《Spatial storage of all things ( Dropped )》


 Prologue

    The first thing that came to Luke''s mind is: ''how the hell did it come to this ?!''


    October 25th, 2020 an ordinary date for an ordinary day. That was supposed to be like every other day, but it seems like a ''god'' decided that it wouldn''t be.


    " Humans from the earth! You will be the new recruits of our army! Of course, you can''t do anything with your power, but we are very surprised, excited and proud of your achievements so far without mana. You have been rated as a B potential species and thanks to this, you will have the honor to serve your universe as soldiers or generals for the most outstanding of you. From now on my system will personally help you in your evolution so that you can survive what is to come. "


    After that monologue from the ''god'', every human of earth heard a boot sound and saw a blue screen in which was written : *welcome to the system interface, your species has been chosen as recruits to the universe army. Every human between 12 and 65 years old will begin the tutorial. All the other ones will be sent to a nurturing camp where their living conditions will entirely depend on your performance.*


    ....


    In an old building of the southern part of flying snow city (a/n: got the ref ?), a young man who appears to be 22 years old muttered


    "great! A new battlefield! At the universe level nonetheless! haha...Seems like even the universe wants me to fight" While saying this, he stood up and began to explore the interface.


    *welcome human to the system interface, you will be teleported to the hunting grounds in 20 minutes, please state your name.*


    Seeing this, the black-haired, violet-eyed youth said his name: Luke


    The youth named Luke decided against saying his surname since he thinks that it is meaningless.


    *boot...your name has been registered, Luke


    If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.You have four options available :


    1. Status


    2. Quest


    3. Shop


    4. Chat


    Seeing the options, Luke immediately ruled out using the Chat option.


    '' hmmm...I should first look into the status page'' he thought and clicked on it.


    *status :


    name : Luke


    Species : tier one human


    vitality : 11


    strength : 14


    agility : 18


    intelligence : 14


    resilience : 14


    mana : 10


    Inherited ability: spatial storage ???


    skills: dagger mastery B


    firearm mastery B


    stealth mastery C


    poison mastery C


    money: 000 *


    Looking through his status, Luke seemed satisfied


    ''well, I deduce that the average of humanity must be 10 or 7 since not everyone is an able-bodied grown man. And spatial storage huh... it should be good since there is no inventory. Let''s see the specifics''


    He then selected his ability to spatial storage


    * spatial storage ??? : a 10 cubic meter space that can store anything. *


    ''Ohh, great, from the description it seems like I gained an extremely strong ability, though there still needs some experimenting and questions marks? Seems like this will be fun.'' He thought with an excited grin on his face.


    After this, he decided to browse the shop, not that he could buy anything


    * shop :


    1. food


    2. tools


    3. potions


    4. spells *


    As he was about to select the spells section for more details, the system announced :


    * As you have no currency, it''s useless to explore the store''s functions any further. *


    Hearing the system''s prompt, Luke decided to wait for his teleportation while thinking


    '' Well, the options seem pretty self-explanatory. One thing that is good is that food, weapons and daily necessities will be provided by the system. The potions should be there to treat wounds and replenish mana, maybe there would be some that will help me to become stronger. As for the spells section, hmm... the spells will be either separated into tiers or classes'' As he was deep in thought and playing with a poison-coated dagger, he heard the system announcing his teleportation


    * You will be teleported to the hunting zone in 10 seconds


    10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1-0 good luck soldier Luke *


    This was the last thing he heard before being covered by blinding violet light, just like 4 other billion people, though they were covered by a blinding white light instead.

 Beginner zone

    As the light died out, Luke slowly opened his eyes and observed his surroundings. He was in a great plain filled with green grass with mountains barely visible in the distance. He looked up and saw the yellow sun and blue sky littered with clouds creating little patches of shadow over the ground. His first thought was '' what a beautiful scenery! Furthermore, It seems to still be earth. And the air! It doesn''t smell pollution for once, nor does it smell like feces.''


    He took a big inspiration while closing his eyes, with a small smile on his face. '' Ohh how great it is to breathe pure air for once '' As he was reveling on the new feelings, he heard the system prompt


    * Human Luke, you have been teleported to the beginner hunting zone 021, please wait for the monsters to be spawned, the first hunt will begin in 30 seconds *


    As he heard this, he prepared himself.


    He took out the two daggers that were always on himself and began to look for a hiding spot. He found a small tree 70 meters away from him and sprinted to hide there. For the remaining time, he decided to ask something that mildly bothered him


    '' System, why is it that weapons are not provided since we are here to hunt? ''


    * As you already have a weapon and even a skill corresponding to it, I decided against presenting you anything, besides, these daggers are your luck since all weapons provided for the first hunt are basic and of much lesser quality. *


    '' Then why don''t I have my gun? ''


    * Guns are prohibited till the third hunt *


    As he was about to ask more questions, the system announced that time is up.


    * The monsters will now be spawned


    Boot... first common quest: defeat the 25 goblins


    Upon completion of the quest, you will be teleported to the shared hunting grounds where you will be able to encounter other humans and work with them to complete the second quest. *


    After that, hideous, short, green-skinned creatures appeared in random locations within 100 meters of him.


    Immediately, Luke quietly killed 7 goblins near him with a stab to the throat.


    Of course, with the sound of the falling bodies, the other goblins became aware of his presence and ran to him with their short sticks while screaming " uuaaaarrrghhhhh"


    As he watched them scramble towards him he lifted his right arm while kicking on the ground and quickly stabbed a goblin to the heart. He then stepped back evading the goblins'' short sticks. In this way, he killed all the goblins in the hunting grounds in a hit and run tactics and heard the system''s prompt.


    * boot... you have successfully completed the quest in 21 seconds, you have been awarded 25 points... calculating... you are the fastest human to complete the quest... You have been awarded 500 points... you will be teleported to the common hunting grounds in 9,39 minutes. *


    Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.'' ...that was unexpectedly disappointing...well whatever, let''s just browse through the shop''


    * shop :


    1. food


    2. tools


    3. potions


    4. spells *


    ''I don''t have much time so let''s go through the most urgent one. ''


    He then selected the spells option


    * calculating your elements... space and darkness elements found... tier one spells :


    darkness walk: 50 PTS cost: 20 mana/min


    dark hand: 60 PTS cost: 1 mana


    spacewalk: 200 PTS cost: 10 mana/min


    space blades : 220 PTS * cost : 2 mana


    Seeing what the system offered, Luke decided to first look at the abilities description


    * darkness walk: covers the body with a veil of darkness. Greatly increase stealth in dark areas


    dark hand: covers the hand with a veil of darkness that greatly increases the power and corrosiveness of your attacks. Can be applied to weapons.


    spacewalk: greatly increase movement speed by bending space


    space blades: creates slight fissures in space that can greatly increase the sharpness of your attacks. *


    '' hmm... all the abilities seem impressive but I don''t have enough points so I will choose the most obvious two.''


    Luke then selected spacewalk and dark hand


    * deducting 260 pts, 265 pts are left. *


    Immediately after that, his head ached and he received the information on how to use the abilities. '' Perfect, now let''s see if my ability is as great as I expect it to be ''


    Luke then used his dark hand ability and as the name implies, his hands were covered by a veil of darkness. He tried punching the tree that was near him and was very pleased with the outcome. The tree had a dent in the form of his fist and emitted sizzling sounds as it was corroding. '' Good, now the real deal '' He activated his spatial storage ability and tried to absorb the remaining darkness on the tree but it failed. Now he activated the dark hand spell and tried to absorb it.


    ''As I thought it is a success! haha, now for the remaining 3 minutes, I will keep activating dark hand and absorb it but before that, let''s try space walk ''


    Immediately after, he ran while activating the ability. He fell since he was not used to the space bend. He tried again with slower movements and kept accelerating until he was at his peak speed. '' it seems like it doubled my speed, pretty strong for a tier one ability ''


    What he didn''t know but expected was that tier one space elemental spells are stronger than other elements since they were more expensive than the darkness that was also very expensive considering that other people will mostly have 25 PTS. They would be meaningless if the cost of spells was that much. At the same time, he pitied the other people who had elements that have spells as expensive as his.


    '' Now then let''s browse the potions part while storing dark hands. ''


    * potions: tier one :


    vitality enhance: 10 pts


    intelligence enhance: 10 pts


    strength enhance: 10 pts


    agility enhance: 10 pts


    resilience enhance: 10 pts


    healing potion: 10 pts


    Effects: all enhancing potion add 1 stat point the chosen attribute


    healing potion can help recover from heavy injuries *


    Luke was stunned seeing this but immediately bought what he needed : 3 healing potions, 10 agility enhance, 10 resilience enhance and 3 vitality enhance and used the enhancement.


    * 260 PTS deducted, remaining points: 5. *


    He stored them and asked why there is no mana replenish or enhance


    * this will be brought up in the second quest... You will now be teleported to the common hunting grounds. Good luck soldier Luke *

 Common hunting grounds and others

    After being blinded by the violet light a second time, Luke was teleported to the common hunting grounds.


    As he opened his eyes, he saw the brown ground with no greenery, no trees and well, nothing other than humans, lots. He estimated the number to be something like a hundred. Just like him, they were all observing their surroundings with some people relatively calm and others quite panicked.


    * Humans, you''ve been transported to the common hunting grounds. A CHG is an area created to nurture a hundred people so that they can learn the basics. Now, please wait for the second quest to begin, which will be in 30 minutes.*


    As he heard the system prompt, Luke had an inkling, well, he was sure that humans were just numbers to the system, though, he couldn''t be sure of its goal.


    He knew that the system manager wanted an army, but at the same time, he thought that he also wanted powerhouses.


    '' so is this a group nurturing or a one for oneself? I hope it''s the latter, I don''t like groups, too easy to be betrayed, taken advantage of, or, most likely be relied upon in my case '' ... Well nobody here seems to be disabled or sick, were they cured or put in a single group?


    As he was making conjectures in his head, other people were more... talkative


    " Excuse me, sirs and madams, can we please discuss all of this? " A red-haired muscled man asked, from his ''charisma'' he was most likely a wannabe leader


    " Yeah, what''s this sh*t, that''s so weird! First, we were transferred to a plain with goblins that we had to kill and then here ?! And what''s up with the young and elderly? What happened to them? " Rambled a middle-aged Latinos who were clearly of the agitated group, or in Luke''s own vocabulary, the fodder group.


    Then multiple sounds of the agreement were heard and another wannabe leader took the lead to speak " Hello everyone, I''m Steven. I don''t know what is happening but if we were to refer to what the system manager said, then we are soldiers or at least future soldiers, and we are weak. Furthermore, I believe you all saw the game like interface and heard the system right? Well, I guess that''s what will permit us to get stronger and survive. "


    '' F*cking genius! Now that''s someone who doesn''t want to be fodder here. tsk, saying what anyone can infer first to place himself above the mass. '' Luke thought while shaking his head. He despised these kinds of people but he despised, even more, the fodder who would follow them. '' Cheh at least he has more chances at surviving than most people''


    And while Luke was busy being sarcastic, wannabe leader 2: Steven, continued


    " As for the young and elderly, it seems like the system manager wants to make us have a goal to strive. After all, they might be treated like shit if we don''t do his bidding. "The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.


    " Yeah, but let''s talk about a more pressing matter. What may be the next quest? And how can we ALL survive? I think we should share our abilities and work as a team, don''t you think so ?" said in a ''convincing'' manner wannabe leader red hair.


    From what they said it seems like red hair doesn''t have a family because he just couldn''t overlook this so simply if he had, while Steven does. As for the fodder-err... the mob-err... the other people( f*cking hard to not sound despising) they most likely thought that they should follow the advice of red hair since it indeed is the most pressing matter and that them surviving means the hostages-err... the children and old ones surviving. (goddammit)


    So in that fashion, they began talking about their abilities and what they can do. Of course, red hair kept his to himself that smartass.


    Then Luke went to sit in a corner.


    While this was going on, a woman behind Luke tapped his shoulder to initiate a conversation


    " Hi, my name is Sheila, would you mind me tagging along? " Sheila was a blond woman with blue eyes (a/n: no blond jokes plz) She asked him with a cheerful expression.


    " No, of course, you can come, we are all in the same boat after all and my name is Luke by the way " replied Luke with a warm face, while in his head he still had the same cold indifferent face. Why does he appear warm you may ask, it''s because as he was an assassin if he could not use his face or disposition to make people drop their guard, he would be a failure. After all, making your target drop his guard around you is half the work.


    He thought that she either wanted to rely on him since he appeared strong and calm or that she was only here for information and/or manpower.


    " great ! thanks! You see, I was quite worried and afraid by myself and with all that is happening, I really don''t know what to think !"


    Sheila said with a quite pitiful expression.


    Of course, Luke knew that she only came here to make use of him, furthermore, he saw through her deception quite easily. She was only faking her expression since it was too exaggerated to be true.


    " Well you see, I''m also lost here, but I think I can pull it off since I have a quite useful ability you see " He bragged about his strength since he would look like an easier pray like this. That and a slight blush on his cheeks makes him look like a veeeeery easy prey and he asked back


    " what is your ability by the way? I can coat my hand with a kind of dark energy, it''s the power you see, last time I checked, I could leave a dent on a tree " He made himself sound like he was bragging to court her and the result was as expected


    " whoa really !? that''s wonderful, I would feel safer near you " She said this with blush and impressed expression " As for my ability, I can float 2 meters off the ground for a few minutes "


    " well that''s a great ability to survive you got lucky " he replied with an equally amazing face


    They then chatted for a while like and what Luke could make out of her words was that :


    first: few people could buy something from the shop since it''s too expensive and relied on their awakened ability, wind spells, for example, cost 20~30 PTS, which really made him pity people with strong elements like his


    second: she wants him to be her meat shield


    third: the facade that makes him look like an easy prey is working very well


    fourth: she doesn''t have a boyfriend, useless information but it also means she really wants him to be her meat shield.


    fifth: others had to face 5 goblins instead of 25 like him and sold the ''loot'' for points which he forgot about thanks to him having too much money to care at that time ''damnit''


    sixth: he could only store 110 dark hands in the end


    seventh: goblins are tier 0 species

 Second quest

    *the second quest will begin in 60 seconds. Please prepare yourselves well.


    The goal of the second quest is to either survive 3 waves of monster attacks as a group or take the solo quest which is to defeat a wave singlehandedly.


    Warning: the solo quest is way harder and offers fewer chances of living


    Anyone taking the solo quest does not decrease the number of monsters for the group


    Additional rewards will be granted depending on your actions.


    Good luck humans *


    Hearing the system prompt triggered a chorus of voices and chatter. Most of the people were quite afraid of the quest though, not too much. After all, they all passed the first quest which involved killing 5 goblins.


    Logically, it''s time for the now unofficial leaders to speak


    " You all heard that right? Then if anyone plans on taking the solo quest, say so now please so that we can prepare properly." Red hair began in a serious tone and Steven continued " yes please, we need to know how many people will fight and if it''s possible, no one should take it. I believe we are all smart people, if the system said that it''s harder then it should be way more dangerous"


    ''It seems like these two really want to take hold of the control.'' Luke was sneering to himself while showing a thinking expression. Of course, he will take the solo quest but what''s the point of saying it? So he observed other people while remaining silent.


    " I will go solo ! " declared a black-haired woman, causing everyone to look at her. Before the two ''leaders'' could say anything, 7 other voices resounded to say that they will do the same.


    The people going solo either are confident like Luke or just greedy since with more danger comes more benefits. That was not always the case before but with the fairness, the system displayed until now, that was most likely the case.


    "Are you really all sure about that? it will be dangerous for you and make ALL of us face more danger as well! " Said the kindest of the two: StevenSupport creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.


    Upon him saying that some soloists, of course, had guilty looks and second thoughts of doing it while some just don''t care.


    " So, will you participate in the group quest Luke? " Asked Sheila with a hopeful expression


    Luke hesitated then said " I will try the solo quest, I think it''s the MC''s way...huh I mean the way to become a powerhouse, you should stay with the group though, with your ability, you will be able to survive " He had ''a hard time keeping his face straight and not blushing ''


    Sheila giggled at his antics " so you want the solo quest for something so silly haha, sorry but you just didn''t look like someone who would have this kind of fantasies "


    Luke had an even harder time keeping his face straight but still advised " wu-well... try to stay alive and I will do the same " Luke said while thinking '' maybe I should have sported an indifferent face, wouldn''t have to spew all this shit. well, it''s time anyway.''


    " Giggle... I will, and be careful "


    * the second quest begins now, choose group quest or solo quest *


    '' solo quest ''


    * you will be teleported to your solo quest site *


    As the system finished, Luke was teleported but the violet light didn''t show up this time.


    Luke was teleported back to where he fought (massacred) the goblins so he once again got on top of the tree.


    Then he searched his pockets and found his daggers which he readied. As for why he didn''t store them, that''s because old habits are difficult to erase.


    '' So, what about mana replenish and enhance? ''


    * They will be in the shop after the third quest


    mana replenish: 20 PTS


    mana enhance 30 PTS *


    These are very expensive but buying them should be worth it, even more so for Luke who could store dark hands faster like this


    Luke didn''t mull over it for long and thought of a more pressing matter.


    '' The fact that I had to face 5 times more goblins means that the quests are harder for me. At the same time, I get more benefits. So that ''god'' deems me worthy of being a human with potential...He said general, and this will be an army so most likely he thinks I can reach the upper ranks. '' While he was thinking, the system cut him off.


    * The monsters will spawn immediately, good luck human *


    With that 500 goblins spawned. 400 of them had daggers, 80 had bows and 20 had canes.


    Seeing that, Luke thought '' this will be fun ''


    * solo quest: stay alive for 20 minutes


    rewards: 1 point per enemy killed and a special reward if all enemies are killed *


    Hearing the system, he decided that he would kill them all the fastest way possible so that he can once again benefit, even though he is not sure that there are any anymore.


    Luke immediately released all of his stored dark hands and seeing the results he couldn''t help but say "oh boy ... " The result of stacking more than a hundred dark hands was terrific, to say the least.

 Oh boy

    From the August 6th, 1945 and onwards, humans used objects that symbolized mass destruction. Each new generation of these weapons was more destructive than the last and before the system came in, humans were potentially able to thoroughly destroy life on earth.


    A result of the combination of science, greed, hatred, and genius. These weapons contributed greatly to make humanity a B rated potential species (the internet being the other major contributor )


    In fact, the only thing keeping the humans from having an A-rated potential is that even in the face of a common enemy, they still can''t fight it together and are divided. (pollution)


    Now, since the system appeared, a single man, without science, genius, and other objects were able to make a miniature version of this weapon with only his abilities.


    " madness, pure madness ... and here I thought I specialized in one Vs one ... My ability made a tier one spell a small nuke ... "


    In place of the hideous, green, shorty congregation was now a blank. Yes, a blank with writhing darkness that still tries to corrode the ground. There were still corroding corpses here and there with a thin black fog.


    Even Luke who only had an ever-present indifferent face when he was by himself couldn''t help but be gobsmacked at this ability. '' it''s really a cheat '' ( number 4 ability of the universe )


    Then he observed around and saw that 8 of the cane holding goblins were out of range and alive. He dashed towards them using spacewalk and slashed at them with his daggers while they were still shocked.


    While killing them, he couldn''t help but marvel at his changed body. He already had very high agility which certainly wasn''t only running speed but it included dexterity and nerves responding. The only problem was that his perception didn''t increase so he was almost seeing blurs by his movement . '' Since perception doesn''t increase with agility, it most certainly will increase with intelligence, so I will have to invest into it as well ... thinking back, intelligence should be a fairly important stat. I don''t think it will make me smarter but critical thinking, perception, and memory should be enhanced. Furthermore, from games, it is maybe connected to mana ''


    Aaaaand the system cut him off like always


    * congratulations human Luke, you completed the quest in 10 seconds... calculating...as this was a feat never thought possible you earned a special reward... calculating... you earned a vial of species evolution and 500 PTS *Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.


    '' Uh huh, now let''s see what is that vial, though I already have an idea.


    * vial of species evolution T2: a medicine made for the evolution of the existence of it''s user to tier 2


    _ enhance soul to T2


    _ enhance body to T2


    _ enhance mind to T2 *


    '' what are the benefits of advancing to T2? ''


    His question might sound silly but if he had ever learned anything the hard way, it''s that silly questions are often the ones that should be asked no matter what.


    * Becoming a T2 species :


    _ gives you the right to tier 2 spells


    _ freely makes your innate ability evolve once


    _ makes your presence deterrent towards lower species ( tier one ) thanks to your strengthened soul.


    _ You will be recognized as a soldier *


    '' Alright then let''s become a tier 2 species '' He quickly decided since well, the benefits are huge but before he could drink it, he heard the system once again


    * Warning: As the first to have the qualifications to become a T2 of your entire species, you will become it''s champion and will participate at the champions battlefield. Moreover, as a breaker of record, you will be sent to the elite one.


    There you will have to fight other champions and beasts to strive for your own military career and your species''s wellbeing.


    Thanks to your outstanding performance, your species''s noncombatants (the old and young) treatment will evolve from poor to ordinary.


    It''s strongly advised to wait until the end of the third quest for more personal benefits. *


    '' Personal benefits? Then let''s wait for the third quest. ''


    * update: since you were too outstanding, you will have a boss fight.


    For your boss fight, you will be faced against a beginner tier 2 species. You will have to either kill it or last 15 minutes


    rewards: 500 points for the kill


    200 points for lasting 15 minutes


    The boss will spawn in 5 minutes, prepare well *


    '' Alright then let''s first store dark hands again, and as it will be my trump card in the future I can''t use everything in a single shot anymore. In only 5 mins, I won''t be able to store a lot. Hmm! wait ! intelligence should be related to mana restore since right now I restore 1 mana every 20 seconds, so 3 mana/min with 14 ints which means a normal human should be 1.5 mana/min (average of humanity: 7 if you forgot . a/n: I forgot). For this fight, I will have 25 dark hands, no I will buy 10 ints enhance, like this I will have 35 dark hands with 5 mana/min '' ( he originally has 10 mana )


    He then bought and used them quickly.


    For the next 5 minutes, Luke decided to rest since the mental fatigue of depleting his mana couldn''t be ignored.


    * The boss will spawn immediately, good luck soldier Luke * '' heh I''m already recognized as a soldier? whatever ''


    just as the system finished, a muscular, 3 meters tall hideous ogre appeared in front of Luke and he couldn''t help but have his lips twitch.


    '' Why the f*ck is it blue? ''

 Boss fight

    In contrast to the commonly seen green skin of goblins stood a blue-skinned ogre with two protruding teeth and blue eyes. It had a 1 meter long, thick mace in each hand and ripped pants.


    '' This blue color... is it because it is water attributed or does the system think it''s just more stylish? ''


    Luke quickly had his answer though because when the ogre spotted him, it immediately released a roar that paralyzed him and breathed fire from its mouth. A blue colored fire breath that looked like it engulfed all of the surroundings. As he saw it, Luke tried to dodge to the side but couldn''t because of the paralysis effect of the ogre''s roar. So he released 10 dark hands to his side that created an explosion which projected him out of the way. Then he looked at how the dark hands'' corroding gases affected his opponent. And he once again had his lips twitch as the ogre was somehow making an expression that something tickles it.


    '' No effect huh, if I still had the 100 dark hands and released them I would have been able to kill it quickly but now it will get complicated. That thing has a huge defense, his resilience and vitality stats should be high. '' As he mulled it over, he formed a serious expression and decided to use all cards at hand. He dashed to the tree he was resting on and peeled off some bark which he stored. Of course, the ogre wouldn''t just look at its prey doing whatever it wanted so it also dashed towards Luke and swung it''s mace while once again roaring which once again paralyzed Luke. This time, he didn''t evade but just blocked however he could thank his daggers.


    But the strength of the blow was too much for him. He was launched back nearly 10 meters and fell face first to the ground with shaking arms and two lower ribs were broken. A single blow from the ogre was so devastating, furthermore, it also has a paralyzing effect. Luke couldn''t move at all and he could only watch the ogre taking a deep breath and release his fire the next instant. He quickly released 5 dark hands on the ground which vertically launched him off the ground and created a small hole in which he fell back.


    Then as the paralysis went off, he dashed out using spacewalk to distance himself from the ogre but it again roared and paralyzed him. This was driving him crazy. It''s as if the ogre was a specially chosen opponent to perfectly counter him... Yes, the system specifically matched it against him knowing full well that it would corner him, that he was sure. This time, the ogre swung its two maces at the same time as if to finish him but Luke just wouldn''t die like this so he stacked 10 dark hands at the face of the ogre which disoriented it and stopped the paralysis. Thanks to this, he learned that the paralysis immediately wears off after the ogre is either attacked or that his concentration is shaken and that it had a 10 seconds cooldown.This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.


    He then sent with all his strength the tree barks he stored earlier at its face in hopes of blinding it while using his dark hands just in front of it. Thankfully, he obtained the desired result, the ogre, busy wiping the barks off its face had his foot in the depression created from the dark hands and Luke stacked five of them to make fall. As he fell the ogre was about to release another roar but seeing this, Luke shoved all the earth and grass he could find around him down its throat making it gag.


    Then ran up its fallen body to stab its eyes with his two daggers coated in the darkness of his spell.


    "rgahgahgahr" the ogre scream-roared or at least tried since it was still choking on what was still inside its throat.


    Luke wouldn''t let this opportunity pass by so he quickly slashed multiple times at the face and neck of the monster even though it only left skin deep marks. Still, this was enough since his daggers were coated in powerful poison so he retreated 5 meters while the ogre was squirming on the ground, quickly losing strength.


    Luke then chugged down one of his three health potions and observed the ogre as he was quickly healing his injuries and he made a conclusion with a black face


    '' The color of its skin was made to confuse me, I was trolled ''


    But as if to make a last-ditch effort, the ogre got back on its feet and approached Luke step by step with eyes or what remains of them brimming with hatred. This shouldn''t affect Luke in normal times but he felt a kind of primal fear seeing it. That''s not because he was afraid of it but because his very soul was releasing it and felt his body becoming heavy, having a harder time moving, incapacitating a part of his fighting strength.


    '' this should be its tier two soul suppressing my own '' Luke thought gravely.


    As the ogre advanced towards him, Luke retreated and then it fell, knee first, and its lower body second. Its two maces still gripped firmly in its hands were shaking. Or rather its arms were shaking while it tried to crawl towards Luke. But after only 3 meters it stopped and couldn''t move anymore.


    As it was dying, Luke couldn''t help but think that the system really had him this time. Not only was it a counter for him, even then it had so many advantages over him, that coupled with its nonsensical willpower made it an incredible opponent. Now he was waiting for the system''s prompt but heard nothing and found it weird


    '' Don''t tell me the system wants to troll me again ?! ''

 Boss fight 2

    With a black face, Luke searched around for a hidden boss or something but found nothing. He frowned then looked back to the ogre that he ''killed''


    It was where he left it on the ground but it was faintly glowing and the next instant, it started to levitate while glowing brighter and brighter. Then it stopped and got back down to the ground but on its feet with all of its previous injuries healed.


    It opened its mystical blue eyes, gazing at Luke and roared '' Alright I was trolled, twice ''


    Seeing the enemy he had so hardly killed get back up, Luke sighed and released all his remaining dark hands at its face, ending the paralysis then backed away.


    Without any stored dark hands and without mana, he had to think of a way to win this fight. No, his situation is too precarious to even win, he has to concentrate on surviving so he began to run. He still had 6 minutes to survive.


    Moreover, he had to find a way to cancel that annoying roaring ability. He isn''t naive enough to believe that the same tactic would work twice. After all, even if it looks dumb, it certainly wouldn''t forget what killed it, and yes it was killed before. The only explanation he could come up with is that it has a revive ability or something similar.


