pouch on her belt, she snatched a talisman from within and began to put her mana into it.
However, just when she was about to do that, she felt as if hundreds of illusory chains wrapped around her body, making her movements sluggish and her mind slow and somehowpletely stopping her from pouring her mana into the talisman.
"What is this?" Ivy''s voice trembled as she struggled against the illusory restraints, her panic growing as Ss''s onught continued.
Above the battlefield, a group of figures had gathered, drawn by the overwhelming sh of power. The headmaster''s portly form exuding an air of authority stood alongside Mr. Faldro, Aka, and the elf with silverish diamond-like eyes. They watched in a mix of awe and concern as the battle unfolded before them.
"Should we awaken Master Dalia?" Aka spoke from the side with an apprehensive tone.
They all knew that the only chance that had to stop the battle was to allow either the headmaster to go all out, or to call their strongest fighter simply.
"I don''t believe it wille to that." The headmaster spoke in a voice as calm as a springke.
Aka''s gaze remained fixed on Ss, his expression unreadable. The elf''s eyes flickered with a mixture of curiosity and wariness.
They all watched as Ss flew toward Ivy, who was frozen mid-air. In the next instant, Ss'' fist was burrowed deeply into Ivy''s abdomen.
The air rippled before him, and in the blink of an eye, Ivy, who was still right next to him, had flown through the air and mmed into the ground.
*Thud*
Ss'' figure flickered and appeared above Ivy. Slowly, he descended to the ground, his footnding on Ivy''s chest.
Due to the weight of his armor, it created an audible thud. At the same time, Ivy could not help but squirm in pain.
With her options dwindling, Ivy locked eyes with Ss, her voice shaky yet defiant. "Don''t kill me."
"And why would I listen to you?" Ss asked, his pure-white hair fluttering in the wind.
"You owe me, remember?" She said with a pained tone.
"What makes you think that I''ll keep my word?" Ss tilted his head slightly with a sneer.
"I know you will. But, if that wasn''t enough to persuade you, how about this..." She paused momentarily before continuing with a slightly less strained voice- "My mother has ascended to the ruby recently... With her support, you will be able to attack the Skrk family without having to deal with the aftermath that might fall upon Darkless. The kingdom will be forced to think of it as a fight between family members rather than an organization''s attack." Ivy exined before letting out a strained smile.
"But you already knew that, didn''t you? You knew who I was the moment you saw me. The only thing that caught you off guard was the fact that I knew about your reincarnation. Though, now I can''t help but feel like feeling into the palm of your hand. As if I was a minuscule part of some kind of master n." She coughed with intensifying strain.
Ss''s axes hovered just inches from her throat, his gaze unwavering. The air was charged with tension, the world around them holding its breath.
No one could hear their conversation, but those who could see them could only hope that they would reconcile with one another and seize their battle.
Ss'' expression, throughout the fight, had returned to a serious one. But when he heard Ivy''sst words, the corner of his lips could not help but crawl upwards.
"Being connected to Gilea like that is surely useful, huh?" Ss snickered but quickly deepened his foot into her chest as the smile disappeared.
"A soul contract. If you want to remain alive, form a soul contract with me stating that you will never divulge anything you know about that is not alreadymon knowledge. You will never betray me, hurt anyone I care for, and never seek to deceive me. Is that understood?" Ss asked.
"You might as well put a cor on my neck and call it a day." Ivy let out a self-deprecatingugh.
"No. Those are too inconvenient." Ss shrugged and increased the pressure from his foot to her chest.
"Okay, okay! Damnit, stop pressing on me with your foot so hard. I might break a rib."
"We both know you don''t have ribs."
"..."
"..."
Ss slowly took his foot to her chest, allowing it to reform into its prior shape, before it had been pressed in like a dented car.
"With Gilea as my witness, I swear to you that I will never divulge anything I know about you that is not alreadymon knowledge. I will never betray you, hurt anyone you care for, and will never seek to deceive you. If I break any of those use, may Gilea strike me down where I stand."
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Chapter 224 Ivy Song [5] - Punishment
Chapter 224 Ivy Song [5] - Punishment
Ss heard the words of the contract and slowly nodded his head.
When Ivy finally finished reciting the words, she sighed and asked, "Can you let go of me now? This is quite uforable."
She slowly looked down at the foot that was pressing on her chest. There was a pained expression on her face, but that was it.
Yet, she knew anyone else in her ce would have been screaming painfully.
Due to her biology as a dryad, her body was not made out of the same soft tissue as that of humans. Instead, not only was she closer to a nt since she was quite literally birthed out of their almighty tree the same way all the other dryads with royal genes did.
Her mother wasn''t actually her mother. In human terms, she was closer to a sister. However, within their society, the queen of the dryad was her mother for a very particr reason.
When Ivy and her sister were born, Queen Rose, their mother, had already spiritually connected with the almighty tree. Due to that, they are considered her children despite all of theming from the same source.
Normal dryads would have been birthed from magical nts that evolved or something simr to that process. The one connected to the almighty tree can order some of the nts within the vicinity to create treefolk simr to dryads. Yet, since they are just extensions of the almighty tree itself, they are considered nothing more than that.
The dryads, on the other hand, like Ivy, her sister, and even her mother, are considered entities of their own and don''t possess the characteristics of a treefolk, such as green skin or a bark-like body.
Yet, they had certain simrities since it was still part of their bloodline. They could transform their limbs into that of a nt, and even live off the process of photosynthesis.
''I wonder if they have cultivation techniques based on their ability to absorb minerals out of water? Maybe even one based on carbon dioxide and sunlight...'' Ss mused for a moment before a serious expression fell on his face.
''W-Wait... What if they have a cultivation technique like that from birth? Air, water, and even the minerals within the water have magical properties. Wouldn''t that mean that they can evolve and grow stronger through photosynthesis alone? Sure, the photosynthesis might be a little scuffed due to the magical properties, but what if that is the reason for her strength despite being so young? Though, I wonder if consuming sunlight would give you any magical properties.'' Ss thought with seriousness before looking the woman below him in the eyes and asking the question on his mind.
"Do you use a cultivation technique based on photosynthesis?" Ss finally asked.
"Photosynthesis?" Ivy raised a brow, clearly indicating that the word did not trante as Ss had hoped.
Taking his foot off her chest, Ss grabbed her arm and picked her up with a single pull while thinking about how to exin the process to her.
"It is when a nt absorbs sunlight, oxygen... I mean air, and water out of the ground at the same time. I assume you have such a technique to get stronger." Ss asked while tilting his head to the right with narrowed eyes.
"H-How..." Ivy''s eyes widened in shock before beginning to shine with a white light.
At the same time, Ivy could feel the hairs at the back of her neck stand up as one of the many well-kept secrets of the dryad''s cultivation techniques was exposed instantly.
''Gilea. How does he know about that!?'' Ivy inwardly shouted while taking a step back.
Terror could be seen on her face. If word got out that someone she knew found out about their cultivation technique, not only would she be executed on the spot by her mother for treason, but there was a chance that their entire civilization might be under threat.
The two kingdoms and even the elven society have been trying to find a reason to demolish them for centuries now. Still, due to her mother''s ascension to the ruby core, they could not do anything to them for now.
Sure, their society could easily be crushed through the sheer manpower of the kingdoms. Xylem has several ruby cores, mostly from the royal family. Der also has close to a dozen ruby cores within their empire, but they don''t attack because of the sheer casualties of such a battle.
severely dwindle too.
Knowing the dryads'' cultivation technique, these enemy forces If one party were to attack, say Xylem, for example, if they were to lose one of their ruby cores, several cities, and hundreds of thousands of lives in the battles, not only would they look vulnerable due to the power vacuum, but their people''s trust would severely dwindle too.
Knowing the dryads'' cultivation technique, these enemy forces would easily allow them to cripple the society''s progression. That way, when the dryad society eventually does attack in retaliation to this suppression, they kingdoms can make it seem like they were not at fault for fighting back.
This would remove one of the tworger problems of dealing with the society.
*"I''m afraid I do not know that answer."* Gilea spoke into Ivy''s ears, yet those words did not bring calmness or even relief. It only amplified the terror the woman before Ss was feeling.
Gilea not knowing something was nearly as terrifying as her nigh-omniscience.
*"However, I can hypothesize that it has something to do with his previous."* Gilea spoke again, making Ivy frown.
''You can''t see into his world?'' Ivy asked.
*"No. It is too far away."* Gilea spoke again, her ethereal voice trickling down Ivy''s ears like warm oil.
"Yes? No?" Ss raised a brow when he saw Ivy''s expression. He was waiting for a response, but it seemed like she had begun to talk to Gilea again.
"Sigh... Ugh, this is annoying." Ss sneered and scratched the back of his head.
''Did I uncover some weird secret her race were holding hostage or something?'' Ss thought to himself before turning around when he felt a few presences looking at him.
"What do you want?" Ss asked with a slightly curious tone.
Three of the four individuals could not help but twitch their eyes in slight annoyance. The man with long, pointy ears and silverish-diamond-like eyes was the only one who didn''t twitch his eyes.
Landing a few meters in front of Ss, the headmaster wore a long robe that looked slightly tattered, as if it had been used in many wars before being dawned that day.
The beer-bellied man, Mr. Faldro, wore a suit of armor that somehow covered hisrge bulging belly.
Aka also stood there with Alex at his side, floating beside him as if he had the power of slight as well.
Of course, everyone knew that wasn''t the case.
"Mr. Evergreen. We have to treat you like any other student here. That was the use in our agreement when you joined and it will remain that way until you leave." The headmaster spoke with closed eyes before opening them to look around.
Destruction littered the fields of grass that had either been bombarded by varying spells, or scorched beyond recognition.
"A battle of this magnitude and destruction... I can''t say that the punishment will be easy." The headmaster spoke with a slightly grave voice.
"What kind of punishment are we talking?" Ss crossed his arms nonchntly, as if everything that the man before him said didn''t mean a single thing to him.
"Well, first, you''ll have to pay for the damage... Then we''ll probably have to restrict you from leaving the academy''s premises. We''ll downgrade your housing down to a private room, and you''ll have to stay after ss to help out with the teachers." The headmaster exined.
"Alright." Ss shrugged.
"We are aware of how strong you are, but I promise you, we have ways to enforce those rules." The headmaster stressed.
"I understand." Ss nodded without much thought.
It didn''t really matter to him. He was just wasting time until the tournament anyway, so to him, this punishment not only allowed him to gather favor among students and teachers alike, but it also allowed him to learn more while he was at the academy.
''Since I can stay away for several months without a problem, I should be able to learn 24/7 without having to take any breaks. I''ll spend most of my time in the library trying to take in as much knowledge as I can before I have to leave. Though, I''ll probably have to create an algorithm to see which books I should read first and which- Oh... Already done. Well, I think I''m good to go now.'' Ss inwardly thought while a smile tugged at his lips.
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Chapter 225 Secrets {3} - Merchandise
Chapter 225 Secrets {3} - Merchandise
---Demon Continent---
The heavy sounds of wind piercing through the air and shredding against anything in sight reverberated throughout the distance.
One could see the muddy grounds bone dry. It was littered with cracks as the mud hardened and underwent desation in the scorching heat.
Yet, it wasn''t hot.
The searing cold was followed by a neverending storm that went from being one of sand to one of snow each day.
The night would bring about the dark clouds of the north, while the day would bring the scorching heat of the south, alongside the tsunami of sand waiting to drill holes and peel off the skin of anything with life.
Yet, despite the harsh environments, in the center of those very cmities stood a city with borders that reached a hundred meters high, and buildings that scaled the clouds and skies themselves.
These buildings, while having stayed standing for hundreds of years, were simply relics of their former selves.
They were testaments to the architectural phenomena that came from the hands of the demon race.
One of those cities had bustling streets among the destroyed and copsing buildings.
The cities were once built topletely resist the storms of the continent, yet, just like the situation with most things on the, nature always wins.
No matter what man''s hands build, nature will always break it down to nothing before rebuilding an entire forest on top of it.
That was how the world works... Or maybe, that was what Gilea desired from her.
The bustling city might have been full of movement. Hell, even from outside the walls, one could hear the sounds of talk. People were speaking amongst one another, while others seemed to be preaching something.
Though, the word preach might have been slightly wrong in this context
"310." A man on top of a tform spoke while pointing at one of the men in the crowd before him.
"500!" One of the men in the crowd shouted, causing the people around him to look hesitant.
Others showed expressions of shock before their eyes slowly looked down in defeat.
There was a mixture of people in the crowd. Some of them looked sophisticated. They wore tophats and suits, while others chose to wear the outfits of an adventurer ready to leave at a moment''s notice or fight when the situation called for such action.
"1000 gold coins!" Another roared with dryughter. He had a monocle in his eyes held by a chain connected to his breast pocket.
Within the breast pocket was a visible watch, with one-third of it peaking out of the pocket itself.
He held a fine cane that looked light; it might have been made from the finest woods of thend. However, despite how tough it might have looked, the bottom part was still coated with a muddied metallic seal.
After seeing the heavy silence fall upon those in the crowd, the man on the tform showed an excited expression and pointed at the man who hadst bid.
"1000 gold going once... Going twice..."
"2000 gold." Suddenly, a feminine voice spoke out of the crowd.
The moment the man on the tform heard her words, he could not help but stumble forward and almost lose his bnce.
He was about to fall from the tform when one of the muscr men next to him grabbed him and patted his front.
"Woman! Do you even have the funds to spout such a price-" The man with the golden monocle showed anger on his face when he looked back to see a woman in an adventurer''s outfit.
She wore a long ck cloak that reached the ground, yet the man could see her dawning armor underneath from the partition, covering her physique well.
However, something hit him just when he was about to finish his sentence.
A light bulb went off above his head before a quiver reached his lips.
He recognized the metal her armor was made of.
He quickly adjusted his monocle and stepped aside with a calm expression, yet, inside, he was screaming with anger and even hints of fear.
Whoever this woman was, she was more than likely capable of not only affording the merchandise, but she probably could tten him without even blinking.
The man looked up with a respectful nce and saw the face of the woman who had bidst.
She was a few heads taller than him. Of course, he wasn''t profoundly tall either, but being that much taller than him meant that she would stand out among a crowd.
Yet, until she had spoken, not a single person had looked toward her.
It was as if she was some kind of ghost.
She wasn''t profoundly pretty either. She had a slightly crooked nose, as if it had been broken many times in the past. Her face wasrge, and her neck was wide and muscr.
Despite there being no natural blemishes on her face, three long scars could be seen on her face, one of them running over one of her eyes.
She radiated an aura of power, yet deep within the aura, there was also a feeling that made someone respect her by just looking at her, whether that was an enemy respecting the aura of a warrior that she had, or herrades respecting her as their leader.
"Ma''am. I have taken quite a liking toward that one. I''llpensate you with 500 gold coins if you choose to not buy it." The man spoke in a careful and respectful tone.
The woman said nothing for a while, her eyes drilling into the man.
"7-750... How about that?"
She narrowed her eyes further.
"1000. I''ll give you half of what you were going to pay for." The man''s eyes twitched as a pain emanated deep within his heart.
Her eyes finally moved away from him and looked toward the so-called merchandise.
There stood a young girl, no older than 16. Her eyes were empty as if
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Chapter 226 Secrets {4} - Rebellion
226 Secrets {4} - Rebellion
There was no emotion within them. One distinct tiny horn could be seening out of the middle of her forehead.
Her skin was slightly crimson, and two tiny wings could be seening out of her back.
She was frail and tiny, making her look much younger than she actually was. It was as if she hadn''t been fed properly for years, yet, like a starving lion at the zoo, it looked like her soul and will had been beaten to the ground to such a level that it seemed like she had no desire anymore, nor any will to fight back.
"I do not need your money." The woman growled with obvious distaste in her voice.
In that instance, the man felt as if hundreds of eyes had fallen upon him, staring at him from the shadows to rip into him and kill him on the spot.
"2000 going once!" The man on the stage could not help but shiver when he looked into the woman''s eyes. It was clear that she was much stronger than everyone therebined. The only thing he was happy about was the fact that she didn''t seem like she was against what they were doing, and was a strong upholder of thew.
Or, at least, that was what his instincts were telling him.
"2000 gold going twice!" The man looked around, but after seeing that no one intended to refute the offer, a glint of greed shone within his eyes before a grin appeared on his face.
''Thank god I bought this one. Who knew it would make me so rich!''
"Sold!" He pped his hands thrice and yanked the chain on the crimson-skinned demon.
The demon quickly fell to the ground, but she didn''t make a single sound. She quietly got up again and looked at her new master with her dead eyes.
The burly woman walked forward and, grabbed the girl by the chain and dragged her away.
Everyone parted out of the way for her, their eyes glistening with slight envy.
A few minutester, the burly woman entered a few alleyways and reached a particrly dark one. A staircase going down could be seen at the end of it, or at least it could be seen through the woman''s eyes.
The ve didn''t make an expression. If she were to die here, then that would be better than the life she was living.
It didn''t really matter to her, though.
She had already gone through so much that she couldn''t feel anything anymore.
Life was no longer worth living, yet she couldn''t even end it herself due to the cor on her neck that the woman had already imbued with her mana.
Suddenly, in the demon''s eyes, the burly-cloaked woman began to step through the ground itself.
The demon quickly understood that this was some kind of secret hideout, or maybe even a dungeon where they kept their ves. She didn''t know, and she didn''t care.
She quickly stepped into the ground as well and went down the almost neverending staircase.
After what felt like a dozen minutes, they finally reached a t area at the bottom and were connected to a now neverending hallway.
Another 10 minutes passed. Severa cages could be seen on the way to their destination.
Even the demon, who had lost all senses of curiosity, could not help but look at the cages with a dead expression.
There were people inside, yet, they weren''t all demons.
Some were, but there were humans, elves, beastkin, and many more.
There were even a few tiny cages with fairies inside, illuminating the ce with their warm glow.
Eventually, after a while, they seemed to reach something.
At the end of the hall were two enormous doors almost twice as tall as the burly woman.
The woman pushed on the doors and entered inside, and for the first time in a very long time, the demon widened her eyes.
Demons could be seen everywhere. There were no humans in sight... All of them were demons.
"W-What is this..." The girl asked with a stutter.
"This?" The burly woman before her slowly looked, her eyes shining with a blood-red light.
"This is the rebellion." She smiled as two enormous horns came out of her head.
***
---Diamond Academy---
Ss was sitting in an empty lecture hall, his eyes locked upon a form he had written on the board. He had already returned to his emerald hair, so even if someone entered the room, they would recognize him as Game Evergreen, the new student, not Judgement.
It was a chemical form written up like he would have written it on Earth. He didn''t have to worry about anyone seeing it since it was written with English letters, too.
His eyes swept the form briefly, trying to understand it.
Beside him was a green-haired girl with emerald eyes. She was looking at the board with a sense of confusion, but she already understood that there were quite a few things that Ss must have brought from his previous, for example, the writing.
"Can''t you just write it in the human tongue?" She asked with slight annoyance.
"I can..." Ss replied before going quite again.
"So?"
"I won''t though." He shrugged before looking toward her.
"This whole alchemy thing doesn''t make sense." He finally sighed.
"It does. It makes more sense than magic." She raised a brow.
"No it doesn''t. The things you use to magic a potion have no reason to create the potion itself. The potion doesn''t even have reminents of the chemical features that the objects have. It''s like putting a leaf in water and expecting it to create a cake." Ss spoke with slight annoyance.
"Mother said that Gilea helps us."
"We are quite literally breaking thew of physics. We''re essentially creating something out of nothing, since that something ising from something that shouldn''t create it."
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Chapter 227 Learning [1] - The Biology of Bloodlines and Alchemy
227 Learning [1] - The Biology of Bloodlines and Alchemy
"We are quite literally breaking thew of physics. We''re essentially creating something out of nothing, since that something ising from something that shouldn''t create it." Ss crossed his arms with dissatisfaction clearly written on his face.
Ivy was about to refute his im when his eyes suddenly shone, as if he had been enlightened.
He quickly raised his hand and ced a finger on her lips before walking toward the board.
"Unless, I''ve been thinking about this all wrong." Ss frowned slightly.
Alchemy didn''t make sense to him. How could a personpletely change the molecr structure of something by just adding a few things and burning it under a mana me? It didn''t make sense to him.
"Him" is the key phrase.
He was thinking about it like a human from Earth. Throughout his whole life, he had dedicated his life to understanding the world around him to an extent that no other scientist in his field could rival. He understood everything from the molecr structure of the things he touched to the conditions needed to create certain bonds or reactions.
Yet, with the existence of magic, Gilea had flipped all those rules he used to know upside down. When he first entered Gilea, he had always thought of magic as a way to eliminate his limitations on Earth. It is a way to break thews of physics and somehow survive to tell the tale. It was why he found it so normal for things not to make sense.
Hell, he even made that mistake now. He just assumed it wasn''t supposed to make sense since mana was a thing.
But he was wrong.
Thews of the universe are not nonexistent on Gilea. It''s just that, with the existence of mana, they have to be changed around slightly and could even be considered more malleable than thews ced on Earth.
Mana is just a new form of energy that worked in away that no other energy did.
It was a concept that hade to life. With mana, Gilea simply had other options for how the world could work.
''If I stop thinking about things through the eyes of a scientist, but instead through the eyes of a mage, it starts making sense. Damn, why is it so hard to get rid of established habits? Why can''t I just rewrite my way of thinking from when I was on Earth to that of someone from Gilea.'' Ss paused for a moment before letting out a small grin.
''It''s almost like I''m a human.'' She chuckled to himself before dawning a serious expression once more.
''Now, let''s think about this like someone from this would.'' His eyes traveled to the table in front of him. He quickly scanned the ingredients on it and frowned.
There was a patch of silverish-blue fur, a nt that frosted everything around it, and a mineral that he didn''t recognize. Beside them were a tube, a petri dish, and a spherical long vase-like sk.
The sk was ced on a triangr piece of equipment with a narrow metal tube under it.
few drops of blood on the empty petri dish, and pouring as much mana into his mystic eyes as 11:45
possible.
''Biologically and chemically speaking, these things should not have the attributes they do have. Hmm... I always thought bloodline meant a gicponent differed, allowing certain species to have certain abilities, but that''s not the entire story.'' Ss mused before cutting his finger, cing a few drops of blood on the empty petri dish, and pouring as much mana into his mystic eyes as possible.
Narrowing his eyes, his vision zoomed in, allowing him to see at such a level that he could literally watch the blood cells on the Petri dish begin to clot.
Or, at least, that was what was supposed to happen, yet it seemed like the process was a lot slower when it came to his own blood.
''Whenever I absorbed a bloodline, I knew immediately what I could do like that damn skinwalker I killed the other month. I instantly knew I could change my appearance when I absorbed its bloodline. I never saw the need to understand how it happened since I already have a preconceived understanding that I''m only just learning, which ispletely incorrect.'' Ss let out a wry sigh, dropped a finger into the blood, and ced it into his mouth.
This all happened in less than a minute for Ivy, and she was a little stupified when she saw him drink his own blood.
''I wonder if there''s something wrong with me for always falling for maniacs. What do you think, Gilea?'' Ivympooned, but there was no response from the.
She had much better things to do than listen to the whines and thoughts of a child. Of course, that statement alone was not the whole truth. After all, that child just happened to be with the one Gilea called "the destroyer of worlds."
On the other hand, Ss was now swallowing his own blood,pletely ignoring the other party in the lecture hall sitting at the back and watching him with a curious expression.
When he finally swallowed the blood, instead of sending it into his stomach like he usually would do whenever blood would enter his mouth, instead, he chose to use his mana and evolution blessing to assimte it as it went down, before it hit the hydrochloric acid in his stomach.
Ss could feel a subtle change within himself as he assimted the drop of blood. It was as if a door had been unlocked within his mind, revealing a wealth of previously hidden information. Theplex workings of his bloodlines, the intricate intery between his genes and mana, and the true nature of the powers he wielded began to unfold before him.
In a matter of moments, heprehended that his bloodlines were not just about altering his gic code. Instead, they acted as catalysts, igniting a reaction between his genes and the mana that flowed through his body. This intricate dance of gics and magic worked to unlock specific abilities, traits, and attributes inherent in each bloodline.
"It''s not about changing my genes entirely," Ss mused aloud, his voice a mix of realization and excitement. "It''s about making subtle modifications that allow my body to resonate with the mana in a unique way."
As the understanding settled in, Ss felt a surge of rity. He was seeing the world through new eyes,prehending the intricate ties between blood, mana, and power. It was a revtion that transcended his scientific background and embraced the mystical essence of Gilea.
With newfound insight, Ss''s gaze shifted back to the table, his eyes locking onto the ingredients before him. He picked up the nt that frosted everything around it, feeling the mana that emanated from it. He examined the silverish-blue fur, sensing its essence and its connection to his bloodlines. And the unfamiliar mineral, he recognized as a conduit for mana, a keyponent in the alchemical process.
"This isn''t alchemy as I understood it," Ss murmured, his voice a mixture of wonder and curiosity. "It''s a fusion of gics and mana, a harmony between the natural world and magical energy."
His mind buzzed with possibilities. He began to see how thebination of these ingredients, when catalyzed by his blood and mana, would yield a reaction that could create something new that defied the traditionalws of physics.
"Perhaps alchemy isn''t about bending thews of nature," Ss concluded, a glint of determination in his eyes. "Maybe it''s about finding the harmony between nature and magic, about uncovering the threads that bind them together.
The reaction is mostly mana-based. It''s just that the ingredients themselves hold the memory of the ability and bloodline through the form of gics. Mana is more of a catalyst that awakens that gene, making itpatible with the mana itself to create a certain oue." Ss muttered under his breath with excitement. He hadn''t felt like this in a very long time.
"So, through alchemy, I canbine the different characteristics of a product though both mana and genes. However..." Ss'' eyes narrowed again when he saw the mineral. It wasn''t much different than the minerals he had seen before, but he didn''t understand its purpose.
They didn''t have bloodlines. All they had was mana; therefore, how could it be mixed with gic and biologicalponents when it is purely chemical? Sure, that would have worked back on Earth, but on Gilea, where genes were quite literally guides for how the mana should and would work... It didn''t make sense.
"Crap... I''m stuck again." Ss sighed and rubbed his forehead with a tinge of annoyance.
"And I can''t ask our teacher either since he won''t be here until tomorrow." Ss'' annoyance grew once more, and that annoyance remained within him for the rest of the day.
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Chapter 228 Learning [2] - Epiphany
Chapter 228 Learning [2] - Epiphany
A day had passed in what felt like a blink of an eye... Or at least that was the case with Ss.
