《Radiant Shadow》


 The End and the Beginning - Chapter 0

    I got up from my chair and shakily walked behind my desk which was filled with monitors and different controls. This is it, everything I¡¯ve been planning for more than a century is finally coming to fruition. I walked over to the big red button on my desk that said DO NOT PRESS, lifted up its glass cover and pressed it, feeling a great sense of satisfaction.


    I was a firm believer that every great and notable machine needed to have such a button. To some it might be an unneeded detail but I had come to find that it¡¯s the little things in life that give it meaning.


    The whole room started to hum with power as mana started to surge in from large mana capacitors to fuel what I had spent so long researching and perfecting; my time machine. However, to anyone without my unique circumstances and capabilities, this machine would be completely useless, not because I wanted to make it that way but because making it any other way would be completely unrealistic and unattainable given my current condition and circumstances.


    After starting the machine I knew that it wouldn¡¯t be long before those that were chasing me noticed where I was and what I was doing and came to stop me. But I had prepared extensively for this day, and nothing could stop me, not even those national level entities.


    As I slowly, painfully, dragged my exhausted and time worn body through the massive room - filled with magic circles, runes, and artifacts, made up of a variety of very valuable materials - I started to reminisce about my past and how I had voluntarily, and involuntarily, sacrificed so much just for this day. A horrible feeling filled my chest with the regrets and trauma I had faced over my lifetime. But everything will be fine after I go back in time. It has to. I¡¯ll make sure of it.


    After precariously, yet carefully, maneuvering through the mess of wires and devices, I sat down in the center of the big magical machine, on a barely acceptable chair, and endured the unavoidable pain that came from the machine attaching all of the appropriate mechanisms into and onto my body.


    If I hadn¡¯t had my TechnicMorph Ancestry -and because of that my Metaphysical Physique: Body of Artifacts- the pain would¡¯ve been much greater. But I was able to get through it without much of a problem even with my artificially extended old age weakening my body¡¯s capabilities.


    After successfully enduring the painful process I opened my eyes to look at the monitors in front of my chair that currently showed various statistics and numbers correlating to different parts of the machine. Everything looked like it was functioning properly so I gave a voice command to the computer, ¡°Show me the outside.¡±


    The monitors instantly switched to show the image of a titanic black-armored leviathan facing off against a multitude of different people of various races; Humans, Beastkin, and many more, there was even a Dragon. There were many different large and small figures surrounding the leviathan that were launching different magic and other attacks, with more people arriving every minute.


    I recognized many of the figures fighting the leviathan as important and powerful people within the government of Tallen, and even some from outside of it, and grew a little worried that my preparations might not have been enough, but I ignored those feelings knowing that they were mostly caused by my past trauma and anxiety, and decided to trust that my preparations would be enough despite the epic battle being waged on the screens.


    I closed my eyes and focused on controlling the machine, guiding the parts that needed my input. With my vast amount of personal mana, and my Power [Mental Operator], I expertly guided my magic and lost myself in the process of finishing the final processes of the machine that I had spent so long building.


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    After completing the things that needed my input I opened my eyes and looked back at the screens showing the legendary battle. There were amazing displays of powerful magic raining down on the black scales of the leviathan, but the scales were sucking up the magic like a black void making the magic seem to dissipate into nothingness. This leviathan was one of the most capable defensive creatures I had ever come across, which is why I decided to set up my operations on the inside of it, determining that it would be able to last long enough for my machine to complete its work. There had been no way for me to stop the massive disruptions in fate brought about by the time machine¡¯s activation, so the defense of this black leviathan was a necessary sacrifice.


    But, by the looks of things, even with its awesome defenses the leviathan wouldn¡¯t last too much longer against the powerful figures that had come to stop me, or more likely to stop the cause of such massive changes and ripples in fate. Through the screens I could see that the leviathan was on its last throes as waterfalls of corrosive black blood fell off of its body down to the ground. Making the once lush purple and blue landscape turn into a desolate valley filled with rivers of black blood and signs of battle.


    As I was watching the, honestly, very cool battle, I felt a presence come up against my mind, which meant that someone was able to penetrate the failing defenses of the leviathan with their mental magic. However the presence wasn¡¯t that strong, probably taking most of their power to even get this far into the leviathan, showcasing its powerful defenses even during its final moments.


    Being capable of mind magic myself I connected to the presence out of curiosity. Coming through the connection I heard a female voice that sounded somewhat familiar, ¡°We¡¯ve almost defeated the leviathan and we¡¯ll be coming for you next Radiant. Come out quietly and surrender before we have to force you.¡±


    Not feeling pressured at all I casually responded, ¡°Why hello there. Might I have the pleasure of knowing who I¡¯m speaking to? Your voice sounds very familiar but it¡¯s been so long since I¡¯ve interacted with anyone that I¡¯m having trouble recalling in my old age.¡±


    A feeling of disbelief and perplexity along with a sense of pain came along the connection, ¡°Who I am doesn¡¯t matter. You¡¯re a criminal now and I can¡¯t afford to be connected to you Radiant. Just stop your senseless struggle and surrender before we have to use force.¡±


    ¡°Well Miss whoever you are, I¡¯m sorry to disappoint you but I¡¯ll be gone before you get to me. I was just feeling a little lonely after decades of solitude and wanted to speak to someone before I left. I don¡¯t recall who you are but I¡¯m grateful to chat with an acquaintance in these last moments. I hope you have a good life, or would it be ¡®had¡¯ a good life ¡®will have¡¯ a good life?... Anyways, my machine is almost done and I¡¯ll have to get going now. Maybe I¡¯ll see ya in the past. If I can remember you that is.¡±


    ¡°Wait!-¡±


    With that, I severed the connection that started to feel like it was getting too strong, and because I didn¡¯t want to talk anymore. Even if it was someone I knew, there was no reason to continue talking, after all I was going back in time and this conversation wasn¡¯t going to mean anything once I was gone.


    As I felt the room shake, because of the great leviathan falling to the ground, the time machine fired up its last operations and everything seemed to distort around me. Although this machine was powerful, it wasn¡¯t powerful enough to send everything I wanted back in time; the machine was only powerful enough to send back three things: my Adaptive Mind which contained a perfect record of all my memories, my soul which acted as an anchor for the time travel to work, and a miniature mana reactor artifact I handcrafted with my own mana cells so it would be compatible with my past self.


    The mana reactor took up the bulk of my time machine¡¯s capabilities and energy, because sending a physical object back in time was very costly, but it was absolutely necessary if I wanted to accomplish my goals, and it was still only possible to send it back because it was made with my own mana cells. It would be the only testament to my magical and engineering prowess once I left everything else behind.


    With a smile on my face I closed my eyes and said goodbye to this lonely future filled with regrets. Many different kinds of mana and energies flowed chaotically around me, and from this chaos the machine started to transform it into order, and the whole room imploded towards me as I blacked out.

 New Start - Chapter 1

    I opened up my eyes to see a hated, but familiar, scene. A room that was pure white except for the few pieces of furniture in the otherwise empty room. This was the place I called home for the ¡®first¡¯ 17 years of my last life, that is to say the 17 years after I had reincarnated into this 5 year old body. This was the place that was the beginning of my ruined future.


    I had returned back to the exact same time as when I first came to this world, even though going back further, to when I wasn¡¯t in prison, would have been far more comfortable. But, for the millionth time, I lamented that my simple choice during my reincarnation, to skip my boring adolescent years, had caused me so much grief and pain. Since I used my soul as a conduit for time travel I was unable to go back any further. However I could still change the future, and that thought pushed me forward.


    Immediately I started to enact my plan. I entered mana meditation with practiced ease, and when my consciousness entered a separate, magical space, I navigated towards a red gem-like tablet that floated inside this ethereal space. I didn¡¯t hesitate to mentally grab ahold of this ruby tablet and use it. Suddenly I was brought to another place that looked like a luxurious room.


    I didn¡¯t actually physically travel anywhere, it was more like astral projection, but what mattered was that I wasn¡¯t being watched here, and I could still do what I needed to do. I hurriedly sat down on the soft carpeted floor of this new room and closed my eyes.


    I used my Power [Mental Operator] to sense deep within my mind. Immediately I could sense the sinister mental hooks that were slowly creeping into my brain trying to exert their subtle control over me. The sensation nearly caused me to start hyperventilating, remembering the trauma of when I wasn¡¯t in control of my body for nearly 40 years. I took a deep breath and forced myself to focus. I used my [Mental Operator] to delicately control my Metaphysical Organ [Adaptive Mind] to slowly create a virtual copy of my mind; that would act as a decoy to interact with outside influences and be a primary shield to protect my mind.


    This technique took me 40 years to perfect, and took way too much energy for my current five year old body to create, but I had planned for this, and had sent back in time the extremely compact [Mana Reactor] artifact. The whole thing barely fit inside of the storage space of my Metaphysical Physique [Body of Artifacts], but I wouldn¡¯t be able to get my hands on any other artifacts for the foreseeable future so I didn¡¯t mind.


    Without this [Mana Reactor] none of my plans would matter, and I would¡¯ve only been able to go back in time to when I was already sixty years old and had just completed my [Virtual Mind]. But by that time my life had already been ruined and I would again have to be on the run for the rest of my life. Thankfully I was able to come up with a solution, my [Mana Reactor] combined with my [Body Of Artifacts] would open back up my restricted world and allow me to break the shackles that held me.


    It took me a little over an hour to create my [Virtual Mind], and after completing it, without wasting a second, I frantically destroyed any traces of mental influence in my real mind. Fervently combing through it over and over again with an anxiety and fear that reared its head like a ferocious dragon. I had to make absolutely sure that there weren¡¯t any more sinister influences lurking inside of my mind.


    After a while I finally heaved a sigh of relief. There were no more mental influences in my brain, and once this realization dawned upon me, my whole body started to shake, not my real body that was being monitored, just my projected body within this room. My overwhelming emotions threatened to burst forth, but at the moment I didn¡¯t care. I let the emotions flow through me as I knelt down on the soft carpet. Tears flowed out of my eyes, and I started to grin, ¡°ha¡­ haha¡­HAHAHA HAHAHA! IT¡¯S DONE. I¡¯M FREE! HAHAHA¡­haha¡­ha¡­ha.¡±


    I started to sob as I hugged my knees to my chest and just sat there crying in relief for what felt like forever. After calming down I wiped my eyes, got up from my seated position and went to lay down on the lonely bed in the corner of the ¡®fake¡¯ room to let my mind relax.


    After more than a century of constant worry and fear, I was free, both from outside mental influences and my own self imposed rules and isolation. I no longer had to worry about constantly being mentally monitored and tracked, and I could finally do the things I wanted instead of cowering and running in fear of being captured and enslaved once again.


    As I lay on the bed I started to think about what came next. The first and most crucial step in my plans was finished, but everything from this point on also had to be done to perfection if I wanted to have any chance of escaping this prison. By the time I planned to initiate my escape from this prison, I needed to have made my captors believe that they had me in the palm of their hands, and that all started with cultivating my image and manipulating the attitudes and actions of my captors.


    One of the things I learned from my years of experience running and hiding from others was that, if they can¡¯t predict what I¡¯m going to do, then I¡¯ll be miles ahead of them by the time they realize what I¡¯ve done.


    ¡°If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.¡± - Sun Tzu, The Art of War.


    I found that the quote from Earth was very accurate indeed. Although I will have to suffer some losses, in the end I¡¯ll make sure to win the battles that will ultimately lead to my victory.


    In order to escape from prison, and evade subsequent capture, I needed to carefully manipulate the image I showed. I had previously decided that the persona that would give me the best results was that of a na?ve child who, at first, believed everything he was told, then after feeling betrayed and manipulated I would grow to resent the people who held me captive, and then I would start to constantly try and do everything I could to plan an escape from prison, unaware that all of my plans were already known and prevented by my captors.


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    An inexperienced individual might say that letting my audience know that I wanted to escape sounded like a horrible idea, because if they knew I was trying to escape then they would start to monitor me even more and eventually find out my actual plans right? However, by showing them that I wanted to escape and feeding them false information, I would lure them into a false sense of security by giving them the illusion of control. After all, if I have been planning my escape for years unaware that all of my thoughts are already known to my captors, how would I possibly be able to escape when all of my plans have been foiled before they can even begin? Thus, by manipulating the attention of my audience I would be able to perform my disappearance act right under their noses. And, by my memory, my first acting performance was set to arrive very soon.


    So, I exited the comfy room and arrived back in my real body like nothing had happened.


    A brief moment after I returned, one of the seemingly bare walls split open revealing a doorway into a similarly bare hallway, with a pair of guards standing at the doorway. The guards told me it was time for my appointment with the Mentalist, and, just as I remembered, they didn¡¯t allow me to respond before they activated my prisoner collar.


    A black film spread out from the collar and encased my whole body, blacking out my senses and restricting my movement, though I could still breathe just fine. Then I felt a muffled sense of motion as the guards picked me up and started moving me to the Mentalist Radix¡¯s office.


    -Break-


    As soon as my collar was turned off, I regained my senses and found myself in yet another familiar room. I didn¡¯t spend long looking around before walking over and sitting down on the only free chair in the fancy office. Sitting behind a desk in front of me was the man who started it all, Chief Mentalist Radix. This was the man who began my mental manipulation that ultimately led to my true captivity.


    However, despite what he had done, I had no truly bad feelings towards the man, although he had indeed mentally manipulated me, and implanted the curse that caused me so much trouble in the future, his mental manipulations were like sugar compared to the metaphorical hard drugs I would later be exposed to after I came of age at 22.


    Radix stared at me for a while from behind his desk without saying a word, and eventually I felt something intrude into my [Virtual Mind]. It was obvious to me that it was Radix, and I used all of my mental faculties to make sure he didn¡¯t notice anything off about my [Virtual Mind].


    Soon after he entered my mind I felt a magical construct flow through the connection from Radix and land in my [Virtual Mind]. The magical construct quickly started to send out roots, but I could tell that it was like a tiny flame in the wind, it didn¡¯t stand a chance of surviving on its own. However, Radix continued to stay in my mind and shield the fragile magical construct as it grew.


    As this covert operation was going on inside my [Virtual Mind], he spoke out loud, ¡°Radiant Shadow. I know that you must be feeling somewhat confused about your situation right now, but I¡¯m here to help you adjust. I¡¯m the Chief Mentalist working with all of the children here who are just like you, so if you have any questions feel free to ask me and I¡¯ll try my best to answer.¡±


    It seems it¡¯s time to start my act. I carefully curated my [Virtual Mind] to corroborate my act. I wanted to come across as a slight psychopath, so I made my [Virtual Mind] reflect this with muted emotions and a sense of irritation that I couldn¡¯t be relaxing at home enjoying the things I liked. So, while Radix pretended that he was only listening to what I said out loud, I immersed myself in silent mental deception in the background.


    I said to Radix, ¡°I want to know how long until I can go back to my house?¡± I tried not to use too sophisticated language, I was 5 after all.


    Radix nodded his head and said, ¡°Yes, well in order to answer that I¡¯ll have to explain your situation first. Do you remember the Future Assessment Examination you took?¡±


    ¡°Yes. It was only a few days ago.¡± At least in this timeline it was.


    ¡°Well you are here because your FAExamination found that you are special, and you need some help to grow and take advantage of your talents.¡±


    It sounds like you¡¯re helping me because I have something special about me, but that¡¯s not the truth. In reality all of the kids who were sent here were said to have dangerous mindsets, like that of a murderer, abuser, psychopathic killer, kleptomaniac, or any other number of destructive tendencies that were labeled as dangerous to society.


    ¡°Help me grow?¡± More like control my growth.


    ¡°Indeed. In fact your FAExamination found that you are particularly special, which means it might take longer for you, than for others, to return home.¡±


    Keeping my resentment towards the government from showing in my [Virtual Mind], I nodded my head and continued to ask, ¡°How many more days until I¡¯m able to go back home?¡±


    Radix almost seemed to hesitate before he said, ¡°Don¡¯t worry about it. I¡¯m sure you¡¯ll be back home before you know it. The more you worry about it the longer it will feel, so focus on the present for now and the time will pass by in a flash.¡±


    Oh how I wish that were true. But it wouldn¡¯t be until around 55 years later that I would escape the grip of the government, and even then I couldn¡¯t go back to my home. My thoughts weren¡¯t carried to Radix though, as I continued to ask simple questions that a five year old might be expected to ask and acting like a na?ve child.


    As the conversation went on, I could feel that the magical construct had finally grown to the point that it would be able to survive on its own within my [Virtual Mind], and Radix stopped nurturing it, but he still stayed inside to monitor my thoughts.


    I almost visibly shuddered when looking at the magical construct, but I held it in and didn¡¯t display any abnormalities. Despite the fact that this magical construct wasn¡¯t in my real mind, my past experience with it wasn¡¯t pleasant, leaving me with some rather unpleasant mental scars. In fact I would rather call this construct a curse, although the government didn¡¯t refer to it as such, but there was no denying its effects. This curse had followed me throughout almost all of my past life, and I was happy to be free from its control.


    With this my initial set up in the eyes of my captors was set. Now all I had to do was keep up the act 24/7 for 17 more years. Easy.

 The Archives - Chapter 2

    I finished my interview with Radix; successfully cultivating the image I wanted to. After being brought back to my own desolate room I acted like I was tired and went to lie down on the bed, settling down and getting comfortable. I closed my eyes and pondered on what I should do next. I had finished all of the immediate fires that needed to be dealt with and had some free time to do whatever I wanted.


    Unfortunately I couldn¡¯t really do much of anything in my room because I was being monitored and recorded at all times, which really limited my range of activities. However the biggest restriction was my age, a five year old can¡¯t do magic. At least, they wouldn¡¯t be taught how to do so. So I only really had one option, and that was The Ever Present Archives.


    The Ever Present Archives, or just The Archives for short, was a place that had vast amounts of knowledge stored within its walls and could be accessed even here in my room. However, in order to get into The Archives, one first had to have a pass that would transport the user into The Archives.


    I didn¡¯t have one of these physical passes that were as rare as Dragons, but I did have a blessing;


    (Blessing; The Ever Present Archives Level 1 Infinite Pass): Accessible through mana meditation, with the Level 1 Infinite Pass everything at or below Level 1 in The Ever Present Archives is free. Cost/restriction: NULL


    This blessing was the key to everything that I had accomplished in my life. If I didn¡¯t have this pass I would never have been able to escape from my captors, and I most definitely wouldn¡¯t have been able to travel back in time either. Usually such a blessing would come with some sort of cost, but I kind of cheated in how I obtained this blessing. But that¡¯s a story for another time.


    Thankfully I am able to enter The Archives without being detected, so I¡¯ll spend my time trying to do something productive there. Focusing on my mana core, I entered mana meditation and I sensed a deep lack of most of what I used to have, spells and constructs, multicolored mana and vibrant nebulas were no longer present. I felt a slight pain in my heart for all the things I had given up to come back in time, but it soon passed and I focused on the red gem-like pass floating in my mana core. I mentally grabbed it and willed myself to use the pass.


    I felt the familiar sensation of being swept away and arriving inside of my personal room in The Archives.


    The room was nothing special, just a place where I could change what my avatar was wearing, and a few other minor functions like a place to think without other people. This was where I had entered right after I had traveled back in time, but my purpose of entering was different from before.


    I changed into some comfortable robes and put on a ruby red mask that covered my eyes and kind of made me look like a blind person. The mask ran like a bandana across my eyes, hiding them but still showing my Human face, and the most important thing was that they magically obscured my identity. Plus they didn¡¯t obstruct my vision, allowing me to see right through them, it was kind of essential when most of the things I would be doing here required sight.


    After changing my getup I stepped through the doors of my room and into the grand hall of The Archives. Most of the flooring was made up of large stone tiles with different lounging areas scattered throughout the grand hall, some with carpet and furniture, and even a few oasis-like areas filled with plants and vegetation. Surrounding the grand hall were shelves filled with books, stone tablets, scrolls, and many different types of information repositories as well as obelisks and other monuments filled with knowledge. The shelved areas went on seemingly forever and functioned like a shifting labyrinth which slowly led those walking within to whatever they were searching for.


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    There were many different floors in the shelved areas leading all the way up to the top, but the grand hall was completely open up to the clear crystal glass ceiling, showing an amazing view of a black night sky filled with stars, celestial objects, galaxies, and other celestial phenomena.


    After taking a few seconds to take in the beautiful view, just like I always did, I walked over to a carpeted lounging area and grabbed a rectangular device similar to a computer tablet from Earth. I grabbed it from the holding center in the middle of the carpeted area and then sat down on one of the comfortable seats before familiarly navigating my way through the world of the tablet.


    I spent my time looking at the recent news in Tallen, the country I was in, and some of the surrounding countries to try and get a grasp on where I should focus my attention and future plans.


    After browsing through the news for a few hours I sensed someone sitting on a nearby chair and I looked up to see who it was. To my surprise it was a little girl not much older than me. She had blond hair with some very light blue streaks that almost blended in, and her eyes had a deep amethyst color. She looked extremely familiar to me, but I had never seen her in The Archives in the future so I didn¡¯t know where the familiarity came from. I decided to strike up a conversation to ease my curiosity and hopefully find the answer.


    ¡°Hello there. It¡¯s rare for young people to get the opportunity to come to The Archives, so I¡¯m surprised to see you here.¡±


    While holding her own tablet she looked at me in the ¡®eyes¡¯ and said, ¡°That¡¯s right I¡¯ve never seen someone my age in The Archives either. Are you just visiting temporarily?¡±


    ¡°No actually. I have permanent access to The Archives but this is the first day I¡¯m coming here. What about you, are you a temporary visitor?¡±


    Her face showed some poorly concealed pride as she said, ¡°Nope, I have a permanent access card and I¡¯ve been coming here for a few months already.¡±


    Permanent access? Then why haven¡¯t I seen her here in the future? Probing further I said, ¡°Wow you must be important if you have permanent access. You do seem a bit familiar but I can¡¯t quite remember from where. Are you a famous noble by any chance?¡±


    She made a hesitant face while saying, ¡°I don¡¯t know, my parents said that I shouldn¡¯t tell anyone who I am in The Archives because I¡¯m not an adult yet.¡±


    Seeing that she was reluctant I said, ¡°If you feel that it¡¯s too much to say you don¡¯t have to, I just thought it might be nice to have a friend in The Archives that¡¯s around my same age.¡±


    She seemed to be reasoning with herself as she said, ¡°Well we are both kids¡­ and it would be nice to have a friend¡­¡± She seemed to be struggling internally, ¡°You know what, how about this? I¡¯ll tell you my fake name, and you can tell me yours. That way we can have names to remember each other by.¡±


    I smiled at her naivety and innocence and said, ¡°Alright, but you have to swear that you won¡¯t tell anyone my fake name.¡±


    She nodded her head and said, ¡°Ok, the same goes for you, you can¡¯t tell anyone my fake name either.¡± I nodded and she continued, ¡°Then you can call me Beginning of Creation.¡±


    ¡°Alright, and you can call me Hiding Light.¡±


    Hearing her fake name seemed to tickle something in my mind, but I couldn¡¯t quite grasp it. It was like I had a word right on the tip of my tongue but just couldn¡¯t say it. I was frustrated at the feeling, and I would have to spend some time thinking about it.


    But that could come later, for now I decided to spend some more time talking to this young girl. My social skills were severely rusty, and I figured this was a great opportunity to polish up my awkwardness.

 Daily Life - Chapter 3

    Being in prison and all, I didn¡¯t really have much to look forward to, other than my ¡®acting sessions¡¯ with Radix and the occasional interaction with Genesis. However I did have recreation time every day with the other kids that were in prison with me, but most of them didn¡¯t have the greatest personalities, and let¡¯s face it I was severely lacking when it came to interpersonal interaction after 120 years of moderate isolation, so I mostly excluded myself from playtime with the other kids.


    Instead I pestered the guards supervising the children. The guards were very stone faced when I first started to pester them, but after a couple days they probably got permission from their supervisor on what they could and couldn¡¯t say. I was then able to get answers to my questions about magic and some other things.


    You would think that after reaching the age of 180 that I would know everything there is to know about magic and the world, but that was far far from the truth. Unfortunately I had to focus almost all of my studies and research on extremely niche areas of magic that required me to basically build everything from the ground up. So, although I could be considered an expert in my fields of study, I was severely lacking when it came to diversity and many basics in my knowledge repertoire.


    Needless to say, my questions, which were strange for someone my age to be asking, caused me to gain a reputation as the weird kid even amongst a group of problematic children, but it achieved its purpose. My efforts to learn from the guards didn¡¯t yield too much, probably because they were limited in what they were permitted to tell me, but it did give me a better grasp on some common knowledge I was unaware of before, as well as give me an excuse to start practicing magic.


    One afternoon, after draining the guards of all the information they were willing to give me, I decided to start training divination magic. I was already very familiar with anti-divination magic, due to my past need for it as a man on the run, plus divination magic wasn¡¯t flashy, meaning it would be hard for others to determine how much progress I was making. So even though I was being monitored, it would function as smoke and mirrors to hide in plain sight.


    There was other magic that I would need to practice before my eventual escape from prison, but I couldn¡¯t let my captors know that I was capable of things like space magic and time magic. I would have to wait until I was sure they wouldn¡¯t notice before I started to practice those, and divination magic would help me accomplish that.


    Divination magic was a magic rarely ever learned independently, even though everyone was capable of doing it. The reason was quite apparent as soon as I started practicing. I started and almost Immediately I knocked myself out.


    Basically, I blasted my mind with the raw information from divination magic and passed out from my mind being overwhelmed by the overload. For most people this would be a hard stop to any attempts to do freeform divination magic. Others would have to learn specific divination spells that would convert the raw information into something they would be able to handle and understand. But I was different.


    I woke up, after almost a half an hour, with a splitting headache, and found myself in a bed with a healer nearby. The healer immediately started asking me all kinds of questions, but I did my best to be difficult and not answer his questions clearly. Radix was obviously called over to deal with me, and he ¡®persuaded¡¯ me to tell him the truth about my attempted divination magic, which made the amount of monitoring and observation I was subjected to skyrocket to uncomfortable levels. It was definitely a pain, and most certainly wouldn¡¯t be going away anytime soon.


    I wasn¡¯t concerned though, because this was a necessary part of my deception operation. But it was a long term plan, and my present focus was still primarily on learning divination magic.


    This meant that I continued to periodically knock myself out. It was a brutal training process that was only made possible because of one of my greatest assets.


    [Metaphysical Organ: Adaptive Mind]


    : The adaptive mind affects the brain, nerves and basically the mind in all its forms. This makes all the aspects of the mind adapt and improve much more freely.


    After nearly a month of knocking myself out, I eventually adapted enough to the point where I no longer knocked myself out. Of course I still gave myself a massive headache, but eventually even that would go away.


    During this time, one of the kids approached me during recreation time. Despite Tallen being a mostly Human-centric country, there were plenty of other races that lived within its borders. So when I saw that the kid coming up to me wasn¡¯t Human, I wasn¡¯t surprised.


    He was a bit shorter than others and his skin was as black as a black hole, so it was a bit hard to make out the details of his face when looking at him from the front. His 2 eyes were solid neon magenta and lit up everything he was looking at with neon light. However the most notable feature was the fact that he seemed to suck the heat out of the area around him.


    Because of him pulling the heat out of everything around him, most of the other kids tended to avoid him. He came up to me, and I could feel the air around me get colder and colder as he drew near. He stopped a fair distance away from me, probably a learned habit, and started to talk to me.


    ¡°Hello, my name is Friochr¨®, and I was wondering if I could ask you something?¡±


    ¡°Sure, go ahead.¡±


    ¡°I was curious about why you kept fainting over and over again. I¡¯ve overheard all of the other kids keep calling you reckless Radiant, and I was wondering what it is that would make them call you reckless when you¡¯re just passing out?¡±


    A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.


    I had told some of the other kids that had asked me before, but it seemed like Friochr¨® was somewhat of an outcast. So I decided to humor his question, ¡°Well I¡¯m practicing magic. When you say I¡¯m passing out I¡¯m actually knocking myself out because of my magic practice.¡±


    ¡°You can do magic already? Does that mean you¡¯re already a mage?¡±


    ¡°Ha, no it doesn¡¯t make me a mage, but yes I can do magic.¡±


    ¡°Wow. What kind of magic are you practicing?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m practicing divination magic.¡±


    His eyes sparkled, ¡°Divination magic? My Dad does that too, but he said that only adults can do it.¡±


    ¡°Oh? I guess most people would have to be adults to learn it.¡± Looking at Friochr¨®, and hearing him say that his Dad did divination magic, seemed to send off some sparks in my mind. I wasn¡¯t certain why, but it made me ask, ¡°What does your dad do that uses divination magic?¡±


    Friochr¨® answered animatedly, ¡°Oh! My Dad sells information to people. He has all sorts of people come and ask him about stuff.¡±


    Hearing his answer, I started to put some memories together, and these memories led to an exciting possibility. However, I wasn¡¯t sure of the conclusion I was coming to, so I asked Friochr¨®, ¡°What about you? Do you want to do that when you grow up?¡±


    Friochr¨® nodded rapidly, ¡°Yes. My Dad says that I¡¯m going to inherit the family business.¡±


    A small smile played on my lips. Friochr¨® probably thought I was happy to just be talking with him, and after hearing his answer to my question, that was absolutely true! At first I thought Friochr¨® was just another kid, since my memories didn¡¯t have anyone important named Friochr¨® in them, but that was because he went by his chosen name in the future: Farsight!


    My smile grew wider as I said, ¡°Hey Friochr¨®, if it¡¯s alright with you, do you want to be friends?¡± This was a golden opportunity to make a priceless connection, and I wasn¡¯t going to miss it.


    Friochr¨® seemed somewhat surprised, but maybe because the other kids avoided him, he said, ¡°Yes, I would love to be friends!¡±


    Now that we were friends, he got even closer to me and began to talk and talk without end. I could tell that I might not have as much free recreation time to train for a while. But with Friochr¨® pulling the heat out of the air I got to train my mana conversion, to heat up my body instead of freeze. I wasn¡¯t certain I would need such practice, but I tried to keep a positive outlook, seeing as how I was building such a valuable relationship for the future.


    -Break-


    After about a month and a half I was finally proficient enough to perform the most basic self diagnosis via divination by relying on The System as a basis. My conversations with Friochr¨® had increased my initial estimates of how long it would take, but it was a welcome distraction.


    Gathering the mana from within me, I proceeded to make a mockery of those who practiced Divination, and casted the most crude divination magic, to see my System. Although I hadn¡¯t unlocked the system yet, it was still present, in a dormant form within me, and I could use divination to see what it would display if it was operative.


    [Status] Level: 0 | General Tier: 1


    [Ancestry/Genetic Makeup]-(Human) (TechnicMorph)-


    [Titles]-(Dimensional Traveler) (Time Traveler) (Conqueror of Mana)-


    [Stats]-Mana(Nebula: Tier 0; Cells: Tier 2)


    Mana Regen(Nebula: Tier 0; Cells: Tier 2; Other: Tier 5)


    Magic(General: Tier 0)


    Constitution(General: Tier 0)


    Senses(General: Tier 0)


    Mind(General: Tier 0)-


    [Unique Talent]-Tier 7 (Not Awakened)-


    [Magic Core]-(Color: None) (Characteristic: Mana Cell Enhancement)-


    [Metaphysical Organs]-(Core) (Adaptive Mind) (Fractured Space Channel)-


    [Metaphysical Physique]-(Body of Artifacts)-


    [Traits]-(Ornate Chains of Talent) (Enchanting Talent)-


    [Blessings/Curses]-(The Ever Present Archives Level 1 Infinite Pass)-


    [Active Skills/Powers 3/3]-(Power: Mental Operator; Evolution:0 Level:3) (Skill: Mana Maintenance; Level:4) (Skill: Acting; Level:1)-


    [Inactive Skills/Powers 1]-(Skill: Research; Level:0)-


    There was a lot to look at, but most of it was within my expectations. It was missing things that would be shown if I were actually to pull up my Status, but it was enough for now. With that said, there were three things that were new to me, the two new titles (Time Traveler) and (Conqueror of Mana), as well as a skill I had never had before (Mana Maintenance).


    After some more wrangling with divination I got the description the system had for the two titles.


    (Time Traveler): Congratulations! You have successfully traveled through a substantial amount of time without dying or being killed. Time travel itself is dangerous, but even more dangerous are those who dislike time travelers. Powerful individuals rarely take kindly to those that mess with the sanctity of their fate, so the system reminds you to keep quiet about your time travel activities lest you end up dead like your predecessors that couldn¡¯t keep a secret.


    : It is now impossible for others to discover that you have traveled through time unless you make it obvious.(Seriously don¡¯t tell anyone)


    This title was a great blessing and was probably the only reason I was still alive and not erased from existence by some ultra powerful being by now. This was one of the reasons why I had to isolate myself for so many years, because the less impact I had on the world the less likely I was to be noticed and stopped before I could time travel. There were more reasons why I isolated myself, but this gave me reassurance that I had done the right thing. Next I looked at my other new title.


    (Conqueror of Mana): Congratulations! Through a combination of factors, you¡¯ve successfully wielded mana 100 times your own maximum mana reserve for an extended period of time without failing to keep control over it. It wasn¡¯t ice mana or you¡¯d be an ice cube, so be more cautious in the future, or not, it''s your life after all.


    : It is easier to sense differences in mana.


    I was wondering why it seemed so much easier to sense mana and now I knew why. This was an extremely useful title and I had definitely noticed its effect, although as it stood I was still only five years old and my mana sense wasn¡¯t that great in the first place.


    The last thing was my new skill (Mana Maintenance). It was exactly as its name implied and just helped maintain control over my mana. While it wasn¡¯t that impressive right now it could grow into something much better and I was looking forward to it.


    All in all, my daily life has been pretty calm since I came back to my life as a prisoner. However I knew that this calm wouldn¡¯t continue uninterrupted for long. My older sister had made a visit to me around this time in my past and she was the very definition of someone with an explosive and abrasive personality. I was somewhat dreading the visit from her, but mostly I was just glad that I would get to see her after so long.

 Mystdell - Chapter 4

    It wasn¡¯t long until the end of the ninth month when my sister would take time out of her school break to come visit me in prison. She was ten years older than me and the only one who had ever come to visit me in prison. She didn¡¯t care that I had been labeled as some sort of mentally unstable time bomb and would come visit me whenever she had a break from her schooling. I didn¡¯t hold it against the rest of my family though because I had been mentally unstable and literally mind controlled in my past life, so I never gave any indication that I even wanted to see the rest of my family let alone ask them to visit me.


    Considering that my parents in my first life on Earth pretty much neglected me in favor of playing video games, it was no surprise that I didn¡¯t put much stock into my family relationships in my first run through of this life either. However, after interacting with Mystdell when she came to visit me, I came to realize that maybe I should put more effort into my family relationships and not judge them based on my previous life. This breakthrough in my perspective came much too late though, and I soon after became completely mind controlled and forced to focus on other things.


    This time however I was determined to change and put more consideration into my relationships. However I didn¡¯t hold out much hope that my family situation would be that different from the one in my past. The first major obstacle would be that my family operated a fairly successful business within the black market selling artifacts. This meant that they couldn¡¯t risk drawing attention to themselves by interacting too much with a potentially dangerous individual like myself.


    This could¡¯ve changed in the future, but over the course of the past month I had been knocking myself out on a regular basis, plus I had been silent and unmoving in my room the rest of the time. So even if they wanted to interact with me I wasn¡¯t giving them many reasons to do so.


    These were the kind of thoughts that went through my head as I waited in anticipation for my first visit with Mystdell.


    Then at the beginning of the tenth month, two guards came to my room and went through the familiar process of turning on my prison collar and moving me through the prison halls as they took me to the children¡¯s meeting room before leaving me there alone. The room was nice and colorful with bookshelves full of children''s books, bins full of toys, and a variety of different drawing and coloring materials on a short table in the middle of the room.


    I knew that Mystdell wouldn¡¯t get here for a while if things went the same way as they did in the past. So, knowing there wouldn¡¯t be enough time to do something productive like visiting The Archives or practicing my magic, I just walked over to the table and started to draw a simple enchantment design to relax while I waited for Mystdell to arrive.


    After doing this for a while I heard a door open along with the sound of my sister¡¯s voice, ¡°-I swear it¡¯s like they try to make everything as tedious and boring as possible.¡±


    I looked up from my drawing and met the eyes of my sister who I hadn¡¯t seen in forever. I could feel tears coming to my eyes as I smiled and almost choked on the words, ¡°Mystdell.¡± I had more I wanted to say, but the words got stuck in my throat.


    Mystdell took one look at my face and started running towards me and embraced me in a hug, ¡°Radiant! Hey, I know this is all hard to handle but you¡¯ll be out of here in no time. I know you must be scared, being all alone here, but I¡¯m here now, everything¡¯s going to be ok.¡±


    I could tell that she misinterpreted the reason behind my tears, but I didn¡¯t feel a need to correct her and just hugged her back and enjoyed the moment. After a while I got a reign on my emotions and we separated.


    ¡°I¡¯m alright Mystdell. I was just happy to see you.¡±


    Seeing that I wasn¡¯t crying anymore she visibly relaxed. The artificial spirit that had piloted my body before it turned 5 had never been one to show many emotions, so Mystdell didn¡¯t really know how to handle a situation where I was being emotional.


    After she took a moment to probably feel proud of herself for handling the situation appropriately, Mystdell took a look at my drawing on the table and said, ¡°Did you draw this?¡± She picked up the paper and looked at it closer before saying, ¡°This looks like an enchantment. Since when did you learn about enchantments? I didn¡¯t learn about enchanting when I was five. Although I didn¡¯t really want to anyways¡­¡± The last part was mumbled and almost imperceptible but I could still make it out.


    I almost let a smile come to my face as she tried to start a different conversation. Mystdell was always very prickly when it came to the family inheritance, and anything related to it, which included enchanting. I didn¡¯t want to start her along that particular path of conversation, so I focused on smoothly answering her question, ¡°I haven¡¯t been taught enchanting yet. I saw this on the blade of a sword I once saw and just wanted to draw it for fun.¡± The sword I saw it on was being wielded against me, but there¡¯s no need to tell her that.


    You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.


    ¡°Well it¡¯s still impressive that you can remember and draw it. I remember that Dad would always get after me when I couldn''t remember everything perfectly the first time. But anyways,¡± She shook her head and continued, ¡°Speaking of Dad, Him and Mom were worried about you and wanted me to ask why you were fainting all the time. Are you sick or something?¡±


    ¡°Mom and Dad know that I''ve been fainting?¡± I was always under the impression that they wouldn¡¯t bother with checking up on their worthless son.


    Mystdell seemed to take my question differently though, and she said, ¡°Yeah this place allows families to check the recordings they take here. Mom and Dad saw that you were fainting through those. They didn¡¯t say why you were fainting when Mom asked them, so I was told to ask you about it when I came here.¡±


    I scratched my head and said, ¡°It¡¯s nothing really. I was just practicing magic.¡± I could¡¯ve elaborated further but I was a five year old, and a five year old wouldn¡¯t really elaborate on these kinds of things.


    My answer seemed to confuse Mystdell and she said, ¡°What kind of magic would you be practicing that would make you pass out like that?¡±


    I thought she would be more surprised by the fact that her five year old brother was practicing magic, but I guess this just showed that she cared more for my safety than my anomalous abilities.


    ¡°I was trying to make that system, that everyone talks about, show up.¡±


    ¡°The System? But that won¡¯t be unlocked until you go into a dungeon. You won¡¯t even be able to see that until then so it¡¯s no use trying to pull it up.¡±


    I could explain to her that I was trying to practice divination magic and not trying to open up my system, but that wasn¡¯t necessary. Instead I said, ¡°Yeah I know. You don¡¯t have to worry I won¡¯t practice that anymore.¡± This could be interpreted that I had already given up, but in reality I had already succeeded and therefore wouldn¡¯t need to practice that anymore. My response seemed to mollify her and we went on to discuss some other things, things like what was going on back home and what was going on in the family.


    After talking for a while my sister brought something interesting up while talking about her school saying, ¡°So I was assigned to help out this privileged Count¡¯s daughter as her Auxiliary Support. At first I wasn¡¯t happy about it, but as I got to talking with her I realized that she wasn¡¯t that bad despite her high status.¡±


    ¡°Hm? I thought you didn¡¯t like talking to kids.¡±


    ¡°What? You think I wouldn¡¯t talk to someone just because they¡¯re younger than me?¡±


    I raised my eyebrow at her, and she rolled her shoulders and looked away like she was shaking off any negative misconceptions.


    ¡°Well I just prefer talking to more mature people. And, admittedly, she was the one that started the conversation.¡± She said, ¡°But that¡¯s besides the point. I got curious when she started talking about The Archives¡­¡±


    She looked at me like she was evaluating my young age before continuing, ¡°The Ever Present Archives are a really special place that¡¯s like a magical library that needs a super special pass to enter. Usually someone as young as her wouldn¡¯t be able to go to such a place, so I started talking to her and learned that she was actually a nice girl.¡±


    Hearing Mystdell talk about The Archives was particularly jarring, and I said, ¡°Wait, how old is this girl?¡±


    ¡°Actually she¡¯s only a few years older than you. I think her name was Genesis Rotthall? You know she also asked if I knew anyone her age that went to The Archives.¡± she said, ¡°Of course I obviously don¡¯t know anyone besides her that would be going to The Archives at such a young age.¡±


    The Archives? That¡¯s strange, I don¡¯t remember anyone with that name being in The Archives before. However I do know about a girl named Genesis. Though I remember finding out that she was kicked out of her family for some reason¡­ Wait a minute, wouldn¡¯t it have been possible that the Genesis I remember lost her access to The Archives when she was kicked out of her family?


    Like a bolt of lightning, multiple ideas connected in my head at that moment, and I came to a conclusion. Beginning of Creation¡­ Genesis Rotthall¡­ Beginning of Creation, Genesis. Holy Jilly, it''s the same person!


    I was a bit dazed at the conclusion I had come to, but my sister seemed to take it a different way, saying, ¡°Ohoh, you look a bit dazed there little light. You wouldn¡¯t happen to be interested in this girl would you?¡±


    I knew she was just teasing me, but as a brother I couldn¡¯t let her get away with it. So I threw a punch at her to try and make her regret teasing me, but I only managed to make her laugh with my pitiful five year old strength. We continued to talk with each other about different things and spent time with each other until our time was up and we had to say goodbye.


    Mystdell embraced me in another hug as we said our goodbyes, ¡°I¡¯ll come and visit as often as I can, Radiant. Be strong and be happy, ok?¡±


    ¡°I will. I¡¯ll be waiting for your next visit. Goodbye.¡±


    ¡°Goodbye Radiant.¡±


    With that we parted ways and I was once again filled with determination. I vowed once again that I would do what it takes to escape from this prison and gain the strength to be with and protect those I loved and cared about. Who knows, maybe I could help Genesis prevent the future where she was kicked out of her family. I didn¡¯t know why or when that would happen, but I would keep an eye out as I go.

 Progress - Chapter 5

    After finding out Genesis¡¯s real identity, I jokingly ¡®gave her a nickname¡¯ and started calling her Genesis instead of Beginning of Creation. Of course this left her a bit stunned at first, but eventually she decided to ¡®get back at me¡¯ by giving me a nickname that was the opposite of the fake name I gave her, Hiding Light. Then it was my turn to be stunned as she gave me the nickname Radiant.


    Of course, at first, I felt the exact same way that Genesis must¡¯ve felt when I gave her the ¡®nickname¡¯ Genesis. I wondered if she had actually figured out who I am, but after thinking it over I realized that my sister Mystdell probably talked to Genesis about her little brother, and Genesis must¡¯ve thought it would be ironic to call me a nickname that was so opposite of the fake name I had given her. In the end we both started calling each other by our real names, but Genesis was unaware of that fact.


    Fast forward almost two years since I came back in time, and I was once again in The Archives doing some research. Genesis, who was sitting in her usual seat near mine, put down her tablet and said, ¡°Why is it impossible to meet me in person?¡±


    Genesis had been dancing around the point of me possibly meeting with her in person for a while now. I was unable to tell her the whole reason for my inability to meet her, so whenever she mentioned the topic I just brushed her off noncommittally. However this led to her bringing up the topic almost every time we talked to each other for almost a month.


    This time I tried to cut off her questions so I could continue with what I was researching, ¡°I can¡¯t really talk about it. It won¡¯t be for a long while until I could possibly meet you.¡±


    However my response didn¡¯t mollify Genesis and she continued to ask, ¡°Then when will you be able to meet me in person?¡±


    I sighed and put down my tablet, as I could tell this wasn¡¯t going to be a short conversation, ¡°If you really want to know, I won''t be able to meet with anybody for a long time. It¡¯s not just you, it''s everyone.¡±


    Genesis leaned back in her chair and looked like she was thinking about what to say next. After a moment she said, ¡°Are you doing some sort of special training or something?¡±


    Actually, I¡¯ve never thought about my situation like that. When she put it that way I couldn¡¯t help but think it was a fairly accurate description of my time in jail and said, ¡°Hmm, yeah I guess you could call it that. It¡¯s kind of like specialized training just for me.¡±


    ¡°How long will it be until you¡¯re done with your training then?¡±


    ¡°It probably won¡¯t be until I¡¯m an adult Genesis. I know that you want to meet me in person, and I would like to meet you in person too, but it¡¯s impossible for me to stop what I¡¯m doing and visit with others. I know this kind of makes me a bad friend, but I can¡¯t do anything about it. I''m sorry.¡±


    Genesis shook her head, ¡°There¡¯s no need for you to say sorry. It''s me who¡¯s sorry for pressuring you to meet me when you¡¯re in such a difficult situation.¡±


    I raised my hand and said, ¡°It¡¯s fine Genesis. I¡¯m not upset or anything so don¡¯t feel bad about it. But what makes you keep bringing this up anyways?¡±


    ¡°Well, I just brought it up because I¡¯m about to have my tenth birthday next month and I was kind of hoping that you might attend the party. But since you can¡¯t come, I won''t bother you about it anymore.¡±


    ¡°Your tenth birthday huh? Is there something special about your tenth birthday that¡¯s different from last year? I don¡¯t recall you wanting to meet me for your birthday this time last year.¡±


    Genesis sat up in her chair and her voice had a tinge of excitement as she said, ¡°There is something special happening this year. I¡¯m going to get my bloodline talent awakened the day before my birthday; so the birthday party this time will also be to celebrate my talent awakening.¡±


    I put enough excitement into my voice to match hers, ¡°That sounds exciting, I hope your talent awakening goes well. I know about bloodline talents and could even awaken my own bloodline talent, but I¡¯ve always thought that I would rather have my own unique talent instead. Maybe that¡¯s just me though, I can certainly see why others would want to awaken a bloodline talent instead of their own. What about you? Why do you want a bloodline talent instead of your own unique talent?¡±


    Genesis took some time to think about how to answer my question before saying, ¡°Well, I guess it¡¯s because I have to have the bloodline talent if I want to be an heir to the household. If I didn¡¯t have the bloodline talent then my family would probably kick me out of the house.¡±


    She sounded a bit uncertain, but what she had said raised a flag in my mind. Ever since I had realized who Genesis was less than two years ago, I had always wondered how she would end up all alone like the future I knew. However Genesis had never hinted at any reason that such a thing might happen. This was the first time I had found a clue that might lead to that future scenario.


    Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.


    Trying to sound casually curious I said, ¡°When you say that you would be kicked out of the house, why would that happen? Does your family not allow anyone without the bloodline talent to be a part of the family or something?¡±


    Genesis always seemed a bit uncomfortable when talking about her family and displayed the same signs now as she said, ¡°No, there are Rotthalls without the bloodline talent. People who marry into the family obviously wouldn¡¯t have the Rotthall bloodline after all. It¡¯s just that the Rotthall bloodline talent is so essential to the running of the family that if I didn¡¯t have it my family wouldn¡¯t hesitate to dismiss me as an heir candidate. If that were to happen I don¡¯t know what I would even do.¡± She waved her hand in the air like she was shooing away a pesky bug and said, ¡°But that¡¯s not going to happen. My unique talent isn¡¯t going to awaken before the bloodline awakening ceremony.¡±


    Based on what I knew about talent awakenings there was indeed almost no need for Genesis to worry about this. However, very rarely, if a person¡¯s unique talent was of the same tier as the bloodline talent they were trying to awaken, there was a small chance that both talents could awaken at the same time and fuse together, mutating into a completely new talent. It was extremely rare, and if I didn¡¯t know about the Genesis of the future I probably wouldn¡¯t have even thought about such a tiny possibility happening.


    But now I couldn¡¯t dismiss the subject without at least saying something, ¡°Yeah there¡¯s no need to worry too much about it. However, and I¡¯m saying this because you¡¯re my friend, if anything happens you can come to me for advice. After all, I''m just sitting here in The Archives every day so I have a lot of knowledge and understanding about a variety of different topics, and even if I don¡¯t know I can definitely find out. Anyways I wish you a happy birthday and can¡¯t wait to hear about how it goes.¡±


    ¡°Thanks Radiant. Speaking of, when is your birthday? You¡¯ve never mentioned it.¡±


    After living for so long my birthdays had lost much of their significance to me. So I didn¡¯t give it much thought as I answered Genesis, ¡°My birthday is on the same day as yours. The sixth day of the eighth month.¡±


    Genesis blinked and widened her eyes, ¡°Wait, you¡¯re saying you have the same birthday as me? Why didn¡¯t you ever say anything about it?¡±


    I shrugged, ¡°It just never seemed necessary to mention it.¡±


    Genesis looked at me like I was a crazy person and said, ¡°What do you mean it wasn¡¯t necessary? If you had told me we could¡¯ve celebrated our birthdays together.¡±


    The corner of my lips almost twitched upwards after hearing that and I said, ¡°You say that like it¡¯s necessary to celebrate my birthday. I don¡¯t need to do that, I¡¯m busy doing other things.¡±


    Genesis shook her head and said, ¡°That¡¯s unfair. You can celebrate my birthday but I can¡¯t celebrate yours?¡± She folded her arms and said, ¡°Well from now on I¡¯m going to come here on the morning of our birthday and we will celebrate together.¡±


    My lips finally curved into a genuine smile and I said, ¡°You can do that if you want to. However, just know that it¡¯s entirely unnecessary. If you don¡¯t come here I won¡¯t be upset or anything.¡±


    Genesis crossed her arms and said, ¡°Well I will be here, and you better be here too or else I will be upset. I¡¯ll be here at seven in the morning so don¡¯t be late.¡±


    It felt nice to have someone like Genesis to help me focus on things other than my research every now and then. I nodded my head and said, ¡°Alright, I¡¯ll be here. I¡¯m here every day anyways so there¡¯s no need to worry.¡±


    We continued to chat for a bit before we stopped and continued doing our own thing. She continued her administrative and historical studies, and I continued where I had left off on some research about an obscure magical technique called [Internal World]. It could create a sort of pocket dimension within someone¡¯s own body that could be used for storage or other things.


    The technique required a specific set of circumstances that would be almost impossible for most people to create, and other research that referenced this one all stated that it was a nice idea but highly impractical. However, as I was studying, I started to theorize that I could probably create the specific circumstances necessary through the use of my Metaphysical Organ and Metaphysical Physique [Fractured Space Channel] and [Body of Artifacts].


    However, the research I read stated that even if someone could create the circumstances necessary to practice the technique, that didn''t mean that they should do so. For most people this technique would be too mana hungry to sustain, and even for those who had the mana regeneration needed to sustain everything in its early stages, it would still be too potentially dangerous to practice. The dangers of having a large spatial storage, inside of a fleshy body, that could potentially explode, was too much of a risk for almost anybody to consider. Yet even after knowing all of this I still thought that it might be possible for me to use [Internal World] safely.


    My TechnicMorph ancestry made me particularly suited to house something like the small pocket dimension that the [Internal World] technique would create. Because TechnicMorphs were a part of the Mimic Family they were very tough and adaptable creatures able to withstand vast amounts of stress and change. So I was confident that I would be able to stabilize [Internal World] so that it wouldn¡¯t be a danger to me.


    However it would still be quite a while before I had the magical skill necessary to practice [Internal World], so this research was more of a long term side project that I had come across while I was doing research on spatial magic.


    In any case [Internal World] would function as great practice for the spatial magic I would need for my future prison escape. Also, who wouldn¡¯t want to practice a technique as cool sounding as Internal World? Certainly not me.

 Looking for Help - Chapter 6

    It was currently the afternoon before my birthday and recreation time with the other kids was nearing an end. By this point most of the other kids didn¡¯t interact with me during this time and I was free to practice my magic in peace. At times I wondered if I should interact more with the other children. However most of the kids weren¡¯t here for long before they left, or, as the kids called it, ¡®reformed¡¯, which sucked all meaning out of forming any kind of lasting relationship with them.


    Friochr¨® was the only exception to this, and even then I knew that it wouldn¡¯t be too much longer until he would leave me behind as well.


    In my past I had also isolated myself from the other kids, but for other reasons, I felt different and out of place having reincarnated in a strange world in a prison meant for ¡®mentally unstable¡¯ people. On the other hand this time around I was much more confident with my situation. I found that living in this prison wasn¡¯t all that bad actually, I was completely safe and didn¡¯t have any responsibilities with all the free time in the world. Many people would love to be in my situation, and if it weren¡¯t for the fact that I couldn¡¯t voluntarily leave I would quite enjoy it.


    In any case, thanks to all of the free time, I was able to practice my magic constantly. I am now much better at divination magic, and I have even grown a few divination spell crystals within my mana core.


    Forming spell crystals was a top secret technique I had learned from my forced time working in the Tallen government, and I found it quite handy. Once a spell crystal was grown in one¡¯s mana nebula, it could then be charged with mana and released on command before then having to be recharged. The mana needed to recharge the crystal could be actively supplied, or it would passively absorb excess mana regeneration that would normally be wasted otherwise.


    There were multiple uses for spell crystals, but the one I currently used them for was to discreetly check whether I was being watched without having to actually cast a spell.


    After recreation time ended everyone was taken back to their rooms, including me. After I got into my room I used a spell crystal that cast a divination to check if I was being actively monitored.


    Receiving a negative response, I started to use my metaphysical organ [Shattered Space Channel] to slowly and carefully shatter the space within my room once again. This was a slow and ongoing daily routine I had started about a month ago in order to create the necessary environment to eventually be able to practice [Internal World].


    What I was doing was essentially trying to use a blazing furnace to cook food, it was terribly inefficient, but it was necessary. It was like a saying from Earth: ¡®If you throw a frog in a pot of boiling water, it will hop right out. But if you put that frog in a pot of tepid water and slowly warm it, the frog won''t figure out what is going on until it''s too late.¡¯ What I was trying to do was essentially the same thing. I had to be slow and careful lest I alert the wards within the prison meant to catch any significant change to the space within their detection range.


    The wards weren¡¯t the only risk though. If someone who had even a little experience with sensing space were to come near my room they would be able to instantly tell that the space within it was shattered. I wasn¡¯t too worried about that though; those who could sense space were rare and would probably have much better things to do than come to a remote prison, let alone visit my room.


    So, after a short but difficult process of delicately using my metaphysical organ to, very slightly, increase the shattering of the space within my room, I got up from my position in the middle of the floor and headed to my bed. After laying down, I closed my eyes and went through the familiar process of entering The Archives.


    Today was the day before my birthday, and also the day that Genesis was awakening her bloodline talent. She said that she would start in the early morning and might not be able to enter The Archives until the next day; talent awakening could take anywhere from six to twenty four hours to complete after all.


    After entering my room in The Archives, I took my time to pick what I would wear. I liked to wear something different every time I came here (For others it was an expensive luxury, but because of my Infinite Level 1 Pass it was free), and I got a kick out of showing off like that. After picking an outfit that looked like something a bounty hunter would wear, with a wide brimmed hat and tough leather jacket, I entered The Archives.


    As always I had returned to the place where I had left from, which was currently in the center of my favorite rest area. After looking up at the beautiful starry firmament above my head, I picked up a tablet and walked towards my comfortable one seater couch. Looking over I noticed that Genesis was actually already here sitting in her usual place. I was just about to cheerfully greet her when I noticed that she had her head down with her face in the palms of her hands. It was quite unusual for her to act this way, so I knew that something must have happened to her.


    After walking over and sitting down in my chair Genesis looked up at me. She looked pained, and if this was her real body I was certain that her eyes would¡¯ve been red from crying. I placed my tablet on the table in front of me and said, ¡°What¡¯s wrong Genesis? I would¡¯ve thought you would be happily preparing for your birthday party tomorrow, not coming here.¡±


    She was silent for a while before she seemed to gather up the courage to speak, ¡°Radiant, I don''t know what to do.¡± She held her head in her hands and looked towards the ground. It was like a floodgate had been opened and the words flowed out of her mouth, ¡°My life is ruined. Everything I worked for is worthless, nothing matters anymore and there¡¯s nothing I can do. I can¡¯t even-¡± She was breathing faster and faster and looked like she was about to hyperventilate.


    ¡°Genesis, Genesis calm down. Try and explain everything that happened from the beginning. If you¡¯re here in The Archives it must not be immediately life threatening, so take your time and calm down with some deep breaths before explaining.¡±


    She took some shaky deep breaths and seemed to stabilize her breathing. She clasped her hands tightly together and rested her elbows on her knees but continued to look at the ground, ¡°Everything was fine this morning when I began my awakening ceremony. It was all going great, but after my talent started to awaken there was this horrible pain and I passed out. It¡¯s not supposed to hurt when someone awakens their talent. I don¡¯t know if there was something wrong with me, or the ritual, or something else, but when I woke up I was in my bed seven hours later.¡±


    She took a deep breath before continuing, ¡°After I woke up the doctor left my room and came back with my parents. I had never seen such a worried look on my parents'' faces before, and my heart almost stopped because I knew something horrible must¡¯ve happened to me. I was right, because the doctor had cast some spells, and apparently I didn¡¯t awaken the family talent. I awakened something called [Collective Self]. My mind has been racing ever since and I don¡¯t know what to do. I¡¯m probably going to get kicked out of the house for being such a failure. But while I was panicking I remembered that you said I could come and ask you for advice if I ever needed it. I¡¯ve been waiting here ever since and I was worried that you might not even come today. Who knows if I¡¯d even be able to come here tomorrow?¡±


    I silently listened to her story and pondered what I should say. I decided to start off by comforting her, ¡°Well I¡¯m sure that we can figure everything out together. If we work together I¡¯m sure we can find a solution to this problem. But first I need some more information, like what did your parents say or how did they react?¡±


    ¡°They didn¡¯t say anything. Mom and Dad just gave me a hug before taking the doctor with them and leaving me alone in the room. They probably left me alone because they think I¡¯m some sort of failure now.¡±


    ¡°I doubt that they think that. Have they ever said to you that they thought you were a failure?¡±


    She hesitated for a moment before saying, ¡°No, they haven¡¯t¡­ But I don¡¯t have the bloodline talent. What am I if not a failure?¡± Her shoulders slumped slightly as she said that, almost like a weight was pressing down on them.


    ¡°Genesis you¡¯re not a failure. I certainly don¡¯t think you¡¯re a failure. Did the doctor say anything else about your talent before he left? Did he say what your talent does or anything else about it?¡±


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    ¡°No, he¡¯s mostly a medical doctor, he doesn¡¯t have the ability to tell what my talent does or anything else about it. He was only able to get the name of my talent, but with a name like Collective Self it is probably some sort of personal non-combat kind of talent. What difference would it make even if I knew what it does? It¡¯s not the bloodline talent.¡±


    I shook my head, ¡°No this is very important. You¡¯re afraid that you¡¯ll be kicked out of the house right?¡± She tentatively nodded her head and I continued, ¡°Well if your talent is powerful enough it won¡¯t matter that it¡¯s not the bloodline talent; in the worst case scenario you would be treated like a vassal of the house but you wouldn¡¯t be kicked out.¡±


    Genesis shook her head and said, ¡°I guess so. But nobody in the house knows the right spell, and getting someone who does won¡¯t be easy and certainly won¡¯t happen before tomorrow when everyone who is backing the other heirs will decide to kick me out. I don¡¯t even have my system unlocked yet either, it¡¯s hopeless.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s not hopeless, Genesis. Listen to what I have to say before you come to conclusions. After all you¡¯re here for my help right?¡± Genesis didn¡¯t nod her head or say anything, but she did look up from the floor and looked at me waiting for what I would say next. ¡°I can actually tell you what your talent does. You would have to give me permission, but if you did that then I would be able to tell you.¡±


    ¡°Really? You know the spell for that?¡±


    I didn¡¯t actually know the specific spell, because I didn¡¯t need to, but I didn¡¯t have to tell her that. ¡°Yes I know the spell. I¡¯m actually pretty experienced in the realm of divination. If you give me permission to use magic on you through your connection to The Archives, then I will be able to find out what your talent does quickly and easily.¡±


    ¡°Alright, how do I do that?¡± After telling her the simple process she gave me permission and I started to use our connection The Archives as an intermediary, I was then able to use divination magic on her and get the details of her unique talent. Because of my unique method of using divination magic I was able to get a very detailed description of her unique talent.


    [Unique Talent(Tier 8): Collective Self (Rank 0)]


    : A fusion of the talents [Linked Subordinate(Tier 7)] and [Automatic Self(Tier 7)].


    Collective Self creates a connected collective of virtual self copies that can do everything the original can do. These are virtual copies and don¡¯t exist in physical space, meaning that the collective is limited by the physical capabilities of the original. If the original has a way to control two bodies then one of the collective will be able to use one of these bodies independently from the original. Virtual copies act as if they were real and the collective can exchange damage done (and other things) between them as well as the main body. Virtual copies are sustained by the talent¡¯s own energy source. Collective Self can currently support 2 copies.


    ¡°Wow, your talent is amazing.¡± I was honestly surprised by how good her talent was.


    Genesis seemed to perk up when I said that, ¡°Really? What tier is it?¡±


    ¡°Well it¡¯s a tier 8 talent. That alone would probably prevent you from getting kicked out of your family. But that isn¡¯t what I was referring to.¡±


    ¡°Well what are you waiting for? Tell me.¡±


    I told her the full description of her talent and then said, ¡°- And that¡¯s the end of the information I got. It sounds like a very powerful talent in my opinion. Do you already have different copies then?¡±


    She closed her eyes and seemed to focus inward for a moment trying to sense anything, but she soon opened her eyes and said, ¡°Not that I can tell, no.¡±


    ¡°Hmm, maybe you have to manually create them then. You can try that when you leave The Archives. There¡¯s no indication of how long that will take after all.¡±


    ¡°That sounds great and all, but how am I supposed to even do that?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s simple actually. You know how to enter mana meditation right?¡±


    ¡°Yes.¡±


    ¡°Well, to start it¡¯s similar to that, but instead of your mana core you¡¯ll sense something else and all you have to do is focus on that instead of your mana core. It will feel like you¡¯ve connected to a new limb and you¡¯ll get a general feel of it. In your case I don¡¯t think there is any danger to using your talent, so just mess around with it and you should find out how to create a copy. After some practice you won¡¯t have to enter meditation to access your talent, but this is a good method to get yourself familiar with it.¡±


    ¡°Alright, I understand. But I still don¡¯t know what will happen to me now. Even though you say I won¡¯t be kicked out of the house, how will I convince everyone to let me stay?¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I came up with an idea while reading your talent description. The first thing you need to do is go to your parents and tell them that someone you know in The Archives did a divination and said that your talent is tier 8, then give them a description of the talent.¡±


    ¡°How will that help me?¡±


    ¡°Well, at this point, after you tell your parents, they will have to get someone to confirm the details of your talent before they do anything rash. This is good, and will stop any immediate threat of being kicked out, but it won¡¯t guarantee anything. Your task is to hint to your parents that your talent would be great for gathering information within The Archives.¡±


    ¡°How do you know that my talent would help me gather information here? I don¡¯t think the description mentioned anything like that.¡±


    ¡°Well, if your talent works like how I think it does, then you would be able to have multiple of yourself inside The Archives at the same time; The Archives are very flexible when it comes to things like this, and with them being virtual copies and not physical ones, it should treat all of your copies as just one person, allowing you to still only use 1 pass to enter.¡±


    She paused then said, ¡°That sounds great and all, but even if it works out that way I won¡¯t be able to sustain that kind of expenditure. I¡¯m already using all of my points as it is with just me.¡±


    ¡°Well I could just buy everything you need. I¡¯m somewhat limited in the amount I can give to other people, but helping just you wouldn¡¯t be a problem.¡±


    She looked at me with bewilderment, ¡°Why would you do that?¡±


    ¡°What do you mean why? I would get to keep meeting my friend here in The Archives. Isn¡¯t that enough reason?¡±


    Genesis looked touched, ¡°Radiant I didn¡¯t know you thought so highly of me as a friend. To help me out by spending your own points on me.¡±


    ¡°Well don¡¯t get too sentimental, that''s not the only reason I would go so far. Another reason is that you''re a Count¡¯s daughter and have access to some valuable connections and resources. As you know I am currently unable to go out and do things on my own, so I might ask you to do some small things for me sometimes, and it is more convenient for me if you have access to more power and resources. Besides, it wouldn''t be hard for me to help you out when it comes to buying information from The Archives, you could say I don¡¯t have to worry about points.¡±


    She seemed torn between accepting my help, because of her desperate situation, or refusing my help, ¡°I don¡¯t know what to say.¡±


    I smiled at her, ¡°Just accept my help. I¡¯m doing this because I want to help you. Seriously, it''s no problem for me.¡±


    Genesis relaxed back into her seat as some of the tension she was feeling left, ¡°Thank you then. Are you sure that everything will work out if I do these things though?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m positive. But there are a few more things to remember. First of all, when you tell your parents about the person who told you about your talent, be a bit mysterious and don¡¯t go into many details. One thing you should mention though, is that you asked that person what their talent tier is out of curiosity and that they said they have a tier nine talent. This will give them another reason to let you use The Archives, because even if they aren¡¯t sure about your ability they will want to keep in contact with somebody with a tier nine talent.¡±


    ¡°Wait You have a tier nine talent?¡±


    ¡°Well I will, but it¡¯s not awakened yet. It¡¯s partially the reason for my special training.¡± I smiled, ¡°And now you actually did ask about my talent out of curiosity, so it¡¯s not even a lie.¡±


    It was true too. Part of my plans included getting a tier zero talent awakening orb, that the government would give me, before I escaped from prison. A tier zero talent orb could increase the tier of a talent by one when used to awaken a talent. This, combined with my trait [Ornate Chains of Talent], would increase the tier of my talent from seven to nine, which was the highest tier a unique talent could awaken as.


    ¡°That¡¯s amazing, Radiant.¡± She furrowed her brows slightly, ¡°I bet you don¡¯t have any worries in life.¡±


    I shook my head with a short laugh, ¡°I wish that were true, but unfortunately owning a treasure without the strength to protect it is a sin.¡±


    ¡°What do you mean by that?¡±


    ¡°It''s nothing, just something I¡¯ve learned from experience. But anyways I wish you luck with everything. You can tell me how it went tomorrow morning. I hope you didn¡¯t forget that you said we would celebrate our birthdays together.¡±


    That seemed to cheer her up and get rid of some of her gloominess, ¡°Of course not. I¡¯ll be there if everything works out.¡±


    ¡°Everything will work out fine, so don¡¯t worry about it. Now get going and do what you need to do.¡±


    Genesis nodded her head and we said our goodbyes before she disappeared from where she sat. I just sat there looking at the stars and pondering things for a long while. There were a lot of things that this would bring to my future plans, but all of them were long term, so I sat there for a while going over things in my head.

 Operation Talent - Chapter 7

    -Genesis-


    I returned to my body, still having dried tears on my face from crying before I went to The Archives. Laying on my bed I thought about my conversation with Radiant. He told me that my situation might not be as hopeless as I thought, and he seemed very composed and rational about my whole thing, just like he always was. I always wondered how he could stay so easygoing about everything, always knowing exactly what he wanted, and learning all that he could when he didn¡¯t.


    Before today I had never really thought about Radiant on more than a surface level because of his young age, but today he showed some capabilities that were way beyond what I would¡¯ve considered possible at my age, let alone him who was three years younger than me. When Radiant showed me how analytical he was, I was impressed, but it was still acceptable. However when he showed me how capable he was with magic I was surprised and it even made me feel inadequate. I felt that I wasn¡¯t doing enough to succeed like he was.


    I have always thought that I could be doing more, but I also felt that I was doing enough and didn¡¯t need to push myself too hard, after all I had my family to rely on. But today I realized that if I wanted to have any real security in my life I needed to work harder and become capable enough to stand on my own.


    Realizing this, I sat up in my bed and followed the instructions that Radiant had given me to help access my talent. Taking a deep breath I focused inward and started meditating. As always when I started to deeply meditate I noticed my mana core, but this time I also felt something else, something that seemed familiar yet foreign. I focused on this new thing, and had a feeling like I had connected to a sleeping limb I never knew I had.


    I started to try and get a feel for this new limb that I was certain was my unique talent. I quickly noticed that most of what it could do was asleep and I was unable to use most of my talent¡¯s capabilities. However one thing was very obviously ready and willing to be used. Even without Radiant¡¯s assurance that there would be no danger in using my ability I could instinctively tell that using this part of my talent wouldn¡¯t harm me, in fact it felt like it would try to help me as much as it could.


    I tentatively touched this part of my talent and willed it to work. It jumped into action like an eager puppy, and I felt like my entire self was being analyzed and recorded, from my thoughts to my physical body. Everything was cataloged and stored inside of something new that was me but also not me. There was a short period of time where this new thing, which I assumed was my copy, was drawing energy from my talent and I could feel it slowly awaken almost as if it was asleep and had only just been awoken.


    Suddenly it felt like I had two of everything, two streams of thought, two bodies, even two connections to my mana core. There were now two of me, but at the same time it felt like there was still only one me but just connected to more. I immediately felt my new body breathing and feeling, but I couldn¡¯t feel much of anything else outside of this new body. When I tried to open my new body¡¯s eyes all I saw was a void of blackness. It felt very claustrophobic and pressuring.


    I wanted there to be more than just blackness, and immediately I felt my talent, which I was still meditating on with one of my minds, react to my desire. My other body''s eyes suddenly saw my room instead of blackness, except I could tell that this wasn¡¯t my real room because the windows only showed the same blackness I had previously been seeing. Now it looked like the void was outside of my room instead of all around me.


    I started to move my new body around this new room and slowly got used to the feeling of having two minds at once. While I was doing this I could feel how my talent was moving and working to do the things I wanted it to do, and I could also feel it trying to help me understand how to use it.


    The whole process was going surprisingly smoothly, much more smoothly than I had been told getting used to a talent was supposed to be. At first I thought it was because of the method Radiant had told me to use, but after thinking about it that didn¡¯t feel like the whole picture. As I sat pondering it with two different minds I came to a realization, it wasn¡¯t only because of the method Radiant gave me, it was also because I was able to meditate on my talent at the same time I was trying to use it naturally with my other mind. With these two different perspectives I was able to easily understand how my talent was working and what it was doing while I was using it.


    I unconsciously smiled. I was happy that I was able to quickly understand how to use my talent. Feeling confident I decided that if I could have one more copy I would be able to understand it that much faster. So I immediately used my talent to make another copy, and after the same process as before I felt that a new mind and body had awoken and connected to me.


    I was immediately overcome with the amount of different information I was getting at the same time. I hadn¡¯t fully gotten used to having two minds before I got a third one, and I had bitten off more than I could chew. The overwhelming sensation broke me out of my meditation and immediately everything became so much worse. Without one of my minds meditating and focusing on my talent everything became so much harder to understand exacerbating the problem.


    I tried to shut off the new mind, but it was useless, it was like trying to focus on what someone was saying while I was being pummeled underneath a waterfall of my own thoughts. It felt similar to when I was panicked and overwhelmed by my thoughts in The Archives. Thinking back I remembered Radiant telling me to take deep breaths to calm down. This thought was like a light in a dark cave, and I immediately focused on my breathing, trying to focus only on this and forgetting about everything else. I felt three of me breathing separately and out of sync with each other, so I tried to synchronize my breathing between all three different bodies and felt my thoughts become less disjointed and overwhelming.


    After doing this for longer than I cared to admit, I felt that I could now control one of my streams of thought. So I carefully used one of my minds to try and meditate back on my talent. There was a moment of instability as I almost used all three of my minds at the same time, but I managed to focus and make the other two minds concentrate on just breathing. Slowly my talent came into focus as I meditated and I started to feel much more in control of everything.


    Not risking losing control again, I continued to use my two other minds to breathe while I just tried to understand my talent. After what felt like forever, I gained enough confidence to use my second copy to stop focusing on its breathing and used it to open the eyes of my real body. This was a copy¡¯s mind, but I found that I could also use it to control my real body if I wanted to. Since I was focusing on meditating with my real body¡¯s mind, I wouldn¡¯t be able to move my body with it. After a while of getting used to my talent¡¯s capabilities I was able to use all three of my minds at the same time. Although I still had to use one of them to meditate on my talent or else the deluge of information would become too overwhelming.


    After gaining rudimentary control of my talent I realized that it had been an hour since I had started and I decided that I couldn¡¯t wait any longer before I talked to my parents. So I mustered up the courage and left my room.


    Since I lived on the opposite side of the house from my Dad¡¯s study, I had to walk quite a ways to get there, because that¡¯s where he would usually be while he was here at the house.


    Walking up to the large door to the study I knocked on the large doors and waited patiently before they were opened.


    Looking at me through the opening in the door was the head butler who was as professional as always and said, ¡°Miss Genesis what can I do for you?¡±


    I mustered up my courage and said, ¡°I¡¯m here to talk to my Father about something I¡¯ve learned in The Archives.¡±


    ¡°One moment please while I inform him.¡± He closed the door and I didn¡¯t have to wait long before he opened it back up again, ¡°Miss Genesis, your Father will see you now.¡±


    The butler opened the door fully and allowed me to walk inside before he closed the door behind him while he stayed outside of the study, leaving me alone with my father as well as one of the elders who was seated on the opposite side of my father¡¯s desk.


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    Seeing me enter, my father spoke, ¡°The butler said you found something out in The Archives?¡±


    ¡°Yes Father.¡± I took a deep breath to calm myself as I took a look at the elder, that I was pretty sure was part of the faction that backed my eldest brother, before ignoring him and saying what I had come here to say, ¡°I went to The Archives after you left my room and I met one of the people I know there. He¡¯s very mysterious, but I know him well enough to tell him about a problem I am having trouble with.¡±


    My father got a suspicious look on his face and I hurriedly continued, ¡°But I didn¡¯t tell him who I am or anything.¡± I calmed my nerves and continued, ¡°Anyways he¡¯s very knowledgeable and said that he might be able to help me out. He was able to use divination magic to get a description of my ability and told me that I should tell you about it if I want to solve my problem. Uh, he also said that I should mention that my talent would be great for gathering information in The Archives.¡±


    ¡°Hmm,¡± My father hummed in curiosity, ¡°Well I¡¯m not sure I trust this individual, but anybody who can enter The Archives isn¡¯t someone to be dismissed. I will take a look at this description of your talent that he has given you. You can write it down on a piece of paper here.¡± He grabbed a piece of paper off of his desk and placed it closer to me along with a pen.


    I walked over to his desk while giving a side glance at the elder, who remained silent. I didn¡¯t pay him much mind and proceeded to write the description that Radiant had given me. ¡°This is the description he gave me Father.¡± I handed him back the paper which he proceeded to read.


    [Unique Talent(Tier 8): Collective Self (Rank 0)]


    : A fusion of the talents [Linked Subordinate(Tier 7)] and [Automatic Self(Tier 7)].


    Collective Self creates a connected collective of virtual self copies that can do everything the original can do. These are virtual copies and don¡¯t exist in physical space, meaning that the collective is limited by the physical capabilities of the original. If the original has a way to control two bodies then one of the collective will be able to use one of these bodies independently from the original. Virtual copies act as if they were real and the collective can exchange damage done (and other things) between them and the main body. Virtual copies are sustained by the talent¡¯s own energy source. Collective Self can currently support 2 copies.


    After reading the whole description my father placed the paper down on the desk in front of him and sat back in his seat with a rare *sigh*, ¡°Tier eight huh. If this is true then we¡¯ll have to get someone to confirm this.¡± He looked atthe elder with a contemplative look before looking at me and continuing, ¡°You said that you know the person who gave you this description, did he say anything else when you were talking to him? This description is detailed enough that it makes me wonder why he would give it to you without asking for anything. Someone with a tier eight talent is very rare and would definitely draw the greed of others.¡±


    I responded, ¡°Actually, we did talk for a bit after that, but he mostly just gave me advice about how to better use my talent and what it might be useful for. As I said before he¡¯s very mysterious so I don¡¯t know much about him.¡± I paused before I remembered what Radiant told me to mention about him, ¡°Oh, but I was curious about his talent and asked him about it. He told me that he had a tier nine talent. I guess that¡¯s why he wasn¡¯t too interested in my tier eight talent and just gave me advice?¡±


    My father wore a deep look of contemplation after what I had said before responding to me, ¡°Tier nine you say. He could be lying, but if it¡¯s true then he¡¯s definitely someone powerful.¡± He focused back on me and asked, ¡°How often do you interact with this man? Do you have any idea about who he could be?¡±


    ¡°Well I see him almost every time I enter The Archives. He¡¯s pretty much always there doing some kind of research, but he doesn¡¯t seem to interact with others much except for me.¡±


    ¡°Just with you?¡± My father got a suspicious look on his face. I could practically hear his thoughts wondering why some guy had an interest in his daughter. ¡°Why would he only interact with you?¡±


    ¡°Um, w-well I think it¡¯s more like other people don¡¯t interact with him rather than him not interacting with others. I got to know him after I approached him first, but I¡¯ve never seen anybody else try to approach him before except for me. To be honest he¡¯s always so absorbed in what he¡¯s doing that he doesn¡¯t really pay attention to his surroundings. Sometimes I think that if he didn¡¯t specifically know me, that he would just pretend I didn¡¯t even exist.¡±


    My explanation seemed to appease my Father and he said, ¡°Well alright then. This is some great news Genesis, I¡¯m glad you¡¯ve gotten this information. Your Mother and I were both in a bind about what to announce at your birthday celebration tomorrow, but this information will help us delay the worries of others and figure out what to do. Is there anything else you wanted to say?¡±


    My Father¡¯s words of gratitude made me feel warm inside and I said, ¡°No that was all.¡±


    ¡°Then you may leave. Tell the butler to come in on your way out.¡±


    I nodded and left for my room. I heard the rushed whisper of the elder towards my father as I left the room, and I heard my father almost growl in annoyance at the elder as I left the room. I wasn¡¯t able to hear anything after that. But I didn¡¯t mind, I now felt so much more assured about my situation then I had just hours ago, and I was also excited to learn how to better use my talent. I considered going back to The Archives and informing Radiant how everything went, but then I decided to wait until tomorrow when I would be seeing him to celebrate our shared birthday. I couldn¡¯t wait, but in the meantime I decided to practice my talent while I waited for tomorrow.


    -Break-


    I woke up from a long sleep. After having such a stressful day yesterday I was refreshed and ready for the new day, my birthday. The first thing I did wasn¡¯t to get ready like I always did, instead I entered The Archives where I would be meeting Radiant to wish him a happy birthday.


    As always, Radiant was already in The Archives, and Radiant was wearing something different just like every time I saw him. Today he was wearing a strange style of clothes that was similar to something a farm rancher would wear, except that it was different in so many little ways.


    He wore a wide brimmed hat that looked great for blocking the sun, a long sleeved button up collared shirt and a leather vest. He wore a belt with a large buckle that held up a pair of blue pants that he seemed to wear quite often. To top off his look he wore a set of large pointed leather boots, and instead of his usual red band that hid his eyes he wore a pair of dark sunglasses today.


    Most people would never buy clothes to wear in The Archives unless they really wanted to show off how rich they were, but Radiant, on the other hand, seemed to treat points like trash and wore something new every time I saw him.