    Anyway, Luke is in deep shit right now. He is tired both physically and mentally and has no trump cards anymore. However, unlike the typical villain, the ogre wouldn''t just let him be. It released a fire breath towards the fleeing Luke which scorched his back and propelled him forward.


    Gritting his teeth, he used the strength of the attack to accelerate. His direction was the nearest mountain that he saw in the first trial. It''s not that he hoped to climb it since it''s too far, but he ran towards it because of the sparse trees on the way.


    The ogre chased after him and could roar at any moment. He hoped he could get to a tree before that and his hope realized. He hastily peeled off some barks with his daggers and began to look behind him, waiting for the ogre to open its mouth. The latter though recognized his action and turned its head before roaring '' why the hell is it that smart '' thought a greatly frustrated Luke but using the fact that it couldn''t see him for a split second, he threw out some barks he stored at its eyes the hardest way he could before being stunned.You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.


    The ogre, proud of its intelligence turned its head smugly only to receive the barks in its eyes. It was not enough to puncture the eyes but more than enough to cause so much pain that the paralysis wore off and the ogre to whimper in pain. Luke then resumed his strategical retreat, the goal is to create the most distance possible between the whimpy ogre and him. After 30 seconds of wiping its eyes, the ogre also resumed the chase. '' Damn now I can only hope that the paralysis is not indefinite. ''


    As he thought this, the ogre once again roared, paralyzing him. And only after 5 seconds, could he move.


    Now, this is a race against time. They originally should run at the same pace but Luke had a 30 seconds advance. Unfortunately, every 10 seconds he loses 5 because of the roar which should be considered a cheat for most people but talking about the cheat, he was the last that should complain in case he incurred the universe''s wrath.


    Like this, he would only last 3 minutes before being caught and killed but he used his spacewalk which made him twice faster and was able to pull it off. After the six minutes, the ogre chasing him gradually faded. It still looked at him with overflowing hatred as it disappeared, though, Luke was the same, he suffered greatly by its hands and was even chased like a dog. He only hoped he could have his vengeance as soon as possible.


    Aaaaaaaand the system prompt which he was so damn waiting for resounded.


    * Congratulations for surviving the boss soldier Luke... 200PTS awarded. You will be teleported to the CHG in 5 minutes. There, you will have to wait for the third quest. *


    '' phew, damn it ... a boss that not only counters me but even has a revival ability? How could they make a second quest so absurd? ''


    What he knew but chose to ignore because of his ever-present subjectivity was that he originally finished the quest in an absurd way.


    '' sigh... anyway show me my money ''


    * money: 605 PTS *


    '' shop, potions ''


    * potions : tier one :


    vitality enhance : 10 pts


    intelligence enhance : 10 pts


    strength enhance : 10 pts


    agility enhance : 10 pts


    resilience enhance : 10 pts


    healing potion : 10 pts *


    '' hmm... buy 5 healing potions and 10 of each of the other potions '' After buying them, he used them '' show me my status now ''


    *status :


    name: Luke


    Species: tier one human (+)


    vitality: 24


    strength: 24


    agility: 38


    intelligence: 34


    resilience: 34


    mana: 10


    Inherited ability: spatial storage ???


    skills: dagger mastery B


    firearm mastery B


    stealth mastery C


    poison mastery C


    spells: spacewalk tier one


    dark hands tier one


    money: 55 PTS *


    Luke used the remaining time to store some dark hands while waiting for teleportation.


    ...


    5 minutes later the system resounded


    * Soldier, you will immediately be teleported to the common hunting grounds *


    Covered by the violet light again, Luke closed his eyes, reopened them an instant later and observed his surroundings. He couldn''t help but form a mental smirk from what he saw.

 Sh*try film

    '' Well well well what do we have here? ''


    As he looked around, he quickly saw wannabe leader red hair, wannabe leader Steven and Sheila. Red hair and Sheila were totally unharmed while Steven had a few deep injuries, but compared to the mob, he was relatively fine. Speaking of the mob, its number lessened quite a bit. Roughly counting, there were 60 survivors.


    Some had heavy injuries while others had more superficial ones. What caught his interest was the figure of Sheila kneeling by the side of a very heavily injured buff man. Looking at this Luke''s first thought was that she found another meat shield while he was not here.


    The man looked... entranced by her and Luke wouldn''t be surprised if he began an emotional speech depicting how he would do anything for her, even at the cost of his life... and that dumbass did


    " cough Sheila, I''m relieved that I actually protected you cough... " '' Aaaaaawwww what a touching moment, if this continues anymore I will cry '' To obtain Luke''s honest thoughts, you just have to replace touching by cringy and cry by vomit... but that dumbf*ck continued


    " It seems like, I will only fulfill half of my promise cough " Of course, such a scene took everyone''s attention and they all looked at him with sympathy for the most part while Sheila was busy pretending to cry. Most, because there are not only idiots here.


    '' But... why does he look like he is on his death bed? The injuries are heavy sure, but it''s nothing a good ol'' health potion can''t cure... don''t tell me he even forgot about that in his idiocy? He just can''t be that dumb right? '' He is. Proof of that being: " I don''t have much but please take my loot and my little savings. It should at least help you get out of this alive cough " He gave her more than enough to save someone cancerous, afflicted by A.I.D.S, having chopped off limbs and a stick shoved up his ass. And this thing isn''t even finished


    " cough, we didn''t know each other for long but I think I found love with you cough my last moments are at least happy, unlike my life cough cough cough " And he died.


    '' ! ... seriously ? is that piece of shit serious? How the hell did he get that entranced by this girl in only 20 f*cking MINUTES ?!!!!!!! And here I thought I experienced everything. My vision in life just changed a great deal here. ''Love what you''re reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on.


    Unlike Luke who was busy reflecting on life, the others gathered around were trying to ''appease'' the ''devastated'' Sheila and once again, wannabe leader red hair took the lead ( I know my puns are shitty but Welp, I do what I can ) " sigh Sheila, he was a great man, to honour his memory..." '' blah blah blah... are there hidden cameras here ? Was it a goddamn film from the beginning? ''


    He seriously reflected about this possibility and the more he thought about it, the more he found it credible. Between the clich¨¦ dialogues and the clich¨¦ situation, the only thing lacking would be a bunch of people crying in the background, wait there is a bunch of people crying in the background...


    Luke was kinda mind blown now. Not only was he almost fatally trolled twice by the system, now there''s this. So he did the action anyone in his situation would have done :


    '' shop, food, sweet popcorn, little bucket ''


    * 1 PT deducted *


    And he began munching on them while looking at them from the side.


    ....


    After roughly 15 minutes of the ''film'', Luke had to quickly store his popcorn since Sheila looked his way and ran up to him before giving him a tight hug. In normal times, he wouldn''t mind having breasts pressing on his chest but the fact that he was disgusted by the bearer of the latter made his mind.


    " Sigh, I don''t know what happened to you all but know that from now on I will be here for you. So few people are still alive. It kills me that I have a part of the responsibility. Sigh, I was shortsighted, I''m sorry. " He said the first part to Sheila and the last to the group who nodded their heads while Luke was thinking that he unwittingly became part of the film.


    " Also "


    Aaaaaaaand, like always, the system interrupted him, though, he was quite happy this time


    * calculating... 59 humans still alive... the third phase will begin in 3 days. There will be no solo quest for it. Firearms will be allowed in this quest *


    " That aside, we have 3 days of freedom so let''s cheer a little, this atmosphere is killing me " joked red hair


    " Yay, but Carl, before that let''s bury the dead. That''s the least we could do " proposed Steven to red hair.


    Then we all got busy burying the dead. Well, almost all. The 2 leaders were ''supervising'' the process. Through all the burying event, Sheila was keeping near me with expressions that were like writing on her forehead: " pity me and become my next meat shield " Oh and the name of the last was Eric.


    That aside, the first night since the beginning of everything is coming so we each bought what we needed for the night. Thinking back, the system''s store is amazingly useful. No risk of food poisoning without any chemical products, top quality tools that are not easily broken, unlimited supply... these are very addictive.


    ...


    As night slowly fell, Luke couldn''t help but think that the night will be pretty eventful.

 Eventful night

    ... After a tiring day, rich in emotions, actions, reactions, and drama, everyone wanted to have a good night sleep. Everyone? Almost. Some people, whether they were too affected by the day''s craziness or not at all were waiting for the night to de-stress and hope it was all just a nightmare for the former or try to find a protective shelter for the latter.


    Sheila was obviously part of the second group. By observing everyone through the quests, she concluded that if she wanted to have the most chances to survive, she had to cling on to either one of the following 3 people: 1: red-haired Carl


    2: kind Steven


    3: enigmatic Luke


    It was evident for the two wannabes... no wait... official leaders since they have the power within the group but she chose Luke for three reasons :


    First, he is the only one who took the solo quest AND came back


    Second, he is already within her grasps


    Third: As he was relatively low key, there will be no competition.


    Talking about competition, there are 20 surviving men and 39 women. Of the women, 10 were definitely eliminated because they were either too young or too old, another 8 because well, life is unfair, looks are important in the short term and 9 had the strength to be independent, the same number as the able men in the group.


    That means 12 women could potentially try to get into the good books of the most outstanding men, being Steven and Carl. Of course, that''s only potentially, not all women would throw their pride like that this soon or ever, following their disposition.


    So, roughly an hour after everyone got to their tent, she got out from hers and got to Luke''s which was quite far from the group by the way. She opened it, entered and hugged him from behind with a shy look as she asked " L-Luke, are you awake? "


    " Hm... Sheila !? w-what are you doing here? " Luke answered with a groggy then startled look. Of course Luke wasn''t sleeping, only pretending to. And the only reason his dagger wasn''t already past her throat was that he expected this situation would happen.


    " I-I am afraid by myself with all that happened today. Furthermore, with the death of Eric " at that point, her voice broke and she began to cry " he protected me with his life even though we knew each other for so little time... Please let me stay with you, I will do anything, please I''m scared " "..." he swore he could almost hear the sound of violins playing in the background .Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more.


    " umm... well sure you can ( anyone got the pun ? ) wait I will make a little space for you " " no need, I''m good like this... can we keep that position? " " Yes, as you wish " With that, Luke who tried to sound flustered and Sheila who was busy pressing her breasts against his back got to sleep.


    ...


    While they were sleeping, the situation in the camp was quite different. A lot of people slept but Carl''s and Steven''s tents were certainly not asleep, in every sense of the term.


    As Sheila expected, opportunistic women who had the poor ability but great looks showed up, 4 in total. That was a wild night for the two official leaders who got to enjoy the fruits of their day''s labor.


    ....


    That night, the system manager who was counting on his system to overlook everything ordered it to make a report on the most outstanding humans.


    * 212001 humans have shown enough potential to surpass tier 2.


    2109 humans have shown enough potential to surpass tier 3


    9 have shown enough potential to surpass tier 4


    3 still have unknown potential.


    1 human already got the qualifications to become a soldier ( tier 2 ) *


    " Already !? What''s his name ? " he was quite astonished by that feat. After all, having the qualifications to become a soldier is generally by the end of the tenth quest. In fact, even the most outstanding recruits had to at least participate in the fourth quest.


    * Luke *


    " Did he drink the vial? "


    * No, he will wait until the end of the third quest *


    " Good, he is not rash, the third quest is one of the most important quests, if he didn''t take it, he would have wasted his potential... What''s his ability? "


    * Spatial storage ??? *


    "! So even you don''t know... it should a powerful evolution of the basic spatial storage, after all, this kind of ability shouldn''t permit him to shine this quickly. Make him your number one priority within earth''s humans. "


    * acknowledged *


    ....


    Morning came and people woke up one after the other. In Luke''s tent, Sheila was still sleeping while he was wide awake, purchasing some clothes from the shop.


    He then wore them and purchased breakfast, it was only eggs with bacon and waited for Sheila to wake up. Soon, because of the alluring smell, she also woke up and stretched " good morning Luke! " She began cheerfully with a bright smile


    " huh... good morning, d-did you sleep well? " He replied quite '' taken aback ''


    " Yay, thanks to you. hmm! did you wait for me for breakfast? "


    " Yeah, that''s the least I should do. Anyway, are you really alright ? " he asked with a worried expression. A third person would think he was duped, though, there''s no third person. What''s important is that Sheila did.


    " yes, once again thanks to you. I know I was quite forceful and selfish yesterday but it really helped. "


    " well, that''s what matters... let''s dig in I''m starving! " He replied with a blush, changing the topic


    " Yeah let''s "


    They ate then got out to regroup with the others

 Sweet vengeance

    500 meters in front of Luke stood a hundred goblins. 10 of them were archers and another 10 were mages. In fact, these should not be goblins but hobgoblins since they were taller and had a more mature look. Behind these new enemies stood the blue-skinned ogre, Luke''s personal enemy.


    Seeing what he saw the others were also alarmed since hobgoblins were tier 1 species, just like humans. They had a hard time with goblins and their numbers were reduced. But, nobody knows who noticed it first but there were more people, a lot more


    * The third quest will begin in 5 minutes. For the third quest, the number of human combatants is fixed to a hundred each day. Multiple CHG may be brought up together. Good luck humans *


    What the system said relieved and terrified the people at the same time.


    They were relieved that they would not have to face an ever increasing amount of enemies with lesser and lesser people but at the same time, they finally understood that they were just numbers, nothing more nothing less.


    Luke didn''t mind nor cared about this, all he thought of was how he would kill the blue ogre while not being seen by others. ''! haha, how foolish of me. I didn''t lose last time because it''s stronger but because I did what I didn''t know how to do. Fighting in a straight noble way? Really? ME !? sigh my ability made me too arrogant, let''s do what I know: dirty fight and assassination '' Of course the way he fought last time was certainly not straight nor noble, just prettier than what he was accustomed to doing. After all aiming for the eyes, throat, and mouth while throwing things was... his instincts kicking in.


    As he was having a mental berating, Sheila tugged his sleeve " Luke, with all these new people, will we be okay? I mean some of them may be ill intended. Hum, you see, I was once a victim of some... deranged guy before. My... stepdad used to abuse me and my mother and I was heavily traumatized and just couldn''t approach men. Since then I tried everything possible to get out of this traumatic experience. I first thought that Eric would be the answer to this but he died protecting me. Now there''s only you... say... can you protect me? " She said all this on the verge of tears and as she finished, her eyes flashed


    '' poor girl, she had such a sad story. sigh and here I was badmouthing her all along. I''m such a bastard sigh...! wait ! do I care? no. Do I trust her ? no. Do I like her ? no. Then why am I feeling pity?...! No, it can''t be true right? This bitch had a mind controlling ability all along? No wonder that other dumbstard was... that dumb... and that''s also why I didn''t kill her nor distance myself from her to this day... She is too vicious and dangerous. I have to quickly kill her off. ''Stolen novel; please report.


    It was only now that Luke realized that the ''film'' he was participating in was just that: a film and the reason he was acting out of character with her. Normally, he would have either distanced himself or just killed her. Everything was planned by that woman.


    "This! You had such a sad life... I didn''t know and all I thought of all this time was to try and woo you. sigh, I''m such a f*cktard...Yes, of course, stay with me, I will protect you even on my deathbed. " Luke of course still played his part and said all of this with a determined expression while Sheila had a small smirk, believing of her success.


    " Thank you! It means a lot to me " Sheila quickly hugged Luke with tears streaming down her cheeks and Luke once again began to feel pity, which he quickly killed off '' that b*tch is quite careful huh ''


    " Don''t you worry, I''m very strong! Do you see the mini-boss? I can take care of it by myself! " Luke spoke in a confident way to ''reassure'' her but he had a goal " then... should we take it on ourselves? " Sheila''s eyes once again flashed


    ''As I thought, she took the bait.''


    " Of course we can! Let''s get to the rear of the goblins and kill after the fight begins "


    '' Isn''t it like a final battle royal? 3 fighters, 1 survivor... (un)fortunately, the outcome is already decided''


    As they were discussing on their own, the others were trying to come with a way to add the newcomers with the already existing formations. With some persuasion and number behind their backs, Carl and Steven continued to be the chiefs and ordered the newcomers around.


    * The third quest day 1 begins now, you have to kill all your enemies. Rewards will be awarded based on your performance.


    Good luck humans *


    With that, the monsters that were not moving since they appeared chaotically scrambled them while roaring.


    Luke''s enemy though still didn''t move. It only glared at its worst enemy with enough hatred to scare ghosts. After all, from Luke''s point of view, he was beaten up and chased down but from its point of view, it was tortured, killed, choked, blinded and taunted when it was forcibly unsummoned. As the ogre was glaring his way, Luke glared back. '' Last time, you beat me up, this time, there will be no fight, just you dying in an agonizing way '' As if they had telepathy, they both had the same thought.


    But then something unexpected happened.

 Sweet vengeance 2

    A forest grew up in the path of the scrambling hobgoblins ( did you expect anything great? )


    The hobs didn''t stop for long to admire the added greenery and quickly resumed their advance. Contrary to goblins who only used daggers as melee weapons, none of the hobs used one but used spears, swords or maces.


    On the human side, the appearance of the forest was both a blessing and a curse. The weaker ones could hide behind the trees and the stronger ones could use them in their fight. Unfortunately, the contrary was also true and they would experience it quickly.


    As they were fast, the hobs already reached the human mages firing range who of course did their job. Fireballs, lightning bolts, flame, water and ice streams were then launched to the hobs. On the other hand, the hob mages also launched their own spells. The trees in the middle rendered some attacks useless while they fueled the spreading of fire.


    '' Don''t these dumbasses know that lighting fire in a forest while having the intention to stay in it is stupid? '' Letting out the '' having the intention to stay in '' suspicious part, Luke was right and the repercussions are already visible. The vanguard, already reduced by the enemy''s attacks now also had to be careful of not getting uselessly burned. The two vanguard sides now met and began to duke it out while spells were less used on them to prevent collateral damage and more on enemy archers and mages who used the trees as shields. But quickly problems arose. First off, because of the trees, people used to swing their weapons in a grand way got stuck easily and then, the major problem brought by the fire: the smoke. It not only affected vision but it mostly choked people, making it hard to breathe with quickly burning oxygen.


    Seeing this situation, Carl couldn''t let things continue like this " Be careful guys! Try to not do broad swings! and put a wet cloth around your faces to not choke! "


    " argh dammit, my arm ! my arm !"


    " ughh my leg! "


    " Agh... "


    Quickly, screams of pain could be heard. After all, as most of them lived in peaceful countries, receiving bone deep injuries is enough to throw out their concentration, and sometimes, what follows is their deaths.


    Luke and Sheila, on the other hand, couldn''t be happier. Now they could go kill that mini-boss as they want while having a visibility screen, making it so that either of their plans wouldn''t be seen by others.


    Luke, thinking that it was a good opportunity said " The smoke is spreading, let''s go! "Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.


    " Okay, but what about the monsters on the way? "


    " Don''t worry, I can quickly dispose of them while not wasting any energy. "


    Then, they began advancing with Luke efficiently killing everything on his path and Sheila running behind him. As they passed more enemies, they encountered the enemy mages and archers, who, upon seeing them shot without hesitation. Luke grabbed Sheila and used spacewalk, the good ol'' space walk that permitted him to live up until now to bypass them while slashing the enemies on the way. As they were just throwing up their lives confronting him and that he was heading straight to their leaders, they began hesitating. It didn''t last long though as a single roar from blue ogre was enough to make them change back their focus on the other humans.


    Coming to a stop in front of the blue ogre, Luke let go of Sheila and faced it. The glaring contest then resumed but with them staying 5 meters apart instead of 500. After 20 seconds of them just glaring at each other, they both began to run at the same time. But, would Luke have a straight and manly fight? No, of course not. He released 10 dark hands at the blue ogre''s face to knock its head back then he grabbed at its tight and made it fall like a real judoka. Afterward, Luke kept his self promise: He released a hundred dark hands at its... ''no one wants to have it touched'' place.


    The resulting spectacle was quite a sight to behold. Skipping the details that no one would want to know of, the blue ogre first had its stomach inflated then burst open with all of its body becoming charred black while it screamed like mad.


    The perpetrator of this scene had quite... unique thoughts:'' Perfect, a real masterpiece''


    Meanwhile, the other spectator of this scene had more orthodox thoughts in front of such a spectacle like a mindblow. She never imagined such cruelty was possible and certainly not coming from the somehow dumb Luke. She was at the same time scared of him and relieved that she already took control of him. Though, unlike before, she now doesn''t want to use him as a pawn for just a while before killing him. She now wanted him to be her eternal servant.


    Aside from Sheila''s delusional thoughts, Luke was still fervently glaring at... the thing he blew up, waiting for its revival to restart but, the system prompt again interrupted him


    * congratulations soldier Luke for killing the mini-boss... calculating... 500 PTS are awarded for your performance.


    The day''s trial will end with the elimination of the other monsters. *


    '' It... seems like it was only a single use ability. Hmm, it''s maybe better like this, thinking back doing it twice would make me a real weirdo, even for me... but first things first '' He turned around to look at Sheila who had a scared/shocked/crazed and expectant expression.


    He walked back in front of her and smiled.


    And as she was about to talk, a dagger found its way to her throat and she died with an incomprehensible expression. Looking at her cooling corpse, Luke trog a sneer. Then he looked back towards his ''masterpiece'' and noticed something he didn''t want to notice: It turned out his worst enemy was a female... what a scary species...

 This acting skill...

    Before anything else, he messed with Sheila''s corpse so that it resembles that she died from a magic attack, for his newly formed plan to work...


    With all of this over, Luke had two options: He could either go and help the other people dealing with the remaining hobgoblins or he could profit of that time to visit the shop, after all, he could finally buy mana related potions.


    As the kind-hearted person he was, he would of course not go out of his way to monopolize all the points. He had to let others have their share after all he had a big sharing heart. So... he visited the shop


    '' shop, potions ''


    * potions: tier one :


    vitality enhance: 10 PTS


    intelligence enhance: 10 PTS


    strength enhance: 10 PTS


    agility enhance: 10 PTS


    resilience enhance: 10 PTS


    healing potion: 10 PTS


    mana enhance: 30 PTS


    mana replenish 20 PTS *


    '' details of mana enhance and mana replenish ''


    * mana enhance: adds 1 point of mana after use.


    mana replenish: restores 10 mana immediately after use. *


    '' buy 5 mana replenish, 10 mana enhance and 2 of each of the others ''


    After using them, he viewed his status


    *status :


    name: Luke


    Species: tier one human


    vitality: 26


    strength: 26


    agility: 40


    intelligence: 36


    resilience: 36


    mana: 20


    Inherited ability: spatial storage ???


    skills: dagger mastery B


    firearm mastery B


    stealth mastery C


    poison mastery C


    spells: spacewalk tier one


    dark hands tier one


    money: 004 PTS *


    With the enhanced mana, Luke felt a foreign substance that he never felt before, other than when he used his spells. He felt it growing and concentrating on it, he felt some familiarity with it, though he couldn''t make it budge...


    Letting the matter aside, Luke looked back to the fire and smoke filled battlefield. It was chaotic. Mages were raining down fire on each other. Because of the trees, they failed most of the time but the fire based abilities did great damage because of their consequences. In this forest environment, we can say that they never really fail. Each side suffers greatly from it. Then there are the archers and other people who had single target ability. On the humans'' side, they acted as snipers and help while on the hobgoblins'' side, they just randomly fired, creating more collateral damage than damage on the humans. On the front, the humans, not used to the brutality of life and death fights tended to be the weaker side. Overall though, humans were winning as the hobgoblins died more. After roughly 10 minutes, the fight ended and a resounding cheer of success resounded from the humans'' side. The casualties were 46 dead and 21 gravely injured. These people are still taken care of by healers and other people who had some experience with treating injuries.The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.


    Since the fight ended, Luke sighed then after concentrating for a while, his expression became one of endless grief, sadness, anger, and hatred. He roared as if his life depended on it and as the attention of the people got on him, he ran with all his might toward Steven and grabbed his collar. " YOU !!! You piece of sh*t b*stard !!! Argghhhhh !! You killed her! You f*cking killed her !!!! " The more he shouted the harder his hands grabbed Steven''s collar and he was even brought off the ground. Of course, the others wouldn''t just let him do as he wanted and apart from the confused Steven was already had a hard time breathing, the others quickly tried to separate them and calm him down, in vain. He purposefully used most of his strength to grab the poor Steven who didn''t do anything to deserve this.


    " L-LUKE calm down please what happened? "


    " Yeah, what happened, why are you so angry? "


    " Luke, please, let go of Steven and let''s talk like adults "


    Lots of voices of protest and panic quickly rose. And as they couldn''t do anything because of his strength, they tried to talk it out, while suppressing their fear. With his current expression which he copied from his now dead nemesis, he looked scarier than the combined hobgoblins horde.


    " Shut up !!!! Shut the f*ck up !!! This b*stard killed Sheila !!! I want to kill him! I so f*cking want to kill him !!! argghhhhh !!!!! " Luke looked like a demented madman as veins all over his body made their way to his skin. He looked like an unreasonable enraged beast as he continued to hold onto Steven''s collar. Carl who saw the situation tried to force them to separate with the use of his strength boosting ability but was surprised by his utter failure. In term of strength, with his skill, he was at the same level as Luke but with a primal fear embedded into his nervous system by the aura Luke released, his strength was limited. So he, like the others tried to talk it out


    " Luke please calm down! Tell me what happened! Why are you saying he killed Sheila? "


    " Why !? WHY !? Because that piece of sh*t shot her with his ability! I saw this b*stard do it! " As Luke screamed this, his now reddened eyes had tears streaming down. He then brought down Steven and began to choke him. The poor, innocent victim couldn''t do anything about it. The others were greatly alarmed from this and had trouble imagining the kind-hearted Steven murdering someone else so they came to the conclusion that even if he did it, it shouldn''t have been on purpose


    " Luke please calm down! I know you are pained from this loss but still, calm down! Steven didn''t do anything wrong and even if he did, do you really think that he would knowingly kill her? Please let him go! "


    Carl tried to appease him but as he saw that it was in vain and that Steven got nearer to death every passing second, he changed his approach " Please Luke let him go! If you continue like this we will be forced to use force! " As Carl said this, a few people moved in threatening ways or just raised their weapons.


    But this didn''t deter him, what did was the system''s prompt which, like always interrupted him.

 Eventful night v2

    * The third quest day 1 is finished. The battlefield will be restored... calculating... 35 humans are still alive... for the next quest, you will be teleported to another CHG as you are a minority. *


    With that, the charred forest disappeared and the only thing that remained was the usual brown ground.


    As soon as the prompt ended Carl tried again to reason Luke "Luke! Did you hear that? 35 of us are still alive! That means there were 65 deaths! 65! That''s 2/3 of us! Please, Luke! You know Steven right? He would never kill someone on purpose! please, Luke, we are already in a sore position! Don''t make us use force, nobody wants that! " By the end, Carl was really nervous, Steven was on the verge of death. He does not care about Steven''s death that much, but because if Steven died under his rule, he would lose all of his built up prestige.


    " ... tsk fine, but I will take his arm! " As he said that, Luke cut off Steven''s right arm with his dagger.


    " Aaaaaaarrrrgghhhh... " Obviously, Steven screamed from the pain and then fainted. Luke, with the bloody arm of Steven which he discarded got up and left towards his tent. He did not get out until the second day.


    Meanwhile, the others got busy tending to Steven''s wound and looking back towards Luke''s retreating figure in both fear and confusion. He was strong. So strong that they couldn''t do anything even with all of their efforts. From the bits of information gained from Luke''s shoutings, they came to know that Steven may have accidentally killed Sheila and this is what enraged Luke.


    They were often seen together so they all inferred that they were a couple. Yet, once again, they just couldn''t imagine Steven killing. He had that good of an image.


    Carl, on the other hand, was sweating bullets. In front of Luke, he couldn''t do anything but watch. He thought that he was the strongest yet he was so powerless he had to rely on the strength of numbers. Looking at Luke''s tent he thought of something and made up his mind...


