《Reaper's Resurgence: A System Reset LitRPG》 B1 | Chapter 1 - The System Reset Alexia Knight ¡°-and remember to be at the training field in half an hour for the dungeon dive! You do not want to miss this!¡± the professor shouts as everyone begins to gather their things. He¡¯s an older looking man with long hair and is wearing a business suit that I¡¯m willing to bet is probably enchanted. Although considering his level, who knows what his actual age is. There are some people out there with odd classes that make you look old even if you¡¯re not for some reason. ¡°Unless you want to fall behind in level!¡± Everyone ignores him, simply focusing on moving as fast as they can so that they can have more time to prepare for the dungeon dive. The first field excursion of the year for us first years at the Royal Academy. And something I¡¯ve personally been looking forward to for a while now. Because why wouldn¡¯t someone want to go to the Royal Dungeon? It¡¯s the best place to level in the entire kingdom after all. And the King is very much known for hogging his dungeon to his loyal retainers and the Royal Academy students, simply to keep accumulating more power and as an incentive for others to attend his academy. Typical Ascendant. Which is all the more reason to dream of becoming one myself one of these days. So I can do what I want without a care as well. Not that I really believe that it¡¯s possible. I shake my head at that as I stand up, pulling my laptop bag over my shoulder and beginning to make my way towards the aisle of the classroom. But before I can reach it, I hear a familiar voice shout from the entrance, bringing my eyes over to find my twin standing there with her hands on her hips as she patiently taps her feet. ¡°Lexi, hurry up! I won¡¯t be missing this!¡± That has me letting out a short sigh before I continue walking towards the aisle while ignoring some of the looks people are sending either me or my sister, some amused, others not so much. Thankfully most of the students in my class are just ignoring us as they go about their own business. Once I reach the door of the classroom where she¡¯s standing, I tell her, ¡°Would you mind not shouting at me in a room full of other students?¡± She raises a brow at that, only to shrug and turn around, beginning her trek down the hall without a word. That¡¯s a yes then. Good. Still wish she would voice it more often though. I begin following her as I glance around at the students we pass in the hallway, each wearing their own armor instead of any sort of stuffy uniform. Something I¡¯ve heard the academies from other kingdoms often require of their students. A rather stupid thing if you ask me. Another reason why my sister and I chose this academy instead of going to a different kingdom and attending theirs. Well, that and it¡¯s where the old man went. Speaking of my sister, I glance at her to find her wearing a set of armor mirroring my own enchanted black leather armor, the both of us taught by the same Magic Knight who adopted the two of us when we were just five years old. And he always talks about how we got our preference in armor from him, which he seems to be rather proud of. Most likely. He mentions it at least once a month, so he¡¯s probably proud of that fact. As we walk, I open my status.
Name: Alexia Knight Species: Human(T1)
Level: 35 Class: Magic Knight
Health: 700/700 Mana: 1050/1050
VIT: 69 DEX: 103 STR: 137 MAG: 137 MEN: 35
Racial Skills Active Skills
Passive Skills General Skills
We round the hall heading in the direction of the training field, at which point my sister, Astrid, pauses slightly, only to continue walking again. And as she does so, I find the reason she had paused. Great. The nuisance. I subtly slow my steps to build up a little bit of a distance, totally not abandoning my sister to her would-be suitor as I focus on my General Skills. [General Skills] |Pain Resistance Level 3(46%)(T1)| |Swordsmanship Level 5(57%)(T1)| |First Aid Level 3(61%)(T1)| |Stealth Level 3(21%)(T1)| |Mana Manipulation Level 5(62%)(T1)| |Archery Level 3(31%)(T1)| |Survival Level 4(25%)(T1)| |Student Level 3(29%)(T1)| |Healing Magic Level 4(71%)(T1)| |Enhancement Magic Level 5(20%)(T1)| Hmm. Got a few percentage points for Student from that class. Not bad. Even if it was boring. I understand that learning about plants can be helpful when you¡¯re out in the wild. I really do. But I don¡¯t care about plants. Nothing against the photosynthesizing sources of oxygen, but I just don¡¯t care about them. My thoughts about plants are interrupted when I hear Rodrick, some noble son of a Baron, trying to woo Astrid again as my sister ignores his very existence and walks right by him. And I try very hard to keep a straight face at the sight of the idiot tripping when he tries in a rush to catch up with her. Yeah, that didn¡¯t turn out very well for him. But it¡¯s probably for the best. He¡¯ll likely leave after embarrassing himself like that. While noble children do have quite a bit of power if they pester their parents, they don''t have much sway in the academy. Since all the academy really cares about is making powerful people who might serve the kingdom. It''s also one of the reasons why the first mission we were given this year was a bandit hunting mission. After the noble kid makes it back to his feet, he glances at me with a frown and then shakes his head before walking away, taking a different hallway than the one we¡¯re taking to get to the training field. Yep. Thought so. He¡¯s honestly rather annoying, but at least he doesn¡¯t push things too far. A typical noble in a lot of ways. I quickly catch up to Astrid to find her looking at me with a raised brow. But I just shrug. The number of times he¡¯s mistaken me for Astrid is already annoying enough and makes things quite awkward in general. Although I don¡¯t really blame him. I glance at my sister, who looks identical to me in just about every way. The main telling sign of who¡¯s who between us being that I wear my hair in a braid while she doesn¡¯t, simply letting her long black hair flow straight. We also have the same blue eyes and are both the same height of about five foot five inches tall. Not to mention that our armor is identical. ¡°When are you going to deal with him?¡± I ask with a light frown. But she just shrugs and says, ¡°I don¡¯t really want to cause Gramps any trouble.¡± Hmm. Guess she¡¯s right there. Idiot or not, that nuisance is still the son of a Baron. Can¡¯t be too rude to the guy without him raising a fuss. Not that Gramps would have any trouble dealing with them, but it would be annoying, and I don¡¯t want to make him deal with it in the first place. I reach into my bag to grab my phone before looking at the time, then I put it back away again and stretch a little as we walk. ¡°You warmed up yet?¡± I ask her, since we¡¯ll need to be as prepared as possible for the dungeon dive. If we don¡¯t want to die that is. She just nods, ever the quiet and stoic type. We continue walking through the halls of the academy building in silence until we finally make it to the training field where dozens of other students are already waiting. ¡°Find your assigned group and wait with them,¡± the instructor for our Dungeons class calls out when he sees us, the young looking man with bright red hair appearing slightly annoyed at having to deal with so many students at once. I pull my phone out before going to the class¡¯s website to find my assigned group, soon finding the groups to be in alphabetical order by last name for some stupid reason. Or at least, stupid until I realize that we¡¯re separated into combat categories along with the alphabetical order. Either way though, it leaves me and Astrid in the same group. Which is good. She tugs on my arm slightly, bringing my attention to her before she points at a group standing off to the side consisting of four people. One of which is currently waving at us with a smile on their face, his black and blue robes swaying slightly in the wind as he leans his staff tipped with a crystal at the end against a rock. Aidan. Didn¡¯t expect him to be in our group. The man is the same age as us at 20 years old, albeit just a few months older. Something he used to like pointing out to us back when we were kids and he was losing an argument. But he stopped doing that a few years back, when we were around fifteen or sixteen years old, and hasn¡¯t done it since. He does still point out how much taller he is sometimes though. Which is annoying. As we walk, I glance at the others in the group to find people I don¡¯t actually recognize. One of them has red hair and looks similar to the instructor though, so that¡¯s interesting. And she looks rather impatient too as she repeatedly rubs the pommel of her sword, the girl wearing a simple set of red armor matching her hair color with an equally red sheath. The other two are happily chatting amongst themselves, either showing that they know each other, or that they¡¯re just very friendly people in general. Although they couldn¡¯t be more different in attire. The boy is wearing a blue robe and has a staff, likely denoting him to be a light magic healer, and the girl is wearing dark green leather armor and has a bow draped over her shoulder and a quiver sitting on the ground next to her full of arrows. After we get within a couple meters of the group, the healer and archer interrupt their conversation to look over at us, and the other swordswoman girl does the same. And right away, they all look between the two of us for a few seconds before the swordswoman girl starts ignoring us and the two chatty people walk up to us. ¡°Hi! I¡¯m Shelly, and this is Rob,¡± the archer girl says while indicating the healer next to her with a smile. ¡°Astrid,¡± my sister says, and I answer a second later, ¡°Alexia.¡± The two look between us for a second, likely trying to figure out how they¡¯ll tell us apart in the future, before their gazes finally land on our hair. ¡°They¡¯re identical twins,¡± Aidan comments from the side as he joins us. And that sets the two off, asking question after question and quickly making me realize they¡¯re chatter boxes and very curious. Probably some of my sister¡¯s least favorite types of people, so I answer the questions for her as we get settled in waiting for it to be evening.
After the appointed time comes, we all gather up for a brief discussion from the instructor on how everything will go. The whole ¡®don¡¯t get yourself killed, the instructors can¡¯t help you inside due to the limited number of people allowed in each instance, and make sure you know each other¡¯s general abilities and levels¡¯ thing the instructor ¨C who told us to call him that instead of professor ¨C says in a lot of our classes. Then we get a few minutes to plan as a group before we¡¯re all teleported to the dungeon entrance, a large cave with a fancy looking entrance that looks like some sort of ancient ruins with various pillars outside and a large, round stone door that slides open when we arrive to reveal a purplish blue portal made by the System leading to the dungeon itself. ¡°Everyone enter with your groups, and make sure to leave a few seconds between each group entering,¡± the instructor says, his voice carrying over the entire clearing in front of the dungeon. ¡°Enter in order of the highest ranking group.¡± With that, I notice several groups formed up of nobles including one with the crown prince of this kingdom lining up in front of the dungeon first. Then after that the children of the higher Tiered individuals of the kingdom who aren¡¯t nobles, which technically includes us even if we¡¯re not his biological kids, line up next. And lastly, behind us, the few groups of people who barely managed to scrape their way into the academy line up at the end. The line progresses into the dungeon group by group until it¡¯s our turn, at which point I draw my sword from its sheath alongside my sister the moment before we enter, finding ourselves quickly teleported into a place akin to a castle¡¯s dungeon. Just one full of skeletons. {Skeleton ¨C Level 11 ¨C A low level undead summoned by a higher leveled undead.} {Skeleton ¨C Level 13 ¨C A low level undead summoned by a higher leveled undead.} {Skeleton ¨C Level 14 ¨C A low level undead summoned by a higher leveled undead.} {Skeleton ¨C Level 12 ¨C A low level undead summoned by a higher leveled undead.} This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. ¡°Everyone, form up!¡± the red haired girl whose name is Alara and turned out to be the instructor¡¯s daughter shouts with her own sword drawn and covered in flames. ¡°Aidan, Rob, and Shelly, stay at the middle of the group! Astrid, watch their backs! Alexia, with me in the front!¡± We all follow her orders strictly because she clearly knows what she¡¯s doing. Especially after showing her planning during the few minutes we were given earlier. Then we begin cutting down the skeletons with ease. Mostly due to their low levels as they can¡¯t even break past my Mana Barrier. A passive skill all Magic Knights get. [Level 11 Skeleton Defeated ¨C User¡¯s earned EXP has been significantly reduced due to killing a being whose level is far lower than their own with assistance.] [Level 12 Skeleton Defeated ¨C User¡¯s earned EXP has been significantly reduced due to killing a being whose level is far lower than their own with assistance.] [Level 14 Skeleton Defeated ¨C User¡¯s earned EXP has been significantly reduced due to killing a being whose level is far lower than their own with assistance.]
Time passes as we cut our path through the dungeon, the monsters gradually getting stronger with each floor until we finally find a real challenge on the fourth floor. {Skeletal Necromancer ¨C Level 37 ¨C A higher undead with the intelligence of a lower ranked sapient. They can summon undead at will and use basic death magic spells.} And the creature is surrounded by a few dozen skeletons at lower levels than itself by about ten. ¡°Aidan, use a wide area freeze skill on the minions,¡± Alara shouts as she rushes forward, her sword blazing to life with a much stronger flame than before. And I join her while using my enhancement magic to enhance my body beyond what would normally be possible at my level. ¡°Shelly, distract the necromancer. Wound him if you can!¡± ¡°Got it!¡± both of them shout, following which Alara continues while cutting her flaming sword straight through the bones of one of the skeletons, lighting the thing already weak to fire magic on fire, ¡°Rob, you know what to do. And Astrid, protect those three.¡± She doesn¡¯t bother giving me any orders as I¡¯m already alongside her fighting the skeletons with my blade, parrying one hit after another before cutting into their weak spots, their joints, and removing entire limbs from play. Overall, I¡¯m rather pleased with my group. Although I wouldn¡¯t be surprised if Gramps had something to do with putting us in a good group. Aidan performs some chant thing that¡¯s required for the particular skill he¡¯s using, a short one at least, before a wave of ice mana shoots out of him and freezes just the lower halves of the skeletons around us, giving me the opportunity to sprint through them towards the necromancer. And while the necromancer doesn¡¯t exactly like my actions, all it manages to do about it is send several necrotic bolts of death mana at me that I simply cut through with my enhancement mana enhanced sword before I eventually make it to the fragile skeleton and cut its head off entirely, quickly crushing it under my boot afterwards. The skeleton tries to attack me despite its head being destroyed, but it gets a flaming arrow to the chest from Shelly in the attempt, setting it and its black cloak on fire with a screech. Then all of the other skeletons begin losing control of themselves, their guiding hand having fallen in a pile of ashes to the ground. Which gives Alara the perfect opportunity to set them all ablaze with a powerful arc of fire that just barely goes over my head by the time it reaches me. [Level 37 Skeletal Necromancer Defeated ¨C User¡¯s earned EXP has been increased by a small amount due to killing a being whose level is above their own with assistance.] Shouldn''t be long before we find a boss where I can finally start getting some System equipment from an actual dungeon instead of just lower end equipment made by a lower level crafter. It isn''t very rare after all, so I should get something. After looking around for a few seconds and finishing off the last few skeletons, I sheathe my sword and pop my neck before walking over to join the others. But before I reach them, I notice something odd in the corner of the room. So I draw my sword again, making the others tense up after they¡¯d just relaxed a bit. I slowly make my way over to the corner before standing in front of what looks like an odd rift in reality. Like a tiny little hole in the middle of the air that¡¯s glowing with purple and blue colors. Trying to identify it doesn¡¯t give me any sort of result though, which is odd in and of itself. ¡°Lexi?¡± I hear Astrid ask, bringing my gaze to find her standing a couple meters away from me with a frown on her face. ¡°Is everything alright?¡± That has me frowning harder as I glance at the rift which is very obviously in the corner of the room before looking at her and asking while pointing at the thing, ¡°You don¡¯t see this?¡± She and the others all share a glance with each other, only to look at me again and shake their heads. Then Alara glances at Rob and says, ¡°Check her for the effects of any mental skills the necromancer may have used.¡± He nods and walks to me, using some sort of skill that makes a golden light shine over me, giving me a warm feeling. But then he looks at Alara with a frown and says, ¡°There doesn¡¯t seem to be anything.¡± Out of nowhere, I feel a sudden urge to touch the rift. An urge that feels unnatural even to me, but I can¡¯t resist it. Almost as if my hand is driven by something other than myself, it reaches out and touches the tiny rift, following which a large flash of violet and dark purple light shines out of it and I suddenly find myself in some strange laboratory. Or at least, that¡¯s the only thing I can think of it being, considering the many signs pointing towards that conclusion. Such as the large glass cylinders and the tables and counters each with different tools and some vials of liquid. But what catches my attention the most is the person floating in the middle of the large cylindrical tank in the center of the lab staring at me with their strange eyes. The person doesn¡¯t look to be having a pleasant time and for some reason has tubes strapped and digging into their body all over. Meanwhile their eyes themselves are varying shades of purple with some flickers of blue. But what strikes me as odd about them is that they¡¯re flickering as if they were a glitch in a video game. And it¡¯s not just their eyes. The blood I see flowing out of the tubes also looks to be glitching for some reason. Even their hair, which is black with a strong tint of purple, appears to have some minor glitching once in a while. Although nowhere near as much as their eyes. Like this person isn¡¯t fully in reality or something. Weird. They also appear to be in intense pain if the look in their eyes and the occasional groaning I hear is anything to go by. I try to identify him despite knowing it¡¯s generally considered rude to identify another sapient person without having their permission or being their enemy. Because I¡¯m simply too curious about this. {The System¡¯s Architect ¨C Class: Quantum Architect ¨C Undetermined Level ¨C The creator of the System and the architect of the universe and the quantum realm itself. He was locked away by the League of Ascendants and experimented on, his access to the System restricted thanks to his falling into their trap and being sent to the void where the System does not exist.} My jaw drops open at that. ¡°Young one, please,¡± a voice echoes in my head, making me narrow my eyes on the being who is apparently the creator of the System itself. ¡°Release me from my suffering.¡± Oh. That¡¯s¡­ huh. This is a lot to take in at once. ¡°Um, could you answer some of my questions?¡± I ask as politely as possible, not really knowing if he can do anything to me in his state. He doesn¡¯t look surprised as he answers, still talking directly into my mind, ¡°As long as you swear an oath on the System to kill me when you¡¯re done with your questions.¡± I lift an eyebrow at that before asking, ¡°Won¡¯t the people who locked you here know I did it?¡± He answers quickly, as if in a hurry, ¡°They will not know as they have stopped coming here over three centuries ago.¡± ¡°And you can swear on that?¡± I ask, only to frown as I remember he¡¯s the one who created the System in the first place. Not to mention that we¡¯re apparently in the void. So it won¡¯t be able to accept- ¡°I swear on the System and my eternal damnation to the System¡¯s Pits that you will not face any consequences directly from killing me, and that you will be sent out of the void with my last sliver of power once I am killed,¡± he states before a powerful surge of quantum mana fills the area, surprising me. Weren¡¯t we in the void? How can¡­ ¡°I have managed to bring a small sliver of the System through to this specific location of the void, so oaths will work here,¡± he says, once again seeming to be able to read my thoughts, just like his last statement. I stare at him for a few seconds, picking apart his words to see if there are any loopholes. ¡°Aren¡¯t you the System¡¯s creator? What if you just bend the rules to not have to follow your own oath?¡± I ask while crossing my arms. ¡°And what¡¯s this about no ¡®direct¡¯ consequences?¡± ¡°I could just force you to kill me now and not give you a choice in the matter or answer any of your questions,¡± he openly threatens me, which, I have to admit, is a reasonable statement considering how he¡¯s likely the one who forced me into that rift in the first place. Guess I don¡¯t have much of a choice. Especially since I don¡¯t see any sort of exit to this lab, and the rift is gone or closed at this point. I don¡¯t particularly like the idea of being forced into this situation, but I also don¡¯t see any way out of it considering we¡¯re in the void and all. Plus there¡¯s his power that he can clearly still use some of despite being locked away. At least he¡¯s offering me some answers before having me off him. And if I keep asking him questions like this, he might not do that anymore. After a few more seconds, I shrug and declare, ¡°I, Alexia Knight, swear to put my best efforts into killing the System¡¯s Architect in front of me after he answers my questions.¡± A strong fluctuation of quantum energy flows through the area as my oath sets into place, making it so that should I break it, I¡¯ll lose ten levels and two skills. Which is a much lighter punishment than the one he put on himself, which is far worse than just death, but who cares about that. ¡°You may ask,¡± the being says, his voice suffused in pain. I move up to one of the tables and sit on it while meeting his rather disturbing eyes as I ask, ¡°Considering what your identify result told me, why aren¡¯t the Ascendants still experimenting on you?¡± ¡°They realized it was a fruitless endeavor as a being from the natural plane cannot become a quantum being without already having a quantum affinity and the System¡¯s direct interference,¡± the being states, his eyes practically drilling into me with their pain. ¡°Furthermore, there was no way to force me to make the System obey while I am in the void and sending me out of the void would free me from their grasp to take revenge.¡± Okay. That makes sense. ¡°Why didn¡¯t they just kill you after failing?¡± I ask, curious about that. ¡°They fear the System may fall apart without me still being alive, which will not happen,¡± he explains, making me purse my lips. Well, that¡¯s certainly something to think about. Not like I have a choice in killing him anymore, but certainly something. Then again, assuming the System does survive, I should at least get a legendary feat for doing this. Which will be very nice. I blink at the realization of that. A legendary feat. One that will be broadcast to the entire universe. Meaning it¡¯ll spill the beans to everyone that I killed him. Shit. ¡°If I get a legendary feat from killing you, will everyone hear about it?¡± I ask, feeling a little bit of panic set in as I realize just how screwed I am here. He blinks slowly and answers, ¡°I will have the System hide the feat from the universe.¡± Oh. Assuming I can trust him, which I¡¯m kind of doubting, there goes that problem. ¡°And why did you choose to bring me here instead of someone else?¡± I ask, knowing that if he could force me here, he could probably force others. ¡°Because while it may be the worst possible Class of affinity, Class E, you do have an affinity with the quantum element, and no one else near the rift I made had any amount of quantum affinity to be able to see the rift and interact with it,¡± he answers, startling me into silence for a few moments. I¡­ what? That shouldn¡¯t be possible¡­ no one has ever had that affinity before that I know of! ¡°While it is an extremely rare affinity, people have had it,¡± he states, proving beyond a shadow of a doubt that he can read my mind. ¡°But those born on the natural plane have no ability to control the element even if they have the affinity, so they¡¯re only able to have the worst Class of affinity in it.¡± Before I can ask anything else, I feel my hand reaching for my sword on its own before drawing the blade. ¡°What the fuck are you doing?!¡± I exclaim. ¡°I haven¡¯t finished asking my questions!¡± ¡°You only asked me to answer some of your questions,¡± he states, making my eyes widen. ¡°And I agreed. But the rest of the questions you have are not things I wish to answer.¡± I try to shout, but I can¡¯t move my mouth anymore. Damned bastard! I still haven¡¯t asked anything important! Maybe if I ask them in my head? Why did you create the System? What are the consequences for the System should you die? My feet reach down, and I jump off the table onto the ground against my will. Okay, should¡¯ve guessed that wouldn¡¯t work. I try to use my skills to fight against the compulsion, but nothing I try to do works. Why the hell did he even make me swear an oath if he was just going to do this anyways?! Just to toy with me? I don¡¯t get the feeling that he was lying when he answered the questions that he did, especially since his answers make sense. But can I really trust that feeling considering that he¡¯s forcefully controlling my body right now? No matter how hard I struggle or how much mana I expend, nothing works. I just keep stepping towards the man in the tank. And before I can think of anything else I could possibly try to break free, my sword arm strikes forward in a thrust, cutting through the glass and into the center of his chest, his health stat clearly being at zero if someone of my level can even hurt him. ¡°Thank you, Alexia Knight,¡± his voice echoes in my head one last time. ¡°I wish you luck in the new dimension.¡± I blink at that in confusion, but a loud shattering sound echoes throughout the laboratory, and quite possibly the rest of the universe. Then a legendary feat echoes in my head the moment the light leaves the man¡¯s eyes and they stop flickering, his body slumping while being held in place by the tubes.
Legendary Feat ¨C The Reaping Alexia Knight has slain the System¡¯s Architect, also known as the Quantum Architect, and the Architect of both the Universe and Quantum Realm themselves. Note: This Legendary Feat has been locked within the Ascendant¡¯s Laboratory and will only play out to those inside of the Laboratory within the Void.
I let out a sigh of relief at the sight of the note on the feat. Guess he was telling the truth about that part after all. Wait a second. What did he mean by ¡®new dimension?¡¯ My answer comes in the form of a System notification.
System Reset Protocol Activated Upon Death of System Creator The System will now reset along with all individuals within it. All levels will be set back to one. All System classes will be revoked, and every user must reselect their classes. All skills will be reset. All users with a legendary feat may select one of their legendary feats to bring with them to the reset. All other legendary feats will be reset. Should a user only have one legendary feat, that legendary feat will be chosen for them by the System. All disabilities and curses originating from the System will be removed. All users will be sent to various Tutorial Blocks depending on their location to reintroduce them to the System where they may earn benefits to themselves through performing well in the tutorial. After the tutorial, all users will be sent to a new dimension created for the System Reset that will be filled with new resources, new monsters, and new dungeons of all kinds. ~Message from the System¡¯s Creator ¡°The System I worked so painfully hard to create has become corrupted. Both in the figurative sense, and the literal. Therefore I have decided to end my own life to bring about a natural reset of the System. Never again will there be anyone with power over the System. Instead, it will govern itself with the fair laws and protocols I have inserted into this reset. No one need know of these laws and protocols unless they are purposefully trying to break them. So no one will know about them until punishment needs handing out. Lastly, as a final note to the League of Ascendants who have had me trapped for centuries, enjoy your time in the reset as vengeance will be mine one day.¡±
Oh shit, what have I done¡­ I blink at the thought before frowning. Actually, it¡¯s not really my fault when he didn¡¯t exactly give me a choice. Plus this might not be a bad thing. Since it¡¯ll give everyone a fair chance at growing stronger and ascending. In fact, even I might have a chance now¡­ Although the ascendants will still have a single Legendary Feat giving them an advantage over others, not to mention whatever knowledge they already have. But still. A chance is more than what they had before. More than what I had before. And now I have a Legendary Feat too. I still can¡¯t help but wonder why he didn¡¯t just have me free him instead of killing him. Unless that wasn¡¯t possible for me to do? Guess I could see that as a plausible reason.
System Reset occurs in 10 seconds.
I smile as I wipe my blade on the table and sheathe it, simply watching the number slowly tick down. Then I find myself suddenly appearing back in the dungeon next to the others, and surprisingly they don¡¯t seem to have moved much at all. Almost as if very little time had passed since I entered the void. Which I guess is true in a way, since I believe others have mentioned that time works differently there. ¡°Lexi, you okay?¡± Astrid asks, and I nod. ¡°How long was I gone?¡± I ask as quickly as I can while everyone else is seemingly mentally preparing themselves for the reset. Or just plain freaking out in Rob¡¯s case. She answers without missing a beat, ¡°You vanished for almost half a minute and reappeared just seconds after the countdown started.¡± Okay. I look at the countdown to find two seconds left, so I quickly meet my sister¡¯s eyes and state, ¡°Stay safe, sis.¡± Assuming we¡¯ll be separated, which might not happen. She nods back, ¡°You too.¡± Then everything goes white.
Note: If you are reading this on a website that is not Royal Road or on my Patreon, you are reading a pirated version and that website does not have the permission of the author to host the story. Please instead read the story on Royal Road, here, as it is completely free to read on Royal Road. And the only Amazon Author that I will be posting this story as is the one that I posted all of my other stories through, as Shane Purdy. If this story is found published on Amazon by someone other than me, and you see that the story is not from the following Author page, it was stolen and posted without my permission on Amazon. https://www.amazon.com/stores/Shane-Purdy/author/B09NRTM1J6 B1 | Chapter 2 - Changes Alexia Knight I soon find myself in a strange room. Just a single large white cube with some sort of unknown material that I can¡¯t identify making up the walls, floor, and ceiling. And before I can so much as wonder where I am, a System Notification appears in my vision.
System Reset has occurred. All users'' levels have been reset to 1, their classes removed, and all of their skills removed along with any Legendary Feats that were not their selected Legendary Feat.
I wince before quickly checking my status.
Name: Alexia Knight Species: Human(T1)
Level: 1 Class: N/A
Health: 10/10 Mana: 10/10
VIT: 1 DEX: 1 STR: 1 MAG: 1 MEN: 1
Racial Skills Active Skills
Passive Skills General Skills
That¡¯s painful to see, even if I knew it would happen. Not as painful knowing everyone else is in the same boat though. A System Message, a personalized version of a notification for messages from the System to a specific user, appears in my vision in the place of the notification as I close out of my status. [Tutorial now commencing.] I frown at that, only to physically jump when someone appears in front of me. Someone I very much recognize even if they look very different when not poked full of tubes. ¡°Hello, new user! This is a memory of me, The System¡¯s Architect, that I placed inside of the System itself!¡± the System¡¯s Creator says with a smile, speaking out loud this time as he stares at me with his creepy eyes. ¡°I don¡¯t think I¡¯ll be explaining much, especially since this is just a reset and not an initialization. So let¡¯s get on with the basics, shall we?¡± I wait for him to continue, but he doesn¡¯t. So I tilt my head slightly as I mutter, ¡°Sure?¡± ¡°Great!¡± he exclaims, making me realize that he¡¯s more than just a hologram or a fake. He can actually interact with me. Although probably in a limited manner. ¡°To begin, let¡¯s give you a rundown of the stats!¡± [Health represents a user¡¯s overall life energy, which will rejuvenate their body should they take injury and contains their overall strength and power. If a user should ever completely run out of this, their body will quickly begin to lose any enhancements they have from their level eventually bringing them down to the same strength as a level 1 until it is restored.] [VIT stands for Vitality, and it¡¯s the representation of a user¡¯s overall physical health. This also includes their body¡¯s speed at which it can use health to rejuvenate itself, the speed they regenerate their health, and the amount of health their body has in the first place.] [DEX stands for Dexterity, and it¡¯s the representation of a user¡¯s overall maneuverability and flexibility. The speed at which they can move. The flexibility that they can move with. And how fast they can react to something or someone.] [STR stands for Strength, and it¡¯s the representation of how strong a user is. How much force they can put out, and how much force they can take back. The overall durability of their body.] [MAG stands for Magic and represents the amount of mana a user can have, the speed it regenerates, and the strength of their mana.] [MEN stands for the strength of a user¡¯s mind, both figuratively and literally. The speed at which a user can think, the clarity that they can think with, and the overall defense of their mind against offensive mental attacks.] Nothing I didn¡¯t already know. ¡°Continue,¡± I tell the memory. The memory seems to understand that I already know this stuff as they shrug and comment, ¡°I know, I know, sorry for wasting your time telling you things you already know. But it¡¯s protocol, so I don¡¯t have a choice. So here¡¯s the rundown of skills. It¡¯s not as long, so don¡¯t worry.¡± The author''s content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. [Everyone can have twenty total skills slotted at a time. Five Active Class skills, five Passive Class skills, and ten General Skills.] [Everyone gets one Class skill every five levels until they reach Tier 2, and they can switch out their active and passive skills at a System Terminal located at the center of every Safe Zone.] ¡°Next,¡± I tell him with my arms crossed. ¡°Now this part you will probably be interested in,¡± the memory says with a smile, seemingly growing more and more like a normal person every time they speak and less like a memory. ¡°Next up is the Class Selection Process!¡± [Class Selection Process Beginning¡­] [Please choose your class from the following opt-] [Warning. User¡¯s Legendary Feat ¡®The Reaping¡¯ has interfered with the Class Selection Process.] [Recalculating Class Options¡­] I blink, simply staring at the words in confusion. Huh? The memory in front of me glitches out for a moment before frowning at me and stating, ¡°So you¡¯re the one who did me in, huh? Interesting choice.¡± I alternate my gaze between the memory who I don¡¯t think is a memory anymore and the words flashing in the corner of my vision. ¡°Yes, you¡¯re right,¡± the memory says, reading my mind just like the original did. ¡°I am not a memory anymore. The Reaper protocol that you just activated on accident has summoned one of the various clones I left in hibernation. Clones that aren¡¯t strong enough to live past ten minutes each outside of hibernation. Not without the original providing them energy.¡± I blink at that. ¡°Wait, so that means you¡¯re going to die after this?¡± I ask, surprise by this turn of events. He nods, only for his eyes to widen slightly as he says, ¡°Looks like it¡¯s done.¡± [Recalculation Complete. Please choose your class from the following options. If you would like to stall your Class Selection till a later moment in time, you must simply speak the word, ¡®Stall,¡¯ and it- Error. Stalling is not an option for user Alexia Knight. Please choose your class from the following options.] -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Quantum Reaper Description: You have reaped the life of the System¡¯s creator, the Quantum Architect, and have been blessed by him upon his death. Stats Per Level: +1 VIT, +1 DEX, +1 STR, +2 MAG, +2 MEN Requirements: User must be of the Quantum Reaper species. Confirm -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- I stare at the words, not sure which I should be more shocked about. The fact that I am being offered an epic rarity Class, the third highest rarity in existence and the highest rarity possible for a Tier 1 being, or the fact that I only have one Class option despite it telling me to choose a class. There isn¡¯t exactly much to choose from. Especially considering that requirement. Then again, most people don¡¯t have a Legendary Feat locking them into choosing only a single Class. Also, in hindsight, epic is to be expected when you have a Legendary Feat. ¡°Go ahead and choose your class from the options available!¡± the clone says with a smile on his face, making my eye twitch in irritation. ¡°There¡¯s only one option,¡± I state the obvious. His smile just grows wider. I¡¯m really starting to hate this guy. ¡°Even though I don¡¯t fit the requirements for the Class?¡± I point out, but he just continues smiling. I look at him for a few seconds before sighing and mentally selecting confirm. And as soon as I do so, I feel a burning sensation spread all across my body along with a sense of weakness leaving me unable to control my legs, making me drop down to the floor. And while I¡¯m meeting face first with the floor, another System Message appears in my vision. [User does not fit the requiremen-] [Warning. User¡¯s Legendary Feat ¡®The Reaping¡¯ has interfered with the Class Selection Process.] [User¡¯s species is now changing from Human to Quantum Reaper¡­] ¡°Oh,¡± I mutter, only for the pain to get significantly worse. And soon I can hear my own voice screaming as faint purple lights of varying shade shine from my skin and eyes, illuminating the white room, and making it look more purple than white. The pain continues for several seconds before it finally begins to fade, leaving me lying on my back covered in sweat. [Congratulations, your species has changed from the Class B Species Human to the Class S Species Quantum Reaper. Rejoice.] I try to sit up, only to find that the floor is a lot more comfortable when a strong wave of vertigo hits me in the attempt. Then I hear the clone¡¯s voice, ¡°Yeah, I wouldn¡¯t do that if I were you. Just stay down there while we finish the rest of this tutorial. You should be fine by the end of it.¡± ¡°I hate you,¡± I state out loud, my voice coming out weak and slightly scratchy before I clear my throat. ¡°Nah, you don¡¯t,¡± he says while kneeling next to me. ¡°You know as well as I do that most humans would sell their own kidney just to upgrade their species and I just handed it to you. Or, my original did.¡± I don¡¯t say anything in response, but I do manage to roll over and turn my gaze to stare up at the ceiling. ¡°Alrighty, onto the next matter!¡± he continues, standing up again. ¡°Your new racial skill!¡± [*New Racial Skill* ¨C Quantum Body: Reduces physical damage dealt to the user by 80% and increases magic damage dealt to the user by 50%.] My eyes widen at that, and I find myself letting out a whistle of appreciation. ¡°Of course, there¡¯s the matter of your first Active skill as well,¡± he says, still with an annoying grin on his face. [*New Active Skill* ¨C Quantum Bolt: Releases a bolt of pure quantum energy at a target. This bolt will rip apart the target on a quantum level. Skill is automatically slotted due to free open slots.] Okay, yeah, this class is totally worth it. Even if it doesn¡¯t involve my sword. Although, reaper or not, I¡¯m not getting a scythe. The clone snorts at that and says, ¡°Right. I forgot that you were from Earth. Or what used to be Earth.¡± Earth? What¡¯s that? ¡°Nevermind,¡± he says while waving his arm. ¡°Aside from mentioning that there will be some small changes to the System, I¡¯d say that¡¯s about all for my little introduction. You have another five minutes before you¡¯re evicted from this room and sent to the tutorial where you will compete with others for points that you can use to get some rewards after the tutorial.¡± I glance at him again to find his eyes looking at the wall for no apparent reason before he turns to me and says, ¡°One last suggestion. You should check your status, because a quantum being does not have health or mana. Instead they have Soul, which is basically a combination of the two.¡± Then he vanishes in a glitchy flash of purple light without so much as a goodbye. Wait a second, no health or mana? I quickly open my status to check.
Name: Alexia Knight Species: Quantum Reaper(T1)
Level: 1 Class: Quantum Reaper
Soul: 25/25
VIT: 1 DEX: 1 STR: 1 MAG: 1 MEN: 1
Racial Skills Active Skills
Passive Skills General Skills
Huh. It¡¯s true. I close out of my status again to stare up at the ceiling. This has been a strange day. B1 | Chapter 3 - First Threats and the Leaderboards Alexia Knight It takes me almost the entire five minutes to move again, and by the time I manage to stand up, a bright purple light shines in the room, and I find myself standing in the middle of some sort of cave instead. I look around for a few seconds before beginning to move. Because gramps always said that to survive in the wilderness full of monsters, you always have to be on the move unless you have a good defendable place to rest. Although the sight of black hair heavily tinted in deep purple to the point that I might even call it deep purple hair falling into my face as I do so does make me pause for a second due to its new color and that it¡¯s no longer in a braid. I quickly ignore it though, delegating it to a ¡®later problem¡¯ as I continue moving. But I don¡¯t even manage to make it to the closest tunnel of the large cavern I¡¯m in before I hear some sort of skittering noise, bringing my attention to the ceiling where I find a meter-long spider staring at me. {Lesser Taracht ¨C Level 2} Uh, System, where did the description go? It, of course, doesn¡¯t answer. Instead, the spider lets out a screech and jumps from its place on the ceiling attempting to fall directly on top of me. Well, now¡¯s as good a time as any. I raise my hand towards it and activate my new skill, Quantum Bolt. And immediately, a bolt of purple energy of varying shades shoots out of my hand and strikes directly at the spider, making some parts of the creature struck by the bolt glitch out and then explode in a burst of gore as the creature itself is sent flying, its screeching rising in pitch and volume. Not bad. Not bad at all. I open my status to find that it took five soul to pull that off. Bad. Very bad. I should only use that once or twice before regenerating my Soul, because if what the clone said was true, my Soul should be both my mana and health now. And I¡¯d rather not end up in a crippled state because I used too many quantum bolts. My thoughts are interrupted by the sight of the spider landing on the ground and then flipping over to stand up again, albeit with some struggle. Then it turns around and hisses at me, seemingly ignoring the clear liquid flowing from its wounds which I¡¯m guessing is its equivalent of blood. Because I¡¯m pretty sure spiders don¡¯t actually have blood. I quickly reach for my sword, only to finally notice that my armor is completely gone and so is my sword. Instead, I¡¯m wearing nothing but a trashy set of brown leather armor with a simple and low quality sword instead of my magic sword, but on the wrong side of my waist. Well, shit. Guess they¡¯re not letting us keep our equipment from before the reset either. Then again, probably should¡¯ve expected that. And it¡¯s for the best anyways. Wouldn¡¯t want the other Legendary Feat holders bringing over some high Tier items to the Reset after all. I awkwardly draw my new sword before shifting it to my right hand and rolling out of the way of the charging spider that seems to not understand the meaning of pain despite its screeches. But when I hold my sword in my hand, I somehow feel less confident in my sword skills. Oh. Shit. I forgot. My general skills are gone, including swordsmanship. I grimace as I think of all the time I put into training those skills. Especially pain resistance which took a lot of literal blood, sweat and tears to get to where I got it. Nothing I can do about it though. Just gonna have to do it all over again. With that thought in mind, I sprint forward right as the large spider begins to turn around again from its failed charge. But I don¡¯t let it as I swing my blade to cut off one of its legs, following it up immediately with another, making the creature let out more loud cries of pain. Wait, does it only feel pain when the damage is done? Does it not feel pain from blood loss? Or whatever that clear blood stuff is. The spider swings one of its remaining legs at me right when I begin to swing my sword at its remaining leg. I grit my teeth as I realize I won¡¯t be able to stop my strike in time, instead letting the leg hit me at the same time as my sword cuts into another one of its legs, sending me flying at the same time as it loses a third leg, making it lose its balance. I crash into the wall with a grunt, but I surprisingly don¡¯t feel all that much pain. Or at least, not anywhere near as much as I¡¯d have expected. Oh, right! Almost forgot about my new racial skill! With that thought in mind, I open my status to check my Soul.
Name: Alexia Knight Species: Quantum Reaper(T1)
Level: 1 Class: Quantum Reaper
Soul: 19/25
VIT: 1 DEX: 1 STR: 1 MAG: 1 MEN: 1
Racial Skills Active Skills
Passive Skills General Skills
A direct strike from it only dealt me a single point of damage to my Soul. Interesting. Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site. I look down as I stand back up to find nothing more than some bruising on me, along with some scrapes. Although I have to pull a double take at the sight of my blood, which looks just like the System¡¯s Creator¡¯s blood. Oh. Right. I¡¯m technically a quantum being now as well. Wonder if my eyes are like his now too? I focus on the spider again, finding it failing to stand with only four legs on one side of its body and a single leg on the other, the creature simply unable to balance its large body without enough legs on both sides to hold its weight. Doesn¡¯t help that it¡¯s still bleeding out. So I start walking back over towards it with my sword in hand before jumping out of the way when it swings a claw at me for getting too close. After making it to its other, mostly limbless side, I jump onto its back, move the sword around to face the point downwards, and thrust it into the creature¡¯s back before twisting it and yanking it back out as the creature lets out one final screech of pain. Then everything goes silent. [Level 2 Lesser Taracht Defeated ¨C User¡¯s earned EXP has been increased due to killing a being whose level is above their own.] [Two points have been earned for killing a creature one level above you.] Aaaand no level. Didn¡¯t really expect one for a level 2 who¡¯s only a single level above me, but it¡¯s still sad. The point thing is interesting though. Makes me wonder if it gives extra points for every level above you whatever you kill is. Anyways, I try to flick my sword out to swing off the blood a little before wiping it on the spider¡¯s corpse. Then I climb off of the creature and set the blade on the ground as I begin to shift around the sheath on my waist to the other side. ¡°Much better,¡± I mutter as I pick up the sword again and sheathe it into the newly adjusted sheath. Now then. I look down to take better stock of what I¡¯m wearing, only to realize that I¡¯m seeing perfectly fine despite being in the middle of a cave. As if it were covered in light. Do I have night vision? Because that¡¯d be cool. Normally only the higher Class species have¡­ oh, right. Quantum reapers are Class S creatures according to the System. The same Class as dragons. I turn my gaze to the tunnel I had been about to enter before this little fella next to me dropped by as I hear skittering sounds coming from it. And after a few seconds, another lesser taracht enters the cavern through the tunnel. {Lesser Taracht ¨C Level 4} Are you serious? The spider hisses, showing me just how serious it is. ¡°Ya know what? Fuck it,¡± I mutter while raising both of my hands and using quantum bolt once, the bolt striking the spider in its side after it tries to avoid it. Then I use another bolt that directly hits its head. Too bad these bolts don¡¯t do as much damage as the first bolt did against the level 2, seeing as this one is level 4. But it certainly cripples the thing. Although, I also begin to feel rather tired. And when I check my soul, I find it at only nine left. Meaning no more using the quantum bolt. The spider¡¯s crippled though, with part of its head destroyed making me wonder how it¡¯s still alive. But I sprint over to it anyways to finish it off with a quick thrust of my blade into its head, briefly avoiding the limbs it awkwardly sends towards me in the process. [Level 4 Lesser Taracht Defeated ¨C User¡¯s earned EXP has been increased due to killing a being whose level is above their own.] [Four points have been earned for killing a creature three levels above you.] [For attaining five points, you have earned your spot on the leaderboards.] [#1 Lucas Nightshade ¨C 7 points] [#2 Alexia Knight ¨C 6 points] [#3 Aurora Frost ¨C 5 points] [#4 Leif Eriksson ¨C 5 points] [#5 Noah Kowalski ¨C 5 points] [#6 Leonidas Silver ¨C 5 points] [#7 Isabella d''Aragon ¨C 5 points] [#8 N/A] [#9 N/A] [#10 N/A] My eyes widen at the very recognizable names there. All of whom were famous Ascendants prior to the reset. Except number five, who I¡¯ve never met or heard of before. But just seconds later, the leaderboards change again, making three new names appear while a couple others get another point. Wow, that¡¯s competitive. I purse my lips before looking at my soul, only to find a pleasant surprise in that it¡¯s already regenerated one point since I last checked. Looks like my soul probably has the regeneration from both health and mana working for it. So that¡¯s nice. Alright. So take a few minutes to rest before going out to search for more spiders. Sounds like a plan. B1 | Chapter 4 - Close Call Alexia Knight That is not a spider. I frown as I hide behind a large rock while staring at the even larger bat hanging from the ceiling. {Lesser Vampire Bat ¨C Level 6} It is also too strong for me to kill. The creature is an entire meter tall and it¡¯s just hanging by the ceiling upside down with its eyes closed. It has black fur, with two large wings wrapped around itself. Oh, and two fangs pointing out of its mouth which are not normal on bats, marking it as a vampire bat. Hmm. Okay. Yeah. Bye bat, I¡¯m just gonna go the other way now. I slowly begin walking backwards while occasionally glancing down to make sure I don¡¯t step on anything. Just gotta get away without waking it- A loud screech echoes from the other side of the cavern it¡¯s in, marking the arrival of another lesser taracht. Shit. I quickly glance at my status to find my soul at fourteen points. Then I focus on the vampire bat to find it screeching while flapping its wings, the spider clearly having woken it up. And, of course, the spider runs back down the tunnel after realizing its blunder. And the vampire bat focuses on me instead. Okay, now that¡¯s just unfair. The creature flaps its wings once with a loud screech before detaching from the ceiling and beginning to fly over towards me, but I roll out of the way right when its claws are about to strike where I am. Then I jump forward with my sword, only for it to swipe its wing towards me and knock both me and my sword flying into a wall. I let out a grunt of pain before quickly trying to climb to my feet while looking around for the sword that was knocked out of my hands. ¡°Damnit,¡± I mutter when I find the sword a few meters away from me, but I quickly raise my head at the sound of wings flapping, making me find the bat as it shoots towards me with its mouth wide open to reveal its two sharp fangs in all their glory right before they dig into my shoulder. A scream echoes throughout the cavern as I feel pain radiating out from the wound, meanwhile my soul very slowly begins to drop. But I don¡¯t let it end here as I physically grab the bat¡¯s head and try to yank its fangs out with brute force. The creature turns out to be too strong though, and I barely manage to budge it at all. So I place my hand over its eyes, making it let out an annoyed sounding screech before I use quantum bolt, making me feel incredibly tired as the bolt manifests directly into the creature¡¯s head. The bat lets out a loud screech for just a second, only for the upper part of its head to suddenly glitch apart and explode in a purple flash, shooting its insides and fur all over me. It then loosens its grip to practically nothing as the pulling sensation on my shoulder vanishes, marking that it¡¯s no longer drinking my blood. I collapse to the ground while checking my soul and finding it at only three left. Then it ticks down to two. Then one. And right when I¡¯m closing my eyes expecting to gain the crippled status and probably die to blood loss from my shoulder wound, a System Message plays out in my head. [Level 6 Lesser Vampire Bat Defeated ¨C User¡¯s earned EXP has been increased by a large portion due to killing a being whose level is five levels above their own.] [Six points have been earned for killing a creature five levels above you.] {Congratulations! You have leveled up to level 2! Your Species has awarded you +2 VIT, +2 DEX, +2 STR, +2 MAG, and +2 MEN. Your Class has awarded you +1 VIT, +1 DEX, +1 STR, +2 MAG, and +2 MEN.} This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings. {Congratulations! You have leveled up to level 3! Your Species has awarded you +2 VIT, +2 DEX, +2 STR, +2 MAG, and +2 MEN. Your Class has awarded you +1 VIT, +1 DEX, +1 STR, +2 MAG, and +2 MEN.} [The leaderboards have been updated. You are now #1 on the leaderboards.] {As a reward for reaching the top of the System¡¯s leaderboards, you will now be given the General Skill, Forerunner!} [*New General Skill* ¨C Forerunner: Passively increases the effects of the user¡¯s stats by three percent. Skill is automatically slotted due to free open slots.] I gasp while feeling strength filling me before I let out a grunt and push the vampire bat off of me, its fangs ripping out rather painfully in the process. Then I just collapse on the ground in exhaustion. Alright, maybe I should¡¯ve waited for longer before going out to hunt more. But at least I got the Forerunner skill. Didn¡¯t know there was something rewarded to you for reaching the top of the leaderboards, but I kind of suspected it. After all, everyone who has done so before has had a significant increase in their power afterwards. I pant in exhaustion for a few seconds, the pain of my shoulder still throbbing along with the bruising from being sent flying and what feels like a cracked rib from the wing hitting me earlier. But I¡¯m still alive. And that¡¯s all that matters. I¡¯m also not going to go rushing to find more monsters to fight next time. Not till I recover enough soul. Speaking of soul, I open my status to look.
Name: Alexia Knight Species: Quantum Reaper(T1)
Level: 3 Class: Quantum Reaper
Soul: 174/200
VIT: 7 DEX: 7 STR: 7 MAG: 9 MEN: 9
Racial Skills Active Skills
Passive Skills General Skills
A shiver runs down my spine at just how close to dying I was. Because if that level up had come any later, I would¡¯ve died, my body most likely not able to handle my wounds without my soul enhancing it. In fact, my soul is still going down. I move my head to look at the wound, finding it slowly closing up thanks to my soul that¡¯s dropping at a steady pace of about one per every two or three seconds. At least it looks like I regenerate quickly. Although¡­ what¡¯s with my blood? It doesn¡¯t look like it¡¯s leaving my body very quickly. In fact, some of the blood that is flowing out of the wound seems to just glitch back inside somehow. Not all of it, but a small amount of it. The rest just glitches wherever it goes, but not going back into me. That¡¯s just¡­ off putting. Either way, I look up at the ceiling of the cavern, just waiting for the wound to close. I hope Astrid¡¯s okay. A few minutes pass in silence. [The leaderboards have been updated. You are now #2 on the leaderboards.] Well that didn¡¯t last long. Whatever. Doesn¡¯t matter. Already got the skill after all. I continue staring up at the ceiling for a while before the sounds of skittering enters my ear. Ugh. I glance at my wound, then begin to get up from the floor after determining that it¡¯s healed enough for me to move. And right when I get to my feet, I find that very same taracht from before that had woken up the vampire bat reentering the cavern. Without any hesitation, I raise my right arm, since my left shoulder is still in pain, and send a quantum bolt at the thing, followed up by a second. [Level 2 Lesser Taracht Defeated.] Stupid spider. I glance at my soul again to find it at about one hundred and twenty one before turning around and heading to a corner of the cavern I¡¯m in to recover. B1 | Chapter 5 - The Team Somewhere else Inside of the same Tutorial Block Astrid glares at the seemingly endless skies below them, off the edge of the floating island she and the others of her group find themselves on. ¡°So¡­ does anyone have any idea where we are?¡± Rob asks, finally having gotten over his panic attack. No one answers him for several seconds, the group too focused on their own surroundings to bother. Eventually though, Alara says, ¡°The tutorial mentioned that another dimension was made just for this reset. So I doubt this is anywhere on our old planet, or even in our old universe.¡± Silence returns to the group with the only noise being that of the occasional sounds of roars or screeches coming from the jungle behind them. At first Astrid was perfectly happy with the chance for a restart. To do everything over again, but without there being anyone at the top restricting anything. To have free reign over whatever resources she and her twin find. But one problem instantly turned everything around for her, souring her mood. Where the hell is Lexi? When the team arrived at the tutorial after finishing up in the strange white cube, she was already missing. And while they first thought she was being held up in the tutorial room or something, that likelihood grew less and less likely as time passed. ¡°So, I don¡¯t think she¡¯s going to show up,¡± Shelly quietly says after having slowly stepped up to Astrid, and Astrid lightly nods her head in agreement. If she had to guess, her disappearance probably has something to do with whatever happened to her back in the Dungeon. Astrid notices Alara taking a deep breath before tightening her fists slightly and stepping up to the center of the group in the middle of the strange ruins-like formation they¡¯re standing on. Then she says, ¡°We don¡¯t have the time to keep waiting, so I vote that we choose a leader for the team.¡± That has Astrid frowning slightly, only to shake her head. I don¡¯t care who the leader is as long as we find Lexi. Shelly and Aidan both turn to look at Alara before Aidan glances at Astrid. ¡°You did a good job during the dungeon dive, so I¡¯ll go ahead and give you my vote,¡± Shelly tells Alara with a nod of her head, sounding more serious than normal. And after Aidan sees Astrid subtly nodding her head to him, he says the same. When Alara glances at Astrid, Astrid voices her agreement as well. So they all turn to look at Rob, just to find the guy still staring blankly out over the edge of the floating island as some sort of large birdlike monster flies underneath the island. ¡°Rob?¡± Alara asks, startling him from his shocked stupor. ¡°What¡¯s your vote?¡± The healer turns around and, with a stutter, says, ¡°Y-y-you h-have my v-vote.¡± She nods her head and opens her mouth to speak, only to cut off when a loud roar echoes through the wide open space of the strange ruins platform they¡¯re on, following which a tiger with black fur and white stripes jumps out of the trees, followed by two more. {Jungle Prowler ¨C Level 2} {Jungle Prowler ¨C Level 1} {Jungle Prowler ¨C Level 1} ¡°Shit,¡± Alara swears before jumping back and reaching for her sword as Astrid does the same, but both of them quickly realize their swords were replaced. Guess it makes sense the System wouldn¡¯t let us bring items to the reset. She grabs her inferior sword and uses the new skill she had just received from deciding to stall her class selection, a basic body enhancement skill. And out of the corner of her eye, she finds Alara doing the same. Meanwhile Rob finally gets his act together and begins casting some sort of skill on the both of them as Aidan pushes his hand out and launches a fireball at the prowlers, clearly showing that the two chose their classes already unlike Astrid and Alara. Something that will give them power now but limit them in the future. Shelly on the other hand pulls out her bow and draws an arrow from the quiver on her back, the equipment looking to be the bow version of the inferior sword in Astrid¡¯s hands. The girl then uses the same skill as Astrid and Alara as her skin shines with a faint gray light. The prowlers let out another roar as Astrid and Alara reach them, but right when they leap into the air towards them, Aidan¡¯s fireball hits one of them dead on, sending it flying. Meanwhile an arrow from Shelly strikes another in the eye, leaving the third to continue towards Astrid and Alara, the two feeling slightly awkward in their swordplay without their swordsmanship skill but still being good enough to dodge the blow before striking at its exposed sides. Both Astrid and Alara step forward to pierce their swords into the level 2 prowler¡¯s head, meanwhile Aidan casts another fireball, throwing it at the prowler he¡¯d already hit, finishing it off. But right when they¡¯re all about to relax a little, the prowler who Shelly had shot in the eye somehow jerks upwards again and leaps at Aidan, only for it to slam into a barrier of golden light that appears out of nowhere before Shelly quickly sends another arrow into its other eye, making it fall dead. Stolen story; please report. [Level 2 Jungle Prowler Defeated ¨C User¡¯s earned EXP has been increased slightly due to killing a being whose level is higher than their own with assistance.] [Level 1 Jungle Prowler Defeated ¨C User¡¯s earned EXP has been decreased slightly due to killing a being with assistance.] [Level 1 Jungle Prowler Defeated ¨C User¡¯s earned EXP has been decreased slightly due to killing a being with assistance.] [Two point have been earned for killing a creature one level above you personally with assistance.] Astrid frowns at the message about points before turning her attention to Alara to find her doing the same. ¡°Looks like we don¡¯t get points for anything we don¡¯t personally assist in killing,¡± Alara comments, making Astrid and the others nod. Although Rob just frowns. I wonder if he even got any points? Since he used a barrier and not an attack. ¡°Did you get any points, Rob?¡± Shelly asks the question on Astrid¡¯s mind, and he nods, answering, ¡°Yeah, got one.¡± Guess his shielding Aidan was enough to warrant a point then. Astrid turns back to Alara to find her frowning, so she asks, ¡°We going hunting?¡± The girl glances at her, then at the others, before answering, ¡°Yeah.¡± But then she frowns again and focuses on Astrid as she asks, ¡°Aren¡¯t you worried about your sister?¡± Astrid nods. ¡°I am.¡± When she notices the confusion on the others'' faces, she adds, ¡°But I also know that she¡¯s far more resourceful than me. So she¡¯ll be fine as long as she isn¡¯t dropped into the middle of a monster nest or a dungeon.¡± Alara nods before wiping her sword on the prowler¡¯s corpse and beginning to step away, only to pause and glance back at the corpse. Then at Astrid. Then the corpse again. A few seconds pass until she eventually asks, ¡°Any chance you know how to cook tiger meat?¡±
After having tiger meat which surprised Astrid with how tangy the flavor was, the group moves around the edge of the jungle, not daring to go inside when the sounds of constant monster calls echo from within it as they hunt the weak monsters on the edge of the island. And to Astrid¡¯s further surprise, the ruins-like structure extends all the way for as far as they¡¯ve gone. Might even go all the way around the island. At some point the group notices a rather unstable looking bridge connecting the island they¡¯re on to another island, but the group ignores it and continues walking along the edge of the island. And during the walk, Astrid quickly realizes that half the group can¡¯t figure out which twin she is. Not till she bluntly tells them. It takes a few more minutes of walking before the third group of monsters to appear jumps out of the jungle: a pair of two large spiders. {Lesser Taracht ¨C Level 3} {Lesser Taracht ¨C Level 2} ¡°Watch out, this one¡¯s stronger!¡± Alara calls out, and the others tense up, having identified them themselves. Astrid sprints forward toward the large spider right as the level 3 raises one of its limbs and attempts to swipe at her, only for its limb to be shot by an arrow, sending it off course but not piercing far into it. But it gives Astrid an opening to drive her sword into its side, only for her eyes to widen as the blade only goes part of the way in, not piercing it fully. ¡°Strong carapace,¡± she calls out to the others while yanking the blade out and jumping backwards, dodging another strike of its limb thanks to her enhancement skill. Astrid feels a cold sweat run down her neck as her mana begins to get low, making her realize she won¡¯t be able to keep up the skill for long. But then a fireball flies by her and strikes the higher level taracht as the other one begins moving around towards Alara. And as if the spider were covered in tar or gasoline, it alights completely with a loud and pained screech. ¡°They¡¯re weak to fire!¡± Astrid shouts, making the others grin in pleasant surprise. Until Aidan shouts back, ¡°I¡¯m out of mana!¡± ¡°Doesn¡¯t matter!¡± Alara shouts back as she dodges the level 2 taracht¡¯s strike. ¡°You¡¯ve already dealt with the higher leveled one. Just sit back as we do the rest!¡± Astrid doesn¡¯t bother looking at Aidan for his response, instead backing up from the taracht as it crawls closer to her while burning alive. But then her exhaustion along with a random tree stump trips her into falling backwards with a grunt, following which the taracht manages to swing its limb straight down at her, only for it to hit a golden barrier. This time the golden barrier doesn¡¯t manage to take the hit and shatters after just a second, letting the limb cut straight into Astrid¡¯s leg, making her let out a pained grunt. Her previous pain resistance training keeps her from making any more noise than that though, even if the skill itself was reset. She takes the chance the spider gives her as some of the flames flicker and burn her leg and some of the armor there to thrust her blade straight up and into the spider¡¯s mouth, piercing through its head from the inside before she leans the blade to the side so that the creature¡¯s corpse won¡¯t fall on her. [Level 3 Lesser Taracht Defeated ¨C User¡¯s earned EXP has been increased slightly due to killing a being whose level is higher than their own with assistance.] [Three points have been earned for killing a creature two levels above you personally with assistance.] [For attaining five points, you have earned your spot on the leaderboards.] [#1 Lucas Nightshade ¨C 25 points] [#2 Alexia Knight ¨C 24 points] [#3 Aurora Frost ¨C 20 points] [#4 Leif Eriksson ¨C 19 points] [#5 Noah Kowalski ¨C 18 points] [#6 Leonidas Silver ¨C 18 points] [#7 Isabella d''Aragon ¨C 18 points] [#8 Damien Black ¨C 16 points] [#9 Alexander Frost ¨C 15 points] [#10 Nathan Briar ¨C 15 points] [¡­] [#11452 Astrid Knight ¨C 6 points] Astrid blinks at the sight of the leaderboard, only to turn her head to look at the others. But she calms down at the sight of them finishing off the other taracht. And not giving her any EXP or points for it in the process. Then she looks at the leaderboard again and finds her sister at the number two spot. ¡°Guess she¡¯s okay after all,¡± she mutters, a faint smile on her face as she lightly shakes her head, trying as hard as she can to ignore the pain in her leg. But then Alara walks up to her and pulls the spider¡¯s limb out of her leg before pouring a potion into the wound, making the wound vanish. Astrid looks up at her for a moment in surprise before patting her own pockets and finding a potion there. Huh. Guess the reset gave us a potion to start off with. She then stands up and stretches, only to grab the potion and hand it to Alara, who accepts it since she had used her own on Astrid. ¡°You see the leaderboards?¡± Alara asks her, and Astrid nods her head. ¡°Looks like we don¡¯t have to worry about her after all.¡± Astrid smirks at that. ¡°We do still need to find her though,¡± Aidan adds, interjecting his way into the conversation, and the two girls nod in agreement. Wherever she is. B1 | Chapter 6 - Piranhas Alexia Knight I send one last quantum bolt into the spider¡¯s head before letting out a sigh and walking away after the System Message about its death plays out in my head. [Level 3 Lesser Taracht Defeated.] This cavern is getting a little boring. Just fight after fight after fight, and none of them are all that strong. Not to mention that I don¡¯t get points for killing things lower level than myself apparently, so after I reached level 4, very few things here actually give me any points anymore. I haven¡¯t found another vampire bat since the first one, so I¡¯ve just been killing tarachts over and over again for the past couple hours. Rather repetitive. Although¡­ I open my status.
Name: Alexia Knight Species: Quantum Reaper(T1)
Level: 4 Class: Quantum Reaper
Soul: 166/250
VIT: 10 DEX: 10 STR: 10 MAG: 13 MEN: 13
Racial Skills Active Skills
Passive Skills General Skills
Well, at least I only need one more level before I get my first Active or Passive Class skill, not including the starter one. So there¡¯s that. And I managed to get Pain Resistance back. It hasn¡¯t been long enough for me to get Survival back though. And Swordsmanship has that stupid minimum weapon quality requirement that apparently the inferior sword I have doesn¡¯t meet. As for archery, I don¡¯t have a bow. And I have no idea how to get my magic General skills back without actually having mana. Same with Mana Manipulation. A problem I can solve later. Speaking of the sword, I glance at the thing with a frown. I know he said that there are differences in the System, but could that be one of them? Just out of curiosity, I try to identify my sword. And surprisingly, it works. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Inferior Sword Description: The worst System sword in existence. It grants nothing more than the piercing power of a sword. The author''s content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. Stats Bonus: None. Requirements: None. Item Tier: 0 -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Huh. That¡¯s nice. A new addition to the System, I guess? Because we certainly couldn¡¯t identify items before this reset. And that description¡­ is actually pretty accurate. I wonder if there are any dungeons nearby here? It would be nice to find some that I can use to train. Assuming there are dungeons in the tutorial¡­ They didn¡¯t exactly give us much information about the tutorial after all. All they said was common knowledge, along with the Class stuff. I continue walking through the tunnel I¡¯m in until I find another large cavern, and surprisingly, this one has running water in it. A very nice find. Despite the water though, I don¡¯t rush to drink it right away. Instead, I move up to the small creak running through this cavern into another tunnel full of water before sticking the tip of my sword into the water to make sure there aren¡¯t any monsters in it. And right when I¡¯m about to declare it safe after several seconds of nothing happening, a tugging force yanks on my sword pulling it out of my hand and into the water. My mouth opens a little in surprise at the sight of a large fish continuing down the river while eating my metal sword. {Lesser Venomous Piranha ¨C Level 11} ¡°Are you fucking kidding me?¡± I swear, pissed off but also slightly relieved that I decided to test the waters instead of just moving my head there and cupping the water to drink. Because if I did that, that sword would be me instead. Probably. Maybe. It¡¯s also possible the thing could¡¯ve just torn a massive hole out of me. Hard to tell sometimes with tiny things that are high leveled. Not to mention my whole 80% immunity to physical damage thing. The half-a-foot-long piranha goes back under the surface before camouflaging itself into the water somehow, making me lose track of it. Well this is just great. Finally found water but I can¡¯t drink any of it. At least the piranha, and assuming it has friends, piranhas, are ignoring me. With the exception of my sword. Guess they don¡¯t have a ranged attack? Probably wouldn¡¯t make it if they jumped out of the water to attack me and ended up stuck on land. Hmm¡­ I wonder¡­ A splashing sound echoes from the other side of the vast cavern, bringing my attention to the other side of the large river of water where I find some sort of two legged insect with sharp scythes as arms tossing a taracht¡¯s corpse at the edge of the river, making it stick just inches out over the water without actually touching it. {Lesser Scythid ¨C Level 10} Another new monster. Then a piranha jumps out of the water in a direct arc to grab the taracht corpse and land back in the water afterwards, only for the scythid to suddenly sprint forward and swing its scythe around to catch the piranha, both cutting into it and sending it flying onto the land where it begins flopping around without making it anywhere. The scythid then rushes towards it and stabs both of its scythes into it four times until the piranha dies. Interesting. I glance at the river right when another piranha swipes the tarachts body and goes back into the water. But the scythid ignores it, briefly turning its gaze towards me before letting out some sort of chittering sound and beginning to drag the piranha corpse away to the tunnel on the other side of the cavern. Guess I just figured out how I¡¯m gonna fish me some piranhas without a fishing pole.
It takes me three attempts of trying different methods to get the piranha onto the land before I realize just how pointless that is. Especially when I can just trick it to surface and show itself before blasting it with a quantum bolt, which kills the thing in an instant due to its very small size. Even with its six or seven levels on me. Honestly not sure why these things seem so weak despite being a high level. But I don¡¯t really care considering that they¡¯re free EXP. I smile as I drag along the corpse of one of the tarachts I¡¯ve killed along the way here back to the river before setting up the trap again. Then I blast another piranha when it tries to go for the food and find a very nice Message waiting for me. [Level 10 Lesser Venomous Piranha Defeated ¨C User¡¯s earned EXP has been increased a small amount due to killing a being whose level is five or more levels higher than their own.] [Seven points have been earned for killing a creature six levels above you.] {Congratulations! You have leveled up to level 5! Your Species has awarded you +2 VIT, +2 DEX, +2 STR, +2 MAG, and +2 MEN. Your Class has awarded you +1 VIT, +1 DEX, +1 STR, +2 MAG, and +2 MEN.} [The leaderboards have been updated. You are now #1 on the leaderboards.] [*New Passive Skill* ¨C Quantum Attunement: Grants the user enhanced sensitivity to quantum fluctuations, giving them heightened awareness of nearby magical energies and disturbances. Skill is automatically slotted due to free open slots.] Almost immediately, I feel my senses expanding to fill a radius of about five meters around me, similar to how it felt when I used to use mana manipulation. But different at the same time. Now instead of just sensing mana, I can sense the fluctuations of the quantum realm itself along with any magical energy. Including the energy inherent in all living beings. Like the piranhas. A very nice skill, although I doubt the sensing the fluctuations of the quantum realm will do me very much good unless I¡¯m in a quantum vortex, seeing as no one but quantum entities which are practically unheard of can actually use this element. Then again, I¡¯m using it, so¡­ I step a little bit closer to the water, only to freeze up when I get within a few feet of the river as I sense much larger piranhas in the center of the river. Ones spanning a couple feet in length. But that¡¯s not what has a cold sweat running down my neck. What terrifies me is how I sense a bunch of piranhas currently building up in an arc around where I am. As if they were getting ready to attack. I jump away, retreating as fast as I can right before each of the piranhas tackle the wall of the river, crumbling where I was just standing mere moments ago into the water. They then go ham eating all of the rubble that had fallen into the water. Okay. Now I see why the other monsters don¡¯t just sit here farming them all day. The piranhas do get angry after all. B1 | Chapter 7 - The Dungeon Alexia Knight I frown as I stare at the System Message floating in my vision, briefly wondering if this is a good thing or not. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Dungeon ¨C Crawling Caverns Description: This is a basic dungeon located within Tutorial Block #108 Monsters: The Primary monster type in this dungeon are arachnid-type monsters, with the secondary type being insects and common cave dwelling monsters. Requirements To Enter: Be a part of Tutorial Block #108. Dungeon Tier: 1 -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Was not expecting to see this when all I was trying to do was identify what looked like some sort of ore on the wall to see if it was work taking. Also, how did I end up spawning here in a dungeon in the first place? Aren¡¯t dungeons supposed to be secondary dimensions created by the System to limit the amount of mana and monsters there are in the world? Does that mean I¡¯m stuck in a dungeon I have no idea where the exit to is? Or do dungeons now work in a different way here? It is a new dimension after all. The whole issues of monster stampedes might no longer be a problem here, so the dungeons could¡¯ve been relegated by the System to simply be places to fight monsters or something. Only thing I can think of that might¡¯ve solved the problem though would be the System itself limiting the amount of monsters¡­ wait a second, what if the System just dumps the excess mana into the old universe and leaves it behind? That could be a solution. Especially since the only magic capable of traversing dimensions is quantum magic, as spatial magic can¡¯t cross dimensions, only space itself. So none of the monsters will be able to make it here even if they tried. All that aside though, how exactly am I going to find the exit to this place? I stare at the ore that probably isn¡¯t an actual ore for several seconds before letting out a sigh. Guess all I can do is continue moving forward. Or, I guess, continue moving backwards? Since I couldn¡¯t find a way past the river and ended up just retracing my steps. I can¡¯t help but frown as I find another taracht along the way. {Lesser Taracht ¨C Level 3} Another issue. The monsters are getting weaker the further this way that I go. Although maybe that just means I¡¯m getting closer to the entrance? That could be a good thing then. I blast it with a quantum bolt seeing as I¡¯m currently lacking any form of weapon, killing the thing in a single blow before I continue on through the tunnels. At this point I¡¯m stuck relying solely on my quantum bolts to kill things. Which is rather harsh on my soul. Also makes me wish I had a weapon again. Stupid fish. I continue walking through the tunnels, occasionally killing a random taracht or the very uncommon vampire bat until I get another level, bringing me up to level 6 as I find myself at the entrance of the dungeon. Where I find a rather unpleasant sight in the form of a Message. [User must complete the dungeon or find a hidden exit to leave.] Okay. This is a problem. I turn around to look at the tunnels in the dungeon for a moment before glancing at the rather worn looking door and pulling my fist back to punch it, only to find the thing not even so much as budging. Yeah, didn¡¯t expect that to do anything. Well, looks like I have to go past the piranha river after all. I turn around and begin walking back through the cave.
Or not? I purse my lips as I stare at the tiny little crevasse I had missed before in the middle of a very dark tunnel. A tunnel I can see clearly in despite that. Not really sure how I can tell it¡¯s dark despite being able to see clearly though. I just can. It¡¯s weird. If I had to guess, this is probably a hidden area in the dungeon. After taking a moment to consider the ups and downs of it, I decide to go in. After all, they generally give a reward when completed, which may or may not have a weapon I can use. One that should be quite a bit better than the trash the System gave me and then had a piranha eat. Which I very much hope gives that piranha indigestion. Because it¡¯s been annoying fighting without it. The moment I step into the crevasse, my theory about this being a hidden area is confirmed by a System Message. [You have entered the Tier 1 Hidden Area, the Lesser Brood¡¯s Nest.] As if I had just entered some sort of separate dimension in the dungeon, the air grows thicker, and I begin to hear skittering sounds. And by the time I finish traversing the crevasse and end up in a large room full of spiderwebs and a few eggs, I hear and see the eggs beginning to crack. But what attracts my attention the most is the sight of the two-meter-long spider at the end of the room that has a bloated midsection. {Lesser Brood ¨C Level 12} Okay. A monster twice my level. Check. I glance at the tiny spiderlings crawling around the webbing and out of eggs. {Lesser Spiderlings ¨C Level 1} A few dozen tiny spiders. Check. I glance all around the room at the webs. And a room full of webbing that might hinder my movements. Check. The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. This¡¯ll be fun if it doesn¡¯t kill me. Can¡¯t have that happening though, otherwise Astrid would probably somehow find a way to raise me from the dead to kill me herself. Plus how would I be able to make it past the piranha river if I couldn¡¯t deal with this? The lesser brood is the same level as the average piranha there after all. All of the spiderlings immediately begin swarming over to me as I raise my arm and send two quantum bolts into the swarm, killing off six of them right away and taking away ten of my own soul before the spiderlings reach me and begin crawling up my legs and biting into- Wait, why doesn¡¯t this hurt much? I blink down at the creatures who are biting into my legs but not really doing much damage. Almost like they¡¯re just regular old spiders instead of the foot-long creatures that they are. Then I remember my Quantum Body skill along with the fact that they¡¯re just level 1 and I begin grabbing the creatures and crushing them with my bare hands, not daring to use a Quantum Bolt on myself. All while I occasionally glance at the lesser brood, only to find it breeding more spiders at a rather fast pace. So in the end I just continuously get spammed with System Messages as I continue killing the spiders and trying to shake them off at the same time while losing a couple points of soul a second out of my pool of about four hundred and sixty two soul. [Level 1 Lesser Spiderling Defeated ¨C User¡¯s earned EXP has been majorly decreased due to killing a being whose level is five or more levels lower than their own.] [Level 1 Lesser Spiderling Defeated ¨C User¡¯s earned EXP has been majorly decreased due to killing a being whose level is five or more levels lower than their own.] [Level 1 Lesser Spiderling Defeated ¨C User¡¯s earned EXP has been majorly decreased due to killing a being whose level is five or more levels lower than their own.] ¡­ [Level 1 Lesser Spiderling Defeated ¨C User¡¯s earned EXP has been majorly decreased due to killing a being whose level is five or more levels lower than their own.] I get message after message over and over again, and after the thirtieth message I finally get a level-up, making me briefly wonder if this is a good way to train. Because despite the significant number of relatively large spider bites on my legs, they don¡¯t actually hurt much. {Congratulations! You have leveled up to level 7! Your Species has awarded you +2 VIT, +2 DEX, +2 STR, +2 MAG, and +2 MEN. Your Class has awarded you +1 VIT, +1 DEX, +1 STR, +2 MAG, and +2 MEN.} At least, until I begin to feel a sluggish sensation fill my legs where the spiders are biting. Which clearly shows that I can¡¯t just let this continue, even if they¡¯re not strong enough to actually tear chunks out of my flesh. So I raise my hand and send a Quantum Bolt straight at the lesser brood, making it let out a loud screech when the bolt hits the large, inflated part of its body. But unlike with the piranhas who died to a bolt or two, the lesser brood finally stands up and stops breeding with a loud hiss as its clear blood floods out of the hole I made in the inflated part, along with several seemingly unfinished eggs, making all of its children including the ones who are still on my legs biting me rush over to their mother. Then she eats them. Every last one. My jaw drops open, but now that the spiders are no longer biting me, the sluggish sensation in my legs begins to grow stronger, almost making my legs give out from under me. Shit, did they have venom?! Damnit! I¡¯m used to Identify giving that sort of information! I raise my hands towards the lesser brood as a blackish purple glow shines off of the large, black spider before sending two quantum bolts its way. But one of the last still living spiderlings escapes its mother and jumps in the way of one of the bolts, taking the blow itself and glitching for a moment before blowing up and painting the other spiders with its insides. Then the other bolt strikes at the mother herself, blowing up part of her leg but not severing it entirely. Still can¡¯t see her using that leg anymore though. Not that I¡¯m one to talk as my legs begin to give out from under me, making me drop to my knees before I raise my head again to find the lesser brood¡¯s eyes beginning to glow with an eerie black light. Then its level goes up once and the black light seems to fuse with its carapace itself. Some sort of kin eater skill? One that makes it stronger after eating more of its kin? A random guess, but judging by how it¡¯s acting right now, probably a likely one. Especially when it begins charging towards me. I quickly glance at my status to check my soul.
Name: Alexia Knight Species: Quantum Reaper(T1)
Level: 7 Class: Quantum Reaper
Soul: 186/500
VIT: 19 DEX: 19 STR: 19 MAG: 25 MEN: 25
Racial Skills Active Skills
Passive Skills General Skills
Not good but not critical. I try to stand, only to stumble and instead focus on the charging spider before sending quantum bolt after quantum bolt after quantum bolt at it. And the thing doesn¡¯t even try to dodge, taking every last one head-on and slowly blowing up as parts of it glitch out. Looks like whatever skill it¡¯s used put it into a berserk status. I keep a close eye on my soul as I send quantum bolts flying at the creature whose higher level gives it a resistance to the quantum energy inside of them fueled only by five of my soul each, but the spider just continues charging. Even after a good third of its body is already gone. Somehow despite its berserk status, it manages to protect its head from any direct shots, but even that begins to wear down as my soul drops down to a more critical ninety-one points. I grimace as my legs go completely numb as if paralyzed. The spider continues charging, and when I find that I won¡¯t kill it in time even with it slowing down its charge, I point one of my hands down at the ground near me before firing a quantum bolt at the ground, making the stone glitch out for a second before exploding and sending me flying out of the spider¡¯s path. And as I fly through the air, the spider charging through where I just was, I send another two bolts straight at the back of its head, finally killing the thing. Then I crash into the stone wall with a grunt and a cough of blood before landing on my side on the ground. I feel a strange and uncomfortable stabbing sensation from my leg that was closest to the explosion caused by my quantum bolt, drawing my gaze there to find my leg seemingly glitching out slightly, just constantly swapping between being burnt and not burnt. Although the armor I had covering my legs is rather shredded regardless. And I feel a strong wave of nausea that has me ducking my head down before I vomit up the little food I had before the System Reset. But then, out of nowhere, whatever paralytic effect my legs were under vanishes, leaving me feeling the stabbing pain of all the spider bites on my legs that makes me cry out in pain. I do get some good news at least in the form of a System Message. [Level 12 Lesser Brood Defeated ¨C User¡¯s earned EXP has been increased a small amount due to killing a being whose level is five or more levels higher than their own.] [Six points have been earned for killing a creature six levels above you.] {Congratulations! You have leveled up to level 8! Your Species has awarded you +2 VIT, +2 DEX, +2 STR, +2 MAG, and +2 MEN. Your Class has awarded you +1 VIT, +1 DEX, +1 STR, +2 MAG, and +2 MEN.} [Ten points have been earned for clearing a Hidden Area.] {Congratulations! You have cleared the Hidden Area, the Lesser Brood¡¯s Nest! Touch the loot box to claim your reward!} I draw in a deep breath as soul floods my body from the level-up, making me immensely grateful for having my health and mana merged right now since it gives me over twice as much ¡®health¡¯ as it would before every time I level. Looks like I won¡¯t die at least. Wait a second¡­ I forgot¡­ my potion¡­ Then everything goes dark. B1 | Chapter 8 - New Weapon Alexia Knight Ten years ago A loud smacking sound echoes in the hallway of the orphanage as Astrid is sent flying into the wall. ¡°Astrid!¡± I scream, only for the orphanage director, a fat man in his late sixties, to turn his anger on me instead. He walks up to me before grabbing me by the throat and lifting me into the air, showcasing his enhanced strength despite his level being low for his age, ¡°You will learn to keep your mouth shut when a noble is here, got it? Otherwise you¡¯ll both be sent to the-¡± ¡°Sent where, exactly?¡± a calm voice asks, their even but dangerous sounding tone filling the hallway as I feel the director¡¯s grip on my throat immediately slacken, making me fall to the ground in a coughing fit before I rush over to Astrid and pivot her behind me, putting me in-between her and the director. When I quickly look to the entrance of the hallway, I find a man who is most likely a noble considering his clothes standing there in full magical armor, a cold look plastered on his young looking face. ¡°Oh, to the laundromats, of course! It¡¯s a common punishment here for breaking the house rules, needing to go there to help out in washing everyone¡¯s clothes,¡± the director lies while visibly shaking slightly before he turns to me with a sickening smile on his face and adds, ¡°Right, girls?¡± The most-likely-noble turns to me, his gaze softening. And right when I¡¯m wondering if I should lie or not, just like the director, a kind and gentle voice enters my head, clearly not having been spoken out loud, ¡°It¡¯s alright, little one. Just speak the truth. I can get you out of here.¡± My eyes widen at that, and I quickly look at Astrid to find her looking frightened between the two men while hiding behind me. Then I look between the two adults and come to a decision. ¡°He¡¯s lying,¡± I state plainly and simply, the director¡¯s eyes widening in shock at my words before I even finish, ¡°he always sends the kids who interfere in any way with his-¡± I feel a large pain bloom on my face as my head is send flying towards the wall before I hit it, making the pain grow even worse. ¡°Insolent-¡± the director shouts, but everything feels fuzzy as I try to pick myself up off the ground, only for Astrid to help me and pull me away. Then I look up to find why the director had cut off. The most-likely-noble is holding him in the air by his throat. I fight through the dizziness I¡¯m feeling to hear their words, ¡°By my order, the Knight of the Crimson Score, I sentence you to death for illegal child trafficking and abuse of children with B or higher mana affinities.¡± Both my and the director¡¯s eyes widen in shock at that, but the dizziness is growing stronger, and soon enough everything goes dark.
Alexia Knight The present My eyes shoot open as I quickly move forwards into a sitting position before looking around at my surroundings, only sighing in relief after finding that I¡¯m alone in the hidden area. Good. At least that¡¯s still the same. Nothing else can enter a hidden area when someone is inside. Despite that relief, I can¡¯t help but frown as I lie back down on the ground. That dream¡­ it was when Astrid and I first met gramps. But why am I dreaming about it now? Actually, for that matter, how long was I out cold? I stare up at the ceiling for a few seconds before opening my status.
Name: Alexia Knight Species: Quantum Reaper(T1)
Level: 8 Class: Quantum Reaper
Soul: 537.5/637.5
VIT: 22 DEX: 22 STR: 22 MAG: 29 MEN: 29
Racial Skills Active Skills
Passive Skills General Skills
Okay, my soul has regenerated a lot. Which means that I¡¯ve been out for at least a couple hours now. Seeing as from what I saw before it would take about four or so hours to fully regenerate my soul thanks to the regeneration rates of both my health and mana combining into one for soul. You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story. Oh and there¡¯s one other thing I can do to check. I open the leaderboards. [#1 Lucas Nightshade ¨C 57 points] [#2 Alexia Knight ¨C 52 points] [#3 Leif Eriksson ¨C 45 points] [#4 Aurora Frost ¨C 44 points] [#5 Noah Kowalski ¨C 42 points] [#6 Alexander Frost ¨C 41 points] [#7 Isabella d''Aragon ¨C 41 points] [#8 Leonidas Silver ¨C 40 points] [#9 Damien Black ¨C 35 points] [#10 Nathan Briar ¨C 34 points] Huh. My position didn¡¯t move at all. Wait a second, didn¡¯t I get points for killing that lesser brood and clearing the hidden area? That¡¯s probably why. It made up for the time I spent out cold. Well, that¡¯s fine then. A free ten points, a couple levels, and whatever item I get from the loot box in exchange for a couple hours of unconsciousness. Plus I got to keep my potion for later use. Totally worth it. Could¡¯ve done without the dream though. I let out another sigh before finally climbing to my feet. Then I begin walking over to the back of the hidden area where I find a fancy looking chest sitting at the spot the lesser brood was previously giving birth before I shot it with a Quantum Bolt. The chest has spiderweb patterns going all around it with a large spider¡¯s head engraved front and center, and it¡¯s purple and black in color. A rather cool design, but that¡¯s not important. I reach out to touch the chest, following which the chest opens wide on its own and a bright purple and blue light shines out of it while a polearm appears above the chest. One that if I had to describe by its appearance looks to be a glaive. Something I have some training in, seeing as gramps taught us the basics of a lot of weapons, more than just the sword. But not as much training as I have in the sword. It¡¯ll have to do though. And considering that I¡¯ll probably not be leaving this dungeon for a while, I best get used to using it as a main weapon now. The weapon is completely gray and rather boring looking. It has a long blade spanning about two fifths or so of the length of the polearm. One that¡¯s sharp on both sides of the blade. Meanwhile the butt end of the weapon is slightly rounded. I look at it for a few more seconds before remembering that I can identify items now. So I do just that. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Elemental Polearm Description: This polearm passively absorbs the elemental energy of the user as they naturally radiate it, not harming the user in any manner. Through this, the weapon takes on some minor characteristics of the user¡¯s strongest elemental affinity. Stats Bonus: +10 STR, +10 DEX Requirements: Must have one elemental affinity beyond C Grade. Item Tier: 2 -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- My face morphs into a grin as I reach out to grab the polearm. Tier 2. I knew it was likely, but I didn¡¯t want to hold out hope that just because I took the hidden area on solo I¡¯d be given a higher Tiered item. The moment the polearm makes contact with my hand, I feel a very light drain tugging on my soul, following which it goes down by about ten points before stopping. Then the words ¡®Soulbound¡¯ appear in the description of the item. Nice. My eyes widen slightly when the polearm begins to change color from its dull gray tone to a much more interesting color consisting of varying shades of purple. And out of curiosity, I grab onto the polearm with my other hand and swing the weapon, and the blade immediately coats itself with a bit of my quantum energy. Although that¡¯s all it does. And when I hold it still for a few seconds, the blade returns to normal, no longer coated in the energy. Now this is a much better weapon than the trash the System gave me. Ignoring that this is technically also from the System, of course. And with it being coated in quantum energy and soulbound to me, I¡¯d like to see those damned piranhas try stealing it! With a wide grin on my face, I dismiss the weapon, making it vanish in a flash of purple energy, only for me to summon it again, then dismiss it. I¡¯ve always wanted a soulbound weapon. Really have. Never could get one though. They¡¯re too expensive, and most of them are only found in these hidden areas of dungeons. Which aren¡¯t very commonplace in the first place. I begin to leave the hidden area, very much satisfied with my prize. B1 | Chapter 9 - Pseudo Fishing and the Number Two Alexia Knight After making it back to the piranha river, I summon my glaive before kneeling down a few feet from the water. Okay, so how should I go about this? I don¡¯t really need the bait anymore now that I can sense their locations from their magical energy, but at the same time that would require me getting closer to the water¡­ Then again, I don¡¯t think they¡¯d be able to drag me in anymore. Not considering our level difference, their size, and my quantum body skill. Kind of like those spiderlings from the hidden area, but quite a bit stronger. I frown at the mental image of a piranha jumping by and taking a chunk out of me before ending up back in the water as it eats it. Not a pleasant image. I won¡¯t get anywhere just sitting here though, so I stand up before grabbing my glaive with both hands and taking a step closer to the river. Then I focus on the dozens of magical energy sources swimming by for a few seconds, trying to make note of any patterns in their movements. And once I feel ready, I shoot forward, swinging my glaive straight through one of the piranhas with the blade lighting up with quantum energy. Just as quickly as I moved forward, I jump back, just barely dodging three piranhas who try to jump at me for sticking my arms out over the water. [Level 10 Lesser Venomous Piranha Defeated ¨C User¡¯s earned EXP has been increased a small amount due to killing a being whose level is higher than their own.] [Three points have been earned for killing a creature two levels above you.] The venomous part of their name ¨C something I had inconveniently forgotten about ¨C has me stiffening up slightly, but it doesn¡¯t stop me from rushing out to kill another. And then another. And one more before I jump far back from the river, just barely making it off of the shore without ending up falling in due to the piranhas charging the shore and collapsing a few feet around it. I frown as I look up at the river, finding it to be a few dozen feet in width. Just how high a level do I have to be to jump across? And if I tried jumping, would I even be able to make it without being caught by a piranha jumping out of the water? The larger piranhas don¡¯t seem to want to leave the center of the river for some reason. Almost as if they¡¯re guarding something. Eggs maybe? There certainly are a heck of a lot of piranhas here. And the larger ones are the only ones that actually stay here instead of moving on. Or some of them stay. A lot are also moving on themselves. The author''s narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. Makes me wonder where this river is even leading anyways. I frown before flipping my glaive and getting back into a ready position somewhere else on the shore, hoping that I¡¯ll at least reach level ten before the entirety of the shore falls apart from their attacks. Because I could really use another active skill right about now.
Somewhere in Tutorial Block #1 Lucas Nightshade, one of the most powerful ascendants in the known universe and Hound of the Apocalypse, scowls at the goblin in front of him as he pulls his sword out of its gut and swipes the blade across its throat. [Level 6 Goblin Defeated ¨C User¡¯s earned EXP has been decreased a slight amount due to killing a being whose level is lower than their own.] Back to killing goblins just like when the System first initialized¡­ The man has short black hair and blue eyes, and despite his Legendary Feat naming him the Hound of the Apocalypse, he¡¯s only about five foot six inches tall, something the other Ascendants all joke about behind his back. But never in front of him. Lucas lets out a sigh as he looks through the jungle trees at the relatively large goblin village in the distance, marking an important area in the start of the Jungle of the Lost Dungeon he found himself arriving in the new dimension at. Guess there really were consequences to that old bastard¡¯s death. I still can¡¯t figure out why the League of Ascendants would let him kill himself somehow after three centuries of forgetting he even existed¡­ Then again, Lucas never really understood the League despite having to work with it a few times for his own goals. The group, in his eyes, is completely insane, doing whatever they deem liable to grant them more power. And the quantum element is the most powerful element. Certainly something that would grant that power. If they had actually even had the slightest bit of success, which Lucas knows they didn¡¯t. Lucas shakes his head, deciding not to think about their stupidity and the consequences it¡¯s brought upon him as well. But right when he begins to step towards the goblin village, a System Message appears in his vision. [The leaderboards have been updated. You are now #2 on the leaderboards.] Oh? That girl is back on the move, then? The girl currently fighting with him over the top spot on the leaderboards is a complete mystery to Lucas. When the System Reset was announced, he was certain it would just end up with maybe a few new ascendants with the rest not really changing. Simply because of the benefits even a single Legendary Feat can give. Especially to one¡¯s starting class options. Unless some of the pre-reset ascendants go around hunting the other pre-reset ascendants, which he can absolutely see happening. But then this girl comes, repeatedly taking the top spot away from him. A girl he has never so much as heard of, much less seen a Legendary Feat announcement for. And then there¡¯s her name¡­ Almost as if her name was directly targeting him, it is made up of the first name that she had talked about wanting to use if they ever had children, and her last name is that of his old friend. Lucas can¡¯t help but grit his teeth a little every time he sees her name on top of the leaderboards. But he also knows not to take his past sorrows out on others by now. It¡¯s what led to them leaving him behind in a lowly backwater kingdom without a word of farewell in the first place. He lets out a sigh before looking up at the village again. I wonder how those two are doing anyways? Are they still alive? I can¡¯t imagine this System Reset killing either of them. They were both Ascendants as well after all. A few seconds pass as sounds of the jungle fill his ears. Eventually he begins walking towards the village again. Either way, I won¡¯t let whoever this new girl is take my number one spot on the leaderboards. We¡¯ll see who comes out on top in this reset. B1 | Chapter 10 - Quantum Displacement Alexia Knight After about ten minutes of tearing the piranhas apart in my lovely version of fishing, I very nearly run out of space to fish from as the piranhas continue destroying more and more of the river¡¯s shore. I grimace as I look at the about five or so feet left of shore that I have. Level ten should be approaching soon, but will I get it with one more kill? I stare at the river for a few seconds before deciding to just go for it and rushing to the corner of the remaining area and stabbing another fish before jumping back. And just like the other times, the other piranhas rush to headbutt the ground, making it crumble. But thankfully, I¡¯m still left with about two feet of area at the original line of the river to use when I try to cross it. [Level 11 Lesser Venomous Piranha Defeated ¨C User¡¯s earned EXP has been increased a small amount due to killing a being whose level is higher than their own.] [Three points have been earned for killing a creature two levels above you.] {Congratulations! You have leveled up to level 10! Your Species has awarded you +2 VIT, +2 DEX, +2 STR, +2 MAG, and +2 MEN. Your Class has awarded you +1 VIT, +1 DEX, +1 STR, +2 MAG, and +2 MEN.} [*New Active Skill* ¨C Quantum Displacement: Allows the user to teleport up to a radius of {the Skill¡¯s level to the power of the Skill¡¯s Tier} meters around themselves by altering their quantum position in the mortal realm. Skill is automatically slotted due to free open slots.] My eyes widen at the teleportation skill before a grin stretches across my face. Although the grin is tainted a tiny bit in confusion at the sight of the System using the metric system now, since it used to use feet and inches. A rather odd change, but not one I care much about since I¡¯m familiar with both. One issue I see with this skill though is the obvious problem. That I won¡¯t be able to use it to teleport to the other side of the river until I get the skill to Tier 2. I frown for a few seconds at that, only to realize that it didn¡¯t say anything about me having to be standing on the ground to use the skill. Meaning I can probably jump half the way there and teleport the rest of the way. And considering that the river is about three dozen feet wide, that means it¡¯s about ten or eleven meters in width. I¡¯ll have to figure out how far I can jump first.
After looking like a fool by jumping back and forth across the cavern adjacent to the one the river is in, I realize that I¡¯m currently strong enough to jump about a dozen or so meters. Which kind of makes my previous plan about teleporting rather null and void considering I can already jump across the river. Kind of awkward, but it¡¯s fine in the end since the teleportation skill can help me in case I end up attacked by a piranha while jumping across. Which will probably happen, so I should train the skill a little bit. If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement. I really hate how the stupid stats aren¡¯t a linear increase in physical prowess. It makes trying to figure things out annoying. Also doesn¡¯t help how the stats shown in the status aren¡¯t actually my physical capabilities but are really just the power that my life energy gives me when I¡¯m not completely out of life energy. Kind of like life energy is a fuel to power the body in some ways, although not everything requires life energy to run at System enhanced form. Actually, do I even technically have life energy? Or is soul my life energy now? That thought has me pursing my lips for a moment only for me to shake my head. Doesn¡¯t matter now. Something to ponder when I¡¯m not in a dungeon that¡¯s trying to kill me. I begin to walk back towards the river again to jump across, only to pause as I realize I haven¡¯t eaten a thing since coming here. And yet, despite that, I¡¯m not hungry. Nor am I thirsty. Is that some sort of benefit to being a quantum being? A pretty good one if that¡¯s the case. I¡¯ve never been a fan of eating in general after all. Plus the idea of eating the spiders or vampire bats here isn¡¯t a pleasant one. And the piranhas have venomous in their names, and I don¡¯t know how if the venom they have is stored in a gland or if it flows through their body, unable to be cleared. Food aside though, I do need to level up that teleportation skill some. And while I¡¯m at it, I might as well check my other skills¡¯ progress. [General Skills] |Pain Resistance Level 1(46%)(T1)| |Polearm Mastery Level 1(11%)(T1)| |Forerunner (Unique)| [Active Skills] |Quantum Bolt Level 1(94%)(T1)| |Quantum Displacement Level 1(0%)(T1)| [Passive Skills] |Quantum Attunement Level 1(21%)(T1)| It hurts to see just how few skills I have now. Badly. And that¡¯s with me having gotten Polearm Mastery while fishing for piranhas with a glaive. The quantum skills and the Forerunner skill do make up for it a little bit though at least. I sigh before closing out of the three skill lists and quickly trying out Quantum Displacement, which immediately has my thoughts automatically going to where I want to go before I find myself teleporting just two thirds of a meter in front of me in a display very much unlike any teleportation skill I¡¯ve ever seen before. Whereas most teleportation skills have a single blink where the person just vanishes and reappears either with no flashiness or with a single bright flash of blue light, this teleportation skill had me glitching out once before just glitching into reality where I set the target of the teleport. A rather bizarre feeling overall, but not necessarily unpleasant. And a quick glimpse of my status makes me realize it took twenty soul to use the skill. Ouch. I use the skill again, but this time teleporting just a third of a meter away before checking my status to find that it went down by another ten soul. Which means it costs about ten or so soul per foot of distance. Certainly an expensive skill. But my soul pool is growing larger pretty quickly, so it¡¯s fine. I repeatedly use the skill about five times in a row before checking the skill¡¯s progress and quickly finding it to have advanced to about fourteen percent of the way to level 2. So at level one it just advanced by about two percent for every use of the skill? Not bad. Also looks like it doesn¡¯t matter how far I go with each teleport. So I can keep the cost down in terms of soul. I glance back at the tunnel to the piranhas before beginning the very long and drawn out process of training the skill. Because I¡¯d rather be able to teleport up to two meters when I try to cross the river at the very least. B1 | Glossary System: Legendary Feats grant bonus perks to those who earn them and announce the feat to every System User. People only get one racial skill per advancement, starting with one racial skill at Tier 1. People can only have five passive and five active Class skills slotted at a time. People can only have ten general skills slotted at a time. Levels 1-100 are Tier 1 Levels 101-250 are Tier 2 Levels 251-500 are Tier 3 Levels 501-1000 are Tier 4 Levels 1001-2500 are Tier 5 Above level 2500 are Ascendants Class skills are received at every five levels for Tier 1. General skills are earned from doing what the skill entails and being given it by the System when you¡¯re determined to have earned them. The different Classes of Species are: Class E: +5 stats per level ¨C EX: Unintelligent weak monsters such as skeletons. Class D: +6 stats per level ¨C EX: Unintelligent and basic intelligent monsters such as goblins. Class C: +7 stats per level ¨C EX: Creatures such as hobgoblins and orcs that have intelligence but not as much as Class B creatures. Class B: +8 stats per level ¨C EX: Human, Dwarves, Elves, etc. The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation. Class A: +9 stats per level ¨C EX: Vampires, Werewolves, Kitsune, and other variant creatures. Class S: +10 stats per level ¨C EX: Quantum Reapers, other types of reapers, dragons, etc. The different Rarities of Classes are: Common: +4 stats per level Uncommon: +5 stats per level Rare: +6 stats per level Epic: +7 stats per level Legendary: +8 stats per level Mythic: +10 stats per level Element Affinity Classes: Take note! This IS NOT A SPLIT! And people can have more than one affinity! A Class E Affinity in an element allows the user to occasionally sense and maybe even see a small amount of that element or powerful effects of that element but not use it. 50% out of every last person in existence have at least a Class E Affinity. Meaning only 50% of existence have an affinity at all. A Class D Affinity in an element allows the user to see and sometimes interact with a small amount of that element, but not enough to get a magic class. 20% out of every last person in existence have at least a Class D Affinity. A Class C Affinity in an element allows the user to directly manipulate the element in the form of mana or whatever energy that element uses in their body to a limited degree. They can get magic classes. 10% out of every last person in existence have at least a Class C Affinity. A Class B Affinity in an element allows the user to directly manipulate the mana or energy of their element in the air. They can get higher rarity magic Classes. 0.1% out of every last person in existence have at least a Class B Affinity. A Class A Affinity in an element allows the user to directly manipulate the mana or energy of their element and clearly see it no matter how weak the energy or mana is. They can get higher rarity magic classes and have a higher level of control over the element. 0.0001% out of every last person in existence have at least a Class A Affinity. A Class S Affinity in an element is a perfect affinity and is only possible in those born of that element, where the element itself permeates throughout their body itself. Special circumstances must occur for someone to have a Class S Affinity if they are not a Class S species, who has one by default. Furthermore, they can only have a single Class S Affinity as they cannot have more than one element naturally flowing through their veins. These are not separately counted!!! 50% out of all 100% of people in the world. Then 20% out of all 100% of people in the world. And so on. B1 | Chapter 11 - An Encounter and the New Way of Things Somewhere in Tutorial Block #108 Astrid frowns as she and the team stand on one side of the long wood and rope bridge between one island and another simply watching the group of familiar faces cross it towards them. More specifically, she frowns at one particular face amongst the group. Great. Of course he¡¯s one of the first people we run into. ¡°There a problem?¡± Alara asks when she notices Astrid¡¯s face, but Aidan answers for her, ¡°The guy in the middle of their group has been trying and failing to woo Astrid ever since she entered the Academy. So as you might imagine, she doesn¡¯t like him.¡± Alara frowns at that, only to shake her head and say, ¡°Please don¡¯t get in a fight with him.¡± Before Astrid can say anything, Aidan says, ¡°She normally ignores him.¡± Astrid raises a brow at Aidan for answering the questions in her place, only to shake her head lightly and focus on the group again. ¡°That¡¯s fine,¡± Alara says with a nod as she crosses her arms. ¡°Now let¡¯s just hope he behaves.¡±
The first thing that catches Astrid¡¯s attention when the group finishes crossing the bridge is the slight tingling sensation at the back of her head that any Class B and above species gets when they¡¯re identified by another. And that has her frowning. ¡°Not above being rude right off the bat, then?¡± she comments, feeling more than a little irritated at the intrusion of privacy. And judging by the others¡¯ faces, she isn¡¯t the only one who was identified. ¡°This is a new dimension, so there should be new rules,¡± Rodrick states in a pompous tone that doesn¡¯t mesh well with the ruined armor he¡¯s wearing, the other people around him ¨C all children of nobles themselves ¨C nodding their agreement. Meanwhile the leader of their group of six ¨C the crown prince of the kingdom from prior to the Reset ¨C just crosses his arms and frowns. Since they did it first, Astrid goes ahead and identifies each of the members of their team, getting the unique identifier for Class B species and above from each of them as a result. {William Sinclair ¨C Class: Warlock ¨C Level 6} {Charlotte Stirling ¨C Class: Arcane Archer ¨C Level 5} {Amelia Hawthorne ¨C Class: Assassin ¨C Level 5} {Henry Montgomery ¨C Class: N/A ¨C Level 5} {Sophia Lancaster ¨C Class: N/A ¨C Level 4} {Rodrick Lancaster ¨C Class: N/A ¨C Level 4} Astrid frowns at their classes and levels, which are all mostly higher than their own, only to shake her head lightly. They¡¯ve already gotten uncommon and rare classes. Stupid nobles with their noble upbringings simply giving them extra knowledge and more time to figure out the important General skills to increase the number of classes they¡¯re offered. ¡°William,¡± Alara says with a frown, addressing the silver haired crown prince. And both Sophia and Rodrick, the Lancaster siblings of the Baron household, frown and begin to complain about her use of his name without a title. But she just ignores them. The crown prince in question narrows his pure silver eyes as well, seemingly displeased with her informality, but he doesn¡¯t say anything. Probably because he¡¯s not really a prince anymore, considering the kingdom doesn¡¯t exist in this dimension. Not much authority attached to baseless noble titles after all. ¡°Alara,¡± William says before glancing at everyone in Astrid¡¯s team, briefly focusing on Astrid when he finds her to be the highest level of the group. Then he turns his attention on Alara again as he says, ¡°Are you willing to serve under me?¡± Alara just scoffs at that, and Astrid holds back a snort of amusement. Meanwhile Rob and Shelly both look conflicted, and Aidan bored. ¡°I¡¯ll take that as a no,¡± he states in a simple and straightforward manner before beginning to walk around the group, his own group stiffening for a second in surprise at his lack of action against Alara¡¯s team, only to follow after him a few seconds later. Although Astrid can¡¯t help but notice a couple of them complaining about their lack of action towards her team. Astrid glances at Alara to find her glaring at the teams back for a few seconds before she turns to address their own team and says, ¡°They¡¯re right about one thing. This is a new dimension, and everyone¡¯s on the same footing now. So I don¡¯t think we can waste time on being polite and not identifying people.¡± A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation. Both Rob and Shelly¡¯s eyes widen at that, but Astrid and Aidan just nod their heads in agreement. ¡°Every encounter could come to a life or death battle now, so we can¡¯t risk not having as much information about everyone we find as possible,¡± Astrid states, making the unwillingness in Rob and Shelly¡¯s eyes lower just a bit. ¡°We shouldn¡¯t think of identifying someone as rude anymore. Not when it¡¯s a powerful tool to help us survive.¡± The world was already harsh enough when the Ascendants ruled over everything and created their own laws, but now that people can get away with anything without anyone enforcing laws over them¡­ some people may want to think of the world as a new chance at life, but what it really is, is a battlefield. A struggle. Just like the stories of the original Initialization of the System. Astrid shakes her head at the dark thought before opening her status.
Name: Astrid Knight Species: Human(T1)
Level: 5 Select Class
Health: 50/50 Mana: 90/90
VIT: 5 DEX: 9 STR: 9 MAG: 9 MEN: 5
Racial Skills Active Skills
Passive Skills General Skills
Astrid purses her lips for a few seconds and closes out of her status. I¡¯ll select a class when I reach level 10. That should be enough to get an uncommon or rare class. Wouldn¡¯t be surprised if William only just recently got his class as well since he has a rare one himself. At this point she¡¯s managed to regain her mana manipulation skill along with her enhancement magic and shadow magic, so she should have everything she needs to get her Magic Knight class back. A rare class. I wish we could find a better weapon somewhere though. Getting swordsmanship or any other weapons related skill should be the last thing needed to guarantee the class choice. Astrid is drawn out of her thoughts when she feels the tingling sensation of someone identifying her again, bringing her attention to Aidan to find him smirking at her as he says, ¡°Now we don¡¯t have to worry about figuring out who¡¯s who between you and Lexi anymore!¡± Then after a second, the others all identify her as well, making Astrid roll her eyes. Idiots. The lot of them.
Alexia Knight After awkwardly teleporting back and forth by a third of a meter over and over again, taking breaks to hunt a single piranha every now and then, making sure not to kill more than that to keep them appeased, I finally get my new skill to level two. I also manage to get Quantum Bolt to level 2 while hunting the piranhas. So I walk back over to the river cavern again before taking a deep breath as I watch over the running water. Okay. I will not fall into the water. I am not fish food. And with those lovely but rather pointless self-motivating words out of the way, I start from the end of the cavern before beginning to run at full speed, jumping once I reach the end of the small platform near the edge of the water. And just as I expected, piranhas start leaping out of the water in a frenzy as I soar above them. But they¡¯re all too slow and end up clapping their jaws on air, missing me while I fly past them. When I get to the center of the river though, the much larger piranhas start jumping out of the river at much faster paces, and I only barely avoid them thanks to teleporting up into the air, the quantum skill managing to keep my momentum going unlike what a regular spatial magic skill would do. Something I learned while testing it. After teleporting two meters above where I was moving through the air, I manage to clear the rest of the river without much struggle, moving straight over the large piranhas in the process. And when I hit the ground on the other side, I do it in a roll right before the piranhas of the river rush forward and tackle the ground where I was, sending it falling into the river after I¡¯ve already rolled away. I quickly roll onto my back, just looking at the river as I pant from the exhaustion and stress that had caused me, but then I can¡¯t help but smile. Success. And I¡¯m not fish food. Patreon Announcement and Regular Announcement and Art Hello everyone! Just like with my other stories, you can read chapters in advanced on my Patreon. For Reaper''s Resurgence, I currently have about 40 chapters that you can read ahead on my Patreon. This number may grow or shrink depending on how many chapters I write in a day, but the absolute lowest it''ll go is 20 chapters. I did the same thing for Wolf of the Blood Moon, and that story only continued growing in terms of the number of advanced chapters it had.
Next up! The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. I will be posting chapters about 3 times a day for the foreseeable future. The next chapter will be around midnight tonight CST. And last but not least, here''s some art. B1 | Chapter 12 - Feeders Alexia Knight It takes me a few moments for my heart to calm down before I climb back to my feet and stretch. Only to catch a glimpse of something in the corner of my eye that has me reflexively ducking, following which I see a random glob of purple liquid I¡¯m pretty sure is poison flying past where my head was. Oh, come on! I summon my glaive while turning to face the new threat, finding it to be some sort of flying bug that I¡¯ve seen before. Like a giant mosquito spanning a foot in height that has shivers running down my spine just at the sight of the disgusting thing. {Lesser Feeder ¨C Level 14} A monster I actually recognize. One of the most universally known pests of the world. Great. And for some reason it¡¯s a higher level than me. Makes calling it a pest feel awkward now. The creature whose wings make a constant buzzing sound zips from one spot in the air to another before sending another glob of poison at me, only for me to cut straight through it with my quantum energy enhanced glaive. Then I spin the glaive through the air while stepping forwards and extending the glaive to cut straight through the pest with ease in an upwards arc. [Level 14 Lesser Feeder Defeated ¨C User¡¯s earned EXP has been increased a small amount due to killing a being whose level is higher than their own.] [Five points have been earned for killing a creature four levels above you.] I almost snort at the amount of points a damned pest gave me. Those insects were quite common in very humid and dark places before this Reset, so I hope they aren¡¯t in this dimension too. But judging by the fact that I just found one, it¡¯s quite likely they¡¯ll be here too. I narrow my eyes at the corpse as it slowly floats to the ground, its wings and light weight making it almost like a feather in some ways before I glance at the river, then at the tunnel on this side of the cavern. Feeders nest in swarms, are very territorial, and attack anything that gets into their territory while not bothering with stuff outside of it. Which means that this side of the cavern is probably part of its territory. Not sure how that lesser scythid from earlier was able to get through this area perfectly fine though. Wait¡­ that¡¯s right, these things suck blood just like a mosquito. Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation. And a scythid, an insect, doesn¡¯t have blood. It has whatever that bloodlike liquid insects generally have instead. Something that the feeders have no reason to feed on since they want something in blood that isn¡¯t in the blood of bugs. Overall means that I¡¯ll probably be dealing with more than just these lesser feeders should I continue on. Good thing these things are considered the very bottom of the worst Class of species in existence, Class E, hence why the thing died so easily even with a higher level than me. Actually, come to think of it, I should stop thinking linearly in terms of level. Since all of the monsters I¡¯ve seen here have been lower Class species than my own and therefore have fewer stats at the same level as me. Even if that doesn¡¯t matter as much at our low levels. I flip my glaive to fling off the ¡®blood¡¯ from the blade before checking my soul to find it at about halfway full. Hmm. Guess I¡¯ll wait here for a bit to let it regenerate. And hunt some more piranhas in the process.
[Level 14 Lesser Feeder Defeated ¨C User¡¯s earned EXP has been increased a small amount due to killing a being whose level is higher than their own.] [Five points have been earned for killing a creature four levels above you.] {Congratulations! You have leveled up to level 11! Your Species has awarded you +2 VIT, +2 DEX, +2 STR, +2 MAG, and +2 MEN. Your Class has awarded you +1 VIT, +1 DEX, +1 STR, +2 MAG, and +2 MEN.} After cutting through another of the feeders that found their way to this cavern and leveling up in the process, I begin walking towards the tunnel where they¡¯re coming from, my soul finally having fully regenerated by now. It¡¯s too bad a creature¡¯s species Class also affects how much EXP they give. Otherwise these insects would be a goldmine of EXP. Then again, can¡¯t have things too easy for us. That¡¯s just not how the System works. Effort makes reward and all. I hold onto my glaive with both hands as I walk through the tunnel rather carefully, keeping my ear open for any buzzing sounds. And not even half a minute later, I begin to hear some, following which three feeders turn a bend in the tunnel towards me. Shit. All three shoot out blobs of poison at me, and I manage to dodge two of them. But the third hits me on my shoulder, making a hissing sound as I myself hiss through my teeth in pain. I don¡¯t stand still despite that though, instead rushing forwards while ignoring the pain and using it to train pain resistance as I cut through two of the insects in one go. Then I spin around to dodge another blob before cutting through the third. [Level 15 Lesser Feeder Defeated ¨C User¡¯s earned EXP has been increased a small amount due to killing a being whose level is higher than their own.] [Level 14 Lesser Feeder Defeated ¨C User¡¯s earned EXP has been increased a small amount due to killing a being whose level is higher than their own.] x2 [Five points have been earned for killing a creature four levels above you.] [Four points have been earned for killing a creature three levels above you.] x2 [The leaderboards have been updated. You are now #1 on the leaderboards.] ¡°Fuck,¡± I mutter while stopping to look at my shoulder, finding the purple poison to have burnt through some of my armor, revealing a mix of blood and purple poison on my now-partially-bare shoulder. At this rate my armor might not last the day. Fortunately the insects have acidic poison ¨C at least, fortunate in terms of my health and not my armor ¨C so after the acid runs its course, my wound begins to heal without too much trouble, simply taking up a few dozen points of soul in the process. Then I stretch my newly healed arm and continue making my way through the tunnel. I certainly hope I can get new armor before leaving this dungeon. B1 | Chapter 13 - First Boss Room Alexia Knight A permanent scowl covers my face as I cut through another of the feeders after two hours of wandering through the tunnels, my armor practically in shambles by this point leaving me in a state of clothing I wouldn¡¯t want anyone to see. I better get new armor soon. [Level 15 Lesser Feeder Defeated ¨C User¡¯s earned EXP has been increased a small amount due to killing a being whose level is higher than their own.] [Three points have been earned for killing a creature two levels above you.] {Congratulations! You have leveled up to level 13! Your Species has awarded you +2 VIT, +2 DEX, +2 STR, +2 MAG, and +2 MEN. Your Class has awarded you +1 VIT, +1 DEX, +1 STR, +2 MAG, and +2 MEN.} At least they¡¯re giving me some levels and plenty of points. Actually, the points they¡¯re giving me have given me a pretty significant lead over the Hound of the Apocalypse. Even if I think it¡¯s safe to assume they are around the same level as me ish. Maybe higher or lower by a level or two. Probably a level higher, to be honest. Just because I¡¯ve been killing these weak things recently. And how long is this damned territory of theirs anyways? I continue walking for a few more minutes before feeling a shift in the air, making my eyes narrow. [You have entered the Tier 1 Dungeon Crawling Cavern¡¯s First Boss Room. The Swarm¡¯s Nest.] Oh. Great. At this point I honestly wonder if I should head back or not, since the size of the nest must be enormous for the number of feeders I¡¯ve killed thus far. But there isn¡¯t really much turning back after entering the separate dimension. Not until the boss is dead. I sigh at that thought before glancing down at my armor to find way too much skin exposed, including the entire left arm of the set that is now missing, along with the right leg and various holes in the rest of it. The only bright side is that nothing too important is exposed. Mostly because I¡¯ve tried rather hard to protect my dignity, and just as importantly, my vitals as much as I can till this point. Partially so that I don¡¯t end up leaving the dungeon in the future half naked. Doesn¡¯t make me feel much better though. I slowly begin to continue my way through the tunnel until the walls narrow in towards a small oval-shaped opening. An opening I can see clearly through despite the fact that I¡¯m pretty sure it¡¯s supposed to be pitch black, considering the bugs¡¯ dislike of light in general. And what I find inside is¡­ not giving me much hope. Ignoring the large swarm of insects that I see inside of whatever cavern the opening opens up to, the sight of the massive feeder beneath the others makes a cold sweat run down my neck. {Lesser Mother Feeder ¨C Level 17} And the thing¡¯s popping out eggs rather quickly as well. But at least the majority of the feeders in there haven¡¯t seen me. I narrow my eyes slightly before glancing at my hand and then back at the opening. Then a very faint smile finds its way onto my face. That¡­ could work. I get closer to the hole, cutting apart a few feeders that had left the cavern before dismissing my glaive and raising both hands towards the large swarm. Then without an ounce of hesitation, I begin spamming my quantum bolts at it, sending bolt after bolt of purple energy of varying shades into the cavern, eradicating large portions of the swarm and sending them all into a flurry as System Messages flood my mind until I put them on mute. But even after they spread through the cavern, seemingly rushing around at random with only a fourth of them heading towards the opening, I continue sending bolts through at them. And the ones rushing towards the opening take the blunt of it. You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author. Soon enough I feel my soul increase as I keep a watchful eye on my status, spotting my level go up in the process while still sending bolts their way. This process continues for who knows how long, my level going up once more while filling the tunnel and cavern with purple light and chunks of feeder parts lying everywhere until the feeders all begin to rush in different directions, heading into the crevasses on the sides of the cavern and seemingly abandoning their mother. My eyes widen at the sight of it, but they narrow again a second later as the mother feeder slowly floats up into the air, having stopped laying eggs now with its gaze directed towards me. Unlike the third-of-a-meter-tall regular feeders, this one is an entire meter tall. It also has a second pair of wings seemingly behind the first, and a longer tube-like mouth for sucking blood. Something that¡¯s almost as long as my arm and certainly not something I want it sticking me with. I quickly take one last look at my status before grimacing.
Name: Alexia Knight Species: Quantum Reaper(T1)
Level: 15 Class: Quantum Reaper
Soul: 325/1250
VIT: 43 DEX: 43 STR: 43 MAG: 57 MEN: 57
Racial Skills Active Skills
Passive Skills General Skills
This isn¡¯t looking good. Wait a second, the opening to the cavern isn¡¯t large enough- The mother feeder suddenly zips straight through the air in a zigzag line before smashing into the entrance and blowing up the wall in the process, forcing its way through as I jump back in shock. Guess it doesn¡¯t care. I summon my glaive again while sending another quantum bolt towards it with my other hand, only managing to shave off a bit of its carapace but not all that much. Then it sends a large orb of poison towards me that I jump out of the way of. But by the time I regain my footing from the jump, it¡¯s already sending a second and third orb. And while I manage to deflect the second with my glaive, the weapon strong enough to fully resist the acid, I¡¯m not so lucky with the third that ends up splashing all over me making me let out a scream of pain. {Congratulations! Your General Skill ¡®Pain Resistance¡¯ has reached Level 2!} The pain fades ever so slightly as I manage to close my teeth, gritting them in pain while my eyes lock on the large mosquito, ignoring the rapidly degrading state of my armor. Armor that really was not made for a dungeon. I barely manage to jump out of the way of another blob of poison before the acid on me begins to clear up a little. Only after eating through the straps on my armor, making it fall apart and leaving me in nothing but my under armor. And even that is eaten up a little, although not to the point of exposing anything important. ¡°You better give me new armor,¡± I shout at the thing as I jump to avoid another shot, glancing at my soul to find it down to about two hundred after that splatter of poison. Then I raise my hand and send another half a dozen bolts of quantum energy at the bug before rushing at it, ducking underneath another orb of poison as my bolts all strike it, my glaive swinging in a circle until I get close to the thing, using the momentum of the swing to finally cut straight through the bottom center of the creature all the way out the other side, spraying its clear blood everywhere. I scowl at the thing as the two halves fall to the ground, immediately dropping down to the ground unlike the other feeder corpses and their whole floaty business. Then I raise my head at the sound of something large crashing against the ground, finding a large chest in the middle of the cavern filled with dead bugs. If this chest doesn¡¯t include any armor I am going to kick it. B1 | Chapter 14 - Reward Alexia Knight The chest itself, I find after entering the room and walking up to it, is made out of the same carapace as the mother feeder has. And it has a large version of the mother feeder¡¯s head on the front. Without wasting any time, I reach out and touch the chest, making the top open up with a flash of light before an outfit appears above it. And I immediately let out a sigh of relief at what I find. Although I wouldn¡¯t exactly call it armor. The outfit is purple in color and has a few parts to it, with a mostly sleeveless top that covers all of my torso and has a small cape-like part extending from the belt downwards for about a third of a meter or so in a rather jagged manner, some bracers covering the forearms and wrists, and a pair of pants. And overall, the top looks like it¡¯s made out of a mixture of the bug¡¯s carapace and random silk, while the bracers are purely made out of carapace, and the bottoms seemingly made out of silk. The only things that the outfit doesn¡¯t cover are the arms from the upper arms down to the elbows, along with the head. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Wrap of the Feeder Description: This set of clothing is on the border between being armor and being clothing, granting comfort for the wearer along with basic durability, protecting them from damage done to the covered areas on the wearer¡¯s body. The set is resistant to poisons. This set has been created to perfectly fit the original finder, Alexia Knight. Stats Bonus: +3 VIT, +3 DEX Requirements: None. Item Tier: 1 -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Well, it¡¯s clothing. I don¡¯t care if it¡¯s the greatest at protecting me. And besides. Anything¡¯s better than the trash armor the System gave me to start out with anyways. Armor that didn¡¯t give any stats in the first place. Not to mention that the new armor looks more comfortable too. I keep an eye on the crevasses that the lesser feeders flew off into just in case they come back, although I¡¯m pretty sure they won¡¯t. Not now that their mother is dead. There isn¡¯t a reason to after all. They¡¯ll just go off at random until they find a new swarm to join. Assuming this boss room even lets them out that is. But still, I take off the last remaining pauldron of my old armor, the rest of it having already fallen off, before putting on the new outfit over my under armor. Only to realize that the perfect fitting it mentioned makes the under armor unusable as it clearly wasn¡¯t designed for under armor. So I take that off too before I put the new set on. Then I stretch a little afterwards to test out its freedom of movement, finding it to be a large improvement from the other armor I was wearing. Even if it¡¯s still far inferior to what I¡¯m used to from prior to the Reset. I think I¡¯m happier about the outfit itself rather than having ¡®armor¡¯ again though. Better to have something than nothing after all. Anyways, clothing situation settled, I finally unhide my System Messages. [Level 15 Lesser Feeder Defeated. User¡¯s earned EXP has been increased a slight amount due to killing a being whose level is higher than their own.] x14 Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation. [Three points have been earned for killing a creature two levels above you.] x14 {Congratulations! You have leveled up to level 14! Your Species has awarded you +2 VIT, +2 DEX, +2 STR, +2 MAG, and +2 MEN. Your Class has awarded you +1 VIT, +1 DEX, +1 STR, +2 MAG, and +2 MEN.} [Level 15 Lesser Feeder Defeated. User¡¯s earned EXP has been increased a slight amount due to killing a being whose level is higher than their own.] x18 [Two points have been earned for killing a creature one level above you.] x18 {Congratulations! You have leveled up to level 15! Your Species has awarded you +2 VIT, +2 DEX, +2 STR, +2 MAG, and +2 MEN. Your Class has awarded you +1 VIT, +1 DEX, +1 STR, +2 MAG, and +2 MEN.} [*New Passive Skill* ¨C Quantum Singularity: Further stabilizes the user¡¯s place in reality and the quantum realm, making skills and magics with any relation to the quantum have less effect on the user. Potentially affects time magic, space magic, soul magic, death magic, and other magics that directly affect reality itself in some way shape or form. Skill is automatically slotted due to free open slots.] [Level 15 Lesser Feeder Defeated.] x26 [One point has been earned for killing a creature at the same level as you.] x26 {Congratulations! You have leveled up to level 16! Your Species has awarded you +2 VIT, +2 DEX, +2 STR, +2 MAG, and +2 MEN. Your Class has awarded you +1 VIT, +1 DEX, +1 STR, +2 MAG, and +2 MEN.} [Level 15 Lesser Feeder Defeated. User¡¯s earned EXP has been decreased a slight amount due to killing a being whose level is lower than their own.] x42 {Congratulations! You have leveled up to level 17! Your Species has awarded you +2 VIT, +2 DEX, +2 STR, +2 MAG, and +2 MEN. Your Class has awarded you +1 VIT, +1 DEX, +1 STR, +2 MAG, and +2 MEN.} {Congratulations! Your Active Skill ¡®Quantum Bolt¡¯ has reached Level 3!} [Level 17 Lesser Mother Feeder Defeated.] I narrow my eyes slightly at the new passive skill before sighing. It¡¯s a really good skill. For higher Tiers. I have never once heard of a single person with any of those types of magics at Tier 1. Not even at Tier 2, actually. So it¡¯ll probably be a great skill to have in the future since those are all incredibly powerful and dangerous magics. But right now it¡¯s useless. I sigh again before looking around the cavern to find another narrow tunnel entrance like the one I entered the cavern through. Except this one isn¡¯t smashed apart. After sending a brief glance at the under armor, which is still pretty badly damaged, I decide to bring it with me for the moment until I leave the boss room. Specifically because I might want it back later but don¡¯t need it now, and I won¡¯t be able to come back into the boss room if I leave. So I pick it up and make my way out of the cavern before continuing on through the tunnel, finding it completely barren of feeders in the process. And eventually I leave the boss room entirely. Then I soon find the tunnel opening up into an incredibly large cavern with a large maze beneath filled with cobwebs and large spiders. {Lesser Arachnid ¨C Level 21} {Lesser Arachnid ¨C Level 25} {Lesser Arachnid ¨C Level 20} {Lesser Arachnid ¨C Level 23} {Lesser Arachnid ¨C Level 22} I blink at the sight of the spiders'' levels, briefly wondering how I¡¯m gonna survive in this place. But then I remember the fact that these are Class E species while I¡¯m Class S. So I should survive. Probably. That depressing thought aside though, I dump my under armor onto the ground near me before sitting down on a random rock. I still haven¡¯t felt hungry nor thirsty this whole time, so I guess that really is an effect of my species. But don¡¯t all creatures need some form of nourishment to live? Or do quantum entities just defy the laws of reality? Then again, the strongest quantum entity kind of warped the laws of reality with the System he created, so¡­ maybe? I could also just be sustaining myself on the quantum energy around me. I think I¡¯ve heard that some species sustain themselves solely through elemental energy. It could be possible for me to be one of them. Come to think of it, I haven¡¯t checked the leaderboards in a while. [#1 Alexia Knight ¨C 161 points] [#2 Lucas Nightshade ¨C 108 points] [#3 Aurora Frost ¨C 94 points] [#4 Leif Eriksson ¨C 91 points] [#5 Leonidas Silver ¨C 84 points] [#6 Alexander Frost ¨C 84 points] [#7 Isabella d''Aragon ¨C 80 points] [#8 Noah Kowalski ¨C 78 points] [#9 Damien Black ¨C 76 points] [#10 Nathan Briar ¨C 75 points] Oh. Wow. Guess killing those pests helped me even more than I expected. Huh. I look around at the large cavern before noticing some odd sort of fluctuations in my senses. And it takes me a few seconds due to my exhaustion to realize that it¡¯s a quantum barrier. A Safe Zone. I¡¯m in a Safe Zone. I smile at that realization before falling onto my back and closing my eyes, finally letting my exhaustion take me, comforted by the fact that no monster can get into the Safe Zone. B1 | Chapter 15 - Shadowblade and a Maze Somewhere in Tutorial Block #108 After running into the former crown prince¡¯s team and continuing on around the island as the team goes into the jungle itself, the team fights more monsters all the way till Astrid finally reaches level ten. But right after finishing off the last monster of the most recent group of tigers, she hears Rob shout, ¡°Hey! Look down here!¡± Astrid turns her gaze away from both the tiger corpses and the level-up message to find Rob looking down over the edge of the island. ¡°Get back from there! It¡¯s dangerous!¡± Shelly shouts, and Alara and Aidan join in shouting at the idiot. ¡°No, look!¡± he says while pointing down and glancing at the group. ¡°It¡¯s a dungeon!¡± Astrid¡¯s lips part for a second before she runs over to him to find a rather old and decrepit set of stairs on the side of the island leading to a cave. And when her eyes lock onto the purple portal that¡¯s covering the entrance to the cave, she gasps at the sight of a new message. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Dungeon ¨C Crawling Caverns Description: This is a basic dungeon located within Tutorial Block #108 Monsters: The Primary monster type in this dungeon are arachnid-type monsters, with the secondary type being insects and common cave dwelling monsters. Requirements To Enter: Be a part of Tutorial Block #108. Dungeon Tier: 1 -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- ¡°He¡¯s right!¡± Astrid shouts. ¡°It¡¯s a Tier 1 dungeon!¡± Astrid hears the others running over to join them. And when they do, Alara mutters, ¡°An unclaimed dungeon¡­ this would be worth an entire life¡¯s savings back in the Kingdom. But it¡¯s probably a relatively common thing here, right?¡± She finishes this with a glance at Astrid, who nods in agreement. Almost every single dungeon back before the Reset was already claimed by someone, so they were monopolized heavily. But with this new dimension, and the new dungeons with it¡­ Astrid shakes her head at the thought as she says, ¡°We¡¯re too low level to deal with it. We should come back when we¡¯re stronger.¡± ¡°Or find a different one,¡± Shelly says with a shiver noticeable to the others. And when they look at her, she explains, ¡°I really don¡¯t like bugs.¡± Astrid just continues staring at her, only to shake her head. But she hears Alara mutter, ¡°I¡­ don¡¯t really like them either,¡± making her head spin around to the girl in shock. Really? Her too? That¡¯s¡­ really unexpected. Considering how she carries herself. ¡°I love bugs!¡± Aidan shouts, but the girls ignore him with only Rob giving him the time of day. Astrid rolls her eyes as she considers the dungeon. Dungeons tend to scale in level rather quickly, starting at the bottom of the Tier they¡¯re of and gradually climbing to the highest level of the Tier with a level 100 final boss. ¡°Well, I guess we could try to go in and see what¡¯s up before leaving again,¡± Rob suddenly suggests, bringing the other¡¯s attention to him and making him nervous all of the sudden. ¡°I mean, it¡¯s not like we¡¯ll be locked inside, right?¡± Astrid purses her lips as she considers his words before turning to look at Alara, only to find the girl shaking her head. ¡°No,¡± she eventually says. ¡°Not until we all have classes at least. But I¡¯m not entirely sure the dungeons will work the same here as they did on our old dimension.¡± ¡°Why not?¡± Astrid asks, raising a brow out of interest. Alara turns to her and answers, ¡°Because the memory suggested that they didn¡¯t in a roundabout way when I asked.¡± ¡°Wait a second,¡± Aidan asks, turning serious again. ¡°You could ask the System Creator¡¯s memory questions?¡± Alara nods. And when he turns to look at the others, they do as well. The man then just groans without another word, proving that he didn¡¯t think to ask him anything. ¡°If that¡¯s the case, then I¡¯d rather wait until we¡¯re level thirty to even try the dungeon,¡± Astrid admits, and the others nod their heads before they all begin walking away from the dungeon. But when they reach the center of the path again, Astrid calls out, ¡°Wait. I¡¯m going to get my class now.¡± Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon. The others all nod and begin getting comfortable while they wait. And so Astrid takes a deep breath before opening her status and focusing on the Select Class button. [Class Selection Process Beginning¡­] [Please choose your class from the following options.] -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Magic Knight Description: You have learned to use various weapons and trained in the art of magic, growing powerful and able to use magic together with your weapons. Stats Per Level: +1 VIT, +1 DEX, +1 STR, +2 MAG, +1 MEN Requirements: Have a minimum of Class B in any one elemental affinity. Have the Mana Manipulation General Skill. Confirm -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Knight Description: You have learned to use various weapons and trained in the art of enhancement magic, growing powerful and able to use magic together with your weapons. Stats Per Level: +1 VIT, +1 DEX, +1 STR, +1 MAG, +1 MEN Requirements: Have a minimum of Class C in any one elemental affinity. Confirm -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Shadow Assassin Description: You have learned to use various weapons, have wrought control over shadows, and understand how to attack from the shadows. Stats Per Level: +2 DEX, +1 STR, +1 MAG, +1 MEN Requirements: Have a minimum affinity of Class B in the Shadow element. Confirm -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Class after class after class shows up for Astrid, and right when she¡¯s about to clear them all out and select the Magic Knight class, one last one appears, catching her attention. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Shadowblade Description: You have learned to use various weapons and have become one with the shadows. Stats Per Level: +1 VIT, +1 DEX, +1 STR, +2 MAG, +1 MEN Requirements: Have a minimum affinity of Class B in the Shadow element. Have the Mana Manipulation General Skill. Confirm -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- The same stats per level as a Magic Knight on a class I¡¯d never heard of before¡­ does that mean there are new classes with the Reset? Astrid frowns as she looks at it. Gramps always said that having a class solely for the highest Class affinity you have is better than having a general one¡­ and I only have three affinities, one of which is Class D. So it¡¯s not like I lose anything choosing this over Magic Knight¡­ plus I¡¯m not serving a nation anymore. So being a knight would be¡­ After a few more seconds of thought, Astrid goes ahead and selects confirm. [Congratulations, your class is now the rare class, Shadowblade!] Then she grins when she sees the first skill given to her by the class. Yeah, I can work with this.
Alexia Knight ¡°That¡¯s it, I¡¯m breaking a wall,¡± I grunt as I finish turning the corner again to find another dead end in the maze. Then I pull my fist back and strike at the wall. Ow. I turn around and walk away, letting my fist heal through my soul. This maze is going to be the death of me. Possibly literally. I tried to climb the walls to the top of the maze, but there was some sort of invisible barrier above it that blocked me. And when I tried going to the outside of the maze to climb the walls there, the barrier was still there. The only bright side of things is that the maze¡¯s corridors are wide enough for me to fight with my glaive without any issues. Doesn¡¯t change the fact that I¡¯ve run into more dead ends than I care to count already. I think I¡¯ve run into more dead ends than I¡¯ve seen- My thoughts cut off when a scuttling sound comes from down the corridor, marking another spider. So I tighten my grip a little on my glaive and raise my other hand to be ready to send off a bolt as I look around, searching for the creature. And soon enough, another two-meter-long spider crawls along the wall while turning a corner and letting out a hiss. But I send a Quantum Bolt at it right away, knocking it down from the wall, only for it to shoot out a sticky webbing from its spinneret to latch onto the wall, flinging it into the wall before grabbing it with its feet. I¡¯m already used to this by now though and have another bolt on its way to the wall, blasting the spider again and making it continue its fall. And as it falls, I send a third bolt, striking it midair and sending it flying several meters away. Before it hits the ground, I run up, swinging my glaive in an upwards arc, cutting through the already badly hurt spider, and killing it in an instant. Then I flick the blood that isn¡¯t blood off and let out a short sigh. [Level 22 Lesser Arachnid Defeated. User¡¯s earned EXP has been increased a small amount due to killing a being whose level is higher than their own.] [Four points have been earned for killing a creature three levels above you.] And that makes ten arachnids slain. At least the things don¡¯t fight in groups, making them not actually much trouble to fight. Although they¡¯d likely be more trouble if I didn¡¯t have a ranged attack. Since I learned early on that they like trying to wrap their prey up in a cocoon of webbing from all the way up on the wall. Something that I assume is rather unpleasant and not something I want happening to me. So I just blast them every time I see them. I stretch a little as I continue retracing my steps a bit before finding the crossroads again and choosing one of the other two remaining paths. And within five seconds end up finding myself at another dead end. Fucking maze. B1 | Chapter 16 - Roadblock Alexia Knight I can¡¯t help but smile when I finally get out of the maze who knows how many hours later. Surprisingly, the maze wasn¡¯t all that dangerous to me. It was mostly just a pain to make it through. But now that I¡¯m finally out of there, I begin walking towards the tunnel across from the maze¡¯s exit I just passed through. Although I¡¯m still curious as to why I haven¡¯t seen any of those scythids. Unless the things were slaughtered by something else? I can definitely see those spiders snacking on them. I glance at the leaderboards as I walk. [#1 Alexia Knight ¨C 253 points] [#2 Lucas Nightshade ¨C 227 points] [#3 Aurora Frost ¨C 201 points] [#4 Leif Eriksson ¨C 195 points] [#5 Leonidas Silver ¨C 187 points] [#6 Isabella d''Aragon ¨C 185 points] [#7 Alexander Frost ¨C 174 points] [#8 Noah Kowalski ¨C 173 points] [#9 Nathan Briar ¨C 169 points] [#10 Damien Black ¨C 165 points] Hmm. Looks like the Hound started closing the gap a little bit. I wonder what Tutorial block they¡¯re in? Certainly hope it¡¯s not mine. That guy¡¯s bad news. Even after being reset I can¡¯t see him as being anything but dangerous. The man is famous for having singlehandedly burned an entire empire to the ground with everyone still inside of it after he went insane one day. Why he went insane is completely unknown to anyone. Just that he was perfectly fine one moment, then the next he snapped and torched the entire empire in a single strike that turned the continent they dominated into a wasteland. He was never really seen after that though. This is the first I¡¯ve heard of him since. Once I enter the tunnel, I can tell that everything suddenly got a lot darker. Even if I can still see perfectly fine. But despite that, I still don¡¯t see any monsters. So I continue walking while wondering just what the Hound might try doing in the new dimension. A frown crests my face as I hear a strange chittering sound. I raise my glaive in the direction of the sound before turning the corner and finding a large scythid. One at a much higher level than the ones I had seen earlier. {Lesser Scythid ¨C Level 27} Oh, shit. This thing is eight levels above me. It¡¯s also just staring at me without moving for some reason. So I tilt my head with a frown in confusion. Then it sprints forward out of nowhere, raising one of its scythed limbs and slashing it down towards me, not giving me any time to block it as the blade goes straight in and out of my arm where the armor isn¡¯t covering, cutting down into my bone and making me scream out in pain. But I manage to push through it anyways thanks to pain resistance and my own training with Gramps as I quickly and forcefully cut off my own scream and swing my glaive up with my right arm ¨C the uninjured one ¨C cutting into its arm as well. Its arm turns out to barely be attached though, and is severs without much trouble, making the creature let out a scream to match my own. Then I push through the pain to raise my left arm before sending a few quantum bolts into the thing, blasting open its side and sending it flying onto the ground. Even after that, the creature still manages to survive. Although it can¡¯t seem to get up or move. So I reach my glaive forward before cutting off its other arm from a safer distance and then stepping forward to cut off its head, finally killing it. [Level 27 Lesser Scythid Defeated. User¡¯s earned EXP has been increased due to killing a being whose level is five or more higher than their own.] [Nine points have been earned for killing a creature eight levels above you.] If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. {Congratulations! You have leveled up to level 20! Your Species has awarded you +2 VIT, +2 DEX, +2 STR, +2 MAG, and +2 MEN. Your Class has awarded you +1 VIT, +1 DEX, +1 STR, +2 MAG, and +2 MEN.} [*New Active Skill* ¨C Quantum Reversal: Revert time on just the user¡¯s body, reversing a limited amount of damage in an instant along with the effects of the damage. The price of the skill scales with the amount of damage and the skill¡¯s level, and wounds that would be considered fatal by the System are only partially reversible. Skill is automatically slotted due to free open slots.] My eyes widen at the sudden time reversal skill before I immediately use it, making the wound on my arm suddenly open up wider as I scream even louder than before only for it to close all at once as I drop to my knees, holding my arm. Fuck that hurt! It doesn¡¯t just reverse the damage. The skill reverses time itself, so I have to reexperience the pain and any healing that had happened since getting the wound as well. Which would certainly explain why the System gave a time reversal skill at such a low level. I glance at my status before my mouth drops open in shock.
Name: Alexia Knight Species: Quantum Reaper(T1)
Level: 20 Class: Quantum Reaper
Soul: 402/1687.5
VIT: 58 DEX: 58 STR: 58 MAG: 77 MEN: 77
Racial Skills Active Skills
Passive Skills General Skills
And I guess that makes the skill balanced. Just reversing a single wound reaching down to the bone cost me about a thousand soul at an estimate. I honestly could¡¯ve just waited for it to heal on its own. Probably would¡¯ve only taken about three or four hundred soul to do that. Then again, the price should drop when the skill levels, so it¡¯s not completely useless. Will be a pain to level though. Literally. More chittering sounds echo from down the tunnel, following which I see four more of the things rushing around the corner, likely looking to investigate all the screaming. {Lesser Scythid ¨C Level 27} {Lesser Scythid ¨C Level 28} {Lesser Scythid ¨C Level 26} {Lesser Scythid ¨C Level 27} Oh, heellll no! I immediately turn around and begin running while occasionally sending quantum bolts at the running scythids to slow them down, seeing as they¡¯re already faster than me. And the moment I make it back to the maze area, feeling everything grow brighter again, I glance behind me, just to find the scythids disappearing the moment they pass through the barrier between areas. Wait¡­ what? Before I can move forward to investigate, the scythids suddenly appear again while walking further into the tunnel, only to turn around and make chittering sounds at me for a few seconds. Huh. Wait a second, could this area be off limits to them for some reason? Maybe to keep them from ending up lost in the maze and killing the spiders? If I had to guess, they¡¯re being teleported to the other side of the maze. And they¡¯ll probably be teleported past the boss room too, which would explain why I never saw any of the scythids back there. Although these ones are too high in level compared to the first ones I saw. I frown at the thought as the bugs continue staring at me, once in a while making chittering sounds in anger. A few seconds of staring later, I raise both of my hands again to send a quantum bolt at them, only for it to vanish when it hits the border between areas. Yeah, didn¡¯t expect that to work. The bugs let out a huff ¨C which I didn¡¯t realize they could do ¨C before turning around and quickly beating a retreat through the tunnel. Hmm. This could be a problem. How am I going to get through this tunnel? Hunt them one by one? That seems like the only possible action. Just to hunt them one by one until I reach their level, running back into this area whenever I get overwhelmed. Guess the time reversal skill does help a lot in regard to speeding up a major wound¡¯s healing process, even if it costs more soul in the end. Means I can get rid of a crippling injury faster. Something that can mean the difference between life and death in a given situation. Anyways, I look at the tunnel for a moment before walking over to a random rock and lying down. Nothing to do now but wait for my soul to regenerate. Because monsters don¡¯t tend to respawn naturally in dungeons until the instance of the dungeon is complete. There might still be a spider left alive though, so I should stay awake. Which means waiting a couple hours staring at the ceiling. Fun. B1 | Chapter 17 - Consideration Alexia Knight I stretch a little while staring up at the ceiling. At least it finally gives me a chance to really think about what¡¯s happened. Since I haven¡¯t really stopped to think about everything yet. I¡¯ve just been fighting and working nonstop. But now that I¡¯m actually thinking¡­ I lost everything, didn¡¯t I? Everything but my family and friends. Which are all that really matter, especially since I didn¡¯t exactly have much that I cared about in the first place. Nothing that I really cared about in terms of items at least. I wish we could¡¯ve kept our photo of mom though. But it was getting old and blurry anyways, since it was from the early days of the System. Maybe even before that. Gramps actually thought our mother was someone from the original Initialization, when our world along with who knows how many worlds were all merged into a grand plane centering on our planet with the initialization of the System into the world. And the addition of monsters too, because apparently they didn¡¯t have those back then. Before the Initialization. Which I find bizarre. I believe the professors at the academy also mentioned that the System¡¯s Initialization stalled regular technological development permanently as well. Not sure why or how though. No one ever explains that. But Gramps to this day still thinks mom was from that time purely because of me and Lexi¡¯s Class B affinities. After all, it could¡¯ve just been a coincidence if only one of us had one. But for both of us to have a Class B affinity? We had to have been born to someone powerful. Although too bad our affinities didn¡¯t leave much to the realm of use since both mine and Astrid¡¯s are rarer affinities that very few people really know how to use beyond the basics. And very few classes are offered for them. Shadow for Astrid, and Astral for me. And while there are plenty of classes out there for shadow magic, just none that Gramps knew how to get, there aren¡¯t many out there for astral magic. Actually¡­ I sit up on the rock. ¡­do I even have that affinity anymore? Considering that I got a Class S perfect affinity for the quantum element now? One of the few elements that doesn¡¯t use mana. If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation. Huh. Interesting thought. But at the same time, I don¡¯t have mana, so I don¡¯t think I¡¯d be able to use the magic now even if I did still have the affinity. I lie back down on the rock again. Wonder how Astrid is doing right now? Is she safe? Did she get Magic Knight back? Or maybe a better class? I hope she¡¯s at least with the others from our team, assuming she wasn¡¯t separated like I was. She tends to get a little narrowminded when focused on something. Not that I¡¯m really one to talk, considering I haven¡¯t even thought much about the actual consequences of the Reset while fighting for my life this whole time. Part of that is just that I don¡¯t care much though. I didn¡¯t really like the other dimension, and I didn¡¯t have any real attachments besides people who are also now in this new dimension. In fact, if anything, I¡¯m probably happy about this Reset. Not so happy about how it happened though. I don¡¯t like being forced against my will to do things. Even if the benefits I got are very nice. Only thing I take issue with aside from that though is the whole ¡®dumping me in a dungeon¡¯ thing. Because that¡¯s just rude. I let out a sigh at that thought, continuing to stare up at the ceiling for a few seconds before glancing at my status to find my soul having only gone up by several dozen points. This is gonna take a while.
A couple hours pass in boring silence before I finally climb to my feet, my soul mostly regenerated now even if it¡¯s still missing a few hundred points. Then I begin walking towards the tunnel, soon entering the dark that is not dark again. I quickly summon my polearm as I walk, making sure not to activate the energy around it so as to keep the area dark. Since I wouldn¡¯t be surprised if the creatures might end up finding me a lot faster if I filled it with light. Seconds pass in silence, then the seconds turn into minutes and before I know it, I¡¯m entering a large cavern. The cavern is filled with trees and large leaves stemming from the trees like platforms. And all across the little underground forest are who knows how many scythids just roaming around. I kneel down to make myself as small and hard to see from down there as possible. Okay, I don¡¯t like this place. My eyes are drawn to a large body of water at the edge of the cavern, but once again I feel no thirst towards the water despite not having had anything to drink for what must be at least a day now. Maybe nearing two days. Guess my body really must be absorbing the quantum energy of my surroundings to sustain me. A rather convenient fact. Wish it made it so I didn¡¯t need sleep though. Looking down at the forest and all of the scythids, they seem to be moving in a rather ordered manner, and all of them are working. Meanwhile the trees themselves have holes in them where the creatures are going in and out of the trees. It¡¯s like a hive in a way. Although I don¡¯t remember praying mantises ever having any sort of hivelike structure. In fact, I¡¯m pretty sure they don¡¯t. So I guess these really aren¡¯t just oversized mantises after all. Not that I truly thought they were. I watch them move about for a little bit before briefly wondering how exactly I¡¯m going to go about leveling up in this room. And it doesn¡¯t take long to come up with an idea. But first I¡¯ll have to test some things. Like how good their hearing is, how good their smell is, and how far they can see. Most importantly, I¡¯ll need to test how obvious it is to them when I shine a bright light in their pitch black cavern filled with a vibrant green forest that I have no idea how is living down here in the first place. Then again, sometimes it¡¯s better to just blame the System for unexplainable things and move on rather than trying to figure out a logical reason for it. The System does tend to have a habit of warping reality after all. It¡¯s kind of what the quantum element is best at. That or destroying reality. Anyways, time to get to work. B1 | Chapter 18 - Planning and Assassination Alexia Knight I end up using this testing period to also regenerate more of my soul, since the majority of the testing doesn¡¯t really require me to use any skills. Except teleporting, since that¡¯s a convenient skill to have for sneaking around a giant natural tree house hive thingy. My tests start out with simply trying to sneak up on the bugs, which fails rather quickly as they hear me by the time I step within five meters or so of them even when I¡¯m walking as quietly as I can. And in each of the five times I tested them, they always heard me at around that mark before I teleported back out of sight, always making sure to have a good spot to hide within two meters of myself during the tests. After that I run a test simply by standing up at the top of the cliff that has the tunnel back to the maze of spiders before waiting for one of them to see me. But they never do. So their eyesight isn¡¯t as good as I was expecting. As for their sense of smell? I realize in the middle of trying to approach one while thinking of a way to test it that they don¡¯t have noses. And if they can still somehow smell without one, they don¡¯t seem to be able to do it well since they haven¡¯t smelled me yet. Then again, I don¡¯t stink. I think. After I reach a safe place I can¡¯t help but sniff myself, only to cringe slightly. Okay, maybe being covered in bug guts and poison over and over again while wearing carapace armor and being cut open all the time isn¡¯t a very good way to smell good. Maybe I can take a bath after I kill these bugs? They won¡¯t need that water anymore after all. And I don¡¯t appear to need to drink water either. I should keep some of the water just in case I do though. Since for all I know, I might just be able to go far longer than before without needing water. Well, anyways, I raise a hand and send a quantum bolt flying into the air above the forest, but surprisingly none of the bugs seem to even notice. Then I send another one closer down to them, in between the trees themselves without hitting any of the trees. And this one they notice, but only after it gets within a dozen or so meters of them. They also can¡¯t seem to figure out where it¡¯s coming from, instead simply growing confused. Alrighty then. Tests complete. These creatures have no sense of smell, terrible eyesight despite their night vision, but great hearing. Although I¡¯ll bet their vision is better in the light just because of the fact that the scythid from before could see me across the river. That or they just heard me. And they have sharp scythes that seem to have some poison on them. My arm can attest to that. I glance at my status considering how it overpowered my 80% immunity to physical damage with the magical poison damage.
Name: Alexia Knight Species: Quantum Reaper(T1)
Level: 20 Class: Quantum Reaper
Soul: 1570/1687.5
VIT: 58 DEX: 58 STR: 58 MAG: 77 MEN: 77
Racial Skills Active Skills
Passive Skills General Skills
Good. Regenerated a decent chunk while doing that testing, even if I did occasionally teleport. This narrative has been purloined without the author''s approval. Report any appearances on Amazon. I look down at the scythids who are now going back to whatever they were doing before I begin climbing down the cliff again. And once I reach the bottom, I quickly move into a bush before waiting for a scythid to get close without any other scythids nearby this secluded location. One second passes. Then another. Soon half a minute goes by with the only noise being the chitter of the creatures filling the forest until one of them finally approaches with its eyes on a random stack of food set here for seemingly no reason. And the moment it grabs it, I jump forwards while teleporting straight to it and stabbing it straight through the throat with my glaive. Then I grab it and teleport back close to the bush, dragging it the rest of the way in myself. And that¡¯s one. [Level 27 Lesser Scythid Defeated. User¡¯s earned EXP has been increased due to killing a being whose level is five or more higher than their own.] [Eight points have been earned for killing a creature seven levels above you.] I glance at my soul to find that it cost over twice as much soul to teleport something other than me. Interesting to know. I look at the corpse I dragged past the bushes with me before just tossing it into the cliff wall, making the start of what should hopefully be a rather large pile by the end of this. Either that or I end up running and climbing the cliff like my life depends on it from a horde of bugs. Because my life would depend on it. I look back out before crouching and moving up to the bushes as I hear the footsteps of another bug approaching. And when I reach the bushes and peek through, I find and hear the creature pausing in front of the food while tilting its head slightly in what I can only assume is confusion. That has me tensing up slightly, since one thing I didn¡¯t think to test was their intelligence. And if they¡¯re smarter than mere insects¡­ they may notice their people going missing one by- The creature just steps forward and reaches for the food, not bothering with the fact that someone else was supposed to grab it. Nevermind. Looks like they¡¯re stupid. I jump out of the bushes while teleporting before stabbing it in the throat as it¡¯s reaching down, grabbing it, and teleporting back while jumping back into the bushes again. Then I toss its body over to the other one and return to my spot in the bushes. This is a very nice and hidden location with only one way to get in outside of from above. So it¡¯s rather nice to use as a little hiding spot. Let¡¯s see how many of these bugs I can assassinate before they notice me. B1 | Chapter 19 - Progress and Fear Alexia Knight I smile at the System Message that I let play after killing the forty-third scythid and dumping their body with the others. [Level 27 Lesser Scythid Defeated. User¡¯s earned EXP has been increased due to killing a being whose level is five or more higher than their own.] [Six points have been earned for killing a creature five levels above you.] {Congratulations! You have leveled up to level 23! Your Species has awarded you +2 VIT, +2 DEX, +2 STR, +2 MAG, and +2 MEN. Your Class has awarded you +1 VIT, +1 DEX, +1 STR, +2 MAG, and +2 MEN.} Nice! The chittering freezes for a moment from all around the forest before a wave of chittering echoes out and then everything returns to normal. Which I¡¯ve learned by now marks their leader ¨C who is a scythid spanning two meters in height with much sharper blades living in the main tree ¨C giving out orders to their subordinates. Something that quickly made me realize that the leader was a Class D species. Since that¡¯s the bare minimum for actual intelligence in a creature. The first Class D species I¡¯ve seen in the dungeon. I climb up the cliff before kneeling down at the edge even though I don¡¯t need to and looking down to watch the shift in the scythid¡¯s patrols. Something that¡¯s happened a few times before. Every time I clear out too many of the bugs, making their leader aware that something is wrong. Good thing the leader isn¡¯t smart enough to actually leave their tree and hunt me themselves. Because that could be a problem, what with it being level thirty-one and all. And a Class D species instead of E, making my advantage in species a little weaker than against the Es. Sooner or later though I¡¯ll finish off all of the scythids on the ground and have to move on to the ones in the trees and on the leaves themselves. Which will likely be a lot more dangerous. I look around the forest, checking out the numbers of scythids left and finding there to still be around a hundred or so. Although there are probably another fifty ish left inside of the trees from what I¡¯ve seen the few times I passed by an opening to one. And only around one or two dozen of the things are on the ground, the rest being on the large leaves making up little platforms high up on the trees. Looks like my hunt will only stay on the ground for another hour or so. The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. I sigh at that thought, feeling more than a little frustrated at having been in here for what must be up to half a day already. In fact, I wouldn¡¯t be surprised if the third day of the Reset has already started. Then again, these things are making for good EXP and points. Especially points, considering how much I¡¯ve shot up the rankings by now. I watch as the patrols shift around until they¡¯re set in place again. Then I study the patrols and the new jobs assigned to each scythid, making sure to also watch out for any of them that may be leaving the forest to my location, which actually doesn¡¯t happen often, before eventually jumping down to the hiding spot again. Time to go back to hunting.
Somewhere in Tutorial Block #2 [#1 Alexia Knight ¨C 543 points] [#2 Lucas Nightshade ¨C 467 points] [#3 Leif Eriksson ¨C 425 points] [#4 Aurora Frost ¨C 421 points] [#5 Leonidas Silver ¨C 397 points] [#6 Isabella d''Aragon ¨C 385 points] [#7 Alexander Frost ¨C 374 points] [#8 Noah Kowalski ¨C 373 points] [#9 Nathan Briar ¨C 369 points] [#10 Damien Black ¨C 365 points] Aurora grits her teeth as she looks at the leaderboards, finding her position to have dropped since the last time she checked. And to make matters worse, the man responsible for it is the damned former king of Arcadia. I hope that bastard drowns in a river in whatever dungeon he¡¯s in. It¡¯s just too bad we were all spawned in different dungeons, assuming the memory was speaking the truth. The woman sighs after a few seconds before glancing at the top two positions and feeling just as much confusion as she suspects every other former Ascendant is feeling. Just who is this girl? Some sort of former Ascendant who never managed to get a single legendary feat? The Hound she understands being at the top of the rankings. After all, he¡¯s the Hound. But a random no-name girl without any Legendary Feats to her name? That she can¡¯t understand. Especially since she¡¯s ranking even higher than the Hound is. Maybe she has some sort of special elemental affinity that she wasn¡¯t ever able to use until now? I know just from my new class alone that there are new classes introduced to this Reset, so it¡¯s possible someone of incredible potential but no actual ability to reach it got a chance from this Reset and is shooting to achieve the same strength as the Hound¡­ Even if the very thought of that terrifies the former Empress of Niflheim. She shakes her head again and closes out of the leaderboard, focusing her attention once more on the stone bridge hanging between her and the other side of the lava-filled ravine. And more importantly, at the kobolds standing on the other side and all around the bridge itself. The lizard people simply patrolling it without doing much else thanks to the lack of anything attacking them at the moment. Aurora kneels down while drawing an arrow from her quiver and nocking it onto her bow, her cloak billowing thanks to the heat wafting off of the lava down below. Then she draws it while aiming at the highest level kobold on the bridge. Well, considering the danger of this Reset, it¡¯s entirely possible that this new girl could be killed by other people who are just jealous of her ranking. And with that thought, she lets loose the arrow, sending it flying straight into the skull of the kobold before the thing¡¯s entire head explodes into fragments of ice that bombard the other kobolds around it. B1 | Chapter 20 - The Chase Alexia Knight Loud chittering echoes throughout the forest when an assassination fails on the upper floors of the ¡®tree house¡¯ and I¡¯m forced to sprint out of the building after cutting the head off of the scythid. By the time I¡¯m out of the tree though, I find dozens of scythids rushing towards me, all of which are higher leveled than me. Shit. This didn¡¯t go well. My gaze locks on the cliff before I begin running across the leaves towards it, occasionally teleporting and cutting the arm or head off of a scythid when one rushes towards me and almost hits me. But fortunately my own speed has almost caught up with theirs thanks to my leveling, so none of them manage to get a major hit on me, the worst they do being small scratches across my arms and legs. Scratches that would¡¯ve been much worse if it weren¡¯t for Quantum Body, making them heal quickly thanks to my soul. The chittering continues growing louder and louder as more and more of the annoying bugs join the chase, with each of them slowly catching up repeatedly only to fall behind a little when I cut one down and teleport forward to regain some distance. Which is honestly a much faster way to kill them than the slow assassinations I was performing earlier, even if it¡¯s significantly less safe. Out of nowhere, as I¡¯m about halfway through the forest to the cliff, four different scythids jump out of a higher floor of the trees to land on the leaves in front of me, so I duck down under one of their scythes, swinging my glaive around to cut through their knee before I jump to my feet again. Then two of the others rush at me at the same time, one snapping their curved triangular mouth at me, just barely missing me as I duck my head backwards while the other swings both of its scythe arms down on me, one of them missing and the other cutting just barely into my neck but only leaving a small scratch. My eyes widen at that, and I respond by sending a bolt of quantum energy at the one that almost got me before spinning around and swinging my glaive into the other, not hitting it with the blade end but still sending it flying off of the leaf anyways as I focus my attention on the fourth one who is now rushing forwards. But this one I manage to bring my glaive up horizontally with both hands on it, blocking both of its scythes before I kick out its legs, redirect the things blades, and let go of my glaive to send a quantum bolt straight into its gut. Then I teleport past the thing to regain distance on the ones chasing me. I take a quick look at my soul to find it still over three fourths full as I begin jumping from leaf to leaf, having reached the point of the little leaf platforms where they start lowering down to the ground. And at this point, the scythids manage to gain even more ground on me purely because they weigh less than me despite me being generally considered rather small despite my physically fit nature and the leaves tolerate their landing better than my own. After just a few jumps following which I jump once more straight towards the ground, I feel the magical energy of a scythid getting too close, but since I¡¯m in the air I can¡¯t do much about it besides begin turning while raising my glaive. The creature is too fast though, and its scythes cut straight into my back, tearing into the wrapping making up the armor and slicing into me as I let out a short choke of pain before swinging my glaive into the creature, cutting through its side all the way from one end to the other. The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement. Then I crash to the ground, not managing to land on my feet. ¡°Fuck,¡± I mutter as I look up to find over half a dozen scythids already flying through the air towards me with many more following behind them. I teleport two meters away, closer to the cliff right before they land, striking at where I was just at and causing some more confusion amongst them while I begin running with all the strength I have left, repeatedly teleporting along the way and burning through my soul in the process. But thanks to my wound, running is a lot more difficult now, and I¡¯m pretty sure using quantum reversal will just end up draining me dry of soul entirely at a rapid pace considering the amount I have left, which is nearing halfway empty,. Damn these stupid insects! I wish I could just set this entire place on fire, but there isn¡¯t any flint here for me to light! Probably because the dungeon itself didn¡¯t like the idea of someone burning down the forest and taking the easy way out without magic. And my quantum magic only leaves burns on things that survive it. It doesn¡¯t set things on fire. Moments like these make me wish I had even the slightest ounce of fire affinity. Not that it¡¯d do much good for me without mana. I continue moving, repeatedly looking back to find the creatures gradually gaining on me again until I finally make it to the cliff. Then I realize the issue of my wound stopping me from climbing. So I turn around and start firing off bolts of quantum energy at the approaching scythids, killing them back and forth while slowing them down until I get another level-up message. {Congratulations! You have leveled up to level 25! Your Species has awarded you +2 VIT, +2 DEX, +2 STR, +2 MAG, and +2 MEN. Your Class has awarded you +1 VIT, +1 DEX, +1 STR, +2 MAG, and +2 MEN.} [*New Passive Skill* ¨C Quantum Infusion: All of your physical attacks are now infused with a small amount of quantum energy from the environment, regardless of if the attacks were made with your body or through equipment. Skill is automatically slotted due to free open slots.] My eyes widen in shock at the new skill. One of the best types of passive skills for most classes in combat, since it lets you use your magic without actually needing to use your mana. Or in my case, soul. And generally this skill just stacks on top of the effects of equipment that already do the same, making them stronger. I continue sending bolts of quantum energy at the enemies until I feel the wound on my back having healed enough for me to push through the pain and begin climbing the cliff. Then I quickly teleport from one stable location to another until I finally reach the top of the cliff and look down, finding the scythids all rushing up faster than I did, gaining the ground they had lost due to my attacks. Without any hesitation, I send several quantum bolts down at the ones closest to the top, knocking them back down to the bottom and killing a few of them before I start running towards the tunnel and then through it, ignoring the scythids that are finally starting to reach the top by this point. I keep running and running, occasionally teleporting to speed myself up a bit until I finally make it back to the maze and immediately collapse on the ground covered from head to toe in sweat. But I quickly roll myself over with far more effort than it would normally take to find the dozens of scythids standing outside of the area, many of them having continued past the barrier, disappearing in the process. Who knows how long passes as the creatures chitter away at me from the other side of the barrier before they finally start to leave. Although not without leaving a few of them at the barrier to watch me, the creatures finally showing a bit more intellect. My head drops to the ground, my strength finally leaving me now that I¡¯m safe again. Or mostly safe, since there could technically be spiders somewhere around here. But I don¡¯t sense any, so it should be fine. Plus they¡¯re weaker than the scythids and in fewer numbers. I stare at the ceiling of the cavern for a long time before muttering, ¡°Maybe I should just find a damned hidden exit¡­¡± Too bad the things only appear starting at the halfway point of each dungeon¡­ B1 | Chapter 21 - Another Clone Alexia Knight I just lie on the ground for who knows how long, my wound having regenerated long ago despite me still feeling exhausted as I wait for my soul to regenerate. But eventually I find myself frowning as a System Notification appears in my vision.
Three days have now passed since the System Reset. All surviving System users will now be given further details about the Tutorials. The Tutorials are split up into ten thousand Blocks, each with billions of people in them. The location where everyone ended up was decided based on the location each user was at prior to the Reset, along with whether or not the user in question had a Legendary Feat. Those with a Legendary Feat were sent into a dungeon located nearby the others who were near them prior to the Reset, in the same Block as them. Those who did not have a Legendary Feat were sent to the same location as those who were within thirty meters of them prior to the Reset. The first runs of each dungeon done by the Legendary Feat holders in said dungeons must be done to completion, making it impossible for the dungeon runner to leave or anyone else to join their instance and help them. This is to challenge them at the System Creator¡¯s request to see if they are truly worthy of the Epic Class the Legendary Feats may or may not have given them at the beginning of the Resets. However, after proven worthy of their class through completing the dungeon they were sent to, they may do whatever they wish, just like all the other users. At this point, nearly one fourth of all Legendary Feat holders have been killed in their dungeons.
My jaw drops open at the answer to one of the biggest questions I¡¯ve had since the Reset. I¡¯m here because I have a Legendary Feat? Seriously? I frown for a moment before sighing. Guess that¡¯s actually a better answer than ¡®I¡¯m here because I killed the System¡¯s Creator¡¯ would¡¯ve been. So I can¡¯t really complain. Another System Notification appears, replacing the first.
At the end of the first month of the Reset, the Tutorial will come to a close. During this first month, System users may all accumulate points. These points will be used to determine their reward at the end of the Tutorial and may be used to purchase items in the Tutorial shop at that point. Furthermore, users may kill other users to steal a fifth of their total points. Those users killed by another user will simply enter a stasis for the remaining duration of the Tutorial, after which they will be sent to the new dimension just like everyone else. However, this rule does not apply to those who committed suicide in any way with the intention of doing so, including those who have others kill them to avoid a permanent death or those others deciding to kill them with the intension of making them enter stasis to avoid death without their permission. The designation of the ¡®user¡¯ status includes any species Class B and above, while species who are Class C and below are considered ¡®monsters¡¯ by the System. Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings. Identify has been updated in the Reset to be able to identify System Items. New classes have been introduced in the Reset. New skills have been introduced in the Reset. New monsters have been introduced in the Reset, and some of these monsters may potentially evolve into new user species as they reach higher Tiers. Previously attained Legendary Feats aside from the ones kept by users across the Reset have been reset and are available to obtain again. All monsters are set to Tier 1 within the Tutorial and may not grow stronger than that. All dungeons within the Tutorial are set to Tier 1. More changes have been made that will not be revealed now. A Memory of the System¡¯s Creator will be sent to each user to act as a guide for the duration of one hour.
That¡¯s a lot of new stuff. More than I expected. The notification disappears, following which a flash of purple light shines out of nowhere in front of me before the System Creator appears. Or rather, his memory. ¡°No, you were right, I¡¯m him,¡± he says, making my eyes widen in shock at his blatant reading of my thoughts. ¡°At this point, any memory sent to you will be one of the original¡¯s clones. So you better get used to my reading your mind.¡± I don¡¯t think that¡¯ll ever happen. ¡°Too bad,¡± he comments, almost making me do a double take at him. ¡°Well, now that we¡¯re in agreement-¡± What agreement?! ¡°-I can move on to answering your questions! Since that¡¯s what I¡¯m here to do, right?¡± he continues, ignoring my inner shout. ¡°Oh, and you¡¯ll only get ten minutes of questions since I¡¯m a clone and not a memory.¡± My eye twitches and I finally sit up before muttering, ¡°I really hate you¡­¡± ¡°That, I do believe, is a statement and not a question,¡± he says in a sagely tone of voice that has me really wanting to punch him. ¡°Do try not to waste your ten minutes with obviously inaccurate statements.¡± Is this guy just designed to piss me off? ¡°No, I¡¯m not,¡± he answers my thoughts, only making me even more angry in the process. ¡°But you should stop wasting your time.¡± I take a deep breath before letting it out and taking his annoying advice by asking, ¡°Why did you choose me to kill you? There had to have been at least a few Ascendants who already have Legendary Feats and far more knowledge than me who also had an affinity in the quantum element. So why me?¡± He stares at me for a few seconds, his eyes flashing as he mutters, ¡°Give me a second while I download the memories of my original from the System¡­¡± It doesn¡¯t take long for the flashing to stop before he bluntly answers, ¡°It was because the original was running out of soul to keep the rift open, and he couldn¡¯t regenerate more in the void. So he chose the first person with affinity to the quantum element that neared the rift and fit his basic requirements.¡± My jaw drops open. That¡¯s why?! Just because I happened to be near it and fit the requirements? No large reason for it or anything? ¡°Correct,¡± he states with a nod, ¡°although I will note that your interesting parents did influence my original¡¯s deciding to go ahead and choose you, along with your temperament. Since not just anyone would suit the power you¡¯ve been given.¡± I frown at that. So it wasn¡¯t completely by chance then. ¡°What do you mean by my temperament?¡± I ask, deciding to comment on the parents thing after this. ¡°A laidback temperament without any ambitions for ruling the dimension,¡± he states, the man¡¯s clone not having moved his eyes from me this entire time. He hasn¡¯t even blinked. Which I find rather creepy. ¡°The type of person who would not destroy the dimension I have created, or the System itself with the power they were given.¡± Wait, so you¡¯re saying that if I did end up becoming an Ascendant some day and created some sort of nation, something that I really don¡¯t have any interest in, you would take the power away? He finally moves his head, shaking it once as he says, ¡°No. Having the ambition to do something and doing it are two different things. I do not care if you end up becoming a ruler or even the ruler of the dimension so long as you do not truly wish for that. Although even if you did gain an ambition for it, I would not be able to do anything as I cannot take away your power or undo what has been done. No one can.¡± My eyes widen at that, and I find myself staring for a few seconds, unsure of what to say. Guess I really am stuck like this forever. Not that I really wanted to go back. I wasn¡¯t exactly attached to my humanity or anything like that. Also, I guess Astrid and I have clear differences now, so people won¡¯t mistake us for each other anymore. Which is nice. ¡°What did you mean by my parents influencing your decision?¡± I ask, making him frown for a split second. The frown vanishes just as quickly though and he answers, ¡°I will not answer that question fully. Just know that both of your parents are Ascendants. Otherwise you wouldn¡¯t have been able to have a Class B Elemental Affinity in a special element like the Astral element.¡± Oh. That¡¯s¡­ oh. That¡¯s something to think about. Putting that matter aside for the moment, purely because all it does right now is confirm that Gramps was right about Mom, I ask, ¡°What¡¯s the difference between a Quantum Architect like you and a Quantum Reaper like me?¡± He actually looks a little surprised by that before smiling as he answers, ¡°One is a builder of the universe and the quantum, the other a destroyer. My class focused on messing with and altering the universe and reality itself. Your class is that of a reaper. A destroyer. A hunter. And a fighter.¡± So basically yours wasn¡¯t a combat focused quantum class and mine is? The man flinches slightly, probably due to my oversimplification, before he begrudgingly answers, ¡°That is accurate.¡± I smirk. ¡°You will never be able to alter or control the System yourself, but should you wish to, you could destroy it once you reach the same level of strength I was at,¡± he continues, seemingly avoiding the subject. ¡°I understand you will never do that, however. And that was the absolute minimum requirement my original had for his killer. Even if he were to have lost his chance to die.¡± Well, he¡¯s not wrong there. The System may be cruel in a lot of ways, but I would never destroy it. Especially considering that we¡¯d all be at the mercy of monsters and all the dungeons would be freed if that happened. Would basically just be sentencing everyone to death. But his last words do lead me to one of the most important questions of all. I narrow my eyes slightly and ask, ¡°Why did you have me kill you instead of free you?¡± B1 | Chapter 22 - Reasoning and Species Alexia Knight The clone doesn¡¯t say anything for several seconds before eventually narrowing his eyes and answering, ¡°Because my original grew tired.¡± I blink in confusion at that. ¡°Tired?¡± I ask, unsure of what he means. ¡°Yes, tired,¡± he repeats with a nod of his head. ¡°To clarify, my original was over one trillion years old.¡± My eyes widen in shock at that, and I find myself glad that I¡¯m already sitting down. ¡°Just¡­ what level were you?¡± I can¡¯t help but ask. The man just smiles at me without answering though, leaving me feeling disgruntled. Nothing I can say if he doesn¡¯t want to answer though. And I can understand wanting to die if he¡¯d lived over a trillion years. Especially if he spent the last three hundred years of that locked in a liquid-filled tank being experimented on, showing him the depravity of those he had uplifted with his System. In fact, that actually makes the System Reset make a lot more sense as well. Take the power away from the scumbags of the universe and see what happens. If the System¡¯s Notification is anything to go by, a fourth of the former Ascendants are already dead. So it certainly seems to be working. I doubt it¡¯s much of a permanent solution though, since more scumbags are just gonna rise out of this Reset to replace them. The clone doesn¡¯t say anything in regard to my thoughts, just saying silent. This guy is just leading me to come to my own conclusions, isn¡¯t he? Not giving me any specifics and instead throwing out random bits of information¡­ His smile grows wider at that, making me want to slap him. Well, whatever. He¡¯s not going to answer any more questions along those lines, and thinking about it now is wasting the remaining minutes I have to question him. ¡°Would you mind telling me who my parents are?¡± I ask the next question, albeit one that isn¡¯t as pressing in my opinion. He shakes his head, ¡°No. That is for you and your father to figure out on your own.¡± I blink at the way he phrased that. For me and my father to figure out¡­ meaning my father doesn¡¯t actually know about me? Or Astrid? He once again doesn¡¯t answer. ¡°Do you know where Astrid is?¡± I ask with a frown, and he mirrors it for a second, his eyes flashing before he answers, ¡°Your twin is nearby the dungeon entrance outside of the dungeon.¡± Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author. ¡°And is she safe?¡± I continue, feeling a little bit better knowing that all I¡¯ll have to do is complete the dungeon or find a hidden exit and I¡¯ll be able to find her quickly enough. ¡°Her team is doing better than average,¡± he answers without giving any details away, but this time it¡¯s enough to make me relax. Until he adds, ¡°And you won¡¯t be able to find a hidden exit in this dungeon. There aren¡¯t any until after the first clear of each dungeon.¡± My jaw drops. The hell?! ¡°This dungeon run is meant to be a challenge for you, and the original did not want Legendary Feat holders running around unchecked at the start of the Tutorial,¡± he explains, basically saying almost the same thing the System Notification did. ¡°If you can clear the challenge, you can leave the dungeon. If not, you¡¯ll either be dead, or stuck in here until the end of the Tutorial.¡± Well that¡¯s annoying. He raises a brow and asks, ¡°Would you rather all the former Ascendants go around killing the users at the very start of the Tutorial with their higher rarity classes and more advanced knowledge on skills and magic in general?¡± No, I agree with the decision. That doesn¡¯t make it less annoying for me though. If the System didn¡¯t do that then it would end up with a lot of the Ascendants just going around using their knowledge and Legendary Feat perks and class advantage to kill everyone they saw, taking their points and leaving them in stasis for the duration of the Tutorial. And that would just lead to those Ascendants ending up at the peak again right off the bat. Doing it this way, while it technically gives them an opportunity to grow strong thanks to the dungeons, it also culls their numbers a bit. Actually¡­ ¡°Why did you let people retain a single Legendary Feat, anyways?¡± I can¡¯t help but ask, curiosity taking over for a moment. He frowns at that and answers in a disgruntled tone, ¡°My original didn¡¯t have a choice. The System itself enforced that.¡± I raise a brow. So you didn¡¯t have absolute control over your own creation? The man refuses to look me in the eye. Interesting. ¡°Do you know what sort of skills my class will give me as it levels?¡± I ask, but he just shakes his head and says no. So I move on to ask, ¡°What are the differences between a quantum reaper and a human?¡± ¡°You should¡¯ve led off with that question,¡± he says, making me understand he¡¯ll be answering it. ¡°Unlike humans, quantum entities do not require food or water to survive. Instead you take your nutrients directly from the quantum energy around you. Your body is also no longer fully in the normal reality, making you constantly on the border between the quantum realm and the normal realm. This in turn makes your body more susceptible to magical attacks and far less susceptible to physical ones.¡± Okay, finally got my confirmation on the nutrients thing. Meaning I can bathe in the pond without caring about saving some clean water in case I needed to drink it. His eyebrow twitches at my thoughts, but he continues talking anyways, ¡°Some of your body will also be affected by the quantum state of it through glitching back together when separated from your main body, but keep in mind that this only happens sometimes. Meanwhile your senses will be clearer than they were as a human, especially your eyes which simply no longer need light to see since you¡¯re looking from a halfway point between the normal realm and the quantum realm.¡± That would certainly explain why I can see perfectly fine in the dark. Also would explain the whole ¡®some of my blood glitching back into my wounds¡¯ thing. ¡°Every other difference will be one you must learn about yourself or discover as you advance in Tier and receive the Racial skills,¡± he says, making me frown for a moment before I nod my head. He¡¯s already given me more than I expected he would, so I¡¯ll have to be content with that. His image begins to glitch out, making me frown. ¡°It would appear as if our time is out,¡± he states before nodding his head once, ¡°farewell once again, young reaper.¡± Then he vanishes in a flash of purple light. Shit. There was still a couple things I wanted to ask him. Like about mana and soul. I sigh before looking at my soul and finding that it¡¯s regenerated a decent chunk already even if it¡¯s not full yet. Guess I can ask him the next time one of his clones appear. For now I¡¯ll just finish regenerating my soul before going back in to deal with the bugs. Because I have a long way to go if I want to finish this dungeon before the month is over, and it¡¯s likely to only get harder from here on out. B1 | Chapter 23 - Continued Hunt Alexia Knight My next trek back into scythid territory starts with me jumping forwards, teleporting straight to the edge of the spider¡¯s area and using the rest of the momentum to cut the heads off of both scythid guards before they can even make a sound. Then I begin jogging through the area, making sure to go as quietly as possible while still keeping my speed up. Once I reach the end of the tunnel, I find a couple other scythids standing guard, both of which I dispatch with bolts of quantum energy, making me quite happy about my higher level that I got from the chase before. Even if the chase itself was rather unpleasant. I walk over to stand at the edge of the cliff before tapping my chin in thought. If I try going back up to their little tree houses of leaves and bark, it¡¯ll just end up with another chase. So the best thing to do¡­ I dispel my polearm, sending it back to wherever it goes when it¡¯s not summoned before I raise both of my hands and begin sending Quantum Bolts straight at the scythids on the leaves, killing them back to back. And as expected, it only takes about four or so of them dying for the others to realize where I am and begin running towards the cliff. But I continue blasting them with Quantum Bolts, significantly reducing their numbers as they run. And even when they start climbing the cliff itself, I just continue firing away. Now that their numbers are much lower, and my level is a lot higher, I can finally do this. The ¡®easy¡¯ way out. Of course, I leave the System Messages muted as I do this so that they don¡¯t interrupt me. And once the scythids begin making it past halfway up the cliff, I turn around and run straight into the tunnel, not stopping until I reach the spider¡¯s area at which point I turn around to find the scythids already catching up. But it¡¯s pointless now that I¡¯m here. I just raise an amused eyebrow at the rather angry creatures before letting my System Messages flow through. Although I keep the exact kills muted, leaving only the total points I got, the total number of kills, and the level-ups. [Lesser Scythid Defeated.] x38 [Sixty points have been earned.] {Congratulations! You have leveled up to level 26! Your Species has awarded you +2 VIT, +2 DEX, +2 STR, +2 MAG, and +2 MEN. Your Class has awarded you +1 VIT, +1 DEX, +1 STR, +2 MAG, and +2 MEN.} {Congratulations! You have leveled up to level 27! Your Species has awarded you +2 VIT, +2 DEX, +2 STR, +2 MAG, and +2 MEN. Your Class has awarded you +1 VIT, +1 DEX, +1 STR, +2 MAG, and +2 MEN.} {Congratulations! Your Active Skill ¡®Quantum Bolt¡¯ has reached Level 4!} {Congratulations! Your Active Skill ¡®Quantum Displacement¡¯ has reached Level 3!} If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. {Congratulations! Your Passive Skill ¡®Quantum Attunement¡¯ has reached Level 2!} Some skill levels mixed in. Nice. Too bad the scythids aren¡¯t giving me anywhere near as many points, or as much EXP, now that I am catching up to their level. In fact, at this point I have caught up to the majority of the creatures¡¯ levels. On that note, I open up my various skill¡¯s lists. [General Skills] |Pain Resistance Level 2(46%)(T1)| |Polearm Mastery Level 2(11%)(T1)| |Forerunner (Unique)| |Stealth Level 1(91%)(T1)| [Active Skills] |Quantum Bolt Level 4(1%)(T1)| |Quantum Displacement Level 3(1%)(T1)| |Quantum Reversal Level 1(11%)(T1)| [Passive Skills] |Quantum Attunement Level 2(1%)(T1)| |Quantum Singularity Level 1(1%)(T1)| |Quantum Infusion Level 1(2%)(T1)| Yeah, Quantum Reversal isn¡¯t going to be used very often until I reach a higher level, or maybe even a higher Tier and the price in soul isn¡¯t as large compared to my total soul. And Quantum Singularity is useless to me unless I happen to run into some sort of natural reality affecting magic, or maybe someone with a Legendary Feat that gave them a class focused on that type of magic. I did manage to get Stealth back thanks to my little assassination work on the scythids. And that skill helped me stay unnoticed, raising my ability to just blend into the background in a figurative manner. One issue with getting General skills for me is that a lot of the General skills I had from before the Reset are ones I can¡¯t get right now. Whether that¡¯s because I don¡¯t have mana, or I don¡¯t have the necessary weapons, I just plain can¡¯t get them. Which makes is a pain to figure out which General skills to go for. I should at least get Survival soon by the end of the first week, since all it takes is surviving in the ¡®wilderness¡¯ for a week to get it, not receiving any help from other users in the process. And that skill should¡­ wait a second, that skill isn¡¯t actually as useful for me when I don¡¯t need food or water. Seeing as it can¡¯t exactly reduce my need for something I don¡¯t need¡­ Although the resistance to natural weather and tougher body when it comes to taking damage from naturally occurring things should still help a lot. I don¡¯t have any equipment or materials to do first aid, so that¡¯s out. Especially since my soul heals me faster than my health used to, making it kind of useless. At this point the only General skills that come to mind that I can get are taming ones, strategy based ones, negotiation, resistances, politics ¨C which I¡¯ll never bother with ¨C and exploration type skills. Seeing as I can¡¯t use mana, so magic related skills and spell crafting are out, and I don¡¯t have any weapons besides my polearm, so other weapon proficiency skills are out too. One thing I wanted to ask the clone was about my affinities, but we ran out of time before I could. Which was rather unfortunate. I sigh at the thought before watching as the majority of the scythids finally begin to go back through the tunnel again. Then I glance at my status, finding my soul to have been decreased by about a third of my total soul, so I walk over to sit on a rock again. Time for another break. After that I can go back to hunting again. B1 | Chapter 24 - A Successful Hunt Alexia Knight It ends up taking a couple more hunting trips along with two more level-ups to clear out the majority of the scythids. And surprisingly, their leader still hasn¡¯t left their little tree house yet. So after I finish dealing with the scythids that rush to the cliff this time, clearing them out, I jump down, no longer bothering with stealth. Then I start walking over towards the largest tree located at the center of the forest where I find something rather surprising. The moment I step inside of the tree, I find the leader of the scythids lying almost inert at the center of the tree. Huh? {Scythid Hive Queen ¨C Level 31} I stare at the thing for a few seconds, briefly wondering why a large praying mantis bug is called a hive queen for the second time since I first saw it before eventually just shrugging and blasting it with a quantum bolt. The thing lets out a quiet, pained screech, but doesn¡¯t move almost at all despite it. So I repeat the attack over and over again until I finally get the System Message about its death. [Level 31 Scythid Hive Queen Defeated ¨C User¡¯s earned EXP has been increased due to killing a being whose level is above their own.] [Three points have been earned for killing a creature two levels above you.] After killing it, a wave of loud screeches echo out from a few corners of the forest as I stand tensely for several seconds, just waiting for the scythids who made them to rush me. But nothing ever does. I just end up standing awkwardly in the room by myself. I frown. Uh¡­ this is awkward. I leave the large tree before heading towards the places I heard the screeches from, only to find scythids lying dead on the ground in each place without a single wound on them. Huh. Wait a second, could that be it? Are the scythids and their hive queen all connected, so that if the queen dies then the rest die too? Or if all of the scythids die, then so does the queen? A rather odd setup, but convenient. If I had to guess, the hive queen really was just very stupid. Because it should¡¯ve been able to tell where I was during my assassinations if they were all connected, even if it wasn¡¯t through a hive mind. Although it¡¯s also possible that the significant number of scythids dumbed down the reaction she got from one of them dying? Or maybe it wasn¡¯t an instant reaction? Either way, she¡¯s dead now. I walk past her corpse before deciding to go look around the entire forest just to make absolutely sure everything here is dead. Then I can take a bath.
Somewhere in Tutorial Block #108 Astrid grimaces as she limps back into the camp her team had set up, just slowly letting the claw wounds on her leg heal with her health. And the first thing she finds is Aidan standing in front of a campfire holding a piece of meat on a stick while glancing at her, letting the meat burn in his momentary distraction. ¡°Shit,¡± he mutters after realizing he had accidentally lowered the tiger meat into the fire, the man immediately raising it back out again. Astrid shakes her head at him as she continues limping through the camp towards the dungeon on the edge of the island. ¡°She still hasn¡¯t come out yet!¡± Aidan calls out, not turning his head to look at her. Despite his words, she still continues walking over to the edge of the island looking over the small stairs on the side of it towards the dungeon, where she eventually sits with a sigh of relief, letting her legs dangle over the edge. Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there. Ever since the group got the System Notification with information about the Reset, they immediately turned around and went back to the Crawling Caverns dungeon since it was the most likely location for Alexia to be at. Then the group set up a base camp while occasionally going into the jungle in groups to hunt the monsters on its outskirts. Astrid just listens to the sound of the fire as she stares at the dungeon entrance, letting her wound slowly heal in the process. But no matter how hard she stares, her sister never appears from the dungeon. So she eventually lies on her back, staring up at the two moons high in the night sky. Still not used to seeing two moons up there¡­ She continues to gaze up at the moons until rustling sounds begin coming from the bushes nearby the camp, making her sit up only to find Alara and Shelly arriving with Rob trailing the girls. And all three of them are carrying tiger corpses. Astrid feels them identifying her, but she just ignores it and identifies them back, since the group has already decided to go ahead and keep up with the others changes in levels at this point. Especially since it will get them out of the habit of not identifying other people. {Alara Blake ¨C Class: Flame Dancer ¨C Level 17} {Robert Carter ¨C Class: Combat Healer ¨C Level 12} {Shelly Walker ¨C Class: Arcane Archer ¨C Level 14} They all leveled up at least once. Astrid glances at Aidan when she remembers she didn¡¯t identify him upon getting here. {Aidan Ashford ¨C Class: Combat Mage ¨C Level 15} Hmm. Astrid opens her own status to look at her level.
Name: Astrid Knight Species: Human(T1)
Level: 18 Class: Shadowblade
Health: 301/350 Mana: 405/690
VIT: 35 DEX: 52 STR: 52 MAG: 69 MEN: 35
Racial Skills Active Skills
Passive Skills General Skills
As she¡¯s looking at her status though, she feels a pinpricking sensation on the back of her neck from her Danger Sense Passive Skill, making her immediately close out of it and turn her gaze to the jungle again right when a tiger jumps out of the bushes. Then she uses her Shadow Leap skill to teleport over to the shadows of the jungle as she draws her sword and swings it straight through the lower leveled tiger, cutting it clear in two. And by the time the tiger¡¯s corpse hits the ground, her sword is already sheathed again, the girl walking back into the camp like nothing had just happened. ¡°I wish I had a teleportation skill¡­¡± Aidan mutters for the umpteenth time after seeing her use her Shadow Leap skill. And just like the other times, she responds without looking his way, ¡°It¡¯s not teleportation. I¡¯m passing through the shadows to shorten the distance to it, and it costs a significant amount of mana to do.¡± He just waves away her explanation, muttering that teleportation is teleportation no matter how it¡¯s done. It isn¡¯t until Astrid makes it back to the ledge and sits down again that she realizes her wound had finished healing before the monster¡¯s arrival. Most likely while she was considering her status compared to the other members of the team¡¯s levels. She opens her status again and looks at it for a few seconds before closing it and focusing once more on the dungeon. Please come out of there alive, sis. B1 | Chapter 25 - Pond of Restoration and an Unpleasant Surprise Alexia Knight The very first thing I do after checking the forest for monsters and finding it vacant is rush straight to the lake before jumping in without even taking off my armor. Because my armor really needs some cleaning as well. And almost immediately after entering the water, I feel a tingling sensation run through me, making me realize my mistake. So I quickly identify the water. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Pond of Restoration Description: A pond located within the middle of a Tier 1 dungeon with regenerative properties. Anyone who enters the pond will gain a temporary boost to their mana stat, feel refresh of energy, and their Tier 1 or below System Items will be repaired. Stats Bonus: +10% Health Regeneration. Requirements: None. Item Tier: 1 -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- I relax again after seeing that, smiling again. Didn¡¯t realize the pond itself could be a System Item. Also didn¡¯t think to check if the pond wasn¡¯t just a regular pond of water. I should probably start getting used to identifying items just like I identify monsters. In fact, I wouldn¡¯t be surprised if I¡¯ll have to get used to identifying other users as well, strictly due to the fact that I¡¯m pretty sure it¡¯s gonna be necessary to survive. Although I¡¯ll have to find users first to get used to identifying them. Anyways, I look at my armor to find the damaged spots repairing themselves rather slowly. Okay. This I can work with. The only question is if I can take the pond with me.
After letting myself clean up, relax, and get my armor repaired in the pond for a bit, I get out and begin walking back to the main tree of the forest. All while casting a pitiful glance towards the pond that I really can¡¯t take with me. For obvious reasons, seeing as it¡¯s a pond. Once I make it back to the main tree, I head to the back of the bottom floor of the tree before finding what I¡¯m looking for. The only exit to this large cavern aside from the one I entered through. A large hole in the ground covered in cobwebs. I can¡¯t help but grimace at the thought of jumping into that cobweb infested two-meter-in-diameter hole, but a quick glance at my level on my status makes me feel more prepared.
Name: Alexia Knight Species: Quantum Reaper(T1)
Level: 29 Class: Quantum Reaper
Soul: 2,475/2,475
VIT: 85 DEX: 85 STR: 85 MAG: 113 MEN: 113
Racial Skills Active Skills
Passive Skills General Skills
Alright. My level should be high enough to deal with whatever is in this cobweb infested hole. Which is probably a bunch of spiders considering the cobwebs. This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it. Not so surprising considering arachnids are the main type of monsters for this dungeon. I take a deep breath before jumping into the hole and letting myself fall for a little bit through the cobwebs, making the effort I just put in to clean myself completely ruined again. After several seconds of falling though, I reach my hand out and dig into the stone wall, the tips of my fingers sparking slightly with quantum energy thanks to Quantum Infusion, letting me bury them a bit in the wall to slow my fall. Then after it¡¯s slowed enough, I let go again and continue falling, repeating this process a few times after that. Eventually I clear the hole, falling into a large cavern where the very first sight that greets me before I even land on the large, web-covered hole directly beneath the other one in the cavern is of the massive spider standing at the center of the cavern. One spanning at least five meters in length and three meters in height. {Arachnid ¨C Level 50} And at the same time as when I identify the terrifying creature, another System Message plays out in my head. [You have entered the Tier 1 Dungeon Crawling Cavern¡¯s Second Boss Room. The Spider¡¯s Lair.] ¡°What the fucking hell?!¡± I shout, not bothering with being quiet since the spider has clearly already noticed me, what with all its incredibly loud hissing. Not to mention the dozens upon dozens of other smaller spiders rushing towards me, all lesser arachnids like the ones in the maze. And all between level 30 to level 40. Whoever designed this dungeon should be fired. Who the fuck makes a random boss room that shoots up twenty- My thoughts are interrupted when I hear a cracking sound, bringing my gaze to my feet, where I¡¯m still standing on a layer of webbing over another seemingly endless pit. And as I look, I find the layer of webbing slowly cracking from my weight. ¡°Shit,¡± I mutter, following which the layer of webbing splits in half, making me fall straight down despite my attempts to grab at it. But the sight of the lesser arachnids almost reaching me make me change my mind about trying to not fall. Okay, maybe it¡¯s a nicer place down here rather than up there. I can¡¯t help but nod my head at the thought, using my own sense of humor to block the terror I was just feeling as I fall. And this fall lasts quite a bit longer than the other, without me ever leaving the boss room. Meaning that this entire place is one massive boss room. Well that¡¯s just peachy. I find a pond that can heal me and my armor, then I end up stuck in a boss room with a boss twenty-one levels above me. After a few more seconds of falling, I dig my hands into the wall again, just like with the last hole I fell into. Then I repeat the same process I did there until I finally end up dropping into some sort of tunnel full of cobwebs. I look around for a moment before glancing up through the hole at the sound of skittering coming from it, likely signifying the approach of some of those lesser arachnids. Because I can¡¯t see the boss fitting down this hole. It¡¯s just too big. Although I¡¯m not going to risk it. I look back down at the tunnel I¡¯m in, finding an occasional tiny spider moving across the floor spanning only an inch or two in length. But when I try to identify it, I don¡¯t get anything. Meaning that it¡¯s too weak for the System to even consider a Class E species. Like most regular insects and animals. Well, nothing else to do but take a walk through the cobweb infested tunnel. So I begin walking through the tunnel while being careful not to make too much noise. B1 | Chapter 26 - Another Maze Alexia Knight I frown as I cut down another lesser arachnid in the tunnel, getting a little annoyed at running into so many of these things at this point. But then again, this is a boss room, and the boss is a large spider. And spiders often end up having a lot of children in a single egg. Which I guess is a good thing for me in the end. I¡¯d probably end up dead if it weren¡¯t like this. These spiders are my only source of EXP after all, seeing as I can¡¯t exactly leave a boss room without killing the boss. And I¡¯m pretty sure I won¡¯t be able to kill a level fifty boss while only level twenty-nine. My eyes snap to the side when I catch a glimpse of movement out of the corner of my eye before I push my glaive out a little while swinging it downward, thankful that the tunnel I¡¯m in is still about three to four meters in height. And just as another lesser arachnid is crawling around the corner, my blade pierces straight through their carapace in through the top and out through the bottom of their head. Then the rest of their body falls to the ground beneath them without any resistance. I feel the surge of soul fill me from what I¡¯m assuming is another level ¨C the fourth one since I fell down here several hours ago. This place really is getting boring, levels or no levels. And I can¡¯t exactly stop to take a break either lest a spider appear around a corner and attack me. Doesn¡¯t help that this damned tunnel system is a maze even more difficult to navigate than the actual maze from earlier. Well, come to think of it, being dropped down here would probably be a death sentence for most other people. Considering that there isn¡¯t exactly any food or water down here. And despite my ability to see, it¡¯s very dark. Then again, dungeons aren¡¯t designed to be run solo like I¡¯m doing. And like the other Legendary Feat holders are doing. Much less run solo by someone who started out at level 1 at the start of the dungeon. It¡¯s pretty much a death sentence unless you¡¯re as skilled as someone with a Legendary Feat in their pocket and an epic class on hand. Not to mention that most people don¡¯t exactly go into dungeons without supplies of food and water to last for a long time. I sigh at the thought as I continue walking down the tunnel. Maybe I¡¯ll find something other than spiders for days soon? EXP or not, I need to find a place to rest eventually. Otherwise I¡¯ll run myself ragged.
Four hours later Okay, so maybe I was a little pessimistic about this dungeon and thinking it would try to kill me through exhaustion. Didn¡¯t expect to find a Safe Zone down here. I smile as I lie on the ground in the very not-comfortable Safe Zone. But a Safe Zone is a Safe Zone. After a few seconds pass, I bring up the little notice I found just a few hours ago on the corner of my vision. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Time Left Until the Tutorial¡¯s End This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience. 26 days, 19 hours, 21 minutes, 50 seconds -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- A rather convenient way to keep track of time. Also, I¡¯m pretty sure at this point I¡¯ll be closer to the end of Tier 1 by the time the Tutorial finishes. At least, if I keep leveling up at the speed I have been I will be. Then again, I never did get to the higher levels of Tier 1 before the Reset, and people do say that it tends to get harder to find the enemies in your Tier the higher level you get. Particularly because the higher leveled enemies of your Tier are rarer outside of dungeons, and only appear in the latter part of dungeons. So if I don¡¯t reach level one hundred in the dungeon, there¡¯s a chance I might not reach it in the Tutorial. A pity, but I¡¯ll probably reach it in the dungeon. After all, the dungeon guardian should be level 100. Not something I¡¯m looking forward to fighting. I let out a short yawn before realizing I haven¡¯t really gotten all that much sleep in the past few days. And I¡¯m probably not going to find another Safe Zone for a while. So I let my eyes slowly drift close, following which everything goes dark.
Somewhere in Tutorial Block #108 To say Alara was pleased about the System Reset would be an understatement. Because it¡¯s all she and her family had ever wanted. A chance to start over. A chance to break away from that awful kingdom they were indebted to. And a chance to live freely. Alara doesn¡¯t show her happiness to the others though, instead she keeps it hidden as she goes about trimming the stakes they¡¯re putting into the ground at the edges of the camp bordering the jungle. But when she looks at the long trail of ruins that surrounds the island and finds a group of people approaching, she immediately drops the stake and stands up straight. ¡°We have visitors,¡± she calls out to Astrid, the girl immediately appearing out of thin air and startling her the moment after she says it. ¡°Damnit, I wish you wouldn¡¯t do that¡­¡± Ever since she¡¯d gotten her class, she has been practicing her stealth on the rest of the team. And she¡¯s gotten much better at it over time, something that the battle mage, Aidan, says isn¡¯t anything new. The girl just smiles at her before focusing on the approaching group, the rest of their team having gone out hunting while they watched the camp. Once they get past the obstacles in the way of their sight though, giving Alara a clearer view, she actually smiles and lowers her guard a bit. And out of the corner of her eye, she notices Astrid sending her a confused look, so she answers, ¡°They¡¯re friends.¡± Astrid stays tense for a few seconds before eventually relaxing. Then she goes back into the trees, likely to hide from sight. I still can¡¯t believe she has a shadow magic affinity that high¡­ makes me wonder what her twin has. Since she must also have a Class B Affinity if she was a Magic Knight pre-Reset. She shakes her head as she focuses on her friend that seems to have noticed her now, considering how she¡¯s running straight through the ruins without a care, the cloak she¡¯s wearing over the basic System gear they were given blowing in the wind in the process. And Alara frowns at the sight of one of her friend¡¯s group members checking her out as she runs. Alara doesn¡¯t do anything about it, instead just focusing on her friend, sheathing her sword again, and opening her arms up before the girl jumps into them, the taller girl not caring about her height advantage as she practically squeals, ¡°Alara!!!! You¡¯re here!!!¡± ¡°Yeah, I am,¡± Alara says with a chuckle as she gently sets the girl who often acts like a child down. Then she feels someone from the other team identifying her, making her glance over to find them getting almost within shouting distance. ¡°Don¡¯t mind them, we just decided to start identifying everyone we see as a safety precaution,¡± Lizz, otherwise known as Elizabeth Sinclair, the Princess of the Kingdom of Silvercrest and the only good Noble Alara has ever met, says nonchalantly while directing a frown at the others behind her, including her fianc¨¦ who has been looking her up since she started running. And when she notices that, she directs a glare towards the man. But he just smiles. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, we¡¯ve started doing the same thing,¡± Alara says with a light wave of her hand as she steps back slightly to give herself more space. Lizz turns to look at Alara and tilts her head to ask, ¡°¡¯We?¡¯¡± At that, Alara tenses up slightly, following which Astrid appears next to them again, emerging from Alara¡¯s shadow before she nods her head at the startled princess, ignoring the tense reactions of the other team. Then, as if the whole thing was timed, the rest of Alara¡¯s team arrives from the jungle, entering the ruins just to find them all there. Well now I feel a bit more comfortable, since her fianc¨¦ always gives me the creeps¡­ B1 | Chapter 27 - Princess and Spiders Somewhere in Tutorial Block #108 Astrid watches the new group for a few seconds, paying attention to each member of them as they watch the rest of their team exit the jungle. Of the group, half of them are women with the other half being men. And if there¡¯s one thing Astrid notices, it¡¯s that they are all nobles from pre-Reset, with Alara¡¯s friend being the Third Princess of the Kingdom. While their attention is off of Astrid, she slips away before jumping into a tree to keep an eye on the group. But as she does so, she notices one of the new people¡¯s attention remaining locked on her. Interesting. The girl who¡¯s looking at her has a bow draped over her shoulder and is wearing leather armor, which Astrid is dying to know where she got. She has long brown hair with golden eyes clearly marking her as a member of the Dawn household of Nobles. A Duchess¡¯s household. But to Astrid¡¯s surprise, all the girl does is keep an eye on her without actually doing anything about her or saying anything. And she doesn¡¯t talk to the others in the group, instead staying at the back as the rest talk. After a few more seconds, Astrid returns her attention to the others of the group as everyone introduces themselves. The Third Princess is a tall girl with long silver hair and eyes, marking the namesake of their Kingdom that now no longer exists. She has a full figure that her fianc¨¦ keeps eyeing, to both the Third Princess¡¯s and Alara¡¯s shared disgust. And if Astrid is being honest, she feels disgusted by it as well. She also can¡¯t help but wonder why the Third Princess still bothers with the guy since it¡¯s clear their engagement won¡¯t matter anymore seeing as there isn¡¯t a Kingdom anymore. But that¡¯s not her business to pry into. The fianc¨¦ in question she recognizes as the other Duke of the Kingdom¡¯s son, Reginald Kingsley. He has a very sharp looking face, one that kind of makes her want to punch him, and gray eyes that make it likely that he¡¯s distantly related to the royal family but not directly related. Of the other members of their group, none of them really stand out to Astrid beyond their noble ranking. And of the group of six people, only the Princess, her fianc¨¦, and the girl from the Dawn household ¨C who by identify is Cassandra Dawn ¨C have rare classes. Meanwhile the other three all have uncommon classes. Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation. Although I guess our team has even fewer rare classes amongst us. But our levels are on average higher than theirs still. Overall, from what Astrid can hear of their conversation down there, the other team is mostly nice despite being nobles. The only snob on their team is the Princess¡¯s fianc¨¦, who Astrid still thinks should be ditched. She glances at Cassandra again, only to stiffen up when she hears movement near her, making her turn to find that very girl in the tree next to hers. ¡°Hello,¡± she says, and Astrid blinks for a moment in confusion before answering, ¡°Hi?¡± ¡°I heard you all are making a base here to wait for your friend to come out of the dungeon? Does that mean she has a Legendary Feat?¡± the girl asks while leaning forward a bit on the tree branch, making Astrid briefly wonder if she¡¯s going to fall or not. Someone blabbed? Actually, never mind. Alara seems rather close to that Princess, so she probably is trusting her far more than she should. Or at least, trusting that fianc¨¦ of hers more than she should. ¡°It¡¯s possible she may have gotten one before the Reset, but we¡¯re not certain,¡± Astrid answers. ¡°And she¡¯s my sister.¡± Cassandra¡¯s eyes widen at that, and she smiles as she asks, ¡°Sister, eh? I had one once.¡± Once? ¡°Anyways, call me Cass!¡± she says while moving further up the branch and reaching an arm out, seemingly not caring the slightest bit about her safety. But Astrid can¡¯t help but notice the fact that she isn¡¯t falling down despite how she¡¯s hanging on, so she reaches over and accepts the offered hand. ¡°Astrid,¡± she states clearly, and Cass¡¯s smile grows wider. ¡°I think I like you,¡± Cass states, surprising Astrid, ¡°let¡¯s be friends! It looks like we¡¯re going to be merging groups anyways, so it would be nice to have someone who isn¡¯t a stuff-shirt noble to talk to!¡± This is not how I saw this going.
Alexia Knight After waking up and checking the timer to find that I was asleep for about eight hours, I stand up and stretch. Then I look around the Safe Zone for a moment, following which I turn around and leave. I hope I find another one soon. Or wait, wouldn¡¯t it just be better to stay here in this Safe Zone and kill any spiders that get nearby? It would make a good staging location. I frown at the thought before shrugging and deciding to go along with that plan. It will be nice to have a place to relax. Although I¡¯m still surprised there was a Safe Zone in the first place inside of a boss room. Since I don¡¯t think that was possible before the Reset. That aside, I should be getting the Exploration General Skill soon. Especially if I keep going through this damned maze of a tunnel system. I¡¯m also kind of surprised none of the other lesser arachnids that were likely following me down that pit ever ended up down here though. Maybe I was wrong about them following me down here? It¡¯s definitely a possibility. Not that I¡¯m complaining. It doesn¡¯t take long for me to run into another spider, which I deal with through a couple quantum bolts in the tunnel, making its body glitch out before half of its head explodes. Something that I have to admit is rather disturbing to watch. If there¡¯s one thing this place doesn¡¯t lack, it¡¯s monsters to give me EXP. So there¡¯s that at least. Hopefully I can get to level fifty by the time I run out of spiders. Assuming I do. I continue through the tunnel, ignoring the corpse as I do so. B1 | Chapter 28 - Progress. Maybe. Alexia Knight I smile after killing another spider and seeing the level-up System Messages that follows it. {Congratulations! You have leveled up to level 35! Your Species has awarded you +2 VIT, +2 DEX, +2 STR, +2 MAG, and +2 MEN. Your Class has awarded you +1 VIT, +1 DEX, +1 STR, +2 MAG, and +2 MEN.} {Congratulations! Your Passive Skill ¡®Quantum Infusion¡¯ has reached Level 2!} [*New Passive Skill* ¨C Quantum Adaptation: Allows the user¡¯s body to adapt to any type of environment after an extended duration of exposure to it. The adaptations made will be permanent, however they will never reach immunity to the environment. Skill is automatically slotted due to free open slots.] Oh? That one is a lot more useful right now than the active skill I got for level thirty. Which was actually an incredibly good skill at a glance. But considering that I can¡¯t use it since it costs more soul than I even have just to phase out of reality for even a quarter of a second¡­ quantum phasing is not a good early level skill. The whole being immune to physical damage and being able to pass through solid objects is nice and all, but it¡¯s not as nice when I can¡¯t actually use the skill yet. One major issue with the System as a whole. The fact that it gives out skills you can¡¯t use sometimes at low levels, even if it generally tries to keep the skills balanced to the user¡¯s level. Rather annoying. I sigh at that thought before looking through the tunnel this large lesser arachnid was guarding. Don¡¯t think I¡¯ve seen this tunnel yet. Probably would¡¯ve remembered a tunnel filled to the brim with cobwebs that I¡¯ll have to push through just to get into the tunnel. And the thought of pushing through the cobwebs is more than a little disturbing. So I raise my hand and blast a quantum bolt into the cobwebs, drilling a hole straight through it until the bolt eventually hits a wall, all of the cobwebs along the way glitching out and vanishing without a trace. Convenient. I hope this isn¡¯t a dead end as well. Because the hundreds of dead ends I¡¯ve found in the last few days down here are getting on my nerves. Honestly, the next time I find a maze, I will take the easy route through it. This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. Shooting through the walls. I nod my head, determined to go through with that plan the next time as I walk through the underground maze of tunnels that have little to no walls in-between them to shoot through. Until I reach a bend in the tunnel and find even thicker cobwebs here. Am I actually getting somewhere now? That thought has me frowning and focusing solely on the cobweb filled tunnel as I raise my hand again and blast another bolt of quantum energy through it, only for the bolt to strike a lesser arachnid, making it let out a pained screech. I summon my polearm before pulling my arm back and throwing it straight at the creature, piercing through it head-first right when it begins to charge at me. Then I dismiss the weapon again and continue walking. I¡¯m so glad I figured out how to do that. It makes things so much nicer down here. And cleaner, since I don¡¯t have to get up close and personal with them anymore. I hear another skittering sound, so I summon my polearm again, just for another lesser arachnid to jump out of the cobwebs that continue around another bend in the tunnel. But this time I find my eyes widening in surprise at the creature that I quickly realize isn¡¯t actually a lesser arachnid purely due to the fact that its carapace is a deep purple this time instead of the black that the other lesser arachnids are. {Lesser Venomous Arachnid ¨C Level 38} The creature snaps forward at me with its jaws, spraying a bit of purple liquid out in the process that I barely manage to dodge with a jump backwards that has me hitting my head on the tunnel¡¯s ceiling due to using too much force. I frown when I reach the ground again, finding the creature already moving towards me at a faster speed than the other lesser arachnids. Better not let it bite me. I raise a hand to send a Quantum Bolt its way, but the creature just dodges it and begins running along the wall towards me instead. So I continue blasting quantum bolts at it until it reaches me, having dodged every last one, ending up in the tunnel behind it being in a rather poor state. I¡¯m too focused on swinging my polearm upwards to cut straight into the creature¡¯s underside when it tries jumping at me to care though. The creature lets out a loud screech of pain but doesn¡¯t stop as it snaps its jaws at me despite having my polearm¡¯s blade stuck in its underside, getting some of its venom on my armor and my arm. To my pleasant surprise though, it doesn¡¯t burn, marking the venom as non-acidic. While gritting my teeth, I lift the creature on the end of my polearm before slamming it onto the ground and sticking it there while letting go of my weapon with my left hand to then blast it with a Quantum Bolt. And when that doesn¡¯t kill it, I blast it with two more until its head is a mess of clear blood and glitching purple and blue spider head. [Level 38 Lesser Venomous Arachnid Defeated. User¡¯s earned EXP has been increased due to killing a being whose level is higher than their own.] [Four points have been earned for killing a creature three levels above you.] I let out a sigh. There are way too many bugs in this dungeon. As I¡¯m wiping off the poison on my armor and arm, a faint grin stretches across my face. Good thing Astrid wasn¡¯t the one sent here. She absolutely despises bugs. Especially spiders. I grimace as I find a small bit of the poison still trying to stick to my arm until I physically wipe my arm on the dirt and cobweb covered wall. And even then, it still feels sticky. Ugh. Now if only the spiders and bugs were cleaner when killed, then things would be much nicer. Deciding to give up on getting rid of the stickiness, I continue heading down the tunnel. As long as this isn¡¯t a dead end, then it¡¯ll all be worth it. Probably. B1 | Chapter 29 - Venom Alexia Knight I blink in shock as I stare at the open cavern in front of me, honestly surprised that this didn¡¯t lead to another dead end. But that shock doesn¡¯t last long before I end up firing off several Quantum Bolts at the several lesser venomous arachnids charging after me from the cobweb filled cavern. The half a dozen creatures mostly manage to dodge the bolts, with the exception of one of them that is knocked backwards a few meters away. So I swing my polearm around a little before ducking under the rapidly closing jaws of one of the spiders the moment it reaches me. And after it sprays a bit of that annoying poison on my now-closed eyes, I grimace while cutting straight upwards with my polearm, splitting the creature in two with a screech. But I keep my eyes closed without waiting even a second to do a backflip out of the way of another spider who chomps down where my arm was, making me realize a very nice use of the Quantum Attunement skill. It lets me know where the spiders are and generally what they¡¯re doing. My feet slip a little before I catch myself after landing on the ground. Although it doesn¡¯t let me actually see my surroundings. I quickly reach up to wipe my eyes, but even with that I still feel some of the guck sticking on my lids. And I¡¯m pretty sure it might get in my eyes if I open them. Shit, this isn¡¯t good. I still don¡¯t know what that poison does, but I do know I shouldn¡¯t let it get in my eyes. I raise an arm and begin sending Quantum Bolt after Quantum Bolt at the spiders who are rushing towards me, and by the sounds of it I manage to hit two of them this time. But the other three and the one I originally hit are all heading towards me again. So I swing my polearm horizontally towards them, managing to catch one off guard as I feel resistance from it along with the sensation of my polearm¡¯s magical energy passing through the magical energy in its head. Then the rest of the magical energy in the creature¡¯s body dissipates as I duck down, bending my legs and leaning all the way back to avoid what I¡¯m assuming are claws of one of the spiders and the fangs of another. Shit this is annoying! With a grimace, I fling myself forwards, smashing headfirst into one of the spiders in front of me before I raise my polearm and bring it stabbing down straight into the creature¡¯s body. And after we land wherever we land, I stumble around off of its body till I regain my footing, only to duck down into a near kneel when another spider tries biting where my head was, which seems to be a common target for them. This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings. But this time I fail to dodge another spider as they bite my left arm, making me cry out in pain before I swing my polearm into them, cutting the blade straight into their side and killing them according to the System Message¡¯s chime sound, just like the other two I¡¯ve killed thus far. A warm and pulsating sensation fills my arm as the venom no doubt courses through it. But I pay it no mind for now, instead focusing on the remaining spiders and blasting the disoriented and ¨C in some of their cases ¨C wounded creatures with quantum bolts now that they¡¯re slower moving. And this manages to finish them all off, letting me drop to the ground as I continue wiping my eyes, even resorting to spitting in my hands and using that to wipe them. Eventually I think I get all of the poison off of my eyes, letting me gradually open them up again with a sigh of relief. A sigh that immediately turns into a scream when I feel a sudden stabbing pain in my arm, making me reach over and clutch it as I turn to find purple veins running under and around the bite on my bicep. But just as quickly as the pain came, it fades again along with the purple veins. I frown. A fast acting, non-fatal poison? Okay, that¡¯s not too bad actually. Although if it were to actually end up somewhere important, like my eyes, then it could be an¡­ issue¡­ It¡¯s not healing from my soul. That¡¯s what the venom does. It makes a wound need actual healing rather than just life energy. Either that or it makes it heal a lot slower. My frown deepens as I climb to my feet, still holding my arm. To heal this naturally without soul, it would take at least a day. And this is just a minor bite from something a level above me. My eyes widen as I remember Quantum Reversal. Then I grin like a madwoman. I think I just realized what I can use as a replacement General Skill for one of the General Skills I can¡¯t get anymore. Although my grin fades again when I use Quantum Reversal on the wound, and it makes it back to the active effect of the poison. But it ends just as quickly as before, with my wound vanishing without a trace. That fucking hurt. But it¡¯ll be worth it. Very worth it. Now I¡¯m a lot happier about this skill. And I have a good way to train it too, since reversing a small wound like that only took about three hundred soul rather than the thousand from before. I look around at the dead lesser venomous arachnids around me before focusing on the other end of the cavern and beginning to walk towards it. Although I should keep that I¡¯m doing this from Astrid. She would probably stop me, calling me insane or something. Yeah. It would be best to just either not tell her about Poison Resistance or tell her I got it by chance in the dungeon full of venomous monsters. That should work. I smile at that as I walk into the next tunnel, trying very hard not to think about the massive amount of pain I¡¯ll be in to do this. It¡¯ll be fine. B1 | Chapter 30 - End of the Maze Alexia Knight I let out a scream as I stab my polearm down into what must¡¯ve been the fiftieth lesser venomous arachnid to date before immediately using Quantum Reversal again, just like every other time I killed one of them over the past three days. Which causes me to let out an even shriller scream, only for it to cut off in an instant when a wave of relief fills me, along with another System Message in addition to the regular kill message. [*New General Skill* ¨C Poison Resistance: Passively increases the user¡¯s resistance towards any and all types of poison by a slight amount. Skill is automatically slotted due to free open slots.] ¡°Finally¡­¡± I mutter as I collapse onto my back, the pain from the poison reverting having left me. No more letting the buggers bite me before killing them. I tried just drinking their poison, but it looks like the poison dries really quickly outside of a biological body. Actually, it just dries up quickly in general even after it¡¯s injected into a body. Including my own, hence why it was so fast acting and didn¡¯t last long. Made for a short and easy training method to get Poison Resistance, but not a fun one in any meaning of the word. Now the Poison Resistance skill should help me resist a lot of the Tier 1 poisons to a decent degree. Not fully, but quite a bit. They won¡¯t help much if at all against Tier 2 or higher poisons though. I continue lying on the ground for several seconds before getting up with a grunt and continuing my way down the tunnel. But after just half an hour more of walking, along with the killing of four more spiders, I find myself at a Safe Zone. Despite the Safe Zone, I don¡¯t feel much relief. Because on the other side of the Safe Zone, I see a tunnel curving upwards, and I can hear the occasional hissing of something very large on the other side of the tunnel. This is it, isn¡¯t it? The boss of the boss area. I¡¯m almost back to that first room again. I continue further into the Safe Zone before dropping onto the floor and staring up at the ceiling while opening my status.
Name: Alexia Knight Species: Quantum Reaper(T1)
Level: 39 Class: Quantum Reaper
Soul: 2,275/3,350
VIT: 115 DEX: 115 STR: 115 MAG: 153 MEN: 153
Racial Skills Active Skills
Passive Skills General Skills
This time I should be prepared at least. If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it. Or rather, more prepared. And I doubt I¡¯ll be able to find many more spiders in the tunnels, since they don¡¯t respawn. And unfortunately, I was running into fewer and fewer of them as I continued moving through them. Plus I¡¯m pretty sure I¡¯ll get lost if I tried, since I don¡¯t have anything to mark where I¡¯m coming from with. Doesn¡¯t help that my memory isn¡¯t exactly perfect. Although that shouldn¡¯t be an issue when I reach Tier 2. I smile at that thought as I continue staring up at the ceiling. But eventually my eyes begin to droop, and I fall asleep.
Somewhere in Tutorial Block #1 Lucas lets out a grunt as his blade finally cuts straight through the goblin chieftain¡¯s throat, finishing off the boss of the area he¡¯s in with a flare of black light and shadow engulfing the creature¡¯s head in the process. The Hound of the Apocalypse then flings the blade slightly as the last hints of shadow and dark light on it fade away along with the blood from the corpse. Then he takes a moment to read the System Messages that appear in his vision before he glances towards the other goblins who are all running away. [Level 50 Goblin Chieftain Defeated. User¡¯s earned EXP has been increased due to killing a being whose level is five or more levels higher than their own.] [Eight points have been earned for killing a creature seven levels above you.] {Congratulations! You have leveled up to level 43! Your Species has awarded you +1 VIT, +2 DEX, +2 STR, +2 MAG, +1 MEN. Your Class has awarded you +1 VIT, +1 DEX, +1 STR, +2 MAG, and +2 MEN.} Lucas raises his free hand and activates his Dark Light Wall skill, causing a wall of pure black light and shadowlike flames to shoot up from the ground right in front of several of the goblins, erasing most of the goblins that enter within its bounds and burning the rest with black fire. That should do it for the boss area. The man glances back to the chieftain¡¯s rather disappointing throne before a chest appears in front of it with what Lucas guesses is supposed to be a goblin chieftain¡¯s head imprinted on the front, with spikes of bone shooting out of the corners and some cloth covering it. Lucas walks over and sits on the throne, not bothering with the boss chest just yet as he opens up the leaderboards. [#1 Alexia Knight ¨C 1241 points] [#2 Lucas Nightshade ¨C 1227 points] [#3 Aurora Frost ¨C 1125 points] [#4 Leif Eriksson ¨C 1121 points] [#5 Isabella d''Aragon ¨C 1097 points] [#6 Leonidas Silver ¨C 1085 points] [#7 Alexander Frost ¨C 1014 points] [#8 Nathan Briar ¨C 993 points] [#9 Noah Kowalski ¨C 969 points] [#10 Damien Black ¨C 965 points] She¡¯s still ahead of me in points, but the gap is slowly closing. And the Empress has leaped past the King of Arcadia again. Lucas shakes his head slightly at the amusing sight of the two former rulers of nations fighting over a spot on the leaderboards once again after all these years. The leaderboards prior to the Reset had been based solely on the level of the user and not any sort of point system. But Lucas does remember the original System¡¯s Tutorial having a point based leaderboard. What he can¡¯t help but wonder about though is how the System is going to separate this new dimension out. Since the last dimension was separated into different worlds in a universe, while this one is supposedly one large dimension according to the memory he had answering his questions. A large dimension separated by blocks similar to the Tutorial, with large dimensional walls in between each block that people can only pass through at certain points. It¡¯s an interesting setup, and a good way to let powers form amongst the different blocks without much interference at first from the other blocks. But will the System have leaders for each block like they had Planetary Leaders for before the Reset? Will they still have Champions? Lucas certainly hopes they at least keep the Champion position in use somewhere, because the General Skill that position gave was always of great help to him. A skill to help the strongest person on their planet to protect the planet itself from outsiders. After a few seconds of considering, Lucas shakes his head and gets up before walking over to the chest. Guess I¡¯ll see when this Tutorial ends. B1 | Chapter 31 - Arachnid Part I Alexia Knight I clench and unclench my fist as I stand in front of the tunnel leading to the boss room. And I can¡¯t help but notice that despite my anxiety, my palms aren¡¯t clammy. Although now that I think about it, I¡¯m not exactly having anything to drink to sweat in the first place. So I don¡¯t think my body is capable of it anymore. Makes me wonder how my body regulates heat, but that¡¯s not important right now. I take in a deep breath before letting it out and walking into the tunnel, leaving the Safe Zone. Almost immediately, the tunnel goes dead silent, the hissing sounds stopping along with the scuttling sounds of spiders moving. That¡¯s not a good sign. I slowly continue making my way through the tunnel until I come upon a large wall made up of cobwebs. But before I can even get near it, it explodes inwards, following which lesser arachnids and venomous lesser arachnids begin piling into the tunnel. Without hesitating for even a moment, I start blasting the things with quantum bolts while slowly stepping back, killing one spider after another as the things rush towards me in a frenzy. Which I¡¯m actually rather thankful for since it¡¯s making them easier to kill. This continues for nearly twenty entire seconds, the spiders just offering themselves up for sacrifice until the walls begin to vibrate and a hissing sound echoes out from the cavern behind them. Then the spiders all stop rushing in and begin moving back towards the cavern. Where they end up getting eaten by the arachnid. I blink at that. Okay, do all the big spider mothers here eat their kids? Because I don¡¯t think that¡¯s healthy. Or is it? Maybe it¡¯s healthy for spider mamas to eat their kids. It did kind of make the lesser brood from before a lot stronger. I don¡¯t just sit here and watch the creature eat though, instead raising my hand and blasting several quantum bolts at it before sprinting towards the opening while pulling my polearm back and then throwing it with all of my strength at the creature. But despite all of this effort, the quantum bolts only end up hitting one of its legs that it uses to block, destroying the leg in the process. And the weapon pierces into another leg but not all the way through. This novel''s true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there. Shit, that thing¡¯s strong. It also doesn¡¯t seem to be able to feel pain, considering the fact that it didn¡¯t make a single sound when my attacks hit it. The thing didn¡¯t even react to my attacks or its lost limb. At least it spares my ears from its screeching. I continue firing quantum bolts at it while occasionally throwing my polearm again, but this time it starts dodging a little, only taking some of the hits as it eats and runs. Literally. When most of the spiders are all eaten from the vast cavern, the five-meter-long spider begins to glow with a black light. Then it stops running and turns its head towards me before spitting out a black glob of liquid at a few of my approaching quantum bolts, engulfing the bolts while only losing a little of its mass as it continues its way towards me. My eyes widen as I realize the blob is still too big for me to dodge, especially since I¡¯m still partially in the tunnel even if only at the entrance. So I grab two of the spider corpses next to me and toss them at the blob. Then I watch in terror as the corpses rot at speeds visible to the eye. Necrotic poison. I should avoid that at all costs. After tossing another couple corpses at it since it manages to eat through the first two, I sprint out of the way with a teleport, letting the massive blob hit the entrance, rotting all of the remaining corpses there and making my nose want to fall off due to the stench. My attention is quickly turned back to the arachnid again when I see another blob, albeit a smaller one this time flying my way. Fortunately it¡¯s small enough for me to spam Quantum Displacement a few times to get away, it being several meters smaller in diameter than the first one. Plus I wasn¡¯t in the tunnel this time. I also can¡¯t help but notice that the black light emanating from the arachnid is dimming with every blob it shoots. Which likely means that the spiders it¡¯s eating are fueling the necrotic poison. That¡¯s good. I don¡¯t think I would¡¯ve been able to handle many more of those. The thing rotted all my corpse shields after all, and I only have so much soul. Although¡­ I glance at the tunnel entrance, finding it to be very much not safe to pass through anymore. That¡¯s unfortunate. I focus on the arachnid again, my eyes narrowing. Looks like there¡¯s no retreat allowed in this fight. I glance at my soul to find it still at about three-quarters full before sending more quantum bolts at the arachnid, along with throwing my polearm once more as I sprint towards it. But while I¡¯m still running, the creature finishes eating the last spider and turns fully to me, ignoring that it¡¯s lost another leg in my barrage. Then its eyes start glowing black, following which it opens its mouth and spits out another glob of necrotic poison, this one being about five meters in diameter. Shit. I spam Quantum Displacement while still firing quantum bolts at the glob to make it grow smaller, but even with that, this glob actually somehow manages to track me, following my movements. Shit, shit, shiiit, this isn¡¯t good. I continue spamming Quantum Displacement while firing quantum bolts back at the glob until I realize something. It¡¯s following me. I am able to keep enough distance from it with Quantum Displacement to stay ahead. And the arachnid is just standing there panting, probably from the exhaustion of both my attacks and its own attack. My panic turns to hope as I immediately change my direction to start teleporting over towards the arachnid, startling it in the process. Let¡¯s see if you¡¯re immune to your own poison! B1 | Chapter 31.2 - Arachnid Part II Alexia Knight The spider seems to notice my change in plan and begins standing up straighter again before shooting out more globs of poison at me. But these are a lot smaller, only spanning about half a meter in diameter even if they¡¯re a lot more numerous than the first ones. I repeatedly teleport three meters away from myself over and over again to dodge the poison, no longer sending quantum bolts at the massive glob behind me in the process. Then the spider starts shooting them even faster at me, making my eyes narrow. This isn¡¯t good. I glance back as I run to find the massive glob catching up. Very not good. I begin teleporting faster while shooting quantum bolts at the large one again, only narrowly avoiding most of the new, smaller globs of poison it¡¯s throwing. But even with all my effort, one of them still manages to hit my left shoulder, making me let out a scream of pain. To my surprise though, all the glob does is disable my arm, rotting large portions of my shoulder and blocking off my use of the arm itself. Which is a lot less than the ¡®instant death¡¯ I was expecting. Looks like it was a good idea to get Poison Resistance after all. I grit my teeth while continuing to run, pushing through the pain of my shoulder and teleporting all over the place until the globs finally stop coming from the spider, the black light no longer shining from its body. It¡¯s out! {Congratulations! Your General Skill ¡®Pain Resistance¡¯ has reached Level 4!} I let out a sight of relief as the pain from my shoulder reduces a bit. But I ignore the level as I continue running towards the spider, briefly glancing behind me to find the massive glob being only about a meter away at this point. Just a little more! I teleport three times in a row to end up directly below the arachnid, only for it to send a limb directly down to cut me in half. A limb that just barely misses when I teleport once more, feeling a wave of exhaustion as I do so from lack of soul. That doesn¡¯t matter though. I did it. The spider¡¯s own attack should hit it. And it does, the massive slightly-less-than-five-meter-long glob of poison pops, splattering all over the spider. But I forgot that I was still just about a meter behind it, so some of it splashes on me as I instinctively raise my arm to block it before I manage to teleport away, covering my remaining arm in poison and making me scream again, the pain of the other wound only having just gotten tolerable. And the pain only grows worse and worse as the poison eats through some of my bracer and begins to rot my arm. The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation. I quickly glance at my soul to find it only at about five hundred left, clearly not being enough to reverse this. The pain continues growing as my scream grows louder and louder until I find the black poison finally gone on my arms, leaving just the rotted flesh behind. Then I get a couple System Messages that I can only barely read through the pain while I reach through the pain into my pocket for my potion that I got from the System at the start of this Reset. I ignore the messages for now as I slowly try to force my arm up to bring the potion to my face, but I fail, dropping the potion onto the ground. But fortunately it doesn¡¯t shatter, so I drag myself over to it before struggling to open the bottle with my mostly crippled right arm and my mouth. Eventually I manage to open it and down the potion, making an intense soothing sensation move through my body, following which the rot on my arms begins to return ever so slowly to normal, only to stop midway through. Despite the wounds not healing fully, they heal enough for me to let out a sigh of relief and finally check on my System Messages as my soul helps heal the rest of the wounds. [Level 40 Lesser Arachnid Defeated. User¡¯s earned EXP has been increased a slight amount due to killing a being whose level is higher than their own.] x8 [Two points have been earned for killing a creature one levels above you.] x8 {Congratulations! You have leveled up to level 40! Your Species has awarded you +2 VIT, +2 DEX, +2 STR, +2 MAG, and +2 MEN. Your Class has awarded you +1 VIT, +1 DEX, +1 STR, +2 MAG, and +2 MEN.} [*New Active Skill* ¨C Quantum Burst: Sends a powerful wave of quantum energy all around the user. Skill is automatically slotted due to free open slot. Active Class Skill Slots are now filled. Any Active Class Skills obtained after this will no longer be automatically slotted, requiring the user to go to a Safe Zone to slot them.] [Level 40 Lesser Arachnid Defeated.] x7 [Level 41 Lesser Venomous Arachnid Defeated. User¡¯s earned EXP has been increased a slight amount due to killing a being whose level is higher than their own.] x12 [One point has been earned for killing a creature the same level as you.] x7 [Two points have been earned for killing a creature one level above you.] x12 {Congratulations! You have leveled up to level 41! Your Species has awarded you +2 VIT, +2 DEX, +2 STR, +2 MAG, and +2 MEN. Your Class has awarded you +1 VIT, +1 DEX, +1 STR, +2 MAG, and +2 MEN.} [Level 40 Lesser Arachnid Defeated. User¡¯s earned EXP has been decreased a slight amount due to killing a being whose level is lower than their own] x4 [Level 41 Lesser Venomous Arachnid Defeated.] x2 [Level 50 Arachnid Defeated. User¡¯s earned EXP has been increased a large amount due to killing a being whose level is five levels or more higher than their own.] [One point has been earned for killing a creature the same level as you.] x2 [Ten points have been earned for killing a creature nine levels above you.] {Congratulations! You have leveled up to level 42! Your Species has awarded you +2 VIT, +2 DEX, +2 STR, +2 MAG, and +2 MEN. Your Class has awarded you +1 VIT, +1 DEX, +1 STR, +2 MAG, and +2 MEN.} {Congratulations! Your General Skill ¡®Poison Resistance¡¯ has reached Level 2!} I look around after reading the System Messages to find a couple of lesser arachnids that were previously entering the room from the large pit I had originally fallen down now rushing out of it in a panic. Guess the monsters in a boss room do all flee the moment the boss is killed. Something that didn¡¯t happen before the Reset. Interesting. I grimace as I look down at my wounds that are still healing. This could take a little bit to heal. B1 | Chapter 32 - A Threat and a Fall Somewhere in Tutorial Block #108 William narrows his eyes as he listens to the report of one of the idiot nobles still trying to curry favor with him despite the kingdom no longer existing. Something that he can¡¯t understand but won¡¯t complain about since they make for good lackeys. When the Reset was first announced, the Crown Prince of the Kingdom of Silvercrest felt broken. His entire identity, wiped away because of a simple change in the System. His childhood, his raising, all the work he put in playing up the damned nobles of the Kingdom, all gone. He was left a shell. But he couldn¡¯t just stop. He couldn¡¯t give up, especially not with other nobles with him at the time. So William tasked himself with a new goal. To become a King himself, just like his father had done all those years ago. And when he first saw the Instructor¡¯s daughter on the same island as him, he decided to leave her be, thinking the others in her group would likely die soon enough, with the exception of the other swordswoman amongst them. That after that, the two of them would head over and join his group, eventually finding him. ¡°You¡¯re telling me my sister joined them?¡± William slowly asks the idiot in front of him while tapping his finger repeatedly on his sword¡¯s hilt. ¡°Yes, Your Highness,¡± Rodrick Lancaster answers with haste. ¡°And she was with her fianc¨¦ and Cassandra Dawn as well.¡± He pauses for a second to grin. ¡°And the three of them also had rare classes!¡± William frowns at that before turning around, still tapping his hilt. They¡¯re becoming a problem. I might have to deal with them myself if I want to rise the same way Father did. He glances over his shoulder as he asks, not turning away from the jungle, ¡°Their levels?¡± ¡°Most of them are currently in their low to mid level twenties, but the Instructor¡¯s daughter and those three are all in their high twenties,¡± he answers, only to hesitate. ¡°And the other swordswoman?¡± William prods, knowing the man¡¯s history with the girl and not caring about it. As long as it doesn¡¯t get in the way of his plans. ¡°A-Astrid is the highest level amongst them, being the same level as Cassandra Dawn at level twenty-seven,¡± Rodrick answers with a short stutter. William finally turns around at that, his frown growing as he asks, ¡°And my sister?¡± ¡°Her Highness is level twenty-six,¡± Rodrick answers, only to continue after William narrows his eyes, ¡°she is a warlock as well.¡± So she got the class this time? She didn¡¯t manage to get it when she became of age to get a class for the first time. ¡°And the other rare classes amongst the groups?¡± William asks while scratching his chin and looking across the small base they built on the other side of the island from the group in question as he finds Rodrick¡¯s sister entering past the makeshift walls they¡¯ve set up. ¡°A-Astrid has the Shadowblade class, the Instructor¡¯s daughter is a Flame Dancer, and the Dawn girl an Arcane Hunter,¡± Rodrick says, once again stuttering on the girl¡¯s name. ¡°And the Princess¡¯s fianc¨¦ is an Iceblade Knight.¡± ¡°An Iceblade Knight? And a Shadowblade?¡± William mutters, not recognizing either of the classes as he turns around and begins walking towards the fire. This could throw a kink in the plan I had for going forward¡­ but it shouldn¡¯t be a problem. Not as long as I get the other two groups we¡¯ve run into so far to join. And I¡¯m sure my little brother would be perfectly happy attacking that goodie-two-shoes sister of ours, even if he doesn¡¯t support me. William stops at the fire. But his support isn¡¯t necessary. Not when I can eliminate him after the fight and blame it on a monster. This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version. After a few seconds of thinking, William turns to look at Rodrick as he says, ¡°Please explain to me what you saw of their skills. I want to know more. Especially about the Shadowblade and Iceblade Knight classes.¡±
Alexia Knight After lying on the ground for about an hour, my wounds finally heal enough for me to climb to my feet and move over to the boss¡¯s chest in only mild discomfort. Then I touch the chest, making it open on its own before a ring comes out. It is completely black in color with a light purple band going down the center of it. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Basic Spatial Ring Description: This spatial ring can hold ten cubic meters of non-living matter and it has been created to perfectly fit the original finder, Alexia Knight, on their index finger. Stats Bonus: +5 MAG, +5 MEN Requirements: Must have one elemental affinity beyond D Grade. Item Tier: 1 -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- I can work with this. I can very much work with this. Spatial Rings aren¡¯t a very common thing if you aren¡¯t able to explore dungeons. Although in dungeons themselves they are a rather common item drop in boss rooms like this one. I quickly slip the thing onto my right index finger before looking around to see if there is an exit to this cavern somewhere. But the only possible exit I can find is another hole that used to be covered in webbing that I remember hearing fall apart after I killed the boss. As if the webbing was attached to the arachnid¡¯s life or something. Well, looks like I¡¯m taking another nosedive. Even if I didn¡¯t actually fall down headfirst the last time. I walk over to the hole before pausing at the edge of it and then backing up a little to lie down on the ground. After I finish healing.