    I was interested in the novel clothes he decided to wear today, but I focused on what I came here for, ¡°Happy birthday Radiant! Congratulations on being seven years old.¡±


    Radiant smiled and said, ¡°Thanks. Happy birthday to you too Genesis.¡±


    As always Radiant was not the most talkative and seemed to be at a loss for what to say next. I didn¡¯t make him sit in silence for long and said, ¡°That¡¯s a unique set of clothes you have on this time. What kind of clothes are they?¡±


    He pulled at his clothes and said, ¡°Oh this? These are the kind of clothes a Cowboy would wear.¡±


    ¡°A cow boy?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s a title, not an actual race of people or anything, so don¡¯t be confused. These clothes just remind me of a place I once used to live. That place had people with a spirit of adventure and freedom. Whenever I think about wishing I could be free to be somewhere else, doing something else, I think about that place. I wore this because I was wishing I could be with you in person, celebrating your birthday with you, but that will have to wait until sometime in the future.¡±


    He shrugged his shoulders and gave me a faint smile, ¡°Perhaps if you don¡¯t get tired of having me as your friend we could celebrate our birthday together once I¡¯m finally free to do so.¡±


    Sometimes I got the impression that Radiant was carrying a heavy weight on his shoulders, and I could feel that now when he spoke about freedom, but I was still touched by what he was saying to me and I responded, ¡°Don¡¯t worry Radiant I won¡¯t ever get tired of you. As long as we can talk to each other about our problems I¡¯ll be happy.¡±


    ¡°Thanks Genesis.¡± He smiled and said, ¡°I know that you have to prepare for your big party today so I won¡¯t take up too much of your time here. But I wanted to know how everything went yesterday with your parents and your talent.¡±


    ¡°Of course, I wanted to talk to you about it too.¡±


    I described my experience with learning my talent and how I had some trouble at first, but I explained that I was able to learn it quickly because I was able to do multiple things at the same time.


    Radiant seemed impressed with my quick progress, which I was proud of as well. Then I told him how my talk with my Father went and how he must¡¯ve seen Radiant as some sort of powerful hermit that didn¡¯t like to interact with others. Radiant looked like he wanted to dispute this, but then he paused and got a pained expression on his face and said he couldn¡¯t really dispute that, and I laughed at his attitude.


    He took my laughing at him in stride before telling me some more advice pertaining to my situation and my talent. After exchanging another round of happy birthdays I got up and left The Archives feeling that this was a great start to the day. I took it as a sign that everything would work out and both of my other minds agreed as I went about getting ready for the day.

 Preventing an Unwanted Future - Chapter 8

    -Radiant-


    It was now a month after Genesis had her talent awakening crisis. Everything seemed to work out on her end, as far as I could tell, and she wasn¡¯t ¡®kicked out¡¯ of her family like she most likely had been in the past. It once again proved that the future was changeable if I worked at it.


    I was glad, and somewhat proud, that Genesis could avoid something that seemed to haunt the future Genesis that I knew. But it wasn¡¯t all sunshine and rainbows. Although she managed to stabilize her family situation, with my help, it was still unknown if she could stay ahead of those in her family that wanted others to succeed at the cost of her failure.


    While Genesis¡¯s family situation was relatively stabilized, I couldn¡¯t necessarily say the same about mine. I was currently visiting with Mystdell, since it was once again her school vacation time, and she would always come to visit me whenever she could. Most of my visits with Mystdell were lighthearted and relaxing, but currently she was ranting to me about how our parents didn¡¯t want her to chase her dreams.


    While I was pondering about what I would say to Mystdell she continued to rant, ¡°They said it was ¡®too dangerous¡¯ and that it would be ¡®better for me to work in the family business.¡¯ But I don¡¯t want to work in the family business, I want to explore and see the world! I mean I¡¯m not some fragile child that needs to be protected anymore, why are they being so overprotective and controlling?¡± She sighed and slumped slightly, ¡°I¡¯m sorry to bother you with this Radiant. I should be spending time with you, not talking about my problems.¡±


    In the past Mystdell actually became an explorer against our parents wishes, and she ended up severely injured and traumatized by her experience not long afterwards. I remember that she ended up helping in the family business after that despite originally being so opposed to the idea. I wanted to stop her bad experience from happening, but first I needed to know why she wanted to be an explorer so badly in the first place. Given that she wasn¡¯t permanently harmed in the future I knew, I didn¡¯t think it was absolutely necessary to stop her from being an explorer to solve the problem.


    I said, ¡°I don¡¯t mind Mystdell, I¡¯m actually glad to listen and help you out. But I wonder why you would want to be an explorer if it¡¯s so dangerous like Mom and Dad said?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s not that dangerous, Mom and Dad are just being controlling and overprotective.¡± She folded her arms across her chest defensively, ¡°Besides I want to go out and do my own thing, live my own life and be free. I want to be able to do things without anybody getting in my way, especially not Mom and Dad.¡±


    ¡°Yeah I understand how you feel.¡± I said this mostly to show her that I am trying to empathize with her. I doubt she would think a seven year old would understand what she was feeling.


    Thinking about what she said I could determine that Mystdell probably wasn¡¯t as enthusiastic about exploring as she was about getting away from our parents and being independent. However she seemed to equate becoming an explorer with gaining her freedom.


    I wanted to help Mystdell, but, knowing her personality, any attempt at stopping her from doing what she wanted would cause her to block out my advice. So instead of trying to outright stop her from becoming an explorer I quickly came up with a different approach and said, ¡°Maybe Mom and Dad just don¡¯t think you¡¯re capable enough to be an explorer yet-¡±


    ¡°But I am capable enough.¡± Just as I thought, she interrupted me at the first sign of opposition to her idea.


    Mystdell seemed ready to go on another rant, but I stopped her before she got going, ¡°I know, I know. I¡¯m not saying you¡¯re not capable, but just hear me out for a second.¡± That calmed Mystdell down enough to listen to me, and I continued, ¡°If they don¡¯t think you¡¯re capable, why not show them that you are capable enough to be an explorer.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ve already tried to do that.¡± She shook her head slightly, ¡°They still don¡¯t think that I can be an explorer even after I told them what I can do. It¡¯s impossible to get them to see that I am capable and allow me to become an explorer.¡±


    ¡°Actually I have an idea about that.¡± I quickly interjected seeing my opportunity, ¡°Maybe you could enroll in a university and take some classes to show them you can become an explorer.¡± Seeing that Mystdell was hesitant about the idea from the look on her face, I hurriedly continued before she could interrupt, ¡°Think about it. You¡¯ll be on your own away from Mom and Dad, so they won¡¯t be able to control you anymore, and you¡¯ll be able to practice and learn how to be an explorer at the same time. Plus you could even get Mom and Dad to pay for it. I bet they¡¯ll think that getting you to go to school will give you a dose of reality and show you that you can¡¯t be an explorer.¡±


    Mystdell looked like she was contemplating what I was saying as I told her about my plan, and by the end she seemed to be almost completely convinced but still uncertain as she said, ¡°It sounds plausible, but I don¡¯t know if I could get Mom and Dad to go along with it. I mean they were really against the idea of me becoming an explorer.¡±


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    I was a little doubtful of Mystdell¡¯s interpretation of our parent¡¯s stand on the matter. Knowing how confrontational and determined Mystdell could be, I felt that maybe our parents weren¡¯t as against the idea as Mystdell thought. It could be that they were just forced to take such an opposite stance because Mystdell was so defiant and single-minded about her goal.


    ¡°Well it wouldn¡¯t hurt to try.¡± I said, ¡°Even if they refuse to pay for university there are still other ways to pay for it, like getting a scholarship or something. And, think about it, after you finish with your schooling, Mom and Dad won¡¯t be able to stop you from becoming an explorer because you¡¯ll be a legal adult by then.¡±


    My arguments seemed to have convinced Mystdell because she was nodding with a faint smirk on her face, probably fantasizing about being a legal adult and being able to do whatever she wanted. After she got done thinking, nodding to herself Mystdell looked at me and said, ¡°Well I guess that I could try your idea. But that¡¯s enough about me, what about you? Have you made any friends or done anything special since the last time I was here? You promised me you would try and make a friend.¡±


    ¡°Yes, I did make a new friend.¡± I smiled at her question. Not only because she had taken a liking to my idea, but also because I really did get a friend. ¡°His name is Friochr¨® and he¡¯s a Sysk¨®tisi.¡±


    Mystdell exuberantly smiled, ¡°That¡¯s great Radiant. I¡¯m happy for you, why don¡¯t you tell me more about this new friend of yours.¡±


    If Mystdell was surprised by the fact that I had made friends with a Sysk¨®tisi then she didn¡¯t show it on her face. I didn¡¯t know if she just didn¡¯t know what a Sysk¨®tisi was, or if she genuinely didn¡¯t care that my new friend was one.


    ¡°He¡¯s a bit strange, but he¡¯s less strange than other people here. He came here a while ago, and we became friends almost instantly. I don¡¯t think he¡¯s going to stay here too much longer though, but maybe you could help me keep in touch with him once he leaves?¡±


    ¡°Sure I would love to, anything to help my Little Light and his new friend.¡± My sister seemed absolutely ecstatic that I had made a friend and wanted to keep in touch with them. However, what Mystdell didn¡¯t know was that I wanted to stay friends and keep in touch with Friochr¨® for another reason. That reason was that, in the future, Friochr¨® would be known by another name, Farsight.


    I didn¡¯t personally know Farsight in the future I came from, but I had heard a lot about him just because of his reputation. Farsight was known to awaken some sort of clairvoyance Unique Talent, and he made a name for himself in certain circles by selling information he gained via the use of his Talent.


    By the time I had escaped from the government¡¯s control, Farsight had already become a big shot, meaning I had no chance of making a connection with him, but now I had the opportunity to become friends with him when we were both kids. I was positively overjoyed about my good fortune.


    In the future, if Mystdell continued to help me keep in touch with Farsight, then after he awakened his unique talent I would be able to get his help with information gathering. Although being friends with Friochr¨® wasn¡¯t a crucial part of the plans I had, I wouldn¡¯t pass up such a golden opportunity when I saw it.


    Mystdell interrupted my fantasizing, ¡°What does a Sysk¨®tisi look like anyway? I¡¯ve heard of them before, but I¡¯ve never looked them up or actually seen one.¡±


    So she didn¡¯t know what a Sysk¨®tisi is after all. I explained to Mystdell, ¡°Sysk¨®tisi are very similar to Humans, with two arms and two legs, except that they are a little shorter, or at least my friend is. His skin doesn¡¯t reflect any light, and his eyes and nails glow with a neon light. He also doesn''t have any hair, and his mouth is all dark gray. Friochr¨®¡¯s eyes and nails are violet.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s interesting, can you tell me anything else about your friend?¡±


    ¡°Yeah, sure. Friochr¨® told me that he doesn¡¯t have to eat like Humans do, he said that instead they eat the heat from around them. He¡¯s fun to talk to and says some really funny things sometimes. The first time I told him my full name he just said it was stupid, I laughed so hard when he said that without any emotion in his voice.¡± I chuckled at the memory, ¡°You know that I don¡¯t usually like to talk to others during recreation time, but I¡¯ve been talking to him basically every day since he came here. I was wondering what I should do about him leaving soon, but I guess that I won¡¯t be too sad once he leaves because you¡¯ll help me keep in touch with him.¡± I gave her a happy smile.


    ¡°I¡¯m looking forward to it.¡± She gave me her own smile, ¡°I might have to get him an Epicell if he doesn¡¯t have one though. Just make sure to get his address or a way to contact him, then you can tell me the next time I come here.¡±


    ¡°I will.¡± I replied, ¡°Do you want to play some card games before you leave?¡± Now that everything important was taken care of it was time to spend some quality time with my sister.


    ¡°Sure I would love to.¡± She got a stack of cards out of a container and spread them out in front of her face, ¡°What should we play my dear brother?¡± We then continued our brother sister bonding while playing games together for over an hour.


    I was glad that I could convince Mystdell and hopefully prevent her from having a traumatic experience. If she goes to an academy for around four years, then hopefully by the time she¡¯s through with that she¡¯ll be more mature and less impulsive than she is now. Hopefully Mystdell would be able to learn the danger of the outside world without directly exposing herself to danger like she had in the past.


    However, I had a feeling that Mystdell would probably change her mind about what she wants to do with her life during her time at school. Only time would tell, but for now I was content to just spend time with my sister and forget about the future.

 Ten Years Old - Chapter 9

    It was now five years after I had come back to the past. Many things had happened during this time, and I was able to say that everything had worked out exactly as planned, for the most part, which was good because if it hadn¡¯t¡­ Well, I didn¡¯t want to think about it.


    Currently I was in my room about to undergo the process of switching my Conceal Skill to Active, in place of my Detailed Divination Skill. Without access to the System, the process of switching out active skills took serious concentration and time to do. Fortunately my Mental Operator Power helped me out greatly in this regard, making it easier to maintain focused concentration and intent for longer periods of time.


    Before I began though, I did one last divination to see my current progress with the full help of Detailed Divination before I switched it out.


    [Status] Level: 0 | General Tier: (Low)Tier 4 | Age: 10


    [Ancestry]-(Human; Evolutions: 0) (TechnicMorph; Evolutions: 0)-


    [Titles]-(Dimensional Traveler; Legendary) (Time Traveler; Legendary) (Conqueror of Mana; Extraordinary) (Researcher; Common) (Low Profile; Uncommon) (Social Morph; Uncommon) (Artificial Youth; Rare)-


    [Stats]-Mana(Nebula: (High)Tier 5; Cells: (Peak)Tier 9)


    Mana Regen(Nebula: (High)Tier 5; Cells: (Peak)Tier 9; Other: (Low)Tier 5)


    Magic(Strength: (Low)Tier 3; Dexterity: (High)Tier 3; Endurance: (High)Tier 4; Stamina: (Peak)Tier 4; General: (High)Tier 4)


    Constitution(Strength: (Low)Tier 2; Dexterity: (Low)Tier 2; Endurance: (Low)Tier 3; Stamina: (Peak)Tier 3; General: (Mid)Tier 3)


    Senses(Strength: (High)Tier 3; Dexterity: (Low)Tier 4; Endurance: (Peak)Tier 3; Stamina: (Mid)Tier 3; General: (Peak)Tier 3)


    Mind(Strength: (Peak)Tier 5; Dexterity: (Peak)Tier 5; Endurance: (Peak)Tier 5; Stamina: (Peak)Tier 5; General: (Peak)Tier 5)-


    [Unique Talent]-Tier 7 (Not Awakened)-


    [Magic Core]-(Color: None) (Characteristic: Mana Cell Enhancement)-


    [Metaphysical Organs]-(Core) (Adaptive Mind) (Fractured Space Channel)-


    [Metaphysical Physique]-(Body of Artifacts)-


    [Traits]-(Ornate Chains of Talent) (Enchanting Talent)-


    [Blessings/Curses]-(The Ever Present Archives Level 1 Infinite Pass)-


    [Active Skills/Powers 3/3]-(Power: Mental Operator; Evolution:0 Level: 71) (Skill: Mana Maintenance; Level: 60) (Skill: Detailed Divination; Level 19)-


    [Inactive Skills/Powers 11]-(Skill: Research; Level: 55) (Skill: Acting; Level: 28) (Skill: Conceal; Level 45) (Skill: Tireless Mana; Level: 17) (Skill: Sense Mana; Level: 46) (Skill: Pain Tolerance; Level: 9) (Skill: Physical Recovery; Level: 22) (Skill: Physical Augmentation; Level: 1) (Skill: Time Sense; Level: 57) (Skill: Space Sense; Level: 39) (Skill: Transformation Resistance; Level: 36)-


    Needless to say, I had gained much within the five years since I came back to the past, and I was recently able to separate my other stats into their different categories with the help of my Detailed Divination Skill.


    Some of my stats were much higher than what would be expected of someone at my age, and others were below average. But, that is if someone were just looking at the stats themselves.


    Stats weren¡¯t meant to be viewed in a vacuum. For example, a Dragon and a Human could have exactly the same constitution stats but the Dragon would still be overwhelmingly more physically powerful than the Human. This was because Stats could be seen as modifiers to the base, and were the base off of which other things worked, from things like Traits, Skills, techniques, the physical body and many other factors.


    It was a dense and complex field of study that I wasn¡¯t exactly an expert in, but one school of thought that I subscribed to was the idea of builds or constructs. It was a fairly simple concept that taught that everyone¡¯s Status can be simplified down into a few different builds or constructs based on which Stat was the most dominant one, along with what other things in one¡¯s Status were based around. This meant that I would be considered a magical focused build.


    But, although I thought of myself as a magical focused build, I was still a bit pained to see the Tier of my Constitution be so low, but there wasn¡¯t much I could do about that besides continue to train. In regards to my Stats, everything besides my Mana, Regen, and Magic Stats was a little below average for my age, since the average Stats for my age would be around (High)Tier 4, except for the magical Stats.


    For each Stat, Strength was pretty self explanatory in that it determined the power or influence of the Stat. Dexterity referred to finesse or control. Endurance referred to stability, durability, and recovery, and Stamina referred to the max energy pool. There was a lot more nuance and details involved, but these were sufficient for a basic understanding.


    My physical Stats were somewhat harder to raise, because of my Ancestry and Metaphysical Physique. My Senses were also influenced by my Ancestry and Metaphysical Physique, but Senses included things other than physical senses, things like mana sense and other magical senses, thus my Senses were higher tier than my Constitution because of these other Senses.


    My Magic Tier was higher than the average for someone who has only been practicing for five years, this was because my abundance of mana regeneration allowed me to practice much more than others, as well as my previous understanding of magic giving me a head start. But the real outliers were my Mana, Mana Regen.


    Mana and Mana Regen were extremely high Tier because of the Mana Reactor I had brought from the future, but if that was the only reason then it wouldn¡¯t have been as high. It was also because of my (Characteristic: Mana Cell Enhancement) which was an extremely potent Characteristic that enhanced everything about my mana cells. To put it into context, my mana cells were currently 800% better than normal mana cells but required the same amount of mana to split as regular mana cells. This, combined with the massive initial boost of mana regeneration from the Mana Reactor, allowed me to skyrocket my personal mana regeneration to the highest it was able to go at this time.


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    The other outlier was my Mind Stat. Because of my (Power: Mental Operator), and my prior decades of experience with it, I was able to push my mental capabilities to their limits. However if I didn¡¯t have my (Metaphysical Organ: Adaptive Mind) my extreme training I put my mind through would¡¯ve fried a normal brain. I could¡¯ve taken less risks, but I needed to take these risks if I wanted to have any chance of escaping from this prison.


    This wasn¡¯t to say that I was uncertain of escaping from prison, no in fact I am very confident in successfully escaping. The reason why I still have to take risks is because I wanted to stay escaped. There were some crazy powerful people in this world and I needed to be able to deal with the pursuit of such powerful beings should they possibly start to look for me.


    I did have a primary plan to deal with those that might try to hunt me down, but I wasn¡¯t 100% certain that things would work out like I hope they will. So I have some contingency plans in the case that my primary plan fails to work out.


    One of these contingency plans revolves around my enchanting expertise and knowledge I have from my past as well as my (Trait: Enchanting Talent). With both of these, together with ongoing research in The Archives, I should be able to make items that will give massive temporary benefits, hopefully allowing me to get away from dangerous situations. However this contingency plan is dead in the water if I don¡¯t have any materials to work with, which I currently don¡¯t have.


    Another of my contingency plans relies on my knowledge of the future and taking advantage of the war that will erupt about 3 years after my planned escape. Although the actual war won¡¯t be official until 3 years later, the conflict between the countries was going on behind the scenes for years before then. So I could potentially seek out the help of the country opposing Tallen which would probably help me for propaganda purposes to weaken the authority of Tallen.


    The problem with this contingency plan is that I would be at the mercy of the opposing country Ugrayen(You-gray-ehn). This would also make me a political tool and my identity would be known far and wide as ¡®that guy that couldn¡¯t escape on his own¡¯. This contingency plan was absolutely a last resort, after all reputation is important especially when I would definitely become immortal in the future.


    I didn¡¯t have many contingency plans, truth be told. However this was more because of the strength of what I was facing rather than my inability to come up with solutions. To put it into perspective, the people who would be potentially hunting me down could be considered gods in the eyes of many of the people back on Earth, but they weren¡¯t gods, because gods actually existed in this world. So, when I was working against people with crazy levels of power, I didn¡¯t have many options for opposing them.


    Thankfully these were only just contingency plans in anticipation of the worst case scenario, and if I was offered Talent awakenings as powerful as the ones I had in my past life, then I would have many more options available to me.


    After looking over my Status I switched out my Detailed Divination Skill for my Conceal Skill after a while of focus. Inactive Skills could still be used, but at a reduced capacity and slower leveling, so I switched my Conceal Skill to active because I wanted to get this skill to a higher level.


    With my Conceal Skill now ready I began to simulate many different scenarios in my head and tried to use the skill within this simulated environment. This wasn¡¯t as efficient as actually using the skill in reality, but it was the best I could do in my limited environment, and it worked well enough that I continued to use this method to train my various skills despite its inefficiency.


    While I was training in this way, I broke off another stream of consciousness to think about other things, and my thoughts began to wander towards my upcoming parent¡¯s visit with me. I had recently heard from Radix that they would be coming next month, which came as a great surprise to me.


    In the past my parents had never once visited me in prison. I was not fully certain as to the reason for their current visit, but I had a guess that it was primarily because I was still not being let out of prison despite me reaching the age of ten. This was the same case as in my past, but this time around I had done something different. In this life I had shown great promise with my magical abilities from a young age, and without help even. My parents were probably more interested in my coming home this time around because I would be considered a magic prodigy. They probably became suspicious of the real reason why I wasn¡¯t allowed to come back home, and might suspect that the government wants to keep my abilities for their own use.


    As far as the prison¡¯s reports to my parents were concerned, I was still mentally unstable (I learned this from Mystdell). My parents received these reports from the prison but they also received reports about me through Mystdell as well, and Mystdell painted a very different picture to the one the prison gave.


    According to Mystdell I was perfectly mentally stable and there was no reason for them to be keeping me here. My parents probably thought this was just Mystdell exaggerating like she always did, but after a long time my parents probably started to have some suspicions. With such conflicting information in their minds, my parents had decided that it was about time they come and see my current condition for themselves.


    Because of their visit I was a bit uncertain about how I should act when my parents visited me, and I was using one of my streams of thought just for this problem.


    I hadn¡¯t really interacted much with them before in my past, and it was the first time I was meeting them without me being mind controlled. In the fuzzy memories I had of meeting them when I was mind controlled, my parents seemed to barely interact with me or even acknowledge that I existed. Yet, in the much clearer memories I have of them during the first five years of my childhood, my parents definitely cared about me and loved me. I couldn¡¯t tell which of these conflicting versions of my parents was real, or if both of them were false, so I had to come at this from a different angle and not let my interactions with them be clouded by uncertain memories.


    With such faulty memories to go off of I could only reference the only other set of experiences I had of interacting with parents, but they were the ones of the parents I had on Earth. Unfortunately my memories of interacting with my Earth parents weren¡¯t the greatest frame of reference either.


    My parents on Earth were more like people who lived under the same roof as me, and I barely interacted with them during the times when they weren¡¯t preoccupied with their games or off at work. Needless to say I didn¡¯t have much to go off of when it came to parent-child interactions, so my understanding of how to interact with my parents was extremely insufficient to say the least. Luckily I had my Acting Skill which would help me even if only marginally, and I considered myself a calm and rational person. If I came at this logically everything should work out fine¡­ Right?

 Calm and Collected - Chapter 10

    During the past month I had finally shattered the space in my room to the right conditions I needed to practice the Internal World technique, but I wanted to wait until after the meeting with my parents before I started to practice the technique. My waiting to practice it until after was a purely logical decision and had nothing to do with my inability to focus, my focus was razor sharp and I could practice the difficult technique if I wanted to¡­ or at least that¡¯s what I told myself.


    Instead of practicing Internal World I decided to go to The Archives to relax and get away from my restless thoughts and stop worrying about the meeting happening not too long from now.


    After arriving in my room in The Archives I put on some comfortable and relaxing robes before entering The Archives proper. Looking up at the ceiling was a habit, and this time I saw a giant planet that took up a large portion of the celestial view of The Archives. The planet had many rings and moons around it, and it was mostly land with some large portions of water dotted around it. On the dark side of the planet I could see what looked like the lights of a civilization lighting up the dark. On the poles of the planet there were dancing walls of multicolor light, and I could also make out multicolor rivers flowing through the sky of the planet.


    As always the ceiling of The Archives was breathtaking and I just stood there looking at it for quite a while. It really helped me put things into perspective and realize that I was definitely scared to meet with my parents no matter how much I tried to deny it. I didn¡¯t have an answer as to what I should do about these feelings, but at least I understood that I was feeling them.


    I habitually grabbed a tablet and went to my usual seat, but even after I sat down I didn¡¯t look at my tablet and just continued to think while I stared into space for who knows how long.


    Then a voice came from beside me interrupting my thoughts, ¡°What are you thinking about?¡±


    I was taken out of my thoughts and turned towards the speaker. It was Genesis, obviously, no one else had ever talked to me in The Archives besides her in this life. ¡°It¡¯s nothing big. My parents are coming to visit me and I¡¯m just a little nervous. I haven¡¯t met them in a long time and I¡¯m just not sure what to say.¡±


    ¡°Your parents?¡± She sounded a little surprised, ¡°I thought that you were doing some kind of isolated training or something where you couldn¡¯t meet with anyone.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, for the most part that¡¯s true, but not for my family.¡± I sigh, ¡°But even then, this is the first time anyone besides my sister has come to visit me. I¡¯m worried that I might say something I shouldn¡¯t during the meeting and ruin everything.¡±


    ¡°Ruin everything? What are you going to ruin?¡±


    I can tell that Genesis is trying to help me so I responded, ¡°I could ruin everything. If I mess up my parents could try and pull me out of my ¡®training¡¯ and I would lose my chance to obtain a Tier zero talent orb. I can¡¯t risk that, I need that orb if I want to awaken a Tier nine talent. So I need to make sure that I convince my parents to let me stay. But I worry that no matter what I say they¡¯ll still try and take me home.¡±


    Genesis seems to ponder what I said for a moment before saying, ¡°Why don¡¯t you just tell them the truth? Surely they¡¯ll let you stay if they understand that you don¡¯t want to give up on your training.¡±


    ¡°I can¡¯t do that, it won¡¯t work.¡± I shake my head.


    ¡°And why can¡¯t you do that? Will they still try and take you out despite knowing that you want to stay?¡±


    ¡°I-¡± I stop and think about it. Would they let me stay if I told them I wanted to? Maybe, but I would have to tell them everything if I wanted to convince them. I continued, ¡°No they probably wouldn¡¯t let me stay even if I told them I wanted to.¡±


    I pause for a second wondering what I should say next, but Genesis took the opportunity to say, ¡°Hmm, I think that you¡¯re just afraid that they won¡¯t listen to you.¡±


    Afraid? I shook my head, ¡°No I¡¯m not a-¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t dismiss it so casually.¡± She interrupts, ¡°I know I have a hard time talking to my parents about the things I want. I mean I always thought that they wouldn''t listen to me or that they were too busy to care, and maybe sometimes that was true. However I¡¯ve found that I just need to have the right conditions to get them to listen to me.¡±


    ¡°The right conditions?¡± I raised my eyebrow slightly at her.


    ¡°I know it sounds a bit skeptical, but it¡¯s true. For example, whenever I want my Dad to do something for me I have to make sure that nobody else is around or else he¡¯ll immediately say no. He cares too much about rules and traditions and says he can¡¯t show favoritism to one of his children.¡± She has a sour face as she says that last part. Then she continues, ¡°So what I¡¯m saying is that you need to make sure the right conditions are met and then you can get your parents to listen to you. I don¡¯t know what exactly those would be, but you¡¯re smart enough, I think you¡¯ll be able to figure it out.¡±


    Now that I think about it, maybe she¡¯s onto something. I always thought that there was no way to get my parents to understand because the prison would be listening in on everything and I couldn¡¯t risk exposing my true escape plans, but maybe if I can get the right conditions like Genesis says, then I could convince my parents despite the prison listening in.


    ¡°Genesis I think you¡¯re onto something there.¡±


    Genesis sits up straighter with a faint smile, ¡°Yeah I know. It¡¯s not often that I teach you something is it?¡±


    I give a small laugh and say, ¡°Thanks Genesis, for listening to my problems, but you¡¯re the only one I can really talk to.¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t mention it. Besides, you''ve helped me out whenever I¡¯ve needed it, so I¡¯m happy to help.¡±


    I smiled and felt a notification go off in my mind. It was time for me to leave so I said, ¡°Well I guess I need to leave now. I¡¯ll see you later then.¡±


    ¡°OK, see you later.¡± She waved to me.


    I left The Archives with a thought, and waited in my room for the guards to come get me.


    -Break-


    I regained my senses as the guards left through the door leaving me alone in the room I would be meeting my parents in for the first time in more than a century. The room was barren and devoid of any color with only a table and some chairs in the middle of the room. The only source of light in the room was a flat pane of white right above the table. There was a sort of finality in the lighting of the room, like there was only one option for light.


    Luckily, or maybe unluckily, this wasn¡¯t one of those rooms with glass separating the two people who were meeting. Maybe it was because I was only ten years old and nobody thought I could do any harm, or maybe that was just the law and had nothing to do with me personally.


    Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.


    In any case I walked over to the circular table and sat down in one of the uncomfortable chairs. You would think that such an advanced society would make all of their chairs comfortable, but people tried to save money wherever possible. Besides, who would want to spend more money than necessary when dealing with criminals, even if they were only just potential criminals.


    I was used to this kind of treatment by now though, since I had dealt with it for most of my life, but I could never fully accept it. Maybe if I didn¡¯t have my memories of my life back on Earth I wouldn¡¯t find as many problems with my situation and would just quietly accept it, but although my life on Earth was short compared to my life in Epidas, it still showed me what a life without constant anxiety and struggles was supposed to look and feel like.


    Not long after I sat down the only other door into the room opened and two people walked in. One was well built and tough looking, wearing a dark but fancy looking suit with a no-nonsense look on his face. The other was shorter than the man, with a thin build. She had a bright smile and colorful clothes that made her look like the shining sun coming to light up the dull room.


    They were Reinbeck and Dawn Shadow, my parents.


    ¡°Radiant!¡± My Mom¡¯s smile got even brighter when she saw me. She rushed over to me and wrapped me in a hug making it difficult to breathe.


    My Dad calmly closed the door behind him before walking over and sitting down on his own chair. He said, ¡°That¡¯s enough dear. We have important things to talk about.¡±


    She continued to hug me, ¡°He¡¯s my baby, I can hug him as long as I want.¡±


    ¡°Dawn, please.¡± My Dad sounded like he was used to my Mom¡¯s antics but was pleading for her to listen.


    My Mom sighed before reluctantly parting with me and pulling over a seat to sit almost right next to me. The whole situation felt awkward to me and made me feel a slight lump in my stomach for some reason.


    Reinbeck almost immediately started talking after Dawn sat down, ¡°So, Son how have you been doing? We¡¯ve been receiving reports of course, but we want to hear it from you personally.¡±


    ¡°Everything¡¯s fine.¡± I didn¡¯t really know how to answer, ¡°I guess I¡¯ve mostly just been practicing magic? Life is really boring here, besides my visits with Mystdell, but my classes about magic and stuff are at least somewhat interesting.¡±


    My Mom said, ¡°Classes on magic? Since when have you been taught magic?¡± My Dad also nodded to my Mom¡¯s question with a bit of a squint in his eyes.


    ¡°It just started not that long ago after I told Radix that I wanted to know more about dungeons and stuff.¡± I only gave a cursory answer, but that didn¡¯t seem to satisfy my parents.


    My Dad asked, ¡°What exactly are they teaching you in these classes?¡±


    ¡°Just simple stuff.¡± I said, ¡°Things like the different types of dungeons, different magic fields, but my favorite was the one about power rankings.¡±


    ¡°Hmm, it¡¯s great that you¡¯re learning the basics at least.¡± My Dad seemed to ponder for a moment before slightly nodding to himself then saying, ¡°Well moving on, we came here to talk about taking you home.¡±


    ¡°Taking me home?¡± I hardened my look ever so slightly, but my Mom seemed to pick up on this slight reaction.


    ¡°What¡¯s wrong Radiant? Do you not want to go home?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s not that I don¡¯t want to go home¡­¡± Of course I wanted to go home, but I absolutely had to get my hands on the Tier 0 talent orb. I continued, ¡°It¡¯s just that I think I need to stay here for now. I don¡¯t think I¡¯m one hundred percent stable yet.¡±


    ¡°For what reason? The Mentalist said that you¡¯re still a little unstable, but he also said that you¡¯ve improved greatly since you¡¯ve come here.¡± My Dad said, ¡°If that¡¯s what you¡¯re worried about then we can get you to see a different Mentalist at home. You don¡¯t have to stay here to be treated.¡±


    I clenched my teeth unconsciously and started to move my leg up and down as I replied in a somewhat clipped manner, ¡°It¡¯s nothing, you don¡¯t have to worry about it. I just think that it would be best if I stay here for now.¡± A pit formed in my stomach as I said that, but at the same time I felt a small burning sensation begin to build in my chest.


    My Dad leaned forward in his seat and rested his arms on the table, ¡°Tell us Radiant. Is it about us? Whatever it is, we won''t be upset with you.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s not about you, it¡¯s personal.¡± In truth I wanted to talk to someone about my grievances, but I didn¡¯t think I could do that without at least somewhat disarranging my plans and possibly coming across as slightly crazy.


    My Mom tried to reassure me, ¡°Radiant, if you don¡¯t tell us we can¡¯t help you. Just tell us, nothing bad can happen to you if we help you.¡±


    I felt my anxiety building as I recalled the past, trapped inside my own body not in control of most of my own actions. If nothing could happen to me if my parents wanted to help me, then why was it that I ended up like that in the past? Did they not care about me in the past? Was my Mom lying to me? Or was she just saying what she thought I wanted to hear?


    I tried to control my breathing and actions as I answered, ¡°Would you really help me? Even if you knew you couldn¡¯t do anything to help?¡±


    ¡°Of course we would try to help you.¡± My Dad said, ¡°But if we don¡¯t know what¡¯s wrong then how are we supposed to help you?¡±


    ¡°If you don¡¯t know¡­¡± Of course. I thought. It wasn¡¯t because my parents didn¡¯t care about me, it was because they didn¡¯t know I needed help. My anxiety and the pit in my stomach didn¡¯t fully go away, but it did significantly recede. It all comes back around. If I was stronger back then and was able to ask my parents for help, then maybe I wouldn¡¯t have had to suffer like I did. I grit my teeth and my eye twitched slightly as the burning in my chest grew hotter.


    My Mom interrupted my thoughts, ¡°Talk to us Radiant. Tell us what¡¯s on your mind.¡±


    ¡°What¡¯s on my mind? Hehehe.¡± My bottom lip quivered. I tried to keep up my calm and collected persona, but my Acting Skill failed. I started to quietly laugh to myself. Why was I trying to keep up the act of being calm and collected? I''m in a prison for crazy people after all! Sure I might have to slightly adjust my plans, but I had already planned to do this at some point anyways.


    My Mom furrowed her brows slightly at my actions, ¡°Radiant why are you-¡±


    ¡°You want to know, right? Then I¡¯ll tell you. I can¡¯t go home, not now.¡± There, I said it. ¡°But it¡¯s not because of you, I wasn¡¯t lying when I said that.¡± I moved my hand to my face to cover the smile that grew on my lips due to the Acting Skill failing, ¡°It¡¯s because of the worthless government, and this stupid prison, and everyone else that wants to lock me up and control me.¡±


    I moved my hand and openly displayed an aggressive and mischievous smile, ¡°They think that they can lock me up? No¡­ No, I''ll show them.¡± I clenched my fists tightly as I thought about my escape plans. Was I saying too much? Should I continue talking? Who cares! It¡¯s not like they¡¯ll take me seriously, they never did in the past. ¡°Hah! I¡¯ll escape from this place on my own. I¡¯ll be free on my own terms, not because someone else decided to give it to me.¡±


    I took a glance at my Mom, and I saw a look of concern on her face and she was looking towards my Dad. Looking over at him he looked like he was meditating or almost praying with his forehead against his closed fists.


    My Mom looked back at me and said, ¡°Radiant, that¡¯s not¡­¡± She looked up at the ceiling like she was trying to find out how to phrase what she wanted to say, then she gave a deep sigh before saying, ¡°You¡¯re not going to be able to escape from this place by yourself Radiant. This is the best prison in Tallen and it¡¯s surrounded by extremely dangerous wilderness.¡±


    My Dad interjected, ¡°That¡¯s enough Dawn. Radiant, just give up on that foolish thought and come home with us.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m not going to give up Dad. Just thinking about the look on everyone¡¯s faces when I manage to escape from here makes me shiver with excitement.¡± Truthful to my statement a shiver ran through my body with the thought. Most of the time I was very logical and didn¡¯t let my emotions cloud my judgment, but some things just made my blood boil and drove me forward even if it wasn¡¯t the most ¡®logical¡¯. I made a final statement, ¡°In fact, I¡¯m not leaving this place unless I escape from here on my own, and no one can convince me otherwise.¡±


    Both of my parents tried to convince me to come home with them, but even if I didn¡¯t want to rub my escape in the government¡¯s face I would still need to stay here to get the Tier 0 talent awakening orb.


    Needless to say, the meeting with my parents didn¡¯t really go anywhere after my statement, and they failed to achieve the intended goal of their visit. I felt bad about somewhat losing my composure, and I guess that, maybe, I¡¯m not as stable as I thought I was. But I¡¯ve heard that the line between genius and insanity is a fine line, and who but a genius could figure out time travel almost solely on their own?

 Power Evolution - Chapter 11

    I was dropped off in my room by the guards just like always, and I was eager to begin the evolution of my Power [Mental Operator]. I had been training this power for more than 7 years now and it had finally reached level 100 earlier today during recreation.


    Walking in my room towards the center, where I usually sat down to meditate, I noticed how empty my room was and it made me think about the emptiness inside of me. It had been 2 years since I had any visits from anybody, including Mystdell.


    I didn¡¯t have any more visits after the one with my parents. I was fine with that, I didn¡¯t complain or anything, but if I was honest with myself it made me just a little bit lonely. Even Mystdell stopped coming to visit me, but that was because she was busy studying at university, so I didn¡¯t hold it against her like I did my parents. My parents stopped visiting me because they probably gave up on me, although I couldn¡¯t really say they stopped visiting me if they only visited me the one time could I?


    In any case, one good thing that came out of all of this was that I had less distractions and was able to practice my skills with more focus. My focused training had paid off as evidenced by the fact that I was now ready to evolve my Power [Mental Operator]. However, before looking at my options for evolution, I did a quick divination to pull up my status to look at my skills/powers and see my progress.


    [Active Skills/Powers 3/3]-


    (Power: Mental Operator; Evolution: 0 Level: 100)


    (Skill: Mana Maintenance; Level: 72)


    (Skill: Detailed Divination; Level 41)-


    [Inactive Skills/Powers 12]-


    (Skill: Research; Level: 67)


    (Skill: Acting; Level: 42)


    (Skill: Conceal; Level 58)


    (Skill: Tireless Mana; Level: 28)


    (Skill: Sense Mana; Level: 68)


    (Skill: Pain Tolerance; Level: 10)


    (Skill: Physical Recovery; Level: 39)


    (Skill: Physical Augmentation; Level: 9)


    (Skill: Time Sense; Level: 86)


    (Skill: Space Sense; Level: 59)


    (Skill: Transformation Resistance; Level: 68)


    (Skill: Basic Space Manipulation; Level 28)-


    I was proud of how far I had come, and one of the main reasons why I could progress like I did, without worries, was because of my Conceal Skill. Conceal covered more than just physical concealment, it also covered magical concealment like Anti-Divination and other things. Needless to say, without this Skill I wouldn¡¯t have been able to hide my progress from the prison. But that wasn¡¯t my focus today.


    No, today¡¯s focus was [Mental Operator] which had reached level 100. Level 100 was the level at which Powers and Skills could be evolved and modified. My other Skills were high level too, but it would be at least another year until anything else would reach level 100 like [Mental Operator].


    Given the fact that I was young (which slowed Skill acquisition and growth), and the fact that I didn¡¯t have a fully activated system (which also slowed Skill acquisition and growth), my leveling progress was actually much faster than would be expected. The expected Skill level growth for someone like me would be less than one level a month, or about 6-8 levels a year, which would mean most of my Skill levels would be much lower than what they currently are. So the fact that I was about to evolve my Power after only 7 years of practice would definitely drop some jaws, since those were even harder to level.


    Unfortunately nobody but me would know about this because that would obviously be detrimental to my goal of being overlooked. I wouldn¡¯t say that I was someone who craved attention, but I still had some desire to have my efforts be recognized. Sometimes when I have these thoughts I think about the surprise on others'' faces if I told them everything, and this gives me some amount of solace and tempers my desire for attention.


    Refocusing my thoughts on the present, I pulled up the actual System screen for evolving [Mental Operator]. This was one of the few times that the System could be used before being fully activated. Both visually and mentally a screen showing the evolution options appeared in and I excitedly looked at the options.


    Mental Operator(+Acceleration): Can now artificially, and physically, accelerate mental operations and interactions. Maybe you¡¯re a speedster and can¡¯t think fast enough for your needs, or maybe you need to quickly assess situations and do quick calculations; whatever the reason, this will help accelerate your mental abilities.


    Looking at the first one it was already looking great, but I have to look at all of my options before I choose.


    Mental Operator(+Collective): Specialize in many minds, and other mental operations. This will help multiple minds better communicate, coordinate, and use less resources to operate. Maybe you want to operate an interconnected hive mind, or maybe you just want to have more of yourself to talk to; whatever the reason, this will help you handle multiple different minds working together.


    This one¡¯s interesting, but it seems like it would require more than I can -or would even want to- provide for it to reach its full potential. So I think this one is off the table for now. I probably have this option because of my Virtual Mind technique that I¡¯m using.


    Mental Operator(+Breadth): Increases the depth and quality of the controls of [Mental Operator], thus allowing different qualities of intelligence to be formed. Maybe you want to better understand the complex and multifaceted workings of magic, or maybe you just need help understanding basic math and logic; whatever the reason, this will help you do mental things you couldn¡¯t do before.


    This one sounds very powerful, and I would take it immediately if it weren¡¯t for some of the wording. It says that it will give more ¡®controls¡¯ to [Mental Operator], which will then allow ¡®different¡¯ qualities of intelligence to be formed. It implied that I could possibly mess with the wrong controls and make myself as dumb as a slime. Although this one sounds like it has amazing potential, it also has a lot of risks involved, so unfortunately, for now, I can¡¯t risk taking it.


    Mental Operator(+Modification): Can now modify, and improve, physical ¡®hardware¡¯. Maybe you want your nerves to be faster and more accurate for sports, or maybe you want to create a computer in your brain; whatever the reason, this will allow you to overcome your natural physical limitations.


    This one is less dangerous than [Mental Operator](+Breadth), but it¡¯s still messing with things I don¡¯t understand. I mean I¡¯m only able to use [Mental Operator] so well right now because I have over a century¡¯s worth of experience with it; if not for that this power would only be level 30 or so right now. So, although this sounds like it would be absolutely amazing, it would definitely be difficult to handle.


    This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.


    Mental Operator(+Cloud): Mental operations can now be cheaply stored, duplicated, and non-destructively edited within the ¡®cloud¡¯. Additionally [Mental Operator] can now connect to and receive information from accepted and designated sources. Maybe you have a deep fear of mental modification but still want to do it anyways, or maybe you just want to sense when a specific ward is active and what it¡¯s sensing; whatever the reason, this will give you the tools necessary to mentally operate from the safety of The Cloud.


    OK, I¡¯m feeling a little called out by this one. But my fear of mental modification is completely understandable! Ahem. Anyways, this one sounds great, moving on to the last option.


    Mental Operator(Advance To Evolution 1): General improvement to everything [Mental Operator] can do. Maybe you just want more of the same but better, or maybe you¡¯re someone who has no sense of exploration; whatever the reason, this will be a direct upgrade to everything about [Mental Operator].


    In the past this was the one I chose every time in the past, just a direct improvement to [Mental Operator]. It wasn¡¯t fancy like the other options, but in combination with my [Adaptive Mind] it was already a force to be reckoned with. Be that as it may, I wouldn¡¯t be choosing this option this time around for a few reasons.


    While Evo 1 powers were much stronger than their Evo 0 versions, that didn¡¯t mean that it was always better to advance an Evo 0 power to Evo 1; for example given the choice of evolving an Evo 0 [Photon Shot] into Evo 0 [Light Manipulation] or advancing it to Evo 1 [Photon Shot], most people would choose to evolve it into [Light Manipulation]. Because while Evo 1 [Photon Shot] would definitely be more powerful than Evo 0 [Light Manipulation], [Light Manipulation] would be capable of so much more than [Photon Shot].


    Second of all, not all Powers are created equal, some Powers are just better than others. For example Evo 0 [Knife Master] will be weaker than Evo 0 [Weapon Master]. So advancing [Weapon Master] to Evo 1 would be stronger than advancing [Knife Master] to Evo 1.


    The final reason that I wasn¡¯t going to advance [Mental Operator] was because it would be harder to level up an Evo 1 Power than an Evo 0 Power. I already had enough difficulty leveling up everything, I didn¡¯t need more obstacles.


    So after looking over all my options again, I narrowed down my choices to Acceleration and Cloud.


    Modification, Breadth, and Collective all sounded great in their own right, but I felt that Acceleration and Cloud just suited me and my current situation better. Both of them sounded like great choices in their own ways.


    Acceleration would no doubt make it possible to eventually think at supercomputer levels of speed, and could even help me do magic faster.


    Cloud on the other hand, was a little less obvious in what it would really be capable of, but I mean it even directly said in its description Maybe you have a deep fear of mental modification but still want to do it anyways, and that was definitely me. It almost sounded like the System was recommending it to me.


    Jokes aside, Cloud said that it will allow me to connect and receive information from designated sources. If I could directly connect to my artifacts and get information from them it would be great synergy with my ¡®build¡¯ and style of doing things.


    Because Cloud was more in the direction I was headed towards, I decided to get it rather than Acceleration. It actually took me hours of contemplation and thought to eventually get to my final decision, but in the end I made up my mind and made my choice on the System screen.


    Mental Operator(+Cloud) has been selected. Confirm this selection?


    [Confirm].


    Selection has been confirmed. Beginning Evolution process.


    Your [Power: Mental Operator; Evolution: 0 Level: 100] has changed to [Power: Cloud Mental Operator; Evolution: 0 Level: 0]


    Suddenly it felt like a mental fog came over me, in more ways than one.


    Because my Power had gone from level 100 to level 0 I felt my mental capabilities slow down considerably. At the same time I felt my brain, body, magic core, metaphysical organs, and even my mana reactor connect to a newly forming Mental Cloud.


    Suddenly it no longer felt like I was receiving information from a bunch of separate bulky parts. Now it felt like everything was as directly connected to me as my sight or touch was.


    I couldn¡¯t necessarily understand all of the information I was receiving, but I could understand where it was coming from. I could tell that I was getting information from each individual cell and microbe in my body. I could even feel everything about my Internal World like it was now my own limb, whereas before it felt like I was feeling everything through a limb with dull frayed nerves.


    It would¡¯ve been too much information to take in and deal with normally, but my Adaptive Mind had long since adapted to overloads of information, and it immediately filtered out everything that wasn¡¯t currently relevant or that I wasn¡¯t focusing on. This allowed me to maintain my conscious thought and figure out everything this new Cloud Mental Operator could do without being overwhelmed.


    A little anxiously I quickly went over all of the things I knew [Mental Operator] could originally do. After a brief frantic search I realized that it could still do everything it could do previously, and I heaved a great sigh of relief.


    Of course I knew logically from the things I had read, that it would still be able to do everything the old one could, because it hadn¡¯t explicitly given me the impression that it would lose any of its capabilities when I was choosing it, but I was still understandably concerned and anxious about changing something that had been my trusty companion for nearly 2 centuries.


    With my fears now soothed, I began to feel out all of the new things my Power could do.


    The most obvious and glaring anomaly was the Cloud. Getting a feel of this Cloud I intuitively got a feeling of what it could do. In one area of the Cloud there was a sort of storage where a copy of every memory, habit, and other ¡®mental software¡¯ was kept. This area was pretty easy to understand and I just decided to call it Storage from now on.


    Moving on I came to a sort of editing area within the Cloud. This area seemed to be one of the main new features of this Power and it was filled with complex controls and other capabilities that I decided I would get to know better later on when I could dedicate more time to it.


    The final major function of the Cloud, that I recognized, was the connections it had to the outside. Looking over the connections individually, most of them were very small connections like the ones to all of the individual cells within my body. These connections didn¡¯t really mean much to me when I looked at them individually, but these connections were also labeled to various groups and categories.


    When I filtered these connections by categories like ¡®skin¡¯ or ''hands'' for example I was able to better make use of the information that I was receiving. With all of this information I wondered if I could make my own categories and labels, and immediately I was given the option to do so. It seemed that this entire space or Cloud could be entirely customized by me however I wanted.


    Getting an initial grasp of everything I wondered if I could control my limbs and body from here, but when I tried, it felt like the commands were sent through my brain and into my body just like normal. It seemed that the only two way connection I had in the Cloud was to my brain. But thinking about it, that made sense, it was called Cloud ¡®Mental¡¯ Operator not Cloud Operator after all. This experiment did let me know that I could still operate my body and everything from the Cloud just like normal though.


    Returning my mind back to my body and out of the Cloud, I could still feel everything in the Cloud, and felt that I would be able to use it even if I wasn¡¯t fully immersed in it with my mind.


    I was excited to be able to experiment and learn all that this new Power could do. Maybe this would finally allow me to have a mind inside of The Archives at the same time as I was controlling my body. However that was something that I would have to save for later, as it was time for me to get to sleep. I laid down in my bed and let my mind wander, thinking of all the new possibilities this new Power might be capable of as I slowly drifted off to sleep.

 Interrupted - Chapter 12

    I woke up in the morning excited to explore my new Power, and the first thing I wanted to do was try and separate my [Adaptive Mind] from my physical mind. In the past I had only been able to do this at Evo 2 of my Power, but after sleeping on it I thought that maybe it was possible to achieve this through the Cloud.


    I noticed yesterday that the only two way connection that I had to the Cloud was my mind. So today I decided to try and forge another two way connection to my Adaptive Mind. I wasn¡¯t 100% certain that I would be able to do this, but it couldn¡¯t hurt to try, after all my power had said:  Mental operations can now be cheaply stored, duplicated, and non-destructively edited within the ¡®cloud¡¯. Additionally [Mental Operator] can now connect to and receive information from accepted and designated sources.


    Before I started messing with my mind though, I went through my morning routine of taking a shower (which every room had) and getting dressed in the same prison clothes that I wore every day. I still had time before breakfast, so I sat down in the middle of my room and dove into the Cloud with my mind.


    Arriving in the Cloud with my mind, I went over to the editing area which I had glossed over yesterday. I wasn¡¯t exactly sure how to make my Adaptive Mind become a two way connection, but I figured that if I messed around enough at the editing area then I would at least find out what didn''t work.


    Mentally stepping into the editing area I felt a rush of information assault my mind that my Adaptive Mind had protected me from yesterday. I was overwhelmed by the massive amount of detail coming at me all at once, but I didn¡¯t shut it off this time, instead I just waited for my adaptive mind to do what it did best.


    It took a few hours to get an initial grasp on all of the information I was receiving, and even then it was only the same as understanding the most common words and phrases of a new language. Getting to this point, I decided to stop my training and eat my breakfast that had been delivered to my room almost an hour ago at this point. Thankfully the food tray had a simple enchantment to keep the food warm, so I was able to enjoy a warm meal despite the delay.


    After finishing my meal I was about to return to my training, and had a simple thought wondering if I had anything important to do today. Suddenly the Cloud quickly sorted through the storage area with that query, and pulled up an old memory and showed it to me. I was surprised that the Cloud had reacted to my desires without me fully understanding it yet.


    Taking a closer look at the memory that had been pulled up, it was more like a jumble of fragmented pieces of memories that all referenced one thing. The thing that they were referencing was small bits of conversations that I had heard in my past talking about a valuable material. If I were to look at each conversation separately, then I would just dismiss these memories because there wasn¡¯t enough information to do anything with. But the Cloud also pulled up other seemingly random and unrelated information along with these memories of conversations.


    Looking at everything that the Cloud had shown me combined, I came to realize something that I would have never put together on my own. Realizing this I immediately paused my Power training and decided to instead look for Genesis in The Archives.


    -Genesis-


    Today I was exploring the confusing and winding corridors hidden within the seemingly inconspicuous shelves of The Archives. I was searching for an artifact that Radiant had told me about that could help me develop my mental strength, and it was stored within these winding halls of The Archives.


    I was currently using 4 of my copies to search through the confusing corridors. At the same time I was attending school lessons with my real body and being terribly bored in class. With my final copy I was reading a book in the main hall of The Archives to relieve me of boredom.


    While I was busy reading my romance book I saw Radiant walking towards me in the carpeted seating area. I quickly switched the book in my hand to one about mental defense and casually looked up at Radiant when he sat down in his usual spot.


    ¡°Radiant, good morning.¡± I tried to sound casual hoping that he didn¡¯t see what I had been reading.


    ¡°Good morning Genesis.¡± He started rubbing his chin like he always did when he was thinking about something. I had no idea why he did that when he didn¡¯t even have a beard, but maybe he learned it from his Dad or something.


    After a moment he seemed to gather his thoughts and spoke, ¡°Hey Genesis, you remember when I told you that I would ask you to do some small things for me when I told you I would pay for your expenditures in The Archives?¡±


    ¡°Yes, I remember. Although you haven¡¯t asked me to do anything yet. I was beginning to wonder if you were just saying that.¡±


    ¡°Well I¡¯m going to have to ask for your help with something.¡±


    ¡°All of a sudden? What do you need help with?¡±


    ¡°Well there¡¯s something that I want to invest in, but I¡¯m currently not at liberty to invest in it myself. So I was hoping that you would be able to invest in it and reserve some of the profits for me. Of course it is your money so I won¡¯t take all of the profits, just a portion of them.¡±


    ¡°Well I can¡¯t invest too much, but you¡¯ve never given me bad information before so I¡¯ll try and do what I can.¡± I closed my book and leaned forward, ¡°So what¡¯s this investment opportunity you have in mind?¡±


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    Radiant put up his hand in a placating gesture, ¡°Don¡¯t worry it¡¯s not a risky investment. Even if things don¡¯t play out exactly like I think, there won¡¯t be any losses on your part.¡± He stated, ¡°What I want you to invest in is the company Brilliant Textiles. They¡¯re a small clothing company.¡±


    ¡°A clothing company?¡± I interrupted him, ¡°Why would you be looking into a clothing company?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s because I have some good intel that says they¡¯re going to make it big soon.¡± He got an excited smile on his face, ¡°You see the company has been developing a new revolutionary type of fabric.


    ¡°Based on the information I have, Brilliant Textiles is going to unveil this new fabric at Vander Ik?Sentrik¡¯s annual Presentation Party¡±


    ¡°They¡¯re going to show it off at Ik¡¯Sentrik¡¯s party? I thought that the things presented at that party were already owned by one of the noble houses. If they¡¯re able to show off their product at that party, then how would I even be able to invest in them?¡±


    ¡°You¡¯ve got it wrong Genesis. You see, the person who owns the business was invited by Vander Ik¡¯Sentrik to attend the party as a guest because he¡¯s a friend, their business isn¡¯t owned by a noble.¡±


    ¡°They¡¯re not owned by a noble? If Vander Ik¡¯Sentrik is their friend then wouldn¡¯t they already be investing in the company?¡±


    Radiant nodded at my question, ¡°Yes he is investing in the company, but he actually isn¡¯t a major shareholder, and he''s underestimating the value of this new material that they¡¯re going to be showing off. So if you come in and start to invest in the company, then you¡¯ll be able to get in before the company gets really big.¡±


    ¡°How great is this new material that you would be so confident about this investment?¡± I understood everything Radiant had been saying so far, but there were still some things I wasn¡¯t sure about.


    ¡°Great question.¡± Radiant seemed to become animated by my question, talking with a little more energy in his voice, ¡°This new material is lightweight and is able to change colors, on its own, based on a magically linked chip reader. So if the chip in the reader was programmed with a picture of a house, then the fabric that¡¯s linked to the chip reader will show that image of a house on it. Although the change isn¡¯t instant and takes some time to fully complete.¡±


    ¡°Why would that be so great? Screens can already rapidly display images and stuff. Why would this slow fabric be used instead of screens?¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re thinking too narrowly Genesis.¡± He shook his head, ¡°The fact that this is a fabric that¡¯s lightweight and can change what it looks like is key. Think about the different applications. It could be used by adventurers to change to different camo to match the environment. It could be used by the government for military purposes. It could be used in the film industry to save money on costumes. There¡¯s so many different possibilities.¡±


    ¡°Oh, I see.¡± I was a bit embarrassed that I hadn¡¯t thought of that, so I quickly changed the subject, ¡°But if this material is so great, then why wouldn¡¯t Mr. Ik¡¯Sentrik invest more into it?¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s because the use of the material is still in the early stages of development. But after it¡¯s shown off at the annual presentation party then others will start to see the value of this material even if Ik¡¯Sentrik doesn¡¯t. So you need to invest in this before it gathers too much attention and gets out of your ability to invest.¡±


    ¡°OK, I understand now.¡± I tried to display an air of confidence as I said, ¡°I¡¯ll make sure to get the biggest share I can.¡±


    ¡°Great, thanks for doing this for me Genesis. I would do it myself, but that¡¯s kind of impossible for me at the moment. I¡¯m just glad that I can get your help in my place.¡± He nodded his head towards me thankfully and then said, ¡°Did you have any other questions?¡±


    ¡°Yeah actually.¡± I felt a bit anxious now that I thought about what I had to do, ¡°Wouldn¡¯t Mr. Ik¡¯Sentrik be suspicious of someone suddenly investing a large amount into this company?¡±


    ¡°Hmm, yeah they probably would.¡±


    ¡°What am I supposed to do about that?¡± I quickly followed up with, ¡°I¡¯m not saying that I¡¯m afraid or anything. I just think that he might interfere and stop me from being able to invest in the company.¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry about it too much.¡± Radiant sounded confident as he said, ¡°Vander Ik¡¯Sentrik is an adventurous person, so he likes other people that are adventurous too, especially someone that¡¯s young and adventurous. So all you have to do is make it clear that this is your first big investment and you¡¯re being bold and taking a big risk in this investment.


    ¡°With the fact that you¡¯re young and you¡¯ll be using your own personal money to invest, then he shouldn¡¯t make any problems for you. After all, Vander Ik¡¯Sentrik won¡¯t think that you know anything about the new material, and will just think that you¡¯re an adventurous young kid. Plus they have bigger things to worry about than their stake in a small company that their friend owns.¡±


    ¡°You know Radiant,¡± I started to fidget, ¡°Sometimes I forget that you¡¯re only twelve years old. You¡¯re so good at everything you do.¡±


    ¡°Well I¡¯m not great at everything I do.¡± He looked up at the celestial view above like he liked to do sometimes when he was thinking, ¡°I have two, maybe three, areas of expertise. Other than that I¡¯m actually not great in other areas.¡±


    ¡°What? C¡¯mon, you¡¯re great at magic, you¡¯re smart, you¡¯re good at planning, you know how to deal with people. There¡¯s so many things you¡¯re great at. Compared to you I look like I can¡¯t do anything right.¡± I sighed heavily with all of my copies and even my real body, which drew the eyes of those around me in class, making me a little embarrassed. I still haven''t managed to fully separate my consciousnesses.


    Radiant looked away from the ceiling and directly at me, ¡°That¡¯s not true Genesis, you¡¯re great at lots of different things. I doubt I could do some of the things you¡¯ve done even a fraction as well as you can. Take your family situation for example, you¡¯ve managed to not only keep your position in the family but also made your family acknowledge your capabilities. I can¡¯t handle personal relationships even a fraction as well as you can.¡±


    My cheeks reddened in the real world and I had to hide my face behind my books. ¡°Thanks Radiant, for saying that, and for everything.¡±


    ¡°No problem.¡± Radiant smiled and then completely ruined the moment, ¡°Just remember that forty percent of the profits are mine. Always remember that business is business, and friendship is a completely separate matter.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ll make sure to remember.¡± I laughed lightly at his lack of tact.


    He wasn¡¯t lying when he said he can¡¯t handle personal relationships that well, but I¡¯ve known him for long enough to know that he means well. Besides, he was the only person I knew that I could be myself around. Maybe it was because I knew that he was better than me, or maybe it was because of everything he had done for me as a friend. I wasn¡¯t exactly certain myself, but I was glad to have him as a friend.

 Successful Failure - Chapter 13

    I talked with Genesis for a while about the investment, telling her some of what I knew about it and letting her know that she could come to me if she needed any more advice on the subject. Although I didn¡¯t really think that she would come and ask me even if she did need advice, but I told her anyway, she seemed to appreciate me saying it at least.


    She was busy with something of her own before I came though, so I didn¡¯t continue to bother her after I had said everything I needed to, and I returned to my room to continue where I had left off.


    Getting up from my bed, which I usually laid down on whenever I entered The Archives, I walked back to the middle of the room and entered a meditative pose.


    Returning to the Cloud, I went back over to the editing area. Just like last time, I felt the same overload of information assault me, but this time it was much more manageable and less incoherent. I had had some time to rest my mind, while talking with Genesis, and now felt ready to continue my immersion training.


    After about an hour of flooding my mind with information, I noticed that I was starting to get diminishing returns from trying to passively understand everything. I assessed my understanding, and decided that I understood everything well enough to start trying things out, and hopefully figure out how to split my Adaptive Mind¡¯s sole connection to my main mind.


    I tried to pull up the connections to the Cloud to start editing them, but I was immediately overwhelmed because I had pulled up all of the outside connections all at once. I quickly stopped and mentally smacked myself, I should¡¯ve filtered them first, so stupid.


    I adjusted my approach and pulled up all of the connections that were related to the mind instead. But I was once again overloaded with the number of connections, with the number only being slightly fewer this time. I stopped and tried to refine my search again, and again, and again.


    Eventually I figured out the right filters to use and managed to pull up my Adaptive Mind, my virtual mind, and my main mind that was anchored to my physical brain.


    Finally, now I just need to somehow find out how to separate my Adaptive Mind. I was about to start editing things when I stopped. I should probably start out small. I don¡¯t want to suddenly lose my ability to walk or anything like that.


    Being careful I decided to start with my connection to my [Time Sense] Skill and try to make a simple mental clock with its information. It was safe because there was no possible way for me to mess with a System Skill at my level of power, and it would help me to better understand all of my mental connections in the Cloud.


    Getting the connection to my Skill was easy, but after I had it I had no idea where to begin with the controls. It was like I had gone back to the time when I first came into this world and tried to use [Mental Operator]. It was as if I was given all of the controls, but as the Operator I had to learn what to do on my own, with only a general direction and a very simple introduction to get me started.


    Starting off I used a control I was fairly certain was used to make a copy of something, and as soon as I used it I had a copy of the connection to my [Time Sense] Skill. After I did that, another control lit up like it had become available. Curious, I used the control trying to see what it did. Immediately the new copy of the Skill disappeared like it had never been there, and the control I just used became unusable while another one lit up instead. I used the new control and the copy of the Skill reappeared. Using the two controls repeatedly I learned that they were very simple undo and redo controls. With these two controls I was reassured that I would at least be able to undo any mistakes that I made without permanently damaging something.


    Now emboldened with my fear of permanent damage being assuaged, I began to mess around with everything to see what different controls did.


    Messing around with the controls like this made the connection to my [Time Sense] Skill look like it was distorted and warped in various ways, with the information I got from the Skill now absolutely incomprehensible. But through my experiments I discovered that what I was doing was essentially applying ¡®filters¡¯ to the connections, with the Cloud acting as a sort of control center. I wasn¡¯t actually messing with the original source in any way, which was reassuring.


    I deleted my abomination of a creation, and, using what I had learned from it, began to turn the information I got from my [Time sense] Skill into a clock that would be placed in a corner of my vision, kind of like a HUD (Heads Up Display) in video games. It didn¡¯t take too long to accomplish, with everything that I had learned, and after finishing I opened my eyes to see the results of my attempt.


    I smiled as I noticed something new in the corner of my vision, but when I tried to look towards it, it moved along with my vision remaining in the periphery. My smile turned into a frown as I realized my mistake. I tied it to my peripheral vision instead of tying it to my mental view. Well Albert Einstein said that failure is success in progress. I¡¯ll get there eventually.


    Not feeling discouraged by my failure, I went back into the Cloud and started over from scratch. Going through the whole process again, I noted where I went wrong and fixed my mistake. This time when I opened my eyes I was able to look into a corner of my vision and see a simple display that showed the current time of day.


    I was happy with my progress and decided to continue with this HUD idea that I had, and I started to add some more features to it. I added a model 3D version of my body that showed the state of the different parts of my body; it would also show where damage was if I ever received any. I added a to-do list, and a few other small but nice features like the ability to listen to random songs from my memory like I was playing them from a device.


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    I was happy with my progress in learning how to use the editing functions of the Cloud, but in the process I found out that there was currently no way for me to separate my Adaptive Mind from my physical mind using the Cloud, which discouraged me slightly.


    However, although I couldn¡¯t separate my Adaptive Mind, I did find out how to automate what my Adaptive mind was doing, with the Cloud. So although my original goal of separating my Adaptive Mind turned out to be currently impossible, I did learn how to free up much of the mental processes my Adaptive Mind was constantly bogged down with which limited my capabilities.


    After I was done making my HUD, I immediately started to free my Adaptive Mind from its need to micromanage my virtual mind. Thus my virtual mind was now functioning almost completely on its own, whereas before my Adaptive Mind had to constantly carry out the task of making my virtual mind mirror my actual mind while also censoring everything in real-time. Now all of that censoring could be done by applying various filters to my virtual mind, and almost completely removing the need to use my Adaptive Mind for the task.


    Through this I was now able to use my freed up Adaptive Mind and create even more virtual minds. Censoring all of my mental processes in real-time was an extremely demanding thing and took up most of my Adaptive Mind¡¯s abilities, leaving little room for much else. But now that I had freed up space I would be able to create some more virtual minds. So although I was unable to achieve my original goal, I had still sort of accomplished another of my goals of having more minds.


    It was a huge relief to me to now be able to accomplish these things, because I was unable to get any mental Skills like [Dual Mind] or [Multitask] like others could.


    This was because Skills were ¡®lesser than¡¯ Powers, and since I already had [Mental Operator] most mental Skills fell under its wide umbrella and were no longer available to me.


    This wasn¡¯t necessarily a bad thing in the long run, as it meant that [Mental Operator] would eventually be able to do what those Skills could, but it was definitely a short term obstacle.


    This downside to Powers was a widely known and hotly debated issue, and the reason why some people argued that people should only use Skills, whereas others argued that Powers were superior. Most of those that argued for Skills were the shorter lived races, while the longer lived races advocated for Powers.


    Actually, when I first entered this world, I had thought that Powers were something that people could only be born with, like superheroes or something, and that I was smart for having chosen to be born with [Mental Operator]. However I soon came to realize that Powers were things that anybody could get with enough time and effort, and it was absurd to think that somebody would be born with a Power, just the same as it was absurd for somebody to be born with a Skill (at least for Humans).


    Usually people would learn multiple Skills and level them up to level 100, at which point they would have a few options, one of which was to merge said Skills into a Power. When I had first learned of this basic concept I had despaired, thinking that I had wasted the POINTS I had spent to give myself [Mental Operator] when I was born, after all I could¡¯ve eventually gotten it with just some time and effort.


    Then I later came to realize that it wasn¡¯t a complete waste of POINTS because I had essentially saved myself a hundred years worth of effort, because [Mental Operator] was actually a fairly strong Power that would¡¯ve taken at least that long to craft from scratch. And after I knew that I would go back in time, I nearly wept with joy that I would have access to [Mental Operator] after my return, as it made my whole plan possible. Not only because I would be able to protect and hide my mind from the government, but also because the government had no idea that I had [Mental Operator] which made them completely unable to counter its use. This was because the government didn¡¯t even think to scan five year olds for Powers because there was no way a five year old could even have a Power in the first place.


    They did scan me for Skills when I was five though, but their efforts showed that I didn¡¯t even have one Skill, when normal five year olds would have at least a few by then. This was because the artificial spirit that was controlling my body for the first five years of my life was completely unable to learn any Skills. The lack of any Skills in my assessment basically labeled me as an idiot in the eyes of society.


    Which, now that I think about it, might be part of the reason why my parents don¡¯t have much of an interest in me. Maybe they think of me as some sort of savant that is only good at divination magic? Well it didn¡¯t matter much currently, but it was something to keep in mind for the future.


    Thinking about this, I recalled my first years in this world. I had been extremely lonely and desperately wanted to get out of this prison that I had found myself in. I remember thinking about how easy it would be to just say that I was reincarnated, I thought that I could explain how everything was just a huge misunderstanding and I would be able to get out of prison and live with my new family instead of in prison.


    One day when I was seriously considering telling everybody, a System screen popped up in front of me in response to my thoughts.


    (Title: Dimensional Traveler): Congratulations! You have left your home dimension behind and safely traveled to another one. Dimensional travel isn¡¯t too dangerous, but unfortunately for you your method of travel did not seem to include your physical body. This means that you¡¯ll have to be reincarnated. Unfortunately some powerful individuals don¡¯t look too kindly on reincarnators and have vowed to terminate them with extreme prejudice. So the system reminds you to keep quiet about your past life and reincarnation lest it end up reaching the wrong ears.


    : You have a much greater affinity with Space and Time. Additionally it is now impossible for others to discover that you have traveled from a different dimension.(Unless you tell them, so the system reminds you not to do that)


    Seeing this pop up in front of me and reading the description, I fell into a deep depression and my already fragile mental state lost the lifeline I had been holding onto. Needless to say, I didn¡¯t end up telling anybody, and eventually managed to place my hopes on time travel. Although this was only after I had basically given up all hope after failing to commit suicide and falling even deeper under mental control.


    But that was all in the past now, and time and life experience had softened the edges of those memories considerably. Now they were just memories of my past that I occasionally thought about when my mind strayed from my training.


    Speaking of. I caught my stray train of thought and I went back to experimenting with my Power. Creating more virtual minds would have to be a task for another day, as it was a time consuming process that took a lot of mana, which I didn¡¯t currently have because I had already spent it on other things.


    Everything was coming together, all for my goal of escaping this prison and gaining the freedom I had always wanted. I might not be strong enough to achieve my goals today, but I will continue to train and do my best to eventually become strong enough to do so.

 Strange Child - Chapter 14

    -Radix-


    The little five year old walked out of my office and met up with the guard I had called to lead them back to their room after their first session with me. The child had been, understandably, confused and afraid after he had been taken away from his parents and put in a strange new place, after what was supposed to be just a simple test that the government made everyone take.


    Almost all of the kids that I initially interacted with had similar reactions to the one I had just finished talking to. Despite them being afraid and not having committed any wrong, I was tasked with implanting a mental detection curse into many of these innocent children because that¡¯s what I was told to do.


    I felt like throwing up every time I implanted this curse, but it didn''t cause them any harm, I thought. In reality I knew that what I was doing was mostly just a form of control arranged by those that made the laws and controlled the country.


    I sighed and leaned back in my chair in order to decompress for a brief moment before my next appointment. I couldn¡¯t relax and started to think about how much simpler my life would have been if I had taken the university professor position rather than this Mentalist position working in a max security prison. Ultimately I believed that I was making more of an impact where I was, rather than teaching university students that were pretty much already set in their ways.


    The door to my office opened and two guards accompanied a figure encased in a black film that prevented the one inside from gaining any information while moving through the halls. As soon as I saw this scene I knew who my next appointment was, even though I hadn¡¯t bothered to check. Radiant Shadow, a MAX danger patient.


    Radiant Shadow was only my second patient with a MAX danger rating. In the case of the first MAX danger patient I had I could easily tell why they had the danger rating they were given. On the other hand, in Radiant¡¯s case, at first I had a very hard time understanding why he had been given such a high danger rating.


    The black film encasing Radiant disappeared like it had never been there, and Radiant¡¯s guards exited through the door. Radiant, now free, looked at me, ¡°Yo Radix, what¡¯s up my man?¡± Radiant smiled as he walked towards the seat in front of my desk and plopped down with his legs up on the arm rest not bothering with social etiquette, ¡°It¡¯s been, what, like three months since our last visit? Don¡¯t be such a stranger. I was starting to think you didn¡¯t want to see me.¡±


    I didn¡¯t respond to him and started to establish a mental connection to him. A mental connection for reading minds was less necessary for the low to moderate level patients, but for a Max level patient like Radiant it was absolutely required that I take all of the precautions I could when dealing with him.


    Whether Radiant knew what I was doing or not, he remained in his relaxed position and waited for me to talk. Sometimes he would talk to me even while I was trying to establish a connection even though he knew it would annoy me, but for whatever reason he remained silent this time. His polite behavior was welcome, but also a little suspicious.


    It wasn¡¯t always like this. I remember that even the very first time I met him he had been very calm and cordial doing everything he was told. His behavior back then made it very hard to understand why he had been given such a high danger rating, and I had even talked to my superiors about letting him go back home after about 5 years of failing to notice anything problematic. After some convincing on my part, Radiant was finally allowed to visit with his parents, which had been barred from visiting him for some reason.


    I had thought that Radiant would meet with his parents and go home with them and everything would work out, but then, during his meeting with his parents, Radiant acted in a way he had never shown before. Instead of being happy with the idea of being taken home, Radiant grew slightly aggressive and almost zealously opposed the idea, saying that he was going to escape from this prison and show everyone that he couldn¡¯t be contained. His change in behavior was sudden and gave me a sort of cognitive whiplash. It was too different from the Radiant that I had come to know.


    The connection with his thoughts settled into place and I stopped my idle rumination.


    I said, ¡°It¡¯s good to see you again, Radiant. I¡¯m sorry for not being able to see you for such a long time, but I had some other things that I had to take care of. I hope you can understand.¡±


    ¡°Ah, well don¡¯t worry about it. I¡¯ve got things that occupy my time too, so I can relate.¡± His words and thoughts came to me at the same time, like usual, but there seemed to be something off about them? It was only a subtle feeling, but it drew my attention.


    ¡°Thank you for understanding.¡± I continued to talk while I navigated to Radiant¡¯s file on my computer, ¡°Since it¡¯s been so long, why don¡¯t you tell me what you¡¯ve been up to these past few months?¡±


    ¡°Nothing major.¡± He shrugged his shoulders, ¡°Training, exercising, planning my escape. You know, just the usual.¡±


    ¡°Mhmmm.¡± My brows furrowed slightly as I again felt that my subconscious was trying to tell me that something was off about Radiant.


    ¡°I mean, I¡¯m almost ten percent through my lifespan at this point. I have to make sure I¡¯m using all of the time I have to the fullest.¡± He said it like it was natural, but I felt a slight bit of frustration from his mind while he was speaking. ¡°Although I¡¯ve been trying to get somebody to let me go into a dungeon, but that doesn¡¯t seem like it¡¯s going to work out. So all I have left is to train until I become powerful enough to escape from this place on my own.¡±


    Radiant was always talking about escaping and such, so maybe the feeling I had had something to do with that? I asked him, ¡°Have you done anything different in these past three months?¡±


    ¡°Something different? Why do you say that?¡± I sensed a hint of surprise from Radiant. He didn¡¯t show it on his face, but I could barely feel it from the mental connection.


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    ¡°There¡¯s just something different about you.¡± I sensed that he wanted to avoid the topic, so I decided to appeal to his arrogance and goad him into thinking about it, ¡°Maybe you¡¯ve become stronger? You¡¯re always talking about escaping, maybe you¡¯re practicing something new?¡±


    I felt a slight hint of annoyance from him as he replied, ¡°Yeah, but it¡¯s nothing big, just some new things I¡¯ve been trying out.¡± Then I caught some of his coherent worded thoughts along with a mental scoff, ¡®Like I¡¯d tell him.¡¯


    I nodded, ¡°Well I guess we¡¯ll move on for now.¡± A bit of relief came through the connection after I said that. I began to look over Radiant¡¯s files on my computer and noticed that a few tests were in order. They didn¡¯t have to be done today, but given how evasive Radiant was being, I decided to not postpone them, ¡°Looks like there are some tests in order, since we haven¡¯t met for some time. Maybe they¡¯ll show that you¡¯ve made more progress than you think.¡±


    ¡°Uhh¡­ No, that''s not necessary. It¡¯s nothing really.¡± Radiant showed a very brief and very slight amount of shock on his face before it went away like it was never there. Internally, however, Radiant seemed to be holding back a cold sweat.


    I reached into my desk and pulled out a device that was used to check for Skills. Radiant tensed up a little after I pulled it out. Seeing this, I said, ¡°Hmm, you probably already know what your Skills are, right? I mean with your divination abilities and all, I probably don¡¯t need this to check your Skills, you could just tell me yourself.¡±


    Radiant hesitated but only briefly before responding, ¡°Yeah, so there¡¯s no need for you to check my Skills with that. I¡¯ll just tell you.¡± I felt a slight sense of relief in Radiant¡¯s mind as he thought I had given up on checking his Skills.


    Getting the confirmation I needed, I got up from my chair with the device in my hand. The device was a clear ball, that is, if it weren¡¯t for the many magical circuits and wires running throughout its structure. Most Skill checking devices wouldn¡¯t look as fancy as this one, but an old friend of mine made this one for me, and it was more advanced than most other Skill checking devices as well.


    Seeing me get up with the device, Radiant¡¯s face twitched ever so slightly, ¡°Hey, Radix? I thought you said there was no need to check my Skills?¡± I could detect a hint of worry coming from Radiant.


    ¡°Well we haven¡¯t met in three months, so I need to check your Skills regardless.¡± I walked out from behind my desk with the orb resting in my hand, ¡°Just hold the orb so I can take a quick look.¡±


    I felt Radiant steel himself and focus as he slowly reached to take the orb from me. At the same time, I felt a miniscule almost imperceptible fluctuation from Radiant as he grabbed the orb. As soon as he held the orb the magical circuits lit up and showed a display of Radiant¡¯s Skills in the air.


    The display briefly wobbled ever so slightly before it stabilized and Radiant quickly analyzed the display. I heard Radiant audibly click his tongue, and I could feel a sense of bitterness coming from his mind.


    As I took a look at the display I could immediately tell why he was upset.


    [Active Skills/Powers 3/3]-


    (Skill: Counter Divination; Level 12)


    (Skill: Complex Divination III; Level 242)


    (Skill: Maintain Composure; Level 86)-


    [Inactive Skills/Powers 5]-


    (Skill: Plan; Level 42)


    (Skill: Acting; Level 39)


    (Skill: Pain Tolerance; Level: 10)


    (Skill: Physical Recovery; Level: 60)


    (Skill: Calculate Probability; Level 85)-


    He had a new [Counter Divination] Skill, and not only that, it was level 12 in only 3 months! Even if Radiant had gotten this Skill right after our last meeting there was no way for this Skill to be this high of a level. I mean level 12 was a preposterous amount of level growth for someone of his age without their System unlocked, way higher than even prodigy rates of growth.


    I knew before, that Radiant was somewhat of a savant when it came to divination, but for that to apply to counter divination as well was alarming. I couldn¡¯t even begin to imagine what he would be capable of if he was free in society and not limited in what he could know within this prison.


    ¡°Is there anything you want to say about this Radiant?¡±


    ¡°Nope.¡± He folded his arms like he didn¡¯t care, but I could feel a wave of annoyance coming from him.