    ...


    While the others were still shocked by what happened, Luke was joyfully appraising his act" I did quite good I guess. With this acting skill and the fact that every fight of mine ends with big explosions, I might be contacted by Michael Bay... sigh... it was quite a hassle tho "


    Diverting others attention from the fact that the mini-boss mysteriously died, from the suspicious death of Sheila and from the fact that they weren''t with the others most of the time resulted in Steven losing his arm. Poor Steven, he was a really nice guy but he... was mostly the perfect target. Thinking back, this was some incredible unfairness he suffered there but well, most of the time, ambitious guys can do worse.


    That aside, Luke was thinking back to what the system said. It seems like this time, they were going to be teleported to another CHG because they had the fewest number. So up until now, trying to look good in front of others was a big waste of time. '' Let''s just sleep, tomorrow is another day, will decide what to do with them then. ''


    Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more.....


    Later into the night, Luke woke up from sounds approaching his tent. There were too many hurried footsteps for it to be a friendly visit.


    He got up, readied his daggers and concentrated on listening to the noise outside. People were talking in hushed voices and thanks to his improved perception, he could tell they were nervous. Afterward, no footsteps could be heard anymore but his instincts kicked in and he used his spacewalk to dash out of his tent, which was blasted after he got out.


    He then saw a few people surrounding the tent, looking at him in wonder and fear. He didn''t talk as he knew it was an assassination attempt. He just quickly slashed all of his surrounding enemies, ignoring any cry, scream, or beg for forgiveness he heard.


    Then he looked at who he killed. It was 7 persons. 4 of which he knew because of their relatively powerful abilities and the others because of their status as '' mages '' which was relatively rare. They came to kill him and he did not like this.


    His act from a while back shouldn''t have provoked this kind of reaction. Pity, fear and estrangement were things he expected but definitely not an assassination attempt. He began thinking on how it devolved into this situation and heard a branch cracking in the distance and when he looked over, he saw a stunned Carl.


    He then understood it all. The strength he demonstrated before was unacceptable to the red-haired leader and he tried assassinating him. He most likely convinced the others with b*llshit like him being unstable and dangerous. It seems like he didn''t have to wait until the next day to decide what to do of all of them. Carl kindly doomed them all. Of course, most of the people didn''t have to do anything with this attempt but having to explain how and why people died would have been too annoying. So he began walking towards Carl who was too stunned and afraid to utter a sound and killed him. After killing Carl, he assassinated everyone else in the camp.


    He was now by himself, having killed everyone else, something he didn''t really want to do and decided to change his approach. In the next quest, he will appear like a cold unapproachable block of ice and demonstrate just enough strength to be treated highly, but not enough to make others fear him. If push comes to the shove, he will either wait until they all died or he will just kill them if no one of them has any use. '' Sigh I don''t like mindlessly killing, that''s why I wanted to integrate into a group somehow '' He shook his head and continued '' I may be destined to this? '' Luke quickly let the matter aside and decided to go back to sleep. In fact, he didn''t want to kill too much because he feared a repercussion but he decided to face it like a man if there was any, but for now, there were none.


    The next day, as he was eating his breakfast the system which was quiet up until now resounded


    * All humans have been killed in your CHG... calculating... You will be sent to another CHG in advance *


    '' Well, that''s it? No penalties, not even warnings or anything about the deaths? Hmmm... the system really doesn''t care huh '' But he frowned. For the nth time since the system came, he was wrong and couldn''t take the most efficient actions. He failed to read the situations, the people and system. Things were too much out of his expectations and he was flushed by the flow and could only reorganize, adapt and change his plans. That''s not something he wants to continue.


    Shaking his head, Luke waited for his teleportation. The violet light once again blinded him and he disappeared.

 New teammates

    When the light disappeared, Luke opened his eyes. He saw other people, roughly 50 all around him looking at him in wonder. They must not have expected that someone would come over before the quest. After all, people only come for 5 minutes in advance, not 6 hours. Currently, the day''s quests begin at 4 PM. As they were looking at each other, the leader, presumably, approached him and began to talk/interrogate him.


    " Well, who are you? And how come you are here this early by yourself? " Leader asked with a little bit of skepticism and Luke answered " ... Luke. I''m the only one alive from my group. "


    " Short answers and to the point huh? I''m Stevenson, nice to meet you I guess. You said that you''re the only one alive from your CHG, why so? "


    As Stevenson said his name, Luke had a hard time keeping his emotionless cold face. That kind of coincidence was just too much but he still responded by telling the truth, part of it that is.


    " The others had a leader who doomed them all. His name was Carl. He was a greedy, avaricious guy who just sought death and brought it to everyone else. "


    " Hmmm, I see, I''m sorry for your companions who died but, you just said others? You were an independent guy? " Stevenson only asked about this part suspiciously.


    Someone had a lie detecting ability and this someone kept nodding his face at Stevenson as Luke talked.


    Talking about him, Luke''s face which was expressionless began contorting from hatred as he replied " I only listened to another guy, his name was Steven. He... was a kind-hearted leader but this b*stard provoked his death! Since then, I just stayed by myself. "


    As he finished, the person who had the lie detecting ability once again nodded and Stevenson did the same and sighed. " Well, I can understand why you are by yourself then. You had quite the horrendous experience at your CHG. Whatever, since you came here, I welcome you to our base. As we are all in the same boat, I will ask you to at least cooperate for now and when you have more trust towards us, to integrate with the group. " As he finished, he patted his shoulder and left to do his own things, and the others dispersed.


    When he left, Luke just got to a spot far from the camp, set a tent he just bought and got into it. Nobody bothered him, not because they were estranging him but because of his cold face.


    .....


    When the time for lunch came, a beautiful black-haired woman who looked to be in her early 30s came to invite him to join them.


    " Hey, hello young man, wanna come to eat with us? Great, let''s go !" She plainly didn''t let him decide and tried to drag him out.


    He obviously didn''t let himself be and coldly looked at her and said in a freezing tone while trying to escape her grasp " leave me alone " But it seemed like she was way stronger than him and still dragged him out without him being able to do anything. He was '' shocked ''. He didn''t try to free himself from her grasp anymore but took out his daggers and repeated coldly with narrowed eyes " leave me alone ". Then she stopped dragging him, now 2 meters outside of the tent and turned towards him with a smile.The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.


    " You should drop that thing if you don''t want to get hurt " This enraged him and as he was about to stab her, Stevenson came from the side and restrained his raising arm while shaking his head " Believe me you don''t want to anger her, she can beat the crap out of everyone here, me included for just going against her words. " Luke frowned but still didn''t let the matter go. He was quite obstinate and he REALLY began to get annoyed. He repeated a last time with killing intent lacing his words " Leave me alone "


    This didn''t deter the woman whose smile kept growing but Stevenson who didn''t want Luke to get beaten up just after experiencing an overbearing leader intervened " Sigh Isabella, let him go please, he has... circumstances " She rose an eyebrow at him but still let go.


    But she looked straight into Luke''s eyes and said " Alright, but listen, my friend, the next time you direct killing intent towards me I break all the bones inside your body. " After she said her part, she left and regrouped with the others.


    Stevenson who was at his side the entire time sighed and gave him a last warning " Luke, don''t go against her out of all people, you will regret it. You see, she is a very nice person but she likes to do whatever she wants and she hates it when her good intentions meet denying. Also, try to get to know the others better, it will be helpful.


    Ah right, that aside, I came here to ask you what your ability was and if you bought any useful skill. "


    Luke frowned and stayed silent while looking at Stevenson. He really began to get annoyed with these people. He played the cold card to be left alone yet they just threw their weights around. He really began thinking of killing them all but decided against it after some thinking. He can''t just go and kill anyone he didn''t like, that''s not something he would want to do, he needs better reasons to kill like money, a great hatred or just benefits. ( great reasons indeed )


    He shrugged Stevenson''s hand off his arm and got back inside his tent. Stevenson seeing this shook his head and still pressed on the matter. " Listen, Luke, for our group''s wellbeing, I just can''t let off loose hands you know. You either tell me what your ability is or you just don''t participate in the next fight. "


    After he said that, he left.


    Luke greatly liked this idea. Like this, he could see if any one of them would make a good pawn as he had the feeling that the boss will be exceptionally strong because of him.


    ......


    Meanwhile, Isabella and Stevenson were discussing Luke''s case.


    Isabella started with a frown " I don''t like that Luke. You said earlier he had circumstances but what about them? "


    Stevenson replied " His CHG was led by a greedy, power-seeking leader who killed indirectly or not everyone else. He seemed to be particularly touched by the death of another leader before whom he was subordinated to. That''s why I think you should let him be for a while. "


    " I see... so that''s how it is. Err, now I almost feel bad Steve, maybe I should go and apologize? " She was quite troubled now. She thought he was just an antisocial kid that needed help and got to him and then she found him hateful since he was ready to kill her for a small reason.


    " Nah, he should be left alone. Tony ( lie detector man ) was there when I interrogated him but I have the feeling that he hides something. Furthermore, he didn''t want to talk about his ability. He has too much pride and should be humbled. He most likely won''t participate in the fight, so this should be the perfect chance to do so. "


    " Okay, but, why are you so adamant in integrating him? It should be me who have that role. " She asked with an incomprehensible expression.


    "..."


    "..."


    "... I fell in love..." Stevenson replied with a blush.


    "... I understand, don''t say anything more, almost forgot that you''re gay... Though prepare yourself for fierce competition, his cold, violet eyes didn''t leave me indifferent..."


    ..........


    5 minutes before the day''s battle the system prompt resounded.

 Difference

    * Third quest day 2 will begin in 5 minutes *


    As the system finished, A hundred hobgoblins and the boss spawned 500 meters away and with that, new people were summoned to the CHG. They looked around but unlike at his first CHG, they were calm and collected.


    Stevenson walked up to them and began giving instructions. Then Stevenson came towards Luke and asked him again what his ability was, pressing on the fact that if he didn''t tell, he would not participate. Luke still stayed silent, not even looking at him and observed the monsters.


    Luke who looked over curiously was quite disturbed by what he saw. They had firearms. He knew they were allowed from the third quest and onwards but he thought it was only for the humans, not the monsters. Furthermore, their firearms were quite futuristic looking while the humans''s were normal, like his which he didn''t have to use up until now. Thinking back, there were no firearms in the first day on either side... Anyway, it''s quite disturbing looking at ugly hobgoblins holding futuristic weapons.


    For the others, though, the sight was more than just disturbing. It was horrendous. Their dangerosity just rose up by a notch even though their numbers didn''t change. This time, there were nothing other than firearms wielding hobgoblins and a firearm-wielding red skinned ogre. Seeing the ogre, Luke had his mouth twitching and a tic mark on his forehead. He felt like he was purposefully taunted... 5 minutes later, the system once again resounded.


    * The third quest day 2 begins now, you have to kill all your enemies. Rewards will be awarded based on your performance.


    Good luck humans *


    The hobgoblins who were keeping still and quiet scrambled immediately after the prompt. Their advance was chaotic and the ogre was staying in the back looking at the opposing humans. Once again, a terrain appeared in the midst of their advance. This time, it was a beach with low leveled sea that only kept people knee deep.


    The hobgoblins resumed their advance and stopped 50 from the humans to take aim and fire. The humans who already took aim fired first then hid behind shield wielding people. It seems that Stevenson was a good leader who planned things in advance and didn''t just have power for the principle of having it.


    The ''mages'' fired both with their firearms and their abilities. They spammed abilities and as fire was the most common element, lots of fire abilities were fired but this created steam from the water below. Moreover, the enemies touched by fire just had to dive down to extinguish it. This thus brought two problems


    Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.First was the ineffectiveness of fire and second was the steam that hid the hobgoblins from their sight.


    The hobgoblins'' shot were not accurate but they were powerful. In no time at all, the shields became more and more damaged to the point that they would break too quickly for the initial advantage to be worthy. The exchange of fire continued and as Luke thought that Stevenson''s strategy was becoming useless as the humans'' side''s advantage was brought to naught, the shield-wielding people all dove down and Isabella who did not participate until now charged out with a 360¡ãshield like ability that rendered the bullets useless.


    Then she swung a spear that was strapped to her back and a wave of light shot off, killing a fourth of the enemies, and she repeated the action five times, killing the remaining hobgoblins. She then got back to regroup with everyone else and they all advanced at the same time to confront the ogre. It brought up its large rifle and shot. What emerged from it was a pressurized water jet that pierced everything it passed by, Isabella''s shield included. She dodged to the side and ran towards it swinging her spear provoking the light wave to appear. It did some damage to the ogre but not only was the wound small, but it also healed fast.


    Seeing this result she ran back. The ogre shot its water jet at her which pierced her shoulder and killed someone behind her. Stevenson who was at the back was shocked. The last boss was easily disposed of by a similar strategy but the jump in strength was just too much. If things continued like this, they would all die but he couldn''t do anything. Its strength was just too much and he himself only had a support type ability which he used on Isabella but it was pierced right through.


    As he was worrying, Luke who watched on the side was leisurely appraising the fight. He was seriously amazed by their strategy and strength. Compared to his last ''teammates'', it was really impressive, even more so for Isabella. She had a powerful ability that dealt quite a bit of damage.


    Knowing that awakened abilities didn''t cost mana, only stamina made it all the more impressive. However, because he was here, the difficulty of the mini-boss fight went up. It can be seen from the fact that they made short work of the mobs but couldn''t do much to the mini-boss. He then looked at Stevenson who was biting his lips in worry and began thinking on whether he would help them or just let them be until they died. After a bit of thinking, he decided to help them ''to the limits of his abilities'' since he had a theory he would like to try. But for this theory, he needed a guinea pig-willing partner.


    He got up and ran towards the mini-boss. He didn''t go to fight it upfront but decided to get around it and deliver powerful sneak attacks in a hit and run tactic. He released dark hands by batch of ten for each of his attacks, giving powerful blows that worked better than the others''s. Of course, the ogre wouldn''t just let itself be and tried to counterattack but the others diverted its attention so that Luke could strike. After a while, it died and they all cheered. All, except for Luke who already knew this species''s cheat code.

 End of day 2

    As the ogre was finally dead, everyone was relieved but at the same time afraid. Relieved that they survived another day, afraid of the massive jump in strength of the mini-boss. As they were cheering, Isabella and Stevenson came towards Luke to thank him and discuss with him. " Wow Luke, you had such a powerful ability all along? Well, it really helped. " " Yeah, but you look really tired, are you alright? "


    Once again, he didn''t talk, but this time, he was busy taking deep breaths. He did so because he had to fake weaknesses to his ability. It, needing massive stamina is one and it, having a charging period is another. These weaknesses make him vulnerable. People would think he was very strong and useful but not a threat.


    As he was glaring at the ogre''s corpse, all the others were confused. It was dead so why would he do this? They looked back at it and had a bad feeling. The system didn''t resound after all this while.


    Just as he had thought, the ogre began glowing and levitating. Its injuries disappeared and it was back to top condition. It reopened its eyes and roared. Everyone got paralyzed. in the fight, Luke made sure not to let it roar for this reason but now that it is still glowing, it is invulnerable.


    It then constantly shot water jets and shortly killed quite a few people. After the paralysis wore off, they all retreated in horror.


    They were really despondent. It was strong, too strong for it is just the second mini-boss and now, it could revive. The surviving members looked at the heavily panting Luke and their hearts sank. That, was what we call despair.


    On the other hand, Luke was frowning. The red-skinned ogre was strong, sure, but compared to the blue-skinned one, it lacked an edge. Its pressurized water was an exceptionally powerful ability, yet it was all it had. The blue-skinned ogre could swing maces and apply a stunning effect along with its almost impossible to evade fire breath. He thought that something was wrong and stayed on his guard. These things were brought up to counter him so there must be something special about it.


    As Luke was even more vigilant than before, the ogre stomped the ground and everyone was shaken off two meters above it. It aimed at Luke and fired its water jet. Luke used 10 dark hands again to quickly launch him out of the way, towards the ground. As he crash-landed on it, he tried to distance himself thanks to spacewalk but it once again stomped the ground.


    This stomp had no cooldown. This was definitely bad news. Furthermore, as he already used his greatly stamina demanding ability to evade, he just couldn''t magically fire another one. It would make him look like a cold-hearted b*stard who let others die for petty reasons... it would blow up his cover.This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.


    As he was hesitating on whether to blow his cover or take a risk, someone unexpected acted. It was an Asian looking woman mage in her late 20s, she shot something from her cane and the ogre was paralyzed, while everyone else could move again. It seemed to be a paralytic electric bolt.


    As he could move again, Luke took out his gun, which was a tweaked Glock 17. He approached the ogre and fired multiple times at its eyes, blinding it. The only reason he could do this while the others couldn''t was because what his gun fired wasn''t bullets, they were sharp, poisoned darts. The poison he used was a synthetic version of a black mamba''s venom, it paralyzed deeply the victim and as the poison he used was a concentration of it with the goal being to bring faster effects, the movements of the ogre slowed down and its eyes, now red and blinded were its only worry as the pain was excruciating.


    It was a perfect diversion. The others, seeing this situation gave their all to rain down abilities on it, in hopes to kill it before it was reminded of their existence. Luke ''charged his ability'' and exploded 10 dark hands at its face, effectively killing it.


    The system prompt that everyone waited for resounded and everyone cheered.


    * Congratulations soldier Luke for killing the mini-boss... calculating... 200 PTS are awarded for your performance.


    The third quest day 2 is finished. The battlefield will be restored... calculating... 54 humans are still alive... for the next quest, you will stay at your CHG as you are the majority. *


    As they were private messages, everyone had different reasons to cheer but they were all happy it ended. They still feared what is to come but they were happy to live another day.


    As they were cheering, Luke ''fainted from exhaustion'', which greatly alarmed everyone. He had the biggest role in this victory and they couldn''t bear to let him have anything bad happening to him. They quickly brought him to his tent and after verifying that he had just fainted from exhaustion, they let him rest.


    '' Phew, what a pain! At least I got to know about two useful people. That Asian woman, her name was Sophia if I remember well ?... She will make a good pawn. Now let''s buy something useful if they have it that is... I was the one who created it so maybe, just maybe... Shop, tools, Road to death ''


    * tools: tier 4


    Road to death: a specially designed poison, made by a lunatic assassin. All other pieces of information are blocked *


    '' Damn, tier 4! I knew it was powerful...op as f*ck but still! sigh then let''s buy the veryyyyyy downgraded version... tools, Road to misery ''


    * tools: tier 1


    Road to misery: 50 PTS/G


    As the creator: 20 PTS/G *


    '' Let''s buy 10G then, should be enough to last a week. ''


    * 200 PTS deducted


    Money: 002 *


    Luke bought a poison he created because of its very peculiar effects...


    ....


    Meanwhile, Stevenson and Isabella had an argument over a matter pertaining to Luke and they decided to solve it by playing rock-paper-scissors...

 Eventful week

    While Luke was pretending to sleep, someone entered his tent. It was Isabella. She stood in front of him and bent over to better see his sleeping face. Then after a while, as if she made a great decision she began to undress and came over Luke who, thinking that she was his type anyway let her do whatever she wanted, he just profited of this moment to test something out...


    The next morning, Luke woke up next to a naked Isabella. As if she sensed that he was awake, she also woke up and when her eyes met his, she wore a big grin on her face as she asked " Well, how was my body? Felt good being raped in your sleep? " She decided to tease him the moment she woke up. Luke, still with his usual cold face frowned then sneered " You''re worse than expected. I felt literally nothing. " Isabella''s smile grew wider and smugly continued " Well, you were asleep so it''s to be expected... But if you want to know, I had the time of my life! "


    With no change in expression, Luke told her off " tsk... good for you. Now if you''re finished, then f*ck off "


    "Why? So cruel...You wanna know something though? Yesterday, I had a rock-paper-scissors match with Steve. I won, you know what was the stake? " Isabella asked with an eager expression as if she immediately wanted to tell him.


    Luke''s cold, expressionless face grew a few black lines as he replied: " I think I guess..."


    Still, with a smile, Isabella brought more details " If I won, your front would be used, if I lost, your backside would be used. Thankfully for you, I won so rejoice! "


    '' You should be the one to rejoice, if you lost, I would have had to go to another CHG, alone. ''


    He shook his head then looked coldly at her again with killing intent "Finished? now f*ck off. "


    " Wow, that''s not something that bothers you? Well, I might just tell Steve that he actually has a chance... Haha, see you later! " Saying her piece, she left.


    Luke rolled his eyes but immediately shook of this useless conversation from his thoughts and thought of more important things. '' Let''s see how this experiment went ''


    ....


    Days of the third quest passed by. Each day, people died and others joined. With this ''polishing'' method, stronger and stronger people remained.


    On the third day of the quest, the hobgoblins became diversified with warriors, archers, assassins, mages, and gunmen. The mini-boss was a yellow-skinned ogre who had the wind element. It was a mage who created whirlwinds and wind blades. It was the day with the most casualties yet because of its special ability that trapped them in an especially fierce whirlwind, from which they couldn''t escape.This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.


    Because of this, they were teleported to another CHG the next day.


    That said day, they came to know that they faced stronger mini-bosses than others, so they had more rewards and were stronger. Luke''s presence was thus a blessing and a curse. It helped them become stronger but the death ratio was way higher. When it was the time to fight, this difference in strength was obvious. The ''veterans'' tended to survive more easily than the ''newbies''. The hobgoblins, still diversified were organized in a simple formation.


    The mini-boss was a pink skinned ogre with the earth element. It was a tank that, with its shield could push back and stun people at the same time. Its special ability permitted it to trap people in quicksands. This time, they didn''t have to be teleported to another CHG. More than half of the people survived, mostly thanks to the Asian woman, who, with her paralytic bolts permitted others to escape the relatively slow ogre. Her name was Sasha. Was, because she died the next day.


    The next day, the hobgoblins were in a simple formation, but they employed hit and run tactics. The ogre was orange skinned and had the electric element. With its sword, it sent electric bolts and each of its slashes would paralyze the target. Its special ability was an area of effect paralysis. People were not only paralyzed but were also constantly electrocuted. It was a hard fight. less than half survived since the late Sasha''s ability not only didn''t work on it, but it even boosted its special ability.


    The final day before the boss fight, the hobgoblins once again had something added to make them stronger. They had tanks, which they made perfect use of, provoking lots of early deaths. The mini-boss was a grey-skinned ogre. It had the poison element. It was an archer with poisoned arrows that released gases.


    Its special ability was to create a poisonous fog that not only obstructed the view but it also made whoever breathed it sluggish. Once again, it was a difficult fight with only 6 survivors, all from the initial group. They were Luke ( of course ), Isabella, Stevenson, a guy named Alex and two women named Maria and Lazuli. They were all strong, way stronger than at the beginning and way stronger than everyone else on earth.


    Apart from Luke, they were all expected to have the right to become tier 2 creatures before the fifth quest, another thing tied to Luke''s influence. During this week, Luke didn''t stay idle. He did his experiment on every one of them, letting him with only 5G of his Road to misery...


    .......


    The time for the final battle against the boss came. The 6 survivors, rejoined by some fodder were ready to face anything. They waited for the monsters to spawn.

 Darkness 1

    500 meters in front of Luke stood a hundred hobgoblins. They were in formation and had a clearly distinct leader, who should make the tactics. All of the week''s evolution in their ranks was there: Warriors, archers, assassins, mages, tanks, and gunmen. Thinking back, the third quest was like a training camp. An extremely brutal one but still a training camp. The enemies they had to face became fiercer and fiercer, not only because of strength but because of their growing complexity. For Luke and his ''companions'' though, it was like setting the nightmare mode on newbies, a real massacre.


    But the enemy side had something more. It was a purple-skinned ogre who held a purple, fist-sized gem on which the word boss was marked. It threw it straight at Luke who, for some reason couldn''t dodge and when it came in front of his face, they both disappeared.


    This greatly alarmed the others who, without Luke would have a hard time surviving a mini-boss by themselves, even more so when the opposing hobgoblins were at the peak of their complexity. This would be a very horrendous experience.


    .....


    Luke who reappeared somewhere else was in front of huge, golden gates, with a blank space everywhere else. Then the system prompt resounded


    * You have been chosen as the champion by default and will fight the boss. For your boss fight, you will be faced against a beginner tier 2 species. Note that its stats won''t be restrained and will be its real stats.


    Rewards: 3000 PTS


    An explanation on tiers


    Good luck soldier Luke. *


    ''! So these things before were restrained... no wonder they seemed weak for tier 2 species. '' Luke, right now, would be the only one arrogant enough to think like that. If there were ghosts of those who fell to these '' weak for tier 2 species '', they would haunt Luke even after his death. This also confirmed his guess that tier 2 was a milestone in and of itself. If the initial him could tie one just on the first day, then the whole tier system would be just a huge joke. It can be noted that he takes his beating from the blue-skinned ogre as a tie now. His memory of the event warped it to a more suitable result for his taste.If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.


    Then the explanation will be a very fitting reward since he will become tier 2 just after.


    Putting these matters aside, Luke looked at his status first


    *status :


    name: Luke


    Species: tier one human


    vitality: 36


    strength: 36


    agility: 60


    intelligence: 46


    resilience: 51


    mana: 30


    Inherited ability: spatial storage ???


    skills: dagger mastery B


    firearm mastery B


    stealth mastery C


    poison mastery C


    spells: spacewalk tier one


    dark hands tier one


    money: 002 PTS *


    He upped all his stats by 10, apart from his agility (20) and resilience (15) with all the points he gained during the week. He could have had a higher status if he monopolized the week''s enemies, which he could have done but for his special experiment, he did not, but he is sure that it will be worth it.


    He then looked at the gates, took a deep breath and pushed them aside.


    Once he entered, he saw an entirely different place. The blank space was replaced by an empty, dimly lit room, with only a monster in front. It was a purple-skinned ogre with purple eyes. Once their gazes met, Luke became paralyzed.


    He was paralyzed by just a look, this was slightly over the top, even for a boss custom made for him. It then slowly walked towards Luke with its spear slowly spinning. It then brought it in front of itself and a black beam shot towards Luke. He stacked 10 dark hands to evade then sent a small nuke ie a hundred dark hands towards it.


    Much to his horror, not only didn''t it have any effects, it was even shot right back at him. He couldn''t escape it and took the full brunt of his small nuke, which he countered with another one. The resulting explosion blasted him off more than 300 meters away and even provoked him to slide on the ground for another 20 meters.


    He was the nearest to death he could possibly be. He chugged down potions by batches but the healing rate was not fast. The ogre which was totally unaffected slowly walked towards him. The shock of the explosion still disorienting him, Luke couldn''t do anything apart from watching it come nearer and nearer.


    Acknowledging his fate, Luke sighed and closed his eyes, waiting for the absurdly proud and confident ogre to get to him.


    After it got in front of him, it simply raised its spear poked at his heart. All Luke could see was darkness now. A fate shared by someone else, somewhere else.

 Darkness 2

    As darkness overtook Luke''s vision, on the other battlefield where everyone else was doing their best to keep the mini-boss at bay, Lazuli suddenly collapsed, making their fight even harder not only by the sudden abscence of one of their pillars but also because the fear of an unknown, mysterious direct death froze their movements and reduced the strength they could exerce.


    .....


    As she was experiencing darkness, Lazuli who was battling up until then was bewildered. She didn''t know what happened to her. She could be dead or just have fainted but her fear deepened by the second. " Am-am I dead ? Is this what death is like ? How did I die ? "


    The empty darkness contorted and the figure of a smiling Luke appeared a few meters in front of her


    " You didn''t die, yet. In fact I should be dead but I decided that you will take my position in the kingdom of the dead. You should thank me as it is a position that I literally won by my sweat and blood. " With that, Luke floated towards her and touched her head, not minding her thoughts, will, or opinions, much less her protests.