It takes me another five minutes to fully heal before I feel ready to jump into the hole, following which I do the same thing I did for the last two holes, digging my fingers into the wall as I fall. Something I¡¯m very thankful that I¡¯m actually able to do, because climbing down would take a while. And I continue falling. And falling. And falling. I frown as my fingers begin to grow tired of the constant jumping and digging them into the wall, but I continue doing it, hoping that the stupid hole won¡¯t last forever. Eventually I finally see a light from the bottom of the hole, making my frown turn into a smile. Then I find a giant cavern beneath with sunlight somehow reaching it despite us being in a dungeon and underground. Because dungeon reality magic does what it wants. And what it wants are weird things. I dig my hand into the wall, not pulling it out this time as I slow my fall to an eventual stop, just barely above the bottom of the tunnel where I look out over the massive cavern. A cavern filled with rocky land with some areas of trees and greenery, along with dozens of random caves scattered about everywhere. Okay. I don¡¯t think I like this place. Also, the ground is very far away. Probably somewhere between seventy-five to a hundred meters away. I continue looking down for a little bit, my grip remaining firm even if I¡¯m growing tired until I eventually decide that I probably shouldn¡¯t just hang around here. Then I notice a shimmering beneath the tunnel opening, making me reach me feet out to the shimmering to find them landing on something solid. There we go. A dungeon wouldn¡¯t just make a giant deathtrap like this as the entryway to the next area. I let myself drop down onto the platform, following which the previously transparent platform suddenly turns fully white. The platform I¡¯m on though is only about two meters by two meters in size, so I don¡¯t exactly feel very comfortable up here. I kneel down before moving closer to the edge of the platform, finding nothing happening, so I move to a different edge. When I reach this edge, another platform begins to appear as if unhiding itself from sight. This is going to be a pain. And as if this isn¡¯t already a pain, the sunlight suddenly vanishes in the cavern, following which I hear flapping wings, making me look down beneath the platforms to find bats flying out of the caves. Vampire bats. To my relief, most of the bats don¡¯t seem to notice me at all. In fact, none of them notice me except like two, both of which I hit with a couple quantum bolts that has the other bats near them flying away. Something that I learned happened through the few vampire bats in the early parts of this dungeon. The things hate the light, and even if they hear a sound, if there¡¯s light from the source of the sound like my quantum bolts, they will avoid it at all costs. I think these things might even be more sensitive to the light than regular bats are. Well, that¡¯s good at least. Actually, what level are these things? I identify the closest one, which is still a couple dozen meters away from me. {Lesser Vampire Bat ¨C Level 48} That¡¯s a strong bat. Considering how just two quantum bolts were enough to kill one, they aren¡¯t too close to being a Class D species. So there¡¯s that at least. I frown at the creatures before sighing and dropping from my kneel into a crawl to give me a more stable grasp of the platform while still keeping an eye on the bats. Then I slowly begin to crawl across the platform in order to find more platform. This might take a while. B1 | Chapter 33 - Reaching Ground Again Alexia I can¡¯t help but smile when I finally reach the ground, having spent who knows how long simply crawling along the invisible platforms while feeling for solid ground. Not to mention when I had to go down invisible steps. The first time I had to go down them was a rather unfortunate event where I accidentally fell down the stairs, barely landing on the edge of the platform without falling off thanks to one of the many invisible walls around the path of invisible blocks. Too close a call for my taste. Would¡¯ve been nicer if there were more walls along the invisible path, but that would just be making things too easy¡­ I stretch after finally standing up for the first time in who knows how long before checking the timer for the Tutorial. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Time Left Until the Tutorial¡¯s End 16 days, 22 hours, 2 minutes, 10 seconds -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- The end of the Tutorial¡¯s second week just passed¡­ I can¡¯t help but frown at that as I look up at the bright sun in the sky, my eyes directly meeting the sun with no actual damage or pain registering in them. Something I realized was a thing the third time the sun appeared, which seemed to happen every hour or two. That my eyes ignore the oversaturation of light just as much as they ignore the lack of it. Another nice benefit to being a quantum reaper. But¡­ if I can¡¯t finish the dungeon within the next two weeks, will I be able to get back to Astrid before the Tutorial ends? It might be a problem if I can¡¯t meet up with her during the Tutorial. I¡¯m not entirely sure about that though. Makes me wish one of those clones would reappear to answer my questions, but that¡¯s not likely to happen. And I¡¯ve been so focused on asking questions about my situation that I didn¡¯t get to ask many questions about the Reset itself. I sigh at that thought before looking around at the bright cavern, finding it barren of any monsters right now thanks to the light. There aren¡¯t any other monsters here aside from the bats, but I still have to figure out which way the bats went. And while the vampire bats I killed on the way down here did bring me up to level forty-six, giving me another skill at level forty-five, I don¡¯t feel particularly comfortable going into one of the bigger caves. Not when a lot more vampire bats seemed to be going in those than the others. Although I am very happy about Quantum Burst, since that skill in particular is quite useful against these stupid bats. Not only is it bright, sending a large pulse of quantum energy all around me in a dome shape, but it knocks the vampire bats away in the process of hurting them. The new passive skill I got at level forty-five could¡¯ve been better though. Since all Quantum Veil does is help cover me from divination and scrying. Which I¡¯m pretty sure no one is going to be using right now anyways. My frown returns as I look around the cavern, only to eventually go away when I settle on a cave close to me that isn¡¯t too big before going to head inside. But the moment I step inside of the cave, I get a welcome System Message. If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. [*New General Skill* ¨C Exploration: Enhances the user¡¯s basic instinct to know which direction they should go when unsure, makes it so they always know which of the four cardinal directions are where, and may sometimes give the user an instinctive feeling directing them to a hidden location. Skill is automatically slotted due to free open slots.] I smile at that. It¡¯s about time. Been waiting to get that skill for a while now. I quickly open up my various Skills lists. [General Skills] |Pain Resistance Level 4(6%)(T1)| |Polearm Mastery Level 2(31%)(T1)| |Forerunner (Unique)| |Stealth Level 2(91%)(T1)| |Survivor Level 1(14%)(T1)| |Poison Resistance Level 2(39%)(T1)| |Exploration Level 1(0%)(T1)| [Active Skills] |Quantum Bolt Level 4(21%)(T1)| |Quantum Displacement Level 3(31%)(T1)| |Quantum Reversal Level 2(12%)(T1)| |Quantum Phasing Level 1(0%)(T1)| |Quantum Burst Level 1(31%)(T1)| [Passive Skills] |Quantum Attunement Level 2(21%)(T1)| |Quantum Singularity Level 1(2%)(T1)| |Quantum Infusion Level 2(46%)(T1)| |Quantum Adaption Level 1(9%)(T1)| |Quantum Veil Level 1(0%)(T1)| Alright. Now all I need are three more General Skills and I¡¯ll have a complete set of skills. Although I still need to replace Quantum Phasing, Quantum Singularity, and Quantum Veil for now. Since, while they are good skills, they just aren¡¯t usable by me at the moment. I am kind of curious why Quantum Singularity is gaining progress in leveling though. Unless it¡¯s due to the dungeon areas? When I pass between them? Either way, the skill isn¡¯t useful unless I run into something with a magic that directly affects reality. And I won¡¯t be finding one of those in a Tier 1 dungeon. I walk over to the edge of the cave before sitting down next to the wall as I try to consider what other General Skills I should get. Which three I should use to fill up the last slots. Most of the General Skills I know of off the top of my head aren¡¯t things I can get right now, whether that¡¯s because I don¡¯t have the equipment needed for it such as specific weapons, or because I¡¯m alone and have no one to negotiate with. Which kind of just leaves Taming and Resistance skills. But I don¡¯t have any food to tame anything with, unless I want to go killing a monster and then trying to tame another monster with its corpse. Which I guess I can do. What would I want to tame though? And do I actually want to tame a monster? I frown as I cross my arms under my chest and raise my head to look up at the ceiling of the cave. Such a dilemma. The sunlight in the cave suddenly goes away, following which a bunch of bats suddenly rush out of the cave towards me, only for me to use Quantum Burst, sending a pulse of energy outwards in a dome from me, knocking into all of the bats that get near me and sending them dazed to the ground with whatever part of their body that touched the pulse glitching apart. Then I get up while summoning my polearm before rushing towards them to tear the things apart, glad that I can finally use my polearm again without having to worry about falling to my death. But as I¡¯m killing the bats, something comes to mind. Couldn¡¯t I try taming a vampire bat? Would certainly make for an interesting tamed monster, that¡¯s for sure. I use another Quantum Burst when the bats begin getting up again, draining a lot of my soul in the process. Far more than a Quantum Bolt takes. Well, guess it can¡¯t hurt for me to try. But I should be a higher level first. So I continue killing the poor bats. B1 | Chapter 34 - A Bat and a Sneak Alexia It turns out to be far easier to kill the bats when I¡¯m safe on the ground than when I¡¯m high up in the air, for obvious reasons. So I end up gaining levels rather quickly from the creatures, gaining more levels from them in just a single day than I did from the spiders in that boss area over the course of multiple days. Probably because there are just a hell of a lot of these bats all over the place, and Quantum Burst does a good job of dealing with them even with the large soul requirement of the skill. In the end, I don¡¯t stop killing the creatures for levels until I¡¯m strong enough that I can just shrug off their attacks with my Quantum Body without any actual damage. Which is at about level fifty-seven. But I continue killing them after that anyways, just until I finally get the System Message for reaching level fifty-eight. I stretch a little after heading to the closest cave to me, rather happy with my progress. And when I reach the cave, I begin moving through it in search of an interesting bat that I might be able to tame. Let¡¯s see¡­ if I remember correctly, to tame a monster, I have to either beat it into submission and feed it food until it learns to fear me, or I have to do something to gain its trust. And generally the latter is better than the former in terms of tamed monsters. But I¡¯ve never actually put this knowledge to use. Only learned about it in class. A class that I kind of assumed at the time was a waste of my time, since I already had all of my General Skill slots filled. Not that it stopped me from getting a near-perfect score in it despite that. It did make it so I was perfectly fine with forgetting what I learned for the class afterwards though. Which is unfortunate right now. Honestly, having a bat as a tamed monster would probably help for scouting purposes. Any flying monster in general, actually. I continue walking through the cave until I eventually find the bats all sleeping at the end of the cave. So I move further in, trying to stay as quiet as possible, only for them to still hear me somehow. Stupid sensitive ears. The bats all begin moving, fluttering around and flying straight towards me. Then I use Quantum Burst, sending a pulse of quantum energy around me and knocking away all of the vampire bats, some of whom hit the floor and others manage to retain their flight. But the majority that it doesn¡¯t hit instead begin to fly closer to the entrance of the cave, afraid of the light. Not that they matter. Especially since they can¡¯t really leave the cave when it¡¯s even brighter outside of it. So while still keeping an eye on the other bats¡¯ magical energy sources, I focus on the bats that didn¡¯t fly away. Some of whom having been caught between a rock and a hard place. Literally. A large rock and the wall. I frown at the bats, only for most of them to scramble to free themselves from the rock, quite literally ripping apart their wing in the process. Then they fly away, leaving only a single one behind. Well this is unexpected. I kneel down next to the crevasse between the large boulder and the wall, looking at the last bat remaining. One I honestly can¡¯t tell if is dead or not, simply because it¡¯s not moving at all. This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. Very unexpected. Let¡¯s see if I can¡¯t tame this little fella.
Somewhere in Tutorial Block #108 Astrid looks out over the base from her spot on a tree, simply watching as the others sleep. Keeping guard from any would-be intruders. The base has evolved from the original ruins with some stakes drilled into the ground on the outskirts and a fire with a makeshift shelter all the way to a much more established base. One with wooden spikes drilled into the stone, making up walls where the stone walls of the ruins don¡¯t cover, along with three buildings for sleep, and a single large fire at the center of the base. The buildings were made as sleeping quarters and storage, one building for Astrid¡¯s original group, one for the princess¡¯s group that joined them, and one for the storage. Each built by the group members while the others were off hunting monsters to level up. Astrid raises her gaze to find Cass jumping down from one of the trees while giving her a wave and mouthing ¡®Goodnight!¡¯ knowing perfectly well that Astrid can read lips. So Astrid brings up the timer counting down to the end of the Tutorial. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Time Left Until the Tutorial¡¯s End 15 days, 20 hours, 0 minutes, 5 seconds -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- It¡¯s already four in the morning? Astrid blinks at that in surprise before focusing on the trees around the base, ignoring the golden eyed girl as she moves to wake up one of her group members for their turn at keeping watch. But Astrid¡¯s eyes quickly narrow when she notices a very brief movement in the trees. Silence fills the base for several seconds, then she sees another movement, this time letting her catch sight of a flash of a man¡¯s head as he crawls across the ground, moving away from the base. One with brown hair and a cloak covering the rest of their body. Without any hesitation, Astrid taps on the second cord next to her in the tree, sending a pulse of mana through it that rings a bell in the structure built for her group, then she begins jumping through the trees, keeping pace with the intruder. But she doesn¡¯t jump down to ambush him. Instead she follows him, leaving the others to prepare for any sort of attacks on the base thanks to her ringing of the secondary warning bell. One meant to signify a human intruder. Astrid keeps as quiet as she can while she jumps from tree to tree, keeping pace with the man until over half an hour passes and she finds herself on the trees looking out over another base. And the moment the intruder gets out of the heavy foliage, the man having been trying to cover himself the whole way here with it, she recognizes him with a frown on her face. Rodrick. But he¡¯s not the only one she recognizes, as she immediately finds various other familiar faces amidst the people in the base she¡¯s arrived at. So she finds a good spot to keep an eye on the intruder, watching as he heads through the stone gates of the base made partially out of a ruins just like their own, and partially out of stone, signifying that they likely have some sort of stone magic user amongst them. Or an earth magic user. Then Rodrick heads straight for the crown prince, whose silver hair is obvious at any angle. Astrid narrows her eyes slightly, leaning into the tree after adjusting her positioning as she begins reading their lips. ¡®They still don¡¯t suspect anything from us,¡¯ Rodrick says with a smile on his face as he kneels next to the former crown prince. Then he gets a look on his face that Astrid thinks is him chuckling or laughing. ¡®They won¡¯t be ready, Your Highness. That I assure you.¡¯ So they are planning on attacking us after all. Elara and the Princess brought it up as an unlikely possibility, but a possibility, nonetheless. She purses her lips for a second before seeing the prince say, ¡®Good. Alternate with your sister to keep an eye on them until we strike.¡¯ Guess it¡¯s a good thing I noticed him. But when will they be attacking? Astrid continues watching for a little bit, only to find Rodrick going to eat by the fire. Then his sister begins moving over to the prince. But neither of them say anything that might be useful to Astrid, so she quietly identifies everyone in sight ¨C which she notices is several more in number than she remembered being in his group originally ¨C before making her exit, deciding that it would be best to head back to the base and warn everyone. Then she can come back and figure out when they¡¯re planning on striking. Several in their mid to high-level thirties. This could be a problem. B1 | Chapter 35 - The Third Boss Alexia I bow my head slightly to the bat corpse in front of me, respecting the poor fella that ended up dying instead of being tamed. Mostly because it was already grievously wounded, and I don¡¯t exactly know how to treat a vampire bat, much less have anything on me that can treat one. Rest in peace, poor little bat. Ignoring the fact that I probably would¡¯ve killed it myself if I wasn¡¯t trying to get Taming. I briefly nod my head at that thought before getting up and moving on to leave the cave I¡¯m in back to the brightness outside. Only for said brightness to dim down again moments later, following which bats once again return to the main cavern. Well, there are plenty of other bats around here for me to try taming. I¡¯m sure I¡¯ll manage to at least get one of these vampire bats. The things really do make the perfect tamed monster for me down here as well, now that I think about it. After all, they drink blood. They don¡¯t need water, or any food. Just blood. So I can easily feed them with monsters. I grin slightly while putting my hands on my hips and briefly using Quantum Burst to send a bunch of bats flying again that had moved towards me. Time to get to work. This should be fun!
One Day Later I give up. After my fiftieth ¨C at least, I think it¡¯s my fiftieth attempt. It¡¯s kind of hard to tell after so many tries. But after my fiftieth attempt failing to tame one, I think it¡¯s safe to say I¡¯m not meant to be a Tamer. A pity. It would¡¯ve been nice to have a flying monster as a scout. I sigh at that thought before checking my status.
Name: Alexia Knight Species: Quantum Reaper(T1)
Level: 60 Class: Quantum Reaper
Soul: 3,011/5,187.5
VIT: 178 DEX: 178 STR: 178 MAG: 237 MEN: 237
Racial Skills Active Skills
Passive Skills General Skills
It is rather unfortunate that my level stopped going up as quickly as it was, but it makes sense considering that the strongest vampire bats down here are only around level fifty-one. The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation. I climb to my feet from my place kneeling next to the dead three-quarters-of-a-meter-tall vampire bat before stretching a little and starting to walk towards the main cavern again. Then, the moment I step out into the light, I head straight for the largest cave in the cavern. The one I¡¯ve been avoiding all this time simply because it had the most vampire bats and seemed like the most obvious place for their leader to be dwelling. Once I reach the large cave¡¯s entrance though, the light in the main cavern goes out again. Then all of the bats begin rushing out towards me from the cave, only for a lot of them to end up flying straight into a pulse of Quantum Burst. And I repeat the skill a few more times after that, sending the bats flying to the ground until the ones behind the front of the flock realize what¡¯s going on and fly back into the cave. One thing I really wish this cave had was a Safe Zone. Because I kind of want to switch out some of my current slotted skills for the ones I got at levels 50, 55, and 60. Not to mention that sleep would be nicer to have in a place I know monsters won¡¯t attack me in, unlike the caves I clear out of bats. Fortunately none of the bats seem to enter other caves aside from their own. Which is probably by design with this dungeon, otherwise people wouldn¡¯t be able to rest in here. I glance at some of the injured but not dead vampire bats on the ground before looking at my soul and deciding I have some to spare, so I blast each of them with Quantum Bolts. Then I step inside of the cave after killing them, being careful of any vampire bats that might be above my head. But I don¡¯t find any, to my surprise. Where did they go? I frown as I walk, but even after walking for several minutes through the cave, I still don¡¯t find any bats. Okay, seriously. Where did the bats go? They couldn¡¯t have just disappeared¡­ My answer comes to me after another ten or so minutes of walking when I reach a large cavern spanning about a fifth of the size of the other one. But this one is just filled to the brim with bats, along with one enormous one hanging upside down from the ceiling. {Vampire Bat ¨C Level 55} What catches my attention just as much as the bat though is the boss room notice that I get after entering the cavern. [You have entered the Tier 1 Dungeon Crawling Cavern¡¯s Third Boss Room. The Bat¡¯s Den.] Well this is interesting. First time thus far that I¡¯ve found a boss monster that was a lower level than me. All of the bats in the room seem to start moving at once, flapping their wings and dislodging themselves from the walls to fly towards me. Meanwhile the boss itself just slowly opens its eyes. Then I use Quantum Burst and each one of the bats let out hate-filled hisses and screeches, some of them having been moving too fast towards me to stop, leading to them getting blasted by the pulse from the skill. I raise a brow when all of the lesser vampire bats begin flying around me towards the entrance, leaving the cavern after I flash another Quantum Burst outwards. The boss at the center of the ceiling finally dislodges its talons from the cavern¡¯s ceiling and begins flapping its wings with a loud screech that has half of the bats halting their current trajectory. But another flash of Quantum Burst and a Quantum Bolt sent their way sends those out of the cavern as well, managing to force them into ignoring whatever order the boss just gave them. This might just be the easiest boss fight I¡¯ve had so far. Without any hesitation, I raise my hands and begin firing Quantum Bolts straight at the giant two-meter-tall bat with blazing red eyes, only for the creature to move a wing in front of it and block the bolts. Or rather, it tries to block the bolts, making the bolts begin tearing a glitching hole through the creature¡¯s wing. I blink at the sight of the bat beginning to fall down to the ground before it quickly climbs to its feet. Uh, is this bat stupid or something? Why would it try to block an¡­ oh. The light from the bolts. Was it trying to shield its eyes from the light? That sounds like a rather large weakness for a boss to have. But then again, most people don¡¯t have the ability to see in the dark like me when they come down here. So it¡¯s probably more of a challenge firing attacks directly at the creature with such a large cave. It also didn¡¯t seem to be as fearful and weak towards the light as the lesser vampire bats were, simply because it didn¡¯t fly away in fright. I reach out my right arm before summoning my polearm and grinning at the large bat. This will be a good chance to test my polearm mastery. Then the creature lets out a screech, making a lesser vampire bat appear from a portal of darkness next to it. I blink in surprise, only to find the vampire bat biting the lesser vampire bat¡¯s neck, following which its wing begins to heal a little. Interesting. What¡¯s with this dungeon and cannibalism? B1 | Chapter 36 - Defeating the Bloodsucker Alexia Putting the cannibalism aside, I rush forwards while swinging around my polearm to gather momentum before jumping through the air, sending a Quantum Bolt ahead of me as I begin to fall down towards the creature. And just like before, it raises a wing to block the light, getting its wing struck in the process. But unlike last time, it also lets out a screech and sends four small bolts of darkness around it towards me, making me raise my polearm to cut through two of them in a single swing. And right as the other two are about to hit me, I pull my weight back midair to send me into a spin, my head going downwards towards the ground and making me narrowly avoid getting blasted in the shoulders by the bolts. Then I swing my polearm towards the ground, striking it and pushing myself back up into an arc before I manage to land right in front of the vampire bat, where I swing my polearm once more, cutting straight through one of its wings and slicing the thing off. I raise a brow at the surprising weakness of the bat¡¯s body, only to jump backwards again when it swipes its other claw at me with a screech of rage. The bat lets out another screech, summoning yet another lesser vampire bat that it once again gorges itself upon to heal up. But this time the bat flies straight into the air, its wound already having healed from the blood. So I let loose another few Quantum Bolts at the thing. To my surprise though, it actually closes its eyes and begins to fly away from the bolts seemingly at random. Then it opens them again after the bolts pass by without hitting it. Interesting. A boss that can learn from its mistakes. Looks like this thing is really a Class D species after all. I was unsure at first, but if it can do that then it has to be Class D. The creature stops moving around, its crimson eyes meeting my purple ones as we reach a bit of a standstill. It¡¯s just going to keep healing if I let it, so I need to deal with any of the lesser vampire bats it summons to keep it from draining them. And while I¡¯m at it, I should keep its fangs from me as well. Because that wouldn¡¯t be a pleasant time. A vampire bat is ¨C just like any other creature with the term vampire in its name ¨C a creature that survives solely on blood, with no other nutrients needed. No water, no food, no nothing. Just blood. And a lot of vampire creatures often gain benefits from the blood they drink, similar to the humanoid Class A vampires that grow physically stronger, faster, and regenerate from drinking blood for a short time. This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. This bat seems to just regenerate. The creature lets out a short screech, baring its few razor sharp teeth at me in the process as I frown at the thing. Okay, this fight might be a bit tougher than I thought. But looking at my soul, I should have plenty needed to finish it. Although that wouldn¡¯t have been the case if I had to fight off all of the lesser vampire bats. Well, let¡¯s see if I can¡¯t get this thing to stop healing. I raise one of my hands to send a Quantum Bolt, only to quickly throw my polearm with my other. And just like before, the vampire bit swiftly flies out of the way with its eyes closed. Then it takes my polearm straight through one of its wings, making it let out a screech as it falls to the ground. I grin as I rush forwards, dismissing and resummoning my polearm only to throw it again, piercing through a lesser vampire bat that it summons and sending it flying through the air. But it doesn¡¯t give up with just one, instead summoning three more afterwards that I deal with through a Quantum Burst after getting close enough. The boss lets out a cry of pain as it too is hit by the pulse from the burst, but I ignore that as I dismiss and resummon my polearm again and throw it the remaining two meters between me and the vampire bat, skewering it straight down the center. Its cry of pain shoots up an octave again from that, only for it to turn towards me with hate in its eyes. A shiver runs down my spine, making me immediately teleport to the side, following which two beams of darkness shoot out of its eyes passing through where I was just standing. Holy shit, this damned bat really does know darkness magic¡­ I don¡¯t have the time to consider what that means right now though as I continue rushing towards the bat who now seems to be panting while slumping to the ground. Then, after reaching it, I summon my polearm back to my hand again before swinging it straight through the vampire bat¡¯s neck, killing the boss. Then I let the System Messages from the battle flow. [Level 51 Lesser Vampire Bat Defeated. User¡¯s earned EXP has been decreased a small amount due to killing a being whose level is five or more levels lower than their own] x13 {Congratulations! You have leveled up to level 61! Your Species has awarded you +2 VIT, +2 DEX, +2 STR, +2 MAG, and +2 MEN. Your Class has awarded you +1 VIT, +1 DEX, +1 STR, +2 MAG, and +2 MEN.} [Level 51 Lesser Vampire Bat Defeated. User¡¯s earned EXP has been decreased due to killing a being whose level is ten or more levels lower than their own] x14 [Level 55 Vampire Bat Defeated. User¡¯s earned EXP has been decreased a large amount due to killing a being whose level is five levels or more lower than their own.] {Congratulations! Your Passive Skill ¡®Quantum Infusion¡¯ has reached Level 2!} {Congratulations! Your General Skill ¡®Polearm Mastery¡¯ has reached Level 3!} Seriously? Only one level from defeating a boss? That¡¯s sad. Although at least I leveled a couple of skills in the fight. I hear the noise of a chest hitting the stone ground, bringing my attention to a pitch black chest with a bat¡¯s head engraved on the front, its eyes glowing with that same eerie red as the actual bat. Okay, maybe the boss¡¯s loot will give me something worthwhile. B1 | Chapter 37 - An Egg and a Chase Alexia This¡­ is not loot. I stare at the egg that appeared floating above the chest after I touched it before identifying the thing. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Elemental Pet Egg Description: This egg passively absorbs the mana of the user who bonds with it, eventually hatching into an Elemental Pet. The species of the bonded pet will be dependent on what boss was defeated to obtain this egg. Stats Bonus: N/A Requirements: Must be Alexia Knight to hatch this egg. Item Tier: 2 {Tier raised from 1 to 2 due to random chance caused by the solo defeat of the boss} -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- The tier of the item takes me aback for a moment, only for me to immediately reach out and grab the egg. Then the egg begins to just disappear into my hand as if it were never there. [User has bonded with an Elemental Pet, making the Pet soulbound to them. As the Pet is currently in its incubation period, it will passively absorb a small amount of the elemental energy of their highest Class affinity that the user gives off. After the Pet absorbs enough energy, it will hatch.] Wait a second, what? That¡¯s not something from before the Reset¡­ a soulbound pet? Is it because I was wanting a tamed monster before to get the Taming General skill? I know that the System works a bit more towards what the user wants sometimes for loot box rewards when the user is fighting solo or with a strong handicap, but still... that doesn''t really help me the way I wanted the monster. I stare at the chest for several seconds before eventually shrugging and looking around the cavern for a way to move on through the dungeon, not really noticing anything going on with my soul. But then again, I guess it¡¯s taking my quantum energy, not my soul. And elemental energy is something everyone with an affinity naturally generates on their own without even thinking about it. Almost like a biological, or rather, a magical signal unique to them. Which does make me wonder how long it¡¯ll take for the egg to hatch, but I have more pressing issues right now. I begin walking over to a corner of the cavern where I notice a decline in the surface of the floor, only to eventually find another hole covered in cobwebs. Which isn¡¯t a good sign, nor does it bring back good memories. I glare at the hole in the ground for several seconds before eventually sighing, sending a Quantum Bolt straight down to clear the cobwebs a little, then jumping in. Here¡¯s hoping it¡¯s not a repeat of the last time.
Okay. Not what I was expecting, but still not a very pleasant place to be. I look around the area I landed in, some sort of large cavern filled with random pools of purple liquid that I¡¯m assuming is poison judging by the creepy looking bubbles of gooey purple that keep popping from time to time on the surface, not to mention the whole purple color in the first place. And lots of other things in this dungeon seem to love their poison, so it only makes sense. Although, I don¡¯t see any monsters in the- My thoughts are interrupted by the sound of skittering legs, followed by the sight of a scorpion entering the cavern and immediately turning its sights on me. Never mind then. I summon my polearm as I identify the scorpion and almost stumble in the process. {Nightshade Scorpion ¨C Level 67} Right. Because a regular monster in the next area should be twelve levels higher than the boss of the last area. If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation. Yeah. That sounds about right. Maybe. Probably not. I throw my polearm at the thing, making it stretch out its bladed tail at the last second to parry it, sending it flying past the creature until I recall it to my hand again. Then the two-meter-long arachnid hisses at me while rubbing its two dark purple fore-limbs together. When I saw the term arachnid-type monsters in the dungeon¡¯s description, I wasn¡¯t exactly thinking scorpions. But I guess they¡¯re classified as arachnids too, so¡­ The creature begins rushing towards me, ignoring the pools of poison as it passes through them seemingly unharmed. Unlike the walls that are splashed by the poison and begin to sizzle melt a little, showing that whatever ground the poison is under is likely something specially made to be immune to it. I throw my polearm at it again along with a Quantum Bolt, and it manages to parry the weapon once more, but all it ends up doing when it swipes its claw at the bolt is making large chunks of its claw glitching apart and exploding, making its hissing increase in volume. Meanwhile I continue sending more Quantum Bolts at the thing, each of which it tries to block with little success until I finally kill the thing after blasting it apart with nearly two dozen Quantum Bolts. [Level 67 Nightshade Scorpion Defeated. User¡¯s earned EXP has been increased a large amount due to killing a being whose level is five levels or more higher than their own.] {Congratulations! You have leveled up to level 62! Your Species has awarded you +2 VIT, +2 DEX, +2 STR, +2 MAG, and +2 MEN. Your Class has awarded you +1 VIT, +1 DEX, +1 STR, +2 MAG, and +2 MEN.} {Congratulations! Your Active Skill ¡®Quantum Bolt¡¯ has reached Level 5!} A level in Quantum Bolt. Not half bad. I open my status.
Name: Alexia Knight Species: Quantum Reaper(T1)
Level: 62 Class: Quantum Reaper
Soul: 3,011/5,362.5
VIT: 184 DEX: 184 STR: 184 MAG: 245 MEN: 245
Racial Skills Active Skills
Passive Skills General Skills
Okay, bad. Very bad. I need to find a safe zone otherwise I¡¯ll run out of soul faster than I can convince Astrid to go out for donuts. Which is fast. I look around the cavern at the three different exits, each on opposing ends of the others. Then I start sprinting around the pools of poison towards one, avoiding the tunnel that the scorpion came out of. Only to end up passing through the tunnel and finding myself in a room full of half a dozen scorpions. Maybe picking directions isn¡¯t my best skill. I turn around and begin running away as the six scorpions all start charging towards me, and when I get back to the cavern I was in, I suddenly feel a sensation tugging me towards the other tunnel in the room ¨C the one that the first scorpion didn¡¯t come out of between the two remaining tunnels. Thank you very much exploration skill. Without an ounce of hesitation, I sprint straight through the room while occasionally sending Quantum Bolts back towards the chasing scorpions until I reach the tunnel and pass through it. Then I find another large cavern with only two scorpions and a few pools of poison in it, along with a single tunnel leading out of it aside from the one I entered through. So I sprint through the cavern, teleporting twice just to avoid the pools of poison and the scorpions trying to block my way. And once I make it to the tunnel, I sense something swinging straight towards my head, so I duck right before a sharp tail flies by, swinging some sort of purple liquid along with it. Then I continue running straight through the tunnel until I make it to a small cavern, passing through the usual fluctuations in space in the process as I enter a Safe Zone. I quickly turn around, only to let out a sigh at the sight of the monsters slamming into an invisible wall made up of partially see-through purple and blue energy. Quantum energy belonging to the System no doubt. I let out a sigh of relief before backing up to a random wall, leaning up against it, and sliding down to the ground. Alive. And now I can switch out my skills. B1 | Chapter 38 - Swapping Skills Alexia I fold my arms over my stomach while lightly tapping my elbow with a finger as I look at the list of possible skills floating in my vision. [Unslotted General Skills] N/A [Unslotted Active Skills] |Quantum Echo Level 1(0%)(T1) ¨C Allows the user to create a brief echo of their previous attack through quantum entanglement, letting them duplicate one attack at a weaker level than the original attack.| |Quantum Resonance Level 1(0%)(T1) ¨C Allows the user to use the quantum energy in their body to create a resonance throughout themselves that increases their physical strength, speed, and regeneration for a limited amount of time.| [Unslotted Passive Skills] |Quantum Aura Level 1(0%)(T1) ¨C Creates a field around the user that distorts the space within the field by a minimal margin, making it slightly harder to accurately hit the user.| All three of them are quite good, but of the skills I¡¯m wanting to replace, two are passives and one is an active skill. Which means I can¡¯t use one of the actives. And I need the other four actives, since burst and bolt are my main attacks, displacement is useful since it¡¯s teleportation and that¡¯s always useful, and reversal is great for when I get a crippling injury or poison that I can¡¯t wait for my soul to heal. As for echo or resonance¡­ Ugh. This is annoying having to choose. I never reached the level where I had to choose between different Class Skills before the Reset, so this is the first time I¡¯m going to have to not use a skill I want just because of the slots having been capped. Although¡­ I think I¡¯ve heard that a lot of Legendary Feats¡¯ perks give extra Class Skill slots. So maybe I can complete a Legendary Feat and get one? Like being the first person to clear a dungeon in the Reset? That could work. Hopefully. Assuming I actually end up being the first one. I purse my lips in thought before eventually sighing and deciding on switching out Quantum Phasing for Quantum Echo, strictly because the second attack coming when the enemy doesn¡¯t expect it will do more than just a slight increase in my physical capabilities. Meanwhile I replace Quantum Veil for Quantum Aura. Then I close out of the menu while leaning my head back against the stone wall. And out of curiosity, I check on the time remaining for the Tutorial. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Time Left Until the Tutorial¡¯s End 14 days, 15 hours, 4 minutes, 1 seconds The author''s narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- I¡¯ve been in the dungeon for over fifteen days now. That¡¯s a lot of time for something major to happen outside of the dungeon. I hope Astrid is okay. She isn¡¯t exactly the most social of butterflies. Not that I¡¯m one to talk. But I am at least decent at socializing even if I don¡¯t particularly like it. Astrid on the other hand just can¡¯t socialize very well at all, much less like it. In general, I often tend to be in charge of socializing. Or at least, I used to be. She¡¯s been making an effort to improve her socializing skills on Gramps¡¯ request, simply because I won¡¯t be with her every day of her life. And I agree with that sentiment. But if I had to guess, she¡¯s probably staying in her own corner away from the other members of the team only interacting with them when she has to. I kind of hope she¡¯s improved her socialization a little bit over the last two weeks though. Then again, my social skills have probably deteriorated a bit after being left alone in a dungeon full of monsters for over two weeks straight with nothing to talk to but ten minutes with an incredibly annoying dead guy who could read my mind. I sigh at that thought, briefly wondering just what I¡¯ll end up finding when I finally get out of the dungeon. And hoping that it isn¡¯t anything dangerous. Maybe I¡¯ll find Astrid welcoming me into the group? The others should know I¡¯m in a nearby dungeon, or at least assume that I might be considering how I wasn¡¯t with them. Even if it might confuse them a little bit. Possibly more than a little. I begin to feel myself slowly nodding off, and I let it happen, strictly because I¡¯m currently inside of a Safe Zone. And I need rest anyways.
Somewhere in Tutorial Block #108 ¡°Let¡¯s go over the plan one last time,¡± Alara says as Astrid and the others sit down in the building around her, having Cass keep watch outside. ¡°We¡¯ve learned from Astrid that the Crown Prince is planning on attacking us in the morning seven days from now, right after everyone splits up to go on their regular hunts. He¡¯ll then capture his sister and kill everyone else since he believes we¡¯re too high in level for him to control.¡± Astrid watches as the girl moves various rocks across the very crudely made dirt map on the ground. ¡°To counter this, we¡¯ll have the hunters loop back around once they enter the forest to go into the trees surrounding the base. Then we¡¯ll wait for them to strike, at which point we¡¯ll strike back, taking them by surprise.¡± She looks up. ¡°Everyone got it so far?¡± Astrid nods her head, and she sees the others doing the same out of the corner of her eye. ¡°Good,¡± Alara says, following which her friend, the third princess, continues the explanation for her, ¡°Aidan, Cass, Shelly, Vicki, and myself will stay in the trees attacking from a range while Astrid will take one of the leaders of the other groups working with my brother as soon as she can before they can react. At the same time, Alara and Reginald will strike at William and the leader of the other group with William, and the rest of you will be split between support at the back and close combat attackers at the front.¡± After no one says anything for several seconds, the princess finishes, ¡°If everything goes according to plan, we should at the very least have hurt them enough to make them flee. But we will still need to keep an eye out for unexpected issues, since Astrid wasn¡¯t able to find out all of their skills while spying on them.¡± Everyone glances at Astrid, and she grimaces at the attention before they refocus on the princess again. Meanwhile the princess looks at Astrid as she says, ¡°Miss Knight, can we count on your for your continued surveillance of my brother and his associates?¡± Astrid nods her head without saying a word. ¡°Thank you, Miss Knight,¡± the princess says with a smile before turning back to the others and saying, ¡°Then that should be everything. Everyone, please go about your day from here on as if this conversation didn¡¯t happen. And try to leave the tent inconspicuously so you don¡¯t draw any attention from any spies watching the base.¡± A wave of agreements run through the assembled people as Astrid lets out an inaudible sigh. I knew that prince was gonna be trouble the moment we first ran into him. Although I wonder if he would''ve still attacked us if he knew about Lexi being the #1 person on the leaderboards? I doubt it, but there isn''t a way for him to know about her. Knight is a rather common name after all, and I''m pretty sure that idiot Rodrick doesn''t even remember Lexi''s name. Not to mention I''ve heard the prince doesn''t like Rodrick and won''t bother with the twin of the girl his subordinate is shamelessly chasing... Astrid then looks towards the dungeon despite there being a wall in between her and it. If Lexi were here, would she have been able to handle all of this better¡­? She continues to stare in the direction of the dungeon for a few more seconds before sighing again. I miss her. B1 | Chapter 39 - The Final Boss Area Alexia I end up sleeping for about eight hours just to get a full night¡¯s rest in case I don¡¯t find another Safe Zone any time soon before I get up again and leave the Safe Zone to deal with the monsters that¡¯ve been in the cavern right outside of the tunnel to it. But when I make it to the cavern in question, I don¡¯t actually find any scorpions in it. Which is surprising. Where did they all go? Strange. I was sure I sensed at least one magical source in this cavern¡­ My eyes are drawn to one of the pools of poison when I notice bubbles going to the top of it. And not the same bubbles as the other pools. The bubbles in this one are coming faster, and the bubbles themselves are smaller. I narrow my eyes for a moment before focusing my senses on the pool. But the poison itself seems to be magical, so I can¡¯t sense for anything inside of it. Despite that I¡¯m absolutely sure there¡¯s something hiding in the pool. So I do what any reasonable person would do. I walk up to the other side of the cavern from it before climbing up the wall a little bit and sending a Quantum Bolt straight into the pool, making a scorpion shoot up out of it while screeching in anger. Then I send several more Quantum Bolts at it to kill the thing. [Level 67 Nightshade Scorpion Defeated. User¡¯s earned EXP has been increased a large amount due to killing a being whose level is five levels or more higher than their own.] Nice. Free EXP. Still have my points hidden for now though. I''ll check those later. I leave the cavern without so much as glancing at the dead corpse before passing through the tunnel and into another cavern where I deal with more scorpion monsters. Then I continue navigating my way through the caverns, marking the walls as I do so just to make sure I know which way brings me back to that Safe Zone. But after clearing out several more caverns, I end up finding something rather odd. A much larger tunnel branching off of the cavern I¡¯m in than before. Right as I begin walking up to the cavern though, I notice something odd with my Quantum Attunement senses. Something in the air. A very faint rift in space. This must be the boss area. If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. I purse my lips before considering what to do. It¡¯s obvious that I¡¯m too low a level right now to deal with this boss considering how the regular monsters of this place are at higher levels than me, but at the same time, I kind of want to know what level the boss is¡­ After staring at the boss area for several seconds, a thought comes to me. What if¡­ I summon my polearm before swiping straight at the rift to the boss area, cutting the thing open with the quantum energy inside of my polearm. Oo, does this mean I can enter and leave a boss area without getting stuck in there? Because that would be a very nice benefit to quantum energy if that were the case. A roar echoes throughout the caves. One louder than anything I¡¯ve ever heard in my entire life. I grit my teeth before reaching my hand through the open rift I made with my polearm, just to see the System Message it gives me. And the moment I see it, I yank my hand away out of fear. [You have entered the Tier 1 Dungeon Crawling Cavern¡¯s Final Boss Room. The Nest of Night.] [You have left the Tier 1 Dungeon Crawling Cavern¡¯s Final Boss Room. The Nest of Night.] I feel abject terror run through my body at the thought of just how close I was to ending up stuck in the final boss room with a level 100 monster. Something at the peak of Tier 1. If I hadn¡¯t figured out how to rip open the rift and instead entered it without trying¡­ I clap my face once to snap myself out of it before taking a deep breath and heading back to find a different way through the tunnels. I¡¯m going to have to grind levels for a while just to be able to fight that thing, so this set of caves is probably gonna be my home for several days. I continue walking through the tunnel I¡¯m in for a while, half in a daze at the mere fact that I¡¯m already at the boss of the entire dungeon. A fact that has me both terrified and excited at the same time. Excited because it means I might just be able to finish this dungeon before the Tutorial ends. In fact, I probably will be able to. Terrified because it could easily lead to my death if I¡¯m not fully prepared when I get inside of there. So I¡¯m not going in there until I either run out of scorpions to kill, or I reach the max level of Tier 1. Although I¡¯m not sure how I¡¯m going to advance while inside of a Tier 1 dungeon. Normally to advance you need to complete an ascension quest. Something you get when you reach level 100 that is related entirely to your class. And I get the feeling the ascension quest for a quantum being isn¡¯t exactly going to be a walk in the park. Especially considering that I¡¯m a Quantum Reaper, which, according to the dead asshole, is a purely offensive class for quantum beings. One meant for solo fighting as well. So the quest is likely going to be very difficult. Although at the very least quantum is the most versatile element I¡¯ve ever seen in my life. It can heal, mess with time and space, has powerful attacks, and can even debuff and buff from what I understand. It¡¯s really the most powerful element in the world. Something that¡¯s plainly shown just by the System itself, since the System uses the element, and so does its creator. My thoughts come to a grinding halt when I reach the next cavern and immediately find level seventy-four scorpions inside of it. Oh. Yeah, I guess it¡¯d make sense that these things would continue climbing in levels as I move through the caverns¡­ even if I¡¯ve already found the boss area. I slowly begin to back out of the tunnel before they notice me, only for them to notice me by the time I take my second step backwards. So I start sending Quantum Bolts their way. Well, at least they make for good EXP and points. B1 | Chapter 40 - The Hidden Boss Somewhere in Tutorial Block #1 Lucas frowns as he watches the leaderboards without so much as blinking. How? Just how is she¡­ [#1 Alexia Knight ¨C 1941 points] [#2 Lucas Nightshade ¨C 1737 points] [#3 Leif Eriksson ¨C 1625 points] [#4 Aurora Frost ¨C 1621 points] [#5 Isabella d''Aragon ¨C 1598 points] [#6 Leonidas Silver ¨C 1575 points] [#7 Alexander Frost ¨C 1484 points] [#8 Noah Kowalski ¨C 1469 points] [#9 Nathan Briar ¨C 1393 points] [#10 Damien Black ¨C 1265 points] The gap in points between us has been skyrocketing¡­ does that mean she¡¯s gotten stronger? Maybe a lucky item? Or a good area in a dungeon to farm, assuming she¡¯s in one? Lucas shakes his head at that thought. Of course she¡¯s in a dungeon. She wouldn¡¯t have been able to catch up to us much less be at the top of the leaderboards if she wasn¡¯t. The Hound frowns before closing the leaderboards and opening the timer on the Tutorial. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Time Left Until the Tutorial¡¯s End 9 days, 2 hours, 40 minutes, 11 seconds -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Two more days until the last week of the Tutorial. At this rate the girl is going to win first place in the Tutorial, and I won¡¯t be able to do anything about it¡­ His frown grows as he raises his head to look at his surroundings. At the large castle standing at the peak of a mountain, and at the hundreds of goblins patrolling around the castle, many of whom are hobgoblins and shamans. Lucas even notices several ogres amongst the goblins ¨C a Class C species that is almost on the level of a Class B species evolved from goblins. The man raises his hand and summons black flames radiating an eerie black light above his hand before looking at the castle again. If that¡¯s the case, I can¡¯t hold back. Then he throws the ball of flames towards the closest group of goblins. Even if I have to take a risk, I will pass that girl.
Alexia I stare at the pool of poison for several minutes as I consider what exactly I should do about it. Because I have already cleared out all of the monsters in this area, with the exception of the boss area and whatever is down this pool of poison. Even if that took me five days to do. A rather exhausting act, but worth it. I open my status as I continue staring at the hole.
Name: Alexia Knight Species: Quantum Reaper(T1)
Level: 82 Class: Quantum Reaper
Soul: 6891/7,112.5
VIT: 244 DEX: 244 STR: 244 MAG: 325 MEN: 325
Racial Skills Active Skills
Passive Skills General Skills
Although I¡¯m not going to be reaching the peak of Tier 1 before entering the boss area. Not unless this secret, whatever it is, has monsters in it. Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. Which it might, to be fair. I¡¯m not really sure what¡¯s down there though. Just that I get the strong feeling that there¡¯s something there. Most likely from my Exploration General Skill. A skill that leveled up while I was down here killing scorpions, alongside Poison Resistance. But¡­ is that Poison Resistance level enough to jump down into a pool of poison? Probably not, and even if it is, I¡¯d rather not test it. Even if my armor is resistant to poison as well. So I raise a hand to send a Quantum Bolt straight at the pool of poison, setting the target of the skill in my mind to be the poison itself. And after doing that, the bolt strikes the liquid poison and makes the outer edges of it glitch out a little. Something I realized I could do while killing scorpions on this floor. After all, all the skill says is that I could shoot the bolt at a target. It never said the target had to be a living creature or even a solid thing. And quantum energy isn¡¯t solid energy at all. Quantum energy is quantum energy. I fire several more Quantum Bolts at the pool of poison until the entire pool is empty enough for me to see the hole beneath it. A hole that is suspiciously lacking in any sort of poison, with some sort of faint blue barrier with a few droplets of poison sitting on top of it covering the hole. Now to see if this hidden area is a hidden boss or not. I¡¯m honestly a little surprised that this dungeon had more than one hidden area though. Normally that doesn¡¯t happen. Ever. Probably another change to the System. I jump down into the pool of poison, being careful not to land in a spot with a lot of poison remaining. Although even while being careful some of it gets on my skin and has me hissing through my teeth as it quite literally burns through my skin, somehow turning my flesh into a gaseous state that climbs away from my body. But it isn¡¯t much of it, so it doesn¡¯t do much damage. And the damage it does manage to do is very limited and doesn¡¯t last long. So I just let my soul heal the few wounds caused by the poison before I kneel down next to the barrier and stick my hand inside. But nothing happens, unlike what happened with the boss room. So I summon my polearm and swipe it at the barrier, cutting through it and leaving glitchy purple spots on the edge of the otherwise blue barrier around the opening I created. Then I stick my hand in that opening to find a System Message sounding in my head. [You have entered the Tier 1 Hidden Area, the Cavern of Poison.] Sounds like a hidden boss. Which also means more EXP for me, and more levels to get before I take on the boss of the dungeon. I jump down into the hidden area, confident that I¡¯ll be able to leave again with my newfound ability to cut through those pesky rifts. And then I fall. And fall. And fall some more. All the way till I grip the wall to slow myself down and then continue falling straight down into a large cavern, splashing in a large puddle of poison that has me shouting in pain. Then I realize my mistake as I look up at the hole above me while trying to grit my teeth to stop the shouting. How am I going to get back out of this cavern now? It¡¯s not like I¡¯ll be able to climb all the way up to the ceiling of the cavern while fighting¡­ My attention is drawn to a large creature moving through the little lake of poison around the island I now realize I¡¯m standing on. An island in the middle of the cavern that has small puddles of poison all over it. Okay. Yeah. This may have been a bad idea. Whatever the creature is, it looks rather large as it moves underneath the poison lake, just barely not surfacing. But even with it staying under the poison, I can see two glowing red eyes in the lake at the creature¡¯s front. {Poisonous Mana Eater ¨C Level 92} I blink at its name before muttering, ¡°Well, shit.¡± B1 | Chapter 41 - The Mana Eater Alexia I immediately look up to try and find a way to get back to the hole in the ceiling, but the way the cavern is set up makes that pretty much impossible to do without some struggle. Something I can¡¯t do with a fucking mana eater draining my¡­ Realization dawns on me that I don¡¯t feel the painful draining sensation that I¡¯ve heard about from the internet before the Reset, so I look back down at the mana eater to find the creature looking rather confused. Then I remember an important detail and grin. I don¡¯t have mana. Okay. This battle might actually be a lot easier than I thought. I stretch my arm out before summoning my polearm and sending it flying straight towards the large mana eater who is still underneath the poison. Then I send several Quantum Bolts after the polearm and all around it that end up striking the creature after it ducks down deeper under the poison to avoid the polearm. A polearm that I resummon to my hand right when it¡¯s about to hit the poison. The mana eater lets out a loud gurgled roar, disturbing the poison lake and moving the poison away from it for a moment to reveal its body. And just like what I was expecting, the creature is some sort of leech-spider hybrid creature. It has eight legs with a long body and a leech¡¯s mouth with two glowing red eyes. Meanwhile all eight of the claws tipping its legs are dripping with a red liquid, which I¡¯d say its safe to assume is poison considering its name. While the thing is having a roaring fit, I send several more Quantum Bolt¡¯s its way while also using Quantum Burst just to get rid of the annoying poison at my feet. And this shuts it up by beginning to wear away at the carapace making up its outer layer. From everything I¡¯ve heard about mana eaters, they¡¯re not the strongest creature physically. Generally they rely on magic entirely, simply eating the mana of anything within a couple dozen meters around it while attacking them with their elemental magic. Which in this case is poison. The mana eater finally locks its eyes on mine before suddenly opening its mouth wider and shooting out a large glob of poison my way. But I just teleport out of its way and continue throwing Quantum Bolts at the monster. Which it clearly doesn¡¯t like as some parts of its carapace are starting to shatter and explode, sending bits of its carapace inside of its body and making it roar even louder in pain. The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. Huh. This fight is actually rather easy when I don¡¯t have to worry about it rapidly draining away my mana. Although part of it is also probably because of the thing¡¯s surprise, since I doubt it was expecting its mana eating racial skill to fail miserably like that. My thoughts come to a halt when the thing lets out another loud roar, its eyes flaring both red and purple this time as the poison lake around the central island I¡¯m on suddenly rises into the air and rushes towards me on the center of the island. Well, shit. I rush straight towards the center of the island before doing the only thing I can think of right now. Spamming the hell out of Quantum Burst and pushing away most of the poison before it can reach me. But since I can¡¯t spam it fast enough as the skill does have a cooldown no matter how short, the poison ends up reaching me anyways, only ending up stalled a little in the end. And I immediately let out a hoarse scream of pain because of it. Without hesitation, I use Quantum Reversal to repeatedly reverse damage done to me until I hit the skill¡¯s limit. Several seconds pass after that as I scream in pain until I get several System Messages. {Congratulations! Your Active Skill ¡®Quantum Reversal¡¯ has reached Level 3!} {Congratulations! Your General Skill ¡®Pain Resistance¡¯ has reached Level 5!} {Congratulations! Your General Skill ¡®Poison Resistance¡¯ has reached Level 3!} {Congratulations! Your General Skill ¡®Poison Resistance¡¯ has reached Level 4!} Then the pain significantly decreases, and the poison finally starts to settle, moving down towards the ground and slowly beginning to go down the island back towards the lake. I drop to one knee while panting in pain and exhaustion before glancing at my armor through the purple spots in my eyes to find that while it is damaged, it isn¡¯t as damaged as I would¡¯ve expected. Probably because of the resistance to poison this particular set of armor has. After looking over my armor one last time I raise my head to find the mana eater panting in exhaustion as well, likely having used up a large portion of its mana to use that attack. Which reminds me that a mana eater¡¯s skills are often extremely mana intensive because of their ability to drain mana from others. And since this one isn¡¯t draining any mana right now¡­ it¡¯s gotta be low on mana. I glance at my arms and legs again, finding them both severely burnt due to the poison before I look up again and raise my right hand, my left still supporting myself on my left knee as I stand back up. Then I start sending Quantum Bolt after Quantum Bolt at the mana eater again, with several of them going directly into the monster¡¯s mouth and glitching out before blowing up the creature¡¯s insides. The creature lets out pained roars for all of five whole seconds until they cut off and its entire body slams down into the quickly refilling lake of poison, dead. And after using Quantum Burst a single time to clear the poison directly around me, I collapse onto my back as well. Then I glance at my Status before sucking in a hiss of air through my teeth at the sight of my soul being at just about a few hundred left and still slowly dropping thanks to my healing wounds from the poison. But my mood is brought back up again at the sight of the System Messages that appear soon after. B1 | Chapter 42 - New Armor Alexia [Level 92 Poisonous Mana Eater Defeated ¨C User¡¯s earned EXP has been increased a large amount due to killing a being whose level is ten or more levels higher than their own.] [Eleven points have been earned for killing a creature ten levels above you.] {Congratulations! You have leveled up to level 83! Your Species has awarded you +2 VIT, +2 DEX, +2 STR, +2 MAG, and +2 MEN. Your Class has awarded you +1 VIT, +1 DEX, +1 STR, +2 MAG, and +2 MEN.} {Congratulations! You have leveled up to level 84! Your Species has awarded you +2 VIT, +2 DEX, +2 STR, +2 MAG, and +2 MEN. Your Class has awarded you +1 VIT, +1 DEX, +1 STR, +2 MAG, and +2 MEN.} [Ten points have been earned for clearing a Hidden Area.] {Congratulations! You have cleared the Hidden Area, the Cavern of Poison! Touch the loot box to claim your reward!} I look at my status again before sighing with relief at the sight of my soul having raised again. Then I end up lying down for who knows how long simply waiting for all of my painful wounds to finish healing. After that though, I get back up and stretch while looking for the loot box, which I find sitting closer to the poison lake surrounded by a puddle of poison that makes me grimace. Couldn¡¯t have put the thing on solid ground¡­? I shake my head at the thought as I remember that this is the System I¡¯m dealing with. Not a logical and kind person. So I start walking over to the loot box while examining it on the way. The box has an engraving of the hidden boss on the front and center of it, with spikes of purple on each of the corners and a crown of purple spikes on the upper edge of the box. Once I make it to the box, I pause right outside of the poison before pursing my lips and then awkwardly stretching myself over the poison to touch the box and then straightening back up, not stepping in the poison myself. And almost immediately, I find a full set of armor floating above the box. And this set of armor is full body armor instead of the wrappings that the old armor was made of. Desire sensor for the win! I immediately begin grinning at the sight of it before jumping over onto the box, avoiding the poison puddle, grabbing the armor in a large hug, and jumping off onto the other side of the puddle. Then I move back to where I was lying down and identify the armor. Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Armor of the Mana Eater Description: This armor is made from both artal metal and the carapace of a poisonous mana eater, making it extremely durable with a resistance to both poison and darkness. The wearer of this armor gains a minor mana drain towards any being that makes contact with them, storing the mana in the armor to be converted into elemental energy for the user to expel with their skills. The set will automatically draw elemental energy from the user to repair itself when damaged. This set has been created to perfectly fit the original finder, Alexia Knight. Soulbound. Stats Bonus: +10 VIT, +10 DEX, +10 STR Requirements: Must be Alexia Knight to use. Item Tier: 2 -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Oh, nice. It¡¯s also soulbound just like my polearm. Then again, a lot of the gear found in hidden areas end up being soulbound. What makes me even more happy than that though is the fact that it has an auto-repair function. Something everyone wants in their armor, because who doesn¡¯t end up breaking their gear during their fights? It¡¯s just normal. The armor consists of gauntlets that go up to my elbows, with multilayered pauldrons ending in a sharp point, armor plating to cover my waist, collarbone, in front of my chest and stomach, knees, and greaves going up to my upper calves. All in some sort of dark purple metal plating mixed with the mana eater¡¯s carapace. Meanwhile everything else underneath that is covered by a strange material that feels like a mix between silk and something our old dimension used to have called Kevlar. It¡¯s very smooth and silky, and very flexible as well. Although I could do without the short cape that extends from the comfortable collar. But at least the cape isn¡¯t very large. It also extends around the pauldron on my right shoulder and leans towards the right a lot with the material seemingly made of silk. There isn¡¯t any armor for my head though. Which I find a tad odd. I put the armor on with a single thought, summoning it on me just like I summon my polearm to my hand. Then I move around a bit to test out how comfortable the armor is. And just as expected from armor custom fit for me, the set fits perfectly and is probably the most comfortable armor I¡¯ve ever worn. Although¡­ I hope I can turn off that mana draining thing. Because I would rather not accidentally end up draining someone of their mana just from a handshake. Even if the drain is probably extremely small. After I finish stretching and moving around to test the fit, I pat my thighs in search of pockets before grinning when I find them. Not that I actually had anything with me anyways since I¡¯ve already used my potion to survive. Then I remember that I still have to fight the final boss of the dungeon, and I¡¯m going to have to fight it ¨C a level one hundred boss ¨C while still at level 84, since there aren¡¯t any more monsters in the dungeon outside of this boss area. Although I guess there¡¯s the chance that it might have a larger boss area with monsters in it, I¡¯m pretty sure it won¡¯t. Not unless I get lucky. Which technically could be possible, but I don¡¯t think it will be. Considering how I just used up my luck on this armor. I can hope though. With that thought in mind, I look up at the ceiling with a frown while pondering on the best way to get out of this cavern. B1 | Chapter 43 - A Race to the Finish In a Dungeon in Tutorial Block #1 Lucas indifferently swipes his blade to the side, sending all of the green blood off of it from the green ogre he had just slain. The hidden boss of the dungeon. Then he moves over to the loot box and grabs his prize, a brand new sword. One that he immediately uses to replace the basic sword he has been using since the start of the Reset, tossing away that old sword without so much as a second glance. Then he turns around and leaves the cavern lit up by lava before making his way towards the final boss area. A large, metal vault door stationed in the side of a massive cliff connected to a mountainside. One covered in greenery that contrasts with the lava from the hidden boss¡¯s area he had cleared. After making it to the vault he stares at it for a few seconds, only to check the leaderboards once more. [#1 Alexia Knight ¨C 1952 points] [#2 Lucas Nightshade ¨C 1744 points] [#3 Leif Eriksson ¨C 1629 points] [#4 Aurora Frost ¨C 1629 points] [#5 Isabella d''Aragon ¨C 1599 points] [#6 Leonidas Silver ¨C 1584 points] [#7 Alexander Frost ¨C 1499 points] [#8 Noah Kowalski ¨C 1488 points] [#9 Nathan Briar ¨C 1398 points] [#10 Damien Black ¨C 1285 points] The girl got more points than me even after I cleared a hidden area¡­ Lucas shakes his head, clearing the thought from his mind. No. I will clear the dungeon first and get that Legendary Feat. It has to be me. So he reaches forwards and touches the large vault, making the door begin inching open inwards toward the mountain. I will become the strongest once more, and I will find her. The love of my life. His fists clench a little before he lets out a breath and walks into the vault, the door closing behind him to find a System Message greeting him. [You have entered the Tier 1 Dungeon Goblin Mountain¡¯s Final Boss Room. The King¡¯s Lair.]
In a Dungeon in Tutorial Block #2 Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original. Aurora waves her hand, creating a large wall of ice that blocks the attacks of the last kobold warrior in the massive fortress. Then she uses her Icicle Spear skill to send two large icicles straight at the monster, impaling it through the chest and the head before she turns around and begins walking towards the end of the throne room she just finished clearing with that last kobold. And more importantly, towards the large trapdoor that is in the place of the throne. A throne that is currently tossed to the side, revealing the entrance to the final boss area of her dungeon. When she reaches the trapdoor, she simply kicks it open with her bow drawn and pointed directly at it and her quiver over her shoulder. Then she relaxes the string a little and opens the leaderboards. Looks like I caught up to him again. Now let¡¯s see if I can¡¯t pass him. And maybe I might be able to steal that first dungeon clear of the System Reset away from the Hound and the mystery girl. Aurora can¡¯t help but grin at the thought before she jumps down into the trapdoor. Into the final boss area of the dungeon where she is greeted with a System Message. [You have entered the Tier 1 Dungeon Molten Volcano¡¯s Final Boss Room. The Crest.]
In a different Dungeon in Tutorial Block #2 Leif Eriksson, the former King of Arcadia, walks through the halls of the medieval style dungeon just like what one would see beneath a castle that is the dungeon he was left stuck in for the Reset, simply ignoring all of the traps as the arrows and darts ping off of his armor ¨C armor he had obtained from a hidden area boss that suits his holy element perfectly. It isn¡¯t until he comes across a large door at the very end of the corridor that he had briefly wondered whether had an end or not that he stops to open the leaderboards. But after opening it, he simply shakes his head very lightly and closes it again before reaching for the door to the final boss area. A legendary feat would be nice to start things off. And with that thought, he opens the door and enters the final boss area, finding the System Message appearing in his vision. [You have entered the Tier 1 Dungeon Undead Labyrinth¡¯s Final Boss Room. The Hall of the Dead.]
Alexia I stare at the rift in space making up the boss area before breathing in deeply once and letting it out. Then I swipe my polearm straight at it, once again cutting open the rift. But this time I step through the opened rift instead of immediately backing out like I did the last time. [You have entered the Tier 1 Dungeon Crawling Cavern¡¯s Final Boss Room. The Nest of Night.] Since I know how final boss rooms always work, I immediately summon my polearm and sprint straight through the opening stretch of it. But no traps are set off, and I don¡¯t find any monsters, meaning this is a single boss final boss room. Which I don¡¯t think I like but will at least make this go faster. Generally the final boss rooms are set up in two different categories. Ones like this one where there aren¡¯t any monsters or traps at the start and it just leads to a single boss, and ones where there are monsters and traps at the very beginning of the area with a slightly weaker boss that relies on its minions at the end. Which one I need right now would probably be the one with the minions, strictly because it would¡¯ve let me level up and close the gap between me and the boss. But since I am in a bit of a hurry to finish the dungeon since I don¡¯t know how far the other Legendary Feat holders are in their dungeons, and I want to make it back to Astrid as fast as I can, this might actually be the better option in the end. Even if it¡¯s more risky. Not that I have a choice. I slow down before making it to a wide open cavern with a spring in the middle of it, and a small geyser of water at the center of that. Pure, clean water. The spring identifies the exact same as the pond I had seen before in terms of its benefits, so I quickly jump in to heal my remaining soul. Then, after I finish refilling my soul, I get back out and head straight for the tunnel on the other side of the cavern. The tunnel that will lead me to the final boss of this dungeon. B1 | Chapter 44 - The Queen Part I Alexia I quietly walk through the long tunnel, hearing nothing but the sound of my own footsteps along the way. That is, until a few minutes pass and I begin to hear bubbling sounds. Like something was boiling. It takes another minute or so of walking before I arrive at the opening of a rather massive cavern. One filled with large pools of purple poison, some spanning the size of small ponds and others simply just puddles. But the thing that catches my attention the most is the large pool at the end of the cavern that seems to continue the cavern but under the poison¡¯s surface. I slowly step through the large cavern until I¡¯m about at the center point of it, when more and more bubbles suddenly begin to appear at the large pool of poison at the end of the cavern. So I stop moving and tighten my grip on my polearm while narrowing my eyes on the poison itself. The boss is no doubt in there. And it sounds like it¡¯s waking up. Bubbles of poison continue rising to the top of the pool, rapidly growing in number until I finally sense something with Quantum Attunement. So I raise my left arm and send a Quantum Bolt directly targeting that source of magic, making the bolt go straight through the poison before striking something. A loud screech echoes throughout the cavern as the poison is sent flying away while a massive scorpion-like creature jumps halfway out of the pool with hatred clear in its purple eyes. The creature has two pincers next to its mouth with purple poison dripping out of it, two large horns sticking off its head at angles backwards and to the sides, and a very sturdy purple carapace covered in purple spikes around its body. Meanwhile it has two thick arms at its front connected to strong claws, with a narrower body connecting it to its lower half which is much more like a scorpion and only barely visible through the poison it¡¯s still in. {Nightshade Queen ¨C Level 100} A Class C monster. The thing lets out another loud screech before swiping one of its large claws at me, making me teleport myself back a few meters. Then I raise my hand to send several more Quantum Bolts at it, followed by throwing my polearm. But the monster just raises its other claw and blocks the attacks, showing nothing more than a simple burn on its claw as a result. Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings. I grit my teeth at that before using Quantum Echo the moment it moves its claw away, making another Quantum Bolt appear right behind where the others hit. The bolt then takes the creature by surprise, passing right by where it had moved its claw to strike at its head, knocking it back with another loud screech. But the attack doesn¡¯t do that much damage beyond lightly burning the carapace covering its head, letting the creature turn its hateful gaze back towards me again just a moment later. Well, guess it would¡¯ve been too easy if it ended just like that. I teleport backwards right before a spray of purple poison shoots out of the monster¡¯s mouth and hits where I was standing. Then I sprint in an arc around the pool while launching Quantum Bolt after Quantum Bolt at the monster, feeling more than a little warry about the idea of getting near the pool of poison itself. Because I¡¯m pretty sure I don¡¯t want to take a dip in there. Probably not very good for my health, or my life expectancy, for that matter. The boss repeatedly swipes its large claws at the bolts to stop them, but it turns out to be too slow to stop all of them, letting quite a few of the Quantum Bolts slip past to strike at its upper body. And after several of them hit, I realize something. The narrow connecting area between its upper and lower body seems to have weaker carapace than the rest of its body for some reason. A weakness. So I focus my attacks there, making the thing grow more and more infuriated with me till it finally lets out another loud screech and jumps out of the pool of poison, creating a small wave in the process that I only barely teleport away from. And when I reappear, I find myself gazing up at the massive scorpion-like creature that is now standing on the same level as me, spanning nearly seven meters in height and eight in length. The thing is so tall that I have to look up at an angle of forty-five degrees even from several meters away just to look at its head. Also, now that it¡¯s out of the poison, I can clearly see its tail arcing over its scorpion-like lower body with a stinger at the end of it dripping some sort of purplish-red liquid that I should probably avoid being stung by. It lets out a loud screech before beginning to rush over to me, moving faster than its size would suggest but still too slow for it to catch up to me as I simply teleport across another poison puddle to avoid it. Then I return to sending Quantum Bolts its way again. After several seconds of bombarding it with Quantum Bolts and finding this battle a little too easy for my tastes, the creature suddenly stops chasing after me with a loud hissy screech sound that makes me think it¡¯s mad. Then it spreads out both of its claws and raises its head to fire a large glob of poison spanning several meters in diameter straight up at the ceiling. My eyes widen with more than a little fear right before the glob smashes into the ceiling and breaks apart, sending droplets both large and small of purple poison all across the entire cavern. Droplets that immediately start searing my flesh when they make contact with me. Fuuuuck, this hurts! I shouldn¡¯t have jinxed myself! B1 | Chapter 44.2 - The Queen Part II Alexia I quickly use Quantum Echo to replicate the last Bolt I sent at the boss, only to notice that some of the drops of poison raining down on me are being diverted after glitching out slightly, avoiding me along the way. Which reminds me of Quantum Aura, which I haven¡¯t really seen get used much as of yet. My attention is reclaimed by the boss when it suddenly slashes one of its massive claws in a diagonal arc towards me, sending a blade of poison flying my way. So I quickly teleport away, avoiding the attack before it repeats it again towards where I¡¯m standing now. I grit my teeth thanks to the poison but teleport again despite the pain. This isn¡¯t going well anymore. Looking at the connector between its upper and lower body, all I¡¯ve managed to do is badly damage its carapace. My attacks haven¡¯t even damaged its body underneath it yet. And with this poison raining down on me along with its attacks¡­ Out of nowhere the monster begins charging at me again, making me teleport away. But this time, a misty purple aura appears around the boss as it crawls across the ground, somehow speeding the thing up to the point that I have to hurriedly teleport multiple times to keep my distance from it, and the teleports are starting to build up, taxing my soul. So after a brief window of planning, I decide that the only way to take it down now without burning all of my soul in the process just to avoid its own attacks¡­ is to jump onto its back. Right when it¡¯s about to reach me again, I teleport. But instead of teleporting away from the thing, I teleport directly up and forwards, only barely managing to teleport on the other side of its upper body where I then slide down its back. I grit my teeth as I continue ignoring the poison raining down from above and dissolving my skin and armor before I swing my polearm and stab the blade directly into the damaged carapace I was firing Bolts at earlier. And to my relief, the blade manages to pierce through the weakened carapace directly into the creature¡¯s much squishier insides beneath. Insides that end up splashing a purple liquid on me that I quickly find to be poisonous blood. ¡°Shit,¡± I grunt out loud only to practically force my mouth shut to keep any and all of the poison out of it. But the poison still soaks into my face and neck and starts hissing as it touches my armor. Unlike the other poison though, this one simply makes my skin itch and burn with pain. It doesn¡¯t literally melt it like the poison that is finally starting to lessen from that rain of poison, the poison that was in the glob finally running out. A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation. So I quickly use Quantum Reversal, burning through vast amounts of my soul and gripping onto my polearm as if my life depended on it despite the massive amount of pain. And by the time the reversal finishes, the majority of my burns and all of the most recent poison¡¯s damage is reversed. But at the same time, doing just that alone cost me nearly a quarter of my remaining soul, which is already only at about two thirds left of my total soul. Whatever type of poison the creature¡¯s blood is consistent of was literally soaked into my body, so none of it remains on me anymore. With that in mind, I grab my polearm, only to duck when a tail suddenly shoots straight at me, making my previously addled mind realize that I have been standing on the back of its back¡­? Or is this its neck? No, a neck would be behind its head, not the connecting part between its upper and lower body. I¡¯ve been standing on its back for several seconds now and it hasn¡¯t attacked me with its claws yet. When I look to see why, I realize its claws don¡¯t seem to be able to reach back here. Although its tail has no such issues. I move to the side to dodge its tail again while putting force on my polearm to dig deeper, being extra careful to avoid splashing any of its blood on me in the process and avoiding coming out of its wound with my feet as well. The creature lets out a loud screech of what I¡¯m assuming is either pain or anger. Or both. Then it repeatedly swings its tail at me, trying to sting me without stinging itself on accident. And the moment I notice that along with the fact that my polearm won¡¯t go any deeper in it, an idea comes to me. So I move around my polearm while using it to keep my balance before focusing on the tail entirely. I kneel down, moving my body as close to the boss as possible while it begins swinging its upper body a bit, albeit too slowly to really matter. Probably because it would only be disorienting itself and losing its own balance if it tried swinging its entire upper body around with abandon. For it to know when to pull back its stinger and aim it so as to avoid stinging itself, it has to be able to see behind itself somehow¡­ please work¡­ The thing swings its tail at me several more times, only to end up backing off right before hitting my polearm that I use to block it. Then it eventually decides to go all in and swing straight down towards me, at which point I teleport to the other side of my polearm and send a Quantum Bolt towards the back of its head that it dodges while the stinger continues moving down to strike into its own back. Yes!! It worked! It also proved my theory that the creature is somehow seeing from the back of its head, so while its head was being attacked it stopped paying attention to where its tail was striking. Right when the creature seems like it¡¯s about to pull out its stinger from its back, I teleport next to it and stomp on the stinger, sending it deeper inside. Then I do it again and again, only to eventually resummon my polearm and stab straight into the base of the stinger while also sending a Quantum Bolt at it. And after a few more attacks, the stinger finally gets ripped off of the tail with a loud screech from the boss. B1 | Chapter 45 - The Race Continues Alexia I immediately find myself grinning before I use Quantum Burst while still on its back, sending a large pulse of quantum energy straight into it. Then I repeat that skill three more times, using up a lot of my soul to do so, only for my grin to be wiped from my face when the rest of the boss¡¯s tail suddenly swings around in a circle right after one of my bursts and slams into my side, sending me flying off of its back. But before I land in a pool of poison, I manage to activate Quantum Echo, making another burst happen right from its back, following which the creature¡¯s connecting point between its upper and lower body finally rips in two. Its upper body then lands on the ground right when my vision is covered in poison from landing in a pond of poison. I let out a scream of pain while also teleporting up into the air and then teleporting again to the side out of the pool before collapsing onto the ground while coughing out the poison that had gotten into my mouth. Despite my pain and coughing, I raise my head to look at the boss, strictly because it hasn¡¯t given me any messages about defeating it yet. Then my eyes widen in shock at the sight of the upper body¡¯s eyes having gone dark while a new head grows out of the lower body. One much more fitting for a scorpion, basically making the monster nothing more than a really large scorpion now. A really large and really angry scorpion at that. The monster lets out a loud screech to display its rage before charging at me with a much faster speed than before. But at the same time, I can¡¯t help but notice a faint red light coming from underneath its purple carapace. One that¡¯s throbbing. I narrow my eyes while using Quantum Reversal to reverse the damages that I took while in the pool of poison, making me choke out another scream before I manage to climb to my feet. And as I do so, I glance down at my armor, finding it to be in much better shape than I was expecting. Guess it has a much stronger resistance to poison than I thought. The place the tail impacted me is pretty badly damaged though. Right where my pauldrons are. Pauldrons that are now dented inwards pretty badly. I focus on the charging scorpion again before beginning round two.
In a Dungeon in Tutorial Block #1 Lucas coughs out a mouthful of blood when he slams into the wall of the throne room, only to shoot straight back to his feet with his sword tightly held in his hand as he faces the ten hobgoblins and the goblin king behind them standing next to the large throne. The king stands at his full height of three meters and slams his large, royal gold staff into the ground, sending a wave of golden magic through the hall, empowering each of the hobgoblins. Meanwhile the hobgoblins are all leveled in the low to mid-nineties, each sitting at five to ten levels above Lucas who is only level eighty-five. This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it. I¡¯ve always hated goblins. The Hound scowls at the hobgoblins and the goblin king before sweeping his hand out in front of him and sending a ball of black flames straight towards the hobgoblins. But the fireball is significantly weakened the moment it reaches the golden light, following which two hobgoblins counter it by swinging their own polearms at the thing, slicing through the fireball in the process before they continue marching towards him. So Lucas stomps one of his feet on the ground, making a wave of shadows envelop him, following which he appears in the shadow of one of the hobgoblins. And without giving the hobgoblin a chance to block, he flips his sword around and draws it straight across the hobgoblin¡¯s throat, kicking the monster away to join over a dozen other hobgoblin corpses lying to the sides of the throne room. Just nine more remaining, then I can finally deal with the king.
In a Dungeon in Tutorial Block #2 Aurora lets out a short yell as she jumps down from the large platform straight towards the lava below before raising her bow and shooting out an arrow attached to a rope that digs into the side of the volcano¡¯s crater over a dozen meters above the lava¡¯s surface. Then she uses a skill to pull her straight to the side of the crater where she begins firing arrows off at the large kobold king standing close to the edge of the platform but not too close. But the elite kobolds next to it simply throw fireballs to meet her arrows, blocking the majority of them in the process. So Aurora begins running across the side of the crater while firing more arrows from different angles, all while dodging the return arrows sent towards her by the elite kobold archers. And when she makes it far enough away that the kobolds begin following her around the edge of the platform, she finally targets one of the chains of the platform near them, firing an arrow of ice that explodes the moment it reaches the chain, freezing it over. And thanks to the sudden shift in temperature, following which it melts again and she fires another arrow at it, the chain completely snaps, making the large platform tilt. Two of the elite kobolds end up falling off of the platform into the lava below thanks to it while the others all manage to retain their balance. The boss of the dungeon on the other hand simply ignores it, the monster managing to continue standing without a change to his balance at all. Annoying. Aurora looks around before continuing to run across the side of the crater. That could work.
In a different Dungeon in Tutorial Block #2 Leif stares ahead with a slightly annoyed expression on his face as his golden hair is blown by the wind for some reason filling the vast hall filled with thousands of weak undead skeletons. But he doesn¡¯t bother with the skeletons, simply walking through the cannon fodder while leaving his passive Holy Aura to burn them all with holy flames without the man lifting a single finger. Shouldn¡¯t be too long now before they start rising in level. The man has been walking for the entire time since entering the hall, with the exception of when he first entered it and had attempted to run through only for his Holy Aura to prove not enough to deal with the monsters. At least I should reach level 100 by the time I get to whatever is summoning these pests. And so he continues walking through the horde of level 1 through 20 undead monsters. B1 | Chapter 46 - Luna Alexia I pant in exhaustion as I glare at the large scorpion standing across a large pool of poison from me, the both of us looking worse for wear. My armor is pretty much destroyed around my arms and legs, areas I used to block attacks so as to keep my vitals safe. And my left arm is pretty much crippled at this point from a painful strike of one of its lower body¡¯s claws that cut straight through the remnants of my armor. Meanwhile the scorpion has lost three of its legs at this point and is still trailing a path of poisonous blood everywhere that I have to avoid. The fight¡¯s become a lot more balanced between the two of us ever since its upper half was removed from play, since now it doesn¡¯t have those two massive claws on its upper half to send blades at me anymore, nor can it make it rain poison. But at the same time, it¡¯s faster. Or rather, it was faster. Until its own stinger¡¯s venom ended up causing such a large toll on it that its speed has plummeted to even slower than it was before losing its upper half. Despite that though, I can¡¯t waste my soul on more Quantum Bolts right now. Not when I only have a ninth of my total soul left remaining. We both continue watching the other, just waiting for a sign of weakness for several seconds. But no matter how long I wait, the monster doesn¡¯t show any weakness that I can take advantage of in my current state, making me grit my teeth in both pain and frustration. There¡­ isn¡¯t any way I can see myself winning this. That thought¡­ I¡¯m not sure how to feel about this. But¡­ I do know that I can¡¯t leave Astrid alone. I just won¡¯t. I grit my teeth even harder before trying as hard as I can to think of a way to finish off the scorpion, only for the thing to finally let out a screech and begin charging straight through the poison pond between us towards me. And I still can¡¯t think of anything. C¡¯mon, there has to be something! I begin moving backwards while still facing forwards to keep an eye on the scorpion, but the thing is still faster than my injured self despite its missing limbs and poisoned body. Because I¡¯m poisoned too, although to a much lesser extent since I am only poisoned by its own blood while it¡¯s poisoned by its stinger. In the end, I almost end up tripping into a pool of poison behind me while backing up because my thoughts are too locked on making a plan. Then the scorpion makes it to my side of the other pond. Shiiiit, there has to be- My thoughts are interrupted when a bright purple light suddenly begins to shine from my chest. A light that makes both me and the scorpion freeze in place out of surprise. And when I look down, focusing on the light, I find an egg emerging from my chest. The Elemental Pet!!! I almost forgot about it! [User¡¯s bonded Elemental Pet Egg has absorbed enough elemental energy and will now hatch. The elemental energy the Egg has absorbed is of the Quantum Element, therefore the Egg will hatch into a Pet of the Quantum Element.] The bright light grows even brighter, making the scorpion let out a hiss of fear. As if the light for some reason is scaring the thing. Then a cracking sound echoes through the cavern, followed by another, and another. And soon the Egg hatches to reveal a tiny little bat with glowing purple eyes that match my own and both red and purple veins flowing across its black furred body. My very first thought upon seeing the little fella is that she ¨C and for some reason I instinctively know it¡¯s a she ¨C is absolutely fucking adorable. This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. And my second thought? Adorable or not, she¡¯s probably not gonna be of much help in this battle. [User¡¯s bonded Elemental Pet Egg has hatched into an Infantile Quantum Vampire Bat. You have now unlocked your Pet¡¯s Status.] I immediately open its status to find a rather shocking surprise.
Name: N/A Species: Infantile Quantum Vampire Bat(T1)
Level: 84 Class: Elemental Pet
Soul: 6250/ 6,250
VIT: 167 DEX: 167 STR: 167 MAG: 333 MEN: 333
Racial Skills Active Skills
Passive Skills General Skills
This thing has the same MAG and MEN stats that I have? And it has soul? My eyes widen as I remember that an Elemental Pet¡¯s class is set to have the same level-up bonuses as its bonded partner, even if its species is a lower Class species. Class C by the looks of the stat decrease going from ten stats per level to seven. I don¡¯t have the time for this right now though as the scorpion is quickly regaining its composure. So I check its skills. [General Skills] N/A [Active Skills] |Quantum Vampirism Level 1(0%)(T1)| [Passive Skills] |Quantum Symbiosis Level 1(0%)(T1)| After reading through the descriptions of the two skills, I immediately begin grinning. That¡¯ll work very nicely. ¡°Luna,¡± I speak out loud in a slightly hoarse tone from the poison that¡¯s gotten in my mouth a couple times. ¡°That¡¯s your name.¡± The pet¡¯s status immediately updates to show her new name before she makes an adorable little squeaking noise while flying up to perch on my uninjured shoulder to rub her head against my neck. I think for a moment, only to teleport away from the boss¡¯s charge after it continues. Then I direct my thoughts towards Luna, using the bond that I feel between us to say, ¡®Please share with me your soul.¡¯ Almost immediately, I feel an influx of soul fill me up all the way to about a quarter of my maximum capacity before Luna squeaks again, sending me a sad feeling that I somehow interpret as her Quantum Symbiosis skill not letting her share any more soul at once. That she¡¯s hit her cap for now. I pet her with a smile before returning my full attention to the boss as it turns around to face me. Time to give this scorpion a piece of my mind. B1 | Chapter 47 - Victory Tutorial Block #108 Over an Hour Ago Astrid tenses up as she watches from overhead while the prince¡¯s group travels through the trees beneath her. She has already warned the others that the enemy intends to strike earlier than initially planned but didn¡¯t feel comfortable enough letting them out of her sight to go back personally, instead sending Cass to warn them on her behalf. Something about this turn of events rubs Astrid the wrong way though, and she can¡¯t help but feel like there¡¯s something wrong. Like she¡¯s missing an important piece of the puzzle. She continues watching over them as they traverse the forest, only for Astrid to suddenly feel a telepathic connection beginning to form between her and Elizabeth. So she lets it form, following which Elizabeth immediately asks, ¡®Where is Cassandra?¡¯ Astrid¡¯s eyes widen in alarm, realization setting in on the missing piece of the puzzle. ¡®She didn¡¯t come back to base, did she?¡¯ Astrid sends back, only to get a short, ¡®She didn¡¯t,¡¯ in reply. A traitor. That¡¯s why they changed their plans suddenly, and that¡¯s probably why Cass has been so friendly with me. ¡®I sent her to warn you that the enemies are attacking prematurely, but it looks like-¡¯ Astrid begins only for Elizabeth to finish for her, ¡®She betrayed us.¡¯ Astrid nods her head despite Elizabeth not being able to see what she¡¯s doing. ¡®Alara says for us to keep this link open and for you to give us updates on what they¡¯re doing,¡¯ Elizabeth says before adding in a grim tone, ¡®We¡¯ll handle the traitor if she shows up.¡¯ ¡®Understood,¡± Astrid responds, not taking her eyes away from the traveling group of nobles. ¡®Mind if I ask why you grew suspicious enough of her to ask?¡¯ ¡®Cass was never on my side in the politics of the nation, and while her position wasn¡¯t publicly disclosed, her father was publicly on my brother¡¯s side,¡¯ Elizabeth answers. ¡®It¡¯s only natural to distrust her when we¡¯re facing my brother here.¡¯ Politics. Something I never want to have to deal with. ¡®Understood,¡¯ Astrid responds again before going silent, focusing all of her attention on the nobles.
Alexia The Present Right when I raise my hand towards the boss, preparing to send some more Quantum Bolt¡¯s its way, Luna flaps her wings and flies off of my shoulder. She then dives straight towards the scorpion to my shock and horror, only to be ignored by the thing as she goes straight for one of its open wounds and sticks her two tiny but sharp fangs into the wound. I then watch with more than a little surprise while poison energy begins getting drained from the monster and into Luna. Quantum Vampirism. I almost forgot about that skill since I was focusing on her passive. It lets her sustain herself off the elemental energy of others. Meaning that despite being a vampire bat, she doesn¡¯t actually have to drink blood. Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere. She can even heal herself with elemental energy. I grin at that before beginning to barrage the monster with Quantum Bolts again, carefully avoiding Luna as I do so. Meanwhile the boss itself doesn¡¯t even seem to notice or care about Luna in the slightest. It does, however, notice my bolts. But without its main claws, they all end up striking it, halting its progress towards me. With the creature on the retreat, I summon my polearm and throw it before moving towards the creature as fast as I can while still injured and sending more Quantum Bolts. Then, right when the creature who at some point gives up in blocking my attacks throws one of its remaining limbs my way, I teleport directly upwards above its limb. And my polearm happens to strike it in the midsection at that very moment, cracking its carapace there before I resummon my polearm to my hand and swing it down with my falling momentum to slice straight through a part of its arm that it had repeatedly used to block my Quantum Bolts. When my feet land on the ground, albeit a little wobbly thanks to my injuries, the monster¡¯s limb lands next to me as the boss lets out a loud screech of pain. I can¡¯t help but grin as I turn around to face the monster, flipping my polearm as I do so to smack it in the side of the head. Then I jump up to land on its back before reaching down and grabbing hold of a wounded area where its carapace is already peeling off. And begin spamming Quantum Burst, making the monster crash to the ground with convulsions running through its body. But I almost stop when I remember that I¡¯m not alone, making me quickly look to find Luna still snacking on its elemental energy. Huh. Guess she¡¯s immune to my attacks? Or is it just a sort of friendly fire thing? Either way, it¡¯s good. Adrenaline fills me ¨C I think ¨C and I feel a rush, pushing me through the pain of the poisonous blood eating away at me into raising my hand holding my polearm and swinging it down, thrusting the weapon straight into the center of the boss¡¯s back. The creature immediately lets out an ear wrenching screech that has me falling off of the creature¡¯s back holding my ears. And as I do so, I feel liquid leaving my ears that I quickly realize is blood. It¡¯s not only me though. I somehow feel a flash of pain coming to me from my bond with Luna. Not enough to frighten me, but enough to worry me. Then the screech cuts off, letting me uncover my ears and look up at the scorpion. The creature isn¡¯t moving. Did I¡­ did we win? Cracks begin to form on the remaining bits of its carapace. Of course not. ¡°Get away from it!¡± I scream at Luna while trying to get up myself, but I feel my leg completely unresponsive to my commands. Then the carapace explodes, spraying the boss¡¯s poisonous blood outwards. Right before the blood is about to cover me, I feel a sudden influx of soul entering my body and filling me up. Enough soul that I manage to teleport away multiple times until I¡¯m out of danger, the poison simply splashing harmlessly on the ground as I look out over it with Luna moving over to my shoulder. [Level 100 Nightshade Queen Defeated ¨C User¡¯s earned EXP has been increased a large amount due to killing a being whose level is fifteen or more levels higher than their own.] [Seventeen points have been earned for killing a creature sixteen levels above you.] {Congratulations! You have leveled up to level 85! Your Species has awarded you +2 VIT, +2 DEX, +2 STR, +2 MAG, and +2 MEN. Your Class has awarded you +1 VIT, +1 DEX, +1 STR, +2 MAG, and +2 MEN.} ¡­ {Congratulations! You have leveled up to level 89! Your Species has awarded you +2 VIT, +2 DEX, +2 STR, +2 MAG, and +2 MEN. Your Class has awarded you +1 VIT, +1 DEX, +1 STR, +2 MAG, and +2 MEN.} [Fifty points have been earned for clearing a Dungeon.] {Congratulations! You have cleared the Dungeon known as the Crawling Caverns! Touch the loot box to claim your reward!} I smile at that before seeing the thing I was hoping for appearing in front of my eyes.
Legendary Feat ¨C The First Clear Alexia Knight has cleared the first dungeon in the System Reset and in the dimension!
B1 | Chapter 48 - A New Era Tutorial Block #1 Moments ago A loud explosion echoes out of the throne room as Lucas is sent back several meters, smoke rising from his destroyed inferior sword. But he just throws the sword away, the weapon clattering against the ground in the throne room now empty of hobgoblins with just himself and the goblin king remaining as he narrows his eyes on the king. The king on the other hand repeatedly looks around at the dead hobgoblins scattered across the throne room with fear as he holds his chipped golden staff in his hands, both of his legs barely managing to hold his own weight thanks to the black burns with shadows dancing across the burns coating them. Lucas grits his teeth before briefly checking his status, finding his health to be down to about twenty-five percent, with his mana almost empty. But it¡¯s enough to use another Shadowflame Incendiary on it, the ball of black shadowy flames appearing above his hand before he sprints towards the king, startling it into rushing to bring up its staff. And right when it does so, he throws the ball down towards its feet, making its eyes widen in fear, the ball completely enveloping its legs and burning them. The goblin king lets out a pained scream, but Lucas simply ignores it as he slows down and begins moving rather sluggishly over towards the king, forcing his wounded leg to move while wincing a little at the pain it had undergone in his short sprint. I hate goblins. With that thought in mind, he reaches out and uses his Shadow Blade skill, creating a dagger out of shadows before crossing the last few steps to the goblin king and bringing the dagger straight down towards its chest. But the moment it¡¯s about to hit, a bright golden light shines from the goblin¡¯s staff, blinding him for a moment and pushing his attack off course to strike in between the goblin¡¯s arm and chest instead. I really hate goblins. The goblin king panics, not really able to do anything to fight back beyond merely delaying its inevitable demise. But right when Lucas raises his dagger to attack again, a System Notification appears in his vision, giving him pause.
Legendary Feat ¨C The First Clear Alexia Knight has cleared the first dungeon in the System Reset and in the dimension!
He raises his head to look at the ceiling of the throne room before slowly swearing, ¡°Are you fucking kidding me?¡± Then after a few seconds pass he glares at the goblin king beneath him, steps on the creature¡¯s stomach, and impales it through the heart like he was gonna do earlier before it interrupted. This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. The fucking bastard of a goblin made me lose out on the Legendary Feat with that lightshow.
Tutorial Block #2 Aurora briefly pauses in her shooting when she sees the Legendary Feat System Notification playing out before she grits her teeth for a moment and then continues shooting arrows at the kobolds on the platform. But now she is beginning to slow down, no longer rushing to finish quickly. Kind of surprised it wasn¡¯t the Hound to complete their dungeon first, but I guess she had to be strong to have more points than he has. After that thought, Aurora returns all of her focus to the battle at hand.
All around the Tutorial in the various Dungeons In an undead filled hall, Leif Eriksson, the former King of Arcadia and current number three user on the leaderboards, briefly pauses in his casual walk through the higher level undead in the hall at the sight of the notification. Then he continues walking again after that as if the notification hadn¡¯t appeared, the man having already expected that he wouldn¡¯t be the first to clear his dungeon. Under the dark sky filled with thunder and lightning, a dragon shapeshifted into her humanoid form with two large red wings on her back and red eyes going by the name of Isabella d''Aragon, the current number five user on the leaderboards and former empress of the Scarlet Empire, briefly pauses in her run towards the massive palace sitting on a neighboring mountain. And after briefly blinking in surprise and confusion at the notification, she continues running, deciding that the affairs of non-dragons don¡¯t matter to her. Inside of a temple beneath the surface of a deep sea filled with aquatic monsters, a kraken shapeshifted into human form with glowing blue eyes and wavy blue hair often called by the name Alexander Frost, freezes in place, the water around him going turbulent with his unhidden emotions at the sight of the notification. But he manages to retain his emotions again a moment later, choosing to focus on his own dungeon rather than what could have been as he proceeds deeper into the boss area that is the Underwater Temple. Since if he can¡¯t make it out of the dungeon, the current rank seventh on the leaderboards will never be able to rebuild his precious Atlantis. With a full moon hanging in the sky far above a dark forest, Damien Black, the vampire with white hair and glowing red eyes leading the League of Ascendants and current rank number ten on the leaderboards, loses all control of his sanity out of anger for a period lasting ten entire minutes at the sight of the notification. An anger stemming from his insatiable desire for greater power. A desire that led him to leading his League of Ascendants in capturing the System¡¯s Creator in the first place. In a frozen wasteland filled with nothing but undead abominations and wendigos, a ghoul with pitch black orbs for eyes and pale skin just sighs at the sight of the notification before continuing to walk through the frozen wasteland. Because all the sixth ranked user on the leaderboards and emperor of the Fallen Empire desires is peace for both himself and his nation without any care for struggles beyond that. Nathan Briar sits on top of his summoned granite lizard as the monster carries him across the stony plains, the Wandering Summoner not paying much if any attention to his surroundings and instead letting his other summons deal with the weaker threats and scouting around him. Meanwhile he just stares at the notification in a vague attempt at deciding whether it is good news or bad. But in the end, the ninth ranked user on the leaderboards decides that he can figure out how he feels about the news when he eventually meets with the mystery girl topping the leaderboards. And at the darkest pits of a seemingly sunless dungeon, beneath the trees and surrounded by naught but darkness, Noah Kowalski, the only member of the top ten aside from Alexia Knight who was not an Ascendant prior to the Reset, holds his head high with pride. Pride at the knowledge that the new dimension won¡¯t just be a repeat of the old. That the number one user at the top of it all is just like him. Thus begins a new era. One filled with hope for the formerly weak. Fear for the formerly powerful. And opportunity for all. An era of the System Reset. B1 | Chapter 49 - The Battle Alexia After lying on the ground for nearly five whole minute just to catch my breath, I finally reach out to touch the Legendary Feat notification that still hasn¡¯t vanished yet. The notification then changes in an instant to show details on the benefits of the feat itself.
Legendary Feat ¨C The First Clear As the first to clear a dungeon in the new dimension, your first loot box in every dungeon will always give you an item of a single Tier higher than what it would¡¯ve otherwise given. You are also given the General Skill known as Dungeon Map.
{You will now be given the General Skill, Dungeon Map!} [*New General Skill* ¨C Dungeon Map: The user may now open and fill in a dungeon map for whatever dungeon they are in simply by moving around the dungeon. Hidden areas will be shown on the map when you reveal the area they are located on the map. Skill is automatically slotted due to free open slots.] My eyes widen in shock at the skill that will make dungeoneering a breeze. Wait, or will it? Dungeons are different for every party that goes into them, so will the dungeon even have the same layout the next time I enter one after filling out the map and clearing it? I frown at that thought for several seconds before looking over and finding a large door at the end of the cavern where the large boss¡¯s pool of poison used to be. And on that note, I only just now realize that all of the poison in the cave is gone. So that¡¯s nice. Either way though, I would rather not step outside of the dungeon looking like¡­ I glance at myself. Like this. My armor is pretty much in tatters. There isn¡¯t any left around my arms and legs, leaving them both mostly bare. Meanwhile my torso is still mostly covered, even if there are cuts opened up pretty much all over it. But those openings are stained with purple glitchy blood, so it¡¯s fine. I would rather not walk out of this dungeon looking like this though. So I turn around and begin heading back towards the spring that is located earlier in this boss room. The one that both heals me and repairs my armor. Then I can go ahead and leave the dungeon and find Astrid. I just hope she¡¯s okay.
At the base outside of the dungeon Several minutes ago, right before the System Notification Astrid quickly starts the battle off by appearing in the leader of the larger group¡¯s shadow before using her Shadow Blade skill to create a dagger made purely out of shadows that she then uses to stab the neck of the man, surprising him and managing to kill him in a single move. A move that sets everyone else in motion as fireballs and bolts of lightning begin flying down towards the lower leveled people in William¡¯s group and the group belonging to the guy she just killed. Meanwhile Alara and the princess¡¯s fianc¨¦, Reginald, jump down from the trees and target William and the other guy. If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. Then everything begins to go wrong. Out of nowhere, several new people appear as if they had a camouflage lifted off of them. And at the front of the group is their own group¡¯s traitor, who they weren¡¯t able to capture in the end. At least Cass was never told the details of our plan. Which was probably on purpose. The skills sent by the magic users on Astrid¡¯s side of the battle quickly spread out to attack the newcomers as well, but now that they¡¯re outnumbered, Astrid finds the idea of them winning a lot less likely. Then a System Notification appears in everyone¡¯s vision and echoing in their heads. One that at first annoys Astrid until she reads what it says.
Legendary Feat ¨C The First Clear Alexia Knight has cleared the first dungeon in the System Reset and in the dimension!
Astrid¡¯s jaw drops open, and at the same time, the dungeon directly on the edge of the island inside of their own base suddenly shoots a bright purple pillar of light into the sky. And all of the people in the base and around it stop fighting immediately. Then silence fills the base with everyone staring in the direction of the dungeon, just waiting for someone to leave it. But no one ever does. Astrid¡¯s twin never leaves. Is she¡­ just not gonna come out, or what? A few minutes pass in silence before the crown prince suddenly raises his sword into the air and slashes down towards Alara, once more engaging in combat. And this leads to everyone else returning to their fights as well, including Astrid who jumps from shadow to shadow in assassination attempts that only succeed twenty-five percent of the time thanks to their group already knowing about her. Damned traitor and scouts. Astrid grits her teeth when one of the newcomers suddenly appears in front of her in a flash of blue light, making her realize it¡¯s most likely a spatial magic user. Shit. She ducks out of the way of a strike from them, only to try to respond with one of her own before they teleport away out of nowhere. But Astrid quickly teleports herself into a nearby shadow, avoiding the sword that suddenly cuts through where she was just standing. When she looks up at the man¡¯s face that she¡¯s fighting, she realizes that he¡¯s also a noble. One from a family famous for its spatial magic. ¡°You¡¯re interesting,¡± he says, the man smirking slightly as his long black and blue hair blows in the wind. He¡¯s wearing a set of the inferior armor that the System had given everyone, and holding a sword that isn¡¯t the inferior sword given to sword users. ¡°Let¡¯s play.¡± The two then continue teleporting over and over again in an attempt to attack the other, but neither of them land any clean blows. And over the course of several minutes, with their battle going across the entire base with the two of them simply flowing through all of the other battles occurring, Astrid finally makes a mistake thanks to her mana reserves beginning to run low. She slips after teleporting to the wrong place, following which the man manages to cut her cheek, Astrid only barely pulling her face back quickly enough to avoid getting any more damage done to her. Then she teleports away again and the two once more find themselves in a stare down. Astrid briefly glances at everyone else in the large battle occurring throughout the base, only to find that her side is losing pretty badly. Around half of their number are already dead, with another fifth wounded. Meanwhile the enemies, who already had the numerical superiority, still have a little over half of their number remaining and are pushing to clean things up as if they were in a rush. Damnit, this isn¡¯t looking- A bright light suddenly shines from the direction of the dungeon, making everyone pause in their battles once more to look over at it. But since the dungeon is at a lower elevation than the battles, no one can actually see what¡¯s going on over there. Instead, all they hear is a light groaning sound as if someone was stretching before a voice very familiar to Astrid echoes through the now silent base, ¡°Man, it¡¯s good to get out of those cramped caves!¡± Astrid feels her eyes begin to water for some reason. Probably allergies. B1 | Chapter 50 - Arrival of the Reaper Part I Outside of the Dungeon Lucius Nebula, the forty-one year old eldest son of the Nebula Duchy that has ruled for at least three centuries in the Kingdom with their spatial magic, stares with more than a little fear in the direction of the dungeon, the girl he was fighting forgotten already. And he¡¯s not the only one as everyone else, both on the enemies¡¯ side and his, stare as well, all of the battling having come to a halt. Meanwhile the girl¡¯s voice coming from the edge of the island continues to echo through the base, ¡°Oh, you actually don¡¯t mind the light, Luna? That¡¯s a surprise.¡± Even without being able to see the source of the voice, Lucius can already tell just from the powerful presence he can sense over there that she is powerful. But at the same time, he notices something off about the presence. That¡¯s¡­ not mana that I¡¯m sensing. What is it? Any user trained in mana control has the mana manipulation skill, letting them manipulate their own mana to a very limited extent. But the skill also allows the skill¡¯s users to sense mana outside of themselves and in others. To know how powerful someone is without identifying them. Her power¡­ almost feels like the System¡¯s own¡­ His thoughts trail off when he hears the sound of footsteps coming from the area around the dungeon. And as the footsteps sound out, he can¡¯t help but tense up a little. Meanwhile he sees some of the people around the base beginning to back away from the dungeon. If this is really the first clearer, then she has to be frighteningly powerful¡­ That thought causes him pause for a moment. Wait, this is after the Reset. She can¡¯t be too much stronger than we are, can she? It¡¯s just a single, or rather, two Legendary Feats, right? Lucius tenses up slightly, his grip growing tighter on his dagger as the footsteps continue. All the way till the source of the voice¡¯s head becomes visible over the edge of the ruins where the girl is walking up the stairs. And right away, whispers begin to build up around the base from both sides of the battle. But the whispered conversations repeatedly cut off out of nowhere. She¡¯s just a young girl in her early twenties? Might not even be that old. She is rather short after all. Maybe nineteen or twenty years old? Unless her age was reverted while leveling? Right when he¡¯s beginning to feel his confidence grow, he realizes everyone else had gone silent and remembers to identify her. Then he drops his knife in shock. {Alexia Knight ¨C Quantum Reaper ¨C Level 89} And if the Class S species identifier, the epic rarity class, and her absurdly high level weren¡¯t enough, Lucius finally notices her eyes. Eyes that appear to be glitching out with a radiant purple light from time to time as she walks up the remaining stairs and looks around at the gathered people in the base. The girl has a deep purple shade of long hair with a set of purple armor the same shade as her hair. And for all appearances, she appears to be unarmed. With a bat on her shoulder. Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. Qua-Quantum magic class¡­ At the same time as his thought, he hears a couple people mutter, ¡°Quantum magic¡­¡± But after several seconds of silence where the girl looks around at the gathered people ¨C most of whom are nobles from prior to the Reset ¨C she crosses her arms under her chest and asks, ¡°So what¡¯s going on here?¡± Lucius and a good majority of the members of their side of the battle look towards the crown prince, only to find him standing stiffly while alternating his gaze between the quantum magic user and someone near Lucius. So Lucius turns to look next to him, only to find the girl he was fighting standing there with a smile on her face. A girl who looks identical to the quantum magic user outside of her inhuman traits and hair color. A girl whose last name matches the quantum magic user¡¯s. Lucius gulps as he turns to look at the newcomer again. A girl¡­ who he had been trying to kill. The girl ¨C Alexia judging by her Identification ¨C tilts her head and says, ¡°Lots of people identifying me, now aren¡¯t there? Guess it¡¯s not impolite to do that anymore.¡± ¡°Yeah, we all decided that it¡¯s a necessity in this new dimension,¡± the girl who Lucius had been fighting says, raising her voice over the silence of the others and finally drawing the quantum being¡¯s gaze towards her, past all of the other people in between them. ¡°Took you long enough to finish up in there Lexi.¡± ¡°You try¡­¡± the quantum being begins, only to pause when Lucius sees her eyes finally finding the other girl¡¯s. Then her eyes narrow and she asks, ¡°What happened here?¡± To Lucius¡¯s absolute horror, the girl he was fighting just shrugs and says, ¡°These guys were trying to kill me and my teammates, so we fought back. And I was fighting this dude here.¡± While pointing at Lucius. The quantum being¡¯s gaze slowly turns to him before looking at him with a cold indifference that has a chill running down his spine. But she doesn¡¯t attack him right away. Instead she asks everyone nearby, ¡°If you are working with my sister, please step out of this base.¡± Sister. I¡¯m dead. Silence fills the base for a total of three seconds. Then Lucius¡¯s enemies all begin stepping out of the base, following her directions. And, to Lucius¡¯s continued horror, one of the crown prince¡¯s men ¨C a boy Lucius recognizes as Rodrick Lancaster ¨C apparently decides that he won¡¯t let them, sending a fireball directly towards a man with a staff on the enemy¡¯s team named Aidan. So the new girl raises her hand and sends a bolt of varying shades of purple straight at the fireball, somehow hitting it in the process and making it glitch out for a moment before vanishing. Then she vanishes in a glitched flurry of purple energy and appears again next to the boy who was standing just three and a half meters away from her where she grabs his throat and raises him into the air. ¡°I don¡¯t think I told you to move,¡± she says, her tone still indifferent. But then she blinks seemingly in recognition and shouts seemingly to her sister, ¡°Hey, this is the dude that kept bothering you, right?¡± ¡°Yeah,¡± her sister answers, sounding both surprised and like everything is happening as she was expecting somehow. And right when Lucius is beginning to consider trying to escape through teleporting away, even if his reserves of mana are starting to get low, the girl says, ¡°Good,¡± and snaps the boy¡¯s neck like a twig before tossing his corpse and briefly nodding her head at the boy she protected with her interruption. Then she turns back to the rest of Lucius¡¯s side of the disagreement and crosses her arms again while asking, ¡°Are all of Astrid¡¯s teammates out of the base?¡± After no one says anything for several seconds, she uncrosses her arms again and says, ¡°Then if you don¡¯t mind¡­¡± Lucius doesn¡¯t hear anything else after that, finding his eyes quickly widening by the sight of a purple bolt of glitching energy flying straight at him. Then a very brief wave of incredible pain fills him before everything goes dark. B1 | Chapter 50.2 - Arrival of the Reaper Part II Outside of the Dungeon William feels more than a little cold sweat running down his back, drenching his armor at the sight of the Quantum Reaper girl blowing up the head of his latest addition of forces to join his group. And the sight of that seems to break the majority of his men as half of them all immediately begin running away, only for bolts of quantum energy to be sent flying towards them as well, killing each one of the runners without any shift in the indifference on the girl¡¯s face. ¡°You see, I really don¡¯t care much about other people unassociated to me one way or another,¡± the girl slowly begins to speak as every one of his remaining men tense up, ready for a fight after understanding that there will be no escape. ¡°Not unless I just feel like helping people in trouble on a whim, that is. But no one ever helped me or Astrid when we were young and being abused. But you probably don¡¯t care about any of that, now do you?¡± The crown prince¡¯s gaze meets the reaper¡¯s, following which the girl finally smiles and says, ¡°But all of you tried to kill my sister. And that can¡¯t go unpunished.¡± A purple polearm appears out of nowhere in the palm of her hand, the weapon glowing with quantum energy whose power seems to be connected to the girl like that of a soulbound weapon. ¡°Attack her!¡± William shouts, deciding that he won¡¯t just stand here, waiting for the slaughter to start. But just as he expected, he and his eight remaining forces, all of whom are only in their high thirties to low forties in level, stand absolutely no chance against a level eighty-nine with Legendary Feats. It doesn¡¯t even take her an entire minute to wipe out all of his men before she turns her polearm, a weapon consisting of a long pole attached to a wide short sword about two thirds to three fourths of the way up the pole, towards him. Right when he lets out a sigh, expecting to be killed, a voice shouts in the ensuing silence, ¡°Wait, please don¡¯t kill him!¡± He blinks in surprise before turning to find his sister standing off to the side outside of the base with the others of the reaper¡¯s kin¡¯s teammates. And the reaper turns to look at her as well only to glance at him again and mutter, ¡°Siblings?¡± Then she blinks, recognition finally settling in on her face as she says, ¡°The crown prince and the princess.¡± The faintest hint of hope creeps its way into William¡¯s heart while his grip on his sword tightens and he says, ¡°You wouldn¡¯t want to hurt the son of the-¡± ¡°Please shut up,¡± the reaper says, making his mouth shut closed faster than he¡¯s ever shut up in his life. Then she turns to ask her sister, ¡°What do you think, Astrid?¡± William turns to look at the girl who is almost identical to the reaper with the exception of her inhuman qualities before letting out a sigh of relief when the girl says, ¡°Sure. Leave him to his sister. I don¡¯t really care.¡± Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions. Then the polearm vanishes from the reaper¡¯s hand and the reaper stretches a little while walking over to her sister and saying, ¡°Well, that wasn¡¯t what I was expecting to find when I left those nearly endless caves.¡±
Alexia A couple minutes before leaving the dungeon I stare at the large loot box that was left behind by the boss before tilting my head a little in contemplation about what might be in it. But then I just shake my head and reach out to the chest, deciding to just go for it. And what appears above the chest¡­ is a ring. A ring with a beautiful purple jewel embedded in a black band, with smaller purple jewels going around the rest of the band. Not unsurprising. Rings are common pieces of equipment from dungeons after all. I identify the ring. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Band of the Corroded Description: This band increases the Poison Resistance of whoever wears it by a passive two levels while it is worn. Stats Bonus: +15 MAG, +15 MEN Requirements: N/A Item Tier: 2 -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Nice, but not all that useful now that I¡¯m getting it for finishing the place full of poison that I¡¯ll probably not be returning to. Not very often that you find an item that gives a temporary skill though. A skill that only lasts in the state that the item affects it until the item is off. I put the band over my ring finger before turning around and looking at the door. Then I look all around the cave, finding the walls to still be coated in poison even if the majority of the puddles of poison vanished at some point after killing the boss. Which makes moving through here easier. Actually¡­ I look at the poison that remains for a few seconds before tapping my lips. This place could absolutely work for training my Poison Resistance skill. So maybe that band is better than I thought. Since I might be returning at some point after all. Maybe. Depends on if I can find any enemies that are strong enough for me to get to level 100 outside of the dungeon by the time the tutorial is finished. Something I rather doubt. I can still hope for that though. After all, it would be unfair of the Tutorial to leave the people outside of dungeons without a chance to even get to level 100 while still giving those with Legendary Feats that chance. Considering how no one but the first clearer of each dungeon can enter it during the first dungeon run. Then again, there could be more dungeons than just the ones that have Legendary Feat holders in them. Well, that issue aside, I turn to face the exit of the dungeon again. I¡¯m gonna have to explain everything that happened to Astrid, and possibly her team as well. Assuming she hasn¡¯t ditched her team. Which I can see her doing when I¡¯m not there. Overall going to be a pain, but it will be nice to see her again. I hope she¡¯s doing okay. Knowing her she¡¯ll be fine though. I smile at that thought before stepping up and touching the exit, making it flash with a purple light, completely blinding me until I end up outside of the dungeon. B1 | Chapter 51 - Peace Alexia The Present I pop my neck from my place atop a tree next to Astrid. As it turns out, the crown prince ¨C who that guy was apparently, since we¡¯ve never actually seen each other and he had never heard of me before now ¨C ¡®didn¡¯t know he was attacking my esteemed sister,¡¯ in his own words. Which is true, since he¡¯d have no reason to know of me. The only person I know who is connected to the crown prince in any ways was that noble guy I blasted right off the bat after leaving the dungeon. And the crown prince apparently didn¡¯t like him much, so the only thing he knew about me and Astrid was that Rodrick was pursuing Astrid. Nothing more. And the prince didn¡¯t care about finding out any more about it since he himself disliked the spoiled noble, for obvious reasons. In fact, the only reason he even knew about Rodrick¡¯s annoying pursuing of Astrid was because of one of his other subordinates mentioning it to him. Then there¡¯s the fact that Knight isn¡¯t exactly a very uncommon name. It¡¯s actually very common amongst noble households all around the world before the Reset. So he stated that he couldn¡¯t have linked me and Astrid together by that alone. All in all, he never apologized to Astrid. Not even once. Just to me. ¡°I still want to punch him,¡± I decide out loud, making Astrid snort in amusement from her place shoulder to shoulder with me on the same rather large branch of this equally large tree. After a few seconds of silence, Astrid leans her head onto my shoulder. Meanwhile I just turn my own head to look down at the base below where everyone is working on stripping the armor and equipment from the dead before tossing them off the side of the island. A rather convenient way to get rid of corpses. I glance at the tied up William who is just sitting there being scolded by his sister, who I can understand a little why didn¡¯t want me killing him. He is her brother after all, and I¡¯ve heard this crown princess is actually rather caring towards others. Unlike the other royals of the kingdom from before the Reset. Well, the princess aside, it¡¯s good to see the others from our team still alive. And it looks like Alara is still in charge here. Although I get the feeling she¡¯s currently deferring to me thanks to my power, which I should nip in the bud. Since I really do not like being in charge of things. I¡¯ll probably end up rushing off to go do things myself while leaving everyone behind. Wouldn¡¯t be surprised if I¡¯m gone by tomorrow morning to go search for monsters to kill in the woods just to reach level 100. Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site. It doesn¡¯t look like there¡¯s anyone that is strong enough to be a match for me in terms of users who aren¡¯t Legendary Feat holders from other dungeons, so I doubt I¡¯ll have to deal with that for a bit at least. Not until others start clearing their dungeons. ¡°Hey, sis?¡± I hear Astrid ask, making me turn my head to look at her, finding the girl¡¯s eyes half closed seemingly from exhaustion. ¡°Are you still human?¡± I blink in surprise at that before smiling and wrapping my arm around her as I answer, ¡°Not anymore.¡± ¡°Hmm,¡± she hums, sounding deep in thought while also being tired. Then she yawns once and quietly mutters, ¡°Maybe I can get something from the Tutorial to change my species with my points¡­¡± That has me raising a brow as I ask, ¡°Are you sure about that?¡± She nods her head sluggishly and says, ¡°Yeah. It would help my shadow affinity, and let me¡­ follow¡­ your¡­¡± Astrid falls asleep mid-sentence, leaving me just smiling and shaking my head at her. Of the two of us, I¡¯m the older sister strictly because I came out first. But she usually acts a lot more stoic despite that. Especially when we¡¯re around others. When we¡¯re alone though, she tends to get a lot more emotional like this. Especially when sleepy. Rather cute. I turn my head to look down at the others again, finding them to have mostly finished with the task of stripping the people before they start to haul the last ones off to the edge of the island. And I can¡¯t help but notice quite a few of them shooting glances at me and Astrid. Or rather, probably just at me. Out of the users on the planet, humans are the most common for some reason. No one seems to know the main reason for this, but it¡¯s just how it is. And equally unknown is why at least half of the very top strongest users before the Reset were humans as well, despite the fact that there are stronger species out there. In fact, the strongest Ascendants who aren¡¯t in the top twenty or so users in terms of level were not humans. They were all Class S species. But of the top twenty users, nearly half of them were humans. The only explanation most people end up giving is that humans are the most populous species and have the best breeding capability. Since the higher the Class of species, the harder it is for them to conceive a child. Probably some sort of natural balance to how powerful they are. Although there are some who blame it on the human¡¯s adaptation racial skill that they get at Tier 1. A skill that lets them adapt to things better and learn new magics that they have an affinity for easier. But while about half of the Class B species consist of just humans, there were plenty of elves, dwarves, halflings, beastfolk, and the like who we would see before the Reset going around the cities, people don¡¯t often come across a Class A species. Generally only a few live in each city populated mostly by Class B species. And of the Class S species? They live amongst themselves, very rarely leaving their own territories to visit other species. So I probably stand out here, since it¡¯s pretty obvious I¡¯m a Class S species, what with my identification showing as a Class S identification. Without specifying my class or species and instead just listing them both in one without a label for what it is, since all Class S species have their class as their species name. Astrid probably only asked because she was exhausted, and she wanted to hear it from my own mouth. I lean my head back against the tree again before glancing at my sleeping twin. She looks peaceful. I look up at the sky through the trees. I¡¯m glad she¡¯s alright. Announcement My university''s Fall Semester starts on the 21st, so the upload schedule might be affected by it. Furthermore, the last couple dozen chapters that have gone up were scheduled in a hurry so I didn''t have as much time to edit them as the ones before. That would be why there might''ve been some errors I might''ve missed. Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings. I''ll be able to edit them at some point, but not right now. The author''s notes were also a little messed up as well, leaving them outdated as I copy pasted my post chapter author''s notes into each chapter when I scheduled 40 chapters in advanced. So on the 11th I went through and fixed the author''s notes in any chapters posting after that. Have a lovely day! B1 | Chapter 52 - The Sky World and a ‘Shortened Explanation’ Alexia Over an hour passes as Astrid sleeps, and during that time I just look around at our surroundings. At the outside of the dungeon. And I mean really look around. Since I haven¡¯t had much of a chance to do that till now. Not with those entitled idiots to deal with earlier, and then talking with Astrid a bit before she fell asleep after that. Fortunately the others down there seemed too nervous to bother me after what went down. So that¡¯s nice. I have absolutely no intention of staying at this base outside of in my off-time between hunts. Assuming I have much of that. The others aside though, I can¡¯t help but look up at the two moons in the sky. Something I¡¯m not used to seeing. The planet we were on before the Reset was a place called Terra, and it was part of the Ancestral Galaxy. A Galaxy formed solely of inhabited planets brought there by the original Initialization of the System and its original Tutorial. Meanwhile anything outside of the Ancestral Galaxy was free for anyone to claim. And only those who have been to the Ancestral Galaxy actually were initialized into the System. But the System still existed outside of the Galaxy despite that. Made for a dark and depressing life for anyone born outside of the Galaxy. Actually, I wonder. Did the System send everyone here even from outside of the Galaxy? That would be interesting. There was also a way for users outside of the Galaxy to Initialize into the System even without being in it, but the monster cores that it required were rather expensive. I blink at that thought before reaching into my pocket and pulling out a monster core. One I got from the boss of the dungeon. The only place to get one in the first place. Dungeon final bosses. Not much use for it right now though, so I put it back in my pocket again and continue looking around at the large jungle, then over the edge of the island into the clouds down below. I¡¯ve never been to a sky world before. It certainly matches the beauty that I¡¯ve been told they had. Although they¡¯re also generally less hospitable since there¡¯s far less land and water on them than other worlds. I also didn¡¯t get to the descriptions of the planets themselves during class, so I don¡¯t know how those worlds even work in the first place. Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation. Other than how magic is involved. I turn my attention to the floating islands around us. None of them seem to be moving, instead just staying in place with the bridges connecting them all. Meanwhile the wind¡­ the wind is very strong here. And it feels really nice compared to those windless caves. Astrid suddenly starts stirring, bringing my attention back to her to find her slowly beginning to blink her eyes open. So I smile and pat her head before looking back down at the base again, finding the others seemingly trying to set up a more permanent presence here than I would¡¯ve expected. I wonder why? ¡°Lexi¡­?¡± I hear Astrid mutter, bringing my gaze back to find her sleepily looking up at me through half-lidded eyes. And when I nod with a smile, her eyes widen a little and she smiles back before hugging me. Then she lets go and gets off of my shoulder, standing up on the rather large branch that someone must¡¯ve expanded with magic at some point. Possibly for their battle earlier, since I¡¯m pretty sure I saw some people on these larger branches using skills on those down below. I stand up as well as she turns around to face me and asks, ¡°So¡­ what happened?¡± That question has me pursing my lips for a second while I try to figure out what to say. Then I clap my fist onto the palm of my hand and tell her, ¡°I was forced into a rift to the void where I was also forced to kill the creator of the System, turned into a Quantum Reaper against my will, sent to a dungeon to fight alone, got poisoned, almost died, got a pet, and came out alive.¡± She blankly stares at me for several seconds without saying a word. Without even showing a hint of emotion on her face. ¡°So, um, is that a good enough explanation?¡± I ask while tilting my head slightly. She continues staring. ¡°It¡¯s not, isn¡¯t it?¡± I ask again, feeling awkward. Astrid nods and agrees, ¡°It¡¯s not. Try again.¡± Although I can¡¯t help but notice her eyes straying towards Luna, who is sleeping on my right shoulder ¨C the one Astrid wasn¡¯t sleeping on. Yeah, I¡¯ve never been very good at explaining things verbally. I¡¯m much better at writing them down. Astrid suddenly blinks as if she¡¯s realizing something before she asks, ¡°Wait, did you say that you killed the creator of the System?¡± ¡°Yep,¡± I state with a nod of my head. ¡°The guy¡¯s a real asshole.¡± And I¡¯m willing to bet that I¡¯ll be seeing his clone again when the Tutorial finishes. I grimace at that thought. Lucky me. ¡°Hello?¡± I ask Astrid after she just stares at me for several seconds. She doesn¡¯t say anything back. Not for nearly half an entire minute at least. When she does, the first thing she says is, ¡°How do you end up in these situations?¡± My lips part open as I stare at her for a second, only to cross my arms and defend myself, ¡°Hey, it¡¯s not my fault! How was I supposed to know I had an affinity for quantum magic? Or that there was a rift there that would lead me to the void?¡± Astrid stares at me again before eventually sitting down on the branch and motioning for me to do the same. Then she says, ¡°You should start explaining from the beginning. And do it slowly. Don¡¯t just jumble everything into one confusing mess of an explanation.¡± I frown at that before sitting down and getting into the explanation right away. B1 | Chapter 53 - Changes Part I On The Tree After Lexi finishes explaining her story to Astrid, Astrid finds herself lying back on the branch of the tree feeling exhausted just listening to her twin sister. Both due to the jumbled up explanation that she only managed to understand because of her experience with her sister, and because of just what exactly the explanation entailed. She really killed the creator of the System¡­ really and truly. That means the Reset can theoretically be blamed on her if people tried. Astrid¡¯s first instinct is to figure out how to hide that fact, just for her to realize that most of the people in the Reset probably don¡¯t mind the Reset itself. Most of the people who weren¡¯t at the top in terms of power at least. ¡°So why are you guys setting up this base as if it were a permanent one?¡± Astrid hears her sister ask, making her sit up again to look down on the base down below. Then she looks at her sister again and says, ¡°We¡¯re preparing it for after the Tutorial. Turning it into our permanent base.¡± Astrid watches them continue their preparations for a little bit before turning to look at Lexi to find her with a confused expression on her face. One that reminds her that Lexi wasn¡¯t able to ask questions of the creator of the System¡¯s memory since she had a clone instead of a memory with her. A clone that only lasted for ten minutes rather than the hour it lasted for everyone else. ¡°One of the things I got out of the clone,¡± Astrid begins, briefly pausing when the bat on her sister¡¯s shoulder finally begins to stir awake, ¡°is that this world, this Tutorial Block.¡± Her eyes meet her sister¡¯s again. ¡°Will be where we¡¯ll be after the Tutorial finishes as well.¡±
Alexia I blink in surprise at that. ¡°Wait, so we aren¡¯t going to be teleported somewhere else after the Tutorial?¡± I ask, rather surprised by that information. Astrid nods and says, ¡°No, we won¡¯t be. This is where we are now, even after the Tutorial. The only thing that¡¯ll change is that the Tutorial Blocks will just be called Dimensional Blocks instead, and they¡¯ll open up for travel at certain points between the Dimensional Blocks.¡± That¡¯s¡­ not what I expected. But then again, this is a Reset, and there are already a lot of things different between this dimension and the old one. ¡°Does that mean there aren¡¯t planets anymore? No space, no galaxies, no universe?¡± I ask while leaning forward a little bit in my interest. Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more. My sister nods her head with a stoic look on her face just like always. Then she turns and looks down on the base again as she says, ¡°Instead of planets, the World Council, the World Leader, and the World Champions, this new dimension has Dimensional Blocks, Dimensional Councils, Dimensional Leaders, and Dimensional Champions. A very similar setup, but also different in that all people need to do to cross from one Block to another is pass through one of the checkpoints along the Dimensional Walls.¡± Interesting¡­ a new setup for the universe. Or can it even be called a universe now? I guess dimension would fit better. It¡¯s what the System says anyways. But if that¡¯s the case¡­ I raise my head to look up at the moons above us. ¡°Why are there moons and suns if there isn¡¯t anything outside of the atmosphere?¡± I ask, genuinely curious about this topic. Probably because my old affinity used to be Astral. Astrid looks at me for a second before focusing on the base again in the corner of my eye as she answers, ¡°The memory said that it¡¯s complicated. That magic runs it and there is no actual way to leave the atmosphere.¡± Interesting. I¡¯ll have to check that out when I¡¯m strong enough to punch through the quantum barrier or whatever the System has set in place above the atmosphere. But for now I¡¯ll have to be patient. Wait a second. I turn to face Astrid again before asking, ¡°What¡¯s this about a Dimensional Wall?¡± She answers without looking at me, ¡°It is what it sounds like. A giant wall that covers as far as the eye can see all the way both up and downwards in a massive square perimeter around the Block. One made entirely up of quantum energy so thick it¡¯s tangible in a solid wall.¡± Okay, I want to see if I can poke through that as well. Astrid turns to face me while continuing her explanation of the stuff she¡¯s learned about this new dimension, ¡°Instead of Noble Titles that the System gives out, this time it will be giving Levels of Authority. Which is basically the same thing but with a different name as it doesn¡¯t actually give authority to change the System or anything. Although it isn¡¯t hereditary, and it doesn¡¯t give any actual control over a region like the Noble title gave. Just authority in Dimensional Block Councils and Dimensional Councils.¡± She pauses for a moment before continuing again, ¡°After the Tutorial finishes, we¡¯ll be sent to a Tutorial Shop where we can use our Tutorial Points to purchase anything in the shop, ranging all the way from items and even some skills to species and class changes. Although the skills are apparently rather expensive, and rather limited. And everyone in the top ten at the time of the Tutorial¡¯s end gets their Authority boosted to Level 2, with the #1 spot getting Level 3 Authority.¡± Interesting. Not sure why the System is changing its way of naming everything, but not entirely against it. Actually, it might be because of the system creator¡¯s situation in the old dimension before I killed him. I can definitely see him disliking nobility, and having a System where authority over regions is based on noble titles isn¡¯t something I can see him liking much. Before there was ten different levels of Noble titles. The first ranked Noble, a Knight. Then there was a Lord or Lady, a Baron or Baroness, a Viscount or Viscountess, a Count or Countess, a Marquess or Marchioness, a Duke or Duchess, a Prince or Princess, a King or Queen, and an Emperor or Empress. And Nobles could claim land around dungeons with the amount of land and the amount of citizens depending on their Noble rank. But this new system doesn¡¯t seem to have claiming land. At least not dependent on authority. Actually, I ask, ¡°Is claiming land still a thing?¡± Astrid shakes her head and answers, ¡°No, it doesn¡¯t. There won¡¯t be any System enforced land claims after the Reset.¡± My eyes widen in both surprise and glee. No more Nobility. B1 | Chapter 53.2 - Changes Part II Alexia I¡¯m not entirely sure how to feel about that, but I think I like it. The no claiming land thing. Because generally Nobles would just claim the dungeons using their Noble Authority, which would automatically claim the land around the dungeons as well and add it to their territory that they would then be able to expand on with a higher Noble rank. But if they can¡¯t do that anymore, they can¡¯t claim dungeons anymore. And if no one can claim dungeons anymore¡­ this world will be a lot less controlled than before. I can¡¯t help but smile at that thought. ¡°There should be one level 100 monster on each of the islands that is currently locked in its territory until the Tutorial ends,¡± Astrid continues, piquing my interest more than a little bit. ¡°And the memory also mentioned that there is a new Class of species.¡± I blink at that before narrowing my eyes. ¡°Cataclysm Class,¡± she says with a slight shiver while glancing at me. ¡°According to him, it¡¯s a monster with the stat boosts and affinity of a Class S species. Just without the intelligence.¡± Oh. Shit. Yeah, that is be pretty bad. ¡°The creatures are born at random apparently, with an incredibly long interval between each birth,¡± she explains with a frown. ¡°But since we have you here, we shouldn¡¯t have to worry.¡± I raise a brow at that. Cool. Just push your problems onto me why don¡¯t you. Although the idea of fighting something that¡¯s the same species Class as me¡­ is rather enticing. I blink at that thought. Wait, am I becoming a battle junky? No¡­ that¡¯s not possible. ¡°Lexi?¡± Astrid asks, and I just shake my head and mutter, ¡°I¡¯m fine. So was there anything else that the memory mentioned?¡± She seems to think for a moment before showing a look of remembrance and saying, ¡°Oh, right. He mentioned that only people with Authority can pass through the Dimensional Walls between Dimensional Blocks. And each person with Authority can bring a certain amount of people depending on their Level of Authority along with them.¡± Interesting. Probably won¡¯t matter to me since I¡¯m in the top ten for the leaderboards, so I¡¯ll be getting Authority right away. Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original. But it will be interesting to know for the future. Could be used to bargain with others. Offering to take them across the wall. ¡°Now then,¡± I state while tilting my head. ¡°What happened to you all while I was in the cave?¡±
Down in the Base Elizabeth Sinclair, the Princess of the Kingdom of Silvercrest, feels chills run down her spine once again after taking a glance at the Class S species sitting on a branch far above them casually chatting with her sister. A non-Class S species. Just like every other time she¡¯s glanced over there. A quantum being¡­ they¡¯re supposedly weak to magic attacks, so if she were the same level as me then I might¡¯ve stood a sliver of a chance. Elizabeth quickly glances back again as she works on making a reservoir for their base before focusing on the large hole she¡¯s making once more with chills going down her spine. But there is no way I¡¯d ever even last a second if I tried fighting that damned monster in user form. Not when she¡¯s over fifty levels above me. The princess feels grateful that the Class S species saved them all, but she still wonders if having the top ranked user on the leaderboards chatting in their group is a wise idea. Because while it would make their group almost untouchable by other users, it would also lead to a massive imbalance in power. And while Elizabeth doesn¡¯t particularly care much about ruling, her friend Alara might lose her position of power in the group. I have to get it set straight that Alara is the leader, not the Class S. And to do that¡­ Her thoughts pause for a second and so do her hands as she stops digging the reservoir. ¡­I should probably first start thinking of her by her name and not Class S species. She continues digging before looking around to find everyone else busy doing things around the base as well while the twins are speaking. Something she finds odd though is how neither Alexia¡¯s twin nor that Aidan person seemed surprised in the least by Alexia¡¯s level. Or by how powerful she was. All they seemed surprised by was her being a quantum reaper. And what¡¯s a quantum reaper anyways? I¡¯ve never heard of it. It¡¯s obvious that it¡¯s some sort of quantum being, but what? I¡¯ve only ever heard of the quantum architect species before. Elizabeth frowns at that thought, only to shake her head once more. No. I can¡¯t think like that. She¡¯s only helped us so far, and she listened to her twin when asked not to kill William. The princess takes a deep breath before letting it out again. But no matter how hard she tries, the sight of the first kill she made amongst her brother¡¯s forces simply by snapping the boy¡¯s neck like a twig keeps resurfacing in her mind. Then she imagines herself being in the same position as him. Something that could easily happen if she isn¡¯t careful. Elizabeth takes another deep breath before turning her gaze back to Alexia, only to immediately find the girl turning to look at her as well. And the sight of the girl tilting her head with her glitching purple eyes seemingly staring deep into her soul has a cold sweat building up on the princess¡¯s back as she yanks her gaze away from the quantum being again in terror. I can¡¯t piss her off. It¡¯s out of the question. Maybe I should ask Alara what to do? Or maybe just ask Astrid? She seems nice. She¡¯ll probably know what her twin would do. She blinks as the word twin registers in her mind for the first time despite her knowing that they were twins. Aren¡¯t twins generally similar in temperament? I think. Doesn¡¯t that mean her sister might be the cold, quiet, and stoic type as well? Then she remembers the girl¡¯s speech before she started slaughtering her brother¡¯s men. Maybe not. So back to the plan of talking to Astrid. B1 | Chapter 54 - Questions Alexia ¡°So you¡¯re sure I can¡¯t kill him?¡± I ask with a frown while glaring down at the building currently holding the crown prince in it from my place on the tree. ¡°Because I kind of want to now.¡± ¡°Please don¡¯t,¡± Astrid says, shaking her head with a slightly amused look on her face. ¡°We need him in case his father survives his dungeon.¡± Right. Can¡¯t go killing the son of a former ascendant who could very well be strong enough to challenge me in some way if he gets out of his dungeon alive. ¡°Alara also mentioned that she would rather have him alive for her friend¡¯s sake,¡± Astrid adds, making me frown for a moment before I shrug. After hearing about what the man has done since the Tutorial began, the first thing I thought was about killing him. But since I can¡¯t do that, I¡¯ll just have to trust them to take care of him. On that note, the others are all only about in the mid to late level thirties. And none of them have explored deeper into the jungle, only going around the outer edge of it instead. So I know where I¡¯ll be going soon. I quickly open the timer left on the Tutorial while climbing to my feet on the tree branch and stretching a little. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Time Left Until the Tutorial¡¯s End 2 days, 20 hours, 20 minutes, 1 second -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Looks like I have a few days left to reach level 100. ¡°You heading out already?¡± Astrid asks, bringing my gaze to her. I nod my head and tell her, ¡°Yeah. This team feels too tense for me to stay here all the time, and I really want to get to the level cap of Tier 1 before the Tutorial ends.¡± The people down in the base have been repeatedly glancing up at me like I¡¯m some sort of terrifying monster for some reason. All because I killed a few nobles. It¡¯s not like it was my first time killing, nor should it have been theirs. After all, everyone in the Royal Academy is sent on a bandit slaying mission during their first year. So everyone should be accustomed to killing. Or at least able to do it. Otherwise they probably would¡¯ve died on that mission. ¡°I¡¯ll probably end up making my own little house somewhere nearby this base, but I won¡¯t be staying here myself,¡± I tell my sister, seemingly not surprising her in the least. ¡°You can count on me to defend the base if necessary though, assuming I¡¯m nearby at the time.¡± Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator. She faintly smiles at that and nods before stepping up to me and giving me a hug. Then we separate again just as quickly, and I turn to face the jungle. Time to see just what¡¯s hiding inside this jungle.
The Base Astrid watches her sister jump off into the jungle for a few seconds before smiling and turning back to face the base, finding half of the group having stopped working to watch her leave. So Astrid jumps down from the tree to land at the center of the base in the midst of the quiet. And it only takes her sister vanishing into the trees for them all to begin rushing her, asking question after question after question nonstop. ¡°Where is she going?!¡± ¡°How did she get so strong?!¡± ¡°What¡¯s her Legendary Feat?¡± ¡°Why isn¡¯t she human anymore?¡± All questions they were too afraid to ask while she was here¡­ rather sad. Then one last question brings Astrid¡¯s attention to Alara as the others grow quiet. ¡°Will she be joining our group?¡± The first thing Astrid notices is that everyone around her from both her original team and the new team look conflicted about the question. With the exception of Aidan, who just looks excited, even though he had originally looked wary of her twin after seeing her species change. After a second, Astrid shakes her head and answers, ¡°No. My sister said she¡¯ll be making a place for her to live nearby the base, but she won¡¯t be joining our group.¡± Some of the people around her sigh in relief while others tense up slightly. ¡°How well do you know your sister?¡± the princess asks, making Astrid narrow her eyes at her in irritation. Aidan quickly answers in Astrid¡¯s place, ¡°They¡¯re twins and have been extremely close for as long as I¡¯ve known them.¡± ¡°Then how likely is it that she¡¯d turn on us?¡± the princess continues, and just seconds later Astrid appears next to her with her shadow blade held at the princess¡¯s throat, shocking the princess and everyone else around them. Except for Aidan. ¡°Calm down, Astrid!¡± Aidan exclaims, quickly putting his hand on Astrid¡¯s shoulder and pulling her back a little while being careful not to push her into accidentally harming the princess. ¡°She doesn¡¯t know your sister, so please cut her some slack!¡± Astrid glares at the princess for a few seconds before slowly pulling back and saying, ¡°The only way she would attack you is if you gave her a reason to. She isn¡¯t some wild dog like you seem to be making her out to be. Class S species or no.¡± The princess gulps in a display of fear and nods her head. Then Alara steps up and asks, ¡°Will we be able to count on her help if something happens to the base?¡± Astrid doesn¡¯t take her gaze off of the princess as she answers, ¡°She said she would help if she was nearby.¡± ¡°That¡¯s all I need to know then,¡± Alara says with a nod of her head before beginning to walk away, only to pause and turn her head back to Astrid as she asks, ¡°Actually, does she have any idea where she might want to build her house?¡± ¡°Why are you asking?¡± Astrid asks with a frown. Alara blinks once and answers, ¡°To know where we¡¯re going to be building it?¡± Wait, we? ¡°We?¡± Elizabeth¡¯s fianc¨¦ asks, sounding surprised. ¡°Yeah,¡± Alara says, glancing at him. ¡°If she¡¯s going to protect us the least we can do is build her house.¡± The man looks like he¡¯s about to say something, only to close his mouth and nod, seemingly agreeing with the plan in the end. And to Astrid¡¯s surprise, no one voices any complains. Astrid smiles. I¡¯ll have to keep an eye on the princess, but everyone else seems to be warming up to at least the idea of her living near here. Even if it¡¯s just for her protection, or in some of their cases, gratitude for being saved. After thinking about that, Astrid looks around the base. Then she finally realizes that most of the casualties they¡¯d suffered during the battle with the crown prince were to the princess¡¯s team, leaving Alara¡¯s team dominant in numbers by a fair margin. Since the only one they had lost was Rob. Guess it makes sense that she¡¯d be so nervous. Astrid glances at the princess before deciding to help them with building. B1 | Chapter 55 - The Innermost Region of the Island Alexia {Jungle Prowler ¨C Level 2} {Jungle Prowler ¨C Level 4} {Jungle Prowler ¨C Level 3} I simply cut straight through the large tigers without even bothering to use any of my soul for a Quantum Bolt, the monsters not being worth the expenditure as I continue rushing further into the jungle. And as I expected, the further in I go, the stronger the monsters become. At first they gradually climb to levels 10 through 20 before more rapidly growing to the thirties and forties. Then they begin growing even faster past the fifties and into the sixties. By now though I¡¯m starting to wonder just how large this island is, since I¡¯ve been running for hours now. Oh, wait. I have the timer. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Time Left Until the Tutorial¡¯s End 2 days, 15 hours, 30 minutes, 10 seconds -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- That¡¯s¡­ a lot of time. Especially considering that my running speed is a lot faster now than it was before the Reset thanks to my level and stats. Five hours of nothing but running and killing whatever monsters I run into. Not that any gave me much EXP if any at all. I can¡¯t help but frown at that though. Because how did I spend five hours doing nothing but running? Despite me knowing that it was a long time, it didn¡¯t really feel like it for some reason. Like time was flowing faster in my mind when I was doing busy work, just running around. The clone did mention that there would be other aspects of being a quantum reaper, so maybe this is one? Although all it does is basically stop me from getting bored when doing something over and over again simply by making it not feel like as long has passed. Or¡­ I guess it could also just be that my perception of time is different since I¡¯m just not human anymore? That a longer amount of time just doesn¡¯t feel as long anymore? If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. An odd feeling, regardless of what is causing it. Either way, I continue running until I finally make it to a large clearing. Sorta. The clearing is more like a large gap in between the section of the jungle I just left and another section of jungle. Although this new section of jungle has darker and smaller trees than the first section, and it seems to be going up a hill. So I enter the new section, only to find that the monsters are still around level seventy on average. Just how big is this island anyways?
It ends up taking me another hour of climbing the hill before I realize that the trees are becoming more and more sparse, and that I can see mountains in the distance. Not many, but mountains, nonetheless. Just a few. So I continue marching onwards for two more hours, making me wonder what I¡¯m doing with my life, the time finally starting to bother me. But who wouldn¡¯t be bothered after walking for at least eight hours straight, even if they have some sort of magical assistance to not be affected by the time? And it isn¡¯t until I reach halfway up the mountains that something new happens. A shrill sound akin to a hawk or other type of bird echoes through the mountains, bringing my attention up to the sky to find various large birds taking off of the few trees around here. The birds span nearly three meters in wingspan with a body spanning one meter and have yellow lightning running across their feathers that has me feeling a touch nervous. {Thunder Hawk ¨C Level 90} {Thunder Hawk ¨C Level 91} {Thunder Hawk ¨C Level 89} {Thunder Hawk ¨C Level 90} Finally! Some monsters at my level! I can¡¯t help but grin at the sight of the hawks. Or rather, I grin at them until I notice that nearly a dozen are flying straight towards me. Wait a second, that¡¯s too many. My grin turns into a grimace as I summon my polearm into my hand and immediately launch it straight towards the closest hawk, followed by a Quantum Bolt. But the hawk just calls out once and sends a large bolt of lightning straight towards my polearm. And when my polearm and the bolt collide, both cancel out the other attack, making the bolt of lightning dissipate as my polearm starts falling down towards the ground. On the other hand, my Quantum Bolts continue flying towards the hawk, only to end up meeting the same fate as the other hawks all join up and send bolts of lightning at my own bolts. Although my bolts do manage to push a little bit past the lightning bolts whenever they collide, but it¡¯s only a little as they dissipate soon after as well. They¡¯re magic focused monsters. Great. Can I go back into the dungeon now? I haven¡¯t had to fight a magic focused monster yet, and I was kind of hoping I could avoid it entirely. Even if that was an unrealistic hope. The hawks let out that annoying cawing sound, and at the same time, storm clouds begin to build up all around us. So I grit my teeth and continue sending Quantum Bolt after Quantum Bolt up towards the monsters, soon finding them sending lightning bolts down to meet mine. And our attacks continue to clash repeatedly, leaving me gritting my teeth from the shockwaves sent through the air from them along with my drained soul. It¡¯s a good thing that I didn¡¯t spend much soul on the way here, otherwise I¡¯d probably have run out by now. Although if I continue burning soul like this without even getting any headway on the hawks¡­ I might just run out anyways. So I change my attack plan. I stop sending Quantum Bolts and instead crouch for a second before jumping straight up into the air, repeatedly using Quantum Displacement to teleport higher with my momentum until I¡¯m at level height with the hawks. The hawks all immediately begin panicking from my sudden proximity, but it¡¯s too late as I quickly summon my polearm and go on the offensive. Let¡¯s see how easy it is to cut through these birdies. B1 | Chapter 56 - Lightning Alexia As it turns out, after getting up close and personal with the creatures, they¡¯re actually rather easy to tear apart with my polearm. Just a single swipe of the blade and they¡¯re cut in two. So I tear through the birds with ease until two of them flying further away manage to send bolts of lightning at me that manage to connect, making me let out a scream of pain as I¡¯m sent flying through the air with ease. And when I eventually slam into the ground, I cough out a mouthful of blood, a tiny portion of which glitches back into me, but not much. I grit my teeth as I force my head up from the ground to look down at my waist, finding my armor to have been completely burnt through all the way down to my skin which is also completely burnt on my right side. The side that was struck by the bolts of lightning. The wound is still sizzling with some arcs of electricity running across it with charred blood and some tree-like lines marking lightning burns branching off of the main burnt areas. Although the wound hurts a lot less than I expected it would. Probably because my nerves were burnt to a crisp in the attack. What worries me the most is the sight of my soul dropping rapidly, so I quickly use Quantum Reversal, making me let out another scream of pain as the burns are all reversed almost immediately thanks to how quickly the wound occurred in the first place. At a massive chunk of my soul in the process. After it¡¯s done healing, I find myself panting in exhaustion before looking up to find more lightning beginning to form around the few thunder hawks still remaining in the sky. Then I focus on my status to find my soul only at about ten percent remaining. So I begin spamming Quantum Displacement in the direction of the jungle away from the mountains and the hawks. And to my surprise, the thunder hawks seem to allow me to leave as they don¡¯t follow. But after a few seconds I notice the lack of Luna on my shoulder, making me look back to find the hawks having been distracted by her attacking them. And when I¡¯m far enough away, she immediately begins to fly back to me, having actually killed one of the hawks herself before retreating. ¡°Good girl,¡± I tell her with a smile, only to continue moving all the way until I make it back inside of the jungle where I lean up against a tree from high up in the branches and let out a sigh of relief. Who knows how long passes as I sit in the tree staring up at the sky before I finally decide to go ahead and let my System Messages flow. Messages I haven¡¯t let flow since I first left the dungeon. [Level 28-39 Human Defeated. User¡¯s earned EXP has been decreased an extreme amount due to killing a being whose level is lower than their own by fifty or more levels. User''s earned EXP has been decreased for defeating another user.] x18 Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings. [One fifth of their points have been earned for killing a user.] x18 I blink in surprise at that part of the message since I kind of forgot about the whole killing other users giving you part of their points thing. Also, it means that they are still alive since I killed them. Also forgot about that. Probably because I was alone in the dungeon when we were all told about it, with no users in sight. The whole ¡®users killed by other users are put in stasis instead of permanently dying.¡¯ Wait, doesn¡¯t that mean I should go kill the prince for his points? Or have Astrid do it. Yeah, that would be better. Should just get Astrid to go kill him for his points. Anyways, the next messages are all the messages for the monsters I¡¯ve fought to get through the jungle up till the inner mountain area, none of which gave me much EXP. All of it totaling only to one level that brings me up to level 90. The messages after that though are what are important. {Congratulations! You have leveled up to level 90! Your Species has awarded you +2 VIT, +2 DEX, +2 STR, +2 MAG, and +2 MEN. Your Class has awarded you +1 VIT, +1 DEX, +1 STR, +2 MAG, and +2 MEN.} [*New Active Skill* ¨C Quantum Communication: Allows the user to fold space between them and another location near an energy source of their choosing, creating a portal that only allows sound to pass through.] [Level 89-92 Thunder Hawk Defeated. User¡¯s earned EXP for some of the kills have been increased a small amount for killing creatures above their level. User¡¯s earned EXP for some of the kills have been decreased a small amount for killing creatures below their level.] x10 [One-three points have been earned for killing various creatures at the same level as you or above.] x10 {Congratulations! You have leveled up to level 91! Your Species has awarded you +2 VIT, +2 DEX, +2 STR, +2 MAG, and +2 MEN. Your Class has awarded you +1 VIT, +1 DEX, +1 STR, +2 MAG, and +2 MEN.} [Level 89-92 Thunder Hawk Defeated. User¡¯s earned EXP for some of the kills have been increased a small amount for killing creatures above their level. User¡¯s earned EXP for some of the kills have been decreased a small amount for killing creatures below their level.] x12 [One-two points have been earned for killing various creatures at the same level as you or above.] x12 {Congratulations! You have leveled up to level 92! Your Species has awarded you +2 VIT, +2 DEX, +2 STR, +2 MAG, and +2 MEN. Your Class has awarded you +1 VIT, +1 DEX, +1 STR, +2 MAG, and +2 MEN.} [Level 91-92 Thunder Hawk Defeated. User¡¯s earned EXP for some of the kills have been decreased a small amount for killing creatures below their level.] x2 [One-two points have been earned for killing various creatures at the same level as you or above.] x2 {Congratulations! Your Passive Skill ¡®Quantum Infusion¡¯ has reached Level 3!} {Congratulations! Your General Skill ¡®Polearm Mastery¡¯ has reached Level 4!} {Congratulations! Your Passive Skill ¡®Quantum Aura¡¯ has reached Level 2!} {Congratulations! Your Active Skill ¡®Quantum Displacement¡¯ has reached Level 5!} I frown for a moment, considering that new active skill. A skill that could come in handy when keeping in contact with Astrid. Although I¡¯m not willing to permanently shift an offensive skill out for a non-offensive one. So I¡¯ll only be able to switch it out when I¡¯m in a Safe Zone and back to what it was after that. I continue staring up at the sky for several seconds before letting out a sigh and deciding to just wait here for my soul to regenerate. Then I can go hunt more thunder hawks. Just more carefully this time now that I know how dangerous magical attacks are. B1 | Chapter 57 - Stolen Points Alexia It ends up taking me nearly an entire half a day with me falling asleep for most of it to completely regenerate my soul, my soul¡¯s regeneration speed having increased along with my levels. Something I¡¯m rather pleased with. I jump down from the tree and quickly begin making my way through the midsection of the forest into the mountainous area. The amount of time I saw left on the timer the last I checked was about two days left, so¡­ -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Time Left Until the Tutorial¡¯s End 1 days, 20 hours, 20 minutes, 5 seconds -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- About what I expected. I think that should be about enough time for me to reach the level cap of Tier 1 and get back to Astrid. Probably. And since I¡¯m here¡­ I should probably go hunt the level 100 monster of this island. Because that might be a nuisance when the Tutorial ends, and it¡¯s freed from its lair. So with that thought in mind, I begin rushing through the mountains, only to end up not finding anywhere near as many thunder hawks this time. I frown. Strange. I glance at Luna when she begins squeaking out of nowhere while flashing with a purple light that moves out through the area in the form of a pulse. ¡®Something wrong?¡¯ I ask through our bond, only to remember that Bonded Pets get new skills every time their bonded partner ¨C me ¨C reaches a multiple of ten in levels. So I check her skills real quick, finding a new skill called Quantum Echolocation. Which is basically a skill similar but more powerful and also more limited than my Quantum Attunement skill. One that lets her search a wide area by sending out quantum pulses in search of living things and sources of magical energy. But unlike Quantum Attunement that is passive and always active, not requiring any of my soul to use, this skill requires soul for her to use, even if the range of it is quite a bit more than Quantum Attunement. It¡¯s also more accurate. This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there. After a few seconds of the pulsing light, it stops, and Luna turns to me and lets out an adorable little squeak that has me patting her and rubbing my cheek against her. Which has her letting out a happy squeak before I refocus my attention on the task at hand. Luna points her wing to the North ¨C not gonna question how I know it¡¯s the north ¨C and I immediately head in that direction. Soon enough I find a thunder hawk hiding in a tree that quickly flaps its wings to get into the air with lightning coating its body. But I don¡¯t let it, instead teleporting up into the air multiple times to catch up to it before cutting straight through the thing with my polearm. Then I fall back to the ground, the two halves of the hawk¡¯s corpse thudding against the grass seconds later. [Level 91 Thunder Hawk Defeated. User¡¯s earned EXP for some of the kills have been decreased a small amount for killing creatures below their level.] It feels so weird to see such a high level monster not giving me any points. Actually, now that I think about it, what¡¯s my position on the leaderboard right now anyways? [#1 Alexia Knight ¨C 3,672 points] [#2 Lucas Nightshade ¨C 1954 points] [#3 Leif Eriksson ¨C 1839 points] [#4 Aurora Frost ¨C 1819 points] [#5 Isabella d''Aragon ¨C 1779 points] [#6 Alexander Frost ¨C 1699 points] [#7 Leonidas Silver ¨C 1684 points] [#8 Noah Kowalski ¨C 1598 points] [#9 Nathan Briar ¨C 1498 points] [#10 Damien Black ¨C 1395 points] I stare for several seconds before eventually muttering out loud, ¡°What?¡± How did¡­ oh. Despite remembering it earlier, I didn¡¯t bother to check my points for the points I stole from those nobles I killed. Kind of makes me wonder what the other members of the top ten are thinking after seeing my points shoot up like that. I hope they don¡¯t think I¡¯m some mass murderer or something. Also, those nobles didn¡¯t have many points if a fifth of eighteen peoples¡¯ total points only amounted to about a thousand five or a thousand six hundred points. Then again, it still almost doubled my total points, so I won¡¯t complain. And as for the other people in the top ten thinking I went on a rampage, at least some of them are probably going to be doing the same after leaving their dungeons just for the points. So I doubt they¡¯d care about me killing for points anyways, even though I didn¡¯t kill for points. What I¡¯m more worried about are other people looking at the leaderboards who aren¡¯t in the top ten, or aren¡¯t former ascendants and might get the wrong idea. But¡­ oh, whatever. I guess it doesn¡¯t matter what they think. Being feared might actually come in handy sometimes. Luna suddenly pokes my cheek with her wing, bringing my attention to her before she points off somewhere with her other wing, likely pointing me in the direction of another thunder hawk. ¡®Thank you,¡¯ I tell her with a smile as I quickly begin running in the direction she pointed. Hmm, I should start relying on her a bit more. I kind of forgot about our ability to share soul in our fight earlier, and I need to make sure I use every possible thing that I can to survive. With that thought in mind, I pat Luna on the head as I run to her apparent pleasure considering her little squeak. ¡®Ya know, I¡¯m really glad I you¡¯re my bonded pet, Luna,¡¯ I tell her through my bond, making the little vampire bat squeak again while rubbing her head up against my hand. So adorable. My thoughts halt when I hear a very loud screeching caw noise echoing from deeper into the mountains, which I now on closer look realize are actually four with a smaller mountain whose peak is partially flattened in the center of the three. Something that looks kind of odd until I focus on the lightning that¡¯s now starting to crash around it, making me understand what it is. The level 100¡¯s lair. B1 | Intermission 1 Somewhere in Tutorial Block #1 Lucas stares blankly out at the vast ocean in front of him, pondering over the meaning of life now that he¡¯s finally gotten out of the dungeon only to realize he¡¯s ended up on an island out in the middle of nowhere. He glances at a strange stone obelisk next to him alongside an arch that looks suspiciously like a portal arch with the portal deactivated. Please tell me my suspicion is wrong¡­ The man places his hand on the obelisk, making the portal flare up before he walks through it and finds himself on another island out in the middle of the ocean. Then he runs around the beach-covered edge of the island he¡¯s now on to eventually find another obelisk and portal arch that he takes to another island where he repeats the process once more. Damnit, this is a fucking ocean world, isn¡¯t it? A world filled with nothing but ocean and a few islands with no major continents to be found. Why is the first Dimensional Block a damned ocean world? Couldn¡¯t Block #1 have ended up a nice and regular world or something? Lucas grits his teeth at the thought before blinking at the feeling of a water droplet hitting the top of his head. So he looks up, only to find it beginning to rain, the clouds covering the sun enough to make the ocean world seem a little dark but still bright enough to see without much issue. ¡°That¡¯s it¡­¡± he mutters out loud, his eyebrow twitching in irritation. ¡°I¡¯m gonna murder the League of Ascendants for causing this Reset and leaving me in a damned ocean world.¡± ¡°Now why would you do that?¡± a voice suddenly asks out of nowhere, making Lucas spin around towards it while pulling a shadow knife out, only to pause when he sees the face of someone he recognizes. {Selene Rosenfort ¨C Species: Vampire ¨C Class: Blood Crowned ¨C Level 96} And right after he identifies the owner of the voice, she does the same back to him. ¡°What do you want, Empress of Roses?¡± he asks with an exasperated frown on his face while relaxing ever so slightly to the point that he¡¯s still ready to fight, but not expecting one to come about. Because the woman in front of him is just walking up to him with her arms held behind her head in a relaxed manner. ¡°Oh, great Hound, forgive this impertinent one for¡­ actually, never mind that,¡± she begins making her usual grandiose and sarcastic spiel only to cut off to his surprise. ¡°I¡¯m kinda surprised to find you here, ya know? Not as surprised as I was by the first finisher of their dungeon, but meh. Still surprising.¡± Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author''s preferred platform and support their work! Lucas looks the woman up and down for a moment, searching for weapons, but just like always, he doesn¡¯t find any. Something he has learned from dealing with her in the past is that anyone dealing with her will only see her weapons right before she¡¯s about to kill them, the assassin empress not having any interest in showing them otherwise. And the very fact that he can¡¯t see any weapons on her is what sets his nerves ablaze even though he knows that fact. Because he used to be able to find them even if she had them hidden thanks to the massive power gap between them. ¡°It¡¯s rather ironic to find you now though, considering our past,¡± the woman says, stopping in front of him. She has long silver hair with red eyes fitting her status as a vampire ¨C a Class A species of humanoid vampire and the most powerful of the various different species of vampire. And the woman is wearing the same basic armor as he is, her eyes drifting to his sword ¨C one that was sealed during his fight with the goblin king until the king was slain. Then she meets his gaze again with a grin and comments, ¡°Not so scary now are ya?¡± He narrows his eyes on her and palms his sword for a moment, making her grin fade back to a relaxed expression as she says, ¡°Nah, no need for that. Why don¡¯t we just be friends?¡± Lucas starts with surprise before narrowing his eyes even further and asking, ¡°Why?¡± She just shrugs and answers, ¡°Why not? Even if you¡¯re level 98, having another person working with you will always help. Especially in a place like this new dimension.¡± And when Lucas just continues staring, she finally rolls her eyes and says, ¡°Because with you here I know I won¡¯t be able to get the Champion position for this Block and want to at least tag along with the Champion. Let¡¯s face it, you¡¯re going to be going after the strongest opponents you can find, and I want in on it. Even if it just means fighting the monsters in the area while you face the big bosses. That good enough for you?¡± He stares for a few seconds before removing his hand from his pommel and saying, ¡°You can come with me until the Tutorial ends.¡± Then he grimaces after opening the leaderboards. [#1 Alexia Knight ¨C 3,672 points] [#2 Lucas Nightshade ¨C 1954 points] [#3 Leif Eriksson ¨C 1839 points] [#4 Aurora Frost ¨C 1819 points] [#5 Isabella d''Aragon ¨C 1779 points] [#6 Alexander Frost ¨C 1699 points] [#7 Leonidas Silver ¨C 1684 points] [#8 Noah Kowalski ¨C 1598 points] [#9 Nathan Briar ¨C 1498 points] [#10 Damien Black ¨C 1395 points] ¡°There¡¯s no way for me to catch up to that girl now anyways,¡± he says, feeling disgruntled by that fact. Did she really just go and slaughter dozens of people after getting out of her dungeon? Or is there some other circumstance that led to her killing people besides the points? If there isn¡¯t, then this girl might be dangerous. He frowns at that thought. Nevermind. She¡¯s dangerous either way. Makes me wonder what Block she¡¯s in. ¡°Say, why did you say what you said to yourself earlier?¡± Selene asks walking up to him and sticking her hips out behind her as she looks up at his face, her head tilted upwards with her back bent downwards in a slightly playful but still relaxed manner. He frowns at her before looking at the ocean and muttering, ¡°I just¡­ don¡¯t like the ocean. It brings back bad memories.¡± Out of the corner of his eye, he sees her straightening up again and tilting her head slightly. But then she just shrugs. The ocean was the last thing I remember before it happened after all. And the first thing I remembered afterwards. B1 | Chapter 58 - Level Cap Alexia Instead of going straight for the level 100, I roam around the mountains for an entire day just killing all of the thunder hawks I run into. Which is a lot easier than my first run-in with the creatures strictly because this time they aren¡¯t in a giant flock and are all on their own. Probably out of fear. They¡¯re also not too hard to find thanks to Luna¡¯s assistance. So, with just twenty hours left on the clock for the Tutorial¡¯s end, I get another message from the System right after killing one more thunder hawk and falling to the ground. [Level 94 Thunder Hawk Defeated. User¡¯s earned EXP for some of the kills have been decreased a small amount for killing creatures below their level.] {Congratulations! You have leveled up to level 100! Your Species has awarded you +2 VIT, +2 DEX, +2 STR, +2 MAG, and +2 MEN. Your Class has awarded you +1 VIT, +1 DEX, +1 STR, +2 MAG, and +2 MEN.} And there we go. More messages begin to follow that one. {Congratulations! You have leveled up to the level cap of Tier 1! In order to break into Tier 2, you must complete the following requirements based on your class: Kill three beings at the cap of Tier 1. Raise a single skill to Tier 2. Learn the Energy Manipulation General Skill.} I tilt my head slightly at those requirements. To advance in Tier, there are always three different requirements. The first that is always to kill a certain number of beings of varying strength depending on your class, most of the time being one at the cap of your Tier. The second requirement being to raise a single skill to Tier 2, a normal requirement found in most classes. And the third requirement is completely unique to your class. But¡­ what¡¯s Energy Manipulation? Is that referring to quantum energy? Kind of like Mana Manipulation for magic? That¡¯s certainly something to add to my growing list of questions to ask that asshole when the Tutorial finishes. Because I¡¯m pretty sure his clone is going to appear again then. At least, he probably will. Maybe he might be able to teach me this Energy Manipulation skill when I see him next. This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it. I¡¯ve already tried sensing for mana and doing various things that helped me originally get the Mana Manipulation skill even without the mana to do most of it, but nothing happened. I couldn¡¯t sense mana at all. What I can sense is magical energy thanks to Quantum Attunement, but I can¡¯t, or at least, I don¡¯t know how to manipulate that. It¡¯s just energy. Which I¡¯m pretty sure ¨C from what I learned in class ¨C is a more pure form of mana. Mana is basically just the naturally generated version of energy inside of a living body or an object. Just another form of energy. One less pure and made in a way probably by the System for users and monsters to manipulate. So the idea of manipulating energy itself¡­ I didn¡¯t realize that was even possible. But in hindsight, considering that the Quantum Architect created the System, which is able to do that, he probably could as well. Which means it¡¯s probably my version of Mana Manipulation after all. Good thing I reached the level cap of Tier 1 before the end of the Tutorial. I also wonder if there might be a Legendary Feat for being the first user to reach tier 2? That would be nice. Not crossing my fingers on that, but I should at least ask the clone about it when I next see him. I wonder how many clones he has stashed away anyways? That thought has me frowning as I consider how useful those clones are to my thirst for information and overall survival. Despite the guy¡¯s extremely annoying and infuriating personality. Aside from that, I¡¯m also planning on asking him plenty of other questions as well. Although most of them were answered by Astrid, who had already asked her memory those very same questions. A memory that I¡¯m sure answered perfectly politely and without a hint of the rude attitude the clones have. I glance at the requirements floating in my vision for a few more seconds before letting the System Message fade. Then I close my eyes and focus on my surroundings. Or rather, more specifically, at the energy in my surroundings. Energy is a wild thing without much desire to be controlled. It¡¯s a natural substance in existence created by nature itself and used in the form of mana to fuel magic. So the first thing I try doing to learn the skill on my own is to reach out and grab the energy floating in the air all around me. Energy of various different elements. Energy of fire, of water, of wind, earth, quantum, some lightning, and even more that I can¡¯t recognize off the top of my head and others I can recognize. But no matter what I try to do, I can¡¯t seem to so much as touch the energy as while it does seem to be affected by my movement ¨C something that wouldn¡¯t normally happen and is most likely due to my body being partially in the quantum realm ¨C all it does is avoid my touch. Meaning I likely have to use my soul to grab it, just like I would use mana to grab mana with mana manipulation. Something I don¡¯t know how to do. Guess I will have to wait for my next meeting with the clone after all. Then again, I should probably go deal with the level 100 while it¡¯s still locked in its lair. With that thought in mind, I turn towards the center mountain to find the lightning still striking the mostly flattened land atop its peak, with more than a few bolts being directed towards the massive hawk I can see sitting there. Although it¡¯s too far away for me to identify, even if I¡¯m closer to it now than I was earlier. What I can tell about it though is that it¡¯s clearly different from the others, even if I can¡¯t identify it yet. This¡¯ll be interesting. B1 | Updated Glossary System: Legendary Feats grant bonus perks to those who earn them and announce the feat to every System User. People only get one racial skill per advancement, starting with one racial skill at Tier 1. People can only have five passive and five active Class skills slotted at a time. People can only have ten general skills slotted at a time. Levels 1-100 are Tier 1 Levels 101-250 are Tier 2 Levels 251-500 are Tier 3 Levels 501-1000 are Tier 4 Levels 1001-2500 are Tier 5 Above level 2500 are Ascendants Class skills are received at every five levels for Tier 1. General skills are earned from doing what the skill entails and being given it by the System when you¡¯re determined to have earned them. The different Classes of Species are: Class E: +5 stats per level ¨C EX: Unintelligent weak monsters such as skeletons. Class D: +6 stats per level ¨C EX: Unintelligent and basic intelligent monsters such as goblins. Class C: +7 stats per level ¨C EX: Creatures such as hobgoblins and orcs that have intelligence but not as much as Class B creatures. Class B: +8 stats per level ¨C EX: Human, Dwarves, Elves, etc. Class A: +9 stats per level ¨C EX: Vampires, Werewolves, Kitsune, and other variant creatures. Class S: +10 stats per level ¨C EX: Quantum Reapers, other types of reapers, dragons, etc. The different Rarities of Classes are: Common: +4 stats per level Uncommon: +5 stats per level Rare: +6 stats per level Epic: +7 stats per level Legendary: +8 stats per level Mythic: +10 stats per level Element Affinity Classes: Take note! This IS NOT A SPLIT! And people can have more than one affinity! A Class E Affinity in an element allows the user to occasionally sense and maybe even see a small amount of that element or powerful effects of that element but not use it. 50% out of every last person in existence have at least a Class E Affinity. Meaning only 50% of existence have an affinity at all. A Class D Affinity in an element allows the user to see and sometimes interact with a small amount of that element, but not enough to get a magic class. 20% out of every last person in existence have at least a Class D Affinity. A Class C Affinity in an element allows the user to directly manipulate the element in the form of mana or whatever energy that element uses in their body to a limited degree. They can get magic classes. 10% out of every last person in existence have at least a Class C Affinity. A Class B Affinity in an element allows the user to directly manipulate the mana or energy of their element in the air. They can get higher rarity magic Classes. 0.1% out of every last person in existence have at least a Class B Affinity. A Class A Affinity in an element allows the user to directly manipulate the mana or energy of their element and clearly see it no matter how weak the energy or mana is. They can get higher rarity magic classes and have a higher level of control over the element. 0.0001% out of every last person in existence have at least a Class A Affinity. A Class S Affinity in an element is a perfect affinity and is only possible in those born of that element, where the element itself permeates throughout their body itself. Special circumstances must occur for someone to have a Class S Affinity if they are not a Class S species, who has one by default. Furthermore, they can only have a single Class S Affinity as they cannot have more than one element naturally flowing through their veins. These are not separately counted!!! 50% out of all 100% of people in the world. Then 20% out of all 100% of people in the world. And so on. Alexia Knight Age: 20 years old Relatives: Unknown Father, Unknown Mother, Adopted Grandfather and Knight of the Crimson Score - Lysander Knight, Twin Sister Astrid Knight Physical Appearance Pre-Reset: Long black hair done in a braid with blue eyes and a laidback attitude. She wears her armor everywhere she goes instead of any sort of fashion, the armor consisting of enchanted black leather. She is five foot five inches tall. Physical Appearance Post-Reset: Her previously long black hair is no longer done in a braid and is now tinted with a deep purple, and her eyes are now varying shades of purple that appear to glitch out every now and then as if they were an error in a computer game. Her blood is red with some faint tints of blue and dark purple and more tints of violet, and it also glitches out along with any of her insides whenever seen by the naked eye. She is five foot five inches tall. Status Pre-Reset:
Name: Alexia Knight Species: Human(T1)
Level: 35 Class: Magic Knight
Health: 700/700 Mana: 1050/1050
VIT: 69 DEX: 103 STR: 137 MAG: 137 MEN: 35
Racial Skills Active Skills
Passive Skills General Skills
Human(Species): +1 VIT, +2 DEX, +2 STR, +2 MAG, +1 MEN Per Level Magic Knight: +1 VIT, +1 DEX, +2 STR, +2 MAG Current Status:
Name: Alexia Knight Species: Quantum Reaper(T1)
Level: 100 (Level Capped) Class: Quantum Reaper
Soul: 6291/8,687.5
VIT: 298 DEX: 298 STR: 298 MAG: 397 MEN: 397
Racial Skills Active Skills
Passive Skills General Skills
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.Quantum Reaper(Species): +2 VIT, +2 DEX, +2 STR, +2 MAG, +2 MEN Per Level Quantum Reaper(Class): +1 VIT, +1 DEX, +1 STR, +2 MAG, +2 MEN Alexia gets +3 VIT, +3 DEX, +3 STR, +4 MAG, and +4 MEN per level at Tier 1. Legendary Feats: The Reaping - (Bonus: Your Quantum affinity is enhanced to 100%. Your class selection now only includes the class Quantum Reaper.), The First Clear ¨C (Bonus: As the first to clear a dungeon in the new dimension, your first loot box in every dungeon will always give you an item of a single Tier higher than what it would¡¯ve otherwise given. You are also given the General Skill known as Dungeon Map.) Racial Skills: Quantum Body: Reduces physical damage dealt to the user by 80% and increases magic damage dealt to the user by 50%. Active Skills: Lvl 4 Quantum Bolt: Releases a bolt of pure quantum energy at a target. This bolt will rip apart the target on a quantum level. Lvl 5 Quantum Displacement: Allows the user to teleport up to a radius of {the Skill¡¯s level to the power of the Skill¡¯s Tier} meters around themself. Lvl 3 Quantum Reversal: Revert time on just the user¡¯s body, reversing a limited amount of damage in an instant along with the effects of the damage. The price of the skill scales with the amount of damage and the skill¡¯s level, and wounds that would be considered fatal by the System are only partially reversible. Lvl 1 Quantum Phasing: Temporarily shift the user¡¯s body fully out of the normal plane of reality into the quantum plane, making them immune to any and all physical damage and able to pass through solid objects. Lvl 3 Quantum Burst: Sends a powerful wave of quantum energy all around the user. Level 3 Quantum Echo: Allows the user to create a brief echo of their previous attack through quantum entanglement, letting them duplicate one attack at a weaker level than the original attack. Level 1 Quantum Resonance: Allows the user to use the quantum energy in their body to create a resonance throughout themselves that increases their physical strength, speed, and regeneration for a limited amount of time. Level 1 Quantum Communication: Allows the user to fold space between them and another location near an energy source of their choosing, creating a portal that only allows sound to pass through. Passive Skills: Lvl 2 Quantum Attunement: Grants the user enhanced sensitivity to quantum fluctuations, giving them heightened awareness of nearby magical energies and disturbances. Lvl 1 Quantum Singularity: Further stabilizes the user¡¯s place in reality and the quantum realm, making skills and magics with any relation to the quantum have less effect on the user. Potentially affects time magic, space magic, soul magic, death magic, and other magics that directly affect reality itself in some way shape or form. Lvl 3 Quantum Infusion: All of your physical attacks are now infused with a small amount of quantum energy from the environment, regardless of if the attacks were made with your body or through equipment. Lvl 1 Quantum Adaptation: Allows the user¡¯s body to adapt to any type of environment after an extended duration of exposure to it. The adaptations made will be permanent, however they will never reach immunity to the environment. Lvl 1 Quantum Veil: Grants the user a veil protecting them from divination and scrying magics. Lvl 2 Quantum Aura: Creates a field around the user that distorts the space within the field by a minimal margin, making it slightly harder to accurately hit the user. General Skills: Lvl 5 Pain Resistance Lvl 4 Polearm Mastery (Unique) Forerunner: Passively increases the effects of the user¡¯s stats by three percent. Lvl 2 Stealth Lvl 4 Poison Resistance: Passively increases the user¡¯s resistance towards any and all types of poison by a slight amount. Lvl 2 Survivor: Passively decreases the amount of nutrition the user needs to survive by a small amount and increases their resistance to natural weather, granting them a tougher body when taking damage from naturally occurring things. Lvl 2 Exploration: Enhances the user¡¯s basic instinct to know which direction they should go when unsure, makes it so they always know which of the four cardinal directions are where, and may sometimes give the user an instinctive feeling directing them to a hidden location.
Name: Luna Species: Infantile Quantum Vampire Bat(T1)
Level: 100 (Level Capped) Class: Elemental Pet
Soul: 6091/7,450
VIT: 199 DEX: 199 STR: 199 MAG: 397 MEN: 397
Racial Skills Active Skills
Passive Skills General Skills
Infantile Quantum Vampire Bat(Species): +1 VIT, +1 DEX, +1 STR, +2 MAG, +2 MEN Per Level Elemental Pet(Class): +1 VIT, +1 DEX, +1 STR, +2 MAG, +2 MEN Luna gets +2 VIT, +2 DEX, +2 STR, +4 MAG, and +4 MEN per level at Tier 1. Characters: Astrid Alexia¡¯s twin sister and a former Magic Knight just like her now Shadowblade. Aidan Alexia and Astrid¡¯s childhood friend and a former Ice Mage now uncommon Combat Mage. Has brown hair and eyes. Alara The daughter of the Guildmaster of the local Adventurer¡¯s Guild and has a rare class, Fire Dancer. Her family owes the Kingdom of Silvercrest a debt that they now no longer need to worry about thanks to the Reset. Has red hair and blue eyes. Shelly Daughter of a powerful member of the Hunter¡¯s Guild and an uncommon class, Arcane Archer. Has brown hair and black eyes. Rob Son of a powerful member of the Mage¡¯s Guild and an uncommon class, Combat Healer. Has black hair and brown eyes. Rodrick Lancaster Son of a Baron and developed interest in Astrid. Has green eyes and brown hair. Is an idiot. William Sinclair Crown Prince of the Former Kingdom of Silvercrest. Has silver hair and silver eyes and the rare Warlock class. Elizabeth Sinclair Princess of the Former Kingdom of Silvercrest. Has silver hair and silver eyes and the rare Warlock class. She is tall and with a full figure that her fianc¨¦ has no qualms about looking at. Reginald Kingsley Fianc¨¦ to the Princess and has a rare class, Iceblade Knight. He also has a very sharp looking face with gray eyes and brown hair and is a creep but is one that knows what they¡¯re doing and is smart. Cassandra Dawn Daughter to a Duke and has a rare class, Arcane Hunter. She had a sister once, but they died. She has long brown hair with golden eyes. Lucas Nightshade The Hound of the Apocalypse who massacred an entire nation before the Reset and was feared across the world. He is currently ranked #2 on the leaderboards and feels familiarity towards Alexia¡¯s name. He has the Requiem of Light and Shadow epic class that is a mixture of Astral and Shadow magics. Aurora Frost The former Empress of Niflheim and user of ice magic. She has a grudge against Leif Eriksson and repeatedly trades places with him on the leaderboards, currently being number four on it. Leif Eriksson The former King of Arcadia and current number three user on the leaderboards. He has holy magic specializing in defense. He is arrogant. Isabella d''Aragon She is a dragon who can shapeshift into a humanoid form with two large red wings on her back and red eyes. She is also the current number five user on the leaderboards and former empress of the Scarlet Empire. Isabella has little interest in matters that don¡¯t involve the dragons. Alexander Frost He is a kraken who can shapeshift into a humanoid form with glowing blue eyes and wavy blue hair. He is also the current rank seventh on the leaderboards and the former leader of the underwater nation of Atlantis. Damien Black A vampire with white hair and glowing red eyes who is leading the League of Ascendants. He¡¯s the current rank number ten on the leaderboards and has difficulty controlling his anger, bloodthirst, and lust for power. Leonidas Silver A ghoul with pitch black orbs for eyes and pale skin. He is the sixth ranked user on the leaderboards and Emperor of the Fallen Empire. Meanwhile all he cares about is his desire for peace for both himself and his nation without any care for struggles beyond that. Nathan Briar A human known by many as the Wandering Summoner. He rarely ever settles in one location, always on the move, always searching for new monsters to add to his list of summons. He¡¯s the ninth ranked user on the leaderboards and is rather laidback in his attitude, deciding to deal with things as they come. Noah Kowalski The eighth ranked user on the leaderboards and a werewolf. He is the only member of the top ten aside from Alexia who was not an Ascendant before the Reset. B1 | Chapter 59 - The Matriarch Alexia After a couple more hours of walking, I reach the peak where I stop right outside of the small rift that I see between the monster¡¯s area and the outside world. Meanwhile the monster inside still isn¡¯t moving at all. It¡¯s just sitting at the center of the large flattened and charred stone that makes up the peak. The monster is about twice the size of the other thunder hawks with a wingspan of about four meters in length and a body of about two meters in height. It has two glowing blue eyes with blue arcs of electricity moving through them along with yellow arcs or electricity moving across the rest of its body. Meanwhile the creature is just sitting still and staring at me from its place at the center of the peak with lightning repeatedly coming down and striking the stone, making arcs of electricity move across it for a couple seconds each time before fizzling out. I can¡¯t seem to identify the monster from out here, but it should be level 100. And considering its gaze which clearly has at least some intelligence in it, it¡¯s likely either a Class D or a Class C monster. Probably Class C if I had to guess. Either way, it¡¯ll be annoying to deal with its lightning. Throughout my time dealing with the other thunder hawks to reach level 100, I managed to raise the levels of my skills as well. Quantum Displacement being the primary one that I leveled, making it reach level 7. Which is just three levels off of being the max level of Tier 1, where I¡¯ll need to use the monster core I got from the final boss of the dungeon to bring it to Tier 2. But with Quantum Displacement being this high in level, I should be able to safely teleport up to seven meters away from myself now. Enough to get close to the bird without much trouble. Overall, as long as I can get close to it then the fight should be in my hand. I¡¯d be more worried if this monster was a higher level than me. But we¡¯re the same level, and my species is a much higher Class than its. So I should be fine. Things don¡¯t always work out as planned though, and the monster does have pretty strong magic by the looks of the lightning and the electricity. I frown at that fact before shrugging my right shoulder where Luna is and telling her through our bond, ¡®Fly. Keep a distance from me and the boss and focus on using your new skill.¡¯ Luna does just as I say with a short yet rather adorable squeak as I narrow my eyes on the bird. To test things out, I raise my hand and summon my polearm before throwing it straight at the rift in the direction of the hawk, but it just bounces off the rift without doing anything. Even though it¡¯s using quantum energy. Interesting. A much more powerful rift than the ones in the dungeon, that¡¯s for sure. After testing it out once more by sending a Quantum Bolt at it and finding that to fail as well, I take a deep breath and step past the rift. But to my surprise, there isn¡¯t any sort of System Message telling me what I just entered, and when I quickly move my hand back, I find that I¡¯m still able to leave. Meaning only the bird is trapped here. But my attacks still can¡¯t pass through the rift. You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version. I summon my polearm again as the large hawk finally begins to move, straightening up a little and narrowing its eyes on me. ¡°Hello birdy,¡± I tell the thing while identifying it. {Thunder Hawk Matriarch ¨C Level 100} Matriarch? Guessing this was the leader of the flock I kinda killed. I hope she¡¯s not mad at me. The matriarch opens its beak and lets out a cawing sound that somehow mixes with the cracking of thunder. Then it flaps its wings once and climbs up into the air with bolts of lightning flying around it. Okay, I didn¡¯t consider that. I purse my lips before opening my mouth slightly when an idea comes to me. Right when I¡¯m about to start executing said idea though, a bolt of lightning strikes the ground near my feet, sending electricity running through me that leaves me just barely standing. And another bolt comes after that. Then another. But to my surprise, while they do hurt a lot and are still doing damage, it doesn¡¯t look like these are counted as magical attacks. Probably because they¡¯re coming down here from the clouds and not being made by the hawk. Even if the hawk is probably guiding them here. My eyes suddenly widen as another idea comes to me and I reverse the damage done to my legs by the lightning, using up not actually that much soul in the process due to the limited damage the leftover electricity did. Then I find myself immediately opening my skills list. [General Skills] |Pain Resistance Level 5(16%)(T1)| |Polearm Mastery Level 4(41%)(T1)| |Forerunner (Unique)| |Stealth Level 2(94%)(T1)| |Survivor Level 2(4%)(T1)| |Poison Resistance Level 4(29%)(T1)| |Exploration Level 2(2%)(T1)| |Dungeon Map Level 1(0%)(T1)| [Active Skills] |Quantum Bolt Level 5(31%)(T1)| |Quantum Displacement Level 7(3%)(T1)| |Quantum Reversal Level 4(22%)(T1)| |Quantum Echo Level 3(2%)(T1)| |Quantum Burst Level 4(21%)(T1)| [Passive Skills] |Quantum Attunement Level 3(11%)(T1)| |Quantum Singularity Level 1(3%)(T1)| |Quantum Infusion Level 4(6%)(T1)| |Quantum Adaption Level 1(24%)(T1)| |Quantum Aura Level 2(71%)(T1)| I can¡¯t help but grin at the sight of Quantum Adaptation finally going up a little bit in percentage. Looks like I can adapt to lightning. Actually, Quantum Adaptation might just be one of the best skills I have now that I think about it. Since it lets me make a small adaptation similar to a resistance for each type of damage instead of just a single skill meant for a resistance to one. Even if the skill is probably vastly limited in comparison to an actual resistance skill for an element. My thoughts are cut off when another bolt of lightning strikes right near me, making me wonder just how bad the hawk¡¯s control of the lightning is. Until I remember that it¡¯s lightning. One of the harder elements to control in the first place due to its unpredictability. So with that thought in mind, after reversing the damage of the lighting bolt that electrified my leg with its sparks, I grin up at the hawk. Time to see if I can¡¯t train my adaptation for electricity! B1 | Story Art Here''s some story art for Reaper''s Resurgence, all of Alexia. Some of it in the armor she''s wearing now and some not. This is her in her current armor. The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. This is other armor. B1 | Chapter 60 - Training and a Dead Bird A Nearby Dungeon The very first thing Ethan Silva does after stepping out of his dungeon is take a deep breath and look up at the beautiful sky above him. But before the ascendant known as the Silver Knight can so much as enjoy the scenery, his head swivels around at the sound of thunder. Lots. And lots. Of thunder. What the heck? He jumps up onto the branches of a nearby tree before repeating the motion until he reaches the top of the tree, where he finds that he is currently close to the top of a decently sized mountain with another one directly across from him, and two others surrounding the mountain. But what catches his attention is the sight of a girl fighting, or rather, running around on top of the peak of the central mountain. While being chased by lightning and for some reason not fighting back. What¡­ am I watching? Ethan stands on the top of the tree with one arm wrapped around it as he watches the girl running around as if baiting the lightning. Which makes Ethan realize exactly what she¡¯s up to. Probably. She must be training her Electricity Resistance and tiring out the monster at the same time, since it can¡¯t be able to continue directing the lightning at her the entire time. At some point it¡¯ll have to shift- His thoughts are interrupted when the giant hawk she¡¯s baiting finally stops directing the lightning and starts to flare up itself with blue lightning that it then sends crashing down towards her. And this time she doesn¡¯t manage to dodge in time, getting sent flying dozens of meters through the air before crashing into the ground with some of her bones sticking out of her body and severe burns through the equally burnt holes in her armor. Ethan briefly considers going over there to help her and what merits that could possibly bring him, only to find his jaw dropping open in silence at the sight he sees next. The sight of her wounds all reversing themselves as if nothing had ever happened after a faint glitching appearance. Like the wounds were nothing but a glitch in a computer. What the absolute flying hell did I just see? Ethan blinks once, then twice, and finally a third time just to make sure he¡¯s seeing correctly. And what he sees is the girl climbing to her feet with a grimace on her face. But the grimace doesn¡¯t last long and is replaced by a look Ethan knows very well. A look he often gets when looking at a skill progressing or a System Message telling him he¡¯s leveled up. Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there. No¡­ is she? No¡­ The girl just goes back to running around while seemingly baiting the giant hawk, making Ethan seriously begin to question her sanity. So he just shakes his head, tries briefly to identify her, only to fail. That¡¯s probably the level 100 for wherever we are. Since the System Creator¡¯s memory told him about the level 100s in each island of his Tutorial Block, he already knows what the outside of the dungeon is like. So he just narrows his eyes on the girl as he tries to figure out what magical element she¡¯s using, since the rift is blocking his senses as well. Purple and can revert time on the body¡­ time magic maybe? It looked kind of like I¡¯ve heard quantum magic described, but there can¡¯t be a quantum being here. They aren¡¯t usually system users but instead outsiders. So I guess time magic? A very rare affinity. Ethan watches her for several more seconds before eventually shaking his head at the sight of her just taking another lightning bolt and reversing the damages again. Then he turns around and begins to walk away, deciding that while she is interesting, he shouldn¡¯t waste his time in the last day of the Tutorial just watching someone else fight. So he heads towards the edge of the mountains, making his way hopefully towards the edge of the island where he can find a bridge to another island. Right when he¡¯s about to leave eyesight of the girl though, he glances back with a raised brow before chuckling and continuing on his way. Crazy or not, she sure seems interesting. I wonder if I¡¯ll ever run into her again. He walks for a few seconds. Probably not.
Alexia I let out another scream of pain when another blue lightning bolt strikes me, but this one doesn¡¯t do as much damage as the first one was doing. Not by a longshot. Now it¡¯s only doing about half or so of the amount of damage the first one did. And after I reverse the damage, making me pant from the exhaustion of my current training, I find a System Message awaiting me. {Congratulations! Your Passive Skill ¡®Quantum Adaption¡¯ has reached Level 2!} Finally! ¡®Please send some soul! We¡¯re done training for now!¡¯ I send Luna a message, following which I feel more soul entering me, filling me back up to about half of my tank. Then I focus on the matriarch with a wide grin on my face. The matriarch looks surprised for a moment, but doesn¡¯t stop preparing the blue bolt of electricity that it was about to send my way. So I begin teleporting straight up towards it with ease, which does startle it into messing up and missing its shot. But it has bigger problems to worry about as I quickly summon my polearm and bring the blade crashing down onto its wing, slicing it open without much struggle thanks to its surprise keeping it from moving away. Then we both begin falling towards the ground now that its wing is crippled. I don¡¯t stop there though as I teleport above the creature, landing onto its back where I then bring my polearm straight down into its head, cutting it open with ease. And before it crashes onto the ground, I teleport off of its back slightly above ground myself to dumb down the landing a bit, even if I still end up gritting my teeth slightly. One issue about maintaining my momentum when teleporting. I can¡¯t really use it to break my fall. Worth it other than that though. Anyways, I stretch a little before letting the System Message play out. [Level 100 Thunder Hawk Matriarch Defeated. No EXP is given due to the user¡¯s level being capped. One Tier 1 Capped being defeated. To clear the requirement, you must defeat two more.] Alrighty then, now that his has been handled, time to head back to the base. As I leave the area, I briefly notice that the rift surrounding the matriarch¡¯s peak is vanishing. Then I realize something and turn back around. Actually, I wonder if there¡¯s any goodies here for the taking? B1 | Chapter 61 - Authority and the Start of a Long Walk Alexia ¡°Ya know, Luna? The advantage of a Class S species over a lower Class species is finally starting to become obvious now that our levels are higher,¡± I mutter, to which the little quantum vampire bat just lets out a cute squeak, making me genuinely wonder if she truly understands what I¡¯m saying or just the intent of it. Either way though, I pat her on the head as I walk around the peak, looking for anything I can take with me. Because I still have that spatial ring even if I don¡¯t exactly have much use for it right now. Since I don¡¯t have anything I¡¯m needing to lug around. I continue looking around the peak until I eventually find a small crack in the blackened stone leading into an underground tunnel. Albeit a very narrow one that is going to be a tough squeeze. ¡®Luna, stay out here and keep an eye out for anything trying to get inside. If you see anything, warn me right away,¡¯ I tell Luna, to which she squeaks once and flaps her wings, leaving my shoulder. Then I begin squeezing into the narrow tunnel with more than a little discomfort. It takes a while and a brief pondering about what this could possibly lead to when the hawk was too big to fit in this before I finally end up finding a light shining through. And while I at first thing it¡¯s probably an exit, what I end up finding instead is just some glowing purple shard that has me frowning. The heck is this? I stare at the shard for several seconds before identifying the thing. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Authority Shard Description: This shard is a physical representation of Authority. A user may create an Authority Core that they can absorb to gain a level in Authority after they collect ten shards. Stats Bonus: N/A Requirements: N/A Item Tier: 5 -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- I blink at the identify for a single second before I quickly grab the thing and stuff it in my storage ring. Mine. I try to turn around and begin heading back, only to realize a fatal flaw in that plan. How exactly am I going to turn around? The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
After some embarrassing backwards crawling that has left me with a rather terrible memory, I remember that I can just teleport and have myself appear facing the other way. So I do that and immediately make my way all the way to the exit where I find Luna quickly landing on my shoulder. ¡®There wasn¡¯t anything?¡¯ I ask her, and she immediately shakes her head. ¡®Good.¡¯ I pat the adorable vampire bat on the head to her pleasure. After that I continue my search around the area. Now this is just a random guess, but I wonder if there¡¯s a shard like this in each of the level 100¡¯s areas on the islands? Because if that¡¯s the case, it will be a very nice way to get Levels of Authority. Prior to the Reset, the only way to get and upgrade a Noble rank was to accomplish one of the pseudo Legendary Feats or one of the Legendary Feats that granted them. Which, while hard for the pseudo Legendary Feats, was even harder for the regular ones. Because at least for the pseudo ones you can get the repeat of a feat someone else has gotten before since they aren¡¯t unique. But a Legendary Feat is unique and can only be obtained by a single person. So despite there being trillions of people, millions of planets, and even more outside of the Ancestral Galaxy, only around a tiny fraction of a percentage of them ever get a Noble rank. Because only a tiny, miniscule fraction of even a single percentage of people ever get a Legendary Feat. Generally only a few dozen on each planet ever get a Noble rank. Maybe not even that. But having a shard like this that can grant Authority¡­ that¡¯s absolutely going to be coveted by others. If Authority really have extra votes for the planetary, or I guess, Dimensional Block decisions, then this would be an absolute must for people looking for power over the Block. Although I don¡¯t really care much about authority over others. What I do care about is not having others with authority over me. So getting Authority will be very helpful. Meaning I should go shard hunting after the Tutorial ends. Even if I am already getting three Levels of Authority just from my position on the leaderboards. Anyways, after finishing up my search for treasure and not finding anything else, I begin to head back in the direction of the base. Which I know the exact direction of purely due to my Exploration General Skill. A very nice thing to have right now since it lets me keep track of the cardinal directions. As I walk, I open up the timer for the time left in the Tutorial. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Time Left Until the Tutorial¡¯s End 16 hours, 58 minutes, 3 seconds -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Hmm, okay. That should be enough time to get back to the base. With that in mind, I close out of the timer and open up the leaderboards instead. [#1 Alexia Knight ¨C 3,688 points] [#2 Lucas Nightshade ¨C 2024 points] [#3 Leif Eriksson ¨C 1859 points] [#4 Aurora Frost ¨C 1849 points] [#5 Isabella d''Aragon ¨C 1839 points] [#6 Alexander Frost ¨C 1729 points] [#7 Leonidas Silver ¨C 1714 points] [#8 Noah Kowalski ¨C 1698 points] [#9 Nathan Briar ¨C 1598 points] [#10 Damien Black ¨C 1495 points] Okay, it looks like I should be safe at the top of the leaderboards as long as nothing unexpected happens. Like maybe the Hound going around murdering a bunch of people for their points. Which, in hindsight, I can see happening. At least, based on all of the news about him that I¡¯ve heard. Who knows? The terrifying guy with the Title the Hound of the Apocalypse could very well have turned over a new leaf since the Reset. Unlikely, but possible. Still unlikely though. I purse my lips as I walk down the mountain. Okay, I¡¯m not betting money on that. But I will at least hope that he doesn¡¯t end up finding anyone to steal the points from. I glance at Luna to find her beginning to fall asleep on my shoulder before facing forwards again. Time to walk for who knows how long. Fun. B1 | Chapter 62 - Return to the Base Alexia By the time I get within sight of smoke I¡¯m assuming is the base, there¡¯s only four more hours left on the timer. So I slow down at that point, relaxing a little bit and walking at a more lethargic pace. Which is more than I can say I¡¯ve relaxed since this whole Reset thing began. But I¡¯d say things are going pretty well. I¡¯ve reached the level cap of Tier 1, cemented my place at the top of the leaderboards, saved Astrid, beat my dungeon before anyone else could beat theirs, and managed to get rid of the level capped monster of this island. A rather good progress. Maybe too good. Kinda makes me nervous that things could be going too well, even if I did fight tooth and nail for everything. Either way though, I put one of my hands in a pocket as I look towards the base from a ways away. But after narrowing my eyes for a second, I notice that it¡¯s not actually the base. In fact, it¡¯s a small clearing with a lake and a small hill with a building under construction some ways into the jungle. And everyone from the base seems to be working on it with some going back through the jungle in the direction of the base. Huh. A rather poorly built building, but a building, nonetheless. Then again, none of these people are carpenters. All of them are students, with about half being children of nobles and the other half children of more important people in the kingdom pre-Reset. But¡­ why are they building something so far from their base and in the middle of the jungle on a hill? They even selected such a secluded location for it... although I wouldn¡¯t mind living there. With the exception of how poor the construction job is. It is a nice clearing and lake after all. I continue walking towards the clearing until I just about reach it, at which point some of the people notice me. And of the six survivors from the two teams joined into one, four from my original team and two are from the princess¡¯s, all six are here at this building. But only two of them notice me, one being Astrid and the other the princess¡¯s fianc¨¦, who doesn¡¯t look happy about being here. Astrid puts down a rather roughly carved plank of wood before suddenly moving between shadows until she reaches me several seconds later, proving her teleportation radius to be rather lacking in comparison to mine. Meanwhile the fianc¨¦ guy just pauses to tell the others we¡¯re here. Then I feel a wave of identifies hitting me. First a single one from Astrid, then five more after the fianc¨¦ guy returns his attention to me after notifying the others of my arrival. If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. ¡°You did it,¡± Astrid says with a smile after stopping in front of me. And I quickly notice the others¡¯ shock from behind her. Likely due to the fact that I leveled up eleven times in the time they leveled up just once or twice each. ¡°Yep,¡± I answer with a smile of my own before glancing at the¡­ building¡­. and asking, ¡°So whatcha building?¡± Astrid opens her mouth to answer, only to pause, glance at the building, and look at me again while scratching the back of her neck. And none of the others answer because there is an entire lake between us. Albeit a small lake. So they probably can¡¯t hear what we¡¯re saying. After several seconds of silence, the others begin to walk over towards where we are, following which Astrid finally answers with a slightly awkward smile, ¡°A house. For you.¡± I blink at that. Then I stare at the building. Then at her again. And finally at the building. A few seconds pass in silence again and I focus on Astrid and tell her, ¡°Thank you.¡± I¡¯ll be getting it rebuilt whenever this base has competent craftsmen, of course. But it¡¯ll be nice to have a roof over my head to call my own. Astrid smiles at that before regaining her stoic composure again after the others get here, something she generally only drops when alone with me or when she¡¯s nervous. Which doesn¡¯t happen often. She must¡¯ve been nervous about my absence while I was hunting. That or it was just left over from when I was stuck in the dungeon. Alara is the first to speak the moment she gets within earshot of me, ¡°Once we get a real base built here and manage to find someone who can build something-¡± she pauses to cough seemingly on purpose ¡°-better than this, we¡¯ll have them build you a new one.¡± I nod my head at her in thanks before glancing at the others and finding half of them acting rather awkward. Aidan seems to be looking back and forth between all of us as if waiting for something to break the awkwardness. Meanwhile the princess is just fiddling with her thumbs with her fianc¨¦ standing right next to her practically almost touching her. That guy¡­ the only things I¡¯ve heard about him are rather¡­ bad. That the guy has an obsession towards the princess. A rather unhealthy one. At least I¡¯ve also heard that he knows how to control himself, so hopefully there won¡¯t be any problems. I also can¡¯t see him doing anything in front of me. Not when he seems to both dislike and fear me considering the very miniscule quaking of his hands that I can see from here. And Shelly¡­ she seems to still be upset about Rob¡¯s death. So in that case, I call out, ¡°Shelly,¡± making her head immediately shoot up to look at me as she stutters, ¡°Y-yes?¡± ¡°You should remember that the people killed by other people in this Tutorial are just in stasis somewhere right now,¡± I remind her, making her eyes widen in surprise. ¡°So he isn¡¯t dead.¡± And the princess seems surprised by it as well. Although no one else is. ¡°I-I forgot about that¡­¡± Shelly mutters before falling to her knees and beginning to cry with a smile on her face. Clearly happy beyond relief at the reminder. Meanwhile the princess just stands frozen, seemingly unsure of what to say or do. So I focus on the princess as I ask, ¡°With that in mind, is killing that crown prince still off the table? Astrid could use some points and he deserves a punishment for his actions.¡± The princess stands numbly in place, unmoving for several seconds. It isn¡¯t until Alara moves up and shakes her shoulder a little, to the apparent displeasure of her fianc¨¦, that she finally snaps out of it and stutters, ¡°Y-yes, he does.¡± Then she focuses on my twin and says, ¡°You¡­ can do it.¡± I turn towards Astrid with a smile and nod my head. And she nods back with a smile of her own. Good. The guy gets punished, and Astrid gets more points. B1 | Chapter 63 - Introductions to the New Dimension Alexia After dealing with that mess, I lie down up against a tree facing the lake as everyone goes about their own business, having put the construction on hold while the Tutorial comes to an end. And it doesn¡¯t take long before Astrid comes back from dealing with the tied up prince and joins me up against the tree. Several seconds pass as I watch the countdown tick down before she mutters, ¡°I wonder why their bodies still remain here after dying instead of vanishing or something?¡± I glance at her before looking at the lake again. ¡°I didn¡¯t sense any magical energy coming from their bodies, so they truly looked dead,¡± I comment, pointing out my observation. ¡°The only guess I can think of is that the System probably made a copy of their body with quantum energy right before their death and are keeping that in stasis instead.¡± A smirk comes to my face. ¡°Also wouldn¡¯t be surprised if they have no equipment after that since it would just be their body copied, but that¡¯s just an amusing theory. Nothing more.¡± Astrid snorts at that in amusement. It would be karma for the prince and his followers if they arrived completely barren of any sort of clothes, armor, or weapons at all. Although it would be awkward for any of the others. Like Rob. I lean my head up against the tree with a sigh while turning my gaze on the two suns in the sky. Something I¡¯m really not used to seeing. The suns also seem to be starting to go down, which makes sense. It should be about eight in the evening right now. Silence fills the area around us as Astrid leans her head onto my shoulder ¨C a habit she picked up while we were at that abusive orphanage. Something she does when we¡¯re alone. Because it would ruin her stoic image if she did it in front of others. That thought has me chuckling, but Astrid just ignores me and continues staring at the lake as birds chirp all over the jungle, with various other noises such as tiger growls and other wild animals and monster noises. Mostly monster noises though. There are a lot of monsters around this clearing, even if none of them are willing to come near me. Guess it¡¯s the quantum energy I¡¯m putting off that¡¯s intimidating them. Probably. Certainly makes keeping pests out of my clearing easy.
Time passes and soon I find myself waking up Astrid with just a single minute left on the countdown since she had dozed off over an hour ago. And as expected, she wakes up right away before looking around a second and then standing up after likely noticing the countdown. I do the same with a light stretch, briefly glancing towards the base that I can barely see from the hill we¡¯re on, through the trees in between this clearing and the base. Looks like they¡¯re all ready for whatever is about to happen as well. I face the lake again while watching the countdown drop until it finally reaches zero and a loud explosion of fireworks echoes out, making me look up to find purple explosions obviously made of quantum energy going off in the air above the island and just in the sky itself. But then I find myself teleporting. Only this time I don¡¯t end up in a white room. Instead I end up on a fancy platform floating above another, more basic platform located high in the middle of some sort of pitch black void with hints of deep violet visible on the edges of the place. And for some reason, I¡¯m sitting on a throne at the very top of the fancy platform. One surrounded by nine other fancy seats that aren¡¯t quite thrones. Then a System Notification appears in my vision. One where the System¡¯s robotic voice is echoing throughout the entire platform and the one beneath us.
The System Tutorial Has Come To An End Look up at the top ten reigning users on the leaderboards. Each and every one of these users has proved their worth both before the Reset and after it, surviving through thick and thin, earning a Legendary Feat for their name, and proving their right to their seat. If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. And now, they will be introduced to the new dimension at large. A new dimension completely separate of the old one. A new plane of existence.
I blink in surprise at that before quickly looking around at the gathered people in their seats. And I¡¯m not the only one as each of them ¨C most of whom I very easily recognize from TV alone ¨C look around as well. But for some reason, when my gaze meets the Hound¡¯s, I don¡¯t feel fear as I would¡¯ve expected. Neither do I sense any hostility coming from him. Instead I sense¡­ familiarity? Like he recognizes me somehow. I put that aside for the moment though when I decide to identify him and the two people seated closest to him. {Lucas Nightshade ¨C Class: Requiem of Light and Shadow ¨C Level 100} {Damien Black ¨C Species: Vampire ¨C Class: Ancestral Blood Monarch ¨C Level 95} {Leif Eriksson ¨C Class: Third Holy One ¨C Level 100} Yeah, the three really are just as intimidating as I expected, even with the Hound making such an odd expression. The others don¡¯t seem to care about his expression though as they¡¯re all busy staring wide-eyed at me after a wave of identifies run through me from them. Probably due to my species. Too bad it¡¯s plain impossible to hide your identify from others, but my being a quantum species was bound to get out and become public knowledge at some point. No one gets the time to say anything though as out of nowhere, the System suddenly plays out another notification. And at the same time, the seat to the left of the Hound holding the Lord of Vampires shoots into the air while shining with an eerie purple light absolutely brimming with quantum energy. And to my surprise, the notification announces each of the top ten, with each time it announces one of the top ten scorers on the leaderboards having the previous one goes back down to their little circle and the next going to take their place high above us. And each one is a name I recognize very well along with their Titles.
Introductions of the Ten will now Commence! The Tenth Ranked user, Damien Black, otherwise known as the Lord of Vampires, with 1510 points to his name. The Ninth Ranked user, Nathan Briar, otherwise known as the Wandering Summoner, with 1615 points to his name. The Eighth Ranked user, Noah Kowalski, otherwise known as the Devourer, with 1709 points to his name. The Seventh Ranked user, Leonidas Silver, otherwise known as the Pale One, with 1720 points to his name. The Sixth Ranked user, Alexander Frost, otherwise known as Ruler of the Abyss, with 1741 points to his name. The Fifth Ranked user, Isabella d¡¯Aragon, otherwise known as the Ancestral Dragon, with 1852 points to her name. The Fourth Ranked user, Aurora Frost, otherwise known as the Frozen Empress, with 1861 points to her name.
But what makes this more intense is the nine hundred and ninety people standing down on the platform beneath us just looking up. At first a few of them that probably had a grudge or something actually tried fighting with each other, but that ended rather quickly when they realized they couldn¡¯t hurt each other. After the System finishes announcing the Fourth Ranked user though, things change. The Third Ranked user does get moved up like the others, but instead of being announced in the same notification as them, he gets his own. And with a much smaller notification and bigger text on it.
The Third Ranked user, Leif Eriksson, otherwise known as the Holy One, with 1863 points to his name.
Then he goes back down, and the Hound is brought up next.
The Second Ranked user, Lucas Nightshade, otherwise known as the Hound of the Apocalypse, with 2141 points to his name.
And amidst the fear filled silence that follows from all of the people gathered beneath the platform, the Hound is brought back down to the ring. Then silence reigns over the darkness that fills wherever we are. B1 | Chapter 64 - The Reaper Alexia As the silence stretches on, I can practically feel all of the other nine members of the top ten turning their gazes to me despite not a single one of them saying even a word. And of the nine, the Lord of Vampires especially seems extra aggressive. Probably because he was the leader of the League of Ascendants that captured and imprisoned the System¡¯s Creator in an attempt to get an affinity for the quantum element. Then the ring beneath my raised dais suddenly starts lowering while my platform starts rising at the same time, leaving me to sit on a throne above everyone else as the next introduction is played through the void of darkness.
And the Reigning Champion of the Tutorial, the First Ranked user, Alexia Knight, otherwise known as The Reaper, with 3698 points to her name.
I blink at that Title. Is that the Title the System gave me for my ¡®The Reaping¡¯ Legendary Feat? Guess it¡¯s pretty accurate, considering my species. On that note, any possible chance I had of keeping my species from becoming known to the other Ascendants was just shot out the nonexistent window. Or rather, it went out that window the moment I was brought here. My platform begins to lower while the other one that the remaining nine are on begins to rise until they¡¯re connected again. Then another notification appears, distracting everyone from staring at me.
Make way for the New Reality. Burn all that used to be and start anew from the ashes. For in this New Reality, anyone can climb to these seats. For in this new Dimension, anyone can fall down from these seats. Complacency can mean death. Grow. Grow until you are strong enough to challenge the stars. If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. Until nothing stands in your way.
That¡¯s rather cryptic. And poetic. I wonder if it was the asshole who made the System say this or if it was the System itself? Either way, only a couple seconds pass after the notification before a bright purple light envelops everything and I find myself in a white room. Again. Just like at the start of the Reset. They should get better rooms for this sort of thing. As if reacting to my thoughts, the white room suddenly turns into a lounge with very comfortable furniture similar to what we had back before the Reset. And in that lounge, I find a certain System Creator sitting casually on a sofa with a smug smirk on his face. One that only makes me kinda wanna punch him more, if I¡¯m being honest. ¡°I love you too, child,¡± he says in a way that also makes me want to punch him. ¡°Enough of that. Ask me your questions. We don¡¯t have time this go around.¡± Oh. Right. ¡°Okay, to start off-¡± I begin only for him to cut me off, ¡°Ask in your head. It¡¯s faster that way.¡± I blink, surprised that he¡¯s actually trying to help me this time. But I do as he says. What is this ¡®Energy Manipulation¡¯ skill? And how do I get it? He raises his hand and snaps his fingers, making the energy around him suddenly begin to move as if controlled by something as he says, ¡°It¡¯s just what it says. You manipulate any sort of energy around you to your own will, with no dependency on anything as fickle as an affinity. But the only people who can do this are quantum beings. Since we are fundamentally only partially in the normal realm.¡± I open my mouth to speak, only for him to continue, ¡°To answer your second question, all you must do is reach inside yourself and find your soul. It won¡¯t be very hard if you know what to look for, so look for a purple flame somewhere inside of yourself with your Quantum Attunement skill. But do it after we leave unless you want to waste time.¡± My mouth closes and I nod my head. How many of the former Ascendants survived? ¡°Only sixty percent of the former Ascendants survived their dungeons,¡± he answers without missing a beat. ¡°Which leaves a total of nearly a hundred thousand former Ascendants in the new dimension. And almost ten in each Block out of the ten thousand Blocks.¡± And how many people died to the monsters? ¡°Out of the 58 trillion users in the System that were in the Reset at the beginning, nearly five trillion died to monsters, another twenty trillion died to other users, and a quarter of a trillion died due to other means, like falling off a floating island in the sky for example,¡± he answers, making me blink at that oddly specific answer at the end. Guess there weren¡¯t as many monster deaths since the monsters grow stronger the closer they get to the center of the island. At least, that¡¯s how it was for our Block. It was probably similar somehow in other Blocks though. Will the ones who didn¡¯t get killed by a monster but some other means outside of another user come back? ¡°No, they will not,¡± the System¡¯s Creator answers as I finally get up from the floor and take a seat across from him. Well that¡¯s unfortunate for them. I don¡¯t know anyone like that though. What¡¯s the entire difference between soul and health and mana? He blinks before grinning and answering, ¡°About time you asked that. While soul is technically a combination of the two, it¡¯s also much more than that. Soul is your reality. It¡¯s what makes up who you are. It grows at speeds much faster than health or mana and recovers faster as well. But at the same time, you will be left far more crippled than a regular user who ran out of health if you were to completely run out of soul. It would paralyze you until you recovered from that state instead of just leaving you as defenseless as a level 1. Which it would also do.¡± Oh shit. Good thing I never let my soul drop to zero. ¡°Soul is also what lets you manipulate energy, as it is energy itself, unlike mana, which is just a plaything using energy,¡± he says, making me tilt my head slightly at his mention of mana being a plaything. Probably because it¡¯s a much more dumbed down version of energy for people to use? ¡°You¡¯re right,¡± he says, reading my thoughts. ¡°Continue with your questions. You have five minutes left.¡± Right, okay, I can ask for some recommendations for the Reset¡­ but first¡­ I frown for a second before meeting his glowing purple and glitching eyes with my own as I ask out loud this time, ¡°What is the System? And how are dungeons different in this Reset than before it?¡± B1 | Chapter 65 - The System and Recommendations Alexia He looks at me for a second before answering, ¡°The System is a construct created entirely out of my own soul and quantum energy. It governs all that is within what my quantum domain has reached and controls the cycle of energy in existence.¡± He pauses as he leans his cheek against his fist, his elbow on his sofa¡¯s armrest. ¡°The cycle of energy is the management of all energy in existence, including the natural replenishment of energy, the creation of it, destruction of it, the transfer of it from one being to another once they die, and the control over it.¡± My jaw drops open at that. ¡°I know you¡¯re going to ask why I made the System later, so don¡¯t,¡± he says rather bluntly before continuing his explanation, ignoring my frown. ¡°It¡¯s entirely due to my System that the old universe wasn¡¯t overwhelmed by monsters, and it¡¯s entirely due to my System that users can grow stronger. This is because the System manages the energy in a monster and directs it into the user who it as a reward for killing the monster. But it doesn¡¯t manually direct any energy from other users into each other, which is why you still get just as much EXP from killing other users as you do from the monsters adjacent to them in Class.¡± I blink at that. That¡¯s why? I knew that Class Es give about the same EXP as a Class B species, and that Class Ds give the same as a Class A, and Class Cs the same as Class Ss, but that¡¯s why it¡¯s the case? But didn¡¯t you just say that the System is why we grow stronger? ¡°It is, but when a user has so much energy inside of them, the energy begins to compress on its own, and compressed natural energy like that is attracted to living beings,¡± he answers my question. ¡°And the one who killed the user who used to have that energy has a karmic bond to the energy, so it¡¯s naturally drawn to them.¡± Interesting. Wait, karma is real? ¡°There¡¯s no such thing as bad or good karma,¡± the System¡¯s Creator says without a hint of hesitation before moving on to my other question. ¡°The dungeons in this Reset are different because I didn¡¯t just cause the Reset to reset the universe. I also did it as a failsafe for the monsters, leaving them their own universe to themselves while pulling them to this new dimension to fill it with just enough for it to be safe and good for progress without having any monster outbreaks.¡± A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. Oh. Very interesting. ¡°We only have a few minutes left, so keep the remainder of your questions to ones that can help you survive,¡± he says, almost as if he were bored. Which has my frown growing larger, but I don¡¯t say anything about it. Okay. Are there any General skills you would recommend I get? ¡°Yes,¡± he says right away, ¡°you should get the Exploit Weakness General skill, the Fatigue Resistance General skill, Energy Manipulation, Anti-Magic Bullet, keep your Forerunner skill, Pain Resistance, and the skill you will be getting for finishing in the top spot on the Leaderboards, and purchase a skill called Anti-Magic Barrier from the Tutorial Store once our talk is over. It will cost you three thousand points.¡± My eyes widen at the list of skills, but I make a mental note of each one of them, only two of the new skills being ones I recognize. Those being Exploit Weakness and Fatigue Resistance. ¡°The last two slots are yours to choose,¡± the man says while straightening up in his seat again. ¡°After the Tutorial ends, Cataclysm Class monsters will start spawning, with one in each Block at the beginning of the Tutorial, breaking the rule that has already been mentioned to your sister by one of the memories. But since this one won¡¯t be spawning anywhere near you, don¡¯t worry about it for the time being. Instead quickly deal with reaching Tier 2 before wrapping up whatever business you have at your twin¡¯s base and moving on to find a Tier 2 dungeon.¡± Oh, wow. He¡¯s giving a lot of advice. ¡°If you don¡¯t want to listen to it, then don¡¯t,¡± he says, sounding very impatient and slightly annoyed at my thoughts. ¡°To get the Anti-Magic Bullet General skill, you must first have the Energy Manipulation skill. You will need to create a small orb of compressed energy that you can then shoot out at a spell circle made by a magic skill or mana manipulation. It will break the circle and cancel the spell completely.¡± That¡¯s¡­ kinda broken. ¡°Anti-Magic Barrier will give you a permanent twenty percent resistance to magical attacks, bringing your weakness as a quantum being down from fifty percent to thirty percent,¡± he explains, making me immediately understand the importance of the skill and why it¡¯s so expensive. Is that skill something that can only be purchased through this Tutorial store? ¡°Yes, it is,¡± he says with a nod before adding, ¡°you can technically get it through a loot box from an Ascendant level dungeon if you¡¯re lucky, but the likelihood is so low that it¡¯s practically impossible. Especially since it¡¯s only from hidden boss areas in an Ascendant level dungeon.¡± Yeah, those things are pretty much unbeatable. I think the only person I¡¯ve ever heard of defeating one was the Hound. And that was just one. ¡°One more question,¡± he says, his eyes narrowing. ¡°Hurry up.¡± Right. Then¡­ what is the most important thing I need to know that will help me right now and I don¡¯t already know? He blinks before finally smiling and says, ¡°Don¡¯t be narrow minded with Energy Manipulation, and don¡¯t overestimate yourself just because you¡¯re a quantum reaper. The Cataclysm spawning in your Block will be far too much for you to handle right now.¡± Then without any warning, the man dissipates into nothing but motes of purple light. B1 | Chibi Art First up are the full chibi images that will not be on my Discord server as stickers. Lexi Celebrate: Lexi Thumbs Up: Lexi Welcome: Ninja Lexi (because why not): Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. Pondering Lexi: Lexi Polearm: And the following are the sticker versions you can find on my Discord server: B1 | Chapter 66 - Authority and the System Tutorial Shop Alexia Before I can gather my bearings from the man¡¯s sudden departure, I find myself being teleported again into what looks like a small reception room with a reception desk and an androgynous being made of quantum energy manning it. Then a Notification appears in my vision while also being announce out loud.
The Top Ten Users on the Leaderboards will now be given their Levels of Authority! First Ranked User Alexia Knight is now assigned an Authority Level of 3. Second Ranked User Lucas Nightshade is now assigned an Authority Level of 2. Third Ranked User Leif Eriksson is now assigned an Authority Level of 2. Fourth Ranked User Aurora Frost is now assigned an Authority Level of 2. Fifth Ranked User Isabella d¡¯Aragon is now assigned an Authority Level of 2. Sixth Ranked User Alexander Frost is now assigned an Authority Level of 2. Seventh Ranked User Leonidas Silver is now assigned an Authority Level of 2. Eighth Ranked User Noah Kowalski is now assigned an Authority Level of 2. Ninth Ranked User Nathan Briar is now assigned an Authority Level of 2. Tenth Ranked User Damien Black is now assigned an Authority Level of 2. Unlike the Noble ranks from before the Reset, the first three Levels of Authority grant their holders the following perks: Level 1 Authority Holders get a single vote on the Dimensional Council of their Block and are granted the right to pass through the Dimensional Walls with three other users. Level 2 Authority Holders get three votes on the Dimensional Council of their Block and are granted the right to pass through the Dimensional Walls with ten other users. Level 3 Authority Holders get five votes on the Dimensional Council of their Block and are granted the right to pass through the Dimensional Walls with twenty-five other users. They also are granted the ability to temporarily ban one user from passing through a Dimensional Wall every month for one week. This ability may only be used on those with a lower Level of Authority than the user, and it targets Authority Holders and non-Authority Holders alike. This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
Nice. That third ability that I¡¯ll be given could come in handy. It would let me run away from someone through a Dimensional Wall if I needed to without having to worry about them passing through to chase after me. Out of nowhere, a purple light begins to shine from beneath my skin, following which a System Message plays on. {Congratulations! Your System Authority has reached Level 3!} Cool. Another System Notification plays out after that message.
The System Tutorial Shop is Now Open! The System Tutorial Shop contains both items and skills that may be purchased by the users. Both of which are of low and high value, with some being nearly impossible to get outside of this store. However, the rarer and harder to find the skill or item, the more it will cost you in terms of points to purchase them. Class skills may not be purchased in the store. Species changes may be purchased in the store. Class changes may be purchased in the store. Affinities may be purchased in the store for anyone who is not a Class S species. Tier 1 through 3 items may be purchased in the store along with Unique items. Regular and Unique skills may be purchased in the store. Users will have three hours to peruse the System Tutorial Shop before it closes. To open the System Tutorial Shop, simply speak with the System Assistant located across the receptionist desk in the room you find yourself in.
A faint grin slips its way onto my face at the sight of Species changes being available in the Tutorial Shop. Something that Astrid wanted. And we have three hours to shop? Not bad. After the notification vanishes, I walk up to the receptionist desk before asking, ¡°The shop?¡± And before I even finish speaking, a menu appears in front of me. One that currently has the purchase options listed in order of least expensive to most expensive, with there being tens of thousands of purchase options. Maybe even hundreds of thousands, in fact. It also looks like I can change the way it¡¯s organized to make it show only certain options, like only items, or only items of a certain Tier. I purse my lips at the sight of the cheapest options on the list. Things that only cost a single point apiece. Things like daily necessities and food. Lots, and lots, of daily necessities and food. To the point of things like a roll of toilet paper that will last for a year giving out unlimited amounts of toilet paper, or a thermos of water that never runs out for a month after it¡¯s first opened. Overall, a lot of stuff that I don¡¯t actually need. Because, since I don¡¯t drink water or eat food, I don¡¯t actually have to go to the bathroom anymore. A very nice plus from being a quantum being. I¡¯ve also learned over the past month that some other regular things that humans have to put up with don¡¯t happen anymore to me either, which I¡¯m very thankful for. So I don¡¯t really have many daily necessities anymore. Not as a quantum reaper. Moving on down the list, the things that cost between two to five points are just non-System items in general. Things like basic tools, clothing of all sorts, and even some very basic seeds for common crops that could be found prior to the Reset. Then there¡¯s Tier 1 items that cost between ten and one hundred points, Tier 2 items that cost between one hundred and a two hundred and fifty points, and Tier 3 items that cost between two hundred and fifty and five hundred points. As for skills¡­ there aren¡¯t many. Most General skills seem to range from one hundred to five hundred points apiece depending on the skill. And just like I expected, each skill starts out at Tier 1. But the few Unique skills that are on the list all cost three thousand points each, which I am the only person in the Tutorial that has the amount to afford. Species changes from a Class B species to a Class A species cost between five hundred and seven hundred and fifty points, while new affinities and class changes vary depending on the Class rarity and the affinity¡¯s Class and which one it is. And quantum affinity is, of course, not offered as an option. Guess it¡¯s time to shop. B1 | Chapter 67 - Shopping Alexia Okay, since I have three thousand six hundred and ninety-eight points to spend, and I need to spend three thousand of them on the Anti-Magic Barrier skill¡­ I purse my lips for a second before eventually just searching through the store for a bit. But after not finding anything better than the Anti-Magic Barrier skill, I go ahead and purchase the thing without any hesitation. [*New General Skill* ¨C Anti-Magic Barrier: Passively creates an anti-magic barrier directly over the user¡¯s body that will absorb twenty percent of the magical damage the user takes until the barrier is fully saturated. The barrier will then take ten minutes before it is replaced with a brand new barrier. Skill is automatically slotted due to free open slots.] Right after getting the skill, I notice a very thin layer of energy covering my body thanks to Quantum Attunement. And the barrier is made out of pure energy, not any sort of elemental energy like I¡¯m used to seeing. Very strange. If I had to guess, that¡¯s probably the same type of energy I will need to condense into bullets to get that Anti-Magic Bullet skill as well. I study the barrier for several seconds, briefly pondering over how much magical damage it can take before it becomes oversaturated, then I focus on the store again. Okay, I have six hundred and ninety-eight points left to spend. So what should I spend it all on¡­ I look around for a moment for somewhere to sit as I peruse the store, only to find a chair suddenly appearing right behind me. Convenient. After sitting down on the chair, I refocus my attention on the store screen that has moved in front of me, over my legs. Then I begin browsing.
It takes me about an hour of browsing before I make my final decision for my purchase. First up, a Tier 3 item called a Portable Home. It costs about three hundred points and takes the form of a ring that I can use to summon either the default house or a house I have stored in the ring. The ring also automatically transforms the land to be able to contain it before reverting the land back after the house is recalled. Something I¡¯m gonna need if I¡¯m planning on leaving our island. Actually, something I need for our island as well, considering the¡­ house¡­ I have in the clearing. No offense to their work. Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon. The default house in this ring is absolutely going to still be better though. It¡¯s a Tier 3 item after all. And in addition to the house, I also get a Tier 3 item called an Energizer Ring. Something that increases the regeneration rate of the holder. Mostly because it has a note mentioning that it works for users with soul instead of health and mana as well. With that ring costing three hundred and seventy points, I¡¯m left with a total of twenty-eight points remaining. All of which I go ahead and spend on random tools I might need at some point or clothes. Because I need more than just a single set of armor to wear around everywhere. And it¡¯s not likely that I¡¯ll be able to get more normal clothes for a while. I also buy just a little bit of daily necessities just in case Astrid forgets or runs out. Then I lean back in my chair and close out of the Shop window, having already put everything in my storage ring. Except the two rings I bought which I put on my fingers instead. There weren¡¯t any other skills in the store that really interested me beyond a couple other Unique ones, which I couldn¡¯t get thanks to buying the Anti-Magic Barrier skill. None of the skills there were the ones suggested to me by the System¡¯s Creator either, so items were more important to buy here. I would¡¯ve bought a better weapon, but there wasn¡¯t one offered. At least, there wasn¡¯t an elemental weapon that let me use my quantum element offered. And the same with armor. A rather unfortunate side effect of me being the only quantum element user in the System most likely. Because there aren¡¯t any other quantum beings registered as users in the System. At least, from what was available to the public before the Reset. Quantum beings have no interest in the System from what I¡¯ve heard. And while I didn¡¯t know why that was before, I do now that I know about our ability to directly manipulate energy. Meaning a quantum being should be able to do what the System does without it. Although part of it is also just because the quantum beings are known to dislike the normal realm and rarely ever leave the quantum realm. Makes me wonder if I¡¯ll ever meet any quantum beings myself. I frown at the thought of possibly meeting the System Creator¡¯s parents. Because that would be rather awkward. Not like I can explain away to a distraught parent that his or her son took control of my body and killed himself with it. I know that logically I hold no blame, but a parent isn¡¯t likely to be logical from what I¡¯ve heard. Although I don¡¯t remember the last time I had a parent worrying about me, with the exception of Gramps. But he is more like a grandfather than a parent. Last time I saw Mom was when Astrid and I were just about four or so years old. Sixteen years ago. And that was when she left to go on a job as an adventurer and never came back. I summon my polearm before placing the bottom of it on the ground and just using it to keep my hands busy as I think, just moving it around or examining the markings on the staff part of it. My mind returns to the System¡¯s Creator mentioning that my parents were both Ascendants. But if that was truly the case, then did my mother really die on a job? One meant originally for a Tier 5? And something I didn¡¯t question at the time was that he said ¡®are¡¯ both Ascendants. He didn¡¯t say were, or that they were Ascendants when they were alive. He said are. Meaning they are likely still alive somewhere. B1 | Chapter 68 - Pondering Alexia I end up pondering over the subject of my missing parents for at least half an hour before glancing at a timer as it appears in the corner of my vision. One stating that there is about an hour and a half left before the Shop closes. Meaning I have another hour and a half to blow. So I open the Shop again and begin searching for species changes just to see what Astrid might choose. Because I think she said she had about seven hundred points after killing the crown prince. As I¡¯m searching, I quickly find that all of the species change options in the Shop have affinity requirements to them. Or at least, most of them do. With that in mind, I search up the ones with shadow affinity requirements, to which I find about three. But one of them isn¡¯t a humanoid species, and I know she isn¡¯t going to pick a nonhumanoid species. So I immediately write that one out, leaving me with two species she might choose. Then I realize that one of them is out of her price range, leaving the last of the three species as her only option. A Shadowborne. That is definitely a species she would enjoy the benefits of. The description says its racial skill lets them dive into shadows and move through them freely with very little mana expenditure. Although they seem to be vulnerable to light magic when they¡¯re in a shadow, and regular magic as well, just not to the degree of light magic. It doesn¡¯t say the exact amount they¡¯re vulnerable to them though. That said¡­ I¡¯m not sure she can afford this one either. I think she can, but the species change costs exactly seven hundred points. Whether or not she can afford it will depend entirely on how exact she was when she said she had about seven hundred points. Either way, it¡¯s a good thing I had her kill the crown prince before we came here. Otherwise there wouldn¡¯t have been any chance of her affording it. Too bad she won¡¯t be able to buy anything else if she gets the species change. I wouldn¡¯t mind if she got the species change since it would make her stronger, but at the same time, it¡¯s abandoning her humanity to do it. While I don¡¯t have anything tying me to humanity, I don¡¯t know if she¡¯s the same. She might very well be, but she could just as well be following me instead. Something she often does when I leave her behind in something. A rather bad habit she¡¯s picked up over the years. She has gotten better at it though, and I think the habit has been starting to go away. But old habits die hard, so I¡¯ll just have to see how she is afterwards. Astrid didn¡¯t seem like she was just following me from what I could tell, but I¡¯m not perfect. This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it I do wonder what Aidan is doing right now though. We haven¡¯t really spoken much since I got out of the dungeon, so I¡¯m curious as to how many points he has. The three of us used to be pretty much inseparable in elementary school, even if we split up during junior high with him going to hang out with a bunch of his guy friends at an arcade a lot of the time instead. And Astrid and I aren¡¯t all that partial to arcades. I like video games myself, but not really arcade games much. And Astrid doesn¡¯t care much for either. Astrid generally just reads in my room whenever I¡¯m playing games. And the other members of our groups¡­ yeah I don¡¯t really care about them. As long as they can hold their own and don¡¯t drag Astrid down then they¡¯re fine. I do wonder what they¡¯re gonna do with the people I killed after they¡¯re brought back to the Block again, but that¡¯s also assuming they¡¯re brought back to the same spot they were killed in. And I¡¯m pretty sure there has to be some sort of protection on them for a little bit after they come back. Otherwise someone who was killed by a user could just be killed again after the stasis ends and they¡¯d pretty much be defenseless. Just wouldn¡¯t be a balanced System that way and would kinda make the whole stasis thing pointless. And that¡¯s not how the System works. Then there¡¯s the other nine of the top ten people on the leaderboards¡­ will any of them try to traverse the Blocks to find me? From what I understand, there should only be a few people with Legendary Feats in each Block, so the chances that I¡¯ll run into one of them anytime soon is rather low. But my luck tends to be all over the place, so I¡¯m not sure what¡¯ll happen. I continue to stare up at the ceiling while fiddling with my polearm for the rest of the time in the Shop until the countdown finally strikes zero and nothing happens, leaving me confused until I remember that I was sent here earlier than others due to me having a clone. So I probably have another fifty minutes. So I go back to fiddling with my polearm until eventually another notification appears.
The System Tutorial Shop is Now Closed! This marks the end of the System Tutorial! From here on out, all of the level 100 monsters in each Block outside of dungeons will be set free. Furthermore, Dimensional Walls will now allow passage for the appropriate users, a Cataclysm Class monster will spawn in each Block, and the Blocks themselves will exit stasis and resume movement. Welcome to the System.
Wait a second, what does it mean by the Blocks will be exiting stasis? My question is quickly answered as I am sent back to Block #108, where I quickly feel a slight shift in the ground beneath me. And after just a glance at the sky where I find the clouds looking as if they were moving where they were just still moments ago, along with the loud cracking and shattering sound coming from the edge of the island where the bridge near us is, I come to a realization. The island is moving. B1 | Chapter 69 - Back to the Island Alexia It only takes me a moment to realize someone is next to me, but before I can turn to look at them, another System Notification appears in my vision, surprising me since I had thought they were done by now.
The Dimensional Councils Will Form in One Month In one month¡¯s time, those users with authority will be pulled into the System¡¯s Grand Hall where the Dimensional Councils of each block will be formed. Each Dimensional Council will be formed with a single Dimensional Leader and a single Dimensional Champion. The Dimensional Leader will be chosen by a majority vote consisting of the Authority holders of the Dimensional Block. The Dimensional Champion will be assigned based on the highest level individual within the Dimensional Block. The Dimensional Council will make any and all decisions regarding the Dimensional Block as a whole. Some of these decisions can be but are not limited to the closing of the Dimensional Walls from outsiders, voting on events held within the Dimensional Block, and declaring war on other Dimensional Blocks.
Oh. Right. The Dimensional Council. I almost forgot about that thing. ¡°Lexi?¡± I hear Astrid¡¯s voice, making me turn to find Astrid standing behind me with a new appearance to her. Although not too new. {Astrid Knight ¨C Species: Shadowborne ¨C Class: Shadow Blade ¨C Level 42} This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. ¡°So you chose to buy it after all?¡± I ask rhetorically with a smile before walking up and grabbing her hand while looking into her now almost pitch black irises. ¡°I¡¯m glad you could afford it.¡± She nods her head with a smile as she says, ¡°I didn¡¯t have much to spend on anything else, but I could afford it.¡± ¡°That¡¯s good,¡± I say before looking up at the sky again. ¡°Looks like the islands are moving now.¡± ¡°Yeah,¡± Astrid says, also looking up at the sky. After watching the clouds slowly get closer to us as I¡¯m pretty sure the island floats upwards for a while, I turn around and glance back at the base at the sound of shouting. Then I share a quick glance with Astrid before we both break into a sprint running over to the base. And while I run I look over my sister to see if there are any other changes to her appearance. But the only change is that her eyes are a lot darker, to the point of her irises almost matching her pupils in color. And maybe her hair got a bit shinier, but it was already black, so it¡¯s hard to tell. Once we make it to the base, I find myself frowning at the sight that greets us. The sight of the third princess shouting at her naked brother while a bunch of other naked people have weapons pointed at them, and another group of naked people are being hidden behind others who are actually wearing clothes. That last group being those from the princess¡¯s team, along with Rob. Poor Rob. After seeing that they have it under control and making several of them shiver with fear just at the sight of me, I ignore the lot and head back to my clearing, not fazed in the slightest by their state of clothing. Or lack thereof. Astrid quickly catches up to me as she asks, ¡°Not going to do anything about them?¡± I shake my head and answer, ¡°No, not my problem to deal with. I got my revenge for them attacking and hurting you, so I¡¯m good. Now it¡¯s the princess and Alara¡¯s problem to deal with.¡± If she wants to kill them again, she can do it. Not like they can defend themselves without any weapons or even clothing. And if she doesn¡¯t want to kill them, not my problem. Unless they try to attack me or Astrid, then I¡¯ll just kill them for good this time. But the terrified looks in their eyes when they saw me don¡¯t paint them as people who would be stupid enough to attack me again. Not even Rodrick. Luna suddenly begins to stir a little on my shoulder, the little bat having been asleep for a while now. Throughout that entire process, actually. Not sure how she managed to sleep through that, but what the heck. To my surprise, she suddenly begins flapping her wings and flies up into the air before squeaking once at me. Then she flies off into the jungle, leaving me staring after her. Huh. I think¡­ she just told me she¡¯s going hunting? But¡­ isn¡¯t she a quantum being? Does she really need to¡­ oh, right. Drains energy from other creatures for nutrients. Almost forgot. ¡°Is she¡­¡± Astrid mutters while glancing at me, but I just shake my head and answer, ¡°She¡¯s going to eat.¡± Astrid hums in response as I move over to the spot where the house¡¯s construction had started. Then I purse my lips for a second and turn to walk to a spot next to where the house¡¯s construction is. ¡°Something I bought in the Tutorial Shop,¡± I mention while raising my hand and pointing at the ground, following which my ring begins to glow with a purple light, illuminating the area so brightly I have to shut my eyes. And when I open them again, I find a nice little house just sitting on the hill next to the other building. The new house is just two stories in height and isn¡¯t anything fancy. It seems to be made up of a sleek silver metal and is trapezoidal in shape, but it doesn¡¯t have any sort of outdoor decorations. Just some windows, a nice front porch, a balcony going over the front door connected to the second floor, and windows scattered throughout the walls. I turn to look at Astrid with my hands on my hips as I smile and tell her, ¡°Welcome to my temporary mobile home!¡± My twin just stares at the large home for several seconds before looking at me, then at the home again, then finally at me. Finally she says, ¡°Glad to be here. But we¡¯re still building you a better home when we can.¡± B1 | Chapter 70 - Shocked and Soul Somewhere in Dimensional Block #1 ¨C The Endless Oceans Lucas Nightshade sits still as he gazes out over the ocean waters, for unable to get the face of the Reaper out of his mind. Why¡­ why does she look just like her? No matter how many times he envisions her face, he can¡¯t make logical sense of it. The girl looks just like how his wife looked when she was younger, except without the purple hair. But the girl isn¡¯t a human. He saw that on her identify. She¡¯s a quantum being. And a quantum being cannot be born from a mortal being. So then why is this girl here in this new dimension? Why is she a System user? And why is her title The Reaper? Scenario after scenario runs through his mind, but no matter what, Lucas can¡¯t figure out why a quantum being would be acting as a user. The only explanation that I can think of is that whatever the girl did to get her Title also made her into a quantum being, but that shouldn¡¯t be possible. Species change is very possible in the System, but not to a quantum being species. That¡¯s just not possible without the help of¡­ Lucas¡¯s eyes widen in realization. She killed the System¡¯s Creator. That¡¯s why she has an unknown Legendary Feat. The System¡¯s Creator was in the void, which is cut off from the System. And I¡¯m sure he could¡¯ve managed to make her into a quantum being with the System¡¯s help and his death, but the real question is why. Why would he basically commit suicide just to make the girl into a quantum being? The Hound continues staring blankly at the ocean for so long that he completely loses track of time. Even when his ¡®partner¡¯ ¨C the Empress of Roses ¨C returns from where she was hunting on her own and tries to stir him from his thoughts, all he does is continue staring at the ocean. So the Empress just walks over and lies down on the sand, staring up at the sun in silence. Reaper¡­ that Title¡­ what is it supposed to mean? Does the System¡¯s Creator want the girl to be his personal reaper? To clean up the System¡¯s users? But why? No matter how many times Lucas thinks it over, none of it makes sense. But there are two things Lucas knows for sure. One being that the Reaper is powerful, even if they appear to be young kid who has more than enough skill to survive on her own. If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. And the other being that the Reaper looks almost identical to his wife. She has the first name that his wife had wanted to give a daughter if they had one. And she has the last name of his best friend. Lucas continues looping through these three facts over and over in his mind until he finally blinks out of his stupor and stands up. There won¡¯t be any way that I could confirm anything if I just stay here frozen. I should be able to confirm things if I see her. Whether she is Crystal¡¯s daughter or not, and whether she has any ties to Lysander. The Hound of the Apocalypse pats his sword¡¯s pommel before glancing at the vampire lazily lying down on the sand and saying, ¡°Get up. We¡¯re leaving.¡± Then he begins walking deeper into the island as the vampire jumps to her feet and casually walks behind him with her hands held behind her head. I have to see that girl again. Lucas frowns, his grip tightening on his sword¡¯s pommel. I have to confirm.