    ¡°Don¡¯t be too disappointed. You would have to be at a much higher level if you wanted to actually make use of your new skill.¡± I took back the orb from Radiant and walked back towards my seat, ¡°Given that you only have until you¡¯re twenty-two to ¡®escape¡¯ from here, I don¡¯t think that this new Skill would¡¯ve done you much good even if it went unnoticed.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, whatever.¡± At this point Radiant seemed to stop being polite and reverted back to his usual self, or at least his usual self when he interacted with me.


    After the meeting with his parents, Radiant had started to act more openly hostile towards his situation, and stopped his acting.


    After almost letting Radiant go free back then, I started to slightly understand one of the reasons Radiant was given a MAX danger rating. He was a master of deception and manipulation, along with savant levels of divination magical abilities. If he had been free in society he could¡¯ve been a major player in the dark underbellies of society. Thankfully he had made a mistake and slipped up in his disguise due to his young age and lack of experience, allowing everyone to see his true self for the first time. Radiant himself seemed to know he had slipped up back then, because he stopped even trying to maintain his previous fa?ade and now openly showed his true self.


    At the time I was relieved that my mistake hadn¡¯t ended up allowing such a dangerous person to go free, and I still held some of that relief to this day almost 12 years later. However over the years some of my fear towards Radiant faded as I realized that he was a Behemoth that hadn¡¯t been allowed to grow. He was easily dealt with now that we knew exactly what we were dealing with, and had stunted his social manipulation capabilities.


    ¡°Haaa.¡± I sighed as I sat down in my seat, ¡°Radiant, let me be honest with you. You¡¯re brilliant and are certainly a capable individual, but your understanding of the situation is completely out of tune with reality. There¡¯s no way you¡¯re going to escape from this prison if you haven¡¯t already done so at this point. Why don¡¯t you give more consideration to the offer of being contracted with the government.


    ¡°I know that you hate being controlled by others, but the only other option is to be completely mind controlled after you turn twenty two. If you voluntarily contract with them you¡¯ll retain at least a little bit of control.¡± I could feel the heavy disdain coming from Radiant, ¡°Just give it some more thought. Alright?¡±


    ¡°Whatever. Let¡¯s just get the rest of the tests over with so I can go back to my room.¡±


    ¡°Ugh¡­¡± I shook my head. This was exactly the reason why people weren¡¯t considered an adult until they were fully mentally developed. ¡°Alright let¡¯s continue.¡±


    At this point I doubted that I could do much else to help Radiant. If he was set on maintaining his delusions of escaping, then there wasn¡¯t much I could do about it. It was ultimately up to him what path he would take, not me.

 Successful Deception - Chapter 15

    -Radiant-


    I arrived back in my room after my meeting with Radix, feeling extremely pleased with myself. It wasn¡¯t often that I had such a perfect opportunity to mislead and deceive my captors. Over the years I had carefully cultivated the view that others had of me, and diverted their attention away from the truth. Now, after my meeting with Radix, everything was in place for my plans to succeed, but it would still be about a week until I could get my hands on the Tier 0 Talent orb.


    If it weren¡¯t for the orb I would¡¯ve escaped from here already, or even gone home with my parents, but I didn¡¯t regret my decisions. Looking back on my time here in prison, I decided that it actually wasn¡¯t that bad. I mean if I successfully escaped from here, then I would¡¯ve just spent 17 years training really. Compared to some people, I actually had it pretty good.


    Not that there hadn¡¯t been miscalculations and undesirable developments over the years, but with my careful planning and many backup plans, I had managed to avoid any catastrophic failures.


    Now that it was drawing so close to action time, I was starting to get a bit nervous. If I failed then there would be no second chances, it was all or nothing and I couldn¡¯t afford to make any mistakes or have any distractions. So today I needed to head to The Archives and let Genesis know that I wouldn¡¯t be able to meet her for quite a while, and also get her to deliver a message to Mystdell for me.


    Although, Genesis doesn¡¯t currently know that I¡¯m Mystdell¡¯s brother. But it won¡¯t matter if I tell her, now that I¡¯m going to be leaving this prison soon.


    Like I had done thousands of times before, I layed down on my bed and sunk my consciousness into The Archives. When I arrived, as always, I put on an outfit that fit my mood. This time I wore a leather trench coat that had a hood that hid my face in the shadows. This time I wasn¡¯t going to be wearing the usual eye coverings to hide my identity. Today I planned on showing Genesis my face, but I still needed to somewhat conceal my face, just in case. I didn¡¯t want her to be implicated with me after my escape from prison.


    With my outfit chosen, I stepped through the doors and entered into the grand hall of The Archives. This time I didn¡¯t look up at the ceiling like I usually did, I had a goal this time, and the less time I spent in here without a face covering the better.


    Looking around me I quickly located Genesis where I had previously told her to meet me today. I quickly walked towards her, not wanting to waste any of her probably limited time.


    ¡°Genesis. Nice to see you.¡± I stopped a couple meters away from her.


    She looked towards my face which was covered in shadows, ¡°It¡¯s good to see you as well, Radiant. So why¡¯d you set up such a formal meeting, is it some special occasion? And what¡¯s with the hood?¡±


    ¡°The hood is actually part of the reason for the meeting.¡± I lifted up the hood so that Genesis would be able to see my face while still partially covering it from everyone else. ¡°Surprise!¡±


    Genesis was stunned for almost 10 seconds before she came back to her senses, ¡°Wow, I thought that you didn¡¯t want to show others your face. What¡¯s changed?¡±


    ¡°What¡¯s changed is that I¡¯ll be finishing up my isolation soon.¡± I smiled, ¡°I figured that I should show you my face just in case you end up seeing me somewhere.¡± Like on a wanted poster. I smiled even wider.


    ¡°Are you finally getting that Tier zero Talent orb you talked about? I can¡¯t wait for you to tell me what Unique Talent you awaken, after all I told you mine, so you should tell me yours.¡±


    I laughed lightly, ¡°Of course I¡¯d tell my best friend. Especially when that best friend is rich.¡±


    ¡°Hey, most of that wealth is yours not mine.¡±


    ¡°Sure, but you¡¯re still the one with the money. That means I have to stay on your good side if I want to ever see any of that money. It¡¯s like a hostage situation.¡±


    ¡°Well I guess that¡¯s true.¡± She lightly shook her head while she rolled her eyes, ¡°But I would still give it to you even if you didn¡¯t tell me what your Unique Talent is. After all you once told me ¡®business is business, and friendship is a completely separate matter.¡¯¡± She mimicked my voice.


    ¡°You still remember that? That¡¯s crazy.¡± I smiled, but I waved my hand in the air, ¡°Anyways, there¡¯s a more important reason that I wanted to meet with you today.¡±


    ¡°OK, what is it?¡±


    ¡°I needed to inform you that I¡¯m not going to be able to come to The Archives for a while.¡± I put my hands into my pockets, ¡°Also I need you to deliver a message to my sister for me.¡±


    ¡°Well¡­ alright. How long will you be gone for though?¡±


    ¡°I can¡¯t say for certain, but anywhere between a month and a year depending on the circumstances.¡±


    ¡°A year? Why so long?¡±


    ¡°Well that''s just the worst case scenario. It¡¯s much more likely to be closer to a month or two, so don¡¯t worry about it.¡±


    ¡°Hmm.¡± She nodded her head, ¡°So what message did you want me to deliver to your sister?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s a long message, more like a letter really. If you allow me, I can send everything directly to your mind, that way you won¡¯t forget anything.¡±


    ¡°Alright.¡± She started to go through the permission process.


    ¡°Great.¡± I interrupted her, ¡°But before that, there was one more thing I wanted to talk to you about.¡± I took a breath before continuing, ¡°In the near future, if you hear any news about me, try not to take anything at face value.¡±


    She raised one eyebrow, ¡°What are you going to do that¡¯s going to get you in the news? The kind of news that I would have to not take at face value at that.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯ll know if you hear about it.¡± I avoided answering her, ¡°There is a good chance that you won¡¯t even hear anything. I¡¯m just saying this in case you actually do hear something. Don¡¯t worry too much about it.¡±


    ¡°OK I guess?¡± She squinted with one eyebrow still raised, ¡°I¡¯ll try to keep that in mind. Any other weird things you wanted to talk about?¡±


    ¡°No, that¡¯s all. You can give me permission and I¡¯ll give you the letter for my sister. Then you can get back to whatever else you had planned for today.¡±


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    She nodded and proceeded to give me permission. With that, I sent her the letter I had written to my sister, directly to her mind.


    Dear, Mystdell.


    It¡¯s me, Radiant! I know that it¡¯s been a long time since we¡¯ve last talked to each other, and I know that¡¯s not your fault, with you exploring different places, but I decided that I should let you know about some things before the events that will happen in the near future.


    First off, try not to be too worried about any news you might hear about me. I¡¯ll be completely fine since I¡¯ve been preparing for this since I was a kid. I know that won¡¯t prevent you from worrying about me, but there¡¯s not much I can do about that.


    Second, if anybody comes to you asking about me, just tell them the truth. There¡¯s no need for you to protect me, and nothing you could tell them will make a difference to my plans anyways.


    Third, I¡¯ll try and get in touch with you in person, as soon as I can, after things settle down. It might take a while though, so don¡¯t worry if you don¡¯t get any word from me.


    Lastly, make sure to dispose of this letter in a way that leaves no traces behind. Don¡¯t make any copies or anything either.(I¡¯m saying this because I know you might actually do this, so just don¡¯t. I mean it.)


    I love you and wish you well. Thanks for always believing in me.


    From your favorite brother, Radiant.


    Giving the letter to Genesis, I don''t stick around long enough for Genesis to ask more questions, because I needed to get out of here without my face being exposed. We said our goodbyes and I exited The Archives.


    Now that everything was taken care of on that end, I could now prepare myself for what could happen anytime in the next week. In the past I had received the Talent orb a week from now, however I couldn¡¯t be sure that the timeline would play out exactly the same as it had in the past. I knew that it would be soon though, because Talent awakening orbs only have 9,999,999 seconds from when it was created (so it lasts roughly 115.75 days) before they dissolve, and they have a timer on them that displays how long they have until their time is up.


    The timer on the orb I had received in the past had about 23 days remaining on its timer. So I had to be ready for the orb to come to me anytime within the next few weeks. Although the orb probably had to go through the OK¡¯s of many different people before it reached me, so it was unlikely that it would arrive in these next few days, but you never know.


    So for the next little while I wouldn¡¯t step a foot out of my room. I was no stranger to waiting, so staying here wouldn¡¯t be that hard. I steeled myself and got ready for the wait.


    -Break-


    Five days later, my opportunity finally presented itself. I was meditating in the middle of my room while steadily producing mana crystals with my excess mana regen. While I was doing this, I heard my door open and a group of people stepped into my room one by one. I knew some of the faces I saw, including Radix¡¯s, but they weren¡¯t that important compared to what they were delivering. After they entered, they just stood there silently waiting for Radix to connect to my mind.


    When Radix finally nodded his head, a woman with black hair as dark as void stepped forward and opened her hand palm up. Above her hand I felt a ripple in space and an orb appeared in her hand like it had always been there.


    My heart nearly leapt out of my chest when I saw this usage of space magic. If she could use space magic then she must¡¯ve sensed the fractured space in my room. However as I observed her she made no indication of having sensed anything out of the ordinary. She must be using a spatial artifact then. Whew.


    The woman motioned to Radix with her hand. Seeing this, Radix cleared his throat and said, ¡°Radiant Shadow. By higher order it has been decided that you will be given the privilege of receiving this Tier zero Talent awakening orb.¡±


    The woman with the orb handed it over to one of the guards which then proceeded to make their way over to me.


    Everything was proceeding exactly the same as it did in the past. Before, I had just accepted the orb without thinking about it, but this time I looked at the orb, without taking it, and then looked towards Radix, ¡°Is there some sort of hidden catch to this? I¡¯m not going to be in massive debt or anything right?¡±


    ¡°You ungrateful little brat. You have no idea how many-¡± The woman with the void hair started to speak with some heat in her voice before Radix cut her off.


    ¡°Stop, stop. There¡¯s no need to get all riled up, he doesn¡¯t know any better.¡± He looked at me, ¡°There¡¯s no hidden catch Radiant. You were just the one deemed to be the best to give the orb to. It¡¯s completely safe to use and nothing will happen to you.¡±


    ¡°Alright. It¡¯s not like I have much of a choice anyways.¡± I grabbed the orb out of the guard''s hands, ¡°So how do I use this? I don¡¯t think I¡¯ll be able to eat this, it doesn¡¯t look all that appetizing anyways.¡± At this point I was just messing with them, I already knew how to use the orb.


    The woman clenched her fists tightly, ¡°This isn¡¯t some foodstuff, it¡¯s a priceless treasure.¡±


    Radix sighed, whether at me or the woman I couldn¡¯t tell, ¡°Run your mana through the orb Radiant. After you do that, a screen that asks you if you want to use the orb will pop up. Just click accept and it¡¯ll be used automatically.¡±


    ¡°Alright. Here goes nothing.¡± I went through the steps, just as I had in the past, and clicked accept on the System screen that popped up.


    The orb turned into motes of light and melted into my hand before traveling up my arm and into my core where it would try to awaken my Unique Talent. Unfortunately my Trait (Ornate Chains of Talent) prevented my talent from actually awakening until after I went through my first Tribulation, so my Unique Talent wouldn¡¯t actually be awakening right now.


    The people in the room didn¡¯t know that though, so I pretended to black out and used my Skill (Selective Transformation), which I had evolved from (Transformation Resistance), to make my body artificially look like it was going through an awakening.


    ¡°Ooh a physical transformation type talent? Those are rare, but it will take a longer time to fully awaken.¡± One of the men I couldn¡¯t see spoke up.


    ¡°Hmm, should we move him to a different place?¡± Radix asked.


    ¡°No, there¡¯s no need for that.¡± The first person who spoke said, ¡°If he¡¯s able to escape from this room after his Unique Talent awakens then there¡¯s no other place in this prison that will be any different. Even if he does manage to escape, we can always track him down no problem.¡±


    ¡°I see. How long will it take him to awaken?¡± Radix said.


    ¡°Anywhere from twelve to twenty-four hours. It¡¯s normally six to twelve, but physical transformation talents take more time to awaken.¡±


    ¡°Well then let¡¯s leave him here for now. There are other things to attend to in the meantime.¡±


    ¡°No complaints here. Everything is being monitored and recorded anyways, so there¡¯s no need to be here in person.¡±


    I heard the sound of shuffling feet and then the sound of the door of my room closing.


    I just sat there in the same position for what felt like forever, silently waiting. After a while I fired off one of my divination spell crystals to check if anybody was actively monitoring me. After a moment the answer came back to me that nobody was watching me, and had stopped watching me a while ago.


    I had expected to have to wait at least a few hours before I would stop being monitored, but apparently I wasn¡¯t worth keeping an eye on. They were probably too arrogant and confident in the security here. Well that was fine by me, as it meant that I could enact my escape sooner and get even more of a head start.


    I wasted no more time, I stopped pretending and reached into my Internal World pulling out a very poorly made ¡®clone¡¯ of myself. In truth it was more like a mannequin that I made out of my own dead cells that I had gathered over the years. It definitely wouldn¡¯t fool any eyes, but that was where magic came in.


    I cut my finger so blood was coming out, then I used the blood to draw a magic circle on the chest of my substitute. Then I drew another one on the back. After the magic circles were completed, I took out two special mana crystals that I had prepared and embedded them into the center of the two magic circles. The two magic circles started to glow from the center outwards until it reached the edge. Both of the circles maintained their soft glow meaning that they were fully functional.


    Seeing that the two magic circles were fully functional, I breathed a sigh of relief. It was now time for me to begin my escape. From here on out it would be unknown and hostile territory.

 Escape From Prison - Chapter 16

    With the magic circles and everything set up for avoiding magical detection, I quickly went into my bathroom and stored everything I could within my Internal World. I wouldn¡¯t be finding any toilet paper or towels in the wilderness outside the prison, so I needed to take what I could.


    With that now out of the way, I headed back to my room and walked over to my stand in, where I placed a note in its lap.


    Satisfied, I walked over to the wall that separated my room from the hallway, and, using my Cloud¡¯s ability to connect to things and receive information from them, I knew that the hallway outside of my room was currently empty. I knew this because over time I had set up some connections to those cameras with the Cloud, so I knew the hallway was empty via the view of the cameras watching it.


    With everything clear, I focused on the space between the wall and the hallway. After so many years of using my [Fractured Space Channel], the space around my room was so fractured that it offered no resistance to my attempts to open a portal. Using about half of my mana pool I opened a portal to the other side of the wall, into the hallway. I could¡¯ve teleported, which would¡¯ve used significantly less mana, but teleporting disrupted space too much, and would have alerted the passive detection wards monitoring the prison. So I could only use a portal instead. The portal was still very expensive, even though the fractured space I was opening made it as cheap as it could be, but portals were just naturally costly.


    Stepping through the portal I quickly closed it behind me, I knew that there was no turning back now. I immediately started to head down the hallway to the right, making my way towards my next destination: the laundry room. My plan involved first getting access to a guard uniform so I could disguise myself then make my way to the guards quarters in the East, which were right next to the wall that surrounded the prison.


    I didn¡¯t have access to all of the cameras on the path to the laundry room, but from the ones I did I couldn¡¯t see the presence of any guards along my route. It was strange, usually there would be at least one guard patrolling the hallways, but I wouldn¡¯t say no to some good luck.


    Walking quickly, but not rushing, I made it to the end of where my surveillance reached. There was only about 50 meters and a couple corners between me and the laundry room now.


    I was nervously sweating because this first part of my escape plan required that nobody notice me on the cameras in the hallways. Once I got the guard uniform I wouldn¡¯t have to worry as much about the cameras, but for now I was still on edge.


    Advancing down the unknown hallway I made it to the end. Before I rounded the corner though, I heard a door open from the hallway I was about to turn into. I flattened myself against the wall and listened, ready to bolt back down the hallway I had just walked through.


    ¡°-ludicrous that such an important person came to visit the prison.¡± A voice came from around the corner after the door opened. ¡°I mean they can¡¯t be here just to sight see, they must¡¯ve come here for a reason. Personally I think there¡¯s some high level prisoner that¡¯s going to be locked up, and they came here to make sure everything¡¯s in top shape.¡±


    ¡°I have no idea why they¡¯re here.¡± Another voice responded to the first as I heard the sound of the door closing. ¡°Doesn¡¯t matter to me anyways. What I care about is that the main facility is basically on high alert, it must be stressful being over there right now. I¡¯m glad I got lucky enough to be one of the few to stay behind in the juvenile facility. It¡¯s basically a skeleton crew over here.¡±


    ¡°You said it.¡± The voices were getting quieter and quieter, seemingly walking away from me, but stopped and continued to talk to each other. ¡°We might have to do more work because of it, but at least we aren¡¯t stressed out.¡±


    They continued to talk to each other, but they gave no indication that they would be leaving any time soon. This wasn¡¯t good for my plans, if they didn¡¯t leave then I wouldn¡¯t be able to get into the laundry room. Beyond that, based on what those guards were saying, the guard facility was probably on high alert at the moment because of some important person visiting the facility.


    My plans were shattered before I could even complete the first step. I started to mildly panic as I quickly ran through a multitude of solutions to this problem, but before I could think of any real solution, a bell rang through the hallways, signaling the start of recreation time.


    Crap! I thought I had more time, but I must¡¯ve been thinking for longer than I thought. Now that recreation has begun, there will definitely be more people watching the cameras and monitoring things in the hallways. I grit my teeth as I knew that I had to scrap my original plan of disguising myself as a guard and escaping through the Eastern wall.


    I didn¡¯t have any time to waste if I wanted to avoid getting caught outside of the area I should be, so I quietly ran down the hallway in the direction I had come from. I rounded a couple more corners and made my way down two more hallways.


    I had made it to the area where people signed in at a desk before being let into the recreation area. There was already a line leading up to the desk, and peeking around the corner I could make out fewer guards in the area than usual.


    I took advantage of a gap in surveillance in my direction and quickly cut my way into the line, behind a taller kid. The kid behind me gave me a look, but I lifted my finger to my mouth in a gesture to keep quiet, and he thankfully decided to ignore me.


    When the guards'' eyes came back to look in my direction, they passed over me like I had been there the entire time. I breathed a sigh of relief, thankfully my (Deceive) Skill made others dismiss minor things and inconsistencies like this, even with its relatively low level.


    As I slowly made my way forward in line, I used my accelerated mind to try and come up with another way to get to the outer walls. I had originally wanted to get to the Eastern side of the wall by going through the guards quarters, but the recreation area was nowhere near the Eastern side of the outer wall, it was near the Northern side of the wall.


    There was no way I could make it to the Eastern side of the wall without being spotted, now that I didn¡¯t have a guard uniform. So I had to give up on that and make my way out through the Northern wall instead. The Eastern wall was closer to my ultimate destination, but if I couldn¡¯t escape from the East, then the North would have to do.


    The tall kid in front of me was stopped by the inspection guard, ¡°What''s that in your pocket?¡± The kid pulled out some paper and a pen. The guard looked at this and said, ¡°You know you can¡¯t take anything into the recreation yard. Go over there to get inspected.¡±


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    Seeing this I tried to act as inconspicuous as possible. The last thing I needed was to be inspected right now. I nervously checked in while having a cold sweat break out across my brow. Thankfully I made it through the gate and into the recreation area without any problems. I breathed out a sigh of relief and took in my surroundings trying to determine how I should escape from here.


    I walked into the middle of the open floor area and looked around. Off to the East, or to my left, was the weights room. I crossed off the idea, the weights room had way too much surveillance there was no way I could do anything in there.


    Straight ahead, or to the North, was the library. There was less surveillance in there, but it would be way too eye-catching if I were to try and escape from there.


    Last option was the indoor court area to the right. There the kids usually played a game similar to basketball from Earth. I had never played with them so I didn¡¯t really know the rules, but it was similar enough that that¡¯s what I thought of it as.


    Going through the area in my mind, there wasn¡¯t that much surveillance, and in the South-East corner there was a blind spot where no guards watching into the area, from a window on the South wall, would be able to see.


    The courtyard seemed perfect, but I still had to think of a way to escape. It was always an option to use teleportation, but that would be too mana intensive, so that was a last resort option since I still needed enough mana to get past the prison walls. I decided to head into the courtyard and see if I could come up with any other ideas before I resorted to teleportation.


    Walking into the courtyard I looked around and noticed that around the perimeter of the yard there were openings about 4 meters up that led to the outside. If I could somehow get up to those windows then I would be able to get out of this building without using teleportation. I went through everything I had in my Internal World that I had gathered over the years, seeing if there was anything I could use to get me up to those openings.


    I didn¡¯t have much, after all I was in a prison there wasn¡¯t much to take, but I did have some scrap metal, and I thought that maybe I could use the towels I had to make some kind of rope. If I bent the metal into the right shape then maybe I could make a makeshift grappling hook to get me up to the opening.


    It was the best option I had at the moment, so I decided to go with it. I had to work quickly because the guards would be busiest during the first part of recreation time when they were still letting kids into the recreation area and doing paperwork.


    I went into the corner and started working. It took a few minutes to tie the rope together and bend the metal into shape, which hurt my hands, but I made my makeshift grappling hook and was ready to try it out.


    Before I did that though, I went around to the kids and told them what I was doing and not to snitch on me. At this point everyone already knew about ¡®that Radiant guy that thought he could escape from prison¡¯, so they didn¡¯t really pay much attention to me, which I was glad about.


    With that out of the way I headed back into the corner. There weren¡¯t any openings near the corner, so I would have to try and throw the grappling hook diagonally to reach the nearest window. I held onto the end of the towel rope and made my first attempt. The metal hook flew towards the corner of the opening, but the rope was too short and the hook just barely couldn¡¯t make it.


    I clenched my teeth, I didn¡¯t have any more towels to make the rope longer! There was no way for me to use the grappling hook from the corner where I couldn¡¯t be seen. I gathered up my grappling hook and took another look around. The opening that I was aiming for wasn¡¯t in view of the guard window, but it was within full view of one of the cameras watching the court.


    A cold sweat ran down my forehead as I knew I would have to take the risk of being in view of the camera in order to use my grappling hook. I wiped the sweat away from my forehead and steeled myself, if I wanted to do this then now was the best time, while the guards were hopefully still distracted.


    I walked until I was directly below the opening and made another attempt. The hook made it out this time, but when I pulled back on it the hook didn¡¯t stick and came back to me. I breathed out and quickly tried again. And it failed again. I swallowed hard and tried again, this time the hook caught on something and I didn¡¯t hesitate to try and climb up as quickly as I could.


    I made it to the top, climbed onto the ledge and began to pull up the rope. Looking down the other side the drop went down 8 meters. There was no way I could make such a drop without seriously injuring myself. I looked at the makeshift grappling hook in my hands and decided that I would have to use it again to get down from here.


    Manually hooking the metal part on the inside edge of where I was, I let the towel rope fall down the other side of the wall. Quickly, to get out of full view, I used the rope to make my way down the other side.


    Reaching the bottom of the towels and hanging by my hands, there was still about a 3 meter drop from the bottom of my feet to the ground. I held onto the rope with one hand and leaned out before dropping to the ground and landing in a roll. I got up and looked back at the wall where the rope was still hanging there in the open like a white flag signaling my escape. There was nothing I could do about that though, so I left it hanging there and started to make my way towards the Northern wall.


    I was stressed and jumpy the whole way to the wall, but I successfully made it without being caught or seen. Walking up to the wall, it was absolutely massive. It stretched for kilometers in either direction encircling the entire prison compound, it went up maybe 20 meters, and it was probably tens of meters thick as well. There was no way I was getting through this wall normally. To get through this final wall I would have to teleport.


    Before I teleported, there were three things I needed to do. First I would have to get rid of the collar around my neck, if I didn¡¯t get rid of it then it could be remotely triggered to encase me in that black film and stop me from moving. Second, I needed to get rid of the mental tracker curse embedded in my first virtual mind. Third I needed to use my [Fractured Space Channel] metaphysical organ to make it possible for me to teleport through the wall.


    I wasted no time and sat down on the ground in a meditative position facing the wall. Using my multiple virtual minds I was able to focus on all three different things at the same time.


    I absorbed the collar into my [Body of Artifacts] and nullified the collar¡¯s effects. It was one of the functions of my metaphysical physique, since some artifacts were cursed or had severe negative effects, and my metaphysical physique was meant to store all kinds of artifacts safely.


    For the mental curse, the only way to get rid of it was to completely destroy the mind it was inhabiting. Using my willpower I took the virtual mind with the curse, and I used one of the functions of my Cloud to completely delete it. It was extremely painful, and left me with a pounding headache, but I pushed through.


    Lastly, I focused in front of me and used my metaphysical organ at max power to fracture as much space in front of me as I could. The space around the prison was reinforced by various wards and artifacts, so if I didn¡¯t fracture the space I wouldn¡¯t be able to teleport.


    Everything happened almost simultaneously and I opened my eyes, squinting against my headache. I ignored my headache and focused on my mana. I had recovered to about 80% of my max mana which should be just enough. I used everything I could and felt space squeeze around me attempting to stop me from pushing through the space that I had already fractured. It was tight, but I succeeded, and with an audible popping sound I arrived about 50 meters away from the outside of the prison walls, inside a dense forest.


    I looked around and oriented myself towards the East where my ultimate destination awaited me. I might¡¯ve successfully escaped the prison compound, but I was nowhere near safe yet. Brushing myself off to symbolically rid myself of the prison, I then jumped up and down shaking out my nerves. Now I just had to navigate my way through the deadly wilderness and reach my destination. No big deal.

 The Hunted - Chapter 17

    I looked into the corner of my vision and checked the time, 14:28. It was about an hour earlier than I had originally thought I would escape, which was great, except for the fact that I was farther from my destination than I should¡¯ve been, and I had already alerted the prison wards. It wouldn¡¯t be too much longer before the hunt for me began.


    My current location was not ideal, because I would have to travel kilometers just to reach the same starting point I would¡¯ve if I had escaped from the East side of the prison.


    It wasn¡¯t all bad though. I didn¡¯t have to travel through the prison complex where I could¡¯ve been caught, and I could mislead my trackers and get them to focus their initial searches Northward rather than Eastward towards my destination.


    With these thoughts in mind I set off Northward into the wild jungle terrain, leaving behind less and less traces of my presence as I put some distance between me and the prison walls. After traveling about a kilometer and leaving misleading traces behind me, I turned Eastward towards my destination and started moving.


    My destination was actually something that I had felt pop up about 3 years ago. I was only able to feel the slight spatial disturbance of a dungeon entrance appearing because of the unique space in my room that allowed me to sense such minor spatial fluctuations, along with my (Space-Time Sense) Skill that I had gotten after merging my Space, and Time, Sense Skills. After I felt how close the entrance was, I immediately decided that that¡¯s where I would head after I escaped.


    I didn¡¯t choose this particular dungeon entrance for any reason other than the fact that I knew where it was, I just needed any dungeon entrance. Once I reached the entrance I would be able to enter the Dungeon of Tribulation, where nobody would be able to find me or know where I was while I was inside.


    Having led any trackers away from my planned location, I now did everything I could to leave as few tracks as possible. This did slow me down because I couldn¡¯t move too fast. I would¡¯ve had to move even slower, but I currently didn¡¯t have to worry about magical tracking.


    This was because one of the magic circles I drew on my substitute body made any magical detection below a certain Tier target the substitute instead of me. This allowed me to travel through this plant infested jungle fairly easily, because most dangerous plants used magical detection rather than physical senses to detect things. So I was able to focus more on hiding my tracks, rather than watching out for danger.


    After an hour of circling about 2 kilometers around the prison walls, I would now have to move away from the relative safety around Lonevista prison, and head deeper into the dense wilderness where a variety of deadly plants and animals, but mostly plants, awaited me.


    I could still barely make out the massive walls of the prison through the dense jungle to my right, and as I turned fully away from them I heard sirens start wailing from inside Lonevista prison.


    I had finally been found out, and the hunt had started.


    The prison wards would¡¯ve detected something was up after I had teleported, but it had taken an hour and a half for anybody to know what was going on. This was because of the other magic circle I had put on my substitute¡¯s body.


    While the first magic circle allowed me to avoid most direct magical detection, the second magic circle made any new information recorded about me, within a certain range, into an Anti-Meme. So while the second magic circle was still active, any new information about me would become self-censoring. (An Anti-Meme is to Ideas what Antimatter is to Matter)


    This Anti-Meme magic circle wasn¡¯t all powerful though. The biggest downside to it was that it couldn¡¯t bypass even the most basic of protections; which was why everyone was able to see me while inside the prison, because the information about me was being recorded into their mind which had at least basic protections. This was why I still had to be careful about being caught while I was escaping.


    Another downside was that the magic circle consumed mana in proportion to how much it had to ¡®censor¡¯. So as time went on and more people were trying to figure things out, the magic circle had to spend more and more mana to keep everything working. Eventually the magic circle would run out of the fuel I gave it and shut off.


    That was exactly what just happened, and as soon as the Anti-Meme magic wore off, everything it was changing was changed back. This meant that the detection wards that caught my teleportation were finally noticed, and the alarm was sounded.


    I couldn¡¯t do anything about it now though, so I turned my back to the prison and headed into the dense jungle. I needed to get as far into the jungle as possible before my first magic circle was deactivated. Now that I had at least an hour and a half lead from the start of my trail, I felt safe to up my pace and focus more on distance than stealth.


    I went as fast as I could through the dense foliage consisting of many different colors and plants. There were bushes of dark green leaves, long purple stems with multicolored flowers on the end, white bark trees with black branches, huge trees with extremely tough exteriors, and many more; but within all of this vibrant display of plant life, there were almost no traces of animal life, no birds chirping, no animal calls, no animal trails or marks.


    There was only the sound of wind through leaves and creaking trees. This was why the area was called Lonevista, because it was almost devoid of animal life.


    So when I heard a sound coming from my right I was alert immediately. I turned towards the sound and saw a 2 meter tall black and white blur coming right at me. I instinctively used my Skill (Physical Augmentation) and threw myself to the side, but the blur still hit my left side.


    I felt my left ankle twist painfully as it caught on something on the ground, and sharp claws cut into my left arm. I let out a grunt in pain, but I maintained my calm and used my many virtual minds and accelerated thought as I looked towards what had hit me to determine my next course of action.


    Taking in everything, I saw a black, 4 legged, 2 meter tall animal, with thin white pulsing patterns on its fur. It landed and turned towards me with the fluid grace of its cat-like body.


    You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.


    I didn¡¯t hesitate and I started to throw half of my mana into forming a mental link with the animal. The tall cat tensed its muscles getting ready to attack again, its actions screaming of a confident hunter.


    My mana flooded out of me in a cone in the general direction of the cat, not taking any chances of it avoiding the mental link. Good thing I did too, because it became a blur once again trying to avoid the mana that had distorted the air, and almost making it too. After seeing this, I was certain that there was no way I could win in a physical confrontation with this beast.


    Thankfully a connection was now formed, and with all of my minds I sent the equivalent of a mental scream through the link to its mind.


    The cat fumbled as if hit by a heavy blow to the head. I knew that I wouldn¡¯t be able to kill the cat with my mental link, so I started to prepare an earth spike spell. I was still inexperienced with earth magic and so it took me 30 seconds to convert my mana and finish casting the spell.


    During the time I was preparing the spell, I was constantly bombarding the mental link and keeping the cat on the verge of passing out.


    The cat seemed to know it couldn¡¯t continue the fight and started to stumble and crawl, trying to get away. But before it could get very far my spell was completed using the rest of my mana, and an earth spike came up from the ground and pierced the animal¡¯s skull from below, killing it instantly.


    Adrenaline was coursing through my veins, allowing me to ignore the pain I was in. I looked down at my left arm and saw my blood flowing out of where the cat had grazed me. It wasn¡¯t too deep of a cut, and I could only imagine what I would¡¯ve looked like if I hadn¡¯t dodged.


    I tore off the left sleeve of my prison uniform and used it to bandage my arm. With that taken care of I started to move in the direction of the cat, but when I went to move my left foot I winced in pain.


    I could tell through the Cloud that nothing was broken, but my ankle was definitely sprained very badly and had already started to swell up. There was nothing I could do about my injuries at the moment with my mana bottomed out, so I just had to deal with it.


    While favoring my injured foot, I made my way over to the cat and took a closer look. Its smooth fur was mostly black but there were thin white lines that occasionally pulsed with light that made it look like lightning running across a black sky. I had noticed during the fight that these white lines were pulsing with light, but now they lacked most of the vibrancy they had previously.


    After getting a closer look I was fairly certain that this was a juvenile Raij¨±. Normally a Raij¨±, even a baby one, would be powerful enough to take on more than 100 of the current me, but unfortunately for it, and fortunately for me, this Raij¨± was in Lonevista.


    I couldn¡¯t tell if I was lucky or unlucky to have come across what was probably the top predator within many kilometers of my location. On the one hand I was now injured which would slow me down greatly. On the other hand I would have never been able to kill this creature outside of Lonevista. While having these thoughts I used my (Basic Space Control) to move the body of the Raij¨± into my Internal World.


    I didn¡¯t linger and continued on my way towards my destination. I no longer bothered to hide any sound of my movements or care about the traces I left as I walked. Any decent tracker would be able to know what direction I was headed if they followed me to this point. The mana left from my battle would be a dead giveaway in this silent jungle.


    Lonevista was a dangerous place, yes, but it wasn¡¯t because it was home to dangerous monsters or terrifying plants, though it did have some of those things, it was because the land of Lonevista was ¡®cursed¡¯. It wasn¡¯t actually cursed by anyone or anything, but the effect it had was called a curse. Everything within Lonevista would have its Stats suppressed to Tier 9. This meant that everything was on an equal playing field, Stats wise at least, and could potentially kill you. This was an advantage for me though, because there was no way I would be able to escape from my pursuers if they weren¡¯t suppressed.


    I continued my trek through the jungle. Along the way I gathered some of the fruits and other edible things I came across and stored them. I didn¡¯t know how long the Dungeon of Tribulation would take to complete, but I knew I needed to stock up on food while I could. This did slow me down a little, but after an hour I had regenerated enough mana to mostly heal my ankle, it still hurt but I was able to speed up my pace considerably.


    A few hours later I was beginning to near my destination and was at a much higher elevation than the prison. The sun was almost fully set now, leaving the area much darker than before.


    Through the darkness I was able to see some lights coming in my direction, maybe an hour behind me. By this point I was starting to get tired after so many hours of intense travel and exertion. Even with my partial TechnicMorph body giving me increased endurance, and (Physical Recovery II), I was starting to reach my limits. I could feel that I was very close to my destination though, so I pushed through my exhaustion and forced myself to continue.


    Before long I reached a sheer cliff that stopped my progress forward. Sensing the dungeon entrance, I could feel that it was somewhere at the bottom of the around 10-12 meter drop in front of me. The cliff stretched into the distance beyond what I could see in the darkness, and I didn¡¯t have the time to find a way down the cliff before my pursuers caught up to me. I could already hear the sounds of people moving towards me in the distance in the otherwise quiet jungle.


    Not having time for indecision, I reinforced my body with (Physical Augmentation) and jumped down to the hard ground below, and the ground raced to meet me.


    My bent legs met the ground and caused a great shock to shoot through my legs. I tried to absorb as much of the impact as I could before my right shoulder met the ground as I rolled to disperse the impact.


    I rolled a few times before coming to a stop face down. I didn¡¯t feel anything at first, but after I tried to move, my legs and right shoulder started screaming in pain. It felt like my bones had been doused with oil and set on fire.


    I wanted to use my mana and heal myself right away, but I stopped myself before I could. I had to use it for something else.


    I looked towards where I felt the dungeon entrance was and saw a crack in the cliff barely big enough for a Human to get through. Using my left arm, the only limb not in pain, I dragged my body towards the crevice.


    My skin started to get paler, and my breathing became more shallow and rapid as I moved. I used my [Mental Operator] to ignore the pain and made my way into the opening in the cliff.


    Inside of the crevice there was a black rift in space. This was what I was looking for.


    Before I entered it though, I needed to get rid of my traces leading to this place. If the prison knew I had entered this dungeon then they would probably station people to guard it until I came out, which I didn¡¯t want.


    So, to prevent that, I used up the rest of my mana on a time spell I had created that would rewind any traces I had made over the last 10 minutes. The spell could do more than that, but with the amount of mana I had that was all I could manage.


    With that finished I turned toward the dungeon entrance and reached out with my left hand to touch the portal. Immediately after I touched the portal a system prompt appeared in front of me.


    [Detected that you are ready to undergo your first Tribulation]


    [Enter the Dungeon of Tribulation instead of the current dungeon]


    [YES] [NO]


    I was relieved when I saw this message and without hesitation I selected YES.


    After that I felt the space warp around me and I disappeared from the jungle without a trace.

 Waiting Room - Chapter 18

    ¡°Rrgh!¡± I groaned as I tried to breath in and felt my right shoulder spasm in pain, which made it hurt even more. I started to take more shallow breaths as I just laid on the grassy ground which I now lay on.


    I knew where I was without even opening my eyes, this was the waiting room before starting the Dungeon of Tribulation. This was confirmed by the System messages I received.


    [System has now been unlocked]


    [Dungeon of Tribulation needs a Focus and Challenges to be selected before it will begin]


    [If no option is selected within 1 hour, a choice will be selected by the System]


    Great. I¡¯m entering the Dungeon of Tribulation while severely injured and without many supplies. Doesn¡¯t seem like a recipe for success.


    I remembered back to the first time I had entered the Dungeon of Tribulation at age 25. Back then I had been fully decked out with some of the best gear the government had to offer, along with 5 other people to accompany me. Even with all of that, our group of 6 only cleared the 5th floor of the Dungeon before it was decided that we should leave. Though that was partially to keep my power levels in check.


    Still, it puts into perspective just how hard the Dungeon of Tribulations is, and the Dungeon Tribulations were considered the easiest Tribulations to go through! It made me wonder how hard a Tribulation would be for something that couldn¡¯t enter the Dungeon of Tribulation, either because it couldn¡¯t move or didn¡¯t know about it.


    I was currently alone and severely injured without any gear. Any other 22 year old in my situation would be hard pressed to make it out alive, let alone complete, even the first level of the Dungeon of Tribulation.


    Not me though. I had been training like a madman for the past 17 years and had past experience as well. If I didn¡¯t rob the Dungeon for everything I could, then I would be severely disappointed with myself. It wasn¡¯t that I was overestimating my abilities, if anything I was definitely being modest.


    One couldn¡¯t forget that one of the requirements to be sent to Lonevista Prison, especially as a child, was to have the potential to be dangerously powerful in one way or another. One of the reasons why I was considered dangerously powerful, even when compared to the other prisoners, was because of my clean and synergistic build. Of course the government didn¡¯t know this exactly, but the tests they did before putting me in the prison must¡¯ve been able to sense something.


    I was built to be multi-talented and be able to take advantage of anything I had available in order to survive, adapt, and thrive.


    This was because after I had died on Earth, and was given the chance to essentially customize my next life, I decided that instead of using my precious POINTS to modify where and how I would be born, I would instead give myself the greatest chance of survival no matter what situation I found myself in.


    And my plan had worked. I had gotten myself out of the bleak and nearly hopeless situation of being imprisoned, suppressed, and mind controlled, by an overwhelmingly more powerful force. Sure it had taken me almost 200 years, but I had done it. I was lying on the ground severely injured waiting to enter a deadly dungeon, but I had done it.


    Even as I lay here on the cold grass, my body was recovering from my injuries, my bruises and minor problems had already healed in just the few minutes since I had come here. My (Physical Recovery II) Skill was in the active Skills and was working at full power. That Skill alone would be able to fix me up as good as new in about 10-40 days depending on how severe the internal injuries were. If I was allowed to just sit here that is, but unfortunately I only had an hour before I was to enter the Dungeon of Tribulation, regardless of whatever my situation was.


    Stolen novel; please report.


    With healing magic I would be able to heal up much faster, but seeing as I was basically out of mana, that would have to wait.


    I had nothing better to do while I was waiting for my mana, so I took a look at the list of options for the Dungeon of Tribulation.


    [Choose a Focus for the Tribulation]


    [Battle, Endurance, Stealth, Crafting, Survival, Information Gathering, Harvesting¡­]


    The list went on and on, and when I chose the one I knew was most suitable for me it expanded into even more options.


    [Focus chosen: Survival]


    [Choose the challenges you will face, or go back and change the Focus]


    [The more challenges you choose the greater the rewards]


    I wasn¡¯t going to change the focus, since Survival was the best option for me, in my expert opinion, so I went on to choose the challenges.


    [Less Starting Information, No System Loot, Hostile Environment, Time Requirement, Forced Task, Hostile Entities, Wider Difficulty Range, Champion Level Entity, Outside Time Sync, Solo]


    Technically someone could choose to undertake only one challenge, and if they were alone like me then Solo was a free challenge for extra rewards. Of course Solo made it impossible to have any independent companions, so it wasn¡¯t necessarily ¡®free¡¯ but for me it might as well be.


    That said, taking 10 challenges at the same time was definitely not recommended, but I was confident in taking on what I had chosen. There were challenges like Reduced Mana Regen, or Active Skills Only, but those kinds of challenges were not worth it for me.


    [Solo challenge has been selected: No party forming is possible.]


    [You now have until the timer runs out to start the Dungeon of Tribulation or change your choices]


    With everything ready I just lay there, on the ground, waiting for my mana to recover. I wished that I could look at something to distract me. Then I remembered that I had my System unlocked now. I could use the System to look at things instead of relying on divination magic, and so I pulled up my Skills to distract me.


    [Active Skills/Powers 3/3]-


    (Power: Accelerated Cloud Mental Operator; Evolution:0 Level: 68)


    (Skill: Tireless Mana II; Level: 53)


    (Skill: Physical Recovery II; Level: 41)-


    [Inactive Skills/Powers 12]-


    (Skill: Mana Maintenance II; Level: 66)


    (Skill: Foreign Analysis; Level: 80)


    (Skill: Deceive; Level: 65)


    (Skill: Sense Mana II; Level: 60)


    (Skill: Pain Tolerance; Level: 51)


    (Skill: Physical Augmentation; Level: 66)


    (Skill: Space-Time Sense; Level: 62)


    (Skill: Mana Conversion; Level: 59)


    (Skill: Selective Transformation II; Level: 10)


    (Skill: Basic Space Control; Level: 81)


    (Skill: Mana Crystallization II; Level: 25)


    (Skill: Efficient Crystallization; Level: 60)-


    Looking over everything, I was proud of what I had accomplished over the past 17 years. Compared to others my age, I had about 2 times as many Skill levels. Sure, others might have access to Skill orbs and other things, but nothing could beat the sheer amount of time and effort I had put into training my Skills.


    At this point I was mostly trying to distract my mind from the pain I was feeling, and after 15 minutes from when I came here, I had enough mana to actually do something useful. I focused on my shoulder and cast a spell to move everything into place and keep it there. Normally this would be followed up by a healing spell, but I could only let my (Physical Recovery II) do its work, not having enough mana to complete the healing.


    After doing this 2 more times, one for each of my legs, over the next 30 minutes, I was still in a lot of pain, but I was at least capable of some movement besides crawling. With another 10 minutes, 5 minutes before the timer was up, I converted what little mana I had into Vitality and flexed my (Physical Recovery II). The Skill consumed the Vitality to recover as much as it could before I was to enter the Dungeon of Tribulation.


    I would be in a hostile environment without any mana or equipment, but at least now I could run away if I needed to.


    I was nervous as the timer ticked down towards 0. I had no clue what kind of environment I would end up in or what kind of enemies I would be facing, so I had every right to be nervous.


    But I comforted myself by saying, ¡°It¡¯s only the first floor. I¡¯ll survive no problem right?¡±


    I confirmed my choices and was whisked away into the Dungeon of Tribulation.

 Dungeon of Tribulation Level 1 - Chapter 19

    The feeling of humid air assaulted me, making me feel like I was in a jungle again. Looking around me it looked like I was in some sort of cave, the walls were covered in glowing moss and damp stone, and the floor was littered with sharp rocks and tripping hazards, and the space around me felt strange and warped in some way I couldn¡¯t quite place. To my right and left the cave-like tunnel extended straight in each direction, but the ups and downs made it difficult to see past about 20 meters in either direction.


    As soon as I got my bearings and felt ready to continue, the System took that as permission to give me the required information.


    [Time Requirement: Survive for 5 days]


    [Forced Task: Locate the altar and perform a ritual with materials from this list]


    Wow, Less Starting Information is really limited with 10 challenges at once, and the Time Requirement has gone from 12 hours to 5 days. I¡¯m glad I picked up some food while I was running through the jungle, otherwise I might¡¯ve had to eat this cave moss.


    I prepared myself and made sure to watch where I stepped, so I would make as little noise as possible, while I advanced down the cave tunnel to my left. I was injured and needed a place to hide while I recovered, and this almost bare tunnel didn¡¯t leave any place to really hide. I knew that the Dungeon would try and place me in a relatively safe location, but that didn¡¯t mean that it was completely safe where I was at.


    With this in mind I took my time, and after a few minutes of walking I spotted an offshoot tunnel coming off at 90 degrees from the one I was currently walking through. Coming up close to the bend, and carefully peeking around the corner, I could make out a T intersection maybe 40 meters down this offshoot tunnel.


    Everything was too angular and straight for this to be a natural cave. The whole thing screamed MAZE to me, and considering the Hostile Environment challenge I had taken on, a maze would definitely be considered a hostile environment, though not dangerous enough. It was too simple for a 10 challenge Hostile Environment, there must be something more going on that I hadn¡¯t seen yet.


    Whatever the case, a maze would be no problem for me. I had already been constructing a mental map of where I had been since I had arrived, and with this offshoot being on the right side I decided to follow the right hand rule for now. I knew of multiple ways to solve a maze, but the right hand rule was the easiest, although it might not work if I was in a disconnected part of the maze.


    In any case, I started to remove some of the glowing moss from the side of the wall, and spent a few minutes creating a mental connection to the stone where I had removed the moss. I might not be able to get much information from the stone, but I would be able to feel the connection and direction within about 100 meters of myself. With this I would be able to leave behind invisible markers that were each distinct in my mind, and I would be able to find my way even if this maze started to shift around or some other nonsense.


    With that done I started walking down the offshoot tunnel. I soon reached the T intersection at the end and looked down both ways. To the left the tunnel extended into the distance, but I could barely make out the glow in the cave turning a slight orange. To the right I could see much farther down the tunnel, and I couldn¡¯t make out anything after a certain distance due to the ups and downs in elevation.


    The left had an interesting orange glow which made me curious, but I was currently using the right hand rule so I would have to put off exploring it until later.


    I left another mental mark on the stone and turned down the right tunnel. I reached the next T intersection and looking both ways nothing stood out to me, so once again I left a mark and kept right.


    I was expecting to intersect with the first tunnel I had arrived in, or maybe reach a dead end, but as I was walking down the tunnel things started to look eerily familiar, and my (Space-Time Sense) Skill was giving me a strange feeling. The feeling continued to grow the farther I advanced down the straight path up until the point where I reached a 90 degree offshoot from the path I was following. There was some moss removed from one of the walls, and I could feel the first mental mark I had made.


    I had only made three 90 degree turns and had ended up back at my first mark. This wasn¡¯t just a simple maze, it was a maze with serious spatial warping shenanigans going on.


    For most people this would be a nightmare to navigate through. For me though it wasn¡¯t that much more difficult than a normal maze. With my unique markers, (Space-Time Sense), and the ability to map out the space in my mind, a spatial maze was a hostile environment I was capable of handling no problem. This would be especially true after I am able to heal and am able to switch out one of my active Skills to my (Space-Time Sense) rather than relying on the inactive Skill.


    But this all led me back to the problem I faced, I still needed to find somewhere to hide and recover from my injuries. I was reluctant to go wandering around and potentially end up stumbling into something, so I decided to try and have a look at the orange light I had seen. I couldn¡¯t be certain, but as the saying in this world went, ¡®curiosity killed the Human.¡¯


    It didn¡¯t take long to reach the intersection with my second mark, and as I snuck through the left tunnel as silently as possible, the bluish glow from the moss on the walls was slowly being overtaken by a stronger orange glow coming from up ahead. Then, after a steep incline, I came upon an opening into a large room.


    Looking inside I saw what looked to be the inside of a volcano that had been spliced together with the cave environment I had just been walking through. The ceiling wasn¡¯t that high, and there were pillars of slowly flowing magma flowing out of a few spots on the ceiling down to the floor below. The glowing moss on the walls took on an orange color making the room glow like it was almost molten itself. I couldn¡¯t see anything alive in the room, and I couldn¡¯t feel any heat even though it looked like there was flowing magma in the room, so I decided to get a better view.


    Stepping foot into the room I almost immediately started sweating as the heat hit me like a fireball. My eyes started to water as I looked around, and I saw a few rock formations that I could potentially hide behind, but it was questionable if I could heal before I was cooked alive in here. The next thing I noticed was a sulfur smell that hadn¡¯t been there before I stepped into the room.


    Looking around the edges of the room I saw three other openings, two of them shimmered with heat and looked like volcanic caves, and the other opening looked the same as the one I had just come through.


    Not wanting to stay in the heat any longer than I had to, I stepped back through the entrance I had just come through and felt the much more reasonable temperature greet me. I could¡¯ve stayed in the room longer, but I didn¡¯t want to lose all of my body water because of sweating.


    The heat and smell went away like I had stepped through some kind of film that separated the room from the tunnel. These things made me furrow my brow in thought. I might be able to use this barrier as a pseudo form of cover, sure I might not be able to visually hide, but in enclosed spaces like a maze smell was something much more important to hide, and with the steep incline coming up to the room nothing would be able to see me from down the tunnel.


    If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.


    I was still in pain, and sat down near the entrance to the room, getting ready to rest and recover my aching body and bones. It was crazy to think that I had been back in my prison room less than 8 hours ago. As I sat recovering on the stone floor I wondered how long it would take them to give up on the search for me, maybe a few days, maybe a month, who knew, but thinking about the look on their faces brought me immense satisfaction as I sat there recovering.


    -Break-


    Five hours later I was fully healed and my mana was almost topped out at 100%. I was in top condition, but there was one more thing I had to do before I began to explore.


    I had been avoiding this ever since my mana regeneration had exceeded a certain threshold. The exact threshold was different for everyone, but after that barrier was breached there would be consequences. And now that I had escaped, was in a safe enough place, and had the time, I was ready to face those consequences.


    I opened up my Skills and got ready for what was to come.


    [Active Skills/Powers 3/3]-


    (Power: Accelerated Cloud Mental Operator; Evolution:0 Level: 86)


    (Skill: Tireless Mana II; Level: 53)


    (Skill: Physical Recovery II; Level: 41)-


    [Inactive Skills/Powers 12]-


    (Skill: Mana Maintenance II; Level: 66)


    (Skill: Foreign Analysis; Level: 80)


    (Skill: Deceive; Level: 65)


    (Skill: Sense Mana II; Level: 60)


    (Skill: Pain Tolerance; Level: 51)


    (Skill: Physical Augmentation; Level: 66)


    (Skill: Space-Time Sense; Level: 62)


    (Skill: Mana Conversion; Level: 59)


    (Skill: Selective Transformation II; Level: 10)


    (Skill: Basic Space Control; Level: 81)


    (Skill: Mana Crystallization II; Level: 25)


    (Skill: Efficient Crystallization; Level: 60)-


    I switched out my (Physical Recovery II) for (Selective Transformation II), and I switched out (Tireless Mana II) for (Mana Maintenance II). So now my Active Skills look like this.


    [Active Skills/Powers 3/3]-


    (Power: Accelerated Cloud Mental Operator; Evolution:0 Level: 86)


    (Skill: Mana Maintenance II; Level: 66)


    (Skill: Selective Transformation II; Level: 10)-


    Taking one last look around me, and not seeing any danger, I shut down my outside senses and focused all of my senses inward. I was leaving myself vulnerable, but what was about to happen required my full attention and concentration.


    A few minutes passed as I felt my mana nebula creep towards being 100% filled, because my mana cells were already full and pushing all of their excess mana regeneration into my nebula. The nebula was quickly filled, and the borders of the magical space that kept my mana from leaking out and into my body, started to strain from the building pressure and started to leak mana into my body. I used (Mana Maintenance II) to control the leaking mana and make it evenly distribute throughout my body.


    My body started to try and expel the mana into my surroundings, but the amount of mana I was leaking was much less than the amount I was gaining and it only continued to increase, and the mana started to build up and saturate my entire being. At first nothing came of this, mana wasn¡¯t inherently dangerous after all, but this wasn¡¯t just any mana, this was my own personal mana.


    The mana within me quickly grew and started to resonate with me on a magical level. This resonating started to make my entire body buzz like there were tiny bubbles and bells everywhere inside of me. Everything started to change to try and become more and more in tune with the frequency of my mana.


    The sheer amount of mana being pumped into my body moment by moment made this entire process rapidly reach a climax, and then everything seemed to pause for just a moment.


    Then the moment passed and all of the mana within my body started to be consumed to fuel a magical transformation. Using my (Selective Transformation II) I was able to just barely guide this powerful magical process. I tried to guide the transformation to change the surface of my body as little as possible. There was only so much I could do with my limited Skill, but I did as much as I could.


    The entire process from start to finish only took 15 minutes because of my abundance of mana regeneration, whereas for most others it would take a year or more for their body to change.


    My entire body felt exhausted down to my bones, but at the same time I felt so much better, like I had just burned down a wall that was keeping me from my full potential.


    I didn¡¯t have a mirror or anything, but using my Cloud I was able to get a full mental image of what my body was now like. My hair was now like thin crystal threads. My irises now looked like kaleidoscopes of all the different colors of mana, slowly cycling through them all. In the past my skin had also changed, but now it looked the same as it had before the transformation. I was relieved, as visually not that much had changed, but there was more to this transformation than just visuals.


    Opening up my status I looked through it all and there was now another section below my [Metaphysical Physique].


    [Magical Physique]-(Selective Mana Superconductor)-


    It was the same as it was in my past life, but I pulled up the description to make sure nothing functionally had changed because of my interference with the transformation.


    [Magical Physique: Selective Mana Superconductor]


    : Mana you choose to allow can now flow through your body without resistance. Mana you choose not to allow will now face extreme resistance instead. Without your input your body will do its best to allow beneficial mana and restrict harmful mana, however this isn¡¯t omniscient and requires your input to achieve its full potential.


    Phew, it hasn¡¯t changed. With this I''ll be so much more powerful than I was before. Because I was so magically focused this was like a force multiplier for me. With this, my magic that I used on myself would be 10 times more powerful and use 10 percent of the mana, and the magic I casted outside of myself would be at least twice as powerful and take half as much mana. Basically instead of using 100% of my mana to heal myself, I would now only need to use 1% to achieve the same effect, and for external magic instead of 100% I could use 25% to achieve the same effect. Not only that, but the mana in the air wouldn¡¯t affect me nearly as much either.


    I was eager to confirm this as I mobilized a small percentage of my mana to cast a spell on my body to remove my fatigue. Energy practically flooded through my body making me feel like I had just woken up from the best sleep in my life. A feeling of power came to me, with this power boost I felt ready to take on any challenge I faced.


    I got up and walked into the spliced room next to me to test out my new physique. As I walked in I still felt the heat inside of the room, but it wasn¡¯t nearly as strong as it was before. If before it had felt like I was being cooked alive, now it felt like I was in an extremely hot desert during midday. It was still very hot for sure, but I could handle it for a few hours at least. And with some cooling magic I cast on myself, I felt like I could stay here forever (or at least until the cooling magic wore off.)


    Now I felt ready to tackle any hostile environment I might come across in the Dungeon of Tribulation, even with 10 challenges at once increasing the difficulty. Without mana affecting me, hot places wouldn¡¯t be as hot, and cold places wouldn¡¯t be as cold, although it didn¡¯t get rid of all environmental effects it definitely reduced them. This was why I even dared to take on the Hostile Environment challenge.


    I was lucky so far that I hadn¡¯t come across any hostile entities yet, but that was sure to change once I started to really explore this maze. Now that I was ready to start my exploration I was sure to come across some danger sooner rather than later.


    I wasn¡¯t afraid though. With my new physique I would be able to physically augment my body to be much stronger, and my offensive magic would pack that much more of a punch. On this first level I felt unstoppable. The next 10 days were no longer a trial to survive, they were now a trial to see how much I could gain before I left.

 A Relaxed Exploration - Chapter 20

    7th day of the 6th month of year 492 of 88M


    Mental Log


    My escape from prison today went extremely well. I had to improvise a little bit, but compared to some of the hairy situations in my past it was nothing much. I might not ever be able to know what everyone¡¯s reactions to my escape were like, but I can just imagine them reading the letter I left behind and what their reactions would be. It makes me laugh just thinking about it.


    I was injured multiple times today while I was escaping, it sure makes me happy that I can cast healing magic otherwise I''d be in a world of hurt. The first time I was attacked by a Raij¨±, which I defeated easily (Note: make sure to make something out of the materials when I have time.), and the second time I jumped down a cliff and broke some bones before I entered into the Dungeon of Tribulation. I fixed these injuries, obviously, but man did they hurt, it felt like my bones had been doused in oil and set on fire.


    In the Dungeon of Tribulation I didn¡¯t face any danger when I entered. I was able to recover from my escape and obtain my [Magical Physique]. There were no changes from the past, and it makes sense since it¡¯s based on the magic core. With this I¡¯ve probably reached at least 70% of my optimal strength, and this will hopefully carry me through the Dungeon of Tribulation.


    I used my new strength to start my exploration of the volcanic caves I had come across. They were very hot, especially around some of the magma pools scattered around the tunnels, but I could handle it with a bit of magic.


    As I was walking by one of these pools a salamander monster attacked me and sent a spray of liquid magma in my direction when it came out of the magma pool it was in. I augmented my body in time and didn¡¯t receive any damage, but I can¡¯t say the same for my prison clothes, they look like a moon full of craters now. I look less like a prisoner and more like a hobo, not much of an improvement to be honest.


    The salamander wasn¡¯t hard to kill, though I did get to practice my dodging, I didn¡¯t want to get hit by its glowing red claws that looked extremely sharp and hot. An earth spike to the head was enough to kill it, I didn¡¯t want to get near it so I had to use an external spell. I could probably use its claws for something later, and its meat was definitely edible. For now I just stored it in my Internal World for later and ate the perishable fruits and things I had stored while running through Lonevista.


    I spent most of the rest of the day going around the volcano tunnels and collecting salamanders. I could¡¯ve stayed awake and continued my exploration, but I found a nice spliced room to rest in, it was 1 volcano mixed with 3 mossy caves, so it wasn¡¯t as hot and uncomfortable as the first room I found which was an equal split. Tomorrow I¡¯ll continue my exploration where I left off.


    9th day of the 6th month of year 492 of 88M


    Mental Log


    Yesterday wasn¡¯t that exciting, I just went around and mapped out the rest of the volcano region of the maze, while doing this I came across a new area of the maze, a dark and cold region. I didn¡¯t explore it yet, instead I decided to fully map out the volcano region before I moved on.


    So after fully mapping out the volcano region yesterday, I decided to begin exploring the dark region today. This region is like the exact opposite of the volcano region, there are extremely cold liquid pools in the tunnels made out of some kind of liquid that looked like shadows even with my light shining into it.


    I went up to the liquid shadows and tried to store some of it, but it was very resistant to being stored almost like it was alive. I almost gave up on storing some of it, but I¡¯m glad I didn¡¯t.


    I got a little bit of the stuff into my Internal World after a while, and after I did I noticed tiny little things living inside of the liquid I had stored. It took me a while to recognize what they were because they were so small, but I did eventually recognize them, they were shadow leeches.


    I freaked out a little bit as I scrambled away from the pool of liquid and vehemently purged my shadow of the many little things that had been latched onto it. I¡¯m glad nobody was there to see me because it would¡¯ve been embarrassing. Needless to say I was much more leery about where I let my shadow go as I explored the dark and cold tunnels the rest of the day.


    Right now I¡¯m in a spliced room getting ready to take a rest. I haven¡¯t fully mapped out the dark area yet, so I¡¯ll continue where I left off tomorrow. I haven¡¯t found the altar I¡¯m supposed to use for a ritual yet, but I¡¯ve collected most of the materials I need for it. The last materials I need are probably in the mossy area, so no matter what I¡¯ll have to explore there even if I find the altar in the dark region.


    10th day of the 6th month of year 492 of 88M


    Mental Log


    I came across the Champion as I was roaming the dark caves today. It didn¡¯t make any noise as it came around the corner in front of me and nearly scared me half to death. There were shadowy tentacles coming out of it as it moved towards my light almost like it could smell the shadows I was creating. I don¡¯t know if I can describe it as looking slimy, but that¡¯s what its shadowy body looked like to me.


    I could¡¯ve killed it right then if I wanted to, but I decided to run away instead. I wasn¡¯t scared or anything, it was just giving me icky disgusting vibes as I looked at its writhing tentacle-y form. I probably could¡¯ve gotten valuable materials from its corpse, but no, just no. I didn''t look back as I ran.


    The closest other area I could get to was the mossy caves. I don¡¯t know if the Champion shadow parasite is following me or not, so I just decided that I would skip resting for tonight and start my exploration of the mossy caves right away. Hopefully the Champion wouldn¡¯t roam out of the dark area.


    12th day of the 6th month of year 492 of 88M


    Mental Log


    There was nothing like magma pools or freezing pools filled with shadow parasites in the mossy region, it was just rock and moss; this sped up my exploration of the area immensely as I only had to fight the occasional monster along the way.


    The monsters in this area were moss golems in the shapes of a variety of different animals. There were tigers, snakes, a few dinosaur-like monsters, and even a bear. These mossy monsters were easy to deal with though, I just used some fire and they burned up super quickly, leaving only their cores behind. This left the cores still alive which made it a pain to store them all, but I was able to hold them in my hands, and I stored them as I walked through the tunnels.


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    It¡¯s getting close to the end of my 5 day timer now, and I finished mapping out the rest of the mossy caves, but I still haven''t found the altar I¡¯m supposed to perform a ritual on. I have all the materials for the ritual now, but the only place I haven¡¯t looked for the altar at this point is the area where the Champion was roaming.


    I really don¡¯t want to have to deal with that thing, but I need to find that altar if I want to finish this level. With how the Dungeon of Tribulation gets harder the longer you¡¯re in it, I don¡¯t want to spend any more time than necessary on the floor. I¡¯m feeling a bit tired right now, probably because I didn¡¯t sleep last night, but I¡¯ll have to stop my mental log here and put my full focus on this. I hope the Champion decides to go to a different part of the dark area, otherwise¡­ I don¡¯t want to think about the otherwise.


    -Break-


    I felt the virtual mind, that I had tasked with doing the mental log, return from the Cloud as I made my way into the dark and cold tunnels. I conjured a very bright light that hovered above and a little behind my head, so that I wouldn¡¯t be blinded by the light but I would still be able to see, and also so that my shadow would be very small and wouldn¡¯t touch any of the pools filled with parasites.


    With all of the spatial warping going on I was able to make it to the area where I had seen the Champion fairly quickly. I very, very cautiously peeked around the corner it had appeared from, but there were no shadow tentacles to be seen.


    With no Champion in sight I breathed a sigh of relief and continued my exploration where I had left off. It didn¡¯t take me long to find the altar in a dead end room with pools of the parasite liquid scattered around the edges. The altar was made out of black stone and engraved with arcane symbols from an unknown language.


    With the spatial warping in the rest of the maze, I was cautious about just casually approaching the altar. I wasn¡¯t going to take any chances of falling down a hundred foot hole I couldn¡¯t see, so I fully focused on my (Space-Time Sense) and felt the area around me. The room didn¡¯t seem to have any tricks hidden in it as far as I could tell.


    I was just about to stop focusing on the space around me when one of the ¡®programs¡¯ I had stored in my cloud sent me warning signals. It was very subtle so I had missed it myself, but my Skill had detected a slight fluctuation within my shadow.


    Focusing the full power of my Skill on my shadow I was able to sense the spatial shadow of something large right beside me. This spatial shadow was only ¡®visible¡¯ within my shadow, but just that shadow was enough to connect several things in my head, and I took action immediately.


    I made my body shine with light and heat as soon as I saw the shadow and connected the dots. A burst of light came out of every surface of my body, and I heard an alien screech as I was smacked away by the lashing of a tentacle to my right side.


    The Champion had been right beside me all along, feeding off of my shadows ever since I had met it. I must¡¯ve let my shadow touch it while I was running away, and it had managed to latch onto me and follow me around for days. It made sense, this was most likely just a much stronger version of the shadow parasites in the pools.


    I slammed against the side of the tunnel and felt the air get knocked out of my lungs. I let my Mental Operator Skill filter out the pain as I looked towards the spot where I had been standing. I almost wished I hadn¡¯t looked, as I saw a writhing mass of shadowy tentacles that looked like they were leaking the shadow equivalent of blood right where I had stood.


    I almost recoiled at the sight, but I didn¡¯t let my disgust control my actions as I reinforced my body with as much magic as I dared, and lunged towards the monster. I didn¡¯t particularly like up close physical combat, but it was currently my strongest offensive option so I didn¡¯t have much of a choice. I flooded my body with light mana as I neared the disgusting tentacle monstrosity, I squeezed my eyes shut and let the light burst out of me all at once as soon as I got near. The light was so bright I could see it through my eyelids, but the mana part of the light and heat was blocked by my [Magical Physique] so I was spared from the worst of it. I couldn¡¯t say the same for the tentacle monster though.


    I felt some wind brush past me, and some cold liquid stain my clothes from the tentacles that the creature was about to slap me away with, but with my burst of light they melted before they reached me leaving only a light breeze and some shadowy blood instead. The creature screamed even louder for a second before it went completely quiet, silenced by the light.


    Adrenaline was pumping through my veins and I opened my eyes needing to make sure the thing was truly dead. I almost threw up as I saw the twitching tentacles, the few that remained, and the unmoving mass of the Champion¡¯s body laying on the uneven floor, black blood pooling beneath it.


    The shadows the body was made out of started to lose their substance and quickly faded away leaving the blood of the creature to splash down all at once onto the floor. Apparently it was no longer able to maintain its outer form after it died.


    It was no longer hard to look at with its gross tentacle form no longer there, so I breathed a sigh of relief as I started to collect the blood and store it in my Internal World. The blood of a shadow parasite this large was sure to be a valuable ingredient, I just had to make sure I didn¡¯t think about what the blood had come from as I went about storing it inside of me.


    As I went about collecting the blood I took some time to think about it. I had been feeling a little bit tired earlier, but I had thought that was natural fatigue. On second thought it was probably the Champion leeching off of my shadow and draining me of energy. If I didn¡¯t have my [Magical Physique] I probably wouldn¡¯t have even lasted through the day before I fainted from exhaustion. It made me shiver in disgust that that thing had been following me around for so long feeding off of me and I hadn¡¯t noticed it. At least I had noticed it before I took it along with me to the next level, that would have been bad.


    In the center of the pool of blood there was a small black core the size of a bead. It was the monster core of the shadow parasite, and I happily stored it alongside the blood. I could make use of it later, but for now I just wanted to finish up this level.


    I finished storing everything and made my way over to the altar. Spread across the otherwise flat surface of the altar were a few impressions with pictures representing the different materials I needed for the ritual. The materials were various parts from the creatures I had killed in each of the areas of the maze. Some claws from the salamanders, a few cores from the moss golems, and some of the liquid holding the parasites. I had no idea how others would transport the liquid, but I was just glad that I could.


    It was nearing the 5 day deadline as I started to pour my mana into the altar. This magical ritual was extremely simple, and functioned more like the opening of a lock than actually having a magical effect.


    The materials I had placed on the altar disappeared and the altar split down the middle with an audible crack. The two halves of the altar spread apart with a grinding noise against the ground, revealing a tiny metal vial the size of the tip of my thumb. There was some tiny alien script written on the vial that I couldn¡¯t read, but I didn¡¯t care as I stored the vial within my Internal World. Now that it was inside I tried to get a look at what was inside of the vial, but the strange metal the vial was made out of was shielding it from my view even within my Internal World.


    Oh well, I would have to try and see if I could find out what the script on the vial said once I could access The Archives again. The Solo challenge prevented me from accessing The Archives, understandable really, but it meant that my reward would remain unknown until I left the Dungeon of Tribulation.


    Speaking of the Dungeon, not too long after I completed the ritual and stored the vial, a prompt appeared in front of me.


    [Level 1 complete. All challenges have been met.]


    [Would you like to enter the second level of the Dungeon of Tribulation, or leave the dungeon?]


    There¡¯s no reason to stay here any longer. ¡°Enter the second level please.¡±


    [Affirmative. Now entering the second level.]


    And with that I was whisked away to the second level. Who knew what kind of place it would be.

 Humiliated - Chapter 21

    -Radix-


    It had been five days since Radiant escaped from prison, and things had finally settled down somewhat and a meeting had been called to discuss the incident. When it had first been found out that Radiant had escaped, the entire prison had been put on high alert and all available resources were mobilized to capture him, but in the end Radiant hadn¡¯t even been found, let alone captured.


    His tracks were hard to follow, almost like Radiant had years of experience with counter tracking and evasion techniques. That, combined with everyone¡¯s limited capabilities within Lonevista, and it took a while to make any significant progress even hours after his escape.


    Eventually Radiant was close to being found, according to the freshness of the tracks being followed, but then all traces of Radiant seemed to disappear almost as if he had vanished into thin air. Not only had his tracks disappeared, he was nowhere to be found even after 4 days of trying to find any traces of him.


    After such a long time the search had to be called off. The drain on resources and manpower was too steep; Lonevista was no summer playground, and the resources needed to traverse the jungles safely were too great to sustain such an extensive operation.


    And now that a meeting had been called to inform the proper authorities about the situation, I had been asked to attend this high level meeting. Given the fact that Radiant had escaped while under my mental watch, I wouldn¡¯t be surprised if I was suspected of being an accomplice. I had to make sure to place as much of the blame on Radiant as I could, and emphasize my innocence.


    I was sitting in my chair nervously waiting for my queue to get up and speak. The intimidating warden had just finished up explaining the gist of the situation to everyone attending remotely and ended his remarks by saying, ¡°-and now we¡¯ll turn the time over to the Chief Mentalist, Radix, and get his take on the situation.¡±


    Multiple sets of eyes turned to me as I stood up from my seat and looked towards all of the faces attending this meeting remotely. Not only were there representatives from the 3 Dukedoms, there was even the High Talent¡¯s Advisor with her intimidating presence. The number of high level people currently attending this meeting would be enough to make anyone nervous, especially when they had to explain why an individual was able to escape from a max security prison under their mental watch.


    I swallowed hard and cleared my throat, ¡°As the Warden said, my name is Radix, and Radiant was under my supervision for his entire seventeen years here at Lonvista. I¡¯ll first give everyone a brief overview of Radiant¡¯s personality before we move on to questions.¡± I lifted up my notes in order to have something other than scary faces to focus on, ¡°Radiant has shown from a very young age to be a very capable individual, both in magic and social manipulation. His magic is important to his ability to escape, but his manipulation is what I would like to focus on. His ability to not only understand, but also manipulate others'' view of him is almost infallible.


    ¡°For example, at the age of ten Radiant had not only managed to convince everyone that he was safe, but also perfectly fine to be let out of Lonevista. It was only after it was revealed to him, during a meeting with his parents, that he would be able to leave that he finally revealed what was behind his mask. That was the first time that Radiant revealed his plans to escape from Lonevista when he said, and I quote, ¡®They think that they can lock me up? No¡­ No, I''ll show them. Hah! I¡¯ll escape from this place on my own. I¡¯ll be free on my own terms, not because someone else decided to give it to me. Just thinking about the look on everyone¡¯s faces when I manage to escape from here makes me shiver with excitement¡¯


    ¡°From this point on, Radiant openly displayed his desire to escape from Lonevista, but I believe this too was an act to get us to lower our guard. He has played everyone like fools ever since he was a child. Radiant has terrifying intelligence and the capability to use that intelligence to get what he wants. He has been planning this escape from the time he was only a child, and not even I was able to see past his deception.¡±


    A woman in a very official looking uniform full of medals spoke up after I had finished my overview, ¡°That¡¯s a very bold claim Mentalist Radix. Are you trying to say that we know nothing about his true character and everything we know about him is a lie?¡± Almost everyone in Tallen would at least know this woman¡¯s title, ¡®The Chief of Domestic Affairs, and The High Talent¡¯s Advisor¡¯ Meldet Agait.


    I quickly ran through multiple responses in my head before I said, ¡°I wouldn¡¯t necessarily say that we know nothing. Even if he was putting on a facade to hide his true intentions, we do know some of his core motivations. We know that he has a strong desire for freedom and independence. He has also shown a strong desire for anything related to magic and magical knowledge. Beyond this he hasn¡¯t shown any aggressive tendencies and is content to mostly keep to himself.¡±


    Then I caught myself, ¡°Although he has shown klepto tendencies. There was never any evidence of the things that went missing around him, though after the footage of his escape it is presumed that he has some kind of spatial storage. Other than this he hasn¡¯t shown much of a desire for other things.¡±


    My answer seemed to be sufficient and I relaxed slightly. Maybe I would be able to get through this after all.


    ¡°Would it be possible to see this footage?¡± Another woman said, this time ¡®The Chief of the Central Intelligence Division¡¯ Reen Ennerat, maybe her profession influenced her question.


    ¡°Yes, certainly.¡± I nodded towards the technical assistants and they quickly pulled up the footage of the beginning of Radiant¡¯s escape.


    A video was displayed to everybody. It started off with Radiant taking the talent awakening orb and clearly using it in front of those that were in his room. Everyone in Radiant¡¯s room then proceeded to file out leaving Radiant alone. Then the video fast forwarded while Radiant was just sitting there in the middle of the room doing nothing.


    The video returned to normal speed when Radiant suddenly opened up his eyes at the same time as a poorly made flesh golem appeared next to him. Then, without hesitation, Radiant proceeded to cut his finger and draw a magic circle on the chest and back of the flesh golem. Then he seemingly pulled two mana crystals out of thin air and used them to activate the two magic circles.


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    Radiant took a look at his work before slightly nodding and rushing to the bathroom. The video switched to a camera within Radiant¡¯s bathroom and showed him taking everything he could before running back out. The video switched to the view of Radiant¡¯s room and showed him going back over to his flesh golem and placing a piece of paper.


    After placing the piece of paper in its hands, Radiant walked over to the wall with a door and stood there for a moment before turning to look directly at the camera in his room and giving it an arrogant, almost mocking smirk. Then a portal showing the hallway outside of the room appeared in front of Radiant and he stepped through it before it closed behind him and the video ended.


    Some of the people in the room now had sour faces after seeing the mocking smile Radiant had given the camera. I probably had the most sour look on my face, because that mocking smile almost seemed like direct evidence of my failure.


    ¡°Not only does he have some kind of spatial storage, he can also open portals? How were these things not noticed before?¡± The Chief of the CID Reen Ennerat seemed focused on assessing Radiant¡¯s capabilities.


    Sensing an opportunity to clear my name I said, ¡°Well normally I would be able to catch these kinds of things when doing my sessions with him, but Radiant never showed any signs of being able to do these things.¡± I needed to give some evidence so I said, ¡°It was known that Radiant had some kind of mental metaphysical organ before coming here, and I believe that this allowed him to evade my mental detection somehow.¡±


    ¡°A mere child was able to evade the mental detection of an expert Mentalist? I find that hard to believe.¡± The man representing the Dukedom of Freegear spoke up.


    I gulped, ¡°Please understand that Lonevista suppresses my capabilities. The Mentalist that examined Radiant before he came to Lonevista with his full capabilities gave no mention of Radiant having such abilities, so there was no way for me to prevent this.¡±


    ¡°Hmm, so you¡¯re saying that Radiant developed the ability to shield his mind after he came to Lonevista? I might be able to believe that, but a mental shield could still be detected right?¡±


    I jumped on the opportunity to emphasize Radiant¡¯s competence, ¡°Not only just shield his mind, but make it look and feel completely normal. I could¡¯ve easily detected a shielded mind, but this was something much more impressive.¡±


    ¡°Alright, we can discuss that further later.¡± The Chief of CID Reen Ennerat said, ¡°I¡¯m more curious to know what the thing Radiant left behind was.¡±


    ¡°That was actually a letter. Nothing of much importance.¡± I said.


    ¡°A letter? I would like to see this letter, I¡¯ll decide if it¡¯s important or not.¡±


    ¡°Yes, certainly. One moment please.¡±


    An image of the letter was displayed for everyone to see, and I proceeded to narrate for everyone present.


    To anyone that reads this message. I want to emphasize the fact that I was being unjustly held here and have finally decided that it was time for me to take my leave. I hope that after hearing of my, absolutely amazing, escape from a max security prison, that you will be able to realize that you would not have been able to pull off such an impossible feat yourself. Don¡¯t worry though, it is only natural that a genius such as myself would be able to accomplish such a thing, I was just born superior to you. I recognize that I had an unfair advantage being born superior to everyone else, but there¡¯s nothing I can do about this fact, so you¡¯ll just have to accept the truth and move on.


    To those that imprisoned me here, at this point you might be afraid, thinking that I¡¯ll want revenge against those that imprisoned me. This worry is unnecessary though, as I recognize that inferior beings, such as yourselves, can¡¯t be held accountable for their stupidity and ignorance of my greatness. Though if I am branded as a criminal, even though everything is entirely your fault and I¡¯ve done nothing wrong, then don¡¯t blame me for acting like one in the future. Honestly that would just make you look like a petty child that is upset at having been beaten at their own game. Even after years of openly displaying that I was going to escape from prison, don¡¯t blame me for your incompetence and inability to keep me here.


    From your superior, Radiant.


    P.S. If I am branded as a criminal you better not make me look stupid. You wouldn¡¯t want to lose your most prized and valuable possessions to a stupid person after all, though I would find it hilarious so ultimately it¡¯s up to you.