    ...


    Back to the other battlefield, Lazuli''s body suddenly gained a stab wound where her heart should be and multiple deep or shallow wounds all over her body. The others were too concentrated on their enemy and/or another hidden one with a silent, traceless killing ability to remark it.


    Meanwhile, Luke who was supposed to be dead in a mangled state stood up, with no injuries whatsoever. '' So death feels like this huh? Let''s experience this the least possible. ''


    The reason Luke survived was because of his ''experiment''. Thanks to the Road to misery, which acts on a person''s brain. It makes them have dependence and heavier feelings of faith and loyalty towards whoever''s original blood served to make it. That, coupled to another feature of his spatial storage ability made him have this " death exchange " ability.


    He remarked that thanks to the extreme effects of the Road to misery, his spatial storage had a kind of connection to them, yet it was not tangible. He couldn''t store them, nor their ability, but this special connection was there so he experimented over the week. All of his wounds could be transferred to someone infected by his poison. No, more exactly, any ailment he had could be ''stored'' in someone else''s body, all except for death so he had to do his best not to be one shot.Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.


    Then his face scrunched up as he thought of his death '' Damn, I didn''t know the stacked dark hands felt so painful, it was even just the breath of the explosion. Now I understand why those who received it would glare at me as if I murdered their family''s nine generations. '' It was more because of his dirty way of fighting but he once again ignored ''useless'' details.


    As its dead enemy stood up, the calm and collected ogre was startled and looked in wonder at its raising enemy. This didn''t last long though as it once again raised its spear and was ready to strike.


    Luke directed 10 dark hands which he made explode in front of of to launch the both of them back. Knowing that it only needed a look to stun him, he did his best not to look at its eyes. He took out his gun and fired. The monster didn''t even have to evade as the needle didn''t penetrate its skin. It only took the bent over needle to its face to observe it and disregarded it just after. Luke had to admit, this monster looked badass.


    He then advanced towards it slowly and thew his gun at its face. Mostly because of arrogance, the ogre once again choose to face the attack in a badass way. This arrogance costed it greatly though as when it was just in front of its face, it exploded, sending multiple needles to its unprotected eyes. Surprisingly enough, it was not enough to blind it, though, it was enough to send some poison in its body. He then tried to open small wounds on its body by slashing at its arms but its skin was too hard. He could only leave white marks, not even scratches.


    This was the difference in tier plainly showing itself. And that was only a single tier difference. Luke was now very eager to become a soldier in the true sense of the word.


    With its seemingly darkness immunity, he couldn''t use his dark hands on it, thwarting his main way of doing damage. He had to get creative to kill it.


    As he was about to try to stab the ogre for the last time before retreating, it grinned and Luke''s face contorted in horror " This can''t be true !? " He saw something he would have never wanted to see again, something that made his already hopeless situation an overhopeless one

 Darkness 3

    15 years ago, when Luke was 7, a supernatural phenomenon happened. That day, he was just finished with his daily dagger training and was preparing to rest. Then he saw a purple tornado heading his way from the sky.


    There were no clouds, no wind and as it was a very fierce winter day, a tornado shouldn''t have possibly formed. Within that tornado, a two-horned black skull was gazing at him with its purple-colored fire that served as eyes while descending along with the purple tornado. At that time, he could only stare in horror as it went nearer and nearer to him until the skull, which was thrice his height swallowed him and since then, he didn''t remember anything other than darkness.


    After the event, not only was he not trusted when he told this story to his superiors, he was even taken as a trash suffering from PTSD because of the deaths he brought...


    His life became ''normal'' again after this and he didn''t encounter the skull anymore.


    ....


    The ogre''s face became that same skull and his vision only had this image. He couldn''t see, sense or perceive anything else. He knew or rather strongly hoped it was an illusion. But illusion or not, he couldn''t move. He thought that he would die so he once again triggered his death exchange as he would under no circumstances gamble his life. This time he chose Alex.


    In fact, he chose people based on their usability. The more useful they seemed, the less likely are they to be extra lives for Luke. The process of death exchange was the same as with Lazuli, just that Luke didn''t have the leisure to act like a trashy villain with dumb, evil lines.


    Alex who didn''t understand much of the situation only thought that Luke was related to Lazuli''s mysterious and sudden death. His last thought was that he couldn''t protect his little brother anymore, like a real shounen hero. But unlike them, he had no plot armor, he was part of it. As for his physical body, it had its head blown up and corroding. His death brings even more pressure on the still battling allies who were even more alert. The good news was that they killed the mini-boss once before Alex''s passing.


    This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version......


    Luke regained his vision and saw the clearly shocked ogre. He was on the ground so he grabbed some dirt and threw it not at its eyes but at its nose, effectively making it sneeze and losing concentration. He then placed both his hands at its ears and firmly pushed some needles, coated in dark hands'' energy inside before quickly retreating. His budding theory was right, only the ogre''s skin reflected darkness element. If not, it would be an incredibly absurd ability for a tier 2, once again ignoring his own absurd ability. After all, that''s just a useless detail.


    The ogre was certainly not happy with that, the pain maddened it as it swung its spear towards Luke chaotically but its stats made each swing extremely dangerous. Luke had to continue retreating while he tried to figure out a way to impede its movements. Its chaotic spear swings and thrusts created wind pressure where they passed by. This gave an idea to Luke.


    He stacked 20 dark hands and exploded them in front of its face, making it stagger from the breath of the explosion. He continued doing this repeatedly to generate strong winds, which ironically made it unable to breathe. As a tier 2 species, not breathing for a whole 20 minutes shouldn''t have been a problem but considering its mental state, it was. It was trying to take deep, fury filled breaths, only to fail. Strong winds made it surprisingly harder.


    Then Luke threw one of his daggers under its left foot, that was currently raised and as he expected, it went through its sole. It roared out in pain from the dagger traversing its foot through its soft and sensitive soles and took it out, making it grunt from the pain. The anger, funneled by its pride and confidence being challenged multiple times by a literally lower species made it lose its mind. All of its concentration-demanding abilities were unusable.


    As it was distracted, Luke jumped over it, and once behind he... did what he knew the best how to do... he stacked a hundred dark hands on his remaining dagger and pierced a certain place, that will grant him the " wrong hole heaven piercing mania demon " title in the near future.


    The internal explosion killed it but Luke was sure it would get up, he was still very alert as he retreated far away. He was ready to face its wrath. He is always asking himself why his enemies were so angry at him, before and after the system coming. '' I mean, we are fighting to the death, what''s the point of getting angry? Anyway, it helps me more than it benefits them so no matter... ''


    The system manager who made some time to watch the fight was torn between laughter, pity, shock. In his 6 billion years of existence, he never saw this... way of fighting. Thinking about his most shameless enemies, he thought they would soon meet their master...

 Explanations

    * Congratulations soldier Luke on defeating the boss... calculating...3000 PTS are awarded. An explanation on tiers will be sent to your mind. *


    Hearing the system, Luke was stunned. Didn''t this species have a Second Life? Or was the boss too overpowered already to have it? He couldn''t dwell on these things much longer a massive load of information was brutally crashed into his mind. He grunted as he reviewed them.


    There were ten tiers. The first four are fodder, the next three are powerhouses and the last three are the peak of the universe.


    He only had access to information on the first four. For the others, he only knew that tier 7 and onwards is special and that from tier 4 to tier 6, one can be considered as a real fighting force of the universe and that stats become useless from this point onwards.


    The universe is currently in a war against an enemy he is not yet qualified to know of.


    Going back to the first four tiers, he knew that stats determined the tier.


    Tier 0 is someone having 1 to 9 for their strongest stat.


    Tier 1 is someone having 10 to 99 for their strongest stat.


    Tier 2 is someone having 100 to 999 for their strongest stat.


    Tier 3 is someone having 1000 to 9999 for their strongest stat


    The vial of species evolution T2 adds 100 to any chosen attribute.


    Also, waiting a bit before ascending to the next tier only serves to have an easier time in the beginning. So people can theoretically ascend the first four tiers instantly. The only problems being the lack of experience for once and more importantly the impossibility of ascending to tier 4.


    Tier 1 is the training phase. After the tenth quest, all survivors will ascend to tier 2, no matter how bad they originally were. People at tier 1 are useless, even as mere numbers. All the people who died in the quests will be revived as monsters for another species'' quests, and in the case that they die as monsters, they do so definitely.


    The mini-boss and boss monsters though are criminals, or rather people who pissed off the managers. The only reason they are not killed is that the managers don''t want to waste resources. Indeed, their usefulness in making talents grow makes them valuable grindstones. In the extremely rare cases where they survive as monsters until the end, they are freed.Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.


    Tier 2 is named either the soldier phase, either the weeding out phase. Soldiers, because those who only ascend at the end of the tenth quest will be directly sent to the real battlefield, facing the universe''s true enemies. Their only strength is numbers as some abilities can be useful on it but they can''t do much.


    Tier 3 is the same as tier 2, it''s just that they are way more useful. Depending on their performance at tier 2, people who ascended can either become soldiers on the battlefield or they can join a special program, that he is once again not qualified enough to know.


    ....


    Mulling over what he just learned, Luke now had a better understanding of the situation. Basically, the universe is facing enemies and species that were deemed as worth it were


    " given the right to fight back". These species are valued because some can have people who will stand at the top. They have a bigger probability of reaching greater heights.


    Then, the reason why not all species were given that chance was because resources are scarce. So scarce that they can''t allow any waste. Finally, the system is neutral but unfair. The value of people determines the amount that the top is willing to invest in them. Those who stand at the bottom are not only replaceable but also recyclable.


    Luke originally knew that fairness is impossible and that people would have different opportunities. He is the prime example of this. It''s true that he had to face more danger but the returns were worth it.


    His mentor once said when he was treated badly because of the phenomenon: Do you think I''m unfair? The world is unfair, everything is unfair! You are only displeased with it when you are at the suffering end of it. When you enjoy it, you are just happy it exists.


    This perfectly describes his current situation. He is clearly one of those who profit off it right now.


    He shook his head to once again get rid of his thoughts and brought up his vial. He mentally chose which stat to enhance and waited.


    ..........


    Back on the other side, only Isabella, Stevenson and Maria stayed alive. They were waiting for Luke''s return and the end of the quest. Only the system prompt did


    * Congratulations humans on finishing the third quest. Rewards have been distributed based on your performance. You will now be sent to the resting area. The fourth quest begins in a week. *


    With this, they all disappeared in flashes of pink light, most likely signifying their status as Luke''s three last extra lives.

 Browsing the shop

    Once again, the feeling of mana growing within him overtook him. It felt nice, like being drugged. More than that, he felt his soul for the first time, it evolved and this most likely contributed to the pleasure he is feeling.


    That''s right, Luke chose to enhance mana. It''s the most expensive to enhance stat so he just couldn''t spit on a free meal. The idea of enhancing any other stat didn''t cross his mind and he thought that any other person who enhanced anything else was a big dumbass.


    What he didn''t know was that he was one of the very few who had that right. Any other person who wanted to use the vial to enhance it were refused and had to choose another one, once again demonstrating the unfairness of the situation.


    The second thing he sensed was his ability''s evolution. But he felt like it was not an evolution, but more like an unveiling of its abilities... Inspecting it, the 10 cubic meters limit was replaced by a 100 cubic meters one.


    Then, he felt something else, something... different. After some thinking, he knew it was the mind power evolving. It didn''t make him have a firmer will, not at all. It... made him feel like he had a slight amount of control over his surroundings. He feels like... he can faintly impose his will over things. But it was just a slight feeling, like gaining entry over a new realm, but not yet being into it...


    '' So tier 2 feels like that huh? This mana, why does it feel familiar?...


    As he was in his own world, the system, like it was its destiny, once again interrupted him


    * Congratulations soldier Luke on becoming a tier 2 species! The shop has been updated!


    You will be sent to the elite champion''s battlefield in 24 hours. *


    Immediately after the system prompt''s end, he browsed through the shop, beginning by what he is the most curious about


    '' Shop, spells ''


    * tier one spells :


    darkness walk: 50 PTS cost: 20 mana/min


    space blades: 220 PTS cost: 2 mana


    tier two spells :


    dark blast : 300 PTS cost : 5 mana


    space run: 1000 PTS cost : 50 mana/min


    haunting march: 500 PTS cost: 200 mana/min


    space cut : 2200 PTS cost : 20 mana *


    Seeing the options, Luke had a few doubts, so he asked for details.


    * dark blast: dark hand''s evolution. Instead of covering the hand with a veil of darkness, it permits to create a small beam of darkness that explodes upon contact and corrodes anything the blast touch.Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site.


    space run: spacewalk''s evolution. Has twice the effect of spacewalk.


    haunting march: darkness walk''s evolution. Covers the body with a veil of darkness. Greatly enhances stealth no matter what area or environment.


    space cut: space blades'' evolution. Actually cuts space to attack from a long distance. *


    So the cost of the spells he already had the under evolution of was multiplied by five while it was by ten for those he didn''t. It was like paths that he could tread. So right now, he could either chose to ignore the spells paths he didn''t begin at tier one or he could try to tread all of them. In the end, he decided to buy his current spells'' evolutions with darkness walk and haunting march, while letting space cut for later. He would tread all the paths.


    * Deducting 50 PTS.


    Three tier one spells will be evolved to tier two... deducting 1800 PTS, 1152 PTS remaining. *


    Afterward, he immediately released all the dark hands he had stored, which was more than a thousand, creating his biggest nuke up to date and began storing dark blasts. '' These dark blasts though... won''t I make real nukes with them? No, I will even be able to make laser nukes, f*ck you Skywalker, I''m the only boss Luke now.


    Then, haunting march, I like that name. I will make my enemies shudder with it. They say that speed is invincible, and they are right, but stealth is THE ultimate. With it, I will finally be able to make use of my great stealth skill. I always had pride over my stealth skill, so now, I will do it justice. ''


    The spells greatly satisfied him. They made things different from what he expected but it''s not a bad thing. Luke feels like it''s clearly not a coincidence that only evolutions were available...


    Afterward, he got to the potions section


    * tier 2 potions :


    vitality enhance : 100 PTS


    intelligence enhance : 100 PTS


    strength enhance : 100 PTS


    agility enhance : 100 PTS


    resilience enhance : 100 PTS


    healing potion : 100 PTS


    mana enhance : 300 PTS


    mana replenish : 200 PTS


    Note, all effects are multiplied by ten. *


    That means that without counting the mana related ones, he could only buy eleven potions.


    '' Hmm... let''s buy four agility enhance, five resilience enhance and two intelligence enhance. Like this, I will have three tier 2 stats. ''


    * 1100 PTS deducted... 52 PTS remaining. *


    '' status ''


    * status :


    name: Luke


    Species: tier two human


    vitality: 36


    strength: 36


    agility: 100


    intelligence: 66


    resilience: 101


    mana: 130


    Inherited ability: spatial storage ???


    skills: dagger mastery B


    firearm mastery B


    stealth mastery C


    poison mastery C


    spells: space run tier two


    dark blast tier two


    haunting march tier two


    money: 052 PTS *


    Luke then felt his body strengthening. His movements became faster and his body overall became thicker, heavier and consequently more resistant.


    Seeing his status, Luke couldn''t help but feel proud, strong and confident, only to be reminded by his intelligence that these are just beginner tier 2 stats. Tier 2 that sets the base by the way.


    Luke then put these matters aside and rested until the time for his arrival at the elite champion''s battlefield came. He was really eager to go, but when he will indeed go, a very nasty surprise will welcome him.

 Elite champions battlefield

    * You will be teleported to the elite champion''s battlefield immediately. Good luck soldier Luke. *


    With that, Luke was once again blinded by the violet light but this time, unlike other time, he tried to not close his eyes and feel the teleportation. From the information, he was given and his own feelings, he deducted that abilities and elements are not things that were exactly given, but things that were already here that the system helped to manifest. However, up until now, he didn''t understand a single thing about his yet it''s so strong.


    He had a hunch that comprehending his ability would make things easier in the future. So as he was teleported, even though he couldn''t see anything he tried to feel his movement. He knew that this was something that he was able to feel because space is one of his elements.


    Not earning much, as he reappeared, the system prompt resounded directly


    * Welcome soldier Luke to the elite champion''s battlefield. Please follow the guide to the assembly area for explanations on it. *


    He still was affected by the violet light that blinded him and when his eyes adapted, he looked up and saw an ogre, a green-skinned one at least. His first reflex was to unsheath his daggers but remembered that it was only a guide, so he lowered them.


    Looking at him silently from the beginning, the ogre still didn''t speak and only turned around and began walking towards what looked like a coliseum in the distance. Following it, Luke observed his surroundings and found the area empty, only having the Coliseum. The earth was brown and looking up, he saw a star, a blue star sending light and warmth towards the place. There was something that bothered him though, it was the extremely disgusted expression the ogre was sending him, was it racist? No, it felt different but he still had a bad feeling about this.


    Arriving at the Coliseum, which was, in fact, gigantic, to the point that a hundred soccer fields would still be smaller, as he entered, he saw other people discussing within what looked like the arena. Few looked human and a lot looked... exotic. Like there were some who had horns on their heads and some who were just translucent blobs. As he looked at them, they also looked at this new arrival. Their gazes were either indifferent or curious but they soon lost interest and continued chatting among themselves.


    He looked at the surroundings and saw that unlike what he had thought, there were no stands, the Coliseum was in fact just an incredibly vast arena surrounded by walls. The other thing that he remarked was a giant hovering platform at the center. It was high in the sky and looked magnificent.


    The ogre who was guiding him flew to it and once he was on it, he disappeared, like there was a barrier of invisibility surrounding it. Looking at it in wonder, he saw someone floating down from it. This brought the attention of everyone, who got silent. This person looked like a human, with a blue color. He didn''t speak, yet, the sound of his voice was resounding inside his head, most likely some type of telepathy.Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.


    " I, lord seventh, the supervisor, ( I wanted to write lord fifth but that would be blasphemy ) welcome you soldiers to the elite champion''s battlefield. You may have a lot of questions but none of them will be answered. I will only tell you what you need to know.


    First, you have all been sent here because of your astounding performances in the first three quests. You are those who make your entire species worth investing in. That''s because numbers are important, but single, powerful experts are what we need more than anything else.


    Based on your way of doing things in your tier 1 time, you received a title, which is an incredible honor for soldiers. Lastly, the elite champion''s battlefield is a place where we groom the future elite of the universe.


    The ECB ( elite champion''s battlefield ) will be a simple thing. You will have to fight. One week, you will have a one Vs one fight against another soldier and a group battle against other soldiers, which will serve as training. Because the fights only take a day in total, you will be free to choose quests to do. The next week, you will be going to a battlefield to earn experience until the objective imposed by your system is met. The opportunities and returns the ECB provides are immense and costly so if you are too disappointing, you will be sent to the normal champion''s battlefield. "


    Saying his piece, the supervisor got back to the platform and Luke noted something.


    Even though he couldn''t possibly speak English, it sounded like the supervisor did. In fact, even in the CHG, people all appeared to speak in English to him, yet they came from different parts of the globe. It seems like the system makes people hear what they understand the best. ( just me patching up an inconsistency I noticed )


    Analyzing what he just learned, Luke was quite satisfied with this setting as he will have quite a bit of freedom, at least in his own quests. Then he got curious about what title he was attributed. '' With my performance, I should have a mighty sounding title like the master of darkness or unkillable killer. I just hope it''s not cringy but how can I know of it? Hmmm... Let''s try this: status, title ''


    * Title: wrong hole heaven piercing mania demon *


    Looking at it, he spurted out blood, attracting some attention on him. '' WHAT!? What the f*ck!? This can''t be true right!? Did they decide to mess with me until the end? '' Thinking back on how two peculiar fights ended, he couldn''t help but feel like it''s unfair. '' I mean, I was basically forced to do this to survive ''


    This is what is bothersome with unfairness, at one time you profit from it, the next, you suffer from it. Now he understood the look that the ogre threw at him. Even him, if he wasn''t the one with it would despise this title''s bearer.


    As he was cursing the nine ancient and future generations of whoever decided of this title, which made his system manager feel like he was insulted, the system prompt brought him out of his thoughts.


    * As you were just summoned, please find four partners for your first group battle, which will begin in an hour. *


    Then, everyone looked around, trying to find strong people from the aura they emitted, which was just an illusion and Luke who didn''t emit any just thought of partnering with anyone, without caring for their abilities, as he thought that he himself was more than enough to finish anyone gathered here. He was that confident.

 New partners

    As time passed by and the groups formed, Luke was quickly isolated, like four other people. This will be his group. They assembled together as they had no other choices and shortly presented themselves.


    A Lizardman like guy with a spear began bluntly. " Name''s Lou. " Short and straight to the point, just what Luke liked.


    A blue translucent blob that was probably a slime followed suit " Ozz. "


    Next, what looked like a human woman with long ears, an elf with her stereotypical bow also told her name " Milfa. "


    Then a six armed man who had six swords told his " Abacus "


    Finally, Luke also told his name " Luke ".


    Looking at him in an amusing way, Milfa reminded him of something he would have liked to forget " Hee, Luke right? Are you sick? I saw you throw up blood earlier. " With a black face, Luke just stayed silent for a while but seeing as they were all looking at him, even Ozz, probably, he answered " I''m alright, that''s all you need to know " He paused and looked at her in the eyes as he said " You don''t have to worry about me being a dead weight. "


    Shrugging, Milfa lightly replied " Is that so? "


    After these very short presentations, Lou, who spoke first once again led the conversation


    " Let''s cut the chitchat and just say our element and ability so that we can come up with a basic strategy. Mine is light, and my ability permits me to accelerate greatly. " He didn''t specify anything like range, his speed or his strength. It''s quite normal though. As they just met, trusting others with capital information would be the dumbest thing ever. Even more so with Luke around...


    Ozz, with his very uniform look, said his, followed by Milfa and Abacus


    " Poison, I eat. " " Electricity, I can shoot a railgun " " Also electricity, I can rain down lightning on people. "


    At last, Luke also said his " Darkness, I also shoot a railgun. By the way, do any of you know all of the elements? "


    Hearing his question, they all looked at Luke weirdly, which bothered him a little. Lou, who probably wanted to be the leader answered him " You are probably new to the universal war... " He shook his head and looked at Luke with a bit of... sympathy? " There are twelve elements and they are categorized into grades, based on their rarity and power. They are space, time and gravity which are high grade; light, darkness, electricity, and poison which are mid-grade; and water, wind, fire, earth and ice which are low grade. "


    Finishing his speech which seemed to really tire him out, Lou let Luke the time to digest the information.Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.


    '' I see, so my elements really are good huh. But he didn''t say anything about anyone having two elements. Is it because people are supposed to have only one? Better not ask red flag questions and keep my curiosity and doubts to me. But this really the nurturing place of the top, we all have mid-grade element and powerful abilities. ''


    With that, time was up and the fights will begin shortly


    * The group battles will now begin. You will fight the nearest team to you. The group battles and one Vs one matches won''t allow death. You will be revived after you die. Good luck soldier Luke. *


    Luke''s team directly looked at the nearest team to them. It was a team composed of five snakemen, 200 meters away. They all had humanoid top and snakish bottom. They looked quite intimidating. Even though they were looking at each other, they still remarked that the area had been cleared. They were displaced in the distance from the other fight, but without anyone noticing.


    Lou, who assumed the great burden of leadership quickly set the formation. " Luke and Milfa, with your abilities, you will stay at the back and shoot them. Ozz will be in the forefront with me and Abacus will be in the middle, sneak attacking them. " With no questions asked as this was not the time, they all followed his instructions.


    The five snakemen also got into formation with three in front and two in the back. Then, what followed was both teams staring at each other with no one initiating the battle. They weren''t searching for flaws, they just were hesitant as they all knew that anyone having the qualifications to be here should be at the same level as them give or take.


    Lou decided to begin as he instructed Milfa to shoot. It''s not that he didn''t have confidence in Luke... well he didn''t but the biggest reason is that as an opener, a lightning ability is better than a dark one as it''s faster.


    Taking a very short time to charge it, she shot her railgun at the weakest looking snakeman.


    Shockingly, the snake-man didn''t even try to evade but took the attack directly. The lighting didn''t do anything to him and as he just shot it back towards Abacus. Even though he didn''t expect this, Abacus still married with his swords for the piercing power of the attack and countered the lightning with his own, which descended from the sky.


    The blow still did heavy damage to him though since, as tier 2 existences, they didn''t have the immunity of their elements. At most, they had a slight resistance. Lou''s face became ugly, the fight just began and they were on the losing end. Not only was one member heavily injured, they revealed two abilities while the enemies only revealed one, which they couldn''t know the specifics of, other than the fact that it can deflect lightning.


    His initial strategy was thus a complete failure, not because it was bad per se, but because of luck.


    The enemies wouldn''t let such an opportunity go and attacked. The two at the back used their abilities, or maybe their skills. Things looked dire from the very beginning and although they were all tensed, the only one who wasn''t was Luke.

 Group battle? New rival

    What the snakemen used were poison jets that they fired from their staffs. It was definitely a spell as abilities shouldn''t be so lame, at least, abilities of elites. Ozz, who did nothing but roll around until now got in front of them, taking the full brunt of the attacks.


    Unlike Abacus though, Ozz was perfectly fine. It seems like slimes had immunity towards their own element, balancing their lack of intelligence, visible from his speech pattern.


    Then, Ozz shook a little, inflated twice his size and exploded. It was not really an explosion as everything was shot towards the snakemen. Furthermore, the explosion was just small parts of Ozz that attached to the enemies and corroded them.


    Meanwhile, the fallen Abacus got back up from the ground, with his wounds closing quickly enough to be visible to the naked eyes. He then rained down lightning towards the still corroding snakemen. One of the two seemingly cast a light shield, effectively stopping the lightning from touching them.


    The situation entered a stalemate but, something unexpected and shouldn''t happen when two teams of roughly equal strength fought just happened. The two snakemen, who still had most of their strength shrouded in mystery, the same two who were most likely the main damage dealers of their team died.


    The reason for their untimely and unfair death was, of course, Luke, who, with his haunting march sneaked up on them before the shield rose. Then, he just had to stab them with his daggers, obviously at their eyes since he wanted a sure, unmissable kill.


    To sum up, he just did his job, he assassinated them. He could have chosen to kill the enemy leader but decided on these two since they count as two kills. He thought that maybe, just maybe this training allowed them to earn points by killing enemies and winning their fights.


    He hoped he was right since as a proud assassin, he would rake in points like a pillaging Viking. Everyone else, be it the snakemen or his partners looked at him in either awe or fear, according to their relationship with him but all of them looked at him alertly.


    No one saw him do anything and two people, who should be their equals died in the blink of an eye. They couldn''t do anything. No matter how strong they initially were, they just dropped dead after a single move. That was scary to say the least. The fight, which should have been the theater of epic faceoffs, twists and hard fight already had a winner, because of one individual.


    But they swiftly all recovered their bearings. The fight is not finished, yet. The snakemen''s new objective was to kill the maximum amount of enemies they could while Luke''s team had to survive at all costs. This is because unlike Luke who could only make conjectures, they were all from already system baptized species.Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.


    They all knew what happens upon death and what happens when you kill. They win or lose points, simple as that. Victory offers a lot of points while kills offer points depending on the value of those you killed. They obviously didn''t tell that to Luke, after all, the less he knows about this, the better it is for them. Though, it was only knowingly done by Milfa and Lou. Abacus and Ozz just didn''t bother.


    In other words, the snakemen were doing their best to earn a maximum of points to minimize their losses, and even gain something if they are lucky while Luke''s team just wouldn''t risk it. Getting killed is often more expensive than what you earn by killing.