Ivy was bored out of her mind, so, at a certain point, she decided to leave and go back to her dorm room, which happened to be in the VIP sector.
She could have asked for a house in the nearby cities and would have gotten it due to her status as a princess, yet, she didn''t.
Ss didn''t understand it, but he wasn''t trying to understand it, even when she told him where she lived.
His eyes were locked upon a book before him that exined why minerals were used in alchemy. Of course, since their knowledge of mana was quite limited, the exnation was quite basic, too.
Mana crystals, just like mana cores one could obtain from monsters and beasts, could hold elements within them. Of course, Ss already knew that.
However, the exnation given in the book was far from satisfactory.
Sure, the potion he createdst time through alchemy used several different ingredients with simr characteristics.
However, to understand how creating a potion worked, one must understand what alchemy was and the possibilities of it.
Alchemy itself was a minor form of magic. Through alchemy, one could heal wounds, increase their strength and abilities to rival that of beasts, and even gain new abilities that one would not expect from a human without a blessing.
However, while that was the basics, it was a little more than just that.
When saying "alchemy is a form of magic," it is not an exaggeration. A potion could quite literally have the same effects as a spell, and go beyond the normal abilities of a spell as it broke away from the rule of the magic circle.
Without a magic circle holding it back, one could even reach new heights that magic circles of the same level would not have the capabilities to do.
At the same time, it also broke away from the rule on elemental affinities. It wasn''t much of a problem for Ss since he had an affinity toward mana itself. Still, for people who could only use one to three of the six elements, alchemy was an escape from the shackles that would have usually held them back in certain instances.
For example, the concoction Ss createdst time was one created out of a frost rose, the fur of snow buffalo, and mana crystals that had the water element embedded into them. Sure, to concoct such a potion, one would need to have a water affinity and control the water element with all three ingredients by creating runes fast enough to do such a thing.
At the same time, if someone were to do this without an instruction guide, they would need to have a vast understanding of how mana doubted that was the case for some of the moreplex concoctions he had found in many of the books he had read over and the elements worked inparison to the runes they used.
Of course, this would require a process of trial and error, but Ss doubted that was the case for some of the moreplex concoctions he had found in many of the books he had read over the past night.
The step-by-step process was very intricate, yet, very old as well. It truly made Ss wonder whether there were people in the past with far more advanced knowledge than the current humans. Or maybe mythical creatures with supreme intelligence can understand and see mana through a different lens.
Thetter seemed more usible to Ss; after all, beasts, even with high intelligence, had a connection to mana that allowed them to use it without the use of runes. Maybe they were the people who created the runes, passed it down to the miserable humans, and forgot about them?
Ss shook his head, realizing those thoughts were far beyond the point.
Thinking back, the thought about the capabilities of the potions entered his mind, and the image of the frost potion shed before his eyes.
''If I were to throw such a potion, it would have the same effect as casting a sh freeze. For someone without a water affinity, or possibly for someone without the capability of using ice magic, alchemy is an invaluable product that would dramatically help people in fights...
I wonder why I don''t see more of it. The only person I remember using Alchemy is Greed, and she was a little bit of a maniac...'' Ss inwardly thought before throwing the thought of the woman to the side.
She had already created enough problems for them. The least he could do was try to forget about her to the best of his ability.
"Though, this brings me back to the mineral problem." Ss frowned, his eyes scouting the entire library and seeing no one in sight.
Even the librarian wasn''t there, probably getting another cup of coffee if not going on a break.
Ss scratched his chin and thought to himself, ''I understand that the mineral itself had been injected with the water element and that the runes used to control the mana within the potion being concocted were helping the concocter to use it to create the required effects.
However, minerals are not like biological products. They do not have genes that tell the mana where to go...'' Ss paused as his thought process returned to the runes he was thinking about a moment earlier.
"Wait... Maybe the runes aren''t for every ingredient in the mana. I don''t have all the knowledge about the runes used, so I didn''t understand it the way I would have if I had that information. Which makes you think..." Ss thought back to all the books he read. He had made a mental note that minerals were within every ingredient list. Of course, the minerals themselves differed, but they all had the characteristics of the mana crystals.
It was just that some of them seemed to have more of a single element than others, making them better for certain concoctions and worse for others.
The mineral he usedst time was most likely one gathered from the far north or south of the continent. Since Egdore reached all the way from the north of the world to the south, it wasn''t surprising to find out that it connected to the poles on both ends.
''Therefore, the crystals most likely already had what was needed to create the concoction. However, the problem was that they didn''t have a route¡ªa guide. The runes are that guide, as well as the thing that will help the procedure take ce. Threw the runes, an alchemist can mix the ingredients almost seamlessly.'' Ss thought with enlightenment.
At the same time, the volition me deep within him that symbolized his deep hunger for knowledge burned brightly.
Ss could feel mountains of thoughts and ideas enter his mind, like a dam had been broken.
''Did I just get passed a minor bottleneck, or did I just have an epiphany.'' Ss inwardly thought before choosing to test the idea.
Without much second thought, he left the library and quickly appeared before the alchemyb.
It looked a lot like a chemistryb, but of course, like everything that was rted to magic, it was a bit old-fashioned, as if it was a product of the medieval era.
''Let''s get started, shall we.'' A tucked at the corner of Ss'' lips Ss quickly paced toward one of the many tables and looked over it. There were dozens of beakers, each one of them with different shapes and sizes.
There were also dozens of little tubes meant to be used to store liquids. They had a small cork at the top to stop any possible vapors from leaving.
Grabbing his storage pouch, he quickly emptied a vast portion of his material wealth, most of it being ingredients he could use during alchemy.
''Let''s get started, shall we.'' A tucked at the corner of Ss'' lips before a smile blossomed onto his face.
***
---Demon Continent---
The girl with a tiny horn on her forehead looked on at the scene before her in shock. She had been in this state for a couple of hours now, and it seemed like the people around her didn''t mind it, as if they had seen such a scene many times before.
Hell, some of them even looked at her with understanding, while others looked at her with pity.
She sat down on one of the seats, covered with a nket, and was given an herbal tea native to the demon continent.
The tea rxed her mind, and slowly, her shock turned into gratitude.
It only took a few more minutes for her to understand her situation. It would take her much longer to wrap her head around the fact that she was finally free, but for now, all she could do was wail.
And that''s exactly what she did for the next couple of hours as everyone around he did their best tofort her with the utmost passion and understanding of her situation.
And throughout everything, a single thought went through her mind.
''I''m finally free.''
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Chapter 229 Secrets {5} - The Woman In Black
Chapter 229 Secrets {5} - The Woman In ck
The day she was passed in the blink of an eye for the small demon girl. When her fellow demons gave her food, she ate to her heart''s content, almost to the point where she would have fallen ill if she were a human.
But she was a demon.
Demons had different bodies from that of humans. If anything, with the coursing of mana through their bodies, they were closer to being beastkin than actual humans due to the mana that coursed through their bodies like that of a beast.
Of course, they couldn''t use mana like beasts. Instead, they used hand signs and sometimes even words to create spells.
After a while, the girl''s eyes fluttered before slowly closing and sinking her into a slumber.
Her heart warmed for a moment, and for the first time since the moment of her birth, she had a dream that wasn''t a nightmare.
For once, she could smile in her sleep.
When her eyes fluttered open again, she heard a distinct set of voices enter her ears.
Rubbing her eyes, she got up from where shey and looked around with a riddled expression. Her eyes scanned her whereabouts cautiously, fearing that everything that had happened the night before was just a dream formed by her mind to stop her from going crazy.
Looking down, she quickly patted her neck and sighed deeply.
That sigh was filled with more relief than she had shown throughout her entire life. The ve cor was finally gone; the only thing left behind was her umtedceration marks over the years.
Her eyes quickly darted again, locking upon a certain crowd that was chattering among themselves and surrounding a long pole that came out of the ground.
The pole was several inches thick and reached a couple of meters high. She slowly got off the bench she had been lying on for the past couple of hours. The bench itself was quite hard and would have been ufortable for the normal person, but for her, it was the mostfortable thing she had ever slept on.
Walking into the crowd, she tapped a young man on the shoulder, causing him to look back with a raised brow. When he saw her ragged clothes and the small nket, she wrapped around herself to the best of her ability, a pitying expression appeared on his face before it changed into one of understanding.
"Sister... You must be one of the new ones, am I correct?" The man asked with a slight bow. This caught the attention of the people next to him, but they didn''t dare interrupt the conversation the two demons were having.
"Y-Yes..." The girl spoke with a stutter, finding it weird to be addressed with so much decency.
"I see. I wee you to our humble abode." The man chuckled, trying to relieve the slight tension the girl was feeling.
"Don''t worry, I understand what you''re going through. This must all be so strange to you, right?" The asked while patting her on the shoulder and pulling her into a warm embrace.
Her eyes widened when she saw this, but she didn''t resist. Her eyes were slightly watered, yet, as if the tears had run out, she couldn''t muster a single one.
"The man let go of her and looked her in the eyes. My name is Arcolo. What is your name?" Arcolo asked with a warm smile.
"N-Number 54..." She let out with a slight hint of shame.
The man''s expression turned cold, maybe even angry. His eyes shed red momentarily while his heart beat so hard he could hear it.
However, he quickly reigned in his rage and spoke in a calm tone, "The leader can name youter on... Maybe you can even name yourself if you wish to."
"Name myself?" She thought before shaking her head.
"Is the leader the one who saved me?" She asked
"I''m not sure. I wasn''t here when you arrived. Though, it should be. The leader is the only one who is allowed to leave here freely without any restrictions to her movements. If the rest of us want to leave, we have to be strong in order to recieve a mission outside of this ce. It''s for a our own safety." Arloco sighed.
"Mission... Won''t the humans kill us when they find out that one is us hasn''t been chained... What if they enve us again!" The girl spoke with fear. In her eyes, the humans were unstoppable. This wasn''t a fairytale story like those that her mother would read to her before she was eventually killed. People didn''t survive just because the universe wanted them to.
Everything she saw about the humans told her that she, and the rest of the demons didn''t stand a chance. The humans were armed with magic that none of the demons she had seen in the past dozen years could wield.
Even when some of them wielded magic, it was never to the same extent.
She had watched a single human crush an entire ve colony just because they had done something wrong that cost the man a little gold. And ording to the humans who spoke around her without restraint, that man was considered weak in the eyes of the humans.
Yet, it was better to be a ve to a human than to an elf. After all, from what she had seen, the only thing that brought a smile onto an elve''s face was the creation or torment, and since they couldn''t do that to humans due to the peace agreement they had, demons were the next best thing to use like a training dummy.
Suddenly, her eyes fluttered, and she looked to the side.
Her gaze quickly locked on the pole in the center, and it seemed like everyone else was looking at it, too, as if they felt the same thing she did.
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Chapter 230 Secrets {6} - Liberty
Chapter 230 Secrets {6} - Liberty
Suddenly, a feeling of awe and courage filled her heart when she looked at the top of the pole, where a woman stood, her hair flowing with the winds she created from her movements.
She had pitch-ck hair and two long hornsing out of her head. She had two long fangs, a little like a vampire, and a long tail that whipped about behind her.
Two small wings membranous wings fluttered behind her, glowing an endless pitch ck that would have sucked the soul of anyone who looked directly at it.
Her eyes were a deep crimson, staring and piercing into the souls of everyone before her, while emanating an oppressive aura of a leader that filled the hearts of everyone within the room with courage and racial nationalism.
Everyone in the room felt their demon bloodline run through their veins, energizing every single cell of their being with so much power that their eyes glowed with a deep crimson as well.
As the woman looked down, she ripped off her cloak and brandished her pitch-ck armor with several emerald cores embedded into it.
"Praise the king..." She finally spoke, her voice as melodious as a siren''s song.
"PRAISE THE KING!" They all roared simultaneously, with even number 54 following behind the rest, almost instinctually.
''She''s so pretty.'' the girl thought with awe before looking down at her malnourished body.
She could not help but grit her teeth before eventually letting out a sigh.
She didn''t know demons could look so good. Hell, the woman before looked more attractive than any woman she had ever seen before, elves included.
The woman''s rosy crimson skin reflected the warm lights of the room with immense intensity. Her body was well-defined in all the right areas. If a human had seen her, they would have probably made a statue of her right there and then to preserve her beauty for the future generations.
Yet, despite that, one could instantly tell that he was a warrior. The girl didn''t understand why she thought that way.
''She''s the one who saved me.'' the girl''s eyes widened while remembering the form the woman had taken when she first saved her.
She looked more like a warrior back then. She was tall, and muscr, and even had a few scars on her face.
Yet, now, she was much shorter. The woman was barely 5ft 10, and her physique leaned more toward attractiveness than strength.
cing her hands behind her back, the woman let out a cocky smirk and spoke again.
"The rebellion is close. The objective is to capture and return this city to its former glory. We have to do that within the next month, so the primary objective for now is to train all of you maggots to make sure you are ready for when the timees." The woman spoke, and the crowd cheered with the utmost energy immediately after she stopped speaking.
Her smirk only grew in size when she heard the chants, while her aura grew more intense. Even Arloco was cheering for her.
"However, there is a reason we are taking over this city specifically." She spoke again, silencing the crowd.
They waited patiently for her next words with glistening eyes.
"The king has chosen this ce to be his sanctuary. Soon, he will reach blood core and will be ready to rule over this continent once more. He will bestow us with power and will get rid of our curse once and for all. And when that urs-!" She paused, her grin growing more ferocious while showing off her rows of white teeth and the fangs among them.
"WE WILL DESTROY THOSE LOWER BEINGS THAT DARED ENSLAVE US!" she finally roared, and like a fanatic cult, the crowd roared back, their auras erupting out of their bodies with the same intensity at the woman''s words.
#52 looked on in shock before a smile tugged at the corner of her lips again. The rage she had bottled up for nearly 15 years finally reached her throat, and she let out a roar louder than anyone else''s...
A roar imbued with the energy that had suddenly left her body.
Everyone looked back and was in slight shock when they felt the energy, yet, what they saw only caused them to widen their eyes further.
ck tears ran down the girl''s cheeks before she dropped onto her knees.
A pitch-ck aura with tints of red engulfed her, while ck mes slowly came out of her body.
The auras of everyone around her suddenly moved toward her. The evergrowing mes instantly devoured them, and after almost thirty seconds of this, something else happened.
A pair of blood-red wings left her back, while the horn on her head slowly retracted into her body.
The woman standing on the long pole suddenly appeared in front of the girl with a raised brow, yet, after a significant look, both her brows rose with shock.
"Amazing..." The woman muttered while a smile shone on her face once more.
"When I picked you out... I knew you were special."
"General. What''s happening?" A man to the side asked while taking a step back.
"She just broke the curse... All by herself. Apparently, all she needed was to feel the presence and spirit of other demons... Or maybe, all she needed was to feel hope for once in her life." The woman''s eyes narrowed before she crouched down and, pushed her hand through the dark mes and touched the girl directly.
"It''s going to be okay... You are one of us now."
"General. I remember her saying that she doesn''t have a name." Arloco spoke from the side with the utmost respect.
"Is that so? However, the king already spoke of someone like her appearing soon. He told me to use a specific name for a situation like this." The woman scratched her chin, trying to recollect the name she had been told to give to the ve girl who would break the curse alone.
"I believe he called you... Liberty."
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Chapter 231 The Blood Knight [1] - The Destroyer of Worlds
231 The Blood Knight [1] - The Destroyer of Worlds
---Diamond Academy---
"Has he been following the rules?" An old man asked while walking alongside a younger man with blonde hair and pointy long ears.
"Weirdly enough, it seems like he hasn''t even tried to break any of the rules. Even the girl from the n seemed to have gotten bored from following him around." The man spoke calmly with his eyes shut, yet there was no hesitation in his movements, almost like he could see everything without having to open his eyes.
"Do you think he''s up to something?" The headmaster asked with narrowed eyes.
"I don''t know..." The elf next to the headmaster let out a sigh. At the same time, the headmaster looked at him with shock that he could not hide or hold back.
"You don''t know?" He asked, his words almost containing a stutter.
"That''s right. I don''t know. Even my eyes can''t see through the millions of secrets that boy seems to hold. However, there is one thing that I can tell you for sure." The elf''s eyelids partitioned, creating narrow slits that allowed his bright diamond-like silver eyes to shine.
"He may act weak... He may even underestimate himself. He may even think he''s weaker than us... But we''re wrong. He''s much stronger than any of us could imagine. He''s thought of everything. Everything from the small mistakes he seems to make, to the actions he makes." The elf spoke with a strained tone, yet the headmaster could not help but let out a slightly mocking smile.
"You speak of him as if he is omniscient or something." The headmaster nudged the elf while letting out a huskyugh.
"He''s not omniscient..." The elf paused before looking in a certain direction.
"He''s just thought of everything. For example, he probably wanted me to see that." The elf pointed at where he was looking, but since the headmaster did not have eyes like that of the elves, the only thing he could do was let out of his mana and try to sense any disturbances.
Suddenly, his aura covered the entire academy before his eyes slightly widened.
In the same instance, he fell to the ground while clutching his head, his expression filled with pain and misery.
The elf''s eyes were narrowed, as if not understand why the headmaster had just fallen to the ground. However, he was not stupid enough to release his aura as well and try to sense whatever created such a powerful reaction from the elderly man.
It took a few minutes for the headmaster to get off the floor finally. He could still feel a headache lingering at the back of his head, but he quickly controlled the feeling of nausea and looked back at the elf.
"Awaken master." The headmaster spoke as a small drop of blood came out of the corner of his mouth, streaking down his chin and eventually down his neck, too.
"What!?" The elf widened his eyes before narrowing them down again.
"I can''t-"
"That''s an order." The headmaster roared, causing the elf to flinch.
His eyes moved back to the location of the energy he was seeing.
A green energy pulsed out of the area, slowlying off the room in waves.
The energy was calm, yet, at the same time, it felt like nothing he''d ever seen before.
''Is he really human?'' He inwardly thought before turning around, yet a feminine voice entered his mind before he could get far.
"What kind of creature have your brought into my academy?"
They both shivered when they heard the voice but quickly got onto their knees, not daring to look up.
They didn''t know where she was, but if there was a chance that she was in front of them, they were not about to take the risk of looking up.
A crimson aura suddenly surged through the entire academy before moving upwards.
Suddenly, a crimson pair of eyes looked down at the academy, watching and seeing everything simultaneously. No wall could stop the piercing gaze... Now, power could push the energy back.
Everyone, no matter how strong or weak, felt the energy.#
Ivy, who was sitting in her room absorbing the energy of the rising sun, shivered and looked up.
Her eyes quickly shone white, and she gazed at the pair of illusory crimson eyes in the sky through all the walls and barriers put in ce.
"Gilea..." Ivy muttered, but after she didn''t get a reaction, she could not help but grit her teeth.
Gilea only spoke to her when it was of her interest, and for thest few years, the only thing that seemed to catch Gilea''s interest was Ss himself.
Of course, just because Gilea didn''t respond didn''t mean that she wasn''t watching. She had eyes and ears everywhere, and it was almost impossible to hide something from her.
At the same time, Nymira''s aura red before being instantly suppressed by the domineering gaze from the sky. It felt like the sky itself was staring down at her.
But it wasn''t just that.
She had sensed the power far before everyone else in the room. The moment she breathed into it through her nose, the scent of dread pierced through her mind, instantly taking over her heart.
It was an unfathomably horrid sense of dread that would have made the average person fall to their knees. Fortunately, not everyone had senses as powerful as Nymira''s.
Alex felt it, too, and so did Aka and the rest of the teachers in the academy.
Yet, everyone was having it easy. After all, the gaze was not directed toward them.
It was directed toward a certain room where an individual sat on the ground with several sks before him. Each sk held a different colored liquid that bubbled and boiled as a distinct pale blue me heated it.
The white-haired individual floated a few centimeters from the ground, wearing a pitch-ck robe that had formed seconds earlier and wrapped itself around the individual.
The man''s eyes shone like two emerald stars within the vast ocean of darkness that had swept over the hall.
Two lone stars floated among hundreds of green runes that had never been seen before on that. Green runes that Gilea herself was seeing for the first time.
The runes shifted and changed, illuminating their section of the vast hall yet never reaching the ground...
As if the entire hall was covered in an endless darkness.
As if the hall itself had be the darkness.
A wry smile crept up the man''s lips as he looked at the scene before him with a sinister gaze.
"I really outdid myself this time." Ss'' smile crept further up his face, creating a grin stretching from one ear to another.
The sks before him stopped bubbling, and, eventually, grew still enough that the color within them could be seen properly.
There was a crimson-red potion, a pure white one that let out a milky luster, and a vibrant potion with a golden luster.
The man''s eyes slowly moved upwards and stared right back at the crimson gaze, his body not flinching for a moment, and his eyes remaining locked upon the powerful gaze.
"Now I wonder... Who might you be?"
Ss'' gaze quickly shifted to behind him, and when his eyesnded on a certain location within the endless void, thousands of crimson threads formed out of thin air before slowly wrapping around each other.
"So you''re the Game Evergreen everyone is talking about." A voice spoke from the cluster of threads that were slowly forming a body.
It only took a few more seconds for a feminine figure to appear before him wearing a red and ck robe. Her eyes shone with deep red light, and her silky ck hair with red highlights flowed down her back.
"Are you trying to charm me?" Ss narrowed his eyes and let out a chortle filled with mockery.
The woman was way too beautiful for her not to be using some kind of charm ability on him.
"I''ll take that as apliment." She closed her eyes and let out a wry chuckle.
Ss didn''t say anything, but he couldn''t help but be surprised by what he saw. He had mystic eyes activated, so the only thing he could see were outlines of her figure. Yet, even with his mystic eyes activated, he couldn''t help but feel slightly enamored by her.
''Better now deactivate mystic eyes then.'' Ss thought before taking a step forward.
"How rune of me to not introduce myself..." He smiled before cupping his hand and performing a small bow.
"My name is-"
"I know who you are."
"I am well aware." Ss smiled, having heard her say his name before.
"I don''t think you understand..." She breathed out a sigh and spoke again with a piercing gaze.
"I know who YOU are."
Ss controlled his expression, not showing anything on his face except for the smile that he had on before.
"This was a likely oue." Ss rubbed the back of his head while chuckling.
"You seem to have misunderstood once again." The woman sighed and took a step forward.
Reality warped around her, and instantly, she appeared before Ss.
He didn''t flinch, but she was well aware of the fact that he didn''t see her movements.
"My name is Veronica, The blood knight. Or at least that''s the name Gilea gave me." A smile slowly crawled up her lips.
"And I know who you are, Seth Evergreen..." She paused, her smile almost bing maniacal.
"Or should I call you by your more popr name...
The destroyer of worlds."
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Chapter 232 The Blood Knight [2] - Calculated
232 The Blood Knight [2] - Calcted
"Oh? Let me guess. Gilea told you about me?" Ss didn''t show any shock on his face. He could already see that the woman before him had a ruby core, but it felt different from a normal mana core for some reason.
The mana within didn''t feel like it leaned toward any particr element, and at the same time, it didn''t feel like it was leaning toward pure mana either...
It was something else¡ªa mixture between mana and something truly sinister.
''I can''t tell what her core grade is. All I can tell is that she has ascended to the ruby-core within thest few decades.'' Ss smiled at her as if there was nothing wrong with his situation.
"Heh... Gilea might be powerful and well-versed in the knowledge of this world, but that''s it. She''s not omniscient. No one is. Or at least no one can currently be ssified as such. But Gilea... and believe me when I say this..." A calm smile grew from the corner of the woman''s lips.
"She has no control over the things that are not from this world."
Ss controlled his expression once more. It wasn''t hard to control his expression since he always did it in his previous life. However, when reaching a certain level of power, one loses the need to do something as trivial as controlling one''s own emotions.
Why control your emotions when no one around you could even dare to touch you?
There was a difference between the woman before him and everyone else he had met in the academy.
The headmaster was a prime example of this. He had power that was only a little stronger than Ivy''s, yet Ss found him so much more threatening than Ivy herself because he was wise. He was a man who possibly had more experience than Ss had in both of his livesbined. That was made him so threatening.
Of course, if Ss were to use all the bloodlines he had collected over the years, the man wouldn''t stand a chance. However, Ss was aware of a greater being within the academy. Exposing something like his bloodlines to someone as strong as the woman before him would have proved detrimental toward keeping his secrets hidden from those around him.
Hell, even the people closest to him don''t know about the true extent of his power. All they know is that he can consume and cultivate the blood of certain creatures.
They all assumed that it was some kind of cultivation technique passed onto him by a powerful figure... How wrong they were.
He trusted many of them with his life, but that was beside the point. They might not rat on him, but whatever enemies he might make in the future might have ways of getting that information out of them.
He couldn''t risk it. He couldn''t risk it even if he enved every single one of them.
So, he had made a n. A n that woulde to fruition the moment he stepped into the academy. A n so thought out that even the people around him would not know the difference between instances he had created and reality itself.
Ss knew that Ivy would appear in the academy. He only had to take precautions for when she would appear. Of course, she appeared a lot earlier than he had expected due to Gilea''s interference, but other than that, everything went ording to n.
He knew that she was a part of the royal Dryad family. He had thoroughly researched her and discovered exactly who she was and what capabilities she held.
He also knew that she could find him whenever she wanted. She was powerful, but he mother was on a whole-nother level. A woman capable of connecting with what they called "the almighty tree" would most likely have the ability to find him in an instant.
However, if that wasn''t enough, he left subtle clues about where he would go. He knew Ivy was infatuated with him by how much she monitored him. Of course, she couldn''t monitor him the entire time; he had to ensure clues were left behind.
That''s why he created such a ruckus on the way to the academy. Yet, just like every action he did, those clues he left behind were not just for Ivy. They were for everyone else, especially the few eyes that noted his movements in the past few years.
At the same time, the idea of going to the academy was his idea, to begin with. Throughout thest year, he had subtly manipted every organization to create such an idea in their heads. His being against going to the academy was an act he had to put on. It was a part of the n.
He needed library ess for his future goal, but that could wait for now.
He knew that Ivy woulde for him, and he knew that they would fight. Or, at least, he knew that he would instigate the fight. He only miscalcted her strength, havin'' to whip out his armor mid-way through the fight. Otherwise, it would have been interrupted before he could finish the transaction.
And, of course, the transaction was the contract, or as Ivy put it, "The cor around" her neck. However, Ivy was not the only person he wanted to get in the good books of. Ivy was a princess, not a queen. She didn''t have much power other than the fact that she could influence her mother into making a certain decision.