    After the letter is finished, the mocking smile Radiant had given before he exited from his room stings all that much more, and even those that didn¡¯t have a sour look on their faces before, now have one too. Looking at everyone, I could tell that they all felt like this was just too much. Not only had Radiant successfully escaped, he had mocked everyone and even claimed to be their superior while rubbing it in their faces.


    Nobody spoke for a while as they took in Radiant¡¯s letter. Even though I had read this letter before, its mocking and arrogant words still made me feel indignant.


    ¡°This kid is arrogant beyond words.¡± The burly man representing the Dukedom of Underrich spoke up.


    ¡°Indeed. The circumstances that led to his escape were impossible to plan for. Though it makes me wonder if all he was waiting for was the right opportunity and this just happened to be the one he decided to use.¡± The elegant woman representing the Dukedom of Nightwater also gave her opinion after listening to such an arrogant letter.


    That comment seemed to bring mixed reactions to everyone. Then Meldet Agait, the High Talent¡¯s Advisor, spoke up, ¡°Given what I have learned about this man, I am led to believe that while not physically violent he could be dangerous in other ways. He even stated himself that he might resort to becoming a thief. In your opinion Radix, what is the stance we should take on Radiant and his escape?¡±


    I was surprised that I was being asked my opinion on such a topic by the High Talent¡¯s advisor. I took a deep breath and gave my thoughts, ¡°In my opinion it is unnecessary to label Radiant as a dangerous individual and notify the public about him.¡± I paused for a moment, ¡°That said, I also think that some measures should be taken to inform the public about Radiant, if only to make it easier to find him. But I¡¯m not an expert in this field, so that is just my uneducated opinion.¡±


    ¡°Alright, thank you for your opinion.¡± Then she moved on from me, ¡°Warden. What is your opinion on the matter?¡±


    Everyone attending the meeting started to ask questions about Radiant and his escape while myself and others tried their best to answer them. After an hour from when the meeting began, it ended. Everyone attending the meeting was an important individual, and they didn¡¯t have the luxury of staying any longer than an hour, as they had other things to attend to.


    I had no idea what would come from all of this, but I just hoped that I would be able to keep my job. Letting a MAX danger patient escape under my watch definitely didn¡¯t bode well for me though. I just hoped that I had stressed how capable Radiant was and made it clear that I was completely innocent. Hopefully they focused more on Radiant than they did on my shortcomings, because I really didn¡¯t want to have to find another job at my age.

 Level 2 - Chapter 22

    -Radiant-


    As soon as I was transported to the second level, I had to close my eyes against a blinding white light. Slowly I opened my eyes as they adjusted to the bright white landscape around me. At the same time I felt a biting chill numb my skin and threaten to make my throat and lungs freeze as I breathed in freezing air. There was also a soft sound at my feet like sugar falling to the ground.


    My eyes quickly adjusted to the light and I subsequently got to take in a breathtaking view. I was in the middle of a large forest where snow seemed to cover every surface it could stick to, like a thick, and heavy, white blanket covering both the trees and the ground.


    I was on top of a small hill that allowed me to get a good view of the forest through the few gaps in the trees on the hill. The dense forest went up and down with valleys and rolling hills, and I could make out great spires of ice jutting up out of the treetops at random and at odd angles.


    Looking down, I tried to determine what the sound I was hearing was, and I realized that my breath was turning to ice and falling to the ground after I breathed out. My fingers were already starting to go numb and turn red, and my sorry excuse for clothing was doing nothing to shield me from the harsh environment.


    I almost started to shiver, but I ran a heating spell throughout my body and felt a relieving warmth quickly spread to the tips of my fingers making the numbness go away. It seems that even with my [Magical Physique] blocking most of the cold, I¡¯m not completely safe from the freezing temperatures.


    Looking up at the sky there were clusters of clouds that all radiated the light of the sun, but there was no sun in sight which was strange. Before I could speculate though, a System notification came to me.


    [Time Requirement: Survive for 130 hours]


    [Forced Task: Steal from the Champion¡¯s hoard]


    ¡°Ten more hours than the first level. And steal from the Champion¡¯s hoard huh? I can do that.¡± I wouldn¡¯t say that I was an expert thief, but wasn¡¯t the most important thing for a thief just not getting caught? I had a lot of experience in that area, so I must be a decent thief right? In any case, right now I had no idea where the Champion on this level was, or anything about it really. I needed to first gather information before acting, so I opened up my status and focused on my Skills.


    [Active Skills/Powers 3/3]-


    (Power: Accelerated Cloud Mental Operator; Evolution:0 Level: 86)


    (Skill: Physical Recovery II; Level: 42)


    (Skill: Mana Conversion; Level: 59)-


    [Inactive Skills/Powers 12]-


    (Skill: Mana Maintenance II; Level: 67)


    (Skill: Foreign Analysis; Level: 80)


    (Skill: Deceive; Level: 66)


    (Skill: Sense Mana II; Level: 61)


    (Skill: Pain Tolerance; Level: 52)


    (Skill: Physical Augmentation; Level: 67)


    (Skill: Space-Time Sense; Level: 63)


    (Skill: Tireless Mana II; Level: 53)


    (Skill: Selective Transformation II; Level: 12)


    (Skill: Basic Space Control; Level: 82)


    (Skill: Mana Crystallization II; Level: 25)


    (Skill: Efficient Crystallization; Level: 60)-


    I switched out (Physical Recovery II) for (Foreign Analysis) and started to analyze my surroundings.


    I didn¡¯t obtain much I didn¡¯t already know, but when I analyzed the spires of ice I got an interesting response (Clear ice spire: This ice spire was formed by a vein of clear ice over a period of many many years.) A vein of clear ice? Those are really rare, if I could harvest them I would have a source of infinite ice. Am I being too greedy here¡­? Nah, this is only the second level, how hard could it be compared to the first one?


    Analyzing the clouds I got this response (Luminescent cloud: These aren¡¯t normal clouds. These clouds absorb sunlight during the day, but they slowly radiate gathered sunlight during the night.) So it''s actually nighttime, and these clouds are what¡¯s making it so bright right now? So I don¡¯t have long until it gets dark, good to know.


    I didn¡¯t have anything to do at the moment besides locating the Champion¡¯s hoard. So I decided that I would go around collecting the clear ice veins while searching for said hoard. It sounded like a great plan to me, and I set off towards the closest ice spire, always happy to collect more valuable things.


    -Break-


    The walk through the deep snow was not easy. I got to the ice spire and took off my shoes to shake out the snow, and while I was doing this I started to wish that I had a pair of snowshoes instead.


    The base of the ice spire had a diameter of about 20 meters, and a height of at least 3 times that. The base of the spire was jagged and uneven, but as it went further up it started to taper off into a single point by the time it reached the top. I couldn¡¯t really see into the ice spire because of the snow covering the surface, but because of my analysis I knew there had to be a clear ice vein in the center of the base of this ice spire. So without further ado I started to use heat to excavate the ice to get to the ice vein in the center.


    80% of the way into my excavation of the ice vein, I started to notice that the ambient light was starting to dim a little. I had no idea how long it would take for the clouds to run out of light, but if it got too much darker I would have to start producing my own light, and I wasn¡¯t so sure about how that would turn out. As I was thinking this, I got a warning from one of my virtual minds that was focused on looking out for danger. It had picked up faint noises of crunching snow coming closer to my location, and it alerted me by breaking into my thoughts with the information.


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    I went to the opening in the ice spire and saw a pack of 5 large wolves, with fur that looked like razor sharp ice, and eyes that seemed to lock onto me like I was a beacon in the dark. They were approaching me from all sides and leaving me trapped with nowhere to run. I didn¡¯t want to mess with such sharp looking fur up close, so I would have to defeat these icicle wolves using longer range offensive spells.


    I had been trying to be conservative with my mana while I was digging into the ice spire, so I still had about 70 percent left to fight with. I weaved an ice spell with about 10% of my mana to hopefully kill one of the wolves. After a few seconds of constructing the spell, with the wolves slowly but steadily coming closer, I fired off the ice spear, made out of the ice from the spire around me, at the leftmost wolf.


    The wolf was startled, having probably never faced anything like this before, and failed to dodge the ice spear aimed at its chest. The spear penetrated the beast easily and sent it tumbling like a ragdoll to the ground, dead. I was a little surprised by the strength of the ice spear, but as soon as the wolf died the rest of the pack growled and rushed towards me.


    I panicked and hastily used the same ice spear spell, but I overloaded the spell and threw almost all of my remaining mana into it. With more than 5 times the original mana, the spell probably would¡¯ve shattered had it been anybody else wielding it, but with my impressive mental capabilities I was able to control the overloaded spell and fire it off with the wolves that were now only a meter away from me.


    Multiple ice spears flew out to intercept the approaching wolves, and at such a close distance there was no way for them to dodge the fast moving projectiles. I heard multiple whimpers as the wolves were impaled before they crashed into the snow and lay unmoving.


    I breathed out the breath I had been holding and endured the feeling of low mana. That was crazy! These wolves are a lot stronger than the things on the first level. Maybe I just got unlucky with the Wider Difficulty Range challenge, or maybe there are only a few groups of stronger entities on this level.


    Calming down quickly thanks to [MO], I took a closer look at the corpses. Their warm blood had started to leak out of their wounds, but it was freezing extremely quickly, much quicker than the temperature of the air suggested, implying that there was some type of magical effect in the environment making them freeze faster. I didn¡¯t have the mana I would need to store all of these corpses in my Internal World at the moment, so I decided to wait around and used my (Foreign Analysis) to try and determine how these wolves had found me and if I was safe to stay here.


    Analyzing the bodies, I found what had probably led these wolves to my location. (Heat seeking eyes: Eyes that can see even the smallest differences in heat.) These wolves probably followed a heat trail to my location. It would probably be a bad idea to leave this location and leave even fresher heat trails¡­ Thinking this, I went into the hole in the ice spire and covered the entrance with snow to stop my heat from leaking out, and waited for my mana to recover.


    I wasn¡¯t worried about the corpses sitting out, this freezing landscape was better than any freezer and it would be fine to leave the corpses out for quite a while.


    Unfortunately that turned out to be a bad idea.


    After about half an hour I had recovered to about 30%, and was just about to get up and store the corpses when I felt the ground slightly shake. I paused and felt the shaking increase and heard something making its way towards my location breaking branches and causing snow to fall to the ground.


    Whatever was coming in my direction was not something I wanted to face with such low mana reserves. So, as quickly as I could, I used up all my mana to make my presence disappear, including my scent, heat, sound, and everything else I could currently accomplish with my mana. The shaking of the ground continued to grow, and before 30 seconds had passed a large gray figure entered the clearing around the ice spire.


    I couldn¡¯t clearly make out what it looked like through the warping of the ice, and the snow blocking my view, but I could tell that it was large and powerful. It steadily walked closer to the ice spire before stopping and lowering its head towards the ground. Then I heard a low rumbling, and a blast of fire washed over the ground outside the entrance and quickly melted all of the surrounding snow, including what I had used to cover the entrance to where I was hiding.


    The air shimmered with heat and the fire stopped almost as soon as it started, but that short burst was enough to leave the wolf corpses without their icy fur, and the smell of cooked meat flowed down the small tunnel and into my nose. With all of the snow melted I could clearly see the large gray scaled creature outside.


    Then I heard the crunching of bones as the gray figure started to consume the wolves in just a few bites. While it was doing this I got a better view of it, and what I saw was frightening beyond comparison. A Dragon. My heart nearly stopped as I realized what was standing only about 10 meters from me.


    The gray Dragon quickly finished off the 4 wolf corpses outside the ice spire and moved its head over to the entrance to where I was hiding. Its lizard-like face with large teeth and dark lazy eyes stared into the tunnel but failed to see anything due to my spell. Its head went out of sight and I saw its powerful clawed feet move past the entrance as the Dragon moved over to the last wolf corpse and gave it the same treatment as the rest.


    Having finished its meal the dragon casually walked off into the forest dragging its long fat tail behind it. I dared not make a sound until the shaking of the ground faded away 30 seconds later. I was shaking from adrenaline and my heart was beating fast as thoughts ran through my head.


    I knew I might face some danger, but a Dragon, really? Holly Jilly that scared me. It looks like I really did get unlucky with the Wider Difficulty Range for a Dragon to be the Champion on this level. I mean if that¡¯s not the Champion then I¡¯ll eat my hat. I don''t actually have a hat, but my point stands! Well at least I¡¯ll be able to follow its tracks and find out where its hoard is, then all I have to do is find a way to steal from it.


    My mind started to fantasize about all of the treasure I might find in a Dragon''s hoard, and a smile came to my face as I thought about stealing from it. I might not be able to fight a dragon, but stealing from its hoard should be doable.


    Others might start shaking in fear if they were told they had to steal from a Dragon¡¯s hoard, after all a Dragon was at the apex in terms of metaphysical strength; with their many different metaphysical organs, they had almost nothing to fear. Stealing from a Dragon is basically a death sentence if the Dragon catches you. But that just means that I shouldn¡¯t get caught right?

 Unfortunate - Chapter 23

    My mana had once again bottomed out after casting my concealment spell, and I began to feel that sickening feeling once again. It was bearable, as long as I didn¡¯t try to use mana while I was low, almost like the feeling of being extremely full after eating, as long as you didn¡¯t eat more it would be bearable.


    While I was recovering my mana, I began to reorganize my approach to this level. The hostile entities on this level were obviously much stronger, and were comparable to what might normally be seen on the 12th level.


    This was a problem, because every 6 levels there would be a jump in difficulty. For example in levels 1-6 everything would be Rank 0, and the Tiers would be 1,2,3,7,8,9. For levels 7-12 the Tiers would repeat, but everything would be Rank 1. So with the current level¡¯s difficulty being what it would be at level 12, everything was Rank 1 Tier 9, and their Status Level would be 12.


    I was confident in my strength, but I was still suffering under the effects of my (Ornate Chains of Talent) which restricted me from certain types of growth until I completed my first Tribulation. So I was currently Rank 0, Peak Tier 9, Level 0.


    I estimated that at my current strength I might survive up to level 18, key words being ¡®might survive¡¯, but in actuality with the Wider Difficulty Range challenge if I went any higher than level 5 and had an unlucky +10 added to the floor difficulty I might not be able to handle it and die a miserable death. I might be greedy, but I don''t like to play with randomness with my life on the line, lest I get unlucky once again. That¡¯s not to say that I was a coward, I just didn¡¯t have a good enough relationship with lady luck to take such risks.


    Currently, with the difficulty of the level increased so much, I had to start taking extra precautions in order to ensure my completion of this level. No matter what, I have to steal from that Dragon¡¯s hoard to complete this level. Think Radiant, lay out all the possible courses of action and then gather information.


    First option was robbery.


    Slay the Dragon after following it to its hoard and then take its stuff. But I currently lacked the ability to accomplish this feat so this one was off the table for now.


    Second option was grand theft.


    Wait for the Dragon to leave its hoard before making my move. But I had no idea when it would leave again. After all, it had just had a large meal, I didn¡¯t know if it would leave any time soon.


    Third option was petty theft.


    Steal some of the Dragon¡¯s hoard under its nose before escaping. This plan was easy to accomplish, but the thought of leaving so much treasure behind hurt my soul, so unless I absolutely couldn¡¯t achieve the other two options, this one was a last resort.


    Every option was less profitable than the last, but way easier to accomplish. The only thing I was lacking in order to make a final decision was information.


    So the first thing I did after I recovered enough mana to not feel sick was to fire off a few divinations. With divination, the more something had to do with oneself the better; if I had tried to find the Champion before I met the Dragon in person, then it would¡¯ve been close to impossible with my current level of divination. However after having come face to face with the Dragon, I was able to easily determine its location for at least the next few days. With this I wouldn¡¯t have to worry about locating the Dragon and could patiently wait for my mana to recover before tracking it down.


    With the heat seeking wolves outside I wasn¡¯t comfortable wandering around while I wasn¡¯t at my full strength, so for the first time since I had left the prison I had some free time, and with this freetime I decided to try and make something out of the materials I had on me, at least until my concealment spell wore off in a couple hours.


    My goal was to make an enchanted item that I could use to increase my strength. I could keep the materials in order to sell them for money later, but I already had money that was currently in Genesis¡¯ hands. Besides, I had a large stockpile of mana crystals that I could use for trading purposes as well.


    While sitting alone inside a small freezing tunnel, I took out the branch of a tree I had picked up while going through Lonevista. I pulled out all of the materials and set them down in front of me.


    A moment after I was getting ready to start, a loud ¡®CRACK!¡¯ similar to the sound of a gunshot, sounded right in front of me. I immediately jumped and hit my head on the ceiling of the icy tunnel, but I ignored the pain like usual and got into a defensive position as I looked for the threat that had broken the silence of the forest.


    Under my vigilant gaze I noticed that the branch beside me had a major split in it that wasn¡¯t there before. Looking at it I realized what had caused the sound. The branch, after being exposed to such extremely cold temperatures, had exploded due to pressure from the water within it freezing.


    ¡°Holly Jilly that scared me.¡± I put my hand over my racing heart and felt the adrenaline coursing through my veins.


    I totally forgot that that could happen. I probably just alerted everything in this forest to my location. But at least I¡¯m not in any immediate danger. That really scared me!


    The branch was starting to freeze solid which wouldn¡¯t be good if I wanted to use it for crafting purposes. I had intended to use this branch as a sort of band that I would use to thread the Raij¨±¡¯s teeth onto and wear it like a necklace. However now that it had exploded like this I didn¡¯t have the luxury of waiting here and potentially having my crafting interrupted.


    Ugh, well I don¡¯t like it but I¡¯ll either have to leave behind this ice vein and get away from here, or take my chances staying here and just assume that the wolves were scared away by the loud sound.


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    I was really close to reaching the ice vein, about 80%, but there were always more ice veins I could excavate, and the sooner I took care of the Dragon¡¯s hoard the better. So I got up from my seated position and stored away the materials I had taken out. Then I made my way out of the cramped tunnel and into the darkening frozen forest. Now I had to get as far away from here as I could, hopefully the Dragon didn¡¯t hear the loud sound and decide to investigate, then I would have to wait even longer to find its hoard.


    ¡°This level just doesn¡¯t seem to vibe with me.¡± Although I said this out loud, no sound escaped my lips as I walked back out into the now darkened snowy forest. I shot off another divination looking for the Dragon and promptly headed in the direction I needed to go. The sooner I robbed the Dragon, the sooner I would be able to continue plundering the ice spires.


    -Break-


    It took a long time for the Dragon to finally reach its destination, it slowly walked its way through the forest like it was on a casual stroll. After over an hour of following the Dragon it finally made its way to a large cave, seemingly carved into the side of a hill by the claws of the Dragon, its claw marks clearly visible along the sides of the walls.


    When I peaked my head over a small hill to observe the Dragon, it was already laying down and blocking the entrance into its cave, not leaving me any room to sneak past it, unless I wanted to try and teleport behind it. Teleporting behind it would definitely give me access to the treasure, but with how sensitive almost all Dragon''s senses were, I had no chance of stealing much from its hoard before it noticed me.


    No, if I wanted to steal from this Dragon I was going to have to wait for it to leave again, or find some way to lure it away. It had obviously decided to leave its hoard once, so there must be something that motivated it to leave, I just had to find out what.


    Thinking back to what I knew about Dragons, I knew that they were extremely powerful with all of their different metaphysical organs, definitely one of the top creatures in the food chain, but that also meant that they required a lot of food to function. This meant that this Dragon would definitely have to leave the cave sometime, but with it already having had such a large meal, I didn¡¯t know how long it would be until it naturally went looking for food again.


    Think Radiant, what else would a Dragon leave its hoard for?


    I tried to think of something else, but I came up blank. It would seem that I had to wait for this dragon to be hungry naturally.


    Then I recalled something about Dragons that lived in sparser environments, they would never pass up the opportunity of more food, because Dragons needed so much food, they would eat as much as they could, whenever they could, and take any extra food back with them to save for later. Seeing as this was a cold environment with little wildlife, this Dragon might just take the bait if I set up something to lure it away.


    So, with this in mind, I began to walk far away from the Dragon. An hour and a half later I stopped and took a look around the small ravine I found myself in, it wasn¡¯t much but it would be sufficient for my needs. I promptly started to booby trap the ravine before taking out some of the lizard corpses from the first level.


    By this point I had already lost my concealment magic, and now I had used about 50% of my max mana. Using about 20% of my mana I recast the concealment spell on myself to last about an hour, and augmented my body to be lighter and faster so I could get back to the Dragon¡¯s cave faster.


    Not 10 minutes after I had started running back to the Dragon I fired off a divination to see if it had taken the bait. The answer was yes, and it seemed to be quite the distance from its cave already. Is it running or something? How did it get so far so quickly after I put out the bait?


    20 minutes later I felt the ground start to shake once again, and through the trees I could make out the shape of the Dragon heading my way with its normal lumbering gait. It hadn¡¯t even been that long since I had gotten the lizard corpse out, certainly not long enough for the dragon to have come this far walking at its current speed. Thinking about it as I ran past the Dragon, I did some calculations in my head based on the Dragon¡¯s speed and realized that for the Dragon to have made it this far it would have started moving roughly 5 minutes after my concealment spell had ended, meaning that the Dragon had been coming after me.


    I was the food.


    This sent a chill through my spine despite the warming spell running through my body. If I didn¡¯t have this concealment spell on me then I would be hunted down by the Dragon wherever I went within this level. This was a sobering thought that I was happy to realize sooner rather than later.


    Continuing to run, I made it back to the Dragon¡¯s cave after another 30 minutes. Rushing into the clawed out cave, I had to put out a light spell from my skin so that I could see in the darkness. When I made it to the end of the dark cave that went downwards into the earth, I laid my eyes on a veritable mountain of treasure lying in a beautiful pile at the end of the cave.


    I nearly cried looking at this, but I didn¡¯t have any time to admire the scene, because the Dragon would no doubt be on its way and I had to make away with everything I could before it got back.


    So I used my (Fractured Space Channel) on the room to make transporting everything into my Internal World easier and faster. Going around I stored everything as fast as I could, starting off with the most valuable things I could see before moving on to the loose items that made up the majority of the pile.


    I madly dashed around to pick up the various larger items, but after there were only small items left I made a small portal over the palm of my hand and started to scoop as much as I could into my Internal World. I got through about 70% of the pile before I could feel the shaking of the earth and hear a Dragon¡¯s roar run down the cave tunnels and into my ears. It should take the Dragon at least a minute to make its way down here from the cave entrance. I should teleport out of here now.


    At this point it was mostly just coins and other insignificant things left, so I decided to take this chance and teleport out of here before the Dragon showed up and burnt me to a crisp.


    As I was starting my teleportation spell my eyes took one last sweep over the glittering pile of treasure I would have to leave behind. As I was doing this, a certain symbol on a piece of leather that looked like the collar of a coat caught my eye. It looked like it had the symbol of Underrich¡¯s main family on it. Maybe it could have something important in it?


    The shaking of the ground was growing by the second. Should I go for it or not? My accelerated minds went into overdrive as I warred within myself whether or not I should go for the item before I left. I would be cutting it close, but I should be able to grab one last thing before leaving. So I dashed towards the leather with the symbol on it and sent it into my Internal world as soon as I laid my hands on it. I wouldn¡¯t know if it was worth it until later, but I sure hoped it was.


    Resuming my teleportation spell I rushed to complete it before the Dragon arrived. As I was feeding the spell with the mana it needed, the Dragon came into view. The look of rage in its eyes as it took in the intruder that had stolen its treasure was enough to make anyone tremble in fear, but before its opening maw could send a stream of whatever Dragon breath it had my way, I disappeared, leaving behind a much smaller pile of treasure than it had been when I had arrived.

 Not So Easy - Chapter 24

    Popping out of the Dragon¡¯s hoard at the top of the bare hill, I promptly used all of my minds to complete the concealment spell as quickly as possible. I could hear the Dragon¡¯s powerful roar echo out from the cave entrance, and I could feel the ground slightly tremble. This motivated me to complete the spell and I finished it quicker than I had before.


    With that finished I ran off into the forest with a pounding heart, trying to get as far away from the angry Dragon as possible. I knew that the Dragon would probably not leave its treasure anymore if it couldn¡¯t find any traces of me, but I still didn¡¯t want to be anywhere near it, and even if I did want the rest of its hoard, I was content with what I had already plundered.


    After putting a distance of a few kilometers between myself and the Dragon I slowed down and breathed out a breath of relief. Man that felt amazing! As always taking things others don¡¯t want you to have is exhilarating!


    In the past, after I had escaped from the government, I had had to resort to stealing to survive. I mean, with the entirety of Tallen looking for me, there wasn¡¯t much I could do to earn an honest living without being caught. And during my time looting and stealing I came to realize that I quite enjoyed the thrill of it all. At first I had a guilty conscience about stealing from others, but with my survival on the line I didn¡¯t have much of a choice. Of course I never stole from people who weren¡¯t at least a little bit wealthy, I wasn¡¯t a monster. I thought of myself as a little bit of a Robin Hood-esque person, stealing from the rich and giving to the poor (me).


    As I walked through the quiet white forest towards a nearby ice spire, I pondered how different I had become from who I had been on Earth. Back before my untimely death I was just an average guy, going to work and resting when I got home. I never felt much of a challenge going through life, but at the same time I was perfectly fine with that, and I never had any thoughts about breaking the law. Back then I had thought of myself as a completely normal person, but after coming to Epidas and experiencing so many different things, I realized that the ¡®rules¡¯ and ¡®purpose¡¯ of Epidas and Earth were what determined what ¡®normal¡¯ was for me.


    On Earth my ¡®purpose¡¯ was to live a long good life before I eventually died, but on Epidas my ¡®purpose¡¯ was to achieve my dreams and be free. Of course some would say that achieving my dreams was also my ¡®purpose¡¯ on Earth, but the ¡®rules¡¯ of Earth prevented most of my dreams from even being possible. For example one of my dreams was to live forever, but that just wasn¡¯t going to happen on Earth. As for being free, that required power, and on Earth the strongest someone could get was the power to launch a nuclear missile, but in Epidas someone could eventually grow to be able to launch attacks on a similar scale with their own power. In terms of limits, Epidas had almost none, even a snail could become a god with enough time and luck.


    In essence, the ¡®rules¡¯ of Earth limited the dreams I could have, but the ¡®rules¡¯ of Epidas made my dreams possible. Having come to Epidas I was able to finally realize that I was only normal on Earth because there was no reason for me to be anything but normal. However here in Epidas it was like I had opened Pandora¡¯s box rife with pain and challenge, but at the end there was still hope.


    Reaching an ice spire, I began to slowly carve my way into it by heating up my hands and carving out a tunnel. After reaching the center I carved out around the ice vein that was the size of my fist. Then I stored the ice vein in my Internal World before I started to enlarge the center into a room where I could take out and inspect the treasure I had plundered while I waited for my mana to regenerate.


    The first thing I pulled out was the coat with Underrich¡¯s symbol on it. It was a very nice coat made out of some kind of leather that was dyed black, with fancy buttons and designs all over it. Feeling around inside of the pockets I felt something metallic in the left breast pocket. Pulling it out, it looked like a pocket watch. Flipping it open, it had an old-fashioned picture of a family on it.


    The quality of the picture would be low quality in modern times, but it must¡¯ve been of the highest quality back when it was taken based on the contents of the picture. It was a family of 6, with 1 young girl and 3 older boys, all with very expensive looking clothes in front of a large mansion. This family was definitely very important generations back.


    Digging into the other pockets I found a ruined journal in one of the inner pockets. Flipping through it, I could quickly read all of it with my accelerated mind and perfect memory, and I summarized some things I had read. First of all, the person who had written this journal was alive over 100 years ago, during the time of the Tallen civil war, and they were the 3rd son of the Underrich family.


    His name was Silgol and he was 16 years old when the war had started. He had been impatient and overconfident when he had taken on his first Tribulation and had taken on 6 challenges, one of which was also Wider Difficulty Range just like me. Unfortunately for him and his companions he had gotten unlucky, when he had gone to his 6th level he had ended up here in a level 12 environment. He hadn¡¯t lasted long against the relentless pursuit of the Dragon, and had died sometime after his 2nd day on this level.


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    ¡°Haah, even if you¡¯re a prince of a Dukedom, it¡¯s not so easy is it?¡±


    By the time Silgol had reached 17, the war had already been ongoing for almost a year, and it seemed like he had entered the Dungeon of Tribulation early in hopes of being able to join the war, but, unfortunately, it hadn¡¯t ended well for him and, presumably, his companions.


    His journal actually depicted quite the moving story before his entrance into the Dungeon of Tribulation, with intrigue, betrayal, love, and ambition. Though he hadn¡¯t made it back, it might give him a little solace, in death, to know that the side he supported in the civil war had won in the end. But maybe not.


    I could understand his desire to improve himself before going to war. With the war between Tallen and Ugrayen coming up in about 3 years, I was also preparing the strength I needed to withstand the trials ahead, but I did it to get the most out of the war, not to win it. I already knew that Tallen would be on the losing side in this war, so I just wanted to profit off of this war as much as possible while staying on the sidelines. Even if I wanted to help Tallen out with my future knowledge, what I knew mostly came from things I had read while I had prepared to come back to the past; with my memories during the time I was mind controlled being fuzzy at best, and non-existent at worst.


    Seeing as how this coat was towards the bottom of the pile of treasure, nobody had succeeded in fully plundering the Dragon¡¯s hoard for over a century. Before that maybe someone had succeeded, or maybe this particular layout of the Dungeon had only been created not long before Silgol¡¯s attempt.


    In any case, the fact that I had actually entered the same level layout as someone from Tallen was remarkable, even if it was over a century later. The Dungeon of Tribulation didn¡¯t just have a few layouts, it had more than trillions- to quadrillions of different layouts for each different level. Although compared to the size of Epidas, and its population, quadrillions wasn¡¯t as big of a number as one would think.


    The size of the continent of Waroth that Tallen was on was larger than the size of Earth¡¯s solar system out to the Oort Cloud. And Waroth was only just a minor continent, compared to some of the supercontinents scattered throughout Epidas the number of things entering the Dungeon of Tribulation could be imagined.


    I shook my head, I sometimes lost myself in my own head, but it was understandable after basically being stuck in there for over 40 years in the past. Old habits die hard.


    Rummaging through the pockets, I couldn¡¯t find anything else, so I used my Skill to analyze the coat and see if there was anything special about it, and a description flowed into my mind.


    [Luxury Temperature Regulation Coat] (Rare, Fine-Silver)


    No Equipment Requirements


    Temperature Resistance +10


    Passive Skill 1 -


    Temperature Regulation: Everything covered by the coat will be the perfect temperature.


    Passive Skill 2 -


    Automatic Repair: Slowly repairs itself using the mana in the air.


    ¡°Well I guess that explains why it looks as good as new. I was wondering how the dragon could¡¯ve killed him and still left the coat in this condition.¡± I put the coat on and immediately felt the parts it covered start to burn with heat making me have to turn off the heating spell I was running through my body, ¡°Nice, this is definitely staying on.¡±


    Now I wouldn¡¯t have to spend as much mana on heating my body. Taking inventory of the other items I had plundered, I learned my lesson with the branch and kept everything at the same temperature it was when I got it, not risking damage to the items with fast shifts in temperature. Most of the items were metal, but there were quite a few items of clothing that were in perfect condition, and would be perfect to wear if they weren¡¯t so brittle from the cold. I would have to warm them up slowly before I could wear them, but it was nice to know that I had something besides prison clothes to wear when I got out of here.


    There were also a few storage bags that were still functioning, but the perishable supplies in them had long since perished. However there was a plethora of dungeoneering and survival gear within them that would definitely be very useful once they weren¡¯t so brittle from the cold.


    There were some other artifacts with great effects as well, but none of them were resistant to the cold like my new coat was, so I would have to let them slowly warm up along with everything else. All in all, I had made a huge profit from this level; I would just have to wait a week or so before I could utilize my bountiful harvest.


    ¡°Well in the meantime, while I¡¯m waiting for everything to warm up, I¡¯ll go around collecting ice veins before I move on to the third level. Not having to use my mana to keep myself warm will definitely make things move faster.¡±


    By the time I completed sorting through everything, I had regenerated all of my mana and was ready to leave. Seeing as how I would be keeping my concealment on the rest of this level, I probably wouldn¡¯t be seeing much action. That was fine by me though, just one pack of ice wolves had used up almost all of my mana just to take down.


    ¡°It¡¯s looking like I¡¯ll be able to relax a little bit.¡±


    I left my ice spire with it still being nighttime, with dark skies and the luminous clouds having long since lost their light by this point. I fired off a divination spell looking to see where the Dragon was currently at, but it seemed to still be at its hoard. Seeing as I still had energy and that the Dragon wasn¡¯t coming after me, I decided to keep going around collecting ice veins while I could. Firing off another divination spell crystal and located the nearest ice spire with an ice vein.


    I would never get tired of treasure hunting, even if it was just simple resource hunting.

 Onward To Level 3 - Chapter 25

    I was lying down against one of the tree''s snow filled branches, looking up at the luminous clouds. If I could fly I would definitely go up there and get a sample of those clouds. I¡¯ve never seen anything like those anywhere I¡¯ve been before.


    I condensed another mana crystal inside of my Internal World, adding it to the ever growing pile I already had in there. I was currently just lazing around waiting for the last of my time on the level to pass, while using my excess mana regeneration to make mana crystals so I didn¡¯t waste it. With my characteristic [Enhanced Mana Cells] I had 800% more mana regeneration and capacity from my mana cells, I was definitely a powerhouse when it came to throwing mana at my problems. Though I did still try to use my mana as efficiently as I could.


    Currently I was only maintaining a spell that hid my infrared and visible light. I was currently only hiding myself from the wolf packs that roamed around the forest, and not the Dragon. A few days ago I had stopped hiding myself and tested to see if the Dragon would come after me again (I wanted to go back and collect the rest of its treasure). Unfortunately the Dragon wasn¡¯t moving an inch away from its pile even though it could definitely sense me.


    I was sad, but at least I didn¡¯t have to waste a bunch of mana on the all encompassing concealment spell, and could instead use it to gather the ice veins faster. After that I went on to collect 48 ice veins in total; they were all stored together and had already created quite a bit of ice within my Internal World, though with the size of my Internal World I wouldn¡¯t have to worry about overcrowding the space for a long long time.


    In a separate corner of my Internal World, the frozen Dragon treasure had warmed up to normal temperatures after almost 5 days of slowly increasing the temperature in that space, and I had gone through and categorized everything since I had nothing better to do. There was quite a lot of equipment that I thought might prove quite useful, things like cooking equipment, weapons, a few artifacts (Though the artifacts weren¡¯t that great, otherwise the people using them wouldn¡¯t have died), and various types of clothes.


    Speaking of clothes, I had put on some light clothing that looked similar to something one would wear on a tropical island, with shorts and a T-shirt. I also put on some nice boots that didn¡¯t mesh with the clothes¡¯ style at all, but I needed them to walk in the snow otherwise my heated feet would just melt right through otherwise. The outfit I wore didn¡¯t really matter with the temperature regulating coat I had on, so I just decided to wear what I liked.


    I was now resting in preparation to move on to the next level, and was just waiting for the 130 hours to be up. I just hoped that the next level wouldn¡¯t be on the extreme end of the Wider Difficulty Range like this one had. What I wanted was something that was higher difficulty, which meant higher level resources, but I also didn¡¯t want to face another Dragon level threat that hunted me down wherever I was on the level.


    In any case I should be fine regardless. I had everything under control.


    While I was thinking this the System message showed up.


    [Level 2 complete. All challenges have been met.]


    [Would you like to enter level 3 of the Dungeon of Tribulation, or leave the dungeon?]


    I stood up and brushed off the snow on my new coat, getting ready to enter the next stage.


    ¡°Enter the next level please.¡± Bring it on, I¡¯m ready to go.


    [Affirmative. Now entering level 3.]


    -Break-


    My feet met hard ground and I tried to take a look at my surroundings, but unlike the last level I couldn¡¯t see anything, however I could make out the quiet sound of water lapping against stone nearby. The temperature wasn¡¯t high or low as far as my uncovered body parts could tell, but that meant that there was some other kind of environmental hazard that I wouldn¡¯t be as equipped to handle. The gravity seemed normal, and I couldn¡¯t sense anything different about the mana in my immediate vicinity either. Weird, what is wrong with the environment then?


    Just as I was thinking that, I tried to breathe in. That¡¯s right I tried to breathe in, but when my lungs expanded, instead of filling with oxygen it felt like I was suffocating, I breathed out quickly and my minds went into overdrive. This is bad! I immediately sent a simple light spell through my skin to light up my surroundings. This is no time to worry about revealing my location, I need information, and fast.


    Gray stone walls lit up around me, revealing that I was in a small cave-like room with some gently moving water in one corner. I must be in some kind of underwater cave. The air in here probably isn¡¯t breathable, in fact it¡¯s probably dangerous to breathe.


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    Catching my attention on the ground were corpses of various different races littering the floor. Yeah, definitely dangerous to breathe. What do I do to deal with this problem? I have some scuba gear that I found inside one of the spatial bags in the Dragon¡¯s hoard, but I don¡¯t even know if it¡¯s still usable.


    A water breathing spell? It could work¡­ No, it wouldn¡¯t be sustainable.


    I could fill up this place with the air from my Internal World. No, that would only be a temporary solution! C¡¯mon, think Radiant!


    I have as much breathable air inside of me as I could ever want, but I can¡¯t breathe any of it! Wait, that''s it! If I could just¡­ Thinking up to this point, I opened a small portal inside of my throat that connected to my Internal World.


    I breathed in once again and was relieved to find breathable air filling my lungs, though it was weird breathing in and not feeling air run through my nose. Not being able to breathe is definitely a hostile environment¡­ for sure. Luckily I have plenty of breathable air inside of my Internal World, otherwise I might¡¯ve died. I don¡¯t have nearly enough mana to sustain my body in an environment where I can¡¯t breathe, especially not for almost six days. This portal is inside of my body so its mana cost is greatly reduced, it should be no problem keeping it going indefinitely.


    Using my precise mental control I sealed off my nose so it wasn¡¯t open even though I was breathing. With the immediate concerns taken care of I could move on to taking a better look at my surroundings.


    With my situation stabilized and the System popped up its usual short message.


    [Time Requirement: Survive for 140 hours]


    [Forced Task: Collect some Colossal Medousa Lumingel]


    Why! Why me! This Dungeon of Tribulation definitely has something against me! First the Champion Shadow Parasite on the first floor, and now I have to collect some Lumingel from a giant jellyfish with all of its tentacles¡­ ugh! Well at least they aren¡¯t hostile, I don¡¯t know if I could actually force myself to fight something with tentacles for at least another month.


    The Colossal Medousa was something I knew about because some of its parts were used when making certain light based artifacts. It was basically a giant glowing jellyfish that could grow forever, with the biggest recorded one being larger than a large island, at least 130 kilometers in diameter if I recall correctly. Though most of them were smaller than a house.


    Thinking about having to collect Lumingel from one of them sent a wave of disgust through me, but it wasn¡¯t as bad as it could have been. A harmless massive jellyfish didn¡¯t disgust me as much as other tentacley things did, kind of like how a daddy long leg spider isn¡¯t as bad as other spiders. In any case it was something I didn¡¯t have to think about right now, I had other more important things to think about, this cave room full of dead people with potential valuables on them for example.


    Shifting my focus away from the System message, I took a closer look at the corpses around me. There were a couple Humans, a beautiful Fox-kin, a few different insectoids, many different animals, and even a Demon that had some spider characteristics. None of the corpses showed much signs of decay, which was probably because there was no oxygen or anything in here. One could see how dangerous the Hostile Environment Challenge was from this chilling display of helplessness and death, most didn¡¯t seem to have any chance of surviving, and those that did didn¡¯t seem to stay in this cave room long enough to do anything to all of these corpses.


    Well, I should probably see if I can gain anything valuable from these corpses. It¡¯s not like they¡¯re using it anymore.


    I started moving around the small cave storing valuable items like jewelry and other metallic things. I refrained from some of the things like clothes, I wasn¡¯t going to take the clothes on dead bodies. I also didn¡¯t collect any of the body materials that might¡¯ve been useful, but by this point they had probably lost most of their magical value, and I wasn¡¯t about to go dissecting long dead corpses.


    While walking around, there was nothing particularly interesting about the cramped space besides the pool of water. The pool took up one corner of the room, and it was connected to some sort of underwater tunnel that descended a bit before bending out of sight, giving me no ability to see what could be further down the watery tunnel. The opening was a bit wider than my outstretched arms, and the tunnel seemed to widen the farther it went.


    Already knowing about the Colossal Medousa, I knew that most of this level would probably be underwater in some form. So it was obvious to me that I would need to prepare for a long underwater excursion.


    Taking stock of myself, I was a little hesitant to explore an underwater cave with my current tropical outfit, so I went through all of the things I had gathered and found a diving suit to put on. The diving suit wasn¡¯t skin tight, but it was a good enough fit, and it came with goggles, flippers and even webbed gloves too. I stored my new favorite coat and my tropical outfit before I stretched and looked down into the clear water a little warily. After the Kraken incident the sea and tentacley things have never been the same. I just hope there aren¡¯t any squids or many tentacley things in here besides the Colossal Medousa, but knowing my luck there will be. Haaahh, maybe I should invest in a Luck stat or something¡­


    With one last grimace, I looked at the clear water and dived into the dark tunnel. There was no telling how long it would be before light once again lit up that silent graveyard, but I had more important things to do than keep the corpses company. There was profit to be had and opportunities waiting to be seized, and nothing was going to stop me¡­ for long, the tentacles were only a minor roadblock.

 Watery Wonderland - Chapter 26

    Splashing into the cold water headfirst, I quickly swam downward with my illuminated skin lighting the way. I was kind of lighting myself up like a beacon to everything that might be ahead, but it was the cheapest way I¡¯d be able to see in these lightless underwater tunnels. I was hoping that most of the things that lived in these dark caves wouldn¡¯t even be able to see light, so even though I was lighting myself up like a lighthouse, I deemed it an acceptable risk.


    The gray stone cave was barren and without life. As I navigated through its bends and twists, going mostly in a downward direction, the tunnel opened up into a wide open area big enough to fit at least a few houses inside of it, with many different stalactite and stalagmite filled tunnels branching out of the room.


    When my shining skin lit up the dark area, I heard deep, almost rumbling, noises vibrate through my skull more than my eardrums. I couldn¡¯t tell what direction the sound had come from, so I looked all around above and below me, and then I saw some movement. My light seemed to have woken up a group of 4 serpentine monsters laying on the floor of the cavern on a patch of colorful moss. Their pointed faces were stone-like with small holes for nostrils and six eyes running along its face. Their mouths opened in a vicious sneer with many rows of needle like teeth that were bared in my direction. They had triangular scales and many different fins down the length of their bodies.


    The long creatures darted in my direction giving me almost no time to observe them. I pulled out a long spear I had obtained from the Dragon¡¯s hoard and got ready for action.


    I had never really trained to use any weapons before, but I figured that a long sharp spear would at least allow me to keep the serpentine creatures at bay while I casted my magic. I swam towards the side of the tunnel I was in and placed my back to it, the less directions I had to keep track of while fighting the better.


    The 4 creatures had already closed half the distance between us while it took me the same amount of time to move a few meters, the difference between our speeds in the water was not even close. Seeing their speed I knew that I would have to incapacitate them somehow if I wanted to have any chance of killing them. The best method I had was to use a mind link spell like I had used on the Raij¨±, so I used my minds to prepare not only a wide area mind link spell, but also to augment my body to be tough enough to at least somewhat resist those sharp needle-like teeth.


    Unlike when I fought the Raij¨± my mind link spell took about half as much mana as before and was much quicker to form. Even with its quick formation, the spell didn¡¯t finish before the creatures arrived before me.


    They swarmed me like moths to a flame and I had to wildly swish my spear around to keep them at bay. I nearly got punctured by their teeth a few times, but my desperation to keep my blood from leaking into the water barely held the creature off.


    Then my mental link spell finished and expanded outwards in a shell away from me, linking me to each of the 4 creatures'' alien minds.


    Normally the best I could do at this point would be to send a mental scream, because the minds of these creatures were too alien for me to accurately target them in any specific manner. However in the past I had actually had the unfortunate experience of being on the receiving end (although indirectly) of an ancient Kraken adept at mental magic. It was a horrible experience that I tried not to recall too often, but on the plus side it did give me something that I was able to use in my current situation.


    A certain sealed packet of memories that I took care to never open was sent down the 4 mental connections I had with the creatures. Upon receiving this packet of memories the serpentine-like creatures, which were as lively as electricity, suddenly froze like they had witnessed their greatest fear, and that probably wasn¡¯t far off from the truth. If I were more powerful the creature''s hearts would likely have stopped beating at this point.


    Reacting quickly to their frozen state, I shoved my spear through their mouths into their brains as fast as I could before they could move again. But I needn''t have worried about them moving again, because even as I went to puncture the last creature¡¯s brain it was unmoving and without reaction to anything around it, its eyes wide with fear.


    Wow, I guess that the mental attack the Kraken gave me is much more effective on sea creatures than it is on Humans. Though I guess that even when it was used on me it was enough to give me a lasting fear of tentacles. And I was even able to isolate the memory entirely, I couldn¡¯t imagine what kind of mental damage it would cause to these serpent-like creatures if they had been allowed to live, and I wasn¡¯t even able to send even one percent of the entire memory.


    The thought sent shivers down my spine, but I pushed those thoughts aside. With the battle over I hurriedly stored away the scaly corpses of the 4 monsters. I didn¡¯t want any more dark red blood than was already in the water to seep out and attract other predators.


    With that out of the way I took another look around the cave room to see where I should go next. Some of the pathways leading out of the room were filled with various forms of plant life and even some tiny fishes and crabs. Another few were the same as the one I came from, plain and barren. There was one other type of pathway that looked like a swirling vortex that got more violent and turbulent the further into the tunnel it went, it seemed to be pulling in water from all of the different pathways leading into this room but the pull wasn¡¯t significant unless nearby.


    The vortex tunnel was very intriguing, and I would definitely have to come back to it sometime, but for now I decided to follow the signs of life to try and find a Colossal Medousa and get the collection of materials over with as soon as possible. So I swam into the tunnel with the most abundant signs of life.


    While moving along the tunnel I was ambushed by many different forms of life ranging from small swarms of fish to large crabs and crustaceans. I threw all of the things I killed into a pool of water inside of my Internal World that I had thrown in a few ice veins to keep everything chilled and preserved for later.


    After 3 hours following along the path with the most abundant signs of life, and passing multiple different offshoots, the tunnel opened into one side of an enormous cavern, giving a magnificent view of the place. The cavern was many kilometers across to the opposite side, and even wider than that in the other direction. There were pillars, caves, and a pocketwork of rocks and tunnels decorating the bottom of the cavern along with a magnificent variety of sea creatures and plant life.


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    And floating around in the open area within the cavern were the things I was looking for, Colossal Medousas, with a variety of vibrant glowing colors floating around the vast cavern, with each one looking like its own moving island of vibrant life. Each Medousa had many different types of fish swimming in and around it, either guarding their home from other creatures or just living their life within and on the surface of the jellyfish. The largest Medousa I could see had to be at least as large as a hill, taking up a good amount of the wide open area.


    Looking upwards I could make out the rippling surface of the water far above me. Shining down into the water was the gentle blue and white light of a large watery moon with a smattering of clouds, giving me the ability to clearly see the entire cavern. The cavern walls shot up out of the surface of the water and curved into themselves, leading to a dome like structure with many different stalactites hanging off of it and occasionally sending droplets of water falling to strike the surface of the water. The dome didn¡¯t curve too far inwards, leaving a lot of open space for the blue moonlight to shine through, but it would definitely make the process of getting to the surface a pointless endeavor.


    The sight was beautiful enough that I just floated there, at the entrance where I entered the cavern from, speechless. Though I was speechless more because I couldn¡¯t actually talk at the moment, since I had put the portal too far down my windpipe and couldn¡¯t pass any air through my vocal cords to make sound, so I couldn¡¯t even hum and the beautiful scene.


    The fantastical sight reminded me of how excited I had been when I had first come to know I would be reincarnated into a fantasy world filled with magic and mystery. I was finally able to experience something like this without other things occupying my mind and getting in the way. My eyes even started to water a little bit beneath my goggles.


    In my daze I forgot to stop my shining skin, and a few nearby predators started to swim towards me like the beacon I was. I blinked the forming tears out of my eyes and swam back into the tunnel I had come from to wait for the things that were following me. After the period of fighting the things on my way through the caves, I had refined my method of dealing with these creatures, and I had come to guess that the difficulty of this floor was around level 6 based on the difficulty of everything I had come across.


    After taking care of the weak creatures, compared to the previous level, I turned off my glowing skin and swam back to the cavern, with a concealment spell activated instead.


    Once again emerging into the vast open cavern, I surveyed the scene and locked onto the biggest Colossal Medousa. With its abundance of tentacles I could at least pretend that it was just yellow glowing seaweed instead of tentacles. Thinking so I swam off towards the Medousa, eager to be done with the forced task I had been given.


    After half an hour of swimming through the moonlit waters I finally drew near the giant glowing creature, and was currently directly beneath it looking up into its ¡®mouth¡¯ or opening, with a forest of gently swaying yellow glowing tentacles hanging down from its underside. This particular Medousa had a yellow, almost golden, luminescent glow, and I tried to imagine the tentacles to be golden hair instead of what they were.


    Hooo, pull yourself together Radiant. All you have to do is swim into the jellyfish and everything will be behind you. Well until I have to come back out, but that¡¯s future me¡¯s problem. Just focus on reaching the hole.


    I closed my eyes and focused on my (Space-Time Sense) to guide me instead of my sight. The tentacles looked more like one big mass to my (Space-Time Sense) rather than individual tentacles, which made it much easier to ignore them and focus on my goal of reaching the inside of the Medousa. I would¡¯ve been sweating up a storm if I wasn¡¯t in the water, but eventually my nervous self made it through the mouth of the Medousa and I was able to open my eyes and take in the sight.


    Inside of the Medousa I could make out the glowing pool of luminescent gel that flowed from the center of the jellyfish into its bell, almost like blood. This luminescent gel was used by the jellyfish to form a hard crystalized protective shell along the outside of its central metaphysical organ and the surface of its bell, and it had a lot of extra gel that it could use to repair any damage that might occur to its outer protective shell.


    At the center of the jellyfish was the glowing metaphysical organ that created the luminous gel and also acted as a storage.


    With how large this Medousa is there shouldn¡¯t be any problem if I were to take most of its luminous gel. With all of the things defending it, it probably hasn¡¯t had to repair its shell for years at this point. I¡¯m sure the Medousa will get by just fine.


    Swimming up next to the metaphysical organ I rubbed my hand against the hard surface of crystalized golden luminous gel. Pulling out a large tool from my Internal World, I used some magic to stick one end of the tool to the hard surface and loaded the tool with a large hollow spike. This particular tool was usually used to shoot this hollow spike through the tough hide of some monsters so that its blood could be drained, but now I was using it to drain the luminous gel out of this Medousa¡¯s metaphysical organ.


    After I loaded in the hollow spike, I hit the release button and the spring loaded mechanism sent the spike through the hard crystal surface, sending a few small fractures through the hard crystal. Seeing that the device had worked, I placed my hand over the end of the hollow spike and opened a small portal into my Internal world. Using my control over my Internal World I created a separate pocket of space without anything in it, and sent the honey like luminous gel into this container. It took quite a long time to drain the metaphysical organ of almost all of its gel, but because the container in my Internal World acted kind of like a vacuum with its low pressure the draining process was just a little bit faster than letting gravity do its work.


    Whew, with this much luminous gel I could sell it for a lot of money. It¡¯s usually extremely dangerous to harvest Colossal Medousas because of where they usually live, so the price of the luminous gel is insane. With how much GC* I''d make from selling it, I would be able to buy a large house in a major city, though most of that cost comes from the land rather than the actual house¡­


    In any case I¡¯ve definitely struck it rich with this one. However I¡¯m not going to be collecting any more from the other Medousas, it¡¯s just not happening no matter how much GC I¡¯d make.


    *AN: GC stands for Guild Credits, though it could also stand for Gold Credits because before digital currency came around the Guild used gold for the coins.*


    I took one last look around the inside of the Medousa¡¯s alien environment, and the swimming creatures inhabiting the inside of it, before closing my eyes and swimming out and away from the plentiful tentacles.


    After I got far enough away from the Medousa to open my eyes, I could see dozens more throughout the cavern, but my focus was pointed towards the floor of the cavern with its multitude of tunnels and caves snaking down into the depths. There was even one particularly large ravine that cut diagonally into the floor and into one of the walls of the cavern. There were so many places for me to explore, and with my Forced Task complete I can explore to my heart''s content.

 Grave Waters - Chapter 27

    While swimming towards the ravine I couldn¡¯t help but think back on my combat methods. I had been using solely magic for most of my battles, and there was nothing wrong with that, but my skill at close range combat was painful to think about. It made me wonder about getting a combat instructor to help me improve my deficiencies. I could definitely make good use of it with stealth and ambushes. Currently I could make up for my inexperience with body augmentation, and maybe that was good enough, but there was just something about wielding a weapon expertly that sounded awesome.


    Reaching the edge of the ravine, I decided to rest and recover my mana before exploring further. Keeping portals open for long periods of time was definitely draining on my mana even if it was many times cheaper with my [Magical Physique].


    While I was floating in the water waiting for my mana to recover, I couldn¡¯t help but smile as I thought about all the things I¡¯ve been able to collect from this expedition, if it were anyone else they would¡¯ve ran out of space in their bags a long time ago, even if their bags had a spatial storage. Being able to find and practice this Internal World technique is nothing short of a miracle, without it I would have had to leave behind so much loot, and that would be a tragedy.


    After resting for a while I recovered my missing mana and was ready to explore the ravine. Looking up towards the sky, I saw that the moon had barely moved from its original position, and even though it was nearing the time light would begin to shine in the outside world, there was no indication that such an event was even close to happening here. Maybe it¡¯ll be night for my entire stay on this level? That would be awesome. I would¡¯ve never been able to experience something like this back on Earth.


    Swimming over to the ravine I studied it a little closer. The diagonal ravine was on average about 20 meters across from edge to edge at its thinnest, and it was like a slice into the inner workings of the cave system below; there were many different cave tunnels that intersected with the ravine, each with their own unique environments and life forms.


    Along the walls of the ravine were also many different shelves that would no doubt have the possibility of holding a treasure chest if I didn¡¯t have the No System Loot Challenge active, the thought hurt me a little bit, but I just had to remind myself that random loot wasn¡¯t anywhere near the value of the chosen loot I would get at the end of the Tribulation.


    Some parts of the ravine glowed with neon colors, and other parts of the ravine were shaded in dark shadows leaving it up to the imagination what could be hiding within.


    As I swam through the ravine, always under the stealth spell, I caught sight of a few different packs of the same serpentine monsters I had encountered before, there were also crabs with claws the size of my body, and clams that gave off an alluring mental persuasion making me want to take the shining pearl from within its open mouth. Of course this mental persuasion wasn¡¯t a match for my mental defenses, but it made me wonder if mental magic and skills were more common among water based organisms than land based creatures.


    Normally very few non sentient animals would have mental magic or skills, after all it was much easier to kill things with sharp claws or fast projectiles, but underwater, movement was indeed harder than in the air, so mental magic¡¯s range was definitely farther ranged than projectiles in this environment. Even a passive effect, like the one this clam employed, was probably just as long ranged as any other projectile would be able to reach before losing its killing power, though mental spells did cost quite a bit of mana on the downside.


    Mental magic and skills are relatively common amongst Humans, though not nearly as common as it is among some of the other sapient races. I recall one race where every individual was able to use mental magic at birth, truly terrifying.


    Thinking about mental magic got me wondering about what I wanted to do after I left the Dungeon of Tribulation. I once had a dream of attending an institute to get a higher level of education and increase my magical knowledge, especially mental magic with its major difficulty. But do I really need that anymore? I mean I have over 100 years of magical experience at this point, what would an institute even be able to teach me? Then again, most of what I know about magic is from my experimentation and extrapolation of the level 1 information I was able to learn from The Ever Present Archives. Maybe if I were to go to an institution I would be able to increase my magical ability by many folds with the sturdy foundation I¡¯ve built. I¡¯ll have to look more into it once I leave here, knowledge is power after all, and I don¡¯t know what I don¡¯t know.


    Farther ahead in the ravine I could hear it before I saw it. A low hum entered my ears, sounding like it was coming from all directions at once due to being underwater; ahead of me a swarm of silver metallic insects shot out of one of the cave tunnels at a fast speed. Each insect seemed to be moving through the water through some kind of propulsion shooting a jet of water behind them. After exiting the cave they all dispersed through the ravine, going to collect and eat from various plants.


    Looking at the industrious workers going around collecting the valuable materials made me think about something else.


    Another thing I need to think about after I leave here. Money and business. I already have these two things in trust with Genesis, but I need to build up my own company instead of relying solely on Genesis¡¯s endeavors. If I¡¯m eventually going to be immortal I¡¯ll want to get my wealth boulder rolling, the sooner the better; I¡¯ve heard it said that not all immortals will be wealthy, but any immortal that focuses even a little bit on money will definitely be massively wealthy.


    Always remember the first rule of warfare: Compound interest is the most effective weapon.


    -Break-


    I spent more than 4 days exploring the ravine and underwater caves, finding many rare materials and fascinating creatures during my adventures, and just like my previous deduction it had stayed night time, even until now. During this time I didn¡¯t come across the Champion of this level, and it got me wondering what was going on. The difficulty of this level was only level 6 by my estimates, so I should have no difficulty taking on whatever Champion was within this level, but I hadn¡¯t found any traces of it at all.


    Where could it be? I¡¯ve looked all over and still haven¡¯t found it. The only place I can think of it being, that I haven¡¯t checked out, is wherever the vortexes I¡¯ve seen lead to. Well it¡¯s nearing the end of my time on this level anyways, and I wanted to check out the vortexes anyways¡­


    By this point I had been awake for more than 4 days straight, and my reasoning capabilities were maybe a bit dampened at the moment, but I couldn¡¯t sleep very well when I had to keep a portal spell active at all times in order to breathe. Sure I might be able to keep a simple spell active while I was asleep through the use of my Adaptive Mind, but the portal spell was much too complex for that. So I had to resort to meditative exercises instead of sleep, and although they worked wonders they were starting to give diminishing returns.


    I decided that if I was going to be taking on the Champion of this level I should try to do it now, before it was too late.


    -Break-


    On the swim back to the nearest vortex I tried to shut down my mind and meditate as much as possible, and I was able to recover to a certain extent by the time I reached the vortex. My concentration and mental acuity are good for now, but it¡¯ll probably only last for a few hours at most. Better make the most out of it.


    Taking out the spear I looked at the slowly spinning vortex and swam forward allowing it to pull me in. It was a good thing that the vortex wasn¡¯t very fast, it allowed me to avoid the many obstacles on my way through the winding tunnels.


    As I went along the tunnels many more vortexes joined together growing stronger like multiple streams coming together to form a raging river.


    Soon after the vortex reached its peak, I emerged into a bright, smooth, cylindrical cavern, pulsing with multicolored light along its outer walls.


    Before I could start to really analyze anything I threw myself towards the wall of the cavern with some water magic, and I subsequently anchored myself to the walls with a spell I had already prepared.


    With my position secured my next order of business was to analyze this room. Immediately, almost against my will, my eyes were drawn to the ginormous plant in the center of the room.


    The plant was pulsing with colors that lit up the sides of the room. The colors were swirling around its large frills that spiraled in a corkscrew down to the base of the plant.


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    The colors started at the top of the plant and spiraled outward and downward, and the currents of the water seemed to be pulled along by these colorful lights. This plant was obviously what led to the swirling vortex pulling water in from above. Near the bottom of the plant were multiple different exits in the rock that the water could leave from.


    Analyzing the plant with my Skill I got a simple description (Vivid Vortex: Creates a vortex that pulls in other creatures. It collects these creatures to preserve them, feeding off of their mana.)


    With this description of the plant I noticed that along the swirling frills of the plant were pink, long, wavy hairs that flowed along with the current, and from my observation I knew that these pink hairs were likely meant to grab any passing prey and lead it towards the center of the plant where it would be preserved and used like a living mana battery.


    It probably has to use all of that mana just to keep this vortex running all the time. If I could get my hands on its metaphysical organ I would be able to create something amazing with it. Something like a tank, a flying device, a laser gun, power armor, a wand, a stealth kit. So many things would be possible if I had this plant''s metaphysical organ.


    While I was fantasizing about these things, I saw a small seal-like creature fall down through the vortex above. At first the creature was struggling against the current, but then it layed its eyes on the plant and seemed to be mesmerized by the pulsing colors. The creature stopped its struggle and was promptly ensnared by the plants pink hair, the seal-like creature was then handed down the plants pink hair and was carried down to the base of the plant before being fed into a mouth and disappearing.


    A question popped into my head after I saw this, Why wasn¡¯t the seal struggling at all? Was it too tired from struggling against the vortex before? Yeah that must be it.


    I felt like I was missing something, like a tickling sensation in the back of my mind, but no matter how much I tried to think about it I couldn¡¯t seem to put my finger on it. I¡¯m sure it''s nothing. In fact, why am I even clinging to this wall? That plant looks so much more comfortable than this.


    I felt that there was nothing wrong with this thought, in fact it sounded better and better as I mulled it over. Before I knew it I had released myself from the wall and swam towards the plant. It¡¯s¡­ So¡­ Beautiful¡­


    My mind slowed down as I admired the Vivid Vortex¡¯s beauty and let my body follow along the current towards the plant. I stopped swimming as I just couldn¡¯t focus on anything else but admiring the Vivid Vortex, and even its name fell out of my mind as I neared the plant. At this point the only thing I was able to focus on besides the plant¡¯s beauty was keeping the portal in my throat open, I couldn¡¯t very well admire the plant¡¯s beauty if I was unconscious from lack of oxygen after all.


    Having started at the edge of the room it took me longer than it normally would to reach the plant if I had come in from the top, so by the time I reached the plant I was close to the bottom of the spiraling frills. I was a bit annoyed that I wouldn¡¯t be able to admire the plant if I exited out the bottom of the cavern, but fortunately my body brushed up against the plants pink hairs and was ensnared by them before I could exit the room.


    As soon as my body was ensnared by the pink hair I felt a stinging sensation, but it barely registered to my foggy mind. Then I felt more and more stings assault my body, and even though I didn¡¯t really register what was happening, my failsafe programs I had set up with (Mental Operator) did, and my (Mental Operator) fired into action.


    All of my senses were abruptly shut off, my control over my body was shut down, and my Magical Physique was manually flipped on to resist all magic (except for spatial magic, because, again, breathing was kind of important). In the void of my own mind, without anything to distract me, my mind accelerated to top speed and (Mental Operator) threw all of the things I had been ignoring in my metaphorical face.


    As if my mind was thrown into cold water, everything became clear in that moment.


    I was being mentally manipulated.


    Even now with my Magical Physique blocking everything it could, I could still feel a slight tickling in the back of my mind that wanted me to ignore everything and just focus on the Vivid Vortex.


    I reacted violently to this revelation, and if not for my body being disconnected from my control I would¡¯ve blasted out with all of the magic I could, to get back at this plant that had dared to manipulate me. After a moment of violent rejection, more of (Mental Operator)¡¯s failsafes kicked in, and my mind became extremely calm and cold.


    (Mental Operator)¡¯s energy pool started to drain at a steady pace as it fought against my natural mental state, it wasn¡¯t draining too rapidly though. It should last for at least an hour at this rate. Normally I tried to keep (Mental Operator)¡¯s direct intrusion to a minimum, but my current situation called for drastic measures. My mind quickly analyzed everything and switched (Space-Time Sense) and (Physical Augmentation) to [Active Skills] alongside (Mental Operator).


    My [Magical Physique] resisted everything it could, but whatever those pink hairs had injected into me was acting on a more than magical level. So I augment my body with general enhancement magic to try and combat the venom inside of me while I take stock of my outside situation with (Space-Time Sense). My body is being moved towards the plant¡¯s mouth where I saw the seal-like creature enter before, and it won¡¯t be but a few seconds before I reach the same entrance.


    In these tense few seconds before I reach my destination, my body has purged the venom¡¯s effects and I get ready to take action as soon as its mouth opens.


    I could rush away from the plant and escape, but my original goal when entering this place was to fight the Champion, and under the effects of (Mental Operator) I had done the calculations and determined that I could take this Vivid Vortex out as long as I could enter its insides.


    As its mouth opened to let me in, I broke free of the last thin pink hairs that held me and rushed into the opening. Once I entered I got a much clearer view now that my (Space-Time Sense) wasn¡¯t blocked by anything, and I did not like what I saw. A multitude of tentacles as thick as my arms were moving towards me, moving as fast as they could, but these tentacles didn¡¯t seem to be designed for speed and were sluggish at best, so I analyzed everything and determined that they were no threat.


    However, a thought broke past my (Mental Operator)¡¯s mental lock. Tentacles¡­ FOR THE LOVE OF JILLY, WHY IN TH-¡­! This threatened to shatter the calm that (Mental Operator) was enforcing due to it compounding with my fear of being mentally manipulated. (Mental Operator) wasn¡¯t that weak though, and it clamped down even harder on my mind and continued to carry out the tasks it needed to. But the rate at which (Mental Operator)¡¯s power reserves were being drained increased exponentially. At this rate (Mental Operator) won¡¯t last another 5 minutes. I need to deal with this quickly.


    My enhanced muscles pumped my legs and pushed me through the water towards what my (Mana Sense) saw as a pulsing reactor of power, even in its current place in Inactive Skills.


    Focusing my senses in that direction, I see the outline of a spherical mass attached to the base of the plant by a stalk larger than my torso, with many different threads extending out from its spherical surface. Whatever this thing is, it¡¯s filled to the brim with mana. If I can get rid of it then everything is sure to shut down.


    I create a long blade of water, and use it to sever the sphere from its stalk along with many of the threads as well. The whole plant seemed to shudder at this, but the sphere didn¡¯t fall from its pedestal. The plant''s connection to this sphere is obviously more than just physical.


    So I don¡¯t hesitate and start swinging my water blade, severing all of the other threads leaving nothing but the sphere and the stalk. At this point Vitality was the only thing holding everything in place, keeping the plant supplied with mana.


    Letting my water blade disperse I swim to the support and use my strength to lift the stalk up. I could feel the pull of its Vitality increasing the farther I lifted it, but I only needed it to be separated just enough for me to fire off one of my spell crystals.


    A teleportation spell crystal, with enough power to overcome the plant¡¯s natural defenses, was fired off and instantly drained of power, sending the separated sphere into my Internal World and severing its connection to the plant.


    Without its supply of mana, all of the magical functions the plant had been supporting abruptly shut off. Apparently it was supporting its very life with the mana from that sphere, because all of the tentacles that had almost made their way to me had gone motionless, flowing aimlessly in the water, and all purposeful movement around me stopped. The slight mental influence I could feel from the plant went away as well.


    (Mental Operator) was down to below 10% energy reserves at this point, and seeing that everything was taken care of, it released its hold and went back to normal operations.


    My senses returned to me just as abruptly as they had left, and immediately I felt my heart start racing, my whole body started to shake, everything tensed up, including my lungs, making it difficult to breathe, and I started to feel dizzy as my mind spiraled out of control. I closed my eyes and folded into a fetal position. This- I can¡¯t- Nope. Just no¡­


    All of the things that (Mental Operator) had been holding back had taken over, and I just couldn¡¯t handle it all at once. (Mental Operator) tried to soften the blow, but with it running on such low reserves there was only so much it could do.


    This was the first time in a long time that I had had a panic attack.


    With (Mental Operator) I had managed to get through all of my trauma and loneliness I had suffered for all of those years, but this Vivid Vortex just had to strike me right where it hurt, plus tentacles. Just why, why did it have to have tentacles?


    I couldn¡¯t even move or observe my surroundings, and I just laid there drifting in the water near the floor for what felt like forever. Eventually (Mental Operator)¡¯s power reserves recovered to a point where I could dull everything enough for me to move around. Just focus on your tasks Radiant. One thing at a time.


    I numbly went around and collected everything worth collecting from the Vivid Vortex, but it all went by in a blur. When I exited the plant from where I entered I only had one thing on my mind. Sleep. At this point I just wanted some of that sweet oblivion to distract me from my problems. I was sure that everything would be so much better after I got a good sleep, I just needed to figure out how I was going to do that¡­

 Genesis and Mystdell - Chapter 28

    -Genesis-


    I sat in the black Autonav as it sped its way through the streets along with the other Autonavs, driving everyone to their destinations with computerized efficiency and seeming chaos. I was on my way to hand over Radiant¡¯s letter to Mystdell, after taking a long while to track her down to her current whereabouts.


    It had been quite some time since I had last seen Mystdell, since her current career as an explorer sent her all over Tallen, but before this I had actually gotten to know her quite well, to the point that she was like a friend even if she was older than me by 7 years. Ever since Mystdell had first become my school Auxiliary Support, we began to interact with each other often, and our friendship lasted long after we were no longer forced to see each other. So I had come to find Mystdell myself, not only to give her Radiant¡¯s letter, but also to catch up with her as a friend.


    The Autonav stopped to let me out on the sidewalk while the other Autonavs flowed around it as smoothly as water. Getting out, I stopped to look at the hotel Mystdell was supposed to be staying at. It was a nice hotel with elegant construction, and when I had looked it up on the web before coming here it had actually been rated 7 Stars. This was actually a fairly high end hotel for Mystdell to be staying at, considering that a 7 Star hotel was basically a paradise that would cost around 200 GC to rent a room for a day, and a 5 Star hotel would cost around 10 GC to rent a room for a day. Even 1 GC per day was way beyond what normal people would be able to afford, considering that most normal transactions would be done with Bronze or Silver Credits*.


    *BC and SC for short. Silver Credits are worth 100x less than GC (Gold Credits in case you forgot). BC are Bronze Credits, and are worth 100x less than SC. You can think of a BC like a dollar, but it¡¯s not an exact comparison or anything.*


    I made my way through the nice hotel, arriving at the floor Mystdell was supposed to be on. The elevator opened up with a *Ding* and I stepped out into the hall, with a railing on the opposite side that showed the open view down to the lobby and all the way up to the 20th floor.


    Walking towards Mystdell''s room, I reached the corner that would take me to her door when I overheard her voice talking. I didn¡¯t want to interrupt her in the middle of her conversation, and if she was having a conversation out in the hallway then it shouldn¡¯t take too long to finish.


    ¡°-have no idea.¡± Mystdell''s voice said in a somewhat heated tone.


    ¡°Miss Shadow, please cooperate. Radiant might be your brother, but he is a MAX danger prisoner that has escaped from Lonevista. The fact that he has escaped from such a place clearly shows what kind of a danger he is-¡±


    ¡°Alright that¡¯s enough.¡± Mystdell cut the man off, ¡°Radiant isn¡¯t dangerous, and I really don¡¯t know anything about where he might be. If that¡¯s all you came here for then I have other things I need to take care of.¡±


    Radiant a max danger prisoner? What is that supposed to mean? I heard a door close and the sound of footsteps headed in my direction. I didn¡¯t want anyone to know I was listening in on their conversation, so I leaned up against the wall and pretended to be on my Epicell.


    Two men in slick uniforms turned around the corner and briefly looked at me before seemingly deciding I wasn¡¯t important and walking off.


    I felt relieved when they left. Those guys looked like government officials, and they were talking to Mystdell about Radiant escaping from somewhere? Just what is this all about?


    I decided that I should take a few precautions before meeting with Mystdell in light of this new information. So I texted her to meet me at a nearby restaurant before walking away. There might be surveillance to keep an eye on Mystdell or something. And I was going to get food with her anyways.


    As I was walking away my mind couldn¡¯t help but come up with all sorts of crazy scenarios about the conversation I had just heard. I now had another reason to meet with Mystdell face to face.


    -Break-


    I had had some time to think about the new information I overheard, and I had quite a few questions for Mystdell. Hearing a bell ring I cast my gaze over to the door of the restaurant and saw Mystdell step inside. Mystdell looked around, trying to find me, and I waved her over when she looked in my direction.


    She started to speak to me while sitting down in the seat opposite of me, ¡°It¡¯s been quite a while hasn¡¯t it Ge-¡±


    But I held up my hand to stop her from speaking as I took out a handheld device from my bag. The tool lit up and scanned its immediate surroundings before giving a negative response and turning off. I breathed a sigh of relief as I put the tool away. It doesn¡¯t seem like Radiant is important enough to put bugs on his family members-


    ¡°You didn¡¯t have to do that. I already took care of the bugs they put on me.¡±


    I paused for a second as I looked at Mystdell with a surprised expression. So Radiant is important enough for them to bug his family? Wait, no, before that, ¡°You took care of them? Why would you even know how to do that? I don¡¯t ever recall you doing such a thing in the past, I mean I only know how to take care of bugs because I have to protect certain business secrets.¡±


    ¡°Oh don¡¯t worry about it, it¡¯s a family thing.¡± She waved her hand like it wasn¡¯t that big of a deal.


    ¡°A family thing?¡± What kind of family would need to take care of bugs often enough that it becomes a ¡®family thing¡¯?


    ¡°So, what did you want to talk to me about that you had to scan me for any bugs before you did so?¡±


    I noticed that she dodged my question with her own, but it wasn¡¯t that necessary of a question anyways, ¡°Well I originally came to deliver a letter to you, but I kind of overheard your conversation with those people at the hotel earlier, so now I wanted to ask you some questions about that.¡±


    ¡°You heard that huh? Well it probably won¡¯t be long before everyone knows about it anyways.¡± She shook her head, ¡°So what did you want to ask?¡±


    I was a bit surprised at her nonchalant response, ¡°Uh, well, I don¡¯t know. It was just such a shock to me. I had no idea that Radiant was a prisoner. And he escaped recently? I never got that kind of impression from him at all. Did he do something to get put in prison? How long has he been in prison for? I mean I know that he¡¯s smart, so it¡¯s not impossible that the government didn¡¯t like something he was doing. I mean now that I think about it-¡±


    ¡°Genesis, Genesis hey slow down there. One thing at a time.¡± Mystdell stopped my spiraling thoughts as she waved a waiter over to our table.


    ¡°Whew, yeah.¡±


    We ordered some food before continuing, ¡°Well I guess what I want to know most is how long has Radiant been in jail for?¡±


    She looked at me with an expression that said ¡®Are you pulling my leg?¡¯ before saying, ¡°Well he¡¯s been in there ever since he was five. I thought that you already knew that? I mean it¡¯s pretty public information. And besides that, how would you even have been able to meet Radiant enough to know what he¡¯s like?¡±


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    ¡°Huh? No, I only met Radiant after I turned eight. I¡¯ve never -¡±


    ¡°Wait, don¡¯t you have the same birthday as him? You¡¯re telling me that you¡¯ve been talking to him while he was in prison? How? He shouldn¡¯t have been able to talk to anybody while he was at Lonevista.¡±


    We both had perplexed expressions, and I said, ¡°Huh? I met Radiant in The Ever Present Archives. We¡¯ve been in touch through The Archives ever since.¡±


    ¡°The Archives?¡± She had a confused look on her face, ¡°Isn¡¯t it, like, super difficult to get a pass to that place?¡± Mystdell sounded like she was having difficulty connecting the dots between what I was telling her.


    Is she saying that because she thinks I wouldn¡¯t be able to get a pass?


    ¡°Well yeah I guess it¡¯s difficult, but I was lucky to get one from my family. Why would you be so surprised by that? I am a Duke¡¯s daughter after all.¡±


    Mystdell shook her head, ¡°No, I¡¯m surprised because I have no idea how Radiant has a pass to that place, not you.¡±


    ¡°Wait, I thought you knew about that. How else would he get a pass if not from his family?¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t know. You¡¯re the one with the pass, why don¡¯t you tell me?¡± She leaned back in her chair with her arms crossed as our food was delivered to our table.


    I shrugged at her question, ¡°The only way I know to get a pass is from buying one. Well besides receiving a god¡¯s blessing anyways, but there was no god¡¯s mark anywhere on his clothes in The Archives, so that¡¯s impossible.¡±


    Mystdell hummed to herself, ¡°I guess Radiant did always seem to know more than he should, even if he was extremely smart. I guess that¡¯s where he learned everything from.¡± She sighed, ¡°Anyways, we¡¯re not getting anywhere with this. You said something about delivering a letter. Would this letter happen to be from Radiant by chance?¡±


    ¡°Yeah, it is.¡±


    ¡°Well, hand it over. I guess I¡¯ll see what my dear brother has to say for himself.¡±


    I got out the letter and handed it over to Mystdell who promptly read the short message that was written.


    Dear, Mystdell.


    It¡¯s me, Radiant! I know that it¡¯s been a long time since we¡¯ve last talked to each other, and I know that¡¯s not your fault with you exploring different places, but I decided that I should let you know about some things before events that will happen in the near future.


    First off, try not to be too worried about any news you might hear about me. I¡¯ll be completely fine since I¡¯ve been preparing for this since I was a kid. I know that won¡¯t prevent you from worrying about me, but there¡¯s not much I can do about that.


    Second, if anybody comes to you asking about me, just tell them the truth. There¡¯s no need for you to protect me, and nothing you could tell them will make a difference to my plans anyways.


    Third, I¡¯ll try and get in touch with you in person, as soon as I can, after things settle down. It might take a while though, so don¡¯t worry if you don¡¯t get any word from me.


    Lastly, make sure to dispose of this letter in a way that leaves no traces behind. Don¡¯t make any copies or anything either.(I¡¯m saying this because I know you might actually do this, so just don¡¯t. I mean it.)


    I love you and wish you well. Thanks for always believing in me.


    From your favorite brother, Radiant.


    After Mystdell finished reading the letter she shook her head and gave a short laugh before pulling out a small box from somewhere and putting the letter in it. After the letter was inside she absorbed the box into her hand.


    ¡°Are you not going to dispose of the letter like Radiant said?¡±


    Mystdell gave a short snort at my question, ¡°Radiant underestimates my capabilities. There¡¯s no need for me to dispose of it.¡±


    I guess Radiant was right, Mystdell really didn¡¯t dispose of the letter.


    Mystdell got a playful expression on her face, ¡°You know what the letter says, so you read the letter huh? You afraid your boyfriend is talking smack about you behind your back?¡±


    I blew air through my nose and rolled my eyes, ¡°He had to send the contents of the letter directly to my mind, so I knew what was in the letter because of that. And he¡¯s not my boyfriend, I mean he¡¯s your brother.¡±


    ¡°Pfft, like him being my brother makes any difference. You¡¯re already letting him into your mind! You¡¯re definitely boyfriend girlfriend.¡±


    I felt my cheeks heat up a bit, but I rolled my eyes at her antics, ¡°What is up with you. You¡¯ve never teased me like this before.¡±


    She pointed at me, ¡°That was before I knew you were talking to my brother all this time. I always thought it was strange that you never talked about any boys over the years. I guess now I know why huh?¡± Mystdell wiggled her eyebrows at me with a smirk.


    ¡°Gosh.¡± I shook my head in exasperation while my whole face started to get hot.


    ¡°Alright, alright. I¡¯ll stop teasing you.¡± She chuckled to herself, ¡°But anyways, he¡¯s never told you anything about his situation?¡± She raised her eyebrow.


    ¡°Well I did ask him about it, but he was always somewhat vague. When I was a kid I guessed that he was doing some kind of isolated mage training, and when I told him about my guess he said it was something like that. So all this time I always thought he was doing some kind of mage seclusion training, not that he was training to escape from prison or whatever he was doing.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, that does sound like Radiant.¡± She nodded her head.