    The snakemen immediately ruled out Luke of their target list as he was way too dangerous and concentrated on the others. They wanted to quickly kill at least one before he comes for them. But as they were about to bring out their strongest firepower on his team, Luke fired a stack of ten dark blasts on the weakest looking snake man, who mirrored Milfa''s lightning blast earlier.


    They did the stupidest thing they could at this moment, they ignored Luke''s presence. Objectively speaking, they were right as Luke being able to sneak up on their allies and quickly killing them not only bring down their strength, but it also made them helpless against him. Furthermore, they could never think that Luke could kill them so easily, without using all his power. Unfortunately, they didn''t just have a random dude like them to face off but Luke, the overpowered demon.


    This cost them another swift death, letting the leader and his only remaining partner face four people as powerful as them. They didn''t even try to defend anymore and just let themselves be swiftly killed. Milfa and Ozz hit the jackpot by delivering death blows.


    Afterward, they all looked at Luke with apparent fear but most of all relief. They didn''t have to go against this monster, not now, not ever in the entire ECB at least. Moreover, it was the perfect chance to befriend a future rising star. That was just what Milfa and Lou were thinking but Ozz and Abacus didn''t think that far, they were just happy they won. That''s it. Their special bodies really compensated their low intellect.


    Lou, as the leader spoke first, not without some stiffness, coming from his lack of speech habit. " That was unexpectedly amazing, I''m glad I''m in your team. You are surprisingly strong for someone who just interacted with the system recently. "


    Milfa who was very happy of her kill added " Yeah, that''s for sure. You could even rival that Lion monster. "


    Abacus just laughed out " Let''s not talk about useless stuff and just celebrate our victory! Haha! " " Ozz happy, Ozz eat. "


    Milfa then looked at Abacus amusingly " You want me to tell him that you qualified him of useless stuff? "


    Abacus'' face immediately became somber "... no thanks " Causing Lou to smirk and Milfa to laugh.


    '' Who is that Lion guy? Even after what I showed them they still think he is better? Seems like the ECG is not in name only. ''


    * Congratulations! You won your first group battle and were the second team to win. You earned 1000 PTS. You killed 3 soldiers... calculating... you earned 800 PTS, 800 PTS, and 900 PTS. You will shortly be teleported to the resting area. *


    Having his conjecture confirmed, Luke was quite satisfied but he was also more curious about that Lion guy as he guessed he was the one who finished before him.

 Encountering the real deal

    After he was blinded by the violet light, which he still tried to observe much to the horror of his eyes, Luke appeared in front of a house. It was a simple cube but he thought it was a house, his house as it resembled what he used to live in. In the surroundings, there were four other very exotic houses with his teammates in front of each, forming a circle with what looked like a monolith in the center.


    Entering his house, he confirmed that it was a simplified version of his house. There was nothing much in there other than a bed, a desk, a fridge, a computer, and a PlayStation.


    It seems like the managers or overseers really put importance to the well-being of their elites. They most likely recreated what everyone was used to for their living quarters.


    Going out of his house, he saw the other four houses, from which his partners got out. They all silently assembled around the monolith.


    * Please enter the name of your team. *


    As if by prior agreement, Lou typed a few times on it and the name was set.


    * Team Dazzle officially created.


    The leader of the team has been set: Lou.


    From now on, every team battles and squad missions will be recognized under the name Dazzle with Lou as the leader. For your rest days, you may use the monolith to search and select for one mission. *


    Afterward, a bout of silence prevailed.


    "..."


    "..."


    "..."


    Not standing it anymore, Milfa exploded " What the f*ck man!? What''s with this lame name? Dazzle? Seriously? Do we look like kids to you? "


    Abacus who had a serious look on his face also butted in " Yeah, the name is neither mighty looking nor awe-inspiring. With this name, we will be bullied. "


    Lou who looked taken aback by their reactions pitifully tried to appease them


    " Hum... This name was actually thought out. I mean, dazzle stands for dazzling and dazzling stands for lightning and lightning stands for extreme speed. It does qualify our team well no? "


    His attempt at bullsh*tting his way out though was an outright failure as Milfa and Abacus both readied their weapons to swiftly end him.


    As he was about to once again try to appease them, they all sensed a serious aura coming off Ozz. They all looked at him in wonder but immediately stopped quarreling after hearing him. "Name: Eat tomatoes "If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it.


    They couldn''t see his expression but theirs were quite wonderful at this moment. They expected something more... something smarter?


    Looking from the side, Luke shook his head at the thought of staying all his tier 2 time with these... things. For him, they devolved from sentient beings to... things." I''m going to rest. " He left just like that, cursing his bad luck.


    That night, he purchased seven vitality and strength enhance and four intelligence enhance so that all his stats became tier 2. Then he bought ten agility and five resilience enhance. The reason he invests into them more than the others is just that he is a paranoid coward. Of course, these mean terms do not do justice to his '' cautious and down to earth disposition '' in his own words.


    The next day, which was considered a rest day, Luke went to the monolith for his mission. But, before he could even look at the ones available, his access was denied.


    * As soldier Luke is a special case, your first mission will be mandatory. You will be paired with the other ECG''s special cases to destroy an enemy base. More information will be provided at the mission''s place. It will begin in six hours. *


    After hearing that, Luke frowned a little. These ''rest'' days should be free, yet, he was forced to do something, even more so with other people. Though, he was quite curious about who these other special cases were. He half expected the lion guy to be one but from the fact that the system said cases, he guessed there was at least one more.


    Waiting the six hours out not being an option, he returned to his house where he just spent his time playing.


    After the said six hours, he was blinded by the violet light again before regaining his sight in front of two people. There was a seemingly handsome lionman with thick, lustrous mane and light armor who should be the Lion guy so much talked about and there was a normal looking woman, totally human looking with the same light armor as Lion guy.


    They were all currently observing each other and lion guy spoke first " Hello, my name is Lion. I believe that you should be the special cases just like me and consequently my teammates. " He had a surprisingly nice way of speaking. Unlike what people would think, he didn''t ooze out pride and arrogance but just calm and collectedness.


    The woman replied first " Hello, my name is Andrea. As a fellow special case, deprived of my freedom, I hope we all get along well. " Andrea had roughly the same disposition of Lion which was a good thing as, if she was like those blocks of ice in cultivation novels he would have ripped her to pieces. These kind of characters are just too annoying.


    As the last to talk, Luke put on the same calm front as them " Hi, you can call me Luke. I do also hope we get along. "


    The light presentations finished, they made some small talks while waiting for the system prompt. Apparently, they are both famous because they were well publicized as geniuses by their backings which Luke thinks are probably tier 7 or stronger existences.

 The universes top

    Honestly, Luke didn''t think that Lion would be so polite, after all, aside from having meaningless pride, Luke always thought that lions, in general, were just lazybum drunkards who only ever sleep or get into fights.


    Lion, releasing the last polite laugh began to talk about the important things. " Now then, let''s get to the point. My element is gravity and I can repel pretty much anything. It''s an area of effect power but I can concentrate it. "


    Finishing, he looked at Andrea. " My elements are light and electricity. I can shoot a kinda plasma beam. " Then, they both looked at Luke who was quite surprised that she had two elements. Quickly debating whether to say that he had two elements or just talk about one, Luke came to a surprising decision


    " My elements are space and darkness. I can shoot a dark railgun and move fast and stealthily. " He decided to really reveal his elements not because his conscience didn''t permit him to lie ( obviously ) but because they were all the special cases.


    If he only demonstrated a mid-tier element, which he did with his teammates, they would be suspicious. Trust would then be impossible between them. He wanted them to trust him, even if just a little as they were people worth befriending.


    It''s not because he likes to be alone that he couldn''t build connections, in fact, building connections is as essential as making people drop their guard around you. That, he understood since young.


    Nodding his head thoughtfully, Lion and an equally thoughtful Andrea looked at each other and said at the same time " That''s a pretty wasteful mix. " Luke looked at them bewildered and asked " Why do you say that? "


    Feeling pity for this ignorant newbie, Andrea explained: " Well, darkness and space are amazing elements but having both is useless." Spotting an even more bewildered look on Luke''s face, she continued " I mean, everything that darkness does, space does better. For movement, nothing beats space ( and time ), offensively, space powers are always stronger than darkness ones, for stealth, once again, space does better."


    Having a troubled frown on his face, Luke once again asked her to develop, but Lion replied instead " In the later stages, space element can be developed to somehow be a different dimension altogether. You just can''t easily spot a dimension as it becomes different from ours while darkness stays in the dimension. "


    With a wry smile, Luke finished the bullying of darkness element " So in the end, space is like a perfected version of darkness, me having both is like having two right arms, with one being stronger than the other... sigh. "If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.


    Looking at Luke with some pity, Lion lightly tapped his shoulder and said " Even though it''s pretty wasteful, these two are in the end different. I don''t know the specifics but there are things that you can do with darkness that you can''t with space."


    At that, Luke thought '' Of course there are, like creating nukes '' But that thought stayed in his head. Instead, he just nodded '' dejectedly ''.


    As if by prior agreement, the system prompt resounded just after they finished talking


    * Your mission is to destroy the T2 base and kill every enemy. More points will be awarded if prisoners are freed. You have 18 hours. *


    Once again, they were silently teleported without them knowing how to appear in front of the said base, behind a hill. It looked like a fort with two towers, which seemed to be used to monitor the surroundings as what looked like archers stood on them, and a brick wall that made it impossible to see anything beyond.


    Observing around, Lion asked Luke for a strategy, not being good at it himself. " Well, the strategy I''m the best at is not very usable in this situation. " He said this with an awkward face. Curious about what it was, Andrea pressed on " What is it then? Maybe it can be used. "


    As if mustering some courage Luke talked.


    " My favorite tactic is to save my strength, efficiently killing my enemies in a stealthy and quick manner while defending my position. "


    " In other words?"


    " I camp. " ( What is more of a jerk than a camper? Sigh, Maybe I''m making him too true to his character? )


    "..."


    "..."


    They said at the same time " disgusting."


    Luke said with a helpless face " That''s why it''s unusable here. Though, I have another that may work. "


    Trying to forget about his disgust, Lion still pressed on for him to talk. With a straight face, Luke said matter of factly " We raze everything. "


    Not thinking for a second that a camper would have these kinds of balls, Lion was very surprised at first then began boisterously laughing while Andrea snickered. " Well, this strategy oddly suits me. What about the hostages though? "


    Still keeping his straight face, Luke replied " We, unfortunately, couldn''t save them because of the enemies number. " Luke didn''t just propose to brutally destroy everything because he was lazy, but because he had the feeling that the difficulty of freeing the hostages while destroying the base would just be absurd. His experience on earth can bear witness of the accuracy of this feeling.


    Sighing, Andrea and Lion nodded their heads and focused on the base. Lion then said " I will blow up these towers. You two blast everything inside. Is that okay? " " Yep "


    Lion then ascended the hill and got in front of the base. The archers within the tower began to shoot at him. Lion then brought his right hand forward and everything, be it the wall, the archers or the towers got brutally repelled back, effectively destroying everything.


    Luke and Andrea then used their abilities to bomb everything inside. A gigantic white beam of light and a dark one, which is just a 20 dark blast stack traveled side by side towards the now visible base, which was just a one story, simple building.


    The beams, upon contact, exploded and, because of their repulsive natures, ignited each other even further, creating a bigger explosion which razed everything.


    Michael Bay would be proud, or a certain clay using ninja for this matter.

 No, just, no!!!

    Not hearing the system prompt after a while, they all sighed, knowing that the whole matter wasn''t finished yet. A spear spontaneously appeared in Lion''s hand while a longsword appeared in Andrea''s.


    This, of course, startled Luke but his fanboy soul quickly put the ends together " Do you have storage devices? " Fortunately, he still had control and didn''t ask if storage rings existed. That would not only make him look like an idiot, but also like a country bumpkin idiot. Wait, he already has that image...


    Lion just nodded " Yeah, a high rank one at that. It cost me a lot to have this bracelet. " Andrea also nodded but said with a tad bit of jealousy " I only have a mid-rank bracelet. "


    Suppressing his disappointment that they didn''t have storage rings but bracelets instead, Luke also took out his daggers while saying " I also have one, but I don''t know it''s grade and it''s a necklace. "


    Looking at Luke with the same gaze he would have to look at a worm, Lion simply asked


    " A necklace? Such an outdated thing? " Sighing over a newbie''s trouble, Lion continued " What is the dimension? 10 cubic meters? 100? "


    " 10." " Then it''s a low grade one. If it was 100 cubic meters, it would have been a mid-rank. You are quite lucky, newly integrated species supposedly don''t have that chance. And if it was a higher grade, you would be in some people''s target list. You certainly don''t want that. "


    Nodding in understanding, Luke looked back towards their masterpiece, curious about what could have survived it.


    He didn''t have to wait long though as a tentacle monster burst off the ground. It was half charred and still corroding.


    " ROOOOOOOAAAAAAAAR " It released a gut-wrenching roar that was a mix of pain and anger.


    It raised four of its tentacles, preparing a big move but Lion just got in front of it and raised his spear, pointing at it. The monster was thus blasted away. After a few seconds of staying on the ground, it got back up on its tentacles, effectively shattering Lion''s newly formed badass aura.


    It released what seemed to be ink from its mouth, that Lion repelled. The ink, once touching the ground, corroded it, proving that the monster had the poison attribute. Meanwhile, Andrea shot another blast towards it, this time, twice as big as the one she fired on the base.This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.


    The monster, which was just a bunch of tentacles and a mouth, separated itself. Now, there stood 46 tentacles against them. They all had a kind of opening, from which its ink was released in straight lines. They were like laser beams as they neared the two.


    Lion, observing them, had the feeling that he couldn''t repel them, even more so as this monster should also be a kind counter to them so he evaded by burrowing the ground, thanks to his ability. Andrea, who was a little behind just evaded them one by one with pure speed. Her two attributes were just perfect for that. After firing, the tentacles got back together, with one being the ''official'' mouth.


    As they were having a staring contest, Luke who was using his haunting march sneaked up to the side of the monster, 40 meters away from it and fired his dark blast, a 40 stacks dark blast. It simply erased the monster, that was caught off guard.


    Sighing over the ease of the kill, Luke deactivated his spell and appeared. Lion and Andrea who were trying to win the contest were at first stunned then comprehensive. Luke indeed stated that he could move stealthily.


    Looking at them, he complained about it " Well, wasn''t it too easy? I''m sure there is something more. And..."


    * Congratulations on your victory! You have been awarded 5000 PTS. No hostages survived so there are no additional PTS. You will be sent back to your living quarters in 20 minutes. *


    " ... "


    " ... "


    " ... "


    " My system is pretty disrespectful, it interrupts me every time. " Luke said with a helpless face.


    Looking at him as if he wanted to slap him, Lion replied " I''m sure you deserve it. "


    " Why?"


    " You are too haughty. You dared to say it was easy. You will suffer in your next mission, the overseer will make it so."


    Nodding at the side, Andrea, who was looking at what was once the base said " Yeah, furthermore there were initially three of these sh*ts that were waiting for us. " Looking at the distraught Luke dead in the eyes, she added


    " You will get your sorry ass handed over to yourself. "


    Shaking her head to get rid of these thoughts, Andrea changed the subject " Anyway, we should first get each others'' contact number. "


    Nodding, Lion agreed and gave his contact number to Andrea and turned to Luke for his.


    Not knowing what they were talking about, he asked " What are the contact numbers, and with which device can we use them? "


    Exasperated with this ignorant newbie, Lion replied with a deadpan tone " It''s the chat option, you will see your number there. "


    " Ohh thanks. Exploring this option for the first time, Luke saw his number, which was unnecessarily long and looked at Lion, troubled. It had more than a thousand numbers. With the same deadpan tone, Lion said " You can give it to me just by willing it while looking at me. "


    Quickly doing what he was instructed with the both of them, Luke saw that he now had two contacts with their titles. They were Indomitable spear for Lion and Blitz sword woman for Andrea. Having his eyes widen in terror, he slowly, very slowly looked up to Andrea and Lion, who looked at him like he was the manifestation of filth...

 Different cultures

    " So, in addition to being a camper, you are... also a shameless, dirty fighter. You... " Shaking his head, Lion once again looked at Luke, this time with a more understanding face? " Really should have suffered. " Nodding at the side, Andrea added " Yay, having to resort to... that to win your fights, you should have really been put against the impossible. "


    Being shocked by their reactions at first, Luke began to tear up. He was finally understood. People finally understood his suffering. He has nothing to say about the blue-skinned ogre but the purple-skinned one was just too much. He always thought that no one would accept him if he revealed his title but now, he was reassured. There are other people out there who could relate to his experience.


    " You don''t know how much these words touch me. " With teary eyes, he approached them for a hug but was lightly repelled by Lion " Well... Even though we can relate to your situation, there are limits my friend. "


    With a wronged face, Luke said " Ughh, this hurts more than I thought it would. " Shaking his head to get rid of embarrass-useless thoughts, Luke changed the subject to something he was really curious about


    " Is it rare to have two elements? "


    Expecting him to ask this question at one point, Andrea, who was directly concerned answered him. " Yeah, it is. Like... there are less than a hundred billion in the entire universe. This may seem like much but there are less than one for every supercluster. Furthermore, having two mid-grade ones or, in your case, a high grade and a mid-grade is extremely incredible.


    If my memory doesn''t fail me, there appeared... ten million or something in the 13 billion years of the universe''s existence. A lot of them died but some are still alive and are powerhouses. "


    Nodding in understanding, Luke then asked about something that may seem irrelevant, but that he really would like to know " How is the society in the universe? Like, is it organized or something? Is there a god? "


    Thinking for a while, Lion calmly replied


    " Yeah, it''s like a bunch of allies organized in a loose administration. As for a god... well, there are some people who would fit that title. They are beings capable of creating galaxies so yeah I guess. They are tier 9 by the way.


    Ah, and, if you want a specific example of society, I can talk about mine. "


    Curious about it, Luke asked him to continue


    Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author." Well, my lionman clan owns a few galaxies. We have a sort of royal family, governed by an empress with multiple tribes serving us. We, of course, live on planets but some monks prefer to live on their spatial shuttles. "


    " So, you''re royalty... you said empress, so is your family a matriarchal one? "


    " Yeah, the founder of our empire and clan was a woman. Since then, most of the strongest of our clan were women as well. As it''s the strongest that becomes the emperor/empress, there were actually very few emperors. Oh, and, in my clan, brothers are forced to marry the same woman to maintain the clan''s purity.


    It''s an efficient way as it permitted my birth. "


    Stunned at first, Luke then nodded in understanding, ignoring Lion''s boasting. Thinking about it, this seemed almost logical, not that he would accept that himself. Though being tactful, he didn''t ask if he felt weird about it, this was his norm.


    Andrea who was listening to their conversation also butted in. " My clan is also a matriarchal one, it''s just that we are looser in terms of bloodline as it''s not that important. Though, being the strongest sex is nice. Most patriarchal clans or families repress their female members from what a friend of mine told me. How is it like on your planet? "


    Trying to find the right words, Luke replied, but quite unsure " Well, in some areas, it''s patriarchal to the extreme, while in others, it''s almost fair. Almost. "


    With a disgusted expression, Andrea spat " I certainly wouldn''t want to live on this sort of archaic, unlogical and dumb planet. "


    Shrugging, Luke calmly added " That''s just millions of years of habits, good or bad ones, that''s how my world is.


    Anyway, I remarked something about mind power. I feel like I can act on my surroundings but I can''t, do you know why? "


    Blinking his eyes and once again sighing at a new species'' ignorance, Lion answered " That''s because it''s something only tier 4 and above can really use. Under that, we can only feel it at most. It''s a kind of telekinesis but


    everyone has it because it comes from mind power. People are only really capable of telekinesis at tier 4, which demarcates them even more from lower levels.


    By the way, those who awakened telekinesis as their ability will combine mind power and stamina to use it, making it stronger. But, after tier 6, the telekinesis ability basically becomes useless, though, with the low number of tier 7, it''s not really a disadvantage"


    Shaking her head, Andrea snickered " You are not concerned though. Moreover, with your useless double attribute, you are more disadvantaged, though, space in and of itself is already exceptionally good as an element. "


    Looking at her bracelet, that also seemed to serve as a watch, she added " Anyway, time is up, see you later on the chat. "


    " Yeah, see you."


    * You will now be teleported back to your living quarters. *


    With that, Luke was once again blinded by the violet light and reappeared in front of the monolith. Seeing no one around, he simply went back to his house and browsed the shop. There was something he wanted to buy.


    '' shop, tools, tier two: Road to craziness. ''

 Chapter 30

    * Tools: tier 2


    Road to craziness: 500 PTS/G


    As the creator: 200 PTS/G *


    Thinking about something, Luke thought without insurance ''Show me the tree of roads''


    * Tree of the nine roads :


    Road to misery: acts on a person''s brain. Makes them have dependent and heavier feelings of faith and loyalty towards whoever''s original blood served to make it. Is sure to work on tier 1 species and under. Has a 50% chance of working on tier 2 species and no chance of working on tier 3 and above.


    Road to craziness: acts on a person''s brain and nerves. Makes them have dependent and heavier feelings of faith and loyalty towards whoever''s original blood served to make it, to the point of sacrificing themselves. Takes less time to act. Is sure to work on tier 2 species and under. Has a 50% chance of working on tier 3 species and no chance of working on tier 4 and above.


    Road to insanity: acts on a person''s brain, nerves, and instincts. Makes them half controlled by whoever''s original blood served to make it. Is sure to work on tier 3 species and under. Has no chance of working on tier 4 and above.


    Road to death: acts on a person''s brain, nerves, and instincts. Makes them totally controlled by whoever''s original blood served to make it.Is sure to work on tier 4 species and under. Has a 50% chance of working on tier 5 species and no chance of working on tier 6 and above. *


    '' Here it is! But nine? Does it mean that the ones above Road to death are possible!? I thought that Road to death was the peak but it seems like mana is the key to these things... Furthermore, these limits... great, I will have to work more seriously on the roads. ''


    '' Show me my money ''


    * Money: 5051 PTS. *


    '' Buy 10G and 10 agility, resilience and intelligence enhance. ''


    Consuming them, he asked for his status as he had another hunch...


    * status :


    name: Luke


    Species: tier two human


    vitality: 106


    strength: 106


    agility: 300


    intelligence: 206


    resilience: 251


    mana: 130This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.


    Inherited ability: spatial storage ???


    skills: dagger mastery B


    firearm mastery B


    stealth mastery C


    poison mastery C


    intuition D ( new )


    spells: space run tier two


    dark blast tier two


    haunting march tier two


    money: 051 PTS *


    '' !!! So I was right, I really have intuition now. No, it''s more like I had it before but it''s only recently that it was strong enough to show on the status. Does it mean THIS skill is also there? ''


    Not minding this anymore, Luke got to bed and slept. The next day, after a quick breakfast, Luke got out of his house and sat in front of the monolith, where everyone else was, with somber faces. Quickly greeting them, he asked why they had said faces.


    With a slightly annoyed tone, Milfa replied


    " Today is the day of the one Vs one fights. "


    Looking at him in particular, she added " it is said that everyone''s first fight is between members of the same team, with only one exempted who will fight someone else. "


    Wearing a dubious expression, Luke asked


    " Isn''t that kinda dumb? I mean, putting people from the same team against each other is the most perfect way to create grudges or at least tension. "


    Sighing, Milfa replied " Yeah, but the overseers at least let us choose who fights another team. In our case, it''s of course you. "


    Abacus, who was quite direct in his speech pattern said matter of factly " You''re like that Lion guy, don''t wanna die. "


    Lou also nodded and said " It would be a dumb and meaningless death. "


    Ozz, who... rarely spoke also butted in " Luke eat Ozz, Ozz not happy. "


    Looking at Ozz, Luke thought '' Was that his longest sentence so far? ''


    Looking at them one by one, he rose an eyebrow and said " But I still don''t see how this isn''t dumb. "


    Lou answered this time " The winner in most cases will give back the points earned from the kill. " " Then, why not fight me? " Staring dead into Luke''s eyes, he continued " But the performance before death determines the cost of death. "


    Nodding, Milfa supplements " Dying by your hands will be costly as you earn fewer points if you hold back. No one wants that. "


    Finally understanding their decision, he waited for his fight against an unknown enemy, while the others stayed silent, preparing themselves mentally for their fights.


    Luke then purchased a simple grey vest and red trousers, which he will use from now on.


    * Your one Vs one fight will begin immediately, good luck soldier Luke. *


    Once again blinded by the violet light, Luke reappeared in the Coliseum. In front of him stood Lion.


    Sighing, Lion asked " Do you remember your arrogance in the mission? I think the overseer, lord seventh, is bent on making you cry now. "


    Looking at Lion with a pitiful gaze, Luke replied " That wasn''t arrogance, that was justified pride. "


    Laughing a little, Lion spat and replied " I will beat the crap out of you, you will thank me in the future. "


    Getting into a fighting stance, Luke simply stated " You are right, I will thank you for the free points. "


    Laughing even more, Lion pointed his spear at Luke who felt a sudden burst of gravity, holding him in place and the repelling power hit him at his chest, hard, breaking a few ribs. He was thrown back but activated his haunting march at the same time. He felt that the resilience stat was really a paying investment.


    The fight between two of the strongest three of the ECB began explosively.

 Chapter 31

    Hidden because of his haunting march, Luke tried to sneak attack from the left but Lion smiled, always looking at his direction " You know what is cool with my ability? It''s that nothing can hide from me. " Enraged by the smugness of his words, Luke simply sent multiple dark blasts his way, which all got repelled.


    Still sporting a smug smile, Lion once again provoked Luke " My friend, if it continues like this, your death will come early and brutally. "


    While saying that, he used his repelling power on Luke''s chest once again, making him cough out blood.


    Being in a dire situation, Luke, as expected of him, was calm, calmer than he looked at least. He knew that Lion was either trying to agitate him or was just really confident. Either way, it doesn''t change his situation, or at least, that''s what Lion thinks. This time, Luke mentally smiled, what he was experimenting succeeded.


    Since he became tier two and that his spatial storage evolved, or more like unsealed a little, Luke knew he could do more things. He always tried to find what, only to fail each time. Honestly, he knew from a long time that his ability was overpowered, it was quite blatant, but he always felt like his ability belonged to the late bloomer abilities.


    These are the kind of abilities that only show their might in the later stages, yet, he could already do things that immediate results abilities couldn''t. This time, what the evolution of his ability brought was that it absorbed 50% of the enemy''s attack, at least from the same tier. The blows he received from Lion attacks were now twice weaker.


    Looking at Lion deeply, Luke stayed in the same place and began chugging down potions. Seeing him not only motionless but also healing, Lion wouldn''t just let him be. Furthermore, for reasons unknown, his smile turned somber. With a serious look, he began dashing towards Luke with his spear raised and once again, Luke felt the gravity around him increase, this time, trying to crush him.


    Then Lion''s spearhead trembled and Luke felt the repelling blast hit his raised arms, which he used to protect his head. He head was jerked back while coughing blood. but the gravity around him still held him in place. Lion, with a speed that was much faster than Luke ( Who invested heavily on agility ), appeared in front of him and had his spear pulled back, ready to launch a devastating killing blow.


    Luke, now within Lion''s striking zone released a thousand dark blast all around him, which hit Lion hard, but the guy wasn''t even heavily injured, he just slid a few tens of meters. He looked savage with dark elements still corroding parts of his charred skin, mane and with his predatory look.


    Not willing to stay near that monster, Luke used both haunting march and space run at the same time. He fled a little distance away and reappeared. He was shocked.


    He just couldn''t understand why Lion was in such a ''good'' condition after taking a literal nuke head on. He knew the difference in stats within the same tier could be absurd, even more so at tier 2 but Lion was just too much. They both just got to tier 2, most likely with a few days of difference at most.If you come across this story on Amazon, it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it.