He needed someone powerful. Someone who could influence the entire continent with their power.
Someone who could influence everyone with a snap of their fingers, and mobilize a quarter of a powerhouse''s army with a single thought.
He knew that kind of person was in the academy, watching everyone''s moves... He just didn''t know where to look.
She was clearly sealed in some kind of space that even his mystic eyes couldn''t see through... So he had to pull her out of wherever she was and bring her before. He knew the only way he could do that was to show her something she had never seen before. Something that would rile up even the strongest people on the.
So, he learned alchemy, understood it, and not only improved upon it but also did something that, within his knowledge, only someone like Gilea could do.
Forceful gic transmutation.
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Chapter 233 The Blood Knight [3] - The King
Chapter 233 The Blood Knight [3] - The King
Forceful gic transmutation.
The ability to change the gics of something before him, by rewriting its DNA in order to get a certain oue. On Earth, that was the point of the healing factor drug. A drug that could quite literally rewrite the gics of a human to give them eternal youth andplete resistance to all types of disease and illness.
Of course, that backfired horribly. Ss still didn''t understand why it had gone out of control like that. It''s almost like it was tampered with, but he knew that wasn''t possible since he was the only one with the knowledge of the life equation.
Maybe humans weren''t ready for such powers? But the same could not be said for a world with magic¡ªa world with mana, and creatures that had adapted to that very same mana.
Plus, the gic transmutation wasn''t being performed on anything alive. Just organic... A Gilea-level feat, one might say.
So, Ss decided to walk into a hall, expand his shadow, and do that very thing. Record the DNA of an organic product to create a potion that would be much better than anything the products he had would create.
Of course, Ss quickly realized that such a feat was nearly impossible with a weaker core. He needed an enormous amount of mana to just form the runes to do such a thing. Yet, since those runes were from the life equation, those alone would have probably caught the attention of every powerful figure on Gilea if he had not cked out the room.
Through the eyes and senses of an emerald core, the runes would have simply been something that are far too strong for them to understand, therefore giving them a headache.
On the other hand, if he hadn''t cked out the entire hall, though, that same emerald-cored mage might have died on the spot or, worse, mutated into an unstoppable monster.
However, he knew that the runes from the life equation that he used wouldn''t affect someone with a ruby core to the same extent, and from his understanding of things, the higher level being within the academy was most likely a ruby core, if not a high grade one at that.
Sure, the life equation was a highlyplex set of millions of runes, each one meaning a different thing, yet the woman before him wouldn''t die if he simply used the runes that gave off the least threatening energy within the equation.
So, using those, runes, Ss changed the gicponent of the ice rose, giving it a different way to guide the mana. By doing so, not only did he create a more efficient potion, but he also somehow increased the effectiveness of that very potion, increasing it by an entire grade.
Ss didn''t know the grades for the potions yet, but it seemed to have been done on a numbered basis. The books he read seemed to think of the knowledge he was looking for as too rudimentary to mention it fully, but Ss understood that there were probably around 9 or 10 grades. He just didn''t know whether grade 1 or 9 was better.
Eventually, after the potion concoction, the woman before him finally showed up. The concoction could still be seen floating behind him within the vast emptiness of the abyssal hall, yet, the runes had already disappeared into thin air.
Ss'' focus shifted back to the woman after recalling everything that had happened until this very moment. He looked her in the eyes, his smile growing calmer as the seconds passed.
The woman didn''t say anything after her previous words but didn''t find the need to. After all, her eyes were transfixed on the potion floating behind the boy before her, her gaze never wavering, as if she was trying to decipher whaty before her very eyes.
A few seconds passed as this silence continued, but after a while, the woman, Veronica, broke out of her trance-like state and tightened her hands behind her back.
She quickly reeled in her interest but knew it was toote. She had heard tales about the man before her, and she knew he could break everything about her down to her upbringing from a single gaze.
At that moment, she understood that everything before him was a ruse. She was a part of his vast n, and she had fallen right into the of the interconnected spectrum that was his goal.
Yet, despite seeing it, she could not turn down what she saw before him, and she knew that the boy before her knew that.
"What do you want?" She finally gritted her teeth and pushed down her pride. She could not let her academy suffer due to it, so the only thing she could do right now was get the best offer she could get.
"You said that Gilea doesn''t know my name." Sspletely ignored her question and spoke the questions on his mind. He slowly turned around, his arms behind his back just like the Veronica, yet, she couldn''t help but slouch her shoulder slightly and bend her back as if something was weighing her down.
"Then, how do you know me?" Ss asked, his voice cold and distant, while his eyes glistened with every glowing emerald that burned from deep within his eyes.
Veronica''s eyes traveled upwards to look into the eyes of the boy before her, yet, she couldn''t.
Her instinct was to look away. To not look directly into the eyes of the unknown.
She knew that she could tten him within a moment and not waver for a second, even if he tried his hardest to fight back, but she couldn''t.
She had heard so many tales about him from when she was younger that it felt like her instincts were formed to keep her cautious of that very person.
"The king..."
"The king?" Ss raised a brow.
Veronica paused, her expression remaining calm, as if she wasn''t at all threatened by Ss. Yet, inwardly, she was trying to weigh whether or not she should tell him more.
After a few seconds, she closed her eyes, tightened her fist, and parted her lips to speak the final few words.
"The king of Xylem. He told me about you many years ago. Before you came to this world. He gave me your real name, the name you''ll use when youe to Gilea, your nickname, Judgement, and even the name that Gilea and the others refer to you with."
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Chapter 234 The Blood Knight [4] - The Curse
234 The Blood Knight [4] - The Curse
"The destroyer of worlds?" Ss asked with a knowing smile.
Veronica controlled her facial expressions and smiled as well.
"Yes." Suddenly, her facial expression changed, and she repeated her previous question.
"What do you want?" She asked once more, cutting straight to the case.
"The real question is what you want. You are the ruby core." Ss chuckled.
"You''re right, but I''m a little bit of a pacifist you see. I wouldn''t force you into anything you might not want." She smiled back.
"Oh really? Did the king teach you that too?" Ss raised a mocking brow.
"Once you live as long as me, you understand that pain, destruction, and violence isn''t the answer to everything." She muttered, yet her voice was as clear to Ss'' ears as when she spoke normally.
She looked to the side, her eyes filled with a sense of longing. Her eyes were pointed upwards, and when Ss looked in the direction with his mystic eyes, he saw what she was looking at.
Her eyes gazed upon the moon as if there was nothing in between blocking her vision.
"Ruling with an iron fist only brings pain and misery to both parties." She narrowed her eyes and looked back at Ss.
"So what will it be?"
"I''m assuming you want my abilities as an alchemist." Ss'' smirk remained evident, and his gaze remained vignt. "You''re half right." She sighed, knowing full well that the boy... No. The man before her knew exactly where the conversation was going to go.
He was the kind of person to ask a question while already knowing the answer. You never truly know what he knows and what he doesn''t. In her eyes, he was a giant question mark. The fairy-like stories about him were just that. Stories. They didn''t mean anything in front of the real deal.
Plus, how could she know that he had be THAT Seth Evergreen? For all she knew, this might be a much younger version that was not the same one that she had heard about in the mythos and legends. ''I have to be careful about what I say in front of him.'' She thought before speaking once more.
"What you just did. Changing the characteristics of a organic matter..."
"Can you do that on people?" She asked, her eyes wavering for a moment.
"And if I could? What would you pay to have such a thing by your side?" Ss tilted his head to the side with curiosity written all over his expression.
"I''ll help you against the humans that have taken your family." She spoke adamantly, yet simultaneously, his words felt like ones without meaning. As if what she had just said didn''t mean anything to her.
"You speak as if you are not a human." Ss pointed out.
''This bastard.'' Her brows twitched as she tried her best to stop herself from letting out a scowl at his words.
"Let me guess? From your pale skin, fangs, and weird mana core, I can assume you''re a vampire, right?" He quickly winked at her, making her narrow her eyes further.
"Yes. That is correct." She gritted her teeth.
"My understanding of vampires is pretty narrow. We didn''t have them in my previous world. Or at least, they weren''t real back then." Veronica''s eyes widened when she heard his words. She couldn''t believe he would talk about his previous world so casually. After all, despite knowing about his previous world, she felt like it was impossible to get someone like him to talk about it.
"Not real?" She hid her confusion and shock behind a question.
"Though, from my knowledge, I can tell you that there are quite a few simrities between the myths of vampires back then and the vampires in this world.
My understanding tells me that you are a tribe of the demon race, a little like how the felines are a tribe of the beastkin race. There are different types of demons, some being considered stronger than others. The demon race was cursed back during the war between you guys and the humans..." Ss paused and looked at her, his gaze piercing into her soul.
"Though, I doubt you were born a vampire. Most likely, you were transformed into one. Each part of the demon race has their own curse, per se, since the curse on the demon race manifests itself differently depending on which race you are...
And since you are a vampire, the curse has manifested in a way that made it impossible for you guys to walk out in the sun without burning to a crisp and impossible for you to procreate. I''m assuming there are a few other weaknesses, but damn... You guys would be pretty strong if the curse didn''t exist. I wonder how we won the war in the first ce." Ss chuckled, but Veronica was not surprised by his knowledge. It made sense for him to know so much, and she could assume that even if he didn''t learn everything from a book or a person with vast knowledge, he most likely understood the situation by simply connecting the dots.
"Oooh! Let me guess. You assume the curse has not cursed your bodies or souls but changed your gics forever. And you want me to change your gics so you don''t have to suffer like the rest of your kind. You either want me to change you back to a human, or change you into a vampire free of the curse." Ss inferred.
"As expected from you. I didn''t even have to exin myself." She sighed; however, she knew that he got a few things wrong. Of course, with him assuming everything independently, she only had to tell him whether he was right or wrong, unwilling to speak more than needed.
"Heh... But I won''t do it. Not for the price you have given me." Ss shrugged.
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Chapter 235 The Blood Knight [5] - Freedom
235 The Blood Knight [5] - Freedom
"Heh... But I won''t do it. Not for the price you have given me." Ss shrugged.
"You don''t want to save your family?"
"No, I do. But, I don''t need you to do it. I''ve already got someone else to help me with the consequences of attacking a noble family of the Xylem kingdom. Using you instead would be overkill. Like, super overkill." Ss chuckled.
"I can destroy the Skrks on my own. I just need to get the timing right. My family will have to hold on for a month or two. I can''t afford anything going wrong." Ss'' expression shed with coldness for a moment before returning to its normal state again.
"Then, what do you want?" She asked again, repeating the age-old question.
"I want you to help me with an uing endevour." Ss paused, as if pondering something. He rhythmically tapped his lips with a curious expression before letting out a tiny smile and asked her with an almost transcendent tone that reverberated and rilled through the vast darkness of the hall they were in.
"Let me ask you this. Have you heard of the lost continent?" Ss asked, a single brow raised.
***
-30 Minutester-
The vast darkness was empty, without nose or vision to fill it.
Everything stood still, as if time itself had chosen to freeze in ce.
Veronica, with her slightly widened eyes, nodded.
"I understand, and I ept your terms." She said in a low tone, her heart beating in her ears with the blood she had absorbed in the past pumping through her veins.
She had been hit with a revtion that had shaken her world, and right now, she was trying her best to remain calm. Her forehead''s pale skin wrinkled, a scowl forcing itself onto her face.
Even if someone decided to listen in and try to understand what Ss was talking about, there was no way they would evene close topleting his mission.
Only someone like the king of Xylem couldplete it, yet even he would take several years, if not decades.
Yet, Ss spoke of the mission as if it was something on his to-do list. Something he would casually shift his focus toward after ''rescuing'' his family.
"Then, I believe we have a deal." Ss smiled and ced his hands behind his back once more. His clothes wriggled and shifted, slowly morphing into apletely different outfit.
His pitch-ck robes with hints of emerald turned into his casual outfit. He wore a long ck coat, suit shirt, tie, and ck trousers.
Veronica''s gaze didn''t flicker once toward his figure. It was almost like she didn''t even see his clothes suddenly shift and transform into something else.
Suddenly, the vast darkness around them also began to wriggle like millions of ck worms, before eventually turning murky and muddy in nature.
The ck tar-like substance slowly slid off the hall''s walls and moved toward the soles of Ss'' feet that sucked in everything around it like a whirlpool. The shadow became everything from water to smoke, wrapping around Ss and eventually entering the soles of his feet.
In the end, the only shadows in the room left were those created by the obstruction of light, making the scene a few moments earlier feel almost like a distant dream.
"I''ll take my leave me." Ss showed a small wave before eventually leaving the hall, not bothering to take the concoction he created with him.
When he left the room, his eyes scoured the area around him.
When observing that no one around him could see him, he looked at the ground and watched his shadow expand from below him before he dropped into and closed the shadow behind as if it was never there, to begin with.
***
---Demon Continent---
Liberty stood within a vast darkness, her now crimson eyes darting all around with clear fear and anxiousness within her eyes.
She didn''t know where she was and could only move her eyes.
The vast darkness was filled with millions of sparkling stars, each one radiating with an otherwordly luminance that shone across gxies.
Yet, despite their light, the only sensation they created within the girl''s heart was one of coldness. As if they were all eyes, throwing scrutinizing gazes toward her as if they were trying to decipher her very existence.
Liberty''s breath quickened as she felt a presence, a weighty sensation pressing upon her from all sides. It was as if the darkness itself was alive, watching, judging. Her heart raced as she struggled toprehend her strange and unsettling environment.
"Where am I?" she whispered, her voice barely audible against the vast expanse.
No response came, only the twinkling of stars that seemed to mock her confusion. She took a cautious step forward, her surroundings stretching and shifting with each movement. She was trapped in an endless void, unable to escape or find a reference point.
Panic gnawed at her, threatening to overwhelm her senses. She tried to call out, but the void swallowed her voice, disappearing into the emptiness around her. With trembling hands, she reached out toward one of the stars, hoping to find something tangible to anchor herself to.
Her fingers brushed against the distant light, and a surge of energy coursed through her, sending shivers down her spine. It was a sensation she couldn''t quite exin ¨C a connection to something greater, something beyond herprehension.
As she focused on the star, her vision began to blur and distort. Colors shifted and merged, forming shapes and patterns that danced before her eyes. She felt as if she was peering into a kaleidoscope of memories, emotions, and thoughts, each one a fleeting glimpse of someone else''s experiences.
Fear, joy, sadness ¨C a whirlwind of emotions engulfed her, overwhelming her senses. It was as if she was glimpsing the innermost feelings of countless beings, their hopes and fears intertwined in a tapestry of shared consciousness.
She heard the metallic ring of chains being shattered. Chains that had held down her body and soul for so long felt like she was being freed for the first time in her life.
She was being given freedom that felt much grander, giving her freedom from being enved. Rather, it felt like a freedom that had been taken away from her at the moment of her birth.
A curse that chained their entire kind.
The experience was both mesmerizing and terrifying. Liberty felt a deep connection to these emotions, as if they were echoing within her own heart. It was as if the darkness itself was revealing the hiddenyers of existence, showing her that she was not alone, that her individuality was just a drop in the vast ocean of consciousness.
Tears welled up in her eyes as she grappled with the enormity of it all. She felt insignificant and profoundly connected, a paradox threatening to consume her sanity. She closed her eyes, trying to shut out the overwhelming sensations.
Seconds passed, yet, to her senses, it felt like a day had passed.
And then a week.
A month.
A year.
A decade.
A century.
If not for the mysterious energy keeping her sanity and mind intact, she would have gone crazy. Yet, despite everything she went through, her state of mind, thoughts, and being remained the same.
Or at least, that was until something shone on the innards of her eyelids.
A single rune that seemed to represent more than Gilea''s entire existence. A rune that had power that encapsted every single star in the vast darkness. Yet, it still felt like it was just a single rune that had been broken off from a muchrger being.
An iplete equation formed from the scraps of something greater.
The rune appeared at the palm of her hands, and when she looked down at it, a single word echoed at the back of her mind.
"Freedom."
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Chapter 236 Liberty {1} - First We Feast
236 Liberty {1} - First We Feast
Liberty''s eyes snapped open, her breath ragged as she jolted upright. The memory of the vast darkness and the overwhelming sensations clung to her mind like a fading dream. She was back, back in her own body, her own reality.
Gasping for air, she wiped the cold sweat from her forehead, her heart still racing from the intensity of her experience. She looked around, her surroundings slowlying into focus. The room was dimly lit, and the shadows seemed to dance around her as if whispering secrets of the otherworldly realm she had just left.
Slowly, she pushed herself up into a sitting position, her muscles feeling strangely heavy yet more alive than ever. She nced down at her hands, noticing the rune that had manifested on her palms in the midst of her dream-like state. It let out a faint glow, casting a soft, ethereal light on her skin.
She staggered off her bed, standing on her legs and trying to bnce herself midway. It felt like this was the first time she''d ever walked, yet, simultaneously, the instincts of what felt like a million lives kicked in, as if they were trying to teach her how to walk.
Her eyes quickly wandered the room, scanning everything within it with caution and scrutiny.
A normal person would have thought of the room as nothing big, but it was like a haven to her.
The room was well-lit with the flickering candle mes. Most candles themselves were no longer than one''s pinky finger, while some reached the size of a middle finger. They had thick stumps of frozen wax at the bottom, indicating how long it had been there.
There is a wooden table with stools on the side. The stools looked light; they might have been grabbed from a bar rather than havee as a set with a table that reflected different shades of brown than the stools.
There were no windows in the room, yet there were grid-like vents at the top and bottom of the room, ced in the middle, as well as all eight corners.
Cranking her stiff neck to the side, Liberty gazed at the bed behind her. It wasn''t anything that the humans that had enved her used, but it was definitely better than anything she''s ever slept on in her life.
The texture of the mattress covering was smooth and soft on her skin. The mattress itself was soft and spongy, making her feel like she had been embraced in a warm hug throughout the night that only the warm and soft nketpleted.
And even the pillow felt as smooth as a baby''s hand caressing her face.
Liberty turned her head back and looked toward the sink at the end of the room. She staggered toward it, yet it wasn''t because walking was difficult, but rather, too easy. She felt too light. She felt a single wrong step would send her flying through the walls of her room... If she could even call such a haven her own.
When she stood over the sink, her mind returned to what the humans used to do. She would watch them wash their faces in the morning before cleaning their teeth with a weird instrument. Of course, she didn''t have such a luxury. After all, she would usually have to clean herself with the cattle.
Filling up the sink before her with water, she dipped her hands into it in a cup-like motion before sshing it on her face. After a while, she stopped. She didn''t know what to do next.
It was only then that her eyes fell upon the mirror before her.
Liberty''s eyes widened as she gazed into her own reflection. It was her in the mirror, right? It had to be. That''s how mirrors worked.
Yet, she couldn''t believe her eyes. She stared down at the water in the sink and saw a faint reflection of herself before rubbing her eyes and trying again.
Only after a few minutes did she believe what she was seeing. Her heart swelled with mixed emotions. Her breath hitched in her throat. The reflection that stared back at her was both familiar and foreign. Gone was the image of a malnourished and fragile girl. In its ce stood a young woman with long, flowing white hair that cascaded down her back like a waterfall of moonlight.
Her once pale and sicklyplexion had transformed into a healthy, radiant glow. Muscles and curves had reced the frailness she had grown ustomed to. Her features had matured, giving her an air of confidence and beauty she had never known.
However, the most distinct change had to be her horn... or, more urately, horns.
The tiny horn that came out of her forehead was no longer there, reced by two crimson horns that came out of the sides of her head and arched above her head.
Liberty''s hand instinctively went up to the horns to see if they were real. They were rough and had many ridges, yet the top was pointy, almost to the point where it nearly pricked her even to touch it. Her hands then went down to her face, her fingers tracing the contours that were now more defined and captivating. She hardly recognized herself, the reflection in the mirror a testament to the changes that had urred within her during her strange journey through the cosmic void.
Once a deep shade of orange, her eyes had transformed into a striking shade of crimson, the same color as the eyes of the demons she had encountered. But these eyes held a fire, a determination that burned fiercely within her soul.
A determination that went far beyond her own beliefs and goals, but rather encapsted the beliefs and goals of her people.
Her white hair flowed behind her like a mantle of stardust as she walked toward the door at the end of the room. With a deep breath, she straightened her back, her movements fluid and confident. The fabric of her clothes now clung to her figure in a way that emphasized her newfound vitality. She felt different, empowered, as if the very essence of the cosmos had chosen her for a greater purpose.
Each step she took left a frosty footprint behind that quickly thawed and turned into a misty steam.
Finally, a low click resounded within the room as the door slid open, allowing the hallway''s light to pierce through, illuminating her figure and causing her to squint. After her eyes got used to the light, she only saw a hallway simr to the one she had walked through when she came to the demon camp in the first ce. Her eyes wandered for a moment before locking upon the beautiful woman before her who sat on a bench in front of her room with her arms folded and her legs crossed.
A long, jagged sword was ced next to her. It was a pitch ck with crystals that allowed it to shine with a certain shade of crimson.
"Oh? You''re finally awake." A woman with a pair of enormous pitch-ck wings and horns asked. Her body was d from top to bottom with armor that clung tightly to it, making it very easy to move in.
The woman looked Liberty up and down, her eyes scrutinizing every inch of her body before pursing her lips and letting out a wry grin.
"You''ve grown. Even the gown I gave you doesn''t seem to fit." The woman pointed while looking at her clothes that were about to burst.
"Here." The woman stepped forward and tapped Liberty on the chest, leaving a small stone there that stuck to her clothes.
Suddenly, the gown shone brightly before turning into a mist that revolved around her body.
It quickly reconstructed, and when Liberty looked down, the white gown was no more, having been reced by a ck and white Victorian dress that reached her ankles in length.
"That''s better. However, you''ll need to change out of it when we go to train. I''ll give you a training outfit." The woman said before turning around and walking toward therge double doors in the distance, with the expectation that Liberty would follow behind.
"W-Wait..." The Liberty called out with a stutter.
The woman nced back with a raised brow.
"I-I didn''t get your name."
"My name?" The woman smirked.
"You will call me General Lethastra," Lethastra spoke with authority in her voice, while her pitch-ck hair shone, glowing with a midnight purple radiance before it returned to normal.
Liberty chose not to question what she just saw and simply followed behind the woman until they got into the room behind the double doors.
"But for now..." Lethastra muttered before turning back to look into the eyes of the girl beside her. "We feast." She smiled warmly while Liberty widened her eyes as they fell upon hundreds of dishes and hundreds of demons eating.
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Chapter 237 Outing [1]
237 Outing [1]
---Diamond Academy---
"And then, I had to kill the damn dragon. I chopped its head off with my de and took its core for myself!" Nymira spoke with her hands on her hips, and her chest puffed out.
She was surrounded by several girls around her age, and even a few boys who seemed to have been enamored by a little more than just her story.
Both Ss and Alex could be seen walking a few meters behind them, with a trio of girls around Nymira''s age beside them. They were all walking toward the assembly hall since the headmaster had called for them for some reason.
"Wow... Nymira is amazing! Right! Right!" One of the girls in the group with long ck hair and brownish-orange eyes asked while nudging the girl beside her with a broad smile on her face. She was not strikingly attractive, yet even Ss could tell that she took care of herself in a way that was not reflected in the crowd around her.
"It''s a shame she isn''t around often. It would be nice to get to know here a little more." The golden-haired girl sighed before tapping her forehead.
"Truly a shame. She would have made a freat sparring partner." Another ck-haired girl spoke from the side. Her hair was not nearly as long as the first girl''s ck hair, yet she made up for it in many other ways. She was well built and had an amazing physique, yet, at the same time, she looked like someone who hadn''t slept properly in days due to the bags under her eyes.
''She''s strong.'' Ss thought while observing the girl from the corner of his eyes, effectively ignoring Alex''s ramblings.
Ss scanned the golden-haired girl for a moment, and while he core and magical abilities did not seem nearly as impressive as Alex''s, she was quite powerful in her own sense.
Ss'' eyes moved toward Nymira, who was telling everyone about her adventures outside of the academy. Of course, most of them were lies, but Ss was used to such a scene. People who saw Nymira''s sword were usually quite skeptical of who she was, and when she would eventually show them her prowess, they would listen to her stories like maniacal fan girls.
It was as if they thought that her stories would somehow have some trick to exin how she got so strong. Of course, that wasn''t the case since most of the stories were fake.
"Damnit! She always does this. Makes us feel like side characters!" Alex shouted from the side, catching a few people''s attention.
"Us?" Ss tuned back in and raised a brow.
"Y-Yeah!" Alex looked around and whistled before trying to widen the gap between himself and Ss.
Ss could not help but smile slightly when seeing this, but he quickly shifted his attention back to the group of girls. His eyesnded on the golden-haired girl with the spectacles who was looking right at him.
They were all looking right at him.
''Shit. Did my hair change color again?'' Sils thought to himself and looked at his hair, yet it was still green.
''Why the hell are they looking at me then? Oh... Must have been that damn bastard.'' Ss turned around and looked at Alex with a scowl before turning back toward them with a subtle smile.
Yet this time, they were walking toward him.
''God damnit. I''m going to kill him.'' Ss repressed the urge to decapitate Alex on the spot and tilted his head as if curious and confused.
"I heard you talking crap about our friend." The girl with long ck hair tapped Ss'' on the chest, pushing his back slightly.
''Friend?'' Ss thought and quickly scanned them. A hundred thoughts went through his mind, trying his best to recall if he had met them before. ''Oh yeah... Nymira told me that she has roommates. I just hadn''t met them before.'' Ss concluded. Since he hadn''t actually met them before, they didn''t know him, and he didn''t know them. The only reason he was looking at them in the first ce was due to the aura the short-haired girl was letting off.
"I did nothing wrong." Ss''s expression turned slightly serious before his hand moved toward a red-haired individual.
They all looked at the kid, shuddering at their gazes before looking back at Ss with almost disgust.
"So this is how low you are? ming your own actions on a kid?" The golden-haired girl pushed up her spectacles with a sense of disgust in her tone.
"Hey. I wouldn''t say anything bad about Nymira. Oh, wait... I definitely would." Ss paused and stared into thin air, as if he was having a dilemma.
"I would definitely insult her. Though, she''s my friend, so that doesn''t matter." Ss shrugged and let out a small smile.
The ck-haired girl, nka, was about to retort when a distinct melodious voice entered their ears.
"I suggest you let go of him..." A green-haired girl asked from the side as she wore the smile of the devil on her face. Her hands were behind her back, and her aura made the people before her feel like they were being pressed into the ground by immense gravity.
"Ivy?" nka squeaked out, her eyes having widened after seeing a familiar figure.