Alexia Astrid and I end up spending nearly an hour just talking as we explore my new house. Mostly about our different experiences during the events over the last few hours. Apparently anyone who wasn¡¯t in the top one thousand users on the leaderboards only saw a livestream shown on a screen floating in front of them of the events that happened in that place where I met the other top users on the leaderboards. Which means that everyone in existence saw me and knows that I¡¯m the champion from the Tutorial. I hope that doesn¡¯t get awkward in future interactions with new people, but I¡¯m not a particularly social person anyways. Not to mention that my primary goal right now is to get Energy Manipulation and reach Tier 2 before searching for a Tier 2 dungeon. And very little of that needs me to work with other people. It also turned out that Astrid just barely had enough points to buy the species change. To the point of only having one more point than she needed, since she had 701 points and the change cost her 700. A bit of a close call. After we finish touring the house, my explanation of events having already been told rather quickly, I head straight for the bedroom where I sit cross-legged on the bed with my eyes closed. Meanwhile Astrid does whatever Astrid is doing. I didn¡¯t ask to see what she was going to do. I only know she left the house somehow. Probably because I¡¯m wearing the ring linked to this house. Okay. Time to focus on Quantum Attunement. I take a deep breath before directing my Quantum Attunement skill¡¯s senses inwards towards my chest. And to my surprise, I immediately find what the System Creator mentioned. A purple flame just floating inside of my chest in the quantum realm. Not in the mortal realm. My soul. Now then. How exactly do I manipulate it? He didn¡¯t really¡­ My thoughts trail off when I feel my hand being drawn to my chest not long after seeing my soul itself. And instead of stopping at my armor, my hand somehow turns purple and glitchy as it passes through my armor and through my chest and reaches for the purple flame. Despite my eyes being closed, I can¡¯t help but raise both of my eyebrows in surprise. But I just continue letting my hand move until it reaches out and grabs a tiny sliver of my soul. A sliver that, after checking my status, is actually taken out in the form of one point of soul being lost. One point that¡¯s lost and then recovered almost immediately afterwards thanks to my own regeneration. The sliver of soul is still in my hand though as I pull my hand out of my chest before opening my eyes. But after opening them, I don¡¯t find anything in my hand. Oh. The sliver of soul is in the quantum realm. Not the mortal realm. B1 | Story Art Here is Astrid Knight after her species change: And here''s Alexia on the island: Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings. And Alexia sitting on that very same throne in the System Hall, although while using her magic and in a different scene later on in the story: B1 | Chapter 71 - New Skills Alexia Interesting¡­ I play around with the sliver of my soul before trying to use it to interact with the energy I can see floating around me with Quantum Attunement. And what I end up finding is that while it can interact with the energy around me, it can¡¯t interact very well with it. Almost like it turns sluggish until stopping at the center of each small little particle of energy. Maybe¡­ do I need more soul? With that thought in mind, I reach into myself again to grab another couple slivers of my soul before merging them with the first and finding the sliver to grow larger. Then I try once more to interact with the energy. But almost the same thing happens as last time, just with a bit more resistance to it. Like it was more tangible this time. Looks like more soul is the answer. I continue pulling out slivers of soul and merging them with the soul I have until I have a large ball floating above the palm of my hand spanning a couple inches in diameter. Meanwhile the soul I took from myself slowly regenerates itself over a period of about a minute or so. Not sure why it took the form of an orb, and I don¡¯t know how to manipulate it mentally if that¡¯s even possible¡­ A random thought comes to me, making me shrug before I reach out and grab the orb with a lot of force using my right hand. And the orb of soul immediately pops, sending the soul out all around my hand to partially cover my hand. I open my palm again and turn it to me, finding my entire hand except some small parts of the very back of my hand covered in soul. So I reach out to the energy around me and quickly find myself able to directly touch it. Nice. Several seconds pass by as I grab a bunch of energy, but no matter what I do with it, nothing happens. Which leaves me just looking like I¡¯m grasping at air to anyone who might walk in right now. I have absolutely no idea what to do with any of- [*New General Skill* ¨C Energy Manipulation: Allows the user to directly manipulate energy, both elemental and otherwise. Skill is automatically slotted due to free open slots.] You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author. [*New General Skill* ¨C Tutorial Champion: Given to the Champion of the Tutorial who ranked first on the leaderboard after they get their first skill post-Tutorial. Increases the effect of the user¡¯s stats by 3%.] I blink in surprise before grinning at the sight of both skills. Another Forerunner skill, just with a different name. And Energy Manipulation. What I was trying to get in the first place. Just like Mana Manipulation though, it doesn¡¯t come with any sort of instructions aside from what it does. I also wouldn¡¯t be surprised if it doesn¡¯t mention any of the benefits the skill gets at higher levels. Which mostly amount to some nice perks along with naturally improving my efficiency of manipulating energy. Nothing I do to the energy seems to work, not even things I did with mana. And I can¡¯t form spell circles without mana, so that doesn¡¯t work either. Even when I tried to use energy to form them, nothing happened. I guess mana really is a cheat code for using energy. Training wheels that guide you and limit you at the same time. The thought that I won¡¯t be able to use energy until I figure this out is rather annoying. After a few more seconds of playing with the energy, I let out a sight and open my eyes before getting off of the bed and heading for the door of the bedroom. I need to find a Safe Zone to change out my General skills, because Energy Manipulation took up my last slot. So now I need to replace one of them. But which skills to replace¡­ Poison Resistance isn¡¯t a very important skill to me thanks to Quantum Adaptation basically giving me the same thing. In fact, I wouldn¡¯t be surprised if Quantum Adaptation has already adapted me a bit to poison just from my constant run-ins with it. And Survivor only benefits me as a quantum being in one way out of the perks it has. The whole not taking as much damage from naturally occurring stuff, not including attacks from others. Then there¡¯s Stealth, which I can¡¯t see myself using all that much with my rather flashy and loud methods of attack. I continue pondering over my skills as I walk towards the entrance of my new portable home before stepping outside and beginning to make my way towards the base. Exploration will be helpful in this new dimension, so I can¡¯t get rid of that one. Alright, so if I remember correctly, the skills he suggested I use for my lineup are Exploit Weakness, Pain Resistance, Fatigue Resistance, Energy Manipulation, Anti-Magic Bullet, Anti-Magic Barrier, Forerunner, and Tutorial Champion. Which leaves me with two skills to choose from outside of those, one of which will obviously be my weapon¡¯s mastery skill, Polearm Mastery. Of the skills I currently have that aren¡¯t amongst those include Poison Resistance, Exploration, Dungeon Map, Survivor, and Stealth. I think¡­ that I can swap Dungeon Map in and out whenever I plan to enter a dungeon. So despite that being a skill from a Legendary Feat, I¡¯ll go ahead and trade that with Tutorial Champion. Because the skill doesn¡¯t do anything while I¡¯m not in a dungeon. And I won¡¯t be entering another dungeon until after I reach Tier 2, and after I find a Tier 2 dungeon. But for the times I do enter a dungeon¡­ I¡¯ll get rid of Stealth. I smile, satisfied with my decision. Only to end up blinking in surprise when I reach the base to find the others disposing of a bunch of bodies belonging to William¡¯s groups, with the crown prince not being one of them and instead lying unconscious on the ground against a wall. ¡°What happened here?¡± I ask, tilting my head in confusion. B1 | Chapter 72 - Round Two and Adaptation Training Alexia Astrid quickly appears out of the shadows at the same time as Alara walks up to me and answers, ¡°The Crown Prince tried reclaiming his gear along with all of his allies but was told that he couldn¡¯t. And while he accepted that and tried to leave, his allies didn¡¯t.¡± Oh. That would explain why he¡¯s still alive and the others aren¡¯t. ¡°The guy¡¯s allies tried attacking us to get their equipment using their skills, and I¡¯m sure you can see where that led,¡± Astrid finishes, making me nod my head. Yeah. They were soundly defeated and killed so that they won¡¯t become a problem in the future. The prince was spared though since he listened and didn¡¯t attack. Wouldn¡¯t be surprised if some bias was also at hand there with the princess, but that¡¯s once again not my problem. I look around the base a bit again before shrugging and focusing on Astrid as I begin to explain what I¡¯ve learned so far about energy. And at the same time, Alara takes her leave to go back to carrying corpses to the edge of the island. For the second time today. After I finish explaining things to Astrid, she glances at the last person delivering a corpse, seeing them drop it straight off the edge of the island before the people return to what they were doing before. Except the new people from the princess¡¯s group and Rob, who start gathering around Alara as she begins explaining everything that has happened since the battle. ¡°You going to hunt?¡± I ask Astrid while glancing at her. And she quickly nods her head without saying anything. ¡°Make sure you don¡¯t do anything reckless.¡± She nods again. And she is reverting back to her stoic self amongst others again. ¡°You don¡¯t need to catch up with me, ya know?¡± I tell her, knowing exactly what she¡¯s thinking right now. She just flinches slightly and says, ¡°I will. Don¡¯t worry about that. I¡¯ll catch up with you. Or at least close the distance a bit.¡± Well, I doubt that¡¯ll happen, but it could be possible. After all, I¡¯m at the level cap of Tier 1 right now. So she will be closing the distance a bit. At least, before she¡¯s going to have to clear the requirements to reach Tier 2 herself. Then I¡¯ll be widening the gap even more, if it doesn¡¯t already start widening after I reach Tier 2. Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road. ¡°Don¡¯t push yourself too hard,¡± I warn her, but she just nods her head in response, making me sigh. Then I suddenly smile and ask, ¡°By the way, would you mind helping me out a bit with a skill?¡± She turns to look at me with her eyes narrowed. ¡°It won¡¯t be dangerous for you, and it should help you train your skills too,¡± I tell her while raising my hands up in a placating gesture. One that clearly doesn¡¯t work as she asks, ¡°What is it?¡± with more than a little caution in her tone. I glance at the others who are all busy working before looking at her and answering, ¡°Well, could you attack me with your shadow magic so I can get my Quantum Adaptation skill adapted to shadow magic a bit?¡± Her eyes narrow further. ¡°And could you do it for at least an hour or two?¡± At this point she¡¯s glaring at me. I scratch the back of my neck as she glares. But to my surprise, she eventually just lets out a sigh and says, ¡°Fine.¡± ¡°Thank you!¡± I exclaim while moving up and giving her a short hug, then moving back again and asking, ¡°Is now a good time?¡± She nods, so we both begin heading back to my clearing where she summons her shadow dagger. ¡°Should be rather easy to train it with that thing,¡± I tell her, indicating the dagger with my hand. And she responds by moving quickly to cut my arm with it. While I could¡¯ve easily dodged it thanks to our large gap in strength, I don¡¯t, simply letting it hit me instead. Since that¡¯s what we¡¯re here for, even if she did that to get out her irritation. Likely knowing it¡¯s not gonna do all that much to me with her only being around level 40. And it really doesn¡¯t, as when I raise my arm to look, all I find is a very small cut coated in shadows that seem to be trying to eat my arm. Not very thick shadows, and what shadows there are don¡¯t last for too long either. Not before the wound begins to close itself with my soul. So I raise my head and tell her, ¡°Again please.¡± She grimaces at how little damage she did, seemingly not expecting it to do that little, before she rushes in again. Then the cycle repeats for a while with her repeatedly attacking me and me just standing there letting her train my shadow magic adaptation. And at some point about an hour or two later, I find myself getting the Shadow Resistance skill. One I¡¯m planning on ignoring even after I find a Safe Zone. Eventually her attacks do so little damage that it¡¯s not really training it much. To the point of no change at all even after several more attacks on my skills list in the skill¡¯s progress to the next level. So we end it there with her sweating from repeatedly attacking me and me sitting here unbothered. ¡°By the way, do you know of any Safe Zones on this island?¡± I ask after a short period of silence. Astrid looks up at me for a second before straightening up again and answering, ¡°Yes, I do. I¡¯ll take you tomorrow.¡± I nod my head. ¡°Much appreciated.¡± Now then. I have poison adaptation and shadow adaptation¡­ I turn to look at the base again. Let¡¯s see what other adaptations I can squeeze out of the other members of this group. Fire at the very least, I know that. And I think ice too? Should be helpful. B1 | Intermission 2 The Jungle Right after Astrid finishes training her twin¡¯s adaptation for shadow magic, she rushes straight into the jungle, heading deeper in than she¡¯s ever been before to fight monsters just a little bit above her level on her own. But no matter how many she kills, the gap in levels between her and Lexi continues to ravage her mind. Ever since she was little, the things that she remembers the most is always the sight of Lexi protecting her. Of her twin sacrificing for her. So whenever she gets the chance, she always tries to do the same for her sister. It¡¯s just how their relationship works. They¡¯ve been together all the time for as long as she can remember. Since before their mother vanished. But now Astrid can¡¯t help but feel helpless at the mere sight of her sister¡¯s power. Even while she was training her adaptation, the idea that she wasn¡¯t even strong enough to so much as hurt Lexi left a gaping hole in her chest. I will grow stronger. And I¡¯ll defend the base while she¡¯s gone. It¡¯s the only thing I can do for her now. Astrid clenches her fist at that thought before rushing through and finding and killing another level 46 tiger in the woods. Then another. And another. Over the hours she¡¯s been hunting, she gets wounds covering her entire body with major damages to her armor accompanying the wounds. But she persists despite those wounds, uncaring about any exposure the damaged armor might bring. Uncaring about any of the pain. She continues fighting. Until she finds a man standing in a tree watching her, making her freeze stiff. I didn¡¯t sense his approach. Astrid quickly identifies the man, making him smirk before jumping down from the tree to land in front of her. And what she finds in the identify sends a wave of terror through Astrid. Terror she manages to bottle up and no show as she faces the man. {Ethan Silva ¨C Hellfrost Dragon ¨C Level 99} This man is a Class S species. Silence fills the area as Astrid tightens her grip on her sword, but after several seconds of silence, the man¡¯s smirk turns into a frown. You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story. ¡°You¡¯re not her,¡± he says, instantly making Astrid realize he had briefly thought she was Lexi. ¡°You look just like her except your hair and eyes.¡± He tilts his head slightly. ¡°Are you perhaps twins?¡± The man doesn¡¯t wait for Astrid to respond as his eyes suddenly turn into blue slits before returning to normal and he shakes his head, ¡°In that case, send her my regards. Tell her a member of the Hellfrost Dragon clan says good luck on claiming the spot of Champion for the Block.¡± Astrid frowns at that, only for the man to suddenly sprout blue draconic wings from his back before he flaps them and begins to fly away without another word. Silence once more fills the forest with the only sound being that of Astrid¡¯s heavy breathing and the flapping of the man¡¯s wings. He didn¡¯t kill me. Astrid watches the man fly away for a little while, just studying his appearance to be able to give a clear description to Alexia. Two ice-blue draconic wings, slit blue eyes like a reptile, blue claws when his wings appeared, shoulder length silvery blue hair, sharp and pointed ears, two horns, two sharp teeth, and seems to be calm and calculating in both appearance and actions. After making a mental note of everything, Astrid quickly begins to head back to the base. But as she runs she can¡¯t help but wonder just why the man didn¡¯t hurt her. Not to mention why he didn¡¯t decide to ask if he could come to her base. He seemed to recognize Lexi as well. I would normally think that was because of her time on the throne after the Tutorial finished, but he looked like he had something more personal in the way he talked about her¡­ has he met her before? Astrid continues running all the way through the trees until she makes it to the clearing where Lexi¡¯s house is, where she finds a strange sight that has her skidding to a halt in her run. ¡°What the¡­¡± she mutters as she sees her twin casually lying down with her back against a tree as Aidan sends spears of water at her left arm, the princess¡¯s fianc¨¦ coats his sword in ice and attacks her left shoulder, Alara coats her blade in fire and attacks her right arm, and the princess attacks her right shoulder with blades of both earth magic and wind magic. All of the attacks have already left her twin mostly sleeveless as she lies there seemingly taking in the beauty of the lake with an absent and partially bored expression on her face, the minimal damage of all of their attacks not likely being enough to break past her Pain Resistance. ¡°Lexi,¡± Astrid says while slowly making her way closer to the tree through the clearing, bringing her twin¡¯s attention to her along with the brief attention of the people attacking her, ¡°what the fuck are you doing?¡± She then blinks and shakes her head. ¡°No, never mind. Just¡­ whatever¡­¡± Astrid, having given up on using common sense on her twin at this point, human common sense, just turns away and walks towards the base instead. But not before seeing her twin casually shrug her shoulders and return her attention to the lake again, regaining that bored expression of hers. She¡¯s seriously just sitting there farming up adaptation to a bunch of different magics¡­ is that¡­ is that normal? For a quantum reaper? Several seconds pass in silence with the only sounds being that of the skills and spells being cast in the clearing before Astrid makes it to the base where she finds the others ¨C those who don¡¯t have magic skills ¨C still hard at work building the base. Then she blinks. Shit, her ridiculousness almost made me forget why I rushed back! Astrid immediately runs back to the clearing to tell her twin what just happened to her in the jungle. B1 | Chapter 73 - Hellfrost Dragon Alexia I watch with curiosity evident on my face as Astrid¡¯s energy source turns around and begins heading back to the clearing again in a rush. As if she¡¯d forgotten something. But before I can think much about it, I find a System Message taking up my attention. {Congratulations! Your Passive Skill ¡®Quantum Adaptation¡¯ has reached Level 6!} Oh, nice! ¡°That¡¯s good, just leveled the skill,¡± I tell the people working hard at attacking me, making them all stop with sighs of relief. Then the lot begins to leave my clearing while looking more than a little exhausted. Makes sense. They¡¯ve been at it for hours now as I just sat here enjoying the view of the lake. I glance up when I feel an energy source approaching, only to find it to be Luna as she begins descending before landing on my shoulder and squeaking as she rubs her head against my neck. So I pet her a bit while glancing over at the edge of the clearing right when Astrid enters it again. Let¡¯s see, so I¡¯ve gotten shadow magic adaptation, fire magic, ice magic, water, earth, wind, lightning, light, and enhancement magic adaptation. Overall a rather good set, even if the adaptations for each aren¡¯t too strong. Mostly because the people training them were less than half my level. ¡°Lexi! I forgot to tell you something that happened while I was hunting!¡± Astrid shouts once she gets close enough. But she doesn¡¯t stop running and reaches me just seconds later without showing any signs of exhaustion thanks to her level. ¡°I met a Class S species in the jungle!¡± Any of the sleepiness I was feeling just now vanishes in an instant as I teleport to my feet right in front of Astrid as I ask, ¡°Seriously?! What and who was it?!¡± She looks surprised for little more than a single second before she answers, ¡°He was a frost dragon named Ethan Silva, and he told me to send you his regards. The man looked like he mistook me for you before he got close enough to notice my hair and eye color.¡± I blink at that, only to frown. ¡°A frost dragon¡­ and that name¡­¡± I mutter while turning around and walking to the tree. ¡°Do you recognize him?¡± Astrid asks as I hear her walking behind me. Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. My frown grows deeper at the question, and I answer, ¡°No, but I do recognize the name from the news.¡± I glance at Astrid, finding her sending me a worried look ¨C likely feeling worried about there being a Class S species that knows where I am. ¡°If I remember correctly, Ethan Silva is the son of the Ancestral Dragon, fifth place on the leaderboards, and the Ancient Wyrm, the leader of the Hellfrost Dragon clan. He¡¯s a prince of the Scarlet Empire. Or a former prince, I guess.¡± Astrid¡¯s eyes widen in shock at the two powerful names. And I don¡¯t blame her. The Ancestral Dragon was the third highest level being in the System prior to the Reset, and the Ancient Wyrm was the eighth. Both of them are dragons, although the Ancestral Dragon is a flame dragon and the Ancient Wyrm is a frost dragon. And some say that despite the Ancestral Dragon being the oldest dragon in existence, giving her the Title of Ancestral Dragon, the Ancient Wyrm has more potential. That is, if he actually cared about anything other than his family and his hoard. Although part of that rumor was started up simply because their son took after the father and became a frost dragon instead of a flame dragon. So a lot of people assumed the father had more potential or something stupid like that. ¡°Did he say anything else?¡± I ask Astrid, my frown still ever-present on my face. But she just shakes her head and answers, ¡°No. All he said was to say that a member of the Hellfrost Dragon clan sends his regards, and to tell you that he says good luck on attaining the champion position for the Block.¡± A direct challenge then? He wants to compete with me for the Champion position? The Champion position should automatically go to whoever is the highest level at the time of the first Council meeting. It was the same with the old position prior to the reset as well. And the only way for someone to take the position after that was to formally challenge the current Champion to a battle and either win, making them concede the position, or kill them if they don¡¯t. ¡°I¡­¡± Astrid mutters, bringing my attention back to her to find my twin with a frown on her face. ¡°By the way he was acting, it sounded almost like he was familiar with you.¡± Her frown grows deeper. ¡°I¡¯m sure he was familiar with you.¡± ¡°Wouldn¡¯t that just be because of the System revealing my face to everyone during that introduction before?¡± I ask while tilting my head slightly, briefly noticing a certain tiny bat copying me and doing the same form her place on my shoulder. ¡°I¡¯m sure he¡¯s seen you,¡± Astrid says, a determined look in her eyes. ¡°He acted as if he was familiar with you in a more personal way than just having seen you from the platform in that System Hall.¡± I glance at the lake again before muttering, ¡°It¡¯s possible he¡¯s seen me around the island while I was hunting, but if that¡¯s the case¡­¡± ¡°Why didn¡¯t he approach you then?¡± Astrid asks, making me nod, not taking my gaze away from the lake. Silence fills the clearing for several seconds with the only sound being that of banging noises coming from the base where the others are working on construction. Then I mutter, ¡°That¡¯s the question of the hour, isn¡¯t it?¡± The former prince of the Scarlet Empire. I wonder¡­ just what is it that you want? Is it really just to compete with me for the position of Champion? Because he could¡¯ve come over and tried fighting me to make his position a lot more secure. There should only be somewhere between one to three people with Legendary Feats in each Block after all, so getting rid of one would help him a lot. But he didn¡¯t even bother trying. I look up at the suns in the sky before muttering, ¡°Just what is it?¡± B1 | Chapter 74 - Slotting Skills Alexia ¡°So, nothing?¡± Astrid asks after I leave my portable house the first morning after the Tutorial, and I just shake my head and respond, ¡°Nothing.¡± No matter how hard I thought about it while trying to get to sleep, I couldn¡¯t figure out a reason for the hellfrost dragon to just ignore my existence. Unless he¡¯s just an honorable and competitive type of person, but those don¡¯t often make it to being Ascendants. Then again, he¡¯s a Class S species. And almost all Class S species make it to being Ascendants in their lifetimes. Unlike all Class species before Class S, Class S species don¡¯t have a finite lifespan. They, or I guess it¡¯s now we, don¡¯t die to old age. It¡¯s just impossible. Even with time magic. ¡°I think I¡¯m still more surprised by the fact that he appeared on this island just like you did than him being in this Block at all,¡± Astrid mutters, making me nod my head in agreement. Because it really is odd. I purse my lips for a second before suggesting, ¡°Maybe the Legendary Feat holders were just all placed in nearby dungeons in the Blocks they¡¯re in?¡± Astrid seems to think it over for a second, only to shrug. ¡°Maybe. Won¡¯t know for sure unless we run into more, but I¡¯d rather avoid that for now.¡± True. Running into more Legendary Feat holders would just mean more problems. Luna suddenly squeaks from my shoulder, bringing both my and Astrid¡¯s gazes towards her before she flaps her wings once, squeaks again, and flaps them again. I frown before slowly nodding my head. Astrid just frowns. ¡°Got it,¡± I tell her with a pat on her little head, making her happy. ¡°You¡­ understood that?¡± Astrid asks, bringing my attention fully back to her as I nod my head and answer, ¡°Yep. Not sure when it started, but I started getting clearer impressions of what Luna has to say at times even if she can¡¯t speak.¡± ¡°Huh¡­¡± Astrid mutters, but I ignore the look she¡¯s sending Luna right now. A look that clearly says that my twin wants the little bat for herself. ¡°Luna said that one of the islands near us is getting closer,¡± I tell her, snapping Astrid out of the staring stupor she was in as she exclaims, ¡°What?¡± ¡°With that in mind, let¡¯s hurry to that Safe Zone you mentioned,¡± I tell her while looking around to make sure I didn¡¯t forget anything. ¡°I wouldn¡¯t want to miss the chance to hop islands after all.¡± Love what you''re reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on.
After a brief questioning by Astrid at which point I tell her that Luna heard the islands getting closer via her echo location, she immediately brings me to the Safe Zone she mentioned. Which happens to only be a few hours away at a swift walking pace. Something that surprised me. Then again, I never went around the outskirts of the island. There aren¡¯t very many powerful monsters on the outskirts after all, so there wasn¡¯t a reason to. The Safe Zone in question is a small clearing with an even smaller pond in it and nothing else. The only reason we can tell that it¡¯s a Safe Zone is the feeling of passing through a rift when we enter it, along with the fact that the gray outline over the words in the corner of my vision turns purple, letting me open up my unslotted skills list to sort through and change out my skills. And the very first thing I do is change out Dungeon Map for Tutorial Champion, which should give me an edge against everyone and everything I fight now. Because there are extremely few skills that give a boost to the effectiveness of one¡¯s stats. That said, from what I was taught in class, about twenty-five points in a stat is a single factor in terms of strength. But it also varies with species a little. Generally a human with twenty five points across the board is twice as powerful in each area as a human with one point across the board though. So skills are more important than levels, especially at Tiers 1 and 2. In fact, gaining levels in Tier 1 is more important in regard to getting new skills than it is for growing stronger physically. I glance at Astrid to find her also messing with her screen, of which are invisible to me. Then I focus on mine again. Specifically on the active and passive slotted skills. Hmm. Quantum Phasing is still a no, since back when I was at level 35 and had about 3000 soul, I could only phase for a quarter of a second before almost completely running out. To the point that I ended up crippled when I tried using the skill the first time, leaving me open to threats. Or rather, I would¡¯ve been open to threats had I not been in a Safe Zone about to go to sleep when I tested the skill for that very reason. Since it sounded too good to be a skill I could use. And now that I have almost 9000 soul, I should be able to keep it up for about three quarters of a second before losing all of my soul. Not a very good skill to use at my level still. Even at the cap of Tier 1. Most of my other active skills are all pretty meh as well in comparison to my current slotted ones. The only one that can compare is Quantum Resonance, which is just a pure boost to my physical capabilities at the expenditure of soul. Which I might consider swapping with Quantum Echo, but I¡¯m still on the fence about which of those skills to use. There aren¡¯t any better passive skills that I have available though. I glance at the Quantum Veil skill before frowning. That skill¡¯s honestly pretty useless. Probably one of the worst ones I¡¯ve gotten. Even if someone had divination or scrying magic, they wouldn¡¯t be bothering to search for me right now with it. And I highly doubt it¡¯d be able to go across the Dimensional Wall anyways. Pretty sure that would take at least a Tier 4 divination skill to do that. And divination type magics are rare affinities in the first place. So unless some former Ascendant decides they want to randomly lock up someone with a divination affinity and try to force them to level all the way to Tier 4 or 5 at least a decade or two down the road ¨C a very generous and unrealistic time frame even with their help ¨C and then force them to scry for my location, the skill is useless. It¡¯s too bad the identify feature of the System is just a function and has nothing to do with magic. It would¡¯ve been nice to find a way to block that. Something no one else has ever found in existence. Not that it matters anymore now that my face has been shown to everyone. I frown for a few seconds before eventually shrugging and just swapping out Quantum Echo for Quantum Resonance, even if only temporarily. Since I want to see which of the two skills I like better. Then I close out of the screen and begin waiting for Astrid to finish up herself. B1 | Chapter 75 - Request Alexia Once Astrid finishes up, we both head back to the base where we meet with everyone there, including the still-tied-up-former-prince. At which point I notify everyone that I¡¯ll be leaving. To my pleasant surprise, most of them don¡¯t actually seem relieved about that like I had expected. Since I know most of them felt very uncomfortable with me around when I first got here. Guess they grew comfortable around me over the time I¡¯ve been here? Or they just realized I¡¯m not a crazy person going around killing everyone. Could also just be that they liked my protection. What surprises me the most though is that William ¨C who everyone has agreed to not call a prince anymore since he¡¯s, well, not one ¨C doesn¡¯t even look relieved that I¡¯ll be leaving. But then again, I guess he doesn¡¯t have much choice but to work with the group now that his own is dead. And I doubt he wants to go off into the wilderness alone. From what I¡¯ve seen, aside from the fact that the guy let the Cassandra girl betray him after she betrayed the princess and ran ¨C the only person who got away across one of the bridges before I got out of the dungeon ¨C he¡¯s a rather intelligent guy. Just that he¡¯s also a typical prince who doesn¡¯t like working under others, even if one of those others is his sister. I glance from the group, who are now talking amongst themselves rather casually since the announcement that I¡¯m leaving was made, to look at the island that¡¯s quickly approaching. Speaking of that Cassandra girl, I hope the island that¡¯s currently approaching is the one she went to. Because I¡¯d like to have a ¡®talk¡¯ with that girl. I glance over when I sense someone approaching, only to find it to be Aidan as he waves and says, ¡°Heya Lexi!¡± That has me smiling, since he¡¯s been slightly distant since I got out of the dungeon. Although nowhere near as distant as the others. ¡°Hey Aidan,¡± I say back with a wave of my own. Once he reaches me at my tree at the edge of the base, he sits down next to me and asks, ¡°So when are you going to be coming back again next?¡± I raise both of my eyebrows in surprise as I answer, ¡°You worried?¡± He snorts at that, leaning his head back against the rather large tree. To the point of being unnaturally large. Mostly because of someone¡¯s magic, since the trees bordering the edge of the jungle next to the base were all made like that to help protect from monster attacks. ¡°Maybe a little, but I also know Astrid will be worrying her head off if you don¡¯t come back within a month,¡± Aidan answers, not looking at me in the process. Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author''s preferred platform and support their work! Right. I smile as I lean back against the tree as well, looking up at the evening sky with about a foot of space between me and Aidan. Personally, I have no interest in romance or anything like that. Never really have. But Astrid¡¯s different. And Aidan has had a crush on her for a while. Not that she¡¯d ever notice. Come to think of it, I don¡¯t think it¡¯d even be possible for me to have a partner anymore anyways. It¡¯s just not possible to breed across Class. Only chance I¡¯d have at that is if I got with another Class S species. I ponder over that for a second before mentally shrugging my shoulders with indifference. Never wanted any kids anyways. Or a romantic partner for that matter. I just don¡¯t do well with making close attachments to others. Except Astrid, of course. ¡°Make sure Astrid doesn¡¯t get herself into any trouble while I¡¯m gone,¡± I tell Aidan, only to feel something elbowing me in the back while an energy source appears right next to me, also sitting down. Then I hear Astrid say, ¡°If anyone would be getting herself into trouble it¡¯d be you.¡± ¡°I have no idea what you¡¯re talking about,¡± I feign ignorance, continuing to stare up at the sky. Astrid just snorts at that while leaning up against me, resting her head on my shoulder. ¡°If you die then I¡¯ll kill you,¡± she says, making me snort in amusement myself. ¡°Yeah, yeah,¡± I reply to her, ignoring the chuckling Aidan next to us. ¡°Although I question where you might find a necromancer near here. Much less one that can raise a Class S species.¡± She stays silent for a few seconds before muttering, ¡°I¡¯ll find a way.¡± I glance down at her with a raised brow without saying anything. ¡°I will,¡± she repeats with a firm nod of her head despite her head being on my shoulder. Then she glances to the side and quietly adds, ¡°Can make Aidan find one too.¡± ¡°Hey!¡± he shouts, making me smirk as I look back up at the sky again. At the clouds that are currently moving further away. I blink at that realization. The clouds were getting closer before, but now they¡¯re moving away. Guess the island is going in a different direction than it was right after the Tutorial ended. I don¡¯t know how close the islands are going to get, but since the part of the island at the base that used to be ruins looks kind of like it can connect to something, I have a suspicion that the islands are going to connect for a brief period of time. At the ruins. Although which ruins will connect is a different matter altogether. Doesn¡¯t really matter to me though. I can just teleport across if I really needed to. A rather convenient use of Quantum Displacement. Just repeatedly teleport through the air until I make it to the other island. I¡¯d rather not try it until I at least reach Tier 2 though. Because I do not want to end up falling to my death. ¡°Lexi¡­¡± I hear Astrid mutter in a quiet voice, bringing my gaze back down to her, where I find her eyes half closed as if she were falling asleep on my shoulder. ¡°¡­please find Mom.¡± I blink at that before smiling a tiny smile and brushing a lock of her hair over her ear while answering, ¡°Of course. And I¡¯ll be sure to get back by the time you leave the dungeon.¡± Then her eyes close and she falls asleep. I raise my head again to look at the sky. Finding Mom¡­ that¡¯ll be an interesting endeavor. If she¡¯s still alive, since the Quantum Architect implied that both she and our Father were still alive even if he didn¡¯t directly state it, then it¡¯s possible she really did abandon us. While the very few memories I have of her were of a kind mother who loved us, I don¡¯t know if that was a front or not. I don¡¯t have enough memories of her to know that, considering how she vanished when we were just a few years old. And if she is still alive and didn¡¯t abandon us, then she¡¯ll be in the new dimension somewhere. But¡­ that might just be optimistic thinking. That she didn¡¯t abandon us. And I¡¯m not an optimist. I glance at Astrid, then at the sky again. It won¡¯t hurt to search while I¡¯m exploring and growing stronger though. B1 | Chapter 76 - The Crossing Alexia It only takes a few more hours before a loud rumbling reverberates throughout the island as the approaching island locks onto our island right next to our base through some sort of short bridge that extends out from both islands. A process I can¡¯t help but wonder about. Specifically about if it¡¯s entirely magic, a natural process somehow, or if there is some sort of technological mechanism guiding the bridges¡¯ extension. Regardless of how it works, it worked. And the island that connects to ours is very different. To the point that the connecting island, instead of being covered by jungle, is covered by hills and rather large lakes. It even has some visible mountains closer to the center of the island. I can¡¯t see the level 100 monster on it or where it might be located from here though, so I just say one last farewell to Astrid and begin crossing the bridge. It¡¯s unfortunate that the System is build purely to block any attempts at a higher leveled individual assisting a lower leveled individual in leveling. No one really knows how it works, just that if anyone tries to help a lower leveled individual, the amount of EXP that lower leveled individual gets is significantly cut short. To the point that if someone an entire Tier above helps you, then you won¡¯t be getting any EXP at all. If it weren¡¯t for that then I would¡¯ve tried power leveling Astrid, even if she would¡¯ve been rather upset about it. Considering how independent we both are. And if I tried staying behind to protect her from anyone who might mistake her at first glance for me, or recognize her as my sister, then all that would be doing is hurting us in the end. Because not only would it make her level a lot slower, but it would also pretty much stop my leveling, letting the other Legendary Feat holders grow a lot stronger than me over time. So the best choice here is for us to hunt separately and meet back up periodically at the base. It helps that Astrid also has a teleportation skill. And that she can move through shadows now that she is a shadowborne. I glance over the side of the bridge as I reach the halfway point, looking down at the clouds below. Then I blink and stop mid-step at the sight of a massive serpentine dragon just barely leaving the line of clouds and then going back down into it while passing by a very far ways away from here. Just barely still in sight. This novel''s true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there. When I look back at the others, I find that they¡¯ve all noticed it too. Or rather, Shelly saw it and pointed it out to the others before it went back beneath the clouds again. That creature¡­ I don¡¯t know if it was a monster or not, but I think it might be safe to assume it was the Cataclysm Class monster for our Block. Because generally a dragon¡¯s size is determined by its level, and I¡¯ve never seen a serpentine dragon that large before. Meaning it¡¯s most likely not of a species that¡¯s public knowledge. The only thing that really makes sense is if that¡¯s the Cataclysm Class monster for our Block. Which also means we got lucky in that it¡¯s going the opposite direction from us. It also looks like no one identified it, so that¡¯s good. Because if it¡¯s really a monster at the level of a Class S species, then it might be able to sense an identify. I can¡¯t help but shiver at the thought of that thing getting closer. Although since I didn¡¯t identify it I also don¡¯t know its level. And for all I know, the thing could just be level one or something. Best not to test fate. That thing really doesn¡¯t look like a Tier 1 creature at all. I shake my head to remove thoughts of the giant dragon before I continue walking across the bridge, eventually making it to the island. Then I turn around and look back, finding Astrid looking at me and waving. So I wave in return, only to notice a dot moving in the air on the other side of their island. And when I narrow my eyes to look at the dot, I realize what it is. That must be the hellfrost dragon. But why is he just flying through the air to a different island now, after another island has just docked? The only detail about him that I can make out is his draconic wings, making it plain as day what he is. But I can¡¯t make out his face from here, partially due to the distance and partially because he is facing the other way. His wing and hair color make it obvious what he is though. At least it means he really plans on leaving us alone, unless he¡¯s just going to find other people to tell where me and Astrid are. But I doubt a dragon would do something like that. They¡¯re too disassociated with non-dragons. So if he were to do something, he¡¯d straight up kill Astrid and myself before moving on. He wouldn¡¯t go blabbing to other people about where I am. Not on purpose at least. There¡¯s always the chance he might accidentally mention it. Although there is one major problem with something like that. How exactly would he tell someone where we are? I glance around at the various islands I can see floating all around, there being about five in sight right now including the one I¡¯m on. And each seems to be moving rather randomly and with no end to their movements. So how exactly would someone keep track of each island and where they are? A problem society is going to have to solve in the future, that¡¯s for sure. I purse my lips for a second before turning around and beginning to walk into the hills of the new island. Time to look for that level 100 monster. And take its Shard of Authority. B1 | Chapter 77 - Interest and Observations The Skies above the Clouds between Islands The moment Ethan Silva feels the powerful gaze leaving him through his incredibly sharp, draconic instincts, he pauses in his flight and glances back at The Reaper. And just like when he had seen her fighting the level 100 monster of the island they had both started on, he can¡¯t help but feel curious about the girl. Just something about her. I can¡¯t quite put my claw on it, but I want to know what makes her tick. Ethan watches her move further into the island for several seconds before turning around and continuing his flight towards the closest island that isn¡¯t the one attached to his original island. My personal interest in her aside, I doubt she¡¯ll cause any issues with the dragon clans. So there¡¯s no need to cause problems for her. He feels certain of this strictly because of the short while he had spent watching her at her base. Without her knowing, of course. The girl seemed way too laid back to directly look for trouble with users unrelated to her. Ethan continues flying for several minutes, just repeatedly flapping his wings with the only other noise being that of the wind blowing by. I wonder if I should tell mother about her? She might be interested as well. After a few more seconds of flying, Ethan realizes he had just thought about introducing the girl he hadn¡¯t even met in person yet beyond his own spying to his mother and almost halts the flapping of his wings for a second. Then he continues flying, deciding to put The Reaper out of his mind for now. That large creature from before was no dragon, that¡¯s for sure. It has to be the Cataclysm Class monster. There isn¡¯t any other possibility. The hellfrost dragon frowns at that thought before sighing and continuing on through the sky. Maybe I¡¯ll be able to take it on when I reach a higher Tier. For now I¡¯ll just find the level 100 monster on this island.
Alexia I tilt my head as I hold the neck of some sort of large horse with two horns that had tried to ram me, clearly not being able to tell the difference in our strengths. Especially considering how the thing ¨C whose eyes are glowing red by the way ¨C is still struggling and trying to bite my hand with no success as I hold it by its throat in the air. This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it {Lesser Bicorn ¨C Level 20} Just a level 20, and by the looks of it a Class E species at that. A brief thought comes to mind about maybe making the thing a mount, only for me to throw that thought out the window. Along with the bicorn itself after snapping its neck, sending it flying through the air onto the ground, already dead. I continue walking until I reach the top of the first hill where I put my hands on my hips and look out over the lakes, valleys, and other hills. Then I turn my gaze upwards at the mountains closer to the center of the island. It¡¯s kinda interesting how the mountains are snowy, and the hills are sunny and completely green, albeit slightly chilly. Makes me wonder how the climate works here, since the islands are all moving around. Both up and down and to the sides. Is the climate locked on each island? There supposedly isn¡¯t anything outside of the atmosphere despite the fact that there are, indeed, stars and other astral objects in the sky, so does that mean the location in the Block doesn¡¯t determine the climate? Is it magical? So many questions, so little time or means of getting answers for them. Although in the end I don¡¯t really care all that much beyond this brief curiosity. But still. I continue looking out over the scenery for a bit, just focusing on each of the monsters I see roaming around, including but not limited to bicorns, some sort of large goats with two curved horns, equally large deer, and that¡¯s just in the plains areas. There¡¯s also some monsters roaming across the lakes, and a few I can even spot surfacing above the water for a brief second before going back down under. Completely different in every way from the other island, which I¡¯m just gonna call our home island now. I glance at the monsters, identifying a bunch of them back to back. {Lesser Bicorn ¨C Level 20} {Lesser Crystal Deer ¨C Level 22} {Lesser Devil Goat ¨C Level 24} {Lesser Devil Goat ¨C Level 20} {Lesser Crystal Deer ¨C Level 23} {Lesser Lake Dweller ¨C Level 19} This is only the first few hills of the island, and the monsters are already at those levels. I kind of guessed this would happen, since the monsters on the home island have also leveled up quite a bit over time, but this is going by pretty quickly. Only a little over a month since the Reset and they¡¯re already up to this level. If it¡¯s the same as this on every island, then the ones that aren¡¯t settled by people might end up being completely overrun and filled with high level monsters. Some might even end up filled with higher Tier monsters. I frown at that thought. Considering how there were only a couple dozen people that Astrid knew about on the home island, that means the Block must be absolutely fucking massive. After all, there has to be billions of people in the Block. And if each island only has a couple dozen people starting on them, then that says a lot about the number of islands there are. Although I¡¯m sure there were probably a dozen or two more than that at least on the home island. The only people Astrid¡¯s group found were noble groups and those well off before the Reset, so if I had to guess, the others mostly just died, proving to be unable to handle the difficulties of the Reset. I¡¯m also curious as to where the children went after the Reset. Astrid mentioned that her System Architect¡¯s memory told her about how the children who were under the age of getting a Class, which is fifteen years old. That the children under thirteen were immediately sent to a Tutorial of their own. A much safer one. Meanwhile the children between thirteen and fifteen were given a choice between which Tutorial to participate in. But after the Tutorial ended, they have to have ended up somewhere. So where are they? B1 | Chapter 78 - Dungeon and Relaxation Outside of the Crawling Caverns Dungeon A Few Hours Later Astrid frowns as she watches William standing off to the side of the group with his hands bound, wearing nothing but some under armor and no armor. The group had decided to make him work off his debt to them before they would let him really join the group. So long as he doesn¡¯t display any intent to betray them over the time. And no matter how long Astrid watches him, she can¡¯t help but feel unnerved. Because the guy has completely flipped around in his actions compared to before. Whereas he used to be a plotting prince with disdain for commoners, he now acts like a perfect gentleman who is kind to everyone. As if he had reformed himself after being killed. Which, while technically possible, isn¡¯t very likely in Astrid¡¯s opinion. ¡°Astrid?¡± Alara asks, bringing her gaze back to their base¡¯s leader where she finds her with a worried expression on her face. ¡°Don¡¯t worry about him. Aidan and Reginald will be keeping a close eye on him while we¡¯re gone. And it¡¯s not like he can do much without a weapon, armor, and with his hands bound and his mana drained.¡± Astrid just grunts in response, not saying anything as she glances at William one last time before focusing on the dungeon. The only reason why I¡¯m willing to leave him here with the others is because his mana has been drained during construction. After a few seconds of staring at the dungeon entrance while the others continue making sure they have everything prepared, Astrid lets out a sigh and looks down at herself, checking her equipment. Not that there¡¯s very much to check since the only person who¡¯s managed to find a loot box somewhere on the island was Aidan, who got a better weapon from it. Leaving everyone else still stuck wearing basic equipment until they get better gear in the dungeon. It¡¯s too bad Lexi couldn¡¯t join us in the dungeon. Stupid dungeon restriction limiting people to one finished dive a month. ¡°Alright, looks like everyone¡¯s ready to head out,¡± Alara calls out after Astrid looks up again, following which she says, ¡°Let¡¯s head in then.¡± Everyone in their team of six including Astrid, Alara, the former princess Elizabeth, Rob, Shelly, and one person from Elizabeth¡¯s group immediately begin walking up to the purple portal making up the dungeon entrance. And the moment they all touch it, they find a bright flash of purple and blue light shining out of it before they find themselves in a large cavern. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- The author''s narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. Dungeon ¨C Crawling Caverns Description: This is a basic dungeon located within Tutorial Block #108 Monsters: The Primary monster type in this dungeon are arachnid-type monsters, with the secondary type being insects and common cave dwelling monsters. Requirements To Enter: N/A Dungeon Tier: 1 -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Astrid raises a brow slightly at the sight of the requirements to enter the dungeon having changed since the last time she checked. But she quickly focuses on her surroundings when she hears the sound of skittering. Then a large spider roams around the corner of a connected tunnel to the cavern, entering the cavern itself with a hiss. {Lesser Taracht ¨C Level 2} And there¡¯s the lesser taracht that Lexi spoke about. Astrid grins before teleporting straight to its shadow and digging into the thing¡¯s head with a knife made of shadows that she summons mid swing of her arm. And without even leaving her blade in the creature for a single second, she pulls it back out and looks at the others, finding them all standing at the ready to attack. So Astrid turns to face the tunnel, feeling excited for the dungeon dive. I bet Lexi is having just as much fun searching for that island¡¯s level 100 as I¡¯m gonna be having in this dungeon. After having that thought, Astrid turns back to Alara as the woman takes control of the team.
Alexia I let out a relaxed sigh as I let myself soak in the lovely hot spring I found in the middle of a random cavern in the hills on the island while in my under armor with my armor itself having been taken off with just a thought. And no matter how long I stay in here, I just can¡¯t get enough. Because it just feels so relaxing after fighting constantly for a month. Or running constantly. Or both. It¡¯s too bad I don¡¯t have a swimsuit or something to stay in here with, but my under armor will have to do. Because I¡¯m not getting naked out in the open, even if this is inside of a cave. Either way though, it¡¯s nice and relaxing in here. Over the last few hours, I have managed to do basically nothing but walk while killing some monsters. But since I¡¯m already at the level cap, and I don¡¯t get EXP for killing anything after this point, there¡¯s no reason to hunt the monsters right now. So I¡¯m only killing those that try to attack me. Any others would just be unnecessary and pointless slaughter. I let out another sigh while raising my gaze to the ceiling, only for my hair to catch my attention as it floats in the water. Right. The whole deep purple tint thing. Almost forgot that my hair had changed colors. Then again, I don¡¯t really care about my appearance as long as it¡¯s not shameful. I grab my hair, rolling it between my fingers. Although it does feel softer than it used to. I let go of it again and lean back with my head resting on the edge of the hot spring. This hot spring was a rather lucky find. Maybe I should find some way to mark where it is just so that I can come back before returning to the home island? That thought has me pursing my lips for a second before I just close my eyes, deciding to worry about that in half an hour after I get out. I wonder if Astrid has started her dungeon dive yet? B1 | Chapter 79 - Unexpected Interruption Part I Alexia After several more minutes of soaking in the hot springs, I stiffen up and teleport out of the hot springs while also equipping my armor in an instant as I sense a source of energy entering the caves. Then I summon my polearm and flip it around to point slightly downwards in a ready position, only to relax slightly when I hear footsteps. Although not entirely. Seconds pass before the source of the footsteps enters into view, crossing through the threshold of the cavern with the hot springs. A man who at a glance appears to be the same age as me, but considering the System and levels, age basically means nothing in terms of appearance, especially after the Reset. Unless they just straight up look really young. But even then, they could just be a humanoid species with a youthful appearance like an elf. The man is wearing armor that isn¡¯t actually the starter armor, to my surprise, and has a sword that isn¡¯t starter equipment as well. Meanwhile he is holding the sword at the ready as we stare at each other. What sticks out to me the most about his appearance are his ears though, as they¡¯re pointed. Kind of like an elf¡¯s. Or really, any other pointed ear humanoid, if I¡¯m being honest with myself. Just that elves are the most common to actually appear in human society of the non-human Class B species. Then we both identify each other. {Shawn Velthorn ¨C Species: High Elf ¨C Class: Dread Swordsman ¨C Level 59} My eyebrows rise at his level. But then my eyes narrow and I ask, ¡°Where did you get your equipment?¡± He just stares at me, his grip on his weapon tightening slightly. I purse my lips slightly at the awkward silence before tilting my head slightly and asking, ¡°The System does have a translation function just like it did before, right?¡± That snaps him out of it, and he answers, ¡°Y-yes, sorry. I just wasn¡¯t expecting to run into The Reaper.¡± The Reaper? Oh, right. That was my Title. Not a very flattering Title, but at least it¡¯s cool. I don¡¯t exactly plan to go around hunting people and things for the System though. So it¡¯s kind of an empty Title. ¡°Are you going to answer my question then?¡± I ask while nodding my head towards his equipment. And he finally relaxes his hold on his sword, lowering it a bit. But I notice that he doesn¡¯t sheathe it still, even as he answers, ¡°They were crafted for me.¡± Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more. That has the corner of my lips quirking up slightly. ¡°Oh? There¡¯s a crafter on this island?¡± He literally shivers to the point that I can tell with my enhanced senses as he says, ¡°Please don¡¯t hurt him.¡± I raise a brow while dismissing my polearm, simply because he¡¯s too low a level to actually cause me any harm. Even if he used a magical attack. Then I cross my arms and ask, ¡°Now why would I do that?¡± The man looks surprised for a second before he says, almost as if confused, ¡°Because you killed who knows how many people to stay at #1 on the leaderboards?¡± ¡°Seriously?¡± I mutter, only to shake my head and explain with more than a little exasperation, ¡°Those idiots were trying to kill my team from before the Reset. Did you just expect me to sit there and let them go?¡± He looks even more surprised at my explanation, following which the man opens his mouth to say something, only to close it again. Then he repeats that process once more before finally muttering, ¡°Oh.¡± I almost snort in amusement. The man finally sheathes his sword and steps further into the cavern as he says, ¡°Well, my apologies for assuming. Let¡¯s start over again, shall we?¡± I raise a brow. Again. Both at his rather sudden and yet awkward change of attitude and for how quickly he decided to believe me. Because while it is the truth, that doesn¡¯t mean everyone would just believe me when I say it right away. That¡¯s just not how people work. He stops approaching when he gets within two meters of me before the man bows his head slightly and introduces himself, ¡°Hello, my name is Shawn Velthorn, as you could probably guess from my identify.¡± Then he raises his head again with a smile on his face, only for his gaze to go to my hair that is currently still dripping water everywhere, following which he glances at the hot springs, then at my face again. ¡°My apologies if I interrupted your soak in the hot springs, Lady Reaper.¡± ¡°Lady Reaper?¡± I ask with a light snort of amusement, making the man stiffen up for just a second before he relaxes again, his smile going from a political one to a seemingly genuine one as he says in a joking tone, ¡°Yeah, it¡¯s only polite after all for the future Champion of our Block to be given the respect she deserves, right?¡± Yeah¡­ I don¡¯t think I like this guy. His personality is shifting way too blatantly with how I react. It¡¯s obvious he¡¯s trying to get friendly with me. But is it because of how powerful I am, making him not want to get on my bad side? Or is he trying to manipulate me? Then again, not like it really matters. I open my mouth to speak, only to freeze when a System Notification appears in my vision and echoes out throughout the Dimension.
Legendary Feat ¨C Crafting Pioneer Artorius del Ruth de Atler has crafted the first Tier 3 or higher item in the System!
The Legendary Feat snaps Shawn out of his acting by plastering shock onto his face as I too stare at the notification in front of me. All the way till it vanishes. That¡¯s gotta be a good Legendary Feat to get. I wonder what it gives him? Also, I get the feeling more Legendary Feats and some regular Feats are going to be showing up soon now that the Tutorial is over. It¡¯ll probably become a much more common thing than before the Reset. At least, for a while it will be. B1 | Chapter 79.2 - Unexpected Interruption Part II Alexia ¡°Well, if you don¡¯t mind, I think I¡¯ll be leaving,¡± I tell the man with a nod of my head before beginning to walk past him, making sure to keep my guard up as I walk. Just in case he tries something. ¡°Wait!¡± the man says, suddenly panicking as he reaches out to grab my arm, but I just teleport past him without giving him the light of day. At least, until he becomes desperate and exclaims, ¡°Please help my friends!¡± I blink at that in surprise before turning around and facing him with my arms crossed. ¡°What?¡± I ask, a frown forming on my face. ¡°Explain.¡± The man seems to only just now realize that he had lost control of his emotions and regathers himself with a quick clearing of his throat. But I just say, ¡°If you don¡¯t explain now, I¡¯m leaving.¡± So he finally drops the act and says, ¡°My friends and I left our base in search of water in the mountains where we were attacked by the subordinates of the level capped monster of the island.¡± His face droops with sadness. ¡°All of the others were captured by them, but I got away and have been searching for help ever since.¡± He clenches his fists slightly, a tear beginning to form at the corner of his eye as he looks up at me and exclaims, ¡°Please help them!¡± I frown in response. If this isn¡¯t a trick of some sort, it wouldn¡¯t hurt to help them out. And it could bring me to the level capped monster I¡¯m searching for. I look over the man¡¯s equipment once more before remembering his level. He¡¯s forty-one levels beneath me with a lower Class species as well. So it¡¯s not like he can hurt me, even if he got a group of people at the same level as him. I purse my lips. It wouldn¡¯t hurt to save them I guess. I don¡¯t really care much about things that don¡¯t involve me most of the time, but that doesn¡¯t mean I won¡¯t help someone out if I feel like it and am passing by. But first, I ask, ¡°How did you get away when your friends didn¡¯t? And why are you at such a high level? Did you enter a dungeon?¡± My last question has me frowning and shaking my head right away. ¡°No, you¡¯d have to have finished the dungeon if you entered it, and you¡¯re nowhere near a high enough level for that. So why are you at a much higher level than the other non-Legendary Feat holders I¡¯ve seen?¡± Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings. The guy tenses up slightly at that before answering my first question by suddenly vanishing from sight. But despite that, I still track him with my eyes simply by the sounds of his footsteps and breathing, proving him to just be invisible. ¡°Light magic?¡± I ask to his surprise as he stiffens up immediately. Then he relaxes again and becomes visible while answering, ¡°Yes. My class specializes in stealth-based light magic.¡± So he used his magic to get away. There¡¯s the question of if he abandoned his friends or not, but considering that he¡¯s asking me for help¡­ I¡¯m still not sure if he¡¯s trustworthy, but it¡¯s the only lead I have on the level capped monster, so I might as well go along. And if he¡¯s telling the truth? Then I can save his friends too. ¡°That still leaves the question of your level,¡± I prod, reminding him while beginning to tap one foot quietly with patience. He seems to struggle for a second, clearly not wanting to tell me before he eventually answers, ¡°I found a Nest on the other side of the island during the Tutorial¡­¡± I raise a brow. ¡°Nest level?¡± I ask for clarification. ¡°Fifty,¡± he answers without any hesitation this time. ¡°And location?¡± I continue, this time making the man sweat. But then I shake my head and say, ¡°Never mind. Tell me once we¡¯re done.¡± He lets out a sigh. There¡¯s no point in asking now. I¡¯m just gonna forget where it¡¯s at and have to ask again by the time we finish. I¡¯m a little surprised he found a Nest though. Those don¡¯t appear very often. Places that are cut off from the normal plane of existence just like dungeons are, but are only a single area. Almost as if a single area of a dungeon with a set level range was cut out of the dungeon and left on its own. They don¡¯t give anywhere near as many benefits as a dungeon, but they do give one loot box for the first clear of it, along with the EXP of whatever is killed inside of them. But unlike dungeons prior to the Reset, Nests couldn¡¯t be claimed by a Noble. Not that it matters now since Dungeons can¡¯t be claimed anymore either. People also don¡¯t build around Nests because the things, unlike dungeons, release monsters outside of themselves as well. So unless they want a city where monsters are periodically being released into the city then they won¡¯t be building around it. If it¡¯s a level fifty Nest, then it could be rather useful for Astrid to level up in¡­ assuming she doesn¡¯t just skip straight past that Nest during her time in the dungeon. Which is highly likely she will. So I guess the only use I have for the Nest is for whatever loot box it¡¯ll give me. One last question though. ¡°Why were you searching for water in the mountains?¡± I ask while tilting my head slightly and glancing at the hot springs in this very cavern. ¡°Did you just not see the hot springs?¡± He blinks for a second, his confusion overriding any fear or hesitation he was feeling before as he asks, ¡°You didn¡¯t notice?¡± ¡°Notice what?¡± I ask with a frown. ¡°I thought you were just too high a level for the heat of the water to bother you, but that water is hot enough to boil a level 20 alive,¡± he says with a sideways glance at the hot springs. Oh. Wait, is it because I got my adaptation to fire magic? Makes me more resistant to heat? Because while the gap between level 20 and 100 is large, it¡¯s not large enough for something that could boil a level 20 alive to feel comfortable for a level 100. Interesting. ¡°Let¡¯s go,¡± I tell him while summoning my polearm again and indicating the entrance to the cavern. ¡°Lead the way.¡± B1 | Chapter 80 - Rescue Alexia The two of us run through the hills for a while with me slaughtering any monster that approaches, to Shawn¡¯s absolute terror, until we reach the mountains and the monsters start being in the fifties and sixties in level. But I just continue killing each one with just a single Quantum Bolt, so it¡¯s not an issue. Shawn might think otherwise though. His opinion aside, the snow and cold isn¡¯t bothering me as we travel through the mountains. I barely even feel it. Which is interesting. So I guess Quantum Adaptation is also raising my heat and cold tolerance as well. A very nice benefit. It makes sense though. Sorta. The line between a magical attack and a non-magical attack seems to be rather blurry though, so I¡¯m not sure what to take from that. Anyways, we continue traversing the mountains until the two of us arrive at the peak of one of them, where I immediately find the subordinates Shawn was mentioning. Not to mention the friends he was talking about as well. People who I was kinda questioning if were even alive or not. At least, until he mentioned that the level capped monster¡¯s subordinates were wendigos. Nasty creatures, wendigos. They will eat anything made of meat and care about nothing more than filling their seemingly endless stomachs. Hence why the wendigos are dragging the guy¡¯s friends around with them tied to poles as if they were lugging around meat. The monsters themselves are all between levels eighty and ninety, with the higher ups amongst them being around level 90. Just like the thunder hawks. I purse my lips as I try to figure out how to deal with this situation. The monsters shouldn¡¯t be much of a problem since they¡¯re all rather low level compared to me, but at the same time, there are a lot of them. And they could try using the people I¡¯m trying to save as hostages. After a few seconds, I open my skills list. [General Skills] |Pain Resistance Level 6(2%)(T1)| |Polearm Mastery Level 5(19%)(T1)| |Forerunner (Unique)| |Stealth Level 2(94%)(T1)| |Survivor Level 2(14%)(T1)| |Poison Resistance Level 4(29%)(T1)| |Exploration Level 3(1%)(T1)| |Anti-Magic Barrier (Unique)| Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website. |Tutorial Champion (Unique)| |Energy Manipulation Level 1(6%)(T1)| [Active Skills] |Quantum Bolt Level 5(62%)(T1)| |Quantum Displacement Level 7(5%)(T1)| |Quantum Reversal Level 4(41%)(T1)| |Quantum Resonance Level 1(4%)(T1)| |Quantum Burst Level 4(23%)(T1)| [Passive Skills] |Quantum Attunement Level 5(31%)(T1)| |Quantum Singularity Level 1(4%)(T1)| |Quantum Infusion Level 4(15%)(T1)| |Quantum Adaptation Level 6(4%)(T1)| |Quantum Aura Level 2(73%)(T1)| Quantum Bolt has definitely made progress, but not as much as I would¡¯ve hoped. I watch the wendigos carry around the group of people who I¡¯m only just now realizing aren¡¯t actually humans for a couple minutes as they climb up the side of the mountain with the elves. Then I let out a sigh and whisper to Shawn, ¡°I¡¯ll be saving them now.¡± ¡°How?¡± he asks, sounding nervous. But I don¡¯t bother answering since he¡¯s not gonna be a help with his low level. Instead I just begin teleporting down to the wendigos and hostages. I don¡¯t have much experience in teleporting others, but I¡¯ve done it before, and the person I teleported was perfectly fine even if it cost more soul to do it with someone else along with me. Quite a bit more, actually. So I repeatedly teleport down to the wendigos before hiding in the bushes near them. Then I wait for several seconds before immediately teleporting over to a wendigo that¡¯s out of sight, covering their mouth as tightly as possible, and teleporting back while snapping their neck and laying them out on the ground hidden by the bushes. I repeat this process a few times with the hostages giving me rather frightened looks until I finish clearing out the area directly around the hostages of all the wendigos I could clear out without alerting the others. Which is about a third of them. Good thing wendigos don¡¯t have very good eyesight. They have great hearing though, but they¡¯re also stupid. So they aren¡¯t going to be able to figure out what I¡¯m doing, considering that I¡¯m teleporting. I look over the monsters once, finding the majority of the remaining wendigos being the higher leveled ones that are nearby the hostages. Okay, they¡¯re probably gonna notice me at this point, but I don¡¯t think it matters now that I¡¯ve cleared out their numbers a bit. So I teleport straight to a hostage and then teleport them away, immediately alarming all of the wendigos before I proceed to save the other four hostages. And just as I expected, none of the monsters are able to keep up with me, letting me quickly get all of the hostages out of danger. Then I teleport back with a grin on my face and begin blasting the wendigos with Quantum Bolts, wiping most of them out with ease. A couple of them manage to avoid my attacks though, to my surprise. And both of them are the highest level wendigos of the bunch. Makes me glad that I saved the hostages, because I¡¯m pretty sure these two would¡¯ve gotten to them if I hadn¡¯t. They don¡¯t last much longer though as I quickly teleport over to them and impale the first with my polearm before ripping it out, smacking the head of the other with the rear of the polearm, and whipping around the blade to cut through its throat. And before the corpses even fall to the ground, I throw my polearm at another of the wendigos and send a few more Quantum Bolts at the last three that are currently trying to run away. After looking over the area once more, I turn back to look at the hostages who are still tied up, finding them all staring at me with a mixture of fear and confusion in their eyes now instead of the fear and shock that I had seen the first time I looked at them. ¡°So hello,¡± I tell them after teleporting back over to them and kneeling down slightly. ¡°Do any of you happen to know where the leader of these wendigos is?¡± Now they just look confused. B1 | Chapter 81 - New Leaderboards Alexia Even after I free the people from their bindings, they still look confused. They aren¡¯t even showing any of the fear from before. ¡°So¡­ do you?¡± I repeat while tilting my head slightly and folding my arms under my chest. That seems to snap them out of it as the guy at the front of the group ¨C a group that is consistent of four girls and a guy ¨C says, ¡°U-uh, y-yes.¡± A wide smile crosses my face as I straighten up and exclaim, ¡°Great! Now would you mind telling me where it is?¡± They all share a look between each other before the same guy from before ¨C someone who seems to be in his mid-twenties with brown hair and brown eyes ¨C answers, ¡°Well, we don¡¯t know exactly where the leader is, but we know where they¡¯re most likely at. It¡¯s the same place the¡­¡± he pauses with a glance towards the dead wendigos, ¡°¡­wendigos,¡± he turns back to me, ¡°were bringing us.¡± Oh? I turn around to looking the direction they were heading, where I find a rather large mountain. The thing didn¡¯t really stand out that much, but when I focus on it, it does look a bit larger than most of the other mountains. And there seems to be thicker snow fall around it too. ¡°The large mountain?¡± I ask while turning back to face the guy and the shivering girls. Then I glance to the side where I find a hurriedly running Shawn making his way over here, only to ignore him and focus on the guy again. He nods his head and says, ¡°Yeah.¡± ¡°Cool,¡± I tell him with a nod in return before turning around and beginning to walk towards the mountain in question. And after a few steps, I call out a quick, ¡°See you later!¡± and begin teleporting away. Because I don¡¯t deal with gratitude well. If I had to guess, their confusion was probably due to me helping them. Since they should already know what I look like due to the System broadcasting my appearance all over, so they might¡¯ve been like Shawn in assuming I was some murderer killing people for kicks. Actually, speaking of that, I open the leaderboards for the first time since the Tutorial ended. And just like before the Reset, the leaderboards has been changed from the Tutorial points to the highest level instead. [Dimensional Champion Leaderboard] Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site. [#1 Isabella d''Aragon ¨C Level 100] [#2 Alexia Knight ¨C Level 100] [#3 Alexander Frost ¨C Level 100] [#4 Lucas Nightshade ¨C Level 100] [#5 Leif Eriksson ¨C Level 100] [#6 Aurora Frost ¨C Level 100] [#7 Leonidas Silver ¨C Level 100] [#8 Damien Black ¨C Level 100] [#9 Ignivara ¨C Level 100] [#10 Artorius del Argon ¨C Level 100] Yeah, thought so. From my understanding, at least based on the pre-Reset leaderboards, the leaderboards now should be based on two things. Someone¡¯s level, and when they reached that level. And I was apparently not the first person to reach level 100. The Ancestral Dragon was the first. I¡¯m a little surprised the Ruler of the Abyss made it to level 100 faster than the Hound though. But then again, the Ruler is a Class S species just like me and the Ancestral Dragon. Meanwhile the Hound should only be human. The mere fact that he¡¯s reached level 100 at around the same time as us is already very impressive considering that he¡¯s only a Class B species. Assuming he didn¡¯t change his species like Astrid did. Although even if he did then he still would¡¯ve been a Class B species throughout the Tutorial. I look over the rest of the top ten as I begin running instead of teleporting towards the mountain, but over the top ten are pretty much the same people except for two names. And I can¡¯t help but feel shivers run down my spine at the sight of the new names to replace them. Ignivara, otherwise known as the Ancient Terror. A hydra that is known for going on rampages and destroying entire continents when he¡¯s upset. And Artorius del Argon, otherwise known as the Primeval Fiend. The leader of all the fiends and the ruler of the planet formerly known as Hell. An archfiend. Not to mention someone known for massacring the populations of entire planets just to spread his fiends further through the universe. Although now that he¡¯s alone, I wouldn¡¯t be surprised if someone goes and attempts to kill the dude. But he¡¯s still a Class S species, and so is the Ancient Terror. Likely why they both got to level 100 faster than whoever it was that they knocked down. I give a short pity nod for whoever it was that was knocked off the leaderboards. Then I up my speed and begin walking even faster. Because I really need to get to the top of the leaderboards here. After all, if I got a unique skill for reaching #1 on the Tutorial leaderboards, I would be surprised if there wasn¡¯t something similar for the Dimensional Champion Leaderboards. And that means finding and killing this level capped monster as fast as I can. At least the current #1 is also a Class S species, so she probably has just as difficult a set of requirements as I do. I¡¯m more worried about Lucas shooting ahead just because his requirements are easier. Which serves as more motivation to clear these objectives quickly. I blink in realization before slowing down. Wait a second, one of them is to raise a skill to Tier 2. And my closest skill to Tier 2 is¡­ Without any hesitation, I begin teleporting towards the mountain again instead of running. Just to train the skill. This might burn a bit of soul, but it¡¯ll be the fastest skill to bring to Tier 2. So it¡¯ll be worth it. Not to mention that, aside from the fact that it would clear a second requirement from my list, it¡¯ll also significantly increase how far I can teleport. A very nice benefit. Very nice indeed. B1 | Chapter 82 - Reunion and the Den The Mountains after Alexia Leaves the Group Before Shawn can make it to his friends and thank The Reaper, she vanishes from his sight in a glitching teleport where she appears to just glitch in place for a moment before disappearing in a purple flash of dim light. She then reappears several meters away only to disappear again immediately. Shawn slows down as he reaches his friends, just watching the girl quickly vanish into the distance. When he had first run into the girl, he was absolutely shocked. Both because he instantly recognized her from the screen showing the Tutorial Champion and because he remembered seeing her points shoot up soon after the Legendary Feat announced her finishing her dungeon. So he and his group had assumed she immediately went on a massacre, just killing random users after leaving her dungeon. But now that he thinks about it, he realizes something off about that assumption. If she really was going around killing people, then why would her points suddenly stop going up after that? And why would her points go up all at once instead of spread out over time? Almost as if she had immediately run into people upon leaving her dungeon. Now Shawn regrets initially treating her like a monster when he had first run into her. I wish she would join our group¡­ we would be a lot safer if she did. He glances at the group of four girls and his best friend guarding them. Of the girls, two of them are his sisters, with the other two being their own friends. Their group of six were originally on vacation together before the Reset happened, so they quickly began to work together to survive after it started. Which was helped by Shawn¡¯s experience in the military. But the wendigos had caught them off guard. ¡°That was¡­¡± Shawn¡¯s best friend, Arthur, asks, having approached him at some point while he¡¯s been lost in thought, making Shawn flinch in surprise. Shawn quickly recovers, hiding his flinch by turning away as he says, ¡°It was her. But she wasn¡¯t a murderer as we¡¯d assumed.¡± ¡°Yeah, I could tell,¡± Arthur says, sounding a little shaken up despite his slightly sarcastic tone. ¡°Did she say anything after saving you?¡± Shawn asks while turning back to Arthur and then glancing at his sisters and their friends, each of whom are hugging in order to comfort each other. This novel''s true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there. Arthur nods his head and says, ¡°She asked where the level capped monster was.¡± ¡°Figures,¡± Shawn mutters before beginning to walk over towards his sisters. That girl¡­ is softer than she makes herself out to be. She acts like she only really cares about the level capped monster, but it probably would¡¯ve been easier for her to follow me to the group and then follow the wendigos back to their base where the others could¡¯ve been killed. Or she could¡¯ve just followed me here and tried sensing for the monster itself. I doubt it would¡¯ve taken that long. Shawn can¡¯t help but smile at that thought. But she chose to save them instead, and in a way that wouldn¡¯t hurt them. ¡°Shawn!¡± his younger sister Lily exclaims as she jumps at him and wraps her arms around him in a hug. ¡°You¡¯re okay!¡± Shawn¡¯s smile grows. She was worried about me even in her situation¡­ classic Lily. The man looks back in the direction of the large mountain as he holds his younger sister in his arms, his older sister walking over as he does so along with her friends. And his mind quickly returns to that of The Reaper. The look in her eyes was absolutely terrifying. Like I was gazing into death itself. And yet, despite that, she wasn¡¯t necessarily a bad person.
Alexia It doesn¡¯t take me long to reach my destination after spamming Quantum Displacement. And along the way I manage to bring the skill to level 8 as well. A very nice improvement. One that further sped up my trip here. Teleporting is a nice way to get around. Anyways, I focus on the large cave at the very bottom of the large mountain. The cave is filled with energy sources walking around with a purpose, and the outside of it even has a couple wendigos stationed there. Although the wendigos in question aren¡¯t exactly the most intelligent of creatures. According to my monsters claws at the academy, they¡¯re on the level of goblins. A Class D species. Not very intelligent, but they do have some intelligence. Kind of like the ancient cavemen from long before the System. Or at least how the academy depicted them. I still have trouble believing the idea that there were humans going around grunting to communicate. But who knows. The wendigos in question are acting like dogs, just walking around, sometimes on two feet and sometimes four. The creatures have pale white skin with white eyes and a mouth filled with sharp teeth. They have nothing more than a simple loin cloth on, and I haven¡¯t seen a single female wendigo including these and the ones I found earlier. Which makes sense if what my professor said was true about them basically keeping their females deep within their cavern dens. Far away from any possible danger. They don¡¯t have any hair on their body at all and have sharp claws on both their hands and feet. I close my eyes as I focus on the energy all around us. One use I¡¯ve learned about energy is that I¡¯ve gotten much better at sensing for presences with Energy Manipulation than I was with just Quantum Attunement. I can even search for non-magical stuff now as well. So I use that to sense around the tunnels, only to find my senses cut off after reaching about halfway through the tunnels due to it being out of my range. Okay, it looks like there are around fifty or so wendigos in the cave. And all of the ones that are let inside have stronger energy sources than the ones I sense outside, so I¡¯m guessing that means they¡¯re a higher level. Looks like I have my work cut out for me now. B1 | Chapter 83 - Underwhelmed Alexia To start things off, I teleport and deal with the two wendigos at the entrance first. Without making any noise and while teleporting them away from the cave, hiding them in the bushes. Then I begin teleporting through the cave, making sure to only appear in places out of sight of the wendigos. All while I search the caves for a large energy source. And after several minutes of searching, I eventually find the leader of the wendigos in a large cavern at the back of the cave system. Asleep. A grin creeps onto my face at the sight of the leader all alone and looking rather defenseless. {Alpha Lesser Wendigo ¨C Level 100} So without a hint of hesitation, after checking for other wendigos of course, I teleport right in front of it and swipe my polearm straight at its neck. But to my surprise, the creature¡¯s eyes shoot open immediately and it starts moving, making my blade cut through its shoulder instead of its neck. ¡°Shit,¡± I mutter as the two-meter-tall wendigo lets out a roar that instantly gives rise to other roars within the cave system. This thing¡¯s senses are a lot stronger than I expected. Although it doesn¡¯t really help it, since its arm is almost detached entirely now. I quickly finish off the thing by teleporting behind it right when it swipes at me and impaling my polearm straight through the back of its throat. [Level 100 Alpha Lesser Wendigo Defeated. No EXP is given due to the user¡¯s level being capped. Two Tier 1 Capped beings defeated. To clear the requirement, you must defeat one more.] Then I quickly grab the Shard of Authority I find at the back of the alpha''s cave and begin teleporting away through the caves again, occasionally killing the wendigos I run into along the way. But I don¡¯t bother wiping them all out. Because there¡¯s no point when I won¡¯t get anything for it. Plus it could hurt the growth of everyone on this island, and that would just be rude to take away their path to power for no reason other than senseless slaughter. So in the end I only kill about a fourth of the wendigos on my way out, avoiding most of them as they all rush towards their leader without knowing I¡¯m already far away from him. And it doesn¡¯t take long before I find myself walking through the mountains again with a smile on my face, heading back towards the home island again. While I was teleporting through the caves I came to a rather obvious realization. Something I should¡¯ve noticed before. If there was a Class S being on our home island before any of the islands attached and only right after the Tutorial, there¡¯s a good chance they came from a dungeon on our island. Meaning I can go challenge that for the last level capped monster kill. And along the way I can continue leveling up Quantum Displacement.
It only takes me about ten minutes to catch back up with the group of people who I saved earlier. And they seem rather surprised to see me so soon. So surprised that Shawn stumbles backwards when I appear in front of them. He quickly recovers though and asks as if he hadn¡¯t just stumbled, ¡°Alexia? I thought you were going after the level capped monster?¡± You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story. I nod my head before answering, ¡°I did. The thing didn¡¯t last long.¡± Silence fills the small clearing we¡¯re in. Then Shawn and the others share a glance and focus on me again as he asks, sounding more than a little hesitant, ¡°You¡­ did you frighten them away or something? Or¡­¡± I tilt my head slightly and answer, ¡°No, it¡¯s dead. I left most of the wendigos alive though, so don¡¯t worry about that.¡± They all fall silent again, so I decide to just leave, not wasting my time anymore as I tell them, ¡°Well, I¡¯m going back to my island. So have a nice day!¡± Before they can say anything, I return to teleporting back through the mountains. But as I teleport, I can¡¯t help but think about their reaction. I guess I can understand them being shocked. Considering their levels, and the fact that I left them and came back within an hour after killing the thing. But the level capped monster should¡¯ve only been a Class C species. It was also asleep and vulnerable, letting me get a crippling blow on it before it could even respond, so it¡¯s not that surprising that I killed it so quickly. Although no one else would¡¯ve been able to do that. Not without being able to teleport so freely and sense their surroundings. And, well, being able to kill it. I continue teleporting for a while only to check my soul when I reach the hills, finding it to be only at a fifth remaining. So I stop teleporting and begin running instead to give my soul some time to recover. Good thing that battle barely cost me any soul. After walking for a bit, once again ignoring any monsters along my way except those that attack me, I open my Skills List just to check on my Quantum Displacement¡¯s leveling progress. [General Skills] |Pain Resistance Level 6(2%)(T1)| |Polearm Mastery Level 5(19%)(T1)| |Forerunner (Unique)| |Stealth Level 2(94%)(T1)| |Survivor Level 2(74%)(T1)| |Poison Resistance Level 4(29%)(T1)| |Exploration Level 3(1%)(T1)| |Anti-Magic Barrier (Unique)| |Tutorial Champion (Unique)| |Energy Manipulation Level 1(6%)(T1)| [Active Skills] |Quantum Bolt Level 5(62%)(T1)| |Quantum Displacement Level 8(78%)(T1)| |Quantum Reversal Level 4(41%)(T1)| |Quantum Resonance Level 1(5%)(T1)| |Quantum Burst Level 4(23%)(T1)| [Passive Skills] |Quantum Attunement Level 5(35%)(T1)| |Quantum Singularity Level 1(5%)(T1)| |Quantum Infusion Level 4(22%)(T1)| |Quantum Adaptation Level 6(4%)(T1)| |Quantum Aura Level 2(73%)(T1)| Okay, I really should test out Quantum Resonance more. I¡¯m not used to using it, so I haven¡¯t really implemented it in my fighting much yet. I purse my lips for a moment before deciding to train in using that skill a bit after I recover all of my soul again. Preferably after I¡¯m back at the home island. It¡¯s not likely that the others will be at the base right now, considering that they¡¯re probably in the Crawling Caverns Dungeon, but I can at least check on how things are doing. And make sure William isn¡¯t up to anything. Then, after trying out Quantum Resonance better, I can figure out where that possible dungeon might be. I pick up the pace, a smile on my face at the thought of fighting in another dungeon. This¡¯ll be fun. B1 | Chapter 84 - Return Alexia After I make it back to the island across the bridge, I find Aidan quickly coming to greet me with a smile on his face just seconds later. And to my surprise, I also find William quietly working on building the base alongside the others, including Elizabeth¡¯s fianc¨¦. A base that has actually had quite a bit of work done since I left. Which should only have been a day or two ago. Hard to keep track of time nowadays, so I¡¯m not exactly sure. ¡°You¡¯ve certainly gotten a lot of work done on the base since I left,¡± I mutter, making Aidan¡¯s smile turn into a self-satisfied grin as he says, ¡°One of the members of Elizabeth¡¯s group got a skill that helps her shape stone and some metals, so we¡¯ve been using it to speed up the progress on the base.¡± I grin at that before looking over the base itself and saying, ¡°It¡¯s really starting to look good.¡± And I mean that. The base now has a large stone wall spanning all the way around it with a length of a couple hundred meters from one side of the wall that I can currently see to the other, giving plenty of space in the base itself. Meanwhile there is a large opening where I¡¯m assuming a gate will go leading into the center of the walls, which are made up of the repaired ruins from before. I still wouldn¡¯t call the buildings inside livable though, since the living spaces haven¡¯t been repaired all the way yet and still have quite a few holes in them. So everyone still looks to be living inside of the wooden structures they built before I ever even got out of the dungeon. Aidan and I continue walking further into the base, and the few people we pass by along the way nod their head with respect towards me, once again surprising me. Since it used to be fear. Even after they had calmed down a lot, there was still a small amount of fear in their gazes. But now there¡¯s just respect. Well, except William. He¡¯s obviously avoiding me. I guess that makes sense though. I did kind of feed his points to Astrid without hesitation. He¡¯s probably not very happy about that. We continue walking until we reach another open point on the wall facing directly towards the jungle. Except that this open point actually has some wood and stone structure partially built in it, making the start of a gate. A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation. Makes sense that they¡¯d be building the gate facing the jungle full of monsters before the one facing the bridge. More danger coming from that way. Aidan and I pass through the unfinished gate and continue walking towards my own clearing. ¡°Has the hellfrost dragon returned?¡± I ask, glancing at Aidan as we walk. But he just shakes his head and says, ¡°No, he hasn¡¯t returned from whatever island he went to.¡± ¡°That¡¯s good,¡± I respond before following it up with a short, ¡°Do you think he came from this island?¡± Aidan glances at me as he answers, ¡°Yeah. Why?¡± ¡°Well, I realized that if he did come from our island, then that would mean there was another dungeon here,¡± I explain to him while ducking under a branch. ¡°And if that¡¯s the case¡­¡± ¡°You wouldn¡¯t have to leave the island to find your last level capped monster and could just kill the one in the dungeon, and we would also get a second dungeon to train in ourselves,¡± he mutters, instantly understanding what I¡¯m getting at. Then he looks ahead again without pausing in his step as he says, ¡°Since the guy seemed more personally familiar with you, there¡¯s a good chance he¡¯s seen you before he saw Astrid. Which means he was probably on the island before the Tutorial even ended. And since he wasn¡¯t in the top ten on the leaderboards, there¡¯s a good chance he didn¡¯t finish his dungeon until later on.¡± Right. ¡°So he must¡¯ve come from our island as well,¡± I say, grinning slightly at that conclusion. While I could try teleporting to another island, it would be dangerous since I don¡¯t know how much soul it would cost to do that and if I undershoot then it¡¯ll be my death. I could also try waiting for another island to reach ours, but that would take a while and give the other level 100s a chance to pass me. So there being a dungeon on this island is the best case scenario. ¡°I¡¯ll go search for the dungeon after my soul recovers,¡± I tell Aidan, seemingly confusing him. Which reminds me that he still doesn¡¯t know about my whole mana and health merging thing. Then again, not like he needs to know. So I don¡¯t bother explaining. Instead I turn around and begin walking backwards with my hands held behind my back as I ask, ¡°Until then, is there anything you need me to do for the base? I¡¯d be happy to help if it isn¡¯t anything very big and doesn¡¯t require much soul.¡± He blinks before smiling and answering, ¡°There is, actually. Would you mind speaking with William for me?¡± I frown at that request. ¡°Why?¡± I ask, tilting my head slightly as we enter my clearing and I turn around again to walk forwards instead of backwards. ¡°He looked like he was behaving from what I saw back there.¡± Aidan shakes his head with a sad smile on his face, ¡°If only it were that simple.¡± ¡°Oh?¡± I utter while crossing my arms. ¡°Explain please.¡± He glances back at the base again before sighing and turning back to me as he says, ¡°Let¡¯s talk inside your portable home.¡± I raise a brow at that but shrug anyways and summon my portable home at the very same spot I summoned it the last time. Then we both step inside where Aidan begins explaining what happened while I was away and the others were in the dungeon. B1 | Chapter 85 - Suspicion Alexia I frown after Aidan finishes his explanation. ¡°That is a problem¡­¡± I mutter, making him nod his head in agreement. As it turns out, Aidan got a skill that lets himself camouflage himself and go into stealth. So he tailed William wherever he went for the first day just to keep an eye on him, and found that William was already colluding with another group behind our backs. Certainly would explain why he¡¯s been so docile, to the point of even listening to others and doing what he¡¯s told without complaint. I let out a sigh before asking, ¡°And how do you want me to deal with it?¡± Aidan¡¯s face grows cold as he says, ¡°I would like you to drop by when they next meet up tonight.¡± That has me raising a brow. ¡°Then you can do whatever you want from there, but I would prefer you kill the woman he¡¯s working with,¡± he says rather bluntly, making me blink in surprise before I ask, ¡°Why?¡± ¡°Because it¡¯s her,¡± Aidan says without explaining further. But he doesn¡¯t need to. Aidan, Astrid, and I have been through quite a bit together over the years, but the only incident where I really saw Aidan almost lose it was when a noble woman was extorting his family and, after being caught by Gramps, tried to kill him and Astrid over it. An event that we had unfortunately grown used to over the years, numbing us more than a little to death, even if that was one of the worse cases of it where she almost succeeded in killing Aidan¡¯s sister instead of Astrid. Aidan was already mad at that point because they were going after Astrid, but when they almost killed his sister too? It was the first time I had ever seen him lose it and begin physically assaulting someone else without any rationality backing it. Because the guy normally always keeps his calm. He always has things together. Both him and Astrid work together rather well in that regard. Although both Astrid and I find it rather annoying how he never seems to care about his own well-being. Only mine, Astrid¡¯s, and his sister¡¯s. This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. Speaking of his sister, he has to be worrying about her right about now, but he hasn¡¯t said a single word about going out to find her. Which is a little surprising, but knowing him, he¡¯s just bottling up the emotion and locking it away. A faint grin stretches across my face at the thought of killing the woman myself. ¡°Understood,¡± I tell him. It¡¯s kind of depressing how bad our old world was before the Reset. It was to the point that power and influence was all that really mattered. Some noble could quite literally walk into the slums and kill someone and get away with it without repercussions as long as they didn¡¯t do it enough to cause a major scandal. We were safe from any issues because of Gramps, but before Gramps entered our lives, things weren¡¯t so good. I wonder where Gramps is now? It would be nice if we could meet up with him and bring him back to our island. At least that¡¯s one thing the System¡¯s announcing and broadcasting of my name and face to everyone should¡¯ve accomplished. Getting the news to him that I¡¯m perfectly alright, even if I¡¯ve¡­ changed¡­ a bit. I hear squeaking, making me walk over to the balcony in my room where I bring my gaze up to the sky to find Luna flying down towards me looking rather happy, not to mention¡­ is she bigger or is it just me? The happy little quantum vampire bat lands on my shoulder and rubs her head against my neck, making me smile. Luna¡¯s been leaving me rather often to go off on her own, and every once in a while I get a System Message talking about a kill made that I didn¡¯t do. So my only guess as to what she¡¯s been doing is hunting. But I can¡¯t help but wonder how such a tiny little bat can hunt the types of monsters she¡¯s hunting. Is she really that strong? I mean, I know she¡¯s level 100 as well, but still¡­ she¡¯s smaller than the palm of my hand¡­ I blink as I take her in again. Okay, she¡¯s the size of the palm of my hand. Definitely gotten bigger. I hear Aidan clearing his throat from back in my room, so I turn around again as he says, ¡°They¡¯re supposed to be meeting up a little after night fall, so I¡¯ll tell you when William slips away.¡± ¡°Alright,¡± I respond with a nod of my head before he turns around and begins leaving my house. Now the question is, should I kill William or not? Guess that would depend on what exactly he¡¯s trying to do, but considering he¡¯s colluding with that woman, it¡¯s probably something detrimental to our group. May even be targeting me and Astrid actually. But one thing doesn¡¯t really add up. Why would he be so stupid as to betray us? Especially when I¡¯m here? From what I¡¯ve seen of the guy, he isn¡¯t stupid. But here he is doing something incredibly stupid. So why? I just don¡¯t understand his actions here. They just don¡¯t make sense to me. I frown as I try to come up with a reason for his actions, only to fail to do so and eventually just shrug and turn back into my room, closing the balcony doors behind me. Whatever. I will learn what he¡¯s doing tonight, so there¡¯s no point in trying to figure it out now. I walk up to my bed and lie down in it, beginning to focus on my energy manipulation. And right when I¡¯m getting into the groove of it again, the doorbell to my house rings. A doorbell I didn¡¯t realize I had. So I open my eyes again with a groan and walk over to the balcony before jumping down, not bothering to use the door. But to my surprise, I actually find William standing at my door, looking rather surprised to see me jumping down from the balcony. Oh? Now this is an interesting turn of events. B1 | Chapter 86 - Fear The Base Moments before Alexia¡¯s Arrival William very nearly flinches the moment he hears another loud clap from wooden panels attaching together through that girl¡¯s magic. But he calms down just as quickly again while mentally chiding himself for showing weakness again. Ever since his entire force was wiped out by that single girl, and he says girl generously because she is over half a century younger than him from what he¡¯s learned despite their appearances, he has been too frightened to step so much as a toe out of line. And every single time a loud noise akin to a snapping neck sounds, he finds himself filled with both fear and anxiety. It didn¡¯t help that the girl sent her twin sister to kill him for points. But at the same time, William somehow feels thankful she didn¡¯t do it herself. Almost as if that alone was some kind of blessing. How his idiotic subordinates were able to act out against her team right after being instantly annihilated by her is beyond him. But he didn¡¯t exactly select them for their intelligence. He chose them for their obedience and family connections. And with the damned duke¡¯s daughter betraying him at the very first opening, leaving him and everyone else behind for the Reaper to take their lives without a moment¡¯s hesitation? His trust in any of his old acquaintances has plummeted beyond belief. Not to mention the Reaper¡¯s trust in him, which was practically nonexistent to begin with. My only way to survive now¡­ I have to get The Reaper to take me on as a subordinate. That¡¯ll be my only way to live without worrying about someone else betraying me¡­ or without the Reaper herself taking my life. He feels a shiver run down his spine at the memory of her glowing purple eyes filled with naught but a single emotion. As if he and his underlings were just insects biting away at her twin¡¯s legs that she needed to get rid of. And no matter the reassurances from the others that she is actually a nice person, he still can¡¯t get that image out of his mind. The utter indifference the girl shows towards her enemies. He never wants to be her enemy again. William occasionally glances in the direction of the bridge, wondering just when she¡¯ll get back. After he was contacted by the former viscountess of the Kingdom with an offer for her protection in exchange for the heads of two people ¨C The Reaper and her twin ¨C he found a new possibility. A way to regain even the slightest bit of trust and position amongst the group and in the Reaper¡¯s eyes. This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. As a double agent for The Reaper should she need one. William¡¯s gaze immediately snaps back towards the bridge again when he hears the warping and glitching sound of the Reaper¡¯s teleportation, following which he sees her glitching into place on the bridge before walking over to talk to Aidan. And William immediately whips his gaze back around to focus entirely on his work, feeling terror just looking at her. Then he waits for her and Aidan to cross through the base, and waits even longer after that until Aidan gets back from talking with her. After he does, William takes a deep breath and clears up his work for the time being before heading over to the Reaper¡¯s clearing, vaguely sensing Aidan following him with his stealth magic. Stealth magic that William will have to warn him has more than a few ways to be detected even by someone of the same or lower level if they have a high enough level skill in Mana Manipulation. William continues walking through the jungle until he arrives at the Reaper¡¯s clearing, following which he walks up to her house and takes a deep breath. All while he senses Aidan standing behind him, the man believing himself to be invisible to him. But he doesn¡¯t say anything. Because he knows it would just make him seem even more suspicious to them. Instead he clenches his fist to mentally prepare himself before finally reaching for and ringing the doorbell. And not long after, he hears a thump sound from behind him, making him swirl around to find the Reaper having just dropped from the balcony instead of going through the house to open the door. William¡¯s eyes widen with fright at the woman as she directly meets his gaze with her own purple eyes, a look of indifference in her gaze matching that of the one she had before when she killed his subordinates. ¡°Now what could you want?¡± she asks, tilting her head ever so slightly and crossing one arm over her stomach while tapping her chin with her other hand. Still with that indifferent look in her eyes. William doesn¡¯t waste any time as he bows low to the ground and says, ¡°I apologize, Lady Reaper, for bothering you today, and for attacking your sister and her friends before. I deeply regret my actions and do not expect forgiveness.¡± He waits for a second before rising again to his full height, which, ironically, is several inches taller than her. Which doesn¡¯t help his position. ¡°I assume this isn¡¯t the only reason you¡¯ve come here?¡± The Reaper asks, no longer tapping her chin as she narrows her eyes slightly, sending another chill down William¡¯s spine. He hurriedly nods his head and says, ¡°You¡¯re correct, I also came here to tell you about the former Viscountess Rose Carter who has been contacting me. She wishes for me to bring her you and your sister¡¯s heads in exchange for taking me in, but I do not wish to betray the group and chose to let her believe I was working with her before telling you.¡± The Reaper doesn¡¯t say anything for several seconds before her gaze changes to a more normal and warmer one as she glances at Aidan, who should still be using his stealth skill, and says, ¡°What do you think, Aidan?¡± Aidan appears, canceling his stealth skill with a sour look on his face ¨C likely due to her finding him with apparent ease ¨C as he says, ¡°He doesn¡¯t sound like he¡¯s lying, but I¡¯m pretty sure he¡¯s only doing this out of fear.¡± William feels his entire body freezing stiff at that comment. Shit! ¡°Yeah, I thought so,¡± the Reaper says, turning her gaze back to him again, her gaze once more becoming indifferent as she says, ¡°I guess this makes things easier then.¡± Makes what easier?! B1 | Chapter 87 - Answers and More Questions Alexia I tap my foot a few times before asking, ¡°Alright, first answer me a few questions.¡± The man stiffens up even more, showcasing his obvious fear towards me. ¡°First, why did you accept her request for contact?¡± Despite his fear, he answers right away without a single ounce of hesitation, ¡°I accepted so that I could act as a double agent for you.¡± Sound about like what I expected. He¡¯s too smart to betray me after what happened, and according to Aidan, the woman is only about level fifty. Meaning I can kill her as easily as snapping her neck. William would have to be a complete imbecile to think he stood a chance even with help from someone. ¡°Next question,¡± I continue, no longer tapping my foot. ¡°It should¡¯ve been obvious that she wasn¡¯t a threat to me, so why not just tell the others? Why play double agent?¡± Once again, he answers without hesitation, ¡°To keep her from attacking the base while you were gone so that you could deal with her the moment you got back.¡± I purse my lips, raising a brow in intrigue. Not a bad answer. ¡°Last question,¡± I state, crossing my arms slightly as I glance at Aidan then back at William. ¡°Just how is that asshole so stupid as to believe she could actually stand a chance against me at level fifty?¡± William blinks, his surprise at my question overriding his fear for a moment before he glances at Aidan and asks, ¡°You didn¡¯t tell her?¡± A smirk stretches across my lips at the sight of Aidan¡¯s shocked face as he shouts, ¡°Wait, you knew I was watching you?!¡± Now William looks scared again while he glances at me and answers, ¡°Well, yeah.¡± Then he looks back at Aidan after seemingly confirming that I wasn¡¯t gonna kill him or something. ¡°Anyone with a high enough level in Mana Manipulation can sense a basic stealth skill like that.¡± I hide my mouth behind my hand as I casually look the other way, acting like I¡¯m not trying hard to keep a straight face right now. Not that it works considering the betrayed look I find on Aidan¡¯s face when I look back at him. ¡°From what I can tell, that woman doesn¡¯t remember your name,¡± William says before turning to look at me, making me frown, ¡°apparently she got amnesia after running into the hellfrost dragon killed her before the Tutorial ended, and all she remembered after leaving stasis was you and your sisters¡¯ names.¡± He shrugs. ¡°She didn¡¯t even remember the broadcast that showed you or even your name. And apparently she is so focused on killing you two, who are the only ones she still remembers, that she hasn¡¯t bothered with anything else.¡± If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. That sounds even more suspicious than William betraying us did. ¡°Any chance there¡¯s a mental magic user mind controlling her or just manipulating her into this?¡± I ask, glancing between William and Aidan. And they both nod their heads with William answering, ¡°Most likely. Even someone with amnesia wouldn¡¯t be that narrowminded.¡± Which means there¡¯s either someone trying to kill me, someone offering her up to me on a silver platter, or someone trying to kill the asshole. If I had to guess, it¡¯s one of the latter two answers. I look at Aidan as I ask, ¡°Do you think someone¡¯s trying to kill her, or someone¡¯s trying to offer her up to me?¡± Aidan frowns, and so does William. Then Aidan answers, ¡°Considering that the hellfrost dragon was the one who killed her, I feel he might have something to do with this. But¡­¡± ¡°A hellfrost dragon shouldn¡¯t have any mental magic available to them, so if it was him then he had to have been working with someone else,¡± William answers for Aidan, making me nod in agreement. ¡°Well, either way,¡± I state, a grin stretching across my face. ¡°I can¡¯t wait to visit her.¡± I notice William shivering slightly at my words but ignore it as I step back into my house while waving for the two to come in. ¡°So you two should be meeting in a few hours? After sundown?¡± I ask while walking, and out of the corner of my eye I find William nodding, answering, ¡°Yes. This was meant to be the last meeting before she launches her attack on the base. I wasn¡¯t able to stall her any longer, but now it won¡¯t be a problem.¡± ¡°Hmm,¡± I hum as I walk, considering how to deal with this situation. Then I pause to glance at my status, finding my soul almost half recovered by now. Meaning it¡¯ll take about four hours to recover the rest. I won¡¯t have all of my soul by the time she arrives, but I shouldn¡¯t need much at all to deal with a level fifty, so it¡¯s not a problem. And I can head off to find the dungeon after I finish dealing with the viscountess. Or rather, former viscountess. It¡¯s still a little surprising that she¡¯s alive though. I thought Gramps dealt with her a while back. Then again, she did have quite a bit of influence despite doing what she did, so I wouldn¡¯t be surprised if she just had some sort of restraining order to not get anywhere near me, Astrid, Aidan, or his sister ever again. Gramps never did say what exactly happened. Just that she was ¡®dealt with¡¯ and that we ¡®didn¡¯t need to worry about it anymore.¡¯ ¡°What was her class?¡± I ask after we reach the rather barren living room and I sit down on a plain, gray sofa. ¡°A rare class, Spectral Sorceress,¡± Aidan answers right away, making me purse my lips in thought. It was still a breach of etiquette to identify someone before the Reset, so I don¡¯t know what her class was back then. But I do know she had fire magic. So it looks like she¡¯s changed areas to focus on since. Well, guess it doesn¡¯t really matter when she¡¯s only level fifty. I¡¯m pretty sure she wouldn¡¯t even be able to scratch me with a physical attack, and even a magical one would be very easy to block. And that¡¯s assuming she could stop me from teleporting behind her and grabbing her by the neck. Only thing I can do now is wait for her to show up. B1 | Chapter 88 - Revenge and the Dungeon Alexia When the time comes and I sense someone approaching the base, I don¡¯t even bother waiting for William to head out to meet her. I just teleport out of my house and then teleport several more times until I arrive right in front of the woman. A woman who I can clearly tell is the very same one from before. And she looks mad the moment she sees me. Not that I care if she¡¯s made or not as I reach over and grab her neck, lifting her into the air despite her being taller than me by a few inches. She tries to speak, but I cut her off, not bothering to listen to what she has to say considering the rather insane and very angry look in her eyes as she practically claws at my hand wrapped around her throat. Then I tilt my head slightly and ask, ¡°So why are you here? Aside from killing me of course.¡± I lighten my grip slightly to let her speak in the off chance she chooses to answer, and all she does is gasp in a breath of air and scream rather hoarsely, ¡°You bitch!!! Let me go! You¡¯re the reason I lost everything!¡± Lost everything? Guess Gramps really did a number on her even if her Noble Rank saved her from worse punishments. That or he chose to let her live just as a punishment. I could see him doing that. Taking everything away from her and leaving her with nothing or something. He can be rather ruthless when it comes to people outside our little family. Anyways, the woman starts babbling on about what exactly Gramps did, which, as I guessed, was basically just take away everything she cared about, left her without a way to grow stronger through somehow taking away her affinity ¨C which explains why she has a different class now ¨C and banned her from anywhere she could possibly get help from. Then he had someone he knew put a curse on her that would inflict extreme pain if she ever got near me, Aidan, Astrid, or Aidan¡¯s sister ever again. Just as brutal as I expected. How she remembered all of that when William said she had amnesia is beyond me though. Actually, I ask, ¡°Didn¡¯t you have amnesia? How do you remember all of this?¡± The insanity in her eyes grows and she starts floundering around everywhere, swinging her legs and punching and kicking me as she screams some rather difficult to understand comments. But after silently listening and nodding my head for a while, I finally understand everything. I think. Then I snap her neck and toss her to the side with a Quantum Bolt that makes her corpse blow up. If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation. ¡°Did you get all that?¡± Aidan asks, having arrived at some point during the woman¡¯s screaming fit. Although considering how loud she was being I¡¯m surprised the rest of the base isn¡¯t out here as well. I nod my head and answer, ¡°Yeah. Looks like whoever messed with her memories just filled her head with knowledge of only me, Astrid, and Gramps, and nothing else. They also seem to have taken away her ability to link me with the first ranked, which is a little frightening.¡± I frown. ¡°Whoever did it has to have a Legendary Feat. But for there to be another one so close by¡­¡± ¡°Do you think the hellfrost dragon found them and is working with them, bringing them around everywhere?¡± Aidan asks, and I can¡¯t help but consider the possibility. The idea of a Class S species and a Legendary Feat holder working together makes me a little nervous though, even with it looking like they¡¯re helping us. Since they would¡¯ve known she wouldn¡¯t be any threat to me at all, making sending her to do harm a pointless endeavor. And if they are strong enough to mess with her memory, they¡¯re strong enough to read it as well. So they¡¯ll know who that woman was to me and Astrid. I stare at the still-glitching corpse for a few seconds before turning around and beginning to head into the jungle. ¡°My soul¡¯s recovered enough, so I¡¯ll be heading off to find the dungeon the hellfrost dragon came out of,¡± I tell Aidan without looking at him. Aidan doesn¡¯t say anything for a second before eventually answering rather awkwardly, ¡°Well, uh, I¡¯ll just deal with¡­ this¡­¡± And I don¡¯t even have to look back at him to understand that he¡¯s referring to disposing of the woman¡¯s corpse. As I walk away, not even teleporting this time, I take a deep, shaky breath. And the moment I get out of sight from William and Aidan, I feel my hand clenching into a shaky fist. Weak or not, the memory of that woman holding Astrid and me both by the throat¡­ isn¡¯t one I¡¯ll be getting rid of soon. But at least she¡¯s dealt with and I¡¯ll never see her again. At least Astrid wasn¡¯t here to deal with her. I take in a deep breath once more before letting it out, clenching my fists and unclenching them once, and then beginning to teleport towards the Safe Zone where I switch out Poison Resistance for Dungeon Map. Then I start teleporting through the jungle while using Energy Manipulation to find the dungeon. And it doesn¡¯t end up taking very long to find it strictly due to the rather large wave of energy I feel coming off of it the moment I get near. Especially since I start my search at the center of the island, planning on going outwards from there only to find it on my way there instead. Convenient. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Dungeon ¨C Thunder Highlands Description: This is a basic dungeon located within Dimensional Block #108. Monsters: The Primary monster type in this dungeon are avian monsters, with the secondary type being monsters with the lightning affinity in plains and mountains. Requirements To Enter: N/A Dungeon Tier: 1 -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Guess it matches the now-dead level-capped monster of this island. Without any hesitation, I walk up to the structure that is literally just a large arc with a portal under it standing in the middle of the open before touching it and entering inside of the dungeon. Time for another dungeon run. B1 | Chapter 89 - Thunder Highlands Alexia Unlike the Crawling Caverns, the Thunder Highlands starts me out in a rather large and open plain with a lot of thunder and lightning striking down everywhere. Meanwhile random spires of what look like metal are sticking out of the ground in natural-looking formations that are acting as lightning rods. But not all of the bolts of lightning are hitting them, leaving the ground charred slightly from the impact. Not as charred as I thought a lightning bolt would leave the ground though. Which makes me wonder if the grass and soil have some metal in them too or just something else that lets them conduct the electricity without being burnt. It¡¯s too bad you can¡¯t actually interact with or destroy the environment in a dungeon unless that particular spot of the dungeon was made specifically to be destroyable. So we can¡¯t just take this metal back with us. I continue to look around until I find some sort of horse monster wandering around. {Lesser Kyre ¨C Level 2} A kyre? A little surprising to see one of those here. Basically a lesser kirin, but a lesser version of that lesser version. Only level 2 though, so I proceed to walk past it, ignoring the monster. Unlike in the Crawling Caverns, killing everything here is just a waste of my time. Since they don¡¯t give me anything in return. The lesser kyre looks frightened by me anyways as it runs away the moment I get near with some electric charge building up around its feet in the process. And I let it get away before following after it, deciding that it might be able to lead me to the next area of the dungeon. I hope.
A grin stretches across my face half an hour later when I find myself standing on a hill overlooking a large herd of kyre. One surrounding a lake with lightning striking all through them, hitting the kyre from time to time and supercharging them to their apparent pleasure. To the point that the lightning isn¡¯t even striking the metal. Guess it¡¯s attracted to them. That or they¡¯re just drawing it to themselves through magic. Well, putting the stark white lightning absorbing horses with horns aside, I focus my attention solely on the random arc with a portal sitting right in front of the lake in the middle of the herd. There¡¯s the way to the next area. Still not sure why this floor is full of nothing but lightning absorbing horses when the dungeon is labeled as focusing largely on avians though. I quickly begin teleporting down the hill and through the kyre, each of whom runs away from me the moment I get near. And soon enough I enter the portal and find myself appearing in a place similar yet still different from where I just was. Just with no kyre, with more metal spires, and more lightning. If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. Instead of the lightning horses, there are now lightning birds. Just like the thunder hawks, except eagles this time. Although instead of the level 1s through 10s that were in the other area, the birds I can see from here are levels 10 through 15. But I wouldn¡¯t be surprised if their leader, wherever they are, is a higher level. I let out a sigh before beginning to search for the way to the next area of the dungeon. This is gonna get boring really quickly until I find monsters that are actually at my level. But the only one here at my level is the final boss, so that¡¯ll take a while. I glance at the corner of my vision while thinking about the Dungeon Map skill, and a little mini-map appears with the areas of the dungeon that I¡¯ve already been in filled out. And to my surprise, I find a little treasure chest marked on the map just a hill away from my location. Interesting. While ignoring the fleeing birds that fly away in terror the moment they spot me, I begin teleporting over to the place marked on the map, where I end up finding a rather large spire of metal at that exact location. Guessing there¡¯s a hidden area somewhere here? I walk around the spire of metal twice, not finding anything before I eventually just frown at the thing. Doesn¡¯t look like there¡¯s any crevasse or entryway into the spire. There could always be some sort of tunnel nearby leading inside, but¡­ I purse my lips for a second, folding my arms as I consider my options. Eventually I nod my head to myself and raise a palm to the spire of metal. Then I sent a few Quantum Bolts at it, making it glitch apart and blow up with each one until I eventually reveal a loot box at the center of it. Nice. Violence is always the answer. I frown and tilt my head slightly at that thought. Actually, is it violence if it¡¯s just a spire made of ore and metal that I¡¯m blasting apart? I¡¯m just gonna go ahead and say it¡¯s not and leave it there. With a slight nod of my head, satisfied with the answer to that little internal dilemma, I step up to the loot box and place my hand on top of it, making a ring very similar to my current basic spatial ring appear above it. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Lesser Spatial Ring Description: This spatial ring can hold thirty cubic meters of non-living matter and it has been created to perfectly fit the original finder, Alexia Knight, on their index finger. Stats Bonus: +10 MAG, +10 MEN Requirements: Must have one elemental affinity beyond D Grade. Item Tier: 2 (Item Tier increased by one due to the Legendary Feat, The First Clear) -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Oh? That¡¯s pretty good. An upgrade to my basic spatial ring with a carrying capacity of three times the other ring¡¯s. It also gives twice the stats and has the same requirement. The First Clear¡¯s bonus is already coming in handy. I wonder if it¡¯ll affect Nest clears too though? Since I¡¯ll be heading back to the Nest after clearing this dungeon. I would¡¯ve dealt with it sooner, but I don¡¯t want to risk someone else reaching Tier 2 before me. My old ring should work nicely for Astrid, so I¡¯ll drop by and give it to her on my way to the Nest. Assuming she¡¯s out of the dungeon that is. She probably won¡¯t be though. In which case she¡¯ll have to wait. I quickly put on the new ring before beginning to look around for the next area. B1 | Chapter 90 - The Berserker of the Thunder Highlands Part I Alexia Over the next several hours I end up leveling up Quantum Displacement again while searching through the dungeon and finding two more hidden areas, each of which have a boss in them unlike the first. And only the second boss is of any consequence since the first was just level 50. The second was about the same level as the mana eater in the Crawling Caverns. I glance at the items both of them gave me without pausing in my walk across the rather large plateau, ignoring the lightning bolts striking down all around me. One of the items was a simple set of armor. A worse set than my current one that I¡¯ll probably end up giving to Astrid once she leaves the Crawling Caverns, assuming she doesn¡¯t get a better armor set there. And the other item is a second Tier potion. Something I will be keeping for myself since it could save me in a pinch. I look up again as I store the two items in my spatial ring to find a bunch of higher leveled lesser kyres roaming around the plateau. Kyres that are all between levels eighty-five to ninety-five. Something I¡¯ve learned about these creatures is that their perception is rather narrow. They only pay attention to what¡¯s directly in front of them. So if I don¡¯t walk directly into their eyesight, they won¡¯t care about me. Except the lower leveled ones. They seem to be instinctively terrified of the energy my body naturally emits, just like most other lower leveled monsters. It still feels a tad odd having monsters that would¡¯ve been able to annihilate me without any trouble before the Reset running away in terror from me now. I smile at that thought as I continue walking through, only occasionally taking time to kill a kyre when they turn and happen to look at me, making them charge straight at me without a hint of hesitation. The creatures are rather berserk. Makes me wonder what a real kirin would be. A kirin is a Class S species though, so I wouldn¡¯t find one in a dungeon. At most I might find a greater kyre or a luminescent kyre. Another kyre suddenly begins charging at me, so I teleport out of the way before throwing my polearm, impaling it through the throat mid-charge and sending it skidding across the ground. Then I resummon my polearm and continue walking. The author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. It doesn¡¯t take long for me to pause again when I feel a powerful source of energy approaching. And at the same time, I find thick bolts of lightning striking to the South of me, some of them even drawing other bolts of lightning there as well. So I grin and begin teleporting over in that direction, where I quickly find what I¡¯m looking for. The final boss of this dungeon. {Rampaging Kyre ¨C Level 100} This¡¯ll be the first pseudo Class C I¡¯ll have ever fought before. A Class C with the intelligence of a Class D or E but the stats of a Class C. Powerful but without almost any intelligence. A real berserker. And it¡¯s charging directly at me right now. I quickly teleport out of the way of its charge, barely avoiding the various bolts of lightning striking all around it in the process. And without any delay, the creature turns around in an instant and continues charging at me. Then I teleport away again and the process repeats several times, making me frown in annoyance. I¡¯ve already adapted to both magical and non-magical lightning, so getting struck won¡¯t deal too much damage to me. At least not any more than it would¡¯ve previously done without taking my magic weakness into account. Although that¡¯s assuming this is a magical attack and not a regular one. If it¡¯s not a magical attack then it shouldn¡¯t do that much damage at all. I continue teleporting out of the way of the attack for a bit until I realize that the kyre is growing angrier and angrier. And its lightning seems to be reflecting that in its gradually increasing speed. Shit, that¡¯s not good. If it keeps getting faster then I might not be able to teleport quickly enough to avoid the lightning. Before I can worry about that though, I notice something else about the lightning. The faster the lightning seems to go, the more it seems to be drawn towards the metal spires around us. Just that the lightning isn¡¯t getting close enough to the spires to change targets entirely. Interesting. I begin teleporting closer to the spires, only for the lightning bolts to suddenly start moving even faster towards me. Meanwhile the kyre lets out a loud neigh of rage and stops in its place, raising both of its front legs and slamming them back onto the ground, sending a wave of lightning straight towards me too fast for me to react to it. I let out a cry of pain as the lightning runs through my body as the large wave of lightning continues passing by, supercharging all of the spires around me in the process. But I manage to regain control again and spam teleports out of the wave of lightning before I drop down to one knee, feeling my body too numbed to move. So I use Quantum Reversal, making me let out another cry of pain as the damage is reversing at the price of nearly a third of my soul. After recovering I quickly climb back to my feet and teleport away again right when the kyre tries charging at me, apparently not needing to recover from its attack at all. I quickly pull some soul from Luna, whose soul is currently filled to the brim as she does whatever she¡¯s doing outside of the dungeon. Then I grit my teeth and resolve myself to dealing with some more pain as I teleport straight up to the kyre, swinging my polearm towards its neck with lightning quickly latching onto both me and my weapon. But I don¡¯t pay the pain any mind this time, not even when I hear the sound of a System Message playing out. To my absolute shock and horror though, the kyre suddenly vanishes from its place with lightning running through its hair before it reappears nearly two dozen meters away while raising its front hooves again with a loud neigh, leaving me swiping at air with my blade. It doesn¡¯t send another wave of lightning at me after putting them back down though. The fucking horse can teleport?! B1 | Chapter 90.2 - The Berserker of the Thunder Highlands Part II Alexia The horse in question snorts once, raises its front legs again, and charges at me again, sending more bolts of lightning both from its fur and the skies down towards me. Meanwhile I use Quantum Reversal once more to get rid of the damage I took in my attempt to attack it before teleporting away from the lightning. I grit my teeth as we return to our little dance from earlier, but this time I¡¯m sending Quantum Bolts back at it while occasionally using Quantum Burst as well when the lightning bolts, which are still growing faster, begin to get too fast for me to avoid all of them. Eventually I begin using Quantum Resonance to increase my speed, making little glitchy flakes of purple light appear from my skin as I run and teleport. But even then I don¡¯t manage to avoid them all and have to fight back against the lightning bolts. And when I try throwing my polearm at the kyre, the monster just makes a net of lightning that blocks it for long enough for the monster to avoid the attack. Damnit, if I could just get close to the stupid horse I would be able to kill it with ease! Kyres are entirely magical creatures with little to no physical prowess aside from their speed! Why is this one able to teleport though?! And why is its teleportation skill better than my own? Wait. I blink before teleporting again and sending a Quantum Bolt straight at an approaching lightning bolt to counter it. It didn¡¯t move much after teleporting and all of its momentum stopped from before the teleportation. And I think¡­ did it look tired? So its teleportation has more drawbacks than mine. That would make sense. In that case¡­ I teleport straight towards the thing again, repeatedly doing it until I arrive right in front of it again while swinging my polearm at its neck, only for it to teleport again. But I don¡¯t sit still this time, even with the pain running through me from the lightning it had shocked me with in that attempt. I continue teleporting over to it even after it teleports away once. Then it stomps on the ground once, sending a large pulse of lightning outwards from its body in a sphere, knocking me away with another wave of pain that I quickly reverse using Quantum Reversal with a loud scream. By the time I hit the ground again, I find my body already healed again. But most of my soul is drained now, leaving me with just a quarter of my total soul left. The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement. {Congratulations! Your Passive Skill ¡®Quantum Adaptation¡¯ has reached Level 7!} I ignore the skill¡¯s level-up as I grimace. Looks like multiple teleports to get there won¡¯t work either. I have to teleport straight to it twice in a row to attack. I quickly look at my skills list before focusing on the kyre once more. There¡¯s a good chance I could raise Quantum Displacement to Tier 2 in this battle. And that¡¯s the only thing I can see possibly bringing me victory here. So I continue our little dance while draining more soul from Luna, feeling her giving her permission in my mind somehow as I do so. Time passes as I continue avoiding lightning bolts, and eventually the bolts start to slow down. But the monster in question doesn¡¯t, proving just how strong this creature¡¯s stamina is. Not to mention its massive mana pool. Then again, a kyre¡¯s mana pool is supposedly over ten times its health. I grimace as I watch my soul gradually lowering until I¡¯m back down to just a quarter of my soul again, with Luna¡¯s skill having reached its limit in terms of how much we can share. And right when I¡¯m beginning to consider running away from the fight, I get the System Message I¡¯m looking for. {Congratulations! Your Active Skill ¡®Quantum Displacement¡¯ has reached Level 10! Would you like to expend a Monster Core to raise the skill to Tier 2?} ¡°Yes!¡± I answer out loud in a half-shout, and I immediately feel a wave of quantum energy roving over my body and my spatial ring for a single instant. Then I get another System Message. {Congratulations! Your Active Skill ¡®Quantum Displacement¡¯ has reached Tier 2 Level 11!} {Congratulations! You have leveled up to the level cap of Tier 1! In order to break into Tier 2, you must complete the following requirements based on your class: Kill three beings at the cap of Tier 1. Raise a single skill to Tier 2. Learn the Energy Manipulation General Skill.} [A skill has been brought to Tier 2. Requirement to bring a skill to Tier 2 has been cleared.] Without any hesitation, I immediately teleport several dozen meters away, far beyond what my previous version of the skill would let me teleport, before teleporting straight back to the kyre, who is confused as to why I teleported away. But it still manages to teleport away itself, seemingly out of instinct. Then I teleport after it, bringing my polearm straight down across its neck, not letting it recover from its teleport as I cut the thing¡¯s head cleanly off its neck. [Level 100 Rampaging Kyre Defeated. No EXP is given due to the user¡¯s level being capped. Three Tier 1 Capped beings defeated. Requirement to defeat three Tier 1 Capped beings cleared. All requirements are now cleared. User will now advance to Tier 2.] I collapse onto my back, panting in exhaustion despite my body not needing oxygen. And despite the pride that fills me at knowing I¡¯ve won, I can¡¯t help but feel irritated that there wasn¡¯t a Legendary Feat for being the first to bring a skill to Tier 2. Then again, wasn¡¯t really expecting one. The only publicly known Legendary Feats for being the first to bring a skill to any specific Tiers are for being the first to bring a skill to Tier 3, first to bring one to Tier 5, and first to bring one to Ascendancy. Along with a regular Feat for anyone who brings a skill to Ascendancy. Several seconds pass as quantum energy builds up all throughout my body, with me just watching as the process goes on. And without any warning, a pulse of purple light shines out from me and the pain starts, making me lose consciousness within seconds. B1 | Intermission 3 On the Peak of a Mountain in Dimensional Block #51 Isabella d¡¯Aragon looks on indifferently after burning the last Tier 1 Level Capped monster to a crisp with her Dragons Breath skill. And right afterwards she gets a System Message telling her that the second requirement of her three requirements have been cleared for her to advance to Tier 2. She snorts out a puff of smoke from her nostrils, still feeling stifled at being stuck in her humanoid form thanks to being Tier 1. I need to reach Tier 3 as fast as I can to reclaim my true form. Isabella looks down from the mountain peak she is currently on before flapping her red, draconic wings once and soaring up into the sky. Then she begins flying through the air over the seemingly endless expanse of mountains that stretches across the entire Block. A Block she¡¯s heard the lesser species she¡¯s passed by calling the Endless Chain. Simply due to the mountains all being in a chain formation with a valley in between each mountain. Or a formation similar to a chess board without the mountains directly touching. Except the rare mountain like the one she had just left, which was several times the size of the other mountains due to being the home of a level capped monster. I hope I can find a magical ore of the fire element soon. Isabella frowns at the thought, irritated at having to go through the process of ascension again after tens of thousands of years since when she reached Ascendancy. After flying through the air for several minutes though, she pauses at the sound of a Legendary Feat appearing her vision eyes widening slightly for the first time in a long while.
Legendary Feat ¨C The Vanguard Alexia Knight has reached Tier 2 before anyone else in the System!
She beat me to Tier 2. The Ancestral Dragon feels¡­ strange at the thought of someone having surpassed her. Even the Hound of the Apocalypse wasn¡¯t necessarily strong enough to defeat her before the Reset, even if he was the highest leveled individual in the System. But there¡¯s no doubt the Reaper would be able to defeat her as she is now. The girl is also a Class S species, just like Isabella. And she¡¯s a higher Tier than her as well. Isabella opens the Dimensional Champion Leaderboards. [Dimensional Champion Leaderboard] [#1 Alexia Knight ¨C Level 101] [#2 Isabella d''Aragon ¨C Level 100] Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation. [#3 Alexander Frost ¨C Level 100] [#4 Lucas Nightshade ¨C Level 100] [#5 Leif Eriksson ¨C Level 100] [#6 Aurora Frost ¨C Level 100] [#7 Leonidas Silver ¨C Level 100] [#8 Damien Black ¨C Level 100] [#9 Ignivara ¨C Level 100] [#10 Artorius del Argon ¨C Level 100] After staring at the leaderboards for several seconds, simply feeling dumbfounded at having been beaten, Isabella shakes her head again, her indifference returning to her posture as she resumes her flight over the mountains. The Class Specific Requirement must¡¯ve been a simple thing for her. Whether that was through outside guidance by another Quantum Being, or through species instinct. And it couldn¡¯t have been an item gathering requirement like mine is. Isabella frowns at the thought that the current rank one might¡¯ve gained that position simply due to the nature of her species, but then she shakes her head at the thought. Because many other System users could the same thing about her. She is a hellfire dragon after all. The Ancestral Dragon continues flying through the mountains for a while, only to pause and narrow her eyes after several minutes as she begins to sense a familiar energy. Then she flies down to the ground and begins digging before eventually finding a large red stone that quickly dissolves into her body before reappearing as a gemstone on her forehead. Better late than never. Just seconds later, the System Ascension Barrier forms around her to protect her from attacks as she passes out from the pain of ascending from Tier 1 to Tier 2, her last requirement having been completed.
Deep Underwater in Dimensional Block #1 The Hound of the Apocalypse raises both of his hands and lets out a shout as he sends bolts of black shadows and light straight at the large level 100 squid at the center of the pocket of air filled with ancient ruins likely created by the System for show. And his skill immediately finishes off the large monster, clearing his third and final requirement ¨C to kill two level-capped monsters. But moments before he does so, a Legendary Feat echoes out through his head, making his satisfied look turn dark.
Legendary Feat ¨C The Vanguard Alexia Knight has reached Tier 2 before anyone else in the System!
Then Lucas finds himself glaring at the notification with genuine frustration on his face. Something most people almost never find on the Hound¡¯s face or body language. ¡°She beat me¡­¡± he begins, his voice quiet before he raises it into a shout, ¡°By fucking seconds?!?¡± For the first time in years, Lucas feels anger radiating through his mind. But for some reason, when the image of the Reaper¡¯s face enters his mind, his rage cools down in an instant, leaving him feeling strange. Just why?! Why does she look so much like Crystal?! Every time he remembers the girl¡¯s face, he feels a wave of nostalgia, happiness, and sadness all in one. Each time he remembers Crystal¡¯s face when she last looked at him face to face, right before she left him forever for the unforgiveable sin he had committed without even remembering doing it. But whether he remembers or not, he still did it. And it¡¯s still a black mark on his history. What he wishes to know is why he did it. And why he doesn¡¯t remember doing it. Why he slaughtered all of the angels in the Holy Continent. The act that gave him the Title of the Hound of the Apocalypse. One that¡¯s only made ironic considering the species he selected to upgrade himself into through his tutorial points. A Fallen Angel. And to make matters worse, the mannerisms that he had briefly shown the girl making when she was on the throne reminded him even more of his best friend. It can¡¯t be a coincidence. It just can¡¯t be. Lucas feels the pain of his ascension beginning to appear along with the barrier, but he just closes his eyes with one last thought on his mind before everything goes dark. I have to see her in person. There¡¯s no way around it. B1 | Chapter 91 - Tier 2 Alexia I draw in a gasp of air and shoot up into a sitting position as soon as my eyes snap open despite not needing to. Then I look around, finding the Ascension Barrier that¡¯s meant to protect any being currently ascending Tiers during the process slowly fading away. But I don¡¯t focus on that. I don¡¯t even focus on the loot box I see sitting nearby. Instead I focus on my System Messages and the Legendary Feat Notification that I¡¯ve gotten since waking up, starting with the Legendary Feat. Which seems to have already changed from the public announcement version to the private version for me telling me what it gives me.
Legendary Feat ¨C The Vanguard As the first being to ascend in Tier within the System, you are gifted with a token that you may use to upgrade your class whenever you desire to the next rarity. This is a one-time-use item and will vanish after use.
My mouth drops open at that and I have to immediately stem my desire to use the token that appears in my hand. Because it would just be a waste to use it now. I carefully put the token in my spatial ring for safe keeping. The rarity of a class will often be upgraded as you ascend in Tier, but not with every ascension. And the higher the rarity of your class, the harder it will be to upgrade it further. So having a free upgrade token will really help out when my class stagnates in rarity later on. I smile at the thought of possibly getting it to mythical in the future. Or I could try to get it to mythical naturally and see if there¡¯s some sort of hidden rarity above mythical. Doubt that¡¯s the case though, but it couldn¡¯t hurt. If there isn¡¯t then I could just give it to Astrid. I¡¯ll have to wait and see what happens though. There¡¯s always the chance I might need to use it in an emergency to raise my stats in a fight or something. The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement. The System Messages flow by after the Legendary Feat. {Congratulations! You have reached Tier 2! The effect of each stat point has been increased by ten percent and your level lock has been removed! Current advanced stats are 30% weakness to all magic, 80% immunity to all physical damage, and a stat multiplier of 1.16.} {Congratulations! You have leveled up to level 101! Your Species has awarded you +2 VIT, +2 DEX, +2 STR, +2 MAG, and +2 MEN. Your Class has awarded you +1 VIT, +1 DEX, +1 STR, +2 MAG, and +2 MEN.} [*New Racial Skill* ¨C Quantum Equilibrium: Due to the balanced quantum state of a Quantum Reaper, you grow naturally resistant towards any and all status effects.] {Congratulations! You have cleared the Dungeon known as the Thunder Highlands! Touch the loot box to claim your reward!} Nothing I didn¡¯t already expect, although that new racial skill is going to come in handy. It¡¯s too bad it¡¯s not an immunity, but considering the weakness that Quantum Body gives me, it might be for the best. Since if it did give full immunity to status effects it would probably have to give me something bad as well to make up for it. The System is balanced after all. Even if it¡¯s messed up in its own way. I¡¯ve never seen a skill working against all status effects, so it¡¯s already a really good skill. Like a resistance skill towards everything of one category. Pretty good. Also means I won¡¯t have to worry as much about things like poison, paralysis, stuns, mind control, or anything like that. Although what exactly is considered a status effect was never fully determined even before the Reset. I frown at that thought before shrugging and getting up from the ground to walk over to the loot box. And to my pleasant surprise, the loot box gives me a knife clearly made out of the glowing blue horn from the rampaging kyre. One that absorbs a certain amount of lightning and releases it when the wielder desires it to. Not bad. Not bad at all. Would definitely have made this boss fight a lot easier on me. I store away the knife before stretching a little and leaving the dungeon through the large door that appeared out of nowhere at some point while I was ascending a few dozen meters away, at the center of all of the metal spires. Most of which are all still charged with lightning. After I get out of the dungeon, I quickly begin to test out the limits of my Tier 2 skill, teleporting around both at the distances that I could teleport before and longer distances. And I soon learn that it takes less soul to teleport within the ten meter range that the Tier 1 skill gave me at level 10 than it would¡¯ve back when it was Tier 1. Meanwhile it takes more and more soul at an exponential rate to teleport further away than that, with the current limit of the skill being one hundred and twenty-one meters away from me. A rather large increase from Tier 1, but considering that it¡¯s a higher Tier skill that makes sense. I begin to teleport through the jungle towards the base, arriving far sooner than I would¡¯ve otherwise. Specifically due to the fact that my soul is worth more with each point now that the effect of each stat point has been increased by ten percent, so I can do a lot more now. Even if my soul technically only raised by a few dozen points. When I reach the base I find a rather unexpected surprise awaiting me. That surprise being in the form of the people I had met on the other island being at the base talking with Aidan. And from the looks of it, they have all of their things with them. As if they were moving here or something. Interesting. Guess the base is growing already. B1 | Story Art Here is art for Lucas Nightshade after he changes his species at the Tutorial Store into that of a Fallen Angel: Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon. Here is art for Ethan Silva: Here is art for the Ancestral Dragon, Isabella d''Aragon, Ethan''s mother: B1 | Chapter 92 - Island Hopping Alexia After getting a brief rundown from Aidan about what¡¯s going on, which basically boils down to the other group deciding to join ours because of me being here to protect them, I head back to their island and immediately search for the Nest there. Something that doesn¡¯t take very long thanks to my Tier 2 prowess and Tier 2 Quantum Displacement skill. And since the Nest is only a level 50 one, I clear the thing out rather quickly before getting my item and leaving. Then I start searching the island for a Tier 2 dungeon. Because I know there has to be some spread out across the Block, otherwise the Quantum Architect wouldn¡¯t have suggested I Find one. While I search though I make sure to deal with any monsters I find along the way, because I want to be as high a level as I can be when starting this dungeon. After all, starting another dungeon at the lowest level of the Tier is just suicide. Or close to that, considering I did it once before. And since the other group is leaving this island, and I need the levels, I make sure to head to the mountains again on the island and start slaughtering the wendigos I left behind. Since there shouldn¡¯t be anyone on this island that needs them now. But even after spending days searching the island and killing the creatures, I don¡¯t find a single Tier 2 dungeon. So I eventually give up on this island and head back to the base. I doubt Astrid would be out of the dungeon by now considering how it took me a month to get out, but it¡¯s possible she could leave without completing it. Not likely knowing her, but possible. So I might as well check to see. Then I can search the home island for a Tier 2 dungeon as well.
Several hours later I end up using Quantum Displacement so much over the day that it levels up again to level 12 and I find myself having to take some of Luna¡¯s soul to refill mine at some point. But I never manage to find a Tier 2 dungeon, even on our home island. And Astrid is still in the dungeon, so I find myself lying down in my bedroom in the portable home, wondering what to do next. That is, until I feel the island starting to shift while loud clanking noises like the sounds of machinery going active comes from the bridge. Looks like the islands are separating again. Guess the islands stay locked together for about a week then? Because that¡¯s about how long they¡¯ve been locked. Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation. I leave my house before quickly teleporting over to the edge of the island where I find both our island and the other one moving away from each other in opposite directions. Albeit rather slowly. Come to think of it, these islands have to move slowly, don¡¯t they? Otherwise they might just throw off the people on them or make it practically uninhabitable. I frown at that thought before grinning. That could work. Without hesitation I teleport over to where I remember seeing Aidan last, startling him for a second before I state, ¡°I¡¯ll be visiting the nearby islands to hunt.¡± He looks even more surprised for just a second, only to calm down again and respond, ¡°Okay.¡± Then I move over to the edge of the island and take a deep breath while looking at the very slowly moving islands nearby. But one of them catches my eye since it¡¯s the same one the hellfrost dragon was flying to a week ago. I wonder if he¡¯s still there?
On the Island Alexia¡¯s Looking At Ethan flies across the island with a frown on his face. The island is covered in frozen lakes and various taigas, but no matter how hard he searches, he can¡¯t seem to find an ice element magical ore. Even after searching for half a week, ever since he finished clearing the other requirements for his Tier ascension. By now he¡¯s already cleared out the level capped monster and all of its direct subordinates on the island, making it a lot safer for the random groups of people he had found and proceeded to ignore a couple days ago. But he knows that they are probably gonna be leaving the island anyways whenever the island connects with another. Because who would want to live on a frozen wasteland of an island? Aside from Ethan, of course. There better be an ore on this island¡­ I¡¯ve already been delayed over a day by this, I can¡¯t let this delay me anymore. Not if I don¡¯t want the Reaper getting too far ahead. When he saw the Legendary Feat, he couldn¡¯t help but be shocked by it. Not by her reaching Tier 2, but by the fact that she did it before his mother. And before the Hound, who should¡¯ve been a lower Class species from them. Unless he upgraded his species using the Tutorial Store, which is probable. There isn¡¯t another way to do it after this, so he¡¯d have to be an idiot not to. Which leads him to the question of what species the Hound turned into. The Hound is well known amongst the previous Ascendants as a Shadowstar magic user. A user of both shadow and astral magic. But the man stopped appearing publicly after he massacred the Holy Continent along with every last angel on the continent. Many people all assume he lost it entirely and went fully insane or that he regretted his actions and was too ashamed to go out into the public, but Ethan knows very well from what his mother has told him that the man didn¡¯t want to kill the angels. That he was mind controlled into doing it. But since the dragons are all very detached from other species, neither he nor his mother or father ever went to search for the man and tell him that he wasn¡¯t behind it. Ethan frowns as he pauses midflight, briefly pondering over what he had thought the moment he saw the Reaper¡¯s twin. That she looks a lot like the Hound and his former wife, a woman who left him due to his massacre of the angels. He hadn¡¯t noticed it at first with the Reaper simply due to her species, but even she shares similarities to the two despite her purple hair and eyes. I wonder¡­ His thoughts are interrupted when he feels a wave of power akin to a Tier 2 being entering the island, making him turn around to look in the direction of it. Guess I can always ask her. B1 | Chapter 93 - Discussions with a Dragon Part I Alexia Unsurprisingly, considering that he¡¯s a Class S species, the moment I land on the island, I feel a gaze latching onto me. One that while isn¡¯t too powerful, is a lot stronger than anything I¡¯ve run into so far. Probably because he¡¯s still Tier 1 while I¡¯m Tier 2. What is a little surprising though is that he is actually still on the island. Since it¡¯s been at least a week since he came here. Then again, he can¡¯t teleport like I can. On that note, I teleport over a dozen times until I arrive right in front of the man, finding him faintly surprised by my sudden appearance despite his attention having been on me before. Looks like he didn¡¯t expect me to be able to teleport so quickly over here. The man has two gray horns with slightly blueish silver tints to them, two draconic wings of the same color, long bluish silver hair, a long pale blue tail, and blue eyes to match. He¡¯s wearing a set of white and gray armor I quickly identify as being Tier 2 armor with greaves going up to his knees, gauntlets to his elbows, pauldrons on his shoulders, armor covering most of his torso, and a wave of spikes flaring down and outwards from his waist down to his knees. What interests me though is that he has no weapon on him. But then again, he¡¯s a dragon. I don¡¯t expect a dragon to have a weapon. {Ethan Silva ¨C Hellfrost Dragon ¨C Level 100} Nothing surprising there. Would¡¯ve been more surprised if he wasn¡¯t level 100. ¡°Hello,¡± I call out to him in greeting with a light nod of my head. But I don¡¯t feel any need to be deferent towards him, even if I know he¡¯s older than me by at least a few decades or so and was an ascendant prior to the Reset. Mostly because he looks the same age as me and is a lower Tier than me. Well, that and I¡¯ve never been all that big on formalities anyways. ¡°Hello,¡± he responds back with a nod of his head. Then we just sit there staring at each other for several awkward seconds. Eventually I come out and ask, ¡°Did you send the former viscount my way?¡± He nods his head right away and answers, ¡°Yes. I thought you would like it.¡± He tilts his head slightly, crossing his arms. ¡°Did you?¡± This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. ¡°Yeah,¡± I answer with a light smile. ¡°I did.¡± ¡°That¡¯s good,¡± he says with a smile, only to turn serious as he asks, ¡°Do you and your twin need any help finding your parents or other loved ones?¡± I frown at that and shake my head, answering, ¡°No, I¡¯ll be searching for my mother myself, assuming she¡¯s still alive.¡± That has him frowning back for some reason. Why is he trying to help me? I don¡¯t understand it. ¡°What about your father?¡± he asks, sounding confused. Which only has me confused as well. ¡°Never met the guy,¡± I answer, feeling slightly suspicious of the hellfrost dragon at this point. ¡°So I honestly wouldn¡¯t know where to start.¡± Wouldn¡¯t have cared about him either until I heard that the man didn¡¯t even know I existed. Which does have me wondering how that¡¯s possible, considering that he has twins as kids. Did my mom just ditch him right after getting pregnant or something? Or were they separated? I don¡¯t even remember Mom well enough to know how she felt about the man, much less anything about him. That aside, why does this guy seem to care so much about my family? It¡¯s weird. I know it''s normal to be worried about your family and searching for them, but his offering to help me search is kind of out there. Like he''s trying to earn my trust or something or get me to owe him a favor. Or I guess he could just be a nice guy who offered to help someone find their lost family. Not likely in this world though. ¡°Enough about my family, I¡¯m guessing you¡¯ve found another Class S species aside from just us? Or at least a former Ascendant?¡± I ask with a frown on my face, but to my surprise, he actually shakes his head. ¡°No, they weren¡¯t a former Ascendant or a Class S species,¡± he answers with a light shrug of his shoulders. ¡°They were a Class A species friend of mine from before the Reset.¡± His eyes lock onto mine. ¡°I won¡¯t be saying more on that subject though. Just know that they already left after helping.¡± A Class A species? And they¡¯re already gone¡­ Why does it feel like he¡¯s trying to reassure me or something? It¡¯s weird considering that we only just met for the first time. Wait¡­ My eyes narrow as I ask, ¡°Have we met before?¡± He purses his lips for a moment before shrugging and answering, ¡°Not directly, but I did see you fighting the large thunder bird on your island when I left my dungeon.¡± Oh. I guess that dungeon was close enough to see the peak of the mountain, so that¡¯s plausible. And I know dragons don¡¯t like lying. They¡¯re too proud and detached from others to bother. Which makes me wonder why this guy is bothering to give me the light of day. Is it because I¡¯m a Class S species too? But he also spoke to Astrid, so that can¡¯t be it. Unless that was just to be polite? That¡¯s possible. I almost groan out loud while trying to keep a straight face. This guy is annoying. He¡¯s strong enough to be a threat so I can¡¯t just ignore him, and his attempts at gaining my trust are only making it harder to trust him. Because he¡¯s a dragon. And that¡¯s not normal for dragons. Especially dragon princes. Eventually I just let out a sigh and ask, ¡°Are you planning on staying on this island?¡± He nods his head as he answers, ¡°Yes.¡± Okay, I¡¯m not sure if that¡¯s a good thing or a bad thing. Mostly because I don¡¯t know how the islands move around. Because if they move around in a pattern and always go to the same places, then that means we¡¯ll be neighbors with him at certain points. Which could be¡­ unpleasant depending on our relationship with him. But if the islands move completely at random, then it would mean that things would be very annoying to keep track of other islands and where they are, not to mention the dragon himself. Well, at the very least he did send me the former Viscountess, so he hasn¡¯t done anything bad to me. He also didn¡¯t bother Astrid after meeting her alone and hasn¡¯t tried attacking or even bothering the base. I¡¯ll still be keeping an eye on him though. B1 | Chapter 93.2 - Discussions with a Dragon Part II Alexia After talking for a little bit longer, Ethan and I end up trading our knowledge on the System¡¯s changes since the Reset. Things like the dungeons, the Authority, Nests, and so on. And through it I do end up learning something new about the System¡¯s changes. Apparently there are going to be tournaments held between all of the Dimensional Blocks at some point in the distant future where the Dimensional Champions of each Block compete. And not only does winning the tournaments give the champion in question some supposedly good rewards, but it also gives rewards and benefits to the Block they represent. A rather interesting change, if I¡¯m being honest. I like it. Something else that¡¯s interesting is that the Dimensional Champion of a Block can challenge another Dimensional Champion of a different Block when their Blocks are at war, and if they¡¯re both given permission by the Dimensional Leaders of their Blocks, then their fight will determine the result of the war. Which is probably a fix to the System since some Planetary Wars from before the Reset went on until the entire planet on one side ended destroyed because some of the Nobles on the losers side were too stubborn to admit their defeat. Ethan also went around from island to island after all, not just spending his time on this island, so he has found some Tier 2 dungeons. And during that he learned that there seems to be a Tier 2 dungeon on about a third of the islands. This one not included, unfortunately. On my end I trade with him the knowledge about the differences in dungeons along with the Cataclysm Class monster and Nests, none of which he knew about surprisingly. Except for some details about the differences in dungeons, which makes sense considering he was in a dungeon himself. We continue talking for a little while, and at some point I ask if he needs help with finding his parents just to return the polite favor he offered me, and just as I was expecting, he rejects the offer right away. Because he¡¯s a dragon, and a dragon doesn¡¯t accept favors from non-dragons unless it¡¯s in return for something else. Mostly just asked to return that favor. And after that we go our separate ways, with me heading back to the base and him continuing his search for that ice element magical ore of his. Something that makes me really glad that I didn¡¯t have an item requirement for my ascension and instead had a skill requirement. It doesn¡¯t take me long to arrive back at the base where I quickly tell Aidan everything that happened. Then I quickly sense around the base to see if Astrid is out of the dungeon, only to find her not here. So I leave again, teleporting to a different island this time. This one being an island directly below us, slightly to the East. One covered in swamps and rainclouds pouring down rain all over the island. Let¡¯s see if I can find a Tier 2 dungeon there. Because I can¡¯t stagnate. I have to keep growing stronger if I want to find my parents. Or at least Mom. And I need to stay strong to protect Astrid from anyone who might try using her to get to me. Not that she¡¯d let them, considering that we¡¯d both rather die than let someone use us to blackmail or trap the other. But what¡¯s most important is staying ahead of the former Ascendants. My thoughts pause as I sense Luna approaching while I¡¯m in mid-teleport, making me turn my head up to find the bat flying down towards me with a light squeak of delight. And Luna is¡­ twice as large as the last time I saw her for some reason. This novel''s true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there. My answer is given to me when I identify her and find her status to have changed.
Name: Luna Species: Adolescent Quantum Vampire Bat(T2)
Level: 101 Class: Elemental Pet
Soul: 6091/ 7,525
VIT: 201 DEX: 201 STR: 201 MAG: 401 MEN: 401
Racial Skills Active Skills
Passive Skills General Skills
Nice. Her species seems to have evolved. Although her stats didn¡¯t change, so I¡¯m guessing it means she¡¯s still a Class C species. Then again, stats aren¡¯t everything. I let Luna land on my shoulder before I continue teleporting down to the island. Now then. Time to see what this next island has for me.
On the Tundra Island Ethan taps his elbow with his arms crossed as he stares up at the snow, contemplating his conversation with the Reaper. To his surprise, the Reaper was a rather pleasant girl, even with that powerful and ancient aura coming off of her. Especially her eyes. Eyes that made him feel like he was staring at Death herself. A rather odd experience, considering that he¡¯s used to being around the most powerful being from before the Reset. But he also felt comfortable around her for some reason, despite the aura. Like he was talking to a dragon of a friendly clan instead of an outsider. More than that even. I wonder what it is about that girl¡­ He was rather surprised about what he found out about her family, but what she said did at least confirm it in his mind. The Reaper and her twin sister are the daughters of the Hound of the Apocalypse, Lucas Nightshade, and The First Dawn, Crystal Nightshade. What he can¡¯t figure out is why her name is Knight, since she didn¡¯t go into detail on her family situation. But it does make him think of the Hound¡¯s best friend, the Knight of the Crimson Score, Lysandre Knight. Eventually he shakes his head and continues flying through the sky searching for an ice element magical ore. And to his surprise, it doesn¡¯t take him long to find it. Good. Now I won¡¯t be below her in Tier anymore. He glances back in the direction that the girl flew off in and stares for a few seconds before reaching down and digging his hand into the ground to grab the ore, immediately absorbing it when he does. Then he begins his ascension to Tier 2. B1 | Epilogue Within Dimensional Block #1000 Not long after Alexia reached Tier 2 A woman with luminescent blue eyes seemingly made out of radiation from stars themselves as she continues to stare at the notification, not letting it fade away as she sears the name of the person in it in her mind. As she remembers the last time she saw the girl. As tears begin to fall down her face from the memories rushing through her head. Memories of her holding the girl and her twin. Of her raising them on her own without anyone¡¯s help. And of the last seventeen years where she was unable to escape the trap set for her within a dungeon, leaving her stranded the entire time with no means of communication with the outside world. The woman has pitch black hair adorned with what appear to be stars twinkling in it every now and then, along with an all devouring black light that occasionally shines outwards occasionally switching with a golden light, matching the light in her eyes as she looks out over the stars glittering all around the void of space she finds herself in. Meanwhile the only bits of land around her are large platforms with vegetation and some occasional animals floating in the midst of the black void, far away from any of the stars but with very narrow bridges connecting each platform. Crystal Nightshade continues to stare at the notification for what feels like ages to her before she eventually wipes her eyes and closes out of it, turning her attention back to the group of people she had just saved. Then she simply nods her head once at the confused group, spreads her wings which take on the form of black angelic wings that occasionally switch to appear as if they were black draconic wings instead, her arms and legs shapeshifting into black claws and talons in the process, and flaps her wings once to shoot up into the air. And without a single word of goodbye, the last remaining member of the Devourer species begins to fly through the void of space, outside of the bubble of air meant to make the platforms livable. Lexi and Astrid are out there. This single thought has Crystal smiling a brighter smile than she¡¯s shown ever since she was first trapped in the dungeon. And it looks like little Lexi isn¡¯t a human anymore. Crystal¡¯s smile grows a little at that thought. Because while she took a complete human form to be able to have children with her love, she never particularly liked humans aside from him. And that dislike for humans only grew when he betrayed her to slaughter the angels. Her smile stiffens slightly at that memory. But she pushes it away again as she continues flying through the air, trailing a wave of black light behind her. This novel''s true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there. She opens up the leaderboard, letting her smile grow wider once more. [Dimensional Champion Leaderboard] [#1 Alexia Knight ¨C Level 101] [#2 Isabella d''Aragon ¨C Level 101] [#3 Lucas Nightshade ¨C Level 101] [#4 Alexander Frost ¨C Level 101] [#5 Ethan Silva ¨C Level 101] [#6 Ignivara ¨C Level 101] [#7 Artorius del Argon ¨C Level 101] [#8 Aurora Frost ¨C Level 100] [#9 Leonidas Silver ¨C Level 100] [#10 Damien Black ¨C Level 100] She¡¯s earned her place at the top. And the other Class S species are all starting to fill the top of the Dimensional Champion Leaderboards, just like they filled the Universal Champion Leaderboards before this ¡®Reset.¡¯ Crystal continues flying lethargically through the vacuum of space, uncaring about the lack of oxygen as her mind returns to her husband, and her last name. A name she still hasn¡¯t changed to this day despite his actions. Eventually she sighs and mutters out loud, ¡°I hope they never meet him.¡±
Inside of the Quantum Realm Not long after Alexia reached Tier 2 A man watches as a floating screen made out of purple and blue energy hovers over the arm rest of his throne room, the man himself resting his cheek against his palm. Meanwhile the throne room around him is completely barren of anyone, with nothing but the floating purple and blue quantum energy particles of the Quantum Realm itself to be seen. The man has hair a deep shade of purple in color with glowing purple eyes that occasionally glitch out here and there rather lethargically, showcasing his current attitude clearly in his eyes. He is wearing a set of black armor that contrasts well with his hair and eyes, and has a large spear leaning up against his throne. Time passes in silence for hours, the man doing nothing but lazily watching the screen showing Alexia, who is currently floating down to land on a swamp island while looking around for a Tier 2 dungeon before she eventually moves on to a different island after failing to find one. Then the process repeats itself a few times as the girl proves to have terrible luck. So this is who he chose¡­ The quantum being commonly known by the other few hundred quantum beings in existence as the Quantum Ruler continues to watch on, simply judging the new quantum being. The first Quantum Reaper in existence. And by law of the quantum, for having taken on a mantle from his own son, his new granddaughter. Several seconds pass before the Quantum Ruler cracks a very light smile. Barely passable. The Quantum Ruler, otherwise known as Veltorius, has never understood his late son¡¯s obsession with the mortal plane. And neither do any of the other quantum beings. Instead they all have treated him like an errant child gone astray, playing with the mortals like they were anything beyond mere mortals. It wasn¡¯t until his son got himself captured on purpose that Veltorius finally began paying attention. I never expected him to take that bet so seriously¡­ but we¡¯ll see what happens. But for now, the Quantum Ruler just watches on as his new granddaughter plays with the mortal world. Just like his son would always do. This might give me some entertainment for the first time in a few centuries. If there¡¯s one thing he does admit about the mortal realm, it¡¯s that his son¡¯s exploits in it were amusing to say the very least. Until he got himself captured. Let¡¯s see what my new granddaughter will do to this new universe of Valonius¡¯s making. B2 | Glossary System: Legendary Feats grant bonus perks to those who earn them and announce the feat to every System User. People only get one racial skill per advancement, starting with one racial skill at Tier 1. People can only have five passive and five active Class skills slotted at a time. People can only have ten general skills slotted at a time. Levels 1-100 are Tier 1 Levels 101-250 are Tier 2 Levels 251-500 are Tier 3 Levels 501-1000 are Tier 4 Levels 1001-2500 are Tier 5 Above level 2500 are Ascendants Class skills are received at every five levels for Tier 1. General skills are earned from doing what the skill entails and being given it by the System when you¡¯re determined to have earned them. The different Classes of Species are: Class E: +5 stats per level ¨C EX: Unintelligent weak monsters such as skeletons. Identify is as follows: {Species Name ¨C Level X} Class D: +6 stats per level ¨C EX: Unintelligent and basic intelligent monsters such as goblins. Identify is as follows: {Species Name ¨C Level X} Class C: +7 stats per level ¨C EX: Creatures such as hobgoblins and orcs that have intelligence but not as much as Class B creatures. Identify is as follows: {Species Name ¨C Level X} Class B: +8 stats per level ¨C EX: Human, Dwarves, Elves, etc. Identify is as follows: {Name ¨C Class: XXXX ¨C Level X} Class A: +9 stats per level ¨C EX: Vampires, Werewolves, Kitsune, and other variant creatures. Identify is as follows: {Name ¨C Species: XXXXX ¨C Class: XXXXX ¨C Level XX} Class S: +10 stats per level ¨C EX: Quantum Reapers, other types of reapers, dragons, etc. Identify is as follows: {Name ¨C Species/Class(both the same name) ¨C Level XX} There is very little difference between two Classes in Tier 1. The different Rarities of Classes are: Common: +4 stats per level Uncommon: +5 stats per level Rare: +6 stats per level Epic: +7 stats per level Legendary: +8 stats per level Mythic: +10 stats per level Element Affinity Classes: Take note! This IS NOT A SPLIT! And people can have more than one affinity! A Class E Affinity in an element allows the user to occasionally sense and maybe even see a small amount of that element or powerful effects of that element but not use it. 50% out of every last person in existence have at least a Class E Affinity. A Class D Affinity in an element allows the user to see and sometimes interact with a small amount of that element, but not enough to get a magic class. 20% out of every last person in existence have at least a Class D Affinity. A Class C Affinity in an element allows the user to directly manipulate the element in the form of mana or whatever energy that element uses in their body to a limited degree. They can get magic classes. 10% out of every last person in existence have at least a Class C Affinity. A Class B Affinity in an element allows the user to directly manipulate the mana or energy of their element in the air. They can get higher rarity magic Classes. 0.1% out of every last person in existence have at least a Class B Affinity. A Class A Affinity in an element allows the user to directly manipulate the mana or energy of their element and clearly see it no matter how weak the energy or mana is. They can get higher rarity magic classes and have a higher level of control over the element. 0.0001% out of every last person in existence have at least a Class A Affinity. A Class S Affinity in an element is a perfect affinity and is only possible in those born of that element, where the element itself permeates throughout their body itself. Special circumstances must occur for someone to have a Class S Affinity if they are not a Class S species, who has one by default. Furthermore, they can only have a single Class S Affinity as they cannot have more than one element naturally flowing through their veins. These are not separately counted!!! 50% out of all 100% of people in the world. Then 20% out of all 100% of people in the world. And so on. Alexia Knight Age: 20 years old Relatives: Unknown Father, Unknown Mother, Adopted Grandfather and Knight of the Crimson Score - Lysander Knight, Twin Sister Astrid Knight Physical Appearance Pre-Reset: Long black hair done in a braid with blue eyes and a laidback attitude. She wears her armor everywhere she goes instead of any sort of fashion, the armor consisting of enchanted black leather. She is five foot five inches tall. Physical Appearance Post-Reset: Her previously long black hair is no longer done in a braid and is now tinted with a deep purple, and her eyes are now varying shades of purple that appear to glitch out every now and then as if they were an error in a computer game. Her blood is red with some faint tints of blue and dark purple and more tints of violet, and it also glitches out along with any of her insides whenever seen by the naked eye. She is five foot five inches tall. Status Pre-Reset:
Name: Alexia Knight Species: Human(T1)
Level: 35 Class: Magic Knight
Health: 700/700 Mana: 1050/1050
VIT: 69 DEX: 103 STR: 137 MAG: 137 MEN: 35
Racial Skills Active Skills
Passive Skills General Skills
Human(Species): +1 VIT, +2 DEX, +2 STR, +2 MAG, +1 MEN Per Level Magic Knight: +1 VIT, +1 DEX, +2 STR, +2 MAG Current Status:
Name: Alexia Knight Species: Quantum Reaper(T2)
Level: 101 Class: Quantum Reaper
Soul: 6091/ 8,775
VIT: 301 DEX: 301 STR: 301 MAG: 401 MEN: 401
Racial Skills Active Skills
Passive Skills General Skills
This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.Quantum Reaper(Species): +2 VIT, +2 DEX, +2 STR, +2 MAG, +2 MEN Per Level Quantum Reaper(Class): +1 VIT, +1 DEX, +1 STR, +2 MAG, +2 MEN Alexia gets +3 VIT, +3 DEX, +3 STR, +4 MAG, and +4 MEN per level at Tier 1. Legendary Feats: The Reaping - (Bonus: Your Quantum affinity is enhanced to Class S. Your class selection now only includes the class Quantum Reaper.), The First Clear ¨C (Bonus: As the first to clear a dungeon in the new dimension, your first loot box in every dungeon will always give you an item of a single Tier higher than what it would¡¯ve otherwise given. You are also given the General Skill known as Dungeon Map.), The Vanguard ¨C (Bonus: As the first being to ascend in Tier within the System, you are gifted with a token that you may use to upgrade your class whenever you desire to the next rarity. This is a one-time-use item and will vanish after use.) Racial Skills: Quantum Body: Reduces physical damage dealt to the user by 80% and increases magic damage dealt to the user by 50%. Quantum Equilibrium: Due to the balanced quantum state of a Quantum Reaper, you grow naturally resistant towards any and all status effects. Active Skills: Lvl 5 Quantum Bolt: Releases a bolt of pure quantum energy at a target. This bolt will rip apart the target on a quantum level. Lvl 11 Quantum Displacement: Allows the user to teleport up to a radius of {the Skill¡¯s level to the power of the Skill¡¯s Tier} meters around themself. Lvl 4 Quantum Reversal: Revert time on just the user¡¯s body, reversing a limited amount of damage in an instant along with the effects of the damage. The price of the skill scales with the amount of damage and the skill¡¯s level, and wounds that would be considered fatal by the System are only partially reversible. Lvl 1 Quantum Phasing: Temporarily shift the user¡¯s body fully out of the normal plane of reality into the quantum plane, making them immune to any and all physical damage and able to pass through solid objects. Lvl 4 Quantum Burst: Sends a powerful wave of quantum energy all around the user. Level 3 Quantum Echo: Allows the user to create a brief echo of their previous attack through quantum entanglement, letting them duplicate one attack at a weaker level than the original attack. Level 1 Quantum Resonance: Allows the user to use the quantum energy in their body to create a resonance throughout themselves that increases their physical strength, speed, and regeneration for a limited amount of time. Level 1 Quantum Communication: Allows the user to fold space between them and another location near an energy source of their choosing, creating a portal that only allows sound to pass through. Passive Skills: Lvl 5 Quantum Attunement: Grants the user enhanced sensitivity to quantum fluctuations, giving them heightened awareness of nearby magical energies and disturbances. Lvl 1 Quantum Singularity: Further stabilizes the user¡¯s place in reality and the quantum realm, making skills and magics with any relation to the quantum have less effect on the user. Potentially affects time magic, space magic, soul magic, death magic, and other magics that directly affect reality itself in some way shape or form. Lvl 4 Quantum Infusion: All of your physical attacks are now infused with a small amount of quantum energy from the environment, regardless of if the attacks were made with your body or through equipment. Lvl 6 Quantum Adaptation: Allows the user¡¯s body to adapt to any type of environment after an extended duration of exposure to it. The adaptations made will be permanent, however they will never reach immunity to the environment. Lvl 1 Quantum Veil: Grants the user a veil protecting them from divination and scrying magics. Lvl 2 Quantum Aura: Creates a field around the user that distorts the space within the field by a minimal margin, making it slightly harder to accurately hit the user. General Skills: Lvl 6 Pain Resistance Lvl 5 Polearm Mastery (Unique) Forerunner: Passively increases the effects of the user¡¯s stats by three percent. Lvl 2 Stealth Lvl 4 Poison Resistance: Passively increases the user¡¯s resistance towards any and all types of poison by a slight amount. Lvl 2 Survivor: Passively decreases the amount of nutrition the user needs to survive by a small amount and increases their resistance to natural weather, granting them a tougher body when taking damage from naturally occurring things. Lvl 3 Exploration: Enhances the user¡¯s basic instinct to know which direction they should go when unsure, makes it so they always know which of the four cardinal directions are where, and may sometimes give the user an instinctive feeling directing them to a hidden location. Lvl 2 Dungeon Map: The user may now open and fill in a dungeon map for whatever dungeon they are in simply by moving around the dungeon. Hidden areas will be shown on the map when you reveal the area they are located on the map. (Unique) Anti-Magic Barrier: Passively creates an anti-magic barrier directly over the user¡¯s body that will absorb twenty percent of the magical damage the user takes until the barrier is fully saturated. The barrier will then take ten minutes before it is replaced with a brand new barrier. Energy Manipulation: Allows the user to directly manipulate energy, both elemental and otherwise. (Unique) Tutorial Champion: Given to the Champion of the Tutorial who ranked first on the leaderboard after they get their first skill post-Tutorial. Increases the effect of the user¡¯s stats by 3%.
Name: Luna Species: Adolescent Quantum Vampire Bat(T2)
Level: 101 Class: Elemental Pet
Soul: 6091/ 7,525
VIT: 201 DEX: 201 STR: 201 MAG: 401 MEN: 401
Racial Skills Active Skills
Passive Skills General Skills
Infantile Quantum Vampire Bat(Species): +1 VIT, +1 DEX, +1 STR, +2 MAG, +2 MEN Per Level Elemental Pet(Class): +1 VIT, +1 DEX, +1 STR, +2 MAG, +2 MEN Luna gets +2 VIT, +2 DEX, +2 STR, +4 MAG, and +4 MEN per level at Tier 1. Characters: Astrid Alexia¡¯s twin sister, a Shadowborne Class A species, and a former Magic Knight just like her now Shadowblade. Aidan Alexia and Astrid¡¯s childhood friend and a former Ice Mage now uncommon Combat Mage. Has brown hair and eyes. Alara The daughter of the Guildmaster of the local Adventurer¡¯s Guild and has a rare class, Fire Dancer. Her family owes the Kingdom of Silvercrest a debt that they now no longer need to worry about thanks to the Reset. Has red hair and blue eyes. Shelly Daughter of a powerful member of the Hunter¡¯s Guild and an uncommon class, Arcane Archer. Has brown hair and black eyes. Rob Son of a powerful member of the Mage¡¯s Guild and an uncommon class, Combat Healer. Has black hair and brown eyes. Rodrick Lancaster Son of a Baron and developed interest in Astrid. Has green eyes and brown hair. Is an idiot. William Sinclair Crown Prince of the Former Kingdom of Silvercrest. Has silver hair and silver eyes and the rare Warlock class. Elizabeth Sinclair Prince of the Former Kingdom of Silvercrest. Has silver hair and silver eyes and the rare Warlock class. She is tall and with a full figure that her fianc¨¦ has no qualms about looking at. Reginald Kingsley Fianc¨¦ to the Princess and has a rare class, Iceblade Knight. He also has a very sharp looking face with gray eyes and brown hair and is a creep but is one that knows what they¡¯re doing and is smart. Cassandra Dawn Daughter to a Duke and has a rare class, Arcane Hunter. She had a sister once, but they died. She has long brown hair with golden eyes and betrayed both the crown prince and the princess. Lucas Nightshade The Hound of the Apocalypse who massacred an entire nation before the Reset and was feared across the world. He feels familiarity towards Alexia¡¯s name. He has the Requiem of Light and Shadow epic class that is a mixture of Astral and Shadow magics. Aurora Frost The former Empress of Niflheim and user of ice magic. She has a grudge against Leif Eriksson and repeatedly trades places with him on the leaderboards, currently being number four on it. Leif Eriksson The former King of Arcadia. He has holy magic specializing in defense. He is arrogant. Isabella d''Aragon She is a dragon who can shapeshift into a humanoid form with two large red wings on her back and red eyes. She is the former empress of the Scarlet Empire and the Ancestral Dragon. Isabella has little interest in matters that don¡¯t involve the dragons. Alexander Frost He is a kraken who can shapeshift into a humanoid form with glowing blue eyes and wavy blue hair. He is the former leader of the underwater nation of Atlantis. Damien Black A vampire with white hair and glowing red eyes who is leading the League of Ascendants. He has difficulty controlling his anger, bloodthirst, and lust for power. Leonidas Silver A ghoul with pitch black orbs for eyes and pale skin. He is the Emperor of the Fallen Empire. Meanwhile all he cares about is his desire for peace for both himself and his nation without any care for struggles beyond that. Nathan Briar A human known by many as the Wandering Summoner. He rarely ever settles in one location, always on the move, always searching for new monsters to add to his list of summons. He¡¯s is rather laidback in his attitude, deciding to deal with things as they come. Noah Kowalski The eighth ranked user on the leaderboards and a werewolf. He was not an Ascendant before the Reset. Crystal Nightshade Former wife of the Hound of the Apocalypse and a Class S species known as a devourer. Lysandre Knight Adopted grandfather to Alexia and Astrid. Ethan Silva The one hundredth ranked user on the Tutorial leaderboards. Artorius del Argon The tenth person to reach level 100 and the Primeval Fiend. An archfiend. Ignivara The ninth person to reach level 100 and the Ancient Terror. A hydra. Vallius Karan de Volt Hellmouth A Class S species known as a Lich King ¨C the strongest species of undead there is. Sartorius A Class S species known as an archangel. Quantum Ruler The ruler of all quantum beings and Lexi¡¯s grandfather via the quantum laws and her inheritance of his son¡¯s quantum energy. B2 | Chapter 1 - Return Alexia A week and a half after reaching Tier 2 I smile when I find a System Message appearing as soon as I separate the head of this large snake from its body, finishing off the level 100 monster. {Congratulations! You have leveled up to level 105! Your Species has awarded you +2 VIT, +2 DEX, +2 STR, +2 MAG, and +2 MEN. Your Class has awarded you +1 VIT, +1 DEX, +1 STR, +2 MAG, and +2 MEN.} [*New Active Skill* ¨C Waveform Manipulation: Allows the user to change the form of mana by manipulating its wave-particle duality. This may change the form of whatever skill or spell is targeted by this skill in various different ways.] But my smile pauses at the sight of the new skill. One that is very much unlike anything I¡¯ve seen before. That¡¯s¡­ interesting. I think it actually has a bit more practical use than Quantum Echo and Quantum Resonance, actually. The ability to interfere with someone else¡¯s spell or skill. But first I¡¯ll have to test it out when I find the closest Safe Zone. Over the last week and a half, I¡¯ve searched for Tier 2 dungeons and found about three. All while making sure to keep my eye on our home island so as to not lose it. Fortunately the islands don¡¯t seem to move very fast, and they do indeed move in a pattern that¡¯s repeated back and forth. So losing our home island shouldn¡¯t be an issue. While searching I¡¯ve also dealt with the level 100 monsters on the islands along with their higher leveled subordinates, simply to bring my level up a bit before I try a Tier 2 dungeon. After all, trying a Tier 2 dungeon at level 101 is just as suicidal as trying a Tier 1 dungeon at level 1. Maybe even more, since Tier 2 has a larger range of levels than Tier 1. So the dungeon will progress through levels faster. I stretch a little while looking around the underground cave, only to eventually frown when I find the hidden location that is generally in each of the level 100 monsters¡¯ lairs. Where¡¯s the authority shard? I stare at the hidden location for a few seconds before continuing to look around the area, all while sensing around me with Energy Manipulation. But I never manage to find the shard, leaving me to believe that someone else found it and took it. You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version. Did they sneak in past the level 100 to steal it or something? Well that¡¯s annoying. I continue searching for a while longer before eventually giving up, not sensing a single hint of the energy that the quantum shards give off anywhere nearby. Then I begin teleporting away until I reach the edge of the island and squint my eyes slightly at the surrounding islands. But after a second I decide to head back to the home island again, since it¡¯s almost time for me to check in again for Astrid. So I turn my attention to the home island and begin teleporting over towards it through the air, still not necessarily feeling used to teleporting through the air above nothing but air and clouds. I briefly look around while teleporting in search of the Calamity Class monster, but the thing is still nowhere in sight. Which makes me feel rather relieved. Because the last time it was nearby about a week ago, the monster suddenly let out a roar and quite literally took a chunk out of a floating island, eating someone on the island. If I had to guess, it was because they identified it. Which makes me glad that I didn¡¯t identify it before, and neither did anyone at our base. Also made me glad that it happened while the monster was over a dozen islands away, barely still within my line of sight even with my levels enhancing my senses. I continue teleporting to the home island until I lightly land on the ground and begin walking across the bridge of the island it¡¯s currently connected to. Some sort of desert island that¡¯s radiating more than a little heat. But I quickly find a very pleasant surprise on the island. ¡°Astrid!¡± I shout before immediately teleporting over to her and hugging her, to her surprise. But she quickly recovers and hugs me back. Then we both separate again and I identify her. {Astrid Knight ¨C Species: Shadowborne ¨C Class: Shadow Blade ¨C Level 79} Oh? Not half bad. ¡°How far did you get in the dungeon?¡± I ask while glancing at the others who had gone down with her and finding them all to have levels slightly lower than Astrid. Meaning she probably did a lot of the work down there. Although the former princess, Elizabeth, has her level almost at the same as Astrid¡¯s. ¡°We made it to the scorpion area before falling back,¡± Astrid answers, bringing my attention back to her. ¡°How much of the dungeon was left after that?¡± I answer with a smile, ¡°That was the last area. The boss of the scorpions was the final boss of the dungeon.¡± A grimace covers her face as she realizes just how close they were to finishing. But then she lets out a sigh and glances at the others as she says, ¡°We ended up running out of food and supplies and had to turn back. If I¡¯d known how close we were¡­¡± ¡°We still wouldn¡¯t have had enough food and supplies to last for that final area either,¡± Elizabeth says, apparently having overheard our conversation as she steps up to us. ¡°It¡¯s fine. We can just try again.¡± She glances at me. ¡°Or we could also just try the other dungeon your sister fought in while we were inside.¡± Astrid¡¯s attention immediately turns to me at the mention of another dungeon. I grin at her single-minded focus as I explain, ¡°It was the dungeon the hellfrost dragon was sent to at the start of the Reset, and it focuses on lightning element monsters. The boss being a rampaging kyre. One that I actually struggled against a little bit before reaching Tier 2.¡± That has some of her enthusiasm dying down a bit, but I can tell she¡¯s still gonna try the dungeon. ¡°That aside, I have some intel that I should share with you two,¡± I add before glancing at Alara, ¡°and her.¡± B2 | Chapter 2 - Waveform Manipulation Alexia The very first thing Alara says after I finish explaining everything I¡¯ve learned since they entered the dungeon is not what I was expecting. ¡°Can you bring me to see the hellfrost dragon?¡± she asks with a face tinted slightly with curiosity. Honestly, after telling her everything, I was mostly expecting her to ask questions about the Calamity Grade monster or about the neighboring islands that I¡¯ve visited. Or even about the exact pattern that the islands follow whilst moving. I wasn¡¯t expecting her to wanna visit Ethan. Then again, I was gonna take a break for the night from searching for dungeons and level 100s anyways. Might as well take her there before coming back and heading to bed. ¡°Give me a few minutes to change my skills and I¡¯ll take you,¡± I tell her with a nod, but to my surprise she just tells me that she¡¯s ready now and will go with me to the Safe Zone. So I shrug and place my hand on her shoulder before teleporting us over and over again towards the Safe Zone. And, while completely ignoring her vomiting from my little teleportation spam, I step further into the Safe Zone away from the smell and change out my skills for the new one. Alright. I turn back to the vomiting girl who is actually the same age as me before asking, ¡°Would you mind sending a fireball at me?¡± She looks confused for a second mid-vomiting with her hands on her knees, only to raise a finger, vomit once more, and rise back to her full height again with a groan while grabbing some sort of cloth to wipe the vomit off her mouth. Then she narrows her eyes at me and raises a hand, sending a spear of fire at me instead of a fireball. I quickly use the new skill on the spear of fire, and to my surprise, the spear glitches out for a second before turning into a spear of water that I still simply raise a hand to block, not taking much damage from it despite Alara¡¯s increase in level. ¡°Interesting¡­¡± I mutter while ignoring the flabbergasted look Alara has right now. But is changing the element all it can do? With that thought in mind, I have Alara send more attacks my way, and each time the attack completely changes form. Sometimes the spear will become a ball instead, sometimes it¡¯ll change element, and sometimes it¡¯ll even vanish entirely only for me to realize that I shifted it out of this realm when it appears again several meters away to hit the ground. If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement. Very interesting. The effect seems to be completely random every time, both in terms of what it does and how long it lasts. Some of the effects even seem to be permanent. Or at least long enough lasting that I don¡¯t see it revert back before hitting the ground. After a couple more tests, I find that I quite like this new skill. I might even make it one of my set of active skills. What I¡¯m even more interested in though than the skill right now is how it¡¯ll develop as it levels up. Because that will be interesting. Eventually I finally finish testing the skill and walk back up to Alara, whose eyes widen in some rather obvious trepidation. But I don¡¯t care about her little vomiting problem. Not like there¡¯s anything I can do about it. She¡¯s the one who asked for a ride after all. Although¡­ I glare at her as my fingers dig slightly into her armor and I state, ¡°If you vomit on me while we¡¯re moving, I will drop you off the island.¡± She immediately nods her head repeatedly, genuine fear in her eyes despite me not really meaning that I¡¯ll drop her. But I don¡¯t correct that misunderstanding. Instead I begin teleporting us to the edge of the island where I then search around for a few seconds for Ethan¡¯s island. Then I start teleporting us up there with Alara repeatedly vomiting half the time we appear. All while trying as hard as she can to not vomit on me. At least, until she runs out of substance to vomit. A point in time that I am rather thankful for since it makes the unpleasant smell of vomit go away. Is it really that unpleasant to teleport? I honestly kind of enjoy the process of teleporting. But maybe that¡¯s just because I¡¯m a quantum being. That or I¡¯m just used to it. Come to think of it, wasn¡¯t that Shawn guy feeling ill after I teleported him? Maybe it¡¯s just not meant for non-quantum beings. I give a mental shrug at that thought right before finally arriving at the island. And it doesn¡¯t take long before I feel a certain hellfrost dragon¡¯s attention arrive at our location. So I quickly begin teleporting over to him, to Alara¡¯s surprise who apparently thought we were done teleporting. And once I finally arrive at the little den the dragon built for himself, Alara drops to her knees, then falls face first into the ground while hugging it as if her life depended on it. Huh. I glance up to see Ethan walking out of the cave with a slightly bewildered expression on his face as he looks at Alara, then at me, and then at Alara again. Finally he raises his gaze to me and says, ¡°Hello again Lexi. What brings you to my island?¡± Apparently deciding to ignore the girl. That act alone almost has me chuckling. But I keep it in. Partially because Alara does not look very happy right now and partially because the dragon genuinely doesn¡¯t seem to care about her. Several seconds pass in silence as I glance between the two before I eventually just shrug, deciding that Alara will be fine as I focus on him and answer, ¡°Oh, my sister got out of the dungeon and this one, the leader of their base, wanted to have a word with you.¡± His eyes narrow for a second, ¡°Oh?¡± He turns to look at Alara who is finally getting up off the ground. ¡°She does, does she?¡± B2 | Chapter 3 - Hellfrost Training Alexia I watch on as Alara tries rather hard to negotiate with the dragon for a mutual defense pact, boundaries between the two islands, and the ownership of dungeons on the islands. And throughout the process, Ethan just keeps treating her like he genuinely couldn¡¯t care less about her. Honestly, I¡¯m pretty sure the only reason he¡¯s bothering to listen to her is me. Then again, he¡¯s a dragon. Dragons are all like that. They treat non-dragons rather poorly, and only show respect to other Class S species without exception. Dragons are just to prideful and reclusive to do otherwise. Although I have to admit, Ethan seems oddly friendly towards me, even for another Class S species. And I still can¡¯t figure out why. We¡¯ve met up around once almost every day since I first met him, and he¡¯s stayed kind the entire time while trying to offer me his help. Actions that normally wouldn¡¯t seem suspicious at all, if I didn¡¯t know how a dragon is. And if I didn¡¯t know by now that he seems to genuinely not care about me returning the favor. An even larger anomaly, since all dragons love favors. No matter what, I can¡¯t figure this guy out. And it¡¯s just making me even more suspicious of him as time goes on. Then again, I at least know that he shouldn¡¯t interfere with me. Because it¡¯s also unlike a dragon to do that, so unless he¡¯s even more of an anomaly than I already know, which is entirely possible, he shouldn¡¯t bother us. And from the way he¡¯s treating Alara I can tell he¡¯s like a usual dragon in that department. He doesn¡¯t even seem to care about the dungeons on his own island as long as anyone coming to fight in them stays far away from his mountains. In the end, Alara seems rather happy with what she got as she walks out of the clearing, leaving me and the dragon alone. Because while he did reject the mutual defense pact, he said that if I asked for help he¡¯d consider it, agreed to let them use his island¡¯s dungeons, and even work with us to fight against the Calamity Class monster if it should attack our islands. ¡°Why aren¡¯t you leading your island¡¯s base?¡± Ethan asks while crossing his arms, his entire attitude shifting from the dismissive attitude he had before to a friendly yet curious one. The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. I turn my attention back to him from Alara as I answer, ¡°Because I don¡¯t care about leading and would rather leave that to someone else.¡± He raises a single brow at that before smirking and nodding his head, ¡°Understandable.¡± I purse my lips for a few seconds as I consider his current attitude, only to grin as I think of a way to trust him a bit. ¡°Hey, would you mind helping me?¡± I ask the man, my grin growing wider. He raises his other brow and says, ¡°Depends on what you need help with.¡± I walk up to him, closing the distance between us to be just about half a meter, making his eyes widen in surprise. But then I simply ask, ¡°Would you mind attacking me with hellfrost?¡± His surprise turns to absolute bewilderment. ¡°Huh?¡± he mutters. After more than a little persuasion, the man finally relents and reluctantly attacks me, making me understand that he for some reason is against hurting me. Not sure why though. But it makes me trust him a little more. Although not as much as my gradually growing adaptation against hellfrost is. Because having a resistance towards his magic will make me a lot less tense around him. Nearly half an hour passes before I get a System Message. {Congratulations! Your Passive Skill ¡®Quantum Adaptation¡¯ has reached Level 8!} Finally! And at this point his attacks aren¡¯t doing as much damage. Probably about a twenty or thirty percent reduction in damage. I¡¯m also pretty sure the guy knows what¡¯s going on but is still training my adaptation, so I think at this point he¡¯s a bit more trustworthy than before. Still weird and an anomaly though. He only continues training it for another five minutes after that before he stops and says, ¡°That¡¯s enough for now. Come back again some time if you need more.¡± I smile at him, one no longer tinted with suspicion, and give him a brief salute as I respond, ¡°Sure thing! And thanks Ethan!¡± The guy blinks at that, only to give me one of the very rare smiles he gives and nods, turning around and spreading his wings to shoot up into the air. Meanwhile I turn around and follow after the direction that Alara left in, eventually finding her waiting for me in another clearing with a disgruntled look on her face. And before I can wonder why she¡¯s upset not when she was previously rather satisfied, she mutters, ¡°Let¡¯s go back to the island¡­¡± Oh. She just doesn¡¯t want to teleport again and knows she has to. Come to think of it, how long has she been standing there waiting for me? I frown at that thought for a few seconds before shrugging. Doesn¡¯t really matter. She¡¯s just tagging along with me right now and I¡¯m doing her a favor, so this is my time. I walk up to her, pat her on the shoulder while giving her a sympathetic look, and comment, ¡°Look at the bright side.¡± She frowns. ¡°You don¡¯t have anything to vomit anymore,¡± I tell her with a light smile, a nod of my head at the scowl she gives me, and then a teleport, making her scowl drop into a grimace. And I don¡¯t stop, teleporting us to the edge of the island and then into the air towards the next island. I mean, I¡¯m not wrong. She can¡¯t vomit when she has an empty stomach. Definitely a plus for my nose. Maybe I should try training everyone on the island to get them used to teleporting? It could make future trips like this less unpleasant. I¡¯d have to make sure I take nose plugs with me though. And make sure they don¡¯t vomit on me. Anyways, I continue teleporting, ignoring the sound of Alara dry-heaving. B2 | Chapter 4 - Progress on the Base Alexia Once we make it back to the base, I immediately turn around to teleport back to my home, only to be stopped by Alara as she exclaims, ¡°Wait!¡± So I turn back to her with a frown and a raised brow. She takes in a few deep breaths to calm down after the teleporting before saying, ¡°I have a request, if you would listen to me.¡± I just keep my brow raised without saying anything. ¡°If it¡¯s not too much trouble for you, could you bring anyone you meet back here with you as you¡¯re traveling?¡± she asks with a frown. ¡°The base needs more people if it wants to keep running smoothly, and we need experts in various fields we don¡¯t currently have.¡± Hmm. And I¡¯m sure a lot of the people on the islands will want to move here too since it¡¯ll be safer. But that¡¯s a lot of extra work for me since it¡¯ll be very taxing on my soul reserves. In which case, I ask, ¡°What will I be getting in return?¡± She blinks for a second before smiling and answering, ¡°You can have free access to whatever dungeons you like regardless of if there¡¯s a line there or not, the craftsmen we find can build you a better home and craft you better gear or simply improve or fix your current gear for no charge, and having more people at the base will make more time for you in the future.¡± I frown at that, crossing my arms slightly as I ask, ¡°And why is that?¡± ¡°If there are more people at the base, there will be more fighters capable of defending it, which means less need for you to be our main line of defense against enemies,¡± she explains with a slight smirk on her face. ¡°All we¡¯ll need you to do for defense is protect us against the stronger enemies like people at Ethan¡¯s level.¡± That gives me pause for a few seconds before I eventually nod my head, ¡°Alright. I¡¯ll ask whoever I meet if they want to come back and live here. Whether they want to or not is up to them, and I won¡¯t waste any time trying to convince them to move.¡± This¡¯ll be a good thing in the long run, and while it does drain my soul reserves, it also trains Quantum Displacement. A skill that is honestly starting to very much out level my other skills. If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. At this rate I might even get the skill to Tier 3 before I reach Tier 3 myself. ¡°That¡¯s all I ask!¡± Alara says with a smile. ¡°And we¡¯ll be sure to try recruiting people from the islands that attach to our own.¡± ¡°Sure,¡± I mutter, not really caring about that. Although I do add, ¡°Just make sure they won¡¯t betray you, and that they stay away from my clearing.¡± ¡°Of course,¡± Alara replies as if that wasn¡¯t something that needed being said. I teleport away from her, heading straight inside of my portable home before I lie back on my bed with a sigh. There¡¯s one other thing she didn¡¯t point out that I¡¯ll be getting from this deal. New people to train my adaptations. I grin at that thought before closing my eyes and going to sleep.
The Base Alara walks through the center of the base feeling satisfied with the work she got done today. Including both the agreements with the dragon and the agreement she received from Lexi. Over the past week and a half, the interior of the base has been improved by a large margin. Mostly because one of the latest people to join the base from an island they connected to last had knowledge in construction, speeding up the process and significantly improving the result. She looks around at the base, finding a couple kids ¨C who were found with a group on the same island as the construction specialist, proving that kids were sent to their parents if they chose that after the Tutorial ¨C running around and playing through the various stone buildings around them. Meanwhile the adults are all still at work building more stone buildings, with some working on expanding the walls to the sides to accommodate more people in the future. Everything¡¯s running smoothly. And the few troublemakers that have tried coming to our island left as soon as they realized Lexi was here. Alara glances back in the direction of The Reaper¡¯s Clearing. A name that the people of the base have started calling it due to the girl who lives there. We really owe a lot to her. Everything would¡¯ve gone entirely different without her help. The girl thinks back to when her group were originally being attacked by William and his cohorts, making her glance at William who is now working diligently with the other people of the base. Something she never thought she¡¯d see when they were originally being attacked back then. If it weren¡¯t for Lexi, we¡¯d likely be dead by now instead of his cohorts. That or worse. She ponders over The Reaper for a few seconds before smiling and continuing into her small house, her mind returning to the hellfrost dragon. That guy seems oddly interested in Lexi. I wonder why? It¡¯s almost like he has some sort of romantic interest in her, but that can¡¯t be possible. He¡¯s a dragon after all. Alara frowns at that, only to lie down on her bed ¨C something she bought from the Tutorial Shop with a single point ¨C and stares up at the stone ceiling of the small house. If that is the case though, I can¡¯t help but pity him. Because it¡¯s obvious she has no interest. She still can¡¯t bring herself to believe that a dragon would ever develop any sort of interest along those lines for a non-dragon. Even if they¡¯re a quantum being. Several seconds pass in silence before Alara closes her eyes. I should make use of Lexi while she¡¯s still here. Before she heads into a Tier 2 dungeon. B2 | Chapter 5 - Frozen Wastelands Alexia After one more day of fighting with the level 100 monsters of some further out islands and their subordinates and reaching level one hundred and nine, I decide to finally try a dungeon. So I head back to the home base, rest until my soul is recovered, warn Astrid, and head for a Tier 2 dungeon. Because I know that if I don¡¯t start soon, the others will start out leveling me. And if that happens, I won¡¯t retain my spot as the #1, thereby losing my spot as Dimensional Champion for our Block. Something I won¡¯t let happen. The Tier 2 dungeon that I choose of the ones nearby is a dungeon with an emphasis on ice located on another taiga island just like the one that Ethan lives on. And I chose it because this is the element I have the largest adaptation for, on account of said hellfrost dragon whose level is higher than anyone at home and could train me quite a bit more than them. Both in ice magic and hellfrost magic. It takes me about an hour to reach the dungeon in question before I stop right in front of it and identify the thing, ignoring the snow blowing all around me. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Dungeon ¨C Frozen Wastelands Description: Cross the frozen wastelands and survive should you dare to enter this dungeon. Because if you don¡¯t, you may just come back and haunt the wastelands, forever lost in the snow. Monsters: The Primary monster type in this dungeon are ice-aligned undead-type monsters, with the secondary type being abominations. Requirements To Enter: Be Tier 2 or above. Dungeon Tier: 2 -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- A good match for me, I¡¯d say. One of the biggest threats of an undead is their ability to infect a Class B species and turn them into a mindless undead as well. Or infect a Class A species and turn them into an intelligent undead, making them lose their emotions in the process. But a Class S species has nothing to worry about against undead since they can¡¯t infect a Class S species. No matter how much of their venom they try pumping into me. If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. So the only other things I¡¯ll have to worry about are their overwhelming numbers and their inability to feel pain. And the ice magic ones, but thanks to my adaptation, I should have some immunity to ice magic now, even beyond my initial magic weakness. Overall one of the best dungeons for me to solo. I can also start putting Quantum Burst into action again here to deal with their numbers. Since I haven¡¯t been able to use that skill as much recently. After one last glance at my status to check on my soul and at my skills list to make sure I replaced Dungeon Map back into my general skills, I reach out for and touch the dungeon entrance, finding myself quickly drawn into the dungeon. And almost immediately, I look around at the frozen wasteland I find myself in. A wasteland of nothing but ice and snow, with more snow falling from the sky. A sky so filled with snow and dark clouds that I can¡¯t even see it. Meanwhile I hear shifting from all around me as sounds akin to something dragging their feet comes my way. Not to mention the occasional clatter sound or groan, indicating skeletons and zombies. I quickly use Quantum Burst, sending a pulse of quantum energy outwards from me, clearing up the snow in the air in a few meter radius around me while also sending a few undead who were barely in that radius flying with their fronts glitching apart before exploding. But they still get back up even after that, making me grimace as I identify them. {Zombie Drone ¨C Level 101} {Zombie Drone ¨C Level 102} {Zombie Drone ¨C Level 102} {Skeletal Warrior ¨C Level 101} Looks like it¡¯s just starting out with regular undead. No ice element. So with that in mind, I summon my polearm and begin swinging it around, tearing the undead apart with ease. Good. This dungeon might actually be easier than I was expecting. Guess I still ended up underestimating the difference between a Class S species and those lower than it. Although these are basic undead, so they¡¯re only Class E. What they specialize in¡­ My thoughts pause for a second when I send a pulse around me with my senses, soon finding dozens upon dozens of similar undead all around me. ¡­ are numbers and their venom. I grin at the sight of so many monsters all at Tier 2. Even if they¡¯re all Class E and will therefore give less EXP. Without any hesitation, I immediately begin cutting into the undead with my polearm, deciding to save my soul for the higher leveled undead that I¡¯ll find later on in the dungeon. And I keep cutting away at the undead for quite a while, the undead¡¯s numbers never seeming to really decrease by much thanks to the heavy snow. Eventually I notice the very insignificant amount of EXP they¡¯re giving me. To the point that after killing several dozen undead, I only gain a single level. That¡¯s annoying. Did the System change something when it comes to EXP? I frown at the thought that it could¡¯ve. But there isn¡¯t much I can do to figure it out. It¡¯s not like the System gives us much information about itself. Most of the information we know was figure out by users. I¡¯ll just have to figure it out on my own. The undead still aren¡¯t very strong though, and I still haven¡¯t run into any stronger undead. Actually, I haven¡¯t made much distance since entering because of the vast number of undead that have been attacking me. I continue slaughtering the creatures until I finally make it far enough that they¡¯re getting some levels on me. But even then I still kill them without much difficulty, even if some of them manage to get a couple attacks in. Mostly a couple bites at my ankles by some zombies. Bites I would¡¯ve worried about if I were still human, but won¡¯t worry about now. Someday I¡¯ll finish killing these things and find something besides snow and ice. B2 | Chapter 6 - The Second Floor Alexia Time passes and the sun in the sky of the dungeon rises and falls over and over again all the way till I¡¯m pretty sure there¡¯s only a week and a half until the end of the first month. And during this time I only manage to level up to level 131 despite fighting undead the entire way. Meanwhile the skill I get at every tenth level, the interval of getting new skills having increased from every five levels after reaching Tier 2, are all better than the skills I got at Tier 1. Even if I¡¯ve only gotten two new skills from Tier 2. Waveform Manipulation, which I¡¯ve found to be a very interesting skill, and Observation Effect Absorption. Observation Effect Absorption is pretty good, and quite a bit better than Quantum Singularity which still hasn¡¯t gained a single level since getting it. The skill basically absorbs a very minimal amount of energy from every magical attack I see along with some environmental effects that generate energy. Not enough to significantly affect the result of the attack or effect, but still enough to build up a lot of energy over time. Energy that I can then release in a single quantum attack. Although I wouldn¡¯t be surprised if in the future I will be able to absorb a significant amount that¡¯ll actually matter to the effects and affect the attacks. Unfortunately I still can¡¯t use Quantum Phasing yet since it costs so much soul, but it is definitely starting to inch towards the point that it won¡¯t just cripple me from using it. I sigh at that thought as I continue killing skeletons, wondering why I decided to choose this dungeon after all. Then again, I glance at the leaderboards. [Dimensional Champion Leaderboard] [#1 Alexia Knight ¨C Level 131] [#2 Isabella d''Aragon ¨C Level 131] [#3 Lucas Nightshade ¨C Level 131] [#4 Alexander Frost ¨C Level 130] [#5 Ethan Silva ¨C Level 129] [#6 Ignivara ¨C Level 129] [#7 Artorius del Argon ¨C Level 128] [#8 Vallius Karan de Volt Hellmouth ¨C Level 128] [#9 Sartorius ¨C Level 128] [#10 Aurora Frost ¨C Level 128] A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. I¡¯m only barely holding onto my spot at the top of the Dimensional Championship Leaderboard. And that¡¯s with me losing it multiple times and regaining it. On that note, almost all of the people on the top ten are now Class S species unlike with the Tutorial Leaderboard. Which goes to show that the Tutorial wasn¡¯t entirely based on pure power and was also partially based on luck and who could kill the most. Not to mention killing people. The only people in the top ten that aren¡¯t Class S species now are Aurora Frost, the Frozen Empress, and Lucas Nightshade, the Hound of the Apocalypse. But now there¡¯s a quantum reaper, a hellfire dragon, a kraken, a hellfrost dragon, a hydra, an archfiend, a lich king, and an archangel in the top ten. As long as the Hound, archfiend, hydra, and lich king all stay far away from my Dimensional Block, I¡¯m fine. But I really don¡¯t like the idea that they¡¯re all still alive. Not that I expected any of them to die. Would¡¯ve made the new dimension a lot safer if they were gone though. I sigh at the thought, only to frown as I kill another undead and find some sort of key dropping from it. So I bend down and grab it, identifying the thing as I do so. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Floor Key Description: This key may be used to pass through the first floor of the Frozen Wastelands dungeon to the second floor after the user twists it into the air. Stats Bonus: N/A Requirements: Be in the Frozen Wastelands dungeon. Item Tier: 2 -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Wait¡­ seriously? It was that type of dungeon? No wonder I never managed to find an exit or way to move on. A type of dungeon where you have to just kill monsters until one by chance drops the key to the next floor. They typically don¡¯t have many floors ¨C only three most of the time ¨C and gradually get higher and higher leveled monsters the longer you¡¯re on the floor. Except the last floor which typically has the monsters just growing in level over time until the boss spawns. One of the few types of dungeons with only a single boss. I raise the key into the air and twist it, making a door appear around the key with the key now in the keyhole. And without any hesitation, I open the door and step through, immediately finding myself in a different frozen wasteland. Just that this one doesn¡¯t have snow. It¡¯s just ice for as far as the eye can see. Silence fills the wasteland without a single sound for several seconds. Then I hear cracking noises echoing everywhere before I see a few small cracks showing up on the surface of the ice several meters away. I tighten my grip on my polearm, only for several skeletons wearing older armor that¡¯s been lightly frosted over to jump out of the ice, shattering it in the process. And when they land on the ice a meter away from the cracks, more cracks appear on it and a light aura of frost envelops them with the appearance of a chilly mist. Looks like the second floor adds in the ice element aligned monsters. The silence that had once been filling the floor is now filled with the clattering of bones and armor as the skeletons raise polearms of their owns with glowing blue lights filling their eye sockets. {Draugr Warrior ¨C Level 132} {Draugr Warrior ¨C Level 133} {Draugr Warrior ¨C Level 134} {Draugr Warrior ¨C Level 131} Okay. These undead look a little more intelligent than the ones on the previous floor. Probably because they can use magic. They don¡¯t appear to have true intelligence though. More like a programmed intelligence to make them better in combat. But draugr? A type of higher leveled undead oftentimes living in cold areas and with ice magic. This might be fun. Update Due to my classes and the audiobook for The Rise of the Winter Wolf, I haven''t been able to write as much over the past couple days. That said, there will still be a chapter today for both Wolf of the Blood Moon and Reaper''s Resurgence. I have just spent about seven hours preparing for an exam, so I only have enough time to write a single chapter today just like yesterday for each. With no chapters for my other stories. Find this and other great novels on the author''s preferred platform. Support original creators! The schedule will return to normal either tomorrow or the day after. There''s a chance it might be the day after since I have a meeting with my development team tomorrow and a quiz I have to study for and take during my three hour long class. Sorry for the inconvenience. Today''s chapter releases at midnight CST instead of noon as it normally would. Have a nice day. B2 | Chapter 7 - Draugr Alexia The battle starts out with a bang when the draugr all begin sprinting forwards while swiping their swords in arcs straight towards me, sending arcs of ice flying through the air. But I just teleport right up to one of the draugr, ignoring the magical attacks entirely as I thrust my polearm into its back and swing it upwards, impaling the creature and lifting it into the air to then smash into the ground behind me. Then I teleport again, dodging the blades of two of the other draugr before I lift the draugr I still have impaled ¨C the monster having teleported with me ¨C into the air and smash it back down onto another draugr, sending the two clattering in a pile of bones. All of the remaining draugr, which number four others, rush at me with their weapons raised. But I just use Quantum Burst, sending a powerful pulse of quantum energy around me and fracturing more than a few of the draugr¡¯s bones while sending them flying. I quickly glance at the two I smashed, finding their heads still moving despite their bodies completely being broken apart and unattached. ¡°Seriously?¡± I mutter before teleporting out of the way of a bolt of ice the two of them send flying at me despite being nothing more than heads. That¡¯s annoying. I turn to look at the others before teleporting again to avoid another strike. And right when I reappear, I swing my polearm around to smash the head of another draugr, soon finding the light going out of its eyes when the quantum energy infused into my attack hits it. Then the skeleton¡¯s body just falls apart like a sack of potatoes. Looks like I need to either destroy the skull, or destroy the skull with magic. Doesn¡¯t really matter which considering that all of my attacks have magic included. With that in mind, I rush through, killing one draugr after another until each one is dead. Or redead? Since they¡¯re undead? Until every single one is defeated. There, that works better. I smile a little at that thought before ignoring the System Messages and beginning to walk through the floor, soon finding another set of draugr jumping out of the ground. There are way too many undead in this place. I stand in place this time while raising my hand and using Quantum Bolts on all of the draugr, quickly finding them reciprocating with bolts of ice. But my bolts blast straight past theirs, proving my magic stats to be higher despite their slightly higher levels. They then smash into the draugr with a glitchy explosion, blasting apart their upper halves with ease. Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings. That was much easier. A quick glance at my soul proves that I can pretty much send Quantum Bolts all day long and not be winded much. As long as I don¡¯t go overboard that is. Time to clear out this floor of monsters.
After who knows how long slaughtering draugr with Quantum Bolts for days, I eventually find a hidden area on my map. Although not physically, since I can¡¯t seem to find the hidden area. All that I can see is a flat expanse of ice with nothing to see for quite a ways. I frown as I tap the rear of my polearm on the ice, making a clinking sound. Then I just shrug and slam it into the ice, finding nothing happening then too. Okay then¡­ where¡¯s the entrance to the hidden area? I roam around the expanse of ice for a while, feeling more than a little annoyed at the rather large size of the icon on my map that¡¯s spanning the entire flat expanse, before I eventually notice something strange. Why does there seem to be a shadow here? There shouldn¡¯t be anything that can even cast a shadow, but there¡¯s just a tiny little shadow¡­ I blink at that thought before raising my head and squinting. Huh. Guess that answers the question of where the hidden area is. Wasn¡¯t expecting it to be in the sky though. A small little black square can be seen from where I¡¯m standing, just barely visible with the sun all around it casting a very small shadow from this distance. Although I can¡¯t see anything about the square other than it¡¯s a black square. Interesting. I jump straight up, clearing quite the distance thanks to my stats right before I begin teleporting, using my upwards momentum to continue pulling me up as I teleport. And after a few dozen teleports, the square finally begins to grow visibly larger, proving that I¡¯m getting closer. Then a few more dozen teleports leads me to being right underneath it, so I teleport to the side of the platform, and then above it where I find a rather unexpected sight. Instead of a loot box like I was expecting, or even a boss monster, there¡¯s some sort of altar. One glowing with a pale blue light and standing on a raised dais. I slowly walk over to the dais across the several dozen meter long platform until I stop a few meters in front of it, crossing my arms as I frown at the thing. Just what is it? I try to identify it, but nothing happens. Then I realize that there is a rift in between me and the dais. Wait, I¡¯m not even in the hidden area yet? That has me frowning for a second before I shrug, slice open the rift, and step through. [You have entered the Tier 2 Hidden Area, the Altar of the Frozen Moon.] Huh. Really is an altar. But why is there an altar here, and what¡¯s it do? I¡¯ve never heard of an altar hidden area in a dungeon before. Then again, I don¡¯t exactly know much about Tier 2 dungeons in general. It¡¯s not like it was common knowledge before the Reset. Most people never enter Tier 1 dungeons after all, much less Tier 2. My frown grows at that before I eventually just shrug and identify the altar again now that I¡¯m inside of the hidden area. And what I find has me blinking in surprise. Huh? B2 | Story Art First off, art of Crystal Nightshade: Next is the Quantum Ruler: This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it. And an image that fits perfectly as a laptop desktop background :) And finally, the cover for book 2 of Reaper''s Resurgence: B2 | Chapter 8 - Altar of the Frozen Moon Alexia This is¡­ unexpected. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Altar of the Frozen Moon Description: An altar located within the Frozen Wastelands Tier 2 Dungeon with magical properties. Anyone who makes an offering of magical energy to the altar shall be granted a gift. The gift will be randomized and is affected by the element of the magical energy used as an offering. Stats Bonus: N/A Requirements: None. Item Tier: 2 -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- I stare at the thing for several seconds before eventually stepping up to it and placing my hand on the thing. And almost immediately, I feel some of the quantum energy in my body moving into the altar, following which the thing begins to glow with a purple and blue light instead of the pale blue from before. The same color as my quantum energy. Several seconds pass with the light shining brighter and brighter until suddenly it explodes outwards, blinding me for a second due to the magical light before it clears again to reveal an item floating above the altar. And the item immediately has me grinning, strictly because I can sense quantum energy coming from it. A quantum magic item! That¡¯s a first! Even my armor and weapons are only elemental armor taking on quantum characteristics due to my own quantum energy filling it until someone else uses them. Well, if someone else could use them, considering that they¡¯re soulbound. The item itself is a ring with a brightly glowing band of purple going around it. A band that seems to glitch out as I look at it, like it¡¯s constantly trying to set itself in reality but failing each time. Meanwhile the rest of the ring is a black tinted with a deep purple. I identify the item and quickly find my grin growing wider. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Quantum Lock Description: A ring infused with the quantum energy of The Reaper. It is able to slow down or speed up time once every month for a period of ten normal seconds when the user is below 10% of their total soul capacity. This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version. Stats Bonus: +30 MAG, +30 MEN Requirements: The user must have soul. The user must have a quantum magic Affinity of Class B or higher. Item Tier: 3 (Item Tier increased by one due to the Legendary Feat, The First Clear) -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Good to know that The First Clear¡¯s perk also affects things like this. Without any hesitation, I take my gauntlet off and put the ring on. Then I put the gauntlet back on and clench my fist slightly. I love wearing rings under gauntlets. As long as the gauntlets adjust to fit them, that is. Otherwise it¡¯s just uncomfortable. But if they do adjust themselves, then it hides an enemy¡¯s vision of your rings completely. Which can really help out in battle. Now then. I turn to look over the platform before teleporting over to the edge of it and kneeling down to look at the ice faaaaaar below. Getting down¡­ might be a bit tricky. Maybe I should¡¯ve thought about that before coming up here? This is one major issue with the whole ¡®retaining momentum when teleporting¡¯ thing. Then again, I can always just send some Quantum Bolts down to offset my momentum a bit. And in the end, fall damage is physical damage. So I¡¯ll only be taking 20% of the damage anyways. Meaning I don¡¯t have anything to worry about. If I do get hurt, I can just reverse the damage in an instant. I nod my head at that, clenching my fist slightly at the rather large drop without a hint of fear of the height in me. Right. No fear at all. And with that thought, I close my eyes. Just because. Then I step over the edge and use my senses to repeatedly teleport downwards all while gaining momentum. And from time to time, I send bolts of quantum energy down to offset the force of my fall. Not that it necessarily does all that much to help. Eventually I hear a cracking sound when my feet finally hit the ground, even with me doing the last teleport with me just a single inch above the ground. I immediately reverse the damage, only letting out a very faint scream of pain in the process from the near two seconds of pain I endured. And then I finally open my eyes again. Not that closing them really helped much with the fear I was not feeling, considering that I could still see around me with energy manipulation. I look around for a second before sighing and beginning to walk across the ice again, ready to continue the endless trek across the wasteland. I¡¯ve never been afraid of heights, but I don¡¯t particularly like falling down several thousand meters with nothing but solid ice beneath me. Pretty sure anyone would feel that way. The fall aside, it was absolutely worth it getting that ring. I smile at the thought. Time magic is very powerful. Even if the quantum beings monitor all time magic users to make sure they don¡¯t do a mass time reversal on the universe or anything else, really. Not even just the Quantum Architect, but all of the quantum beings. Same with space magic, actually. But in terms of destroying reality itself. Almost like the quantum beings are the protectors of reality. Which is pretty close to the truth. A fact that¡¯s rather ironic considering my status as a Quantum Reaper. Something with the power to straight up destroy reality with quantum energy. I pause in my step as a thought comes to me. Do the other quantum beings know about me? That has me frowning. If they were bothered by my ¡®killing¡¯ of the Quantum Architect, then they would¡¯ve either stopped me from doing it or killed me outright. Although considering how they left the guy in his imprisonment and didn¡¯t do anything I get the feeling they probably don¡¯t care that I killed him. But I can¡¯t help but wonder despite that. What are the quantum beings doing right now? B2 | Chapter 9 - Progress Alexia It ends up taking me another four days to get the key to the next floor from a draugr before I immediately move on to the third floor. And the third floor is immediately different from the other two floors. Because instead of a plain wasteland, there¡¯s a lot of wasteland with some random temples scattered through it made entirely out of ice. Meanwhile the monsters on the floor are starting at level 200, which is over two dozen levels above me. Fortunately my being a Class S species kind of makes that level gap null and void since I¡¯m still stronger than they are despite it. I frown at the temple standing tall right in front of me, my arms folded under my chest as I consider what to do. Up till now, I¡¯ve avoided the temples simply because the levels of the undead outside of the temples were already 30 to 40 levels above me, so the temples might be¡­ a bit too much if the monsters inside are even stronger. But then again, who knows. Also, I have no idea how to leave this dungeon if it ends up being too much for me. Outside of hidden exits that is. There just isn¡¯t a way for me to get back to the previous floors, not to mention that there wasn¡¯t really an exit around me when I first entered the dungeon in the first place. So I have no idea where the exit is. I frown at that thought before turning around and walking away from the temple, deciding to spend another day searching for a hidden exit first. Just so I have it on my mini map and can go back to it if I need to. Within seconds of turning away from the temple, skulls coated in ice begin to break out of the ice and float through the air around me. And just like with the last time I ran into them, I grit my teeth and begin teleporting around in order to dodge all of the spears of ice that appear in the air and start firing everywhere. But even with my teleporting, several of the spears hit me, piercing partially into my armor and then into my skin, drawing blood each time. These things are annoying. Over the second floor, I managed to bring my adaptation to ice magic quite a bit higher, so the attacks only deal about half the damage they would otherwise. Although I don¡¯t think the attacks are affecting my adaptation much anymore. Probably too weak. That or my adaptation is growing too high, since I know the skill said it was impossible to become completely immune to something. I continue dodging the spears while occasionally swinging my polearm¡¯s blade straight into their skulls, sending them crashing to the ground where they crack but otherwise remain alive. Until the next time I hit that particular skull, shattering it the rest of the way. After I finish dealing with the skulls, I let my System Messages flow. [Level 200 Lesser Frost Skull Defeated ¨C User¡¯s earned EXP has been increased by a significant portion due to killing a being whose level is thirty or more levels above their own.] Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. [Level 201 Lesser Frost Skull Defeated ¨C User¡¯s earned EXP has been increased by a significant portion due to killing a being whose level is thirty or more levels above their own.] [Level 199 Lesser Frost Skull Defeated ¨C User¡¯s earned EXP has been increased by a significant portion due to killing a being whose level is thirty or more levels above their own.] [Level 198 Lesser Frost Skull Defeated ¨C User¡¯s earned EXP has been increased by a significant portion due to killing a being whose level is thirty or more levels above their own.] [Level 200 Lesser Frost Skull Defeated ¨C User¡¯s earned EXP has been increased by a significant portion due to killing a being whose level is thirty or more levels above their own.] {Congratulations! You have leveled up to level 165! Your Species has awarded you +2 VIT, +2 DEX, +2 STR, +2 MAG, and +2 MEN. Your Class has awarded you +1 VIT, +1 DEX, +1 STR, +2 MAG, and +2 MEN.} [The leaderboards have been updated. You are now #1 on the leaderboards.] [*New Active Skill* ¨C Quantum Blade Formation: Create blades in the air out of entangled particles. These blades may bypass a small amount of defenses around the target magical or otherwise.] Oh? I got my first place spot back. Cool. I open the leaderboards to check how close the others behind me and the Ancestral Dragon are. [Dimensional Champion Leaderboard] [#1 Alexia Knight ¨C Level 165] [#2 Isabella d''Aragon ¨C Level 164] [#3 Alexander Frost ¨C Level 161] [#4 Lucas Nightshade ¨C Level 160] [#5 Ethan Silva ¨C Level 158] [#6 Ignivara ¨C Level 158] [#7 Artorius del Argon ¨C Level 158] [#8 Vallius Karan de Volt Hellmouth ¨C Level 156] [#9 Sartorius ¨C Level 155] [#10 Voltari ¨C Level 155] Oh? Looks like the Frozen Empress was finally knocked out of the top ten. And it was by a kirin too. Meanwhile the Hound was booted down from third place to fourth. At this point it¡¯s obvious we¡¯re all in dungeons of our own, so I can¡¯t really get complacent, nor can I leave this dungeon without losing my place as the top ranked. Even while staying in the dungeon I¡¯ve lost that place multiple times, so I¡¯d rather not leave it where I¡¯ll end up without any monsters to hunt at my level. Then again, I¡¯m not really hunting monsters at my level right now. I¡¯m hunting monsters far above my level. Which makes me feel more than a little impressed by the Hound, simply because everyone else in the top ten are Class S species for a reason. After all, generally only a Class S species would be able to hold their own against monsters this high a level, and dungeons progress too quickly through levels for someone to start at level 1 and reach the level cap most of the time by the end of the dungeon. Especially for Tier 2 and above dungeons. It might be possible to do it for Tier 1 dungeons though. I close out of the leaderboards and begin running through the wasteland in search of a Safe Zone. Because while I don¡¯t have to sleep as much with my level, I still need to sleep a little. It doesn¡¯t take long before I run into another group of frost skulls, except with a draugr captain leading them this time. I grimace again when the spears begin flying. These things are so annoying. B2 | Chapter 10 - A Gathering of Leaders Alexia I really hate this type of dungeon. Give me a boss anytime over this. The group of draugr numbering over a dozen strong obviously doesn¡¯t care about my internal complaints as the skeletons all charge towards me while sending tiny shards of ice showering down on me. And the two captains leading them just stand at the back while enchanting them all with some sort of frost enhancement spell that reminds me a lot of my Quantum Infusion skill. I teleport back and forth, dodging the shards as I crack one of the skeletons¡¯ bones after another, my blade no longer being enough to pierce straight through. And after two hits on each bone, they shatter. But during the process of attacking the skeletons, several of them manage to pierce through my armor with their swords, leaving freezing wounds that chill my glitchy blood in the process. Wounds that would¡¯ve likely been far worse if not for Quantum Adaptation. The battle continues as I make my way through the draugr warriors all the way till the two captains, both of whom raise their swords to fight blade to blade with me for a little bit until I overpower them in skill and physical strength. [Level 205-213 Draugr Warriors Defeated ¨C User¡¯s earned EXP has been increased by a significant portion due to killing a being whose level is thirty or more levels above their own.] [Level 216-217 Draugr Captains Defeated ¨C User¡¯s earned EXP has been increased by a significant portion due to killing a being whose level is thirty or more levels above their own.] {Congratulations! You have leveled up to level 171! Your Species has awarded you +2 VIT, +2 DEX, +2 STR, +2 MAG, and +2 MEN. Your Class has awarded you +1 VIT, +1 DEX, +1 STR, +2 MAG, and +2 MEN.} I wish I could level up faster from this, but I guess I can¡¯t really complain. The monsters outside weren¡¯t leveling me up almost at all, and I already have an advantage with being a Class S species letting me fight and kill these things in the first place. There is a little less than a week until the Dimensional Council meets, and I kind of doubt I can get strong enough to face the boss of this dungeon before then. So I¡¯ll just fight these monsters for another five days and leave the dungeon on the last day. Assuming I ever find a stupid hidden exit that is. I glance at my mini map as I continue my seemingly endless walk through the frozen wasteland, still ignoring the temples. And all I find on my mini map is endless wasteland with nothing special to see except for the various temples. Honestly, I¡¯m pretty sure I¡¯d be screwed if it weren¡¯t for this Dungeon Map. Because then there wouldn¡¯t likely be a way for me to find the hidden exit. I probably would¡¯ve never found the hidden area earlier if it weren¡¯t for the map after all. Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. A thought comes to me that has me grimacing. Please don¡¯t let this hidden exit, wherever it is, end up on a platform high up in the sky again¡­
Somewhere in Dimensional Block #108 The former king of the Varal Kingdom from before the Reset frowns as he looks out over the edge of his island at the various islands all around him, the System leaderboards showing to his right. The Reaper is back to the top spot again. He closes out of the leaderboards and turns around, walking further into the forest-covered island he has named Varal, after his old kingdom. And after several minutes of walking, he reaches a budding city at the center of the island where workers are all building the city. Each and every worker there greets him with a light bow, being citizens from his kingdom before the Reset. Some of the initial minority of his citizens who decided to continue going under his rule. The rest of the citizens are all spread out across the various nearby islands, making their own cities. But none of them are as prosperous so far as Varsac¡¯s. Because none of them have a former Ascendant living within them. Varsac continues walking through his city, occasionally nodding his head to his people and attendants until he makes it to the newly constructed city hall at the center of the city. And without stopping for even a moment, he walks straight into the building and through it to the other side where he eventually stops in a large meeting room before pulling up a System Item he had gotten from his dungeon. One that he finds incredibly useful now after the Reset. The item looks like a disc of gray metal nearly a meter in width and it immediately begins to float into the air half a foot off the ground once it¡¯s taken out. Varsac then closes his eyes and raises one hand towards the Tier 3 item and thinks of the people he wishes to meet, channeling is magic through the device as well as an amplification. Several seconds pass in silence before he opens his eyes again, making two dozen holograms fill up the large meeting room. Each of them being a leader of a different city across the Dimensional Block, the man failing to pierce through the Dimensional Wall even with the help of a Tier 3 item, leading to him only being able to contact the former Ascendants and other rulers that weren¡¯t Ascendants that he knows within the Block. ¡°I have gathered you all here today to start the first conference for deciding the Dimensional Leader,¡± Varsac declares, his eyes narrowing slightly as he does so. ¡°What of the city leaders not present?¡± One of the many holograms ¨C a man with the head of a shark and deep blue skin ¨C declares, his pitch black eyes narrowing as well. ¡°And the city leaders not consisting of former rulers?¡± another hologram asks, this one being a woman with stark white hair and eyes. Varsac glances at the two before answering, ¡°We will simply have to outvote them with pure numbers. It is unlikely that many of them have high levels of Authority, so they shouldn¡¯t be much of a threat in the vote.¡± Muttered agreements mixed with uncertainty run through the gathered leaders, many of whom have already been in contact with competent users who weren¡¯t rulers or former Ascendants prior to the Reset. But in the end they decide not to question it further. ¡°What if a Class S species is within our Block?¡± another leader asks, this one wearing a black cloak with a deep black cowl hiding his appearance. Varsac frowns at that but answers, ¡°Then we deal with it as it comes.¡± As long as it¡¯s not one of the top ten on the leaderboards, much less The Reaper herself, we should be set for one of us to become the Dimensional Champion. He clenches his fist at the thought, feeling like his goal is finally almost near. His goal of becoming the representative of military strength of an entire Planet. Or I guess it¡¯s a Dimensional Block now. ¡°Let us begin the conference,¡± Varsac declares, quickly getting down to business. B2 | Intermission Alexia¡¯s Home Island Astrid vanishes again the moment the group leaves the dungeon, heading straight for the trees above the base. Then she checks in on her status now that she¡¯s alone.
Name: Astrid Knight Species: Shadowborne(T1)
Level: 90 Class: Shadowblade
Health: 1401/1790 Mana: 1245/3570
VIT: 179 DEX: 268 STR: 268 MAG: 357 MEN: 268
Racial Skills Active Skills
Passive Skills General Skills
She grimaces at her level, feeling it is pitiful in comparison to Lexi¡¯s. Even if she knows that she shouldn¡¯t compare herself to a Class S species even if they are twins. But she can¡¯t help her sister if she¡¯s this weak. If I could somehow become Class S as well¡­ After a second she shakes her head at the thought. Because just becoming a Class S species is supposed to be impossible. Unless you¡¯re Lexi apparently. Astrid sighs before beginning to turn towards the bridge connecting their island and the desert island next to them, only to pause as she hears flapping sounds. So she raises her head, noticing several other people down in the base doing the same. Then she finds a large half a meter long bat flapping its wings while flying down towards the base. The bat has glowing purple glitchy eyes just like her sister with glowing red and purple veins running underneath its black fur. Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there. Is it just me¡­ or did Luna get a lot¡­ bigger? Astrid quickly identifies the bat, but it just gives the typical Class C identifier with the same species name as before. So the bat didn¡¯t evolve since the last time Astrid saw her. Guess Luna can grow larger without evolving? Or something like that? The quantum vampire bat flies down to the base before latching her claws onto the underside of the roof of a house and just perching there upside down, closing her eyes. Meanwhile all of the new people to the base send her confused looks, some seemingly preparing for an attack only to grow even more confused when Luna just sleeps. Until someone walks up and explains who Luna is. Luna really does just do whatever she wants, doesn¡¯t she? I hear Lexi occasionally draws soul from her, but the bat kind of just goes off on her own most of the time. Astrid notices several people sending fearful looks towards Luna despite the reassurances from the people who already know about her. Probably because Luna is the same level as Lexi at level 173 and could kill anyone in this base with ease from that alone, considering how Astrid is the highest level person in the base aside from Lexi. And she¡¯s only level 90. But that¡¯s expected of a Class S species. They are the apex predators of the world and rulers of their own element after all. After watching the not-so-little bat for a few seconds, Astrid turns her attention back to the base, which has improved quite a bit over the last couple weeks. To the point that it¡¯s actually looking like a settlement now instead of a ruins turned into a temporary base that it originally was. And part of that is thanks to their island having her sister¡¯s protection, drawing a bunch of new people to it in the process. After they get past their initial meeting of Lexi, of course. Astrid can¡¯t help but smirk at the fact that at least half of the people she¡¯s run into expected Lexi to be some sort of murderous monster girl who reaps the lives of everyone she meets. Which has led to some rather amusing reactions from the newbies to how she actually is. Then again, Lexi¡¯s never particularly cared much about how others view her. As long as they don¡¯t go up and bother her with their views. Her thoughts pause when she notices movement coming from Luna, bringing her attention and a lot of the people¡¯s attention within the base towards the bat. And what she finds is the bat shrinking back down to the size Astrid had originally seen her at, startling everyone. Wait, the bat can manipulate it¡¯s size? I thought it was just growing naturally¡­ or maybe it is growing naturally but can shrink back down or something? Astrid ponders over the subject for a while as whispers run through the base about the oddity that is Lexi¡¯s bonded pet. But eventually she just shrugs her shoulders, deciding not to worry about it while focusing on the bridge again, only to find a man walking across the bridge. One at level 121. She narrows her eyes and tenses up as she notices the man sending a wild smirk in their direction while holding a staff and pointing it their way, seemingly preparing to attack. Shit, that¡¯s not- Her panicking thoughts cut off when a familiar bat glitches into existence right next to him before growing to half a meter in length and chomping down on his neck with her two razor sharp teeth, making the man let out a loud, coarse scream as he falls to the ground trying to swat the bat away. But Luna just ignores him and begins lapping up some of the blood that pours out of his wound with some purple energy filling the blood, occasionally digging her teeth into his neck again to refill the puddle of blood around him until the man goes silent. And it¡¯s not just the man that goes silent. It¡¯s the entire base. Even Astrid finds her mouth parted slightly open in surprise before she closes it. Guess Luna is here to protect us then? Despite knowing that, Astrid can¡¯t help but feel¡­ a little intimidated by the bat now. Meanwhile the bat in question finally finishes lapping up the blood and the purple energy in it that Astrid is pretty sure is quantum energy before she flaps her wings again and begins flying back to the base. And without a care in the world for the silence she caused or the fear directed towards her, she perches herself upside down and closes her eyes again with nothing more than a tiny, adorable sounding squeak. Cute but deadly. B2 | Chapter 11 - A Shock Alexia I frown as I turn my attention from the map on my right, to the temple in front of me, and back to the map again. Guess I should¡¯ve expected this. On the mini map directly over the temple is an icon in the form of a staircase. Which, if I had to guess, indicates an exit. Which means I¡¯m gonna have to enter the temple to find the exit. I look around the area at the icy hills around me for a second before sighing and walking towards the temple. Looks like I have no choice. The temple in front of me is square in shape, with five towers, one at each corner and one at the center. And the entire temple seems to be made out of ice. Extremely thick ice that you can¡¯t see through. There are also draugr warriors randomly patrolling around the temple, but they aren¡¯t much trouble to deal with since they¡¯re mostly alone. Even if their levels are around level 210 to 220. Draugr are too stupid to be much of a threat after all. Especially with their low numbers. After dealing with the few draugr at the front of the temple, I walk up to the strange wall that¡¯s stationed where an entrance should be. The wall has several different depictions on it with little moveable slabs. And if I had to guess, I¡¯m expected to move the slabs into a certain formation. Each slab has a depiction of some sort of undead monster on it, some of which I recognize others I don¡¯t. But I do at least know that the monsters look like they¡¯re at varying levels of power. There¡¯s also some sort of straight line off to the side full of empty positions for slabs to go. I frown at the puzzle for a second before going with my gut instinct of trying to organize the undead by their Class. And nothing actually happens for several slabs as I do that. Until I get to a slab depicting something I don¡¯t recognize and the temple wall begins shaking along with the ground around me. Then several of that very undead burst out of the ground with a roar, the skeletal beasts immediately charging at me upon their release. And out of the corner of my eye, the slabs all teleport back to their starting positions. This is going to be annoying. I tighten my grip on my polearm before ducking when a skeletal beast leaps at me with its bony teeth chomping down, barely missing me. Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit. Very annoying. The other beasts come after it, but I teleport out of their way and bring my polearm down straight on their neck, only to find my eyes widening in shock at the sight of my polearm¡¯s blade quite literally bouncing off of it. Then I teleport back a couple dozen meters and identify the monsters. {Fallen Beast ¨C Level 222} {Fallen Beast ¨C Level 223} {Fallen Beast ¨C Level 221} {Fallen Beast ¨C Level 222} {Fallen Beast ¨C Level 222} {Fallen Beast ¨C Level 220} {Fallen Beast ¨C Level 220} I¡­ have no idea what Class these are. I¡¯ve never even heard of them before. And what¡¯s with that identify result? I¡¯ve never heard of a purple identify result before. But judging by their speed and that defense, they have to at least be Class C despite their nonexistent intelligence. Because their level wouldn¡¯t justify that power. My thoughts halt when the fallen beasts suddenly light up with a pale blue flame that seems to be freezing the air around them. A cold flame? Seriously? There¡¯s something off about these monsters. I frown at that but don¡¯t have the time to ponder further on it as the monsters all start charging straight towards me, making me teleport back again before using waveform manipulation on the cold flames surrounding each one of the beasts. And to my pleasant surprise, one of the beasts has its cold fire changed to a burning crimson fire that immediately has it howling and rolling on the ground before turning to ash. But the others merely find their fire turning to either water, air, or not finding anything happening to it at all besides the fire lowering or increasing in intensity ever so slightly. In the end it causes more confusion than actual damage, but it did deal with one of them and make the fire no longer a problem in a couple others, so it¡¯s worth the soul it cost to use. I raise my hands and begin blasting Quantum Bolts at the creatures, taking advantage of their confusion to get a couple direct hits that only cause some limited damage on their bones and nothing more. Meanwhile on the ones whose cold flames were enhanced, the Quantum Bolts didn¡¯t do any damage at all. That cold flame is annoying. The fallen beasts resume their charge towards me, having recovered from their confusion and now quite a bit angrier than before judging by the blazing blue flames in their eyes. So I teleport away again, only to find a ball of cold flame already having been sent flying towards where I teleported, making my eyes go wide in shock. I try to teleport again, but for some reason find the skill acting sluggish the closer the fireball gets to me. And in the end I don¡¯t manage to teleport before part of the frost fireball hits me, freezing over bits of my arm and making me grimace before I quickly use Quantum Reversal to get rid of the damage. The skill costs quite a bit of soul to use, but it reverses the wound nonetheless, and I teleport away again, gritting my teeth in the lingering pain and more than a little irritation. Okay, seriously. What the hell are these monsters?! A magic element that slows down the activation of skills somehow? Just what sort of element even is that? And why are these monsters to powerful in the first place? A Class C monster shouldn¡¯t be¡­ wait a second¡­ I blink before teleporting away from another fireball. The Quantum Architect and the System introduced a Class S form of monster, so¡­ could they have introduced Class B and A forms of monsters too? B2 | Chapter 12 - Chaos Monsters Alexia After deciding that what Class they are doesn¡¯t matter right now, I start firing Quantum Bolts at the monsters again while occasionally using Waveform Manipulation on the flames around them, finding that every time I do so makes it less likely for it to work again afterwards. An annoying side effect of the skill. As if the wave-particle duality grows more and more resistant to change every time the skill is activated on a certain area. Resistant or not though, it still manages to take out another two of the six remaining beasts, leaving only four left after a wave of orange fire envelops one of them and the other is frozen completely solid in ice. And that¡¯s a much more manageable number than dealing with all of them. I try to once again use my polearm, but the weapons still fails to do any real damage, proving that the strength of these beasts¡¯ bones is stronger than I can really damage. A prospect supporting the theory that they may be some sort of Class B monster of sorts. The monsters don¡¯t just sit there and take my attacks either, the four of them each trying to surround me as I use my polearm and occasionally getting a bite in. Although not a very painful one, considering my physical damage immunity. What hurts more is the frost fire that starts licking at me when they bite me. And every time that happens, I notice a difference in my soul. As if the pale blue flames are somehow slowing down the speed of my soul. Which seems to be the cause of my skills acting sluggish. I grit my teeth as I try to teleport out of the encirclement, only to be stopped by another frost fireball. Then I basically give up on teleporting as I send more Quantum Bolts their way, occasionally denting and glitching away some of their bones. Time passes and I eventually manage to kill the four creatures, albeit not until after spending so much soul in that one fight that I find myself turning around and leaving the temple behind as I head back towards the closest Safe Zone on my map. As I walk though I let my System Messages play through, only to pause at the sight of the last one. [Level 220-223 Fallen Beasts Defeated ¨C User¡¯s earned EXP has been increased by a significant portion due to killing a being whose level is thirty or more levels above their own.] {Congratulations! You have leveled up to level 180! Your Species has awarded you +2 VIT, +2 DEX, +2 STR, +2 MAG, and +2 MEN. Your Class has awarded you +1 VIT, +1 DEX, +1 STR, +2 MAG, and +2 MEN.} ¡­ {Congratulations! You have leveled up to level 182! Your Species has awarded you +2 VIT, +2 DEX, +2 STR, +2 MAG, and +2 MEN. Your Class has awarded you +1 VIT, +1 DEX, +1 STR, +2 MAG, and +2 MEN.} {Congratulations! You have accomplished the Feat, Chaos Killer, for being the first being in the System to kill a First Tier Chaos Monster! As a reward two of your skills chosen at random amongst your equipped skills will now be leveled up one level each!} Uh¡­ what¡¯s a Chaos Monster? I stare at the message for several seconds before taking a glance at my status and wincing again at my lack of soul.
Name: Alexia Knight Species: Quantum Reaper(T2)
Level: 182 Class: Quantum Reaper
Soul: 961/15,862.5
VIT: 544 DEX: 544 STR: 544 MAG: 725 MEN: 725
Racial Skills Active Skills
Passive Skills General Skills
And even that small amount is after leveling up a few times. If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. I continue running through the wasteland for a while, not teleporting due to my lack of soul at the moment, until I make it to the Safe Zone and collapse in a heap on the icy ground, uncaring of the cold. Then I just lie there and stare up at the sky, unsure about what just happened. Judging by the power of that monster, I doubt it was a Class A level monster, so am I to take it these Chaos Monsters were added into the Reset to emulate Class B versions of monsters? Or, considering that it said First Tier¡­ does that mean there are more? Like Second Tier monsters as well or something like that? The thought of finding Class A equivalent monsters in dungeons sends a shiver down my spine even if I¡¯m still a higher Class than them. Just these fallen beasts were a lot to handle. Although that¡¯s largely because they were about forty levels above me. Mostly because of that, actually. If they weren¡¯t so much higher leveled than me, then it probably would¡¯ve been easy to defeat them just like the other undead I¡¯ve fought so far. But if I struggled against them a little, how would Class B species fare? I purse my lips slightly at that thought before shaking my head. Then a thought comes to mind that has me stiffening up with a shiver running down my spine. What if there are Calamity Class monsters in dungeons somewhere? The idea of running into something like that not-dragon dragon currently flying through the skies in our Block is not a very pleasant one. Although at least I should be close to their level in the dungeon. I have no idea how strong that not-dragon dragon thing is. Aside from it being strong enough to chomp on islands. I sigh while opening my status again and simply watching my soul gradually regenerate. If push came to shove, I could¡¯ve taken some soul from Luna. But that was a last resort. And taking soul from her now when I¡¯m not even in danger isn¡¯t something I want to get in the habit of doing. Come to think about it, I wonder how Luna¡¯s doing? Pretty sure she was going to be defending the base while I¡¯m away. I haven¡¯t really seen Luna battle much since she¡¯s always going off on her own, but her level along should be enough to fight rather well. So I¡¯m not worried. This is going to be a long and boring wait though. Update No chapters today due to my exam. I''ll go ahead and state my next exam dates here since at this rate I''ll probably end up canceling chapters on those days as well. I have an exam today, on October 16th, a tentative exam on October 24th, on December 8th and on December 9th. Furthermore, there should be one more exam that hasn''t been announced at all in terms of the date. Although I''m not too sure about the one on October 24th. The professor has forgotten to post almost every single quiz in the class so far and ended up delaying each quiz by a few days. So I wouldn''t be surprised if he does the same for the exam, since the exam is online. This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there. Fortunately my capstone course doesn''t have any exams at all. Other than those exam days I don''t think there will be any canceled chapters through the semester unless something comes up at the last minute, especially since the first semester is supposed to be (according to both the past teams and the professor for my Senior Design course) mostly just documentation and familiarizing ourselves with the software and programming language we''re using for the project. Although one of my team members is dead-set on adding on a bunch of extra stuff to the current project to make it a lot more work, and are trying to get to work on the project right away instead of giving us time to learn how to work on it. Well, anyways, long story short no chapter today, there will be one tomorrow as usual. Have a nice day! B2 | Chapter 13 - Return Alexia After spending entire days trying to figure out the puzzle and having to fight Chaos Monsters every time I fail at it on the higher Class monsters on the puzzle slabs, I eventually find myself staring dumbly at the right side of the temple. Specifically at a hidden entrance to the temple that I hadn¡¯t noticed before. One that opened up when I, on a whim, started checking the other sides of the temple for hidden stuff just in case while waiting for my soul to recover. Why¡­ didn¡¯t I check the outside of the temple first before trying to get inside? I blink at that before shaking my head. Right. Because of the undead surrounding it, and because I didn¡¯t expect the hidden exit to be outside of the temple. I glance at the walls of the temple. Or rather inside with the entrance being outside? Either way, I let out a sigh, one filled with exasperation at my meaningless plight of trying to enter the temple along with relief at being able to leave the dungeon before the Dimensional Council meeting that will be happening in just half a day. I really wasn¡¯t expecting to get out before it started. On that note, I rush into the hidden exit, soon finding a door that I quickly open to reveal a purple portal. Then I touch the portal, finding myself appearing outside of the dungeon. I stretch a little after finally leaving the frozen wasteland behind despite the cold of the wasteland not actually bothering me before I begin walking towards the edge of the island I¡¯m on, not teleporting so as to let my soul regenerate. And once I reach the edge of the island, I come to realize a rather annoying problem. Where am I? The island¡¯s moved quite a bit since I went into that dungeon, so I kind of don¡¯t know where the home island is right now. I stare out over the edge of the island for a moment before narrowing my eyes and trying to look for the home island. Because it can¡¯t be that far, considering how slowly the islands move, and how they move in a repeated pattern. But no matter how hard I search, I can¡¯t find it. Not on this side of the island at least. So I make a dash for the other side of the island and search in that direction as well before eventually finding it and beginning my teleportation trip through the air. The trip along with the initial problem of finding the island in the first place end up taking about eight hours before I find myself back at the base. And I quickly find myself impressed at how much work has been put into it since I left. Not to mention the new people here, since there are quite a few. Guess the people who rejected our offer to join the base either decided to join after all or told other people about our base and they joined instead. Honestly, the base is starting to look a bit more like a city with some rather strong walls and an odd stone aesthetic rather than the base it originally was. Also, the people are sending me frightened looks as I walk by. Which takes me a moment to realize the reason for. Right. I¡¯m level 200 now. Which is over twice the level of everyone here. Come to think of it, I wonder if Astrid has reached Tier 2 yet? I¡¯d be surprised if she wasn¡¯t already level 100, but whether she¡¯s reached Tier 2 or not is a different matter entirely. If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. Mostly just depends on what her ascension requirements are. One that note, I open my skills list as I walk into the base, almost instinctively searching for Astrid with my senses. [General Skills] |Pain Resistance Level 8(1%)(T1)| |Polearm Mastery Level 8(29%)(T1)| |Forerunner (Unique)| |Stealth Level 3(64%)(T1)| |Survivor Level 3(14%)(T1)| |Poison Resistance Level 4(29%)(T1)| |Exploration Level 5(17%)(T1)| |Anti-Magic Barrier (Unique)| |Tutorial Champion (Unique)| |Energy Manipulation Level 1(76%)(T1)| [Active Skills] |Quantum Bolt Level 8(52%)(T1)| |Quantum Displacement Level 12(2%)(T2)| |Quantum Reversal Level 8(21%)(T1)| |Waveform Manipulation Level 4(5%)(T1)| |Quantum Burst Level 4(23%)(T1)| [Passive Skills] |Quantum Attunement Level 7(45%)(T1)| |Observation Effect Absorption Level 2(11%)(T1)| |Quantum Infusion Level 8(52%)(T1)| |Quantum Adaptation Level 9(41%)(T1)| |Quantum Aura Level 4(83%)(T1)| Unfortunately the Feat decided on two of my lowest leveled skills to level up when it picked at random. Both Waveform Manipulation and Observation Effect Absorption. So the Feat was rather inefficient. I wish would¡¯ve leveled up Quantum Displacement or Quantum Adaptation instead. Even Quantum Bolt, Reversal, or Infusion would¡¯ve been much better. Instead it chose those two. A rather unfortunate turn of my luck. It doesn¡¯t take me long to find Astrid since she seems to be at some sort of meeting in the large stone and wood building at the center of the city. So I immediately head there where I find guards stationed at the door. Guards that immediately let me in when they see me. ¡°So it¡¯s settled then,¡± Alara says as soon as I enter the large one room meeting building. ¡°I will meet with the King of Giants Varsac during the Dimensional Council and give him our answer then.¡± I blink at that before stopping a single foot into the room. ¡°The King of Giants?¡± I ask, more than a little confused. And when everyone turns from the round table they¡¯re all sitting around to look at me, I add, ¡°Is Varsac near our island?¡± Everyone looks surprised to see me. Pleasantly surprised in fact. Alara nods at me from her place at the head of the table on the left end of the room and says, ¡°That is correct, Reaper. And they sent a delegation out to every decently sized city they could find informing everyone about their plans to crown one of their own as the Dimensional Leader for our Block.¡± Oh. ¡°They also sound rather assured that one of their own will become the Dimensional Champion,¡± Astrid points out, sounding more than a little amused at that. ¡°But we all know how that¡¯ll work out.¡± Everyone nods their heads in agreement with her, their gazes turning towards me. I just snort in response to their stares. Looks like people are finally grouping together and making factions now. This¡¯ll be interesting. B2 | Chapter 14 - Shock Alexia As it turns out, Alara managed to get herself Authority Level 1 from the nearby Authority Shards that I didn¡¯t snatch myself. Which is a bit of a surprise considering how I¡¯ve only barely managed to get ten of them. At least it calmed my worries about those shards, because apparently you can only raise your Authority level once using shards. After that they don¡¯t do anything for you. So people can¡¯t just go around to every island and collect shards for days before significantly increasing their Authority. It also makes me less in a rush to get more shards, because I was planning on going to find a few more before returning to the dungeon. But now that isn¡¯t really needed anymore. Unless I just want to stop others from getting Authority in the first place. Also, from what Alara has said, the messenger from the ¨C as they call themselves ¨C Covenant is already long gone after delivering the message, apparently having been in a rush to deliver it to every budding large civilization they could find. Meanwhile, according to them, their own base consists of about a dozen islands located several day¡¯s travel in flight from here. Probably only four days travel for me with my teleportation. I sit in on their discussion next to Astrid, not really participating in any way and just listening. But most of what they¡¯re talking about is how they¡¯re gonna deal with the Covenant once they reach the Dimensional Council. And while I am technically this base¡¯s protector, as an Authority holder myself and since I don¡¯t participate in the base, I¡¯m going to the Dimensional Council separately from them. If the Dimensional Council is anything like the Planetary Councils were before the Reset, everyone with Authority that is participating should be able to bring a certain number of people with them to act as advisors. So the plan is for Alara to bring a few of the people around this table including Elizabeth, her fianc¨¦ who apparently isn¡¯t her fianc¨¦ anymore, and Astrid. When asked why I wasn¡¯t bringing Astrid by my sister herself, Alara answers, ¡°To show that we¡¯re allied with your sister.¡± Which is a rather simple explanation. It¡¯s not exactly hard to figure out that she and I are twins just from a single glance after all. Astrid is also at Tier 2 already, something I find to be pleasantly surprising. I¡¯ll have to ask her about her requirements at another time. Must¡¯ve been easy enough to accomplish. She¡¯s now the highest level person in their base, if you don¡¯t count me of course. The discussions continue all the way till the timer for the Dimensional Council meeting reaches down to less than a minute remaining. At which point everyone breaks off into individual discussions while they wait. ¡°Good luck,¡± Astrid says to me with a nod. One that I quickly return. This is going to be interesting, one way or another. Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere. Astrid and I sit in silence for the remaining time before a notification appears in front of everyone.
The Dimensional Council shall now commence. All Authority holders are advised to gather those you wish advising you during this council and mentally designate them as your advisors. If they are not designated within the next minute, they will not be brought with you to the Council.