    So, he ruled out the possibility of Lion just having way higher stats. Instead, he concentrated and with the help of his intuition, he could somehow feel a kind of cloak around Lion. A gravity cloak. Thinking back to what he knew about gravity, he deducted that this cloak not only increased speed to the extreme, but it also increased defense, thanks to the absurd properties the gravity element brought.


    While Luke was thinking about him, Lion also observed Luke. He was honestly shocked. The moment he saw Luke motionless, his greatly overpowered instincts told him to quickly finish him off. Having relied on his instincts all his life, he immediately acted and went all out. But the guy not only didn''t die, even more so, his instincts were getting more frantic by the second.


    With a wry smile, he spoke: " I say, it''s a quite dangerous attack you had in stock ". With the same wry smile, Luke replied " You''re the one to talk? " Both shaking their heads at the same time, they got back to fighting stances.


    Having a staring contest, Lion ended it by once again dashing towards Luke, this time, attracting him towards his spear. Not expecting the contrary of what he always experienced so far, Luke was taken off guard but he swung both his daggers towards the ground, which sent dark slashes towards Lion ( basically getsuga tensho).


    The reason why he could do this was thanks to Lion''s gravity attacks he stored. He used them to roughly shape his dark beams to make them some kind of energy slashes.


    * Congratulations soldier Luke on creating a new spell. You have been awarded 4000 PTS


    Please name it. * Hearing the system prompt, Luke was quite surprised but he brushed it off, deciding to deal with it after the fight.


    Lion, not expecting something different from the usual beams was also caught off guard. Moreover, his instincts screamed at him to dodge, so he did, letting Luke free from his gravity.


    This got them in another stalemate, and incidentally, in another staring contest. Quickly debating his options, Lion once again used his gravity to hold Luke in place while he shot another repelling beam. Taking the brunt of the now twice weaker attack, Luke responded by sending multiple dark slashes, the name he came up with.


    Lion once again had to dodge and let Luke go.


    Frustrated, he annoyedly spat " You''ve created a spell, haven''t you? " Seeing the stunned look on Luke''s face, he snickered and continued " I also did, and you will suffer from it. "


    Blasting Luke the farthest away from him possible, Lion began to concentrate, with his spearhead vibrating like crazy. Luke who was repelled back didn''t let his surprised feelings get to him.


    Not knowing what Lion would do, but still having his intuition scream at him to do something, not flee, he brought out his tweaked gun in front of him and used all remaining stored gravity powers to shape more than a thousand dark blasts in a ball, inside the barrel.


    Finished, he immediately shot, creating a sort of laser beam, which destroyed his gun and traveled towards Lion. On the other hand, Lion shot a compressed gravity beam that can pierce anything from the tip of his spearhead.


    Both beans met in mid-air and because of the wild and uncontrolled nature of both attacks, an explosion which engulfed both Luke and Lion was created. The ambient energy resulting from it created a kind of smog, hiding anything that is within it.


    Afterward, the only sound that was heard before the system prompt was " thank you "

 Chapter 32 : Gains

    * Congratulations on your victory soldier Luke. 8000 PTS have been awarded. Congratulations on creating a new spell. 4000 PTS have been awarded.


    Please name it. Another newly created spell is in waiting for a name. *


    Deciding to quickly be done with it, Luke thought shortly and sprouted '' dark laser and dark slash ''


    * Registered *


    '' Show me my spells ''


    * spells: space run tier two


    dark blast tier two


    haunting march tier two


    dark slash tier three


    dark laser tier three *


    '' I won''t lie, having tier three spells while just being tier two feels amazing. Though, Lion this monster already had one, maybe two or three. All his attacks were too overpowered considering his stats... which I don''t know of. ''


    Sporting a relaxed smile, Luke thought about his two spells that he now could use without Lion''s '' help '' since they became his. '' I have about ten thousand dark blasts stored, which means I can only use them both nine times. ( because he saves a few for safety purposes ) Show me their descriptions ''


    * dark slash: a combination of a thousand dark blasts, compressed to make a slash following the trajectory of the blade. Extremely sharp and explode within the body of the target by the cut created.


    dark laser: a combination of a thousand dark blasts, compressed to make a beam. Extremely penetrating and explode within the body of the target by the hole created.


    System manager remark: a skill truly fitting your title *


    Stunned for a second, Luke puked out loads of blood seeing the remark. He was really enraged already with the manager as he had an inkling the title came from him and now, the b*stard was even mocking directly.


    Thinking back, he never had doubts about the validity of the system or the manager.


    Actually, there were lots of obvious questions and doubts he had to clear yet they mysteriously never came to his mind... As quickly as these thoughts came to his mind, they dispersed in an unnatural and fast way...


    Now, Luke began thinking about his fight against Lion. He learned lots from it and although he thanked him to tease him, he was really thankful to Lion. Willingly or not, he taught him lots.


    First was the capacity of surpassing one''s own tier. Not like his broken way of barbarically surpassing it but in terms of... qualifications? He had the feeling that he now embarked on the path he was missing to grow.


    Luke wasn''t sure if he was just too dumb or that something prevented him from thinking about it. Once again, these thoughts scattered away... He was once again thinking about his spells outreaching his tier and his fight against Lion.The author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.


    Lion demonstrated an unnatural versatility in his use of his ability, spells and most likely also skills. Like, he understood them he used them accordingly. It was not to the point that it was flawless, but it was certainly much better than him.


    He tried to understand his elements, beginning with space, yet he never tried to understand his ability and spells. As he was beginning to have serious doubts, his mind became blank and he fainted.


    ....


    Meanwhile, the system was ringing endlessly in the mind of its manager. The latter wore a kind and proud smile as he muttered


    " Already? Great! Now dispell the thought obstruction function on him. Sigh, this kid really has talent. After only being tier 2 for less than 3 days, he already began to break free... I can''t wait for the time he becomes tier 4, by that time, he will be qualified to meet me, among others... "


    Sipping on a cup of yellow liquid, his smile became even more prominent as he seemingly transcended the limits of space and time as he overlooked Luke''s adventures up until now.


    .,....


    Waking up the next morning, Luke felt... clear-headed, like something heavy got lifted off his mind. Then, he thought back to what he was thinking about before he fainted and his eyes grew extra round. At that time, a screen appeared in front of him with Lion''s face on it.


    Looking at his still somewhat vacant look, Lion smirked and said " It seems like you are free now. "


    Looking at the smiling Lion, Luke''s thoughts spun and as he was about to fire questions like a machine gun, Lion put a hand forward and stopped him.


    " I know what you think and want to ask, but, you need some patience, my friend. It seems like your system manager freed you but I won''t go into details, yet. " Putting both thumbs up, he continued " First and foremost, I congratulate you on both winning against me and creating transcendental personal spells. I don''t want to brag but I''m what you may call one of the most difficult opponents you could ever face. "


    Seeing the impatient look on Luke''s face, he sighed and said " Well, I know what you feel as I once had to experience this but even I don''t know much. I mean, yeah, I have been aware of a few things others are not because of both my background and talent but as if by an unspoken rule, no one told me anything really important. "


    Looking deeply into Luke''s eyes, he said " There are only three things I can tell you.


    Firstly, creating transcendental personal spells is one of the three major conditions to become tier 4.


    Secondly, the kind of mind obstruction your system manager imposed on you was not something that was meant to harm you. To put it simply, as all system managers are tier 7 or 8, if they wanted to harm you, there would be no Luke existing in this universe. "


    Frowning, Luke interrupted Lion and quickly asked a few things he couldn''t keep to himself anymore " Then why restrain my mind, my ability to think, even more so when it comes to my evolution. I can understand about him not wanting me to be too curious about his system and himself, but, preventing me to think about my own evolution and situation is utterly ridiculous. "


    Sighing for what felt like the thousandth time, Lion looked at Luke and said " These are questions I''m not qualified to answer, only your system manager, or who you may refer as your superior, is. As I said, there are only three things I can tell you and I already told you two. I would really like it if you stayed quiet until I finished as the third is something that you may really want to hear. "

 Chapter 33: Lion

    Looking at Luke''s impatient and eager face, Lion had a hard time not laughing at him. Clearing his throat, he explained " Well, remember what I said about the conditions to become tier 4? I said you cleared one by creating a transcendental personal spell but it''s not exactly that. It''s more like you embarked on the path to clear that condition.


    Then, there is the second condition. It''s that you have to understand to a certain extent your ability. Just like me and Andrea, you are a genius who cleared that condition without realizing it. "


    Frowning, Luke inquired " How? I still don''t understand anything about my ability. "


    Laughing lightly, Lion calmly replied " You understand what it can do, like, you tapped into its real potential and that''s what makes you qualified to ascend to tier 4. Don''t get me wrong, that''s already hard enough. If you knew the number of people who would die of jealousy for that feat...


    Anyway, understanding the intricacies or, in other words, the how and why of your ability is something that you just can''t do yet. "


    Nodding, Luke prodded " Then what''s the third qualification? "


    With a mischievous smile, Lion answered " I don''t know. "


    " ... "


    " ... "


    " You f*ckin brat, you... "


    Laughing at his reaction, Lion tried to calm him down " Listen, friend, I did say that I could tell you things you didn''t know but I also said I wasn''t told everything. They sprouted some nonsense like " You will know when the time is right " Pffft to me they looked more like clowns b*llshitting their way to look mysterious.


    Putting this matter aside, we will have a meeting with Andrea this Afternoon. We will spar and discuss, so, if you still have things to ask, do so face to face. " " Okay, then see you. " Without waiting for Lion''s reply, he disconnected.


    Being by himself with quite a few questions unanswered, Luke first purchased one of each enhancing potions, which he stored to study later. That''s something he could now do and thinking about his inability to think of that up until now, the grudge he had toward the system manager deepened.


    Deciding to concentrate on a more pressing matter: The tree of roads. If he could create spells of a higher tier, then he could also create objects, Even more so with the roads.


    Thinking back, he already created the Road to death, yet, he never had the thought of producing it himself. Knowing that all materials, even though not common, were things he could acquire before the forced integration into the universe''s mess.If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.


    Even though Lion said that the mind restriction wasn''t meant to harm him, Luke still didn''t have a better opinion about it. He was okay with following orders but if his free will, or if his ability to think was tainted, then he couldn''t accept it. That''s the reason why he immediately killed Sheila when he had the opportunity.


    Being a subordinate? Sure, but being a puppet? Impossible. Though, that''s exactly what he does with his tree of roads.


    Back to the topic, he didn''t purchase the ingredients to make the Road to death, he didn''t need it yet. Road to craziness was already enough and he already made use of it. Instead, he began to think about who to use it on and shortly came to a conclusion.


    The only ones he wouldn''t use it on were Lion and Andrea. These two were too special for him to risk it. It may work at the beginning but the odds of them breaking free were high with their background and talent. That would net him two enemies he already despaired at the idea of facing.


    The others, no matter if they break free or not wouldn''t be too troublesome.


    Shaking his head, Luke began another experiment he couldn''t think of up until now thanks to the system. An experiment that would benefit him as much as the tree of roads if successful.


    ....


    After eating a quick meal, Luke waited for Lion''s call as he didn''t know where to go and how. Meanwhile, he purchased the last spell he could: space cut.


    * 2200 PTS deducted, 14760 PTS remaining. *


    Just after, a screen with Lion''s face on it appeared. Looking somehow ashamed he said " Well, the rendezvous point is the Coliseum and to get to there, you have to go to the monolith and think about it. Try to think about the entrance so that we don''t appear to far apart. " Staring at Lion in the eyes he replied " You totally forgot about this while playing the wise veteran card. Tsk "


    Not wanting to lose face more than that, Lion quickly disconnected. Tsking once again, Luke got out of his house and went to the monolith. There, he saw his teammates discussing. He got near them and when they saw him, they looked like they saw some kind of god. Raising an eyebrow, he asked them what happened.


    Not thinking that he wouldn''t know already, their eyes widened, apart Ozz, as Milfa answered " You didn''t know? Every chat is filled with news of your victory over Lion. "


    " And? "


    " You have to know that Lion is considered one of the three most hopeful to reach tier 7 in our generation and that most people think that he will become the first tier 8 in the last 2 billion years. "


    " Ohh, and? "


    Seeing that Luke still didn''t think much about it, Milfa got agitated as she basically screamed " You just beat the universe''s publicly recognized number one genius! "


    " Okay, that''s good, have a nice day." With that, he went to the monolith and did as Lion instructed. He then disappeared, leaving his teammates speechless.


    Reappearing near the coliseum''s entrance, Luke spotted Andrea and Lion a few hundred meters away. As he approached them, Lion who regained his calm look grinned as he said " Well, I believe you gained lots from our fight right? I also did "


    With that, the rematch began.

 Chapter 34: rematch and beatings

    Without wasting time, Lion rushed towards Luke. He used his ability to hold him in place but immediately after, he pulled Luke towards him. The latter, ready to send some friendly dark slashes was not only caught off guard but also hit. Hard. Lion directly pierced through Luke''s raised hand and almost pierced his chest.


    As if it was a grenade, a blast came off the spearhead and hit Luke''s chest. The fight just began but he was already heavily injured, coughing blood. He tried to use the small distance to his advantage by sending a dark laser but it was diverted from its path by a quick gravity pull concentrated on his hand.


    With his eyes widened, Luke released a thousand dark blasts in Lion''s direction to put distance between them but anything that came near him got diverted in a circular way, to the point that some came back to him. Incidentally, those that came back effectively pushed him off.


    Using both haunting march and space run, Luke tried to flee from Lion''s strike zone, only to be immediately pulled back by Lion''s gravity. Not willing to lose this badly, Luke used his newly acquired spell: space cut, which he couldn''t store, or in other words couldn''t stack. It did its job as it bypassed Lion''s improved gravity cloak and hit him but the damage was disappointing.


    It only left a skin-deep injury. Slightly surprised but not perturbed, Lion thrust his spear a few times in quick succession, bombarding Luke''s face and chest with concentrated repells. Successfully disorienting him, he tried to end the fight with a quick jab to the chest but Luke used dark slashes to the ground to propell himself the farthest possible while creating an explosion.


    Being far away, Luke looked at Lion with a helpless face and admitted defeat. He knew he lost and losing points for naught was not something he even considered for a second.


    To be honest, he thought of a way to beat Lion but not only would he need time to learn it as it wasn''t something he could do yet, it was also only this: a single way. He thought that even if he was able to immediately learn it by some miracle, Lion would just counter him in their next fight. He needed to have at least three ways to kill someone to be sure that he was stronger, or, in his assassin career context, that he could assassinate.


    Looking at the grinning Lion with frustration, Luke spat " Now, care to explain? "


    " What is there to explain? In our fight, I found a few obvious flaws I had and corrected them. Furthermore, I also found that the versatility I was so proud about was clearly not fitting my ability, spells, and skills. There were a few application of gravity that I could use but overlooked. Thanks to you, my growing arrogance, which I wasn''t aware of, got dashed. "


    Not grinning anymore and with a wry smile, he continued " My defeat by your hands hit me hard. Too hard in fact. It was then that I understood that I was quite conceited and thought of myself as better than everyone else. "Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.


    To that, Luke replied neutrally " It''s not exactly wrong though, at least from what I heard of you. Anyway, it seems like this lesson I gave you was returned right back to my face. " Smirking, he added " Now I have another reason to thank you. "


    " You little... " Shaking his head, Lion looked at Andrea who just observed until now and said


    " Now it''s your turn. " Looking at Luke, he smirked " It''s your time to suffer now. ,"


    Nodding, Andrea smiled at Luke as she said


    " Now, if princess Luke is willing, would she accept a bout with this poor knight? "


    " What!? "


    " Sorry about that, I tried to imitate your planet''s noble way of speaking. "


    With a tick mark, Luke stated " Not only did you get it all wrong, you are maybe a few hundred years too late to speak like that. Back to the topic, yeah, I accept your challenge. "


    Finished talking, Luke drank a few potions for both health and mana and got into a fighting stance. Still smiling, Andrea pointed her sword at Luke and her plasma beam shot out.


    Evading thanks to his haunting march, Luke stayed a few meters away from her as he searched for openings. But a plasma beam got to him. Not expecting it, he was almost hit and barely evaded by crouching down.


    He was really stunned. He could accept that Lion could find him but even Andrea? It''s not that he looked down on her, not at all, it''s just that it''s too frustrating. He just made up his mind to abuse his stealth skill and spell in order to terrorize other elites but he already encountered two people who could bypass it.


    Still smiling, Andrea released what looked like a lightning net which not only passively electrocuted Luke but also dispelled his haunting march. Then, she disappeared and reappeared behind him with a speed that left him agape.


    She once again shot her plasma beam while blinding him with an unexpected and brilliant flash of light. Cutting it in half thanks to his dark slash, Luke who only had three thousand dark blasts remaining hesitated on whether he should throw the towel or not.


    Not letting him the time to think, Andrea once again disappeared from his field of view and slashed at him from the side, with her sword blazing. Countering with a dark slash as he couldn''t evade, Luke''s dagger encountered nothing as Andrea''s sword came swinging at him from the other side. It was only an illusion.


    Once again nuking the ground, Luke got propelled a few tens of meters away, with serious injuries from his own attack. Andrea was also harmed but she looked nowhere hurt enough to stop fighting.


    Seeing as carrying on this fight would be meaningless as he would once again lose, Luke admitted defeat and sat down while sighing. He had shortcomings, Andrea and Lion proved that to him.


    He had too many things to improve like his tree of roads, his other experiment, his understanding of his elements and in the short term, matching his fighting style to his elements. Up until now, it was as if he had a gun but only used as a mace. That''s a pretty depressing matter and his dislike towards his superior, as Lion called him, grew again.


    Grinning like an idiot, Lion tapped his shoulder and cheered him up " After our fight, I also got my ass handed over to myself thanks to her delicate methods. Ahh, and, I may be recognized as the number one genius but she is recognized as the second. Though, keep in mind that they only took potential to make this... ranking. "


    Slightly depressed by his two consecutive losses, Luke asked " And, do I have a ranking? "


    Tapping his free shoulder, Andrea answered " Yeah, curious? "

 Chapter 35: info dump

    " Well, you are fourth "


    " And who''s the third? "


    Looking at Luke weirdly, she responded " I''m almost not surprised that you don''t know... It''s your very own teammate, Ozz Maktan Lewardin. Not only is he quite smart for someone of his species, he even has a 50% resistance to all elements in addition to his immunity towards his own elements. "


    This declaration greatly flabbergasted Luke. The Ozz he knew, even though impressive in his own way, was nowhere close to that broken of a character. Tilting his head he asked " You talked about elements, he has two? "


    " Yeah... as his teammate, I''m surprised you still don''t know. Anyway, his main one is poison and his minor one is darkness. " She then laughingly added " Contrary to you, he has a very good combination. His species'' innate corroding properties are so strengthened that his elements are actually equal to the high-grade ones. "


    " There is actually a distinction between one''s own elements? "


    " Yeah, for those who have two elements, it depends on your awakened ability. Whether or not it relies more heavily on one of your elements determines your main or your minor one. For you, it should be darkness, making your mix even more wasteful. "


    '' So my main element is space, as expected. Maybe letting them think that it''s darkness is good. ''


    " And what about the potential rankings, where do you find it? "


    " It''s not something that you can find, it''s the overseer who makes them, in accordance with all the information he has on everyone. For Ozz, Lion and me, he had both information from our respective backgrounds and from what he saw up until now.


    Don''t think that because he oversees soldiers he has a low status. His lord seventh title comes from his status in the whole universe. The only reason why he even deigned to show up was because of us three. If you ask how I came to know this, it''s because my clan head is one of his subordinates. "


    With a pensive look, Luke stared at the blue star then at the floating platform. " How strong is he to have that high of a status? And what does he expect from us? "


    After thinking a bit, she answered " He is one of the only 22 tier 9 existences in the whole universe. As for what he expects from us, he basically wants us to be his subordinates. "Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings.


    Frowning, Luke didn''t seem to understand something " If they are 22, how and why would the others just look as he reaps all the talents of the universe? If my memory doesn''t fail me, the ECG reunites the elites from the whole universe. And more than anything else, there is Lion."


    With a funny face, Lion replied this time " Well, let''s just say that he was lucky. How can I put it¡­ right! Planets are integrated every ten years and it''s at those times that people from originally integrated planets can also participate in the battlefields.


    Each time, it''s one of the lords who gets all talents of what we came to call the realm phases. This time, it was lord seventh''s turn. And I said he was lucky because both of our clan heads (Andrea), ancestors (me) or parents (Ozz) are his subordinates, so they chose to wait for his turn to make us participate. "


    Still frowning, Luke said " Okay, I can understand that but why don''t any of the others say something about it? "


    Smiling brightly, Andrea patted his head and stated " That''s because they don''t care that much. I mean, even though there may exist grudges, not only do WE all have a common enemy, for the lords, even tier 8 are not so meaningful. The hundred strongest tier 8 might be able to fight a single tier 9, but only the weaker ones.


    For the truly strong like Lord seventh, it does not matter that much whose subordinate a tier 8 is. They can order them all the same. Furthermore, if they dictate that it doesn''t matter, then no fool will go out of his way to contradict them. It''s just that they have more qualified subordinates and that''s it. Moreover, there were only three cases of subordinate tier 8 becoming tier 9. This earned their original superiors powerful allies/subordinates. "


    Nodding, Luke then brought another subject he was pondering about. " I understand. I have to ask you something else. Does everyone begin as a tier 1? "


    " No, do you really think the universe is this unfair? Do you imagine the poor tier 8 whose child is like everyone else? That''s just impossible. After someone ascends to tier 7 and onwards, all his descendants will be tier 3.


    As tier 4 is special, only descendants from tier 9 begin at either tier 4,5 or 6. As for Ozz, Lion and me, we all chose to go into a disgression process so that our potential can really bloom. " Then, with a mischievous smile, she continued " Fun fact, I''m 63 years old, Lion is 51 and Ozz is 3. So, in the end, you''re ranked below a kid. Shame on you. "


    Bursting into laughter, Lion patted Luke''s head and asked " So, how does it feel to be so mediocre that even kids are better than you? By the way, how old are you? "


    Glaring at Lion, he shot back " I''m 22, so, how does it feel to have been beaten up by someone who could be your grandson? "


    " ... Seems like people on your planet are not accustomed to living long. With my age, I could only be your big brother at most. I have three big sisters. They are all more than a thousand years older than me. " Shaking his head and patting Luke''s, Lion added " Poor kid, your ignorance made you fail your joke, go back and ponder on this lesson, you need it. "


    Speechless, Luke was forcibly teleported back to his monolith where his teammates were still discussing.

 Chapter 36 : Group

    Startled from seeing Luke appear suddenly, they stopped their conversation and dazedly stared at him. Abacus spoke first " well hello, why were you so rushed earlier? If I didn''t know better, I would have thought that you didn''t like us haha! "


    Then, Milfa also spoke but with a slightly reproachful tone " I was even in the midst of talking to you, such bad manners! Anyway, did you go to have a rematch against Lion? It''s on every chat, though no one knows the outcome since no one died. Was it a draw? "


    Looking at them with slightly embarrassed face, Luke explained " Well, sorry about that, Lion had to explain quite a few things to me and as the said things were very important to me, I was indeed rushed. As for the rematch, yeah, we had one. I lost, though, I threw the towel before he killed me. If not face, I saved points.


    Anyway, before the one vs ones, you said that you had to face each other right? What''s the outcome? "


    Smiling brightly with slight pride, Milfa answered " Yeah, that''s right. I was against Abacus while Lou was against Ozz. It was a really hard fight but I won in the end. "


    " And I lost, badly. Ozz is a real monster. " Said a somewhat devastated Lou.


    Looking at Ozz, Luke said " I''m not really surprised, Lion told me Ozz was one of the three greatest geniuses of our generation. "


    Surprised, they all looked at the quiet Ozz, who was now getting purple from his initially blue color, probably his way of blushing. Barely managing a stiff laugh, Lou tried to cheer himself up " Well, it seems like I didn''t lose against a nobody, though the fight-no, the slaughter was quite costly¡­ "


    With an evil laugh, Luke stared at Lou and Ozz as he stole a joke from which he was the victim " But he is still 3 years old, you lost against a kid. " While this made Lou even more depressed, all the other ones burst out laughing.


    Tapping Lou''s shoulder, Luke said " Don''t worry, in a way, we all lost against him. "


    Glaring at Luke with annoyance, Lou ranted " Are you a two-faced bastard now? First, you make fun of me then you cheer me up sigh, still, thanks. " It was a short rant, as expected of the now confirmed anti-social. Laughing even more, Luke removed his hand from Lou''s shoulder, leaving behind some moisture which quickly entered Lou''s body. In a while, Luke would have another extra-life...Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.


    While he still had plans on his teammates, Luke who initially didn''t include Ozz was now determined on not trying anything on him, not because of his talent, but because Ozz is still a kid. His master once said " A perfect assassin has no bottom lines but an assassin with one will always stay human. Now, the choice is yours to take, will you stay human and be imperfect or will you throw away your humanity and become perfect? "


    Abacus who was generally quite dim-witted brought up a rather relevant subject " Right! Luke, join the chat group: The dazzling dazzle''s chat. "


    Looking at Lou who avoided his stare, Luke thought shortly and with his mouth twitching, he refused. Not only was the chat group''s name too¡­ distasteful, he didn''t want to risk having his title known by everyone else. With how many chat groups she is in, Milfa was a serious threat to his integrity.


    After some small talk, they each got back to their houses. After a quick meal, Luke weighed his options and decided to concentrate on understanding his elements more and adapting his fighting style. This means that he put on hold his research on the tree of roads, the potions, and his new experiment. '' Well, they would take a lot of time to bear fruits anyway, in the short term, I should do just like Lion¡­ Let''s just ask him_ Chat, Lion ''


    * Connection¡­ connection successful * With that, Lion''s smiling face appeared " So you finally called! Knowing you, I thought you would do so sooner haha "


    Massaging his temples as he remembered that talking with Lion was always tiring, Luke impatiently expressed himself " Yeah? That''s good. Now, how did you become so much stronger in a single f*cking day? "


    Still smiling, Lion simply said " As I said, there were some properties of gravity which I ignored and there was a simple idea that came to mind. This simple idea made me that much stronger. "


    " And what is this idea? "


    Shrugging, Lion replied " Well, it''s just an obvious application to a property of gravity. Basically, instead of trying to make a wall to protect myself, I made a tornado. That''s it. As you don''t have the gravity element, I can''t really give you pieces of advice but keep in mind that you should always try to apply what you know about your elements. You have 4 days until your squad mission, this should be enough to set yourself on a path, or at least correcting obvious flaws. "


    Nodding with a pensive look, Luke thanked Lion and disconnected.


    '' Obvious things which I overlooked¡­ First, there is defense, next, there is movement and finally, combining my two elements as Andrea did. Now that I think about it, these are really obvious things. ''


    Sighing at his own lack of brains, Luke began to ponder on defense first as it was the most obvious flaw he had. For someone who invested heavily on resilience, it was quite depressing that defense was a weakness. Even more so when his ability absorbed half of the attacks'' power.


    '' Now, what can I do? Space should be better for defense, right? I should use space for defense first, then, I will combine it to darkness.


    Space... I can''t really do anything about it as unlike Lion, I still can''t directly manipulate it... !!! THAT''S IT, if I can''t directly manipulate it, I should first indirectly do so!! ''


    Luke then began using space cuts multiple times while carefully observing it.

 Chapter 37: shine

    While observing the effects of his space cut, Luke realized that, like Lion who controlled gravity, space should also be used in a domain type way so that he could make better use of its properties. Space being literally everywhere, he should make use of this property.


    Luke, while observing the space cuts ignoring distance to strike the target had the feeling that this spell, just like his space run was just bending space. Having understood this, he began to look for ways to sense space first. He activated both space run and space cut to move around while closing his eyes.