"Oh. Hey nka. Long time no see." Ivy smiled at the ck-haired girl, yet not for a moment did she reduce her aura.
By now, the only ones that weren''t affected by her aura were Ss and Nymira, since even Alex was having a hard time standing.
Ivy wasn''t wearing her school uniform. Instead, she wore an elegant white dress that reached her ankles. If not for the fact that she was missing a veil, she would have looked like a bride seconds away from getting married.
"Did you crash a wedding or something?" Ss could not help but ask aloud. The question caught Ivy off-guard, but after a few seconds, she couldn''t hold in her chuckle any longer.
"No. I wouldn''t do such a thing..." She paused before adding, "If it doesn''t have anything to do with you of course." She giggled.
''She''s giving me Harley Quinn vibes. All she''s missing is a hammer, a circus outfit, and some face paint.'' Ss tapped his chin in thought.
"Who are you?" Nymira''s voice entered Ss'' ear from the side. Her sword was pointed toward Ivy, and her aura had red to encapste the entire hallway, yet, it only got a few inches away from her before being immediately crushed by Ivy''s.
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Chapter 238 Outing [2]
238 Outing [2]
Ivy was about to go further, yet, that''s when she felt as if she had been stabbed a million times.
She felt her soul being crushed under the weight of the contract she had made with Ss, making her quickly understand that the girl before him was not someone she wanted to mess with. It wasn''t because she was strong, but rather because she was one of the only people Ss cared for.
Yet, somehow, the idea of breaking the contract use was thest thing on her mind.
After all, what was more terrifying than making the destroyer of worlds your enemy?
"I apologize. I didn''t know you cared for her." Ivy gritted her teeth and bowed, a hint of envy clear in her voice.
"Nah, its cool." Ss threw her a nonchnt thumbs up and turned around. "Wait, what?" Nymira asked, bbergasted at what she just heard.
"We have an assembly to attend anyway." Ss shrugged and moved away. The rest just looked at each other with confusion. Everyone had a million questions they wanted to ask, but with Ss no longer there, they could only turn toward one another in the hope that they would know their answers.
A few minutes passed by quickly, and they had all reached the hall within those minutes.
Ss'' eyes scoured the hall, his eyes pausing on a few individuals that he could not help but look at twice.
The hall looked ordinary. Its floor was made of oakwood nks, and the same could be said for the stage that stood a few feet off the ground.
Ss'' eyes moved toward the stage where the figure of an old, scrawny man stood kneeling against his kane. "He doesn''t have many years left." Ss sighed to himself.
"Yeah. At most, maybe half a decade? Though, he is quite old so it is expected." Ivy spoke from Ss'' side. Ss stared at her for a moment before sneering.
Mystic eyes were the only reason he could track her in his current state. If not for it being constantly active, Ss would have most likely had a problem knowing where she was at all times.
His mana fusion would have made it significantly easier to see her, while wind and lightning fusion would have made her movements feel like the motions of a snail.
"They should really add chairs to this ce." Ss heard Alexining in the distance while Nymira constantly argued with him aboutining.
*THUD*
The headmaster suddenly mmed his cane on the ground, causing a loud boom to resound within the vast hall.
"Today I brought you here for one reason." He paused, as if trying to see if the hall was silent or not.
No one dared to speak, yet Ss didn''t know whether it was due to his aura or his status within the academy.
"The tournament between the four academies is just over the horizon, and the academy needs to know who will participate." He exined before watching a wave of understanding nods go through the audience.
"So, we will be holding a trial. No single student will participate in this trial, no matter how young or old. Of course, if you do not wish to participate in the tournament, you can sit it out. However, there 10:17
will be big prizes this year, and you don''t have to win to get one. It''s a little like a participation reward. You also get a reward for the bracket you fall into. For example, being in the top 10, 25, 50, and 100 will all have prizes of their own; it goes all the way up to the top 1000 students throughout all of the academies, and the rest simply receive participation rewards." The old man exined.
"I think I get what my mother was talking about when she said this generation is soft." Ivy sighed with disappointment.
"Old people always say that about new generations. Don''t take it to heart." Ss chuckled.
"You would know." Ivy snickered.
"Ivy... I have a question." Ss looked to the side, his eyes locking upon Ivy''s
"What''s wrong?" She tilted her head to the side, making an expression that even Ss had to admit was a little cute.
"What do you want?" He finally asked. She scowled momentarily, yet the expression disappeared as fast as it had appeared.
She quickly grinned and parted her lips to speak-
"For you to-"
"And don''t say that love bullshit." Ss cut her off. "Can''t I be motivated by love?" She asked with a raised brow.
"For your personality and being to bepletely reliant on another person''s life? This isn''t a harem story where the love interest ispletely one-dimensional and loses all personality the moment the main character gets her."
"I''m a love interest?" Ivy flushed red.
"Was that the only thing you got from what I said?" Ss grew agitated.
"No... I heard you." She paused for a moment before sighing. They were bothpletely ignoring what the headmaster was saying, yet, no one around them tried to quiet them since Ivy had ced a field around them that stopped others from listening in.
"One-dimensional character without a personality huh? Is that the way you think of me?" "Yes." Ss didn''t hold back.
"It makes sense, I guess. But, you wouldn''t get it even if you knew everything." She retorted, her voice nd. There was no emotion in it, yet, to Ss, it was a tone of voice he recognized.
Pain. That''s what she was feeling. "Though, despite the description you gave me, wouldn''t you say that Nymira is an example of what you just said?" Ivy asked from the side, a mischievous smirk on her lips.
"What? No. I don''t think she would count as a love interest." Ss raised a brow before continuing. "She''s more like a child I find the need to take care of. Like a stray kitten you may find on the street, you know? She just happened to be a lion''s cub acting like a kitten, but you know what I mean."
"I wonder if you were this dense in your previous life." Ivy chuckled before looking at Nymira, who was staring at Ss with a shocked and pained expression.
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Chapter 239 Outing [3]
239 Outing [3] "Are you not going to get ready?" Ss asked while looking to the side.
It had been almost a day since hisst conversation with Ivy, and right now, they were both in a vast hall getting ready for the outing. The old man had given them a day to get ready for anything, and while Ss didn''t need it, he didn''t mind if the people around him thought that he did.
"Unlike you humans, I don''t need armor." Ivy smirked from the side with her chest puffed out in pride.
"Really? Not even to boost you physical abilities? You''re quitecking in that field." Ss chuckled and turned around.
He was currently wearing a long coak that he had wrapped around himself. There were two daggers hidden within that cloak, ced on his belt. On the other hand, he had an axe that had been holstered on his back. Such a thing was more of a diversion to any intelligent creature he might have to fight, rather than beasts. Of course, for the beasts, he would use his axe. He was more proficient in its use. After all, daggers weren''t really his style to begin with.
Under his cloak, he wore some basic armor over his chest and abdomen and strapped on some forearm covers made out of leather.
Of course, he didn''t need any of it. Not because he already had armor, but because the leather gave him about as much protection as paper. It didn''t matter if anyone hit him or not. They wouldn''t hit him at all if he wanted to, but even if he let them, they would not get past his skin.
Even Ivy, who was an emerald-cored individual, couldn''t get past his skin. She would have eventually, but he stopped it in its tracks by dawning his armor.
After ensuring he had everything on him, Ss paced toward Nymira and Alex, who were both getting ready as well,pletely ignoring the green-haired woman behind him who had been clearly following him for thest few hours of the day.
She wore simple ck leather pants paired with a stylish white shirt. On her hip, one could see a rapier on her hip that reflected the room''s light at its full radiance. It was clear that the needle-like de had never been used before, and to Ss'' knowledge, it was most likely just for show.
Her hair was wavy, barely reaching her shoulders in length. One side was brushed behind one of her ears, while the other was free to ruffle around whenever it wanted to.
Ivy felt Ss'' scrutinizing gaze and let out a small smile. Ss quickly rolled his eyes and turned away from her with a sneer. He could not be bothered with her right now.
His gaze quickly fell upon the pink-haired girl in the distance before traveling to the red-haired boy beside her. However, when he saw them, he could not help but narrow his eyes.
Alex looked like he was trying to keep his distance from Nymira. On the other hand, Nymira looked angry. More angry than usual. Ss cocked his head to the side in confusion but shrugged it off. Nymira got angry all the time. What''s the problem if she got slightly more angry this time?
Walking up to her, Ss reached down for her sword, but before he could reach it, her hand already moved toward it at lightning speed, quickly snatching it away.
"You okay?" Ss asked with a raised brow.
"Yeah... Why would I be anything but okay." She sneered and turned away.
"..."
"..."
"Huh... I guess she is fine." Ss shrugged.
"Are you stupid?" Alex asked from the side, his head slowly shaking in disappointment.
"I believe that meant that she''s angry." Ivy chimed in from the side.
"But she just said that she was-... Oh. I get it now." Ss sighed, while slowly rubbing the bridge of his nose. He was about to try to talk to Nymira again; however, before he could do so, he was stopped by a booming voice that echoed throughout the entire hall.
There, at the end of the hall and standing before two huge doors, was a woman with a pair of feline ears. She stood there, her eyes piercing as they bore in a certain direction.
"Hm?" Ss raised a brow before looking toward Nymira and frowning.
"We''re leaving... Now! All toki users wille with me. All mages will go with him." She pointed at Aka, who stood to the side, his arms crossed and his aura fully visible for anyone with even the slightest amount of mana sense to see. Seeing that he was all more powerful, they didn''t darein about being put up with a child.
"And finally, everyone who doesn''t fall into any of those categories will go with Mr. Faldro here." She exined before pointing toward the beer-bellied man with one arm bigger than the other. The difference between both of his arms wasn''t great enough for someone to notice at a first nce, but after long exposure to it, they would have no problem seeing the difference.
Mr. Faldro was well-known in the academy; therefore, the beast woman did not see a need to introduce him the same way she introduced Aka. She hadn''t even told them Aka''s name since it wouldn''t make a difference in their judgment of him. Ultimately, they would call him leader anyway, so it didn''t matter.
Mr. Faldro, on the other hand, was only known by appearance by the people studying under him. To everyone else, he was closer to someone who could be considered a myth of sorts. His contributions to the Xylem kingdom were enormous, so he had even gotten a head of teaching ce in the academy. However, it was also well-known that he declined the position within the light academy and had requested to teach in the diamond academy instead.
"Why are you all just standing there. Get a move on!" The woman roared, causing everyone within the hall to scurry to get their things and leave as soon as possible. They scurried toward their group leaders and stood in front of them in lines. The huge double doors opened shortly after, and eventually, The students of Diamond Academy, now divided into their respective groups, stepped outside into the bright daylight. The sun hung high in the sky, casting a warm golden hue over the grounds.
In the lead, the feline-eared woman began to walk briskly, her tail swaying with each step. Behind her, Nymira and a group of students followed closely. Nymira was still brimming with questions about Ivy, but now they were in different groups, and she couldn''t ask her directly.
Ss, Ivy, and a few others were with Mr. Faldro, who ambled leisurely along. His massive figure, with one notablyrger arm, gave him an imposing presence. His students, although a bit apprehensive, couldn''t help but feel a sense of reassurance in his presence.
Alex found himself among the group led by Aka, the mage instructor.
As they ventured deeper into the academy''s vast training grounds before eventually reaching the forest, the students couldn''t help but feel a mix of anticipation and excitement.
Ss, who was waking with Ivy, heard her finally say something that he could not help but think hade out of nowhere.
"You said I''m one dimensional..." Ivy looked back at Ss. Her eyes were filled with an emotion he hadn''t seen in her before, yet her facial expressions remained the same stoic one she always held when she wasn''t around him.
"I didn''t mean it as an insult." Ss sighed, yet, the girl before him did not seem like she was done with him.
"You would never get it. After all, you don''t feel things the same way we do. You''re different. Sure, that''s what pulled me toward you..." She paused momentarily as if trying to put her thoughts into words. Her eyes wandered the skies for a moment before eventually turning to Ss.
"It must be so hard to live in that mind of yours." She spoke without any resentment in her voice. It didn''t sound like an insult, and it wasn''t. Ss could see that.
"You think of everyone around you as a tool. You care for them. You care for that girl, right? Nymira, was it? Same for that boy." She asked while tilting her head.
"But your way of caring for someone... It''s different. It''s not healthy. It''s not good for either party. You think of all of us as tools. As a part of some n, you''ve conjured. Pawns that happened to fall around you. That''s what were are, right?" She asked, her voice bing slightly distant.
"Let me guess. When you met Alex, the first thing you thought was, hey, this kid has a lot of potential. Why not recruit him? He might be useful in the future. Right?" Ivy snarled.
"What about Nymira? Was she just another tool for you to hurt the royal family with? You probably thought that taking her away from them would be a small ''fuck you'' for everything you think they did to you." Ivy sneered, her voice containing more and more anger as the conversation continued. Yet, Ss didn''t respond. No, he didn''t even look like he cared about their argument.
"People are moreplicated than pawns. Emotions and feelings. They''re something that I''m sure even you can''t understand despite your surprisingly vast intelligence."
"Tools you say?" Ss finally asked with a slightly curious tone before a sneer showed on his face.
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Chapter 240 Outing [4]
240 Outing [4] "Tools you say?" Ss finally asked with a slightly curious tone before a sneer showed on his face.
"You''re wrong. I''m afraid you might be mistaken in so many ways, and you don''t even know it. There was a saying back where I came from." He smirked wryly and looked up.
"Power... Real power, does note to those who are born talented. No. Ites to those who are willing to do anything to achieve it." "What does that have to do with what I''m saying?" Ivy raised a brow while folding her arms. Ss could almost feel the mockery of her stare prickling at his skin.
"You think I didn''t realize Nymira could hear us when I spoke earlier?" Ss asked while looking to the side, his stare so dominant that it immediately made Ivy stare at the ground as a shudder crawled down her back like a hundred squirming centipedes.
The sensation of being pushed down upon made her feel fear for the second time sinceing to this academy. She didn''t know why, but the boy before her seemed more terrifying than anything she had faced in the past.
...
Excluding her own mother, of course.
"That connection you have with Gilea must be useful if you can bend the rules of a contract like that. A normal person would have suffered the bacsh... Yet, you." Ss let out a smirk filled with disgust.
"You somehow bent the rules enough to make it seem like I was the one hurting Nymira, not you. You were a simple bystander, after all. Maybe I shouldn''t have allowed you to make Gilea your witness when making the contract." Ss rubbed his chin in thought before shrugging
"I guess it doesn''t really matter anymore though, does it... What''s done is done. Though, I''d say you would be facing the majority of thesting consequences of such an action. After all, this has all gone to n." Ivy widened her eyes, yet, other than that, she didn''t move an inch. Her body remained in ce. Students walked past them, looking at the two of them with raised brows and confused nces.
But Ss didn''t care.
"You say that I think of her as a tool; I say I''m teaching her the way of the world. You think of her as an object; I think of her as potential. The people you surround yourself with are a reflection of who you are, and who you will be. Surround yourself with idiots and weaklings, and you''ll end up a weakling. Surround yourself with kings, and you''ll end up bing a king." Ss chuckled and began walking. Ivy''s feet instinctually began to move again, following behind Ss as if it was an order from him, rather than an action she chose.
After a few seconds, Ivy steeled her nerves and looked up.
"So, the reason you met me here, in the academy, was just a way to add a princess to your circle?" She asked, her voice trembling with both fear and anger. Being yed with all the time was getting on her nerves. She was a princess, after all. Most people respected her. Bowed before her the moment she entered a room.
Yet, Ss didn''t even bat her an eye. Instead, he used her like a tool.
''Tool...'' At that moment, Ivy came to a realization.
"I think you''ve misunderstood, Miss Song." Ss'' smirk extended from the corner of his lips, bing much wider than before.
"I don''t need people around me. Why else would I be so skewed? People need human interaction. They need to have people around them that pick them up from their lowest points. They need people because humans are creatures who thrive on the people around them. I didn''t have that growing up. I didn''t even have it in my previous life. The closest thing to a friend I had was my dog." Ss chuckled.
"But, thises back to what I said before. To have true power, you must be ready to do anything to receive it. The only difference in this situation is, I didn''t have anyone around me back then. I had nothing to give, therefore, I was willing to give everything. I don''t want Nymira to live that life. I don''t want Alex to live that life." Ss'' smile receded into a mncholic one. "I know what true loneliness feels like. I felt it for so long that I didn''t even know what it was beforeing to this world." Ss lifted up his hand and clenched it into a fist before rxing it again.
"I won''t be around to babysit them forever. I always leave. That''s my only constant. I never stay in the same ce for too long, and I need them to be ready before I leave."
Ivy looked at Ss'' back with a hint of understanding.
"So, when you said that the people around you reflect the person you are... You weren''t talking about yourself, were you? You were talking about them." Ivy''s gaze moved to lock onto Alex and Nymira
Ss didn''t bother responding. There was no need.
"Then, where do I fit in all of this? Didn''t youe to me to have a connection with my family?" She finally asked.
"You think too small. You''ll understand your ce very soon. " Ss looked up again.
"It will alle together soon." For the rest of the day, Ss and Ivy did not speak a word to one another. They silently walked together, their steps in sync as they quickly reached the rest of the group.
When the sun eventually set below the horizon and, the forest became dark, and they had to set camp for the day.
Tents were quickly set up around the campfires, which began to burn brightly in the middle.
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Chapter 241 Outing [5]
241 Outing [5]
In a well-lit room were four individuals. The room was spacious, having a kitchen, dining table, and several beds. It also seemed to have a sofa surrounding a small table.
Two individuals sat at the dining table, while one sat on one of the sofas, and thest stood over a stove cooking something that sent a salivating aroma through the entire room.
Though, describing the ce as a room would have probably been considered a little bit o a stretch. After all, the "room" they were in was simply a tent that had the dimensionality within it changed, making the inside bigger than the outside.
No one really understood how it worked other than the few individuals who knew how to make it, essentially holding a monopoly over the entire business. Of course, within the tent, one individual knew to understand how the tent was created.
"I guess the rumors were true." A man with blonde hair and pointy ears looked in a certain direction with his brightly glowing silver eyes. He wasn''t looking down at the stove before him, and instead had his gaze locked toward something else. Though, not looking at the stove didn''t technically mean that he couldn''t see it.
"What rumors?" The beer-bellied man, Mr. Faldro, asked from the dining table. Before him sat the buff woman with feline ears. Her arms were tightly folded over her chest while her legs were crossed underneath the table. She looked bored, yet, she was clearly quite vignt of her surroundings.
Aka also sat up to listen to whatever the elf-man was about to say.
"Judgement. He can use multiple elements."
"Well, yeah. We already guessed that." The buff woman shrugged.
"No. I mean, he can use all the elements." The elf man closed his eyes calmly while the others widened theirs.
"All?" Aka asked with a clear shudder in his voice.
"Yeah. His mana works a lot differently than hours. It''s not just one element he''s absorbing, but it feels like he''s absorbing all of them simultaneously. In the same way, someone with the light element absorbs mana, but he is not tainted with an element. It''s allbined into some kind of weird, ethereal energy." The elf exined.
"Damn... I really wouldn''t stand a chance against that guy. Maybe in my old body..." Aka paused while reliving his old memories.
"You were a scrawny old man. I doubt you would have won against him." Faldro sneered.
"Hey! I was a pristine emerald core one step away from breaking through. Its not my fault my body deteriorated so quickly." Aka a sneered.
"To be fair, you will probably reach the ruby-core at your current rate. Just, don''t slow down or anything." The woman smirked.
"Don''t mock me, you damn cat. I will be the first diamond core in years. Mark my words!"
"Sure you will." Faldro snickered.
While everyone bickered amongst one another, the elf, zeed, stared into the distance, through all the tents, and looked directly at Ss, who was absorbing the mana around him.
He hadn''t beenpletely honest with the people around him. After all, he wasn''t allowed to tell them certain things. The only thing he could do was hint and let them find out on their own.
Due to his mana eyes, the elf council had taken him in at a very young age; however, it wasn''t due to his talent or anything like that.
Anyone with mana eyes and half a brain can tell that mana and toki are the same thing. It was obvious. He could even see people breaking the mana around them to take only one attribute of the mana into their bodies.
The elf council didn''t want any information on how mana actually worked to leave their room, so they did the only thing they knew to do. They brought the kid in, ced him in the middle of the room, scrutinized him, and forced him to sign a contract with Gilea as his witness.
It had been 50 years since that day, and even now, he couldn''t understand why the elf council wouldn''t tell everyone about their knowledge of mana.
Actually, up until now, he had thought they had been keeping the information to themselves so they remain powerful, but after meeting the man they called Judgement, he understood how wrong his theory was.
That day Game Evergreen walked into that testing room; zeed understood what knowledge of mana could do. He understood what kind of power one would have the ability to wield when absorbing mana in its purest essence. Sure, toki users could manipte it, but despite seeming like he hadn''t even mastered his control over Mana, Game seemed so much stronger than them.
Sure, he didn''t have the same abilities as them. He couldn''t manipte his toki to turn invisible or fly, but he sure as hell was close.
Not only did mana course through his body the same way it did with a beast, but Game was the closest person he had ever seen to replicate a beast''s ability to control the elements around them with just a thought.
''If he learns how to manipte mana itself, how powerful would he be?'' was the question zeed asked every time he saw the boy.
He had seen the power that enchantments held. They could do everything from enhancing a piece of equipment to warping time and space itself. ''Enchantment runes are created to take from the mana from a source to work. When they are formed, they siphon the mana from the equipment used to make them. When they are on something, they usually need a power source, such as a core or magic crystal, to work in the first ce. Another problem with them is that they aren''t made to be formed on thin air, too. They are specifically made to be engraved into something.'' zeed thought to himself before thinking back to Ss'' spells.
''To create an enchantment rune on thin air would take someone with a lot of knowledge of runes to make many changes to the runes themselves to allow them to work on thin air. Though, I guess that''s why he came to the academy in the first ce.'' zeed thought before shifting his gaze toward Mr. Faldro.
''And we''re going to give him exactly what he needs to surpass every mage alive, and they don''t even know it.''
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Chapter 242 Outing [6]
242 Outing [6]
Ss, who was in his room trying to manipte and absorb the mana around him, could not help but smirk.
He could feel a certain gaze piercing through his tent''s walls and watching him carefully. Watching every single magic molecule as it entered his body. ''He knows...'' Ss inwardly thought. He was certain that the elf teacher, zeed, would know about how magic worked. After all, his eyes were simr to his own, despite being far inferior.
"The ability to see mana... How fascinating." Ss smirked, his eyes fluttering open and staring back at the piercing gaze.
Ss'' emerald eyes shone in the darkness, and within an instant, the man he was looking at felt like he was covered in hundreds of chains, each and every single one of them pulling him to the ground.
"I suggest you keep your eyes to yourself." Ss warned while fully knowing that the elf could read his lips.
The gaze quickly receded. Now that the elf was no longer looking at him, there was only one more gaze that he had to take care of. Well, only one more scrutinizing gaze. He could feel another, but he knew he couldn''t stop that one since the person looking at him was using their connection to Gilea to see him.
"Is privacy not a thing in this world?" Ss sighed.
"My apologies. I needed to make sure that no one else was watching." Hundreds of small red threads formed out of thin air, slowly constructing the mesmerizing figure of a human''s body.
After a few seconds, the figure became tangible. A woman wearing a pitch-ck robe with a red lining appeared before him. Her silky ck hair flowed down her back, reaching her waist.
"What do you want?" Ss asked while rubbing the bridge of his nose. He could feel a headacheing, and he did not like it.
"Can I ensure that you will guarantee nothing goes wrong during this... What do you people call it? Outing? I think that''s the word."
"Sure. Can you leave now?" Ss sighed.
"I''m being serious. If anything goes wrong, I expect you to take care of it." She narrowed her eyes
"Pay me then." Ss stretched out his hand while putting on an innocent smile. Her eyes narrowed further. Her aura red momentarily, pulsing through the entire camp and traveling through everyone there.
Yet, Ss didn''t budge
"Sigh... How much."
"You''re asking the wrong questions." Ss smiled brightly.
"It''s not about how much I want. It''s about what I want."
"What do you want then?" She asked with hesitation. She was a little worried that his ''what'' would be outrageous.
"The blood of a dragon." Ss smiled.
"...That''s it?" She asked with a raised brow. Her posture quickly softened as a sense of relief washed over her.
"Yep." Ss gave her a thumbs-up while Veronica looked at him weirdly.
The silence was deafening. So deafening that they could both hear each other''s heartbeats without any problems.
''I can only think of a few concoctions requiring dragon''s blood. But, I don''t understand why he would need them. It''s not like he needs the concoctions... Maybe he wants to learn how to use the blood of legendary beasts to create concoctions. But each blood needs a different type of maniption. Each blood is different after all.'' She thought to herself, her brows tightly knitted.
When it came to dragons, most people desired the hearts of a dragon, or maybe even its eyes.
Consuming the heart of a dragon would instantly have the effect of awakening a non-awakened human. They would gain the affinity of the dragon''s heart they consume, and it would instantly be an S-rank affinity.
If the dragon''s heart has the same affinity as the person consuming the heart itself, it would gain a significant boost in its maniption of the affinity. Some could create spell circles without saying a word, while it was theorized that some would even gain the ability to manipte mana without runes and magic circles. It was theorized that gaining an SSS+ rank affinity would have the same effect as forming spells without runes.
That''s why the hearts of a dragon were so sought after. Some say you would even gain a core upgrade, while others have the gall to theorize that you''d gain a dragon''s bloodline.
Despite being so sought after, it was still one of the hardest things to gain on Gilea. Killing a dragon was no easy feat. They were usually much stronger than their core would suggest, and always moved in flights[1] rather than alone. This means that you''d have to fight the entire flight of dragons if you wanted to kill one of them.
However, getting a little bit of their blood was another story. Dragons tended to be quite greedy, so for a bit of gold, they would give you as much blood as you want.
"Alright. I''ll do it. You have to keep your end of the deal though." She said before letting out a sigh.
"I don''t really get why you''re asking me when you''re here. Pretty sure you can take care of any threats." Ss shrugged.
"I can''t just tag along because there might be a threat. I''m busy. Even now, this isn''t even my real body... Though, I''m sure you already noticed." "Yeah. Just because its fake doesn''t mean its not strong. You''re about the same strength as that old man." Ssmented while leaning back slightly.
"You look just like a normal person too, so I guess that''s a plus." Ss muttered under his breath while looking her up and down.
He was trying to see if he could win against her fake body without using his bloodlines. The chances were quite slim. Maybe if he activated his giant bloodline to its full extent, he could easily beat her.