After half a minute, I sense Luna approaching before she bursts through the doors of the hall, startling everyone in it as she lands on my shoulder. And I quickly smile, scritch under her chin, and designate her as an advisor despite her inability to speak. She¡¯s currently back to her original size, having used that Size Manipulation skill of hers. One of the many new skills she¡¯s gotten as I¡¯ve leveled. Unfortunately she only gets half the number of skills I get. So one new skill every second new skill I get. The rest of the time passes quickly before a bright purple flash of light envelops everyone who will be participating, following which I find myself sitting on a throne at the very top of a massive room with four different levels separated by short staircases of only a few steps. Probably meant for the Level of Authority each user holds, considering how I¡¯m the only one on the top level. Meanwhile I recognize a bunch of individuals on the level two beneath levels me. And everyone ¨C including my throne and I ¨C is in a booth with an almost transparent barrier of purple energy around the booths, with each Authority holder¡¯s advisors in their booths as well. Meanwhile the Authority holder themselves are sitting on a chair within the booth, albeit chairs less fancy looking than my own. Then I surprisingly find two people on the layer directly beneath me, one of whom I recognize with a frown to be the former king of Silvercrest. The kingdom Astrid and I lived in before the Reset. Guess Elizabeth and William¡¯s father is still alive after all. And if I had to guess, the other one on the third level is the King of Giants. After looking around for a few more seconds, another notification appears in my vision.
The Dimensional Council shall now commence. All users with a Level of Authority have been placed within the Council Chambers for Dimensional Block #108. You will have one hour to discuss amongst yourselves before the vote will take place. Then the vote will be taken from the Authority holders. The Dimensional Leader will be reselected once every ten years, and unlike the first vote, they will be selected only once they have a majority of 50% or more of the Authority holders¡¯ votes.
I frown at the notification as a countdown timer appears in the corner of my vision, not believing an hour to be anywhere near enough time to figure out who the representative of our entire Dimensional Block should be. Looks like the Dimensional Leader is probably gonna end up being the King of Giants after all. Or rather, former King of Giants. On that note, I look around at the gathered people in the room again, and unsurprisingly, everyone is staring at me with fear rather obvious on their faces. Meanwhile the former King of Giants looks like I¡¯d just kicked his favorite puppy. If giants have puppies. Silence fills the room as the people take in the realization that I¡¯m in this Block. And if I¡¯m being honest, I can¡¯t help but feel that this is rather amusing to watch. B2 | Chapter 15 - Politics Alexia During the silence I take the time to identify the people on the level directly beneath me. {Varsac Varal ¨C Species: Giant ¨C Class: Archal Dreamer ¨C Level 129} {Harold Sinclair ¨C Class: Elemental Warlock ¨C Level 118} Neither of them look too pleased to see me at first, but then they both look resigned. As if they¡¯re trying to figure out the benefits of me being here along with how to use this. Which goes to show their intelligence at least. Not much they can do against me after all. The giant is standing at about three meters in height right in front of an equally large seat, but otherwise looks human if you don¡¯t count his size. He has long black hair and irises so dark they almost look black and he¡¯s wearing a rather large set of brown and gray armor that exposes his forearms and calves. On the other hand, Harold Sinclair has the same silver hair and eyes as his daughter and son and is wearing some sort of silver armor with half a cape that matches his eyes and hair. I look around a bit before finding a certain hellfrost dragon on the second level of the room, and he nods his head at me immediately, completely ignoring everyone around him sending the man terrified looks. And the sight almost makes me snort in amusement. The silence fills the room for a few more seconds before Varsac clears his throat and raises his voice for everyone in the room to hear, ¡°Many of you have already received my delegates by now, so I ask for your answer!¡± Looks like he¡¯s getting right down to business, but before any of his supporters can say anything, Harold raises his own voice, ¡°There is no need, Varsac. We both know that I won¡¯t let you claim that seat so give it up.¡± Silence fills the hall as tension builds up between the two former kings, only for it to be broken by the sound of one of the people on the second level shouting, ¡°I support His Majesty Varsac for the position of Dimensional Leader!¡± And not long after that, more shouts begin to arise from the Authority holders, each declaring their own support for him. But mixed amongst them are also people declaring their own candidacy for the position. I rest my cheek against my hand, my elbow on the throne in my boredom. Politics was never my thing. Out of nowhere, a shout echoes out over the other voices, bringing my gaze back to Varsac as he says, ¡°How about we get the opinion of our Block¡¯s illustrious Reaper!!¡± Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation. I raise a brow at that, still sitting in a bored posture. But his shout works and silences everyone, making thousands of gazes turn towards me from all of the Authority holders and their advisers. Seriously? He¡¯s dragging me into this? ¡°What do you think about this election, Reaper?¡± Varsac repeats, his eyes locked onto mine. Yep. He¡¯s dragging me into this. I frown amidst the silence, not caring much about the stares of everyone in the room before I glance at the very bottom layer where Alara and the others are. And I know for a fact Alara won¡¯t be getting elected even if I openly asked people to. Because fear only works to a certain degree and isn¡¯t really something I should rely on. Yet. Brute force is always a nice fix to a problem when you can use it. ¡°I¡¯m staying out of this,¡± I declare, my voice echoing throughout the room. ¡°Know this, however.¡± I nod my head in the direction of Alara and the others. ¡°Alara Blake and the Retreat are under my protection. If anyone chooses to threaten them, then I won¡¯t be merciful.¡± Whispers immediately break out amongst the Authority holders and their advisors with more than a few looks being sent towards Alara after my announcement of her name and the name of the base she made shortly before we got here. Although more of them seem to end up landing on my sister than her for obvious reasons. But then, out of nowhere, a bunch of the whispers begin to cut off as if everyone started going silent. I frown at that before noticing an icon that wasn¡¯t there before on the corner of my interface. A mute button. Guess the booths are soundproof if you want them to be. On that note, I glance down at Ethan again, finding him to be in a rather similar position as me, showing just how little interest he has in this. In fact, he looks like he just wants to leave. Or walk up and talk to me, judging by the look he¡¯s sending me. I smirk slightly at that before focusing on Varsac again as the man bows his head slightly and says, ¡°We will keep that in mind, Lady Reaper.¡± He then turns back to the others and the debate rages on once more. But most of it is a formality at this point. Varsac came prepared, gathering supporters prior to the Council meeting, and while Harold did do the same, he only has a fourth of the followers. Probably because he¡¯s not as well known. I¡¯m still rather surprised the two of them managed to get to Authority Level 3 though. Considering that they should¡¯ve only been given a maximum of Level 1 Authority from the Tutorial Leaderboards, and the Shards only give one level as well, they have to have found a different way to gain Authority aside from those two to reach Level 3. A way I¡¯m likely gonna have to figure out on my own considering their response. Anyways, I have Authority Level 4, so I have ten votes for the council. So I¡¯ll just dump those all on Alara. I almost yawn as I continue watching them all argue throughout the remaining time of the hour. And once the countdown timer reaches zero, silence fills the room and another notification appears before us all.
The given hour has come to a close. Please cast your votes by telling the System the name of the user you wish to vote for, how many votes you wish to cast on them, and visualizing an image in your mind or thinking about a memory of the user to confirm their unique identity.
Without hesitation, I cast my votes for Alara. Not that it¡¯ll matter in the end. B2 | Chapter 16 - Authority Alexia It ends up taking longer than I would¡¯ve expected for all of the votes to be made by the Authority holders. Either that or the System just sits there and waits for several minutes after the votes are put in. But eventually an explosion of fireworks shoots up into the air above Varsac¡¯s booth, following which a notification appears.
This is a message to all users within Dimensional Block #108!!! User Varsac Varal, The Giant of the Ages, has been selected with a 37% majority of the votes as Dimensional Block #108¡¯s first Dimensional Leader! Varsac has now had his Authority Level increased by one!
That last bit has me frowning slightly, but my attention is quickly returned to the booth when the purple barrier turns gold, following which his booth is moved up to the fourth level. And the man has a confident smirk on his face as it happens. One directed not towards me but at Harold instead. Then another notification appears to replace the first as two blades suddenly materialize into the air above my own booth and clash with each other.
This is a message to all users within Dimensional Block #108!!! User Alexia Knight, The Reaper, has now become Dimensional Block #108¡¯s first Dimensional Champion! Alexia has now had her Authority Level increased by one!
Well, at least he isn¡¯t the only one getting his authority increased. Silence fills the hall as everyone no doubt talks amongst themselves in their booths with the muting feature enabled. But just seconds after the notification fades, another one appears in its place. A Legendary Feat whose text for me quickly changes to show its perk, unlike for everyone else who are just seeing the description and name.
Legendary Feat ¨C The First Authority As the first to reach Authority Level 5, you may pass through any Dimensional Barriers regardless of if the Dimensional Barrier is locked down by order of that Block¡¯s Dimensional Council. Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.
I blink at that before smirking, still with my cheek resting up against my hand. Now that¡¯ll come in handy. A free pass to go anywhere I please no matter who controls it. And just like with the Dimensional Leader¡¯s booth, my booth moves up a level. But unlike his booth, instead of glowing golden, mine takes on a red hue with the purple light still partially there. Red and purple for the Champion, gold for the Leader. Fitting enough I guess. Another notification appears, the last one judging by the text on it, replacing the last one.
The Dimensional Council will end in six hours. Until then, you may discuss amongst each other and mingle. There are no decisions needing the council¡¯s attention for the first meeting after the election.
Six¡­ hours¡­ This is going to be boring as hell. It doesn¡¯t take long for people to start leaving their booths, heading over to other booths in order to make contact with the other civilization leaders. And amongst those are both Varsac and Harold. And they¡¯re heading straight towards me. Ugh. Such a pain. Both of them pause when the sound of flapping wings echo out, bringing our gazes along with the gazes of quite the number of people in the room to a certain dragon who is flying through the air straight towards my booth. Then he taps on the booth¡¯s barrier, giving me a notice asking if I want to let him in. And I quickly accept it, letting the man fly into my booth where he then just casually makes a seat of ice and sits down. Then an awkward silence fills the hall for a few seconds and I turn on the mute button to soundproof the barrier. ¡°Looks like you leveled up a lot,¡± Ethan comments as soon as he notices the soundproofing. At his words, I identify the man to check out his own progress. {Ethan Silva ¨C Hellfrost Dragon ¨C Level 189} I nod my head in agreement and comment back, ¡°I¡¯m not the only one.¡± The last time I looked at the leaderboards, it was changing again with more dragons starting to show up in the top ten. And now Ethan was closer to the back of the top ten than he was before, the hellfrost dragon slowly losing ground in terms of levels compared to the others. ¡°Yeah, well I moved into a Tier 2 dungeon shortly after our last conversation,¡± he says with a light shrug as the two of us focus on all of the scurrying people outside the booth, many of the ones who were originally approaching me turning around and going in different directions instead. Likely due to not wanting to speak to two Class S species at the same time or something. ¡°Which dungeon did you enter?¡± I glance back at him before looking out of the booth again and commenting, ¡°I entered an ice-aligned undead dungeon. What about you?¡± ¡°An underwater dungeon,¡± he answers without hesitation, not really surprising me in the least considering that he¡¯s a hellfrost dragon. So the only two choices I would¡¯ve guessed were a water or an ice dungeon. We fall silent for a bit once more before eventually I ask, ¡°Did you find a Chaos Monster in the dungeon as well?¡± Out of the corner of my eye, I find the dragon nodding his head with a frown on his face as he answers, ¡°That I did.¡± Sounds like he didn¡¯t have a very pleasant time with them either. Makes me wonder just what sort of Chaos monsters he ran into. ¡°Do you think they¡¯ll appear outside of dungeons?¡± I ask, turning my head to look at him this time. He just shakes his head, answering, ¡°I¡¯m pretty sure we would¡¯ve seen them by now if that were the case. The Calamity Class is already roaming around after all.¡± True. The others were rather worried about that happening when I told them, all things considered. I agree with Ethan though, since they probably would¡¯ve shown up by now if they were outside of the dungeons as well. Although, one thought does come to mind. The Calamity Class monster. Does it have a home? And if it does, could that home possibly have Chaos Monsters in it? Not a very pleasant line of thinking, to be sure. I sigh before focusing my attention towards Astrid and Alara, finding quite a few people moving over to talk to them. Looks like my declaration of support is working. And with Ethan here it¡¯s basically making them the point of contact for me, leaving me without the need to deal with politics. A rather nice benefit. B2 | Chapter 17 - Delegates and a Reunion The Bottom Level of the Hall Alara knows she shouldn¡¯t be surprised by just how many people are gathered around their booth, but she is anyways. And that¡¯s with several groups looking their way indicating their obvious intension of wishing to speak with her. Her declaration of support¡­ was worth even more than I thought. She¡¯s gotten far more information out of this than she would¡¯ve expected, including a map of the islands that the new Dimensional Leader had made through his messengers along with the islands¡¯ movement patterns. And on the map was basic information on the territories that have been set up for the various important groups being set up, along with some information on those groups in general. He may not seem to fear Lexi, but he certainly is trying to get favor from her. ¡°If there¡¯s anything you need, you can contact us through this,¡± the delegate from Varsac¡¯s nation says while handing Alara an item she recognizes from before the Reset. A sort of communication device in the form of a card that is made by crafters. Alara nods her head with a polite smile as the delegate leaves her booth, following which another one enters. But this next one is more tricky than the last. Because this next delegate ignores her entirely and walks up to Elizabeth with a serious look on his face. Elizabeth nods her head with a serious look on her face matching his as she says, ¡°Greetings, father.¡± The former king that Alara had no choice in serving before frowns for a second before answering, ¡°Hello, Elizabeth.¡± Then an awkward silence fills the area for several seconds. Meanwhile Astrid just sits there on the side while ignoring all of the looks being sent her way by the many people around the booth. More looks than Alara herself is getting. Not too surprising. She¡¯s The Reaper¡¯s twin after all, and a Class A species. Alara watches for several seconds as the former king and his daughter simply stare at each other before Harold eventually asks, ¡°Are you willing to join my nation?¡± And to Alara¡¯s complete lack of surprise, Elizabeth immediately shakes her head and answers, ¡°No.¡± Harold doesn¡¯t look surprised either. But then again, Elizabeth has always been the most stubborn of the royal princes and princesses. This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience. The only reason she was going along with the engagement before was because she had no choice. But after over a month past the Reset, she broke it off without hesitation. Almost like she was waiting for something, or the Reset hadn¡¯t fully set in yet. ¡°Very well then,¡± Harold states with a nod before asking, ¡°have you seen your older brother?¡± ¡°Yes,¡± Elizabeth answers without explaining further. Probably for the best. He stares for a few more seconds before nodding once more and turning to Astrid, who just ignores him to play with a knife, looking just as bored as her sister was. But he doesn¡¯t let it stop him from asking, ¡°May I ask, Lady Astrid, if you or your sister have any plans on visiting my little kingdom in the near future?¡± Astrid finally looks at him, catching her knife after throwing it lightly into the air. And after a second she shrugs and says, ¡°No idea.¡± Then focuses on her knife again. Harold¡¯s jaw tightens ever so slightly. So little that Alara wouldn¡¯t have noticed if she wasn¡¯t already watching for some sort of reaction. ¡°Very well then,¡± Harold says, repeating the same thing he said to his daughter before he finally turns to Alara and asks, ¡°You¡¯re the daughter of the Blazes, is that correct?¡± Alara narrows her eyes slightly and answers, ¡°Yes, and I am the leader of the Retreat. If you have anything to discuss with me about our two groups, then you may. If not then feel free to leave.¡± The former king blinks in surprise and glances towards the top of the hall where Alara still sees The Reaper sitting alone with the hellfrost dragon while looking bored. And as if on instinct, the girl turns her gaze straight towards them, seemingly meeting the former king¡¯s own gaze. Alara almost loses her composure when she notices Harold shiver slightly as if in fear before he slowly turns back to Alara and says, ¡°Of course. We have much to discuss, Miss Blaze.¡± I¡¯m really glad she¡¯s here. And just like that, Alara and her former king begin working on a trade agreement between the Retreat and his new Kingdom of Silvercrest. One named the exact same thing as his kingdom from before the Reset. The negotiations take little more than half an hour to finish, same length of time as her negotiations with Varsac¡¯s representative, before the king leaves the booth. Part of Alara is convinced the king only came personally because of his daughter though. Either that or to get one up on Varsac when it comes to connections with Alexia. But Alara doubts that considering the way he acted. After Harold leaves the booth, Alara immediately turns on the mute feature and lets out a sigh of relief while raising a hand towards those waiting outside, telling them to wait a moment. Then she turns to Elizabeth and asks, ¡°Are you okay?¡± Elizabeth nods her head with a shaky breath as she answers, ¡°Yeah, I think so.¡± A few seconds pass in silence before the two glance at Astrid when she stands up from her seat and stretches a little. Then she turns to the two of them and says, ¡°I¡¯ll be seeing Lexi now if you don¡¯t mind.¡± Both open their mouths to answer, but Astrid leaves without giving them a chance. Which has all of the people waiting outside immediately trying to talk to her only for her to teleport away with her shadow magic. Alara and Elizabeth share a glance before sighing. Just like her sister in that regard. Alara focuses on the next delegate and unmutes the booth. Not much I can do about it beyond meet more delegates. B2 | Chapter 18 - Family Alexia To my surprise, my conversation with Ethan ends up taking a turn into video games. Something I never expected a dragon to play. Generally video games and TV were something that was a lot more commonly used by Tier 1 people and those who never entered dungeons. Mostly because the stronger people often saw them as a waste of time. But I¡¯ve always enjoyed video games, even if I didn¡¯t always have the time to play them. ¡°You said you played RPGs, right?¡± Ethan comments with the most enthusiastic smile I¡¯ve ever seen before in my life on a dragon¡¯s face. ¡°Did you ever-¡± He cuts off right when both of us turn to look at an approaching person. But we both relax again when we find that it¡¯s Astrid. Then he continues his question, asking right when Astrid walks in, ¡°Did you ever play Starborn Arc?¡± I grin at the question and answer, ¡°Yep. Probably one of my favorites.¡± Astrid just sends us both bewildered looks after freezing mid-step, the first thing she heard upon entering being talk of video games. But Ethan and I just ignore her as we continue talking about it. I mess around with the menu that appeared in my vision at some point to make a seat appear for her without pausing in our conversation. Who would¡¯ve guessed that I¡¯d be talking about video games again after the Reset? Or at least this soon after it, since I¡¯m sure someone¡¯s gonna be making the same level of technology soon enough. Which will include games. Eventually though the conversation takes a strange turn. ¡°Do you want to find your parents?¡± Ethan asks with a completely straight face. I frown, and I find Astrid doing the same as she pauses in playing with her little dagger. ¡°This isn¡¯t the first time you¡¯ve asked this,¡± I point out while crossing my arms. ¡°Do you know something about our parents?¡± Ethan taps his finger against the armrest of his seat made out of ice for a moment before answering, ¡°I do. I know exactly who your parents are.¡± Both Astrid and I tense up as I ask, ¡°And does that have anything to do with why you¡¯ve been working with me?¡± Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. He blinks and says without any hesitation, ¡°No. Why would it?¡± That has both me and Astrid shifting from an alert state to that of confusion instead. ¡°Uh, why are you working with us so openly then?¡± I ask, genuinely curious. Since he¡¯s too friendly for a dragon. It¡¯s just not natural. This time he frowns and opens his mouth, then he closes it again. Then he opens it once more and closes it again reminding me of a fish. And to my surprise, he eventually just gives up and stares with a confused look before shrugging and answering, ¡°No idea.¡± I share a glance with Astrid, finding her just as confused as I am. So I turn back to him again and ask, ¡°Okay¡­ then who are our parents?¡± Ethan taps his finger several more times with a faint grin creeping onto his face. One that gives me a bad feeling. Like a kid watching a show for amusement. But a dragon instead. ¡°I don¡¯t think I¡¯ll tell you,¡± he eventually says, only to shrug at me and Astrid¡¯s glares, ¡°you probably wouldn¡¯t believe me even if I did.¡± That part leaves me feeling confused. Why wouldn¡¯t I believe him? I already know our parents must be Ascendants, that our father doesn¡¯t know we exist, and that our mother was most likely unable to return to us for some reason. Just how important could they possibly be to lose their own kids and not be able to return? I don¡¯t particularly blame them, at least not right now since all I know leads me to believe that leaving us wasn¡¯t their choice, but if they really were powerful enough for him to say that¡­ I might have to reconsider that after figuring out who they are. ¡°Could you at least give us a hint?¡± Astrid suddenly asks, making me glance at her in surprise. Because I honestly didn¡¯t expect her to say anything to a Class S species. Then again, guess she¡¯s never been one to cower before someone else. Apparently Ethan wasn¡¯t expecting it either considering the look on his face, but then he just shrugs and answers, ¡°You¡¯ve heard of one of them. He¡¯s actually one of the most well-known Ascendants.¡± Which means he¡¯s really powerful. It¡¯s annoying that whoever he is he¡¯s likely changed his species by now if he really is that strong. ¡°Any hints on his exact ranking on the leaderboards?¡± I ask, prodding him to see a reaction. He doesn¡¯t give any. Instead he just answers with a question, ¡°If I were you, I¡¯d be worried about finding that Gramps of yours and asking him those questions instead of me.¡± My eyes widen at the implication that Gramps knows who our mother and father are. If that¡¯s the case¡­ then did he adopt us because of them? I had always wondered why an Ascendant decided to adopt us, and his excuse of wanting kids never really fit. Actually¡­ I turn and share a look with Astrid. One that shows that she¡¯s having the same thought as me. Was his finding us at that orphanage not a coincidence after all? ¡°Now you¡¯re thinking,¡± Ethan says, bringing both me and Astrid¡¯s attention back to him. Then he frowns and asks, ¡°Okay, how did people tell you two apart before your species change? It¡¯s a little bizarre to look at the both of you together like this.¡± ¡°I used to wear my hair in a braid,¡± I answer at the same time as Astrid answers, ¡°Lexi used to wear her hair in a braid.¡± Now there¡¯s no reason to do that since we don¡¯t need it to look different. Plus we don¡¯t have any hair ties, but the first reason is more important. ¡°Huh¡­¡± he mutters before bringing the topic back in a circle and asking, ¡°So do you have any people who know how to make games at your base?¡± I wish. B2 | Chapter 19 - Council Alexia The meeting continues for a while before the groups end up separating into the first three levels of the hall at about the three or so hour point. And of the three levels, the first level has a bunch of groups in them, whereas the second level has two groups. Lastly the third level has only a single group on it. But these groups don¡¯t match the authority of the level. They mostly match the power and influence of the people in the group. Meaning that the important people are on the second level and everyone who isn¡¯t important is on the first level, just left there to their own. And the third level is made up of the leaders of groups and alliances and only the leaders. Ignoring the groups on the first two levels, I watch alongside Astrid and Ethan as the group discusses stuff on the third level. A level that actually includes Alara, who was invited there at one point. Before now, all of the discussions down below have been private meetings between two parties all over the place. But this meeting seems to be an actual meeting meant to represent the opinions of everyone. ¡°This meeting has several different reasons,¡± Varsac declares while standing in front of his booth, his arms crossed. ¡°A border around the Dimensional Wall needs to be set up to monitor and deal with new entries into the Block, a decision must be made about how we will treat people from other Blocks, a decision must be made about how we will treat other Blocks in general, and we need to distribute territory.¡± ¡°Hold on a second, Dimensional Leader,¡± the former leader of the Assassins Guild back in the Silvercrest Kingdom before the Reset, a man whose name was unknown before now and only went by the title Shadow. Although now his name is clear through identify as Arach Vmal. ¡°The territory has already been distributed. If you wish to renegotiate the territory around your own domain then please do so with your neighbors and leave us out of it.¡± ¡°I agree with Arach,¡± the former queen of a nearby nation to Silvercrest back before the Reset, some lady whose level is too low right now for me to care about, says, her silky voice echoing through the hall as the other levels beneath them go silent. ¡°And the lowest level groups here? Do you really think they deserve an island of their own?¡± Varsac says, his contempt for them pretty obvious in his voice. ¡°Will they be able to defend it? How will we treat wars between groups? And what if another Block infiltrates them without our knowing?¡± This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it ¡°Silvercrest votes a military hold of the island¡¯s peak to prove who owns the island at any time,¡± Harold declares, looking apathetically at everyone on the third level, which consists of a dozen people. ¡°The vote is seconded,¡± Varsac declares, raising a hand. Then a third hand comes from an efreet with flaming hair and eyes, who is a Class A species leader who hasn¡¯t said a word that I¡¯ve heard this entire meeting. Although I have seen his mouth move while inside of his booth, so he can talk. Just doesn¡¯t seem to want to. A fourth hand goes up from another military focused power, followed by a fifth and a sixth. Alara seems to be neutral in the vote, probably because there isn¡¯t anyone here who will bother with attacking the Retreat with me defending them. Unless someone wants to challenge the Champion of the Block, that is. Ethan doesn¡¯t seem to care, and neither do I if I¡¯m being honest. As long as no one goes picking a fight with me. And even then it might be interesting. Which only leaves five people down below who are left on the third level, and Archal is voting neutral on this, leaving the other four voting no. ¡°The vote passes,¡± Varsac declares before raising his voice to speak to everyone in the hall. ¡°All territory will be determined by military might through whoever holds control of the island peak of each island! Speak now or forever hold your peace!¡± No one says anything. Probably because none of the people below them want to anger any of the people on the third level. The whole thing about holding the island peak is an interesting concept though. The area controlled by the level capped monster of the island. I lean my cheek against my hand again, feeling just as bored now as I was before. ¡°The next decision at hand,¡± Varsac continues, ¡°how should we deal with outsiders to the Block?¡± A woman on the third level who is wearing a long coat and pants who I recognize as the former leader of a heavily mercantile Republic from before the Reset says, ¡°I suggest we mark and tax them. The mark will be magical and should be recognizable by anyone with the corresponding partner mark to the mass mark, and it will fade away after they leave the Block. They will also be trackable by anyone with the partner mark, making it easy to keep track of the outsiders through the Block.¡± ¡°What if they remove the mark themselves?¡± another leader named Shella who I actually don¡¯t recognize asks. The woman is a vampire though, which isn¡¯t a common sight. The merchant lady, named Artoria Glenda, turns towards her and answers, ¡°Then every holder of a corresponding mark will feel it and receive an alarm telling them that the holder of the mark removed it.¡± ¡°And you already have a magical spell like this? And you can cast it after you¡¯re levels have been Reset?¡± Varsac asks with a frown on his face. And when Artoria nods, he says, ¡°Then we will need to speak more on how to treat the outsiders when they¡¯re inside of the Block.¡± The discussion then continues on with me feeling bored all the way along with the two people next to me. I just want to go back to the dungeon please. B2 | Chapter 20 - Plans Alexia The meeting proceeds over the course of the next few hours with the leaders discussing each critical topic first and then moving onto topics that are extremely minor. And throughout the process I only speak up a few times, mentioning my support for one thing or another. And amusingly enough, everyone immediately goes to vote for whatever I supported when I do. In the end, all outsiders will only be allowed into the Block in certain areas and must be marked when they enter. They will then have a tax of thirty percent of anything they buy and sell within the Block during their time and will also have to pay a fee in order to enter any dungeon to the owners of the dungeons. Dungeons on the other hand were distributed based on whoever owns the islands they are on. And they also decided that the Champion ¨C me ¨C should have access to all dungeons regardless since I¡¯m their shield against invaders. Just like how Champions were before the Reset, since if a Champion loses in a duel against another Block, then the other Block can take us over. And they care more about not losing to another Block than they do any fear or rivalry they may have towards me. Ethan also bullied his way into getting the same access, which was amusing to see. Just a straight up ¡°I¡¯m going to enter any dungeon I find regardless of who claims it¡± and then silence after that, not giving anyone a chance to speak. I smirk at the memory as I continue sitting down, waiting for the timer to finish counting down to zero on the corner of my view. At this point everyone is waiting in their booths doing some last-minute deals, so there really isn¡¯t anything to do. Even Ethan went quiet, seemingly running out of things to talk about. Overall, the different nations ¨C which is what everyone is starting at this point ¨C are all mostly independent of each other aside from various alliances, and territory is claimed by military might. Meaning wars between factions is perfectly fine and actually suggested to grow stronger. This, of course, being a suggestion from the strongest and most influential people in the room that knew they weren¡¯t going to be attacked. I don¡¯t really care about that though. In fact, I welcome a simple system like that. Makes things a lot easier for me to get something I want. Although ruling is not something I want, so I¡¯ll probably just ignore the borders and do what I want anyways. It¡¯s nice being the Dimensional Champion. A couple of people actually tried fighting at one point and found it to be rather pointless thanks to the System¡¯s protection. Which was amusing to watch but only slightly. I sigh at the thought before my focus returns to thinking about the dungeon I left. When I get back I¡¯ll be going into the dungeon again right away, so it might take me a bit to get out again. Especially with those annoying puzzles and Chaos Monsters. And that was just one of the many, seemingly infinite temples that I was trying to enter. So it¡¯s gonna be a pain. Although if the monsters from the trap are already Chaos Monsters equivalent to a Class B species, what would that make the boss of the dungeon? A Chaos Monster on par with a Class A species? That doesn¡¯t sound very pleasant to deal with. Also means that the others should avoid Tier 2 dungeons for a while and level up outside of the dungeons for now. Or at least only stay at the start of the dungeons. The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. Yeah, that sounds like a better idea. There wasn¡¯t any Chaos Monsters at the start of them. I glance at Ethan, briefly regretting that it isn¡¯t possible for him to train my adaptation right now. Stupid System Protection. If I could have him attacking me during this then it wouldn¡¯t be a waste of time. I turn my attention towards Varsac and frown. He wanted me to visit his nation soon, but do I really want to do that? It would be annoying and a waste of time. Then again, guess I can drop by when searching for a Tier 3 dungeon later on. That shouldn¡¯t be much of an issue. Could also ask him to help point me in the direction of one. On that note, I focus on the icon in the corner of my screen that had appeared after the Dimensional Leader and Champion were named. And immediately after doing that, a notification appears in front of me.
The perks granted to the Levels of Authority the user has and below are as follows: Level 1 Authority Holders get a single vote on the Dimensional Council of their Block and are granted the right to pass through the Dimensional Walls with three other users. Level 2 Authority Holders get three votes on the Dimensional Council of their Block and are granted the right to pass through the Dimensional Walls with ten other users. Level 3 Authority Holders get five votes on the Dimensional Council of their Block and are granted the right to pass through the Dimensional Walls with twenty-five other users. They also are granted the ability to temporarily ban one user from passing through a Dimensional Wall every month for one week. This ability may only be used on those with a lower Level of Authority than the user, and it targets Authority Holders and non-Authority Holders alike. Level 4 Authority Holders get ten votes on the Dimensional Council of their Block and are granted the right to pass through the Dimensional Walls with fifty other users. They also are granted the ability to temporarily ban three users from passing through a Dimensional Wall every month for one week. This ability may only be used on those with a lower Level of Authority than the user, and it targets Authority Holders and non-Authority Holders alike. Level 5 Authority Holders get fifteen votes on the Dimensional Council of their Block and are granted the right to pass through the Dimensional Walls with one hundred other users. They also are granted the ability to temporarily ban five users from passing through a Dimensional Wall every month for two weeks. This ability may only be used on those with a lower Level of Authority than the user, and it targets Authority Holders and non-Authority Holders alike. Lastly they are granted the right to veto one decision made by the Dimensional Council in their lifetime.
Yeah, I like the authority of a Level 5 Authority holder. It¡¯s rather nice. I should save that one veto though. In case I need to use it in the future. It¡¯s not likely that I¡¯ll have my Authority Level increased again anytime soon, after all. Well, unless I figure out how Varsac raised his Authority Level, but he just smiled and didn¡¯t say anything when asked by anyone who tried earlier, so it¡¯s not likely I¡¯ll get that intel from him. Which leaves me figuring it out on my own. I remove my head from my hand and cross my arms while looking up at the ceiling. Please let the timer finish faster. B2 | Chapter 21 - End of the Meeting Alexia I spend the rest of the council meeting watching in boredom as Luna casually flies all over the room, simply enjoying herself. Although I have to admit, seeing the way everyone is keeping their eye on her with more than a little wariness in their gazes is amusing. Then again, despite being a tiny and adorable little bat, she is one of the three highest leveled beings in this room. Speaking of, I turn to Astrid and ask, ¡°So how¡¯s Luna been doing as a protector?¡± Astrid actually chuckles at the question and answers, ¡°Pretty well, in fact.¡± Oh? That¡¯s an interesting reaction. It doesn¡¯t take much to get Astrid to tell me about what happened. And I¡¯m not the only one who finds it amusing, considering the smirk I find on Ethan¡¯s face. Luna¡¯s power and actions are pretty much contradictory to her appearance. It¡¯s hilarious. Just a tiny, adorable little bat sleeping one moment and then tearing the throat out of a Tier 2 enemy the next. Priceless. Luna¡¯s antics aside, the rest of the council meeting comes to a close without anything of note happening. Leading me and the others to reappear back at the Retreat. I immediately stretch my arms a little before waving at Alara and Astrid and walking out of the building. Then I teleport out of the base and towards my clearing. It¡¯s been days since I¡¯ve had a good night¡¯s rest, so I¡¯ll take a short nap and head to the dungeon again after that.
Within Varsac¡¯s Office Varsac crushes the glass in his hand as his anger gets the better of him, shocking the other people in the office ¨C each being subordinates of Varsac. But he quickly regains his composure with a deep breath. The Reaper is in our Block. What the hell are the chances of that happening? The king of the newly established Varal Kingdom was absolutely certain in his chances to become both the Dimensional Leader and Champion, giving him a significant boost in authority within the Dimensional Block. Both in Authority Level and influence. The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement. But with the Reaper being in the same Block as him, he automatically loses any chance he ever had at getting the Dimensional Champion position. And in addition to that, he also has to deal with a power that can become a significant threat to his nation. One that will be able to negotiate on even terms even if she isn¡¯t ruling a nation herself. Considering her current level and that pet of hers that was flying around everywhere, she may end up in the advantage in negotiation¡­ And that¡¯s not even considering the presence of that hellfrost dragon who seems to be strangely interested in the Reaper. Varsac clenches his fists again and slams them on the table, sending a large crack running down the middle of it and once again shocking his subordinates who have stayed silent as he gathers his thoughts. But they all immediately grow tense when he raises his head and declares, ¡°Do not antagonize The Reaper in any way, and the same goes for the son of the Ancestral Dragon. We cannot risk getting on their bad sides, no matter how many forces we may have. And send more delegates their way to build a good relationship with them.¡± Most of the subordinates in the room immediately nod their heads or voice their agreement, but one of them looks confused. Varsac narrows his eyes on that subordinate, one of his newest subordinates, and asks, ¡°Do you have something to add, Jasmine?¡± The woman gives him a salute and says, ¡°Yes, Your Majesty. I would like to ask why we are placing so much importance on her. Even if she is a Class S species and a higher level, what can one person do?¡± The new Dimensional Leader frowns and looks to his prime minister, prompting the man clad in black to answer, ¡°The answer to why we place importance on the Reaper is simple, Marquess Jasmine. She is a quantum being. You know what that means, right?¡± ¡°She will grow to be immune to most physical damage, to status effects, and to anything that directly affects the spirit including scrying, divination, and various soul related magics,¡± Marquess Jasmine states, using the common facts about quantum beings from before the Reset. Facts that some don¡¯t believe simply because the only known quantum being aside from a few who only popped in and out of the universe was the System¡¯s Creator. A man who few trusted. ¡°But doesn¡¯t that mean we should be dealing with her now instead of waiting for the future when we may cross her and she¡¯ll be too strong for us to deal with?¡± ¡°Marquess Jasmine, people do not cross quantum beings if they want to remain alive,¡± the prime minister states. ¡°They are able to directly manipulate energy on a fundamental level. Which means they should theoretically be able to use every elemental affinity as long as they learn to recognize and control it.¡± His eyes narrow. ¡°Now does that sound like someone we would want to piss off?¡± She opens her mouth, only to close it again and answer, ¡°No, it doesn¡¯t.¡± Varsac sighs after that¡¯s been dealt with before he decides to add, just to sink the point in, ¡°Besides. She¡¯s the number one highest level user within the System right now and a Class S species. There¡¯s a significant chance she would be able to escape if we tried attacking, at which point she¡¯d just grow stronger. And more importantly¡­¡± he turns his gaze towards the woman, making a shiver run down her spine. ¡°There are bound to be brainless humans amongst the throng of people within the Block who will attack her, and we¡¯ll find out just how powerful she is then.¡± ¡°Understood, Your Majesty,¡± Marquess Jasmine replies while kneeling down on one knee and bowing her head. Glad I didn¡¯t have to deal with her. Varsac glances towards the window of the massive room he and the others are in. One built for giants. And after a few seconds turns back to his subordinates and gets back to the discussion at hand. ¡°On to the topic of the Cataclysm Class monster.¡± B2 | Chapter 22 - Foreboding Possibilities Alexia My nap lasts for about three or four hours before I quickly head back to the dungeon, which takes me another couple hours to find. Leaving Luna behind again to act as protector in my absence. And when I enter the dungeon again, I find myself back at the start of the dungeon. So I begin trekking through the endless wasteland once more, bored out of my mind as I slaughter undead without reservation or difficulty, seeing as it¡¯s just the lowest level undead in the dungeon. After who knows how long, I manage to find a key to the next floor. Then I repeat the process on the second floor until I find a key to the third floor, at which point I¡¯ve already leveled up again about a dozen or so times. It¡¯s just too bad you can only enter and benefit from a hidden area once for each area in a dungeon. So I can¡¯t go back to the hidden areas I entered. A major pity. I frown at the first temple I find as I remember fighting the Chaos Monsters. Now it should be a lot easier since I¡¯m level 212. They¡¯ll only out-level me by a little bit. My Class S advantage over a Class B should be enough to make me stronger than them again with that level gap. I stare for a few more seconds before approaching the building, quickly dealing with all of the undead gathered around outside of it. Then I focus on the puzzle. A different puzzle from the last one I had tried. This puzzle has a bunch of statues situated in front of the temple. And each of the statues seems to be some sort of undead monster. I consider the statues for a few seconds before finding that all of them are the same as the engravings on the slates. Just that they¡¯re, well, statues. Which means the puzzle is probably similar to the other one. The statues are all facing varying directions and look like they can be turned, meanwhile there is a slab engraved into the ice at the center of all of the statues with text on it. For thou who wilt enter, turn the statues to follow order. Uh¡­ what does that mean? Aside from turning the statues, of course. Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original. I stare at the slab for a second, then the statues, and then the slab again. Okay then¡­ After a few seconds pass in silence, I walk up to one of the statues of a rather weak undead monster and inspect the thing. And what I find are tiny little numbers engraved on the bottom of the statue. Numbers going up from one to ten, with a little arrow pointing downwards at the number on a single one of them. Number one. Oh. So that¡¯s it. It¡¯s literally the same puzzle but in a different form. With that in mind, I look through the statues for the weakest undead amongst them before walking up to it and turning the statue to the number one. Then I proceed to do the same thing for the other statues, turning them so that they¡¯re in order of weakest to strongest undead. But even after I finish doing that, nothing happens. Some sort of button I have to press then? I look around the slab, but there isn¡¯t anything there to mark it as complete. So I move to one of the statues and inspect it instead, eventually realizing that the downwards arrow itself is a button. And buttons want to be pressed. Without hesitation, I press the button, making the statue sink into the ground before a green light shines from beneath it. Guessing green means good. I proceed to go to each and every statue, pressing the arrow on them. But after the sixth statue, the arrow pops right back out and a red light shines from beneath the statue instead of a green one. Then the statue itself crumbles and some sort of large skeletal crocodile appears from within the statue. The same monster it was depicting. And to my utter surprise, the crocodile is a higher level than the undead at the other temple I was at in my last attempt. {Fallen Aquarian ¨C Level 238} Uh, should that thing¡¯s level be so high? The crocodile doesn¡¯t seem to care about my question as it jerks forwards, snapping its jaws straight in front of my face, only barely missing me thanks to my teleporting back. I swear this monster is on par with a boss monster. So why is it just a monster placed inside of a trap? A rather¡­ dark¡­ possibility comes to mind as I continue teleporting away, the crocodile repeatedly moving forwards and trying to chomp me in half with some rather impressive speed. And after a brief hesitation driven by that possibility, I teleport around the crocodile, only for its head to jerk around towards where I end up. Most likely following me with life sense or something that detects my life signature. But that isn¡¯t a problem as I quickly decide to let the thing chomp down on my arm, making me just grimace ever so slightly as its fangs sink into my armor and barely draw blood from my skin. Then I pull my other fist back and shove it into its mouth before blasting a Quantum Bolt directly inside of the monster. And I quickly follow that up with a few more until the thing lets go, collapsing dead to the ground. I frown at my arm before smiling slightly. Yeah, I really should get more used to using my Quantum Body racial skill to my advantage. Anyways, I glance at the monster again as I return my attention to that possibility. The System Reset took away planets, made giant walls to box people in, made dungeons harder, tried to kill off a bunch of the former ascendants at the start of the System Reset, added in Class B, A, and S monsters, and now seems to have them filling the dungeons a lot more than I feel would fit. It¡¯s almost like the System is culling the users. And that¡¯s not considering the Title it gave me. The Reaper. Is the System¡­ really trying to cull the users? B2 | Chapter 23 - The Temple Alexia Too many things are pointing towards the System trying to cull users as a possibility. And even the Quantum Architect mentioned that he didn¡¯t have absolute control over his own creation, despite him mentioning the requirements for me to become The Reaper being that I wouldn¡¯t try to rule the dimension or destroy the System. Come to think of it, the System Architect never directly told me exactly why he made the System. He listed off a bunch of things the System was doing for the universe, but he never said why he made it. What purpose he made it for. He even directly told me not to ask that question. That he wouldn¡¯t answer it. I hope he¡¯ll consider answering it the next time I see him. Assuming I see him again considering that the Tutorial is over. Although¡­ when I think back to everything he told me before, there is one possible explanation for the monsters that comes to mind. Since the monsters were all left to that universe alone, it¡¯s possible some are evolving. And those evolved monsters could potentially be these Chaos Monsters. Then again, this is all just speculation. Nothing concrete unless I ask him. I never thought I¡¯d say this, but I hope I see that asshole again soon. Putting the matter of a genocidal System aside for the moment, I return my attention to the puzzle. And this puzzle ends up being a bit easier than the other one I did strictly because the statues end up destroyed when you get them incorrectly placed. So I don¡¯t have to repeatedly battle the same enemies every time I mess up. So thanks to that, along with the fact that the monsters seem to specialize more in physical damage than magical damage, I make it through the rest of the puzzle without any real issues, eventually unlocking the entrance to the temple. And immediately letting out a horde of a couple dozen Chaos Monsters. Seriously? I quickly get to dealing with the monsters, none of whom have any magic and are all lower leveled than the statue monsters to my pleasant surprise. So it doesn¡¯t take long before I finish off the last one and start making my way into the temple itself. The inside of the temple is a lot like the outside. Entirely made up of a non-transparent ice, with a very faint blue glow to it and a slightly more ancient and perhaps a tad pious note to the architecture. Something you would barely ever if ever see before the Reset simply because there were no gods and haven¡¯t been any for a very long time. With the exception of a couple Ascendants calling themselves gods. Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings. But those generally ruled worlds far away from my old world, so I never saw them or their architecture. Outside of some video games that is. The architecture aside though, there don¡¯t seem to be many monsters in the temple. Excluding the ones that charged at me when the entrance opened. Which I find rather interesting. I continue walking through the temple for a little while, just looking around the place. Until I feel my foot going down slightly after placing it on the floor, making me instinctively teleport backwards to avoid a large icicle spear stabbing straight at where I was just standing. Traps. Haven¡¯t seen many of those in dungeons post Reset. It¡¯s mostly just been monsters for days. I kneel down to get a closer look at the icicle spear that is now sticking a few inches out of the ground and spanning a few feet in length. Then at the pressure activated slab that I had stepped on. One that somehow mimics and perfectly merges into the ice around it. Well-hidden traps too. I stand up straight again before continuing my trek through the temple. And the further I get in, the more traps I find. Most of which are simple things like darts, icicle spears, and some pitfall traps, but there were a couple more annoying ones. Like an ice flamethrower trap. One that spewed cold flames out from the floor the moment I stepped on it. The trap only hit me for a split second before I teleported though, and that little damage was easy for my soul to heal. In the end I end up walking for hours, seemingly with no end. Just finding one trap after another without a single monster in sight. And I¡¯m very much starting to question just what sort of building I¡¯m inside right now. Considering how I¡¯m pretty sure I¡¯ve walked several times the temple¡¯s size by now in length. At least, from what I could see of it from the outside of the temple. So either I¡¯m in some sort of illusion, or this temple is far larger on the inside than on the outside. If I had to guess, it¡¯s the latter. Because if it were an illusion, I¡¯d probably have been repeating the same traps and halls this whole time instead of traversing new ones. Plus I¡¯m immune to status effects. And illusions are, albeit still a debated-on subject, considered a status effect applied to everyone who sees them. Can¡¯t say it for certain though, and there¡¯s no way to prove that it isn¡¯t an illusion. I can¡¯t help but find it rather annoying though, because I¡¯ve already lost my place at the top of the rankings in level because of this trek through the temple. Not just that, I¡¯ve lost second place as well, booting me down to #3. A massive pain. Makes me wonder what the others are thinking when they¡¯re seeing my level go down. I frown at the thought but continue trekking through the annoying temple until I finally find something different. A large room filled with ice cold water and what looks like dry ice, more cold water pouring into the room from holes on the walls, and just a few little platforms amidst the giant pool of water to stand on. And a single boat. Then what looks like piranha jumps out of the cold water and splashes back in. Now this just reminds me of the Crawling Caverns. Well, aside from the fact that I''m pretty sure that was a zombie piranha. B2 | Story Art Ignivara - the Hydra known as the Ancient Terror Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation. Artorius del Argon - the Archfiend known as the Primeval Fiend B2 | Chapter 24 - Order and an Icy Hell Somewhere in Dimensional Block #1 Inside of a large hall The Hound of the Apocalypse peacefully plays a piano at the center of a large hall located on a grand island. One larger than most of the other islands around it. Meanwhile various users all around the hall stand tensely in silence as their Dimensional Champion and Leader plays a piece of music few of them recognize from before the System even first Initialized, much less before the Reset. A piece of music that reminds each of them of moonlight and of the night. A slow and peaceful melody that fills the room and feels like it perfectly fits the man playing it, despite the atrocities they all know said man has committed in the past. Lucas continues to play the piano all the way through the piece of classical music with more people gradually entering the hall throughout the piece before eventually finishing and closing the tray over the piano keys. Then he stands up and turns to face the various people in the room, all of whom were former Ascendants who he had found during the Dimensional Council and decided to gather on his own island. Silence fills the hall now that he is no longer playing the piano. ¡°As I stated in the meeting, I will be the absolute power within this Block,¡± Lucas declares, his voice filling the hall immediately and sending chills down the spines of everyone present. None of whom include any Class S species, since the few Class S species within the Block were dragons or fae, neither of which wish to deal with affairs unrelated to their species. ¡°There will be two matters at hand to mark off the start of this new reign. The first is to stamp out the three forces opposing my rule.¡± His eyes narrow. ¡°And the second will be to find The Reaper.¡± Silence fills the hall as everyone feels too terrified of the Hound to say anything, their fear partially passing over from the man¡¯s past and partially due to his own power now. Since Reset or not, he was the most powerful human in existence before the Reset, with one of the most powerful known Legendary Feat Bonuses. A Bonus that makes him completely immune to magic. And another reason why the man himself despises goblins, since if it weren¡¯t for him being put in a goblin dungeon, a place with very little focus on magic, he would¡¯ve likely been the first to clear a dungeon after the Reset. But instead he lost that Legendary Feat to The Reaper instead. You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author. Eventually muttered words of understanding run through the gathered leaders before they carefully begin to trickle out of the room, as if testing if the Hound will hurt them for doing so. Lucas on the other hand just looks out the window at the moon high above them in the sky and narrows his eyes slightly. I hope the girl isn¡¯t in a Block too far away from our own. It won¡¯t take long to find her if we find her Block, considering that she has to be the Dimensional Champion of whatever Block she¡¯s in, but if she¡¯s on the other side of the dimension from our Block¡­ The Hound clenches his fists slightly before flapping his wings and beginning to fly straight out of the building through the open doors, scaring those outside. Then he heads straight towards the closest Tier 2 dungeon to continue fighting while he waits for progress from the underlings he¡¯s made. Meanwhile the vampire who has been tagging alongside him ever since he first left his dungeon stays behind to manage the leaders on his behalf. After flying for a few seconds, a faint smile stretches across the Hound¡¯s face. I¡¯m glad they got that piano finished. I missed playing.
Alexia I let out a grunt as I rip another piranha zombie off of my arm and throw it back in the water while standing on a platform of ice, waiting for the next platform to appear. Because, as I¡¯ve learned through some rather cold dips in the water, magic doesn¡¯t seem to want to work in this area. Or rather, it does work, but only sometimes. The magic just cuts off at random points, with the System itself seemingly disabling all use of magic in this room for extended periods. And suddenly losing my magic while trying to teleport across the room turned out to be¡­ a very unpleasant experience. I shiver at the thought of just how freaking cold that water was, along with having to rip off dozens of piranha zombies. Very unpleasant. I shake my head and jump to the next platform of ice around halfway through the room as soon as the thing forms. Then the platform behind me vanishes seconds later. This room might just be my worst nightmare. Water too cold for me to swim through infested with monsters in a room that I can¡¯t teleport across and can¡¯t reliably use magic in. Where the only safe way across is the platforms that appear once every minute right after the previous platform if and only if someone is standing on the previous platform. I shiver again as I think of the horrendous swim back to the start that I had to do, since this water itself seems to cancel out my magic as well. Whoever thought of this room must¡¯ve been sadistic as hell. I suddenly duck down as another piranha zombie jumps out of the water straight over the platform, aiming for my head. Then I swing my polearm straight upwards, bisecting the undead fish before standing up straight again. This dungeon has been full of surprises. First the endless floors, then the Chaos Monsters, and now a room like this¡­ I just hope there aren¡¯t any other rooms like it. Also, what¡¯s with the System and piranhas? This isn¡¯t even the second time I¡¯ve run into piranhas in dungeons before after the Reset. I scowl at a piranha as it jumps out of the water again. Stupid fish. B2 | Chapter 25 - The Mimic’s Trap Alexia I end up spending more time than I would like getting across the room ¨C which isn¡¯t hard considering I¡¯d rather not spend any time at all in this room ¨C before I move on into the next hallway. And the very first thing I find there are frozen skulls. Skulls made out of pure ice floating through the air while breathing out a freezing spray of water. Thankfully I can use my magic again now, so I teleport out of their attack¡¯s radius before cutting through the skulls without too much trouble. The Chaos Monsters filling this temple have been pretty good for EXP, so I¡¯ve already leveled up to level 234. Which basically makes these monsters not too much of a problem anymore. Although they are a bit higher leveled than the piranhas were, what with these being around level 239 to 241. But that¡¯s still not much of an issue. It would be different if I didn¡¯t have my ice adaptation though. I continue tearing apart the skulls one after another, focusing more on brute force strength than piercing so that I can crack them and send them flying. Meanwhile I keep them away from my through Quantum Burst and mess with their attacks through Waveform Manipulation. Unfortunately Waveform Manipulation is as reliable as ever in this situation where only a few of their attacks turn into anything useful for me. Specifically one that turns to air, another that turns into a flamethrower instead of a spray of water that then burns another skull, and another that just turned it into a solid block of ice that lost all momentum. But Quantum Burst is doing its job of keeping them away, letting me use Quantum Bolts along with my polearm to finish all of the skulls off. After dealing with the floating skulls I continue moving through the long and drawn out hallway for who knows how long. This dungeon would be a major pain if I still had to eat and drink. That would end up being a lot of supplies to make it through a dungeon like this. Then again, that¡¯s another reason why Class S species often top the level leaderboards. Since we don¡¯t have to stop to eat or drink anything. We can just continue going, only occasionally sleeping, and pausing to regenerate our mana ¨C or in my case soul. I smile a little at that thought before narrowing my eyes when I eventually find a wall made out of a bright purple light. This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it. Is this the final boss area? I look around for a bit before noticing a random door next to the purple wall. And almost right away I realize it¡¯s a Safe Zone simply due to the dimensional rift around the door. Cool. Looks like a short nap¡¯s in order. I walk over to and open the door before walking inside of the rather luxurious bedroom, feeling the safety of the Safe Zone washing over me as I do so. And without hesitation I walk over to the bed where I lie down and proceed to stare up at the ceiling. Almost done with the stupid dungeon. I almost begin to fall asleep before I glance at my map and sit up again, turning around to look behind the bed. There¡¯s a hidden area in this Safe Zone. Who would¡¯ve thought. I get up from the bed and begin searching for the entrance to the hidden area, eventually finding some sort of staircase hidden beneath the bed. And when I go through it, I find a loot box just sitting in the middle of a hidden room. But instead of walking up to the loot box, I narrow my eyes as I sense a source of magical energy from the loot box. Don¡¯t tell me¡­ I identify the loot box, but nothing shows up. Which is to be expected considering the situation. After a brief hesitation, I raise a hand and send a Quantum Bolt straight at the large chest, sending the thing flying as the lid opens up to reveal a mouth instead of whatever would be inside of the chest. A mimic. Now I identify the creature again, finding the creature to now be in monster mode instead. {Fallen Mimic ¨C Level 248} That is not a normal mimic. The creature is black and blue in color and in its monster mode looks like a chest with sharp bones sticking out of the edges, the legs of some sort of centipede, and a bunch of sharp teeth with a bottomless black hole in its mouth with a tongue sticking out of it as the thing screams. And the front of it, the part that was hit by my Quantum Bolt, is letting off steam as some frost that had accumulated there slowly falls to the ground while glitching apart. My attack barely even dented the thing¡­ Guess a boss is a boss. And as if on cue with that thought, I hear the System Message playing out in my head. [You have entered the Tier 2 Hidden Area, the Mimic¡¯s Trap.] Yeah, I don¡¯t like mimics. Most people don¡¯t. The creatures are able to transform into an actual loot box. Not a mockery of one, but an actual loot box. And when the monster mode of the mimic dies they just return to their loot box mode but with the monster part no longer alive. So there¡¯s no way to identify it if it¡¯s in its loot box mode. Except for some minor oddities. Like it having a source of magical energy. Something most people wouldn¡¯t be able to sense. But a Fallen Mimic¡­ what even is that? Just a more powerful mimic? The mimic in question suddenly lets out a loud screech, opens its mouth wide, and sends a icy breath attack at me that freezes everything in between us, only giving me a brief moment to teleport out of the way before it blasts into the entrance and freezes it. Completely sealing me inside of the room with it. Oh. That¡¯s the difference. It has magic. B2 | Chapter 26 - The Tactical Retreat Alexia The fallen mimic quickly hops up and turns towards me, landing back on its legs again as it sends another breath attack at my new position. But I just teleport away from the attack again, reappearing right behind the monster as I send my polearm swinging down to strike at its top. Only for my polearm to bounce off of it, making me almost lose my balance due to the recoil of the strike. I grit my teeth as I teleport away again so as to not give it an opportunity, which turns out to be a good idea since the thing quickly cuts off its breath attack and tries chomping down where I was just standing. This thing might be a problem. Just how tough is this mimic anyways? I¡¯m not physically strong enough to even dent it¡­ Then again, physical stats aren¡¯t my specialty. Technically magic is, considering my stat distribution. I wish I could use Waveform Manipulation on living beings, but I can only use it on mana constructs. Like attacks that use energy and mana. Not on living creatures that simply generate mana. While teleporting away from another breath attack, I take a brief glance at my built up energy in Observation Effect Absorption. But I only find enough to use a single large attack stored up, and I want to save that for the boss of the dungeon. Not a random hidden area boss. Especially not a mimic of all things. Chaos Monster or otherwise. So I teleport right above the mimic before sending several Quantum Bolts straight down at it along with a Quantum Burst to top it off. But none of them do more than a little dent on the monster¡¯s side that just serves to piss it off. I grit my teeth while teleporting away, the mimic opening and closing its mouth with abandon while screeching. Then I realize something and begin to grin. That could work. I teleport out of the way of another breath attack before appearing right next to it. Then I raise both hands and quickly send Quantum Bolts into the side of its mouth before it can even finish stopping its breath attack, making them explode on the inside of the mimic. And this time it actually takes more than a little damage. So I repeat the process, dodging attacks from it and reappearing next to the box to blast bolts into its mouth. After doing this several times though, the creature stops using its breath attacks altogether. Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit. Instead it tries to ram me without even opening its mouth, proving to be smarter than I thought it was. But unfortunately for the mimic, that doesn¡¯t really end up with much results. Considering Quantum Body and all. I kind of just feel like I¡¯m being tackled by a kid. Or something that has a lot of knockback but no actual damage, considering that the thing really is sending me flying with its tackles. Just that it¡¯s not actually hurting me much. The mimic seems to realize what¡¯s going on as well since it stops tackling me after a dozen or so tries. Then we just stare at each other. Or rather, I stare at it while it stands there doing nothing. On that note, I wonder¡­ does a mimic even have eyes? Can it stare? Very important questions. But maybe not so important right now. We continue sorta staring at each other. And staring. And staring some more. Eventually I tilt my head, beginning to wonder if the monster is ever actually gonna move again. The mimic suddenly moves again, making me tense up. But then, to my surprise, it just walks over to the center of the room and¡­ plops back down onto the ground? I blink, not really sure what¡¯s going on. Especially when its legs retract back into the chest and the bone spikes vanish. It¡­ seriously just went back to loot box mode? Are you kidding me? Is it really going to try wasting my EXP for this kill? I walk up to the thing, but it doesn¡¯t move an inch. So I kicking the thing, but since it¡¯s in loot box mode it doesn¡¯t actually do anything. It really threw in the towel and quit¡­ Stupid mimic. I kick the box several more times before eventually blasting it with Quantum Bolts, but since it¡¯s in its loot box form, it¡¯s basically invincible. One of the few major benefits of a mimic¡¯s racial skill. That it¡¯s invulnerable in its room when in loot box form, with the only caveat being that it can¡¯t transform back into its loot box form for a few minutes after transforming out of it. But it can¡¯t take damage, can¡¯t be moved, and can act like a loot box in any way it wants when in the loot box mode. Like the loot box in front of me currently opening up to make an item appear above it like a normal loot box does. Are you fucking kidding me? I think this is the most cheated I¡¯ve ever felt before in my life! The mimic really decided that it couldn¡¯t beat me and just gave up?! How¡¯s that even allowed?! I grind my teeth at the stupid mimic before eventually deciding that there¡¯s nothing I can do about it. So I look up at and identify the gloves hovering over the stupid monster. Then my mood perks up ever so slightly. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Frigid Gloves Description: A pair of gloves created for the frigid colds of the Frozen Wastelands. They grant the wearer Tier 2 Ice Resistance. Stats Bonus: +10 VIT, +10 STR Requirements: N/A Item Tier: 2 -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- They aren¡¯t going to help me at all, but they would be a nice gift to give to Astrid the next time I see her. My armor doesn¡¯t exactly let me wear gloves separately after all, considering that it¡¯s a full set. I stuff the gloves into my storage ring, glare at the stupid mimic one last time, and leave the hidden area. And immediately try to reenter the space, only to be blocked, even after trying to cut through the rift in space. Damnit. Can¡¯t cheat the System. I sigh at that and continue climbing the stairs, deciding to let my soul rest while I¡¯m in the Safe Zone. Because the boss will be next. B2 | Chapter 27 - Legendary Feats and the Boss Room Alexia It ends up taking me a several hour nap to recover all of my soul after this rather long and drawn out dungeon run. I would¡¯ve preferred to have moved onto the boss room sooner, but it would be suicide to go into the final boss fight against a monster that is at the cap of Tier 2 and very likely a Chaos Monster while low on soul. And I¡¯m not suicidal. The bright side is that I still have an advantage in terms of regeneration and rest over the other users in the dimensions. Since my soul regenerates faster and I don¡¯t need to eat or drink, that means I need a bit less rest than they do. So I can spend more time fighting than them. Although¡­ I frown as I leave the Safe Zone and pause right in front of the purple barrier most likely bordering the final boss¡¯s area. ¡­the former ascendants still have me beat in experience. So I shouldn¡¯t always expect to have the lead. It¡¯s a little odd to think about after being first in everything up till- My thoughts cut off when a notification appears in my vision.
Legendary Feat ¨C Player Killer Artorius del Argon has become the first user within the System to kill ten thousand or more other users!
Oh¡­ That¡¯s not good. Then again, if anyone was gonna get a Legendary Feat like that one, it makes sense that it¡¯d be the Primeval Fiend. Not only is he pretty much known for hating all creatures, but the guy¡¯s magic quite literally feeds on the dead. And the higher the Class of the dead, the stronger it¡¯ll be. So he¡¯s most likely collecting souls to feed his shades right about now. Glad I¡¯m not in the same Dimensional Block as him. I sigh at that thought before beginning to reach out for the barrier, only to pause with a frown as another Legendary Feat plays out.
Legendary Feat ¨C King of the Dead Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. Vallius Karan de Volt Hellmouth has become the first user within the System to turn one hundred thousand or more beings into their undead servants!
Seriously? Well, whatever Block the lich king is in is going to be infested with undead in the future if it isn¡¯t already. Absolutely a place I¡¯m gonna want to avoid. Also, it looks like other people are finally starting to get more Legendary Feats now that some time has passed. At this point I wouldn¡¯t be surprised if each of the Class S species spread across the dimensions get at least one Legendary Feat over the next month or so. And not just them, but the former Ascendants will likely shoot for some of the Legendary Feats they may have had before the Reset as well. Which takes away one of my advantages since I don¡¯t really know of any other Legendary Feats to get myself, even if I already have a few of them. I sigh at that thought before reaching out and trying to cut open the purple barrier, to no avail. Huh? Is it too tough for me to cut through at my level? That¡¯s annoying, but it¡¯s not like I¡¯m planning on running anyways. So I reach out and touch the purple barrier, making it suddenly spread out and grab onto me. The thing then pulls me inside where I find some sort of ritual room. One with a small little pyramid at the center with stairs on each side of it and a slope on the corners, with braziers at the top of the pyramid on each corner. The pyramid spans for three different levels with the stairs briefly stopping on each level and having a small walk-around connecting each stair on the edge of the pyramid before the stairs continue to the next level, ending in a flat top. And at the center of the pyramid¡¯s peak is what looks like a fancy coffin surrounded by several draugr that I haven¡¯t seen before. Meanwhile I¡¯m standing high above the room with a vast staircase leading down to the main area right in front of me, and braziers occasionally lighting the room on the sides of the massive staircase. This is fancy. The undead standing guard at the coffin are completely still, not moving a¡­ bone? Not moving a bone. But their gazes ¨C if I can call the blazing blue fires in their eye sockets gazes ¨C lock onto me the moment I identify them. {Fallen Draugr Crypt Guard ¨C Level 245} {Fallen Draugr Crypt Guard ¨C Level 245} {Fallen Draugr Crypt Guard ¨C Level 245} {Fallen Draugr Crypt Guard ¨C Level 245} {Fallen Draugr Crypt Guard ¨C Level 245} {Fallen Draugr Crypt Guard ¨C Level 245} {Fallen Draugr Crypt Guard ¨C Level 245} {Fallen Draugr Crypt Guard ¨C Level 245} They¡¯re all a higher level than me. Just peachy. Despite them seemingly staring at me, none of them move. They just continue standing guard at the coffin as I stand at the top of the massive staircase. I continue looking around the room from my place up here, while still keeping an eye on the undead of course, until I notice some oddities in the pyramid itself. Specifically how some of the stone slabs making up the pyramid look like they are slightly out of place. Both on the walls and the walk-arounds. More undead are going to jump out of those. I¡¯m absolutely certain of this. Looking at the very edges of the room, I find various little coffins lining up the walls right behind some flowing ice water just like from that other annoying room. And also just like that room, piranhas jump out of the water occasionally. I swear the System seems to love piranhas. Turning my gaze back to the coffin at the center of the room which I¡¯m sure holds the final boss of the dungeon, I take a deep breath and raise my hand. Then I send a Quantum Bolt flying straight down there. Let¡¯s see if I can tick them off from up here into starting the battle. B2 | Chapter 28 - Ruler of the Frozen Temple Alexia The Quantum Bolt goes straight to the draugr only for the monsters to suddenly raise their hands all at once, making a giant wall of ice shoot up out of the floor of the pyramid, blocking the Quantum Bolt before the wall shatters. Then all of the coffins around the room begin creaking open to reveal lower leveled draugr at the same time as more draugr start bursting out of the floor and walls of the pyramid. But throughout it all, the eight draugr crypt guards on the pyramid just continue to stand guard despite the literal army of draugr starting to march in my direction. And the coffin in between the guards stays silent as well. My eyes narrow as I briefly look around before focusing on the undead and sending Quantum Bolts at the ones approaching me. Which ends up making short work of them since, unlike the eight guards, these aren¡¯t Chaos Monsters. They¡¯re just Class C and D monsters. It¡¯s just that they have a rather large advantage in numbers. One that actually has me grinning due to the EXP it¡¯s giving me to kill them all. And since the distance between us is rather large, they don¡¯t even make it three quarters of the way up the massive staircase before I finish them all off. The last System Message I get from them is one telling me that I¡¯ve reached level 245, and I can¡¯t help but grin at it. Not to mention the new skill it gives me. [*New Active Skill* ¨C Wave-Particle Cascade: Allows the user to change between three forms. Their default form with no additional effects, their Wave form of which grants the user enhanced magical prowess and speed with the ability to phase through three solid non-living objects at the cost of an increased weakness to magic by 50%, and their Particle form of which grants the user enhanced physical prowess and physical resistance at the cost of the inability to use magic while in the form.] Now that¡¯s a good skill. Too bad I can¡¯t use it right now since it¡¯s not slotted. What is slotted though is a different new skill that I remembered to swap out with Quantum Burst after my break in the Safe Zone. Too bad it costs a lot of soul to use. But it¡¯s a much more powerful wide range offensive skill than Quantum Burst is, and I can make it attack away from myself. So I¡¯m not stuck jumping in to use it. This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. If only it cost less soul I would¡¯ve used it on those weak draugr. That aside, I find it rather surprising how the guards still remain standing at the coffin¡¯s side, not moving an inch except for the few times I sent Quantum Bolts their way where they made more ice walls. I continue standing at the top of the staircase, tapping my chin with a single finger before eventually just shrugging and raising both hands. Then I send Quantum Bolt after Quantum Bolt their way in an attempt to use up their mana or catch them off-guard. As if activated by my prolonged assault, a loud screech echoes throughout the room, making me immediately halt my attacks. Guess the boss was activated after attacking them enough? No, that sounds too easy to cheat. So is it activated when you leave the stairs? That¡¯s a good possibility. Just with an extra activation for attacking it too much from the stairs so people don¡¯t do exactly what I was doing. Anyways, the coffin finally opens up, following which all of the bones of the defeated draugr quickly begin moving on their own up the pyramid before entering the now open coffin in droves. I quickly spam Quantum Displacement to get to the top of the pyramid and raise a hand, activating my latest skill, Quantum Paradox Blast. A glitchy orb of purple energy then appears and begins warping and contorting back and forth at the center of the skeletons several meters away from me before eventually just collapsing in on itself and resulting in a powerful explosion of purple light that sends the draugr guards flying. But to my irritation, the coffin remains undamaged with the bones swarming it forming a large wall to block the explosion from the coffin. Annoying. On the other hand, the explosion sent the guards off of the pyramid entirely. Which was a little amusing to see. I have more important things to care about right now though. Such as the coffin that is now sucking up the last of the bones, including those of the guards that were apparently killed down below. Bones I recognize just because the guards had slightly bluer bones than the rest of the draugr. Then several seconds pass in silence, during which I try to use another Quantum Paradox Blast on the coffin to no avail as the thing seems invulnerable or something. I narrow my eyes as the silence drags on before eventually a hand made entirely out of bone grabs the edge of the coffin. The hand is then followed by another hand, and then another, and then several more until the creature starts dragging itself out of the coffin. ¡°The hell¡­¡± I mutter while backing up a little at the sight of the abomination made entirely of bones with a large draconic head at the top, two large wings, and a body made up of nothing but a mass of bones writhing around with abandon. But it¡¯s not just that as some random leg or arm and hand bones occasionally reach out of the mass to carry the thing and help it keep balance along with the wings. Okay, I have absolutely no idea what this absolute abomination might be. I identify it. {Ruler of the Frozen Temple ¨C Species: Fallen Bone Abomination ¨C Level 250} That has to be a Tier 2 Chaos Monster. Right? Its id is different but still purple. Similar to a Class A species but different still. Seemingly uncaring of my thoughts, the giant monster raises its head and lets out a loud roar that shakes my eardrums. Either way, this is gonna be a pain. B2 | Chapter 29 - Shearing the Ruler Alexia I narrow my eyes at the monster before teleporting to the side when several large spikes of ice form in the air around it and start flying straight at me. Then I continue teleporting at the creature makes more and more spikes of ice until the thing suddenly pulls back, drawing one of its wings further behind itself while frost begins building up on the wing. And faster than any monster I¡¯ve seen thus far it sends the wing swatting towards me while blowing a powerful blizzard my way. One that also spreads out to fill the room. The blizzard sends me flying back across the room despite me trying to teleport out of its way, the attack proving to be too fast for me to effectively teleport away from. And as I fly through the air with my arms crossed in front of me, I grit my teeth as I feel frost building up on my front, the cold beginning to overpower my adaptation. Damnit, of course it can use magic! I try to teleport away again, only to find that my magic is starting to act a little sluggish. Just like before. Seriously? This is a pain. Even with the sluggish magic, I manage to teleport away from the attack down to the other side of the pyramid. At the expenditure of a rather large amount of soul that is. The boss looks confused for a second, at which point I raise both of my hands and use Quantum Paradox Blast twice. Once behind its wings and once in front of its head. My eyes narrow a bit at the sight of the creature taking the blows without much visible damage beyond some slight cracks on its bones near the attacks. Then it turns around and lets out a loud roar while the bones in its body shift around, some even turning into a liquid form to refill those cracks. Interesting. Unlike Quantum Burst, Quantum Paradox Blast uses about half a percent of my total soul with each use. But since I was already full on soul when arriving at this boss fight, even after dealing with the small army of undead at the start of it, I still have three quarters of my soul left remaining. So the two of us begin a bit of a dance of me teleporting away from its various attacks which include things like sending blades and spikes of ice or more blizzards at me, then me striking back at it with another set of Quantum Paradox Blasts or just Quantum Bursts with an occasional Waveform Manipulation to mess with its magical attacks. Although only two of my uses of Waveform Manipulation actually ends in something beneficial. Specifically one blizzard turning into a flamethrower that heats up the room, and some spikes turning into magma while I tried to get it to hit itself. Love what you''re reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on. Gradually, over the course of the battle, the boss slowly loses more and more of its stash of bones. All the way till the monster eventually only has a regular skeleton instead of a mass of bones, the mass turning out to be hiding its actual body within it. The monster raises its head to the ceiling and lets out a loud roar as it stretches both its wings and the only two remaining arms it has to the sides of it, making the entire room begin growing colder and colder. I can¡¯t help but examine the creature¡¯s actual body though now that all of the bones writhing around its torso are gone. Because the boss looks suspiciously like a dragon. One made out of bones. And a bit smaller. And with blue tinted bones, since the remaining bones all seem to be made from those crypt guards¡¯ bones. After it finishes roaring it lowers its head to me and just stares for a few seconds as I stare back. Then we both rush forwards, the bone dragon proving a lot faster now that it doesn¡¯t have those bones around its torse. And right when our fists are about to collied ¨C if you can call its bone hand a fist ¨C I teleport to the side and then again around it where I pull out my polearm and stab it down straight onto its back. But my polearm doesn¡¯t get very deep into it, only cutting about an inch into the half-a-meter thick spinal cord. I grit my teeth a little at the recoil from the blow going up my arm, only to ignore it thanks to Quantum Body as I teleport back again the moment the monster tries to swat me with its wings. This monster is just as physically strong as it is magically strong¡­ I teleport away towards the top of the massive staircase before panting slightly as I look down at the boss that is currently looking around, searching for me. It¡¯s absolutely a Class A version of a monster, but I feel¡­ like I¡¯m missing something. There¡¯s just something off about it. My gaze is attracted to the center of its chest in the middle of its ribcage where I find a random spherical bone where I¡¯d assume its heart would¡¯ve been if it were alive. An orb that is starting to glow with a pale blue light. That¡¯s¡­ probably not good. The pale light begins to spread throughout the boss monster as its empty gaze locks on me. A gaze that doesn¡¯t remain empty for long as when the pale blue light fully covers its body, pale blue flames begin blazing in its formerly empty eye sockets. Pale blue flames start shooting out from various points on its body while the monster lets out a loud roar. And at the same time, the braziers throughout the room start erupting in pale blue flames as well instead of the regular reddish orange flames they had before. Yeah, not good at all. I clench my fist around my polearm while frowning at the monster. Guess this is its final form or something. Might be a bit harder than I expected. B2 | Chapter 30 - The Fall of the Ruler Alexia The boss suddenly begins to move a lot faster than it was before, and at the same time, I feel the energy in my body growing even more sluggish. And it¡¯s not just the energy in my body. Even the energy I sense in the air itself is slowing down. This is not regular ice magic. No way in a frozen hell. I raise my hand back and throw my polearm straight at the monster, deciding that it¡¯s my best bet right now. Considering how my magic isn¡¯t exactly the most useful thing right about now. At least, not from this far back, and not without preparation. I¡¯m starting to regret choosing an ice aligned dungeon to fight in. My polearm flies through the air as the monster brings both of its pale blue flaming wings around in front of it to block my polearm. But fortunately, my weapon still manages to pierce a little into the bones making up its wings. Only a little though. I resummon my polearm back to my hand and repeat the process, throwing it repeatedly at the monster and resummoning it again after the weapon strikes. The monster doesn¡¯t just sit there at the top of the pyramid taking the hits though, instead letting out another roar and flapping its wings once while flying through the air towards me. And instead of using its wings, it¡¯s now using its arms to block the polearm, slowly causing them to whittle away bit by bit. Right when the boss begins to slow down, its head glowing brighter as if preparing for an attack, its arms finally snap as my polearm makes it all the way through them and continues on its trip to its chest where it barely pieces into its ribcage. But before I can celebrate the loss of its arms, the creature¡¯s head continues to glow and it opens its mouth, making a blue fireball appear in the air in front of it. Shit. I try to teleport away, only to find that the skill is so sluggish to activate that the monster finishes the fireball and sends it flying at me before can finish. Leaving me to be hit by half of the blast, sending me flying even while I¡¯m finishing the teleport, ending with me continuing my flight after teleporting out of the main blast. A coarse scream fills the room as I feel the frost flames causing my armor to freeze at first, then my skin, and then my entire arms before I manage to start the reversal process. One that only makes my scream go up another octave as the flames continue to freeze me all while my frozen arms are unfreezing, creating a seemingly endless loop. If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation. I eventually manage to close my mouth and stop screaming despite the pain to instead focus on my surroundings again. And immediately after doing so, my eyes widen at the sight of the dragon opening its mouth again. Shit! I quickly try to teleport away, finding the skill to be just as sluggish as before. This isn¡¯t going to end well. Right as I¡¯m mentally preparing myself for another blast though, I realize the dragon is gathering the mana in front of its mouth a lot slower than the previous time. And¡­ is its body glowing a bit less brightly than before? I frown at the realization before grinning. So that¡¯s how you work! I manage to finish my teleportation this go around right about the time that the frost flames on my arms finally die, following which the boss sends another frost fireball towards where I was just standing. But this one seems to be a lot less powerful than the last one, proving the conclusion I reached about the monster. Its flame is stronger the more bones it has. With that in mind, I begin throwing my polearm again, and this time it can¡¯t proceed towards me while blocking because it doesn¡¯t have any arms. So it¡¯s forced to use its wings instead. Also, the very fact that it¡¯s blocking proves that its chest is important. Most likely that core within its ribcage. I grin, finally seeing the path to victory as I ignore the rather tattered status of my armor and clothes as I continue throwing my polearm at the frost dragon over and over again. And after who knows how many throws, the monster¡¯s wings finally shatter as well, leaving it stuck on the ground at the top of the massive stairs. At this point the battle becomes rather simple since the creature has no arms or wings. Which makes balancing itself rather difficult. Especially on a massive set of stairs. I watch with more than a little amusement ¨C and maybe a tiny amount of vindication due to the pain its flames caused ¨C as the monster takes a tumble down the stairs. Then I teleport down to it, finding that it¡¯s a lot easier to use my skills again now that its flames have died down, before summoning my polearm one last time into my hand. The dragon simply turns its head around as I stand on the back of its ribcage, flipping my polearm around to face the blade downwards. And before it can do anything, I put all my strength into thrusting it straight down, through its bones, and into the core, making the thing crack like ice. Almost immediately after its core shatters, all of the remaining pale blue flame on the boss¡¯s body dies out along with the flames in its eye sockets. Then the bones making it up just collapse, falling out of form as I find myself tumbling to the ground, only to teleport away to save my landing. And that¡¯s a wrap. I hear a cracking sound, making me glance towards my polearm where I find a tiny little crack around the part where the blade meets the staff. And that¡¯s gonna be a pain to fix. Guess it¡¯s about time to go find a crafter anyways. Come to think of it, that Shawn guy from the wendigo island mentioned a crafter a while back. Maybe I¡¯ll look for them. B2 | Chapter 31 - Plans Alexia Putting aside my damaged weapon, I look up at the top of the pyramid where I find a loot box now sitting where the coffin once was. And after a brief glance at the boss¡¯s corpse, wishing that it was possible to bring the corpse out of the dungeon for materials¡¯ sake, I climb my way up the stairs before stopping in front of the loot box. A new weapon would be nice. One that I could use while getting this thing repaired. I just hope the need sensor picks up on that, since it doesn¡¯t always give you something you want. Anyways, before I check out the loot box, I let my System Messages go through. [Level 250 Fallen Bone Abomination Defeated ¨C User¡¯s earned EXP has been increased due to killing a being whose level is higher than their own.] {Congratulations! You have leveled up to level 246! Your Species has awarded you +2 VIT, +2 DEX, +2 STR, +2 MAG, and +2 MEN. Your Class has awarded you +1 VIT, +1 DEX, +1 STR, +2 MAG, and +2 MEN.} {Congratulations! You have cleared the Dungeon known as the Frozen Wastelands! Touch the loot box to claim your reward!} {Congratulations! You have accomplished the Feat, Fallen Killer, for being the third being in the System to kill a Second Tier Chaos Monster! As a reward one of your skills chosen at random amongst your equipped skills will now be leveled up one level!} Oh? Not bad. Also not really surprised that I¡¯m not the first being to kill a Second Tier Chaos Monster. Although I am a little surprised that I still get a reward even after being the third being to do it. I open my status in order to check out my skills, only to grimace at the sight of my remaining soul.
Name: Alexia Knight Species: Quantum Reaper(T2)
Level: 246 Class: Quantum Reaper
Soul: 1001/21,462.5
VIT: 736 DEX: 736 STR: 736 MAG: 981 MEN: 981
Racial Skills Active Skills
Passive Skills General Skills
And that¡¯s after the boss leveled me up. I open up my skills list to find which skill was leveled up. [General Skills] |Pain Resistance Level 8(52%)(T1)| This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience. |Polearm Mastery Level 8(48%)(T1)| |Forerunner (Unique)| |Stealth Level 3(64%)(T1)| |Survivor Level 3(64%)(T1)| |Poison Resistance Level 4(29%)(T1)| |Exploration Level 5(39%)(T1)| |Anti-Magic Barrier (Unique)| |Tutorial Champion (Unique)| |Energy Manipulation Level 1(86%)(T1)| [Active Skills] |Quantum Bolt Level 9(32%)(T1)| |Quantum Displacement Level 13(6%)(T2)| |Quantum Reversal Level 9(31%)(T1)| |Waveform Manipulation Level 5(4%)(T1)| |Quantum Paradox Blast Level 2(10%)(T1)| [Passive Skills] |Quantum Attunement Level 8(25%)(T1)| |Observation Effect Absorption Level 2(20%)(T1)| |Quantum Infusion Level 9(2%)(T1)| |Quantum Adaptation Level 9(94%)(T1)| |Quantum Aura Level 5(4%)(T1)| A grin stretches across my face as I realize the skill it leveled up was Quantum Displacement. Nice! Also, that boss made for good adaptation training. Even if I don¡¯t know what I exact affinity it was using. I should have Quantum Adaptation at Tier 2 soon. Maybe I should spend some time bothering Ethan to have him train my adaptation a little bit more? Just to get it to Tier 2. I¡¯m sure the skill will have a rather nice boost at Tier 2. And even if it¡¯s not as high as I¡¯d prefer, it¡¯ll still be more progress towards removing my annoying weakness towards magic. I close out of my skills list and status before reaching out to touch the loot box, which looks a lot like the boss¡¯s coffin but a lot more like a chest than a coffin. The moment my eyes land on the item that appears above the loot box though, I find my excitement drooping rather dramatically. Because the item currently floating above the loot box, while it is a weapon, it¡¯s not really one that I have the most experience in using. I let out a sigh before identifying it and quickly finding my interest in the item going back up a little bit. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Elemental Bow Description: This bow passively absorbs the elemental energy of the user as they naturally radiate it, not harming the user in any manner. Through this, the weapon takes on some minor characteristics of the user¡¯s strongest elemental affinity. Stats Bonus: +10 MAG, +10 DEX Requirements: Must have one elemental affinity beyond C Grade. Item Tier: 2 -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Okay, yeah, Alara¡¯s assumption is definitely correct. This is just a common Tier 2 weapon found in dungeons now. Considering how there are at least a dozen people at the base with an elemental weapon just like these. Guess soulbound items are relatively common after the Reset. I sigh at the understanding that my polearm really isn¡¯t anything special except for the quantum element in it before I reach for and grab the bow. And just like with the polearm, it quickly adapts to my energy and takes on a purple hue with quantum energy running through it. Overall, it¡¯ll make a good temporary weapon. And a good ranged weapon since I can switch between soulbound items with ease. At least, when I don¡¯t want to spend soul on a Quantum Bolt or something. Considering how those are better than an arrow, considering my stats. I¡¯ll use it for now until I get my polearm fixed. Might also trade for a sword from someone in the base to use temporarily as well. Wouldn¡¯t want my polearm snapping after all. Otherwise it¡¯d probably be impossible to fix. And I still want a bladed weapon even as a temporary one. I just work better with blades. I dismiss the bow before beginning to look around the dungeon for the exit, quickly finding it on the other side of the pyramid from the entrance. Then I make my way over there while looking at my dungeon map, making extra sure that I don¡¯t miss any sort of hidden areas. But I don¡¯t find any in the room, so once I reach the exit, I reach out and touch it at which point I end up back at the entrance of the dungeon. Time to look for a temporary blade and Shawn. I hope the crafter joined our base. B2 | Chapter 32 - Smith Alexia After leaving the dungeon, I quickly make my way back to the base. But at some point during my trip, I pause. Then I purse my lips and decide to just continue flying again. It would be nice to get those remaining four levels that I need to reach the cap of Tier 2, but the only dungeon I¡¯d feel comfortable entering just to leave soon after is the one I just beat. And you can¡¯t rechallenge a dungeon that you have already cleared until at least a month after your last clear. Plus I don¡¯t like the idea of fighting without my weapon, even if I have a second weapon to use temporarily. I might have some training in the use of a bow, but some training in it isn¡¯t enough for me to feel comfortable. On that note, as I make my way back to the base, I practice a little with my new bow, sending what luckily turns out to be arrows made of quantum energy ¨C proving that I don¡¯t need someone to make arrows for me ¨C at any monster I find along the way. And over time I end up growing more used to the bow again. I even get the skill for combat using bows. One I¡¯m not going to slot. Once I make it back to the base, I find it as busy as ever, and bigger than the last time I was her. Just like always. Except this time the difference in size is even more vast than the previous times I¡¯ve come back to the base. Guess the Council probably helped advertise the base a bit. And with the Covenant linking most of the major players¡¯ locations, it¡¯s not too hard to find other groups nowadays. Especially major ones. Putting that aside, I completely ignore the gate where people are being checked upon entry to instead teleport on top of the walls, startling the guards there. But they just regain their composure, snap off a quick salute, and return to their work without another word. Although one of them does leave, likely to tell someone I¡¯m here. I ignore them as I close my eyes and begin sensing through the base, searching for an energy source familiar to me. After a few minutes of searching, I eventually find what I recognize as Shawn¡¯s energy signature located on the other side of the base. So I open my eyes and teleport a few times to reach him, appearing right in front of the man and startling him into dropping a bunch of logs onto his foot. Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. Oops. The man mostly ignores the logs though, the System enhancement his level gives him making him not really hurt by the weight of logs falling onto his foot as he calms down again and asks, ¡°Alexia, did you need something from me?¡± I nod my head and, without wasting any time, ask, ¡°Did the crafter you told me about before happen to join the Retreat with you?¡± He looks surprised for a second before answering with a nod, ¡°Yeah, he did. Would you like me to take you to him?¡± I nod my head, following which the man completely ignores the logs and starts walking off towards the corner of the base with me following suit. And everyone we pass by, as if on instinct, turns to look at me with either awe or fear in their eyes. Many a mixture of both. Eventually we arrive at a small wood and stone house at the corner of the base right up against the walls, which I can¡¯t help but wonder if is a good place to have a home or not. Then Shawn knocks on the door and shouts, ¡°Dravik, you have a visitor!¡± A shout resounds from within the house, albeit muffled, ¡°Dang it, don¡¯t interrupt me during my work, kid!¡± ¡°Oh, well if that¡¯s the case old man, then I¡¯ll just tell The Reaper that you don¡¯t want to work with her,¡± Shawn says with a smirk on his face that has me raising a brow in amusement. A muffled bang echoes from the house, followed by a bunch of other bangs and then muffled footsteps before the door slams open to reveal a dwarf. And the moment the dwarf sees me, he immediately starts smiling a very polite smile as he says, ¡°Hello Miss Reaper, how may I help you today? I¡¯m sorry for the inconvenience, but Shawn is just so difficult to hear sometimes that I thought he was nary but a fly on the wall.¡± I notice Shawn¡¯s eye twitching slightly at that as the man says, ¡°Oh, really, old man? Are you sure about that? Because you definitely responded.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t mind the kid, he¡¯s hearing things,¡± the dwarf apparently named Dravik says without so much as glancing at Shawn. Then he waves us inside and says, ¡°Why don¡¯t you come inside? Make yourself comfortable!¡± I glance between the two, finding this situation more than a little amusing before shrugging and walking inside the house. And just seconds after I step inside, I hear the door slamming shut and someone shouting, ¡°Ouch! Damn it, old man!¡± from the other side of the door. When I look back, I realize the dwarf slammed the door in Shawn¡¯s face, blocking him outside. Meanwhile the dwarf just smiles at me and proceeds to say, ¡°Now, what can I do for ya, Lady Reaper?¡± I glance between him and the door, hearing muffled slamming sounds come from it as Shawn no doubt slams his fist against the door while shouting. This old man is hilarious. Then I eventually just smirk slightly and focus on the dwarf as I summon my polearm into my hand and ask, ¡°Any chance you could fix this?¡± The dwarf reaches out to grab my polearm before looking it over with a light frown. And, after several seconds of shouting that we¡¯re both casually ignoring from the other side of the door, he looks up at me with a smile and says, ¡°That I could, young miss.¡± Nice. Looks like I won¡¯t have to go searching for a smith elsewhere after all. The dwarf quickly begins walking deeper into his house after that while motioning for me to follow, ¡°Come on! Let me show ya to me workshop!¡± I glance at the door once more before following after him without another word. B2 | Chapter 33 - Partnership Alexia As we walk, the man seems to get embroiled in just looking over my weapon, not saying a single word. So I take the time to study both him and his house. The dwarf is about a little over a meter in height, standing at around four to four and a half feet tall. He has a thick beard with long brown hair and is wearing some sort of brown and silver armor that I suspect the man himself probably made. He has brown eyes and a strong build, especially around the arms. Likely due to swinging a hammer. On the other side, his house seems to be rather small, with just a long hallway connecting to the door with a few rooms branching off of it. But that initial impression is proven wrong when he presses a slab of stone into the wall, making a hidden door open up to reveal stairs down. He then immediately goes downstairs while muttering to himself about the cracks in my weapon. The man¡¯s dedicated to his craft, that¡¯s for sure. It¡¯s like the moment he started inspecting my weapon he just straight up forgot about me. Which is surprising considering the way he was treating me earlier, ignoring Shawn who seems to have given up on slamming the front door. Considering that I don¡¯t hear him anymore. Although it could also be due to the obvious soundproofing he has going on in this house. Something no doubt made by magic. The hidden stairs eventually open up into some sort of underground workshop. And before I can even wonder where the smoke from the furnace used in his smithing goes, I notice a pipe leading straight into the wall from it. Meanwhile there are several balls of glowing light in the upper corners of the room, illuminating the workshop. Dravik ¨C who I haven¡¯t identified since I would rather not get on the bad side of the only crafter in the base even if he¡¯s respectful of me ¨C moves up to a long metal table and sets my polearm down on it before inspecting it for a few more seconds. Then he finally turns back to me and says, ¡°This¡¯ll take me a few days to repair, so in the meantime, would ya like ta browse me wares?¡± I purse my lips at that offer. Well¡­ I do need a new blade to use temporarily while my polearm is out of commission, so¡­ It also wouldn¡¯t hurt to learn what the crafter at the Retreat can make at this point. Who knows? Maybe he can make something better than my polearm. Although I doubt anything he makes would be able to use my quantum magic. Not like my polearm can. ¡°Sure,¡± I tell him, deciding to just see what he has. After all, I don¡¯t need to buy anything if I¡¯m just browsing. That reminds me though. ¡°How do you want me to pay for the repairs?¡± I ask with a frown, making the dwarf ¨C who was just moving off to the side of the room ¨C pause mid-step. This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. ¡°For other people? I would have them pay in resources or System Items,¡± the dwarf says after turning back around to face me. ¡°But for you?¡± His smile grows wider. ¡°I just want ya to allow me to say that my forge has yer protection.¡± I blink in surprise before tilting my head with a frown and asking, ¡°That¡¯s all? You don¡¯t want anything else?¡± The dwarf nods his head, ¡°That¡¯s all, missy. Nothin¡¯ more, nothin¡¯ less. Ye let me do that, and I¡¯ll let ya take a weapon fer free an¡¯ even repair yer equipment all ya want.¡± Interesting. Also, his accent is coming out stronger now. Like he was suppressing it earlier. And I guess being able to throw my name around would be some significant protection for the place. Plus it gives me a personal crafter that I can have repair my stuff whenever. Although my armor doesn¡¯t need repairs. Just my weapons. Plus I don¡¯t owe him anything in this deal. Other than going to protect him when I¡¯m here that is. And maybe some slight posturing. ¡°Very well, you have a deal,¡± I tell him with a smile. The dwarf grins from ear to ear and turns around again before walking to the other end of the room where he pulls a lever, making the wall roll up to reveal racks of weapons. He then turns back around and says with a wave at the weapons, ¡°Take yer pick, lass!¡± I walk up to the rack and immediately identify the first weapon I see. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Dwarven Sword Description: This sword is made out of dwarven steel ¨C an alloy created only by the dwarves using their racial skill ¨C and it is more durable than any other blades of its same Tier. The sword will repair itself and has a minor resistance to mana. Stats Bonus: +10 STR, +10 DEX Requirements: N/A Item Tier: 2 -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Interesting. So he can make dwarven steel. And judging by his weapon¡¯s Tier, despite what must be a low level for the dwarf considering the energy I sense coming from him, the dwarf must be pretty talented. More talented than I was expecting. I begin browsing through all of the weapons the dwarf has lined up. Unfortunately for crafters, they don¡¯t get as much EXP from making System Items as people get for killing monsters. But they do still get a bit of it, and it¡¯s a safe way of leveling up for them too. So a lot of crafters don¡¯t bother going into dungeons or even leaving their homes much. That said, the higher the Tier of the item they make, the more EXP it¡¯ll give them for making it. And the Tier of the item is dependent on various factors, including but not limited to the skills of the crafter, their level, their own knowledge and ability in crafting, the materials they use, and their Feats and Legendary Feats if they have them. In general it¡¯s not very easy to get into a crafting profession, since the System can sometimes be strict on what it decides passes muster to become a System Item. Which is why I¡¯m glad I¡¯m not a crafter. Anyways, I eventually settle on a slightly longer sword, giving me a bit more reach that¡¯s more akin to my polearm. And this one has the added effect of being mana conductive. So I can run my energy through it, even if it isn¡¯t all that efficient. Considering the fact that it¡¯s not an elemental weapon and is only Tier 2. I turn back to find the dwarf already working on repairing my polearm, the man having started at some point while I was browsing. Certainly dedicated, I¡¯ll give him that. I glance back at the stairs while thinking about Shawn and their little interaction. And amusing. B2 | Chapter 34 - A Dragon’s Apathy On an Island Covered in Snow in Dimensional Block #108 Harold Sinclair swirls around a glass of wine as he stands at the edge of the island, only briefly glancing behind him at the people armed with military standard armor made in a rush by one of the few crafters the former and now new king had gathered together for his kingdom. A kingdom he named the exact same as his old kingdom. The Kingdom of Silvercrest. It¡¯s only a matter of time before our war with the King of Giants begins, so there¡¯s no time to waste. Both the King of Giants and the Kingdom of Silvercrest have been at odds for as long as the two nations can remember, and a System Reset isn¡¯t going to change that. If anything, Harold is sure that it¡¯s going to push the King of Giants towards conquering him and his kingdom while they have the advantage. Which means that he has to build up as much power as possible, even if it means bowing his head to someone like The Reaper for assistance. If she¡¯ll even help that is, considering that she¡¯s a Class S species. And her status as Dimensional Champion leans more towards neutrality. Not that all Planetary Champions before the Reset were neutral in their planet¡¯s affairs. They were all selected purely based on power after all, with no vote involved. Then there¡¯s the dragon¡­ he could be a problem, just like all dragons. Out of nowhere, Harold¡¯s gaze snaps to the sky as he senses a powerful being approaching. Is it the Cataclysm Class monster again? Or maybe¡­ His eyes narrow when he finds the source of the power. A man wearing blue and white armor with silver hair flying through the sky with two draconic wings stretching from his back. And his gaze is locked directly on the island Harold¡¯s building his home on. Damnit. The glass in Harold¡¯s hand falls to the ground and shatters as Harold uses his magic to create a turbulent miniature tornado beneath him, raising him into the sky where he eventually meets with the dragon. He doesn¡¯t even bother to identify him since he can see the man¡¯s level in the leaderboards without having to antagonize the man. If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement. ¡°Lord Silva, what do we owe the pleasure of your visit?¡± Harold exclaims, his voice riding on the winds as the people down below working on his home pause in their construction to watch. Ethan Silva simply glances at Harold with an indifferent look on his face before looking around the island, seemingly searching for something. Then, after his eyes narrow slightly, Ethan smoothly moves past Harold, ignoring him, and enters the island. Harold clenches both of his fists at his sides, but he can¡¯t say anything to the dragon. Because he knows this is how dragons act towards others who aren¡¯t of a Class S species. They don¡¯t act towards them at all. Unless, of course, someone interferes with their territory. Then they¡¯ll just annihilate them. Despite being ignored, Harold proceeds to follow after the dragon, only briefly pausing to glare at the workers beneath him on the ground, prompting them to continue working. The dragon continues flying through the island until he stops and drops down to the ground, landing hard enough to form a crater before he walks a few more steps and stabs his arm into the ground. Then he pulls his arm back out with his fingers wrapped around a glowing blue crystal. Harold¡¯s eyes widen slightly at the sight of the magical ore before he shakes his head and rises back into the air, watching as the dragon does the same, only for said dragon to head straight to the edge of his island and leave. Damned draconic bastard, just waltzing around my island as if he owns the place!!! And that magical ore¡­ is he just going around gathering magical ore from the surrounding islands? Or at least ice aligned magical ore? The King of the Silvercrest Kingdom grits his teeth hard at the utter humiliation the dragon just dealt him before he slams his fists into the ground, making a crater of his own. That fucking lizard is going to pay in the future. I swear it. Harold would¡¯ve attacked the dragon, but he knows not to antagonize a dragon. Especially one that is over thirty levels above him. Closer to forty levels above him even. And while Harold may not be a human anymore, he is only a Class A species. So the dragon has the clear advantage in every way. Meaning the only way he¡¯ll possibly stand a chance against the dragon is if he brings forth the forces of an entire kingdom to fight against him. And that would still result in a vast number of losses. But damnit, it would be fucking worth it to get rid of the only dragon in our Block¡­ Despite his thoughts though, he also knows that it would be suicide to do anything to antagonize the dragon now. Even if he had his subordinates work with him, they would all just end up dead in the end. He has to be patient. In the meantime, there is one being that I have a connection of sorts with that may be able to assist me here. The king flies off back to his home before stopping in front of his second in command and shouting, ¡°Gerard, we¡¯re going to go pay a visit to The Reaper at that pitiful little base of my daughters.¡± A man with pitch black eyes and batlike wings immediately nods his head and the two set off into the air in the direction of the Retreat. Let¡¯s just hope that The Reaper will be willing to help me, assuming she''s not really allied with the dragon. And that my daughter has a close connection to The Reaper beyond simply being at the same base as her. Harold grimaces as he flies. And that she hasn¡¯t completely estranged herself. B2 | Chapter 35 - Level Capped and Visitors Alexia After leaving the dwarf¡¯s forge, finding that Shawn has already long since left, I make my way over to Astrid and hand off the items I have no use for. Then I quickly leave the island again to go find a random Tier 2 dungeon. Which doesn¡¯t really take long. The one I end up entering turns out to be the complete opposite of the first Tier 2 dungeon, with this one having a focus on fire instead of ice. And it doesn¡¯t take me too long to bring myself up the last four levels to level 250. If ¡®not-too-long¡¯ means a couple days, that is. But the sight of the requirements to reach Tier 3 has me¡­ feeling rather thankful that I decided to go ahead and do this now instead of after visiting Ethan and checking out the other nearby bases. While searching for Tier 3 dungeons, of course. {Congratulations! You have leveled up to the level cap of Tier 2! In order to break into Tier 3, you must complete the following requirements based on your class: Kill two beings at the cap of Tier 2. Raise a single skill to Tier 3. Kill one user at the cap of Tier 2.} That¡¯s a¡­ uh¡­ huh. Strange class requirement. It also means I¡¯m gonna have to wait a bit to be able to complete all of the requirements, since the only people close to the cap of Tier 2 are people on the leaderboards. I grimace as I realize that this is probably gonna make me lose my top spot for a while. And it would be rude to fight Ethan just for a requirement. He likes games after all. So it would be a pity and a pain to kill him. Well, with the level cap now reached, I decide to go ahead and finish the dungeon since I¡¯m already here. Plus I¡¯m pretty sure I was about to reach the boss anyways. Might as well knock one of those level capped beings out of the way right now. I glance around at the magma-filled caverns around me before continuing forward through the tunnel at the end of the cavern where I eventually find a fancy looking set of double doors. And after opening the doors, I find a large demon-like creature with magma flowing through its veins, a pitch black, cracked looking skin, and glowing red eyes filled with flames. Yep. There¡¯s the boss. Time to knock half of that first requirement out. If you come across this story on Amazon, it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it.
Meanwhile, near the Dimensional Wall of Dimensional Block #108 Ronald var Floid ¨C a former noble from the Varal Kingdom and newly minted noble of the new Varal Kingdom ¨C stands silently atop a small tower that is in the process of being built as he watches out at the vast wall spreading for as far as the eye can see both up and down, and to the sides. The wall is purple in color and is made out of mist and what appear to be clouds with the occasional flash of purple and light blue lightning striking within the clouds. And just like the other border islands touching the wall, the island the fortress is standing on is completely stationary, lying unmoving with a bridge pointing towards the wall allowing people to pass through it. The noble continues standing and keeping watch over the wall, only very briefly glancing at the soldiers beneath him who are working on setting up the fortress until the wall suddenly begins to split above the bridge for several meters, revealing the other side of the wall to him. And to Ronald¡¯s awe, the other side of the wall appears to be nothing more than a barren wasteland of scorching summer sun and desert sands for as far as the eye can see. The Covenant has already sent authority holders through each of the four walls surrounding them, proving the walls to be belonging to the 107th, 106th, 105th, and 109th Dimensional Blocks, but Ronald himself has never seen the other side of the wall himself. From what he understands, this wall should be leading to the 109th Dimensional Block. One that is in the form of a seemingly endless desert with only the occasional oasis within for people to live. Makes me glad I wasn¡¯t sent there. Ronald¡¯s eyes quickly focus on the people coming from the other Block. And just a single glance at them makes him understand that they¡¯re powerful. So he pulls out the magical item given to him to contact the higher ups before sending a quick message saying that individuals from Dimensional Block #109 have arrived. After sending out the message, Ronald quickly barks out orders to the soldiers below who are doing nothing but gawking at the opening in the wall, spurring them into action. He then returns his focus to the approaching group and frowns. Looks like we have some undead living in the neighboring Dimensional Block. Fitting that they¡¯d be living in a wasteland like that Dimensional Block. A massive desert. The group has around forty people in it, meaning that there are two possibilities. Either they have multiple authority holders amongst them, or they have a single Authority Level 3 holder who just didn¡¯t bring the maximum number of people they could have brought. Probably multiple Authority Level 2 and below holders. Ronald continues to study the group as they walk across the vast bridge, each showing surprise once they make it to our side of the wall and find the endless sky beneath the bridge after they look over the edge. But the one at the front of the group simply continues moving forwards with a frown on her face. Looks like she¡¯s a Class A undead. A blighted one. The woman has glowing green eyes and pale as snow skin with long white hair and ethereally glowing green claws. Meanwhile the subordinates behind her are all either of the same species or the Class B version. Simple blights. Ronald raises the device again and sends another message stating little more than ¡®Undead¡¯ before jumping from the tower and moving out to meet the undead with his own forces at his back. Let¡¯s see if we¡¯ll have peaceful neighbors or not. B2 | Chapter 36 - Amulet and News Alexia I let out a grunt as I teleport one last time right in front of the boss while releasing the quantum energy arrow, sending it straight inside of the monster¡¯s glowing and very much exposed heart, piercing it through. And not even a second later, the System Message I¡¯m looking for appears in my vision. [Level 250 Fallen Molten Fiend Defeated. No EXP is given due to the user¡¯s level being capped. One Tier 2 Capped beings defeated. To clear the requirement, you must defeat one more.] Nice. I land on the ground with a light grunt as the monster¡¯s corpse suddenly turns into ash that blows away on a wind that wasn¡¯t previously in the cavern. Then I move up to the monster¡¯s loot box and touch it, making an item that actually interests me appear above it. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Amulet of the Molten Fiend Description: This amulet grants the wearer temporary full fire immunity for a duration of five minutes when energy or mana is inserted into the core. Furthermore, the amulet grants the skill ¡®Molten Fiend¡¯s Rage¡¯ which allows the user to enter a berserk state, raising their stats by a factor of 1.1 times their current stats at the price of a painful backlash once the skill ends. Stats Bonus: +25 MAG, +20 MEN Requirements: N/A Item Tier: 3 (Item Tier increased by one due to the Legendary Feat, The First Clear) -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Now that¡¯s a good item. The amulet is black and red and seems to have some small specks of molten rock embedded inside of obsidian making up the oval-shaped frame, and some sort of ruby-red gemstone in the center of it. Which is probably the core of the amulet mentioned in the description. Having an item that gives me full immunity to such a common element is always nice. I put the amulet on around my neck before stuffing it under my armor. Then I go ahead and leave the dungeon, only to end up finding a rather unexpected surprise outside of the dungeon. Ethan? The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. ¡°Took you long enough,¡± he says with a frown, making me frown in response as I cross my arms. But before I can ask what he means, he says, ¡°The Dimensional Block has visitors from other Dimensional Blocks.¡± Oh. Interesting. ¡°Why are you waiting for me though?¡± I ask, genuinely curious. Normally a dragon would ignore these events. ¡°Because I heard my cousin lived in one of the Dimensional Blocks that¡¯s filled with fire magical ore,¡± he says with a shrug. ¡°And as a hellfrost dragon I¡¯ll also need some fire magical ore later on. Not just ice.¡± My frown grows slightly deeper at that as I ask, ¡°And why would that matter to me?¡± He blinks for a second, seemingly surprised before eventually shrugging and saying, ¡°I thought you might want to know where some Tier 3 dungeons are.¡± I narrow my eyes slightly at that obvious bribe. That¡¯s not enough to make me want to go, but¡­ ¡°You¡¯re lucky that I need to search for something else that I might find on the way,¡± I tell him while uncrossing my arms. I need to find other users that are at or close to the Tier 2 level cap. Users that actually deserve being killed, since I¡¯m not just gonna go murder the first level capped user I find. And going to a different Dimensional Block ¡®for the sake of our Dimensional Block¡¯ or just alongside a dragon in general will probably give me the opportunity to do that. Although¡­ I hope Astrid doesn¡¯t end up having to deal with a bunch of people sucking up to her. Or worse. Idiots trying to kidnap her. At this rate she is one of the stronger people in the Dimensional Block. Not the strongest by any means, but still one of the stronger. Strong enough to be someone desirable as a partner to or member of any of the top tier users in the Block¡¯s forces. ¡°Good to know I didn¡¯t waste my time waiting for you,¡± Ethan says with a grin, making me raise a brow. Seriously though, what¡¯s with this dragon? He really doesn¡¯t act like a dragon. While dragons do pay attention to other Class S species, they still treat them like a potential enemy most of the time, or at least like another neutral and powerful force they may have to combat in the future. They don¡¯t treat them nicely like this man¡¯s treating me. It¡¯s almost like¡­ I frown as the thought comes to mind, only to let out a sigh and decide that it doesn¡¯t really matter. An ally is an ally. ¡°Which Dimensional Blocks have people visiting ours?¡± I ask. Ethan raises his hand with two fingers held up as he answers, ¡°There are two different Dimensional Blocks with people visiting.¡± He drops one finger. ¡°The first group is from Dimensional Block #109 and is full of undead including blighted ones.¡± Then he drops his other finger. ¡°And the other is on the wall to the side of it from Dimensional Block #107. But I don¡¯t know who came with them.¡± I raise a brow again as I ask, ¡°You didn¡¯t try to check?¡± He just shrugs and says, ¡°They weren¡¯t interesting. Nothing but Class B species. And they didn¡¯t have any Class S species in their Dimensional Block from what I¡¯ve heard.¡± Guess he really is still like a dragon when it doesn¡¯t involve me. Now the question is if he¡¯s like this towards just me or other Class S species. Because if it¡¯s just me than that might be awkward. Rejecting a dragon probably isn¡¯t a good way to build up a good relationship with the dragon clans after all. ¡°And the terrain of Dimensional Block #109?¡± I ask while putting my hands in my pockets. ¡°Also, is there only your cousin in that Block, or are there more Class S species there?¡± He quickly answers, ¡°It¡¯s a massive desert with some scattered oasis in it, and there is one more Class S species inside of it. A Class S undead.¡± My eyes widen slightly as I think of the King of the Dead in the leaderboards. Then he continues, clearing that thought. ¡°Although not a very well-known one.¡± Good. It¡¯s not the King of the Dead. Just a different lich king. ¡°Let¡¯s go then,¡± I tell him, making him nod. ¡°But first I¡¯m gonna go tell my sister what¡¯s going on.¡± I get the feeling I might end up clashing with that lich king by the time I leave Dimensional Block #109. With that thought in mind, we both set off towards the Retreat. B2 | Chapter 37 - Fly-by The Dimensional Wall between Dimensional Blocks #108 and #109 A couple days later Varsac narrows his eyes in his irritation as he stands next to Harold in front of the fortress stationed at the Dimensional Wall, facing off against the most recent delegation from Dimensional Block #109¡¯s Dimensional Leader. A lich king known by the name of Karo de Vult. Ever since the Dimensional Council, Varsac has been wondering what sorts of neighbors the Dimensional Blocks around them would be. But having a Dimensional Block of undead as neighbors was not one of the options he had considered, and was one of the worst possible outcomes. Not the absolute worst, which would be having an infamous individual like the Hound or the Ancient Terror as a neighbor, but still one of the worst he can think of. His first reaction to the news was to reach out to Harold and work with them as a show of force for the initial delegates, no matter how much both men hated it. And it did work, especially when the delegates realized how ¡®unified¡¯ all of the people of the Dimensional Block were. Which was likely the only reason they didn¡¯t immediately decide to write them off or try to leave and come back to take over the Block for themselves. Varsac would mention The Reaper and the hellfrost dragon living in their Block, but doing that could very well lead to the undead believing it as a threat. And while it would help their Block, the hellfrost dragon wouldn¡¯t take kindly to having his name used by someone less than dirt in his eyes to threaten others without his permission. I don¡¯t even want to know what he or The Reaper would do then. In the end, the first and second delegation both came and went before any sorts of agreements could be met by either side. And now he and Harold find themselves face to face with the third and likely most important delegation. Because at just a mere glance, Varsac can immediately tell that their group is the strongest of the groups to have come by far. Varsac tenses up slightly as they come to a stop right in front of him and Harold, following which silence stretches out for a few seconds. ¡°So this is the Dimensional Leader of the Dimensional Block?¡± the man at the front, a blighted one whose level far eclipses Varsac¡¯s own, says with a little bit of disinterest in his voice. ¡°If this was all then-¡± The man cuts off with his eyes widening in shock for some reason. But Varsac¡¯s confusion doesn¡¯t last long as he follows the man¡¯s gaze to find two beings approaching from a distance, the two still outside of Varsac¡¯s range. This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it When they do enter his range, he immediately recognizes them both as The Reaper and the hellfrost dragon. One who is simply teleporting across the sky with ease while the other is flapping his wings as the two pass by overhead and then enter through the Dimensional Wall that had already closed up but is now opening again for The Reaper and dragon pair. Silence fills the two groups as they both stare at the Dimensional Wall where the two Class S species just left. Then the blighted one in front of him turns back around and focuses on Varsac, ¡°We¡¯re amenable to discussions.¡± Varsac blinks at that response before immediately getting into real discussions with the group, neither side so much as mentioning the two Class S species. I don¡¯t know if I should feel humiliated that they were about to dismiss me entirely as weak or thankful the two Class S species decided to pass by at this very moment. In the end he chooses not to think about it, simply focusing on his negotiations.
Alexia There really are Class A undead on the other side of this Wall, considering that group we passed over. And their levels are pretty high all things considered. They¡¯re all at around level 190 or so. Still 60 levels below me, but rather high compared to most people. I don¡¯t know what they were talking about. Considering that they look like they¡¯re discussing something right now though, they probably aren¡¯t hostile. At least not yet. Then again, as long as they don¡¯t pose a threat to the Retreat then I don¡¯t really care about what they do to the other nations and groups of the Block. So I focus on the desert as we finish crossing through the Dimensional Wall, which appears to be made solely out of quantum energy. Just a much more compressed quantum energy than any I¡¯ve ever made before. I purse my lips slightly as I think about Luna, who chose to stay behind at the Retreat to protect the base of which she seems to have grown rather fond of simply hanging around in. Pretty sure Luna would be having a feast just from that wall alone. Considering how she eats quantum energy. The moment I cross into the Dimensional Block past the Wall, I find a rather surprising System Message playing out in my head. {The Dimensional Champion and Leader of Dimensional Block #109 have both been notified of the arrival of the Dimensional Champion of Dimensional Block #108.} I glance at Ethan to see if he saw the message too, but he¡¯s just frowning down at the sand, seemingly displeased by the temperature of the place. A temperature that doesn¡¯t bother me since I¡¯ve already gotten adaptation to fire magic and to the heat from that fire aligned dungeon. Or at least, he looks displeased until a faint cold mist starts emanating from him, the man seemingly using his magic to cool the area around us down a bit. Guess he doesn¡¯t care much for the heat. Which is ironic considering that he¡¯s here to get fire magical ore. Anyways, looks like the Dimensional Champion and Leader know I¡¯m here. Although they might not know where exactly. I look around the endless desert for a while, at the occasional sand dunes, the two oasis I can see far away in opposite directions, and the occasional monster roaming around. Then I summon my bow and tell Ethan, ¡°I¡¯ll be heading down to the ground now.¡± He glances at me and nods. I just don¡¯t have the mana to continue teleporting through the air like this. Since it gets harder to stay up here the longer I am up here. And there¡¯s no point staying up here anyways. Time to see what monsters fill this Dimensional Block. B2 | Intermission 2 Deep within Dimensional Block #109 Right when Lexi crossed into the Dimensional Block Karo de Vult, the lich king Dimensional Leader of Dimensional Block #109, opens his pitch black eyes and then narrows them on the System Message that he hears and sees playing out in front of him. {The Dimensional Champion of Dimensional Block #108 has entered Dimensional Block #109.} A Dimensional Champion has entered the Block¡­ The undead creature whose skin is so pale it looks white while in some areas he is completely missing skin and flesh, revealing just his bones underneath his black cloak, turns his head to focus on the direction of the Dimensional Wall connecting their Block to Dimensional Block #108. And after staring for several seconds, he stands up from his throne made of bones, making the undead around him in the makeshift pyramid of sand they had already constructed since the Tutorial stand at attention. This could get interesting. He knows that whoever the Dimensional Champion is, they have to either be stupid or powerful to leave their own Block and enter another Block. And most people strong enough to become a Dimensional Champion aren¡¯t stupid enough to do that. It would be best to assume they¡¯re powerful lest I underestimate them. Just like all powerful undead that eventually become lich kings, Karo prides himself on being cautious. Because if anyone were to know the weight of losing, it¡¯s an undead. Especially a powerful undead. For all undead have died once already. ¡°Sire! We have news of the Eastern Resistance led by the humans launching an assault on our Eastern fortress!¡± a blighted one declares after stepping up to the top of the pyramid¡¯s stairs and kneeling. Karo turns his gaze back to the blighted one and orders, ¡°Give them one last chance to become undead before we take the choice away from them and turn them after they die. But make sure not to aggravate Vargas.¡± ¡°As you will it, Sire!¡± the blighted one shouts before quickly turning around and leaving the top of the pyramid back down the stairs. The lich king turns his gaze back towards the direction of the opposing Dimensional Champion before glancing towards the East, where the hellfire dragon Vargas d¡¯Argol, the Dimensional Champion of Dimensional Block #109, has made his territory. Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road. If I got a message about the Dimensional Champion¡¯s arrival, then he most certainly did as well. Karo stares at the horizon above the seemingly endless sands for a while before returning to sitting on his throne. In that case the best way forward is to wait for the dragon¡¯s response before deciding on my own. And with that decision made, Karo slowly closes his eyes again, making all of the nearby undead under his control settle back down again.
The Eastern part of Dimensional Block #109 Right when Lexi crossed into the Dimensional Block Vargas d¡¯Argol raises his head to look towards the West as he sees and hears the System Message playing out in front of him and in his head. {The Dimensional Champion of Dimensional Block #108 has entered Dimensional Block #109. Should your Dimensional Council declare war on Dimensional Block #108 you may challenge the Dimensional Champion to a duel so long as you are still within the same Dimensional Block. The winner of the duel will therefore claim control of the Dimensional Block for their own Block and the Dimensional Wall between the Blocks will no longer require Authority to pass through for citizens of the Blocks.} His eyes narrow slightly. Curious. The dragon is in his humanoid form, the man¡¯s dragon form still not unlocked to him yet. He has two red, draconic wings sprouting from his back through his red armor and he has blood-red shoulder-length hair, with crimson eyes that occasionally shift into and out of slits. Then he smiles slightly from his place atop a large dune of sand as he considers who could possibly be powerful enough to waltz into the Block of a dragon. Or stupid enough, but that would be disappointing to him, so he would rather it not be the reality of the situation. Vargas hasn¡¯t had any care about what the Dimensional Leader has been doing with the Dimensional Block, largely because the lich king is the only one in the Block Vargas pays even the slightest bit of attention to. Outside of those who enter his territory. But what he does know is that the man has been sending groups to the neighboring Blocks to scout them out for potential fodder. At one point Vargas felt like the lich king even briefly considered whether the reality about Class S species being unaffected by any sort of species-changing infections was still true or not while looking at Vargas during the Dimensional Council. Only to quickly decide that since the System wasn¡¯t the thing making that how it was, it most likely didn¡¯t change. Class S species are embodiments of their elements after all. They cannot have their forms changed by other influences. After hesitating for a single second, Vargas flaps his wings and begins flying through the air towards the West. He¡¯s been stuck at his territory for a few days now, unable to go out and challenge another Tier 2 dungeon during this time. But the idea of leaving a potentially powerful individual to run around the Block without finding out who or what it is, is too much for him to bear. So he decides to trust the lich king for the moment. That the King won¡¯t have any of his undead disturb his territory in his absence. If he knows what¡¯s good for him he better keep his dead soldiers away from my land. He frowns for a second. Then again, knowing lich kings, there¡¯s a decent chance he wants me to check out the visitor. And the man isn¡¯t stupid, I¡¯ll give him that. Even if he¡¯s the typical undead coward. Vargas continues flying through the air as his mind returns back to the new Dimensional Champion. The Dimensional Champion better be a Class S species, otherwise they¡¯re not worth my time. B2 | Chapter 38 - Directions Alexia As it turns out, most of the monsters that I run across are just what I expected. Undead, sand wyrms, giant scorpions, and various other desert dwelling monsters. And since all of the ones I find are rather weak and I¡¯m already at the level cap, I eventually resort to just ignoring them and focusing on teleporting across the sands, allowing Ethan to speed up his flying. Unsurprisingly the man is and has been completely ignoring the monsters the entire time despite not being at the level cap. Probably because these monsters aren¡¯t even Tier 2 for the most part. They probably wouldn¡¯t give EXP even if I wasn¡¯t at the level cap, so me fighting them was mostly just out of curiosity. Monsters or no monsters, teleporting across the ground costs a lot less soul to keep going than teleporting through the air while maintaining my altitude. Mostly due to the issue with me keeping my momentum throughout the process. I¡¯ve managed a few times to teleport without keeping my momentum ¨C something I realized was possible after the skill reached Tier 2 ¨C but I still don¡¯t know how to do that every time. And the times I failed at doing it led to me falling for a while with the skill not being responsive for at least a few seconds. Which was rather terrifying considering how high up I was and how fast I was moving. I shake my head at the thought before Ethan and I finally reach the closest oasis to the Dimensional Wall where we find a budding city growing. One with sandstone buildings and a three or so meter tall wall going around the oasis. Ethan of course just tries to fly right over the wall, making them set off the alarm as he lowers himself to the ground. So I let out a sigh, covering my face in the process out of exasperation of the dragon¡¯s arrogance and utter disregard for the lower Class species here. Then I teleport up to the wall and shout, making my voice echo across the city, ¡°We are not here for a fight!¡± Everyone on the walls ¨C people who entirely consist of undead to my complete lack of surprise ¨C hesitates for more than a second before lowering their weapons. Probably more out of the ¡®they stand no chance against us¡¯ than any sort of peaceful or friendly intensions. Looking through the undead, only a couple dozen of them are Tier 2, and even those are only early Tier 2. Meanwhile the rest of the undead are all mid to high Tier 1. A rather high level compared to the average level back at the Retreat. The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. Then again, they¡¯re undead. Not to mention that this is a city at the edge of the Dimensional Block. Although now that I¡¯m inside of the city it looks less developed on the inside than it did on the outside. Probably to give an impressive display to those getting close or something. ¡°Where is Vargas?¡± Ethan asks, his voice echoing throughout the nearly dead silent city, the only noise other than his voice being the blowing sand in the wind and the occasional rattle of bones and armor. Since some of the undead here are skeletons. Who¡¯s Vargas? Is that his dragon cousin? One of the undead ¨C the highest level one in the city and a blighted one ¨C steps forwards as I teleport down into the city clearing in front of the gate to join Ethan. Then the man bows his head slightly and answers while occasionally glancing towards me with fear in his eyes, ¡°The esteemed dragon is on the other side of the Block from here. If you esteemed individuals would like, we could provide you a map of the area.¡± He focuses on Ethan again. ¡°All we ask is that you leave our city in peace.¡± I get the feeling he thinks I¡¯m gonna murder them all. Or, well, remurder? Damnit, had this same mental dilemma earlier in that dungeon. Reundead? Rekill? Unmake the undead? Whatever. I¡¯ll just stick with destroy. It¡¯s simpler. ¡°Give us the map,¡± Ethan says, not bothering with the latter part of the undead guy¡¯s statement, making me pity the guy for a moment. But I understand that if I were to speak right now the undead would probably just grow even more scared. I always find undead to be interesting, to be honest. The non-sapient ones are fearless and attack anything alive unless ordered not to by a necromancer, while the sapient ones are cowards who will do anything to survive most of the time. Complete opposites from each other. Anyways, my thoughts on undead aside, the people of the little city rush to get the map before handing it to Ethan. And I can¡¯t help but question the idea of the populace of this Block simply handing us a map of their Dimensional Block despite us obviously being outsiders from another Block. After all, I¡¯d be the Dimensional Champion of this Block if I were from here. And they clearly know Ethan¡¯s cousin, so it¡¯s easy to assume they¡¯d know about us if we actually lived in this Block. Ethan quickly takes to the skies after taking the map, and I teleport out of the city, deciding that it¡¯s more trouble than it¡¯s worth to convince the undead there that I¡¯m not a murderer who goes around killing people. Damned Tutorial Leaderboards probably put that in everyone¡¯s heads. Well, that and just how the people usually view the strongest people on the leaderboards. And my title. The Reaper isn¡¯t exactly a friendly title. Even if it¡¯s cool. I continue teleporting beneath Ethan for a while before I raise my hand to call him down, making us both halt our progress. And once he reaches me, I hold my hand out and say, ¡°Map.¡± He hands me the map and I quickly look over it, finding the map to be very incomplete. Which explains why they gave it to us. The map simply has a single line drawn with some civilizations marked along the way straight towards a territory labeled ¡®Dragon.¡¯ I almost snort at that simple naming before handing the map back to Ethan and saying, ¡°I wouldn¡¯t trust the map completely, but knowing how afraid they were, I doubt they¡¯d pull anything.¡± He nods his head and answers rather bluntly, ¡°If they gave us a fake map I¡¯ll just return and turn their city into a glacier.¡± I act like I didn¡¯t just hear him threatening an entire city as I nod my head and we continue making our way through the desert. Such a friendly dragon. Update No chapters today. I decided to take Sunday off but forgot that I had scheduled chapters to go up on Sunday, so there aren''t any chapters today instead. Since I need to write the chapters to make up for what went up on Saturday. There will be chapters for Winter Wolf and Undying Magician today though, in case you read those stories. I only schedule chapters for Wolf of the Blood Moon and Reaper''s Resurgence is why, if you were wondering. All that said, here''s a little update about my semester :) I only have 4 weeks left of this semester before final exams, one of those weeks being Thanksgiving Break. This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. So just three weeks of classes left. Then my last full semester of university is over, leaving me with just a part-time semester next semester. Then graduation. I''ll have a lot more time on my hands then as you no doubt have heard me say more than a few times by now lol. That aside, I don''t have any other exams until final exams week. And I believe I only have 2 final exams. Oh, and I decided that I probably won''t move after all. Because moving to another state is a pain that I don''t want to have to deal with as it turns out. Shocking, I know. Anyways, have a good rest of your weekend. Posting this update on both WBM and Reaper btw. B2 | Chapter 39 - The Hellfire Dragon Alexia To my surprise, Ethan completely ignores all of the fire magical ore we pass by on our way across the Dimensional Block. But I guess he considers this the territory of his cousin, so he¡¯s going to wait for his cousin to give him permission to collect it. Nothing actually happens on our trip across the Dimensional Block. A trip that ends up lasting for several days just to cross the Block despite the fact that he¡¯s flying and I¡¯m teleporting. Although we both end up having to take about an hour or two long break every day to give him a break and let me regenerate my soul. Which makes me wish we had mana potions. I frown at that thought. Wait, will mana and healing potions even work on me? Actually, scratch the healing potions part of that. I¡¯ve used them before. So will mana potions work on me? Or will I have to get someone to make soul potions unique to me? That¡¯s a problem I never thought about before. My thoughts return to the present as I find a couple powerful sources of energy. One approaching us at a speed a bit lower than our own, and another staying stationary somewhere to the South-East of us. ¡°My cousin,¡± Ethan states while looking towards the source approaching us. I narrow my eyes as we continue moving forwards for a bit until Ethan¡¯s cousin finally enters my range of sight. And just seconds later we apparently enter his sight as well, judging by the grin I find appearing on his face. ¡°Ethan and The Reaper!!!¡± a deep voice echoes throughout the desert in between us, frightening the small civilization located halfway in between us and slightly to the South that we¡¯re all ignoring. ¡°What a wonderful surprise this is!¡± {Vargas d¡¯Argol ¨C Hellfire Dragon ¨C Level 221} Ethan waits until we reach within a dozen or so meters of him before he answers, ¡°Hello cousin. Is it safe to assume you know why I¡¯m here?¡± The dragon with red draconic wings and glowing red eyes nods his head, making his shoulder-length crimson hair fall forwards as he grins, ¡°You want the fire magical ore, don¡¯t you?¡± And without even waiting for Ethan to answer, he continues, ¡°Well you can have some. There¡¯s plenty in this Block, to my wonderful surprise.¡± This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. I glance at the undead in the civilization near us to find them all absolutely shocked by the conversation going on right now. Which I understand perfectly well, considering how dragons always act towards non-dragons and even Class S species who they treat cordially. This really is a bizarre sight. Vargas pauses, the amusement and joy in his eyes fading ever so slightly as he turns his steady gaze towards me, meeting my own eyes as he politely says, ¡°And Lady Reaper, may I ask why you are here?¡± I glance at Ethan at that, feeling like Vargas¡¯s treatment of me is normal unlike Ethan. Then I turn back to Vargas and answer, ¡°I came here to find a level capped user of Tier 2.¡± Ethan turns to look at me with a light smile on his face, the man not having known the exact requirement that I needed to ascend. Meanwhile Vargas scratches his chin slightly and then pushes his hair back over his shoulder as he says, ¡°Well you¡¯ve probably already guess it, but there aren¡¯t any of those in this Dimensional Block yet. The only people close to your level here are the lich king and myself.¡± Then he tilts his head and looks me up and down for a second before adding, ¡°And I don¡¯t think I can take you on.¡± ¡°Wouldn¡¯t matter,¡± I shake my head, but I don¡¯t explain any further. No need to tell him that I¡¯m looking to kill a Tier 2 level capped user. Although, I do go ahead and ask, ¡°How do you feel about the lich king?¡± Vargas frowns slightly before shaking his head and answering, ¡°He¡¯s an annoying pile of bones that summons other piles of bones, but he¡¯s at least got the power to back it up.¡± Then he glances at Ethan and adds, ¡°I would suggest you avoid getting near his populated cities if you don¡¯t want to end up in a conflict with him.¡± He looks back at me again. ¡°The man lives up to his undead status. If someone even remotely powerful approaches one of his cities he immediately prepares precautions for dealing with them.¡± I glance at Ethan before looking down and crossing my arms in thought. Then, after several seconds of the two dragons chatting amongst themselves with Vargas leading the conversation, I raise my head again and ask, ¡°How would you say the people of this Dimensional Block like the lich king?¡± The dragon tilts his head slightly and answers, ¡°Why would I pay attention to those things?¡± Oh. Right. Dragon. ¡°I¡¯m not sure why you¡¯d want to know about that either, but if it¡¯s important to you then you can always just go there and get them to tell you,¡± Vargas says while waving to indicate the civilization of undead near us. A rather small city in comparison to the ones closer to the border. Yeah, that¡¯s not a bad idea. Because if the lich king is as bad as every other lich king, he¡¯ll probably make a perfect target to eliminate for my requirement. Considering how lich kings often have a strong distaste for the living and try to turn everything living into undead. Not to mention that the idea of being in a neighboring Dimensional Block with a lich king isn¡¯t a pleasant one. Wouldn¡¯t be surprised if he tried attacking Dimensional Block #108 at some point when I¡¯m not there to turn them into undead too. Depending on how smart the lich king is, that is. Anyways, I leave the two dragons to their conversation as I turn and begin teleporting to the city. Time to see what the lich king¡¯s people think of him. B2 | Chapter 40 - The Proud Bat Alexia As it turns out, the undead were more than happy to tell me about their King. Although I¡¯ll ignore the terror I could practically feel radiating out of them while they did so. Turns out none of them wanted to be undead. They were forcefully turned into undead by the lich king after they were defeated by his army of undead. Meanwhile the very few that did want to be turned got higher positions in other cities and a stronger undead transformation than they got. In fact, most of the regular people who didn¡¯t want to become undead were simply turned into mindless undead, with the few people remaining in this city being the ones that managed to retain their intelligence. So long story short, the denizens of this Dimensional Block aren¡¯t exactly a fan of their Block¡¯s leader. Not like that was hard to guess though. After finishing with my information gathering, I return to the dragons where I find them talking about games. Okay then. Guess dragons like games. I purse my lips at the thought. Then again, pretty sure most dragons are recluses who only ever go into dungeons to fight or stay at their lair. So maybe some of them being gamers makes sense. Makes me wonder if I¡¯ve ever played a game online with a dragon before without even realizing it. Anyways, as the two are talking, I reach out to Luna using the latest skill she got that created a stronger bond between the two of us. And immediately after reaching out, I find several images entering my head that has me blinking in surprise. Uh¡­ huh?
Back at The Retreat Not long ago Luna lets out a short squeak as she feels her eyes slowly opening to the morning sun. Then she stretches her wings a little and unclasps her claws from the bottom of the man-building¡¯s roof. But before she can leave to go train her skills, she hears annoying shouting coming from the bridge connecting to the island. So she flies over there while still in her miniature form. When she arrives she finds her weak aunt standing on the bridge holding a knife and sword while fighting with several people all stronger than the weak aunt is. But the weak aunt isn¡¯t fighting alone but instead with dozens of people from the strange group Luna¡¯s all-powerful mother is protecting. Luna will never understand why her all-powerful mother would lower herself to protect the weak group, but she will fulfill her duty as the weakling¡¯s bodyguard no matter what. This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. So she flies down and lands on the weak aunt¡¯s shoulder, startling her for a second before the weak aunt asks, ¡°You going to help us Luna?¡± Luna lets out a squeak as she nods her head and flaps her wings again, bringing the attention of the weak group of people attacking the even weaker group of people led by the weak aunt straight towards her. And while they all show an expression of mocking on their face that has Luna squeaking in anger the moment they see her, their expressions quickly turn frightened the moment Luna feels them identifying her. Luna feels a sense of smugness come over her at those frightened looks and she raises her head with pride. Before she returns to her full size of three quarters of a meter in height with a wingspan of over a meter and lets out a screech that has the weak attackers covering their ears. The quantum vampire bat lets out a light squeak of happiness after that before bursting through the air and tearing into each and every one of the weak attackers who don¡¯t know their place. And as Luna tears apart the attackers, occasionally using a Quantum Bolt to blow one of them up, she finds herself wondering how there could be people stupid enough to attack a place protected by her all-powerful mother. Out of nowhere, as Luna is killing the people and once in a while licking up the quantum energy pouring out of their blood, she feels her skill activate, making her suddenly shoot into the air with a happy squeak. Then she immediately starts sharing the fruits of her labor to her all-powerful mother through her skill, showing everything currently happening around her, including the images of the dead and slaughtered weak attackers. And more importantly, the images of her weak aunt still alive and safe. Luna lets out a light squeak, hoping for praise from her all-powerful mother. And after a brief pause filled with confusion coming from her all-powerful mother that has Luna feeling slightly confused too, making the bat tilt her head, her all-powerful mother sends warm feelings across their bond. The bat lets out a happy squeak, proud and happy to have been praised by her all-powerful mother. Then Luna returns to slaughtering the weak attackers, filled with enthusiasm given to her by her all-powerful mother. All while ignoring the slightly frightened looks being sent her way by her weak aunt¡¯s subordinates. And when the weak attackers begin to run away, Luna just chases after them, using them as training dummies for her skills. Because that¡¯s all weaklings like them can do. Finally, after finishing off all of the weak attackers, Luna flies over to her weak aunt and reassures her with a squeak, making sure her weak aunt knows she is safe now. Then, after seeing her weak aunt smile, most likely in adoration and praise of Luna, Luna flies back into the large man-built structures and reattaches her claws to the bottom of the roof, shrinking back down to her smallest size for comfort again. And now that she¡¯s got her skills training done for the day and even gotten praise from her all-powerful mother, Luna closes her eyes and goes back to sleep.
Alexia I stare straight ahead in silence after seeing all of the images and feeling Luna go to sleep. What¡­ did I just watch? The two dragons continue talking about games as I attempt to piece together what I just witnessed. And what I end up with¡­ is most likely some idiot decided to attack the Retreat without knowing I¡¯m the one protecting it. That or they¡¯re just idiots. But I doubt someone could be that stupid¡­ probably. Anyways, looks like the Retreat is safe, so staying in this Block for a while to clear the other requirements while the lich king levels up should be fine. I nod my head at that, deciding not to question what I just saw any further. B2 | Chapter 41 - Training The lich king¡¯s Domain ¡°Is that right?¡± Karo mutters after hearing his subordinate¡¯s words. ¡°Yes, Sire,¡± the blighted one exclaims with their head down, ¡°immediately after The Reaper cleared a Tier 2 dungeon within our Dimensional Block two days ago she has done nothing but teleport the hellfrost dragon around everywhere since.¡± Karo leans back in his throne as he considers the blighted one¡¯s words. Ever since he first heard that the Dimensional Champion of the neighboring Dimensional Block was actually The Reaper, he immediately felt a strong desire to abandon his Dimensional Block and move far away. But he fought against that instinct, instead choosing to wait it out a little bit before coming to a decision on what to do. Particularly because The Reaper has shown him no animosity or even the slightest hint of care since she arrived beyond asking a couple simple questions to terrified citizens. Questions that Karo assumes were to narrow down if Karo would attack her or not. Even with all that, Karo still felt weary of her and had his soldiers keep an eye on her the entire week and a half she has been in his Dimensional Block. But all she¡¯s done is spend almost all of that time in a dungeon before apparently playing taxi to the hellfrost dragon. Is she training her teleportation skill? It¡¯s the only possible reason Karo can think of for why The Reaper would work as a mode of transportation for a dragon. For anyone else, really. Not just a dragon. ¡°Has she shown any indication of leaving the Block?¡± Karo asks, turning his cold black gaze towards the blighted one, making the girl shiver in fear. ¡°No, Sire,¡± the blighted one answers right away, ¡°she has simply been bringing the hellfrost dragon throughout the Dimensional Block in search of fire magical ore.¡± Karo grimaces at that news since he had originally planned on mining the abundant fire magical ore of the Dimensional Block himself. Before the hellfire dragon got in the way of that plan and decided to declare all of it as his own. But for a dragon to give away what he had previously declared as his¡­ even for another dragon, that¡¯s practically unheard of¡­ The lich king frowns before closing his eyes and thinking for a few seconds in silence. In that case, considering that they¡¯re both types of hell dragons, there¡¯s a strong chance they may be related. I already know exactly who Ethan Silva is, but even if he¡¯s important in their clan, a dragon normally wouldn¡¯t give away anything like that unless it was for family. After a few more seconds of pondering over the matter, the lich king clenches his fist and opens his eyes and glares at the blighted one as he orders, ¡°Continue keeping watch on them. Both of the dragons and The Reaper. And warn me the moment they make any suspicious moves.¡± This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it The blighted one immediately answers with a short, ¡°Yes, Sire!¡± Then flees down the stairs without hesitation. The Reaper must be training her teleportation skill and getting a favor out of the dragon in the process of doing so. And if she were to attack me now, there¡¯s no way I¡¯d stand a chance against her. Karo grits his teeth for a few more seconds, debating on his next actions while feeling a strong pull to simply abandon the Dimensional Block. But then he¡¯d be abandoning everything he has done ever since the Reset. All for nothing but a feeling of dread with no real proof that The Reaper will attack him. Unfortunately for him, he hasn¡¯t been able to determine a single thing about The Reaper¡¯s personality and outlook since she tends to remain neutral in her expression with very little in terms of displays of emotion. She also doesn¡¯t speak very often from what his scouts have told him, and she¡¯s spent most of her time in the Block in a dungeon where his scouts couldn¡¯t follow. But most importantly, she hasn¡¯t so much as paid him a single visit since entering the Dimensional Block, despite being a visiting Dimensional Champion. Almost as if he was nothing more than air to her while the Dimensional Champion of his Dimensional Block was actually the real leader of the Block. Karo grits his teeth at the thought before eventually standing up from his throne and raising his voice, ¡°Vargo! Letralt! Opal! Desmir!¡± A high level blighted one appears in front of him with each name he calls. But unlike the blighted one who had just left him, these are all the highest level blighted ones of his forces and the closest to evolving to Class S, even if they¡¯re all still extremely far away from that point. ¡°Handle things while I¡¯m gone in the dungeons,¡± Karo immediately declares, making the four blighted ones bow their heads before he begins stepping down from his own pyramid. The only thing I can do now is grow stronger and reach the level cap myself. I just have to hope that The Reaper is stuck on her ascension requirements.
Alexia I let out a yawn as I continue holding the hellfrost dragon by his upper arm with my hand and teleporting him repeatedly. A process that I have to admit has become incredibly boring. Not to mention that I¡¯ve had to hold onto him like this for days now, with the exception of the breaks meant to restore my soul. Ever since finishing that first Tier 2 dungeon I found in this Block, clearing the first requirement to ascend. The ¡®kill two monsters at the level cap of Tier 2¡¯ requirement. Honestly, the very fact that he¡¯d suggest this when I mentioned having to train my teleportation skill was¡­ rather surprising. Considering how dragons usually don¡¯t like touching other species. Even other Class S species. Beyond mere handshakes and the like for Class S species that is. So the fact that he suggested this was completely unexpected. Then again, it works, so I guess I can¡¯t complain. As it turns out, teleporting someone else is proving to be more efficient training for Quantum Displacement than simply teleporting myself. Even if it takes more soul. I let out another yawn before we both pause as the hellfrost dragon finds another magical ore and raises his hand to stop me. So I let go of his arm to let him go to wherever it is and grab it. At least this whole teleporting thing works out for everyone. I get to train my skill to clear the second requirement of bringing a skill to Tier 3. Ethan gets to have a faster mode of transportation than his flying for finding magical ore. And I get something to do while waiting for that lich king to level up. Win-win all around. Still. I yawn again as Ethan returns, making me grab onto his upper bicep again before returning to my teleporting. It¡¯s still boring as hell. B2 | Chapter 42 - Sand Worm Alexia A couple of weeks pass as I teleport Ethan everywhere until he finally decides he has enough fire affinity magical ore. And to my surprise, he actually offers to let me continue teleporting him around the Dimensional Block for training even if he has nothing left to do here. But I reject the offer. Mostly because I¡¯ve spent the last two and a half weeks with him in closer contact than I would prefer. And while my time in the dungeons alone might be affecting me, spending that amount of time alone with anyone is too much. It¡¯s a good thing he isn¡¯t all that talkative. At least, not after we finished talking about games for the first few days. After splitting up with Ethan with the dragon most likely heading back to our own Dimensional Block with all of the ore he¡¯s gathered thus far ¨C which is a lot ¨C I continue teleporting through the endless desert, occasionally grabbing a monster or two that are too weak to do anything and teleporting them with me. A process that, while terrifies the monster in question, does help with the progress of raising the skill. Now that I¡¯m alone again the next week or so passes quietly without much occurring other than Quantum Displacement¡¯s level gradually increasing. As soon as I get the System Message about the skill increasing to level 17, I stretch a little bit and glance at a peculiar looking city nearby. One that I noticed not too long ago didn¡¯t have anyone inside of it. Just a completely abandoned city seemingly for no reason. But that¡¯s not the only thing I find strange right now. The wind has completely vanished, and the sands appear to be growing hotter as well. Most importantly though, the monsters are running away. Not just from me, but from the direction of the area around the city. That can¡¯t be a good sign. I narrow my eyes before deciding to go ahead and begin teleporting away from the city. Just in case. And it doesn¡¯t take long before my decision proves to be the correct one when a massive worm shoots out of the ground. One spanning even longer than the Cataclysm Class monster of Dimensional Block #108, with spikes running across its body and a circular mouth filled with razor sharp teeth. Yep. There it is. The Cataclysm Class monster of Dimensional Block #109. The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. Was wondering when I¡¯d run into it, considering how long I¡¯ve been teleporting across this Block. I close my eyes for a second from my spot located barely within visible sight of the creature before focusing my senses on it. And what I find is a Tier 3 monster¡¯s energy source. So I open my eyes again, watch it perform a large arc over the abandoned city before it lands back down and goes beneath the sands again, then I finally turn around and begin teleporting away. While it isn¡¯t possible for me to determine something¡¯s exact level just from the strength of their energy course, I can at least tell what their Tier is now. And fighting a Tier 3 Class S right now would be little more than suicide. And I don¡¯t particularly feel like dying, so Imma leave. Just seconds later after I begin teleporting, I hear a loud roar coming from the giant worm. So I glance backwards at it again where I find the giant thing now simply surfing across the surface of the sand, chasing after something I actually hadn¡¯t noticed before. Some sort of undead wraith thing. A Class A species of undead specialized in stealth. Guess that wraith didn¡¯t get the memo about not identifying Cataclysm Class monsters. I watch for a few seconds as the giant worm chases the wraith until I turn around and continue teleporting away. The people in Dimensional Block #108 quickly learned not to identify the giant draconic Cataclysm Class monster when the thing would eat large chunks of whatever floating island the one who identified it was on. Interesting that this giant sand worm seems to be more aggressive than the dragon though. Since the dragon doesn¡¯t generally attack the islands even as it passes by them. Unless someone attacks it, it¡¯s hungry, or someone identifies it, that is. At that point it¡¯ll attack whoever attacked or identified it, or just take a chunk out of a nearby island for food. Then again, it is still a sort of dragon after all. So maybe it shares the apathetic outlook the other dragons have too. Considering how, if I¡¯m guessing correctly, the residents of that city evacuated after seeing signs of the Cataclysm Class monster¡¯s approach, this sand worm really doesn¡¯t seem friendly. Those signs being the temperature, wind, and the other monsters. Another roar echoes out from behind me, making me glance back to see the sand worm rushing across the sand parallel to me. But the thing doesn¡¯t seem to notice me. That or it just doesn¡¯t care about me. Instead, it¡¯s just charging across the sands in the direction of another city I remember seeing before. I purse my lips for a second before slowly teleporting after it, keeping a vast distance between the two of us. And after several seconds of following it, the moment the city enters my sight, the giant worm dives back under the sands, leaving no traces of its presence aside from the rumbling of the sand around me. Despite that I still manage to keep track of it through its energy source, and I narrow my eyes as I find it approaching the city that is currently full of people. Many of whom are all evacuating, running as far away from the city as they can. But the majority of them are too late, following which the giant sand worm shoots up out of the sand, gobbling down the entire city in one fell swoop. Then it dives back down into the sand again, making me sense a small surge of strength come from it. Likely due to the many people it just ate. That thing is absolutely more aggressive than the dragon. I frown as I watch the sand worm¡¯s energy source begin going deeper and deeper into the sand until it leaves my range of senses entirely simply by going underground. Which leads me to believe that its den is underneath the sands. This Dimensional Block¡­ can¡¯t be a pleasant place to live. B2 | Chapter 43 - A Threat Alexia While I¡¯ve been going around the Dimensional Block training my Quantum Displacement skill, I¡¯ve also been keeping tabs on the lich king, and, of course, nabbing all the Authority Shards I can find even if I can¡¯t use them. Because they¡¯ll be rather nice for trade. The lich king himself has been a little hard to keep tabs on ever since he entered that Tier 2 dungeon though. But before he entered it, he was ¨C according to Ethan¡¯s cousin ¨C level 210. So I suspect that he¡¯ll most likely end up at the cap of Tier 2 by the time he leaves. Whenever that¡¯ll be. Considering that it¡¯s been weeks since he entered, I hope it¡¯ll be soon. But at the same time, even if he¡¯s a Class S species, he¡¯s also a Lich. A summoner or minion focused species. Not a pure combat focused species. So he¡¯ll probably take longer to clear a dungeon than I would by a longshot even if he were the same level as me. I sigh at the thought as I continue teleporting through the Dimensional Block, purposefully having gone far away from the giant sand worm I ran into a week ago. That thing would absolutely attack me without a moment¡¯s notice. So it¡¯s best to stay as far away from it as possible. And from some of the research I put into the monster through asking unnecessarily terrified undead living in nearby cities here, I¡¯ve learned that the sand itself seems to be some sort of portal into the Cataclysm Class monster¡¯s den. That if you go down deep enough in the sand regardless of where you are in the Dimensional Block, you¡¯ll eventually arrive at the creature¡¯s den through some sort of portal. Meaning it can appear anywhere. But at the same time, there are limits to that. The den itself is massive, and the place you appear varies depending on where you are. So it can¡¯t just disappear into its den on one side of the Block one day and appear on the other side of the Block the next. I continue teleporting in silence for a while as I dragon two monsters along with me, uncaring about their struggling. Then I find something rather surprising, making me narrow my eyes a little. Humans? Don¡¯t find many of those in this Dimensional Block. I was honestly starting to wonder if there were any left after the lich king¡¯s rampage. Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original. None of the cities I¡¯ve visited and asked about humans said anything about them, so I kind of assumed there weren¡¯t any cities of humans anymore. I continue getting closer and closer until I find something that explains their existence a bit better. Specifically, a large battle occurring on the other side of the city from me where undead are attacking the city. Interesting. Guess the undead haven¡¯t actually fully conquered the entire Dimensional Block like Astrid said she did. My thoughts go back to the one-sided conversation Astrid had with me through Luna about the results of the negotiation with Dimensional Block #109. The undead declared a trade deal with Dimensional Block #108 for materials like wood and metal. Materials that are severely lacking in a massive desert like Dimensional Block #109. And something a lot of the human leaders in Dimensional Block #108 were worried and asking them about was the presence of humans in dimensional block #109. But all their delegation said was that there aren¡¯t any. I lightly shake my head at the blunt lie meant to hide what they¡¯re doing to the people in their Block. Then I watch the battle go on for a little bit while remembering what she said about the other Dimensional Blocks¡¯ delegations. Dimensional Block #105 is apparently a massive lava world that makes this desert seem nice in terms of the heat, and it¡¯s led by Class A creatures called dragonborn. Creatures that practically worship dragons and have some draconic aspects themselves. Dimensional Block #106 is a massive green forest led by a Class A species known as dryads, and Dimensional block #107 is more like a regular world, with varying biomes spread across it, and human leaders. Although just because a species is leading the Dimensional Block doesn¡¯t mean they¡¯re the most populace species in the Blocks. And of the three other Dimensional Blocks, only one of them has a Class S species in it. That being Dimensional Block #106, which apparently has a naga. A giant, green Class S snake of the nature affinity. One that can also transform into a different form that is a lot smaller and has a snake¡¯s tail instead of legs but the torso and above of a humanoid creature. So none of the other Dimensional Blocks are immediate threats to us, except possibly #106. But naga aren¡¯t generally aggressive unless you trespass into their territory. But these undead¡­ they are a problem. They¡¯ll spread, turning more and more people into undead. And not just humans either. Above the undead in general though, the lich king is the main issue. Which just reaffirms my decision to make him the food to feed my ascension¡¯s requirement. I watch the battle for a little longer before eventually coming to a decision. Generally, I don¡¯t like the idea of helping others for nothing or spoiling people. Since people really need to learn how to help themselves, and I personally would hate having someone force their help on me. I also have an idea in mind for training Quantum Displacement. So I quickly begin teleporting over to the city before appearing above the wall and closing my eyes, searching for the strongest human in the group. An act that doesn¡¯t take long. I open my eyes again and teleport straight over to the strongest human, ignoring the humans and undead identifying me and looking more than a little terrified. And the strongest human here isn¡¯t any different, the woman immediately stumbling the moment I appear in front of her. But I don¡¯t care, instead crossing my arms and asking as the fighting around her and I stop, ¡°Would you like to purchase my aid?¡± B2 | Story Art and Correction Not sure why, but for some reason I mixed up the name of the Cataclysm Class monsters, instead calling them Calamity during book 2. I went to fix it in the chapters after this. Although I can''t remember if I fixed it in the Royal Road chapters before now or not. That aside, this is the Giant Dragon Cataclysm Class monster of Dimensional Block #108: Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original. Now this is the Giant Worm Cataclysm Class monster of Dimensional Block #109: And last but definitely least, Karo de Volt, the Lich King: B2 | Chapter 44 - A Bargain Struck The Arlox Frontier City Prior to Alexia¡¯s Arrival Arlaine dex Val grits her teeth as she cuts apart one undead after another, unrelenting under the wave of undead trying to overwhelm the city. She and the remaining humans in Arlox have been protecting the city from the undead ever since the lich king reached them, having already cleared out the other living cities before theirs. But she and her mercenary troop refuse to give in. Even if the leaders of the city itself have already run away to the next living city beyond the frontier of the war with the dead. ¡°Just continue holding your ground!¡± Arlaine shouts while cutting the head off of another zombie. The undead continue pushing closer and closer as she fights on the walls before she senses a powerful undead arriving on the battlefield not far from the wall. So she narrows her eyes and jumps forwards, leaping through the air until she lands right in front of it, making the undead she quickly finds to be a blighted one stop its progress. The creature has glowing green eyes and pale-as-snow skin with long white hair and ethereally glowing green claws. Meanwhile it is wearing a set of gray armor that covers only its waist, shoulders, forearms, and legs, with a polearm in its hand stood with the weapon¡¯s rear on the ground. ¡°A living human challenging me?¡± the blighted one says with a snort, only to shake his head and focus on the undead around himself and Arlaine as he addresses them, ¡°Continue on towards the city walls. Leave this one to me.¡± Arlaine quickly tries to stop the other undead only for the blighted one to clash swords with her immediately, making her identify the creature and grit her teeth at the sight of its level. {Axul de Van ¨C Species: Blighted One ¨C Class: Undead Champion ¨C Level 172} It¡¯s ten levels above me. Arlaine grimaces when the blighted one instantly rushes forwards, swinging its polearm at her and making her raise her sword to block it with her right hand holding the handle and her left pushing on the blunt side of her blade. But even with both hands, the undead¡¯s single hand manages to push her back, sending her rushing backward to avoid a slash. And the strength of a species advantage as well. The leader of the Spyrefall mercenaries continues clashing with the blighted one¡¯s blade over and over again, losing out each and every time until she eventually is about to shout at her fellow mercenaries to retreat back to the city walls, only for silence to fill the entire battlefield. And it doesn¡¯t take more than a moment to realize what¡¯s going on as both she and the blighted one back away from each other and turn to look in the direction they sense a powerful energy source. If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. The most powerful energy source either of them have ever seen since the Reset. And the sight that Arlaine finds greeting her when she spots the energy source is that of a woman appearing right in front of her. One whose appearance appears ever so slightly before her prime, possibly symbolizing her extreme youth or simply that she had some sort of magic reverse her age. But also one who has purple tinted hair and purple, glitchy eyes that send a chill down Arlaine¡¯s spine. Arlaine identifies the woman after recovering from her shock. {Alexia Knight ¨C Quantum Reaper ¨C Level 250} Before she can say anything though, the woman Arlaine instantly recognizes as The Reaper speaks, asking a question that both fills Arlaine with hope, and has her both confused and afraid. ¡°Would you like to purchase my aid?¡± But Arlaine doesn¡¯t have the time to think about the possible meanings that this one question may have for the entire Dimensional Block. Instead, she answers without hesitation, ¡°Yes, I would.¡±
Axul feels himself fully frozen out of fear, unable to bring himself to so much as move a single dead muscle at the sight of The Reaper herself standing in front of him. A woman who he had heard was roaming around the Dimensional Block but was also told that she wasn¡¯t interfering with anything. She¡¯s¡­ selling off her services as a mercenary? But why to the humans?! And why now?! ¡°Yes, I would,¡± the human Axul was just fighting answers The Reaper¡¯s question almost immediately, making his eyes widen in fear. Damnit, I can¡¯t let her join this conflict! Right as The Reaper¡¯s gaze is turning towards Axul, he quickly moves forwards and asks, ¡°Wait, Lady Reaper, could we discuss this? Our Lord has been looking forward to meeting you ever since you entered our Dimensional Block and-¡± The Reaper¡¯s eyes flare slightly as she cuts him off, ¡°Your lord has been keeping tabs on me wherever I go and if he truly wished to meet with me so badly then he could¡¯ve done it whenever he wanted to.¡± Her eyes narrow and she crosses her arms, making Axul flinch. ¡°Right now, I¡¯m operating as nothing but a mercenary. If you paid me well enough then I might assist you as well, should you be the first one to reach me.¡± A chill runs down Axul¡¯s spine at those words, making him immediately begin running away, abandoning all of the undead assaulting the city. But the words of the inferior living human echo in his ears as he runs, making him run even faster. ¡°I¡¯ll pay you whatever you would like. Just wipe out the entire undead force assaulting the city.¡± Then a moment later The Reaper appears in front of him, grabbing Axul¡¯s throat and raising him into the air as he scrambles to claw at her armor, only to not even leave a scratch. ¡°In that case, I¡¯ll take whatever magical ore you have on hand along with any Authority Shards you have,¡± The Reaper says, her eyes not leaving Axul¡¯s as the corner of her lips quirk up slightly. ¡°And if you have none of that, then I¡¯ll just have you bring materials across the wall to a city in Dimensional Block #108.¡± ¡°Deal!¡± the human woman shouts. A shout that happens to be the last thing Axul ever hears before everything goes dark. B2 | Chapter 45 - Mercenaries Alexia I slaughter my way through the undead without any real trouble. Mostly because almost all of the undead are only mid to high Tier 1, with just some of their commanders being low to mid Tier 2. So it ends up being a rather simple task. That commander¡¯s comment irks me though. The guy was obviously trying to save his own skin. What little skin a blighted one has that is. It¡¯s pretty obvious the lich king¡¯s been keeping tabs on me. I can tell that much just from the movements of the undead wherever I go along with the fact that he¡¯d have to be a complete imbecile not to. A king doesn¡¯t become a king through stupidity after all, much less a Class S lich king. He¡¯s been keeping tabs on me ever since I entered the Dimensional Block. All the way till he entered that dungeon of his to level up, probably in an attempt to reach my level. Which is good, considering I need him to be at the level cap. On that note, after finishing off all of the undead and slowly walking to the front gates of the human city where the strongest human is, I open the current leaderboards with a frown. [Dimensional Champion Leaderboard] [#1 Isabella d''Aragon ¨C Level 250] [#2 Alexia Knight ¨C Level 250] [#3 Lucas Nightshade ¨C Level 250] [#4 Alexander Frost ¨C Level 250] [#5 Ignivara ¨C Level 250] [#6 Artorius del Argon ¨C Level 250] [#7 Ethan Silva ¨C Level 250] [#8 Sartorius ¨C Level 250] [#9 Vallius Karan de Volt Hellmouth ¨C Level 250] [#10 Voltari ¨C Level 250] At this point all of the people on the leaderboards are at the exact same spot in terms of level. Although likely different points in meeting their requirements for ascension. The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. The positions of the leaders changed as well, and I¡¯m not the #1 person on the leaderboards anymore. Not that I didn¡¯t already know that earlier. Ethan¡¯s mother beat me to the level cap after all. A pity. Then again, there¡¯s one advantage weaker Class species do have over higher Class species like us. They have easier requirements for ascension. So I wouldn¡¯t be surprised if the Hound ended up being the first to reach Tier 3. Just because he¡¯s the only Class A species in the top ten. I sigh at the sadness of losing my number one spot. But considering that the Ancestral Dragon is hundreds of thousands of years old, maybe even millions of years old, it makes sense that she¡¯d eventually eclipse me. She is the oldest dragon alive after all. Once I reach the front gate I find the human I negotiated with earlier looking rather nervous. Which has me frowning. Not hard to guess what¡¯s wrong. The very instant she sees I¡¯m close enough, she walks up and bows slightly while saying, ¡°I apologize Lady Reaper, but we do not have any Authority Shards or Magical Ore.¡± She rises again from her bow but keeps her head lowered with deference. ¡°All of it was taken by the leaders of the city who ran to other cities during the battle.¡± I raise an eyebrow at that second part. The first part was something I predicted might happen. But the second part¡­ ¡°Your leaders suck,¡± I bluntly state, making her flinch before I ask, ¡°What about materials?¡± She shakes her head again without a word. ¡°Taken by the leaders of the city as well?¡± I ask, and she nods her head this time. So I sigh and cross my arms. ¡°Well that¡¯s a problem.¡± The woman noticeably sweats out of fear before I identify her, seemingly making her sweat even more. {Arlaine dex Val ¨C Class: Sky Blade ¨C Level 162} Interesting. An epic class. ¡°Lady Reaper, may I suggest a way for us to pay off our debt?¡± the woman asks with clearly spoken words, not showing any of her fear in her voice whatsoever. Which is rather surprising to say the least, but also impressive. ¡°Speak,¡± I tell her while silently beginning to tap my foot. ¡°Lady Reaper, if it would benefit you, I would like to offer ten years¡¯ worth of my mercenary company¡¯s services to you,¡± the woman, Arlaine, says, finally lifting her head to meet my gaze directly. And even if she does flinch slightly at whatever she sees in my gaze, she manages to hold firm anyways with a determined look on her face. Interesting. ¡°Your mercenary company?¡± I prod her for more information. So she starts talking. And in the end I find out that she leads a mercenary company consisting of over one thousand mercenaries, all of whom are at least Tier 2 in strength, with the vast majority being at the bottom of Tier 2. It also turns out that they don¡¯t work for the city and were only defending it out of honor. To save the lives in the city. A rather uncommon mentality to have both before and after the Reset. Although it also helped the fact that the undead would eventually go after them anyways. What I find the most interesting is her drive though. She is afraid of me, that¡¯s obvious. But she¡¯s also trying to help out her mercenary company and bring them benefits while finding a middle ground. After all, working under me means that I¡¯ll end up bringing them back to Dimensional Block #108. Which means leaving the undead-ridden Block behind. I look behind her at the mercenaries trying to look menacing on the walls of the city but failing to when I notice a few cautiously glancing our way and immediately jerking their head away when they see me looking back. Then I identify several of them, finding them all to be the levels she stated. So I turn back to her and directly state, ¡°I¡¯ll be staying in this Dimensional Block for a while longer and personally have no use for you myself. But you can work for my sister when I finish with my business in this Block and bring you back.¡± Everyone within earshot immediately lets out sighs of relief or pent-up breaths that have me raising an eyebrow. ¡°Thank you, Lady Reaper,¡± the leader of the mercenaries says with another bow before asking, ¡°May I know when you plan to leave?¡± I look her in the eye and answer honestly, ¡°No idea.¡± And without expanding on that answer, I ask, ¡°Do you have a map of the area?¡± Because I could use a map. B2 | Intermission 3 Dimensional Block #51 Half a month later Isabella stares indifferently after waking up. As the System Message plays out in her head and in front of her vision. {Congratulations! You have reached Tier 3! The effect of each stat point has been increased by twenty percent and your level lock has been removed!} {Congratulations! Your Class has upgraded to Legendary rarity! Hellfire Dragon now awards you +1 VIT, +1 DEX, +2 STR, +2 MAG, and +2 MEN per level!} {Congratulations! You have leveled up to level 251! Your Species has awarded you +2 VIT, +2 DEX, +2 STR, +2 MAG, and +2 MEN. Your Class has awarded you +1 VIT, +1 DEX, +2 STR, +2 MAG, and +2 MEN.} [*New Racial Skill* ¨C True Form: You are granted the ability to transform into your true form.] {Congratulations! You have cleared the Dungeon known as the Titan¡¯s Domain! Touch the loot box to claim your reward!} The hellfire dragon feels the corner of her lips twitch at the sight of her true form skill returning to her. And immediately after seeing it, she activates the skill, making a wave of black hellflames envelop her entire body.
Legendary Feat ¨C The Second Vanguard Isabella d¡¯Aragon has reached Tier 3 before anyone else in the System!
She completely ignores the Universal Notification that appears in front of her vision as her transformation occurs, the hellflames growing larger and larger before vanishing again. And the instant they do, they¡¯re replaced with a ten-meter-long dragon with red and black scales coated in hellflames standing at the center of the large cavern she¡¯s in. Isabella lets out a loud roar, shaking the lava-filled cavern before she begins to walk towards the exit and touches it without stopping. Then she appears outside of the dungeon and flaps her wings, soaring up into the air above the mountains of the 51st Dimensional Block. I¡¯m back to my true form. She lets out another roar that echoes across thousands of kilometers, making each and every being within the area turn to look in the direction it came from. After several seconds of doing nothing but roaring while flapping her wings and staying level in the air, she goes silent and opens the leaderboards. And immediately after checking it, she closes it again. The Reaper got to the level cap not long after I did, and I had to clear twenty dungeons for my ascension requirements. So just what is she left doing as The Reaper? Isabella can¡¯t help but ponder about this, something she rarely ever does. Spending her time thinking about another being, much less a non-dragon. Stolen story; please report. Then there¡¯s my son. The Ancestral Dragon thinks for a bit about whether she should search for him or not before eventually deciding not to. He can take care of himself. She continues walking while briefly thinking of the Hound of the Apocalypse, who she is surprised didn¡¯t reach Tier 3 before her. But then she suddenly pauses for a second and reopens the leaderboards again. [Dimensional Champion Leaderboard] [#1 Isabella d''Aragon ¨C Level 251] [#2 Lucas Nightshade ¨C Level 251] [#3 Alexia Knight ¨C Level 250] [#4 Alexander Frost ¨C Level 250] [#5 Ignivara ¨C Level 250] [#6 Artorius del Argon ¨C Level 250] [#7 Ethan Silva ¨C Level 250] [#8 Sartorius ¨C Level 250] [#9 Vallius Karan de Volt Hellmouth ¨C Level 250] [#10 Voltari ¨C Level 250] Her eyes narrow. I barely got to Tier 3 before he did. After a few seconds of silence, she begins to fly through the air, closing out of the leaderboards in the process. This Reset is getting interesting.
Dimensional Block #1 The Hound wakes up with a frown before flapping his wings immediately and shooting into the air to look out over the endless ocean around the island he had cleared his last requirement on. His requirement to slay ten angels ¨C the natural enemies of the fallen angels. He indifferently looks around at the angels who had attacked him. Something that was to be expected and he has grown used to over the years. Being attacked on sight by any surviving angel from the massacre. After several seconds he sighs and begins flying away. All while checking the leaderboards and frowning at the sight of his having taken second place. Looks like The Reaper is having trouble with her ascension requirements. The Hound frowns at that before shaking his head and continuing on through the skies. He glances to the side when a man appears floating in the air near him. A man with blazing red eyes. So Lucas stops flying to face the man with a frown, wondering why and how he is here. But it doesn¡¯t take him long to realize that it¡¯s just a projection of the man. Not his actual self. The man has a black robe and cloak on, and his eyes are a molten red, with short black hair that goes down into his face on one side and is pasted back on the other. And even though he¡¯s just a projection, Lucas can feel the heat radiating out of him. Lucas directly meets the man¡¯s eyes as he ignores the large snake heads going out from underneath his cloak. ¡°Ignivara,¡± Lucas states in an indifferent tone of voice. ¡°Why are you here?¡± The Ancient Terror simply stares at the Hound for several seconds before eventually stating in an emotionless tone of voice, ¡°Investigating.¡± Both of the apocalypse bringers stare at each other for several seconds. Finally, the Hound states, ¡°Please keep your rampages to a minimum in this new Reset.¡± Ignivara watches him emotionlessly for a while in silence before simply ending the projection without another word. Lucas sighs and continues flying through the air. He¡¯s the same as ever. I can never figure him out. Time passes in silence as the Hound of the Apocalypse flies through the air towards the main headquarters of Dimensional Block #1. And eventually the island containing the headquarters enters his sight. So long as Ignivara doesn¡¯t go on more rampages then it should be alright. Lucas frowns slightly while pausing for a moment in his flight. Still. I haven¡¯t seen him in ages. A faint smile emerges on his face at seeing his and Lysandre¡¯s old friend again, even if both of them have changed a lot since the last time they saw each other. And then there¡¯s The Reaper as well. His smile stretches further, and he continues flying again. This Reset is beginning to sound like a way to right old wrongs. B2 | Chapter 46 - Final Preparations Alexia A couple days later I let out a sigh of relief after seeing Quantum Displacement finally reach level 20. And without hesitation, I immediately use a core to raise it to Tier 3. {Congratulations! Your Active Skill ¡®Quantum Displacement¡¯ has reached Tier 3 Level 21!} [A skill has been brought to Tier 3. Requirement to bring a skill to Tier 3 has been cleared.] It¡¯s about fucking time. I was beginning to go crazy from all my pointless teleporting. Spending months doing nothing but teleporting is boring as hell. I quickly check the skill¡¯s description to see if there¡¯s anything new before grinning at the sight of the change. [Quantum Displacement: Allows the user to teleport up to a radius of {the Skill¡¯s level to the power of the Skill¡¯s Tier} meters around themself. The user may set their teleportation to maintain or clear momentum post-teleportation.] Okay, now that¡¯s a good skill upgrade! This will make teleporting through the air far easier for me. I begin testing it out by teleporting into the air with the intention of not keeping momentum before stopping around a hundred or so meters in the air and teleporting in the direction of the Dimensional Block¡¯s center. And I quickly find the process to be a lot less mana intensive than before. Then there¡¯s the mere fact that my range of teleportation is much larger as well. So instead of the maximum distance of 361 meters around myself that I could teleport at the skill¡¯s level 19, I can now teleport 9,261 meters. When I try teleporting beyond a thousand meters though I realize a major issue. I¡¯m not Tier 3, and I¡¯m using a Tier 3 skill. So my soul really can¡¯t keep up with that sort of soul drain. In the end I limit myself to about five hundred meters each teleport. I don¡¯t think I can even teleport the maximum distance even if I had the soul, considering that I have to be able to see where I¡¯m teleporting to do it. Otherwise I might end up teleporting into a wall or something. Which wouldn¡¯t be pretty. And considering that I¡¯m high in the air, five hundred meters each teleport is easy enough. This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it Anyways, I heard that the lich king finally reached the level cap of Tier 2 just days ago and left the dungeon he was in for his capital. Was mostly just waiting for Quantum Displacement to reach Tier 3 before heading over to see him. So I continue teleporting through the air in the direction of his little capital. Which from what I¡¯ve heard mostly consists of a massive pyramid with his throne on top and some work camps around it. That¡¯s not the only thing I¡¯ve heard though. I was rather surprised when I heard he was preparing a powerful defense at his little pyramid. Guess he¡¯s not as stupid as I thought him to be. It¡¯s his best chance at survival after all. Not running away and instead fighting back after preparing. After all, I can just chase him and then kill him if he runs. He is a summoner and necromancer, so he wouldn¡¯t be able to put up much of a fight on his own while escaping. But if he sets up his forces to fight against me, that will make things a lot harder to deal with. It¡¯s too bad I only got this news this morning, otherwise I would¡¯ve probably gone out to meet him sooner. I continue teleporting through the air straight in the direction of the Dimensional Block¡¯s center. But instead of attacking the moment the Block enters my sight, I pause and teleport down to the ground. Because I need to regenerate my soul if I¡¯m going to take on¡­ that. I frown as I stand in the sand looking at the pyramid in the distance through my System-enhanced vision. It¡¯s standing at several hundred meters in height and is literally crawling with mounds of undead. Meanwhile the undead grow higher and higher in level the further up the pyramid they are. And what has to be tens of thousands of undead are all swarming the base of the pyramid as well. Their numbers aren¡¯t all they have though, because the undead also include a bunch of spell casters and ranged attackers in general. And the higher floor undead all look to be sapient as well. Likely the lich king¡¯s top generals. That said, aside from the lich king himself, I don¡¯t sense too many powerful energy sources from here. Although I can¡¯t get their exact levels without getting closer to identify them. And if I identified them they¡¯d know I¡¯m here. But from what I can sense, the highest-level enemy there aside from the lich king himself is only in the low two hundreds in level. Meanwhile the other undead, aside from those generals, vary in levels beneath that depending on the floor they¡¯re on, with the undead on the sands themselves being Tier 1 undead. Well then. Someone¡¯s certainly cautious. I don¡¯t think I¡¯ve seen that many people at once in my entire life, much less pitted against me. Even if most of those ¡®people¡¯ are non-sapient undead monsters. The undead on the sands won¡¯t be an issue. They probably can¡¯t even hurt me if they tried, since non-sapient undead of that level shouldn¡¯t be able to use magic. And a Tier 1 can¡¯t hurt me with physical strength. Not with Quantum Body. Possibly not even without it, to be honest. So I can simply walk through them without issue. But the ones on the pyramid will be a bit more trouble. I continue examining the pyramid and all of the undead for a while before simply lying down on the ground and staring up at the sun. Without taking my senses off of the pyramid and undead, of course. Wouldn¡¯t want them attacking me by surprise after all. What I¡¯m about to do will absolutely throw this Dimensional Block into chaos.. But it¡¯ll save the living here as well, so it will be for the best. And at this rate, considering the number of living I¡¯ve saved in my job as a mercenary, most of the living are leaving this Block to enter Dimensional Block #109 to pay off their debts to me anyways. I sigh as I stare up at the sky. So many people to deal with after this. But my trip to this Block will finally be over soon enough. I smile at that thought. Soon enough. Sick Update I apologize, but there won''t be any chapters today for any of my stories. Because I woke up feeling sick with a major sore throat. Sorry for the inconvenience, but at least know that I won''t have any busy days college-wise until a couple weeks from now, when I''ll be taking my final exams. And next week is mostly thanksgiving break, meaning no classes from Wednesday through Sunday. Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there. Normally I bounce back from being sick rather quickly, so I''ll probably write chapters as normal tomorrow. B2 | Chapter 47 - Battle of the Class S Species At the top of the Pyramid A couple hours later Karo de Vult nervously taps his foot as he sits on his throne, looking around the pyramid at the sands beyond it. Not taking a single second to rest as he vigorously searches his surroundings for The Reaper. Because he knows for sure that she¡¯ll come for him now that he¡¯s back. She¡¯s already shown that she¡¯s willing to interfere with his affairs, and now that he¡¯s out of the dungeon and at the level cap, he knows she will come for him. It¡¯s only a matter of time. But the longer he waits, the more frightened he is by the idea of The Reaper arriving. Is this enough preparation to handle her? He has to clench his fists to stop them from shaking as he constantly looks around. And after days of waiting ever since leaving the dungeon, he finally senses something. A single flaring of something powerful. He can¡¯t even tell what it is other than it¡¯s likely energy, since it doesn¡¯t have any mana. Then a woman appears in front of him. One with long, purple-tinted hair and glowing purple eyes that appear to glitch out like a computer screen every couple seconds. Eyes that make Karo feel uncomfortable just looking at. She¡¯s wearing a set of purple and black armor with no weapons visible to him as she crosses her arms and stands a couple meters in front of the throne, making Karo tense up. ¡°Hello, lich king,¡± she says, making Karo narrow his eyes as he searches her for animosity. Because the absolute last thing he would want to do is bring trouble onto himself by attacking her if she wasn¡¯t actually planning on attacking him in the first place. ¡°Reaper,¡± he says in response, his voice dry and throaty due to his lack of saliva and the plain dryness of his undead throat. ¡°What brings you here?¡± As he speaks, he makes sure to move his fingers around while activating various skills. Just to make sure he is safe. But then The Reaper narrows her eyes, directly them straight at his hands that are hidden under his cloak. She looks back up at his pitch-black eyes that are hidden underneath his cowl and asks, ¡°Did you really think I wouldn¡¯t notice you using skills right in front of me?¡± This novel''s true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there. As soon as her eyes flare, he understands that the battle has already started. And immediately feels something cutting straight through his neck, making his head go flying. But he simply transfers his consciousness to one of his many bodies scattered amongst the armies of undead. Then he shouts, his voice ringing out all over the pyramid, ¡°Annihilate the Reaper at all costs!¡± And the armies of undead immediately begin to charge up the pyramid.
Alexia Well that was a nice chat. After cutting the head off of what must be one of many of the lich king¡¯s bodies, I turn around as all of the undead begin roaring and moving up the stairs. And what a sight that is to behold once I walk over to the edge of the pyramid¡¯s peak. Tens of thousands, maybe even a hundred thousand undead of hundreds of different species all rushing up a massive pyramid at once. Mostly non-sapient ones though, with only a few species of sapient undead mixed in. I tap my foot a few times before grinning and pulling out my elemental bow, drawing the string back to form an arrow of quantum energy. Then I send it flying down at the undead on the level directly beneath me, making it explode to blow up several undead in a single shot. All without using any of my soul. Yeah, this bow really does come in handy sometimes. I repeatedly send arrow after arrow down at the undead, feeling rather thankful that the top floor of the pyramid is only reachable by a single staircase. Probably an aesthetics choice to make those climbing the stairs end up directly opposite of the throne. Anyways, I continue slaughtering the undead while searching through them all with my senses for the most powerful energy source. And it doesn¡¯t take me long to find the lich king. The biggest problem in this battle is that a lich king is, well, a lich. They are basically just a soul that empowers whatever body they¡¯re in. It¡¯s their main racial skill. So the Class S species can switch from one body to another as long as they are stronger than the owner of the body, and that body will then be enhanced to hold them. Meaning I¡¯m going to have to slaughter every single undead here to kill him. Although his exact strength is affected by the strength of his vessel. And generally each vessel changes form to appear more like the lich king over time. Even if not immediately. I glance at my bow before sighing. It¡¯s a good thing using regular attacks like this doesn¡¯t drain any of my soul. My head jerks to the side right when a bolt made out of death energy passes by it, making me turn to find a skeleton with a robe on and a staff raised. One with the lich king¡¯s energy source inside of it. So I quickly send a bolt of quantum energy at it, blowing up the skeleton with ease before I continue slaughtering the rest of the undead. The lich king isn¡¯t running away at least. Although I¡¯d be able to sense if he tried to do so. He¡¯s not really able to hide his unique energy source from me after all. Probably the reason he didn¡¯t just flee the Block in the first place. Well, that and greed. Considering everything he¡¯s done to this Block. Anyways, that guy can do what he wants until I finish here. I¡¯ve already placed a mark on him with that lovely hunter¡¯s mark item that I got in the last dungeon. Now I can¡¯t lose him even if he runs. I would still rather he not run though, because it would be a pain to track him down. Good thing he has a very limited range in how far he can body jump. Doesn¡¯t change that this battle will take a while. I sigh at that thought and continue slaughtering undead with my bow. B2 | Chapter 48 - Abomination Alexia Hours pass and eventually the number of undead drops significantly. And throughout the process I manage to kill the lich king at least two dozen times, leading to the man at some point simply giving up on killing me and attempting to escape. Which only ends up with me having to focus more on killing him each time. Overall, a massive pain. I frown after finishing off a little over half of the undead, feeling exhaustion covering my entire body as I notice something odd happening lower down on the pyramid. For some reason, the bones and bodies of the undead I¡¯ve killed are all starting to converge. My eyes narrow and I immediately begin using more explosive measures to destroy the undead. Mostly to destroy their corpses entirely. But that only manages to decrease the amount of undead that merge into what I quickly realize is an abomination. An undead made up of corpses. I switch my main focus to the abomination that is still rapidly forming, only to find a certain lich king swapping into it as I do so. Then the lich king roars out with laughter through a mouth that appears somewhere on the mass of bone and flesh. ¡°All of this death energy!!¡± he shouts, not even pausing in his laughter as he does so. ¡°Thank you, Lady Reaper, for granting me the perfect body!¡± I frown as I teleport back to the top of the pyramid right when all of the remaining undead suddenly drop inert, the lich king¡¯s attention most likely being solely focused on his new body. Then he starts dragging those corpses into the abomination as well. Another reason why lich kings are a pain to deal with. They can truly be powerful if they take on the form of a powerful undead. Although I didn¡¯t realize he could make an abomination. I frown as I consider my options. The abomination would never be able to take me at my full strength, and even at my current level of exhaustion, I doubt it¡¯ll be able to defeat me. But I¡¯m pretty sure that¡¯s not what he¡¯s going for. He¡¯s going to try to make me run low on soul and retreat, giving him room to run away while I¡¯m running on empty. My eyes narrow and I quickly notify Luna about what I¡¯m going to do. And the second she gives me her okay, I refill my soul from a little past halfway full to full. Then I change out my bow for my good ol¡¯ elemental polearm. Something that was fixed right before I headed over to this Block. This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author''s work. Not that I¡¯ve had to use it much, considering how weak most of the creatures in the Block are. And how I¡¯ve been teleporting for weeks now nonstop. The abomination continues growing as it digests the undead that formed his army, following which a large head appears atop the mound that¡¯s covering a third of the massive pyramid. And the head looks rather¡­ disturbing. But I ignore that as he speaks, his voice being rather loud thanks to his size, ¡°Now we begin the true battle.¡± Fine with me. I rush forwards while sending my polearm flying straight at the large head, followed by several Quantum Bolts. Only for the abomination to shift moments before they strike, making the outer layer of it shift to only contain bone. Bone that looks almost like steel, unlike the bone that was actually used to make the abomination in the first place. And my polearm actually gets caught in the bone instead of piercing through. That doesn¡¯t surprise me too much, but the sight of my Quantum Bolts only burning slightly through the bone armor does. I pull back right when a large hand reaches out of the abomination and tries to grab me, teleporting to the throne again. Well this is more complicated than I expected it would be. The lich king starts laughing again, making me frown. Because his laughter is far more¡­ insane than earlier. Oh. Right. The mental state of the undead he takes over affects the lich king. I almost forgot that from classes at the academy. And an abomination¡¯s mental state is never a sane one. He must¡¯ve really been at the ends of his ropes to pull this stunt. A last ditch measure. Well, not that it really matters all that much to me. This might make this battle simpler, actually. Since abominations can¡¯t use magic around most of their body. Only around their core, which I¡¯ll have to dig around to find. The mere fact that he took on an abomination¡¯s form at all is reason enough to believe he¡¯s trying to exhaust me. Because while he won¡¯t be able to do much to me so long as I don¡¯t get in the range of his core, I can¡¯t do much to him either. Or at least, that¡¯s what he assumes. I let out a sigh and activate the Wave form of my skill Wave-Particle Cascade. And immediately after doing that, my body enters a nearly permanently glitched out state, with parts all around my body constantly glitching out and appearing partially ethereal in form. This form has significantly increased magic power and speed with the ability to phase through three objects, but it significantly increases my weakness to magic as well. Which would normally be a problem, but with this situation¡­ It¡¯s not. I raise a hand in his direction, making the giant head narrow his eyes and state in a rather crazy manner, ¡°Ohhh nooo you doon¡¯t!¡± Without hesitation I activate several Quantum Paradox Blast all around a single point of his armor, making a massive explosion of purple light spew forth, utterly destroying the bone armor around that area with the enhanced blasts. All while I tilt my head and answer, ¡°Yes I do?¡± He doesn¡¯t respond. Well, unless I count the loud screeching he¡¯s making as he slowly moves back down the pyramid again. It¡¯s a pity that my first Class S species to fight is a lich king. A dragon would¡¯ve put up a hell of a lot more of a fight. I raise my other hand and begin making more Quantum Paradox Blasts explode all around his body. Let¡¯s see if I can¡¯t get this guy down to size. B2 | Chapter 49 - The Fall of a King High in the air thousands of kilometers away from the Pyramid Ethan watches Lexi throw one explosion attack after another at the massive abomination as he floats in the air with his arms crossed. And the longer he watches, the harder he finds it to hold back his grin. So he no longer holds it back anymore. This has to be the first Class S fight of the Reset. He blinks at that thought before correcting himself. The first Class S fight to the death of the Reset. It''s normally too hard to completely kill a Class S, so we don''t normally bother killing the other one without a really good reason. Ethan makes sure to keep any undead far away from the battlefield as he watches so that the lich king doesn¡¯t get any more fodder to strengthen himself or transfer his consciousness into. And at some point as Lexi continues to blow apart the lich king¡¯s abomination armor, Ethan notices Vargas arriving nearby to watch Alexia fight. Makes sense that he¡¯d want to watch this. And it¡¯d be more surprising if he couldn¡¯t figure out what she was planning on doing from her actions. Lexi had been staying in the Dimensional Block even after seemingly raising her skill a Tier, and only started changing her actions once the lich king left the dungeon he was in. So Ethan quickly realized it was to fight with the lich king. It also helped when he remembered Lexi¡¯s first few words to Vargas when they arrived in the Dimensional Block. Asking about the lich king and his level. And Ethan has been looking forward to seeing the fight ever since he figured out that it was her plan. I do wonder why she¡¯s fighting him though. Unless¡­ Ethan frowns as an unlikely possibility comes to mind. No one has ever gotten a requirement to kill another user before for ascension, but maybe¡­ since she¡¯s the Reaper¡­ His frown grows deeper for a few seconds before he shakes his head and decides it doesn¡¯t matter why she¡¯s fighting him. For all he knows it could even be to get the Legendary Feat for being the first to kill a Class S being or the feat for killing the first Dimensional Leader. Ethan quickly freezes another undead approaching the battlefield as more explosions ring out before focusing on the battlefield itself. And what he finds is the poor lich king being annihilated one explosion after another. All while screaming incoherently from his mistake at taking on an insane undead form. A lich king¡­ I really don¡¯t like them. Dragons often dislike the undead due to their inherent weakness, since the undead are meant more for survivability rather than actively fighting. But the lich kings are the worst amongst them. They aren¡¯t powerful in a sense of the word but rather nearly unkillable. The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. And that unkillable nature is shown as the abomination form slowly weakens down to eventually reveal its core, at which point the abomination begins to fight back with magic. But even after landing his first major blow on Lexi, sending her flying back to the pyramid with a hold in her gut going from one way out to the other, she simply reverses the damage and gets back up. Then she flies forwards, using her extreme speed from whatever form she¡¯s in to avoid all follow-up attacks, and destroys the core. But Ethan immediately understands that the lich king is still alive simply due to him not getting a notification about her Legendary Feat. Lexi walks over to the stairs and slowly climbs them all the way up to the peak of the pyramid, making Ethan grow curious. So he flies closer to the pyramid. And he quickly finds his cousin doing the same. When the two get close enough, Lexi sends them a brief glance before reaching the peak of the pyramid herself and stopping, at which point Ethan realizes what else is up on the peak. A single zombie sitting on the destroyed throne. One he can tell is glaring his way, likely due to Ethan clearing out the other undead and cutting off the lich king¡¯s escape route. Ethan just grins back at it from his spot flying above the pyramid. And his cousin looks just as amused as he watches on, ignoring the pleading look the zombie sends his way after the zombie finishes glaring at Ethan. Eventually the zombie returns its gaze with despair in it towards The Reaper. ¡°Lady Reaper, may I ask one thing before you finish me?¡± he asks in a tone that leads Ethan to believe that he¡¯s given up. The Reaper stares for a few seconds without replying in any way or showing any emotion on her expression. So the lich king eventually asks, ¡°Why?¡± Seconds pass in silence until she eventually answers, ¡°You deserved a reaping.¡± Ethan raises a brow in amusement before The Reaper summons her polearm and swings the glaive¡¯s blade straight through the zombie¡¯s throat, cutting its head off and making a notification ring out in Ethan¡¯s head as one appears in his vision.
Legendary Feat ¨C Slayer of Kings Alexia Knight has become the first user within the System to kill a Class S being, the Lich King Karo de Vult!
Then another notification appears right after that one.
Legendary Feat ¨C Dimensional Conqueror Alexia Knight has become the first user within the System to kill the Dimensional Leader of another Dimensional Block.
Ethan glances over at Vargas, who is most likely getting some sort of System Message mentioning the loss of his Dimensional Leader. Then he looks back over at The Reaper again. I do wonder¡­ His thoughts trail off when The Reaper grins and says, ¡°Yes,¡± following which the regular System Barrier forms around her, signifying ascension. An occurrence that makes Ethan blink in surprise. So it really was her requirement¡­ He narrows his eyes and notices his cousin doing the same thing, the man likely having reached the same conclusion that he did. The Reaper must reap her fellow System users after all. A grin stretches across Ethan¡¯s face at the idea of Lexi and other Class S species fighting each other. And at the idea of joining her in the fight, fighting alongside her. This will be fun. B2 | Chapter 50 - Tier 3 Alexia The very instant my eyes open after the ascension, I find several System Messages ringing out in my head. {Congratulations! You have reached Tier 3! The effect of each stat point has been increased by twenty percent and your level lock has been removed! Current advanced stats are 30% weakness to all magic except for Hellfrost magic, ice magic, fire magic, water magic, earth magic, lightning magic, ¡­, an 80% immunity to all physical damage, and a stat multiplier of 1.16.} {Congratulations! Your Class has upgraded to Legendary rarity! Quantum Reaper now awards you +1 VIT, +2 DEX, +1 STR, +2 MAG, and +2 MEN per level!} {Congratulations! You have leveled up to level 251! Your Species has awarded you +2 VIT, +2 DEX, +2 STR, +2 MAG, and +2 MEN. Your Class has awarded you +1 VIT, +2 DEX, +1 STR, +2 MAG, and +2 MEN.} [*New Racial Skill* ¨C Quantum Obscurity: Your body grows further stabilized in the quantum, making powers that affect the spirit completely useless against you. This includes all types of divination, scrying, death magic, soul magic, and more] I grin at that new racial skill, deciding to ignore how the System straight up stopped listing the adaptations I¡¯ve obtained. Although it is nice to know that the current level of my Quantum Adaptation skill maxes out the adaptations at simply removing my weakness to the magics. Which isn¡¯t as good as I thought it was. Guess I just got used to magic hurting more thanks to Quantum Body. Well, that aside, I quickly pull up the first notification I got before ascending once more with a wide smile on my face.
Legendary Feat ¨C Slayer of Kings As the first user within the System to kill a Class S being, you are now granted an extra Active Skill Slot!
Now that is a good Legendary Feat bonus. Probably the best one I¡¯ve gotten thus far. The other Legendary Feat bonus is pretty good too, but not as good.
Legendary Feat ¨C Dimensional Conqueror This book''s true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience. As the first user within the System to kill the Dimensional Leader of another Dimensional Block, you gain the ability to know the general location of the Dimensional Leader and Dimensional Champion of whatever Dimensional Block you¡¯re in at all times.
It''s also a bonus that reminds me of Vargas¡¯s presence at the edge of the pyramid¡¯s peak, proving that both he and Ethan who I find playing some sort of gambling game with newly albeit poorly made cards were really watching my fight. Although I can''t help but wonder where they got the cards. Knowing the two of them I wouldn¡¯t be surprised if they simply stole it. Or just walked up and had it handed to them when they ¡®politely¡¯ asked. Either way, the two dragons look over at me and actually wave me over. So after a brief hesitation I walk over towards them while considering what active skill I should use the new slot for. And after thinking about it the entire ten second walk to the dragons, I realize that the decision isn¡¯t a hard one. Especially after that battle with the abomination where my physical strength was lacking to actually hurt the thing. Quantum Resonance is coming back. For the physical strength boost. I already have a singular ranged attack, Quantum Bolt, an area ranged attack, Quantum Paradox Blast, a healing skill, Quantum Reversal, teleportation, Quantum Displacement, and the support boost skill that will help me in certain situations, Wave-Particle Cascade. But I don¡¯t have anything for my physical strength slotted. And I originally didn¡¯t plan on slotting anything for that since it wasn¡¯t as important as my magic. Now that I have an extra slot though¡­ ¡°Bout time you joined us,¡± Vargas says while raising a cup of wine that suddenly appears in his hand, likely from one of the storage rings on said hand. ¡°I was beginning to wonder if you¡¯d ever reach Tier 3.¡± I roll my eyes at the dragon, having grown a bit more used to him over the past months due to running into him from time to time. And he seems to have grown more used to me as well, considering that he¡¯s willing to joke now. He¡¯s still not as friendly or willing to help me as Ethan is by a longshot though. Which basically confirms my suspicions about Ethan¡¯s feelings. ¡°Yeah, well, you try having to kill another level capped user to ascend and say the still say that,¡± I tell him with a shrug, not caring about hiding my requirement anymore considering how obvious it is. They¡¯d have to be idiots not to have reached that conclusion themselves. Just as expected, neither look surprised. A few seconds of silence pass as I stand near them watching their game, the two dragons sitting on the top of the stairs. And from what I can see, Vargas is losing pretty badly. ¡°Join us!¡± Vargas says with a smile, ¡°We can start over for you!¡± I raise an eyebrow as Ethan says, ¡°You¡¯re just using her as an excuse to start over, aren¡¯t you?¡± Vargas places his hand over his chest and puts on a wounded expression as he says, ¡°Why I would never do that!¡± So much for a dragon¡¯s pride. This one is hella shameless. Despite that I go ahead and sit on the ground next to them and join in on their card game as I consider what my plans are going from here. Obviously the first thing I need to do is head back to Dimensional Block #108, but what should I do after that¡­ The only thing I can think of is finding some Tier 3 dungeons, since I¡¯ve only seen a couple of them total out of all of the dungeons I¡¯ve seen thus far. I continue playing the game, gradually beating Vargas and ending up in a tie somehow with Ethan, to Vargas¡¯s utter dismay, before Ethan finally asks, ¡°Hey Lexi, what do you say about trying something with me and Vargas?¡± ¡°Hmm?¡± I hum while turning to look at him. And the serious expression on his face has me frowning slightly as I answer, ¡°Depends on what it is.¡± He leans forwards, his elbows on his knees, and says, ¡°What do you say about trying to take down the Cataclysm Class monster of Dimensional Block #108 with us?¡± I blink at that, almost dropping the cards in my hand that I just picked up after Vargas dealt them out. Huh? B2 | Chapter 51 - Back Home Alexia ¡°Why?¡± I ask with a frown. Vargas plays the first card of the game as Ethan answers, ¡°We want to fight a new and powerful opponent.¡± My frown grows ever so slightly deeper. ¡°And that¡¯s all?¡± I can¡¯t help but ask. Because knowing Ethan, there¡¯s more to it. Knowing dragons in general, actually. Not just Ethan. Ethan purses his lips and plays his turn, laying a card down on top of Vargas¡¯s. Then Vargas apparently decides to answer for him, stating, ¡°Because people are calling it a dragon.¡± I raise an eyebrow at Vargas and then turn to Ethan, making him reach around to scratch the back of his head. Yeah, thought so. Dragons have their pride after all, and everyone going around calling a non-sapient draconic creature a dragon without anyone surviving identifying it is not exactly something I can see most dragons tolerating. So it makes sense they¡¯d go try to kill the thing. Or at least identify it. And considering how we¡¯re all Tier 3 and Class S species, it should be safe for us to try our hand against the Cataclysm Class dragon. Plus, if we aren¡¯t strong enough, I can always just teleport away. Escaping a tricky situation like that shouldn¡¯t be an issue for me. Especially considering how far my Quantum Displacement can teleport me now that I should have the soul to teleport a lot closer to the end of my current maximum distance. ¡°Alright,¡± I finally answer the two with a nod of my head. ¡°I¡¯ll work with you two to take it down.¡± Then I play my turn and ask, ¡°When do you plan on going there to take it on?¡± Vargas answers the very moment he plays his next card, ¡°After this game.¡± I blink, more than a little surprised by the sudden rush. But at the same time, I was planning on heading back to Dimensional Block #108 after this anyways. So there¡¯s no reason not to do it now. ¡°That works for me,¡± I tell the two of them with a shrug as Ethan plays his next card. ¡°I¡¯ll be stopping at the base I live nearby first before we go after the monster though.¡± If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. Both dragons give me short agreements as I play my next card. And the game continues.
It doesn¡¯t take us all that long to reach the Dimensional Wall between Dimensional Block #108 and #109, and the moment we arrive we find ourselves face to face with a rather large group of blighted ones. Each of whom are staring at me with conflicted looks on their faces. Some are upset, others happy, and others frightful. But after only a few seconds, they all shift their gazes towards Vargas instead. ¡°Champion, I beseech you-¡± the blighted one at the front and center of the group raises his voice, only for Vargas to completely ignore him as the three of us walk past the group of undead. And I can¡¯t help but feel more than a little amused at how easily the man ignores them. Kind of like how Ethan simply ignored pretty much anyone we passed by on the way to Dimensional Block #109 in the first place. Typical dragon behavior. The blighted ones tense up more and more the further away we get from them until one of them shouts and rushes at us, seemingly losing their temper. Then they are completely incinerated by a casual wave of Vargas¡¯s hand, sending flames to engulf him. All without Vargas even turning to look at him or stopping in the process. I decide to ignore it and continue walking as well, leaving the other blighted ones to quickly retreat far away from us. It¡¯s a little sad, to be honest. The undead lost their leader, and the Dimensional Block lost their Dimensional Leader. Even if the guy was using them all and turning every one of them into undead while basically pseudo enslaving them. They still lost the second largest source of protection for their Dimensional Block. And their Champion is ignoring them without a single care in the world about the denizens of the Dimensional Block. We continue walking past them until we cross the Dimensional Wall into Dimensional Block #108, where we then find a couple dozen soldiers likely belonging to Varsac. But we just ignore them as well and begin going up into the air, with the two dragons flying and me teleporting. Which doesn¡¯t seem to please the soldiers very much, but they¡¯re only Tier 2, and Class A and B species. So there¡¯s not much they can do. And I don¡¯t want to be bothered by them right now. I just want to go check on Astrid, since even if I know she¡¯s okay through Luna, I can¡¯t help but worry without actually seeing her. We fly for a while in the direction of the Retreat before Vargas eventually mutters, ¡°Interesting Block ya got here¡­¡± I glance at him, finding him to be looking down at one of the islands we¡¯re passing over. So I look down at it as well to find an island full of two opposing forces, each fighting with each other. Some sort of war? ¡°Well, the Dimensional Leader and the others all decided to make territory determined by whoever holds the peak of the island,¡± I tell him with a shrug as I continue teleporting through the air. ¡°And military takeovers are perfectly allowed.¡± Vargas continues staring for several seconds as we pass by before we continue moving on through the Dimensional Block. Eventually we finally get within eyeshot of the Retreat, albeit not without stopping at least once along the way for directions in which the dragons scared the people rather badly. Or at least I¡¯m going to say it was just the dragons. I¡¯m sure it had nothing to do with me. Yeah. Nothing to do with me at all. Absolutely. Anyways, I find a certain bat flying our way before we even reach the island. ¡°Luna!¡± I shout with a wide smile on my face. And the bat immediately finds her spot on my shoulder to then rub her head against my neck as I pet her. ¡°I missed you,¡± I tell her, making her squeak in pleasure. It¡¯s nice to be back. B2 | Chapter 52 - Message and Welcome Alexia ¡°Is this your companion?¡± Vargas asks while pausing right next to me and Lexi as I begin to fall down due to not teleporting anymore. But I teleport back up into the air back to where I was and nod my head at him. ¡°Her name is Luna,¡± I tell him as we begin to move faster towards the island hosting the Retreat. Vargas laughs and says, ¡°That¡¯s a good name you have there, little one!¡± I glance at him with more than a little surprise before continuing to teleport. Huh. Guess dragons are fine with non-Class S species if they are soul-bound companions to a Class S species. That¡¯s good. Would¡¯ve been pissed if he treated her as he does every other non-Class S species he sees. We continue on our way towards the island before slowly lowering ourselves down to the bridge. A bridge that I find filled with quite the number of people. It¡¯s not just the bridge though. The city itself is far larger than it was when we were last here. Not to mention that it actually fits the term city now, considering the vast number of people and buildings across it. The buildings have also been improved. So they aren¡¯t just plain repaired ruins anymore. ¡°They¡¯ve made improvements,¡± Ethan points out, making me nod my head with a grin. Meanwhile all of the people on the bridge and on the city walls are quickly beginning to stare at us before we even land on the bridge. Which isn¡¯t surprising. Neither of the dragons care about the stares though as we continue walking. I glance around at the guards on the walls that are tensing up simply at the sight of us. This will be interesting. The moment our feet touch the bridge, I surprisingly find myself faced with a System Message. {The Dimensional Champion of Dimensional Block #109 has entered Dimensional Block #108. Should your Dimensional Council declare war on Dimensional Block #109 you may challenge the Dimensional Champion to a duel so long as you are still within the same Dimensional Block. The winner of the duel will therefore claim control of the Dimensional Block for their own Block and the Dimensional Wall between the Blocks will no longer require Authority to pass through for citizens of the Blocks.} The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. Oh. Right. Forgot about that. I glance at Vargas, but he doesn¡¯t seem to care about the System Message that¡¯s no doubt appeared in front of him. Curious that it only appeared now instead of when we actually entered the Dimensional Block. Is it because this is the first time he has actually stepped foot on the islands? Up till now he¡¯s been flying. Even when we went down to get directions and maps. Guess that¡¯s good to know either way. We begin walking towards the walls, only for a familiar face to suddenly appear in the shadows on top of the wall, making my face light up. There she is!
The Retreat Moments before Alexia¡¯s Arrival Astrid lets out a yawn as she sits on the roof of her target¡¯s building. Ever since a little over a month ago, Alara began to ask her to take on stealth jobs to watch and take out threats to the Retreat should they sneak inside and show hostility towards the Retreat. But she¡¯s found the job incredibly boring, even if she spends the rest of her time in the dungeon. She has at least reached past halfway through Tier 2 by now though. Both by the extra dungeon time she¡¯s gotten from the job and the threats to the city she¡¯s killed. So in the end she¡¯s been grateful for the job she was given for the city. It¡¯s helped her grow stronger, she¡¯s gotten the loot from the targets she¡¯s eliminated, and she still keeps herself relatively unknown outside of being The Reaper¡¯s sister. And it¡¯s not the first time she¡¯s had to kill people, so the kills don¡¯t bother her either. She¡¯s already grown used to death from her time at the orphanage. Even if she didn¡¯t have it as bad as Lexi did. Lexi always tried to protect her after all. Seconds pass as Astrid keeps her eyes closed, using the shadow mana in the surrounding area to form a pseudo aura in order to keep track of the target. So far the target hasn¡¯t shown any inclinations of being hostile, but that could change at any moment. But while she¡¯s busy keeping an eye on him, a commotion begins to sound from the bridge gate. Astrid opens her eyes and turns to look towards the gate, only to smile when she senses a powerful source of strength coming from the gate. One far stronger than anything she has ever sensed since the Reset, with the exception of the Cataclysm Class monster. Looks like she¡¯s back. It¡¯s about time. She glances at her own house ¨C the place Luna had decided to nest on. It would also explain where Luna went. Astrid quickly begins to teleport through the city going from shadow to shadow until she reaches the walls and leaves the shadows to find her sister standing next to two dragons instead of the one she was expecting as a possibility. Since she had left with a dragon to go to the Dimensional Block. And now she¡¯s Tier 3. Astrid glances at the others all around the bridge, including the large line of people and carriages. Along with a couple of basic cars invented by people from the Varsac Kingdom. And every last person is frightened or tense in some way, with only a few people looking excited. Those being from the Retreat. Cheers soon ring out from some of the soldiers on the wall, welcoming back their protector. Astrid smiles as her twin gives a playful salute her way. Something that only enflames the excitement from the people of the Retreat since many of them assume she did it to them instead. Also good to see that the people of the Retreat are starting to like her instead of fear her. Astrid gives a nod back, still with a smile on her face. I¡¯m glad she¡¯s back. B2 | Chapter 53 - The Retreat’s Growth Alexia After a heartfelt hug with Astrid the moment I see her, I quickly introduce her to the two dragons who are currently ignoring every last person here but me and Astrid. ¡°So this is your twin?¡± Vargas asks with a frown as he crosses his arms and stares at Astrid, looking her up and down for a moment. Then he uncrosses his arms and says, ¡°Come back to me when you¡¯re a Class S species yourself.¡± I roll my eyes at that and ignore the dragon who is being more than a little rude right now. Astrid on the other hand ignores him, not being one to care about others¡¯ opinions of her much. ¡°What are you planning now?¡± Astrid quickly asks me, making me purse my lips. ¡°Well,¡± I start while glancing at the gates before looking above them. ¡°First I¡¯ll need to speak with Alara.¡± I turn my attention back to the people on the bridge, a few of whom I now recognize as former denizens of Dimensional Block #109. Which is a little surprising, since I didn¡¯t expect them to arrive so quickly. None of them can fly after all. They also all seem rather happy to see me. Something else I wasn¡¯t expecting. At this point I¡¯ve gotten used to people fearing me on sight, so this is a nice change of pace. I turn back to Astrid as I continue, ¡°I¡¯m guessing Alara¡¯s wanted to speak with me for a bit now about the new people I recruited for the base?¡± My twin smirks at that and says, ¡°More than a little.¡± Thought so. It would be stranger if she didn¡¯t want to speak after thousands, maybe even a couple tens of thousands of people started showing up saying that I sent them. Many of whom are in Tier 2. Then again, I sent them with a note signed by me and an audio message recorded with some sort of item one random group had, so they should¡¯ve been recognizable as being sent by me. Something I was a little worried about until now, after seeing them all here and welcomed. One less thing to worry about now. ¡°Let¡¯s head inside,¡± I tell the three. But both of the dragons simply look around for a moment without moving. Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings. I glance at the two in confusion before Ethan says, ¡°I¡¯ll be heading to my own island to check on my territory.¡± Oh, right. He has an island too. Vargas quickly says that he¡¯ll be going with Ethan, so I give them a brief wave of temporary farewell before moving on through the gates into the city. Time to see what all has happened here since I¡¯ve been gone.
I pause to stare at the large building that is apparently the council building for council meetings for the Retreat. Which confused me at first until Astrid explained that they formed a council with Alara being the chairperson of the council. One meant to rule the city in a slightly more democratic manner. Generally a rather uncommon method of rule, but one that works. Throughout the city I¡¯ve seen quite a few things that surprise me, proving to me that Dimensional Block #108 is definitely ahead of Dimensional Block #109 in technological readvancement. Even if that¡¯s largely due to the fact that most of the people in Dimensional Block #109 are undead or people fighting to not become undead. Or were? Since the lich king is dead now. Or redead, I guess. The status of the newly dead dead king aside, I¡¯m still a little disappointed that despite there being some older style cars going around, there still aren¡¯t any video games. I don¡¯t care that video games aren¡¯t something considered necessary or even close to a priority for building civilizations. They¡¯re still more important to me than vehicles. Even if I can understand why they¡¯d focus on the practical stuff first. It¡¯s still a pity. The city itself is rather large and has quite the variety of different styles of homes and buildings across it. Meanwhile the streets are practically flooded with people, proving the Retreat to have become a rather important and big force in the Dimensional Block while I was gone. Probably in large part due to my protection. I glance in the direction of the dwarf¡¯s home closer to the edge of the city as I think about the maintenance I rather badly need on my gear that I haven¡¯t had fixed in over a month of fighting and teleporting. Then I turn my gaze back to the council hall again from my place next to Astrid on the roof of some random building. The two of us decided to teleport through the city so as to not attract that much attention. Although the stronger people in the city all noticed me because of the natural quantum energy that I radiate being rather powerful, so we couldn¡¯t hide entirely. Unfortunately, I haven¡¯t figured out how to hide my quantum energy inside of myself yet. Something that¡¯ll help make stealth stuff a lot easier to do once I can figure it out. For now, I¡¯m just resigned to being a beacon for anything that can use magic and sense their surroundings. I¡¯m actually surprised that Alara hasn¡¯t come out looking for me yet. Or rather, I would be. If I couldn¡¯t sense quite a few people inside of the council hall, likely having some sort of council meeting. I glance at Astrid to find a grin on her face. So I ask with one of my own to match it, ¡°Want to crash their meeting?¡± She nods her head and we both focus on the council hall, which has several guards stationed around it and at the front doors. Then the two of us both teleport straight to the front doors of the council hall, startling the guards at it into raising their weapons. But they both lower them again after seeing who we are. And without even looking at the guards, we both open the doors to the hall, making the conversations inside stop immediately. ¡°Guess who¡¯s back,¡± I state with a proud smirk at the surprise I see on any non-magic user within the hall. B2 | Chapter 54 - Crashed Meeting The Council Hall of The Retreat ¡°So the plan is to hire the newcomers as the guards for the newly established bases on the other bridges?¡± Alara states the conclusion the most recent council meeting has arrived at. And nods of agreement immediately begin to spread around the hall. Alara lets out a sigh at finally having gotten that problem dealt with. I appreciate her sending us qualified soldiers to help, but did she have to send so many? At this rate the mercenaries in the cities are getting close to equaling nearly half of the regular civilians¡­ She glances over at the door as she notices the powerful source of power she sensed approaching the city getting close to the council hall building. And she¡¯s not the only one who¡¯s noticed it, considering the many gazes of the other council members looking towards the door as well. Speaking of her¡­ ¡°Moving onto the next topic, the-¡± the council member in charge of the commerce of the base, a former subordinate of Elizabeth before the Reset that had managed to find them after the Dimensional Council meeting, starts only to cut off when the door to the hall opens. Then he and everyone else turns to look at the door where they find The Reaper standing there next to her twin. ¡°Guess who¡¯s back,¡± Alexia says with a proud smirk on her face, silencing the hall despite many of the people in it already having guessed at her arrival. No one says anything for a few seconds before another group of people arrive in the plaza surrounding the hall. A group Alara immediately recognizes as the leaders of the mercenaries that had come to the Retreat upon The Reaper¡¯s command. And all of them immediately begin kneeling as they declare, ¡°We greet the Lady Reaper.¡± Now Alexia looks awkward as she glances back at the mercenaries, making Alara smirk ever so slightly in amusement. And apparently Alara isn¡¯t the only one amused by the sight of it, considering the face The Reaper¡¯s twin currently has. Alara glances around at the other members of the council, finding several of them looking frightened at the sight of The Reaper. Most of them being the ones that arrived after Alexia had left the base. Which have been a lot ever since the Dimensional Council, where Alexia showed her public support for Alara and the Retreat. Since then, the number of people moving to the Retreat have quintupled. And after the maps of the Dimensional Block were set up by the Varsac and Silvercrest Kingdoms, the flood of people only increased thanks to them knowing where the Retreat was. A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. Some of the smaller groups that were under the threat of the Varsac Kingdom even decided to subserve themselves to the Retreat. Both a lot of trouble and more assistance than we could¡¯ve hoped for. She turns her attention back to Alexia again as she nods her head at the mercenaries and says, ¡°Good to see you made it here.¡± Alara sighs before standing up from her seat and calling out to Alexia, ¡°Welcome back, Lexi.¡± Alexia turns back to her with a slight frown that has Alara stiffening up for a moment. Then the frown fades and she nods her head, saying, ¡°I see the place has grown a bit since I left.¡± A bit? ¡°Well, I just wanted to stop by and check on everything before leaving again,¡± she says while turning around and waving her hand to them, making Alara blink in surprise. ¡°You¡¯re already leaving again?¡± Alara asks, a frown growing on her face. If she¡¯s almost never here, can she really be considered the protector of the Retreat? Alara¡¯s gaze turns towards the bat on Alexia¡¯s shoulder. At this rate Luna might become the protector of the Retreat. Her thoughts come grinding to a halt when she hears the next words coming out of the Reaper¡¯s mouth. And it¡¯s not just her, but everyone in the council hall including the Reaper¡¯s twin. ¡°Yeah, I¡¯m heading out with the dragons to kill the Cataclysm Class monster,¡± she says before teleporting away without warning, leaving them all in silence. Then chaos erupts as everyone begins talking about what she just said. ¡°The Reaper is going to challenge the Cataclysm Class monster?!¡± ¡°Did she say dragons? Dragons, meaning more than one dragon?!¡± ¡°Is she going to anger it?¡± ¡°Will the Reaper be able to take on the Cataclysm Class?¡± Alara stares out the door with a frown on her face as all of the councilmembers except herself, Aidan, and Elizabeth continue talking about what Alexia just said. Even Astrid simply stares off after her sister, clearly unaware of her twin¡¯s plans. She said dragons¡­ who is the other dragon? Or did she misspeak? I¡¯m not too sure about the idea of having more than one dragon nearby us. Alara¡¯s frown grows deeper. Actually... I¡¯m not too keen on even having a single dragon nearby, much less two. But we have no choice about that. She continues staring out the door as she feels the practically radiant power that is radiating from Alexia quickly leave the city to arrive at her clearing. Then it stops moving there, making Alara wonder how she feels about the changes that¡¯ve been made to it. The leader of the city that is quickly developing into an entire nation in and of itself purses her lips at the scary thought that the woman won¡¯t like the changes, but she quickly shakes her head. She¡¯ll most likely like them. And if she doesn¡¯t, it¡¯s more likely that she won¡¯t care in the slightest. Alara turns her attention back to Astrid right as the councilmembers slowly begin to calm down again, many of them deciding that there isn¡¯t any reason to question it. After all, there¡¯s not anything they can do about it even if they don¡¯t like what the Reaper is doing. They are relying on her power to exist after all. If they can¡¯t trust in her power when she uses it, then what can they do? ¡°Alright, Councilmember Frost, you may proceed with the next matter of the meeting,¡± Alara says, deciding to bring the meeting back on topic. And as if on cue, Astrid nods her head at Alara and closes the door. Back to the boring meeting. B2 | Chapter 55 - Dragon Search Alexia After leaving the humans at the Retreat and checking out my clearing which has changed quite a bit, I make my way back over to the dragons who I end up finding playing cards again in Ethan¡¯s little home within his cave. But before I can say anything, I realize what I just thought and pause right at the entrance to the room they¡¯re in with a blank look on my face. Wait a second, did I just think of them as humans instead of people or friends? I stare at the two dragons for several seconds before frowning. Is¡­ is my species changing my mentality? Both of the dragons glance at me for a second before Ethan waves and the two of them return to their game without saying anything. The fact that I simply called them humans in my mind is not normal, but maybe it¡¯s just because I¡¯m not human anymore? That the exact species I am doesn¡¯t matter, just that it¡¯s not human? I continue standing in place for a while before eventually sighing, deciding that now isn¡¯t the time to think about this. Especially when I¡¯m likely overthinking things. After all, I haven¡¯t noticed any changes to my mentality ever since becoming a quantum reaper in the first place, so why would something wait till now to happen? Unless it¡¯s something that only happens after reaching Tier 3. Even that isn¡¯t likely though, since I¡¯ve never heard of a species having their mind affected by ascending. Then again, Astrid isn¡¯t a human, so I didn¡¯t refer to her that way. And that¡¯s all that really matters since I don¡¯t know anyone down there other than her well enough to care about them much. Other than Aidan, but I think he also changed his species. I don¡¯t remember what he changed it to though, or even how he changed it, since he didn¡¯t change his species until after the Tutorial ended. Not until after I left for Dimensional Block #109, actually. With one more sigh, I continue walking through the room up to the dragons before asking, ¡°Don¡¯t you get tired of losing to him, Vargas?¡± The dragon in question simply answers, ¡°Who said I¡¯m losing?¡± I examine their game and quickly find Vargas to be losing pretty badly. This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. ¡°Uh huh,¡± I utter while nodding my head. ¡°Whatever you say.¡± He opens his mouth to speak, only for Ethan to interject, ¡°He always loses. But he always comes back for more.¡± He glances up from the game at Vargas who is now glaring at him. ¡°It¡¯s kinda his thing.¡± I can¡¯t help but snort in amusement and cover my mouth to hide my smile. Vargas just huffs out a small amount of fire and tosses his remaining cards while standing up, saying, ¡°Well, since you¡¯re here, let¡¯s move out.¡± That has me almost snorting again, but this time I hold myself back. He¡¯s running away from the game and using our hunt of the Cataclysm Class monster as an excuse. ¡°Sore loser,¡± Ethan mutters with a single brow raised. But Vargas just ignores him while walking towards me. Ethan gets up as well after Vargas passes me, showing no indication of saying anything further. I lightly shake my head at their antics, finding the two dragons to be even closer than I thought they were. Then I follow after Vargas with Ethan walking next to me until we exit the building. We walk for a while until we reach the edge of the island, not teleporting or flying in the process. Then we all realize something. ¡°So, do either of you know where the Cataclysm Class monster is?¡± I ask after a brief period of silence with the three of us all standing at the edge of the island. Both of the dragons shake their heads without a word. ¡°I see¡­¡± I mutter, following which the three of us continue staring off of the island at the clouds below. None of us say anything for a bit before I say, ¡°I¡¯ll be right back.¡± The other two nod as I begin teleporting back to the Retreat.
After an awkward interaction with Alara, her meeting having ended apparently not long after I left, I return with intel on the Cataclysm Class monsters. Mainly that it is currently located on the other side of the Dimensional Block from us, according to intel Alara has gotten from Varsac delegates. So we all begin moving out towards the Varsac Kingdom. The last place the Cataclysm Class monster was seen by someone with connection to the Varsac Kingdom. Along the way, we don¡¯t run into much trouble. Mostly because the monsters all run away on sight except a few Tier 3 monsters we surprisingly find flying through the air beneath the islands. But we just kill those and move on, using them as EXP fodder. After splitting up to deal with them, of course. Since none of us want to have to share our EXP with each other. Eventually we do manage to find the Cataclysm Class monster. Although it takes us nearly a week of going around from island to island, slaughtering monsters, leveling up, and searching for us to find it. The three of us move up to land on a floating arctic island that is located a couple islands above and to the South of the massive, red, serpentine dragon. A dragon that is even larger than before, spanning over a hundred meters in length with red horns angling backwards from its head and a red lightning occasionally sparking within its mouth. ¡°Well, we found it,¡± I state the obvious, making the two dragons next to me nod their heads. We watch the dragon for a little bit, neither of the dragons looking very pleased at the sight of it. With Vargus being a lot more¡­ noticeably pissed off¡­ than Ethan. Guess he doesn¡¯t like the dragon thing. The dragon is currently just flying through the air despite not having any wings for a while until I say, ¡°No use waiting any longer.¡± My eyes narrow. ¡°Let¡¯s identify it.¡± B2 | Chapter 56 - The Reaper will Not be Sidelined Alexia Both dragons nod their heads and the three of us all identify the monster, making all of our eyes narrow immediately after seeing the result. {Arxlos Dar Val ¨C Dragon of Cataclysm ¨C Level 301} ¡°Guess it is a dragon after all,¡± I comment, making both dragons next to me grimace as the Tier 3 Cataclysm Class monster turns its attention to us and roars. ¡°It¡¯s also noticed us.¡± I¡¯m kind of surprised it has a name though. Don¡¯t think I¡¯ve ever seen a monster with a name before. After all, the entire point of a monster being a monster is that it¡¯s not sapient. And this dragon is obviously not sapient considering what we¡¯ve seen of it and what everyone else has seen of it thus far. In that case, maybe it used to be sapient and lost that sapience somehow? I frown at that but decide that now isn¡¯t the time to be thinking about it. Considering that the dragon is flying straight towards us while roaring nonstop. ¡°We should be able to take it on,¡± Ethan comments, making both myself and Vargas nod our heads in agreement. At this point the three of us are around level 275 to 280. So a level gap of a couple dozen levels shouldn¡¯t mean much when it¡¯s a three on one battle. Fortunately the Legendary Feats aren¡¯t locked to a single person if multiple people help kill something, so we should all get a Legendary Feat if there is one for killing a Cataclysm Class monster before anyone else. Both dragons immediately fly into the air before moving down towards the dragon, meanwhile I teleport into the air. And without hesitation, the dragons begin sending magical attacks towards it consisting of bolts of flames and bolts of ice as I join them with Quantum Bolts. But the dragon just shrugs them all off as crimson lightning begins to coat its entire body from the head down to the tail as it snakes through the air towards us. I hope that counts for my lightning adaptation. The dragon suddenly speeds up, creating a sonic boom behind it as it rushes straight towards us with its mouth wide open and another roar coming out. But the dragons and I all avoid the attack, leaving us on the sides of the large dragon as it passes. I quickly use Quantum Resonance on my body, increasing my physical strength in the process before rushing forwards while summoning my polearm. And the moment the tip of my polearm makes contact with its scales, a loud screeching sound echoes out from the point of contact and my polearm and I continue moving with the blade¡¯s tip simply leaving a light scratch across the surface of the thing¡¯s scales. The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. So I teleport backwards with a frown at just how little damage my attack did. Stronger than I thought it¡¯d be, that¡¯s for sure. But still not strong enough to take all three of us. I turn to look at the two dragons on my side before smirking when both of them transform into their true forms, making two orbs appear. One of hellfire and one of hellfrost, following which the orbs grow and eventually reveal two dragons once the orbs vanish. Both dragons have four legs and two wings, but one of them is a crystalline blue with some small amount of frosty air leaking from its mouth while the other is a crimson shade of red with smoke and embers leaking from its mouth. And neither of them look very happy as they rush forwards to strike at the sides of the Cataclysm Class dragon. To my surprise though, they only manage to do a bit more than I did. Leaving scratches as well, albeit deeper ones than my own. It really does have strong scales. I teleport backwards as the Cataclysm Class dragon flies back around to face us and charges up a large and powerful ball of crimson lightning in front of its mouth. A ball that has me immediately teleporting over a thousand meters a way through the sky, leaving the ball to grow even larger before shooting out with dozens of bolts of lightning discharging from it at everything it passes, including the dragons and the islands. But both dragons take the hit and open their mouths to shoot out their own breath attacks. One a large ball of liquid ice and the other a ball of black flames. And it¡¯s at this point that I realize the real difference between a quantum reaper and a dragon. All of my racial skills up till this point have been defensive ones. An immunity to 80% of physical damage. An immunity to status effects. And an immunity to any attacks related to the spirit. I haven¡¯t had a single offensive racial ability yet, unlike these dragons whose entire onslaught of racial skills are offensive ones. This point really sinks home as I watch the destruction caused by all three dragons¡¯ breaths. As the three balls of power clash in the air, creating a storm of ice, fire, and lightning that ravages the islands around them. And I can¡¯t help but think that if I were hit by those it would really hurt, even if it wouldn¡¯t kill me and I¡¯d be able to reverse it afterwards. Magic really is a young quantum being¡¯s weakness. I frown at that before deciding that I don¡¯t want to be left on the sidelines like this. So I teleport several hundred meters closer while making sure to stay out of the range of their attacks. And without hesitation, I finally activate the skill I¡¯ve been saving up power for for a very long time now. Observation Effect Absorption. I pull on the power that has been stored within the skill for a long time and begin charging it right in front of my hands, making a large ball of purple and blue energy appear in front of me. One that quickly begins glitching out just like all of my other attacks. But unlike my other attacks, this one shows the oddities that only the quantum energy can show as the ball of power rapidly shifts forms over and over again. First to some sort of black hole, then a large boulder, then a ball of lightning, a ball of fire, of poison, of ice, of dirt, all the way till it begins changing forms too fast for even my eye to keep up with. Eventually the quantum reality around the attack begins to distort and cracks begin to form from all of the power I¡¯m pushing into the skill. Power that is only enhanced when I go ahead and shift into my Wave form mid-use, making the orb grow even larger. Soon enough my orb catches the attention of all three dragons, and I grin at them with the pure power of the quantum built up in front of me. I will not be sidelined. B2 | Chapter 57 - A Visit Inside of the Quantum Realm The Quantum Ruler taps a single finger against his throne as the corners of his lips twitch ever so slightly at the sight of his granddaughter firing off the large orb of quantum energy at the Cataclysm Class dragon. And unlike the two dragon¡¯s breathes that hit the Cataclysm Class beast, her orb of power quickly shatters the scales around the head of the dragon, leaving glitching burn marks all across its head. She¡¯s growing. He continues tapping his finger on his throne as the filthy fallen creature lets out a roar of anger and pain, blowing away the smoke from the impact to reveal its head now barren of most of its scales. But despite the power in the attack, its flesh beneath is still mostly in one piece with only some burns across it. The Quantum Ruler frowns as he sees the disappointment on his granddaughter¡¯s face. A greedy little one, that girl. But¡­ He keeps watching as she continues to push forwards, attacking it with Quantum Bolts and Paradox Blasts despite her obvious exhaustion from using that first skill. ¡­I don¡¯t dislike her. She has mental fortitude at least, and a straightforward drive. Time passes in silence with the man continuing to watch the battle with the two dragons having continued their own attacks after his granddaughter¡¯s. And all three of the Class S species are clearly seen targeting the exposed flesh on the fallen creature¡¯s head. The Quantum Ruler¡¯s attention is briefly taken away from the screen when he receives a request for an audience. And after a brief pause, he accepts, making a woman appear in the center of his throne room, kneeling down with her head pointed towards the ground. ¡°So, last devourer, what are you here for?¡± The Quantum Ruler states, resting his chin on his fist, his elbow on the throne¡¯s armrest. Crystal Nightshade finally raises her head, her pitch black hair falling back in the process as she asks, ¡°I would like to know of the whereabouts of your son, Your Eminence.¡± The Quantum Ruler keeps the screen open as he stares at the woman before eventually raising his free hand and swiping a single finger through the air, making the screen turn around to show Alexia and the two dragons fighting the fallen creature. Then he says with a frown, ¡°Not going to ask about her?¡± Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon. Despite how hard the devourer no doubt tries to hold herself back, the Quantum Ruler notices a miniscule shift in her muscles that displays her true feelings enough for him. So he doesn¡¯t bother waiting for her to answer as he says, ¡°My son has his own plans, whether dead or alive. And they aren¡¯t for you to know about.¡± His eyes narrow. ¡°Even if you are the biological mother of my granddaughter.¡± He sees the woman visibly tense up at those words. However, whether she tensed up at the mention of Alexia, the mention of her being his granddaughter, or his refusal to answer her, he isn¡¯t sure. ¡°Very well, Your Eminence,¡± she declares before vanishing in a flare of black and gold energy. To believe she would escape from the Quantum Judge¡¯s judgement simply by a Reset of my son¡¯s game¡­ The Quantum Ruler almost breaks into a smile at that thought but instead moves the screen back around so that he can continue watching and judging his granddaughter and her worthiness.
Alexia I pant in exhaustion as I teleport back to avoid a bolt of crimson lightning before frowning at the island that the lightning ends up hitting. An island that is very much feeling the results of our battle, considering the crumbling underbelly beneath it. Then I turn my attention back towards the large dragon as the other two dragons both send another breath attack at it. But this time their attacks are lacking a lot of the power they had before, both of them feeling exhausted as well. And right when I¡¯m about to teleport forwards again to rejoin the fight, I feel a familiar energy source approaching, making a grin stretch across my face. Just seconds later, a large, meter-tall bat moves like a blur through the sky and latches onto the Cataclysm Class monster, making blood pour out from the wound she opens up. She then just holds on tight somehow, not letting the dragon throw her off despite how much it writhes around like a grounded fish. I immediately teleport upwards and let myself fall for a little while drawing my polearm back and then teleport right up to the dragon before shifting into my Particle form, using the momentum built up from my fall to give my attack extra strength. The form that grants me extra physical strength and resistance at the cost of using magic. My polearm strikes true, going in several meters deep through the Cataclysm Monster¡¯s flesh and anchoring myself to the dragon itself. I then begin punching the creature, relying on Quantum Infusion to be my only method of using magic thanks to its passive effect. But my fists only manage to do so much damage as the dragon roars its agony out to the world. Then crimson lightning begins to spark across the surface of its scales, moving towards us at a quick pace. So I wait a few more seconds and then jump off right when it¡¯s about to reach me, shifting out of my Particle form at the same time so that I can teleport again. And I barely make it away in time to avoid the lightning before I turn back around again to find the Dragon of Cataclysm looking exhausted and panting out its own breaths. After several breaths of exhaustion lined with smoke and some lightning, the Dragon of Cataclysm lets out a weakened roar with blood still flowing out of the new wound I gave it. Both Ethan and Vargas move over towards me and the three of us float in place with me repeatedly teleporting to stay here as we watch the dragon glare at us. ¡°Let¡¯s finish-¡± Ethan is interrupted when Luna rushes in and takes another bite out of the dragon, making Vargas chuckle. Which sounds rather loud and throaty in his dragon form. I smirk and teleport forwards as well, joining my companion. In the words of an interrupted dragon, ¡°Let¡¯s finish this.¡± B2 | Chapter 58 - Chaos Hunter Alexia Both Vargas and Ethan send two more breath attacks at the weakened dragon¡¯s head, but it still manages to block one of them with its crimson lightning breath. Then the other one crashes into its head, sending it flying backwards and giving me the chance to teleport in and pierce my polearm straight into that very same wound I made before. And without hesitation, I grin and create a Quantum Paradox Blast directly inside of that very wound, making me grit my teeth despite still grinning due to the recoil of the attack. But my weapon just feeds off of the quantum energy, making it deal even more quantum infused damage. So I continue using that attack while directing it towards the creature¡¯s head. Meanwhile Ethan and Vargas come flying in with their claws raised and hellflames and hellfrost coating them as they bring them down on the dragon right before its head. Finally, my latest Quantum Paradox Blast most likely reaches its brain as the creature loses all the strength holding it up and begins to fall downwards. It¡¯s dead. And a System Message follows to prove it, along with a Legendary Feat. [Level 301 Dragon of Cataclysm Defeated ¨C User¡¯s earned EXP has been increased by a significant portion due to killing a being whose level is twenty-five or more levels above their own. User¡¯s earned EXP is significantly increased due to killing a Cataclysm Class monster. User¡¯s earned EXP is decreased by a large margin for having assistance in the killing of the monster.] {Congratulations! You have leveled up to level 276! Your Species has awarded you +2 VIT, +2 DEX, +2 STR, +2 MAG, and +2 MEN. Your Class has awarded you +1 VIT, +2 DEX, +1 STR, +2 MAG, and +2 MEN.} ¡­ {Congratulations! You have leveled up to level 282! Your Species has awarded you +2 VIT, +2 DEX, +2 STR, +2 MAG, and +2 MEN. Your Class has awarded you +1 VIT, +2 DEX, +1 STR, +2 MAG, and +2 MEN.} {Congratulations! You have accomplished the Feat of slaying the very first Cataclysm Class monster of Dimensional Block #108! You will now be awarded with a Passive Skill Slot!}
Legendary Feat ¨C Chaos Hunter Alexia Knight, Ethan Silva, and Vargas d¡¯Argol have become the first group of users within the System to slay a Cataclysm Class monster!
A grin stretches across my face at the sight of both a Legendary Feat and a regular Feat. Not to mention the bonus given by the Feat. Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings. Now to see about the Legendary Feat. Just as always, the Legendary Feat¡¯s text changes for me to show what it gives.
Legendary Feat ¨C Chaos Hunter As a part of the first group of users to kill a Cataclysm Class monster, you are granted System Assistance whenever slaying a creature of Chaos.
I blink in surprise before teleporting both me and the massive dragon corpse up and over an island where the corpse then falls and crushes a vast number of trees. Then I look at the other two dragons to find them flying up over the edge of the island with what I can only assume is confusion on their massive dragon faces. It becomes easier to tell though after they shift back into their human forms, their clothing and armor reappearing at the same time as they express their own confusion. ¡°Does it mean that a Cataclysm Class monster is also a type of Chaos monster?¡± Ethan asks, and I just shrug. Vargas just frowns. ¡°Probably,¡± I eventually answer while looking at the notification again. ¡°But what does it mean by System Assistance?¡± Neither dragon answer. Instead we all just stand in silence for several minutes. Eventually I turn my attention to the dragon corpse at my feet. Then I glance at the two living dragons. Then the corpse again. Finally I turn to Ethan and Vargas and bluntly ask, ¡°Would you mind if I took its corpse?¡± Both just send me a look.
All around the Dimensional Blocks As soon as the Legendary Feat rings out throughout the Dimension, every last Class S species and former Ascendant stops moving at once. And amongst them, each one shows a different expression ranging from shock to anger, and even disappointment. The Hound of the Apocalypse merely frowns at the sight of The Reaper working with another well-known Class S species and someone who he can only assume is a Class S species by the last name. Even if he personally doesn¡¯t recognize the name Vargas. The Ancient Terror¡¯s nine serpentine heads simply stare at the Legendary Feat notification for several seconds, his gazes landing on Alexia Knight¡¯s name during that time before he eventually continues walking through the dungeon he is in. And the Primeval Fiend just grins and begins laughing maniacally at the sight of the notification holding the Legendary Feat, with the various shades moving around him in the middle of the darkness of an artificial night while eating human beings. Living human beings. Meanwhile all of the dragons spread across the Dimensional Blocks feel pride in their fellow dragons claiming the first Cataclysm Class monster kill, mixed with some building interest for The Reaper who worked alongside them. In one Dimensional Block in particular, however, Isabella d¡¯Aragon shows the most surprise out of all of them. And her eyes immediately focus on the sight of her son¡¯s name alongside The Reaper¡¯s, making her even more interested in The Reaper than she was before. A Reaper willing to kill other Class S species users, but also willing to work with dragons. One who her son clearly recognizes if he was willing to work with her. But that¡¯s not all as she now knows how to find her son. And The Reaper along with him. She simply needs to search for the Dimensional Block that does not have a Cataclysm Class monster within it. Lastly, in a Dimensional Block filled with nothing but space, Crystal Nightshade opens her eyes from her place seated cross-legged atop the Cataclysm Class monster of her own Dimensional Block. And without hesitation, now that she¡¯s seen her daughter get the Legendary Feat, she slays the monster and raises her hand towards it, making the creature¡¯s body turn to black dust that is sucked into her hand. Then she moves on with a faint smile on her face. B2 | Chapter 59 - Material Harvesting Alexia ¡°So¡­¡± Dravik mutters as I stand proudly next to him looking up at the massive dragon corpse lying not far from the walls of The Retreat with my arms crossed, ¡°¡­what¡¯s tha story behind this?¡± ¡°I killed it and brought the corpse here for you to make me some nice armor,¡± I tell the dwarf, still smiling proudly at the corpse. And ignoring the spectators who are all staring at us from the walls, along with the crushed trees that I kind of accidentally crushed with the dragon corpse when I arrived via teleportation. ¡°Eh, tha¡¯ wasn¡¯t what I meant, lass,¡± Dravik says, bringing my attention to the short man. ¡°I meant how¡¯d ya get this beauty from those dragons ya fought with?¡± Oh. I turn back to admire the dragon¡¯s body again as I answer, ¡°It wasn¡¯t that hard to convince them.¡± At least, not after I asked them if they had any use for it. To which they answered that they didn¡¯t, and that they would rather the corpse burnt. So I told them it would technically be burnt when being used in smithing. Probably. Didn¡¯t mention the ¡®probably¡¯ part though. They seemed to think it was funny regardless and after making sure only I¡¯d use the scales decided to leave the entire corpse with me. It¡¯s common knowledge that dragons use their own scales for their armor after all. Since their humanoid form leaves them without most of their scales, making them weaker in it in terms of defenses. And they don¡¯t tend to use weapons. They have natural weapons after all. I glance at the dwarf again to find the man looking between me and the corpse for several seconds. So I motion towards the corpse and state, ¡°Well, what are you waiting for?¡± That seems to snap him out of his uncertainty as the man immediately rushes over towards the corpse and begins examining the material. And with that, I take another second to admire my handiwork before turning around and beginning to walk away. The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. Only to hear the dwarf shout, ¡°Hey, lass! I can¡¯t get these darned scales off! Would ya help?¡± I fight back a groan and turn back around to walk back to him again. Right. Of course. I forgot no one is likely strong enough here to pry these scales off the thing. It¡¯s Tier 3 after all. Ugh.