    ¡°I heard those people mention that he¡¯s in Lonevista? Isn¡¯t that supposed to be a max security prison? Does that mean that Radiant is a bad person?¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re partially right, Lonevista is a max security prison that holds some very powerful and very dangerous people, but they also have a juvenile facility that is used to help children who are deemed ¡®dangerous¡¯, to change.¡± Mystdell sneered when she said the word dangerous, ¡°Radiant was sent to the juvenile facility when he was five, after his Future Assessment Examination. So is he a bad person? According to the government he is still dangerous, but if you ask me that¡¯s just a pile of golem scrap.¡±


    ¡°Then why would he still be locked up? I thought that the kids sent away after their Future Assessment Examination came back fairly quickly.¡±


    ¡°Well, again, you¡¯re partially right. Most kids sent away after their Future Assessment Examination do come back fairly quickly. The others are either actually dangerous or just presented as such. Those that the government deems ¡®unable to change¡¯ are mind controlled after they become mature adults, becoming the government¡¯s mental slaves.¡±


    I was shocked, ¡°That¡¯s horrible. Why doesn¡¯t anybody say anything about this?¡±


    ¡°Who cares about a few dangerous people being mind controlled?" She shrugged her shoulders, "Most of the kids that go to the facility come back much better than they were before they went there anyways, so you can¡¯t say that they aren¡¯t helping the kids sent there. I mean Radiant even had the opportunity to leave, but he chose to stay.¡±


    ¡°He chose to stay? Why would anyone do that?¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t know, ask him. But if you ask me, Radiant was always strange, even before he was sent to Lonevista. But Radiant seemed to change after he was taken to prison, almost like he had found something worth his effort. Maybe Radiant was too smart and was just bored with everything before going to prison. Then, after he was sent to Lonevista, he seemed to have a fire burning inside for the first time. And Radiant always seemed to know that the government wanted to control him anyways, he always seemed to get quite the kick whenever he talked about escaping from prison.¡±


    ¡°Wait, he told you he was going to escape from prison? Did nobody think anything about that?¡±


    ¡°Oh, he didn¡¯t just tell me, he told everyone he was going to escape from prison one day. That¡¯s why I wasn¡¯t that surprised when I found out he actually had escaped. Radiant is probably laughing at the stars whenever he thinks about it. About how they weren¡¯t able to stop him even though he told them he was going to escape for years.¡±


    ¡°Wow. Yeah that does sound like something Radiant would do.¡±


    ¡°I know right?¡± She put her hands on her chin and stared at me, ¡°So tell me a little about what your time with Radiant in The Archives was like. I won¡¯t judge, but you like bad boys? Hardened criminals? Didn¡¯t expect that.¡±


    ¡°Mystdell.¡± My voice had a little bit of a whine to it. This girl. I don¡¯t like him that much.


    Our conversation continued for quite some time, talking about Radiant and various other things. Some of her stories about her adventures as an explorer were especially fascinating, and we talked while we hung out around the city, having a fun time and catching up with each other.

 Level 4 - Chapter 29

    -Radiant-


    I woke up with a clear stimulating wave passing through my mind, no trace of drowsiness left. Although I could¡¯ve slept longer, after such a prolonged period of wakefulness, the time for me to leave for level 4 was approaching and there were things I needed to take care of before my departure to level 4.


    I stretched out my muscles as I felt a refreshing coolness spreading throughout my body. This refreshing feeling came from one of the few artifacts I had recovered from the Dragon¡¯s hoard, a simple ring made out of misty ice-steel. Although it didn¡¯t do much (currently), the artifact increased the physical recovery rate of the wearer. It did this by partially relying on the misty ice-steel¡¯s chilling properties, which had the side effect of cooling down my body, if it weren¡¯t for me reducing the cooling effect, through the use of my [Body of Artifacts], I would be literally freezing right now despite the tropical temperature. However because I was reducing its chilling effects it wasn¡¯t operating at even 10% of its capabilities, but it had a welcome soothing effect on my muscles nonetheless.


    I summoned a small light to float around, illuminating the small enclosure I had awoken in. It was a small room that I had hollowed out before I had fallen asleep, there was only a small opening where air could come in from outside, but otherwise it was completely enclosed.


    Waking up fully, I thought about my experiences before my arrival in this room. After defeating the Vivid Vortex I had tried to think about where I could get some sleep with air to breathe. My first thought was to go back to the room I had first appeared in and fill it up with breathable air, but after thinking about all of those corpses in there I didn¡¯t want to know what would happen to them if they were exposed to oxygen, they might be fine right now, but who knew what would happen if they were exposed to oxygen.


    With that idea not an option, my foggy mind struggled for a while to find a solution, but eventually I remembered the large open cavern where I could see the moon from. Although I wouldn¡¯t be able to go outside of the opening in the ceiling, there was still air in the space above the water (Hopefully breathable, I hadn¡¯t tested).


    After traveling the long distance to the still moonlit cavern, I emerged out of the water after such a long stay beneath its surface. By this point I was having trouble even staying awake, and if the air wasn¡¯t breathable I wouldn¡¯t know what to do. Luckily the air was fine to breathe, and, although humid, was a tolerably warm temperature. Hollowing out a space in the cavern¡¯s walls for me to sleep in had been a simple task with some earth magic, and I had collapsed from exhaustion as soon as I had finished.


    Now, after a considerably long time asleep, it was almost time for me to head to level 4. There was just one thing that I needed to take care of before leaving, and that was my new jacket.


    I was internally debating whether or not I should absorb it into my [Body of Artifacts]. Based on its description I wasn¡¯t entirely certain that its effects would translate properly. For example it repaired itself using the ambient mana, but that wouldn¡¯t translate to repairing myself with ambient mana were I to absorb the artifact. The quality of the artifact was great, but the type of repairing function I would need to work on my body would be too complex to be in anything but an Extraordinary artifact, and the coat was only a Rare.


    So although I would gain the temperature regulation effects if I absorbed the coat, I wouldn¡¯t gain anything from the repair function. It wasn¡¯t a huge loss, since I had the Misty Ice Steel Ring¡¯s healing effects, but it would be a waste to let such a fine coat rot away when I could just wear it instead.


    While I was thinking this, the System notification sounded in my mind.


    [Level 3 complete. All challenges have been met.]


    [Would you like to enter level 4 of the Dungeon of Tribulation, or leave the dungeon?]


    I didn¡¯t immediately give it an answer and made sure everything was working properly. The System patiently waited, and when I was ready I responded.


    ¡°OK, enter the next level please.¡± I¡¯ll hold off on absorbing the coat for now. My main priority is still to finish the Dungeon of Tribulation, and an extra layer of defense, no matter how thin, is a good idea.


    [Affirmative. Now entering level 4.]


    -Break-


    The first thing I noticed was the air. (After going through level 3 I was particularly focused on this aspect of living). The air was scorching hot and extremely dry, when I breathed in it felt like I was inhaling burning sand, the moisture in my nose and lungs instantly drying up. The air wasn¡¯t deadly to breathe this time though, just extremely dry and hot.


    Besides the burning temperature of the air I could also feel the sunlight burning my skin, and looking up at the sky there were 2 stars radiating intense light down onto the landscape.


    The ground was sandy dunes and red rock for many kilometers around me. I stood on top of a mid-sized dune of white and red sand, and this gave me a fairly good vantage point where I could see multiple wide holes dotting some flat rocky plains in one direction, and in another direction there were canyons and ravines fraying the landscape. The dune area I was in was sandwiched between the two different areas. However I couldn¡¯t tell if these were the only environments in the level, because off in one direction was a towering wall of billowing sand blocking my sight, and, looking closer, it seemed to be headed in my direction.


    A sandstorm? That could be dangerous.


    The wall of sand was most likely some kind of sandstorm front, and within the cloud of rushing sand I could see angry bolts of lightning thundering throughout the wall, and even at its current distance away from me I could hear a faint roar of sound almost like a ferocious beast.


    I didn¡¯t see any immediate threats around me though, and having gotten my bearings, a System message appeared in my mind.


    [Time Requirement: Survive for 150 hours]


    [Forced Task: Survive 24 hours out in the open and without shelter from the storms]


    Without shelter from the storms? Is it referring to the massive sandstorm? And there will be multiple of those during a 24 hour period? Maybe different kinds of storms? Well¡­ crap. But I guess I brought this upon myself. I just hope this level¡¯s difficulty isn¡¯t too high. Though, if this level¡¯s difficulty isn¡¯t that high, then I¡¯m worried that two low difficulty levels in a row might have used up all my luck. I don¡¯t think it will hold out for a third¡­


    I shook my head and started getting ready for any dangers that may be lurking under the sands. I pulled out my new favorite black leather coat and put it on over some clothes I changed into after taking off the wetsuit and storing it away. The leather coat wouldn¡¯t provide much protection, but it would keep me from frying in this heat.


    I then pulled out some padded armor to put over my coat, this padded armor would provide some extra protection, and it was even enchanted.


    [Padded Armor](Enchanted, Copper)


    No Equipment Requirement


    Defense: Rank 0 Tier 8


    Impact Resistance +10


    Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings.Active Skill 1 -


    Maneuverable: Spend 5000 mana per second to increase your speed and maneuverability.


    With the armor on, over my temperature regulation coat, I wasn¡¯t even warm anymore. Thinking about how comfortable I felt even in this scorching environment reminded me that I also had another way to combat the heat, although I didn¡¯t need to use it, because I had the coat. The misty ice-steel ring. Thinking about it, now that I have the temperature regulation coat on I could release the full effects of the ring and get all of its benefits couldn''t I?


    I tried it out and released 100% of the ring¡¯s effects and felt a freezing chill spread throughout my body, but very quickly the coat compensated and adjusted to the perfect temperature which was almost the same as the temperature in the scorching desert, if not a bit hotter even.


    With my body feeling extremely refreshed thanks to the ring, I felt ready to take on any challenges I might face. Although, my forced task did need me to not shelter from the storms, and I felt it prudent to get a feel for what these storms entailed before attempting such a challenge. Looking around, I didn''t see anything worth looking into around me, so I started heading towards the area filled with canyons and ravines. I needed to find a place to shelter the coming storm in, and the canyons seemed more inviting than the giant holes in the ground in the opposite direction.


    The sand dunes were tiring to walk through, but thanks to the recovery effect of the misty ice-steel ring, I could keep up a faster pace than normal. And while I was traveling I had some time to think.


    I wonder how Mystdell is doing? After joining that explorer group she didn¡¯t have the opportunity to visit me in prison anymore. I mean, the group she joined is fairly popular from what I could gather in The Archives, so it makes sense that she couldn¡¯t visit. Unlike Mom and Dad who didn¡¯t really have a reason to not visit me¡­


    A slight scowl came to my face as I thought about my horrible luck with parents, both in Epidas and on Earth. Whatever, it doesn¡¯t matter anymore anyways. What¡¯s in the past is in the past.


    I continued to walk through the sandy dunes, with two mostly intersecting shadows from the two suns keeping me company.


    What I really want to know is what Mystdell is up to right now. I know that explorers, well, explore, but some of the things they explore and scout out can be extremely dangerous. I don¡¯t recall any major incidents involving explorers happening in the near future, so she should be fine, I hope. Although, her being an explorer is a completely new variable in this timeline, so I can¡¯t be 100% certain.


    Well, I¡¯m sure she isn¡¯t going to be assigned any dangerous jobs at her Rank and Level, so she should be fine.


    I also wonder if Genesis has gotten my letter to Mystdell by now, I mean Mystdell is always exploring some new location or place wandering all over Tallen, so it wouldn¡¯t be an easy task delivering a letter to her. But she should have gotten the letter by now, at this point it has already been more than half a month since I gave the letter to Genesis. I wonder what Mystdell¡¯s reaction was like?


    I continued to muse to myself and think about Mystdell¡¯s shocked expression when she realized I had escaped from the highest security prison in Tallen. I also wondered what Genesis¡¯s reaction to the information might be.


    As I walked through the desert, smiling to myself, the sandstorm continued to grow ever closer by the minute. At this point I still didn¡¯t know the difficulty of the level, so I didn¡¯t want to weather the storm blind. I would first have to find out the power of the storm somehow.


    Before thinking about information gathering, I first found a place to shelter in. What I found was two short rock faces that formed a small ravine. It should provide decent cover from the worst of the storm. Then I went around the area looking for something to form a mental link to, so I could gather some outside information about the storm.


    Luckily I found a few plants that I could form a mental link with not far away from the ravine. The plants were white and almost rock-like. They were almost like coral, in that they didn¡¯t have many protruding bits, and they were somewhat smooth on the surface with patterns that made it look almost like a brain.


    If these plants were still alive then they must have some way to get through the storm, so I formed a mental link with a few of them before heading back to the ravine.


    With my mental links set I should be able to get a feel for the strength of the sandstorm, without having to be out in it myself.


    Arriving back in the canyon, I proceeded to hollow out a small cave that went into the rock and then turned back around to make the cave almost U shaped, for me to shelter the storm in. This U shaped cave would hopefully protect me from the worst of the effects of the storm while still allowing me to hear and feel some of the effects of the storm.


    I made my way into the cave and sat down at the end of the U facing towards the bend in the cave with my back to the wall between myself and the ravine. By this point the roaring of the sandstorm was at its peak, and it didn¡¯t seem like it would be too much longer until the storm was upon me.


    I was right, and the storm arrived in a burst of sound and pressure, the light from the suns went out and darkness took its place alongside the roaring and howling of the storm.


    The first minute or so wasn¡¯t anything special and nothing crazy happened, so I decided to go around the bend and check out what was happening at the entrance of the cave.


    When I arrived at the bend and looked at the entrance, with the help of a floating light, I saw a wall of fast moving sand. Seeing that nothing overly dangerous was currently happening, I decided to stay and watch the rest of the storm until it passed, rather than just sit at the end of the cave.


    As time crept forward the wall of sand started to slowly encroach into the cave and deposit sand everywhere. Then, about 10 minutes into the storm, a wind/sand blade flew out of the wall of sand and struck the wall of the cave. The sand blade didn¡¯t have much power behind it and didn¡¯t cause any damage, but more and more blades started to fly out of the encroaching wall of sand, and the blades started to get stronger and stronger, eventually sounding like whips cracking against the walls of the cave and leaving light gouges in the stone.


    25 minutes into the storm I had backed up to the end of my cave as the roaring sand made its way around the bend shooting off wind/sand blades almost rapidfire at this point. I knew that I would have to survive storms like this if I wanted to complete this level, so instead of turtling up I decided to see how much I could endure through my own power.


    I strengthened my body with magic and got closer to the flying blades. It wasn¡¯t long before one of the blades shot in my direction and hit me in the stomach. However, with the padded armor protecting me, the blade didn¡¯t do any damage to my body. But that wasn¡¯t the same case for the blade that shot towards my exposed face. Seeing the blade coming, I moved quickly and just barely managed to block my face with my hands.


    The blade crashed into the back of my hands, and despite my enhancement, I felt the gritty sand tear my skin and leave behind fine grains that aggravated the shallow cut, making it hurt more than it should have. The misty ice-steel ring¡¯s effect started slowly healing the wound, but it would be a few minutes before it would be fully healed even though it was just a shallow cut.


    After that I protected my face better, using my arm and padded armor to cover my face, but that still left my legs unprotected and vulnerable to the flying blades of sand.


    By the time the storm passed, around 8 minutes later, my legs were covered in shallow bleeding cuts, making me lament the lack of armored leggings in any of the loot I had acquired. Other than that, there was sand everywhere, not only in the cave but in my clothes and bleeding cuts as well, everything was full of fine red sand.


    I cleaned the sand from my cuts before healing them. Then I took some time to clear the sand out of my clothes and hair (as much as I could) before investigating everything.


    With the light of the suns restored, I could see the numerous cuts in the walls as I walked out of the now sand filled cave. Outside, the walls of the ravine sported many new cuts in the walls, but not nearly as deep as the ones inside the cave. I guessed that maybe the terrain had been strengthened against the storms over time, otherwise the landscape would be nothing but sand dunes by this point.


    Checking up on the plants I had linked to, they seemed to be just fine, and during the entirety of the storm I hadn¡¯t sensed anything from them that indicated they were struggling against the storm at all.


    Well if they¡¯ve survived until now they must have some way to get through the storms, whatever that may be. I, on the other hand, will have to endure some pain if I have to be out in the open storm, but I should be able to survive it.


    This Forced Task is basically just the Dungeon saying ¡®I don¡¯t like you, deal with it for 24 hours¡¯. In any case, now is as good a time as any to start my 24 hours. Since a storm just passed, and since I have to be out in the open for the duration anyways, I should explore while I can and see what¡¯s worth taking around here.


    The Lumingel from the last level was extremely valuable due to its difficulty of acquiring, but the things on this level were sure to be valuable because of their rarity, at least I hoped so. I couldn¡¯t wait to acquire some more resources.

 Trees - Chapter 30

    Whatever place this level took inspiration from had a very quick night and day cycle, with the whole cycle completing in around 5 hours. This was probably also one of the reasons for the extremely fast winds and frequent sandstorms on the level.


    During the day the two suns would fly across the sky, and at night 2 more distant stars lit up the night, making the light never go below twilight levels of brightness while still being able to see the sky full of stars.


    The sandstorms seemed to come and go in around 30 minute intervals on and 2 hours off. At least, I came to this conclusion because in the past 5 hours 2 more storms had gone by while I stayed out in the open. The last one had just passed, and my wounds from the storm were still healing.


    The first time I had taken on the sand/wind blades, in the cave, had only been for 5 minutes or so, and that hadn¡¯t even been in the open storm. However, during the past 2 storms, I had to expose myself to about 30 minutes of flying blades much stronger than the ones I had taken on inside the cave.


    After enduring the much more powerful storm blades, I was grateful for the misty ice-steel ring¡¯s effects that brought me much needed recovery to get through the storm. Without its healing I would¡¯ve had to use a lot more mana; as it is I already used up more than what I regenerated just to keep my body reinforced throughout the storm, if I had to heal myself at the same time I might¡¯ve ran myself dry just to get through a storm.


    During the time in between the storms I wandered the sandy landscape, and during this time I picked up multiple natural sunstones that were extremely uncommon in the outside world, at least naturally formed sunstones were, artificial sunstones weren¡¯t hard to make, so the natural sunstones weren¡¯t as valuable as they used to be back before the method to create them had been discovered.


    Sunstones were light attributed stones that shone with light whenever another sunstone they were connected to was receiving light. They had their own uses, but nowadays they weren¡¯t as necessary for lighting and were mostly used for crafting purposes.


    The sunstones were about all I could find while roaming the almost barren landscape.


    Although it wasn¡¯t certain that each level would have something valuable, I had hoped I could find something more valuable than sunstones. Currently I was exploring one of the large ravines that frayed the landscape. It still counted as being out in the open for my Forced Task, so I decided to wander the ravine instead of the featureless dunes that seemed devoid of anything valuable or interesting.


    After recovering from the storm, I continued to wander the ravine, and while wandering I came across a ruby red crystal tree lying in a tucked away area, in an offshoot of the main ravine. It was about a meter tall, and didn¡¯t have any leaves, but there was a fruit hanging off the tip of its singular branch.


    I knew what this tree was the moment I saw it, not only because of its distinct appearance, but because I also felt its influence in my mind. This was a Restless Ruby Tree, no doubt about it; they used mental coercion to make other creatures want to help them, in return for various benefits.


    This Restless Ruby Tree was small, barely a sapling; it looked similar to a pointed stick with a singular small branch coming out of it, and it had a fruit hanging from this small branch. It was barely a meter tall from base to tip, and was only as thick as 2 fingers at its widest. However, despite its size, this one was much more valuable to me than a fully grown Restless Ruby Tree.


    Thanking Jilly for the good luck, I was about to go pick it up and store it in excitement, but a jackrabbit creature with two pronged horns went up to the base of the tree and started to shake the tree with it with its horns, probably trying to get the fruit hanging from its branch to drop.


    I felt a weak ¡®go away¡¯ feeling come from the baby tree when the jackrabbit continued to shake it, and the jackrabbit must¡¯ve felt it too because it paused and backed up a little bit. However the horned jackrabbit took another look at the fruit and went back to what it was doing. The horned jackrabbit looked skinny and desperate for food, it didn¡¯t look like the baby tree¡¯s weak mental pleas were going to work on it.


    Seeing this, I was again going to go towards the tree, this time to save it from the horned jackrabbit, but a meter long scorpion appeared in a rush, hurrying towards the tree. The horned jackrabbit didn¡¯t see the scorpion approaching until it was too late, and with how gaunt the horned jackrabbit looked it didn¡¯t stand a chance against the scorpion¡¯s fast attack. The jackrabbit tried to struggle, but the scorpion¡¯s stinger put a quick stop to its weak resistance.


    With the jackrabbit incapacitated the scorpion proceeded to drag the jackrabbit over to the base of the tree and backed away while watching. I watched as well, as the tree sent a crystalline spike from the base of its trunk into the jackrabbit.


    The jackrabbit immediately started to deflate like a balloon, and after only a minute or so the tree¡¯s spike retracted back into the tree leaving behind a pile of bones and fur. The fruit on the tree started to swell and grow, to the point that the thin crystalline branch it was hanging on started to slightly bend from its weight. Before the branch could snap though, the fruit fell from the branch and the scorpion madly started to devour the fruit.


    You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.


    Well it¡¯s great that the tree isn¡¯t in danger anymore, but now the tree¡¯s scorpion guardian is here.


    Taking the tree for myself wouldn¡¯t be as easy if the baby tree had its guard nearby, not because it would be difficult to deal with the scorpion, but because I would have to deal with the guard in a manner that would leave the tree without damage.


    A baby tree like this wouldn¡¯t be able to handle the shock of me killing something it has bonded to, but there must be a way for me to incapacitate the scorpion or deal with it some other way. Mental attacks won¡¯t do, with the tree¡¯s connection to the scorpion I could really harm the tree by doing that.


    While I was thinking about a way to deal with the scorpion, the scorpion finished its fruit, and after it was done a glowing barrier enveloped the scorpion making it difficult to see beneath the glowing shell. In just a few seconds the scorpion started to grow, and it grew to fill its barrier. Then the glow faded away, leaving behind a larger scorpion than before.


    It seems that because the scorpion isn¡¯t fully grown that its desire to grow influenced the tree, to make the fruit produced by the tree make whatever ate it grow larger, or maybe older. I wouldn¡¯t want to eat that fruit, but if I can get the tree to make a connection with me, then I can influence what kind of fruit the tree produces.


    It was a nice byproduct that I would get from connecting with the tree, but it wasn¡¯t the main reason I wanted to do so. No, I wanted to make a connection with this tree because it would enhance my mental defenses considerably.


    Although the tree¡¯s mind was still nascent, plant minds were inherently resistant to mental effects, so if I could form a deeper bond with this tree then I would be able to greatly enhance my own mental defenses. It might take a while for the tree to grow and become useful, but it would be worth it in the end.


    Usually a mental connection/bond with a Restless Ruby Tree would be limited in its usefulness because of the plant¡¯s unmoving nature, and whenever something that was bonded to the Restless Ruby Tree left its range they would suffer a growing restlessness to return and defend the tree. Hence the name Restless Ruby Tree; but with it in my Internal World this wouldn¡¯t be a limiting factor in the slightest, and I would be able to enjoy the benefits all the time without any of the drawbacks.


    I might not be able to mentally manipulate the scorpion, because of its connection to the tree, but I should still be able to lure it away in a normal way.


    Then it occurred to me, I could use some of the lizard corpses from the first level to lure the scorpion away, and while it was gone I could dig up and store the tree. It shouldn¡¯t have many roots with how small it is, so digging it up shouldn¡¯t be hard. If I stored the tree away while the scorpion was out of range, then, to the tree, it would be like the scorpion left and never came back, which would allow the tree to slowly lose its connection over the course of a few days or weeks.


    With that idea in mind, it would be a simple task to lure the scorpion away. In this desert environment where there weren¡¯t many predators around, I didn¡¯t have to do much of anything to protect the lizard corpse from being left out in the open.


    So, after walking a sufficient distance away, I took out a lizard corpse and placed it on the ground. I placed the corpse down on a simple array I carved into a rock face. Although I wasn¡¯t an array master, this array was a simple one that would make the corpse stick to the rock, long enough for me to get my job done at least.


    And with that complete I hurried my way back towards the tree while hiding my presence. With the corpse placed upwind from the scorpion it noticed the smell before I even got back to the tree, and while it moved off to get the corpse, I moved in towards the tree. When I felt the mental activity around the tree lessen to the point that it became dormant, I knew that the scorpion was out of the range of the tree and it wouldn¡¯t be able to call it back. So I moved swiftly, but tried not to alarm the tree.


    I reached the tree and used my, still budding, earth magic abilities to sense the tree¡¯s roots in order to dig around them and pull it safely out of the ground. I could feel the tree¡¯s weak mental ¡®go away¡¯ feeling pestering me while I worked, but it was like a weak breeze compared to the Vivid Vortex.


    Now came the difficult part, putting it in my Internal World. Overcoming a living entity¡¯s resistance to being influenced was a huge hurdle to get through, but thankfully plants had comparatively less ability to actively resist than other living things, even if it was a mental plant. So with a bit of effort, and mana, the Restless Ruby Tree found its way into its new home in my Internal World.


    The Restless Ruby Tree had different senses, so when it entered my Internal World it ceased to sense anything around it and started to relax its mental flailing. It would be a while until it was ready to accept a new bond, and I was happy to wait. If all I got from this level was this Restless Ruby Tree, then it would all be worth it.


    I was originally going to use one of my rewards, from completing the Dungeon of Tribulation, to shore up my mental defenses. However, now I would have the bare minimum to fill my (maybe excessive) mental defense requirements.


    If others were to hear about my minimum requirements for mental defenses they would probably call me extremely paranoid, and maybe I was. But for someone like me who came from Earth, allowing others to mess with my mind was an extremely frightening prospect, which was part of the reason why I chose to spend so many of my POINTS just to be born with a mental [Metaphysical Organ] and mental [Power].


    In the end my fears had been proven justified, and now my stance towards protecting my freedom was even greater than it was in the past. This extended beyond just passive mental defenses though, I was afraid of even allowing others to get close to me. I was only even friends with Genesis because she couldn¡¯t do anything to me in prison, and having her see me as a friend was beneficial to me. I felt like a horrible person for thinking about her in this way, but my fear of being chained down wasn¡¯t something I could just get rid of.


    The only reason I wasn¡¯t an emotional wreck was because of my (Adaptive Mind) and (Mental Operator), without them I would probably have gone mad at some point. But, in my opinion, considering my circumstances I was doing just fine.

 Sand and Surprises - Chapter 31

    The rest of the fourth level was mostly spent wandering around the barren landscape, with the occasional small event to liven things up. The sandy level seemed to be one of those floors that tested one¡¯s endurance rather than their strength. That¡¯s not to say that there weren¡¯t tests of strength though, just that they were more of an afterthought, with there only being 2 more really difficult challenges that I had had to face.


    The first difficult situation occurred around hour 80 of my time on the level. I had gotten restless exploring the canyon area of the level, and I decided to check out the area that was filled with giant holes in the ground. By this point in time I had already gotten a firm grasp on the difficulty of the level, and I was much less on guard than I should have been.


    I was lazy and careless, not taking many measures to hide my presence, mostly because the level was basically devoid of life, and I had stopped hiding much of my presence tens of hours ago without any problem since. So I figured that if anything were able to detect my presence, like the dragon on level 2, that it would¡¯ve found me by this point.


    I might¡¯ve been careless, but that carelessness might¡¯ve actually saved me in the end.


    I was walking towards the hole filled area, lost in thought, when I felt a slight tremor in the ground. The tremor pulled me out of my navel gazing and made me focus on my surroundings more while I headed towards the nearest hole. The hole was over 20 meters in diameter and almost perfectly circular, and the ground in this area was more rock than sand.


    I felt the ground tremble again, which made me pause. I started to wonder if there might be earthquakes in this level in addition to the sandstorms. However, the next tremor in the earth revealed that the source was not the earth itself, but a giant armored worm-like creature. The armored segments of the worm expanded and contracted like an accordion, and I could feel the surrounding mana, including my own, flow towards the giant worm in sync to the worm''s contraction and expansion, like the worm was breathing in the mana around it.


    As soon as I saw this scene my instincts kicked in and I boosted my body to its limits while I dashed away at full speed. The armored worm didn¡¯t seem to move all that fast, but something giant like that didn¡¯t need to move nearly as much as I did in order to cover the same amount of distance. I felt the ground shake as I sprinted away, and while I didn¡¯t look back I could tell that the armored worm was in hot pursuit.


    Thankfully the worm didn¡¯t seem to be able to move very well on land and quickly gave up its chase. I wasn¡¯t exhausted from running, but my heart was racing from adrenaline. I knew that the armored worm was maybe only a low Tier Rank 1, but Rank and Tier were more like modifiers than actual metrics of measurement, thus my decision to run rather than fight.


    It was the same problem that I had with the Dragon back on level 2. In essence, a squirrel with super strength would still be crushed by a normal elephant. In the Dragon¡¯s case, I would¡¯ve stood no chance even if it was a tiny Dragon, because of Dragon¡¯s overwhelming Metaphysical might. In the armored worm¡¯s case I would¡¯ve stood no chance against it because of its overwhelming size and physical might. The same concept applied to the Vivid Vortex as well, I was only able to defeat it because I launched a sneak attack at it from the inside.


    Sure I might¡¯ve been able to defeat the armored worm if I went all out and spent all my mana, but then I might not have had enough mana to endure the next storm by the time it came. In the end, it just wasn¡¯t worth it.


    I steered clear of the area filled with holes from then on.


    The second difficult challenge was another Restless Ruby Tree that I came across, around hour 130, and wanted to collect. However this Restless Ruby Tree was mature and surrounded by large 3 meter long scorpion guards, which seemed to be one of the few animals populating this level. When I first came across this I was debating whether or not it would be worth it to fight, or lure away so many scorpions just to collect the tree.


    If it were another baby Restless Ruby Tree then I would fight as many guards as I needed to collect it, but this was a mature tree and wasn¡¯t as valuable to me personally as a baby tree. This mature tree had already grown up and adapted to the environment and evolved to accommodate these scorpions. If I were to own this tree then the fruit would be practically worthless to me, because its mental capabilities, protection, and fruit would already be focused towards scorpions, not humans.


    It was a lost cause, but I hesitated to leave the tree behind for one reason, money. Just because it wasn¡¯t valuable to me didn¡¯t mean that it wouldn¡¯t be valuable to someone else. The Restless Ruby Tree was a very beautiful tree in its own right, and a rich person would certainly pay lots of Credits for such a beautiful and exotic tree. I didn¡¯t necessarily need the money I could get from selling this tree, but the thought of leaving something so valuable behind just didn¡¯t sound right to me.


    However, luckily, or unluckily, I didn¡¯t have to deal with the army of scorpions guarding the tree. This was because they all started to leave and find hiding spots for some reason. I had seen other animals do this on this level to get away from the storms, but a storm had just passed not 20 minutes ago, so I was confused about the scorpion''s behavior.


    That was when I noticed that the roaring of the passing storm hadn¡¯t faded like it usually did. Instead the roaring seemed to be increasing instead of decreasing. Down in the canyons and ravines I was unable to see the horizon, so I wasn¡¯t sure what was going on, but from the scorpion¡¯s behavior I could tell that a big storm must be coming.


    I debated whether I should find a place to hide from the storm like the scorpions, or if I should use this opportunity to collect the Restless Ruby Tree while it didn¡¯t have its guards. Of course, I chose to collect the tree. I had weathered the storms many times at this point, so I was confident in my ability to weather the coming storm, unlike the pitiful scorpions.


    I stealthed myself, so as to not be noticed by the tree, and I began the massive project of excavating the tree¡¯s roots. Though the massive project was made considerably easier through the use of magic.


    I had to excavate the tree¡¯s roots because teleporting all of the soil around the tree¡¯s roots would¡¯ve been too much to teleport all at once, with my current capabilities and limitations that is.


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    So I began my work, expecting the storm to be upon me any second judging by the sound of the roaring in the air. However the roaring of wind reached the loudest it had been in the middle of the previous storms, but the sandstorm was nowhere in sight, and the sound continued to grow in volume. The crystal tree even started to slowly twist its branches together and reduce its surface area as much as it could, like it was expecting something big.


    The clues were telling me that this storm wasn¡¯t going to be the same as the previous ones, and I began to excavate the roots of the tree as fast as I could. Eventually the roar of the storm reached the point where my ears started to hurt and I had to shove something in them to protect them from the sound.


    I could sense, with earth magic, that I had uncovered most of the tree¡¯s upper roots by this point, but from the darkening of the sky I could tell that I didn¡¯t have enough time to uncover the most fringe roots before the storm would be upon me. I remembered reading before that the most important roots of a tree were the upper roots, but I wasn¡¯t so sure how much this applied to Restless Ruby Trees, but I decided it was going to have to be enough.


    I started to teleport the tree into my Internal World and fight to overcome its resistance, which was much higher than the baby tree I had teleported before, but it was still bearable, if a little bit mana intensive.


    However the storm had reached me as quickly as a whip, and it was nothing like the ones that had come before it. The beginning of this storm was as bad as the peak of the previous storms, and I could tell that it wouldn¡¯t be long before it reached a point that I wouldn¡¯t be able to endure, even with my max reinforcement.


    At this point I had to make a decision, either abandon teleporting the tree, or forget about teleporting the still buried parts of the tree.


    Due to the fact that the type of teleportation I was using was specialized in forcefully teleporting living things, and was terribly inefficient against barriers (such as the earth or even just water), I was having a hard time teleporting the parts of the tree still beneath the earth, and if the sand in storm grew much thicker I wouldn¡¯t be able to penetrate even the air.


    So I decided to forget about the 15-20% of the roots still buried beneath the ground, and hope that the tree would be able to endure the loss. I had heard before that trees could handle losing that much of their roots and still live, but, again, I wasn¡¯t so sure how much this applied to Restless Ruby Trees. Regardless, I was running out of time as the storm continued to escalate, so I sheared through the tree''s crystalline roots, and succeeded in teleporting the Restless Ruby Tree into my Internal World before the storm grew too fierce.


    However, now I had to get out of the storm before its fury reached a point I couldn¡¯t withstand. I started to head towards a nearby large cave that was maybe 7 or so minutes away, but the storm grew stronger much faster than I had anticipated. The air grew thick with dust and sand to the point that it made it pointless to open my eyes; I couldn¡¯t see in front of me at all even with a light, and I had to rely on my (Space-Time Sense) to navigate the now dark world.


    The wind/sand blades flying through the storm started to take larger and larger chunks out of my exposed reinforced flesh, and my padded armor started to accumulate damage that bruised me even beneath its layers of protection.


    I knew that I wouldn¡¯t be able to endure the storm for long enough to reach the large cave, but there was a shallow cave that was much closer. It wouldn¡¯t be as comfortable, but I couldn¡¯t afford to be picky. I activated the padded armor¡¯s enchantments and increased my running speed, desperate to get out of the storm even one moment sooner.


    By the time I reached the shallow cave my arms and legs were covered in deep bleeding wounds and wet red sand. The wind swept the blood off of my limbs and into the storm, while it threatened to do the same to my whole body. I barely made it into the shallow cave before I used up my remaining mana to close off the entrance, while I collapsed to the cramped floor right after.


    I was on the ground coughing out dry sand from my lungs as I felt my own blood start to pool around my arms and legs. At first I wasn¡¯t sure if I would be able to regenerate enough mana to heal myself before I lost too much blood, but without my mana to keep the misty ice-steel ring¡¯s chilling effect at bay, everywhere not covered by my coat¡¯s temperature regulation effect started to slowly freeze over. In this case it was a welcome effect, because it froze my bleeding wounds preventing further loss of blood, and after it stopped further blood loss I lessened its power, preventing my body from freezing to death but losing most of the ring¡¯s healing effect at the same time.


    After a few minutes, lying there in pain, my mana regenerated enough to send a pulse of healing magic through my body, pushing out the foreign matter in my wounds, but not healing them. This opened my wounds once again, and I had to turn up the ring¡¯s effects one more time to freeze my now clean wounds closed, making me shiver despite my core still being warm thanks to my new favorite coat.


    A long while and a few pulses of healing magic later, I was no longer in danger of bleeding out. The ferocity of the storm had far exceeded every storm before it, and it was still raging outside the rock barrier separating me from it. I started to wonder why the storm had suddenly become so fierce out of the blue, and my Cloud was happy to supply a list of possible reasons.


    Some of the reasons on the list my Cloud provided were funny because of how radical and strange they were, but one of the most likely reasons was very simple. Time. I knew that the levels got increasingly more difficult over time, but it seemed that I had underestimated the impact it could have on a variable like a storm. It seemed that the Time Requirement Challenge was more dangerous than I had initially thought.


    Thankfully the difficulty increases over time only applied to some variables, things like the changing storms or the monsters for example. However, the difficulty increase wasn¡¯t distributed equally across all variables at the same time, which is probably why the storm had grown to such extremes while other things hadn¡¯t changed much at all. But this difficulty increase only partially carried across levels, which was good news for me. I didn¡¯t much like the idea of having such extreme weather conditions on the next level.


    When the storm outside had ended, and I had regenerated enough mana to feel comfortable going out, I opened up the wall and stepped outside. Looking around, the rock walls had large gashes in them, but the storm seemed to have swept away any debris created from the chaos, leaving behind only the visual marks of its violence. My own rock wall that protected me probably wouldn¡¯t have lasted if the storm had gone on for much longer.


    In the end, my greed had almost killed me, but if greed doesn¡¯t kill you it only makes you richer, wise words to live by.


    I had to shelter myself from the storms during my remaining time stuck on this level, and I didn¡¯t manage to find much of anything during my time exploring after that. So my remaining time on the floor was mostly spent resting up for the next floor.


    I was thoroughly done with the sand and heat, and was ready to move on by the time the System message showed up.


    [Level 4 complete. All challenges have been met.]


    [Would you like to enter level 5 of the Dungeon of Tribulation, or leave the dungeon?]


    I had put on some nice shorts and some shoes that fit me, I didn¡¯t know what the next floor would hold, but tropical clothes had never done me wrong in the past.


    ¡°Enter the next level please.¡±


    [Affirmative. Now entering level 5.]

 Level 5 - Chapter 32

    The light of day seemed to be coming up, or going down, over the horizon, in either a sunrise or a sunset. Either way it was more than enough light to see by, as bright as noon day in the outside world in fact.


    The place I had appeared in seemed to be some sort of cityscape, however it didn¡¯t seem to be ¡®lived in¡¯ from what I could tell; there was a slight rotting smell in the air, almost like there wasn¡¯t any active rot but the rot had been so great before that it had woven itself into the surroundings, the buildings and infrastructure seemed to be breaking down and deteriorating, and piles of scrap that must¡¯ve once been vehicles and other things littered the streets and sidewalks.


    Looking up, I could see a dome structure enclosing the city. Many different buildings rose up to touch this dome, almost like they were holding it up, keeping it from crashing down onto the city below. It would¡¯ve been a sight to behold, but what must¡¯ve once been a magnificent city was now a desolate and ruined cityscape.


    A city huh? There must be some valuable things left here. I just hope the buildings won¡¯t come crumbling down while I¡¯m inside them looking for that sweet sweet loot.


    After getting a handle on my surroundings, and seeing that I wasn¡¯t in any immediate danger, the System messages popped up.


    [Time Requirement: Survive for 160 hours]


    [Forced Task: Get rid of 1,000,000 points worth of hostile entities]


    A grinding task? This brings back memories of my days spent playing RPGs, both on Earth and Epidas.


    I started walking down the cracked city streets looking for monsters, or anything hostile that might be lurking around. However, no matter how far I walked, there didn¡¯t seem to be anything anywhere, the city seemed to be completely devoid of life. This was very confusing, according to the Forced Task there should be swarms of hostile entities, but for some reason the streets were completely empty. But this didn¡¯t stop me from looking, it could just be that I had spawned in a location very far away from anything after all.


    Walking down the abandoned streets I began to notice something, my skin was burning, but I didn¡¯t even feel hot, in fact I felt somewhat cold because of the misty ice-steel ring. Looking at my skin I noticed some faint burns on my arms and legs, but they seemed to only really be on one side of my body. I was somewhat confused as to what was causing this, but then I noticed that the side with the burns was also the side that had been facing the ¡®sun¡¯ the most, or at least where the sun seemed to be below the horizon.


    Could it be radiation? That¡¯s bad, radiation damage is difficult to heal. I better get inside one of these buildings and take care of this before it becomes a real problem.


    Looking around at the nearby buildings I wondered which I should choose to shelter in. It seemed like I was in a business district of the city, with stores and entertainment buildings around me. I chose the largest shop that I could see and ran towards it, wanting to get out of the sun¡¯s rays before they caused even more damage.


    Barging through the glass doors of the building I was able to get out of the sun¡¯s direct rays, but there was still non-direct light entering through the windows. Thankfully it seemed that the store would¡¯ve been lit mostly by artificial illumination when it had been active, so all I needed to do was walk deeper into the building to avoid the sun.


    While I was walking deeper into the dark shop, I looked around trying to discern if there was anything of worth. The shop seemed to be some kind of clothing store, with racks devoid of clothing, and dust covering the floor. It seemed like time and the environment had turned the clothing into dust. However the dust on the floor was disturbed and had many different trails and footprints tracking through it. This detail made me cautiously look around with more care.


    Barely visible within the darkness of the store were faint flickers of movement, and slight reflections from eyeballs looking directly at me, were hidden within the darkness. I shivered when I noticed the hidden life stalking me from the shadows.


    Dang that¡¯s creepy! I didn¡¯t think that everything else would be hiding in the buildings, but I guess even the natives don¡¯t like the radiation from the sun. I guess this is as good a time as any to grind out my Forced Task. It seemed like whatever was hiding in the shadows was afraid of the sunlight, so, theoretically, I would be able to kill them without worry.


    Although I was eager to complete the Forced Task as soon as possible, that didn¡¯t mean that I would rush into things without proper information. Using a spell to allow me to see into the darkness, I was able to make out what was lurking in the shadows.


    The shadows lit up and I was able to make out many different kinds of creatures. They were all vastly different from one another, with some standing tall and lanky, some large and slow, and others crawling or scuttling along the floor. There were various colors of flesh adorning these horrendous creatures, ranging from charred black, sickening blue, infected red, ghostly white, and some even had corrosive green leaking from their bodies. Their biology was all vastly different, but they all had one thing in common, they looked designed for violence and war.


    Considering the state of the city outside, these monsters must be some sort of biological weapons or something. Whatever they are, they don¡¯t look easy to kill, and I don¡¯t favor my chances of fighting in close combat with some of these monsters, especially not such a large group of them.


    Using long ranged magic was certainly the only way I would be fighting these monsters, but what magic to use was another question. Earth magic wouldn¡¯t be feasible, the materials used in a city, even if they had been neglected for a long time, would¡¯ve been treated to withstand such magic.


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    I tried mental magic and it didn''t seem to work on these monsters. It made sense though, they were probably engineered that way. Those two were currently my most practiced offensive options that I could use at the moment, but they didn¡¯t seem viable in this situation.


    What kind of magic should I use then? I mean, I can use any kind of magic, at least theoretically, because of my magic core color, so I could always just try messing around with a new type of magic. But if I¡¯m going to do that then I should try to find out what is most effective against these new foes.


    I started to observe the monsters more closely to try and discern what their weaknesses might be. However each monster was so different from the next that what might be a weakness to one would be a strength of another, it just didn¡¯t seem like any one magic would be suitable. When I was wondering whether or not I should just try to learn some kind of flesh magic, I realized that they all seemed to be avoiding the sunlight like it was the plague.


    That¡¯s it! If these are indeed engineered weapons, then they must¡¯ve been given a weakness that could be exploited should they ever turn against their creators. It seems that there is something about the sun that these monsters can¡¯t handle, or at the very least try to avoid for some reason.


    Considering my own experience with the sun outside, I wondered if maybe radiation was what these monsters feared. Well it wouldn¡¯t hurt to try something. The monsters hadn¡¯t attacked me thus far, so I decided that I was fairly safe where I was at, and began to experiment with my magic, trying some spells I already knew and overloading them to try and modify their effects.


    Spell overloading was a commonly used method when spell casting, it was even taught to children when they first learned magic. However most people only slightly overloaded a spell, allowing them to slightly alter its shape, trajectory, or strength; it was something that everyone did but nobody really pushed the limits of.


    Not pushing it was understandable though, overloading a spell became exponentially more difficult and dangerous the more it was overloaded. But along with this danger and difficulty came equally as many benefits. If smaller levels of overloading allowed small tweaks, then much higher levels of overloading allowed for much greater changes. Even morphing the spell into a completely new spell was possible with enough effort and practice, though it was much harder than I was making it sound.


    In the end I settled on a light ball spell and began to massively overload it, and I was able to turn it into a light beam fairly easily. It wasn¡¯t exactly what I was looking for, but the more I experimented, the better I was able to manipulate the spell into something that would suit my needs.


    I spent almost half an hour experimenting and honing the spell to get what I desired, but the whole time I was experimenting and refining my magic the monsters didn¡¯t make a single noise, besides some slight movement across the floor. It was eerily creepy, and I might¡¯ve preferred if they made at least some kind of sound. Their silence was disturbing, almost distracting in its pervasiveness. However, I thought that this was natural. A weapon doesn¡¯t make noise unless it has to after all. I tried to ignore the grinding silence and focus on refining my attack spell.


    During my time tinkering with the spell, the sun never brightened past its initial levels, meaning that it was still in a ¡®sunrise¡¯ or ¡®sunset¡¯ position. Despite this it was still just as bright as noon day might be in the outside world, and I would hate to be subjected to the kind of radiation I might receive should it ever rise above the horizon.


    Like this, about an hour and a half had passed since my initial foray into this ruined city. My light ball spell had reached the point that I desired: a focused beam of intense radiation. But it was still an incredibly unstable spell. It''s a scrappy solution, but it''ll at least be usable, if a little dangerous to myself, but hey you work with what you¡¯ve got.


    I noticed a few minutes ago that the sunlight had begun to darken, and the diverse array of monsters lurking in the shadows began to grow more active and restless, their stares became piercing, and they focused on me like how lightning might focus on a metal rod. I figured that I should test out my new cobbled together spell before my saving light fled fully into the ground.


    Getting up from my seated position I did some light stretches before turning to face the crowd of monsters. Normally I would try to avoid calling living things monsters, even from within my own mind, but these creatures couldn¡¯t be described in any other way. They looked like a genetic weapons experiment gone wrong, with each one going wrong in its own different and horrifying way.


    I recast the very simple spell that allowed me to see better in the dark, and began charging up my spell while looking for the best target to test it on. I found the tankiest, largest monster I could, and decided that it would be the perfect test dummy. It didn¡¯t look capable of dodging, even with its many short legs, and armored plates covered its massive body; it was a stress test, start with the toughest challenge and work your way backwards from there. If my radiation beam worked on the tankiest looking target, then it would surely work on the others, and if not then I would know the upper limits of my new spell at least.


    After a few seconds of charging, I fired off the beam into the middle of the large monster and it arrived almost as fast as a blink. Even though it was a light based spell it wasn¡¯t as fast as light, magic was weird like that. The beam hit the target, and immediately a ferocious roar escaped the monster''s large maw. The beam was short-lived, but it left a large scar of burned flesh and crumbling armor plates in its wake three times the size of my fist.


    It was much more effective than I imagined, and even though it didn¡¯t seem to do much beyond surface damage, this was the toughest looking monster I had just hit. I found the result of my spell quite satisfactory. However it didn¡¯t seem that the effects were quite finished yet. Almost like a spreading corruption, the nasty burn on the monster began to spread from its origin point, leaving crumbling armor and ruined flesh sloughing off of the monster¡¯s body. After about 4 seconds the damage stopped spreading, leaving a crater almost as wide as my entire body and half as deep.


    I swallowed at the visible damage my spell had caused. I would never have expected my spell to do so much damage, to the point of leaving a crater of destruction and leaving the toughest monster severely injured.


    The other monsters looked at the severe injury as one and then back at me without any change in expression, though some of them started to tense up their muscles seemingly in preparation, getting ready for when they could rush towards their newest target. Even the injured monster stopped after its initial roar, not making any further noise, like it had only roared as a signal to others rather than a roar of pain.


    A cold killing focus permeated every action these monsters took, and I was starting to think that maybe I was in for more trouble than I could handle. Hopefully these monsters are worth more than 1 point each, I really don¡¯t enjoy the thought of having to kill 1,000,000 of them.

 Is This Going Well? I Can鈥檛 Really Tell - Chapter 33

    I fired off beam after beam into the crowd of monsters, killing them one after another. It felt like I was trying to empty a lake using my hands, every beam I fired would kill one of them, but there were so many more to take its place that it seemed like I wasn¡¯t making any progress. However looking at the Forced Task I could see that I was indeed making progress.


    [Forced Task: Get rid of 1,000,000 points worth of hostile entities]


    [22,487/1,000,000]


    I definitely hadn¡¯t killed over 20 thousand monsters, so it looked like each monster had its own point value assigned to it. I was relieved that I wouldn¡¯t have to spend every second killing monsters, but although I was making good progress, I wasn¡¯t fast enough. The spell I had cobbled together was definitely excessive for killing most of these monsters, and I knew that I could kill more of them, and faster, with a better spell.


    I could try and modify the spell I was using even more, but the sun was going down fast, and the light was growing dimmer by the second. I didn¡¯t think I would be able to modify the spell much more in the time I had left.


    If I was more confident in my combat abilities, then I would probably find some way to keep fighting, but my combat experience is almost nothing compared to the amount of time I¡¯ve lived up to this point. I took another look at the crowd of monsters in the building and decided to get away from here before it was too late.


    Although the sunlight, and therefore radiation, was still present, I had already healed from the previous radiation damage I had received after spending over an hour in the shop, but it looked like I would have to endure a little more if I wanted to get away from these monsters before they came after me. Walking out of the dark shop, and into the dimming sunlight, I couldn¡¯t feel anything different, but I knew that the radiation was definitely present since the monsters still didn¡¯t dare to follow me.


    I ran down the street at a steady pace and used a spell to get rid of my smell, sound, and visual traces; the monsters might be able to use some other kind of tracking method, but these were the most basic precautions I could take when running or hiding from something.


    I ran towards a part of the city that looked to be a residential area, it had more apartment buildings than actual houses though. I wasn¡¯t so sure that I would be able to outrun some of the monsters I saw within the store, but if I could get onto the tops of those buildings then I might be able to hop from roof to roof with some magic in order to avoid the monsters. This was just a rudimentary plan though, I wasn¡¯t so sure how smart these monsters were, and if they were smart enough to crowd onto the surrounding buildings, as well as the one I was on, then it would be troublesome to say the least.


    As I ran I went into Mental Operator for a second in order to turn on one of the ¡®programs¡¯ that I had created for this kind of situation.


    This ¡®anomaly recognition¡¯ program, as I had named it, was very annoying because it made me notice all of the little inconsistencies around me, so I didn¡¯t really like to turn on this program for the most part, but I decided to use it while I was running through the city. I was in a foreign, and hostile, environment that had way too many places for things to hide, so being able to recognize even the smallest anomaly would probably be helpful right now.


    Immediately I was bombarded by everything wrong around me, and it was a lot. Tiny shifts of movement from the inside of the buildings, almost imperceptible uniform tracks on the sidewalks and not the streets, tiny lights on cameras turning on with the setting of the sun, and the sound of movement coming from the direction of the far away shop I had just left.


    I could tell that, although the sky was darkening, the city was coming to life.


    The fact that there are working lights means that there is something still powering this dead city. Whatever it is, it is definitely valuable. I knew that a city couldn¡¯t have nothing of value in it, even if it is an old and abandoned city.


    I reached a large intersection in the street, and noticed monsters pouring out of the nearby buildings and immediately looking straight in my direction. Looking back, in the direction I had come from, monsters were pouring out of the buildings and moving towards the places I had passed. Looking ahead of me nothing was exiting the buildings in the direction I was headed, and looking to the sides, the streets perpendicular to me were the same. Only in the path behind me, and the buildings in my immediate vicinity had monsters pouring out of them.


    Okay then, it looks like these monsters were designed to hunt something I¡¯m not currently hiding, I wonder what it is that¡¯s drawing them to me. I mean I¡¯m not giving off any visuals, smells, or sounds, so what else could it be?


    My mind accelerated to try and figure it out. I might not be so confident in combat, but concealment was one of my specialties. I immediately denied almost every sense I could think of just based on the extreme variety of monsters coming after me, some had eyes, others didn¡¯t, some had ears, others didn¡¯t, so on and so forth. Whatever it was that they were using to track me had to be non-physical in nature, and the only thing I could think of that would be able to be tracked by every one of these monsters, was my mana, and if that was the case, then I was in trouble.


    For most people, monsters that tracked through sensing mana weren¡¯t that big of a threat, they would just have to be mindful of their mana use and they would be fine. However I was not like most people, I had a Magical Physique, and having a Magical Physique meant that the barrier between my Mana Nebula and my body had been breached and I would constantly be leaking mana. Even for others with Magical Physiques this wouldn¡¯t be too big of a deal, but my mana cells generated 800% more mana than others did. In my current situation that meant that I would attract monsters from much farther away than others would. This distance would lessen depending on how full my mana reserves were, but currently they were near full capacity.


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    It was not looking good for me.


    Seeing that my concealment spells weren¡¯t going to be helping much, I decided to not renew them when they wore off. After all, I would be needing my mana to fight off these hordes of monsters, and hiding wasn¡¯t working anyways.


    Running away wouldn¡¯t do much good for me either, that would just gather a bigger crowd. I would have to make my stand in one of the nearby buildings instead of my original plan.


    My mind decelerated back to normal, and I turned towards the nearest building that looked at least somewhat defensible. I just hoped that my mana would last long enough to take care of the horde coming for me.


    -M-713-


    [Electromagnetic interference levels decreasing to negligible levels: Begin start up sequence.]


    M-713 identified the routine changes to the outside environment as all of the sensors began to start up and all of the things that were unusable during the solar period became functional once again. Cameras, sensors, and bots all came online and waited for further instructions as they sent back all of their gathered data to the mainframe system.


    The mainframe system received all of the data and didn¡¯t find anything within its parameters that needed to be done, so it just waited, like it always did.


    M-713 on the other hand, which was currently linked to the mainframe system, noticed something unusual. It started to analyze a certain section of the city where the [Allowed] were seemingly agitated by something and were converging towards a seemingly random building.


    Normally the [Allowed] didn¡¯t move around and stayed where they were safe during the solar period. The [Allowed] only really moved whenever a [Not Allowed] was nearby.


    M-713 recognized the repeating pattern of [Allowed] going after [Not Allowed] and started to scan for the [Not Allowed] that must be somewhere in the vicinity. But M-713 didn¡¯t find the [Not Allowed], it only found some light beams on top of one of the buildings that were deleting the [Allowed] that were converging towards a spot on the roof.


    M-713 had come across a situation like this before, that is a situation where ¡®light beams were deleting the [Allowed].¡¯ However no matter how much M-713 scanned the surroundings it was unable to find even a single [Not Allowed].


    Since it failed to find any [Not Allowed] anywhere, it went back to scanning the city and making sure the [Priority] was protected.


    After a while the [Allowed] that were swarming towards the building were all deleted and M-713 still failed to find any [Not Allowed] anywhere nearby or anywhere within the city. M-713 was about to stop its focused scanning when it caught something appearing on the roof. M-713 immediately sent out multiple different identifiers, and they all came back with [Not Allowed].


    M-713 connected to the mainframe system and sent the necessary codes to get the mainframe system to delete the [Not Allowed] from the city. M-713 had to protect the [Priority], and it had found that letting the mainframe system take care of any [Not Allowed]s usually gave the best results. However the mainframe system didn¡¯t share the same views as M-713 and had to be constantly fed the necessary codes and information, otherwise the mainframe system would completely ignore any [Not Allowed]s.


    M-713 continued to observe the [Not Allowed] as it went around the roof. Some of the corpses of the deleted [Allowed] seemingly disappeared when the [Not Allowed] touched them. M-713 logged the anomaly and increased the danger level of this [Not Allowed] to maximum, if it could make things it touched disappear then it could make the [Priority] disappear in the same way.


    It had been a long time since M-713 had recognized such a high danger level [Not Allowed]. It booted up its body and got ready to protect the [Priority] with its large metal frame and weapons. It had to siphon off enough mana from the [Priority] to fill its weapon reserves, but it was necessary in order to defend it. If the mainframe system couldn¡¯t deal with this [Not Allowed] then M-713 would have to take care of it itself.


    -Radiant-


    My mana reserves were far from ideal, with them being less than 10% at the moment. Though, maybe they were ideal, since I wouldn¡¯t be drawing in monsters from as large of a radius.


    Over the course of my long drawn out battle with the monsters, I had continued to refine my radiation beam spell, to the point that I had significantly decreased how much mana and time I spent killing the various monsters. Piles of corpses with radiation destroyed materials were now scattered around the flat roof. The amount of monsters had thinned to its last dregs, and it allowed me to relax a little as I went about cleaning up the last of the living monsters. Once all of the monsters were dead I folded my arms and checked my progress on the Forced Task.


    [Forced Task: Get rid of 1,000,000 points worth of hostile entities]


    [147,543/1,000,000]


    It¡¯s only been around 3 hours since I arrived on this floor and I¡¯m already almost 15% done with my grinding task. I don¡¯t know If I should be happy or sad right now.


    I looked around at all the different kinds of corpses around me. Well, after grinding monsters in games usually comes the looting right? I guess I should collect what loot is left after my beams destroyed everything they hit.


    I began to walk towards the nearest interesting corpse when my concealment spells finally ran out. Immediately a sense of wrongness lit up in my surroundings. I hadn¡¯t turned off the anomaly detection while I was fighting, so I was still hyper aware of any changes to my surroundings. It felt like I was suddenly being watched by the city itself, and not in a comforting way.


    I had noticed a lot of small changes in the surroundings during my battle with the monsters, but it wasn¡¯t anywhere near as bad as it was now. It felt like I was OCD and someone had just come into the room and messed everything up.


    I decided that I should probably turn my concealment spells back on and get out of here as soon as possible.


    Well, I¡¯ve already been detected by the monsters anyway. I¡¯ll collect my loot first and get out of here afterwards, I¡¯m sure staying here for a bit longer and looting things won¡¯t make that much of a difference.


    I went towards the nearest corpse I wanted to collect and stored it inside my Internal World, not knowing what kind of trouble that action had brought upon me.

 Encounter - Chapter 34

    I quickly stored all of the most useful looking monster corpses before making my way back down into the building. The building was a few stories tall, and I couldn¡¯t tell from the outside what the building used to be for, probably because the sun removed any identifiable markings. However the inside of the building seemed to have some kind of protection from the outside environment, because there were various things in only a mildly worn state.


    Seeing that I had to wait for some of my mana to regenerate anyways, I decided to take some time to explore the inside of the building, hoping to find some clues that might lead me to something valuable.


    I made my way down the stairs, taking a cursory look into each floor on the way down, to see if there was anything interesting. But no matter how much I looked, I couldn¡¯t tell exactly what this building was for just based on the things I saw on each floor. There were desks and workspaces within the various rooms on each floor, but while everything was fairly preserved, I couldn¡¯t find anything helpful in any of the small individual rooms.


    However, in the larger rooms and open areas there were a variety of posters and other things that helped me understand what this building was used for. Although I couldn¡¯t read the language there were still plenty of other visuals to go off of. It seemed like this building was responsible for manufacturing some kind of medicine or something, and on almost all of the posters and memos there was a symbol, or maybe logo, that looked like a bunch of intertwined lines with a picture of a lizard¡¯s face on top.


    I didn¡¯t really get much from my exploration of the upper floors, so I didn¡¯t have much enthusiasm by the time I made my way to the second floor. However when I made my way into the second floor, a completely different scene greeted me. There were many different machines and stations that looked very scientific and delicate. The whole floor was filled with these machines and stations, and I thought that this was probably the place where everything was manufactured.


    I thought about storing the fancy looking equipment that was on the floor, but I decided against it. Sure everything looked fancy, but I had no idea what it was all for, and so I had no idea who I would sell it to. It just wasn¡¯t worth the effort. However there was something else besides the machines that caught my attention. It was a large poster that took up most of one of the walls.


    At first I just assumed that it would be the same as all of the other posters I had come across on the higher floors, but looking closer this one was actually much different. The ones before had all focused on what seemed to be going on in this particular building, but this one seemed to be referencing some kind of larger/higher organization.


    There were many different sections of the poster, and each one seemed to reference different things. It ranged from showing things that looked like potions and pills, medical technology, robotics, energy production and storage, and a few others I couldn¡¯t make out. In the center of this poster was the same symbol of a bunch of intertwined lines and the picture of a lizard¡¯s face on top. Just based on what I had seen so far I had no idea what this poster might be representing.


    It was an interesting poster, and it seemed kind of out of place with the rest of the floor¡¯s environment. The rest of the floor looked like some kind of high tech manufacturing plant for delicate products. The mystery was all very interesting, but there was seemingly nothing here that would lead me to anything valuable, so I shrugged my shoulders and decided to move on.


    Should I take the poster for Mystdell though? Mmm, no I don¡¯t think so, not worth it. What she doesn¡¯t know won¡¯t hurt me right? I just won¡¯t tell her about this. Knowing Mystdell, she probably would¡¯ve been ecstatic to be in this abandoned city, exploring this kind of environment, it would¡¯ve been like heaven for her. But I¡¯m different, and I would rather focus on other things.


    Seeing nothing more that was worth looking into on the second floor, I descended down to the ground floor. However the ground floor wasn¡¯t any more worthwhile to look through than the rest of the building was.


    Feeling that I had wasted my time, and feeling that my mana had somewhat recovered, I decided to leave this building and try to find a more important looking building to explore.


    There was nothing I could do about the fact that my presence would draw nearby monsters to me, but with my mana reserves being somewhat low at the moment, I shouldn¡¯t draw in monsters from nearly as large of an area as before. As long as I explored slowly and took care of the monsters I drew in as I went, I should be able to gradually explore the city even at nighttime. So I cast my concealment spells and made my way out onto the streets.


    Thankfully I didn¡¯t have to deal with hordes of monsters this time. There were monsters roaming the streets, sure, but my concealment spells, combined with my lower mana reserves, meant that I only had to deal with a few monsters at a time. In fact I even started to fill up my mana reserves instead of depleting them.


    The area I was in didn¡¯t seem like the important part of the city, that part where the rich and important people would likely be; so I looked for clues that might lead me to that area, but there wasn¡¯t much I could find even after a few hours. So I decided to just head for the center of the city, which would be where the center of the dome enclosing the city was.


    I thought it was a good idea, and maybe it would¡¯ve been, but when I started to make my way towards the center I was stopped by the sudden appearance of 3 large robots from behind 3 different piles of scrap, just as I reached the center of an intersection.


    The robots were about 2 meters tall and 4 meters long, walked on 4 legs, had a long dangerous looking tail, and had a reptilian looking face. They made lots of noise as they shifted and moved about, and it made me wonder how I hadn¡¯t heard them before now. As I analyzed them I thought that, if not for their disrepair and rust, then I might¡¯ve thought they were metal lizards.


    At first I just stopped where I was, hoping that they would pass me by, after all I was currently concealed, but these bots took advantage of my stillness and charged at me from 3 different directions.


    My mind accelerated to analyze the situation while I also slightly backpedaled in surprise. I had no idea why these robots had suddenly appeared and decided to attack me, or how they could tell where I was despite my concealment, but now wasn¡¯t the time for speculation.


    I retrieved a simple mace and shield from my Internal World, to prepare for potential close combat, after I analyzed the three robots¡¯ speeds and determined that, while slower than my top speed, they weren¡¯t too far behind.


    I dashed backwards and slightly to my right side so I could keep my left handed shield between me and the bots. The bots didn¡¯t directly follow my movements with their eyes and heads, but they still moved towards me like they could track my general location.


    As the robots turned to follow me, I could hear their joints creak and see their movement slow down as they tried to change directions.


    I tried to look for weak points on each of the robots as I made more of an effort to move towards their sides and away from their sharp rusted teeth. If these robots were newly made then they probably wouldn¡¯t have had any weak points, but I could spot several rusted or missing metal plates and targetable spots on each of the three robots.


    I ran a few simple simulations in my mind and came to the conclusion that running away from these bots wasn¡¯t going to work out. If I wanted to live then I was going to have to face these bots head on.


    I steeled my resolve and made sure my body was thoroughly reinforced before launching myself towards the side of the nearest metallic lizard after it drew closer. The open mouth of the bot tried to snap towards me. It seemed to track my movements much better at this closer range, but its rusted neck couldn¡¯t move fast enough to catch my sudden movements.


    As the lizard moved past me I quickly arrived at the base of its tail and swung my mace as hard as I could towards a particularly rusted looking plate. As my mace made contact I felt the weakened metal give way beneath my swing and crush the components inside of the tail.


    My hand was slightly numb from the impact, but I didn¡¯t let it distract me as I dodged away from the back leg of the lizard before its body could hit me. The metallic tail went limp and started to drag behind the robot on the ground.


    However, the other two robots were still completely fine, and they didn¡¯t give me any time as they lunged towards me without caring for their companion¡¯s injury.


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    I raised my shield to protect me from the jaws of the robot that reached me first. I swung my mace towards the right side of the head of the bot and succeeded in smashing apart most of the head of the robot under my mace, but the other robot arrived to my left and slammed into my raised shield with enough force to make my shield vibrate.


    My left arm went numb from the impact, and I went crashing to the ground due to my poor combat stance¡¯s lack of stability. I didn¡¯t have a lot of combat experience, and it was showing.


    As I came to a stop on the ground I ignored the pain from the fall and scrambled to right myself. The robots, though, weren¡¯t going to just let me freely recover, and all three of them came at me in unison.


    I didn¡¯t have the right stance to put as much power into my strikes, so instead of attacking I launched myself in a roll towards my right, trying to dodge out of the way. However, despite their rusty nature, the striking tail of one of the robots managed to hit and scrape along my back as it tried to impale me. Luckily my jacket was made out of good stuff, and protected my back, but I heard a tearing sound that made it clear that it was not armor.


    I quickly got to my feet and barely had enough time to see yet another striking tail headed towards me. This tail was coming at me from over the top of the robot in front of me.


    Thinking quickly, I dashed forward towards the right side of the robot in front of me and was able to get underneath the striking tail as it was unable to lower any further due to the back of the robot blocking its descent. I wasn¡¯t going to let my momentum go to waste though, and I brought my mace around to strike the back leg of the robot as I came near, crippling its leg and causing it to crash to the ground.


    The crippled robot acted as a barrier between me and the other two robots, but even in its crippled state the robot was still able to move its tail. And it did exactly that, whipping its tail towards me, intending to crush me into the side of its body.


    However its tail made a horrible noise as the bot tried to use its tail in a way it probably shouldn¡¯t have for something so rusty and time-worn, and a loud snapping sound rang out across the street and its tail broke off and sailed away from its body, thankfully failing in its mission to crush me.


    I was grateful to have mostly incapacitated one of the three robots, but the other two came around both the head and tail of the downed robot, trying to pincer me. The one coming at me from the head of the downed robot was the undamaged one, and the other robot was the one with its tail dragging along the ground.


    My accelerated mind buzzed as I tried to find a way out of this predicament. In the end I decided to face off against the undamaged robot and leave my back to the one without a functioning tail, my jacket would protect me somewhat, and I wouldn¡¯t have to worry about a tail coming at me from behind. My hands were still slightly numb from previous impacts, but I kept my grip firm as I charged towards the rusty mouth of the robot on my left.


    With me dashing to meet the robot it wasn¡¯t able to gather much momentum, and so when we crashed into one another I was able to hold my ground -thanks to me slowly enhancing my body during the fight- and swinging my mace into its left front leg.


    With a harrowing noise its leg bent under the blow, and its leg joint should no longer be able to move, but before I could do anything else I was slammed forward from behind and fell towards the same side as the now severely bent leg.


    I felt my breath get knocked out of me when I got hit from behind, and I twisted as much as I could in the air and landed on my shield as I crashed against the hard ground. I let out a groaning sound involuntarily, but when I tried to breathe in I was unable to, my lungs refused to respond. I quickly shut off my instincts to breathe through my Cloud, as I waited for my body to be able to breathe again.


    However just because I was on the ground didn¡¯t mean that the fight would stop, and I could hear the screeching of a tail coming towards me from the robot with the bent leg, and at the same time I saw the robot that had crashed into my back pounce towards my fallen form. If I was lucky then the tail screeching towards me would snap just like the last one, and I¡¯d only have to deal with the pouncing robot.


    But if the tail didn¡¯t snap, then I would be looking at the high possibility of a few broken bones. I didn¡¯t want to take that risk, and having to deal with the metal teeth of the other robot without my shield wasn¡¯t looking good either. I didn¡¯t seem to have many options left.


    I was between a rock and a hard place. If I were to take the blows from the two robots I could end up seriously injured, but the only way to prevent this, that I could see, was magic. However, if I were to use magic strong enough to save me from this situation, then I would end up attracting monsters from a very wide radius, trading one bad situation for another. There was no time to debate though, the only difference between my options was between facing the danger now or later, and I chose later.


    So, without worrying about the monsters it might attract, I quickly converted my mana into a form of kinetic mana and threw it out of my body. Everything around me was pushed back by the force, saving me from harm. Once again I used the same kinetic mana to push me off of the ground, and I didn¡¯t hesitate to launch myself at the robot with the broken front leg.


    With a somewhat liberal use of mana due to my urgency, I proceeded to easily take out the robots as fast as I could. However it came as no surprise to me that as soon as I finished off the last robot and was about to leave, I heard a chorus of noise heading towards me.


    I grit my teeth as I felt my low mana reserves, but I had fought off a horde of the monsters once before, I could do it again. Right?


    As I looked towards the noise, getting ready to face a horde of monsters, what greeted my eyes was much more than I had bargained for. Moving alongside the approaching horde of monsters were at least 14 more lizard-like robots headed right for me.


    My heart sank and my expression hardened as I felt my eyes twitch at the sight. I didn¡¯t even have the composure to joke about this situation in my mind, poking fun at Jilly wasn¡¯t happening in this dire of a situation.


    As my mood dropped, I had the thought, Did the robots send just enough of them to get me to use magic and pull in a horde of monsters? Whether it was true or not, I was still in a horrible situation.


    Looking at the buildings around me I sought for a defensible position, but they were all short buildings with open floors and minimal walls. Either this was a coincidence, or the robots had planned this too.


    With me being in the middle of an intersection, monsters and robots were flooding towards me from all directions, none of them making any sound besides the sound of their movement. The horde was only a few seconds away from me at this point, and with things coming to this there was only one thing I could think of to survive.


    I sat down on the ground before releasing my last resort, a spell crystal. Immediately a dome rose up from the ground to surround and protect me, leaving me in darkness. My heart ached from having to expend yet another of my limited spell crystals, but no matter how precious they were, they were meant to be used in situations like this.


    Spell crystals weren¡¯t easily made, with each one requiring many, many months of effort, and I only had 4 more of them left after using this one. Of the 4 remaining spell crystals, 2 were defensive, like the one I had just used, with one being a water type defense and the other being a pure mana barrier; of the other 2 spell crystals, one was a freezing type offensive skill, and the last was a mental type offensive skill.


    However, although spell crystals weren¡¯t single use, they did take quite a lot of time and mana to recharge. So although it wasn¡¯t a permanent loss, I wouldn¡¯t be able to utilize the spell crystals I expended during my remaining time in the Dungeon of Tribulation.


    The earth shield I had just used was much stronger than anything I would¡¯ve currently been able cast, and should be able to last for quite a while even against the horde of monsters and 14 robots outside. So at the very least I had bought myself enough time to recharge my mana reserves a little before I had to fight again. So with the sound of pounding against my earth shield, I started to meditate and get ready for the battle ahead.


    After about half an hour I started to feel that the mana reinforcing the earth shield was starting to weaken, but by this point I had only recovered to about 40% of my maximum mana capacity. My mind raced trying to think of how I would fight off a horde of monsters with only 40% mana reserves. But as I started to get ready for battle something strange happened, the pounding against my shield started to weaken before completely going silent.


    I was extremely confused as to what had happened outside. Had the robots started fighting the monsters instead? Or had they given up altogether after fruitlessly pounding against my defense? Or were they seeing if they could trick me into stepping out before ambushing me? I couldn¡¯t find an answer to this perplexing situation, and even after many minutes of waiting in silence nothing changed.


    Getting anxious from just sitting there in silence -although it would make me a little less combat ready- I decided to switch out one of my active Skills to (Space-Time Sense) to try and see what was going on outside my shield. Immediately the situation outside my protective bubble was plain to see. All of the robots had shut down, and all of the monsters had disappeared. I scratched my head trying to figure out what was going on.


    Then, like a lightswitch, I connected the dots in my mind.


    The Sun! The sun must¡¯ve come back up and started to shine down its wonderful radioactive death rays to save me. Although I couldn¡¯t see the sun with my (Space-Time Sense), it was the only possible answer I could come up with. I was about to joyfully drop my barrier and free myself, when I paused and wondered if the robots around me were just pretending to be shut off so they could pounce on me as soon as I left the safety of my barrier.


    Cautiously I threw a few spells at the motionless bodies from inside my barrier, and after a while I was certain that the robots weren¡¯t faking it. Letting out a sigh of relief, I dropped my earthen barrier and saw the scene on the streets with my own eyes. All around me were piles of destroyed flesh that I could almost convince myself was just dust, and the unmoving bodies of many different lizard-like robots layed around me.


    It was quite the scene, and if I had the means I would¡¯ve taken a panoramic picture of it. Unfortunately they didn¡¯t hand out cameras back in prison, so the imposing view would have to remain only in my memories alongside the string of events that had gotten me here.

 What To Do - Chapter 35

    Although I was now safe from the monsters and robots, thanks to the sun¡¯s radiation, I wasn¡¯t exactly safe from the radiation myself. So I needed to take care of things here as quickly as possible and skedaddle.


    The first thought on my mind was, of course, loot. If I''m going to go through a hard fought battle then I should get something from it. But maybe that¡¯s just my inner gamer speaking. Man, it''s been so long since I¡¯ve played a game, it¡¯s definitely a top priority once I get settled in a city. But gaming can definitely be an expensive hobby¡­ I¡¯ll need some spare cash. So, feeling validated in my pursuit of loot, I walked over to one of the shutdown robots to see if it was worth storing or not.


    I looked carefully at the outside, while also observing the blurry inside with my (Space-Time Sense). Although it looked rusted and old on the outside, the inside wasn¡¯t in as bad of a condition. There were lots of various components and parts that might be valuable to sell, and I wondered if I might be able to learn anything from this robot, but for the most part it didn¡¯t look like anything groundbreaking. However, more unexpected things than this have come out of dungeons, so it¡¯s not impossible that I¡¯ll be able to learn something from these robots.


    As I was looking at its exterior I was able to make out a faded logo of intertwined lines and a lizard¡¯s face. This got me curious, it seemed that the company this logo belonged to was more diverse than I first thought. If the company was manufacturing combat robots like this, and they were also manufacturing some kind of drugs in the building I had first investigated, then maybe I would be able to find something valuable if I looked into places with this logo on them. It was something to think about while exploring.


    With my inspection done I decided to store each of the robots. Although it might not be too valuable, I didn¡¯t care all that much. I had the mana to spare since I didn¡¯t have to fight the horde, and I had plenty of space in my Internal World after years of building it up without being able to store anything in it. So I put my hand on the rusted metal and worked my magic.


    I was expecting it to easily disappear, but there was a resistance that fought against my power. Ahh right, just because they aren¡¯t moving doesn¡¯t mean that they¡¯re dead. Resistance to magic could sometimes be weird with blurry lines between the rules. However in this case the robot was somewhat like a golem, and just because golems didn¡¯t usually have souls or minds and such didn¡¯t mean they had no resistance. Anything animated or even controlled would have some resistance, and things with energy or momentum were also more resistant, but it didn¡¯t make much of a difference in this situation.


    All I had to do was use a bit more effort to overcome its resistance, and it slipped right into my Internal World without further issue. The same thing happened with all the other robots before I took another look at the scene with considerably less mana than I had started with. Although I had overcome a disaster, it wasn¡¯t because of anything I had planned.


    If I wasn¡¯t saved by the bell, so to speak, then I might¡¯ve been dead in the worst case scenario¡­ Well whatever, it¡¯s all in the past now. Learn from it and move on!


    After taking a second to breathe, I decided to go to the top of a tall building a few blocks away. My spells had already drawn in all of the monsters in a large radius, which subsequently died in the sun, which made getting to the top of the building as easy as just walking there.


    I got to the top and took a look at the sprawling city. Even in its current dilapidated condition it was still quite impressive. I started to scan the city for an area that might have fewer monsters, but, as expected of a city enclosed in a dome, there weren¡¯t any neglected or open looking areas. I was about to give up when, in the distance, I could see a very large building with the lizard logo on the building¡¯s front surface, carved deep into the rock. Thinking back to my earlier observations I decided that it might have valuable things in it since it has the same logo. So I noted the building¡¯s location and decided to head in that direction while it was still light out.


    Since I couldn¡¯t find a peaceful place, I might as well check out the interesting building. After all, treasure is meant to be found, and I fancied myself somewhat of a treasure hunter.


    As I walked through the desolate streets I noticed every little detail that was off, cracks in the buildings and windows, intermittent sounds in the distance, misaligned things inside the buildings. I was actually getting used to the information overload¡­ not. It was as annoying as ever, but I couldn¡¯t just turn it off. While it was annoying, it was still helpful, so I left it on as I made my way through the city.


    -Break-


    I woke up, lying on the ground in the dark room I had chosen as my resting place. I was much more tired than I should have been, and even after treating my body with healing magic my skin was still itchy and sensitive. It seemed that walking around in the irradiated sunlight was having more of an effect than it was at first. I just hoped that the level wouldn¡¯t escalate it too much farther as time passed.


    I rose up with fatigue and just sat there for a bit as I waited for my body to catch up to my mind. I was on the top floor of a fairly tall building at the moment, having arrived here while it was still light out. Strangely enough the sun never peaked over the horizon, but that didn¡¯t stop it from being just as bright as noon.


    I had arrived near the lizard logo building I had seen, and it was much larger up close than it had looked from a distance. I had thought about exploring while it was still bright out, but I decided to wait until I had the full amount of ¡®day-time¡¯ to explore, and I hid myself away in a tall building near the complex with the lizard logo.


    I had to clear out the monsters on my way up, but it wasn¡¯t that big of a deal, and I promptly fell asleep once I reached the top. I didn¡¯t have to worry about attracting monsters from all the way up here, even while at full mana reserves. In addition I kept my concealment going permanently, I had learned my lesson and would try to keep it on.


    Looking around the room I was in, there were multiple cameras that had turned on sometime while I was asleep. It was a bit creepy knowing that everywhere in the city probably had cameras just like this watching everything going on.


    Maybe that¡¯s one of the Environmental Hazards? Hmm, it makes sense, that could be how those robots were able to corner me last night. Haaa, oh well, just another thing to add to the list of things I need to think about.


    Getting up from the ground, after I shook off some of my fatigue, I decided to go to the roof of the building and scope out the lizard logo complex I had come all this way for. It wasn¡¯t that far of a trip up to the roof, considering that I had chosen a spot so close to the top of the building to sleep in.


    Observing the sprawling complex from above, I could see that it was much larger than I had initially thought. There were many interconnected buildings with some walkways and sparse open grounds connecting them. Perhaps this was the main center for whatever organization the lizard logo belonged to? It certainly looked big enough for it.


    Looking over the large stone building below me, I noticed something strange about the complex, there weren¡¯t any monsters roaming in or around the building. All around the city there were occasional monsters roaming the streets at night, but there seemed to be a dead zone all around this complex for some reason.


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    Looking at the sides of the building, I could see many different openings in the walls, almost like things had broken into the building. Or maybe things had broken out? In any case it was quite a strange place, compared to the rest of the buildings in the city which didn¡¯t have nearly as much visible destruction.


    But that wouldn¡¯t stop me from exploring the place. I wasn¡¯t going to go down there during the nighttime though, so I was going to have to wait for the daytime before exploring and hunting for treasure inside the concrete complex. At least I would be able to heal a bit more and recover from my fatigue and the lingering effects of the radiation exposure.