The giant''s bloodline gave him a small boost in strength when he consumed it. That was more of a passive gain. Activating the bloodline itself was a whole other matter on its own.
However, there was no reason to think about trying to beat Veronica. She was powerful, but she needed him alive to eliminate the curse she so desperately wanted to live without.
Of course, she would only get that curse-ridden when shepleted her side of the deal. [1] Flight: A flock of Dragons. They can also be referred to as a thunder of dragons.
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Chapter 243 Outing [7]
243 Outing [7] Veronica left shortly after their conversation, while the night passed in what felt like a blink of an eye. Ss quickly jumped out of his sitting position and walked outside of his tent.
Looking around, Ss caught the gaze of almost everyone. He quickly realized that he was thest person to leave his tent, so without much concentration, he swiftly packed everything within dimensional storage.
It didn''t take long for everyone to have their breakfast. Most people ate small rations that they could keep in their storages without any problems. Looking up, Ss wiped the corner of his lips and narrowed his eyes.
''This direction... Wait. I didn''t ask which forest we''d go to. The one around the academy isn''t necessarily filled with beasts that we would have any problems killing. It''s a pretty low-tier forest that is safe for all the new students. On the other hand, we would steam roll through that forest with ease, even the weakest of us...'' Ss stroked his chin.
Everyone on the expedition was a 4th and 5th year student. Yet, even the 4th years wouldn''t have many problems in the forest next to the academy since the strongest beast there had a ga core.
Ss'' pace quickened as he dashed past the students before him. Some looked at him with annoyance, while others looked at him with temporary curiosity, wanting to know why someone would pace toward their group''s leader like that.
"Leader," Ss spoke from behind Mr. Faldro, who seemed to have been enjoying a cigar until he saw the green-haired boy.
"Want a puff?" Mr. Faldro asked nonchntly.
''He''s usually a lot more angry or agitated.'' Ss inwardly thought before speaking his mind.
"Where are we going exactly?" Ss cocked his head to the right as an innocent smile blossomed across his face.
"Kids these days. Don''t listen to anything." Mr. Faldro sneered, the agitation he always showed around students quickly returning the moment he stopped smoking the cigar.
''Maybe if I get him one of those, he''ll stop being such an ass to me.'' Ss contemted.
"We''re going to a forest for you guys to undergo your tests. Our group''s job is to collect resources. Their group''s job is to collect the beast''s cores. I''m assuming you understand the rest." Mr. Faldro sighed and took another puff.
"I understand that. My question is a little more exact. Which forest are we going to? From our current direction, we seem to be moving toward the south-east direction." Ss pointed out.
"110 degrees, to be exact. Hmm... If this whole cksmith and alchemist thing doesn''t work out for you, you''d make a pretty good scout. Maybe even a good navigator if you choose to sail the seas." The beer-bellied man let out a boomingugh from the pits of his stomach. The students around couldn''t help but look toward him with frightened expressions before their fear turned into worry.
"I appreciate thepliment." Ss chuckled while cing his hands behind his back.
"Though, I must point out that you''vepletely avoided my question yet again." Suddenly, his emerald eyes narrowed dangerously.
"Oh. My bad." The manughed again before pointing in a certain direction. "You see that tree." "Yes?" Ss raised a brow and looked at the brown tree.
"It''s bing slightly darker, but the leaves are just as bright as before. It doesn''t make sense, right?"
11:49
right?"
"What does this have to do with my queston."
"Mana-rich trees tend to have darker barks than normal trees. The phenomena can also be seen in trees found in colder areas. However, the leaves have remained the same color and shape, indicating no decrease in sunlight and heat. Where do we see such a-"
"dia..." Ss muttered, confirming his previous assumption.
"You guessed pretty quickly." Mr. Faldro put the cigar to his mouth and breathed deeply before coughing out augh.
"I wonder if its the sam as I left it." "What was that?" The man beside Ss asked, his body leaning closer to hear what Ss said.
"Nothing..." Ss sighed, memories slowly flooding into his mind like a tsunami.
***
---dia---
Within the forest''s depths, hundreds of soldiers wearing the armor and emblems of the Xylem kingdom could jump from one tree to another, their eyes scouring the forest for anything peculiar.
Within the forest''s depths, hundreds of soldiers wearing the armor and emblems of the Xylem kingdom leaped from one tree to another, their eyes scanning the dense woods for anything unusual. The forest of dia had always been an enigma, a ce where thews of nature seemed to bend and twist. For the soldiers, it was a mysterious and unpredictable terrain.
Even magic didn''t seem to work the same within the forest. Many who had reached the forest''s center were known to have either gone crazyter in their lives or would simply never be seen again.
Some say that the mana in the center is thick enough to form a natural diamond core, which is why so many people don''te out alive. Of course, the military doesn''t actually need to scour the entire forest. They just need to make sure the part of the forest the students would be in doesn''t have too many dangers.
"Captain. The soldiers haven''t reported anything about dangerous animals nearby. However, there seems to be evidence of some dangerous creatures being around. We found the feces of what we assume is an earth bear." A soldier with little to no hair spoke, his back straightened before his captain.
"Hmm. How strong do we believe this creature is?" The captain asked.
"Most likely within the topaz to the amethyst range. That''s what its size tells us." The man exined.
"I understand..." The captain stroked his chin beforeing to a decision.
"There''s no need to worry about it. If you haven''t found the bear, then it won''t be much of a problem. It''s quite huge after all. I doubt it can just hide in in sight." The captainughed.
"That''s true, captain." The soldier nodded and was about to salute and leave his captain to his own thoughts; yet, that''s when he saw a certain individual emerge out of the shadows of the woods.
"L-Lieutenant Skrk!" The soldier immediately saluted. ------------------
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Chapter 244 Home Sweet Home? [1]
Chapter 244 Home Sweet Home? [1]
The captain''s eyes widened, but he reacted quickly, turned back, and showed his salute.
"Lieutenant Skrk!" He shouted and looked at the towering figure before him.
The man before them had a pair of silver eyes and slicked jet-ck hair. The Lieutenant towered above every single one of them. Deep bags were under his eyes as if he hadn''t slept for a century.
Lieutenant Skrk nodded in acknowledgment of the soldiers'' salutes. His presencemanded respect, and it was clear that he was not an ordinary soldier but someone of high rank and authority.
"At ease," he said in a deep, gravelly voice that seemed to carry the weight of many years of experience. His eyes scanned the area, taking in the dense forest around them.
"Report," he ordered, his gaze now fixed on the soldier who had informed the captain about the earth bear.
The soldier quickly ryed the information about the evidence of the earthbear''s presence. Lieutenant Skrk listened attentively, his expression unreadable. After the soldier had finished, there was a moment of silence as the Lieutenant seemed to be deep in thought.
"I understand. Make your soldiers guard the parameters so the children don''t leave them. At the same time, I want you take make sure nothing dangerouses in. Is that understood?"
"Yes, Lieutenant ." The captain saluted.
"I will be remaining here as well." Lieutenant Skrk spoke with a deep voice reverberating through the air around him.
"I-Is something wrong, Lieutenant? Should I call off the academy?" He asked.
"No..." Lieutenant Skrk spoke with a grave voice that felt even deeper than previous words.
"Then, why would they station you here?" The captain asked before swiftly covering his mouth in shock at his own carelessness.
"That doesn''t matter right now, does it." The Lieutenant scowled at the question but did not say anything more. He held his tongue like any good man should.
The captain and his soldier both saluted and immediately left. This was the first time they had met Lieutenant Skrk, so the only things they could base him on were the stories that soldiers who worked with him would tell whenever they got drunk enough to tell everyone what happened on those missions.
Yet, even while drunk out of their minds, they didn''t dare speak of what they did there. But rather, they only spoke of the aftermath.
The imagery created by their horrific yet precise words sent a shiver down the spines of everyone in the barracks.
Those people felt like they could almost see the gruesome aftermath before their very eyes. The rest of their senses yed along, creating the fictitious smell of burning flesh and wood,bined with the horrific sound of the deafening silence, barely broken by the echoing flickers of the ever-burning mes.
***
It had been exactly two days so far, and the students were getting close to their predestined location. Nymira no longer looked so well after realizing that they were going toward dia... Of course, even without that, she didn''t look so well before.
She was easily agitated and chose to stay to herself most of the time. Her roommates were slightly worried for her and tried to ask Alex what to do, but not only was he far too busy to care about anyone other than himself, but even if he did have time to do anything, he wouldn''t have been able to.
Nymira getting angry was something he was used to. Her holding onto that anger was something new, so he didn''t really know how to deal with it.
For now, all he could hope was that she would get better by the time they reached the destination. Otherwise, it might impact the oue of the "Examination." Alice tried to convince him to help them, but Aka called him after a while, and they returned to training.
Even on the expedition, Alex wasn''t free from his training. The only semnce of hope was the fact that the training was not nearly as bad as Ss''.
Ss, on the other hand, was like a ghost. Every time Nymira''s roommates came over to him to either apologize for what they did before or to ask him to help them, he would disappear like he was never even there.
Even Gigi, who was by far the strongest amongst them, could not track him. He never made a sound when he moved around. He was always quiet and observed everything around him like a hawk.
Eventually, they were forced to give up. There was only so much they could do for someone they''d only known for a week, and right now they were doing much more than anyone in their situation would have.
After going through a few towns to use their teleportation hubs, they finally stood a few hundred meters away from the closest part of the dia forest to the academy.
The students walked along arge pathway that seemed to have been drilled through the hills andnd by an enormous beam. One could see the gashes created by that beam on the walls of this pathway. It seemed to create archways for the students to walk under in many areas. Despite being remnants of what was, the students couldn''t help but feel an itch of warmth as they walked under these stone arches.
One could imagine what the ce would have looked like if not for the hole going through thendscape, but the ce looked beautiful even with it.
They stood on a vast expanse of golden grasnd, thendscape stretching out in all directions, broken only by the asional hill or copse of trees. The grass was waist-high, swaying gently in the breeze that swept across the open field. It gave off a warm, earthy scent that mixed with the faint aroma of wildflowers, creating a pleasantly natural perfume.
As the students reached thest arch, they saw something other than the forest itself in the distance.
In the distance, the town of dia came into view, encircled by low stone walls. Though not particrly imposing, the walls gave the town a quaint and weing appearance. It was a ce where nature and civilization seemed to coexist harmoniously.
The tallest structure in the town was a grand church with a steeple that reached high into the sky. Its spire, made of gray stone, stood out prominently against thendscape. Stained ss windows depicted scenes from the town''s history and the faith of its people. The church seemed to serve as the heart of themunity, both a ce of worship and a symbol of unity.
"We will be spending one more day in that town over there." The beast woman pointed with her de at the town in the distance. She didn''t look in the least tired. She felt more energetic than ever, and that feeling seemed to seep into the cores of the students around her.
Their hearts races with anticipation, yet some of them had their hearts race forpletely unrted reasons.
As the students approached the town, they could see the townsfolk going about their daily routines. Shopkeepers tended to their stalls, children yed in the streets, and farmers led their livestock to graze in the nearby fields. It was a picturesque scene of everyday life in dia, a stark contrast to the looming mysteries of the forest they were about to enter.
The town exuded a sense of tranquility and safety, a stark juxtaposition to the impending expedition into the enigmatic dia Forest. The students couldn''t help but wonder how the two worlds could coexist outside the walls and within the forest''s depths.
As the students made their way closer to the town of dia, they came upon a pair of guards stationed in front of the town''s gates. These guards were d in polished armor, their helmets gleaming in the sunlight. Upon spotting the approaching group, the guards politely bowed toward the adult chaperones in a show of respect before turning their attention to the students.
One of the guards stepped forward, his demeanor firm yet courteous. "Greetings, travelers," he began, his voice carrying authority. "May I kindly request your visiting passes for entry into the town of dia? We must ensure the safety and security of our residents."
The students, apanied by their adult leaders, readily presented their passes for inspection. The guards inspected each pass carefully, checking for authenticity and validity. Once satisfied, they returned the passes with a nod of approval.
"Thank you for your cooperation," the other guard said with a warm smile, a striking contrast to his imposing armor. "Enjoy your stay in dia, and may your visit be pleasant and trouble-free."
With the formalitiesplete, the gates to dia swung open, revealing the charming town thaty within. The students couldn''t help but feel a sense of relief as they crossed the threshold, leaving behind the vast grasnds and entering a ce that promised a respite from the impending challenges of the dia Forest.
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Chapter 245 Home Sweet Home? [2]
Chapter 245 Home Sweet Home? [2]
Ss'' eyes washed over the town-like city. It looked much bigger than when he was a child. He thought thating back here would have the opposite feeling since he was so much smaller, yet, that was not the case.
A mncholic smile was on his face as he strode through the town with the rest of the students. He could not help but tighten his fists as his eyes fell upon the ces he used to go to.
Memories of him and his sistering to the town center to buy bread from old Jack shed before his eyes. He could almost see it. The images of him and his sister running around through the town. Images of his sister talking to her friends while he looked on from the distance.
Images of her trying to take care of him.
Ss almost smelled the aroma of freshly baked bread waft into his nose. Almost.
The aroma was quickly interchanged with the stench of animal feces and smoke.
Men and women sat around, drinking and smoking without care. Almost everyone there was an adventure. There were no bakers anymore. Or at least the ones that Ss used to go to looked rundown, having been reced by a bar that seemed to operate at all hours of the day.
Ss''s emerald eyes swept over the town-like city of dia, his usually stoic expression bearing a touch of mncholy. The ce appeared more extensive than his childhood memories, a surprising revtion. He had anticipated a feeling of diminishing proportions, given that he was much smaller thest time he had been here. Instead, he felt a pang of nostalgia mingled with something darker.
As the students strolled through the streets, Ss couldn''t help but tighten his fists, his fingers digging into his palms. The memories surged before him like specters, ghostly images of a long-time time.
He recalled himself and his sister visiting the town center, their small hands clutching meager coins to purchase bread from Old Jack, the friendly baker. Ss could almost taste the freshly baked loaves'' warmth and feel the dough''s soft texture in his mouth. The sight of his sister, herughter echoing through the cobblestone streets as she chatted with friends while he looked on, returned to him.
In those memories, Ss''s sister was a beacon of light and warmth, her presence a source of sce and safety.
But now, the streets told a different tale.
The once-peaceful town of dia had transformed into a shadow of its former self. A pervasive air of destion hung heavy, like a shroud over the ce. It was as if the very soul of the town had been tainted by the passing years. The cobblestone streets that once gleamed with pristine charm were now marred with grime and dirt, their surfaces worn by countless feet.
Gone were the quaint, small businesses that had once filled every nook and cranny. The cheerful bakeries, the charming toy shops, and the cozy bookstores had vanished. In their ce, rowdy taverns and smoky dens had sprung up, where adventurers and travelers congregated, their raucousughter and boisterous chatter filling the air.
The aroma of freshly baked bread had been reced by the acrid stench of tobo smoke and the sour tang of spilled ale. Men and women sat haphazardly around crude wooden tables, indulging in drink and merriment, theirughter ringing harshly in Ss''s ears.
In the past, carriages had traversed the cobbled streets, carrying goods and townsfolk to their destinations. Now, the streetsy eerily empty of such conveyances, their absence adding to the unsettling transformation. The buildings that had once housed cherished memories of Ss''s childhood now looked dpidated, their windows cracked and boarded up.
Ss''s heart stirred with mixed emotions, both anger and mncholy. The town he had once known as a ce of sce and simplicity had been overrun by the hustle and bustle of adventurers and the darkness that seemed to apany their presence. It was a stark reminder that even the most cherished memories could be tainted by the relentless march of time and change.
Ss'' eyes drifted toward the pink-haired figure in the distance who seemed to be looking at everything around her with the same expression as Ss.
Though, her anger was far more evident than Ss''. However, Ss expected as much. To him, she was a child. She was allowed to get angry and upset at her childhood town changing this much.
Its warmth was no more, cruelly reced by the coldness of greed.
In dia, the poor had only gotten poorer, resorting to more profound and dirty ways of earning money rather than the fair andwful lifestyles they held before.
The poorer women fell into depravity, while the men fell into an endless cycle of viciousness.
A cold smile extended from the corner of Ss'' lips as he turned his head and gazed at a certain direction.
Within the church in the middle of the city, an older man felt every hair on his body rise. He looked back hurriedly, causing the two knights next to him to raise their des and point in the same direction.
"Is everything alright, father?" They asked after not seeing anything in the direction that the man was looking at.
"I-It''s nothing... Must be those damn demons." he waved his hands before tapping his heart twice in the symbol of Gilea.
While the priest tried his best to ward off the evil ghosts, the students had walked a couple hundred meters and had reached a significantlyrge building. It had multiple stories, and from what it looked like, it was most likely the ce they would stay at.
Ss'' eyes quickly moved through the crowds of students before a question emerged in his mind.
''Where the hell are the rest of us going to stay?'' He thought to himself.
There were only about half a thousand of them, but that number alone was high enough to fill arge portion of the town.
The town itself only had close to 10 thousand residents, from what Ss had counted. It was a lot higher than how many they had before despite half the poption dying almost six years ago.
Aka, standing at the forefront of the gathered students, surveyed the bustling crowd with a tranquil smile. Slowly, he ced both hands behind his back and addressed the assembled students.
"Two hundred of you will stay here," he announced, causing a wave of relief to wash over half the students while sending the other half into a state of disbelief. The idea of being left behind in the town was met with mixed emotions.
Ss, Nymira, Alex, and the remaining two hundred and ny-seven students were destined for the forest. Aka''s voice carried a calm assurance as he continued, "The rest of us will camp in the forest."
His words hung in the air, a heavy silence following them. The students grappled with the reality of the situation. Two distinct groups were formed: those who would experience theforts of town life, and those who would venture into the depths of dia Forest. The teachers, including Ss and hispanions, would apany therger group into the woods to ensure their safety.
An array of emotions swirled within the group destined for the forest. Anxiety, excitement, and uncertainty danced in their eyes, each student processing the imminent expedition differently. The prospect of facing the enigmatic forest sparked both fear and curiosity, aplex blend of emotions that they would soon confront head-on.
The transition from the lively town of dia to the outskirts of the forest was stark. The students, along with their teachers, followed a winding path that gradually led them into the embrace of the dense woods. As the town receded into the distance, the sounds of everyday life were reced by the soft rustling of leaves, the chirping of unseen birds, and the distant murmur of a flowing river.
The air grew cooler, carrying a crisp, earthy scent that spoke of centuries of untouched wilderness. The golden grasnds were now a distant memory, reced by towering trees, their ancient branches forming a natural canopy that filtered the sunlight. Shafts of golden light pierced through the dense foliage, creating a mesmerizing intery of shadows and illumination.
The forest itself was a living tapestry of colors and life. Vibrant flowers dotted the forest floor, their petals like scattered jewels amidst the lush green carpet of moss and ferns. asional butterflies flitted by, adding fleeting bursts of color to the otherwise serenendscape.
As the group delved deeper into the forest, the air grew denser with mana, and the ambiance began to shift. The atmosphere became charged with an otherworldly energy, and the students could sense the subtle change. Even the wildlife seemed to grow more elusive, their distant calls echoing like whispers through the woods.
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Chapter 246 Home Sweet Home? [3]
Chapter 246 Home Sweet Home? [3]
Ss, Nymira, and Alex walked silently, their eyes alert, and their senses heightened. They were seasoned enough to know that danger could emerge at any moment in a ce like dia Forest. Nymira''s earlier agitation gave way to a cautious resolve as she focused on the task.
It seemed like the only thing that had agitated her before was the presence of Ivy, but now that Ivy was back at the hotel, that agitation had turned into thin air.
The teachers, including Aka and the cat-eared woman, led the way. Their demeanor remainedposed, but their eyes scanned the surroundings vigntly. They were the guardians of this expedition, responsible for ensuring the safety of the students under their charge.
"Hm?" Ss raised a brow and looked around momentarily.
He could have sworn he felt someone move within the forest, but now that he looked around, he couldn''t feel anyone except the elf following behind them.
''I''m certain Mr. dro didn''te with us...'' Ss thought, his eyes narrowing slightly as a cold glint shone within them.
Looking in front of him, he quickly stretched out his arms and pulled Alex and Nymira back.
Alice, Gigi, and nka who were walking beside them could not help but look back for a moment. Their eyes locked upon Ss who had a deadly serious expression on his face.
However, within the trio, only one of them can hear what Ss was about to say.
"We''re being followed." He muttered under his breath.
"Yeah... Isn''t the Azakeel guy following us to ensure we''re okay and there aren''t any dangers nearby?" Nymira asked with a raised brow.
"Teacher Aka also said that the royal military have blocked off the entire ce to make sure that there are no dangers nearby. We have 3yers of defense. I doubt anything bad is going to happen." Alex added from the side, his eyes quickly scanning his whereabouts to make sure.
"Maybe it''s the military you felt nearby." Nymira shrugged and walked ahead.
However, as she paced forward, She could see Gigi slowing down significantly.
"Gigi?" Nymira asked questionably
"He''s right. There''s something wrong... I can feel it." Gigimented while ncing at Alice and nka, both of whom had stopped to see what was wrong.
They didn''t have any fancy armor or items that would help them listen in, but they had Gigi, so they hoped she would take on that role.
Ss, on the other hand, could not help but look at her weirdly before scanning her up and down once more.
"I am used to these kinds of environments." She exined, knowing what kind of questions were popping up in his mind just from the way he looked at her.
''Her senses are sharp... A lot sharper than her strength would imply. Maybe she''s hiding her power? Or maybe she had a technique... No, I would have definitely felt that.'' Ss thought beforeing to a sudden conclusion.
''She''s aware of how strong I am...''
He could see it in her eyes and even her posture. She was standing straight and only looked Ss in the eye when she found it suitable. Yet, despite her straightened posture and broad shoulders that seem to have been formed out of years of extensive training, she kept her hands in front of her at all times and looked like she was trying to make herself as small as possible every time Ss looked at her.
She was also keeping her distance and was even speaking in a sensible tone that one would reserve for elders or people of that kind.
"If you''ve felt it, then..." Ss looked away from her and stared at the beast woman and Aka, both of whom were walking in front of them without looking back.
Their life forces showed calmness, and their postures were rxed. Staring back, Ss looked directly at the elf who had kept himself hidden within the trees throughout their entire expedition.
The elf felt a chill go through his entire body the moment Ss'' gazended upon him, but from the serious expression, the green-haired man looking at him held, he knew that something was wrong.
Azakeel quickly looked around with confusion. He couldn''t feel anything wrong nearby, but since Ss was stronger than him, he would rather take Ss'' gaze as the truth.
Disappearing from where he stood, Azakeel turned into a gust of wind and appeared before Ss in what felt like an instant.
"What''s wrong," Azakeel asked.
"Can you not feel it?" Ss raised a brow.
"N-" Azakeel suddenly paused as a scowl appeared on his face. A feeling had suddenly fallen upon him... No. To be more urate, a feeling disappeared the moment he got into close proximity to Ss, before something else washed over him.
"A seal." Ss thought aloud, instantly exining what Azakeel just felt.
"Someone ced a seal on me? I didn''t even feel it." Azakeel felt something crawling under his skin when he heard Ss'' words. If a seal had been ced onto him without his knowledge, what did that say of his abilities? No... What did it say about the enemy they would have to face?
"Oh!" Ss suddenly widened his eyes and let out an awkward smile.
Putting his hand into his pouch, he felt the gazes on him strengthen slightly, every single one of them looking at what he would take out.
"I forgot to give you this." Ss suddenly took out a dagger... An ordinary dagger without anything on it. It was pristine in quality, but it wasn''t made out of anything fancy. It was just an ordinary dagger without anything else on it.
Azakeel couldn''t help but look at him weirdly as if asking, ''What the hell is this?''
"Man. Sorry for not giving it to you earlier." Ss chuckled, and within an instant, the gazes that had been ced upon him faded.
The gazes had only been directed at him, and Gigi walked back to him with a serious expression. They had always considered her a person of interest, which was why the gazes were stronger on her than on others.
Ss could also feel the gazes being ced on both Alex and Nymira, but it seemed that they both had seals on them that were hard to see, even with his mystic eyes.
''They put a seal on Nymira and Alex, but not Gigi... Why?'' Ss inwardly asked, trying to find a reason for the current situation.
''He affected the fluctuations of the seal on me and made it so it didn''t affect me nearly as much, but just enough to allow me to see without any problems.'' The elf smiled and took the knife.
"Thank you for holding it for me for so long." The elf smiled before he discretely scanned his surroundings. Alice and nka looked at him with shock, while Nymira and Alex simply stared at him with raised brows.
"I must leave now." Azakeel bowed and disappeared into thin air, leaving nothing but a gust of wind behind him.
Ss then stared at Alex and Nymira with a gaze that told them to act like nothing happened. He then smiled at Gigi, giving her the same message but in a way that she would understand.
She nodded slightly and also smirked.
They continued walking without any problems. Aka and the beast woman hadn''t even felt the presence of Azakeel, and that was something that Ss had expected.
He and the 299 other students were quickly stopped by the teachers and told where to ce their tents.
Azakeel quickly informed the teachers about what he found when their tent was set up. He was almost certain that the enemy wouldn''t be able to see through the protective runes they had ced on their tents.
After telling them, they nned to have someone scouting the area around them for the rest of the night to ensure the students weren''t hurt in any way.
They weren''t in a dangerous part of the forest anyway, so beasts were the least of their concerns since their aura and numbers alone would make most beasts leave without looking back. They had barely entered the forest.
The deeper they''d get, the stronger the monsters and beasts would be, but right now, the strongest beasts they would have to face would be in the low topaz core, something that most of the students could deal with without many problems.
In Ss'' tent, one could see a green-haired young man sitting on the ground with his legs crossed. His hands were lightly ced on his knees, while his eyes were closed and covered with his emerald-green hair that fell loosely on his face.
However, there was one thing that would catch the eyes of anyone around. It seemed like he was gathering mana at such a tremendous rate that one could quite literally see the particles as they entered his body.
Yet, to the trained eye, something else was obvious. The mana wasn''t going to his sr plexus but was going straight into his eyes.
His eyelids could be seen glowing with a faint green light, while the veins around his eyes bulged, also glowing with an emerald light that one would see after casting a healing spell.
His eyelids flung open, and in that very instant, a wheel-like symbol shone deep within his eyes. Simultaneously, a pair of enormous, illusory emerald eyes appeared in the sky above him, encapsting the student''s entire section of the forest.