I let out a sigh after I finally finish skinning the damned dragon and teleporting all of the scales the dwarf needs into his warehouse, with the rest going into my own storage ring. As for the rest of the corpse, I leave it with the harvesters working for the city to figure out what the hell is important. Since no one has ever harvested a Dragon of Cataclysm for parts before, for obvious reasons. Now that the scales are gone the others can deal with the rest of the work. And Dravik only really wants the scales. Since he¡¯s using them for near equipment for me, and I have no interest in getting a fire weapon or set of armor. Even if I will be getting the rest of the dragon parts once the city finishes processing it. Good thing I have that immunity to spiritual stuff, since apparently the most potent material for any sort of quantum piece of equipment is blood or a heart from a Class S quantum species. Meaning me. In fact, that¡¯s generally how all equipment materials work. Materials from a Class S species are always the best since the Class S species are always the closest in existence to their elements. And people can generally attack someone¡¯s spirit if they know curse related affinities and have enough of their blood. But with my immunity to that, I¡¯m perfectly safe. I also don¡¯t have to worry about people trying to divine my location, but I¡¯m pretty sure that wasn¡¯t an issue to begin with considering that people can¡¯t divine past their Dimensional Block. Especially considering that if someone were to enter our Dimensional Block, it wouldn¡¯t be very hard to know that I¡¯m here. They just have to talk to the people they come across. Anyways, I leave the dwarf to his work and teleport directly outside of the city after seeing him begin studying the scales under his forge. Then I fold my arms behind my head and look around my clearing again. I didn¡¯t get to look at the changes in my clearing much when I was last here due to wanting to deal with the Cataclysm Class monster, but it really does look a lot nicer. They made little roads into the clearing from the city and beyond it, along with a couple guest homes and even started working on a much nicer home that I¡¯m assuming they¡¯ll be having me replace my portable one with. Overall some rather nice changes. It doesn¡¯t look like the new home will be done for a while though. And I can¡¯t exactly summon my portable home here when the other one is currently being constructed where I normally place it. So instead I go ahead and find a nice tree to lean up on overlooking the lake. Then I lie down and lean up against it with a sigh and a smile before just looking out over the lake. It really is a beautiful lake. I¡¯ve always loved nature. Especially when I¡¯m alone to enjoy it. Just the peace and quiet with no one to bother me. Well, no one but the noise of the construction going on at where my new home is being built. But I ignore that right now since they¡¯re building my home for free. I frown at that thought before pursing my lips. Nevermind. Not for free. They¡¯re doing it thanks to my protection. I feel something land on my head, but I don¡¯t pay it any mind as I hear Luna letting out a cute little squeak. Then I feel Luna hopping down to land on my lap before she closes her eyes and seems to go to sleep. Not a bad idea. My eyes slowly drift close, and I join her. B2 | Chapter 60 - Memories Alexia Seven Years Ago I stretch a little as I walk around the corner of one of the hallways in Gramps¡¯ overly large house. But once I make it to Gramps¡¯s office that lies in between my room and the second closest bathroom to my room ¨C the closest one being closed due to an accident that happened earlier in the week ¨C I slow to a halt at the sound of voices coming from the office. So as the nosy person that I am definitely not, I choose the noble route of stopping to tie the nonexistent shoelaces of my slippers in the middle of the hallway near the door. ¡°So there¡¯s still no word about Crystal?¡± I hear gramps¡¯ say through the open doorway. And I can¡¯t help but wonder who Crystal is. A friend of his maybe? ¡°Affirmative, Lord Knight,¡± a voice that I quickly recognize as the head butler of Gramps¡¯ estate responds. A short silence passes while I take my sweet time tying my nonexistent shoelaces. Then Gramps¡¯ voice returns, saying, ¡°And the girls¡¯ father?¡± That almost has me stumbling. Wait, wait, wait, does he mean me and Astrid?! Our father? Or some random girl¡¯s father? ¡°He still hasn¡¯t shown his face since the massacre,¡± the butler answers. ¡°But are you sure you don¡¯t want to tell them? It¡¯s a big secret to keep from the girls.¡± I think he is talking about us. At this point I feel my curiosity rising more and more. Because no one has ever said even so much as a word about our father. And this means Gramps might know who our father is as well. Maybe we can meet him? ¡°I don¡¯t want them to have anything to do with him,¡± Gramps says, immediately stomping on that idea. ¡°The man is not the same man I used to know.¡± Guess that¡¯s a no then. But he knows mom still? How? He¡¯s never mentioned her before either. ¡°In that case, should we continue searching for their father?¡± the butler asks. If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. ¡°Yes, because I would like to have a few words with him,¡± Gramps responds. ¡°In the meantime, find her at all costs.¡± ¡°Very well,¡± the butler replies, ever the formality obsessed old man. ¡°We will locate The Devourer as soon as we can find her.¡± Wait¡­ The Devourer? Isn¡¯t that a myth? I thought the great Devourer didn¡¯t exist. That she was just some sort of legend told about a person who goes and devours those who do wrong. A being as powerful as the weakest quantum beings. But¡­ she¡¯s our mother? ¡°Now look what we have here, a little birdy fluttering where they shouldn¡¯t be,¡± I hear a voice that I don¡¯t recognize directly behind me, making me turn around. But before I can even finish turning, I feel someone grabbing my head and raising me up. They don¡¯t even turn me around to look at them. All I feel is pain from my skull as I whimper, making the two people inside of the office quickly move to the entrance. Before they can make it though, a black and gray light shines from the fingers grasping my head and then everything grows fuzzy. The next thing I know I¡¯m lying in bed back in my room, blinking in confusion. What just happened? I frown. Then I realize I need to go to the bathroom. But¡­ didn¡¯t I already get up to go? Confusion riddles my mind for a little bit before I eventually shrug and get out of bed to go to the bathroom. Must be tired.
Alexia The Present My eyes shoot open to find that it¡¯s now nighttime. And the first thing I do is look down at Luna who is still peacefully napping on my lap. What the¡­ what was that dream? Silence fills the clearing with the only sounds being that of birds chirping and some monster calls deeper into the forest, the construction workers having stopped for the night at some point during my nap. Our mother¡­ is the Devourer? And what was with that man who found me? Did he wipe my memories or something, and I¡¯m only remembering now after I got my immunity to spiritual effects? Because that would make sense, if you ignore the fact that it means Gramps knew about all of this and didn¡¯t say anything. Which I¡¯m not going to ignore and will absolutely be yelling at him for the next time I see him. I lie still, simply staring at the lake for a while. The Devourer. Someone who is practically just a fairy tale. Something that most people don¡¯t believe even exists. Is my mother? That¡­ can¡¯t be true. Because if it is, then how would a mythical being like that die or become forced to not be able to see me or Astrid? It just doesn¡¯t make sense. So¡­ what¡¯s the truth? Is she really my mother? Does the Devourer actually exist? But why wouldn¡¯t they be on the leaderboards if they do exist? No matter how much I try to think about it nothing comes to me. I eventually raise my arms and cross them in front of my face as I groan in frustration. Ugh, this is annoying. I look down as I feel Luna shifting before seeing her let out a light squeak, the little bat stretching slightly in the process. Then she raises her head to look at me, looking ever the adorable one while doing so. Luna lets out another squeak after she finishes stretching and tilts her head as if asking if I¡¯m okay. I pat her on the head with a smile before raising my head to look at the lake and muttering, ¡°I¡¯m fine. Just fine.¡± A strange emptiness fills me, making me briefly wonder if I really am fine. But I quickly push down that emptiness as I climb to my feet with Luna in my arms. Right. Never stop moving. So with that thought in mind, I begin teleporting over to the city to go find Astrid. The only person aside from Gramps who can fill that emptiness when I feel it, even if only a little. I¡¯m fine. B2 | Chapter 61 - Plans Alexia ¡°You really need a break, Lexi,¡± Astrid says with a frown as I sit next to her on top of the wall surrounding the city, the two of us ignoring the guards who gawk as they walk by during their patrols. ¡°You¡¯ve been moving nonstop, constantly fighting and risking your life ever since the start of the System Reset.¡± Her frown grows. ¡°Not even just at the Reset, you¡¯ve been working yourself tirelessly since you entered the academy before the Reset.¡± I lean back, placing my arms behind me as I sigh. ¡°I¡¯m sorry, but I can¡¯t do that,¡± I tell her while looking at the rising sun in front of us. ¡°Not until I hit a wall.¡± Astrid snorts and shakes her head before asking, ¡°And when will that be?¡± I don¡¯t say anything for several seconds before eventually answering, ¡°Probably when I reach Tier 4 and can¡¯t find any Tier 4 dungeons.¡± Tier 4 dungeons are different from other types of dungeons after all. They vanish and reappear almost at random, and are extremely rare and few in-between. To the point that I haven¡¯t seen a single one despite traveling through both Dimensional Blocks #108 and #109. At most I¡¯ve seen a few Tier 3 dungeons. Dungeons that I¡¯ll be heading to later. ¡°Just take a single day off, please,¡± Astrid says, making me completely avoid her gaze which I know will be a pleading one. A face she rarely ever makes. ¡°I¡¯m sorry,¡± I tell her before raising my fist in front of me and clenching it. ¡°I can¡¯t stop now. Not if we want our peace and quiet.¡± Silence fills the wall for several seconds, eventually leading me to look back at Astrid. And what I find surprises me. She has a tear going down her face that has me immediately panicking as I raise my arms and then realize I don¡¯t know what to do with them, so I just ask, ¡°What¡¯s wrong?!¡± ¡°You remembered the promise,¡± she says, making me blink for a moment before I calm down and nod my head. ¡°Of course,¡± I respond, my panic turning into a grin instead. ¡°We¡¯ll find a life of peace and quiet where no one will bother us or anyone we care about. Where no one can bother us.¡± Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. And to do that I have to grow as strong as possible. Even if I have to risk my life and sanity to do it. Neither of us say a word for a while before Astrid eventually sighs and says, ¡°Just make sure you¡¯re safe, alright?¡± I don¡¯t answer her. Instead I pat her on the shoulder and stand up before teleporting away. And I don¡¯t even need to be there to know that she sighed after I left. Because this has become a common situation over the years, albeit not to this degree. Both she and Gramps are always worrying about me overworking myself and never stopping. But I just can¡¯t stop. Not only do I need to fulfill that promise, but I¡¯d feel empty if I wasn¡¯t doing something. Even if I¡¯m just following a whim during whatever I¡¯m doing. It still temporarily fills that emptiness. I take a deep breath before letting it out and beginning to teleport through the air towards the closest Tier 3 dungeon. Which isn¡¯t close in the slightest, considering that I found it around halfway across the Dimensional Block. It¡¯s rather annoying how rare Tier 3 dungeons are. I continue teleporting through the air, passing by one island after another until I pause, making me begin falling down towards the island underneath me. Because the magical communication item that was given to me by Varsac is buzzing. So after a brief hesitation, I teleport down to the ground, ignoring the sight of the monsters nearby running for their lives, and grab the device that looks suspiciously like a phone. Then I press the accept call button on it and raise it to my ear. Just seconds later a voice comes from the other side. One belonging to Varsac. ¡°Lady Reaper, I am calling to show my appreciation for your dealing of the Cataclysm Class monster of the Dimensional Block. If you have anything you would like from me, I will grant it to you.¡± The man says without hesitation, apparently rather happy that I dealt with it. Then again, it makes sense that he would be. The Cataclysm Class monster was literally destroying islands, so it would be weirder if he wasn¡¯t happy about it. Didn¡¯t really think much about the other people in the Dimensional Block when I killed it, to be honest. I purse my lips and think about what I might want from him before an idea comes to mind. ¡°Tell me about any Tier 3 dungeons you know of in the Dimensional Block, along with any Tier 4 dungeons that appear over time,¡± I tell him with a smile on my face. That¡¯ll work. Will make things easier to find them if an entire kingdom is searching for me. ¡°Very well,¡± he says before the man quickly begins listing out a bunch of Tier 3 dungeons along with what elemental alignments they have. And after listening to him for a while, I come to a decision on which dungeon I want to try next. Then the call ends and I begin making my way Northeast, towards the dungeon in question. This dungeon in particular is a death element aligned dungeon. A dungeon I should have full immunity to most of the worst effects for. Since death magic has a large focus on spiritual damage, along with necrosis. But I¡¯ve already gotten the adaptation to the necrosis from my time in Dimensional Block #109, so that won¡¯t be an issue either. I grin as I think of the dungeon. And along with that, I also know of a shadow aligned Tier 3 dungeon that I should be able to get something pretty good for Astrid. But I¡¯ll go to that one after I level up a bit in the death aligned dungeon. For now, back to traveling. B2 | Chapter 62 - Undead Mausoleum Alexia ¡°Your Excellency, Lady Reaper, we have been expecting your arrival and welcome you warmly,¡± a giant says while bowing down the moment I appear in front of their city. They then stand up again to their full height, dwarfing me in the process, who was already short for human standards. Or I guess reaper standards? ¡°I will now take you to the dungeon should you wish.¡± Reaper or human standards aside, I nod my head back at the polite yet very big giant and answer, ¡°Works for me.¡± Then we head off through the island, with them keeping up with my teleportation through simply running. His size making his running pace a lot faster than a human running pace. Although I¡¯m not teleporting all that fast right now, so that¡¯s largely why. I can¡¯t lose him after all. He¡¯s my guide. We continue moving through the island until we come upon what I¡¯m looking for. A large graveyard with what looks like a mausoleum at the center, with statues of gargoyles in front of it. I identify the purple portal that I find after the giant opens the doors to the mausoleum. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Dungeon ¨C Death Mausoleum Description: Enter the Death Mausoleum at your own risk, for should you get lost within its walls, you may never find your way out. Monsters: The Primary monster type in this dungeon are death-aligned undead-type monsters, with the secondary type being abominations. Requirements To Enter: Be Tier 3 or above. Dungeon Tier: 3 -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- So not much in the way of a description. Not that it matters, considering that I¡¯ve already gotten the rundown of what¡¯s in it from the giant over here and Varsac. The mausoleum is mostly full of undead, largely zombie and skeleton type undead. It should also have some special, higher Class undead and a lot of Chaos monster undead. In fact, most of the monsters there were Tier 2 Chaos Monsters. So monsters on par with Class B users in terms of stats. This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience. Meanwhile there are five bosses spread through the dungeon, with each one using death magic. But three of them use it spiritually focused while the other two use it physically focused. The final boss uses it spiritually focused, thankfully. Since spiritual attacks are often considered much worse than physical ones. Makes me glad that I don¡¯t have to deal with spiritual attacks. Luna squeaks from her place on my shoulder, making me reach over to scratch her under the chin. An act that she seems to approve of, considering that she¡¯s purring like a cat. Adorable. Actually didn¡¯t know bats purred until Luna started doing it. Anyways, I turn to face the giant and nod my head, saying, ¡°Thank you for showing me here. That¡¯s all I need.¡± He nods his head and begins to walk away as I face the dungeon entrance. Time for my Tier 3 dungeon. I¡¯m level 285 right now, so it shouldn¡¯t be as bad as the Tier 1 and 2 dungeons were, when I started out at level 1 after entering them. I also have Luna this time, since she chose to join me instead of staying at the base. At this point the city doesn¡¯t really need a protector. Not with all of the defenses and my mercenaries there. They can still use my name to protect themselves should a Class S or other powerful person appear though. Even the Cataclysm Class monster is gone now, so there isn¡¯t a large threat looming anywhere nearby anymore. Unless you count Ethan, but I really can¡¯t see him attacking the city. Also can¡¯t see him defending it. He just doesn¡¯t care about the city one way or the other. Unless he decides to defend it for me that is, but even that I doubt. I glance at Luna once more before facing forwards and stepping into the dungeon. And the very first monster I find after entering the dungeon is a fallen one. A chaos monster. More than one actually. {Fallen Ancient Bones ¨C Level 252} {Fallen Ancient Bones ¨C Level 251} The two skeletons ¨C and that¡¯s basically what they are if I ignore the green flames in their eyes and the black and green armor they¡¯re wearing ¨C are standing on the sides of a door at the end of a large hall. And neither of them are moving, just standing in place at the door. Even if their attention turned to me after I identified them, the two clearly being able to tell when others identify them. They don¡¯t look very strong, and are over thirty levels below me, so¡­ Luna suddenly opens her mouth and sends a Quantum Breath attack at the two skeletons from all the way on our side of the hall, making everything the breath touch glitch out. And as I¡¯m blinking, vaguely surprised by her sudden attack, the breath attack clears up, revealing nothing but a slightly glitching floor and wall without any skeletons. I glance at the bat perched on my shoulder that is now looking at me as if searching for praise. And I can¡¯t help but snort before bursting out into laughter. Luna tilts her head in confusion, making me laugh even harder as I pet her. Which seems to content her enough that she starts purring again and straightening up with pride. ¡°You¡¯re the best, Luna,¡± I manage to get out after laughing my fill. My first real long laugh in a while. I don¡¯t normally laugh like that after all. Normally it¡¯s just a simple snort of amusement, or maybe an amused exhale of breath. Really wasn¡¯t expecting Luna to just kill them as I was trying to figure out how strong they were. I scratch Luna a little before stepping further into the room. And just seconds later, I feel my foot sinking slightly into the floor along with a tile of the room, making me frown and then glance at Luna, who just squeaks once. Then the floor falls out from beneath me, leading to me falling. Until I remember I can teleport and simply teleport back to the top, where I was standing before setting off the trap. Hmm. Okay. The floor returns after several seconds. Take two. Update I have finals over the next few days, so I may end up missing chapters. Like today''s. There won''t be a chapter today. Additionally, I also have to finish The Rise of the Winter Wolf book 5 ASAP since the deadline to finish that is quickly approaching. So I''ll be prioritizing that story over my others with the little time I have remaining to write in the next couple days. But don''t worry, I''m just about done with book 5 of it. So that won''t last long. Probably just a few more chapters and it''ll be done and I can send the rest of it off to my proofreader and go back to writing like normal on Sunday or so. And I might sneak in some chapters of this story during this time as well, depending on how things go with my finals and how long The Rise of the Winter Wolf book 5 ends up. This will be my last set of final exams during a full time semester, since next semester is just part-time semester :) And I couldn''t be happier. I absolutely hate exams. Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions. Testing is just the absolute worst way to decide if someone''s learned something in my opinion. I tend to just forget half of the stuff right at the start of the exam and remember it again afterwards due to stress and anxiety :/ Honestly, I can''t wait for this semester to be over with. It''ll be a lot easier on me afterwards. Next semester just has Senior Design 2 and Secure Programming. And Senior Design doesn''t have exams, so only one class with exams next semester. Putting aside my hatred of exams, have a nice rest of your week. PS: I''ll be copy pasting this over to some of my other stories. Have a Christmas Lexi for your troubles. B2 | Chapter 63 - Another Visitor Alexia I stare at the floor of the room for several second, just looking around it for traps but not really being able to find any. So I eventually decide to just teleport straight to the doors on the other side of the room. Which works out perfectly fine. Cool. I love skipping the entire purpose of floors in dungeons. It¡¯s making a good hobby. I reach for the handle for one of the double doors before opening the door and revealing a hallway filled with more Chaos Monster skeletons. A lot more. They¡¯re all still just at the start of Tier 3 though, so I simply snap my fingers, causing several Quantum Paradox Blasts to explode throughout the hallway before they even begin moving towards me. And none of them manage to survive the blasts, leaving the dungeon corridor filled with occasionally glitching bones and pieces of scrap metal from the armor the skeletons were wearing. Ignoring all of that, I take a step forward into the hallways¡­ and immediately find myself falling again when I somehow manage to step on another trap right away. I scowl as I teleport back to the top and wait a moment for the floor to return. Okay, what the hell is with all of these pitfall traps? I glance at Luna to find her yawning before I focus on the returning floor again. Then I step somewhere else this time. And find myself falling again. So I teleport back up, wait for the floor to return, and step again. Only to end up falling again. Damnit, is this hallway even meant to be passable?! I grit my teeth in irritation before deciding to hell with this hallway and do the same thing I did with the last room. I begin to teleport my way across the room, ignoring the floor entirely. And this plan ends up working well enough. Once I reach the end of the hallway, I find another set of double doors. So I open the doors to find another room like the first one. Instead of stepping inside, I glare at the floor, at this point sure there¡¯s going to be another pitfall. I stare at it for several seconds before reaching one foot out and stepping in, making sure not to remove my other foot. But to my surprise the floor doesn¡¯t give way. A smile stretches across my face at last and I step forwards with my other foot. Only for the floor to vanish and me to end up falling again while swearing. A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation. Right when I teleport back to the top again, a System Message stops me from getting angry at the troll that is this dungeon. {The Dimensional Champion of Dimensional Block #81 has entered Dimensional Block #108. Should your Dimensional Council declare war on Dimensional Block #81 you may challenge the Dimensional Champion to a duel so long as you are still within the same Dimensional Block. The winner of the duel will therefore claim control of the Dimensional Block for their own Block and the Dimensional Wall between the Blocks will no longer require Authority to pass through for citizens of the Blocks.} I blink at the sight of the System Message floating in my vision and ringing in my ears. What the what?
The Island Connected to Dimensional Block #105 Jessie lets out a sigh as she leans on the wall of the fortress, looking out at the vast Dimensional Wall falling down over the bridge to the lava-filled Dimensional Block. And she can¡¯t help but wonder what happened to her life. At one point she was a princess to a nation, and now she¡¯s a random guard manning a random fortress for a random king working under another king. She sighs again. The cruelties of this world sure are cruel. Jessie pauses at that thought. Then she corrects herself. The cruelties of this dimension sure are cruel. She continues leaning up against the wall, eventually resting her head on her arms atop it until she bolts up straight at the sound of a horn blaring. Then she notices the tiny opening in the Dimensional Wall that is growing larger and larger. Another visitor? But the dragonborn made it perfectly clear that they had no interest in working with or against us¡­ not unless we put that hellfrost dragon in charge of our Dimensional Block, that is. Soon enough though, she finds her assumptions to be incorrect. Because the one who walks through the Dimensional Wall is clearly not a dragonborn. They look¡­ like¡­ no¡­ what? The newcomer has glowing crimson eyes with long, pitch black hair and is very recognizable to Jessie. Which is exactly why she¡¯s having trouble believing it. That is, until the newcomer steps into the Dimensional Block and the air vibrates slightly within the Block. Something she learned from a meeting with the higher ups means that a Dimensional Leader or Champion stepped into your Dimensional Block. A sensation that only rings out to those close to the Dimensional Wall they traversed through, and is only feelable by those of the Dimensional Block they entered. Lysandre Knight. The Knight of the Crimson Score. Jessie feels numbed after seeing him. She had heard that he was working for the Silvercrest kingdom, but didn¡¯t believe it since she had seen the guy working. But the person she saw then and the one she sees now are completely different people. The Lysandre Knight she saw before the Reset only had gray hair and gray eyes, but this one looks like the real Lysandre Knight that everyone knows from the news. The real Knight of the Crimson Score. A hydra, just like the Ancient Terror. But unlike the Ancient Terror, he follows his own version of knighthood. Does that mean¡­ he was hiding his identity? Jessie isn¡¯t sure how to feel about this, but she does know one thing. {Lysandre Knight ¨C Hydra ¨C Level 309} The man is ignoring the fortress as he walks straight past it, and the guards aren¡¯t happy. Or at least, they aren¡¯t until they identify the man. After everyone sees his species and level, they ignore him. Even after he transforms into his true hydra form of a massive beast with nine heads, each with glowing red eyes and molten lava dripping down as its saliva. Then everyone at the fortress simply watches him take to the air with manifested wings made of magma before he flies off into the distance. Silence fills the fortress for a while before Jessie realizes something. Wait a second, wasn¡¯t Lady Reaper¡¯s last name Knight? She stares at the slowly fading hydra¡¯s back for a while before shaking her head. No, it has to be a coincidence. Knight is a very common name after all. And just as if nothing had happened, she returns to lazing around. B2 | Story and Cover art First up, the new cover for book 1 of Reaper''s Resurgence: Second is the current cover for book 2 of Reaper''s Resurgence: Next is art of Lexi: This novel''s true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there. Then there''s another image of Lexi at desktop background resolution before we get to the art for characters other than her: Next up is art of Lysandre Knight: And last but not least is art of Alara fighting in some random dungeon: B2 | Chapter 64 - A Reunion Alexia I sit down on the floor of the dungeon right outside of the room as I cross my arms and stare at the System Message floating in my vision. A message that is now starting to fade. Why would the Dimensional Champion of a Dimensional Block so far away from our own be here? Are they just traveling from Block to Block? And if that¡¯s the case, did they straight up abandon their own Dimensional Block? Most importantly though, why did they come here, and who are they? I turn to look back, only to find that the long corridor behind me has somehow been closed off without my noticing. Which makes me frown in surprise before I turn back around to look at the path ahead. Looks like I can¡¯t leave the dungeon until after I find an exit. So I look at my map, searching once more for anything hidden nearby. But I don¡¯t find anything, so I let out a sigh and climb to my feet again. I can¡¯t learn who the Dimensional Champion is with Luna inside of the dungeon with me, and I can¡¯t leave the dungeon until I find an exit. Then again, as long as they don¡¯t bother the Retreat, I don¡¯t really care what they do in the Dimensional Block. They could even attack Varsac, and I wouldn¡¯t really care. The guy has been annoying, even if he¡¯s currently trying to make me happy. And there¡¯s a chance the Dimensional Champion might be a Class S species, so Ethan might take interest in them without me having to go see who they are. Either way, I teleport to the other end of the room, deciding to just go ahead and proceed through the dungeon to find an exit. It¡¯s too bad communication devices don¡¯t work within dungeons.
Somewhere in Dimensional Block #108 Lysandre is filled with anxiety as he flies through the air in his enormous hydra form, not bothering to stop even when he passes by cities located on the islands scattered through the air. Instead he follows the bond he feels with his adopted daughter. He¡¯s pretty sure that the reason the bond vanished with Lexi just recently was her going into a dungeon, but that knowledge doesn¡¯t make him feel any better regardless. So he continues flying through the air towards where he feels Astrid is at through the bond he set up with the twins. A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. The hydra briefly notices that every island he passes by raises their alarm at the mere sight of him, but he ignores that as well. He just flies straight towards his adopted daughter, uncaring of anything else. And after nearly an entire day of flying, he sees the island the bond is leading to beginning to enter his vision. Then a loud roar echoes from a nearby island, making him come to a halt, his nine heads quickly looking around to find the source of the roar. A search that doesn¡¯t take long before he finds a large dragon taking off from a nearby island covered in taiga. Hellfrost dragon. Ethan Silva. His eyes narrow. He¡¯s one of the two dragons that worked with Lexi according to that Legendary Feat. ¡°Knight of the Crimson Score, what brings you so far from your Block?¡± A deep voice resonates through the area as the nearby islands sound alarms at the sight of Lysandre. Lysandre narrows the eyes of each and every one of his heads slightly and says, ¡°First answer my question. What is your relationship with The Reaper and her sister?¡± Several seconds pass in silence without the dragon saying a word. Then, out of nowhere, a deep laugh fills the area and Ethan says, ¡°And what does my relationship with The Reaper have to do with you?¡± The serpentine heads of the hydra all let out a slow hiss as if showing his anger. Meanwhile the air around the two Class S species grows tense, with flames of ice sparking into life around the dragon, with droplets of magma falling down from the air around the hydra. And just as quickly as the tense atmosphere had arrived, it¡¯s shattered when Ethan laughs again and says, ¡°If you¡¯re looking for your adopted daughters, I only know where Lexi is.¡± A smile stretches across the dragon¡¯s face at the sight of the hydra¡¯s eyes narrowing further as Ethan returns to his humanoid form. ¡°She is currently inside of a Tier 3 dungeon training.¡± Despite the situation, Lysandre can¡¯t help but feel relieved upon hearing that. Then he asks, ¡°And Astrid?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know,¡± Ethan answers, his interest rapidly dropping at the topic of Lexi¡¯s twin sister. ¡°You can find her yourself, can¡¯t you?¡± Lysandre glares at the man once more before returning to his own humanoid form while keeping his molten wings manifested on his back. The tense atmosphere returns as the hydra¡¯s glare meets the dragon¡¯s apathy and indifference. ¡°What interest do you have in my daughter?¡± Lysandre asks, putting more than a little heat in his words. Ethan just stares for several seconds before sighing and answering, ¡°None that she¡¯ll ever know about.¡± Then the dragon flies away without another word, leaving Lysandre blinking in surprised. He could realize the hopelessness of chasing after her like that? The hydra watches the fading dragon for several seconds as the dragon heads towards the very same taiga island he had left from before turning around and beginning to fly towards the city he senses Astrid in. That dragon might be more than appearances imply. Lysandre keeps his attention narrowly focused on a single point on the island as soon as he gets close enough to see her. And it doesn¡¯t take long for her to see him as well, proving that her sensitive perception hasn¡¯t changed in the slightest. Although he is surprised to find her new form, since she is clearly no longer human. Must¡¯ve changed her species after the Tutorial. It¡¯s not as surprising as when he learned that Lexi had become a quantum being though. Lysandre is pretty sure nothing can top that surprise. He quickly begins to fly down towards the city as he sees a smile stretching across Astrid¡¯s face. And for the first time in a while, a matching smile stretches across his own. B2 | Chapter 65 - Answers The Retreat Astrid smiles widely at the sight of her gramps, even if there are quite a few details about him that she doesn¡¯t recognize. Particularly the fact that he¡¯s a hydra. When he became a hydra, or how long he¡¯s been one, Astrid has absolutely no idea. But in the end she doesn¡¯t really care. She and Lysandre hug the moment he reaches the ground. Then she leads him into the city through the walls, ignoring the gawking soldiers in the process. ¡°How have you been?¡± Her gramps asks, making her glance at him with a smile again. ¡°Pretty good, but I¡¯m still lagging behind Lexi,¡± Astrid answers honestly while turning her gaze forwards again. She¡¯s leading them to her home near the council hall, completely uncaring about introducing him to the leaders of the city. Since they don¡¯t particularly matter to her all that much. Other than Aidan and Alara, that is. Alara in particular she¡¯s gotten closer to than she expected she would. Astrid generally doesn¡¯t believe in making friends, since most people outside of family are perfectly willing to betray someone for their own benefit anyways. But for some reason Astrid just feels she can trust Alara. And while that has brought up her guard just in and of that fact itself, she hasn¡¯t seen any reason not to trust her yet. She glances to the side as she and Lysandre continue walking, only to find Alara standing on a roof and looking at them both with an exasperated expression on her face. Astrid soon hears Alara muttering, ¡°What are we, the gathering place of Class S species or something¡­? Those twins are going to give me a heart attack one day, I swear¡­¡± before she leaves the roof, jumping from one to another until she leaves Astrid¡¯s senses. Quickly deciding to act like she didn¡¯t hear that, Astrid turns back to Lysandre as he asks, ¡°What¡¯s with that dragon outside of the city?¡± ¡°Oh, him?¡± Astrid utters, glancing at Lysandre for a second before continuing to walk through the city, uncaring of the frightened looks directed at them. ¡°He¡¯s a weird one. Keeps pursuing Lexi without pursuing her.¡± It¡¯s rather annoying how often I feel his senses sweeping over the city in search of her. I almost wish Lexi would just tell him to buzz off, but I know she won¡¯t do that. ¡°Thought so,¡± her gramps mutters, not sounding too pleased about it either. The two of them continue walking, now in silence, until they reach Astrid¡¯s house. Or at least, one of her houses. Since the other is located in her sister¡¯s clearing. This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. But that one isn¡¯t finished being constructed yet, so Astrid just takes him to the house within the city instead. Once they enter it, leaving the public eye, Astrid hugs her adopted grandfather again, making him chuckle and pat her on the back. The then the two separate and Astrid takes him to the living room while asking, ¡°So where have you been?¡± Astrid remembers that the location someone was sent to after the Reset was based on their location prior to the Reset. Which means that, since her gramps is clearly not from their Dimensional Block, he must¡¯ve been out of the Silvercrest Kingdom at the time of the Reset. But neither she nor Lexi heard anything about that. Then there¡¯s the other matter. Astrid glances at the small snake sticking its head out of her gramps¡¯ collar, almost hugging his neck. ¡°And since when were you a hydra?¡± she adds, finally bringing it up. ¡°Right¡­¡± her gramps says while scratching the back of his neck. ¡°About that¡­¡± The two sit on a sofa in Astrid¡¯s comfortable but rather lacking-in-decorations living room as he seems to hesitate for a bit. Then he finally lets out a sigh and answers, ¡°I was hiding from someone. And I couldn¡¯t let either you or your sister meet him.¡± Silence fills the room for a while with a maid arriving to drop tea off for the two before leaving again. Then, right as her gramps is beginning to take a sip of the tea, Astrid raises an eyebrow, crosses her arms, and asks, ¡°Is that man our birth father by any chance?¡± Her gramps begins coughing on the tea before he exclaims, ¡°How?!¡± Only to cover his mouth again a second later. ¡°Thought so,¡± Astrid says, a frown cresting her face. ¡°The Quantum Architect told Lexi that our parents are both still alive. And that our biological father doesn¡¯t know we exist.¡± To her surprise, her grandfather shows extreme surprise at the mention of her parents both being alive as he shouts, ¡°Crystal is alive?! Where is she!? What happened to her?!¡± Astrid blinks in her own surprise before shrugging and answering, ¡°No idea. He only said they were alive and nothing else.¡± Lysandre leans back in his chair again, quickly calming down as he takes in the information. Guess he didn¡¯t know our mother was alive. But Crystal is her name? That¡¯s news to me¡­ Silence fills the room for a little while again until her gramps finally raises his head and says, ¡°Your father did something unforgiveable, so both your mother and I left him while she was pregnant with you two. But we didn¡¯t know she was pregnant until after we had already left. And we weren¡¯t really sure what to do at that point.¡± He lowers his gaze again, a look of sadness crossing his eyes. ¡°Then we were separated after being found by one of your father¡¯s subordinates.¡± A dark look replaces the sad one. ¡°I wasn¡¯t able to find her whereabouts after the separation until after she had already gone missing in a dungeon. But no matter how hard I searched through the dungeon, I couldn¡¯t find her. As if she had vanished in the dungeon.¡± The silence returns once more. Astrid reaches forwards and grabs her own teacup before taking a sip herself. Her gramps finally raises his head to look at Astrid again as he says, ¡°The foster system had already taken you and Lexi in by then, leaving you in the hands of that corrupt orphanage director. So after I finally found you two, I immediately went to the orphanage. And you know the story from there.¡± Neither of them say anything for a while, Astrid feeling strange about finally knowing what happened while her gramps no doubt feels guilty. But Astrid doesn¡¯t blame him. Instead she¡¯s just curious about what her mother is like. Eventually the silence is broken by her gramps as he, out of nowhere, asks, ¡°Do you, by any chance, want to become a Class S species?¡± Astrid¡¯s head shoots up from her tea as she exclaims, ¡°What?!¡± B2 | Chapter 66 - Decisions Alexia ¡°Am I the only one getting sick of this?¡± I ask Luna after teleporting back up to the top of the most recent of what must be over a hundred traps by now. ¡°Because it¡¯s getting old.¡± Luna, seemingly understanding what I¡¯m saying, nods her head in agreement. I¡¯m honestly starting to wonder if I¡¯m even supposed to be up here. It might be possible that the dungeon is meant to drop you down. That there isn¡¯t anything actually up here. Considering how few monsters I¡¯ve run into up here, with no hidden areas and nothing of any importance, that theory is becoming more and more plausible. I purse my lips before deciding to try one more room. So I teleport to the other side of the room, enter the hallway, teleport through it, arrive at the door to the next room, open it, and immediately fall into another pitfall. ¡°That¡¯s it,¡± I mutter. ¡°Screw this fucking dungeon.¡± I glance at Luna to find her tilting her head. Then I look down the pit and let out a sigh before dropping down. All while making sure I¡¯m prepared to teleport at any moment. Just in case something dangerous is down there. I end up falling for quite some time before an eerie purple light begins to shine from down beneath me. But I just keep falling for a while, even after that. All the way till I finally find myself entering some wide open world through a strange portal. One that seems to be leaking miasma. Guess I was right. Which also means I wasted the last few hours doing nothing of worth but getting annoyed at a dungeon. I narrow my eyes, my fists clenching at my side slightly. The next time I see that System Architect I¡¯m going to punch him in the face for designing this. Even if he didn¡¯t design it. Because I can¡¯t punch the System in the face, so he¡¯s the next best thing. Plus it gives me an excuse to do that other than my other excuses. Can always keep the excuses to do that piled up. Assuming I ever see him again. Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings. There¡¯s a decent chance I won¡¯t be seeing one of his clones again. After all, I haven¡¯t seen one yet. So¡­ Anyways, looking around the world I¡¯m falling into, some sort of world prepared for the dungeon itself, the place is filled to the brim with miasma. The grass all over the ground is quite dead, the trees are dead, skeletons of animals and humans can occasionally be seen littering the ground, and there are an awful lot of crows flying around the air. Oh, and the undead. Can¡¯t forget the occasional masses of undead I find walking around. Despite seeing that it looks just like the ones I saw in the endless trap-filled halls above, I go ahead and identify it. Just in case. {Fallen Ancient Bones ¨C Level 252} Yeah, thought so. They do have less armor though. Probably due to the number of them or something. The skeleton I identify looks up in my direction, only to continue lumbering around without direction after likely realizing that there¡¯s no way it can reach me up here. Considering that I¡¯m teleporting to stay in place up here, high above the ground. Well, skeletons aside, I need to find an exit. Since I still need to see what¡¯s going on with that Dimensional Champion. I just hope they aren¡¯t bothering The Retreat. My eyes narrow slightly at that thought. If they are then I¡¯ll have to add a Dimensional Champion to my list of kills just like the Dimensional Leader. I shake my head at the thought, trying to convince myself that not everyone in power is out to attack me. Still can¡¯t help but wonder who or what they are though. I begin to teleport through the sky while occasionally dropping a Quantum Paradox Blast down on the skeletons as I go. Because free EXP is always nice. It¡¯s too bad skills become a lot rarer the higher your level gets. Wait¡­ My eyes widen and a grin splits my face. Maybe¡­ do I have enough soul now to use Quantum Phasing? Or one of those other skills that I got but couldn¡¯t use due to the soul requirements? Because that would help me a lot. I was too focused on our earlier goal to think about it. On killing that dragon. Actually, I could do a complete revamp of my skills list. Except Quantum Displacement. Maybe Quantum Bolt too, considering just how high a level it is. And Quantum Infusion and Adaptation are staying too. Adaptation will always be staying. I don¡¯t really need Quantum Attunement all that much considering Energy Manipulation, since all Quantum Attunement does is make me a bit more sensitive to things that I¡¯d already be able to sense. And Quantum Aura just makes some projectiles change trajectories slightly that are going to hit me. There are better passives in my skills list than those. The only problem with this is that all of my skills at this point are at level ten, on the border of Tier 2. Well, except Quantum Displacement and Quantum Bolt, the former of which is Tier 3 and the latter Tier 2. It¡¯s just too bad that I don¡¯t have as much time to go around clearing dungeons for the cores that I¡¯ll get from their final bosses. I purse my lips while tapping my chin before glancing at Luna, only to find her jumping off of my shoulder and sending breath attacks at the skeletons below. Come to think of it, I¡¯m pretty sure one of the skills I just unlocked after that battle with the dragon was a breath attack skill. Looks like it could be useful. But¡­ is it better than a bolt? Which type of projectile skill should I go with? I¡¯ll only be getting a skill every twenty-fifth level now that I¡¯m Tier 3, but I still have a rather large number of skills built up from previous levels that I never or couldn¡¯t use due to the soul requirements being too high. Well, guess I can always go around testing skills. Which means my next stop is to find a safe zone within this dungeon. B2 | Chapter 67 - Reaper’s Cloak Alexia Okay, this was not what I was looking for when I was teleporting across this seemingly endless wasteland, but I¡¯ll gladly take it. I can¡¯t help but grin as I look at the loot box in front of me. The box, along with myself, are both sitting inside of a large mausoleum. Which is ironic considering that this dungeon itself is inside of a mausoleum. At least on the exterior. The loot box is on top of a raised platform with short stairs leading up to it and four unlit torches on each corner of the platform. Meanwhile several empty graves line up the sides of the mausoleum. This is my first loot box in the dungeon, which means¡­ it might be Tier 4. Since this is a Tier 3 dungeon, there¡¯s a good chance for a Tier 3 item. And The First Clear Legendary Feat should advance that to Tier 4. Assuming this is a Tier 3 item to start with, that is. I don¡¯t have a Tier 4 item yet. My best item is that Quantum Lock ring. And that¡¯s only at Tier 3. Although thinking ¡®only at Tier 3¡¯ makes me feel weird, considering how I lived pre-Reset. I take in a deep breath before raising my hands slightly, holding them palms together in front of me in a short prayer for luck. Some thing I heard some people who used to worship those Class S species called ¡®gods¡¯ used to do. Before they went extinct thanks to a certain vampire, that is. After doing what is most likely a pointless prayer which only feels right for some reason considering the fact that this room is jampacked full of energy, I reach out for the loot box. And immediately let out a light grunt when it turns into a mimic and bites my arm. I glare at the chest as the chest seemingly glares back at me despite not having eyes. {Fallen Mimic ¨C Level 298} Just like the previous mimic I fought, the creature is black and blue in color and the moment it transforms into its monster mode has sharp bones shooting out of the edges, centipede legs jutting out of the bottom, and a bunch of sharp teeth latching onto my arm while drawing glitchy purplish red blood. ¡°Rude,¡± I comment, still glaring at the thing. The mimic lets out a chitter sound. I grab onto its tongue since my arm is in its mouth already before blinking and deciding, ¡®why not?¡¯ Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings. It won¡¯t hurt to try. Won¡¯t hurt me at least. So I activate Quantum Paradox Blast right in front of my hand. Inside of the mimic¡¯s mouth. It immediately shoots its mouth open, but I continue holding onto its tongue when it tries spitting me out. Then I activate Quantum Paradox Blast after Quantum Paradox blast inside of its mouth. And to finish the smoking thing off, I summon my polearm and stab it straight down the bottom center of its mouth, making the thing collapse onto the ground again. The thing somehow begins to send explosions of fire to its side as if trying to propel it off of the platform, but my polearm is currently stabbing through it into the ground beneath it. Keeping it locked in place. ¡°I¡¯m not letting you get away like your pal did before¡­¡± I mutter, quietly watching while the mimic dies in front of me. [Level 298 Fallen Mimic Defeated ¨C User¡¯s earned EXP has been increased by a small portion due to killing a being whose level is five or more levels above their own.] {Congratulations! You have leveled up to level 292! Your Species has awarded you +2 VIT, +2 DEX, +2 STR, +2 MAG, and +2 MEN. Your Class has awarded you +1 VIT, +2 DEX, +1 STR, +2 MAG, and +2 MEN.} Oh, not bad. Got a level from the thing. After dying, the fallen mimic turns back into a regular loot box, leaving me grasping at nothing as it shines with a golden-purple light, making a cloak appear above the loot box. And just the golden-purple light along has me grinning, much less the description. Hell yeah! I actually got a class item! -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Reaper¡¯s Cloak Description: This cloak makes it harder to recognize the wearer when the user desires to go unnoticed. Those near them will subconsciously ignore them, and if they are about to identify you may find themselves forgetting to identify you right before trying. The wearer will also take five percent less damage from magic, and three percent less damage from physical attacks. Stats Bonus: +50 MAG, +50 MEN Requirements: Can only be worn by those with the class ¡®Quantum Reaper¡¯. Item Tier: 4 (Item Tier increased by one due to the Legendary Feat, The First Clear) -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- I immediately reach out to grab the cloak before holding it up in front of me to take a look at it. Only to find that it¡¯s heavier than I expected. Then I notice that it¡¯s also part armor, not just a cloak. Interesting. I quickly bond the thing to me, making it soulbound before the cloak appears on my body in the place of my old armor. The cloak part is largely ripped up, making it look kind of like a shredded cape behind me, with a shredded part covering my waist that seem similar to dark purple shadows that occasionally flicker with a violet shade. Meanwhile a set of armor covers my vital areas beneath the cloak, with no cloak over my arms and instead full deep purple armor there going down to my hands. It has a deep purple cowl that occasionally flickers with quantum energy and armor covering my legs down to my feet. So all in all, it¡¯s more armor than cloak. Or, rather than that, it¡¯s more armor and damaged cloak than normal cloak. But I have to admit, looking into a mirror I grab from my storage ring, it does make me look cool. Especially with my glowing purple eyes shining under the hood. I put the mirror away and grab onto the polearm with both hands before pulling it out and turning around to leave the hidden area. This item will probably be a keeper that I¡¯m gonna have to upgrade over time. B2 | Chapter 68 - New Skill Set Alexia Silence fills the strange mausoleum I¡¯m sitting in as I contemplate my skills. Meanwhile some skeletons can be heard banging on the door, but I ignore them since I¡¯m inside of a Safe Zone. So they can¡¯t enter regardless of how hard they try. My current list of active skills include Quantum Reversal, Quantum Displacement, Quantum Bolt, Quantum Paradox Blast, Quantum Resonance, and Wave-Particle Cascade. Meanwhile my passive skills include Quantum Attunement, Quantum Infusion, Quantum Adaptation, Quantum Aura, and Quantum Effect Observation. And I haven¡¯t had the chance to slot a sixth passive skill yet since I only got that slot unlocked after killing the dragon. To have a good setup, I need a healing skill, a movement skill, single-target damage skill, multi-target damage skill, and a powerful finishing skill. The rest can vary so long as I have those. Quantum Displacement fits for the movement skill, so I am absolutely keeping that one. And I¡¯m also keeping Quantum Infusion and Quantum Adaptation, since those are pretty much necessary as well. As for the rest¡­ I think I¡¯ll replace Quantum Paradox Blast with Quantum Breath, which is basically just a breath attack using quantum energy instead of fire or something else. Basically just spews out a flame-like form of quantum energy that makes everything glitch out and break apart in reality that it touches. It makes for a good multi-target damage skill. Much better than Quantum Paradox Blast, which only had a single level of output. This one I can determine the amount of quantum flames that I shoot out. And I can spread it out over a wide area as well. I¡¯ll keep Quantum Bolt as my single target damage skill since there isn¡¯t too much to replace it with, and I already have the skill at Tier 2. So it¡¯d be a waste of a core if I replaced it. Which leaves me with Quantum Displacement, Quantum Breath, and Quantum Bolt as three of my six active skills now. I purse my lips before deciding that Wave-Particle Cascade is still very useful since it gives me versability in my fighting. Which makes four of my six actives. As for the healing skill, I replace Quantum Reversal with Quantum Stasis Copy. A skill that is a lot more soul intensive than Quantum Reversal, but is instant in its effects and doesn¡¯t cause me pain, unlike Quantum Reversal. The skill itself works by apparently taking a copy of my body in the past and overlaying it with my body in the present, setting my physical body back to the health it was then. This doesn¡¯t revert levels or EXP, or any skill benefits I¡¯ve gotten either, since it¡¯s only my physical body that is reverted. This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there. Overall, it¡¯s a powerful skill. But it costs a lot of soul to use, and the further back I copy from, the more soul it costs to use. To the point that at my level I can only copy half an hour or so into the past, and even just that takes a tenth or so of my soul to do. With the cost growing exponentially from there. So that¡¯s five out of the six. What should I do for the last one¡­ I guess I¡¯ll just use that one. Quantum Singularity Implosion. A skill that creates a quantum singularity that draws everything near it towards itself before causing everything drawn inside to implode in a massive explosion. It¡¯s far stronger than my other skills, has a rather large soul expenditure, and is also a multi-target finisher just as much as it¡¯s a single-target one. Moving on to the passive skills, I have Quantum Infusion, Quantum Adaptation, and I don¡¯t particularly have any types of skills that I need. So I can just pick what helps. I already have my racial skills for defense, but I could always use another¡­ Energy Absorption could work. It absorbs a small amount of energy from every magical attack I take, using it to refill my soul instead of dealing damage. That makes three passives. So Quantum Regeneration works for the fourth. A rather simple and straightforward skill that increases the rate of my soul regeneration. I think I¡¯ll keep Quantum Observation Effect, simply because having a powerful attack that doesn¡¯t cost any soul that I can release after charging it up is very helpful. Even if it¡¯s unreliable to rely on, since I have to charge it up in the first place. And the last one I¡¯ll make Quantum Synergy. Which basically just enhances all of the quantum magic I use a little bit. Every little bit counts after all. I smile, finally confirming all of the changes to my skills. Then I get up from the floor and stretch a little bit. A much better setup now, even if I¡¯m going to have to train a bunch of skills from level one again. It¡¯s too bad skills don¡¯t just automatically start at the Tier of the owner of said skills. Because that would be too convenient for us users. I sigh at that thought before glancing up at Luna, who is now flying down from the ceiling, the little bat having been roosting there while I worked on my skills. ¡°You have a good nap?¡± I ask her with a smile, and she squeaks once before purring and rubbing her head against my neck after landing on my shoulder. So I chuckle, ¡°That¡¯s good.¡± That took a bit longer than I expected it would. But now I¡¯m done with that. Next up on the bucket list of things to do is try out my new skill set, get used to it, level it up a bit along with myself, and then leave the dungeon to go check out who that Dimensional Champion is. I reach into my pocket before pulling out an item that Astrid had given me. The thing is linked to one that she has, and if it is destroyed, then that means the holder of the other one in the linked pair is in danger. So the fact that this isn¡¯t destroyed means that she¡¯s at least safe. But going out to deal with the problem without my skills leveled is a bad idea. And so was going out without changing them to a better setup, since I¡¯m still a bit under leveled right now compared to the other Class S species. I¡¯m only now starting to inch back into the top ten again after all. The Ancestral Dragon is over thirty levels above me at this point for example. I frown at the thought. Not something I¡¯m particularly happy or proud of. I shake my head before turning around and beginning to leave the mausoleum. Time to train my skills. Then leave the dungeon to check on Astrid. Because she¡¯s more important right now than a leaderboard. B2 | Chapter 69 - Another Reunion Alexia After getting used to my new mix-up of skills, I raise each of them to at least level 4. Then I immediately depart out the first emergency exit I find on my map and begin making my way back towards The Retreat as quickly as I can. A process that proves easier than expected thanks to the most recent benefit Quantum Displacement has. The one that lets me choose to keep or discard my momentum before teleporting. A very beneficial bonus while I¡¯m flying. I continue teleporting through the air for a couple hours, teleporting thousands of meters at a time until I eventually arrive at Ethan¡¯s island, the man flying up to stop me. ¡°How¡¯s Astrid?¡± I ask right away, making him snort in amusement. ¡°She¡¯s fine,¡± Ethan answers, making me sigh in relief. ¡°If you¡¯re curious, there¡¯s someone I¡¯m sure you want to meet with at the nearby molten island.¡± I blink before frowning and tilting my head slightly as I ask, ¡°Wait, the Dimensional Champion is here? But why would he be there?¡± There isn¡¯t anything of worth on that island. Just a bunch of magma with a couple Tier 1 dungeons. Not even a Tier 2 dungeon on it. Although I think there was a couple fire magical ore that I saw when passing by. Wait, I feel like I can sense them¡­ oh, right. There was that Legendary Feat. ¡°He¡¯s there with your sister, if you¡¯re curious,¡± Ethan says, a faint grin stretching across his face. And those words immediately set me on edge as I ignore the dragon and begin teleporting over towards the magma island without hesitation. What I find when I arrive though has me freezing in place. Or rather, falling down since I stopped teleporting. Eventually I crash land onto the island, but I ignore that as it doesn¡¯t hurt. Instead I continue staring at the man I recognize as Gramps, albeit with some differences. Like his glowing red eyes. And the snakes growing on his body. Yeah, the snakes are very new. But other than just him, I¡¯m even more shocked by the massive egg made of magma next to him. And the only reason I can tell that it¡¯s some sort of egg is because I can sense an energy source inside of it. One that I recognize very well. The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement. I identify the egg. {Astrid Knight ¨C Class: Shadowblade ¨C Hydra/Shadowborne Hybrid ¨C Level 231} I stare for several seconds at the ID before eventually glancing at Gramps and asking, ¡°What¡¯s happening to her?¡± He just grins and says, ¡°She¡¯s becoming a hydra!¡± I stare some more. He grins back. Eventually I just shrug and walk over to the man before giving him a light hug and stepping back. ¡°Not going to question anything?¡± he asks, sounding both amused and as if he was expecting this. ¡°Not really,¡± I answer. ¡°I always knew you were hiding things from us, and the Quantum Architect pretty much hinted at you being well-known across the universe. So it makes sense that you might be a Class S species.¡± I turn to look at the egg holding Astrid. ¡°As for what you¡¯re going now, I¡¯m guessing Astrid was up for it since she¡¯s like this, and if it¡¯ll make her stronger, then I¡¯m all for it.¡± ¡°As laidback as always,¡± Gramps mutters before he pats my head. But I quickly try to swipe his hand away, only to fail when I realize that he¡¯s quite a bit stronger than me physically. So I just teleport away and let out a huff of air. Which only makes him laugh as he says, ¡°I missed you girls.¡± I don¡¯t say anything for several seconds before muttering, ¡°I missed you too.¡± We both begin watching over Astrid for a while before I eventually ask, ¡°So how are you turning her into a hydra anyways?¡± He glances at me with a raised brow as if saying ¡®now you ask?¡¯ before he proceeds to answer while staring at Luna who is on my shoulder, ¡°As you may have guessed, I¡¯m the real Knight of the Crimson Score. And those rumors about me experimenting to create true Class S species weren¡¯t exactly baseless.¡± I look at him with a raised brow of my own. Right. I remember now. Rumors had broken out that the Knight of the Crimson Score was experimenting on monsters and death row criminals of the worst order in an attempt to turn lower Class species into Class S species. But no one gave it much thought since everyone thought it was impossible. ¡°Well, turns out it¡¯s possible for a couple Class S species to do that, if you have their blood,¡± Gramps answers with a shrug. ¡°Those Class S species whose initial racial skill includes regeneration are the only ones that can have someone become one of them.¡± Then he scratches his chin for a moment before glancing at me and adding, ¡°Please don¡¯t tell any other hydras about this though.¡± Right. They wouldn¡¯t be very happy if they knew he had a method to turn a random person into a hydra. ¡°Oh, and it can¡¯t just be anyone that I turn into one either,¡± he adds, canceling out my last thought. ¡°They have to have a C or higher affinity with the magma element at the minimum. Preferably higher.¡± I frown at that before looking at Astrid again and saying, ¡°She barely had a Class C affinity for magma. Will she be okay?¡± ¡°Yeah, you girls are the exception,¡± he answers, making me turn to look at him again. But he doesn¡¯t say more. My eyes narrow a little. No, I¡¯m not letting you off just like that. ¡°Do you mean because our mother is the Devourer?¡± I ask, making his head swivel around to look at me with shock plastered across it. ¡°Yes, I know. My memories are coming back now that I¡¯m immune to status effects. So answer my question please.¡± Silence fills the clearing for several seconds as I frown at the man who basically raised me and Astrid on his own. Meanwhile he stares back in shock. Not letting you off at all. Not without answers about our mother. B2 | Chapter 70 - A Surprise Visit and New Companion Alexia Silence fills the little clearing we¡¯re in as the magma egg sitting in the pool of magma next to us continues bubbling. Then Gramps lets out a sigh and answers, ¡°Yes, the reason you two can change species so easily is because of your mother.¡± I grow slightly confused at the way he said that. ¡°Wait, me as well?¡± I ask, feeling more than a little surprised. He nods his head, ¡°Yeah, it¡¯s likely why it was possible for you to become a Quantum Reaper in the first place.¡± And when he sees my confusion growing, he adds, ¡°You didn¡¯t think the Quantum Architect chose you at random, did you?¡± I feel a light blush heat up my cheeks as I glance away from Gramps. ¡°You did,¡± he mutters before chuckling. ¡°A little advice when dealing with the System¡¯s Creator, don¡¯t believe everything he says.¡± A frown of his own appears on his face. ¡°The man is very manipulative. Probably didn¡¯t want you getting a big head, or finding out until now who your mother was.¡± I feel my eye twitching in irritation. So the bastard really did lie¡­ I feel like punching him in the face. Which, in all honesty, isn¡¯t new. Gramps opens his mouth to speak again, only for time to suddenly freeze around us. I look around in confusion, briefly wondering what could possibly freeze time after a System Reset. Only for my gaze to lock onto a certain asshole as he appears in front of me. The two of us stare at each other for several seconds without either of us saying a word. Eventually I reach forward and punch him in the face, to which he simply ignores and takes the hit without a word. Unlike the first times I met him, the Quantum Architect is wearing purple and black armor, with a strange purple hammer hooked to his waist. He still has his long hair, but the purple tint in it seems more vibrant and practically glowing now than it was before. Meanwhile his eyes are glowing with a fiercer light. ¡°Are you done?¡± he asks without showing any hint of emotion on his face. His indifference makes me want to punch him again, but I refrain because I¡¯m the mature one here. Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit. ¡°Daughter, you are far from being the mature one here,¡± the Quantum Architect states, once more reading my mind. But his use of the word ¡®daughter¡¯ has me almost punching him again. ¡°Since when did I become your daughter?¡± I ask with a scowl on my face. This time he frowns slightly before his face returns to that same indifferent look as he says, ¡°Since you took in my essence and became a quantum being.¡± It just sounds wrong when he says it like that. ¡°I¡¯m not your daughter,¡± I bluntly tell him while crossing my arms and glancing at everything around us, which is tinted in a purple hue while time is frozen. ¡°Whether you acknowledge it or not, it¡¯s true,¡± he states plainly as if talking to a child. ¡°Now that you¡¯ve learned enough not to trust me, the seal has been broken and I can move more freely again. So thank you for that.¡± Before I can get angry at his first statement, I just feel confusion at his second. ¡°Seal?¡± I ask with a frown. ¡°And this doesn¡¯t feel like a clone to me.¡± ¡°That¡¯s because this isn¡¯t a clone, per se,¡± he answers, borderline shocking me. ¡°But it also is.¡± Now I¡¯m just confused. ¡°What do you mean?¡± I ask, making him stare at me for a few seconds. And while he¡¯s staring, I honestly can see a resemblance between us in terms of appearance. As if we really were father and daughter. Which only pisses me off. ¡°Get used to it,¡± he says, pissing me off even more. Then he answers my question, ¡°You did kill my old body, but did you really think that would be the end of me?¡± My mouth parts open slightly before I close it again, unable to bring myself to say anything. ¡°I¡¯ve been preparing for this for centuries now. Ever since I heard that the Devourer fell in love with a human.¡± He raises his hands and looks at them as he continues, ¡°Preparing a new body to house my soul once my original body died.¡± He raises his head to look at me again. ¡°And a successor to finally appease that damned father of mine.¡± I frown at that last part. The Quantum Architect¡¯s¡­ father? And successor to what? But I guess the Quantum Architect really isn¡¯t dead as everyone believes him to be. ¡°I¡¯m still limited in what I can do, and I can¡¯t maintain this form for long,¡± he explains while lowering his hands to his sides. ¡°So I¡¯m going to need to copy something of yours.¡± I feel a chill run down my spine at that, especially when his gaze turns towards Luna who is on my shoulder. ¡°A soul bound companion should work,¡± he says before a wave of purple and blue energy rushes over him and he eventually reappears out of it in the form of a small bat that looks identical to Luna. Then he flaps his wings and lands on my shoulder. ¡°This should work for now.¡± I stare at him for several seconds, unsure of how to take what just happened. But he just closes his eyes as if going to sleep. ¡°I needed a vessel and connection to recover, so while this wasn¡¯t the reason I made you my daughter, it is a necessary thing,¡± he answers my confusion without even opening his eyes. I just continue staring at the bat on my shoulder before trying to swat him off, only for my hand to quite literally pass through him. As if he were a ghost. And the man-now-bat in question doesn¡¯t even bother saying anything in response to my swatting. Just sits there on my shoulder while the purple tint in the air vanishes with a shattering sound. Marking the end of the time freeze. Then I look at Gramps to find him staring at the new bat on my shoulder. Neither of us say anything for a while before he looks at my face and asks, ¡°Are you collecting bats or something?¡± I refrain from punching him as well. B2 | Intermission 4 Dimensional Block #1 ¡°The next matter at hand is-¡± the vampire speaking suddenly stops as everyone in the council chamber, including Lucas, turn to look at the entrance of the chambers when it bursts open. Then a fallen angel ¨C just like Lucas ¨C rushes into the room and ignores everyone to rush straight up to Lucas before bowing. ¡°Your Excellency, we have finally found The Reaper,¡± the man says without any hesitation, making silence fill the chamber for several seconds. Then a smile covers the Hound of the Apocalypse¡¯s face, and he slowly stands up from his throne, his wings spreading out on either side behind him. All of the council members ¨C the leaders of various nations within the first Dimensional Block with the highest Authority Level ¨C focus solely on Lucas to see what his reaction is. And all of them are shocked by the smile on his face. ¡°As you ordered, myself and all of my fellow fallen angels have been searching every last Dimensional Block for news of The Reaper. And after months of this, we have finally managed to pin down her location,¡± the leader of the fallen angels declares with his head lowered in a bow. ¡°Then raise your head, Valcas,¡± Lucas states, his voice echoing through the chambers with more than a little hidden excitement in it. ¡°Tell me where she is.¡± The leader of the fallen angels raises his head and answers without hesitation, ¡°The Reaper is in Dimensional Block #108. She is there with two other Class S species, with there being news of a third that had just left the Dimensional Block before we arrived.¡± ¡°So many in one Block¡­¡± ¡°That many?!¡± ¡°What¡¯s with that Block?¡± ¡°That far away?¡± Lucas raises a single hand to stop them all from speaking before he asks, ¡°Names.¡± Without saying anything else. Valcas quickly understands what he means and answers, ¡°Ethan Silva, the son of the Ancestral Monarch. Vargas d¡¯Argol, Ethan Silva¡¯s cousin. And the Knight of the Crimson Score, Lysandre Knight.¡± The Hound¡¯s eyes widen in pure shock at the last name before he rushes forwards and grabs the fallen angel by the shoulder and raises him into the air, to the fallen angel leader¡¯s great pain and discomfort. And when he speaks, his voice grows loud enough that the gathered council members wince, ¡°Did you say Lysandre?! Lysandre Knight?! What was he doing there? Why? Was he there for The Reaper? Are they fighting? Do you know if he¡¯s staying there?¡± Valcas¡¯s eyes widen in shock at the sudden barrage of questions, but he attempts to answer them despite the pain he¡¯s feeling in his shoulder. ¡°From what we could gather from the city The Reaper is defending while she was out, The Reaper and her identical twin sister were adopted by the Knight of the Crimson Score. So it looks like he will be staying there.¡± The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there. The moment the man finishes speaking, the Hound of the Apocalypse drops him and begins to pace back and forth. An identical twin? No, more than that, The Reaper looks just like her. She has the name she wanted to give our daughter. And she¡¯s being raised by Lysandre. Does that mean she had a child with Lysandre? Or that the twins are my and her kid, and she was pregnant when she left? He pauses at that thought before shaking his head. No. Not possible. They couldn¡¯t have been Lysandre¡¯s kids. He¡¯s a hydra after all, and Crystal had committed to her human form. Lucas continues pacing back and forth for several minutes as he tries to wrap his mind around the news. All while ignoring the tension building up within the council chamber. Eventually he stops and focuses on Valcas again with a frown, only to stop himself from asking what he was about to ask. No, most people still believe The Devourer to be a myth. If he found her he would¡¯ve told me, so there¡¯s no need to ask. He continues pacing, making the heads of everyone in attendance bounce back and forth as they watch him. All of whom are extremely confused, none of them ever having seen the Hound of the Apocalypse flustered before. After while longer of pacing, he stops again and asks Valcas, ¡°What were they doing last you saw?¡± Valcas snaps himself out of his surprise-filled stupor as he answers, ¡°My men were unable to get close enough on account of them finding them, so my men couldn¡¯t clearly see. However, they did feel a powerful wave of magma energy coming from the island they¡¯re on. And they weren¡¯t leaving the island no matter how long my subordinates waited.¡± Lucas¡¯s eyes narrow at that. He couldn¡¯t be¡­ could he? If there¡¯s one person other than his ex-wife that the Hound knows best in the universe, it¡¯s Lysandre Knight. And he knows just how much of his life that man spent studying Class S species and how to turn someone into one. Especially since Lucas was one of the reasons for that. Although Lucas doesn¡¯t know what happened after Lysandre left him. The Hound raises his head again to look at Valcas, having lowered it in thought at some point, before he asks, ¡°What is the Dimensional Block like? And what was the biome they were in?¡± ¡°Dimensional Block #108 consists of millions of islands floating all across the air with no ground beneath them, each with their own biomes,¡± Valcas quickly answers. ¡°And the island they were on was one filled with magma and volcanoes, with some fire and magma magical ore on it.¡± ¡°He really is doing it¡­¡± Lucas mutters, understanding exactly what¡¯s happening there. Then he narrows his eyes and locks his gaze on Valcas as he asks, ¡°Is the teleportation link set up and ready for use?¡± Valcas immediately nods his head and answers, ¡°It is, Your Excellency.¡± ¡°Then I will be heading to Dimensional Block #108 immediately,¡± he says before activating the teleportation ring on his finger, making him teleport to the corresponding magic holder of the ring on the other side of the Dimensional Block. Then he simply walks through the Dimensional Wall, ignores the System Message he gets, and teleports to the other end of that Dimensional Block, where another fallen angel with a ring is waiting. He doesn¡¯t know why, but for some reason the idea that one of his possible daughters might be in danger should his old friend¡¯s experiment fail makes him anxious. To the point that he can¡¯t stop himself from moving as fast as possible towards the Dimensional Block as he can. I¡¯m coming. B2 | Chapter 71 - Binding Ties Alexia I let out a yawn as I hurriedly teleport back to the magma island again, having spent another day in that same Tier 3 dungeon. Something Gramps recommended I do. Spend a day in the dungeon and come out to check on Astrid. Over and over again. Until she finally wakes up. This should be the third time doing it, but I still can¡¯t help but feel a little anxious about whether she¡¯s alright or not. I get where Gramps is coming from though. After all, I¡¯ve already fallen behind in level. So I can¡¯t fall behind even more just because I¡¯m worried. Doesn¡¯t change the fact that I worry about her. I continue teleporting in silence, crossing the massive expanse between the dungeon and the magma island. But out of nowhere, as I¡¯m only a bit past halfway there, a System Message echoes in my head that sends a chill down my spine for some reason. {The Dimensional Champion and Leader of Dimensional Block #1 has entered Dimensional Block #108. Should your Dimensional Council declare war on Dimensional Block #1 you may challenge the Dimensional Champion to a duel so long as you are still within the same Dimensional Block. The winner of the duel will therefore claim control of the Dimensional Block for their own Block and the Dimensional Wall between the Blocks will no longer require Authority to pass through for citizens of the Blocks. Furthermore, should your Dimensional Council declare war on Dimensional Block #1, if you capture or kill the Dimensional Leader of Dimensional Block #1, you will be given one hundred votes on the Dimensional Block #1 Council for a single vote. One only usable for declaring Dimensional Block #1¡¯s surrender towards Dimensional Block #108.} For some reason I feel real fear at the sight of the System Message. Is this¡­ instinct? And it¡¯s not just fear, but something else as well¡­ something¡­ familiar? Like something connected to me that I¡¯ve never been near before? Strange. But regardless of what it is, I immediately speed up my teleportation across the Dimensional Block. Because it¡¯ll already take me three hours at my previous speed to teleport across the Dimensional Block that¡¯s the width of two damned giant planets¡¯ circumferences. Please just let this bad feeling turn out to be nothing¡­
The Magma Island One Hour Later Lysandre smiles wryly when he senses a familiar presence moving through the air towards the magma island from the opposite direction of where Lexi is likely heading from. A presence that he hasn¡¯t sensed in a long time. Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website. He glances at Astrid, who seems to be lingering on the end of her transformation, before turning to look at the horizon. Right when the source of that presence begins to enter his sight, lowering down from the clouds several dozen kilometers away through the air. The Knight of the Crimson Score can¡¯t help but feel the pure irony when he sees his new appearance. A man who slaughtered an entire continent¡¯s worth of angels, almost making them go extinct¡­ is now a fallen angel himself. The natural enemy of angels. Lysandre simply watches in silence as the Hound of the Apocalypse slows down, the man¡¯s gaze constantly shifting back and forth from his old best friend and the large egg. If he came over here so quickly, he must¡¯ve figured it out. His assumption is proven when the Hound looks around in confusion, as if searching for another person. ¡°She¡¯ll be here soon,¡± Lysandre says, at least trusting that the Hound would never hurt his family. Even if he went on a rampage before for unknown reasons. The Hound locks his gaze on Lysandre¡¯s own as he slowly floats down to land on the hardened magma beneath their feet. Then silence fills the area as the two stare at each other, just taking the other in. Eventually the Hound breaks out into an awkward but also relieved smile as he says, ¡°I¡¯m glad you¡¯re okay.¡± Lysandre feels surprise at that, but he doesn¡¯t show it outwardly. Instead he just asks, ¡°Are you ready to answer why you did it?¡± Unsurprisingly to Lysandre, the Hound shakes his head and answers, ¡°I still don¡¯t remember.¡± So a tense silence envelops the two. One that¡¯s only broken when the egg begins growing hotter, making both men turn to look at it. ¡°She¡¯s almost ready,¡± Lysandre mutters, a faint smile stretching across his face in the process. Out of the corner of his eye, he finds the Hound looking at him with a conflicted expression before the man turns to look at the egg as well. Then silence once again fills the area, the only noise being that of the occasional sizzling sound of the egg¡¯s heat evaporating the air around it. Both Lysandre and Lucas continue watching the egg for several minutes before the Hound finally asks, ¡°Do you know where she is?¡± Lysandre glances at him, only to focus on the egg again. ¡°No,¡± he eventually answers, clearly understanding exactly who Lucas is talking about. And right when Lucas¡¯s head swivels around to look at him in shock, Lysandre adds, ¡°Until just a week ago, I believed her to be dead. But not anymore.¡± The Hound¡¯s eyes widen in both fear and surprise at the mention of his ex-wife possibly being dead. Or, Lysandre supposes, technically still his wife. Since they never actually had a divorce. But the fear vanishes, quickly being replaced by confusion when he hears about Lysandre¡¯s change of mind. ¡°What happened? Did you find some sign of her survival? And why did you think she was dead in the first place?¡± Lucas asks, bombarding questions just like the doting husband Lysandre remembers him to be. Which only makes what he did to those angels hurt even more in Lysandre¡¯s eyes. ¡°You can thank your daughter for that,¡± Lysandre answers despite his thoughts. ¡°Alexia was told by the Quantum Architect about Crystal¡¯s survival.¡± He turns to look at his old best friend. ¡°She should be somewhere in the Dimensional Blocks, the same as us.¡± Lucas lets out a relieved sigh, likely at knowing that his wife is still alive. Then he narrows his eyes at the Knight of the Crimson Score and asks, ¡°Were you two ever planning on telling me that I had two daughters?¡± Lysandre meets his eyes for several seconds before slowly shaking his head in the negative. ¡°No, we weren¡¯t.¡± The Hound grimaces at that and the silence returns. Only for it to be broken again within a second by a warping sound that Lysandre recognizes as his adopted daughter¡¯s teleportation, along with a powerful presence appearing behind the two. So both he and the Hound turn around to find The Reaper standing there with a shocked look on her face at the sight of the Hound. The man that Lysandre never actually explained was her father. This could get awkward. B2 | Chapter 72 - The Reaper and the Hound Alexia Before I even arrive on the island, I feel the presence of another powerful being aside from just Gramps. So I quickly teleport the last stretch to appear beside the two, only for my eyes to widen in shock when they turn around, revealing who the new arrival is. A man I¡¯ve seen all too often on the TV back before the Reset. Who massacred almost an entire species of Class A creatures despite being only a human himself. And a man who is known as the only being in existence completely immune to magic. The Hound of the Apocalypse. But¡­ for some reason I still get that strange familiar sensation from looking at him that I got when I saw him at the end of the Tutorial. Which is odd, but not important right now. ¡°Hound,¡± I state clearly, not wanting to do anything that can be seen as aggressive when he¡¯s right next to Gramps and near Astrid while she¡¯s still- The egg suddenly begins to crack, making all three of us turn our attention to it. And magma immediately begins to pour out of the cracks that form all the way till the egg completely falls apart and Astrid ¨C who was apparently at the center of the egg ¨C begins to fall down towards the ground without a scrap of clothing on. So I quickly teleport over to her while grabbing a cloak and tossing it on her before catching her in my arms and glaring at Gramps and the Hound, both of whom had turned their heads when they saw her coming out of the egg. As if they knew she¡¯d be naked. Huh. Kind of surprised the Hound has manners. That aside, I quickly teleport a couple times to arrive directly in my clearing where I find my new house finally done being constructed. So I gently lie Astrid down on my bed before looking towards the ceiling when I sense both Gramps and the Hound approaching. I teleport right outside of the house into the clearing and tilt my head upwards to find them slowly lowering down to the ground. Gramps with molten wings carrying him and the Hound with black, angelic wings. Which explains what species he turned into after the Tutorial. Silence fills the clearing with the only noise being their wings flapping. And even that goes away once they land. Then I find myself in an awkward silence with Gramps scratching the back of his head like he doesn¡¯t know what to say and the Hound staring at me so intently that I feel like squirming under his gaze for some reason. Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings. But I eventually break the silence as I ask with a scowl, ¡°So why is the Dimensional Leader and Champion of Dimensional Block #1 here?¡± Honestly didn¡¯t realize it was even possible to become both. Not that I¡¯d have any interest in becoming both even if I knew it were possible. Silence fills the clearing again as the Hound continues to stare holes into me, apparently not bothering to answer my question. So I decide ¡®why not?¡¯ and go ahead and identify the man. {Lucas Nightshade ¨C Class: Requiem of Light and Shadow ¨C Species: Fallen Angel ¨C Level 321} Yeah, he¡¯s twenty levels above me. That¡¯s not good. He¡¯s also almost a dozen levels above Gramps as well. Although with me and Gramps fighting together, we should be able to- ¡°So you¡¯re my daughter¡­¡± the Hound mutters, his voice immediately silencing my thoughts as it echoes through the clearing. I feel my jaw dropping with my gaze locking onto his own. Then I quickly jerk my head around to look at Gramps, only for him to nod his head with a sad expression on his face, confirming the Hound¡¯s words. So I turn back to the Hound again and begin my own staring match with him. And no one says a word for a rather long time. The silence is only broken when Gramps finally clears his throat and says, ¡°How long is this going to go on? Just say something to her or leave.¡± With his interruption, the Hound seems to snap out of it and takes a step forwards, only for me to take a step backwards. Then he hesitates, a worried and anxious look on his face. A look that I never thought would ever appear on the genocidal murderer everyone knows as the Hound. A murderer who happens to be my biological father, apparently. Not sure what the Devourer was thinking marrying¡­ then again, it¡¯s the Devourer. Most people don¡¯t think she even exists, much less being able to guess what she¡¯s thinking. Although, at the very least, with this, I now no longer have any interest in my father. So that clears one of the things on my bucket list of things to do. Just need to find the Devourer now. Interesting how all of the people on my bucket list keep coming to me instead of me finding them. First Gramps, now the Hound who still looks awkward and anxious standing there. Maybe the Devourer will as well? I feel one of the bats on my shoulder stirring, making me glance to find the bat that is currently the System Architect opening his eyes. Right. I keep forgetting he¡¯s there. It¡¯s almost like he¡¯s weightless, which is odd. ¡°You found your biological father,¡± he says, his voice echoing in my head. Apparently not audible to the others, considering that none of them react to it. More like he found me. I also don¡¯t care about him anymore now that I know who he is. ¡°Why?¡± the Quantum Architect asks. ¡°And to be clear, I¡¯m your biological father now. Your body has more relation to mine than his after your transformation.¡± Yeah, yeah, whatever. I would rather not be related to someone who is known largely for near genocide. ¡°Really?¡± he asks, sounding surprised. ¡°You must learn not to take things at face value. Otherwise you may be blindsided at some point in the future.¡± I blink in surprise at that, confused about what he means. But the Hound speaks before I can ask the Quantum Architect anything about it. And what he says shocks me to the core. ¡°I¡¯m sorry,¡± he says while bowing down. ¡°I¡¯m sorry for not being there for you when you and your sister were growing up.¡± I stare with my mouth gaping in silence. Huh? B2 | Chapter 73 - Truth Exposed Alexia Silence fills the clearing as I stare dumbfounded at the bowing Hound of the Apocalypse, unsure of what to say or do right now. And he just continues bowing, seemingly waiting for me to give him the okay to raise himself up again. Uh, okay, um, what do I do now? I send a slightly panicked look towards Gramps, not feeling comfortable in the slightest with this situation. But the old man just turns his head and begins inspecting a random tree as if it had just grown a human head or something. Traitor! Give me a fight to the death or a good ol¡¯ brawl any day, but this emotional stuff is not my strong suit! I look back at the Hound again, only to finally focus on what he said. No one ever filled me in on what exactly happened, so all I know is that my father ¨C the man in front of me ¨C never even knew Astrid and I existed. At the same time, though, my father is apparently a genocidal murderer. What do I- I hear a sigh coming from my shoulder, making all three of us ¨C me, the bowing Hound, and Gramps ¨C turn out gaze to my right shoulder where the Quantum Architect is perched. And after sighing, he says, ¡°Why are you all making this so troublesome? You¡¯re bothering my recovery and wasting my daughter¡¯s time that should be spent training.¡± I¡¯m¡­ not sure what to comment on there. And Gramps and the Hound seem to be rather displeased with what he said too, although I¡¯m not sure which exact reasons they¡¯re unhappy. ¡°She¡¯s not your-¡± ¡°Don¡¯t you dare call her your-¡± both of them begin shouting simultaneously, making me realize what it was that bothered them, only for the both of them to be cut off by a strange purple glitchy box appearing around their mouths. Then the Quantum Architect ¨C whose name I actually still don¡¯t know ¨C yawns once and says, ¡°His body wasn¡¯t under his own control when his body slaughtered those angel creatures you¡¯re so worried about. So stop worrying, finish this conversation, and go back to training. My own recovery depends on your growth in strength.¡± He closes his eyes again after one more yawn and goes completely silent, leaving us all staring in shocked silence at him. No one says anything for a while as we all stare. If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation. The Hound¡­ his body wasn¡¯t under his own control? Does that mean he was mind controlled or something like it? Had his soul taken out of his body and put in another, or had someone else enter his body? Having his soul taken out of his body or having ¡®mind control¡¯ put on it should be impossible with his magic. But I guess if someone were to enter his body somehow, they might be able to wrangle control. Somehow. But¡­ who could be strong enough to steal the body of one of the strongest beings in the universe? And if they¡¯re strong enough to do that, why would they bother using his body to frame him? And from the looks of it, I¡¯m the one struggling the least with this bit of news. A thump brings my attention to the Hound, where I find him on his knees on the ground, his hands held up as he looks at them. Meanwhile Gramps is just sending a horrified look at the Hound. As if Gramps had killed the Hound¡¯s favorite puppy or something. Okay, what happened? I feel way too awkward to break the silence, especially since Gramps still looks traumatized for some reason, and the Hound seems to be having a mid-life crisis mixed with some relief. As if something he had been worrying about his entire life ended up being erased. Or like he was told something terrible was his fault only to eventually find out that it wasn¡¯t. Which is kinda what happened I guess? Assuming he didn¡¯t already know about this. The silence stretches on for quite a while, and eventually Gramps falls to his own knees as tears begin to build up in his eyes. And at this point I really want to rush over and do something, but once again, I have no idea what to do. So all I end up doing is turning back and forth between the two while awkwardly reaching for Gramps, only to pull back, unsure what to do. Eventually the silence is broken when the sound of flapping wings enter the clearing, bringing my gaze to Ethan, who is currently looking between the two with a confused expression on his face. One that vanishes when he turns his gaze to the Quantum Architect recovering on my shoulder. ¡°I guess the Architect told them about the mind control thing?¡± Ethan half asks, half states as he tilts his head. And the moment he does so, both Gramps and the Hound turn dead eyes towards him. ¡°Or I guess it wasn¡¯t necessarily mind control, but someone entering his body and doing what they wanted in it?¡± But it doesn¡¯t take long for those eyes to fill with rage instead. Oh, shit. A loud roar rings out through my clearing as Gramps returns to his true form, practically exploding a large part of my clearing here and making magma shoot out as he shouts, ¡°The dragons knew about this?!¡± And I can tell he¡¯s genuinely angry. Angrier than I have ever seen him before. Then the Hound of the Apocalypse slowly stands up as little sparks of black light mixed with black and purple shadow begin flickering all around us and in his eyes. But unlike Gramps, when he speaks, it¡¯s with a chillingly cold tone of voice seemingly empty on emotions, ¡°Please explain to me why your mother chose to withhold this information. And it better be a good explanation.¡± I quickly see Ethan¡¯s face forming an o with his mouth, as if he just realized what his clan¡¯s keeping silent could also be taken as. And while I highly doubt the Ancestral Dragon would care about Gramps or the Hound¡¯s anger, Ethan¡­ is not his mother. Rest in peace Ethan. I barely knew ya. I watch the two approach him for a few seconds before teleporting between them. Never mind. I would rather not have blood spilled in my clearing so close to Astrid¡¯s unconscious form. Just have to calm down a hydra and the Hound. Shouldn¡¯t be too hard. Maybe. B2 | Chapter 74 - The Quantum Balancer Alexia It takes me a good while to calm the two down, and even after that, they both won¡¯t stop glaring at Ethan. Which makes me wonder why the dragon in question was stupid enough to even bring this up in the first place. Seriously, does he have a death wish or something? Dragon or not, he can¡¯t take on both Gramps and the Hound of the Apocalypse. Even I wouldn¡¯t be able to take them both on at once and would have to flee via teleportation. Although getting away from them wouldn¡¯t be that hard at the end of the day. Not that Gramps would ever hurt me. The Hound on the other hand, I¡¯m not sure. Either way, after calming them down, I go ahead and have Ethan fully explain himself to the three of us. And he does so without hesitation. ¡°Two decades ago, the most powerful seer amongst the dragons saw everything occur on the angel¡¯s continent,¡± Ethan begins what is likely going to be a long story. ¡°When a quantum being known as a Quantum Balancer jumped into the Hound of the Apocalypse¡¯s body and decided to use him for the sake of rebalancing the universe.¡± I hear a growling sound coming from the Hound, for obvious reasons. But he doesn¡¯t do anything more than that. At least not yet. Ethan grows visibly nervous, but he continues speaking anyways, ¡°According to the seer and my mother, every quantum being has a role to play in the mortal realm and the quantum realm. And while the Quantum Architect¡¯s role is to bring about structure to the mortal realm and the quantum, the Quantum Balancer¡¯s role is to keep the balance. But neither my mother nor the seer knew what exactly that entailed. All they knew was that the Quantum Balancer ¨C who was far to powerful for even my mother to stand up to ¨C decided to take over the Hound of the Apocalypse¡¯s body and frame him for the massacre of the angels that happened two decades ago.¡± He doesn¡¯t say anything else after that, leading me to realize that he¡¯s done talking. Okay, never mind then. That wasn¡¯t a long story after all. ¡°So why didn¡¯t you tell the Hound about what happened?¡± I ask for the angry man behind me. The dragon scratches the back of his neck and answers, ¡°Well, mother told us not to say anything. Said that the Balancer wouldn¡¯t do anything without a good reason. Otherwise the Quantum Ruler would interfere.¡± I open my mouth to retort, only for a certain Quantum Architect in the form of a bat on my shoulder to snap his eyes open with a glare and speak, ¡°The Quantum Balancer does whatever he wants. That bastard is always interfering in my affairs, and father wouldn¡¯t bother with interfering with him so long as he does his job. So I wouldn¡¯t put any faith in him.¡± The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. Then he closes his eyes again and falls silent, as if the only reason he chose to say something was to insult his fellow quantum being. Come to think of it, if quantum beings each have a role in the mortal and quantum realms¡­ what would my role be? Culling people or something? I¡¯m pretty sure the System is trying to push me into its personal reaper or something, but what do the quantum beings think? I stare at the Quantum Architect on my shoulder for several seconds while ignoring the shocked look of the dragon who apparently didn¡¯t realize who the bat was. But the Quantum Architect simply ignores me. So I let out a sigh and glance at the Hound, only to surprisingly find him having gone silent as he seems to contemplate something. Hmm. Maybe that bit about his temper that I¡¯ve heard really isn¡¯t true after all? Then again, considering that the thing he¡¯s most infamous for wasn¡¯t actually his doing after all, I guess I shouldn¡¯t judge him by what I¡¯ve heard of him. Although that doesn¡¯t mean he isn¡¯t still dangerous. He is immune to magic after all. And magic is my strongest weapon. Doesn¡¯t matter if he¡¯s my biological father or not. While I can¡¯t say that he doesn¡¯t care about me at all, considering his earlier apology, I can¡¯t say that he cares enough not to be a threat in the future either. ¡°Come to think of it,¡± I mutter before turning to look at Ethan. ¡°Did my mother know about all of this?¡± Ethan blinks once and shakes his head, ¡°Not that we know. From what our seer could find, she left because she believed your father had gone insane. And she didn¡¯t want to have his insanity infecting you or your sister.¡± He frowns after that. ¡°It also seemed to have significantly affected her trust in other species.¡± Oh, well that¡¯s not good. ¡°Crystal¡­¡± the Hound mutters with a soft tone of voice, making both me and Ethan turn to look at him, finding the man looking down with a sad expression on his face at his hands. Where I see a ring on his ring finger. Does he still have their wedding ring on? The image of the Hound of the Apocalypse I¡¯ve always had in my mind clashes repeatedly with the one standing right in front of me. Especially when Gramps, to my shock, steps up and pulls the Hound into a hug and begins patting him on the back. ¡°I¡¯m sorry, old friend¡­¡± Gramps mutters, making me begin to wonder if I¡¯m in some bizarre dream or something. The Hound tries to shake his head amidst the hug as he quietly says, ¡°It¡¯s not your fault.¡± Huh. This is surprisingly heartwarming. Then a System Message echoes in my vision. {The Dimensional Champion and Leader of Dimensional Block #1000 has entered Dimensional Block #108. Should your Dimensional Council declare war on Dimensional Block #1000 you may challenge the Dimensional Champion to a duel so long as you are still within the same Dimensional Block. The winner of the duel will therefore claim control of the Dimensional Block for their own Block and the Dimensional Wall between the Blocks will no longer require Authority to pass through for citizens of the Blocks. Furthermore, should your Dimensional Council declare war on Dimensional Block #1000, if you capture or kill the Dimensional Leader of Dimensional Block #1000, you will be given one hundred votes on the Dimensional Block #1000 Council for a single vote. One only usable for declaring Dimensional Block #1000¡¯s surrender towards Dimensional Block #108.} ¡°Oh come the fuck on, just how many Dimensional Champions and Leaders are going to be crashing our damned Block?!¡± I can¡¯t help but shout, startling the others in the clearing who didn¡¯t get the message. B2 | Story Art and Christmas Art Merry Christmas Eve everyone! And now for some random Lexi art: The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement. Book 2 Royal Road Cover Image: And some chibi art: B2 | Chapter 75 - Letting Down Barriers Alexia After a brief pause, I turn to look at Gramps and the Hound and ask, ¡°Do either of you happen to know the Dimensional Champion and Leader of Dimensional Block #1000? Because they just entered the Block.¡± Both of them shake their heads, answering in the negatives. Then the Hound suddenly stiffens up and takes a step forwards, his eyes widening in shock for some reason. ¡°Hound?¡± I ask at the same time as Gramps asks, ¡°Lucas?¡± The man seemingly ignores the both of us as he takes a few steps forwards, his black, fallen angel wings shooting out again as he raises his head and seems to close his eyes. Silence fills the clearing for who knows how long. I share a glance with Gramps, feeling more than a little confused. And judging by the look on his face, I¡¯m not the only one. We both turn to look back at the Hound of the Apocalypse again as Gramps asks, ¡°Lucas? Is everything-¡± He stops talking when the Hound¡¯s eyes snap open and a determined and anxious look appears on the Hound¡¯s face. And without a single ounce of hesitation, the Hound reaches back and picks me up, moving faster than my eyes can track before flying into the air as I let out a yelp. ¡°What the fuck?!¡± I shout as he begins to fly through the air. But I don¡¯t just let him carry me off to who-knows-where, instead kicking at him to let me go. The man ignores my actions, his gaze seemingly locked on the horizon. Seriously?! Just what¡¯s wrong with him?! I try to teleport away, and to my surprise, it actually works. Which likely means that his magic immunity only blocks him from being teleported with me, considering how he wasn¡¯t moved during my teleportation. My vanishing act finally snaps him out of whatever stupor he was in as he blinks and turns to look at me. ¡°I can sense her,¡± he says like it would explain his actions. ¡°She¡¯s here! She¡¯s coming here!¡± I frown, beginning to wonder if this man¡¯s losing it. Only to realize that I can sense a strange sensation of something approaching. Which reminds me of the Legendary Feat perk of one of my most recent Legendary Feats. If you come across this story on Amazon, it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it. The one that lets me track all Dimensional Champions and Leaders in the same Dimensional Block as myself. Right. Forgot about that. Gramps arrives, having brought his own wings out again with a look of confusion on his own face. But the Hound just repeats, ¡°She¡¯s almost here,¡± as he turns to look in the direction that I sense the new Champion and Leader approaching from.¡± My frown grows deeper, but I turn to look anyways. And after waiting for a little bit, the Dimensional Champion and Leader enters my line of sight. They look to be the same age as the Hound, but it¡¯s hard to tell with ageless people. They¡¯re clearly a woman, with a figure similar to me and Astrid¡¯s, and black hair with what look to be stars twinkling in them. But what catches my attention the most about her is that she seems to be shapeshifting, since she has parts from various different creatures. She has the wings of a fallen angel, the black scales of a necrotic dragon, the claws of an archwraith, and currently has horns on her head that are retracting inside. The horns of an oni. And as she flies here, the horns aren¡¯t the only part that vanishes. The scales begin to retreat, being replaced with black armor instead. Meanwhile the eerie green claws are replaced with regular human fingernails. What surprises me though is that her gaze immediately locks onto me, ignoring the Hound entirely. And I for some reason feel a sense of familiarity coming from her gaze. Along with a warmth that I have been missing. Why is she looking at me like that? Like she¡¯s been looking for me for a very long time and is only now finding me? And¡­ why do I feel happy to see her? This is happiness, right? I¡¯ve always had trouble picking apart my own emotions. I feel myself frowning as I try to parse all of this. But no matter how hard I try, I only feel even more confused. So I glance at Gramps, only to find him looking extremely shocked, albeit with a sense of warmth in his gaze directed at her. I turn back to the Dimensional Champion and Leader again. Guess Gramps knows her? Then, at the same time as when I identify her, the Hound exclaims, ¡°Crystal!¡± {Crystal Nightshade ¨C Devourer ¨C Level 310} Everything just kind of¡­ halts¡­ in my mind after that. Just freezes. I stare blankly as both Gramps and the Hound rush over towards her, only for her to ignore the both of them and move straight towards me. Following which we spend several seconds just staring in silence. Neither of us saying a single word. I feel my heart beginning to pound in my chest. A sensation I¡¯m not really used to since it doesn¡¯t even do that much when I¡¯m afraid. Then I feel wetness on my face, making me reach up to touch it, only to find my hands getting wet from what turn out to be tears. I¡¯m¡­ crying? I can¡¯t help but frown at that, not used to crying. What¡¯s¡­ going on? Out of the corner of my eye, I find both Gramps and the Hound looking at me with sad expressions on their faces. But the Devourer just sends me a smile that is a mixture of sadness and warmth. And without a word, she moves forwards and pulls me into a hug. One that I surprisingly accept as the tears pour out faster. This¡­ I begin to sob for the first time in over a decade. ¡­feels nice. ¡°I¡¯m here, sweetie,¡± Crystal says, no, Mom says, her voice entering my ears as I cry. ¡°I¡¯m back.¡± B2 | Intermission 5 Alexia¡¯s House Crystal has always regretted how her life turned out. Ever since entering the mortal realm. The only time in her life when she didn¡¯t regret anything were when she first met Lucas, and when she gave birth to and saw the faces of her twin girls. But even her time with Lucas was tainted when she learned of what he did. And she knew that he couldn¡¯t have been manipulated into it in any way. Not when he was one of the most powerful beings in the universe, and not when he¡¯s immune to magic. Some small part of her wished back then that she could do things over again. That she could go back to before she entered the System created by the Quantum Architect bastard and made it so she never met Lucas. Now, though, as she lays Alexia next to her sleeping sister and watches the two of them with a smile, she realizes that she could never undo it all. Even if it were possible. Crystal reaches over and brushes a stray lock of hair out of Alexia¡¯s face as the girl rests, having cried herself to sleep. An act that Lysandre seemed incredibly shocked by. She stays at their bedside, just watching over them for a while before finally turning when someone clears their throat behind her. And when she does, she immediately scowls at Lucas. ¡°Crystal, there¡¯s something you should know about your husband,¡± Lysandre says, bringing her attention to him. But right when she¡¯s about to deny him being her husband, he quickly rushes to say, ¡°He wasn¡¯t the one in control of his body when the massacre happened! He didn¡¯t kill the angels!¡± Her mouth shuts with an audible clack at that, leaving her in a daze as she stares at Lysandre. Lysandre lets out a sigh of relief before quickly making to explain everything that had happened prior to Crystal¡¯s arrival. And after he finishes, Crystal feels her body growing weak, realizing what she¡¯s done. That all of her pain was for nothing. That she had taken the children of her beloved without having any real reason to do so. She quickly feels Lucas enveloping her in a hug, following which she joins her daughter in crying. But unlike her daughter, she doesn¡¯t cry herself to sleep. Instead she goes silent after crying for a few minutes, her husband stroking the back of her head as she does so.
The Quantum Realm The Quantum Ruler taps his chin in contemplation as he watches the reunion without any care about the family in question beyond Alexia and his son. Since the others are nothing more than ways to strengthen and test them. He still finds it interesting the way his son went about creating an heir. Almost as if purposefully trying to spite the Quantum Ruler and his attempts at matchmaking his son. He really doesn¡¯t realize that I don¡¯t care about him marrying, does he? All that mattered was his having an heir. And he obtained one, even if the heir isn¡¯t what I was expecting. The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation. The Ruler lowers his arm to the throne while frowning. Quantum Balancer¡­ I had heard about what he did, but to believe that he took it that far¡­ He taps his throne a few more times before coming to a decision and snapping his fingers. Then reality at the center of the throne room glitches out, following which a man appears stumbling into his throne room with shock and confusion on his face. Shock that grows even greater at the sight of the Ruler. The Quantum Balancer quickly kneels down and says, ¡°You summoned me, My Ruler?¡± But the Quantum Ruler just taps the throne a few more times while studying the Balancer before him, making the Quantum Balancer continue kneeling down without raising his head for several seconds. Eventually the Ruler finally speaks, ¡°Balancer, tell me. Have you been performing your duties as your position demands of you?¡± Silence fills the throne room as the Balancer flinches, proving his guilt in an instant. ¡°I believe that¡¯s all the answer I need,¡± the Ruler continues without giving the Balancer a chance to speak. ¡°Wait! I¡¯ve done everything expected of me!¡± the Balancer tries to exclaim, raising his head only for the Ruler to raise an eyebrow. Then the Ruler simply snaps his fingers once more, making the Balancer suddenly appear in the air with his arms spread out on a cross. Panic begins to cover the Balancer¡¯s face, but the panic fades a little when the Ruler asks, ¡°Explain to me the reason you massacred the angels.¡± ¡°The angels? The mortal realm was in danger of collapsing when a corrupted angel was born, so I needed to-¡± the Balancer begins, only for the Ruler to shake his head, making him cut off. ¡°Then tell me, was it necessary to massacre every angel?¡± the Ruler asks, still tapping the armrest of his throne. ¡°And was it necessary to use a mortal to do it?¡± The Balancer stays quiet at these questions, perfectly understanding how pointless it is to lie to the Quantum Ruler, whose power is absolute. ¡°In that case,¡± the Ruler continues, only for the Balancer to cut him off by exclaiming, ¡°Wait! Why are you interfering now?! And why only with me?! I¡¯m not the only one who has interfered with mortal affairs more than I should!¡± At that, the Ruler pauses in tapping his throne. But only for a moment. Then he resumes as he tilts his head slightly and asks, ¡°And why should I bother with those things?¡± The Quantum Balancer flinches at the term the Ruler used for the other quantum beings. But he clearly doesn¡¯t understand why the Ruler suddenly decided to punish him. And the Ruler doesn¡¯t care about what he understands as the man finally stops tapping his throne and slowly stands up. ¡°Quantum Balancer Zorblax Xylophius Quillaran Vortessia Nebulon, I hereby sentence you to ten years in the eternal pit, where you shall spend ten millennia in the condensed time,¡± the Quantum Ruler declares as his body glitches out several times, repeatedly showing glimpses of his true form, making the Balancer widen his eyes in shock. Since quantum beings are all only able to make one heir in their lifetime, and the number of quantum beings are extremely limited, the Quantum Ruler decided to create the eternal pit. A place where a single year outside of the pit equates to a thousand years inside of it. And a place filled with monsters that are threats even to the quantum beings of the quantum realm. Right after the Ruler finishes declaring the man¡¯s sentence, reality around the Balancer begins to warp, following which the floor beneath the Quantum Balancer turns into a black pit filled with tentacles reaching upwards toward the man. And as soon as they latch onto his legs, the Ruler frees the Balancer from his invisible shackles. The Balancer then attempts to struggle free from the tentacles to no avail and is pulled down into the pit. The Ruler silently watches as the eternal pit seals itself off again before he moves to retake his throne, regaining the posture he was holding before. That should rally the Balancer into taking revenge. The real test will begin in ten years. He waves his hand, opening a screen in front of him to show his son and granddaughter. Let¡¯s see just what your true form emerges as, granddaughter of mine. B2 | Chapter 76 - The Quantum Hierarchy Alexia I wake up finding myself staring up at the ceiling. But I almost immediately notice the person sitting at my bedside staring at me, proving that what happened wasn¡¯t a dream. ¡°Morning sleepyhead,¡± Mom says, making me smile. ¡°You sleep well?¡± ¡°Yeah,¡± I answer, only to remember Astrid and look around the room. Then I calm down again when I sense Astrid outside of the house next to Lysandre and the Hound, who I guess is our father. That¡¯ll take some getting used to. ¡°Lysandre is just teaching your sister a bit about being a hydra right now,¡± Mom explains as I get up from the bed and move over to the balcony to look down at them. ¡°Although she¡¯s certainly a unique hydra, I¡¯ll say that much.¡± I frown at that before going ahead and identifying her, making her turn to look up at the balcony. {Astrid Knight ¨C Shadowblade Hydra ¨C Level 231} Yeah, unique. The unique hydra in question appears out of the shadows right in front of me and latches onto me in a hug. And I quickly return it with a smile. ¡°Glad you¡¯re safe,¡± I tell her. To be perfectly honest, her transformation into a hydra really did worry me. After all, I¡¯ve never heard of someone becoming a Class S species before. So there was no telling beyond Gramps¡¯s word that it¡¯d be safe. But it¡¯s nice to see it end in success without any danger involved after all. Soon after, both Lysandre and the Hound enter my room as well. Leaving us all gathered together as a family for the first time in our lives. I never really expected to have an entire family again. Or at least, not more than Gramps and Lexi. It¡¯s nice. ¡°You may want to be careful getting so relaxed,¡± the Quantum Architect¡¯s voice suddenly echoes throughout my room, making everyone stiffen up as he flies into the room and lands on my shoulder. ¡°What do you mean?¡± Crystal asks, but he ignores her and focuses on me instead. ¡°Your grandfather won¡¯t let you rest,¡± the Architect says, making me narrow my eyes. Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there. ¡°Wait a second,¡± the Hound says, ¡°what do you mean by ¡®grandfather?¡¯¡± Then his eyes narrow as he no doubt remembers earlier. ¡°Actually, why are you even referring to Alexia as your daughter? She has no relation to you!¡± The Architect turns a disdainful gaze towards the Hound ¨C which looks rather ridiculous considering that he¡¯s currently in a clone of Luna ¨C and says, ¡°She took in my quantum essence when she killed me and evolved, so as far as the universe is concerned, she¡¯s more my daughter than she is yours. And that is how father views it as well.¡± My biological father doesn¡¯t take well to that as sparks of black light begin flickering in the room. But then Mom stops him by saying, ¡°Lucas, listen to him.¡± He turns his head to her with shock plastered on his face. ¡°We don¡¯t have a say in this,¡± she says, shaking her head. ¡°It happened while we were gone, and it¡¯s the reason behind her power now.¡± The Hound doesn¡¯t seem to like it, but he surprisingly listens to his wife. Huh. Interesting. ¡°Besides,¡± Mom adds with a shrug and a frown. ¡°There¡¯s nothing we can do if the Quantum Ruler is involved.¡± Everyone in the room looks confused at that except for the Quantum Architect, who simply nods his bat head. ¡°Why?¡± Gramps asks, a frown on his face as he stares at the Quantum Architect. Mom purses her lips for a second and answers, ¡°To start off, I think we should explain what the quantum beings really are.¡± The Hound and Gramps both frown at that, clearly not understanding what they¡¯re talking about. Meanwhile Astrid and I sit down on the edge of the bed, just watching the events happen. ¡°Very well,¡± the Quantum Architect says. ¡°You have my permission to speak.¡± Mom nods her head, surprising everyone again with her acting like this. Then she turns to us and says, ¡°First of all, forget what you know about the quantum beings. While they are incredibly powerful beings that are born in and control the quantum realm, that is not all they are.¡± The Hound and Gramps narrow their eyes but don¡¯t say anything. ¡°The quantum beings aren¡¯t entirely free as their power does come at a price,¡± Mom says, making my eyes widen slightly. ¡°Every quantum being is given a role to fulfil for both the mortal and quantum realms. Such as the Quantum Balancer¡¯s role to bring balance to everything. And the Quantum Architect¡¯s role to bring structure.¡± Then she frowns. ¡°There are ten different roles, for ten different quantum beings. And the quantum beings all have a hierarchy that they must follow.¡± ¡°Do you know what the roles are?¡± Gramps asks, and now that I look between him and the Hound, I can¡¯t help but realize that they¡¯re very similar in their actions. Then again, they did say that they used to be best friends. So that might be why. Mom shakes her head and answers, ¡°I know half of the roles, but not all of them. So I don¡¯t think I¡¯ll be much help there.¡± She glances at me. ¡°And I don¡¯t know anything about a Quantum Reaper.¡± Before I can say anything in response to that, the Quantum Architect interrupts. ¡°The roles, in the order of the hierarchy, are my father, the Quantum Ruler, then me, the Quantum Architect, followed by the Quantum Enforcer, the Quantum Builder, the Quantum Creator, Quantum Balancer, Quantum Vanguard, Quantum Cleaner, Quantum Scribe, and finally the Quantum Archon. And there is only a single quantum being in each role at a time.¡± I blink at that before frowning at the lack of any mention about me. ¡°What about-¡± the Hound begins, only for the Quantum Architect to continue, cutting him off, ¡°Lastly, we have a single role that has never been filled. One that is both within the hierarchy and separate from it.¡± His little bat eyes narrow. ¡°The Quantum Reaper.¡± B2 | Chapter 77 - A Visit from the Quantum Realm Alexia ¡°My daughter,¡± the Quantum Architect glances at the Hound and Gramps with his eyes narrowed as he says this, ¡°is the very first being to fulfill all of the requirements of the role and has thus been given it.¡± He turns his gaze towards me while ignoring the glares sent his way. ¡°Whether she wants it or not, it is her role now.¡± I can¡¯t help but scowl at the bat on my shoulder for that. But he just ignores me as he flies off, avoiding the Hound¡¯s hand when the man tries to grab him. ¡°Boy, try that again and you¡¯ll be losing your hand,¡± the quantum being says, his voice reverberating throughout the room as a slight chill runs down my spine. The Hound glares at him but doesn¡¯t say anything. And Gramps just continues glaring from his place beside the bed with his arms crossed. Astrid just ignores everything as she leans her head onto my shoulder, her eyes drooping close before opening again. As if she¡¯s very close to falling asleep but wants to stay awake to hear this. What surprises me though is that Mom seems resigned to the idea that he¡¯s my father. The Quantum Architect. Is it because of how powerful they are? Or maybe she just understands there¡¯s no fighting fact? Since he¡¯s technically not wrong, assuming he¡¯s not making this up. Which I doubt he is. ¡°And what exactly does her role entail?¡± the Hound asks, bringing my attention back to the problem children. A certain quantum being turns a glare on me for that thought but quickly turns back to the Hound as he answers, ¡°We don¡¯t know.¡± Silence fills the room. ¡°You don¡¯t¡­ seriously?¡± the Hound mutters, sounding rather incredulous. To be honest, I don¡¯t really care about this whole role thing. So I don¡¯t really care much about this conversation. Or, rather, about my part of it. ¡°I can¡¯t believe I chose such a reckless child as my daughter¡­¡± the Quantum Architect mutters, only for both Gramps and the Hound to glare at him again for calling me his daughter. Which is starting to get old. ¡°The only one who knows what the Quantum Reaper role is, is my father, the Quantum Ruler. And he doesn¡¯t deign to lower himself into explaining himself or anything to anyone.¡± He glances at Mom as he adds, ¡°You can ask the Devourer. She¡¯s recently experienced just what he¡¯s like.¡± We all turn to look at Mom, putting her on the spot as she scowls. ¡°The Quantum Ruler is the absolute power in existence, only below that of reality itself,¡± Mom says, shocking me slightly at just how powerful the man the Quantum Architect is calling my grandfather is. ¡°It¡¯s his role. To rule over existence fairly.¡± ¡°Fairly?¡± Gramps asks with a frown, only to shake his head. ¡°Doubtful.¡± Mom¡¯s eyes widen at that, but not with surprise or agreement or anything like that. They widen with fear. Then a powerful force fills the room. One so powerful that I¡¯m sure whoever it belongs to can just crush me with nothing more than a single thought. ¡°Do not test me, hydra, for you will not like how things play out,¡± a powerful voice that has the entire room, no, the entire house shaking echoes through my clearing. But no one appears who might be the owner of the voice. Almost as soon as the voice arrives along with the presence, the Quantum Architect flies to the ground and begins bowing in his little bat body. Which looks ridiculous. Apparently the Quantum Ruler agrees as the voice returns, ¡°Son, are you trying to mock me, bowing in that form?¡± This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. I blink before looking up at the ceiling, then at the bat who is the Quantum Architect. And for the first time since I¡¯ve met the man, he grits his little bat teeth before sighing and answering, ¡°Of course not, Royal Father. I will advance the original vessel now.¡± What does he¡­ My thoughts trail off when the Quantum Architect flies into the air and lets out a screech, sending out a pulse of quantum energy. And to my surprise, I sense Luna ¨C who was off hunting ¨C immediately making a beeline straight towards us. Then when she arrives, she stops right in front of the Quantum Architect while tilting her head slightly in confusion. I open my mouth to say something, only for the Quantum Architect to place a claw on Luna¡¯s head, making her begin glowing purple. ¡°Luna!¡± I exclaim, worried about her. But when I try to move, I feel that oppressive power from the Quantum Ruler holding me down. ¡°Let me go! I don¡¯t care if you¡¯re the Quantum Ruler!¡± ¡°Child, you will refer to me the correct way,¡± the Quantum Ruler says, but for some reason I can feel a strange sense of warmth from his words. Unlike the coldness he used to refer to his own son. ¡°Quantum Ruler, if Luna is hurt, I won¡¯t stop until I ruin everything you¡¯ve made!¡± I make a threat that¡¯s probably stupid and not very good for my lifespan, but I don¡¯t care. Luna is precious to me. At this point she''s almost as important to me as Astrid is. The Quantum Ruler actually laughs at that, meanwhile the purple light shining from Luna fades, and she opens her eyes, tilting her head again in confusion. I blink in surprise before tilting my own head. Then a System Message echoes in my head. [*New Soul-Bound Companion Racial Skill* ¨C Quantum Vampire Form: Allows the user to transform back and forth between their true form and their Quantum Vampire form.] Wait¡­ so¡­ was he trying to help her? ¡°Yes, now refer to me in the correct way, child,¡± the Quantum Ruler¡¯s voice says again, making me blink. Um¡­ ¡°I apologize for my rudeness earlier, Quantum Ruler.¡± ¡°Call me Grandfather,¡± he says, confusing me. And his son as well, judging by the look the bat is sending me. But I can¡¯t do that. Gramps is my only grandfather, regardless of what genes may say now. And if what the Quantum Architect said is true, he and I are in a separate hierarchy in the chain of quantum being command. I think. ¡°I¡¯m sorry, Quantum Ruler-¡± I begin to reject him, only for him to interrupt me, ¡°Grandfather.¡± I purse my lips, frowning at the man. ¡°Quantum Ruler, with all due-¡± I begin, but he just says the same thing. ¡°Grandfather.¡± Before anything can come about from this bizarre situation, the Quantum Ruler turns the focus of his presence back to his son, as if giving up on trying to get me to call him Grandfather. ¡°What are you waiting for? The Universe will grow angry if you don¡¯t fulfil your role, son,¡± the Quantum Ruler says, making me blink in surprise. Wait, so he¡¯s not making him bow just because he¡¯s pe- The Quantum Ruler glances at me with a sensation running through his presence equivalent to a raised brow, quickly making me realize that he can read my thoughts too. -because he¡¯s a great father? He turns back to his son without a word. And as if the universe itself were upset, everything begins to shake around the Quantum Architect as a powerful pressure covers him and purple cracks begin to appear on his bat body. ¡°The backlash is beginning,¡± the Quantum Ruler states rather plainly. ¡°I understand you don¡¯t like me and even spent time creating this System of yours to avoid me, but the Universe will take its price in blood should you ignore your role.¡± Several more seconds pass in silence before I hear a muttered, ¡°Fuck¡­¡± followed by a strange vortex of violet and blue quantum energy around the Quantum Architect. And when the vortex vanishes, a teenage girl appears in the bat¡¯s place, confusing everyone in the room but the Quantum Ruler. The girl has long purple hair with a purple set of armor that looks conspicuously like mine. In fact, the girl looks like a younger version of me. Except with my current appearance as a quantum being. ¡°Uh¡­ so, Quantum Ruler?¡± I ask, bringing his gaze towards me. A gaze that I swear contains a hint of amusement. ¡°Your son is a guy, right?¡± Silence fills the room for a few seconds before the Quantum Ruler looks at the girl who is now bowing, the previous cracks and pressure vanishing as he or she does so. And with a completely indifferent tone of voice that I still swear sounds amused despite that, the Quantum Ruler says, ¡°He cloned your soul-bound companion to recover, so of course his temporary form until he recovers will be the same as your soul-bound companion¡¯s.¡± I open my mouth to say something at that, only to close it again. Right. I never really thought about the fact that his temporary vessel is a copy of Luna. And Luna is a female quantum vampire bat. Guess that¡¯s why he held off on giving Luna this power until now? A smile comes to my face at the thought of Luna finally having a humanoid form, even if she¡¯s just looking around in confusion right now, still in her bat form. The Hound lets out a cough seemingly to hide a laugh, bringing everyone¡¯s gaze to him with the Ruler and Architect¡¯s gazes turning cold in an instant. Or, rather, colder in the Architect¡¯s case. He bows his head once, making them return their attention to me. ¡°Your father should return to his original form again once you unlock your true form, Granddaughter,¡± the Quantum Ruler says, answering the next question I was going to ask. Only to leave me with another I want to ask. ¡°I don¡¯t foresee him taking on this form unless he has to.¡± I have to ask. ¡°What true form?¡± He narrows his eyes slightly and slowly says, ¡°Now that, Granddaughter, is my reason for coming here.¡± B2 | Chapter 78 - True Form Alexia ¡°Granddaughter, you will fully take on the duties your role assigns to you as soon as you ascend, but until then you still have one job to complete,¡± the Quantum Ruler declares, focusing solely on me while seemingly ignoring everyone else in the room. ¡°After you reach Tier 4, you must enter the quantum realm and search for your core. After you find it, you will immediately gain your true form.¡± ¡°When you say true form¡­¡± I begin, only for him to cut me off. ¡°A quantum being¡¯s true form is dependent on what their role is and is completely different for every quantum being. There are also several rules in place for the use of a quantum being¡¯s true form enforced by the universe itself depending on how high the quantum being is on the hierarchy.¡± Being a quantum being sounds a lot more complicated than I thought it was. ¡°As a Quantum Reaper, you are outside of the hierarchy and therefore do not need to take orders from any other quantum being, myself included,¡± the Ruler continues, still acting like there¡¯s no one else in the room. ¡°You also have very few restrictions on the use of your true form that, at the end of the day, come down to using it only for the pursuit of your role and for your own self-defense. What is considered self-defense, however, is debatable.¡± ¡°What if I consider someone to have attacked me even if they didn¡¯t directly attack me?¡± I ask while tilting my head slightly. ¡°Then it will depend on the circumstances,¡± the Ruler answers, his eyes never leaving my own. ¡°It will all be up to the universe itself, and you will be able to tell the moment you¡¯re allowed to use your true form to fight others.¡± ¡°How will I be able to tell?¡± I ask with a frown. ¡°Some sort of System Message?¡± He shakes his head and glances at his son ¨C which is still odd to call him considering his current appearance ¨C before saying, ¡°The System was this child¡¯s creation. It does not belong to the universe¡± He turns back to me as his son lowers his head slightly. ¡°You will know instinctively when you¡¯re allowed to take on your true form and use it against others.¡± Hmm. Okay. ¡°Does that mean she¡¯s allowed to use her true form without a reason as long as she doesn¡¯t use it to attack others?¡± the Hound asks with a frown. Silence fills the room for several seconds before we all realize that the Ruler is plain ignoring him. He isn¡¯t even so much as looking at the Hound, just staring at me as if waiting for me to ask my next question. This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author''s work. Guess he really doesn¡¯t see non-quantum beings as anything other than insignificant beings. Which the Hound clearly doesn¡¯t care much for, considering the anger I see in his eyes. But by now he seems to have realized just how pointless attacking him would be, so he just stands there, boiling over with rage. ¡°Does that mean I can use my true form without a reason so long as I don¡¯t attack others while in it?¡± I ask, repeating the Hound¡¯s question. This time the Ruler answers right away, ¡°You can. But if the universe determines that you attacked someone, it will punish you.¡± ¡°And what would that punishment entail?¡± I ask, briefly glancing to the side where I find Astrid having finally fully fallen asleep. So I gently move her, lying her down on the bed instead of on my shoulder. ¡°The punishment varies depending on the infraction, but the universe rarely ever kills a quantum being,¡± the Ruler says, bringing my attention back to him again. ¡°The most common punishments include pain, a decrease in power, and imprisonment for a few thousand years.¡± Silence fills the room for a second at that last one. Guess quantum beings don¡¯t age. Most System users end up getting extra life span every time they level up, but to be able to sit imprisoned for thousands of years means the quantum beings don¡¯t. Then again, it could just a be a really long lifespan like the other Class S species have. The Quantum Ruler scoffs at my thoughts and says, ¡°Don¡¯t compare us to those mortals.¡± But he doesn¡¯t explain any further, making me realize that he and his son at least share one incredibly annoying trait. They never fully explain everything. ¡°I will return to bring you to the quantum realm as soon as you reach Tier 4, so hurry it up and advance,¡± the Ruler says, seemingly finishing things up. My eyes narrow as I really don¡¯t like being told what to do by others. But at the same time, it wasn¡¯t like I was gonna stop leveling or anything. One way or another, the Quantum Ruler- ¡°Grandfather,¡± he says out of nowhere, cutting off my thoughts. My eyes narrow even further. The Quantum Ruler- ¡°Grandfather,¡± he insists, seemingly confusing everyone else here who can¡¯t hear my thoughts. We stare at each other for several more seconds before repeating the process twice more. Eventually I just glare at him amidst the others confusion before smirking. The self-proclaimed Grandfather is not what I was expecting when he first arrived. This time his eyes narrow, following which a staring match begins. Only to be ended when cracks begin to form in reality around the Quantum Ruler, who just lets out a sigh and mutters, ¡°Guess that satisfies the universe.¡± Which confuses me since it makes him seem like a different person from how he¡¯s acted so far. Then he grows more serious and says, ¡°My time here has run out. I will be leaving you now.¡± He turns to his son and adds, ¡°Try to behave while you¡¯re recovering. We can¡¯t have the universe throwing a fit because the Quantum Architect truly died.¡± And without another word, the Quantum Ruler vanishes in a glitchy purple flash of light. Then silence fills the room, broken only by the warping sound of the Quantum Architect rushing back into his bat form. That was¡­ certainly something. New Story Release Hello everyone! Sorry for the lack of chapters today, but there''s a reason. What many of you have been waiting for is finally here! My new story, Crimson Eternal, is now on Royal Road! It will be getting the first 20k words posted within the next nine to ten hours. Then it''ll get one chapter a day after that. Once again, this won''t affect the upload schedule of Wolf of the Blood Moon or Reaper''s Resurgence. They will still get one chapter almost every day just like before. Now. Here''s the first cover: If you''re interested, here is the synopsis: Death is an inevitability for all except Aria. Something she knows all too well. In a world full of war, Aria Crimson finds herself locked in the battlefield, unable to escape the war and the never-ending fighting that comes along with it. And as gunfire echoes throughout the world and ability holders of the two Empires fight until the end, both nations find themselves stumped when a strange screen similar to one of the newly created computers¡¯ screens but with far higher quality appears in front of everyone on the planet. Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more. Screens displaying text describing some sort of System meant to guide and empower the people of the planet when their planet is invaded by otherworlders. Now Aria has a way out of the war. One that involves fighting even harder. How will the world react to the changes, to the invaders, and to the power granted to them? And how will the only True Immortal in the universe, one dubbed by the System as Death, one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse despite the irony, choose to proceed? Join Aria as she figures that out for herself. What to expect: No romance, a fantasy world with a level of technology equivalent to the 1950s, a world where people have a chance to be born with an ability, the world suddenly being initiated into a System upon the invasion of another world''s people, a true immortal protagonist who cannot die, and a large focus on military and strategy, especially in the early books of the series. Guns will also be used as weapons in this story instead of just dropped like many LitRPGs do. Chapters are generally between 1.6-2.3k words, longer than the chapters on my other stories by a large margin. The first chapters will be even longer. If you want to check the story out, click here! Here''s the second book 1 cover: And here''s the book 2 cover: B2 | Chapter 79 - The Hour of Judgement Alexia Silence passes for several seconds without any of us saying a word. Then the silence is broken when the Quantum Architect speaks, his voice having returned to its normal baritone, ¡°Do not believe the persona my father puts on.¡± We all turn to him with confusion on our faces, with the exception of Mom. But the Quantum Architect doesn¡¯t say any more. Instead he just floats onto my shoulder and closes his eyes. So we turn to Mom, since she didn¡¯t appear surprised by his words. ¡°He¡¯s right,¡± she says in response to the stares. ¡°You all heard how restricted by roles the quantum beings are, and the Quantum Ruler is no different. His role forces him to act in certain ways. Ways very different from how he would normally act and speak. So you should never trust that the way he¡¯s speaking to you now is how he would normally speak or act.¡± Huh. That¡¯s¡­ interesting to know. Wait, what about- ¡°The Quantum Reaper role has no restrictions like Father¡¯s, so don¡¯t waste our time worrying,¡± the Quantum Architect answers my thoughts this time, likely because Mom probably doesn¡¯t know this. ¡°Father¡¯s role is special even amongst the roles, and he often does things he doesn¡¯t want to do because of it.¡± That¡¯s kind of sad. ¡°Don¡¯t pity the old man, he enjoys being kept on his toes,¡± the Architect says, surprising us all once again. ¡°It¡¯s one of the personality requirements to take on the role in the first place.¡± Then he goes silent, seemingly finished speaking. I frown at the quantum being in the form of a bat on my shoulder for several seconds. If that was one of his requirements for the Quantum Ruler role, and the requirements for me becoming the Quantum Reaper were a disinterest and apathetic view towards ruling with no interest in destroying the System¡­ then what are the requirements for a Quantum Architect? He stays silent, not giving any hint at the answer. Not even showing any signs that he heard me. Don¡¯t want to answer that one? He ignores me again. A pity. ¡°This has been bothering me for a while now,¡± Mom suddenly says, bringing my attention to her where I find her pursing her lips in thought. ¡°What about the Quantum Judge?¡± This book''s true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience. I frown in confusion, but Gramps just starts scowling seemingly for no reason. And the Hound looks just as confused as I am. To my surprise, the Quantum Architect answers her, ¡°The Quantum Judge is a two-fold name. He can be known as the Judge, but most people simply call him the Enforcer.¡± Mom hums for a second before nodding her head and saying, ¡°Thank you.¡± The Architect goes silent again. The Hound and I go silent while waiting for Mom to explain, but she never explains it. Not until the Hound finally asks, ¡°Dear, who is the Judge?¡± Mom purses her lips before glancing at me, then at Gramps, and finally back at the Hound again. ¡°He was the one who sealed me away all those years ago,¡± Mom eventually answers, making my eyes narrow immediately. And I¡¯m not the only one, considering the dangerous look I see on the Hound¡¯s face next to me. ¡°Explain,¡± the two of us state at the same time.
Somewhere within the Quantum Realm ¡°The Hour of Judgement is upon us,¡± a deep, mechanical and monotone voice echoes throughout a small portion of the Quantum Realm as a man can be seen floating with his eyes closed at the center of a powerful vortex of energy. But his eyes remain closed. He neither shows any signs of awakening, nor does the voice sound again. Instead, the energy all around him begins to move faster and faster, slowly absorbing more energy from the surroundings. And as the energy is absorbed, the vortex begins to grow violent, tearing apart anything it passes through in the process. Slowly, ever so slowly, the man at the center of the vortex opens his eyes. He blinks once. Then a second time. And when he blinks a third time, he opens his mouth and speaks, ¡°Stop.¡± Everything around him freezes instantly, the Quantum Enforcer using the most complicated aspect of quantum magic. His forte, time magic. However, just like any other being with control over time in the universe, his powers are significantly limited. Unless he is working for the universe itself. The man spreads his arms out and begins to float out of the vortex, only to eventually murmur, ¡°Resume,¡± making the vortex immediately continue its rampage, only to fall apart immediately due to his absence. But he doesn¡¯t pay any attention to it as he waves his hand in front of him, making several images appear. Images moving too fast for the mortal eye to view, all showing everything that has happened since his last time being called upon by the universe. Because unlike the other quantum beings, the Quantum Enforcer only has one goal in his life. To end it. But since that is impossible for the Quantum Enforcer, whose body is trapped in time, he sleeps unless called upon. The Quantum Enforcer continues watching the images like a movie before blinking once and sending the images shattering into purple shards. A job for the Judge this time. His eyes narrow. For a repeat offender. The Enforcer feels more than a little surprised by her escaping her punishment, since he had locked time within that dungeon, leaving her unable to so much as move a finger, much less escape. No one could enter, nor could anything leave. And time would never move forward. But the Architect¡¯s schemes erased his punishment. And he finally got an heir as well¡­ surprising. A Quantum Reaper. He stares blankly ahead for a few seconds before muttering, ¡°Warp,¡± and vanishing from the quantum realm to appear in the mortal realm. Meanwhile everything around where he appears freezes in time, as if time simply can¡¯t move in his vicinity. Now to find the Devourer and resume her punishment. B2 | Chapter 80 - The Quantum Enforcer Alexia Mom opens her mouth to speak, only for her eyes to widen out of nowhere with a hint of fear in her gaze. Then she looks between me, Astrid, and the Hound with a sad look in her eyes. ¡°Mom?¡± I repeat, worry bleeding into my voice. ¡°I¡¯m sorry, sweetheart, but I can¡¯t tell you now,¡± she says, sounding almost as if she¡¯s in a rush. ¡°I have to go, but I¡¯ll be back soon, okay?¡± My eyes widen in both fear and surprise, and I can¡¯t help but reach for her, but she moves back. And I¡¯m not the only one as the Hound does it as well. ¡°He¡¯s coming,¡± she says in a quiet voice, making me quickly realize that the one who sealed her away that she just mentioned ¨C the Quantum Judge ¨C is coming to do the same thing he did all those years ago. I feel rage filling me up, and I see the Hound growing angrier by the second as well. Even Gramps looks pissed. Astrid¡¯s still asleep though. Wait, shit! ¡°What about Astrid?!¡± I exclaim, making the sad look on Mom¡¯s face grow even sadder at that as she shakes her head. She¡¯s just going to leave without saying anything to her?! But I quickly understand why when I feel something in the quantum energy around us. A disturbance that I¡¯ve come to understand very well at this point as teleportation. ¡°I love you all,¡± she says while reaching out and grabbing my face before kissing my forehead. Then she hesitates for a brief moment and kisses the Hound, shocking the man in the process. And without another word, before I can even say anything, she vanishes in a black and gray flash of light. Only for a purple flash of light to fill my room afterwards as reality itself begins to glitch and a strange looking portal appears in the middle of the room. One that I can¡¯t see the other side of. Everyone in the room including myself immediately prepare ourselves in case we need to defend ourselves, but the moment a man steps out of the portal, time itself freezes around us. The Hound, Gramps, and even the air and energy itself around us. Everything just freezes in place. Everything except me and the one in front of me, who looks vaguely surprised at the sight of me. Likely because I¡¯m not frozen. Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road. The man has the same purple hair and glitchy purple eyes that every quantum being seems to have. But unlike the other quantum beings I¡¯ve seen, he¡¯s wearing what looks like a purple and black robe, and for some reason I just¡­ can¡¯t seem to mark down his appearance in terms of age. It¡¯s like his body is constantly changing between elderly and youthful. Sometimes it even looks like he¡¯s nothing more than a child. Overall, a rather off-putting appearance, if I¡¯m being honest. Then he narrows his eyes slightly, looking me up and down for a moment. Right. I¡¯m a quantum being. Status effects and things that target the spirit don¡¯t affect me. Meaning time magic meant to freeze me in time won¡¯t affect me at all, since it should be a status effect. Which basically announces who, or at least what, I am to him if he didn¡¯t already know. ¡°Quantum Reaper,¡± the man in front of me says with a light nod of his head. This is the one chasing Mom¡­ why does he look so depressed? The quantum beings I¡¯ve met so far have all been extremely arrogant. This is the first time I¡¯ve seen one that looks borderline depressed. I freeze slightly when I remember that the quantum beings up till now can read my mind, only to find that the man doesn¡¯t react at all. Which means that he either can¡¯t read my mind like the other two, or he just doesn¡¯t care about what I think. ¡°Quantum Judge,¡± I state, making his eyebrows furrow ever so slightly. Almost as if he doesn¡¯t like the term Quantum Judge. ¡°Tell me where she went girl,¡± he says, being both incredibly rude and incredibly direct in his attempt to give me an order. I narrow my eyes, scowling at the man as I state, ¡°And why the hell would I do that?¡± His mostly indifferent if not slightly irritated look turns into a scowl to match my own. Then he states as if I should care, ¡°Because the universe demands her punishment.¡± That just has me raising a brow as I cross my arms and state, ¡°So what?¡± Apparently my response startles him rather strongly. So much so that he takes a step back and mutters, ¡°What? But¡­ how?¡± I blink in confusion, beginning to realize that I might be missing something. Because his reaction is too strong for someone told no, and it¡¯s not even anger. It¡¯s like he¡¯s genuinely confused that I could say anything other than answer his question. Not even that I straight up turned his question around on him. Quantum Architect? The Architect lets out a sigh and opens his eyes on my shoulder before saying, ¡°Enforcer, begone.¡± Finally the Judge¡¯s eyes turn to the Architect, almost as if he didn¡¯t even realize the Architect was here. Which surprises me. But not as much as the sight of the Judge bowing his head slightly and turning away though. I stare after him for a few seconds, just watching him leave through the same way he came in from, unfreezing time in the process. Then I turn to look at the Architect who is still on my shoulder. ¡°How did¡­¡± I begin, only for him to interrupt me, ¡°The hierarchy is absolute.¡± Oh. Right. He did mention before that he was the second highest on the hierarchy. And if I remember correctly¡­ the Quantum Enforcer was third, right? I feel the Architect nodding his head on my shoulder, not bothering to answer me out loud as the others all look confused at the sudden lack of any danger. Almost forgot that time froze for them right when the Enforcer passed through the portal. Time to explain what happened I guess. Right before that though, I glance at where Mom vanished from, feeling saddened by her disappearance again. But she¡¯s still alive, and she¡¯s safe. That¡¯s all that matters. I turn back to the others and begin to explain what happened. B2 | Chapter 81 - Father and Daughter and Armor Alexia It doesn¡¯t take but a moment after I finish explaining to them about the Quantum Judge¡¯s appearance for the two of them to get rather angry. But I manage to calm them down just as quickly when I point out that getting mad won¡¯t help anything. ¡°The only thing we can do for Mom right now is to get stronger,¡± I tell the two of them, and they both nod their heads in agreement. Now then. Onto the elephant in the room. I turn to the Hound, finding him finally focusing on me as well. We never really worked out the whole ¡®he¡¯s my father¡¯ thing. ¡°Lexi¡­¡± he mutters, only to rapidly backtrack as he asks, ¡°Wait, can I call you that?¡± I nod my head, feeling slightly amused now by his awkwardness. Especially compared to how I always saw him on TV. As a monstrous genocidal murderer. Which he apparently is not, as recent events prove. ¡°I¡¯m sorry for-¡± he begins, but I raise a hand to make him stop. ¡°Imma stop you there,¡± I state rather bluntly. ¡°I don¡¯t blame you for what happened. None of it was your fault.¡± His eyes widen in surprise and he just kinda freezes in a stupor. ¡°Now, this doesn¡¯t mean we¡¯re just gonna be close all of a sudden or anything, but I don¡¯t blame you at all,¡± I tell him with a shrug, feeling slightly awkward now that he¡¯s just staring. I then point my thumb behind me at the sleeping Astrid and add, ¡°And I doubt Astrid will either.¡± To my surprise, tears begin to fall down his face. Oh, uh, wasn¡¯t expecting that. I glance at Gramps, just to find him looking rather amused by this turn of events. So I turn back to the Hound, err, guess maybe I should call him Lucas now instead of that title? Hmm. That might take some getting used to. Not calling him dad though. At least not yet. Maybe in the future, but he¡¯s still basically a stranger, biological ties or no biological ties. He just keeps crying, so I glance at Gramps again to find him shrugging. Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon. Okay, what am I supposed to do? I look between Gramps and Lucas a few times before eventually shrugging myself and walking up to Lucas, patting him once on the shoulder. Which just seems to make things worse as he cries even harder. Hmm. Right. So, I¡¯m not good with emotions. Uh, Architect, do you know what I should do? He answers without opening his eyes, ¡°My father is the Quantum Ruler.¡± Oh. Right. Yeah, sorry for asking. I glance at Luna, finding her sleeping on my other shoulder in her smallest bat form. Say, why isn¡¯t Luna turning into her humanoid form? This time the Architect opens his eyes as he answers, ¡°Because I awakened the ability prematurely. She doesn¡¯t have enough sapience yet to use the transformation.¡± How long do you think it¡¯ll take for her to develop enough sapience to use it? ¡°Likely sometime after you reach Tier 4,¡± he answers, making me frown. That might be a while. He shrugs, which I didn¡¯t realize was possible for a bat. Then closes his eyes again, letting me know that the conversation is over. So I focus on Lucas again to find him finally calming down again. ¡°You good?¡± I ask him, and he nods his head with a smile on his face. ¡°Good. I will point out though that I don¡¯t consider you my father still either. I only just met you after all.¡± He nods his head with a sad look on his face as he says, ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I understand.¡± ¡°Alright,¡± I state with a nod of my own before glancing at Astrid and then looking back at him again, ¡°I¡¯ll be heading out to continue leveling. I need to reach Tier 4 as fast as possible.¡± Lucas purses his lips for a second, only to glance at Gramps. Then the both of them nod and Lucas turns back to me, saying, ¡°I¡¯ll be doing the same.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll stay until your sister wakes up,¡± Gramps says, making me give him a look of appreciation before I briefly glance at Lucas. I purse my lips, hesitating for a moment, only to tell him, ¡°While it didn¡¯t start off on very good terms, it was nice to meet you, Lucas.¡± And without giving him time to respond, I teleport away. But I don¡¯t teleport off of the island. Instead I teleport to Dravik¡¯s forge, startling him when I appear in the middle of the forge. ¡°Hells, lass! Are ya tryin¡¯ ta give me a heart attack!?¡± the dwarf shouts the moment I appear. ¡°Sorry,¡± I tell him without a hint of regret in my voice. Because it¡¯s fun to mess with the guy. ¡°My armor done yet?¡± He lets out a sigh and beckons me to follow him. So I do and soon find myself entering a room off to the side with a lot of steam. ¡°Tha scales were tough ta melt, an even tougher ta cool,¡± he explains, making me understand the steam. ¡°They should be finishin soon.¡± I continue following him until I find a strange rack with water occasionally being splashed at the armor on it, with more water running through the inside. The armor itself is red and black in color, matching the Dragon of Cataclysm¡¯s scales. Especially since the shoulder pads and upper arms even show the layered scales, with the rest being melted scales forged together into a smooth set of armor. It has very little skin showing, which I like, but also without too much bulk to it. Which I also like. ¡°Yer new armor, shiny and brand new,¡± he says with a hint of pride before glancing at the cloak I have. ¡°I also made it ta work with yer cloak.¡± Now that has me smiling. ¡°You did well, Dravik,¡± I tell him, holding myself back from grinning from ear to ear. He scoffs and begins to walk out of the room, ¡°Course¡¯ I did. Ye can wait here till it cools and take it with ya.¡± I wave back at him without turning around as he leaves the room. It really is a beautiful piece of work. B2 | Chapter 82 - New Gear Alexia I end up waiting nearly an hour for the armor to finish cooling. And as soon as it does, I feel I can finally identify it. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Dragon Scale Armor of Cataclysm Description: This set of armor was made from the scales of a Cataclysm Class monster, thereby granting the holder 10% more damage against Chaos monsters. The wearer will also take fifteen percent less damage from magic, and ten percent less damage from physical attacks. The wearer may wear a cloak over the armor. Stats Bonus: +50 STR, +50 VIT Requirements: The wearer must have defeated a Cataclysm Class monster before. Item Tier: 4 -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- ¡°Magnificent, ain¡¯t it?¡± Dravik says from behind me, having entered the room again after likely sensing it finishing or something. At least I¡¯m pretty sure crafters can do that. I nod my head with a grin. ¡°Well, try it on,¡± he says while walking out of the room to give me privacy. So I do just that, taking off my own gear before putting the armor on. Then I go ahead and put my cloak on over the armor. Unfortunately I haven¡¯t seen much effect from the cloak yet since the whole making people unconsciously skim over me thing doesn¡¯t really work on people around my same level. And I haven¡¯t actually been going around hiding the soul I naturally exude, making me pretty much a walking beacon. Anyways, I walk over to a mirror while calling out, ¡°I¡¯m good,¡± to the dwarf I sense waiting outside the room. And as I¡¯m looking at the mirror, I sense him walk inside. ¡°It looks great,¡± I tell the dwarf before raising my arm and flexing it slightly to feel the difference with the new stats. Then I swipe my arm to the side, sending a gale of wind just from my movement. ¡°Feels great too.¡± The dwarf scoffs, saying, ¡°Course¡¯ it does! I made it after all!¡± I glance at him with an amused eyebrow raised before looking back at the mirror again. Hmm, the dark purple, black, and crimson red look nice together. And it really does fit me perfectly. Just like the System-made armor I¡¯ve been wearing. You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version. Normally you expect some small issues in fitting when dealing with smith forged equipment. Gear that wasn¡¯t made to perfectly fit you automatically by the System. But this gear really does fit me perfectly. I look at the smith again, briefly wondering if I somehow ended up with a master craftsmen or something. Come to think of it, I never actually identified him. Because I didn¡¯t want to be rude to the only smith in the Retreat, and it would start our relationship off in a bad light if I did that. Although he¡¯s probably not the only smith anymore. So out of curiosity, I ask, ¡°Would you mind if I identified you?¡± He looks surprised at my question before shrugging and saying, ¡°No need ta ask, lass.¡± I feel slightly surprised at that, only to shrug and identify the dwarf. {Dravik Goldsmith ¨C Species: Elder Dwarf ¨C Class: Blastburn Smith ¨C Level 250} My jaw drops open in shock. ¡°You¡¯re an elder dwarf?!¡± I exclaim, feeling incredibly awkward at my mentally referring to him as a dwarf. The elder dwarf scoffs while crossing his arms, ¡°What, d¡¯ya think I was only a wee lad?¡± I stare at him, unable to respond. Dwarves are a strange species within the System, and elves are the same. They naturally evolve their species from Class B to Class A once they¡¯re old enough. I believe it was after they reach a thousand years old they advance from a dwarf or elf to an elder dwarf or high elf. But there are no visible differences on the outside to tell which is which, so identifying one can be awkward without actually, well, identifying them with the System. The only real differences are some internal organs and their stats. And that¡¯s not all. He has a legendary class. Although I¡¯m not sure what a blastburn smith is. ¡°If you don¡¯t mind me asking, why were you¡­¡± I pause when he raises a brow. ¡°Why was I in that filthy kingdom before tha Reset?¡± the elder dwarf asks, making me briefly wonder why he considers it filthy until I realize that it kinda is. ¡°Just ask tha¡¯ grandfather o¡¯ yours.¡± I blink for a moment before tilting my head slightly and asking with a frown, ¡°Gramps?¡± The elder dwarf nods his head, making me briefly open my mouth to speak only to close it again. Actually, that does kind of make some sense. After all, Gramps was an Ascendant before the Reset and is a Class S species. It makes sense that he¡¯d have a personal smith. ¡°Wait, does that mean you changed from being his personal smith to being mine?¡± I can¡¯t help but ask, making the elder dwarf laugh out loud. ¡°In a way, sure, ya can see it like that, lass,¡± he says before looking me, or rather, my armor over one last time, nodding once in satisfaction, and then walking out of the room. ¡°Yer polearm won¡¯t be ready for another week, so ye can find yer own way out as always lass.¡± ¡°Hmm,¡± I give a light hum in understanding while nodding, feeling slightly dazed by what just happened. And before I know it, I hear the smith hammering away again in another room. I continue standing in the middle of the room in a daze for several seconds, only to finally snap out of it and teleport straight from his smithy to a certain hellfrost dragon¡¯s island. Then I show the man the armor, since he and Vargas wanted me to show him once it was done just to make sure I used the materials properly. And after he shows surprise, mentioning how well it was crafted, I go ahead and begin teleporting directly from one island to another without bothering with staying in the air anymore. Since my teleportation range has gotten so great. By the way, Architect, what do you think my true form will be like? ¡°Can you stop bothering me? The more you ask me questions, the longer it takes for me to recover.¡± He grumbles, but I ignore him, continuing to wait for his response. And after he realizes that, he grumbles a bit more and answers, ¡°I don¡¯t know. Not even Father understands the exact role of the Quantum Reaper, other than that it¡¯s outside of the hierarchy, and doesn¡¯t have any mental compulsions like us other quantum beings have.¡± Oh. That¡¯s nice at least. Would¡¯ve been nice to know what my true form would be though. Well, putting that aside, I¡¯ll see my true form when I reach Tier 4. For now, I just need to focus on getting stronger. Then I can help Mom. I smile at that thought before a determined look covers my face and I speed up my travel towards the Tier 3 dungeon I was fighting in before. Time for some dungeon crawling. B2 | Epilogue Within Dimensional Block #80 Isabella frowns at the massive floating cube whose edges keep detaching and moving to other spots on its body to reattach again. And as soon as she identifies it, the creature fixates its attention on her. {Boxxar de Bolt ¨C Bloxar of Cataclysm ¨C Level 311} Not this Block either. With that thought in mind, she lets out a roar in her true form that makes the massive cube pause in its approach. Then she quickly begins flying away, not having enough time to deal with slaughtering another Cataclysm Class monster. She¡¯s already killed four of them by now, and all they¡¯re doing is proving wastes of her time. Time that could be used better searching for her son. Unfortunately, every single one of the Dimensional Blocks she¡¯s searched thus far has had a Cataclysm Class monster still roaming the Block. Just how many Dimensional Blocks are there? Isabella can¡¯t help but grumble in her mind as she flies through the Dimensional Block, breaking the sound barrier in the process until she eventually reaches the next Dimensional Wall and passes through it without a care for those down below managing the wall. Then she immediately begins spreading her senses out into the Dimensional Block, searching for a powerful presence that would mark the Block¡¯s Cataclysm Monster. And after moving around the Block for a few hours, she finds a presence powerful enough that it might be either a Class S species or a Cataclysm Class monster. So she rushes towards them, just to find an ouroboros. The poison element Class S species. Without paying the ouroboros any mind, Isabella continues moving past it, surprising the user until they realize who it was that passed them and feel relief. She continues searching through the poisonous wasteland before eventually coming upon a massive pool of purple bubbling liquid that¡¯s letting off the presence of something living. And after identifying it, she realizes it¡¯s the Cataclysm Class monster. {Abyss ¨C Toxicabyssorum of Cataclysm ¨C Level 311} Isabella pauses slightly at that odd name before shrugging and speeding away without even giving the Cataclysm Class monster a chance to fully wake up. Not this Dimensional Block either. I think I underestimated how long it would take to find him. If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. She grimaces at that thought as she continues speeding through the Dimensional Block straight to another wall, breaking the sound barrier in the process. And right when she enters the next Block, she lets out a sigh. I hope it doesn¡¯t take too long to find him.
Within Dimensional Block #105 Vlad Cross Exanthir, Dimensional Leader of Dimensional Block #105, looks out across his council ¨C one made entirely of dragonborn ¨C and states, ¡°Are we are all in agreement?¡± ¡°Yes,¡± his second in command and brother, Axol Cross Exanthir, answers. ¡°Our scouts have confirmed the rumors. The Reaper will not be participating in any Dimensional Wars with other Dimensional Blocks so long as we avoid involving those under her protection.¡± A wave of nods flow through the gathered council members. ¡°Very well,¡± the Dimensional Leader declares. ¡°Everyone should avoid any acts that could antagonize The Reaper and those under her protection. If they say to avoid any specific areas, then avoid them. If they wish to claim any areas after the fact, let them. Do not do anything that could bring The Reaper¡¯s blade upon our necks.¡± ¡°Understood, Alpha Vlad,¡± all of the council members declare while slamming their fists into their chests as a sign of respect. ¡°All of the top users in the Reset are currently trying to level up before they reach the breakpoint in leveling,¡± the Dimensional Leader continues. ¡°Tier 4. We need to get this war started and completed before that happens. Because it¡¯s then that the top users will all begin scouring other Dimensional Blocks in mass searching for Tier 4 dungeons. And we don¡¯t want them interfering with our war.¡± The council members all grimace at the thought of a bunch of users at the top of the leaderboards interjecting themselves into the war. ¡°We¡¯ve received news that The Reaper herself is heading back to train in dungeons,¡± the Dimensional Leader says while turning his attention to the dragonborn sitting off to the side of the council chambers. ¡°If she were to, against what the intel suggests, interfere with the war, what do you believe your chances are at defeating her?¡± The Dimensional Champion slowly opens his eyes before shaking his head and closing them again. ¡°Then you must avoid her at all costs,¡± Vlad states, his eyes narrowing slightly. ¡°Do not let that whimsical Reaper decide that she feels like quieting the commotion around the Block by challenging and killing you should she see you.¡± A few seconds pass in silence before the Dimensional Champion quietly mutters without opening his eyes, ¡°Understood, Father.¡± Vlad nods his head at his son and returns his attention to the others in the council chamber. ¡°How do we all feel about the Dimensional Leader?¡± The various dragonborn all scoff, only a single one of them bothering to answer the question, ¡°He¡¯s a measly giant.¡± ¡°Agreed,¡± Vlad says with a nod. ¡°Then we will bathe the giants in dragon fire. An honor for them to serve the reunion of our beloved dragonborn tribes and the great Ethan Silva, Hellfrost Dragon and son of the Ancestral Dragon.¡± A shout round of snorts echo through the room as the various dragonborn, creatures whose appearance is that of a humanoid being with scales, a tail, and the head of a lizard, all blow out flames from their nostrils. The sign of cheer and celebration from the tribes. Even the Dimensional Champion¡¯s indifferent disposition cracks slightly when the corner of his mouth twitches and a puff of flames blow out of his nose. The cheers last for several seconds before they gradually calm down again, leaving the chamber in silence. A silence that doesn¡¯t last for long. ¡°Then we will make this official,¡± Vlad Cross Exanthir. ¡°During the next Dimensional Council Meeting, we shall declare war on Dimensional Block #108.¡± B3 | Glossary System: Legendary Feats grant bonus perks to those who earn them and announce the feat to every System User. People only get one racial skill per advancement, starting with one racial skill at Tier 1. People can only have five passive and five active Class skills slotted at a time. People can only have ten general skills slotted at a time. Levels 1-100 are Tier 1 Levels 101-250 are Tier 2 Levels 251-500 are Tier 3 Levels 501-1000 are Tier 4 Levels 1001-2500 are Tier 5 Above level 2500 are Ascendants Class skills are received at every five levels for Tier 1. General skills are earned from doing what the skill entails and being given it by the System when you¡¯re determined to have earned them. The different Classes of Species are: Class E: +5 stats per level ¨C EX: Unintelligent weak monsters such as skeletons. Identify is as follows: {Species Name ¨C Level X} Class D: +6 stats per level ¨C EX: Unintelligent and basic intelligent monsters such as goblins. Identify is as follows: {Species Name ¨C Level X} Class C: +7 stats per level ¨C EX: Creatures such as hobgoblins and orcs that have intelligence but not as much as Class B creatures. Identify is as follows: {Species Name ¨C Level X} Class B: +8 stats per level ¨C EX: Human, Dwarves, Elves, etc. Identify is as follows: {Name ¨C Class: XXXX ¨C Level X} Class A: +9 stats per level ¨C EX: Vampires, Werewolves, Kitsune, and other variant creatures. Identify is as follows: {Name ¨C Species: XXXXX ¨C Class: XXXXX ¨C Level XX} Class S: +10 stats per level ¨C EX: Quantum Reapers, other types of reapers, dragons, etc. Identify is as follows: {Name ¨C Species/Class(both the same name) ¨C Level XX} The different Rarities of Classes are: Common: +4 stats per level Uncommon: +5 stats per level Rare: +6 stats per level Epic: +7 stats per level Legendary: +8 stats per level Mythic: +10 stats per level Element Affinity Classes: Take note! This IS NOT A SPLIT! And people can have more than one affinity! A Class E Affinity in an element allows the user to occasionally sense and maybe even see a small amount of that element or powerful effects of that element but not use it. 50% out of every last person in existence have at least a Class E Affinity. A Class D Affinity in an element allows the user to see and sometimes interact with a small amount of that element, but not enough to get a magic class. 20% out of every last person in existence have at least a Class D Affinity. A Class C Affinity in an element allows the user to directly manipulate the element in the form of mana or whatever energy that element uses in their body to a limited degree. They can get magic classes. 10% out of every last person in existence have at least a Class C Affinity. A Class B Affinity in an element allows the user to directly manipulate the mana or energy of their element in the air. They can get higher rarity magic Classes. 0.1% out of every last person in existence have at least a Class B Affinity. A Class A Affinity in an element allows the user to directly manipulate the mana or energy of their element and clearly see it no matter how weak the energy or mana is. They can get higher rarity magic classes and have a higher level of control over the element. 0.0001% out of every last person in existence have at least a Class A Affinity. A Class S Affinity in an element is a perfect affinity and is only possible in those born of that element, where the element itself permeates throughout their body itself. Special circumstances must occur for someone to have a Class S Affinity if they are not a Class S species, who has one by default. Furthermore, they can only have a single Class S Affinity as they cannot have more than one element naturally flowing through their veins. These are not separately counted!!! 50% out of all 100% of people in the world. Then 20% out of all 100% of people in the world. And so on. Alexia Knight Age: 20 years old Relatives: Daughter to Lucas Nightshade and Crystal Nightshade, Adopted Granddaughter to the Knight of the Crimson Score - Lysander Knight, Twin Sister to Astrid Knight. Physical Appearance Pre-Reset: Long black hair done in a braid with blue eyes and a laidback attitude. She wears her armor everywhere she goes instead of any sort of fashion, the armor consisting of enchanted black leather. She is five foot five inches tall. Physical Appearance Post-Reset: Her previously long black hair is no longer done in a braid and is now tinted with a deep purple, and her eyes are now varying shades of purple that appear to glitch out every now and then as if they were an error in a computer game. Her blood is red with some faint tints of blue and dark purple and more tints of violet, and it also glitches out along with any of her insides whenever seen by the naked eye. She is five foot five inches tall. Status Pre-Reset:
Name: Alexia Knight Species: Human(T1)
Level: 35 Class: Magic Knight
Health: 700/700 Mana: 1050/1050
VIT: 69 DEX: 103 STR: 137 MAG: 137 MEN: 35
Racial Skills Active Skills
Passive Skills General Skills
Human(Species): +1 VIT, +2 DEX, +2 STR, +2 MAG, +1 MEN Per Level Magic Knight: +1 VIT, +1 DEX, +2 STR, +2 MAG Current Status:
Name: Alexia Knight Species: Quantum Reaper(T3)
Level: 301 Class: Quantum Reaper
Soul: 26,275/26,275
VIT: 901 DEX: 952 STR: 901 MAG: 1,201 MEN: 1,201
Racial Skills Active Skills
Passive Skills General Skills
Quantum Reaper(Species): +2 VIT, +2 DEX, +2 STR, +2 MAG, +2 MEN Per Level Quantum Reaper(Class): Epic: +1 VIT, +1 DEX, +1 STR, +2 MAG, +2 MEN Legendary: +1 VIT, +2 DEX, +1 STR, +2 MAG, +2 MEN Alexia gets +3 VIT, +3 DEX, +3 STR, +4 MAG, and +4 MEN per level at Tier 1 and 2. Alexia gets +3 VIT, +4 DEX, +3 STR, +4 MAG, and +4 MEN per level at Tier 3. Legendary Feats: The Reaping - (Bonus: Your Quantum affinity is enhanced to Class S. Your class selection now only includes the class Quantum Reaper.), The First Clear ¨C (Bonus: As the first to clear a dungeon in the new dimension, your first loot box in every dungeon will always give you an item of a single Tier higher than what it would¡¯ve otherwise given. You are also given the General Skill known as Dungeon Map.), The Vanguard ¨C (Bonus: As the first being to ascend in Tier within the System, you are gifted with a token that you may use to upgrade your class whenever you desire to the next rarity. This is a one-time-use item and will vanish after use.), The First Authority ¨C (Bonus: As the first to reach Authority Level 5, you may pass through any Dimensional Barriers regardless of if the Dimensional Barrier is locked down by order of that Block¡¯s Dimensional Council.), Slayer of Kings ¨C (Bonus: As the first user within the System to kill a Class S being, you are now granted an extra Active Skill Slot!), Dimensional Conqueror ¨C (Bonus: As the first user within the System to kill the Dimensional Leader of another Dimensional Block, you gain the ability to know the general location of the Dimensional Leader and Dimensional Champion of whatever Dimensional Block you¡¯re in at all times.), Chaos Hunter ¨C (Bonus: As a part of the first group of users to kill a Cataclysm Class monster, you are granted System Assistance whenever slaying a creature of Chaos.) Racial Skills: Quantum Body: Reduces physical damage dealt to the user by 80% and increases magic damage dealt to the user by 50%. This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source. Quantum Equilibrium: Due to the balanced quantum state of a Quantum Reaper, you grow naturally resistant towards any and all status effects. Quantum Obscurity: Your body grows further stabilized in the quantum, making powers that affect the spirit completely useless against you. This includes all types of divination, scrying, death magic, soul magic, and more. Not all of her skills that she¡¯s gotten are shown here! Only the ones directly mentioned in the story. Red text means she does not have the skill slotted. Active Skills: Lvl 11 Quantum Bolt: Releases a bolt of pure quantum energy at a target. This bolt will rip apart the target on a quantum level. Lvl 21 Quantum Displacement: Allows the user to teleport up to a radius of {the Skill¡¯s level to the power of the Skill¡¯s Tier} meters around themself. Lvl 1 Quantum Stasis Copy: Allows the user to take a copy of their body in the past and overlay it with their body in the present, setting their physical body back to the health it was then. The further back the user copies, the more soul this skill costs. Lvl 1 Quantum Singularity Implosion: Allows the user to create a quantum singularity that draws everything near it towards itself before causing everything drawn inside to implode in a massive explosion. Lvl 9 Quantum Reversal: Revert time on just the user¡¯s body, reversing a limited amount of damage in an instant along with the effects of the damage. The price of the skill scales with the amount of damage and the skill¡¯s level, and wounds that would be considered fatal by the System are only partially reversible. Lvl 1 Quantum Phasing: Temporarily shift the user¡¯s body fully out of the normal plane of reality into the quantum plane, making them immune to any and all physical damage and able to pass through solid objects. Lvl 4 Quantum Burst: Sends a powerful wave of quantum energy all around the user. Level 3 Quantum Echo: Allows the user to create a brief echo of their previous attack through quantum entanglement, letting them duplicate one attack at a weaker level than the original attack. Level 1 Quantum Resonance: Allows the user to use the quantum energy in their body to create a resonance throughout themselves that increases their physical strength, speed, and regeneration for a limited amount of time. Level 1 Quantum Communication: Allows the user to fold space between them and another location near an energy source of their choosing, creating a portal that only allows sound to pass through. Lvl 1 Waveform Manipulation: Allows the user to change the form of mana by manipulating their wave-particle duality. This may change the form of whatever skill or spell is targeted by this skill in various different ways. Lvl 4 Wave-Particle Cascade: Allows the user to change between three forms. Their default form with no additional effects, their Wave form of which grants the user enhanced magical prowess and speed with the ability to phase through three solid non-living objects at the cost of an increased weakness to magic by 50%, and their Particle form of which grants the user enhanced physical prowess and physical resistance at the cost of the inability to use magic while in the form. Lvl 2 Quantum Breath: Allows the user to spew out quantum flames from their mouth. Quantum Paradox Blast: Allows the user to create a localized quantum paradox that results in an explosion at a point designated by the user. Passive Skills: Quantum Attunement: Grants the user enhanced sensitivity to quantum fluctuations, giving them heightened awareness of nearby magical energies and disturbances. Quantum Singularity: Further stabilizes the user¡¯s place in reality and the quantum realm, making skills and magics with any relation to the quantum have less effect on the user. Potentially affects time magic, space magic, soul magic, death magic, and other magics that directly affect reality itself in some way shape or form. Lvl 9 Quantum Infusion: All of your physical attacks are now infused with a small amount of quantum energy from the environment, regardless of if the attacks were made with your body or through equipment. Lvl 9 Quantum Adaptation: Allows the user¡¯s body to adapt to any type of environment after an extended duration of exposure to it. The adaptations made will be permanent, however they will never reach immunity to the environment. Lvl 1 Energy Absorption: Passively absorbs a small amount of energy from every attack received by the user to refill their soul. Lvl 1 Quantum Regeneration: Passively increases the user¡¯s soul regeneration. Lvl 1 Quantum Synergy: Grants a passive boost to every quantum magic used by the user. Quantum Veil: Grants the user a veil protecting them from divination and scrying magics. Quantum Aura: Creates a field around the user that distorts the space within the field by a minimal margin, making it slightly harder to accurately hit the user. Lvl 4 Observation Effect Absorption: Allows the user to automatically absorb a very minimal amount of energy from every magical attack they see along with some environmental effects that generate energy. They may then use that energy to perform a powerful attack. General Skills: Lvl 8 Pain Resistance Lvl 6 Polearm Mastery (Unique) Forerunner: Passively increases the effects of the user¡¯s stats by three percent. Lvl 2 Stealth Lvl 3 Fatigue Resistance: Passively increases the user¡¯s resistance towards fatigue by a slight amount. Lvl 6 Poison Resistance: Passively increases the user¡¯s resistance towards any and all types of poison by a slight amount. Lvl 4 Survivor: Passively decreases the amount of nutrition the user needs to survive by a small amount and increases their resistance to natural weather, granting them a tougher body when taking damage from naturally occurring things. Lvl 7 Exploration: Enhances the user¡¯s basic instinct to know which direction they should go when unsure, makes it so they always know which of the four cardinal directions are where, and may sometimes give the user an instinctive feeling directing them to a hidden location. Lvl 2 Dungeon Map: The user may now open and fill in a dungeon map for whatever dungeon they are in simply by moving around the dungeon. Hidden areas will be shown on the map when you reveal the area they are located on the map. (Unique) Anti-Magic Barrier: Passively creates an anti-magic barrier directly over the user¡¯s body that will absorb twenty percent of the magical damage the user takes until the barrier is fully saturated. The barrier will then take ten minutes before it is replaced with a brand new barrier. Lvl 3 Energy Manipulation: Allows the user to directly manipulate energy, both elemental and otherwise. (Unique) Tutorial Champion: Given to the Champion of the Tutorial who ranked first on the leaderboard after they get their first skill post-Tutorial. Increases the effect of the user¡¯s stats by 3%.
Name: Luna Species: Adolescent Quantum Vampire Bat(T3)
Level: 250 Class: Elemental Pet
Soul: 22,525/ 22,525
VIT: 601 DEX: 801 STR: 652 MAG: 1,201 MEN: 1,201
Racial Skills Active Skills
Passive Skills General Skills
Infantile Quantum Vampire Bat(Species): +1 VIT, +2 DEX, +1 STR, +2 MAG, +2 MEN Per Level Elemental Pet(Class): +1 VIT, +1 DEX, +2 STR, +2 MAG, +2 MEN Luna gets +2 VIT, +2 DEX, +2 STR, +4 MAG, and +4 MEN per level at Tier 1. Luna gets +2 VIT, +3 DEX, +2 STR, +4 MAG, and +4 MEN per level at Tier 2. Luna gets +2 VIT, +3 DEX, +3 STR, +4 MAG, and +4 MEN per level at Tier 3. Characters: Astrid Alexia¡¯s twin sister, a Shadowborne Class A species, and a former Magic Knight just like her now Shadowblade. Aidan Alexia and Astrid¡¯s childhood friend and a former Ice Mage now uncommon Combat Mage. Has brown hair and eyes. Alara The daughter of the Guildmaster of the local Adventurer¡¯s Guild and has a rare class, Fire Dancer. Her family owes the Kingdom of Silvercrest a debt that they now no longer need to worry about thanks to the Reset. Has red hair and blue eyes. Shelly Daughter of a powerful member of the Hunter¡¯s Guild and an uncommon class, Arcane Archer. Has brown hair and black eyes. Rob Son of a powerful member of the Mage¡¯s Guild and an uncommon class, Combat Healer. Has black hair and brown eyes. Rodrick Lancaster Son of a Baron and developed interest in Astrid. Has green eyes and brown hair. Is an idiot. William Sinclair Crown Prince of the Former Kingdom of Silvercrest. Has silver hair and silver eyes and the rare Warlock class. Elizabeth Sinclair Prince of the Former Kingdom of Silvercrest. Has silver hair and silver eyes and the rare Warlock class. She is tall and with a full figure that her fianc¨¦ has no qualms about looking at. Reginald Kingsley Fianc¨¦ to the Princess and has a rare class, Iceblade Knight. He also has a very sharp looking face with gray eyes and brown hair and is a creep but is one that knows what they¡¯re doing and is smart. Cassandra Dawn Daughter to a Duke and has a rare class, Arcane Hunter. She had a sister once, but they died. She has long brown hair with golden eyes and betrayed both the crown prince and the princess. Lucas Nightshade The Hound of the Apocalypse who massacred an entire nation before the Reset and was feared across the world. He feels familiarity towards Alexia¡¯s name. He has the Requiem of Light and Shadow epic class that is a mixture of Astral and Shadow magics. Aurora Frost The former Empress of Niflheim and user of ice magic. She has a grudge against Leif Eriksson and repeatedly trades places with him on the leaderboards, currently being number four on it. Leif Eriksson The former King of Arcadia. He has holy magic specializing in defense. He is arrogant. Isabella d''Aragon She is a dragon who can shapeshift into a humanoid form with two large red wings on her back and red eyes. She is the former empress of the Scarlet Empire and the Ancestral Dragon. Isabella has little interest in matters that don¡¯t involve the dragons. Alexander Frost He is a kraken who can shapeshift into a humanoid form with glowing blue eyes and wavy blue hair. He is the former leader of the underwater nation of Atlantis. Damien Black A vampire with white hair and glowing red eyes who is leading the League of Ascendants. He has difficulty controlling his anger, bloodthirst, and lust for power. Leonidas Silver A ghoul with pitch black orbs for eyes and pale skin. He is the Emperor of the Fallen Empire. Meanwhile all he cares about is his desire for peace for both himself and his nation without any care for struggles beyond that. Nathan Briar A human known by many as the Wandering Summoner. He rarely ever settles in one location, always on the move, always searching for new monsters to add to his list of summons. He¡¯s is rather laidback in his attitude, deciding to deal with things as they come. Noah Kowalski The eighth ranked user on the leaderboards and a werewolf. He was not an Ascendant before the Reset. Crystal Nightshade Wife of the Hound of the Apocalypse, mother of Alexia and Astrid, and a Class S species known as a devourer. One from outside of the System. Lysandre Knight Adopted grandfather to Alexia and Astrid. Ethan Silva The one hundredth ranked user on the leaderboards Artorius del Argon The tenth person to reach level 100 and the Primeval Fiend. An archfiend. Ignivara The ninth person to reach level 100 and the Ancient Terror. A hydra. Vallius Karan de Volt Hellmouth A Class S species known as a Lich King ¨C the strongest species of undead there is. Sartorius A Class S species known as an archangel. Quantum Ruler The ruler of all quantum beings and Lexi¡¯s grandfather via the quantum laws and her inheritance of his son¡¯s quantum energy. He is at the top of the hierarchy over the quantum beings. Quantum Balancer The quantum being who took control of Lucas¡¯s body and massacred the angels. He is now being punished by the Ruler for his actions abusing his authority. Quantum Enforcer The quantum being who enforced Crystal¡¯s punishment. Dravik The elder dwarf who acts as Lexi¡¯s blacksmith. B3 | Chapter 1 - The Second Dimensional Council Meeting Alexia The next couple months pass by as I travel through the dungeon suggested to me by Ethan. A dungeon that¡¯s full of illusions. None of which affect me. Doesn¡¯t change the fact that the monsters in here have kept me wandering the dungeon for two months, only reaching a little over level 400. ¡°You complain a lot,¡± the Quantum Architect, who has been speaking more and more over these past couple months, whines. But I chose to ignore him. He tends to stop talking when I do that. I stretch my arms slightly as I walk through the illusion-covered corridor of this damned maze. Only to end up at another dead end, making me groan and turn back around again. This maze is a bigger issue than the illusions. I pause mid-step when a notification appears in my vision.
The Second Dimensional Council shall commence in three days¡¯ time. All Authority holders are advised to gather those you wish advising you during this council and mentally designate them as your advisors. If they are not designated within the next three days, they will not be brought with you to the Council. If you are in a dungeon and cannot get out, you will be teleported to the Council anyways.
Huh. I almost forgot that was a thing. Yeah, there¡¯s no way I¡¯ll be able to make my way out of the dungeon in three days. I¡¯m just gonna continue fighting in this dungeon. So without any hesitation whatsoever, I arrive at the crossroads within the maze and begin moving down the next path. Only to find a fallen foxkin turning the corner before immediately beginning to prowl as if I didn¡¯t notice it, the chaos monster clearly not realizing that I¡¯m not affected by illusions. And without any hesitation, I teleport in front of it, startling the thing right at the same time that my polearm¡¯s glaive cuts straight through its neck, severing its head. Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there. Then I proceed to move on through the dungeon, whistling as I do so. And just like that, the next few days pass by in a flash with me doing nothing but killing fallen foxkin and other illusion affinity monsters while getting lost in a damned maze. Before I know it, the System starts flashing me with the countdown for the council meeting¡¯s start. I glance at the bat on my shoulder, wondering if he¡¯s planning on joining me. ¡°I¡¯m not going to give those mortals any of my attention,¡± he answers my thoughts, making me raise a brow. Still calling them mortals? His eyes open as he narrows them slightly, ¡°Daughter, if you grow attached to them, you will regret it. I¡¯m telling you this now.¡± Yeah, yeah. Say, why haven¡¯t you returned to your humanoid form since we spoke with your father? I¡¯m sure it¡¯d be easier to move around in that form. The slightest hint of a smirk makes its way onto my lips when the quantum being shuts up. Ah, the perfect retorts. Always works like a charm. I can¡¯t help but chuckle a little before the countdown hits zero and the smile vanishes from my face right as I appear in my booth at the top of the Dimensional Council Chamber. Just like last time, I appear on the fifth level of the chamber. Meanwhile the King of Giants and the King of Silvercrest both appear on the fourth level, alongside two others. Both of which I realize I don¡¯t actually recognize. I quickly identify the two while resting my cheek on my fist, my elbow on the arm rest of my little throne as I push my hood off of my head with my other hand. {Morgan Veni-Tial ¨C Species: Witch ¨C Class: Sage of Visions ¨C Level 279} {Sergan vel Rath ¨C Species: Fiend ¨C Class: Hellfire Heretic ¨C Level 288} Both of them look at me, meeting my gaze only to shiver as I sense fear wafting off of the two of them. Oh come on, do I really look that scary? I know it¡¯s a common reaction, but still¡­ ¡°They¡¯re mortals,¡± the voice in my head says, the quantum being as obsessed with that term as ever. ¡°It would probably help if you put more emotion into your gaze.¡± I blink in surprise, finding him to actually be saying something useful for a first. Then I realize that I have no idea how to do what he just suggested. So I put that off until later to figure out. Maybe Astrid can help me. Well, anyways, I focus on the other Authority Holders down below. And I quickly find that most of the people in here last time have at least reached Authority Level 2. Meanwhile a bunch of new faces that I don¡¯t recognize at all are at Authority Level 1. Some people who I think were at Authority Level 2 also reached Authority Level 3 since as well. Alara actually shot straight up to Authority Level 3 herself, so she¡¯s gotten quite a bit of power and influence since the last time the council met. As for Astrid, she also got some Authority, but she¡¯s staying in Alara¡¯s booth anyways. Because, just like me, she has no interest in politics. Although, a lot of people are currently noticing the rather large differences in her from before. Considering that she¡¯s a variant hydra and all now. Not really sure what exactly that makes her, but she¡¯s still technically a Class S species. And with a strange element as well. A mixture between shadow and magma. My sister looks rather imposing just sitting there with her arms crossed, molten eyes glowing with a black and red light while wearing an attire fit for an assassin. Then again¡­ I glance down at myself to find that I probably look just as much if not even more imposing than she does in my black and purple cloak over my red and black Dragon of Cataclysm scale armor. My rather distracted thoughts are brought back to the council when Varsac begins speaking. Oh. Right. Council meeting. ¡°Is everyone ready?¡± Varsac asks, making nods and a rather large mix of muttered agreements run through the council chambers. Some sad, some excited. ¡°Then we must prepare for war.¡± I blink. Wait, what? B3 | Chapter 2 - Declarations of War Alexia I find myself feeling more than a little blindsided as the various people in the higher levels of the chamber begin discussing war preparations. Like they all know war is about to arrive. No one says a word about who it¡¯s with though or why everyone believes that. Okay, I understand that I¡¯ve been sitting around getting lost in a maze killing evil fox monsters that like to pull pranks on and try to kill me for a while now, but could I really have missed an entire declaration of war? ¡°The System doesn¡¯t work like that,¡± the System¡¯s creator says, making me frown slightly. ¡°Decisions like that can only be made-¡± His words are interrupted when the loud sound of shattering glass echoes through the chamber and another System Notification appears in my vision.
The Dimensional Council of Dimensional Block #105 has officially declared war on Dimensional Block #108! Henceforth, the Dimensional Wall between Dimensional Blocks #108 and #105 shall no longer exist. Should the Dimensional Champion of one of the two Dimensional Blocks duel and defeat the Dimensional Champion of the other Block, their Dimensional Block will automatically be declared the victor, banning all surviving members of the losing Dimensional Block from entering the fused Block ever again. To end the war without the participation of the Dimensional Champions, a vote must be called upon by both Dimensional Councils where a majority vote of eighty percent of the Authority Holders of both Dimensional Blocks must choose a winner. All Authority Holders killed during this time will transfer one vote to the Dimensional Block of the killer. All Authority Holders who have killed other Authority Holders that are killed will have both their vote and all of the votes they have obtained transferred to the Dimensional Block of the killer. The war will begin as soon as the Dimensional Council has concluded.
A few seconds pass in silence as we all stare at the notification in front of us before the Quantum Architect casually finishes what he was saying, ¡°Declarations of war can only be made during the Dimensional Council Meetings.¡± After I finish reading through everything, I find myself¡­ surprisingly apathetic towards this whole affair. Huh. Well then. I¡¯m just gonna go back to training after this. ¡°You¡¯re stuck in a dungeon,¡± my self-proclaimed-and-universe-proclaimed father says rather sarcastically, ¡°you don¡¯t have much of a choice.¡± The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there. Before I can act like I didn¡¯t hear him, another System Notification appears in my vision.
The Dimensional Council of Dimensional Block #15 has officially declared war on Dimensional Block #1! Henceforth, the Dimensional Wall between Dimensional Blocks #15 and #1 shall no longer exist. Should the Dimensional Champion of one of the two Dimensional Blocks duel and defeat the Dimensional Champion of the other Block, their Dimensional Block will automatically be declared the victor, banning all surviving members of the losing Dimensional Block from entering the fused Block ever again. To end the war without the participation of the Dimensional Champions, a vote must be called upon by both Dimensional Councils where a majority vote of eighty percent of the Authority Holders of both Dimensional Blocks must choose a winner. All Authority Holders killed during this time will transfer one vote to the Dimensional Block of the killer. All Authority Holders who have killed other Authority Holders that are killed will have both their vote and all of the votes they have obtained transferred to the Dimensional Block of the killer. The war will begin as soon as the Dimensional Council has concluded.
And then another one appears. And another. And another And the System Notifications keep on flowing. One after another. Eventually it finally stops with around eighty-one wars declared. Which is a lot. And probably means that right now isn¡¯t a very good time to travel. Also, putting the massive amount of wars that were just declared aside for the moment, this war is just a way to cull us, isn¡¯t it? Actually, I never got around to asking. Is the System really trying to cull us? The Quantum Architect stays silent, pretty much agreeing in the process despite not saying anything. Ugh. Why do you always grow so tight-lipped when it comes to the System? He, of course, doesn¡¯t respond. I turn my attention away from the System¡¯s creator to watch all of the fuss going on across the levels of the Dimensional Council Chamber. Where everyone is going on and on about different plans and strategies, along with food and water preparations, their supply lines with the other Dimensional Blocks, and so on. Even Alara. And to be honest, she looks like she might be leading a lot of it. She really has gotten a lot more influential over time. I glance to the side when Ethan enters my booth, only to continue watching the others. Then Astrid enters as well, with Ethan giving her a polite nod of his head, the guy¡¯s attitude having done a one-eighty ever since she became a Class S species. None of us actually say anything, instead just sitting on our own seats, the two of them sitting on chairs made of shadowy magma in Astrid¡¯s case and ice in Ethan¡¯s, while I continue sitting on my actual seat. And we all watch as the many people down there argue and discuss amongst themselves. Eventually Astrid finally speaks up, asking, ¡°You planning on interfering with the war?¡± I open my mouth to answer, only to pause when I see several of the rulers of the most powerful groups in Dimensional Block #108 walking over to my little booth. So I close my mouth and decide to let them in. All five of them, two of which are Varsac and Elizabeth¡¯s father, the king of Silvercrest. Meanwhile the other three are rulers of slightly smaller nations, two of whom are Class A species while the third is a dwarf. A Class B species. I only recognize the other three due to running into them on ¡®accident¡¯ while passing through their nations. Meaning they chased after me trying to get into contact with me since they couldn¡¯t do that at The Retreat. Mostly because I don¡¯t tend to stay at The Retreat for long, and I don¡¯t take orders from them anyways. All Alara does with these idiots is briefly mention them to me if they¡¯re important while ignoring them if they¡¯re not. Simply because I may be interested in the more important ones. Never am though. Not with a single one she¡¯s mentioned. ¡°Esteemed Lady Reaper,¡± King Varsac says, almost making me raise a brow at the honorifics. ¡°Would you be willing to aid us in this war?¡± I stare at him for a few seconds, then the others. Then Astrid, who just lightly shakes her head. And without any hesitation, I answer with a light smile, ¡°No thanks.¡± B3 | Chapter 3 - Inner Thoughts Alexia An awkward silence ensues for a total of five seconds before the dwarven king lightly shakes his head and turns to look at the others, saying, ¡°Told ya¡¯ she wouldn¡¯t be interested in fightin¡¯ the scalies.¡± I can¡¯t help but raise a brow. Scalies? And why does this dwarf talk like¡­ I narrow my eyes slightly at the dwarf as I take in a closer look at him. He notices and turns to me with a nod and a grin, ¡°Finally noticed, eh lass?¡± ¡°Do you by any chance know-¡± I start, only for him to laugh and finish, ¡°Dravik? Ya, Father told me about ya. Told me ye were a real hassle to deal with.¡± That has me quirking a single brow as I mutter, ¡°Did he now?¡± Guess I¡¯m gonna be stopping by to pay him a visit more often now. Just to teleport in and startle him. He deserves it for saying I¡¯m a hassle to deal with. Wait a second, did he say father? The dwarf laughs at the look on my face as he says, ¡°So he was right! Ya can show emotion sometimes!¡± I fold my arms under my chest, feeling slightly attacked by that statement. Only to hear both Ethan and Astrid snickering beside me, making me feel a slight flush come to my cheeks. Which just has the dwarf laughing even louder. Meanwhile the other rulers who came over here with the dwarf look more than a little awkward. Even Varsac and Harold, both of whom treated me respectfully but still as if they were on the same level as me back during the first council, look awkward. Like they don¡¯t know how to treat me anymore, and this conversation certainly isn¡¯t helping. Guess I have eclipsed them a lot in level by now. They were close to my own level the last time we met during a council meeting, but now I¡¯m far stronger. So their attitude needs to adjust. But they¡¯re not sure how to do that. It¡¯s rather amusing. Would be more amusing if that dwarf wasn¡¯t laughing his ass off. Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. He eventually calms down and says, ¡°Do treat ma old man well. He refuses to come home because of a certain young lass, so-¡± ¡°Yeah, yeah,¡± I tell him, interrupting what he was gonna say. ¡°I wouldn¡¯t treat my blacksmith poorly.¡± The dwarf ¨C whose name is Revan Goldsmith ¨C chuckles at that and sends me an approving look before walking out of the booth and returning to the main area of discussion about the war. And the other leaders take that as their cue to leave as well, not bothering us any longer. Which leaves me, Astrid, and Ethan all alone in silence once more. With the two of them still snickering. ¡°Oh, shut up¡­¡± I mutter, making the two laugh even harder. So, deciding to put the two chuckleheads out of my mind for now, I focus on everyone as the rulers arrive back at their booths and resume their discussion. By now the discussion is moving off of war preparations and onto some other matters. More laws for the Dimensional Block as a whole, plans to set up teleportation pads for travel across the Block, since most people aren¡¯t able to cross it like I or other Tier 3s are. What with it being as large as it is. I¡¯m able to break the sound barrier with my movements, much less the fact that I can teleport a couple islands over just from a single use of Quantum Displacement. For regular people though, it would take them weeks to travel across the Dimensional Block. Regular people being Tier 2 users. Tier 1s would take months. People who haven¡¯t leveled almost at all could end up taking years just to cross the Block. Having real transportation set up going beyond just the islands connecting and the little airships people have made would help a lot. It¡¯s a good thing that the islands are all scattered both horizontally and vertically, otherwise the Block would just plain be too large. But since there can be over a dozen different islands at the same spot within the Dimensional Block just at varying heights, it makes things a lot easier. I continue listening to their discussions, not really having anything to talk about with Ethan or Astrid right now. Come to think of it, when will they finish making those video games? I know some cities have started working to make them. What if I go over there and offer them my protection go make them work faster? That might speed them up a bit. Actually, hey, architect, why did you design the System after a video game anyways? The bat on my shoulder opens his eyes, immediately making more than a few people within the chamber shiver just from pure instinct, with the thousands or even tens of thousands of people at the bottom levels of the council chamber looking around in confusion. But he ignores all of that as his voice enters my head, ¡°I saw a video game long ago and liked the structured setup it had.¡± Hmm. So you really did copy video games. Or at least made your own. ¡°I designed my own,¡± he admits while closing his eyes again, further confusing the mass of people down below. Interesting. The discussions down below continue going on for a while, and at one point I glance at my other shoulder to find Luna finally waking up from the rather long nap she¡¯s been undertaking for a few days now. Something about a short hibernation according to System Father. ¡°Morning little one,¡± I tell her while reaching up and scratching her little head, making her squeak slightly in a rather adorable manner. Then I turn my attention back to the discussion as something comes to mind. Right. Almost forgot about that matter of business. I quickly alter the settings of my booth before speaking, my voice quickly spreading out of my booth and silencing the discussions across the chamber, ¡°I would like to propose a new law.¡± My eyes narrow slightly under the shocked expressions of everyone in the chamber. ¡°If any signs of a Tier 4 dungeon emerge, you will notify me or my sister immediately.¡± Silence fills the chamber. B3 | Chapter 4 - The System Alexia It takes a while for anyone to say anything, but they do eventually say things. Not the people on the lower levels, but the ones on the higher levels. ¡°Pardon, and I mean no offense with this, but why should we-¡± King Varsac begins, only to cut off when I flash energy through my eyes, making them glitch out a few times while flaring with a bright purple light. ¡°Because I defeated the Cataclysm Class monster without any assistance from you all,¡± I point out. ¡°Something I¡¯m sure you¡¯re all benefiting from.¡± Everyone returns to silence after that as the various Authority Holders share looks that imply they hadn¡¯t really thought about that until now. Meanwhile King Varsac grits his teeth a little. ¡°Very well,¡± King Varsac agrees with a nod of his head. ¡°I will inform you of any Tier 4 dungeons that appear within my territory.¡± And as if the floodgates were just opened, everyone else in the massive chamber begins to announce their agreement as well. Which takes a while, considering just how many people are in the chamber. I¡¯m also sure a few of them might not bother with it, thinking I won¡¯t notice them simply because there are too many people here. So I make sure to shoot them a look that quickly has them agreeing as well. While shivering in fear. ¡°In that case, I have nothing more to add to these discussions,¡± I tell them while muting the interior of my booth again, making it so no one can hear what¡¯s going on inside. Come to think of it, that System Notification mentioned the people of the losing Dimensional Block being kicked out of the fused Block, right? What does that mean exactly? Will the losers just be teleported randomly outside of the Dimensional Block? ¡°The winning council will be able to select certain individuals they want to allow within the Dimensional Block and the Block itself will teleport everyone else outside,¡± the Architect answers. ¡°You don¡¯t have to worry about this, so don¡¯t waste our time with pointless questions.¡± Wait, I don¡¯t? Why not? The man lets out an annoyed sigh before answering, ¡°Even if one of the winners were to attempt kicking you out of the Dimensional Block, you wouldn¡¯t be kicked out. Because you have The First Authority.¡± This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it. I blink in surprise, briefly raising my head from my hand as I do so. Oh. Right. Huh. I completely forgot about that. The description said I could pass through any Dimensional Barriers regardless of if the Dimensional Barrier is locked down by order of that Block¡¯s Dimensional Council. Which I guess means things like this that force you into or out of a Block don¡¯t work on me. That¡¯s convenient. And given that little bit of information, the other Dimensional Block wouldn¡¯t be in a good position even if they tried kicking out The Retreat. Not unless they want me going in and killing off the council myself to let them back in. So it¡¯s all good. I don¡¯t have to worry about the war at all just as I thought. Come to think of it, now would be as good a time as any to go through my Legendary Feats again. Just to make sure I didn¡¯t forget any. First off there¡¯s The Reaping, which is why I¡¯m a Quantum Reaper in the first place. There¡¯s The First Clear, which gives me an upgrade in Tier to the first item I get in a loot box in a dungeon. Then there¡¯s The Vanguard, which I had actually forgotten about. A Legendary Feat that gives me a token to upgrade my class to the next rarity. I should still save that though. Until I reach the Ascendant Tier. Up next is The First Authority, which I just remembered earlier, and Slayer of Kings, which gave me an extra active skill slot. Dimensional Conqueror, which lets me know the locations of other Dimensional Leaders and Champions in the same Block as me. And lastly, Chaos Hunter, which gives me System Assistance when fighting chaos monsters. Something I found rather useful in the dungeon since it basically just enhanced my attacks against them by about fifteen or so percent. Hey, pops, do you know any other Legendary Feats I could obtain right now? The bat on my shoulder cracks open an eye and stares at me with a rather judgmental look as he says, ¡°Be the first to clear a Tier 4 dungeon and be the first to kill a Tier 4 user. Those are the first ones that come to mind. Call me pops again though and I won¡¯t give you any more assistance.¡± I almost chuckle at that but hold myself back. He flashes me an annoyed look before closing his eye again. Found something else he doesn¡¯t like. Although I¡¯d rather him not retract his help as no matter how- He cracks his eye open again. -special he is, he¡¯s still rather helpful. Damnit, I wish you would stop reading my mind. That thought gives me pause as I blink at the bat. Wait a second, if you can read my mind, does that mean you¡¯re actively reading the minds of everyone else around us? He doesn¡¯t say anything. You are, aren¡¯t you? He still doesn¡¯t say anything. Well, at least it¡¯s not just me. How do you do that anyways? Is it some sort of skill? He opens his eyes again and mutters, ¡°So many questions¡­¡± only to narrow his gaze on me and state, ¡°I do not have System skills. Do not take the System as the end all be all of the universe as there are many beings who do not require the System¡¯s guidance to use their powers.¡± I stare at the bat for a few seconds before his words settle in. Wait, did you just say the System¡¯s guidance? Are you implying that the System is only guiding us to do what we can already do when giving us skills? He closes his eyes again, not saying any more. But I don¡¯t need an answer this time. That¡¯s¡­ wow. Unexpected, but makes sense in a way. And very interesting. B3 | Chapter 5 - Postponed Tournament Alexia The discussions continue on for a while as I contemplate the new information that the Architect dumped on me. Considering that mana manipulation and energy manipulation are a thing, that means we can use spells and skills without the skills needed for it. I guess just either no one thought of trying, or it was too difficult to replicate what the skills do. Then again, I¡¯m pretty sure the skills we¡¯re given by the System are all a lot more complicated than the magic spells people have made are. I frown before closing my eyes and focusing on the energy particles floating in the air around us. Unfortunately, I¡¯m still not able to manipulate energy very well. Despite how long I¡¯ve been¡­ I blink my eyes open before glancing at the bat on my shoulder. Then I just stare at him for several seconds until he finally says, ¡°If you promise to leave me alone for the rest of this meeting and not use me as an outlet for your boredom, I will assist with your energy manipulation training.¡± A smile graces my face as I nod my head and turn back to the others¡¯ discussions. We have a deal. That¡¯ll help a lot. If a quantum being is helping me with my energy manipulation progress. I ignore the few surprised looks sent my way when some of the people in the discussion notice my smile as I continue thinking about what sorts of things I could potentially do with energy manipulation. Only for another System Notification to appear in my vision, making the entire chamber immediately go quiet.
The Ten Year Event Selection will now commence. Every ten years, an event will occur within each and every Dimensional Block. This event will be decided upon by a vote from the Dimensional Block¡¯s Authority Holders, and it may not be changed after it is chosen. The very first Ten Year Event will occur one year after the Reset. After the event, the Dimensional Championships will occur, where the occupants of the Dimensional Block will fight in a tournament for the right to challenge the current Dimensional Champion for their spot regardless of their level. This book''s true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.
Wait, what? I¡¯m going to have to deal with people trying to- My thoughts are cut off when another notification replaces the first.
The Ten Year Event Selection has been postponed due to the following interfering Dimensional Event: War Once this event is completed, a secondary Dimensional Council Meeting will occur where the Ten Year Event Selection will take place.
An awkward silence fills the Dimensional Council Chambers as everyone just stares at the notification. Um, so, what¡¯s this about¡­ oh, right. I agreed I wouldn¡¯t bother him¡­ Damnit, wish I made that agreement after this notification appeared. The Architect huffs at my thoughts. So there¡¯s going to be some sort of tournament for people to challenge my position as champion¡­ does that mean I¡¯ll have to compete? I¡¯m guessing that¡¯s not the case since the tournament is for the right to challenge me regardless of the tournament winner¡¯s level. But does that still mean I¡¯ll have to attend the tournament? Because that sounds like a drag. I¡¯d rather not spend my precious time sitting there watching a bunch of people beat each other up for the chance to be beaten up by me. The others in the chamber all turn to glance at me, but the moment we make eye contact they all quickly turn away while visibly sweating. Except the Tier 3 people in the room. They just turn away instead. No sweat involved. These people really do view me as some sort of terrifying creature, don¡¯t they? And I guess they¡¯re not really wrong in that assessment? But I¡¯m not gonna kill someone just for looking at me¡­ That would just be rude after all. That aside, it looks like the tournament in question will be postponed until after this war anyways. So I guess it doesn¡¯t really matter for a while. Depends on how long this war lasts. I do feel I should pay the other side of the war a visit after I finish with my current dungeon though. Just for a friendly threat. Don¡¯t want them bothering The Retreat after all. And if they show even a hint of trying, then I¡¯ll deal with this myself. But I doubt they¡¯re stupid enough to do that. So it should be fine. Might find a Tier 4 dungeon in their Dimensional Block too. I should be close to the level cap of Tier 3 once I complete this dungeon, so it would be very nice to find one soon instead of wandering everywhere. If I had to guess, it¡¯ll probably take me another month or so to reach the level cap of Tier 3. Since I should be close to getting out of the damned maze by now. And after the maze, things shouldn¡¯t take as long. The maze has been incredibly long and drawn out, with very few monsters in it to level me up. So in my eyes, it¡¯s basically been nothing but a waste of my time. It was to the point that I briefly considered about halfway through my time in there possibly leaving the dungeon and going to a different one. But then it would quite literally have been a waste of time, and I¡¯m still pretty sure that I¡¯ll be able to clear the rest of this dungeon before I¡¯d be able to deal with a different dungeon. Plus there¡¯s the whole illusions don¡¯t affect me thing, which is a nice cheat for this dungeon that I won¡¯t have for others. Quite a few whispers begin to fill the chamber as the Authority Holders talk amongst themselves. Meanwhile Ethan and Astrid are just playing a game of chess. All in all, a rather¡­ I blink as I turn back around to look at my sister and Ethan, both of whom wave to me before continuing their game. The heck? When did they get so close? I watch for a few seconds. And where did they get that chessboard? Did they just have someone at The Retreat make it? My inner questions are never answered. Instead, another notification appears in my vision that has me raising a brow. Huh. Update Hello again! My last semester as a college student starts today! Although I''ll only be a part-time student this semester. So if I ever have to cancel a chapter, this is why. If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement. Then again, I don''t actually have any classes on Tuesdays this semester. So for me the semester basically starts on Wednesday instead. But regardless, it''s starting this week. And I do have a bunch of stuff I have to get done today. So no chapter today. Also, my busiest day of the week this semester are always Fridays now. Just keep that in mind. B3 | Chapter 6 - The Countdown Alexia
The Countdown has officially begun.
What does that even mean? The System Architect stays silent. Although I¡¯m not sure if it¡¯s because of the agreement we made or just him not wanting to respond. All of the whispered conversations in the chamber grow even louder after the notification. Meanwhile I find an odd, red and purple colored countdown located in the top right corner of my vision. Strange. The countdown is¡­ rather long. To the point that it says years as part of it. Years, Months, and days, instead of hours, minutes, and seconds. How I know this, I¡¯m not sure. But I do. Which is even weirder. Just an instinctive feeling when looking at the countdown. What¡¯s just as odd is that the years section lists a hundred years on the countdown. Meaning whatever it is that¡¯s happening won¡¯t occur for an entire century. The chatter in the chamber continues for a few more seconds before yet another notification appears.
The Dimensional Council Meeting shall draw to a close in one hour. Up until then, discussion between Authority Holders may take place.
Ah, so just one more hour of boring. On that note, I press the feature of my booth that makes it so others can¡¯t view inside before turning around and watching Ethan and Astrid play chess for a little bit. While, of course, keeping an ear on the discussions around us. Because I don¡¯t want to be blindsided by something important. ¡°Where¡¯d you get this chess set anyways?¡± I can¡¯t help but ask the two. Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation. To my surprise, they both answer at the same time. ¡°Jeremiah.¡± ¡°Jeremiah.¡± I glance between the two, feeling rather confused about when they both got so in sync. Then the corners of Astrid¡¯s lips twitch and she says, ¡°Check.¡± Ethan glares at the chess board. Then he glares at my sister. Then glances at me with an odd look on his face. Finally he turns back to the chess board as a wave of ice covers it, knocking it over before he says, ¡°Oops, accidentally knocked over the board.¡± Both Astrid and I give him a look, but the shameless bastard doesn¡¯t say a word. Doesn¡¯t even look at us. Just looks away at the discussions taking place. As if he were trying to pay attention instead of avoiding what he just did. Never expected Ethan to be the type to play the ¡®flip the board¡¯ move when he is about to lose. I can¡¯t help but judge him for that. If he¡¯s gonna play, he should at least play till the end. Regardless of if he wins or loses. So much for a dragon¡¯s pride I guess. Although¡­ I glance at the others who are in discussion still outside of my booth. ¡­I wonder if he¡¯d still do it if there were any non-Class S species able to see him? Since Astrid is also a Class S now. Which is probably why he¡¯s started treating her like a normal person as well. Instead of the dolls he treats everyone else like. Come to think of it, I¡¯m pretty sure Ethan was spending some time in other Dimensional Blocks recently. Actually don¡¯t think he¡¯s even in Dimensional Block #108 right now. Hmm, well, whatever. Doesn¡¯t¡¯ really matter what he¡¯s doing. I begin to turn away, only to find him bringing out a deck of cards and asking both me and Astrid, ¡°Wanna play?¡± Both of us give him a look that I¡¯d say is somewhere between judgmental and disgusted. Mostly by his shamelessness. Partially by the fact that he apparently keeps a deck of cards on his person all the time. Because this isn¡¯t the first time he¡¯s pulled that thing out and suggested a game. Despite our judgmental looks though, we both go ahead and start playing the game with him. There¡¯s not much else to do after all, other than keep an eye on the discussions while we play. I think back to Vargas as we begin to play. The guy returned to his Dimensional Block after we killed the Cataclysm Class dragon, where he rather quickly got voted in as the new Dimensional Leader of their Dimensional Block. Since I kinda killed their old one. Or rekilled? Redeaded? I¡¯m sick of having this internal debate. I should just ask an undead how they refer to it. ¡°And terrify them in the process,¡± a certain Quantum Architect comments despite our agreement. But I choose to plead ignorance to his statement. He snorts. I can¡¯t help but smirk at the thought of Vargas becoming a Dimensional Leader though. Honestly, I¡¯m pretty sure he was only voted out of fear. And because no one else could decide on who would receive the position. So the remaining Authority Holders just kinda dumped their votes on the dragon who happened to also be their Dimensional Champion. Although I kind of doubt he¡¯ll bother to help if any wars come around. Dragons don¡¯t like undead after all, and their Dimensional Block is still rather full of them. The three of us continue playing our little card game while the other Authority Holders conduct their diplomacy and governing stuff. But I do pause every once in a while when something important is said. Then I make a mental note of it and play my card. Ten minutes later, both me and Astrid are going head to head while leaving Ethan in the dust in our game. And right when he¡¯s about to be eliminated entirely, he tries to send the cards all flying. With no success, since Astrid is holding them in place this time, making the small amount of frost he tried blowing over them not able to budge the cards locked in place by shadows. Something that normally wouldn¡¯t be possible since he¡¯s still quite a bit higher level than her, but he¡¯s at least trying to make it look like an accident. So he didn¡¯t put much force behind it. Both Astrid and I raise a single brow at the man, making him seemingly shrink slightly as he continues playing before losing the game. Thought so. B3 | Intermission 1 Dimensional Council Chamber ¡°Then all of the details are agreed upon,¡± Varsac declares, following which over a dozen of the most influential Authority Holders within the room state their agreements. Then the King of Giants turns to look back at the grand booth at the very center of the Dimensional Council Chamber. A booth that currently has a purple veil thrown over it, making it impossible to look within the booth or hear sounds coming from within. Months ago, when the Reset first began and Varsac first heard of The Reaper, he wasn¡¯t very intimidated by her. At best he felt wary of her, at worst slightly dismissive of the child that he saw of her in that System-wide broadcast. Even if he knew that she was more powerful than him. Then he felt far more wary when he saw her in person during the first Dimensional Council Meeting. Where he felt the pure power coming off of her in the meeting, seemingly without her even noticing. But he still knew that she was young, and they were all still relatively low level and near the same level. Now? When he saw her sitting on her throne, her legs crossed with her right arm resting on the armrest of her throne, her face just leaning up against her fist in a display of complete indifference? When he saw the waves of energy wafting off of her, silencing the entire chamber? He finally understood the terror she puts others under. And despite her young age, her gaze appears to be filled with nothing but indifference for them. An indifference that leaves a chill running down Varsac¡¯s spine. It¡¯s also a sensation that reminds him of another being that he has met before. The Hound of the Apocalypse. When he met the Hound all those years ago, it was the most terrifying night of his life. The Hound of the Apocalypse showing up out of the blue at his kingdom¡¯s doorstep, asking around about people. But what was even more terrifying was the visit he got before that from the Knight of the Crimson Score, who placed a seal on him, making it impossible for him to speak of his whereabouts. So he had no choice but to lie to the Hound of the Apocalypse¡¯s face. A lie the Hound instantly saw through. This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report. Varsac had never been so terrified before in all of his thousands of years alive, but despite his terror, the Hound never struck him down or tortured him. Instead he acted as if he was used to this. Used to the Knight avoiding him through similar means before. Then the Hound simply told Varsac to keep an eye out for the other person of interest and left without another word. Without any threats even. Despite that, the man¡¯s gaze still sends Varsac¡¯s knees buckling even to this day. And The Reaper¡¯s gaze is just like the Hound¡¯s. A fact that terrifies him more than any power of hers could. Then there¡¯s The Reaper¡¯s twin sister, who somehow became a Class S variant out of the blue. Something that shouldn¡¯t even have been possible. Varsac¡¯s mind is drawn back to the other Authority Holders when another suggestion is put forth about the treatment of those from Dimensional Block #109. The Dimensional Block that The Reaper herself had slain the Dimensional Leader of before their Leader was replaced with a dragon of all things. Dragons may be powerful, a fact that everyone knows, but very few dragons make for good leaders. With the sole exception being the Ancestral Dragon. A being who terrifies Varsac just as much as the Hound does. And a being who is the mother of the dragon in their own Dimensional Block. Varsac glances back at the booth at the center of the chamber once more, feeling fearful of the booth itself. Also wondering why he had such terrible luck to end up being in this Dimensional Block with those three. He turns back to the others as he gives his response to the suggestion, ¡°Treat them well. We don¡¯t know how the hellfire dragon would react were we to treat those under him poorly, so we can¡¯t risk it.¡± We can¡¯t risk going to war with a second faction. The war itself wasn¡¯t much of a surprise to Varsac. In fact, the moment he heard that one of the neighboring Blocks to their Block was ruled by dragonborn, he knew right away that a war would break out. That¡¯s just how the dragonborn are when it comes to dragons. So he¡¯s been preparing ever since for war without letting anyone else know about it. He¡¯s also been making further preparations to leave The Retreat as far away from the war as possible so as to not antagonize their protector. At this point, if he could send The Retreat to the very center of the Dimensional Block, or maybe some far off corner high in the sky, he would. Just to keep them away from the dragonborn. But a major issue with that is that he doesn¡¯t exactly have any control over them. Then there¡¯s the hellfrost dragon who is following The Reaper like a young boy with a crush who also happens to be the entire cause of the war in the first place. Yet seems to have no interest in it in the slightest. That dragon may be a larger headache than The Reaper¡­ Varsac sighs, wondering just what he may¡¯ve done wrong in the past to deserve this. He glances at the booth once more, briefly pondering over what sort of important discussion the Class S species are having right now. It must be incredibly important for them to ignore the entire discussions and barricade themselves inside of The Reaper¡¯s booth. They even left The Retreat on the outside. A few seconds pass before the King of Giants focuses all of his attention on the discussions again all the way till time very nearly runs out. B3 | Chapter 7 - Training Alexia In the end, both Astrid and I require Ethan to help The Retreat once for losing against us. And the second time he lost to me I make him agree to assist me in case another Cataclysm Class monster shows up, meanwhile Astrid makes him agree to spar with her and help her in adjusting to her power as a Class S species. Something that didn¡¯t happen naturally like it did with me, considering that she didn¡¯t become one naturally. Of course, Ethan decides to put away the games after that, apparently not one to continue racking up more and more debt to the two of us. And eventually the Dimensional Council Meeting draws to a close, following which I¡¯m teleported back into the dungeon again. Then a System Notification appears in my vision, telling me that the next meeting will either be after the war is over, or right before the Ten Year Event. Whichever one comes last. Hmm. Well, System Creator, now is as good a time as any. He lets out a sigh before opening his eyes and flying in front of me. Then, to my surprise, he transforms into Luna¡¯s humanoid form, appearing once again as a cute teenage girl. And younger version of me. Which still feels bizarre to look at considering his technical claim on being my quantum father or whatever. The man growls, which doesn¡¯t sound intimidating in his current form, as he says, ¡°Energy manipulation is easier in a true form.¡± ¡°Wait, so would that be considered your true form right now?¡± I ask, tilting my head slightly and ignoring the cute sounding voice. He grits his teeth some more and responds, ¡°No, but it¡¯s close enough. Now shut up and do what I do.¡± I raise a brow at the Architect who clearly wants to speak as little as possible in this form. But I do as he says anyways, since he¡¯s the one helping me here. After closing my eyes, I focus my senses on the energy around us. And immediately after doing so, I find strange strings of energy leaving the Architect¡¯s body. Tiny little strings that are connecting with all of the energy around us before vanishing. Then the energy around us seems to start moving all on its own. My brows furrow at that, but I quickly notice that the energy changed ever so slightly. Whereas before it gave off a feeling of freedom, now I feel as if it¡¯s under something¡¯s control. This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. The Architect¡¯s control. Then the Architect speaks, ¡°Use your energy manipulation to manipulate your own energy into forming strings. Then use those strings to connect yourself with the wild energy around you.¡± I quickly focus on the energy inside of my own body, finding it very difficult to pull any sort of control over it. At least, without using my soul. And I can tell that he¡¯s not using his soul for what he¡¯s doing. From what I can tell, using soul to manipulate the energy around us only affects energy you directly touch and move around yourself. It doesn¡¯t create any sort of bond with it for you to control, and it doesn¡¯t let you manipulate it without direct contact. So I at first try to figure out how to force my energy into strings, but I don¡¯t even manage to sense enough of my energy to begin to do that. So after failing a bit, I decide to cheat it a bit by using my soul to gather it up. Only to feel something hitting the back of my head, making me open my eyes to find the Quantum Architect standing there glaring at me. They simply shake their head, clearly avoiding speaking as much as they can while still implying that I can¡¯t use my soul for this. But if I don¡¯t use my soul¡­ how do I manipulate the energy? They sigh after a second before saying, ¡°Look deeper into your soul energy.¡± I blink at that, only to close my eyes and focus inwards. After spreading my soul around my body, it¡¯s pretty much everywhere. But most of it is in my blood. So I look into my blood through my senses, finding the small, glowing soul flowing through it. I slowly begin to look deeper and deeper into my soul there, all the way till I find a tiny wisp. And then I look into that wisp as well, at which point I finally find some sort of energy inside of it. Interesting¡­ But¡­ how do I make it come out or use it? To my surprise, just the mere thought of using the energy makes it fluctuate before leaving the wisp. So it reacts to my will? Surprising, but simple at least. I simply will the energy from there to move out of my body before also willing it to form a thin string. Only to hear a chime from the System while I¡¯m doing this. {Congratulations! Your General Skill ¡®Energy Manipulation¡¯ has reached Level 4!} Oh, wow. That¡¯s moving a lot faster now than it was before. Up until now, it¡¯s only reached level three no matter how much I tried to mess with the energy around me. Guess I was just doing it the wrong way. Or I was just doing the bare basics of it and not actually progressing past that. Anyways, I will the string of energy to make contact with a small wisp of energy outside of my body. And it quickly does so before vanishing in an instant. But I feel the wisp of energy as if it¡¯s my own. As if it replaced the string. I know just from pure instinct that it¡¯ll do whatever I will it to do. With limits. ¡°Do that a hundred more times, then condense the energy into the form of a bullet,¡± the Architect orders. And I quickly get to work doing that, suspecting I know exactly what skill I¡¯m working towards right now. Anti-magic bullet. It¡¯s about time I got that skill. B3 | Chapter 8 - Anti-magic Bullet Alexia It ends up taking me nearly an entire hour to figure it out, but once I do, I find the process to be rather quick. Not necessarily easy or simple, but quick to do. Because all of the energy immediately moves into the form of a bullet as fast as the speed of light. Maybe even faster. Which will make for an extremely fast reaction speed for an attack. I don¡¯t really have any way to test it though, considering that I can¡¯t manipulate mana myself. So I can¡¯t make a spell circle to attempt breaking. It¡¯s too bad monsters can¡¯t cast spells. ¡°You did it perfectly, there¡¯s no need to test it right now,¡± the Quantum Architect says before returning to his bat form and regaining his masculine voice again with no small hint of satisfaction on his bat face. ¡°Test it if you wish outside of the dungeon, but don¡¯t feel you need to leave now for this. Simply do it a few more times to get the skill.¡± Oh, right. The skill. I do what he said and create and launch several more bullets before I get the System Message I¡¯m looking for. [*New General Skill* ¨C Anti-magic Bullet: Increases the power, accuracy, and speed of bullets created through energy when they are used to pierce a spell circle or active spell.] And there¡¯s the skill. Nice. I¡¯ll need to find a Safe Zone to slot it though. Anyways, now that I have it, I begin making my way through the maze once more. Only to immediately find myself at a dead end with a fallen foxkin just kinda standing sitting there asleep. Huh. Didn¡¯t realize they could sleep. Well, doesn¡¯t matter. I raise my hand and activate Quantum Breath, which got the ability to send the breath out of any part of my body after reaching Tier 2 rather than just my mouth. A very nice feature of the skill. The fallen foxkin immediately wakes up upon being hit by the breath attack, but the purple and blue flames quickly begin to glitch the thing apart instead of burning it. And after only a few seconds, the thing dies. Partially due to my higher level, partially the surprise attack, and partially my Legendary Feat that increases my damage against fallen monsters. Come to think of it, Legendary Feat Perks aren¡¯t a guide, right? They¡¯re something the System gives you. Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. ¡°Correct,¡± the Quantum Architect answers rather quickly, apparently using my suffering in this maze as his amusement while he continues recovering his strength. Interesting. So there are some features of the System that are given by the System itself. Features to reward progress and accomplishments. Very interesting. Then again, the fact that the System could take away the Legendary Feats in the first place says something about the fact that they¡¯re given by the System. After all, people could still use the same spells they knew before the Reset after it, but they didn¡¯t have the effects of any Legendary Feat Perk they had before the Reset if they lost it afterwards. It really does make sense if I look at it that way. Spells were never skills that someone got with the System. They were just things people created on their own with mana using spell circles. Although I never really knew many spells. I mostly had skills as a Magic Knight. At most I knew the simplest astral spell Gramps knew. Which was also the only one he knew. And now I can¡¯t even use spells since I can¡¯t use mana. A pity, but quantum magic is better anyways. And energy manipulation. I can¡¯t wait to see someone¡¯s face when I break apart their spell circle. The Quantum Architect stays silent as I smirk at the thought, calmly walking back to the last intersection before continuing on through the next hallway. Of course, I¡¯ll have to leave the dungeon first for that. And that won¡¯t happen until I finish up in here. I frown as a thought comes to mind. Didn¡¯t really think about it before, but spellcasters are a lot more common nowadays after the Reset than they were before it. Is that because the spellcasters from prior to the Reset are teaching any magic user spellcasting? Or is it just the spellcasters being a lot more motivated to learn and craft new spells after being tossed into a new dimension filled with monsters and a chance at reaching the top? Well, regardless, I know what I¡¯ll be doing when I get out of the dungeon. Asking Astrid to let me test out Anti-magic Bullet on her spells. Since Gramps started teaching her some magma spells. He doesn¡¯t know shadow spells though, so no luck on that end. My thoughts drive to a halt when a surprise System Notification appears in my vision.
A Cataclysm Class Monster has appeared within the domain of the merged Dimensional Block previously known as Dimensional Block #108.
I stop walking to stare at the notification, feeling slightly disappointed by the fact that it¡¯s outside of the dungeon. But then a thought comes to mind. Hey, quantum pops, what level do these Cataclysm Class monsters appear at? No one ever survived identifying it before us. Or at least survived and told others about it. The quantum pops in question grumbles for a moment about my choice of names before answering, ¡°They vary. Some can appear in Tier 1, others in tier 3 or even 4. A rare one may even appear as an Ascendant. But those won¡¯t appear for decades down the line.¡± Oh. That¡¯s not fair. ¡°The System isn¡¯t creating these beings, so fairness is not a matter taken into account,¡± the old man states as if reading from some guidebook on how to answer questions like that. I let out a huff as I continue through the maze once more. And now I¡¯m gonna have to let someone else take this Cataclysm Class monster¡­ I really hate this maze. B3 | Chapter 9 - War and Relaxation Fused Dimensional Block #108 and #105 King Varsac narrows his eyes slightly as he looks out from on top of his fortress at the Authority Holders fighting down on the island beneath theirs. Then he looks at the other islands all around them, many of which have fights of their own going on. He has quickly realized that this war is nothing like a normal war prior to the Reset. Instead of sheer numbers of soldiers being the biggest factor, it¡¯s a matter of whichever side has the stronger Authority Holders. Since they all agreed to leave out non-Authority Holders from the war. And to add to that, both sides also agreed to let anyone who does not wish to participate in the war either agree to vote for whoever has the majority remaining by the time the council vote comes around or leave the Dimensional Block altogether until the war is over. Although King Varsac knows that the only reason these agreements were made were to avoid getting on the bad side of The Reaper through involving The Retreat in the war. But Varsac still wonders just how long this war will take, considering all of the massive differences between it and a normal war. Because he at most sees the war lasting a year, with it more likely lasting half a year. And most of the war will just be travel, not even the fighting. After watching the battling for a few seconds, the king lets out a sigh and begins using his arcane magic to float up into the air on clouds of blue energy, drawing the eye of more than a few of the Authority Holders. Then he spreads both of his arms out, making blue energy flare up all around him. Energy that begins to corrode the very air around them as his eyes glow with a faint blue light. Varsac quickly performs a brief divination before the light from his eyes fades and he locks his gaze onto an island several islands above his and towards the East. And he quickly begins flying through the air towards it until he stops right above the island where several dragonborn are standing, having previously been watching the war themselves. Just like Varsac. ¡°So you¡¯re the leader of the dragonborn,¡± Varsac begins, his eyes narrowing as he glares at the arrogant draconic humanoid that is slowly raising his gaze towards Varsac, not showing a hint of fear. Or anything, other than disdain. ¡°Let¡¯s end this war quickly, shall we?¡± The dragonborn doesn¡¯t say anything for a few seconds before nodding his head, apparently not deigning to speak to a lesser creature in his eyes. The dragonborn having taken on the apathy of the dragons. And without any further hesitation, both Varsac and the Dimensional Leader of Dimensional Block #105 rush at each other before clashing mid-air. This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
Alexia So, quantum pops? ¡°Don¡¯t call me that,¡± he states right away. ¡°Just call me the Architect or Father.¡± Right, so quantum pops? He lets out an aggrieved sigh, but I¡¯m not gonna give up on this endearment. Not with everything he¡¯s done to me. Petty it may be, it is the only thing I can really do to him. And I don¡¯t care that he¡¯s listening in on my thoughts right now. Anyways, back to the topic at hand. I frown as I look at the hot spring with my hands on my hips, feeling more than a little bewildered by this. Why is there a hot spring in the middle of the maze? There was one in the last dungeon I went to as well. And the one before. And before. Do you just like hot springs or something? At this point I swear they¡¯re in a third of the Safe Zones. ¡°Hot springs are synonymous with rest and relaxation,¡± quantum pops answers with a rather grumbly tone of voice. Likely due to my thoughts. ¡°It¡¯s one of the best System Items for the job.¡± Hmm. I guess you have a point. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Hot Spring of Restoration Description: A hot spring located within the middle of a Tier 3 dungeon with regenerative properties. Anyone who enters the pond will gain a temporary boost to their mana stat, feel refresh of energy, and their Tier 3 or below System Items will be repaired. Stats Bonus: +30% Health/Soul Regeneration. Requirements: None. Item Tier: 3 -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Some very nice regeneration, although it¡¯ll be useless in terms of the equipment repairing part. Considering that my armor and cloak are both Tier 4. So they¡¯re too high in Tier to be affected. Well, the hot springs aside, I quickly go into my skills and change out Stealth for Anti-magic Bullet. After changing my skills, I stretch a little and glance at the hot spring. Then I shrug to myself, take off my cloak to leave me in just my armor, then jump into the hot spring. And almost immediately, I let out a sigh of relief. This feels nice¡­ My eyes begin to droop closed, only for me to glance to the side when I feel a weight vanishing, making me find that the Quantum Architect actually jumped into the hot spring himself while taking on his humanoid form. Which is a rather large surprise. Huh. I¡¯m starting to think you just like hot springs. ¡°You¡¯re imagining it,¡± he mutters, apparently not even caring about his voice in this form as he goes all the way down to his chin with his eyes closed. I snort and shake my head before sinking down and closing my eyes as well. This feels really nice. A few moments of soaking later I hear the sound of flapping wings. So I crack my eyes open a little to find Luna entering the Safe Zone and immediately flying over to land on my shoulder, using my shoulder as a way for her to relax in the spring as well. I smile slightly at that before closing my eyes again. So very nice¡­ I wonder how the war is going? B3 | Story Art Lexi in the next Block she visits: Lexi taking a break in the hot springs in a recent chapter: This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. Cool status thingies: And on of the ads I have running: B3 | Chapter 10 - Revelation Alexia It ends up taking me another day to finally get out of the stupid fucking maze, and immediately after getting out of it, I find myself faced with an army of foxes. Literally. Huh. Just nearly a hundred foxes casually walking around the large plains right outside of the maze. Meanwhile the ones closest to the maze are looking at me with their three tails spinning and a glowing purplish light shining from their eyes. Both signs of them using their illusion magic. I let out a sigh before raising both of my hands and sending a wave of quantum breath straight at the ones closest to me, glitching them apart almost instantly amidst some rather loud screams that attract the other foxes. And immediately after, these foxes transform into their foxkin forms and charge towards me. But I just slaughter them as well, proving my lovely Legendary Feat Bonus against fallen to be very helpful in dungeons. It¡¯s just too bad that Tier 3 and above dungeons don¡¯t focus only on combat like the Tier 1 and 2 dungeons did. These instead have a larger focus on puzzles and things like the maze. Not to mention endurance and are a lot more time consuming. Overall, they¡¯re major pains. Anyways, the foxkin army gives me a few levels. Nothing to write home about. So I move past their still glitching and purple-fire-covered remains towards the tunnel entrance leading inside of a cliff. Only to immediately find myself facing another maze of sorts. Except this one is through teleporters. At the end of the tunnel is a large room with three teleporters in it. And after stepping onto the center one, I find myself in another room with three more teleporters in it. Then the same thing happens when I step on one of those teleporters. Over. And over. Again. Quantum pops? Was this your idea to put so many mazes in dungeons? He opens his eyes and glances at me, then closes them again, not saying anything. Which basically means it¡¯s his fault. I reach up and smack the bat on the side of his head, only for him to not even react. Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings. Damnit. Please don¡¯t go making things like this anymore. ¡°I don¡¯t have any control over the System in my current form,¡± he answers rather simply, yet somehow not answering at the same time. So¡­ you¡¯re going to make more after you regain your control over it? He doesn¡¯t say anything. Seriously? I let out a sigh when he doesn¡¯t say anything again. Then I just continue going through the teleporters, once in a while finding a monster inside of one of the rooms they lead me to. Eventually I give up and ask the Architect out of boredom, ¡°Hey, was there another reason to make me kill you aside from getting a successor?¡± He opens his eyes again and answers, ¡°The System needed a push to gain sentience.¡± That has me halting in my tracks as I turn my head to look at him. ¡°It still needs a push to gain sentience, unfortunately,¡± he says while shaking his head. ¡°But it¡¯s closer now than it was before.¡± Huh. I blink as a thought comes to mind. Hey, quantum pops? ¡°Stop calling me that,¡± he says, but I ignore him, of course. So, the main reason you had me kill you was to gain a successor, right? But if that¡¯s the case, why are the other quantum beings still alive? Don¡¯t some of them have successors too? He glares at me for several seconds as I continue moving from one room to another through the teleporters. ¡°Let¡¯s just say that the way I did things was the only way to make a quantum being out of an unwilling participant,¡± he eventually relents, making me halt in my tracks again. Then I turn to glare at him. So the other quantum being successors all have willingly chosen that path? He nods his head while keeping eye contact with me. We continue staring at each other for several seconds before I eventually sigh and continue moving through the rooms again. Well, you¡¯re an asshole, but that doesn¡¯t really change anything from what I knew up till now. He hits me in the back of the head with his wing, but I ignore it. ¡°Part of our universal role requires us to find a successor at some point in life,¡± the Architect says, surprising me for a moment. ¡°And I didn¡¯t want to force the role onto someone I cared about.¡± I glance at him as I walk before sighing and continuing. If I¡¯m being honest, I can¡¯t entirely fault that sentiment. Although I didn¡¯t really realize that this guy cared about anyone. He hits me with his wing again. Wait a second¡­ I frown. ¡­am I even your successor? Considering that I¡¯m the Quantum Reaper? I feel the bat on my shoulder stiffening up completely, as if just realizing this himself. And he doesn¡¯t move again, even after I stop to stare at him for a while. You didn¡¯t think of that, did you? He still stays silent, just staring ahead with a blank look on his bat face. I hold myself back from chuckling before glancing at Luna who is sleeping peacefully on my other shoulder. Then I continue going through the teleporters until I eventually end up in a large cavern with a massive fortress at the other end of it, and another army of foxkin in between me and the fortress. Maybe this will finally be the dungeon boss? I can sense quite a few monsters coming from that fortress after all¡­ I purse my lips at the thought before looking at the stiff quantum being in the form of a bat on my shoulder, then back at the army of foxkin who haven¡¯t noticed me yet. Lots of foxes in this dungeon. I stare for a few seconds before frowning. Doesn¡¯t this dungeon have other monsters other than these illusion furballs? B3 | Chapter 11 - Hero Alexia Turns out that it wasn¡¯t the fortress belonging to the dungeon¡¯s boss. So over the course of the next several days, I continue hunting foxkin and gradually level up all the way till I reach about level 450. At which point I obtain another skill. One that I¡¯ve been awaiting for a very long time now. A skill that lets me create a portal. Of course, it¡¯s kind of useless right now since it would take up an active skill slot, and I don¡¯t have the free slots necessary to use one on a skill that isn¡¯t combat related right about now. But I can still use the skill to teach myself how to create a portal myself in the future. When I¡¯m proficient enough in energy manipulation to do so. Speaking of energy manipulation¡­ I glance at the bat on my right shoulder as I continue walking through the current fortress. Which is the seventh fortress yet, with one following right after another each time. And while there are bosses in the fortresses, they aren¡¯t the dungeon¡¯s main boss. But the dungeon boss aside right now, quantum pops has been unusually silent ever since that whole revelation about him still not having a successor. Something he even asked for the Ruler¡¯s confirmation on at one point and got it. If it weren¡¯t for the fact that he forced me into becoming a quantum reaper in the first place, I¡¯d pity him. As things stand though, he brought this onto himself. And at the end of the day, I did still technically benefit from it, considering the power a quantum reaper has. I mostly just don¡¯t like that I didn¡¯t have a choice in the matter. That¡¯s water under the bridge now though. He got his punishment, in a way. Since he still has to do what he was avoiding doing. So I¡¯m fine now. I only want to punch him a tiny bit now instead of wanting to punch him a lot like I used to. The quantum pops in question still remains completely silent, proving just how affected he is by the revelation from before. Hmm. I¡¯m honestly not used to him not responding to my thoughts. It¡¯s kinda weird. Then again, this is how it should be. My thoughts are for me alone, not for some random guy claiming to be my father. I close my eyes as I walk through the fortress before mentally going through the normal process to create strings of my energy to connect with the energy around me. Then I begin going through the processes that the Architect taught me before he went mute. Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. First up, an anti-magic bullet. I quickly form the thing before opening my eyes and holding it above my hand. The bullet is only barely visible in the mortal realm, appearing as nothing more than a tiny little spot in the air that once in a while glitches out. Nothing more. Which makes for a really good stealth attack, ignoring that this bullet is so weak that the only thing it can break is structures of mana and energy. It can¡¯t actually scratch a person. As for trying to figure out how to do my skills with energy manipulation¡­ yeah, I haven¡¯t made any progress in that. I glance at the bat again before looking forward at my anti-magic bullet with a sigh. This¡­ is starting to get awkward. And it¡¯s hurting my progress in energy manipulation. The only thing I¡¯ve figured out how to do since the anti-magic bullet is how to power my skills with energy outside of my own body. Which, while it¡¯s incredibly useful, isn¡¯t really to the point that I can use it in the middle of a battle yet. It takes me several seconds just for a single point of soul¡¯s worth of energy. Which is¡­ not exactly very efficient. I open my eyes again and continue moving through the fortress, only to pause when a System Notification appears in my vision.
Legendary Feat ¨C Hero of Cataclysm Isabella d''Aragon has become the first user within the System to kill ten Cataclysm Class monsters!