    -Break-


    There wasn¡¯t much I could do while waiting for daylight to come, since I didn¡¯t want to attract monsters by practicing magic. So I did what I always did back when I was bored while trapped inside of my own mind, I thought about my future plans, and what I would do when I was free; or in this case, now that I was free.


    After this is all finished I need to be ready to deal with the government¡¯s surveillance and tracking. Just because I¡¯ve been missing for about a month doesn¡¯t mean they would¡¯ve stopped trying to find me. I could hide in the wilderness, but I¡¯m tired of isolating myself. I want to live in a city, maybe I could even hide from them in the capital¡­


    Hmm, that might actually work¡­ Or, maybe not. Hiding in plain sight, or hiding right under their nose, might work in fiction, but actually hiding is just better in reality, who would¡¯ve thought. No matter how much I want to, it just doesn¡¯t seem realistic at the moment.


    That line of thinking was just making me depressed, so I started to think about something else. Well, even if I can¡¯t live in the capital, I can still go to a city if I¡¯m careful. I¡¯ll have to get in touch with Mystdell and Genesis anyways, and sort things out with them before doing anything big.


    Maybe I could go and live in a different country, but that¡¯s a long term goal. I mean the entire country of Tallen is huge, even compared to Earth. Tallen¡¯s surface area is roughly 7.85 quadrillion km2, and Earth¡¯s surface area is only 510 million km2. Just traveling to another country would take absolutely forever, unless I use teleporters, and that just isn¡¯t going to happen with my current identity.


    It¡¯s a bit of a conundrum. In order to travel to another country, so I can hide from the government, I first need to hide from the government well enough that I can go to a different country. At that point I would be better off just staying in Tallen. Well I¡¯m sure I¡¯ll figure it out.


    I continued to think about my future, and other things that awaited me after I got out of the Dungeon of Tribulation, as I waited for daylight.


    Eventually the sun started to brighten and signal the start of a new, but short, day. I didn¡¯t have anything to pack or get ready, so I didn¡¯t waste any time getting down to the bottom floor of the building.


    A few monsters had wandered into the building during the nighttime, but I took care of the few that did as I left the building. I then made my way through the, once again, empty streets towards the lizard logo complex. When I neared the building the first thing I noticed was the rubble surrounding it on the outside. This rubble seemed to come from the holes in the building, probably strewn about by who knows what leaving from the inside of the building¡¯s rooms instead of the entrances.


    I debated whether to enter through one of the openings in the side of the building or one of the actual entrances. In the end I compromised between the two and decided to enter one of the openings near an actual entrance. I wanted to get a feel for what the building was for, and that would probably be easier looking at whatever was at the entrance area.


    Stepping over the rubble, I entered the building and took a look around. The inside of the building was almost as bland as the outside, with a style that looked designed mostly for functionality rather than feel. There were desks similar to the ones I had seen in the first building I had explored, and again there were boards and posters on the walls, with some of the posters being exactly the same as the ones I had seen in the first building.


    I only spent a little time exploring the mundane space, and there didn¡¯t seem to be much of anything worthwhile to discover there, only traces of escape from whatever had made the holes in the building¡¯s exterior. So I moved on to explore deeper, hopefully more interesting, parts of the building complex.


    Although the building was large it was mostly made up of large open rooms, and in many of these rooms there were numerous holding cells that all seemed to be broken. In any case, these rooms didn¡¯t have anything of value in them, so I didn¡¯t bother looking much. But from what I saw, the lizard logo company seemed to be using this particular building in the complex as some sort of research facility that operated on live subjects.


    After searching for a while I slowly went deeper and deeper into the complex. At this point I was starting to wonder if there was going to be anything in this building worth my time, but just before I gave up hope, I looked around a corner that opened up into a large spacious room unlike the ones I had come across before. There were cables and wires, platforms, machinery, and other equipment all throughout the room, and near the center was something I did not want to see, a robot.


    However this robot had a different design than the ones I had fought previously. Instead of a lizard it looked like a large sphere with a bunch of different appendages coming off of it all over its metallic body.


    The robot didn¡¯t seem to be active at first, but after a bit it turned slightly to the right and made a few movements with its legs. I wasn¡¯t sure exactly what it was doing in this room, but I could sense a large amount of mana radiating out from the robot.


    But as I felt the robot¡¯s mana I also sensed a large amount of mana coming from the center of the room. Looking a bit closer I could see that the robot was connected to a few different places, and it seemed to be looking at, and interacting with, multiple different devices. Why it was doing things manually was something I wondered, but I doubted I would be able to find out in the short time I had remaining on this level.


    Stepping a little bit closer to get a better look, I suddenly felt the mana density increase significantly. Woah, I wasn¡¯t expecting that. Is the mana being confined to this room somehow? If that was true then it¡¯s probably what¡¯s keeping the monsters from detecting this place, in fact the mana surrounding the whole building is thinner than the rest of the city, that¡¯s probably why there weren¡¯t any monsters in and around the complex.


    While I was observing the room, the robot suddenly moved from its position and walked over to the center of the room. In the center of the room there was a metal sphere that seemed to be the focus of all the equipment within the mana rich area, everything seemed to be set up around this sphere for some reason.


    The robot interacted with a few different devices near the central sphere which caused a sudden hiss of air to come out of it before it started to open up and display its insides. Within the central sphere there was a singular simple orb that seemed to be the source of the abundant mana within the room. The robot reached out to the orb and drew in mana from the orb into itself. With that the robot had presumably gotten what it wanted from opening up the container, because it promptly closed the sphere before I could get a clearer view. But that one peek had been all I needed.


    Was that a Skill Orb!? There¡¯s no way, right? But it couldn¡¯t be anything else. Although it was faint, I could feel that it was indeed a Skill Orb when I had looked at it.


    All skill orbs were easily identifiable due to the feeling they would give off when observed, and this orb definitely gave off that feeling. However I could tell that this Skill Orb was different from most Skill Orbs, it was an Archetype Skill Orb.


    Archetype Skill Orbs were different from other Skill Orbs because they would display their Skill without being absorbed. I could tell that this Skill Orb was an Archetype Skill Orb because the robot had just gotten something from it without it disappearing.


    This was huge. Even just normal Skill Orbs were fairly uncommon, but Archetypes were very rare even among Skill Orbs. In the past I had seen an Archetype Skill Orb of (Enhanced Senses) sold at auction for over 100,000 Gold Credits, and it was said that it was only going to be used for training newbies. Based on that alone I could tell that, regardless of if the Archetype Skill Orb in front of me was amazing or not, it would still be incredibly valuable.


    I have to get that Skill Orb at all costs. It wasn¡¯t even a question in my mind, I had to get my hands on this Skill Orb. The question was, how? I wasn¡¯t exactly sure, but I knew one thing for certain, I needed to distract that robot if I wanted to get my hands on the Skill Orb. Although the robot looked slow and sedated at first, I could tell through its fluid movements that it was extremely dextrous and nimble. It probably wouldn¡¯t be able to move nearly as fast as I could in a straight line, but it would have no problems maneuvering around corners and obstacles.


    I wasn¡¯t sure how exactly I was going to distract the robot, but necessity breeds innovation. I would come up with something, I was sure of that. It is also said that haste makes mistakes, but I was sure that wasn¡¯t going to happen, nothing in my life ever went wrong.

 Mistake? - Chapter 36

    The first plan I came up with to steal the Skill Orb was to teleport it, which I promptly tried, and failed. The mana density around and inside the room was too high for me to teleport such long distances. If I wanted to get the Skill Orb with teleportation, then I was going to have to be much closer to it than I currently was.


    Luckily I wouldn¡¯t have to have the metal container that was holding the Skill Orb be open for me to teleport the Skill Orb. I should be able to teleport it even from within the container. It was definitely a plan, just walk up to the container and acquire the Skill Orb. However I wasn¡¯t certain that the robot wouldn¡¯t sense the Skill Orb disappearing, although it seemed to check on the orb very often, it was probably doing that for caution''s sake more than necessity.


    If I was going to steal the orb, then I was going to need a distraction that would keep the robot busy while I stole the Skill Orb and made my exit. However, even after pondering for quite a while, the only distraction I could think of was the monsters, and I wasn¡¯t sure how well that would work out for me in the very likely scenario that they would completely ignore the robot and come after me instead.


    Then it came to me. I could lure the monsters here with a spell like what happened before. It was definitely surprising how many monsters I drew in with just a few inefficient spells. I wonder how many I would draw in if I actually tried.


    With that in mind I started to draw out and utilize as much of my mana as I could. After a few moments of gathering mana from my mana nebula, I started to strain from the effort of handling all of the active mana in place.


    When I reached my limits I let go of all of it and generated a veritable mana explosion with me at the center. It would be an extremely wasteful use of mana in most circumstances, but it was exactly what I wanted for the current situation. I hope that was adequate enough to lure a large group of monsters to distract the robot but not enough to drown me in monsters. I just hope there¡¯s enough monsters to distract the robot long enough for me to grab the Skill Orb and skedaddle.


    -M-713-


    The [Priority] was still there, which was good. M-713 had lost the [Not Allowed] after the electromagnetic interference levels had increased to severe levels while the model C-197¡¯s were still in the process of breaking through the earth barrier that the [Not Allowed] was in. Now M-713 had to check on the [Priority] at regular intervals just to make sure it hadn¡¯t disappeared like all of the things the [Not Allowed] had touched.


    M-713 continued to scan the city for any traces of the [Not Allowed], and wasn¡¯t able to find much of anything. Then, a while after the electromagnetic interference levels had decreased, M-713 detected abnormal movement from the in the [Allowed] in the vicinity of its building.


    M-713 recognized the repeating pattern of [Allowed] going after [Not Allowed] and started to scan for the [Not Allowed] that must be somewhere in the vicinity. But as it was scanning, M-713 also recognized that the [Allowed] were flowing into the building it was in and headed towards its current location, the location holding the [Priority].


    This was not good. Although they were currently [Allowed], that was only while they weren¡¯t near the [Priority]. If anything got near the [Priority] while it was being ¡®worked on¡¯, that was [Not Allowed]. Although the [Priority] had been in the process of being ¡®worked on¡¯ for countless cycles at this point, and would stay that way until further instruction, M-713 didn¡¯t care about that though, M-713¡¯s only concern was to secure and protect the [Priority].


    -Radiant-


    After I heard the monsters approaching, I ducked into the room with the Skill Orb to hide from the monsters¡¯ mana senses. Because of the higher mana density within the room, my own mana signature would be overshadowed by the mana signature of either the robot or the Skill Orb. Hopefully the mana signature of the robot would be the dominant one, but even if it wasn¡¯t the robot would probably still fight off the monsters and be distracted like I wanted.


    I quietly snuck around the edges of the large room before moving any closer to the Skill Orb. I wasn¡¯t certain what kinds of methods the robot would have to detect me with, but I decided to be cautious and get as many obstacles between it and myself before I tried to get any closer to the Skill Orb.


    It wasn¡¯t long before the horde of monsters arrived outside the room where I had set off the mana explosion, but when the monsters got there they seemed confused when they didn¡¯t immediately find anything. This didn¡¯t confuse them for long though, and they wasted no time before starting to wander the area trying to find any other traces of whatever had created the mana explosion. Of course the robot noticed this gathering horde of monsters as well, and moved to put itself between the growing horde and the Skill Orb.


    By this point I was already at the opposite side of the large room watching everything unfold, and seeing that the robot had focused on the horde I decided to use this opportunity to start sneaking closer while moving between cover as much as I could, trying to stay out of the robot¡¯s line of sight as much as possible. And while I was sneaking around I tried to keep an eye on the situation on the other side of the room.


    It didn¡¯t take long for some of the monsters to cross the threshold holding in the room¡¯s mana, and immediately they let out a chilling scream to notify the other monsters before running toward the robot and the Skill Orb.


    The robot did not seem to like this development at all, as it started to let loose magically created projectiles at the monsters that entered the room. At first the robot used metallic projectiles, but that was quickly proven to be ineffective on many of the monsters and only seemed to take out roughly half of the monsters the robot had shot at. The robot quickly adapted and switched from using metallic projectiles to fiery darts that took care of another portion of the approaching horde, but yet again there were many that seemed to shrug off or resist the projectiles.


    Like this the robot quickly switched from shooting one kind of magic projectile to another as it tried to shoot down the approaching horde. However the robot seemed to be limited to shooting only one type of magic projectile at a time, limiting the amount of monsters it was able to eliminate in any one moment.


    Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.


    I witnessed this scene as I made my way towards the center of the room as quickly and stealthily as possible. By the time I arrived at the base of the sphere that contained the Skill Orb within it, the robot had retreated from its original position and continued to steadily draw closer to the Skill Orb. I need to get the Skill Orb and get out of here quickly, before the robot gets too much closer.


    Focusing on the space before me I started to channel one of the teleportation spells I knew. This particular version of teleport was designed to overcome things like the large amount of mana density within the room, but it had its downsides due to its powerful short range teleportation abilities. One of these downsides was immediately apparent, and that was its unstable boundaries. As I tried to form the boundary around the Skill Orb hidden within the large sphere, the teleportation boundary wobbled around more and more as I tried to focus it in on the Skill Orb trying to exclude as much solid material as possible.


    However, as I tried to draw the teleportation boundary closer and closer to the Skill Orb, the mana radiating out from the Orb sent the teleportation boundary wobbling off into the solid container holding the Skill Orb. This made it impossible to complete the teleport because this spell was absolutely incapable of severing sufficiently solid matter apart.


    Seeing that I would be unable to complete the teleport, I quickly decided to switch to a different teleportation spell as I was running out of time before the robot reached me. None of the other teleportation spells I knew would be able to teleport out the Skill Orb from within the sphere it was contained in, but that didn¡¯t mean that I was out of options just yet. Although I wouldn¡¯t be able to teleport only the Skill Orb from within the inside of the sphere, I could still try to teleport the sphere itself. I switched to a different spell this time, instead of using a quick and easy method I went for a slow and steady method.


    I took the opportunity to glance at how the situation between the robot and the monster horde was proceeding and was relieved to see that, although the robot had continued to retreat, it wouldn¡¯t arrive at the Skill Orb within the amount of time it would take me to complete my teleport. So I focused on slowly building the teleportation boundary around the large spherical container while only taking occasional glances at the fight between the robot and the monsters.


    It was quite interesting seeing how much harder it was to fight off the monsters without a direct counter like my radiation beam. The diverse array of monsters, although they weren¡¯t much individually, were able to overcome even the massive barrage of bullets the robot was firing.


    After I completed about half of the teleportation boundary, I took another glance at the fight and calculated that it would be maybe another 5 minutes before the robot reached the point I deemed too close. However, just as I was thinking this, the robot suddenly stopped fighting off the horde of monsters flooding into the room and rushed towards the Skill Orb.


    I didn¡¯t expect this at all and tried to speed up the formation of the teleportation boundaries. However the robot arrived at a few panels and started to tap on them making the sphere open up. That made my teleportation spell get disturbed as the mana radiating out of the Skill Orb rushed out from the inside of the sphere. As my teleportation spell went off, roughly half of the spherical container disappeared into my Internal World, but I didn''t get the Skill Orb.


    The rush of mana also disrupted my camouflage and revealed me to the robot at the same time. I tried to rush forward and retrieve the Skill Orb, but one of the robot¡¯s quick and nimble arms retrieved the Skill Orb like a flash of lightning, making my attempt to retrieve the Skill Orb utterly worthless. The robot then proceeded to quickly store the Skill Orb within its body before turning its attention to me.


    I could tell that the robot was not pleased with my attempt to steal the Skill Orb, and it immediately fired up multiple magic bullet spells aimed at me and fired them off without any mercy.


    Of course I wasn¡¯t idle during this short moment either. I recognized that my mission had failed and immediately started to cast the quickest defensive shield spell I knew. That would hopefully last long enough for me to get an obstacle between myself and the robot as I sprinted away.


    My shield went up just before the robot fired at me, but by now I had put some distance between me and it, and I had nearly reached some cover as well. So I was pretty confident in my chances of getting out of here. But the robot didn¡¯t seem to care about my proximity to cover as it fired off its bullets anyways.


    The first couple of bullets were stopped by my shield, but it quickly became evident that there was a reason this shield was so quick to put up. The shield cracked and shattered after only a few impacts, but by then I had reached my destination and was in the process of getting out of the line of fire. However I wasn¡¯t fast enough, because my left arm and shoulder proceeded to receive a few bullet wounds before they made it out of the way, and my left calf got grazed by a bullet as well.


    My injuries weren¡¯t life threatening, but looking at the distance between me and the next portion of cover I could tell that, if I used a simple shield again, I would be receiving many more bullet wounds. I grit my teeth, not from the pain, but because I knew that I was going to have to use one of my last 2 defensive spell crystals if I was going to get out of here alive.


    Before I could second guess my decision, I let loose my water barrier spell crystal. A swirling barrier of water formed around me, and I didn¡¯t waste any time as I dismissed my earlier plans of running between cover and decided to go right for the exit.


    Because this barrier was made of water instead of earth, it was able to easily move and stay around me as I sprinted out from behind my cover and towards the crowd of monsters. Although this water barrier wasn¡¯t nearly as strong as the earth barrier I had used before, it was plenty strong enough to keep me safe from the robot and the monsters. So there was no suspense as I received a barrage of bullets and made my way into the crowd of monsters.


    I was expecting the monsters to start attacking me when I neared them, but instead they completely ignored me and continued on their way towards the robot, which was now radiating the full amount of mana the Skill Orb could put out after it was no longer contained. This was a welcome surprise, with this I would be able to escape from the robot while the monsters kept it company.


    As I reached the boundary that kept the mana within the room, I was pleased to find that the boundary seemed to have disappeared with the removal of the Skill Orb. So I wasn¡¯t swarmed by the nearby monsters as I made my way out of the room and through the halls of the building.


    However, before I could get too far away from the robot, the monsters very close to me suddenly turned their focus towards me and started attacking instead of following the rest of the horde. And as I got further and further away from the robot more and more monsters turned their focus towards attacking me.


    This caused my speed to get slower and slower as the monsters started to impair my forward momentum. My heart sank as I started to wonder if maybe the monsters ignoring me had only been a temporary thing. But, weirdly, as my pace slowed to barely a crawl, the monsters seemed to once again lose interest in me and start to make their way towards the direction of the robot. This whole situation repeated multiple times, with monsters ignoring me, me speeding up and making some distance, the monsters gaining interest in me, and then losing interest after I stopped making much progress.


    After a while I came to a morbid conclusion. The monsters were only ignoring me while my mana signature was swallowed up in the mana the robot was radiating. This meant that no matter what I did, I would never be able to get farther than a certain distance away from the robot.


    Well¡­ Crap. This isn¡¯t looking good for me.

 The Final Stretch - Chapter 37

    It was safe to say that I didn¡¯t have a great time after I angered the guardian robot. It was now quite a few ¡®days¡¯ after my failure to obtain the Skill Orb, and I had been on the run from the guardian robot ever since. The day cycle was shorter than I was used to, and most of that cycle was spent in the dark, with only 2 short hours of daylight to rest after each grueling night.


    Now I sat up groggily inside of what seemed like an apartment building, as the sun set was going to arrive in a few short moments. I pushed myself through my exhaustion and pain as I stood up from my sleeping position, telling myself that this would all be over soon. My body ached from the constant jogging and dodging I had been doing for days on end, and it made me want to give in and rest just a little more, but I knew I couldn¡¯t afford to stop, not with another night arriving.


    As my body groaned in exhaustion I tried to motivate myself by referencing my internal clock, and I saw that this would be my last night on this level, so I pushed myself to do just a little more.


    As a Technic Morph I had extreme levels of endurance and stamina, but even I was starting to reach my limits after multiple days of moving and dodging with minimal rest. No other Rank 0 Tier 9 would have been able to keep up this chase for such a long time. Although that was a gross generalization, there were most definitely others who could achieve the same feat, but thinking that I was the only one made me feel better about my waning will to continue.


    I walked out into the dimming streets ready to face off against the robot that had been doggedly pursuing me like I was its mortal enemy, and it wasn¡¯t long before the large frame of the robot made itself known further down the road, along with the ever-present horde of monsters deciding to join in on the coming fun. I hadn¡¯t wasted any time starting up my preparations before this, and I was already limbered up and ready for one last night of running. I created a wedge shaped shield in front of me and started to run in a predetermined direction as soon as I saw the robot lurch towards me from around a corner.


    As I jogged, I wasn¡¯t just fleeing without thought. I used my excess mana regen to hone my lacking offensive spells and launched them at the robot behind me as I went, hoping to slow it down or at least distract it. However, no matter how many spells I flung, the robot remained relentless, its single-minded focus on eliminating me after my attempt to steal the Skill Orb was intense, and it was completely undeterred by my pitiful attacks. However the same couldn¡¯t be said about the constant attacks from the monsters.


    Because the robot was focusing so much on me, the monsters were able to occasionally get close enough to the robot to deal some damage to it. Of course, the robot was tough, and the monster''s attacks mostly just left scrapes and small dents in the robot¡¯s armor plating; but many a mickle makes a muckle, so although the damage the monsters were causing wasn¡¯t much individually it had stacked up to a considerable amount after days of constant abuse, making it much easier to evade the robot than it had been at the beginning.


    Thinking about this made me recall the process that had brought me to this point. On the first night I had to stay close to the robot so I wouldn¡¯t be targeted by the monsters, and I fully expected the robot to continue chasing me throughout the day. However the robot seemed unable to deal with the sunlight just like the monsters, at least to a certain extent, because it abandoned the chase and entered a building when the sun started to come up.


    At that point I was praising all the gods I knew, and I used the short amount of daytime to put as much distance between me and the robot as possible. However, when the night arrived and a few more hours had passed, the robot tracked me down, even though I had never turned off my concealment magic. I had no idea why I had been located when my concealment magic had worked just fine before.


    The only theory I could come up with was a confirmation of my previous guesses and experiences, that the surveillance around the city was an Environmental Hazard, and if that were true then the surveillance had probably grown stronger over time due to the time scaling of the dungeon, making my concealment magic no longer as foolproof as it had once been. The robot probably had some way to interact with the surveillance in the city and tracked me down using it.


    So, running away from the robot during the day had been nothing but a waste of time and energy. From then on during the day I didn¡¯t venture far from the robot. I rested nearby, catching up on as much sleep as I could before the nighttime chase began anew with the setting of the sun.


    Like this, days turned into almost a week, and I had been pushed to my limits. I had been chased, cornered, and almost caught multiple times over the past few days. But at least there was a silver lining to this endless pursuit, my Forced Task was complete. I hadn¡¯t personally killed many monsters during this time, but the robot chasing me must have counted as a sort of lure or trap, giving me points whenever the robot killed the monsters.


    With this I would be able to end the floor as soon as the Time Requirement was complete, even though I hadn¡¯t really done much more than run away. I mean, I was grateful to not have to endure this exhausting pursuit any longer, but at the same time I was a bit bitter that I didn¡¯t have that Skill Orb even after getting so close to obtaining it, and the only thing keeping me from getting my hands on it was the robot that had allowed me to complete my Forced Task.


    But not all hope of obtaining the Skill Orb was lost just yet. My (Mental Operator) Power wasn¡¯t just for show, and I had been ceaselessly churning through any possible plans that I could use to obtain that Skill Orb, and I had eventually come up with one.


    My plan wasn¡¯t some ostentatious trap that was borne out of complex strategies and artifice. No, it was quite simple actually, however most of its success hinged on my own performance.


    My plan was to use my freezing offensive spell crystal on the robot just before the sun came up. Although the freezing spell crystal wouldn¡¯t stop the robot for long, it would hopefully be able to keep it secure long enough for the sun to finish the job. And after the robot was fully incapacitated I could take my time and extract the Skill Orb from within the robot¡¯s fortified body.


    As a part of my plan over the course of the past few days, I had led the robot to a part of the city with the most possible access to the sun, so that when I enacted my plan there would be as much sunlight as possible. I only had one opportunity to use the freezing spell crystal, so I had to make sure everything was as good as it could be for the attempt. And now I was running through rubble strewn streets alongside crumbling buildings.


    While running through the streets with the most crumbling buildings yet, I took the chance to look back at the robot chasing me. By this point, the robot had suffered plenty of damage, a tiny little bit from my attacks, but mostly just from the attacks of the monsters. It didn¡¯t have the same kind of monster-killing radiation power I did, and it showed. The robot was severely damaged at this point, its movements much slower and more erratic than they were at the start, and the horde of monsters was trying to do their best to destroy the robot that stood between them and the beacon of mana that called to them.


    I had used up my last remaining defensive spell crystal by this point in time, and I was in no hurry to join the fight with the robot. I knew I didn¡¯t have much time left before my Time Requirement Challenge was up for the floor, and after that the time scaling difficulty would ramp up explosively, at which point it would be idiotic to stay much longer. But I was going to get that Skill Orb even if it meant staying on this level just a little bit longer.


    After the past few days I had come up with the final touches to my plan to get the Skill Orb from the robot. The first element of this plan was the fact that the robot always stopped chasing me about 10 minutes before the sun came up. The second element of this plan was that the freezing spell would probably only hold the robot for 8 minutes at most. With these 2 things I came up with the plan to fight the robot around the time it would usually give up the chase, and get it to stay for as long as I could before the sun came up. Then I could freeze the robot as late as possible so I had the highest chance to immobilize the robot long enough for the sun to finish the job. Then I would be able to pry open the robot and get my hands on the Skill Orb.


    It was a simple plan, but with less working parts there was less that could go wrong.


    That led me to my current situation. I had intentionally cornered myself in an area of the city with low and crumbling buildings with plenty of access to the sunlight. I had no idea if the sunlight had to actually be shining on the robot for it to be incapacitated, like the robots I had fought before, but I didn¡¯t want to take any chances.


    -Break-


    If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.


    I tried to keep my mana reserves as high as possible during my run so I would be able to fight the robot. And maybe it was my exhaustion or my excitement, but the night seemed to fly by in a blur as it now came near the appointed time to enact my plan.


    I had about 5 minutes before the robot would usually stop chasing me. So, I started to show signs of tiring out, and started to get closer and closer to the robot.


    I wanted to get the robot to think that it was close to getting me and it would hopefully stay a few more minutes after its normal time, thinking that I was on my last legs, and as I started to slow down and lag, the robot actually did stay past its normal stopping time, however it didn¡¯t stay for long.


    The robot only stayed for about a minute longer before it started to turn away from the chase. Seeing this, I knew that I had to go to plan B: combat. However, when I tried to stop and turn around to face the robot, my ankle caught on some loose rubble and twisted painfully, sending me crashing to the ground. No! I need to stop the robot from leaving, I can¡¯t fall! However, the robot saw my fall, and instead of continuing to leave, it turned back to me and started to put up some bullet spells to fire at me.


    Well, I¡¯m glad it isn¡¯t leaving, but getting shot and injured isn¡¯t much better. With my twisted ankle I tried to get up, so I could maneuver out of the way of the robot¡¯s bullet spells, but my ankle loudly protested such an action and I failed to stand up immediately. Crap, this is a bad time to be injured Radiant! Although I could heal it with some magic, it would take time, and currently I needed to use that time to get out of the way of the robot¡¯s line of fire before I even thought about healing. So I used my Mental Operator to ignore the pain in my ankle, and moved to get behind a large piece of rubble nearby.


    Although my plan B was to fight the robot, I wasn¡¯t confident enough in my magic to actually fight it head on. My only goal was to keep it occupied for a minute or two more, then use my freezing spell, but I couldn¡¯t very well do that if I got headshot by the robot.


    My feet carried me dutifully towards the nearby chunk of rubble, and by the time the robot¡¯s spell finished I was practically right next to safety. However the robot wasn¡¯t playing around, and it immediately fired off multiple metallic bullets at me.


    I didn¡¯t want to receive any of those bullets, so I lunged behind the cover trying to get out of the way, but despite my efforts I still managed to acquire more injuries. Some of the bullets hit the nearby rubble and sent shards flying into my skin, these were minor injuries, however one of the bullets managed to hit the mark and dug its way into my back just below my right shoulder blade. Because I had lunged for cover, the bullet¡¯s path went in from below and scraped along the back of my shoulder blade before exiting out my shoulder.


    Because I was already suppressing my pain from my ankle, I didn¡¯t scream in pain like I probably would¡¯ve otherwise. However, even if I had been shot, I couldn¡¯t let my injuries get between me and my goal. I already knew this plan would be dangerous, I can deal with my injuries after this is over. Besides, I had my misty ice-steel ring functioning at full power, it wasn¡¯t going to be fixing my injuries any time soon, but it would extend the amount of time I could take before treating them, and currently that was all I needed.


    I could feel the robot moving closer to my position while still firing metal bullets at me, probably trying to suppress me and keep me from moving from my spot. However I wasn¡¯t going to be moving from my position anyways, the closer I was when I used the freezing spell, the better. So I fired up a shield spell, overloaded it to oblivion, and then made another shield and did it again, and again. Any offensive spells I could use wouldn¡¯t do much to the robot anyways, so I just hoped this would stall for as much time as possible.


    The robot arrived sooner than I expected, using some of its appendages to grab my precious cover and push it out of the way. This allowed me to get a clear view of the robot, and I saw why it had arrived so fast. The robot had briefly stopped dealing with the monsters all around us in order to get to me, leaving some of them clinging to its metallic shell trying to claw their way into its interior.


    I swallowed hard when I saw this. Dang, it¡¯s desperate, for sure. But this was no time to joke around, because the robot didn¡¯t waste any time firing off its spell projectiles at my shields.


    I expected my shields to fall quickly, but they fell a lot quicker than I had hoped. The bullets the robot fired off at close range had more power behind them than the ones I had received from a distance, and it showed from the spreading cracks in my mana shield. The first shield only lasted a few seconds, and then another few for the next, and then the next.


    At this point I only had one more shield between me and the robot. If I was going to use the freezing spell then now was the time, but it was still a bit too soon to use it if I wanted to be 100% sure to keep the robot frozen until the sunrise.


    I didn¡¯t have any other options though, it was either use it now or become a very holey person in the next few seconds. I¡¯m sure Jilly would scoff at me being called a holy person, but even gods wouldn¡¯t be able to prevent that label from being applied in the next few seconds.


    With no other option left, I didn¡¯t wait for my last shield to fully shatter before letting loose my freezing spell crystal.


    Instantly my surroundings froze like they had been encased in metal. Of course this included the robot, which had its spells cease and its movement stop, along with all of the monsters around me.


    This spell was a unique kind of freezing spell, it worked differently than just making everything really cold. I wasn¡¯t adept enough at ice and other similar things to achieve something like this with pure cold. No, this was more like a time freeze spell that ¡®froze¡¯ the time of everything around me, and just like an ice cube in the middle of flowing water, it wouldn¡¯t be long before everything melted back to the normal flow of time.


    Thankfully the flow of time in the dungeon was the same as the outside, because of the Outside Time Sync Challenge I had chosen when starting the Dungeon of Tribulation. So, in a way, this Challenge was more like a plus for me rather than a minus, since without it the time in the dungeon would be flowing faster than the outside.


    I was prepared to have to face the robot when it ultimately thawed out, but since I was so close to the robot when I let loose the spell it didn¡¯t thaw out until a little after the sunrise had melted all of the surrounding monsters to dust.


    Just like an ice cube, the time freeze would thaw from the outside inwards, so the robot that was in the center of the effect was immobilized for the longest. Not wasting any time, I set out to obtain what I had spent all this effort to get.


    Because the robot had so much mana flowing through it, it would be too hard to teleport all of it into my Internal World, so I instead used my mana, and what little remaining physical stamina I had left, to pry open the robot and get to the Skill Orb stored within.


    When I finally got to the Skill Orb I could barely get my two hands around it before I immediately used my (Skill: Foreign Analysis) to scan it. I was pretty sure this was an Archetype Skill Orb, but I was no Skill Orb expert, so I had to make sure. When I analyzed the Skill Orb I received a bunch of information that my (Mental Operator) condensed down to this.


    [Mana Well](Archetype Skill Orb)


    This Archetype Skill Orb is the embodiment of the Skill: Mana Well. Mana Well provides a constant supply of pure mana directly from within the Mana Realm. This Archetype Skill Orb has had significant modification done to it to significantly increase the throughput of the Mana Well. In addition, an artificial spirit has been implanted into this Skill Orb, making this Skill Orb to safely output abundant amounts of mana.


    It was a simple description, but it was like a bomb had dropped on my head. Pure mana wasn¡¯t something easily obtained, especially not in such an abundant supply as I felt coming from this Skill Orb. And the fact that an artificial spirit had been implanted meant that it was as though the Skill Orb was constantly in use, negating the need for someone to be around the Skill Orb for it to be active.


    As soon as I understood what its description implied, all thoughts of selling this Archetype Skill Orb fled from my mind. Forget about selling it, if others knew I had something like this, at best I would be ¡®politely¡¯ told to donate it, and at worst I might end up in an ¡®accident¡¯. This is just way too valuable.


    If anyone else were to get their hands on something like this they might give up and toss away the Skill Orb in fear of being discovered. After all, it was almost impossible to hide a Skill Orb because Skill Orbs were easily identified once they were ¡®observed¡¯, and ¡®observed¡¯ meant that even something like my (Space-Time Sense) would be able to identify it as a Skill Orb. As such, others would find it almost impossible to hide a Skill Orb. But I was different, I had my Internal World which no one, except the most adept space mages, would be able to peek inside of. So I encompassed as much of the Skill Orb with my hands as possible and teleported it into my Internal World.


    It was so much easier to teleport it when I could get my hands around it, even with the massive amounts of mana it was putting out. Then I did the same thing to the robot that had been chasing me; teleporting it, not putting my hands around it. It took a significant amount of time and mana to accomplish, but without the Skill Orb¡¯s massive mana interference I was able to store it whereas before I wouldn¡¯t have been able to.


    I stored the robot in its own separate space where it wouldn¡¯t be able to interact with the other things within my Internal World once it woke up.


    By now my time on this level had finally come to an end, and I once again received a message from the System.


    [Level 5 complete. All challenges have been met.]


    [Would you like to enter level 6 of the Dungeon of Tribulation, or leave the dungeon?]


    All except one of my emergency spell crystals are spent, and I am in no physical state to continue. If I were to continue I would have to be best buddies with Lady Luck, which I am not. Let¡¯s get out of here.


    ¡°Leave the Dungeon.¡±


    [Affirmative. Now leaving the dungeon. You will be transported to the reward room where you will be able to choose your rewards.]

 Reflection - Chapter 38

    [Affirmative. Now leaving the dungeon. You will be transported to the reward room where you will be able to choose your rewards.]


    Almost instantaneously I was in another location, with only a very brief moment of time where everything seemed to stop. Then, as soon as I was transported to the reward room, I felt my exhaustion hit me like a wave. I was reminded that my body wasn¡¯t in the best condition at the moment and I needed to take care of it before I could do anything like receiving rewards or messing with the system.


    So I gathered my mana and casted a few healing spells. Then, after my wounds were closed, I started to convert my mana into vitality energy, helping my body to heal naturally as well as relieve my fatigue, which was all assisted by my misty ice-steel ring.


    Before I got my hands on the misty ice-steel ring I had only been able to use healing magic to speed up my body¡¯s natural healing. The low level healing spells I could currently use were like first aid, they stopped the problems from worsening and helped facilitate the natural healing process, but it wasn¡¯t true magical healing. The misty ice-steel ring on the other hand didn¡¯t just improve natural healing; although it didn¡¯t close wounds or stop injuries from crippling, but it did slow bleeding, lessen inflammation and pain, and even provided some water to the body in the form of mist. The one problem with the misty ice-steel ring was that it couldn¡¯t help what wasn¡¯t there, meaning that it couldn¡¯t heal what it didn¡¯t have the resources to heal. Which was why I converted my mana into vitality, so that the misty ice-steel ring could use the vitality energy in replacement of my body¡¯s resources.


    As I built up the vitality energy within me I thought back across all the events that had taken place in the Dungeon of Tribulation. So much had happened within only a month¡¯s time. Normally life wasn¡¯t this chaotic, but as the saying goes when it ignites it explodes, that¡¯s what the immortals always say anyways. It was almost too much for me to handle, but I had made it, I had accomplished almost everything I set out to do. Now the only thing left was to receive my rewards and get out of here, but I wasn¡¯t in a rush.


    I felt my body relax as the vitality energy flowed through it, and I struggled to keep my eyes open as System messages started to appear before me. However my lack of real sleep was catching up to me, and I couldn¡¯t stave off my exhaustion any longer now that I was safe and free from worry. So I let myself go and quickly fell asleep.


    -Break-


    My body¡¯s disconnected mind looked around with idle curiosity, taking in the sights of the grandiose city around me, but I took in the same scene and noted the distance of the guards and the mayhem of the streets. This city had recently conquered a special dungeon, and so the market was engorged with buyers as they swarmed around trying to find good deals on the newly acquired resources.


    My body was about to walk forward in order to get closer to my bodyguards, which were being swept into the crowd as they tried to prioritize the safety of the spatial mages, who were here for transporting large amounts of goods back through my portal. However my body stopped and refused to move forward against its wishes. This greatly confused and alarmed my body, which was about to call out to the guards in order to seek their help, thinking that it was under attack, but once again my body refused to obey and its mouth closed tight and refused to make a sound.


    Although my body was confused, I wasn¡¯t. I had been waiting for an opportunity like this for years, decades, and although there had been a few possible chances over the years, none of them were as golden as the one before me. I sent some signals through my body to take in everything around me, and concluded that now was the best time to make my escape. So I hijacked control from my ignorant body¡¯s mind and shut it in its own black box where it wouldn¡¯t be able to interfere with the coming events.


    As I took control of my body my whole outward demeanor shifted from cheerful, to closed off and desperate. The one guard left by my side was slow to react to this change, and was too slow to react as I assaulted his mind, quickly leaving him unconscious. I didn¡¯t stick around, and fled back through the market towards my portal that I had come here with.


    I had expected to have to fight off my bodyguards as I made my way back to my portal, but I made it back to the secluded area my portal was located in and returned through it without complications. I was also expecting to meet a pack of guards on the other side of the portal entrance, but once again I was left confused when I was met by an empty room. I closed the portal behind me, and trapped everyone back in the market on the other side, leaving them stranded in another country.


    Everything had gone way too smoothly at this point, and I almost started to break down as I started to wonder if this was all just another mental manipulation, a fake reality presented to try and trap me. I started to nervously laugh as I frantically went through every possible mental check I could think of, cycling through them like a madman checking to see if everything was real or fake.


    But all of them came back positive. This was really happening. This was all real. I started to shake uncontrollably, as I knew I had just wasted precious seconds that I could¡¯ve been using to escape, but I didn¡¯t allow myself to waste any more time, and I focused my energy towards my (Fractured Space Channel) and shattered the surrounding space. At the same time, I was pushing the pure mana in my core into a spell that my body had never attempted before.


    Although my body had never practiced this spell, I had practiced and learned about it within The Ever Present Archives. The spell formed perfectly, but as I went to push my mana through it I felt like I was trying to wield a spoon with an infant¡¯s arms. The spatial spell did what it was supposed to and ripped open a portal in front of me, but the effect was the same as what the infant wielding the spoon would do, the spatial tears spilled all over the place, filling the surrounding fractured space with varying sizes of spatial tunnels and rifts.


    I didn¡¯t have the luxury of waiting for a better travel option, so I picked the largest spatial tear and jumped into it hoping for the best but preparing for the worst.


    -Break-


    I woke up a bit groggily, and when I sat up I felt a slight ache in my shoulder. I started to wonder why going through the spatial tear had made me fall asleep, but then I fully awoke and realization swept through me. That had been a dream. Although it was more like a memory, the memory of my first escape.


    Back then I didn¡¯t have as clear of a mind as I did in my dream, and that was saying something. The curse put on my mind would put me in incredible amounts of pain if I disobeyed its compulsions, to the point that I had to rip out that part of my mind and shut it away during my escape. The rest of my dream was fairly accurate, except that it had all been much more intense, especially the part where I had almost gone mad trying to check if everything was real or fake.


    I woke up before the real stuff had gone down though, but ultimately I had made my escape and successfully evaded capture. However, the reality of it all was still something that was hard for me to believe. I mean, I grew up on Earth where there was no such thing as magic or time travel or mental manipulation; everything that had happened to me after my death on Earth had played out like a surreal dream, and it was only after I had escaped in that memory when it all became truly real to me.


    But that was all in the past now. I had come to grips with reality and was in a much better mental space now, especially because I was able to do what I hadn¡¯t been able to do back then. Back then I had wanted to leave behind a provocation when I escaped, I wanted to rub my escape in their noses, mock their incompetence and crush their pride, and I wasn¡¯t able to accomplish that back then. However I was able to do so this time, and it filled me with endless satisfaction, even now, as I thought about it.


    As I stopped recalling the past I took in my surroundings. I was inside a white room, although calling it white wasn¡¯t 100% accurate, a better description of the room I was in would be [], that is to say blank, empty, without detail. Although my eyes interpreted it as white, it wasn¡¯t really. So I stopped my meaningless observations and focused on something more useful, pulling up the System messages that I had received before I had gone to sleep.


    [You have completed 5 levels of the Dungeon of Tribulation with 10 different challenges active]


    [Rewards are increased by +25 levels due to the different challenges]


    [Less Starting Information +1, No System Loot +1, Hostile Environment +2, Time Requirement +2, Forced Task +1, Hostile Entities +1, Wider Difficulty Range +10, Champion Level Entity +4, Outside Time Sync +1, Solo +2]


    [levels 1-4 rewards will be equal to level 26-29 rewards, and the level 5 reward will be equal to a level 30 reward.]


    This was all well and good, but there was one more notification that I was currently more interested in.


    [Your Trait (Ornate Chains of Talent) has fulfilled all the necessary conditions, and can now change into Trait (Unshackled Ornate Talent)]


    [Do you want to change your trait (Ornate Chains of Talent) into the trait (Unshackled Ornate Talent)?] [Accept | Deny]


    I bubbled with excitement as I recalled the last time I had received this message. Back then I wasn¡¯t able to make my own choice, but this time I¡¯m free.


    ¡°I accept.¡±


    As soon as I said that, I felt something (something I had lost when I went back in time) heat up and shake within me. Then my Ornate Chains of Talent manifested themselves and unfurled from within me, enclosing my body in a cage. The ethereal chains then started to snap and shatter, with a sound that I felt more than heard, and after they had all shattered and fallen to the floor, they started to turn into molten light and rush back into my body.


    When the light entered my body I felt the rush of leveling up, with something else added in. It was a feeling not unlike the rush one felt after a good exercise session, and with the level ups came the System messages.


    [You have leveled up]x12


    [You now have 390 available points available to modify your Status]


    ¡°Wow, level 12 right off the bat. Nice. Considering my sedentary lifestyle without much combat up to this point, I¡¯d say that¡¯s pretty good.¡±


    [Your Trait (Unshackled Talent) allows you to choose a Talent to awaken from the 3 available options.]


    [Globetrotting Gatherer]: Having reaped the benefits of a god¡¯s blessing without any cost, and having purchased things most will never be able to, you can now access and purchase things that most would die of envy from. You will have the ability to open up portals to any location. This includes fictional and imagined places like books or different dimensions with mind bending rules. However opening a portal to a place you have been to before is significantly easier. There are also benefits given while away in one of your gates that will allow you to stay wherever your gate opens without problems.


    This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.


    This is the Talent I had in my past, I guess my connection to it is too deep to have replaced this with a different choice. It¡¯s not a bad Talent by any means, but without the resources of a large organization like the Tallen government behind me it¡¯s mostly just wasted potential. I didn¡¯t fully want to take this one in the past either, but it was out of my control at the time. But now, unless the other options suck, this one is off the table. I just want something I choose for myself.


    [Collected Potential]: You have collected potential power for so long but never had the opportunity to show it, but now that will no longer be a problem. Over time, and through many means, Potential Points are collected and saved to use later. Potential Points are Omnipotent¡­ with enough of them, but they can currently only be used on yourself or things with a strong enough connection to you. (WARNING: This Talent is very weak at the beginning.)


    A warning? The system doesn¡¯t often give warnings, maybe disclaimers sometimes, but not warnings. This warning must mean it¡¯s extremely, extremely weak at the beginning. I¡¯m not opposed to this option just because of that, but I should take a look at the last option.


    [Anonymous & Access]: You have 2 Legendary Titles that help you remain anonymous and fool others as to your true identity, and you have access to things you should not logically have access to. With this Talent you gain the ability to become [Anonymous] from anything and the ability to [Access] anything through the [Anonymous & Access Shop]. This shop has many functions, for example you can purchase another body/self along with everything that identity could need. You could also purchase the ability to remain [Anonymous] and evade even death or the laws of gravity itself (for a price); you can also buy access to anything, or remove any restrictions that may be plaguing you, for example you could remove the Tier limiter on this talent, allowing it to reach heights unknown (for a price).


    Now this one sounds interesting. Wouldn¡¯t this completely solve my government problems? I wouldn¡¯t have to pay taxes! But more seriously, I can think of a lot of potential uses for a Talent like this, especially in my current circumstances. The only problem is that (for a price) disclaimer, what kind of price? Would I be paying in cash? Talent specific Points? There¡¯s no way to know for sure, but maybe I could even use the talent itself to allow me to use anything to pay for things in its shop? In any case I would get some initial benefits just for awakening the Talent at least, so I could always find out the specifics over time.


    I pondered over the three choices for a bit, but I delayed actually making a choice for now. If my past experience with Globetrotting Gatherer, a Tier 9 Talent, was any indication, then the other two choices would have jaw dropping effects no doubt.


    Globetrotting Gatherer could potentially open up a gate to Anywhere, even other dimensions or fictional places, although it had been very costly to do so. If that was the kind of power I could expect from all Tier 9 Talents, then the other two choices were definitely more powerful than they sounded. But for now I would postpone my decision and take a look at my Status, which I hadn¡¯t looked at in depth for quite a while.


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 70%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 21.3667%">[Status]</td>


    <td style="width: 78.6163%">Level: 12 | General Tier: (Peak)Tier 9 | Age Physical (Soul): 22(222) | Points: 390


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 21.3667%">[Ancestry]


    </td>


    <td style="width: 78.6163%">(Human; Evolutions: 0) (TechnicMorph; Evolutions: 0)


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 21.3667%">[Titles]


    </td>


    <td style="width: 78.6163%"> </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 21.3667%">Common</td>


    <td style="width: 78.6163%">(Researcher) (Solitary)


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 21.3667%">Uncommon


    </td>


    <td style="width: 78.6163%">(Low Profile)


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 21.3667%">Rare


    </td>


    <td style="width: 78.6163%">(Stats Controller)</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 21.3667%">Very Rare


    </td>


    <td style="width: 78.6163%">(Social Morph)


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 21.3667%">Superlative


    </td>


    <td style="width: 78.6163%"> </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 21.3667%">Extraordinary


    </td>


    <td style="width: 78.6163%">(Conqueror of Mana) (Tribulation Challenger) (Artificial Youth)


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 21.3667%">Epic


    </td>


    <td style="width: 78.6163%"> </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 21.3667%">Legendary


    </td>


    <td style="width: 78.6163%">(Dimensional Traveler) (Time Traveler)


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 21.3667%">Ancient/Primordial/Peak/Unique</td>


    <td style="width: 78.6163%"> </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 21.3667%">[Stats]


    </td>


    <td style="width: 78.6163%"> </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 21.3667%">Mana Nebula</td>


    <td style="width: 78.6163%">


    Strength: Tier 9


    Dexterity: Tier 9


    Endurance: Tier 9


    Stamina: Tier 9


    General: Tier 9


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 21.3667%">Mana Cells</td>


    <td style="width: 78.6163%">


    Strength: Tier 9


    Dexterity: Tier 9


    Endurance: Tier 9


    Stamina: Tier 9


    General: Tier 9


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 21.3667%">Magic Control</td>


    <td style="width: 78.6163%">


    Strength: Tier 9


    Dexterity: Tier 9


    Endurance: Tier 9


    Stamina: Tier 9


    General: Tier 9


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 21.3667%">Constitution</td>


    <td style="width: 78.6163%">


    Strength: Tier 9


    Dexterity: Tier 9


    Endurance: Tier 9


    Stamina: Tier 9


    General: Tier 9


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 21.3667%">Senses</td>


    <td style="width: 78.6163%">


    Strength: Tier 9


    Dexterity: Tier 9


    Endurance: Tier 9


    Stamina: Tier 9


    General: Tier 9


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 21.3667%">Mind</td>


    <td style="width: 78.6163%">


    Strength: Tier 9


    Dexterity: Tier 9


    Endurance: Tier 9


    Stamina: Tier 9


    General: Tier 9


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 21.3667%">[Unique Talent]</td>


    <td style="width: 78.6163%">Tier 7¡úTier 9 (Not Awakened)</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 21.3667%">[Magic Core]


    </td>


    <td style="width: 78.6163%">(Color: None) (Characteristic: Mana Cell Enhancement)


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 21.3667%">[Metaphysical Organs]</td>


    <td style="width: 78.6163%">(Core) (Adaptive Mind) (Fractured Space Channel)


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 21.3667%">[Metaphysical Physique]</td>


    <td style="width: 78.6163%">(Body of Artifacts)</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 21.3667%">[Magical Physique]</td>


    <td style="width: 78.6163%">(Selective Mana Superconductor)</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 21.3667%">[Traits]


    </td>


    <td style="width: 78.6163%">(Ornate Chains of Talent)¡ú(Unshackled Ornate Talent) (Enchanting Aptitude)


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 21.3667%">[Blessings/Curses]


    </td>


    <td style="width: 78.6163%">(The Ever Present Archives Level 1 Infinite Pass)


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 21.3667%">[Active Skills/Powers 3/3]


    </td>


    <td style="width: 78.6163%">


    (Power: Accelerated Cloud Mental Operator; Evolution:0 Level: 91)


    (Skill: Tireless Mana II; Level: 55)


    (Skill: Physical Recovery II; Level: 45)


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 21.3667%">[Inactive Skills/Powers 12]</td>


    <td style="width: 78.6163%">


    (Skill: Mana Maintenance II; Level: 68)


    (Skill: Foreign Analysis; Level: 81)


    (Skill: Deceive; Level: 68)


    (Skill: Sense Mana II; Level: 62)


    (Skill: Pain Tolerance; Level: 52)


    (Skill: Physical Augmentation; Level: 69)


    (Skill: Space-Time Sense; Level: 64)


    (Skill: Mana Conversion; Level: 61)


    (Skill: Selective Transformation II; Level: 14)


    (Skill: Basic Space Control; Level: 84)


    (Skill: Mana Crystallization II; Level: 25)


    (Skill: Efficient Crystallization; Level: 60)


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Everything was looking good, but there were a few things I decided to check in further detail now that I had some peace.


    [Title: Tribulation Challenger]: Congratulations! You have survived a Tribulation with overwhelming difficulty (due to your own (probably stupid) choices), and maybe even thrived in its difficulty.


    : Rewards from Tribulations will be moderately increased.


    [Trait: Unshackled Ornate Talent]


    : Allows you to awaken your Unique Talent from 3 possible choices.


    : Increases the base Tier of your Unique Talent by 1.


    : Your Unique Talent will greatly minimize the effects of outside forces that attempt to resist it.


    As expected, there¡¯s no changes to these two Titles from the past, but this Artificial Youth Title is new.


    [Title: Artificial Youth]: Congratulations! You have lived longer than what your Ancestry¡¯s natural lifespan would conclude, and yet somehow you have managed to retain a youthful body.


    : Things that damage your lifespan or appearance can now be slowly recovered from through the use of this title.


    Nice, it doesn¡¯t say how long it would take to recover, but I¡¯m guessing that, at the very least, this Title could completely stop the aging process with some help. It might even be all I need to have eternal youth. In any case it¡¯ll be one more tool to stave off the erosion of time.


    Everything else on my Status was pretty self-evident. I had quite a few Points I could use, but there were a few more things to do before I used those Points. Namely, Rewards and Priorities. Unless I had the full perspective, I wouldn¡¯t be able to make the best choices.

 First Rewards - Chapter 39

    Before I started choosing my rewards I first had to list out my priorities and problems. Thankfully the amount of time I could spend in the reward room depended on the level of rewards I got, and since I had gotten up to a level 30 reward, I could spend up to 30 hours in this room. Of course I had already spent many of those hours sleeping already, but I still had plenty of time, so I didn¡¯t need to rush anything.


    First things first. What are my biggest problems I need to fix, and what do I need to keep in mind while choosing my rewards?


    It was too big of a list, so I decided to go over it one more time.


    <ol>


    <li> First I get to keep all of the things I collected in the dungeon. So some of the things I¡¯m worried about have already been taken care of, which is great. Especially the Archetype Skill Orb, with that I won¡¯t have to worry about having enough mana for some of my future plans.</li>


    <li> I need to take special care when choosing my special reward, since it¡¯s a trait, characteristic, Power, or something on a similar level. There are pros and cons to any choice I decide to make.</li>


    </ol>


    A Power can grow without limits, is multifaceted, and runs on its own energy system. However, Powers have to be slowly learned through trial and error, grow slowly unless used very often, and can have unknown side effects. A power can come to define a person, just like the one I have. But that''s just the thing, I already have one, and focusing on more than one could slow down my growth in both.


    Skills use already available resources like mana, physical stamina or mental energy, are less flexible at first but can be customized with extended use and time, and have their own growth limitations and benefits. Skills are great, but are somewhat vanilla compared to the other options.


    A metaphysical organ uses MP (Meta-Physical Energy), can synergize with other metaphysical organs, can be detected by others but is hard to specifically identify, can be grown without necessarily being used but is limited by one¡¯s own growth limit. I¡¯m not a huge fan of metaphysical organs because of how rigid most of them are in their application. They can be a great addition to make up for weak points in a build, but they aren¡¯t really my thing.


    A Trait doesn¡¯t grow (in general and unless specified) but has strong and full capabilities from the start to make up for it, is permanently active/available, doesn¡¯t require any energy input to function(unless specified), and cannot be detected from direct observation(only from observing the effects it has on other things). Traits can influence almost everything a person has or does, which is great, but the fact that they don¡¯t really grow is kind of a put off for me.


    A Characteristic can be tremendously powerful, but it also has unforeseen negative and positive interactions/conflicts/synergies with other Characteristics that could completely ruin someone¡¯s future or elevate them to new heights. It¡¯s a dangerous gamble that could have enormous payoffs¡­ that I wouldn¡¯t want to take.


    There¡¯s a lot to think about when it comes to the special reward, and I think I¡¯ll save it for last for that reason. Moving on to other things to consider.


    <ol start="3">


    <li> I could trade in higher Rank rewards for multiple lower Rank rewards, but that¡¯s kind of a waste since I can¡¯t do the opposite, so I need to take care to get the most out of every reward.</li>


    <li> The 4 normal rewards could be: a random skill orb, a lower tier talent awakening orb, an artifact of a larger scale of effect(something like an array), a more powerful artifact of personal scale, or an even more powerful artifact of singular use. Of course these aren¡¯t all of the options, but it gives me a framework to work off of.</li>


    <li> I could also use my Status points for some of these things, but that¡¯s a bit too expensive for the current amount of Status points I have.</li>


    </ol>


    Those are all of the major things to keep in mind, but now I need to think of what I actually want the rewards to be considering my circumstances.


    First, I am in desperate need of something that will allow me to get to civilization undetected, because I will easily be found once I leave the Dungeon of Tribulation. In that same vein, I need something to hide my appearance until I can get a new identity.


    I need some sort of wildcard/trump card to use in case of emergencies. Because this world has some crazy powerful things in it that I have no chance of going up against normally.


    I need something that will help me grow. Something like a more reliable attack method. I felt that I was lacking in this aspect all throughout the Dungeon of Tribulation, and since combat experience is a reliable way to gain some Status experience, I feel that a good attack method is paramount.


    I would also like a way to start getting confidential information that I can¡¯t get from The Archives. (I¡¯m thinking of maybe a listening device or something that I can plant somewhere important.)


    Other than that, what I really need is an artifact that will work well with my Metaphysical Physique [Body of Artifacts]. Having a large cost or downside will drastically increase how powerful the artifact will be, allowing me to get more out of my reward. I could get an artifact that will tell me if I''m being tracked or something similar.


    The last thing I need is a bag or something that I can link to my Internal World, for more convenient item storage and retrieval, so I won¡¯t draw attention to my spatial abilities.


    It¡¯s a pretty long list for sure. However, once I get down to it, I can use one reward to satisfy multiple requirements. The first thing that comes to mind is getting an artifact that blocks anything outside from looking at what¡¯s stored inside of it. If there are enough downsides or negatives to the artifact, then its concealment capabilities will be tremendously increased and strengthened, and since I can make my body exhibit the artifact¡¯s properties, then It won¡¯t matter how useless the original artifact is. This will definitely be one of my reward choices.


    If I have an artifact that can stop me from being tracked, then I guess I don¡¯t need something that will tell me if I¡¯m being tracked. So I guess that is no longer a problem, nice.


    If I think about it, that solves most of my immediate problems. I¡¯m mostly worried about being hunted down once I leave here and am able to be tracked again, but even if I take care of that problem there¡¯s still the fact that I can¡¯t change my appearance, at least not in a way that isn¡¯t detectable or removable once I get to civilization.


    That made me think back to one of my Talent choices. If I think about it, [Anonymous & Access] is looking like a pretty good option right about now. After all, it said that I could buy a body/self or another identity along with everything else that identity could need. If I could just completely change myself into another person, then I wouldn¡¯t have to worry about the government tracking me down at all anymore. However, I have no idea how costly something like that would be, and it¡¯s not like I¡¯ll always need to remain anonymous in the future.


    Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.


    It sounded like a great idea right now, but a Unique Talent isn¡¯t something I wanted to be only a temporary boon. I would have to think about it some more before I made a decision. If only (Selective Transformation II) was able to make permanent changes to my appearance, then my identity problem would be solved. But as it stood there was no way I would be able to permanently hide my appearance with it. Hah¡­ I¡¯ll come back to this problem later. For now let¡¯s think about something else.


    The spatial bag is a simple problem, I can just get a bag that can only be used by me. Although it will have a very small storage space because of this, it won¡¯t matter because I¡¯ll be linking it up to my Internal World.


    As for information collecting? Well there¡¯s no way such low level rewards can evade the detection of any decently well equipped organization. So although I would love to get some juicy confidential information, I think that¡¯s a pipe dream at the moment.


    As for an attack option, I think I can use one of my rewards to fulfill this condition, and I can probably find something that will grow along with me as well. It¡¯s an easy solution.


    That¡¯s 3 of the regular rewards taken care of then: an attack option, a spatial storage bag, and an artifact that stops outside information prying. Now all that¡¯s left is one regular reward and the big reward.


    I tried to think of what I should choose as my 4th and 5th rewards, but it just wasn¡¯t coming to me. So I decided to redeem the rewards I knew I wanted, and hopefully I would be able to think more clearly afterwards.


    So I said into the void, ¡°I would like to redeem my rewards please.¡±


    [4 normal rewards and 1 special reward remaining]


    [Would you like to choose your rewards from a random assortment, or specify and customize your reward choices?]


    In the past I would¡¯ve thought the random assortment was a worthless option, but not anymore. However, I didn''t need to use that option currently, so it was an obvious choice for me, ¡°I would like to specify my reward choices.¡±


    After saying that, a new screen opened up. This screen showed something like a text editor mixed with art software and a search engine, and off in one part of the screen there were the numbers 2600, 2700, 2800 and 2900. These numbers were the points I could spend creating my 4 normal rewards.


    I was already familiar with the reward creation process, so I took no time at all using the tools to specify my first reward using the 2600 points reward. I wanted a spatial storage bag that I could put an imprint on so its contents could only be accessed by me. The description I put in made an image of a small black coin pouch appear in the window. It was a simple spatial storage bag that would barely be able to hold double the amount of stuff it looked like it should, but it was mostly going to be used for concealing my Internal World, so it was enough for my purposes.


    Next up was the attack option. I could get an artifact for attacking, but artifacts required energy to function, in my case I would be using artifacts that functioned off of mana. However if I was going to be spending mana I would prefer to be spending it on something that wasn¡¯t static like an artifact. So instead of an artifact, I wanted a Spell.


    You would think describing a Spell for a reward would be fairly easy, but it wasn¡¯t. First of all I had to meticulously describe what I wanted from the Spell. Then I had to worry about the allotted points I was working within, 2800, so I had to put in a lot of different restrictions and limits on the Spell before finally arriving at what I wanted. After a lot of finagling, the Spell [Frozen Water Lance] was ready for me to redeem.


    I didn¡¯t actually redeem any of the rewards yet though, I would redeem all of my rewards at once. So I moved on to the third reward, an artifact that I could use to hide from magical tracking and searching. For this reward I used the 2900 point reward, I needed this artifact to be as powerful as I could get it. Then I moved on to describing and customizing the artifact.


    In the end the artifact turned out to look like a tiny metallic safe that would only be able to fit a few coins inside of it. If it were to be looked at on its own, then it was basically useless, but its small size was actually a benefit to me rather than a negative. I would be absorbing the artifact into my [Body of Artifacts], and my [Body of Artifacts] had the equivalent of an artifact stomach that held all of the artifacts that I absorbed. After an artifact was within the artifact stomach then my body could copy and display the same effects as the artifact.


    With those 3 rewards finished, I needed to figure out what my final 2 rewards would be.


    But making the artifact got me thinking, I don¡¯t have to use every reward to make me, specifically, stronger, I can improve other things that I use too. The first thing I thought about strengthening was the Restless Ruby Tree so it would be more useful to me, but I didn¡¯t want to rush my last normal reward, so I started to look through my Internal World to see if anything else caught my eye before making a decision.


    After a lengthy search, something I had almost forgotten caught my eye. It was a small silver vial with a strange alien script scrawled all over it, and it prevented me from viewing inside of it to see its contents. I got this on the very first floor, but I didn¡¯t know what the writing on the bottle meant so I had put it off for later. But now that I was no longer restricted from entering The Archives, I decided to hop on over and see if I could quickly identify the markings on the vial, maybe it would be worthy of an improvement if I knew what it was.


    I easily entered The Archives like normal, and as I made my way into The Archives I threw on a cloak that would hide my appearance, since I was only going to be here for a short while, and I didn¡¯t want to waste any time on social interactions.


    After entering I made quick work of translating the markings on the vial. It turned out that it was a very old language that was called Thurinovas. I was somewhat interested to learn more about this language, but for now I just translated what was on the vial. The translation was instantly done after inputting a mental image of the vial into the translating ¡®software¡¯ available in The Archives.


    The rough translation read as, ¡°Stored within this vial is a being by the name of Shadow Symbiote. This Shadow Symbiote will feed off of the host¡¯s mana in a non-parasitic way, however it requires a form of shadow mana to live, which it acquires by transforming the host¡¯s mana into shadow mana. The harder it is to transform the host¡¯s mana into shadow mana, the less growth potential the Shadow Symbiote will have and the more mana it will need. In exchange, the Shadow Symbiote fuses/attaches/connects to the host, which allows the host to benefit from the Shadow Symbiote¡¯s abilities.¡±


    After I finished reading the translation I couldn¡¯t help but speak out loud in a quiet voice, ¡°Allows the host to benefit from the Shadow Symbiote¡¯s abilities, huh? It doesn¡¯t mention anything about what those abilities are though. But more importantly, why isn¡¯t host capitalized?¡±


    I didn¡¯t get an answer to any of my questions, but in any case I had gotten what I initially came here for, so I left The Archives and came back to the empty void.


    I wasn¡¯t sure what to do with the Shadow Symbiote now that I knew it was inside the vial, but I knew I wasn¡¯t too keen on having the thing feeding off of me, even if I would probably be a good match with the Shadow Symbiote due to my pure mana. However the description didn¡¯t mention anything about the Symbiote needing any particular kind of host, the only thing it mentioned was the mana conversion. That makes me wonder, is there something else I could give this Shadow Symbiote to and still benefit from it?


    As soon as I thought that, another thing popped into my mind. That¡¯s right! I can give the Symbiote to the Restless Ruby Tree. Although I¡¯ve just barely made a connection with it, I can still share some of my mana with the Restless Ruby Tree, which the Shadow Symbiote will then be able to feed off of. It¡¯s the perfect solution, I won¡¯t have it living on me, but I can still benefit from it.


    This was all great, except for the fact that I hadn¡¯t gotten anywhere closer to answering what I should do with the last normal reward. I felt like I was close to an answer, like all of the pieces were coming together, but there was just something I seemed to be missing.

 Final Rewards - Chapter 40

    I knew I was missing something that would make everything come together, but I just couldn¡¯t pin it down, like the answer was on the tip of my tongue but refused to bubble up from my subconscious. So I decided to take a look at my Mental Operator control center to see if anything in there would be able to clear things up.


    Using my Power I came to the control center and saw the multitude of controls and displays. I went over to a place I liked to call ¡®the connections mind map¡¯ to see if I could find anything that stood out that might point to the missing feeling I had.


    Just like any normal mind map, I put down the thing/idea I wanted to find connections to in the center, and felt Mental Operator spring into action to try and make connections between what I had put down and every memory I had stored starting with the most recent ones.


    The mind map started to branch out, with different ideas and concepts linked by lines to other ideas and concepts. Currently the display had one idea that seemed to be growing the most connections in comparison to everything else, and that idea was the Talent choice [Collected Potential].


    I didn¡¯t know what exactly the display was trying to say, but I decided to take a closer look at the things [Collected Potential] was connected to and figure out why it had the most connections.


    After a while of piecing all of the connections and clues on the display together, I understood what the mind map was trying to tell me. It was telling me I had to choose the Talent [Collected Potential] as my Talent choice. The reasons were many, but the biggest reason was the fact that the description for [Collected Potential] had said it can be used on myself or things with a strong enough connection to me, and that was a big deal for my current situation.


    I had to assume that my Skills were a part of me, or at least had a strong enough connection to me. If I could use the Talent to make a slight modification to my Skill (Selective Transformation II), then I could make it permanently alter my appearance. If I could do that, then my problem would be solved.


    It would be a bit of a gamble whether the Talent would be strong enough to accomplish this change right away, after all it said it was very weak at the beginning, but it wasn¡¯t too big of a risk. So I made up my mind to choose [Collected Potential] as my Personal Talent.


    I exited my mental space and returned to the empty System room. Although I had made up my mind to choose [Collected Potential] for my Personal Talent, I would save that for after I received my rewards. Awakening a Personal Talent was usually something that slowly took place over the course of a person¡¯s lifetime, up until it awakened naturally, but in my case I had prematurely awakened my Personal Talent with the Talent awakening orb. Which meant that in my case I would be unconscious while I awakened the remaining parts of my Talent that weren¡¯t already naturally awakened. So I would save my awakening until after I collected my rewards.


    Now I had to choose my last 2 rewards. But now I don''t have any glaring problems that I need to fix anymore, so I needed to rethink my priorities and what I wanted out of these last two rewards. In the past I might¡¯ve been tempted to get some generic power increases, but my foundations were pretty solid at this point, and any more reinforcement of my base capabilities wasn¡¯t going to be as effective as focused synergies and improvements would be.


    Since I had a magic focused build, I decided that I should think about increasing the strength of specific areas of my magic. Currently I was making up for my lack of strength with an overwhelming amount of mana, but compared to actual mages I was a pathetic excuse for a real mage. Sure I could get the job done, but what I was doing was the equivalent of using 1000 toddlers for a job instead of 10 strong guys.


    I had already settled on an attack spell I could use, but if I wanted to get more out of it, then I would need something like a magic tempering technique. It sounded more awesome than it usually was though, a magic tempering technique wasn¡¯t much different from spells, in that there could be really powerful spells, but there were also very simple and mundane spells too. The same could be said for magic tempering techniques, sure there were some really powerful techniques, but the kinds I could currently get weren¡¯t extraordinary. But no matter how mundane, it would give me the boost I needed to have at least passable magic strength.


    So I went about describing and designing my fourth reward for 2700 points. After a lot of searching and refining of my search criteria, I was able to find a tempering technique that I wanted out of the many options available. The tempering technique was called Icelated Star. (Pronounced similarly to isolated)


    This tempering technique would make use of my enhanced mana cells and transform some of them into an Icelated Star within my mana nebula. This transformation would change the identity of the mana produced by these mana cells into Icelated mana, and the Star itself would act as a stabilizer for any ice related spells.


    I wasn¡¯t exactly sure what Icelated mana was, but I knew it was some form of ice mana at least, and since the new attack spell I would be using was an ice spell, I thought it was a great choice for my first tempering technique.


    Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.


    Now all that was left was my fifth and final reward. Unlike the first four rewards, this one was much more unique, a special reward. Special rewards, and the things one could get from them, were only obtainable if at least a +20 reward modifier was present, and even then a special reward was only obtained every fifth floor. So it Really wasn¡¯t easy to get one.


    However, despite the importance behind this reward choice, I already knew what I wanted to get. I¡¯m not saying it was easy coming to my final choice, but the choice I had come to was something I knew I would never regret choosing.


    For my fifth and final reward I chose the Trait [Mana Sustenance]. This Trait would allow me to substitute mana for¡­ well¡­ sustenance, or more accurately it would allow me to sustain my body with mana. Although, with my current amount of mana generation, I would be nowhere near being able to completely replace my body¡¯s food or sleep requirements, but it would eventually allow me to do just that.


    I had always hated the fact that I had to eat and drink just to live, sure I loved food and water just as much as the next Human, but requiring it to live just sounded strange to me. But with this Trait I would be able to overcome this limitation and overcome a portion of my mortality.


    With all of my rewards now selected, I claimed all of them at once.


    Just like that, five different things appeared in front of me, floating in the air waiting to be claimed. From left to right was: a simple looking bag, a white rod that looked perfectly designed to fit in my hand, a thin booklet with the words Frozen Water Lance on the cover, a small metal box with extremely complex patterns all over its surface, and last was an blob/orb of amorphous glowing light.


    There weren¡¯t many rewards, but they were each valuable. I didn¡¯t waste any time and grabbed the small bag on the left and placed it into a pocket on the inside of my jacket, then I reached out and grabbed the white rod, and once my hand wrapped around it I received a System message.


    [Would you like to learn the technique (Icelated Star)]


    I wasn¡¯t surprised by the sudden System message and gave an instant reply, ¡°Yes.¡±


    Immediately I felt information flow into my mind, and I came to understand everything about the technique (Icelated Star). It was more impressive than I had first thought, and I would have to take some time to practice it later, but I didn¡¯t have the time to fully go over it right now. So I reached over to the Frozen Water Lance booklet and quickly flipped through it, only needing to see it once in order to have a perfect memory of everything I saw.


    Just from my initial impressions I could tell that this spell was one of the most advanced attack spells I had ever laid my eyes on. Though that wasn¡¯t saying much considering that I had had to create almost all of my spells from scratch in the past. That wasn¡¯t to say that I didn¡¯t know strong magic, but the level of information I had access to in The Archives didn¡¯t go past a certain point.


    Needless to say I was excited to have a stronger spell I could reference and use, but there were still two more rewards to obtain. I reached out, but before getting the fourth reward I reached my hand out to the glowing light and received another System message as soon as my hand entered the light.


    [Would you like to obtain the Trait (Mana Sustenance)? This cannot be reversed and is difficult to remove once obtained. Alternatively you can store the Trait within an orb that will last up to 720 hours and can be used by anyone.]


    I obviously wasn¡¯t going to give this to someone else, so I said, ¡°Obtain the Trait please.¡±


    The light went from floating in the air, to flowing into my hand and suffusing throughout my body. Immediately I felt like a new hunger arose from within me, but this hunger was minor and very ignorable. However I felt that I could feed this hunger with my mana, and it even felt like I could use a new muscle to automatically pull mana to feed this new hunger, similar to a new lung. However at the moment this new ¡®lung¡¯ wasn¡¯t doing anything and lay dormant waiting to breathe in my mana to feed my body.


    I decided to experiment with it later, but for now I moved on to obtaining my last reward, the intricate metallic box. As soon as my hands wrapped around the object, I felt my skin tingle and my TechnicMorph senses were whispering into my mind that this was Good, like a good smell or the sensation of something soft on the fingers, and that I should absorb it.


    I wasn¡¯t going to deny my instincts on this matter, and I allowed my hands to liquify and morph to surround the object and send it into my [Body of Artifact]¡¯s ¡®stomach¡¯. The box disappeared and my hands returned to normal while I could feel my body start to ¡®digest¡¯, or maybe a more apt word was ¡®decode¡¯, the artifact within me. Because of the complexity of the artifact I could tell that it would take a while before my body would be able to display the properties of the artifact, but I still had around 15 hours left in this reward room, and the decoding would definitely be done by then.


    In the meantime I had one last thing to do. I opened up my System messages and selected the Personal Talent I had decided to awaken.


    [Collected Potential]: You have collected potential power for so long but never had the opportunity to show it, but now that will no longer be a problem. Over time, and through many means, Potential Points are collected and saved to use later. Potential Points are Omnipotent¡­ with enough of them, but they can currently only be used on yourself or things with a strong enough connection to you. (WARNING: This Talent is very weak at the beginning.)


    The warning was still a bit worrying to me, but I had made my decision and I wasn¡¯t going to change my mind.


    [You have selected to awaken the Personal Talent (Collected Potential). Awakening the talent will render you unconscious for up to 18 hours, and once the process has started it cannot be stopped. Do you wish to proceed with the awakening process?]


    ¡°Yes, I would like to begin the awakening process.¡±


    Just like the first time I had awakened my Personal Talent, I felt something intimately familiar heat up and shake within me. The heat and shaking continued to increase moment by moment, but before it could reach the point of pain my awareness started to fade and I was quickly rendered unconscious.

 Coming Home - Chapter 41

    -Mystdell-


    I stepped off of the teleportation pad and walked into the crowded teleportation hub. As an explorer who had to travel around a lot I was intimately familiar with the hustle in the building. As I made my way through the security procedures to make my way outside, the person going through my documents took one look at the last name on my id and sped up their actions substantially.


    I was used to being treated with respect and reverence by others, and I usually paid little mind to such actions from other people. However, after what had happened a month ago, I had started to notice the preferential treatment I received, and it brought back memories of my little brother Radiant. Although he had the same last name, he was treated the exact opposite of me.


    As I stood there waiting for the person to finish looking through my documents, I recalled the day Radiant¡¯s treatment had changed. It had been 17 years since Radiant had been taken away from the family and locked away with dangerous criminals, and it still pained me to recall.


    Back then I was 15 years old, and our family had gone out to celebrate Radiant¡¯s birthday. We had a wonderful day, and everything should have stayed that way. We went out to eat and did some activities throughout the day, but near the end my Mom and I went home together while my Dad took Radiant to get his government mandated assessment done.


    It was supposed to be just a simple test, and then my Dad and Radiant would meet us back home where we would open up Radiant¡¯s presents to end the day. However, after nearly an hour of waiting, my Dad finally came home, but Radiant wasn¡¯t with him, and he looked distraught and defeated.


    I can still remember the deathly sinking feeling I had after my Dad spoke the words, ¡°Radiant was taken. His assessment labeled him a MAX danger, and he was taken away to be locked in prison. I tried to stop them, but there was nothing I could do.¡±


    After that day, the world I had thought was safe and secure had been shattered to pieces, and there was nothing I could do to fix it. Of course my Mom and Dad had tried everything they could to get Radiant back, but their efforts had only made things worse for them. For their efforts they had been barred from interacting with Radiant, they weren¡¯t even allowed to write to him.


    After that, my trust in the Tallen government had essentially fallen to zero.


    Of course, time had worn away the sharp edges of those memories, but recently those wounds had been opened up again by none other than Radiant himself when he had escaped from prison.


    Though it was at the front of my mind, I didn¡¯t let it distract me from what I was doing. I finished up the security checks and exited the teleportation hub. As I exited the sliding doors, I looked around for transportation. The tall buildings of the city obstructed my view of the horizon, and the smells carried on the wind through the city entered my nose as I located the line of black Autonavs nearby and made my way over.


    Getting into the sleek black vehicle, I entered my destination on the dashboard console before leaning back into the seat as I let the Autonav carry me to my destination, Home.


    Haah, it sure has been a long time since I left. Who knows, if not for those irritating pests I might not have returned for quite a while longer. It¡¯s too bad that it took something like this to get me to come back.


    Over the past month there had been government agents buzzing around me like annoying pixies, and it had annoyed me to the point that I had taken a vacation from my job and made my way back to this city. With my family¡¯s business being what it was, I was coming back to try and get their help to deal with my problem.


    I tried to get these things out of my mind by putting in some earbuds and turning on some music. However the music did little to distract me, and I continued to worry throughout the whole ride back home. Thankfully the Autonav, traveling at speeds that blurred the outside scenery even to my enhanced senses, allowed me to reach my destination in just a few minutes despite the large distance.


    The Autonav stopped, and after paying for the ride, I stepped out to the view of the enchanted wall that surrounded my family¡¯s large estate. However, instead of walking up to the large gate in front of me, I made my way over to the guardhouse off to the side.


    As I entered the building, all of the locked doors unlocked as I made my way towards my destination. However, my walk was stopped as I met the guard that was in charge here. He looked like he had rushed his way over to greet me as soon as he had seen me.


    ¡°Miss Shadow, is there anything I can do for you?¡±


    Despite Tallen¡¯s mostly Human population, this guard captain was a fierce and menacing looking insectoid with large sharp scythes on his many forward facing limbs, and it was no surprise that he had been put in charge because of his intimidating appearance. However, despite this, his attitude towards me was servile and respectful, making for a sharp contrast with his appearance.


    ¡°There¡¯s no need Genrik. I¡¯m going to meet with my parents, but they¡¯re in the basement. So I¡¯m only here for the lift.¡±


    ¡°Ahh, then please proceed my lady.¡± He bowed and got out of my way while gesturing with his scythe-like arms in the direction of the lift.


    There were no further interruptions on my journey through the guardhouse. After reaching a seemingly inconspicuous wall and placing my hand on it, the wall opened up to show a room with the lift that took me down to the basement.


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    It was called the basement, but it had no connection to the main house at all. In fact this was where the most sensitive parts of the family business took place, away from prying eyes and spies within the main house.


    Despite its secretive nature, the hallways and rooms in the basement looked ordinary. As I walked through the hallways, I met a few people who greeted me as I walked past. However I was used to paying these sorts of things no mind, and I made my way into the room my parents were in.


    When I walked into the room, there was only a short pause of silence before I heard an exclamation.


    ¡°Mystdell, you¡¯re back!¡±


    My Mother jumped up from her seat and rushed to embrace me, while my Father made his way over at a more sedate pace to give me a short hug as well.


    ¡°It¡¯s been so long since you¡¯ve visited. We were worried you might never come back.¡± Although my Dad said it in a joking manner, I could tell that he wasn¡¯t entirely joking when he said this.


    I felt a little guilty, because I hadn¡¯t returned just to see them, ¡°It¡¯s good to see you too. Though there is a reason I came back that I couldn¡¯t talk about through the text.¡±


    ¡°Is it something to do with Radiant¡¯s escape from Lonevista? If so, then we¡¯ve already done what we could to find him, but we haven¡¯t gotten anything yet.¡±


    ¡°No, it¡¯s not about Radiant. Although it kind of is, but not about finding him.¡± I replied, ¡°Ever since he¡¯s escaped I¡¯ve had government agents following me around nonstop. I came here to see if you could help me get rid of them so they stop bothering me.¡±


    ¡°Oh, I can understand that.¡± My Mom said with a bit of disappointment in her tone, ¡°But I thought you would be more worried about Radiant.¡±


    ¡°Ah, well, uh.¡± I was caught off guard a little. But I quickly recovered and said, ¡°Right, I forgot that you don¡¯t know.¡± I pulled out a small box from my hand, and I opened it up to reveal a letter. It was Radiant¡¯s letter that I had received from Genesis.


    I handed the letter over to my parents saying, ¡°I received this letter from Radiant a while ago. I was so preoccupied by the agents that I forgot to tell you about it.¡±


    My Dad took the letter and read it out loud for my Mom to hear.