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Chapter 247 Uladia [1] - The Start
Chapter 247 dia [1] - The Start
[A/N: HUGE thanks to zZzer & Travis_Ryan for your gifts]
The sun rose in what felt like a blink of an eye. Ss slowly walked out of his tent with his emerald hair tied back. He quickly looked around and saw that no one was up yet.
"Hm?" Ss couldn''t help but narrow his eyes when seeing this. Usually, he was thest person to leave his tent, but today, he was the first.
He could see that some of them were awake in their tents, but none of them hade out yet.
"Game?" A feminine voice entered Ss'' ears. Of course, he knew that she was there, but he acted shocked anyway.
"Oh... Hello-" Ss paused for a moment. He was trying to remember what her name was.
"Call me Leader." She tilted her chin upwards and puffed out her chest.
"Yeah yeah... Whatever you say." Ss waved off her words without thinking about them for more than a moment.
After an instance of silence, Ss nced around the tents again before looking at the woman beside him.
"Why are they all still in their tents." He asked.
"They have a big day ahead of them. Why would they choose to wake up early." The womanughed.
"Fair." Ss shrugged.
"Though, it seems like you didn''t even sleep. Worried that you''ll die today?" A provocative smile stretched out from the corner of her lips.
"A little." Ss narrowed his eyes and heaved out a staggered breath.
The woman beside him widened her eyes as a slither of fear entered her mind.
If the man who beat her with a single attack feared death, what did that mean to her? And why was he scared? Why, in this specific situation, would he be scared?
She knew that the army had surrounded the entire ce and closed it off from any stronger monsters or beasts. Every single soldier was powerful. Hell, most of them were possibly as strong as the pink-haired girl, if not even stronger. And even among them, she could feel that a certain person with power surpassed that of every single person within the forest.
"W-What makes you say that?" The beast woman asked with a stutter.
"Oh... Nothing much." Ss chuckled before tapping the woman on the shoulder.
"You''ll understand soon enough." He spoke again, yet his tone hadpletely shifted, now filled with a grave feeling that shook her to her core.
"I''m going to go warm up a little." Ss waved before beginning to jog. It didn''t take him long to get out of sight, leaving the woman behind in her own stupor, trying to figure out what Ss was trying to tell her.
For an hour, Ss ran through the forest at moderate speeds and collected from fruits before returning to the camp, where not only was everyone now awake, but the ones that had stayed in the town had also arrived.
Landing nearby, Ss returned to the camp and stored his tent in his dimensional pouch. It didn''t take long for everyone to get ready, and within the time period, Ss remained to himself, eating the fruits he gained as others eyed him with slight envy.
Ss was slightly surprised that Ivy hadn''te to him yet. She had been annoying him since he met her by constantly wanting to be around him, but she was keeping her distance right now. He could even see her in the distance, minding her business without much care for the people around her.
''Hmm... Maybe calling her one-dimensional was wrong of me. She may seem that way, but I can tell.'' He narrowed his eyes.
''She holds many secrets.''
Standing up from where he sat, Ss looked around and spotted the beast woman who had already turned away from her colleagues and was now looking at the students.
Raising her chin toward the sky, her voice boomed throughout their section of the forest, causing many of the students with heightened senses to close their ears with grimaces.
"SILENCE!" She roared.
After the students were forced to be silent.
"Now, today will be the official beginning of your expedition. The expedition will only go on for three days, but for those three days, you will try to get as many points as possible." She exined before pausing to allow everyone to digest what she was saying.
She then continued, "Gaining points is simple. You collect valuable materials. Some might choose to collect mana cores; others might choose to collect the body parts of a monster that can be used for something useful. Some of you alchemists might even collect nts from around the forest. In the end, it is your choice.
You will be ranked on individual and team points. Individual points are simply a way for you guys to rank among yourselves and won''t affect your chances of going to the tournament by much.
Team points are what matter in this expedition. Understood?" She asked and watched as everyone nodded with understanding.
"There aren''t many rules for this expedition. There are three main rules, though¡ªrule number one. Don''t kill your ssmates. Two. No infighting between teammates. Three. The item must be in your pouch by the end of the day for it to count as a point." She exined, causing everyone to widen their eyes as a realization hit them.
''You''re allowed to steal from others, huh...'' Ss thought without much amusement, yet, he could still feel the life forces of many in the crowed stir at the woman''s words.
"Alright. With that out of the way, if you take out your talisman and inject your mana into it, you will see the images and names of your teammates, as well as your team number. There will be 103 teams. We have about 512 students here, so three teams will have only four teammates. Those teams will be the ones with the strongest students, so it will be equalled out between all of you." As she finished exining, everyone shuffled to get their talisman. Everyone had mana within their bodies, and even though Toki users didn''t use their own mana, it was well known that they had a tiny amount of mana within their bodies that they could inject into things such as armor. Of course, Ss knew that even non-awakened humans had mana, but not in the same way as mages. They had a natural barrier of mana around their bodies, like a natural coating of toki that had their mana signature.
While trying to understand and learn how to use toki, Ss understood that one would need to increase the size of this "natural toki" even to use toki in the first ce. The problem was, despite being able to control Toki to a certain extent, no matter what he did, this natural coating of mana around his body was weak and never increased in size.
Actually, it was even smaller and weaker than the average person. He didn''t understand why that was happening, but it just was.
Sure, he wouldn''t need toki for now since he could simply increase his body''s strength by destroying it repeatedly or increasing his mana core grade. Still, he knew that there mighte a day when he would regret not investing more time into using mana the same way toki users do.
However, for now he needed to focus on the more important things, like learning how to use pure mana through runes.
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Chapter 248 Uladia [2] - Group Arrangements [1]
Chapter 248 dia [2] - Group Arrangements [1]
Looking down at the crystal talisman in his hand that pulsed with mana, Ss closed his eyes and felt the energy within.
"Group number 32." Ss nodded to himself and looked around. He also had the names of everyone in his group and their capabilities to a certain extent. It told him whether they were a mage or a warrior, an alchemist, a cksmith, etcetera. It told him everyone''s elements but seemed to leave out the level of everyone''s power as if it knew that not stating it would create problems between teammates.
''Bastards¡'' Ss sneered to himself before looking around himself with a light stare. He also had a description of everyone, and if that wasn''t enough, all the students were seemingly shouting their group number, allowing people to gather into their groups with only a little difficulty.
However, there was one person he recognized due to their image being shown when he channeled his mana into the talisman.
With the help of his mystic eyes, it didn''t take Ss long for him to find his teammates. However, as surprising as it might be, he wasn''t too disappointed by the arrangement. They were pretty strong¡ Hell, they were much stronger than he expected them to be.
There were five people in his group, including himself. However, only 3 of them were currently grouped. One was a girl with short ck hair and an amazing physique. She looked like she could snap almost all the boys in the academy in half with ease, and her toki only supported that image Ss had in his mind.
"We will meet again." Ss smiled at Gigi and extended his hand while scanning the other two quickly. It was a little surprising how quickly they found each other, especially when Ss was the one with mystic eyes. However, when looking at their mana cores and toki and analyzing them for possible abnormalities, he understood that each and every one of them was good at something.
"Hmm. Maybe I overestimated you." Gigi narrowed her eyes before stepping forward and grabbing Ss'' hand. He felt her squeezing a little, yet since it didn''t really affect him, he didn''t squeeze back or retaliate in any way. He continued to smile at her as if he knew what she was trying to do.
"You''re intelligent, though. I can tell you that much. Maybe you will be of use to this team." The corner of Gigi''s lips curved upwards, letting out a small smile.
"I''ll take that as apliment." Ss let go of her hand and looked toward the next person. He was a young man wearing exquisitely crafted armor. The runes adorned upon the armor''s surface glowed in Ss'' mystic vision, and he could tell that they were of a quite high level.
''Powerful family backing. Or he has an organization backing him, which is always a possibility with these kids.'' Ss concluded before looking at the boy''s ears.
''Elf with silver hair. Maybe he has the bloodline of an air mage. He doesn''t look anything out of the ordinary, though. I heard Elves get more attractive the stronger their bloodline runs. The same can be said for their power. They won''t be able to reach higher levels if their bloodline is weak, and they tend not to have many toki users. Yet, this one is¡'' He smiled at the elf boy before extending his hand toward him. However, instead of shaking his hand, the elf politely declined the handshake and lightly bowed toward Ss.
"Hmm?" Ss raised a brow in confusion.
"Elves have a tradition of not touching creatures of nature, or at least that''s what they call it. Most Elves don''t bother with such a tradition since they''ve been intermingled with our races for a very long time. However, certain elves, especially noble ones, still follow the tradition." A young man popped out of the side.
''Maybe I should have bothered to learn more about their culture than just their powers.'' Ss inwardly sighed before bowing to the elf and turning to the young man by his side.
''Another Elves? Are we trying to fulfill a racial quota or something? Is the next member going to be a beastkin or something?'' Ss didn''t show his confusion. This boy had long hair that covered his ears. His hair was a lime green, a color Ss hadn''t seen often in thest few years of his life that he had spent learning more about the world around him.
''Thest one with lime green hair was an elf, too, right?''
"This is Alcraz Frenrir. He thinks he''s all high and mighty, so he refuses to touch humans because his father told him that you guys are filthy." The lime-haired elf let out a bellyugh.
"You''re making me look like a racist." Alcraz''s brow twitched.
"Are you not?" Gigi suddenly chimed in with a genuinely curious expression.
''He''s not?'' Ss inwardly asked.
"No. Of course not." Alcraz maintained his posture and dignity, keeping a low and understanding tone as he spoke. "I simply have to save face. If other elves saw me intermingling with humans the same way Deton does, it would be the talk of the Silver City." Alcraz sighed.
"With that attitude you''ll never know the pleasures of human women!" Deton eximed in outrage while Gigi flinched.
"The human women are so much better than the Elves! Their standards are so low! You could get married to several in less than a month!" Deton spoke with a disgusting smile on his face that made even Ss flinch in slight disgust.
"Perverted bastard," A feminine voice suddenly spoke out from the side. Looking to the side, Ss'' eyes fell upon a woman in a beautiful white dress. However, when he looked at her face, he could not help but narrow his eyes.
''That dress does not seem very battle-friendly.''
This was theirst teammate, Siltheria Gernin, also known as the poison mistress, one of the most dangerous students at the academy.
Chapter 249 Uladia [3] - Group Arrangements [2]
Chapter 249 dia [3] - Group Arrangements [2]
''I''ve heard of her before, but I didn''t really look into her much since I didn''t think of her as much of a threat. However, while she might not be a threat to me¡'' Ss narrowed his eyes. And scanned her dress again. The immacte white dress reached down to her ankles, yet it wasn''t tight. It was closer to a Chinese white robe folded over her upper torso and held tight, wrapped by a ck belt around her waist.
The upper part of the dress was filled with intricate patterns that trickled down to her ankles. Yet, they weren''t runes. They emitted no mana, and the same could be said for the entire dress. It had no mana in it and, therefore, could not be used in any practical aspects during a battle.
No matter how you looked at it, it was a normal dress, yet Ss felt like there was something weird about it.
The robe fluttered in the wind, yet her ck hair did not. It was tightly wrapped into a bun ced on top of her head. Her eyes were a piercing purple, while her pupils were more like slits than rounded pupils.
''She''s a beastkin of the snake n, I think.'' Ss narrowed his eyes and stared right into hers. Her eyes were filled with mana, and that mana would pulse every now and then as if it had a heartbeat of its own.
[Mental infiltration detected]
[Mental infiltration is too weak]
''Assimte.'' Ss inwardly thought before a smirk threatened to erupt out of the corner of his lips.
''She''s just a student, yet, when you look at her, I automatically think that she''s a woman rather than just a girl. That must be part of her ability. I wonder if any of the other snakekins have simr abilities to her. Though, what I find weird is the fact that her eyes weren''t slits in the image I saw through the talisman. I wonder why...''
"Don''t look into her eyes." Gigi suddenly spoke from the side while ring at the woman before them.
''She felt it too?'' Ss raised a brow.
"Look into her eyes enough, and you might grow infatuated with her."
"I think I''m feeling it, bro." Deton suddenly spoke out and tried to walk toward Siltheria. Alcraz acted quickly by grabbing him and covering his eyes. Yet, despite having his eyes covered, Deton still had a hungry look in his eyes that made Ss chuckle.
It was almost like he wanted to fall for her.
"My abilities don''t work like that." Siltheria closed her eyes and let out a melodious chuckle soothing to the ear.
"She''s like a subus. Don''t fall for her temptation." Gigi sneered from the side while cing her hand on her de. Suddenly, her toki red and quickly wrapped itself around her de.
''Do I smell drama? Hehe. What an interesting group I''ve fallen into.'' Ss inwardly snickered before looking at Siltheria once more, this time staring right at her mana core. She seemed to have immediately caught his stare before following it to what he was looking at.
''He''s staring at my mana core.'' Her smile widened slightly.
''Miss Ivy said that I used everyone around me as if they were tools¡'' A smile blossomed across his lips. ''Maybe she wasn''tpletely wrong.''
"No need for infightingdies. We are a team, after all..." Ss wore a smile and fearlessly stepped in between the two. He understood that there must have been a reason for the teachers to purposely ce him, Gigi, and Siltheria on the same team. Simrly, he felt like the two others weren''t too bad either, possibly cing them in the top 10% of the academy.
To ce so many powerful people together, they surely wanted something from them.
''Maybe it''s about the threat? Since I''m the strongest around her, maybe they chose to ce their strongest assets with me so they won''t get hurt? Or maybe they''re with me because the teachers want me to go after the threat with someone covering my back.''
"Tsk. She''s in your mind already." Gigi sneered before turning around and walking away.
''She''s treating Siltheria like she''s a walking incarnation of the devil.'' Ss noted.
After standing around for a couple of minutes, the rest of the students found their groups. The beastkindy, also known as their current leader, spoke once more.
"You have until the sun sets toe back to camp. If you don''te back by then, a severe penalty will be ced on your group. A teammate dying will disqualify you. Is that understood?"
Everyone nodded in understanding.
"Then, let''s begin." She said in a calm tone before walking away and entering her tent.
Ss could instantly tell that everyone expected her to shout "GO!" like a racing announcer. Still, despite not moving instantly, the moment she entered her tent, most people shot into the forest in search of some creatures to ughter.
However, Ss'' group stood still, every single one of them looking at each other with slight awkwardness.
"Isn''t it a little weird for us to have so many powerful people in the same group? It''s as if the teachers were trying topensate for something." Deton''s words cut through the silence.
Gigi and Siltheria quickly looked at each other before looking at the two elves to the side. They were experienced enough to know that the two elves were powerful in their own senses. They could, at the very least, kill a beast with a dull amethyst core. While that may not amount to much in front of Siltheria, who could kill them with ease, and Gigi, who hadbat prowess well beyond her age, they weren''t all that badpared to the average student. Both women had gone through enough battles to sense who was dangerous and who was not.
So, at that moment, all their heads slowly turned toward Ss, who stood to the side with his hands in his pockets and his eyes darting from side to side as he looked at the departing groups.
Eventually, his gaze fell upon his own group when he felt their gazes.
"What?" Ss asked with confusion while everyone had one thought coursing through their minds.
''Is he really that weak?!''
Chapter 250 Who is Game Evergreen? [1]
Chapter 250 Who is Game Evergreen? [1]
As Ss'' group walked through the forest, only Alcraz and Deton spoke about the time it took to find the first beast. Gigi and Siltheria remained quiet, yet both were throwing nces at Ss.
On the one hand, because Ss was a friend of Nymira''s, she had expected him to be much stronger than he appeared. Sure, she couldn''t feel anything from him, but there had to be something about him that was different, right? After all, he got into the academy and became a 5th year at that.
''Maybe I''m thinking about this in the wrong way? Maybe his expertise isn''t in fighting but rather in research and craft. Those courses are highlypetitive, even morepetitive than the mage and warrior courses. To get into the academy immediately without being deducted a grade or two, he must be good at his courses. He probably chose to take part in this expedition to earn himself a few ingredients¡'' Gigi''s eyes widened before understanding washed over her.
''Maybe they ced so many of us with him to protect him?! Maybe he''s a powerful asset to the academy, and despite trying to persuade him not to partake in this expedition, he was insistent. So, instead of stopping him and possibly losing a future partnership with him, they ced him with some of the strongest individuals in the academy. If I''m not wrong, there should be a teacher or two around to watch over us in case anything bad happens.'' Gigi came to her conclusion, causing her to proudly nod to herself.
Of course, she suppressed that emotion, not allowing it to reach her face. However, his nodding was enough to catch Ss'' attention.
On the other hand, Siltheria was looking at Ss for another reason.
She had caught him staring right at her sr plexus, and while this wasn''t an odd thing for a man to do around her, his stare was certainly a first. After all, she could see him analyzing it as if he could see past the skin and muscle, allowing him to stare right at her mana core.
''I''m on the brink of breaking into the sapphire core, yet, despite knowing that, he didn''t show a reaction. He knew that I could see him staring at my mana core, but he showed no hesitation when he analyzed my strength, nor did he show any fear when he came to a conclusion.'' Siltheria scratched her chin before staring back at him, just to see him ncing at Gigi.
''Green eyes and hair. Maybe he''s a healer? It would make sense¡ He doesn''t seem like someone with an inkling of fighting prowess. Everything from his posture to the way he looks at everyone around him. Maybe he knows we''re not going to do anything to him due to him being a healer?'' Siltheria guessed while remembering her mother''s teachings of never pissing off the white mage.
After both girls came to their own conclusions about Ss, they continued walking for several minutes without seeing any creatures of significant strength. Most of them were dealt with by Gigi, while a few were dealt with by Alcraz, who killed them with the swing of his de.
''This forest looks exactly the same as it did back then. Though, it''s quite unlikely that we''ll find anything if we don''t go deeper. If I remember correctly, the 2-mile mark is when we start seeing predominantly topaz-level creatures, while the 6-mile mark is when we get into the amethyst section of the forest. I''ve never really gotten to that part, so I don''t know anything more. Though, I doubt the army hadpletely surrounded the 10-mile radius we''re allowed to hunt in.'' Ss thought to himself before raising a brow.
''Something''s looking at me.'' A smirk threatened to erupt from the corner of his lips. His eyes slowly drifted to the right before staring right back at the creature that was looking at him.
Tapping the ground with his foot, he formed a brown rune under his sole. In the next instant, the creature''s stare dissipated.
Looking forward, Ss saw Gigi looking in the direction of the creature that was looking at him with narrowed eyes.
"What''s wrong?" Ss asked with a polite smile.
"Nothing. I just felt like something looked at us for a moment." She shrugged.
"Must have run away when you looked at it." Ss nodded lightly.
"We should probably speed up," Siltheria spoke while looking at the two boys ahead of all of them.
"You''re probably right. We won''t find anything strong around here." Ss chimed in, yet his voice didn''te from where he was earlier.
Suddenly, Siltheria felt a shiver go down her spine as she heard his voicee from right next to her, yet she didn''t let it show. She casually looked to the side and stared at Ss, who walked past her without making a single sound.
''Maybe he''s an assassin?'' She thought to herself. It would have made sense if not for the fact that she was almost certain he was a healer. Many healers, due to theirck of fighting ability, tend to take courses like alchemist, forging, and craftsmanship. Thought that wasn''t the only reason.
Those courses, especially ones like alchemy, had high affinities with healers who were typically treated as doctors. Alchemy allowed healers to find another way to treat patients rather than using simple spells on them all the time. Of course, while many of themon illnesses could be treated with a single spell, the same could not be said for certain gues and illnesses that required more than just a spell.
Some gues in the past even had their symptoms worsen the moment a healer used a spell to attempt to cure them, while others simply needed higher-tier spells, if not requiring specialized spells for the specific illness that not all healers could administer.
''Maybe I underestimated him? While he''s most likely a healer, he could also have other tricks up his sleeves. Combat healers exist, after all. Sure, he might not feel dangerous, but that''s probably what he wants us to think. But still. Why would they put someone like him on our team? Maybe the teachers don''t know about hisbat abilities? He''s very good at moving silently, and is probably even better at tricking our senses into believing he''s harmless¡
Maybe he''s a little more dangerous than I first expected?''
''¡'' For a moment, she stared deeply into Ss'' eyes.
''Who are you really, Game Evergreen?''
Chapter 251 Who is Game Evergreen? [2] - Plant Magic
Chapter 251 Who is Game Evergreen? [2] - nt Magic
Ss andpany continued to walk through the forest. Around half an hour had passed since theirst conversation. Even Alcraz and Deton decided not to speak and remained vignt the entire time. This was due to one thing. When they hadst stopped, there were mentions of something watching them from Siltheria. Of course, they didn''t feel it since Ss had taken care of the problem in an instant, yet that was the reason they felt so uneasy.
If there was truly something out there stalking them and they hadn''t felt it, wouldn''t that ce them in a vast amount of danger?
They had to remain vignt in order to survive. After all, unlike many of the expeditions of the past, their lives and safety were not guaranteed this time. There weren''t teachers around them to save them the moment they almost died. Of course, it was well known that the talismans they held had a feature that notified the teachers of the student''s health when it reached critical condition, but that did not mean anything in the current environment.
Who knew how long it would take to reach the students? Every second counts in the wilderness, since every second could mean life or death.
''Oh?'' As the rest of the students around him stressed about what it meant to be in the forest without supervision, Ss could not help but control his body''s movements. He wanted to instinctively halt his footsteps the moment he felt the gazend on his body. However, he controlled himself and continued to walk as if nothing was wrong.
A small, concealed smirk perked up the corner of his lips as Ss'' eyes became threateningly cold.
''They don''t seem to realize. I wonder what I should do.'' He inwardly mused before closing his eyes. In the next moment, his viewpletely changed as he was no longer looking from within his body, but rather, his gaze came from above, allowing him to see everything around them.
His vision still had the effects of mystic vision. The mana in the area was highlighted, alongside all life forces and moving energies.
''Is invisibility thatmon of a technique among these people?'' Ss raised a brow and stared at the life force of the three people around them. They were following close by and jumping from tree to tree. It wasn''t hard for Ss to see them despite the fact that he would not have been able to in the past.
After breaking into the amethyst core, his mystic vision had tremendously increased in proficiency. This happened again and again every time he went up a grade, and now that he was at the pinnacle of the amethyst core, his mystic eyes were on the brink of evolution. Seeing past something as feeble as the concealment technique was nothing to him. He could see past it with his eyes closed if he wanted to¡ Literally.
''These are probably from the same group that wants to attack the tournament. Should I kill them now, or should I have a little fun with them? Maybe I should see what these people can do first? You never know when you''ll find a worthy ally.'' Ss nodded to himself as a small n formed in his mind.
Just in the moment, he saw something else.
''They''re strong. I''m sure they can take care of that thing.'' Ss nodded to himself lightly before allowing his eyes to dart around for a moment.
"Do you feel that?" Ss finally asked.
"Yeah. There''s something up ahead. It''s pretty strong, but I can take it." Deton spoke immediately, not allowing anyone else to have the chance to speak.
"You sure?" Ss raised a brow while Gigi stared at him with puzzlement.
"Yeah. Don''t worry." Deton raised a thumb and let out a foolish grin.
In the moment, the entire group watched as something came out of the shadows in front of Deton and Alcraz and towered before them like a four-legged titan.
It was several meters tall, allowing it to stand at a minimum of 6 meters tall. Of course, if it were to get onto its hind legs, Ss didn''t doubt that it could reach 12 to 15 meters in height. Its head had barely any skin on it, yet even that was beginning to ke and tear off the bone.
Its skull was that of a goat''s, or something close to it at least. Its horns were curved and almost metallic, while the holes where its eyes were supposed to be were empty in the physical sense since the creature''s eyes had been reced by two burning crimson mes that shone from within like tiny pupils.
The rest of its body was a mixture of rotting flesh, fur, and bone. The body was that of a creature that looked more like a sheep than a goat, from how much leftover fur there was, but what caught Ss'' attention was the swirling darkness in its sr plexus.
Ss'' eyes narrowed slightly as he looked at the amethyst core that was being forcefully broken into the sapphire core. The entire body was pumping mana into the core at high levels, while the swirling mist of darkness made out of pure mana around it pushed down on it as if attempting to squeeze it.
''I think I know where the kingdom got the idea of forcefully upgrading mana cores.'' Ss mused before staring at Deton, who had already intertwined his fingers into prayer. Lifting his head slightly, he parted his lips and spoke¡
Well, ''spoke'' probably wasn''t the wisest word to use in this situation. After all, what came out of his mouth were not words, but sounds and harmonies that interconnected on a spiritual level.
Even Ss could not help but feel shocked the moment he heard it. The melodious singing rang in his ears and soothed his mind, yet it only turned the creature before Deton more frantic and irritable.
As Deton closed his eyes, his singing became louder, yet, despite not lowering his lips once as he sang, words formed in the minds of everyone who could hear him.
"Blooming Flower"
Winds erupted out of the ground and stretched into the skies. Every nt, no matter if it was a tree or a de of grass, reacted to the order that had beenced into the very essence of the song. Runes had appeared around Deton the entire time, yet only when words were heard did they finally connect.
The tendrils of vines and roots merged elegantly with the leaves and des of grass as they plunged into the creature''s stomach and shot him into the sky. The leaves and grass cut the creature''s bones and skin, while the tendrils of vines and roots grew from within the creature and protruded from every orifice before ripping through the flesh and bones of the creature.
Suddenly, all the nutrients within the undead-like goat were ripped away from it, and in onest act, Deton singings grew in pitch and boomed through their area of the forest. Suddenly, the runes grew in luster as the creature''s body got squeezed into a ball from the inside out.
Its bones were ground to dust, while the rest of its flesh and fur was turned into a paste.
In the next instant an enormous flower bloomed in the creature''s ce before the singing stopped and the runes vanished into thin air.
''So this is what you can do when you''re connected to nature to the same extent as these elves¡'' Ss silently nodded before staring at the beautiful cherry-pink tulip at the top of the pir of vines.
''To think he would have the ability to one shot the creature¡ How fascinating.''
Chapter 252 Who is Game Evergreen [3] - Horde of Beasts & Monsters
Chapter 252 Who is Game Evergreen [3] - Horde of Beasts & Monsters
The rest of the team looked on in moderate shock. The tendrils of nature hadpletely outssed the sapphire core creature in less than a second. Sure, the creature might have forcefully broken into the sapphire core, yet that did not take away from its strength.
''Its strength was a little higher than that of a pinnacle amethyst core, yet much lower than that of the weakest sapphire cores. How interesting. Maybe I underestimated the power of the staff that had been handed to my grandmother. To give such a powerful artifact to someone like Keira¡'' Ss frowned and recalled receiving a staff with an emerald crystal powering it from the chief to give to his grandmother.