Wait¡­ what? Hero? What¡¯s this about? ¡°Oh, guess I should¡¯ve expected that one to be the first to reach that point,¡± the Architect says out of nowhere, startling me in the process with his sudden return to the living. What do you mean? Why is she a hero for this? Also, is she just going around hunting the Cataclysm Monsters in each Block? ¡°The Cataclysm Class monsters are the accumulation of the excess mana dumped from this artificial set of dimensions into the old mortal dimension that you used to live in before the Reset. They''re then teleported back here so that they don''t end up destroying the old dimension and breaking out into this one all at once after building up a lot of numbers,¡± the Architect explains. ¡°So the only way for your dimension to stay safe is for the mortals to deal with those Cataclysm Class monsters themselves.¡± Huh. So what you¡¯re saying is that instead of the dungeon stampedes we used to get before the Reset, you just replaced them with the Cataclysm Monsters instead? ¡°In a way, yes,¡± he says with a nod of his head from my shoulder. Although he¡¯s starting to sound tense again. As if whatever snapped him out of his funk is coming back. I wait a few seconds for another response, but he doesn¡¯t say anything. And he¡¯s back to being a mute again. Well then. Actually, now that I think about it, hunting Cataclysm Class monsters might not be a bad idea after I reach Tier 4. Considering that I don¡¯t have anything else to do while searching for Tier 4 dungeons. It¡¯ll probably take me quite a while to find a Tier 4 dungeon after all, considering just how rare they are. I wouldn¡¯t be surprised if it takes over a year for the first one to spawn. Which is going to be a pain. I frown at the thought before shaking my head and continuing forward, deeper into the fortress I¡¯m currently in. Before I worry about Tier 4 dungeons, I need to get to Tier 4 first. And before I can do that, I need to finish this dungeon. And to complete whatever requirements I¡¯m given afterwards. So time to go back to fighting illusion foxes. B3 | Chapter 12 - Tier 4 Requirements Alexia I cross my arms after entering another cavern nearly half a day after the Architect¡¯s last words to me. And finally, finally, I find a massive castle in the cavern. One that isn¡¯t connected to the other end of the cavern and instead spans for over half of the cavern. It¡¯s about fucking time¡­ I was beginning to think I¡¯d end up dreaming about these damned foxes if this continued for much longer¡­ The castle itself is massive and is both gray, pink, and red in color, with a massive symbol at the top of it. Some sort of fox head with nine tails spewed out around the head. Meanwhile the castle is surrounded by tall walls, a gate at the front and center of said walls, an army of foxkin outside of said walls, and a very powerful energy source within the castle. One stronger than any I¡¯ve sensed before since the Reset. Looks like I¡¯m finally at the dungeon boss. After I deal with this army, which may actually be too large even for me to deal with. I look at the army for a few seconds before opening my status and glancing at my level, only to purse my lips. My level right now is 491, so I shouldn¡¯t have any issue with the dungeon boss. But my soul right now is down to about half, and that is¡­ a lot of foxkin. Thousands even. Even I don¡¯t think I can take one that¡­ many¡­ A smirk spreads across my face when an idea comes to mind. Yeah, that should work. That should work very well. I quickly begin teleporting up high into the air above the foxkin, each one of them noticing me right away and attempting to use illusions on me with no success. And without hesitation, I activate my wave form before moving even further and releasing everything in Observation Effect Absorption. All at once, every last bit of energy I¡¯ve built up over the last few months bursts out of my body in a massive pulse of purple and blue quantum energy that rushes straight through everything in its path. And since the attack is enhanced by both my Wave form from Wave-Particle Cascade and Quantum Synergy, it blasts straight through every last one of the foxkin, shooting my EXP up to the peak of Tier 3 in the process and pretty much erasing their existence from the cavern. This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. Then I just casually teleport back down to the ground with my hands on my hips and a triumphant grin on my face. Worked perfectly. And as if on cue, a ding echoes in my head followed by the usual System Message for reaching the level cap of a Tier. {Congratulations! You have leveled up to the level cap of Tier 3! In order to break into Tier 4, you must complete the following requirements based on your class: Kill twenty-five Cataclysm Class monsters. Raise a single skill to Tier 4. Kill one user at the cap of Tier 3. Raise Energy Manipulation to Tier 3.} Oh. Uh¡­ Oh. I stare at the rapidly fading words for several seconds. Well¡­ this is going to be annoying. Even moreso than the last Tier advancement. I purse my lips, briefly glancing at the castle which is still standing with that very same powerful energy source inside of it. Then I look down at my hand, followed by a quick glance at a Safe Zone nearby that I saw on the mini map. Huh. Well this is awkward. Other than the reward this boss will give me for completing the dungeon, I really don¡¯t have any real reason to fight it. Since it won¡¯t be giving me any EXP, and it won¡¯t fit one of the requirements of my Tier advancement¡­ Just very awkward. Then again, there¡¯s no reason not to kill it. I¡¯ve gotten this far after all, and I haven¡¯t gotten a single damned item from this dungeon yet. So getting one from the boss that¡¯s got its tier increased thanks to my Legendary Feat Bonus would be rather nice. The higher the Tier the dungeon, the fewer items are given out in it after all. Also the fewer hidden areas, fewer hidden bosses, and fewer anything that can actually benefit you other than possible death. Then there¡¯s the fact that the dungeons themselves are all rarer, and starting at Tier 4, not even set in a certain place. Instead moving with new ones spawning at random. So there may not even be a single Tier 4 dungeon in existence right now. I¡¯m very glad I checked with the Architect about all that before he went mute. Not really sure what I should do right now though. Because I know I don¡¯t have the soul currently needed to safely fight the boss¡­ After a few seconds, I decide to just go over to the Safe Zone and take a nap. A short one, but a nap. Thankfully Quantum Regeneration is very useful in situations like this. Raises my regeneration speed by a decent chunk, and is a skill that¡¯s always active, and always passively boosting my regeneration. So it¡¯s always getting training to level the skill. After entering the Safe Zone, I take a moment to look through the new skills I got during this little dungeon crawl. But none of them are a better fit than my current skills. So I leave it be and close out of the list. I purse my lips as I glance at the ground before deciding against my original plan of napping. If I want to reach Tier 4, I¡¯m gonna need to work on my Energy Manipulation. But¡­ to bring it up to Tier 3? Just how long is that going to take me¡­ I only have the skill at level four right now. I¡¯d have to level it seventeen times to bring it to Tier 3. After staring at the energy particles around me for a few seconds, sulking to myself, I let out a sigh and get to work practicing my energy manipulation. B3 | Chapter 13 - Fox Lord Alexia I get a total of one level from the two hours I spend practicing with Energy Manipulation. Then I move out towards to the castle, my soul having fully regenerated now. As I walk, I stretch a little, briefly wondering what Astrid might be doing right now. I¡¯m pretty sure she said she was going to start fighting in dungeons at some point as well, just to catch up with me a bit in level. Since, while she is a Class S species now, she¡¯s still lagging behind in levels. On the other hand, Ethan is probably- My thoughts are interrupted by a System Message. {The Dimensional Champion and Leader of Dimensional Block #51 has entered the contested territory previously belonging to Dimensional Block #108. Should your Dimensional Council declare war on Dimensional Block #51 you may challenge the Dimensional Champion to a duel so long as you are still within the same Dimensional Block. The winner of the duel will therefore claim control of the Dimensional Block for their own Block and the Dimensional Wall between the Blocks will no longer require Authority to pass through for citizens of the Blocks. Furthermore, should your Dimensional Council declare war on Dimensional Block #51, if you capture or kill the Dimensional Leader of Dimensional Block #51, you will be given one hundred votes on the Dimensional Block #51 Council for a single vote. One only usable for declaring Dimensional Block #1000¡¯s surrender towards Dimensional Block #108.} I narrow my eyes, seriously beginning to question if our Dimensional Block is just becoming some sort of gathering for Dimensional Leaders and Champions. But after the text fades from my vision, I let out a sigh, and continue making my way to the castle. Looks like I¡¯ll need to hurry this boss fight up a bit. At least whoever this is waited until after I finished regenerating my soul. I pause for a second when I reach the castle¡¯s gate. Although, now that I think about it, I guess it makes sense for a lot of Leaders and Champions to be stopping by our Block as word spreads that I¡¯m here. Even if most of the ones who have come by have been related to those of us here in some way. Like the Hound, Mom, and Gramps. Or Vargas. I also just noticed, but the part about the Dimensional Wall between the Blocks no longer requiring Authority for the citizens to pass through¡­ does that mean there will still be a wall of sorts even after the war? But the war notifications said that it would be gone¡­ unless there¡¯ll just be some sort of invisible wall or something? That thought gives me pause for a few seconds before I eventually just shrug and move on through the castle gate. This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience. And the instant I do that, traps from all over the castle in front of me begin firing in my direction. All with a purplish pink glow to them, making me understand that there¡¯s some sort of illusion that should be covering them but obviously isn¡¯t to me. I teleport straight to the door of the castle, completely ignoring the traps that are still shooting at where I was just standing as I begin to open the door, making it creak rather loudly in the process. Which makes me think this door is in serious need of some maintenance. After opening it, I begin to walk through the castle while following the powerful energy source I sense. More and more traps made out of spells and ballista and even a few out of place turrets fire at me as I walk. But each time I simply teleport out of their way without bothering with the traps themselves. So far this has been rather simple. Actually, the boss of this place might be incredibly easy to defeat, just because of my immunity to its illusions. I almost pity the poor thing. It takes me a few minutes to teleport around the castle, avoiding traps along the way, until I finally arrive in front of a rather grand looking set of double doors. And after opening the doors, I find an equally grand throne room on the other side of them. With a rather pissed off looking humanoid fox on the other side. The creature looks an awful lot like a male kitsune, with fox ears and four tails ¨C kitsune generally have between three to nine tails depending on their Tier ¨C along with glowing and slit amber eyes. But unlike kitsune, the boss has fur covering his upper arms and lower legs as well as very sharp claws on his hands and feet. It¡¯s also just growling and grumbling like a monkey while sitting on the throne with all of its hands and feet instead of just sitting like a normal person. After walking through the doors, I get the usual message about entering the boss¡¯s room. Then I go ahead and identify the boss to find a new species that I¡¯ve never heard of. {Fallen Fox Lord ¨C Level 500} Hmm. The fox lord thing growls. Hmmmm¡­ It growls again before jumping off of its throne at me while flaring with the purplish pink light of illusion magic. I teleport away right when it¡¯s about to strike me with its claws. Then I just tilt my head a little while tapping my chin in thought. Rather odd looking creature, but at least it¡¯s unique. The creature looks confused, probably because of my ease in avoiding its most likely illusioned attack. Only for it to decide to try whatever it just did again. So I teleport away again in response. I¡¯m deducting points for its rabid dog impression though. And then there¡¯s the fact that it¡¯s just repeatedly throwing itself at me. The fox lord looks even more confused after it lands without hitting anything for a second time. But unlike the first attempt, this time it actually begins to back away and then circle me instead. As if it were trying to figure out how to attack me after seeing its failures. Okay, giving the points back for the repeatedly throwing itself at me bit. The thing seems to be learning. Then the thing just stops in front of its throne and swings out both of its clawed paws and lets out a howl. And immediately after that, a pink mist fills the room and dozens of foxkin jump out of said mist, making me blink in surprise. Real foxkin? Interesting. They have to be real, otherwise I wouldn¡¯t be seeing them. So how did it hide them? Or did it make them? Maybe these foxkin are being made by the dungeon boss? Guess I¡¯ll give it some points for that. Overall I¡¯d say the boss scores a fifty-five out of a hundred points. It would probably be a seventy-something if the thing¡¯s main magic wasn¡¯t completely useless against me, but what can a fox lord do. Anyways, time to focus on fighting these things. B3 | Chapter 14 - A Game of Fox and Reaper Alexia To start things off, I send a wave of quantum flames throughout the room, glitching out everything they come into contact with. But the fox lord manages to dodge each and every flame, leaving the boss completely unharmed. So I snap my fingers, making several Quantum Singularity Implosions appear around it, drawing in the energy near them along with the remaining corpses of some of its fox summons along with the fox lord. Then they just reach a critical point and send a burst of quantum energy outwards, sending the fox lord flying with a yelp before it crashes into a wall. I walk a few steps forwards with my arms folded and my lips pursed. This creature seems to either be a Tier 1 or Tier 2 Chaos Monster, so it¡¯s on par with either a Class B or Class A species. Most likely Class A if I had to guess. And since it¡¯s the same level as me, there really isn¡¯t all that much competition. As if on cue, I feel a light pain blossom from my back, sending me flying forwards to crash into the wall. I let out a light grunt before getting out of the crater I made in the wall and stretching my arms slightly as I look back to where I was just standing. And what I find is rather surprising, considering the fox lord standing where I was just at. Hmm. Stronger than I expected I guess. No idea how it managed to do that though. Wait, can it teleport? I glance back at where the smoke is still clearing from the implosions, only to find the glitchy remains of the fox lord there. But no System Message ever came about the kill, and¡­ My gaze turns back to the fox lord hopping from one foot to the other right back where I was before it kicked me. ¡­there¡¯s that issue too. After pursing my lips for a second, I just shrug and teleport right behind the fox lord, making it let out a yelp in surprise. But I don¡¯t give it time to spot where I¡¯ve ended up as I send a quantum bolt straight into its back, launching it flying across the room to land in another crater. And then I get hit in the back again, sending me to make yet another crater. Stolen story; please report. If these craters keep forming, then the stupid castle is gonna crumble¡­ I keep my inner grumbles on the inside as I get out of the crater and focus on the third fox lord that¡¯s appeared, only briefly glancing at the corpse of the second one. Okay. Maybe it is cloning itself? Not sure why it keeps reappearing behind me though. Well, if I¡¯m being honest, the nuisance of being sent flying across the room aside, this boss isn¡¯t really doing much of any damage to me. I do have eighty percent immunity to physical damage after all, and it¡¯s only hitting me with physical attacks. At most it may¡¯ve bruised me a bit. Maybe a scratch. Which also seems to be confusing the fox lord in question, considering its tilted head. I teleport behind the guy and send another Quantum Bolt through its head. But this time I immediately teleport away again, finding myself watching another fox lord appear right behind where I was before it raises its claws to strike. Only for it to end up hitting nothing but thin air, leaving it confused. Some sort of substitute? Or maybe it has a limited number of lives? Could also just be clones, like I thought before. And that I just haven¡¯t seen the real one yet. Well, not like there¡¯s anything keeping me from trial and error. Considering that its magic doesn¡¯t work on me, and physical attacks don¡¯t really work either. Especially not at the same level with my stats being higher as a Class S species. So without further ado, I go ahead and teleport behind it, blast it with a Quantum Bolt, teleport away, teleport behind the new one that appears, blast it with a Quantum Bolt, teleport away, and repeat the process. Over. And over. Again For as long as it takes for me to get bored. Which is about five to ten minutes. Not really counting. No matter how many times I kill it though, nothing actually changes. So I begin to ignore the thing entirely while searching around the throne room for a possible source of these most-likely-clones, even as the most-likely-clone tries to bite my leg and just kinda latches on as I walk. I ignore the thing as I just drag it along with me without much trouble. This is not how I foresaw this boss fight going. I slowly walk around the throne room, just inspecting everything. But nothing really stands out to me. Other than maybe the throne. On that note, I begin to walk over to said throne, only to feel the fox lord at my ankle biting harder and harder the closer I get. Oo, so that means something¡¯s at the throne, right little foxy? The fox boy biting my ankle, of course, doesn¡¯t answer me. But that¡¯s fine. I just continue walking to the throne before raising my hand and blasting it with a Quantum Bolt, making the fox lord at my ankles suddenly fade away in a white mist. Then another fox lord appears yelping while being flung away from the throne. I raise a brow at the creature as it scrambles to its feet. ¡°Sneaky little foxy bastard,¡± I mutter while crossing my arms and glaring at the creature. A creature that is currently panicking as it tries to run away, its form flickering as it does so. Invisibility it is then. Along with cloning itself. The thing just sat on the throne while I pummeled its clones. How rude. I raise my hands and cause several more implosions, but this time around the real one. And just like that, I get the System Message about the dungeon boss¡¯s defeat. Although I don¡¯t get any EXP, seeing as I¡¯m already level capped. So I go ahead and begin walking towards the chest which spawned in front of the throne. Please give me something good. B3 | Chapter 15 - Like Mother Like Son Alexia ¡°Huh¡­¡± I mutter as I stand next to the chest, looking at its contents floating above it. Or rather, the identify for the contents. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Coat of the Lord of Illusions Description: This coat was made from the fur of a fox lord and grants full immunity to illusions of creatures with a Species Class of A or below. The coat is perfectly fitted to the original finder, Alexia Knight. Stats Bonus: +50 MEN, +50 MAG Requirements: N/A Item Tier: 4 (Item Tier increased by one due to the Legendary Feat, The First Clear) -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- So¡­ it¡¯s useless. That¡¯s basically what I¡¯m getting from seeing this. Guess I could give it to Astrid though. Then it wouldn¡¯t be useless. Yeah, that¡¯s a good idea. She probably doesn¡¯t have a Tier 4 item yet. Then again, most people probably don¡¯t. It¡¯s not as if Legendary Feat Bonuses like The First Clear grow on trees or anything after all. I put the coat ¨C which is the same color as the Fox Lord with its whitish orange fur ¨C into my storage ring, then head over to the dungeon¡¯s exit. And after briefly checking to make sure I¡¯m not forgetting anything, I head on through, back to the Dimensional Block again. Only to end up face to face with more than a few people battling right in front of me when I get out of the dungeon. People who all stop what they¡¯re doing to stare at me. I stare back. An awkward silence ensues. Out of curiosity, I identify the bunch. And to my surprise, the people from the other Dimensional Block actually have a little tag attached to their ID. One with a little red skull, marking them as my Dimensional Block¡¯s enemies. Interesting. This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there. I purse my lips while tapping my chin under the tense atmosphere that¡¯s built up. Meanwhile the enemies slowly try to back away, but I don¡¯t let them, instead snapping my fingers and causing a small implosion to appear right next to their heads, basically erasing their heads in a quick glitch and killing them all in an instant. Well, now if the others complain after the war I can tell them that I helped. I nod my head to myself at that before beginning to teleport into the air under the bewildered and frightened gazes of the people I¡¯d just saved. Now then. On to finding that Dimensional Leader and Champion. The fact that they¡¯re both means they¡¯re either the only Class S in their Dimensional Block, or they¡¯re a well-known person from before the Reset. And considering my luck with these kinds of things, I¡¯m gonna assume it¡¯s the latter. Because at this point, I¡¯m pretty sure my Dimensional Block has become the congregating place for people like that. I follow after the sensation I feel from my Dimensional Conqueror Legendary Feat Bonus to the visiting Dimensional Champion and Leader. The fact that they never declared war on us, and I never got a message about a certain giant dying means they didn¡¯t come to fight the Dimensional Block. Which I didn¡¯t really expect them to try doing anyways. What does confuse me a little though has I¡¯m traveling is the direction I¡¯m heading. Because the direction I¡¯m teleporting from island to island to go to appears to be home. The first possibility that comes to mind is that the Dimensional Champion or Dimensional Leader came with a certain dragon. And that would sound like a rather plausible possibility. But then who would that visitor be? Another dragon? I get the feeling that another dragon entering the Dimensional Block would certainly provoke the dragonborn even more. Except that I¡¯m pretty sure there are only a few dragons willing to become¡­ the Dimensional Leader¡­ of¡­ a¡­ Shit. Without any hesitation I immediately begin teleporting as fast as I can, even skipping entire islands in the process. ¡°Hmm?¡± the Architect suddenly makes a noise while opening his eyes on my shoulder. Meanwhile Luna does the same as we begin to near Ethan¡¯s island, with the island itself slowly coming into sight after teleporting for who knows how long. ¡°Do you two sense something?¡± I ask, still not close enough to sense anything. But right as the Architect begins to answer, I begin to detect something as well. ¡°I didn¡¯t expect to see her here so soon,¡± is all the Architect says in response. My focus at this point though is more on the very powerful aura I feel coming from his island. One stronger than any aura I have ever sensed before. The aura is just radiating nothing but pure, unadulterated power. So much power that it has me frowning. If I had to describe my own aura, then it would probably be like a scythe coming to reap something. Death, but quick and painless, concentrated and not wasteful. This aura though¡­ this aura is boastful. Powerful and not afraid to admit it. Wasting mana naturally just as the aura spreads out to frighten those all around it. A true dragon¡¯s aura. One far stronger than Ethan¡¯s aura, which has always felt small compared to the aura my soul lets off. And this aura really is all I need to know about who the visitor is. I keep teleporting over there as fast as I possibly can, but when I¡¯m just about to arrive, I realize that I sense Astrid¡¯s aura as well. And my panic only doubles. After just a few more teleports, my panic suddenly turns into¡­ confusion? I frown as I lower myself to the ground using my soul. And frown even more when I realize just what it is that I¡¯m seeing. A woman with stark white hair and deep crimson eyes that appear as if they stare straight into your soul, with crimson draconic wings shooting out of her back, casually sitting on a chair while playing a card game with Astrid and Ethan. I stand in place, just staring in silence for several seconds. Then Ethan waves at me and says, ¡°Hey, took you long enough to get here! Why don¡¯t you join us for a hand?¡± I continue staring without saying a word for a little bit longer before eventually just numbly walking over and sitting down at the extra chair, still staring at the Ancestral Dragon. Who I am now beginning to realize may be the reason for Ethan¡¯s obsession with games. B3 | Chapter 16 - Ancestral Dragon’s Arrival Ethan¡¯s Island Isabella had finally found her son. But what did she find him doing? She found him sparring with a woman who looked nearly identical to The Reaper. Except that the woman¡¯s hair, instead of the purple tint The Reaper¡¯s hair has, has a deep black tint, even darker than the rest of the black in her hair. And the woman¡¯s hair seems to be letting out wisps of shadow, the same as her eyes. At first she was rather surprised by the sight of the woman. But she quickly learned from her son that it was The Reaper¡¯s twin. A twin who happened to also be a Class S species but of a completely different and unique species. The Ancestral Dragon felt a brief urge at that realization to ask how that came about, but she snuffed that urge just as quickly as it came. And then the three of them ended up starting a card game since she¡¯d brought cards with her. She has always been particularly interested with the tabletop games created by man. An interest both her son, husband, and even daughter got as well. Although they all got it in different ways. Her son mostly likes the video games that were made by the higher technological locations where Class A and B species dwelled. Meanwhile her daughter liked sports games, even if she couldn¡¯t really play them. Just watch them. Otherwise she¡¯d kill everyone participating. Lastly, her husband was the only one to be just as interested in tabletop games as she was. They all needed something to keep them entertained throughout their long lives after all. It¡¯s one of the biggest things dragons suffer from. Apathy. While they¡¯ve been playing cards, Isabella can¡¯t help but keep an eye on her son and The Reaper¡¯s twin. On how they interact with each other. She finds it rather interesting since he¡¯s been treating her better than he normally would another Class S species. Could he¡­ Her thoughts are interrupted when she feels an incredibly dangerous aura approaching. One made of a different type of power than her own. An aura she¡¯s only sensed from the one time she met the Quantum Vanguard and the Quantum Architect before. Back when the Vanguard was clearing out a source of corruption near the dragon¡¯s domain. This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. It¡¯s the aura of a quantum being. She raises her head right when The Reaper appears a few meters to the East and a few meters above the ground. Then, as she lands on the ground, The Reaper just looks confused at the sight of them playing cards. Probably felt my aura and came running. To Isabella¡¯s surprise, her son waves his hand at her and shouts, ¡°Hey, took you long enough to get here! Why don¡¯t you join us for a hand?¡± Isabella opens her mouth for a moment before closing it again. He¡¯s even friendlier with The Reaper than he is her twin¡­ Both the Ancestral Dragon and The Reaper identify each other at the same time. {Alexia Knight ¨C Quantum Reaper ¨C Level 500} The Ancestral Dragon is slightly pleased that The Reaper has caught back up to her again in level. But who makes it to Tier 4 first will still depend on what her requirements are to advance. Knowing that she¡¯s a quantum being and likely had a difficult requirement the last time implies she¡¯ll have another difficult one this time. If the Ancestral Dragon is being honest with herself, a large part of her reason for coming here was to see The Reaper and come to a decision herself on how the dragons would interact with her from here on out. But as it turns out, she needn¡¯t have come for that reason. Not when her son is already this close to her. Isabella had only expected a business relationship from the two. Instead she finds that they live on neighboring islands and have multiple deals working for them. And according to what her son was telling her during the card game, he even went to another Dimensional Block with her. Now Isabella is wondering whether or not she should just set up her son and The Reaper for marriage. Since The Reaper is worthy enough of her respect just from being a quantum being alone. Isabella keeps on watching The Reaper interacting with her son and The Reaper¡¯s sister, but over the course of the interactions, she eventually comes to a single disappointing conclusion. The Reaper has no romantic interest in her son whatsoever. That complicates things. She glances at her son and watches him for a while as the game goes on, with the Ancestral Dragon winning, of course. And after watching his expressions, she realizes that he already knows about The Reaper¡¯s lack of interest. That¡¯s good at least. If he didn¡¯t understand then it could cause a problem between us and the quantum¡­ Isabella¡¯s thoughts grind to a halt when she finally notices one of the bats on The Reaper¡¯s shoulders. A bat that she for some reason never noticed until now. After noticing the bat, she immediately realizes just what it is. Or just who it is. Why is the Quantum Architect ¨C who is supposed to be dead ¨C taking a ride on the Quantum Reaper¡¯s shoulder? And¡­ Her eyes gravitate towards the other bat as she plays her card, not forgetting to continue winning the game. ¡­is she just collecting bats or something? The Ancestral Dragon watches the Quantum Architect for a few seconds, and the Quantum Architect watches back. But neither of them say a word to the other. Eventually the Architect closes his eyes as if going to sleep and the dragon returns all of her attention to the game right as she wins it, making the others scowl at her. Now the Ancestral Dragon isn¡¯t sure what she should do anymore. The appearance of the Architect and feelings of her own son have thrown all of the plans she had made while coming here out the window. So she just continues playing cards instead. B3 | Chapter 17 - A Giant Floating Turtle Alexia She¡¯s cheating. She must be. There¡¯s no way someone can be this good at cards. No matter how hard I try to catch her cheating though, I don¡¯t find anything. She can¡¯t be playing fairly, right?! After five games, with the Ancestral Dragon winning every single one, I finally give up and call it quits. Ethan just laughs and says, ¡°She¡¯s been playing cards for tens of thousands of years. There¡¯s probably very few people who can actually beat her at this point, so don¡¯t worry yourself about it.¡± I cross my arms and frown anyways as the two continue playing cards, Astrid having left a little while ago to go deal with something back at The Retreat. And after watching them play for a bit, I finally lose my patience and ask, ¡°Did you only come here to see Ethan, or should I worry about your presence here?¡± The Ancestral Dragon doesn¡¯t even look up from the card game, simply shuffling the cards in her hand and studying them as she says, ¡°No, don¡¯t worry about me. I just came to check up on my son. I¡¯ll be here for a few days before leaving to go find my daughter next.¡± I blink in surprise before remembering that Ethan actually does have a sister. Never really thought about that before. Honestly forgot he had family other than Vargas and his mother. Makes me wonder if they¡¯re gonna visit too or not. I cross my arms and tap my finger a few times with my lips pursed before sighing and grabbing something from my bag. One of those radios made by a craftsman in Lucas¡¯s Dimensional Block that was good enough to be considered a System Item due to its ability to contact you even in dungeons. And without warning, I toss the thing at Ethan, letting him catch it without even looking. ¡°Please give me a call the next time you have a visitor,¡± I tell him as he looks curiously at and likely identifies the radio. ¡°I don¡¯t want to end up worrying about someone unknown being in the Dimensional Block next time.¡± He gives me a salute without taking his eyes off of the game. I roll my eyes and walk away, teleporting straight to my clearing in The Retreat, where I find my house completely finished. This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. It¡¯s about time. The previous times I was here, the house was only partially finished. The actual house, not the temporary one. So I couldn¡¯t really stay in the real one. But now that it¡¯s done, I can go ahead and move my stuff there. I can also finally begin taking that one with me places through that portable house thingy. I enter the house before looking around a bit, finding it to look quite a bit like a regular noble¡¯s mansion from before the Reset. Large, fancy, and highly decorated with expensive stuff. Not bad. Not bad at all. Pretty good, really. The place even has a little hangout for Luna, which she takes to right away as she immediately leaves my shoulder to go to it. A little dark cavern with a mixture of scratching post ceiling and comfortable mattress-like ceiling for her to dangle down from. Cute. Quantum pops, you said that she¡¯d be able to enter her quantum vampire form after I reach Tier 4, right? ¡°Yes,¡± he answers, surprisingly not complaining about the nickname. ¡°I understand you¡¯re just calling me it to irritate me. There¡¯s no reason to respond.¡± Well that¡¯s annoying. I let out an inner sigh and decide to drop the whole quantum pops thing. In all honesty, the atrocities he¡¯s committed to me aside, it was rather petty. Anyways, I finish up my rounds of the house before closing my eyes and searching for Astrid. Then, after finding her, I teleport right next to her, startling more than a few people as I appear in the middle of a council meeting. One that goes silent at my entrance. I ignore the council as I ask Astrid, ¡°Have you heard anything about the Cataclysm Class monster that appeared in this Block? I need to go hunt some.¡± She doesn¡¯t look surprised as she glances at Alara, who quickly answers, ¡°The Cataclysm Class monster this time is a massive flying turtle whose back is as large as an island and was last seen about a few days travel to the South of us.¡± Oh? It¡¯s close by. I can probably teleport there within a few hours. ¡°Anyone know its level?¡± I ask, prodding for more. But when no one answers, I add, ¡°Or its Tier, at least?¡± ¡°The creature is Tier 3,¡± some random woman that I don¡¯t think I¡¯ve ever met answers. ¡°Thank you,¡± I tell them, nod my head at Astrid once more, then teleport out of the room to reappear near my house. And with just a wave of my hand, I put the house in my ring, startling a certain quantum vampire bat who was sleeping in it. Oops. Luna flies over to me squeaking a few times before settling down on my shoulder again. ¡°Sorry, girl,¡± I tell her while rubbing her head. After making sure I have everything, I quickly begin to teleport from one island to another, skipping islands in the process all the way till I reach another city. At which point I ask the locals ¨C who are less terrified of me than they used to be ¨C where the turtle is. And then I go in the direction they point out, continuing my search until I stop at yet another city. Rinse and repeat a few times until I finally find the massive turtle. Something that doesn¡¯t prove very hard when I get near the thing, since the thing¡¯s pretty hard to miss. It¡¯s as large as an island after all. And it¡¯s just kinda floating there. Unlike the Dragon of Cataclysm, this little, err, not little turtle is black and blue in color. A mixture of both on its shell and body. And it¡¯s swimming through the sky. I stare at it. Not sure how that¡¯s working, but probably best not to question it. Anyways, time to identify it. B3 | Chapter 18 - A Reaper and a Turtle Alexia The moment I identify the giant turtle, it¡¯s head turns to look directly at me. {Chelonarion the Celestial Sea-Turtle ¨C Turtle of Cataclysm ¨C Level 424} I blink in surprise at its name. Um, excuse me¡­ I look around for a second before focusing on the turtle, meeting its gaze. There isn¡¯t a sea anywhere near here. Why are you called a sea-turtle? The sea-turtle doesn¡¯t seem to like my unasked question ¨C or it could be me identifying it which it probably is ¨C and lets out a loud¡­ sorta roar. The roar sounds kind of like a mixture of a roar and a whale¡¯s call. But it¡¯s a roar, nonetheless. Then it begins to swim across the sky towards me. Very slowly. Very, very slowly. I purse my lips as I watch the turtle swim, swim, swim away. Or rather, swim towards me. Hmm. Guess speed is not this fella¡¯s forte. Considering its name, I¡¯m guessing it probably has some sort of light or water magic. Or both. Otherwise, why would it be called a sea-turtle without a sea? My answer comes to me when water begins to flood out of its body. But instead of falling down towards the endless clouds down below, it begins to amass around the turtle. Making a floating sea for it to swim in. And at that point its speed finally gets a boost. Well that¡¯s¡­ one way to fit your namesake, I guess. Out of nowhere, the turtle sends a powerful blast of water my way. But I teleport out of its line of fire, only to glance back and find it hitting an island, knocking the island off course and making more than a few screams come from said island. Thankfully though, all of the screams are from monsters. I already checked to make sure there wouldn¡¯t be anyone near by the giant turtle before identifying it. I turn back to the turtle in question right when it sends another blast of water at me. To which I teleport away from again. Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website. Well, large fella or not, the thing is only level 424. It¡¯s not really much of a threat. Probably. I teleport twice to reappear right next to it, startling the massive creature before I summon my polearm and stab it straight in the shell. Only for my polearm to only chip off some of its shell and not go through. Huh. Guess a Class S creature will still have its strengths. Even at a low level. Then again, the gap between levels does become less important the higher your Tier. So seventy-six levels right now isn¡¯t as much as it would be in Tier 1. I teleport to the side of the turtle, seeing as its underbelly is underwater right now. And I do not feel like getting wet. Only for the turtle to suddenly take control of the water and shoot it straight up out of the sea in a geyser, striking me in the face when I get near its exposed leg and sending me flying through the sky. But the damage it does is only minimal, and I don¡¯t even bother healing it. Since it would take more soul than it¡¯s worth to heal. ¡°Rude,¡± I call out before reappearing near its other leg. Just for the thing to shoot another geyser of water at me. But this time the geyser misses, and I strike directly at its leg with my polearm, stabbing into it. Alright. Looks like this¡¯ll work. I teleport high up into the air before letting gravity take me as I raise my polearm high in the air, glaive ready to strike. Only to teleport downwards a little while keeping my momentum the moment a geyser shoots where I was just at. Then more and more geysers shoot out at me with the turtle itself trying to turn its head towards me. Which, in all honesty, is a pretty bad idea. Because it gives me a different target to hit other than its leg. And my glaive cuts straight into the giant turtle¡¯s neck like pudding. But due to size limitations, I only manage to cut through a quarter of its neck. Meaning it¡¯s time for a redo. I teleport up into the air again to prepare for my redo as the turtle in question roars in rage. Then I notice something. The turtle¡¯s wound. It¡¯s healing. My eyes narrow slightly and I quickly rush in for another strike like the last one, but by the time my blade reaches it, the wound is already almost entirely healed. So I teleport back up again and strike faster. But, once again, the wound heals too quickly. Damnit, why are you healing so fast?! I look down at the sea of water before glancing at the turtle. Then at the sea. And is it just me, or is there less water beneath it? Geysers excluded. I stare at the water before an idea comes to me. So I rush up into the sky again and perform another attack. But instead of preparing another attack, I watch the water. And just as I suspected, some of the water begins to rush into the turtle¡¯s body while the wound heals. Interesting. Now, the question is whether or not the turtle can replace the water after using it all up. But that¡¯s a question for after I make it drain all of the water in the first place. So I quickly get to work attacking it one time after another, not really letting it do much to me in the process while it¡¯s busy healing itself. And slowly, ever so slowly, the water begins to drain in its entirety. And the water never returns. Good. I perform the attack a couple more times while the turtle tries to shoot water beams at me from its mouth, but the thing doesn¡¯t do much as I just teleport out of the way and finish the attacks. Then, after the fourth attack on its neck, the head falls right off. Followed by the collapse of its body. Fortunately for me and my desire for its materials, they fall onto an island. Unfortunately for the island in question, they leave a massive crater. Oops. B3 | Chapter 19 - A Plan Decided Alexia Surprisingly, it takes a few seconds for me to get the System Message I¡¯m looking for. [A Cataclysm Class monster has been slain. Requirement to slay twenty-five Cataclysm Class monsters has been updated.] Yep. It¡¯s a pity I don¡¯t get any reward or EXP for the thing though. I glance at its corpse. Well, other than the materials found in its corpse, that is. I proceed to stare at its corpse for a second as I lower myself to the ground, teleporting my way down. And even after my feet touch the soil beneath me, I still stare at it while walking up to the thing. So¡­ how am I going to bring this with me? The turtle is literally the size of an island. It¡¯s larger than this island that its corpse is on. Which really has me questioning how the island is even supporting its weight in the first place. Guess islands don¡¯t have weight limits? Logic. Right. Definitely logical. Sure. Gravity and logic defying floating islands aside, I¡¯m honestly not sure how I¡¯m going to get this turtle off of the island, much less get it to The Retreat. I sit down and cross my legs, tapping my chin in thought. The thing is clearly too big to fit in my storage ring. Even just its head is likely too large. But how am I going to bring it back? I can¡¯t just teleport the thing from one island to another very slowly. That would drain my soul dry rather quickly. Not to mention that since I¡¯d have to take breaks between, it¡¯d probably take months at the least to do. Maybe an entire year. Then maybe I can go find a nearby nation to ask to move it? I blink at that before shaking my head. Not likely even possible. I highly doubt they¡¯d even be able to move it if I asked. Plus I¡¯m pretty sure they¡¯d try if I asked just out of fear. And that¡¯d be awkward. If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. I continue trying to think of more options, but none really work out. Not only am I too far away to go get The Retreat to help me, seeing as if I left the corpse for too long others might try to mess with it, but I can¡¯t really get anyone from nearby to do it either¡­ and I¡¯m not spending months teleporting a giant shell and corpse. I purse my lips as I lie back, tapping my fingers on my arms after crossing them. What to do¡­ Then an idea comes to mind, and I sit back up again. Right. I almost forgot. Without wasting any more time, I pull out the radio. The one paired to the one I gave Astrid, just like the one I gave Ethan. Then I call her. And wait for a few seconds. Eventually she picks up and I ask, ¡°Hey, would you mind bringing some people over to carry a giant turtle for me?¡± She doesn¡¯t say anything for a few seconds before answering, ¡°Sure.¡± Then the call drops. Well then. She¡¯ll likely come by using the tracking feature on the radio. So I turn the feature on, allowing her to track me through it. And now that that¡¯s done, I just lie back down on the grass and stare up at the sky. I really need a new storage ring. Especially if I¡¯m going to be hunting other Cataclysm Class monsters away from our Dimensional Block. Since I won¡¯t have The Retreat to act as my transportation service there. In which case, I¡¯m gonna need to find an enchanter. One who can work with Dravik to forge an excellent storage ring. One better than my current ring. A few seconds pass in silence as I stare up at the sky, only for me to glance at the enormous turtle next to me. I do wonder though. Are all the Cataclysm Class monsters this large? More silence answers me. Guess no answer from the Architect. I wonder if he¡¯s sleeping or something? Then again, if he is asleep, it would make my head quieter. I kind of miss not having someone hearing my thoughts. Which makes sense. Anyways, if all of the Cataclysm Class monsters are this size then it¡¯ll cause a pretty big issue with me carrying them. Even if I get a really good storage ring, I¡¯m pretty sure it¡¯d only be able to hold one of those turtles. Maybe two for the best storage rings. Might be able to make a better storage ring than what was possible before the Reset with their corpses though. If I found a good enough enchanter. On the other hand, I could also just dump the corpses on the inhabitants of the Dimensional Blocks I traverse through. So long as they pay well enough for them, it wouldn¡¯t be any loss for me. Might end up having to do that in the end, since even with an excellent storage ring, no storage ring can hold twenty-four corpses this size. Or as large as that dragon corpse was. And I can even take a small part of the corpse for my own use. No one ever said I had to sell the entire thing. Guess that¡¯ll be the plan. But first I do want a better storage ring. Which means going around asking about an enchanter, and if I don¡¯t find one, going on my search for Cataclysm Class monsters and adding enchanters to my list of search targets. Actually might not be a bad idea to head towards Dimensional Block #1 to find Lucas. I¡¯m sure he has an enchanter working in there somewhere that I could borrow. And it¡¯s not like I¡¯d be going out of my way much. He mentioned that Dimensional Block #1 was about twenty-seven Dimensional Blocks away from ours. Some of those Blocks are bound to have already killed their Cataclysm Class monsters too. So I might not be going out of my way at all. Other than a long return trip. With my plan decided, I nod my head to myself before staring up at the sky some more. Bored. How long am I going to be waiting here, again? B3 | Chapter 20 - Dimensional Block #106 Alexia Once the people from The Retreat arrive with Astrid, they immediately get to work packing up the corpse. In pieces. In giant airships. Not sure when they had the time to build those, but they¡¯re not half bad. The things look like they¡¯re being lifted by a mixture of wind, fire, and gravity magic, with an additional boost from a hot air balloon above it that I doubt is necessary but probably helps. They have relatively large structures beneath the air balloons with weapons on the sides of the ships. If I remember correctly, Varsac¡¯s kingdom was currently developing these. So I guess they finished them, and The Retreat bought some? Would make sense. Although¡­ I turn to glance at Astrid, who is standing next to me while we watch them carry the pieces with magic into the dozens of ships, and ask, ¡°So where was The Retreat storing these things?¡± ¡°On our secondary island,¡± she answers without looking away from the ships. ¡°It¡¯s on the other side of the Block from The Retreat, so we¡¯ll be bringing the corpse back there if you don¡¯t mind.¡± Oh. Interesting. Looks like they want to keep these ships a relative secret that they own them. Does that mean they didn¡¯t purchase them? ¡°Whatever you¡¯re thinking is likely correct,¡± she says as if reading my thoughts. ¡°We made them ourselves. Or at least, that dwarf of yours created the blueprints and we worked off of those.¡± Ah, good ol¡¯ Dravik. Come to think of it, I didn¡¯t see the elder dwarf while I was at The Retreat earlier. Or rather, I didn¡¯t sense his energy source. So I guess he must¡¯ve been at this secondary base of theirs. Astrid and I watch in silence as the others pack away the corpse, only for that process to take hours in and of itself. And I have to step in multiple times just to dissect the creature. That said, in the end, we manage to bring it with us as we head towards their secondary base. With me just hanging out on the bridge of the flagship. The biggest ship of the lot. If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. During the trip, I make sure to ask Astrid about the enchanter. But unfortunately, she says we don¡¯t have one in our Dimensional Block good enough to help me with what I want. Not even one good enough to make a storage ring large enough to fit a single part of the corpse we¡¯re carrying. Not really the news I wanted to hear but also not unexpected either. So in the end, I say a quick goodbye to Astrid, mentioning where I¡¯m going and asking if she had something to say to Lucas, only for her to not have anything to say and for me to leave soon after. Just teleporting through the islands until I make it to the Dimensional Wall separating our Block from Dimensional Block #106. And without a care for the war I¡¯m leaving behind, I enter the Wall and pass through to the other side. Unsurprisingly ¨C seeing as I already knew what the Block was like ¨C I find trees for as far as the eye can see once I make it through the Wall. And I¡¯m sure the Dimensional Leader and Champion are probably freaking out about my arrival. After all, they should know who the Dimensional Champion of Dimensional Block #108 is. Then again, considering that the Dimensional Champion of this Block is a Class S species, I don¡¯t think the Champion is panicking. Likely just hoarding itself inside its territory. Right, I should go ahead and check where its territory is. I wouldn¡¯t want to trespass and end up stuck in a fight with the naga. I quickly close my eyes and search around the area for energy signatures. But the only ones I find are weak ones most likely belonging to monsters nearby. Meaning I probably didn¡¯t enter near any sort of settlement. So I open my eyes again and begin teleporting up into the air before landing on a giant tree to look around. The entire Dimensional Block looks to be one massive wildfire hazard, if I¡¯m being completely honest. Just one massive forest stretching for as far as the eye can see with enormous trees. Meanwhile I see quite a few flying monsters going through the air above the forest. Mostly eagle-like creatures or hawk-like ones. But also a few bugs like bees that are buzzing around under the treetops, in hives on the trees themselves hanging from branches. Nothing particularly dangerous. I begin teleporting while making sure to keep an eye out on things, searching for any signs of civilization. And after several minutes, I find what I¡¯m looking for. A large village in the trees, high above the ground. Looks like it¡¯s a village of elves. A Class B species. Just like humans. Although I do see a few high elves amongst the bunch. But why are they living in tree houses? I frown as I look out over them from the top of a tree. Only to notice that most of them have spotted me by now. Damn, I really need to figure out what¡¯s up with that aura thing of mine. Apparently it¡¯s almost as bad as Isabella¡¯s but in a different way. Makes stealth harder nowadays. All of the elves and high elves immediately go on high alert and an alarm even blares through the settlement. But I just tilt my head and watch them run around for a moment, trying to find their leader. After finding them, I teleport down right in front of them, startling him into falling onto his rear. Meanwhile everyone around me begins preparing attacks and raising their weapons, identifying me in the process. Then they freeze in place after seeing the result. I kneel down in front of their leader as I ask, ¡°Any chance you know where the naga¡¯s territory is? And where the Cataclysm Class monster is while we¡¯re at it?¡± B3 | Chapter 21 - Request A Small Settlement on the Outskirts of Dimensional Block #106 Moments before Alexia¡¯s Arrival Aerlion Thaloron shakes his head as he answers the settlement¡¯s diplomat from the dryad¡¯s territory, saying, ¡°No, I¡¯m sorry, but we won¡¯t be able to comply to your demands. We elves have little to do with the dryads and will not go under your rule when you have done very little for us.¡± The high elf sent to negotiate lightly shakes his head in disappointment and says, ¡°That¡¯s unfortunate. May we meet again in better tidings, then?¡± The leader of the settlement nods his head before he watches the high elf diplomat begin to walk away. Ever since Aerlion heard that the dryads were amassing the elves of the Block together under their banner, he knew they¡¯d come to their settlement eventually. It was only a matter of time. Something dryads have plenty of thanks to being part plant themselves. Even before the Reset occurred, the dryads on their planet were always trying to take full control over the planet. But since dryads are pacifists despite that, they will never take it by force. They will always try to do it in a way that would get their targets to join them themselves. Then the dryads would work them harshly, even if the benefits to that work were always something the elves could never have dreamed of having. A way to evolve into high elves without having to wait for time to do it itself. And immediately after the first Dimensional Council, the dryads immediately began their usual sales pitch. Somehow having already raised a new world tree within the brief time before the Dimensional Council. Aerlion still can¡¯t figure out how they managed to do it. But there is one thing in the Block that may be related to it. No, one thing he knows has to be related to it. The naga living in the world tree. The only thing Aerlion can think of that would speed up the growth of the world tree is the naga. A nature affinity Class S species. He shakes his head as he watches the high elf delegate prepare to call forth his wyvern to fly to what is most certainly the next settlement on his path of recruitment. Then Aerlion begins to turn away, only for a chill to run down his spine. And immediately after feeling that chill, an overbearing aura spreads out to cover the entire settlement. One akin to a blade held at the ready right in front of his throat. Aerlion quickly ignores the startled and fear-filled gazes of his fellow elves and high elves as he looks straight up towards the source of the aura. And what he finds has him freezing stiff. Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more. Standing high atop a tree while staring over their settlement is a young looking woman wearing an eerie black and purple cloak over a black and red set of scale armor. She has a beautiful figure despite wearing a cloak that tries to hide her form, with long dark hair tinted with a deep purple flowing out of her hood. But what shakes him to his core about her isn¡¯t any of that, even if her garb is intimidating. What terrifies him and gives him the instinct to run is the sight of her eyes. Glitching as if part of a computer screen, making it difficult sometimes to tell where she¡¯s looking. The same shade of purple as her hair. And completely lacking in any sort of emotion other than indifference and some mild curiosity. Eyes he has seen before as she sat upon the throne in the System screen at the end of the tutorial. The woman suddenly vanishes in a glitched purple light before reappearing right in front of Aerlion, making him stumble backwards before falling onto his rear. And just the sight of her standing in front of him frightens him even more than anything else he has ever felt in his entire life. He sees all of the elves and high elves around them drawing their weapons until they no doubt identify her and realize how futile that will likely be. Even the high elf delegate stands frozen at the edge of the tree house they¡¯re standing on, clearly frightened and unsure of what to do. Eventually Aerlion himself identifies her as she speaks in a completely nonchalant voice, ¡°Any chance you know where the naga¡¯s territory is? And where the Cataclysm Class monster is while we¡¯re at it?¡± {Alexia Knight ¨C Quantum Reaper ¨C Level 500} Aerlion finds himself unable to speak for several seconds, only snapping out of it when he sees her brows beginning to furrow as he quickly hurries to say, ¡°Y-yes! I do! T-to both!¡± He accidentally stutters when first speaking before quickly taking a second to regather himself and calmly answering ¨C or as calmly as he can in this situation ¨C ¡°You will find Lord Seraphis Venomcrest in the world tree. However, and I assure you, this is not a threat, I would like to warn you that he will consider your entry into the dryad territory trespassing on his lands. And he will attack you from what I¡¯ve heard.¡± The Reaper doesn¡¯t appear surprised about the latter part of his answer, but the former clearly does surprise her as she asks, ¡°There¡¯s already a world tree in this Block?¡± Aerlion nods his head and opens his mouth to answer, only for the delegate to quickly return and state, ¡°Hello, Lady Reaper! I am a delegate of the dryads, and therefore the great Lord Venomcrest himself! If you would like to meet with him, I¡¯m sure I could arrange it!¡± The leader of the settlement feels a chill run down his spine at the thought of The Reaper working with the naga, but her next words assuage that fear as she says, ¡°No, there¡¯s no need to meet with him. I just came here to hunt Cataclysm Class monsters.¡± She pauses before turning back to Aerlion again. ¡°On that note, you didn¡¯t answer the other question.¡± He quickly takes the queue and answers, ¡°The Cataclysm Class monster of our Block is a massive spider creature located far to the West of here, on the other end of the Block!¡± The Reaper quickly nods her head with an appreciative look on her face before saying a brief thank you to Aerlion, then turning to the delegate and asking him to inform the Lord about her reason for being in the Block. Then she teleports away without waiting for a response. And Aerlion immediately feels his entire body unlocking at once, only barely having realized beforehand that he was that tense in the first place. Holy shit¡­ I need a drink. He ignores the delegate to walk back to his manor for that very purpose. B3 | Chapter 22 - Spider Alexia After leaving behind the settlement of elves ¨C ignoring the high elf guy who was apparently representing the naga and ran off in a different direction ¨C I teleport straight to the tops of the trees. Then I continue teleporting from one tree to another. Just making my way towards the Eastern side of the Block. Of course, I make sure along the way to keep the Wall of the Dimensional Block in sight. Because if I lose sight of it, I might end up accidentally entering the naga¡¯s territory. And if I do that, there¡¯s a good chance I¡¯ll be stuck fighting with a naga for a while. Not a pleasant fight, nor what I¡¯m wanting to deal with. Lucas didn¡¯t stay for long before he left back to his Block, but he went ahead and explained to me some details about the neighboring Class S species that he believed I most likely wouldn¡¯t know. Which was true since I didn¡¯t know them. Amongst the details were the intel I have about this naga. Naga are territorial creatures who ¨C just like all other Class S species ¨C naturally emit their element into the world. Most of the time in the form of their aura. Which is why my aura feels the way it does, since an aura is dependent on the one who it belongs to. Mostly, dependent on their class. I wouldn¡¯t be surprised if the world tree in this Dimensional Block grew strictly because of the nature energy the naga was emitting into it. But the idea if fighting a Class S species in their own element is a terrifying one. Particularly if they know how to manipulate the element around them. Something most of them do know how to do. With me being the lone exception to this since I haven¡¯t gotten as far as I¡¯d like into my energy manipulation training. Although at least energy manipulation lets me manipulate the energy of every element. Not just the quantum element. So that¡¯s a plus. I continue teleporting as I think about the naga, only occasionally stopping at a settlement to ask for directions. In general, a naga is a massive serpent. One with green scales, nature magic, the power of petrification in its eyes, and a couple extra heads that are placed on its body in the forms of hands. A rather odd mix, if I¡¯m being honest. If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement. Most importantly though, they specialize in physically enhancing their body. Something that normally wouldn¡¯t matter to me considering my armor and my natural immunity to physical damage making ninety percent of all physical damaged dealt to me completely null and void. But the issue is that I doubt I¡¯ll be able to hurt them either. Because the naga is generally immune to magic unless one of its heads is cut off through physical strength. And I¡¯m pretty sure my physical strength isn¡¯t enough to cut the head off of a Class S species without the use of any magic. So I¡¯d rather not meet that naga if I don¡¯t have to. It¡¯d be a waste of time. I teleport from one tree to another to another all across the Block, stopping every ten or so minutes for directions. An act that always frightens everyone in the settlements I go to. Which reminds me. Architect, do you know how to withdraw my stupid aura that keeps terrifying everyone? ¡°Yes,¡± he answers without elaborating further. I wait for a few seconds. Then wait some more. Can you tell me how to withdraw my stupid aura? ¡°No,¡± he answers just as simply as last time. Why not? He doesn¡¯t answer. Ugh. I feel like you¡¯ve been getting less and less cooperative every day. No answer. Well that¡¯s annoying. But at least I know that I can, in fact, retract my aura. I just need to figure out how. The fact that none of the other Class S species have ever been known to retract their auras leads me to believe that it most likely has something to do with energy manipulation. Seeing as only quantum beings can manipulate energy directly. So I should start from there. After I get better at manipulating my energy, that is. Because where I¡¯m at right now in it won¡¯t likely be of much use. I continue teleporting for a while, occasionally learning that I went off course and having to readjust my path, until I finally arrive. And my prior question about if these Cataclysm Class monsters are all huge is pretty much confirmed by the sights I see in front of me. Enormous trees covered in equally enormous cobwebs. Cobwebs waaay too massive to be from some small spider. Doesn¡¯t hurt that the nearby settlements mentioned a really loud hissing sound. Interestingly enough though, not a single person has actually seen the creature. All they know is that a massive creature that makes a very loud hissing sound has been leaving cobwebs everywhere. And that the naga is ignoring the thing. Wouldn¡¯t be surprised if said naga came to watch me fight though. It¡¯s what I¡¯d do if someone came to my Block to fight the Cataclysm Class monster in it after all. I look across the cobweb-covered forest before glancing at some of the monsters stuck in the web down below. Monsters such as treants ¨C large walking trees ¨C and giant deer monster things with two heads. Then I begin teleporting above the cobwebs, making sure to keep my attention as focused as it can be until my senses finally lock onto a very large energy source. A larger one than the turtle. I quickly begin teleporting over towards it, only to find that I can¡¯t actually see the owner of the energy source. The spider is just so good at camouflaging itself that if I couldn¡¯t sense it then I¡¯d have no idea it was here. Maybe that¡¯s why the naga isn¡¯t bothering with the thing? Either way though, once it realizes I¡¯ve noticed it, the creature suddenly begins to move, breaking whatever camouflage it had. And revealing itself to be, as expected, a massive spider. One standing at nearly two dozen meters in length. A very big fella. And it¡¯s just kinda staring at me with its eight pitch black eyes. B3 | Chapter 23 - Spider Extermination Alexia After a split second of staring back at the creature, I identify it. Which leads to a rather big surprise. {Clark ¨C Spider of Cataclysm ¨C Level 500} Huh. I¡¯m¡­ not sure which I¡¯m more surprised by. The fact that it¡¯s the same level as me, or the fact that its name is just Clark. No grandiose long name, no fanciness. Just Clark. Well then. Clark lets out a loud hiss, following which some sort of purple mist suddenly begins filling the forest around us and rising into the air. I don¡¯t really notice it doing anything, and I¡¯m pretty sure most poisons are considered status effects anyways, so I should be immune to it. And the fact that it doesn¡¯t appear to be doing much of anything likely proves that. I continue watching the spider for a bit as the spider continues staring at me. Then the spider begins to show both confusion and impatience, moving back and forth like it¡¯s waiting for something. Yeah, it¡¯s probably expecting that poison to hurt me. Maybe paralyze me, maybe weaken me, or even try to kill me. I study the creature a little bit more before teleporting straight down to it, startling the creature when I disappear only to reappear while piercing my polearm straight into its limb. And unlike the turtle, this creature¡¯s limb is actually pierced. Hmm. Looks like the monster specializes in magic and stealth, unlike the defense and regeneration that the turtle specialized in. At this point I¡¯m pretty sure most of the Cataclysm Class monsters have two areas they specialize in. One being a simple ¡®stat¡¯ area like their magical offensive power, defense, physical strength, or speed, and the other area being a power. Or maybe a specialization. Like stealth, regeneration, or that dragon¡¯s breath attack. All in all, this Cataclysm Class monster isn¡¯t really much trouble. I begin teleporting all around the creature, attacking it one time after another, only briefly pausing at one point when I notice something in the corner of my vision, near the edge of the poison mist. But I quickly focus on the spider again while making sure to keep one eye on the new visitor. Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit. There he is.
Somewhere Nearby Lord Seraphis Venomcrest had been rather surprised when he received the System Message about The Reaper¡¯s visit. Especially when one of the delegates those dryads serving him sent out for the elves came back with news of her going after the spider. Surprised enough to head towards that creature¡¯s lair himself. All the way till now, no one had managed to so much as find the creature. Everyone who was sufficiently powerful enough to be a threat to the creature would enter the cobweb-infested woods and leave again, never to find the spider no matter how hard they looked. Even Seraphis himself tried to find it. But he wasn¡¯t able to. Meanwhile anyone that stumbles into its territory that the creature deems not to be a threat is either eaten right away or captured and taken somewhere unknown. So Seraphis was genuinely curious as to whether a quantum being like The Reaper would be able to find the creature. As he now stares at the battle occurring between the two though, he feels more than a little stunned. Because not only did she find it, but from what he sees, she¡¯s slaying the creature with little trouble. Of course, now that the naga sees the spider himself, he understands that the creature isn¡¯t all that strong for its level. Even Seraphis could kill it with ease just like The Reaper is doing. But he couldn¡¯t detect the thing himself, no matter how long he tried. And The Reaper found it within seconds of arriving. That stings a little bit at his pride. That a newly born Class S species ¨C and he assumes she¡¯s a newly born quantum being since he¡¯d never heard of a role called The Reaper before ¨C managed to do what he couldn¡¯t so easily. Seraphis continues watching as The Reaper slowly tears the spider apart one limb at a time until it reaches just half of its limbs remaining. At which point it begins to flee, trying to hide multiple times. And it does manage to hide from Seraphis, as he loses track of it each time. But it fails to hide from The Reaper, who somehow manages to track it like a bloodhound. No matter where it goes, she just teleports to it and continues her onslaught. All the way till the spider itself finally dies. Then she proceeds to narrow her eyes at the corpse, dismissing her soulbound weapon in the process, before turning to look straight at Seraphis. The naga grits his teeth in his humanoid form, and for a brief second ponders over if he should attack her for daring to enter his Block and steal his prey. But he quickly throws that thought out when he remembers that she purposefully avoided his territory. Not to mention that he knows he¡¯d never be able to find the spider, and if he couldn¡¯t find it, he couldn¡¯t kill it. This way the spider won¡¯t be a problem for those pesky dryads serving him, so they won¡¯t bother him about it anymore. Most importantly though, above all of the other reasons, he understands just what sort The Reaper is. A quantum being. His natural enemy. A creature nearly immune to physical damage, making a battle between the two completely pointless. Especially when The Reaper likely won¡¯t be able to sever one of his heads to kill him either. Not with the physical strength he saw her using to fight. The girl teleports in front of him and the both of them end up staring at each other for a good few seconds. Eventually the naga just snorts out a puff of green smoke from his nose before turning around and transforming into his true form ¨C that of a three headed snake ¨C and slithering away through the trees without a word. Those dryads better not enter a conflict with this brat¡¯s Block any time soon. B3 | Chapter 24 - Selling Parts and Another Block Alexia I watch the naga leave for a few seconds before proceeding towards the spider¡¯s corpse. The battle ended up taking about as long as I was expecting it to, and the naga came to watch just like I expected as well. So everything¡¯s been going pretty well so far. That said, I still need to deal with the corpse. So I begin slowly teleporting the thing, using up a large amount of soul in the process until I eventually arrive a few hours later at the nearest settlement. Terrifying the inhabitants of said settlement in the process. Although I¡¯m not entirely sure what it is that¡¯s terrifying them. The enormous spider corpse, or the sight of me. I¡¯m just gonna go with the former, since the latter is just depressing even if I¡¯ve gotten a little used to it. Unfortunately the negotiations with the settlement in question don¡¯t exactly go over very well since they don¡¯t have the necessary funds to purchase the spider, much less people to harvest the stuff I want from it. Specifically a couple claws, a bunch of string, maybe a couple important organs like eyes and its heart. So I¡¯m stuck following their directions towards a nearby larger settlement with ties to the dryads. Strong ties to them. And after briefly terrifying everyone there as well, I finally manage to get what I want. Because they actually have some decent craftsmen there. So I take the parts I need and sell the rest before heading out to the next Dimensional Block. Which, in this case, is Dimensional Block #101. Of course, I make sure to get details about the Block from the settlements I pass by before entering the Wall. And unlike the previous Dimensional Blocks I¡¯ve visited, this one is¡­ rather odd. The Dimensional Block is set place in outer space, with the space being filled with wrecked ships that the denizens of the Block are still busying themselves trying to fix. Which made for exploration of that Block quite a bit more difficult for them than most of the other Blocks. Dungeons are more common in the Block though, so there¡¯s that apparently. I¡¯m genuinely curious about the place myself. And since I don¡¯t have to breathe, I go ahead and pass straight through the Wall into the Block as soon as I arrive at it, not bothering with the usual entries that have oxygen bubbles placed around them. Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings. What I find on the other side of the wall really is just nothing but pitch black outer space with spaceships every now and then littered in the sky. The settlements may have understated how large these spaceships are though, because some of them are as large as the fucking islands back in Dimensional Block #108. Which are large. The spaceships are all very different, with the only similarities being that they¡¯re made from a black metal and have a large bridge at the very front of the ship. Other than that, their shapes and sizes are all different, with some of them even being segmented into various different parts. Like an ant. Something I find curious about the place though is the sight of the odd, gray, and thin robots just floating out in space. Ones with what look like high tech guns embedded in their arms. Huh. Guess this place has high tech monsters. Kind of makes me wonder what sort of Cataclysm Class monster would spawn in a place like this. Also, this whole not breathing thing feels really uncomfortable. So I kind of want to get inside of one of those ships. Even if I don¡¯t have to breathe, not breathing is just weird. So I teleport through space a few times until I just teleport straight onto the little dock of the spaceship. A dock that is surprisingly working. Seems that they¡¯ve at least fixed some of these spaceships. Or parts of some of them, that is. The most common species that I see around the dock this time are a strange species I only know by name called xotclotls. Which never was a self-explanatory name. I only know these guys are that species thanks to identify and the descriptions I got from the elves in settlements nearby their Wall. The creatures look kind of like walking humanoid squids, have two tentacles branching off of their shoulders alongside their arms, and two legs. They have grayish-blue skin, pitch black eyes, and ¨C one of the biggest details known to most people about them ¨C they¡¯re one of the few Class B species that are capable of living without oxygen. So they don¡¯t need to breathe. They¡¯re not a very common species in general and tend to live in asteroids, but their lack of a need to breathe makes their name and that aspect pretty well known. Even if most people have no idea what they look like. In all honesty though, these creatures are likely the most populous species here because no one else can breathe outside of the spaceships. So these¡­ I¡¯m not gonna bother trying to think their names again since I already forgot it. These fellas ended up being the species to thrive in this Block. But most importantly, these fellas aren¡¯t afraid of me! I can¡¯t help but grin at that as I calmly walk amongst them without a single one of them caring about me in the slightest. Of course, I realize it¡¯s because I¡¯m wearing a cloak that diminishes my presence while outside in space where there¡¯s no air, so they all likely assume I¡¯m one of them. And this species is inept when it comes to magic and can¡¯t even so much as sense an aura much less be afraid of it. But still. Who cares. They¡¯re not frightened. That¡¯s all that matters. Once I get close to the front of the line, I decide to go about things the correct way for the first time. I actually try to legally enter the settlement ¨C spaceship ¨C instead of teleporting inside! And the moment I arrive at the front of the line, and they finally focus on me, they all grow terrified. Huh. Yeah, probably should¡¯ve expected that. The Architect snorts in my mind. I cross my arms with a frown. Rude. B3 | Chapter 25 - A Defenseless Block Alexia The guards stationed at the entrance to the spaceship simply step aside while staring at me and quite literally shivering from fear. They don¡¯t even say anything. Just shakingly point inside. So I just shrug and walk on in, ignoring the fearful looks sent at my back. And without hesitation, I teleport to a corner in the place before mixing with another crowd. Because the stares are getting annoying. Now that I¡¯m obscured again, I walk around, checking out the spaceship. And the first area of the spaceship really does just look like a very high tech spaceship hangar. One that soon turns into some sort of space-station common marketplace area that I¡¯d see on TV. Although, more parts of the area are damaged and in pieces than are in working order. Even with that though, I can clearly tell just how much further ahead in reestablishing technology this Block is compared to our own. They did have a shortcut after all. Prebuilt albeit damaged technology that they could repair and rework. The ¨C I pause to identify one of them just to recheck their species name once more ¨C xotclotls all are wearing much more advanced clothing with some even holding guns. Laser guns, not just regular guns. Although most of the stuff is all Tier 1 and 2. I think I see a single Tier 3 item in this entire area. And it¡¯s a single disintegration gun at the waist of a Tier 3 level capped person at the same level as me. Also, the wielder of said weapon is currently looking around as I searching for someone or something. Probably searching for me. But since xotclotls can¡¯t use mana or sense it at all, it¡¯s a lot harder for them. Actually, I¡¯m not sure how they sense things. They don¡¯t seem to have any nose or ears, and they don¡¯t have mana senses. So the only senses I can see them obviously having are sight, touch, and taste. Out of curiosity, I keep watch on the guy while still moving around the ship with my cloak¡¯s hood pulled on over my head. And to my surprise, he seems to be able to track a very broad range of where I am. Somewhere around a hundred or so meters in radius. He doesn¡¯t seem to be able to find me though. Not through the effects of my cloak dampening my perceptibility. And not without him being able to sense my aura while I¡¯m surrounded by a large crowd. The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. So I just kind of let him continue trying, leading him on a wild goose chase for a little while. Eventually I learn all I care to know about the guy¡¯s senses and go ahead and teleport right in front of him with my arms crossed, startling him into staggering backwards. But he quickly recovers as he identifies me and grits his razor sharp teeth. Please don¡¯t be terrified. Please don¡¯t be terrified. Please don¡¯t be terrified. Oh, maybe I should smile? I try to smile at him, only for him to flinch. Right. Don¡¯t smile unless it¡¯s a natural smile. Got it. The squid man takes a deep breath before relaxing again and stating in a stern tone, briefly surprising me, ¡°Lady Reaper, is there something we can do for you?¡± I blink once. Then twice. Then I genuinely smile this time as I answer, ¡°I came to ask about any Class S species. And about whether there are still any Cataclysm Class monsters in the Block.¡± He doesn¡¯t look surprised as he answers my question with complete seriousness. Not showing a hint of his fear that I can still tell he¡¯s feeling. Interesting. This guy makes for a good leader. Although some of it might have something to do with him being the same level as me. In the end, the man answers every question I have without any complaints. Meanwhile all of the other xotclotls just ignore us. Almost as if we weren¡¯t even here in the first place. Which makes me wonder if these creatures have mental powers. It would make some sense, seeing as they don¡¯t have mana. Anyways, according to what the leader of this spaceship ¨C which I quickly learn is who he is ¨C says, the Dimensional Block actually does not have a Class S species in it. Not a single one. There is a Cataclysm Class monster here though. Two of them even. And no one who can take them on. Which explains why this guy is so accommodating to me. He even offers a place to stay the night after our discussion. After turning him down, I leave the spaceship and begin moving in the direction of one of the two Cataclysm Class monsters. The stronger of the two. The Cataclysm Class monsters in the Block are at different levels and are completely different species. They¡¯re even different types of creatures entirely. One being a sapient spaceship, and the other a massive creature that¡¯s the size of a spaceship and has been known to feed on them. Of the two, the stronger one is actually the spaceship creature. And it¡¯s at the level cap of Tier 3. Although the other one is just level 321 according to the xotclotl. Which should be pretty easy to kill. I do find teleporting through space annoying though. Even if it¡¯s a rather fast process. Along the way I occasionally stop at spaceships to ask for directions, and just like the first spaceship, the leaders of each ship come to greet me. Each of them even calmer and more put together than the last. At least on the surface. I can tell most of them are terrified under the surface just by the scent they¡¯re putting off. But it¡¯s rather nice not talking to people who are shaking in their boots just from speaking with me. I hope I can deal with my aura soon. Actually, Architect, is there a way to hide an identify result? ¡°No,¡± he answers to my surprise. But he doesn¡¯t say anything else. Well, it¡¯s better than nothing. After nearly a day of travel, I make it to the edge of the Block, where I find what looks like a regular spaceship at first. If you ignore the fact that the bridge separates into a mouth that is parted open just a little. I stare at the thing for several seconds before realizing that it¡¯s a sleep. Who knew spaceships could sleep¡­ B3 | Intermission 2 The Retreat Astrid taps her fingers on her thigh as she sits in one of the seats on the council table, located in the heart of The Retreat. Just staring at the noble standing in the center of the ring-shaped counter. ¡°So once more, I implore you to assist us in our war,¡± the man states while bowing all the way to a ninety degree angle. But he¡¯s not bowing towards Astrid. Rather, he¡¯s bowing towards Alara, who doesn¡¯t appear interested either. From what the man has said so far, Dimensional Block #108 and Dimensional Block #105 seem to be at a bit of a stalemate. Both sides having cleared out the same number of Authority Holders as the other, but with The Retreat holding a good portion of the Authority Holders of Dimensional Block #108, leaving them behind in numbers. Which, in Astrid¡¯s opinion, isn¡¯t a matter she or The Retreat have to care about. And apparently even Varsac agrees with that sentiment. But despite that, he¡¯s still sending noble after noble, begging for their assistance. Astrid can understand where he¡¯s coming from. Just a single Class S would turn the tides in the war strongly, even if Astrid isn¡¯t at the level cap for Tier 3 yet. She¡¯s been off training for most of her time since becoming a Class S species, strictly so that she can catch up with her sister. But no matter how hard she tries, she still isn¡¯t able to catch up. Because her sister is also still growing stronger at the same time. And Astrid would never ask Lexi to slow down just so that she can catch up. Astrid sighs, beginning to tune out the conversation since she cares just as little about this war as her sister does. There¡¯s no point in fighting¡­ why should I even bother after all? There¡¯s no reward to winning. And all it would do is slow down my leveling. She pauses for a second before continuing to tap her leg in her impatience. Actually, it¡¯s already slowing down my leveling. Just from leaving me stuck here during this meeting. Astrid would¡¯ve already left to go to another dungeon, but she promised Alara that she would protect The Retreat during this time when the majority of their forces aren¡¯t in the city. A major pain to the Class S Shadowblade Hydra. But a promise is a promise, and Astrid doesn¡¯t break promises. Just like her sister. It¡¯s something they both agree on. Unless they just forget them. Then there¡¯s no fault to them for breaking it. Astrid has a better memory than her sister though, so unlike Lexi who may forget a promise, Astrid won¡¯t. As Astrid is feeling bored to death watching Alara politely reject the noble for what must be the umpteenth time, her thoughts stray to the Hound. The man she and her twin learned to be their biological father. Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings. I¡¯m still not sure what to think about that¡­ or the other stuff we learned then. Unlike her sister, Astrid actually feels¡­ a little interested in getting to know their biological father a little. Now, she doesn¡¯t think of him as their father, since he wasn¡¯t there when they were raised. But that doesn¡¯t clear away her interest in getting to know him a bit better. And she¡¯s pretty sure her sister is at least a little interested in getting to know him a bit as well, even if she doesn¡¯t realize it herself. Astrid isn¡¯t the best with emotions either, just like her sister, but she is at least better at recognizing them than Lexi is. And, more importantly, she¡¯s better at recognizing Lexi¡¯s emotions than Lexi is. In reality, she may be the only person who can recognize her sister¡¯s emotions very well, unless Lexi is just really feeling an emotion at one particular time or another. But she also knows that her sister has a habit of going with the flow. Of just adapting to whatever situation she¡¯s forced into. So when the Hound said he had to leave, she just took that in stride and continued with whatever she was doing before he arrived. Astrid rests her chin atop her palm, her elbow now resting on the counter in front of her. I do think she¡¯s gotten a bit better ever since this Reset. Maybe having that Quantum Architect house-wrecker in her head is helping with her emotions. The hydra¡¯s thoughts are interrupted when a System Notification appears in front of her vision, making her briefly raise her head again only to lower it a second later.
The Dimensional Council of Dimensional Block #1 has officially achieved victory against Dimensional Block #15 in their war! Henceforth, the Dimensional Wall between Dimensional Blocks #1 and #15 shall no longer exist. Furthermore, all citizens of Dimensional Block #15 designated as not allowed in the Block will be forcefully ejected into a random neighboring Block. Due to the war coming to a close through the slaying of the Dimensional Champion of Dimensional Block #15 by the Dimensional Champion of Dimensional Block #1, only one Champion remains. Therefore the remaining Champion will take on the role of Dimensional Champion for the new Dimensional Block #1. Lastly, the Dimensional Leader of Dimensional Block #1 will retain their position as the Leader of the newly merged Block. The war results have now concluded.
Hmm. Ironic timing. Astrid watches as silence fills the council meeting chamber for a few seconds before the noble in the center of the room once again goes on and on about what The Retreat could gain from joining the war. Which isn¡¯t much The Retreat doesn¡¯t already have. She continues watching for several more minutes, occasionally checking the time as she does so until it hits noon and Astrid quickly gets up from her chair and leaves the meeting room, not bothering with staying any longer. Since she¡¯s already stayed for the amount of time she said she would. It doesn¡¯t matter to her if she leaves in the middle of a meeting. And she is absolutely not feeling pleased about leaving during the middle of the noble¡¯s boring drivel. Not at all. Time to go back to hunting. B3 | Chapter 26 - How To Kill a Spaceship Alexia So as it turns out, fighting a giant living spaceship is even weirder than I was expecting. The thing is really fast despite its size, has a bunch of laser weapons all across it with some cannons, and it has a habit of blaring its ship¡¯s alarm. Really annoying. More importantly, the thing has the defense of an entire spaceship. One built with magical ore, making it very resistant to magic. All I¡¯ve managed to do after half an hour of fighting is a bunch of dents. Not a single actual hole into its hull. And when I try to hit its bridge, the ship just avoids my attack by warping. I never knew how annoying it was to fight a teleporter before now. And I am a teleporter myself. At this point though the ship is just trying to escape. Which makes things even harder because it¡¯s become a chase now. I let out an irritated groan as I continue teleporting after the living spaceship, occasionally passing other spaceships and their occupants in the process. Fortunately none of our attacks land on them though. Even if there was one close call. Our chase keeps up for hours on end before I finally manage to catch the thing off guard by switching to Wave form and rushing straight up to it to blast the thing with the energy I¡¯ve stored up with Observation Effect Absorption. Which crashes in the window of the bridge finally. To my surprise, I find some sort of tentacle running through the ship towards the control panel at the command seat. Which is¡­ odd¡­ to say the least. So I attack it like any normal woman would do. And the tentacle immediately severs, making the ship let out a loud screeching sound. Kind of like it was trying to screech without actually having vocal cords. Then dozens of turrets and laser cannons appear in the bridge. A feature that I¡¯m preeetty sure most spaceships don¡¯t have. I might be wrong about that, but I doubt it. The weapons all begin firing at once, making me instantly teleport out of its bridge. And to my surprise, the ship starts teleporting away the moment I leave it. As if it couldn¡¯t teleport with me inside or something. But that¡¯s not all that surprises me. Because the ship doesn¡¯t start moving again. It just teleports and doesn¡¯t do anything in terms of movement other than teleport. Interesting¡­ My thoughts go back to the tentacle. Maybe it has a tentacle going to each control part of the ship that controls those functions? Kind of like nerves and its brain in a sense. But as a spaceship. Just a theory, but I feel it may just be how the ship works. Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author''s preferred platform and support their work! Either way though, the things teleporting must be draining its mana. Assuming that¡¯s what it¡¯s running on. Now, back to the theory that the ship can¡¯t teleport with me in it. To test that out, I teleport right in front of the ship¡¯s bridge, which makes the ship immediately teleport away. But my range of teleportation seems to be further, so I teleport right next to it again and move inside of its bridge. Because I instinctively feel that I can¡¯t teleport into the bridge. Then the ship¡¯s teleporting stops again as the lasers and turrets return. Right. So it can¡¯t move anymore when I¡¯m inside of it. But its bridge has way too many defenses. I move straight up to the door leading out of the bridge before breaking the thing down with a Quantum Bolt and rushing straight through it as lasers and bullets begin shooting at the entrance. And a few of them even hit me, tearing straight through my body and making me cry out in pain. But I quickly heal the damage with Quantum Stasis Copy while rolling across the floor into the hallway. Right when I¡¯m landing and about to get up again though, a System Notification appears in my vision, making me frown.
The Dimensional Council of Dimensional Block #1 has officially achieved victory against Dimensional Block #15 in their war! Henceforth, the Dimensional Wall between Dimensional Blocks #1 and #15 shall no longer exist. Furthermore, all citizens of Dimensional Block #15 designated as not allowed in the Block will be forcefully ejected into a random neighboring Block. Due to the war coming to a close through the slaying of the Dimensional Champion of Dimensional Block #15 by the Dimensional Champion of Dimensional Block #1, only one Champion remains. Therefore the remaining Champion will take on the role of Dimensional Champion for the new Dimensional Block #1. Lastly, the Dimensional Leader of Dimensional Block #1 will retain their position as the Leader of the newly merged Block. The war results have now concluded.
Huh? I don¡¯t get much time to think on that before more turrets and lasers begin poking out of the hallway walls, making me wonder what the fuck kind of spaceship this is. Who needs this many weapons?! I immediately begin running through the ship, jumping around and dodging the bullets and lasers while still being hit by some of them. But there aren¡¯t as many as there were in the bridge, so I manage to make it through the halls while chasing after the tentacle that I severed back at the bridge. Since the thing is just trailing across the hallway. Eventually the tentacle leads me to some sort of core, and I don¡¯t hesitate to blast the thing with a Quantum Bolt. But the core doesn¡¯t blow up. Instead, more weapons poke their metaphorical heads out of the walls and begin firing. What the fuck is with this spaceship and weapons?! I continue blasting the core while very much wishing I could teleport inside of here. And after taking more hits than I care to acknowledge, the core finally cracks. Then just one more hit leads to the core shattering, and all of the weapons just lowering to point at the ground with the sound of some sort of machine powering off. I heal myself again before cautiously looking around, only to sigh when the System Message finally comes in. [A Cataclysm Class monster has been slain. Requirement to slay twenty-five Cataclysm Class monsters has been updated.] Finally. B3 | Story Art - If images ever break click on the link Hello! As many of you no doubt know, image hosting on Discord is now broken and no longer works! It was removed. And Discord was the most convenient method of hosting art for chapters and author notes on Royal Road! Since we can''t just upload pictures to Royal Road itself. Now then. As a replacement, I will be hosting the images on Patreon instead. Unfortunately though, image hosting on Patreon doesn''t work anywhere near as well as it did on Discord and does break after some time. So I will be making the story art post for this on my Patreon public for everyone to see and link it on every story art post on Royal Road so that when the art does break, you can just click on the link to see it on a public post on my Patreon. So click here if the art below this breaks. Now then. Onto the art. Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings. I do have to admit, it''s a hell of a lot easier to post story art posts doing it this way than the old way. Anyways, it''s all new art this time around, so enjoy: Lexi after teleporting high in the sky over the forest Dimensional Block: Turtle Cataclysm: Spider Cataclysm(Clark): Spaceship Cataclysm: B3 | Chapter 27 - Traversing the Tunnels Alexia After dealing with the Cataclysm Class space ship ¨C which feels odd to think ¨C I begin teleporting through the Dimensional Block, training the skill in the process as I search for the second Cataclysm Class monster of the Block. Which in the end doesn¡¯t take all that long to find. It also doesn¡¯t take long to kill, seeing as it¡¯s in the low level 300s. In fact, the thing is so easy to kill that I feel bad for it as I do so. At this point I¡¯ve stopped caring about the corpses of the Cataclysm Class monsters though. For the spaceship I kind of just dumped it on a nearby spaceship and had them give me some random ore for it. Because I wasn¡¯t gonna figure out how to negotiate for a damned spaceship creature corpse. And for this giant spherical mouth? Which is what the Cataclysm Class monster is. I take a bunch of teeth and dump the body on another spaceship. While I¡¯m teleporting to go to the next Dimensional Block though, I can¡¯t help but think about how rich I¡¯m gonna be by the end of this hunting spree. Because if I keep on selling all of these corpses, then I¡¯m gonna have a filled storage ring just from the stuff I trade for them by the time I finish with all twenty-five of the creatures. I really do need to get a better storage ring. That thought has me sighing as I reach the Dimensional Wall to the next Block. And without hesitation, I pass through the wall, entering it before pausing right in front of the massive expanse of stone blocking me from going any further. The Dimensional Block this time ¨C Dimensional Block #97 ¨C is a massive network of tunnels and stone. With their form of our islands ¨C where the people congregate and find wide open space and dungeons and stuff ¨C are giant caverns amidst the tunnels. But the tunnels only open towards the Dimensional Wall in certain locations. Locations that I really don¡¯t have much patience to find, so I begin glitching apart the large block of stone with Quantum Breath instead. This¡¯ll be an exercise to train the skill. Of course, I make sure to sense for energy signatures all around me so that I don¡¯t end up accidentally killing some poor rando. This novel''s true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there. Well, that and to find the tunnels. Because that would be nice as well. I end up making my own tunnel for a little bit before eventually finding an energy source a couple hundred meters to my right. So I turn to head in that direction. And when I blast open into the tunnel I¡¯m immediately assaulted by a flurry of bats. I begin to prepare a counterattack, only for Luna to jump off of my shoulder and screech at the bats while sending some sort of purple pulse at them, knocking them all out to fall towards the floor of the cavern. Luna hasn¡¯t really been doing much other than sleeping during most of our little trip. And the other bat ¨C the Quantum Architect ¨C isn¡¯t much different either. Except that he occasionally, once in a blue moon, maybe, sometimes decides to answer a question I may have. Or he just ignores me. Which is rude. He¡¯s even ignoring me calling him rude for ignoring me, not even bothering to open his eyes. Anyways, Luna flies down towards the bats as I watch on curiously, only for her to tap the bats on the chest one after another. And it looks like she¡¯s sending a sliver of quantum energy into them. So I go ahead and check her skills before I find a rather interesting looking new skill of hers. One that lets her turn other bats into quantum vampling bats. As long as the bats in question are not sapient that is. Interesting¡­ I watch as all of the bats begin to mutate, slowly gaining glowing purple veins that glitch out every now and then running through their body. Even occasionally glitching in where they¡¯re at, moving from one point to another. A rather odd look for a bunch of bats, but they don¡¯t seem to mind much as they slowly fly up into the air with blank looks on their faces. Luna lets out a cute little squeak, then another squeak and another. Almost as if she¡¯s talking to them. And all in sync, the bats begin to fly out of the cavern. Then Luna returns to her spot on my shoulder, letting out a cute little purr as she does so. I stare at her for a few seconds, then at the bats that are all leaving the cavern. Huh. No idea what just happened, but since it was Luna who did it, it doesn¡¯t really matter. She¡¯d never hurt me, so she can do what she wants. I begin teleporting through the cavern to the tunnels and then through the tunnels as well, just searching for something. Whether that something is a Cataclysm Class monster or a civilization, it doesn¡¯t really matter. But something other than endless tunnels and caverns. And I continue teleporting. And teleporting. And teleporting some more. All I end up finding though are monsters. Okay, where are the people? Eventually, after teleporting for over an hour through this damned maze of a tunnel system, I find myself standing in front of a gate blocking off the tunnel. Without a single person at the gate. I frown, my brows furrowed in confusion before I just shrug and walk up to the gate. Then I knock as any normal polite person should do. And knock again after no one answers. When no one still answers even after that, I go ahead and open the door, with it making a creaking sound in the process, surprisingly unlocked. What I find inside is rather surprising. A massive cavern with some sort of forest inside. Which is¡­ ridiculous¡­ inside of a cavern this large. Just such a stark difference from the tunnels I¡¯ve grown used to in this Block. But even that doesn¡¯t surprise me as much as the sight of the village inside of the cavern A village that is completely in ruins, with dead bodies lying all over, burnt houses, and some monsters that look more like scavengers going around sniffing them. The heck happened here? B3 | Chapter 28 - Innocent Questioning Session Alexia I slowly begin to move through the ruined village, being careful not to get too overconfident. But in the end it doesn¡¯t matter as there doesn¡¯t appear to be anyone or anything here. Other than these weak monsters that run for their lives the moment I get near. Okay, seriously, what happened here? The village looks like it was ransacked by people, not monsters. I can tell because the valuables inside the buildings were all stolen, leaving nothing but worthless stuff behind. Meanwhile all of the corpses have nothing on them including their storage rings. Monsters wouldn¡¯t be looting people. An assault from another village in the Block? Or maybe from a neighboring Block? My thoughts halt when a loud explosion shakes the tunnel walls, floor, and ceiling, making me frown before I begin teleporting over towards the tunnel entrance that leads in the direction of the explosion. Then I proceed to teleport through the tunnel until I find myself in another open cavern. But this one doesn¡¯t have any sort of entrance sealing it. And inside of the cavern is¡­ well, what I can only describe as a war. I just kinda stop and stare at the entrance of the cavern as thousands of people all go at each other, trying to kill each other. There looks to be two sides to the war. One being dwarves, the other being a species I¡¯d never seen before known as batfolk. Basically humanoid bats. And between the two, the bats are all using magic while the dwarves are using System Item weapons they¡¯ve no doubt crafter along with their physical strength. Huh. There are two possibilities. Either this Dimensional Block is at war, or they¡¯re just fighting between themselves for some reason. Then again, it¡¯s not like infighting is all that uncommon, so there¡¯s a decent chance that¡¯s the answer. Oh, and it looks like they aren¡¯t able to notice my aura over the hundreds of auras spread across the cavern along with the many explosions and magic attacks being flung throughout it. Out of curiosity, I watch them go at each other for a little bit. Mostly just wondering what they¡¯re fighting about and kind of hoping someone will say something related to their purpose for fighting and burning villages. This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. No one ever does though, so I¡¯m left sitting here for several minutes for no reason. Eventually I get tired of watching them and just teleport right up to one of the stronger people in the war before grabbing them by the scruff of their neck, shocking them and everyone around them with my abrupt appearance. Then I teleport up into the air and turn the guy around to face me as I ask, ¡°Why are you people fighting?¡± And he just kinda goes into shock. He also kinda¡­ ew¡­ I almost drop him just to get that smell away, but instead I slap him. Gently. And he snaps out of it while blushing in embarrassment and still shivering in fear as he answers, ¡°W-w-we a-are at w-war wi-with Block #99¡­¡± Oh. So it is a war. ¡°Do you have any Cataclysm Class monsters or Class S species in this Block?¡± I ask, briefly feeling tempted towards just dropping him and grabbing someone else. Because that smell is disgusting. ¡°You probably should¡¯ve given him more time to register your presence,¡± the Quantum Architect says. ¡°He may not have pissed himself if you did.¡± Yeah, yeah. Although I probably just ruined his reputation with that. Poor guy. Anyways, the dwarf answers, still stuttering, ¡°The C-Cataclysm Class monsters w-were already k-killed b-by the Ancestral D-Dragon a while back. And o-our Class S species w-was as well.¡± I blink at that before frowning. Huh. Interesting. I teleport the guy back down to the ground before dropping some random Tier 2 item I don¡¯t need and can¡¯t see Astrid needing either on him. Because I probably owe him something for that¡­ mess¡­ In hindsight, I don¡¯t think he was very important. Because I¡¯m pretty sure I see a few dwarves higher level than him entering through another tunnel. Guess I grabbed a lower ranking officer or something? Maybe a midranking one. No wonder he lost control like that. Well, I paid him for the intel. No reason to wait around for their actual leaders. I¡¯m also going to pointedly ignore the fact that someone just did that at the sight of me. Even if it was probably moreso at me teleporting him hundreds of meters into the air than anything else, but still. Some of the dwarves and batfolk look like they¡¯re trying to wave at me to talk, but I ignore them and teleport away straight to another entrance of the cavern. Then I proceed through it, beginning to make my way towards the opposite end of the Block. Only to pause along the way when I realize that making a straight line would probably be easier. Thankfully I remember where I started. Mostly. So I make a straight line through the stone, making sure to check the surroundings with my senses for any energy sources. And occasionally, as I¡¯m making my lovely little tunnel, I¡¯m interrupted by ending up inside of a cavern, shocking more than a few people inside of the cavern when I kind of just appear breaking through a wall while they¡¯re in the middle of a battle. Instead of staying around to chat though I just teleport to the other side of the cavern and continue making my tunnel. Well this Block is a pain to get through. The others I could just teleport my way through, but this one I¡¯m stuck mining my way through. If I can call this mining. Right. I do remember that Isabella mentioned that she was going through killing a bunch of Cataclysm Class monsters while she made her way to our Block. Guess this was just one of those Blocks she killed them in. Not sure why she killed the Class S species here though. Might ask her when I see her next. Actually shouldn¡¯t be too long before I see her next, considering that I¡¯m heading in the direction of her Block anyways. I continue tunneling for who knows how long before deciding to ask for directions from the next group of people I run into. B3 | Chapter 29 - The Story of a Friendly Reaper A Random Cavern within Dimensional Block #97 Thrain Stone grits his teeth as he blocks the spell sent his way by one of the batfolk with his axe before pulling back and swinging widely with the axe, using a skill to send a large arc of stone straight at the creature. The arc slams into it, sending the thing flying through the air and through several of its brethren. He¡¯s been busy fighting all day alongside his fellow dwarves of his settlement, Stone Haven. A place he absolutely did not name after himself, unlike what most people who visit assume. But the war is starting to look a little grim, even for him. Because they¡¯re almost being backed into a corner with nowhere else to retreat to. There are no more openings to the cavern, no more routes to get reinforcements from other settlements, and little morale amongst his fellow dwarves as they all fight. He continues sending one attack after another at the batfolk as he waits for his communication ring ¨C a device crafted by one of the other settlements in the Block who had apparently specialized in the communication devices before the Reset ¨C to link with any other settlement. But even that has been failing him for hours now. Until he finally gets an answer. ¡°Thrain?! Are ya there?! How¡¯s yer situation?¡± a familiar voice shouts through the communication ring, making Thrain let out a sigh of relief. ¡°It¡¯s complete shite, Nori, please tell me ya can send reinforcements soon,¡± he answers before grunting as he blocks another spell and then sends an attack back at the source. But the answer he gets from Nori ¨C the leader of one of the neighboring settlements ¨C isn¡¯t the one he¡¯s looking for. ¡°I¡¯m sorry, Thrain, but we can¡¯t,¡± she answers, almost crashing Thrain¡¯s own morale to the level of his subordinates. ¡°Really?!¡± Thrain shouts, barely holding onto his temper since he knows it¡¯s not her fault. ¡°We¡¯re backed into a corner at tha edge of tha Block! Is there really nothin ye can do?!¡± ¡°Wait, did ya say the edge of tha Block?¡± Nori suddenly asks, confusing Thrain. And when he replies in the affirmative, she mutters, ¡°Give me a sec to check yer location¡­¡± He frowns at that but waits all the same as more and more attacks are sent his way, with the enemies focusing more on him than his subordinates. If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. Eventually Nori¡¯s voice comes back, saying, ¡°Good news, old pal.¡± Immediately raising Thrain¡¯s spirits again, only to confuse him with her next words, ¡°Looks like ye¡¯ll be getting a path soon ¡®nough.¡± Thrain almost looks away from his current enemy to glance at the ring, but he manages to stay focused on the battle as he shouts, ¡°What d¡¯ya mean?!¡± ¡°Ye¡¯ll see soon enough,¡± Nori says, sounding as if everything¡¯s alright again despite Thrain¡¯s situation. Something that both pisses him off and makes him wonder what she¡¯s talking about. ¡°I¡¯ll see ya next settlement meeting, aight? Have a good night, Thrain.¡± Thrain opens his mouth to say something, only for the connection to cut out before he can. Leaving him feeling incredibly pissed off. So pissed off that he almost roars out his anger at the enemies. But before he can do that, a strange warping sound echoes from the cavern, making him and all of his enemies and allies turn towards a portion of the cavern wall that¡¯s suddenly beginning to glitch out. And in seconds, the glitching cavern wall slowly disappears, with some parts breaking into strange purple and blue particles. Revealing a woman pretty much everyone in the cavern recognizes. One wearing a slightly rugged looking purple cloak over a set of red and black scale armor, with long black hair tinted heavily with purple, and little to no emotion on her face. But what is most revealing about her identity are her apathetic and glitching purple eyes. Almost as if he were looking at a bugged computer screen. And just the mere sight of the woman has him and everyone else in the cavern, both dwarf and batfolk, freezing in place. Frozen in terror. But the woman in question just looks around for a few seconds before her eyes land on him, making Thrain¡¯s heart just about jump into his throat. A feeling that only intensifies three-fold when she glitches out and disappears, reappearing immediately in front of him. ¡°Would you mind giving me directions to Dimensional Block #94?¡± she asks, her voice seemingly radiating throughout the entire cavern amidst the silence. It ends up taking Thrain an entire five seconds to bring himself to answer. And when he does, all he manages to do is point his finger towards the stone cavern wall that is just barely covering the Dimensional Wall. The Reaper glances at the wall, then at him. Then she nods her head and tosses something at him that he barely catches without even looking at what it is. And without another word, The Reaper teleports away, reappearing right in front of the wall before she raises her hand and begins spewing some sort of strange, glitchy purple flame out at it. Making the wall begin to glitch apart just like the previous wall as it reveals the Dimensional Wall, surprising The Reaper briefly. Until she casually opens the wall and steps through it, leaving the Block without so much as looking back at them. Silence continues to fill the cavern for a while before Thrain finally manages to look down at the item in his hands, which look to be a pair of gray and black gauntlets. Gauntlets he quickly find to be Tier 2. And so, the story of how The Reaper herself intervened in their war began to spread throughout the Dimensional Block before years from now, the dwarves, all of whom were helped when the woman dropped in on their respective caverns and tossed items at them, began to revere The Reaper. Long after they win the war against the batfolk. B3 | Chapter 30 - A Visit Alexia After leaving the tunnel-filled maze of a Dimensional Block, I enter a lovely grass plains. And during my time there, I manage to kill two more Cataclysm Class monsters and even meet a lovely unicorn Class S species and have tea with her. Then I proceed to go to the next Block, which is a massive volcano, and kill off another Cataclysm Class monster and have an argument with the Class S molten wyrm inside. One mostly revolving around my killing of the Cataclysm Class monsters in the Block. Not my fault though that the Class S wouldn¡¯t show himself to me. And just like that, I go through one Dimensional Block after another, slowly racking up more and more Cataclysm Class monster kills while also meeting quite a few more Class S species along the way. Some of which are friendly, others less so. Surprisingly though, not a single one actually tries to attack me, even if we may argue. Guess most Class S species do respect each other. Also, during one of the Dimensional Blocks on the way over here I go ahead and kill some random tyrant guy at the level cap of Tier 3, clearing the requirement from my list of requirements to advance to Tier 4. A much easier process this time around since I wasn¡¯t the first one to reach the cap by any means. Unfortunately I wasn¡¯t able to make as much progress in terms of my Energy Manipulation as I¡¯d prefer. Only raising it by around five or so more levels to level nine. A long way away from the Tier 3 it needs for me to ascend to Tier 4 myself. Although I did manage to bring Quantum Displacement to level 27, so it¡¯s getting close to Tier 4. Which will mark off another requirement. That Energy Manipulation will still take a while to get up to where it needs to be though. Which is a pain. I let out a sigh as I arrive at the next Dimensional Wall. One I¡¯ve been waiting for for a while now. Finally time to visit her Block. Without hesitating, I open the Dimensional Wall and step through into Dimensional Block #51. The Dimensional Block that Isabella, the Ancestral Dragon, is the Dimensional Leader and Champion of. Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings. And immediately find myself on the edge of a large mountain. So I teleport up into the air, and lo and behold, find mountains for as far as the eye can see. More mountains than I¡¯ve ever seen before in a single place. She really wasn¡¯t kidding when she said there were a lot of mountains in her Block. I look around the surrounding area for a few minutes before closing my eyes and focusing on the sensation I get from my Legendary Feat. From Dimensional Conqueror. The one I got for killing the first Dimensional Leader of another Block that gives me the ability to sense other Dimensional Leaders and Champions in the same Block as me. And after a second, I lock onto the general direction that Isabella is in. Then I go ahead and begin teleporting over across the mountains. There isn¡¯t really much point in searching for a Cataclysm Class monster here, seeing as she¡¯s no doubt already killed them all. What with her obsessive hunting of the creatures in every Block she passes through. More than a few of the Blocks I crossed through didn¡¯t have one in them strictly because of her hunting it. Although she also hunted some Class S species along the way as well. Any of them that pissed her off before the Reset from what I understand. And I believe I heard that Lucas did the same thing. Anyone who crossed him before the Reset was killed by him now while they¡¯re still weak. Since before the Reset, people who were at their level were almost unkillable in a way. Not in the sense that they¡¯re immortal, but because they all have some method to get away if things start taking a wrong turn. Like that lich I fought who kept trying to run away. Although that¡¯s his entire shtick, so they were nowhere near as bad. But after the Reset, most of them lost their methods of escape. So a lot of Class S species who are more powerful but younger, along with some of the top Class S species decided to go clean up shop. Makes me glad none of them had grudges with me. Not that they¡¯d get all that far with them even if they did. I¡¯m probably just as hard to kill as a lot of the others, what with my teleportation and almost complete immunity to physical damage sitting at 90% immunity. Something that made it rather amusing when I ended up face to face with a Class S who specialized in nothing but physical strength. Which turned out to be the most amusing interaction with a Class S species I¡¯ve ever had due to their overwhelmingly respectful attitude towards me. As if they were trying to avoid a conflict in any way possible, regardless of their pride. I almost chuckle as I remember that, not pausing in my teleporting. And soon enough, I find myself stopping midair when a large castle and a city below it enter my vision. With the castle being set in the side of a large cliff containing a cavern entrance at the top of the castle. One with charred walls and the light of fire visible within the cavern. Guess I found Isabella¡¯s home. Also, it looks like I have a welcoming party. None of whom ¨C each a dragonborn ¨C look to be unfriendly. Actually, they all look rather pleased for some reason. I teleport several meters in front of them, not surprising them in the least. ¡°Young Lady Reaper, we have been awaiting your arrival,¡± the red-scaled dragonborn all state while bowing their heads midflight. ¡°Please, allow us to bring you to the Ancestor.¡± I nod my head before we all begin to head towards the cavern. Time to see Isabella again. B3 | Chapter 31 - The Ancient Wyrm Alexia The cavern turns out to be a rather large one, with a tunnel at the back of the cavern. Meanwhile it has lava filling pretty much the entire place. With molten rock on the walls, and quite a bit of gold just kinda thrown about everywhere. Gold that has me kind of wondering where it came from. Considering that we¡¯re post Reset. After entering the tunnel though, the dragonborn all stop and wave for me to continue, telling me that they¡¯re not allowed past that point. That most of them aren¡¯t even allowed in the cavern itself due to it being her lair. But since they were waiting for me, they were given permission to enter up till that point. And so I continue on alone, traveling through the rather hot tunnel. Good thing my adaptation to fire makes this a regular walk. Probably one of the best things about that skill in my opinion. Since it gives me immunity to the environment if I have enough adaptation to a magical or otherwise attack of that type. Anyways, the tunnel stretches on for a little while until I find another cavern. This one having Isabella playing cards with someone I recognize as the Ancient Wyrm. Ethan¡¯s father. The man resembles Ethan in some ways, with blue eyes, a similar face, and a set of pale blue and white armor. But he also has pale blue highlights in his white hair, unlike Ethan. And his blue eyes glow. I quickly identify the man. {Sartori Silva ¨C Hellfrost Dragon ¨C Level 500} Surprisingly, he doesn¡¯t even look my way, instead playing another card down and then crossing his arms with a grin on his face as he says, ¡°Looks like I win.¡± My eyes widen at that declaration. He actually beat her?! That monster of a card game player?! Holy shit. Also, this wasn¡¯t really what I was expecting after walking through a cavern and tunnel filled with lava and being escorted to the tunnel by dragonborn in a serious manner. Although it probably should¡¯ve been what I should¡¯ve expected. Considering Ethan¡¯s comments before about Isabella playing cards with her husband. This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. And, well, any tabletop game, really. My eyes narrow as I see Isabella suddenly breathing in rather heavily while aiming her head at the cards, only for her eyes to glance at me before she slowly breathes out again. Excuse me, was she about to pull the ¡®flip the board¡¯ game like her son? Please tell me she wasn¡¯t. I don¡¯t think my image of the Ancestral Dragon can take another hit like this. ¡°Welcome, Lady Reaper,¡± the Ancestral Dragon says with a nod of her head, finally making the Ancient Wyrm turn his head to look at me. And after doing so, I quickly find his eyes scanning me from head to toe before eventually ending up meeting my eyes as he nods his head. ¡°Hello,¡± I tell them with a nod. ¡°Thought I¡¯d drop by while passing through.¡± Didn¡¯t really expect the Ancient Wyrm to be here though. Considering that they¡¯re both from different Clans and all. Then again, they are still married, or I guess mated is the term they use, so it makes sense in a way. Just that, from what I¡¯ve heard, dragon romances are¡­ different from human ones. Different in that they mate forever, never fall in love with anyone else even if the one they loved died, and they don¡¯t need to be near each other. In fact, I¡¯ve heard that some dragons can go decades or even centuries without seeing their mate and then just return to acting as usual when they do see them next. I don¡¯t very much understand romance myself though. Mostly the whole idea of attaching yourself to someone else just feels really foreign to me. Even Astrid. We aren¡¯t attached to the hip or anything. We care a lot about each other but go our own ways and do our own things. But the idea of attaching yourself to someone else, making sure spend time with them, give gifts, and the lot? That just sounds¡­ I don¡¯t know¡­ I just don¡¯t know why others would find that interesting. Then again, I have no interest in romance in general. So it doesn¡¯t really matter. ¡°So you¡¯re the one my son is interested in,¡± the Ancient Wyrm states, almost making me wince. Right. Yeah, that could¡¯ve been a problem, if I¡¯m being honest with myself. What with the whole mating for life thing. But from what I can see, he at least seems to be losing that interest. That he didn¡¯t fully fall in love or anything. Something about particulars being important. At least if my lessons on dragons is correct. And I¡¯m not just remembering incorrectly. ¡°And you¡¯re the Ancient Wyrm,¡± I respond to the man while crossing my arms. Then I tilt my head and as, ¡°You planning on visiting your son soon?¡± The man answers rather lethargically, ¡°Yeah, probably in a few decades.¡± That¡¯s¡­ not really soon, but whatever. I glance at Isabella to find her nudging her cards with her tail. But the moment I spot her doing it, she stops, playing it off as if she was just stretching her tail. Meanwhile her mate turns to narrow his eyes at her before gathering up the cards, apparently deciding to start the next game and clear the board before she can try cheating out the outcome of the last round. Somehow I find it rather amusing how they¡¯re acting. With her trying to cheat without being noticed, and him not saying anything but still trying to stop her. It is a rather adorable relationship they have. ¡°Heard you¡¯ve been hunting the Cataclysm Class monsters on your way here,¡± Isabella says as the cards are all swapped out for what looks like a set of dominos. I nod my head while watching the Ancient Wyrm set up the dominos. ¡°Well, you should head straight to the fortieth Dimensional Block if you want to find more,¡± she says with a light shrug of her shoulders, her legs crossed, and her hands just held in her lap as she refocuses on the dominos. But she then briefly glances at me and asks, ¡°Wanna join us?¡± As long as you don¡¯t cheat. ¡°Sure,¡± I tell her, obviously not stating my real thoughts out loud. At least the Ancient Wyrm doesn¡¯t cheat. Otherwise I would start to wonder if all dragon¡¯s prides are just a false claim or something. B3 | Chapter 32 - A Breath of Cuteness Alexia So, as it turns out, the Ancient Wyrm does, in fact, cheat. I think I lost any respect I had for these dragons. It¡¯s just that he cheats at dominos while the Ancestral Dragon cheats at cards. And Ethan just cheats at everything. I¡¯m starting to see where he got that from. Honestly was tempted to scold them for teaching their son such bad habits, but I didn¡¯t. Because that wouldn¡¯t really bode well. What with them both being the same level as me and there being two of them versus just little ol¡¯ me. Anyways, after losing to them at dominos because of a cheater, I say my goodbyes and head on out to the next Block. Which turns out to be another Dimensional Block at war. And a¡­ very strange Block, to say the least. Because this one is another space block, but there are floating moons just all over the place, with odd bridges of light between them. I ignore it all though to instead teleport through the space between them. Also ignoring the rather intense looking battles going on below me, even as some of said battling folks look up at me while I pass by. Just awkwardly pausing their battle in the process. Isabella said that there aren¡¯t any Cataclysm Class monsters all the way till the fortieth Dimensional Block. But at the same time, I know that the creatures can spawn whenever, so I go ahead and stop by a random moon that isn¡¯t in the middle of a battle to ask if they have a Cataclysm Class monster in the Block. Which they apparently don¡¯t. So I ask which direction to go for the next Block so that I don¡¯t end up going backwards in Block count. And after getting that intel, I leave the poor, traumatized human behind and continue my trip. After that Block, I travel through several others, only finding a single Cataclysm Class monster in them until I arrive at the fortieth Block. Which is a rather nice one filled with really large bamboo trees. I end up finding a rather large surprise ¨C quite literally ¨C when I run into a Cataclysm Class monster before even finding a civilization in this Block. This one being a massive panda. One that¡¯s just kinda chewing on the bamboo and acting cute while rolling over. Crushing a lot of monsters in the process, yes, but still being cute. Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author''s preferred platform and support their work! Huh. I just kinda teleport on top of one of the bamboo trees before staring down at the really large panda. What surprises me the most about this not-so-little creature is that it doesn¡¯t look like it¡¯s killing the monsters on purpose. It¡¯s just kinda rolling around eating bamboo while killing them on accident. Actually, I don¡¯t think it even notices that it¡¯s killing the monsters. Our of curiosity, I teleport over to the panda before landing on its paw held in front of its face. And the creature just stops rolling and tilts its head at me. Then it makes a little chirp sound and continues eating the bamboo without bothering me. I purse my lips while raising my hand towards its face, only to draw back with a sigh. Damnit, this thing¡¯s too cute to kill. So I begin to teleport away from the massive panda, only to soon realize that it¡¯s following me. I think. Probably. It¡¯s still cute. I ignore it as I continue teleporting through the Block until I arrive at a busy little village in the bamboo forest. And to my surprise, the denizens of the village aren¡¯t afraid of me. In fact, they¡¯re rather nice as they answer all of my questions. Even giving me some snacks that I really don¡¯t need when sending me off. Nice group. I don¡¯t care about food though so I just kinda keep it in my storage ring indefinitely. As it turns out though, the panda is actually a rather nice and friendly creature. Unlike any of the other Cataclysm Class monsters I¡¯ve run into thus far. It¡¯s also not the only Cataclysm Class monster in the Block as there¡¯s apparently a large tanuki as well. Although this one isn¡¯t friendly and attacks or runs away from anyone it sees. The thing is more known as a pest than a murderous creature though. Which makes me rather curious about this Block, but I just continue moving through it in search of the tanuki. Because they want the tanuki gone, what with it eating their food. I teleport from the top of one bamboo tree to another for a while, still ignoring my little follower that¡¯s still chasing after me for some reason. And eventually I find the tanuki. A tanuki that is a couple dozen meters tall. Rather large. To my surprise though, the creature immediately rushes to attack sir panda, so I send a wave of Quantum Breath at the tanuki, immediately making it scream in pain. Then I quickly teleport in and stab it through the throat with my polearm, finding the creature to actually be rather low level. Only barely in Tier 3. Then I turn to look at the panda, only to find the thing simply looking at me while tilting its head. I can¡¯t help it. I teleport up to the panda and begin to pet it on the head, making the thing let out cute little chirps that aren¡¯t so little considering its size. And I keep on petting the cutie for a little while before finally getting up and beginning to teleport to the next Block. That was a well needed breath of cuteness. If someone kills that thing I¡¯m gonna kill them. I glance behind me as I continue teleporting, finding the panda still following me at its rather immense rolling speed. Then I continue facing forwards while teleporting. All the way till I get to the Dimensional Wall and pass through it, leaving the panda on the other side. Sorry little guy, but you can¡¯t follow me on this trip. Not sure why it took such a liking to me though. Maybe I can bring it with me as a pet when I come back? Luna for some reason makes an angry squeak from right on my shoulder, having seemed slightly disgruntled the entire time I was in that Block. Wait, is she jealous? B3 | Chapter 33 - Another Requirement Cleared Alexia Over the course of nearly two weeks, I manage to deal with all of the remaining Cataclysm Class monsters out of the twenty-five for the requirement that I need to kill. With the final one being the monster in Dimensional Block #4. I can¡¯t help but smile as I stand atop the head of the massive creature. One with the head of an eagle, body of a lion, and wings of some sort of dragon. The last of the twenty-five Cataclysm Class monsters, giving me the System Message I¡¯ve been looking for for quite a while now. [Twenty-five Cataclysm Class monsters have now been slain. Requirement to slay twenty-five Cataclysm Class monsters has been cleared.] And after seeing it, I drop down to a sitting position on the creature¡¯s head, uncaring of where I¡¯m currently at. And uncaring of the oddly floating mountain this creature¡¯s corpse is on. Or of the other floating mountains around me. Even if they¡¯re odd looking. They¡¯re still not much different from the floating islands of Dimensional Block #108. I smile at the message before stretching a little and falling onto my back to look up at the stars in the night sky. Now I just have two requirements remaining. Almost one, since Quantum Displacement should be reaching level thirty soon enough, after which I¡¯ll use a Core to raise it to Tier 4. Which means I¡¯m gonna be sitting in a room with my eyes closed messing with energy for a very long time just to level that stupid skill. A skill I¡¯ve only managed to bring almost to Tier 2 in this entire time since I truly started training it. I let out a sigh at that before sitting up again and looking around at the destruction my battle with this big beasty caused. Then I ignore said destruction and begin teleporting away towards the Dimensional Wall shared with Dimensional Block #1. From what Lucas told me while he was in Dimensional Block #108, and what I¡¯ve heard from other Blocks, Dimensional Block #1 should be a massive ocean world with random islands planted across it. Rather large islands, but just islands. No continents. It¡¯s also one of the largest Dimensional Blocks in the dimension out of the ones the people I¡¯ve spoken to have been to. With the only larger one being Dimensional Block #1000. Where Mom is from. Which is literally just space. With random debris floating about it. And massive floating bits of rubble making up places for the denizens of the Block to live. This novel''s true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there. Overall, this is going to be an interesting albeit probably boring trip through Dimensional Block #1. At least I can just track where Lucas is through my Legendary Feat bonus. So finding him won¡¯t be a problem. Just gonna be a lot of endless teleporting, which will at least help level my skill. Even boring things come with benefits most of the time after all. I continue teleporting through the Block until I arrive at the Wall and immediately cross through it. Although since I¡¯m not touching the ground, I don¡¯t send a message to Lucas about my arrival. So just to make sure he knows I¡¯m here, I go ahead and teleport to find an island before landing on it to send him notice. Then I go back up into the air again and continue heading through the Block in the direction I sense him in. A trip that takes half an entire day. Twelve hours of me constantly teleporting over a thousand meters almost back to back, with only two breaks to restore some of my soul. When I finally arrive at where the man is, I actually find a dungeon. Which means he¡¯s currently fighting in the dungeon. Huh. Well, this is awkward. I hope he doesn¡¯t stay in there for very long, but at the same time, I can¡¯t just expect him to leave because I arrived. So with that in mind, I go ahead and find a nice spot on the island to set up my portable house. Then I go inside and collapse onto my bed, resting for the first time since I started this little journey. Since even when I was recovering my soul, I was still running wherever I was going. Don¡¯t need soul to run after all. I stare up at my ceiling for a few minutes before almost closing my eyes, only for a System Notification to appear in my vision.
Legendary Feat ¨C Prodigy of Magic Aurora Frost has become the first user within the System to raise a mana manipulation skill to Tier 5!
Oh. Interesting. The Frozen Empress. Actually, I don¡¯t know where she is, now that I think about it. I wonder if I skipped over her Block while coming here? Then again, I¡¯m pretty sure the Frozen Empress is most likely wherever the Holy One is. Leif Eriksson. The former ruler of Arcadia. From what I remember in the news back before the Reset, those two were always at odds with each other. Always fighting. So I wouldn¡¯t be surprised if the two sought each other out to fight. Or if they even ended up in the same Block after the Reset due to being nearby. So maybe it¡¯s for the best that I don¡¯t run into them. I wouldn¡¯t want to be drawn into their squabbling after all. Even if they aren¡¯t Class S species. More similar to Lucas than anything else. Class B species who happened to be really talented and special, allowing them to shoot to the top over quite a long time. But it makes sense that the Frozen Empress would be the first one to raise Mana Manipulation to Tier 5. Considering that she was always at the forefront of magic research alongside the Holy One before the Reset. Largely because the majority of the Class S species don¡¯t bother with Mana Manipulation when they can just use their own element. Especially when they¡¯re locked out of other elements anyways. I think the only Class S species I know who does use Mana Manipulation is Mom. But she¡¯s also not originally from the System if I remember correctly. Anyways, now¡¯s a good a time as any to start training Energy Manipulation some more. So time to get to work. B3 | Chapter 34 - Quick Exit Alexia After just a few hours of training, I find myself faced with a surprise when I feel a source of energy appear in front of the dungeon. A powerful source that quickly heads over to my little house and proves itself to belong to Lucas. Did he really rush out of the dungeon or was he almost finished already? Because three hours to leave a dungeon is¡­ not much time. ¡°Why were you in a dungeon anyways¡­?¡± I mutter out loud while looking at the man standing in front of the bed I¡¯m currently sitting on in a cross-legged pose. He furrows his brows for a second before answering, ¡°Looking for Tier 3 items and killing level capped monsters. For my ascension requirements.¡± Oh. That makes more sense. Was confused since he was already at the level cap of Tier 3, so fighting monsters in a dungeon is just a waste of time at this point. It does make me curious what his ascension requirements are though. Considering that his Class was given to him thanks to his Legendary Feat given Title, the Hound of the Apocalypse. A Title he, as it turns out, didn¡¯t actually earn himself. An odd realization when I think about it. That his most famous Title and Legendary Feat weren¡¯t given to him for something he himself did. ¡°So you decided to visit after all?¡± he asks, a smile replacing the frown on his face. I nod my head. ¡°And what about your sister?¡± he continues, unperturbed by my silence. ¡°She¡¯s handling things back at The Retreat while I go around to complete my ascension requirements,¡± I tell him while uncrossing my legs and turning them over the edge of the bed. ¡°And catching up to my level while she¡¯s at it.¡± ¡°Right, she¡¯s not at the level cap yet,¡± Lucas mutters as he begins to pace back and forth, seemingly worried over Astrid. Then he goes and mutters to himself, possibly not meaning to speak out loud, ¡°Maybe I should send someone over to protect her? Or I could-¡± ¡°Stop,¡± I tell him, making him stop pacing right away to look at me with surprise on his face. And at this point any fear I had towards the Hound of the Apocalypse is just plain gone. All I can see him as is an overprotective father and a man who was rather badly wronged. ¡°Astrid would be rather upset if you tried to help her. She¡¯s almost as solitary as I am and doesn¡¯t want help. She wants to do things on her own.¡± A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation. We¡¯re similar in that way. Even if I technically was given a lot of my current power through the machinations of a certain quantum idiot. A wing hits me in the head, making me glare at the idiot in question as he flies away from my shoulder. But said idiot doesn¡¯t say a word. ¡°Oh,¡± Lucas mutters, sounding slightly crestfallen. But he recovers quickly as he asks, ¡°What¡¯s with this house anyways?¡± I look around for a moment before remembering that the item I¡¯m using to store the house was a reward from the System Tutorial. It may well not have existed before the Reset. So I get up from the bed and teleport outside of the house, with Lucas following shortly after, appearing from some sort of black light in the grass next to me. Then I go ahead and put the house back into the ring, startling him. ¡°Got this nifty ring from the Tutorial rewards,¡± I tell him while holding up my hand to show him. And after he looks at it for a few seconds, I lower my hand again. ¡°It¡¯s rather convenient.¡± ¡°I bet,¡± he says with a smile. ¡°You want to head towards my capital?¡± The way he says ¡®my capital¡¯ is rather amusing, but I guess he is the Dimensional Leader and Champion of this Block, so it only makes sense that it would technically be his. And his not having committed genocide like many believe doesn¡¯t really change the fact that he is still technically a tyrant. ¡°Sure,¡± I answer with a nod. And without hesitation, he begins to flap his wings and lead the way, with me teleporting behind him. For quite a while. I really don¡¯t think I like this Block. It¡¯s too big. And there¡¯s too much water. Just water everywhere. Then again, it¡¯s better than that lava world Block I saw before. Where it was almost entirely lava with just some islands scattered throughout. That was rather terrifying to see. It was also not-so-suspiciously barren of people. Lots of monsters though. And lava fish. Can¡¯t forget the lava fish. Especially the Cataclysm Class one that was the size of an island. Although that Block would¡¯ve been far worse if I didn¡¯t already have adaption to fire magic. Because I know it was a very hot place. Eventually Lucas and I begin to get within sight of the place I instantly link to this capital he spoke of. A very large city on an equally large island. One filled to the brim with people. And judging by the technology on it, I wouldn¡¯t be surprised if he gathered up all of the competent engineers and scientists and the like from the nearby Blocks to work for him. Since the city looks very high tech compared to the cities in the other Blocks I¡¯ve been to. Even if it isn¡¯t quite to the level of technology it was before the Reset in some places. There¡¯s also some rather large stadium on one end of the city and a massive theatre on the other. ¡°Welcome to the capital of Dimensional Block #1, and my new home,¡± Lucas says with a grin as we continue heading towards the city. Probably also the largest city that I¡¯ve seen since the Reset, if I¡¯m being honest. Aaaand, of course the soldiers on watch immediately grow terrified at the sight of us. I¡¯m just happy it¡¯s not just me that they¡¯re afraid of this time. B3 | Chapter 35 - The Capital of Dimensional Block #1 Alexia The two of us simply move straight past the soldiers without paying them any mind other than my initial observation of their fear, going into the city without pause. And even as we pass through, or rather, above the city streets, everyone we pass by looks at us both with terror in their eyes. But I can¡¯t help but notice something. It¡¯s not just terror. I also find respect in their gaze. Awe. Which quickly makes me realize that the people living in this Block don¡¯t just fear Lucas. They also respect and are in awe of his power. Understandable, I guess. Considering that he has one of the most powerful Legendary Feat bonuses in existence. One granting him complete immunity to magic. Although my racial skill is a nice boost to my own power as well, just like his Legendary Feat bonus. Even if they aren¡¯t quite even. What with mine having a downside and not a complete one hundred percent immunity but an eighty percent immunity instead. But it might as well be a complete immunity at this point, especially considering that my gear raises it to a ninety percent immunity to physical damage. Certainly makes it amusing to see sometimes. Like when some of those Cataclysm Class monsters focusing on physical strength tried to punch me, only to realize that all they managed to do was a tiny scratch. Especially considering the sheer difference in size between us. I¡¯m still pretty sure the bizarreness of seeing a giant gorilla whose index finger is larger than my head punching me with their massive fist only to barely bruise me was enough to shock some of the bystanders back there out of their fear of me for a split second. It was hilarious. And the weakness to magic is already gone as well thanks to items. Items are great. They make the world go round. Anyways, me and Lucas continue moving through his city until we arrive at the massive theatre. And Lucas doesn¡¯t bother with the front entrance, instead landing on a balcony and walking inside. So I follow suit while ignoring the guards staring up at us in shock from the front entrance beneath us. Not to mention the guards standing on the sides of the balcony. You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story. Or rather, staring at me in shock. They don¡¯t so much as look twice at Lucas. Guess he does this a lot. ¡°I have something I need to deal with inside first, but I¡¯ll take you to look at my house after that,¡± Lucas says with a glance at me as I follow him through the upper floors of the theatre building. And he turns to face forwards again after seeing me nod. We continue walking through the building for a couple minutes, going through one nearly empty hallway after another, only rarely running into people in the process. People who instantly bow towards Lucas, who proceeds to ignore them. Interesting. After one last hallway though, we both emerge into a large balcony over some sort of grand theatre. A circular one with a stage at the center. But instead of some play or something there, there¡¯s a round table with chairs all around it and people seated on the chairs. Meanwhile, at the back of the theatre is one singular throne that stands out as it¡¯s the only part of the sitting area around the table that isn¡¯t like a regular theatre. There¡¯s also a staircase going up towards it. Almost like it¡¯s meant for the ruler of the nation. Which is probably exactly what it¡¯s meant for. Also, Lucas doesn¡¯t hesitate to slam the door to the balcony shut after I pass through it, making the gazes of the dozens of people having a meeting around the chair instantly turn towards us. And just as quickly, they all turn towards me and grow slightly fearful. During our trip to the capital itself, we spoke about whether I want people to know my relation to Lucas. And in the end, we both decided to keep that little detail hidden for now. At least until I¡¯ve earned more of a name for myself across the Dimensional Blocks that having an infamous biological father won¡¯t make my already scary reputation even worse. Of course, I don¡¯t particularly care if someone reveals it or something in an attempt to hurt my reputation. Couldn¡¯t care less. I think this is mostly just Lucas¡¯s attempt to not hurt me in any way through his name. So it comes as no surprise to me when he floats down to a few meters above the round table and declares, ¡°We have now entered into a mutual alliance with The Reaper. Treat her as you would me.¡± Too bad it¡¯s not the same for the people surrounding the table. Since they¡¯re all absolutely shocked when they hear his words. I wouldn¡¯t be too surprised if a lot of them probably assumed I would end up fighting with Lucas at some point in the future. So to suddenly hear that we¡¯ve become such close allies is probably, well, shocking. Lucas looks around at the gathered people with a frown on his face, making shivers run through the lot of them, clear to my eye. Then he flies upwards again before heading towards the door without looking back. I glance at the people around the table who all still look rather shocked, only to give a mental shrug and just follow after the Hound of the Apocalypse without a word. Quickly beginning to make my way through the halls again until we both leave the building and begin heading towards a massive mansion on one end of the island far from any other buildings. Guess he likes solitude. Once we arrive, I notice a few people in the building. Some of whom appear to be cleaning, but one is currently heading outside of the building as if to meet us. And when she steps outside, I realize she¡¯s a vampire. One who begins to speak normally with Lucas once she sees him, apparently not noticing me yet. Interesting. Wonder who this lady is? B3 | Chapter 36 - Clingy Assassin Alexia I go ahead and identify her, making her pause in her words to look at me, her eyes widening when she finally notices me. {Selene Rosenfort ¨C Species: Vampire ¨C Class: Blood Crowned ¨C Level 500} ¡°The Reaper? What¡¯s she doin here?¡± the woman I quickly recognize from her name as the Empress of Roses asks while tilting her head. And for some reason I think I see a hint of jealousy in her gaze. As if she¡¯s looking at competition. Please tell me I¡¯m wrong about that. I really don¡¯t want to deal with shit like that. ¡°She¡¯s my daughter,¡± Lucas says, surprising me when we had literally just gone over how he was gonna keep this a secret. But he just glances at me and says, ¡°This one can be trusted. Mostly.¡± He glances at the assassin empress, who is currently trying and failing to pick her jaw up off the ground. ¡°She at least knows not to cross me.¡± Then he just kind of ignores the shocked woman as he enters the mansion. And after a brief moment of hesitation, I follow after him. Deciding to ignore the woman entirely. The mansion itself ends up being rather nice, and there aren¡¯t many servants around. Just the amount I sensed earlier. And all of them look like they trust Lucas with their lives or something. Probably worked for him before the Reset. Would be weird if he didn¡¯t have subordinates back then after all. He was one of the most powerful beings in the universe. As I walk through his manor, I can¡¯t help but wonder if the man is ever going to clear his name or not. About the whole genocide thing not being his doing. I know it would be a very difficult task, since pretty much everyone across the dimensions knows about what ¡®he¡¯ did. So he¡¯d have to convince everyone that he didn¡¯t do it. When ¡®it¡¯ was so recent in history. Just a couple decades ago. And everyone in the entire universe knows about it. What with it being on the news in literally every single planet across the universe. So I can¡¯t see him being able to fix it for a long time. And no matter how long passes, there will still be people who won¡¯t have heard that it wasn¡¯t him. Then there¡¯s a single simple detail. Who would believe him if he said it wasn¡¯t him? He¡¯d have to go grab the Quantum Balancer to absolutely prove his innocence. And I can¡¯t see that working out well. If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. Especially since said Balancer is currently being punished by the Ruler. ¡°How long are you planning on staying?¡± Lucas asks out of nowhere, drawing my thoughts out of my own head. I answer while looking around at the halls around us, ¡°Probably a week or so. Then I¡¯m heading back to The Retreat.¡± He doesn¡¯t say anything for a few seconds before stating, ¡°Is that so.¡± And I can practically feel the disappointment in those three words. As if he desperately wants me to stay longer but isn¡¯t saying it. Sorry old man, but I want to check on Astrid. It¡¯s been about a month or so since I left Dimensional Block #108 by now after all. It¡¯ll also likely take a week or two to get back as well. We continue walking until we arrive at some sort of common room. One that has quite a few bookshelves stocked full of books, along with sofas and a window looking out at the ocean next to the mansion. Although I can¡¯t help but wonder if he just had people write those books or something. Since most of the books across the universe were lost after the Reset. What with them not coming with us and all. And right as we¡¯re sitting down on two of the sofas in the room, the door that Lucas had just closed using his magic bursts open and a certain assassin empress rushes inside. Then she moves straight up to the sofa I sat down on and gets down on her knees before practically shouting, ¡°I¡¯m sorry, Lady Reaper! I am sincerely sorry for not recognizing your greatness!¡± I stare at her rather blankly before glancing at Lucas to find him avoiding my gaze. Then I turn back to her, only for the lady to suddenly stand up again, brushing off her skirt and sitting down on the sofa next to me with a completely different attitude. One kind of like some punk who just jumped down onto a couch and slaps their arm over the armrest. ¡°Well, now that I got that out of the way, why didn¡¯t you tell me you were married?¡± she asks, clearly directing the question towards Lucas, who just kinda scratches his cheek. I look between one of them to the other, wondering what the hell is going on. Then a thought comes to mind and I begin glaring at Lucas. Did he really- ¡°No, no, no, I told her that I was already married,¡± Lucas suddenly exclaims when he sees the look I¡¯m giving him, a scowl on his face soon directed at the assassin. ¡°She just lets everything she doesn¡¯t want to hear go in one ear and out the other!¡± I narrow my eyes before glancing at the woman in question. And the look on her face says it all. She clearly looks disappointed at his words and slightly irritated, with a hint of jealousy no doubt directed at Mom. I alternate looking between the two, finding their little display rather¡­ awkward¡­ for me, to say the least. Seeing as one of them is my biological father and the husband of Mom. And the other¡­ well, she¡¯s some random lady I never met before who happens to be an assassin and doesn¡¯t seem to understand the word no. Then again, Lucas should be able to send her flying without much trouble considering their strengths. I wouldn¡¯t be surprised if she¡¯s using her assassin skills to get away or something. Or maybe he just finds her useful to have. He seems to trust her at least regardless of why. I let out a sigh, deciding that he¡¯s not, in fact, being unfaithful to Mom. ¡°Would you like to stay in my manor during your visit?¡± Lucas asks, and I go ahead and nod my head. Because this place is a lot fancier than my portable house. ¡°Then I¡¯ll call for a servant to show you to your room. I have some business to attend to with the Rose Empress here.¡± I nod my head and get up again, briefly wondering why I sat down in the first place. Then I follow a servant who suddenly appears outside of the room. Plus it has servants. And, most importantly, a bath. Even if I don¡¯t actually need one. Maybe even a hot spring somewhere. And while clinging onto that thought, I continue following after the servant to find my quarters. B3 | Intermission 3 A Random Island in the fused Dimensional Block #108/105 Ethan frowns as he flies through the air searching the volcanic territory of the other Dimensional Block that had merged with theirs. Just trying as hard as he can to find some fire affinity magical ore. But the only ore he manages to find keeps ending up in civilizations. In cities and nations already built within the Block. And it¡¯s starting to reach the point where he¡¯ll just ignore the warning Astrid and Alexia both gave him and walk up to the cities to take it from them. He manages to just barely stop himself from doing that though when he finally finds an active volcano with plenty of fire affinity magical ore in it. Even more than he needs. After collecting it all, he proceeds to fly back through the Blocks without a single care in his mind about the battles and war zones he passes by. If he remembers correctly, from what Astrid had been telling him at least, the war has been progressing without either side ending up on top. At this rate, if it continues as it is, then both sides of the war will end up losing most of their Authority Holders. And while Ethan couldn¡¯t care less who wins, he does at least realize that it would be a pain if some other Dimensional Block decided to up and enter the Block to take it themselves and then kicked him out. Of course, Ethan would just kill them for doing it and reclaim the Block, assuming The Reaper and her sister didn¡¯t do it first. But it would still be a pain to him. So he has considered a couple times interfering with their war and just killing the leader of one side to get them to shut up with their drama. But he hasn¡¯t done anything up till now. And he doesn¡¯t plan on doing anything. As long as the drama kids leave his island and The Retreat alone. He continues flying through the air in his true form, ignoring any and all signs of combat around him. Only to get a rather unpleasant surprise when he arrives back at his own island to find his cave destroyed. Rage immediately fills him at the sight of it before he lets out a loud roar and quickly searches for signs of who did it, smelling the island and then following the scent he finds. The smell ends up leading him to a battle on an island several thousand kilometers away from his own. One with both leaders of the two Dimensional Blocks in attendance. If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation. All of the fighting stops immediately when Ethan lands with a loud crash in the center of the battlefield. And every single eye locks onto him amidst the newly brought about silence. Ethan doesn¡¯t immediately attack the people on the island though. He¡¯s not stupid enough to fall for an obvious trick. He can tell right away that the scent in question doesn¡¯t belong to anyone here, no matter how hard whoever placed it tried to mask the scent. But it doesn¡¯t change the fact that whoever did it was trying to interfere with this war by using him. And that¡¯s the last straw in his patience. Whether it was the fault of those here or not, he will end this war now. One way or another. ¡°Bring your leaders here!¡± Ethan shouts, his voice echoing out over the entire island as he remains in his dragon form. And right away, both the dragonborn and the giant appear before him with trepidation on their faces. ¡°Decide on a winner between your Blocks now or die. You have ten minutes to choose.¡± One of the giants in the background immediately shouts, ¡°What right does a-¡± Only to go silent when he freezes over, unable to even finish his thoughts. Meanwhile anyone else who was opening their mouths to speak closes them again without a word. Even the leader of the giants whose name Ethan can¡¯t remember just grits his teeth and glares at the leader of the dragonborn. A leader who is simply bowing his head to Ethan, looking like he¡¯s in awe of being near a dragon. Then the dragonborn leader turns towards the leader of the giants and they begin fighting. All while Ethan continues sitting there, not paying any attention to their battle but instead searching the surroundings for the one who pulled him into this. And after a brief search, he finds the responsible party and sends a wave of hellfrost straight over there with a spell and freezes them alive without killing them. By the time he returns his attention to the two fighting leaders, he finds the giant winning the duel, albeit only barely, and only because the dragonborn was already heavily wounded beforehand. But Ethan doesn¡¯t care about fairness. ¡°If this war isn¡¯t ended in the council by the time the sun falls, I will kill the rest of Dimensional Block #105¡¯s Authority Holders myself,¡± Ethan declares before flapping his wings and flying back up into the air amidst the silence. And without pause, he heads over back to his island while controlling the hellfrost-covered pawn to float along with him. After Ethan reaches his cave, he throws the frozen man who is wearing a black cloak down on the ground, shattering his ice before he slams his clawed foot down on him while asking, ¡°Who do you work for?¡± The man in question simply screams in pain as his lower half is crushed. So Ethan freezes said lower half to numb any pain from it and repeats his question. This time they just shake their head, making him narrow his eyes. But before he can do any more to him, his head turns to the side as he senses Astrid approaching. And he immediately finds her giving him an exasperated look, the girl no doubt having learned about what he did. ¡°Just couldn¡¯t stay out of it, could you?¡± she asks, not paying an ounce of attention to the person under Ethan¡¯s clawed foot. And that one sentence for some reason makes Ethan feel cowed. What is it with these sisters?! Ethan glances to his cavern and says, ¡°People tried bringing me into the war, so I decided to stop the war so that no one would try it again.¡± Astrid just sighs at that, making Ethan feel weird again. B3 | Chapter 37 - Childish Elemental Alexia The next several days pass by rather lethargically, with me doing nothing but some sightseeing here and there while training my energy manipulation. And spending more time just sitting in my room, once again training my energy manipulation. Not much happens during this time. The inhabitants of the Block avoid me like the plague. The Rose Empress tries to get friendly with me for reasons that are rather obvious and creepy. Something about wanting to be friends with Lucas¡¯s kid since she wants to be my stepmother in the future, apparently not caring about Mom. Which kinda makes me want to slap her. With a slap that requires more than a few healers to fix. But the woman is actually rather important to the governing of Dimensional Block #1, since she¡¯s basically Lucas¡¯s right hand man. The woman who does everything he doesn¡¯t want to bother himself with. Which is most of the governing, if I¡¯m being honest. Lucas isn¡¯t really the leader type, same as myself. The assassin empress is easy enough to avoid though. Just have to teleport away from her and I¡¯m golden. And she never bothers me when I¡¯m in my room. So I end up spending a little bit longer than I had originally planned in the Block before heading out to leave. And this time around as I¡¯m crossing the Dimensional Blocks, I don¡¯t bother with interacting with the people. I just teleport straight through the Block, at most buying a map from time to time to find the other end of the Block. Good thing a lot of these Blocks already know about my travels, what with word having gone around that The Reaper was traveling through the Blocks. I cross from one Block to another, purposefully avoiding some of the ones I very much disliked passing through in the process. Meanwhile I run into some familiar faces belonging to Class S species I passed by during my first run through. Some of whom are friendly, others not so much. All of them let me pass without bothering me though. And I don¡¯t bother them either. No reason to after all. The only things I still need are one last level for Quantum Displacement along with nine more levels for Energy Manipulation. But when I¡¯m crossing through Dimensional Block #60, I find a rather unexpected surprise. One involving a rather large explosion that I barely avoid by teleporting away, leaving me reappearing on a large floating boulder above the rocky mountains of this Block with a frown on my face. The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation. Then another explosion appears right beneath me, making me teleport away again. And these explosions continue to happen until I manage to lock down a powerful energy source nearby. I quickly teleport over to them before blasting their location with a Quantum Bolt, making the stone itself shift before forming a man and leaping away from the target of my attack. Leaving my Quantum Bolt to blast the rock without anyone being there. My gaze quickly focuses on the man whose form is still solidifying as he flies through the air. {Strockr ¨C Earth Elemental ¨C Level 500} A Class S species. And an elemental at that. Elementals are unique creatures. The weakest elementals are Class A, with the stronger ones being Class S. And elementals are the only other creature in existence for each element aside from that element¡¯s Class S species. ¡°You. Bad,¡± the elemental in question declares without their body finishing solidifying before they return to the ground again. ¡°Bad. Reaper.¡± Elementals are also rather childish. I was wondering when someone would try attacking me. Because not all Class S species are smart, even if most of them are. Some Class S species are just other species that advanced to Class S. Like the Lich King. Others were turned into a Class S naturally or unnaturally. Whether through age, which is unfair, or through infection or science, like Astrid. ¡°How am I bad?¡± I ask while teleporting away again right as more explosions ring out from the stone. Which I¡¯m beginning to realize is just the elemental blowing up explosives underground or moving natural gas and lighting sparks there. Doing whatever it can to make explosions. I send another Quantum Bolt to where the earth elemental is now before it jumps out of the ground again and declares, ¡°Reaper. Murderer.¡± That has me frowning for a moment, then I tell the thing, ¡°I have never killed any user outside of self-defense.¡± The earth elemental immediately stops moving and attacking, going still. I stop attacking as well, just watching the elemental for a few moments. Only for the elemental to most likely decide that it doesn¡¯t believe me and resume its attacking. ¡°Reaper is liar,¡± the earth elemental declares, making me let out a sigh. That¡¯s one issue with elementals. They¡¯re not very smart. Whatever. I don¡¯t have any reason to kill this thing. It¡¯s practically a kid even if it¡¯s most likely older than I am. And it won¡¯t benefit me to kill it in any way. So I begin teleporting away again, moving thousands of meters at a time. With the earth elemental quickly keeping up, causing explosions to ring out beneath me as I move. But it never actually hurts me. So I just keep going. Eventually I end up at the end of the Block, where I stop and turn towards the elemental that¡¯s appeared out of the ground again to glare at me. ¡°Would you mind telling me if someone sent you after me?¡± I ask while tilting my head. Just to make sure. ¡°Saw. Screen,¡± the earth elemental declares, making it clear that it¡¯s only basing this attack off of my appearance on that screen a while back along with how many points I had in the tutorial. Likely assuming I murdered those people for the points and isn¡¯t believing that I was attacked right after I left the dungeon. I try to convince him a couple more times about what happened, but nothing works. Annoying. This is why I don¡¯t like kids. With that, I let out one last sigh and proceed to leave the Block, no longer caring about the earth elemental anymore. Because it¡¯s not going to leave its territory to chase me. Time to continue my journey. I just hope I don¡¯t get attacked by any other idiots along the way home. B3 | New Art and All Other Character Art with link for if it breaks If the images break, click here to go to the public post on my Patreon that has the images there. Made this post partially as a reminder and partially because the other art broke on Royal Road due to Discord. These are all the character art I''ve made for other characters through the story. Along with one new piece of art for Lexi. Then there are two new pieces of art for other characters. The Ancient Wyrm: Then there''s the Quantum Enforcer: The rest are pieces you''ve seen before but may''ve forgotten of other characters in the story besides Lexi. Alara: Crystal: This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it Lysandre: Lucas: Ethan: Isabella: Ignivara: Artorius: Astrid: Karo(dead lich king guy): Quantum Ruler: B3 | Chapter 38 - Bounty Alexia And, of course, I get attacked by other idiots on the way home. Three Class S species to be exact. And each one of them was hell bent on killing me for some reason. Until they realized they couldn¡¯t and ran the hell away, with the exception of one of them which I caught. Which at one point makes me wonder if someone is offering some sort of reward for my head or something. So, after capturing the third one, I go ahead and interrogate him. And just as I suspected, there is apparently someone going around offering a reward for my head. Which is a pain. Especially because of who the idiot is. I let out a sigh before killing the Class S species, no longer having any use for them and certainly not willing to let them go when they were trying to kill me for a favor from the Lord of Vampires. It¡¯s a pity, really. I was hoping to be able to avoid major conflict with the strongest ascendants of the System from before the Reset. Then again, that was a rather unlikely hope in the first place. Anyways¡­ the Lord of Vampires, eh? He¡¯s gonna be a pain. Damien Black is the foremost expert in blood magic in the entire universe before the Reset, and is no doubt still the foremost expert now. He is also the oldest vampire alive and is said to be close to becoming an ancient vampire. A Class S variant of vampire that is only spoken of in rumor but never actually seen before. But¡­ he¡¯s got some anger issues. The man is known to lose his temper quite frequently and was feared moreso for that than his power. Lucas is stronger than him by quite a bit, especially since a lot of his blood magic has no effect on Lucas, but people were often still more afraid of Damien than Lucas. Simply because they knew Lucas was less likely to kill them just for standing in front of him. Guess he didn¡¯t take well to my taking a bunch of the first Legendary Feats. And the fact that he¡¯s even picking a fight with a Class S species while also making bounty offers to other Class S species most likely means he¡¯s either Class S now or almost Class S. Which is another problem altogether. Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings. But if I had to guess, he¡¯s probably only nearing Class S. Since he¡¯s not coming at me directly. I frown as I continue teleporting across Dimensional Block #71 without really paying much attention to my surroundings beyond any potential dangers. And more bounty hunting Class S species. From what I heard all across the news before the Reset, Damien Black specialized in berserker type magic and skills. He¡¯d basically sacrifice his own blood and body while running around berserk and attacking pretty much anything with blood when he went crazy. And he always went crazy in a battle. Certainly has a screw loose. And I¡¯m not particularly fond of the idea that someone like that is after my life. Especially considering that he may very well go after Astrid. Which isn¡¯t all that likely at the end of the day considering how narrowminded the guy is, what with him most likely not even caring about the fact that I might have people I care about. But that doesn¡¯t change the fact that he could. So I¡¯m just gonna go home as fast as I can to watch over her while I train my Energy Manipulation. I continue teleporting from one Dimensional Block to another, crossing each of them without stopping for anyone. And throughout the process, I find myself attacked by two more Class S species, one of which I kill, before finally arriving back at Dimensional Block #108. To my surprise though, I find the Block no longer being at war. With Dimensional Block #108 actually having won. Cool. Won¡¯t have to deal with zealous dragonborn at least. On that note, I continue teleporting through the Block until I finally arrive at The Retreat to find the place having grown quite a bit. To the point that the city now covers a large portion of the front half of the island. With the exception of the large clearing around my home, of course. Which still looks just as natural as before. Even without my home actually being there, seeing as I have it in my ring. I begin ¡®floating¡¯ in the air high above the city ¨C a process that mostly just involves me repeatedly teleporting in place to stay up, costing very little soul while doing so ¨C as I look around the city. And it¡¯s not just the city¡¯s size that¡¯s grown, but the people as well. Everyone¡¯s a much higher level now. There are even some council members who are in the low four hundreds in level. Not bad. Not bad at all. I continue searching the city with my senses for a little bit in search of Astrid, but then I don¡¯t find her and begin to grow a little worried. Until I expand my search to Ethan¡¯s island to find her sparring with him. That¡¯s good. Looks like she¡¯s doing well. I teleport over Ethan¡¯s island to watch for a bit before tilting my head slightly. Huh. They look like they¡¯ve gotten closer. I watch for a little while longer, briefly nodding my head with a faint smile when Astrid smiles at me and gives a brief wave, then I teleport back to my clearing and put my house back down. And without hesitation, I walk inside of the house and head to my bedroom before sitting down on my bed. It¡¯s nice to see that she¡¯s doing well, but I am kind of curious about their little relationship. Since it genuinely does look like Ethan¡¯s feelings are starting to shift over to Astrid from me. Not that I¡¯m complaining. Although I¡¯m also not sure what that says about him that his feelings can be shifted so easily. Then again, I don¡¯t really care. Not my problem to deal with after all. Time to work on my Energy Manipulation. B3 | Chapter 39 - Votes Alexia Time begins to pass in a much more lethargic manner after I begin my little close-closet training session with the Quantum Architect finally teaching me on a regular basis instead of napping. And over the course of several months, I manage to raise my Energy Manipulation almost all the way to Tier 3. Just barely making it to about a quarter of a level beneath it before I¡¯m interrupted by a notification.
The Ten Year Event Selection will now commence. Every ten years, an event will occur within each and every Dimensional Block. This event will be decided upon by a vote from the Dimensional Block¡¯s Authority Holders, and it may not be changed after it is chosen. The very first Ten Year Event will occur one week after this selection process. After the event, the Dimensional Championships will occur, where the occupants of the Dimensional Block will fight in a tournament for the right to challenge the current Dimensional Champion for their spot regardless of their level.
Oh. Right. I forgot about that. It was delayed due to the war, but the war ended before I even got home from my Cataclysm Class monster hunting trip. Not long after getting the notification I find myself being teleported into the Dimensional Council Chambers. But unlike the last time we were here, the place looks even larger and with more people. Which makes sense. The council did have a meeting while I was training, but that one was an optional one. So I didn¡¯t bother attending. And it was mainly to decide on whether they¡¯ll be kicking out the people from the former Dimensional Block #105 or not. Or if they¡¯d just kick out some choice people from them. In the end, from what Astrid told me at least, they decided to kick out the main instigators of the war and let everyone else stay. Or, well, everyone who wasn¡¯t already killed in the war, that is. Because a lot of people were killed in the war. So there are more people in this Dimensional Council than the last. And I¡¯m still the only person at the Fifth level of Authority. Although there are more people at the Fourth level than there were the last time we met. I just cross my legs and rest my arm on one armrest with the side of my head leaning against my fist as I look out over the people of the Block. Most of whom have long since gotten used to my presence by now and no longer look terrified. Probably because I¡¯ve never been known to kill random people in the Block before despite my power and they¡¯ve realized it by now. Certainly one of my favorite developments that¡¯ve occurred over the past several months. About five or so minutes pass as everyone gets settled in before another notification appears.
The Ten Year Event Selection will be amongst the following three choices: Dimension-Wide Dungeon This event will spawn a single Dimensional Dungeon within the Dimensional Block. Within this dungeon will be monsters ranging where the challengers will be able to clear each Tier starting with Tier 1 and going all the way to Tier 5 as a form of separate dungeon within the Dimensional Dungeon. The author''s content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. At least ten parties of challengers each with six members apiece or a total of sixty members split into more than ten parties may enter the dungeon at once, and each party will be separated into a different instance of the dungeon. This event will be open for three months to enter. However, challengers may leave whenever they please even if the entrance is no longer there. Dimension-Wide Treasure Hunt This event will spawn loot boxes across the entire Dimensional Block along with monsters to protect those loot boxes. The rewards from the loot boxes will range all the way from Tier 1 through Tier 5, with there being more lower Tier rewards than higher Tiered ones. However, this event will only last for one month before all of the loot boxes vanish, leaving behind the monsters still within the Block. Dimension-Wide Hunt This event will spawn monsters all across the entire Dimensional Block. And every monster slain during the Dimension-Wide Hunt will give the slayer a set amount of points depending on the Tier of the monster and the level difference between the one who slayed it and the monster itself. Killing other participants will give the killer a fifth of their points. Points may be spent at the end of the event on an Event Store. Come to a consensus on which event to select within one hour.
That last one¡­ the System really is just trying to kill everyone. That¡¯s just sad how it¡¯s going about it. Unfortunately for the System, at least in our Block, the Authority Holders here quickly rule out that one as an option. And then the Tier 3 level capped individuals and the precious few Tier 4s who have already reached that Tier ¨C which don¡¯t amount to many ¨C all immediately gravitate towards the Dimension-Wide Dungeon. Myself included. Some of the lower Authority, lower leveled people try to refute them, but their opinions are all squashed rather quickly. Which goes to show just how democratic we all are. Yeah. Democratic. I have no problems with this though and even throw my vote in the hat for the dungeon. And so do the subordinates of the high level Authority Holders in the council. So it doesn¡¯t even take five minutes for the vote to come to an end.
The following choice has been made for the Ten Year Event Selection: Dimension-Wide Dungeon This event will begin in one week¡¯s time. During the event the Dimensional Walls will be fully sealed off so that no other Dimensional Blocks may enter while the challengers are in the dungeon. Furthermore, war may not be declared on Dimensional Block #108 during this time. Now please select the groups who will be participating in the Dimension-Wide Dungeon. You have one hour.
Now the chaos really begins. Although I snap my fingers once, using quantum energy to create a bolt of, well, quantum energy striking straight into the air above my booth to grab everyone¡¯s attention. Silencing them all in an instant. And without wasting any time, I declare to everyone here, ¡°I¡¯m taking a spot for myself. And one for Astrid if she wishes to go.¡± The chamber stays silent for all of five seconds before they proceed to argue amongst themselves for the rest of the fifty-eight spots. A faint smile sneaks its way onto my face at the sight of them not even so much as putting up a fight for my or Astrid¡¯s spots. That¡¯s nice. My attention is brought to Ethan when he simply transforms into his true form and huffs out a puff of frost that begins to freeze the air around him. Immediately declaring to everyone without even so much saying it out loud that he¡¯s taking a spot too. So the rest of them begin fighting over the now-fifty-seven remaining spots. Yep. Democracy. B3 | Chapter 40 - Results Alexia When we realize that it¡¯s gonna take pretty much the entire hour for the other Authority Holders to fight- err, negotiate over who will be getting the other slots, Astrid and Ethan both join me in my booth. And just like the previous council meetings, we begin table top games. This time being a boardgame that Ethan brought instead of cards. We continue playing for the entire hour to the mark. And throughout the game, Ethan loses probably about three fifths of the time. While trying to flip the board ¡®on accident¡¯ to reset it. It never succeeds though, since Astrid is finally the same level as him by now and a Class S species. So she¡¯s pretty much even in power to the guy at this point. Thereabouts at least. And she keeps the board in place with her shadows. I just give an award winning smile to Ethan every time he tries to flip it though. And I swear he shivers slightly when I do so. Either way, by the time the hour ends, the idiots- err, I mean the Authority Holders outside of our booth still haven¡¯t finished selecting everyone. So the like six slots that never got a person assigned to them are randomly chosen by the System. Which kind of pisses off the other higher level Authority Holders, but it¡¯s their own fault for not being able to stop arguing. I do admit though that a single hour wasn¡¯t really much time. The three of us put away the game board. And by that, I mean Ethan puts it away with a sulky look on his face while Astrid smirks at him with her arms crossed victoriously and I ignore the two of them to focus on the outside of the booth. Where the other people are also looking rather upset. Or at least, the people who didn¡¯t get chosen. Another notification appears right as the two are leaving my booth.
The Ten Year Event Selection is now complete. The Dimension-Wide Dungeon will appear in one week¡¯s time. Prepare for it shall appear next to the Champion of the Dimensional Block.
Everyone in the chamber turns to stare at me, giving me a very bad feeling. Damnit, I better not have a mob of people following me¡­ And another notification appears, not giving me much time to mentally complain about the System¡¯s stupidity.
The Dimensional Championships will occur three days after the last challenger leaves the Dimension-Wide Dungeon. This tournament will be set place in a special location within the Dimensional Block similar to the Dimensional Council Chamber. This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it. Outsiders will not be allowed to visit the Block during this tournament unless given permission by a denizen of the Block with Level Three Authority or higher. All competitors within the tournament who die will respawn after their match. The winner of the tournament will be given the right to challenge the current Dimensional Champion for their position as Champion without having to fear dying if they should lose. This tournament will be repeated after every Ten Year Event, and the Dimensional Champion will be forbidden from taking action against those who challenge them strictly for challenging them. They may, however, attack them outside of the tournament if they so please so long as it has nothing to do with the tournament. Good luck. You¡¯ll need it to face the Reaper.
I blink at that, feeling rather surprised about that last line. A line that directly mentions me. Huh. That¡¯s a little surprising. I don¡¯t get long to think about it though as all of the gazes now locked onto me as I once again sit with my cheek resting on my fist while leaning against my throne quickly distract me. Gazes that are all filled with zeal. Like they¡¯re all looking to take my spot. Then again, guess it makes sense. The position of Dimensional Champion comes with a boost to their Authority Level, and they wouldn¡¯t have a chance at defeating me to take the position outside of the tournament. Because even if they tried and somehow won, I could just teleport away, and they¡¯d likely never catch me. Kind of annoying though. They all probably also realize that I really don¡¯t care about the status of Dimensional Champion. I honestly couldn¡¯t care less about it. So they know I won¡¯t be upset for it, not that it looks like that¡¯ll matter, since I apparently can¡¯t take it out on them even if I wanted to. But yeah. I already have the level of Authority being a Dimensional Champion gave me, and the System won¡¯t be taking it back. It can¡¯t, according to the Architect. So there¡¯s not really a point in being Champion. Especially when it comes with a bunch of annoying problems. ¡°You¡¯ll be rewarded with another Level of Authority for winning the duel at the end with the one challenging you,¡± the Quantum Architect comments, making me blink for a second. Right. So as I was saying, I¡¯ll fight hard to retain my position as the Dimensional Champion. He snorts at that. After that, another notification appears merely telling us that we have another three hours to spend in the Chamber before we¡¯re all kicked out. Simply to discuss stuff amongst ourselves. And of course, after that notification, Astrid and Ethan both rejoin me in my booth, and we return to playing boardgames. Except Ethan brings out a different game this time, likely because he was losing too much with the last game. Seriously. This damned family of dragons is ruining the image of dragons I had in my head. Although, putting him and his family aside, I¡¯m gonna have to go find somewhere away from the Retreat after this meeting. Because really don¡¯t want that entrance opening up right next to the city. Not when the other city leaders of Dimensional Block #108 will be coming to where the dungeon entrance opens. But where will be a good spot to let it open¡­ B3 | Chapter 41 - Training Alexia I end up spending the entire three hours playing boardgames with Astrid and Ethan while keeping some of my attention on the people outside of my booth. Also while trying to decide where I¡¯m gonna let the dungeon open up at. The people of Dimensional Block #108 ¨C for the most part at least ¨C spend the three hours making decisions about who to let into the Dimensional Block, what to do with the people who surrendered amongst the Authority Holders, and what they¡¯re gonna do with the former Dimensional Block #105 territory. None of which affects me much, so while I listen just in case I hear something I actually care about, I spend more time focusing on trying to figure out where to let the dungeon open. Eventually though, the three hours come to a close and I find myself reappearing back in my room, where I immediately return to training my Energy Manipulation. Right. I need to finish getting Energy Manipulation to Tier 3 before the dungeon opens up. Otherwise any EXP I¡¯d get from the place would go to waste. I nod my head at that thought before closing my eyes and returning to my practice. Using one of the methods the Architect taught me to manipulate the energy. Including using those threads, drawing them together into various little ¡®energy hands.¡¯ Hands that I use to draw in far more energy and interact with it. He also taught me more efficient ways to use the threads to make ¡®spells¡¯ out of pure energy. Kind of like when I used to use mana before the Reset to make spells. Just that I do it myself rather than using a spell circle. Unlike back then. I take in a deep breath before letting it out. Then I focus on grabbing a bunch of energy and form it into various runes, using the language of the quantum beings. A language that was taught to me by the Architect that¡¯s apparently a lot more powerful than just willing it to do something. Even if it¡¯s slower and less efficient. After forming the runes for fire, a large purple ball of fire appears in front of me, making me open my eyes to look at it. ¡°Sloppy,¡± the Architect states without even opening his eyes on my shoulder. ¡°Do it again.¡± So I close my eyes and pull the energy back out of the rune before beginning to redo it. Only for the Architect to say, ¡°Do it with your eyes open. You¡¯re going to have to learn how at some point so it¡¯s best to get into a habit of doing so now. You won¡¯t be able to shut your eyes in the middle of a battle when casting spells.¡± The author''s content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. I grit my teeth at that, but agree with him. Might even be gritting my teeth because I agree with him. ¡°If you want to reach Tier 3 in the skill and therefore Tier 4 overall before the dungeon appears, you need to work on what¡¯ll get you the most progress,¡± he says in response to my thoughts. True¡­ Ugh. It just feels weird and uncomfortable to write out the runes and control energy with my eyes open. Like I¡¯m focusing on two different senses of ¡®sight¡¯ at once. Which I kind of am in a way. Uncomfortable or not, I do need to work on it. Because he¡¯s right that I can¡¯t just close my eyes whenever I try to do a spell in battle. So I open my eyes and immediately slip up in my control on the energy I had in the ¡®hands¡¯. Yeah, that¡¯s to be expected. I slowly form threads with the energy around me and my soul before equally slowly writing out runes. While making sure to keep my eyes open in the process, even if my eyes are just glazed over and I¡¯m not focusing on anything in my sight. ¡°Just get used to keeping your eyes open first, then multitask,¡± the Architect says, telling me that what I¡¯m doing right now is fine. In the process of making the rune, I mess up several times, with each mistake causing the rune to make some other form of magic. Sometimes a ball of water that ends up dropping and splashing on the ground due to not having a proper anchorage to keep it floating. Other times a bolt of lightning that immediately rushes for the metal bed frame I¡¯m sitting on, leading to it jumping onto my leg which is up against it and zapping me. Not that it hurts since I¡¯m not using much power. Eventually I manage to form the rune correctly, with the correct anchorage for that particular rune so that it stays floating where I want it to float. I let out a sigh of relief. ¡°Now do it a hundred more times with your eyes still open,¡± the Architect says, almost making me slip up in my control. ¡°Then repeat it more times with other runes instead of just the fire rune.¡± I take in a deep breath before letting it out again. Then I slowly pull the power out of the rune before undoing the rune itself. And I follow that up by remaking the rune just as slowly as I did the last time, only to undo it again after I succeed. That same process repeats several times over and over again, with me failing about a fifth of the time. But each time I repeat it, I manage to feel a bit more used to the process overall. Still not particularly comfortable, but used to it at least. Once I eventually hit a hundred times, I¡¯ve decreased it to about a twentieth of them being failures. So I change it to a different rune and my success rate immediately drops by a large amount. Ugh. This really is a pain. Imagining having to do this in the middle of a battle is not a pleasant thought. Because this is far harder than manipulating mana. ¡°Mana is made from energy in a way that it¡¯s easier to use for System inhabitants, but it¡¯s also weaker, there¡¯s less that can be done with it, and it¡¯s limited to affinity,¡± the Architect says, repeating something he¡¯s told me more than a dozen times already. I don¡¯t respond. Instead I simply continue repeating the same process over and over again. Please let me hit Tier 3 soon¡­ B3 | Chapter 42 - Tier 3 Alexia After spending every last day of the time before the event doing nothing but training my Energy Manipulation, not even sleeping or taking any breaks in between, I finally get the message I¡¯m looking for. {Congratulations! Your General Skill ¡®Energy Manipulation¡¯ has reached Level 20! Would you like to expend a Monster Core to raise the skill to Tier 3?} And without any hesitation, I raise it to level 21 with a core. {Congratulations! Your General Skill ¡®Energy Manipulation¡¯ has reached Level 21!} [Energy Manipulation has been brought to Tier 3. Requirement to bring Energy Manipulation to Tier 3 has been cleared. All requirements are now cleared. User will now advance to Tier 4.] Then I pass out as the System¡¯s barrier surrounds me and my bed. And when I wake up again, I feel invigorated and full of energy. Or, full of soul I guess would be the better term. Meanwhile several System Messages are ringing out in my head and floating at the center of my vision, urging me to read them. {Congratulations! You have reached Tier 4! The effect of each stat point has been increased by fifty percent and your level lock has been removed! Current advanced stats are 50% weakness to all magic, 90% immunity to all physical damage, and a stat multiplier of 1.5.} {Congratulations! You have leveled up to level 501! Your Species has awarded you +2 VIT, +2 DEX, +2 STR, +2 MAG, and +2 MEN. Your Class has awarded you +1 VIT, +2 DEX, +1 STR, +2 MAG, and +2 MEN.} [*New Racial Skill* ¨C Incomplete True Form: You now have access to your Incomplete True Form. To upgrade this into your True Form, you must enter the Quantum Realm and find your core.] Right. I almost forgot about that bit. The whole finding my core thing. So how do I¡­ My thoughts trail off when I notice a man sitting on a chair nearby reading a book. One I very much recognize as the Quantum Architect. Just in his true form and no longer being in a clone body of Luna. Oh. Yeah, the Ruler did mention that he¡¯d be returned to his original form after I reach Tier 4. This novel''s true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there. Before I can say anything though, I feel someone tackling me from my position lying down on my bed, making me let out a huff of air. Not feeling any pain or anything probably due to that increase in physical damage immunity. Which should actually be at 100% now thanks to the 10% extra I got from ascending along with the armor I¡¯m wearing. So physical damage won¡¯t hurt me anymore. Just magical. Although my magical weakness shot up so it¡¯s a weakness again, instead of being countered by my skills and items. That aside, the one who tackled me¡­ is that¡­ huh. A smile graces my lips as I pat the teenage-looking girl on the back and stroke her hair a little. And after a second, I say, ¡°Hello Luna.¡± ¡°Momma!¡± Luna says, making me stiffen ever so slightly before I just return to stroking her hair. Whatever. She can call me what she wants. We stay in our position for a few more seconds before I push her backwards a bit to get a better look at her. And just as I expected, she looks exactly like how the Architect looked when he took her Quantum Vampire form. Which is to say, she looks like a younger version of me. Black hair with a purple tint, glitchy purple eyes, same facial structure, and so on. After looking her over for a bit, I smile wider and pat her head, making her giggle. Interesting. She¡¯s acting more like a seven or eight year old than a teenager. Then again, she¡¯s only like a little over a year old at most. So that makes sense. Anyways, I turn to look at the Architect again as I ask, ¡°How long was I out?¡± He answers without turning his head away from the book in his hands ¨C a book I can¡¯t help but question where came from ¨C ¡°Less than a day. If you want to leave the Retreat before the event, I¡¯d suggest doing it now.¡± Right. Almost forgot. I quickly get up and begin walking out of my house, only to notice that the Architect is staying behind. But in the end I decide I genuinely don¡¯t care about what he does and continue leaving. Of course, I take my house with me, which leads to him falling out of it, seemingly having forgotten about that part. ¡°Mommy, can I enter the dungeon on my own?¡± Luna asks, making me glance at her in surprise, the girl having ran right alongside me out of the house. ¡°Why?¡± I ask while tilting my head, not feeling uncomfortable by the idea or anything. Just curious. Luna looks down and clenches her fist for a moment before looking up at me again and saying, ¡°I want to do what you do. Without help.¡± I stare at her for a few seconds, meeting her glitchy purple eyes with my own, only briefly glancing at her mouth to realize she has sharp canines before returning my gaze to her eyes again as I say, ¡°Alright. Go ahead. But be careful and make sure to teleport back to me with that skill of yours if you feel you¡¯re unable to continue or are in danger, okay?¡± She immediately brightens up and nods her head repeatedly. Then we both begin moving through the air towards a random island not too far away but not nearby either. With me teleporting and Luna growing bat wings from her back. And once we get there, I stop teleporting and land on the ground on some barren planet made entirely of stone, where I decide that there¡¯s no time like the present to check it out. My True Form. Or, Incomplete True Form, that is. The Ruler said I should be able to use it whenever I want so long as I¡¯m not using it to attack someone. Otherwise I¡¯ll get punished. Not sure if that applies for the incomplete true form as well or what, but I¡¯d rather not test it. So while Luna stands to the side watching, her head tilted slightly in a rather adorable manner, I activate my new Racial Skill. B3 | Chapter 43 - The Quantum Reaper All Across Dimensional Block #108 A powerful wave of quantum energy flows out across the entire Block, catching the attention of everyone in it. But only those who are already nearing or already at Tier 4 manage to sense the direction the energy is coming from before they quickly set out towards it, having already been searching for the Quantum Reaper for the opening of the Dimension-Wide Dungeon. And once they get within half the Dimensional Block¡¯s distance from it, they spot a bright beacon of glitchy purple and blue light shining high into the sky. A purple and blue light slowly mixing with a small amount of black light. And when they see it, every last being within range of sight stiffens up completely. Whether they¡¯re a monster or a user. Just an instinctive wave of fear that freezes each and every last one of them. Except two people who quickly move to nearby islands. One being the only Shadowborn Hydra in existence and the other the son of the Ancestral Dragon himself. And the two of them both smile as they watch the events going down on the stone island where the beacon is shining from the center of. Vast waves of glitchy purple energy can be seen radiating out of the massive beacon, spreading across the entire Dimensional Block. But what draws their eye the most is the sight of the silhouette at the center of the beacon slowly rising up into the sky within the purple energy making up the beacon. A silhouette that is slowly morphing. At first it¡¯s just two strange appendages sticking out of the silhouette¡¯s head, both too difficult to make out through the beacon of energy. Then wings begin to emerge from the silhouette. Meanwhile a large scythe emerges in the beacon located above the silhouette before it lowers down, and the silhouette grabs it. The energy continues to radiate out in waves, terrifying everyone within the Block before at last, the pillar begins to fade, revealing the silhouette in all her glory. Both Astrid and Ethan grin when they spot her. Alexia, the sole Quantum Reaper of reality, floats slowly down towards the ground, her long dark hair tinted heavily with purple as it billows in the wind over her shoulder, glitching as it does so. Despite the appendages on her head showing in her silhouette when she was in the pillar, nothing can be seen now other than her deep purple and black hood pulled on over her head. Meanwhile two dark black and purple wings that are a mixture of draconic and avian in origin open up, spreading out around her after having been curled inwards. Both wings of which glitch repeatedly in multiple locations all across it, confusing the eyes of anyone who looks at them. And her eyes, both glowing with a glitchy purple light while making it impossible to tell where exactly she¡¯s looking, release a wave of energy when they¡¯re opened. But what catches the attention of everyone who can see her no matter how far away they are the most is the scythe she has in her hand. A scythe radiating so much energy that it¡¯s warping the reality around it while bolts of purple energy repeatedly spark, jumping back and forth from the scythe and its wielder¡¯s hand as the wielder in question raises it to get a closer look. Then she lowers it a little and swipes it through the air. This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author''s work. The blade of the scythe digs into reality and begins to rip it open, revealing a strange realm filled with quantum energy beyond the rift that is left behind. But the Quantum Reaper pulls the scythe back out and closes the rift again with her bare hands, not bothering to pass through it. And when anyone nearby tries to identify her, all they end up with as a result are two simple words and an ominous sentence. {Quantum Reaper ¨C May you forever stay on the right side of the universe¡¯s wrath} A chill runs down the spines of everyone who had identified her. Everyone except her sister, who just grins. Then all of the power vanishes in an instant along with a thunderclap as the entire transformation just reverts and the scythe vanishes without warning, leaving the Quantum Reaper to fall downwards before she manages to catch herself by teleporting so as to not faceplant on the ground. Silence fills the entire Dimensional Block. A silence that is only broken by a single snort of amusement from the Quantum Reaper¡¯s sister. And the silence returns even after that, filling the entire Dimensional Block. Meanwhile the Reaper looks around with a frown on her face, as if she¡¯s trying to figure out what had happened. But it doesn¡¯t take long before the System Notification rings out through the Block, warning everyone of the Dimension-Wide Dungeon¡¯s spawning.
The Ten Year Event will now begin. The Dimension-Wide Dungeon is now appearing. A Dimensional Block-wide map will appear in the corner of every challenger¡¯s vision with a waypoint leading directly to the location of the dungeon. You will have three months to enter the dungeon. You may enter the dungeon as many times as you please during this time so long as you are a marked challenger chosen by the Dimensional Block¡¯s Authority Holders. You may leave the dungeon at any time, however you may no longer enter after the three month period of the Event. The Event will end when the last person leaves.
And immediately after the notification appears, every one of the challengers immediately continues making their way towards the Quantum Reaper. Meanwhile a massive door appears right next to the Quantum Reaper herself, making her turn to look at it before she glances at her sister an island away and nods. Then she reaches forwards and enters the massive door. Entering the Dimension-Wide Dungeon Event of the 108th Dimensional Block. B3 | Chapter 44 - Temporary Racial Skills Alexia I can¡¯t help but smile as I look at the notification, not really paying much attention to my surroundings after entering the Dimension-Wide Dungeon. Simply because it said I was entering the Tier 1 part of the dungeon. Which isn¡¯t a threat to me no matter what.
You have now entered your Incomplete True Form as a Quantum Reaper. As the sole Quantum Reaper, you have one role to play. The Reaper of Reality. While in this form, you are given five special Racial Skills. However, you may only stay in this form for a few minutes if you are not acting for your role. However, since you are merely in your Incomplete True Form, you will only receive three of your five special Racial Skills. These skills are as follows: Soul Reaping: With every swing of your scythe, you take a chunk of the target¡¯s soul out and feed it to the universe itself. Therefore any damage dealt with the Reaper¡¯s Scythe is unhealable, regardless of what type of damage it is, who is trying to heal it, or what the damage is being done to. Only the Reaper herself may revert the damage with her own hands. Corruption Immunity: As one of the Quantum Beings holding a role to the universe, you are fully immune to the corruption of the other side. The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement. Living Singularity: You are one of the sources of energy. A living singularity. All energy in the surroundings will be drawn to you, made to enter you, and feed your soul.
Those are some nice skills. It¡¯s just too bad that the transformation barely lasted any time whatsoever. Soul Reaping especially looks really nice. Although¡­ so much for not using a scythe. Not entirely sure what ¡®corruption of the other side¡¯ means though. The only place I¡¯ve heard any mention of corruption from is those Chaos Monsters and Cataclysm Class monsters. Soooo¡­ Architect? I stand in place for several awkward seconds before finally realizing something. Oh. Right. The Architect isn¡¯t here anymore. He decided to stay behind. Oops. Well, guess there goes my free question answering booth. I¡¯ll just ask him when I get out. On that note, it¡¯s rather interesting how the whole Soul Reaping thing works on more than just people and monsters. But on reality itself. I¡¯m pretty sure when I tore apart reality there I opened it to the quantum realm. Judging by how much quantum energy poured through it after doing so. Interesting how I just instinctively felt that I could close it back up again with my bare hands. Merely by grabbing the rift and forcing it shut. Also wasn¡¯t expecting that rather grand looking transformation. One seen throughout pretty much the entire Block. Overall I¡¯d say this has been a pretty good ascension to Tier 4. So, now that I¡¯ve finished wrapping my head around things, I finally focus on my surroundings. And the Tier 1 part of the dungeon is not looking all that pleasant, if I¡¯m being honest. I¡¯m standing inside of a large cavern that¡¯s completely damp with some very deep pools of water spread all around the place. Meanwhile there are slimes all across the place along with some marine monsters in the water. Water that goes really deep to the point of not even being in my senses anymore. Then again, this place is just Tier 1. So it¡¯s not like it¡¯s gonna be a problem even if I do have to travel underwater for it. Not like I have to breathe after all. But, more importantly¡­ I look around a bit before deciding to jump into the water. Because I don¡¯t know if slimes count as physical damage. Then I go and grab a random piranha ¨C once again, the System loves its piranhas ¨C and make the thing chomp down on my hand. Which is a bit of a struggle since the thing is deathly terrified of me for obvious reasons. Once it does chomp down though, I find a rather interesting sight. The skin around my hand that I have it chomp down on simply glitches out, letting the piranha¡¯s teeth pass straight through as if my hand wasn¡¯t there. Then its mouth is forced right out of my hand, leaving it without any signs of what¡¯d just happened. Interesting. So that¡¯s how my full immunity to physical damage works. Anything that tries to harm me will just glitch right on through before being forced back out again. It¡¯s just too bad that I had to trade a larger weakness to magic for this. But if I¡¯m being honest, I¡¯d rather have a full immunity to one of them than having a weakness to one and still being affected by the other as well. After all, this opens up a lot of strategies for me. Even if it closes a few too. It opens more than it closes, which is what matters. It¡¯s too bad that I can¡¯t test my immunity on something more powerful though. Since this is just the Tier 1 part of the dungeon. And I can¡¯t attack myself either since I still have Quantum Infusion active, making it so all of my attacks include quantum damage. Meaning I don¡¯t have any attacks that don¡¯t do magical damage. At all. Not unless I find a Safe Zone and remove Quantum Infusion from my list of skills. Which I¡¯m not gonna do. Too much work. No real reason. I¡¯d rather just go deal with this Tier 1 dungeon before moving on through the rest of the dungeons into Tier 3 and then Tier 4 dungeons. Where I¡¯ll actually be given a challenge. It¡¯s too bad I couldn¡¯t get the ¡®first to reach Tier 4¡¯ Legendary Feat though. Someone else got that while I was still training my Energy Manipulation. And it wasn¡¯t even a Class S that did so. Then again, that honestly makes more sense. Since non-Class S species tend to have easier requirements to advance in Tier. Still a pity though. I look down at my fist before clenching it slightly, still feeling the enhanced strength from being Tier 4. A rather large increase from what I¡¯ve heard. Then I raise my head to look at one of the holes in the ground filled with water. Well, time to head out. B3 | Chapter 45 - Dungeons Galore Alexia It doesn¡¯t take me long at all to make my way through the tunnels. I just teleport from one point to another, using my senses to find my way. Meanwhile the monsters are all easily killed with a single slap. Or just a single Quantum Bolt that ends up blowing up far more than just the monster. Eventually I arrive at a boss and kill it with a single slash of my blade before moving on to the next part of the Tier 1 part of the dungeon. And then defeat another boss and move on to the next part. And another boss and the next part. Rinse and repeat over and over again for at least a few hours until I end up at the final boss of the Tier 1 portion of the Dimension-Wide Dungeon. Which is a large piranha. A large piranha that dies in an instant because it¡¯s just a Tier 1 large piranha. After dealing with the piranha, I go ahead and pass through the large door that appears in the place of its corpse. Leading to me appearing in some sort of volcano. One with a bunch of goblins and salamanders roaming around. Even some goblins on salamanders. Which is an odd sight to see to say the least. They don¡¯t pose any problem either though. Since I just wipe them all out while teleporting straight through the dungeon, not even bothering to stop at the little goblin fortresses that I see along the way. Instead just blowing them off the face of my mini map ¨C a skill I swapped in before coming here, of course ¨C in an instant while passing by. Eventually I arrive at the largest volcano with a castle in its crater. A castle I blow up as well with a bunch of Quantum Bolts raining down on it along with some Quantum Singularity Implosions. Leaving the crater even larger than it was before. Then I teleport down to the exit that¡¯s just kinda floating in the crater before passing through it to the Tier 3 portion of the dungeon. This sure is going by quickly. Although, that makes sense. It would be weirder if it took longer. Considering how powerful Tier 4s are compared to Tiers 1 through 3. Even the Tier 3 portion of the dungeon ¨C which is just one large forest filled with spider monsters ¨C isn¡¯t a challenge to me and is dealt with really quickly. Simply by me teleporting across the sky, blasting any spider that rushes towards me along with any large arrays of cobwebs I spot in the forest until I find the largest cobweb and slaughter the boss spider in it. Revealing the exit after that. The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation. And as I teleport down to the ground next to the exit, I can¡¯t help but think about how this particular dungeon reminded me a lot of that elf and dryad dominated Dimensional Block with the naga in it. The one with poor Clark, the Spider Cataclysm Class monster. Rest in peace, not so little Clark. You will probably not be missed but I¡¯ll say you¡¯ll be missed anyways. I have to say, some of those Cataclysm Class monsters really did have some bizarre names. Makes me wonder who¡¯s naming them. If anyone is. Maybe it¡¯s the monsters themselves that are just somehow instinctively picking their names. Or they could just be spawning in with one when they¡¯re created by the universe¡¯s excess mana and energy. Well, anyways, Cataclysm Class monster names aside, I take a deep breath before reaching out and touching the fancy looking door. Then I appear in some sort of labyrinth. One where my senses are actually blocked by the walls. I frown at that before looking back and forth across the different directions of the labyrinth, spotting some monsters in each direction. Strange monsters that look like a weird cross between spiders and mammals. Kind of like a normal flesh and skin mammal was in the shape of a spider with no hair across its body, black skin, and no carapace. Meanwhile they have a strange head, eight legs with some of them ending in hands and others feet, and what looks like one of those mouths that split open into multiple segments. All in all, creepy as hell. I identify the thing, making their gazes turn directly towards me. {Fallen Creep ¨C Level 501} That¡¯s¡­ a name. Yeah. It¡¯s certainly a name. Also a Class B equivalent Chaos Monster right off the bat. The¡­ creeps? The creeps immediately start rushing at me while screaming, screeching, and making all sorts of other noises and throwing their legs all over the place. But I just kinda stand still and watch with my arms crossed and my head tilted. Simply because I don¡¯t sense them using any magic, so this is the perfect chance to test out my immunity to physical damage. What with them being just a single level beneath me ¨C me having leveled up only a single time from clearing three dungeons before this. Which is ridiculous. And when the creeps reach me, they all try to attack me in various different ways. Some including slapping me, kicking me, hitting me with their legs, or biting me with their segmented mouths. None of them do squat though, all of their attacks just kinda glitching right on through me. Nice. I begin slaughtering them, since they¡¯re not really much more than eyesores right now. Hopefully the rest of this dungeon uses magic, otherwise this¡¯ll be boring. Starting to understand how Lucas feels with his immunity to magic. Just that mine¡¯s an immunity to physical damage instead. Not really sure which is better though. Probably his, since he doesn¡¯t have a weakness to go along with the immunity. Although if it were just comparing physical and magical damage immunity, that I¡¯d say is pretty even between the two. Since magical attacks tend to be more powerful but also far less common. Kind of balances out. After slaughtering this little wave of creeps though, more turn the corner. And these ones don¡¯t just repeat what the last ones do. These ones open their mouths and begin using breath attacks that I actually have to teleport out of the way of. There we go. There¡¯s the magical attacks. Time to finally start fighting in this dungeon. And I mean really fighting. B3 | Chapter 46 - The Maze Alexia I quickly find that the creeps¡¯ use quite the variety of different elements. Ranging all the way from lightning, to fire, and even ice. Some complete opposites on the elemental range. But all with rather skillful control. The things are rather easy to kill with Quantum Bolts though. And in the end, I only get hit by a single breath attack of the bunch. An attack that hurts. Burns straight through my armor and singes my skin despite me only being grazed by the attack. So, ouch. My natural healing deals with the injury rather quickly though, making it not a problem. After dealing with the creeps, I move on to moving through the labyrinth. Or, rather, the maze, as I quickly come to realize while traveling through it and ending up at more dead ends than I care to remember. During my little trek through the maze, I find dozens of creeps roaming around. And out of my battles with them, I end up being hurt by their breath attacks only a few times. But one thing I do manage to figure out several things about the creeps. Like the fact that they all seem to have a hivemind of sorts, since none of the creeps after the first bunch so much as tried to attack me physically, and they all seem to be learning how to target me over time. I also learn a lot more about them though, so they aren¡¯t doing much better against me than I am against them. Tactics wise. They¡¯re not strong, so they¡¯re definitely doing worse than me over all. What with them all dying. Eventually I begin to run into traps as well, hopefully meaning that I¡¯m going the correct way through the maze. Both large and small ones. Large traps like entire floors dropping out, which I avoid simply by teleporting. And small traps like darts and flames shooting out of the walls, which count as physical damage since it¡¯s not done through magic. So I just plain ignore those. It¡¯s really nice having immunity to physical damage. Incredibly nice. I can¡¯t help but smile at that thought as I walk through a bunch of gunfire shooting out from the walls, ignoring the bullets entirely. Immunity to damage is a very rare thing. Only the best gear can give it, and only up to thirty percent immunity at the very most. Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. And the only skills that can give immunity to damage are racial skills. Other than skills and gear, it¡¯s just Legendary Feats that can give immunity. Like Lucas¡¯s Legendary Feat. Nothing else. That said, the whole weakness to magic is a little annoying. More than a little, actually. It¡¯s very annoying. Even if the immunity to physical damage is really nice. I continue going from one dead end to another, passing through more and more traps until I finally start to find some more dangerous traps. Or rather, some actually dangerous traps. Ones that are magical in nature and catch me by surprise with the first set since it actually damages me. Hits me with a magical poison needle. I quickly heal myself and continue on after that though, and I start moving more carefully through the halls of the maze so as to not be caught off guard by any other magical traps. The creeps slowly begin to grow more powerful as well, to the point that they¡¯re now a higher level than me at level 530-540 on average. So I¡¯m starting to struggle a little bit more with them, taking more and more damage with each increase in level. Meanwhile I¡¯m leveling up a lot slower than I was in Tier 3. Which is to be expected. Other than the whole setup being one dungeon after another, the Dimension-Wide Dungeon hasn¡¯t been any different from a normal dungeon. But it¡¯s a little hard to tell for the fourth Tier, since I¡¯ve never been in one before. And Tier 4 dungeons had less information about them public before the Reset. I frown as I teleport behind a creep and swing my polearm so that the blade at the end cuts straight through one of its limbs before I kick it, activating Quantum Bolt right beneath my foot and knocking it onto the ground. Then I stab it through the head with my polearm and step back. It¡¯s been a while since I was grinding like this in a dungeon. I turn around, only to freeze when something enters the range of my senses. Something a lot stronger than the creeps I¡¯ve been fighting thus far. At least two dozen levels stronger. Probably somewhere around level 550 ish. A boss, maybe? I begin heading in the direction of the energy source. And it doesn¡¯t take long for me to find the thing, since it¡¯s heading in my direction as well. As if the thing can sense me too. Once we both turn the last corner to see each other, we both pause. I find myself staring at the thing, which looks like an even bigger version of the creeps, just with some scales and feathers added across its body. Making it look even creepier than the other creeps. Meanwhile the creature tilts its head while returning my gaze. And we both just stand in silence for several seconds. Eventually I identify the monster to find that it¡¯s a Class A equivalent Chaos Monster. {Creeper of the Maze ¨C Species: Fallen Creeper ¨C Level 551} With a very similar species name to the other ones. Except with a special name. Although, now that I look at it for a bit longer, I realize something. It also has a tail. A tiny one, but a tail. One similar to that of a scorpion. Just so thin that it¡¯s the size of a damned needle. That¡¯s just¡­ weird. And at the end of the needle tail is a scorpion-like stinger that really doesn¡¯t look like it would fit on the end of the tail. Very weird. The creature finally screeches and rushes straight at me, moving so quickly that it¡¯s just a blur. But I quickly teleport out of the way, just barely dodging its stinger. Wow. Fast too. Rather early on to be finding Class A equivalents, so this¡¯ll be interesting. B3 | Chapter 47 - Creepy Creeper Alexia I start things out by trying to teleport right up to it and blasting it with a Quantum Bolt. But to my surprise, my Quantum Bolt quite literally just bounces off of some of the scales the thing has on its body. Huh. What¡¯s even odder is that it did actually hurt the thing. Just not where the scales are. The bolt was too large to hit just the scaled area, so while it was deflected, it did deal damage to the surrounding skin and feathers around its scales. Very strange creature. Also fast, since I only barely teleport out of the way before its needle goes flying past my face again. And as it does so, I can¡¯t help but notice the faint purple glimmer in the needle that makes me realize it has magic. Which isn¡¯t too surprising all things considered. So with that in mind, I avoid its tail like the plague. Because it may just be that. I try a few other things on the thing that is probably some sort of mini boss, seeing as I haven¡¯t gotten a message about entering its lair. Or just an elite monster. And out of the things I try, including attacking it physically, sending Quantum Bolts at other parts of its body, and using widespread attacks like implosion, none of them particularly fail nor do they work. The feathers somehow manage to deflect my physical attacks. Not sure how. The scales literally move around in a rather disgusting and squelchy way across its body to block an attack if I attack a part of it without scales with Quantum Bolt. Which grosses me out just to see. And when I tried to use Quantum Singularity Implosion, the thing just kind of¡­ uh¡­ ignored it. Bizarre. Guess explosions and implosions are no for it. Probably. Either way, I try to attack it physically a few more times, still only barely outmatching it in speed thanks to the fact that I¡¯m a Class S species and it is only Class A. But every time it¡¯s like the creature has a sort of auto-counter that misdirects my attacks. Which also teaches me that just because I¡¯m immune to physical damage doesn¡¯t mean others can¡¯t physically interact with me. Since it¡¯s able to misdirect my attacks and push my hands away in the first place. This narrative has been purloined without the author''s approval. Report any appearances on Amazon. Good to know. Eventually I move on to attacking the thing with nothing but magic. Both spells and skills. Mostly skills, because I don¡¯t have spells down all that well when in combat. Or well at all. In fact, I end up making a mistake while trying to form the runes for one mid-battle, leading to me being caught by the stupid needle. Which makes my skin begin to bubble and turn into a purple mush. Kind of gross to look at, so I just use Quantum Stasis Copy to return my body back to before it got the injury, costing a large portion of my soul in the process. And then I retaliate against the stupid¡­ thing¡­ by grabbing its needle tail and¡­ snapping¡­ it¡­ off? Huh. Was not¡­ expecting the needle to be so fragile. Then again, it¡¯s a needle. So¡­ Yeah. The creeper ¨C literally ¨C starts screeching and screaming in pain at the same time while scrambling onto the ground in a panic, unable to retain its footing. So now that it¡¯s all unbalanced, I go ahead and teleport right up to the head ¨C which I didn¡¯t do before because it seemed to have the fastest reaction speed there and would always very nearly hit me while forcing me back when I tried ¨C and blast the thing in the face with two Quantum Bolts at once. Killing the thing and making it drop to the ground in silence. [Level 551 Creeper Defeated ¨C User¡¯s earned EXP has been increased by a significant portion due to killing a being whose level is thirty or more levels above their own.] {Congratulations! You have leveled up to level 522! Your Species has awarded you +2 VIT, +2 DEX, +2 STR, +2 MAG, and +2 MEN. Your Class has awarded you +1 VIT, +2 DEX, +1 STR, +2 MAG, and +2 MEN.} Oh, nice. That¡¯s convenient. It¡¯s too bad I haven¡¯t gotten a single skill since reaching Tier 4 though. Just goes to show how rare skills become. I believe it¡¯s somewhere around every twenty-fifth level to get a new skill in this Tier? I think. And they¡¯re not even guaranteed to be better skills. So unfair. Then again, I get the feeling it¡¯s just the System trying to force people to be more independent from it after reaching a certain level of power. Making it so that the best things to do is to get Legendary Feats, regular Feats, and to train in mana manipulation. Or in my case, Energy Manipulation. To cast spells without the use of skills. I¡­ haven¡¯t been able to learn any quantum magic runes yet though. So¡­ yeah. Apparently they¡¯re some of the hardest runes to learn. Actually not the hardest runes though. Those are time magic runes according to the Architect. Which makes the Quantum Enforcer that much more powerful, since that¡¯s one of his specialties. Even if a lot of that is because of his species. Quantum Enforcer. And not just his own intelligence or capability to learn the runes. On another note, I make sure to put the creeper¡¯s corpse into my storage ring. Just to get Dravik to look at those scales and feathers. Because it would be quite nice to have scales capable of reflecting magic. Very nice indeed. Not many things can do that. Makes me wonder just what else these Chaos and Cataclysm Class monsters can do that were rarely ever seen before the Reset. But that¡¯s for me to ask the Architect about later. Assuming he hasn¡¯t, well, left, leaving me unable to find him again. Which would be a pain. I blink for a moment before frowning as I begin to walk through the hall of the maze again. Damnit, should¡¯ve put a tracker of some sorts on him before coming in here¡­ Wouldn¡¯t be surprised if he¡¯s left already. Considering that he knows I¡¯m gonna ask him more questions when I get out. That¡¯ll be a pain to track him down. I let out a sigh while I walk. Just need to think about the creepe- My thoughts pause as more creeps turn the corner and I decide against that. Hmm. These things really are disturbing looking. May be best not to think about them. B3 | Chapter 48 - Tedious Progress Alexia I continue marching on through the maze for several hours, not stopping much at all through the process until I finally arrive at a Safe Zone. At which point I go ahead and take a break. And a dip in the little hot spring located within the Safe Zone. Because why not. The System sure seems to like putting hot springs in the Safe Zones. Then again, it¡¯s good for relaxing, and they often have magical effects to them. So it makes sense. It¡¯s not like the System¡¯s bizarre obsession with piranhas. On that note, I¡¯m rather curious about if I¡¯ll run into any of those fishies here within this dungeon? I can¡¯t really see myself running into any, considering that it¡¯s a massive maze spanning across who knows how much space, but I still wouldn¡¯t be too surprised if it managed to sneak some in. Speaking of obsessions, now that I think about the subject, I¡¯m glad the Architect has his form back. Since people will stop asking me if I¡¯m collecting bats, what with me only having one bat again. I lean back in the hot spring, having actually changed out of my armor this time around into something more comfortable to laze around in. Mostly because it¡¯s a Safe Zone. It is nice to actually sit back and relax once in a while. I won¡¯t be staying for too long, of course. Just long enough to recover my soul a good chunk. But it¡¯s still nice. I rest with my arms held behind my head while looking up at the calming glowing stone shining from the ceiling of this little room set inside of the maze. With the sounds of water falling into the hot spring from a hole in the wall filling the room with ambient noise. And right as I¡¯m beginning to close my eyes, I hear a ringing sound while a System Notification appears in my vision.
Legendary Feat ¨C Harbinger of Mutation Damien Black has become the first user within the System to mutate over ten million beings into a different species.
Oh. Well, guess someone¡¯s been busy turning people into vampires. I¡¯m pretty sure his Lord of Vampires Legendary Feat and title came from him doing basically the same thing, just with smaller numbers. Turning one million beings into vampires or something like that. This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. As for the Legendary Feat itself? I think it gave him control over all vampires. Which doesn¡¯t affect me in the slightest. But this Harbinger of Mutation Legendary Feat¡­ not sure what that¡¯s supposed to do. Doesn¡¯t bode well that my enemy just got another Legendary Feat though. On another note, there have been more and more Legendary Feats nowadays. Probably because they become more common in Tier 4, 5, and for Ascendants than anything else. Most of the Legendary Feats tend to be given out to the first person to do something extremely common, hence the frequent Legendary Feats at the start of the Reset and a lot of mine, and to the first person to do something very difficult. Something most people never do. Like what lord vampy just did. And since most of the former have all been done already, it¡¯s moving on to the latter now that people are starting to become strong enough to even reach for them. I¡¯m rather curious about what Dimensional Block lord vampy turned into a vampire nest though. One massive nest of millions of vampires. Doesn¡¯t sound like a pleasant place to be. Not in the slightest. I continue lazing around in the hot springs for as long as it takes to restore my soul before getting out, putting my armor back on, and heading on through the maze once more. After checking on my skills, of course. And while walking through the maze, I make sure to keep an eye on my Dungeon Map. Which is a life saver in terms of traversing mazes. I can¡¯t even remember the number of times I backtracked and ended up lost in mazes before getting that skill. Or, rather, I can, but I¡¯d rather not remember. And unfortunately, I will end up having to backtrack through this maze. Because, for the first time in a very long time, the monsters are actually beginning to grow too many and too strong for me to handle. The monsters are starting to reach the range of the high five hundreds, with an occasional creeper that is actually at level six hundred. And combined with their numerical advantage, that ends up pushing me back even with my species Class advantage. Especially when I only have a certain amount of soul. In the end I have to use my map to find routes in the earlier sections that I never went through, letting me deal with the lower level monsters once again to level up some more. And after spending a few more hours doing this, I see another System Notification ringing out in my head and vision.
Legendary Feat ¨C Skill Thief Noah Kowalski has become the first user within the System to steal the skills of five thousand monsters.
That just stops me in my tracks as I end up staring at the notification. Excuse me, skill what-now? Skill Thief? Seriously? That¡¯s a thing? Huh? I mean, it¡¯s¡­ rather shocking. But at the same time, not as useful as it sounds. Considering that he can still only have a limited number of skills slotted at once. Also depends on how he steals the skills. Because I doubt the System would let someone go around stealing skills from someone without doing anything first. Most likely requires him to kill the monster in question or something. I do wonder if he can steal skills from users too though. Kind of hope he can¡¯t. Either way, this was the person with the same title as mom¡¯s species name. Devourer. That might mean that he has to eat the monster to steal a skill or something like that. But this is all speculation. I¡¯ll know when I meet him. Assuming I meet him. Anyways, I keep on marching my way through the maze. The damned seemingly endless maze. B3 | Intermission 4 Within another Instance of the Dimension-Wide Dungeon Luna jumps and skips through the Tier 4 dungeon humming to herself with a bright smile on her face. As she drains the life energy right out of everything she passes by without so much as looking at them. She¡¯s been avoiding all the more dangerous locations within the dungeons by just not taking the red portals. But she is starting to wonder if she should try to take on more powerful monsters soon. After skipping around a bit more, ignoring the small army of weaker monsters chasing after her while slowly shriveling up, she decides to just continue as she is. Her killing these things should be helping her mother after all. And while her amazing mother doesn¡¯t need the help, she wants to help her. Their levels are linked after all, and she doesn¡¯t want her mother to be the only one leveling up and pushing them forward. She wants to help too. All daughters should help their parents after all. That thought gives Luna pause though as a thought comes to mind, making her stop her skipping and tap her chin. If mother is my mother, who is my father? The face of the white haired dragon guy who is fond of cheating comes to mind, but then she shakes her head, remembering how her mother acts towards him. Not to mention how he is trying to cheat at that odd game, which is not the type of sort she¡¯d want as a father. Then after that guy the two older guys who had arrived come to mind, but they are too old to be her father. She thinks. Probably. And one is her grandfather after all, marking him off the list. Whatever a grandfather is. So who? She turns into her bat form again and flies up into the air right when the fallen kalla ¨C a creature who is covered in fur that glistens in the light reflected off the lava filling the cavern ¨C slashes its sharp claws right at her. Missing her in the process. No matter how much Luna tries to think though, she can¡¯t figure out who would fit the term father for her. Even that other old man who her mother had deemed ¡®quantum pops¡¯ and ¡®dictionary¡¯ ¨C words she still needs to figure out ¨C is her other grandfather. She thinks. The one who had briefly copied Luna¡¯s great appearance, clearly understanding how great she and her mother¡¯s appearances are. So he can¡¯t be her father. If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. She still respects him for his mutual respect of their power and appearance though. Luna¡¯s thoughts go to the other person who looks very similar to her mother, briefly wondering if she could be considered her father. If Luna remembers correctly, she was something called a sister. Whatever that was. And she hasn¡¯t heard anything about a father not being able to be a sister, so it¡¯ll probably be fine. Her head tilts slightly to the side as she lets out a little squeak, casually dipping down to avoid a flaming arrow shot at her by the still shriveling monsters down below. I could always try to call her father and see how it feels. Luna nods her head at that thought, deciding to call her mother¡¯s sister father the next time she sees her. And if it doesn¡¯t work out or doesn¡¯t feel right, she¡¯ll just call her by her name. Whatever that is. She continues to fly through the air while draining the kalla for several more minutes, very slowly killing each of them without actually getting physically violent with them. Then a question comes to mind. What is a father anyways? She¡¯s not entirely sure. She just knows that other people around that odd bunch of structures people called ¡®The Retreat¡¯ seemed to think having one was normal. So she decided she wanted to try having one too. I can just declare someone father, right? Luna ponders over that for a few seconds before deciding she can. After all, that strange quantum guy who looked a lot like the ¡®quantum pops¡¯ guy came and declared himself her mother¡¯s grandfather. Whatever that means. Luna declaring her mother¡¯s sister her father isn¡¯t much different. She lets out a little squeak at that thought before returning to the ground and her quantum vampire form, beginning to skip around everywhere once again. Still not caring about the level 502 monsters she¡¯s slaughtering rather easily due to her own level being tied to her mother¡¯s at level 540. Meanwhile she resumes her humming again. Luna likes humming. It¡¯s not something she could really do while in her bat form. Although she doesn¡¯t like it as much as she likes to listen to her mother when she hums, often without realizing she¡¯s humming. It¡¯s just nice and relaxing to her. Almost puts her to sleep every time just from how nice it is to listen to. So Luna continues to hum even as she passes by an elite monster within the dungeon, ignoring it as well since it¡¯s twenty levels beneath her. Skipping on past it while trying the thing she saw people doing back in ¡®The Retreat¡¯ they called dancing. Something she could never do since she wasn¡¯t humanoid. Luna¡¯s very happy with her new humanoid form. Especially since she looks so much like her mother. Before now she was worried because every other mother and daughter she saw looked similar to each other. But Luna was a bat while her mother was not. And that made her a little anxious. Now Luna and her mother look just like each other, albeit with her mother being bigger. Luna tries to let out a happy squeak at that, only to remember that she¡¯s in her quantum vampire form, not her bat form. So the sound comes out strange. She just acts like that didn¡¯t happen as she continues to ignore the monsters who are all sending one attack after another at her, the young girl skipping along with a bright smile on her face. This is such a nice day! B3 | Chapter 49 - System’s Obsession Alexia A clicking sound echoes through the area as I take a picture of the sight in front of me with the lovely new albeit slightly older looking phone I got from the people in Lucas¡¯s Dimensional Block. Right. So, if anyone ever tries to tell me that the System doesn¡¯t have some sort of obsession towards piranhas, I¡¯m just gonna point them towards this photo. I nod my head, absolute in my decision as the piranhas in the rather large and rather out of place river running through the maze jump out and into the water one after another. Seriously. What is with the System and piranhas? The Quantum Architect said he didn¡¯t have anything to do with it, so what¡¯s up? Did it just get the obsession over the years while quantum pops was in that tube? What¡¯s going on? I¡¯m honestly curious now. Also getting sick of piranhas. Although¡­ The slightest hint of a smile crosses my face as I reach into the water with a single finger, letting a piranha jump out to bite my finger. Only for the thing to pass straight on through without bothering me at all. Nice. They have no magic. In that case, I just begin to teleport, only to find that teleportation doesn¡¯t work. Which was kind of to be expected. The System often does that after all. It wants the piranhas to be fed no doubt. Anyways, I jump into the river while ignoring the piranhas that are quite literally glitching through my body every time one charges at me. And it¡¯s not just the piranhas, but the larger fishies in the water too. Not to mention some eels. They all pass right through me. Although I didn¡¯t realize until I saw them passing through that they were even in there. Should be more careful next time. I continue moving through the little river that just kinda goes through a few corridors of the maze before going underground on both directions. But I¡¯m not interested in either end of the river. What has my attention is the dead end at the other end of the river. Specifically the treasure chest at the end. A loot box. Would¡¯ve been nicer to just teleport over there, but it¡¯s fine. This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it. After swimming through the river for a couple more minutes ¨C the rapids being rather strong ¨C I make it to the other side and move up towards the chest while dripping water everywhere. Then I reach out and touch the thing, making a smile immediately light up my face at the sight of what comes out the top along with the menu that appears with it. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Revered Spatial Ring Description: This spatial ring can hold 1000 cubic kilometers of non-living matter and it has been created to perfectly fit the original finder, Alexia Knight, on their index finger. It may also hold 100 cubic meters of living matter. Stats Bonus: +100 MAG, +100 MEN Requirements: Must have one elemental affinity beyond B Grade. Item Tier: 5 (Item Tier increased by one due to the Legendary Feat, The First Clear) -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Ah, I really love The First Clear. It¡¯s probably my favorite Legendary Feat thus far. Still not sure how I feel about The Reaping though. Might be my favorite or might not. Considering how it is why I¡¯m so powerful, but it also wasn¡¯t really my feat. I had no say in the matter. But seriously. This spatial ring¡­ it¡¯s exactly what I was looking for before. Although¡­ probably would¡¯ve been nicer to get it when I needed it. At least I can still use it in case I need it in the future. The ring itself is actually rather simple despite being a Tier 5 item. It¡¯s just purple with a golden line running down the middle of the strange metal. I reach out to take it before putting the thing on my finger and then sitting here for who knows how long moving stuff out of my old storage ring onto the dead end of the corridor I¡¯m at. Then putting it back into my new ring. A process that is very boring too. Eventually I finish it though and put my old storage ring into the new one. The old storage ring was a Tier 3 one that I managed to get crafted for me while I was in Dimensional Block #1. Which would make a great gift for Luna when I see her next. Seeing as I already gave a ring to Astrid, having had two of them crafted for me at the time. I¡¯m pretty sure soul-bound companions can use them after all. And it would probably help. Whether she can keep it while in her bat form is a different matter. But I think it¡¯s safe to assume she can, considering that her clothes appear and disappear when she transforms. Not sure if she can use the thing while in her bat form though. Would have to test that when we see each other again. I turn back around after finishing moving the stuff between storage rings before jumping back into the water again. But instead of heading back across it to the other side, I move along the current to the neighboring corridor. Then I look back and forth to see which side of the corridor would be better. Because I¡¯m getting sick of ending up at one dead end after another. It¡¯s just annoying. And it¡¯s getting me nowhere. After traveling for half a minute though and finding a monster whose level is two hundred above my own though, I beat a hasty retreat back to the river and try the other corridor next to the one I was originally in. Because no. I look both ways once again and then head to the left before running into some more monsters. These of which are only around thirty or so levels above me. Which is much better. So I continue on down this path instead of the hell path. Since I still need levels, even if progress is important too. B3 | Chapter 50 - First Boss Alexia Days pass over the course of my leveling, and soon those days turn into weeks, and eventually months. But despite that, my leveling doesn¡¯t get too far. Even with me killing monsters on a daily basis, almost all the time. Because the higher my level becomes, the longer it takes to level up. Even with the enemies being the same level as me. To the point that I¡¯m only reaching level 700 now after spending three entire months in this place. I continue grimacing at the notification staring me in the face.
The Three Months have passed. The Event will end the moment every last participant leaves the dungeon. Until then the dungeon will stretch on, and no one will be allowed to enter it.
It¡¯s rather infuriating, if I¡¯m being honest. And that¡¯s not all. I open up the leaderboards again. [Dimensional Champion Leaderboard] [#1 Isabella d''Aragon ¨C Level 751] [#2 Lucas Nightshade ¨C Level 721] [#3 Alexia Knight ¨C Level 701] [#4 Sartori Silva ¨C Level 700] [#5 Ignivara ¨C Level 691] [#6 Artorius del Argon ¨C Level 690] [#7 Ethan Silva ¨C Level 671] [#8 Alexander Frost ¨C Level 659] [#9 Vallius Karan de Volt Hellmouth ¨C Level 658] [#10 Voltari ¨C Level 658] I¡¯m still not back at the top position. Not even in second. The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. Although, I did at least manage to claw my way back to the top thanks to this dungeon event. So there¡¯s that. Doesn¡¯t change the fact that Isabella is still ahead of me, and her lead is just growing. It¡¯s not shrinking, it¡¯s growing. Lucas on the other hand is leveling up at about the same speed as me. I can only guess most of the people in the top ten are in Dimension-Dungeons right about now. Since I can¡¯t really contact others outside of the dungeon. The only people I can contact right now are also in the dungeon. Which kind of makes it useless. Probably should¡¯ve gotten communication rings with people who didn¡¯t enter the dungeon. But it¡¯s too late now. And my phone can¡¯t connect through the dungeon, making it useless. I let out a sigh after both the notification and the leaderboards vanish, leaving me to continue wandering through the maze that has been my damned home for months now. Please, may all mazes in the dimension be burned to the ground some day. Actually, if I get strong enough to do that, I absolutely will. Destroy every last maze in existence. Sounds like a plan. I haven¡¯t even gotten to the Tier 5 dungeon yet. Meaning anyone waiting for me outside of this dungeon is going to be waiting for a long fucking time. Except for those Dimensional Council meetings that I¡¯ll be no doubt pulled into even while in here. Council meetings that better not make it so I¡¯m not able to return to the dungeon. My thoughts come to a halt when I turn a corner and find myself staring blankly at the exit to the maze. And I just kinda stand here staring for nearly half a minute, trying to process what I¡¯m seeing. I¡¯m¡­ out of the maze? But¡­ I¡¯m not even halfway through the dungeon. Or am I? I cautiously begin to step towards the edge of the maze before peering into the cavern and finding it filled to the brim with more creepers. Lots. And lots. Of creepers. Huh. The cavern itself is massive and filled with what look like odd webs made of some sort of metallic silk. And, uh, some sort of fleshy silk as well. Like a silk made out of flesh and blood. Rather disgusting. Meanwhile the creepers are just wandering all around it. I don¡¯t even need to identify them to know that they¡¯re all higher level than me by a decent chunk. Somewhere around fifty or so levels. That said, if these things are the level I think they are¡­ I go ahead and identify the closest one, only to teleport right up to it and stab my polearm into its head before teleporting away again, using the surprise to kill it right away. Then I focus on the results of the identify. {Creeper of the Maze¡¯s End ¨C Species: Fallen Creeper ¨C Level 751} Yep. I was right. Looks like I did just leave the first half of the dungeon. Only took me three months. To my complete lack of surprise, the moment my feet hit the ground, I get a message from the System. [You have entered the Tier 4 Boss Area, the Creeper¡¯s Nest.] Thought so. After teleporting, I noticed a faint shimmer on the ground. And I sensed a hint of a rift. Which generally mean a separated area in the dungeon. Fortunately I killed the creeper before it notified any of its pals of my identifying it. But I had to be sure. Not that it ended up mattering after I spotted the rift and got that message though. That aside, the first boss of this dungeon should be somewhere in this cavern. And considering how this boss is halfway through the dungeon, there will likely be one more boss at the end of it and no more in between here and there. Except possibly hidden area bosses. Which I would actually be inclined to try fighting. Would probably give me some good loot. Then again, unlike the other dungeons outside of this place that give me nothing but garbage that I end up selling for a fortune ¨C goes to show their value of worth ¨C the loot in this place is actually rather nice. Anyways, putting that aside, none of the creepers have noticed me. Despite my having killed one of them. Although they did notice the one I killed dying, even if they don¡¯t know where I am exactly. A faint smirk tugs its way onto my face. Finally. A good use for my cloak. Well, other than the added magic and physical damage resistance it¡¯s given me. Up till now it¡¯s kind of been rather useless thanks to my aura. But these creatures can¡¯t sense my aura. Something I¡¯ve noticed since a long time ago. So my cloak is actually doing what it should. I still wish I could get control over my aura though. Still at the top of my list of things to learn with Energy Manipulation. Now then. Time to find that boss. B3 | Chapter 51 - The Endless Grind Alexia As expected, when I get within a couple dozen meters of any of the creepers, they notice me. Without hesitation. But they also lose me again when I get out of that distance. Which is interesting. Never really tested their senses before. And these ones seem different from those in the maze. Even says a different name when they¡¯re identified. So I go ahead and mess around testing their senses, eventually leading to my realization that they have very short senses. Their senses don¡¯t extend for very far, but when I enter the range of their senses, it¡¯s accurate to a fault. Pretty much perfect in every way. Impossible to sneak by. Which ends up with me rather awkwardly just standing at the edge of the cavern and playing a game of¡­ uh¡­ not sure what the word for it is so I¡¯ll just call it playing a game. One where I teleport to some of them, kill a few at the edge, then teleport back out of the range of their senses. Then I repeat that process over and over again, gradually whittling down at their numbers. A process that¡­ takes longer than I expected. Particularly due to soul restraints. Since I don¡¯t exactly have an infinite amount of soul to use. And I don¡¯t want to use it all since it¡¯s kind of my life that I¡¯m draining away too. My health. So a new process builds itself up where I teleport forwards, kill creepy creepers, teleport back, rinse and repeat for several hours, then leave to go to a Safe Zone nearby to rest in the hot spring there. Then come back a few hours later after recovering all my soul again before repeating that process. In a seemingly endless loop. Because there are a lot of fucking creepers in this boss area. Which also ends up with me taking a lot of baths. Probably too many. Hope I don¡¯t get used to the hot spring inside of a Safe Zone and end up bored of any other sort of bath. That would be¡­ actually it wouldn¡¯t really be a problem. That aside, I can¡¯t help but wonder just how someone could possibly beat this place on their own. Because people can¡¯t leave boss areas until they¡¯ve finished the area. The only reason I¡¯m able to do it is because I can literally cut open the damned place and leave with my quantum magic. The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. Others can¡¯t do that. They¡¯d be stuck fighting in there against all of the monsters non-stop. I blink my eyes open as a thought comes to mind, making me sit up a bit in the hot spring. Huh. Okay, didn¡¯t think about that. I¡¯m doing this place solo. Other people? Not so much. It¡¯s kind of sad how I¡¯m forgetting about the fact that people can technically work as a team to fight dungeons¡­ Actually, maybe I can work with Astrid in a dungeon in the future? By the time a Tier 4 or Tier 5 dungeon actually shows up somewhere, Astrid will probably be at the same ish level as me. Considering that Astrid is also in the dungeon. I think she actually joined with Elara too. Something about the other people giving her a slot because she¡¯s the leader of one of the biggest trade powers in the Dimensional Block. Although Astrid thinks it¡¯s to curry favor with me and Astrid. Honestly, I don¡¯t particularly care. Other than the fact that it would be nice to have another person capable of protecting the Retreat. My thoughts come to a brief halt when a System Message flashes in my vision and echoes in my head. {Congratulations! You have leveled up to level 740! Your Species has awarded you +2 VIT, +2 DEX, +2 STR, +2 MAG, and +2 MEN. Your Class has awarded you +1 VIT, +2 DEX, +1 STR, +2 MAG, and +2 MEN.} Hmm. Guess Luna is still going at it herself. On the bright side, killing all of these monsters has given me a nice boost in levels. To the point that I surpassed Lucas again. So yay. I have not, however, passed Isabella. Not so yay. That aside, I¡¯ve been gradually able to kill more and more with every level up I get during each trip. So eventually I shouldn¡¯t have to even come back here. And that¡¯s despite the fact that these creatures seem to specialize in magic rather than the physical side of things. Even if they used to go with a physical attack first. Not anymore though, considering their odd hive mind thing. Like they know how I fight without knowing that I am fighting one of them. What I am rather confused about most though is the fact that I haven¡¯t so much as spotted hide nor hair of the boss of the boss area. Which is odd. Very odd. I glance at my status, and more importantly, my soul, then I get out of the hot spring, put on my gear, then head back out to the boss area again. At which point I stand at the entrance with my arms folded and my lips pursed. How is it even possible that I haven¡¯t even spotted a boss amongst them yet? Could it just be hiding? From my spot at the entrance, the only difference I can see from when I first arrived is that there are far fewer creepers here. Making for a lot of empty space amongst their fleshy web nest. A rather disgusting place both to walk on and look at. I teleport up into the air before looking out over the nest as a whole. But nothing I see implies a boss anywhere within the massive cavern. So¡­ Wait a second. My eyes narrow on a small, compacted area full of webbing somewhere deeper inside. Where some of the creepers seem to be digging under the webbing and then coming back out. Tunnels? Does that mean¡­ the boss is underground? Would certainly explain why I haven¡¯t seen it yet. I stare down at the compact area for a few minutes before sighing. Well, one way or another, time to get back at it again. B3 | Intermission 5 Dimensional Block #941 Crystal Nightshade, otherwise known as the last living devourer, speeds across the starry skies of the 941st Dimensional Block while flying with the wings of a gryphon, having eaten one many millennia ago. Meanwhile she uses the wind magic she got from it to propel herself forwards faster and faster. Fast enough to keep herself far away from the Quantum Being chasing after her. And she knows the Enforcer is chasing her. She just does, even though she can¡¯t directly see him. Just like with the last time he chased her all those years ago, where he would slip in and out of gaps in time to chase after her. But she avoided him once before, she can do it again. The only reason she got caught in the first place back then was because he had set a trap years after she¡¯d already escaped him. I won¡¯t fall for that again though. Not this time. Not when they¡¯re waiting for me. And not now that I¡¯ve made up with him. Crystal uses every power she¡¯s assimilated from the Class S beings she¡¯s eaten over the years she¡¯s been alive to flee as quickly as possible. Wing magic and wings from the gryphon to speed her through the air. Space magic from the cosmic wyrms to teleport. Lightning magic from the kirin to turn her own body into electricity. Fire magic from the dragons for the use of explosions to propel her. One power after another from hundreds of different Class S species. Using her natural assimilation powers as a devour and pushing them to their limits. Unlike the vast majority of the people raised in the Architect¡¯s System, Crystal came from a place without the System. So none of her powers are tied to the System itself. She simply grows by eating other beings. Assimilating their powers, their magics, and even their body parts into herself. But if there¡¯s one thing she regrets eating, it¡¯s the thing that led to her current situation. Her devouring of a quantum being. How was she supposed to know that it was apparently banned by the universe itself to devour the traits of a quantum being without the chains they are placed under? Not like she was ever told about it after all. Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings. So she just keeps on flying. Keeps soaring. And just like with the first time she ran from the Enforcer, she manages to lose him after over an entire year of fleeing. With her just instinctively knowing that she¡¯s lost him thanks to the instincts of the two-headed onyx panther she devoured all those years ago. But this time she doesn¡¯t relax even after that. Instead she begins to search through the Dimensional Blocks for certain specific Class S species to devour. In order to obscure herself from his sight and powers, she needs a few different natural magics. Magics only belonging to the Class S species. She already has soul magic, but she needs illusion magic to hide her physical self from him. She needs foresight magic to hide herself from scrying. And most importantly, she needs time magic to be able to stop his traveling through time to find her. After she gets all three, she should be set to hide both herself and her family from the Enforcer. Of course, she isn¡¯t worried about the Enforcer trying to use her family against her or to blackmail her through them. Since he would never bring others into their conflict, especially a quantum being. But she isn¡¯t stupid enough to not realize that he¡¯ll camp out near them, just waiting for her to visit so that he can catch her. Unfortunately for the Enforcer, however, she wasn¡¯t just twiddling her thumbs during the time she was locked in that dungeon. She spent all of that time practicing her magic while the asshole was sleeping the years away. Training herself to grow stronger and stronger even if she was trapped in a time lock. And planning for her next run-in with the Enforcer. Because there is no way she is going to let anyone tear her away from her family. Never again. She¡¯ll rip the head or heads off of anything that tries. It already hurts her a little to see how apathetic her daughters have grown over the years, even if she understands it well why they grew that way. And they aren¡¯t the only ones, since Crystal herself has grown a little apathetic towards others after living for so long. Not to mention being trapped in the time lock for decades. But she is very happy that they still love her. That their apathy doesn¡¯t extend to her. And she is also happy that her husband still loves her despite what happened. Despite what she did. A faint smile stretches across her face as she soars across the air, soon shattering straight through the Dimensional Wall of the Dimensional Block. Not even bothering to wait for it to open. Seconds after she passes through it though, the wall reforms itself without any difference from before she broke it. Meanwhile the people nearby all look shocked at what happened. But she doesn¡¯t waste any time on them and continues soaring through the air while spreading her senses out. The main issue she is having with this search is the scarcity of these particular Class S species. A beholder for the foresight magic. A dark witch for the illusion magic. And most importantly, a chrono for the time magic. But if she remembers correctly, there are only a few chrono left alive. And that was decades ago. So it¡¯s entirely possible they¡¯ve died off since she was put in the time lock. She was always searching for them before falling for the Enforcer¡¯s trap, and all of that searching was put to waste after the Reset. At least now though they will have lost their hiding spot. And she will be able to find them so long as she keeps looking through the Blocks. Because she needs that magic if she¡¯s going to have any chance at freeing herself of the Enforcer for good. B3 | Chapter 52 - The Great and Powerful Cal Alexia Time continues to pass by, day by day, week by week, until I eventually clear out the majority of the creepers from the cavern. At which point I finally begin to focus on the more compact areas with the webbing and the possible tunnels. And I think I¡¯ve reached the point where I shouldn¡¯t have to worry about running out of soul. So I let loose on the creepers. I send a barrage of Quantum Bolts down on them while also using Quantum Singularity Implosion over and over again, practically sending their parts flying around the place. And once I¡¯ve killed enough of them around one of the tunnels to the point that the tunnel is far from their range of senses, I teleport straight to the tunnel before clearing out the entrance a little bit. Only to find a bunch of creepers inside of the tunnel immediately spilling out. So I teleport straight up to them and begin tearing them apart with my polearm instead. Such an annoying boss area. It¡¯s taking longer to deal with this one boss area than it took for the three dungeons before this one. Makes me wonder just how long I¡¯m gonna be in this Dimension-Wide Dungeon. Again. Unfortunately for me, killing these creepers only makes more and more creepers flow upwards through the tunnel and out towards me. So many of them that I¡¯m starting to think this tunnel may just be endless or something. The creatures don¡¯t really work all that well in cramped spaces though. Or they don¡¯t fight well at least. Which is odd considering that they¡¯re living in these tunnels. Either way though, this makes it so they¡¯re very easy to massacre. Especially since they can¡¯t really use their magic in these tunnels while I can cut away at them all day long. Might not actually be a bad thing after all that these things are underground. It is a rather tedious process though. But this way I at least am not using soul to kill them. Just my blade. Even if it takes longer this way. I continue chopping away at the things until finally they stop pouring out of the tunnel. Which leaves me with a massive pile of creeper bodies outside, all cut apart and glitching. Which just makes them look even creepier than they normally look. If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it. Anyways, after clearing out the entrance of corpses a little by using Quantum Bolt to destroy them completely, I enter the tunnel, beginning to make my way deep inside of it. Veeeeery deep inside of it. My frown begins to grow deeper and deeper as I get further and further into the tunnel without so much as a hint of another side. I¡¯m really starting to hate this boss area. Minutes pass. Then hours. Eventually I finally begin to see some eerie purple light after walking through the tunnel for four hours straight, not running just in case of an ambush. I feel a smile reach my face at the sight of the light. Then I pick up the pace a little bit. Not quite running but still moving faster. And teleporting a bit. Once I reach the source of the light, though, my smile vanishes. ¡°Well, fuck,¡± I mutter with a blank look on my face as I stare from the entrance of the tunnel at the massive cavern in front of me. One filled with an enormous cocoon and webbing connecting the cocoon to the walls of the cavern. What I find rather shocking though isn¡¯t the cocoon or the webbing. It¡¯s the massive creature sitting inside of the open cocoon. Looks like a massive creeper with some differences. Some of its legs are completely hairy like a spiders legs, others are hairy like a human¡¯s legs, and others aren¡¯t hairy at all. Some are just arms from an animal like a gorilla, others arms of a human. But in the position of legs. Meanwhile some of the arms have hands at the ends, others have feet. And some of the legs are the same. But the creature¡¯s size¡­ it has to be at least a hundred meters tall. If this isn¡¯t a Cataclysm Class monster, I don¡¯t know what is anymore. What¡¯s even more bizarre about it than its legs though¡­ are its heads. Heads. Plural. Multiple heads. The thing has four heads. Each different types. One has a plant-like head that is separated into four segments that open and close together sticking a bit out of the main part of the spider-like body. One is that of a normal spider in the normal location. Then there¡¯s the head that looks like a screaming human just sticking out on top of the thing, and the ant head for some reason sticking randomly out of the side of its back segment. The one with the spinnerets at the end. No idea what that part is called. I don¡¯t know spider biology. But one thing is clear. This thing is disturbing as hell. And to make it all worse? The silk its spinnerets are spinning? Made of flesh. I almost want to turn around and walk away. Honestly do. It¡¯s like this thing is here just to psychologically terrorize people. But I don¡¯t turn around. Instead I identify it as any sane person would do. {Cal ¨C Vicious Creep of Cataclysm ¨C Level 800} What. The fuck. Is that name? Cal? For this thing? Such a normal name? Oh, and Cal starts to scream after I identify it. But I have to continue questioning its name. Even though the screams of four different animal heads are rather disturbing. So disturbing that I grab my earplugs and put them in my ears. Because yeah. The thing slowly makes its way out of the cocoon before staring straight at me and screaming some more. Clearly not liking the fact that I identified it. But I just stare at it rather blankly, wondering what sort of universe I live in for this thing to exist. Well, at least I have my confirmation that Cataclysm Class monsters can be in dungeons. In Tier 4 dungeons to be specific. Wish it were a more logical Cataclysm Class monster though. The thing roars even louder as if in complaint. Yeah, yeah, we¡¯ll fight. I let out a sigh before stepping further into the cavern. This won¡¯t be fun. B3 | Chapter 53 - Attack of Four Elements Alexia On a side note, I make sure to pull out my phone and take a picture of the hideous monstrosity. Because I want proof that this thing exists. Maybe I can use it to scare someone. That would be amusing. I put my phone away before teleporting several meters to my left onto a smaller cocoon the moment a bolt of lightning strikes where I was standing from a bunch of lightning clouds that fill the top of the cavern. Then rain begins pouring down as well, drenching me in an instant as I stare blankly and soaked at it. ¡°Seriously?¡± I mutter, feeling like this creature is trying to piss me off. Then another bolt of lightning strikes where I am, with me teleporting less than a second before it hits. Followed by another where I end up, and another teleport. Then another. And another. And now Cal is seriously starting to piss me off. To make matters worse? I have to teleport up into the air or onto webbing to avoid the remnant electricity that¡¯s running through the water covering the ground of the cavern from the rain. All while Cal doesn¡¯t even more an inch. Just follows me with his eyes. Or rather, with the eyes of his human head following me. While sparking with electricity. The other heads aren¡¯t following me. They aren¡¯t even looking at me. Interesting. I teleport right over the creepy as hell spider, making lighting straight on top of it when I teleport away again. But, to my great surprise, the thing ignores it and continues striking after me with lightning. Guess it has immunity to electricity. Great. In that case, I send a Quantum Bolt at it the moment I finish my next teleport, blasting a small chunk off of its carapace and making it let out a loud screech in the process. Then the lightning stops for a bit, and I take the chance to teleport up to it and slash my polearm straight through its human face¡¯s eyes, making the screech go up an octave. And at the same time, screaming begins to echo out from the human head itself. As if the other heads¡¯ screeching weren¡¯t already annoying enough. Strong volts of electricity begin building up around the human head before blasting straight at me, making me teleport backwards to avoid them. But the electricity somehow homes in on me anyways, turning towards where I end up. If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. I still manage to avoid it though. Mostly. Instead of being hit directly by it, I end up landing in the foot-high water on the cavern floor that¡¯s still growing higher. With the electricity striking the water several meters away from me and then electrifying me in the process to the point that I fall to my knees while letting off steam. ¡°Fuck¡­¡± I mutter while teleporting out of the water and copying my body from the past, pasting it onto my current self with Quantum Stasis Copy to heal all of the damage that had just happened. Which included the frying of a large portion of the nerves in my legs. Hence me falling to my knees. But on the bright side, Cal is done with the lightning storm. Now it¡¯s just rain, rain, and more rain. Rain that is getting heavier and heavier as I stand here, making me frown at the sight. My gaze quickly turns towards Cal again when I realize some of the water is beginning to float into the air. Then I spot glowing blue eyes on the ant head. Meanwhile volts of electricity continue running across the human head. Guess that confirms it. This monster has multiple different magics, each tied to a different head. Which most likely means it has two more affinities of magic that I¡¯ll have to deal with. I can guess a nature type affinity for the plant head, but what type of magic would the spider head have? Poison, maybe? Possibly. I teleport away right when a bunch of spears made of water fly straight at where I was standing, making me grimace. Especially when more orbs of water begin floating high up into the air all around the place with weapons forming from the orbs. Great. Round two now. And to make matters worse, the human head isn¡¯t done yet. But since it can¡¯t see ¨C the heads apparently not having a shared sense of sight ¨C it sends all of its electricity straight into the water at its feet. So I have to teleport through the air instead of touching the ground. And the only place I can land are the webs of flesh, which are disgusting to touch. Even if it¡¯s through my greaves. I am absolutely having my armor washed after this. After dodging more than a few blades of water, I manage to make my way back to Cal again before appearing right in front of it and slashing my blade. Only for Cal to swing one of its limbs upwards to block the blade with the claws on the limb¡¯s hand. Then it swings another limb at me from the side, making the limb pass straight through without so much as scratching me. An occurrence that seems to startle the creature. Enough that I manage to teleport again and impale the creature¡¯s ant head with my polearm. Making the rain come to a complete stop in an instant. The clouds don¡¯t fade a way though, and instead lightning begins to fly down all over the place. With the spider ¨C and I hesitate to call it a spider if I¡¯m being honest ¨C no doubt deciding to just forgo any plans to strike randomly. Meanwhile vines begin breaking out of the ground while heading straight for me as the mouth of the plant head starts glowing. Not the eyes. The mouth. Then again, it has no eyes. So¡­ Not sure how it¡¯s seeing me. And to make matters worse, the spider head opens its mouth, its eight eyes glowing a purple color as an equally glowing purple liquid leaks out of its mouth and merges with the water. But the thought that runs through my head as I grimace at the sight of what¡¯s no doubt poison mixing with the water isn¡¯t about how annoying it¡¯ll be. It¡¯s why the heck this spider has all these webs set up if it¡¯s just gonna destroy them all with its own attacks. B3 | Quantum Beings Story Art with link Alrighty! Here is a bunch of story art for Reaper''s Resurgence of a lot of the quantum beings! Please enjoy! As always, if the story art breaks, go ahead and click here to go to the public Patreon post that has this art! That said, two of them you''ve seen before. I''ll leave those two at the end. First up is the Quantum Vanguard: Then the Quantum Architect(yes, he''s related to the Vanguard): If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. Then the Quantum Archon: And the Quantum Creator: Then the two you already have seen art for: The Quantum Enforcer: And the Quantum Ruler: B3 | Chapter 54 - Slaying the Creeper Alexia I quickly find myself surprised when a bunch of the poison splashes on me and doesn¡¯t do squat. Not a single effect. Nothing. At all. Huh? It takes me teleporting out of the way of some of the vines to realize why this is happening. Right. Status effect immunity. It includes poison. So I¡¯m completely immune to poison. How I managed to forget that despite remembering earlier on in the dungeon I don¡¯t know. Probably a heat of the battle thing. The Cataclysm Class boss looks confused when I splash in the poison-filled water without so much as flinching. And I once again take advantage of its confusion to teleport straight to it before slicing through the damned beast¡¯s head, cutting the human head off. Stopping the lightning once and for all. There goes one head. And another isn¡¯t a problem with my immunity. Then with the ant head already dealt with, that leaves only the plant head left. I teleport backwards when a bunch of vines try to skewer me. Only for more and more vines to break all out of the walls, ceiling, and floor, passing through the water towards me. Which leads to a dance of vines and teleportation, with me avoiding one vine after another after another. All while I send Quantum Bolts flying at the boss. Attacks that it blocks with more vines. And when I switch to using Quantum Singularity Implosion, it actually begins to move. Jumping from one web to another. But now that it¡¯s water magic is gone, the thing slips on its own fleshy webbing. Webbing that is covered and soaked in water. Then it splashes in the water down below, giving me the chance to teleport up to it and slice at its plant head. Only for the head to open up in two segments, making my blade pass straight through its open mouth and out the other side before it closes its mouth again. I teleport out of the way when a bunch of vines shoot out of its mouth at me, leading to me appearing on the other side of its plant head at which point I swipe my blade once more. But instead of just attacking the thing with my blade, I fire out two Quantum Bolts at the base of its head alongside the blade. And this time, the thing can¡¯t open its mouth to avoid it, so it reaches out vines to block. This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there. It doesn¡¯t manage to block all three attacks though, leading to it only deflecting my blade with the vine being cut through in the process and deflecting one bolt. With the remaining Quantum Bolt glitching apart and destroying the connection point between its plant head and the body, sending the head flying off of the body. Then all of the vines that were heading towards us just kinda flop down towards the ground, inert. The spider¡¯s last remaining undamaged head lets out a loud hiss while poison begins to fill the entire cavern in both gaseous and liquid form. But I ignore it all as I teleport right up to the spider¡¯s head, completely ignoring the limbs the monster is trying to cut through and stomp on me with. A faint smile stretches across my face at the pointless attacks being done by Cal. It just keeps on struggling without doing anything, clearly not having any magic anymore other than its poison. After a few seconds, I flip my polearm around before grabbing it with both hands and impaling the spider¡¯s poisonous spider head straight down the middle. And just like that, the thing collapses to the ground, splashing the poison and water there in the process. But¡­ the poison and water filling the cavern to the point that it reaches all the way up to my waist doesn¡¯t go away. Nor does the poisonous gas filling the air. Which makes this place rather¡­ unpleasant to be in. The clacking sound of something hard falling and hitting a surface sounds through the fog, making me turn around to find a loot box in the boss¡¯s cocoon. [Level 800 Vicious Creep of Cataclysm Defeated ¨C User¡¯s earned EXP has been increased by a significant portion due to killing a being whose level is fifty or more levels above their own.] {Congratulations! You have leveled up to level 750! Your Species has awarded you +2 VIT, +2 DEX, +2 STR, +2 MAG, and +2 MEN. Your Class has awarded you +1 VIT, +2 DEX, +1 STR, +2 MAG, and +2 MEN.} {Congratulations! You have leveled up to level 751! Your Species has awarded you +2 VIT, +2 DEX, +2 STR, +2 MAG, and +2 MEN. Your Class has awarded you +1 VIT, +2 DEX, +1 STR, +2 MAG, and +2 MEN.} I can¡¯t help but wonder what sort of item a Cataclysm Class monster will give as a reward. Since I¡¯ve never fought a Cataclysm Class monster in a dungeon before. So I¡¯ve never gotten an item reward for killing one. It better be worth the trouble. Then again, at the very least I got quite a lot of EXP for it. Even if I don¡¯t get a good item. That was the highest level monster I¡¯ve killed thus far after all. I quickly teleport out of the poisonous water and into the cocoon. Both the go to the loot box and to simply get out of the disgusting poisonous water. Because it¡¯s not exactly pleasant to stand in. But despite arriving at the cocoon, I glance down at the corpse to find it still lying in the poison. And after a brief pause, I go ahead and teleport back down there before placing the corpse into my storage ring. Since the thing isn¡¯t disappearing. Then I teleport back to the cocoon again. Might as well see if there¡¯s a use for this thing¡¯s corpse. It¡¯s probably the smallest Cataclysm Class monster I¡¯ve fought so far, but also the most powerful despite that. Anyways, time to see what this loot box has in store. B3 | Chapter 55 - Another Egg Alexia Unlike anything I expected, I end up getting an egg when I open the loot box. An egg. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Elemental Pet Egg Description: This egg passively absorbs the mana of the user who bonds with it, eventually hatching into an Elemental Pet. The species of the bonded pet will be dependent on the elemental affinity of the one hatching it. Stats Bonus: N/A Requirements: Must be related to Alexia Knight to hatch this egg. Item Tier: 4 -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Huh. Why do I get the odd feeling that Luna will be rather upset if I hatch this egg. I tap my finger against my chin for a few moments before shrugging and grabbing the egg. But unlike what I was expecting, nothing happens. I don¡¯t feel my energy entering the egg at all. Just nothing at all happens. Okay¡­ what¡¯s going on? A System Message appears in my vision after a few seconds of holding it. {Users may only hatch a single elemental pet egg in their lives.} Hmm. Yeah, I¡¯ll just give this thing to Astrid. She can make use of it. Kind of surprised I got another in my lifetime though. Very surprised. These eggs are incredibly rare after all. Most people never see one. And I¡¯ve gotten two. Guess I am rather lucky after all. Just like what Astrid always says. Well, anyways, I go ahead and put the egg in my storage ring. An act that¡¯s only possible because of my improved storage ring letting me put in living things. Then I look around the disgusting cavern, trying to find an exit. This is¡­ going to be unpleasant. Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation. I look down from the cocoon directly at the floor, which is covered in purple water with a bunch of flesh webbing in it. Both webbing attached to the ground and the cocoon, and webbing that¡¯s just floating around in it. Having been ripped from whatever it was on. There also appear to be a few creeper corpses that I never noticed. Probably were hiding inside the smaller cocoons and died during our fight. Well, they¡¯re dead now. Doesn¡¯t matter. What does matter is figuring out how the hell I¡¯m going to find that exit. Because the fleshy webbing is still covering over half of the cavern, and the pool of poisonous water filled with more webbing is not a very pleasant place to go searching through. Especially with the corpses floating through it making it even grosser. Ugh. Well, at the very least I can start searching the upper walls. Even though I doubt it¡¯ll be there. I just really don¡¯t want to wade through that disgusting mix. So I take several minutes to recover my soul a bit before beginning to teleport around the cavern. Searching through the cocoons and the walls. With, of course, a nose plug on. Because there is no way I¡¯m going to be smelling the disgusting stench that is this cavern throughout this process. No way in hell. I continue making my rounds through the cavern, but I don¡¯t ever find anything. Which leaves me grimacing rather strongly at the gross mixture. Double ugh. After staring for several seconds, I eventually just teleport over towards the main cocoon, remembering that I still need to check deeper inside of it. In reality it¡¯s just an excuse to prologue the inevitable. But to my surprise, I actually do find something. Directly beneath the loot box, there¡¯s a hole going down all the way through the ground. I clasp my hands together and raise my head upwards, sending a prayer to the god of piranhas, the System, for my decision to procrastinate. Then, after turning serious again, I lower my head and jump right on into the hole. And fall for quite a while. Longer than I was expecting. After entire minutes of just falling, eventually resorting to teleporting to slow my fall, I end up finally leaving the tunnel. And falling right into the open of a massive cavern with a brightly shining sun. Which makes no sense considering that I should be underground, but I guess logic doesn¡¯t matter in a dungeon. The cavern I¡¯m in ¨C which I really can¡¯t call a cavern since it has no walls or ceiling other than that random hole that I am currently watching seal itself back up while blocking my way back ¨C is massive. Larger than an entire island. So large it fits multiple mountains on the edges of it along with a massive forest and one large pit at the very center of the forest. And I have to admit, it really is a nice view while falling from this height. Then, to my surprise, I slowly begin to com to a halt right as I¡¯m nearing the tree line. Guess that¡¯s how people who can¡¯t teleport survive. The System just floats them down to the ground. Interesting. Takes the excitement out of it though. I raise my head as I¡¯m floating down with my hands in my cloak¡¯s pockets and the memories of my time in a previous dungeon come to mind. That first dungeon, actually. With the bat cavern and the invisible platforms that I had to navigate my way down from the ceiling through. It was also the place that I first got Luna¡¯s egg. Nice memories. Once I land on the ground though, I find myself facing a very pleasant surprise. The sight of some wolves. Not some abominations like the creeps, creepers, or Cal. But some regular old wolves. If you ignore the fact that this pack of wolves surrounding me is all about five meters tall each. Perfectly normal wolves. I nod my head at that fact. Then I stand still while I watch them all pounce, leaving them to create a crater at the place I¡¯m standing. Without harming me, of course. Because physical attacks. Yep. Perfectly normal wolves. The wolves jump back while snarling at me. Then each wolf begins using a different type of magic. All ranging from lightning, fire, earth, wind, water, and even dark. Just sending an array of magical attacks towards me which I dodge by teleporting into the air with my hands finally leaving my pockets. Not a fan of putting down these doggies, but I guess there¡¯s no choice. B3 | Intermission 6 Dimension-Wide Dungeon Astrid lets out a grunt as she slams her fist into the face of a large golem made out of a black metal. Crushing the golem¡¯s face in the process as magma shoots out of her fist, covering the golem entirely. Then she jumps back, just in case the golem survived. But after a few seconds, she finds that it didn¡¯t survive. She lets out a breath of relief before lowering her fists again, looking at the System Message that plays out in her vision. One telling her about the defeat of the hidden boss. Good. It¡¯s dead. Astrid glances over at the loot box that appears within the large chamber. One shaped in a circle, with various runic patterns all across the ground and walls, and a single circle in the center from which the golem was previously standing when Astrid first arrived. But now the loot box is in that spot instead. The shadowborne hydra stands several meters away from the loot box while looking at it with her eyes narrowed a little. She¡¯s wearing a set of red and black armor with various black snake heads sticking out of her armor and moving around with curiosity in their gazes. Occasionally breathing out a shadowy flame in a small hiss. Before she checks the loot box, she opens the leaderboards. Then she smiles at the sight of the top three. [Dimensional Champion Leaderboard] [#1 Isabella d''Aragon ¨C Level 764] [#2 Alexia Knight ¨C Level 751] [#3 Lucas Nightshade ¨C Level 747] [#4 Sartori Silva ¨C Level 710] [#5 Ignivara ¨C Level 710] [#6 Artorius del Argon ¨C Level 700] [#7 Ethan Silva ¨C Level 696] [#8 Alexander Frost ¨C Level 679] [#9 Vallius Karan de Volt Hellmouth ¨C Level 678] [#10 Voltari ¨C Level 668] You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story. It looks like she¡¯s passed Lucas again in level. And she¡¯s closing in on the Ancestral Dragon. Astrid smiles at that before briefly remembering what her sister told her earlier through their communication ring. The only thing letting them communicate through dungeons. An elemental pet egg¡­ She thinks on that for a little while. Then she shakes her head and raises a single fist in an act of determination, with a brisk nod of her head. Right. She can¡¯t be the only one giving a gift here. Astrid walks up to the loot box before touching it, making an item appear above the box. One that surprises her for a moment. Only for a bright smile to lit up her usually apathetic face as she realizes it will work splendidly as a gift. I¡¯ll give this to her when she gives me the egg. Astrid feels happy now that she has a gift to give her in return. Because, just like her sister, Astrid hates getting any sort of gift without paying the giver back. Even if the giver is her own sister. Which ends up making things awkward for them both. Since every time they give each other a gift, the other feels they need to return a gift back to them. But they still give each other gifts despite that, simply because they want to. And it always leads to the same course of events. That thought makes Astrid let out a wry smile before she stretches and begins walking over towards the other side of the chamber, where a large door opened up. Astrid was rather surprised when she found a hidden area in the dungeon. Because she¡¯s normally not the lucky sort. Unlike her sister. It was almost like her sister got all of the luck. Astrid continues walking through the chamber until she reaches the door. At which point she stops for a moment to stretch a little. Then she steps out of it back into the main corridor of the pyramid she¡¯s in. One of many within this dungeon. She¡¯s just glad it wasn¡¯t a maze though. Because she doesn¡¯t do well with mazes. In fact, she hates them with a passion. It¡¯s like the mazes were designed just for her to end up at dead ends every possible chance before she finds the correct paths. Even if that¡¯s technically what they¡¯re designed for. Astrid crosses her arms at the irritating thought as she walks down the tunnel. She is very happy now that she¡¯s a Class S species just like her sister though. And the gap in level between them is gradually closing too. Or it was before they entered this dungeon. Since now it¡¯s expanding again. Very few people can compete in pure power with a quantum being after all. But she¡¯s no longer being left behind in the dust. And that¡¯s what matters the most. She¡¯s also realized that the change in species has¡­ affected her mentality a little bit. She no longer cares as much about those who aren¡¯t Class S species, which makes her wonder if it¡¯s some sort of biological aspect of Class S species doing that. Or possibly an aspect of hydras and dragons, since hydras are technically a distant cousin to dragons. It would explain dragons¡¯ apathy towards non-Class S species. But she¡¯s not fully apathetic towards them. Not that she particularly cared much about others outside of her family and friends before becoming a shadowborne hydra, that is. Astrid looks up at the ceiling with a faint smile as she remembers seeing her mother for the first time in ages. Then she lowers it again while clearing away her smile. She still isn¡¯t sure how she should feel about Lucas, but she at least doesn¡¯t dislike him after hearing his story. She doesn¡¯t particularly care much about him either, but she doesn¡¯t dislike him. In fact, she may even think of him more positively than negatively. Probably about the same amount she cares about one of her and Lexi¡¯s friends. So it all makes her wonder¡­ When will we spend time together as a family? An entire family. She¡¯s been wondering about that for a while now, but has never voiced it. And she¡¯s not even sure how the thought feels to her either. Eventually she just puts it out of her mind again, like she always does. Then she focuses on dodging a trap that sends a poisoned dart straight towards her head. Either way, I need to level up as much as possible if I¡¯m to protect what we have now. B3 | Chapter 56 - A Close Call Alexia I think I¡¯ve changed my opinion on these doggies. They¡¯re not doggies. They¡¯re monsters. I let out a cry of pain when another wolf¡¯s ethereally magical claws cut straight through my back, tearing several gashes through me, and spilling my blood onto the ground. Then I proceed to teleport backwards before cutting through its throat. Only for another wolf to strike at my back once again, following which another chomps on my arm, damn near tearing it off. This is proving to be- I teleport a couple meters away before impaling the wolf that cut my back this time through the throat. -more difficult- Another wolf tears its claws through my shoulder as I restore my form again to the past before I got the injuries. Costing a significant amount of soul in the process before I rip my polearm out of the other wolf¡¯s neck and swing it to cut into the chest of the one that hit my shoulder. -than I thought it would be. One wolf after another arrives, overwhelming me with an endless wave of monsters that are so great in number that I can¡¯t even see past them all. There are so many that my soul is finally decreasing down to rather¡­ terrifying¡­ amounts. I¡¯m getting dangerously low. It¡¯s why I¡¯m trying to keep my soul usage to a minimum. Which isn¡¯t helping all that much since I have to teleport and heal. I grit my teeth as I avoid one attack after another, receive multiple attacks, some of whom would be fatal wounds and others not so fatal, all while trying to avoid as many hits as I can. And reverting all of the damage again soon after. Trying to minimalize the stasis copy to only copy from as little time ago as possible that I wasn¡¯t injured. Calculating it to the very seconds that I¡¯m not injured to do that. In addition to that, I also learned after raising the level enough that I can copy my stasis from only particular body parts rather than my entire body. Something I got in Tier 2 of the skill. So I copy the stasis from specific body parts and then paste them over those body parts. A process that costs a lot less soul than copying my entire body¡¯s stasis. Eventually my soul begins to decrease more and more until it¡¯s reaching critical levels and I have to search around for a way out. But the only way out I find is up. So I begin teleporting straight up into the air, barely dodging as the wolves charge after me one after another. All jumping in the air while their half corporeal claws stretch forwards, out of their bodies to attack me. But I manage to dodge each one and teleport high into the sky. Finally getting away from the strange spatial pull I¡¯ve been feeling that¡¯s keeping me from teleporting very far. And after briefly looking around, feeling my soul draining more and more until it reaches just the double digits, I find my opening. A strange rift in space that I feel several dozen meters away, floating high in the sky. I teleport straight to it before falling directly inside and landing in some sort of tree trunk. Or at least, that¡¯s what it looks like from the inside of it. With walls made entirely of rough wood. Well, that and the System Message that plays out in my head when I land in it. [You have entered the Tier 4 Hidden Area, Wolf¡¯s Tree Haven.] If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. The moment I land on the ground and spot that there isn¡¯t anyone or anything around me, I collapse flat on my back while heaving in exhaustion. Then I open my status once more and grimace.
Name: Alexia Knight Species: Quantum Reaper(T4)
Level: 758 Class: Quantum Reaper
Soul: 21/66,262.5
VIT: 2,272 DEX: 2,780 STR: 2,272 MAG: 3,029 MEN: 3,029
Racial Skills Active Skills
Passive Skills General Skills
That¡­ was way too close. Any longer and I¡¯d have ended up paralyzed in the middle of them, turned into wolf food. And if I wasn¡¯t able to find this hidden area, I¡¯d also have been stuck in the same situation. Dead. I pant in exhaustion, still bleeding from wounds I didn¡¯t manage to heal. Meanwhile my soul slowly begins to tick down. But I don¡¯t have enough soul to revert my wounds, and the wounds aren¡¯t bad enough right now to be fatal. So I just lie here staring up at the ceiling of this hidden area. Unable to even lift my head. Damn. This really is a wakeup call to mortality. I¡¯ve grown too arrogant, apathetically going through the motions of fighting. Just fighting and fighting and fighting, apathetically doing it nonstop without even considering the chance of losing. This¡­ is very tiresome. I continue panting in exhaustion, just staring up at the roof of the trunk as my chest repeatedly goes up and down as I breathe in and out. A process that I don¡¯t even really need to do, so I¡¯m not sure why my body is instinctively doing it. But I am. Those wolves¡­ were a lot more frightening than I expected. They were more like ghostly wolves than anything. Able to turn any part of their body ethereal and leave a strange lingering magical damage across anything they attack. A magical damage more akin to ghosts than anything physical. And because of that magical damage, they were perfectly able to damage me with their claws when they used that power. When they first attacked me I wasn¡¯t aware of this, since they didn¡¯t immediately begin using that attack. But the wolves are smart. And the moment they realized that using that power worked, they changed every one of their attacks to just the magical ones. I strain myself to look around the hidden area again, just to make sure it¡¯s safe. Then I slowly feel my eyes drooping a little, making it hard to keep them open. So I focus on my senses, searching the surroundings for energy sources. But after not finding any, I finally feel myself falling unconscious. With everything going dark in an instant. B3 | Chapter 57 - Commencement Ceremony Alexia Several Years Ago ¡°We are gathered here today to begin the commencement ceremony of Year 101742 After Chaos within the Royal Academy,¡± the headmaster of the Royal Academy declares as he stands at the front of the auditorium filled with people. All of whom are wearing the same uniform meant for official ceremonies. But apparently we don¡¯t have to wear it outside of these ceremonies, which is unlike most of the other academies. Definitely a benefit of the Royal Academy. ¡°As you all know, only the best of the best are allowed to attend this Royal Institution,¡± the headmaster continues as I glance around the audience, finding everyone else wearing the same silver uniform. With the boys wearing pants and the girls wearing skirts, but with the tops being the same blazers. ¡°So you are expected to act as is be expected of your station. Do not damage the reputation of the nation and the Royal Academy in any way.¡± After he finishes with that, he goes on and on, blabbering about school rules. But I¡¯ve already read the rules, so I don¡¯t pay any attention. Instead I glance at Astrid to find her sitting right next to me with her eyes staring directly at the headmaster. Yet I can still tell that she¡¯s asleep with her eyes open. Something that I can¡¯t help but feel jealous of sometimes. The fact that she can actually do that. Definitely makes ignoring people a lot easier. Although, since girls are all required to wear their hair in the same way during this ceremony with it straight down and not put up in any way, the two of us look completely identical with no differences whatsoever. We¡¯re also seated right next to each other since the seating for the ceremony was done based off last name then first name. And we obviously have the same last name, with both of us having first names starting with A. Making us sit side by side despite there being other people here with the last name Knight. So more than a few people are sneaking glances at the two of us. It¡¯s even more of a good thing that the school outside of ceremonies doesn¡¯t require a uniform. Otherwise it¡¯d be near impossible to tell us apart. I glance at Astrid again, thinking back to how much she¡¯s been studying for our time here. More than me, that¡¯s for sure. She¡¯s stayed up all night for at least a few nights just studying. I¡¯ve even helped her study during one of those nights. Before I fell asleep that is. Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more. I really do admire her for how much work she puts in for things like this. Especially when I know she¡¯s doing it mostly to catch up to me. Also to impress Gramps as well, but that doesn¡¯t seem to be as much of a priority. I turn my attention back to the stage again as the headmaster finally finishes blabbering on about rules and instead begins to introduce the head of the class. Who also happens to be a prince. The prince quickly begins to give his speech, droning on just as much as the headmaster was. But soon enough I notice his gaze locking onto me and Astrid, the prince pausing for a moment in the process. Just an awkward pause in the middle of his speech. He looks between the two of us with his mouth parted open for a second before he blinks twice and continues his speech. While occasionally glancing at us. Particularly at Astrid, whose sleeping face makes her look like she¡¯s staring right at him. When she¡¯s really out cold. Huh. Well, that¡¯s probably gonna be a problem in the future. I watch him for a moment, occasionally glancing back at Astrid in the process. Then I just shrug, deciding I don¡¯t particularly care much. Judging by the looks he¡¯s sending, he seems interested in Astrid. Not me. Although how much of that is because of her supposed eye contact with him and how much isn¡¯t is not very clear. Either way, she¡¯s in for a surprise when she wakes up. I glance at the clock closest to where we¡¯re sitting before frowning a little at the date. Right. I return my expression to normal, choosing not to show any reaction at all to the memories flooding my head. Most of which are little more than a blurry, vague memory due to me being too young to clearly remember. Memories of Mom before she vanished. On this very day all those years ago. I turn my gaze towards the desk right in front of the prince who is still talking. Then I just stare at the desk for a while, thinking back on all of the news me and Astrid have been scouring through every single day. Trying to find some sort of hint about her whereabouts. But nothing has shown up. Not a thing. All I¡¯ve been hearing about on the news is the Hound of the Apocalypse. The human who almost committed genocide. Of a Class A species no less. He¡¯s on a world far away from this one though, so it¡¯s not something I need to worry about happening here too. I just hope wherever Mom is, she¡¯s nowhere near him. Or anyone like him. And that she¡¯s safe. I let out a sigh at that, lowering my gaze to my hands in my lap. And that she¡¯s alive in the first place. I glance at Astrid before patting her hand, waking her up in an instant before she looks at me. Then she turns to face the stage and spots the prince right around the time he meets her gaze. To my amusement, I feel a shiver run down her arm soon after their gazes meet. Yep. An unpleasant surprise indeed. That¡¯s what she gets for sleeping through the commencement ceremonies. Anyways, the prince¡¯s speech ends in a couple more sentences, following which the headmaster has everyone stand up and place their fists across their chests as the orchestra plays the national anthem. Which is the reason I woke her up in the first place. This is going to be an odd change. Going to a fancy school like this. But¡­ I guess odd isn¡¯t always bad. Except in Astrid¡¯s case, considering that prince. Rest in peace Astrid. B3 | Chapter 58 - A Path of Doors Alexia My eyes slowly flutter open, and I find myself staring at the ceiling, feeling both tired and confused. A dream? I haven¡¯t had one of those in a while. But why would I dream about the commencement ceremony? Nothing particularly important happened there. Other than that guy getting a crush on Astrid during it. I continue staring up at the ceiling for several seconds in silence before opening my status.