    Dear, Mystdell.


    It¡¯s me, Radiant! I know that it¡¯s been a long time since we¡¯ve last talked to each other, and I know that¡¯s not your fault, with you exploring different places, but I decided that I should let you know about some things before the events that will happen in the near future.


    First off, try not to be too worried about any news you might hear about me. I¡¯ll be completely fine since I¡¯ve been preparing for this since I was a kid. I know that won¡¯t prevent you from worrying about me, but there¡¯s not much I can do about that.


    Second, if anybody comes to you asking about me, just tell them the truth. There¡¯s no need for you to protect me, and nothing you could tell them will make a difference to my plans anyways.


    Third, I¡¯ll try and get in touch with you in person, as soon as I can, after things settle down. It might take a while though, so don¡¯t worry if you don¡¯t get any word from me.


    Lastly, make sure to dispose of this letter in a way that leaves no traces behind. Don¡¯t make any copies or anything either.(I¡¯m saying this because I know you might actually do this, so just don¡¯t. I mean it.)


    I love you and wish you well. Thanks for always believing in me.


    From your favorite brother, Radiant.


    My parents were silent for a moment before my Mom spoke to me, ¡°You¡¯re saying you received this letter from Radiant? But how? There should¡¯ve been no way for him to send something like this to you.¡±


    ¡°Actually, it was delivered to me through Genesis.¡±


    ¡°Genesis? I know that you¡¯re friends with her, but what would she be doing with a letter from Radiant?¡±


    ¡°Well, apparently, Radiant is able to access The Ever Present Archives. And since Genesis also has a pass, she¡¯s been meeting with Radiant ever since they were kids. She told me that Radiant gave this letter to her there.¡±


    The revelation seemed to be a bit much for my parents to process all at once. They remained silent trying to understand, and it was only after a while had passed that my Dad spoke up.


    ¡°You¡¯re saying that Radiant has access to The Archives? Since when? Who gave him a pass? Is there anything else you know about Radiant¡¯s situation?¡±


    ¡°I have no idea. Although I do recall Genesis saying something about the possibility of a god¡¯s blessing? Other than all that, I don¡¯t know much more. As for Radiant¡¯s escape and where he might be right now? I don¡¯t know anything more than this.¡±


    They both looked a bit disappointed at the news, but they probably didn¡¯t expect much in the first place. After all, they hadn¡¯t had any way to help Radiant for the longest time.


    ¡°That¡¯s too bad.¡± My Dad said, ¡°On that note, there isn¡¯t much we can do about the government agents following you around either. I¡¯m sure they¡¯ll give up the direct search for Radiant after another month or so, and they should stop bothering you by then.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s right.¡± My Mom said, ¡°We¡¯ve heard from some of our informants that there¡¯s going to be some big news coming out of Lonevista soon though. From what we can tell, it¡¯s probably about Radiant. There isn¡¯t much we can do if they choose to publicize his escape, but if they do then we¡¯ll definitely be able to pressure the government to give up their surveillance.¡±


    *Sigh* ¡°I guess there isn¡¯t much we can do about it then.¡± I had somewhat expected their responses, but at least I would be able to avoid the observers as long as I was with my family.


    After I got a response to that, my parents and I continued to talk about Radiant before moving on to the family business and our future plans.


    In the past I had always wanted to have talks like this with my parents, and it was great to feel helpful after I was able to get a job as an explorer and get my hands on some ancient artifacts for the family, both legally and illegally. Given our TechnicMorph Ancestry, it was in our instincts to gather artifacts.


    Although me and my family¡¯s methods of gathering artifacts weren''t always the most lawful, I didn¡¯t have much respect for the government after what they had done to Radiant. So, as we talked about our illegal activities, I felt a certain pride rather than the guilt I had once felt.


    However, despite the fact that we were trying to hide it during our talk, I could tell that everyone was thinking about Radiant and what he was doing right now.

 Near Encounter - Chapter 42

    -Radiant-


    My awareness flickered in and out as I felt impressions wash through me like I was remembering how to use a limb that had always been there, unnoticed until now.


    Eventually these flickers of awareness solidified into consciousness. The first thing I noticed was the hard surface against my back, and I opened my eyes to see that I was laying on the rocky ground inside the crevice I had entered to get to the Dungeon of Tribulation.


    Apparently my awakening had taken longer than I had anticipated and I had been sent out of the reward room before I woke up. Unfortunately I had no idea how long I had been unconscious out here. This is bad, potentially really bad. I didn¡¯t even get the chance to activate my new concealment artifact¡¯s effects before I exited.


    I really wanted to try out my new Personal Talent, but taking care of this situation would have to come first. I sat up and placed my back against the wall to get into a meditative pose, then I reached inside myself to feel my Body of Artifacts. Immediately I could feel a new connection to the small box artifact I had stored before I went unconscious, and I mentally willed my Body of Artifacts to mimic the concealment artifact.


    Pain flushed through my entire body as it morphed to embody the box artifact¡¯s properties. The pain was by no means small, but it was bearable considering the high level of the artifact my body was trying to mimic. However if I wasn¡¯t half Human, and was a full TechnicMorph, then there wouldn¡¯t be any pain whatsoever. It was only because my TechnicMorph nature was fighting against my Human anatomy, that I was feeling any pain.


    After nearly 5 minutes of full body pain, my Body of Artifacts finally finished the transformation process leaving me short of breath. Using my Mental Operator¡¯s cloud capabilities I was able to get a clear picture of the changes to my body. Most of the changes were internal, organic magic conducting threads that wove throughout my body forming complex patterns and shapes. These threads were being fed mana from my magic core and, although the mana drain was considerable, it was only 10% as much as the original artifact would¡¯ve required; this was because my Magical Physique and my Metaphysical Physique were working together, forming a perfect synergy.


    The internal threads weren¡¯t the only change though. Just below the surface of my skin there were small magic circles and connecting lines running all over my body. When I went to look at my arm, I could see faint traces of these magic circles and connecting lines, almost like a faint tattoo that wouldn¡¯t be visible unless one were looking very closely.


    This was different from how it would¡¯ve been in my past when my Magical Physique had altered even my surface skin. Back then all of the magic circles and connecting lines would¡¯ve looked like blatant tattoos right on the surface of my skin. The effects would¡¯ve been slightly stronger back then, but I preferred the lack of easy outward identifiers more than I desired the extra power.


    As I was contemplating the changes from my past and current bodily conditions, I had almost completely forgotten about my surroundings. However some faint sounds, coming from outside the crevice I was in, pulled me out of my self inspection. I couldn¡¯t tell exactly what the sounds were coming from, but I could tell that they were getting louder and coming in my direction.


    I quickly cast some magic that would erase my traces from the surroundings before proceeding to cast the familiar concealment spell to hide myself from physical senses. My new artifact¡¯s effects would take care of any magical detection, but physical detection like smells and sounds weren¡¯t included. It wasn¡¯t perfect concealment, but considering that I was in Lonevista, I might as well be undetectable as long as I didn¡¯t cause any large disturbances in my surroundings.


    With my presence now hidden, I walked towards the entrance of the crevice in order to escape if I needed to, and I was also curious to see what exactly was making noise outside.


    When I reached the entrance to the crevice, I expected to see some sort of animal or something. However, what I saw was something I had hoped to not see. Many different Humans were gathered in the small clearing outside the crevice, all of them wore uniforms that clearly displayed that they were people of the Dukedom of Nightwater. There were what looked like 20 to 30 guards centered around an old looking man who seemed to be in deep concentration. None of the people around the old man said anything, and seemed to be waiting for the man to finish whatever he was doing.


    Suddenly the old man opened his eyes and let out a sound of frustration, ¡°Argh! This wretched forest must be to blame!¡±


    One of the guards that looked to be the leader stepped forward and talked to the old man, ¡°Elder Ron, were you unable to find any traces at all?¡±


    *Sigh* ¡°That¡¯s right, Captain.¡± The old man, Ron, started to rub his temples, ¡°After nearly a month of searching with no traces we finally get something, but just when we start to close in on it, all traces suddenly disappear. After reading the letter he left behind, I can¡¯t help but think this is all just another joke he set up to mock us.¡±


    ¡°Well, whatever the case it¡¯s not my duty to speculate.¡± The Captain started to address everyone, ¡°You heard Elder Ron everyone. Magical tracking has stopped. Spread out and search for any physical traces of Radiant Shadow. If you find anything, report back to me. Move out!¡±


    ¡°Yes Sir!¡± All but two guards, the Captain, and Elder Ron started to spread out, looking for traces of me.


    That¡¯s not good. My mind started to race to try and find a way out of this sticky situation. However despite the dire circumstances I couldn¡¯t help a small smirk coming to my lips. Heh, I didn¡¯t plan to mock them like this, but I¡¯m glad you took it that way, Elder Ron.


    I refocused myself and took note of the positions of all the guards in the area, searching for any possible way for me to escape into the forest undiscovered. However, the guards were extremely thorough and well trained in their search, leaving no opening for me to escape on foot and evade detection, despite my concealment.


    Ugh, think, how do I get out of this? Teleportation is always an option, but this squad was obviously sent to track me down, and they would know about my spatial abilities by now. Unless they¡¯re idiots then they definitely have a way to track any traces of teleportation.


    The group hadn¡¯t been far away from my location in the first place, and it wouldn¡¯t be long before the first pair of guards found and investigated the crevice I was in. Considering the size of the crevice, if I stayed in here there was no way for me to avoid bumping into anyone who entered. At this point I had to decide if I would take my chances outside and hope against reason that they wouldn¡¯t notice anything, or stay inside the crevice and certainly be found once they entered it.


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    Even if I backed up all the way inside I would still be found¡­ Wait! I almost forgot that there¡¯s a dungeon entrance at the back of this crevice! I could hide in there!


    Entering an unknown dungeon solo was a dubious proposition, most of the time¡­ ok almost all the time. But considering my alternative options it was looking pretty tempting. The only question is, what kind of dungeon could it be? Its distance from civilization, and the amount of time it''s been around means it¡¯s highly unlikely to be either a god¡¯s dungeon or a temporary dungeon. However there¡¯s no way a dungeon could naturally form within Lonevista either, so if it¡¯s not a god¡¯s dungeon or a temporary dungeon and it¡¯s not a newly formed dungeon, then what is it?


    Now that I thought about it, a dungeon entrance appearing in Lonevista made absolutely no sense. But I was no dungeon expert, so my inability to determine what kind of dungeon it could be wasn¡¯t that big of a surprise. However it meant that going into the dungeon was just as much of a gamble as taking my chances with the guards.


    To dungeon, or not to dungeon? That is the question. However, even if the guards were limited in strength because of Lonevista, their numbers completely negated any chance of fighting or running from them.


    In the end, my decision wasn¡¯t that difficult. I made my way back into the crevice, and once again came to the black rift in space that I had previously used to enter the Dungeon of Tribulation. However, now it would fulfill its original purpose.


    I was about to place my hand onto the rift when a mischievous idea came to me. I hurriedly took out a piece of paper and a pen from inside my Internal World and quickly wrote a short letter that I placed on the ground with a rock to keep it from moving. Sure it was a bit of a waste of time, but it was definitely worth it.


    I made sure it couldn¡¯t be used to find or track me, before touching my hand to the rift and receiving the System message.


    [Enter the dungeon]


    [YES] [NO]


    I didn¡¯t use my voice to answer this time, and instead tapped the yes with my other hand. It was possible to use my mind to answer, but that took a bit of time and wasn¡¯t as fast as answering either vocally or by tapping yes. However, instead of instantly transporting me, another System message appeared.


    [This dungeon entrance will disappear in 673 hours. Do you still want to enter the dungeon?]


    [YES] [NO]


    Hmm, I don¡¯t know if that¡¯s a good thing or a bad thing. In any case, I still need to hide from those Nightwater guards regardless. I didn¡¯t have much of a choice in the matter, so I once again tapped yes, and just like that the rift opened up and allowed me to walk into it.


    -Elder Ron-


    The past few weeks had been extremely boring and sad. I had to live in a prison complex of all places, and to make it worse I had to constantly search for any signs of an escaped prisoner day after day, with no response from my magic.


    If I wasn¡¯t here on an official assignment then I would¡¯ve left a long time ago. However, even with this being an official assignment, it was getting to the point that I was going to ask for someone else to take over the job in just a few more days max.


    However, just when I was starting to think that this Radiant Shadow had disappeared, I suddenly felt waves of his presence not too far from the place I was at. Needless to say, I jumped at the chance to finish this boring assignment, and I rushed into the wilderness of Lonevista.


    The guards of course had no choice but to follow me as I left, and the prison guards had other things to do. So it came as no surprise that the progress through the jungle of Lonevista was much slower than I would¡¯ve liked. By the time we were drawing close to the traces I felt of Radiant Shadow they suddenly disappeared, and not only that, it was like there had been no traces in the first place.


    By this point I had resigned myself to probably having to stay on this assignment for much longer than I had hoped. In my despair one of the guards sent out to search the area had come back with something. He had found a letter. The guard captain and I wasted no time reading the letter in hopes that it might have some clue as to where Radiant Shadow could be. However, we were sorely disappointed.


    Dear pursuers,


    I regret to inform you that you have been completely outclassed by my genius. (That¡¯s a lie, it brings me immense joy to think about the devastated looks on your faces when you receive this letter.) It comes as no surprise that you have failed to find me, and by the time you read this I¡¯ll probably be long gone.


    As you''ve probably seen, there is a dungeon entrance near this letter. Because I feel sorry for those who have taken on the impossible task of finding me, I¡¯ll give you a hint as to where I went. I went into that dungeon entrance near this letter. This is 100% the truth, as I have never lied in my entire life. So please feel free to send any and all pursuers into the dungeon to find me.


    From your superior, Radiant.


    I had read the previous letter Radiant had left behind in the prison, and it hadn¡¯t stirred much emotion in me. However it was an entirely different experience to be the actual target of such a letter. The condescending and mocking tone was basically oozing through the subtext. I had to control myself to not immediately crumple the letter into a ball and throw it on the ground.


    The Captain, who had finished reading the letter with me, voiced what I had been thinking, ¡°This vainglorious brat is just too much.¡± He shook his head and resumed the normal procedures. Turning to the guard that had handed over the letter he said, ¡°Is there anything else to report about this letter? And what about the supposed dungeon entrance that was mentioned?¡±


    ¡°Sir, the letter seemed to have only just been placed there on the ground, but considering how long Radiant has managed to avoid detection, I can''t have much certainty in that statement. As for the dungeon entrance, there was indeed a dungeon entrance near the letter. However¡­¡± The guard seemed to hesitate.


    ¡°However, what? Don¡¯t keep me waiting.¡±


    ¡°Well, we did a few readings at the entrance, and the results were disconcerting. It looks like it¡¯s an outreach portal from a regional dungeon, and not only that, it looks like it¡¯ll be disappearing in about a month''s time.¡±


    When the guard finished his statement, Radiant¡¯s proposition to send everyone chasing after him into the dungeon, took on a whole new depth. I looked at the Captain and said, ¡°I thought that Radiant was just mocking us when he said to send people after him into a dungeon, but if it¡¯s really a portal to a regional dungeon then his words can¡¯t be entirely dismissed.¡±


    The captain nodded, ¡°That¡¯s true, but the fact that it¡¯s disappearing within a month can¡¯t be dismissed either. We can¡¯t be certain that Radiant actually entered this dungeon, or if that¡¯s just a diversion, but we¡¯ll have to send people to investigate both possibilities if we want to be certain. However, that will split our resources, and make the search for Radiant even more costly, and that¡¯s not even the only problem.¡±


    ¡°Regardless, it¡¯s our assignment to look for Radiant. Should we split up and search here and the dungeon, or focus on one or the other?¡±


    ¡°Honestly, this isn¡¯t a decision that we¡¯ll be able to make on our own. We¡¯ll have to report to the higher ups and get the orders from them. But if I¡¯m being honest, the amount of resources necessary to search both locations would probably be more than it''s worth. They¡¯ll probably tell us to forget the dungeon entrance and just continue our search here.¡±


    I sighed at the Captain¡¯s words and said, ¡°I used to think that Radiant was a fool to even think he could evade capture, but if he actually did enter that portal then I¡¯ll have no choice but to respect him, whether that be because of intelligence or luck.¡±


    The Captain didn¡¯t comment on what I said, but he pursed his lips, raised his eyebrow, and nodded as he took out a device to report to the higher ups. But regardless of the decision they made, it didn''t look like I was going to be free from this assignment anytime in the near future.

 First Steps Into The Portal - Chapter 43

    -Radiant-


    After I stepped into the void I felt a weightlessness and a slight forward moving motion come over me. Then suddenly there was a crack in the void that opened up and spit me out in front of a completely different scenery, and the feeling of weightlessness disappeared.


    Taking a quick look around I found myself in a forest environment, standing in a grassy clearing devoid of trees. The trees surrounding the clearing had vibrant orange almost rusted colored leaves, and the grass and flowers covering the ground were dense and full of life. The forest around me was mainly populated by thin aspen-like trees, however these trees were a metallic bronze color and were mostly smooth and vaguely shiny like metal.


    However, as I was observing the forest, something felt wrong about the whole scene, but I couldn¡¯t quite put my finger on it. At first I thought I smelled the metallic scent of blood in the air, but focusing on the smell it wasn¡¯t the smell of blood at all, it was mixed with a hint of woodiness and was probably coming from the metallic trees. I could¡¯ve tried to find out what was wrong if I had more time - with my [Mental Operator] - but I wasn¡¯t in a situation where I could leisurely sit around. Whatever was bothering me, hopefully it wasn''t a big deal.


    [You have entered a regional dungeon through an unstable portal. If you do not exit through the portal you entered before it disappears, then you will be stranded in the regional dungeon. Time remaining until portal disappears: 673 hours]


    I won¡¯t be returned? That¡¯s just fine by me. And a regional dungeon? That/s even more good news! I¡¯m not 100% sure about that, but I''m at least 85% certain. There¡¯s even the possibility that this regional dungeon isn¡¯t even in Tallen, though that wouldn¡¯t necessarily be a good thing.


    If this really was a regional dungeon, then that opened up a whole list of possibilities. Because regional dungeons are areas of land within the same domain with their own separate rules, monsters and environment. In the context of a dungeon floor, a regional dungeon would be separate areas on the same floor. However in this case, the regional dungeon was somewhere in Epidas, though it was probably at least on the Main Continent of Waroth, and almost certainly somewhere within Tallen¡¯s borders. If this regional dungeon was powerful enough to open portals to different countries, then I would be in deep trouble, let alone different Main Continents.


    Which was both a good and a bad thing for me. It was good because it meant that I was in a separate location, far away from Lonevista. However, it was bad because it could be potentially very dangerous for a weakling like me. But I wouldn¡¯t let that get me down, my entire build was based around adaptation after all, if anyone was going to survive in an unplanned hostile environment it was me.


    Finishing my initial observation and evaluation, I turned to look back at the portal I had entered from. You might¡¯ve been my companion for many decades, but I hope I never have to see you again. Hasta la vista, Lonevista.


    I turned away from the portal and jogged in a random direction towards the silent forest treeline. As I got closer to the treeline I started to feel uncomfortable, and I could feel the magical markings underneath my skin start to take more of my mana to run. It was distressing, but thanks to my magical physique I was much more resilient against outside magical effects, so whatever was happening wasn¡¯t an immediate problem.


    As I noticed this effect, I thought that I had figured out what was causing me to feel uncomfortable, but as I entered the forest I was proven wrong. From out of nowhere an animal that was about half my height pounced at me from behind a tree. My mind sensed the threat and made my body dodge out of the way with a pre-programmed response.


    What was that and how did it find me!? I should be completely concealed right now! My mind sped up as I pushed my senses to their limits and tried to measure the level of danger this new threat presented. I could hear the sounds of its deep breaths, and as I flicked my eyes over to the creature I was able to get a glimpse of its, frankly ugly, face. There were no eyes on the lizard-like head, but it had four large nostrils that seemed to be continuously sucking in air from one pair and letting it out through the other.


    Maybe it smelled me somehow? I wouldn¡¯t say it was impossible, my concealment from the physical senses was currently much weaker than my anti-magical concealment, and I was no longer in Lonevista where everything¡¯s Stats were restricted to Tier 9. As I thought that, the creature took another breath and turned its head towards me. Yep, it''s definitely able to smell me. It doesn¡¯t look like it¡¯s a major threat, but I shouldn¡¯t let my guard down just yet.


    My mental processes sped up even more, and I could feel [Mental Operator]¡¯s energy start to slowly tick down as I began to draw out more energy than I was passively gaining. With all of my minds working together I quickly enhanced my physical attributes with mana, and I felt my body¡¯s reactions catch up with my accelerated mind.


    The four nosed lizard wasn¡¯t idle either. As soon as it touched the ground, it took another lunge towards me. I was still fairly close to it and so wasn¡¯t able to see the full body of the creature, but I could tell that it had powerful legs.


    With my enhanced body I was just barely able to dodge the much closer attack from the creature, and I continued to dodge its attacks as I fired up four of the radiation beam spells I had been using recently. They completed in no time, with all of my accelerated minds working together, and I overloaded the spells as much as I could and tried to increase the burning effect of the spell as much as possible.


    As the spells were overloaded with as much mana as I could push into them, I fired them with pinpoint accuracy into all four of the creature¡¯s nostrils, thoroughly burning them and preventing any rapid healing the creature might¡¯ve had.


    With its sense of smell now gone, the creature began to screech and flail around blindly, allowing me to get away from it. I had bought myself some time to think, and hopefully take down the lizard, without getting up close and personal. However, as the smell of burned flesh wafted into my nose, I thought that I should end this battle sooner rather than later, lest the smell draw in more of these super smelling lizards my way.


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    The radiation beams wouldn¡¯t be powerful enough to finish off the four nosed lizard, so I decided to go back to the good old fashioned earth spike. As the lizard continued to randomly attack its surroundings, I used all of my mental resources to complete the spell construct as fast as possible and overload it with mana to be certain it would finish the job.


    As I let the spell loose I still had a faint sense of connection to the spell. With this I could feel the spell rapidly unravel as it traveled through the air towards my target, and by the time the spell landed on the lizard¡¯s chest it had no effect.


    What was that all about? First the lizard is able to sense me, and now my spells are decaying in the air? Just what is going on here? I thought about doing some experiments to get down to the bottom of it, but I was currently in the process of trying to get as far away from the portal as possible. I didn¡¯t have the time to mess around.


    I was about to turn away from the lizard and run deeper into the forest, when I saw something rush towards the lizard and take it down with a swift strike to the neck. Holy Jilly what is going on!? The new attacker was almost the size of a small car, and looked like the cross between a wolf and a tiger except with two pairs of feline ears. Do all animals in this place have twice as many of one sensory organ or something?


    The lizard stood no chance against the new massive challenger, and quickly succumbed to its fate. However the wolf-tiger didn¡¯t immediately chow down on its quarry, it looked alert with its four ears turning every which way, searching for something. Hopefully it won''t find me.


    Not wanting to have anything to do with this new foe, I checked my concealment magic to make sure I wouldn¡¯t be found. It was just a nervous glance at first, but I was surprised by what I saw. My concealment magic was unraveling at a rapid pace just like my earth spike spell had, and unless I did something I wasn¡¯t going to remain concealed for much longer.


    Desperate to avoid any more hold ups and fights, I spun up and cast a new concealment spell faster than ever. With my presence safely hidden once again, I started to back away from the wolf-tiger that still seemed on edge for some reason.


    With my attention so focused on the threat in front of me, it was no surprise that I kicked a small branch as I was backing up. It made no noise when I kicked it, but as it rolled away it went out of range of my concealment spell and made the faintest of sound as it disturbed the grass. All of the wolf-tiger¡¯s ears swiveled in my direction, and my heart nearly stopped as I froze in place, not daring to move.


    Dang it Radiant, you couldn¡¯t have spared even a little attention to where you were walking?


    Maybe I had triggered a flag, or maybe the universe was feeling a little ironic. In any case, the wolf-tiger failed to react to the massive figure that fell from the sky and crushed the wolf-tiger under massive claws, as the animal had been so focused on the sound I had just made.


    The ground shook under the new arrival¡¯s massive weight, but I was able to keep my footing as I observed and calculated my chances of escape. The large claws that had crushed the wolf-tiger connected to vibrant colorful wings, and the wings belonged to a creature I could only describe as a Quetzalcoatl.


    The long serpentine creature had two pairs of multicolored feathered wings, with its front pair of wings functioning similar to arms, and its head had a colorful display fanning out behind it. Its green, red, and yellow body had diamond patterns on its scales, and its length from tail to head must¡¯ve been at least 20 meters if not more, and its body was almost as thick as a semi trailer container.


    The creature wasted no time swallowing everything whole before casually glancing around to see if there was any more food nearby. Thankfully it didn¡¯t check too hard, and moved into the nearby clearing after only a couple minutes. Then it took off into the sky with more grace than seemed possible for a creature of its size.


    I didn¡¯t wait around to see if any more creatures wanted to check out the area. I ran with slightly shaking legs into the forest, and constantly refreshed my decaying concealment magic as I looked for a place to hide.


    Does the world hate me or something!? At this point I think there¡¯s some kind of cosmic joke being played on me that I don¡¯t know about. I mean, I¡¯m ambushed almost as soon as I come through the portal, then when I¡¯m almost finished dealing with that a larger predator shows up and almost finds me. If that wasn¡¯t enough then a Quetzalcoatl falls from the sky! Is this place some sort of Radiant hunting grounds or something¡­?


    Wait a minute. There¡¯s a portal that connects to a place like Lonevista that has weak animals, and I¡¯m ambushed as soon as I exit it¡­ This is totally a feeding ground! Argh, why me!?


    As I bemoaned my cursed luck, eventually I came across a small cliff as I was running through the metallic forest. The cliff was maybe 10 meters in height, and I liberally used magic to make a small entrance in the cliff face and hollowed out a place for me to hide.


    I crawled inside the entrance and covered it with a rock, before laying my tired almost mana depleted body on the floor of the tiny cave. As I was running through the forest I noticed that the new changes to my body - caused by the concealment relic - were still not used to physical exertion, and all of the wires running throughout my body were now sore from overexertion.


    When it rains it pours huh? I doubt I¡¯ll be able to move around much for another day or so, but even if I could I wouldn¡¯t want to. I have no clue how big this magic unraveling forest is, and there¡¯s no guarantee that I would make it out before my mana runs out. If that happened then it would probably only be a matter of time before something like that Quetzalcoatl finds and kills me.


    I sighed as I bemoaned my fate of running and hiding from the extremely powerful. Why couldn¡¯t I just enjoy a comfortable life in the city? Haaah¡­ oh well, it is what it is, and that¡¯s all that it is. Might as well spend my time trying to come up with a solution rather than complaining.


    It would take some time to find out where exactly I was and how to escape from here, since my scrying magic was rendered useless within this magic unraveling forest, but I would still be able to search through The Archives and hopefully find out there. Hopefully this forest wouldn¡¯t be too large, but knowing my luck it was probably ginormous. It would probably be a while before I would be able to return to civilization. Hopefully Mystdell wouldn¡¯t be mad that I wouldn¡¯t be seeing her in the near future, but I would try to mollify her anger when I sent a message to her through Genesis.


    On the bright side, I would be able to advance my stats for the first time in a while. Me being stranded here wasn¡¯t what I had planned, but maybe a training montage was just what the doctor ordered. The desire to increase my personal power was starting to burn within me, and it wasn¡¯t like I had anything else to do. Plus I had so many new things to familiarize myself with. My rewards from the Dungeon of Tribulation weren''t going to learn themselves.

 Personal Talent - Chapter 44

    I was a bit frazzled about what I should do first in my tiny cave. I had made a lot of gains in the Dungeon of Tribulation, and I wasn¡¯t sure where I should start my consolidation of strength. It wasn¡¯t a stretch to say that I had made off like a bandit with the kind of gains I had made, but, just like gems, they were only sparkly rocks unless you polished them.


    After a bit of internal debate I decided to start off with the biggest gem, my Personal Talent. I was eager to know everything about my newfound Talent, since a Tier 9 Talent was on par with things like Dragons in terms of strength and growth potential. Although it was an unfortunate set of circumstances that led to me being able to obtain this Tier 9 Talent, it was mine now, and I didn¡¯t want to waste it.


    So, while sitting in the small dark cave, I closed my eyes and focused inward in the same exercise I had taught Genesis all those years ago. My mana core, as always, appeared in my mind¡¯s eye, but something else was now present alongside it. It felt similar to how my Personal Talent in the past had felt, at least on the surface, but at the same time I could tell that it was completely different in function.


    As I focused more deeply on my new Personal Talent, I began to get feelings and impressions that soon crystalized into a basic understanding of my new Talent. As I understood, I was also confused, because the Talent was much simpler than the one I had in the past.


    My Personal Talent in the past, [Globetrotting Gatherer], had had multiple facets to it, and each piece had been a pain to learn and master. But this new Talent [Collected Potential] only had two major parts to it.


    The first part was spending collected potential. This required me to specify something to connect to and create a mark/link to it by spending some of my collected potential. After a successful link was formed, then I would be able to modify/alter whatever it was, however I desired, if I had enough points to accomplish the modifications.


    The second part of my Personal Talent was collecting the potential. Collecting potential wasn¡¯t easy, definitely not as easy as spending it was. The simplest way to describe it was that there were both active and passive ways of gaining potential.


    The passive way was very understandable, I could set my Talent to automatically take a percentage of different ¡®increases¡¯ I gained and turn them into potential.


    The active way of gaining potential was a bit more complicated, though not overly so. I could gain potential if I sacrifice things I had connected to, and gain potential from that. Although it was limited to things I had marked/linked to, which limited what I could sacrifice greatly, since it wasn¡¯t like I could go around marking everything in a museum and sacrificing it. Because the amount of time it took to mark/link to something was based off of my already existing link to it. For example I could link to my Skills easily, but it would take a considerable amount of time to link to a random rock that I came across.


    It all seems pretty self explanatory. However there are a lot of things that aren¡¯t specified, like what happens if I sacrifice something I¡¯ve already spent potential on, or if it¡¯s possible to not completely sacrifice something. I guess these are things I¡¯ll have to find out on my own.


    Currently I have 30 points available to spend. It didn¡¯t seem like much, but I had no frame of reference, so I would have to try and do something with the points to see how rich or poor I currently was. So I decided to modify what I had planned to modify already.


    Following the first step of my Talent, I created a link with my Skill [Selective Transformation]. As the link was formed, 1 point was taken from my total. I wasn¡¯t sure if creating a link would always cost one point, but I would find out soon. For now I focused my attention back on what I was doing. After the link was formed I gained a feeling that I could specify any changes I wanted to make.


    To start off I started small. I specified that I wanted the outward appearance transformation to last for a few hours after I wasn¡¯t using the Skill anymore. When I did this I got a System response along with an understanding from my Talent.


    [This change will cost 8 points.]


    Only 8 points huh? Pretty cheap, but let''s try doing a bigger change.


    I discarded the previous change and didn¡¯t spend any points. Then I tried again, this time trying to make only the Skill¡¯s appearance altering effects permanent even after the Skill was no longer in use. Again I got both a System message along with an understanding from my Talent.


    [This change will cost 194 points.]


    194 points just for that!? I don¡¯t know if I should be grateful or upset. It¡¯s good that making what the Skill does permanent isn¡¯t insanely expensive (I think), but at the same time there are still some other things I need to change before the Skill is what I need it to be.


    I discarded the change once again, and continued to change various things to try and gauge what different changes cost. After trying out various changes, I was able to discern a few things.


    The first thing I learned was that [Selective Transformation] was more powerful than I gave it credit for. Although [Selective Transformation] would currently only hold its effects while the Skill was in use, the things it was able to do while it was in use were more powerful than what I had been using the Skill for up to this point. However, most of the things [Selective Transformation] could do weren¡¯t going to be necessary for me in the future, and what would be necessary could be accomplished through other means, like medicine or artifacts once I reached civilization. This was good news, because it meant that I had a strong base to work from when modifying the Skill.


    From this I was able to determine that it was much easier for my Talent to change existing things than it was to add things. For example, [Selective Transformation] could resist or enhance any transformation that might happen to me, and it cost very little to change those capabilities of the Skill. However, when I tried to make the effects permanent, the Skill was no longer just resisting or enhancing things, it was picking and choosing what would be permanent or null and void, which might as well be a Power at that point.


    Needless to say, changing things was fine within a limit, but once I went outside of that limit the cost would exponentially increase. With this, I used what I learned and tried to change [Selective Transformation] into what I needed. And after meticulously crafting the changes in my head, I directed the changes towards my Talent, bringing up a System message.


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    [This change will cost 226 points.]


    Hmm, not bad. Considering what I know about the world, this isn¡¯t too large of a price to pay for a Skill like this.


    If I went through with the changes, the Skill would basically become the perfect disguise Skill. I would be sacrificing the Skill¡¯s ability to react to all transformations, but in return it would gain the ability to actively transform my physical body and make permanent transformations there. In addition, the changes the Skill made wouldn¡¯t be detectable and would appear to have always been that way.


    I wouldn¡¯t be immediately making these changes to the Skill (since I didn¡¯t have enough points for it), but considering the fact that I wouldn¡¯t be able to set foot in civilization without something like this, the price was practically set in stone at this point. Unless something else came along before I was ready to escape from this place, I was going to have to act as if I was already down 226 points, bringing my total down to -197 points.


    With this in mind, I was going to have to find a way to earn more points. The first thing I wanted to test out was sacrificing, so I used 1 point to start a link to one of the artifacts I had found in the Dragon¡¯s hoard that I wouldn¡¯t mind losing.


    However, when I tried to connect to the simple artifact, I could feel that it would take at least a few days for the connection to be formed. Thinking that this was just a peculiar aspect with this particular artifact, I tried to do the same thing with a different artifact. However, just like before, the connection would take days before it was ready to be sacrificed.


    Oh well, I guess this means I can take my time and learn all I can about how my Talent works while I wait for the connections to form. The next thing I want to try is what kind of things I can link to and modify. The System description was pretty vague on that part, so I wonder if I can connect to only certain things.


    The first thing I wanted to make a link to was my new concealment artifact. When I went to make the connection I felt resistance, and I failed to make a connection immediately. I could tell that it wasn¡¯t because I would never be able to do so, but I felt that it was just ¡®too soon¡¯ to make a connection. Seeing as how this artifact wasn¡¯t any different from the earlier ones, I could tell that time with something was one of the factors that determined if I could link to it or not.


    Well I feel that I¡¯ll be able to link to it fairly soon, maybe it would take an hour or two, or maybe even up to a few weeks. It¡¯s a little unfortunate, but I can be patient if I want to. Now I know that I can link to objects as well as Skills; I wonder what other things I can link to?


    Feeling a bit adventurous, I tried to think of what would be the most powerful thing I could link to at the moment. Maybe my Internal World? [Mental Operator]?  What about the System? They all sounded crazy if they were possible, but there was something that would be more impressive than even those. What if I could connect to [Collected Potential] itself? It sounds crazy, but if it¡¯s possible¡­


    I didn¡¯t waste any more time thinking about it, and immediately tried to make a link to my Personal Talent. However the link would take an impractical amount of time to connect, and I almost deflated with disappointment. But, similar to the artifacts, I received the impression that it was just too soon, not that it was impossible.


    My mind almost ground to a halt before speeding up like a lightning bolt. Holy Jilly this is too good to be true! My mind filled up with all sorts of possibilities, and I sat there in a daze, daydreaming for almost an hour before my excitement calmed down enough for me to think clearly.


    It¡¯s too soon to celebrate Radiant, the link isn¡¯t really possible right now. Maybe in the future, yes, but I can tell that it will take a lot longer than the artifacts, around 200 to 400 days before it¡¯s even marginally reasonable? Something like that. It¡¯s frustrating not knowing the exact amount of time, but I would be willing to wait years, decades even, to have such an opportunity, let alone 200 days. But I guess for now I have other things I can do.


    With that revelation, I wasn¡¯t in the mood to continue to experiment with my Talent at the moment. I needed to focus on something else for a while to stamp down my growing expectations and imagination. I was still incredibly weak, and I couldn¡¯t afford to waste time daydreaming, when there were things I could be doing that would increase my strength.


    Which led to my next order of business, linking my Internal World to my new spatial storage bag.


    Making a small light float in front of me, I reached into my pocket and pulled out the small black spatial storage bag that might as well be called a coin purse. It was pretty pathetic for a spatial storage item. It didn¡¯t have a very large internal space, it didn¡¯t reduce the weight of things inside of it, and it could only store things that fit through its opening. But all of that didn¡¯t matter, because what I got this bag for was to conceal my Internal World. And for that reason, most of the points I had spent on this bag had gone into making it so only I could take things in and out of it.


    Because of this property of the bag, there was a magical connection between the bag and myself. This connection was what I would be hijacking in order to make my Internal World accessible through the bag. It wouldn¡¯t be easy, or even possible, for other people, but this was right up my alley of expertise: Magical artifacts, Spatial magic, and the soul.


    Compared to what I had had to do in order to come back in time, this would be easy. Focusing on the link between my soul shell and the bag, I started to fill the link with my mana, and slowly started to soften the link with a very complicated process that had to account for all the minor changes to both ends of the link during the process, otherwise either end of the link might ¡®unplug¡¯ and sever the connection.


    It took a couple hours, but eventually the tether between the bag and my soul shell was soft enough for me to work with. Taking the softened link in my mental hands, I pinched the middle of the tether and made an offshoot link that I connected to my Internal World. It sounds easier than it was, but because my Internal World was inside of my body I was able to easily locate its position within the strange conceptual space that the soul tether existed in.


    With the connection complete I was able to relax my mind from the mentally strenuous task. Taking the black bag in one hand I used my other hand to reach into the bag. When my hand passed through the mouth of the bag I felt the connection to both the bag and my Internal World, and I knew that with just a thought I would be able to reach into either one.


    Wanting to test it out, I pulled at the connection with my Internal World, and my hand suddenly felt the chill of frozen air. Since I hadn¡¯t specified where to connect to, I had reached into the largest space in my Internal World, and my hand had come out near the ice spire that had been steadily growing within it since I had put it there. I could even see the clear ice through the small mouth of the black bag. Taking my hand out of the bag, the scene inside switched back to the empty space within the bag.


    I was happy, and smiled at my success. This might not make me any stronger in combat, but it would drastically increase my safety in other ways. Now I wouldn¡¯t have to worry about others finding out about my Internal World. It was a bit narcissistic of me, but I couldn¡¯t help but imagine the scenario where I pulled something out of thin air while I thought no one was watching only to end up displaying my awesome capabilities to the wrong person, then I would be taken away and exploited for my talents once again.


    I shuddered at the thought. I didn¡¯t want to ever again be treated like a slave. Sure I might¡¯ve been a rich slave with many freedoms, but I was still a slave. Never again. I will be free this time, no matter what it takes.

 Rank 1 - Chapter 45

    It has been 3 days, and I have spent my time bringing all of my Stats up to Tier 10. Bringing so many stats up a Tier in that amount of time sounded much more impressive than it actually was though. My Stats had been stuck at the peak of Tier 9 for a long time, because of my [Ornate Chains of Talent] Trait, but after acquiring my Talent my Stats could once again increase beyond Tier 9. However it would take years to increase all of my Stats by one more tier, which meant that all of my Stats were as high as they would be for the foreseeable future. And that meant it was time to Rank up.


    Ranking up was actually very easy to do once all the requirements were met. All I had to do was open up my Status and a simple [Rank up] message glowed softly off to the side of my Status page.


    Previously I had ignored the message, since I wasn¡¯t ready to Rank up, but now I focused on the message with the intent to open it. Immediately another System screen appeared in front of me.


    The requirements to Rank up are as follows:


    - Increase the Tier of at least 1 Stat since the last Rank up. (Complete)


    - Have at least 1 Stat at the same Tier as the Rank going to be advanced to. (Complete)


    - Undergo at least 1 Tribulation since the last Rank up. (Complete)


    Congratulations! You have met all of the requirements and can now Rank up.


    After Ranking up, the following will happen:


    - All of the lowest Stats in a group will increase by 1 Tier. (Stats increased this way will not advance again this way for the next 2 Rank ups.)


    - All Stats of a Tier lower than 10% of the current Rank will increase by 1 Tier.


    - Stat growth curve will be reset.


    - The focus of the previous Rank will advance by 1.


    - A new focus can be chosen. (Cannot choose the same focus as the previous Rank.)


    [Be warned that Ranking up will render you unconscious and immobile as your Stats rapidly increase. The time this takes varies depending on the amount of Stats increasing.]


    [Proceed with the Rank up? Yes/No (Choosing No will only take you out of this screen. You can come back to this screen at any time.)]


    I had definitely achieved all the specified requirements many times over at this point, and it was time for me to Rank up. Without further adieu I selected Yes.


    [Affirmative. Now Ranking up.]


    My consciousness rapidly faded away, and my body relaxed into a deep sleep.


    -Peirama-


    I hate to admit it, but back when I was just a kid, barely 20 years separated from the Mother Tree, I had been overwhelmed by the complexity of the System and all of the different paths one could take. There were Levels, Tiers, Ranks, Titles, Skills, Powers, Magic, The Metaphysical, Evolutions, Paths, and so much more.


    All of it almost paralyzed me, making me afraid that I wasn¡¯t taking the most optimized path. What if I made a bad choice that had serious consequences in the future? What if I was missing some crucial step that, if not taken, would cripple my future growth? What if I was ignorant of something extremely crucial right in front of me? All these questions and more were rattling around in my little head without any answers.


    It wasn¡¯t until much later in my life, after much research and experience, that I came to understand the answer to my questions. There was no singular best path, and the only thing that truly mattered in the end, was progress.


    However just because there wasn¡¯t one singular right path didn¡¯t mean that all paths were equal. I remember back to when I had entered a Human city for the first time. I¡¯m blush to admit, but being the rash 80 year old that I was, I had boldly proclaimed my own views on the System within the halls of the library I visited. My bold proclamations drew the attention of a passing scholar, and my horizons were expanded that day.


    The Human Scholar introduced to me that my views on the System weren¡¯t the only way to think about things. In fact there were many different schools of thought on what should and shouldn¡¯t be done. One very prominent example of this was the debate of when to Rank up.


    In many Human societies it was taught that Ranking up after Tiering up 3 times was the most optimal. However, in other places, it was taught that Ranking up as soon as possible was the most efficient path. And yet in other places still, it was obvious to them that Ranking up shouldn¡¯t be done until after 6 or even 9 Tier ups had been made.


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    In all these different schools of thought, which one was right? My young mind had always wanted to find out the answer to these kinds of questions.


    In the end I have come to the conclusion that it depends on what the end goal is and who was asking.


    For those that wanted to increase in base power as fast as possible, Ranking up as soon as possible was the way to go. However, although this path resulted in great power, it lacked a strong Stat foundation that could severely limit an individual¡¯s ease of advancement.


    On the other hand, the more one advanced in Tiers before Ranking up, the slower their rise in power would be. But in exchange this would result in a firm foundation of Stats and ease of future advancements.


    However it¡¯s not like everyone has the time to waste raising stats in a slow and steady fashion. In the case of Humans that live to about 100-160 years old, they usually Tier up 3 times before Ranking up. For some of the shorter-lived Demon species or individuals like the lower caste Ar¨¢chni that live less than 50 years, they tend to Rank up as fast as possible.


    It¡¯s only for some of the longer lived races like the Aeth, Elves, Celestials, and the higher caste Ar¨¢chni, that live for 300-1000 years, that take their time Tiering up their Stats before Ranking up. But even for the longest lived races like my High Elf self, all agreed that Tiering up more than 9 times really isn¡¯t worth it unless you¡¯re immortal.


    And that¡¯s just one of the debates that are almost always ongoing amongst various scholars and students of the System. There¡¯s no need to mention all of the other disparate categories and schools of thought that fill the world. In the end the System is too multifaceted and complex to only have one right way to do things. Just like how there are many different creatures that occupy a thriving biome, there are many different valid ways to develop in regards to the System.


    - An excerpt from Peirama the Outcast¡¯s Study of the System


    -Radiant-


    I woke up feeling refreshed in a way that was only possible after a Rank up. My body and mind were strong and clear, my mana cells and mana nebula were energetic and fresh. Everything felt like it was in perfect condition.


    As I was enjoying my newly revived being, a System message appeared.


    [Rank up successful. Please choose your new focus.]


    [Ancestry: (Human; Evolutions: 0) (TechnicMorph; Evolutions: 0)]


    [Unique Talent: (Collected Potential)]


    [Magic Core: (Color: None) (Characteristic: Mana Cell Enhancement: +4)]


    [Metaphysical Organs: (Core) (Adaptive Mind) (Fractured Space Channel)]


    [Metaphysical Physique: (Body of Artifacts)]


    [Magical Physique: (Selective Mana Superconductor)]


    [Traits: (Unshackled Ornate Talent) (Enchanting Aptitude) (Mana Sustenance)]


    My (Characteristic: Mana Cell Enhancement) wasn¡¯t selectable because it had been the focus of my previous Rank, hence the +4. But other than that, I still hadn¡¯t narrowed down what I wanted this Rank¡¯s focus to be.


    I had obviously spent time thinking about this decision previously, but the new additions to the list weren¡¯t present back then. Mainly my Personal Talent and new Trait (Mana Sustenance).


    I mean, I¡¯m really tempted to choose my Personal Talent, but at the same time I can already improve that in a more focused and precise way through the Talent itself, so maybe I should hold off on that for now. I can always choose to focus on the next rank anyways.


    As for (Mana Sustenance), it¡¯s pretty inefficient at the moment, but with a few enhancements it¡¯ll be a great supplement to my build. The real question is, is it the best thing to focus on right now? And I¡¯m pretty sure the answer to that is¡­ maybe.


    I mean, if I can¡¯t get out of this insanely perilous part of the forest, I might not be able to get new food for quite a while. If I focus on (Mana Sustenance) then I could stretch out my food supplies in case I¡¯m stuck here. But I¡¯m fairly certain that I can improve enough to get out of here before food becomes a problem. I mean, there¡¯s still a lot of frozen food in my Internal World.


    My biggest issue is that this place seems to degrade magic, and I don¡¯t have enough mana to keep refreshing my concealment spells for long. But if worse comes to worse I can always use some of my saved up mana crystals to get me through the forest. So I think I¡¯ll focus on something else instead of (Mana Sustenance), even though I really like the idea of not having to eat to live.


    With the two new options now off the table, I fell back on what I had decided during previous brainstorming sessions. The best candidate for my next focus was, no doubt, my Magical Physique (Selective Mana Superconductor).


    With all of my Stats now at Tier 11 after my Rank up, I only needed to get 1 Stat up to Rank 12 before I got a bonus to whatever I focused on, since a bonus came every 3 Tiers.


    With the bonuses I already had to my (Mana Cell Enhancement), I had 1000% more mana and mana regen in my mana cells, which meant that I could reach the next Tier in just over a month if I focused entirely on raising my mana Cell¡¯s Stats, since the Stat growth curve had now been reset.


    If I could get a bonus to my (Selective Mana Superconductor) it was only a matter of time before I made it out of this forest. So I nodded my head to reassure myself, and I selected what I wanted to focus on.


    [Magical Physique: (Selective Mana Superconductor) has been selected as your focus.]


    I guess all that¡¯s left is to split my mana cells. It¡¯ll be boring, but I would rather not die in this forest. At least I can do it subconsciously now after all these years.

 Talk and Clarify - Chapter 46

    It¡¯s been a little over a month since I made this little cave for myself to hide in, and I¡¯ve been able to reign in my growing boredom quite well over this time, due to being in an unfamiliar hostile environment. However, even after all of my years of experience resisting boredom, I haven¡¯t ever fully overcome the problem of boredom. Which was why today I had decided to enter The Archives and do something productive.


    I had put it off until now since it would leave my body somewhat vulnerable, but I figured that if nothing had happened to me thus far -after a month hiding in this cave- then it would be fine for me to visit The Archives for a while and get some much needed information.


    And so, here I was, within the grand hall of The Archives taking in the magnificent celestial view above me. As always I entered with a new outfit along with a red eye covering that hid my facial features. The eye covering was even more important now, because I wasn¡¯t sure if my prison escape had been publicized or not, and since I hadn¡¯t yet changed my Skill to allow me to permanently change my appearance, I still had to hide my identity.


    Today I came here to look for the answer to the question of where I had ended up after coming through that portal, and maybe find Genesis and have a chat while I was at it. It had been a little over two months since I had last talked to her, and I hoped she might be able to help me with my question.


    Looking around the grand hall, I tried to find one of Genesis¡¯ clones that were usually roaming around gathering information. It wasn¡¯t long before I spotted one of them talking to a man in a yellow robe, which meant that he had at least a level 3 pass (I¡¯m not jealous). I didn¡¯t want to interfere in her conversation with someone so important, so I casually wandered over and stood within her line of sight while waiting for her to finish her conversation.


    She didn¡¯t look like she would be done any time soon, so I got a tablet and tried to search through The Archives to find what I had come here for. However it wasn¡¯t easy to narrow down the information I was looking through, due to the nature of my search.


    I wanted to find out where I currently was, and I didn¡¯t have much information to go off of. All I really knew was that there was a forest of metallic trees that made my magic decay; plus the info of some of the creatures I had encountered in the forest, along with the fact that I was in a regional dungeon. With such little information I was only able to narrow down the possible locations I could be at to less than 1,000. That went to show just how large the major continent of Waroth was, since that was where I assumed the regional dungeon was.


    As I was somewhat frustrated in my search, I failed to detect the person sneaking up behind me. Suddenly a hand grabbed my shoulder and made me jump a little. I heard a little giggle from behind me and turned my head to find another Genesis that had snuck up behind me.


    The Genesis that was talking to the man in the yellow robe was still conversing and must¡¯ve informed this Genesis and came to find me. I lowered my tablet and said, ¡°Hi Genesis. Long time no see.¡± I turned my body to face her, ¡°What¡¯s got a nice girl like you going around scaring people? Someone must¡¯ve given you a hard time, just tell me where they¡¯re at and I¡¯ll take care of it.¡±


    Her smile didn¡¯t falter as she shook her head and responded, ¡°Hello Radiant. It¡¯s funny you should say that, as I¡¯m pretty sure he¡¯s standing right in front of me.¡±


    ¡°What?¡± I turned, looking over at the Genesis that was talking to the man in a yellow robe, ¡°What is that man doing to you? Why, I oughta go over there and teach him a lesson.¡±


    Genesis couldn¡¯t help but laugh, ¡°Oh stop it, you know who I¡¯m talking about. I¡¯ve been worried about you for over two months now.¡±


    I waved my hand in the air, ¡°You worry too much Genesis. Though I do have to say that maybe your worry isn¡¯t misplaced this time.¡±


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    She raised her eyebrows in question, ¡°What do you mean, did something bad happen?¡±


    I shook my head, ¡°Well I¡¯m not currently in danger or anything, but I do find myself in a bit of a tricky situation.¡± I held my chin in my left hand, ¡°I guess you could say that my path forward just isn¡¯t so clear at the moment?¡±


    ¡°Oh? I always thought you knew exactly what to do in every situation.¡±


    ¡°No, no I just like to be prepared for things I know about, but there¡¯s not much I can do to prepare for an unexpected situation, now is there?¡± I nodded my head and let my hand fall from my chin, ¡°In any case, I went through a dungeon portal about a month ago and found myself in a dangerous location, and I find myself with no idea where I¡¯m at. I was actually hoping that you might be able to help me in this regard.¡±


    ¡°You need me to tell you where you¡¯re at? If you went into a dungeon portal then wouldn¡¯t you be in a dungeon?¡± She made an isn¡¯t that obvious? face.


    ¡°Well yes, but actually no. It¡¯s a regional dungeon, so I assume that I¡¯m still somewhere in Waroth. I tried looking for it myself just now, but there are too many places that fit the description I put in.¡±


    ¡°Hmm, I don¡¯t know about all of Waroth, but I might be able to help you out if it¡¯s somewhere in Tallen. Why don¡¯t you describe it for me?¡±


    ¡°Sure.¡±


    I started to describe the forest I was in, and all of the things I had observed so far. When I got done explaining everything, Genesis quietly took it all in and became silent as she thought. Then, after a few minutes, she started nodding to herself and said, ¡°Actually, there is one place that I can think of in Tallen that has something similar to what you described.¡±


    ¡°Really?¡±


    ¡°Yeah, but I¡¯m not certain that it¡¯s where you''re at. There just isn¡¯t enough information.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s better than what I¡¯ve been able to find out at least. So what did you have in mind?¡±


    ¡°Well, there¡¯s a prominent city in the South-West of Tallen with three dungeons near it, called Tri-Heart City, and one of the dungeons near it is a regional dungeon that I think has something similar to what you¡¯ve described.¡± She paused for a second as her eyes moved absently in thought, ¡°However I think that the negative conditions in that regional dungeon are much harsher than what you¡¯ve described. The forest there is supposed to make magic basically impossible to sustain since the network of trees works together to disrupt magic. In fact I¡¯m pretty sure the wood is a pretty valuable resource. Maybe the forest¡¯s effects are weaker during this season or something?¡±


    ¡°Hmm¡­ it¡¯s possible. Since The Darkest Day was a couple months ago, it would still be in the low season right about now.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, but not for long. The Rising Dawn is only a few days away, which means it won¡¯t be long before everything starts to grow again. That is, if that¡¯s actually what¡¯s happening.¡± She revealed a bit of a worried expression, ¡°If that¡¯s really the location you¡¯re in, then it would be best if you got out of there as soon as possible.¡±


    ¡°Well I wasn¡¯t planning on staying for much longer anyways. I was mostly trying to find out where I was so that I would know which direction to travel to get to civilization.¡±


    ¡°Oh. Then I think I remember the regional dungeon being towards the South of Tri-Heart City, but you would have to look it up to know for sure.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ll look into it then, but it sounds like it¡¯s a perfect match so far. Thanks for the help Genesis.¡±


    ¡°Hey, it¡¯s no big deal. What are friends for?¡± She smiled at the thanks despite what she said, ¡°I¡¯m sorry to say this, but I have some other business to attend to right now, so I¡¯ll have to catch up with your adventures later, Radiant.¡±


    ¡°Oh, yeah, no problem. See you later, Genesis.¡±


    I was already pulling up searches on Tri-Heart City as I spoke. If what we had talked about was true, then I would have to get out of this forest as soon as possible, before it became impossible.


    -Break-


    After a few hours of research, I was almost certain of the fact that I was in a place called the Bronze Heart Dungeon, and just like Genesis had said, this dungeon was located to the South of Tri-Heart City. I would have to wait for night time before I could check the stars and see if they matched up with the star charts of Tri-Heart City, but that would be more of a confirmation than anything. If this forest didn¡¯t make my magic disappear then I would have other, simpler, ways to determine my location, but as it stood I would have to rely on celestial navigation methods. So, after my mana cell Stats reached Tier 12 and I got my focus bonus, I figured I would be setting off North.

 The Beginning and the End - Chapter 47

    My talk with Genesis had been more helpful than I had anticipated. Despite the fact that I had lived free in this world for over 100 years, there were still a few things that were unintuitive to me, one of them being the seasons.


    Unlike the Earth, Epidas was flat, which meant that the daily, monthly and yearly cycles functioned differently. For the most part it wasn¡¯t too hard to understand, there were the 4 major seasons Low, Rising, High, and Falling, with 12 different months in a year just like Earth. (Of course this wasn¡¯t the case everywhere in Epidas, but there was no need to consider the edge cases. At least in Waroth this was how it worked.)


    However, unlike Earth, the High and Low seasons didn¡¯t necessarily mean hot and cold, and the forest I¡¯m currently in displayed that with its magic withering effects. Currently the effect wasn¡¯t too bad, but it seemed that would soon change with The Rising Dawn when the Low season changed to the Rising season.


    I mean, ¡®technically¡¯ The Darkest Day is the lowest point, and everything slowly starts to rise from there, but it¡¯s slow and minimal, and The Rising Dawn marks when things really start to change. But that doesn¡¯t matter right now, what does matter is the fact that I can¡¯t dilly dally with my escape. I need to get out of this forest as soon as possible after I get my Rank bonus.


    Thankfully it wouldn¡¯t be long before all of my Mana Cells Stats reached Tier 12, since I had been tirelessly ¡®exercising¡¯ my Mana Cells over the past month. Just like how muscles required exercise to get stronger, I was doing something similar with my Mana Cells, but, instead of exercise, it was referred to as Splitting Mana Cells.


    Just like exercising muscles, Splitting Mana Cells was somewhat painful. However it wasn¡¯t that painful, in fact it felt kind of good, just like exercising muscles would, at least for someone like me who was used to Splitting my Mana Cells.


    On this day, just like the others before it, I was Splitting my Mana Cells, and as I completed the process I received a System message.


    [A Stat has reached Tier 12. Rank 1 Focus: (Selective Mana Superconductor) will advance to (Selective Mana Superconductor +1)]


    It was a welcome message, since it meant that I would hopefully be able to maintain my concealment magic and get out of this forest. However, the System didn¡¯t give exact numbers as to what had improved. Even with my (Mana Cell Enhancement) it didn¡¯t give exact numbers. The only reason I knew the exact numbers for (Mana Cell Enhancement) was because I had done the calculations myself.


    However, the numbers weren¡¯t as easy to determine for my (Selective Mana Superconductor) as they were for (Mana Cell Enhancement), but in my past life I had eventually come to a conclusion.


    If I had to put it into numbers, my (Selective Mana Superconductor) started out something like this.


    +100 Selective Mana Resistance against mana at and below current Mana Tier.


    +100 Selective Mana Assistance for mana at and below current Mana Tier.


    The raw numbers didn¡¯t mean much by themselves though. To put it into context, 100 Resistance would mean complete immunity to anything without bonuses. In this case, 100 Selective Mana Resistance would grant me complete immunity to everything at and below my own Mana Tier. However, if the Mana Tier was greater than mine, then the resistance would become less and less effective until it was basically worthless.


    For the Selective Mana Assistance it worked in a similar way. For mana at and below my current Mana Tier it would face no resistance within my body, but if the Mana Tier was greater than mine this non-resistance would eventually become pointless.


    With the new +1, (Selective Mana Superconductor) would look something like this.


    +200 Selective Mana Resistance against mana at and below current Mana Tier.


    +200 Selective Mana Assistance for mana at and below current Mana Tier.


    This didn¡¯t really do anything when resisting mana at and below my current Mana Tier, but it did mean that it would fall off slower at higher Mana Tiers. In addition, things that pierced resistances would now have more resistance to go through as well.


    For the Selective Mana Assistance, the increase actually did do something besides fall off slower at higher Mana Tiers. Now, instead of just not facing any resistance, the Selective Mana Assistance would actually start to assist the effects of mana within my body. It wasn¡¯t a 100% increase or anything, but it did mean that the intended effect would take place with half as much mana as before. For instance, let¡¯s say I spent 1 mana to perform a healing spell, then I would essentially get the effects of 2 healing spells worth 1 mana, not a 1 mana healing spell that¡¯s twice as powerful. It was actually more than this though, since you also had to factor in the fact that there was no resistance in the first place.


    So with this new bonus to (Selective Mana Superconductor), I was basically spending 1 mana to achieve something that would¡¯ve taken me 200 mana before I got my [Magical Physique]. Of course that was only for purely internal mana and magic, for external magic it wasn¡¯t really any different from when I first got (Selective Mana Superconductor), maybe a little bit of improvement but not much.


    When I first got my [Magical Physique] it had allowed me to basically quarter the amount of mana I used for my external spells, since I was no longer wasting mana when it was traveling through my body, but the new bonus didn¡¯t somehow increase the amount of mana I was sending through my body. So, in the end, my external magic would be pretty much the same as before the bonus.


    All this meant that I wanted my mana Stat to be as high as possible, and because of my (Mana Cell Enhancement) I would focus on my Mana Cells rather than my Mana Nebula.


    So I had decided to raise my Mana Cells Stats 10 times before I Ranked up again. It was very unorthodox, but for me it was definitely the right choice, since (Mana Cell Enhancement) allowed me to raise my Mana Cell Stats much faster than others.


    However I would only be raising my Stats 10 times for my Mana Cell Stats. For my other Stats I wouldn¡¯t be trying to raise them all like I had before. Sure I wouldn¡¯t neglect them, but I certainly wouldn¡¯t be spending as much effort and time raising them like I had before when I couldn''t progress my Stats beyond Tier 9.


    With my internal musings finished, I said out loud, ¡°I should probably get going now.¡±


    I didn¡¯t have to do much before I left. Everything was already in my Internal World, and I had already eaten and taken care of my business not long ago. All I had to do was cast my concealment spells and get out of this cave.


    At least, that¡¯s all I needed to do before I could leave, but there was one more area of business that I wanted to take care of first. My appearance.


    Despite my efforts to try and sacrifice different things, I unfortunately couldn¡¯t get enough points to change my Selective Transformation Skill. However that didn¡¯t mean I was out of options.


    Instead of potentially being recognized, I decided that it would be better to use the points that I had saved up from my sacrificing, to directly change my appearance. After all of my efforts I now had 110 points, and I didn¡¯t hesitate to spend them.


    I changed my appearance to look similar to how I had looked on Earth, with a few necessary changes to make sure it would actually work as a disguise. For the most part I looked like an average looking guy, at least by the standards of Tallen. My face wasn¡¯t overly handsome, but it wasn¡¯t ugly either, and my skin was slightly more tan than pale, I was now slightly taller than before, and my Talent did everything it needed to to make sure nobody would be able to find out I was actually Radiant Shadow, things like fingerprints and other things were all taken care of.


    The only thing different from my appearance on Earth was my hair and eyes. I wanted to disguise myself as a mage/wizard -I wanted to be able to use my magical abilities freely- and to do that I couldn¡¯t hide my [Magical Physique]. Magical Physiques were not something that people were born with, at least not Humans, and represented someone having so much mana regeneration in comparison to what their body could handle that their body was magically changed.


    Because of this, every Human with a [Magical Physique] was easily distinguished by their magical looking hair and eyes, and depending on the person they could even have their skin change as well. Those were the external changes brought about by a [Magical Physique]. The specific changes were determined by their [Magic Core], both the Color and Characteristic.


    For me this meant that my hair looked like white crystal, almost like salt, except that it was a bit clearer and refracted light through it like a diamond. My eyes were very similar to my hair; except for the pupil they looked like white crystal, including the iris. However, the iris would slowly change color depending on how much mana I used.


    Of course I could¡¯ve changed these visual identifiers, but if I wanted to act like a wizard then I needed to look like one.


    As I waited to recover from using my Talent, I looked at the amount of Collected Potential I had left, just a measly 83. My heart once again ached at the loss, but I thought this was a good expenditure despite its one off nature.


    Jumping up and down and shaking my limbs, I tried to get used to my new body while also mentally pumping myself up for the potentially deadly journey ahead.


    After I felt ready enough, I took a deep breath and exited my cave.


    -Break-


    As I walked through the metallic forest, heading towards the North, I made sure that I was as stealthy as possible. I checked my concealment spells regularly to make sure they were in top condition, and thankfully my Physique''s new advancement had greatly reduced the effects the forest had on me. With it I was able to maintain my spells comfortably beneath my mana regeneration.


    I wasn¡¯t sure how far I would have to go before I got out, but considering what I had read in The Archives, it could be anywhere from a few hours to a few weeks, depending on where I was in the forest. Hopefully it was sooner rather than later. There was no way for me to determine my location within the forest though, since the trees blocked my line of sight and prevented me from locating any landmarks.


    My journey through the forest was, overall, uneventful. It left me with a lot of time to look back and see how far I had come. I don¡¯t know exactly how amazing everything I¡¯ve accomplished is, since I haven¡¯t had much interaction with the society of this world in general, but I assume that I¡¯m at least better than average, if not absolutely amazing. When I get out of this forest and into a city the first thing I¡¯m going to do is buy myself some candy. I definitely deserve some Dream Shards for my accomplishments.


    As I was daydreaming about the mouthwatering sour candy I loved, I came across a small trail, maybe 2 meters wide, running roughly North to South through the forest. Seeing as how I was already heading Northward, I decided to follow the trail off to the side, keeping it in sight but staying far enough away to remain safe from anything that might be traveling on it.


    The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.


    As I followed the trail throughout the day and into the night, I didn¡¯t come across anything wandering on or near it. It was a bit strange, if this was a natural trail then there should be things using it, but it seemed that nothing came anywhere near it the whole day.


    After following the trail long into the night, I saw, in the distance, a light shining in the forest, and decided to investigate. When I looked closer, I found the reason for the empty trail. Humans, adventurers even. I could only see one guy standing guard outside a small cabin, but I assumed that his companion(s?) were inside. Usually adventurers would have some sort of magical defenses that they would use during the night to help protect them, but it seemed like a cabin had been built since nothing like that would work in this forest.


    I debated whether or not to make contact with them and stay the night in the cabin, but there were too many risks for my liking. So I continued on following the trail, hoping to get out of this forest as soon as possible.


    -Break-


    After traveling all through the night, I was walking through the forest during the sunrise, but noticed that the sunrise wasn''t changing to day. This meant that The Rising Dawn had started, and that the forest¡¯s anti-magic effects were going to start rising from here on out.


    It was still pretty dark out right now, but it would gradually get brighter and brighter until the next ¡®dawn¡¯ when the sun would finally resume its regular cycle. It was a special day in many cultures, but for me it was a bad omen that marked a countdown to get out of this forest before my mana ran out.


    By the middle of the day, my mana regen finally couldn¡¯t keep up with my expenditure, and my mind was starting to get a little tired from having to continually refresh and repair all of my various spells.


    By the time it would¡¯ve been dark on any other day, I had to give up on maintaining my visual concealment spells to conserve mana, but I still used sound and smell concealment. I hadn¡¯t come across anything while I was following the trail, but even if I did it wasn¡¯t like I had a choice. If I didn¡¯t drop some spells I would¡¯ve run out of mana before too long.


    By the time The Rising Dawn finished, and the sun started to continue its journey through the sky, I had had to drop even my sound concealment spells and had started to walk on the trail to limit any sound I was making. However, thankfully, I came across another cabin in the woods before I would have completely run out of mana.


    The cabin was actually locked with a physical combination lock, and it seemed to be there mostly to prevent curious animals from getting inside, while allowing anyone who knew the code to enter. Coming up to the door, it wasn¡¯t hard for me to use the last of my mana to undo the lock and get inside. I wasn¡¯t a master thief or anything, but I had dabbled in things like this to sate my long years of boredom, so I had a few skills that might raise a few eyebrows.


    When I got inside the cabin, I locked the door behind me and promptly went to sleep. There wasn¡¯t much I could do with my mana being empty, and I had been awake for over 48 hours now. I was pretty tired.


    -Break-


    Near the end of my rest I was forcefully woken up by my (Mental Operator). It had sensed something approaching the cabin and wiped away my tiredness in preparation for a fight. I used my new spatial storage bag to pull out a weapon from my Internal World, and started to prepare some spells that I could use to escape. It would be difficult to teleport very far in these woods, but I should be able to at least teleport out of the cabin and make a run for it if worse came to worse.


    As my heart started to hammer in my chest I could hear heavy breathing coming from multiple things outside the cabin, and they all seemed to be headed straight for the door. Maybe whatever it was had hunted adventurers here before and knew that they had to use the door of the cabin?


    I started to shake a little bit as my imagination ran wild with possibilities. Then I heard the combination lock disengage followed immediately by the door of the cabin coming open. I almost used my teleportation spell out of fright, but I steeled my nerves to try and see what was on the other side of the door.


    Surprisingly, instead of a creature, I saw the adventurer I had seen previously. He looked like he had taken a real beating compared to when I had last seen him.


    He was with 4 other companions, one of whom looked to be severely wounded and was being carried between two others that didn¡¯t look like they were in that much better of a condition, with the last person looking like the only one that wasn''t going to die if they didn¡¯t receive treatment, though his arms didn¡¯t seem to be working.


    The man that opened the door froze when he saw me, and I did the same. He looked at my weapon and then my coat before settling on my hair and eyes. His eyes went wide as he observed me, and he said, ¡°I¡¯m sorry sir. We didn¡¯t mean to bother you.¡±


    I slowly lowered my weapon so I didn¡¯t look so threatening and said, ¡°Uhh, well please come inside. There¡¯s no need for formalities, seeing as it looks like some of you are about to die.¡±


    He hesitated for a moment before nodding his head and leading the rest of them inside.


    Once they had all entered he closed the door behind them but didn¡¯t lock it. I expected them to start treating their companions, but they all seemed to hesitate in my presence. So I took the initiative and said, ¡°It looks like you¡¯re in need of some help, which I could give, if you¡¯re willing to help me with something in return?¡± I could¡¯ve just helped them without saying anything, but looking at their actions I decided to lay out an equal exchange to try and lessen their wariness.


    The man that opened the door, who seemed like he was the leader, didn¡¯t have to think long while looking at his team before saying, ¡°Thank you sir. We would be happy to help you in exchange for any help you could provide.¡± He bowed his head awkwardly in my direction.


    I didn¡¯t know what kind of image he had of me to be acting like this, but I could find out later. For now these adventurers were in need of healing.


    Everyone was quiet as I healed the person who seemed to be in the worst state, and I felt a bit awkward. So I decided to try and open up a conversation with a question, ¡°So¡­ what happened for everyone to end up looking like this?¡±


    Everyone seemed to wince at the question, either because they didn¡¯t want to think about it or because I was the one asking. In any case, none of them seemed to have the energy to talk except the person I assumed was the leader.


    *Sigh* ¡°It¡¯s nothing special really. We were on our way out after The Rising Dawn. But as we were traveling we were ambushed by several Tessagris¡¯. We managed to drive them off, but as you can see we were injured in the process.¡±


    ¡°Tessagris?¡±


    He nodded, ¡°Right? Normally they wouldn¡¯t hunt in a pack, but I guess maybe The Rising Dawn agitated them or something.¡±


    That wasn¡¯t what I was trying to ask, but maybe knowing what a Tessagris is is common knowledge? So I tried to ask the question in another way, ¡°Was there anything strange about them? What did they look like exactly?¡±


    He seemed to ponder for a moment, thinking back to the event, before saying, ¡°No, not really. I think one of them only had three ears rather than four, but other than that they all seemed normal.¡±


    ¡°I see.¡± Based on the description he was probably referring to something like the four eared cat I had met when I first entered this forest. ¡°It seems you were just unlucky.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s about all I could say too.¡± Then we both went quiet after that. Me because I was focusing on healing, and him because he seemed hesitant to speak to me.


    After I had stabilized everyone to the point that none of them were in danger of dying, the leader finally gathered the courage to speak, ¡°So, sir, for what reason would a noble like yourself be here in this forest all alone at such a dangerous time?¡±


    Noble? Why would he say that? I thought back through our interaction and tried to think of something that had given him that impression. After my mind raced for a moment, I recalled him looking at my jacket in the beginning. Then I remembered that this jacket actually had a Duke¡¯s house crest on it. Crap, I totally forgot about that!


    My lips pursed a little bit as I thought about how to go about resolving this situation. I can¡¯t tell him it¡¯s not mine. Wearing something with a house¡¯s crest is a big no no, and I don¡¯t have a reasonable explanation for wearing one if I¡¯m not a noble. There was no way I could casually brush off wearing a noble¡¯s insignia. I could pretend to be a noble, but impersonating a noble is a serious crime if I¡¯m found out, especially impersonating a Duke¡¯s house.


    My mind raced by at extreme speeds as I tried to come up with a way to get out of this situation unscathed. After all, I really didn¡¯t want to have to change my appearance again, that would just be way too inconvenient and costly for me.


    As the seconds stretched on in silence, I finally came up with a plan to not only resolve the situation but also gain their help. And I came up with a plan based on my many years of experience deceiving people.


    I need to make sure to stay as close to the truth as possible, just in case they have some sort of Skill that helps them detect lies. Step 1: Establish a connection.


    ¡°Well, similar to you, I was involved in an ambush myself.¡±


    ¡°You were ambushed by multiple Tessagris¡¯ as well?¡±


    My good sir, even just one of them was enough to scare me¡­ But now he¡¯s at least invested in hearing my story.


    ¡°I wish, but no. It was actually a group of Humans sent to hunt me down.¡± I sighed, ¡°I was separated from everyone and found myself on the other side of a portal that led into this forest.¡±


    ¡°Assassins were sent to kill you? Why?¡± He wasn¡¯t immediately sympathetic, but I wasn¡¯t done yet.


    I never said they were assassins. They were actually sent to hunt me down because I escaped from a max security prison. But I wouldn¡¯t say that out loud. Instead I said, ¡°I can only assume they were after me because of jealousy. I was too talented and wouldn¡¯t go along with their plans to exploit my abilities. I had intended to run away and be done with it all, but that¡¯s when the ambush happened. I only just barely managed to get away by leaving others behind and ended up here.¡±


    One of the women in the group said, ¡°That¡¯s horrible.¡±


    Seems like they¡¯re buying in.


    ¡°Yeah. Actually I was going to ask for your help with something related to this in exchange for me healing you.¡± I paused for dramatic effect before continuing.


    Next step: Put yourself down and exaggerate their perceived burden.


    ¡°It¡¯s probably too much to ask of you though. Honestly I don¡¯t know if I would be willing to help me out with such a big request if I was in your position.¡± I paused, letting the tension build up.


    I could see them become a bit hesitant when I said that, and the leader asked, ¡°Uh, what were you going to ask exactly?¡±


    Great, onto the last step. Ask for something more restrained than they were expecting.


    ¡°Well, I want to be done with all of these noble disputes and infighting, and just want to study magic freely. So I was wondering if you would be able to help me get into a city and maybe even help me get a new identity. Of course I would also require that you keep my real identity secret. But I totally understand if it¡¯s too much to ask.¡±


    I could see them think it over in their minds, and I could tell that most of their apprehension towards my request had gone away. The leader looked at each member individually and received a small nod from each of them before turning to me and saying, ¡°Alright, we can agree to that. I just don¡¯t know if what we¡¯re doing is enough to repay you for saving our lives.¡±


    ¡°Worry not.¡± I said, ¡°If you help me, I''ll consider your debt more than paid in full.¡±


    The conversation died down after that, allowing me to finish up the most important parts of their healing and letting everyone get more comfortable in my presence. They were still pretty injured, but my mana only went so far when it came to healing others rather than myself, but spreading out their healing over a few days would help cement their gratitude for my help. I didn¡¯t fully trust these people, but at the very least they would help me get into the city without an ID of my own, anything else would just be a bonus.


    -Break-


    After healing everyone as much as I could, they all came together and agreed that it would be best to get out of this forest as soon as possible. Seeing that I didn¡¯t disagree, we all got up and exited the cabin. Beginning our trek down the forest trail.


    Considering the fact that we had just left a rest place, I expected the journey to take a while. However, it actually wasn¡¯t that long before we exited the anti-magic forest and came to an open field that quickly dropped off in elevation, allowing me to see into the distance for the first time since I entered the portal.


    Needless to say, the horizon was so infinitely farther in the distance than would¡¯ve been possible on Earth, and because of that I was able to see something in the distance that looked truly fantastical.


    Asking out loud I said, ¡°Is that the city we¡¯re going to?¡±


    Following my gaze the leader said, ¡°Yes it is. Tri-Heart City definitely looks different from other cities doesn¡¯t it?¡±


    ¡°Yes, yes it does.¡± And I meant it, even with all the cities I had seen in the past, this one was definitely unique.


    The city seemed to float in the center of a sphere of space that seemed hollowed out of the surrounding terrain, and within the hollowed out space there were many different spheres of different colors floating and seemingly anchored in the air. The city itself seemed to use these spheres as a scaffold to also hold itself in the air, and there were various buildings built around these different floating spheres.


    I wasn¡¯t sure what awaited me in such a unique city, but I would be happy to end my perilous journey in such a fantastical place.


    Book 1 End: From Cell To City.

 Announcement

    Hello everyone. I''m sorry to inform you, but my writing schedule is behind what I initially expected. When I finished my writing back in June, I looked at various editing advice online, and many of them mentioned taking a break before starting the rewrite process. Of course I took this into account back when I initially set my schedule, but the break period was longer than planned.


    It''s my first time doing something like this, so my schedule was more of a rough guideline than an experienced plan. However at least in the future I''ll know to take this into account.


    In any case my break from writing is over now, and hopefully it won''t be too long until the rewriting is finished. I''m planning on getting a bit of a backlog of chapters for book 2 written before I start to release again, so it might take a while before book 2 comes up on Royal Road. I''m also planning on releasing on Scribblehub as well once I start releasing everything again.


    On a side note, If there are any other platforms that you know of where I could release this then put it in the comments.


    That''s pretty much all for the announcements for now. Thank you for being patient. I hope to be seeing you in a few months.


    If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.


    It says that the chapter content requires 500 words, so I''ll just copy past the announcement again.


    Hello everyone. I''m sorry to inform you, but my writing schedule is behind what I initially expected. When I finished my writing back in June, I looked at various editing advice online, and many of them mentioned taking a break before starting the rewrite process. Of course I took this into account back when I initially set my schedule, but the break period was longer than planned.


    It''s my first time doing something like this, so my schedule was more of a rough guideline than an experienced plan. However at least in the future I''ll know to take this into account.


    In any case my break from writing is over now, and hopefully it won''t be too long until the rewriting is finished. I''m planning on getting a bit of a backlog of chapters for book 2 written before I start to release again, so it might take a while before book 2 comes up on Royal Road. I''m also planning on releasing on Scribblehub as well once I start releasing everything again.


    On a side note, If there are any other platforms that you know of where I could release this then put it in the comments.


    That''s pretty much all for the announcements for now. Thank you for being patient. I hope to be seeing you in a few months.


    ... It''s still not 500 words long.


    I hope you''re having a good day.


    *starts whistling a song that''s been stuck in his head*


    Oh, you''re curious about what the song is? Thank you for asking. It''s Alohaii - Love Me Not (feat. TOFIE)


    Ah. It''s 500 words long, now I can end this author''s note.


    Goodbye.

 Update

    Hey there everyone, I''m back! There''s a few things before you begin reading the next chapter.


    First, my schedule. I plan to release 1 chapter a week for the foreseeable future. I''ll be writing more than that, but I''m trying to start myself from the bottom and work my way up from there. Any extra chapters will be put up on my Patreon, but don''t expect consistency from me; seriously, consistency and me do not have a good relationship. That''s it for my schedule though.


    There will be some notes about the changes I made while editing Book 1, so if you read Book 1 before the updates then hopefully the notes will clarify some things.


    Before the notes though, I wanted to say sorry for the long wait. Unfortunately I underestimated how hard it would be to outline Book 2. If you would like a simple explanation, then all I''ll say is that time travel being a thing really makes you have to think and get some details set in stone before you write anything involving it. I personally hope that the preparation I''ve done for Book 2 will be enough, but I also have a fear that it still won''t be enough. But that''s a worry for future me (man I''m glad I''m not that guy.)


    Notes:


    1. Genesis doesn¡¯t know who Radiant really is until he meets her (before he¡¯s about to escape from prison.) If you want to re-read how the initial encounters go, then you can refer to chapter 2,4 and 5.


    2. Chapter 5 might be worth re-reading, as it has been reworked enough to be worth doing so.


    3. Chapter 0 and Chapter 1 have both been fairly heavily edited for better quality. Though whether or not you want to re-read them is up to you.


    4. The Status has some changes, so I''ll have the complete up to date Status at the end here.


    5. The last evolution of Mental Operator has been removed.


    6. Some changes to Radiant¡¯s Talent have been done and polished, so re-reading Chapter 44 and Chapter 47 would be recommended, though not necessary if you don'' want to.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    [Status]


    </td>


    <td>


    Level: 12 | General Tier: Tier 11 | Age Physical (Soul): 22(222) | Points: 390


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    [Ancestry]


    </td>


    <td>


    (Human; Evolutions: 0) (TechnicMorph; Evolutions: 0)


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    [Titles]


    </td>


    <td> </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Common


    </td>


    <td>


    (Researcher) (Solitary)


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Uncommon


    </td>


    <td>


    (Low Profile)


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Rare


    </td>


    <td>


    (Stats Controller)


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Very Rare


    </td>


    <td>


    (Social Morph)


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Superlative


    </td>


    <td> </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Extraordinary


    The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.