''Now that I think about it, I can''t help but wonder if there was something that Keira kept from us. Such an enormous prize for simply stopping a beast horde is simply iprehensible. Maybe, just maybe, there was something more to that gift.'' Ss narrowed his eyes, not paying any more attention to the disy of nature magic before him.
However, the same could not be said for the rest of his group. All their eyes were glued onto the pir of vines and roots. Of course, some knew how to hide their shock more than others, while some like Alcraz, seemed to bepletely calm.
Siltheria, who was simply frowning at the disy of power, looked to the side and stared at the open-mouthed Gigi. Both her eyes were widened, while the hand that she had ced on her de tightened around it significantly. She shuddered constantly, her eyes darting between the caster and the casted.
"We need to keep moving. Deton, harvest the core." Alcraz ordered while peaking behind him to look at the two girls. However, his eyes quickly moved toward the stationary Ss who hadn''t shown a single bit of interest in the situation. He was currently looking down in contemtion with his hand on his chin.
Alcraz''s eye twitched when he saw this, but he didn''t show any other reaction. He quickly turned around and began walking in the other direction, passed the pir of vines and roots and deeper in the forest.
After Deton harvested the monster by manipting a vine to rip through the creatures flesh and retrieve the core, everyone turned around and followed behind Alcraz quietly. The group waspletely quiet, yet, with a single nce, Ss could tell that the entire group was in turmoil with emotions they were having trouble controlling.
Gigi''s was awe and a tinge of excitement. Siltheria exuded a feeling of anger and even a tinge of wariness, while Deton, who had cast the spell in the first ce, looked like he was about to burst with pride and gloating.
Seeing Deton so upbeat, Ss couldn''t help but inwardly chuckle as he passed the pir and the monster.
This continued for several hours. They moved around the forest and hunted for both beasts and monsters. Despite what Ss would have thought before this expedition, there were quite a lot of monsters in dia. The reason that was so surprising was due to the fact that, throughout his 6 years of living in dia, Ss had only met a handful of monsters.
Though, it seemed like the reason for that was simply due to the fact that he tended not to go much deeper than a mile or two due to a certain golden-eyed nun who stopped him from doing so.
"We should start going back. It will take an hour to reach the camp from where we are, and the sun looks like it''ll set in two hours or less." Gigi suggested.
"That''s probably a good idea." Alcraz nodded.
"Good idea? We can spend another hour here and you want to go back already?" Siltheria sneered. "We can just run back at full speed when there''s only an hour left." She shrugged.
"Not all of us can move that quickly. I''m a mage, remember?" Deton sneered back while throwing a nce at Alcraz and Gigi for them to back him up.
"Don''t you have an item that helps you move quickly from ce to ce? You''re an elf, right? Isn''t agility one of the more important things to them when ites tobat?" Siltheria asked in a mocking tone.
"No. Agility isn''t important to us. Rather, it''s simply one of our advantages due to our naturally slimmer bodies." Deton snorted in reply as if he couldn''t believe he would have to exin such a well-known piece of information. However, while all non-elves digested that information, Ss had a different reaction.
''Does he not know, or is he simply not allowed to tell people from other races?'' Ss narrowed his eyes and looked at Siltheria to see if she had a simr reaction to him, yet, after seeing her contemte what Deton had told her, he could not help but frown.
The reason Ss was confused was simple. It was because the bodies of elves did not work the same way Deton had described. While they were naturally slimmer, that didn''t help with their speed, or at least not in any significant way. That was because, while they were naturally slimmer than humans and most beastkin types, their muscles were 73% denser than most humans. Their grace and ck of weight" was, if anything, an illusion.
Because, while their muscle density might have allowed them to createrger bursts of speed, the real reason for their "lightweight" and "quick speeds" was simply due to how mana moved through their bodies.
That was because, just like some of the beasts that he had seen over thest couple of years, elves had two sets of mana channels. One that was connected to their core, and one that was connected to their heart¡
Meaning, that not only did they have a way to channel mana to create spells in elemental forms, but pure mana seemed to course within their very blood as if their respiratory system itself was created to absorb both oxygen and mana in a controlled fashion¡
Almost artificial¡
Ss could tell that they had many other secrets connected to their mana channels, however, while those were interesting, the thing that Ss found most interesting was how they awakened mana in the first ce.
''Now that I think about it, every race except humanity seems to have an advantage when ites to how their mana moves through their body. Well, that''s if you don''t count me, of course. My mana channels were formed by my evolution blessing, as well as the life equation. My body had been literally morphed to make mana easy to manipte¡ Yet, here I am, still struggling to control mana the same way toki users do.'' Ss sighed while looking at his teammates.
They seemed to have finallye to a decision on what to do and were beginning to walk back to the camp. He knew he was the reason for them going back since he felt them looking at him a couple of times during their conversation, but he didn''t really care.
As Ss began to turn around and follow behind them, he suddenly felt the hairs at the back of his neck rise. Out of nowhere, Ss felt hundreds of feral eyesnd on him before danger crept up his neck, sending cold shudders down his spine.
His eyes quickly narrowed into slits while a smile crept out of the corner of his lips.
''So this is how they''re going to y it¡'' Ss'' smile turned maniacal.
***
Closing her eyes, Gigi let out a heavy sigh. Ever since entering the forest, there had been a bad feeling lurking behind her ears. It almost felt like there was something breathing down her neck, yet, no matter how many times she looked back, the only person she saw was Game Evergreen, the mysterious student with unknown abilities.
She had chalked up her uneasiness to Game''s presence. The fact that he refused to walk in front of any of them was suspect enough, especially since he was considered the weakest among them. Usually, in situations like this, people like him tended to stay near the middle where they could be protected from all sides, yet, not only did he stay at the back, but he also left the group at times to collect ingredients from the forest.
Most of these ingredients were nts. However, at times, he woulde back with the organs of certain monsters that he insisted were for his potion making.
As those thoughts ran through her mind, Gigi could not hold back the iing sigh. Ever since meeting Game Evergreen, it seemed like she had been sighing quite a lot. The boy was stressful to be around, so who could me her? Plus, if that wasn''t enough, the serpent with slit-like pupils was ring into her soul, scrutinizing her every moment.
Ironically enough, somehow, the loud green-haired elf and the racist shorter elf were the only ones that she felt calm around. They didn''t make her nervous, so that was a plus¡
Suddenly, she felt the hairs at the back of her neck stand up. Her eyes widened in terror before she allowed her toki to finally erupt out of her body and wreak havoc in every direction. Of course, with the little semnce of control that remained in her mind, she controlled the toki to move around her teammates.
Her toki swept past all of them and erased the trees around them from existence, turning them into splinters and sawdust in the blink of an eye. Everything around them for several dozen meters disappeared, and what she saw only cemented the horror in her heart.
Dozens, if not hundreds of monsters surrounded them¡ No¡ They had always been surrounding them. Some of them were far too close to not have been surrounding them for a significantly long time. Despite her outburst of toki that had seemingly erased a chunk of the forest, monsters within that range did not die. Some were injured, yet most of them weren''t.
Most had been simply pushed back a few meters, yet, even then, it wasn''t all of them.
''Pristine Amethyst or higher¡'' Gigi concluded with a hint of terror.
The rest, despite seeming just as strong as Gigi, only then realized that they were surrounded. Each of them got into their battle stances in an instant. Sure, they had been caught off guard, but that was no reason to die.
Grabbing the hilt of her de, Gigi also got into her battle stand. Slowly, she retracted her toki before calmly coating her de in it.
This was going to be a battle they wouldn''t forget.
Chapter 253 Beast Horde [1]
Chapter 253 Beast Horde [1]
"I was wonder why we weren''t seeing any beasts or monsters on the way back." Siltheria snickered her breath. She was by far the calmest among them. She didn''t do anything rash, but at the same time, she didn''t show any panic on her face. The only semnce of emotions that showed on her face was agitation, as if this entire situation was, if anything, but a hindrance to her.
"Game. Stand in the middle of the formation. We can''t afford getting you killed in this situations." Suddenly called out, causing Game to quickly run into the middle of their formation.
Looking at the iing Game, she could not help but feel a little bad for him. He looked so pathetic right now. Before, she had theorized that he might have been a healer of some sort with some battle experience, but after sweeping him a nce, that theory shot out of the window as quickly as it came.
He looked panicked and scared. That was not an expression someone with battle experience would have under such a situation, even if they are healers. That was the expression of someone who had never needed to lift a finger to fight for what they deserved.
''Maybe he''s just an important person?'' She thought before shaking her head and letting out another sigh.
Gripping the hilt of her de, she quickly stood before the shivering Game and guarded him as well as she could.
"Gigi. You carry Ss out of here and we''ll try to hold them off for a while. Once you''ve reached significant range, give us a signal and we''ll begin retreating too." Alcraz ordered in a tone that demanded respect.
"That won''t work. We''re currently surrounded from all sides. It''s better if we all retreat at the same time. Circling us was a good tactic of closing off our exists, but it stretched their forces thin. With significant force, we can break through their defenses and st through them." Gigi quickly responded while cutting the air before her with blurring speed.
An arch of toki shot out from her de, mowing down every creature that stood in her way before dispelling after slicing the 5th beast in half. Seeing this, Gigi could not help but frown. Under normal circumstances, her move would have mowed down an entire section of the beast and monster horde. She knew that these creatures were stronger than most of the monsters and beasts she had fought in the past, but to only kill 5 of them were still quite shocking to her.
"I agree with her¡" Siltheriamented from the side, causing Gigi to suddenly snap out of her stupor and stare at the woman beside her. "If we stay behind, the situation will only get worse for us as the stronger enemies get closer. Its better if we put all our forced into breaking through only one side of the encasement and forcing the other side to chase us. That puts us in control and avoids getting us cornered."
Hearing Siltheria''s counter-n, Gigi could not help but nod.
"I have to agree with the girls this time, Alcraz." Deton sighed, his hand pointed toward the hoard as dozens of vines and roots restricted them.
"Alright. We''ll go with your n instead." Alcraz nodded in understanding.
''It seems that he came to the same conclusion as me about Game.'' Gigi narrowed her and decapitated the nearest monster. It seemed to be a wolf with 6 eyes and an extra pair of limbs.
Siltheria, on the other hand, had a simr yet different notion of Alcraz''s choice. After all, she knew exactly who he was and was quite familiar with the politics between races.
''He ced Game''s life in high importance due to both his standing and his position in this team. His dying would have meant we would lose many points, but at the same time, it would have meant killing off an influential human that could help strengthen the ties between the elven people and their human counterparts. Allowing Game to die would not only ruin his n to get closer to the human people, but it also has the chance of sparking animosity from the human side.
Of course, he''s just overthinking it. Such a blunder would not be put on him, but rather, it would be ced on the academy. After all, Alcraz is just a child, especially in the eyes of elves. He wouldn''t be med by them any more than he would be med by the humans. The only people who might hold resentment would be the Evergreens themselves.'' Siltheria thought to her while sending out several water spells that pushed back the iing hordes.
Just then, they all heard Alcraz''s voice boom into their ears.
"Go!" Alcraz suddenly shouted while pointing in a particr direction.
Looking in that direction, Gigi''s eyes slightly widened before a look of confidence washed over her face.
They all began to dash to where he pointed, including Gigi, who held onto Game tightly.
"Deton." Alcraz spoke in a soft voice. Simultaneously, his hand reached for his de. Gigi, seeing this, dropped Game to the ground and did the same thing.
At the same time, both Alcraz and Gigi swung their des in two different directions, creating a sweeping force of toki that pushed the monster and beasts back from both sides, while also killing some simultaneously. Both of them had used the t side of their de to create such a phenomenon since it was best to halt the monsters for a moment.
Deton had already sped both his hands into a prayer before a heart-wrenching melody left his lips.
Suddenly, a magic circle formed out of thin air, tracing itself before him.
''nt magic, again?'' Gigi inwardly thought.
The incantation that Deton sang wove through the air, intertwining with the energy of nature around them. With a profound hum, the ground quivered, and from it erupted a barricade of thorns and vines so thick and high it dwarfed the nearest trees. The creatures on the forefront recoiled, pierced by the thorns, or ensnared by the vines, buying the group precious time.
Gigi didn''t wait for the moment to pass. "Move!" shemanded, already darting through the small opening that theirbined forces had created.
Game, still on the ground where Gigi had left him, scrambled to his feet, a mix of fear and determination in his eyes. He followed close behind Gigi, running as fast as his legs would carry him. It was a truly pathetic scene, but everyone who saw it didn''t say anything.
Siltheria nced back to see Alcraz, his young features hard with the resolve of someone far beyond his years. It was a look that spoke of the burdens he carried, not just for himself but for the future of his people and the alliance he hoped to foster.
The beasts regrouped quickly, recovering from the initial shock of Deton''s spell. Their snarls filled the air, a chorus of rage and hunger as they chased after the escaping party.
"We need to keep up the pace! They''re right on our tails!" Deton''s voice was urgent, his eyes scanning for more natural features in the environment he could use to their advantage.
Siltheria, running just behind Alcraz, had already started to channel another spell. Her hands moved with practiced grace, weaving patterns that pulled at the moisture in the air. "Cover me for just a few seconds!" she shouted.
Alcraz didn''t need further prompting; he understood the potency of her magic. With a deft movement, he swung his de again, releasing a burst of toki that wasn''t meant to kill but to disorient, causing the creatures to hesitate and falter in their charge.
''Something''s wrong¡'' Siltheria suddenly thought. It shouldn''t have been that easy. Her serpentine senses were telling her that there was something wrong with how things were going, and when she focused on where this feeling wasing from, she suddenly realized something.
''Those pressures¡ There are several sapphire cores among them! No¡ If that was the case, running away would never be an option. Hell, running away from that fight would be impossible.'' She inwardly thought as terror ran through her spine.
These were creatures that could copse chunks of mountains with ease and erase entire towns from existence. What were they even doing so close to the town? Something wrong¡ Everything was wrong. It was almost like all of this had been nned before they had even gotten there. They were pawns. She knew it.
''Oh, hell with it.'' Siltheria suddenly let out a mind-rattling roar that took all her teammates by surprise. However, before they could even react to the sudden burst of sound, they saw Siltheria''s body suddenly convulse and wriggle as if a million worms were crawling under her skin.
Out of nowhere, her eyes became more ferocious than before, while her slit-like pupils became more prominent.
Within seconds, she hadpletely muted, her lover half looking almost unrecognizable from before.
After all, her legs were no more, having beenpletely reced with a long serpent-like body covered in immacte pearly white scales. Her main body looked like it had grown twice in size, but it seemed like her clothes had been made for such urrences since they grew with her.
Two fangs seemingly protruded from her lips while her hair changed in color, bing much longer and now shining with an elegant silky white.
Chapter 254 Beast Horde [2]
Chapter 254 Beast Horde [2]
With the transformationplete, Siltheria had be an embodiment of her heritage, a true serpantkin in form and power. The momentary shock of her allies was reced by an understanding of the direness of their situation. No matter how marvelous the serpantkin looked in the moment, their objective of getting out of the encirclement alive was all that mattered.
"Focus!" Alcraz called out, snapping everyone out of their astonishment. "Use whatever you have. We must break through!"
Gigi, having seen simr transformations in the past, though none quite as dramatic, nodded and readied herself, her de humming with renewed energy. Deton, his song cut short, now began a different tune, one that seemed to pulse with the heartbeat of the very earth.
The creatures, sensing the change in their prey, hesitated. It was not fear that gripped them but an instinctual wariness of a now even more formidable opponent. Of course, that only went for the weakest ones there. After all, while they were stronger than the average monster of beast the students had fought before, they were stills monsters and beasts.
Even if a pack of wolves can overthrow their alpha, in most circumstances, they don''t due to how fearful they are of him. The same went for this instance. Siltheria, while clearly not strong enough to kill all the creatures before her, ingrained the feeling fear into their very souls, causing them to fall back slightly.
However, the strongest pristine amethyst cores did not fall back as easily, as many of them growled back.
"The rest are approaching from behind." Gigi suddenly called while sending a sweeping arch toward them. Of course, after only killing a few, it disappeared, allowing the rest of the forces to push forward again.
"There''s something wrong with this situation." Alcraz suddenly spoke out while holding back a horde of weaker beasts.
"The stronger beasts aren''t moving. It''s like they''re waiting for something." Gigipleted Alcraz''s thoughts.
After Gigi''s words rang into each teammate''s ears, no one said anything for a significant portion of time as they all focused on the battle on their hands. They couldn''t afford to divert the focus.
The group were a force unto themselves, cutting swathes through the weaker amethyst core beasts that snapped and wed with feral ferocity. Yet, their tenacity was barely enough, each beast falling only to be reced by another, as if the very ground spawned them.
Siltheria, in her serpentine majesty, tore through the ranks with deadly grace, her strikes not just attacks but a dance of death. Each motion was precise and lethal, her instincts honed to a razor''s edge.
But the tide turned. From the ranks of frenzied creatures, a dull glow began to emanate, signaling a presence that dwarfed the others in both aura and menace. A creature coated in fur stood up on its hind legs, its arms muscr, and their hand crawling with bustling veins as it tightly wrapped its fingers around a mace.
"Is that¡" Siltheria suddenly froze, her blood suddenly running cold.
"A giant." Gigipleted Siltheria''s sentence with knitted brows and a raspy voice.
"The sapphire cores seem like they''re going to start partaking in this battle¡" Alcraz muttered through gritted teeth.
"I''m sure you guys can fight them. Didn''t Deton kill one with easest time!" Game suddenly spoke out with a shaky voice.
"That was different. Not only do the sapphire cores outnumber us now, but it seems like they are much stronger than thest ones. Plus, they now have an army, so we have to deal with that too¡" Gigi sighed before inwardly adding ''Plus, that giant doesn''t seem to be a sapphire core yet, but it''s exuding the power of one. This situation''s only getting more dangerous as we go on¡''
Out of the corner of her lips, a smile could not help but crawl up Gigi''s lips.
''I''ve really done it now. This time, I actually don''t think I''ll be getting out of this one alive.''
"Don''t breath." Siltheria suddenly spoke, yet, despite the fact that her demand came out of nowhere, everyone closed her mouths and nose.
Reeling her head back, Siltheria stretched her mouth. Her maw suddenly began to crack and morph slightly as scale covered a portion of her face as well as her neck. Out of nowhere, a gust of pink mist erupted out of her mouth and coated the monsters before them.
Seeing this, Alcraz knew that it was his moment to stabilize their retreat n. In that moment, the that powered a portion of his armor erupted into light as cracks spread throughout it in a cobweb-like pattern.
Shattering into a hundred pieces, the core became a spark of mist that shone light a neb filled with a stream of stars. That neb quickly surged into Alcraz'' de a moment before he swung his de with everything he had.
The moment Alcraz''s de touched the ground, an aurora of light erupted through the battlefield, splitting it in half and parting it as the sea was once said to part before the will of the divine. The monsters recoiled, not just from the light, but from the raw power that now emanated from Alcraz.
Alcraz did not even wait for the dust of his attack to settle. In the next breath, he moved like lightning, striking not to kill but to open a path, his de a guiding star amidst the chaos. It sang a high, each swings a symphony of force that held the encroaching beasts at bay.
Behind him, he left a glooming melody. A graveyard of carcasses and ash that could not handle the power of his trump card.
The others did not waste this opportunity. Gigi, with swift strikes, cleared those stunned by Siltheria''s toxic breath. Deton''s music rose above the din, a resonant harmony that invigorated and spurred the group forward. Siltheria herself slithered and struck with a deadly precision that left no room for counterattack.
The creatures, even those of pristine amethyst core, seemed to sense the shift, their ferocity waning as if doused by an invisible chill. The formidable giant with the mace, exuding thetent power of a sapphire core, hesitated. Its eyes, filled with a primal cunning, locked onto Alcraz. The ground between them became a chessboard, and every creature was a pawn in the battle of wills that ensued.
"NOW!" Alcraz suddenly roared, his voice booming with so much force that it caused some of the heads of the creatures around him to erupt into mists of crimson blood.
Siltheria, Gigi, and Deton did not hesitate for a moment to move. They didn''t dare look behind. Well, everyone except Gigi, of course.
"Wait! Game-" She looked behind just to see Game Evergreen on the ground, helpless and motionless. His body did not move, sat at a slightly upright position. His hair covered his eyes, creating a shadow underneath that didn''t allow her to see if he was conscious or not.
Suddenly, a hand grabbed her and dashed for the partition in the monster hoard.
"He breathed my poison mist in. There''s no point of going back." Siltheria exined in a hurried manner before blitzing past every single carcass, beast, and monster with ease.
With the forest''s embrace a mere breath away, the team plunged into the green sanctuary.
The forest closed around them, a shield against their pursuers, and they did not stop, not until the cacophony of trees encapsted their presence.
***
"Hm?" Lochras hummed while twisting his neck to look into the distance. His narrowed into slits while goosebumps ran through his skin, pricking at every inch like the legs of a centipede.
"Is there something wrong,mander?" A man d in glimmering ck armor from head to toe asked while turning toward Lochras. There were two such individuals around Lochras, both of them covered in the same armor. The only thing that looked out of ce was the spiraling fire emblem on the armor''s chest piece. This was the crest of the Xylem kingdom and was something that even Lochras had painted onto his clothes.
"There''s a curtain around us shielding my senses¡" Lochras muttered under his breath, but with the use of toki, his voice trickled into their ears as if they were being muttered from inches away.
The two men didn''t show any reaction to the sudden revtion. Or not through their movement, at least.
Lochras didn''t waste another second and raised his hand toward a particr direction. Suddenly, his toki red before calmly coating his arm like a warm gtinous substance. At that moment, an instance before releasing his toki, Lochras felt an aura of blood lust and raw power erupt from his side while toki spewed out in every direction.
Lochras couldn''t help but freeze. That moment of hesitation would prove fatal as a sword tore through the air at blurring speeds, looking like a normal sh of light to the ordinary eye.
One of Lochras''rades had swung at him, with all they had while the other watched in visible shock, unable to react in time to stop the attack pointed at theirmander.
"I see." Lochras'' moment of shock faded, his eyes narrowing dangerously as a malevolent frown contorted his features.
The de that had once ripped through the air to decapitate its enemy in an instant suddenly froze, its momentumpletely vanishing in the blink of an eye.
Simultaneously, another sword blinked the distance between Lochras and the soldier before returning to its sheath without exuding a melody of noise. In the next moment, the soldier burst into a cacophony of red, white, and yellow as his body burst like an overstretched balloon.
"You." Lochras suddenly pointed at the stunned soldier to the side, who was still processing what had just happened.
"Y-Yesmander?" A feminine voice stuttered out.
"Go to the town and order a code red under my name. Understood?" Lochras asked.
"Y-Yes Commander!" She shouted and turned around without saying another word, dashing into the distance in the blink of an eye.
Raising a hand, Lochras closed his eyes and snapped his fingers. A whirlwind of toki unfurled out of the click that boomed through the air, swiftly ripping through the air and cutting the "curtain" around him into shreds.
The moment the "curtain" disappeared, Lochras found himself covered in a cold sweat as every pore on his body convulsed rapidly. His eyes widened in horror before his neck snapped to the side while his eyes darted around, eventually locking onto something in the distance.
That was the aura of a hundred or so creatures that really shouldn''t have been in the area. Their auras span for hundreds of meters, if not reaching several miles in distance.
"Damnit!"
Chapter 255 Beast Horde [3] - The Power of Bloodlust
Chapter 255 Beast Horde [3] - The Power of Bloodlust
Ss was sat on the ground, his legs spilling to the side and his arms limp and motionless.
His teammates had left him behind, and right now, he was surrounded by beasts that ranged from what seemed to be a pristine topaz core to dull sapphire. Of course, most of the pristine amethyst cores had been mowed down. He hadn''t even recognized them before since his attention was focused on the stronger beasts and monsters, but to think there would be so many¡
The topaz cores were half of the battle force, and with most of them dead, the beast horde was only half asrge. Of course, that didn''t mean they were half as strong now. It just meant that they weren''t nearly as fearsome to the untrained eye as they first seemed
Closing his eyes, Ss stared at everything from above.
''10 Sapphire cores, and one giant who''s just as strong as them¡ Hm. And one iing beast. How interesting.'' Ss inwardly snickered. He could not help but feel amused by how everything had gone so far. He had no qualms in exposing his strength to the students around him, after all, scaring them into silence was quite easy. However, seeing them fight tooth and nail to get out of a hopeless situation was a scene to marvel at.
Their fantastic teamwork worked in their favor. All of them yed their parts well. Though, even if there were some things he would change about how the fight went, this was technically the first time they fought all out together. It was only right for him to not expect much from them.
"Yourrades have abandoned you¡" A deep voice reverberated through the battle field.
Opening his eyes again, Ss looked up and scanned all the monsters and beasts around him. Monsters seemed to be only about 1/3 of the horde. Apparently monsters weren''t nearly asmon in Xylem as they are on the Demon continent. Hell, from what he had heard, even Der had quite a lot of monsters due to how quickly they tended to repopte.
"I can''t say I me them. Going back for you would have definitely spelled doom for them." The giant spoke again, its voice so deep that Ss could even feel the ground under him shake with its power.
Standing up, Ss quickly dusted off his clothes and smiled wryly. With a snap of his fingers, his clothes became a ck liquid that covered every inch of his body before retreating and solidifying into the form of a formal shirt and pants, with the addition of a ck tight and a long coat that reached his knees in height.
A pair ck gloves formed over Ss'' hands before a pair of leather shoes solidified around his feet.
"You''re not going after them?" Ss chuckled calmly while fitting his gloves properly. However, his tone was filled with more curiosity than weariness of fear. As if the creatures before him didn''t even register in his eyes as threats. After?couple of seconds of no one saying anything, Ss broke the silence once more
"Though, now I doubt even you could do that. At their current range, you''d be intercepted by the military and teachers faster than you can blink." Ss shrugged without any care.
"They weren''t the targets¡" The giant also spoke calmly before taking a few steps forward. "Or at least, not specifically. You on the other hand¡" The giant raised his mace as toki erupted out of his body in a way and form that could not help but surprise Ss.
''How interesting¡''
"You have giant blood running through your veins. Most people of my race would shun you or kill you on the spot from being a hybrid, but I''ll give you the chance to survive. Join us and you''ll have salvation. Reject my offer and I will not have any choice but to kill you."
"Oh? Are you the leader of this little coup?" Sspletely ignored the giant''s proposal, causing the giant to narrow his eyes.