Name: Alexia Knight Species: Quantum Reaper(T4)
Level: 758 Class: Quantum Reaper
Soul: 31,021/66,262.5
VIT: 2,272 DEX: 2,780 STR: 2,272 MAG: 3,029 MEN: 3,029
Racial Skills Active Skills
Passive Skills General Skills
Not even halfway filled yet. Great. Guess I¡¯m stuck waiting here until it fully regenerates. Because I¡¯m not going out there again unless it¡¯s filled to the brim. Nothing but silence fills the tree trunk I¡¯m in as I stare up at the ceiling. Then after several minutes of silence, I move my hands up and begin tapping on my collarbone in rhythm with mom¡¯s song. Somehow finding myself quietly humming it as well. Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site. An act that Astrid says I do all the time, but I don¡¯t think I do. Probably. I just continue staring up at the ceiling while patting my collarbone, or more accurately, the scale armor on top of it, humming away. Feeling rather bored. Kind of wish I brought a video game to play or something. That thought has me blinking before I frown. Am I really considering the idea of bringing video games around with me? As if I were one of those cheating dragons? No. I can¡¯t turn into one of those cheaters. If I go around carrying games everywhere I go then that¡¯ll be the first step towards becoming like one of them and flipping the board every time I lose. And I won¡¯t allow myself to become like that. I continue tapping away at the rhythm for several more minutes, just watching my soul gradually rise. Then the minutes turn into hours. But throughout it, I only stop humming a few times. And for some reason, I feel a few tears leak out of my eyes as I hum. I ignore them though and just continue staring at the ceiling. Eventually I stop humming, leaving me staring at the ceiling in silence. Mom¡­ I slowly feel my eyes closing again. And when they reopen, I find that I¡¯d fallen asleep once more. But this time without any dreams. And I find my status still floating above me. With my soul filled to the brim now. A peaceful sleep. Nice, I guess. I finally sit up, my hair falling over my shoulder in the process as I look down at my hands in my lap. Then I look around the tree trunk to find a wooden door at the edge of the trunk. Hmm. I climb to my feet, feeling a little wobbly due to it being the first time I¡¯ve stood up since almost dying and since my naps. But the unsteady feeling barely lasts more than a few seconds before I regain my normal balance. Right. Time to see what this hidden area is about. No time for¡­ whatever I was doing. And I can¡¯t let myself grow too apathetic about battle. Too arrogant in my apathy. As if everything will just work out in the end. Apathy is nice and all, since it means less worrying and stuff, but it¡¯s not so nice if it ends up with me dying. Leaving Astrid behind almost on her own. Although at least Mom is still alive so she wouldn¡¯t be entirely alone. Same with Gramps, even if I¡¯m pretty sure Astrid is slightly irked by him still. Due to his lying about who he was. I pause mid-step at that thought, only to shake my head and continue walking. Reaching my hand out and opening the door. Only to find another tree trunk room on the other side. Huh? The room looks almost the exact same as the one I¡¯m in now. Odd¡­ I step through the door into the room, and the door closes on its own behind me. Then I walk across the room to the door on the other side. Why do I get the feeling¡­ I reach for the door and open it, revealing another room just like this and the last one. ¡­that this room is just repeating itself over and over again. Okay, why is this happening? And what am I supposed to do? I repeat the process three more times, just passing through one door after another after another. But every single time I just end up in another room exactly like the second one, with two doors on opposite ends including the one I enter the room through. Eventually a thought comes to mind and after entering another room and letting the door close behind me, I turn around and reopen the door. And surprisingly, it leads to a slightly different room. One with three doors. Of the doors, there¡¯s the one I¡¯m entering through, along with one on the wall to the right and one on the wall to the left. Thought so, but I need to make sure before I come to believe it fully. So I walk into the room and step up to one of the other doors before opening it. And finding myself right back into the second room again. Yep. Thought so. I step through the room, let the door close behind me, and turn around to open the door behind me again. And just as expected, I find myself in that new room once again. It¡¯s a puzzle. One that I have to navigate by passing through specific doors in a specific order, with the number and placement of doors varying with each room. I pass through the door on the left this time around and judging by the new doors in the room, it looks like the correct one. Because this time around there are four doors. Then I pass through the one directly across from me, and end up back at the start once more. This is going to be a pain, isn¡¯t it? I let out a sigh before retracing my path. It definitely will be. B3 | Chapter 59 - Endless Doors Alexia I end up spending entire hours, maybe even over a day in the stupid Hidden Area just going through doors forever. It¡¯s hard to tell the exact amount of time due to there not being any sun here. And the clock I normally use is broken for some reason. So, over and over again, I pass through the pattern I discovered previously, then try out a new door. If it¡¯s correct, continue on to the next room. If not, I repeat the pattern again till that point and try another door. If it¡¯s correct, I move on. If not, I repeat the process again. In a fucking endless loop it feels like. And some of the rooms are so bad that they even have the same setup as other rooms. In fact, a lot of the rooms have the exact same setup. Then there are the rooms that look just like the first rooms of the place. Which confuse me as to whether I got the previous door correct or not. Leading to a bunch of wasted time if I guess wrong as to whether or not I entered the correct door. Because there are no ways to tell if I entered the correct one. I better fucking get a good reward from all of this. But what do I get after this most-likely-a-day of trying? A new type of room. One with shinier wood. And one that I quickly figure out after passing through two more rooms is a damned checkpoint that starts me out in this room instead of the original first room. I can¡¯t hold myself back anymore and slam my fist into the wall of the trunk. Only to feel tears build up in my eyes as I jump backwards while holding my fist, absolutely shocked to feel pain from it despite my physical damage immunity. Is this fucking tree trunk made out of magical wood or something?! I glare at the wall of the shiny-looking wood for several seconds. Then I glare back at where the door I had passed through vanished. Starting to wonder if I¡¯ll ever make it out of this place. What sort of Hidden Area is this anyways? One meant to piss the users off or something? A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. I let out a sigh at that thought before turning to the shinier wooden door and walking to it. And after passing through, I end up in that same three door room again. But this time I choose a different door. Before teleporting to the side the moment I pass through said door when a vine tries to impale me in the face. Seriously? Inside of the shiny, albeit larger room this time around is a large tree thingy. One with a face. A creepy one at that. And it¡¯s waving around vines trying to hit me. Out of curiosity, I move so that the vines hit just my hand. And just as expected, the vines pass right through. So I just glare at the thing and begin walking towards it while it slaps me with vines. Vines that pass right on through without a hint of damage. This is becoming way too much of a pain. Not like I can just leave this Hidden Area even if I wanted to though, since there¡¯s no exit other than finding my way through. When I reach the monster I quickly identify to be called a treant, I simply summon my polearm and stab it in the mouth. Killing the thing without much issue. Guess it can¡¯t use magic at least. So there¡¯s an upside to this. After dealing with mister tree, I go ahead and walk through the next door. Ending up back at the start again. Ugh. I walk back through the path I took, only to find that treant magically alive again and staring at me. Seriously? Again. The thing doesn¡¯t wait for me to get over the stupidity of this situation and sends its vines to attack me again. And this time I just stand here letting it attack without moving an inch as I stare blankly at the thing. Is this thing going to respawn every single time I come to this room? More importantly, seeing as this thing clearly has no magic, am I going to be stuck fighting more monsters in other rooms too? And will some of those actually have magic? The sound of whipping vines continue to fill the chamber as I stand here blankly staring at the treant while ignoring its attempts at attacks. Well, there¡¯s only one way to find that out. I kill the treant, getting the EXP for it in the process before trying another door. And finding it to be the wrong one again. Okay, let me redo that. I go back to that room again, slaughter the treant again, get its EXP again, and walk through the last door in the room. Before finding myself face to face with another vine going straight at my, well, face. And passing through again. Right. Another treant. I kill this one, once again getting EXP for it, and pass through the next door. Which happens to be the correct one on the first try. Then I teleport away when one of those wolves from outside this place jumps at me. So there are monsters with magic here too after all. I teleport right up to the thing and stab it right through the head with my polearm. Getting EXP from it too. Then I flip my polearm and dismiss it in the process of doing so before turning to face the doors. Alright, so the second wave of rooms is going to be filled with various different monsters. Monsters that respawn when I reenter their room. At the very least I won¡¯t be doing this for no reason. These monsters are all around just a little lower level than me. So they¡¯ll give me some EXP. And endless amount of EXP. With a seemingly endless number of monsters to kill. Guess this isn¡¯t all bad now. I begin humming again on instinct as I walk through the next door, only to reappear at the start again and narrow my eyes. But I don¡¯t stop humming as I proceed through the first door again. Well, time for round two I guess. B3 | Chapter 60 - The End of Hell Alexia Entire weeks pass by as I go through the endless maze of magical doors, slaughtering the monsters over and over again. And the only thing I manage to do in the end is raise my level all the way up to eight hundred due to the massive number of monsters I kill in the process of finding my way through the maze. A maze that once again leads me to another part of it. One with much larger rooms and more doors in each room. And more than one monster in them. The moment I enter the first room of this type, I feel myself practically dying inside. With a large urge to leave this dungeon entirely just from the mere sight of this. What¡¯s happening here? I just stand here staring while completely ignoring the strange plant creatures stretching their mouths over to me at the ends of vines, biting me to no effect. Simply staring with a blank and partially dead look in my eyes. It¡¯s not enough to make me regret coming into this hidden area, simply because I¡¯d have died if I didn¡¯t. But still. I hate this place. Why, oh why? Who made this place? Whoever they are should be dropped off a mountain while tied to a log and a teddy bear before they¡¯re eaten by a mountain snake and then eaten again by a large dog. I continue staring blankly for several seconds before eventually just sighing and killing the monsters trying and failing to nibble on me in an instant. Then I proceed through the first door. And end up back in that room again. Right. This place is hell. It has to be. And thus begins my next trek through the hell called a haven. A trek that ¨C this time around ¨C takes me an entire month before I finally find the end. I have to question my eyes first after I enter the room though. Because I was starting to wonder if this place even had an ending. But now I¡¯m standing in a room with a large altar at the center and a large gate at the back of it. It takes me several seconds of staring to finally convince myself that this is the end of the place. And immediately after that, I feel all of the strength in my body leaving me as I fall to my knees. Finally¡­ I¡¯m finally done¡­ no more¡­ hell¡­ I¡¯ve been in this place for months now. Months. If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it. Please just give me back the piranhas. I would much rather have those over a maze like that. I stare at the altar for a while before slowly climbing to my feet. This thing better be worth all the trouble and trauma I just went through. I walk over to the altar before stopping in front of it. The altar itself has a large wolf at the top of it with what looks like a place to put offerings in the wolf¡¯s open mouth. Meanwhile there are more wolves surrounding the large one. Each smaller than the center one. When I identify the thing, it reminds me of another altar I¡¯ve found in a previous dungeon. But much higher Tier than that one. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Altar of the Wolf Description: An altar located within the Wolf¡¯s Tree Haven. Anyone who makes an offering of magical energy to the altar shall be granted a gift. Stats Bonus: N/A Requirements: None. Item Tier: 5 -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- The description also doesn¡¯t mention anything about my affinity affecting the gift. Nor does it mention the thing about the gift being randomized, likely meaning that there¡¯s a single gift that¡¯s set in stone or something. Hmm. Well, whatever. I step up to it before placing my hand in front of the main wolf¡¯s mouth. Then I inject some soul into the thing, making the eyes of each and every wolf statue glow with a glitchy purple light. Just like my quantum energy. The light slowly glows brighter and brighter until I¡¯m forced to cover my eyes, the light having grown so bright that it¡¯s almost like a damned sun. But all at once, the light vanishes. And immediately after that, a System Message flashes in my eyes. One that has me blinking in surprise. Pleasant surprise, but surprise, nonetheless. {Congratulations! You have accomplished the Feat, Honorary Wolf, for using the Altar of the Wolf! As a reward you have now been given one extra Passive and one extra Active Skill Slot!} I stare at the message for several seconds, briefly wondering if I¡¯ve lost it or if I¡¯m actually seeing this. Then I eventually just open my mouth and mutter out loud, ¡°Oh.¡± Nice. This¡­ is real¡­ right? It better be. After staring for several more seconds, I find myself truly smiling. Right. So, as I was saying before, this place is a nice place. Yep. Wonderful. And whoever made it should be praised to the moon and back for gifting me this wonderful Feat. I love this place. And with that thought, I give a firm nod of my head and begin walking around the altar towards the gate. Briefly wondering if it could be possible to bring Astrid here as well. Actually, I stop on the other side of the altar before trying to put the thing into my storage ring. But that doesn¡¯t work. It just gives me some warning message about how the altar can¡¯t enter storage devices or be moved at all. Well, there goes that idea. A shame. I would teleport Luna here, but she can¡¯t use items like this. Nor can she get Feats. Also a shame. But it¡¯s fine. I¡¯m just happy that I got something out of this place. A very nice something at that. Now my skill set can expand. I begin thinking about which possible new skills I can put in the slots I just got as I near the gate no doubt leading to the main part of the dungeon. B3 | Updated Glossary Here is an updated glossary. Mostly just updated stats, statuses, skills, and feats that are different. Click here for the updated glossary. You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version. On another note, the commission for the cover image for the new story has finished. I''ll be starting that new story on Royal Road when Wolf of the Blood Moon finishes. With WBM''s last book being over halfway finished. B3 | Chapter 61 - Skills Alexia Before I step through the gate, I pause, realizing what¡¯s going to be on the other side. Then I just turn around and find a corner to sit down at while I wait for my soul to fully regenerate. Since I don¡¯t want to end up going back there again while low on soul. And in the meantime, I can figure out what skills I want to have. Or at least what type of skills. Since I don¡¯t really have all of my current skills memorized. There¡¯re just too many of them to keep memorized after all. Way too many. Although¡­ I frown as one particular skill comes to mind. Okay, actually, yeah. That could work. Quantum Phasing. The skill that lets me phase straight through objects. I haven¡¯t been using it since it costs an astronomical amount of soul to use, but I have an astronomical amount now. Since I¡¯ve reached Tier 4. At the amount of soul I have, I should be able to use it for at least a few minutes. Even if it¡¯ll still rapidly drain my soul at a pace a little too fast for me to be happy about. But I can level it up over time, and the efficiency of the skill should increase during that time. So it should be fine. And it¡¯ll be nice to have a skill like that. Since I¡¯ll be able to walk right through maze walls. I stare up at the ceiling with a faint smile on my face at the thought of skilling through mazes like that. Definitely the best use of the skill. Just skipping past bullshit mazes. I can imagine it now. Me walking straight from one end of a maze to the other, passing through the walls without bothering with the maze¡¯s paths. Simply imagining it feels great. Never dealing with another bullshit maze again. Although, a maze like this door one won¡¯t be fixed with that solution. Since it¡¯s done through teleportation. I think. A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. Anyways, onto the passive skill. That one I¡¯m not sure what I should put in the slot. I try to think of the passive skills I¡¯ve gotten in Tier 4. And the ones that come to mind are Probability Field Manipulation, Quantum Resilience, and Quantum Flux Absorption. The first of the three, Probability Field Manipulation, basically alters probability fields around me to make things more likely to be in my favor. So a luck altering skill in a simpler sense. Quantum Resilience is meant for attacks that can directly damage me in my phased and half in-half out of reality forms. Like when I use Quantum Phasing, or the moment I teleport. It reduces the damage they¡¯d do and the likelihood that the attacks would interrupt whatever I¡¯m doing, putting me back in the normal realm. And Quantum Flux Absorption absorbs something called quantum fluxes around me and replenishes my soul with them at a passive rate. Basically meaning it just increases my soul regen passively. I think. Some of these terms are rather complicated and I¡¯ll have to figure out what they mean exactly from the Quantum Architect. Assuming I see him again. But those three at least sound useful. Which one I would use though¡­ I don¡¯t think I¡¯ve ever fought something that can hurt me while I¡¯m phased out like that. So Quantum Resilience isn¡¯t all that useful to me. At least not now. Then there¡¯s Quantum Flux Absorption. That one would be useful, but I¡¯ll have to test it out to see how much of a boost it gives me. Same to Probability Field Manipulation. Because if that only alters my ¡®luck¡¯ by a small, miniscule and almost nonexistent amount, there¡¯s no reason to use the skill. It entirely depends on how much these skills do. It¡¯s a pity they don¡¯t directly state how much they do. One of the problems with more complicated skills like these. Unlike the simple skills like Quantum Bolt or Quantum Displacement. I lean back for a while against the wall, just looking up at the ceiling and thinking about my skills. Then I come to a decision. Best thing to do is some experimenting. Since I can change my skills as often as I¡¯d like so long as I¡¯m in a Safe Zone, I¡¯ll just test out each of the skills. See which works best. But for now, it¡¯s time for a short nap. So I slowly let my eyes close before consciousness leaves me. And when I wake up, I quickly check my status to see what my soul is. Only to find it at full capacity again. Good. No idea how long I slept, but I don¡¯t really care. I stand up before stretching a little and walking over to the gate. And without any hesitation, I step right on through it, making me reappear on the ground in that same forest as before. Right in front of a rather large stump. Interesting. Then I begin to hear growling and snarling. Very familiar noises to me at this point. Guess it didn¡¯t take very long for them to notice me. I wait for a second before I begin to sense energy sources approaching from all directions. But I very quickly realize something. A realization that only grows stronger when one of them jumps out of the bushes at me and I manage to grab it with relative ease by the throat before crushing its throat. Oh. Right. Yeah, that¡¯s a thing I forgot. I leveled up almost fifty times in that stump. So I¡¯m a good chunk stronger now than the last time I fought these guys. More of them jump out repeatedly, and I kill these guys with a lot more ease now than I did before. And now I¡¯m starting to wonder if I wasted time or not when I took that nap, trying to restore my soul. Then I remember that there might be a leader behind these things. An elite or a mini boss or something. Maybe even a boss. Unlikely on that last one since I just finished with the last boss before first entering this place, but still. It¡¯s possible. Well, regardless of what¡¯s in here, it¡¯s time to continue hunting these fellas. B3 | Chapter 62 - Candy Alexia I slaughter the wolves for hours nonstop, just killing and killing and killing. But they never seem to end. Which makes me wonder if there¡¯s something spawning them. So after nearly an entire day of nonstop hunting ¨C because there can¡¯t be enough space in this place for this many wolves ¨C I begin to run away from the wolves, heading towards the place I sense most of them coming from. And after running all the way across the place with the wolves on my metaphorical tail, I finally find the source. A source that has me teleporting midair and just kinda staring at it while wolves try to jump up after me. What¡­ is that? The creature is a tiny little wolf with three heads. But while I call the wolf itself tiny, the heads are anything but that. They¡¯re massive, and they¡¯re spitting out other wolves. Seriously. What is that? I identify it, hoping for some form of answer. And the one I get¡­ isn¡¯t very helpful. {Candy ¨C Wolf Brood of Cataclysm ¨C Level 850} And it¡¯s a higher level than me by fifty levels. Ignoring the name Actually, what the hell is with the System¡¯s naming sense anyways? Why did it name this¡­ thing¡­ Candy? I frown at the creature before teleporting right up to it, deciding to just go for it. Ignoring the other wolves attacking me in the process. But right when I¡¯m expecting it to pose some sort of powerful resistance, my polearm casually slices right through one of the heads. Uh¡­ The remaining two heads let out incredibly loud roars of anger and pain from it. Meanwhile more wolves rush out along with the wolves that¡¯ve been chasing me all this way. I fight a large number of them off while pushing my way over towards the next head. Then I repeat the process, cutting off that wolf¡¯s head as well. Making the last one let out an even higher pitched roar of pain and anger. And after repeating the cycle again, I cut off its last head, making the massive monster fall to the ground with all of the other wolves just vanishing in a puff of black smoke. This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. [Level 850 Wolf Brood of Cataclysm Defeated ¨C User¡¯s earned EXP has been increased by a significant portion due to killing a being whose level is thirty or more levels above their own.] {Congratulations! You have leveled up to level 812! Your Species has awarded you +2 VIT, +2 DEX, +2 STR, +2 MAG, and +2 MEN. Your Class has awarded you +1 VIT, +2 DEX, +1 STR, +2 MAG, and +2 MEN.} {Congratulations! You have leveled up to level 813! Your Species has awarded you +2 VIT, +2 DEX, +2 STR, +2 MAG, and +2 MEN. Your Class has awarded you +1 VIT, +2 DEX, +1 STR, +2 MAG, and +2 MEN.} Huh. It¡¯s¡­ actually dead. With just three blows. I collapse to my knees as well while panting in exhaustion. Because even if I¡¯m far stronger than them, killing that many wolves is¡­ a lot of work. What surprises me more than anything though is the fact that Candy wasn¡¯t even a boss. It was just a normal monster, albeit a Cataclysm Class one. That battle¡­ was ridiculous. Also, why was it level 850? Isn¡¯t that a bit fast of a level jump? When I came down here, I¡¯d only just beaten a level 800 Cataclysm Class boss. And now it¡¯s just jumping straight to a level 850 regular Cataclysm Class monster? Ignoring the hidden area, of course. Since that¡¯s not a place people are supposed to find. Hence the hidden part of the term. That aside, did that monster just have infinite mana or something? How was it able to infinitely spawn those wolves? Is it because the thing seemed to have pretty much zero defenses? Seeing as my polearm sliced straight through its neck without almost any resistance. It¡¯s the only thing I can think of for why. I stare at the monster¡¯s corpse before reaching forward to touch the head. Only to find the entire body also vanishing in a puff of black smoke. My brows furrow for a second, but I collapse onto my back after that without paying the vanishing corpse any more mind. Because I already got the System Messages about its death. Meaning it can¡¯t have tricked me. There is no tricking the System after all. But putting that aside, was that monster¡¯s only power just making more monsters? Those types of monsters aren¡¯t exactly common. Or nice to deal with. And for one to spawn as a Cataclysm Class monster no less¡­ not a good omen for some of the Dimensional Blocks out there. I can¡¯t help but imagine a Dimensional Block being overrun by these wolves. Or some other type of monster. All because a Cataclysm Class monster focused on creating other monsters appeared in the Block. A rather frightening thing to envision. Pretty much an apocalypse in that Block. Of course, it wouldn¡¯t be too difficult to solve. Assuming they figure out what¡¯s causing it, that is. Since the Cataclysm Class monster itself is rather weak. But if they can¡¯t figure out what¡¯s making the monsters, they¡¯re screwed. Actually, might not just be them, but their surrounding Blocks as well. Since ¨C as I learned with the panda ¨C monsters can travel between Blocks so long as they pass through an opening. One created by someone with Authority. That said, it wouldn¡¯t be a big issue, what with the limits on how many people can travel through. Or rather, monsters. And it¡¯d require someone purposefully letting them through. The Block would be overrun by monsters regardless though. I stare up at the sky for several seconds, thinking about the monster for a bit before shaking my head. Whatever. That¡¯s not a problem for me. At least not now. I stand up again before glancing at my soul and finding it to be at about a quarter left. So I¡¯ll just search for the exit to this place while it recovers. B3 | Chapter 63 - Skill Slotting and Testing Alexia Unexpected. Probably should¡¯ve expected it, but unexpected, nonetheless. I frown at the massive hole in the wall that didn¡¯t take me very long to find. It¡¯s at the base of a massive cliff, and is actually hard not to spot. But when I found it before, there wasn¡¯t a hole in it. It was just a solid cliff. Which means that the exit to that place only appeared after killing mister Candy. I blink at that thought, briefly realizing I don¡¯t know if Candy was actually a mister or not. But then I decide it doesn¡¯t matter. Candy is dead after all. Anyways, I yawn right outside of the cavern despite not really needing sleep anymore. Not at Tier 4 at least. Then I check my soul to find that it¡¯s still not at full. Best recover before leaving. And I need to find a Safe Zone to swap out those skills. So I mark the place on my Dungeon Map skill before heading to the closest Safe Zone near the exit. Which doesn¡¯t take long to reach. Honestly, this whole place is rather eerie now. An enormous forest for as far as the eye can see without a single living creature in it other than the plants. It¡¯s just unnerving now. The wolves were the only thing in it. Or only animals. Only living creature. Massive forests like this aren¡¯t supposed to be empty. They¡¯re supposed to be filled with animals. I continue running through the place despite my thoughts, not teleporting in order to save soul. Seeing as part of why I¡¯m doing this is to regenerate my soul in the first place. When I reach the Safe Zone, I quickly begin searching through my skills. Just in case I find something better than the two skills I already decided on before. But nothing looks better in my list, so I go ahead and slot the two skills. [Quantum Flux Absorption: The user passively absorbs the nearby ambient quantum fluxes, converting them into energy and soul for the user.] If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement. [Quantum Phasing: Temporarily shift the user¡¯s body fully out of the normal plane of reality into the quantum plane, making them immune to any and all physical damage and able to pass through solid objects.] And they¡¯re both slotted now. Nice. I hold myself back from activating Quantum Phasing, even just to test it. Because it costs a lot of soul to use even if I have plenty to use it. And I¡¯m trying to recover my soul right now. On the other hand, I focus on my soul and on my senses sensing my surroundings. Looking for what the skill meant by quantum fluxes. But I don¡¯t really find anything. Only thing I notice is that my soul does at least seem to be regenerating a bit faster. What exactly the skill is doing to make that happen, I have no idea. Not the foggiest at all. Doesn¡¯t really matter I guess. It¡¯s raising my soul regen, so it¡¯s good. Actually, it¡¯s raising it by a decent amount. So looks like the skill really is pretty good. Good enough that I think I will try testing out Quantum Phasing a bit after all. Just means I¡¯m gonna have to spend a bit longer waiting for my soul to regenerate. It is best to know my skills for battle after all. Rather than trying ones I haven¡¯t used before. Much. I look around before finding a narrow ish tree. Then I stop in front of it and activate phasing, finding my soul quickly beginning to drop at a rather rapid pace of thousands of soul every few seconds. The sensation I get while phased feels weird. Like my entire body is incredibly light and just¡­ not all here. Meanwhile the sight I¡¯m greeted with is my entire body just kinda glitching out. Parts of it teleporting one way or another, other parts going in opposite directions, and every part of me just kinda blinking. Just like a glitch on a computer screen. What¡¯s most interesting though is that it¡¯s not just my body, but my outfit as well that¡¯s doing it. Which is good and something I already knew before. Just that this is the first time I¡¯ve actually been able to hold it long enough to get a good look. Never tested it out much until now. After it¡¯s become practical to use in battle. Anyways, I quickly step forwards, passing right on through the tree. And what seems to happen is the same thing that happens when a monster tries to attack me with physical attacks. Non-magical ones. A lot of glitching and I appear on the other side of the tree. Then I deactivate the skill, leaving just half a minute of using the skill draining away ten thousand soul. Practically a seventh of my maximum soul capacity. Ouch. But it¡¯ll be helpful. And just using it to phase right through something without wasting any time like I did here won¡¯t be very expensive soul-wise. It shouldn¡¯t even take more than a couple seconds to walk through the wall of a maze for example. Which should cost probably several hundred soul. A much more reasonable amount. As for other tests? They¡¯ll have to wait. Like testing how I take magical damage while phased. If I take it. And how much I do if I do take magical damage when hit with the skill active. I don¡¯t really have any way to really test it on myself, and using quantum magic to attack me while phased doesn¡¯t sound like it¡¯ll be the same as using other affinities. That said, there is one other test I do want to try right now. If it works, then it shouldn¡¯t take as much soul. Logically speaking, at least. I¡¯m not sure if it won¡¯t or not. Either way, I won¡¯t be holding it for more than a second or two. So I quickly activate the skill again while trying to phase just one part of my body. And to my delight, it actually works. Just phasing my arm and nothing else. It also costs less soul to do. I stop the skill again right after finding it working with a grin on my face. Not bad. Not bad at all. Now to wait for my soul to recover. B3 | Chapter 64 - Labyrinth of Horrors Alexia After I finish recovering all of my soul, I head on through the tunnel. Quickly finding a System Message playing out in my head and my vision the moment I step inside it. [You have entered the Tier 4 Dungeon Labyrinth of Horrors Final Boss Room. The Horror.] Wait a second, this dungeon is called the Labyrinth of Horrors? I can¡¯t help but stare at the message due to that name. A name that never showed up since I never really thought to identify the dungeon itself. Seeing as I was automatically sent into it anyways. And the identify for Tier 4 and above dungeons only shows when you identify the exit of the dungeon or the entrance. And the entrance in the Tier 3 dungeon didn¡¯t work for identify. Just showed up as the exit. One that gave me a choice to either go to the next dungeon or leave the Dimension-Wide Dungeon entirely. So I never really had a chance to identify it. Same with the Tier 2 and 3 dungeons. Not that I cared about identifying those in the first place, considering how weak the monsters were in them. Putting that aside though, I think back to what I¡¯ve seen in the dungeon up till now. Mazes and labyrinths galore. Creepy monsters made up of all sorts of bizarre limbs and creatures, largely human limbs for most. Not so human for the thing that the dungeon called a boss. A tiny wolf with three enormous heads spewing out an endless army of other wolves. And a sadistic tree trunk calling itself a haven that really wanted to suck the happiness out of me and make me wither away to nothingness. I tap my chin for a moment before nodding. Labyrinth of Horrors sounds about right. Very right. I shiver at the thought of whatever sort of abomination is waiting for me in this boss room. But despite that discomfort, I move forwards all the same. Because it doesn¡¯t matter. The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there. I¡¯m The Reaper after all. Although, I notice something very odd rather early on as I move through the tunnel. Why don¡¯t I hear anything? It¡¯s like sound can¡¯t exist in the tunnel. No wind from outside the tunnel. None of my footsteps make any sounds. And I can¡¯t even hear the mock breathing I do to trick others. Out of curiosity, I speak out loud, trying to say a word. Any word. But no sound comes out. Very odd. I continue walking through the Final Boss Room that the System called The Horror ¨C which is an odd name for a room ¨C for a while. And soon enough I notice something with my senses. Some sort of rift in reality not too far ahead of me. Hmm. I keep walking until I arrive at the rift, but I don¡¯t see anything. Just a strange warping in reality that goes along with my senses. One so small I barely manage to see it with my eyes. Before passing through it, I move up to the walls, but the rift spans the entire tunnel. So there¡¯s no way around it. I close my eyes, trying to see if I can sense beyond it. But I can¡¯t. Whatever is making the rift doesn¡¯t seem to like that. Well, if that¡¯s the case¡­ I summon my polearm before swinging the blade straight at the rift, slicing right through it. And revealing a rather¡­ peculiar¡­ tunnel on the other side. After staring at the tunnel for several seconds, I can¡¯t help but wonder something rather important. Do¡­ I have to go in there? I purse my lips at the thought as I stare at the bizarre tunnel. One with walls that seem¡­ different all over. Some parts of the walls appear to be made out of a creature¡¯s flesh. Some the inside of their flesh, others scales or skin on the outside. Meanwhile some parts of the walls are made of metal, or stone, or marble, or whatever other material I can possibly think of. And other parts are even made of liquid that seems to go on infinitely with no end. Like water or oil, or even blood. Lastly, some parts seem to be made up of gases or even flames. I really don¡¯t want to go in there. The rift slowly seals itself back up again as I stare blankly at it. But no matter how hard I try to think about this, there really isn¡¯t a way around going in. So I take a deep breath before slicing straight through the rift again and stepping through. Not trusting going into a rift and letting it do what it wants to do to me itself. And I quickly find myself grimacing slightly when my feet sink soundlessly into the flesh that quickly moves to meet it. Moves. To meet it. The walls and floor of the tunnel just shift the moment I step inside with the fleshy parts moving to meet where my foot lands. What. The. Fuck. The fleshy ground doesn¡¯t do anything to me other than purposefully move to meet where my foot lands. Even when I step inside with my other foot as well. It moves to meet that too. As if the tunnel is determined to make me step on the fleshy parts. This is just gross. At least I don¡¯t have to hear squelching sounds from stepping on the flesh though. Seeing as there¡¯s still no sounds. Which is odd considering the flames in here. Flames that aren¡¯t burning any of the rest of the tunnel. Just like how the liquids aren¡¯t obeying gravity, even when they¡¯re on the ceiling of the tunnel. But¡­ seriously¡­ who made this tunnel? This dungeon in general. It¡¯s getting beyond disturbing at this point. And to make matters worse, the tunnel begins vibrating beneath my feet. As if something just roared or broke something despite there not being a single sound. I scowl at the tunnel for several seconds as if that would help before sighing and just walking forwards. Ignoring that I don¡¯t smell anything either. Which is probably for the best considering the flesh following my footsteps. This is going to be an unpleasant boss fight. B3 | Chapter 65 - The Horror Alexia To my surprise, I don¡¯t end up finding anything in the tunnel for nearly half an hour. Not a single thing. Other than the gross stuff, that is. And the horrific stuff. At one point I swear I see a human heart just floating around in the blood within the wall. This whole final boss area is disturbing as hell. But I keep moving forward. Keep pressing onwards. Finding more and more disgusting and disturbing stuff making up the walls, floor, and ceiling of the place. All while the flesh follows my footsteps. I¡¯m just glad it¡¯s not making a gross squelching sound as I walk. That would make this so much worse. I continue walking for another half an hour before I finally run into something. Something that has me questioning just where exactly I am. It¡¯s a monster, no doubt about that. But it¡¯s in the form of a large worm, with rather squishy and worm-like skin. And it¡¯s the size of a dog with the mouth of a leech. Most importantly though is the result I see as its identify result. {Horrific Parasite ¨C Species: Fallen Horrific Parasite ¨C Level 901} That¡¯s not disturbing in the slightest. Nor is the fact that it came out of the liquid making up the ceiling. Just kinda fell out and splashed onto the flesh that quickly met its fall on the ground. And now I stare as it slowly wiggles over to me. I wonder¡­ I have a theory about this place judging by that creature¡¯s name, but I really don¡¯t want it to be true. The monster doesn¡¯t give me much time to think about that theory though as it jumps right at me. And out of instinct, I try to swat it away, only for the monster to attempt to latch onto my arm with some sort of small mouth that jumps out of its larger mouth. But my physical damage immunity makes all of that null and void when the inner mouth passes right through my hand and the monster follows after, landing on the ground. Then I turn around, summoning my polearm in the process before thrusting it straight into the creature and the ground beneath it. You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version. I blink in surprise at the result. Huh. I killed it in one blow? Just one cut? And my polearm sliced through it like butter¡­ Why is that? The thing is almost a hundred levels above me, and it¡¯s clearly a Class A equivalent chaos monster. A thought comes to mind, and I kneel down before using my polearm to open its mouth. And what I find has me almost gagging before immediately closing its mouth again. Yeah, that¡¯s disturbing. Inside of the smaller mouth of the parasite were dozens of tiny worms, each oozing some sort of green liquid. Likely a poison. I¡¯m really glad I¡¯m immune to physical damage and poison. Very glad indeed. A faint shiver runs down my spine at the thought of one of these- My train of thought is interrupted when I hear a splashing sound - something that shouldn''t be here due to the lack of sounds - following which something passes straight through me and lands on the flesh beneath me. And when I look down, I spot another parasite. One trying hard to bite onto my foot yet failing miserably. I stare at the thing for a few seconds before it pauses. Then something incredibly gross happens. The thing starts climbing up my foot, surprisingly not passing through. But it doesn¡¯t take me long to figure out why. It doesn¡¯t seem to be trying to hurt me right now. Just climbing up my foot and then leg. I quickly cut straight through it, slicing the thing in half with my polearm while teleporting back wards at the same time. Just to make sure none of its insides get on me. Yeah, I really don¡¯t like this place. I should finish up as soon as I can. More importantly though, my theory from earlier. I turn my gaze on the walls of this tunnel. If there are a bunch of parasites roaming around this place¡­ I glance at the three more parasites moving out from the liquids in the walls and ceiling. Mostly from the blood. ¡­then wouldn¡¯t it make sense? My lips purse for a few seconds before I sigh and finally do it. I identify the walls of the place. And immediately grimace. {The Horror ¨C The Horror of Cataclysm ¨C Level 1000} Yep. My hunch was correct. I give a sad smile to the ceiling. This is the boss. I¡¯m inside of it right now. The entire damned last boss area is literally the boss¡¯s insides. That would certainly explain the parasites. And the name of this place. The Horror isn¡¯t exactly a normal name for a location after all. I stare sadly up at the ceiling as the parasites all wiggle their way over to me before trying and failing to bite me. At least the monsters at the start of this place are weaklings. In terms of my immunity to physical damage at least. Wouldn¡¯t want to be here without it. I quickly begin slaughtering every one of the parasites before pressing onwards deeper into the tunnel. Or, I guess, whatever part of the monster¡¯s body I¡¯m currently in. Not exactly happy that I¡¯m inside of it though. Wait a second¡­ I frown before tilting my head down to look at the flesh beneath my feet. And out of curiosity, I summon my polearm again before stabbing straight down into the flesh. Only for said flesh to move out of the way faster than I can stab it, making me stab some sort of metal instead. Sending vibrations down my arms from the sheer impact that has me feeling very uncomfortable for a few seconds. Right. Stabbing the thing isn¡¯t exactly working out. Okay, so what if I stab some other part of it? Or, better yet, if I use magic. I try one thing after another, both implosions and Quantum Bolts, but nothing ever seems to work. Probably due to the almost two hundred level gap between us. A pity. I sigh before continuing on my trek through whatever part of its body I¡¯m currently in. B3 | Chapter 66 - Unpleasant Travels Alexia The bright side about these parasites is that they¡¯re free EXP for me. To the point that I don¡¯t feel any sort of threat and am really just casually walking through this disturbing place getting walking bags of EXP jumping out at me. I glance at the latest one. Uh, okay, disgusting and wiggling bags of EXP. Seeing as they don¡¯t have legs or feet to walk with. That¡¯s not the point though. I slice straight through the thing, getting more EXP. The point is that this place isn¡¯t as bad as I first thought. Even if I¡¯m inside of a massive monster. Although, I do wonder where I¡¯m going. And how long it¡¯ll take to get there. Considering how I don¡¯t seem to have really done anything while here. The ¡®tunnel¡¯ is quite literally endless from what I¡¯ve seen so far. It doesn¡¯t turn. Doesn¡¯t curve. Doesn¡¯t stop. Just keeps going on and on. The only difference is that the walls, ceiling, and floor are all still moving around as I go. And I can¡¯t help but get a bad feeling when I look at said walls, floor, and ceiling. Specifically the liquid and blood in them. Please tell me I don¡¯t have to try going into those openings? I really don¡¯t want to. Those are the only places where anything has entered the tunnel from. Which likely implies it¡¯s the only way further. Unless this monster is just that large. I get the feeling it isn¡¯t just that large though. Even if it most likely is very large. After all, I appeared within this monster through that rift. Spatial magic. So that must mean this creature has some use of that affinity. Wouldn¡¯t be surprised if it¡¯s just looping me around in whatever organ I¡¯m traveling through. With this in mind, I continue marching my way through this place for nearly an entire day, simply using it as a place to farm levels. But no matter how long I spend in this final boss¡¯s lair, otherwise known as its body, I don¡¯t find any differences in it. I just keep on marching through the place. Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon. Endlessly. Eventually I let out a sigh before coming to a complete halt. Then I walk up to one of the walls with a clear grimace on my face. This is going to be very unpleasant. Another one of the parasites tries to jump out of the wall right where I¡¯m at, only for me to blast it in the face with a Quantum Bolt without any hesitation. Unfortunately, no matter how much I want to deny this, the fact that these monsters haven¡¯t really been growing in level despite how long I¡¯ve been fighting them speaks volumes about my situation. So I¡¯ll probably have to go down this route if I want to continue forward. I stand right in front of the opening in the wall filled with blood for several seconds. Then I move over a little to the side, where there¡¯s an opening filled with water instead. Yeah. I should try this one first. Because it¡¯s less disgusting. And with that perfectly normal thought in mind, I reach forward with my hand¡­ only to find the flesh of the organ rushing to meet my hand instead of letting me in. Welp. Too bad. Looks like I won¡¯t be able to go inside the walls. I smile at the thought before nodding to myself. Too bad indeed. Instead of continuing on through the tunnel though, I decide to try the other liquid and even gas openings on the walls instead. Since I can¡¯t be poisoned. Not a single one lets me through though. Not until I finally give the blood openings a try, immediately finding myself repulsed by the sensation of pushing my arm into nothing but a bunch of blood. With random chunks inside of it. Ugh. I was right. Damnit, why couldn¡¯t I have been wrong? I grimace as I take a deep breath and begin pushing further inside. Only to find quite the number of parasites instantly rushing straight towards my arm from within the blood. Parasites I didn¡¯t notice before now. They all pass right through my arm though. Not a single one latching on. This may not hurt, but it is most certainly not pleasant. I want a reroll on this dungeon. Is that even possible? Or, rather, I know it¡¯s not, but still. My point still stands. I don¡¯t like this boss area. At all. I hesitate for a few seconds before sighing once more. Feeling immensely grateful for the fact that I do not need to breathe. And the fact that I brought nose plugs. With that thought, I go ahead and bring my nose plugs out and plug my nose with them. Then I bring out my ear plugs as well. And after finishing up my little preparations, I fully step into the blood, having all of the parasites rushing straight at me in an instant. It doesn¡¯t take me long to realize that these parasites are higher leveled than the ones out in the ¡®tunnel¡¯. Proving that I¡¯m going in the right direction. Even if it¡¯s a distasteful one. If I someday find out that there really is someone designing these dungeons, I¡¯m going to have a little chat with them. I scowl at nothing as I slowly trudge my way through the blood until the ground begins to leave me and the little opening I¡¯m in expands outwards into a literal sea of blood. One filled with parasites for as far as my blood-coated eyes can see. That¡¯s a lot of parasites. And they¡¯re swarming me like some hive of bees attacking an invader. Or those piranhas. I blink at that thought. The System wouldn¡¯t¡­ no¡­ I can¡¯t see it doing that. There¡¯s no way the System could somehow fit piranhas in this place. It¡¯s in the middle of a monster¡¯s body. My thoughts come to a pause at that before I continue swimming forwards, occasionally swinging my polearm to kill some of the pests in the process. I better not jinx it. B3 | Chapter 67 - The Stomach Alexia For a long time, as I swim through the very disgusting blood of The Horror, I contemplate my life and how I ended up in this situation. Swimming through the bodily fluids of a massive monster whose body itself is a final boss room. Just how did I even end up in a place like this? I repeatedly curse whoever designed this place in my head as I swim, hoping it will take my mind off of it. Although the parasites are doing a decent enough job of that as it is. So that¡¯s a plus at least. Especially since they¡¯re still feeding me EXP. Might even stay in this place longer just for that EXP. And when I say ¡®in this place¡¯ I do not mean in the blood. I¡¯ll absolutely be leaving the blood as soon as I can. But after swimming through the blood for several hours, the monsters change. And so does the blood, actually. It seems to take on a deeper shade of crimson, with some random blotches of black here and there. The black blood doesn¡¯t seem to do anything to me though. Which makes me wonder if it¡¯s poisonous or something. But since I¡¯ll never find out, I guess it doesn¡¯t matter if it¡¯s poisonous or not. The monsters, on the other hand, finally begin to use magic. Some sort of magic that begins to mutate me whenever they bite me with that annoying inner mouth of theirs. Something they can actually do now since they¡¯re using magic. Which scared the hell outa me when they first did it. It was not pleasant to see and feel my arm turning into a fish¡¯s fin. Fortunately for my sanity, I reverted the damages immediately. And no damage was left. I didn¡¯t even realize the monsters were different when they first changed. But that was a clear wakeup call that they were, in fact, different creatures. Higher level ones too. Even if they look the exact same, other than a slightly different hue in their coloring. Slightly paler. And the moment they start appearing, my easy albeit disgusting EXP field trip comes to an abrupt halt. Replaced with a stressful and disgusting EXP field trip. Since they are still easy to kill. I just have to make sure they don¡¯t bite me. Which makes things more stressful. The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. I also have to start using my soul again. Since I was avoiding using it to save up my soul while fighting the weaker ones. No point in wasting it when they couldn¡¯t do anything to me and were swarming me like vultures to a corpse. I continue making my way through the blood with the parasites levels gradually rising along with my own. Meanwhile the patches of black in the blood gradually grow larger and larger as I navigate through the slowly narrowing little ¡®tunnels¡¯ in here. Tunnels that I get the feeling may be some sort of blood vessels. Eventually, though, I finally find an exit. One that has me immediately teleporting into the air after falling out of since it is high in the air above a large pool of¡­ stuff. Uh, is this a stomach? I tilt my head while being very thankful for my nose plug. There is one thing I really have to question about this ¡®The Horror¡¯ thing. Just how did it get so many parasites? Like, seriously. There has to be thousands of them down there¡­ I fold my arms under my chest as I look down at the massive sea of yellow and black liquid. Liquid filled with chunks of what appear to be undigested food and partially digested creatures. Along with a bunch of parasites swimming around in it. Although these parasites are slightly different in appearance than the others. These look longer, and they have eyes. Pitch black eyes, but eyes nonetheless. Also, they have arms. Which is creepy. Just random arms sticking out of their otherwise-worm-like body. Their identify shows up as parasites still though, so they are parasites. {Horrific Grappler Parasite ¨C Species: Fallen Horrific Grappler Parasite ¨C Level 941} Literally just tacked on the word ¡®grappler¡¯ to their name. Rather¡­ literal¡­ I guess. I teleport down lower while making absolutely sure to keep my mouth shut. Only to eventually remember that there are no smells in this place. Right. Forgot because I was using the nose and ear plugs to make it so that I didn¡¯t get the thing¡¯s blood in my nose or ears. In that case, I go ahead and take them out. And, fortunately for me, there are still no smells here. I frown at the things as I continue teleporting to stay in the air, not keeping my momentum as I do so. Judging by how fast their levels are rising, I¡¯ll probably end up at the final boss within a day or two. But that also leaves the major issue here. How do I kill this thing when I can¡¯t even pierce through the walls of its blood vessels? And I really tried. Brought my blade down on them, and it didn¡¯t do anything. Tried blasting it with Quantum Bolts, and it didn¡¯t do anything. So figuring out how to kill it is important. One thing comes to mind though. Its heart. Hearts tend to be rather weak organs in general. And even if I can¡¯t damage it, I might be able to figure out how to stop the blood from pumping into it or something. It¡¯s so weird to be trying to figure out how to kill a monster I¡¯m inside of though. Then again, I could always just level up to the cap of Tier 4 and just try hitting the walls or organs again. Would probably work. Might take a while of massacring parasites to do that though. Well, anyways, time to go down and test out these parasites. And considering that it¡¯s most likely stomach acid down there, I should be careful about touching it. Who knows what it could do to a living creature, considering the dissolving monsters I see down there. And I can tell that some of those bodies are monsters. Not just animals. Big ones too. I grimace as I begin letting myself fall lower. B3 | Chapter 68 - The Swarm Alexia It doesn¡¯t take me long to understand that touching the acid is a bad idea. After the bottom of my armor¡¯s boot begins to melt in seconds. How these monster corpses are lasting so long in the acid is beyond me. Just goes to show how powerful this boss is. Although it¡¯s odd to be judging a monster¡¯s strength by the strength of its stomach acid. That aside, I frown at the bottom of my boot, feeling rather strongly that a certain blacksmith is going to yell at me when I get out of this place. I stare at it for a few seconds before looking back down at the pool of powerful acid again. Whatever. That¡¯s a future me problem. Anyways, it¡¯s a pity that acid doesn¡¯t count as a status effect. Probably because it directly attacks the body and begins to melt it. It¡¯s still annoying trying to figure out what is considered a status effect. My thoughts grind to a halt when I notice something. Is it just me¡­ or are the parasites moving closer to me? I narrow my eyes at the parasites in the stomach before nodding my head. Yep. They¡¯re all slowly moving to the place where I dipped my boot. Wonder why? Also, I don¡¯t have the soul to waste constantly teleporting up here. So I¡¯m gonna have to find a place to- A parasite suddenly jumps out of the stomach acid while opening its mouth and letting the smaller mouth jump out as it flies towards me. But I just teleport back before summoning and swinging my polearm, slicing the thing in half before it falls back down into the stomach acid below. Dead. Okay then. Unexpected. Another one jumps out of the stomach acid. Then another. And another. This is¡­ My thoughts trail off as I see some of the parasites that missed me beginning to move those arms of theirs back and forth so fast that they become a blur. And the parasites begin to fly in the air. This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it. Using regular human-like arms as wings. What¡­ the hell? As if on cue, more and more parasites begin jumping out of the acid and flying themselves. Leading to a large swarm of these parasites just flying in the stomach, making me question my common sense. Then again, one of the first lessons we learned at the academy is to not use common sense in the dungeons, so¡­ You¡¯re just asking to die if you try. All of the parasites begin flying over towards me while swinging around the smaller mouths in their mouth. Which looks rather disturbing, but I¡¯ve got bigger issues right now than how disturbing they look. I teleport from one place to another, tearing them limb from limb. But every time I kill one, two end up jumping out of the acid. Sometimes even three. So the space within the stomach continues to fill up with more and more parasites floating in the middle of the organ. And the number continues to grow even as I slaughter them, occasionally blasting them with Quantum Breath and Quantum Singularity Implosions. Wiping out entire dozens of them in moments. No matter how many I kill though, more replace them. Okay, seriously, what sort of creature has this many parasites in its body? It can¡¯t be healthy. I hurriedly look around the increasingly crowded stomach for some sort of Safe Zone. A place I can get away from all this. A place to rest and recover my soul. And a place where I won¡¯t be overwhelmed by a massive swarm of parasites flying with human arms. What I can see slowly gets swallowed up by the parasites as I teleport around and eliminate entire swaths of the creatures. But after searching for an entire five minutes across the massive stomach, I find what I¡¯m looking for. A large hole in the stomach wall with a rift over it. So I immediately begin teleporting over there, wiping out the parasites as I do so. All the way till I jump straight into the rift, not bothering with slicing it open this time since I don¡¯t want those parasites to follow me through. And they may be able to if I opened up the rift. It doesn¡¯t take me long to realize what the hole is though. Since I almost immediately get a System Message about entering a Safe Zone the moment I enter the rift. Then I collapse onto the ground of the strange red bubble I find myself in now. Holy shit¡­ this place really is a hellhole. I instinctively pant in exhaustion as I stare up at the ceiling with my hands spread out to my sides. This dungeon really is a Tier 4 dungeon. I understand that dungeons really aren¡¯t designed for solo trips, especially when your level is as low as mine, but still¡­ this is a lot tougher than I was expecting when I entered. Everyone¡¯s always said that Tier 4 dungeons are hellholes. It¡¯s just one of the most common descriptions of them. If anyone ever tries to enter a Tier 4 dungeon, it¡¯s with an entire team of several people, most of whom are all far above the lowest level of the Tier. So level six hundred or above for most of them. At least a few above level seven hundred. And they all have supplies for days, including oxygen masks, bodysuits to handle swimming through dangerous stuff like that acid, enchanted rings for stuff like that as well, and all sorts of other things. None of which I have with me. Not that it¡¯s really my fault, since we don¡¯t really have that sort of equipment after the Reset. Not yet at least. I stare up at the ceiling for a while as I pant in exhaustion before eventually glancing down at the entrance. Which just looks like a glowing blue portal on one of the walls of this sphere. Then I drop my head back down again to continue staring up at the ceiling as a rather terrifying thought comes to mind. If Tier 4 dungeons are like this¡­ what are Tier 5 dungeons like? B3 | Intermission 7 Dimensional Block #600 Superiority. It was the one thing Damien always strived for above all else. Superiority over all. To reach the peak of the species. And today he is finally making one of his largest strides yet towards that goal. The Lord of Vampires shows a deeply satisfied look on his face as he stands on the balcony looking out over the courtyard of his castle. A courtyard filled with noble vampires. All of whom are here to watch his grand ascension. Because for the first time in history, a vampire is about to ascend to the level of an Ancient Vampire. A Class S species of vampire. Before the Reset, he wasn¡¯t able to ascend to the status of ancient due to his life span not having lasted long enough. And even if it were to have lasted long enough, he didn¡¯t meet some of the other requirements. But after leaving the Dimension-Wide Dungeon of Dimensional Block #600, not even bothering with finishing the second half of the Tier 4 dungeon within, he has finished every requirement that is needed. With one sole exception. An exception that will no longer be one any minute now. Damien Black has now¡­ His body begins to shine with a pale red light from each and one of his veins and his hearts. Followed by his crimson eyes turning pitch black with thin rings of crimson within the black, whiteless orbs, and two batlike wings bursting out of his back as he stretches his arms out over his people. ¡­ascended to the status of Class S! Every last vampire within the entire Dimensional Block underneath the light of the pitch black sun in the sky shouts out cheers for their Vampire Lord. Whether they truly wish the best for him or not. And Damien just soaks up every last bit of their praise and cheers as he looks out at the dead, blackened wasteland filled with monsters all around his castle. He¡¯s worked hard to turn every last user within the Dimensional Block into a vampire, and now that he¡¯s succeeded in becoming an ancient vampire, those other Class S species who have always looked down on him will no longer be able to. A wide and maniacal grin stretches across his face as he shoots both of his hands into the air, making the cheers grow even louder. If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement. The Lord of Vampires revels in the attention given to him by his vampire subordinates. From the thralls all the way to the purebloods. The main requirement for ascending to the coveted Class S ancient vampire species is to have lived for a certain length of time, making it completely impossible for him to have rushed it. He was forced to wait for ages. To wait even as others surpassed him. As Class S species looked down on him. And as the Hound of the Apocalypse stole the position of most powerful and feared out from under him. Even if the Lord of Vampires managed to get the position of most feared back, that was sheerly through his own treatment of his people. His rule through fear and erasure of anyone who dared speak out against him. The way the Hound always acted as if nothing mattered to him always angered the Lord of Vampires more than anything else. How the man committed near genocide yet acted like nothing mattered to him. Like it never happened, and he wasn¡¯t just as twisted down inside as the Lord of Vampires is. Damien hates the Hound more than nearly anything in the entire universe. But his arrogance isn¡¯t the only reason he hates him. Damien hates him because Crystal chose the Hound over him. And that can¡¯t be tolerated. Choosing a filthy human over a pureblooded elder vampire. So, underneath the black sun shining down on all of the vampires, enhancing their constitution and vision in the darkness, the Lord of Vampires declares, ¡°As the sole Class S vampire in the universe, I swear I will take back our place as the most feared race! I will put all the other species in their place, and we will rule over all!¡± A roar of cheers and applause echo out from the pureblooded vampires and their glee, meanwhile silent applause echoes from all of the thrall and lesser vampires across the Dimensional Block. Many of whom were turned against their will as humans will not be allowed in the Dimensional Block. ¡°But to start reaching for that goal, we need to start big!¡± Damien declares, throwing both of his arms out to his sides as his long black hair blows in the wind behind him. The glowing crimson rings in his pitch black eyes shining in the darkness around him on the balcony. ¡°I, Damien Black, shall take on and defeat the current most renowned and intriguing being within the Reset! A being few have survived meeting! One of the eleven Quantum Beings secretly ruling over the universe and a thorn in our side!¡± The cheers grow louder and louder as he finishes, ¡°I will be fighting The Reaper herself one on one! And it will be a showdown to remember!¡± The cheers continue to echo out as Damien stands there, receiving the grace of his people. Receiving all of their attention and love as he widely grins up at the black sun above, showing off his sharp vampiric fangs as he thinks about his next hunt. If he¡¯s going to elevate the position of the vampires in the universe, he must first take down one of the dominant species of the universe. And while a dragon would typically do it, communications are currently disrupted between the Dimensional Blocks due to the Reset. So there is a high likelihood that no one would care or pay any attention. But if he were to kill The Reaper, who is the talk of the entire universe due to her repeatedly catching everyone¡¯s attention. Whether it¡¯s through Legendary Feats, taking first place in the Tutorial, or just being a Quantum Being. No one would be able to doubt the rise of the vampires then. And his species would finally be acknowledged as one of the dominant species. As it should be. Damien¡¯s smile turns more and more manic as the shouts and cheers continue to grow in volume. Then I can finally start hunting down that damned mutt. B3 | Story Art and Brief Update Alrighty. So, as a lot of you know, Wolf of the Blood Moon, one of my other most popular series on Royal Road, is about to finish soon. Probably within the next month or two. I''ll be starting another story at that time on Royal Road, as I''ve mentioned before. A story that is currently free to read on my Patreon right here for anyone, including non-patrons. The commissioned cover from Kart Studio is here if you''re interested, along with the description: What would you do if your entire world were turned on its head? A Primordial System buzzing in everyone¡¯s heads, displaying strange screens and other displays in their visions. Being thrown into a tutorial before entering your first System Event broadcast across the universe. Returning back to your home after the System Event to realize that it¡¯s been filled with monsters. And learning that the abilities every human being has ¨C abilities that have led to the current structure of society ¨C are nothing but the root of their skill trees. The very first skill in their skill tree out of many. You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author. Well, Ashley doesn¡¯t know. She doesn¡¯t remember anything other than some common knowledge from before waking up at the start of the tutorial. So why should this change anything for her? Other than her finding out about the blood bestowed upon her by a certain primordial and her own skill tree. One with just a single skill. A skill to unlock the skill trees of those she kills. To assimilate. The story currently has 73k words written on my Patreon, with 41 chapters there. Longer chapters, like Crimson Eternal has. Chapters that are 1.5 times the length of the chapters for Reaper. And it''s all currently free to read there so that I can get some feedback before it goes to Royal Road. But something I haven''t mentioned on Reaper''s Resurgence at least is that Reaper''s Resurgence will be stubbing in 2025 to Amazon Kindle Unlimited. After Wolf of the Blood Moon is fully on Amazon Kindle Unlimited. Anyways, those updates/announcements/whatever they were over, here is the story art for this post. Click here for the public post on my Patreon if the art here breaks. I hope you like the varied art styles: These next two are Lexi in her true form in two different art styles by the way. B3 | Chapter 69 - Self-Delusions Alexia Hmm, I feel like I might be getting used to it in here. I kill more parasites while making my way through a track of some sort of body part that was connected to the stomach. Just ignoring the splashes of their blood that coat me and the strange, blue colored liquid that I¡¯m swimming through. It¡¯s getting to the point that I¡¯m not even disgusted being here anymore. Much. Okay, I am a little disgusted still. I¡¯m swimming through what I¡¯m pretty sure is a vein of some sort after all. Then again, there are worse place to swim through in a creature¡¯s body. I continue slaughtering the pests, just veeery slowly leveling my way up towards my goal. Ended up choosing this route since I have no idea what sort of body I¡¯m in. The organs may not be in any sort of placement similar to a human body¡¯s organs, so what little knowledge I have of those organs is useless. Not that I had much knowledge in the first place. Mostly just some stuff useful for battle. Like important arteries, the heart, brain, blah blah blah. Basically just important things that need to be cut in a battle. And important things I should avoid having cut on me in a battle. Although I¡¯m not entirely sure I have those anymore. Or if they¡¯re even in the same place. Just like whatever creature I¡¯m inside. The Horror. I do hope I can find its brain or heart though. Either one should do for killing it. And if this is a vein then I may be able to follow it to the brain. Assuming its veins are connected to its brain. I end up spending over an entire month just traveling through the creature¡¯s body, gradually leveling myself up through the constant wave of parasites. Each of whom are slowly growing stronger and stronger, with more powerful forms. Like the one I cut through with my polearm that has five arms, two legs, and the length of a snake despite clearly still being a parasite in the form of a large worm. A rather creepy creature, just like the creature it¡¯s inside no doubt. This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author''s work. I think this place is making my habit of disassociating my mind and body worse though. Since I¡¯ve been going off on tangents in my head for a large majority of my time here. Mostly to bring my mind off of the sensation of the creature¡¯s bodily fluids that I¡¯m swimming through. Or the fact that I haven¡¯t been dry for weeks now. A very, very unpleasant experience. Maybe I can ask the Quantum Architect to destroy this dungeon in particular permanently after I get out of here? Then again, that may happen without my asking, since this is a Dimension-Wide Dungeon. A temporary one. Unless it¡¯s the same dungeon that¡¯ll appear the next time this event happens? That would suck. I continue swimming through the vein for who knows how long until I begin to see a strange, glowing black light. A light that has me rubbing my eyes despite being inside of this vein¡¯s liquid. Not used to seeing light down here. Been going without light for months now, since my eyes don¡¯t need light to see. But if there¡¯s light¡­ A faint grin stretches across my face as I quickly rush through, cutting apart all of the parasites in the way between me and the light. And as I do so, I make sure to check my level and current amount of soul. Right now I am at about level 981. So I¡¯m nearing the level cap for Tier 4. Meanwhile my soul is at about half-capacity right now. If this is what I¡¯m thinking it is, then I may need to turn back and find a Safe Zone to rest in for a bit. Maybe also hunt some more parasites to level up more. And if it¡¯s not? I might cry. Because it¡¯ll mean more searching. And I don¡¯t want to be here anymore. I continue rushing straight towards the light before eventually finding the walls of the vein opening up to some sort of massive open space within the monster. One with a large pulsating organ in the center. A glowing black one at that. Is that¡­ its heart? I try to identify it, but all I end up with is the same result I had before. The identify result for The Horror itself. But it looks like it should be a heart. I think. Probably. Not sure what a heart would look like for a creature this size, but I want it to be a heart so until I destroy it and find it to not be its heart, it will be its heart. The heart isn¡¯t alone though as there are hundreds of parasites all over the place, making me really question the health of this ¡®The Horror¡¯ thing. But that¡¯s not my priority right now. My priority is ignoring these many three meter all the way to ten meter tall parasite monsters and running away to find the nearest Safe Zone. Because I¡¯m not taking on the final battle with half my soul gone. So despite how against it I am, I quickly dive back into the thingy I was just in that I¡¯m not sure is a vein anymore ¨C considering that it may¡¯ve led me to the heart ¨C before pushing through it. Also ignoring the army of monsters chasing after me from that ¡®room¡¯. Fortunately, the massive parasites prove to be too slow, and I lose them before too long through just teleporting my way through this maybe-not-vein thing. Then I continue on my way until I eventually arrive at a Safe Zone marked on my Dungeon Map. I love this map. Glad I got it. But that aside, I need to be the first to clear a Tier 4 dungeon. And the fact that no one else has gotten the Legendary Feat means I will be so long as I destroy that probably-heart thing. I¡¯ll probably end up reaching level 1000 just from killing the monsters around it, so it should be fine to go and attack it after I recover my soul. Without going to train on some more monsters first. And I¡¯m not sure if the boss itself can really, well, fight. Considering that I¡¯m kinda inside its body, and I¡¯m gonna be attacking its heart. I lean against the wall of the small orb-shaped Safe Zone I¡¯m in before staring up at the ceiling. Not much longer now. Then I¡¯ll be out of this hellhole. B3 | Chapter 70 - Tests Alexia It takes me several hours to recover my soul back to its full capacity. And after doing so, I immediately make my way towards the heart once more. A trip that that spans at least a few hours due to the parasites that seemed to have been left behind when the others no doubt returned to the heart. Fortunately for me, they also serve as some test subjects for what the parasites inside that little ¡®heart chamber¡¯ ¨C as I will call it ¨C are like. Their strengths. Their weaknesses. And their powers. For one, the parasites vary. There are about five different types. One is very resistant to physical damage yet uses magical attacks that are called val parasites. One is resistant to magical damage yet uses physical attacks that are called mal parasites. One is a glass cannon that uses magical attacks and is weak to any sort of damage, which also happens to be the smallest of the bunch at three meters in height. And it¡¯s called a val-blak parasite. One is a glass cannon that uses physical attacks and is weak to any sort of damage, which happens to be the largest of the bunch in the form of a disgusting solidified flesh blob thing spanning a couple dozen meters in length. And it¡¯s called a mal-blak parasite. And one is like a boss version which is just strong and equal in every manner called a horrific heart parasite. That last one pretty much proving my theory that the black organ thing is The Horror¡¯s heart. Overall, the val parasites are easy to kill since my main focus is using magic to kill. Especially since all of my attacks are infused with quantum energy whether I use magic or not. The mal parasites are easy to kill since they can¡¯t even touch me. What with them using physical attacks. So I mostly just ignored those after killing a couple on the way to the heart chamber. The val-blak parasites are annoying since they only use magic and are rather powerful. Their magic being even stronger than some of my own spells despite my being Class S and them being the equivalent of Class A. But the mal-blaks are just big teddy bears to me. Since they can¡¯t really do anything to me other than take up space. The horrific heart parasites are annoying though. Spanning at about five meters in height with a vaguely humanoid appearance yet still flesh and a body made out of the same parasitey and wormy flesh as the other parasites, they creep me the hell out. The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings. What parasites have arms and legs after all? They don¡¯t have heads though. Probably best not to question it. When I finally get back to the heart chamber, though, I can¡¯t help but feel a shiver run down my spine at the sight of even more parasites than when I first arrive here. As if they¡¯d multiplied somehow. And it doesn¡¯t take me long to spot how that happened. What with the few large, black droplets dripping off of the black heart before conforming into the shape of parasites. A rather disturbing sight, to say the least. But at least I know where these parasites are coming from. Seriously though¡­ what creature creates parasites and spreads them around its own body? That¡¯s just¡­ then again, I should probably not use logic when dealing with something whose name is literally ¡®The Horror¡¯. After regaining my bearings again, I teleport away from the swarms of parasites moving through the very shallow black liquid on the ground to appear a few dozen meters in front of the heart. At which point I send several Quantum Bolts straight at it. But the heart merely swings backwards before coming forwards again until it returns to a resting position. Kind of like a punching bag. My brows furrow as I teleport away from the parasites chasing me. Then I look down below the black heart to find quite a few more black droplets falling to form more parasites that join the chase. All of whom are parasites of the five different species in the chamber. The hell? Is it just immune to magical damage or something? Or¡­ wait, I really hope that¡¯s not the case. From what I understand, immunity to a broad type of damage is impossible unless you¡¯re of a few rare affinities, like quantum affinity. Or space affinity. The only full immunity someone can have is towards other affinities. Not an entire type of damage like magical or physical. So to test the theory I just came up with, I teleport high up into the chamber to get away from the parasites before stabbing my polearm into the ceiling to hold me here for a moment. Briefly feeling the corner of my mouth quirking upwards ever so slightly by the mere fact that I¡¯m strong enough to pierce The Horror¡¯s flesh even just a tiny bit now. Enough to get a little bit of my polearm stuck in there. But then I just close my eyes and raise my other hand, making a spell form in front of me to fire off a fireball at the large black heart. I open my eyes again to look at the result, only to find another few black droplets fall from the heart as it swings without taking any damage again. Guess that¡¯s it then. The outer membrane must have some sort of full immunity towards magic, but the entire thing can¡¯t have that. Hence why the parasites are being forced out when I attack. So what about physical attacks? I teleport forwards, ripping my polearm out of the ceiling in the process before slicing straight at the heart. And having my polearm bouncing off with a pinging sound. Full immunity to physical damage as well. But¡­ I look down to find more parasites coming out from that attack. How about I see what¡¯ll happen when I drain that thing dry of parasites. B3 | Chapter 71 - Calling for Backup Alexia During the process of carrying out my little plan, I quickly come to several revelations. For one, the more black droplets come out of the heart, the higher level the parasites that form from them are. To the point that some of them are reaching level 950. Which makes me wonder if they¡¯ll eventually reach level 1000 by the time it runs out of them. Then there¡¯s the fact that the parasites currently in the chamber are getting angrier and angrier with every hit I make on the heart. Which makes some sense, I guess. Since they¡¯re made from that heart. Still weird that the heart is the source of the parasites, considering what parasites are. What with them being foreign invaders living off of another living being. Oftentimes at the sacrifice of said living being in some manner. The third revelation I have gotten from this is that the black liquid at the bottom of the chamber is getting taller by the second. Almost like some of the black liquid dropping from the hearts is adding to it instead of helping form the parasite that the rest of the droplet is making. A revelation that doesn¡¯t bode well for when the heart runs out of black liquid. Makes me think that some massive parasite will form from it all at the end or something. Not a pleasant thought. The fourth revelation happens now, as I stare blankly at my status screen while teleporting away from the horde of parasites chasing after me. Only occasionally stopping to attack either the parasites or the heart. I don¡¯t have enough soul to keep this up. A grimace slowly spreads across my face as I teleport up to the heart, slash it once, and teleport away when the parasites begin attacking me. Then I attack the parasites in return with various attacks changing depending on which type of parasite they are. Magic attacks for the physically resistant parasites, and physical attacks for the magically resistant ones. And magic attacks for everything else. Because I¡¯m stronger magically than physically. I¡¯m going to have to retreat to a Safe Zone again to recover my soul. But at the rate the heart is going, I wouldn¡¯t be surprised if it takes me multiple trips back and forth just to finish this stupid thing off. If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. And I can¡¯t waste my big attack, Observation Effect Absorption, on anything right now. I don¡¯t know if I¡¯ll need it later after all. And if I were to use it now only to realize later that there¡¯s a much stronger foe I need to fight¡­ That wouldn¡¯t be good. I let out a grunt when another one of those annoying blades hits me. A blade made by over a hundred of those magical glass cannon parasites working together in a corner of the chamber. Damnit, I should really start targeting those things before more of them join that blob. The things started joining together and hiding in the very back behind a bunch of magically and physically resistant parasites, clearly showing that these parasites are more than just attack fodder. They can actually make and execute plans. Which has made this whole fight even more difficult. I revert my stasis to clear up the injury before glancing at my soul and finding it to be pitifully low. So I quickly begin teleporting towards the entrance I have on my map. Then I continue teleporting through it, away from the parasites, until I finally arrive at the Safe Zone again. At which point I just collapse onto my back. ¡°Damnit¡­¡± I mutter out loud while glaring at the ceiling. I barely even put a dent in the size of that heart. How many of those parasites are going to be released from it? Will I even be able to take them all down? And, more importantly, will doing this even amount to anything? It¡¯s not even confirmed yet that squeezing the heart dry of the parasites will do anything to The Horror¡­ This is proving to be far more difficult than I originally thought. Right now I¡¯m just treating the heart as a literal punching bag while running away and occasionally thinning out the crowd of parasites. But if I keep this up, will I even be able to finish first and get that Legendary Feat? The Legendary Feat of being the first person to clear a Tier 4 dungeon. It¡¯s uncertain. And I don¡¯t like that. I missed being the first to reach Tier 4, which was pretty obvious that would happen considering the difficulty in Class S species ascending. But I can¡¯t miss this one as well. Just the thought of missing out on another Legendary Feat that I know how to get¡­ it¡¯s not pleasant. It would be nice if I could just somehow tell how far the other people in Dimension-Wide Dungeons are in terms of the Tier 4 dungeons. Too bad something that¡¯d do that doesn¡¯t¡­ Hmm. I frown for a few seconds before grinning. Well, it¡¯s not what I was just thinking about by any means, but how could I forget about this? About her. I continue lying on the ground for several hours, just letting my soul recover. And when it finally finishes recovering, I stand up before closing my eyes and spreading my arms out. Then I reach out to my bond with Luna. ¡°Luna, come to me,¡± I tell her across our bond. And almost immediately, I get a reaction in the form of a burst of joyful emotions sent my way through the bond. Seconds later, a bright purple and blue light begins shining from my chest before a dark purple orb leaves it. Then said orb slowly begins to rotate in place a couple feet in front of me. I reach for the orb, and the moment my finger touches it, the orb lets out a bright purple light and turns into a small, purple and blue bat. Turns into Luna. B3 | Chapter 72 - Mother and Daughter Alexia The moment Luna¡¯s eyes open, she transforms into her humanoid form. Her mini-me form, as Astrid love calling it. Then she exclaims, ¡°Momma!¡± while running up and hugging me. I hug her back with a smile on my face as I ask, ¡°Did you have fun hunting on your own?¡± She nods her head, her face buried in my chest as she does so. And then she immediately begins gushing about the place she was hunting in. A Tier 4 dungeon of her own in the form of a vast array of lava-filled caverns, each with furry monsters despite the hot temperatures of the caverns, along with a lot of portals connecting the caverns. The caverns themselves not having a single tunnel connecting them. At some point as she¡¯s talking, she takes a step back and stretches her hands out upwards with a bright and incredibly innocent smile on her face while staring directly into my eyes. But all she says is a simple, ¡°Up!¡± Luna¡¯s appearance right now looks to be about twelve or thirteen years old. A bit younger than when the Quantum Architect took her form. But I¡¯m pretty sure she can adjust her physical age a little bit just like how she can adjust her size in her regular bat form. Although not older than a teenager still. She just likes taking on this younger form for whatever reason. At least, that¡¯s what she¡¯s told me through our bond. We haven¡¯t had much chance to talk since she got this form in the first place. I indulge in the little one as I pick her up and hold her in my arms, the girl wrapping her own arms around my neck as she giggles and continues gushing about her fun little activities in the dungeons. Like how she was draining the life out of some of those kalla things while playing and skipping through the caverns of magma. Just casually draining away their life force and ignoring them otherwise as the things withered away chasing after her. A rather, uh, strange hobby for a child. But she said she was playing with them to get me EXP. So it¡¯s fine. I rub my face against hers with a faint smile as I tell her, ¡°You did great, little Luna!¡± She giggles happily and tightens her hold on me while saying, ¡°Yay!¡± Anyways, now that she¡¯s done talking, I pull my face back a little go get a good look at her own face before asking, ¡°So how do you feel about hunting with me? There are a lot of creatures in this dungeon that would make great prey for you.¡± This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version. Luna pumps her fists into the air and exclaims, ¡°Yes! A hunt with Mommy! I¡¯ve always wanted to do this!¡± Showing me just how excited she is. I lean down a little while gently lowering her to the ground, placing her on her feet. Then I straighten up again and cross my arms as I state, ¡°Then listen up. These fellas are tough, so you need to know how to deal with them, alright?¡± She repeatedly nods her head over and over again in an adorable display. Such an adorable child. It¡¯s interesting. I¡¯ve never particularly shown much interest or emotion towards others unless they were Astrid or Mom. Everyone else was meh. They existed. Cool. Not much more than that. But Luna reminds me of both me and Astrid when we were younger. And part of me wants to treat her like she really is my daughter. Although I¡¯m not entirely sure why. Even Astrid noticed how I care for Luna over the times I¡¯ve visited The Retreat, leading to her mentioning this to me before. With her displaying rather clear surprise about it. Pleasant surprise, but surprise. Makes me wonder how Mom will react when she sees me interacting with Luna more. Anyways, I go ahead and run Luna through all of the different types of parasites. I tell her about their strengths, their weaknesses, immunities, resistances, and just everything that she needs to know to fight them. Then I tell her about the heart and the black liquid that leaks out of it and forms more parasites. And overall, she seems rather pleased. Exactly as I expected her to be. After all, Luna¡¯s combat often focuses more on the masses. One against many. Like how she was playing around with an army of monsters chasing her in the other dungeon while just draining away their life force. She goes for the slower battle. The slower win. A similar route to victory that a lot of vampires take in general. Since vampires often love draining stuff away from their targets in their fights. Although in different ways depending on their species. Luna¡¯s favorite method of fighting is to just drain away their life energy. Which is basically just their health. She drains it away at a very slow pace while fueling herself up with said life energy as soul instead. Just that it¡¯s soul that¡¯s only usable to attack instead of as health as well. After I finish explaining everything to her, she gives me a little salute with a smile on her face as she says, ¡°Let¡¯s hunt! And maybe we can bring one back to Father too!¡± I blink at that before staring at her rather blankly. Eventually I bring myself to ask, ¡°Uh, who is this ¡®father¡¯ person you¡¯re referring to?¡± Luna blinks as if confused, only to tilt her head and ask, ¡°Can aunts not be fathers too?¡± I stare at her for a few seconds before it fully registers in my head what she just said. Then I start laughing out loud. Laughing so hard it almost hurts. To the point that some tears leak out. Which, in all honesty, might be the first time I¡¯ve laughed this hard in years. I eventually just pat her on the head and say, ¡°How about you call Astrid that later and see what she thinks, alright?¡± Lune firmly nods her head and says, ¡°Yeah!¡± I have to hold myself back from smirking in amusement at that as I face the entrance to the Safe Zone and say, ¡°Then let¡¯s head out.¡± B3 | Chapter 73 - Tag-team Alexia Once in a while, as we head over towards the heart chamber, I find myself almost chuckling as I try to imagine Astrid¡¯s reaction to little Luna calling her Father. Because that is going to be comedy gold. To the point that I even ask Luna to make sure I¡¯m around when she asks. I have to be there to record it after all. Then I can show Mom Astrid¡¯s reaction. It¡¯ll be great. On another note, this situation also makes me realize a certain problem that I never really thought about before. I should probably teach Luna some basic stuff, since she¡¯s kind of like a kid now. What with her going around in the form of a thirteen-year-old version of me. Except talking like an even younger child. So maybe I should teach her some stuff. Or get a tutor for her. Oh, that could work. Maybe I can give her to Astrid so that she will teach her. She¡¯s her aunt after all. But¡­ I feel like that¡¯s just neglect. And for some reason I want to teach her myself. Either way, she needs to learn some common sense. Common sense is important after all. Even if I don¡¯t have much myself. She at least needs to know what is common sense. I give a firm nod of my head at that thought as the two of us finally step back out of the liquid-filled vein and into the heart chamber. At which point all of the parasites in the place instantly turn their attention towards us. ¡°So say hello to the parasite army,¡± I tell Luna as I wave at the things mere moments before they charge directly at us. ¡°Hello!¡± Luna exclaims in an adorably adorable voice that has the corner of my lips quirking upwards before she suddenly glitches out a few times and returns to her rather large bat form. Then she lets out a very much not adorable screech and flies up into the air while sending some sort of purple pulse out of her body. Probably the taunt skill she got a while back. Judging by how the majority of the parasites instantly begin chasing after her. And she doesn¡¯t stop there as she also begins letting out a blackish purple light all across a large sphere around her. Meanwhile anything within that sphere has some strange sort of glitchy purple string attaching them to Luna. Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon. I nod my head at the sight before teleporting away from the stragglers who ignored her to focus on me and appearing beside the black heart with my polearm out and ready to slice at it. There we go. This is much easier now that Luna is here. In tandem with my physical attacks on the black heart, I send one Quantum Bolt after another at it. And after attacking it several times, I pause to point one hand down at the parasites currently forming beneath it. Then I activate Quantum Breath, sending a powerful wave of glitchy purple and blue flames that devour the newborn parasites rather slowly. But I don¡¯t stop hitting the black heart with Quantum Bolts as I do so, nor do I stop avoiding the attacks sent my way by the straggler parasites. Once in a while I make sure to glance at Luna to see how she¡¯s doing. But all I end up seeing is her happily flying through the air while letting out some screeches in the rhythm of Mom¡¯s song. A sight that has me letting out a short laugh before I continue attacking the black heart each time. Luna¡¯s adorable even when she¡¯s a massive, five-meter-tall, black, purple, and blue bat with sharp fangs, glowing and glitchy purple eyes, and sharp talons. She¡¯s best bat, and no one can deny that. Not even the parasites currently having their lives drained away by said bat. Only a few of the parasites manage to even keep up with Luna when she¡¯s going at full speed through the chamber, making it so she has to slow down for them. But I do worry about her getting hit by one of the parasites. Since she is even weaker towards magic than I am. And she isn¡¯t fully immune to physical damage like me either, seeing as I¡¯m only fully immune due to my equipment. I frown at that thought while continuously hammering away at the black heart. Right. I should get Dravik to design some equipment for Luna to wear. It¡¯s a pity the dungeons won¡¯t give me equipment for a bat, since the equipment is automatically fitted¡­ for¡­ me¡­ I blink as a realization comes to me. It¡¯s automatically fitted for me. And Luna¡¯s humanoid form is based entirely on a younger version of me. So¡­ does that mean I can give her hand-me-downs of items fitted for me when she gets bigger? That would be nice. Wait, if she does grow, won¡¯t she just look like a copy of me now? I frown at that thought while still hammering the black heart with attacks and occasionally using a Quantum Breath on the parasites down below to thin them out before they join the chase after Luna. Doesn¡¯t that mean I¡¯ll end up with a daughter who looks like an identical twin? It was awkward enough ¨C albeit sometimes amusing ¨C having an identical twin that used to be indistinguishable from myself, but now I might end up with a daughter who is indistinguishable from myself after my twin is no longer indistinguishable? That¡¯s just¡­ I think about it for a few seconds before eventually deciding that I actually don¡¯t care one way or another. Especially considering the System¡¯s identify. People are happy going around identifying others now, unlike before. So it¡¯s not really a problem anymore. My thoughts come to a halt when I hear a strange cracking sound. At which point I focus all of my attention on the heart that I just hit. I immediately begin to smile at the sight of a large crack running across the black heart. It¡¯s about time the thing started giving way. I glance down below it as I continue attacking the heart, and I quickly notice that there is a lot less black liquid coming out of the heart now. Meaning it¡¯s starting to dry up. Looks like my theory was correct. Or part of it at least. Time to break this stupid heart. B3 | Chapter 74 - Tier 4 Level Cap Alexia As it turns out, it is not, in fact, time to break this stupid heart. Because even after that first crack in the heart, I don¡¯t see any other visible changes despite hammering away at it for another five minutes. Which means it¡¯s going to be a slow process. Great. So Luna and I continue going around in circles fighting off parasites and damaging the black heart. For hours. And hours. And hours. It ends up taking about three hours for another crack to appear on the heart, then another four after that for a third crack. Followed shortly after by another two cracks in the next hour. And after one more hour passes, something new happens with the next crack. Black liquid begins to leak out of the newest crack. Black liquid that doesn¡¯t actually form a parasite. It just pools at the bottom of the chamber. ¡°Luna!¡± I shout while teleporting backwards. And after she lets out a squeaky roar, I continue, ¡°Keep an eye on the black liquid on the floor of the chamber!¡± She lets out another squeaky roar as I hear her voice faintly pass me her confirmation through our bond that she heard me. I focus on the black heart again as more black liquid continues flowing down from the crack and into the growing puddle at the bottom of the chamber. Then I go back to attacking the black heart again for another few hours, making a few more cracks appear. Each of which begin leaking black liquid as well. If I had to guess, the black blood at the bottom will end up forming a parasite as well. But it won¡¯t form until enough of it is here. And it¡¯ll be far larger than the other parasites. What I¡¯m not sure about though is how this will work. Will the thing form right before the heart is about to finally die? Will it form after the thing¡¯s heart is destroyed and we¡¯ll have to fight it until The Horror dies. Or maybe this thing is The Horror itself. Maybe it¡¯s like some sort of avatar or small clone of it. I frown without pausing in my onslaught against the black heart. This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. Whatever happens, it¡¯s the only thing I can think of to take down The Horror. So I¡¯ll see what I see when I see it. One crack appears in the heart after another, and after the thing is covered in cracks, I turn my attention away from the thing to focus on the parasites chasing after Luna. Then I raise both my hands and send a flood of quantum flames straight at the parasites chasing her. And as I do that, I begin to get a flood of even more System messages than I was already getting from Luna¡¯s fighting. To the point that my level rises every several seconds. It just goes up and up and up. All the way till I reach the level cap of Tier 4 and the long awaited System Message appears in my vision as it echoes in my head. {Congratulations! You have leveled up to the level cap of Tier 4! In order to break into Tier 5, you must complete the following requirements based on your class: Retrieve your Quantum Core and become a True Quantum Reaper. Reap the life of a Corruptor. Kill three targets at the cap of Tier 4. Raise Energy Manipulation to Tier 4.} I teleport away from both the heart and the parasites as I read through the System Message. And I immediately furrow my brows in confusion at what I read. What¡¯s a Corruptor? And¡­ what does it mean by ¡®targets¡¯? For the former, the only thing I can really think of is the ¡®corruption¡¯ thing that was mentioned before by the Quantum Architect. But he never actually explained what that was. All I know is that the Quantum Vanguard is in charge of ¡®leading the charge against the corruption¡¯, and the Quantum Cleaner is in charge of erasing ¡®corrupted planes¡¯. Whatever those are. I continue teleporting through the parasites while wiping them away with Quantum Breath as I think about the requirements. Maybe this is related to the role of the Quantum Reaper? Reaping the lives of corruptors? But those ¡®targets¡¯¡­ that could also be part of my role. Maybe the universe designates threats for me to eliminate or something? My mind drifts to thoughts about Mom¡¯s punishment by the Judge. Something like that? It would make sense. But for harsher punishments. As for the thing about my Quantum Core? That¡¯s the thing I need to get my complete true form, so I already had plans to get it. The requirement to raise Energy Manipulation to Tier 4 will be a challenge though. It took me months just to bring it to Tier 3 after all, and the speed for it to progress has drastically decreased since. Guess that means I¡¯ll be spending quite a while taking more lessons from the Architect. I¡¯ll also have to ask him about these Corruptors and targets. Because if anyone knows, it¡¯ll be either him or the Quantum Ruler. Luna and I continue to wipe out the parasites, with her finally turning around and sending her own Quantum Breath attacks at the thing until we finally clear them all out. Every last one. Or, rather, every last one that isn¡¯t immune to magic. Those I handle by slicing them apart with my polearm. But even those don¡¯t last for much longer before Luna and I finish clearing them all out. Leaving the two of us alone floating high above the large pool of black liquid at the bottom of the chamber. Just staring at the black heart that is still leaking out the black liquid. None of the liquid turns into parasites anymore though, instead filling the pool even more. I glance at Luna before meeting her gaze, nodding once, and returning my attention to the heart. We¡¯ll take a very short break to recover some soul before finishing this heart off. B3 | Chapter 75 - It Begins Alexia Since there isn¡¯t really anywhere to rest in the place, Luna and I end up sitting at the edge of one of the vein openings. Not entering the vein exactly, but entering it enough so that we¡¯re outside of the chamber. So as to not be soaked the monster¡¯s black parasite fluid or the vein fluids. Then we just spend the next few hours resting until our soul reserves are fully filled. All while the black liquid continues leaking out of the black heart. Once we¡¯ve fully restored our soul, both of us stand up and Luna returns to her bat form. And without hesitation, we both jump down in to the chamber and begin attacking the black heart once again. Gradually, one crack after another appears across the heart. Each of which immediately leak out more and more black liquid that joins the liquid already filling the bottom of the cavern. Time slowly passes, and after an entire hour of just hammering away at the heart, something finally happens. The entire chamber begins to shake. As if The Horror itself is convulsing or something. I share a look with Luna before we both double down, attacking the heart even faster than before. The chamber slowly begins to shake faster and faster as time moves on. Meanwhile I hear muffled screeching sounds coming from the veins. As if every parasite within the boss was going crazy. Looks like the boss is finally taking notice of what¡¯s going on within its own body. Luna and I continue our barrage of attacks against the heart until the black liquid at the bottom of the chamber finally begins to act. At first it¡¯s just a faint ripple moving out around the massive pool of black liquid on its own. Something that didn¡¯t even happen when the entire boss monster started convulsing. Then the small ripples turn into larger ones. And the sight of that has Luna and I quickly hastening our barrage even more, making the heart look rather beat up at this point. Seconds pass. Then the seconds turn into minutes. And throughout this time, the ripples grow larger and larger until they turn into small wavers. Then larger waves. All the way till the black liquid is sloshing around the chamber like crazy. Like it has a mind of its own. And once twenty minutes have passed since the start of its movements, the black liquid immediately stops moving all at once. Only to suddenly move with purpose to one particular location within the chamber. Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more. A location I quickly realize has some sort of circular pattern on the floor. One I couldn¡¯t see before due to the black liquid pooled all across the chamber¡¯s floor. The liquid rises into a large orb above the pattern, but Luna and I don¡¯t stop attacking the black heard despite what¡¯s happening in the chamber. While we attack, the black liquid orb writhes in place, with some sort of black light beginning to shine from the center of the orb. A black light that grows brighter and brighter every second. I frown, not slowing down in the least in my attacks. Because I¡¯m pretty sure I know what¡¯s going to happen. This particular parasite will likely be incredibly powerful. So powerful that I might not even be able to beat it myself. All so that it can try to stop us from destroying the heart. Making the best choice for the moment being to continue attacking the heart no matter what. I also can¡¯t help but notice that the black heart is still pouring out more black liquid. Black liquid that is joining the orb as we attack, and as the orb gradually begins to shift its shape into that of some sort of beast. Judging by how things are going, the black liquid coming out of the heart may even strengthen or heal the creature after it¡¯s formed¡­ I make sure to keep an eye on the forming monster as I continue attacking the heart, forming more and more cracks on it by the minute. And the black liquid finally begins to take a solid shape. The shape of a four legged wolf-like creature. One with tentacles growing out of its back, two black wings, glowing black claws and eyes, and three tails. Meanwhile its forelegs have scales on the front of the limbs, and the hindlegs have feathers growing out of the backs of the limbs. Overall, the thing looks rather terrifying. Especially since it¡¯s standing at eight meters in height. But what¡¯s most terrifying about it is the aura I feel it giving off. An aura of pure terror. Of power. And of a sense of gluttony. Like it¡¯s hungry and looking at me like I¡¯m a snack. I quickly identify it while still attacking the heart, and the moment I do, I clench my teeth, having now had my theory confirmed just from the sight of its identify result alone. {XcdaDgEdDTGHAS??/123/.,;[psxcXCS ¨C Lupin Parasite of Cataclysm ¨C Level 1010} ¡°Luna!¡± I shout, making her let out a squeak in response. Then we both continue our attacks against the heart even faster than before while paying attention to the massive wolf to make sure it doesn¡¯t attack us. Because this fucking wolf is Tier 5. A Tier 5 monster in a Tier 4 dungeon. That¡¯s just screwed up. And it¡¯s a Cataclysm Class one at that. This may be one of the first times I¡¯ve fought something that should actually be both physically and magically stronger than I am in terms of raw stats. And I¡¯m not pleased. It¡¯s an entire Tier above us. There is no way we can take this thing on. If it weren¡¯t a Cataclysm Class monster, it may¡¯ve been possible. But with it being one¡­ There¡¯s just no way. I grit my teeth and continue attacking the heart for several more seconds before the wolf finally turns its gaze onto me and Luna. And when it does, it opens its mouth, letting out an eerie black mist in the process as black liquid slowly slithers over to it from the black heart¡¯s cracks. A very low snarl echoes through the chamber. Then the wolf leaps straight at us, its mouth wide open to attack. B3 | Chapter 76 - False Assumptions Alexia My first assumption about this little hidden boss of sorts was that it would be impossible to defeat. That we would have to focus entirely on the heart, breaking it while avoiding the boss entirely. Something that I assumed wouldn¡¯t be too difficult thanks to teleportation. I assumed wrong. And I quickly realize that the moment the lupin parasite chomps down on my arm and slams into me. Sending me flying so fast that I break the sound barrier until I slam into the wall and cough out so much blood that it covers my chest as I slide down the crater I made in the wall towards the floor. While missing my arm entirely. At the same time, I feel more ribs broken than I would care to count. I let out a groan as I quickly revert the damage, spending a massive chunk of soul to do so. So much that it takes away an entire ten percent of my total soul capacity. ¡°Mommy!!!¡± Luna practically shrieks, having returned to her humanoid form as she appears next to me, helping me to my feet until I raise a hand. ¡°Alright healed,¡± I mutter, feeling both mentally and physically exhausted by that one singular attack. ¡°But this¡­ might prove troublesome.¡± Luna nods her head as the two of us focus on the parasitical wolf that¡¯s currently prowling its way around the heart towards us. I drastically underestimated this monster. And judging by the fact that it ate my damned arm and sent me flying with a tackle, its physical attacks must have magical effects as well. A sight that is made more obvious by the ominous black energy leaking out of its mouth as it chews. Albeit with what looks like a frown on its face. Then it just spits my arm out, which is rather disturbing to see. Considering that it¡¯s both my arm and it¡¯s quite literally just glitching on the ground. Guess I don¡¯t taste good. The lupin parasite snarls a little as it continues slowly prowling towards us. And in the time it¡¯s taking to get here ¨C which is quite a bit longer than I¡¯d expect judging by how fast it moved before, likely meaning it¡¯s ¡®playing with its food¡¯ ¨C I come up with a new plan for us winning. A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. ¡®Luna, keep attacking the heart,¡¯ I tell her through our bond while frowning at the wolf and slowly beginning to circle around it in the opposite direction. ¡®Do not stop attacking the heart no matter what happens to me. This is of the utmost importance. I¡¯ll keep the thing distracted while you take out the heart.¡¯ I can feel her distaste regarding this plan, but I can also tell by her nodding of her head that she will go along with it anyways. And so, I teleport to the other side of the chamber while Luna teleports right up to the heart and begins to attack it. Only for the lupin parasite to ignore me and charge straight at Luna instead, clearly defending the heart. Luna manages to teleport away, albeit only barely. And only after getting grazed by the wolf, having part of her wing torn off in the process. Fortunately, I¡¯m not the only one with a self-restorative skill. So she heals right away. I frown before teleporting forwards and attacking the wolf with my polearm. But my polearm quite literally just pings off of its fur, not so much as even scratching it. Then the wolf swipes its paw at me faster than I can see, sending me flying across the chamber again. ¡®The heart!¡¯ I shout at Luna through our bond, making her teleport up to the heart and begin attacking it again as the wolf begins charging towards me. After she does a certain amount of damage to it, though, the wolf slows to a stop and turns around, its eyes narrowing a little. That¡¯s it. It really is the guardian of the black heart. The thing doesn¡¯t care about anything else. Just protecting the heart. Before anything else, I revert my injuries again. Draining away another large portion of my soul and making me grimace in the process. We¡¯re gonna have to be extra careful in this battle if we don¡¯t want to end up dying. I grit my teeth before teleporting straight up to the wolf and slashing at it with my polearm again. Then teleporting away almost instantly, only barely getting grazed in the process when it turns around and slashes at me again. Good. It hurts, but it¡¯s not enough to kill or cripple me. And the wolf¡¯s attention is back on me as well. Not for long, though, as its attention quickly returns to Luna when she gets several more hits in on the heart. So I immediately teleport back to it, using magic to attack this time with a Quantum Bolt instead of my polearm. Staying far enough away so that I¡¯m not in the range of its paw. The lupin parasite reacts faster than I can process, tackling me again and sending me flying straight into the wall of the chamber while coughing out more reddish-purple, glitchy blood. ¡°Fucking hell, that hurt¡­¡± I mutter, only for my eyes to widen at the exclamation. Huh. My eyes narrow again at the wolf the moment it rushes straight at Luna, only barely missing her when she teleports over to me. I glance at the black heart that¡¯s currently leaking black blood by the gallons, then at the overpowered Tier 5 monster. Finally I turn to look at Luna as she pants herself, currently in her bat form. This is going to be a difficult fight. I return my attention to the wolf as it starts prowling around the heart again, not directly charging towards us. At least its focus is the heart and not killing us. Because I get the feeling it wouldn¡¯t be that difficult to do that if it were dead set on killing us and not protecting the heart. I watch it for a few more seconds before getting up again, having already reverted my wounds. ¡°Let¡¯s see who¡¯s stronger, doggie,¡± I mutter, the faintest hint of a smirk stretching across my face for some reason. B3 | Chapter 77 - The Hidden Heart Alexia Right. Sorry doggie, you¡¯re stronger. I cough out more of my own glitchy reddish-purple blood onto the ground, ignoring how it glitches apart and instead teleporting directly away from where I was. Once again reappearing several dozen meters away, standing on my feet and leaning against the wall of the chamber to maintain my balance. The wolf in question slams into the wall of the chamber I was just leaning up against, crushing the crater I¡¯d left even further until it pops and some of The Horror¡¯s own blood spills out into the chamber. Only for said blood to fade into the floor of the chamber a few seconds later, not staying. It¡¯s been so long now that I¡¯ve completely lost track of how long we¡¯ve been spending in this little game of chase. Whether it¡¯s been days, weeks, or even a month or two by now. Yet, at one point early on, the cracks slowed down. To the point that a new one would only appear once in a damned blue moon. Not literally. But they are still appearing, and that¡¯s what counts. I directly meet the wolf¡¯s eyes as the thing lets out a snort, sending a wave of black void energy out from its nostrils and straight at me. So I teleport out of the way again, leaving the attacks to hit the chamber. Then the lupin parasite immediately begins to chase after me again with reckless abandon. The only real difference in the time we¡¯ve spent attacking it is that the more cracks show up, the more displeased and reckless the wolf is. Which isn¡¯t necessarily a bad or good thing. Since it does at least show that we¡¯re making progress and aren¡¯t just attacking it for no reason. But it also makes it more dangerous for me. I¡¯ve had to resort to letting Luna take periods to rest and recover her soul so that I can take said soul into me just to keep up the fight. Which obviously slowed down our progress on the heart in the process. The wolf and I continue playing tag for several more minutes, with me teleporting away from the worst of its attacks and just taking the minor attacks. Or, rather, trying to dodge them without teleporting. But ending up taking half of those due to being too slow. Simply in an effort to save up my soul as much as I possibly can. Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. Because teleporting is expensive on my soul, and so is reverting the damage. And every once in a while I make sure to draw in some soul from Luna. Until something unexpected and new finally happens. A loud shattering sound makes both me and the wolf immediately stop in our tracks and turn to stare at the black heart. My eyes widen in shock and more than a little relief. The heart is no longer black. Instead of the steady black color, all of the cracks on the heart are just shattering and falling down to the floor of the chamber. Revealing a glowing red beating organ beneath. One much smaller than the black. My eyes narrow on the new organ. Now that looks like a normal heart. I think. Was¡­ was the black liquid just in-between some sort of outer shell and the heart itself? Because the red organ is far smaller than the black one was. Not even half the size, in fact. Silence fills the chamber with the only sound being that of the red organ beating once every second. Then I immediately teleport straight up to the heart before slashing at it with my polearm. Only for my eyes to widen in both shock and pain when my attack is sent right back at me, slashing straight across me from my shoulder down my chest, all the way to my waist as I go flying to slam into the wall while coughing out blood. Just as much blood if not more than what the wolf was making me cough out. But when I try to revert my injury, I find a shocking and painful surprise. It won¡¯t revert. My eyes widen as I find myself gazing at the large wound going down through my body. Then I slowly lift my gaze up at the red organ that didn¡¯t even so much as get a scratch from my attack. An attack it sent right back at me. Including my quantum magic infused in the blade. Am I¡­ weak to quantum magic? Moreso than other magics? Is it the same thing for other quantum beings? Or¡­ maybe this has something to do with my being a Quantum Reaper? Regardless, I watch as the lupin parasite slowly walks over towards me before stopping about two meters in front of me as I lie here leaning up against the wall of the chamber, bleeding nonstop from my wound and making a pool of glitchy blood around me. Then the wolf just stares down at me with an arrogant look in its eyes. One that I¡¯m sure is telling me that it¡¯s won. I hear another clashing sound along with an explosion, bringing my gaze between the wolf¡¯s legs to look at the heart. Only to find Luna having been sent flying after she apparently tried attacking it herself before failing in the same way. My gaze returns to the wolf as I find myself frowning at it. The wolf lets out a low snarl at me before hissing, growling, and making all sorts of other sounds. Then it slowly begins to lower its head down towards me with its mouth widening to chomp. I feel my eyes growing heavier, slowly closing on me. Meanwhile a sense of peace fills me. Peace with my death, perhaps? With the fact that I won¡¯t have to deal with idiots anymore, maybe? Hmm. I feel the wolf¡¯s breath getting closer and closer as its mouth approaches. Then, right when I feel some of its drool dripping down on my leg, a memory flashes through my mind. One of Mom and Astrid and me at home laughing as we play a board game. My eyes shoot open again as I teleport away, leaving the wolf to chomp down on nothing. And right when it starts to growl, I fall through the air to land on its back, still feeling too weak to stand up. Maybe now¡¯s not the time to die. New Story Release!!!! Hello everyone! Assimilator of Chaos, my new story, has finally reached Royal Road now that Wolf of the Blood Moon is complete(completed on Patreon)! The link is at the bottom beneath the cover and synopsis! Here is the cover if you''re interested: The cover was commissioned from Kart Studio and germancreative. Next up is the synopsis:
What would you do if your entire world were turned on its head? A Primordial System buzzing in everyone¡¯s heads, displaying strange screens and other displays in their visions. This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source. Being thrown into a tutorial before entering your first System Event broadcast across the universe. Returning back to your home after the System Event to realize that it¡¯s been filled with Gates leading to monster-filled domains, a good number of which have already broken and released their monsters into the world. And learning that the abilities every human being has ¨C abilities that have led to the current structure of society ¨C are nothing but the root of their Skill Trees. The very first skill in their Skill Tree out of many. Well, Ashley doesn¡¯t know. She doesn¡¯t remember anything other than some basic common knowledge from before waking up at the start of the tutorial with amnesia. So why should this change anything for her? Other than her finding out about the blood bestowed upon her by a certain primordial and her own Skill Tree. One with just a single skill. A skill to unlock the skill trees of those she kills. To assimilate. What to expect: Skill Trees, LitRPG Apocalypse, Skill Tree Assimilator(the ability to take the skill trees of those the MC kills), Livestreamed Dungeons, Livestreamed Public Battles and Events, Chaos Magic, Varied Magic due to Skill Tree Assimilator What not to expect: I do not write romance(for the main protagonist), there will be no harem, there will be no reverse harem
If you''re interested, click here!!! B3 | Chapter 78 - The End of an Era Alexia I feel my blood flowing out of me and covering my chest, stomach, and armor around it as I feel the wolf jumping upwards in an attempt to knock me off. And I barely manage to hold onto the thing without falling. For the first time it bucks. For the second time I end up flying off due to my strength rapidly fading from me. But I purposefully make it so that I¡¯m sent flying towards the red heart. Luna flies forwards to attack the wolf as I fly before I land right beneath the red heart, simply trying and failing to get up due to my wound. An incredibly painful wound that both burns and stings at the same time. Like it¡¯s damage to my entire soul instead of just my body. I grit my teeth and cough out more blood while turning my attention towards Luna and the wolf, both of whom are currently fighting on the other side of the chamber. Then I try to push myself to my feet while pulling out a potion. An incredibly rare one that was made by the Quantum Architect himself. And the only potion that seems to work on my body. The thing doesn¡¯t actually recover any soul. Instead it begins to repair my body. But even as I pour it over the wound, the only effect I see is that my soul begins to drain a little bit slower. The wound doesn¡¯t heal. It just keeps bleeding out, making me grit my teeth at the sight. Well this isn¡¯t going according to plan. Not that anything in this battle necessarily went according to plan, but still. The pain continues to flood my mind as I watch my soul decrease. But as Luna distracts the wolf for a bit, occasionally taking a hit herself but healing the damage in her own way, I wait for my wounds to heal a bit. Because I¡¯ll need to be able to move to pull off what I want to do. To pull off my last resort for this battle. Long before any progress is shown on the wound healing, though, I find the wolf turning its gaze towards me. So I decide to pull one last card out in order to prolong its attack. I let out all of the power stored up in Observation Effect Absorption, sending a powerful blast of energy out all around me. A blast that I make sure misses Luna. But even after the blast fills the chamber, I still sense the wolf¡¯s continued approach. Meaning it didn¡¯t do shit to the parasite. Well, so much for that. I grit my teeth and try to force myself to move as hard as possible, making the pain I¡¯m feeling flaring and increasing by the second. More and more blood gushes out of my wound as the wound even begins to open up wider, albeit without the glitchy edges of it spreading. Some sort of effect from my attack no doubt. The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. Then, right when the wolf is about to pounce in my direction, I teleport straight up. Right in front of the glowing red heart. And, the wolf having already prepared to leap forwards, with it still being blinded by the Observation Effect blast, it leaps straight at me. Arriving before I¡¯m even able to teleport away and swiping one paw straight at me and the red heart, cutting me halfway through my legs and armor seconds before I teleport. I let out a cry of pain as I flop down to the ground, bleeding out even more than before and seeing my soul rapidly dropping. Then the last sounds I hear before everything goes dark is a shattering sound, a squelch, and a loud roar of anger and pain as everything begins to shake.
All Across the Dimension Wars rage on across dozens upon dozens of Dimensional Blocks as the battles over territory continues. Meanwhile many of the Dimensional Blocks unrelated to these wars proceed to advance in both technology and power, gradually making their way back to where they were before the Reset, even if they¡¯re still relatively far off depending on the society. All while the top powers of each Dimensional Block unrelated to the wars participates in the Ten Year Events for their Blocks. As more and more people grow stronger and stronger through the events. Or as they gain new equipment. Or new Authority. Some of the Ten Year Events by now have already been completed, yet others are still running. Some are in a halt, with some people still inside despite them technically having ended, and others having already finished their business in the events and left. However, regardless of who they are or where they are, every last person within and outside of the dimension pauses when a Legendary Feat notification appears in their vision. Even the quantum beings pause for a moment when they see the name of the user within the notification.
Legendary Feat ¨C The Nightmare Alexia Knight has slain the Tier 4 Boss monster known as The Horror and therefore also its protector, the Tier 5 Lupin Parasite of Cataclysm, with no assistance and while at Tier 4 herself!
And it doesn¡¯t stop there as before they¡¯re even given time to react to the first notification, a second one appears before them.
Legendary Feat ¨C The Dungeon Hunter Alexia Knight has become the first user within the System to clear a Tier 4 Dungeon!
After seeing the two Legendary Feats obtained back-to-back, the fame of The Reaper grows ever stronger, and every powerful user within the System shows a different reaction. The Ancestral Dragon simply smirks and lets out a brief puff of air through her nostrils as she flies through the air in her true form. The Hound of the Apocalypse chuckles as he slams his fist straight through the head of a monster within a dungeon, uncaring of the blood that covers it in the process. The Devourer smiles with a hint of longing on her face. Longing to see her daughter. But she doesn¡¯t stop her hunt for a spatial affinity Class S being. The Reaper¡¯s sister grins herself, having fully expected this to happen. Only for her to focus all of her attention on the problem she herself faces in front of her. A problem that may very well turn into a boon instead should she surpass it. And the Lord of Vampires accidentally kills several of his thralls in his fit of rage upon seeing the messages. Thus marks the end of the second era of the dimension post-Reset. B3 | Chapter 79 - Aftermath Alexia The first thing I feel when I wake up is pain. A stinging and burning pain that radiates all throughout the front of my torso, particularly down the wound I gave myself through the reflective power of the heart. But I quickly find myself shooting forwards to a sitting position regardless, making the pain immediately flare even worse as I feel more than a few things tearing from my torso. I ignore them too while looking around at the heart chamber, only to frown when I realize it¡¯s changed completely. Then I spot the chest standing directly beneath a bisected heart with red blood splattered around it on the floor of the chamber and I immediately relax a bit. Not entirely, though. Because who knows if the wolf parasite died along¡­ My thoughts trail off when I see the husk not far from the chest. A husk of that very wolf parasite. Almost like everything inside it just evaporated or something, leaving behind just its outer layer. Which is gross and kinda creepy. I ignore that too as I search for Luna, only to hear flapping sounds coming from the veins. Veins I just realized are empty of fluid. A realization that also brings my mind back to the changes in the chamber. The chamber is now completely dry, and the walls have a lot of black running across them. With clear instances of rot. Like I¡¯m inside a corpse. I focus on the vein where the flapping is coming from before seeing Luna rushing into the chamber from wherever she was, making a beeline straight towards me. Guess she sensed that I was awake and returned from wherever she was at. Although I¡¯m not sure what she was doing in a corpse. I let out a grunt and grit my teeth ever so slightly when she turns into her humanoid form and quite literally tackles me while falling out of the air, shouting, ¡°Mommy! You¡¯re finally awake!!!¡± Ouch. ¡°Luna, some words of advice,¡± I mutter while trying to adjust her so that she is not hugging me over my wound and therefore hurting it and getting blood all over herself in the process. ¡°Try not to tackle injured people. Unless they¡¯re your enemy.¡± Luna is a little busy crying to respond to me, but she does help adjust her position before burying her face into my shoulder. My uninjured one. I let out a sigh while wrapping one arm around her and glancing down at my wound, reaching to wipe some of the blood away to get a clearer look. Which hurts, but is necessary. Then I spot some stitches. Ripped apart stitches, but stitches nonetheless. Wait, what? I raise my head to look at Luna as I ask, ¡°Did you stitch my wound?¡± Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere. She nods her head while still crying. A faint smile stretches across my face and I reach up to hold the back of her head to my shoulder. ¡°Thank you,¡± I tell her, feeling warmth spread through me despite the pain. She cries for a bit longer before finally lifting her head a little and glancing at the wound, only for her eyes to widen and the girl to jump up. Then she rushes to pull a box out of her storage ring. One holding a bunch of medical stuff. And without hesitation, she gets down to work stitching my wound. A wound that I most definitely did not reopen on accident. Yeah. Wasn¡¯t me. We sit in silence for several seconds before she begins to speak again while still stitching up my wound, ¡°You¡¯ve been asleep for three days now, Mommy¡­¡± My eyes widen a little at that. Three days, huh? And yet, my wound is still there¡­ I glance at my soul to find it ticking down faster than it¡¯s regenerating. Which confuses me more than a little considering the fact that it¡¯s over three-quarters of my capacity right now. How am I even still alive? I blink as a possibility comes to mind. Then I turn to look at Luna as I ask, ¡°Sweetie, did you share your soul with me while I was out?¡± She nods her head, surprising me by the fact that she can give me her soul without me using the skill to take it. My smile grows a little before I reach towards her in order to pat her head again, only for her to frown at me and say, ¡°Don¡¯t move.¡± Oh. Right. The stitches. I have to admit though, seeing her little thirteen-year-old face that looks just like how I looked at that age, except with the quantum reaper aspects of my appearance added in, looking right at me with a frown looks rather bizarre. Like I¡¯m looking at a younger double of me frowning at me. Come to think of it, I don¡¯t remember the last time I saw Astrid frowning at me. She¡¯s frowned at plenty of other people around me, but almost never me. Even if she can look slightly irritated sometimes. Which is normal even between twins. Well, there¡¯s something more important than that right now. These System Messages to be specific. So I let them flow free. [Level 1000 Lord of Chaos, The Horror, Defeated ¨C EXP withheld due to the user being at the level cap.] [Level 1010 Lupin Parasite of Cataclysm Defeated ¨C EXP withheld due to the user being at the level cap.] {Congratulations! You have cleared the Dungeon known as The Horror! Touch the loot box to claim your reward!} Then there are two Legendary Feats that I apparently got for this as well. Which is rather surprising. Starting with one that isn¡¯t even the first clear of a Tier 4 dungeon Legendary Feat I was expecting.
Legendary Feat ¨C The Nightmare For slaying the Tier 4 Boss monster known as The Horror and therefore also its protector, the Tier 5 Lupin Parasite of Cataclysm, with no assistance and while at Tier 4 yourself, you will now deal true damage so long as you are not directly attacking the exterior of a being¡¯s physical body.
I blink at that. Huh? I don¡¯t get to think much about it though due to the next one that appears.
Legendary Feat ¨C The Dungeon Hunter For becoming the first user within the System to clear a Tier 4 Dungeon, you will now gain a permanent 10% boost to all of your stats while you are inside of a dungeon.
That has my jaw dropping open for a second before I close it again. That¡¯s nice. B3 | Chapter 80 - A New Weapon Alexia I frown while staring down as Luna continues working on my stitches. Just thinking about the new Legendary Feats I received. The Dungeon Hunter Legendary Feat will be incredibly helpful to me in dungeons. Because who doesn¡¯t want to have a permanent percentage-based increase in their stats? It¡¯ll especially help me with fights like the one I had with the lupin parasite. Fights that I¡¯m actually struggling with or even have no chance of winning. Maybe if I stack up enough percentage-based stat increases I might even be able to win a fight that¡¯s not meant to be won. That would be cool. But as for the other Legendary Feat I got? I have very little idea about what it¡¯s actually supposed to do. Nor was I expecting the Legendary Feat in the first place. Then again, no one back before the Reset would ever clear a Tier 3 dungeon without help, much less a Tier 4 dungeon. I could also be wrong, but this dungeon may¡¯ve possibly been more difficult or something because of the fact that it was a Dimension-Wide dungeon. Not just a normal one. Still¡­ getting a Legendary Feat for killing a monster in a dungeon. Or, I guess, two monsters. Sorta. Even if I didn¡¯t actually personally kill the lupin parasite. What with it dying along with The Horror. It really was a parasite after all. And speaking of the lupin parasite, I should store its corpse. It could be useful. The thing was a Tier 5 monster after all. Maybe I can use it for armor or an upgraded weapon? Same with the shells left over from the black thing that was previously surrounding The Horror¡¯s heart. I¡¯m sure they¡¯d make for good armor. I wait for a bit longer before Luna finishes with the stitches. Then I stand up, ignoring my urge to stretch. An action that¡¯s become a bit of a habit over the years. ¡°Thanks, Luna,¡± I tell her with a smile before patting her head. She smiles back at me and gently hugs my side, avoiding the wound in the process. I glance down at the wound in question before frowning. If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. Just how long is this wound gonna take to heal? It¡¯s taking quite a bit of soul to do so. I really should ask the Quantum Architect about whether I have some sort of power to affect quantum beings or if it¡¯s just a weakness all quantum beings have towards the quantum element. Hopefully it¡¯s the former and not the latter. Because I don¡¯t like the idea of having a weakness I didn¡¯t know about. It could mean that I might have more weaknesses I didn¡¯t know about. I kind of wish I had more of those potions on hand though. Should ask the Architect for more of them as well. He probably won¡¯t be happy by it, but oh well. He¡¯s the one who wants to play at being my Father. He can deal with the things that implies. Anyways, I begin to walk over towards the center of the large chamber with the help of Luna keeping me up. And when we reach the loot box itself, I can¡¯t help but smile as I reach for the thing. Because loot is life. Immediately after touching the chest and reading the description floating above it, I can¡¯t help but start grinning. Now that¡¯s what I¡¯m talking about. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Reaper¡¯s Blade Description: This blade is infused with the user¡¯s quantum energy the moment it touches their fingers, sending their energy all throughout the blade. The blade may take on any form the user imagines and will retain that form for one hour or as long as the user is using the weapon. After that it will return to its default form of a handle and its guard with no blade. When wielded, every being nearby the user will feel an indescribable sense of fear towards the user. The wearer will also deal five percent extra damage when using this blade. This blade will also repair itself using the quantum energy of the wielder when damaged. Stats Bonus: +100 MAG, +100 MEN Requirements: Can only be worn by those with the class ¡®Quantum Reaper¡¯. Item Tier: 5 -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- And I got another Class item! A Tier 5 one this time at that! Something to replace my old polearm. I was meaning to get the thing upgraded again at some point, but now I don¡¯t have to. There wouldn¡¯t be a need to after all. Not when I have a Class item weapon to use instead. As for the weapon itself, the thing is just as described in the description. It¡¯s in the form of a black and purple handle ending in a bit of a sharp hook that looks a little similar to a scythe on the back. One that looks like it could be used as a weapon as well, even though it¡¯s so small. Meanwhile there is a cross guard that looks like it¡¯s glitching and repeatedly changing appearance, with no blade extending from it. Just a glitched hole where the blade would extend from. I reach for the weapon before grabbing it by the handle, making the weapon immediately soul-bind itself to me. Then I think of the type of weapon I want to hole, and the handle immediately starts glitching apart before reforming into a polearm. One similar in appearance to my old polearm. ¡°Now this I can work with,¡± I mutter with a grin, briefly glancing at Luna who is still helping me stand and is currently staring at the weapon in my hand with clear interest in her eyes. I turn back to my new weapon before thinking of a sword, and the thing immediately changes back to its previous handle and cross guard. Just with a blade extending from it this time. A black, purple, and blue blade that looks exactly like the blade of the polearm. I love this new weapon. After testing its weight in various forms for a few seconds, I decide that this would be better done when I¡¯m not injured. So I dismiss the thing and step up towards the portal, briefly glancing at Luna in the process. She nods her head with a faint smile and we both reach to touch the door. Time to leave this corpse. B3 | Chapter 81 - A Surprise Greeting Alexia The moment I step through the portal, I find myself standing in some sort of plaza surrounded by food stands and people without the entrance in sight. Meanwhile a System notification is floating in my vision, making me frown a little.
The Ten Year Event Selection has completed its initial period and the Dimension-Wide Dungeon¡¯s portal has closed, thereby blocking access to any further Tiers of the Dungeon. The Event will end once all users have left the Dungeon. Users remaining inside the dungeon: 13 Once all of the users have left the dungeon, the timer for the Dimensional Championships will begin.
So I was right in my guess. I don¡¯t get access to the fifth Tier of the dungeon because the event ¡®ended¡¯ before I got there. Not that it matters. I¡¯m not strong enough to fight in a Tier 5 dungeon even if I could get there, so I¡¯d likely just be killed right away. That lupin parasite alone was far too strong for me to fight, and I need to focus on clearing my requirements for ascension to Tier 5. Now then. I turn my slight frown on the people who are currently staring at me from the many food stalls and buildings around this place that was once an empty and barren land of nothing but stone but is now for some reason grassy plains. Then I glance at Luna, who is already returning to her bat form and flying away, abandoning me to the people here as she no doubt heads to her little nest back at The Retreat. My attention returns to the people again when a rather¡­ surprising¡­ reaction comes from them to my presence. And unsettling. They start screaming in excitement while rushing over towards me. Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere. I feel so shocked at this sight that I don¡¯t even move away as they begin crowding me asking for autographs of all things. What¡­ is going on? I try to sense around us, but I don¡¯t recognize a single person on the island. On the other hand, I recognize quite a few people off of the island. Including a couple scouts belonging to Lucas, some people working for The Retreat, and one of the people on the council of The Retreat. All of whom look happy to see me. I also find some giants snooping around, who I am assuming work for the King of Giants, along with several other people who I don¡¯t recognize. Well, I guess it would be understandable for them all to keep an eye on the Dimension-Wide Dungeon¡¯s location for when people leave. Only makes sense after all. What doesn¡¯t make sense are these people who look like tourists. I teleport away from them after finally regaining my composure. Which isn¡¯t hard since they at least kept a respectable distance from me, proving that they¡¯re not stupid. Although that ¡®respectable distance¡¯ probably should¡¯ve been larger than it was. But seriously. What happened here? Oh, and I make sure to cut the head off of one of the people there before tossing him off the island. Because that person in particular tried throwing a knife at me, only for it to miss and hit the ground instead. Surprisingly, no one reacts negatively to this. Actually, they look rather excited. And to add to that, the people here are clearly made up of people who aren¡¯t from our Dimensional Block. Because there are a lot of species that weren¡¯t in our Block before. Not to mention humans whose appearances aren¡¯t from the regions our Block came from before the Reset. I float in the air for several seconds as the people down below scream out either my name or ¡°The Reaper¡±, or even things like ¡°The Lady Reaper¡¯s here!¡± and disturbing things that I won¡¯t repeat. Almost like I¡¯m some sort of idol. Or, in some cases, a goddess that some are worshiping. Which is disturbing. Where did these basket-cases come from? I really want to know. Eventually I decide to just ask one of them by teleporting one of the saner ones up to me and holding him there as I ask, ¡°What¡¯s going on here?¡± He looks at me with a smile on his face and a slight blush. Almost as if he¡¯s shy about being this close to someone he idolizes. And without any hesitation or fear, he answers, ¡°We¡¯re waiting here to meet you, Lady Reaper!¡± I glance down at the crazy people below as I mutter, ¡°I get that.¡± I turn to look at him. ¡°But why?¡± The man ¨C a dragonborn who I¡¯m pretty sure should be waiting for and worshiping Ethan instead of me ¨C answers rather simply, ¡°Because you¡¯re one of the great quantum beings, Lady Reaper!¡± That¡­ gives me pause. Wait a second¡­ is that¡­ possible? My attention focuses on the man¡¯s body as I close my eyes and use my senses to scout him out for his magical energy. His affinity. And after several seconds, my eyes shoot wide open and I hurriedly turn to look at the people on the ground. At which point I check them all as well. What the hell?! I turn back to the man again as I ask, ¡°How did you all¡­ how are there so many of you?!¡± He answers again without missing a beat, ¡°The Reset awakened many affinities and gave a new class option for every one of us.¡± Holy shit¡­ Wait, please tell me they aren¡¯t all going to suddenly start worshiping or looking up to me?! That would be terrifying¡­ I almost want these people to act like everyone else and be terrified of me. Almost. Actually, I do want those fanatic looking ones down there to do that. Because fear is better than fanaticism. Putting that aside for now though, did they really camp out here just to see me when I leave? I look at the bunch of people of various different species and ethnicities even within those species, only to sigh after a while. Well then. What the hell am I supposed to do with over a hundred people with quantum affinities? B3 | Chapter 82 - Questions Alexia What I end up doing turns out to be rather simple. What does one do when faced with fanatics and fans you never knew existed? You run the hell away. So I immediately teleport far away. Surprisingly they don¡¯t seem angry from what I can tell using my senses even after I leave. In fact, they seem rather happy just to have gotten pictures of me, even if I didn¡¯t give them any autographs. And I¡¯m going to ignore the look of awe the guy I brought up into the air was giving off after I left. Amusingly enough, though, they all begin to pack up right after my disappearance. As if they don¡¯t give a shit about anyone else inside the dungeon. Not sure how I feel about this. Other than I¡¯m just gonna leave and act like I didn¡¯t see them. Unfortunately for me, the moment I arrive at The Retreat, I find it filled with even more people with quantum affinities. So I avoid the hell out of it and immediately go searching for the Quantum Architect. A search that actually doesn¡¯t prove to be that hard. Mostly because the guy is literally a glowing beacon for my senses. It¡¯d be harder not to spot the source of quantum energy that¡¯s brighter than a damned sun when I focus on my senses alone. Something I haven¡¯t done since he was restored to his former glory. I quickly begin teleporting through the air, ignoring the people who were waiting for me that aren¡¯t fanatics and fans as they try catching up to me. Because I need to figure out what¡¯s going on. Something about this just feels off. After all, I never once felt any sort of worship or awe of the Quantum Architect even before I became the Reaper. Despite having a quantum affinity of my own. Unless that¡¯s because I wasn¡¯t awakened yet to my affinity? Because I couldn¡¯t use it? I shake my head while repeatedly teleporting through the skies of the Block, heading straight towards the beacon that is the Architect in question. And once I arrive, I find the man just causally floating inside of a large cloaking spell. One that hides the island he¡¯s above in its entirety. My eyes narrow for a second, only for me to shake my head and move straight through the barrier. The thing not stopping me for even a second. Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original. Guess he set it so it doesn¡¯t block me or hide him from me. Meaning he expected me to come find him. Wasn¡¯t as hard as I believed it to be back in the dungeon. I teleport straight up to the man, making him open his eyes to look at me. He¡¯s currently wearing the same outfit I saw on him when he was in the tube before the Reset. A rather high tech set of purple and black armor. Meanwhile his eyes are just pure pools of purple. Like lights on a computer screen in a way, just more regal. Like some sort of god. And his hair is the same deep purple as every quantum being I¡¯ve seen so far, myself included. What isn¡¯t normal about his look, on the other hand, is that half of his body is just kinda glitching out, not solidifying into one singular form. Which looks rather weird. ¡°Already seeking me out, daughter?¡± he asks without a single change to his expression. My eyes narrow slightly at his use of that term again. But I ignore it for now as I ask in return, ¡°What¡¯s with the quantum affinity users flocking to me?¡± He simply closes his eyes again while answering, ¡°The quantum affinity is a difficult affinity for one to learn. It not only takes time, but it requires guidance after that time has passed to grow the affinity into something usable.¡± The man pauses as he slowly floats down to the mountains beneath us, landing on the ground. ¡°But the System doesn¡¯t give people enough time to get their affinity grown before users obtain their classes.¡± I wait for a few seconds, but he doesn¡¯t say any more than that. Leaving me figuring out the rest myself. Which isn¡¯t hard. The System gives options for classes and a deadline for choosing said classes. Albeit a rather luxurious deadline. But a deadline, nonetheless. And if it takes so long to develop the affinity¡­ the only way most people with the affinity could do anything with it is through resetting everything and getting a new class assigned after they¡¯ve already developed that affinity through time. Which is exactly what the System Reset did. It gave everyone a chance for a new class after their quantum affinities had already developed. That doesn¡¯t answer my main question, though. ¡°Why are they treating me like some sort of celebrity, or even a goddess?¡± I ask while crossing my arms. He takes a few seconds to answer, his eyes still closed, ¡°It¡¯s a similar situation to the beings known as dragonborn. Creatures with a strong affinity for one element will be drawn towards the Class S beings who embody that affinity.¡± I frown at that. But wouldn¡¯t that mean more than just the dragonborn would be drawn to the dragons? ¡°Some beings are born amongst the energy of other beings and are more easily attracted to them,¡± the Architect answers my thoughts, reminding me of his habit of reading my mind. ¡°And my energy is spread all throughout the dimension.¡± He leaves at that, but I get the point. And said point leaves a chill running down my spine. What he means is that every being in the dimension was born amongst the energy of the quantum beings. Meaning every person with a strong affinity for the quantum will be drawn to quantum beings. I stare at the Architect for several seconds before eventually sighing. Well, that¡¯s gonna be a massive headache to deal with. But for now, there are other questions I need to ask this guy before he decides to vanish from the face of the¡­ I glance down at the island, only to look at the skies down below. Then I turn back to him again. Before he decides to vanish from the face of this dimension. B3 | Quantum Beings Story Art Part 2 As usual, if the art breaks, click here to find the public post on Patreon. Yes I have to make this text this big as there are always people who ignore everything stated in the post, see broken art, and then leave a comment to ask where they can find the art or to say it''s broken. Even with the link and sentence at the top of my posts. Blame them for the large text. And here is the rest of the Quantum Being story art as I promised before: Quantum Builder: Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more. Quantum Balancer: Quantum Scribe: Quantum Cleaner: B3 | Chapter 83 - The Corruption Alexia ¡°You have several things to ask me,¡± the Architect says while closing his eyes. ¡°Ask.¡± Oh, well that makes things easier for me. ¡°Alright, first and foremost, are quantum beings weak to quantum magic?¡± I ask, unsure of the answer to this question. Because, while I doubt it, it is a possibility. The Architect shakes his head and answers right away, ¡°No. We are not weak to quantum magic.¡± In that case, I go ahead and follow the question up with a quick, ¡°Then is my quantum magic unique in some way?¡± He slowly opens his eyes without a change in his expression other than that. Then he closes his eyes again and answers, ¡°All quantum beings have their own unique quantum magic that helps them with their role. You¡¯re no exception to this.¡± Hmm. So my magic is basically the bane of any quantum beings, and it¡¯s like that because I¡¯m the Quantum Reaper. Pretty much what I expected. Not exactly pleased that it¡¯s my own bane as well, but whatever. Moving on to the next question. I frown as I ask, ¡°What does the term ¡®Corruption¡¯ actually mean? I¡¯ve heard it mentioned more times than I can remember, but no one has ever fully explained it.¡± That question makes him open his eyes again, briefly making me wonder just why he¡¯s sitting there with his eyes closed in the first place. Is he meditating or something? Or maybe working on his own Energy Manipulation¡­ His eyebrow twitches, no doubt at my thoughts. But he answers my question regardless, ¡°The corruption is what happens when a creature is infected by the quantum without having the affinity for it. And it¡¯s highly contagious from one corrupted being to another.¡± Huh. That doesn¡¯t sound good. The Architect waves his hand, making some sort of illusion appear in front of me. A rather glitchy one at that. In it are several different creatures ranging from spiders, to apes, and even fish. Piranhas. I glance at him, my eyes narrowing slightly at that last one, but my gaze quickly returns to the illusion. Each of the creatures in the illusion appear to be glitching out, with parts of their body being unclear and disconnecting and reconnecting. Just like the usual for the quantum element¡¯s glitchyness. But throughout random patches of their body. This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. And sometimes their entire body might vanish and reappear. ¡°These creatures are all corrupted,¡± the Architect states, bringing my attention back to him again. ¡°The Corruption eliminates all intelligence in sapient corrupted, and it replaces it with an urge to destroy. And to spread the Corruption to others.¡± His eyes narrow a little. ¡°Whether those ¡®others¡¯ are living creatures or inanimate objects.¡± Another thing appears above the illusion as an illusion of its own. And the sight of it sends a chill down my spine. Because it¡¯s an entire planet that appears to be glitching out just like the creatures. A corrupted planet. ¡°The older a corrupted being is, the longer it can recover and regain sapience,¡± the Architect continues, surprising me with that bit. ¡°But their sapience is only regained at the cost of their own free will. They are nothing but servants at that point. Ones bound to the Corrupted One.¡± I blink at that before tilting my head and asking, ¡°Who¡¯s the Corrupted One?¡± The Architect meets my eyes again and answers, sending a chill down my spine in the process, ¡°A corrupted quantum being.¡± Wait¡­ what? ¡°How could¡­¡± I begin, only to trail off when he shakes his head. ¡°We don¡¯t know how he became corrupted,¡± the Architect says, a frown of his own on his face. ¡°I¡¯ve personally never even met him before. All I know is that he¡¯s the Quantum Ruler¡¯s brother. And he was corrupted long before I was born.¡± Oh. Wait a second, the Ruler¡¯s brother? Doesn¡¯t that make him my granduncle? Or something like that. The Architect doesn¡¯t answer. Which makes sense, considering his poor relationship with his father. He turns to look at the illusions as he continues, ¡°The Corrupted One corrupted half of reality on his own before he was forced back by the Quantum Ruler. And he hasn¡¯t shown himself since. But all of the corrupted beings and objects from the other side of reality still continue their attempts to spread to this day.¡± That¡¯s bad. Wait, I wonder¡­ My frown grows wider when I think about the possible reasons for the Quantum Reaper role to be in place. That and the quantum beings weakness to my magic. A corrupted quantum being¡­ I spot the corner of the Architect¡¯s lips quirking ever so slightly upwards, leading me to think that my current line of thought might be correct. Or at least close. ¡°The Quantum Vanguard and Cleaner work together to protect this side of reality from the corruption, and it hasn¡¯t managed to spread much in the last million years,¡± the Architect says, reminding me of those two roles. The Vanguard who fights against the corruption and the cleaner who erases corrupted galaxies. ¡°But the Corrupted One has still yet to show himself, even after the period of time it should¡¯ve taken him to recover.¡± My thoughts return to the new skills I get when I¡¯m in my True Form. Corruption Immunity. ¡°Has the Quantum Ru-¡± I begin, only for a bolt of purple lightning to strike nearby, startling me into almost jumping back a step. But I just continue, ¡°Has the Quantum Rul-¡± Another bolt of purple lightning strikes. My eyes narrow. Seriously? How long has the Ruler been listening in? And is he still being petty about being called grandfather? The Architect doesn¡¯t look particularly amused by this either. I let out a sigh before continuing, ¡°Has anyone gone searching for the Corrupted One?¡± Both the Architect and I glance around for a second, waiting to see if some lightning will strike. But nothing happens. So the Architect looks at me again and answers, ¡°The Ruler has. But he hasn¡¯t been able to find him no matter how hard he¡¯s searched.¡± Oh. That¡¯s not good. Just where could he be hiding that not even the most powerful being in reality can find him? B3 | Chapter 84 - Challenge of the Champions Alexia After talking about the Corrupted One, the Architect quickly changes the topic. Bringing it around to the other questions I was wanting to ask him and answering them before I can even ask. Which is a little confusing in and of itself. These weren¡¯t really questions either. More like requests. One for him to make me more of those healing potions that works on me, and another one for him to continue training me in the ways of energy manipulation. Because I¡¯m gonna need both if I¡¯m going to advance to Tier 5. Of course, we don¡¯t start our training right away. In fact, he vanishes again after we come to the decision that he¡¯ll help me. Probably going to make the potions or something. So I go ahead and head back to the island where the Dimension-Wide Dungeon opened at and quickly find it filled with people who are currently leaving. All with their stalls and other things packed up. And the moment they see me teleporting into the sky above them, they drop whatever they¡¯re doing and start screaming out my name and cheering for me. Which sends a chill down my spine. Creepy. Please go away. I teleport straight to one of the people keeping watch over the island, startling the dragonborn in the process. So much so that they stumble backwards and fall on their rear. Ignoring their display, I go ahead and ask, ¡°Has word been sent out about my leaving the dungeon?¡± After a second of frightened hesitation, the dragonborn quickly nods his head and says, ¡°Yes, Lady Reaper. Everyone who matters should know by now.¡± ¡°Good,¡± I mutter with a nod before glancing at the fanatics and fans on the island who are simply finishing up packing their things. As if they didn¡¯t just drop them all and start cheering for me. I¡¯m gonna have to put some sort of restrictive barrier around my clearing, aren¡¯t I? Otherwise I¡¯ll end up having a bunch of fanatics and fans swarming it¡­ Then again, the people at The Retreat wouldn¡¯t let them all swarm my clearing. Probably. I frown at that thought, getting a bad feeling now that I¡¯ve had it. But I just shake my head and focus on the cowering dragonborn again as I ask, ¡°Who exactly has left the dungeon so far?¡± The notification told me how many people are still inside, but it didn¡¯t say who. ¡°Actually,¡± I interrupt the dragonborn before he can even start answering, ¡°just tell me who is still inside.¡± It¡¯ll take less time that way. Fewer people to list. After a very brief pause, the dragonborn begins listing off one person after another. Most of whom are people I don¡¯t recognize. But I do recognize a couple. Like Astrid, of course. And the King of Giants as well. The others all left, though. Of the people I recognize, at least. If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. Which leaves me without anything to do right about now. Except to start looking to meet the requirements for reaching Tier 5. Like figuring out who these ¡®targets¡¯ are. Then again, I guess I can go ahead and ask the Architect about that. So that shouldn¡¯t be too hard to figure out. Hopefully. I also need to ask what a Corruptor is. Which all leaves one option left for me. To enter the Quantum Realm in order to find my core. That I can do on my own. I just have to enter my True Form and slice open my own little entrance to the Quantum Realm. Then, according to the Architect, I just have to follow my gut instinct, and it will lead me to my core. ¡°Lady Reaper,¡± the dragonborn who I honestly forgot about suddenly says, bringing my gaze towards him and instantly making him shiver until I remember to cloak some of my presence with my Reaper¡¯s Cloak. Which I finally learned how to do recently. ¡°What?¡± I ask the frightened dragonborn. He hesitates for several seconds before eventually saying, ¡°There¡¯s something you will probably wish to know that¡¯s happened during your time in the dungeon, Lady Reaper.¡± I raise a brow at that without saying anything, prompting the dragonborn to continue in my own way. And so he does. ¡°Lady Reaper, news has arrived that the Lord of Vampires-¡± the dragonborn begins only to be interrupted when a System Message appears in my vision and a notification appears along with it. {The Dimensional Champion and Dimensional Leader of Dimensional Block #600 has entered Dimensional Block #108. Should your Dimensional Council declare war on Dimensional Block #600 you may challenge the Dimensional Champion to a duel so long as you are still within the same Dimensional Block. The winner of the duel will therefore claim control of the Dimensional Block for their own Block and the Dimensional Wall between the Blocks will no longer require Authority to pass through for citizens of the Blocks.}
The Dimensional Council of Dimensional Block #600 has officially declared war on Dimensional Block #108! As the two Dimensional Blocks are not adjacent, a Gate will be made on each wall connecting the two Dimensional Blocks. Should the Dimensional Champion of one of the two Dimensional Blocks duel and defeat the Dimensional Champion of the other Block, their Dimensional Block will automatically be declared the victor, banning all surviving members of the losing Dimensional Block from entering the fused Block ever again. To end the war without the participation of the Dimensional Champions, a vote must be called upon by both Dimensional Councils where a majority vote of eighty percent of the Authority Holders of both Dimensional Blocks must choose a winner. All Authority Holders killed during this time will transfer one vote to the Dimensional Block of the killer. All Authority Holders who have killed other Authority Holders that are killed will have both their vote and all of the votes they have obtained transferred to the Dimensional Block of the killer.
And as if those two weren¡¯t surprising enough, another notification appears before me.
The Dimensional Champion of Dimensional Block #600, Damien Black, has officially sent a challenge to duel the Dimensional Champion of Dimensional Block #108, Alexia Knight. Should the two not duel within the next month, both Champions will be sent to a System Chamber where they will be forced to fight until one is dead or has surrendered.
I stare at the notification for several seconds before glancing at the dragonborn and pointing at the notifications in front of me as I ask, ¡°Was that what you were going to tell me about?¡± The dragonborn just mutely nods his head. Huh. Well, this¡¯ll be interesting. B4 | Glossary And here is the glossary for book 4 of Reaper''s Resurgence! There are some changes to character descriptions, the addition of the ten different quantum beings and their own descriptions, a listing of their hierarchy for those of you who forgot, and the updated statuses. Also a couple of pictures you''ve seen for Alexia. Those were updated too. This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. Click here to see the glossary, or on the following link: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1tcrjS8CN_akPlj80Sa55Xo2Nb4eKp3JK7TquRT12Mg4/edit?usp=sharing B4 | Chapter 1 Alexia Not long after I get the wave of notifications and messages from the System, I feel my phone ringing. And when I pull it out, I find one message and call after another building up. Making me hesitant to even answer a single one. Too many people. I look through them, ignoring the vast majority of the calls until I find Alara¡¯s call and answer that one. ¡°You saw it?¡± she asks right away without any hesitation at all. I almost nod my head in response out of habit, only to remember this is a phone call and answer out loud, ¡°Yes. I did. I¡¯ll be heading over to check things out now.¡± ¡°Got it,¡± she replies again before saying, ¡°I¡¯ll watch out for The Retreat while you¡¯re gone,¡± and hanging up without another word. I put my phone away, ignoring the other calls and messages I¡¯m getting from pretty much any leader of importance in the entire Dimensional Block. Then I begin teleporting through the skies in the direction of the intruding Dimensional Leader and Champion. Which I can sense thanks to my Legendary Feat, Dimensional Conqueror. Most likely, this battle won¡¯t take very long. But I do need to be careful. After all, the Lord of Vampires is known for how difficult it is to kill him. Now, whether or not he is still like that, I¡¯m not sure. Regardless, it¡¯s best to be careful. I continue teleporting across the Block until I reach the Dimensional Wall leading to one of the neighboring dimensions. A wall on the volcanic side of our merged block and not the sky world side. At which point I find a large army of vampires and thralls entering the block through some sort of portal. So without any hesitation, I unleash my aura and stop hiding my presence. Making every last one of them freeze in place. Of the bunch, only a single vampire gives me any feeling of wariness amongst them. The highest level of the others is around level seven hundred after all, and there are only a few around that level amongst them. But the one my eyes rather quickly lock on is different. He¡¯s just a couple dozen levels below me. And, more importantly, he¡¯s Class S. I can just instinctively feel it in my bones somehow. That he is, without a doubt, Class S. This book''s true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience. A Class S vampire. My eyes narrow ever so slightly at the rather arrogant and smug expression on the man¡¯s face as he slowly floats up towards me. But I don¡¯t say a word. Guess he must¡¯ve gotten old enough that he advanced. Something a lot of people were speculating may not even be possible, considering just how old the man is despite never reaching Class S until now. ¡°So you¡¯re The Reaper,¡± Damien Black says with a smug look on his face. One that makes it pretty clear how he sees me. ¡°You don¡¯t look like much.¡± He turns around to face the tens of thousands of vampires and thrall beneath him as he asks, ¡°Aren¡¯t I right?!¡± All of them shout and cheer, albeit with some of them looking like they don¡¯t want to. Hmm. Not all the vampire support him. Makes sense considering that he went around turning an entire Dimensional Block into vampires. Damien turns around again, and I meet his eyes directly for the first time. Only for something¡­ strange¡­ to happen when I do. I feel something like a shock run through my entire body, meanwhile one crash of thunder after another echoes around the cloudless skies. Then the Class S ancient vampire¡¯s entire body is suddenly lit up in my vision with a faint red highlight. And for some strange reason, I feel a strong urge to identify the man again. {Damien Black ¨C Ancient Vampire ¨C Level 972} -|-|-|-|- {Target ¨C Reaper Directive ¨C Annihilate the Rule Breaker ¨C Target broke the laws of nature and merged himself with a sliver of corruption to break past the bounds of Class A into Class S.} I blink in surprise. Both at the new information for how he reached Class S, and at the fact that he¡¯s a target of the System. Unfortunately, the Architect left before I could get answers about the targets thing. But maybe this is why he didn¡¯t bother answering that one before I could ask, like he did with the others. Because I would know immediately upon meeting them that they¡¯re a target. And I would understand what it is supposed to be for when I meet one. A target is someone who has broken some sort of fundamental law of the universe. Possibly related to the Corruption at that. I look at the man, no, the target for several seconds. Just studying anything I can about his body to see if I can understand the difference between him and a normal Class S. But I can¡¯t figure anything out about him. And the red outline isn¡¯t going away either. Even when smoke or ash floats in-between us, blocking some of my vision, I can still see the red outline clearly. As if it¡¯s marking him no matter where he is. Making it so that I can always know where he is. Which is convenient. ¡°If you keep looking at me like that, I might think you were interested,¡± Damien says, his smirk growing wider as he licks his lips. And when he does that, a single fang cuts his tongue and makes blood drip down from his mouth. ¡°If only you weren¡¯t necessary for my plans.¡± I ignore the disgusting look on his face to instead watch the droplet of blood that falls to the ash-covered volcanic ground, where dozens of vampires literally leap at it to drink the droplets. Gross. Well, anyways, this guy is a target. The corners of my lips quirk upwards ever so slightly as I turn my head up to look at the sky. So, Quantum Ruler, doesn¡¯t this mean I can do it? I can use my True Form against him since he''s a target? I get a strangely vague sense of confirmation. Like I¡¯m correct. Good. I look down at Damien again without a shred of emotion on my face as I begin to float a bit higher in the air. A frown appears on his face, and he asks, ¡°What are you doing? Are you running away?¡± Then he clicks his tongue and goes on about my father or something. But I tune him out. As I activate my True Form. Shutting him up in an instant. B4 | Chapter 2 The Border of the Dimensional Block Damien Black wasn¡¯t the least bit afraid of the Quantum Reaper. He¡¯s never been afraid of anything before, so he didn¡¯t know why some people believed he should be afraid now. After all, the girl is nothing but a brat in his eyes. One who is only a couple dozen years old. And in comparison with Damien, she is just a baby. Add in the fact that she shouldn¡¯t be able to use her true form against him, and she is just an inexperienced child in his eyes. But every assumption he had prior to this vanishes the instant he feels the enormous wave of quantum energy that the girl releases. One that spreads across the entire Block. Meanwhile a bright beacon of glitchy purple and blue light shoots up high into the sky with a small amount of black light mixing in with it. Damien feels an instinctive sensation of fear run across him. An emotion completely foreign to him and incredibly unnerving. And, more than anything, enraging. He feels anger at being forced to feel this sensation more than anything else. Meanwhile the source of his rage floats up into the air through the beacon with her form slowly changing. The girl entering her true form. Damien¡¯s eyes narrow as he wonders what she¡¯s meaning to do by entering her true form. Because she will be punished if she uses that form for her own benefit. Is she simply willing to take the punishment just to deal with me? That thought crosses Damien¡¯s mind, but from what he¡¯s heard of the Reaper, that shouldn¡¯t be the case. What is she¡­ A different thought crosses his mind. One that sends a shiver down his spine. When the beacon slowly dies down, the Quantum Reaper can be seen floating in the air without even bothering with flapping the deep purple and black draconic wings sticking out of her back. She¡¯s wearing a deep purple and black cloak with a hood that isn¡¯t over her head as her deep purple tinted hair blows in the wind and glitchy purple energy all around her. Meanwhile her armor has shifted to a much deeper purple in color, and her eyes are even more unnerving to look at than they were before. If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it. But what unnerves Damien the most is the sight of the scythe in her hand, held in a reverse grip for some reason. Just the sight of the scythe sends Damien¡¯s internal instincts screaming with fear. Like the scythe will be his end. Damien instinctively identifies the woman when her gaze matches his own. {Quantum Reaper ¨C May your death be swift and painless, irregularity.} Another shiver runs down his spine at the message within that identify result that feels directly targeted towards him. Despite the fear in his blood telling him to flee, he holds his ground and moves straight at her, creating a blade of his own blood that he swings at her upper torso. Only for the blade to be blocked with ease by the girl¡¯s scythe, the girl having moved so fast that he couldn¡¯t even see her. The Quantum Reaper tilts her head at Damien with a face completely barren of any emotions as she asks, ¡°Are you an idiot?¡± This one question flares Damien¡¯s anger even more. But this time he doesn¡¯t let his rage take control of himself. Instead, he falls back, creating dozens upon dozens of spears made of blood to attack her. Then he watches in shock as his attacks all fizzle out when they meet the purple energy occasionally being let off by the girl¡¯s body. Somehow not even erasing or damaging the energy in the process. In fact, it¡¯s almost as if the energy is absorbing his attacks. Damien grits his teeth while thinking about the message the identify result gave him. I¡¯m¡­ a target of her role. He wasn¡¯t absolutely certain before, but now he is. Because she is clearly fighting him without facing any drawbacks. And with that in addition to the message he received, he is certain. He¡¯s been made a target of the universe. But how did he get turned into a target? What did he do wrong? He runs through everything he did in the past years over and over again, but the only thing he can think of is the strange energy he had absorbed not too long ago to advance his species. Something he was told was necessary to evolve into an ancient vampire. Did that bastard trick me? What was it that I absorbed that would make the universe want me eliminated because of?! Regardless of what the current situation is, he decides that the best thing to do now is to fight back. Damien raises his hand with a sword of blood held tightly in his grip as he shouts at his forces, ¡°Attack the Reaper!!!!¡± After the initial wave of fear calms down, all of the vampires under Damien¡¯s control, whether they wish to or not, rush straight at the Reaper. Each of them growing various different types of wings as they fly into the air towards her. Damien grins while sending one spear of blood after another at her, confident that she won¡¯t be able to take on hundreds of thousands of vampires at once. Even if she is a quantum being in her true form. Then his confidence vanishes when she simply ignores all of their attacks and slowly floats in the direction of Damien, letting the physical attacks pass right through her in a glitchy manner while the magical ones are all absorbed by the energy around her. Slowly decreasing the size of said energy with the massive number of attacks. But Damien realizes something. She hasn¡¯t directly attacked yet. Which could potentially mean that she really doesn¡¯t have permission from the universe to attack in that form. So Damien rushes forwards, bringing thousands upon thousands of spears of blood along with him. Only to feel a soul-shaking pain radiate out from his legs seconds after beginning his charge. And when he looks down? He finds his legs below the knees missing. B4 | Chapter 3 Alexia After transforming, I find the same notifications I had the previous time appearing in my vision without any changes from back then.
You have now entered your Incomplete True Form as a Quantum Reaper. As the sole Quantum Reaper, you have one role to play. The Reaper of Reality. While in this form, you are given five special Racial Skills. However, you may only stay in this form for a few minutes if you are not acting for your role. However, since you are merely in your Incomplete True Form, you will only receive three of your five special Racial Skills. These skills are as follows: Soul Reaping: With every swing of your scythe, you take a chunk of the target¡¯s soul out and feed it to the universe itself. Therefore any damage dealt with the Reaper¡¯s Scythe is unhealable, regardless of what type of damage it is, who is trying to heal it, or what the damage is being done to. Only the Reaper herself may revert the damage with her own hands. Corruption Immunity: As one of the Quantum Beings holding a role to the universe, you are fully immune to the corruption of the other side. Living Singularity: You are one of the sources of energy. A living singularity. All energy in the surroundings will be drawn to you, made to enter you, and feed your soul. This novel''s true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.
But I ignore it, along with the attacks of the vampire minions, as I charge straight at Damien and slash right through his knees. Cutting his legs off below them. The man in question looks down for a second before roaring in anger. Which is to be expected. I could tell throughout this entire battle, even after I transformed into my true form, that he still didn¡¯t take me seriously. That he was being both arrogant and idiotic. And now, as another notification appears in my vision, I feel nothing but apathy and some disgust towards the man.
You have now begun your assault on a target of the universe. Should you eliminate the target, you will be given a single fragment of an energy core for acting within your role. Your time limit has been removed. Act as you please as you eliminate the target.
Well that¡¯s convenient. I focus on the vampire¡¯s face again, and surprisingly, instead of fear on it, there¡¯s nothing but anger. Almost like this guy just plain can¡¯t feel fear or something. And he looks very upset at that. Very, very, upset. I narrow my eyes ever so slightly, preparing myself for some sort of counter attack. Not that it¡¯ll do much of anything to me. Then he turns into blood and flies away. I blink in surprise before staring after him for several seconds. Only for his army of vampires to continue attacking me without any damage actually being done. What with Living Singularity absorbing the majority of their magical attacks and my physical immunity making their physical attacks pass right through me. Makes me wonder just how strong someone has to be in order to fight me in my true form. Another quantum being, maybe? Or someone at a higher Tier than me? I wonder how I would¡¯ve fared against that lupin parasite in this form? Either way, I begin flying through the air to chase after the ancient vampire. But the man suddenly splits up into multiple different directions, still in the form of nothing but blood. Seriously? All of that arrogance, all that anger, and he runs? Doesn¡¯t even fight, but just plain runs the moment he is hit by my first attack? I¡¯m starting to understand why Lucas finds this guy to be nothing more than a pain. And an arrogant coward. I teleport right up to one of the sections of blood before slashing my scythe right through it. Only for the blood to avoid the blade at the last second before reforming again and continuing its flight. Seriously? Right. So this was why the guy was a pain in the ass to actually kill. Lucas mentioned it before. That he has the ability to transmute his entire body into nothing but blood. But he does have a weakness still. If he¡¯s inflicted with a wound that can¡¯t heal while he¡¯s in his normal form, it still won¡¯t be able to heal even afterwards. I continue chasing after the bits of blood, trying to corner him and force him back towards his rather useless army over and over again. And eventually, he finally returns to his humanoid form. Albeit with some slight difference. He¡¯s shorter now. The sight has me raising a single brow. A brow of which pisses him off even more. In the case of his blood transmutation, losing a limb basically just means losing the blood that was forming that limb. So he is forced to form himself with the blood he has left over. Hence his being shorter. A lot shorter. I teleport right up to him as he opens his mouth to shout something, only to cut him off as I swing my scythe again and he is forced to return to his blood form and flee. Then we continue our little game of chase that makes me for some reason feel like I¡¯m chasing a pitiful little child. If it weren¡¯t for the sheer rudeness this guy has shown me, not to mention the look he gave me at first, a rather irritating one as he was ogling me, I might¡¯ve felt bad. Well, no, not really. He attacked me. There¡¯s no feeling bad for returning the favor. But maybe in some alternate universe I would¡¯ve felt bad. Anyways, I continue chasing him for nearly half an hour, with his army repeatedly chasing me all this time. Likely due to the ancient vampire¡¯s orders being absolute and forcing them to. Not that they end up doing anything other than tiring themselves out. Over our game of chase, I manage to cut him twice more with my scythe. Once chopping off a hand, and another time chopping off his foot. Again. Further shrinking the guy until he stops trying to reform himself entirely. No longer bothering with whatever orders he was going to give his forces. But right as I¡¯m beginning to let my guard down around the man, a bright flash of purple light suddenly fills the area. And when it fades away, I find the ancient vampire missing. My eyes narrow. He really is like a damned cockroach¡­ B4 | Chapter 4 Dimensional Block #100 Damien feels his body screaming in pain as he reforms himself inside of a Dimensional Block far away from Dimensional Block #108. A place he happened to store some of his blood just in case the battle against the Reaper somehow turned out poorly. He didn¡¯t actually expect to be using that failsafe. And especially not so early on like this. The mere fact that he felt fear after she cut off his legs infuriates him to no end. But he can¡¯t do anything. Not as he is now. And that only infuriates him even more. After fully reforming himself, finding his body to have lost a good portion of his blood in the process, he lets out a loud roar of anger. One that echoes throughout the large, floating blocks of Dimensional Block #100. A roar filled with all of his rage, his sorrow, and his shattered pride. But his roar is cut off when he loses his own control of his mouth, and it slams shut. Then he senses a familiar repulsive yet alluring at the same time presence nearby. He can¡¯t move his head to search for the source, though, just like the last time he felt this presence. It¡¯s the being who gave him his chance to reach Class S. The being who gave him the substance that may have made him into a target for the Quantum Reaper. No matter how much Damien wants to shout at the being, he can¡¯t move a single muscle in his body. Leaving him completely at the mercy of the being. Even moreso than how much he was at the mercy of the Quantum Reaper. ¡°Lord of Vampires, do you desire the power to fight the Reaper?¡± the being asks, his voice sounding just as repulsive and alluring as his presence as it resounds throughout the block. ¡°Do you want to kill the source of your rage?¡± Damien¡¯s anger at the being slowly begins to turn towards the Quantum Reaper instead due to a strange sensation that fills him. Almost like the being in question is directly using his powers to manipulate his mind or something. But Damien can¡¯t bring himself to turn his anger back towards the being for some reason. ¡°You want to kill the Reaper, don¡¯t you?¡± the being asks, his voice sounding male but sometimes sounding female. Sounding angry, but sometimes sounding kind and gentle. Constantly warping to sound one way and then another. The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there. Meanwhile reality around Damien appears to warp as well. Making it nearly impossible for Damien to tell what¡¯s going on around him. Damien grows more and more confused as the being¡¯s voice fills his head, gradually turning his mindset towards accepting the being¡¯s help. Despite knowing he shouldn¡¯t. But feeling his connection beginning to snap with his own turned vampires pushes him over the edge. And the moment he decides to accept his help, he feels a strange substance entering his body. Then his consciousness vanishes in an instant, leaving the strange being to vanish along with it. As if the being was never there as Damien¡¯s body begins to twist and glitch out. Until he vanishes entirely.
Alexia I try to search through the area for the runaway Lord of Vampires, but no matter how hard I try, I can¡¯t find him. Even his own subordinates, or rather, servants, considering how I¡¯m pretty sure a lot of them aren¡¯t willingly serving him, can¡¯t seem to find him. They just keep attacking me with little to no point to their attacks. What with them not doing anything. Especially with a lot of their magical attacks being completely useless due to either my Living Singularity skill or due to Quantum Adaptation, since I¡¯ve grown my adaptations to a rather large degree at this point. Just too bad it was useless against the Tier 4 dungeon. Since I hadn¡¯t fought against any of those types of attacks before. But these vampires are all just regular people in the universe, and most of them have rather common magics that I have already adapted to. That said, though, they¡¯re annoying. I glance at a countdown in the corner of my vision. Something that appeared after the Lord of Vampires vanished. Probably because he is too far away to be considered a nearby target for me to hunt or something. I let out a sigh as the vampires and thralls continue attacking me. Eventually, though, they start to get on my nerves. Enough that I turn around and glare at them, only to blink when I notice something strange. What¡¯s that strange thread? There¡¯s just a strange, red thread sticking out of them heading somewhere. I tilt my head for a second before realizing what it could be. So after closing my eyes and following it with my senses, finding it to be leading towards Dimensional Block #100, I go ahead and open my eyes. Then cut straight through the thread with my scythe. And as soon as I do that, the vampires and thralls all stop trying to attack me. Nice. ¡°Leave,¡± I state, my voice echoing out at them all. And without missing a beat, all of them flee straight through the portal they came from. Good. Now that they¡¯re gone, I send a message to Alara about what happened and is happening, then I head straight towards where I sensed the thread heading in Dimensional Block #100. But when I arrive, I don¡¯t find the Lord of Vampires. My eyes narrow as I look around the area. Why do I sense¡­ quantum energy here? A strange quantum energy at that. Not normal. It feels¡­ wrong. I continue searching the area for a bit, only to eventually give up when my countdown is about to end. Wanting to use the last of my transformation to return to Dimensional Block #108 in a flash. Damned Lord of Vampires. Gonna have to wait till we¡¯re teleported together for that duel to finish him off. Until then, though, I¡¯ll ask the Architect about this energy. B4 | Chapter 5 Alexia Seconds after I teleport back to Dimensional Block #108, my true form transformation comes to an end. And to my surprise, a notification appears the moment it ends as I return to my regular form.
You have caused damage to a target while in your true form. Should the target get within one thousand kilometers of you, you will now automatically be transformed into your true form. And the hunt will once again resume. All rewards for hunting the target will be given after the target is eliminated.
Huh. Didn¡¯t see that the last time I used my true form. Interesting. Anyways, after returning to my regular form, I take a look at the vampires and thralls who are still rushing through the portal back to their home Dimensional Block. There sure are a lot of them. Makes me wonder what the point of bringing them all was. Not like they actually did anything to me. Other than annoy me, of course. Although, I can¡¯t help but wonder about Damien. The Lord of Vampires. He seems to have a lot of screws loose in his head. Even more than I already knew about from the news prior to the Reset. I mean, who would turn an entire Dimensional Block into vampires? It¡¯s ridiculous. Then again, it doesn¡¯t really matter anymore. To me at least. The vampires and thrall are no longer under Damien¡¯s control, so they aren¡¯t my problem. And they¡¯re free to live their own lives. Even if they¡¯re still vampires and thrall, technically. That¡¯s their problem though. Not mine. Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author''s preferred platform and support their work! So I sit here and watch as they all finish leaving the Block, then I head back to The Retreat. Soon finding the Quantum Architect sitting around in my house for some reason. ¡°Did you sense it?¡± he asks without giving me any time to say anything the moment I step inside and find him sitting on a random couch. I raise a brow at that before crossing my arms and asking, ¡°Which one? The strange energy I sensed in the Lord of Vampires, or the strange quantum energy I sensed after I lost him?¡± Of the two, the System itself told me what the first one was. That being a sliver of corruption. But I¡¯m not sure what the second was. The Quantum Architect looks out the window next to the sofa as he quietly says, ¡°The strange quantum energy you sensed belongs to the Corrupted One.¡± My eyes narrow a little. ¡°I thought the Corrupted One was in hiding?¡± I ask while crossing my arms and walking over to a different sofa and sitting down myself. The Architect nods his head, still not looking at me when he says, ¡°Yes. He has been in hiding for thousands of years now.¡± He pauses for a second before turning to look at me. ¡°But it looks like he¡¯s taken an interest in you.¡± Oh. That¡¯s¡­ not good. Guess it¡¯s pretty clear that the Corrupted One is responsible for the Lord of Vampire¡¯s corruption and advancement to Class S. And responsible for his vanishing too. What I find odd though is the fact that the Corrupted One isn¡¯t confronting me personally but is instead using a proxy of sorts. ¡°My uncle is¡­ strange,¡± the Quantum Architect says, briefly reminding me of the fact that the Corrupted One is the Ruler¡¯s brother. ¡°He¡¯s most likely testing you for some reason.¡± He frowns. ¡°Or he just finds this amusing. It¡¯s hard to tell for sure.¡± Well that¡¯s¡­ not very helpful. The Architect turns to look at me with what actually looks like worry for the first time in our entire time knowing each other. But the expression vanishes just as quickly as he says, ¡°You likely won¡¯t have to worry about him attacking you personally.¡± I blink at the man, briefly wondering if the expression of worry I saw on his face was my imagination or something. Well, putting that aside, I still have the other question I needed to ask him but couldn¡¯t before. Even if the whole question about targets isn¡¯t something I need to ask anymore, what with it being answered by the Lord of Vampire¡¯s existence. ¡°What¡¯s a Corruptor?¡± I ask while titling my head. He stares at me for a few seconds before turning to look out the window again and answering, ¡°A Corruptor is similar to what the Corrupted One himself is. A being that has been fully corrupted yet still retained his sapience. Albeit one whose new goal is to spread corruption across the universe even with their sapience intact.¡± I frown at that. ¡°And where can I find one?¡± I ask, remembering how I need to kill one for my ascension requirements. In order to reach Tier 5. The Architect glances at me for a second, then he turns back to the window again and says, ¡°You¡¯ll find one soon.¡± I wait for him to say more, but he just glitches out and vanishes without another word. Leaving me wondering what he meant by that. After several seconds pass, though, I just let out a sigh and move on. Heading straight to my bed. Because I¡¯m rather exhausted. Haven¡¯t really had much rest, especially not in a bed, for a long time now. And even if I did get some sleep in The Horror, it¡¯s not exactly relaxing to sleep inside the body of a large monster. So I go ahead and send a message to Alara about what happened with the vampires, informing her that his forces won¡¯t likely be invading us, then I lie down in bed and stare up at the ceiling. It¡¯s been a very busy past few months¡­ I wonder how Astrid¡¯s doing? Hopefully she leaves the dungeon soon. Then there¡¯s Ethan. I¡¯m pretty sure he¡¯s still inside the dungeon as well. Well, regardless, I should think about what to do next. But before that, it¡¯s nap time. So after letting out a brief yawn, I close my eyes and fall fast asleep. B4 | Chapter 6 Alexia After waking up, I go ahead and decide on my next actions. Which mostly just involve me waiting for a couple days while training my energy manipulation before finally heading into the quantum realm to search for my core. Since that¡¯s the only real thing I can do right now. What with me being at the level cap, and me having the duel with Damien in a month. And if what the Architect said about me finding a Corruptor soon is true, then I might want to have my completed true form by then. Which means having my core. So I spend three days focusing on my energy manipulation with the occasional guidance from the Architect. Raising it by around fifteen or so percent in the progression to the next level. Then I go ahead and notify everyone that needs to know about my departure. Which pretty much just means Astrid and Alara. Since no one else really matters. Other than maybe Ethan. But I know Astrid will tell Ethan if he asks, so it¡¯s fine. After finishing with that, I go ahead and walk outside of my house into the clearing. Then I take a deep breath and enter my true form. Causing the usual commotion with the pillar and terrifying everyone nearby. That¡¯s not my problem though as I quickly tighten my grip on my scythe once it¡¯s all done before slicing open a hole leading to the quantum realm in the sky above my clearing. And for the first time ever, I pass right through into the quantum realm. The moment I make it to the other side, I feel¡­ strange. Like all of the energy within the area responds directly to my presence and begins entering me. Filling up all of my energy reserves to the brim. Likely due to Living Singularity. I ignore all of the energy as I focus on the surroundings around the rift. As I focus on the quantum realm itself. For one, the very air here seems to glitch out every now and then. In fact, not just the air, but pretty much everything. Almost like nothing is completely stabilized in reality here. Other than that, everything has a slight purple tint to it. That or a blue tint. Mostly purple, though. But what catches my attention the most here, other than the strange creatures I see down on the even stranger glowing purple stone that makes up the ground, is the feeling I get from this place. The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. It just feels nice. Comfortable. Warm. Like it¡¯s home. It¡¯s like I belong here. The slightest hint of a real smile stretches across my face at this sensation. It¡¯s nice. ¡°Of course it¡¯s nice,¡± I suddenly hear the Quantum Ruler¡¯s voice echoing in my head, making me look around for him. ¡°This is your home.¡± Well, no. To be perfectly accurate, I just came from my house to here. ¡°This is your home,¡± the Ruler repeats himself in a slightly sterner tone of voice. The man being just as stubborn as ever. At least he isn¡¯t trying to make me- ¡°And it¡¯s Grandfather,¡± he adds as if as an afterthought. ¡°Not Ruler.¡± Never mind. He is still trying to make me call him that. I open my mouth to say something, only to feel a strange sensation pulling me to look towards the right of where I¡¯m currently standing. But all I find is a vast expanse of purple with the occasional strange vortex or storm of quantum energy in the air. What is this¡­ ¡°You¡¯re feeling the pull of your core,¡± the Ruler says, his voice still echoing in my head and making me look around in confusion again. ¡°I am not near you, little one.¡± Oh. Probably somehow talking to me from far away. Maybe he can sense the entire quantum realm. ¡°I can sense anything in the universe, but the quantum realm is easier,¡± the Ruler continues, still responding to my thoughts. Could you please stop listening to my thoughts? It¡¯s getting disturbing. One person reading my mind is already bad enough. I don¡¯t need two. ¡°Then tell your father to stop reading your thoughts,¡± the Ruler says rather simply, making my eyebrow twitch. ¡°And call me Grandfather.¡± Seriously¡­ I let out a sigh. After a few seconds, I decide to just ignore the guy. He isn¡¯t here. He isn¡¯t reading my thoughts. I nod my head once at that thought before glancing at the creatures down on the ground. ¡°They¡¯re monsters formed from quantum energy, just like the monsters of the mortal universe who are formed from mana and neutral energy,¡± the person who is not here answers my unasked question before I can even think of it myself. I watch the monsters for a bit. Because, unlike the monsters of the mortal universe, these creatures are all not recognizable by the System when I try to identify them. Their forms are also glitching out. They have a single form, for the most part, but parts of them are constantly glitching around. Other than that, they¡¯re also all purple and blue in color, with a lot of glowing lights coming from them. Generally in the form of glowing veins. Or just the glitching itself being bright. But even without the System or being able to identify them, I can tell I¡¯m far stronger. Even if I wasn¡¯t in my true form. Also, the countdown for my true form itself seems to have vanished. Which is interesting. ¡°Quantum beings must be in their true form in the quantum realm,¡± he who I refuse to name answers again. ¡°There are no restrictions on your true form here. This place is the realm of us quantum beings.¡± Oh. Well that¡¯s convenient. I glance at my scythe before looking at the quantum monsters. Then I go ahead and swing my scythe once at them, only for every last creature in the path of my swing even without my scythe touching them just splitting in two. Meanwhile all of them immediately begin glitching out more and more until they all just vanish. Very convenient. Well, onto my reason for being here. I turn around and begin heading towards my core. Time to complete my true form. B4 | Intermission 1 Somewhere within the Quantum Realm Loud screeches echo out from one corner of the quantum realm as glitchy and formless purple creatures run through an army of equally glitchy creatures. But unlike the purple glitchy creatures, these creatures all have forms, and their colors are a deep crimson hue instead of purple. Meanwhile a single man floats high above it all, a stern look on his face as he looks down on the corruption below. The Quantum Vanguard stays unmoving with his arms crossed, just watching his vanguard forces slaughter the corruption for him. After all of the corruption near this particular rift is taken care of, the Quantum Vanguard simply teleports over to the rift and grabs it on both sides. Then he slams it shut with his hands. Another rift dealt with. With his current job finished, he begins to open another rift on his own. One leading to his home. But he barely even cracks the rift open before he pauses, sensing something new in the quantum realm. A new power. A new role. The Vanguard hasn¡¯t paid much attention to the mortal realm, so he finds this new role curious. It gives him a feeling the end. Which leads him to believe that the new role may have something to do with killing. One similar in a way to his own role. His eyes narrow a little before he begins to open a rift leading towards the new role¡¯s holder. Only to be interrupted when a different rift appears next to him, and he feels the rift he was opening closing just as quickly. The Vanguard turns to look at the new rift before finding an unexpected visitor passing through it. He bows his head slightly and says, ¡°Greetings, Quantum Architect.¡± And raises his head again to look at the man who is staring at him with an expressionless look on his face. One that glitches ever so slightly along with his high-tech looking purple armor. ¡°Do not bother my daughter,¡± the Architect states, surprising the Vanguard for a moment. Because the Architect has never cared about others. Not in the entire time the Vanguard has known the Architect. Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings. He doesn¡¯t even care about his own father, much less other people. The Architect¡¯s words simply grow the Vanguard¡¯s interest in the new role. But as the seventh in the hierarchy, and far beneath the Quantum Architect who is second in the hierarchy, the Vanguard is required to follow his orders. He has no way around it. It¡¯s enforced by the universe itself and he¡¯ll be punished if he breaks the law. So the Vanguard goes ahead and closes the rift. But he doesn¡¯t give up on learning about the new quantum being and the new role they have taken on. Or rather, she has taken on. When he thinks back to the fact that the Architect called them his daughter. Which also implies that the new quantum being was the Architect¡¯s successor. The Vanguard raises a brow at that, simply because of the fact that she was his successor. If she has her own new role now, she isn¡¯t his successor anymore. The Architect narrows his eyes ever so slightly at the Vanguard before manifesting a strange array of consoles in front of him. One screen after another with several holographic keyboards and a wave of quantum energy that is let out from them all. His symbol of power, just like the Vanguard¡¯s vanguard forces. And as soon as the Vanguard sees it, he tenses up. Only for large, holographic walls to box all around the Vanguard. Sealing him in a room before they vanish again. ¡°Now you will be unable to teleport anywhere near my daughter,¡± the Architect declares, staring at the Vanguard with that same emotionless gaze. Only for his form to begin glitching out until he vanishes without another word. Leaving the Vanguard glaring at the place where the Architect was standing. Several seconds pass in silence before the Vanguard turns around and opens up a rift near the new role. But he doesn¡¯t enter the rift. All he does is look through it. Not only because entering it would be breaking the law, but he realizes immediately upon opening it that entering it would be impossible. Even if he opened it himself. Because the moment he opened it, a holographic set of prison bars appear over the portal before vanishing again in an instant. His eyes narrow a little, but his irritation fades when he sees the woman on the other side of the rift. One looking directly at him with more than a little curiosity in her otherwise apathetic gaze. A gaze that reminds him of both his own and the Architect¡¯s. She has a stubbornness that reminds him of himself, along with the apathy the Architect has. And the second he sees her, he finds himself feeling interested. But he¡¯s not the only one, because seconds later, he senses more than one other quantum being looking in on what¡¯s happening from various different locations. None of which make any sorts of moves. On the new quantum being. He feels a faint shiver run down his spine when he senses her role. A role that echoes in his head when their eyes meet. The sole Quantum Reaper and female quantum being with a role in existence. After a few seconds, the Quantum Reaper merely turns around and begins walking away, clearly recognizing that no one can pass through the rift he opened. And seemingly without any sort of interest in the Vanguard herself. But the Vanguard watches her go with curiosity in his gaze. A curiosity mixed with a faint amount of irritation at the fact that another quantum being is above him in the hierarchy. He watches her for a bit longer before closing the rift and opening another one. Heading back to his fortress to rest until his next job. A Quantum Reaper¡­ one whose role is equal to the Quantum Ruler¡­ As he walks, the corners of his lips quirk upwards ever so slightly. Interesting. B4 | Chapter 7 Alexia So I¡¯m pretty sure I just saw a stalker watching me. Why he was watching me through a bunch of bars in a portal that wasn¡¯t even hidden, I¡¯m not sure. But I knew before that portal even opened that someone was watching me. And the moment I saw them, I somehow realized they were the Quantum Vanguard. He also seemed rather curious about me. Kinda curious myself as to why he didn¡¯t say anything, but not enough to really care. Plus I have no interest in stalkers. Although I¡¯m pretty sure I¡¯m being watched by more than one person. Probably the other quantum beings. He¡¯s the only one who directly opened a portal to see me personally though. Even if he didn¡¯t say a word. Also, for some reason I feel like I sensed the Architect coming from that portal. But that was probably just my imagination. Anyways, I proceed to move through the quantum realm, ignoring most of the monsters along the way. Simply because I have no reason to kill them, and most of them aren¡¯t bothering me. I can¡¯t level up right now after all, what with me being at the level cap. So it¡¯s best not to go on a pointless slaughter. That said, I realize that the closer I get to my core, the stronger these monsters are slowly getting with every passing second. Which doesn¡¯t really bode well for me. Or at least, based on how far away I sense my core being. Since it is still very far away. The bright side is that I don¡¯t have to care about reserving my energy here. What with all of the quantum energy around me being absorbed my me, constantly refilling my reserves. Certainly explains why most quantum beings almost never leave the quantum realm. I feel like a goddess in here. Like I can do anything thanks to this infinite energy reserves. And what I feel like doing right now is nonstop teleporting straight in the direction of my core. Traveling as far as I possibly can with each and every teleportation. Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings. All while also practicing my energy manipulation. Since I need to raise that in order to ascend as well. A process that is far easier in the quantum realm than the mortal realm. Honestly, I think I could end up growing addicted to this place if I stayed too long. Making it so that I won¡¯t want to go back to the mortal realm at all. At least, if Astrid could come here. Which I can¡¯t see her wanting to. What with how plain this place looks and all. There aren¡¯t any sapient creatures here after all, other than the other quantum beings. So there really isn¡¯t much to do here. Other than revel in my power and pointlessly kill these quantum monsters. It does look like a nice place to spend time unbothered by people though. Maybe if I ever need somewhere to get away from people in general. All that aside, I continue teleporting across the quantum realm all the way till I find something¡­ unexpected. When I finally arrive at where I sense my core, I find the source of my little instinctive guidance leading me to a large tower. One stretching high in the sky, where my core is no doubt at the peak of said tower. But when I try to teleport into the tower or teleport alongside it, I can¡¯t. Some strange sensation overwhelms me and stops me from doing so. Almost like the universe itself were telling me not to do it. Seriously? I have to actually climb this tower? That¡¯s going to be a pain. It¡¯s at least fifty floors, just from the sight of the windows riding up the tower. After staring at it for a few seconds, I let out a sigh. Well, whatever. Nothing I can do about that if I want my core. The tower itself is a deep purple mixed with hints of blue and black, and reality around it looks like it¡¯s glitching out. Just like pretty much everything else quantum related. It has a single entrance. One guarded by quantum monsters. Monsters that shouldn¡¯t be sapient yet are standing guard with spears in hand. I blink at the sight before frowning. Some sort of tribulation by the universe to get my core, maybe? Certainly possible. Which also means I shouldn¡¯t assume anything here follows what I¡¯ve seen so far to be the ¡®norm¡¯ in the quantum realm. I glance at my scythe, which I¡¯ve been lugging around everywhere since getting here, then at the tower itself. Huh. Wonder if that¡¯ll work? After a brief pause, followed by a shrug, I raise my scythe and begin to slash straight at the tower. Only to feel that same sensation from before drawing me to a very uncomfortable halt as I glitch backwards, returning to the position I was in right when I was about to swing. Leaving me rather dazed in the process. Right. Guess slicing the tower in two won¡¯t work either. That¡¯s a pity. I glance down at the monsters guarding the entrance. Monsters that look pretty much like knights wearing full plate purple and blue armor that doesn¡¯t show any of their actual features. Can¡¯t even tell if they¡¯re male or female, or if they even look human or monster beneath. All I can tell is that their armor looks cool, and they¡¯re glitching out. Just like the other quantum monsters. Oh, and they¡¯re strong. Very strong. I glance at my scythe before slicing it straight at them. And, to my surprise, it only manages to cut partially into their armor. Uh¡­ that¡¯s not good. Both of the monsters look up at me as a wave of quantum energy is let off by them. Then their armor begins to creak a little bit, as if they haven¡¯t moved in ages, following which they slowly tighten their grips on their polearms. Not good at all. They throw their polearms straight at me. B4 | Chapter 8 Alexia I manage to teleport out of the way of the polearms at the last second, only for them both to change directions and begin heading towards me again. Leaving me only enough time to teleport once more before they change directions again and pierce straight into my shoulder and gut. Fuck. I cough out a mouthful of glitchy blood while turning to look down at the monsters right as the two polearms inside of me vanish and return to their hands. The two monsters in question just looking up at me with glowing purple eyes shining through their helmet¡¯s visors and nothing else visible beneath the helmets. Just those eyes. After a second, they pull their arms back to throw the polearms again. But I don¡¯t just sit here bleeding. Instead I pull forth a past stasis copy of my body and paste it over the current one, returning my body to what it was just several minutes ago. Then I swipe my scythe straight at the polearms the two monsters throw my way. And this time around it actually makes contact, sending them flailing back at the monsters, who catch them mid-fall. Good. Looks like it¡¯s just the monsters themselves that I can¡¯t strike with my scythe. The next test¡­ I teleport straight up to the monsters before slamming the butt of my scythe into the helmet of one of them, making contact this time around. ¡­is to see if I can hit them with any part that isn¡¯t the blade. The corners of my lips quirk ever so slightly upwards, only for me to teleport backwards in seconds when the blade of the glaive one of the monsters is holding passes straight through my shoulder, cutting off my arm in the process. After teleporting away, I once again rest my body back to a past stasis. A process that costs even more soul after having my arm cut off. But it¡¯s fine. I have a damn-near infinite supply here thanks to it being the quantum realm. At least, of energy. Because it seems my skills are being supplemented with energy here instead of directly using my soul. Which is really good, but what would be better is if that energy would fill my soul somehow instead. But alas, that¡¯s not gonna happen. The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation. Meaning, if I take too long to regenerate my wounds, and my soul ticks down, I will end up in trouble even with the infinite energy. Because I¡¯d end up paralyzed if I ran out of soul. And I can¡¯t exactly fight while paralyzed. I focus on the monster I hit with the butt of my scythe, only to narrow my eyes when all I find is a single dent in its helmet. While the creature itself is making a wave of glitchy purple energy almost like lightning coat its hand as it raises the hand towards me. My eyes widen a bit the instant it shoots off a bolt of glitchy lightning straight at me. Lightning so fast that I can¡¯t dodge or even teleport away form it before it strikes me, making me let out a grunt of pain, following which I fall limp towards the ground. With my soul rapidly dropping. I catch myself by restoring my body to the past again, no doubt getting a lot of progress with leveling the skill in the act of doing so. Then I immediately teleport away as another polearm ¨C the spear this time ¨C flies straight through where I was just moments ago. Well, shit. This may just be one of the toughest battles I¡¯ve fought in a while¡­ excluding the Tier 5 lupin parasite, of course. Another polearm flies straight at me ¨C the glaive this time ¨C and I teleport away to dodge it right when the spear changes direction to hit me in the back. But it vanishes just as quickly before I revert the damage and teleport right in front of the monster whose glaive is still in the sky. Then I sweep my scythe around to hit it with the staff part, slamming into its side and sending it staggering towards the other monster. I don¡¯t give it time to react as I sweep my leg afterwards, slamming into it while using multiple Quantum Bolts from my leg itself upon collision. Sending both monsters flying away from the tower. Then I teleport away when the glaive finally reaches me, making it pierce into the ground. At which point I teleport back and grab the thing by the pole, gritting my teeth a little when it tries to get away. But I don¡¯t let it. I hold tight and immediately begin sending waves of Quantum Breath at it through both of my hands, slowly deteriorating the glaive in the process. Making it glitch apart one part at a time. Until I sense a flash of danger and teleport away, finding myself unable to teleport the glaive with me despite holding it. Then the spear slams into the ground where I was at, and both the spear and glaive teleport away to return to the monsters. Both of whom are back on their feet again. I feel myself breathing a little heavily due to the exertion this battle is causing. Despite my tank of energy being filled to the brim, even if my soul isn¡¯t. What I find rather annoying, though, is the sight of both monsters standing while holding their polearms without much damage to them. Other than a bunch of dents in their armor. There isn¡¯t any blood, no limps, no staggering. None of that. They¡¯re just standing perfectly straight as if they weren¡¯t wounded while preparing to throw their polearms again. Well, I wasn¡¯t really expecting this to be an easy fight. So it¡¯s not that surprising. This time though, an idea comes to mind. So I just float here in place and let the two throw their polearms at me. And while I dodge the spear, I purposefully let the glaive pierce into me. Then I finish deteriorating it with Quantum Breath, turning the thing into nothing but rapidly vanishing glitched flakes of metal. I turn a faint smirk towards the two monsters before teleporting away from the returning spear. Now to deal with the other one. Then I can see what they do without their weapons. B4 | Chapter 9 Alexia The now-weaponless monster looks at where its glaive was at just moments ago before looking up at me. Then it raises both of its arms and begins firing one of those lightning bolts after another, making me dodge like crazy. But I will admit, these are easier to avoid than the glaive. Because they don¡¯t come back around at me after missing. So I continue dodging those while focusing on the spear. Eventually letting it pierce through me as well before I try to grab it. Just for it to teleport away without giving me the chance. Leaving me with nothing but the wound in return. A wound I immediately revert. Annoying. Guess these quantum-tin buckets really do learn from their mistakes. Well, screw it then. I teleport high into the sky before glaring down at the two creatures and immediately letting loose. There¡¯s no limit on energy here. So why should I hold back? I transform into my wave form to increase the power of my magic before using my skills in a rapid-fire attack. Spewing forth Quantum Breath from every inch of my body outwards with all the energy I can muster while also spamming Quantum Singularity Implosion where I sense the two monsters. And things immediately turn hellish due to my rapid-fire attacks. To the point that I can¡¯t even see what¡¯s going on without the use of my energy senses. Once in a while I feel a spear pierce through me, but I ignore them as I instantly revert my body back again. And just continue spamming attacks. For the span of five entire minutes, after all of the energy in the surroundings is completely exhausted. What I find waiting for me is a little surprising, though. Because the two monsters are still alive. Mostly. I blink at the creatures before teleporting down in front of them. Just looking at their battered forms as they struggle to raise a finger towards me. Their armor is fractured all over, with holes riddling it everywhere, and glitched apart areas of their armor with a hint of burns all over them. Quantum burns that glitch out. Meanwhile underneath their armor is nothing but a glitchy purple abyss. Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there. With no living beings inside by the looks of it. I squat down next to them, hugging my knees to my chest with one hand as I poke them with my other. And the moment my finger touches its armor, the armor begins to fall apart, and the monster gives up its struggle. Then I hear a ringing sound in my head. Like I just got a System Message. Except that I don¡¯t see anything. Probably because I¡¯m in the quantum realm right now. Wonder what it¡¯s about? I tap my chin for a second before glancing at the other monster and tapping its armor as well. Making it fall apart just like the first one. Then I stand up and stretch a little. Well, that was a nice workout. I like the quantum realm. Maybe I should come here to power-level after I get rid of my level cap. Assuming I even get EXP from killing the monsters in here. Which I may very well not. ¡°You don¡¯t,¡± the Ruler¡¯s voice echoes in my head, reminding me of his existence. ¡°It¡¯s not polite to forget family, Granddaughter.¡± I act like he doesn¡¯t exist as I begin heading towards the tower. And the moment I enter it, I feel myself completely cut off from everything outside. Even the Quantum Ruler, who I heard begin saying something, is cut off. Which is surprising, considering that this is his realm. Maybe it¡¯s because this is some sort of tower belonging to the universe itself to test me and me alone? Possibly. Possibly not. Either way, I¡¯m glad that the stalker is gone. So it¡¯s fine with me. Actually, I wonder if I could make a home out of this place? What with the stalker not being able to read my mind here¡­ All that aside, the tower around me is not a tower. It looks like a bunch of floating purple platforms in a dark abyss, with me standing on one of said platforms. I frown before instinctively flapping my wings and going up into the sky, reminding myself in the process that I actually have wings. Something I¡¯d completely forgotten about due to not having them outside of my true form. Not that I really need them, but I guess it would be nice to be able to fly without having to spam Quantum Displacement. What with the cost on my soul it has. At least, outside of this place. There is no cost here because of the whole infinite energy thing. Although, at the same time, I won¡¯t really be able to use my true form outside of here without good reason. So that kinda defeats the point. Anyways, I don¡¯t see any monsters, so I just kinda fly upwards from one platform to the next. Just heading for the bright purple light I see at the top of the abyss. And when I reach the light? I find myself appearing somewhere completely unexpected. It looks like a massive graveyard. One filled with those same armored monsters from outside. Each standing at a mausoleum. There are ten different mausoleums in total, with a symbol above each entrance, and each mausoleum being enormous in size. Far too big to just fit a single grave. I frown at what I see, but the monsters aren¡¯t actually attacking me for some reason. Strange¡­ I turn around to look behind me, but all I find is some extra graveyard with a large gate blocking entry to it. Like I¡¯m already at the most important place of this graveyard. The place with all the mausoleums. So I turn back around and face the mausoleums, only to notice a large slate emerging from the ground in front of a fountain at the center of the mausoleums. With a path heading from the fountain to each mausoleum. I walk up to the slate before reading it. Here lies the beings of old. Prove your mettle and you shall be given your due. The¡­ beings of old? I glance at the symbols before looking at the slate again. Wait, are these mausoleums for the quantum beings with roles?! But wait, they aren¡¯t dead¡­ Then who¡¯s in those mausoleums? B4 | Chapter 10 Alexia I spend a few minutes contemplating over what these mausoleums could be for. Maybe the spirits of the current role holders, maybe past role holders assuming there were any, or maybe even some beings or something that give out the roles. But all of this is just conjecture, so I eventually just drop it and decide to go inside of one of the mausoleums. Since speculating won¡¯t get me anywhere. It doesn¡¯t even take me long to pick a mausoleum. Simply because there are only two quantum beings I am personally acquainted with, ignoring the other two that I¡¯ve at least sensed or seen but not really interacted with. Like the stalker from earlier. So without hesitation, I walk right up to the mausoleum with the strange screen symbol above the entryway. The mausoleum for the System Architect. Otherwise known as my self-proclaimed father. And while I¡¯m walking, I take note of multiple different things. For one, I realize that I can¡¯t actually use any energy in this place. I can¡¯t teleport, nor use any of my skills. For two, the guards at the entrance of the mausoleum don¡¯t even so much as look my way. Despite how the guards outside acted. Maybe the ones outside were some sort of test for me? If I had to guess, these guards might just be stationed here to stop anyone who isn¡¯t me from coming inside. Or something like that. I could be completely wrong here. Either way, I open the grand doors to the mausoleum, revealing a bright purple portal where the doors were. Then I pass through said portal, only to find myself appearing inside of some strange chamber. One with glitchy purple and blue walls that don¡¯t stay in place or even in the form of a single solid wall. With various parts of it glitching away and moving around. Meanwhile at the center of the chamber is a large computer setup. And not a simple one either, but one with dozens of monitors and other technical stuff. Everything except a keyboard. Which is odd. I walk over towards the computer, only to freeze when I hear some ancient sounding voice. ¡°So you¡¯re the one,¡± the voice says. I quickly look around, only to suddenly realize there¡¯s a man in front of the keyboard that I didn¡¯t notice before. One who looks like a quantum being, what with the purple hair and glitchy eyes and all. Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon. The being turns around and focuses on the computer as a strange holographic array of panels and keyboards appear in front of them. Panels and keyboards that match well with the computer itself, along with its monitors and all. Like they were made as a set. ¡°Let¡¯s start,¡± the being states without any explanation, confusing me even more. But I walk up to stand next to them anyways. Then the glitchy walls all around us suddenly begin falling apart. Meanwhile the appearance of the being next to me suddenly changes. With a set of high-tech purple armor appearing over them as their form itself begins to glitch apart. Somehow maintaining a half-stable, half glitchy form with one side of them being indecipherable now and the other clear. Must be their True Form. But who is this? They can¡¯t be the Quantum Architect, since I know that old guy, and this isn¡¯t him. At the same time, I entered a mausoleum labeled with his symbol, and am now meeting this quantum being. So who could this be? Maybe a Quantum Architect from the past? Regardless of who they are, they simply begin typing away at the keyboard in front of me. Bringing my gaze to the keys themselves to realize I have no idea what the symbols on them mean. But seconds after I see the symbols, a burning pain spreads through my mind before vanishing again. Then I find myself understanding them as if I¡¯ve known them my entire life, leaving me blinking in surprise. ¡°Accessing new galaxy, GID 21428941263,¡± the man states, his voice resonating throughout the entire chamber and in my head. Following which the walls all glitch a few times and the screens begin to show a lot of data. Most of which goes right over my head. ¡°Initializing Structure Setup Protocols.¡± I narrow my eyes a little at the screens as I try to figure out what he¡¯s doing. But all I see is a lot of data and code going across the screens at frightening speeds. So I turn to look at the walls which are now forming different panels that all show different worlds in what I¡¯m guessing is this new galaxy he¡¯s talking about. [New Galaxy Initialization Process has begun.] The computer suddenly speaks, bringing my gaze towards it. Then everything just kinda clicks in my mind. This is to show me the role of the Quantum Architect. Is that what these mausoleums are for? To show me how the different Quantum Beings perform their roles? But why? So I can police them or something? I hope not. And is that all there is to it? To these mausoleums? Are there other trials of sorts I have to go through in each? One question after another floods my mind, but the one time I need that self-proclaimed grandfather, he¡¯s not here. So I just take a deep breath and focus on the many screens and panels. Just trying to keep up with what the guy is doing. Which proves to be rather difficult. At least, when it comes to the process. What exactly he¡¯s making it do, now that is easy enough to decipher. I just can¡¯t figure out how he¡¯s doing it very well. But the longer I watch, the more I manage to understand. The Architect in front of me is currently creating the structure of a new galaxy recently initialized by the Quantum Builder and the Quantum Creator. He¡¯s designing the interactions between everything, the power balance, the magic, and all of that. Meaning that, while the Quantum Builder creates the seed of a Galaxy and the barebones of it, and the Quantum Creator does the same thing for the living things inside of it, the Quantum Architect is the one that does everything else. He moves around all of the ¡®pieces¡¯ created by the other two, designs how they all interact with each other, and how they work. Soon enough, I find myself mesmerized by the process and losing track of time. B4 | Chapter 11 Alexia Who knows how long passes as I watch the either fake or past Architect in front of me work. All the way till he finishes building the structure of the galaxy in question. And throughout the process, I couldn¡¯t take my eyes off of his work. Not even once. Only for the Architect to turn towards me and state, ¡°You¡¯ve passed the first trial.¡± Then I find myself being teleported into a baren wasteland within the quantum realm. One where reality itself is distorting and making random parts of the ground, air, sky, and pretty much anything appear all over the place and move around. Meanwhile I see some strange glitchy and formless purple creatures on the ground fighting against random bits of stuff appearing in front of them. Glitchy stuff that slams into them with quantum energy coating it, making the creatures distort and vanish upon contact. The creatures make me feel wrong just by looking at them. Like they don¡¯t belong. Like they shouldn¡¯t exist. It feels kind of like that strange energy I sensed before, back around the Lord of Vampires. The one that might belong to the Corrupted One. Meaning these creatures are likely corrupted. I frown at them, but the objects and random parts of reality that are slamming into them continue moving nonstop. Just tearing apart the corrupted swarm¡¯s realities nonstop. Then I finally raise my head to find that very same Architect from before floating high in the air messing around with his terminal. So I teleport up next to him, only feeling briefly surprised that I can even do that. Although when I try sending a Quantum Bolt down below, I find myself unable to do so. Guess I can only use non-attacking skills here. But what¡¯s the point of this trial? Also, my theory about them being trials was confirmed by what the Architect guy said before. I frown as I watch the Architect work, simply typing in code into the panels, each of which are showing the area around us within the quantum realm. An area he is literally tearing apart and forcing errors into in order to make problems for the corrupted down below. After watching him on the terminal for a bit, I glance down at the corrupted creatures again. Finding some of them to be stepping into strange traps in the ground and even in the air that make them glitch out and disappear. Love what you''re reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on. Making it so that the flying parts of reality aren¡¯t the only thing the Architect is doing to fight against them. I continue watching for a bit before a hypothesis begins to form in my mind about what exactly these trials are meant to be. But I won¡¯t have a confirmation for that theory unless what I¡¯m expecting to happen for the next trial actually happens. Which I kind of hope it doesn¡¯t. Because that would be¡­ troublesome. For now I keep watching without saying a word. As the Architect slaughters all of the corrupted creatures. All the way till they¡¯re all gone, and some strange rift appears. One that an even stranger being passes through. Then a strange being passes through the rift. And I can¡¯t help but feel disgusted by the sight of it alone for some reason. The creature is glitching, just like a Quantum Being or a corrupted creature or monster, but I can somehow tell it¡¯s not any of the above. And it doesn¡¯t have the usual purple eyes and hair. It has a couple specks of glitchy purple in its eyes, but other than that its eyes are bright orange. Meanwhile the thing has a humanoid form, with long golden hair and orange horns on its head. With some parts of its body glitching out with the usual purple coloring to the glitchyness. ¡°Corruptor,¡± the Architect states, instantly making me realize what this is. A being who is corrupted but retains their sentience. Their sapience and self-control. Albeit with a strong urge to spread corruption. I frown at the being before finally seeing the Architect stop controlling the bits of reality down below. And without any hesitation, he changes the focus of his terminal from the surroundings to himself. Then he begins to alter his own existence, making himself grow larger, more powerful looking, and plain intimidating as his armor spreads all across his body. Covering up any previously exposed skin. Meanwhile two blades made of quantum energy shoot out from the backs of the armor over his wrists and he teleports in front of the Corruptor. The Corruptor lets out a roar of his own before reaching back and shooting forwards to meet the Architect with his claws out. Claws covered in both orange and glitchy purple energy. And with a powerful shockwave, the two clash midair. Sending me backwards a little bit. But my eyes are glued on the two as they fight, leaving me as nothing more than a spectator. Then the two repeatedly slash at each other, with one using his claws and the other the energy blades, ripping reality itself apart all around them with every blow. With the Architect seemingly being on top as I can¡¯t see any damage to his armor, unlike the Corruptor, who is bleeding from quite a few places. I find myself rather surprised by the sight of its blood though. Since it¡¯s rather similar to my own in a way, albeit different. The blood is orange and is glitching a little, but instead of trying to glitch back into the Corruptor¡¯s body, it just damages reality around the blood. As if it shouldn¡¯t exist. Very interesting¡­ Both of them continue to fight for several more minutes, with the Architect gradually tearing the Corruptor apart. All the way till he finally finishes the creature off by cutting off its head with one blade and piercing it through the heart with the other. Then the Architect turns towards me again and states, ¡°You¡¯ve passed your second trial.¡± Following which I am teleported again. This time to a place that looks identical to the second trial, except without the corrupted creatures and the damaged reality. I look around for a second to find the Architect again. Focusing directly on me as he begins making parts of reality fracture off and fly in my direction. Attacking me. Thought so. B4 | Chapter 12 Alexia I teleport away from the attack, only for all of the flying parts of reality to suddenly change direction and slam straight into me where I end up. Sending me flying until I crash into the ground while coughing out a mouthful of blood. With pain filling my body. Enough pain that I actually feel it this time around. When I look down at all of the wounds, I find my armor and body glitching out wherever the attacks hit. I grit my teeth before reverting all of the damage. A process that ends up taking a bit more energy to perform than it normally would. But it heals in the end, and I immediately teleport away multiple times to avoid more attacks from the Architect. To my surprise, though, the guy just keeps sending one attack after another at me. Not giving me even the slightest amount of time to dodge them all. Even with my teleportation. So I keep taking one hit after another without being given any time to retaliate. And thus begins a cycle. One of me taking blow after blow before reverting the damage and gradually losing soul from the time it took me to revert the damage. My soul shrinks down from nearly full to three quarters filled, all the way to half full. At which point I decide that I don¡¯t give a shit about the attacks and just let them all hit me before I start attacking the Architect in return. The Architect shifts his attacks a little bit in order to block the bolts of quantum energy I fling his way, making it so only some of his attacks are headed my way. And in the process of that, letting me dodge some of them now. But only some of them as I¡¯m still pelted with attacks while he¡¯s blocking all of mine. I grit my teeth, feeling like this battle is completely unfair. Only to blink as I teleport multiple more times and realize something. Is¡­ this how others feel when they¡¯re fighting me? My soul continues to decrease as I teleport over and over again while taking blows. All the way till I finally decide to say fuck it and swing my scythe straight at the man. Sending an arc of quantum energy flying towards him, to my surprise. If you come across this story on Amazon, it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it. Unlike my other attacks, he scrambles to block the arc, managing to do so with some difficulty. Then he resumes his onslaught. Now that I know how to attack, I do so over and over again. Using my scythe as a conduit to attack with quantum energy that is far harder for him to block. But regardless of my newfound knowledge, I still end up being overwhelmed by his attacks. Because the Architect clearly has far more experience using his true form than I have. I grit my teeth, finding my soul dropping down to dangerous levels. And at this point I begin to look for a way out of this place. Because if I don¡¯t, I will die. Unfortunately, no matter how hard I try, I can¡¯t find any sort of way out. Eventually I¡¯m left spamming Quantum Stasis Copy to keep myself from losing as much soul as I can, but it turns out to be all for naught in the end. As the Architect sends one last barrage at me, knocking my soul down to zero and leaving me paralyzed as I drop down to the ground. The man then teleports in front of me while raising his hands to the panel in front of him with an apathetic look in his eyes. Then he says, ¡°Nine more.¡± And without another word, he blasts me in the face with quantum energy. Not even giving me time to contemplate what he just said. But unlike what I was expecting, I find myself reappearing in that same room I started the trial in. With the Architect standing in front of the computer. While I¡¯m sitting here filled with confusion, the man says, ¡°Let¡¯s start.¡± Then he once again begins the process of initializing a new galaxy, just like the first time around. Leaving me even more confused as he says, ¡°Accessing new galaxy, GID 21578941221. Initializing Structure Setup Protocols.¡± And just like before, the same words resonate through the room. [New Galaxy Initialization Process has begun.] I feel my confusion growing more and more by the second. Even moreso when I check my status and find that my soul is full again. What the fucking hell is going on?! The Architect here doesn¡¯t bother answering me. He just goes through the process of initializing the structure of this galaxy. A galaxy that is different from the last one. My mind runs in circles as I try to process what is happening, meanwhile he just continues initializing the galaxy. Then, when he¡¯s done, he says the same thing he said last time, ¡°You¡¯ve passed the first trial.¡± And without another word, I¡¯m once again teleported to that battlefield where the Architect starts fighting against the corrupted monsters. At this point I¡¯m starting to wonder if this trial has some sort of reset. Maybe if I lose against him I get to try again. My eyes narrow as I remember his last words before he killed me. Nine More. Does that mean I have nine more tries to kill him? Until what? Until I die permanently? Or until I just lose the trial and am kicked out? I highly doubt this trial is so nice as to just kick me out and not leave me dead, so most likely until I die. Which means¡­ I take a deep breath to calm down before focusing all of my attention on the way the Architect is fighting. Okay. So I¡¯m going to have to figure out how to defeat him by watching him fight here, and adapting when I fight him myself. I watch him go through and battle with the corrupted monsters once more, studying all of his attacks and how they¡¯re done. Then I watch him fight the Corrupted One once more. Except with this one being a different Corrupted One than last time. With him showing some different attacks that I hadn¡¯t seen before. Then I find myself once again facing off against the Architect. Guess it¡¯s time for round two. B4 | Chapter 13 Alexia This time around I don¡¯t just sit here for him to attack me first. Instead I immediately swing my scythe and send arcs of quantum energy straight at him. Making him focus on blocking them instead of beginning an onslaught against me. I continue sending arcs at him over and over again, causing shockwaves to ring out from every clash our attacks make. Only to suddenly sense something from the side that makes me teleport away. Following which a bit of reality slams into where I was just standing. I grit my teeth as I focus on the Architect again and find him changing up his attack plan a bit. To the point that he¡¯s now creating glitched walls of energy and reality in the way of my arcs and using those walls to delay the attacks enough to get out of the way and give him a chance to attack me in return. A process that works well enough that it lets him get in several attacks, only most of which I avoid. And the ones I don¡¯t avoid end up slowing me down and attacking him back less and less, leading to even more attacks that I can¡¯t avoid. In the end, the Architect begins to push me straight back to how I ended up the last time I fought him. With me having only landed a couple of small hits on him this time around. Hits he seems to have healed simply through overwriting reality on himself, just like what I do. Except in a different way somehow. What I do is bringing back a stasis copy of myself from the past and pasting it over my current self. What he does seems to be copying reality itself from the past and pasting it on himself. So what he does is also altering the reality around him and the wound and not just his own body. I¡¯m blasted by one attack after another, but I keep up my own assault as well. I send one arc of energy after another at him. And when that proves to not be enough, and I¡¯m repeatedly blasted until my soul is nearly depleted again, I feel the slightest hints of real anger skirting around in my head. Something that almost never happens. Irritation? Sure. Lots of that. Dislike? Maybe. Hate? Not really. I don¡¯t have strong enough emotions for that. The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement. But anger? Never. Now, though, the very idea of being killed twice by the same person? It¡¯s starting to piss me off. Along with my anger, I feel my control over the energy around me growing tighter through sheer instinct. And without even thinking about it, I draw the energy into my scythe and swing it one last time at the Architect as two more glitched parts of reality slam into me. Making my vision quickly begin to darken. But not before I see my own much larger arc of energy slam straight through the Architect¡¯s barrier and bisect one of his screens to slam into him, dealing real damage. Then the last thing I hear before everything goes dark again is his simple, ¡°Eight more.¡± I once again wake up inside of his chamber where he begins initializing another galaxy. But I don¡¯t pay an ounce of attention to what he¡¯s doing as I just walk up to the man and begin studying his body for any signs of weakness. The man in question looking ever so slightly awkward as I do so, proving he¡¯s not just some artificial intelligence or something. He doesn¡¯t say anything though, and I just keep studying him. His last words the before I died again along with the fact that I¡¯m here once more prove that I have eight more lives. But what happens after that is still a mystery. Will I die for good? Or will I be kicked out of the trial? If I had to guess, I¡¯ll probably die for good. Considering the fact that it wouldn¡¯t be much of a trial if I could get out without any consequences for losing. Especially if this is a trial to test me to see if I qualify as the Quantum Reaper. Wouldn¡¯t really be much of a purpose for it if it just spit me back out after failing to qualify. So I¡¯ll just treat this as me having eight more attempts at this before I die. I continue studying the Architect¡¯s body for any signs of weaknesses, but throughout the process of his initializing the universe, I don¡¯t find anything of note. Which leads me to move onto the next phase of the trial. During which I immediately fly right up to the man and begin studying him here as he kills off all of the corrupted creatures. Once more making him look a little awkward. Which I don¡¯t really blame him for considering that he has some random lady floating next to him studying him like a hawk as he fights, but whatever. He deserves to feel awkward after killing me twice. I keep studying and studying, watching every last attack he makes. All the way down to the small quantum bolts I once in a while see him use, and even the occasional attack he uses to redirect other attacks. Where he pretty much connects two realities to send an attack heading for him somewhere else. Kind of like a portal in a way. He doesn¡¯t seem to be able to teleport like me, though. Which is good. All of his powers seem limited to altering and breaking reality around him to suit his needs. Even his healing relies on that. Whereas my powers are linked directly to myself instead. Along with direct combat. Some time passes until he kills off the Corruptor once more and I find myself faced with him for the third time after he gives his whole ¡®passed the second trial¡¯ spiel. This time around I teleport straight up to him while forcing a bunch of energy into my scythe and swinging it right at him, shattering one of his panels and sending him flying to crash down to the ground. Startling him more than a little bit with my actions. He quickly recovers, though, reverting the damage and turning a more serious look towards me than the other two attempts. Like he¡¯s starting to take me more seriously this time around. Good. I will win this time. B4 | Chapter 14 Alexia I don¡¯t win. I very much don¡¯t win. Despite the good start to the battle, with him taking me seriously this time around, he quickly takes me by surprise when he rushes straight at me and slams his fist right into me. With a strange screen coating his fist like those panels. And I¡¯m sent flying before crashing into the ground with quite a few other bits of reality slamming into me afterwards. But just like always, I teleport away and adapt. Reverting the damage. Then I return to attacking him while pushing as much energy as I can into my scythe. Shattering one panel after another as he repeatedly slams his fist into me. The two of us trading blows one after another. I even manage to bring him to the very start of his, I¡¯ll call it second phase, where he creates that armor over his body. Only for him to warp reality around him, letting him teleport right in front of me before reality just sort of glitches out all around us. And just like that, I feel my entire body being stretched out in every direction until I¡¯m torn to shreds. With only the sound of his voice echoing once more in my head, ¡°Seven more.¡± I suck in a breath when I reappear in the first trial once more. Only to collapse down to my knees as I pant from the pain that I just felt. Even if it was just for a moment. My head eventually jerks upwards to glare at the Architect. But all the man says is, ¡°Let¡¯s start.¡± Just like the previous attempts. Damnit, this is getting annoying. Really fucking annoying. I don¡¯t bother walking over to him, nor do I bother watching a single thing he does in this. Instead I move my scythe and slam the butt of the weapon into the ground in order to help push me to my feet. And without hesitation, I begin to fiddle around with it. Putting energy into the weapon, making it glow, and even using spells with it to see if anything gives me any good results. You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author. But after a while, I realize something. Something important. My eyes widen and I close my eyes, just grasping the weapon with both of my hands. Then I let instinct fully take over. I feel my hands moving, my energy flowing, and see a bright purple and blue light trying to shine through my eyelids. But I don¡¯t open them. I just keep moving, focusing all of my attention on what my body is driving me to do based solely on instinct. With no thought involved in my movements. As my role pushes me forwards. I spin the scythe around, just barely avoiding cutting into myself as I do so fluidly despite not having much of any practice in using a war scythe. At all. And when I finally reach the crescendo of my performance, I open my eyes and swipe the scythe straight in the direction of the wall of the Architect¡¯s chamber. Leading to a massive arc of quantum energy with a unique bit of black coloring mixed in along with a massive wave of energy right behind it rushing out of my blade and slamming into the wall. Erasing the wall entirely and continuing outside of the area I¡¯m in. I pant in exhaustion after that, falling down to my knees while damn near hugging my scythe. Just watching as the attack continues tearing through the quantum realm outside of this chamber. Ripping apart monsters and reality itself. What I find interesting though is that the arc part of the attack seems to go straight for anything living in the attack¡¯s wake. Like a sort of homing missile of sorts. I continue panting as the attack slowly leaves my sight, seemingly never running out of steam. And eventually I get my own steam back in the form of my stamina returning before I climb back to my feet. Then I try to repeat that attack. Except with my eyes open. Because I can¡¯t exactly aim if I don¡¯t have my eyes open. And it proves to be rather difficult to pull off while trying to focus on what I¡¯m doing. So after failing miserably once, I go ahead and do it a couple more times with my eyes closed as the Architect is focusing on initializing the galaxy he¡¯s working on. No doubt wondering what the hell I¡¯m doing, considering that his memories don¡¯t seem to be entirely there in terms of past trials but also not entirely missing. I keep practicing until the Architect finally finishes initializing the galaxy. Then I find myself watching his battle again. And this time I watch everything he does while trying to imagine how I would counter it all, instead of just watching. But just like the last times, he doesn¡¯t do the exact same things. He does one new attack that I¡¯ve never seen before, that involving him quite literally glitching a meteor from space to slam into all of the corrupted monsters on the ground. Proving that he really can just glitch anything from anywhere. Which also proves that he is stronger than me in the pure power sense. Even if he doesn¡¯t have as much directly offensive attacks using his own energies and resources. Meaning I¡¯m going to have to go in a roundabout way to kill him. Maybe take him by surprise with that one big attack at the start and have the arc continue chasing him around. Because I doubt he can block it, and with the homing feature, it won¡¯t stop chasing him. Hopefully. The problem is that I¡¯ll have to have the opportunity to use that attack. And I doubt he¡¯ll give me the time it takes to do it. Since it takes nearly twenty seconds to prepare it. Plus I¡¯m still not good at doing it with my eyes open to aim. I honestly get the feeling he would be a much higher level than me if he were in the System. A thought that has me gritting my teeth. B4 | Chapter 15 Alexia I die twice more to the Quantum Architect, using those attempts to learn more about his fighting style. How he attacks. How he defends. How he dodges. Everything I can while also taking in what he does in the other two trials. Honestly, if I could, I¡¯d just attack him in those two trials. But it¡¯s obviously split into three trials, with each trial having different goals. So most likely I¡¯d end up failing one of the first trials and wasting a shot at the third trial if I tried attacking him during them. Not worth it for the tiny, miniscule chance it may actually work when I personally don¡¯t think it would. Not when taking the chance would mean one less life. And I need every life I can get. I take a deep breath at the end of the Architect¡¯s battle with the Corruptor on my sixth try before letting it out. Then my sixth attempt fighting against him begins. And it starts very differently from the last five tries. Because this time I start it off by using a new power I haven¡¯t used before. I stab my hand straight into my scythe before yanking it out with pure quantum energy of my own special affinity. That of the Quantum Reaper. Energy meant to bring targets to their last slumber. Then I spread both arms out with my scythe in one before purple and blue lightning stretches between my hands. Along with glitched clouds of more lightning appearing in the skies above us. The Architect narrows his eyes, not having started attacking yet himself. Clearly finding my current actions worth some wariness. And right when I begin my assault, making glitched purple and blue lightning strike from both my hands and the skies down towards him. Lightning fueled by the energy around us that¡¯s filtered through my scythe. The man finally does something surprising to me. He ditches the entire first phase of the battle and coats himself in his armor after teleporting his location elsewhere. Then he just turns towards me as one panel after another appears to block my bolts of lightning, only letting some of them through that he teleports away from. The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. My eyes narrow before I teleport forwards while sweeping my scythe, still striking lightning at him at the same time. He blocks my scythe with half a dozen panels layered on top of each other, only for the man to be struck by my lightning while distracted. And I take advantage of that to teleport to the other side of him and swipe my scythe at him again. But he blocks it again, and once more, takes a lightning bolt to the back. The man proceeds to revert the damage from the strikes before teleporting behind me and slamming his fist into my side, knocking me flying a few meters until I teleport behind him and slam my scythe into him with the momentum from his very strike. Then I revert the damage done to my body while he does the same to his. Just for a lightning bolt to strike him while he¡¯s doing that. We continue doing this over and over again for several minutes, the two of us trading one blow after another. One lightning bolt shocking him after another. And one panel and armor coated punch slamming into me after another. With both of us continuously reverting the damage. But over time, I begin to grow tired. I slip up. And I end up taking more hits than I deal out. Slowly the damage begins to build up as my soul decreases possibly faster than his. It¡¯s rather hard to tell though, since I can¡¯t see his soul. What I can tell, though, is that we¡¯re both beginning to heal at slower paces than we were originally. Before reverting the damage, of course. Proving that we¡¯re both starting to run low on soul. Right when I¡¯m beginning to think I may actually have a chance at winning this time, though, he does something else completely unexpected. He freezes reality around us, making me have to push to shatter the layers around me. Then he does¡­ something. He swipes his hand across the screen and declares, ¡°Shatter.¡± Making everything around us shatter, with glitched particles appearing all around us in the air as every bit of reality disconnects from each other. Leaving glitchy voids everywhere in between the shattered parts of reality. I look around with more than a little concern, only to turn my focus on him as I send more bolts of lightning and try to build up my finisher attack that I figured out earlier. But it ends up taking too long as before I can do anything, he sends every last bit of shattered reality straight at me. Killing me in an instant without giving me even a second to revert any damage. Not even finishing up the last of my soul in the process or letting me hear his signature countdown. And just like all of my other failed attempts, I find myself back at the first trial. I grit my teeth feeling genuine anger as I wonder just how much time has passed by now. Actually, is time even passing? Am I returning to the past with each trial? Or maybe time doesn¡¯t pass in these trials? Or it does pass and I¡¯m wasting time with each failure. How does time even work in the quantum realm? And how the hell am I supposed to judge time when there isn¡¯t anything to judge it by? When I tried to look at my phone to see the time all I saw was a jumbled up mess. My eyes flare as I get more and more irritated. The pure irritation and beginnings of anger starting to flash past my usual apathy. Fuck this is getting annoying. And dangerous. Just four more tries left. But¡­ I turn to look at the Quantum Architect as he begins his initialization process of the galaxy. ¡­that was the closest I¡¯ve come to victory. Now I just have to turn it into a real victory. And deal with that finishing move of his. B4 | Chapter 16 Alexia Two more attempts pass with me never making it past that last attack. The attack killing me in an instant each time. Leaving me with just two more attempts remaining. And by now, I¡¯m feeling more and more anxious. But while I¡¯m practicing my big attack in the first trial of my ninth attempt, I finally remember something. Something I forget way too often and tend to go without. Items exist. Assuming they even work in the Quantum Realm. At that realization, I focus on all of the rings I have on my fingers. Only to realize that their bonuses are all just nonexistent. Except for one single ring on my finger. The Quantum Lock. My Class Item ring. Which I guess makes sense. That the one item that works still is a class item related to the Quantum Reaper. I frown for a second before sighing and getting back to my practice. Okay. This ring only works once every month, and only for ten seconds at that. Slowing or speeding up time in that period for me. So I need to come up with a perfect strategy for this battle. Otherwise I¡¯m screwed. I focus throughout the entire duration of the first trial, just planning out my battle with the Architect. Then I continue planning throughout the second trial all the way till I quickly begin the third trial going all out against the Architect right away. Using the ring instantly, before the Architect raises his guard, and slowing down time so that everything around me moves at a crawl. Including the Architect. And without any hesitation, I quickly prepare quantum lightning before teleporting forwards and slashing straight at the Architect. Striking them the exact same second that the lightning hits. But when I¡¯m about to follow it up with another hit, the effects of the ring come to a sudden end, shocking the hell out of me in the process. It¡¯s already a little late for the Architect, though. Because he¡¯s already letting off a faint and glitchy purple smoke from the lightning bolt while a glitched line goes from one side of him to the other. The author''s narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. I quickly push forwards, using his injury to my advantage to deal one blow after another while he¡¯s off-guard. Then the Architect quickly skips straight to armoring himself before slamming his fist towards me. But instead of striking me, he strikes a screen that appears in front of me and sends a shockwave out from around us. One that begins to shatter reality itself while catching me off-guard. And just as quickly as that attack, he makes reality around me freeze ones more. My eyes widen as I stop mid-flight from his previous attack, teleporting over towards him again with my scythe raised. Only for him to speak out loud once more, just like the previous battles, ¡°Shatter.¡± Then everything comes to an end. Again. All of reality around us shatters and the fragments rush towards me. I try to block it with attacks of my own now that I¡¯m in pretty good condition unlike the previous times, with the sole exception of that first hit he got in, but I don¡¯t get anywhere. The bits of reality smash their way straight through my attacks. Before killing me again. Leaving me once more appearing in the first trial. On my last life. I drop down to the ground, my legs going to either side of me as I slam my forehead into the floor. Literally shattering it as I feel the Architect¡¯s judgmental gaze shifting towards me. But despite my actions, I don¡¯t make a single sound. Dammmmnnniiiiittt!!!!! I grit my teeth, still not making any noise. This is too close. Way too close. And now that I¡¯ve used up the ring, I won¡¯t be able to¡­ use it¡­ again¡­ My thoughts trail off as I notice the power still radiating from the ring. Heavily implying that the ring still has its charge ready to go. The dread that was slowly working its way into me halts at this discovery. The discovery that I will likely be able to use the ring again. I raise my head to look at the Architect, only to hear him say, ¡°Let¡¯s start one last time.¡± That makes me blink in surprise. Because it implies this version of him knows it¡¯s my last try. I narrow my eyes, wondering just how much these Architects know about this trial. But after that, I shake my head and look down, crossing my arms as I do so. Right. Not the time for that. I need to plan. The effects of the ring ended the moment I hit him with my attacks. Meaning that either they end when I attack something, or the Architect shattered the effects himself after being hit. It doesn¡¯t really matter which reason is behind it though. Because either way, the effects only last for one attack. Fortunately for me, I have an idea for what I can do for that one attack. It¡¯ll finally give me the chance to charge up my big finishing attack. The attack takes twenty seconds to charge, and the ring slows down time for ten seconds. So if I begin charging it up for about ten seconds before using the ring, I can finish charging it and attack after using it. Plus I can take the time to open my eyes and aim when the ring is activated. Since I won¡¯t have to worry about return attacks with the Architect moving as slow as a snail. What matters now is the timing. When do I perform this attack? Before his second phase? At the start of the battle? After the second phase? I spend the entirety of the first trial thinking about it, along with a large majority of the second trial. Then I see something that surprises me. I see the Architect using his finishing attack on the Corruptor in this trial. And it finally gives me a glimpse at it from a different perspective. My eyes widen a little bit and my mouth parts open. Huh. That¡¯s interesting. B4 | Books 1-3 Summaries

Book 1: The story begins with Alexia soon after she and her twin sister Astrid entered the Royal Academy of the Kingdom of Silvercrest. Where they join together with a few other students and enter the dungeon belonging to the Royal Academy for training during class. However, during this class, Alexia finds a strange rift inside of the dungeon and falls inside of it. Where she finds the bound Quantum Architect stuck inside of a large glass tube. Wanting to die. The Quantum Architect forces Alexia to kill him, thereby causing a reset of the System to begin while also giving her a Legendary Feat that he suppresses to make no one else aware of it. A Legendary Feat that forces her species to change into that of a Quantum Being. To a Quantum Reaper. After the Reset, Alexia is forced into a dungeon thanks to her new Legendary Feat. The same as all of the other Legendary Feat holders of the universe. She slowly makes her way through the dungeon, fighting to survive while also adapting to her new species. All the way till she eventually clears the dungeon and makes it back out, right on time to save her twin sister from a group trying to force them to either work under them or die. And after Alexia saves them while killing the attackers, taking their leader captive ¨C the prince of the Silvercrest Kingdom ¨C she begins to adjust to the changes in the new dimension along with herself. Then, while her sister and the others in her sister¡¯s group are beginning to make their own place to live, she goes to find new dungeons. Find new ways to grow stronger. And meets new Class S species such as Ethan, a proud and arrogant dragon who sees no one as people outside of Class S species. Then the tutorial came to a close and Alexia and all of the others are drawn into a realm meant to show the top ranking beings in the new dimension off to the rest of the dimension. With Alexia being at the very top in the first place rank. She is given levels of authority and points to use in the System Tutorial Shop thanks to how well she did in the Tutorial along with advice from the Quantum Architect¡¯s clone on how to spend it and what skills she should get. After that she spends her time before the first Dimensional Council training and leveling up, clearing requirements to reach Tier 2. All the way till she becomes the first person after the Reset to reach Tier 2, granting her a new Legendary Feat. The Vanguard.

Book 2: After Alexia¡¯s training trip in the end of book 1, she returns to her sister and the people with her for a while before going on another training trip. This time to a higher Tier dungeon now that she herself is Tier 2. This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report. She spends all of the rest of her time before the Dimensional Council fighting within the Tier 2 dungeon, and even arrives at the council while inside of the dungeon. And during the council itself, she takes the position of the Dimensional Block¡¯s Champion while the King of Giants takes the position of their Dimensional Leader. She then proceeds to return to the dungeon she was in and continue clearing it out, growing stronger in the process. All the way till she reaches the peak of the second Tier and realizes she must take on other powerful users in order to clear her requirements to reach Tier 3. Thanks to that she doesn¡¯t reach Tier 3 before anyone else, and is forced to travel to another dimensional Block in order to find someone to fight. And the one she does find, she ends up having to wait for to reach the same level as her. Another Class S species. A Lich King. And when she finally slays him, arriving at Tier 3 at last, she finally returns home from the Dimensional Block. Causing massive changes just from her actions in the Block saving countless lives. Lives of which she dumps on her sister and her allies. After returning to Dimensional Block #108, Alexia teams up with the Hellfrost Dragon Ethan and another dragon named Vargas to fight against the Cataclysm Class monster within their Block. Eventually defeating it together and proving themselves the first to kill one. Then she returns to her training in dungeons in an attempt to reach the level cap of Tier 3. During which Lysandre arrives at The Retreat and finds Astrid there. Who he then begins to start a ritual that will turn her into a Class S species herself. Where Astrid and Alexia¡¯s parents eventually show up and meet them for the first time in ages, or in Lucas¡¯s case, for the first time. With their parents making up for the misunderstanding they had faced. Before another issue arrives in the form of the Quantum Beings, specifically the Quantum Ruler. Alexia learns more about the hierarchy of the Quantum Beings before the Quantum Beings leave along with their parents, following which she finally gets new personally crafter armor and returns to her training.

Book 3: In the start of book three, another Dimensional Council begins. One that holds the first declarations of war across the new dimension. But Alexia pays no mind to the wars going on as she continues her training, both in her energy manipulation and other ways. And after returning from her training again, she meets with Ethan¡¯s mother, who had arrived at the Retreat to find him. Then she begins her hunt for Cataclysm Class monsters so that she can clear her requirements to ascend to Tier 4. She goes from one Dimensional Block to another, killing one Cataclysm Class monster after another in each Block all the way till she reaches Dimensional Block #1. Meeting numerous people and Class S begins along the way. Until she eventually arrives back at her Block again and the Ten Year Event Selection finally begins, with the Dimension-Wide Dungeon being chosen by the Council. Then, right before the event begins, Alexia finally clears her last requirement to reach Tier 4 and ascends. Unlocking her incomplete True Form in the process. She takes on her new form for a brief period, immediately making everyone in the Block aware of her new form in the process before entering the Dimension-Wide Dungeon. And beginning her trek to Tier 5. Clearing one dungeon after another inside of it until she reaches the Tier 4 dungeon and finally begins to struggle. But she pulls through in the end, clearing the dungeon and reaching the level cap of Tier 4 as well. Only for her to leave the dungeon, her new Titles and Legendary Feats in tow, to find another Dimensional Block declaring war on theirs. With their Dimensional Champion challenging her directly. B4 | Chapter 17 Alexia I immediately start the battle against the Architect off with a bang. Literally. By striking him with lightning right away while teleporting up to him and slamming my scythe into his panels, fracturing them but not breaking them. The Architect goes flying, and I teleport after him slamming my scythe into him again. But by now he¡¯s already equipping himself with his armor, following which he teleports himself and the reality around him behind me and slams his fist straight at my back. I block the attack by teleporting in a way to reverse the way I¡¯m facing while bringing up my scythe and taking the attack directly on the blade. We then proceed to send one attack after another at each other, the two of us occasionally blocking the others¡¯ hits and occasionally taking them directly and reversing the damage. But this time around, I¡¯m dealing a little bit more damage to the Architect than he is to me. Unfortunately for me though, the Architect has more soul than I have. I think. At least, that¡¯s what I¡¯ve come to assume from our nine previous battles. So most likely we¡¯re about even right now. I keep up one blow after another, striking him with lightning from behind while swinging my scythe at him. Over and over again. Just tearing away at the man while occasionally switching my attacks up to charge my scythe with quantum lightning to perform a much stronger, sudden attack that shatters his panels and cuts clean through his armor at his flesh below. And by now I¡¯ve gotten used to most of his attacks, so he has no more surprises for me. At least, not during our back to back fighting. Slowly we whittle each other away, draining at our souls until I find myself all the way down to a mere fifth of my soul left. At which point I teleport backwards in a rush while sending as much quantum lightning at him as I possibly can. Then I close my eyes and focus solely on charging up my big finisher. Meanwhile I hear the Architect teleporting back and forth away from my lightning that¡¯s trying to keep him boxed in. But it only keeps him in place for six seconds, after which he manages to teleport up to me and slam his fist into my chest, sending me flying for hundreds of meters before I slam into a cliff. If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. Throughout the entire flight though, I keep my eyes closed, and continue forcing energy into my scythe as I resume the fluid movements of my scythe through the air around me even after being hit. With my role pushing me along despite the fact that I can feel my collarbone having shattered. And I can¡¯t revert it while focusing on my finisher. So it¡¯s just left to heal through soul instead, draining a good chunk of it. The Architect quickly teleports forwards again before flying the rest of the way with his fist held back, but the moment it reaches about ten seconds into the buildup of my attack, I activate my ring, instantly slowing down time. Then I quickly continue building up the charge in my scythe while fluidly moving around, swinging it around me without pause. Making the black energy within the purple and blue on my scythe grow by the second. Five seconds pass with the Architect still moving forwards at an incredibly slow speed. My eyes begin to glow straight through my eyelids, filling the area with light. With four seconds remaining, I feel my movements begin to shift and slow down. At three seconds, the Architect makes it within a dozen meters of me. With two seconds left, my eyes begin to slowly open as my attack reaches its crescendo, with my scythe held downwards at an angle to my side and a powerful black and purple arc building up on it. At one second remaining, the Architect reaches five meters in front of me with his fist raised ready to smash into me. Then the ten seconds runs out and I swing my scythe straight at the Architect while his fist, covered in glowing purple energy and dozens of panels, slams straight into the edge of my blade and the arc building on it. Sending a massive shockwave outwards that destroys all of the area around us. Whether it¡¯s reality itself, the ground, or anything. Everything is cut apart by waves of energy shooting out from the collision of our attack. Black energy, purple energy, and blue energy. My finisher arc tries to push against the Architect¡¯s punch and begins to get a little bit of distance on him, pushing him back a little. Only for his punch to begin pushing against me as well. Until three bolts of lightning that were following after him strike him in the back, making him cough out a mouthful of glitchy purple blood. I grin when my arc takes advantage of his wounded self to push back again. All the way till it begins to shatter every single one of the panels on him, followed by his armor, then his fist itself. Every last bone in his body breaks at the same time, and his hand begins to crush inwards towards his arm. Then his arm itself starts folding and getting crushed, followed by his torso. And at last, right before another explosion of energy shoots out from my arc, the Architect smiles at me for the first time and says, ¡°You have-¡± Only for his entire body to be sliced in half while the two remaining halves end up slowly falling to the sides of my remaining attack as it passes off into the distance. With both halves glitching apart while bits of it gradually disappear. ¡°-passed¡­¡± his final word echoes throughout the area as the last of his body glitches apart. Then reality around me begins to fall apart before I find myself appearing in some sort of tomb in front of a grave. Barely alive as I collapse to the ground. B4 | Chapter 18 Alexia While resting on this wonderfully uncomfortable stone floor, I focus on the words I find appearing in my vision. Words that aren¡¯t in the form of a System Message or notification oddly enough. Congratulations, you have passed your first test as Quantum Reaper and proven yourself worthy of your role. But do not grow overconfident, young Reaper, for nine more remain. And should you fail even a single test, punishment awaits you. Some of which may prove fatal. Return to the test site once you have reached Tier 5, young Reaper. Your achievements will be stated by the Architect''s strange System once you leave the Quantum Realm. Please claim your rewards and leave the test site once you recover. I blink in surprise at the words. Words that apparently aren¡¯t from the System. So¡­ what are these words from? I stare blankly at them until they disappear. Then I continue to stare for several minutes as I try to wrack my brain about what they¡¯re for. But the only possibility that comes to mind just makes no sense. Because how could the universe itself speak? That¡¯s just not possible. Maybe it¡¯s the quantum realm? But that doesn¡¯t make sense either¡­ I continue lying on the ground for over an hour trying to wrap my head around this, but no matter what I do, I can¡¯t figure it out. So after my strength finally begins to return to me, my soul having clearly recovered after emptying out, I get up and focus on the large tomb in front of me. Or rather, on the large coffin at the center of the tomb. I walk up to the coffin before placing my hand on top of it, making the lid of the coffin suddenly glitch out and vanish. Revealing a glowing purple and black orb in the center of the coffin. Along with more red text where the coffin¡¯s lid was. For passing the first of the tests, you will now be bestowed with your core. With every test passed after this point, your core will grow stronger, and you will learn how to fight with each of the Quantum Beings. For your role must be the strongest. You must be the reaper of the universe. The end of all. And yet, the savior of all as well. I frown at the text before it fades. Then I see the orb slowly beginning to rise straight up towards me. And without giving me any time to react, it shoots right into my chest, making me drop down to my knee as I feel immense pressure filling me all over. The pressure grows stronger and stronger, with powerful quantum energy flooding my entire body. Energy mixed with something else. Some sort of black energy, similar to the energy that was in the arc I shot out that finished the Architect. The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. In my finishing attack. The pressure grows more and more until it¡¯s shifting to all-out pain instead as I grit my teeth and lean downwards, clutching my chest. But then a little portal appears beneath me, making me fall straight out of the tower to land on my rear right outside of it. Fucking hell, this hurts! And as if reading my thoughts and mocking them, the pain flares, growing even more painful in the process as I let out a constricted scream. Meanwhile the black energy begins to leak out of me, following which I find a rift appearing in front of me that the Quantum Ruler walks out of. His eyes as wide as saucers. ¡°Dangerous¡­¡± he mutters, surprising me a bit through the pain before the man waves his hand, making a rift back to the universe appear next to him. ¡°Please return to the mortal plane before you accidentally damage the quantum realm.¡± I feel more than a little confusion at that, only to find myself being lifted into the air and brought through the rift. With the rift itself closing after me. Then he pain flares again, making me shoot upwards to stare at the sky as my arms stretch out to my sides and I let out a silent scream atop the random island I find myself in. One that looks a lot like a Dimensional Block #108 island. One message and notification appears after another, but the pain is too great for me to read them. Instead I just find my vision shifting in and out of a strange black and purple tint as I see beings incredibly far away, possibly even in another Dimensional Block, highlighted in crimson, purple, and black colors. Like they¡¯re marked as targets. Meanwhile the black energy from before continues to leak out of me, killing everything it touches as if it were death itself. Then I feel pain flare from my head. Pain that doesn¡¯t last long while a new sensation emerges from my head. A sensation I somehow instinctively realize are horns. Probably the same horns I had when I originally transformed into my incomplete form before they vanished. And as if nothing had happened, all of the pain vanishes in a single instant. Leaving me gasping as I fall forwards a bit and catch myself on the ground with my hands. But before I can pay attention to the System Messages and notifications, a strange and corrupted-looking rift appears in front of me. One similar to the rift I saw the Corruptor passing through in the second trial. Then another notification appears in my vision that covers all the others.
The Dimensional Champion of Dimensional Block #600, Damien Black, and the Dimensional Champion of Dimensional Block #108, Alexia Knight, have both returned to the Dimensions. The duel will now commence in ten seconds. Prepare to be teleported to the dueling site.
I blink in surprise at both the notification and the sight of a very¡­ different¡­ looking Damien passing through the corrupted rift. And after ten seconds pass, just like the notification says, I find myself being teleported to some enormous platform within some sort of void of darkness. With Damien on the other side of the platform, and another notification in front of me.
Your target has entered within the specified range. User is already within their completed true form. Transformation is not necessary. All rewards for hunting the target will be given after the target is eliminated. Eliminate the target.
I blink again before standing up, feeling a little unsteady from my transformation. The hell? B4 | Chapter 19 Alexia Okay, seriously. What the hell is going on? Shouldn¡¯t the forced duel thing only be a month after the duel was initiated? Or¡­ My eyes widen as I realize that more time might have passed than I thought in those trial attempts. Shit. That¡­ is rather annoying. But I don¡¯t have time to focus on that right now. Because what¡¯s most important right now is the Corruptor standing across from me on this large platform. Well, that and the notification in my vision.
You have now entered your 1/10th Complete True Form as a Quantum Reaper. As the sole Quantum Reaper, you have one role to play. The Reaper of Reality. While in this form, you are given five special Racial Skills. However, you may only stay in this form for a few minutes if you are not acting for your role. These five skills are as follows: Soul Reaping: With every swing of your scythe, you take a chunk of the target¡¯s soul out and feed it to the universe itself. Therefore any damage dealt with the Reaper¡¯s Scythe is unhealable, regardless of what type of damage it is, who is trying to heal it, or what the damage is being done to. Only the Reaper herself may revert the damage with her own hands. Note: Restrictions have been revealed since completion of your True Form. Restrictions including the inability of this skill¡¯s effect being applied on other Quantum Beings without resistance towards their quantum energies. Corruption Immunity: As one of the Quantum Beings holding a role to the universe, you are fully immune to the corruption of the other side. The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. Living Singularity: You are one of the sources of energy. A living singularity. All energy in the surroundings will be drawn to you, made to enter you, and feed your soul. Special Quantum Resistance: You are the Reaper of all. This includes the Quantum Beings. Therefore you are resistant to the special role-specific quantum energies of each of the ten other roles. However, as you are only 1/10th complete, this skill is limited to just a resistance towards the energies of the Role Trials you have completed. Current Role resistances gathered: Quantum Architect Quantum Resonance: You resonate with the quantum energy around you, stabilizing reality itself and making it more difficult for other beings to alter reality around you.
Oh. Interesting. So I¡¯ll gain specific resistances to each of the Quantum Beings from passing their trials? Although that little note about Soul Reaping certainly explains why the Quantum Architect I fought in the trial could still revert time on itself. But I don¡¯t have time to focus on any of this now. Because I¡¯ve been teleporting away from the Corruptor over and over again as he¡¯s been attacking me like a wild fucking dog while I¡¯ve been reading the notification. Which I have to admit has grown really annoying. But that aside, I teleport to the other side of the platform to get a good look at Damien¡¯s new form. Damien now looks like a glitchy vampire. One with crimson eyes hiding small flickers of glitchy purple, bits of glitchyness across his body, and some glitchy purple claws mixed with black claws on his hands. Meanwhile he is wearing the same equipment he wore the last time I saw him. Albeit with it looking worn out now. The man himself, though, doesn¡¯t look to be in good shape. At all. He looks like he¡¯s barely holding onto his sapience even if he¡¯s still attacking me like a wild dog with some sort of disease. It almost makes me pity the guy. Almost being the key word. Seeing as the guy is an asshole who honestly deserved this. Both for getting tricked and for everything he¡¯s done. Mostly just for bothering me though. At the very least he¡¯ll qualify for one of my requirements. I smile a little at that thought. My grip tightens a little on my scythe, only for my smile to fade a bit when I realize I¡¯m not in the quantum realm anymore. Meaning I don¡¯t have access to my infinite energy supply. But I do still have a lot of energy to draw on from the surroundings, even if it¡¯s not quantum energy. And I somehow manage to convert it into something I can use to power my attacks. I think it¡¯s some sort of void energy. Not that it matters, considering how I¡¯m just stuffing it into my skills and scythe. Anyways, this guy is a lot easier to deal with than that bastard of a Quantum Architect. ¡°Excuse me?¡± the real Quantum Architect from outside of the trial comments, sounding rather upset. Not you. The other Quantum Architect. ¡°What?¡± he asks, clearly even more confused now for some reason. Not my problem. ¡°What are you talking about?¡± he continues, but I ignore him as I charge up my scythe a bit and teleport right in front of the Corruptor. Only for the Corruptor to slash his claws at my scythe in return, pushing me back for a single instant before I put a bit more energy into my scythe and send him flying across the platform. Nice. Definitely a lot easier than my fight with the Quantum Architect. ¡°Seriously, what are you even talking about?!¡± the Architect mutters. Don¡¯t worry about it. Also, how are you even talking to me in here? Actually, never mind. I¡¯ve got a problem to deal with first. That being the Corruptor rushing towards me while foaming at the mouth. I teleport up to him again and send him flying for a second time. Then a third. And a fourth. A fifth. Sixth. Over and over again. But unlike with the Architect, this Corruptor doesn¡¯t heal. None of the damage I deal reverts. And that is a sight I absolutely love seeing. My attacks actually sticking and not just being undone right away. Now then. I teleport far back before slamming the butt of my scythe into the ground and infusing my soul into it. Instantly making clouds of quantum lightning form in the air above the platform. ¡°Enjoy the lightning,¡± I say with a smile on my face directed at the Corrupted Damien the moment my quantum lightning begins to strike him, making a loud shriek echo across the dueling platform. Meanwhile the Architect mutters in my head, ¡°I have no idea what¡¯s going on anymore¡­¡± B4 | Chapter 20 Alexia ¡°And that¡¯s what happened,¡± I finish explaining to the Architect as the Corrupted Damien¡¯s shrieks continue to echo through the dueling platform with each and every strike of my lightning. The Architect wouldn¡¯t stop pestering me about what I was talking about before, so I ended up having to explain it all to him. Making him feel more than a little awkward judging by the feelings I feel coming through whatever annoying bond he has set up with me that I wish would go away. Why he¡¯s awkward, I¡¯m not entirely sure. Possibly the fact that I basically told him that I spent ten lives fighting someone like him and getting used to his powers before eventually killing the one like him and getting a resistance to his quantum energy. All of which sounds perfectly normal to me. He¡¯s so awkward that he stopped speaking entirely. Not that I mind. But since I¡¯m done talking to him, I go ahead and close my eyes as I focus on charging up my finisher move. One that I feel perfectly safe using against a rather weakened wimp like Damien. And when I finish charging it up, I slowly crack my eyes open to look before locking onto the Corrupted vampire lord over the course of several more seconds. As said Corrupted vampire lord is still bathing in quantum lightning. Then I sweep my scythe through the air, sending a powerful arc of purple and black energy straight at said Corrupted vampire lord. Albeit a weaker arc than I used back in the quantum realm. Because I don¡¯t have as much energy to use here. A pity, but¡­ I watch as the arc cuts straight through the Corrupted vampire lord without missing a beat before continuing through him¡­ and cutting through the void around the platform as well. Yeah, it¡¯s still plenty powerful. More than powerful enough to deal with Damien. Not a single emotion crosses my face as I watch the Corrupted Damien slowly fall apart as his body glitches into oblivion. Other than some very slight curiosity in how Elara and Astrid will react to getting more territory. Judging by the notifications that appear afterwards.