    Remembering the faint feeling he had when he was teleported by the system, Luke focused on it while moving. After four hours of doing this, he couldn''t really say that he sensed space but he at least somehow felt it. He knew that he couldn''t act on it without mana as his spells need it to do so, though, his ability could do without. As he had never before tried to use mana without activating a spell, Luke had a hard time at first but got used to it, at the cost of half of his stored mana replenish.


    Gaining a grasp of actively using mana without activating a spell, he began to focus again on the feeling of space he had. Moving his hand while using mana, he tried to affect the space near him. After a few hours, he actually felt like affecting it. Incidentally, this training increased his awareness of space. It was like space felt clearer, almost tangible when he concentrated on it.


    Finally opening his eyes, he looked at his arm that was currently affecting space in wonder but was quickly stunned. He could see the space he affected. It was like waves, constantly undulating in a chaotic way.


    Quickly forgetting about his astonishment, Luke put even more efforts on his attempt to bend space, which made the waves more frantic. Seeing this, he was ecstatic as he finally was sure of his achievement.


    Then, because of his intuition, he sent some mana to his eyes. This brought him immense pain, so much that he almost thought his eyes were getting destroyed. But as his intuition still didn''t make him feel danger or a bad omen, he continued. After two hours of this suffering, the pain gradually subsided and his vision, which he lost for its duration came back.


    As it came back, and without even supplying mana to his eyes, Luke could see the waves that he saw around his arm, but this time, everywhere in the room. As he looked around in wonder, he saw that the waves, upon being at the center of his gaze were becoming slightly more frantic than those that were not.


    Not understanding why he could permanently see space, even with his eyes closed, Luke decided to ask Lion...You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.


    Meanwhile, the system was once again ringing like crazy in the manager''s head.


    * Error error, soldier Luke is confirmed to be something else than human. *


    " What!? Wasn''t his planet a human world? Furthermore, there has been no record of it being in contact with any other entity... What if he is not human? "


    * Unknown entity, soldier Luke is half human and half unknown *


    " Hmmm... Could it be that some lord came to his planet or near it and affected him? If my memory doesn''t fail me, there have been 17 cases of lords inadvertently affecting entire species just by passing near inhabited planets... Make a profound research on his entire species to see if there are any like him, if not all of them. "


    * Acknowledged... Calculating... No results found, all other inhabitants are 100% standard humans. *


    Frowning, he wondered " Is he maybe a descendent of some lord or something else? Anyway, what are his non-human part''s characteristics? "


    * One result found: Space vision *


    " Space vision? There are three lords with space elements, but this thing manifesting at tier 2...! Could it be... "


    ..............


    On Luke''s side, Lion''s ever-smiling face appeared on the blue screen " So, what is it this time? .... Hmmm! Your eyes! They are shining! What happened? "


    Frowning after hearing this, Luke went to his bathroom and looked at his reflexion on the glass. As Lion said, his eyes were shining. They didn''t change color but they were bright and released light, like dim, violet lamps. Getting back to his room, Luke still asked what he wanted to originally ask, beginning by roughly describing his experience.


    " Earlier, you said to correct obvious things, which I did. So I began to try to sense and act on space, then, because of my intuition, I sent mana to my eyes. Then, after two hours of suffering, when I regained my vision, without mana, not only could I see space, I could even affect it. Why is that so? "


    Getting more and more surprised the more he heard, Lion looked at Luke with a complicated gaze. " I will be honest with you, I don''t know what is happening to you. The only thing I can tell is that you are either not human or just partially one. You see, I can sense gravity, like everyone who began pondering the laws of gravity, but seeing your own high-grade element is not something anything under tier 7 can do. You are either a descendant of a tier 9 or a special entity''s descendant. "


    Frowning even more, Luke asked " What do you mean by laws and special entity? "


    " Laws are what defines the universe. These laws can be bent or manipulated by someone who understood them, that''s all I know, I was told that I would have access to more pieces of information once I become tier 4. As for special entities, they are said to be special life forms who are related to the laws, making them all tier 7 at the very least. Once again, that''s all I know. "


    Sighing as the pieces of information, although useful didn''t give him any answer, Luke thanked Lion and disconnected. Looking at the space waves around him, Luke put the matter aside and resumed trying to use space as defense, knowing full well that it would be way easier.

 Chapter 38: dream? Nightmare?

    As he came back to searching for a way to defend, Luke first observed how space cut and space run acted on the space surrounding him. Smirking as the difference between barely feeling something and seeing it in great detail was as wide as the difference between the sun and the moon.


    Luke first saw that as he activated space cut, his dagger, which stayed in place created a disturbance in the translucent gray space waves a few meters away, where he intended it. Then, when he activated space run, as he was barely moving, he saw the space waves actually rise for each of his movements, even the minor ones.


    The raising of the waves provoked the chasm between said wave and the next to grow and the two waves to connect. When he moved his arm, Luke saw that his arm ignored the chasm and directly got to the next wave. But unlike what one would think, his arm wasn''t disconnected from his body. All his body was ignoring the chasm.


    '' If I continue like this, I might actually upgrade my speed instead of my defense¡­ Anyway, what if I connect multiple waves at the same time, or enlarge the chasm? I wonder, which one would be the most efficient? ''


    Not willing to wait any longer, Luke began to use his mana to try to connect multiple waves but it wouldn''t. He increased the output of mana he used and finally managed to make three waves connect, at the cost of ten mana points for a single second. Considering that his space run connected four at the meager cost of 50 mana/min, the efficiency was minimal.


    Not stopping and observing why the difference in efficiency was so extreme, Luke saw that unlike his spell which only affected the waves used for the movement, his way of connecting the two waves was chaotically affecting almost every wave in the room, the nearer they were to him, the fiercer were they affected.


    Stopping his attempt, Luke reflected on it and thought that he didn''t put enough concentration on the two waves he wanted to affect. Currently, his control of space was horrible, to say the least, so he needed to focus on what he wanted to do with perseverance. Allowing his mana to refill, Luke thought for a while and decided to use all his remaining points first.


    As he already purchased an example of each potion for future experiments and as it would need time to bear fruits anyway, Luke resignedly began his spending thrift. '' Shop, potions and show me my money. ''


    * tier 2 potions :


    vitality enhance: 100 PTS


    intelligence enhance: 100 PTS


    strength enhance: 100 PTS


    agility enhance: 100 PTS


    resilience enhance: 100 PTS


    healing potion: 100 PTS


    mana enhance: 300 PTS


    mana replenish: 200 PTS


    Money: 14760 PTS *


    '' The more important stats to enhance right now should be intelligence and mana, but I still want to invest in agility and resilience¡­ Furthermore, mana enhance is so expensive¡­ sigh, buy 10 vitality, 5 strength, 20 agility, 20 resilience, 20 intelligence, and 25 mana enhance. ''


    * 14500 PTS deducted, 260 PTS remaining. *


    Luke then tearfully consumed each mana enhance slowly, as if to make it feel less wasteful before consuming the remainder. '' Show me my status ''Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.


    * status :


    name: Luke


    Species: tier two human(50%)/ unknown(50%)


    vitality: 206


    strength: 156


    agility: 500


    intelligence: 406


    resilience: 451


    mana: 380


    Inherited ability: spatial storage ???


    skills: dagger mastery B


    firearm mastery B


    stealth mastery C


    poison mastery C


    intuition D -> intuition B


    spells: space run tier two


    dark blast tier two


    haunting march tier two


    space cut tier two


    dark slash tier three


    dark laser tier three


    unknown: space vision???


    money: 260 PTS *


    Seeing his status, he sighed at the unknown in his species and the space vision he earned from apparently being part of it. Though, he was more than happy to see the improved intuition.


    After letting his mana recover, Luke began to focus the best he could on connecting two waves near his arm while not affecting the surrounding space. This somehow succeeded as the space waves connected while the surrounding ones were way less affected. The mana expenditure also greatly diminished, being 1 mana/second now. This made Luke smile as he thought that his efforts were rewarded, although the increase in intelligence should have equally helped.


    Like this, Luke spent the entire afternoon and the beginning of the night on reducing his mana expenditure and lessening the amount of attentiveness performing this action needed. Like this, he was able to experience how convenient his new vision was. By the end of the day, he could connect four waves at the price of 1 mana/second.


    Moreover, although he was not near creating a new spell, he felt like as Lion said, he set himself on a path. It''s ironic how he wanted some quick results by correcting obvious flaws but instead set himself on a path. Fortunately, setting himself on a path, even though it takes longer to show results, was way better in the long term. Thinking about Lion, he was very eager to see his reaction when he will learn that.


    From how he talked about it, setting oneself on a path is not only more difficult, it brings way more benefits.


    Probably tired by the awakening of his unknown part, Luke went to sleep. As he slept, he had a nightmare, one he didn''t think he would ever have again. The phenomenon which happened when he was 7 became a nightmare which haunted him since then for at least two years. As he always tried to forget about it, he stopped having nightmares about it.


    But now, 13 years after his last, he once again dreamed of it. The purple skull within the tornado sent shivers down his very spine. Not only did the phenomenon come back to mind, it even repeated itself incessantly.


    Violently waking up the gentle, blue morning sunshine revealed a pale, heavily breathing Luke. Calming down after a few minutes, Luke went to his bathroom to wipe his face with some freshwater. Looking at his reflection on the mirror, or more exactly at his still shining violet eyes, Luke smiled wryly as he thought '' Is my unknown part related to that thing? I don''t think it was friendly though. Was it an enemy who, for some reason, just left? Or did it just integrate my body to haunt me? Sigh, I hope this nightmare won''t come back. ''


    Putting this matter aside with great difficulty, Luke got back to training. Strangely, his vision of space was clearer and he could faintly perceive fibers constituting the waves, though, it was only for a moment as they disappeared when he tried to focus on them. '' In the end, was it a blessing or a curse? ''


    Shaking his head, Luke got out of his house as he wanted to see the range of his vision of space. Right now, his normal vision permits him to read a book from 50 meters away and see quite well from 20 kilometers.


    Once he was out of his house, Luke looked everywhere in wonder. His space vision apparently had a limit of 20 meters. After this limit, his vision is normal, though, while not obstructing it much, the space waves still affected his vision a little.


    While he was in his own little world, his teammates who were already near the monolith looked at him slack-jawed. Raising an eyebrow at their gazes, Luke stared back at them questioningly.


    Lou, who was usually quiet sprang to his feet and shouted " YOUR EYES, THEY ARE SHINING! "


    Rolling his eyes at this obvious fact which he overlooked, Luke just nodded in a bored manner.


    As if he finally found salvation, Lou shouted something which earned him a death stare from everyone, Ozz included " Then, the group''s name really is fitting right? RIGHT? "

 Chapter 39: number one

    Massaging his temples and sighing, Luke who could still see the waves with his eyes closed was greatly exalted by a new discovery: Within the ten meters area he could normally see the waves, when he closed his eyes, the waves weren''t limited by his field of view anymore. This means he could see the waves in a 360¡ã angle for ten meters. Not only that, his teammates who were all within that area unconsciously affected the waves, making them take their forms.


    This pleasant surprise provoked a maniacal laugh to escape his lips. Something Lion and Andrea used to beat him up also became his weapon. This made him even more eager to meet Lion and beat him with his new powers. Of course, adapting to them and being able to effectively use them in a fight would still take time.


    His poor teammates though were quite scared by his actions. For them, Luke suddenly closed his eyes and after a few seconds began to release an evil laugh, full of malice.


    As he opened his eyes with a grin plastered on his face, Luke saw them slowly stepping back. Rolling his eyes, Luke just asked " Will you guys take a mission today? "


    Lou, as the chief/leader, answered " Yeah, but as we need to be in a group of three for a special mission, we were debating who wouldn''t take part of it and do something else. "


    Grinning at this, Luke simply said " Then you go with Milfa and Abacus. Ozz stays with me. We will do another mission. " Looking at Ozz, he added "Are you alright with that Ozz? "


    " Ozz eat, Ozz happy " Taking a second to translate Ozz''s answer to a yes, Luke, with Ozz in tow went to the monolith.


    Once there, he asked for available missions. * 3 missions are available, please choose wisely


    1. Destroy the T2 enemy base in Galaxy S6785490213.


    2. Rescue team Shadow reapers, a normal Champion''s battlefield team in Galaxy G3908765124.


    3. Take the advancement trial. # *


    Seeing the weird sign, Luke tried to know more about it without success. In fact, even when he tried to select it, he couldn''t. '' What''s the point of saying there are three missions if in actual fact there are only two. Shaking his head, he turned to Ozz and asked him which one he would rather do.


    Looking intensively or rather sending his intent towards the second, Ozz said " Ozz save, Ozz happy. "


    Actually surprised by the expanded vocabulary, Luke smiled and selected this mission. * The mission begins in 3 hours, prepare well. *


    " Then, let''s meet back up in 3 hours Ozz! " " Ozz... okay " Now Luke was really surprised, it seemed like Ozz was really expanding his vocabulary. From what Andrea said, Ozz''s species shouldn''t be very smart innately, yet, Ozz''s intelligence doesn''t lose to a 2 years old human kid. He really is special.


    Getting back to his house, Luke sat on his bed and resumed trying to make more connections with less mana. He was really impatient that the mission begins though, as, he will be able to observe the teleportation process which he tried so hard to just feel.Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.


    While he was practicing, his system informed him of something he already half expected


    * Congratulations soldier Luke on becoming the number one of Lord seventh''s potential ranking. For this achievement, your species non-combatants treatment has been upgraded from ordinary to special care. *


    Immediately after that, he received a call from both Andrea and Lion. Answering to both, Luke saw their stupefied faces and immediately knew why they were like this.


    Lion, who had more information than Andrea was the first to get out of his daze. " Did you know that you just became number one in Lord seventh''s potential ranking? " He nodded " My system just informed me literally three seconds ago. "


    Andrea who regained her calm in the meanwhile looked deeply at him and asked how he did that. The potential ranking was just that, a potential ranking. Even if someone miraculously raised his strength, they wouldn''t rise in this ranking. Furthermore, as Lord seventh''s ranking was very accurate, there were extremely few cases of it changing, even more so in the top. So a situation in which the fouth became number one was anything but normal.


    Understanding her confusion, Lion told her about Luke''s space vision. Now knowing the actual reason of this weird phenomenon, Andrea looked at Luke''s shining eyes in wonder and said " I was curious about why your eyes were shining, turns out you are really a special case. It seems like your main element is space in the end huh... Anyway, so you can see space? What does it look like? "


    " Just gray, translucent waves that keep undulating. It''s quite mystical, though, it''s extremely useful for lots of reasons. " Now staring at Lion, Luke added " Reasons that you will experience first-hand, after next week''s squad mission. We will have a rematch and this time I will beat you up so badly that you will want to end your life in shame. "


    Still smiling, Lion answered " We will see... I might not be as special as you but I''ve got to keep up my grandfatherly image in your mind after all! "


    " F*ck you! What image? The only image you deserve is a piece of dirt in the road. " Like this, they began to argue with Luke always having to resort to swearing while Lion laughed all the time.


    Laughing at their antics, Andrea changed the subject " Anyway, if the change was really just yesterday, then your superior should be a tier 8. Tier 7 usually have to wait a few weeks before being able to meet a Lord. You are very lucky, already made a connection with a tier 8. "


    Frowning, Luke was not very hyped by this information " Really? F*ck! "


    Not understanding his obvious dissatisfaction, they asked why he wasn''t happy, after all, tier 8 is still the peak of the universe. No one would spit on an opportunity to befriend one.


    With a scrunched up face, he said: " Yeah, that''s cool and all but I want to beat him up."


    Both massaging their temples at the kid''s statement, Lion shook his head and snickered " Well, good luck with that. The fastest to ascend to tier 8 up until now is Lord Second. It took her six million years to do so. As I''m pretty sure you don''t have much patience, you will suffer my friend. Anyway, I''m quite curious about the... tutorial that new species have to go through. I heard they are quite deadly because they just brutally put new species in an almost real battlefield atmosphere. "


    Taking a few seconds to think, Luke replied " Well, I don''t think I''m the most qualified to talk about it as I only took the first three quests but let''s just say that it should be like you described. People died like cutting grass, and only the strongest survived. Even I almost died multiple times " He said this while thinking internally '' I did die multiple times in a way. ''


    " Really? But can you describe in details how it went? " " Sure... " Luke talked about his quests, fights and how he perceived others while tweaking the story a bit as there are some things they didn''t need to know.


    " So it''s like this huh... " After thinking for a bit, Lion evilly smiled as he added " Now it''s certain, your superior is tier 8, with space as his element. Good luck with beating him. If and whenever you get to tier 8, a fight between you two will be like you basically trying to hurt him with healing spells. "


    Rolling his eyes at Lion''s teasing, Luke disconnected and got back to training. He almost finished with a part of it that will greatly help him in a fight against him.

 Chapter 40: A mission with Ozz (1/2)

    After the three hours were up, Luke got back to the monolith where he regrouped with Ozz. Not long after, the system prompt resounded. * The rescue mission will begin immediately. You will be teleported to the allied camp on Planet P6170099878, from there, you will go to the enemy base 14 kilometers east. Team Shadow reapers is currently detained within the base''s underground. 2000 points will be awarded for each ally rescued. Another 3000 points will be awarded if the base is destroyed. *


    Not letting them the time to process what they learned, they were covered in their respective lights, violet for Luke and blue for Ozz. Closing his eyes and focusing the best he could on the space waves surrounding him, Luke disappeared from the monolith and reappeared in said allied camp.


    Though, Luke was not taking in the surroundings as he was marveling on what he observed. When they were teleported, he got to see how the both of them were kind of sucked into a wormhole. This wormhole, instead of making space waves connect actually made a single wave broader, aspiring the ones near it and made it explode.


    This brought them to a kind of void from where what was probably the other end of the wormhole sucked them. This time, he got to see how the massive wave first exploded and became the normal waves again. This simple teleportation, which he experienced multiple times already, as most of the people on earth, was so mystical. This made him a bit depressed as he didn''t see himself do this anytime soon, much less for billions of people at the same time.


    Just looking at it once was enough to set him on another path. This was maybe Luke''s entry into law of space...


    Even though he was sure he couldn''t do it, he now had another way to use the space waves. This one way will even enable him to teleport in short distances, the only question being how much mana a single centimeter would need as he had the feeling that it would be massive. He then opened his eyes.


    What he first saw was a red star shining fiercely on this desolate place, safe for the camp, or what remains of it. The camp was just wreckage. What looked like scraps of a black tent was the only thing present. Everywhere else was just a green looking ground, with nothing on it. There were traces of a fight here and there with some blood and a corpse.


    Not minding this anymore, Luke looked east as this was where the enemy base should be. What he saw was a massive green mountain. Thinking that the base was behind the mountain, Luke gazed at Ozz, who was silent up until now. Then, he sensed some anger emanating from the blue slime. This startled him as he never saw, or more like sensed Ozz angry.


    Before he could ask him what was wrong, he talked: " Brother dead... Ozz angry " Shocked, Luke looked intently at the corpse, trying to find anything that resembled a slime but Ozz instead went to a puddle in the distance. It was a blue puddle. Now Luke was quite ashamed and amazed that slimes became puddles after death. Ozz, who was near the puddle got on it and absorbed what remained of his late brother.Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more.


    Thinking that it was probably a tradition or something, Luke put the matter aside and just waited for Ozz to finish. Done, Ozz began to advance in the east direction with a seriously dreadful aura. It seemed like this mission became something personal.


    Following Ozz quietly, Luke was back to his pondering for the remaining travel. '' I don''t think I have enough control to replicate that teleportation... Can I do it with my eyes? They seem to be able to act on the space waves right? ''


    As they were moving quickly, they arrived at the base before he could experiment this. Looking at the black, metal-looking fort, Luke had the urge to raze it just like he does every time but remembered that this time, rescuing the hostages was not just an option but the goal.


    Ozz though didn''t even stop to think of anything, he just jumped and spewed a gigantic purple fluid ball. Looking as it quickly approached the base, Luke had the feeling that he wouldn''t like being touched by it. In fact, his intuition even made him doubt he would survive it, making his scalp tingle. A single attack from Ozz would make him waste an extra life.


    The purple ball, once it touched the base just melted it as if it was sugar. Luke was sure he heard some screams which quickly died off as the fluid began to corrode the ground.


    '' Seems like the mission is a fail then... Oh, wait! The system said they were detained underground so it should be alright no? ''


    Ozz, who was still emanating a dreadful aura just advanced towards the now molten base. Shrugging as Ozz''s way of doing things oddly resembled his, Luke once again followed in silence.


    Once there, they saw staircases heading downwards. As they were also in the process of melting down, Luke simply fired a dark blast downwards, clearing the path as they both let themselves fall.


    As they landed, Ozz once again led the way as there was only one simple corridor that ended with a door. Though in the corridor, there were eight of what looked like the same tentacle monster that he encountered on his first mission with Lion and Andrea. It''s just that they looked weaker.


    Not willing to lose time, Luke and Ozz both released dark blasts, easily ending the monsters. '' I say, for a first time fighting together, we have quite a good synergy... Damn, I like Ozz more and more, this kid will be under my protection from now on, though, he doesn''t look like he needs it yet ''


    Arriving at the door, Luke simply kicked it open, revealing what was previously hidden from them. There were three tentacle monsters that, this time, didn''t look weak. The team Shadow reapers were somehow trapped by a green viscous liquid. They looked like they had it rough as their eyes were empty of life, though they were not dead.


    Luke didn''t know what happened to them but he didn''t care much. He only noted that they were three, most likely the only survivors of the team. The monsters wouldn''t just gawk at them indefinitely as they sprung into action. Feeling that something was wrong as they were not exactly very stealthy in their raid, Luke scooped up Ozz, who looked like he was about to attack and retreated out of the room.


    It seemed like this was the right action as not even a second later, another tentacle monster dropped where they once stood. It seemed like they were intelligent enough to set up an ambush, which unfortunately for them failed. Releasing Ozz, Luke brought out his daggers and got into a fighting stance.

 Chapter 41: A mission with Ozz (2/3)

    The monster that dropped got out of the room, while the other three stayed in. Somehow, it emanated an aura of confidence, as if this would not be a fight but a hunt. Fully out of the room, the monster first shot multiple jets of ink, which Luke easily evaded and Ozz just absorbed. Still feeling that something was wrong, Luke used the haunting march to retreat a bit then fire two dark lasers, one where its mouth is and the other just in case it evaded.


    As he thought, it evaded the one that seemed the most dangerous but was hit by the other. This earned it half of its body disintegrated and the other half mysteriously keeping the internal explosion at bay. Frowning as even with the surprise factor the monster wasn''t killed, Luke this time sent dark slashes its way. As they are harder to evade, both hit but the monster was able to restrain the explosion and send it upwards, creating a big hole.


    Ozz who wasn''t idle either once again sent his purple fluid ball but as he did, the monster also absorbed his. This seemed to greatly anger him as he said " Ozz, alone "


    Nodding, Luke stayed back and began to just observe the fight while thinking '' At this time, the other monsters still didn''t come out, should I kill them or should I respectfully wait until the end of the fight? Hmmm¡­ '' The hostages are trapped in an underground room with angry-looking tentacle monsters, what could possibly go wrong?...'' I should just check on them, don''t want to fail the mission. ''


    Using haunting march, Luke bypassed the monster and got inside the room where the remaining monsters were on the hostages, doing things he didn''t want to know about. Getting near them, Luke focused the best he could while activating his eyes power, forcing the space waves to aggregate on them, holding them in place. Then, he quickly took the hostages, which he threw out by the newly created hole which relied the 90 meters deep underground corridor to the ground.


    This three seconds long action emptied his mana reserves. Sighing at the absurd cost of this action, which is what he accidentally performed after trying to use his eyes powers at max power in his room, Luke simply sent three dark lasers, ending the fight and blasting the room. Unlike his normal nukes-dark blasts, dark slash and dark laser, once inside the body don''t affect the surroundings that much.The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.


    As the explosion is concentrated, the power which destroys the body is incomparably higher than the dark blast. This thought made his eyes widen as he remembered this fact, he was sure that no tier 2, or even beginner tier 3 could survive it. Getting a bad feeling, Luke ran towards the face-off while chugging down mana replenish potions. And as expected, the monster was winning as Ozz was continuously pushed back. But what was worrying was that it was just playing.


    Instead of actively trying to kill Ozz, it was just pushing him around, wounding him then retreating. As it sensed Luke come back, from who it actually felt danger, the monster, as if done playing, displayed its aura. Its tier 3 aura which greatly weighed on Ozz''s and Luke''s souls. Repressing the instinctual and primal fear coming from his soul, Luke dashed towards the monster, jumped to the left wall, propelling himself past the monster. He circled it to protect Ozz.


    Not having much fighting experience, the toddler would be killed way too quickly if Luke didn''t protect him.


    As he faced the monster, Luke was torn between two options: either he accepted the end of the mission as the difference in stat between a mid-tier 2 and a probably low tier 3 was way too extreme or he keeps fighting, allowing himself to gain fighting experience. Smiling as the first option shouldn''t even cross his mind, Luke took Ozz and threw him out of the corridor, the farthest possible.


    He then readied his daggers again as he activated his newly named space bind, which wasn''t recognized as a spell. Held in place, the monster couldn''t do anything as multiple dark lasers came its way. The hole and internal explosions, even though suppressed still damaged it further as Luke aimed for the mouth part.


    Ending his space bind just after the attacks successfully landed, Luke used his haunting march but stayed in place. He wanted to launch a dark laser at its weak point once again but knew this wouldn''t be enough.


    Once unrestrained, the tentacle monster divided itself with some tentacles quickly disintegrating just after. It seemed like this was how it kept the explosions at bay. Each tentacle then slithered to Luke, with a speed he couldn''t keep up. Encircled, Luke sent thousand dark blasts all around him, buying himself time, but at the same time destroying the corridor; and most likely anything in a 50 meters radius.


    The tentacles were just pushed back though and they once again slithered to Luke, who used the explosion to get to the ground level. Once there, he threw the bodies of team Shadow reapers further away. Then, he spotted Ozz currently forming the biggest purple fluid ball he ever saw, not that he saw any before Ozz''s previous ones. Ozz then threw the ball down the hole, from where the tentacles were about to jump out.

 Chapter 42: A mission with Ozz (3/3)

    As the purple ball exploded in the hole, a chilling sizzling sound was the only thing that could be heard and rising purple fumes was the only thing that could be seen. '' That''s quite scary, definitely don''t want to be hit by that¡­ Anyway, haunting march failed again. Why is every opponent of mine immune to it? But, does it mean it let me pass the first time? Hmm¡­ whatever, now I also have to create a more reliable stealth method. ''


    As he was thinking, some shadows began to rise up from the purple fumes so Luke took Ozz and retreated a few meters back. Finally emerging from it, the tentacles landed then got back together. Contrarily to what one may think, the monster was actually hurt from Ozz''s attack, as seen from its now smaller size. It''s just that it made some tentacles absorb all the damage.


    Apparently, the tentacles can only take a fixed amount of damage before being destroyed. If each tentacle was equal to a life instead, then Luke wouldn''t dare say he was the most broken character of the universe. Thinking back, Luke couldn''t help but laugh as to how he thought that the ogre''s revival ability was a cheat.


    Right now, of the initial 64, there were 18 tentacles remaining, yet, it didn''t look like it was even considering to flee. Was it pride? Or was it just made like that, unable to retreat? Either way, the now whole tentacle monster disappeared from their fields of view, instinctively, Luke triggered the death exchange, choosing Stevenson, as he was the most useless of his extra lives.


    Experiencing the darkness again, Luke just floated towards the panicked Stevenson who, immediately after seeing him began to cry in happiness " Lord you are alright! I missed you so much! It seems like I died but worry not my lord, my love for you will remain eternal! "


    Staring speechlessly at Stevenson, Luke thought '' Never thought Road to misery had that strong of an effect, it even elevated me to the status of a lord in his mind! And this strange speech pattern... I will have to be mindful of the loyalty brought by the remaining Roads, I hope Lou won''t be like that ''Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.