"Of course not."
"Yeah, I thought so. Those liberty terrorists have quite a lot of humans in their midsts. Though, I doubt they would put humans in danger when they can use you people." Ss snickered under his breath.
"This is thest time I''ll ask. Join us or die." The mace began to glow red as the giant infused it with its killing intent and toki at the same time.
"You see, as much as I would like to watch and observe the powers and fighting techniques of a giant¡" Ss spoke, each word trickling into the ears of every monster and beast equally, as he looked to the side and stared into the distance at the creature pping its wings and flying toward the town of dia.
"I have something more important to take care of." A maniacal smile extended out of the corner of Ss'' lips.
"Then¡" The giant''s mace tore through the space where Ss had just been, its force sending a shockwave that rippled through the air, shredding the ground apart. Suddenly, a shiver of fear and confusion went down the giant''s spine. Something was wrong. His instincts were screaming at him to bolt out of the battlefield and never return, while his pride as a giant held him where he was.
Looking down, the shivers down his back grew in intensity. The green-haired boy was no longer there. In that moment, a tingle ran through the giant''s skin before its eyes darted toward where the sense of danger wasing from.
Looking at the area, the giant''s eyes subtly widened. There stood the boy, his previously green hair now an elegant white that flowed untamed. His clothing bore the evidence of his rapid movement, the edges of his coat fluttering with the remnants of his eleration.
His eyes were closed and his expression was nk. The only thing he did was fix his gloves, as if it was some kind of tick.
The gazes of the rest of the sapphire cores intensified as, for once, they got ready for battle.
"You''re stronger than you look." The giantmented with a short burst ofughter. As if it was trying its best to hide the anxiety in its voice.
"Your friends over there seemed to have thought they wouldn''t have to fight until they got to the town." Ss ignored the giant''s words and chuckled, his voice cascading through their beings like the echoes of death unfurling her wings to envelop them in her embrace
"Well, you''re right. Somewhat right, at least...
This won''t be a fight, nor will it be a battle." Ss paused, and world paused with him. The wind dared not howl, and the skies dared not rumble. Parting his lips onest time, Ss took a step forward.
"From this point on¡"
It''s a massacre."
A crimson-red aura, dense with the essence of pure bloodlust and the unspoken threat of imminent demise, unfurled from him. It rolled out in waves, tangible as mist, yet as forceful as a gale, washing over the assembled creatures in a suffocating tide.
The beasts and monsters, gripped by an innate terror that wed at their instincts, found their hearts quaking. This was no mere intimidation; this was primal fear in its most raw form. The air thickened with Ss'' malice, and reality itself seemed to warp in response to his malevolent intent.
The giant, standing tall amidst the horde, found his gaze drawn inexorably to the ground as the crimson aura enveloped them. There, phantasmal and haunting, thousands of eyes unfurled out of the ground and skies, each one shining in a cacophony of colors, merging and interlocking with the crimson mist to form a horrid dread. The sight was not real in the physical sense, but in the presence of Ss'' overwhelming bloodlust, it was all too vivid in the mind''s eye.
The sapphire-cored creatures, under Ss'' thousand gazes uncontrobly shuddered. They knew it was the end for them. They knew that this would be their final nightmare. They knew that everything they ever worked for would end right then and there.
The green, and now white-haired boy from before no longer resembled the human they had first confronted. His form wavered, his skin bubbling and breaking, morphing into a figure of eldritch nightmare. Eyes, unblinking and emotionless, emerged across his skin, each one staring into the depths of a creature''s soul, judging, condemning.
Behind him, a pair of crooked, withered wings unfolded, their span casting a pall of darkness over thend. They were not the majestic appendages of angels nor the leathery vanes of demons, but something far more ancient and iprehensible¡ªa sight that spoke of a being not bound by Gileanprehension.
At that moment, Ss was no longer a merebatant in the eyes of those who faced him; he was the cold, impersonal force of annihtion personified as if he had stepped out of the collective nightmares of every creature present and into the stark, harsh light of their reality.
In the presence of "Him", the world seemed to skew, reality-bending and twisting under the weight of his aura. As he stood there, the calm at the center of the unbound horror that had been unleashed onto this world, his emerald-green eyes pierced through the phantasmal chaos
The illusion of carnage that sprawled before the creatures was not the only torment they suffered. With every second they dared to meet Ss''s unending gazes, their minds teetered precariously on the edge of an abyss. Madness beckoned them, begged them, cried at them, shrieked at them, wailed at them¡
Voices of the damned and the lost seemed to rise around them, a cacophony of madness trickling into their consciousness like a steady stream of scorchingva. These ravings began to echo in their skulls, a relentless assault on their sanity. The horrors they saw before them promised a simple, terrible truth: to close one''s eyes would be to fall into an endless void from which there was no awakening, to sumb to a nightmare from which there was no waking.
And then, Ss moved, not as a man, but as a force of nature, his approach signaling the onset of the massacre he had promised, a cataclysm in human form,e to im the due of his bloodlust.
Chapter 256 Beast Horde [4] - Aftermath
Chapter 256 Beast Horde [4] - Aftermath
[A/N: Huge thank you to parkzinho, CrownRoyal86, and Tim_Wace for their gifts and support.]
"Do you think we''ve lost them?" Deton suddenly asked, breaking the tension-filled quiet in the group. He was breathing heavily, panting like a dog in the summer while reeling over as saliva and puke dripped out of his mouth. They had been running for several minutes, and despite how healthy Deton might seem to the untrained eye, running at such high speeds for such a long distance was quite taxing for him.
Of course, it didn''t help that everyone else in the group had Toki to help them traverse the environment with ease. None of them had broken a sweat, and that was exactly what was getting on Deton''s nerves.
"We did¡ Quite a long time ago." Siltheria sighed while Deton stared daggers into her soul.
"How long ago?" Deton asked his knuckles whitening as he tightened his fists.
"They didn''t really follow us. It was only a few lower amethyst cores who came after us, and they stopped a while ago." As Siltheria said those words, everyone else in the group saw something re in Deton''s eyes. It was pure and unadulterated rage. His eyes were like balls of fiery fury.
Just before Deton could sp his hands and sing a melody that would have impaled Siltheria a hundred times, Alcraz spoke in her stead.
"The beasts and monsters hid from us before even though we were observing our surroundings. There is no way for us to tell if they hadn''t done that again. Sure, sensing the sapphire cores would be infinitely easier now that we know they are in the forest. They release a certain pressure that I''m sure every toki wielder can sense if the know what they are looking for. But I''m certain that, if a weaker one was to follow us using the same cloaking ability all those creatures did back then, we would not be able to notice it." Alcraz exined, his every word slowly calming Deton down.
After a while of silence, Gigi suddenly spoke.
"We left a man behind¡" Her voice was weak and raspy as if her throat was incredibly dry. Her eyes did not leave the ground for a moment as she said those words. Her bangs cast a shadow over her face, making it impossible for them to see how she was feeling without pooling toki into the outeryer of their eyes.
"There was nothing we could do¡ He was a sacrifice that had to be made. If we went for any longer, it would be all of us dying, not just him." Siltheria heaved out a breath while leaning onto a tree. She was back in her normal form. She had legs again and was no longer twice asrge as a normal woman.
"Still¡" Gigi gritted her teeth in rage.
"You can''t me any of us from running away." Deton chimed in with a hint of resentment in his voice. "It''s not wrong to want to survive. Plus, the kid was weak. He wouldn''t have gotten anywhere in life. Losing one of us would have a significantly more impactful difference to the world than losing him. Plus, we wouldn''t have survived if we stayed back. Better an alive coward than a brave idiotic hero." Deton shrugged. While Gigi remained silent, not wanting to speak a word.
After resting for a while they began to walk again, trying to forget everything that happened to calm their minds. Ironically enough, the world around them did not seem to wish the same fate upon them.
Jolts of uneasiness ran under their skins like a million ants marching through their veins. Each heartbeat felt worse than the next as a sense of dread bloomed within their hearts. It was a dread that they had never felt before. A form of dread that would make a normal person curl up into a ball and scream until they reached madness.
Suddenly, it felt like they were being watched. As if millions of eyes stared into their life forces, wanting to devour their soul. Low and inaudible whispers wed at the fringes of their consciousness, their soft and melodic voices trickling down their ears like boiling water.
Ravings and roars of pain and suffering echoed through their minds with enough force to make the average person reach madness in a matter of seconds.
Such a phenomenon urred throughout the majority of the forest.
Some beasts died on the spot¡ Or at least the beasts that were closest to the source of these ravings, while others dropped to the ground and convulsed madly, writhing and wriggling on the ground like dying worms.
Birds fell out of the skies while the clouds became gloomy red.
Humans in the city of dia suddenly felt like their skins were itching, but due to the distance between them and the source, that was all that urred to them.
Feeling that something was wrong. Every student in the forest moved as quickly as possible in order to reach the camp again, while military officers throughout the forest helped them get out of the area as well.
Once Alcraz and his group reached the camp, they quickly looked around, their eyes darting back and forth before locking upon a figure in the distance that stared into the forest with a horror-stricken expression.
There were many students who looked uneasy within the group, however, the teacher was by far the worst of them all. His elvish ears drooped toward the ground, while shivers ran through his body, visible to the naked eye. His silver eyes shook uncontrobly, yet, despite his clear fear, he didn''t move a muscle."Oh. You guys are back." Syra suddenly stepped forward with a slightly annoyed expression. Every time she thought of Ss, she would think back to what he said to Ivy and feel a surge of rage run through her veins.
"Where''s S- Game?" She asked after looking at the group for a while.
The group remained silent.
They all looked at each other but didn''t know what to say. Some, like Alcraz and Gigi, looked guilty, while Deton and Siltheria looked at Syra with pity.
"Where''s the game?" Syra narrowed her eyes in suspicion."
"¡"
"Let''s talk in private." Gigi sighed and grabbed Syra by the shoulder before taking her into one of the tents.
***
Lochras Skrk arrived at the scene, the echoes of an immense power still reverberating through the air, setting his senses on edge. The once chaotic field of battley eerily silent, the stillness a stark contrast to the turmoil that must have preceded his arrival. His trained eyes took in the sight, the aftermath of devastationid out before him with clinical precision.
The ground was scarred, pockmarked with craters, and slick with ichor, painting a grotesque tapestry of the conflict that had unfolded. Trees that once stood tall nowy splintered, a testament to the ferocity of the confrontation. Here and there, remnants of what once were fearsome beasts and monstersy scattered. Some were charred beyond recognition, others dismembered or crushed with such force that it spoke of an opponent of terrifying strength and ruthlessness.
What caught Lochras''s attention most, however, was the absence of corpses that should belong to the defeated. There were signs of them, certainly¡ªa limb here, a swath of scales there¡ªbut the bodies werergely absent as if the earth had swallowed them whole or an unseen hand had taken them away. The blood was still fresh, indicating that the conclusion of the battle was recent, and the victor had left no trail, no sign of their passage.
Sapphire cores, once vibrant with life, were now dim and lifeless, scattered like broken gems upon the ravaged earth. The topaz cores, previously half of the battle force, were nowhere to be seen. It was as if a maelstrom had swept through the area, leaving only the detritus of violence in its wake.
As Lochras moved through the devastation, his mind raced, piecing together the narrative of the sh from the clues left behind. Whoever had stood here, faced down the horde alone, and emerged victorious was a being of extraordinary power. The kind of power that spoke of legend, of old tales whispered in fear and awe by the fireside.
A chill ran down his spine as he pondered the implications. For the creatures of Xylem to have been dispatched with such efficiency and brutality, the individual capable of this feat was someone¡ªor something¡ªthat demanded both respect and wariness.
The aura of death hung heavy, a palpable presence that made even a seasoned warrior like Lochras Skrk uneasy. He knew that this ce would be spoken of in hushed tones, a site of an inexplicable ughter that the soldiers under hismand would be reluctant to visit.
He scanned the horizon onest time, seeking any sign of the perpetrator, any clue to their identity or purpose. But there was nothing. Only the whispering wind moved through the destion as if trying to erase the evidence of the massacre that had transpired. Lochras turned away, his mind awash with questions and the uneasy feeling that the battle he had just witnessed was only a precursor to something far greater and more terrifying.
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Chapter 257 Wyvern [1] - Conversation
Chapter 257 Wyvern [1] - Conversation
Several miles away from Lochras, Ss floated mid-air, his aura expanding into every inch and crevis of the world around, him as if his mana alone was capable of warping reality to the naked eye.
His once rampaging blood lust had quietened down under Ss'' control. There was no feeling of terror and grief when one looked at him, nor was there an everpresent sense of dread that crushed the souls of everything that stood before him. After all, to the naked that could not resist his blood lust, he no longer looked like a multi-armed wretched monster covered in eyes. No¡
Now, his figure was like a specter, both present and untouchable, an enigma that defied the naturalws. He was suspended in the air as if gravity dared not assert its im upon him. His white hair, now a halo in the dimming light, gave him an otherworldly appearance, a seraph of destruction watching the quietus of the day.
Then, as the skies bled thest of their light, a new figure emerged from the distance, its powerful wingbeats a rhythmic counter to the stillness that had befallen thend. Is gargantuan figure blurred through the skies, yet Ss could see it all the same. The wyvern, with scales that held the deep hue of sapphire, soared towards Ss, its core radiating an intense energy that suggested a vitality unmarred by the violence that had unfolded.
His eyes were locked upon the figure in the distance that was pping its membranous wing. It seemed to have seen him as well since it had dramatically lowered its speed after reaching a certain distance.
And after a while, it reached much closer, its figure having settled on the ground before it stretched its neck to look up.
"You know, I thought you would continue to fly while we talked. I heard dragons were prideful creatures, so think that one of you would look up at me like that¡" Ss couldn''t help but snicker under his breath, but that did not agitate the wyvern. Its aqua-blue eyes continued to stare at Ss before it opened its maw and spoke¡
"What''s the point of having such pride in front of an insect? Would an insect feel less scared of you just because it had higher ground? Would you feel less significant than it if you saw it above you?" The wyvern asked its voice deep and tremor-inducing. Rock on the ground shook rapidly, tapping against the ground as they jumped up and down, creating a rhythm close to that of the wyvern''s voice.
Ss didn''t know how it spoke since it didn''t seem to have the facial structure to use humannguage, but after a second thought, he just assumed that it had something to do with the glowing thing inside its body.
Of course, since the creature before him was a wyvern, seeing anything moreplex than a "glowing shiny thing" was close to impossible at his current core grade. Sure, he might be able to contend with someone like Ivy and easily win due to how bad she was at using magic, especially at her level. However, this did not mean he didn''t fall under the conditional drawbacks of only being a pristine amethyst core at the edge of bing and sapphire core.
His eyes would need an upgrade for him to see anything past the wyvern''s mana-filled scales that essentially blinded Ss from seeing anything past them even after using a significant amount of mana to power his eyes. The problem of not being able to see past the scales was not a problem of power, but rather, a problem ofplexity. Powering his eyes more would only make the scales look moreplex while also shining brighter in his vision, therefore not allowing him to see past them. Doing the opposite would simply not allow him to see deep enough into the body to understand what was happening.
However, even with such problems on hand, Ss could still tell how strong the creature before him was. It was a wyvern, after all, so he shouldn''t have been surprised that it was so much stronger than its core might imply. After all, even that weakling of a giant was able to surpass its core grade andpete with the other sapphire cores in strength during that massacre.
Suddenly, while looking down at the wyvern, Ss couldn''t help but allow arge smile to grace his face.
"Big words for a half dragon."
"You think you can anger me with your words?" The dragon scoffed.
"I thought I could¡ I guess not." Ss shrugged.
"Now, if you''ll kindly move out of the way, I''ll think of sparing you. I have a job to do, after all." The wyvern spoke again, its voice booming through the vicinity with enough power to cause the air to visibly ripple.
"To think a might lesser-dragon would choose to join humans for such a flimsy cause." Ss sighed with what seemed to be disappointment. "What do you guys call yourselves. The Liberationists? The Liberation army? Hm, doesn''t sound right." Ss stroked his chin in thought.
"You know of us?" The Wyvern asked with a tinge of curiosity.
"Well, technically, yes. Though, you''re not gonna be all that important to the kingdoms until you decide to attack that tournament they''ve chosen to have. Still, I can''t believe you''re ughtering children for such a flimsy cause." Ssughed.
"Flimsy, you say?" The wyvern muttered before turning its head toward a specific direction. Then, for a few moments, silence descended. Neither Ss nor the wyvern spoke, but every second it continued, the tension seemed to get thicker¡ Stronger.
''Oh wait. That''s not tension.'' Ss looked at the wyven with a smirk.
''That''s his aura.''
"When I felt myrades die, I first thought that they had been killed by that general from the Xylem army. It didn''t make sense to me since I was certain he wouldn''t be able to kill them so quickly, nor create such a dense form of bloodlust¡" The wyvern paused and turned toward Ss, its pupils not constricted as rage burned deep inside.
"And then I saw you¡ A man who gave off no magic, but is capable of floating mid air without maintaining a magic circle. How strange. I don''t remember my master warning us of someone like you." The wyvern heaved out something that sounded like a sigh.
The moment hung between them, charged with the potential of violence, yet neither moved to strike. It was as if they both understood that moving an inch would spark a battle that would leave its scars throughout the entire forest.
"Why do you side with these people?" Ss finally asked his voice and tone hard to discern. However, there was a sense of genuine curiosity, if not one of slight pity. He spoke to the wyvern as if it was a victim rather than a killer. "I''m sure you''re not in love with the idea of being chained by some human," Ss asked, his words leaving behind an underlying question that he was certain that the wyvern had noticed.
After all, despite what many might say, the wyvern before Ss was intelligent, far more intelligent than many of the humans that Ss had met in the past.
The wyvern''s gaze did not waver. "Chains are a matter of perspective," it began, its tone measured. "To ally oneself for a cause is to choose one''s shackles. I chose mine with the vision of a future where my kin need not hide from the greed of humans or cower from the wrath of mages."
At these words, Ss could not help but raise a brow. He hadn''t heard of wyverns being enved by humans from anyone. Such a thing would have been something he would expect to hear being mentioned at least once. However, the chance of it being done in secret was always there, so Ss didn''t question the creature''s words.
Ss nodded, his expression contemtive. "A noble cause, indeed. But what of those who stand against you? Those who fall by your hand or mine¡ªdo they not deserve a future as well?" Ss asked, his tone and words cryptic as if he was trying to say something under all the bber that was going around.
The wyvern''s aura red, the ground trembling faintly beneath them. "Not all seeds grow into trees, human child. Some are destined to wither so that others may reach for the skies." The wyvern spoke in the same tone, its words also cryptic.
"Ah, the cruel pragmatism of nature," Ss said, slowly and more urately replicating the way of speaking that the dragon had used throughout their conversation. He looked away from the wyvern for a moment, as if lost in thought, then locked eyes with it once more. "But let''s not dwell on philosophy. You''ve asked me to move, and yet here I am, wondering if you truly have the might to make me."
If anyone else was there to hear their conversation, they would have not understood a single word¡ But Ss and the Wyvern understood one another. Like old friends meeting again for a conversation between like-minded thinkers.
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Chapter 258 Wyvern [2] - Clash
Chapter 258 Wyvern [2] - sh
"You are strong. Stronger than any of those weak humans that have tried to stop me on the way here. They did not deserve to observe my strength, nor did they deserve toy eyes upon my power. But you are different."
"You noticed?" Ss suddenly felt slightly rmed. Of course, it didn''t show as anything but minor confusion, if not a hint of curiosity from an outside point of view, but right now, Ss was checking himself thoroughly because he could have sworn that he had suppressed his aura with the use of his armor. That was the reason why everyone felt he was weaker than them. Of course, that wasn''t the intended purpose or not the way he was thinking of it.
People tended to freak out when suddenly applied an indomitable will upon their very beings. He had found out quite early on that he tended to exude a certain pressure around him that made even Nymira and Alex feel unnerved in his presence. Of course, it worked out pretty well for his work as Judgment¡ The same could not be said for the fraction of his life and mind that was dedicated to making strong rtionships with the people around him, so, using one of the armor''s features, he simply chose to not exude that same pressure.
Apparently, that came with the cost of everyone thinking he was weak the moment they saw him, but in most cases, he either fixed the problem by ring his aura or by simply not bothering, since he didn''t really care about such things most of the time.
''Has the wyvern seen through it?'' Ss could not help but ask himself under his breath. If the wyvern had seen through it, he doubted that the conversation would have gone as far as it had. Maybe the wyvern''s assuming things, but Ss doubted that it would be so rash.
''The only exnation is that it made a calcted guess. It was analyzing me while we conversed. To be fair, anyone capable of standing before a wyvern this powerful and thisrge without flinching must be powerful, right? Plus, he exudes the aura of something with an Apex bloodline. It''s a little simr to the bloodline I absorbed from the thing a few years ago, but it''s a lot more powerful.
Hm. Maybe I should take its heart after killing it. Assimting something with a couple of bloodlines and enough mana to break a normal person to the next grade can be quite useful if I use it correctly.''
"I can tell. Call it a dragon''s instinct." The wyvern murmured in a roar-like fashion.
''Fake dragon.'' Ss inwardly stated after the wyvern''s words before looking at it with a neutral smile.
"I guess this is where I kill you." Ss spoke, his voice neutral and monotone, yet somehow fixed with an icy chill that crept under the wyvern''s scales, making them suddenly wriggle with what seemed to be satisfaction.
"I wish you the same." The dragon spoke calmly before it allowed its magical aura and its soul''s spiritual pressure to press onto everything in an outward fashion.
Wind blue in every direction while the cloud began to swirl above, gradually bing darker as the seconds passed, while also exponentially dropping in temperature.
The drain drops that were once going to shower the forest with an important part of its photosynthesis process suddenly froze, each one having suddenly be a piece of hale or had expanded into a snowke.
''We''re going to go all out then¡ Sorry Miss forest. Or¡ Mrs. forest?'' Ss inwardly contemted for a few moments,pletely forgetting about the wyvern that had quite literally summoned the weather to put Ss at a disadvantage.
"Revere at my strength!" The wyvern roar boomed through the air, eviscerating several thousand snowkes out of existence while creating a shock wave that turned every tree within a 500-meter radius into splinters and sawdust.
Ss, of course,pletely tanked the shock wave. Actually, he had tanked so much of it that arge portion of the forest behind him lookedpletely unscathed.
''Genocide would like it if I involved it in this fight, but do I really need to?''
Sure, to Ss, the wyvern might feel as strong as a weak emerald core, but even it had limitations simr to the ones that Ss was going through by having such a high efficiency in the use of his mana. Such a problem didn''t expand toward his body''s use of mana to strengthen him, but his body had its own problems.
Apparently, having four times as much mana was a lot more problematic when trying to control your strength, especially when you have several bloodlines that enhance strength and other body functions by a lot.
Seeing that the wyvern was ready, Ss closed his eyes¡ And then, a secondter, he opened them again and out unfurled his magical auraced with a bloodlust so thick it would have brought several sapphire cores to the brink of madness within moments of feeling it.
Without warning, the atmosphere shifted, the air growing heavy as both beings prepared to unleash the full extent of their powers. Ss''s smirk was a silent challenge, his aura a visible force field around him, while the wyvern''s scales began to glow with an inner light, its core pulsing like a heart of living sapphire.
With a roar that split the heavens, the wyvern reared up, its wings unfurling to their full, magnificent span. And as the first star of evening pierced the darkening sky, the beast unleashed a gale of frigid wind from its gaping maw, a blizzard incarnate that sought to encase the world in ice. The temperature plummeted, breaths turned visible, and thend itself seemed to cower under the wyvern''s unleashed fury.
Ss remained impassive, his eyes reflecting a calm that bordered on the surreal amidst the chaos. As the icy tempest bore down upon him, he raised a hand, palm outward, and formed a single silverish rune before his palm. The storm seemed to split upon an unseen barrier, a mere foot from his outstretched hand, leaving him untouched in a clear bubble of calm air.
"Quite the show, wyvern," Ss'' voice cut through the howling winds with unnatural rity. "But let''s try to keep the forest¡ I don''t know? In one piece? I doubt Gilea would enjoy it if we suddenly began destroyer her greenery¡ Or its greenery? I can never get the pronouns of object-like beings right." Ss sighed.
The wyvern''s response was not vocal but primal; its entire being seethed with wrath that was almost palpable. It spread its wings further as if to challenge the sky itself, and with a powerful beat, it shot upward. The creature ascended, bing one with the storm it controlled, its scales shimmering as lightning began to fork around it, preparing to strike with a power that could rend the earth asunder.
Ss watched the disy, his smirk twitching for a moment. "I said less destruction!", however, inwardly, he was thinking of something elsepletely. Something that had made the fight with Ivy so much easier before, and one that would probably work against him in this fight.
Ivy could only cast nature magic without saying any words. Sometimes, she didn''t even need to create a spell circle when she did so, probably due to her connections to Gilea. However, her limited elemental region had worked in his favor. Whenever she tried using other elements, she would instantly be outcast due to his quickly Ss could form his runic spells.
However, the same could not be said about the wyvern, and Ss knew that. This was clearly a storm wyvern, probably a descendant of a storm dragon. The thing about dragons with features rather than elements was that they tended not to adhere to certain logic when it came to magic. Ss already knew that lightning was a form of magic that formed when mixing fire and air together in a certain pattern and formation.
After all, mixing fire and air had many different oues. One was a hotter me, usually a blue me, while another was pure white sma. Ss was aware that sma was technically the same thing as lightning, but apparently, in this world, they weren''t as close as they were back on Earth.
Lightning was different. Almost like a thing with a will of its own. A semi-conscious entity that anyone with the ability to cast lightning would feel.
But that was beside the point. Or, the current point, to be exact.
Talking about Storm dragons, in particr, they did not hold the power of just lightning and ice. They help power over everything that made a storm¡ Well. A storm? They could cast storms wherever they were, no matter the environment. Whether it was a blizzard or a sandstorm, they had power over it.
Right now, fighting against a creature with authority over everything storm-rted was going to be difficult, especially if he wanted to keep the damage to a minimum and preserve the little rxed life he had gained while going to the academy over the past couple of weeks.
Ss red at the wyvern for a moment casting a rune within his eyes and forming it a few inches away from him. He had figured a few years ago that casting a rune with the manaing out with his breaths wasn''t a hard thing to do. Actually, it was particrly easy.
Suddenly, Ss realized something.
''I can try that out.'' Ss sighed and closed his eyes whileunching a fire bolt toward the wyvern to distract it for a moment.
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