    </td>


    <td>


    (Conqueror of Mana) (Tribulation Challenger) (Artificial Youth)


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Epic


    </td>


    <td> </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Legendary


    </td>


    <td>


    (Dimensional Traveler) (Time Traveler)


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Ancient/Primordial/Peak/Unique


    </td>


    <td> </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    [Stats]


    </td>


    <td> </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Mana Nebula


    </td>


    <td>


    Strength: Tier 11


    Dexterity: Tier 11


    Endurance: Tier 11


    Stamina: Tier 11


    General: Tier 11


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Mana Cells


    </td>


    <td>


    Strength: Tier 12


    Dexterity: Tier 12


    Endurance: Tier 12


    Stamina: Tier 12


    General: Tier 12


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Magic Control


    </td>


    <td>


    Strength: Tier 11


    Dexterity: Tier 11


    Endurance: Tier 11


    Stamina: Tier 11


    General: Tier 11


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Constitution


    </td>


    <td>


    Strength: Tier 11


    Dexterity: Tier 11


    Endurance: Tier 11


    Stamina: Tier 11


    General: Tier 11


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Senses


    </td>


    <td>


    Strength: Tier 11


    Dexterity: Tier 11


    Endurance: Tier 11


    Stamina: Tier 11


    General: Tier 11


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Mind


    </td>


    <td>


    Strength: Tier 11


    Dexterity: Tier 11


    Endurance: Tier 11


    Stamina: Tier 11


    General: Tier 11


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    [Unique Talent]


    </td>


    <td>


    Tier 9 (Awakened) (Collected Potential)


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    [Magic Core]


    </td>


    <td>


    (Color: None) (Characteristic: Mana Cell Enhancement +4)


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    [Metaphysical Organs]


    </td>


    <td>


    (Core) (Adaptive Mind) (Fractured Space Channel)


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    [Metaphysical Physique]


    </td>


    <td>


    (Body of Artifacts)


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    [Magical Physique]


    </td>


    <td>


    (Selective Mana Superconductor)


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    [Traits]


    </td>


    <td>


    (Unshackled Ornate Talent) (Enchanting Aptitude)


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    [Blessings/Curses]


    </td>


    <td>


    (The Ever Present Archives Level 1 Infinite Pass)


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    [Active Skills/Powers 3/3]


    </td>


    <td>


    (Power: Accelerated Cloud Mental Operator; Evolution:0 Level: 91)


    (Skill: Tireless Mana II; Level: 55)


    (Skill: Physical Recovery II; Level: 45)


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    [Inactive Skills/Powers 12]


    </td>


    <td>


    (Skill: Mana Maintenance II; Level: 68)


    (Skill: Foreign Analysis; Level: 81)


    (Skill: Deceive; Level: 68)


    (Skill: Sense Mana II; Level: 62)


    (Skill: Pain Tolerance; Level: 52)


    (Skill: Physical Augmentation; Level: 69)


    (Skill: Space-Time Sense; Level: 64)


    (Skill: Mana Conversion; Level: 61)


    (Skill: Selective Transformation II; Level: 14)


    (Skill: Basic Space Control; Level: 84)


    (Skill: Mana Crystallization II; Level: 25)


    (Skill: Efficient Crystallization; Level: 60)


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    I''m pretty sure that''s all, but I''m not perfect. If you have any questions feel free to ask them in the comments.

 The New Problem - B.2 Chapter 1

    -Radiant-


    It had been almost a week since I had joined up with the group of adventurers, and since then I had gotten to know each of them to a certain extent. Currently the ranger Kratimane was roaming around trying to find a good place to set up camp for the night, which I had been told would be the last time we would have to camp out before we made it to the hub outside the Regional Dungeon.


    The rest of us were still making our way through the forested area at a sedate pace as we waited for Kratimane.


    I wasn¡¯t paying much attention to my surroundings, which was why I was startled when Kratimane suddenly appeared out of nowhere at my side.


    I jumped away from her and exclaimed, ¡°Holy Jilly!¡± while taking a combative stance.


    The priest-like man Kachymani in the group didn¡¯t take kindly to my particular outburst of words, and gave me a bit of a scowl. This had happened a couple times over the past few days, but it was understandable why he reacted the way he did. Kachymani obviously worshiped a god/goddess, and any mention of Jilly would understandably make him at least a little uncomfortable.


    This was thanks to Jilly¡¯s notorious reputation as a Godhunter with multiple confirmed kills. So whenever Kachymani heard Jilly¡¯s name he would get a bit rankled, and truth be told his ire was usually (always) directed at me.


    I didn¡¯t give his reactions much thought though, and the leader Minex didn¡¯t seem to care much either. Minex had an upbeat attitude and was like the glue that held the rest of the team together, while the other girl in the group, Yesemio, was the supporter, not only of the group, but also of Minex, and if the two of them weren¡¯t married then I would bet that they were definitely boyfriend girlfriend.


    Kratimane didn¡¯t pay any mind to my reaction and casually reported that she had found a place to set up camp not far away from here. So we stopped walking along our current path and started following Kratimane towards where we would set up camp.


    After actually setting up the camp, the last person in the group started to prepare the food for everyone. Everyone called him Mage, but I hadn¡¯t found out whether that was a nickname or his chosen name; though there was always the possibility that it was his given name, but that would be a bit strange to give a baby such a name.


    Having gone through this routine multiple times, we all settled around an enchanted lamp after we finished our meals and waited for night to fully fall.


    However, all of a sudden, out of nowhere, I felt an invasion of foreign yet familiar mana into my mind and soul. I tried to defend myself against it, but it was like trying to move a sleeping limb, whatever was invading my mind was too familiar to quickly put any defense up against it.


    Time seemed to slow down dramatically, and my vision and other senses started to fade away as the invasion succeeded in whatever it was trying to do to me.


    -Break-


    Almost as suddenly as I had fainted, I came back to consciousness. Before I could figure out what was going on, I suddenly appeared in front of myself. However it wasn¡¯t my current appearance, but my appearance that others would know me by, that is to say that my hair wasn¡¯t shiny like crystal, and my eyes were normal as well. As soon as I saw this I knew something terribly wrong was happening, but I had no way to defend myself against whatever was going to happen.


    Yet, contrary to my expectations, the other me just started to casually speak, ¡°Hello, Radiant. This is a message from the future. Unfortunately there have been some things that we¡¯ve learned that will be extremely detrimental, and are getting progressively worse the longer they are delayed, so they need to be taken care of before they become unfixable.¡±


    Hearing this message I was a little suspicious, not because the contents of the message were suspicious, but because it said it was a message from the future. One of the first things one learns about backwards time magic is that there are many different variables that increase the cost and difficulty of the magic. And one of the most powerful shackles increasing the cost was Karmic Weight.


    Karma is an esoteric and hard to specify field of study, and Karmic Weight was a subfield of study within it, but there was no need to know all of the specifics in order to understand why I was suspicious.


    An extremely basic explanation was that a person/thing¡¯s impact on the universe had weight, and the more impact an existence had on the universe the more weight their existence would have. For example, escaping from a max security prison and successfully evading capture would add a significant amount of Karmic Weight to my existence. This didn¡¯t mean that backwards time magic was impossible in the future, but it did mean that the cost would be too much anywhere in the near future.


    However the message didn¡¯t stop, it continued, ¡°The most important thing to take note of is safely getting rid of the Kraken¡¯s memory packet. It is insidiously corrupting our mind, and it will be too late to fix it if you don¡¯t act now. Fortunately I was able to find out that there is a temple within Tri-Heart City that can deal with this problem. All you need to do is---nd then you ca---a person named---et in tou----¡±


    The words and vision started to cut out like a bad connection, and I couldn¡¯t make out what it was trying to say. Maybe the cost of sending the message back was too high? But shortly after the vision completely went black, there was a slight static and then there was sound once again.


    A tired voice spoke through a little bit of lingering static, ¡°I guess if you¡¯re hearing this, then we¡¯ve failed once again.¡± It was still my own voice, but in a completely different tone from the first message.


    ¡°Ah! Why!? We literally just escaped from prison, and now we have to escape from some god or goddess? Gah, the world must really be jealous of our talent!¡±


    I raised my metaphorical eyebrow at the dramatic change in tone, but I couldn¡¯t help but notice the mention of escaping from a god/goddess. I don¡¯t like the direction this future message is taking.


    ¡°Whew. Sorry about that, I just needed to vent my emotions, after all I¡¯ve had to go through these past three years.¡± The static completely went away, and the message continued without any visuals, just a steady voice cutting through the black, ¡°Anyways, I¡¯m sure that you¡¯re pretty confused about this strange message. I would know because I too had to go through it.¡±


    Questions started to pop up in my mind, but the message really did seem to know what I was thinking, because it continued with, ¡°Yes, yes, I know that you have a million questions. Don¡¯t worry, I''ll answer everything I can.


    Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.


    ¡°To start. We are in a janky time loop situation at the moment. No, we aren¡¯t the ones powering it. And most importantly, we are in this situation because we were hit with some sort of soul mark right before we came back from the future.


    ¡°The good news is that if we can find a way to get rid of the soul mark, then we won¡¯t have anything left to worry about. At least, nothing to worry about in relation to whichever god or goddess is hunting us down. The bad news is, these future messages have some limits in how much information we can send back in time, and unfortunately we seem to have hit that cap about 3 loops back and have had to cut out some of the information to make room for other things.¡±


    This was starting to sound very disheartening.


    ¡°But don¡¯t worry, I¡¯m told that the information we had to cut wasn¡¯t that important. Though I have no idea what that information is, since you know¡­ it was cut.¡±


    If I had a hand in this message space then it would¡¯ve hit my face. And since I knew myself so well, the message actually chuckled.


    ¡°Hehe. But anyways, there isn¡¯t much time left to talk to you like this. It¡¯s extremely inefficient to convey information like this, but I¡¯m overwriting the original god/goddess¡¯ message right now, and that means I have to use the same format. If I didn¡¯t do that, then they might be able to find out that something is wrong with the message, so if you fail too then just remember this.¡±


    It was nice to know that I wasn¡¯t stupid enough to send back only a spoken message like this, but I didn¡¯t seem to have much confidence in myself.


    ¡°What else¡­ Oh yeah, don¡¯t worry about the Kraken¡¯s memory packet. There¡¯s nothing wrong with keeping it, and it actually works as a great defense against mental intruders, which is probably why the original message wants us to get rid of it. But I think that the end of the message is coming soon, and after it there¡¯ll be a memory packet with a lot of information.¡±


    The voice paused for a bit, and I almost thought that it was over, but then it left behind one last sentence.


    ¡°Haaah¡­ Hey, I just hope my efforts are actually worth it. Maybe it won¡¯t be as meaningful as Radiant zero¡¯s extraordinary feats, but I at least don¡¯t want my efforts to be meaningless¡­¡±


    I thought the message would continue after that, but the silence stretched on, and eventually I felt a compressed memory packet enter my mind, and I felt that I could wake up any time I wanted.


    But that last bit of the message really resonated with me. My current situation might not be ideal, but this was basically a time loop situation right? So there should be no need to worry right?


    However, I wasn¡¯t actually going back in time myself, and I was essentially getting erased with every loop, leaving behind only a few extra pieces of information that I didn¡¯t know whether they would be meaningful or completely useless, maybe even being cut out once they were deemed unimportant.


    I mentally sighed, but the world was still flowing along and I still had a memory packet to sift through. Hopefully I will be able to make this the last loop, but if not, then I hope my efforts will bring a future me closer to freedom.


    I didn¡¯t immediately wake up. Instead I quickly browsed through the memory packet to look for anything that stood out as important and urgent. Funnily enough there was something that immediately caught my eye; a mental ¡®file¡¯ named README.txt, and the ode to Earth¡¯s internet culture gave me a lighthearted feeling and made me chuckle.


    The README.txt was just simple text, and the file held a bunch of useful information on where certain types of information could be found within the memory packet, as well as a few other things that should be looked at as soon as possible. However, right at the top of the file was a simple message, ¡°I know that you¡¯ll read this text file first, so I¡¯m just going to write here that you should wake up quickly. Your body is currently running on autopilot, and will shortly require your direct input in order to avoid a rather awkward situation. You¡¯ll have about a minute or so before your input is needed, but you¡¯ll really want to not miss it.¡±


    After reading that, I quickly skimmed the rest of the text file, and since I didn¡¯t find anything else urgent, I stopped reading and woke up.


    -Minex-


    We all sat together in a circle after having set up our camp for the night. We had just finished eating, and everyone had been talking. But our impromptu companion seemed to have fallen asleep while sitting. Seeing this, I asked the group, ¡°Did he fall asleep while sitting?¡±


    Everyone looked over at the new guy and seemed to come to the same conclusion, and the person closest to him, Kachymani, reached out to poke him. After Kachymani lightly poked him, the guy made a huge spasm looking like he was getting ready to fight, but Kachymani had quickly pulled away, and after not sensing anything further the new guy seemed to relax into deep sleep once again.


    Yesemio spoke first, ¡°Well that was a strong reaction to being poked in your sleep. I wonder what kind of environment he grew up in to make him react like that. Or maybe he¡¯s just jumpy?¡±


    Everyone seemed to get different amounts of enjoyment out of the intense reaction, and Kachymani seemed to be inordinately amused, maybe Mr. Noble''s repeated mentions of Jilly had more of an effect than I thought.


    Thinking about the runaway noble¡¯s behavior and actions the past week, I couldn¡¯t help but notice how strange he was.


    So I said, ¡°I don¡¯t know about him being jumpy, but he¡¯s definitely strange in many ways.¡±


    Mage spoke up, ¡°Yeah. I¡¯ve been watching him over the past week, and he¡¯s definitely not your typical noble.¡±


    I said, ¡°Exactly. The more I watch him, the more strange he seems. If nothing else, I¡¯m positive that he¡¯s not a member of the Underrich House.¡±


    Yesemio quirked an eyebrow at that, ¡°But if that¡¯s the case, then why in Tallenor''s name would he be wearing a coat with their crest on it?¡±


    I said, ¡°Beats me, but whoever he is, he has way too many mysteries about him.¡±


    Mage said, ¡°Yeah, like his magic for instance.¡± He carefully looked over the sleeping guy, ¡°Every spell he uses is unlike any orthodox magic I¡¯ve ever seen, and yet at the same time they only feel like entry level spells. It¡¯s the strangest thing, it¡¯s like someone gave an entry level mage access to vast amounts of mana and didn¡¯t bother teaching them anything higher grade.¡±


    That piqued my interest, ¡°That is strange. And I might not be well versed in the magical arts myself, but even I can tell that there¡¯s something different about the kind of magic that he¡¯s using.¡±


    Mage, ¡°In any case it¡¯s definitely not a magical tradition practiced in Tallen.¡±


    Yesemio spoke up, ¡°Now that we¡¯re on the subject, I¡¯ve noticed that he is way too awkward for a noble. Not saying that nobles can¡¯t be awkward, but¡­ I don¡¯t know, it kinda seems like he knows how a noble should act but has never actually done it before.¡±


    I said, ¡°Hmm, you know if Kachymani didn¡¯t verify that he was telling the truth with his blessing, then I would think that he¡¯s scamming us. But even then, his story is hard to believe. I mean, being chased by assassins? Falling through a portal that lead to the anti-magic forest? Wanting to leave everything behind and just study magic? I mean it sounds like the backstory of a God¡¯s Realm character.¡±


    Kratimane said, ¡°No kidding, it¡¯s like I¡¯m on a quest in the game.¡±


    Kachimane said, ¡°While we¡¯re on the topic of Mr. Noble here, I¡¯ve noticed that he doesn¡¯t seem to have a Class either. I might just be misreading things, but my god¡¯s blessing has more uses than just allowing me to detect lies, and I haven¡¯t noticed any of the signs that having a Class would give off. It¡¯s like his soul is as pure as a child¡¯s.¡±


    This new information really threw my mind into a loop. No Class? I guess it could be a part of his beliefs, or maybe he has something against gods? He does mention Jilly a lot. But even if that were the case he should have some kind of soul addon, right? Or¡­ maybe!


    I spoke my thoughts, ¡°Maybe he¡¯s some sort of noble¡¯s experimental subject? Maybe he escaped from somewhere and has never had the opportunity to go to a temple to get a Class before. Hey, why don¡¯t we bring him to a temple and-¡±


    Radiant shot up all of a sudden, like he had just experienced a huge fright. He blinked his eyes a few times to get the fright out of his eyes as he looked around. Then, seemingly in response to our silence, he spoke, ¡°Huh, were you guys talking about me or something? Don¡¯t mind me, just continue your conversation.¡±


    We all shared a glance, and Yesemio said, ¡°So, about tomorrow.¡±


    We all tacitly avoided talking about Mr. Noble after that. After all, speculating about someone¡¯s secrets while they were listening was said to be bad luck.

 Exploration - B.2 Chapter 2

    -Radiant-


    It was the day after the future vision, and our group had finally made it out of the regional Dungeon and was currently nearing the entrance into the waystation.


    The size of the regional Dungeon we just came out of was massive when compared to Earth, considering the fact that we had hiked about 400 km or so since we met up, but when I commented on its size the group looked at me strangely and said that it was actually in the smaller size range. I was quite embarrassed by my lack of basic knowledge despite my many years of experience, but in my defense I had almost nothing to do with Dungeons in the past. At most I had gone through one or two normal Dungeons. Though that excluded Tribulation Dungeons (as those were their own category in my mind), and the few normal Dungeons I had gone through weren¡¯t Regional Dungeons.


    This just highlighted for me the unfortunate cost of my past life¡¯s unhealthy obsession with Time Magic. But now it was going to be different! ¡­Or it would¡¯ve been if I hadn¡¯t received that ominous future message. Now I had to somehow avoid the seemingly inevitable arrival of a decidedly unfriendly deity, as well as keep up a secret identity against the unending surveillance of the government, and those two things didn¡¯t seem to mesh well with the plan to live a stress free life of exploration.


    But, according to the handy dandy manual from the future, I didn¡¯t need to worry about the god/goddess coming after me for at least a week. So I decided to focus on the present and my current situation, rather than stress about things I didn¡¯t know.


    That led me to look through the future manual for some kind of advice on what to do. And wouldn¡¯t you know it, while looking through the future manual, I found that there was an assigned task, which was to explore the Western side of the waystation we were currently traveling to. All of the other directions of the waystation had apparently been explored already, and it had been found that nothing was worth going out of my way for in any of those other directions. That meant that it was my task to pioneer the Western side and get lost in exploration.


    As I was caught up in my own internal musings, Kan¨¦ spoke up, ¡°So are we going to go over the plan to get Mr. Noble here into the city?¡±


    We were nearing the gate with the guards now, and Minex responded, ¡°Of course, but I was thinking that we could do that after we got into the waystation. Maybe sit down in a caf¨¦ and talk over some food.¡±


    The rest of the group nodded their heads in agreement, but I spoke up, ¡°Well, while you guys are doing that, I think I¡¯ll explore a little bit.¡±


    They all seemed surprised, and Minex asked, ¡°Are you sure you don¡¯t want to be there for the conversation? What if we decide on something that you¡¯re uncomfortable with?¡±


    I shook my head, ¡°I¡¯m not worried. You guys don¡¯t seem like the types to take advantage of someone that¡¯s down on their luck.¡±


    They all seemed to straighten up a bit at this praise, but in reality I didn¡¯t really trust them because of anything I myself had observed. I mostly said this because the future message already told me what they would be talking about, and as such there was no need for me to be there for the conversation. It was much more efficient to use this time to explore a new area.


    ¡°Well if that¡¯s the case then we won¡¯t stop you. Just make sure to meet up at¡­ let¡¯s say the center square, at three o¡¯ clock.¡±


    I nodded, ¡°No problem, sounds like a plan.¡±


    We got into the Waystation easily, since the guards at the gate were there to defend the gates, not stop people from going in or out. And even though the guards checked the group and found an extra person, they didn¡¯t pay me any mind and just waved us through into the waystation. Hopefully that meant that everything in this beginning stage of my journey would be smooth sailing, though I didn¡¯t want to tempt fate by saying it out loud.


    When we walked through the gate in order to get into the waystation, I could feel the currents of mana flowing through the wall and into the sky, and I could vaguely feel a magical barrier curving up into a dome; probably to keep aerial creatures from picking up snacks. Once we got inside, looking around, the waystation was almost like a mini city, with many different businesses and housing.


    In addition to the buildings, I was surprised to see a large variety of races walking around. There were Beastmen and Beastkin, Elves and Aeth, and even a few Demons walking around.


    The surprise must¡¯ve shown on my face, because Yesemio asked, ¡°Surprising?¡±


    ¡°Huh?¡±


    She said, ¡°Well you just looked surprised as you looked around at everything.¡±


    I nodded, ¡°Ah, yes, I guess I was surprised. Tallen doesn¡¯t usually have such a wide diversity of people.¡±


    She took on a contemplative look, ¡°Mmm, you¡¯re right, but I guess adventuring tends to draw in the more fringe types of people.¡±


    ¡°Huh, I would¡¯ve thought that adventuring was something that everyone would do equally, considering the fact that it¡¯s an occupation with a wide diversity of skill sets.¡±


    Minex looked over after hearing our conversation, and said with a look of pity, ¡°Hah, no. Most people don¡¯t really see the need to risk their lives doing an Adventurer''s work. Most people just go through the bare minimum necessary for living life.¡±


    I said, ¡°Hmm, you know, now that I think about it, I don¡¯t think I¡¯ve seen many Humans older than 200.¡±


    Minex said, ¡°Yep, most Humans are content with living a peaceful and simple life and dying at a ripe old age of around 200, rather than risking their lives to possibly live longer. And there are a large variety of reasons why other races might feel the desire to become an Adventurer, but I think the biggest reason is that it pays a lot of money.¡±


    Yesemio shook her head, ¡°No, while I do agree that it pays a lot, I personally think that they become Adventurers for the community.¡±


    I said, ¡°Yeah, I guess that makes sense.¡±


    Mage cut into the conversation, ¡°Let¡¯s put this conversation aside for now. We need to talk about the details of our getting you into Tri-Heart City while we¡¯re here, and you said you wanted to explore right? Well we¡¯ll all go to a caf¨¦ and meet back up at three.¡±


    The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.


    I said, ¡°Sounds good to me.¡±


    Mage was right, I had a task to get done. So we went our separate ways, which meant that I was on my way to the West side of the Waystation. Hopefully there will be something interesting in this last corner of the Waystation, otherwise this time would be better spent going over the future message.


    -Break-


    Walking through the main streets of the Waystation, I couldn¡¯t help but notice that this was more like a sub-city. There were all kinds of businesses and establishments, with all sorts of people walking around and interacting. The only thing that differentiated it from a normal city was the fact that there weren¡¯t any children to be seen. I guess it made sense, considering its proximity to a veritable danger zone, but it made the atmosphere of the place feel serious with a hint of danger beneath the surface.


    This hint of danger was part of the reason that I was wandering around the main streets. If I were in a real time loop situation (according to my own arbitrary definition), then I wouldn¡¯t have to give any thought to my safety, but my situation wasn¡¯t as freeing as a real time loop.


    I still have to be careful and discreet. If I were to accidentally get caught up in a dangerous situation and die, then that would still be the end.


    Not only death, but I also had to be wary of my identity and activities as well. My identity because if I was caught by the government, then I was unsure of if I would ever escape again. And keeping watch of my activity was just as, if not more, important than my identity, since I had to limit the amount of Karmic weight I had; just in case I failed and ended up needing to send back another future message.


    And all that would be made so much easier once I had a secure identity. There were various reasons why having a secure identity would decrease my Karmic weight gain, but the biggest reason was because other people¡¯s reactions to me would be filtered through the fake, but secure, identity. The details were somewhat complicated, but the most important thing to understand was that the more real the fake identity was, the more Karmic weight would be absorbed by the fake identity rather than myself.


    So I needed to obtain a secure identity as soon as possible. Though that would have to wait until I was in Tri-Heart City, hence my current wandering while waiting for the appointed time to leave for the meetup.


    I wasn¡¯t exactly certain what it was I was looking for as I explored the streets, but I was enjoying the sights, smells, and sounds of being in a place with lots of people once again. It was calming, and comfortably distracting, allowing me the time to decompress and take in everything that was happening to me.


    A few hours into my baseless wandering and listless thoughts, I eventually came to stand in front of a large and intricately decorated building, which I could immediately tell was a temple of the gods with all of its religious symbols and decorations.


    It wouldn¡¯t be too long until I needed to head back to the center of the waystation to meet back up with the group before we left. So I decided to take a break and just lean against a building across the street from the temple. As I stood there, I couldn¡¯t help but let out a sigh as I looked across the street with a complicated look on my face.


    My calming journey through the waystation had allowed me some free time to think and go over some of the future message while I was walking, and I was also curious to look through the logs of the previous explorations through this waystation that had taken place. While looking through these logs, I came to understand that the task of exploring the waystation was just a ruse to get me to take in my situation and come to terms with the future message and its complications before heading into the city, and it had done just that.


    Nearing the end of my journey through the waystation, I had gotten over the mental dissonance and disconnected feeling I was having since yesterday, and finally felt ready to tackle the upcoming problems and challenges. After all, I had essentially already gone through them multiple times.


    Though the other content contained in the future message also helped boost my confidence immensely. There were so many different things that my past selves had researched and discovered over their loops before being captured, and now it was all in my hands waiting to be devoured and integrated.


    Just thinking about all the ways to increase my strength is giving me goosebumps.


    However, just because I was ready to tackle my problems didn¡¯t mean I was going to do everything possible to improve my strength.


    For example, walking into the temple in front of me to get a Class. Maybe if I didn¡¯t know about the mark on my soul I would¡¯ve walked right in and gotten a Class in order to increase my strength. And I could imagine that Radiant zero must¡¯ve done exactly that before even heading into the city.


    Which, thinking about it now, is probably why the Western side of the waystation was left for last to explore.


    As I was going through these thoughts, someone in a dark cloak hiding their figure came up alongside me. Obviously I was wary of such a mysterious character, but we were in a public place with lots of people around, so there wasn¡¯t a reason to be too wary of them¡­ But just in case, I fired off a simple divination spell to confirm whether or not the mysterious figure was hostile towards me. Thankfully, they weren¡¯t.


    However, they had some sort of countermeasure that made my divination come back with an overload of useless information, and if it wasn¡¯t for my ability to deal with overloads of information I wouldn¡¯t have gotten anything from any divination directed towards the mysterious figure.


    But the overload of information wasn¡¯t a problem for me, and with my successful divination I didn¡¯t feel threatened by the mysterious figure, and just let them stand there looking at me while I calmly stared back at them with a questioning look.


    A modified sounding voice came from the dark hood saying, ¡°Hmm, good wizard sir, you wouldn¡¯t happen to be Classless would you?¡±


    This wasn¡¯t at all what I was expecting them to say, and I was caught off guard by their blunt question, so I didn¡¯t immediately respond.


    ¡°Hehe, don¡¯t be so shocked, good wizard sir. I happen to have a good eye for these sorts of things, and I just happened to notice you while walking by and had the urge to ask.¡±


    I hurriedly regained some of my composure, ¡°And what¡¯s it to you?¡±


    They raised their arms up in a placating gesture, though their large sleeves hid anything that would give away any of their features, ¡°Now, don¡¯t be so defensive, I was just curious as to the reason. A Human such as yourself going without a Class is very rare indeed.¡± Their hood turned to look over at the temple, ¡°Not to mention the fact that a Classless person is standing here looking at a god¡¯s temple with such a disdainful look on their face.¡±


    I didn¡¯t realize my look was so jaded, but I said, ¡°Listen, I try not to discriminate based on appearances, but you¡¯re giving off a sort of shady vibe. So if you¡¯re wanting me to talk to you then I¡¯m not currently feeling like I should.¡±


    ¡°A cautious one, I like that.¡± They nodded, ¡°To answer your doubts, I would say that I¡¯m part of a group of people that are somewhat opposed to some of the gods around here. I¡¯m not saying we¡¯re opposed to all gods, but to say just a little, there are some things that should be changed in regards to some of them, if you know what I mean.¡±


    ¡°Well, I can¡¯t say I¡¯m opposed to your words.¡± I scratched my head in contemplation, ¡°But I¡¯m afraid that I¡¯ve got to catch a train back to the city soon, and I need to meet up with some people in the center square before then. I regret not having more time, but maybe we could talk some more if we were to meet again.¡±


    ¡°Ah, I wouldn¡¯t want to keep you from your schedule, good wizard sir. But if you would wait just a moment I can give you something that would help you get in contact with me.¡± Seeing that I didn¡¯t say anything to the contrary, they reached into their cloak and pulled out a pen and small notepad and started writing something on it. After quickly writing, they ripped out the paper and handed it to me saying, ¡°If you¡¯re interested in meeting up and talking some more, then just follow these instructions. If anyone asks, just tell them that you¡¯re looking for DarkStar. If you tell them that then they¡¯ll be able to get you into contact with me.¡±


    I took the paper and glanced at the list of instructions on it, and was about to tell the person goodbye, but when I looked up they were nowhere to be seen.


    I raised my eyebrow, ¡°What a strange person.¡±


    I shrugged as I put the paper into my spatial bag where it led into my Internal World. Maybe I might look for them in the future, but for now I put the strange conversation aside and started my walk towards the center square.

 Group Meeting - B.2 Chapter 3

    -Radiant-


    After the strange encounter with the mysterious cloaked person, I walked towards the center square somewhat cautiously, to meet back up with everyone before we departed. Given the strange encounter, I took extra care to make sure I wasn¡¯t being followed or tracked, and thankfully everything seemed to be in the clear as I made my way into the square.


    In truth it was more like a hexagon than a square, but tradition being what it was it was called a square. I tried to scan the place to look for my companions, but being of average height made it difficult; since it was nearing the time for the train to depart to Tri-Heart City, it made the center square quite lively with people who were separating from those that would stay in this place.


    So I did what any normal person would do in this situation, and stepped up onto a nearby bench to get an advantage in height. So it was quite strange to be receiving so many stares like I was some sort of exotic animal, but I ignored their questioning gazes as I scanned the crowd. And not long after gaining the high ground, I spotted the group of 5 already gathered together near one side of the square(hexagon).


    Jumping down from the bench, I made my way through the dense crowd. I was expecting to have to push my way through some seemingly tight areas, but as soon as people saw me they moved aside and allowed me to pass with room to spare. I had noticed people giving me space as I had roamed the waystation, but I had just brushed it off then. However, now that I was faced with such blatant avoidance in a crowded place, I was forced to realize that there was something quite odd about people¡¯s reactions towards seeing me.


    I would have to bring it up with everyone when I talked to them.


    As I met up with everyone, I was warmly welcomed back by Minex, ¡°Welcome back mr. No-... uh, hm.¡±


    He shared a gaze with his companions and said, ¡°Actually, during our discussion we were wondering what to call you. Seeing as how you¡¯re going to be getting a new identity and all, we thought it would be good to start calling you by what you¡¯re planning to be named.¡±


    I nodded, knowing that they would be asking this question, and said, ¡°I plan to be named Experience Silver.¡±


    ¡°Wow, no hesitation huh? But, Experience?¡± They seemed to think it was a strange name, but they didn¡¯t want to say anything, almost like they were still wary of offending me.


    Seeing my chance to bring it up, I said,¡°What¡¯s up with everyone around here anyways? You guys I can kind of understand, since you know I¡¯m a noble, but what about everyone else? It¡¯s like I¡¯m some kind of walking disaster that nobody wants to mess with.¡±


    Minex grimaced a little, ¡°Ah, well¡­ I guess if you¡¯re going to be living in Tri-Heart City then you¡¯ll need to know.¡± They looked at their companions and said, ¡°For other people, It¡¯s probably because you¡¯re a Wizard.¡±


    ¡°Because I¡¯m a Wizard? Do people in this city have a thing against Wizards or something?¡±


    ¡°I guess, yeah, kinda. It¡¯s not systemic or personal or anything, it¡¯s just that there¡¯s a prominent Wizard¡¯s Tower located here, and the people in Tri-Heart City know better than to mess with Wizards because of the possible consequences of messing with the wrong person.¡±


    I nodded, ¡°Hmm, I see. Is this going to be a problem with my new identity?¡±


    ¡°Yes and no. It¡¯s actually one of the bigger problems we need to talk to you about.¡±


    ¡°Oh? Please continue.¡± If it was a big problem then I wondered why the future message hadn¡¯t said anything about it.


    ¡°Well, it¡¯s about your mana signature. How long has it been since you last got it registered?¡±


    I snapped my fingers as I had a realization why the future message hadn¡¯t mentioned anything, ¡°Ah, if you¡¯re wondering if my mana signature will flag me in the system because it matches my previously registered mana signature, then there¡¯s no need to worry. There are¡­ extenuating circumstances. So that won¡¯t be a problem.¡±


    They looked between each other, probably having some kind of misunderstanding, but it didn¡¯t really matter to me, so I just let them think whatever. The most important thing for me was the fact that the mana signature ¡®problem¡¯ was actually a good thing for me.


    Since I wasn¡¯t a Wizard before I left the prison, then leaving a constant mana signature will actually be a big help distinguishing my current identity from my Radiant Shadow identity. I mean, who would guess that someone with eleven times more mana in their mana cells than their mana nebula would be able to stop themselves from becoming a Wizard for over fifteen years, even while they¡¯re asleep? Yeah, only a crazy person would believe that. ¡­Wait, did I just insult myself?


    I spaced out for a second as I thought to myself, and when I focused back on everyone, they had a weird look in their eyes, so I said, ¡°What? Did I say something wrong?¡±


    ¡°Ah, uh, no.¡± Yesemio had a look of pity on her face, ¡°In any case, your mana signature was probably the biggest problem we could think of. If that¡¯s not a problem, then there are just a few minor details that we should go over.¡±


    ¡°Yeah.¡± Mage said, ¡°Ironically, being a Wizard will make getting past identity checks on our way into the city easier. If you weren¡¯t a Wizard then you would have to show your ID, which you don¡¯t have, which would make the process that much harder.¡±


    ¡°Additionally¡­¡±


    They continued to talk, and I spaced out, since I already knew from the future message that everything would go smoothly getting into the city.


    In the past I would have never thought that there would be a day when constantly giving off my mana signature would be a benefit rather than a curse.


    But since my mana signature wasn¡¯t given away before I came back from the future, (Thank you child protection laws), and I refused to give it to anyone while I was in prison, then my current mana signature is a unique identifier rather than shackles that follow me around.


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    And, speaking of following around, my mind went back to my encounter with that mysterious cloaked stranger, and I fired off one of my replenished divination spell crystals to check if I was being deliberately watched or observed at the moment.


    Fortunately my divination only gave back responses to the 5 members of my group. So my gaze which had been flickering around the square looking at the movements of the crowd since earlier, finally relaxed.


    I wasn¡¯t sure exactly why my mind kept wandering back to my meeting with the stranger, but thinking about unknowns wasn¡¯t going to get me anywhere. So I put the mysterious stranger to the back of my mind, and began to browse through the future message instead as I waited for our group to finish chatting while we moved towards the train station.


    -Break-


    After a while of my absentminded hums and responses to the group¡¯s talking while we walked, we finally arrived at the train station at the edge of the city.


    The train station was a massive metallic and crystal structure that was probably the most secure place around, since it was like the main artery that transported goods between this place and the main city. Though it was probably such a robust structure because it was where everyone would probably head to if there was a massive monster attack or other such disaster, since they would be able to get to Tri-Heart City safely through the trains there.


    I thought that getting into the place might be troublesome with how much security these places usually had, but my concerns didn¡¯t come to pass. Apparently the group I was with had previously paid for a VIP private room on the train, so our group was let through all the security checkpoints and onto the sleek looking train without any fuss.


    As we made our way onto a fairly large clean smelling car near the front of the train, I couldn¡¯t help but comment, ¡°This train is really fancy for something that just carries people to and from a Dungeon.¡±


    Kratimane asked, ¡°In what way?¡±


    ¡°Well, you would think that trains like these that have to carry messy adventurers back after coming from a Dungeon crawl wouldn¡¯t have fancy cars like these with their own rooms, and would only have rows of seats or something.¡±


    Kratimane pulled her long brown hair over one shoulder, ¡°Hmm, well I haven¡¯t been outside of Tri-Heart City before, so I wouldn¡¯t know what it¡¯s like. But there are a bunch of colleges and other high level organizations in the city that use the Dungeons a lot, so the transportation to the Dungeon is probably higher class because of it.


    ¡°Not only that, but Tri-Heart City has access to a diversity of abundant materials due to the center Dungeon¡¯s unique territory. So it¡¯s probably much cheaper to have such high class transportation than in other cities.¡±


    I was intrigued, Kratimane wasn¡¯t the one I expected to talk so much due to my simple comment. She was usually a lot more restrained, but I guess she must be proud of her hometown.


    I said, ¡°Interesting. Does the center Dungeon spit out a lot of materials or something?¡±


    ¡°No, not the inside of the dungeon, the outside. It¡¯s difficult to describe unless you¡¯ve been to the city yourself. The best way I can describe it is that the Dungeon¡¯s territory has a lot of small regenerating mines.¡±


    ¡°Regenerating mines? Are you sure you¡¯re not talking about the inside of the Dungeon?¡±


    She shook her head, ¡°Nope, it¡¯s the surrounding territory. Though there are also various mines inside the Dungeon as well, but those are obviously more troublesome and costly to get access to for obvious reasons.¡±


    ¡°You don¡¯t say. I can see why there would be a lot of high level organizations located in Tri-Heart City.¡± I stroked my chin in thought, ¡°With the main Dungeon being aligned with such valuable concepts, it would be stranger if there weren¡¯t such organizations trying to get a piece. I can¡¯t wait to get a look at it while we¡¯re riding on the train.¡±


    Just as I said that, we walked into our VIP room, and I noticed something that ruined my hopes of seeing the city while riding the train. This room didn¡¯t have any windows. ¡°Wait a minute, there¡¯s no windows in this room.¡±


    Mage said, ¡°Not only this room, but there are no windows on the entire train.¡±


    When I heard that I couldn¡¯t help but take a look back at my memories to see the outside of the train, and something I hadn¡¯t taken notice of before was immediately apparent. The whole sleek looking train indeed didn¡¯t have any windows.


    I said, ¡°That¡¯s weird, why wouldn¡¯t there be any windows? Is it for security reasons or something?¡±


    Minex spoke as he started to put his baggage away, ¡°No, windows wouldn¡¯t really be a security issue as long as a high enough grade of crystal was used.¡± He closed the compartment he had put his baggage in and sat down with a sigh, ¡°The reason there are no windows on the train is because it travels through an underground tunnel. All you would see through a window would be the tunnel walls passing by.¡±


    I swallowed and said somewhat nervously, ¡°Wait, wait, wait. Underground? What about the Deadly Dungeon?¡±


    Minex waved his hand as if brushing off my concern, ¡°It¡¯s not that far underground. Besides, the whole tunnel is reinforced and stuff, so it¡¯s completely safe.¡±


    I took a calming breath and said, ¡°Whew. Yeah, I guess the Deadly Dungeon wouldn¡¯t be much of an issue as long as the tunnel is near the surface. I¡¯ve had too many bad experiences in the Deadly Dungeon, so I guess I overreacted.¡±


    Everyone looked at me with that weird look of pity they had been prone to giving me since a while ago. But I just couldn¡¯t figure out what I had said this time for them to give me such looks. Did they think I was too weak for being scared of the Deadly Dungeon? Well I guess in their eyes I might seem kind of weak right now, but the bad experiences I was talking about were from when I was much stronger than I was right now. However there was no way I could tell them that, so I begrudgingly let them give me their pity as I sat down on one of the seats and got comfortable.


    Seeing as how there wouldn¡¯t be any sightseeing while on the train, I would just have to use my time to do other things.


    -Yesemio-


    Sitting in the train cabin, I couldn¡¯t help but  let out a relaxed sigh as I sat in the comfortable VIP seats as I couldn¡¯t wait to get back to the city and take a nice warm shower and sleep in a comfy bed. This Dungeon expedition had been a wild ride, having almost died for one, but also because of the mysterious savior we had run into.


    Looking over at the guy, Experience Silver, as he had said he wanted to be called, was sitting down in his own chair on the opposite side of the cabin. After observing him ever since we met, I had come to a few conclusions about the mysterious man.


    Experience seemed to have a very difficult past, despite the fact that he was a noble. Everything about him was just odd, not in a way that made him stand out in a crowd, but in a way that made your eyebrows furrow the more you got to know him.


    Like, for instance, what had just taken place not too long ago. When it was mentioned that the train would travel underground, Experience had a very negative reaction towards it. Or, more to the point, he had a very negative reaction to the Deadly Dungeon, saying that he had too many bad experiences there. Looking at him he couldn¡¯t be older than twenty-five, and from what Mage had said, he didn¡¯t seem to have been systematically taught any magic despite him being a very unbalanced Wizard. And yet despite that he had had many bad experiences in the Deadly Dungeon? To me it seemed like the theory of him being some noble¡¯s experimental subject was sounding more and more plausible.


    Seeing someone with such a tough life made me feel like I should do what I could to help him. The others in the group all had some reservations about helping the guy, but I had been the most vocal advocate towards helping him. I had wondered then, whether I was being too kind to someone I hadn¡¯t known for that long, but every time I learned more about Experience¡¯s sad past it made me want to help the poor guy that much more.


    Of course, being Minex¡¯s wife was probably a major influence as to why the leader of the group made the decision to stick with it and help Experience to the end. But there was nothing wrong with that in my opinion, after all I was his wife, he should listen to me.

 The Watcher - B.2 Chapter 4/51

    -Radiant-


    The train ride was relaxing, and also very productive for me. I took the time during the ride to set up something my future selves had come to create over the years of the ¡®loop¡¯. It was something that took up a significant portion of the future memory packet, and I was eager to implement it ever since I saw it, but it required a long period of intense concentration and focus, and this train ride was the ideal time to set it up.


    The train ride took about five hours, despite the staggering speed of the train, and yet I was somewhat scrambling to complete what I started by the end of the ride. Even though all I had to do was set up what was already very clearly laid out in the future memory packet, it was such a complex structure that it took almost the full five hours just to copy it even with my powerful mental capabilities.


    What I set up was something like a crude artificial intelligence system utilizing The Cloud of [Mental Operator]. It wasn¡¯t anything crazy like an artificial spirit would be able to do, it was more like turning a part of [Mental Operator] into a computer that could automatically handle things like requests to search and interact with a database, or run a program with specified parameters.


    Of course, this ¡®AI¡¯ was mainly created to help me better use the future message, so other than that it was pretty much useless. But after setting up the AI, (the train ride being basically already over) I was only able to initialize/integrate a couple parts of the future memory files into the AI¡¯s database before we stopped.


    So, I chose what I saw as the most relevant things I would want to more easily access until I had more time to integrate the rest of the files. And the files I chose were the ones on Tri-Heart City, and the much smaller files of training suggestions and tips for Icelated Star and Icicle Lance.


    Unlike most other Human wizards, I didn¡¯t have a Class to hand feed me knowledge and assistance of different spells and other things a wizard like me would want to know. Unfortunately I was like a butterfly without the instincts to fly. Other wizards, after getting their magical physiques, would go and get a Class that complimented their physique and gave them complimenting knowledge and assistance. I, however, had the magical physique but I had to learn the knowledge on my own. Like a butterfly that had to fumble around on its own.


    Frustratingly, I didn¡¯t have a magical Class in my past life either, since the government had chosen my Class for me. And even after I escaped from the government, I couldn¡¯t go to a temple to change it, since I would¡¯ve been recognized by the gods no matter how hard I concealed myself.


    So all the magical knowledge and instincts I had for magic was completely self taught, either through learning in The Archives, or through self experimentation or observation of others.


    And it didn¡¯t seem like this handicap was ever going to go away (for the foreseeable future), unless whatever god/goddess that was hunting me decided to turn a blind eye to me entering a temple, but that didn¡¯t seem likely.


    That is to say, I wanted to learn Icelated Star and Icicle Lance with the help of my new AI. Maybe it would be similar to what others experienced with their Class. But training would have to come later, since it was now time to get off the train.


    Some of the others had fallen asleep during the train ride, so they were taking some time to get up and collect their stuff. So, feeling curious about the outside, I said, ¡°I¡¯m going to get off now. I¡¯ll wait for you on the platform.¡±


    They all acknowledged me (at least the ones who weren¡¯t still half asleep did), and I excitedly made my way to the doors that led off the fancy train. The train slowly glided to a stop just as I reached the train doors, and the doors split in the middle and slid open with a whisper.


    I followed the few others getting off of the VIP train car, and stepped onto the hard and smooth light green platform. The surface of the platform had faint glowing lines of different colors showing the way to different places in the station, and I could hear the sound of steps flowing onto the platform as passengers disembarked from the train. Looking above, I could see a metallic interlocking hexagonal structure with clear crystal panels allowing the sunlight to shine down, giving the plants scattered around the platform in silver colored pots their necessary energy, adding a touch of nature to the otherwise clean platform.


    As I came to a stop near a lush orange fern not far from the train, I took some time to take in a deep breath, and I could smell the fresh scent of baked goods, probably coming from one of the shops lining the wall of the platform.


    As I stood there taking in the sights, I absentmindedly fired off one of my divination spell crystals out of habit. It was a habit I had to quickly pick up after I first obtained my freedom in my past life. Whenever I was in a place where watchers usually lurked, like public transport or high profile locations, I would use divination to make sure I wasn¡¯t being closely watched or observed, and it had saved me many times in the past.


    I was completely caught off guard when the divination I had so casually sent out came back with a positive response. My mind immediately cleared and became hyper vigilant of my surroundings, but I didn¡¯t show any outward indication that I had noticed anything was off. Quickly booting up the mental program I used to detect differences in my surroundings, I was very obviously overwhelmed by the massive influx of information.


    But that was to be expected, seeing as I was in a public place with a lot of moment to moment change, but my [Adaptive Mind] had long since gotten used to overloads of information in this life, and I was able to swiftly filter out all of the information I would deem irrelevant to what I was looking for.


    As I casually scanned the crowd, I caught notice of someone who was looking my way as they pretended to be looking at their hand held device.


    Seeing this, I secretly casted a sight enhancement spell to try and get a more detailed look at who was observing me. I was very curious who would want to observe me specifically, when I had no previous presence in the city. As my eyesight enhanced, and my visual motor skills temporarily sharpened, I glanced over and saw who was watching me.


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    They must¡¯ve noticed my gaze moving towards them, because when my eyes landed on them they were looking away from my direction while raising their arms over their head like they were stretching. I only looked at them briefly, but with my memory there was no need to look for long.


    And what I saw was just a normal guy: normal shirt, normal pants, no tattoos- no wait, with his arms over his head, his long sleeves had slumped down enough to barely see the sharp outline of the top part of a tattoo peeking out.


    I couldn¡¯t tell what it was, it mostly looked like some sort of monster with horns to me, but my new AI actually chimed in and said, ¡°High probability match for symbol referring to UNKNOWN-6 organization present within Tri-Heart City.¡±


    UNKNOWN-6? What kind of organization is that?


    My AI responded to my inquiry, ¡°UNKNOWN-6 is one of the major organizations present in Tri-Heart City¡¯s underworld. Not much is publicly known about them, but it has had many secret clashes with all of the city¡¯s major organizations, giving them a high probability of being an independent faction with an unknown goal. Commonly referred to as ¡®The Demons¡¯ due to their tattoo¡¯s design.¡±


    OK then, I guess it¡¯s not related to the god/goddess that¡¯s after me if they¡¯ve clashed with all of the city¡¯s major organizations. That doesn¡¯t completely erase my wariness. However, there¡¯s not much I can currently do to address this situation, so I guess I¡¯ll just try to act normal for now.


    I stood by the orange fern trying to be as uninteresting as possible while waiting for my companions, and it wasn¡¯t long before they all arrived next to me and pulled me along to follow one of the glowing lines on the floor leading to the exit.


    As we walked along, I looked at all of the different shops lining the wall like a normal person. There was a talisman shop, an alchemy shop, an armor/weapon repair shop, and even an artifact shop. All the shops seemed to be catering towards the adventurers that would be going to or coming back from the regional Dungeon, even my companions seemed to be paying attention to the shops.


    All of the different shops had names like ¡®Refreshing Repairs¡¯, or ¡®Venture Artifacts¡¯, and many of them had advertisements trying to get travelers to stop by their shop. I myself was actually intrigued by one of the vibrant displays showing the words, ¡°Need something to get you out of a pinch? Well come by and take a look at our consumable artifacts, they¡¯ll give you the boost you need when you need them.¡±


    Seeing my companions'' looks, I decided to give them an excuse to shop a bit so I could break line of sight with the watcher. Having seen the intriguing display in front of the artifact shop, I said, ¡°Hey, would you all mind if I took some time to look in that artifact shop? I¡¯m interested in their consumable artifacts.¡±


    I expected them to be resistant to the idea, since they seemed so intent on reaching the exit, but I shouldn¡¯t have been surprised when they all agreed with me and broke off to head towards the shop named Refreshing Repairs. Recalling how they had all almost died back in the Anti-Magic Forest, it wasn¡¯t a surprise that they needed to get their armor repaired.


    I shook my head and made my way to the artifact shop.


    While walking into the artifact shop, I noticed that there weren¡¯t any customers inside. Perhaps it was just because of the time of day, or maybe because it wasn¡¯t popular. I didn¡¯t know, but it had no effect on me. So I strode confidently into the shop, determined to get a feel for the artifacts in this city.


    Perhaps because of my Ancestry, I got a little intense when it came to artifacts, and the only person within the shop seemed to notice my intensity.


    The man behind the counter sat up straight and welcomed me into the store, ¡°Welcome to Venture Artifacts customer. Are you perhaps looking for something in particular?¡±


    ¡°No, not really. I was just interested in the ad that said there were consumable artifacts.¡±


    ¡°Consumable artifacts? Indeed there are such things, but as you know, consumable items like potions are much more in demand than consumable artifacts.¡± He reaches under the counter and pulls out a catalog. ¡°So there aren¡¯t many people that come looking for them. But if you¡¯re interested, then this catalog will show you what we have. Though I have to warn you that some of the items might not be currently in stock, so you would have to put in an order, or go to the main store, to get them.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s no problem. I was mostly coming in here to take a look. Consumable artifacts aren¡¯t as quick and easy to produce as other consumables, so I take any chance I can get to look at them when I see them.¡±


    ¡°An artifact enthusiast? Though I can understand why a Wizard would be interested in artifacts, especially someone with as much mana regen as you.¡±


    ¡°Haha, I guess you could say that. Though it¡¯s partially because of my TechnicMorph Ancestry, and I am personally interested as well.¡±


    ¡°Oh, a TechnicMorph?¡± He looked at me like he had just recalled something, ¡°Are you using some sort of transformation artifact?¡±


    ¡°...Uh, I¡¯m definitely a Human.¡± I forgot that TechnicMorphs are pretty exotic. Too exotic to just pass it off as normal. ¡°It¡¯s more of a trace than an actual bloodline, but I guess it still influences me.¡±


    ¡°Ah, I get it.¡± He seemed to somewhat relax, ¡°My parents told me there¡¯s some Aeth in my family tree, though I¡¯ve never thought about what kind of an effect that would have on me in particular.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, it¡¯s like that for me too.¡± Good, he bought it.


    ¡°Honestly, if I wasn¡¯t selling artifacts I might not even know what a TechnicMorph is. But I¡¯ve heard from some colleagues about how fierce TechnicMorphs are when it comes to anything artifact related.¡±


    I talked to the clerk a little more as I browsed through the catalog, and it wasn¡¯t too long before Minex and everyone came along to pick me up. They had dropped off all of the equipment they needed repaired, and now it was time to head off towards the Guild.


    I casually looked around to see if the watcher was still observing me, but they seemed to have disappeared. Much to my relief. Though, as we walked out of the store, I couldn¡¯t help but notice from the edge of my vision the store clerk giving me a subtle look as I left. It was an expression so subtle I almost didn¡¯t catch it, but it held one emotion I was all too familiar with, Greed.


    It was only a hint, but I was almost certain it was because I had mentioned my TechnicMorph Ancestry. I wasn¡¯t exactly sure why there would be greed because of that, but I would have to ask Genesis about it later to make sure it wasn¡¯t anything too crazy, since she was much more informed about social knowledge than I was. And speaking of Genesis, I would have to go through the future message to see what it had about her as well.


    But for now, I had to go along with everyone to get all the Guild and identity preliminary stuff done. So my schedule was looking to be packed not only for the rest of today, but also for tomorrow, since I would have to go around taking care of a few other errands tomorrow.


    In any case, I wasn¡¯t going to have enough free time to go to The Archives for a little while. I was a little bummed out about that. But the fact that not one, not two, but three different people had shown a notable interest in me since exiting the Regional Dungeon, I think that not entering The Archives was the least of my worries.

 The Target - B.2 Chapter 5/52

    -???-


    I navigated the opulent ballroom with a calculated ease, each step a testament to my carefully practiced fa?ade. As I walked around the polished floors, I exchanged pleasantries and false laughter with the elite. The soft strains of music provided a nice backdrop as I observed my surroundings with a keen eye. With every subtle glance, I assessed potential threats and clueless collaborators, my true mission never far from my thoughts. The Humans, blissfully unaware of the spy in their midst, continued their frivolous conversations. As they did that, I walked towards a balcony that overlooked the mansion¡¯s small courtyard.


    While I was alone on the balcony I took some time to oversee the sprawling city laid out beneath our feet, the mansion¡¯s short walls doing little to hide the fact that the opulent mansion was hovering high in the sky like some grand display to the rabble below.


    I, myself, didn¡¯t have many negative feelings towards the Humans; but Demons had a strict hierarchy, so I followed my orders without much care for the harm it would do to the Humans below.


    As I stood on the balcony, I internally debated my next moves I would take in this strange Dungeon city. As I was thinking, the thrill of my deception surged through me, and I almost lost myself and reveled in it. However, as if to chastise me for having such frivolous thoughts, I received a call from one of my more competent subordinates. Taking out the fancy black rectangle the Humans liked to use for communication, I made sure to cast a sound barrier before answering the call.


    ¡°What is it?¡±


    ¡°Leader, I am calling to report on a potential suspect that might be involved in the future prediction anomaly.¡±


    ¡°Ohoh, so soon?¡±


    ¡°Yes Leader. Though it was more by accident than I would like to admit. But the suspicious person is proving difficult to track through magical means, and they are much too wary and vigilant of their surroundings to trail manually.¡±


    ¡°Hmm, I assume you didn¡¯t just call me to tell me how difficult it is right?¡±


    ¡°Yes Leader. I¡¯ve already predicted some of the likely routes and locations the target will head to, and I¡¯ve managed to keep track of their movements so far while I¡¯ve tried to gather more information.¡±


    ¡°As expected. I knew it was right to promote you.¡±


    ¡°Thank you Leader. However, while looking into the target, we discovered a bigger problem. The problem is, the target seems to be involved with the Guild leader¡¯s son. So it would be difficult to apprehend the suspicious person without trouble.¡±


    ¡°Hmm, That is troublesome. Do you need my help to pull a few strings to make it possible?¡±


    ¡°No Leader, at least not yet. I was fortunate enough to be the one that first ran into the target, and was able to give them a meeting location with an invitation to come and talk some more. I¡¯m not absolutely certain they will come, but they didn¡¯t seem against the idea when I was with them. So we should wait a few days to see how things play out before taking any drastic measures.¡±


    Splendid. Having competent subordinates makes everything so much easier.


    ¡°Indeed, your competence never fails to surprise me. If this suspect actually has a favorable interaction with us, then maybe we can use them for our own purposes. Keep doing as you were, and keep me updated if any unexpected situations come up.¡±


    ¡°Yes Leader. That was all I had to report.¡±


    ¡°Alright, then I look forward to your performance.¡±


    With that I hung up the phone and lifted the sound barrier. Everything seemed to be going well with the future prediction problem, due to having such a competent subordinate.


    I was previously having headaches because of the large amount of chaos that had suddenly raged into the spiritual and magical plane out of nowhere. The sudden chaos had been causing, not only me, but every large organization in the city, headaches. So with the news on a possible lead, I was feeling great and ready to get back to my outward play.


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    Because, regardless of the indeterminable future, I had a job to do, and Demon hierarchies didn¡¯t take kindly to failure.


    -Radiant Experience-


    It was a strange experience being called by my Earth name once again. Literally, since my name back on Earth was Experience. It was crazy to think that I hadn¡¯t gone by that name for over two hundred years though. It felt like I was hearing my long forgotten childhood nickname. Every time I heard it there was a slight pause before I recognized that they were talking about me.


    It was jarring every time, but I hoped  it would get easier.


    After leaving the train station, I got to view the floating city in much more detail than was possible from the distant Waystation.


    It was a massive city floating heavily in the sky, and reaching deep underground, but such a description didn¡¯t do it justice.


    It was suspended on enormous spheres of varying materials, some shiny, some colorful, and some with varying levels of opacity. Each visible sphere seemed to be either supporting the buildings around it via metal beams and suspending cords, or were isolated from everything else like a precious gem put on display. The city itself was an architectural marvel, with sleek, futuristic buildings soaring skyward and interconnected by delicate bridges that seem to mock gravity. Lush, verdant gardens flourished atop many of the tall building¡¯s roofs, adding bursts of vibrant life to the predominantly metallic spectacle; with spires and domes glinting in the falling sunlight, reflecting off of the buildings and through the gaps in the web of metal like a kaleidoscope.


    The air seemed to thrum with a gentle hum even from a distance, as if the city itself was alive and breathing. Throughout the sky, airships drifted lazily, and the occasional flash of a distant vehicle streaked across the skyline, leaving white trails in their wake. It was a vision of a world both familiar and fantastical; because although I had lived in this magical world for over two hundred years, this city was a unique sight to behold.


    I had expected to get into an autonav and head into the big city to be registered at the Guild. We did get into an autonav, but, instead of going to the city in the distance, we drove only a few blocks away to a small Guild building near the train station. It seemed that this building was here mostly to handle things related to the Dungeon that we had just come from.


    The others in the group did take care of the few things they had picked up in the Dungeon while we were inside, but it was secondary to our main purpose, which was to get me registered for a Guild membership. The male secretary seemed unfamiliar with the registration process, but he eventually figured it out, and said that I would have to participate in a test, in the main Guild building in the city, in a couple of days if I wanted to get registered.


    I had never signed up as a Guild member in my past life, so I was in for a whole new experience. But the future message would most likely have a few things to say about it, seeing as how it was the only way my companions seemed aware of to get a new and legit identity for me. But I decided to wait until I was alone to go through and search for the information. I mean I had only received the future message around twenty four hours ago and had only somewhat come to terms with the fact that multiple versions of me had basically ¡®died¡¯ and sent back their final words to try and change the future. And yet, despite multiple attempts, I apparently still hadn¡¯t figured out who exactly was after me.


    It just went to show me, once again, how utterly absurd the power level of some of the beings I was up against was. I mean, going up against gods? Pre-Transcendents? If anyone said they were going to do such a thing, they would be called insane. And yet, here I was trying to do just that.


    I shook my head to clear away the useless thoughts. I shouldn¡¯t be worrying about the unknown stuff right now. I need to focus on the present, especially tomorrow. The Radiant before me, I¡¯ll just call him Radiant 13, gave me a time sensitive task of obtaining the black market account of someone who is soon to no longer be in need of it. I don¡¯t know all the details yet, but I¡¯m sure that he said to get into it and change the account details before the account gets hijacked and sold to the highest bidder.


    But that was also something I would save to look through later, when I was alone. And that wouldn¡¯t be too much longer, as we were now all leaving the Guild building after finishing everything.


    I thought that we would all get into an autonav again, and said, ¡°So where in the big city are we all going? It looks a bit intimidating to have to find your way in a place like that.¡±


    Kratimane, or her nickname Kan¨¦, said, ¡°Well, most of us live on the outskirts, so we don¡¯t really have a reason to head into the center city with you. Only Minex and Yesemio will be going with you from here on.¡±


    ¡°Oh, then I guess it¡¯s goodbye.¡±


    She chuckled, ¡°Hehe, more like see you later. If you¡¯re serious about starting anew, then you¡¯ll need to start working, and since you¡¯re going to be a Guild member anyways, then it¡¯s likely that we¡¯ll be seeing eachother again.¡±


    ¡°I guess you¡¯re right about that.¡± It would definitely be pretty suspicious if someone wasn¡¯t working but was still spending money out of nowhere.


    ¡°Well then, see you later Experience. And good luck with your test.¡±


    ¡°Thanks. See you later.¡±


    Everyone else also said their goodbyes, while they dispersed and got into separate autonavs that they had called beforehand. And I joined Minex and Yesemio in their autonav to head off and enter the floating city. Hopefully there wouldn¡¯t be too many unexpected difficulties from here on, but with my luck I didn¡¯t have too much confidence.

 End Of The Day - B.2 Chapter 6/53

    -Radiant-


    I was in the autonav with Minex and Yesemio, going towards the floating part of the city on a 7 lane highway. There were toll gates near the border of the ¡®center city¡¯ as it was called, and all cars driving into the center city either had to go off of the highway to pay at the toll booths, or they would be flagged by automatic surveillance and would be tracked down and forced to pay a fine. Of course autonavs were run by the government so using one already included in the cost of the toll. So traffic down the wide highway was smooth sailing despite the regulations; a sign of good planning and logistics.


    I turned my gaze left and right watching all of the different cars and other vehicles driving on the highway. It was always a sight to see, all of the different ways people decorated and modified their vehicles; being in a city where automatic transportation was both cheap and easy, all of the vehicles were mostly status symbols used to show off and display to others. So the vehicles driving between the autonavs ranged from sleek and futuristic, to impractical and absurd. I even saw a car covered in a bunch of different kinds of plants right next to a sleek silver race car-like vehicle.


    Such a sight wasn¡¯t unique to Tri-Heart City, and was a sight for my civilization deprived eyes. I finally felt that I had returned to a place filled with freedom and people, and I tried to not let the future message dull my feelings of the present.


    However, after enjoying the scenery for a while, I turned away from the outside scenery and focused on the two other passengers in the autonav with me. Minex and Yesemio, who were both sitting together behind me.


    ¡°So, tell me about the city.¡± Of course I didn¡¯t really need to ask questions about the city, but I had to ask about some things I already knew; after all, I needed to have plausible deniability for knowing all the things that I would learn from the future message.


    Yesemio looked up from her device, ¡°Curious? There are a lot of things I could tell you about it. What do you want to know?¡±


    ¡°Hmm.¡± If I was going to ask, then I might as well get some immediately useful information. ¡°Well what¡¯s the best location to shop for a disguise? Something like a mask or a hood. I would feel more comfortable moving around if I had something to cover my face.¡±


    Yesemio nodded, ¡°Well I wouldn¡¯t know any great places for a magical disguise, but if all you want is just a regular mask then I¡¯d recommend a shop called Clean Getaway. It¡¯s a bit away from the main shopping sections, but it has a good selection of stuff like masks and other things.¡±


    Minex stroked his chin, ¡°Ah, that shop. It¡¯s owned by a friend of my father¡¯s, and not many people know of it. I think the owner is a little bit paranoid and doesn¡¯t like to advertise its existence.¡±


    ¡°Hmm, I''ll have to check it out then. Hopefully it¡¯s better than what I could find on my own.¡±


    Minex said, ¡°Ah, yeah, I guess I could loan you some money to buy some things. You¡¯ll be able to pay me back in no time if you work in the Guild.¡±


    ¡°No, no. I have a private account at the back that I can use to withdraw from.¡± Genesis would be able to see me withdrawing from the account, but that¡¯s fine.


    ¡°Well, alright then. As long as you can take care of yourself.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ll pay you back for everything you¡¯ve done for me once I withdraw some money.¡±


    ¡°Oh, there¡¯s no need for that. You saved our lives, it¡¯s the least we can do to pay for a few minor things. I only mentioned a loan because I wouldn¡¯t know what you would be purchasing, and my dad always says,¡± Minex raised his finger and deepened his voice, ¡°Only a fool would spend money on something they don¡¯t understand.¡±


    ¡°Heh, sounds like an interesting guy.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, he¡¯s definitely not ordinary, that''s for sure.¡±


    As we drove through the toll gates and into the city we talked about a few more things, but it wasn¡¯t long before we made it to a hotel that Minex had paid for.


    ¡°We¡¯ve already paid for your accommodations here for the next week. Are you sure you don¡¯t want us to book it for longer? It¡¯s really no big deal for us to help with this.¡±


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    ¡°No, I¡¯ll be fine. Your generosity with helping me get a new identity is more than I could hope for. I don¡¯t want to be any more of a burden than necessary.¡±


    ¡°Well alright, if that¡¯s what you want. I guess I¡¯ll be expecting you at the Guild in a couple days then.¡±


    I nodded and waved them off as I went into the hotel and up to my room. There wasn¡¯t anything interesting about this particular hotel, it was just like any other hotel, so I got to my room without interruption.


    As I got into my hotel room, I looked around at the furnishings. It was nothing fancy, and the room I had in prison was actually even bigger than this room. But I would take this smaller room over my prison room every time.


    However I could feel my hands itching to put things into my Inner World as I looked around. I could feel a rising tension that I had learned to associate with my desire to steal things, but the things in this room were hardly worth stealing. So I used [Mental Operator] to forcefully calm my mind and push away those thoughts, but that was more of a band aid fix than an actual solution. It was similar to using a different Power like [Flight] to fly, it would make it possible to fly, sure, but as soon as the Power ran out of energy I would fall right back down to the earth.


    But that wasn¡¯t to say that it was pointless to use [Mental Operator] either. Just like how [Flight] could allow someone to fly up to the top of a building before falling back down, I could use [Mental Operator] to get to a different mental space before stopping.


    To do that I needed to do something to get into another headspace. The problem was that I didn¡¯t have anything to do around here. This room was rather bland, and I didn¡¯t want to go out when it was already so late at night. So the only real option I could come up with was to go to bed.


    But then I remembered what had happened earlier today at the artifact shop. I had messed up and said I had some TechnicMorph ancestry, and that had caused the other guy to have greed in his eyes for some reason. I had resolved myself to go and ask Genesis about it and see if she could shine some light on my failing understanding of the social situation I had found myself in.


    So I lied down on the bed and entered The Archives. As always I arrived in my personal room and donned a new set of attire, but this time I no longer had to hide my face with identity obscuring glasses, since my avatar in The Archives mimicked my real appearance which I had changed with my Talent. So there was no danger of anyone linking Genesis to the escaped convict Radiant.


    I then walked out into the grand hall and habitually looked up to witness the celestial scene above. The view was simple today, with just a swathe of colorful stars shining their light from above.


    I then looked around to see if Genesis would be here, since it was getting late where I was, and I was on the Western side of Tallen which meant it was just as late if not later wherever Genesis was at.


    I didn¡¯t see her around, but that didn¡¯t mean that she wasn¡¯t here at all, so I decided to walk around for a bit to not only look for Genesis, but also to get my mind away from my kleptic thoughts.


    As I wandered around my mind also wandered to a topic that I liked to think about to get my mind off of things, that being the differences between this world and Earth.


    My wandering mind landed on my recent thoughts of the time of day. On Earth the time of day was determined by where one was on the planet as it spun around like a top, but that same concept didn¡¯t apply to Epidas.


    One had to wonder how there could be such things like days or even cardinal directions in a place that was flat and seemingly infinite. Well when I first had this question and went looking for the answer, I found out that Epidas didn¡¯t have cardinal directions or even a regular day/night cycle; instead, I found that things like a day/night cycle and the cardinal directions only applied to the various ¡®continents¡¯ in Epidas.


    So, on the continent of Waroth, where Tallen was located, North was the center of the mostly circular continent, and south was the outer ring of the continent. The ¡®Sun¡¯, or the day/night cycle moved clockwise around the center, and the cycle of the seasons also followed this pattern; though the cycles sort of broke down near the center of the continent.


    These thoughts were a nice distraction as I wandered the grand hall looking for Genesis, and it wasn¡¯t too long before I actually spotted her standing in one of the more natural areas with grass and trees.


    Walking up to Genesis I greeted her with a smile, ¡°Hi Genesis, it¡¯s good to see you again.¡±


    She looked around, and when she saw me she had a surprised look on her face, ¡°Radiant!¡±


    She looked like she was going to jump towards me, but held herself back and said, ¡°I¡¯m so glad to see that you¡¯re ok. I wasn¡¯t able to visit The Archives for a while, so I was worried about how you were doing.¡±


    ¡°Well, I¡¯m doing fine at the moment. Nothing crazy happened on my way out of the anti-magic forest, and I was able to make it out before its effects ramped up. Though I cut it a bit close and barely made it out by the end of The Rising Dawn.¡±


    She sighed in relief, ¡°That¡¯s good, though maybe next time you shouldn¡¯t go to such a dangerous place to begin with.¡±


    ¡°Heh, well it¡¯s not usually my choice. Bad luck seems to really like me; though I can¡¯t say I¡¯m pleased with the attention.¡±


    Genesis smiled and said, ¡°Well hopefully your newfound freedom will let you stay away from danger. But I guess that depends on you now right?¡±


    I shook my head, ¡°I wish that were the case, but sometimes trouble comes looking for you rather than the other way around.¡±


    Thanks to my past experiences I knew how true those words were, and the future message was a testament to the danger such trouble could bring. I just hoped that Genesis was right, that my new freedom would let me overcome the looming danger.

 Communication - B.2 Chapter 7/54

    I continued to talk with Genesis as we stood in the lush ferns and trees beneath the stars.


    After a while I began to notice that Genesis wasn¡¯t getting any better over time, she was still just as anxious and troubled as she had been at the beginning of our conversation.


    I decided to search through the future message/text for Genesis¡¯ name to see if there was anything mentioned in it about her, and while I was looking through all of the hits on that search, I asked her about what I had come here for.


    ¡°So Genesis, would you happen to know why an artifact shop owner or manager would be greedy if I told them I had some TechnicMorph Ancestry?¡±


    ¡°You told them yourself? Why would you do that?¡±


    I rubbed the back of my neck in embarrassment, ¡°Uh, well, I guess that I¡¯m not very proficient at social interaction and just messed up. It¡¯s not really one of my strong suits.¡±


    ¡°I see.¡± She took on a pensive look, ¡°Well I can think of a few reasons why someone dealing in artifacts would be greedy if they heard that you had TechnicMorph Ancestry. The most obvious reason would be because they would know how valuable a TechnicMorph¡¯s body would be for artifact making, but unless they are hardcore criminals they probably wouldn¡¯t be thinking about killing you or anything like that, so it¡¯s probably not that.¡±


    I nodded at that. Although a TechnicMorph¡¯s body was indeed valuable, I didn¡¯t have much to worry about.


    ¡°Another reason might be because TechnicMorphs are usually great at making artifacts, or at least have the ability to become great at it, since they usually have some sort of Metaphysical Physique related to artifacts in some way. However, unless the person you were talking to was looking to take in an apprentice then I doubt this would be the reason they would be greedy.¡±


    I nodded once again. That shopkeeper didn¡¯t seem to be an Artificer to me.


    ¡°I guess the most reasonable conclusion, for someone being greedy if you told them about your TechnicMorph Ancestry, would be because since TechnicMorphs usually have a physique related to artifacts they also usually carry many different artifacts with them. So unless it¡¯s the previous two reasons, then I would guess that whoever you told this to would probably be greedy for any unique artifacts you might have.¡±


    ¡°Hmm, I guess that makes sense.¡±


    ¡°Of course there could be other reasons, but those are the things I could immediately come up with. If you want I could spend some time coming up with more.¡±


    ¡°No, that won¡¯t be necessary.¡±


    I thought it was weird that Genesis would offer to spend even more of her free time thinking about something so insignificant. However, I couldn¡¯t find any reason for her strange behavior in the future message. In fact, the future message barely had any mention of Genesis at all, and the few mentions of her were just surface level observations and conclusions that completely dismissed Genesis as a relevant concern.


    I was somewhat baffled by the lack of information on Genesis, despite her being one of my only close relations, so I also did a quick search for other people that I personally knew. However, just like Genesis, there was barely any information in the future message about any of my personal connections.


    My recent social failure with the artifact guy had highlighted just how lacking my social skills still were, so I thought that maybe I should try a little harder to improve in this aspect, or at least be more aware of it so I didn¡¯t mess up like before.


    I awkwardly spoke, ¡°Uh, Genesis, it¡¯s a bit awkward to ask, but are you anxious about something?¡±


    She looked a bit surprised, ¡°Hm? Why do you ask?¡±


    I tried to explain myself, ¡°Because you seem to be trying to distract yourself, or something. Normally you wouldn¡¯t be in this rest area of The Archives, and you wouldn¡¯t volunteer to spend time coming up with solutions to my trivial problems like this. It all just, kinda seems like you¡¯re trying to avoid something.¡±


    She looked around, ¡°W-well, I guess. It¡¯s not like it¡¯s a huge deal or anything, but I don¡¯t want to burden you with my problems when you¡¯re already trying to deal with your own.¡±


    Hmm, is this why the future message said that it wasn¡¯t a big deal, but didn¡¯t have any further information? Well, if it¡¯s really not a big deal then so be it, but I think I should get to the bottom of this if for nothing more than to prove to myself that my past selves actually cared enough to ask further.


    I said, ¡°Well I¡¯ve got things mostly under control on my end. So what is it that¡¯s bothering you?¡±


    She fidgeted a little as she seemed to internally struggle whether to say anything or not, but it wasn¡¯t long before she spoke up, ¡°Actually, i-it¡¯s a family problem. You see, my oldest brother, who was set to inherit the family head position in a couple of years, has recently gone missing.¡±


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    Her brother is missing and possibly dead? I stumbled over my words as I tried to comfort her, ¡°I, uh, I¡¯m sorry to hear that. I guess you''re scared about him missing, and that he might be dead?¡±


    She slightly scowled, ¡°Hmph, no, not even a little bit. The jerk and his supporters have never thought very highly of me.¡± She looked away, ¡°It¡¯s because of what him missing is doing to the family situation. Everyone and everything is so chaotic, and the chaos has even started to get me involved, despite the fact that I¡¯m technically not an ¡®heir candidate¡¯ anymore. So, I¡¯m here in The Archives trying to avoid all of the drama and family problems, but I guess I wasn¡¯t doing a very good job of it if it was so easy to see.¡±


    I just stood there shocked as Genesis dropped such a huge bombshell of a personal problem. Not doing a good job? I think that it was good enough to fool me, if not even one of my past selves deemed it necessary to find out about it.


    Genesis noticed my stiff expression, ¡°It¡¯s stupid isn¡¯t it? Compared to your problems, mine are insignificant right?¡±


    Her talking jolted me out of my thoughts, and I responded, ¡°No, Genesis, your problems aren¡¯t insignificant. It¡¯s not like I can really do anything to help you, but I can still support you and talk to you about it, even if I¡¯m dealing with my own stuff. So I would like to help if you allow me to.¡±


    She nervously played with her hair, ¡°I guess it¡¯s okay, if it¡¯s fine with you.¡±


    I nodded, ¡°Alright, then I¡¯ll need more information then. What exactly is the current problem you¡¯re facing, and what is it about the situation that makes you so anxious?¡±


    ¡°Well¡­ since my oldest brother is gone, and there isn¡¯t long before the Head of house position has to be handed over to someone else, all of my siblings are scrambling to gain followers and support to solidify their positions.¡±


    Seems fairly simple so far, ¡°Okay, so are you also trying to do that? Is that why you¡¯re stressed?¡±


    She shook her head, ¡°No, my status as a vassal is pretty much set in stone, since my Personal Talent isn¡¯t the pure bloodline Talent. So, I¡¯m not stressed because I¡¯m trying to change anything like my siblings, I¡¯m stressed because everyone else is trying to get my support.¡±


    I smiled, ¡°Oh, you¡¯re popular now and that¡¯s making you anxious?¡±


    ¡°No, it¡¯s not that, I¡¯m not super introverted like you, Radiant.¡±


    I put my hand to my chest in mock pain, ¡°Oof, that¡¯s harsh.¡±


    ¡°Oh please, now be quiet and listen.¡±


    I didn¡¯t make any move to respond, so she nodded her head and continued.


    ¡°The problem is that literally all of my siblings are trying to pull me to their side, and the pressure just keeps escalating. I can handle it for now, since the conferment ceremony won¡¯t happen for another two or three years, but unless I make my stance clear on who I support, then I¡¯m worried that one of my more aggressive siblings will start to make threats or take action against me; and even if I do decide to support someone, then the others will switch from trying to win me over, to trying to sabotage me.


    ¡°Honestly, I was thinking that I would just stay neutral, and if it got too much then I would remove myself from the equation and hide away until it all blows over. The only problem is that I wouldn¡¯t have anyone to lean on once I leave, since my siblings will undoubtedly have spies on all of my known contacts. Hopefully my oldest brother will make his way back before then and everything will work itself out.¡±


    ¡°Hmm, seems like a long term problem.¡± Maybe that¡¯s why none of my past selves ever noticed anything? Yeah that¡¯s gotta be it, I¡¯m not that bad of a friend. ¡°So there isn¡¯t any immediate problem that¡¯s giving you so much stress?¡±


    ¡°Oh no, there¡¯s a lot of immediate problems. The most frustrating problem is that everyone assumes that I¡¯m backing one of the others, so nobody will leave me alone despite me telling them that I¡¯m not choosing a side.¡±


    I nodded, ¡°I see.¡± I thought for a moment before responding, ¡°Well, are you sure that they will just accept you being a neutral party? How much influence would your participation bring?¡±


    She scratched her neck and said, ¡°Ugh, I don¡¯t know. Shouldn¡¯t they just see that I¡¯m focusing on my own things and not getting involved? It¡¯s not like my participation will automatically win them the succession rights.¡±


    I shook my head, ¡°Genesis, you¡¯re thinking about this too emotionally. Just because you aren¡¯t getting involved doesn¡¯t mean that they¡¯ll assume you¡¯re remaining neutral.¡±


    ¡°That doesn¡¯t make sense, why wouldn¡¯t they when it¡¯s obvious?¡±


    ¡°Genesis, Genesis, Genesis.¡± I sighed, ¡°I can tell that you¡¯ve never done any backroom deals or cloak and dagger politics. Just because you aren¡¯t doing anything, doesn¡¯t mean that everyone will trust what they see. And that¡¯s not even taking into account the fact that your siblings might be trying to make it look like you¡¯re supporting them and not the others.


    ¡°Unless you actively get involved and make sure it¡¯s crystal clear that you are neutral, then they¡¯ll always have suspicions about you. There¡¯s probably a lot more to keep in mind, but I¡¯ll have to think it over and get back to you.¡±


    Genesis looked like she was tasting something especially sour, ¡°Thanks Radiant, I¡¯ll take it into account. I can¡¯t imagine how bad things could¡¯ve gotten before I recognized it myself.¡± She ran her hands through her hair, ¡°I always seem to get emotional when others question my abilities or actions. I wish I was more rational and detached like you.¡±


    I grimaced as I thought about where that had led me, ¡°I don¡¯t know Genesis. It¡¯s a blessing, but it¡¯s also a curse. Sometimes I wonder if I¡¯ve detached myself so much that I¡¯ve lost sight of things that I should care about. So you don¡¯t need to change yourself to be like me. After all, that¡¯s my job.¡±


    She smiled at my attempt to lighten the mood.


    I said, ¡°Well, it¡¯s getting pretty late, so I¡¯m going to get to bed now. I¡¯ll see what more I can come up with and try to get back to you by the end of tomorrow.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, me too. I was already tired before I even came to The Archives. I¡¯ll see you tomorrow then.¡±


    I nodded, and we both disconnected from The Archives.


    I opened my eyes back on my bed in the hotel, my thoughts filled with questions about what the future message¡¯s lack of information said about myself and what I was lacking.