    Not thinking too much about this, Luke simply touched Steve''s forehead, who most likely had wild thoughts after this action. As he was about to express his love and loyalty again, his consciousness faded and his body, which was in a nice looking house began to meltdown, emitting a putrid smell while Luke reopened his eyes and saw that he was on the ground.


    Sighing as his intuition saved his life, he got back up and saw that the monster was just hit by a purple fluid ball coming from Ozz. Not willing to waste that chance, Luke fired the remaining three dark lasers he could afford, effectively erasing the remaining tentacles of the monster.


    Still shocked by his ''instant death'', Luke thought about the monster''s last move. He felt that this was maybe its trump card as it moved way too fast. He didn''t blame himself for his death though as he was quite cautious if you forget the fact that he battled a clearly superior being. As he was beginning to get lost in thought, he felt Ozz slam into his chest, making the both of them fall.


    Looking at him, he saw he was purple with fluid sliding down his body " Luke dead, Ozz scared " Now understanding that the kid was worried about him, Luke began to soothe him, just like he always did with his little brother... Then the system announced the end of the mission.


    * Congratulations soldier Luke on rescuing three Shadow reapers members, 6000 PTS are awarded... An additional 3000 PTS have been awarded for destroying the enemy base... 7000 PTS have been awarded for killing a tier 3 enemy monster. You will immediately be teleported back to your monolith. *


    After the system prompt, Luke and Ozz were covered by their respective colored lights as they were teleported back. Of course, Luke didn''t forget to close his eyes and sense the whole process. Reappearing in front of the monolith, Luke and Ozz saw that they were the only ones present.


    Turning to Ozz, Luke said with a kind smile " Well, you were very impressive in the mission Ozz, very fierce! If you don''t mind, let''s partner up for some more in the future. "


    " ... Yaasss... Ozz happy "


    Laughing at his attempt to talk normally, Luke said goodbye to Ozz and went back to his house. Once inside, he got back to training after a short rest, this time, hell-bent on finding a way to defend himself and make his space bind earn the qualification to be recognized as a spell.


    Sensing the space waves around him, Luke began to try to compress them, the goal being to create a coat. A coat of space like Lion''s coat of gravity. Teleportation and high speed movement will wait, as right now, all he wanted was a solid defense, which he once again saw that he lacked.

 Chapter 43: space cloak

    With his eyes closed, Luke focused on the space waves that were around him, shaping the outline of his body. As he couldn''t see space waves inside a body or object, it was very easy to observe those directly outside. He tried to combine the space waves just like the teleportation had done, but the goal was entirely different.


    Instead of combining them to make them explode, he tried to combine and compress the space waves around his arms at first to create another skin. As he did, his mana reserves were quickly dropping but he still continued. After combining seven space waves, Luke tried to touch them as he wanted to see the effect.


    For him, there were two possibilities. The first was that the combined space waves would become tangible and be like a wall. The second was that they would remain intangible and do nothing, which meant that this attempt would be a failure.


    In the beginning, he also considered a third possibility which was that as they remained intangible, the space waves would sort of teleport the attacks to the other side of the cloak, making him invulnerable. But this possibility couldn''t be possible as he would need to connect the cloak from the two sides of his body. Knowing that he couldn''t see, much less act on the space waves inside his body, Luke gave up on it, for the time being...


    Getting back to the matter at hand, when he touched the compressed wave, Luke felt like he touched nothing, this attempt was a failure. Sighing in resignation, he was about to stop trying this method when he felt that his hand was faintly repelled. Overjoyed, Luke burst in a fit of classical villain laughter thinking of how he will bully Lion with it.


    Stopping his laughing fit, Luke consumed a few mana replenish and tried again, this time, combining the most space waves he could. When his mana emptied, he had combined 83 space waves and when he tried to touch his arm, he had to use all his strength to succeed.


    '' Good, now all I need to do is reduce the cost. Afterward, I will keep adding space waves while still reducing the cost. I hope I will be able to combine 200. This should be enough to be recognized as a tier 3 spell. ''


    For the next three days, Luke put all his mind on this task and was finally rewarded on the eve of the squad mission. * Congratulations on creating a new spell. 4000 PTS are awarded. Please name it. *


    This narrative has been purloined without the author''s approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.Smiling, he replied '' space cloak, show me its description ''


    * Space cloak tier three:


    A compressed combination of 200 space waves that act like a cloak, surrounding the user''s body. Strongly repels anything that tries to come into contact with the user''s body. Cost: 200 mana/min. *


    The pride Luke felt by finally creating a tier-three spell of the space element and that this spell isn''t even reliant on his ability was something to behold. Even though he was just copy-pasting Lion in a way, this didn''t reduce the pride he felt. After all, if humans didn''t use what was already at hand but instead always searched for an impractical and bothersome way, then the twenty-first century would still be considered part of the middle ages.


    Anyway, the intricacies of his new spell were that even though it was still intangible, the compressed waves was too thick to be tread. It was like compressing a few hundred pieces of paper. One could be cut through as easily as breathing while the hundreds would be harder than rocks.


    Finished with creating his defensive spell, Luke stood up and got out of his house to regroup with the others. As the squad mission would be the next day, they needed to talk about it.


    Going to the monolith, which became the official gathering spot, Luke saw that he was once again the last to come. Looking at his ever shining violet eyes, Milfa said " The more I see them, the more I think they suit you. "


    "... Thanks, I guess... anyway, do you have any idea on how the squad missions would generally come to pass? "


    Lou then stood up and replied " Yeah, my informants said that the squad missions mostly consist of teams going to the battlefield with other teams and the army. We will be given a goal and will have the whole week to accomplish it. Afterward, if we still have time we can either stay on the battlefield for more points or choose to go back and rest. As it''s a squad mission, we are stuck together, which means that no one can choose to go back if the majority wants to stay. "


    THen Milfa also stood up and stated " Ignoring Lou''s attempt to sound mysterious, everything he said is quite right but incomplete. Most of the times, teams from the ECG will have to join a squadron, hence the name. Also, if and when we finish in advance, the rewards don''t come from our systems but from the leader of the squadron we joined. "


    " Isn''t that quite bad? What if he just hates our guts? "


    " That possibility, in addition to being low, is irrelevant. Who would dare to antagonize future tier 6? At least not these Squadron leaders as they themselves only are tier 5 max. "


    Nodding with a pensive look, Luke replied " I see, then I will go back first, I''m tired. " With that, he began to leave.


    Seeing that, Abacus said " You know, you can stay more than five minutes with us, we don''t stink. " The others just shook their heads while Ozz also began leaving. It seemed like he took Luke as his role model.


    Turning around, Luke got to Abacus and put his hand on his shoulder " I''m tired " and left. If he didn''t talk, perhaps Abacus wouldn''t have become an extra life. Perhaps.

 Chapter 44: captain wulin

    The next morning, Luke went to the monolith in a somber mood. He may have successfully created his space cloak but anything else had to be put on hold for it. '' I don''t like it but I will have to match my fighting style to my elements in the mission itself. ''


    Greeting the others, Luke sat near Ozz and waited for the announcement of the mission with the others. As she was quite bored, Milfa turned to Luke, the one with the least knowledge in the whole ECG and asked " Do you know the ranks of each tier? " Not expecting this question, Luke paused as he replied " No, what are they? "


    " As you know, tier 2 and 3 are soldiers. Tier 4 powerhouses are lieutenant, tier 5 are captain, tier 6 are colonel, tier 7 are general and tier 8 are supreme general. Fun fact, Lords are not part of the army and don''t have a rank but they can do anything they want. In fact, the only Lord who likes to lead the army, Lord twelfth, is also a supreme general when he does. "


    Nodding, Luke thought that it was quite similar to the military system of some countries of Earth, although simplified. Thinking about something, Luke smirked " I did assassinate some generals in that war¡­ Yet, if I ever dream of doing so now, I would have to wait a few thousands of years¡­''


    " That''s right, what is the life expectancy of each tier? "


    " Hmmm, that totally depends on the individual but if you want an average... tier 4 is roughly ten thousand years¡­ tier 5, a million or something¡­ tier 6, hundreds of millions of years and for tier 7 onwards, none died a natural death yet. "


    " I see, thanks. "


    As they were chatting, the system prompt finally resounded.


    * The first week''s squad mission will begin. You will join the 255th squadron led by captain Wulin in galaxy R7932103456, planet B111. Your mission will be to kill a thousand enemies of tier 2 and five low tier 3. You will be immediately teleported to the allied camp. Good luck soldier Luke. *


    Stunned as they were never immediately teleported before, they disappeared from the monolith and reappeared in a mighty looking red fort. The translucent red force field barrier that served as a perfected wall and the red earth and sky were the only things that they could see, not factoring the soldiers.


    As they looked around, they saw thousands of men, women or not distinguishable people. The only things these people had in common were the flag on their armors. The flag was, in fact, a swirling black hole with multicolored lights rotating around it ( the book cover ).


    As they appeared, a two meters tall, gray-haired and furred wolfman, came to greet them. By how strong, distinguished and noble he looked, they deduced that it was the captain Wulin, a tier 5 existence. His face expressionless, he said in a flat tone " You should be team dazzle right? " Hearing that, Milfa''s and Abacus''s foreheads gained a few black lines while Lou was sweat dropping. This matter stayed as an unresolved grudge since it came to light.


    On the other hand, the soldiers who were curiously observing them as they were thought as the cr¨¨me de la cr¨¨me began to boisterously laugh. The name of an elite team was not necessarily important as only power was but this... This just eradicated all credibility they had.Find this and other great novels on the author''s preferred platform. Support original creators!


    As he wasn''t the patient kind, to begin with, captain Wulin screamed at his subordinates to quiet down. What he wouldn''t admit was that he also laughed hard when he saw the name of the team. Turning back to the depressed team dazzle, he said " I won''t waste my time with you guys. In here, you are soldiers. I set rules, you follow them. If you are not capable enough to accomplish your mission within due time, you will be sent back not only without any rewards but your names " Then he looked particularly at Luke " or your titles will be remembered by everyone as synonyms to shame and incompetence. As privileged brats, you won''t be under the threat of death but know that everyone else here is. So if my people die because of you, I will make sure you suffer! Is that clear? "


    Maybe because of the charisma he exuded, they all responded at the same time " Yes sir! "


    " Good, follow me. " Having said that, he turned around and entered a room. Team dazzle followed, with Luke marveling on the feeling he felt being before someone so much stronger than him, to the point that he instinctually felt like an ant. His resolve to become stronger heightened.


    Inside the room, which was empty, captain Wulin materialized a kind of chair as he sat down. " You are the third team of privileged brats that acme this year. This will be your quarters. You do whatever you want inside but know that if I say something once, I won''t repeat myself. So you better be ready for anything. Every year that you privileged brats come, my men die because of you. Well, your predecessors, I don''t want to amalgam. So know that this year, I''m hell-bent on this not happening okay? " "Yes sir! "


    " Good, you can rest for the day or visit the camp, do whatever you want but don''t go out of the camp. Our enemies, as stupid as they may be wouldn''t hesitate to capture and consequently torture you for information. In which case, you will have to suicide if you don''t want to be in for a world of pain. "


    With a troubled face, Lou respectfully asked " But isn''t torture outdated? Like, nobody does this for a few billion years. " At this remark, Luke sneezed. '' Billions of years, what am I to you? A caveman? No, a fish? ''


    Sighing and looking at him with pity, captain Wulin said " They do it for pleasure only. These barbarians really like to watch their future enemies suffer while they are weak and believe me, you don''t want to be caught by them. Well, if that''s all, have a nice day. " With that, he left.


    Staring speechlessly at his departing figure, they got out of the room to visit the camp and see with which other teams they would spend the next week.


    The fort was pretty simple if you forget about every advanced technology in the hands of the soldiers. There was a barrack for said soldiers, where everyone of them had their little space of comfort. There was a ward, a practice field, full of ambitious people who are not satisfied with their life. There was cantine, where the soldiers would most likely reunite, not really for the food but for the bonds. After all, you won''t put in the same amount of effort to save a nobody and your brother.


    Then, there was the administrative tower. Deciding to not mingle with anything that touched the realm of administrations as even at the universe scale, it''s still as maddening and tiring, the came to the last place: the force field. Looking through it, they could see the outside. It was all black but unlike the natural red of the earth inside the fort, the earth outside was pitch black, from blood.


    There was no body, but they could not only see the traces of battle, they could almost view it. They didn''t know how it was like to be on the battlefield, but they knew it was brutal. Just outside the fort was already like this, testifying the brutality. As their moods became somber, an all too familiar voice resounded behind them. " Well, we sure got lucky, we got paired up with number one and number four! A weakling and a kid! Haha! "

 Chapter 45: newbie

    Turning around, team Dazzle was face to face with Lion, Andrea and most probably their teammates. Rolling his eyes at Lion''s mischievousness, Luke just greeted them and got back to watching the remains of the battlefield.


    With his eyes as wide as saucers, Lion looked incredulously at Luke " No yelling? No talkback? No fails? Kid, what happened to you? I don''t recognize you anymore. Was I too fierce with my teasing? "


    " ¡­ "


    Still seeing no response from Luke, Lion looked as if someone just took his most precious thing while Andrea just chuckled. She was the one who told Luke that once he didn''t respond, Lion couldn''t do anything. Everyone else though felt like third wheels, spectating a couple''s ordinary life.


    What destroyed this weird atmosphere was an explosion in the distance. Then sirens resounded all over the camp as captain wulin''s voice was projected in everyone''s mind. " We are under attack, quickly get into formation to defend against the enemy. ECG''s teams will form an autonomous division under lieutenant Xi. "


    Looking at each other, Andrea asked " Anyone knows lieutenant Xi? " As they all shook their heads, another wolfman, a white-furred one showed up. " I believe you are talking about me, let''s not waste time and reunite with my squadron. Note that you may be independent but if I order you to do something, you do it! "


    Finished, he began to walk towards the soldier''s barracks. As his pace was fast, the slowest of the group actually had to run to keep up with him. '' Braggart ''


    When they arrived at the soldiers'' barracks, they found that there were more than a thousand soldiers waiting for them. They were all in formations, waiting for orders. Lieutenant Xi then transmitted orders to the soldiers as they immediately departed while sending the teams a message. " Follow me. " They clearly didn''t have any say in the matters of the fort so they just followed him.


    Arriving at the force field, lieutenant Xi then pressed a talisman looking object on it, creating a 5 meters wide opening. As the barrier opened, he began to walk at his pace, forcing the soldiers and the teams to run after him. After traveling around 10 kilometers, they arrived at the battlefield. The fight had already begun. They were most likely late because of the teams. Counting roughly, there were about a hundred thousand allies for the same number of enemies.


    As they arrived, lieutenant Xi just disappeared as he went to another place, most likely to battle powerhouses at his level, leaving behind a message " Stay with the formations, your goal today is to learn, not meaninglessly die. Making someone revive is costly, so be sure to not waste resources. "


    Watching him disappear, Luke thought '' This whole battlefield thing just looks like a whetstone, for both sides. If the goal really was to just destroy then there would be no need for soldiers, much less actually letting the soldiers battle in a corner while the powerhouses fought in another. ''Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.


    Not letting these thoughts linger much longer, Luke and the teams just stayed near the formations as they advanced steadily towards an enemy formation, following the new leader by default. It''s not that the enemy waited for them this whole time, it''s just that they already dealt with the allies battling them up until now, who were currently fleeing towards them.


    As they were instructed to stay with the formation and learn, they decided to have a passive role at first and immediately act once the situation looked dire, after a quick debate between the team''s leaders who were ironically not any of the big four.


    As the enemy formation was a hundred meters from them, they stopped. Luke saw that they weren''t tentacle monsters but demons with bat wings, horns, and devilish looks. Not that they were handsome, their faces were a mishmash of wriggling worms.


    As both formations were stopped, the tension was escalating by the second as both sides prepared their long-range spells and/or abilities and shields. The first salvo would be a butchery, that, everyone knew.


    Luke, Ozz, Milfa and Andrea also prepared to send some destructive spells, though, they would not use much power as they were here to learn, not razing the enemies in a second.


    As if by prior agreement, both sides fired at the same time, making some spells collide in mid-air, creating explosions while most hurtled towards their target. The shields, even though mighty looking, didn''t last long against the salvo. At least a tenth of the soldier was thus either killed or injured heavily enough to not continue.


    Just after both sides suffered damage, some of the soldiers disappeared, only to reappear near the enemy side, delivering a few blows, not looking at whether they succeeded or not before retreating. These were assassins, and they were effective. Seeing them in action, Luke nodded as this was indeed the right course of action. In a direct confrontation, this was the best way to use assassins, without risking to lose too many of them. In a direct confrontation that is...


    As they were observing the fighting method of the battlefield, an enemy, which Luke only detected thanks to the space waves tried to sneak up on them. This means that this one was undetected until he was only ten meters away. Not wasting time, Luke shot a simple dark blast his way, making him stagger back, and most importantly revealing his presence to the teams who just ganged up on him. Helpless, the enemy was quickly killed by their combined attacks.


    Tier 3 or not, an assassin who just invested on speed and strength couldn''t possibly resist an assault from 15 overpowered tier 2, even more so when he is the stealthy type. Honestly, the guy really died an unfair death, he just wanted to dispose of important-looking weaklings but got insta killed instead.


    '' So it feels like this to gang up on someone... I should do that more often. ''


    Concentrating again on the battlefield, they saw what a stalemate situation looked like. Both sides'' shot range fighters were battling and the long-range ones were firing at each other, leaving the short-range alone in fear of friendly fire. Assassins would pop up sometimes to kill or at least distract enemies at critical moments, in both short and long-range.


    Finally, there were a few disguised tier 3 who would kill the highest number of tier 2 possible before retreating. The slowest to do so would just get killed by concentrated fire.


    As they were spectating, the leader of Lion''s team asked " For which team goes the kill of the assassin? And, consequently, for who in said team? " As they all turned to look at him incredulously, Lion spoke " Well, it should go to team dazzle, these guys are just too pitiful, even more so Luke, that kid is a total newbie. And a weakling at that. "

 Chapter 46: clich茅?

    As the intensity of the fight with the enemy squadron escalated, they didn''t have time for jokes anymore. All their time of the day was dedicated to helping soldiers in need here and there while gradually adapting to the fighting patterns. They didn''t need to really integrate a formation. That would be plain stupid as they are way stronger than the regular tier 2 here, to the point that a third of them were even stronger than tier 3s.


    All they needed was to adapt to the enemies pattern and find efficient ways to beat them up. Captain Wulin, without yelling it, clearly indicated that them getting too much attention was suicidal. So, they couldn''t just go and blitz everything, no matter how convenient and refreshing it may seem. They needed to complete their missions '' stealthily''.


    They were not dumb enough to trust that the enemy wouldn''t jump on the occasion to break future powerful enemies at their early stages. As they couldn''t die, some of their predecessors were bound to be reckless, that was a sure thing. Maybe the missions were also made for that, teach future powerhouses to act based on the situation.


    The fights wouldn''t just end in one day, so as they slaughtered-fought, lieutenant Xi reappeared near them. Looking at their actions, he nodded as he said " You can go now, but once again, if my men die because of you, you will regret it. " And departed just after.


    Now having the authorization to be active, they quickly finished the remaining enemies of their current squadron and left, leaving the surviving soldiers speechless, thinking '' If they could end it all that easily, why did they have to watch our brothers die and do nothing? '' This made them develop a slight discomfort as they indeed saved lots of them, but they could have saved more.


    As pawns, they didn''t know of many things, first being that they were pawns and that, the strong were happy about. After all, if not the poor, the weak were always wrong.


    After they left, they didn''t go far. They just went to a quite fierce area where most of the fight was conducting. The three teams then dispersed as they all had things to do on their own. But the leader of Andrea''s team, also a normal woman but entirely white, curiously asked about Luke''s eyes before leaving.


    Being reminded of his nightmare, Luke sighed and just said that he didn''t know much about it, apart from the fact that he could somehow see space. As she knew her leader''s character well, Andrea urged her to leave before she asked too many questions. The kid ( Luke ) got way too easily annoyed.


    As they were by themselves now, after throwing a look at the fierce fight, Lou instructed his team " This is the heart of the battlefield. Here we will deal somehow heavy hits and immediately change places. If we constantly do that, I think we will be okay. "You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.


    At that, Milfa shook her head as she rebuked " This may seem good on the paper but we will quickly be discovered. It could have worked if we all had stealth spells or abilities. Unfortunately, only Luke has one. The best course of action would be to do as you said but differently. We don''t have the same specialties and we are future powerhouses, which means we don''t have to learn how to fight with others but how to better oneself in accordance with others. "


    " I see where you are coming, so, Luke does just that, Ozz quietly poisons to quickly kill enemies about everywhere, Abacus rains down lightning from time to time, Milfa snipes enemies and I go to melee, killing the enemies swiftly. Is that good? " All he earned was a thumbs up from everyone as they dispersed. Sighing, he just got to his job.


    Now alone, Luke activated haunting march and began to observe. He did not observe because he needed to for his coming slaughter, it''s just that he observed around who had few chances to die so that they could become his extra lives. He currently had six of them but, that wasn''t enough. As a cowa-cautious guy, he needed more and the battlefield was the ideal place. Not only would the enemies'' death not seem weird, but they also are enemies, so them becoming extra lives is no problem. Not that he would let go of his allies, he is not that benevolent.


    '' Show me my money ''


    * Money: 20260 PTS *


    '' Putting the matter of how I have so much aside, let''s just profit of this unexpected wealth ''


    Quickly buying 100 grams of Road to craziness, Luke first tried it on every tier 3 he could see, be it enemy or ally. There were 87 tier 3 present and 34 became extra lives. The 50 percent chance of working was negated and made him waste a lot before he knew why. That was because for tier 3, just making the liquid contact their skin was not enough. He needed to make it contact their blood.


    This means he had to inflict wounds on every tier 3 of the battlefield. This experience though greatly satisfied Luke. It''s not because he now had 40 extra lives, but because his haunting march, which was ''bullied'' up until now finally made its wonders. As even tier 3 soldiers couldn''t detect him with it, this reinforced his belief that Andrea and Lion were just monsters. Out of those 87 tier 3, 4 were able to detect him, and they were part of the strongest soldiers present.


    Still having 13G remaining, Luke, while occasionally assassinating some failed extra lives and tier 2s, observed the tier two that seemed like they could survive. After observing for three hours, he out four who had great chances to survive. The only problem is that he killed one accidentally when he was passing near him. His dagger automatically cut down the demon when he seemingly turned abruptly to look his way.


    While this was going on, a shadow abruptly appeared at Luke''s side and took him. Flustered but still calm, he tried to escape but he couldn''t. Furthermore, the strongest pressure he ever felt was exerted on him as the shadow took him. Now, much less calm, Luke decisively tried to suicide but couldn''t.


    While his teammates were happily slaughtering their way, Luke got caught by a mysterious expert.

 Chapter 47: face-slap

    Having even his suicide attempts stopped, Luke began to grow uneasy. He wasn''t afraid of pain, not too much, but he was totally powerless, and this, made him afraid. As he was about to once again suicide, his kidnapper snorted and knocked him out. An unknown amount of time later, Luke was woken up by a sudden burst of pain from his cheeks. He was slapped.


    Not opening his eyes as he used his spatial vision to see his surroundings, he perceived a single silhouette within ten meters of him. He was probably on the floor, in a forest as there were trees around.


    This time opening his eyes as more slaps came his way, Luke saw his kidnapper who, without his shadow recovering his body, looked just like him. He looked perfectly like him because not only did he have glowing violet eyes, and black hair, even the finest details of his face were the same as his, just slightly more mature.


    With eyes as wide as saucers, Luke observed the man incredulously. He was sure that he never saw him before but the resemblance and the sense of familiarity were just too much for him to trust his memories.


    As Luke was gawking at him, the man just looked at him with a mixture of pride and disappointment. " You¡­ If you continue like this, you will get yourself killed. "


    " What? What are you talking about? And who are you? How are we related? Why¡­ "


    Rising a hand, the man motioned for Luke to shut up, something he unwillingly did.


    " No matter what questions you may have, I''m only here to say one thing. I don''t know what you did nor how you did it but two elites were reported to be under an unknown influence and this influence is related to you. You can do whatever you want with nobodies but there are limits and you almost crossed them. "


    '' Could he be talking about the roads? Hmm, another thing to improve... But they have an idea of what I do yet they do nothing about it? As I thought, this farce of a battlefield is just a meat grinder that serves as a whetting stone. Tsk, they only care about those with potential... This means the universe should either be on the losing side of this war or its inhabitants are just very ruthless. ''


    Still forcefully keeping Luke silent, he added " Be careful of your actions as there is a limit to the extent you can be protected. I believe you know that you have a special background but it''s not omnipotent. In fact, I shouldn''t even have been talking to you before you reached tier 4 but you were too reckless. Sigh, just remember that: there are limits to everything and you are being watched. Oh, and, kill yourself to go back, this might be a good experience. "Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.


    As he finished speaking, the shadow he appeared with covered him as he disappeared.


    Finally able to talk, Luke stayed silent as he was left alone. '' And where the f*ck am I now? He didn''t take me back to the battlefield so there must be a special reason I''m in this forest. But seriously, making me suicide after bringing me to a goddamn forsaken place?... '' Finished grumbling, Luke looked around and all he saw were endless trees. They were a pitch-black in color.


    As he tried to touch them though, he felt his hand corroding. Quickly retracting it, he looked seriously at the trees. They were made of darkness, pure darkness. Activating his dark hand to recover his hand, which is ironically the base use if this spell which he only used once as is, Luke tried to once again touch the tree.


    This time, he still felt as if his hand was corroding but not as much as the first time. Seeing that this darkness was quite powerful, he tried to absorb it. To do so, he had to keep his hand inside the tree unfortunately but not only would this make a very valuable research material, he could choose to waste some whenever he absolutely needs to. So, he threw every darkness spells he stored up until now and simply filled his storage space with the maximum amount of darkness he could.


    As spending it would be too wasteful, he vowed to not use his spells that he could perform only thanks to his spatial storage. Until he was able to reproduce it, this means that he would basically only fight like a casual-normal guy. He now couldn''t just bomb his way and could most likely only rely on space.


    This brought him another problem: offensively, he had nothing good with space.


    Space cut just made his regular attacks unavoidable so it was clearly not enough. His strongest point suddenly became his weakest. Sighing as he had even more things to train, Luke suicided as he didn''t know where he was and was most likely not on the same planet.


    As he died, he encountered the same dark, empty space he goes through when he activates the roads. But unlike these times, the blank space felt cold and oddly creepy. As he was floating, he felt more and more uncomfortable by the second and his consciousness began to erode. This was, however, not the first time he felt this. And he was sure that it had to do with his childhood, of which he had no memory.


    Then, within the dark space, he felt a soothing force attracting him. Putting all his remaining will to go towards it, Luke lost consciousness.


    While this was happening, the system manager was bowing in front of Lord seventh and only what was probably the end of their conversation resounded.


    " So that''s how it is... if what you said is true, then this kid really has a not so ordinary background. But, there is still something that doesn''t make sense. Why let him be like that? We might all be allies but people with special characteristics tend to never let their descendants contact anything that''s not in their sphere of influence... "


    " Lord, maybe it''s because he is a half? "


    " No, this cannot be the reason. Half or not, if he inherited their special characteristics then this doesn''t change how they treat their descendants. " Shaking his head, he disappeared as he thought " Maybe only fourth has the answer to this question. I should ask him ... don''t want to claim what is rightfully his as my subordinate. This crazy old guy would just beat me up. "