The Dimensional Council of Dimensional Block #108 has officially achieved victory against Dimensional Block #600 in their war! Henceforth, the Dimensional Wall closest to Dimensional Blocks #108 and #600 shall receive a portal connecting the two Blocks. Furthermore, all citizens of Dimensional Block #600 designated as not allowed in the Block will be forcefully ejected into a random neighboring Block. Due to the war coming to a close through the slaying of the Dimensional Champion of Dimensional Block #600 by the Dimensional Champion of Dimensional Block #108, only one Champion remains. Therefore the remaining Champion will take on the role of Dimensional Champion for the new Dimensional Block #108. If you come across this story on Amazon, it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it. Lastly, the Dimensional Leader of Dimensional Block #108 will retain their position as the Leader of the newly merged Block. The war results have now concluded.
Cool. Now for the next notification.
Congratulations! Your target has been eliminated. Rewards will now be distributed to the Quantum Reaper. Analyzing most beneficial rewards at the current moment¡­ Analysis complete. For eliminating one Corruptor, the universe is forcefully altering the System to raise the user¡¯s Authority Level from 5 to 6.
Oh. Nice. And a Legendary Feat flows across the dimensions at that as I find myself teleported back to a random island in Dimensional Block #108.
Legendary Feat ¨C The Second Authority As the first to reach Authority Level 6, you may force a Dimensional Block¡¯s war to end without any result once per war between the same pair of Dimensional Blocks.
Interesting. Sort of. In all honesty, I can¡¯t really see myself using this one. What I can see myself using though, are the benefits I see flashing in my vision afterwards. A vote on the Council that counts for fifty votes. The right to pass through Dimensional Walls with up to two hundred and fifty people. The right to make a blacklist for my home Dimensional Block permanently banning up to ten people at one time from entering the block while they are on the blacklist. Albeit with the blacklist only affecting those with lower Authority Levels than me. Which means everyone right now. And the power to force a Dimensional Council Meeting whenever I please. Which I also don¡¯t really care about. That said, having a higher Authority Level is always nice. Makes me wonder whether I¡¯ll get a reward similar to this for every Corruptor I slay. And on the note of slaying a Corruptor¡­ [One Corruptor reaped. No EXP is given due to the user¡¯s level being capped. All necessary Corruptors reaped. The requirement has been cleared.] [One Tier 4 level-capped Target Defeated. No EXP is given due to the user¡¯s level being capped. One Tier 4 level-capped Target of three defeated. The requirement will be cleared when two more Tier 4 level-capped targets are slain.] There we go. Cleared that requirement from my ascension requirements. Now I just need to kill two more targets and reach Tier 4 in Quantum Energy Manipulation. Since I already retrieved my requirement clear for getting my core. Which was surprising since I only got part of it. But best not to look a gift core in the non-existent mouth. On another note, the Architect whose real name I still don¡¯t know is still silent. Makes me wonder what happened to him. As if summoning the man, a rift appears in reality in front of me before he walks through it and just stares at me. I stare back. ¡°You want to know my name?¡± he asks, sounding serious. A lot more serious than I¡¯ve ever heard him before. Well, honestly don¡¯t really care, but it would be nice to have something else to call you other than Architect. And I¡¯m not calling you Dad or Father, just to make that clear. He stares for a little while longer before eventually stating, ¡°Zaltros Vel Dar Exerian Vlake Rule.¡± I stare back at him. Then I find myself returning to my usual form, leaving my True Form for the first time in a while. After a few seconds, I simply nod my head and state, ¡°Too long. I¡¯m calling you Zal.¡± An awkward silence ensues after that. B4 | Chapter 21 Alexia ¡°What about Zaltros?¡± Zal asks, still trying to get me to call him by something else other than the nickname I gave him. Even after I finish crossing half of the Dimensional Block and reach my clearing again. Nope. Zal it is. At first he was trying to get me to call him Dad or Father, but he gave up rather quickly. Then he changed to his name. I wonder when he¡¯ll just give up? ¡°Don¡¯t just act like I¡¯m not even here,¡± he grumbles, sounding more open to talking than he was before. Not sure why that is though. Maybe it¡¯s got something to do with my getting my core? My internal monologue about random stuff that doesn¡¯t matter is interrupted by another notification that appears in my vision. One that I was actually kind of expecting.
The Dimensional Championships will occur in three days. This tournament will be set place in a special location within the Dimensional Block similar to the Dimensional Council Chamber. Outsiders will not be allowed to visit the Block during this tournament unless given permission by a denizen of the Block with Level Three Authority or higher. All competitors within the tournament who die will respawn after their match. The winner of the tournament will be given the right to challenge the current Dimensional Champion for their position as Champion without having to fear dying if they should lose. This tournament will be repeated after every Ten Year Event, and the Dimensional Champion will be forbidden from taking action against those who challenge them strictly for challenging them. They may, however, attack them outside of the tournament if they so please so long as it has nothing to do with the tournament. Good luck. The author''s content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. You¡¯ll need it to face the Reaper.
I still find it rather interesting how the notification is tailored specifically to mention the fact that I¡¯m the Reaper. It makes me feel special. ¡°If you¡¯re not special, I don¡¯t know who is,¡± Zal mutters. I just go ahead and ignore the quantum being¡¯s response to my inner monologue that wasn¡¯t directed at anyone. Then I go ahead and set my house back down before going inside of it and plopping down on the bed. Finally relaxing again after not resting in a rather long time. I wonder just how many people are going to be competing in this tournament? ¡°Everyone with authority is automatically entered since people are resurrected after dying,¡± Zal answers me, making me frown. That¡¯ll take an incredibly long time, won¡¯t it? Having everyone with a level of Authority in the Dimensional Block fighting in a massive tournament¡­ ¡°Yes, but will that matter to you?¡± Zal asks, sounding a little confused as to why I should care. ¡°It¡¯s not like it affects you. You¡¯ll just be teleported in automatically when the tournament is over to fight the winner.¡± I blink at that before staring up at the ceiling. Huh. You¡¯re right. ¡°Of course, you can watch it whenever you want,¡± Zal says. ¡°An icon will appear in the corner of your vision that you can select to enter and leave the tournament realm whenever you please. But no one ever said that you must watch or even pay attention to the tournament.¡± Yeah. I can just ignore it whenever Astrid isn¡¯t fighting in it. That thought gives me pause. Wait, if Astrid wins through the end, won¡¯t that mean I¡¯ll end up fighting her? ¡°I doubt it,¡± Zal counters, making me frown. ¡°Ethan is more likely to be your final opponent.¡± Yeah, you¡¯ve got a point there. Astrid has gotten strong since becoming a Class S species, but she still isn¡¯t a match for a dragon. Especially not a direct descendant of the two most powerful dragons in the world. Actually, knowing that dragon, he¡¯ll probably be rather excited at the thought of fighting me to the death in a duel that won¡¯t have any permanent consequences. It almost makes me pity anyone he ends up fighting in the tournament. Since he won¡¯t be holding back, and he¡¯ll still view them as nothing but insects as always. Out of curiosity, is it possible for people to withdraw from the tournament? ¡°Before the tournament? No,¡± Zal answers. ¡°During it? Yes. They can surrender at any time while they¡¯re in the arena.¡± Hmm. That¡¯s not bad then. On another note, when will I be able to block your reading of my mind? It¡¯s annoying. He doesn¡¯t respond. I roll my eyes before closing them. He responds when I don¡¯t want him to and doesn¡¯t respond when I do. Then again, he did answer one of my questions at least. Maybe I¡¯ll be able to block these quantum beings from reading my mind after I get more resistances? More parts of my core? But how many tenths of my core will it take? Two? Three? Maybe even half of them or more? I hope it doesn¡¯t take long. Because it¡¯s annoying having my mind be an open book to them. My thoughts come to a pause when I sense a few people getting close to my clearing. Reminding me about the fact that the tournament beginning also means that everyone is outside of the Dimension-Wide Dungeon. Which includes my twin. A smile stretches across my face as I jump to my feet and rush to the balcony. Only for the smile to fade a little when I sense a rift emerging within my clearing, making Ethan and Astrid both tense up at its appearance. I teleport right in front of the rift to find someone stepping through it. With another rift appearing nearby as well. Both of them having quantum beings stepping through the rifts. One of which is Zal, and the other a quantum being I recognize as the Quantum Enforcer. I frown as I glance between the two. If I remember correctly, the Quantum Architect is ranked #2 in the hierarchy while the Quantum Enforcer, also known as the Quantum Judge, is ranked #3. I glance between them with my frown growing ever deeper. B4 | Chapter 22 Alexia The Quantum Enforcer looks rather weird, to say the least. He has glowing purple vortexes as eyes along with more glowing purple vortexes that appear and disappear throughout his body. Just glitching here and there seemingly at random. He¡¯s wearing a fancy looking black and purple robe, with his hair being longer in the front than in the back. With the front portion going down about to his chin and the back being just a couple inches in length. The same as his bangs. And just like all the other quantum beings I¡¯ve seen, his hair is purple in color. Or rather, a very dark black tinted heavily in purple. Lastly, he is wearing fingerless black and purple gloves and doesn¡¯t look very happy as he looks between me and Zal. ¡°Second Quantum Architect, move aside,¡± the Quantum Enforcer states as he looks past Zal at me. ¡°I have business with the newly appointed Quantum Reaper, and not even you can interfere.¡± Zal narrows his eyes and states, ¡°I order you, Enforcer, do not bother my daughter.¡± I feel a strange pressure in the air around the Enforcer, only for the universe to seemingly bat it away itself. As if the universe was rejecting his order. The Architect looks rather angry at that, but when he raises a hand to stop the Enforcer, he feels pressure on himself instead. My eyes narrow a bit at the sight. And it doesn¡¯t take me long to figure out what¡¯s happening. The Enforcer must still be chasing after Mom. But he can¡¯t find her, so he¡¯s probably going to question me about her whereabouts. Not that I know where she is, if I¡¯m being honest. I glance between the frozen Architect and the slowly approaching Enforcer whose eyes are locked onto me. Then I cross my own arms and return to my True Form again. Because, regardless of if I know where she is or not, I really don¡¯t like the idea of this asshole trying to force it out of me. And for some reason I feel slightly irritated at the sight of him treating Zal like that. Maybe it¡¯s because I¡¯m the only one who¡¯s allowed to treat him like that? This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. Not sure. Either way, I don¡¯t like this situation. And I know I¡¯m higher on the hierarchy than either of them. So there¡¯s no better time than now to test out if I can use that authority on other quantum beings or not. ¡°Stop,¡± I declare while putting one hand in my cloak¡¯s pocket and the other holding tightly onto my scythe, with the end of my scythe resting on the ground. And lo and behold, the Enforcer actually freezes in place, feeling rather shocked by the development. It doesn¡¯t last long though, because the universe once again begins to force my pressure away. Just like it did with the Architect¡¯s. But it doesn¡¯t seem to work anywhere near as well on mine, so I speak again, ¡°Turn around and leave. Now.¡± I then watch with some amusement as the Enforcer rather tensely turns around and walks back into his portal, with the universe¡¯s pressure just barely losing out to my own place on the hierarchy. Which is very interesting to see. Unfortunately for me though, he turns right back around and reenters through the rift again after leaving. Kind of making my order obsolete. ¡°Leave and never return unless I order you to,¡± I declare, making the pressure return on him mere seconds before his hand is about to reach my throat, the man having rushed forwards to stop me from speaking this time around. And this time I just give him a casual wave as he¡¯s about to walk through the rift. Seemingly infuriating the man even more. The man stops right on the other side of the rift this time, without closing the rift. Then he just stands there glaring at me until I get a bit closer to said rift. Stopping a couple meters in front of it and putting my other hand into my cloak¡¯s pocket after wrapping my arm around my scythe. I glance around the clearing to find both Ethan and Astrid still frozen in time, and Zal fighting against that same pressure he was facing earlier. ¡°Release them,¡± I order the Enforcer, making him do just that a few seconds later. After an initial hesitation. And the man just gets even angrier at that as he states, ¡°You will regret this in the future, Quantum Reaper.¡± I tilt my head at him and ask, ¡°Will I?¡± Once more, he gets even angrier. Then the rift vanishes, following which I return myself to my usual form before turning to Astrid and Ethan and saying, ¡°Well, now that that¡¯s dealt with, are either of you planning on going all out in that tournament?¡± They just stare at me. I wait for a few minutes, only to glance at the Architect to find him staring blankly at me as well. So I ask, ¡°What?¡± Zal seems to snap out of his stupor as he mutters, ¡°I¡­ didn¡¯t realize you had your authority already¡­¡± I open my mouth to respond, only for everything around us to freeze again albeit in a different manner than before. With it all glitching instead of acting like time stopped. Then another voice that I recognize joins the conversation, ¡°Of course she has authority. But it¡¯s only a fraction of her full authority.¡± I turn my head upwards to see the Quantum Ruler appearing above our heads through a rift to the quantum realm. ¡°Grandfather, not Quantum Ruler,¡± he corrects me of the umpteenth time. And I just ignore him for the umpteenth time. I glance at the others who are frozen before looking at Zal. Might as well not bother talking if you¡¯re just going to read my mind. I frown a little at the thought. Seriously can¡¯t wait until I can block that and keep my mind private again. ¡°Call me grandfather and I¡¯ll stop reading your mind,¡± the Ruler states, making me turn to blink at him. Then I simply nod at him and state, ¡°So why are you here Grandfather?¡± Zal gapes at me with more than a little judgment on his face. B4 | Story Art As always, if the art below breaks, click here. If you say anything about the art being broken in the comments I will lock the chapter''s comment section. Please do not message me either just because the chapter is locked. Not that saying this will help if you''re skipping over this anyways, but I thought I would because why not. First is the first commissioned cover for Reaper''s Resurgence that I can''t remember if I''ve shown on Royal Road or not yet. The cover for book 1 by Kart Studio! Next up is some art for other characters(these aren''t from Kart Studio btw, just the cover image above): Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions. I decided to try a different art style for Corrupted Damien: Then there''s the art for the previous Quantum Architect before Lexi''s ''father'' that she fought in her trial: Then there''s another piece of art of Lexi: B4 | Chapter 23 Alexia ¡°I came to warn you off of trying any of the other trials until you¡¯re Tier 5,¡± Grandfather states, his lips still quirked upwards ever so slightly in a look of smug satisfaction as he glances at his son. No doubt at my calling him grandfather. Then he turns to me and finishes, ¡°You¡¯re lucky you started the trials with the former Quantum Architect instead of one of the others. Because any of the other quantum beings would have torn you apart as you are now.¡± I refrain from saying anything about how I was technically torn apart nine times before I killed him. Because he doesn¡¯t need to know that. And judging by his lack of any sort of response physical or verbal, he doesn¡¯t seem to be reading my mind anymore. So he is actually keeping up his side of the agreement. ¡°Of course he is,¡± Zal grumbles. ¡°He has always wanted a grandchild for some bizarre reason.¡± I quickly glance at Zal in surprise before looking at Grandfather, finding him to be awkwardly looking away. Wait, so how much of what this guy actually does is an act and how much isn¡¯t?! ¡°Everything about him is a fucking act,¡± Zal swears, seemingly uncaring of the fact that his father is there to hear him. Grandfather doesn¡¯t say anything in response to that, so I just move on, asking, ¡°So why exactly is the Architect any different from the other quantum beings?¡± Now that question gets a reaction out of both Grandfather and Zal. Because Grandfather snaps his fingers, freezing everyone around us again while Zal closes us off in some cube. Then Grandfather looks me directly in the eyes and states, ¡°Do not tell this to anyone who isn¡¯t a quantum being. Is that understood?¡± I raise a brow but don¡¯t say anything. Not committing to keeping this quiet. He doesn¡¯t seem to care though as he begins answering my question anyways, ¡°All of the original, first quantum beings were created by the universe as slightly altered clones of the very first quantum being.¡± His eyes narrow. ¡°As altered clones of myself.¡± I blink at that before opening my mouth and closing it again. Huh. Well¡­ that certainly explains a few things. ¡°Haven¡¯t you ever wondered about why all of the quantum beings look so similar? And why all of the role holders are male except for yourself?¡± Grandfather asks with his arms crossed. ¡°It¡¯s because the only quantum being to ever have their role usurped was the previous Quantum Architect, who was replaced by my son.¡± Find this and other great novels on the author''s preferred platform. Support original creators! Which explains why even Zal looks like Grandfather. Since he¡¯s Grandfather¡¯s son. But yeah. This explains a lot. I had briefly wondered why all of the quantum being role holders were male without a single female aside from myself. And why all of the ones I¡¯ve seen looked so similar. If they¡¯re all just altered clones of the Quantum Ruler, that makes a lot of sense. ¡°But then why was the original Quantum Architect weaker?¡± I ask with a frown, not understanding that. Zal answers this one instead of Grandfather, ¡°Because I killed him hundreds of thousands of years ago.¡± I glance at him, then at Grandfather. ¡°He¡¯s right,¡± Grandfather says with a nod. ¡°The previous Quantum Architect that you fought was as powerful as he was when he was killed. But the other quantum beings you will fight will have their current strength, which includes hundreds of thousands of years of training and growth that the previous Architect didn¡¯t have.¡± Oh. ¡°You wouldn¡¯t stand a chance against them, even with those extra tries,¡± Grandfather states with a shrug. ¡°And especially not against me.¡± It¡¯s sad how true that probably is, even if it sounds a little like he¡¯s bragging considering his smug tone. But I never know with him, considering how he is always acting out some role. Makes me wonder what Grandfather is really like. The only thing I know about his true self so far is that he apparently wanted a granddaughter. ¡°The universe needed enforcers to enforce its laws, so it created copies of myself to do that,¡± Grandfather says while frowning as if he¡¯s not very happy about it. ¡°But it also didn¡¯t like the idea of having so many exact copies of me, so it changed every one in different ways and made them weaker. Giving them just the powers they need for their assigned roles.¡± That¡¯s kind of sad. ¡°Wait, so what about the Successors to the quantum beings with roles?¡± I ask out of curiosity. Grandfather glances at Zal with his eyes narrowed as he states, ¡°The universe strongly drives all the role holders to find Successors that can replace them and pushes that drive mostly onto myself. So I¡¯ve been pushing all of the role holders to find Successors.¡± He turns back to me again with a sigh. ¡°But only half of them have Successors.¡± Oh. He waves his hand to make multiple screens appear, clearly stealing from Zal¡¯s System to do so. And on the screen are five different people. Each with the same glitchy purple eyes and purple tinted hair as us, but with differences too. Of the five people, three are female and two are male, and only one of them has black hair that¡¯s tinted purple. The others have different colored hair that¡¯s tinted purple. I¡¯ve never seen a single one of them in my life though, so they likely aren¡¯t known in the universe. Or weren¡¯t known before the Reset. ¡°Of the current role holders, only five of them have Successors,¡± Grandfather continues. ¡°The Quantum Vanguard, the Quantum Archon, the Quantum Builder, the Quantum Creator, and the Quantum Cleaner each have Successors.¡± Zal grimaces as he is left out despite his attempts to make me his Successor. Meaning he still needs to go out and find one. So good luck to him for that. Not my problem. He glares at me, clearly reading my mind. But I ignore him, as always. You should be more like your father. At least he isn¡¯t reading my mind anymore. Even if I had to bribe him to get him to stop. A look of horror spreads across his face at that suggestion. B4 | Q&A And here we have the Q&A post for Reaper''s Resurgence that I mentioned a couple chapters back and in the last chapter! Go ahead and ask me anything about the story and I''ll probably answer it! This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. You can also ask questions about me personally, but I may not answer those depending on the question. Although it could take me some time to reply to some of the questions. B4 | Intermission 2 Somewhere in the Corrupted part of the Universe Deep within Corrupted Territory, a strange location filled with corrupted quantum energy gradually begins to split, revealing a large being previously hidden inside of the energy. One whose form constantly shifts, glitching one way and then the other nonstop without revealing even a single trace of the creature¡¯s true appearance beyond its humanoid shape. The creature slowly moves out of the large mass of quantum energy, making powerful waves of corruption flood outwards across the entire corrupted half of the universe. Instinctively drawing every single corrupted being within the corruption towards it. Only for them all to be devoured by the corrupted quantum energy the moment they get within a solar system of the being. A few seconds pass as the corruption at the forefront of the battle between the quantum beings and the corruption immediately begins to ramp up at a rapid pace. With the corruption growing berserk while rushing at the defenses put into place by the Quantum Vanguard. But the creature simply floats in place while turning to look out in the direction of the Architect¡¯s creation. A set of dimensions outside of the universe itself. In the Architect¡¯s own personal realm created with the help of the System that has learned to tap into the other Quantum Roles. The creature continues to stare in the direction of the System Dimensions connected to the mortal universe through the quantum realm and nothing more for several minutes. Then the glitching quantum energy around its face begins to calm down a little bit. Enough to reveal two glowing purple eyes with blood crimson pupils glitching every once in a while as they stare at the new role holder amongst the quantum beings. And at the other quantum beings around her. Then the creature turns its gaze onto the other seeds it has planted amongst the strange users of the Architect¡¯s System. Dozens of seeds all across the dimensions of the System. Stolen story; please report. Silence fills the corrupted part of the universe as the being stares off at the System Dimensions. Only for his gaze to turn to a large rift that opens near him. One that the Quantum Ruler himself steps out of. But he doesn¡¯t say anything for several seconds. He just stares at the strange being without saying a word. All of the corrupted beings within the corrupted part of the universe immediately begin to flee to the corners of the universe, far away from the Ruler¡¯s presence as his own energy floods out of him and combats the energy of the other being. ¡°You interrupted my time with my granddaughter,¡± the Quantum Ruler states, his voice as cold as ice despite the expressionless gaze he is using to stare at the other being. Then his eyes move to look over the corrupted creature in front of him. ¡°And you haven¡¯t even improved in the slightest in the last thousands of years since I saw you.¡± The being doesn¡¯t say a word back to him. Instead it simply continues to stare in silence. ¡°Still just as quiet as ever, brother,¡± the Ruler mutters with a frown. ¡°Or should I call you the Corrupted One? As the children so love to call you.¡± Once again, the Corrupted One stays silent. The Ruler watches for several seconds as bits of his brother¡¯s form begin to appear within the corruption, only to fade again. Over and over again. All the way until they stop appearing again entirely, and even the Corrupted One¡¯s eyes start to glitch apart too quickly to see. Then the Corrupted One returns to the energy cocoon he was previously in, following which the cocoon glitches out and vanishes in the blink of an eye. Immediately leaving the Ruler¡¯s senses and making it impossible for him to track his brother anymore. Silence fills the corrupted side of the universe once more before the Quantum Ruler slowly closes his eyes, his fists clenching tightly at his sides in the process. Then he mutters, ¡°Of course¡­¡± But even after the Corrupted One leaves in his cocoon, he doesn¡¯t take his gaze away from his brother. And eventually, he mutters, ¡°Farewell, Regrex.¡± Only for the Corrupted One to go silent once more, his eyes closing seconds after he glances at the Reaper back in the System Dimension with a smile. The Ruler¡¯s eyes narrow ever so slightly, the man having heard his brother¡¯s words. But all he does in return is let out a sigh and mutter, ¡°Why did you have to go and save me¡­¡± He shakes his head. ¡°Idiot.¡± Then the Quantum Ruler leaves through the same rift he entered the corrupted part of the universe from before returning to the System Dimension again without anyone there ever realizing that he had left in the first place. Meanwhile the Quantum Vanguard lets out a sigh of his own, the man having watched from the edges of the corrupted part of the universe. ¡°Just how long will I have to deal with this damned war¡­?¡± the Vanguard mutters to himself while still fighting the corrupted beings at the edge of the universe. B4 | Chapter 24 Alexia I narrow my eyes at Grandfather as I look him up and down, feeling like something¡¯s off. Like he blipped out for a second. Just glitched once throughout his entire body before returning to normal. What was that about? Zal glances at Grandfather, seemingly wondering the same thing. Either that or he is just responding to my thoughts, the creepy thought peeker that he is. Now Zal looks at me with a brow raised. I ignore him. ¡°My beloved granddaughter,¡± Grandfather states, making my eyebrow twitch slightly with that endearment, ¡°if you are looking to clear your remaining requirements for ascension, you must search through the Dimensional Blocks of your father and his System¡¯s creation. By doing that you will find more targets scattered across the dimensions.¡± And without saying another word, the man vanishes in an instant. Startling me in the process as everything around us unfreezes. I let out a sigh before glancing at Zal. ¡°I will be aiding you with your quantum energy manipulation training during this trip of yours, do not worry yourself,¡± Zal states with a nod of his head. Only for him to disappear as well. No doubt to give me time with Astrid and Ethan. Finally I turn towards the two, finding them both looking rather confused. Their confusion doesn¡¯t last long though before they seem to shrug it off and continue approaching me, with Astrid soon giving me a hug as she says, ¡°Welcome back.¡± I hug her back while glancing at Ethan, who is staring at Astrid from behind. He really did swap twins, didn¡¯t he? Huh. His gaze turns towards me when Astrid and I separate. ¡°Welcome back to you as well,¡± I tell Astrid before Ethan walks up and surprisingly hugs me as well, making me awkwardly pat his back in response. Since I¡¯m not used to physical contact with people outside of family. He doesn¡¯t linger long though and quickly backs up again with a nod and a smile on his face. I blink as I wonder if he¡¯s always smiled this much. Because I¡¯m pretty sure he didn¡¯t smile much when I first met him.This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report. Also, I¡¯m pretty sure he¡¯s looking at me the same way he used to, and the same way he¡¯s looking at Astrid¡­ does that mean he¡­ Actually, never mind. It¡¯s probably best that I don¡¯t wonder about any of this. Well, his feelings aside, the three of us head inside of my house where we end up talking for a couple hours. Just catching up and even telling a couple stories about what we went through in the dungeons. Specifically the Tier 4 dungeons. Since all of us entered them. Although I¡¯m the only one who completed it. The other two simply left through exits they personally made through items that I didn¡¯t even know about. When they hear about my own story of The Horror though, they both show some rather clear disgust at the thought of being stuck in there. Along with fear when it comes to the lupin parasite itself. It also seems to answer their question about how I killed a Tier 5, what with that Legendary Feat having been announced to everyone. ¡°I hate to admit it, but I would¡¯ve been dead if I were stuck in there,¡± Ethan says, surprising both me and Astrid. Because the man is usually incredibly prideful and wouldn¡¯t ever say anything like that. I share a glance with Astrid before looking at him again and asking, ¡°Have you changed?¡± Now it¡¯s his turn to look surprised, only for the surprise to turn into a light smile. ¡°Well¡­¡± he glances at Astrid. ¡°I¡¯ve been¡­ facing my own pride recently.¡± I look between him and Astrid, who looks confused herself. Then it hits me. Dragons are incredibly apathetic towards anything that isn¡¯t a Class S species because they feel only Class S species deserve the right to stand beside them. And they despise undead, so they don¡¯t care about people becoming Class S undead species. Meanwhile I became a Class S species thanks to the System Architect. Which could excuse it in his mind. But right here, directly in front of him, is a woman who became a Class S species without the aid of any godlike beings and isn¡¯t an undead. Just someone turned into a Class S species by another regular Class S species and science. It must¡¯ve shattered some of his draconic pride and arrogance. I give him a sad smile and pat him on the shoulder, surprising him again. Astrid seems to have come to the same conclusion as I have at this point though, so she isn¡¯t too surprised. She even pats his other shoulder. I wonder if this will make him less apathetic towards others? That thought gives me pause for a bit before I eventually shrug. Then again, it doesn¡¯t really affect me in the end. ¡°So you¡¯re planning on traveling through the Dimensional Blocks again?¡± Astrid asks, making me turn to her and nod. ¡°Then could you wait a few days for the tournament to start? Alara has something planned and she wanted me to ask if you could participate.¡± I blink at that before narrowing my eyes a little and asking, ¡°That depends on what it is.¡± ¡°Could you show everyone your True Form at a ceremony Alara plans to have right before the tournament is supposed to begin?¡± Astrid asks without breaking eye contact. Show everyone my True Form? For a show of power, maybe? Wait a second¡­ ¡°Alara wants to use my True Form to gather the Dimensional Block at The Retreat, gain their business during the tournament, and show off The Retreat¡¯s protector?¡± I ask for clarification. ¡°Playing on everyone¡¯s curiosity on what my True Form looks like and how powerful I am in it.¡± Astrid just grins and nods. I shrug and answer, ¡°Sure. As long as I¡¯m just showing off my True Form.¡± Not like that¡¯s much work. And I can gather the Block to make searching for a target easy. After all, for all I know, there could be a target in Dimensional Block #108. Then I can start my trip after that. It¡¯s a good thing I don¡¯t have to be in this Block for the tournament myself. That would just be a nuisance. B4 | Chapter 25 A Stadium near The Retreat A few days later Bishop Varl Jekrikson calmly walks through the entrance of the enormous stadium ¨C one large enough to seat a hundred thousand people ¨C before navigating his way to a seat. Meanwhile everyone who sees his robes clearly showcasing the holy symbol of the Holy One gives him a wide birth. Something the bishop of the Holy Empire is used to by now. Before the Reset, the Holy Empire was a major power, with worshipers of all kinds across the entire universe. But after the Reset, everything began to fall apart. Their worshippers, slaughtered by the masses due to being largely from amongst the weaker echelons of the universe. Belief in the Holy One¡¯s radiance dwindling due to his mere third place ranking on the Tutorial leaderboards. A ranking that, while excellent by any standards, is not the perfection that the followers were led to expect from the Holy One. It was always fine that he was not on the main leaderboards, since that was led by Class S beings who were said to be above all others. But for the Holy One to not make it to the top rank in the Tutorial rankings simply broke their beliefs. The bishop calmly watches the center of the stadium, where a large stage is located surrounded by guards, with several of the people from The Retreat there. Despite the sight though, very few people in the stadium actually pay them any attention beyond a few glances here and there, clearly checking to see if she¡¯s arrived yet. Because the only reason the vast majority of the current attendees are even here is the rumor spread around that The Reaper herself will be attending. And nearly everyone in the Dimensional Blocks wants to meet her. Precious few of the people here genuinely care about The Retreat itself beyond its connection to The Reaper. And the bishop is sure their leaders know that and are taking advantage of that themselves to form connections and grow into a power that they will care about. But the bishop himself still doesn¡¯t care about The Retreat. He just cares about Alexia Knight. The Quantum Reaper. And the same goes for the Holy One. The bishop continues watching silently as the countdown high above the stadium ticks down. And the moment the countdown hits one hour remaining until their Dimensional Championships begin, the leader of The Retreat begins to float into the air along with the stage they were standing on.Stolen novel; please report. ¡°Welcome everyone! To the ceremony and gathering for Dimensional Block #108¡¯s illustrious Dimensional Championships!!!¡± Alara Blake declares, the woman having both of her arms spread out with a wide smile on her face. ¡°But before we begin, let us welcome our special guest!!¡± With those words, everyone in the audience immediately begin to tense up with anticipation. ¡°The great protector of The Retreat, Reaper of the Universe itself and the only Quantum Being to walk amongst us, welcome our Dimensional Champion to the ceremony!!!¡± Alara shouts, her voice echoing out through the entire stadium as the air above the stadium begins to glitch. ¡°Welcome Alexia Knight! The Quantum Reaper!!!¡± And the moment she finishes speaking, the entire skies begin to glitch out and for a single instant, the bishop swears that he sees a woman appear amongst the glitching skies, her eyes drilling daggers into his soul just from a glance. Then an enormous wave of quantum energy rushes out from the center of the glitching skies across the entire Dimensional Block. Meanwhile a bright beacon of glitchy purple and blue light shoots up high into the sky and straight down to the ground with a small amount of black light mixing in with it. The bishop feels instinctive fear simply from the sight of the sheer power flooding out from the beacon and filling the stadium and the entire Dimensional Block outside of the stadium. And he¡¯s not the only one as he sees everyone in the stadium frozen in fear with their eyes wide open, looking straight at the beacon with no exceptions. Varl sees a faint silhouette inside of the beacon of a woman before the silhouette gradually begins to change shape. And when the Quantum Reaper finally reveals herself, with the beacon vanishing in a glitchy flash of light, the skies that were previously clear begin to grow dark with clouds. Clouds filled with glitchy purple lightning. But Varl¡¯s eyes are locked onto the woman. She now has two purple, draconic yet also bat-like wings sticking out of her back, with two horns angled backwards sticking out of her head, and a large war scythe held in one hand. One that is crackling with the same glitchy purple lightning as the clouds above. The lightning in the skies occasionally strikes down at the ground without hitting anyone before the bishop hears the Quantum Reaper¡¯s words echo throughout the stadium the moment he identifies her. {Quantum Reaper ¨C Watch your actions, for the Reaper¡¯s scythe is always ready to swing.} ¡°Know that messing with my sister or The Retreat is the same as messing with me,¡± she declares while holding onto her scythe to one side with her other hand moving into her pocket and her eyes beginning to narrow. ¡°And those who mess with me will learn to regret it for the rest of their lives.¡± The woman then vanishes in an instant just as quickly as she appeared. And it¡¯s not just her, but everything else in the skies vanish as well. The clouds, the lightning, and the glitchyness in the skies. Everything becomes eerily calm. Without a single person saying a word. Even the bishop has to force himself to breathe after having forgotten to do so. ¡°Now then,¡± Alara states, sounding as casual as she was before, ¡°let¡¯s begin with the ceremony.¡± The bishop slowly turns his gaze towards her, still feeling dumbfounded and terrified by what he just saw. I need to report this to the Holy One. B4 | Chapter 26 Alexia After I finish putting on a show for Alara, I activate my cloak to make it harder to recognize me before sitting in a booth within the stadium. Just to watch how Alara uses my little performance. And to my complete lack of surprise, she uses it well. Immediately latching onto everyone¡¯s shock and fear of me and acting like we¡¯re closer than we actually are. Not that I mind. Especially since Astrid seems to be growing rather fond of this place herself. Now whether that¡¯s because of how much work she has put into it or whether she¡¯s actually growing fond of the people here, I¡¯m still not entirely sure. But that doesn¡¯t change the fact that this place growing stronger is a good thing for me. So I just watch as Alara makes her spiel, and once she¡¯s done, the countdown finally strikes zero and everyone is teleported into a massive stadium. One not that much unlike the one we just got teleported from. Meanwhile several new icons appear in my vision. But first I focus on the center of the stadium along with the notification I see floating over it.
The Dimensional Championships will now commence! There will always be thirty matches going on at once, and no one is allowed to interfere with a match. If a user attempts to interfere with a match, they will be disqualified from the tournament and sent back to their Dimensional Block. All users will be transported to their designated fighting ring the moment their round starts, regardless of if they are within the dimension for the tournament or not. In order to view a specific duel, simply look at the orb with the two users fighting within and select the prompt that appears within your vision. Good luck to all tournament competitors, and may the quantum favor be with you. Because you¡¯ll need it.The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.
I can¡¯t help but raise a brow at that ominous ending before looking around the center of the stadium. Just like the notification stated, there are thirty glowing purple and blue orbs made out of quantum energy. Each of which have two people inside of them. And when I look at one of the orbs, I find a strange prompt appearing directly above it in my vision. Would you like to spectate Leval Arc and Porlianus de Vega¡¯s duel? After a brief pause, I go ahead and think ¡®yes¡¯, following which the orb expands in my gaze to cover the entire arena. Meanwhile a large majority of the audience vanishes for some reason. It doesn¡¯t take me too long to figure out why they vanish though. Not when I focus on the large X that appears in my vision and am returned to looking at the orbs with all of the other users back in the audience again. Only to focus on another orb and have another chunk of the audience vanish. A different chunk. I guess this means you can only see the audience members who are currently viewing the same duel as you are. Interesting. On a different note, It looks like the only people who were sent to the tournament dimension are those from our Block. Leaving everyone else no doubt being kicked out of Dimensional Block #108 automatically. At least, according to Zal. As a safety measure of course. Wouldn¡¯t want them wandering around an empty Dimensional Block looting while we¡¯re gone after all. Anyways, I go ahead and take a look at my own surroundings. Finding myself sitting in a rather glamorous looking booth on a grand throne. With quite a few people looking my way from the audience, where everyone else is separated from me. And out of the corner of my eye, I notice a button on the armrest of my throne. One that, when pressed, makes a purple veil appear over the edge of the booth. Only for said veil to vanish again when I press the button again. I guess I have my own private viewing chamber as the Dimensional Champion of the Block. Convenient. Very convenient. I turn my focus back to the bottom of the stadium before focusing on a random orb to watch their duel. And, amusingly enough, people immediately begin to flood the audience of that very arena moments after I start watching it. Like they¡¯re all following me or something. I lean my cheek against the palm of my hand, my elbow resting on the armrest of the throne as I let out a sigh. Just wondering why these people are bothering with following me around like this. After all, it¡¯s not like they¡¯ll get anything out of it. I don¡¯t miraculously know which duels to spectate. And I don¡¯t know almost anyone down- My thoughts come to a halt when I return to the main viewing selection and find an orb with Ethan inside of it. Nevermind. I immediately open the viewing orb to watch him fight, only to feel a little disappointed by what I see. Because, instead of some interesting looking fight, all I end up finding is Ethan looking bored after having already frozen his opponent solid within a second of the ¡®duel¡¯ beginning. At this point I¡¯d hesitate to even call that a duel. I return to the main viewing area just to find Astrid in a duel. But it ends up being the same as Ethan¡¯s, with her already having killed her opponent before I even manage to start spectating. This is getting boring. Maybe I should come back for later rounds. I look at the other orbs for several seconds, in which I see quite a few stronger users of the Dimensional Block just wiping the floor with weaker users that they ended up getting paired with randomly by the System. Then I go ahead sigh again before focusing on the X in the corner of my vision. Making me leave the tournament dimension and return to the stadium we were in outside of it. A completely empty stadium now. Which looks¡­ bizarre. Considering how full it was before. Well, whatever. Time to start searching for targets. B4 | Chapter 27 Alexia While I¡¯m leaving the Dimensional Block, I pass by quite a few of the people who were visiting the Block just to see that little ceremony at the entrance of the next Block over. But I ignore the lot of them to continue flying through the air in my True Form. Taking advantage of its wings. After all, all the rules say is that I can¡¯t use my True Form to attack others. It doesn¡¯t say I can¡¯t use it to fly around with my wings and save myself the energy drain that is using Quantum Displacement over and over again to stay airborne. Although I soon find a problem with that. Specifically when I¡¯m attacked while in my True Form. Because I can¡¯t retaliate in the form and have to change back every time. Which is a pain. Then there¡¯s the fact that using Quantum Displacement as a method of travel was also one of the biggest reasons it is one of my highest level skills. So I eventually just return to my previous method of travel once more. Just to keep leveling up the skill. And so that I don¡¯t have to deal with transforming back and forth to kill some pesky monsters. These rules are annoying. ¡°Power always comes at a cost,¡± Zal comments, reminding me of his existence. Actually, on that note, when are you going to continue the lessons on Quantum Energy Manipulation? ¡°Right now if you call me Father,¡± Zal says, making me halt in place with my eyes narrowed at the air in front of me. Seriously? Are you really doing this? I hear a hum in response. Now I¡¯m starting to see the family resemblance between you and your father. He doesn¡¯t respond as if trying to ignore that comment. ¡°Both father and son and their habit of ignoring things they don¡¯t like¡­¡± I mutter out loud while shaking my head before continuing my teleporting quest across this Dimensional Block. ¡°Fine. Father.¡± ¡°Very good,¡± the petty man states in response. ¡°Now I will begin your lessons while you hunt.¡± Why are you even trying to get me to call you my father anyways? I thought you didn¡¯t care much about it. ¡°Because the Ruler is gloating to me about your calling him grandfather and me by some nickname,¡± the man answers without hesitation before starting the lesson. But for the first several seconds of said lesson my mind is just locked onto how petty this family is.Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon. The family¡¯s pettiness aside though, the lesson continues on for a few hours before he finishes up for the day. With me traversing a couple Dimensional Blocks in this time through teleporting. And not finding a single target in the process. Once the lesson is complete, I go ahead and nod my head at the air in front of me and state, ¡°Thank you for the lesson. Zal.¡± Zal pauses for a second and asks, ¡°What happened to Father?¡± I tilt my head a little without showing a shred of emotion on my face as I ask in return, ¡°All you requested was for me to call you Father. You never said I needed to replace how I call you.¡± Silence answers me, with the petty quantum being not saying a single word in retort. Then I feel his presence leave my mind for the time being, but I know he¡¯ll be back. I didn¡¯t do the same thing to Grandfather strictly because of how obsessed he is with getting me to call him Grandfather. So I know he¡¯ll just keep doing it over and over again. But Zal, on the other hand, doesn¡¯t genuinely care himself. Even if he does seem to at least partially consider me his daughter now. Sorta. So he won¡¯t push on the topic. And I have no intention of calling anyone Father on a permanent basis. Not a single person. Except Lucas, maybe. Probably not though. I will refer to him as my father, since that¡¯s an unavoidable fact, but I doubt I¡¯ll ever go around calling him Father or Dad or anything. Anyways, moving on from that, I go ahead and enter the next Dimensional Block. Only to pause when I notice something in the corner of my vision. Something that makes the corners of my lips quirk upwards ever so slightly. Just like with Damien and the red outline I saw on him, I see a strange and miniscule little red outline far off in the distance. No doubt representing a target. So I immediately begin teleporting over in that direction without wasting any time. Eventually leading to me arriving at a rather large castle in Dimensional Block #111, which is made up of floating chunks of ice on a vast ocean. With the castle itself being on a chunk of ice. I completely ignore all of the soldiers and people around the castle as I activate my True Form and teleport straight into the castle before grabbing the target by the throat without warning. Then I lift the target into the air and teleport out of the castle while my System Notifications appear.
You have now begun your assault on a target of the universe. Should you eliminate the target, you will be given a single fragment of an energy core for acting within your role. Your time limit has been removed. Act as you please as you eliminate the target.
After flying up into the air above the castle under everyone¡¯s gaze, I take a closer look at the woman in my hand. Identifying her as I do so. {Raya ¨C Spatial Selkie ¨C Level 794} -|-|-|-|- {Target ¨C Reaper Directive ¨C Annihilate the Rule Breaker ¨C Target broke the laws of nature and began tearing away at the boundaries of the universe into the void.} I glance at the target in my hand, finding the woman¡¯s eyes to be wide in shock as I do so. Then I just state without a single emotion expressed on my face, ¡°Hello.¡± B4 | Chapter 28 Alexia The woman just grasps at my hand on her throat while choaking and furiously trying to get out of my grip, rudely ignoring my greeting. I narrow my eyes a little bit. She could at least reply or nod her head back. Ignoring my greeting is just plain rude. ¡°Could you answer some of my questions?¡± I eventually ask her, deciding to ignore her rudeness for now. Even as I¡¯m being shot at by people down in the castle below. Not that any of their bullets are actually hitting me, what with them passing straight through my body. The target continues flailing for a little while before eventually falling still and glaring at me. Nodding her head once as she does so. ¡°Great,¡± I state with a nod before asking, ¡°What¡¯s this about you tearing away at the boundaries of the universe into the void?¡± Her eyes go wide with shock at that. Then silence follows. And more silence. And still silence. Except the people shooting and shouting at me from below. But even they eventually give up and start running the hell away instead after realizing they can¡¯t hurt me. ¡°If you don¡¯t answer I¡¯m just gonna assume you¡¯re guilty of something bad and crush your throat,¡± I bluntly state while beginning to tighten my grip a bit. That immediately gets the selkie talking. She goes on to talk about how she was trying to dig her way out of the Dimensional Block back into our universe but ended up almost breaking the dimensional walls into some pitch black abyss instead. With her assuming that she was digging in the wrong direction. And the sight of it ended up making her curious so she tried to dig further. ¡°The void should never be exposed to the mortal universe or the Dimensional Blocks,¡± Zal says, sounding rather serious. ¡°It could lead to the end of half of whichever Dimensional Block they¡¯re in before I¡¯m able to seal the hole up.¡± Ah. So it¡¯s a bad thing after all. I crush her throat before dropping the corpse into the icy water below as I get a notification from the System.
Congratulations! Your target has been eliminated. Rewards will now be distributed to the Quantum Reaper. Analyzing most beneficial rewards at the current moment¡­ Analysis complete.This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. For eliminating one target, the universe is forcefully altering the System to raise one skill chosen by the user by a single level. Please choose a skill to raise a level.
Huh. Convenient. The skill I need to level up right now is obvious though. And before I can even finish the line of thought, I find Energy Manipulation rising a level. Huh. Maybe hunting targets has more benefits than simply being a requirement to ascend. That¡¯s nice. ¡°Were you asking¡­¡± Zal begins before pausing for a second as I glance at the rapidly evacuating castle. Yeah, I wanted to make sure I wasn¡¯t just becoming the universe¡¯s slave or something. Someone to kill those the universe labels as a target just because it labels them that way. I wanted to make sure they were actually doing something that deserved being reaped. Not that I actually care about those that I reaped. I just don¡¯t want to be turned into some hunting dog that obeys orders without hesitation. All that said¡­ I smile a little as I continue my teleporting trip through the Block to the next Dimensional Block. Completely ignoring the still-fleeing people in the Block. Honestly didn¡¯t think about the rewards though. It might be nice to be rewarded for every target. Maybe I should just go on a hunting trip for targets? It could speed up my leveling at the very least. So with that thought in mind, I continue searching around for more targets. A process that doesn¡¯t take too long as I find another one two Dimensional Blocks over. And I do the exact same thing that I did with the previous target to this next one. I grab them by the throat, ask them to make sure about what they did, then crush their throat without hesitation. And just like with the first target, this one gives me a reward. Except it¡¯s a different reward.
Congratulations! Your target has been eliminated. Rewards will now be distributed to the Quantum Reaper. Analyzing most beneficial rewards at the current moment¡­ Analysis complete. For eliminating one target, the universe is forcefully altering the System to grant you a random item related to the target.
I blink in surprise as a strange ring appears above the corpse of the target I just killed. With the target being some species of undead. One with a bit of corruption mixed into him that he was trying to spread to others through his undead infection. As for the ring itself? It looks like a bone claw. Finger and all. Albeit tiny and only large enough to wrap around a finger. Not exactly the most visually appealing of rings, but the item¡¯s effects¡­ -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Ring of the Fallen Description: This ring is tainted by the death energy and corruption of the fallen crypt riser whose finger it is made out of. It grants the wearer the power to control all those of the fallen crypt riser¡¯s line. Stats Bonus: +50 MAG, +50 MEN Requirements: Can only be worn by those with the class ¡®Quantum Reaper¡¯. Item Tier: 4 -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Huh. That¡¯s pretty good. Better than I was expecting. But I¡¯d still prefer another free level up, if I¡¯m being completely honest. And the ring looks creepy. So I don¡¯t think I¡¯m going to wear it unless I need to. Especially since I already have too many rings on right now anyways. So I go ahead and put the ring in my storage before moving on to the next Dimensional Block while training my energy manipulation. Because I might as well go ahead and search for more targets while I train. Since hunting targets gives me a reward for each one. And rewards are nice. B4 | Chapter 29 Alexia At some point in my search, I realize I have a System Message waiting for me that I never checked. [One Tier 4 level-capped Target Defeated. No EXP is given due to the user¡¯s level being capped. Three Tier 4 level-capped Targets of three defeated. The requirement to slay three Tier 4 level-capped targets has been completed.] [One requirement remaining to ascend to Tier 5: Raise Energy Manipulation to Tier 4.] Nothing I didn¡¯t already know. So I just continue searching around for targets to hunt while I train my Energy Manipulation. Right now the skill is at level 25. So it¡¯s about halfway to Tier 4. Meaning it¡¯ll be a little while before I reach my goal. Quite a while, in fact. Which is a pity, but still. I haven¡¯t seen anyone else who has reached Tier 5 yet. It would¡¯ve given a Legendary Feat if someone did after all. And there hasn¡¯t been a Legendary Feat for it yet. I kind of want to get this one, so I¡¯m going to keep searching for targets while training it. Hopefully I can get more of those free skill level-ups to boost it forwards. ¡°Do note that they don¡¯t boost your own understanding but just unlock the benefits you would get at that level of the skill,¡± Zal states, his voice echoing in my head. ¡°It¡¯ll be nothing more than an empty skill without the knowledge and ability to put it to use that you would get from raising it naturally. Until you get that knowledge and ability, it will be harder to level it up.¡± I know that perfectly well, but it doesn¡¯t really matter. I¡¯ll catch up my understanding and training after I reach Tier 4 in the skill. What matters right now is reaching Tier 5 first and getting that Legendary Feat. The other matters can wait. ¡°Understandable,¡± Zal says before his presence fades again. Leaving me teleporting through the Dimensional Blocks while training my Energy Manipulation. His presence does occasionally return though, simply to give me some advice on my training. But other than that, my trip ends up being rather quiet and peaceful. I run into targets every now and then, all of whom I ask a simple question before killing, but none of them are very strong. And the one that happens to be the same level as me is still easily killed without much of a struggle. Simply because I¡¯m using my True Form to kill the targets and not my regular form.Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author''s preferred platform and support their work! And I don¡¯t think anything in the Dimensional Blocks right now is strong enough to fight my True Form. Not a single thing. It¡¯s just too bad I can only use my True Form against targets and Corruptors. Which I guess are also targets, technically. Amongst the rewards I get for killing the target though, I only end up getting one more free level-up for a skill out of five target kills. Which isn¡¯t a good ratio, but it¡¯s better than training the skill on my own and waiting for it to reach Tier 4 naturally. After all, someone else could reach Tier 5 at any moment. And this is one Legendary Feat I really don¡¯t want to miss out on. As if on cue, a Legendary Feat notification appears in my vision almost giving me a heart-attack. If that was possible.
Legendary Feat ¨C Dimensional Block Hunter Noah Kowalski, otherwise known as the Devourer, has become the first user within the System to conquer ten different Dimensional Blocks through nothing more than Champion duels!
Okay, good. It¡¯s not someone reaching Tier 5. Although that timing was rather¡­ yeah. Anyways, the Devourer guy? Not to be mistaken with Mom, whose species is a devourer. It¡¯s just this guy¡¯s title. No doubt given by a Legendary Feat from before the Reset or something. I can¡¯t remember this guy though. Just that they weren¡¯t well known pre-Reset. Putting who he is aside though, is he just hunting other Dimensional Blocks or something? Going around declaring war on one Block after another and challenging their Dimensional Champions? Either he is hunting for Legendary Feats, he really likes fighting, or he is really ambitious for territory within his Block. I have to wonder just how massive a Dimensional Block would be if it had eleven different Dimensional Blocks of territory? Would be interesting to see, but I have no idea what Block this guy is in. So I¡¯d have to randomly stumble on it to find it. And I don¡¯t think I would like that anyways, since there¡¯s a chance he¡¯d start bothering me. I continue teleporting through the Blocks, searching for targets one after another. All the way until I find a rather big target. Not to mention an important one. When I arrive at their rather large base, I find it filled with turrets and security completely covering the outside of it. Almost like the one inside was expecting an attack. What¡¯s more is that the security is made up of quite a few people I recognize from the news, even if I don¡¯t know who they are. Just some passing faces I saw on the news before the Reset. But the fact that I saw them alone means they¡¯re probably powerful. Most likely. ¡°Quantum Reaper, please turn back and we will not have any problems,¡± someone named some really long and complicated name that I¡¯m just gonna rename Bob simply because bob is somewhere in his long name declares while aiming a rather large rifle at me. ¡°If you do not turn around, we will be forced to shoot.¡± I blink at that. Does he actually expect those bullets to do any harm to me? I go ahead and transform into my True Form to prepare for the target before teleporting down to the entrance and beginning to walk in. Only for them all to open fire and some of the bullets to actually hit me. That surprises me as I turn around to look at the bullets, just to find some of them coated in magic. Then I lift my head towards the people who shot me, finding them equally surprised. Albeit probably because of their bullets¡¯ lack of effectiveness. ¡°That was rude,¡± I state without showing much of a reaction on my face. B4 | Chapter 30 Outside of the Military Base Alexia is at Seconds before her arrival Lefar MonGaroue feels bored as he stands outside of his boss¡¯s base. Because he was wanting to participate in the dungeon crawl team¡¯s hunts. There isn¡¯t any way to level up when he¡¯s stuck standing guard in front of the base. He isn¡¯t even sure why he and the others of the Mon Gang were ordered to stand guard here. Even the brand new members of the gang and the other gangs that had nothing to do with gangs prior to the Reset were given the order. Lefar tilts his head towards the ground as he closes his eyes and lets out a sigh. Then he hears shuffling and muttering from the other subordinates of the boss, followed by the cocking of guns. So he opens his eyes and looks up again, only to blink at what he sees. ¡°Quantum Reaper, please turn back and we will not have any problems. If you do not turn around, we will be forced to shoot,¡± the leader of one of the other gangs in their base shouts, reminding Lefar of where he¡¯s seen the woman before. And that reminder sends a chill down his spine. Standing several meters in front of the large turrets stationed near the entrance to the base is a beautiful woman. She has black hair heavily tinted in purple with glitching purple eyes, and as he¡¯s looking at her, she suddenly summons a massive pillar of energy before transforming to gain batlike draconic wings and horns. All while a scythe appears in her hand and she doesn¡¯t stop moving. What the¡­ The woman just continues walking without even glancing at Lefar or his men. It takes him a few seconds to recover as he and the rest of the men turn their guns onto her. But even as all of the guns turn on her, including the turrets, she just continues to ignore them. When they all realize she isn¡¯t going to stop, they begin firing on her with everything they have. Both magical shots and non-magical ones. Only for the vast majority of the bullets to pass straight through her, glitching from one side of her to the other. Except for the magical bullets, which barely go into her. Only for the wounds to glitch apart and vanish an instant later.You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author. Lefar stiffens up, and he notices all of the others doing the same. Then the woman turns around and glances at them without a single ounce of interest or irritation on her face. ¡°That was rude,¡± the Quantum Reaper says, her voice echoing through the area in an ominous way. Lefar instantly stiffens up and begins firing his weapon at her with abandon, the same as all of the others here. But the magical bullets appear to do less and less damage the more hit her. Almost like she¡¯s adapting to the damage. Even the turrets, which use bolts of lightning, don¡¯t do any damage to her in the slightest despite also being magic. With some of the bolts of lightning simply bouncing off of her and hitting their own men instead. Then he finally remembers the rumors going around about the Quantum Reaper. Rumors stating that the Reaper has a skill that lets her adapt to anything, making it deal less damage the more she¡¯s adapted to it. Lefar feels fear spreading through him for the first time in a long while. Except for when the boss is angry. He feels fear around the boss a lot. But he¡¯s the boss, so it doesn¡¯t count. She¡¯s no doubt going to be furious bout our attacks, so I¡¯ve gotta- His thoughts trail off when he sees the Reaper casually turning around and continuing into the base. After blasting a hole in the door. Ignoring everyone outside of the base. Lefar feels so shocked by this that he just stands in place, unsure of how to respond. And most of the others are the same. Meanwhile the few who follow her inside, continuing to shoot at her in the process, are ignored by the woman as if they don¡¯t exist. At this point Lefar just stands in place, deciding not to bother her. Time passes as he stands outside of the base alongside several of the others, only to feel even more surprised when he hears more shouting coming from inside. Shouting he recognizes as being from his boss. Then he sees said boss being tossed out through the front door, making him roll on the ground to land on his feet while gritting his teeth. The boss completely ignores Lefar and the others as he glares at the entrance, where the Reaper is currently walking out of with one of her hands in her pocket and her other on her scythe. Is she really¡­ just¡­ tossing him¡­? The boss¡­? His boss rushes forwards to attack the Reaper with his bare fists, only for his fists to go missing when the Reaper cuts off his hands with her scythe. All without showing any sort of expression on her face. But the boss doesn¡¯t stop there as he jumps up and kicks the Reaper in the face, sending her flying backwards a little bit until she stops herself with a flap of her wings. And for the first time, Lefar sees a slight look of irritation cross her eyes. Everything after that is a blur though. He sees the woman glitch in place, the scythe fly through the air by glitching multiple times and teleporting, and then the boss¡¯s head disappearing from his shoulders. Only for his body to pop like a balloon after that after glitching once. Lefar gapes at the aftermath as the Reaper lets out a huff of air and returns to her previous form. Then he simply watches her teleport into the air before teleporting away from the base without a word. Leaving everyone there stunned into silence for several minutes after their boss¡¯s death. What¡­ just happened? B4 | Chapter 31 Alexia Well that was a little more annoying than the other targets, but not that annoying. The ¡®boss¡¯ of that little gang ¨C or group of gangs, rather ¨C was tougher than the other targets. To the point that I had to actually use my scythe. What with the boss guy being the same level as me. But other than that he wasn¡¯t much of a problem and was easily killed. As for what the guy did that painted the target on his back? Apparently he was spreading some sort of strange infection that altered reality itself. Which was¡­ unique. And the reward for killing the guy was¡­
Congratulations! Your target has been eliminated. Rewards will now be distributed to the Quantum Reaper. Analyzing most beneficial rewards at the current moment¡­ Analysis complete. For eliminating one target, the universe is forcefully altering the System to grant you a random item related to the target.
It gave me another item. An item I already have a better version of. Some high tech storage ring that is centered more around technology than magic. So, at the end of the day, useless to me. Although it might benefit The Retreat. Anyways, that battle reminded me of a certain skill that I haven¡¯t been focusing on leveling up as much lately. Simply because that skill leveled up during the battle. I go ahead and pull up the System Message as I teleport through the skies of the Block. {Congratulations! Your Passive Skill ¡®Quantum Adaptation¡¯ has reached Level 17!} Something tells me I should start putting more focus on this skill, but I¡¯m still not quite sure how to do that. Since I can¡¯t exactly go around telling everyone to hit me.This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience. Or I could, but that would get me labeled as a masochist. Which isn¡¯t a label I want. Not to mention that there¡¯s no telling if someone will even have a skill or magic that I haven¡¯t adapted to yet. So it could end up being pointless as well. Then there¡¯s the fact that I¡¯m already immune to all non-magical physical damage in the first place. Thereby limiting the things I can adapt to down to just magical attacks. And not everyone even has magic. Overall, it¡¯s a pain to level up. Actually, on the note of Quantum Adaptation, I wonder if it works on quantum beings? Because I don¡¯t remember it doing anything when I was fighting the previous Quantum Architect. At all. Out of nowhere, a screen appears in front of me, and I end up face-planting into it before shattering it. Quickly causing me to stop flying and narrow my eyes as I look upwards to find Zal appearing in the sky. ¡°Want to test it?¡± he asks straight up. I open my mouth, only to close it again a second later. Because while part of me is feeling irritated at what he just did, the other part is overwhelmed by curiosity. In the end I just nod my head, and we begin testing with his powers. Albeit with him taking it easy on me since he is still far stronger than I am. What with me just being Tier 4 right now. One test after another, with him continuously using the same amount of power. And we eventually learn that my adaptation does seem to work on his magic. Which is weird since it didn¡¯t work on the former Quantum Architect¡¯s magic. Unless¡­ I frown as I look down and cross my arms. Maybe that¡¯s the reason? The resistance I got from clearing the Quantum Architect¡¯s trial for the Quantum Architect¡¯s energy? It could simply be that I have to clear a quantum being¡¯s trial for Quantum Adaptation to work on them. ¡°That¡¯s the most likely reason,¡± Zal says before vanishing again without a word now that he¡¯s done helping me with that issue. Then I proceed to continue teleporting through the Dimensional Blocks while training Energy Manipulation. But this time I also try to let any of my targets that I find hit me first. Just to see if they have anything I haven¡¯t adapted to yet. If they do, then I go ahead and let them hit me for a little while in order to get that adaptation. If they don¡¯t? Well, I kill them and move on. And just like this, entire months pass. Two to be specific. Then I find myself teleported back to the tournament dimension that I¡¯d honestly forgotten about during my hunt. Only to be told by the System that the first round of the tournament is now complete, and I need to be here for the start of the second round. Which is ridiculous. Both the mere fact that the first round is only just now fucking completing, and the fact that I have to be here for this. Annoying. Although, I guess it makes some sense. For the former, not the latter. Since there are billions of people in Dimensional Block #108, and they were all fighting in the tournament whether they wanted to or not. Even if it was going 30 fights at a time. I let out a sigh before leaning my cheek against the palm of my hand, with my elbow resting on the armrest of the little throne I¡¯m on. But instead of paying attention to the little ceremony down there being hosted by some strange System Avatar that looks like nothing more than a silhouette made of quantum energy, I just focus on my skills list. And more importantly, at the progress I¡¯ve made for Energy Manipulation. Which is a decent amount, seeing as I¡¯ve gotten the skill to level 28 by now. Mostly thanks to the targets I¡¯ve been hunting. So just two more levels and I¡¯ll finally be able to ascend to Tier 5. A faint smile spreads across my face as I look at the System Avatar. An avatar that is still talking in a rather grandiose way to commemorate the first round being over and the second round starting. A second round that is just another batch of duels. It won¡¯t be long now. Not long at all. B4 | Chapter 32 Alexia Something rather surprising happens the next time I leave the tournament dimension to go hunt targets. Something so surprising that it has me freezing in my tracks as I float high in the air above a massive ocean that stretches across the entirety of the Dimensional Block I¡¯m in. Because what I see surfacing in the water below is an enormous kraken Cataclysm Class monster. The monster spans probably about three hundred meters in length from the tip of its head down to the tip of its tentacles, and it is covered in dark blue scales with little openings at the ends of each of its tentacles. Openings that I see spewing out some sort of pale blue liquid that freezes everything it touches. Meanwhile the monster¡¯s two massive eyes are glowing with a pale blue light as it opens its equally enormous maw that is for some bizarre reason above its eyes at the top of its head. But the thing that has me startled about the monster isn¡¯t any of that. It¡¯s not its appearance, or the natural ice magic it seems to be using. It¡¯s the thing I see in its identify result along with the red glow I see on it. {Charalba ¨C Kraken of Cataclysm ¨C Level 1000} -|-|-|-|- {Target ¨C Reaper Directive ¨C Annihilate the Rule Breaker ¨C Target broke the laws of nature and began freezing the spatial boundary between the Dimensional Blocks and the void.} I didn¡¯t know this was even possible. For a Cataclysm Class monster to be a target. The kraken goes on roaring and screeching its anger out at me as I float high above staring at it. And it even tries to swat me with its tentacles, but I ignore said tentacles when they pass through me without leaving a mark. Hmm. Well, whatever.
You have now begun your assault on a target of the universe. Should you eliminate the target, you will be given a single fragment of an energy core for acting within your role. Your time limit has been removed. Act as you please as you eliminate the target.
I frown a little at the notification. And more importantly, at the mention of an energy core. The System says that every time I find a target, but I¡¯ve never seen any such energy core. All I¡¯ve gotten was a random reward every time I kill a target.This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. No energy cores. I¡¯m not even sure what an energy core is. Hey, Zal, do you have any idea what an energy core is? ¡°Of course I do,¡± he answers right away while sounding slightly distracted in the process. ¡°Energy cores are how we quantum beings grow stronger the fastest. But I don¡¯t believe you can absorb them yet. Not until you have your entire core.¡± Oh. Interesting. I wonder if that means I¡¯m just saving up all the energy cores from these targets for when I do get the rest of my own core? Or if those energy cores are just going to waste instead. It¡¯s also possible that they¡¯re being turned into the rewards I¡¯m taking. Regardless, I¡¯m not sure I care right now. Especially since the kraken is now shooting that icy liquid out at me and it actually freezes my feet when it makes contact. Proving that it¡¯s got magical aspects to it. So I quickly teleport away while reverting my body in time. Then I transform into my True Form and proceed to beat up the giant kraken. A process that is actually a bit harder than I was expecting. Especially when it starts to spew forth that icy liquid into the air, making it rain down like, well, rain. Freezing absolutely everything it touches in the process. Even me. I grit my teeth as bits of my armor, cloak, and even skin freeze just from the drops of the liquid that touch me. But after a bit I go ahead and use energy manipulation to create a barrier of ice above my head. Specifically because ice won¡¯t freeze ice. Then I begin using Quantum Bolt and Quantum Singularity Implosion on the kraken, only for the thing to regenerate so fast that I can barely even see it having taken damage in the first place. Another facet of the monster that startles me. So I change tactics and finally let loose and begin using the finishing move that I learned to fight against the previous Quantum Architect. Ignoring as the icy rain sometimes hits me through my barrier of ice while I do the movements of the attack. I ignore patches of my skin freezing solid. Ignore the pain that comes with it. And ignore the frozen parts of my gear and the shattering of the barrier above me when one of the kraken¡¯s tentacles hits it. All until I finally swing my scythe straight at the kraken. Sending a massive arc of pure reaper quantum energy at it. An arc that splits the Cataclysm Class monster in two straight down the middle.
Congratulations! Your target has been eliminated. Rewards will now be distributed to the Quantum Reaper. Analyzing most beneficial rewards at the current moment¡­ Analysis complete. For eliminating one target, the universe is forcefully altering the System to raise one skill chosen by the user by a single level. Please choose a skill to raise a level.
I blink at that notification before smiling. Nice. Without any hesitation, I go ahead and raise the level of Energy Manipulation to level 29. Just one more level left before I can finally ascend to Tier 5. A smile stretches across my face at that thought. Only for me to turn my attention to the two sinking halves of the kraken. Uh. So I have no idea how to deal with this corpse. Should I just inform the locals of this Dimensional Block, or should I try bringing it back myself? It won¡¯t exactly fit in my storage ring, so¡­ I watch it sink for a bit before shrugging to myself and teleporting to a random civilization nearby to tell them about the two halves of the massive kraken corpse. Whatever. I don¡¯t need body parts from it anyways. B4 | Chapter 32 Alexia Something rather surprising happens the next time I leave the tournament dimension to go hunt targets. Something so surprising that it has me freezing in my tracks as I float high in the air above a massive ocean that stretches across the entirety of the Dimensional Block I¡¯m in. Because what I see surfacing in the water below is an enormous kraken Cataclysm Class monster. The monster spans probably about three hundred meters in length from the tip of its head down to the tip of its tentacles, and it is covered in dark blue scales with little openings at the ends of each of its tentacles. Openings that I see spewing out some sort of pale blue liquid that freezes everything it touches. Meanwhile the monster¡¯s two massive eyes are glowing with a pale blue light as it opens its equally enormous maw that is for some bizarre reason above its eyes at the top of its head. But the thing that has me startled about the monster isn¡¯t any of that. It¡¯s not its appearance, or the natural ice magic it seems to be using. It¡¯s the thing I see in its identify result along with the red glow I see on it. {Charalba ¨C Kraken of Cataclysm ¨C Level 1000} -|-|-|-|- {Target ¨C Reaper Directive ¨C Annihilate the Rule Breaker ¨C Target broke the laws of nature and began freezing the spatial boundary between the Dimensional Blocks and the void.} I didn¡¯t know this was even possible. For a Cataclysm Class monster to be a target. The kraken goes on roaring and screeching its anger out at me as I float high above staring at it. And it even tries to swat me with its tentacles, but I ignore said tentacles when they pass through me without leaving a mark. Hmm. Well, whatever.
You have now begun your assault on a target of the universe. Should you eliminate the target, you will be given a single fragment of an energy core for acting within your role. Your time limit has been removed. Act as you please as you eliminate the target.
I frown a little at the notification. And more importantly, at the mention of an energy core. The System says that every time I find a target, but I¡¯ve never seen any such energy core. All I¡¯ve gotten was a random reward every time I kill a target. This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. No energy cores. I¡¯m not even sure what an energy core is. Hey, Zal, do you have any idea what an energy core is? ¡°Of course I do,¡± he answers right away while sounding slightly distracted in the process. ¡°Energy cores are how we quantum beings grow stronger the fastest. But I don¡¯t believe you can absorb them yet. Not until you have your entire core.¡± Oh. Interesting. I wonder if that means I¡¯m just saving up all the energy cores from these targets for when I do get the rest of my own core? Or if those energy cores are just going to waste instead. It¡¯s also possible that they¡¯re being turned into the rewards I¡¯m taking. Regardless, I¡¯m not sure I care right now. Especially since the kraken is now shooting that icy liquid out at me and it actually freezes my feet when it makes contact. Proving that it¡¯s got magical aspects to it. So I quickly teleport away while reverting my body in time. Then I transform into my True Form and proceed to beat up the giant kraken. A process that is actually a bit harder than I was expecting. Especially when it starts to spew forth that icy liquid into the air, making it rain down like, well, rain. Freezing absolutely everything it touches in the process. Even me. I grit my teeth as bits of my armor, cloak, and even skin freeze just from the drops of the liquid that touch me. But after a bit I go ahead and use energy manipulation to create a barrier of ice above my head. Specifically because ice won¡¯t freeze ice. Then I begin using Quantum Bolt and Quantum Singularity Implosion on the kraken, only for the thing to regenerate so fast that I can barely even see it having taken damage in the first place. Another facet of the monster that startles me. So I change tactics and finally let loose and begin using the finishing move that I learned to fight against the previous Quantum Architect. Ignoring as the icy rain sometimes hits me through my barrier of ice while I do the movements of the attack. I ignore patches of my skin freezing solid. Ignore the pain that comes with it. And ignore the frozen parts of my gear and the shattering of the barrier above me when one of the kraken¡¯s tentacles hits it. All until I finally swing my scythe straight at the kraken. Sending a massive arc of pure reaper quantum energy at it. An arc that splits the Cataclysm Class monster in two straight down the middle.
Congratulations! Your target has been eliminated. Rewards will now be distributed to the Quantum Reaper. Analyzing most beneficial rewards at the current moment¡­ Analysis complete. For eliminating one target, the universe is forcefully altering the System to raise one skill chosen by the user by a single level. Please choose a skill to raise a level.
I blink at that notification before smiling. Nice. Without any hesitation, I go ahead and raise the level of Energy Manipulation to level 29. Just one more level left before I can finally ascend to Tier 5. A smile stretches across my face at that thought. Only for me to turn my attention to the two sinking halves of the kraken. Uh. So I have no idea how to deal with this corpse. Should I just inform the locals of this Dimensional Block, or should I try bringing it back myself? It won¡¯t exactly fit in my storage ring, so¡­ I watch it sink for a bit before shrugging to myself and teleporting to a random civilization nearby to tell them about the two halves of the massive kraken corpse. Whatever. I don¡¯t need body parts from it anyways. B4 | Chapter 33 All Across the Dimensional Blocks Two days later All at once, every last person within the Dimensional Blocks comes to a sudden halt. When a single System Notification in the form of a Legendary Feat announcement echoes across the dimensions. One stating a significant achievement even amongst Legendary Feats.
Legendary Feat ¨C Peak Pioneer Alexia Knight, otherwise known as the Quantum Reaper, has become the first user within the System to reach Tier 5!
And of the people looking at the notification, they all have different reactions. The dragon clans all immediately begin cheering, having already decided to ally themselves with the Quantum Reaper after her many meetings with the Ancestral Dragon. With the Ancestral Dragon herself merely smiling in defeat and a hint of regret. And the Ancient Wyrm lets out a brief cheer before returning to his card game with the latest random passerby to get near his cavern. The vampires feel a chill run down their spine at the idea that the slayer of their leader has grown to an even greater height. All of Alexia¡¯s friends and allies currently competing in the Dimensional Championships of Dimensional Block #108 express their joy while the other factions of the Dimensional Block show horror. Horror at the sight of any possible hope they ever had of overtaking her in power within their Block fading away. Lastly, the Ancient Terror slows down in his latest rampage before the hydra¡¯s many eyes all narrow and he turns in the direction of Dimensional Block #108. Finally deciding to pay the Quantum Reaper a visit. And the Terror isn¡¯t the only one as numerous other famous and infamous figures across the System, both from before and after the Reset, all begin to change their plans in the same manner. But everyone pauses before they can do anything. Because another System Notification plays out after the Legendary Feat notice. And this notification comes with a screen showcasing livestream of the Quantum Reaper herself as she floats high in the air within a strange chamber. One that is filled with glitching walls on the exterior of the cubic chamber.
System Announcement A user of the System has reached Tier 5 at last, therefore the Corruption Protocol will now begin. Henceforth, the Dimensional Blocks will be changing location. They will be teleported directly outside of the Corruption¡¯s territory. The Corruption Protocol will now draw in corrupted creatures from outside of the Dimensional Blocks into the edges of the Blocks located on the exterior of the System¡¯s dimension touching the border of the Corruption¡¯s territory. Any corrupted creature slain will grant the user bonus EXP. The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation. Furthermore, the following user has now been declared by the System as the Reaper of the Corrupted. And with this title, they may now use their authority to bypass the authority of any other System user so long as their actions further the goal of wiping out the corruption. Alexia Knight. The Quantum Reaper.
Alexia I purse my lips rather awkwardly as I float inside of this strange chamber and finish reading the System Announcement in front of my face. An announcement that honestly took me by surprise. Not that I have any real issues with it. Because it means new targets are being added to the Dimensional Blocks. Although¡­ I glance at Zal, who is in the corner of the chamber outside of the sight of the livestream that¡¯s for some reason recording me in here. Only to find Zal looking rather panicked. Like this wasn¡¯t in his plans for the Reset. Guess the System is now finally doing something extreme that he had no plans or expectations for. Interesting. More importantly though, I pull up that lovely Legendary Feat once again to admire it some more.
Legendary Feat ¨C Peak Pioneer As the first to reach Tier 5, you are given a permanent boost in EXP received from slaying monsters.
That may just be one of the best Legendary Feats I¡¯ve ever seen. Even if it doesn¡¯t actually state what the exact amount my EXP gain is boosted by is. Which is a pity, but whatever. Then there¡¯s the bonus EXP for slaying corrupted creatures. Another nice benefit. Extra EXP is always nice after all. No one would ever say no to it. What¡¯s more is that it doesn¡¯t specify EXP to level up myself. So it might even extend to EXP for my skills as well. Maybe. It would certainly be nice if it did at least. Anyways, the moment the System Announcement vanishes, I find another System Notification playing in my vision that has me frowning for a moment.
Private System Message As the Reaper, please address the people of the System.
Did¡­ I just get a message from the System itself? I don¡¯t get any sort of response from the System, so I¡¯m just left sighing and looking at the rather obvious red circle showcasing where the recording is coming from. Then I give a simple nod of my head and state, ¡°Hello.¡± And just like that, I fall silent. And stay silent. Then another one of those messages play out in my vision as a notification.
Private System Message As the Reaper, please address the people of the System, motivating them to pursue hunting the corrupted beings.
Sure. If you change the manner of your messages to the regular System Messages. {Request received and processed. Please proceed with payment.} Thank you very much. Those notifications were getting annoying. ¡°You heard the announcement,¡± I state with a shrug of my shoulder. ¡°Kill corrupted creatures, get EXP. What¡¯s there to not understand?¡± I raise a brow in amusement. ¡°You even get to help save the universe while you¡¯re at it.¡± Alright. That¡¯s about it from me. Can you send me back now? {¡­} I hear Zal trying and failing to hold back a laugh. A very vindictive sounding laugh. Like he¡¯s upset with the System and finds this hilarious because of that. The System doesn¡¯t do anything for several seconds. I¡¯m being serious here. Please send me back. I¡¯ve got things to do. Then, without any message from the System, the notifications all vanish along with the livestream before I find myself reappearing in front of the corpse of the random dude whose name I don¡¯t remember other than him being my last target lying in front of me on an island. Thank you. The System still doesn¡¯t respond. And I get the feeling it¡¯s not paying attention to me anymore either. Probably for the best. I already have one stalker, I don¡¯t need another. Well, time to head back to Dimensional Block #108. B4 | Intermission 3 Dimensional Block #999 Crystal smiles as she sits on a rock close to the corpse of the dark witch she was finally able to kill, just laughing on the inside at her daughter¡¯s ¡®promotional speech¡¯ for the System¡¯s latest change. Something Crystal finds absolutely hilarious. If the System was going for a motivating speech to make the users fight the corruption, then it chose the wrong person. Her smile falters when she senses a quantum disturbance nearby though. At which point she turns her attention to look at the rift that she finds behind her. Only for her to quickly transform into a massive dragon and gobble up the dark witch in an instant to assimilate her Class S illusion magic. ¡°Was that necessary, devourer?¡± the Quantum Architect, Zaltros Vel Dar Exerian Vlake Rule, asks as he steps through the rift. ¡°I don¡¯t know, was it?¡± Crystal asks with a brow raised after returning to her humanoid form. Albeit with wings growing from her back. Wings of pure darkness made out of illusion magic. The very magic she just assimilated from the Class S dark witch. Zaltros sighs before glancing to the side for a moment, then returning his gaze to Crystal again as he asks, ¡°I know you wanted to speak with me. Otherwise you wouldn¡¯t have let me find you. So speak, devourer. Unless you¡¯re just planning on devouring me just like you did with my predecessor.¡± Crystal grins at his words. ¡°I wouldn¡¯t gain anything from devouring the same species of creature twice, so there¡¯s no point,¡± Crystal says, refuting his sarcastic words without verbally acknowledging the sarcasm within them. ¡°But I would like to know when you and your dear old dad will stop messing listening in on my daughter¡¯s thoughts. It¡¯s really starting to piss me off.¡± ¡°Your daughter?¡± Zaltros asks while narrowing his eyes. ¡°I¡¯m sorry, but if you¡¯re speaking about her actual blood, she¡¯s now more my daughter than she is yours. And with your absence, I don¡¯t think you have the right to claim mother rights now.¡± A brief spark of fury rises within Crystal¡¯s eyes before she quenches it just as quickly as it appeared. Then she smirks at Zaltros and says, ¡°Is that so, Zal?¡± The Quantum Architect flinches at the nickname Lexi gave him. ¡°Your stalking of her mind should make it clear just what she thinks of the two of us, so would you like to repeat that in front of her, Zal?¡± Crystal continues while putting her hands on her hip and getting rid of the illusion of wings on her back. Only to make an illusion of blades growing and then vanishing from her elbows as she tests out the magic more. The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings. Meanwhile the Quantum Architect just flinches again. Then Crystal goes in for the killing shot as she floats up into the air while summoning forth several screens around her using the quantum magic she¡¯s finally managed to figure out thanks to her watching her daughter practice from time to time with her own energy manipulation. And the sight of that makes the Quantum Architect¡¯s eyes fill with rage. Rage at the sight of someone else using the architect¡¯s quantum magic. And at the sight of that someone else not being bound by the universe like he is. Even if said person is also being hunted down by the universe at the same time. ¡°You want to know something I find hilarious?¡± Crystal continues talking as she messes with the screens around her to make a chair of glitching quantum energy appear beneath her that she proceeds to sit on. ¡°The fact that the universe is merely trying to punish me. Not kill me.¡± Zal flinches again at that statement, clearly understanding her meaning. He can¡¯t just ignore that fact. It¡¯s undeniable. Crystal knows full well that the universe should be calling for her head for what she¡¯s done. But instead it¡¯s merely calling for her imprisonment and nothing more. Which means the universe needs the last remaining devourer. For one reason or another, it needs her. So it can¡¯t have her die before then. It also means that Crystal won¡¯t have to worry about the universe marking her as a target for her own daughter. Not that she could ever see Lexi trying to kill her, regardless of how long she has been away. Much less simply because the universe told her to do so. Crystal knows full well that Lexi would just ignore the universe and continue doing whatever it is she was doing. Which right now is ignoring the System. That reminder almost makes Crystal let out a chuckle, but she holds it in because of the infuriated quantum being in front of her. Eventually Zal regains his composure and asks with a scowl on his face, ¡°What is it that you needed to discuss with me?¡± Crystal taps her finger on her chin a few times before answering honestly, ¡°Well, part of it was to gloat about my learning to control your magic.¡± The Quantum Architect¡¯s eyebrow twitches with his irritation. A habit Crystal remembers Lexi sometimes having as well. ¡°But I also wanted you to pass on a message to your father. The Quantum Ruler. Since I can¡¯t freely enter the quantum realm without that bastard finding me.¡± Zal calms down again after hearing the second matter before he mutters, ¡°Why do you never act this rudely around Lexi?¡± Only for him to speak again, acting like his muttered words weren¡¯t said as he says, ¡°Very well. What message do you want passed on?¡± This time Crystal narrows her eyes at his first words. At the Quantum Architect¡¯s response to her own pointed comment. Then she sighs and rests her arms on the armrests of the seat she is in while stating, ¡°I would like you to tell him that I¡¯m calling on the favor.¡± Her words make the Quantum Architect freeze in place. Which doesn¡¯t surprise Crystal. Because very few people would ever suspect the Quantum Ruler himself to owe anyone any favors. But Crystal needs his help. Otherwise she will never find a chrono for its time magic. ¡°Very well,¡± Zal states before stepping back through the rift without another word. The shock about his father owing a favor seemingly too much for him to bear talking with her any longer. Crystal just disintegrates her throne with a sigh and resumes her search for a chrono. Someday soon, I¡¯ll be able to deal with that bastard¡¯s punishments and break out on my own. She smiles at the thought of spending time with her daughters after that. B4 | Chapter 34 Alexia Hmm. Okay. So this is something I can get used to. [Level 11 Skeleton Defeated ¨C User¡¯s earned EXP has been reduced to 0 due to killing a being that is more than one Tier beneath them. User¡¯s earned EXP is increased by 10% due to the Legendary Feat Title: Peak Pioneer] Ignoring the random dead skeleton beneath me amongst dozens of other dead skeletons, all of which were roaming in some pack through this dead Dimensional Block ¨C dead because it¡¯s full of undead, not because it¡¯s actually dead ¨C I find myself really liking this new Legendary Feat bonus. It¡¯s a very convenient bonus to keep me at the top. Although killing monsters roaming around the Dimensional Block will now be completely useless. Not that I had much luck with them before reaching Tier 5, considering the lack of Tier 4s around as well. But still. I teleport through the skies with my hands in my pockets while whistling some random tune that¡¯s stuck in my head. Because there¡¯s literally nothing else to do as I head back to Dimensional Block #108. It would normally pique my interest to go check out those corrupted creatures on the edge of the Dimensional Blocks, but that won¡¯t do me any good right now since they¡¯re so far away. And I have the tournament to deal with. Plus I kind of want to watch Astrid fight in the later rounds. So the corrupted creatures invading the Dimensional Block while trying to corrupt and likely destroy this little dimension made by the System and Zal can wait until I see my sister fighting. I hear and ignore the sigh that echoes through my head from the eavesdropping Quantum Architect. Actually, speaking of the habitual eavesdropper, do you know if Grandfather had anything to do with the System¡¯s recent actions? Since he is rather invested in the whole corruption thing, what with his brother leading the corruption and all? ¡°It¡¯s unlikely,¡± Zal answers, albeit with a bit of irritation in his voice, likely at my calling the Ruler Grandfather again. ¡°If I suspected any of the quantum beings of doing that, it would be the Vanguard or the Cleaner. More likely the Quantum Cleaner.¡± Why him? If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement. ¡°Because the Cleaner is unhinged,¡± Zal says rather bluntly. ¡°And he hates his role. So he wants the corruption gone as quickly as possible. Which means that anything goes for him as long as it gets rid of the corruption.¡± Interesting. But isn¡¯t the Cleaner almost at the bottom of the hierarchy? Wouldn¡¯t you just be able to order him not to mess with the System? ¡°If I could find him I could,¡± Zal answers again before I feel his presence leaving me again. The quantum being seeming rather distracted for some reason. Actually, he¡¯s seemed distracted ever since the System did the thing. I purse my lips while teleporting for a few seconds before eventually shrugging and deciding that I don¡¯t really care. His business is his business. Unless it¡¯s mine. Anyways, I have to wonder why the System bothered with choosing me for that spokesperson role thing? It should¡¯ve known that I wouldn¡¯t give a shit about its problems and decisions. So why? It can¡¯t just be because I was the first to reach Tier 5¡­ can it? The System isn¡¯t really that shallow, right? I suddenly feel Zal¡¯s presence returning as he states, ¡°It is that shallow.¡± Then his presence vanishes completely. That almost has me pausing in my teleporting, but I keep going anyways. Huh. Guess if its creator says so then it must be shallow. And it¡¯s not like the System is responding to defend itself, so¡­ I wait a few minutes as I teleport to see if it¡¯ll say something, but it really doesn¡¯t. Which I guess means it¡¯s really not listening all the time. Or it just doesn¡¯t care. It might just not care. I continue teleporting for a while. All the way until I reach my destination. That being my little clearing. Although I find all manner of nuisances filling the city despite a lot of the people being in the tournaments. Even most of them have lost their matches by now, refilling the city a bit. With those nuisances being in the form of diplomats and representatives of other nations somehow cramming themselves into the city. Some of which are kings and queens, others chairmen or presidents or chairwomen, and others are just random powerful people whose names I even recognize. But I ignore them all as I enter my clearing and then the tournament dimension right after. Deciding not to bother with them right now. And what do I find when I enter the tournament but the sight of a certain hellfrost dragon fighting in one of the five arenas down in the main arena. A number that has significantly lessened since I was last here. Ethan is currently battling against that King of Giants guy. And crushing him without much difficulty as well. I purse my lips a little as I sit on my lovely little throne in my booth, quickly hiding my booth from other people who are just as quickly noticing my presence and talking about me. Then I just yawn, deciding against pitying the King of Giants guy whose name I don¡¯t remember. My thoughts come to a brief halt when someone else enters my booth, surprising me for a moment until I realize it¡¯s Luna. ¡°Hello, did you have fun?¡± I ask her with a smile, following which she nods her head in response and just flies over to me before turning into her humanoid form as she sits down on my lap with her head resting against my chest. And without a word, the girl falls asleep. My smile grows a bit wider as I stroke her hair before glancing at the arena again. Oh. The king guy lost while I was focusing on Luna. Well, moving on from that guy. It looks like Astrid is next. B4 | Chapter 35 Alexia Astrid is currently wearing her usual outfit of all black, which matches rather well with her pitch black, shadowy hair. An outfit consisting of shiny leather and metal armor that is very light in style to match her more agility-focused fighting style. Meanwhile she isn¡¯t using any weapons and appears unarmed at the center of the arena. Meanwhile her opponent is actually someone I recognize as well. He¡¯s the king of that kingdom I used to live in. Not to mention the father to that princess whose name I can¡¯t remember yet is friends with Astrid and Elara. On that note, I make sure to identify both the man and Astrid. Merely out of curiosity for their levels. {Harold Sinclair ¨C Class: Elemental Warlock ¨C Level 921} {Astrid Knight ¨C Shadowborne Hydra ¨C Level 901} Hmm. Interesting. So the guy is actually at a higher level than Astrid. Although I guess that makes sense, considering that she¡¯s a Class S. And we Class S species take longer to meet our ascension requirements. Not to mention that she lost time to the process of becoming a Class S species in the first place. Meanwhile it¡¯s actually rather easy to ascend as a Class B species like Harold. The only reason the Class S species are still at the top is because Class S species are the only species that can easily solo dungeons. So we get more EXP than the lower Classes. A lot more. And that¡¯ll be even more EXP ¨C for me ¨C than before now that I¡¯ve got the new Legendary Feat. A faint smile finds its way onto my face as I watch the king down in the arena facing off against Astrid. With the guy himself wearing some rather fancy and royal looking robes with an expensive staff full of numerous different gemstones at the top of it. Each of which are different colors. The battle starts out rather swiftly, with the king immediately slamming the butt of his staff into the ground and sending out bolts of over a dozen different types of magic. Shadows, flames, lightning, ice, water, and so on. All of which prove the power of his little royal bloodline. Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel. For a human, at least. On the other hand, Astrid just vanishes before the attacks are about to hit her. Turning into shadows and spreading all across the entire arena. I find myself leaning forwards a bit in my seat out of excitement to see her genuinely fighting. Since I haven¡¯t really taken the time to see her fight, or even to see her train yet. So I¡¯m not actually entirely sure what she can do. Other than shadow magic, of course. Because that¡¯s rather obvious. Oh, and her true form. I have seen that one too. And speaking of her True Form, after spreading her shadows all throughout the arena, making the king attack in every direction, Astrid finally enters her True Form. With all of her shadows suddenly rushing together to form a massive silhouette. One of an enormous, fifty-meter-tall hydra with nine heads. Each of which have eyes blazing with shadows. I grin as I clench my fists a little bit, just watching as my little twin roars her heart out down in the arena. She seems to be having fun. I glance down at Luna to find her moving a bit, her eyes slowly cracking open to look at the arena. Then she glances at me and asks, ¡°Is Father fighting¡­?¡± Her words startle me into barking out a laugh as I realize she still hasn¡¯t called Astrid ¡®father¡¯ yet despite our conversation in the Dimension-Wide Dungeon. Probably because she hasn¡¯t had much if any alone time with her. All Luna ever really does is hunt and sleep after all. Although she¡¯s adorable whatever she¡¯s doing. Even when she¡¯s calling my twin sister by the term ¡®father¡¯. I snicker at that before stroking her hair a bit more and looking out at the arena as I answer, ¡°Yes, she is.¡± Luna looks at the arena for a few seconds in my peripheral vision before resting her head on my chest and falling asleep once more. Apparently deciding that she¡¯d rather sleep than watch her aunt burn some random king alive with shadowy flames. Which is exactly what she is doing right now. Using all nine of her heads to shoot out flames made of shadow that¡­ burn? Burn him alive. I think it¡¯s burning him. Not actually sure, but I¡¯ll just call it that. Either way, they¡¯re devouring him alive. That works. After Astrid completely overwhelms him despite his level being higher, the two are teleported out of the arena. So I quickly send an invite through the little control panel for my booth to get Astrid to come in here. An invite she immediately accepts as she quickly appears next to my little throne in another chair. One that didn¡¯t exist before. ¡°Good job,¡± I tell her with a smile. She smiles back and nods, looking rather happy with herself and my praise even if she doesn¡¯t say anything. Then her gaze turns towards Luna, who is lifting her head while looking at her with her eyes half closed. I feel my excitement bubbling up within me in anticipation of what Luna might say. The teenage-looking girl stares at Astrid, who stares right back at her. For nearly ten entire seconds. Then she buries her face in my chest again and closes her eyes, making me feel some disappointment. Because I really want to see Astrid freak out from her being called- ¡°Hello, Father¡­¡± Luna mutters, sounding half asleep before her breathing evens out and she actually falls asleep. I immediately turn to look at Astrid to find her staring in shock at Luna with her mouth agape. Seconds pass in silence. Then minutes. Eventually I sweep my hand in front of her face, but she still doesn¡¯t react. I smile and nod my head once before turning to look at the arena. Now that¡¯s the hilarious reaction I was hoping for. B4 | Chapter 36 Alexia I struggle rather hard to keep the corners of my lips straight. Because I know Astrid won¡¯t let that go if she sees. But it¡¯s honestly very hard to keep a straight face at this. ¡°Now listen, Luna,¡± Astrid says while kneeling down in front of Luna, who is sitting on my chair as I watch from the side inside of my booth. ¡°I am your aunt and not your father, alright? There is a clear distinction between the two.¡± Luna just continues staring directly at her face through half-lidded eyes that look like she may fall asleep at any moment as she mumbles, ¡°But you¡¯re Aunty¡­ and Father¡­ right? Can¡¯t you be both?¡± ¡°No, sweetie,¡± Astrid says, shaking her head with a rather panicked and more than a little distressed look on her face. ¡°I am only your aunty, alright?¡± ¡°Then¡­ who¡¯s Father?¡± Luna asks, making Astrid stiffen up before she hurriedly looks at me. She happens to look at me the moment I just happen to focus on some random battle in the arena though, so I¡¯m not in the house right now. ¡°Um, well¡­ that¡­¡± Astrid begins to stutter, clearly not knowing what to do or say in this situation. ¡°Do I¡­ not have a Father?¡± Luna asks after yawning, and out of the corner of my eye I see a tear forming in the corner of her own eye. But I can tell through our bond that she¡¯s just sleepy and it¡¯s a tear from a mixture of her yawning and the drowsiness she¡¯s feeling. And not actual sadness of any kind. Astrid, on the other hand, does not have that bond. So she starts flipping out. ¡°Uh, well, that is to, uh,¡± Astrid says, not really going anywhere. ¡°Why¡­¡± Luna begins before tilting her head in the corner of my eyes, ¡°¡­can¡¯t you be Father?¡± Astrid freezes in place at that, no doubt feeling distressed about not wanting to hurt little Luna¡¯s feelings. Not that she could since I can tell Luna doesn¡¯t really care much about Astrid. Just a bit more than she cares about other allies. Which isn¡¯t much. She hasn¡¯t really spent long with Astrid after all, so it makes sense. Even if Luna looks just like the two of us did when we were younger, except with my Quantum Reaper aspects. This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it ¡°M-m-maybe¡­ just¡­¡± Astrid grunts out, sounding like she¡¯s on the brink of giving up and just letting Luna call her father. And by now I can¡¯t hold it in anymore and let out a quiet giggle. One that immediately makes Astrid¡¯s head turn towards me with her face going bright red and her cheeks puffing out a tiny bit. Which looks adorable, but that¡¯s besides the point. Considering that she¡¯s angry. I finally turn to look at the two as I tell Luna, ¡°No, you don¡¯t have a father, Luna. So don¡¯t worry about those sorts of things. Astrid is just your aunty.¡± Luna simply nods her head while wiping her teary eye and saying, ¡°Okie.¡± Then she yawns once more and jumps up from the chair before patting Astrid¡¯s head once when Astrid seems like she¡¯s about to go off on me. Following which she says, ¡°Hello, Aunty.¡± And without another word, as Astrid is frozen in place again, Luna walks up to me and raises her arms. Clearly wanting me to pick her up. So I do just that and turn to face the arena again, ignoring my rather shell-shocked twin for now. A few seconds pass in silence as we watch the fights in the arena from near the edge of my booth. Then I whisper into Luna¡¯s ear, ¡°Thank you.¡± She just looks at me and tilts her head, only to shrug, giggle once, give me a kiss on the cheek for some reason, and return to watching the arena. I think that was the most fun I¡¯ve had in a while. Honestly, I probably needed that. A nice break from all of this fighting, fighting, teleporting around, fighting, dealing with these thought eavesdropping stalkers, and more fighting. ¡°Did you just¡­¡± one of said thought eavesdropping stalkers mutters, but I ignore him. ¡°Of course you would¡­¡± Not sure when he got back in the first place, or where he went. Honestly don¡¯t really care either. And you¡¯ll be a thought eavesdropping stalker until you stop eavesdropping on my thoughts. He doesn¡¯t respond, making me snort. Which seems to snap Astrid out of it as she finally gets up and rushes towards me while exclaiming, ¡°Did you really do that just for your own entertainment?! That was just cruel Lexi!¡± I glance at her, and so does Luna. Then I nod my head, place one hand on her shoulder, of which Luna mimics for some reason. And I tell her, ¡°Thank you for that. I really needed it.¡± She opens her mouth for a second, only to close it again. After a few seconds though, a faint smile emerges on her face and she says, ¡°Your bullying aside, I¡¯m glad your more playful nature is returning.¡± I blink at that. ¡°You¡¯ve seemed incredibly focused ever since the Reset started,¡± Astrid explains. ¡°It¡¯s been worrying me a little bit. But just now you seemed like your old self before the Reset.¡± Oh. Interesting. I guess I have been focusing a lot on this one goal. I do that sometimes. Haven¡¯t ever focused on a single goal for this long though, so I guess I can see why she was worried. But¡­ A frown stretches across my face as I turn to look out the edge of my shielded booth. ¡­what have I even been focused on? Fighting to grow stronger? To become the Quantum Reaper and take my place? To survive? I¡¯m not sure what my goal is now that I think about it. ¡°Still, please don¡¯t bully me,¡± Astrid comments, making my gaze return to her to find her with a single brow raised and her arms crossed. ¡°I wouldn¡¯t call that bullying,¡± I comment back before glancing at Luna and asking, ¡°Right, Luna?¡± Astrid¡¯s mouth parts open, only for Luna to throw one fist in to the air as she exclaims, ¡°Right!¡± Even though I¡¯m pretty sure she has no idea what I¡¯m referring to. And once again, Astrid is left stunned. Meanwhile I¡¯m covering my mouth as a chuckle leaks out. This is fun. B4 | Chapter 37 Alexia Unlike what I had planned, I end up spending hours upon hours just talking with Astrid. Catching up and spending twin time ¨C as we used to call it ¨C together for the first time in ages. For the first time since before the Reset. In fact, since before we entered that royal academy whose name I can¡¯t remember. All while Luna sleeps in my arms, of course. Until she finally wakes up and leaves to go hunting. Something about searching for Cataclysm Class monsters to hunt. Which makes me briefly pity said monsters, but she can hunt whatever she wants. Astrid and I continue talking all the way till the tournament finally begins to reach its final rounds. With the exception of when she goes into the arena to fight. But she always keeps the battles rather short so as to return as quickly as possible. An act that I rather appreciate, since I¡¯m enjoying this chat. The people she absolutely annihilates in the arena, however, probably don¡¯t appreciate it. But that¡¯s their problem, not ours. Eventually, though, we reach the final round of the tournament. Which is exactly what most people expected it would be. Astrid versus Ethan. A Class S species that was artificially created and ¨C according to the hyping of the fight I see on the internet ¨C the twin sister of the most powerful user in the System, the Quantum Reaper. A rather nice description of us both, if I do say so myself. Or think so, that is. And a Class S species that was born to two of the most powerful beings in the entire System before the Reset. Even I¡¯m feeling a little excited to watch this bout. And it¡¯s more than just me wanting to watch my twin go in an all-out battle. Although that¡¯s a large part of it too. I just really want to see which one of them is stronger. Up until now I¡¯ve just kind of assumed Ethan was stronger. Since he was a Class S species a lot longer than she was, and artificially created things are often weaker than the genuinely born ones. But there¡¯s no actual proof any of those assumptions are correct. The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. And, personally, I just want Astrid to be stronger. So now I can see it one way or another. Of course, my personal opinion is most definitely not swayed by the fact that I¡¯ll be fighting whoever wins this battle. Not in the slightest. Nope. Not at all. To my surprise though, the two draconic Class S beings ¨C hydras are draconic enough ¨C actually don¡¯t start fighting right away after appearing in the arena down below. Appearing without any of those expandable mini arenas at that. Just in the arena proper. Instead the two of them begin to talk, with their conversation echoing across the entire stadium for everyone to hear. And the stadium is filled to the brim. With every visible seat taken, every booth filled, and I¡¯m sure even more places filled with spectators that I can¡¯t even see from here. ¡°I would¡¯ve been disappointed if you didn¡¯t make it this far, Asty,¡± Ethan says, making my mind blank out for a second at his sudden use of a nickname for Astrid. What the what? Astrid actually faintly smiles back at him as several hydra heads appear snaking out of her still-humanoid body and she says, ¡°You as well, Ethan.¡± Then a brief and comfortable silence passes between them that confuses me even further. Following which Ethan asks, ¡°You remember our promise?¡± ¡°Which one?¡± Astrid asks with a smile on her face as she crosses her arms under her chest. Looking very different from how she usually acts for some reason. ¡°Our promise not to be a sore loser if you lose and aren¡¯t able to fight Lexi?¡± Ethan narrows his eyes and states, ¡°You know which promise I mean.¡± I blink. That implies that what Astrid said was a promise they had. Meaning both of them apparently really want to- ¡°Oh, the promise that I¡¯ll consider going out with you if you win?¡± Astrid asks, sounding and looking smug as I almost stumble out of my seat in surprise mid-thought. ¡°What the fuckity fuck?!¡± I exclaim before gaping at the two in the stadium. All while the audience can be heard whispering all around about their very public conversation. Ethan unabashedly answers, ¡°Yes, that promise.¡± To my absolute shock, Astrid moves one hand to her hip and cocks it out as she looks at him with an amused smile and shrugs, saying, ¡°Sure. Why not?¡± I continue gaping at the two, glancing back and forth with my head bobbing like one of those figurines I¡¯ve seen at stores before the Reset. The figurines whose heads bobble back and forth with some sort of spring attaching the head to the body. Don¡¯t remember their names, but that¡¯s not really a priority right now. What is a priority right now is my sister¡¯s apparent dating life which I had thought was absolutely zero. When did they get this close? I knew Ethan possibly had started developing feelings for Astrid, and that Astrid at least didn¡¯t see him in a negative light, but this? Since when was she even interested in dating? I feel my head spinning as I try to wrap my mind around this. But the two in the arena just continue chatting for a few minutes, seemingly riling up the crowd in the process. Then they end it off with a simple, ¡°Time to finally see which one of us is stronger.¡± Following which both of them transform into their True Forms. With Astrid turning into her enormous shadow hydra form, and Ethan turning into an equally enormous hellfrost dragon. Albeit one that is a bit smaller than his father, the Ancient Wyrm. And while I¡¯m still trying to wrap my head around what the fuck just happened, the two both begin charging up breath attacks to hit each other with. Or, Astrid charges up nine breath attacks, to be specific. One from each head. And the moment the breath attacks all clash, I finally get my head on straight again. Focusing on the battle between the two Class S species. While still wondering what the hell is going on between them, of course. B4 | Chapter 38 Alexia I almost immediately find myself feeling rather surprised by their battle. And not just because of their talks about dating. Although I was surprised about that too and still can¡¯t exactly wrap my head around it. No. What I¡¯m surprised about is the fact that the two are even in their first clash. And I¡¯m very surprised by that. Astrid¡¯s nine breath attacks and Ethan¡¯s one larger one clash in the center of the two and cause an enormous explosion. One mixed with dust and smoke that I can easily see through yet is blocked by a force field barrier before reaching the audience. And I can clearly tell that neither of them gave an inch. Both attacks were completely equal. Neither Astrid nor Ethan look very surprised about it though. Unlike me. Which probably implies that they¡¯ve sparred more times than I realized. Meanwhile the crowd goes wild. At least, the crowd that I can hear. So the ones not in booths. I quickly mute them though, because they¡¯re annoying. And I want to focus on Astrid¡¯s big battle. Down in the arena, Astrid quickly prepares several more breath attacks while the smoke and dust is still in the arena. But this time she fires all of the attacks in arcs towards Ethan instead of in a single direct strike. Even while Ethan sends a single beam at her that she manages to dodge by sinking into her shadow and moving elsewhere. Then all of the nine breath attacks she sent at Ethan are blocked by different parts of his body freezing solid and just tanking the hits without taking any damage or even cracking the ice. Following which the ice returns to normal scales again, and both of the two combatants begin to spread their own elements around the arena. I narrow my eyes a little as shadows and ice begin to coat the entire arena. This is a very even fight. So even that neither of them have landed a clear hit on the other without perfectly defending it or dodging it. But that can¡¯t last forever¡­ And just as I have that thought, one of Ethan¡¯s bolts of ice finally strikes one of Astrid¡¯s necks. Freezing a patch of her neck in the process. After which she manages to sneak a hit past his own defenses and injure his tail with a spike of shadows that shoots out of the ground. I feel my fingers twitch slightly at the sight of Astrid getting hurt, but I quickly calm down and take a deep breath. Then I just continue watching the fight as they occasionally trade one blow after another. With Astrid taking more hits than Ethan. This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it Which makes some sense. Seeing as she¡¯s dodging while he is blocking them. And she¡¯s not strong enough to defend against them herself. Her magic is focused on stealth, agility, and sneak attacks after all. Unlike Ethan¡¯s which is focused more on defensive measures. And ¨C at least in my opinion ¨C it¡¯s easier to block an attack than it is to dodge it. So long as you can block it. As long as you¡¯re strong enough to do so. If you¡¯re not strong enough to block then it¡¯s not exactly easier after all. The two continue sharing one blow after another, showing off one attack after another and slowly exhausting each other as their wounds heal. More so than I¡¯ve ever seen these two exhausted. Enough that both of their True Form transformations come to an end, bringing them back to their regular forms again. And unsurprisingly, that actually helps Astrid catch back up a bit. Since they¡¯re both a lot smaller now, and it¡¯s easier for her to move faster, and harder for Ethan to defend. So now they go back to trading blows again, except with Astrid managing to make more hits on him than vice versa. Eventually their wounds stop healing despite both of them being draconic creatures. With draconic creatures having higher on average regeneration capabilities. I actually stand up from my seat and walk over to the edge of my viewing area as I stare at the battle, watching it with more interest than anything I can remember from the time since the Reset. As Ethan and Astrid both draw their own blades ¨C with Ethan drawing some sort of axe and Astrid using one small blade and one slightly larger blade ¨C before clashing. Sending shockwaves through the already-damaged arena. Then everything ends all at once as Astrid goes in to send spikes of shadow at Ethan¡¯s back. And Ethan just takes the blows and pushes forwards using their own momentum while dropping his blade to slash his claws across Astrid¡¯s throat. Killing her in the process before I find her reappearing inside of my booth. Astrid immediately wryly smiles at me, only for her to steal my seat and sit down. With Luna walking over to her and patting her on the head as she says, ¡°Good job, Aunty.¡± And with that, Astrid smiles at her before looking at me and nodding as she says, ¡°Teach him what defeat tastes like, sis.¡± A wry smile of my own emerges on my face and I give her a single finger salute while responding, ¡°Roger that.¡± Then I find a notification appearing in my vision.
The Dimensional Championships have henceforth completed. Now the battle for the throne of Dimensional Champion for Dimensional Block #108 shall commence. Welcome the Quantum Reaper herself. Alexia Knight.
And as I¡¯m still reading the notification, I find myself being teleported high above the air in the middle of the arena. After which I narrow my eyes and turn my gaze to look down at Ethan, who is still standing in the arena. Albeit seemingly having been fully restored by the System for another round. ¡°Are you ready?¡± Ethan asks with a smile on his face and some of that affection I remember him having for me still there. Meaning he does still have some feelings for me, even if his feelings for Astrid look clearer. ¡°Because I am.¡± I raise a brow at that. ¡°Oh, really?¡± I ask in return while spreading both of my arms outwards a bit as my cloak billows in the wind up here. ¡°Let¡¯s see if you can back that up.¡± The crowd immediately roars its approval. B4 | Chapter 39 Alexia Right. So, I honestly forgot something. I knew this battle would be an easy one. Just from how strong I¡¯ve gotten over the time since the Reset. But something that didn¡¯t cross my mind is actually a very major detail. Ethan is Tier 4. I¡¯m Tier 5. And there is no way a Tier 4 could ever hold up to a Tier 5, much less one who is normally weaker than the other at the same Tier already. So I find it to be a rather simple matter as I float here taking his breath attack to the face without so much as moving or feeling any pain. Simply because of the Tier difference between us along with my Quantum Adaptation skill having already adapted a decent chunk to his hellfrost. After that happens, we both just kind of stand awkwardly in the arena with Ethan looking rather disappointed, and me wondering just what I should say. Eventually I just tell him with a shrug, ¡°You¡¯ll reach Tier 5 soon enough. I¡¯ll give you a rematch then.¡± He nods his head. Then I blast a hole through his chest with a simple bolt of quantum energy I make through energy manipulation, leaving silence to spread throughout the entire stadium. A tense and deadly silence that completely stinks of fear from those watching.
The Quantum Reaper has claimed victory, proving herself worthy to stand as the Dimensional Champion of Dimensional Block #108!!! For defending her title, the Quantum Reaper¡¯s level of Authority has raised by one!
And just like that, the dimension begins to fall apart. After which everyone is sent back to where they were before entering the stadium last. I purse my lips as I walk to the balcony of my house within the clearing, wondering why I bothered feeling any sort of anticipation towards that fight. Considering how much of a disappointment it was. It¡¯s like everyone forgot I was Tier 5 and no one else here is. This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it My eyes narrow a little. Then again, I kind of forgot that too. Well, whatever. At this point I¡¯m getting used to having no one at the same strength as myself. Besides. There should be some other people reaching Tier 5 at some point soon. So if I want to fight other people, I just need to find them. Plus that overwhelming show of strength should¡¯ve knocked out any thoughts of betraying me from the minds of the people of Dimensional Block #108. Assuming they¡¯re not stupid. And I don¡¯t think too many people of the block are stupid. Probably. Lots of people in the world are stupider than a lot of people might think though, so I¡¯m not sure. Everyone has their stupid moments. Like my forgetting about the Tier 4 and Tier 5 thing. That was a stupid moment. Anyways, I let out a sigh before teleporting into the air above my house. Then I go ahead and take my house back into the ring and begin teleporting out of the Dimensional Block. Heading towards the edges of the Dimensional Blocks, where I will be able to fight some of those corrupted creatures. Of course, I make sure to tell both Alara and Astrid where I¡¯m heading beforehand. And in the process of that, I surprisingly find Astrid hounding Luna right now about that whole ¡®father¡¯ topic again. Something about her not wanting Luna to call anyone else father either, not just her. Because Luna apparently called Gramps ¡®Father¡¯. Luna is ignoring her though, so I do the same as I teleport out of the Block. After laughing to myself at the face Gramps makes when he¡¯s called Father, that is. On a different note, I actually didn¡¯t know he was in the Block right now. But he seems busy right now, and I really want to go fight some corrupted creatures. So I don¡¯t hesitate as I teleport through the Dimensional Blocks. Clearing them all with ease thanks to being Tier 5. And, of course, I go ahead and slaughter monsters along the way. Not that it helps me all that much considering how weak as hell they are. Most of the commonly found monsters are Tier 1 or 2, with some Tier 3s. There aren¡¯t even any Tier 4s, much less Tier 5s. So they don¡¯t exactly give me much of anything in return. There¡¯s no reason not to kill them though, and they do give me something. Even if it¡¯s just scraps. Plus it helps the nearby people when I kill monsters attacking them. And it¡¯s good to be kind to random people. A certain quantum being snorts at that in my mind before muttering, ¡°That¡¯s rich coming from you¡­¡± But I ignore him. Because I¡¯m the mature one between us. He scoffs at that too. And I continue ignoring him as I teleport through the Blocks. Crossing one after another while only occasionally being attacked once in a blue moon by those stupid people I mentioned earlier. Generally hot-blooded Class S species who want to try taking the ¡®terrible and supremist quantum being¡¯ ¨C their words, not mine ¨C down a notch. And ending up deleted by quantum magic in the process. Those hot-heads end up decreasing significantly in number when I get close to Dimensional Block #1 though. Which is good. And probably has something to do with Lucas. Actually, on that note, I¡¯ll probably visit Lucas while I¡¯m here. He¡¯s been nagging through messages about wanting to see me and Astrid again for a while, yet not being able to stop what he¡¯s doing to come by. Probably also not wanting to bother us either. Since he¡¯s still trying to get on our good side and all. On that note, I hope Mom is okay. I haven¡¯t heard anything about her for a while. ¡°She¡¯s fine,¡± Zal states, making me pause for a moment before a smile stretches across my face. Thank you. He doesn¡¯t respond. I roll my eyes, my smile growing a little wider in the process until it fades again at the sight of people at the entrance to Dimensional Block #1. Well, time to enter one of the border Blocks and see what¡¯s up with these corrupted creatures. B4 | Chapter 40 Alexia The entrance to the first Dimensional Block is rather full right now. With people entering it at a rapid pace, making it rather rough on the soldiers stationed there with guns having to check everyone who goes through. And I¡¯m sure there are even more people who are simply ignoring the border stations and going through different locations on the walls with their own authority. And while I could have easily done that, I¡¯d rather not. Not right now at least. I want to notify Lucas that I¡¯m here so that I don¡¯t have to bother going to his city to tell him. Or going to the trouble of calling him. Because calls are rather annoying, and I don¡¯t like them. It¡¯s just something about not being able to see the person I¡¯m talking to in person. So without further ado, I go ahead and teleport right above the crowd at the station before crossing my arms and looking down at them. And immediately finding the soldiers there all panicking at the sight of me until their commanding officers shout at them to calm down and actually move to apologize to me. As expected. They were most likely given orders by Lucas about what to do if they saw me. ¡°Tell Lucas that I¡¯m in the Block,¡± I tell the officers, making them nod their heads without wasting a single moment. Then I nod once and teleport into the Block. Leaving the officers and all of the people entering the Block startled at my sudden disappearance. But I don¡¯t really care about them. What I do care about are the fights I rather quickly find after entering the Dimensional Block. Fights between System users and corrupted creatures. Ones that look just like the ones I¡¯ve seen before and also different too. Like their corruption is weaker or something. Probably weakened by the System. That or they¡¯re just not the vanguard of the corruption that I saw fighting with the Architect in that trial. Either way, I teleport closer to the forces fighting each other before transforming into my True Form. Because every last corrupted is considered a pseudo target from what Zal said. A target that doesn¡¯t really get me any rewards but lets me use my True Form on. And the identify result I get from the corrupted confirms that, labeling them as pseudo targets. If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. After transforming into my True Form, letting a beacon strike down shining for all to see while giving away my rather obvious location, I raise my scythe into the air and begin creating bolts of quantum lightning in the sky. With dark purple clouds forming to host the lightning. Then I lower my scythe towards the ground, sending the quantum lightning striking down to annihilate all of the corrupted creatures without so much as touching the regular users. Slaughtering all of the corrupted creatures with ease and getting me a rather nice amount of EXP. Mostly because of the bonus I get from killing corrupted creatures. Yep. This is the best place to go hunting for EXP. I quietly whistle to myself as I slaughter corrupted creatures by the droves, occasionally teleporting off into the distance to go find more targets. All while the users down below show shock and fear at me. But I ignore them. Because there¡¯s no reason to pay attention to them. Unfortunately for me though, even with the EXP boost from being the Reaper of the Corrupted, these corrupted are still mostly at Tier 3, with the rare Tier 4. So I¡¯m still not getting too much EXP from them. It¡¯s just that it¡¯s far more EXP than what I would get from monsters anywhere else. I let out a sigh as I continue raining lightning down from above. Just wondering when I¡¯ll be able to find a Tier 5 dungeon. Probably never, but still. I purse my lips as I kill corrupted creatures. Actually, maybe. If I make some sort of announcement that I¡¯m searching for Tier 5 dungeons, I might be able to get people to tell me right away if one appears. But that¡¯s still not all that likely. After all, they¡¯re more likely to hog it for themselves. The only way I can see that plan working is if I literally threatened every single power in the entire Dimensional Block dimension. Or grid, as it is pretty much set up as. And threatening everyone probably wouldn¡¯t be a very good idea. Even if it would be rather interesting. I blink at that thought before shaking my head. Then I notice that my energy pool is starting to run low. So I finally stop blasting corrupted creatures and return to my regular form. At which point I glance at the ground to find thousands upon thousands of users staring at me still. Uh, okay then. ¡°Please just go back to your business,¡± I comment out loud with a nod before beginning to teleport away towards the capital. Across the endless ocean and the occasional island that makes up the first Dimensional Block. It doesn¡¯t take long for me to leave the sight of those people, so whether they actually return to their business or not is beyond me. Assuming they even have any business left after I slaughtered the corrupted creatures. On another note, I probably killed off several tens of thousands of corrupted creatures and only got a single level from it. After using up most of my pool of soul. Obviously not all of it, seeing as I¡¯d be left rather open to attack if I did. But most of it. A good 80% of it. Enough that I feel safe getting to Lucas¡¯s capital to recover. And that is where I¡¯m heading. Straight to his capital to recover after all that. Then I can go back to slaughtering corrupted creatures again as I please. I just wonder how long this is going to take me to reach the next level cap¡­ That thought makes me sigh again as I continue teleporting through the sky. B4 | Chapter 41 Alexia When I reach the capital, I immediately find Lucas waiting for me in front of his manor. Which still looks the same as the last time I saw it. Along with the vampire lady serving him. Although the vampire lady doesn¡¯t look the same. In fact, she looks rather¡­ ragged. Like someone put her through a lot. And for some reason she tenses up the moment she sees me. Tenses up with fear. Then again, I¡¯m used to people looking at me with fear in their¡­ Oh, right. I forgot. I kind of killed the Lord of Vampires, so¡­ And she¡¯s a vampire. Meh. Whatever. Not my problem. As for her looking ragged? I think I heard something about Mom visiting and pulling this vampire lady away for a moment to talk. One on one. Probably something about how the vampire was trying to get with Lucas or something. Mom probably didn¡¯t take kindly to that. My gaze turns back to Lucas as he says, ¡°Welcome to my humble abode, Lexi!¡± I nod my head at him and state, ¡°Hello again.¡± Then I ask while putting my hands in my pockets and landing on the ground from the air, ¡°Mind if I stay at your manor for a while? I¡¯ll be hunting corrupted creatures in this Block for a little while. Until a Tier 5 dungeon is found, at least. Or it runs out of corrupted creatures.¡± ¡°Go ahead and stay for as long as you¡¯d like!¡± Lucas says with a wide smile on his face, the man fidgeting a little bit like he wants to hug me or something. But I ignore that. ¡°And if you don¡¯t mind, would it be alright for me to join you on some of your corrupted creature hunts?¡± That question gives me pause for a few seconds before I eventually shrug and answer, ¡°Sure. If you can keep up.¡± Making his face instantly light up like a lamp. ¡°Although you probably won¡¯t be getting many kills if you follow me.¡± If you come across this story on Amazon, it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it. Now that gives him pause. Until he looks at his terminal and sees news of what I did, which makes him blankly stare at it with his mouth agape. It takes him a few seconds to answer, ignoring the stupefied look on the face of the vampire ¨C who also just saw news of what I did ¨C as he does so, ¡°Well, it¡¯ll still give me some time to catch up with you. So I¡¯d still like to join you.¡± ¡°Alright then,¡± I state with a light shrug. ¡°It¡¯s up to you.¡± He smiles and asks, ¡°Would you like the same room you took the last time you were here?¡± Only to continue after seeing me nod, ¡°I have some work to do now, but you can count on Selene to help you with anything you may need.¡± I nod my head at him again, following which he leaves. Then I look at the vampire in question to find her shivering in fear. ¡°Just to clarify, are you afraid of me because of the Lord of Vampires, or because of my mom?¡± I ask out of curiosity, just for her to flinch twice in that sentence. Once when I state the words ¡®Lord of Vampires¡¯ and once when I state the word ¡®mom¡¯. Hmm. Right. So it¡¯s both then. No wonder she looks like her legs are about to give way. An unpleasant memory resurfaces from the past when someone else was terrified of me and ended up losing control of their bladder. Something I don¡¯t want to see happening again. Good thing vampires are considered undead and don¡¯t have those bodily functions. Anyways, the vampire manages to guide me over towards my room before she goes and waits outside the door, mentioning something about a bell in the room that I¡¯m supposed to ring if I need her. Not that I plan on ringing it. Honestly, the only reason I need to stay here is to rest up. And I don¡¯t actually need food or drink anymore, so there¡¯s not really any reason to call for her. With that thought in mind, I go ahead and lie down on the rather luxurious bed and begin focusing on my energy manipulation training. Since I still need to deal with that. To catch up my actual training with the level of the skill. I frown as I think about just how much training it¡¯ll take to get the skill to the next Tier. Considering how much I need to train just to get it to catch up to its current level. Then there¡¯s the fact that I¡¯ll no doubt have to bring it to the next Tier at the minimum in order to ascend to Ascendant rank. The final Tier. And considering how hard the requirements I¡¯ve heard are for reaching Ascendant, I wouldn¡¯t be surprised if I had to raise it by two Tiers or something. Actually, it would make sense if that was a requirement. Bringing Energy Manipulation to Ascendant Tier. Just feels right. Regardless of how long that¡¯ll take. I eventually let out a sigh. Well, none of this will be of much importance for a while. Seeing as I¡¯m going to have to reach the level cap of Tier 5 before any of this even becomes a thing. And I¡¯m only at the start of Tier 5 right now, in the rock bottom level 1000s. Whereas the highest level of Tier 5 is fucking level 2500. Almost 1500 levels away from where I¡¯m at right now. This detail combined with the fact that I¡¯m leveling up incredibly slowly due to the lack of any Tier 5 dungeons or monsters makes the idea of planning for my requirements to reach Ascendant Tier rather¡­ early. Too early. Not to mention that I don¡¯t even know what the requirements will be for sure. For all I know it might not even have anything to do with Energy Manipulation, even if it most likely will include that amongst the requirements. I sigh again before focusing entirely on my Energy Manipulation training as Zal begins to give me some pointers again. B4 | Intermission 4 Within the Quantum Archives The sound of footsteps echo through the otherwise silent archives belonging to the Quantum Archon as the Quantum Archon himself reads a large book held in his hands. One that glows with a pale purple light, with the occasional glitchy particle leaving the book. Already nearing ascension mere months after that structure¡¯s reset¡­ and with one fraction of her core obtained as well. A faint smile slowly emerges onto the Archon¡¯s face as his long and flowing black and purple hair flows behind him with every step. Meanwhile his Successor ¨C a woman with long purple hair without a hint of black in it wearing a robe similar to the Archon¡¯s own ¨C walks along behind him while reading a book of her own. Doing her homework to read up on everything in the universe¡¯s history, as she almost always does. But when his Successor, Aragalia Tela Velal, notices the smile on her teacher¡¯s face, she stops walking and asks, ¡°Something catch your interest, sir?¡± The Archon answers by simply waving his hand and making a screen appear in front of her. One showing the Quantum Reaper as she lies in bed training her energy manipulation skill. After the Successor looks at it for a few seconds, the screen changes to show her in her True Form as she fights against corrupted creatures. And in her True Form as she was flying through the Quantum Realm. ¡°Is this the new quantum being?¡± Aragalia asks with a neutral look on her face. Only to show the slightest hint of interest when her teacher nods his head. ¡°What is it about her that interests you?¡± Her teacher doesn¡¯t say anything in response for several seconds, instead just continuing to read the Quantum Chronicle in his hand. The book containing every last detail about the entire universe in condensed format that only the Quantum Archon can read. Seconds pass, and then the seconds turn into minutes. And by the time an entire half an hour passes, he finally answers, his voice echoing throughout the entire Quantum Archive serving as his personal domain, ¡°She is the first being to have changed the hierarchy and overall structure of the universe in the entire time since my creation.¡± His words shock his Successor as her face morphs into one of surprise. Then her face goes back to her neutral expression once again and she asks, ¡°Do you believe her to be the one to change the universe itself?¡± If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. Her teacher goes silent again and stays silent for nearly half an hour, taking his time to answer as he always does. The quantum being having long since disconnected himself from the concept of time due to the immense periods of time he spends reading the Quantum Chronicle. When he finally answers though, he shocks her once more, ¡°I do.¡± Silence once again befalls the Archives as the Archon and his Successor continue walking between the endless bookcases. But after three hours pass, Aragalia eventually states out loud, ¡°I would like to meet her.¡± This time her teacher responds within a single minute, ¡°Do as you please. Meeting another young quantum being akin to yourself will benefit your growth.¡± A light smile stretches across Aragalia¡¯s face at his answer. After which she nods her head and says, ¡°Then I will do just that,¡± and closes her book as gently as possible. With her confirmation, the Quantum Archon snaps his fingers, making a set of screens appear in front of his young apprentice of a mere two thousand years of age. With each of the screens describing the System, the new Dimensional Blocks, the Quantum Reaper herself, and the corrupted creatures invading the Dimensional Grid. Aragalia slowly reads through each of the screens. Absorbing the information on all of them at a rapid pace before closing her eyes and digesting the intel as she continues following the Quantum Archon. The sound of their footsteps echoing throughout the Quantum Archive continues all the way until she finally opens her eyes again and declares, ¡°I¡¯m ready.¡± Without pause this time, the Quantum Archon waves his hand once more and a glitchy purple gate appears near them. One that leads straight to the first Dimensional Block of the Dimensional Grid created by the Quantum Architect and his structure known as the System. Right when Aragalia is about to step through the gate, the Quantum Archon speaks one last time, ¡°You know what responsibilities you hold.¡± Aragalia pauses for a second before nodding and responding, ¡°I will not interfere in any way with the universe¡¯s flow. I will stick to my role as a guide and do nothing more beyond basic self-defense.¡± After seeing her teacher nod his head, Aragalia steps through the gate. Immediately arriving on an island in the first Dimensional Block and being greeted by corrupted creatures. But just like with the Quantum Archon, she uses her passive skill to be ignored by them as she floats up into the air atop numerous glitched pages and books. Meanwhile the Quantum Archon makes a screen appear next to him showing her as she moves just to keep an eye on his Successor. He continues watching her while she flies through the air towards the place where the Quantum Reaper is currently training her energy manipulation until half of his attention returns to the Quantum Chronicle. But then he stiffens up ever so slightly as he reads something in particular within the Chronicle. Interesting¡­ The Archon turns his full attention to another screen that he makes appear to find the Quantum Architect staring back at him from right next to the Quantum Reaper. Through the screen. Several seconds pass in silence without either of the quantum beings saying a word. Then the Archon nods his head once, to which the Architect nods back. And the screen vanishes without either quantum being saying a word. The Archon looks at the screen where his Successor is for a few seconds before turning back to the Chronicle again. These System screens are useful. B4 | Chapter 42 Alexia My energy manipulation training is interrupted when Zal suddenly says, ¡°You¡¯re about to have a visitor.¡± I open my eyes at that with a slight frown before closing them again and sensing the surrounding area. Only to notice something strange not too far away. Something strange that¡¯s quickly approaching. The first thought that comes to mind about them is that the person approaching is one of those quantum magic fanboys or fangirls, since I can sense quantum energy in them. But when they get close enough for me to get a mental image of them, or rather, her, I realize she doesn¡¯t have even the slightest hint of fanaticism on her face. So I look deeper. And what I find is rather surprising. Because she feels kind of similar to the quantum beings. Yet different at the same time. She doesn¡¯t have a core, or even a fragment of a core. And she feels¡­ empty. Like something¡¯s missing. My frown grows deeper as I open my eyes and walk over to the balcony. Just to find several guards appearing around the building when the visitor in question gets within sight of the building. When my eyes meet hers though, I instantly realize that she¡¯s at least somehow related to the quantum beings. Even if she isn¡¯t exactly one herself. ¡°She is a Successor,¡± Zal states, making my eyebrows rise simultaneously in surprise. ¡°The Successor to the Quantum Archon to be specific. And she¡¯s come to meet you.¡± Huh. Interesting. The girl in question- ¡°She may look young, but she¡¯s far older than you are,¡± Zal comments, interrupting my thoughts. Right. The woman in question is just floating in the air atop glitched pages and books, heading straight towards me as I lean over the railing of the balcony. And her gaze is locked onto me without so much as glancing at the people aiming guns and other weapons at her such as staffs and blades. ¡°Slowly lower yourself to the ground and state your purpose,¡± one of the soldiers outside shouts while aiming his rifle directly at her. A rifle I¡¯m sure is magically powered. ¡°Otherwise we will shoot.¡± The woman completely ignores him and continues flying straight towards me. To the point that she doesn¡¯t even look his way or acknowledge that he said something to her. Which I would say is rather bold, but judging by the fact that the identify result I get from her is¡­ unique, to say the least, I¡¯m not entirely surprised. If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. {Aragalia Tela Velal ¨C Quantum Ar-r-ar-r-r-ERROR ¨C Level UNKNOWN} I¡¯m honestly kind of surprised the soldiers aren¡¯t afraid. ¡°Mortals can¡¯t identify the Successors of the Quantum Roles,¡± Zal states, surprising me again with a bit of information I didn¡¯t know. ¡°The Successors are in a sort of midway-point between being a full quantum being and not being one, so the System doesn¡¯t know how to identify them and just leaves them full of errors.¡± Huh. Weird. You should make a better System if it¡¯s still got errors in it. ¡°Blame the System, not me,¡± Zal grumps, sounding irritated with the System himself. Guess that¡¯s fair. Why haven¡¯t the soldiers shot at her though? And why do they look confused? ¡°The Quantum Archon has a few¡­ peculiar skills, to say the least,¡± Zal explains as the Successor continues floating unassaulted over towards me. ¡°The Quantum Archon and his Successor cannot be attacked by others so long as they do not attack them themselves.¡± That is a peculiar skill¡­ are they pacifists or something? ¡°They¡¯re bookworms who don¡¯t care about anything else besides reading their archives,¡± Zal says, clearly not very impressed with him judging by the tone of his voice. ¡°I don¡¯t think either of them have attacked anyone, thereby letting them be attacked by them in return, for thousands of years.¡± The Quantum Architect pauses for a second before mumbling, ¡°Actually, I don¡¯t think the Quantum Archon has even left the Quantum Archives in a couple thousand years as a matter of fact¡­¡± Huh. Sounds like a major shut-in. ¡°A pair of shut-ins,¡± Zal corrects me, making the corner of my lips quirk in amusement. ¡°Not that I¡¯m one to talk.¡± True. You probably sat somewhere for years upon years fiddling with the System without a single interaction with others while you were making the System, knowing you. Zal goes silent at that, pretty much confirming my guess. ¡°Why can¡¯t I¡­ what¡¯s going on?!¡± ¡°Hey! Stop moving now!¡± ¡°Get away from Her Highness!¡± ¡°Stop!!!¡± The guards constantly shout at the Successor as she floats over to me, but I just watch her while leaning over the railing with my chin held in my hands and my elbows resting on the railing itself. And she still isn¡¯t even looking at them. I go ahead and take the woman¡¯s silence to finally pay attention to her appearance other than the glowing purple and glitchy eyes and her dark purple hair. Hair without any black to it, unlike the rest of us quantum beings. Other than that, she¡¯s wearing some sort of robe and kind of looks a little scholarly. Albeit with a cold look on her face as she continues ignoring the soldiers below who clearly can¡¯t do anything to her. Which I have to admit is rather amusing. Even when Lucas arrives, no doubt having been told about what¡¯s happening, he can¡¯t do shit to her. And that infuriates him to no end. I finally stop all of this as I ask the woman, who also happens to finally be arriving in front of me and stopping, ¡°So why are you here, Successor to the Quantum Archon?¡± She looks at me square in the eyes while the other people around finally understand the situation. Not that they bother leaving, what with the unknown person here. But they do stay silent. ¡°I came to meet the newest quantum being,¡± the Successor, Aragalia Tela Velal according to her identify, answers in a rather cold and slightly empty voice. ¡°Would you mind if we spoke for a while?¡± I shrug without a care as I answer, ¡°Sure. But let¡¯s take this elsewhere.¡± She nods her head before snapping her fingers, making reality around us warp with what look like glitchy pages appearing and turning all around us before we both appear in some strange dimension. One full of books. ¡°Welcome to my personal library,¡± she states while still floating in the air. ¡°We shall have full privacy here.¡± Huh. That was kind of cool. B4 | Chapter 43 Alexia An awkward silence fills the little library we¡¯re in as the two of us just stare at each other. Neither of us saying even a single word. Is she waiting for me to start, or¡­? Also, I can¡¯t sense Zal anymore. So I guess even he isn¡¯t able to just look in here as he pleases. Although I get the feeling he could probably break through whatever is stopping him without much trouble. What with him being a full-fledged quantum being. Unlike the woman in front of me. Plus he is ranked second on the hierarchy, whereas the Quantum Archon is ranked last I believe. At the very bottom of the hierarchy. Strictly speaking, I¡¯d be considered at the very top and this girl would be considered at the very bottom. Since she¡¯s the Successor of the lowest ranked quantum being role holder. Not that I care either way. But maybe she does? ¡°So what did you want to talk about?¡± I eventually ask, deciding to just go for it. As if a floodgate was released, the girl pulls up some glitchy notebook and a glitchy pen and starts rapid-firing questions at me, ¡°What does your role do exactly? How powerful is it compared to the Quantum Ruler? And how much authority do you have already as a quantum being with just a tenth of your core? And why do you spend your time in the mortal universe instead of in the quantum realm?¡± Holy shit, she¡¯s a lot more talkative than I was expecting¡­ And something tells me she¡¯d just keep asking them if it weren¡¯t for the fact that I haven¡¯t answered any yet. She¡¯s just staring at me with an intense look in her eyes and her pen already ready to write whatever I say down. Guess the role of Successor to the Quantum Archon fits her¡­ Although she could¡¯ve also just as easily fit as the Successor to the Quantum Scribe. What with how she clearly wants to write everything about my experience as a quantum being down. Anyways, I begin to answer some of her questions while crossing my arms, ¡°To put it simply, I hunt things detrimental to the universe.¡± I think. ¡°As for how powerful I am compared to the Ruler? I have no idea. I¡¯d have to know how strong the Quantum Ru-¡± I hear a strike of lightning out of nowhere that quickly makes me revise my word choice ¡°how strong Grandfather is to determine that.¡± Find this and other great novels on the author''s preferred platform. Support original creators! She pauses in writing for a moment at the word ¡®Grandfather¡¯ but continues again after that. ¡°I have enough authority to overrule the Quantum Enforcer at least, but I don¡¯t know anything else about it,¡± I answer with a shrug. ¡°And I stay here because I want to.¡± The Successor continues writing everything down in a frenzy before calming down again and asking more questions. But I stop her this time around by raising a hand and stating, ¡°Nope. It¡¯s your turn to answer questions.¡± She freezes in place and looks at me in a rather shocked manner for a moment before calming down. Then she takes a deep breath and says, ¡°Very well. What do you wish to know?¡± Good. This will be a great opportunity to get some intel on things. It is the Quantum Archon¡¯s job to know the history of the universe. And his Successor probably knows quite a bit herself. Hopefully. Questions like ¡®Where is the Corrupted One¡¯ are out since I have nothing to do with that guy yet. Plus the Archon would be required to give out that information if he had it anyways. So using this for that feels like a waste. Instead I ask, ¡°Do you know why the universe decided to make me the Quantum Reaper? Because I know it wasn¡¯t all just because of the Architect¡¯s failed attempt at making me his Successor.¡± For the first time since meeting her, a faint smile stretches across the Successor¡¯s face as she mutters, ¡°Good question.¡± Then she goes and answers it, ¡°The reason the universe decided to make you the Quantum Reaper instead of the Successor to the Quantum Architect is multifold. For one, you aren¡¯t creative enough to design new architecture that could aid in the universe. It saw you as a blade that would strike at anything that interfered with your life and your loved ones. So it gave you a more fitting role.¡± Huh. Interesting. ¡°Another reason is that your specific quantum energy affinity aligned more with the Quantum Reaper¡¯s energy than the Quantum Architect role¡¯s energy,¡± she continues without hesitation. ¡°And the last reason was that you became a quantum being by slaying another quantum being. Which in and of itself proved you were worthy of the position, regardless of how it was accomplished.¡± I guess the notification about me getting it for killing a quantum being wasn¡¯t entirely wrong after all. ¡°Another question and then it¡¯ll be your turn again,¡± I state, making the woman nod her head in silence. ¡°Why did you become a Successor in the first place?¡± This is just a personal question that has me curious. Simply because she¡¯s the only Successor I¡¯ve ever met before. Sure there¡¯s power in being a quantum being, but there¡¯s also limits. Especially with the role holders. Since it pushes them into following the universe¡¯s orders. She looks surprised by this question, but she answers it nonetheless, ¡°The Quantum Archon found me over a thousand years ago on the frontlines against the corruption and saved my life, knowing that it would motivate me to become his Successor. It¡¯s as simple as that.¡± I blink in surprise. ¡°Really?¡± I mutter. ¡°Just that?¡± She nods her head before pursing her lips and adding, ¡°Well, I also love reading, so being able to spend my entire life reading and learning new things didn¡¯t sound like a bad way to live.¡± Huh. That¡¯s¡­ surprising. Also, the fact that the Archon went there to save her just because he knew she would become his Successor afterwards is¡­ not to mention how she¡¯s perfectly fine with that. Maybe she¡¯s just weird? ¡°Now it¡¯s my turn again,¡± she states, making me nod my head before she goes on to ask more questions. B4 | Chapter 44 Alexia Our back and forth continues for hours as we each ask questions back to back. And throughout that process, I end up learning quite a bit more about the Successors in general. Not just this one either. I learn about the other Successors specifically, how these Successors fit into the hierarchy, and so on. Firstly, only the Quantum Vanguard, the Quantum Archon, the Quantum Builder, the Quantum Creator, and the Quantum Cleaner have Successors. Which is information I already knew from being told before by that petty grandfather. But what he didn¡¯t say was what those Successors are like. The Successor to the Quantum Vanguard is apparently a ¡®bullheaded stubborn block of concrete that doesn¡¯t know anything about anything other than fighting¡¯. In Aragalia¡¯s words, not mine. From what she¡¯s said about him, she doesn¡¯t seem to like him much. She mentioned that she was given the job of sending him some intel about a particular battlefield once for the war against the corrupted, and the guy just blew her off entirely stating that he doesn¡¯t need a strategy. Which honestly makes me wonder why he was chosen as a Successor to the Vanguard in the first place. Then there¡¯s the Successor to the Quantum Creator, who, according to her, is mute. She doesn¡¯t say a word. Ever. In fact, apparently Aragalia doesn¡¯t even know what her voice sounds like despite having met her numerous times. As for the Successor to the Quantum Cleaner? Her words for him were a simple, ¡°He¡¯s¡­ yeah, he¡¯s him.¡± Then she moved on from him. So I¡¯m¡­ not sure how to take that, but whatever. I¡¯ll probably understand when I meet him. If I do. After the Cleaner¡¯s Successor she ended with the Builder¡¯s Successor, who is apparently a bubbly little girl ¨C in appearance, not actual age ¨C and loves to mess around with people. With a personality that is also, apparently, very different from the Builder himself. So once again, not sure why he chose her. She also showed me pages with their pictures on them, but I¡¯m not going to remember them. Probably. They all do have some of the same features the Archon¡¯s Successor in front of me has though. Features that are probably like halfway to being a regular quantum being. If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. As for where in the hierarchy these Successors place? All of them are apparently considered to be in a hierarchy of their own directly beneath the regular hierarchy. So the hierarchy is rather simple. It¡¯s me and the Quantum Ruler both at the very top, followed by the Quantum Architect, the Quantum Enforcer otherwise known as the Quantum Judge, the Quantum Builder, the Quantum Creator, the Quantum Balancer, the Quantum Vanguard, the Quantum Cleaner, the Quantum Scribe, and the Quantum Archon. Then after them it¡¯s their Successors in the same order. As for how much authority each quantum being has over the others, it depends on how much higher in the hierarchy they are. And generally their authority is mostly meant for just quantum being affairs. So a quantum being can¡¯t just order another one to kill themselves for example. It is interesting to know that the Successors are also part of the hierarchy though. Although if what she said is true, that means the woman in front of me is literally at the opposite end of the hierarchy from me. What with her being the Successor to the quantum being at the bottom of the regular hierarchy. Meanwhile I¡¯m on par with the Quantum Ruler at the top of the hierarchy. And the last things I asked her were mostly about how she became a Successor in the first place. Which apparently involved the Quantum Archon fighting her for years upon years until she managed to spill his blood and drank some of it herself. He couldn¡¯t just give it to her as the universe wouldn¡¯t allow it. So she had to fight for the position personally. And even with that, she had to learn enough of the material in the Quantum Archives ¨C the place the Archon apparently keeps the history of everything ¨C to qualify in the first place. So it was an arduous process for her. I purse my lips as I leave the Quantum Archon¡¯s Successor¡¯s little library and teleport back into my room onto my bed. Feeling Zal¡¯s presence returning in my head. Honestly, I prefer my simple and easy method of killing Zal to the Archon¡¯s method of making a Successor. Even if Zal forced me to do it, and I didn¡¯t become his Successor. ¡°Rude,¡± Zal mutters. Right. Says the person who forced me to kill him and still failed to get his Successor. ¡°It¡¯s not my fault I was never given the exact instructions on how to qualify a Successor by my predecessor,¡± Zal grumbles, surprising me for a moment before I realize I don¡¯t really care about his Successor situation. Well, good luck with all that. He grumbles again. Actually, can¡¯t you just ask your father? I thought he was fussing at you to get a Successor as soon as possible? ¡°That old bastard?¡± he mumbles. ¡°I¡¯d rather die than ask for his help.¡± That has me raising a brow. Before either of us can say anything, I hear thunder crashing numerous times, followed by what sounds like a yelp from Zal. Then a bunch of mumbled apologies from him. I continue raising a brow as I feel no small amount of amusement fill me. Meanwhile the people around the mansion all quickly move around while searching for some sort of attacker. Considering the rapid-fire thunder while there isn¡¯t a cloud in the sky. Then I feel Zal¡¯s presence in my mind fading away as the apologies keep coming. All the way until I no longer feel his presence anymore or hear his voice. Well that was amusing. Good to know the petty grandfather isn¡¯t just petty towards me. Although I have to wonder what exactly happened. Did he strike Zal with quantum bolts of lightning or something? Probably. Either way, I return to focusing on my energy manipulation training once more. B4 | Chapter 45 Alexia After my meeting with the Archon¡¯s Successor, I spend probably around twenty-five percent of my time training my energy manipulation and the rest of my time fighting against corrupted creatures. Just day by day, month by month. All the way until something interesting finally happens after several months pass. On the day that marks two years since the Reset. Or at least, something interesting is announced in a Universal Notification.
Two years have now passed since the System¡¯s Reset. New nations have been made. New Legendary Feats discovered. And new alliances forged. But now things will change. In one year¡¯s time, marking the end of the third year since the System¡¯s Reset, the Dimensional Dungeon Championships will be held. Within these championships, every last Dimensional Champion will be placed within a Tier 5 dungeon. Each of the Dimensional Champions will be given two lives while within the dungeon. And they may only leave the dungeon after they have already lost one of their lives. However, if a Dimensional Champion loses both of their lives within the dungeon, then they will die permanently and will not be brought back to life. Additionally, this Tier 5 dungeon will not be a normal Tier 5 dungeon. All Dimensional Champions will be livestreamed to every user within the System throughout the entire dungeon crawl. Furthermore, the users of the Dimensional Blocks may sponsor their Dimensional Champions through the payment of System Items that can be converted to energy for the Champions to use when they find a System Totem within the dungeon. Stolen story; please report. Lastly, all Dimensional Champions who permanently kill another Dimensional Champion will be granted Dimensional Champion status within their Dimensional Block, along with every item the Dimensional Champion owns. Dimensional Champions, if you wish to survive this dungeon, reach Tier 5 within the next year. Otherwise you will find yourselves in dire straits.
I stare at the notification for several seconds as I float high in the sky over the corrupted creatures. But nothing changes about it all the way until it vanishes from my sight. This¡­ is unexpected. Very unexpected. I let out a sigh. Well, at least I found my Tier 5 dungeon. Even if it¡¯s going to be filled with several hundred other Dimensional Champions at the same time. And I¡¯ll be broadcast across the entire Dimensional Grid fighting in it. The idea of some random strangers watching my every move as I fight for my life inside of a dungeon is kind of disturbing. Especially when I know most of their gazes will be on me. The anomaly of the Dimensional Grid. The number one ranked user on the leaderboards, the only quantum being within the System, and the Quantum Reaper herself. I sigh again before resuming my hunt. Just slaughtering the corrupted creatures to vent out my irritation with this new announcement. At this point I know a lot of other Dimensional Champions have already reached Tier 5 other than myself. With Lucas being one of them. And with this dungeon being in a year from now, I¡¯m guessing most of the Dimensional Champions will probably be Tier 5 by then. As for the ones who don¡¯t make it? Well, they¡¯ll just have to die once in the dungeon before leaving. Unfortunately for me, not a single Tier 5 dungeon has appeared in the last several months that I¡¯ve been here. Not even a single Tier 4 dungeon has appeared. Or at least, I haven¡¯t gotten word of a Tier 4 dungeon appearing. Tier 5 dungeons are rather grand in appearance even outside of the dungeon and are very hard to hide. To the point that they¡¯re generally giant floating islands or castles or whatever. And from what I¡¯ve heard, no one has ever successfully hidden a Tier 5 dungeon. Then again, if someone had successfully hidden one, then I wouldn¡¯t know about it in the first place. So¡­ Tier 4 dungeons are just like the usual dungeon though. With just a single small entrance for people to go through. Unlike the Tier 5 dungeons¡¯ massive structures with grand-looking entrances. Multiple entrances at that. Even if they¡¯re all for the same dungeon. Just that these entrances lead to different parts of the dungeon. Tier 5 dungeons are far larger than all the dungeon Tiers below them. And it makes perfect sense for it to be that way, considering the level range of Tier 5 dungeons. Tier 1 dungeons are from level 1 to level 100. So one hundred levels of monsters are in them. Then there¡¯s Tier 2 dungeons that are from level 101 to level 250, making them include a hundred and fifty levels of monsters. And following them are the two hundred and fifty levels of monsters in Tier 3 dungeons and the five hundred in Tier 4 dungeons. But Tier 5 dungeons? Tier 5 spans from level 1001 to level 2500. So Tier 5 dungeons have one thousand five hundred levels worth of monsters in them. They¡¯re several times larger than Tier 4 dungeons just in size alone. Even larger than the three times more levels would imply. All of this pretty much means it¡¯s going to be a fucking maze inside of that Tier 5 dungeon. One filled with the strongest people from each of the Dimensional Blocks. And I won¡¯t have the same advantage I had during the Dimensional Championships for Dimensional Block #108. Since these Dimensional Champions will all be Tier 5, the same as me. But for some reason I feel¡­ kind of happy about that? I hope I¡¯m not getting a thirst for battle or something¡­ It¡¯s probably just because I¡¯m bored of slaughtering corrupted creatures. Which is pretty much the only thing I¡¯ve been doing for several months now. Other than training my energy manipulation. On that note, I glance at my status to find my level being at about a thousand forty-one. An abysmal level considering that I¡¯ve been fighting so much for several months straight. But an expected one, even with my boosted EXP from killing corrupted creatures. I sigh again as I continue slaughtering the creatures beneath me. Well, whatever. This dungeon isn¡¯t for another year, so I have plenty of time until then. B4 | Intermission 5 All Across the Dimensional Grid The moment the notification about the Dimensional Dungeon Championships goes out to everyone within the System, every last Dimensional Champion shows a different reaction. Some of them, like the Ancient Terror, Ignivara, show interest in the idea of hunting down the other Dimensional Champions in one go. Meanwhile others express their fear towards the possibility of having to fight the Quantum Reaper herself, such as the Dimensional Champions of her neighboring Dimensional Blocks. But not a single Dimensional Champion cowers away from the dungeon. Every last one immediately sets out to begin training for the dungeon. And the most common target of their training immediately turns into the quantum creatures invading the Dimensional Grid. Leading to a rapid decrease in their numbers as they¡¯re slaughtered by the Dimensional Champions, the majority of whom have all left their Dimensional Blocks. Meanwhile not a single Tier 4 or 5 dungeon appears throughout the entire Dimensional Grid. And just like that, months begin to pass. By the time half a year passes since the announcement, at least half of the Dimensional Champions manage to reach Tier 5. Largely thanks to the quantum creatures and the Dimension-Wide Dungeon events for their own Dimensional Blocks. After that more months gradually pass by. And throughout this time, none of the Dimensional Champions attend even a single one of the Dimensional Council Meetings for their Dimensional Blocks. But their Councils don¡¯t mind. Because every last Council begins making their own plans for the rise of their Champion in the Championships. And by the time the Dimensional Dungeon Championships begin to near, all of the Dimensional Champions have reached Tier 5. Without a single one being left behind. Meanwhile, thanks to the lack of announcements regarding the Quantum Reaper, fear of her gradually begins to decline. Leaving the Dimensional Champions feeling more confident towards their own wins in the upcoming Championships. Unlike the majority of the Dimensional Champions, however, the top Champions all understand full well the power of a Quantum Being. Even without the Universal Notifications to warn them of her actions. Especially those Champions close to the border, where the Quantum Reaper has been rumored to be moving around across the Blocks. Slaying quantum creatures by the thousands as she goes. This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings. On the other hand, the regular citizens of the Dimensional Grid finally begin to settle for good after the Reset. Creating their own regular day to day lives. Their own kingdoms. Their own empires. And their own things to protect. Because to them, the new structure of the universe is just how things are. They¡¯ve changed out their old leaders and powerhouses in the universe for the new ones. But many of them are still unimportant to those powerhouses in the grand scheme of things. So they merely live out their lives, fighting their own battles and making a place for themselves in the new universe. No matter how small that may be. But very few of them forget about the upcoming Dimensional Dungeon Championships. Because it will be the very first official event of the new System that will be broadcast for anyone to see.
Somewhere within the Quantum Realm Crystal Nightshade smiles as she looks out at the mortal universe through a portal within the quantum realm. As she looks out at her daughter, who is currently slaughtering quantum creatures to raise her level in preparation for the Championships. And Crystal can¡¯t feel happier in her own anticipation of the event. Because it will mean that she can watch her daughter throughout the event, even as Crystal is being chased. That thought fills her with warmth even as she sits atop a pile of corpses. Corpses belonging to the quantum being subordinates of the Quantum Judge, otherwise known as the Quantum Enforcer, none of whom have roles of their own. Yet all of whom are still quantum beings native to the quantum realm itself. ¡°We¡¯ll be able to meet up again one of these days¡­¡± Crystal mutters with a sad smile stretching across her face. Then she raises her head when a portal appears. One of which the Quantum Enforcer himself steps out of. ¡°I have finally found you,¡± the Quantum Enforcer states with his eyes narrowed. ¡°To believe you would come back here again.¡± ¡°Yeah, well, I was cashing in a favor,¡± Crystal says as a grin slowly stretches across her face. ¡°Would you like to hear about it?¡± ¡°No,¡± the Enforcer answers without any hesitation. Then he raises his hand and snaps his finger, making all of the quantum energy in the surroundings begin to head straight towards the two of them as time slowly begins to bend around Crystal. ¡°You are returning to your prison now.¡± Despite his words, Crystal just continues grinning as she raises her own hand and snaps her fingers as well while saying, ¡°Oh really?¡± And with the snap of her fingers, the bending time around her slowly grinds to a halt. Shocking the Quantum Enforcer in the process. But it¡¯s not just the time magic that she¡¯s performing that shocks him. Class S time magic. What shocks him more is her usage of quantum energy to do so. Her control of the time magic isn¡¯t as strong as his, but it¡¯s plenty enough to stop him from simply locking her away again. And that mere fact leaves him stunned staring at her in silence even as she floats up towards him. ¡°You see, I don¡¯t need to fear you anymore,¡± she whispers into his ear before teleporting away without bothering with the Quantum Enforcer anymore. Leaving him floating in the middle of the quantum realm over a mountain of his subordinates¡¯ corpses as the sole devourer of the universe leaves to an unknown location. Because she has a livestream to watch that is far more important than that asshole. B4 | Chapter 46 Alexia {Congratulations! You have leveled up to level 1075! Your Species has awarded you +2 VIT, +2 DEX, +2 STR, +2 MAG, and +2 MEN. Your Class has awarded you +1 VIT, +2 DEX, +1 STR, +2 MAG, and +2 MEN.} [*New Passive Skill* ¨C Temporal Perception: Grants the user the instinctive ability to slow down or speed up their own perception of time when their life is threatened. The user can then use this altered perception of time to save themselves or even counterattack.] A wide grin stretches across my face at the sight of my new passive skill. Holy shit that¡¯s good! It¡¯s been a while since I¡¯ve gotten a really good skill. I pull up my current list of skills that I¡¯m using. [General Skills] |Pain Resistance Level 26(46%)(T3)| |Polearm Mastery Level 18(41%)(T2)| |Forerunner (Unique)| |Anti-Magic Barrier (Unique)| |Tutorial Champion (Unique)| |Energy Manipulation Level 31(1%)(T4)| |Fatigue Resistance Level 12(11%)(T2)| |Exploit Weakness Level 14(10%)(T2)| |Anti-magic Bullet Level 23(31%)(T3)| |Exploration Level 19(81%)(T2)| [Active Skills] |Quantum Bolt Level 24(96%)(T3)| |Quantum Displacement Level 33(1%)(T4)| |Quantum Stasis Copy Level 21(4%)(T3)| |Quantum Singularity Implosion Level 19(84%)(T2)| |Quantum Reversal Level 17(71%)(T2)| |Quantum Breath Level 24(4%)(T3)| |Quantum Phasing Level 16(81%)(T2)| [Passive Skills] |Quantum Adaptation Level 32(10%)(T4)| |Quantum Infusion Level 26(11%)(T3)| |Energy Absorption Level 24(9%)(T3)| |Quantum Regeneration Level 16(18%)(T2)| Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings. |Quantum Synergy Level 28(64%)(T3)| |Observation Effect Absorption Level 14(15%)(T2)| |Quantum Flux Absorption Level 12(24%)(T2)| Which, in all honesty, is a rather long list. But I managed to get the last skill that Zal recommended a while back for my General Skills. And I got all of my skills leveled up quite a bit as well. So overall, I¡¯d say I¡¯m doing rather well in terms of preparation for the dungeon. The dungeon that starts this evening. As for what skill to replace with this new one¡­ I¡¯ll replace Quantum Flux Absorption. Mostly because that skill barely regenerates my soul at all, and it takes ages to level up on top of that. So yeah, better to have a life saving skill than a regeneration one that barely does any regenerating. A smile stretches across my face for a moment before I stretch a bit and head back in the direction of Dimensional Block #108. At this rate I should make it back there with a few hours to spare before the start of the event. I wasn¡¯t able to level up all that much considering my previous leveling speed, simply because of the lack of strong enemies to fight in the first place. But I¡¯d say I¡¯m rather satisfied with how things turned out. And I should still be the highest level user in the System. If for no other reason than the fact that I get an EXP boost for killing corrupted creatures. Which kind of gave me an unfair advantage. But I¡¯m not gonna complain. And no one else even knows about that benefit of mine, so they can¡¯t complain either. After I eventually arrive at Dimensional Block #108, I quickly go to change my skills. Replacing Quantum Flux Absorption with Temporal Perception. Then I replace Exploration with Dungeon Map, seeing as I¡¯m going to be stuck in a dungeon for what is most likely going to be a very long time. An incredibly large dungeon at that. It would just be stupid to not have Dungeon Map equipped when going into a Tier 5 dungeon. Not that anyone else even has this skill. Once that is dealt with, I go rest on my bed. Simply letting my soul regenerate back to full. And not even half an hour after that, I finally get the notification I¡¯m waiting for.
Three years have now passed since the System¡¯s Reset. This marks the start of the Dimensional Dungeon Championships. The start of the tournament to decide who is the most powerful Champion of them all! Who reigns supreme over the Dimensional Grid! This Tier 5 dungeon will be broadcast live to the entirety of the System. To every last user within it other than those within the dungeon. And it will prove who is the strongest without a shadow of a doubt. For the last one standing within the Tier 5 dungeon will take home the greatest prize of all for a Tier 5 user of the System. The ability to personally summon the entrance to the Tier 5 dungeon anywhere they like and dismiss it at any time. As many times as they wish. So do not fret if you are unable to complete the Tier 5 dungeon and reach the max level of Tier 5, for should you win the Championships, you will be given the dungeon. All Dimensional Champions shall be teleported to the event¡¯s Lobby in three minutes. Please prepare anything you need in that time. Because you won¡¯t be leaving the dungeon again for a while.
My mouth drops open in shock. The fuck?! I¡¯ll be given the Tier 5 dungeon if I win?! Hell yeah! That¡¯s probably some of the best news I¡¯ve heard in a long time. Because I highly doubt I¡¯d be able to complete this Tier 5 dungeon in one run. It just hasn¡¯t been done before. Ever. Even if I¡¯m the person doing it, I highly doubt I¡¯d succeed in one try. I¡¯d have to level up 1500 times in a single freaking dungeon to do that after all. And that¡¯s just not happening. Honestly, I¡¯m not even sure if the dungeon has enough monsters to bring someone up that many levels. Much less to bring several hundred people up that many levels. So whether I like it or not, I will end up leaving the dungeon before completing it. But if it¡¯s like this, I have a real reason to fight for victory. Because I will get this reward no matter what. I feel my fists clenching over my lap in my excitement. So much excitement that I almost can¡¯t stand it. This is going to be good. The countdown gradually dwindles down over the next few minutes. I just wish we weren¡¯t livestreamed. And with that last thought, the countdown reaches zero, and I find myself being teleported to the Lobby. B4 | Chapter 47 Alexia Once I appear in the Lobby, I go ahead and look around. And what I find is rather majestic, if I¡¯m being honest. The Lobby itself seems to be a massive ballroom of sorts. With numerous tables set up around the place, a large area in the center of the room where people can dance with a partner, and a podium in the back center of the room. It¡¯s all very luxurious in design. Both the room and the refreshments. And, of course, every Dimensional Champion in the Dimensional Grid is within the room. Each of whom are confused as to why the heck we¡¯re in a ballroom. Then some sort of silhouette appears on the pedestal and begins speaking. ¡°Greeting, Champions of the System,¡± the silhouette states in a rather authoritative manner that reminds me a little bit of the power I feel behind the quantum beings. Albeit not at the same level. ¡°Before we begin our Championships event, I would like to grant you all the chance to get to know one another better! So let us begin with a ball.¡± The silhouette suddenly snaps its fingers, making a wave of quantum energy flood through the ballroom before some sort of illusion ¨C and I can only tell it¡¯s an illusion due to my partial resistance towards the Quantum Architect¡¯s quantum affinity, implying this is probably the System¡¯s doing ¨C appears over every single Champion in the room. Myself included. And the illusion is rather detailed. It pretty much just makes it so we all look like we¡¯re wearing fancy formal attire that perfectly matches each of us. The others all look confused as hell, but I can clearly tell that we¡¯re still wearing our gear. It¡¯s nothing but an optical thing making us look like we¡¯re in formal attire. That aside, I¡¯m not too pleased about the fact that the dress they made me wear is exposing more skin than I¡¯m used to due to the thinner fabric. And it¡¯s also way too form fitting. Then again, I¡¯m used to wearing a cloak over a set of armor. Meaning no skin exposed at all and very little of my figure showing through. I look around the room to find a lot of eyes converging towards me now that they¡¯ve no doubt checked their stats and current state to find that they still have their gears¡¯ benefits. And some of the guys end up looking rather pleasantly surprised by the sight of me in a dress. This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report. Which irritates me enough that I snap my fingers, running a wave of my own quantum energy through the illusion to shatter it. Making my form glitch out once before I reappear in my usual armor. Most of the Champions in the room don¡¯t seem to care in the slightest about the fact that I¡¯m now in armor again, other than their obvious curiosity about how I just shattered the illusion. It¡¯s only a few that look disappointed. I, of course, mark them in my mind as people to avoid talking to. Not that I really plan on talking to anyone in here anyways. I glance at Luna, who was clearly brought here with me despite her obvious confusion, to find the girl actually in her humanoid form right next to me. With a dress of her own on. And while I would find it cute, I find the sight of a mini-me in a dress odd to look at. So I shatter the illusion over her as well. Putting the matter of the illusions aside though, I can¡¯t help but notice something. For some reason I seem to be in a half True Form state with my scythe floating next to me. I don¡¯t have my horns or wings right now, but my scythe is definitely here. Why that is, I¡¯m not sure. I glance at the System¡¯s little avatar as it continues speaking, bringing everyone¡¯s attention back to it, ¡°If you have not already figured it out, I am the System¡¯s Avatar. I speak as and for the System and represent its authority. Now, please enjoy the ball for the Tier 5 dungeon shall open in two hours. And rest assured, the livestream will not begin until the dungeon opens.¡± Well this was honestly not something I was expecting. Then again, from what I¡¯ve figured out ever since the Reset began, the System seems to be trying to use us to deal with the corruption. And it may be trying to kill us after that. That or it¡¯s trying to force us to fight each other to make the best blades against the corruption. But a unified blade is better than a solitary one. So forcing us into a situation like this to talk with the other Champions would make some sense. Not that I really care. I just walk up to a corner of the room and close my eyes, with Luna following after me. Albeit only after she turns back into her bat form and plops herself down in my cloak¡¯s hood to sleep. Unfortunately for me, just because I do this doesn¡¯t mean everyone will just ignore me. Considering the fact that I can sense numerous gazes still locked on me, with some people walking over towards me. Although the first one I sense is Lucas, so I don¡¯t bother opening my eyes. I hope he¡¯s planning on playing gatekeeper. That would be nice. After Lucas though, a couple other people I recognize appear as well. Including the Ancient Wyrm and Ancestral Dragon, both of whom are here because one of them left their Block to go randomly challenge a Dimensional Champion from another block for their position so that they¡¯re both Champions. Then there¡¯s Gramps, who is also a Champion. As for the other people who try to come over here, most of them are sent fleeing just from a glance by the ones already here. Actually, most of the Champions don¡¯t even bother with this lineup. But most is not all, and some still do. I open my eyes as I spot two different Champions walking over here right now. Two Champions I very much recognize from before the Reset just from the news alone. The Ancient Terror and the Holy One. Both of whom are people I¡¯ve been keeping an eye out for. Since they¡¯re both very¡­ Unpredictable. B4 | Chapter 48 Alexia The Holy One has long golden hair and has the illusion of a golden business suit on his person. But I see straight through the illusion to find him actually wearing a white and gold priest¡¯s robe completely open to show his golden armor underneath. Which isn¡¯t generally the type of armor you would expect the highest ranking priest of his own religion to wear. Then again, from what I¡¯ve heard about him through Lucas, the Holy One¡¯s status in his followers¡¯ eyes is dropping by the day. Simply because they were led to believe he was perfect in every way. But the System after the Reset hasn¡¯t been shy about promoting my accomplishments since the Reset. Accomplishments that far surpass his own. Even his level is thirty beneath my own. Although that¡¯s not exactly rare, seeing as my level is at least a dozen levels above everyone else in this ballroom. And I can¡¯t help but feel like the Holy One¡¯s status in his religion is going to go down even more after this dungeon, seeing as the only real way to get out of it is to die. Or to clear the dungeon. As for the Ancient Terror walking a few meters away from the Holy One? That man is¡­ unpredictable, to say the least. The man has a black robe and cloak on underneath the illusion of a black suit, and his eyes are a molten red, almost like they¡¯re made of magma itself. Meanwhile he has short black hair that goes down into his face on one side and is pasted back on the other. Most notable about his appearance though are the snake heads I occasionally see trying to peek out from underneath his cloak. The many snake heads clearly representing his status as a hydra. A natural born one unlike Astrid. As for the man himself? He looks completely emotionless, but Lucas has told me stories about him. About how he is both Lucas and Gramps¡¯ old close friend, and how the man pretty much has two modes. One mode where he suppresses his emotions due to his past, and one mode where he lets loose, going on a rampage and killing indiscriminately until his rage settles down and he can suppress his emotions again. It¡¯s obvious that right now he is suppressing them. But who knows if he¡¯ll go on a rampage in the dungeon or not. Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon. He¡¯s most known from before the Reset because of said rampages after all. That¡¯s also how he got the Title of the Ancient Terror. ¡°Greetings, Lady Alexia, Quantum Reaper and-¡± the Holy One begins, sounding all sacred and all despite the fact that I know he has a rather not-sacred personality underneath ¨C according to Lucas ¨C only for a certain hydra to interrupt. ¡°Enough of that,¡± Ignivara states, cutting the Holy One off in a single instant before he asks, ¡°There are two things I would request of you, Reaper.¡± I hide my amusement at the Holy One¡¯s clear anger at the Ancient Terror as I ask Ignivara in return, ¡°And what would those requests be, Ancient Terror?¡± Out of the corner of my eye, I notice Lucas staring straight at the Ancient Terror as if trying to catch his eye. And he¡¯s not the only one as Gramps is doing the same. But the man completely ignores both of them as he answers me, ¡°First, I would like a battle to the death within the dungeon. Should we run into each other, I request you accept my request.¡± That surprises me for a moment, but after a few seconds, I go ahead and shrug, responding with a simple, ¡°Sure.¡± It¡¯s not like either of us would die for real, considering the second life thing. And I highly doubt I would lose to him anyways. ¡°It¡¯s appreciated,¡± he states with a nod of his head. Then he goes ahead and moves onto the second request as he asks, ¡°As for my other request, should you manage to defeat me, I would like to meet your shadowborne hydra twin sister.¡± That leaves me confused. ¡°Why?¡± I ask with a frown and a slight tilt of my head. ¡°No, you will not be meeting my daughter,¡± Lucas declares with a scowl on his face, shocking more than a few people here who I now realize didn¡¯t actually know about my and Astrid¡¯s relationship with Lucas. Which makes some sense now that I think about it, seeing as we never really announced it to people. ¡°I will not have you courting and bothering my daughter.¡± Wait a fucking second, did he just say courting?! I turn to stare at the hydra just to find him looking rather surprised as well. After which he closes his eyes for a few seconds before opening them again and stating, ¡°Very well. I will not bother your sister.¡± ¡°Good,¡± I answer with a nod, still feeling a little confused but at least also a little reassured. It would be¡­ very awkward if he were to try to court Astrid right now. And I kind of doubt Ethan would be very pleased about it. I glance at Ethan¡¯s parents to find them both glaring at the Ancient Terror. Which I¡¯m pretty sure they weren¡¯t doing until he mentioned that. Guess they know about his courting Astrid. A frown stretches across my face at that thought. Wait, doesn¡¯t this mean the Ancestral Dragon and Ancient Wyrm may become my family some day through Astrid if she marries Ethan? That would be weird. Anyways, the Ancient Terror nods his head once before walking away. With everyone in his path stepping out of said path without hesitation, clearly intimidated a little bit by the unstable hydra. Then again, the hydra is still in the top ten leaderboards after all. So there¡¯s that. Wait a second¡­ hydra¡­ Is that why he wants to court Astrid? Because they¡¯re both hydras? Now that I think about it, I¡¯ve never heard of a female hydra before other than Astrid¡­ I wonder if they¡¯re rare or something? Well, anyways, time to see what the old priestly guy wants. I turn my focus to the Holy One who still looks rather irritated at the Ancient Terror¡¯s actions. ¡°You were going to say something?¡± I casually ask him while putting my hands in my pockets. B4 | Chapter 49 Alexia The Holy One looks rather irritated with my words ¨C or maybe I should just call him by his name instead of his Title? Yeah, that would be better. Leif looks rather irritated with my words before he calms down again and takes on that same holier-than-thou demeanor that I personally find slightly irritating to see. I¡¯m not the only one either as Lucas just says, ¡°Stop it with the act old man. No one here believes it.¡± Leif looks around at each of us and rather clearly sees that none of us here believe his act. And the rest of the Dimensional Champions probably don¡¯t either. So he grunts once and then waves his hand, making some sort of golden barrier appear around us before he narrows his eyes on Lucas and asks, ¡°Do you have to be such an ass?¡± I blink in surprise at the sudden shift in demeanor. One so abrupt and out of nowhere that it¡¯s damn near giving me whiplash. Lucas just raises a brow, which seems to lead Leif to focus on me again. ¡°Alexia Knight, I would like to know if it would be possible to create an alliance between us,¡± Leif bluntly asks me, shocking me almost as much as his shift in demeanor. And I¡¯m not the only one as the others look rather surprised as well. I narrow my eyes before asking, ¡°Why?¡± This is literally the first time I¡¯ve ever met him, and he wants an alliance? Why the hell would I go through with that? All I know about the man is that he¡¯s a two-faced liar to his own worshipers. So why would I want to work with him? ¡°Because you are a goddess to the quantum realm. One who stands atop the quantum beings and all who stand in the quantum realm except for the Quantum Ruler,¡± Leif answers, surprising me yet again with his knowledge of the quantum realm. ¡°And only a goddess may stand in alliance with a god.¡± Oh. Right. I guess he really does have a god complex. It¡¯s not entirely fake. Lucas starts laughing out loud while Gramps covers his mouth and fails rather miserably at hiding the fact that he, too, is laughing. Meanwhile the Ancient Wyrm and Ancestral Dragon both watch on with amusement of their own, not to mention a good amount of judgment for the good ol¡¯ holy man in front of us. After taking a second to make sure he¡¯s actually serious and not pulling some sort of joke, I answer rather bluntly, ¡°Sorry, but I prefer to stay neutral.¡± Everyone turns to stare at me, and I completely ignore the words that Gramps mouths at me about a certain undead lich king who is now dead. If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. Leif¡¯s eye twitches at my answer before he gives me a short bow and states, ¡°In that case, I will not bother you any longer.¡± Then he stands up straight while asking, ¡°I do hope we can at least stay peaceful?¡± I nod my head in agreement with that. It¡¯s not like I go around attacking people at random. Ignoring that lich king. And those targets that I killed. And that vampire lord guy attacked me first, so he doesn¡¯t count either. The self-and-System-proclaimed Holy One walks away while the golden barrier he probably used to censor our discussion from the ears of the other Dimensional Champions shatters into pieces like broken glass. Then we all just kind of sit here for the rest of our time in this ball without much to do. Most of the other Dimensional Champions just form their own groups as well without much intermingling happening despite what the System clearly wanted. Which, I have to admit, is rather amusing. And when the countdown on the corner of my vision is finally beginning to near zero, I begin to hope with all of my might. Hope that I do not end up in another labyrinth or maze. Because I have been in way too many of them already within this Reset and I don¡¯t need another. Not to mention that the Tier 4 dungeon was technically a labyrinth, even if the last part of it was, well, inside a monster¡¯s body. Which wasn¡¯t pleasant. I put my hands together and make a wish that the livestreamed dungeon will not be a maze. It¡¯s already bad enough with how large this dungeon will be. There¡¯s no need to force us into taking even more time getting through it by putting us into a maze or a labyrinth. And after wishing for several seconds, the countdown finally strikes zero and another notification appears in my vision.
The Dimensional Dungeon Championships will now commence. All Dimensional Champions are to be teleported within the dungeon in five seconds. Furthermore, the livestream broadcast of the dungeon will begin immediately upon teleportation. With new menus opening up for the System to allow users to enter a special space in order to watch the livesteams as groups even without being near the other viewers within the Dimensional Grid. Please take care within the dungeon. As you will need all the help you can get to survive.
I find a rather large countdown appearing at the center of my vision as the illusions on the other Dimensional Champions shatter to reveal their current equipment. Or at least, to reveal it to the other Dimensional Champions, seeing as I could already see through the illusions myself. Please¡­ no labyrinths or mazes¡­ I take a deep breath in, then out. And just like that, a bright flash of purple and blue light fills the entire ballroom before we¡¯re all teleported into the dungeon. At which point I feel myself appearing in a massive body of liquid that I quickly realize is a fucking ocean. One without any surface anywhere nearby. I stare blankly around me as I mentally register what just happened. Then several piranha begin swimming towards me. ¡°Not the fucking piranhas again!¡± I shout somehow clearly through the water as I teleport away from the carnivorous fish. B4 | Chapter 50 Somewhere in Dimensional Block #108 Astrid frowns as she opens the livestream showing her sister before immediately finding her and Luna stuck underwater in the middle of an ocean. Then she glances at the corner of the livestream to find an icon with three bars. And after selecting it in her mind, the bars extend to show a few options. The first option is something that says ¡®Viewing Rooms¡¯ while the second option lets her follow the user she is watching to let her know if anything important is happening to her. Such as her fighting a mini boss or boss monster in the dungeon. So she immediately selects that option to follow her before looking at the third option that appears. One that lets her sponsor her sister through burning System Items in order to give her sister whatever form of energy the user uses. Which would be soul for her sister. Astrid ignores that option for now before selecting the viewing room option out of curiosity. At which point she finds more screens and messages appearing explaining what it is. Which pretty much comes down to it being a feature that allows people to set up large viewing rooms where they can commentate on the Dimensional Champions competing in the dungeon with an audience watching them. They can even charge for entry into their viewing room once three days have passed since the start of the championships. But for now it¡¯s free for anyone to enter all viewing rooms. So Astrid just enters the viewing room that has the most people in it out of curiosity. At which point she finds herself appearing within a large stadium with hundreds of people appearing all the time. Probably all people who also decided to enter the most populated room. And the moment she appears, she hears a rather excited male voice shouting, ¡°And look at her go! Those piranhas don¡¯t stand a chance against the Reaper herself!¡± Astrid looks up right as a female voice responds to the male one, saying, ¡°They never did and never will, Joe! Y¡¯know, at first I was afraid of the Reaper, and I doubt I was the only one. But watching her now makes her seem a lot more normal, don¡¯cha think?¡± That makes Astrid frown for a moment, only for her eyes to finally settle on the two people speaking, along with the livestream they¡¯re floating next to at the center of the large stadium. This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it. A livestream showing her sister as she annihilates a school of piranhas with rather clear irritation showing on her face. ¡°I understand how you feel,¡± the commentator known as Joe says, making Astrid glance at him again. ¡°Seeing the Reaper floundering around underwater while being assaulted by piranhas even if she is annihilating them with ease makes it a lot easier to see her in a light that¡¯s not terrifying. But I¡¯m sure some of us will be feeling that fear again when she goes up against some truly terrifying opponents later on.¡± ¡°You¡¯re probably right about that,¡± the unnamed female commentator responds, although Astrid gets the feeling the two commentators are twins or at least siblings judging by their appearance. ¡°But how bad must the Quantum Reaper¡¯s luck be to end up in the middle of an ocean of all things?! Only a few other Champions ended up in the ocean!¡± As if to showcase that, several other livestreams appear around the stadium showing other Dimensional Champions. Some of whom are in jungles, others regular forests, and some are even underground. But only three other Champions are in the ocean with Alexia. And none of them look too happy either. ¡°Wait, look here! One of the Champions has already found a mini boss!¡± Joe exclaims, bringing Astrid and the many gazes within the audience over to look at a screen that soon appears in the place of Alexia¡¯s screen. With Alexia¡¯s screen moving off to the side. And within the screen shows a man who many in the audience recognize as the King of Heaven. The last surviving ruler of the angel species. On the screen, the angel king is seen flying high in the sky above the clouds as he grits his teeth looking at the large flying serpent in front of him. One that is nearly fifty levels above the angel king. That poor king just can¡¯t catch a break¡­ Astrid frowns as the audience watches him struggle against the flying serpent, with some of the audience seemingly growing invested and even happy about the seemingly impending death of the king. No doubt all people of different Dimensional Blocks from the Block he is the Champion of. And that alone reminds Astrid of something very important. Everyone may be here for the Reset, and they¡¯re all watching these livestreams, but that doesn¡¯t mean none of them want to kill each other. Because it is still every Dimensional Block for themselves. Astrid grits her teeth a little at that thought, only to notice some of the audience looking her way. Probably because she¡¯s a Class S species. She ignores them all though as she focuses on her sister¡¯s livestream, which soon appears at the center of the stadium again after the angel king miraculously manages to escape from the mini boss alive. Albeit not unharmed. Which disappoints a lot of the audience, proving just how bloodthirsty they are. What surprises Astrid though is that despite their obvious fear of Alexia, they all seem to at least be neutral in regards to her. In fact, a lot of the people seem very interested and excited to see her feats in the dungeon. I guess the System hyping her up to everyone has some benefits. If it makes her the only one who isn¡¯t a universal target for the people¡¯s hostile intent that is. Astrid narrows her eyes a little as her sister teleports through the ocean seemingly at random, only occasionally killing monsters that show up as she does so. But will they still feel this way when she kills off their Champions? B4 | Chapter 51 Alexia I have to admit, at least the piranhas are weak as hell. So it¡¯s not like they¡¯re annoying to deal with. It¡¯s just that the System has way too many piranhas across its many dungeons. Actually, I don¡¯t think I¡¯ve ever even seen one outside of a dungeon. So why are they only inside of the dungeons? I purse my lips as I swim through the ocean thinking about that, only to give a mental shrug, deciding that I don¡¯t actually care about the answer. Then I teleport out of the way of a bolt of electricity shot by some sort of manta ray monster thing. After which I teleport straight up to the thing and sent a bolt of quantum energy straight into its body, erasing a large chunk of it from existence instantly. These monsters are rather annoying. It¡¯s a good thing I don¡¯t have to breathe and can teleport around down here, otherwise this entire place would be nothing but a massive pain. Although, at the same time¡­ I glance at my dungeon map before glancing at the nearby hidden area marked there. Then I look in the direction of said hidden area within the actual ocean itself outside of the map. ¡­at least the fact that it¡¯s an ocean and not very hospitable and very annoying means others won¡¯t be bothering me here. And more importantly, they won¡¯t be searching for hidden areas and the like. Which means more loot for me. With that thought, I continue teleporting for around a minute or so before arriving at a very flat area on the ground. One that is marked on the map as a hidden area. I frown as I look around, trying to find some sort of entrance. But after searching for nearly three minutes, no doubt confusing the people watching the livestream ¨C and I can tell there are a lot of people watching me just from the follower count I can see on the corner of my vision which has reached the trillions already ¨C I finally decide that I¡¯ve searched enough. So instead of searching I raise both of my hands up into the air before forcefully grabbing the energy around me and sending it flying straight at the flat surface in the form of numerous quantum bolts. Something I learned to do through my energy manipulation training. Because it¡¯s actually rather easy to copy my own active offensive skills through energy manipulation. Very easy. Anyways, the bolts slam repeatedly into the flat surface in my attempt to destroy it. But no damage is actually done, to my surprise. Right when I¡¯m about to wonder if I should begin searching for some sort of hidden switch or something, I notice something. Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more. A few of the quantum bolts are going straight through the surface instead of slamming into it. My eyes narrow and I stop the attack before teleporting right up to the place where they were disappearing. Then I reach out to touch the ground where they were passing through. Just for my hand to pass through the ground as well. Looks like I found the entrance to the hidden area. A smile touches my lips as I pull out my polearm before slicing straight through the ground, cutting a large visible rift into it that lets me see through the other side. Which is pretty much just another large cavern underneath the water, with more water in it. I frown while looking over what looks like a ruined temple with a single massive stone platform at the bottom. There are also a bunch of ruined pillars and buildings, all of which look incredibly old. And to finish it all off, I see several large openings in the sides of the cavern along with a single massive ravine. Okay, this looks like some sort of boss. I purse my lips for a few seconds, wondering if I should take it on or not. If I should wait until I¡¯ve leveled up a bit. Then I remember that my level is higher than the monsters in the area around me anyways, so I might as well. Who knows? Maybe if I show off how powerful I am to the viewers watching me they¡¯ll stop bothering me. Because I have still had some annoying people trying to come and assassinate me while I was waiting for this Championships to come around. None of whom survived. With that purpose in mind ¨C not to mention because loot is loot and hidden bosses give loot ¨C I go down into the rift I made before a message appears in my vision. [You have entered the Tier 5 Hidden Area, the Ruined Temple of the Water Lord.] Water Lord? Probably the name for the hidden boss here. I slowly float down towards the floor of the cavern below, making sure I¡¯m extra careful for any sort of sneak attacks. Both by keeping an eye on the tunnels leading into the cavern and the ravine down below. Not to mention the ceiling, which is pretty much just a normal ceiling other than the rift I made. But I don¡¯t find anything at all. Not a single thing. Hmm, I probably have to do something to make the ¡®water lord¡¯ ¨C assuming that¡¯s the hidden boss ¨C attack. Even when I reach the ocean floor I don¡¯t see anything new. No monsters whatsoever. Not even a single piranha. Which is odd in and of itself, considering the System¡¯s obsession. I slowly make my way over towards the large platform at the center of the cavern, only to find the very center of the platform rising when I make it there. With a very fancy treasure chest appearing out of an opening that forms in the rising part. Except with some sort of barrier over it. If I had to guess, I probably have to beat the hidden boss for that barrier to go away. But where¡¯s the hidden boss? I frown while looking around some more, but I still don¡¯t see it. So after a few seconds, I go up to the barrier and slam my polearm into it. But even with my quantum energy infused in the strike, it doesn¡¯t even scratch the thing. Instead the barrier flashes red in color and the cavern begins to tremble. There we go. That¡¯s how I summon it. I suddenly turn around towards the ravine as I sense a powerful energy source coming from it. But oddly enough, I also sense that same energy source coming from all of the tunnels around the cavern. Just what is¡­ My thoughts trail off when numerous massive tentacles appear out of the holes in the cavern walls, followed by the even more massive head of some sort of squid that appears from the ravine, smashing the ruins it passes through along the way. A squid with scales and glowing blue eyes. {The Kraken ¨C The Aquatic Ruler of Cataclysm ¨C Level 1100} Huh. Now isn¡¯t that stereotypical? The kraken lets out a loud roar as if angry at my thought. Yeah, yeah, no need to announce your presence. Time to kill a giant squid. B4 | Chapter 52 Within the Most Popular Viewing Room Joe feels over the moon as he flies around his viewing room, taking in the attention from the millions of people joining. Because if this number keeps up, he¡¯ll be rich when the viewing rooms begin to allow charging people for entry. Of course, he¡¯s not expecting there to be the same number of people then. But even just a fraction of this many people will help him and his sister a lot. The most important factor for his excitement right now though is the sight of what¡¯s on the main screen right now. That of the Quantum Reaper spinning around her polearm before holding it apathetically in one hand and staring at the massive squid head sticking out of a ravine. Staring at the kraken hidden boss that she encountered. The first hidden boss of the Tier 5 dungeon. And more importantly, the first livestreamed major battle involving the Quantum Reaper ¨C or any quantum being in fact ¨C ever recorded. Joe can¡¯t help his excitement bubbling over into his voice as he shouts, ¡°And let this battllllle beeeeegiiiiiiiinnnn!!!¡± A second later after his shout, The Reaper teleports forwards at the same time as the kraken sends a single tentacle to slam into the spot she was just floating at. Then The Reaper slices down with her polearm, splitting a different one of the kraken¡¯s tentacles open without much trouble. Until the tentacle regenerates so quickly that it is almost immediately after the blade passes through. And as if that weren¡¯t enough, the kraken sends another three tentacles at The Reaper while she looks surprised by its healing prowess. ¡°It looks like the kraken will be getting the first real blood in this battle, even if The Reaper got the first hit!¡± Joe shouts, making his sister nod her head as she says, ¡°Unless The Reaper¡¯s regeneration is just as good as the krakens. We don¡¯t know much about her capabilities after all.¡± Both twins watch with their interest clear in their gazes as the audience roars its own excitement. But then something happens on the screen that shocks absolutely everyone there. The Reaper just ignores the tentacles as two of the three pass through her without so much as hurting her. The Reaper¡¯s body just glitches out before the tentacles pass through. Silence fills the stadium for a second before the twins share a glance. If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it. They both turn back to look at the screen again as Lizz asks, ¡°Have we ever seen or heard of someone with a complete immunity to physical damage before?¡± Joe shakes his head, answering briefly, ¡°Not that I recall.¡± ¡°Looks like this battle¡­¡± Lizz begins while The Reaper teleports over to the kraken¡¯s head and raises her polearm above her before Joe finishes for his twin, ¡°¡­might not be as difficult as we expected.¡± Then glitchy purple and blue lightning begins to spark around The Reaper¡¯s blade as spell circles appear around it. Following which she points the blade straight at the kraken¡¯s head, sending the lightning at it as well as numerous bolts of glitchy purple and blue energy that appear all around her. Bombarding the kraken¡¯s head and making it let out a loud roar of pain that echoes throughout the silenced viewing room stadium. ¡°Well it certainly looks like The Reaper¡¯s strength befits her reputation, now doesn¡¯t it?¡± Lizz eventually says, shattering the silence into a round of whispers all across the viewing room. ¡°Because this is just¡­ terrifying.¡± Joe silently nods his head as everyone in the viewing room watches the kraken regenerate almost instantly from every attack it takes. But it also gets hit again almost instantly after that, leading to a seemingly never-ending cycle of injury and recovery. All while the kraken roars its anger and pain out loud for everyone listening to hear. After watching for a few minutes, Joe looks out at the audience. And more specifically, at the nation leaders he has been able to spot within the audience. But not a single one of them looks happy with what they¡¯re seeing. The greatest benefit of this livestreamed dungeon to the Dimensional Leaders and the other nation leaders of their Blocks, in Joe¡¯s opinion, is clearly the ability to scout out the power of the other Block¡¯s Champions. Which is exactly what everyone is doing now. And Joe is pretty sure no one will be bothering The Reaper again after this. He turns his attention back to the screen again when the kraken suddenly lets out another loud roar and a faint blue light begins to shine all around it. Meanwhile the water begins swirling into dozens upon dozens of whirlpools. And unlike with its tentacles, the whirlpools actually do damage The Reaper. But she just reverts the damage backwards as if using time magic. Except clearly with quantum magic instead. Joe finds himself commentating less and less the longer the battle goes on. Mostly because he has no clue what to comment on. The Reaper is just too powerful, even if the kraken is instantly regenerating all of the damage she deals. But even that doesn¡¯t last forever, as after the battle continues on for nearly twenty minutes straight, with the kraken constantly regenerating through it all, its regeneration finally slows down enough that she manages to completely destroy its head. Killing the creature the moment its brain is beyond repair. Then silence reigns as a large chest appears at the center of the now-destroyed round platform that had started the entire battle. Silence both within the viewing room and inside of the large hidden area. The Reaper herself doesn¡¯t seem to care though as she begins teleporting over to the chest to open it. She¡¯s terrifying¡­ certainly worthy of her position as the Reaper of the Universe. A chill runs down Joe¡¯s spine. I would never want her as my enemy. And so, from here on out, Joe promises to himself that he will watch absolutely everything he says about The Reaper to make sure he doesn¡¯t say anything he will regret. And he nods his head to his sister, who returns it with a tense nod of her own as she no doubt has similar thoughts. Never anger The Reaper. He¡¯s sure it¡¯s a lesson the entire universe has learned from this battle. One they won¡¯t soon forget. B4 | Chapter 53 Alexia Well that kraken was annoying. Mostly because of its regeneration, but also because of its enormous size. Not to mention the fact that most of its body was hiding underground. Then again, anything that regenerates almost as fast as I can damage it is plain annoying to fight. Putting that aside though, I¡¯d say I gave a pretty good show to those watching. And that was all without showing them the greatness of my True Form. A form that I have to admit looks rather intimidating all by itself. It¡¯s too bad I can¡¯t use it as I please. Anyways, I go ahead and touch the chest in front of me, making it open up to reveal an item floating above it. Hmm¡­ that¡¯s not bad I guess. For my upgraded item at least. The item itself is incredibly good after all. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Kraken¡¯s Lifeblood Description: A potion infused with the very lifeblood of the krakens and further advanced by the System into an Ascended item. This potion will fully restore any damage done to the user by anything that is not Ascended, and it will do it in a single instant. Additionally, the MAG, MEN, VIT, and STR of the user will be drastically increased for a period of ten minutes. Stats Bonus: +1000 MAG, +1000 MEN, +1000 VIT, +1000 STR for 10 minutes after drinking Requirements: N/A Item Tier: Ascended (Item Tier increased by one due to the Legendary Feat, The First Clear) -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Now that is a good item. A really good one. Although I do feel a little bit disappointed that it¡¯s a potion and not a weapon or piece of equipment. Because having an Ascended piece of equipment would be really nice. If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. I¡¯ve never even so much as seen an Ascended piece of equipment before after all. Not even on TV. Any ascendants from before the Reset who had them would always keep them out of sight unless they were fighting. Mostly because they are always at risk of being stolen. There were only a couple Ascended Dungeons in the entire universe before the Reset after all. So they were precious items. And an Ascended item far surpasses a Tier 5 item in strength and pretty much everything else. Hence the massive stat boost from this potion on top of the instant regeneration it grants. Overall, this potion is precious and one of a kind. So I immediately stash it into my storage ring. I blink as a thought comes to mind. The realization that I¡¯m being livestreamed to everyone in the Dimensional Grid right now. Meaning they all saw me get this potion. I purse my lips before shrugging and beginning to head towards the exit of the hidden area. Yeah, maybe it¡¯s actually for the best that I didn¡¯t get a piece of Ascended equipment. Otherwise it would probably make people want to target me again despite the display I just put on. Just for the off chance they could obtain it. But a potion without a permanent boost like this one wouldn¡¯t likely be worth it for them to risk trying to steal it from me. It wouldn¡¯t exactly be easy to steal either. Since it¡¯s not like I¡¯ll be bringing it out unless I¡¯m using it. And if I use it then it¡¯ll be gone. Potions are one-time use after all. Still¡­ the fact that it boosts four of my five stats by a thousand points for ten minutes is incredible¡­ Come to think of it, there was a Tier 5 monster in the Tier 4 dungeon. So I really hope there won¡¯t be an Ascended monster in this one. If there is I may really need that potion at some point in this place. Well, anyways, after a couple seconds I finally leave the hidden area and return to the main portion of the dungeon. Then I go ahead and teleport around the ocean for a while until I find another hidden area thanks to my lovely and very handy map. This hidden area isn¡¯t a boss though. Instead it¡¯s some sort of puzzle. In the form of a massive underwater temple. Or rather, it¡¯s inside of the massive underwater temple in a hidden portion of the temple that I had to navigate through numerous cracks in the stone of the temple. Not to mention traverse underground tunnels, fight quite a few eel monsters, and even grab a couple keys to unlock doors. All just for a single puzzle after entering the hidden area labeled as some sort of Underwater Temple Treasure Vault. And it¡¯s a puzzle I¡¯m struggling to figure out. The puzzle itself is in the form of a quiz and riddle mixed together about water magic. A type of magic I have little to no knowledge of. I grit my teeth as I read the thing over and over again, but I don¡¯t make head nor tails of it. Not even the first part of the thing. Maybe I should start studying up on other types of magic¡­ just in case I run into things like this. That thought gives me pause for a few seconds before I eventually shrug. Meh. Might as well try. I¡¯m not attacking anything living after all. So without hesitation, I quickly enter my True Form before swinging my scythe at the large vault door. And cutting it in two. Then I return to my normal form and give myself a firm nod of my head, feeling rather proud of my actions as I watch the vault door fall apart. Right. The best form of logic. Whenever you can¡¯t open a door the way it was meant to be opened, break it. It¡¯s as simple as that. Easy peasy. And since I didn¡¯t feel any force back from the universe while I was readying up my attack, it means it was fine to do that. Even before launching the attack itself. Which also means I can, indeed, attack inanimate objects in my True Form. Although I guess attacking a door isn¡¯t much different from attacking the rift between the Quantum Realm and the mortal universe. It¡¯s kind of the same after all. Anyways, time to get some more treasure. B4 | Chapter 54 Alexia Trash. Treasure. Trash. Trash. Trash Treasure. I continuously label one item after another as either trash or treasure even as I place each item in my storage. Because it would be rude not to take everything in the vault that¡¯s been so generously lined up for me, who took the trouble to clear that challenging riddle. Albeit in my own special way. There are a lot of items here though. Nothing particularly special like what I got from the kraken, but still a lot of stuff. And most of it is junk I can¡¯t really use. Or just junk I personally have no use for. Overall, there are a lot of Tier 4 items here, mixed with the occasional Tier 5 item. Amongst the Tier 4 items are nothing but garbage that doesn¡¯t do shit for me compared to my current items. Although some might be useful as disposables. Or items to give as handouts to friends and Astrid. The Tier 5 items on the other hand are useful. Mostly. My current equipment is largely made up of Class items after all. And nothing will beat Class items for me. But the Tier 5 items amongst them that aren¡¯t equipment are useful. Like the potions and bombs and other items of the sort. Everyone likes explosions after all. Even if I rarely ever use them myself. Anyways, after I finish up in the treasury, taking every last item inside of it for myself, I go ahead and begin making my way out of the treasury. But to my surprise, when I¡¯m only part of the way through the little secret tunnel leading out of it, I find something rather unexpected. That being a cloaked person who I can easily sense the energy source of standing frozen in fear at the center of the tunnel. I stop moving to stare at them. This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. They stare back at me. And silence fills the tunnel. Something about the way they¡¯re looking at me makes me think they¡¯re desperately hoping that I don¡¯t notice them. Despite me having noticed them long ago. Not sure why they aren¡¯t showing up on my Dungeon Map though. Unless it¡¯s because they¡¯re cloaked? Out of curiosity, I go up to them and place my hand on the much taller and broader and overall larger man¡¯s shoulder, making him appear as his cloaking shatters in an instant. And at the same time, an icon for another user appears on my map right next to me. Interesting. The man¡¯s eyes roll back in his head, and he faints without a word. I blink at that before I quickly teleport backwards so that he doesn¡¯t end up falling on top of me in his fainting. Okay then, that was unexpected. I kneel down next to him and poke him in the back a few times. Then after a few seconds, I shrug and stand up. Patting off my armored pants in the process despite us being underwater. He was too tall anyways. It bothers me that he¡¯s over a foot taller than I am. And without another glance at the passed-out man, I continue walking down the tunnel. That was rather rude. All I did was place my hand on his shoulder and he passed out. I let out a sigh. Or I try to. It¡¯s kind of flubbed by the whole ¡®I¡¯m underwater¡¯ thing. On another note, is Zal really not listening in on my thoughts anymore? I haven¡¯t heard a single snark remark from the guy ever since entering this place. And I haven¡¯t felt his presence either. It¡¯s almost as if his connection to me was cut off upon entering the dungeon. Which I wouldn¡¯t mind. It finally gives me privacy in my own head for the first time in ages. Having actual time alone in my own head without a stalker listening in is wonderful. I can even call him a stalker now without him saying something snarky in response! A faint smile stretches across my face at the thought. All while I ignore the still rapidly growing number of followers I have watching me on the livestream. All of whom are also stalkers. I wonder just how many followers I¡¯ll end up with by the end of this dungeon? No idea. It¡¯s a good thing Tier 5 people don¡¯t exactly have the same bodily functions that regular people have. Like having to use the bathroom. Otherwise there would be a lot of awkwardness in this livestreamed thing. Then again, I haven¡¯t had to do that ever since becoming a quantum being. Seeing as I don¡¯t eat or drink in the first place. Still doesn¡¯t change the fact that being watched by millions of people all the time isn¡¯t what I¡¯d consider a comfortable life. I shake my head at the thought before finally making it out of that temple¡¯s secret entrance. Then I proceed to teleport through the ocean in search of the next hidden area. Only to find another user in my search. And this one is actually a cute looking young girl who probably isn¡¯t actually as young as she looks. Considering that she¡¯s here in the first place and is Tier 5. She also runs the hell away when she sees me. Almost like she just saw a ghost. I purse my lips and frown. What am I, some sort of terrifying creature to them? I ignore the irony in my thinking that considering that I just purposefully showed everyone how powerful I was to make them fear me. Even if these other competitors couldn¡¯t have seen that from within the dungeon. Well, whatever. At least this means I¡¯ll probably be left out of the other Champion¡¯s fighting. So I should be free to explore the dungeon and actually focus on growing stronger in here. Rather than dealing with other champions trying to kill me for some stupid reason. I put my hands in my pockets and continue teleporting silently through the ocean. B4 | Story and Belated Christmas Art As always, if the art below breaks, click here. If you say anything about the art being broken in the comments I will lock the chapter''s comment section. Please do not message me either just because the chapter is locked. Not that saying this will help if you''re skipping over this anyways, but I thought I would because why not. To start with, here is art of the Corrupted One in one of his many forms: He also has adult forms and forms of other ages and even nonhumanoid ones. Then there is new art of Astrid after her species change: You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version. Then there is art of Astrid and Lexi together: And next up is a couple pieces of belated Christmas art: B4 | Chapter 55 Somewhere else within the Tier 5 Dungeon The Third Holy One finds it difficult not to grimace as he feels the impact of the Hound of the Apocalypse¡¯s attack on his barrier. Both because of the attack itself and the sheer difficulty the Holy One is having trying to get close to the Hound. That blasted magic immunity! If it weren¡¯t for his own capability to enhance his physical strength through his holy magic, he would¡¯ve already been killed long ago by the Hound. Simply because of his inability to use magic against him. And the livestream isn¡¯t making this any easier on the Leif, since it makes him unable to express any weakness. Otherwise his position within the religion will shatter before everyone¡¯s eyes in an instant. What is my luck anyways?! Appearing near this bastard. Leif¡¯s original plan for the dungeon was to level up as quickly as he possibly could through his Holy Aura passive. A skill granted to him by his Title as the Third Holy One. And a powerful skill at that as the skill grants him a passive aura that purifies everything that gets within its range that Leif identifies as a target. With the aura itself growing stronger the more holy magic he has as his maximum capacity. It¡¯s a perfect passive damage dealing skill that has led to his victory in numerous battles. Since not many enemies can handle a passive skill constantly dealing damage to them nonstop while they¡¯re trying to battle. With little to no way of blocking the skill. Not many except the Hound, who is immune to magic. And therefore immune to his aura. So his plan of using his aura to slaughter monsters and quickly level up here before hunting down the Reaper to reclaim his glory, even if he could just duel her to a draw thanks to being a higher level, was instantly squandered. All because of the Hound¡¯s appearance. And he can¡¯t even shout at the man without shattering his public image. ¡°Are you really this weak without that little aura of yours?¡± the Hound asks with a look of disappointment on his face as he stares at the Holy One, only to shake his head. ¡°It¡¯s damned disappointing. Especially when I was planning on revealing my new trump card to you.¡± Before the Holy One can grow annoyed by his words, the last statement by the Hound catches his attention. Then the attacks on the Holy One stop immediately as the Hound flaps his wings and flies up into the air. Leif grows more and more confused as he watches. This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience. Is he retreating¡­? But he had the upper hand¡­ Lucas stops moving as he reaches a height several dozen meters above the ground. Then he pulls something out of his storage ring. Something that surprises Leif more than his retreat. Is that¡­ a heart? He frowns. And his frown grows even deeper when he realizes that the heart seems to still be beating despite being in his hand. When Leif tries to identify the item, his confusion grows even more. Because the only thing that he gets back from the attempt is the name of the item. His identify fails to give him the item¡¯s description. It even fails to give him its Tier. Leif opens his mouth to speak, only for him to freeze when the fallen angel above him suddenly stabs his own hand into his chest and rips out his own heart. Then he stabs his other hand into the hole he made and brings his hand back out without the heart he previously held in it. Silence fills the large plains the two of them were fighting on. It only takes Leif a few seconds to realize what may be happening, no matter how impossible it should be. And that¡¯s only because of the Hound¡¯s species and the species that heart belonged to. The heart that the System labeled as the ¡®Enhanced Fallen Archangel Heart¡¯. An enhanced heart of a Class S species known as a fallen archangel. The Class S species of the darkness element. ¡°No¡­ you can¡¯t be¡­¡± Lief mutters, only to cut off when the wound on the fallen angel¡¯s chest suddenly closes up as tiny strings of darkness knit the wound together. Then darkness mana shoots out of the man¡¯s body before filling the entire sky and covering the plains that were previously illuminated by the mid-day sun in night. Lief feels his hand tremble slightly once, but he catches it and stands firm. And without any hesitation, he jumps straight up into the air with his holy staff turned into a holy glaive that he swings at the Hound. The man hoping to catch him in the middle of the transformation. But his plan fails when the darkness shooting out from the Hound¡¯s body surges outwards, turning into large missiles of darkness that strike back at Lief. Pushing him back in the process. And after several seconds of Lief trying to fight off the missiles of darkness, he hears an eerie laugh. Then a Legendary Feat message plays out in his vision that sends a chill down his spine.
Legendary Feat ¨C Class Pioneer Lucas Nightshade, otherwise known as the Hound of the Apocalypse, has become the first user within the System to create and become a new Class S species without the aid of any others!
As if brought forth by the achievement, missiles of darkness begin to rain down from the dark sky all around Lief. With each one slamming into the Holy One and sending him crashing to the ground. ¡°Hound, you have not heard the last of me during this competition!!!¡± Lief can¡¯t hold himself back from shouting anymore, cracking his image before he waves his arm, making a cloak of holy energy appear over him. Then he disappears from the plains, leaving the darkness to fade and finally reveal Lucas in his new form. With an extra pair of pitch black fallen angel wings next to his previous pair, along with a crown of pitch black horns on his head and a disappointed look on his face. B4 | Chapter 56 Alexia Huh. Well that¡¯s a thing apparently. I frown as I stare at the Legendary Feat notification in my vision.
Legendary Feat ¨C Class Pioneer Lucas Nightshade, otherwise known as the Hound of the Apocalypse, has become the first user within the System to create and become a new Class S species without the aid of any others!
I guess it makes sense that he¡¯d use this Reset to his advantage to advance his species Class even further, but I honestly didn¡¯t really expect him to be able to reach Class S on his own. Even Astrid needed another Class S species¡¯ aid to do that after all. On another note, I can¡¯t help but wonder just what Class S species he became. That¡¯ll be interesting to find out. For now though, I have to say that this ocean is massive. I can¡¯t even find the end of it no matter how far I teleport. Eventually I get curious and teleport up to the surface of the water, just to find myself staring blankly at the skies above me. Skies that look¡­ unusual¡­ I¡­ guess that¡¯s why I couldn¡¯t find the end? When I look up, I find some sort of planet down below. Meanwhile I seem to be on some mini water planet above that planet. Which means, while I am in an ocean, it¡¯s not exactly the ocean I was expecting. Also, the planet I can see from here seems to be incredibly varied in terms of its biomes. To the point that it can change biomes at the drop of a hat. I can¡¯t help but frown at the sight of a lovely green plains sitting right next to a black and red volcano. As I stare at the massive contrast between the two. Okay then. I¡¯m honestly not sure which is more bizarre. The water planet I¡¯m on or that planet down below. If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation. Or even the other planets I can see nearby that are about the same size as the oceanic one I¡¯m on. Which is a lot smaller than the varied planet below. I stare at the varied planet for a bit, only briefly glancing at some of the Dimensional Champions I can see roaming across its surface before I eventually just shrug and continue searching the ocean for hidden areas. Because this place no doubt has more hidden areas. And since it¡¯s on a little water planet above the other, larger planet, it¡¯s bound to have more hidden stuff here. Or to be more specific, it¡¯s bound to have more hidden stuff here that other people won¡¯t find. I give a firm nod at that thought before I continue my hunt for hidden areas. Which soon proves fruitful when I find a hidden blue portal at a random spot within the water thanks to my Dungeon Map. And after I pass through it, I find myself faced with some sort of altar. It¡¯s just too bad that the altar doesn¡¯t actually give me anything. Other than a temporary boost in my stats. So I continue searching, going from one hidden area to another. Occasionally fighting monsters, hidden bosses, and finding loot all along the way. Until I eventually find myself entering far more turbulent waters. Meanwhile the skies above the ocean here are incredibly dark with storm clouds covering my sight of the other planet. Interesting¡­ I continue teleporting through it for a bit until I find a little rift wall. Which is pretty much what I was expecting. Without hesitation, I slice through the rift with my polearm before passing through it and getting the System Message just as expected. [You have entered the Tier 5 Dungeon Planet Cluster Boss Room. The Dark Seas of the Oceanic Planet.] Planet Cluster? Interesting. This is actually the first time I¡¯ve heard the name of this dungeon up until now. Seeing as the System doesn¡¯t say the dungeon¡¯s name in hidden area messages. Only in boss room messages. On that note, this makes me wonder just how many planets like this oceanic planet there are around us. It also looks like ¨C judging by the name of this boss room ¨C there may be one boss per planet in the cluster. And I just found the boss of this oceanic planet. Although I¡¯m not entirely sure what I¡¯m looking for in terms of the boss. Seeing as I just see a massive and dark ocean stretching in front of me with a very dark storm brewing overhead and massive waves going everywhere. I teleport into the sky to get away from said waves before looking around with a frown on my face. The only obvious possibilities for the boss is that it¡¯s some type of fish. Or maybe some other aquatic creature, like the kraken I fought before. What I¡¯m not sure about is the boss¡¯s level. I hope it¡¯s not too high a level. Although if it is, then I can just leave the area through the rift I made in the entrance. I continue getting deeper and deeper into the boss room, with the storm around me growing more and more intense the further I go. All the way until I see numerous hurricanes rampaging across the ocean that I have to avoid. Then I finally see the first sign of the boss¡¯s arrival. And it¡¯s a rather obvious sign at that. Two glowing crimson eyes that I can see illuminating a bit of the ocean from deeper down staring straight at me. I narrow my eyes at the two massive crimson eyes in return, only for the eyes to grow larger and larger as they get closer to the surface. Then I finally begin to make out the body attached to those glowing eyes. And it turns out that the boss of the oceanic planet is a massive shark. One spanning almost half a kilometer in length. As for its level? {Aquarius, God of the Seas ¨C The Water God of Cataclysm ¨C Level 1500} Yeah, no thank you. I immediately begin teleporting far away from this place before leaving the boss area entirely. B4 | Chapter 57 Alexia ¡°-and that¡¯s when Astrid stabbed the guy in a rather weak area after losing their duel,¡± I finish up the retelling of one of the many duels Astrid fought in back at the Royal Academy. ¡°But in all honesty, the guy deserved it for trying to take advantage of their duel to touch her.¡± Luna nods her head with a look of intrigue on her face. A face that looks identical to mine from when I was a teenager. Except with quantum reaper addons. I¡¯m not entirely sure how I ended up telling Luna a bunch of old stories as we go around killing a bunch of fish, but it happened. And it is rather amusing. More importantly, Astrid is probably going berserk right now listening to me through that livestream. Which is even more amusing. Plus Luna seems to be happy with it. She¡¯s started to like Astrid at least a little bit now. Not much, but enough to be interested. ¡°What weak area did Aunty stab?¡± Luna asks, making me freeze in place as I blink a few times. Uh... wasn¡¯t expecting that question. And there¡¯s no way I¡¯m answering Luna. It doesn¡¯t matter that she¡¯s a teenager in appearance. She¡¯s still too innocent and is only a year or two old. And most importantly, I just¡­ don¡¯t want to answer that. I quickly run through possible answers to the question for a few seconds before finally landing on one. ¡°How about you ask your aunty that when you see her next?¡± I tell her with a smile as I glitch apart the head of a large shark trying to bite me. ¡°I¡¯m sure she¡¯ll love retelling the story and answering your questions.¡± Luna smiles at that and nods with a short, ¡°Okay!¡± I turn away from Luna to focus on the rather large swarm of sharks chasing after us before raising both of my hands and sending out a large blast of quantum energy straight at them all. Wiping out a large number of them. Right. Problem successfully pushed onto Astrid. I give myself a firm nod of my head at my success. Then I continue regaling Luna with other childhood stories that I can remember. Stories of Gramps and how me and Astrid used to play video games together from time to time while under the covers when he thought we were asleep. Or how much Astrid absolutely adored this one teddy bear of hers that I gave her when she was younger as a birthday present. Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. I tell her one story after another as I level up over and over again from slaughtering the monsters. Meanwhile any other Dimensional Champions we run into run, or rather, swim for the hills the moment they see us. Or swim for the¡­ horizon? Huh. It¡¯s hard to use normal metaphors in an ocean world. On another note, I have to wonder why Luna has been staying in her humanoid form more and more often nowadays. A lot more than her true bat form. Is it maybe because I have a humanoid form, and she¡¯s just copying me? She is rather attached to me, so that could be it. As for her actual powers between the two forms? Neither one seems to be stronger than the other. It¡¯s more like her two different forms have different skillsets that they can use. Which is interesting. Also a little like how I get some extra racial skills when I enter my own True Form. Then there¡¯s the fact that Luna has been staying at my side most of the time instead of going off and doing her own thing as she usually does. It makes me wonder if she¡¯s going through bat puberty. I certainly hope not. Is that even a thing? I stare at the sharks I¡¯m finishing off for a few seconds until the entire swarm is dead. Then I glance at my level again to find it finally reaching level 1200 after who knows how long of killing ocean monsters. But it¡¯s still nowhere near the level I need to be to feel safe fighting against that giant shark boss. After all, even as the Quantum Reaper, a three hundred level gap between me and a boss is a bit much. Even with Luna at my side. My thoughts come to a halt when I find another Legendary Feat appearing in my vision. Something that¡¯s been happening rather regularly in this dungeon ever since that first one from Lucas. Probably because it¡¯s a Tier 5 dungeon. And Tier 5 dungeons are filled with Legendary Feats along with opportunities for personal growth in power.
Legendary Feat ¨C Terror of the Champions Ignivara, otherwise known as the Ancient Terror, has become the first user within the System to kill one hundred or more Dimensional Champions on their own!
Huh. Someone¡¯s been going on a killing spree it would seem. I glance up at the other worlds visible from this ocean planet as Luna yawns next to me. Just wondering if I can see the Ancient Terror from here. In all honesty though, I get the feeling he probably won¡¯t be heading to the ocean world as any sort of priority. Not as a large magma magic centered hydra. He¡¯d sink like a rock. Ignoring the fact that he can no doubt fly. Either way, I just can¡¯t see him coming here. Not unless he sees me. Which I guess I can¡¯t rule out. It¡¯s unfortunate that I haven¡¯t gotten a Legendary Feat while in here yet though. Unlike quite a few others. Very unfortunate. And rather annoying as well. Hopefully I¡¯ll get one from killing that massive shark. Luna and I continue teleporting through the skies above the ocean in search of more prey to hunt. And as we move, something resurfaces in my memory and I ask Luna, ¡°Hey, sweetheart, any chance you want to hear about the time your aunty fell asleep during Gramps¡¯ magic knight training and woke up hanging upside down by the chandelier after he found her?¡± B4 | Chapter 58 Within a certain twin sister¡¯s home at The Retreat ¡°So, a teddy bear?¡± Ethan asks as he grins at Astrid, who is currently hiding under the sheets of her bed with what he imagines is the fiercest blush of her life on her face. ¡°Your cute side is a very nice surprise.¡± He nods his head at his own words while looking at the screen in front of him, where he sees Lexi fighting against a large manta ray monster. ¡°I¡¯ll have to thank your sister when I see her again.¡± The hellfrost dragon moves his head to the side to avoid a flying pillow while, of course, not forgetting to laugh at the blushing face of the hydra that she reveals when moving to throw said pillow. A face that he has to admit is really cute. Ethan immediately decided that now would be a wonderful time to visit his mate-to-be the moment he heard Lexi talking about Astrid¡¯s past embarrassing moments. And so far he is very happy that he did. What he finds even more adorable about the shadowborne hydra is that she doesn¡¯t scream or shout at her sister. Instead all she does is groan into her pillow. Almost like she¡¯s used to this sort of thing but not at the same time. Astrid has told him before that her twin sister used to always enjoy teasing her whenever she could just to get good reactions out of her, but Ethan¡¯s impression of Lexi has twisted his thoughts on her enough that he had trouble believing her. Now, though, he believes her all the way. And he absolutely loves what he¡¯s seeing. Even if he does admit that Lexi saying all of this while being livestreamed to billions and even trillions of people may be a bit much. Part of him also feels his previously fading feelings for Lexi growing a little bit again at this proof that she isn¡¯t just an apathetic killing reaper towards everything but her family. Proof that she also has a bit of a sadistic side to her. At least in regards to her twin¡¯s embarrassment. He heard of the time that Luna called Astrid ¡®Father¡¯ as well, and it nearly made him roll around on the floor laughing. But he held back due to the glare Astrid had on her face at the time. And now it looks like Lexi is leaving Astrid with answering some questions to Luna when they get back, and Ethan is determined to be there when that happens. If for no other reason than to record it. Stolen story; please report. I wonder if Lexi got a recording of Astrid being called father¡­? If she did, Ethan briefly ponders if he should ask for a copy or not. But before any of that, Ethan makes damn sure that he¡¯s recording the livestream. After a few seconds pass amidst Astrid¡¯s groans of embarrassment though, a thought comes to him. Making him turn around to look at Astrid as he asks, ¡°What happened to that teddy bear during the reset?¡± His words instantly silence Astrid¡¯s groans, all while she stiffens up. Immediately making Ethan regret his words. He turns back to the screen without waiting for her answer. Because her reaction says all he needs to know. I should ask Lexi to get her another teddy bear when she gets back. Ethan silently opens up a few other livestreams as he keeps the livestream of Lexi¡¯s antics going. Just so the stories continue flooding the room. But not just to embarrass Astrid anymore. Also so that they distract her from his previous question and brighten her mood again. What he sees on the other livestreams has him narrowing his eyes though. Or more specifically, what he sees on one particular livestream does. ¡°Astrid, you may want to look at this,¡± Ethan says, his voice turning serious. Which seems to be enough to make Astrid finally surface from the pillow she was burying her face in once more as she glances back at him and the livestreams. And when she sees the Ancient Terror¡¯s livestream, she immediately understands what he means. Because the Ancient Terror, now also known as the Terror of the Champions, is getting very close to the oceanic world that Alexia is currently on. ¡°You don¡¯t think¡­¡± Astrid mutters, the previous blush nowhere to be seen on her face anymore. And Ethan simply nods his head without a word. A few seconds pass in silence as the two watch the livestream. As they watch the magma hydra gradually tear his way through the monsters on the ground of a volcanic planet in the direction of the oceanic one. Almost like he¡¯s able to sense where Lexi is. Not that Ethan would put it past him. For all Ethan knows, the Ancient Terror could¡¯ve somehow placed a tracker through a skill or an item during that short meeting that the Dimensional Champions had before the dungeon began. He doesn¡¯t know what they did in that meeting after all. After a few more seconds of thinking, Ethan eventually decides that this possible upcoming battle between the Ancient Terror and the Quantum Reaper may not be a bad thing. Since he¡¯s absolutely sure that she will win, even with the Ancient Terror almost being the same level as her. Because while he does have some respect for hydras ¨C even more than he normally would because of his mate-to-be being one ¨C he has far more respect for quantum beings. The power of a quantum being is absolute. And it would be good for the Dimensional Grid to get rid of the Ancient Terror, who could potentially become a threat to his shadowborne hydra mate-to-be. Simply for her being a hydra. Ethan couldn¡¯t care less about the billions of people the Ancient Terror has slaughtered to get his Title. He doesn¡¯t care about the Dimensional Champions he has slain. And he doesn¡¯t care about what the Ancient Terror wants out of everything he¡¯s doing. All Ethan cares about are his Dragon Clans, Astrid, and Lexi. And nothing more. ¡°Time to see the true power of the Ancient Terror,¡± Ethan mutters as he and Astrid watch the hydra in his true form rampaging all the way to the part of the volcanic world directly across from the oceanic one. Then the hydra jumps across the space between the two planets. B4 | Chapter 59 Alexia Honestly, I never really understood the whole concept of eating food for enjoyment. It¡¯s a hassle to eat and drink, you have to pay attention to what you eat and drink to make sure your body is getting the right nutrients, and you have to take time out of your day to eat and drink in the first place. Overall, it¡¯s a massive pain. One that I¡¯m very glad that I don¡¯t have to deal with anymore. I just never understood the people who enjoyed eating with every fiber of their being. Or the gluttons who would always try to eat as much as they could because they loved it. But wild animals and powerful hunter type monsters? The types of creatures who hunt for pride and for the thrill of the hunt? Of hunting something powerful? Those things I understand. I don¡¯t care about their whole ¡®eating their kills as food¡¯ afterwards thing, but I definitely understand that they¡¯d feel a thrill for it. Even if I don¡¯t exactly feel all that much excitement most of the time in the first place. That doesn¡¯t mean I can¡¯t feel satisfied with something. And it¡¯s that feeling of satisfaction that drives me forwards all the time. Satisfaction at leveling up. Satisfaction at seeing myself growing stronger. Satisfaction at seeing the numbers grow. And satisfaction at this rather large pile of sharks that I¡¯m stuffing into my storage ring. Sharks that I spent quite a while hunting while chatting with Luna about Astrid¡¯s past embarrass- err, I mean wonderful moments. That feeling of satisfaction is a very nice one. And while the desire to survive to help Astrid and the other few people I care about is important, this sense of achieving a goal is a very powerful driving force. Especially when I¡¯m bored out of my mind and have nothing to do other than hunt sharks, other fish, and tell story after story to Luna. I¡¯m starting to run out of stories that would be fine sharing while being livestreamed. And even I¡¯m not so nice a sister as to share those particular stories about Astrid with Luna. Or the people watching. Love what you''re reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on. Eventually though I¡¯m broken out of my own thoughts and the wonderful tales of Astrid when I notice that the ocean planet seems to be getting hotter. At which point I look up and wait a little bit for the world to rotate a bit around the other world. Then I blink in surprise when I see a certain magma hydra rampaging his way towards me in his berserk state. Huh. Unexpected. Who would¡¯ve thought that we¡¯d appear so close to each other in the dungeon? Not to mention that he¡¯s already gone berserk. It¡¯s a pity though, considering that Lucas and Gramps actually asked me to see if I would spare him if we fought and I won. But only if we fought when he wasn¡¯t berserk. So since he¡¯s already berserk, I guess I¡¯m killing him. The Ancient Terror. Out of curiosity, I go ahead and identify him again. Only to find that his level is about a few beneath my own. Making us just about even in terms of level related strength. As for whether our skills can match or not? This will give me the chance to try out my new manner of fighting. One that I haven¡¯t really used any of despite having the general skill slotted for it. So without any hesitation, I raise both of my hands and point towards the Ancient Terror. At the magic going on all around him and the spell circles covering the air above and below the massive hydra that is currently jumping into the ocean and turning it into a massive pool of obsidian thanks to the magma he¡¯s spewing. Literally. Then I send anti-magic bullets flying straight at the Ancient Terror one after another, shattering dozens upon dozens of magical circles and canceling out spells that were already activated. Good. The first time I¡¯ve really been able to confidently use this in a battle, and it¡¯s against the Ancient Terror himself. A berserk Ancient Terror at that. I¡¯m sure the audience watching is beside themselves with excitement. On that note, the Ancient Terror in question begins roaring through all of his nine heads open and begin charging up some sort of powerful breath attack. One in the form of some orbs of laser-like magma that eventually blast out in lasers to single point, where they form another larger orb of magma. Then that one orb blasts out at me as well, to which I counter with more anti-magic bullets. But these don¡¯t do anywhere near as well. Probably because he¡¯s most likely using a skill and not magic to do this. So I block the rest by creating several barriers in front of me and blast off dozens upon dozens of quantum bolts at the breath laser beam attack thing. And while my own counter doesn¡¯t completely block the attack, my barriers manage to do so in the end. Leaving nothing left but a large pathway made of obsidian between the two of us. Obsidian that is currently beginning to sink downwards in the water due to being too heavy. I narrow my eyes a little before shrugging and teleporting upwards into the air. All while Luna finally turns into her bat form and begins to take this seriously. The Ancient Terror in hydra form is actually quite a bit larger than Astrid¡¯s hydra form is. And just as his status as a magma hydra would entail, his body has glowing cracks of magma running through it, with intimidating glowing crimson eyes on each of his nine heads. Eyes that are all currently berserk and without a shred of intelligence in them. From my understanding, Ignivara is more powerful when berserk, but he also has no mental abilities. Or any ability to think at all, actually. It¡¯s just that he¡¯s never really fought against anyone that could come anywhere near close to matching his power in his berserk True Form. So I think it¡¯s about time that I change that. B4 | Chapter 60 Alexia Our battle continues for hours as the two of us each send attacks at the other. With me dodging most of the hydra¡¯s attacks through teleporting away from them and blocking the bigger attacks that cover too broad an area to get away from. And the hydra just tanking every hit I send his way. The biggest issue I¡¯m having though aren¡¯t his attacks or his defenses. It¡¯s the fact that the hydra keeps quickly regenerating any damage I deal to him. Within seconds of getting any wounds in fact. I narrow my eyes at the large hydra I hesitate to call a person considering his berserk state. But I don¡¯t stop bombarding him with quantum bolts while teleporting all over the place. Once in a while I transform into my True Form as well. Albeit without actually using my scythe against him or the powers of my True Form to battle. I just use my scythe to slice open a path to the quantum realm. One of which a flood of quantum energy enters the dungeon through. And I do that over and over again periodically throughout the battle. Just entering my True Form, opening a hole to the Quantum Realm, then turning back again after refilling my energy tank for combat. All while wondering how much fucking mana this damned hydra must have to continue going on a rampage after I would¡¯ve already run out of steam multiple times. Because by now we¡¯ve been going on and on like this for nearly an entire day. And things are starting to notice. I glance to the side when a loud roar echoes throughout the oceanic planet, only for my attention to return to the hydra when I finally land a major hit that cuts off all nine of his heads at once. Then, while the heads are still growing back, I blast a hole straight through the hydra¡¯s nine necks and into his body straight towards the nine hearts I saw in him while fighting over the past day. Yet even with that, the hydra continues to regenerate. He regenerates everything except for one heart, which finally gives me an idea on how to kill him. This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. At the same time though, I notice something else along with that heart being gone for good. The eyes on one of his heads ¨C after it finishes regenerating ¨C are no longer berserk. They look like they¡¯re level-headed. Perfectly clear of his prior berserk state. Interesting. Does that mean his hearts have something to do with his berserk state? I keep that in mind as the other eight heads seem to dominate most of his body in their continued berserk state. Even if he has one head that is no longer berserk. And is noticeably weaker than the other heads now, both in regeneration and in straight up power. So he can¡¯t really do anything with just one of his nine heads thinking straight now. Even if he wants to, which I don¡¯t know if he wants to or not. I glance to the East again when I hear that roar return. A very familiar roar that is echoing out over the ocean here. An ocean that is, by the way, covered in giant bits of obsidian that are sinking downwards to the bottom. And has quite a few storms brewing, with waves aplenty as well. Most likely because of the fact that the water level here has been sinking for a while now thanks to Ignivara evaporating the water of the ocean. I repeat what I did before in cutting off all of Ignivara¡¯s heads before targeting his eight hearts, and just like the last time, all of them except for one regenerate. Leaving him with just seven hearts left while another one of his heads regains clarity and loses the berserk boost. Looks like this is the only real way to kill him. Stupid hydras and their stupid regeneration. Except Astrid, of course. Her having hydra regeneration is a good thing after all. I do it two more times until the hydra only has five hearts left, with four heads having been snapped out of their berserk state. And it¡¯s at this point that Ignivara finally manages to wrestle some actual control over his body and stop just attacking everything in a frenzy. But it¡¯s too late. Because I can see the boss of the oceanic world now. And he¡¯s not happy. Especially after taking some direct hits from the berserk hydra. I glance between the massive hydra and the even larger shark. Then I give them both a firm nod even as five of the hydra¡¯s heads continue attacking everything around him while the other four look rather upset about the situation. And without hesitation, I begin teleporting away to go watch the battle between the shark and hydra from a distance. Because maybe I¡¯ll be able to take them both down with this. Despite the level gap between me and the shark. If not? Then I should at least be given a show before killing the hydra. Assuming the hydra isn¡¯t just killed. So I just transform into my True Form and begin flapping my wings after teleporting far away while the hydra is drawn into a fight with the shark. And then I go ahead and start watching the show from here without much of an opinion on which way I want it to go. After all, if the Ancient Terror is killed by the shark, then I can just leave and not really care. What with the fact that I¡¯m not really getting a reward from this battle either way. And I honestly doubt I will be able to kill the shark even if Ignivara weakens it a little. Not with my level only being a bit over 1200 right now. I cross my arms while tapping a finger against my arm as I watch the battle begin. With the shark taking a giant bite out of the hydra immediately. That looks like it hurt. B4 | Chapter 61 Alexia I let out a yawn as I watch the battle from far away. Not that the battle is really much of a battle. What with how the shark is literally tearing Ignivara to shreds. So much so that I can easily tell now that there¡¯s no chance I could possibly win against it. Not at my level. Which makes sense in hindsight. I may be a Quantum Reaper, but this thing is still almost three hundred levels above me. So¡­ Yeah. I can also tell from here that every last attack made by the sharkie is coated with magic. So it¡¯s not just using physical attacks, but magic ones too. Water mana to be exact. I patiently watch the sharkie tear poor Ignivara to shreds over and over again. But unlike with how I was targeting Ignivara¡¯s hearts, the sharkie isn¡¯t doing that. Which is making it take a bit longer. But the sharkie does eventually end up eating all of his hearts. Once again resetting one of Ignivara¡¯s heads and decreasing his berserk status. At which point the magma hydra begins to make an attempt at escaping. With ¡®attempting¡¯ being the key word, considering how he fails miserably when the sharkie suddenly rushes in and gobbles down his regenerated hearts again without hesitation. Proving that the sharkie isn¡¯t actually as dumb as I thought it was. And doing that knocks down another head from its berserk state while leaving Ignivara with just three more hearts remaining. Which makes his hearts a rather easy target now that there aren¡¯t many of them left. I watch for a few more seconds as Ignivara desperately tries to escape before I quietly make my own exit, leaving far away from here. Albeit not before spotting Ignivara finally managing to leave the world by flooding the ocean with magma and jumping to the world down below. Something that¡¯s probably only possible because so few of his heads are left in a berserk state. On another note, I have to wonder if his hearts will recover on their own or not. Not that it really matters, since I doubt I¡¯ll see him again. And I honestly don¡¯t care enough about him to go bothering with trying to finish him off. Especially not when it means I¡¯d have to get closer to the sharkie again. This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. And that is one sharkie I want to avoid for a while. So I fly through the air with Luna while still in my True Form, just searching around for my next target. That being a place with a lot of higher level monsters to hunt. Or just any way to level up faster. Because I¡¯m going to need it.
Within the #1 Viewing Room ¡°And Ignivara has fled with his tail between his legs! Who would¡¯ve ever expected this outcome after such a fierce battle between the Reaper and the Ancient Terror!!!¡± Joe shouts, his voice echoing out through the viewing room. ¡°I feel confident enough to say that the final winner of this battle is the boss monster! Aquarius, the God of the Seas!!!¡± Although if Joe is being honest with himself, he would¡¯ve been happier if the Reaper had just finished off the Ancient Terror. In fact, he¡¯s pretty sure a lot of people would have been happier with that result. The Ancient Terror isn¡¯t exactly loved in the Dimensional Grid after all. In fact, he¡¯s one of the most hated beings in the Dimensional Grid by the populace. It¡¯s just that no one ever bothers dealing with him because he avoided the major nations in his rampages before the Reset. And after the Reset everyone has been too busy remaking their nations. Joe frowns at that thought. Not that many of the people strong enough to fight him would even bother. He knows that most of the people powerful enough to kill him don¡¯t care about him. And the few who do care about him don¡¯t care enough to deal with his immense regeneration capabilities. Joe lets out a sigh at the lost chance of ridding the Dimensional Grid of his scourge forever. But then his sister suddenly gasps, making him turn his attention to the screen. Where he finds something unexpected and plain shocking happening. A new Competitor suddenly appearing within the dungeon from out of nowhere and showing up on a screen with various quantum panels all around her fading away. Almost like she was cloaking herself. But what shocks him even more are her features, and her name. Crystal Nightshade. The supposed last member of the species known as devourers in existence that was rumored to exist. And if it weren¡¯t for her features being from various different species, and her own species under the System directly declaring what she is through her identify tag, he wouldn¡¯t believe it. A thought no doubt shared by the many people watching judging by their silence. {Crystal Nightshade ¨C Devourer ¨C Level 1410} Joe suddenly does a doubletake as he realizes the devourer is using quantum magic. Without any spell circles or skills by the looks of it. His mouth opens to speak, only to close again as he finds himself speechless. Then his sister takes over by saying, ¡°A-and it looks like we have a new Competitor in the dungeon! Everyone welcome the last devourer in existence! Crystaaaaaal Nightshaaaaade!!!¡± Silence fills the stadium within the viewing room despite her words. And Joe doesn¡¯t blame them. After all, the devourers were supposed to be a myth. Crystal herself was supposed to be a myth. Not that many regular citizens even knew Crystal¡¯s name. But something else catches Joe¡¯s attention. Something that bothers him immensely. Is it just me, or does Crystal Nightshade look similar to Alexia Knight? He furrows his brows as the crowd finally begins to make noise again. Yet even then, he just focuses on Crystal. Then another thought crosses his mind as he remembers what everyone recently learned about the Reaper being the Hound of the Apocalypse¡¯s daughter. A thought that terrifies him. Crystal¡¯s last name¡­ is the same as the Hound¡¯s. B4 | Chapter 62 Alexia To my surprise, I feel a faint quantum energy fluctuation coming from very far away. Somewhere so far I can¡¯t see it as it¡¯s past several planets. Actually, I¡¯m rather surprised I¡¯m able to sense it at all. Considering how far away it is. But after debating on it for a few seconds, I decide not to go check it out. Because it¡¯s just too far away. And it¡¯s not like it¡¯s my problem, whatever it is. So I ignore it and continue hunting monsters within the oceanic planet. Meanwhile Luna hunts on the other side of the planet. The girl finally deciding to head out on her own again, albeit only after I gave her a warning to avoid the sharkie at all costs. I go from one hidden area to another, gathering some nice loot while also occasionally killing hidden bosses and leveling up numerous times. And every time I find another Dimensional Champion, the champion in question flees without a word. Almost like I¡¯m some sort of monster. Which is rude. But not at the same time. I already had this mental debate with myself about my image earlier though, so I¡¯m just gonna move on to more important things. Like playing this mobile game on my terminal that Astrid got me into before this tournament. It¡¯s one of those clicker games that you can also run on an automatic mode so that the game will play itself for you. So I just have it running automatically as I slaughter monsters and level up. Although I do feel a little surprised by the fact that I have reception in here. Pleasantly surprised, that is. And so, just like that, entire weeks pass. All the way until I finally grind my way up to level 1450. Gaining numerous new skills along the way, many of which I just ignore. Since they¡¯re rather useless. But a few of them I keep in mind for later use. Like a different version of Quantum Bolt called Quantum Lightning Bolt. A skill that¡¯s pretty much an inferior version of the lightning bolts I throw around in my True Form. The only reason I¡¯m not using this skill now is because of the level problem. Quantum Lightning Bolt is level 1. Quantum Bolt is Tier 3. Which is a rather large difference. One of almost 30 total levels considering that Quantum Bolt is nearing Tier 4 at this point. As for whether Ignivara survived or not? That¡¯s an obvious answer. One given to me point blank by the Leaderboards. Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author. [Dimensional Champion Leaderboard] [#1 Alexia Knight ¨C Level 1450] [#2 Isabella d''Aragon ¨C Level 1426] [#3 Lucas Nightshade ¨C Level 1424] [#4 Sartori Silva ¨C Level 1420] [#5 Artorius del Argon ¨C Level 1391] [#6 Alexander Frost ¨C Level 1390] [#7 Voltari ¨C Level 1384] [#8 Vallius Karan de Volt Hellmouth ¨C Level 1383] [#9 Leif Eriksson ¨C Level 1341] [#10 Noah Kowalski ¨C Level 1340] The last time I checked the leaderboards, Ignivara was #5 on it. And now he¡¯s not even there. Which makes it pretty clear that he died somehow. Whether it¡¯s because the shark somehow caught him even after his escape, or someone else took advantage of his weakness to kill him off, I¡¯m not sure. But I also don¡¯t really care. Although I guess it is nice not having the loose cannon around anymore. Since now knowing when he would attack was annoying. Other than Ignivara though, I¡¯m a little surprised to see the Holy One doing so poorly. Makes me wonder if something happened to him. Or maybe another Dimensional Champion attacked him. I find a faint smile stretching across my face as I think about the possibility of the Holy One¡¯s little precious image having already shattered by now. Because that would be hilarious. Especially given the things he was saying back at that annoying party before the dungeon. I hum some random piece of classical music as I fly through the air searching for my next target, only to feel a powerful energy source heading my way. One that I easily recognize as the sharkie¡¯s energy source. Shit. Without hesitation, I begin to fly fast in the opposite direction of the sharkie. But no matter how fast I fly, the sharkie just continues to chase after me. So I finally let out a sigh and begin to leave the oceanic world for a different one. Just for me to slam face first into some large barrier of water that blocks my path entirely when I try to leave. No doubt created by the sharkie in question. I don¡¯t bother with it though as I teleport past the barrier and continue flying. And just like before, another barrier appears. Then another. And another. All the way until I finally get out of the atmosphere of the oceanic planet and make my way over to the next closest planet. This time when I let out a sigh, it¡¯s one of relief. Because a part of me instinctively feels like the sharkie is still too dangerous for me to deal with right now. I close my eyes and focus on Luna, only for my eyes to widen as I realize she¡¯s still on the oceanic planet. And the shark boss is now heading towards her. Before I can panic or anything, I remember that I can summon Luna to me. So after waiting a few seconds for the sharkie to get a bit further away, I summon her straight to me. Then I pick her up and land on the planet I ended up at. Which is some sort of tropical planet with more water than land, but still plenty of land. Good. We got- A loud roaring sound echoes out from the oceanic world before I see a massive shark jumping out of the water straight at this world, making my jaw drop open. -away¡­ Okay, how fast can this damned fish move?! I grit my teeth before teleporting away with Luna moving to perch on my shoulder in her bat form. Following which the God of the Seas boss lands in the ocean of this world. But before it can attack me, something else comes and surprises us both. Something that has me grinning. Guess the boss of this world doesn¡¯t like another world¡¯s boss encroaching on its territory.